Frantic Assembly Essay
Frantic assembly is a theatre company that specialises in physical theatre based work. That is expressing emotion or parts of the narrative through movement alone although they may use music to help convey the intended mood/atmosphere.
They were founded in 1994 and the founders had wanted to start a physical theatre company for ages and had thought that their initial style of play was a bit too unoriginal and maybe a bit too similar to the groups they had been inspired by such as DV8. While DV8 had a more of a style that focused on political, social and human nature issues, Frantic Assembly wanted to go in a different direction and by that I mean that they have no real direction for their company but still there work doesn't seem focused on these kinds of issues or themes. They also have a different way of devising their work such as DV8 often use certain human issues to inspire an idea in which they then expand upon and there is always an element of symbolic movement in each scene where as Frantic assembly they will have an idea that is inspired by very simple things such as conversations they've heard or thoughts that come to them listening to contemporary music. Their ideas can circle around and be thought about for years before they even get started on becoming a production if at all and their shows are split between a mix of naturalistic acting and having scenes of physical theatre which is another thing that differentiates them from DV8. They take pride in that their ideas are considered for a very long time if they need to be and this in my opinion is a wise decision since they can discuss and recognise the flaws of a certain idea if there are any. I think this because I have had ideas and thought that they were great at the time but upon reflection just a short time after thinking them discovered a few reasons for why they wouldn't work. I even did this recently with a physical theatre activity in class. The ideas I came up with under the time limit of the day upon reflection seemed unfinished and that they could be developed and even though we didn't actually get to further any of them in class because they were scrapped but the more I developed them in my head the better they got even after a while of thinking about them.
Frantic often use "Building blocks" such as the "Round by through" which is basic movements which they can string together in any order or any amount of times they wish and then they can form a narrative around it. This is something I also used in the recent activity but I didn't use the move and formed a story around it I incorporated this move into the already existing narrative but used the move to help with establishing a specific moment and an intention. I used it to show that I was killing someone by going through them and them after I've pushed their head down to symbolise killing them I moved around the body. However I did build upon that move by adding the emotion on my face and to make it seem like getting through him was indeed a struggle which showed more aggression which did come across according to the class feedback. Another building block they use is "hymns hands" which involves two or more people moving either their own or their partners hand/hands to anywhere on their body or their partners. They can also lead their partner to do something such as they can make them turn round or push their head down or make them do some simple motion. This was also something I used to a degree in my task. After I had gone through this person I pushed their head down with which was inspired by this and also from another thing called "Chair duets" but it did come from this too and even before I went through him I grabbed his arm arm pushed it away which does come from this but like i'm supposed to, I added something to it. I added speed and aggression which fit the theme and stimulus we were given. These methods of using building blocks and using your idea/theme/stimulus to add depth to them is an excellent way and it shows because it did help with me quite a bit during my devising.
These methods do show up in there work for example "Lovesong" which is a beautifully done play and does incorporate these elements although since it's frantic assembly they don't show up too often or have had so much more added to them that you may not notice even if you know these techniques. Adding these layers of depth to it does work to hide the basic moves because you're taken in by it's extra layer of whatever emotion is being portrayed in it. "Lovesong" does this very well. The movements have clearly developed into something more fluid and with more purpose and since "Lovesong" is part naturalism and part physical theatre, the physical moments stand out more to show that they mean something a lot deeper, something emotional or in the case of this play they can convey the passing of time which is a theme throughout it. So while these moves may start off basic, their depth and the fact that they aren't constantly use help to make them stand out or seem special and help them to be beautiful moments in a beautiful play.
Frantic assembly do have some very useful devising methods that have worked for them very well in their productions and even helped me in my early devising work and probably will help me in the future. Their style of naturalism mixed with physical theatre is a great idea and makes the moments of extreme/surreal movement stand and mean something deeper or emotional than the rest of the story even though they are still very well written, acted and overall excellently produced.
Monday 30 November 2015
Enter Achilles review/DV8 essay
"Enter Achilles" by DV8 review.
"Enter Achilles" is a physical theatre based play by DV8 that centres around a group of men in a pub as well as another man who is new to the place and doesn't exactly fit in with the crowd. The whole piece is looking at the "lad" culture which had a rise in popularity in the 1980's and 1990's although is still found to be happening today. Since this is DV8 and they deal with issues that involve any political or human nature themes this fits right in with there work and I must admit that after my scepticism I found it to be a genuinely engaging and even enthralling piece of work. I will be talking about the film adaptation but it is extremely physical theatre based and I believe that there is most likely very little deviation from the stage version.
The plays focus for it scenes was on a bunch of "lads" in a pub doing their usual activities which involve drinking, insulting "banter", and behaviour that most people wouldn't call the friendliest. One day a man who is somewhat different to them (As in he is a fair bit camper and is wearing very different clothing) comes into the pub and due to his difference is appearance and actions is rejected by the mentality of the group. He then manages to show a couple of them (one at a time) how trying these new things can be interesting or that they should be more open and when these people do open up the rest either reject it or get very angry about it. My initial response to the play at the start was that I wouldn't be able to take it seriously since the first scene was someone fondling a sex doll but then I tried to think of what it was trying to say. As it went along I thought I had an idea of what was going on but the more that happened the more my idea didn't seem to make sense even though I was never looking at any of these events literally and only at what they could symbolise and while I found it to be engaging and it held my attention very well throughout it was something that I had tot think about for a while before I had an idea. The fact it stayed in my head for so long shows that it definitely did something right.
Since it's physical theatre based and it's done by DV8 we know that it'll be left open for the audience to interpret about what themes and actual plot of the piece is. The themes in particular are quite ambiguous and one of the most interesting parts about it. A common interpretation of the class that there was a running theme of repressed homosexuality due to most of the men rejecting this very camp man and since one of them has a sex doll which can symbolise that his desire for women isn't real and a fabrication. I however disagree. There are a few moments in my opinion that don't seem to fit thematically with this interpretation although it does have it's merits. One part is where one of the lads has the bottom covered in shaving foam by the camp man as if to mock him for going along with the others in their ways. The foam incident in my opinion represents the mans view of autonomy in human nature and the need to feel like we must fit in or go along with everyone or the fact we are restricted to make our own decisions by the mentality of society. There is a moment near the end where the lads use the found doll in a sexual manner and the instant one tries to protect it one of them stabs it and it bleeds and deflates. This in my opinion shows that the piece has no consistent theme (For example repressed homosexuality) but instead has many running through it and shows many of the problems with this kind of culture. The doll bleeding to me represents how they were using the doll sexually and the will to keep it as an object in there minds as a very real thing. The themes show objectification, discrimination, fear of change, and showing the problems of a certain culture by showing the extreme sides. It seems to show that people do want to make their own decisions but due to pressure of society they can't or are scared to show who they truly are.
The movement in the piece is extremely fluid and in my opinion incredibly well done and it has helped grow towards liking physical theatre and while I highly admire it as an art form I don't think it would be one I want to do but would happily watch and be impressed by. One moment in particular was when one of the lads was lying on a pool table and another had to land on him and then be pushed off. When I saw that moment I flinched because I was assuming it would look heavy and that there would be too much weight but I was surprised to see that it looked very light and extremely fluid which showed the potential of the style with the right training. It was beautifully done throughout the whole thing but that moment in particular stood as as the most surprising to me. The score/music for it was very subtle yet combined with the movement did an excellent job at establishing the mood of a certain moment. The fact that the actors could keep the pints of lager full and not spill it as they do all these very complicated moves was also very impressive. The actors were all very well cast and played their parts amazingly which is impressive because they somewhat combined naturalistic acting with a very unnatural style which is definitely worth a lot of credit because it was pulled off very well. The story or at least the themes conveyed were very entertaining as well as thought engaging and I was very I'm pressed with the production as a whole. It had a very nice set, great clothing and props with thematic purpose, wonderful acting and combination of styles, amazing and beautifully done choreography and was overall very well produced and great to watch so I'm glad I saw it and it got me thinking about this aspect of human nature.
