Individual Prep. and Practice & Dress Rehearsals

At home, I walked around my house talking in the voice of my character that largely differs from my normal voice. To achieve the voice I designed for my character Locaha, I have to speak with a croak in my voice at a low pitch to sound as scary and daunting as possible. 

Talking this way can put a lot of strain on my voice. Nonetheless, overtime, I got used to speaking in that tone due to the practice I did at home. I believe doing this individual practice helped me improve and work on my character even more. I didn't only just try to better Locaha during rehearsals but also in my own time to try to put as much work in it as possible. 

Other ways I practised and prepared individually was by annotating plans of the stage (see examples on blog) to mark out my entrances and exits. The importance of doing this was to make sure I knew exactly where I would be entering and exiting from when it came to the performance. Doing this helped me to make a mental note of what I needed to remember and therefore helped me to be aware of where I needed to be.

On the day of the performance, we had our first dress rehearsal. In general, I believe it was incredibly successful as it gave us the opportunity to have a taster of how we would perform when it came to the actual performance. It helped us to get used to performing in our costumes and absorb in the space and theatrical configuration we had to work in (traverse). I believe my personal experience of the run through helped me to remember where I needed to go to enter for a new scene. For example, I had to exit out of a cafe door then run around the whole building to enter from a fire exit. Doing the run through helped me to practice doing this and see how much time I would have to allocate to myself to ensure I get to my entrance on time.

I believe the importance of doing individual preparation, practice and having a dress rehearsal really helps to sculpture your final performance making it as successful as possible. It is not enough to just rehearse when you have to during allocated times. You must also do your own work outside of group rehearsals to focus on refining your character and be attentive and put in as much energy and enthusiasm as you would put in your final performance in your dress rehearsal.

SCENE OBJECTIVES

Work out objectives and tactics for every scene (even if you are not speaking). Annotate script, thoughts, actions, articulation problems, dictionary meanings of words, ideas, what happens on stage, prop notes and other notes.

ACT 1:

SCENE 1:

Objectives

To panic

To rock 

To fly 

SCENE 2:

Objectives

To open
To repeat
To crawl
To find
To intimidate

SCENE 6:
Objectives
To open
To crawl
To stretch
To intimidate

SCENE 9:
Objectives
To rock
To hum

SCENE 10:
Objectives
To open
To repeat
To close
To find

SCENE 13:
Objectives
To crawl
To find
To intimidate

SCENE 15:
Objectives
To find
To crawl
To intimidate


ACT 2:

SCENE 1:
Objectives
To catch
To clap
To listen


SCENE 2:
Objectives
To hide 
To freeze

SCENE 3:
Objectives
 To freeze
 To open
 To exaggerate


SCENE 4:
Objectives 
To run
To hide
To find



SCENE 5:
Objectives
To hide
To repeat
To close


SCENE 7:
Objectives
To open
To crawl
To intimidate

Extra Evaluation Notes Based On Class Discussion

1. Breaking down script and objectives help us understand the script

Knowing your objective can change atmosphere on the whole stage 

Good objective will reflect your vocal pattern

Offer something - front foot of rehearsals

Helping the process move forward and be dynamic 

More options by crating your own objectives 

Connecting your own body and your own voice 

Bringing your character to life

Gives you control throughout the whole piece by matching your body and voice 

Use research then apply knowledge we have to performance

The skills of an actor do not just encapsulate acting

- understanding historical research 

- apply different art forms and all the world 

- puts on all those hats and immerses themselves in it 

Open to new direction 

Giving 100% in every rehearsal 

Just play! Try on those different characters!

