16/5/16:
Today we had a run through of act one to four and even blocked the majority of act 5. The run through went pretty well despite some pacing issues especially between acts but overall was quite good. We blocked the whole of act 5 and then ran through it afterwards and that pretty well too despite needing obvious polish and practice so it gets much better.
Blocking:
After running the first four acts we finally had to block act 5 and I only really have one scene in act 5 so the process was pretty simple for me today though it was still very enjoyable and I think the act is coming along very nicely. Today when running act four we blocked that Me, Chloe and Katrina do not stay on for the earthquake when it shakes and I believe this was because the try we had either looked very silly or probably awkward. I think that was a good decision although if it is reversed I cans see it working in the theatre with the correct sound and set up. My scene in act 5 involves me coming on right after or during the prologue of the act and sitting on the sofa on right centre stage. I have to wait there for Sarah to come in start our final conversation. The scene itself doesn't involve me doing much other than talking while not really looking at Sarah and then standing up at one point before leaving. Overall the blocking fairly simple yet still sticking very well to the style.
Input:
One thing that I did today without even suggesting was a choice for Colin to have. Sarah says about his new jacket "It's not really you". At that moment he could just choose to give up trying to convince her it was a good choice or try to really convince her. Even though he has to do the latter I wanted to make it look like he has a choice and does that but also puts a little effort in so I improvised standing up, looking out and looking at the suit and saying the line "It's absolutely who I am". Thankfully that quick moment got a positive response Also I made sure not to look at Sarah in this moment so it seems as though I could be trying to convince the spectators as well as myself and Sarah. It's a little moment I'll keep in and I did on the subsequent run through of the act. Also an Idea I had was for Colin's last line in the play "Things change". Initially I looked at Katrina for this line but afterwards I thought it would be cool to look forward for just that last line but have a slight pause before it to give it some dramatic emphasis. Now I say this because of all the research I did on the environmental issues being discussed at the time of the plays release. I was thinking that Sarah and Colin's problem could possibly represent the argument for environmental issues just happening regardless of our interference. Neither of them are really responsible for the relationship deteriorating it just ended up happening due to change. This could be a nice subtle moment to suggest that and even besides that it just adds some confirmation to the end of that scene and their relationship.
Strengths and weaknesses:
Strengths: I finally got to see the opening scene with Grace and Young Robert on our actual staging. It looked great in my opinion, the scene was generally just very well paced had good focus and the gradual build up of them walking down the catwalks with distance between them to ending up standing to getting to coming into con tact and very close together. It's a nice set up and pay off for the scene and one that honestly does secure my confidence for the style. Also today the actual blocking for act 5 happened surprisingly fast, everyone was focused and excepting of directing and the staging was fairly simple or it seemed it because of the time it took and the smoothness of the process today.
Weaknesses: One thing that was definitely weak about today was that the pacing of the scenes was slow for today and I don't believe that the energy levels were high enough to help make the slow pacing a little more engaging. This could've been to that we didn't do a warm up today which we should have but couldn't due to limited time. A result of this what that I couldn't do my singing scene in it's entirety or even any actual singing since it's a moment we could not speed up. I thought it was unfortunate I couldn't try it but it really was dragging and I could understand why we had to move along for time. Also today Katrina pointed out something that I do while acting. According to her I don't keep direct eye contact with a person, my eyes sort of dart around confusion although it's only when I'm acting because when talking in real life I don't do this. I think this is a recent habit that I have developed because it has never been mentioned in any feedback I've had to my knowledge. I did pay attention to this in my last scene with Katrina as it was the only scene I had with her after she told me but any moment where I looked at her I kept my focus and thankfully it seemed quite easy but I'd just never noticed that I had done that while performing so I'm very glad she pointed it out.
17/5/16:
Although we didn't have an actual lesson on "Earthquakes" today I feel as if I should discuss the performance demands. I wrote about them before but I'm going to asses how I feel I'm doing in meeting them:
- I feel that I have had a very good sense of focus throughout the process in terms of paying attention to every bit of direction given and just not messing around but for the performance I still think my focus is great. I'm able to stay still for the time required on stage or at the very least keep my movements minimalist. I'm doing well in that regard.
- In terms of vocal delivery I think I'm delivering a good variety of tones in my performing. I am being quite articulate and I'm being quite subtle according to my feedback. Whether or not I'll keep up this vocal quality while in theatre I'm not too sure but I have faith in myself since I've done it before according to my feedback.
- I think while performing him I'm presenting Colin pretty well although it does seem that a fair few of my scenes are done in a somewhat naturalistic manner but I still think I'm showing his problem with subtly and I think I'm getting across my interpretation of him not being too bothered overall with the environmental stuff.
