For this assignment we had to look at quite a few speeches to choose from and this blog will cover all the speeches that I considered but ultimately didn't go with.
Ralph from "Frozen" by Bryony Lavery:
Why I considered the speech:
I watched my classmate James do it and was extremely intrigued by the performance style. While it's mostly naturalism the thing that stuck out to me was how he wasn't played as undeniably insane, it was with in his head as an internal monologue so everything he was talking about seemed justified to him although from our perspective it very unsettling. The self justification and the causality of the speech mixed with it's quite disturbing subject matter seemed very effective and I really wanted to try it out to see what skills it could potentially show off.
The speech was fairly lengthy from memory and was probably a little over three minutes although that may have just been a poor first reading so I knew that with practice and possibly a little trimming I could get it to an appropriate length for most drama schools.
Ralph's age is never defined with in the speech and any character profiles I found of him didn't list it either. They just stated he was a serial killer so I made an assumption that he was in his mid 20's since that seems a believable age for someone to be physically fit enough to put a woman in their van but that also puts him relatively close to my age. So I think it was a suitable chose in that regard.
Speech context:
The character Ralph is telling us his thoughts and what's happening when he spots a young girl and intends to kidnap her. He's explaining the whole encounter and his perception of it for example he says "I could tell she liked me" despite the fact she's been ignoring him so it gives off a feeling of uneasiness and delusion since we know the girl is ignoring him because she's disturbed by him and because he's a stranger but Ralph's mind is justifying it and making it seem like he's going to look after her for a while so to him it's completely innocent.
Development and why I chose not to go with it:
- As I said the thing that appealed to me was that he wasn't played like a creep and more like someone thinking he's doing good. Keeping that in mind I still leaned a little more towards a creep on my first reading which was not good and it immediately felt wrong. So to start with I changed it so that he's got an attitude that seems like he's justifying it to himself, that there's nothing wrong with what he's doing. If I play it straight the dialogue with the casual tone could be fairly disturbing since an implication is more effective than just spelling something out.
- Initially I believed the character he was talking to to be a woman not small girl. I found this out when I decided to check out some of the script to see if it provided any context and thankfully it did. This changed the way I would try and talk to the girl. I tried to make it a little more obvious that I'm talking to a child so act a little more comforting or patronising especially when I say "It's bad manners if you don't" and " It's rude to ignore people". It'll be comparing to a tone when a parent is talking to their own child.
- I did consider the staging however there wasn't much I could do with him. Whenever I imagined the speech the most I would see him do is pace up and down the stage but that is a fairly bland thing to do so I tried to think of something. An idea I wanted to implement was that I start at one side of the stage and walk towards the other side but as if I'm following the girl. So it isn't just up and down pacing, it's one continuous motion that could possibly provide a sense of pacing since you could maybe tell how far I am through the speech by seeing how far I've got to the other side.
- After the practice with the speech I didn't get to show Karen for some feedback but I showed James, the other person doing it to get his opinion. He said that it was pretty good and was even a little different from how he'd do it. I didn't get to show the planned movement I wanted to try out which is a shame since I honestly did want some feed back on that.
- I kept the speech as an option due to the progress I had made, some of the ideas I had and with how it was different in a few ways to how James performed it. However when considering my other options I just thought that of all of them then this would either show off the least interesting abilities or just not being very interesting when compared. I saw more potential in my other speeches or just knew they would work more so I unfortunately had to not go with this one.
Mickey from "Blood Brothers" by Willy Russell:
Why I considered the speech:
I had seen the play this speech is from and forgotten about it until I was reminded of it during a rehearsal session and immediately thought it would be suitable considering my other options. At that point I had "A Woman of no Importance" as a definite and "To Kill a Mockingbird" was just an option so I felt one that shows the level of energy of a child and could also portray a sense of innocence with a bit of mischief and the determination to achieve something or go further than you're allowed.
The age for Mickey wasn't an an issue since even the character is seven he's played by an adult actor for all stages of his life. This is along the lines of characters such as Mum from"East" who have a defined gender or age but are intentionally meant to be played by someone that doesn't match be it for comedic affect like with "East" or Mum from "Monty Python's Life of Brian" or if it's just for the sake of not having to use multiple actors for a productions which probably played into that choice. However the character seems written and directed to accommodate this choice and the productions I've seen back this up since there's nothing wrong with the performances and characters, they mesh perfectly in my opinion.
The speech is a good length, it's only about a minute and a half long so it fits perfectly into my generalised range for my list. No edits would be necessary.
Speech context:
The speech follows a 7 year old boy called mickey talking about how he's restricted due to his age where as his older brother Sammy can do more things such as go out further and do more things on his own. Mickey is saying he wants to be Sammy and how it would be so much better if he could do the things Sammy does and how Sammy in general gets up to more mischief and somehow gets away with it or it's at least easier for him.
Development and why I chose not to go with it:
- First thing I knew I had to work on was the intro. Mickey is playing on his own so I wanted to show a way of getting onto the stage in a way that shows he's playing a game. Whenever I've seen the speech they have the character come on shooting a gun and he's making the sound effects.
- I had several run throughs with a focus on the child's body language and posture. Firstly I knew that I would have to act out the things he says such as knock and put my head to the ground and act as if I'm try to urinate through a letter box.
- Next I worked on his voice. Since the character is from Liverpool I thought it would be good to keep his Liverpudlian accent although a main focus is the youth in his voice. The main contrast between the child and adult Mickey is that the voice is softer and slightly higher although still very similar. Something I have tried to make clear with it is that a child's speech is fairly disorganised an unstructured and points change fairly quickly. To try and accomplish this I ran through it a few times trying it with different pacing of the sentences and it made all the more sense to use very few transitions between sentences so it gets across the fast and impatient mind of the child that Mickey is but keep a couple of pauses in so for the audience the speech isn't exhaustingly fast paced.
- The child and his family are very poor so the fact that one of the very few toys he has is now broken would frustrate him so if feel that in that line I wanna stress the sibling rivalry in his voice. It's an item that's precious and it's gone so when he's explaining the damage of the toy I'm going to say it in a tone that implies "Yeah he actually did that and there's nothing I can do cause he's the favourite of the family" so the jealousy there has to come across with the vague angry tone with in certain lines and in the brief few run throughs I had it seemed to work quite well.
- The play is a musical so it's acting isn't exactly naturalism. I've seen the play twice and from remembering what I can of the acting style (During sections that don't involve singing) it's fairly close but there are more heightened moments in the piece and any emotions seem ever so slightly played up so overall I'd say it's naturalistic but just a little more played up with some more energy most likely to play up the humour of the show. This is something I did put into the rehearsals of the piece mostly with in his movement so there's two level of energy, that of the child and that of the added on layer for the style.
- Although I found it to be quite promising and even very fun, I ultimately felt that the abilities it would show off would be fairly similar to that of the Gerald speech. Meaning it would show a good degree of vocal and physical control, with strong facial expressions and a heightened vocal delivery. When comparing it with the Gerald speech however the other just seems stronger to me and to show this wouldn't achieve much. It's also a comedy piece so that means since I have decided to go with the Gerald speech it still means that feature wouldn't be unique for then audition.
Benedick from "Much Ado About Nothing" by William Shakespeare:
Why I considered the speech:
I considered the speech because besides needing a Shakespeare due to drama school demand I really enjoyed the idea of someone renouncing love in a way that he's having fun with it and seeing almost shallow about it.
In terms of how it fits with the drama school auditions it fits the criteria most of them request with using a Shakespeare. The speech was with in my time limit of 3 minutes so would not require much editing at all if any.
The character is a fairly young man probably around 25 years old so it's reasonable to think I could be cast as him. But the main skills to show off are showing the shallow side of a man but also remain likebale. That seems a tough thing to do so to take that on would be a interesting to me.
Speech context:
The character Benedick is in a garden talking to himself about how his friend Claudio who has changed ever since he claims to have fallen in love. He is scorning him for it and vows never to do the same until he finds a woman who embodies all the qualities he desires in a scene that shows a character who is being likeable yet very shallow in attitude towards women and love itself.
Development and why I chose not to go with it:
- From what I can tell this is a fairly light hearted speech considering the play it's in is a comedy. Although from the scene synopsis and the initial read it came out fairly bitter although the intent turned out to be lighter when reading a direct translation of the scene to modern English. My first impression of what the character is like from the more light hearted read came off as quite immature but confident in what he's saying. As I said before it seems shallow although he seems to be having a little bit of fun with it. That's something I feel I need to bring across at points during it, a sense of enjoyment in the latter parts where he's talking about the perfect woman. In the beginning parts where he's talking about how Claudio has changed I think I should put a bit of regret and possibly some mockery in there since he seems to massively disapprove of what has happened but it's shown in a humorous manner. So at this point I thought it was a pretty great option although I was still trying to properly figure out the character and it was the only Shakespeare speech I had at the time.
- I had to perform my Shakespeare monologue to the class, and it went quite well. The reaction was that it did suit me and I was going for the right tone although I could still play up certain aspects and parts of it. The opening of it was apparently very strong but it trailed off and this was definitely because the opening is the only part that I memorised properly, I am still learning it and needed to read it on stage so it was affected. I really need to add a little more energy, not just to my physicality but to my voice and emphasise certain parts of the speech and even add some variation into what I'm saying. The example given was when I repeat "Yet I am well." and I apparently said it in a somewhat similar tone which I need to change up slightly. I will say that since it was my first time performing it I did get some of it right such as I seemed to give a good understanding of what my character is talking about with most of the right vocal inflections and was overall well timed but definitely needs some fine tuning. After that session it was definitely one I wanted to stick with since I did think it suited me and did contrast with my other options. It is a comedic piece but not in the same way as "A Woman of no Importance". This one as of now seems to have more of a focus on the voice rather than movement for it's comedy even though both aspects assist each other.
- I'm still not quite there with my Shakespeare piece yet although I have gone over it quite a few times and changed the way I say certain words such as when I say "Mild, or come not near me" and "Fair, or I'll never look on her". I've decided to make them a lot more indulgent so that he's almost laughing and proud of what he's saying. I feel that almost everything after the line "One woman shall not come in my grace" it turns into a sort of fantasy about what that woman would or is his mind WILL be like but he is having a laugh with it despite most likely meaning it. I added in some small mannerisms as well such as when saying those lines I will look away and say my lines with a patronising or big headed tone and put my hand out keeping my high status of the moment in tact. After trying that out in my practice today I felt like that brought out the playful arrogance of him a little more and I think if I do that with the right degree of energy I could do the humorous nature of it justice. I just need to up my energy and keep going the the speech to develop it further as well as look at the performance style.
- I showed it off one more time and discovered I had a few issues with the performance. Mainly that I was struggling with the verse form. Now I know it's in blank verse although didn't when I first found it so I didn't say the lines properly and they all seemed to blend together with little cohesion and nothing to distinguish them. It was suggested to go through the script and mark the verbs and punctuation as well as age him a bit and add more confidence to him. It worked very well and the direction did improve it a fair bit actually. I was rather happy with it.
- Despite development going well and showing some promise, the main reason I decided not to go with this was due to an aspect of the feedback. It was a little too similar in terms of performance to my Gerald speech. Even though the characters are very different and act fairly differently, the performance skills they show off (Such as heightened body language and both being fairly comedic) would largely be the same so if I showed them back to back it would make the latter of the two rather redundant. So I had to pick one of the two and in my opinion the Gerald speech shows off my abilities better, is more suited to me and is just funnier so even though I liked this speech I had to go with the other. After realising this I decided to find another Shakespeare and look for something far more dramatic to add some more variation.
Links:
http://am774.com/12zt/images/Frozen_script.pdf
https://www.dailyinfo.co.uk/reviews/theatre/bloodbrothers.htm
Friday 9 December 2016
Auditions for Actors Blog 3: Speech 3 - "Richard III"
The third of my 3 speeches is the character Clarence from "Richard III" by William Shakespeare.
Why I chose the speech:
Despite not being a fan of Shakespeare in general when I read the speech I thought it was genuinely beautiful and by far the best of any Shakespeare play I've read, it was extremely well written and the way it used the language in the blank verse form was very engaging. Besides that however it does contrast rather well with my other two options. Even though this and "To kill a mockingbird" are dramas they have different performance styles and when performing the don't give off a similar feeling. That was an issue I got with one of my other Shakespeare speeches I didn't go with, it was just too similar to one I'm already doing. I had that concern when choosing this however when practicing I realised one focuses more on restraint and the other on a man in a situation where he doesn't really have anything to lose so let's out his fear and disbelief at such horrible thoughts that have come into his mind, especially considering that he's been falsely imprisoned.
I saw potential in some of the disturbing imagery that the speech makes you think of and I saw that as a challenge to see if I could fully convey the horror of the situation he's talking about.
I feel that showing off the emotion in it's purest form (As well as the restrained type with Atticus) would show a fair bit of range which after all is the reason they ask you to show contrasting pieces at all since they don't want a one note actor.
This is another speech that I was aware I would have to make some edits to since my first read of it was almost 4 minutes and that's way above my (or any drama schools) limit. I knew I could lose quite a few moments from it since quite a few of the lines just reemphasise what others did so I had felt I had to choose which line would work best and then trim it down.
I saw potential in some of the disturbing imagery that the speech makes you think of and I saw that as a challenge to see if I could fully convey the horror of the situation he's talking about.
My initial research and assumptions seemed to suggest that Clarence was an older man which was a problem. However when researching further and looking up the real man (George Plantagenet, Duke of Clarence) it revealed that he died when he was only 28 years old which means that's how old he is in this scene since there's apparently little departure from historical fact in "Richard III". So the characters age isn't too far off my own and I could see myself being cast as him in that regard.
Context of the speech:
The speech is Clarence recounting a nightmare he had the previous night which foreshadows his death in the play to a guard. He has been falsely imprisoned in the tower of London for accusations of treason although in reality his brother is getting him out of the way. Clarence is next in line for the throne but Richard is not going to let that happen so he sets up this plan and during a night locked up he has this nightmare.
Development of the speech:
22/11/16:
- First of all since it's a Shakespeare piece I had to identify what type of verse the speech is being spoken in. I had been doing a Shakespeare show already and had done some research into verse types. Clarence's dialogue in in blank verse which means it's structured very similar to a poem but doesn't any for of rhyming couplets or any rhyme at all. I know it's blank because it uses an iambic pentameter which is a 10 syllable sentence. Looking at the first line "O, I have passed a miserable night" it shows the right amount of syllables and the first two lines are the only ones to rhyme, other than that there are none. This is important to the speech since to ignore the structure means the pacing and the flow of the dialogue will be affected.
- Before I had to show the speech for a feedback session I decided whether or not I would sit down or stand up. When I read it and even saw some actors do the speech in clips they were sat down although they were usually in film not on stage. I feel that sitting down in the context of the scene makes more sense than just being already stood up when the guard comes in. However when watching anyone do a speech on stage sat down compared to stood up the level of energy is always lower so while it's more suitable for him to be sat down down in the scene context, having him stood up makes more sense to engage the audience, increases the ability for me to have the right degree of energy and also increases the amount of visual variety since I can move around. Since it's also standalone the context isn't as important in that regard. Also drama schools usually like you to avoid anything that restricts you such as using chairs or sitting down so I think standing up will be the most suitable option.
29/11/16:
Today I showed the piece and got some very positive feed back for it despite not being able to do all of it.
- One thing I noticed about today which was rather spontaneous was I decided about 5 seconds before I started performing that I would give him a voice that was deeper than mine and it seemed to age him a little bit although not too much so it clashes with my posture or makes him seem too old. Since the character is only 28 I'm glad that the ageing didn't come across too badly.
- I also considered the staging of the piece today. Similar to how I staged my "A Woman of no Importance" speech I ran it and more or less improvised where I walk and go with what felt natural. The difference here though is since Clarence is in a cell he has less room to walk around although he's is standing and is going on a journey mentally while explaining it so it would only make sense for him to pace around his cell to keep the energy levels up although as soon as it comes to moments where I talk about "False, Fleeting, Perjured Clarence" I stand dead still in that spot and only move my arms and upper body. As with the others a key part of the speech (As well as any) is a sense of variety and with these little touches it will help keep it visually interesting.
- When I got home I thought further about what I could do and the main development was to add variety to the speech so a moment I felt could be different to the rest is when he says "Clarence is come! False, fleeting, perjured Clarence" I could shout it in an almost terrified voice sine the accusation of this would a horrible thing to experience especially in the manor in which he dreamed it. It was someone close to him accusing him of a horrible crime and he would surely die for it. To mentally relive it would be horrible especially since he's seeing it possibly becoming a reality. I'm also applying this to when he talks about the sights with in the ocean but it won't be as extreme it will be more slow and disturbing rather than horrifying.
