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Theatre Week 31-

5/30/2015

This last week of theatre classes has been a bit messy, seeing as though Mr P has been away, we used that time to just keep practising until we get to perform our realism plays on Friday. I feel as though Tanner and I made a really good team, this past week we mainly focused on blocking our performance in the theatre space. We practised with a wine bottle, when I try to stop him from drinking and the part when I get the cheese out of the sideboard.
Considering we had more time to practise it because the performance date was pushed back, when it came to performing on Friday i think we did quite well. I was extremely nervous but i thought the outcome was decent. I was really proud of Tanner because he learnt all his long lines and he did really well.

Theatre Class 30-

5/18/2015

In today’s theatre class, Brit hosted the lesson and we started with a warm up. It was an energy exercise, focusing on feeling others energy around you. Then we played this game which I like to call ‘energy bounce’ , where we had to go towards someone in the room and they would do the same to another person (copying their energy) but the action changes every time. In a sense this game was kind of like silly circle. Then we dispersed into our realism performance groups and worked on them for the rest of the double. Tanner and I were trying to focus on adding more emotion to our lines, seeing as though it’s quite a depressing scene. Brit came and critiqued us, she suggested that we take advantage of the space a bit more when Astrov is ranting, and that perhaps I could be more physically demanding when I beg Astrov not to drink. All and all, I feel as though our scene is a bit long, and Brit suggested that we cut some lines. Which we may next class on Wednesday.

Theatre Class/Week 29-

5/18/2015

Tuesday: Tuesday we didn’t have a class due to the morning being taken up by a study skills session.

Thursday: Thursday’s class was a single lesson at the end of the day. It started with the left over monologue performances from people that didn’t do them on last Friday’s class. There were a few to get through so it took up most of the lesson. When they were concluded Brit talked to us about our realism performances, she said to get into pairs. I’m in a duologue with Tanner, and the Chekhov realism play we’re doing in from ‘Uncle Vanya’. We had a little time to read over our scene in the library.

Friday: Friday’s theatre class we played a game. At first we had to act how we would really act if we were looking for something or had lost something. Then Brit announced that she has actually hidden five dollars in the room, and we all were franticly looking for it, until I FOUND IT!!!!!!!!! I didn’t want to keep it though because I felt bad. The point of the exercise was to use real life actions that you might do, in realism. For example, when you look for something do you get on your knees and look under furniture or do you shake clothing items? Then use it. For the rest of the lesson we went to the Library to do some more script analysis on our plays.

Theatre class 27 & 28

5/7/2015

Wednesday: Wednesday’s class was a single lesson, in which we had more time to memorize our monologues. I used this time to just read mine over and over again, and by the end of the lesson I had the first half memorized. I chose a longish monologue because I wanted to challenge myself and I usually have no trouble forgetting lines. My full monologue is this…

Even or odd, of all days in the year,
Come Lammas-eve at night shall she be fourteen.
Susan and she.God rest all Christian souls!.
Were of an age: well, Susan is with God;
She was too good for me: but, as I said,
On Lammas-eve at night shall she be fourteen;
That shall she, marry; I remember it well.
'Tis since the earthquake now eleven years;
And she was wean'd,.I never shall forget it,.
Of all the days of the year, upon that day:
For I had then laid wormwood to my dug,
Sitting in the sun under the dove-house wall;
My lord and you were then at Mantua:.
Nay, I do bear a brain:.but, as I said,
When it did taste the wormwood on the nipple
Of my dug and felt it bitter, pretty fool,
To see it tetchy and fall out with the dug!
Shake quoth the dove-house: 'twas no need, I trow,
To bid me trudge:
And since that time it is eleven years;
For then she could stand alone; nay, by the rood,
She could have run and waddled all about;
For even the day before, she broke her brow:
And then my husband.God be with his soul!
A' was a merry man.took up the child:
'Yea,' quoth he, 'dost thou fall upon thy face?
Thou wilt fall backward when thou hast more wit;
Wilt thou not, Jule?' and, by my holidame,
The pretty wretch left crying and said 'Ay.'
To see, now, how a jest shall come about!
I warrant, an I should live a thousand years,
I never should forget it: 'Wilt thou not, Jule?' quoth he;
And, pretty fool, it stinted and said 'Ay.'

