Contemporary theatre Performance

Wednesday 29th January
Today we looked at a new script for the first time. It's called Scenes from the big picture, its set in Belfast, and the language was quite hard to read at first. We did a read through, but a lot of people didn't want to read. So i ended up reading a few parts. I actually like the script and think i got into it quite quickly. I think the group did well Reading it, and hope we get a chance to perform it soon. I wish we got to perform the full play for a change though.

Wednesday 5th February
Today we read the script again from where we left off. More people read parts, which made it sound much better. I think it was a really good read through, and I want to get a better grasp on what character I'm reading. I like the script, and we have to decide what character we want to read and look into it, I'm thinking of playing Connie, if i can. I'd quite like to challenge myself and double up though, maybe as Teressa. But i think there might be a problem with some of the given directions, such as being groped! I think we can the script off buit might need a lot of work with scenes and props.

Boring day!

Cheryl couldn't make it into tech today so we are in the libary working on blogs and printing them. We are doing the pantomime again for the third time, seeing as Cheryl's child missed it, and everyone wanted her to see it :) we are going to do it on Thursady next week, after that its done :)

Haven't written in ages!

I haven't written anything since October! Got too wrap up in classes and our pantomime. It's now January... 2014. So a little catch up, we dropped mime because the class didn't enjoy it and found it difficult, so now we do movement skills. It's a lot better and we interpreted into our pantomime, so we didn't have to do extra work. We used the dance routines in the pantomime to merge the two subjects, meaning we are marked on our dance and use of body and gestures during the pantomime. I find this much better! It was Sara and Conor (class reps) that brought up the idea to drop mime, and Cheryl's (teacher) who decided to merge the two. It's much better :) Soon after reading the sleeping beauty script, Cheryl gave us our parts, and everyone grew into their characters. Whereas i had began rehearsals as a goblin, our group (goblins) decided that given the time of year and to make the pantomime more fun and christmassy for kids, we decided to be Santa elves! this was a great improvement. costumes were easy to get and the characters were much more likable. I played an elf called snowball, i also got more lines. Being elves helped to add a Christmas feeling to the pantomime, which was nice for the kids. There were some problems with attendance though. Our two lead characters were off quite a lot, meaning we couldn't do some scenes. Our props weren't great, we had to make them out of cardboard. But Cheryl booked us the art room twice and that really helped get them looking better, even if they did fall over a bit! We all had costumes sorted, and i helped Angela a little bit with hers. I sowed together a skirt and crop top, to make a Christmas elf outfit. By the time we knew our lines and had costume sorted we were ready to go, and had our first performance on Wednesday 18th December, for a audience of family, friends and other students. I thought it went well and really enjoyed it. Lines were a little messed up at points and props fell down, and the music was a disaster, but it was really fun and the audience enjoyed it. And I loved doing it! 

Can you say goblin?

Well todays class was really great, it was theatre for children and we went straight into work on the script for our pantomime. Last week the goblins, one of the parts i play, had barely any actions but today had loads! Cheryl kept adding us into scenes, it's good. We worked on the opening dance, which is starting to look like like a drunken spin. We also added in lines and created a scene where all the goblins act as furniture, along with some music to it. We learnt a new dance towards the end, for a later scene, and it actually looked good (woah, i know right?) And we talked about costumes. I brought in two props for scene one and im glad that we are blocking the scenes out now. Can't wait till next week :)

Only in for an hour!

I had an apointment today and could not make it to class until eleven , so i only was there to play a acting game but it  was good to see everyone relaxed and getting into the roles involved with the game.  Pkus it was good to act in front of them, even if only jokingly, it helps build confidence. Anyways, no tech on a tuesdy so I'll write on wedesday :)

Another day late!

In yesterdays class (friday), we began class by reading over monologues sperately, and began to try draw up ideas of how to present them in a modern enviroment. I read as the nurse and hoped to set my monolouge in either a hospital or ansalym. We then went to the libary where we worked on our letters for task one, its hard to get so much information of 1600 into one letter but i enjoy writing. After that we read about Stansvaski and highlighted keypoints, which helped me understand his techniques better. We ended on a few acting games and study of subtext before the end of class, it was a productive day and i enjoyed it :)

Pantomime!

Today in class we had theatre for children where we started the lesson by playing a few warm up games; I always find these help wake the class up. We then paired up and practiced the opening scene for the pantomime, my partner and I have yet to er… get it. But we are getting there! I don’t hate dance, and I like it a lot more then what I did but still find it hard. After the spinning, sorry dancing, we rehearsed scene one we still had scripts so it was a little rocky but I think it’s coming a long well, I have no speaking parts in the first scene but enjoy it anyways as I play a child. Once we (children) were no longer needed on set we went to the green room and worked together to write ourselves a scene as goblins, giving each other characters and practiced our dance, one we were familiar with. It was okay but we ended up with a very short scene, and very little lines, something we all agreed on was to write in more lines after.  I then read through the script to see what props were needed and made a list for the class, I’m hoping to create and provide a good few props, I want to feel useful seeing as I don’t contribute much to the panto  itself. We might need to put some money together for props but will be able to get them some how if we all work together. The guys started working on lighting and projection of sets, which is starting to make the set look better already. I’m really looking forward to rehearsing and adding more to the pantomime :)