- I've thrown in some actions to the speech to help visualise the horrid imagery that Clarence is talking about. When he talks about the jewels being embedded in men's skulls I could put my hands near the side of my face as he says "Where eyes did once inhabit" or when he talks about, "Great anchors and heaps of pearl" I'm going to do gestures with my hands to try and convey the item and it's size or at least how he viewed it. When I start yelling "Who stabbed me in the field" I'm going to sharply throw my hand in a stabbing motion at my chest to give the moment some impact as well as either stabbing in the chest or back being a metaphor for betrayal. So for Clarence to say this would mean a lot so it would be acted out in this way
- I'm also think of whether or not I should have him sit down for the final line. I already said that he will be stood up for the speech and I intend to stick to that for the reasons mentioned but I feel if he sits down just for the final line "Such terrible impressions made my dreams" and looks up to the guard it would give a great sense closure to the scene or at least be a greater signal that this is the end of it.
- All these elements I feel do represent the Shakespearean style pretty well. More or less all Shakespeare's history plays have dignified characters that say their lines with the up most conviction and show their full spectrum of emotion whether it be to each other or in a soliloquy. I'm saying with the proper range of articulation and volume you'd expect from a Shakespeare play so I think with a few more runs and getting the lines down I will be ready.
6/12/16:
Today was my last chance to show my speech off my feedback was very positive with just two notes to take into account.
- My first note was that since I staged it as if I was talking to a guard in the corner of the room, it meant I was often too focused on it. and for a fair bit of the speech most of my face was not visible. This is a simple matter of re staging since I will have to limit the amount I look at the guard such as not loom at him when talking about the great anchors and heaps or pearl of the fearful wracks so you can see the horror on my face and the actions to describe their scope. I will try to face out as much as possible.
- The other is that the speech is a tad long which is a point I had mentioned but I was informed for this I could keep the speech that length although I knew that if I were to show it at an actual drama school I would have to cut it down. I would have to do the same as what I did to my "To Kill a Mockingbird" speech, cut the last chunk out although with that speech I could possibly add the last line and rearrange it for dramatic effect since it's not in any kind of structure where as this is. You can't rearrange Shakespeare dialogue regardless of it's verse since it's likely to lose a lot of it's pace due to it being more poetic and planned/structured. So if I did it for an audition I would either cut the first third or the last third out.
- Also in regards to the vocal exercises I mentioned for my other speeches, they did have a significant effect on this one for me. Such as any time I rehearsed it without doing the warm up (Which was once or twice) and attempted to do the deep voice I gave the character it sounded fake and not at all natural. The same goes for when I shout during the speech, when my vocal cords aren't warmed up and I just start yelling they sound a little strained which I feel if I had performed it properly with no warm up could've been unintentionally funny at points. So the "In for 4, out for 4" and "Why fly so high" exercises are important to warm up the resonators and so I have enough breath to shout and it doesn't sound forced and weak. The character might have have a sense of frailty due to his nerves but he isn't a weak man.
Character profile:
- WHO AM I?
The characters name is George Plantagenet, Duke of Clarence (Referred to as Clarence). He's 28 years old and is the older brother of Richard III and Edward IV.
- WHAT TIME IS IT?
It's the 17th of February, 1478, it's 7 in the morning, the day before he will be executed although he doesn't know that.
- WHERE AM I?
He is in the tower of London in a small, cold cell.
- WHAT SURROUNDS ME?
There is only a bed in the stone cell with a thin blanket. There is one guard standing outside
- WHAT ARE THE GIVEN CIRCUMSTANCES?
He has been locked up in the tower of London and falsely accused of treason which is punishable by death. He has been in there for a while and during one of the nights in the cell he had a graphic, vivid and surreal nightmare which forshadows his death.
- WHAT IS MY RELATIONSHIP?
He is very fond of his brothers and is considered a very nice man. He isn't a violent man and the violence in his dream is enough to traumatise his although he seems a very strong hearted/willed man. However his brother Richard wants him out of the way so he can become next in line for the throne but he doesn't know this and believes he is loved by his him.
- WHAT DO I WANT?
He wants to get out of the tower and find out what's happening since he has little to know information about why he's locked up or what's going on or happening to his loved ones. Telling him the dream has no purpose other than to possibly try and get an idea of what the dream could be about although he knows that the guard can't be guilt tripoped so he doen't even try.
- WHAT IS IN MY WAY?
The fact that he is locked up in a prison with a guard blocking the door who (unkowing to Clarence) has strict orders to keep him there under any circumstances.
Links:
http://www.shmoop.com/richard-iii/summary.html
http://www.englishmonarchs.co.uk/plantagenet_21.htm
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pjJEXkbeL-o
Why I chose the speech:
Despite not being a fan of Shakespeare in general when I read the speech I thought it was genuinely beautiful and by far the best of any Shakespeare play I've read, it was extremely well written and the way it used the language in the blank verse form was very engaging. Besides that however it does contrast rather well with my other two options. Even though this and "To kill a mockingbird" are dramas they have different performance styles and when performing the don't give off a similar feeling. That was an issue I got with one of my other Shakespeare speeches I didn't go with, it was just too similar to one I'm already doing. I had that concern when choosing this however when practicing I realised one focuses more on restraint and the other on a man in a situation where he doesn't really have anything to lose so let's out his fear and disbelief at such horrible thoughts that have come into his mind, especially considering that he's been falsely imprisoned.
I saw potential in some of the disturbing imagery that the speech makes you think of and I saw that as a challenge to see if I could fully convey the horror of the situation he's talking about.
I feel that showing off the emotion in it's purest form (As well as the restrained type with Atticus) would show a fair bit of range which after all is the reason they ask you to show contrasting pieces at all since they don't want a one note actor.
This is another speech that I was aware I would have to make some edits to since my first read of it was almost 4 minutes and that's way above my (or any drama schools) limit. I knew I could lose quite a few moments from it since quite a few of the lines just reemphasise what others did so I had felt I had to choose which line would work best and then trim it down.
I saw potential in some of the disturbing imagery that the speech makes you think of and I saw that as a challenge to see if I could fully convey the horror of the situation he's talking about.
My initial research and assumptions seemed to suggest that Clarence was an older man which was a problem. However when researching further and looking up the real man (George Plantagenet, Duke of Clarence) it revealed that he died when he was only 28 years old which means that's how old he is in this scene since there's apparently little departure from historical fact in "Richard III". So the characters age isn't too far off my own and I could see myself being cast as him in that regard.
Context of the speech:
The speech is Clarence recounting a nightmare he had the previous night which foreshadows his death in the play to a guard. He has been falsely imprisoned in the tower of London for accusations of treason although in reality his brother is getting him out of the way. Clarence is next in line for the throne but Richard is not going to let that happen so he sets up this plan and during a night locked up he has this nightmare.
Development of the speech:
22/11/16:
- First of all since it's a Shakespeare piece I had to identify what type of verse the speech is being spoken in. I had been doing a Shakespeare show already and had done some research into verse types. Clarence's dialogue in in blank verse which means it's structured very similar to a poem but doesn't any for of rhyming couplets or any rhyme at all. I know it's blank because it uses an iambic pentameter which is a 10 syllable sentence. Looking at the first line "O, I have passed a miserable night" it shows the right amount of syllables and the first two lines are the only ones to rhyme, other than that there are none. This is important to the speech since to ignore the structure means the pacing and the flow of the dialogue will be affected.
- Before I had to show the speech for a feedback session I decided whether or not I would sit down or stand up. When I read it and even saw some actors do the speech in clips they were sat down although they were usually in film not on stage. I feel that sitting down in the context of the scene makes more sense than just being already stood up when the guard comes in. However when watching anyone do a speech on stage sat down compared to stood up the level of energy is always lower so while it's more suitable for him to be sat down down in the scene context, having him stood up makes more sense to engage the audience, increases the ability for me to have the right degree of energy and also increases the amount of visual variety since I can move around. Since it's also standalone the context isn't as important in that regard. Also drama schools usually like you to avoid anything that restricts you such as using chairs or sitting down so I think standing up will be the most suitable option.
29/11/16:
Today I showed the piece and got some very positive feed back for it despite not being able to do all of it.
- One thing I noticed about today which was rather spontaneous was I decided about 5 seconds before I started performing that I would give him a voice that was deeper than mine and it seemed to age him a little bit although not too much so it clashes with my posture or makes him seem too old. Since the character is only 28 I'm glad that the ageing didn't come across too badly.
- I also considered the staging of the piece today. Similar to how I staged my "A Woman of no Importance" speech I ran it and more or less improvised where I walk and go with what felt natural. The difference here though is since Clarence is in a cell he has less room to walk around although he's is standing and is going on a journey mentally while explaining it so it would only make sense for him to pace around his cell to keep the energy levels up although as soon as it comes to moments where I talk about "False, Fleeting, Perjured Clarence" I stand dead still in that spot and only move my arms and upper body. As with the others a key part of the speech (As well as any) is a sense of variety and with these little touches it will help keep it visually interesting.
- When I got home I thought further about what I could do and the main development was to add variety to the speech so a moment I felt could be different to the rest is when he says "Clarence is come! False, fleeting, perjured Clarence" I could shout it in an almost terrified voice sine the accusation of this would a horrible thing to experience especially in the manor in which he dreamed it. It was someone close to him accusing him of a horrible crime and he would surely die for it. To mentally relive it would be horrible especially since he's seeing it possibly becoming a reality. I'm also applying this to when he talks about the sights with in the ocean but it won't be as extreme it will be more slow and disturbing rather than horrifying.
- I've thrown in some actions to the speech to help visualise the horrid imagery that Clarence is talking about. When he talks about the jewels being embedded in men's skulls I could put my hands near the side of my face as he says "Where eyes did once inhabit" or when he talks about, "Great anchors and heaps of pearl" I'm going to do gestures with my hands to try and convey the item and it's size or at least how he viewed it. When I start yelling "Who stabbed me in the field" I'm going to sharply throw my hand in a stabbing motion at my chest to give the moment some impact as well as either stabbing in the chest or back being a metaphor for betrayal. So for Clarence to say this would mean a lot so it would be acted out in this way
- I'm also think of whether or not I should have him sit down for the final line. I already said that he will be stood up for the speech and I intend to stick to that for the reasons mentioned but I feel if he sits down just for the final line "Such terrible impressions made my dreams" and looks up to the guard it would give a great sense closure to the scene or at least be a greater signal that this is the end of it.
- All these elements I feel do represent the Shakespearean style pretty well. More or less all Shakespeare's history plays have dignified characters that say their lines with the up most conviction and show their full spectrum of emotion whether it be to each other or in a soliloquy. I'm saying with the proper range of articulation and volume you'd expect from a Shakespeare play so I think with a few more runs and getting the lines down I will be ready.
6/12/16:
Today was my last chance to show my speech off my feedback was very positive with just two notes to take into account.
- My first note was that since I staged it as if I was talking to a guard in the corner of the room, it meant I was often too focused on it. and for a fair bit of the speech most of my face was not visible. This is a simple matter of re staging since I will have to limit the amount I look at the guard such as not loom at him when talking about the great anchors and heaps or pearl of the fearful wracks so you can see the horror on my face and the actions to describe their scope. I will try to face out as much as possible.
- The other is that the speech is a tad long which is a point I had mentioned but I was informed for this I could keep the speech that length although I knew that if I were to show it at an actual drama school I would have to cut it down. I would have to do the same as what I did to my "To Kill a Mockingbird" speech, cut the last chunk out although with that speech I could possibly add the last line and rearrange it for dramatic effect since it's not in any kind of structure where as this is. You can't rearrange Shakespeare dialogue regardless of it's verse since it's likely to lose a lot of it's pace due to it being more poetic and planned/structured. So if I did it for an audition I would either cut the first third or the last third out.
- Also in regards to the vocal exercises I mentioned for my other speeches, they did have a significant effect on this one for me. Such as any time I rehearsed it without doing the warm up (Which was once or twice) and attempted to do the deep voice I gave the character it sounded fake and not at all natural. The same goes for when I shout during the speech, when my vocal cords aren't warmed up and I just start yelling they sound a little strained which I feel if I had performed it properly with no warm up could've been unintentionally funny at points. So the "In for 4, out for 4" and "Why fly so high" exercises are important to warm up the resonators and so I have enough breath to shout and it doesn't sound forced and weak. The character might have have a sense of frailty due to his nerves but he isn't a weak man.
Character profile:
- WHO AM I?
The characters name is George Plantagenet, Duke of Clarence (Referred to as Clarence). He's 28 years old and is the older brother of Richard III and Edward IV.
- WHAT TIME IS IT?
It's the 17th of February, 1478, it's 7 in the morning, the day before he will be executed although he doesn't know that.
- WHERE AM I?
He is in the tower of London in a small, cold cell.
- WHAT SURROUNDS ME?
There is only a bed in the stone cell with a thin blanket. There is one guard standing outside
- WHAT ARE THE GIVEN CIRCUMSTANCES?
He has been locked up in the tower of London and falsely accused of treason which is punishable by death. He has been in there for a while and during one of the nights in the cell he had a graphic, vivid and surreal nightmare which forshadows his death.
- WHAT IS MY RELATIONSHIP?
He is very fond of his brothers and is considered a very nice man. He isn't a violent man and the violence in his dream is enough to traumatise his although he seems a very strong hearted/willed man. However his brother Richard wants him out of the way so he can become next in line for the throne but he doesn't know this and believes he is loved by his him.
- WHAT DO I WANT?
He wants to get out of the tower and find out what's happening since he has little to know information about why he's locked up or what's going on or happening to his loved ones. Telling him the dream has no purpose other than to possibly try and get an idea of what the dream could be about although he knows that the guard can't be guilt tripoped so he doen't even try.
- WHAT IS IN MY WAY?
The fact that he is locked up in a prison with a guard blocking the door who (unkowing to Clarence) has strict orders to keep him there under any circumstances.
Links:
http://www.shmoop.com/richard-iii/summary.html
http://www.englishmonarchs.co.uk/plantagenet_21.htm
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pjJEXkbeL-o
Auditions for Actors Blog 2: Speech 2 - "To Kill a Mockingbird"
The second of my three speeches is the character Atticus from "To Kill a Mockingbird" by Harper Lee (Adapted for the stage by Christopher Sergel).
Why I chose the speech:
List of drama schools and speech time limits in minutes
- East 15: 1:30 - 2:00
- RADA: 2:00 - 3:00
- Lamda : 1:00 - 3:00
- Bristol Old Vic Theatre school: 1:00 - 2:00
The first read through of the speech took me around 3 minutes and 20 seconds so it's on the lengthy side but I felt that If I trimmed it down it be fine so that's what I did since I felt I could lose some of it but still maintain the spirit and tone of the scene and character and with the same impact.
One problem I had was that Atticus is around 40 years which is not strictly suitable for me in an audition although I decided still go with him for this reason. During this speech, neither the script or any version I've seen of the character suggests anything that could define his age, it is no way the focus of the scene. The focus in terms of Atticus is him making his belief clear as he displays an extremely mature attitude towards the situation which is what will be on display, it's the emotional and dignified side that I'm showing I can do, not that I can play an older man which I know more or less all drama schools don't care about. I've always played it with restraint in mind so regardless of age that would come across in this situation
It's the one I feel displays my sincerity and ability to show some conviction, restraint and firmness of belief. Even though they recommend going with characters who are close to your own age, I feel it's appropriate since I'm not trying to show off anything in terms of versatility of age since it's ultimately irrelevant and drama schools don't like that intention. I'm only trying to show dramatic skill and because of that I feel I don't play him like the 40 year old man he is I just put emphasis on what he's feeling and since it's coming from me it may seem more like he's in his mid 20's. That would be a flaw but since I'm focusing on a truthful dramatic delivery I think it will be a good choice. I'm confident in that so I should show them what I can do instead of prioritising something that I might be able to do since they'd want to know my real skills for a real consideration.
Context of the speech:
The speech is the closing argument in the case against Tom Robinson who Atticus is acting as a defence lawyer. The man has been accused of beating a white woman and the jury are citizens of a town that's quite racist. It's extremely obvious to anyone who thinks about it that Tom didn't beat her and it was the woman's father who had beaten her but the blame was rather easily shifted to Tom. Atticus tries to make this blatantly clear to the jury and seems to scorn them since he knows of their racist intentions but has to hold back his anger so he gets taken as seriously as possible to maintain his professional status.
Development of the speech:
- I decided to refresh myself on my "To Kill a Mockingbird" since I had done it on a previous assignment. I have known the context of the speech for some time before choosing it having seen the 1962 film adaptation and of course the stage production which this monologue is from. The speech had already been developed but I'll use this blog to show my choices and how I got there as well as any potential changes.
- The play takes place in America so I thought it would be appropriate to go with an American accent for the character since I'm fairly good at doing one. When originally trying out the speech I tried it with an English accent and I felt (Along with others) it didn't work or at least not as well. This was at a point where I knew the lines and that was not a distraction. While I have seen videos of drama school auditions say they don't like accents since it's not a subject they immediately care about. I only use it because I feel when I do it feels more truthful to me so the intended emotions come out in the naturalistic manner they're supposed to when I use my English accent for this speech it doesn't feel right. I could get it to work if I had more time but it's not my preference and I don't think they'd mind since it brings out the truth more which is what they want to see.
