The exercises we did were;
- Getting into pairs and one person guides the other round the room using only their hand as guidance, and the other person has their eyes closed! This exercise took a lot of FOCUS and TRUST in yourself and in the other person who was leading you. I found being led very relaxing as I trusted WILL and felt at ease and did not worry about bumping into anybody else
- Getting into pairs or a three and deciding on a "calling" which could be any word or sound which will be helpful to the pair/three. We stood back to back and closed our eyes. Andy would take us all into different parts of the room and with our eyes still closed we had to call out our unique calling word or sound and find each other in the room! This exercise was really fun and rewarding as it shows you do not just have to see someone visually in order to find someone. You have to use FOCUS and COMPLICITY and in a way TRUST in this exercise.
- Other exercises we did were mainly energy exercises like walking around the room in unison and stopping in unison and running and jumping to get our energy levels up.
ENERGY. FOCUS. COMPLICITY. TRUST
These are all important for actors to use as it allows an actor to develop their skills and become more confident. If an actor does not use energy when performing it will create a very dull and boring energy within an audience and the other actors and could ruin the performance. Energy is important for every day things, but especially for perfomers as if an actor does not have good energy, then their ability to act might be over looked as they will not be noticed.
Focus is again, very important for an actor as if they are not 100 percent focused on the role they are playing, it will be visible to the audience and the audience will loose focus as well. Actors have to focus on themselves, other actors, the audience, the director, their character. This is a lot of things an actor has to be able to focus on and if they do not have good focus, their acting ability will seem weak. They have to have self discipline to allow themselves to focus.
Trust is important for actors as they have to be able to trust themselves and believe in their ability to become another character, and also they have to trust other actors who they are working alongside with on a project together. For example; if an actor forgets a line or messes up a scene, they should trust the other actors to help them out and not to judge them for it. Actors as well need to be able to trust the audience and the media to respect them as actors and to appreciate what they do. If an actor does not have trust, they will begin to doubt themselves and alter the way they act in a way they believe people will like more than their true self.
Complicity is having complete awareness within performing and to be in sync with themselves and every body else. It is so important for actors to have complicity as they need to be able to understand how to perform not just for themselves but for every body else. Actors need to be in sync with themselves and others or their acting abilities will not be as strong. If an actor does not have complicity with them self they will never feel 100 percent secure in their role as an actor.
READING THROUGH THE SCRIPT IN OUR GROUPS
In the second half of today's class we got into our groups with the people who are in a scene together.
I am playing MRS MARSHALL and I am with Lucy, Unis, Greta, Heta and Chloe. Our scenes are from page 203-213.
We read through the scene together and then discussed how we felt about it and what we thought the given circumstances were.
We created a mind map together;
The main points and circumstances we discussed were;
Trust is important for actors as they have to be able to trust themselves and believe in their ability to become another character, and also they have to trust other actors who they are working alongside with on a project together. For example; if an actor forgets a line or messes up a scene, they should trust the other actors to help them out and not to judge them for it. Actors as well need to be able to trust the audience and the media to respect them as actors and to appreciate what they do. If an actor does not have trust, they will begin to doubt themselves and alter the way they act in a way they believe people will like more than their true self.
Complicity is having complete awareness within performing and to be in sync with themselves and every body else. It is so important for actors to have complicity as they need to be able to understand how to perform not just for themselves but for every body else. Actors need to be in sync with themselves and others or their acting abilities will not be as strong. If an actor does not have complicity with them self they will never feel 100 percent secure in their role as an actor.
READING THROUGH THE SCRIPT IN OUR GROUPS
In the second half of today's class we got into our groups with the people who are in a scene together.
I am playing MRS MARSHALL and I am with Lucy, Unis, Greta, Heta and Chloe. Our scenes are from page 203-213.
We read through the scene together and then discussed how we felt about it and what we thought the given circumstances were.
We created a mind map together;
- Mrs Farely's pregnancy and her attempt at abortion
- How the women do not respect Otway who is the play write and try to change the play he has written
- How corrupt it was that a pregnant lady was not allowed to perform on stage and could have the theater "shut down"
These points are all very important and lead to characterization and shows how different the characters are.
In the first couple of pages it shows Otway, clearly proud of his play he has written, but the women are trying to change it in order to gain more exposure for themselves. It seems apparent that they do not have any respect for Otway as a play write or as a man, and are trying to get him to cut out scenes and lines. They sort of " gang up" on him in a way, but he clearly does not feel threatened and it is all quite lighthearted, but you can tell the women do not really like him that much.
The scene were Mrs Farley comes on stage pregnant is very strong as it shows just how damaging it was for an actresses career back in those days and how no body really cared about someone who was pregnant, not like today.
My character in particular does not really show any emotion when Mrs Farley expresses that she wants to get rid of the baby, the women are all very calm and straight forward about it. Mrs Marshall tells her to bite on a bit of cloth and that it "does not always work" This scene is actually quite disturbing, that these women would actually try to do something like that just to save the theater and her acting career! Mrs Betterton who is married to the lead actor and owner, is appalled that she is showing and says "MR Betterton won't have it, we could be shut down!" This is so heartless and immoral, but it portrays how corrupt it was back in those days.
My initial response to these first scenes I am in is interested and excited. I feel it is a very strong scene, and also I like the fact that my character is performing as " Lady Fanciful" in the ending scenes, so my character is playing another character. This will be interesting for me and also for the audience as well as my character will be acting as somebody else!
My character I feel is strong and straight forward. In the other scenes I am in 180-190 you see my character a lot more as a very serious actress and strong woman, who is not intimidated by men. In one of my scenes my character has "shit" thrown in her hair from men outside the theater, she goes to " deal with them" and comes back shouting and screaming about how disgusting they are! This will be really fun to act.
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