"Enter Achilles" is a physical theatre based play by DV8 that centres around a group of men in a pub as well as another man who is new to the place and doesn't exactly fit in with the crowd. The whole piece is looking at the "lad" culture which had a rise in popularity in the 1980's and 1990's although is still found to be happening today. Since this is DV8 and they deal with issues that involve any political or human nature themes this fits right in with there work and I must admit that after my scepticism I found it to be a genuinely engaging and even enthralling piece of work. I will be talking about the film adaptation but it is extremely physical theatre based and I believe that there is most likely very little deviation from the stage version.
The plays focus for it scenes was on a bunch of "lads" in a pub doing their usual activities which involve drinking, insulting "banter", and behaviour that most people wouldn't call the friendliest. One day a man who is somewhat different to them (As in he is a fair bit camper and is wearing very different clothing) comes into the pub and due to his difference is appearance and actions is rejected by the mentality of the group. He then manages to show a couple of them (one at a time) how trying these new things can be interesting or that they should be more open and when these people do open up the rest either reject it or get very angry about it. My initial response to the play at the start was that I wouldn't be able to take it seriously since the first scene was someone fondling a sex doll but then I tried to think of what it was trying to say. As it went along I thought I had an idea of what was going on but the more that happened the more my idea didn't seem to make sense even though I was never looking at any of these events literally and only at what they could symbolise and while I found it to be engaging and it held my attention very well throughout it was something that I had tot think about for a while before I had an idea. The fact it stayed in my head for so long shows that it definitely did something right.
Since it's physical theatre based and it's done by DV8 we know that it'll be left open for the audience to interpret about what themes and actual plot of the piece is. The themes in particular are quite ambiguous and one of the most interesting parts about it. A common interpretation of the class that there was a running theme of repressed homosexuality due to most of the men rejecting this very camp man and since one of them has a sex doll which can symbolise that his desire for women isn't real and a fabrication. I however disagree. There are a few moments in my opinion that don't seem to fit thematically with this interpretation although it does have it's merits. One part is where one of the lads has the bottom covered in shaving foam by the camp man as if to mock him for going along with the others in their ways. The foam incident in my opinion represents the mans view of autonomy in human nature and the need to feel like we must fit in or go along with everyone or the fact we are restricted to make our own decisions by the mentality of society. There is a moment near the end where the lads use the found doll in a sexual manner and the instant one tries to protect it one of them stabs it and it bleeds and deflates. This in my opinion shows that the piece has no consistent theme (For example repressed homosexuality) but instead has many running through it and shows many of the problems with this kind of culture. The doll bleeding to me represents how they were using the doll sexually and the will to keep it as an object in there minds as a very real thing. The themes show objectification, discrimination, fear of change, and showing the problems of a certain culture by showing the extreme sides. It seems to show that people do want to make their own decisions but due to pressure of society they can't or are scared to show who they truly are.
The movement in the piece is extremely fluid and in my opinion incredibly well done and it has helped grow towards liking physical theatre and while I highly admire it as an art form I don't think it would be one I want to do but would happily watch and be impressed by. One moment in particular was when one of the lads was lying on a pool table and another had to land on him and then be pushed off. When I saw that moment I flinched because I was assuming it would look heavy and that there would be too much weight but I was surprised to see that it looked very light and extremely fluid which showed the potential of the style with the right training. It was beautifully done throughout the whole thing but that moment in particular stood as as the most surprising to me. The score/music for it was very subtle yet combined with the movement did an excellent job at establishing the mood of a certain moment. The fact that the actors could keep the pints of lager full and not spill it as they do all these very complicated moves was also very impressive. The actors were all very well cast and played their parts amazingly which is impressive because they somewhat combined naturalistic acting with a very unnatural style which is definitely worth a lot of credit because it was pulled off very well. The story or at least the themes conveyed were very entertaining as well as thought engaging and I was very I'm pressed with the production as a whole. It had a very nice set, great clothing and props with thematic purpose, wonderful acting and combination of styles, amazing and beautifully done choreography and was overall very well produced and great to watch so I'm glad I saw it and it got me thinking about this aspect of human nature.
Wednesday 18 November 2015
"The Cherry Orchard" Performance Evaluation
"The Cherry Orchard" Performance Evaluation by Jack Collins.
This is an evaluation that aims to explain if/how the performers of "The Cherry Orchard" gave the intended naturalistic performances that were required of them to an audience and if they were of a good standard.
Lines: The majority of the cast remembered there lines very well however there were one or too slip ups for example in part 4 there were two points in which Sam interrupted me meaning he forgot his cue and said his line to early. Chloe as Varya even messed up on one line but she still remembered it she just got a word out of place and it sounded a little silly. I myself didn't mess up on any of my lines and I remembered all of my cue lines which set me up quite well. All of the extra rehearsal work I did with remembering and practicing with other students over the phone really paid off and for only having weeks to do it I'm impressed I did my lines properly. Although I did use a script for part 4 because I was not being assessed on that and put focus on parts 1 and 2 but I still remembered a fair few of my lines. I even covered up one unplanned change in a line. Max was supposed to say Can I have a glass of water" but instead of "Water" he said "Brandy" and I just simply had to go along with that. It may not seem much but it's a detail that if i didn't change would've stuck out like a saw thumb and I just feel like I need to mention
Entrances and exits: Everyone including myself came onto stage with the right amount of energy for the appropriate scene or mood. We all acted as if it was cold if it was supposed to be and we all came on looking how we were supposed to feel such as when I come on in part 4 I'm in a rush and I made it look like I was due to my speed and energy. There was not a single stage entrance on my part that went wrong and no one else as far as I'm aware. The only exception I can think of was that Rhys allegedly tripped up when going on stage and while I never saw or heard this everyone else did.
Pace: The pacing throughout parts 1 and were excellent, everyone including myself said our lines at the correct time and there were no long pauses between anyone's lines due to them remembering their cues well and this kept the pace fast and means that it didn't drag so the pacing for parts and 2 was very well done and paid off brilliantly. However the pacing for part 4 was still quite good it was definitely slower. This was partially due to me reading a script and having a few small pauses between lines although I did get much better as I went along. Another reason was because some people such as Sam and Jack t had clearly not rehearsed there lines as much as everyone else. They did remember them it's just they were sometimes delivered slowly or at least slower than they should've been. These few reasons made part 4 a bit slower than it should've been although it was much better than when we rehearsed it so that's something.
Timing: It was obvious that everyone in parts 1 and 2 had rehearsed enough in order to learn there cue lines because there were no unnecessary pauses and the ones that were there were intentional and for dramatic effect. However in part four there were a few pauses that were a little too long some of them even from me due to I was allowed to use a script and even though they weren't long they were still a second or 2 too long for it to seem completely natural.
Aim: Our aim was to give naturalistic performances and I think that most of the cast did this brilliantly. I believe mine was very natural and believable due to the idiosyncrasies that I gave my character and how I was consistent with them which kept it engaging and alive. Most of the other actors did this very well too with the exceptions being Sam/Alexander and Mike/Boris. Sam was completely wooden with almost no energy throughout his performance and mike was excellent when he had to deliver lines but when he did not, he was completely still and when he started moving it stuck out and was a little jarring so he needed to practice his idiosyncrasies more and keep them consistent. or at least just use them a little because he didn't at all as far as I'm aware. so while some were a little off, most of the cast were very good at acting in a believable and natural way.