- One thing I had to change about the speech was it's length. When I did a timed run of the speech off script it came to about 3 minutes and 15 seconds which is way too long for a drama school audition since they see hundreds/thousands of applicant and prefer that the speech be (in general) a maximum of three minutes and that's being generous. They will just cut you off if you go on for too long. So I cut out the last and biggest paragraph of the speech which reduced it's length although I made sure to end the speech on a the best note possible even though it may end a little abruptly or in a way that has no resolution.
- In terms of the staging I had limited ideas at the start. The scene takes place in a courtroom so my first instinct was to act like I'm stood in front of the jury although until I showed it for the first time I never knew that that decision was fairly limiting since I imagined the jury to be quite small of about 10 people. This meant I didn't walk around that much and didn't look anywhere other than mainly straight ahead. After being told it was static I remembered that the courtroom in the source material is very large and filled with people and that Atticus is not only convincing the jury but the whole town since the are the racist community. Realising this made me improve my spacial awareness I looked all around the room with the cut off point being just before the front audience see my profile. To look around the room evenly and not stay in an area for too long I had to run the speech quite a few times but keep that thought in mind which took a few attempts but I got there. This gave the piece a bigger sense of scope and added to the realism which in turn helped with my vocal delivery and projection since I had to act as if there were many more people to convince.
- As I've stated the speech deals with a lot of restraint and the way I went about implementing this was to first of all know what moments would make him the angriest in the dialogue. For example when he says "Tom Robinson, a human being" or "To begin with this case should've never come to trial." They're moments where he is trying to remind them how stupid all this is and how the colour of his skin doesn't matter, he's still a person with a right to a fair trial free of prejudice. After singling out these moments I added slight movements and facial expression so that he may lean forward to emphasis and have the ever so smallest of grins on his face to give off a patronising vibe but still have a strong confident presence to maintain professionalism. So the combination of those elements with his posture as well as the vocal tones having a hint of anger and a patronising tone to them it should come across effectively and judging from the previous performance of it, it does.
- Even though I have already done "To Kill a Mockingbird" before I thought this time I'd see if it had a performance style and see if I am being faithful to it. It wasn't hard to work out that the plays style is naturalism since when comparing the acting to any Chekhov play I've seen it's been very similar and with the source material aiming for realistic/believable characters. I feel I did and still am sticking to the style very well, I'm realistically portraying conviction, restraint and anger in a way that isn't over the top. The only exaggeration it has (If you can even call it that) is the volume at which I have to speech it for the theatre. It's very subdued and I've used methods of Stanislavsky's system to help discover the portrayal. I considered his objective as I've said already and feel I've made his point very clear in the plainest most natural way with nothing stylised.
- The only change I'm thinking of making to the speech is to possibly add the ending line of the speech back on that says "In the name of God, do you duty. In the name of God, believe Tom Robinson". The main reason is because I think it's the line that best shows the restraint that Atticus has and the moment where he could possibly break. It's possibly the most dramatically intense line in the speech and the fact I cut it out originally makes me think it was a mistake. Even though it was very good last time I did it, I didn't get to end it with a dramatic beat it just cut off abruptly. this would mean still leaving a significant chunk of it out for time and you could argue the line comes out of nowhere but I think I can make the lines flow and the added drama at the end will be great to show off the portrayed emotion. I know the line so adding it on wouldn't be difficult at all so I think when I have to show the speech next I'll put it on and see if I can do it. I would prefer to have it there for the aforementioned reasons but if it doesn't work then I'll still have a very solid speech for auditions.
- With the exercises I listed before, I of course used them for this speech when initially doing it. The two biggest improvements it gave to the performance were that it made my voice able to be much louder but retain the natural/restrained yet angry tone with out losing anything. This small effect helped to indicate the size of the courtroom and help with the sense of scope. The other is that the muscles in my mouth are stretched properly so my articulation restriction doesn't affect my accent. I noticed before being warmed up it sounds a little off with some of the R's being too hard and the inflections of the accent being slightly wrong since I'm trying to do it with a slow, tightened jaw/mouth. An important thing to focus on is breath capacity so that means "In for 4, out for 4" is the exercise to focus on and allow me to project my voice more to again, convey that scale.
Character profile:
- WHO AM I?
The character's name is Atticus Finch, he is 40 years old, has two children named Jean and Jeremy (Referred to as Scout and Jem respectively). He is a very honest man and is firm in his beliefs. He is very balanced and firmly believes in the law since he is a lawyer and is always exposed the worst of people which has formed his balanced view. He even states to his children you shouldn't judge anyone "Until you consider things from his point of view". He is strict but wants to genuinely see his children become good people although he doesn't want them to be exposed to the bad side of society just yet. He's a very well respected man in his community.
- WHAT TIME IS IT?
It's Friday, the 19th of July, 1935. It's 3 pm. The time period is significant to the story and character because it's a time where racist bias was still considered the norm but the time when it was starting to be challenged but unfortunately in a very very limited way.
- WHERE AM I?
The speech takes place in Maycomb, Alabama (Which is a fictional town) in a courtroom.
- WHAT SURROUNDS ME?
The room is filled with people/witnesses watching the case and even his own children watching the case without him noticing. The jury and possibly the judge are judging harshly due to the racist beliefs of the community which does put pressure on him since they literally surround him in this big courtroom.
- WHAT IS MY RELATIONSHIP?
He loves his children and has to look after them on his own due to the mother dying so he feels he has to put all the more effort into bringing them up to be good people. He isn't always around for them since he's very busy with being a lawyer so he has a housekeeper who he trusts to take care of them. He wouldn't want them to see the case in the courtroom since he feels they aren't ready to see that just yet.
- WHAT DO I WANT?
He wants to convince the racist jury that the black man (Named Tom Robinson) he's defending is innocent of beating a white woman and that the real abuser is the woman's father.
- WHAT IS IN MY WAY?
The firm belief of the jury that all black people are evil or below white people and that a white persons word is automatically more trustworthy. So a stubborn belief which is always tough to challenge. Also the fact he has to maintain a professional status means he cannot be as blunt as he wants to with them.
- WHAT DO I DO TO GET WHAT I WANT?
Despite that, he will still make his point explicitly clear and he will stick to his belief even though he knows he could get some very harsh backlash for it. He'll defend the man because he genuinely believe he's right and that his skin colour shouldn't matter at all. He'd even show restraint to get it across he's putting his all into it and almost breaks towards the end but stays professional even though he doesn't like it.
Links:
https://www.rada.ac.uk/courses/acting-and-performance/ba-hons-in-acting/applications
https://www.lamda.org.uk/drama-school/auditions-interviews/audition-and-interview-requirements
http://www.oldvic.ac.uk/faq.htmla
http://www.east15.ac.uk/auditions/
Why I chose the speech:
I chose to do this speech for a few reasons. First of all being that it's a speech I've done before and I'm very familiar with the source material as well the role Atticus has with in it. Like I said about Gerald showing off my potential as a comedic actor, I believe that this shows off my skills as a dramatic actor. The speech deals with a character that shows a lot of restrained anger so to show the subtle emotions in my facial expressions and body language would be a useful skill to show off. Due to feedback from fellow actors saying that I show a lot of control especially in my face I have confidence in my ability to show that.
Since a lot of drama schools ask for a contemporary piece to be shown I felt doing this would be ideal. A lot of cut off points to consider a speech contemporary vary from school to school. RADA says anything past 1960 and Lamda just says anything from the 20th century onwards. I decided to go with the 1960 option since that period is a frequent cut off point. Initially I thought this would affect me choosing this speech however the source material came out on the exact cut off year so it's fine as well as the stage adaptation happening in 1990
For this task I had to generalise and create a range of time based on the varying time limits from
different drama schools.
different drama schools.
List of drama schools and speech time limits in minutes
- East 15: 1:30 - 2:00
- RADA: 2:00 - 3:00
- Lamda : 1:00 - 3:00
- Bristol Old Vic Theatre school: 1:00 - 2:00
The first read through of the speech took me around 3 minutes and 20 seconds so it's on the lengthy side but I felt that If I trimmed it down it be fine so that's what I did since I felt I could lose some of it but still maintain the spirit and tone of the scene and character and with the same impact.
One problem I had was that Atticus is around 40 years which is not strictly suitable for me in an audition although I decided still go with him for this reason. During this speech, neither the script or any version I've seen of the character suggests anything that could define his age, it is no way the focus of the scene. The focus in terms of Atticus is him making his belief clear as he displays an extremely mature attitude towards the situation which is what will be on display, it's the emotional and dignified side that I'm showing I can do, not that I can play an older man which I know more or less all drama schools don't care about. I've always played it with restraint in mind so regardless of age that would come across in this situation
It's the one I feel displays my sincerity and ability to show some conviction, restraint and firmness of belief. Even though they recommend going with characters who are close to your own age, I feel it's appropriate since I'm not trying to show off anything in terms of versatility of age since it's ultimately irrelevant and drama schools don't like that intention. I'm only trying to show dramatic skill and because of that I feel I don't play him like the 40 year old man he is I just put emphasis on what he's feeling and since it's coming from me it may seem more like he's in his mid 20's. That would be a flaw but since I'm focusing on a truthful dramatic delivery I think it will be a good choice. I'm confident in that so I should show them what I can do instead of prioritising something that I might be able to do since they'd want to know my real skills for a real consideration.
Context of the speech:
The speech is the closing argument in the case against Tom Robinson who Atticus is acting as a defence lawyer. The man has been accused of beating a white woman and the jury are citizens of a town that's quite racist. It's extremely obvious to anyone who thinks about it that Tom didn't beat her and it was the woman's father who had beaten her but the blame was rather easily shifted to Tom. Atticus tries to make this blatantly clear to the jury and seems to scorn them since he knows of their racist intentions but has to hold back his anger so he gets taken as seriously as possible to maintain his professional status.
Development of the speech:
- I decided to refresh myself on my "To Kill a Mockingbird" since I had done it on a previous assignment. I have known the context of the speech for some time before choosing it having seen the 1962 film adaptation and of course the stage production which this monologue is from. The speech had already been developed but I'll use this blog to show my choices and how I got there as well as any potential changes.
- The play takes place in America so I thought it would be appropriate to go with an American accent for the character since I'm fairly good at doing one. When originally trying out the speech I tried it with an English accent and I felt (Along with others) it didn't work or at least not as well. This was at a point where I knew the lines and that was not a distraction. While I have seen videos of drama school auditions say they don't like accents since it's not a subject they immediately care about. I only use it because I feel when I do it feels more truthful to me so the intended emotions come out in the naturalistic manner they're supposed to when I use my English accent for this speech it doesn't feel right. I could get it to work if I had more time but it's not my preference and I don't think they'd mind since it brings out the truth more which is what they want to see.
- One thing I had to change about the speech was it's length. When I did a timed run of the speech off script it came to about 3 minutes and 15 seconds which is way too long for a drama school audition since they see hundreds/thousands of applicant and prefer that the speech be (in general) a maximum of three minutes and that's being generous. They will just cut you off if you go on for too long. So I cut out the last and biggest paragraph of the speech which reduced it's length although I made sure to end the speech on a the best note possible even though it may end a little abruptly or in a way that has no resolution.
- In terms of the staging I had limited ideas at the start. The scene takes place in a courtroom so my first instinct was to act like I'm stood in front of the jury although until I showed it for the first time I never knew that that decision was fairly limiting since I imagined the jury to be quite small of about 10 people. This meant I didn't walk around that much and didn't look anywhere other than mainly straight ahead. After being told it was static I remembered that the courtroom in the source material is very large and filled with people and that Atticus is not only convincing the jury but the whole town since the are the racist community. Realising this made me improve my spacial awareness I looked all around the room with the cut off point being just before the front audience see my profile. To look around the room evenly and not stay in an area for too long I had to run the speech quite a few times but keep that thought in mind which took a few attempts but I got there. This gave the piece a bigger sense of scope and added to the realism which in turn helped with my vocal delivery and projection since I had to act as if there were many more people to convince.
- As I've stated the speech deals with a lot of restraint and the way I went about implementing this was to first of all know what moments would make him the angriest in the dialogue. For example when he says "Tom Robinson, a human being" or "To begin with this case should've never come to trial." They're moments where he is trying to remind them how stupid all this is and how the colour of his skin doesn't matter, he's still a person with a right to a fair trial free of prejudice. After singling out these moments I added slight movements and facial expression so that he may lean forward to emphasis and have the ever so smallest of grins on his face to give off a patronising vibe but still have a strong confident presence to maintain professionalism. So the combination of those elements with his posture as well as the vocal tones having a hint of anger and a patronising tone to them it should come across effectively and judging from the previous performance of it, it does.
- Even though I have already done "To Kill a Mockingbird" before I thought this time I'd see if it had a performance style and see if I am being faithful to it. It wasn't hard to work out that the plays style is naturalism since when comparing the acting to any Chekhov play I've seen it's been very similar and with the source material aiming for realistic/believable characters. I feel I did and still am sticking to the style very well, I'm realistically portraying conviction, restraint and anger in a way that isn't over the top. The only exaggeration it has (If you can even call it that) is the volume at which I have to speech it for the theatre. It's very subdued and I've used methods of Stanislavsky's system to help discover the portrayal. I considered his objective as I've said already and feel I've made his point very clear in the plainest most natural way with nothing stylised.
- The only change I'm thinking of making to the speech is to possibly add the ending line of the speech back on that says "In the name of God, do you duty. In the name of God, believe Tom Robinson". The main reason is because I think it's the line that best shows the restraint that Atticus has and the moment where he could possibly break. It's possibly the most dramatically intense line in the speech and the fact I cut it out originally makes me think it was a mistake. Even though it was very good last time I did it, I didn't get to end it with a dramatic beat it just cut off abruptly. this would mean still leaving a significant chunk of it out for time and you could argue the line comes out of nowhere but I think I can make the lines flow and the added drama at the end will be great to show off the portrayed emotion. I know the line so adding it on wouldn't be difficult at all so I think when I have to show the speech next I'll put it on and see if I can do it. I would prefer to have it there for the aforementioned reasons but if it doesn't work then I'll still have a very solid speech for auditions.
- With the exercises I listed before, I of course used them for this speech when initially doing it. The two biggest improvements it gave to the performance were that it made my voice able to be much louder but retain the natural/restrained yet angry tone with out losing anything. This small effect helped to indicate the size of the courtroom and help with the sense of scope. The other is that the muscles in my mouth are stretched properly so my articulation restriction doesn't affect my accent. I noticed before being warmed up it sounds a little off with some of the R's being too hard and the inflections of the accent being slightly wrong since I'm trying to do it with a slow, tightened jaw/mouth. An important thing to focus on is breath capacity so that means "In for 4, out for 4" is the exercise to focus on and allow me to project my voice more to again, convey that scale.
Character profile:
- WHO AM I?
The character's name is Atticus Finch, he is 40 years old, has two children named Jean and Jeremy (Referred to as Scout and Jem respectively). He is a very honest man and is firm in his beliefs. He is very balanced and firmly believes in the law since he is a lawyer and is always exposed the worst of people which has formed his balanced view. He even states to his children you shouldn't judge anyone "Until you consider things from his point of view". He is strict but wants to genuinely see his children become good people although he doesn't want them to be exposed to the bad side of society just yet. He's a very well respected man in his community.
- WHAT TIME IS IT?
It's Friday, the 19th of July, 1935. It's 3 pm. The time period is significant to the story and character because it's a time where racist bias was still considered the norm but the time when it was starting to be challenged but unfortunately in a very very limited way.
- WHERE AM I?
The speech takes place in Maycomb, Alabama (Which is a fictional town) in a courtroom.
- WHAT SURROUNDS ME?
The room is filled with people/witnesses watching the case and even his own children watching the case without him noticing. The jury and possibly the judge are judging harshly due to the racist beliefs of the community which does put pressure on him since they literally surround him in this big courtroom.
- WHAT IS MY RELATIONSHIP?
He loves his children and has to look after them on his own due to the mother dying so he feels he has to put all the more effort into bringing them up to be good people. He isn't always around for them since he's very busy with being a lawyer so he has a housekeeper who he trusts to take care of them. He wouldn't want them to see the case in the courtroom since he feels they aren't ready to see that just yet.
- WHAT DO I WANT?
He wants to convince the racist jury that the black man (Named Tom Robinson) he's defending is innocent of beating a white woman and that the real abuser is the woman's father.
- WHAT IS IN MY WAY?
The firm belief of the jury that all black people are evil or below white people and that a white persons word is automatically more trustworthy. So a stubborn belief which is always tough to challenge. Also the fact he has to maintain a professional status means he cannot be as blunt as he wants to with them.
- WHAT DO I DO TO GET WHAT I WANT?
Despite that, he will still make his point explicitly clear and he will stick to his belief even though he knows he could get some very harsh backlash for it. He'll defend the man because he genuinely believe he's right and that his skin colour shouldn't matter at all. He'd even show restraint to get it across he's putting his all into it and almost breaks towards the end but stays professional even though he doesn't like it.
