Voice Assignment Programme/ Portfolio.

My vocal development programme:

I would describe my voice as being quite clear and crisp. I articulate my words as much as I can and even make efforts to do so such as correcting myself if I miss a "T" or "H". This has had an effect on my voice as to where people comment saying that I'm well spoken. I don't have an unusual talking speed, it's a reasonable and comprehensible speed.

I have a variety of tones in my natural speaking voice and they can easily vary however when I'm performing on stage I can find it hard to change tones easily or quickly. Whenever I watch them back I almost seem monotone sometimes although you can hear that I'm trying or that there is a slight variant in the voice.

I don't stutter when I speak very often if at all since my voice is used to pronouncing words fairly clearly and I can form a sentence as I go instead of getting to a point and getting confused with what I'm about to say. Saying this though while I don't stutter, I may occasionally mix up my some of my words or switch the first letters of the words around by accident. For example I could say, "Lonomogue" instead of "Monologue" or something along theses lines. This really only happens if I'm trying to speak quickly which is rare for me and only in certain circumstances.

My voice has a medium volume level which is both good and bad since it isn't distractedly loud like some people can be but it also means that on stage I can't be heard sometimes unless I put a lot of effort into it. While I often do come across clear and understandable, the fact I must put effort into making my voice heard is a bit of a problem. This means I may have to try and learn to use my diaphragm more often or use exercises to help me warm it up and access it properly.

I can often run out of breath when doing long monologues since my timing and breath control isn't the best. This sometimes means that the pacing of my speech will be affected and made slower since I have to take deeper breaths but don't do them quickly otherwise they're very noticeable.

I do not think that my voice is particularly strong. I feel it isn't weak either but since my voice is very middle of the road in terms of strengths it means that any time I try to make it sound stronger, it comes across as more false than anything but I hope with practise of relaxation and breath control it will help.

The feedback for my class performances for "Teechers" and "The Wardrobe" say that my vocal development for the characters was well considered and payed off well. According to the feed back I deliver my lines well to the point of sounding natural most of the time. When I first started my last course, a big problem I had (Mainly with our first show) was projection but thankfully the consensus is that I have got much better with it.




Vocal exercise list to start with.

Since I've had a year doing performing arts and experimenting with my voice I have a decent idea as to what some of it's flaws are either as normal or as a performer. However I do intend to keep a critical eye on my voice for a while to notice it's strengths and weaknesses and how to possibly improve on them while also sticking to this list I have set up and adding new ones along the way.

Ones I feel benefit me me the most/permanent exercises:

-"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.






I must practise a monologue from a published play and then practise it for a class assessment in which I will be graded for my vocal skills. This is a record of my rehearsals of the monologue I have chosen. The piece is the closing speech from Atticus Finch in "To Kill a Mockingbird". My options for potential pieces included; Ray's rant at Mari from "The Rise and Fall of Little Voice", both "The devil, Toby" and "Rude names" speeches done by Rowan Atkinson and even a small speech done by Nigel Hawthorne in the Television series "Yes Prime Minister". I decided not to go with these for certain reasons. I didn't do the "Little Voice" one because I have done it before and wanted something a little more unfamiliar. I didn't do the Rowan Atkinson ones since I'm not sure if they're exactly suited to this even though they would have been fun to do. And I didn't do the "Yes Prime Minister" one because it's too short even though I have had it fully memorised for ages and is one I'm fond of. Also the last 3 were not from published plays so that meant they're not recommended to use. I decided to go with "To Kill a Mockingbird" because besides it being a very powerful and wonderfully written speech in a great play, I think it's one that will help me combat the issues with my voice the most. It requires having a strong and confident voice that needs a lot of sincerity to it. I think that doing this will hopefully give me a stronger voice or at least help me to perform one properly during a performance that sounds genuine.


Practice dates:


27/1/16: Today when performing my monologue to Pau and Mike for a rehearsal, Pau mentioned to me that when I am doing an American accent for it, I lose some of the truth in the speech. It was never clear if he meant the accent took away from the sincerity or if it made it more stilted. This is probably due to me focusing too much on the accent first rather than the tone of the delivery. After doing the speech with my accent they said it sounded better. More specifically it sounded stronger. I agree with it and the English accent seemed to work a little more. So for now I think I should try focusing on the tone or making my voice stronger in general so I can then get the accent right.


28/1/16: Trying again today and doing the exercise just before doing an almost blind read of sorts, I realised that my pacing is still a little off in terms of controlling when I breathe. I'm still having pauses that are a little too long and this is due to using too much to try and get a stronger voice. I need to do more breathing exercises to increase my breath capacity but at the same time learn how to know when to breathe and not just leaving it til the end of a sentence. Also today when looking up tips for stronger voices I found a video that suggested warm ups and areas for improvement specifically for stronger voices.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eUraBXOJpj0    (It does not give any specific exercises but does tell which specific areas to improve for a stronger more confident voice)

29/1/16: An area suggested by the video I found was relaxation, it turned out he had a video for that and it's an exercise that I completely forgot about (Or at least it's relevance). The exercise is a spinal roll which is an exercise I've done in class. The reason I'm adding it in is because it relaxes the body, so airways are helped to be opened up, muscles are relaxed and have no unnecessary tension in them. Whenever I use this it usually does help so I'm adding it to the list (See list for description). After doing my exercise, I practised again and today I noticed a slight increase in quality with my tone of delivery. As of now I'm practising it without the accent and trying to get strength and confidence to come across, or at least a little sincerity or passion. I'll need to look for an exercise that help with a range of tones with a voice. My voice certainly isn't monotone but I feel I need to add a little more to get some more truth into it.


1/2/16: I had an idea for checking whether or not my tone of voice is right. To record myself and listen to them back. This may help with recognising flaws from a different perspective since people hear their voices differently to how everyone else hears themselves with a lower toned voice than they actually have so if I hear what I actually sound like it should give me a better view of my vocal tones. I also noticed that my voice doesn't seem to be improving with strength yet or at least not in any noticeable way. The video I linked does say that for some people it can work quite quickly but either I'm not doing it right or I'm an exception to the rule.

Video talking about why voices sound different on recordings:
http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20130913-why-we-hate-hearing-our-own-voice


2/2/16: I realised today that even though I'm doing a few exercises that seem to be helping with my breath capacity slightly (Hopefully if I keep at it it'll gradually improve more), I'm still having moments where I run out of breath when I shouldn't. For example when ever I finish a long sentence like when I talk about Tom Robinson's right hand, I seem to leave a longer pause than necessary to breathe in a subtle way. I need to know if there's an exercise to help with this or whether I should go through my script and mark fixed points to breathe. As of now doing the latter may seem to be quite useful but I'll see if I can find anything first.

5/2/16: Today when looking at what emotions seemed to be shown in my voice, I noticed that I don't seem to be conveying things like passion and massively restrained anger which should be in the speech from the context of the characters beliefs. I don't know if this is coming across at all at the moment. I believe I'm starting to see more improvement but it's very minimal as of now. My focus is still to improve the strength of my voice and then focus on other elements. I notice that at a couple very infrequent moments, my articulation level drops a bit so I think I need to do more tongue twister or my finger in mouth exercise for longer to get more of a chance to warm up the muscles properly.