Characterisation: I think I got Leo's objective of wanting to help his sister across quite well or at least I gave off the feeling that he cares for her deeply. Such as when she hallucinates her mother I go up next to her and try to make sure she's OK and I was visibly worried. Me wanting to hide my sadness came across well too in part 2 and it gave off the impression that I didn't want it to be seen by anyone and especially not Lyuba. So getting across my objectives, motives and movements was natural and seemed to work very well.
Vocal delivery: For the most part the cast delivered there lines very well. They were articulate, had very good projection and there delivery was emotionally diverse when it had to be. I think I had all those qualities and have improved quite a bit during the rehearsals. I was worried that playing an old man and adding frailty to him meant that my projection level may be lowered but from what I experienced and the feedback afterwards that was not the case. I was surprisingly loud and very articulate and even managed to get the sad about to cry tone right which was another thing I was worried about. Exceptions in the cast would be Rhys for his projection because he was actually quite quiet and hard to hear sometimes where as Mike was excellent in terms of projection because he was the loudest of us all and somehow kept a natural tone in his voice which was quite impressive.
Gesture and movement: I already mentioned about Mike and his idiosyncrasies and how he needed to use them to appear more natural and while I think that about him and Sam, everyone else as far as I'm aware did use them and no one was ever motionless unless they had to be for a specific purpose such as a dramatic stare/look. I used my 3 movements/idiosyncrasies consistently and made my performance seem more alive and realistic. I'm proud of the way it turned out and it actually was useful to me as well as engaging. It made me more focused while on stage and ready for my next cue line or cue for movement.
Focus: Everyone was extremely well focused throughout the production with just a couple of exceptions that I can think of. One was me when I smiled on stage when I wasn't supposed to. It was the moment when Charlotta/Becca goes "Waaa" because I just think it sticks out too much and sounds ridiculous. I covered it up by acting as if I was finding what she was doing endearing but I admit there was the one moment where I lost focus and I covered it up well in my opinion but the flaw was that it shouldn't of happened so that is something I would need to improve. Another example was that Anya/Yasmin was allegedly laughing on stage when she was in her scene with Peter/Logan and even though I didn't see it I heard she did it from a few people. The final example of lack of focus was that there was a fair bit of whispering backstage and I'm guilty of this too and while I didn't do it much I still did it and this may have been distracting to anyone who heard it.
In conclusion I feel that the performance as a whole went extremely well despite a few minor flaws. I think my performance was very natural, utilising the idiosyncrasies and body language while projecting my voice and keeping the natural tone. I showed varied natural tones and a range of emotions in a subtle and believable way. The only fault with my performance as far as I can tell going by opinion and feedback is that I used a script for part 4 however I'm not being assessed on part 4 so that isn't a fault in my eyes although I'll admit that it did affect pacing and maybe my tone of voice occasionally. Everyone else I can say did the same with the few exceptions I mentioned to do with Mike, Sam and Rhys. There are a few things to improve with those 3 such as projection, energy and idiosyncrasies. I'm proud of the way this performance went and the feedback afterwards seemed quite positive especially for the performances.
This is an evaluation that aims to explain if/how the performers of "The Cherry Orchard" gave the intended naturalistic performances that were required of them to an audience and if they were of a good standard.
Lines: The majority of the cast remembered there lines very well however there were one or too slip ups for example in part 4 there were two points in which Sam interrupted me meaning he forgot his cue and said his line to early. Chloe as Varya even messed up on one line but she still remembered it she just got a word out of place and it sounded a little silly. I myself didn't mess up on any of my lines and I remembered all of my cue lines which set me up quite well. All of the extra rehearsal work I did with remembering and practicing with other students over the phone really paid off and for only having weeks to do it I'm impressed I did my lines properly. Although I did use a script for part 4 because I was not being assessed on that and put focus on parts 1 and 2 but I still remembered a fair few of my lines. I even covered up one unplanned change in a line. Max was supposed to say Can I have a glass of water" but instead of "Water" he said "Brandy" and I just simply had to go along with that. It may not seem much but it's a detail that if i didn't change would've stuck out like a saw thumb and I just feel like I need to mention
Entrances and exits: Everyone including myself came onto stage with the right amount of energy for the appropriate scene or mood. We all acted as if it was cold if it was supposed to be and we all came on looking how we were supposed to feel such as when I come on in part 4 I'm in a rush and I made it look like I was due to my speed and energy. There was not a single stage entrance on my part that went wrong and no one else as far as I'm aware. The only exception I can think of was that Rhys allegedly tripped up when going on stage and while I never saw or heard this everyone else did.
Pace: The pacing throughout parts 1 and were excellent, everyone including myself said our lines at the correct time and there were no long pauses between anyone's lines due to them remembering their cues well and this kept the pace fast and means that it didn't drag so the pacing for parts and 2 was very well done and paid off brilliantly. However the pacing for part 4 was still quite good it was definitely slower. This was partially due to me reading a script and having a few small pauses between lines although I did get much better as I went along. Another reason was because some people such as Sam and Jack t had clearly not rehearsed there lines as much as everyone else. They did remember them it's just they were sometimes delivered slowly or at least slower than they should've been. These few reasons made part 4 a bit slower than it should've been although it was much better than when we rehearsed it so that's something.
Timing: It was obvious that everyone in parts 1 and 2 had rehearsed enough in order to learn there cue lines because there were no unnecessary pauses and the ones that were there were intentional and for dramatic effect. However in part four there were a few pauses that were a little too long some of them even from me due to I was allowed to use a script and even though they weren't long they were still a second or 2 too long for it to seem completely natural.
Aim: Our aim was to give naturalistic performances and I think that most of the cast did this brilliantly. I believe mine was very natural and believable due to the idiosyncrasies that I gave my character and how I was consistent with them which kept it engaging and alive. Most of the other actors did this very well too with the exceptions being Sam/Alexander and Mike/Boris. Sam was completely wooden with almost no energy throughout his performance and mike was excellent when he had to deliver lines but when he did not, he was completely still and when he started moving it stuck out and was a little jarring so he needed to practice his idiosyncrasies more and keep them consistent. or at least just use them a little because he didn't at all as far as I'm aware. so while some were a little off, most of the cast were very good at acting in a believable and natural way.
Characterisation: I think I got Leo's objective of wanting to help his sister across quite well or at least I gave off the feeling that he cares for her deeply. Such as when she hallucinates her mother I go up next to her and try to make sure she's OK and I was visibly worried. Me wanting to hide my sadness came across well too in part 2 and it gave off the impression that I didn't want it to be seen by anyone and especially not Lyuba. So getting across my objectives, motives and movements was natural and seemed to work very well.
Vocal delivery: For the most part the cast delivered there lines very well. They were articulate, had very good projection and there delivery was emotionally diverse when it had to be. I think I had all those qualities and have improved quite a bit during the rehearsals. I was worried that playing an old man and adding frailty to him meant that my projection level may be lowered but from what I experienced and the feedback afterwards that was not the case. I was surprisingly loud and very articulate and even managed to get the sad about to cry tone right which was another thing I was worried about. Exceptions in the cast would be Rhys for his projection because he was actually quite quiet and hard to hear sometimes where as Mike was excellent in terms of projection because he was the loudest of us all and somehow kept a natural tone in his voice which was quite impressive.
Gesture and movement: I already mentioned about Mike and his idiosyncrasies and how he needed to use them to appear more natural and while I think that about him and Sam, everyone else as far as I'm aware did use them and no one was ever motionless unless they had to be for a specific purpose such as a dramatic stare/look. I used my 3 movements/idiosyncrasies consistently and made my performance seem more alive and realistic. I'm proud of the way it turned out and it actually was useful to me as well as engaging. It made me more focused while on stage and ready for my next cue line or cue for movement.