Links:
https://www.rada.ac.uk/courses/acting-and-performance/ba-hons-in-acting/applications
https://www.lamda.org.uk/drama-school/auditions-interviews/audition-and-interview-requirements
http://www.oldvic.ac.uk/faq.htmla
http://www.east15.ac.uk/auditions/
Auditions for Actors Blog 1: Speech 1 - "A Woman of no Importance"
Introduction:
For this assignment I have to go through several researched monologues and choose 3 contrasting ones for a mock audition, so I have to find the best ones to show off my abilities while considering the overall appropriateness of the speech for a drama school/university audition since they often have varying rules and criteria. The first of my three chosen speeches is the character of Gerald from "A Woman of no Importance" by Oscar Wilde.
Why I chose the speech:
When looking for speeches one thing I really wanted was a speech to show off my strengths as a comedic actor. It is recommended that students choose contrasting pieces to show off any potential range so I really kept that in mind when searching for some. As soon as I read this speech my mind started planning it out and I got a very good impression of what the character would be like just from the scene context and the dialogue. Reading it out in anything other than a sort of heightened rebellious brat didn't seem to work although I wouldn't not describe him as whiny. My first impression was that the movement would be very energetic and fairly heightened and due to feedback I've received for other projects I had confidence that with some work I could nail his body language which in turn would help my vocals. So I think this is with in my range since I usually show a good degree of body control as well fast movement and quick posture changes.
Quite a few drama schools such as RADA require you to choose a classical and a contemporary piece so I first went for a classical first although prioritised something that wasn't Shakespeare. I immediately saw potential in the speech for it to be funny so kept it as an option since I knew the humour would come from the performance, not from the dialogue since the text on it's own could be viewed as bitter if you put it in a different style or context.
One thing drama schools often ask is that you pick characters that you can see yourself being cast as meaning they have to be similar in age, have the same gender, ethnicity etc. Thankfully he's very close to me in that regard. Due to his Naive attitude and the fact he still seems dependent on his mother and that he's only just now rebelling yet considering marriage there's no doubt in my mind that he's a young man around 20 years old where as I'm 18.
The speech is also fairly short. When I did a timed run of it, it was 1 minute 50 seconds. This is good since quite a few drama schools such as East 15 only want a speech to be between 1 and a half and two minutes so it's a fairly adequate length so it meant on top of the suitability and strengths of the speech already, I don't have to cut any of it out since most places would consider it a good length.
I believe that taking all that into account it would be a good audition since I'm showing off what I believe to be some of my best skills and keep with in the limits and criteria of the drama school auditions.
Context of the speech:
The speech is a young, 19th century upper class man called Gerald having a rant at his mother. He wants to go and work for a man called Lord Illingworth as his secretary and since Illingworth is a rather high ranking member of society, working for him would be considered quite a step up on the social ladder. He also wants to use this to ask an American woman called Hester to marry him since he feels that if he asked her now he would be laughed at or it would be considered insulting to do so. His mother was perfectly OK with him to take the offer but has changed her mind due to knowing that the man he intends to work for is his real father although no one knows that. She doesn't tell Gerald this so her actions just seem stubborn to him so he tells her how he feels in what can be described as a release of frustration.
Development of the speech:
Today I had to perform my speech to show what developments I've made although it didn't go too well.
- First of all I wasn't fully prepared and was rather nervous which lead to my throat drying up and affecting my volume on stage, it wasn't loud enough although still audible. It didn't have the appropriate volume for the character. I was shaking a fair bit too due to my uncertainty although that didn't matter any due to my next point.
- I performed the piece in the wrong style although this was easily explained. We had been shown videos about drama school auditions and probably due to remembering them wrong they seemed to prefer you to go as natural as possible regardless of the speech and that less is usually more. However that was more just in only a couple aspects of the performance where as mine was completely wrong with the exception that I maintained the accent. As a result of the nerves and misunderstanding I performed it like a contemporary piece which I know it's not but in the confusion I just panicked a bit. Just from assumption my piece seems more along the lines of a comedic melodrama although I'm going to have to look up and confirm if that's true when I can.
- One other minor issue I have with how I handle speeches is that when I make a mistake or pause I usually say "Sorry" which I really shouldn't do since it shows a lack of control and to an audience or panel it can take them out of the performance and can create a bad first impression of you as a performer.
22/9/16:
- I had realised at this point I still had not looked up the actual style the play is performed in so I did just in case I have missed any details of it. Up until now I'd mainly been rehearsing based on assumption which is not really a good thing since I could've horribly misrepresented the style. I said I assumed it was a comedic melodrama but this turned out to be partially incorrect, it's actually a style called "A Comedy of Manners". It's a style of play that satirises social classes and their ways, it uses a lot of dialogue to get across the point of the humour but also uses heightened body language to make every (Or at least most) character of the specific class look like a fool and make their lifestyle and attitudes seem farcical and stupid. After looking it up and finding it listed on "Drama Online" it confirmed this play combines this style with a hint of melodrama but only in terms of the characters actions since they do simply covey what their feeling but the combination of both styles makes a slightly more heightened and hopefully funny result. So thankfully even though I assumed I did make the right judgement calls on how Gerald would act in this style overall.
- After reading the synopsis and exerts from the script, the mother's motivations became clear as to why she's not letting him go ahead with his planned job for Lord Illingworth. It's because Gerald is the illegitimate son of Lord Illingworth and for anyone to find that out could potentially shame all of them. The problem is Gerald doesn't know this so he really can't sympathise with her decision and it just comes off as controlling and irrational. This is what's enraging him and when he finally decides he's had enough. I found this helpful because now I have more of an idea how Gerald's reaction should play out. He isn't frustrated at her because she isn't telling him why, it's because he thinks there isn't a reason at all and that she's just being stubborn for the sake of it or to uphold some authority. Or at the very least due to his naive attitude this is the wrongful conclusion he jumped to. This has made me realise I need to play up that element of the frustration a little more for example in my face I had an idea of looking as the speech starts off like "How dare you do this to me". I feel that if I had that face just looking at her then it would immediately communicate my emotion before I start talking. If I pull that off I think it would be a simple but effective thing to show off in an audition.
- So as of now I think I'm doing justice to the style in my rehearsals of the speech. I feel that the character is coming across as comedically over the top and makes him seem a little foolish and I think the naive attitude is coming across. I still think I can develop it and I'll probably need some feedback for it soon so I'll show it off when I can.
27/9/16:
- Today we didn't get to show off anything, instead this was just a rehearsal session which was great. I tried out my ideas from last time and I do feel I'm making some progress since I got to try it within the theatre space I was able to put as much energy into it as possible. I couldn't really get any feedback but I felt more like the character. Something I forgot to mention was that the style features the characters having sappy dialogue so today I decided to play that up a little and make some sentences such as "I don't believe it mother" I made that line come in a little faster than I did before. This is so it adds to the spontaneity of the speech and the fact that he's releasing his anger without the possibly of being interrupted until he's finished his point. That was the major edition to it today and I think it's fitting and in keeping with the style. Just need to show it off now.
10/10/16:
- I feel the speech is getting better, I feel that I am getting to grips with his physicality the more I rehearse it, it's now coming to me naturally and his voice I feel is becoming more fitting. There were very few issues with it before such as in retrospect the accent I was doing didn't seem posh enough. Before it turned out I was just being articulate instead overly articulate which is the approach I've gone with for now since it fits the style of making him look pompous and a little over the top and silly.
- I also made a decision to make certain lines (Such as the ones where he mentions Hester) a little more tender since he is very much in love with her and really I think it keeps with the style since I'm doing it in a way that's overly tender with some gestures such as putting my hand on my heart. This will add more variety to the speech and ensure that the emotional tone of whatever Gerald is feeling fluctuates so it displays more of a tender side and doesn't make him seem completely spoilt although he still shows it to his mother. I must stress though when I say tender I don't mean along the lines of a hopeless romantics like Romeo or Lysander from "Romeo and Juliet" and "A Midsummer Nights Dream" respectively. I mean that he still keeps his usual tone but is said in a way that's a bit softer before he snaps again when addressing his mother directly.
- I have added that to also see if I can make the speech funnier because the moments where he's angrier will stand out more and the performance won't seems one note so throwing some varying degrees of emotion I feel can give moments more identity and therefor more likely to find funny.
11/10/16:
- Today we had the option to show one of our monologues if we wished, I felt I was ready so I decided to show the developments on the speech. I wanted to show the change in physicality and voice that I've been working on. Overall my feedback was very positive, they found it to be quite funny. I believe it represented the satirical, camp and heightened style of the play. I was told that there are a few moments I still need to heighten and I agree since there are a couples of moments that need the importance to be emphasised such as when I first mention being Lord Illingworths sectary. That moment needs to be played up by slowing it down possibly saying his name loudly with a sense of awe to establish his desire for the opportunity. Other moments such as when I'm telling mother about loving Hester need to have extra layers as well. That moment needs more to establish my relief or feeling towards letting her know. My idea is that it should have a sort of a "There! I said it! What you think of that?" as if he knows she thinks he's being naive but wants to prove her wrong or overrule her. Although that will mainly be summed up in a look and the words "Far more" at the end of the sentence.
- I will say for most of it I did a good job keeping this up with the exception of the few aforementioned moments. I will say something I need to improve is my projection. My articulation and breath control is mostly very good from what I can tell but I do think I'm leaning more on the quiet side. This is probably because it was in a smaller room and I don't recall a full vocal warm up although I did do a couple of my planned exercises in the moments I had. Just need to do more of them and then rehearse it in the theatre and hopefully they'll be an improvement since projection is a key skill and I know that being quiet will be a bad sign for the auditioners.
18/10/16:
- Today we took part in a workshop that was conducted by an ex student of the college called Lloyd. This was so we can get a better idea of what drama school auditions are actually like in a more practical sense, it's been explained a lot but I think this is the best idea we'll have until we do the real thing. I volunteered to do the speech since I had developed it a little since last showing it and I heard he done the speech before so would be the ideal person to get some constructive criticism from. Since last performing it had heightened the moments I highlighted such as mentioning Lord Illingworth for the first time and the brief looks to establish the relief and wanting to tell the mother. My feedback was very positive for the speech although he did want to add two things which I thought were great. First was to put a chair on the stage but only as a means to interact with slightly to show my frustration such as I could lean on it and points and squeeze the chair but in a way that subtly conveys my mood. When I tried that out it went very well it did add something I feel, it made me come across as angrier which was great although one flaw with it was the chair itself really, it was too short and I had to lean downwards slightly to reach it which was noticeable although that's a fault with the prop not the idea. The other note was to add a little more context, in this case make it seem as though someone has just left the room and I'm finally alone with her to release my anger like I've been holding it in for ages. This did change the opening moments quite a bit and made it seem like more of an outburst so this
- This made me think about how I've stage the piece so far. To be honest whenever I ran the scene I would naturally pace to certain points in the room such as when I start talking about Hester I always walk to the front of stage left and look away from the mother. The sort of improvised staging seems to have work for the most part, initially it was static but I really felt the need to change it since it felt like staying still was draining the energy of the scene. Besides these moments thankfully providing the right mood for the moment (Such as at that moment it's because he's slightly uncomfortable with admitting his love to this degree), it adds more visual variety which I feel is key. Quite a few monologues I've watched have always been very static and not appealing to look at despite being well acted. So adding these little moments where I move around in a variety of ways that conveys my current emotion seems to have paid off from the feedback so I'm very happy with it.
20/10/16:
- I decided to do a rehearsal of it at home and I came to the conclusion that I think I'm ready to perform the speech. I feel I've got to the point where I perfectly represent the style of the play and .ave reached more or less the full potential of the speech in terms of it's comedic nature. I feel the only way I could improve it would be to actually get into a costume but that would hardly be appropriate so in terms of pure acting and embodiment I think it's worthy to be shown. I honestly don't see anything I could add to it myself.
- One thing I will note is something I researched and found but didn't write about until now. It's the vocal exercises that are specifically for the demands of this performance. For this performance I need to accommodate the heightened vocal tones to indicate the humorous anger and the pompous level of articulation. The exercises most important to this (Although I do all of them listed below) are "What a to do", "Lines with finger in mouth" and "Why fly so high" to warm up the resonators and to make sure my T's and D's come across extremely clearly. I wanted the sounds to come across in the sentence like "Well I Don'T believe iT mother" but keep the pace which doing these exercises will help since the muscles of the mouth are warmed up and more able to move.
- Here is my routine which benefits all three of my speeches and will do before every rehearsal and will use for auditions:
"What a to do" is a commonly used tongue twister that helps to improve articulation and with practice, any potential stutters that may happen, depending on the actor. You must say "What a to do to die today at a minute or two to two. A thing distinctly hard to say but harder still to do. We'll beat a tattoo at two to two. A ratatatatatatatoo and the dragon will come at the beat of a drum at a minute or two to two today at a minute or two to two." It can also help with a problem some actors have of making their T's and D's sound different so that the words in them are easily understandable. I find this to be quite useful when I use it before any show I do as it helps me to warm up my mouth and make it more loose in order to form specific sounds.
"Lines with finger in mouth" is something that we got taught to do to help with articulation. You pick a line or tongue twister or simply something to say and then say it but with either one or two fingers between your teeth. You must then say the line with as much articulation as possible. Since you have the fingers between your teeth it means you won't be able to form certain sounds if just talking normally so you must exaggerate and over pronounce these sounds in order to make them audible using this. so using this combined with what a to do is in my opinion a very useful and great exercise to use to warm up your mouth muscles to make them more loose and speech more fluid.
"Why fly so high?" is an exercise that helps to open up the resonators. There are four parts to it with a specific resonator in mind. You say "Why fly so high" in a high pitched voice to help with opening the skull Then you say "Said naughty Nora" while massaging your upper nose to help open the nasal cavity. Then say "Whilst eating an apple" in a deep and projected voice in order to help open and open up the glottal and finally say "With Zoe the zebra in the zoo" while beating your chest to help chest
"1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6" is an exercise where you repeat those six numbers over and over again for as long as you can on just one breathe. This is something to help you try and regulate breathe control since you have to increase the amount of times you can do it but keep the same amount of articulation, projection and pace. It teaches you to keep these and helps you keep a sense of rhythm which makes you get to grips with how you breathe and teaches you the capacity you have and how to improve.
"Pumpkin/Raisin" is a brief exercise to warm and stretch your facial muscles. You must open your mouth and eyes as wide as they can go on their own and then close them as much as you can on their own. doing this slowly then quickly will help with warming up your mouth and making it more flexible for better clarity.
"In for 4, out for 4" is an exercise where you breathe in for a fixed amount of time, hold the breath for a longer time and then breathe out for the first amount. Inhaling through the nose, holding the breath for about 6 seconds and exhaling though the mouth. This is to warm up your lungs and open them up a bit to give make their capacity to hold aim higher than not doing this. It's also a way to relax and release some possible tension just before performing or doing anything physical so you could be more energetic and able to do the set task.
Character profile:
- WHO AM I?
My characters name is Gerald Arbuthnot, he's 20 years old and is an upper class 19th century man. He doesn't have a job as of yet although his family is fairly wealthy. He is considered very naive but has a sense of determination although isn't extremely well respected by most people since he's an illegitimate child although he is not hated by any means . He lives with his mother but has no father, he has no idea who is father is or if he's still alive. He is an only child. He's quite lively and when he gets angry his body language looks almost silly and child like, people could easily think he's spoilt since so many children were during these days but he isn't he's just stubborn.
- WHAT TIME IS IT?
It is Wednesday, the 6th of august, 1890. It's about 6;30 pm.
- WHERE AM I?
The location is Hampshire, England and Gerald is in the drawing room of his house standing by the chair looking at his mother.
- WHAT SURROUNDS ME?
In the drawing room there's the furniture which consists of a few sofas, a table with four chairs, a few family portraits and ornaments such as vases. There are quite a few candles although they're not lit because it's still day time. The only person in the room with him is his mother.
- WHAT ARE THE GIVEN CIRCUMSTANCES?
Gerald has been offered a job by a highly respected man who he hugely admires called Lord Illingworth. He wants to take it to climb up the social ladder and gain the respect to ask a woman called Hester to marry him. He is supported in taking the job until his mother finds out who offered him the job. It turns out lord Illingworth is Gerald's biological father but he doesn't know that. The mother never wants him to know and doesn't tell him but insists he doesn't take the job but gives him no reason. This means her actions just seem stubborn.
- WHAT IS MY RELATIONSHIP?
Gerald usually loves his mother but is he starts to hate her when she refuses the best opportunity of his life with no reason what so ever. Since his big chance is being objected to for what's seemingly just stubbornness that really anger him and he explodes in an almost childish rage. Even though he does not know Hester all that well he is very much infatuated with her and wants to marry her and this chance will help him do that, so besides being denied respect and a potentially great job he is denied love so all the more reason for a young mind to snap. He really admires Lord Illingworth and even defends him by calling him a successful or fashionable man
- WHAT DO I WANT AND WHAT IS IN MY WAY? ?
