2 Major outcomes from rehearsals
I feel that today my group got a lot done. Compared to us last Friday, day when we decided to start everything all over because of explosion of ideas and confusion over what we actually wanted say with our piece, I feel that now we have really established a clear message with clear plot and defined characters. Most of what we did was just developing further our basic ideas we discussed on Friday and pulling everything together to make a fluent and interesting story. We were able to tell our opinions about what we wanted to do and so we worked together better and actually got on our feet and went trough scenes to each other, rather than just sitting around talking about what we wanted to do. I feel especially strong about one of our scene, a scene we didn't plan to have before but then added to create a new level for Max's character. It is a scene between Max's character and his supposed girlfriend(Jenny), where they start to realize how Max's character is starting to become abusive, just like his father.
How did you come to those outcomes?
We wanted our piece to be about how we become who we are, or rather, how do abusive people become like that. The character we are focusing on has a abusive childhood himself, but still we raise a question whether it was really his actions that ended up making him like it. I feel like that the scene between Max's and Jenny's characters is very important to establish the main idea of our mini play. In scene, the two supposed lovers have had a fight ending up Max hitting Jenny. The scene starts with Max trying to apologize from Jenny, but she is not having it. She opens her mind about the situation, telling Max's character, that he has become like his father. This obviously hits hard, but also helps Max's character to realize how he has changed. The scene ends with the two splitting up and Max denying him becoming his father. This followed by an abusive scene brings our message to the audience loud and clear.
How are you using...
1. Song Lyric?
As I said in my last post, our group wandered of from our song(Grace Jones - Slave To The Rhythm) some time ago, but I do realize now, that it did help us to create our servants and bring us to our time period(1800's) by directing us towards women's rights and oppression.
2. Research?
Our research about the industrial revolution and women's rights helped us with our characterization and the dynamics between our characters. It also lead us to the topic of abuse, since it was accepted for men to put their wives and children to their rightful places by abuse.
3. Acting techniques?
We use clocking the audience quite many times, to create a connection with the audience and bring a modern twist to such historical setting. E.g. When two of our characters are arguing with each other, rather than facing each other both of the character face the audience and direct their emotion to them to create a stronger and even more intimidating feeling.
Monday, 30 September 2013
Friday, 27 September 2013
2 Major outcomes from rehearsals
Today, our group was having some trouble with our ideas and how to get them connected with each other. After some discussion and 'little' help from our tutor, it was established that our group had too many ideas and story lines to put into a 10 minute scene. So, obviously one of the major outcomes was the change of direction with our scene and discover what is our specific plot and what we want to tell to the audience. We ended up focusing on the life of a man who involuntarily becomes like his abusive father, raising the question in the end, whether we're the result of our environment or of our own actions.
How did you come to those outcomes?
Our original idea for our scene was to tell two stories, the story of an abusive man and a servant who becomes the target of his abuse. we had worked on a lot of scene about the man's past, just to realize that our characters were not defined enough and that our whole 10 minute play would be too confusing to tell two different stories. At some point, we were even planning to bring in two additional stories about the two other servants, but because of our time constriction those plots we're ditched in quite an early stage. Once, we had a talk with our tutor about our scene, it was clear that we had to change our play and make it to focus on one story, so that all of the characters could be more specified and our message to the audience clearer. Since we had worked on the scene with the man's past the most, we decided to focus on that story, rather than creating a new plot to the servant. All we need to do now, is to add more to the character and the story to develop a all round story line.
How are you using...
1. Song Lyric?
By now, I feel like we have ditched the song we had(Grace Jones - Slave to the Rhythm). What we originally pulled from the song, were things about women's rights, work and equality. At first we were trying to work with something with women's rights, which is what we researched the most, by having an abusive man and women who have fallen as victims, because of their lower position. But since our change of direction in our play, I can see only one of our original main feelings still sticking around. Power.
2. Research?
A lot of the research we did was on women's rights and the industrial revolution. As I said before, since the change in direction, we pretty much dropped all the things concerning women's rights and also most of the researched done about industrial revolution we ended up not using. Still, the main idea of women joining the work force we used somehow, since we include female servants in the play, even though it is not clearly connected to industrial revolution.
3. Acting techniques?
In one of our scene, that we have so far planned, we use freeze frame to create tension and anticipation on what is to happen next.