Friday: In today’s theatre class we started with a warm up. First we shook it out and then we did vocal exercises such as riddles (My mother makes me mash my minny m & m’s on a Monday morning) and (how much would a woodchuck chuck? If a wood chuck could chuck wood?). Then we were giver 25 minutes to get ourselves sorted. I quickly got my costume on and practised in front of the changing room mirror plenty of times. My actual performance we well I think considering I only had a week to learn it. I stumbled on one line but I think I recovered fairly well. Then after the performances were over, Brit gave us a quick introduction to Realism Theatre.

Theatre class 26-

5/5/2015

In today’s theatre class we started the lesson with a warm up of shake it out and Shakespeare SAH. Then we got stuck into preparing our monologues for Friday. I chose a Nurse monologue from Romeo and Juliet, I’m not worried about forgetting my lines because I’m pretty good at memorizing text. I am more worried that I’ll have to improvise my blocking on Friday because in the original, Nurse is actually talking to Juliet and Lady Capulet. I copied the translation text from the internet, so I have a pretty good understanding of what my character is going on about, basically she’s just telling stories about Juliet when she was younger, being reminiscent and repeating herself allot. After I had gone through my script allot, worked on my spacing and voice, Maggie and I decided to have a peek at possible costumes for our performances. I found this big ugly nursy labcoaty looking thing which was good enough for me. Afterwards Maggie and I critiqued each other’s works in progress. We then noticed a silence fall around us, and soon realised that a group that didn’t get to perform last Friday were performing their duologue. We snuck in to watch it at perfect timing. I hope I’ll be ready to perform on Friday, it’s just a matter of memorizing and putting effort into it.

Theatre class 24 & 25-

4/30/2015

Thursday: Thursday’s theatre class was our last single lesson to perfect our performances befor our actual performance day. So naturally we ran through ours over and over again. We practised both in drama works and in the theatre to be comfortable in each space because we weren’t sure which one we would be performing in. We had our lines remembered and were feeling pretty confident by the time the bell went.

Friday: In today’s theatre class, Mr Patterson gave us about 20-30 minutes to get prepared before we performed. My group and I quickly put our costumes on and practised over and over to make sure we dint stuff up. When it came to the actual performance it’s safe to say we were all pretty nervous. As a whole I think we did really well considering that we chose ours last Friday, there were a couple hick ups but we recovered well. Stay tuned for a Shakespeare duologue and monologue performance analysis.

Theatre Class 23

4/27/2015

In today’s theatre class we started the lesson by a warm up consisting of ‘Shake it out” and a round of Shakespeare SAH. Then we set off to our groups, for our final double class of working on our duologues. Today my group covered blocking and we pretty much had our lines memorized. We practised it over and over, adding new details as we went. Mr Patterson and Brit came past to critique our work. Some things they said we could approve on are that we (doctor and maid) shouldn’t stand so close to Lady Macbeth and to be more confident with lines. Once we had practised over and over again, we fled in search of a candle prop. We found something perfect in the prop room, it was a perfectly old fashioned candle. Then we practised our performance in the theatre space to make use of where we will actually perform. Then we headed to the costume room in search of a maid costume, a doctor costume and a Lady Macbeth nightgown. Even though Mr Patterson said that costumes are compulsory, we feel as though costumes but us in character and help add status to a character. We performed again and again, then Mr Patterson and Brit watched us again, and made to observation that the maid and doctor shouldn’t link arms at the end, and that we should have different levels on stage for our different characters.

Thearte Class /Week 22-

4/23/2015

Tuesday: On Tuesday’s double lesson of theatre studies class, we began to put into practise our understanding of Shakespeare language. Mr Patterson wrote on the board the correct way to perform Shakespeare monologues. We then did an activity in which we would slap our hand on our leg every two syllables of Shakespeare lines. The purpose of this activity was to get a feel for the beat and rhythm of Shakespeare’s language. We then were sent to the library to photocopy scripts. My group which consists of Maggie, Raine and myself had a bit of trouble finding a new script that had three roles that had evenly distributed lines. Seeing as though we weren’t doing the witches from Macbeth anymore, we decided on a nurse, lady Capulet and Juliet scene from Romeo and Juliet. But of course after we had photo copied that scene we realised that Capulet was also in it, and we don’t have a fourth person. Our struggle continued until…

