Today we had a complete run through of the production although only with one cast (Liquorice) due to time. Overall it went very well although there were a few familiar problems.
Firstly though I'm happy to say that I think I'm almost there with knowing all my Lysander lines. I managed to get through the whole play without using my script until it got to the last two lines which I have practiced but as is clear by not knowing them off by heart, not enough. I didn't use the script though I just had to be prompted with the first word or so of the sentence but to be honest I'm actually very happy with that since it means I've not got very far to go at all with all my lines. Tomorrow if we run with the Sherbet cast then I'm going to try the same. I'm very confident that I know all of my Theseus and Flute lines. I'm happy with this mainly because I can get to work on applying the verse forms to my text to get the best flow.
Wednesday, 19/10/16:
Today unfortunately I didn't get to do any kind of rehearsing since today was focusing mainly on the singing sequences of which I am only featured in the last one of the play which we have rehearsed the most so we left that one for today. I was asked (as well as the others who don't sing) to go to library and research theatre for children for an upcoming presentation as well as for the production itself. When I got to the library my computer had some technical problems so while I was waiting for it to be fixed I went over my lines but also had a bit of a think about the style. I realised that even though it's been present in my mind and I am aware of the basics of performing for children which I have referenced throughout this, I haven't really done an adequate job of combining the two attempted styles, I'm leaning towards more the Shakespeare side of things as of now and really that needs to change quickly. When I got it home I did some further research into children's theatre in order to get a better understanding of it even though I already understand the basics.
I watched a few clips of the famous children's entertainer Justin Fletcher (Better known as Mr. Tumble) since he's one of the most well known and experienced in the business and he is also in the Cbeebies version of our play so I wanted to look at his performing and see if I got the initial basics correct. My list of basics that I thought for acting in the style is as follows:
- It includes a lot of energetic movement because if you seem bored or too static then it will make them lose interest fairly quickly. This seemed to be correct from any clip I watched even though he wouldn't be running around and waving him arms constantly he'd still put precision and, a bit of speed and energy into his basic movements. One idea we had to try and counteract this is to have as much movement as possible. For example during the scene where the mechanicals are talking and being given their scripts there's overall not much movement so we're adding in background acting and interactions so that there's always some sense of motion and nothing on the stage is really static unless it has to be.
- I thought that in terms of vocal delivery it would have to be slow and clear. This was also confirmed, it was not slow to the point of being in slow motion but just so it's very articulate and easy to understand but with the bouncy voice or a heightened or adapted version of a certain tone you want to portray. When looking at the clips I noticed that they were also taking into account deaf children which made me think that they would adapt their delivery to suit children with disabilities/learning difficulties so that's all the more reason to make everything as clear as possible.
- They feature a lot of singing and dancing to increase the variety of the piece they're watching. Children do have lower attention spans so if you give them more to focus on then you'll keep their attention for longer. Also children do like to feel comfortable and generally love repetition (Since quite a few shows such as "Teletubbies" show clips twice) so having a song which will have repeated verses is a good way to achieve that which this play does.
- Any emotions are exaggerated to the point of being silly and some are changed outright such as you never see someone genuinely angry in one these, it will usually be changed to them being grumpy to play up the humour.
Something he said in an interview I watched of his is that doing children's theatre is important since it's their first experience with the art form and will be the best time to inspire and teach people. I completely agree with this since it's the time when if you like something you'll obsess over it and if you can spark that little bit of interest it'll grow and develop.
Thursday, 20/10/16:
Today we had the run through with sherbet that I thought we were having yesterday before the plans were changed. However before we ran through it we were given a task to help us out with the idea of theatre for children. We had to devise a very short play which summarises "A Midsummer Nights Dream" but in a way that is only for children and to remove the Shakespeare element entirely. This was actually very fun but also quite interesting because it did seem to give me a greater idea of what I might want to include even though I already somewhat knew elements of the style. The first thing we decided on was that we would need to introduce ourselves to help make the audience feel comfortable and we even gave ourselves different and possibly silly names names such as Jared for myself, Billy for Jack A and Dr. Tim for mike etc. We took turns narrating specific segments of the short piece to add a little variety and overall kept it simplistic and short. So if we showed that to children I reckon they would be entertained by it. It did help to try and put some of the features of the style to use.
Something I noticed was that whenever we portrayed a negative emotion such as when we mentioned Oberon's jealousy and anger we would make it silly or seriously overplay it to the point where you couldn't take it seriously at all. We'd just up the body language and make ourselves look pompous and appeal to the comedic potential of the emotion since we didn't want the target audience to get upset or uncomfortable. A primary focus was to keep it up beat, happy and with a lot of energy.
Also after watching some of those clips of Mr. Tumble I realised what I've been aiming for in the dance at the end seems to be correct since I'm encouraging them to join in and interacting with them. This was backed up by a clip of him singing "Heads, shoulders, knees and toes" and his actions throughout it seem to match what I'm doing especially the cheesy smile.
When doing the run through today I tried to embrace the silly humorous side a little more and I noticed a couple of improvements. Firstly I tried upping Theseus's dialogue especially for the first line since that impact needs to be there to get the audiences attention as much as possible. I tried putting emphasis on certain words and made him seem a little a happier and more friendly just by adding a little more energy to this first moment which I feel is appropriate considering the target audience. My change for flute was much better I feel. When we came on as the mechanicals I just improvised and did something silly with my face and just stuck my bottom lip further out. This small change seemed to extend to the rest of him since it seemed to change my voice and physicality to something that seemed a little more along the lines of an enthusiastic child although my voice was still very similar to last time. I also had a thought about Flute's attitude toward it all. Despite his initial disappointment I feel that since he goes along with it at all, he would try his hardest. Since he is a bellows mender which is a fairly boring job he'd probably put up with some embarrassment in order to get somewhere more interesting. I looked up any small character profiles of the characters and one I found does heavily suggest that. It says he is determined so I thought I'd add in a little moment to signify this. When he says "Must I speak now" I'm gonna carry over the enthusiasm he had before he was given his part so it does suggest that in a basic way so that at the very least he'll put up with it. It'll seem like he's now looking forward to doing it since it means something interesting is finally happening to him so he quickly gets on with it. The past couple of rehearsals I've made it that he's a little more comically upset about it somewhat but forced to go along with it which works but what I thought today just seemed to make sense since if it bothered him that much he would've just left so the fact he stayed does mean something. After trying it it did seem to give him more life and energy even though he had some already, the more he has, the better.
Research links:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EbWAos5nnP8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vYACdrBOm2c
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FeNuY5znSHU
http://www.sparknotes.com/shakespeare/msnd/characters.html
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