Focus: Everyone was extremely well focused throughout the production with just a couple of exceptions that I can think of. One was me when I smiled on stage when I wasn't supposed to. It was the moment when Charlotta/Becca goes "Waaa" because I just think it sticks out too much and sounds ridiculous. I covered it up by acting as if I was finding what she was doing endearing but I admit there was the one moment where I lost focus and I covered it up well in my opinion but the flaw was that it shouldn't of happened so that is something I would need to improve. Another example was that Anya/Yasmin was allegedly laughing on stage when she was in her scene with Peter/Logan and even though I didn't see it I heard she did it from a few people. The final example of lack of focus was that there was a fair bit of whispering backstage and I'm guilty of this too and while I didn't do it much I still did it and this may have been distracting to anyone who heard it.
In conclusion I feel that the performance as a whole went extremely well despite a few minor flaws. I think my performance was very natural, utilising the idiosyncrasies and body language while projecting my voice and keeping the natural tone. I showed varied natural tones and a range of emotions in a subtle and believable way. The only fault with my performance as far as I can tell going by opinion and feedback is that I used a script for part 4 however I'm not being assessed on part 4 so that isn't a fault in my eyes although I'll admit that it did affect pacing and maybe my tone of voice occasionally. Everyone else I can say did the same with the few exceptions I mentioned to do with Mike, Sam and Rhys. There are a few things to improve with those 3 such as projection, energy and idiosyncrasies. I'm proud of the way this performance went and the feedback afterwards seemed quite positive especially for the performances.
"The Cherry Orchard" Blog 4: Character Profile.
"The Cherry Orchard" Character profile of Leonid Gaev by Jack Collins.
This is a profile detailing the character of Leonid Gaev from from the play "The Cherry Orchard" by Anton Chekhov. He is the character that I'm playing in our level 3 production of the aforementioned play.
Who am I?
My name is Leonid Gaev. I am a man who throughout his life has been raised and lived in wealth with serfs (servants) and have recently had to lose my serfs due to them gaining the rights to leave or that they have to be paid to be kept so I'm going to have to get used to doing my best to look after myself and have had to get a job due to the debt my family is in and I'm trying to help save my family estate.
I see myself as automatically superior to people that are not within the realms of my social class. This means people such as serfs and the villagers that don't have the same wealth or background as me I see as below me but I don't treat them too differently although I do like to put them in there place occasionally and I always speak to people like Yasha and Firs in a demanding way to make sure they remember who is in charge. I will out right tell Firs to be quiet but I won't aggressively enforce what I ask of them because I think that would be too cruel but I still like to show power to show them who calls the shots. I see myself as quite understanding of the people around me, especially my sister Lyuba who I do love and try to keep out of trouble or try and reminisce on old times. I'm much more polite to the people within my class although I'll still judge them or at least be somewhat critical of them because I feel that people need to hear their mistakes or faults so that they don't repeat them. I consider my self somewhere between an optimist and a realist because I like to be as happy or as optimistic as possible but there are times when I need to look at things realistically and approach them the best way I can.I wear glasses. My eyesight has gotten worse due to my age. I wear black trousers, white shirt, bow-tie, black shoes and a tweed jacket. This is my usual option for clothing because it's simply what I think suits me. I do like to wear other things but this is my usual style and I like it.
What are my circumstances?
The year is 1902 and between the months of May and October. The weather outside is quote cold yet is very beautiful. We're in Russia, in our family estate and childhood home and we're welcoming home my sister who is returning from France. The other people with me are my relatives, family friend and the serfs that work for the family. The area outside the house is fields and trees and which isn't too far from the village. We go between the nursery, the living room and my bedroom (which isn't on stage) and I have an obsession with billiards and even have my own table which I use.
My sister has just come back from Paris after being robbed by someone she trusts there and we're welcoming her home and I know that she will be distressed due to these events and other things I'm sure are to happen. My plan is no matter what to try and keep her happy or at least prevent her from being as sad as she could be.
What are my relationships?
I am Lyuba's brother and I feel a duty to help her whenever I can so that's why I'm doing what I must even if it may stress me out I do want to protect her
These are the people I know/associate with and my relationships with them:
Lyuba: Is my sister and I love her dearly, I'm always trying to be supportive of her and try to help her as much as I can.
Anya: She is my biological niece and I think she is a lovely young woman and I can see Lyuba's influence on her but thankfully more positive traits. She also of course cares for her mother which I can respect.
Varya: She is my adopted niece and I have a lot of respect for her, I think she is a nice young woman although she can be a bit angry sometimes but she sees the same faults in Lyuba that she wants to get rid of so she can also make her mother happy which I completely respect.
Yasha: He is also a serf here and I'm not too sure if I like him because he seems to be very arrogant and disrespectful and since he is a serf and not in my class I find it more unacceptable
Firs: He has been a serf at our house my whole life and while I do respect firs and do see him somewhat as a friend I still see him as below me because he's a serf and not with in my class. So although I still respect him I still put him in his place every now and then.
Alexander: I don't fully trust him because I have a vague feeling he has an alternate motive to wanting to be so nice to Lyuba. I can't tell but there's something about him that I don't like.
What do I want?
My objective throughout the play is to try and help my sister Lyuba with what ever problems she has. She has problems with debt due to someone robbing her in Paris and she has some very uncontrollable spending habits that have not helped her. I want to try my best to try and make her see what she's doing wrong so she can correct it and also just make her as happy as possible considering the situation. I will tell her that she shouldn't give away her money if she's in debt and it's a habit she needs to get out of. I will remind her of old times when we were growing up just so she knows that we have had great times here and that it's not all lost even though we are losing the estate we still have the memories of it so it's not all bad. I would like Lyuba to look on the bright side. I will not cry in front of her because that will just worry her more and I think she's had enough stress and worrying so I don't want to add to it. I will distract her when Paris is brought up so she doesn't think about it, I literally start talking about a bookcase to get her mind off of it. I really do want to see her happy and I try my best but her current situation isn't helping.
What is my obstacle?
There are a few things that get in the way of Lyuba being happy. One thing is her horrible spending habits, she will just give money away to anyone that asks for it even when she knows she mustn't because it's something she has done most of her life because she has been able to do so but now she can't and it's not a good habit to have at this time. Another thing is peter coming along because he is just bringing back memories of her son and my nephew Grisha who drowned when he was young. This she understandably never gotten over and I feel that seeing peter (who taught and looks like Grisha) will just remind her of it all again. She is also reminded of the incident in Paris quite a lot even just by things such as letter from there or people mentioning that she has returned but that means she is just reminded of what happened there. This in turn reminds her that she is in a lot of debt since her money was stolen and she can't pay the mortgage on the estate so she has a very big chance of losing her home and her beloved orchard. This is all she has left and to lose it would destroy her emotionally. One last thing is Alexander buying the estate just so he can build some cottages and he's betrayed her trust which I know has had an effect on her. These things really get in the way of me simply wanting her to be happy, she's my sister and I do love her and to see these things happen to her isn't exactly nice and I'm trying my best despite these things to help her be as happy as possible.
What do I do to get what I want?
Since I've mentioned quite a few times now that I wan to keep Lyuba happy you can probably tell that is one of my priorities. I do what I can to make her feel better. For example I reminisce about old times to Lyuba because it makes her feel young again even though it may make her think of the fact she's losing it, it does seem to help her be happy for at least a few brief moments when remembering her good time in life. I tell her that she should not be giving her money away when she knows not to but feels she must because that will only make things worse. I tell her when she's done something wrong because I feel she must learn from it. I even change the subject when Paris is mentioned or she's got letter from there. I literally start talking about a bookcase to get her mind off of it and try to stay cheerful so she doesn't get up set. Overall I just try and divert her from hearing about her troubles so she doesn't get too upset but I know she'll have to face them at some point which upsets me.
This is a profile detailing the character of Leonid Gaev from from the play "The Cherry Orchard" by Anton Chekhov. He is the character that I'm playing in our level 3 production of the aforementioned play.
