Performance

Performance

We arrived at room 413 at 4:20pm the latest. Our first performance started at 5:00pm so we had to arrive 40 minutes early in order to have time to warm up and get into costume. As soon as we got to the spare room for unnecessary items, we got changed into costume straight away and headed to the big theatre room to start our warm ups. Ms Lee took charge of our warm ups. We included vocal warm ups and physical warm ups. One was an exercise where we had to lie still on our backs in neutral on the floor, we had to project our voices to the ceiling saying "ahh". This was not an exercise to see who can shout the loudest or a game. It was a exercise to help warm up our voices and to practice our projection before we went and performed. By doing theatre, you need to understand that you have to project your voice. It's no good being an actor on stage and not being able to project. Your audience needs to be able to hear you! This was a great exercise to do because it helped us with projection. This vocal exercise is definitely my favourite vocal one because its so calming and peaceful. It's similar to meditation and it helps me to just focus on my voice and posture instead of thinking about my other acting techniques, for example; facial expressions, body language, gestures and the tone of my voice. I just have to focus on projection and my breathing and I love this.

Another warm up we did was a physical one which helped us wake up our bodies that had just been sitting in a chair in our previous lesson. We rolled our bodies down to the floor, starting with our heads then all the way so our arms dangled down and our hands touched our feet. We then rolled our spine up until we were standing tall and straight again in neutral. This is my favourite physical stretch because yet again it is very calming and relaxing and it helps stretch every inch of my back/ body so we are ready, relaxed for performing.

After our warm ups we got into positions ready for our audience who were waiting in the Foyer. I was really nervous to start but i was so excited at the same time. We were scene five, so we had while until they came upstairs to our scene. We were looking out the window to see when our audience left scene four which was out at the big tree near the main entrance. Once we saw through the small window in one of the theatre rooms that our audience had left scene 4, we walked quickly over to the scenes taking place in the room next to ours (scenes 6,7,8 and 9) and told them to be quiet now as our audience are downstairs. Then we quickly moved into our opening positions ready to perform our scene.

Multimedia used in the performance
1.     Live feed
2.     TV, pre-recorded videos
3.     garage band (voice recordings)
4.     mobile phones

How did multimedia enhance the overall performance? 
Multimedia help us to perform our show in  a unique and more interesting way. It helped show a different side of theatre and created tension in the audience at some points, for example; when one group used live feed it could have made the audience feel tension as they didn't know where to look so they had a choice on where to focus their attention on. either the live acting or the live feed. It gave our audience the choice to look at different sides of our performance which enhanced our overall piece as a company.

What impact do you think it had on the audience and why?
I think it had different effects on different people. From the information I gathered from various parents afterwards the feeling differed. mainly it was a good opinion of our show which was great
! people loved how we incorporated multimedia in our play and thought it was interesting and a different way to approach theatre, a way the had never experienced before. They also agreed that they like how we set our show in promenade. They thought it was exciting to keep on moving around the school to see different scenes of Antigone. however I think that some people would have preferred to be seated and thought that the piece was quite confusing and didn't really understand the story-line. However overall I think the use of multimedia opened up people's views on theatre because it was something unique.

Would the performance have been as effective without the multimedia?
Perhaps if we didn't have the play as a promenade it may have been as effective, however because it was, I don't think it would have been as effective without the multimedia because i think it could have became boring.

Which moment of multimedia was most effective and why?
I really enjoyed the live feed used in our performance. this was because it was more effective for the audience to watch because they had a choice of what they could focus on.

