When observing the scenes that the other students had made, I had some reservations and attractions. It was amazing to see the result of the creative minds of our class, and I was fascinated by other's interpretations of the characters in the production. I think that in terms of pace, some of the other interpretations were disruptive to the action in the production. At times it would flow with the emotion, and at others it would distract me from the characters. In contrast, I loved the way my classmates depicted the voices, convention, and clothes of Mrs Malaprop. Many chose to give her a suiting aristocratic tone and it fit perfectly within the scenes. The same can be applied to the depictions of Sir Anthony and Captain Absolute. The use of props such as the fan for Mrs Malaprop and the cane for Sir Anthony were a fine addition, and added to the experience as opposed to took away from it. One of the main reservations I had for the other scenes was the blocking. While certain characters moved frequently in some scenes, others would remain static and not move at all. It was very apparent, and I wished that I could have seen the antics of other characters besides that of Sir Anthony or Mrs Malaprop in the other scenes. Other than that, I absolutely loved the product of each group, and I look forward to similar future exercises.
0 Comments
Over the past couple of weeks a partner and i have been creating an interpretive short derived from a scene in Richard Sheridan's The Rivals. Since choosing the scene, I have been working on correctly playing the character Faulkland. His capricious nature is what I've been trying to master, and by the time we presented I was experienced in portraying the character. In our scene, a conversation between Faulkland and his fiancee Julia, they meet for the second time since a long time away from each other. Faulkland ruins the conversation later because of his capriciousness. In terms of props, our scene consists of a single chair that is center stage. For costumes, I have a vest and shirt, and Julia has a purple dress. Over the course of rehearsals, I learned to slow down my pace, think about my actions, and portray my character much more accurately than the beginning. If I were to do this again, I would probably do the same routine as I did for his scene because it proved to be very effective in the end.
For my presentation and interpretation of a scene from The Rivals, I am the character named Faulkland. I am a Caucasian upper-class Englishman, tall, of an average weight, and pale with brown hair. I enjoy a good game of croquet, and observing the populous of England from a city street bench. worried nature determines my movement patterns; I scatter across the stage in an almost frightened way, I stand with my chest always facing the audience, and I point in a accusatory and startled manner. If I had a tempo, it would be volatile. Any gesture that would define me would be my habit of pointing, as I do it often and I feel it brings me power to conservation as compensation for my worries. I wear black, which defines and emphasizes my mood. My voice varies in pitch from high and low with a nasal aspect, as I never have a medium in attitude. My past is full of anxiety, probably due to the loss of a family member or parents, and I have no stable foundation to rest my relationship with my family. I am engaged to Julia, who is my only focus in life and who is the origin of all my instabilities. I have no occupation, as money from my inheritance pays for all I do. I have a mentality of depression (bipolar), and I am unable to trust or sympathize due to my trust in expectations for etiquette. Personal beliefs include that of desirability originating from lack of character or uniqueness. Although I have the will to change my attitude and perspective on life, I choose not to use it. Others treat me with pity and believe I am insolent, arrogant and ignorant, but I myself am not aware of my faults or I am and just choose to keep these thoughts deep inside my emotional being. I wish I could tell them that I try my best, especially for Julia. In fact the only thing I am probably thinking of at any given note is how to make up for my last mistake in my relationship with Julia. On a different note, my catch phrase is "zounds!"
Today we finished watching a production of Rivals, first produced by Richard Brinsley Sheridan in 1775. The reproduction of the play was done with a proscenium stage, with many doors to left and right stage along the walls to the back wall upstage. The back wall was decorated with clouds and a grassy landscape that was not revealed to the audience until the last scene when a series of flats designed to look like a building was rolled to the side. Many different pieces of furniture and curtains were used for scene changes between houses and the street. However, these transitions were quite expedient in relation to their intricacy. The actors had costumes made of great detail, and fit the time period in which the play is set. When watching the production, the actors portrayals of the characters in the play opened my eyes to exchanges that I did not notice when reading the play aloud in class. It was very entertaining, and the actors were captivating. I learned a great deal about modernist theatre and its several reoccurring attributes that were also present in the Rivals. One thing that I already knew about the time period that was communicated again during viewing was the importance of decorum, which had a big role in the plot. I thought that viewing this play was both an educational and enjoyable experience, and watching it makes me want to research other Sheridan plays.