Who am I?
My name is Leonid Gaev. I am a man who throughout his life has been raised and lived in wealth with serfs (servants) and have recently had to lose my serfs due to them gaining the rights to leave or that they have to be paid to be kept so I'm going to have to get used to doing my best to look after myself and have had to get a job due to the debt my family is in and I'm trying to help save my family estate.
I see myself as automatically superior to people that are not within the realms of my social class. This means people such as serfs and the villagers that don't have the same wealth or background as me I see as below me but I don't treat them too differently although I do like to put them in there place occasionally and I always speak to people like Yasha and Firs in a demanding way to make sure they remember who is in charge. I will out right tell Firs to be quiet but I won't aggressively enforce what I ask of them because I think that would be too cruel but I still like to show power to show them who calls the shots. I see myself as quite understanding of the people around me, especially my sister Lyuba who I do love and try to keep out of trouble or try and reminisce on old times. I'm much more polite to the people within my class although I'll still judge them or at least be somewhat critical of them because I feel that people need to hear their mistakes or faults so that they don't repeat them. I consider my self somewhere between an optimist and a realist because I like to be as happy or as optimistic as possible but there are times when I need to look at things realistically and approach them the best way I can.I wear glasses. My eyesight has gotten worse due to my age. I wear black trousers, white shirt, bow-tie, black shoes and a tweed jacket. This is my usual option for clothing because it's simply what I think suits me. I do like to wear other things but this is my usual style and I like it.
What are my circumstances?
The year is 1902 and between the months of May and October. The weather outside is quote cold yet is very beautiful. We're in Russia, in our family estate and childhood home and we're welcoming home my sister who is returning from France. The other people with me are my relatives, family friend and the serfs that work for the family. The area outside the house is fields and trees and which isn't too far from the village. We go between the nursery, the living room and my bedroom (which isn't on stage) and I have an obsession with billiards and even have my own table which I use.
My sister has just come back from Paris after being robbed by someone she trusts there and we're welcoming her home and I know that she will be distressed due to these events and other things I'm sure are to happen. My plan is no matter what to try and keep her happy or at least prevent her from being as sad as she could be.
What are my relationships?
I am Lyuba's brother and I feel a duty to help her whenever I can so that's why I'm doing what I must even if it may stress me out I do want to protect her
These are the people I know/associate with and my relationships with them:
Lyuba: Is my sister and I love her dearly, I'm always trying to be supportive of her and try to help her as much as I can.
Anya: She is my biological niece and I think she is a lovely young woman and I can see Lyuba's influence on her but thankfully more positive traits. She also of course cares for her mother which I can respect.
Varya: She is my adopted niece and I have a lot of respect for her, I think she is a nice young woman although she can be a bit angry sometimes but she sees the same faults in Lyuba that she wants to get rid of so she can also make her mother happy which I completely respect.
Yasha: He is also a serf here and I'm not too sure if I like him because he seems to be very arrogant and disrespectful and since he is a serf and not in my class I find it more unacceptable
Firs: He has been a serf at our house my whole life and while I do respect firs and do see him somewhat as a friend I still see him as below me because he's a serf and not with in my class. So although I still respect him I still put him in his place every now and then.
Alexander: I don't fully trust him because I have a vague feeling he has an alternate motive to wanting to be so nice to Lyuba. I can't tell but there's something about him that I don't like.
What do I want?
My objective throughout the play is to try and help my sister Lyuba with what ever problems she has. She has problems with debt due to someone robbing her in Paris and she has some very uncontrollable spending habits that have not helped her. I want to try my best to try and make her see what she's doing wrong so she can correct it and also just make her as happy as possible considering the situation. I will tell her that she shouldn't give away her money if she's in debt and it's a habit she needs to get out of. I will remind her of old times when we were growing up just so she knows that we have had great times here and that it's not all lost even though we are losing the estate we still have the memories of it so it's not all bad. I would like Lyuba to look on the bright side. I will not cry in front of her because that will just worry her more and I think she's had enough stress and worrying so I don't want to add to it. I will distract her when Paris is brought up so she doesn't think about it, I literally start talking about a bookcase to get her mind off of it. I really do want to see her happy and I try my best but her current situation isn't helping.
What is my obstacle?
There are a few things that get in the way of Lyuba being happy. One thing is her horrible spending habits, she will just give money away to anyone that asks for it even when she knows she mustn't because it's something she has done most of her life because she has been able to do so but now she can't and it's not a good habit to have at this time. Another thing is peter coming along because he is just bringing back memories of her son and my nephew Grisha who drowned when he was young. This she understandably never gotten over and I feel that seeing peter (who taught and looks like Grisha) will just remind her of it all again. She is also reminded of the incident in Paris quite a lot even just by things such as letter from there or people mentioning that she has returned but that means she is just reminded of what happened there. This in turn reminds her that she is in a lot of debt since her money was stolen and she can't pay the mortgage on the estate so she has a very big chance of losing her home and her beloved orchard. This is all she has left and to lose it would destroy her emotionally. One last thing is Alexander buying the estate just so he can build some cottages and he's betrayed her trust which I know has had an effect on her. These things really get in the way of me simply wanting her to be happy, she's my sister and I do love her and to see these things happen to her isn't exactly nice and I'm trying my best despite these things to help her be as happy as possible.
What do I do to get what I want?
Since I've mentioned quite a few times now that I wan to keep Lyuba happy you can probably tell that is one of my priorities. I do what I can to make her feel better. For example I reminisce about old times to Lyuba because it makes her feel young again even though it may make her think of the fact she's losing it, it does seem to help her be happy for at least a few brief moments when remembering her good time in life. I tell her that she should not be giving her money away when she knows not to but feels she must because that will only make things worse. I tell her when she's done something wrong because I feel she must learn from it. I even change the subject when Paris is mentioned or she's got letter from there. I literally start talking about a bookcase to get her mind off of it and try to stay cheerful so she doesn't get up set. Overall I just try and divert her from hearing about her troubles so she doesn't get too upset but I know she'll have to face them at some point which upsets me.
"The Cherry Orchard" Blog 3
This week we have been practicing our scenes and have been trying to focus on things such as not using our scripts and trying our best to keep it as well paced as possible.