Scenes from Antigone:	Multimedia used and locations	How did the multimedia in each scene enhance the performance?
1. Creon announces that Eteocles will be honoured and Polynices will be shamed and left un-buried.	Video to be shown on screen in reception.	Showed the Audience a different side of creon through a tv screen instead of live acting.
2. Antigone goes to Ismene to persuade her to assist the burial of their brother. Ismene refuses.	By the tree - video shown of the thoughts of the characters.	Showed the audience the inner thoughts of the characters instead of us using direct address and coming out of our characters to talk to the audience.
3. Antigone goes to bury her brother.	Round of wooden stumps.	Set the scene well of where Polyneices was buried looked realistic
4. Creon looks for the support of the chorus of Theban Elders in his  decision to leave Polynices unburied.	Creon announces from fire escape door of 415 - chorus round the tree looking up. Audience looking up also.	Using the speaker enhanced our use of levels and was more captivating for the audience to watch
5. A Sentry reports the burial of Polynices. Creon insists that the Sentry finds out who or face death.	Filmed footage of event is shown on screen top of stairs. Sentry talking to Creon.	Gave the audience the opportunity to witness what happened previously opened their minds to the world of theatre.
6. Chorus sing about honouring gods.	From the yard up to windows of 413 Recorded chorus played.	Pre-recorded voice recording. Shocked the audience because they wasn’t expecting a recording to be played, they were expecting the actors to shout from the courtyard
7. Sentry returns with the Culprit: Antigone. Creon confronts her.	Burst into 413 - audience turn to see. Lighting used.	Lighting used helped create effect and tension
8. Creon confronts Ismene. Ismene tries to confess but Antigone won't allow it. And in the end, the two sisters are imprisoned.	Still in 413 but Creon live speaks to a projected Ismene. Antigone is walked out the room and joins the real Ismene - escorted off. Lighting used	Lighting used helped create effect and tension
9. Haemon both pledges allegiance to his father, Creon, and asks that Antigone be spared. After the discussion deteriorate, Haemon storms out vowing never to speak to him again.	Traverse in 413 - iphone lights as the two talk. Throughout confrontation, lights go out, one by one.	The iphone lights gave a different effect instead of lighting used from the stage, instead we incorporated our everyday technology. This was unique for the audience to watch
10. Creon chooses to spare Ismene, and to bury Antigone alive. As she is dragged out, the chorus express their Sorrow.	One light left on Creon's face. Sound of s body being dragged...etc. Projection and video used	Video clip was used which enhanced our performance as it lifted the scene and made it even more interesting as it was a different approach to tell the story.
11. Tiresias attempts to advise Creon that what he is doing is wrong and that the Gods are angry. The prophecy of a dead son is mentioned.	Tiresias never moves his mouth but what he says coupled with weird underscore is played through speakers of 415. Projected video played	Video clip was used which enhanced our performance as it lifted the scene
12. The chorus, terrified, begs him to take Tiresias' advice. Shaken, Creon agrees to release Antigone and bury Polynices.	As many chorus as possible fill cavities of 415 and urge Creon. Three doors and side grated window thing.	As a company we made the play enhance further by creating tension by gathering in one room and making it cramped to the audience therefore they thought they were involved in the show. Use of promenade theatre.
13. Chorus deliver a choral ode to the god Dionysus.
14. Messenger informs Eurydice of Haemon and Antigone's death.	Filmed footage on repeat of Haemon stabbing himself and Antigone hanging, swinging from a branch.	Repetition gave the thought to the audience that what happened in this Greek Tragedy was terrible and it was really quite sad. Enhanced tension
15. Carrying the body of his dead son Haemon, Creon is then met by a 2nd messenger informing him of Eurydice's death.	Audience back outside looking at tree. Creon walking through the courtyard, holding Creon, confronted by messenger at the tree. Chorus look down from 415.	Gave the moral: Treat people how you would like to be treated because the pain you caused others could come back around to you

Thursday 30th April 2015

Today is the day of the performance. Today's three hours of theatre was our dress rehearsal and last preparation time for our show this evening. The tickets have been sold out for both performances.

We did our warm ups like normal and we got into costume straight away for our dress rehearsal. In my scene I am a Guard for Creon and a News reporter so I wore a white dress shirt, a black tie, black ray-bands, black leggings, black socks and black shoes. Underneath I wore a black t-shirt for our chorus parts, therefore when we went to do our chorus scene I could easily just take off my dress shirt and tie and have my black t-shirt underneath ready to perform. Everyone put our bags in a spare theatre room and Miss locked it shut so we could leave everything we didn't need in that room, so that the dress rehearsal was as similar to what it will be later in the afternoon for our performance.

We all got into position and ran our scene over and over again to try and get it to perfection. After we done this, we ran over our chorus scenes again until we got them to a perfection as well. We needed to make this performance just as good as our previous two, if not even better! Afterward once we were confident what we were doing and made sure we made some chorus agreements, we got into position to perform it to the Year 11's.

After we performed this to the Year 11's we talked to each other what to do to improve. It was good to have the Year 11's as our practice audience because we got to perform to an actual audience, which let us experience how it would be later. Performing to an audience also gave us the opportunity to see if the multimedia work ed and to see if their was any technical difficulties we needed to fix also to see what our audience thought of our show.

Once the Year 11's had left our teachers gave us feedback on what they thought worked well, what they enjoyed and what they thought perhaps didn't, and what they thought needed to be improved. We were very grateful for this chance to perform in front of an audience because it gave us a chance to know what to expect and to receive some feedback.