He wants to take the job offered to him since it hopefully garner respect from the community and provide him the chance to ask Hester to marry him without being laughed at or looked down upon. He wants to go out into the world and become a well respected gentlemen however as mentioned his mother will not let him or at least not with lord Illingworth due to his relation to him and if it got out what had happened then they could be shamed since in those days it was very frowned upon to have illegitimate/bastard children.
- WHAT DO I DO TO GET WHAT I WANT?
He tells her exactly what he thinks, about the good side of the chance he's got and how he's rejecting all his teachings. He is trying to overpower her mentally and possibly even guilt trip her since he would be deprived of so much if he rejected the chance so he has a full on rant at her giving her no real chance to speak. He asks questions but rhetorical ones that she wouldn't even have time to answer if she tried since he's talking very quickly and would cut across her. If she still won't listen then he will ignore his mother and take the job anyway since he seems to value his status and popularity in the community more than the decision of his mother.
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-psychology-of-social/
For this assignment I have to go through several researched monologues and choose 3 contrasting ones for a mock audition, so I have to find the best ones to show off my abilities while considering the overall appropriateness of the speech for a drama school/university audition since they often have varying rules and criteria. The first of my three chosen speeches is the character of Gerald from "A Woman of no Importance" by Oscar Wilde.
Why I chose the speech:
When looking for speeches one thing I really wanted was a speech to show off my strengths as a comedic actor. It is recommended that students choose contrasting pieces to show off any potential range so I really kept that in mind when searching for some. As soon as I read this speech my mind started planning it out and I got a very good impression of what the character would be like just from the scene context and the dialogue. Reading it out in anything other than a sort of heightened rebellious brat didn't seem to work although I wouldn't not describe him as whiny. My first impression was that the movement would be very energetic and fairly heightened and due to feedback I've received for other projects I had confidence that with some work I could nail his body language which in turn would help my vocals. So I think this is with in my range since I usually show a good degree of body control as well fast movement and quick posture changes.
Quite a few drama schools such as RADA require you to choose a classical and a contemporary piece so I first went for a classical first although prioritised something that wasn't Shakespeare. I immediately saw potential in the speech for it to be funny so kept it as an option since I knew the humour would come from the performance, not from the dialogue since the text on it's own could be viewed as bitter if you put it in a different style or context.
One thing drama schools often ask is that you pick characters that you can see yourself being cast as meaning they have to be similar in age, have the same gender, ethnicity etc. Thankfully he's very close to me in that regard. Due to his Naive attitude and the fact he still seems dependent on his mother and that he's only just now rebelling yet considering marriage there's no doubt in my mind that he's a young man around 20 years old where as I'm 18.
The speech is also fairly short. When I did a timed run of it, it was 1 minute 50 seconds. This is good since quite a few drama schools such as East 15 only want a speech to be between 1 and a half and two minutes so it's a fairly adequate length so it meant on top of the suitability and strengths of the speech already, I don't have to cut any of it out since most places would consider it a good length.
I believe that taking all that into account it would be a good audition since I'm showing off what I believe to be some of my best skills and keep with in the limits and criteria of the drama school auditions.
Context of the speech:
The speech is a young, 19th century upper class man called Gerald having a rant at his mother. He wants to go and work for a man called Lord Illingworth as his secretary and since Illingworth is a rather high ranking member of society, working for him would be considered quite a step up on the social ladder. He also wants to use this to ask an American woman called Hester to marry him since he feels that if he asked her now he would be laughed at or it would be considered insulting to do so. His mother was perfectly OK with him to take the offer but has changed her mind due to knowing that the man he intends to work for is his real father although no one knows that. She doesn't tell Gerald this so her actions just seem stubborn to him so he tells her how he feels in what can be described as a release of frustration.
Development of the speech:
16/9/16:
- My first attempt at the speech went very well and I started having a little brainstorm of the moments and ideas I could inject into it. I feel I had enough although still limited information to make a start. My first of the ideas was to give Gerald an extremely posh accent since the synopsis says the play is focusing on upper class 19th century society and any piece of fiction representing anyone of that kind of status (especially comedies) always make them very articulate so considering that it's a comedic scene I feel it's best to go almost over board with the accent and make it almost over the top to add to the comedy of the situation.
- The other is his posture, since it's a scene where he's seemingly standing up to his mother for what's probably the first time then I want his stance to denote that meaning. At points I want it to seem as if he's trying to make himself seem bigger or more in control than he actually is. This is an outburst but I feel that the naivety of the character should still come across as well as his blind admiration and ambition. To do this I've put moments in (Although not specifically marked in the script) where I attempt to look taller and I'll even put my head a little further up so that I have a longer neck to give off a more uptight and possibly feisty feel. I'm quite pleased with these two elements for now and I feel they do actually bring out the comedic side of the scene quite well.
- The actual dialogue is very clear to me in how it should be said with the exception of a few lines such as "If I had prospects, I could - I could ask her to." It took me a while to figure out what he actually meant by this. After a few awkward readings I came to the conclusion that he's saying if he has prospects he can love her and that it would be OK to ask her to do the same. Those brief little moments I had a bit of trouble with but just found the way to say them that best suited his character, someone with blind aspiration. I bring this up because it stressed the importance of figuring out how the lines are meant to be structured and how they should flow. This line in particular showed me that I have to consider that, it's meant to flow from the last line and not stop other wise it could possibly confusing.
- My first attempt at the speech went very well and I started having a little brainstorm of the moments and ideas I could inject into it. I feel I had enough although still limited information to make a start. My first of the ideas was to give Gerald an extremely posh accent since the synopsis says the play is focusing on upper class 19th century society and any piece of fiction representing anyone of that kind of status (especially comedies) always make them very articulate so considering that it's a comedic scene I feel it's best to go almost over board with the accent and make it almost over the top to add to the comedy of the situation.
- The other is his posture, since it's a scene where he's seemingly standing up to his mother for what's probably the first time then I want his stance to denote that meaning. At points I want it to seem as if he's trying to make himself seem bigger or more in control than he actually is. This is an outburst but I feel that the naivety of the character should still come across as well as his blind admiration and ambition. To do this I've put moments in (Although not specifically marked in the script) where I attempt to look taller and I'll even put my head a little further up so that I have a longer neck to give off a more uptight and possibly feisty feel. I'm quite pleased with these two elements for now and I feel they do actually bring out the comedic side of the scene quite well.
- The actual dialogue is very clear to me in how it should be said with the exception of a few lines such as "If I had prospects, I could - I could ask her to." It took me a while to figure out what he actually meant by this. After a few awkward readings I came to the conclusion that he's saying if he has prospects he can love her and that it would be OK to ask her to do the same. Those brief little moments I had a bit of trouble with but just found the way to say them that best suited his character, someone with blind aspiration. I bring this up because it stressed the importance of figuring out how the lines are meant to be structured and how they should flow. This line in particular showed me that I have to consider that, it's meant to flow from the last line and not stop other wise it could possibly confusing.
20/9/16:
Today I had to perform my speech to show what developments I've made although it didn't go too well.
- First of all I wasn't fully prepared and was rather nervous which lead to my throat drying up and affecting my volume on stage, it wasn't loud enough although still audible. It didn't have the appropriate volume for the character. I was shaking a fair bit too due to my uncertainty although that didn't matter any due to my next point.
- I performed the piece in the wrong style although this was easily explained. We had been shown videos about drama school auditions and probably due to remembering them wrong they seemed to prefer you to go as natural as possible regardless of the speech and that less is usually more. However that was more just in only a couple aspects of the performance where as mine was completely wrong with the exception that I maintained the accent. As a result of the nerves and misunderstanding I performed it like a contemporary piece which I know it's not but in the confusion I just panicked a bit. Just from assumption my piece seems more along the lines of a comedic melodrama although I'm going to have to look up and confirm if that's true when I can.
- One other minor issue I have with how I handle speeches is that when I make a mistake or pause I usually say "Sorry" which I really shouldn't do since it shows a lack of control and to an audience or panel it can take them out of the performance and can create a bad first impression of you as a performer.
- I had realised at this point I still had not looked up the actual style the play is performed in so I did just in case I have missed any details of it. Up until now I'd mainly been rehearsing based on assumption which is not really a good thing since I could've horribly misrepresented the style. I said I assumed it was a comedic melodrama but this turned out to be partially incorrect, it's actually a style called "A Comedy of Manners". It's a style of play that satirises social classes and their ways, it uses a lot of dialogue to get across the point of the humour but also uses heightened body language to make every (Or at least most) character of the specific class look like a fool and make their lifestyle and attitudes seem farcical and stupid. After looking it up and finding it listed on "Drama Online" it confirmed this play combines this style with a hint of melodrama but only in terms of the characters actions since they do simply covey what their feeling but the combination of both styles makes a slightly more heightened and hopefully funny result. So thankfully even though I assumed I did make the right judgement calls on how Gerald would act in this style overall.
- After reading the synopsis and exerts from the script, the mother's motivations became clear as to why she's not letting him go ahead with his planned job for Lord Illingworth. It's because Gerald is the illegitimate son of Lord Illingworth and for anyone to find that out could potentially shame all of them. The problem is Gerald doesn't know this so he really can't sympathise with her decision and it just comes off as controlling and irrational. This is what's enraging him and when he finally decides he's had enough. I found this helpful because now I have more of an idea how Gerald's reaction should play out. He isn't frustrated at her because she isn't telling him why, it's because he thinks there isn't a reason at all and that she's just being stubborn for the sake of it or to uphold some authority. Or at the very least due to his naive attitude this is the wrongful conclusion he jumped to. This has made me realise I need to play up that element of the frustration a little more for example in my face I had an idea of looking as the speech starts off like "How dare you do this to me". I feel that if I had that face just looking at her then it would immediately communicate my emotion before I start talking. If I pull that off I think it would be a simple but effective thing to show off in an audition.
- So as of now I think I'm doing justice to the style in my rehearsals of the speech. I feel that the character is coming across as comedically over the top and makes him seem a little foolish and I think the naive attitude is coming across. I still think I can develop it and I'll probably need some feedback for it soon so I'll show it off when I can.
27/9/16:
- Today we didn't get to show off anything, instead this was just a rehearsal session which was great. I tried out my ideas from last time and I do feel I'm making some progress since I got to try it within the theatre space I was able to put as much energy into it as possible. I couldn't really get any feedback but I felt more like the character. Something I forgot to mention was that the style features the characters having sappy dialogue so today I decided to play that up a little and make some sentences such as "I don't believe it mother" I made that line come in a little faster than I did before. This is so it adds to the spontaneity of the speech and the fact that he's releasing his anger without the possibly of being interrupted until he's finished his point. That was the major edition to it today and I think it's fitting and in keeping with the style. Just need to show it off now.
10/10/16:
- I feel the speech is getting better, I feel that I am getting to grips with his physicality the more I rehearse it, it's now coming to me naturally and his voice I feel is becoming more fitting. There were very few issues with it before such as in retrospect the accent I was doing didn't seem posh enough. Before it turned out I was just being articulate instead overly articulate which is the approach I've gone with for now since it fits the style of making him look pompous and a little over the top and silly.
- I also made a decision to make certain lines (Such as the ones where he mentions Hester) a little more tender since he is very much in love with her and really I think it keeps with the style since I'm doing it in a way that's overly tender with some gestures such as putting my hand on my heart. This will add more variety to the speech and ensure that the emotional tone of whatever Gerald is feeling fluctuates so it displays more of a tender side and doesn't make him seem completely spoilt although he still shows it to his mother. I must stress though when I say tender I don't mean along the lines of a hopeless romantics like Romeo or Lysander from "Romeo and Juliet" and "A Midsummer Nights Dream" respectively. I mean that he still keeps his usual tone but is said in a way that's a bit softer before he snaps again when addressing his mother directly.
- I have added that to also see if I can make the speech funnier because the moments where he's angrier will stand out more and the performance won't seems one note so throwing some varying degrees of emotion I feel can give moments more identity and therefor more likely to find funny.
11/10/16:
- Today we had the option to show one of our monologues if we wished, I felt I was ready so I decided to show the developments on the speech. I wanted to show the change in physicality and voice that I've been working on. Overall my feedback was very positive, they found it to be quite funny. I believe it represented the satirical, camp and heightened style of the play. I was told that there are a few moments I still need to heighten and I agree since there are a couples of moments that need the importance to be emphasised such as when I first mention being Lord Illingworths sectary. That moment needs to be played up by slowing it down possibly saying his name loudly with a sense of awe to establish his desire for the opportunity. Other moments such as when I'm telling mother about loving Hester need to have extra layers as well. That moment needs more to establish my relief or feeling towards letting her know. My idea is that it should have a sort of a "There! I said it! What you think of that?" as if he knows she thinks he's being naive but wants to prove her wrong or overrule her. Although that will mainly be summed up in a look and the words "Far more" at the end of the sentence.
- I will say for most of it I did a good job keeping this up with the exception of the few aforementioned moments. I will say something I need to improve is my projection. My articulation and breath control is mostly very good from what I can tell but I do think I'm leaning more on the quiet side. This is probably because it was in a smaller room and I don't recall a full vocal warm up although I did do a couple of my planned exercises in the moments I had. Just need to do more of them and then rehearse it in the theatre and hopefully they'll be an improvement since projection is a key skill and I know that being quiet will be a bad sign for the auditioners.
18/10/16:
- Today we took part in a workshop that was conducted by an ex student of the college called Lloyd. This was so we can get a better idea of what drama school auditions are actually like in a more practical sense, it's been explained a lot but I think this is the best idea we'll have until we do the real thing. I volunteered to do the speech since I had developed it a little since last showing it and I heard he done the speech before so would be the ideal person to get some constructive criticism from. Since last performing it had heightened the moments I highlighted such as mentioning Lord Illingworth for the first time and the brief looks to establish the relief and wanting to tell the mother. My feedback was very positive for the speech although he did want to add two things which I thought were great. First was to put a chair on the stage but only as a means to interact with slightly to show my frustration such as I could lean on it and points and squeeze the chair but in a way that subtly conveys my mood. When I tried that out it went very well it did add something I feel, it made me come across as angrier which was great although one flaw with it was the chair itself really, it was too short and I had to lean downwards slightly to reach it which was noticeable although that's a fault with the prop not the idea. The other note was to add a little more context, in this case make it seem as though someone has just left the room and I'm finally alone with her to release my anger like I've been holding it in for ages. This did change the opening moments quite a bit and made it seem like more of an outburst so this
- This made me think about how I've stage the piece so far. To be honest whenever I ran the scene I would naturally pace to certain points in the room such as when I start talking about Hester I always walk to the front of stage left and look away from the mother. The sort of improvised staging seems to have work for the most part, initially it was static but I really felt the need to change it since it felt like staying still was draining the energy of the scene. Besides these moments thankfully providing the right mood for the moment (Such as at that moment it's because he's slightly uncomfortable with admitting his love to this degree), it adds more visual variety which I feel is key. Quite a few monologues I've watched have always been very static and not appealing to look at despite being well acted. So adding these little moments where I move around in a variety of ways that conveys my current emotion seems to have paid off from the feedback so I'm very happy with it.
20/10/16:
- I decided to do a rehearsal of it at home and I came to the conclusion that I think I'm ready to perform the speech. I feel I've got to the point where I perfectly represent the style of the play and .ave reached more or less the full potential of the speech in terms of it's comedic nature. I feel the only way I could improve it would be to actually get into a costume but that would hardly be appropriate so in terms of pure acting and embodiment I think it's worthy to be shown. I honestly don't see anything I could add to it myself.
- One thing I will note is something I researched and found but didn't write about until now. It's the vocal exercises that are specifically for the demands of this performance. For this performance I need to accommodate the heightened vocal tones to indicate the humorous anger and the pompous level of articulation. The exercises most important to this (Although I do all of them listed below) are "What a to do", "Lines with finger in mouth" and "Why fly so high" to warm up the resonators and to make sure my T's and D's come across extremely clearly. I wanted the sounds to come across in the sentence like "Well I Don'T believe iT mother" but keep the pace which doing these exercises will help since the muscles of the mouth are warmed up and more able to move.
- Here is my routine which benefits all three of my speeches and will do before every rehearsal and will use for auditions:
"What a to do" is a commonly used tongue twister that helps to improve articulation and with practice, any potential stutters that may happen, depending on the actor. You must say "What a to do to die today at a minute or two to two. A thing distinctly hard to say but harder still to do. We'll beat a tattoo at two to two. A ratatatatatatatoo and the dragon will come at the beat of a drum at a minute or two to two today at a minute or two to two." It can also help with a problem some actors have of making their T's and D's sound different so that the words in them are easily understandable. I find this to be quite useful when I use it before any show I do as it helps me to warm up my mouth and make it more loose in order to form specific sounds.