Today, our group was having some trouble with our ideas and how to get them connected with each other. After some discussion and 'little' help from our tutor, it was established that our group had too many ideas and story lines to put into a 10 minute scene. So, obviously one of the major outcomes was the change of direction with our scene and discover what is our specific plot and what we want to tell to the audience. We ended up focusing on the life of a man who involuntarily becomes like his abusive father, raising the question in the end, whether we're the result of our environment or of our own actions.
How did you come to those outcomes?
Our original idea for our scene was to tell two stories, the story of an abusive man and a servant who becomes the target of his abuse. we had worked on a lot of scene about the man's past, just to realize that our characters were not defined enough and that our whole 10 minute play would be too confusing to tell two different stories. At some point, we were even planning to bring in two additional stories about the two other servants, but because of our time constriction those plots we're ditched in quite an early stage. Once, we had a talk with our tutor about our scene, it was clear that we had to change our play and make it to focus on one story, so that all of the characters could be more specified and our message to the audience clearer. Since we had worked on the scene with the man's past the most, we decided to focus on that story, rather than creating a new plot to the servant. All we need to do now, is to add more to the character and the story to develop a all round story line.
How are you using...
1. Song Lyric?
By now, I feel like we have ditched the song we had(Grace Jones - Slave to the Rhythm). What we originally pulled from the song, were things about women's rights, work and equality. At first we were trying to work with something with women's rights, which is what we researched the most, by having an abusive man and women who have fallen as victims, because of their lower position. But since our change of direction in our play, I can see only one of our original main feelings still sticking around. Power.
2. Research?
A lot of the research we did was on women's rights and the industrial revolution. As I said before, since the change in direction, we pretty much dropped all the things concerning women's rights and also most of the researched done about industrial revolution we ended up not using. Still, the main idea of women joining the work force we used somehow, since we include female servants in the play, even though it is not clearly connected to industrial revolution.
3. Acting techniques?
In one of our scene, that we have so far planned, we use freeze frame to create tension and anticipation on what is to happen next.
Tuesday, 24 September 2013
Questions
I felt today's class was somehow different from the classes we've had before. We did play games, like we have before, and we discussed about a topic(this time honesty), as before, and we tried to tie it together with terms we already have learned(Le Jeu, complicity, creativity etc.), as we have done before. But especially after a certain game, the mood of the class somehow changed. I cannot quite describe it here right now, since I am not sure what the change exactly was, but I am sure something happened.
Describe the exercise: Just Be. Give your reaction.
We played a game, later named as Just Be. It is a game hard to be explained, as I realized later on the day when trying tell about my to my roommate. The game itself seems very simple played by one person at a time. They pick a spot on the floor and drawn by the spot they move to that place and then face the audience as themselves, but they can't do anything. Just stand in one place, relax and open themselves up to the audiences gaze. As simple as the game sounds, the game itself is not easy for everyone. I could see people tense up or put on a 'show'. You could see that people were not complitely comfortable standing on the spot, and as more and more people went up to the spot and came down with an embarrased laugh, I started to tread my turn. But as I stood up, focused on a spot and faced fifteen pairs of eyes, my mind suddenly fell blank. No panic, no joy, nothing. I am not sure if that was the point of the game, but just standing in one place, not supposing to do anything was almost like meditating, but rather than trying to shut down the outside world, I felt like my mind and my thoughts were wide open for everyone to see.
How can you apply any of today's exercises to your scene?
If you'd know me, you would know that I am all about taking a breath and letting the audience's brains to tick for awhile during a scene. I really feel that we could use the Just Be- exercise to let the audience to really see a character and what really is in their mind. As a group we have also planned out a scene in our little play where we can use the 'Focus' game to our advantage. In the scene we introduce a servant who is having her first day at work, while the other more experoenced servant shows her around. She is quite clumsy and a bit ditsy, she goes around knocking a vase of its place, while the other servant follows her and cleans the mess the new girl has made. It could have the new girl changing her focus and going back and forwards the stage, while the other servant focuses on the new girl.
By the way, I played the 'Don't bumb into each other' game in town today. Unfortunately I lost, but as the only player, I guess I also won.
Monday, 23 September 2013
During class our group did not get the chance to perform our piece to the rest of the students. It would have been helpful to get a new set of eyes to view our piece and have some feedback on what we did well and what we should further work on. But since we didn't, I will just have to evaluate our progress with our play based on my own observations.