8/2/16: Doing the exercise and then the speech, I have not noticed any change at all. I have the same problems as the last entry. My vocal strength still has barely improved although I am getting better at remembering the actual monologue and I did not have the problems with articulation today. Although this may have been because my finger in mouth exercise was a little longer today but with more practise I'll see if that's true.

9/2/16: I did the exercise today and noticed that I'm starting to feel more relaxed yet quite energised after doing it, which is odd since it's not a particularly active exercise. My voice still is not seeming stronger by much but is becoming a little easier to speak with confidence somewhat. I record myself doing the speech although don't think it was wise since I've not fully memorised it yet. Although from what I can tell it seems OK and seems confident although still needs a bit of work on the tones that I mentioned before.

13/2/16: Today I have not noticed any change from when I last did the exercise, The strength is still not going up by much or at least not that I can tell. My articulation problem a had a while back is still gone for now so hopefully this means the extended exercise is working. I have still not reached my goal of having the correct tones and strength so the means I've kept the English accent for now but I really hope that I can move on to the American accident at some point to test whether or not it will work at all.

15/2/16: Today I tried focusing on the tones a bit more instead of just waiting for the voice to strengthen or at least stop focusing on that for a while. I'm trying to now figure out the points where I should, I'm going through areas in the script and trying to test out what sounds the best, as of now I can't really make up my mind on much but I am trying things out. Seeing which areas have the most passion or anger (Such as the ending) and trying them out to see if they fit and work I think is a good idea. As of now I haven't found any exercises that can help with  tone of voice that are for actors, they're mainly for singers. I guess I could try them just to see if they'll help so I'll see what ones there are.

18/2/16: Today I looked at whether humming exercises would help from I can find it seems they might. From what I can find it seemed like a good way to help with relieving tension subtly, it can help to relax your throat, mouth and the shoulder area if done enough. I tried it today and seemed to work when done with the rest of the exercise. I hear this will help a lot with resonance so it could help to make my voice stronger to so I'm going to add keep it in and see what happens.

(Sources on humming)      http://www.entnet.org/content/vocal-warmup-put-your-best-voice-forward

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rBoOyCLlCcU

19/2/16: Trying the exercise today I think I'm actually starting to hear my voice again gradually gaining strength and my breath capacity is getting better. But despite that I still run out from time to time and I forgot to add cues to practise in my script properly. I need to go over that at some point. there has been no progress with the tonal variety with my voice yet but I will keep practising and maybe even do more hums in a wider variety of tones to see if that can help free it up a bit.

2/3/16: Today I had to perform the speech to Karen and get some feedback. I did my warm up exercises during the point where me and Chloe had to rehearse and they seemed to pay off although maybe I'm starting to think I have analysed a part of my voice incorrectly or at least made the wrong aim for it. I said I wanted my voice to get stronger for this however not too much due to that in my feedback my "Soft" voice is quite nice to listen to so I think I still need some more strength in my voice just so it's more sustainable but not too much in case the delivery changes. She said I was very clear despite words like "Pity" but that was just due to the American accent.

5/3/16: After doing my exercise today I tied my speech again but this time taking on the advice that Karen had suggested. I am putting a focus on looking around the room and have tried this a couple times now. I'm doing it so the speech has a sense of scope and also I'm not looking in one area and glancing to the other on occasion. I'm making it more balanced on where I go so that if I'm trying to talk out to more people my voice will naturally project that. It means my voice should appear more focused and that I'm actually speaking in a courtroom and from what I can tell is even making my voice a little louder. This is something I'll keep up to see if it improves because as of now it does seem to be helping.

9/3/16: I noticed today after doing the speech and exercises again that my voice is certainly seeming to be saying itself a little more. By that I mean that it is now sounding more like I'm in a courtroom and that I'm addressing people on different levels and in different areas of the room. Being aware of where I'm looking has helped a lot and is even making my tone and intentions a bit more clear just due to having a better sense of where I'm supposed to be. I'm also noticing that the strengths of my voice seems to be in a good place as of now since it's at the right amount for this speech so it can show some passion or sincerity in what I'm saying but also remain somewhat soft and easy to listen to. I'm not too sure whether my actual speaking voice is good enough in terms of strength or just my general performing voice but for this speech I'm happy with where it is.

10/3/16: Since the strength and coordination of my speech is where it needs to be right now in my opinion, I decided to focus on another point of criticism that was pointed out. It was that I could do with pauses every now and then to add emphasis or importance to certain sentences. An example is "She tempted a Negro". After that line or similar ones occasionally I should leave a pause and I think should look as though I'm subtly observing the jury or people in the court. The pause alone will give the impression that what I just said is important and that somewhat shocking the jury a bit by saying this. It has helped me to notice that an effective way of using my voice is to learn when to not use it.

14/3/16: A couple more run-throughs of my speech today and the only real negative I can pick up myself at the moment is mainly to do with it's volume, I feel it can be slightly louder so this is something I want to try out with the technique of being aware where I am. Karen did suggest using something like coloured paper on areas of the walls as focal points and I did use a similar technique to this but just using posters at home. At college I tried it once to Chloe and she has been honest about the accent. She also initially thought that the American accent (While very good) seemed less truthful than my own. However once she realised the context she seemed to think it fit much better and I agree with it, it seems out of place and distracting to me with mine which kind of takes me out of the role and I believe it's affecting my delivery. That's just my thought though everyone else thinks it's fine. So I'm going to keep the American accent, Going to try with being a little louder and keep practicing with the posters because that is helping me with balancing my focal points and improving my delivery in terms of projection in the right places.

19/3/16: After my exercise and run-throughs today I haven't noticed any significant changes in my delivery. I still think it's in a good place however. I'm still satisfied with the tone of voice I'm giving even though I think if I end up doing the latter part at all it should definitely be a little angrier considering he is a firm believer in justice and is honestly defending an innocent man. I want to make that come across so I'm going to have to make up my mind whether I'm doing that section or not since the speech as a whole is quite long. I honestly think that I am varying my tones a fair bit in the speech going from an almost demanding/pleading like tone to a more subtle accusing tone with some restraint. I'm going to consider trying the rest to see what I can potentially get out of it since the ending can be different from the beginning with more of a demanding and slightly imposing tone as if he's getting across that their racist opinions are wrong and that they must release him. I'll see what I can do with that if anything interesting.


21/3/16: Today despite trying my warm up for slightly longer I have nothing to really to comment on in terms of growth of the voice it's still in relatively the same place although I can say that it's still sounding very good. My diction and articulation sounded very good today although my volume could've done with a little improving but it was still very clear and audible. I didn't get much feedback from Chloe who I rehearsed with since she needed to practice her s and she said she also didn't notice much change from when she saw it with the exception that I could be louder. I'm still divided on cutting the ending of the speech since I do really like the last line but I still feel it's too long at around 3 - 4 minutes.

23/3/6: Today I ran through the speech while during my voice class and I think I've finally decided that I'm not going to do the whole speech since it's quite long and it's unnecessary. I instead will do two thirds of it and for the reason that I feel that there is a point in the speech where it can cut off and be emotionally/dramatically significant if delivered correctly. It's the line "It all came crashing down on her afterwards". I feel that that line potentially could be a great ending and I think that would be a point for a dramatic pause so I have to nail the last line in order for it to be effective. As of now I think it will have to be somewhat accusing towards the girl I am talking about and even when I tried it, it sounded good to me but needs some practice.