"Lines with finger in mouth" is something that we got taught to do to help with articulation. You pick a line or tongue twister or simply something to say and then say it but with either one or two fingers between your teeth. You must then say the line with as much articulation as possible. Since you have the fingers between your teeth it means you won't be able to form certain sounds if just talking normally so you must exaggerate and over pronounce these sounds in order to make them audible using this. so using this combined with what a to do is in my opinion a very useful and great exercise to use to warm up your mouth muscles to make them more loose and speech more fluid.
"Why fly so high?" is an exercise that helps to open up the resonators. There are four parts to it with a specific resonator in mind. You say "Why fly so high" in a high pitched voice to help with opening the skull Then you say "Said naughty Nora" while massaging your upper nose to help open the nasal cavity. Then say "Whilst eating an apple" in a deep and projected voice in order to help open and open up the glottal and finally say "With Zoe the zebra in the zoo" while beating your chest to help chest
"1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6" is an exercise where you repeat those six numbers over and over again for as long as you can on just one breathe. This is something to help you try and regulate breathe control since you have to increase the amount of times you can do it but keep the same amount of articulation, projection and pace. It teaches you to keep these and helps you keep a sense of rhythm which makes you get to grips with how you breathe and teaches you the capacity you have and how to improve.
"Pumpkin/Raisin" is a brief exercise to warm and stretch your facial muscles. You must open your mouth and eyes as wide as they can go on their own and then close them as much as you can on their own. doing this slowly then quickly will help with warming up your mouth and making it more flexible for better clarity.
"In for 4, out for 4" is an exercise where you breathe in for a fixed amount of time, hold the breath for a longer time and then breathe out for the first amount. Inhaling through the nose, holding the breath for about 6 seconds and exhaling though the mouth. This is to warm up your lungs and open them up a bit to give make their capacity to hold aim higher than not doing this. It's also a way to relax and release some possible tension just before performing or doing anything physical so you could be more energetic and able to do the set task.
Character profile:
- WHO AM I?
My characters name is Gerald Arbuthnot, he's 20 years old and is an upper class 19th century man. He doesn't have a job as of yet although his family is fairly wealthy. He is considered very naive but has a sense of determination although isn't extremely well respected by most people since he's an illegitimate child although he is not hated by any means . He lives with his mother but has no father, he has no idea who is father is or if he's still alive. He is an only child. He's quite lively and when he gets angry his body language looks almost silly and child like, people could easily think he's spoilt since so many children were during these days but he isn't he's just stubborn.
- WHAT TIME IS IT?
It is Wednesday, the 6th of august, 1890. It's about 6;30 pm.
- WHERE AM I?
The location is Hampshire, England and Gerald is in the drawing room of his house standing by the chair looking at his mother.
- WHAT SURROUNDS ME?
In the drawing room there's the furniture which consists of a few sofas, a table with four chairs, a few family portraits and ornaments such as vases. There are quite a few candles although they're not lit because it's still day time. The only person in the room with him is his mother.
- WHAT ARE THE GIVEN CIRCUMSTANCES?
Gerald has been offered a job by a highly respected man who he hugely admires called Lord Illingworth. He wants to take it to climb up the social ladder and gain the respect to ask a woman called Hester to marry him. He is supported in taking the job until his mother finds out who offered him the job. It turns out lord Illingworth is Gerald's biological father but he doesn't know that. The mother never wants him to know and doesn't tell him but insists he doesn't take the job but gives him no reason. This means her actions just seem stubborn.
- WHAT IS MY RELATIONSHIP?
Gerald usually loves his mother but is he starts to hate her when she refuses the best opportunity of his life with no reason what so ever. Since his big chance is being objected to for what's seemingly just stubbornness that really anger him and he explodes in an almost childish rage. Even though he does not know Hester all that well he is very much infatuated with her and wants to marry her and this chance will help him do that, so besides being denied respect and a potentially great job he is denied love so all the more reason for a young mind to snap. He really admires Lord Illingworth and even defends him by calling him a successful or fashionable man
- WHAT DO I WANT AND WHAT IS IN MY WAY? ?
He wants to take the job offered to him since it hopefully garner respect from the community and provide him the chance to ask Hester to marry him without being laughed at or looked down upon. He wants to go out into the world and become a well respected gentlemen however as mentioned his mother will not let him or at least not with lord Illingworth due to his relation to him and if it got out what had happened then they could be shamed since in those days it was very frowned upon to have illegitimate/bastard children.
- WHAT DO I DO TO GET WHAT I WANT?
He tells her exactly what he thinks, about the good side of the chance he's got and how he's rejecting all his teachings. He is trying to overpower her mentally and possibly even guilt trip her since he would be deprived of so much if he rejected the chance so he has a full on rant at her giving her no real chance to speak. He asks questions but rhetorical ones that she wouldn't even have time to answer if she tried since he's talking very quickly and would cut across her. If she still won't listen then he will ignore his mother and take the job anyway since he seems to value his status and popularity in the community more than the decision of his mother.
Links:
http://dlibrary.acu.edu.au/staffhome/trsanders/units/comedy/comedyofmanners.html
http://www.dramaonlinelibrary.com/plays/a-woman-of-no-importance-iid-15177
http://www.thedramateacher.com/comedy-of-manners/
Friday 18 November 2016
A Midsummer Nights Dream Blog: Character Profiles
We have all been cast for our parts in our production of "A Midsummer Nights Dream" for children. We have two casts code-named "Liquorice" and "Sherbet". I have three parts in total. In "Liquorice" I play Lysander and in "Sherbet" I play Theseus and Flute. After all my research and development throughout my blog this is the final summary for each character.
Lysander:
Lysander is a citizen of Athens around 20 years old. He is a hopeless romantic, falling in love with girls and becoming infatuated without really knowing them but once he's in love that's it. He want nothing more than to marry who he thinks is the love of his life, Hermia. Due to the parallels between this play and "Romeo an Juliet" and his general character I'm saying they met and fell in love at first sight. I feel they probably don't know each other too well and are just going through young love, especially Lysander. He is considered a good man even by the high ranking members, for example when Theseus says "Demetrius is a worthy gentlemen" Hermia replies "So is Lysander". The duke agrees with this saying "In himself he is" but is only ignored because of Egea who doesn't want him marrying Hermia. That is his main obstacle as well as the decision by duke Theseus and he knows he can't change it so has to take another course of action. This of course annoys Lysander do much to the point where he suggests running away with her so they can live a happy life. He will do anything for love it seems even disobeying a duke. In the original text it implies that he would kill Demetrius if he had to get the love of who he wants although it's more out of naivety rather than being evil but even then whether he'd actually have the capacity to kill him is highly unlikely although the frustration to confront and threaten is certainly there since he's just an overly ambitious and naive young man. He does all this while still remaining a likable young man since he never actually brings harm to anyone and has good intentions throughout.
Theseus:
Theseus is the duke of Athens. He is going to marry Hippolyta, queen of the amazons. In the original it's heavily implied she's there against her will and has no choice to marry him but in this version that has been removed and they are two powerful leaders in love. In this version he's a nicer man and isn't really evil in anyway. When he is happy and talking about his wedding day to his fiance, he's interrupted which on it's own would irritate someone but the news given is that someone is going against the tradition/law of his culture. In this version I see him as someone who merely wants to uphold it and maybe a little offended that someone is going against what he was brought up to believe. Since in this version he doesn't threaten her with the death penalty it makes sense to go with this although he still firmly believes in maintaining his authority and denies it due to those reasons. Although I will say that he does have the capacity to go further. He doesn't really have an obstacle since he's the character of the highest status and controls everything in Athens although I guess you could say he's still placed in an awkward situation since he can still see the flaw with situation but just feels a need to uphold tradition and stand by his friend/well respected figure. He changes his mind in the end when he sees how Demetrius feels for Helena and then decides that it would be better for everyone if he overruled. He has no problem doing this despite going against one of his friends wishes although he does out rank Egea anyway so there isn't much he could do. Theseus is while arrogant (since he thinks of himself highly and enjoys his power although he doesn't feel abuses it, just prioritises himself) and a little greedy/forceful (Considering in the original had him kidnap a princess), he isn't an evil man, he's just a man with a lot of power that has both good and bad sides as evidenced by him overruling his friend.
Flute:
Francis flute is a man who's real job is to fix bellows (Photo of bellows below) but he wants to become an actor so has joined an amateur group in order to try and make it as one. He has somehow been given the chance to perform at the Duke's wedding which of course is both an exciting and scary idea for all of them. It's also an ideal opportunity to try However both he and the group are pretty bad and very incompetent. Him and his crew always seem very unrehearsed and there's no one who can be considered good. Flute is not exactly the smartest of people although he is a nice man, filled with enthusiasm at first until he gets a part that he finds humiliating. He more or less has a smile on his face when preparing and performing with the exception of when he gets his part. His obstacle is really his (As well as his groups) talent. And his focus is mainly on getting the play done so he can hopefully succeed and he will put up with the part he doesn't like to get what he wants so while he's fairly stupid he's at least determined. The other mechanicals seem to be his friends or at the very least people he gets along with so that's probably a factor as to why he keeps going. So really he's a bumbling but determined fool and his hearts in the right place to get what he wants even though he didn't get the part he wanted.
Lysander:
Lysander is a citizen of Athens around 20 years old. He is a hopeless romantic, falling in love with girls and becoming infatuated without really knowing them but once he's in love that's it. He want nothing more than to marry who he thinks is the love of his life, Hermia. Due to the parallels between this play and "Romeo an Juliet" and his general character I'm saying they met and fell in love at first sight. I feel they probably don't know each other too well and are just going through young love, especially Lysander. He is considered a good man even by the high ranking members, for example when Theseus says "Demetrius is a worthy gentlemen" Hermia replies "So is Lysander". The duke agrees with this saying "In himself he is" but is only ignored because of Egea who doesn't want him marrying Hermia. That is his main obstacle as well as the decision by duke Theseus and he knows he can't change it so has to take another course of action. This of course annoys Lysander do much to the point where he suggests running away with her so they can live a happy life. He will do anything for love it seems even disobeying a duke. In the original text it implies that he would kill Demetrius if he had to get the love of who he wants although it's more out of naivety rather than being evil but even then whether he'd actually have the capacity to kill him is highly unlikely although the frustration to confront and threaten is certainly there since he's just an overly ambitious and naive young man. He does all this while still remaining a likable young man since he never actually brings harm to anyone and has good intentions throughout.
Theseus:
Theseus is the duke of Athens. He is going to marry Hippolyta, queen of the amazons. In the original it's heavily implied she's there against her will and has no choice to marry him but in this version that has been removed and they are two powerful leaders in love. In this version he's a nicer man and isn't really evil in anyway. When he is happy and talking about his wedding day to his fiance, he's interrupted which on it's own would irritate someone but the news given is that someone is going against the tradition/law of his culture. In this version I see him as someone who merely wants to uphold it and maybe a little offended that someone is going against what he was brought up to believe. Since in this version he doesn't threaten her with the death penalty it makes sense to go with this although he still firmly believes in maintaining his authority and denies it due to those reasons. Although I will say that he does have the capacity to go further. He doesn't really have an obstacle since he's the character of the highest status and controls everything in Athens although I guess you could say he's still placed in an awkward situation since he can still see the flaw with situation but just feels a need to uphold tradition and stand by his friend/well respected figure. He changes his mind in the end when he sees how Demetrius feels for Helena and then decides that it would be better for everyone if he overruled. He has no problem doing this despite going against one of his friends wishes although he does out rank Egea anyway so there isn't much he could do. Theseus is while arrogant (since he thinks of himself highly and enjoys his power although he doesn't feel abuses it, just prioritises himself) and a little greedy/forceful (Considering in the original had him kidnap a princess), he isn't an evil man, he's just a man with a lot of power that has both good and bad sides as evidenced by him overruling his friend.
Flute:
Francis flute is a man who's real job is to fix bellows (Photo of bellows below) but he wants to become an actor so has joined an amateur group in order to try and make it as one. He has somehow been given the chance to perform at the Duke's wedding which of course is both an exciting and scary idea for all of them. It's also an ideal opportunity to try However both he and the group are pretty bad and very incompetent. Him and his crew always seem very unrehearsed and there's no one who can be considered good. Flute is not exactly the smartest of people although he is a nice man, filled with enthusiasm at first until he gets a part that he finds humiliating. He more or less has a smile on his face when preparing and performing with the exception of when he gets his part. His obstacle is really his (As well as his groups) talent. And his focus is mainly on getting the play done so he can hopefully succeed and he will put up with the part he doesn't like to get what he wants so while he's fairly stupid he's at least determined. The other mechanicals seem to be his friends or at the very least people he gets along with so that's probably a factor as to why he keeps going. So really he's a bumbling but determined fool and his hearts in the right place to get what he wants even though he didn't get the part he wanted.
A Midsummer Nights Dream Blog: Final Week
Tuesday, 15/11/16:
Today we went over the mechanicals scene that we didn't get too last time. Initially we actually forgot the blocking and overall running through it was a tad awkward especially when coming in. I did put my all in with my energy, bounciness and volume today so I don't really have any issues with my performance as flute to be honest. I feel it's more or less ready and my level of energy will adjust accordingly to the requirements of the theatre space, I feel that I'm that comfortable with it. I like the face, voice and mannerisms I've given him. I guess the only problem with what I did today was that I simply messed up where I stood in the scene. I stood to the right of the stage when I should have been more to the left to do the "Through that cranny" line. I feel that if I remember that then it'll be great. It's very energetic and I feel it'll be very fun to perform and to watch and overall represents the character well for both styles.
One additional idea/development that happened today was that after I did my scream similar to the one from bottom (Which I really like and was quite fun to do) James suggested very quickly that I should jump into his arms very much like how Scooby-Doo would do (Reference photo below) and we tried it out and it looked surprisingly good in my opinion. It could do with speeding up a bit but the level of energy was great and when combined with the rest of the cast screaming and being very over the top it's great, I think it mixes very well. It's also a reference children will mostly understand and if not it'll still add to the comedy of it.
The issue with the scene was only when I finish saying my line "As true as truest horses that yet would never tire", it usually takes to long for Pau to come in which can bring down the pacing so I did point that out but that's only a small nit pick and solution to the scene although it is still important the reasons I've stressed a lot. Pacing counts especially for children with lower attention spans.
Thursday, 17/11/16:
Today we ran got to go through the final stages of blocking on the final scene of the play where everything is resolved and Theseus lets the couples marry who they wish. After that we had a full run through of the play with the Sherbet cast.
One thing we didn't really fix and I'm not sure we will fix is the wall climbing moment during the "Pyramus and Thisbe" play where he grabs my bottom. It's still overall really awkward but the main problem is that it's not obvious that he grabs me. However I think I can counteract this by simply playing up my reaction to it. As of now it's a high pitched "Ooooh" sound but I thin k I should put my hands where he grabs in order to make it more obvious and hopefully funnier. Also since it's a moment that intentionally awkward I feel that I need to keep the energy up a bit so that this moment doesn't lose the audiences attention as well as keep it looking from actually unrehearsed in anyway which I think is always risky when portraying a scene like this.
One issue we did improve today was the transition to the dance since the past attempts have been very awkward. I've worked out my path and timing for the Sherbet transition. As Pau is asking the audience if they'd like to see the epilogue, I walk over to my place as Flute. after people working it out it looked much better and the dance itself is great with more or less everybody embracing the style of children's theatre and some playing out to the audience, I'm certainly trying my best to do that and put on a big cheesy smile and I feel I'm doing a good job of it.
There are of course a couple of minor issues such as the timing on my last few Lysander lines, when I walk off with Egea and the last scene with Hermia, it's not romantic enough but those a small problems that can easily be fixed. Other than that though I must admit I think I'm ready to perform this play. I'm really looking forward to it and I have confidence in the production. Tomorrow we move into the theatre and we'll try to correct any minor issues we have.
Today we went over the mechanicals scene that we didn't get too last time. Initially we actually forgot the blocking and overall running through it was a tad awkward especially when coming in. I did put my all in with my energy, bounciness and volume today so I don't really have any issues with my performance as flute to be honest. I feel it's more or less ready and my level of energy will adjust accordingly to the requirements of the theatre space, I feel that I'm that comfortable with it. I like the face, voice and mannerisms I've given him. I guess the only problem with what I did today was that I simply messed up where I stood in the scene. I stood to the right of the stage when I should have been more to the left to do the "Through that cranny" line. I feel that if I remember that then it'll be great. It's very energetic and I feel it'll be very fun to perform and to watch and overall represents the character well for both styles.
One additional idea/development that happened today was that after I did my scream similar to the one from bottom (Which I really like and was quite fun to do) James suggested very quickly that I should jump into his arms very much like how Scooby-Doo would do (Reference photo below) and we tried it out and it looked surprisingly good in my opinion. It could do with speeding up a bit but the level of energy was great and when combined with the rest of the cast screaming and being very over the top it's great, I think it mixes very well. It's also a reference children will mostly understand and if not it'll still add to the comedy of it.
The issue with the scene was only when I finish saying my line "As true as truest horses that yet would never tire", it usually takes to long for Pau to come in which can bring down the pacing so I did point that out but that's only a small nit pick and solution to the scene although it is still important the reasons I've stressed a lot. Pacing counts especially for children with lower attention spans.