Try and get everything wrong to get everything right 

Acknowledge the rehearsal room is a place to experiment 

Needed to use imagination 

2. In acting you don't think

Put yourself in the shoes of the audience 

E.g. Raiders 

Bandannas

- signifies to audience that raiders are here 

Detail of different characters 

No room for TV acting 

Needed to fill that space in the size of your characters 

Cheat sheets - marking out the stage 

- costume

= own journey 

You're always being watched 

Rather than confidence, you need belief

Even if you think it's not going to work or you're reluctant, it pays off to believe in it 

Use simple objects to replace props e.g. Pipes for guns 

Theatrical conceit 

- the concept 

Acknowledge the play was a difficult play

- difficult to get overview and concept at the beginning but achieved eventually 

Costumes to help communicate intentions for different roles 

3. created an eerie and tense atmosphere, mysterious and engaging through use of body language, eye contact and vocal colour 

Needed to display leadership skills 

Remaining in character at all times

Stick with the ensemble 

Work with the ensemble 

Received Pronunciation - don't have a specific regional accent 

"Queen's English"

Without nailing pace and dymanics of scenes, the success of the piece wouldn't have been as great as it would have been 

Difference between film and stage 

Big challenges of theatre:

- Live 

- Can't make mistakes 

But that what makes it exciting!

Should be different every night 

Playing different actions

Finding new ways to lift the journey of your character 

4. No limitations 

Commit to vocal and physical work

Be motivated in rehearsals 

Get the most out of that time

Acting isn't "lying" or "telling" - find the truth 

Transformative acting - when an acting is completely different to who they are

Immersing yourself in that character - leaving your grates and mannerisms at home 

5. Have to be selfless and selfish at the same time

Working in an ensemble - finding the balance in being selfish and selfless at the same time 

6. Script work

- take notes 

Why Is It Important To Rehearse?

Many people find rehearsing to be time-consuming, a challenge and way too fussy and technical. Nonetheless, there are many positives that come with rehearsing for the play you're doing:

You're allowed to make mistakes!

Rehearsal time is the time you're allowed to make mistakes - well, the only time you should do really! It's the time for you to experiment with different ideas you may have for the production or maybe forget one of your lines and need prompting. It's the time for you to refine your work and perfect it as much as possible. Actors shouldn't be afraid to think outside of the box during this given time! They should explore other lines they could say, how they can communicate emotions with their bodies and facial expressions as well as using dialect and have fun with working on the play.

Mark out your entrances and exits

This is the time to mark out where you are supposed to enter and exit from. This time should be used widely to identify other places that could be good for your character to enter from and the significance it has (e.g. If your objective is to scare the audience, would it be more effective to enter from one of the side entrances or the main entrance?)

Live in the world of your character

This is the opportunity where you can see your character really come to life! All of the research and preparation you've done on your character can now be brought to life. As well as bringing your character to life, you can now get a strong idea of the world your character lives in and how their given circumstances appear to be like. Actors should take advantage of this time to visually see how their character is like in the world they live in and bring them to life as much as possible in this world.

Have a feel of how it may be like when you finally perform 

When I've been rehearsing something for a while and then finally get to perform it in the stage we're actually performing on, I get a different feeling entirely. Dress rehearsals allow you to have a full experience of what to expect from yoursel and the rest of the cast on the night. This time should be used wisely and effectively to have a feel of how successful the piece will be when it is finally performed. 

Peer Assessing

During our rehearsals, we were asked to peer assess one of the members of the cast and I peer assessed Dru Dawkins. Positive things I saw from Dru was his strong commitment to his given when he chose to sustain his character. He had clarity in his voice whilst speaking, had clear and confident facial expressions to demonstrate his character's given moods and used body language that suited his character to identity it as clearly as possible. Nonetheless, once he slipped out of character, it took him a while to get back into it as he tended to get distracted easily. 

Advice I would give to not only Dru but to other actors is to aim to remain in character at all times during rehearsals and especially on the day of the performance.This helps to make your character more believable to not only yourself but to audience members given that when they act, they see your character and not who you are as a person.

Peer assessing helped me to identify what to do and also what not to do. There's so much you can learn from other members of your cast and peer assessing is just one of the great ways of learning from them. From assessing Dru, I learnt to always commit myself to my given character with confidence and to always remain in character. 

Evaluation of Nation Performance

INTRODUCTION:

On Thursday 23rd April 2015, the cast and I performed the play 'Nation' by Terry Pratchet at Stanley Halls (in the theatrical configuration traverse)! With more than 120 people attending, that night is truly a night I will remember. Through all of the ups as well as downs, at the end of all our rehearsals and preparation, as a company we managed to succeed in performing to a great standard!