28/3/16: Trying out my speech today I think the issue I had last time to do with improving on the ending moment was slightly better today. Last time I just felt that I didn't have the amount of impact that I want it to. I felt as if I was going over the final line a little too fast and I feel my ending stance and facial expression wasn't good enough but it was OK. So I decided to slow down the last line and put emphasis and the word "Crashing" and I think I'm going to look up on the ending of the line and then just stare. That is what I tried today I liked it because it seemed like a more impactful ending. Also the fact my diction, projection and vocal strength were at a good standard today which helped a lot instead of just my emphasis and pacing.

30/3/16: Carrying on from the last session I still think that the ending is coming along well. The diction and other qualities I mentioned seemed the same today. The rest of the speech is still coming along nicely with good pacing and overall seeming to get the intentions across as far as I can tell. I'm glad that my breath capacity seems to be good at the moment. That has been an issue for me ever since my monologue show in my level 2 course where I did a duologue with James Welland called "The long wait". During that my director, Sarah Harris did criticise my volume and breath capacity more than anything. It was an aspect I have needed to improve on for a while and I feel that throughout the course I did improve by the time I got to my FMP of that year,  "The Rise and Fall of Little Voice" in which I was a lot more audible and had seemingly more confidence and capacity with my voice. I feel I have grown even more this year and that while I still feel I can be louder I have come a long way and I am proud of it.

6/4/16: Today I wanted to do a quick reflection on my voice throughout my performance of "The Oresteia". The vocal requirements for it mainly to sound menacing/plotting since it was a focus of Greek tragedy antagonists which I had to embody at points. I had to pretend to be a bug and a prisoner with the bug requiring the more gravely and weedy voice. A good comparison would be with "The Old Gits" from "Harry Enfield and Chums" except sound a bit more cunning rather than needlessly cruel. This was quite hard at first to do the voice at the appropriate volume and level of clarity. At first it came out with the right tones just not enough diction or a good level of being audible. The more I practiced this with doing the warm up the easier it became and thankfully it still created a sense of being sneaky and cunning while not being over the top to the point of funny. Also with my prisoner it was the same kind of journey in terms of strengths and weaknesses only the intended tones were slightly different and my voice was a little more realistic. Overall I thought my vocals were great during that performance and even quite fun once I got the hang of it. It was effective mixed with the physicality and according to the feedback after the show, the bug sequence with all the guys was actually quite creepy at points.

7/4/16: Today after doing my warm up I only had a brief chance to do my warm up and today I have not noticed any significant changes to my voice. I will admit though that I like my diction and other features of my voice for this speech. I genuinely think that when I reach my full potential it will be great because I think it does suit me. I just don't think I've reached that yet and I think at some point I will have to get more feedback for it since I see potential with strengths and weaknesses but need an outsiders perspective.

11/4/16: Today my vocal qualities were at a good standard and I feel that the clarity is my voice was quite good. The intentions of the character are really coming out in my opinion. I feel I am still creating a sense of restrained anger although that's just from my perspective so I feel that I may have to ask Chloe or someone to watch when I have the chance but for now by my judgement it seems subtle enough yet angry enough to be engaging and not over the top. I'll say that I am quite proud of my accent and I certainly still feel a lot more comfortable doing it in American. It's suits the character and it's an accent I've practiced throughout my life and I feel I have practically perfected it. Adding the accent adds truth and authenticity to the scene and character.

14/4/16: Today I actually tried recording my voice again and from what I was hearing it sounded OK. They do say that listening to a recording takes away about 30% of the quality but whether that is true or not I thought the recording was a little lacking. Now this could have been to with a few factors seeing as I was using my phone to do it which obviously isn't professional level in quality. Despite this my complaints today were that I feel from voice alone the anger might not be coming through too well and maybe my diction was a little lacking but even then I noticed that when performing it. I still really feel I should get someone to watch me but I haven't really got much of a chance to do so yet but I will. I still feel though I can make my feelings more apparent but still be subtle but I have a feeling that I'm being almost too subtle and I need someone to confirm this for me.

19/4/16: Today we had to join the second years for their production of "The Man of Mode". The second years led a group vocal warm up and they used different exercises to my warm up although similar and for the same reasons. Brandon lead it and the most interesting one was the "In for 4, hold for 6 and out 4" only every time we did it, it got longer and would double each time pushing our breath capacity to the limit. We got to in for 32, hold for 8 and out for 32. We also did tongue twisters and similar warm ups to usual. The warm up session was fairly lengthy and because of this my voice in general seemed to be more clear than usual and I noticed whenever I was back stage and had to whisper,l I was still very audible and clear. I did struggle a little with articulating my lines today but I think that was more down to not knowing the lines too well yet so I think if I'll practice I should be OK in that aspect.

20/4/16: Today when performing my scenes in the play I noticed something happen despite doing the same vocal warm up as yesterday. While I was waiting to go on for my scene I noticed that my throat became very dry. I attribute this to being nervous about actually getting the lines right but also I think I didn't drink enough water throughout the day and we had to be there from 9 am until 10 pm so I should've drank more than I did. This is a habit I sometimes do when required to do long days since I'm more focused on the work rather than drinking so I never feel thirsty. As a result of this my voice seemed quieter than usual although still quite articulate but it took more effort to project when performing. I found a page talking about hydration is important. The page mainly applies to singing but it does apply here also. It mentions how when not hydrated vocal folds swell up and make a clear strong voice harder to do due to a build up of acid and the muscles being tired out. I did manage to be quite clear with good diction and decent volume but it's proved to me I need to keep hydrated as much as possible since my throat will affect how I sound. The fact I needed to put more effort in than usual is what confirmed this.

Link to hydration information:
http://www.vocalbrilliance.com/vocal-hygiene-part-2-hydrate-hydrate-hydrate-why-hydration-is-important-to-singing/

21/4/16: Today we ran the same vocal warm up as usual and I made sure to drink more water than yesterday. I did notice an improvement while waiting again. My throat still dried a little but no way near as much as yesterday so I'm going to say that it's just nerves that are making this happen when I'm fully hydrated. This didn't have too much of an effect on y voice but I still noticed that today I didn't project to my full potential. It may have been due to me focusing on the lines instead since I'm still not really used to this style of speaking and haven't had too much time to learn them. However whatever the reason the point still remains that I wasn't really trying to speak from my diaphragm to be heard. This is something I'll focus on tomorrow as I really need to get my volume level up.

22/4/16: This was the last day of Doing "The Man of mode" and I tried my best in order to improve my voice for so it could be at it's best. I feel that today I did improve. Because of what what I said yesterday I felt that I needed to do an exercise to do with projection. So I looked up exercises to do with projection that might help and I found one that I think may help and I found one that I have done before with multiple teachers. It's an exercise where you hold you stomach or grasp your diaphragm and then take a deep breath in and go "HA!" or variations of that in order to help with your "H" sounds but also the volume of your voice sine you have to do it at your full capacity. I found this out in the break between the matinee and evening shows so I noticed the improvement in volume with an increase in ease for the evening performance.  So I shall add it to my list of exercises to continue.

