Thursday 11th Spetember 2014

Thursday 11th September 2014


Today in Theatre class (11/09/2014) we focused on breath control, voice projection, improvisation, freeze frames and transitions. I thought that the way the voice and breath control exercises were performed, was an excellent way to teach us how important projecting and breathing is as an actor. I also enjoyed the improvisation activity we did in theatre. The way we had to walk around the room -and when told to stop- turn to the nearest person and start a random conversation was challenging for me, at first because I had to think of something to say on the spot without directed lines. And when I tried this at first, I couldn't think of anything, my mind blanked out, because I was thinking too much. However as we practiced improvisation for a while I found it more easier to relax and let my mind think of anything that entered. Doing this helped me build more confidence as an actor in improvisation.


Later on in the lesson, we focused on certain lines from the play "Noughts and Crosses". We were given three short lines from the play. And from each line, we had to pick the most two important words to say. After our group decided on what words we were taking from each line, we had to create a freeze frame based on what that line meant, and within the freeze frame we could use the two words we picked. We had to do this for all three lines. I liked the way we didn't use the whole line but we used the most meaningful words from the text. I liked this because it was more effective to use one word than say the whole line, it was more interesting and captivating to the audience and at the same time, it easy to understand what was being portrayed through the drama piece by just using one word.


After we performed our short freeze frames we were sent away to work more on our pieces to make them more effective and practise how to add transitions. Our group developed our performance a lot, we added repetition to create tension and suspense. We also added slow motion within our transitions from one place to another because we thought it would show time passing and this would keep the audience engaged in our slow actions.


I think the activities we focused on today have really helped and improved my knowledge on my acting. I was reminded that not all drama has to have speaking in it and that you can use a few words from the text and it will still be clear on what emotions and feelings are being performed. I realised that you also didn't even need any words at all, with silence in a piece of drama can be really effective and full of suspense and tension because nobody is saying anything, its all being performed by using you body language and facial expressions. One more thing I learnt from my lesson today was that when you use transitions in a piece of theatre, everyone has to do the same movements during the transitions. Before this lesson, I was not told that everyone had to do the same thing, I thought everyone's transitions can be different. However after being told this, today I realised that if everyone's movements are the same, it makes the piece of drama look more organised and professional.


For next lesson I am looking forward to finding out our parts and start to rehearse.
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Shakespeare pack

How do the character's body postures help to inform you of their statuses? – The characters body postures help inform the audience what status they are, sometimes by levels. For example; within the first 10 seconds the use of levels has already demonstrated. Calum (lower class as a white person) is on the floor with his head in his hands, showing that he’s worried because he doesn’t know what to do about a situation. This confusion and distress he is showing, shows the audience that he is in the lower class because he is worrying. If you are upper class you wouldn’t be worried because you are in charge.

Also to show status, during the end of the clip where the shooting is taking place, Sephy is standing up straight, showing she is not afraid and that she is the higher class. She does not want to back down, however with Calum he wants to back down so he gets to the floor because he is afraid. This sacredness shows that he is lower class and is afraid of what is happening.