Research/Development and understanding:
I've mentioned in my previous blogs that i have had difficulty trying to fully define Leonid and figure out a way of playing him but I think it's finally starting to make sense to me. From the research I've done and some experimenting in class I think I'm understanding him now. Since we are only doing extracts of the play it means that we don't have the entire script to read and since I can't find find a complete version of the translated script by Simon Stephens to read every detail about Leo I decided to look up some details about his arc in the play/ his part in the play. One character profile I found stated that they thought of Leo as a "big baby" due to the fact he likes candy, mimes billiards all the time, and generally can't dress himself, However I see him as less childish than that profile seemed to make him out to be. To me he seems like a man who ha been spoiled by being wealthy most of his life but has some level of immaturity. Since he has been wealthy most of his life he is somewhat used to the sense of being superior and he feels like he needs to enforce that occasionally (Similar to some of the other characters) For example he'll moan at Yasha for something smell related or he'll try and undermine Firs by telling him to be quiet but he never does it to the point that he would repeatedly do it/do it aggressively. For example after he tells firs to be quiet, Firs just keeps going on with his speech and then Leo just ignores him and starts messing around with the piano. He even at some points just doesn't listen to things Alexander says. I've even picked up a little cynicism from him as he criticizes certain issues such as Varya marrying Alexander and that Lyuba throws her money around. While they are valid it does stick out from his usual upbeat personality. I think I'm getting better at showing this side of him more. Over the last week of rehearsing I've gone from being a very unintentionally somber character to a much more emotionally diverse one. He shows humour, optimism, upbeatness, sadness, disapproval and even mild fear when he talks about Lyuba's spending habits and even the regret and realisation that there's nothing he can do to help her with the debt. This all started coming to me properly the more I rehearsed my scenes in the theatre, They would just come to me more naturally and this didn't really happen at any specific moment, it happened at a many small moments and gradually improved so I can't pin point any of the moments specifically with the exception of that when we first did my only scene in act 2 where I say "I'm tried, Firs can you help me? I need to get changed." I tried it so that throughout that line or the preceding one so that I would look like I'm finding it progressively harder and harder to hold in my sadness and only just really reveal it as I'm at the very edge of the stage. this seemed to work because the instant I got off stage Karen said "Lovely" so I kept it and I think it works very well. One other moment is when I say to Anya "You look just like your mother.", I tried the line with a lot more energy and enthusiasm more than I did last time and to me it made him feel more alive because saying it the way I did before just seemed very wooden. So I have developed and made him more 3 dimensional in my opinion or at least I have made the 3 dimensional aspects of the written character come out. He's become more diverse and it seems to have worked because I've been getting some very good compliments about my acting from some of the other cast members and even Karen. That was during a costume run when I put as much effort into the mannerisms as I could and thankfully it seems to have payed off. Let's hope I can stay like that for the performance which I believe I will do because at the moment I'm finding it easy to use his mannerisms to age him and it feels natural to me. We also recently had a workshop to give our characters some idiosyncrasies and I had already given Leo some that came naturally as a result of trying to age him. They were, Putting his hands into fists and putting them on his knees when sitting and moving them occasionally along with mild adjustments to how he is sitting. I move around and make like I'm putting a little effort into it so the movements look a little rough like they should do. I also made it so that when he walks or stands his head maybe be slightly lowered when not doing anything but held up enough to see and when he walks he hold his arms in a little and leans ever so slightly forward. I do this all the time during the rehearsals and try my best never to keep him still and thankfully I have got some very positive feedback about my subtleties so it's clearly working and I plan to keep them as they are with no exaggeration or lessening them.
.
Strengths and weaknesses:
Strengths: One strength of this week is that I'm completely off book now and not using a script for part or 2 but I'm still using it for part 4 because I'm not being g assessed on it although if i had more time i would've learnt it as well because I have a feeling it will be a little distracting when I read a script in part 4. I've finally learnt my monologue although I may need to change a line of it. I say "I pulled out the bottom draw" but the bookcase we're using has no draws so I'm changing it to "I had a look at the bottom shelf" or something along these lines because it may vary between performances. Another positive is that i have finally developed Leo more and he is really starting to come to life, like i said earlier he is becoming more dimensional and due to me trying somethings out and seeing other interpretations (even though I disagree with the one i saw) has actually helped me quite a bit in realising what suits his dialogue and I'm happy with the results so far.
Weaknesses: One weakness of this week is that I have still occasionally blanked on my bookcase monologue but that was only twice and that was due to lack of focus and the pressure to remember but overall I'm confident i won't forget for the performance. Also there have been a few times where I call it a wardrobe instead of a bookcase which is very annoying but with practice I think I'll be fine. Another negative about this week is that we still have not fixed the pacing in part four because at the moment it is pretty terrible, it is very slow and sometimes unbearable. This may be due to some of us reading scripts and the people who aren't are having trouble with there cues but with the time in the theatre we have left I really hope that we can improve and keep it going because it need to be 20 minutes and I think that it's close to 25 which is too long for this assessment. The next negative just applies to me. When Charlotta has a baby she makes a "Waa" noise. Becca did this during the rehearsal and the first time I heard it I laughed uncontrollably for 3 solid minutes because at the time i thought it was awful and stuck out like a saw thumb. That on my part was awful and I need to show control. since she's done it more I've go used to it but i still have to cover up a massive smile even though my character is supposed to grin I'm not supposed to laugh so I'm going to have to show control. Also the fact I was laughing made me miss one of my cues which again affected the pacing and another reason why I need to get completely used to it.
New learning and self reflection: Initially I tried to age Leo by quite a bit and to me it came off as older than he should have been but when I asked people about it they said that it looked appropriate so thankfully it was more subtle than I thought. At first I thought that the upbeat movements and the subtle movements due to his age would contradict but as soon as I found out that it didn't come across as too frail or too old and tried mixing them up a bit more I realised that they did go together pretty well. Also I have tried to use the system to try and help develop Leo and there have been a few examples I've used this week. Emotional memory, like most people I have reminisced about times past, I even do it about my last course to my current class mates and I noticed that when i do so I always tend to go into a somewhat somber tone yet with a hint of optimism. It's like I'm sad that time has passed but I'm still looking forward to the future and I think that has influenced how I say some of Leo's lines when he's reflecting on times in his past such as when he says "My dear sister, we slept here, do you remember? And now I'm 51. How strange to be old. I don't feel at all different.". That line made me think he was reflecting on the past yet trying to find the positive in it as if yes they are moving on but he's still the same man he always was and that's good enough for him. So my own memories of telling people somewhat similar situations had influenced how I did it and it worked in my opinion although I added a little more upbeatness to the line to suit Leo just a little more. I used the magic if and I thought how I would react if I was in this situation of wanting to do what I can to help a relative but there's very little I can do and dealing with inevitability which is upsetting and quite stressful. If i was in this situation I'd try my best to hide being upset because it would just bring further stress onto everyone involved and I have fit this into certain lines such as when I say "could you help me, Firs? I need to get changed." I'm trying to hide it but end up not succeeding in doing so and that's what came naturally because it's probably what I'd actually do. Another thing I considered when looking at the system was Leo's objective. Now it seems as though he may have varying objectives throughout the play but the one that is the most consistent throughout and the one that sums him up in my opinion is that he's always trying to help/comfort his sister. He's always reminding her of old times to reminisce on, he tells her not to give her money away due to her debt and her spending habits, he leaves the room so she doesn't see him crying and she doesn't get more stressed out and even tries to change the subject when the Paris situation is brought up so that she doesn't get upset which is what leads into that bookcase speech. He always tries to be positive when he can to keep the mood up.
Teamwork: As i mentioned last week some of the class have been helping each other out with learning lines and we're still doing so.and thankfully it's still paying off the improvements to my monologue i mentioned earlier. Me and Chloe have still been practicing our cue lines and it all seems to be going pretty well and we can now respond to them pretty fast. Everyone has also been giving some helpful encouragement for each others performances and I think it's kept the morale of the production up which is helping because everyone seems to be relatively happy and very focused when practicing.
Overall this week I feel I have improved significantly. I have finally developed Leo a lot more than I have over the last two/three weeks of doing this production and it's going pretty well in my opinion. I just hope everything goes well for the performance now because now I'm a lot more confident with the character due to understanding him more and the help from everyone with the encouragement. I have faith that this production will go well and my only concern will be the pacing for part 4 but that's about it.