Projection exercise link:
http://www.weheartdrama.com/381/vocal-projectionbreathing-exercises-considering-lung-capacity/

27/4/16:Today when doing my speech I noticed something about my posture, it's not confident enough and maybe a little too slumped or too far forward. Not much but I still noticed it and I want to try out trying a more confident stance or at least to stop leaning forward so much to the point where it seems as though I'm only addressing people in front of me. I feel that this may help bring the characteristics of the speech out even more although only subtly but that's still very good. So in the next session of practice I'll try it out to see what happens.

28/4/16: Today when doing the monologue I'm still in general not seeing much improve (even though it's all in a really good place). I still think my diction, articulation, accent work and volume is to a good standard. However I did try out that stance work today and trying to stand up straight more although still allowing in one or two of those leans I talked about about from the feedback I got from Chloe she said it definitely seemed to have slightly better clarity and that the more confident posture suited the character. So this is something I'll keep up and hopefully this increase in clarity and character confidence brings more to the characters intentions and grips people more.

2/5/16: Today I have noticed that my posture work is still effective so I thought of another point to focus on today and that was of my use of pauses throughout my speech. I did mention before that I have found some ideal moment to use them but I feel this can be improved by looking for more moments to use them, after all I am trying to convince a jury so getting there attention and giving them moments to think about something I say should be important instead of just moving on. Some of these moments are ones such as a brief pause right after my first sentence so that my intention is made clear immediately. I also think that putting them in after significant point of information such as when I say about Tom Robinson only being able to use his right hand or that he is a human being. These brief pauses and possible stares should convey that he is telling them to think about it and they should see him as a human being and not ignore any evidence due to a prejudice. I feel I generally have a good sense of timing when performing whether it be dramatic or humorous. People say that I'm quite funny and quick witted so I know that timing is very important to a performance working or it may be awkward or just not have the impact it should. I feel that I will do the pauses well and today I did so I'll keep them in and practice them as a key element from now on.

4/5/16: Today I practiced my monologue again since I might perform it to Karen tomorrow due the fact I haven't done that for a while now. As of now I think all my vocal characteristics are at least OK although I'll admit I think my articulation and volume for this speech and the room size is great. I will say that my I'm noticing the improved posture from the last session is helping my voice to come across stronger since my stance now implies more strength and seems less restrictive since my diaphragm and whole body (Especially my lungs) has more room/capacity for breath and blood flow. This overall seems to be helping so it's a definite keep even though it's only a subtle but effective thing. Also today I still felt that my sense of timing on my pauses was very good and I feel it is getting the messages across very well.

5/5/16:  Today I performed my monologue to Karen and a couple of students in the class. Overall it went extremely well. Karen even told me that it was at point where it is ready to be graded and I don't need to do the monologue again in class. The feedback from them to do with my voice was that my delivery had a lot of clarity and made my characters intentions very clear. My diction was very good apparently and my accent was a point of praise too which I'm glad about seeing as initially people were skeptical of it but I'm glad it worked. The feedback Karen gave last time about looking around the space more to show scope and that would affect the way I'm delivering. Thankfully that paid off and it made it more convincing that I was talking to a large room of people and the peaks and dips in my volume to go with who I was meant to be addressing. My use of pauses and general pacing were apparently very good as well. It was even called "Excellent storytelling" which I'm proud of. The only criticism I got wasn't for my voice it was for my hair being too long so overall I gave an excellent performance according to Karen. I'm glad that before my performance I asked Becky for help because if I just stuck with James (Who's only feedback was that my accent was good) then I'd have come off as more wooden since I couldn't get whether my intentions were coming across. Becky said they needed to be upped and her help paid off.

10/5/16: Today In the rehearsal of "Earthquakes in London" I noticed something about my voice. When I'm trying to sing as my character I find it quite difficult and my voice sounds different to when I rehearse. It's as if when I get on stage and have to go along with the music and vocals that are playing it sounds off. In my opinion it sounds quite flat and monotone. I asked people about this and they seem to say "But it's supposed to sound bad" which for the character is fine (Besides the fact I am too quiet and need to project it more. However the point still remains that I was actually trying to sound good and it didn't work so whether it works for the character or not it's a problem. this is an issue that I have noticed with this scene. When I'm rehearsing with no music or at least not having to project as much I sound fine but then when the music is introduced I sound not so good. I think that since I'm singing (Which I'm not the greatest at) I might have to extend my warm up slightly or possibly do an exercise to do with singing such as "Do-Re-Mi" this may help warm it up and make it easier to experiment with singing pitches or tones. Karen also gave me some feedback for the play today and her only real issue with me was that despite my subtlety being effective I will have to project more in the theatre and I don't if this will affect it but if I keep doing my warm up then I feel I should be fine.

17/5/16: Today we delivered a presentation to the class to do with out play "Earthquakes in London". I thought that over all it went quite well despite the fact I was very nervous as I am usually am with presentations. I feel that even though I was nervous it didn't come across this way in my delivery of my information with the exception of a couple of moments in which I stuttered or I forgot that I was saying. There was a point where I blanked although I think I kept a light hearted tone and generally good demeanour. I thought I delivered my information with a good sense of clarity and a sense of confidence. I feel my volume was at a good level for the room we were in although I feel that sometimes at the end of certain sentences I would run out of breath and the volume would dip slightly. That was my main fault today but despite that I'm actually quite happy with my delivery today. The only criticism I got was that I may have just had a little too much info or that it was too detailed for the time limit, not that I was too slow in terms of pacing.

Greek Tragedy Chorus Blog

Day 1: 

Today we were given a choral piece to work on for a new physical theatre assignment. We are focusing on the vocal delivery and physical aspects/movement of a Greek chorus and applying it to ourselves to a script that we will be given. We will have to learn the skills and history of the style in order to fully incorporate them into a piece of our own or a piece to adapt.

Today to start off with we were given a piece of text as a group and had to read through it in a variety of ways. We started with each person saying one line of the page at a time, then having a person read until they got to the end of a sentence, then have a person read until any punctuation mark. This was interesting because it helped us to see that the variety of ways the text can be delivered can affect how it comes across. It can seem to add more of a specific intention to something. It helped to convey a certain atmosphere and this seemed to change depending on the structure. Although most of us were just making up the tones as we went along it still showed that doing it as a collective or in any suitable way could potentially be sinister or something along these lines.

We then had to have one person reading the text and then the group repeat certain words that seem significant or needed emphasising. For example (Antigone) in the line "But now in the beautiful morning of victory" some/all member of it may choose to repeat "Victory" in a proud manner and embody it with an action or stance, So both the chosen word and their delivery are important to effectively convey a mass/general feeling.

The exercise we did afterwards was where we had to take sides of an argument of two people leading an argument. I was part of the crowd and had to pick certain words to say in a certain tone. This was to simulate a crowd of people reacting to a big event similar to a showing the public reacting to a political debate. This was an example of showing a worried or distressed crowd or divided community.  As I mentioned one of the main points of a chorus is to show a variation of emotions from several people. At least that's the main one I'm aware of as of now so I will have to research if they have any other noticeable uses.