Monday 27th April 2015

This lesson Roseby came back from Spain! we were so happy because this was the deadline of filming. We needed to film today.

After our usual warm ups, which helped us to relax, focus and calm our minds and bodies, we immediately got into costume and went outside to film our multimedia section we will be including in our scene. We decided to film our piece near the smoking area, at the stumps on the grass. This was because the grass was patchy and looked old, which would relate well with the Greek era our play is set in. We got some stones and spread them on the floor. We got mud from the ground and spread it on Roseby's skin (because she was Polynieces dead on the floor) and we used some red lipstick to spread on her skin as well to make it look like blood. we smudged it in so it looked more realistic. It didn't matter if it didn't look completely real because the video is going to be in black and white and also Roseby won't be up close to the camera, so therefore, from far away it will look realistic. Roseby laid on the grass wearing all black and I played Antigone and wore all black with a red cardigan (all Antigone's had to wear something red which will show the audience that they are Antigone). Benji was the camera man and Jake was the props man, designer and director of the scene. We recorded Antigone finding Polynieces dead body on the hard ground, and we recorded her burying him and covering him with the gravel and a white sheet. It also showed her praying and mourning over his dead body. It was a silent video. We had decided to make the video looik as if it was CCTV footage of the 'criminal' burying Polynieces. Benji offered to edit the video at home ready for the performance day on Thursday.

Later on in the lesson we ran over the chorus sections to make sure we knew what we were doing. But still we didn't even know our chorus lines! We had to run over the lines again and Miss helped us. This time we spent learning lines by repeating it over and over again really helped us because it was useful to just spend some time learning lines we didn't know. Repeating it many times helped it to stick into my brain. After we had the lines set in our brains we ran over the movement, which we seemed to remember, thank goodness! As actors we have to be able to learn our lines!

This lesson was very productive, we managed to film our multimedia section as well as the rest of the class. I'm starting to get really excited for our performance it's only in 3 day now.

Thursday 23rd April 2015

This lesson we focused on script learning and walked through what we will be doing next Thursday.

To start off the lesson we began by warming up our voices and bodies. One warm up we included today was chewing toffee where we opened and stretched our mouths and faces as much as we possibly could. This is a good exercise because it helps us to awaken ourselves and our faces so we are ready to use our facial expressions when acting. This is also good because it helps to release tension in your face. We walked around the room saying lines from the chorus section. As a group we had to speak as a whole and start moving and stop moving as a whole. This started off as difficult because there was so many people in the room with so many different minds and at first we found it hard to start talking together and we also found it hard to start moving together. However as the time went on and we kept getting better and better. We realized that not only one person was to try and take charge and be the leader, but we all had to work together and move in sync without waiting for someone to move first, or perhaps moving first yourself because you thought you had the power to move everyone. This was a great exercise to do because it helped us to connect as a group and it helped us to bring each other closer as it was more of a mind connection instead of acting.

After we took part in these warm ups, we split into our small groups and we talked through what we were doing in our scene. My group, Benji Jake and I (only us three because Roseby was away) talked through how we can improve our acting. So we told each other what we thought they could do better to help each other. This was a good thing for me because it helped me to see what other people thought of my acting and i found out what they thought was good and how I can improve. It helped me to see what the audience think of my character, therefore I could improve and make my acting better. After our group talked through this we decided, to look at Jake's big speech because her had a lot to say and didn't know what some of it meant. So us three sat down in our rehearsal space and looked at our scripts together, and help Jake understand his dialogue more. Later, once we had finished studying Jake's monologue, we ran our scene through a couple of times until it was time to go back into class.

When we went back into class, Miss Lee informed us that we will be doing a walk through on our performance. We all got up and headed to where the first scene took place. The foyer. It was Amaia, Louie, Matilda and Aaron's scene. They talked us through what was happening in the scene and what it was about, they also showed us staging and how they were incorporating multimedia. We then moved onto scene two, they talked us through their staging and multimedia. We went to scene 3,4,5 (my scene), 6 etc and learnt about our peers' work and how they had set their pieces. This was a good opportunity to see everybody's work and give them feedback as well as understanding how our play looked and how it was set out.

This lesson was great, I really enjoyed looking at everyone's pieces and what creative things they had created and decided to use in their scene.

Monday 20th April 2015

This lesson we started off by doing our usual warm ups (which included voice warm ups as well as physical warm ups; such as walking around the room and speaking as a group) to get us ready for the active lesson we had set in front of us. It's always good to warm up before we start theatre because it helps us to become focused, calmed, disciplined, young actors.