I was away the last time we were supposed to be working on our group projects, so a good part of our time went into clearing up everyone's ideas and thoughts and getting to the same level with the piece. The other group members helped me by telling what they had worked on last time and after that, we finally got into working with the actually scenes. And now we come to the questions that were presented in class about the scenes/parts we put more effort on.
What worked? Why?
We started with the beginning of the play, or what is going to be the beginning so far. What we did was that we changed the entrance of all the characters and decided to start with introducing the situation our characters are in, a funeral. The servants greet the guests(the audience) and the master of the house welcomes everyone tot he funeral, giving a small speech about his deceased father. Then we quickly change into a scene where an aggressive relationship between a servant and the master is revealed, showing the true colours of the previously polite and cheerful master. While defending himself for his actions, the scene changes to a flashback of a couple arguing and the master turning into a frightened child.
So far, we do not have nearly the whole play figured out, but I feel that this a good start. We are able to capture the audiences focus on multiple occasion, even thought the beginning does move in a quite fast pace. So far, we have been able to show multiple layers on one(or two) of the characters, making him a round character with a past and reasons for his actions. By showing the flashback, we show the audience where the master gets his aggression.
What do you want to work on more?
So far, we have mainly focused on the master of the house and how he got to this place in his life. I would love to work more on the servants backgrounds and their dynamics between each other. But, of course, we haven't really even been focusing on those so far. If I would have to say something to work on, on the parts we have done so far, I would probably say the beginning and transitions. So far they have been pretty basic, come on stage, do your thing, exit stage. What I would like to see is more creative ways we could use transitions to show more about the characters and keep it interesting for the audience. Perhaps we could use cross cutting to bring levels to our performance and smooth the transitions between scenes? This could also bring up a problem, since a lot of our characterization is based on dialogue or two people interacting with each other, cross cutting could also confuse the viewer on who is who and what is happening. But of course, these are all problems we can work out with a little thinking and team work.
I was away the last time we were supposed to be working on our group projects, so a good part of our time went into clearing up everyone's ideas and thoughts and getting to the same level with the piece. The other group members helped me by telling what they had worked on last time and after that, we finally got into working with the actually scenes. And now we come to the questions that were presented in class about the scenes/parts we put more effort on.
What worked? Why?
We started with the beginning of the play, or what is going to be the beginning so far. What we did was that we changed the entrance of all the characters and decided to start with introducing the situation our characters are in, a funeral. The servants greet the guests(the audience) and the master of the house welcomes everyone tot he funeral, giving a small speech about his deceased father. Then we quickly change into a scene where an aggressive relationship between a servant and the master is revealed, showing the true colours of the previously polite and cheerful master. While defending himself for his actions, the scene changes to a flashback of a couple arguing and the master turning into a frightened child.
So far, we do not have nearly the whole play figured out, but I feel that this a good start. We are able to capture the audiences focus on multiple occasion, even thought the beginning does move in a quite fast pace. So far, we have been able to show multiple layers on one(or two) of the characters, making him a round character with a past and reasons for his actions. By showing the flashback, we show the audience where the master gets his aggression.
What do you want to work on more?
So far, we have mainly focused on the master of the house and how he got to this place in his life. I would love to work more on the servants backgrounds and their dynamics between each other. But, of course, we haven't really even been focusing on those so far. If I would have to say something to work on, on the parts we have done so far, I would probably say the beginning and transitions. So far they have been pretty basic, come on stage, do your thing, exit stage. What I would like to see is more creative ways we could use transitions to show more about the characters and keep it interesting for the audience. Perhaps we could use cross cutting to bring levels to our performance and smooth the transitions between scenes? This could also bring up a problem, since a lot of our characterization is based on dialogue or two people interacting with each other, cross cutting could also confuse the viewer on who is who and what is happening. But of course, these are all problems we can work out with a little thinking and team work.
Wednesday, 18 September 2013
1. How can we improve what we have done in class?
There is still a long way to go from the scene we created in class. The dynamics between characters could and should be improved to make the message of the scene more clearer. Also the characters themselves should be further developed to rounder and more versatile beings, rather than just characters that don't have a meaning. Also, the storyline needs more work to it so that it will have a clearer course and actually an idea that moves the story forward and gives dimension to the over all appearance.