Day 2:

Today we mainly experimented more with some movement and timing of said movements. We were given a set of opposite emotions and then told to transition between them in a set number of drum beats. For example we had to do a pose on a chair for receiving good news and one for bad news and then have to change between them but showing a journey of getting there not just a quick switch. So it would have to look as if we have been given good news but then subsequently given bad news. We had to focus on smoothly transitioning but also do it with in the time limit we had. Karen would bang on a drum for a certain amount of time and we'd have to get into the opposite positions as it finishes.  We also did this with Forgiveness and punishment and then with fear and empowerment.

After this we developed it a little by having these emotions but this time standing up and having two people argue and then choose a side of the argument to follow and how we should act against the opposite side. So we could go from side to side and change our point of view. For example we could be on one side looking down at the other in anger and then go to the other side (If we're swayed) to being more forgiving. We can also emphasise certain  words still if we wish to to show what is important to the point of view of the chorus or who they're representing. This is an interesting dynamic that can be shown. It has a story within itself and can show many peoples journeys simultaneously or help to create a feeling or indecisiveness or uneasiness.

Day 3:

Today we got given the scripts that we will have to start rehearsing and make our own piece out of. The script we were given was a choral segment from the Greek tragedy "The libation bearers" which is from the "Oresteia" trilogy by Aeschylus. I was put in a small group with Chloe S, Katrina and Rhys. With the limited time we had we went through the section of the script we had in a variety of ways and tones, Today was admittedly not a very productive session although it did give me and the others in my group a chance to play around with the script and see how it could be read or interpreted. We read through a few times getting better as we went along and trying ways of reading but we never had the chance to make a decision on what to stick with for the moment.

Initial response to text:

I must admit when I first read the text I had no idea what to make of it. When it comes to reading older texts I can never grasp what they really mean so I went back over it and tried getting more context and unfortunately I can't really get a grasp of the actual story although the themes present throughout and the images it puts in my head are quite intriguing. With the limited knowledge I have of a chorus it made me think of a crowd of conspirators plotting and the chaos that they cause from their plotting. The setting I have in my head is admittedly a cliched one, like a 15th century city with a church as the focus. The theme of murder and revenge is something I think can have a lot of potential for interesting movement and vocal delivery. I will have to more study the chorus to see what they can do but just from coming off of a physical theatre devising piece I am starting to form Some ideas in my head although none of them a re very clear due to the fact I need more clarity on the chorus in general. Although the ideas from the last session about crowds going between opposite emotions and sides of an argument I think could fit in but at what bit I'm not sure. I'm seeing potential but nothing crystal clear as of now.

Functions of a chorus/Research:

- Can be used to show a response to an event in the play either by representing a collective of individuals with a mass opinion or a collective that shows a range of opinions.

- Can be used to add a sense of fun to the piece possibly a very primitive version of "Comic relief characters" in a modern play but the intention was more to be just entertaining instead of funny.

- Can be used to show the passing of time/to deliver exposition for transitions between time periods.

- Can be used to control the levels of intended tension whether it be a low or high amount or whether it is needed to fluctuate.

- Can be used to add context to a scene through exposition or even make events clearer to [people who might not understand without it.

- Can be used to show a characters motivations or any implied thoughts and feelings of a character such as a group of conspirators plotting or what the protagonist is struggling with through out his story.

- Can be used to provide narration through out the piece.

- Can be used to set a mood/tone and transition between them



Links:

http://krishaamer.com/function-chorus-greek-drama/

Day 4:

Today I was put in a new group. I was put with Chloe S, Jack A, Georgia and Max. We were told that we must take the 3rd section of the script and apply it to a modern context. we came up with some ideas and tried one of them out.

Ideas for settings:

It took a while to come up with some ideas for settings. At first we came up with the idea of a church due to the text speaking of prayers. Because of that alone it was a decent idea for a setting and did give a couple of ideas for staging such as being in line and echoing certain words, for example "We prey" in symmetrical ways. When asked for a more modern and relatable setting, I suggested children playing video games since they're a very big part of media today and could have some good ideas for staging. The one I suggested was for 3 of us to be sat in a triangle and then two of us could act out the physical part and repeat words while they are sat and lead the chorus but still have movement. Max suggested an idea about a dating website call "Ashley Madison" and even added some context of who the characters could be. It was actually a neat idea in my opinion and had potential but we didn't get to try it out.

Strengths and weaknesses:

Strengths:

The group were quite cooperative and excepting of other peoples ideas despite the limited time. We even got some good ideas going in terms of staging and potential delivery. we also got some starting ideas for physicality and stances which seemed cool when planning them out even though we didn't get to explore them.

Weaknesses:

A weakness for today was that while we came up with some interesting ideas we didn't actually get much done at all in terms of staging or even get a setting decided. We did have some interesting ideas but nothing was given a real chance to be explored, especially Max's idea which while we didn't know exactly how to stage, could've had some interesting results.

Problems and solutions:

Even though I thought that the church setting was an interesting idea in terms of staging because we we did seem to have ideas right away, the setting itself was probably a little bland and it did not fit in with a modern setting since a church location itself hasn't exactly changed too much over the centuries and isn't something someone would necessarily think of when thinking of modern times. This meant that it had to be abandoned if another setting was thought of and their have been more so that issue seems to have been fixed by replacing it unless we can hopefully think of another setting and stick with it. Another problem was that we cannot go with a video game theme since the group doing section 4 are doing it and they seem to be keen and we don't really want to go with the same theme so we're most likely going to let them have it and we'll choose something original.

Day 5:

Ideas/Input:

We tried thinking of some more ideas for setting or context. I had a few ideas in mind such as having follow people in the modern army since that and the story revolve around a serious conflict. That Idea was quickly dismissed and I then suggested a prison since it had talk of justice and revenge which seemed to match and could have some potential for interesting staging or characterisation. Also it's something that is popular in modern entertainment. Films and TV shows such as "The Shawshank Redemption" and "Prison Break" have a lot of the same themes and are considered brilliant dramatic pieces of art. I suggested the idea that as a starting point it should be the guards standing in front of the prisoners and that we should have our hands cuffed while they have their arms out. This image alone would show the difference in status between the characters and make it more impactful when it changes. We have blocked a fair bit of the piece. An idea from the group was that we chant/repeat "No words" from the script when behind jack to show the side of people saying he should back off and then we walk over to max and say "To grip his sword" to show the encouragement side of the other inmates. Also the body language and facial expressions changing as we cross may suggest the idea of people being swayed which I think could be quite interesting to see.

Strengths and weaknesses:

A strength of today was that the choreography we came up with looked very good if a little unpolished and a decent focus on symmetry throughout most of it. Whether or not this is how Greek tragedies would have been staged I'm not so sure but what we came up with still looked quite good in my opinion. We now have an interesting setting for the reasons I said earlier. It's relevant to the themes presented in the piece, it does fit with modern times and the violent subject matter would also fit with it due to what a horrible place prison is.

A weakness of the session is that we didn't get all that much done for basic ideas. We now have the template for the first third or so of the piece of script we were given. While I do like the stuff we've done, I think we could've done. We are finding it to be a challenge to find movements, emotions and even aspects of adapting the setting to fit thematically with the text. One thing we keep doing is losing track of the characters in the script and we need to block it properly so I think I'm going to try top get to grips with the plot of "The Libation Bearers". Also that we didn't really give any of the other setting more of a thought was a bit disappointing even I think they may due to the time we have but still it's a bit disappointing.