After we finished our warm ups we practiced our small group scenes. (Benji, Jake Roseby and I). This lesson our group focused on learning our lines and shortening part of the script as it was quite long. Our group was a bit smaller this lesson and will be on Thursday as well because Roseby is enjoying a lovely time in Spain with her Spanish exchange student. However without Roseby, we seemed to add to our piece even further and enhanced our characters as well to make it more interesting to the audience so the scene didn't become boring. We also incorporated our background props into our scene to create levels. We used a cabinet, a desk and two chairs. One chair and desk for Jake, and one chair for Roseby, I had the cabinet. I decided to use the cabinet to sit on to include more levels to make the scene look more different and abnormal. Using the locker makes the wall above me look like a t.v screen so it makes me and Roseby look as if we are inside the television, this was a good adaptation to our piece because we are now using and taking advantage of all the area we have allocated. We ran over our scene a for the rest of the time we had. This addition to our piece made our scene more interesting and captivating to the audience. It made the set more dynamic.

After we improved and ran over our small scenes in our groups we went over the chorus work we set.We noticed that some parts we set we could not remember. Therefore we had to go over it again to remember what we had set already. We worked on working in a chorus which is a good way to develop our acting skills. This is because we will be able to trust each other and will work on trying to be in sync with other actors, to do this we need to have a feeling between us where we can connect and know when to speak and move as a whole.

We briefly talked over our multimedia side of the performance and how we will use garage band to edit our speaking for the chorus part out in the courtyard. As mentioned before in a previous blog we have already recorded a dialogue as a group in one of the theatre rooms, which will be edited and played through speakers during the chorus outside. We also discussed when we would film our pieces we needed to film for our small group scenes. As Roseby was away we had to wait until next week to film our piece. We were excited to use multimedia in our lesson because it was something new and different that we hadn't been introduced to before.

This lesson was productive because it helped us not only finish staging our show but it also helped us to develop our acting skills even further to make us even better at acting, which is what we have come to the BRIT School to study.

Monday 13th April 2015

Multimedia lesson

This lesson we started off the lesson by doing our usual warm ups (which included voice warm ups as well as physical warm ups; such as walking around the room and speaking as a group) to get us ready for the active lesson we had set in front of us. It's always good to warm up before we start theatre because it helps us to become focused, calmed, disciplined, young actors.

Later in this lesson we focused on the Chorus work of our play. Later on in the lesson we joined all together in room 413 and Mr Crowthe introduced us to a chorus piece we will all be performing together. Mr Crowthe had already prepared our actions for the Chorus text and he taught us what to do. We worked as a whole class which helped us to develop communication skills and helped us to become disciplined and connected as a class. This was interesting to work as a whole company as we had to move at the same time which was quite hard but I learnt that you have to make sure you are aware of the whole classes movements not just your own or one other persons. In groups we had to create our own repetitive piece which was relevant to our line we were given. My group's line had the words "wild animals" in and so we decided to create a piece around animals. This was a good chance to let out our creativity and create a section of our own. It helped us develop communication, listening and group skills.

We kept the actions subtle to the text so the we are not likely to forget our movements and so that there is not too much going on for the audience to take in. We were informed that we would be having the recording of the script coming from the speakers outside as our chorus piece will be performed outside. We wouldn't have to talk as a whole whilst doing our group actions, instead we took a voice recording  of the text and Ms Goodall will edit it on garage band so it can be played loudly outside.

Later on- after the break- we were given another section of chorus work from our script. Ms Ballam helped us with setting this. We were spilt into three groups in the class. I was group two. However we were mixed together so a part of every group was scattered around the room. We were given lines to say in our group and as a whole and actions as well. This further improved our group work and visual/social awareness. In one section of the chorus work, we have to connect by any body part to another person in the class. This helped us to become more comfortable with different members of the class.

We practised this chorus parts for a while to try and perfect them however, we are not quite there yet. Next lesson, we will be looking at how to improve working and moving as a group.

Women in Greek Theatre

Notes I took on the video of Women in Greek Theatre:

• Women were seen but not heard. They didn't have their own voice to speak with. hey had to stay quiet and obey what they were told to do.
• Women were not involved in Greek theatre it was written by men, performed by men and watched by men who were in a higher class of society who viewed and treated women poorly.
• There were powerful women characters in plays but they would always be played b a man.
• Women were viewed as annoying and weak however they were important o society as they would produce children and organised the religious city events