Today we watched the end of a movie called Stage Beauty. It was centered around gender roles at the end of the Reformation period in England, and how new law ratified by Charles II prohibiting the theatrical portrayal of women by men and vice versa. The film taught me about the situation with gender and acting, and why it was considered another art form for men to play women's roles. The character Ned served as a representation of all male actors whose profession was playing women's roles. After the decree, he began a journey of identity, finding his role on the stage. Before this movie, I never knew that it was considered a career for men to be raised to act as women. However, I did understand with the fall of the Cromwellian Protectorate that a revival of theatre also served as a catalyst for theatrical change to what was considered normal. What I think about the message of Stage Beauty is that women should be allowed to act in whatever role they desire, and the same should be for men. It can be considered an art form for whoever thinks it should be and I don't think it should be the responsibility of the government to intervene. The hindrance of the arts or any restriction on theatre could cause tension, so there is also a political spectrum to this as well.
Last week theatre students participated in a stage fighting class provided by Joe Bostick. In this class, I learned how to stage slap, punch, and pull someone by the hair. The experience was very enjoyable, and Joe was captivating in his teaching methods. The atmosphere was lighthearted, and made it so that any mistakes were not seen as stress-inducing. I've never had any previous knowledge in this theatrical area, and I thought it would hone my attributes as a thespian to participate. I hope the skills I acquired during the class will be useful in my future theatrical career with West Sound. If I were offered this exercise again in other areas of stage combat, I would definitely sign up.
Right now, with a week until we record, our piece is on the edge of being ready. We still have a few things to work out, such as the final transitions, exaggeration of our characters to make them obvious to the audience, and the overall flow of the story. Our work has a number of containers that restrict the freedom that our play, and they mainly affect the story of the play, but also the presentation. One is the use of a rope to separate the concept of dreams from reality. This is our main container, as we need to block and communicate our story according to the actors positions in relation to the rope because they are key to understanding the story itself. Another is the number of actors we have. We only have five actors, and there are more than five characters in the play, so we needed to use some sort of article of clothing or prop to label the protagonist of the story. Others include the lack of lighting and props, due to the limited time and environment that we possess. These containers force us to innovate and depict complicated themes and story-lines, but with limited resources. We rely more on the actions of characters and the exaggeration of emotion to make up for tools lost from containers.
Today our group elaborated upon the scenes we've been creating over the past two weeks, and added transitions between them to make our piece more fluid. We finalized our scene choices to three as we wanted to choose three that demonstrated separate emotions. At this point, we have 3 scenes and a final moment:
All of these scenes combined should be about 6 minutes or more if we take our time. In terms of current reservations and attractions for our story, here is what I have: Reservations:
Attractions:
We record our piece in 2 weeks, and I hope we finish it by then. Today in theatre we practiced the classic personas of the characters in the world of commedia dell'arte to provoke thought for our group projects. Each archetype had his/her own defining and unique stature and method of interaction with the other characters. We practiced harlequino, zanni, the captain, columbina, pantalone, and the lovers. Harlequino moved with a bent back in a rushed three-step fashion and made strange snickering noises. He also had a cape, and used it without discretion. Zanni, the lowest of the servants, always walked slouched with his head hung low in expectation of a beating, and was easily frightened. The captain strut with his chest out in a manner that suggested confidence, but is easily scared and flails like a mad man when surprised. Columbina, with her sexual and flirtatious origin, also elegantly glided with her chest out, and made innuendos often. Pantalone is a man of middle age that acted like a disabled crab, that is, walked horizontally and is supported by a cane, making snide tones and gestures. Finally, the lovers acted in a drunken manner; not always there and walking in a clumsy way, and blissfully ignorant because of thoughts of their amorous nature. I loved reenacting the personas of all of these characters as slapstick comedy appeals to me. I learned quite a bit of the uses of these characters and how we could apply them our own devised piece. I found that I need to work on focusing on my intentions as an actor in order to act effectively, although that can be hard sometimes.
Today in class we performed a very pleasant experience. We located our comfortable and nervous areas of our bodies by mentally recalling a stressful and a relaxing memory. We then immersed ourselves in the emotion of the memory, and a partner asked for a word to describe the condition of various body parts and how they feel. Although the exercise was very calming, it brought back the same stress on my body that I felt long ago. It was useful because it made me more conscious of the tension that I have everyday. The lesson taught me that I can both control that tension and ease myself on a daily basis.
|