Evaluation

   Evaluation
     What Went Well

• Articulation
• Staying in role
• Reacting and listening to others
• Knowing and showing my character's objectives
• Showing feelings my character has
• Using physical theatre
• Projection
• Eye contact with audience
• Confident

     Even Better If

• Relaxing
• Stress
• Knowing my character overall
• Focus
• Hand gestures

In conclusion, I would say that the show we performed today was a great success. Though our scenes could have been developed further they also showed great progress from starting this term and finalising it. In my opinion, I have most certainly achieved my goals for the duration of this term and will hope to further my skills during my time at this school.

Theatre H/W - Pairs Review

Pairs Review

Unit 3 - Lesson 4

Lesson 4 - Character's Objectives
In this lesson we focused on finalizing our performances as we ran through every scene that our acting class had. One of the improvements that we were told about was linking ourselves with the character's objectives in the scene. Our group was told about the effect "Objectives" before this situation happened and learned that if you know what your character wants in the scene then you can connect with them even more and emphasise the character to the audience. Through body language and voices our groups were showing a drastic change in their performances and some of which created professional and high quality scenes. This is because they were showing the objective of the character by movement and vocals, my group also did the same and I will explain some of the techniques we used to illustrate this effect.    

One of the ways we connected with our characters was through physical movement. Instead of standing or sitting with a blank expression while my partner was speaking her part of the scene, I reacted to more or less every sentence she said. I could feel within me that my character's overall objective in the performance was to stay together with Sephy for as long as possible. For example, I showed pain in my body and facial expressions after the sentence that my partner stated, "...your a Nought and I'm a Cross and we can never be together...", as I felt it would reveal or make clearer to the audience that Sephy and Callum wanted to stay together no matter what, which is also Callum's objective. A second way we achieved this is the approach we took to setting up and staging our scene. We decided to split them up like the Noughts and Crosses with Callum sitting, facing away from Sephy of which was standing and looking towards Callum approximately 3 meters apart. However, the separation of the characters during this scene created an aura of lust and want for each other and emphasised that their love would be on another level and never taken down. On the other hand, we showed we are also desperate for each other in the scene and scared that society, the way it is at the moment, would never accept this true love. 

In conclusion, all three of these aspects revealed our character's main objectives and overall created a distinction worthy performance. All I can hope now is that our scene during the live event is the best it can be, with rehearsal and practice, I'm hopeful it will be.         

Unit 3 - Lesson 3

Lesson 3 - Overview
In this lesson, in simplified terms, for the most amount of time I rehearsed together with my partner about our specific scene in the Noughts and Crosses production. Moreover, we continued to learn a variety of acting skills such as breath control or articulation, which are both significant in the way of performance and, overall, taking a step closer to my long term goal.

Firstly, as always, our director brought together the actors and actresses for our starting vocal and physical warm ups, of which are very important extremely in our situation. We need every piece of help we can get before our rehearsal's and performances, warming up is just one of the ways we actors achieve this. After our voices have been exercised, we joined together with another pair of eager actors to aid each other in improving our skills. We were able to achieve this in an effective way, while the other pair was performing their scene we judged what went well in their performance and what could be improved on, the other group then did the same to us while we were performing. Together, with both groups evaluated, we decided to conclude each other's performances with a grade for our tasks. Me and my partner were fortunate enough to be awarded a distinction for our scene. This has definitely reassured me with my acting skills and my ability in confidence has surely become stronger.

Taking on board the improvements and details the other pair gave us during our evaluation, we decided to practise and put the positive actions into affect and negate the negatives in our scene. Feeling more confident and with the help from Monday's performance our group discussed our scene and replaced old actions with new and improved versions allowing us to secure a high merit to a possible distinction.

Nearing the end of our Theatre session we were given targets to aid us in finalizing our classes performances. On this sheet included what we improved from the session and what we could improve the next time. My goals were to link my characters feelings with my body language and to make my character's overall "target" in my performance as visible as possible to the audience. Furthermore, I added to the list of improvements eye contact to the audience and sustaining movement throughout my scene.   