Thursday, 17/11/16:
Today we ran got to go through the final stages of blocking on the final scene of the play where everything is resolved and Theseus lets the couples marry who they wish. After that we had a full run through of the play with the Sherbet cast.
One thing we didn't really fix and I'm not sure we will fix is the wall climbing moment during the "Pyramus and Thisbe" play where he grabs my bottom. It's still overall really awkward but the main problem is that it's not obvious that he grabs me. However I think I can counteract this by simply playing up my reaction to it. As of now it's a high pitched "Ooooh" sound but I thin k I should put my hands where he grabs in order to make it more obvious and hopefully funnier. Also since it's a moment that intentionally awkward I feel that I need to keep the energy up a bit so that this moment doesn't lose the audiences attention as well as keep it looking from actually unrehearsed in anyway which I think is always risky when portraying a scene like this.
One issue we did improve today was the transition to the dance since the past attempts have been very awkward. I've worked out my path and timing for the Sherbet transition. As Pau is asking the audience if they'd like to see the epilogue, I walk over to my place as Flute. after people working it out it looked much better and the dance itself is great with more or less everybody embracing the style of children's theatre and some playing out to the audience, I'm certainly trying my best to do that and put on a big cheesy smile and I feel I'm doing a good job of it.
There are of course a couple of minor issues such as the timing on my last few Lysander lines, when I walk off with Egea and the last scene with Hermia, it's not romantic enough but those a small problems that can easily be fixed. Other than that though I must admit I think I'm ready to perform this play. I'm really looking forward to it and I have confidence in the production. Tomorrow we move into the theatre and we'll try to correct any minor issues we have.
A Midsummer Nights Dream Blog: Week 7
Tuesday, 8/11/16:
Today we had a run through of the play with both casts. Something I noticed today was when I was trying a deeper voice for Theseus. I mentioned before about deciding on a voice and considering what I said to Max about commanding a presence or denoting your status, giving him a deeper voice will age him a bit and possibly distinguish him from everyone else when combined with the tall confident posture I'm going for. I thought the voice would work from trying out a monologue in a voice session and going with the deeper voice for character in a attempt to age them and it gave off the qualities I think would suit Theseus. I'm not quite sure but I think it may be affecting my diction a little bit. Since I was putting more emphasis on my voice to try it out I forgot until I was off stage about my articulation and realised it may have been off a bit. So that's something to focus on next but for now I do like the voice and it does do what I thought it would, he certainly has more of a presence than before or at least I feel so.
I also added to the moment when saying "I must confess I've heard too much" and made it almost as if I'm cutting them off and kind of like I'm announcing it. Since it's something I want to uphold and won't hear any more of it but I'm also prioritising my wedding so I'm basically saying you can't do anything and I more or less don't care. But I'm doing it in a way that's not evil it's just mildly arrogant which would most likely be the case with someone of great power.
We have added in a moment where during the mechanicals first scene I take off the table but I wasn't really told to do anything while doing it so I just improvised and ran off with it with a silly run where my legs hit my bottom as I run and I'll keep a huge grin with Flutes face and I think it'll be a nice humorous moment.
The sherbet mechanicals which I'm in don't do too much when they first come on. The only thing we've really done as of now is the when they come on we're very cramped together and when the front one stops we all bump into each other so we worked on it. We were put into groups and sent away to add in our own choreography. The group made an entrance where they clap and almost dance onto the stage. To be honest I thought this was not very fitting since they introduced a bunch of bumbling, incompetent fools by showing them doing something smooth and calculated and I really didn't think it worked, it didn't seem to represent them properly at all which I must say I feel bad for saying because on it's own it was a nice moment. Although saying this I had no ideas for what my group could do after seeing that although we seemed to agree that something which shows how amateur and unskilled they are. This is why I thought the initial entrance we had was OK since us bumping into each other immediately suggests what they are like. I'm sure we can add to it in additional rehearsals but the one that was done today I don't think works at all.
I knew all my lines even to the point where I could prompt Jack A without using my script. I think I'm getting the right level of energy especially for the romantic lines and have taken on the note of being more sappy. The idea I had before of kissing the air I tried out and it got a laugh so I'm definitely keeping that since it also fits with the scenes tone and it is quite over the top which is a good thing in this.
I have also been trying to apply my verse forms to my lines more since I feel now I'm very comfortable with them. I feel it is making a difference to the way I'm saying them, Mainly my Lysander lines are getting better in my opinion. Examples are when I'm talking to Helena and saying the "Nature shows art, that through thy humour makes me see thy heart" line. I'm now observing the punctuation more and the lines seem more structured and poetic. While that still needs work it's at least always on my mind when saying my lines now especially when doing the rhyming verse lines which need to be done properly to bring out the romance of the situation and with the clash of confusion, potentially bring out the comedy. It's also helping with certain moments such as the "Where is Demetrius" line, I now know what words to emphasise such as "Vile" since I'm insulting him but I'm still keeping it kid friendly so I'm going to play up the overly protective or ambitious side of him at this time and it came to me because of applying the verse and getting me to think more about the context and structure of my lines as well as what words to emphasise. I also feel I'm going to have to go through the script and highlight the verbs in my Lines since that's often the words to put emphasis on. An example Is in the beginning when Lysander says, "Keep promise love and if though lovest me come steal away with me tomorrow night". The two words to highlight in that sentence would be "Promise" and "Steal". Considering it's context "steal is the word to go with since it's implying that they are going away with out permission and the rebellious nature of it. That's just an example but I will do it for every scene to get the best results.
Wednesday, 9/11/16:
Today we had a different type of run through. We would go through the play and sort out individual issues such as having to sort out the literal love triangle at the beginning since we keep going into a line. We also need to look like we're actually going to follow the duke out of the room before I stop Hermia to tell her about running away since it looks like we're preparing to walk to the middle of the room and looks a little rubbish but the try we had where we actually changed and stopped our actions looked pretty good and spontaneous. I might add a little more secrecy to the line since that's what came naturally when trying out that change. I'll try a stage whisper but I'm not sure if it'll be effective for children but I will certainly try.
We worked on the entrance of the Mechanicals. my complaints about the others ill-fitting entrance was actually mentioned and resulted in it being changed. What they changed it to is more or less what we had to do. We have to come in singing a chant and then engage in some sort of wacky antics at one point I go to try and leapfrog James but he gets up and I have to keep hold of him while flailing on him. This intro is so much more fitting in my opinion since it represents what they're like, bumbling and incompetent. Also it's a little more silly and funny so I think it will have a greater chance of making the children laugh and is just overall fun to be honest.
I added in a moment of Flute shaking with excitement and then that is shattered and he instantly stops when peter quince says about his part. The only problem is it's not very well timed at all although I have only tried it out once so I will have to work that out and maybe talk to him about it.
Thursday, 10/11/16:
Today we continued on from where we got to yesterday. The only scene that I got to do today however is the scene with Lysander and Hermia in the woods.
I felt a bit better about my performance as Lysander today. Since I'm going with a sort of hopeless romantic approach I had to add a little more energy still and I felt that it was actually cartoony enough to be quite amusing. A bit of feedback Jack A as Lysander got is to act a little bit like a prince from a Disney film as in add in their energy and a slight bit of their confidence. I took on this advice a little too and I think that it is more fitting for him and matches the level of energy for children's theatre or at least for now. In the theatre I will have to play it up more but the base is there for now which is great.
A problem with today was that I really didn't get to do much overall. This was because during certain scenes everyone kept getting distracted and there was a lot of corpsing and laughing. While yes it was fun it did result in some of not being able to get on with the second Mechanicals scene which was unfortunate since the other cast went through the scene and had it mostly staged and choreographed. Even though I'm pretty good with knowing Thisbe's lines and keeping them in a rhyming verse with good timing the moments after where bottom comes on were awkward last time. This is what I wanted to work on but couldn't also the adding to what I do when I'm scared and run off with the mechanicals. An idea I had to add in a comedically over the top scream although not sure if I would've done a high pitched one or a sound of fear similar to one that Rik Mayall does in "Bottom". I would have tried out both of these but will have to wait and see which one if either of them works.
Also I've had one issue on my mind for a while to do with the moment Helena says "Lysander if you live good sir awake" and the I respond. I have to wake up, stand up and then say my line or at least that's how it's been rehearsed as of now. I think that this moment is not well paced in the sense that since I have those two actions to do in between two rhyming lines and it destroys the rhythm of the lines or at least is a little too awkward for it since the two lines are a rhyming couplet. I think I can fix of this by waking up in a more snappy, faster manner and saying my response line on the ground still but sat up. Then I can say my next line while getting and standing up. I think this will help the moment. As an action on it's own it was fine but with the language I think it needs to be tweaked to keep the flow of the dialogue and not sound awkward. I will try this out on Tuesday and see what happens, my feeling is that it should be an improvement.
Today we had a run through of the play with both casts. Something I noticed today was when I was trying a deeper voice for Theseus. I mentioned before about deciding on a voice and considering what I said to Max about commanding a presence or denoting your status, giving him a deeper voice will age him a bit and possibly distinguish him from everyone else when combined with the tall confident posture I'm going for. I thought the voice would work from trying out a monologue in a voice session and going with the deeper voice for character in a attempt to age them and it gave off the qualities I think would suit Theseus. I'm not quite sure but I think it may be affecting my diction a little bit. Since I was putting more emphasis on my voice to try it out I forgot until I was off stage about my articulation and realised it may have been off a bit. So that's something to focus on next but for now I do like the voice and it does do what I thought it would, he certainly has more of a presence than before or at least I feel so.
I also added to the moment when saying "I must confess I've heard too much" and made it almost as if I'm cutting them off and kind of like I'm announcing it. Since it's something I want to uphold and won't hear any more of it but I'm also prioritising my wedding so I'm basically saying you can't do anything and I more or less don't care. But I'm doing it in a way that's not evil it's just mildly arrogant which would most likely be the case with someone of great power.
We have added in a moment where during the mechanicals first scene I take off the table but I wasn't really told to do anything while doing it so I just improvised and ran off with it with a silly run where my legs hit my bottom as I run and I'll keep a huge grin with Flutes face and I think it'll be a nice humorous moment.
The sherbet mechanicals which I'm in don't do too much when they first come on. The only thing we've really done as of now is the when they come on we're very cramped together and when the front one stops we all bump into each other so we worked on it. We were put into groups and sent away to add in our own choreography. The group made an entrance where they clap and almost dance onto the stage. To be honest I thought this was not very fitting since they introduced a bunch of bumbling, incompetent fools by showing them doing something smooth and calculated and I really didn't think it worked, it didn't seem to represent them properly at all which I must say I feel bad for saying because on it's own it was a nice moment. Although saying this I had no ideas for what my group could do after seeing that although we seemed to agree that something which shows how amateur and unskilled they are. This is why I thought the initial entrance we had was OK since us bumping into each other immediately suggests what they are like. I'm sure we can add to it in additional rehearsals but the one that was done today I don't think works at all.
I knew all my lines even to the point where I could prompt Jack A without using my script. I think I'm getting the right level of energy especially for the romantic lines and have taken on the note of being more sappy. The idea I had before of kissing the air I tried out and it got a laugh so I'm definitely keeping that since it also fits with the scenes tone and it is quite over the top which is a good thing in this.
I have also been trying to apply my verse forms to my lines more since I feel now I'm very comfortable with them. I feel it is making a difference to the way I'm saying them, Mainly my Lysander lines are getting better in my opinion. Examples are when I'm talking to Helena and saying the "Nature shows art, that through thy humour makes me see thy heart" line. I'm now observing the punctuation more and the lines seem more structured and poetic. While that still needs work it's at least always on my mind when saying my lines now especially when doing the rhyming verse lines which need to be done properly to bring out the romance of the situation and with the clash of confusion, potentially bring out the comedy. It's also helping with certain moments such as the "Where is Demetrius" line, I now know what words to emphasise such as "Vile" since I'm insulting him but I'm still keeping it kid friendly so I'm going to play up the overly protective or ambitious side of him at this time and it came to me because of applying the verse and getting me to think more about the context and structure of my lines as well as what words to emphasise. I also feel I'm going to have to go through the script and highlight the verbs in my Lines since that's often the words to put emphasis on. An example Is in the beginning when Lysander says, "Keep promise love and if though lovest me come steal away with me tomorrow night". The two words to highlight in that sentence would be "Promise" and "Steal". Considering it's context "steal is the word to go with since it's implying that they are going away with out permission and the rebellious nature of it. That's just an example but I will do it for every scene to get the best results.
Wednesday, 9/11/16:
Today we had a different type of run through. We would go through the play and sort out individual issues such as having to sort out the literal love triangle at the beginning since we keep going into a line. We also need to look like we're actually going to follow the duke out of the room before I stop Hermia to tell her about running away since it looks like we're preparing to walk to the middle of the room and looks a little rubbish but the try we had where we actually changed and stopped our actions looked pretty good and spontaneous. I might add a little more secrecy to the line since that's what came naturally when trying out that change. I'll try a stage whisper but I'm not sure if it'll be effective for children but I will certainly try.
We worked on the entrance of the Mechanicals. my complaints about the others ill-fitting entrance was actually mentioned and resulted in it being changed. What they changed it to is more or less what we had to do. We have to come in singing a chant and then engage in some sort of wacky antics at one point I go to try and leapfrog James but he gets up and I have to keep hold of him while flailing on him. This intro is so much more fitting in my opinion since it represents what they're like, bumbling and incompetent. Also it's a little more silly and funny so I think it will have a greater chance of making the children laugh and is just overall fun to be honest.
I added in a moment of Flute shaking with excitement and then that is shattered and he instantly stops when peter quince says about his part. The only problem is it's not very well timed at all although I have only tried it out once so I will have to work that out and maybe talk to him about it.
Thursday, 10/11/16:
Today we continued on from where we got to yesterday. The only scene that I got to do today however is the scene with Lysander and Hermia in the woods.
I felt a bit better about my performance as Lysander today. Since I'm going with a sort of hopeless romantic approach I had to add a little more energy still and I felt that it was actually cartoony enough to be quite amusing. A bit of feedback Jack A as Lysander got is to act a little bit like a prince from a Disney film as in add in their energy and a slight bit of their confidence. I took on this advice a little too and I think that it is more fitting for him and matches the level of energy for children's theatre or at least for now. In the theatre I will have to play it up more but the base is there for now which is great.
A problem with today was that I really didn't get to do much overall. This was because during certain scenes everyone kept getting distracted and there was a lot of corpsing and laughing. While yes it was fun it did result in some of not being able to get on with the second Mechanicals scene which was unfortunate since the other cast went through the scene and had it mostly staged and choreographed. Even though I'm pretty good with knowing Thisbe's lines and keeping them in a rhyming verse with good timing the moments after where bottom comes on were awkward last time. This is what I wanted to work on but couldn't also the adding to what I do when I'm scared and run off with the mechanicals. An idea I had to add in a comedically over the top scream although not sure if I would've done a high pitched one or a sound of fear similar to one that Rik Mayall does in "Bottom". I would have tried out both of these but will have to wait and see which one if either of them works.
Also I've had one issue on my mind for a while to do with the moment Helena says "Lysander if you live good sir awake" and the I respond. I have to wake up, stand up and then say my line or at least that's how it's been rehearsed as of now. I think that this moment is not well paced in the sense that since I have those two actions to do in between two rhyming lines and it destroys the rhythm of the lines or at least is a little too awkward for it since the two lines are a rhyming couplet. I think I can fix of this by waking up in a more snappy, faster manner and saying my response line on the ground still but sat up. Then I can say my next line while getting and standing up. I think this will help the moment. As an action on it's own it was fine but with the language I think it needs to be tweaked to keep the flow of the dialogue and not sound awkward. I will try this out on Tuesday and see what happens, my feeling is that it should be an improvement.
A Midsummer Nights Dream Blog: Week 6
Tuesday, 1/11/16:
Today we had a run through of the play with the sherbet cast.
My feedback for flute was very positive today, apparently the changes I make to my face and the voice I'm putting on are quite funny and it's definitely a change from the other characters I have. I was very happy to hear that since I'm glad I experimented with him because if I had just stuck with the heightened version of myself I feel that it probably would've been rubbish. I feel I'm putting the "Energetic movement" feature of children's theatre to good use with flute or at least he's the best I've implemented it so far.
One note we were given was that while the background interactions between me and James during our Mechanicals scenes are very good they are way too overplayed so it meant that to the people watching it was very distracting and not much attention was paid to Bottom or any of the others. This just means that we will have to down play it so I think that I'll limit the amount of interactions we have so make it only about 3 that have any real energy to them the rest will have to be lowered and only there to keep the scene from being static in any way, the constant movement (Even if only slight) will keep them watching.
Thursday, 3/11/16:
Today we had a run of the play with the liquorice cast. I got some fairly positive feedback for Lysander today but I did get some notes to improve. Firstly my scenes with Hermia aren't lovey dovey enough yet. We needs to hold hands more, have bigger smiles on our faces and blow kisses to each other because as of now it looks a little dull since we aren't doing that. I had an idea of just before I go to sleep and shes blown me a kissed (Which we added in today) I would kiss the air in her direction quite a few times and then quickly plop me head down. This is mainly for comedic effect but I feel that small moment will add to the sappiness of it all. We do need to play it up.
I also need to make more of seeing Helena when I wake since I apparently don't look both surprised and mesmerised by I either go with one or the other. So I need to combine the in order to give off a bigger impression of how I'm feeling. I deliver my lines well apparently it's just the initial moment of noticing her I need to work on. I also need to look for Demetrius instead of just randomly running around the stage which is what I appear to be doing. It was the blocking done by the other and I just copied it without thinking why but now I get it so that's an easy fix.
On a positive note, the scene where me and Demetrius are talking to Helena and we're being rivals we're meant to act while she's talking not just stand there so I improvised. I looked at Helena with utter love and passion and then when I catch a glance of Demetrius I go into a pose where it looks like I'm challenging him to a silly fight. And when she says "If you were men" then I act as if I think I'm the best. My idea that I did was to pull that same ace as when I ride off on the horse and then flex my muscles. It looks silly which is great and the reaction was positive so I think I'm keeping that. It was actually very fun and it adds energy and more humour to the already funny scene so I see this as quite a good addition to keep their attention, if they aren't interested in what Helena is saying then there's always the visual comedy to make them laugh.
Today we had a run through of the play with the sherbet cast.
My feedback for flute was very positive today, apparently the changes I make to my face and the voice I'm putting on are quite funny and it's definitely a change from the other characters I have. I was very happy to hear that since I'm glad I experimented with him because if I had just stuck with the heightened version of myself I feel that it probably would've been rubbish. I feel I'm putting the "Energetic movement" feature of children's theatre to good use with flute or at least he's the best I've implemented it so far.
One note we were given was that while the background interactions between me and James during our Mechanicals scenes are very good they are way too overplayed so it meant that to the people watching it was very distracting and not much attention was paid to Bottom or any of the others. This just means that we will have to down play it so I think that I'll limit the amount of interactions we have so make it only about 3 that have any real energy to them the rest will have to be lowered and only there to keep the scene from being static in any way, the constant movement (Even if only slight) will keep them watching.
Thursday, 3/11/16:
Today we had a run of the play with the liquorice cast. I got some fairly positive feedback for Lysander today but I did get some notes to improve. Firstly my scenes with Hermia aren't lovey dovey enough yet. We needs to hold hands more, have bigger smiles on our faces and blow kisses to each other because as of now it looks a little dull since we aren't doing that. I had an idea of just before I go to sleep and shes blown me a kissed (Which we added in today) I would kiss the air in her direction quite a few times and then quickly plop me head down. This is mainly for comedic effect but I feel that small moment will add to the sappiness of it all. We do need to play it up.
I also need to make more of seeing Helena when I wake since I apparently don't look both surprised and mesmerised by I either go with one or the other. So I need to combine the in order to give off a bigger impression of how I'm feeling. I deliver my lines well apparently it's just the initial moment of noticing her I need to work on. I also need to look for Demetrius instead of just randomly running around the stage which is what I appear to be doing. It was the blocking done by the other and I just copied it without thinking why but now I get it so that's an easy fix.
On a positive note, the scene where me and Demetrius are talking to Helena and we're being rivals we're meant to act while she's talking not just stand there so I improvised. I looked at Helena with utter love and passion and then when I catch a glance of Demetrius I go into a pose where it looks like I'm challenging him to a silly fight. And when she says "If you were men" then I act as if I think I'm the best. My idea that I did was to pull that same ace as when I ride off on the horse and then flex my muscles. It looks silly which is great and the reaction was positive so I think I'm keeping that. It was actually very fun and it adds energy and more humour to the already funny scene so I see this as quite a good addition to keep their attention, if they aren't interested in what Helena is saying then there's always the visual comedy to make them laugh.
A Midsummer Nights Dream Blog: Week 5
Tuesday, 18/10/16:
Today we had a complete run through of the production although only with one cast (Liquorice) due to time. Overall it went very well although there were a few familiar problems.
Firstly though I'm happy to say that I think I'm almost there with knowing all my Lysander lines. I managed to get through the whole play without using my script until it got to the last two lines which I have practiced but as is clear by not knowing them off by heart, not enough. I didn't use the script though I just had to be prompted with the first word or so of the sentence but to be honest I'm actually very happy with that since it means I've not got very far to go at all with all my lines. Tomorrow if we run with the Sherbet cast then I'm going to try the same. I'm very confident that I know all of my Theseus and Flute lines. I'm happy with this mainly because I can get to work on applying the verse forms to my text to get the best flow.
Wednesday, 19/10/16:
Today unfortunately I didn't get to do any kind of rehearsing since today was focusing mainly on the singing sequences of which I am only featured in the last one of the play which we have rehearsed the most so we left that one for today. I was asked (as well as the others who don't sing) to go to library and research theatre for children for an upcoming presentation as well as for the production itself. When I got to the library my computer had some technical problems so while I was waiting for it to be fixed I went over my lines but also had a bit of a think about the style. I realised that even though it's been present in my mind and I am aware of the basics of performing for children which I have referenced throughout this, I haven't really done an adequate job of combining the two attempted styles, I'm leaning towards more the Shakespeare side of things as of now and really that needs to change quickly. When I got it home I did some further research into children's theatre in order to get a better understanding of it even though I already understand the basics.
I watched a few clips of the famous children's entertainer Justin Fletcher (Better known as Mr. Tumble) since he's one of the most well known and experienced in the business and he is also in the Cbeebies version of our play so I wanted to look at his performing and see if I got the initial basics correct. My list of basics that I thought for acting in the style is as follows:
- It includes a lot of energetic movement because if you seem bored or too static then it will make them lose interest fairly quickly. This seemed to be correct from any clip I watched even though he wouldn't be running around and waving him arms constantly he'd still put precision and, a bit of speed and energy into his basic movements. One idea we had to try and counteract this is to have as much movement as possible. For example during the scene where the mechanicals are talking and being given their scripts there's overall not much movement so we're adding in background acting and interactions so that there's always some sense of motion and nothing on the stage is really static unless it has to be.
- I thought that in terms of vocal delivery it would have to be slow and clear. This was also confirmed, it was not slow to the point of being in slow motion but just so it's very articulate and easy to understand but with the bouncy voice or a heightened or adapted version of a certain tone you want to portray. When looking at the clips I noticed that they were also taking into account deaf children which made me think that they would adapt their delivery to suit children with disabilities/learning difficulties so that's all the more reason to make everything as clear as possible.
- They feature a lot of singing and dancing to increase the variety of the piece they're watching. Children do have lower attention spans so if you give them more to focus on then you'll keep their attention for longer. Also children do like to feel comfortable and generally love repetition (Since quite a few shows such as "Teletubbies" show clips twice) so having a song which will have repeated verses is a good way to achieve that which this play does.
- Any emotions are exaggerated to the point of being silly and some are changed outright such as you never see someone genuinely angry in one these, it will usually be changed to them being grumpy to play up the humour.
Something he said in an interview I watched of his is that doing children's theatre is important since it's their first experience with the art form and will be the best time to inspire and teach people. I completely agree with this since it's the time when if you like something you'll obsess over it and if you can spark that little bit of interest it'll grow and develop.
Thursday, 20/10/16:
Today we had the run through with sherbet that I thought we were having yesterday before the plans were changed. However before we ran through it we were given a task to help us out with the idea of theatre for children. We had to devise a very short play which summarises "A Midsummer Nights Dream" but in a way that is only for children and to remove the Shakespeare element entirely. This was actually very fun but also quite interesting because it did seem to give me a greater idea of what I might want to include even though I already somewhat knew elements of the style. The first thing we decided on was that we would need to introduce ourselves to help make the audience feel comfortable and we even gave ourselves different and possibly silly names names such as Jared for myself, Billy for Jack A and Dr. Tim for mike etc. We took turns narrating specific segments of the short piece to add a little variety and overall kept it simplistic and short. So if we showed that to children I reckon they would be entertained by it. It did help to try and put some of the features of the style to use.
Something I noticed was that whenever we portrayed a negative emotion such as when we mentioned Oberon's jealousy and anger we would make it silly or seriously overplay it to the point where you couldn't take it seriously at all. We'd just up the body language and make ourselves look pompous and appeal to the comedic potential of the emotion since we didn't want the target audience to get upset or uncomfortable. A primary focus was to keep it up beat, happy and with a lot of energy.
Also after watching some of those clips of Mr. Tumble I realised what I've been aiming for in the dance at the end seems to be correct since I'm encouraging them to join in and interacting with them. This was backed up by a clip of him singing "Heads, shoulders, knees and toes" and his actions throughout it seem to match what I'm doing especially the cheesy smile.
When doing the run through today I tried to embrace the silly humorous side a little more and I noticed a couple of improvements. Firstly I tried upping Theseus's dialogue especially for the first line since that impact needs to be there to get the audiences attention as much as possible. I tried putting emphasis on certain words and made him seem a little a happier and more friendly just by adding a little more energy to this first moment which I feel is appropriate considering the target audience. My change for flute was much better I feel. When we came on as the mechanicals I just improvised and did something silly with my face and just stuck my bottom lip further out. This small change seemed to extend to the rest of him since it seemed to change my voice and physicality to something that seemed a little more along the lines of an enthusiastic child although my voice was still very similar to last time. I also had a thought about Flute's attitude toward it all. Despite his initial disappointment I feel that since he goes along with it at all, he would try his hardest. Since he is a bellows mender which is a fairly boring job he'd probably put up with some embarrassment in order to get somewhere more interesting. I looked up any small character profiles of the characters and one I found does heavily suggest that. It says he is determined so I thought I'd add in a little moment to signify this. When he says "Must I speak now" I'm gonna carry over the enthusiasm he had before he was given his part so it does suggest that in a basic way so that at the very least he'll put up with it. It'll seem like he's now looking forward to doing it since it means something interesting is finally happening to him so he quickly gets on with it. The past couple of rehearsals I've made it that he's a little more comically upset about it somewhat but forced to go along with it which works but what I thought today just seemed to make sense since if it bothered him that much he would've just left so the fact he stayed does mean something. After trying it it did seem to give him more life and energy even though he had some already, the more he has, the better.
Research links:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EbWAos5nnP8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vYACdrBOm2c
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FeNuY5znSHU
http://www.sparknotes.com/shakespeare/msnd/characters.html
Today we had a complete run through of the production although only with one cast (Liquorice) due to time. Overall it went very well although there were a few familiar problems.
Firstly though I'm happy to say that I think I'm almost there with knowing all my Lysander lines. I managed to get through the whole play without using my script until it got to the last two lines which I have practiced but as is clear by not knowing them off by heart, not enough. I didn't use the script though I just had to be prompted with the first word or so of the sentence but to be honest I'm actually very happy with that since it means I've not got very far to go at all with all my lines. Tomorrow if we run with the Sherbet cast then I'm going to try the same. I'm very confident that I know all of my Theseus and Flute lines. I'm happy with this mainly because I can get to work on applying the verse forms to my text to get the best flow.
Wednesday, 19/10/16:
Today unfortunately I didn't get to do any kind of rehearsing since today was focusing mainly on the singing sequences of which I am only featured in the last one of the play which we have rehearsed the most so we left that one for today. I was asked (as well as the others who don't sing) to go to library and research theatre for children for an upcoming presentation as well as for the production itself. When I got to the library my computer had some technical problems so while I was waiting for it to be fixed I went over my lines but also had a bit of a think about the style. I realised that even though it's been present in my mind and I am aware of the basics of performing for children which I have referenced throughout this, I haven't really done an adequate job of combining the two attempted styles, I'm leaning towards more the Shakespeare side of things as of now and really that needs to change quickly. When I got it home I did some further research into children's theatre in order to get a better understanding of it even though I already understand the basics.
I watched a few clips of the famous children's entertainer Justin Fletcher (Better known as Mr. Tumble) since he's one of the most well known and experienced in the business and he is also in the Cbeebies version of our play so I wanted to look at his performing and see if I got the initial basics correct. My list of basics that I thought for acting in the style is as follows:
- It includes a lot of energetic movement because if you seem bored or too static then it will make them lose interest fairly quickly. This seemed to be correct from any clip I watched even though he wouldn't be running around and waving him arms constantly he'd still put precision and, a bit of speed and energy into his basic movements. One idea we had to try and counteract this is to have as much movement as possible. For example during the scene where the mechanicals are talking and being given their scripts there's overall not much movement so we're adding in background acting and interactions so that there's always some sense of motion and nothing on the stage is really static unless it has to be.
- I thought that in terms of vocal delivery it would have to be slow and clear. This was also confirmed, it was not slow to the point of being in slow motion but just so it's very articulate and easy to understand but with the bouncy voice or a heightened or adapted version of a certain tone you want to portray. When looking at the clips I noticed that they were also taking into account deaf children which made me think that they would adapt their delivery to suit children with disabilities/learning difficulties so that's all the more reason to make everything as clear as possible.
- They feature a lot of singing and dancing to increase the variety of the piece they're watching. Children do have lower attention spans so if you give them more to focus on then you'll keep their attention for longer. Also children do like to feel comfortable and generally love repetition (Since quite a few shows such as "Teletubbies" show clips twice) so having a song which will have repeated verses is a good way to achieve that which this play does.
- Any emotions are exaggerated to the point of being silly and some are changed outright such as you never see someone genuinely angry in one these, it will usually be changed to them being grumpy to play up the humour.
Something he said in an interview I watched of his is that doing children's theatre is important since it's their first experience with the art form and will be the best time to inspire and teach people. I completely agree with this since it's the time when if you like something you'll obsess over it and if you can spark that little bit of interest it'll grow and develop.
Thursday, 20/10/16:
Today we had the run through with sherbet that I thought we were having yesterday before the plans were changed. However before we ran through it we were given a task to help us out with the idea of theatre for children. We had to devise a very short play which summarises "A Midsummer Nights Dream" but in a way that is only for children and to remove the Shakespeare element entirely. This was actually very fun but also quite interesting because it did seem to give me a greater idea of what I might want to include even though I already somewhat knew elements of the style. The first thing we decided on was that we would need to introduce ourselves to help make the audience feel comfortable and we even gave ourselves different and possibly silly names names such as Jared for myself, Billy for Jack A and Dr. Tim for mike etc. We took turns narrating specific segments of the short piece to add a little variety and overall kept it simplistic and short. So if we showed that to children I reckon they would be entertained by it. It did help to try and put some of the features of the style to use.
Something I noticed was that whenever we portrayed a negative emotion such as when we mentioned Oberon's jealousy and anger we would make it silly or seriously overplay it to the point where you couldn't take it seriously at all. We'd just up the body language and make ourselves look pompous and appeal to the comedic potential of the emotion since we didn't want the target audience to get upset or uncomfortable. A primary focus was to keep it up beat, happy and with a lot of energy.
Also after watching some of those clips of Mr. Tumble I realised what I've been aiming for in the dance at the end seems to be correct since I'm encouraging them to join in and interacting with them. This was backed up by a clip of him singing "Heads, shoulders, knees and toes" and his actions throughout it seem to match what I'm doing especially the cheesy smile.
When doing the run through today I tried to embrace the silly humorous side a little more and I noticed a couple of improvements. Firstly I tried upping Theseus's dialogue especially for the first line since that impact needs to be there to get the audiences attention as much as possible. I tried putting emphasis on certain words and made him seem a little a happier and more friendly just by adding a little more energy to this first moment which I feel is appropriate considering the target audience. My change for flute was much better I feel. When we came on as the mechanicals I just improvised and did something silly with my face and just stuck my bottom lip further out. This small change seemed to extend to the rest of him since it seemed to change my voice and physicality to something that seemed a little more along the lines of an enthusiastic child although my voice was still very similar to last time. I also had a thought about Flute's attitude toward it all. Despite his initial disappointment I feel that since he goes along with it at all, he would try his hardest. Since he is a bellows mender which is a fairly boring job he'd probably put up with some embarrassment in order to get somewhere more interesting. I looked up any small character profiles of the characters and one I found does heavily suggest that. It says he is determined so I thought I'd add in a little moment to signify this. When he says "Must I speak now" I'm gonna carry over the enthusiasm he had before he was given his part so it does suggest that in a basic way so that at the very least he'll put up with it. It'll seem like he's now looking forward to doing it since it means something interesting is finally happening to him so he quickly gets on with it. The past couple of rehearsals I've made it that he's a little more comically upset about it somewhat but forced to go along with it which works but what I thought today just seemed to make sense since if it bothered him that much he would've just left so the fact he stayed does mean something. After trying it it did seem to give him more life and energy even though he had some already, the more he has, the better.
Research links:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EbWAos5nnP8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vYACdrBOm2c
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FeNuY5znSHU
http://www.sparknotes.com/shakespeare/msnd/characters.html
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