Thursday 2nd October 2014

Monday 29^th September 2014

On Monday we worked on a new and interesting way to end our performance. We also decided on a very effective way to perform one of our scenes. The scene we decided to make the most effective (where everyone is involved) is where the explosion in the shopping centre is about to happen and Calum goes to the shopping centre to save Sephy and get her out of the mall. We decided to use repetition to enhance this scene. The words repeated are “Sephy, you’ve got to get out of here- right now!” In this scene we decided to have everyone run onstage one-by-one and say this to Sephy. After everyone has done this and is on stage in their own freeze frame. Then boy who plays Calum in this scene runs on and says this line once more. Everyone crouches down and watches while Sephy and Calum perform their scene and when the explosion happens, slow motion- of everyone being hit by the power of the bomb- is added into the piece to give off more effect. I find this way of perform really captivating and I can’t wait to perform it to our audience.

One other thing we decided to do to end our play was to not have a scene between two people but to have the scene performed by everyone. When you need to say your line you walk on stage and hold a position. Everyone has got at least one line, some people two. This way of performing is extremely interesting and is a new and creative way of performing. I am excited to perform this show on the 15^th of October because I feel that this performance is going to be very creative and captivating for the audience.

Thursday 2^nd October 2014

Today, in class we focused on our usual warm-ups; breath control, characterisation, articulation and projection. It helped us to warm our bodies up before we started to act. This is important for all actors to do, so they don’t pull a muscle and so their voice doesn’t crack whilst saying their lines.

Once we finished our voice, physical characteristics and body warm-ups we joined with another group. In these two groups we watched each other perform our scenes and afterwards gave feedback to them. We marked them a pass, merit or distinction and commented on why we thought they deserved this mark. We also gave them some targets on how to improve their acting. This was a good exercise to do because it really helped us realise what skills we needed to work on because we got to see what the audience thought from their view. By being given this feedback helps me as an actor to get a better understanding of my strengths and weaknesses. Another reason why this activity was good to do was because it also helped us improve and practise on our evaluating skills. I evaluated Daniel’s acting and it was a good time for me to practise using key theatre language. It also gave me a better understanding of the marking criteria.

The feedback I was given from Daniel, was really important to me, after I received it I studied it and thought to myself how I can improve on these areas. The areas I need to improve on are; relaxation and reactions. When I perform on stage Daniel noticed that I needed to react more to what other people were saying. This linked to my relaxation. I need to relax more on stage to be able to react to what others’ are saying. Because sometimes in the scene I am thinking about what my next line is I lose concentration and stop reacting. So instead, to improve, I need to relax my body and not concentrate as much on my lines so that I can fully get into my character.

Today has taught me many things; areas I need to improve in, new pieces of key theatre language, the marking scheme for my course and skills that I have. For next week I am going to focus on relaxation when acting and reactions when acting. I am looking forward to next week where I can work with my group to help improve our scene even further.