Wednesday: On Wednesday’s theatre class, it was only a single lesson so we played a game called ‘kick the box’. We had to pick a chunk out of a Shakespeare text, which had four lines. Actually this game is more like ‘kick the mattress’, because on the last word of each line we had to kick the mattress, whilst two peers held it on either side. The purpose of this exercise was to add emphasis to certain words when performing Shakespeare. Maggie and I then proceeded to the library at lunch time, where we searched the depths of Shakespeare threesomes (in search for a better word). We finally found a scene from Macbeth with the doctor, Lady Macbeth and Gentlewomen, in act 5 scene 1. Yay!

Friday: In today’s theatre class we played a game of Shakespeare Sah, half way through the game Mr Patterson added a new phrase “The chalice has been poisoned!” and then we all make chocking noises. Then we got straight into our plays and choosing monologues. I chose the nurse’s monologue from Romeo and Juliet where she goes on about how she raised Juliet. I feel as though our group made allot of progress with in the time we had today and if we all learn our lines in time we should be fine to perform in a couple of weeks.

Theatre class 21-

4/17/2015

Today’s theatre class was a productive one. Mr Patterson started the class by talking about the link that he put on Daymap that held all the possible Elizabethan duos we could eventually perform. I tried to find it, however was unsuccessful because I’m rather technologically challenged. Then we got up as a class and started our warm up with a classic game of ‘shake it out’ which hurt my face. I found myself rather confused when the circle started playing a game that I didn’t learn due to my absence the previous class. Thus I kind of got the gist of it as the game went on, what I gathered was that it’s an Elizabethan/Shakespearean version of SAH.

While we were in the circle, Mr Patterson handed out slips of paper with different lines on them from a variety of Shakespeare plays. We took turns reading them out, mine was “Et Tu, Brute! Then fall, Caesar.” We then had five minutes to think of actions to our lines and hence we each performed our fatal death scene. For my death, I wasn’t entirely sure how Julius Caesar died, but I interpreted like he was on the edge of a cliff and stabbed himself in the heart and fell off the cliff. After we all performed individually, we placed ourselves in the drama works space in our death positions, then one after another died, whilst Mr Patterson filmed it.

We then got into partnerships, my partner was Maggie and we had a brief discussion of which Shakespeare skit we wanted to perform. We decided on a witches scene from Macbeth, because it’s something different and seeing as though Raine wasn’t here today, she is going to be our third witch, weather she likes it or not. Mr Patterson proceeded us to the library where we read though some Macbeth and watched a few YouTube videos.

Theatre class 20/Commedia delarte performance reflection-

3/23/2015

In today’s theatre class, we started with a warm up, first we shook it out then a quick and confusing game of ‘Want some spaghetti?’ and finished our warm up with ‘Give me back my son!’.
We had 20 minutes to get ourselves sorted with our groups, and have a final rehearsal before our Commedia performances. I felt as though we really needed those last minutes to prepare and add a few adjustments to our Lazzi.
Then when it came time to perform it’s safe to say I was very nervous. Other plays were very good and I was anxious that we wouldn’t live up to them.
Performance reflection: I feel as though overall our performance was good, there were a few laughs here and there that were an indicator that the audience enjoyed watching it. The highlights of the performance were mostly Benji’s lines ‘Let me be the knife that penetrates you!’, the fact that Raine was so nervous and looked so small next to me, rounded up a few laughs and the fact that I feel that we portrayed our characters well. If I could change one thing it would be that I didn’t get so nervous before performances, because I stuffed up my lines a little bit at the start. I felt as though we worked quite well together as a group, Benji, Zac, Raine and myself are all friends outside of school and I think that helped, because we weren’t scared to talk to each other about changes that needed to be made. We fed off each other for advice and made each other better.

As for the expressive skills aspect of the performance, our overall voices were loud and projected, although I feel as though Raine’s volume was restricted due to the fact that her mask was too big for her face. Our facial expressions were on point, as well as our gestures because I feel like we nailed the characters physicality. Our movement was decent, I feel like we used the space well.

Overall I think Commedia is really fun to play around with and have fun with. Everyone’s performances were very good and I thoroughly enjoyed watching them and performing ours.