DISCUSS HOW I SHOWED EFFECTIVE USE AND CONTROL OF PERFORMANCE SKILLS THROUGHOUT THE PIECE:
Ways in which I showed effective use and control of performance skills throughout my piece was by bearing in mind how to portray my character as successfully as possible. I remembered using different energy levels, showing different emotions and staying in character throughout the performance. Ways in which I did this was by using harsh facial expressions to show when I'm angry, changing my tone of voice to displays moments of when I was happy and excited and always remembering that on stage, I am Locaha and not Lara. I believe who I am definitely contrasts against the characteristics I designed for Locaha: evil, wicked, conniving and extremely weird! Therefore, in order to communicate my role well and the intentions of the piece to the audience, I had to leave who I am at home and adopt the personality and body language of Locaha not only on the night of the performance but throughout the whole rehearsal process.

HOW I COMMUNICATED MY ROLE AND THE INTENTIONS OF THE PIECE TO THE AUDIENCE:
Other ways in which I communicated my role well was through my body language, vocal colour, tone and pitch and through makeup and costume. When I performed as Locaha, instead of walking normally, I made the choice to walk crouched with bent knees and used the palm of my hands to support me. Furthermore, I spoke with a croak in my voice with a low pitch creating a harsh sound to communicate my character. I also wore dark makeup, a black maxi skirt with a black vest and had black-coloured patterns on the side of my face (scroll down the blog to see this). Collectively, the effect this had was to elaborate and exaggerate who my character was: death. Black has connotations of death and gothic-related themes. Therefore, I made black the prominent colour I used in the performance. 
My intentions were to scare the audience. I aimed to make them feel awkward and uneasy when Locaha was present as death is not a character that most people find welcoming! That is why I chose to wear all black, have a croak in my voice and walk in a weird way to show death in the best and abstract way.

HOW I MADE A SIGNIFICANT CONTRIBUTION TO THE SUCCESS OF THE PIECE:
I believe I have made a significant contribution to the success of the piece by giving constructive criticism as well as praise to members of the cast through peer-assessing. When the actor of 'Mau' was not present during a rehearsal, I replaced him as he is an extremely vital character within the play. Furthermore, I was appointed as one of the assistant directors of the play which meant I was given a lot of responsibility. Whilst rehearsing for the show, I recognised that many people had a negative mindset towards how successful this play will be. I must admit, there were times where I doubted the success of the play of myself due to the lack of effort people were putting into rehearsals (see previous posts for rehearsal reflection). Many people seemed downhearted and lacked optimism on the success of the play. On the night of the performance, I decided to send this quick message to the cast:

"Hey guys.. I was just thinking about how most of us aren't really feeling this play but it is our last performance we will be doing as a year group cos in post 16 we will have new people joining and for some people it will be their last ever performance at Brit so I think we should just try as hard as possible tomorrow to make the play as successful and enjoyable as it can be tbh cos at the end of the day we are getting graded on it too and no one wants to look like an idiot in front of everyone! We haven't spend months rehearsing for nothing! I'm sure we'll be more than fine on the night anyways. Let's just try our best and try and make it a good performance for our last ever performance of us all together as a strand Xx"
(Pardon all of the grammatical errors, poor sentence structure and abbreviations!)

My reasons for sending this message was to try to give a little hope to the cast. We spent many months rehearsing for this play and I am sure no one wanted it to go to waste! Given that I was appointed as one of the assistant directors, I took it upon myself to try to motivate the cast.

WHAT HAVE I DONE WELL?
Things I believe I have done well is refining my character to a good standard, taking initiative to make my character believable as much as possible and helping others during the rehearsal process. Ways I did this was through my choices of characteristics, bearing in mind different vocal techniques that were taught to us and giving advise to other cast members. To make the play successful, we had to work as a team. If one person slipped up, that could make everyone slip up also. Therefore, I made sure I tried to be well-prepared, attentive and full of enthusiasm at all times to help make the play a success.