Research/Development and understanding:
I've mentioned in my previous blogs that i have had difficulty trying to fully define Leonid and figure out a way of playing him but I think it's finally starting to make sense to me. From the research I've done and some experimenting in class I think I'm understanding him now. Since we are only doing extracts of the play it means that we don't have the entire script to read and since I can't find find a complete version of the translated script by Simon Stephens to read every detail about Leo I decided to look up some details about his arc in the play/ his part in the play. One character profile I found stated that they thought of Leo as a "big baby" due to the fact he likes candy, mimes billiards all the time, and generally can't dress himself, However I see him as less childish than that profile seemed to make him out to be. To me he seems like a man who ha been spoiled by being wealthy most of his life but has some level of immaturity. Since he has been wealthy most of his life he is somewhat used to the sense of being superior and he feels like he needs to enforce that occasionally (Similar to some of the other characters) For example he'll moan at Yasha for something smell related or he'll try and undermine Firs by telling him to be quiet but he never does it to the point that he would repeatedly do it/do it aggressively. For example after he tells firs to be quiet, Firs just keeps going on with his speech and then Leo just ignores him and starts messing around with the piano. He even at some points just doesn't listen to things Alexander says. I've even picked up a little cynicism from him as he criticizes certain issues such as Varya marrying Alexander and that Lyuba throws her money around. While they are valid it does stick out from his usual upbeat personality. I think I'm getting better at showing this side of him more. Over the last week of rehearsing I've gone from being a very unintentionally somber character to a much more emotionally diverse one. He shows humour, optimism, upbeatness, sadness, disapproval and even mild fear when he talks about Lyuba's spending habits and even the regret and realisation that there's nothing he can do to help her with the debt. This all started coming to me properly the more I rehearsed my scenes in the theatre, They would just come to me more naturally and this didn't really happen at any specific moment, it happened at a many small moments and gradually improved so I can't pin point any of the moments specifically with the exception of that when we first did my only scene in act 2 where I say "I'm tried, Firs can you help me? I need to get changed." I tried it so that throughout that line or the preceding one so that I would look like I'm finding it progressively harder and harder to hold in my sadness and only just really reveal it as I'm at the very edge of the stage. this seemed to work because the instant I got off stage Karen said "Lovely" so I kept it and I think it works very well. One other moment is when I say to Anya "You look just like your mother.", I tried the line with a lot more energy and enthusiasm more than I did last time and to me it made him feel more alive because saying it the way I did before just seemed very wooden. So I have developed and made him more 3 dimensional in my opinion or at least I have made the 3 dimensional aspects of the written character come out. He's become more diverse and it seems to have worked because I've been getting some very good compliments about my acting from some of the other cast members and even Karen. That was during a costume run when I put as much effort into the mannerisms as I could and thankfully it seems to have payed off. Let's hope I can stay like that for the performance which I believe I will do because at the moment I'm finding it easy to use his mannerisms to age him and it feels natural to me. We also recently had a workshop to give our characters some idiosyncrasies and I had already given Leo some that came naturally as a result of trying to age him. They were, Putting his hands into fists and putting them on his knees when sitting and moving them occasionally along with mild adjustments to how he is sitting. I move around and make like I'm putting a little effort into it so the movements look a little rough like they should do. I also made it so that when he walks or stands his head maybe be slightly lowered when not doing anything but held up enough to see and when he walks he hold his arms in a little and leans ever so slightly forward. I do this all the time during the rehearsals and try my best never to keep him still and thankfully I have got some very positive feedback about my subtleties so it's clearly working and I plan to keep them as they are with no exaggeration or lessening them.
.
Strengths and weaknesses:
Strengths: One strength of this week is that I'm completely off book now and not using a script for part or 2 but I'm still using it for part 4 because I'm not being g assessed on it although if i had more time i would've learnt it as well because I have a feeling it will be a little distracting when I read a script in part 4. I've finally learnt my monologue although I may need to change a line of it. I say "I pulled out the bottom draw" but the bookcase we're using has no draws so I'm changing it to "I had a look at the bottom shelf" or something along these lines because it may vary between performances. Another positive is that i have finally developed Leo more and he is really starting to come to life, like i said earlier he is becoming more dimensional and due to me trying somethings out and seeing other interpretations (even though I disagree with the one i saw) has actually helped me quite a bit in realising what suits his dialogue and I'm happy with the results so far.
Weaknesses: One weakness of this week is that I have still occasionally blanked on my bookcase monologue but that was only twice and that was due to lack of focus and the pressure to remember but overall I'm confident i won't forget for the performance. Also there have been a few times where I call it a wardrobe instead of a bookcase which is very annoying but with practice I think I'll be fine. Another negative about this week is that we still have not fixed the pacing in part four because at the moment it is pretty terrible, it is very slow and sometimes unbearable. This may be due to some of us reading scripts and the people who aren't are having trouble with there cues but with the time in the theatre we have left I really hope that we can improve and keep it going because it need to be 20 minutes and I think that it's close to 25 which is too long for this assessment. The next negative just applies to me. When Charlotta has a baby she makes a "Waa" noise. Becca did this during the rehearsal and the first time I heard it I laughed uncontrollably for 3 solid minutes because at the time i thought it was awful and stuck out like a saw thumb. That on my part was awful and I need to show control. since she's done it more I've go used to it but i still have to cover up a massive smile even though my character is supposed to grin I'm not supposed to laugh so I'm going to have to show control. Also the fact I was laughing made me miss one of my cues which again affected the pacing and another reason why I need to get completely used to it.
New learning and self reflection: Initially I tried to age Leo by quite a bit and to me it came off as older than he should have been but when I asked people about it they said that it looked appropriate so thankfully it was more subtle than I thought. At first I thought that the upbeat movements and the subtle movements due to his age would contradict but as soon as I found out that it didn't come across as too frail or too old and tried mixing them up a bit more I realised that they did go together pretty well. Also I have tried to use the system to try and help develop Leo and there have been a few examples I've used this week. Emotional memory, like most people I have reminisced about times past, I even do it about my last course to my current class mates and I noticed that when i do so I always tend to go into a somewhat somber tone yet with a hint of optimism. It's like I'm sad that time has passed but I'm still looking forward to the future and I think that has influenced how I say some of Leo's lines when he's reflecting on times in his past such as when he says "My dear sister, we slept here, do you remember? And now I'm 51. How strange to be old. I don't feel at all different.". That line made me think he was reflecting on the past yet trying to find the positive in it as if yes they are moving on but he's still the same man he always was and that's good enough for him. So my own memories of telling people somewhat similar situations had influenced how I did it and it worked in my opinion although I added a little more upbeatness to the line to suit Leo just a little more. I used the magic if and I thought how I would react if I was in this situation of wanting to do what I can to help a relative but there's very little I can do and dealing with inevitability which is upsetting and quite stressful. If i was in this situation I'd try my best to hide being upset because it would just bring further stress onto everyone involved and I have fit this into certain lines such as when I say "could you help me, Firs? I need to get changed." I'm trying to hide it but end up not succeeding in doing so and that's what came naturally because it's probably what I'd actually do. Another thing I considered when looking at the system was Leo's objective. Now it seems as though he may have varying objectives throughout the play but the one that is the most consistent throughout and the one that sums him up in my opinion is that he's always trying to help/comfort his sister. He's always reminding her of old times to reminisce on, he tells her not to give her money away due to her debt and her spending habits, he leaves the room so she doesn't see him crying and she doesn't get more stressed out and even tries to change the subject when the Paris situation is brought up so that she doesn't get upset which is what leads into that bookcase speech. He always tries to be positive when he can to keep the mood up.
Teamwork: As i mentioned last week some of the class have been helping each other out with learning lines and we're still doing so.and thankfully it's still paying off the improvements to my monologue i mentioned earlier. Me and Chloe have still been practicing our cue lines and it all seems to be going pretty well and we can now respond to them pretty fast. Everyone has also been giving some helpful encouragement for each others performances and I think it's kept the morale of the production up which is helping because everyone seems to be relatively happy and very focused when practicing.
Overall this week I feel I have improved significantly. I have finally developed Leo a lot more than I have over the last two/three weeks of doing this production and it's going pretty well in my opinion. I just hope everything goes well for the performance now because now I'm a lot more confident with the character due to understanding him more and the help from everyone with the encouragement. I have faith that this production will go well and my only concern will be the pacing for part 4 but that's about it.
