Today we made a fair amount of progress on the basic blocking. Thankfully some it was to do with me as Lysander.
Some of us were asked today to help direct the scene being blocked and we had to pick a specific person to critique. I picked Jack A since he's also playing Lysander and we could give each other tips on our performances and see if we could take any inspiration from each other. I was glad to find that I did actually pick up some ideas from watching him. I gave direction on how to say the lines in the scene we have such as, "I had no judgement when love in her I swore". That is a line that needs to be said as with a hint of regret and and a bit of confidence trying to convince Helena that he was wrong in loving her.
I even gave Max (Playing Oberon) some advice about keeping his status in mind. My examples basically suggested that hist posture and actions didn't accurately denote his status as a ruler. His posture was a bit too relaxed and he wasn't standing up straight to show the confidence and in a scene where he laughed he looked down and I suggested that a person of power would usually be depicted looking when laughing. It's just a few minor details which can change how a person is viewed. After noticing all this and telling him I thought that I should apply it to Theseus since Oberon is the other world equivalent of him and I feel that he needs a sense of presence and these subtle features could imply that.
Even though I gave direction on how to perform the scene, when I went to do it, I was fairly bland although I'm putting this down to lack of energy since I had the mind set of the direction I gave but it apparently did not come across.
Sally gave a note of criticism about the fact that some of us are clearly unrehearsed, that some us we are still using our scripts or it seems we're reading our lines for the first times. I'm not sure if this applied to me fully since quite a few of my scenes I'm off book for just not the latter half yet. I will say that as of now though I don't think I'm doing the style much justice
Something I realised today was that I referred to Theseus as an antagonist when that isn't the case. As with the majority of Shakespeare "Villains" they usually have reasons and justifications for what they do and as I've said in Theseus's case it's most likely due to upholding tradition. However I've came to the conclusion he isn't an antagonist just an obstacle since he's not doing anything especially bad with in that culture and he changes his mind at the end suggesting that if it was a belief then it wasn't a very firm one so he ends up making the right decision and also I did find a suggestion online about that if they is a villain in the play it's love itself since it's the root of all the problems and obstacles in the play. I'm personally not sure about that since I feel that love doesn't cause issues it's the other emotions that come about in situations of love such as hatred, prejudice and jealousy that ruin situations like this. To be honest I'd argue that if there is a villain then it's probably Egea since she's the one being stubborn and doing whatever she can to get what she wants such as going to a hierarchy. However that's not exactly the focus of the play especially the version we're putting on. So I think Theseus is just more of a neutral character and like I said is only an obstacle but just happens to have his own beliefs with no real evil intent, just to uphold tradition in his culture.
Wednesday, 12/10/16:
Today we managed to complete the basic blocking of the play. We blocked the few scenes and ran through them with both casts.
The scenes involving me were my final scene as Theseus/Lysander (Depending on the cast) where everything works out. It was pretty good although I will say that since I'm still on script for this scene it's not anywhere near close to done yet and it was fairly awkward when running it, me as Lysander is pretty flat in this scene despite getting a bit better in the other scenes with him.
An issue we came across is how little time we'd have to get changed for the finale. I pointed out that I would have no time since there's only one or two lines between Theseus' last line and Bottoms line. In fact it was so little time that we had to cut my last line and give it to Sparks and Gaffer just to give me a few more seconds. I'm not sure how this could go but we'll have to wait until the dress run to see about that since when trying the dress on for the first time it was not exactly quick. We've also had to extend the moment where bottom wakes up just so we get as long as possible while still keeping a sense of flow to the scenes and their transitions. I will say this will probably be difficult but hopefully will pay off if well timed on our parts.
We were given the same note of criticism as yesterday and I'm still not sure whether it's referring to me or not since I am doing OK with learning my lines but I'm personally not satisfied fully with my performance yet, I think I've got some good ideas but just haven't executed them well yet.
Thursday, 13/10/16:
Today we did two complete runs of the play. I thought I should try out a few different things with my various characters just to if something works better, add some variety or to find something that fits the two styles better. The first change was that I felt a need to try out a different voice for Flute. It's been a fairly deep voice for a while so I changed it to a voice I can only describe as Michael Caine on helium since I've changed the accent to a sort of cockney one and have given it a much higher pitch. I thought this may fit more with the comedic style of it since we're meant to be bumbling fools for the most part and we've already got someone who exudes confidence (Bottom) so I felt it would make more sense. When I first did the voice it got a laugh so for now I think I'm gonna keep it, I may try out a more but I'll give this one another try.
Since I've taken away the deep voice from Flute, I've partially given it to Theseus by giving his voice a slightly lower tone although not too much. I'm doing this to denote his status with an air of simplicity. As of now I'm not too sure if anyone has noticed and I didn't get the chance to do it too much because the thoughts came to me half way through the sherbet run although the brief reactions from some and my personal thoughts seem to think this is a better direction to go with. Also It does help a lot to distinguish the roles so if i go with these voices all three of the character will sound fairly different, I just need to make them seem visually different besides their costumes now.
One thing that wasn't noticed at all was an addition I made to the scene where Lysander says, "To honour Helena and to be her knight". I ride off on a fake horse in a comedic fashion, it was already pretty good since I'm embodying a real sense of confidence and pride but I added something which is a face I make just as I say the line. It's face that implies wanting and shows my ambition and how much faith I have in myself. I do a sort or awkward pout during it and if I could compare it it would be like the face that the actor Kenneth Connor pulls in the "Carry On" films since it's a face that denotes passion when ever he pulls it and I feel that it would be appropriate since it doesn't really symbolise lust, rather eagerness (Which Lysander certainly has) and is funny combined with the moment where I mime riding off on a horse.
Today I was certainly trying to play up my acting especially as Lysander which has been fairly bland in my opinion. As before I've read his lines thinking that there's a lot of passion in everything thing he says, especially to do with love. The moment when I say to Hermia about who I'm in Love with and I'm on one knee, I threw my arm out and projected it more just to add more energy to it so seemed more over the top. I still think I could go a little further and I was still unfortunately reading my script which I feel did weaken the moment a little. But other than that I feel it's picking up and coming together more. The energy is almost there I just need a little more. A focus soon should be on making that moment sound sound better since it sounds a little awkward and I have a feeling that when he says the line "Who more engilds the night than all you fiery oes and eyes of light." he's trying to make that sound beautiful in an attempt to possibly charm Helena. This means that he might intentionally say this line in a very slow and and be extra articulate with a real degree of passion in each word. So I tried it like that and I think it's quite an improvement.
One issue we have that we definitely need to sort out was the final transition from the play to the dance. It's pretty bad. For sherbet I have to get across the stage as everyone is getting into place and since we haven't fully blocked a transition yet it's pretty messy. The scene before and the scene after are fine but they just don't flow together yet. It's not really an issue for liquorice since I'm already off stage and can just come on from the other side although due to the run through stopping and starting I'm not sure of the timing but the issue of a mess of people trying to get into place can be resolved we just need to go over the transition properly. The dance itself for now is fine but getting to it does need some work. I'm trying to play out to the audience and get them involved and not just dance like they aren't there I feel that would take away from the sense of fun that the play is supposed to have. It's also the best way to end it in my opinion, with a reassuring ending that directly involves them joining the action by clapping along so we need to encourage them and if we don't acknowledge or look like we care about them they won't care as much as they should.
Research Links:
http://www.shmoop.com/midsummer-nights-dream/antagonist.html
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