Unit 3 - Lesson 2

Lesson 2 - Technical Terms
In this lesson we focused on the technical terms for our voices. During this time we learned about the seven following styles of projection that go into our voices when we are performing. The first term was "Sound and Silence". Our director, Ms Lee, showed us that pausing when we are speaking towards the audience or another actor can be extremely effective. For example, pausing at a negative moment in the scene or line can emphasise the emotion the actor is trying to portray. The opposite can be said for the "Sound" section. An example of this may be when the actor/actress is showing a more positive feeling towards the audience such as a birthday party where there is lots of noise and, all in all, sound. The second section of the seven terms is "Pitch". Pitch can aid in expressing an actor's emotion of the character he is playing. For example, a higher pitched voice usually occurs in the emotion love or happiness, furthermore, a lower pitched voice can express the emotion anger or hate. A significant term out of the seven is "Pace". Pace is used to express almost any event that an actor finds himself in. Weather he may be in an argument at the train station, or another example, at a birthday party explaining various things to children, Pace is an essential tool for any and all actors/actresses. Number four of the technical terms is "Intonation". While not as significant as Pace, still a vital role in expressing ever little detail the character has to offer. For example, rising to a high pitched voice at the end of a sentence literally puts a question out for the audience. Furthermore, lowering your voice gives the impression of a demanding character, both of these can aid in two person scenes as emotion is showed, in most cases, as the more important term. The next term is "Volume". Volume is another key factor in performing and can be used in a variety of ways. For example, making your vocals louder creates a more confident or big character that the actor plays, therefore leading to a more in-depth performance. "Tone Control" is my second to last term and is incredibly important for the actor. While they are performing they need to maintain a calm and cool emotion, if not their voice could drastically change tone and bring out the nerves in the actor. Besides this, Tone Control can be used to express how a character is feeling at that moment which adds a sense of history or background to them. My final term is "Emphasis" and I find this very significant because of the way it adds to the character. For example, when an actor/actress stresses certain words, it could be linked with the way they are feeling and their objective, if an actor emphasises the "Re" in "Really" it could mean that the character they are playing is confused or similar to this feeling.

In conclusion, these seven terms will most likely aid me further into becoming a more well rounded and confident actor and I hope to exceed my limits to voice control with these at hand.          

Theatre H/W - Traverse Staging Research

Traverse Theatre
Traverse Theatre is a type of staging that allows the audience to be seated on the left and right side of the stage where the actors are located. An example of this type of staging is used in the picture below were it is compared to Thrust Staging. Traverse Theatre was created in 1963 in an abandoned brothel in Edinburgh's Lawnmarket. The theatre is named this because of it's Artistic Director, Terry Lane.

When performing on a Traverse stage it can be quite difficult for the actor to be viewed by both audiences, on the left and right of the actor, at the same time. So a trick we actors pull is to turn and keep facing our bodies in different ways that the audiences can see our actions.   

Theatre H/W - Why should an actor warm up their body and voice?

Why should an actor warm up their body and voice?

An actor should warm up their body and voice because it aids them in a variety of ways. For example, it may be articulating difficult words correctly. However, one of the most significant reasons why an actor/actress warms themselves up is to project their voice to the audience clearly and effectively. If an actor does not succeed in projecting their voice loud enough the audience will have almost know idea what is happening on the stage in the specific scene. Furthermore, the most important way of communicating to the audience and to your acting partners while performing is your voice, especially in monologue type scenes, if not raised enough the scene could potentially end in catastrophe. There are many others reasons why warming up before performing is important but voice projection is an extensively important aspect in acting and should always be exercised before the performance.

My Long Term Target Is...
To become a positive, professional actor who is included in many shows, movies ad productions. 

Theatre H/W - Character Profile - Callum

Callum - Noughts & Crosses
Basic Details
Gender - Male
Age - 20
Clothing (What you like to wear) - T - Shirt, Jeans, Trainers and Jacket
Origination - USA, New York City, the McGregor household

What Do You Think Others Say About You?
I feel that others think that I'm shy and quiet. This is because when I am around strangers, especially Daggers, I hunch over and try to imagine I'm not in their sight and that only the people I know and trust can see me.

What Do You Think About Others?
I think of others as a threat to mine and Sephy's relationship. Throughout my life I've been constantly told that Daggers are evil, untrustworthy etc by Noughts and the same about us from Crosses. But when I met Sephy those lies that people told me or that I heard disappeared, that's why they're threats to us.

What Do You Think Of Yourself?
I think of myself as different. I do not have the hatred that the Noughts have against Crosses or Crosses have against Noughts because I feel that there should be peace between the both of them and that they should settle their differences by talking, not shooting.  