"The Cherry Orchard" Blog 2
This week we have carried on with rehearsals of the play and even went to see a play by Anton Chekhov (The writer of "The Cherry Orchard") called "Platonov", a play he wrote before "The Cherry Orchard". I was honestly not looking forward to seeing the play due to that I don't really like "The Cherry Orchard" all that much but I gave it a chance and was very surprised. It was a very entertaining play and was extremely well performed. I was expecting something rather slow and dull and while it was slow paced, it was done in a good way and it wasn't at all dull. It was surprisingly funny and consistently good throughout the performance. The thing that surprised me the most however was the acting and this was due to my idea of what naturalism meant. The play had a lot more energy and was a lot less subdued than I thought it was going to be which made it all the more entertaining to watch. The plot itself was pretty well done and was driven by the well written and entertaining characters. so overall I highly enjoyed it and am now more looking forward to trying to develop "The Cherry Orchard" into something more entertaining than it is at the moment.
Development and understanding: When we went to see "Platonov" and had expectations of it being dull I think my idea of what naturalism was exactly was not right. I had the feeling that it means it's extremely subdued and subtle but from watching "Platonov" that just wasn't the case. While some people said it's a little outside the realms of naturalism and to some extent I agree but it still made me realise that our play lacks energy and needs more in order to bring more character and to bring out the humour more otherwise if we keep it as it is then it will be somewhat stilted or wooden or at least for me it will be. I realised that naturalism isn't extremely subtle so when I get to do Leonid again on Monday I'll try and give him more energy and a more upbeat personality and if this works since I have less feeling of restriction now but I'll try to keep it natural and not go into melodrama. I'm going to try and develop more of an understanding of naturalism and see if there's any further developments I can achieve.
Strengths and weaknesses: The strength of this week is that I have developed a little in playing Leo because due to the change of perspective on naturalism I've been putting more energy into the performance than before and it's becoming more and more interesting to play and is opening up more ideas for me in how I can portray him. I have tried adding more energy because I realised I can be natural while being energetic and I have a feeling that it may help with the humorous side of the character because at the moment I seem somewhat flat when portraying him. another strength is that most of us are getting better with our lines. I'm almost ready to not use a script for parts one and two (the parts i am going to learn off by heart while part 4 I'll use a script most likely) but there are some pieces and cues I'm struggling with especially my monologue to do with the bookcase. the first half i can do just fine however the second half i always seem to blank when trying to do it with out a script but I'll keep practicing and I'll get there. I've been relatively focused while in class and outside of it terms of doing my work and learning my lines and I've even been helping people with learning theirs. I'm trying more experimenting with tone and body language more instead more than I did in the wardrobe even though I was fairly focused during that project but there is an improvement in my opinion. This may be due to the time limit we have and the need to do as much as possible puts more pressure on me but that's in no way a bad thing because I'm actually trying my best to do what I can with Leo and be natural.
The weakness is that I feel I'm playing him in a way that is too down beat for some of his dialogue and I'm coming across as somber in my vocal tones when I don't mean to and it seems to contradict my body language and sometimes i think may come across as unintentionally funny instead of how it should be. I'm still going to try and experiment with my vocal tone but I have a feeling I'm just gonna go with something much more upbeat than I originally intended. which in itself isn't a bad thing it's the fact it's taken me this long with in our time limit to establish this. Even though we're getting better at blocking, we've discovered that the pacing for part 1 is very slow and it's not supposed to be. this is due to some people reading scripts or forgetting cues which meant there were a lot more pauses than needed and it was way too long and went over our time limit for each part. I hope that the more we practice and get used to the lines then the pace should pick up. I'm doing OK at the moment but I do feel I can still pick up the pace by saying my lines with more enthusiasm and at a faster speed.
Teamwork: An example of people helping each other out in the production is that some of us have been helping each other with learning lines or practicing cues to say certain lines. this has paid off for the people that are actually using this technique because most of us are off book and getting used to the cues. Me and Chloe often rehearse our lines and read our cue lines to each other over the phone. At the moment I'm not focusing on how to say the lines during these calls just trying to remember them but as I get better I think I'll move on to things such as pacing and tone and see what I can do.
Personal aims: My main aim is to try and finally work out Leo as a character because I'm still somewhat confused but I'll get there. I'm going to try and experiment more even though I have made some improvements from last week such as I think I'm getting the body language and energy right but the vocal tones while apparently well done don't actually suit what I'm doing so I'll try to be more upbeat during the next few rehearsals and hope that it suits him more and brings more life into him because at the moment Leo is a little flat still.
Development and understanding: When we went to see "Platonov" and had expectations of it being dull I think my idea of what naturalism was exactly was not right. I had the feeling that it means it's extremely subdued and subtle but from watching "Platonov" that just wasn't the case. While some people said it's a little outside the realms of naturalism and to some extent I agree but it still made me realise that our play lacks energy and needs more in order to bring more character and to bring out the humour more otherwise if we keep it as it is then it will be somewhat stilted or wooden or at least for me it will be. I realised that naturalism isn't extremely subtle so when I get to do Leonid again on Monday I'll try and give him more energy and a more upbeat personality and if this works since I have less feeling of restriction now but I'll try to keep it natural and not go into melodrama. I'm going to try and develop more of an understanding of naturalism and see if there's any further developments I can achieve.
Strengths and weaknesses: The strength of this week is that I have developed a little in playing Leo because due to the change of perspective on naturalism I've been putting more energy into the performance than before and it's becoming more and more interesting to play and is opening up more ideas for me in how I can portray him. I have tried adding more energy because I realised I can be natural while being energetic and I have a feeling that it may help with the humorous side of the character because at the moment I seem somewhat flat when portraying him. another strength is that most of us are getting better with our lines. I'm almost ready to not use a script for parts one and two (the parts i am going to learn off by heart while part 4 I'll use a script most likely) but there are some pieces and cues I'm struggling with especially my monologue to do with the bookcase. the first half i can do just fine however the second half i always seem to blank when trying to do it with out a script but I'll keep practicing and I'll get there. I've been relatively focused while in class and outside of it terms of doing my work and learning my lines and I've even been helping people with learning theirs. I'm trying more experimenting with tone and body language more instead more than I did in the wardrobe even though I was fairly focused during that project but there is an improvement in my opinion. This may be due to the time limit we have and the need to do as much as possible puts more pressure on me but that's in no way a bad thing because I'm actually trying my best to do what I can with Leo and be natural.
The weakness is that I feel I'm playing him in a way that is too down beat for some of his dialogue and I'm coming across as somber in my vocal tones when I don't mean to and it seems to contradict my body language and sometimes i think may come across as unintentionally funny instead of how it should be. I'm still going to try and experiment with my vocal tone but I have a feeling I'm just gonna go with something much more upbeat than I originally intended. which in itself isn't a bad thing it's the fact it's taken me this long with in our time limit to establish this. Even though we're getting better at blocking, we've discovered that the pacing for part 1 is very slow and it's not supposed to be. this is due to some people reading scripts or forgetting cues which meant there were a lot more pauses than needed and it was way too long and went over our time limit for each part. I hope that the more we practice and get used to the lines then the pace should pick up. I'm doing OK at the moment but I do feel I can still pick up the pace by saying my lines with more enthusiasm and at a faster speed.
Teamwork: An example of people helping each other out in the production is that some of us have been helping each other with learning lines or practicing cues to say certain lines. this has paid off for the people that are actually using this technique because most of us are off book and getting used to the cues. Me and Chloe often rehearse our lines and read our cue lines to each other over the phone. At the moment I'm not focusing on how to say the lines during these calls just trying to remember them but as I get better I think I'll move on to things such as pacing and tone and see what I can do.
Personal aims: My main aim is to try and finally work out Leo as a character because I'm still somewhat confused but I'll get there. I'm going to try and experiment more even though I have made some improvements from last week such as I think I'm getting the body language and energy right but the vocal tones while apparently well done don't actually suit what I'm doing so I'll try to be more upbeat during the next few rehearsals and hope that it suits him more and brings more life into him because at the moment Leo is a little flat still.
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