- I am definitely showing the flaws in him but at the same time making it seem as though he has the choice of keeping them hidden to the best of his ability. According to my feedback they are coming across but also feel intentionally held back as to not cause more trouble.
- I do feel that I am showing his ability to make choices especially in the scene with Sarah in act 4 since I have moments where I want to leave or just stop talking to her. The subtlety is coming along and it's gotten some positive feedback.
- I'm performing with a very good amount of energy for this character and I'm doing it and balancing being subtle at the same time which I'm very happy about.
We also had a presentation on the play to present as well. We had to present the background info for the play and discuss elements of it. The scenario was that we were asking for funding for the play from investors. I compiled all the relevant research I had done for the play plus some more. My research tasks were to research epic theatre and discuss it's origins and characteristics and how they apply to the play. Also I had to research debates on environmental issues which I had done before but looked up a few more arguments which a re listed below.
Research:
As I mentioned I found some more arguments for and against the debate if climate change is real and if it is, is it man made?. Here are those arguments:
- The amount of sea ice or in the polar ice caps according to ESA satellite studies that measure the amount of ice in the sea, the amount has actually increased in the last few years since 2012.
- Ice ages. Many of them have happened of the last several million years and the just come and go. The last one ended around 11,500 years ago
- Carbon Dioxide emissions. Some sources claim that the sea actually emits more carbon dioxide than any man made source and over all man has no way near as much as effect as nature does although this is still in debate since experts argue whether or not the sea absorbs what we emit but releases it at a later point.
- Quote by Madhav L. Khandekar, UN scientist, a retired Environment Canada scientist: "Unfortunately, the IPCC climate change documents do not provide an objective assessment of the earth's temperature trends and associated climate change….As one of the invited expert reviewers for the 2007 IPCC documents, I have pointed out the flawed review process used by the IPCC scientists in one of my letters. I have also pointed out in my letter that an increasing number of scientists are now questioning the hypothesis of Greenhouse gas induced warming of the earth's surface and suggesting a stronger impact of solar variability and large-scale atmospheric circulation patterns on the observed temperature increase than previously believed."
The argument of whether or not it's man made is a definite theme of the script since most of the characters reference the damage caused to the environment by the airport expansions. The bribing conspirators of the play say that they want people to think that we have very little to no effect on the environment where as it is generally believed that we are responsible for the current changes. Characters reference man involvement with nature such as Steve who says that we can change it to the point where can beat nature. Robert and Tom on the other hand says we can't they are on the side of it being too late and as Robert says, "To remove you. she'll succeed because she's stronger than any of us." He thinks that the world will win. People debate the existence of climate change and whether it is man made so hopefully those arguments gave a bit of perspective on it and the play.
I even looked into some statistics and facts for Becca who ended up not turning up but I still found them and presented them.
Sticking with the fact that he wanted to use more grounded people to focus on to show the effects he wanted to use a dysfunctional family to fit with theme or the division between generations. The divisive nature of the family is used to show the division between generations in general. The last generation are mostly responsible for the issues to come and the current or next generation have to face it. It's also mentioned by Mike Bartlett that Freya's fear of the impending disasters is heavily linked with Robert's absence.
It's also a serious issue with this country as seen by these statistics:
- It's official: Most of Britain's 72,000 dysfunctional families have no father at home.
- Britain has a very high rate of teenage pregnancy more so than any other country and since these pregnancies are mostly unplanned, the parents don't usually stay together and then more and more families become divided and more issues come around.
- It's estimated that around 1 in 3 children in the UK have divorced or separated parents.
19/5/16:
Today we had a run through of the first half of the play and even spent some of the session discussing costume. It was a fun day and I'm overall glad about the decisions made.
Development/input:
A change was made to a scene during the first act. In which I have to google student girls partying. Karen thought in the last session that the idea of Colin dancing in that scene wouldn't work although today she changed her mind on it. Now I have to get up and dance in a manner that is similar to when I'm high in act 3 although just more subtle. At first I quite liked this although after the session when talking about the day with my classmates I started to get mixed feelings about it. I feel that the fact he dances to it similar to how he dances later takes away from the impact his dance has later. The dance should be the moment where Colin is finally letting go and showing how he wants to be wild and live more than he has. Also it's meant to be quite contrasting to his subtle singing earlier for some comedic effect. I do however feel that if we just downplay it to something even more subtle so it could have more of a build up since it's meant to be Colin's stand out funny moment while also being symbolic of his arc of confidence finding. This is all being considered mainly from the point of comedic impact although I am looking into my character as well. I'm not really bothered too much because I'm considering the Brechtian style since I'm not supposed to become too invested in him and nor is the audience so from a Brecht perspective this change shouldn't matter at all but I'm just talking from a comedic stand point. I do really like me doing something there such as at first I sing and move and bob my head to the music in a noticeable fashion which I think is great and I am completely up for keeping that in, just not going too far and ruining the other scene. I will discuss this with Karen as soon as possible. Also A minor change is that I must now say what I type into google rather than it being projected.
