Notes from Mr Rennison and Mr Hughes (30/03/15)

- don't switch off after Monday rehearsals, do work in own time

- "To do something, just be it"

- All have the ability to get distinction 

- work as hard as we can

- our show, make it the best it can possibly be

Today in class, Mr Rennison and Mr Hughes spoke to us about how rehearsals have been going so far. As a group, we have not been working to the best of our ability by speaking unnecessarily, going off task and not putting in full focus and effort in rehearsals - regardless whether or not we are on stage at a given moment. Due to our lack of effort as a group, we have gone massively behind schedule in our rehearsal process. This is was originally our plan for rehearsals that we made on Monday 16th February 2015:

A Plan For The Rest of the Unit

Week 5

Pages 17-27

Week 6

Pages 27-61

Week 7

Pages 61-81

Week 1

Pages 81-110

Week 2

Pages 110-144

Week 3 

Run through 

Week 4 

Easter

Week 5

Dress rehearsal in school

Week 6 

performance 

Week 7

Evaluation 

This week, we are in week 3. Within this week, we were supposed to run through the whole of play. Unfortunately, we have not started to even configurate act 2 which pulls us back massively in trying to construct the play as a whole. 

From observing and being in the class during the rehearsals, I have seen that as a group we have not been focusing and excelling to our full potential. We haven't been taking time outside of lessons to improve our work and rehearsal techniques which was evident in today's rehearsal.Nonetheless, we can still improve this as we do not have our performance yet. To improve this, we must make sure when we rehearse as a class, it is as proactive as possible. We must put in and use our full amount of energy to have successful rehearsals. To make this performance successful, we have to work productively as an ensemble. If we all aim to remember this throughout the rehearsal process and on the night of the performance, we should all excel in our performance and hopefully achieve the highest grade possible!

All The Scenes That Locaha Is In

Act 1 Scene 2

Act 1 Scene 6

Act 1 Scene 13

Act 1 Scene 15

Act 2 Scene 7

Act 1 Scene 12 - Tsunami

In act 1 scene 12, there is a scene where islanders enter the scene very injured, hungry and tired. Here are some pictures of tsunamis from countries such as Japan:

Locaha - My Role

The character that I will be playing in the play is 'Locaha'. However, I will be accompanied by Olivia Kiely, Olivia Oprzynska and Eleanor Chilton-Sutton. As an ensemble, we will work together to bring the character Locaha to life in the play. From briefly talking to Olivia Kiely, we have a brief idea of what we want our costume to be:

We thought of wearing a black crop top with a long, black maxi skirt as the skirt would look quite effective as we moved across the stage and performance space together. In addition, the black crop top would add simplicity to our costume. Furthermore, the colour black has connotations of darkness and death. Therefore, we believe that wearing the colour black will add a gothic-feel to our character to make us look as gothic and scary as possible.

This is an idea I have of the makeup we could wear when in character. I believe this is quite gothic. Therefore, it would suit with the costume ideas we have. Furthermore, the eye art would add more of an edge to our character to make us look as scary and different as possible. Around our eyes should be black also to elaborate on the gothic feel will are trying to imply. 








To make sure we all have an even amount of lines to say in the play, we decided to split up the lines that our character has like so:

This is an example that Eleanor showed us. We all agreed that this is a could way to split up the lines to make sure we are all speaking equally in the play.











                       

Acting Techniques (keep on adding each week of rehearsals)

Open your voice be high status with your voice - good voice technique 

It's a command, not a suggestion

Lose yourself in a character
Leave your personal problems at the door
In order to make a play successful, as a cast you must work together
If one person loses focus in the ensemble, it can ruin the whole performance

Act 1 Scene 10 - Beer Ceremony

During week 7 of theatre, we created a piece of movement to do during the beer ceremony in Act 1 Scene 10. In Mau's culture, a beer ceremony is seen as a normality. Therefore, we decided to give special focus and attention when performing the ceremony.

At the beginning of the ceremony, all of the male cast are in a circle and the rest of the female cast are in a circle around them. Whilst tribal music is playing in the background, as a company, we chant "beer beer beer beer" repetitively whilst using our bodies to move in a exciting and energetic manner. After this, the cast become silent. The male cast in a circle move as water whereas the female cast move as fire. To end this movement, the male cast spit in a bowl that contains the beer we are having the ceremony for. After this, they move backwards still in a circle and the female cast come forwards (also still in a circle). As this is all happening, the tribal music is still playing continuously in the background. However, the music comes to a halt to indicate when the male cast should spit in the bowl. 

Now that the female cast is in a circle with the male cast around them, instead of moving as fire, they now move as air whilst the male cast move as earth. The movement shows a clear contrast as moving as air would contain more gracious and elegant movement. On the contrary, moving as the earth would be more aggressive to show the contact that the nation have with the earth is physical. To end this movement, the music comes to a half again to indicate when the female cast should also spit in the bowl of beer. After they do this, they move backwards into the circle with the male cast and continue the movement they did at the beginning whilst chanting "beer beer beer beer".

The cast now crouch down in a circle to watch people perform their own individual rituals for the ceremony. Individual groups will enter the middle of the circle to do their ritual, end of their ritual by putting something inside the bowl of beer then join the rest of the nation in the circle formation. I do my ritual after Rasaq and Brinley with Thaliqua, Kit, Becky and Chloe. Whilst doing our ritual, we repetitively chant "Travel far, meet yourself, travel long, home". 

A Plan For The Rest of the Unit

Week 5

Pages 17-27

Week 6

Pages 27-61

Week 7

Pages 61-81

Week 1

Pages 81-110

Week 2

Pages 110-144

Week 3 

Run through 

Week 4 

Easter

Week 5

Dress rehearsal in school

Week 6 

performance 

Week 7

Evaluation