WHAT DO I WANT TO IMPROVE ON?
However, there are also things I want to improve on. I believe I could improve my analytical and research skills to enhance my performance skills also. When given a character, it is good to aim to
develop them into your own and I believe I did this! Nonetheless, I could have done more research on other characters similar to my character e.g. Rumplestiltskin (being a trickster), and things such as "the angel of death". Furthermore, I could have directed the cast more as I was assistant director. I believe that I should have taken more initiative and control and not be afraid to point out things I thought could have been improved. Acting requires you to use your initiative greatly, be bold and courageous and think outside of the box. I believe I did this! However, there is always room for improvement.

WHAT HAVE I LEARNT ABOUT ACTING?
I've learnt many things about acting. I've learnt that you must lose yourself in a character to portray it as well as you can, not think about your actions but instead feel it, let your actions influence your speech and never be afraid to make mistakes along the way. Nothing is perfect. However, we can aim to make things as great as it can be through many processes (e.g. finding objectives, creating tactics, marking thought changings etc.). That's what I believe acting is about: processes. Finding yourself as well as losing yourself, immersing yourself within different characters and going on a journey with your given character. With acting, there is no limits. You can do whatever you want to do, be whoever you want to be and you can be yourself. That may sound weird as acting is thought of to be when you play another role. However, I believe in every character an actor plays, an element of themselves is within them. I am not implying I have evil in me! However, I believe every person has an element of weirdness in them like Locaha. A side to them that is free to do whatever they want, say whatever they want and does not let anyone control them. That is one of the things acting is about: finding that freedom. Finding that lack of remorse within yourself and the side of you that is not afraid to break boundaries! Acting is an incredible thing that allows to grow so much as a person. 

WHAT HAVE I LEARNT ABOUT MYSELF?
Through acting, I have learnt so many things about myself. I've learnt to break out of my shell and become more confident and well-rounded. I've learnt what it means to be committed to something and not to be afraid to do things outside of my comfort zone. I've learnt to believe in myself and my ability and believe I can do and achieve anything I want to with these three words: confidence, determination and faith. Confidence can make you go far in many things. It is important to believe in yourself and your ability. Having determination makes you want to achieve things. It makes you want to strive for things and not just let opportunities pass you by. Lastly, faith allows you to believe in things. Like confidence, it encourages you and makes you believe you can do anything - there is no limit! I've learnt that with confidence, determination and faith, anything can be possible. I've learnt that to grow as an actress as well as a person, I must be more daring and enjoy what life has to offer me in the exciting, amazing and insightful world of acting.

GENERAL EVALUATION OF THE PERFORMANCE NIGHT:
In general, the performance was great! As a cast, we put aside any negative things that happened in past rehearsals and performed to the best of our ability. Performing 'Nation' really showed me how important it is to work as a team as without teamwork, our performance would have not been successful. Doing 'Nation' made me learn a lot of things: without working as a team, you can't achieve half of what you aim to, you must never give up and always think out of the box. 'Nation' will be a play I will always remember and I feel blessed to have been a part of such an incredible performance.

GROUP RESEARCH TASK (Tobi, Nicole, Sam M, Courteney and I)

Polynesian Culture:

Sometimes entire Polynesian traditions were taken to new islands. For example, on the island of Taha‘a in Tahiti a taniwha named ‘Aifa‘arua‘i is said to have terrorised people travelling between Taha‘a and Motue‘a. It was killed by a man from Ara‘ura. The tradition was carried to New Zealand, where Kaiwhakaruaki was a taniwha who lived in the Parapara Stream, in Aorere (Golden Bay). It attacked and ate people travelling between Parapara and Motueka, and was killed by a man from Arahura.

• 
• Polynesia, a vast string of islands in the Pacific Ocean, including Hawaii, New Zealand, Easter Island, Tonga, and French Polynesia

• LANGUAGE: Native languages of the islands; Maori; Tahitian; French; English
• RELIGION: Christianity with elements of native religion

• Most traditional Polynesian societies rely on fishing and horticulture (growing flowers, fruits, and vegetables).