Today we also discussed the costumes for the characters and this was really fun. My initial idea for Colin's suit in act 4 was quite traditional even though I was considering the Brechtian nature of costume and simplification for Colin's other clothes such as the white jumper with the stripes since he's not exactly innocent but not impure either and the stripes because of how I apparently play him in a more colourful manner than expected but still works. Karen showed me what she thought Colin's suit would look like which was a big sparkly purple jacket and I must admit that I loved it, it actually made me laugh and that's a good thing. When wearing it it made perfect sense in terms of both the characters feeling and arc but also meshes with the style pretty well. It does represent Colin as a role in society, people driven by aspiration or people who just want more and I think that summing that up in one extremely exaggerated detail is great. I also tried on a pair of flared trousers that were found in the costume cupboard but they were far too big for me which is a shame because besides the size they really suited Colin.
Even though Brecht sometimes has the characters costumes represent their role in society it sometimes uses them to simplify a character so I think using it to make it blatantly obvious how Colin wants to be viewed and feel in a visual sense works very well. It sums up his feelings but is distracting enough to the point of not really being too invested with it. Also to hammer this in I was thinking (Although I'm not too sure if it'll work) that I should make him wear sunglasses when he comes out so it just adds more and more to the contrast to the point where it is distracting.
Strengths and weaknesses:
Strengths: A good thing about today was that I noticed for the first 3 acts I'm almost off book. there was only 2 times I can think of where I needed to look at the page and that was at for one line at during the scene with tom and Jasmine and then when I had to read my google search out aloud.
Weaknesses: One thing I noticed today (Or at least had confirmed more so) is the trouble I'll have projecting in the theatre. When Karen gave me feedback on my vocal delivery and general performance she said it was great but a problem she had was that she didn't know whether or not I'd be loud enough for the theatre because I'm generally a subtle actor. This is something I'll have to make sure of next week during the tech rehearsal. I'll make sure to keep doing my vocal warm up and then do my best to project. Another thing was that we didn't get to run act 4 or 5 but that is only due to tight scheduling although I'd still like to have gone over them since we have only been over act 5 once. But thankfully we still have time so I'm confident in the play still. The final issue was that unfortunately we didn't get to do the planned character work today but I think that is just due to the limited time we had although maybe the costume talk was the character work? I don't know as of now but I doubt it.
Problems and solutions:
An issue that I thought of while doing today's run through was that would I have enough time to change into another costume between act one and act 2. I'm assuming that I would only have to put a swimming hat and goggles. Initially I thought that It would go straight from Colin singing "Viva La Vida" to me having to swim but it turns out that the swimming happens at the end of act 2's prologue not before. So hopefully I should have at least two minutes to do it but this just means that I'll have to practice putting them on quickly during rehearsals although and I feel that I can but we'll see. I hope it goes well and flows and doesn't look awkward when I come out.
Aims:
An aim I have for the upcoming days is to learn the song "Deep Water" by Portishead since me and four of the guys dance in the background and also "Viva La Vida" by Coldplay, then I'll see if I'm able to change my costume in time because I do have a few minutes in which to do it. Also the fact we're in the theatre next week means that I want to aim to get my projection to a good level while keeping the tone of voice I have had in rehearsals. I need to keep and take on my performance feedback from last time about looking down when I perform, it happened a couple of weeks ago and it happened a lot through out the devising project. I think it's especially important to make sure I'm looking up this time when I talk outwards to the audience because there's a lot more focus on it in this project and if they can't see my face and what I'm saying or doing then it will affect the experience but not in a good way. The performance is not long away now and I'm very hopeful for it. There are of course a few issues that need resolving, mainly pacing and the technical side of everything that is yet to be arranged but I'm hopeful that I'll meet the demands.
This weeks research links:
http://educationatsignature.blogspot.co.uk/2014/04/influences-and-characteristics-of.html
http://www.oneplusone.org.uk/content_topic/breaking-up/limiting-the-effects-of-separation-on-children/
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-28860/UK-tops-league-teenage-pregnancy.html
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2113026/Its-official-majority-Britains-dysfunctional-families-dad-home.html
http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/earth/water_and_ice/ice_age
http://www.ibtimes.com/arctic-sea-ice-50-thicker-last-year-scientists-didnt-expect-growth-wake-2012-shrinkage-1510902
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