Research: 

The Oresteia, The Libation Bearers.

I didn't really understand the text so I looked up the plot summary of "The Libation Bearers" to see if any context could be given. I found this page (http://public.wsu.edu/~hughesc/oresteia_summary.htm) and it helped me understand the plot.

Now I know that it's about a man (Orestes) who has returned to the city he was banished from so that he could get revenge on his mother (Clytemnestra) and her lover (Aegisthus)  who had killed his father (Agamemnon). He kills the lover and kills his mother after some hesitation. So the context is that he wants to avenge his father and punish those who are responsible. This added context now helps a bit with understanding how we may block it. It could help to keep track of who everyone is or 

A detail about the chorus that hasn't really been discussed in class rehearsals surprisingly is the fact that choruses do sing and dance or at least can do, after all they did originate from god worshipping rituals and grew from there where dialogue was incorporated so it's weird to me that that aspect hasn't got much focus overall although I can see why the singing may be omitted but the dancing I thought may have been talked about more and used. Since I know this I hope that I can suggest it to my group at some point if I feel it may fit or just see more promise in it. Although there is one thing I must mention which is to do with the dancing, since the dancing/movement evolved over time it became less about actually dancing and conveying something through a dance like movement so it's essentially the root of physical theatre in general. One detail I noticed was that a choruses movements are often synchronised and at times symmetrical. I have seen a couple videos showing this off including one on devising choreography which shows off a lot of sequence based movement in which they had to find moves and repeat them. This seemed very similar to the style of Steven Berkoff who often uses a technique called "Clockwork movement" in his work (And even the group doing the first section have a focus on that during moments of their piece)

Steven Berkoff is a physical theatre practitioner that has formed his own style and way of moving in his pieces. As I said a big feature of his work is clockwork movement. This mean that the actor have a number of moves to repeat in a certain order. This can be used effectively to show the mundane such as working in an office or any aspects of a daily routine.It is a brilliant way to make the mundane look beautiful if done correctly. I have done workshops about his style and it's very nice when in motion because it can also give off the sense that time is passing quickly and look mesmerising rather than being boring. It also experiments with both over exaggerated movement, articulation and projection. You can vary these aspects to help suit a status for example in the opening scene of "The Trial" in which the two men accusing the protagonist have much more controlled yet over the top movement and louder, elongated voices and speech patterns which showed their mastery over the scene. This is something my group haven't really utilised but one thing we have definitely been trying to do is keep a somewhat symmetrical layout for most of the the scenes. Berkoff does use a chorus in some of his pieces such as "The trial" and "Oedipus". They generally had a few instances where they would be evenly distributed on-stage as much as possible. So that has helped us in terms of keeping it neat on stage for most it other wise it would look uneven and messy.

Links:

http://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/video/modern-interpretations-of-greek-chorus

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mKd9ERhV5SI#t=623.599292 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DMKQqtzPzO0

http://theatreanddance.britishcouncil.org/artists-and-companies/profiles/east-productions-steven-berkoff/

Day 6:

Today me and my group went into another room and tried to get as much blocked as possible. We decided that an opening to the scene would be necessary to establish the setting more efficiently. We also blocked The actual murder and some points further on up to a realisation.

Ideas/input:

The whole idea for the opening was that it should somehow introduce the setting and the characteristics of everyone by walking around and interacting. I suggested that it be a prison break time so it means we could interact and establish brief history and relationships quickly. this means I an show my rapist character through my lustful looks that I can give the guards. Another great idea from the group was for the prisoners to join together and crawl and appear to struggle or be in pain, this looks very good and I even suggested that we echo the word "Nothing" out of the few words we have to imply a theme of regret or pointlessness to what's happened, as if saying nothing would've been the better option since the line is "Say nothing, do nothing". Another great idea that we had was that when we say the line " Aegisthus is dead, Aegisthus is dead." We all lay down and get up repeating it over and over again. Georgia said that we should have a journey when saying it. So we go from questioning it all the way to painful fear and realisation of the fact that they're dead. It builds and builds to us shouting and then stops. It seems really good from what we showed today.

Problems and solutions:

One issue that we seemed to have was with actually making the bug like creature from the prisoners. When we tried it we wanted to simply link arms and crawl forwards but our coordination with each other was really bad and it looked very messy. This in turn though made us realise that that could work if we changed it a little so we changed out position to Jack A and Max's heads under my arm and then we crawl but look as though we are struggling and mangled together so it would be a bit more disturbing and even possibly symbolic of the gruesome murder during the scene. So by recognising that we managed to turn it into something more effective instead of just going with it and looking awful.

Photo of the end result of bug like amalgamation:

Strengths and weaknesses:

Strengths:

We all were suggesting ideas and very focused and even had a lot of energy for the movements we were performing. It was actually a very fun and funny session even though we kept focused on what we were doing so it was overall a productive and enjoyable session.

Weaknesses:

Today there weren't any weaknesses I can mention/remember. We all did very well in my opinion and it was a productive day although you could say that the fact I did not suggest much today as a whole, then that is probably the worst thing about today even though I suggested quite a few details and some bigger ideas but let the others do it as well.

Research:

The origins and history of drama and Greek tragedy:

The art of drama as we know it started off as a series of rituals to worship Dionysus, the Greek god of fertility and wine. the rituals themselves were considered to be a special occasion where women would have to dance while holding phallic symbols and sometimes bite into the raw flesh of a sacrificed animal such as a goat. the rituals then evolved as people began to sing as well more specifically hymns about the god they were worshipping. Then a priest named Thespis decided that during these ceremonies he would put on masks and act as the people who the hymns were being sung about. So Thespis is often considered to be the first ever actor and that's where the term "Thespian" comes from and why so many actors in western society like to be called that. 

Thespis was also the first person to ever win a theatrical award which he won in 534 BC in Athens for a tragedy he had made. These kinds of contests became more and more popular and they were done once a year to honour Dionysus. it would be held over 4 days and 4 "authors" as they were called then would have to write 4 plays each. 3 tragedies and 1 satyr, which was a farce play that was based on satyrs, which were lustful, drunken gods. They did to give the audience some comic relief while watching this other wise the overall tone would be to depressing. these plays would take place in a circular space with some scenery behind the actors to suggest a location. This would usually happen on a slanted hill in front of a huge audience and at the end a winner is selected. 

Then in around 490 BC or so a man named Aeschylus introduced a second actor into his plays so this could make portraying a dramatic situation easier. he wrote 8 plays but only seven of them has survived and there is still debate about him actually writing one or if he was given credit for someone elses work. he won his first award in 484 BC. He then wrote the three tragedies that were performed into a single piece or as a trilogy and his play "Oresteia" is an example of this and is generally considered a masterpiece which celebrated the introduction of law into society or at least in Athens. This is the piece of text that we are performing and have been looking at. This was the era when set design started to get more complicated such as having more of a specific backdrop or using more props. He was someone who got the idea of a chorus moving more to take off and allow them to be more expressive.

Then a man named Sophocles introduced a third actor into his plays. Since having multiple actors made it easier to portray drama Sophocles managed to make his plays more personal to the audience instead of dealing with much larger themes like Aeschylus did. Plots got more complicated, characterisation could be done subtly because it wasn't just one actor having to make all the characters drastically different. Sophocles allegedly wrote 120 play but only 7 survived including "Oedipus the king" which is also considered to be a masterpiece. Then a man named Euripides decided to try telling his stories of Greek myths from different view points such as trying to make mythical people more relatable and human and trying to focus on the fragile side of their emotions. These 4 men are very important because they are the ones who more or less started and developed theatre into what we know it as. they started to turn it into a varied mix of serious, comedic, complex, and flowing stories and adding more elements such as more actors to make the illusion of what they were trying to portray more powerful and believable and since then it's evolved further from other people like this but this is where it started. 

Choruses were put into the pieces to help convey a public, community opinion or to help show a certain perspective or several perspectives. They were often had very varied ways of delivering their plentiful scenes and were apparently considered a highlight of all of the pieces. I recently noticed that choruses are still being used today, It's influence is still visible. I went to see "Chicago" a few days a go and realised that during the courtroom scene they had a row of people standing that would emphasise certain words in a more dramatic or exaggerated way that suggests a certain tone, in this case it made the courtroom seem more imposing even though they were somewhat upbeat. This seemed very similar and reminded me very strongly of a Greek chorus considering their purpose and staging.

Links:

http://www.historyworld.net/wrldhis/PlainTextHistories.asp?ParagraphID=cui

http://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/video/antigone-the-ancient-greek-chorus

Day 7:

Today had a focus on doing segments of the opening. We've blocked the first scene with everyone but today the class got split up into a boy group and a girl group. We were given a section of script and a theme to work with and left to make a piece with those two things. Our theme was insects/bugs and we came up with something that from response was very good and quite creepy.

Workshop:

To start off day we did a workshop to do with movements that we can use in our opening or pieces if we wanted to. We were told to make a few stances with some exaggerated facial expressions. One of them was as if we are trying to sell something so I positioned my arms as if I'm presenting the person who was next to me at the time but with an extremely happy face. We also had to do a stance like we're plastic or a mannequin or something along these lines so that if we moved everything would look artificial or possibly unnerving. We also had to do another one still as if we were still trying to sell something but with a air or trickery or deceit as if there's something evil behind your intentions. This was quite interesting and after I thought about it a little bit I thought that sticking with the plastic mannequin would be the most interesting one for me. That combined with the spider web we use seems intriguing to me because the setting of the web and the later insect theme contrast to suggest something sinister in a more subtle manner. The overly happy face seems playful yet almost too good to be true as if I'm hiding something and I think that should be quite unnerving if done correctly.

Strengths and weaknesses: 

Strengths:

We have had some pretty neat ideas today and I think that we dealt with our theme or insects very well, especially with the creepy movement and somewhat evil vocal delivery. It was apparently unnerving and that is definitely a good thing. We all took on most of the ideas suggested very well and the result I think is actually pretty good but will need some smoothing out. Also must give credit to James as he was the reason the group had any focus at all and he was the one suggesting ideas for the most part.

Weaknesses:

The group as a whole seemed a bit unfocused even though we got stuff done. I think we would've had more done in the time we had such as smoothing some things out or sometimes getting a few more things across to the whole group such as my idea of engulfing James which didn't seem to stick with everyone for long.

Input/creative ideas:

I myself only suggested a couple of minute details today and one big one that wasn't used, . I suggested that when we me, Pau and Brad get up, we run our hands up our legs and bodies like spiders to keep with the inset theme also it looks a little creepy when done properly in unison. I also suggested that on the line "Takes a little snooze" we should all wrap around James as he is lowered to the ground from sitting on brads shoulders. This seemed really cool and fitted with the moment earlier with killing James so it fed into that and looked pretty good, however after the first run it was scrapped due to everyone forgetting it. It fit thematically since it would have been a repeating pattern and it's something that can show the intentions of the other insects which is something that choruses do just to show an extra layer to the community that we have set up but also keeping a sense of unity between most of them consistently. Another idea I had feeds back into the fact that there doesn't seem to be any focus on singing or dancing elements which a Greek chorus would do (I'm not saying they should be the focus, just a potential inclusion) so I thought of an idea that involves us singing lightly in our creepy raspy voices to add to the creepiness. I spoke about this with James and I was disappointed that neither of us could really think of a way to incorporate it with out making it seem out of place. We cam to the conclusion that the lines are better spoken instead although if we'd have had more time we might have come up with something. We even briefly thought about some dancing but the reason we didn't go with this was due to our theme. We wouldn't really want bug like creatures to dance because we feared it may look funny rather than unnerving which is how everything else in it seems to come across. However if we think that having some faster synchronised movement between the bugs we'll try our best to fit it in. Other ideas that I think are very good and visually interesting are the opening, where we scurry in like insects to the middle as if we are eating something (Which was quite creepy apparently), the forming a goblet and then shattering which seamlessly transitions to the next scene because of where we kill James for the first time, dragging him down and supposedly eating him. 

Problems and solutions:

One thing we couldn't get right today was our use of levels at the moment we say "Reverence has drained into the soil". We are supposed to be at different levels and we fluctuate in height to look visually interesting and it fits in with a theme of rivalry and leadership that seams to be hinted at throughout. We need to practise this part so that it looks more flowing and we need to assign timings to go to go to a certain height. For example, I could go slowly up on "Reverence" and go down on "Soil" and keep that going for the echoing that follows. This may or may not be hard to do but hopefully it'll work. Another problem is that we are mostly still on script which we shouldn't be so I'm going to go home and practise as much as I can to hopefully get these lines down.

Contemporising and research:

Our task is to modernise this text. This means we can take the text and the uses of a chorus and apply them to a modern context and style, so we might not use any Greek theatre traditions such as the use of singing and spoken dialogue mixing or dance sequences interspersed but we can incorporate modern styles of physical theatre to it. So researching modern practitioners is key for this.

One technique we liked to use was that of frantic assembly which I found when researching their devising process, not there building blocks but something they like to do when using text. They like to read the text and try out whatever movements they can visualise just from reading it. Not necessarily moves that could fit the subtext but can be literal or the first things we think of when reading it. An example of this was when we all say "This days end will bring us either". The first thing that was suggested was for all of us to fall in to the middle and then address the audience, this had no real context at the time but still made for an interesting moment due to its symmetry and echoing. Another moment was where when I was with the guys I said about the goblet shattering literally but using the guys to show it. Once we applied the context the ideas became a bit more fitting but then we still had surreal or wired examples such as what we initially wanted the 3 prisoner mesh up to look like and act.

As I stated before I suggested the setting of a prison due to it's themes of justice and revenge. Even it's talks of prayers and religion references fit due to how many people have found god in prison so even that seemed to thematically match. A lot of people are imprisoned because of acts of revenge and often believe that the fact they are locked up is an act of injustice. Also the fact that prison is very popular in media today is a factor, the setting alone is ideal for drama since you have so many people with potentially different and interesting back stories and motivations that the interactions or clashes alone could be great to show. This could hopefully make the dynamic and the plot elements more relatable to modern times and with the intended audience of secondary school kids it does work too. Teenagers do watch shows that aren't intended for their age, such as "The walking dead"'s entire 3rd season takes place in a prison and I know countless people who watched it and just loved the setting. Also if we set it here and show the horrors and grotesqueness of a place like that it may put them off.

My voice in the chorus:  

In this project there is a heavy focus on how we must deliver the text vocally and this I'm going to explain about my personal delivery in this:

What characteristics might hinder me for this choral piece?

The characteristics of my voice that might affect me in a bad way in this project I initially thought would be that I can't sing or at least not well. I don 't have too much range or strength when it comes to that. It doesn't seem that we'll be using singing in our piece so the flaws with my voice that might affect it are that that if there come any times where I have to do my lines naturalistically with or without an emotion I feel it does come off wooden sometimes such as when I say "To level the blade, to set the point". So I'm gonna have to see what I can do in the mean time and try to keep practising these moments and try to get them to stand out and not sound so stilted.

What challenges or opportunities does the style present in terms of vocal demand?

This will require us to project a lot since these were meant to be played out in arenas and this could get us to experiment with a variety of tones that we would have to get used to projecting. It will require us (Either a small or large amount) to deliver lines in unison so this mean our timing is essential to get right other wise it will sound very awkward or messy. An example of this was during a moment in the prison piece. We all say "This day's end will bring us either" and often during rehearsals the moment would start and sound out of time since some of us didn't know when to. It still sounds a bit like someone is speaking for a millisecond more than the rest to cue us to speak.

What vocal exercises will improve your technique for you chosen genre?

"Why fly so high?" could help since it does open up the resonators and makes it a bit easier to access a wider variety of tones when experimenting with the voice. It can also make it potentially easier to transition through tones quickly For example when we have to go from saying "Aegisthus" slowly and cowardly to then go to a more aggressive yet violently passionate "Grip his sword" it helps for them to be more open and not be so strained by the transitions.

"In for 4, hold for 6, out for 4" will help to temporarily increase breath capacity so that you have more air to project with and even warm up your diaphragm which should help to actually keep the tones yet be very audible. This may also require stage whispering so to make those as loud as possible helps too but the focus for this is with projection so being more able to is a definite benefit. 

"What a to do" and "Line with finger in mouth exercise" can help with articulation. They warm up the muscles in your mouth and your tongue in order to get sounds such as "T", "H" and "D" so there s not as much confusion with the delivery of certain words. It will give a greater sense of clarity to it and could even help with implying a sense of scope since if you're poorly articulating but loud it can sound ridiculous or that the inexperience could come across and suck you out of it. However if you articulate well and have the right volume it can greater imply the scope or importance of something and keep you invested. 

What targets will you set to address the problems faced in Greek chorus?

- I will try to do the listed exercises (Also the other ones in my voice portfolio) before every session possible. If I do this I can hopefully achieve the vocal clarity that I feel is needed to portray the themes and vocal functions with the degree of seriousness and impact that is required for the pieces, for example trying to be creepy or unnerving in the bug section by experimenting with tone and voice type. I do want to try my best to keep the sense of dignity that the chorus can have as much as possible. 

- I will get my group to practise the timing on our pieces as much as possible especially with certain moments so that the moments flow naturally and don't seem awkward so this means we may have to go over certain bits several times.

- As well as experiment with the tone and voice type I must try each one with the amount of projection mixed with it in order to get the best result. As of now I'm going with the raspy, gravely, evil sounding voice that seems to fit thematically with the creatures we're playing and is as far as I can tell, the creepiest and most unnerving voice I can get with the volume I need. 

Links:

http://www.franticassembly.co.uk/media/media/downloads/Frantic_Assembly_Resource_Pack_2012.pdf

http://hubpages.com/religion-philosophy/Prisoners-Who-Claim-to-have-Found-Jesus-or-God

http://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/video/vocal-warm-up-2-resonance

http://www.franticassembly.co.uk/media/media/downloads/Frantic_Assembly_Resource_Pack_2012.pdf

https://lucianofsamosata.info/wiki/doku.php?id=2011:the-reasons-for-agamemnons-murder

Day 8:

Today we actually finished blocking our section of the text. My group with Chloe now have a complete piece with some pretty interesting movements in it. I'm honestly happy with what we've come up with.

Ideas/input: 

The main idea that I suggested today was that when max stabs into the four of us he should twist it and we sway in the direction that he twist his hand.this looks very smooth and with the painful expressions on our face will hopefully create something that itself looks painful or uncomfortable. I thought this fits since the chorus is meant to create a mood/feel through movement and voice so I thought showing that using those techniques would be effective (If done correctly) and would make sense with the style. Other ideas suggested by the group were that we have Chloe and Georgia be a mouth or body for a couple of reasons. So that me and Jack A can be seen reacting to the pain as well as Chloe and Georgia. Also so that me and Jack can flop out and act as if we're guts, blood or entrails coming out of a wound to have a somewhat grotesque image that fits with the events being described

Strengths and weaknesses:

Strengths:

When with the group with Chloe, we were all very focused and were completely on board with any ideas that were suggested. We were actually up for everything suggested even though some minor things we didn't go with that were quickly suggested. We have a strong piece in my eyes with some very varied characters, themes, emotions and images throughout. Also we managed to fit mike and Logan into the insect scene

Weaknesses:

I didn't really suggest much today despite a couple of small yet interesting details. I may have suggested some others that were briefly dismissed as I often do but I don't remember them and the others were suggesting ideas at such a quick rate that were actually very good and interesting that I wanted to experiment with them a little so I wasn't too focused on thinking of separate ideas just ways to tweak the ones said. Although |I must admit that's still a flaw. Also we during the session where we had to fit Mike and Logan into the boys insect scene everyone seemed quite unfocused except for me and James although thankfully towards the end we did focus and fit them in properly.

                                                

Day 9:

Today was the last day for rehearsing this piece. We were given time to smooth out our segments as much as possible and then we would perform it to the second years.

Strengths and weaknesses:

Strengths:

There were quite a few strengths for today. The reception of the piece from the second years was quite positive overall. They said that our themes and settings were well communicated through the movement and the music used. The small touches we had added such as the small openings to our scenes helped a fair bit but also the characterisation of my groups criminals made it feel more varied and understandable.

Weaknesses:

One thing I noticed was that when I performed my move on Chloe, I noticed that a couple of the audience members laughed and I can't figure out why. A thought maybe that the move is to fast but I cannot slow it down because it will get in the way of Max's following move. It may just be because they know us and that it's weird to see us doing that but I thought it was worth mentioning since it may be distracting. I will talk with the group about how/if it can be resolved.

Research:

In retrospect I regret our group never really trying out the use of masks since they were often used for a Greek chorus. The masks could have been used for the prisoners and guards personalities due to their fixed over exaggerated expressions that could be used to imply them, it would also be easier to make out instead of just real faces which I think ended up being too subtle. And even if we had had it where just the prisoners or just the guards where them it could have created a more distinct separation between the two but kept the sense of unity between the 2 groups that they often had in Greek chorus. They could have a sense of being together in the community the represented which I think the masks may have helped with, especially putting them on the prisoners since the angry expressions would have suggested a tense but forced relationship which may have been interesting to try out.

Example of a Greek chorus masks:

Links:

https://greektheatre.wordpress.com/home/