• In some parts of Polynesia—Hawaii, Tahiti, and the Marquesas in particular—men and women used to eat separately. In general, this pattern is no longer followed except in the most traditional communities and in certain ceremonial contexts.

• One of the most well-known Polynesian musical instruments is the Hawaiian ukulele. It is the Hawaiian version of the Portuguese mandolin

• Men are responsible for fishing, construction, and protection of the family units

• Women are responsible for collecting and processing horticultural products and for manufacturing basketry items and bark cloth

polynesian dances:

http://youtu.be/mZwh690i0lA polynesian women dancing

http://youtu.be/FRCqdMGrc2w  polynesian men dancing

polynesian art:

polynesians tend to turn their artwork into the form of tattoos

The tradition of Polynesian tattooing existed from 2000 years ago. In 18th century this operation was strictly banned by the Old Testament. In early 1980′s, tattooing started to get a renaissance. Since then many lost arts were retrieved by Polynesians. But due to the difficulty in sterilizing the traditional tools, the Ministry of Health banned tattooing in French Polynesia in 1986.

Tattoo was a way delivering information of its owner. It’s also a traditional method to fetch spiritual power, protection and strength. The Polynesians use this as a sign of character, position and levels in a hierarchy. Polynesian peoples believe that a person’s mana, their spiritual power or life force, is displayed through their tattoo. Almost every Polynesian got a tattoo in ancient times.

• Tattoo masters are the most crucial people because they bear the meaning of symbols and motifs in memory and know how to combine them to create a meaningful work of art to each person
• 
• Tattooing is a sacred ceremony in Polynesian culture

• On the basis of mythology, human learned the art of tattooing from the 2 sons of the God of Creation Ta’aroa. Tattooing was operated by highly trained shamans (tahua) in the religious ceremony, who was an expert in the meanings of the tattoo and skills of the art.

Going Into Public Dressed As Locaha

After I had finishing performing 'Nation', I walked up a long road called Streatham High Road with my mother and friend. I must say the looks and comments I got were hilarious! I think what stunned people the most was my face makeup:

I took inspiration from other face makeup designs that I browsed on the internet. I wanted to look as weird and abstract as possible whilst making it look subtle and not too over the top. Seeing people's reactions outside made me believe that I had achieved my aim: to differentiate myself from other characters to really highlight my role of being death. People on the street said I looked "scary" and "scary" is exactly what I wanted to look like! 

If I could have improved my costume, I would have done some art on the rest of my body and not just on my face to make me look more abstract. I would have experimented with different designs whilst also baring in mind not to go too over the top. My aim whilst being Locaha was to contrast against who I am as much as possible through my facial designs as well as my voice and body language. I believe the face designs helped me to achieve this. Nonetheless, I would have done more designs to experiment in more detail.

BOUND FOR SOUTH AUSTRALIA!

At the end of scene 10, we all sing a song called 'South Australia' by The Pogues:

In South Australia I was born

 heave away, haul away
In South Australia round Cape Horn
We're bound for South Australia
Haul away you rolling kings
heave away, haul away
Haul away, you'll hear me sing
We're bound for South Australia

The purpose of singing this song is to demonstrate how happy and relieved we were as islanders that we found shelter and food. Before we sang the song, we all went to Mau's tribe to ask for his help and he gave it to us. 

Involving singing in our performance helped us to add more of an exciting experience for audience members. In plays, sometimes singing can be rare. Nonetheless, we decided to include another art form to make our performance as enticing as possible. 

As a successful actor, it is important to show versatility. Therefore, you must show you can do other things than just act. You must show that there are other art forms you are skilled in to make yourself as much of a well-rounded performer as possible! From including singing in our performance helped us to display other art forms and do the unexpected.  

Examples of Annotations Made On My Script

The following are examples of annotations I've made on my script to help me when rehearsing and learning my lines, actions and thought changes and movements:

Furthermore, here are annotations I've made on the plan of the stage to mark out my entrances and exits in the scenes that I am in: