04/12/14

In today’s lesson we worked on developing the play, and started creating a performance. We worked on the prologue in the first half, and in the second half, the girls began to develop tale one and the boys started on tale 2.

Here is the basic configuration of our performance space. It is called THRUST staging. 

• Give an advantage of using this stage space.
• Give a disadvantage of using this stage space.

Advantage

An advantage of having thrust staging is that you will be able to fit more people into the space.

Disadvantage

A disadvantage of having thrust staging is that at some point in the performance the actors back will be facing the audience.

As an actor what are the challenges you think you will have personally being directed in this space? 

As an actor, I feel the challenges I will have personally being directed in the space will be, not only facing one side of the audience throughout the performance but trying to project to all three sides. I think this, as I will have to be more aware that I have an audience looking at me from more than one angle so I have to be careful  not to only be looking at one side.

How have we staged the prologue? Why have we made this choices? What is the effect that is created? 

In our adaptation of East End tale, a key prop is a torch, this is because the performance will be performed in the dark. When working on the prologue we use the torches as two head lights as it was set in a taxi. Two people sat on the floor holding the torches, one of them, being me, and then one person sat on a red stall being the driver. We were in groups of 3-4 and we all had a section of the prologue. All the groups were on stage at the same time and lit their torches when it was their section.  We decided to use torches because I feel it drew the attention towards the taxi driver, as it acted as a spot light. This was effective as it gave the scene intense atmosphere. I also think it gave the scene a nice twist, as it makes it more interesting. In my opinion I think it is a clever way to perform the scene, as it automatically grabs the audience attention as it adds a sense of mystery.

Answer for the tale you are in. Girls - Tale 1, Boys - Tale 2

What is your role in the tale?

How has it been staged?

Why have these choices been made?

What are the strengths of this piece so far?

What developments need to happen throughout the rehearsal period? 

1.       In the tale 1 I don’t feel as if anyone had an individual role, I feel everyone is the role was one body. I think this, as we split the monologues into lines and were all the couple of lines to say. However I still played a role, me and the rest of the group were all playing teenagers, who were on our phone, either texting, calling, or taking a picture.

2.       We also used the torches when creating tale 1. We used them as individual spotlights as we held them facing our face. The scene starts with us, the majority of the cast on red stalls with their back to each other and facing out to the audience. Then the rest of the cast were sitting on the floor in front of the stalls. We stated the scene in darkness, then as each person said the line they would bring out their torch and shine it on their face.  Then gradually people would stand up while saying a line and move into a space.

3.         We made these choices to stage it the way we did because doing this would allow the audience member to see what was going on stage as half the cast were facing one side and the rest the other side. This is a good thing, as the audience would not be struggling to see what was going on stage and wouldn’t lose interest. Also the reason we decided to have the torches facing us was because by keeping the light on your face the audience could see all your facial expressions. This was effective, as it enabled the audience to learn more about you character, as during the scene we all pretend to be using our phones.  This help the audience learn more about the character as you could see how all the different characters were reacting when they were on the phone. I feel that bringing the torches out, one by one was effective as it gave the scene a nice build up, and it grabs your attention and made you look at the person who was talking.

4.       In my opinion I feel that a strength of the piece, so far, is that everyone stays in character even when it’s not their line. This is a strength because it makes the scene more interesting as there is always something going on, also it makes it more believable that we are actually on phones.

5.       A development that needs to happen throughout the rehearsal period is to work on a pace, I think this because the lines are said one after the other by different people. Therefore we need to work on pace as it will make it flow better and to make sure the stakes do not drop. One way we could work on that is becoming more comfortable with our lines so there are not any pauses because someone forgot their line.