Theatre H/W - Noughts and Crosses

Theatre H/W - Noughts and Crosses
How do the character's body postures help to inform you of their statuses?
The characters who are lower class and have a lower status usually have bad posture and bring their body in to hide themselves. Characters who are higher class are bigger and bolder in their actions to make them look powerful.

What does it tell you about the type of people they are?
Their body actions tell me that the Noughts are trying to do everything in their power to get away from the madness. However, the Crosses are trying to hold their power and stop any sort of rebellion against them.

The Royal Shakespeare Company, also known as the RSC, have released an information packet about the play Noughts and Crosses. Inside this packet their is a plot, basic information about the main characters and biographies. I found that the first page of the packet, the family tree, is extremely useful in aiding you to process the relationships between the two families, the McGregor's and the Hadley's. The plot of the play is very detailed and included significant actions in specific scenes to help the reader understand more about the play. Overall, this packet is significant in the fact that you wish to know more about Noughts and Crosses such as the character detail or the key themes.      

Unit 3 - Lesson 1

Lesson 1 - Overview
In this lesson we learned many acting skills. The majority of the three hours was put into warming up our voices and stretching out our muscles. Furthermore, we also practised improvising and gathered from each other many different ideas. The activities we did linked in with the play Noughts and Crosses which we read the two lessons before this. As time flowed by we learned about how upper class people differed from lower class people. Their actions, movement, facial expressions were entirely different which showed how segregated the two classes were.

At the beginning of the lesson we were taught and showed how to control our breathing. Breathing is a very significant factor in acting, for example, it helps increase projection to a wider audience. Our group breathed in and out to exercise our lungs and diaphragm and stretched out the legs on tippy toes reaching for the ceiling afterwards. The improvising started as we walked around the drama room putting ourselves into the shoes of different characters depending on the class in society. The classes were labelled 1 - 5 with 1 being the lowest of the low and 5 being a VIP or the prime minister. We showed how we communicated to each other with eye contact and facial expressions. After the exercise we were told that talking was also an important factor in giving the audience your character's characteristics and personality.

From the middle to the end of the lesson we were tasked with creating three snapshot scenes where the only indicator of help was a piece of paper with three sentences of dialogue from the Noughts and Crosses play. Using the parts of dialogue and our imagination we went to work with planning and performing the three scenes. Our first scene represented the segregation between the "Daggers", also known as the Crosses, and the "Blankers", aka the Noughts. The sentence of dialogue we were given resembled "He was with his Dagger friend.". We used this to describe Sephy and Callum's relationship in that they are discriminated against them being friends. The second scene represented how the Noughts were always thought to hang out in gangs, smoke, sell drugs, and be the stereotype gangsters. Our society also revolves around stereotypes such as this, for example, we think that the average person in a suit and tie is extremely important and worth more than a person without a shirt and tie but ordinary clothes. With this in mind our group of four tried to put that image in the audiences mind with our facial expressions and the ending line, "Don't judge a book by it's cover". The third scene represented the pressure that people have in our world and that if they don't give the right answer everything they love will simply disappear. The dialogue we were given for this scene resembled, "I need to give an answer, Think! Think!". Our scene showed the audience that thinking of the right answer all the time is difficult and that Sephy's position in that scene does occur in your life sometime or another.

In conclusion, we talked about what we learned from this eventful day, such as the breathing exercises or the improvising, and  what we hope to achieve in the future of our theatre lessons.

   

Acting Skills Audit

Acting Skills Audit
I believe that my acting skills are, simply put, acceptable. Even though I have attended an acting school on Saturdays for almost seven years, I conclude that I am still in need of assistance on a wide range on acting subjects. On the other hand, I have earned a few achievements, such as LAMDA distinctions and past performances etc, to aid me in obtaining a place at the BRITs. 

Now that I am here I wish to learn more and continue on my path to greatness and with the help of our teachers I feel that my dream is becoming more and more visible. Out of the following subjects that I have learned about in the past, my best section of acting is using my body and face expressions in a specific scene. I feel that I am not confident with miming as an aspect of acting, however, from what I have gathered, our groups will not be accessing this part of drama this term.

Overall, on the scale of 1 - 10, currently I would rate myself a 7. I have a substantial amount of improvement needed to achieve my goal, yet through the years I have learned the basics of performing and hope to increase my acting ability as we proceed through this term.