2. What more research do we need?
Our group definitely needs more research about the 1800 and early 1900's, where the scene is most likely to be set, and how the society worked back then. The dynamics between servants and the master of the house could also be a useful research point, especially looking into how female servants were treated and how servants themselves treated one another. Also questions like, what was the difference between a female and a male servant and how their tasks differed, could be useful to answer.
3. How can we use what we learned from today's exercises?
In class we studied how distance between two people affected the appearance of their relationship, no matter what they were talking about. A simple discussion about seeing someone you know and going to a grocery store, turned into a stalker having their first encounter with their victim. This method could be used to tell a back story to two characters, whether if knew each other before or not and what their relation to each other is now.
There is still a long way to go from the scene we created in class. The dynamics between characters could and should be improved to make the message of the scene more clearer. Also the characters themselves should be further developed to rounder and more versatile beings, rather than just characters that don't have a meaning. Also, the storyline needs more work to it so that it will have a clearer course and actually an idea that moves the story forward and gives dimension to the over all appearance.
2. What more research do we need?
Our group definitely needs more research about the 1800 and early 1900's, where the scene is most likely to be set, and how the society worked back then. The dynamics between servants and the master of the house could also be a useful research point, especially looking into how female servants were treated and how servants themselves treated one another. Also questions like, what was the difference between a female and a male servant and how their tasks differed, could be useful to answer.
3. How can we use what we learned from today's exercises?
In class we studied how distance between two people affected the appearance of their relationship, no matter what they were talking about. A simple discussion about seeing someone you know and going to a grocery store, turned into a stalker having their first encounter with their victim. This method could be used to tell a back story to two characters, whether if knew each other before or not and what their relation to each other is now.
Monday, 16 September 2013
1. What are the main feelings you tried to express?
Our group wanted to further express the feelings of equality, power and oppression, which, in my opinion, we succeeded quite well at doing. We got inspired by our song lyrics in a very feminist way, starting to discuss more and more about women's rights and how they have developed over the course of time, focusing on the industrial revolution and the suffrage. So, equality was probably the strongest of feelings or ideas we had from our song lyrics. It also dominated how we viewed the song and our ideas from that, since a lot of the point we had on our mind map had something to do with equality, getting to equality or breaking somehow from the common.
Our groups other emotions strongly contrasted our original feeling of equality. Equal is a state of peace and calmness when our other main feelings were power and oppression, two very aggressive and forward emotions. Oppression is something that comes from not having total equality, but power is more complicate subject than the other two feelings. Power can be used in both equality and oppression, but it is used differently in both. In oppression there is someone or something with power and someone powerless on the counter side, where as equality in itself is power.
2. One idea for what you would like to do next in the scene.
I would like to study more about the difference of equality and oppression and get into both of the subject more deeply. We could think about how power is used in both what kind of good and bad sides either side has. Is equality always good? And on the other hand, is oppression always bad? Can equality be achieved? These things have come up over and over again in our groups discussions and it would interested me to get more insight what my fellow group members think about these matters and do they think they are important and relevant today.
Our group wanted to further express the feelings of equality, power and oppression, which, in my opinion, we succeeded quite well at doing. We got inspired by our song lyrics in a very feminist way, starting to discuss more and more about women's rights and how they have developed over the course of time, focusing on the industrial revolution and the suffrage. So, equality was probably the strongest of feelings or ideas we had from our song lyrics. It also dominated how we viewed the song and our ideas from that, since a lot of the point we had on our mind map had something to do with equality, getting to equality or breaking somehow from the common.
Our groups other emotions strongly contrasted our original feeling of equality. Equal is a state of peace and calmness when our other main feelings were power and oppression, two very aggressive and forward emotions. Oppression is something that comes from not having total equality, but power is more complicate subject than the other two feelings. Power can be used in both equality and oppression, but it is used differently in both. In oppression there is someone or something with power and someone powerless on the counter side, where as equality in itself is power.
2. One idea for what you would like to do next in the scene.
I would like to study more about the difference of equality and oppression and get into both of the subject more deeply. We could think about how power is used in both what kind of good and bad sides either side has. Is equality always good? And on the other hand, is oppression always bad? Can equality be achieved? These things have come up over and over again in our groups discussions and it would interested me to get more insight what my fellow group members think about these matters and do they think they are important and relevant today.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)