Week 2

Greek Tragedy

Is a form of theatre from Ancient Greece and Asia Minor. It involves suffering and human tragedy based on our flaw world full of suffering from our own actions.Greek plays are tragedy, comedies and satyr plays.Greek tragedy's were only performed by men and only men watched the shows. They would do big actions and wear masks to hide their identity and enabled you to change characters. It was also a religious ritual so they wore the masks because of that too. The chorus is the hardest and most challenging. The chorus makes it dramatic when arguing and they speak together but don't think together. The plays were performed in a theatre that was in the shape of a circle with no roof.

My character

Since I play the character if Holly I decided to find out more about her and try to figure out what I should wear. I figured due to Holly's look on everything and her attitude that a leather jacket, black skinny jeans, any top and black ankle boots should create her character perfectly. I also saw that Lara Rossi who played Holly at the National Theatre wore the black leather jacket and black skinny jeans as well. I have also been looking into Holly's relationships with each character she interacts with to help me understand her a bit more.

Workshops

For workshops this week Karen put us in to four corners with the people we interact with most during the play and had us work to four different points in the room and to remember them. We then started going to these points in different ways and pastes and sometimes on our own. Once we had done this we had already thought we could use this during the crowd scenes in the play. We also did chair duets where we were in pairs and we had to do three different moves  but interacting with the other person every time until we got to about 18 moves altogether. Then we did one based on Greek Tragedy with all the big movements and facial expression for every emotion for example for scared I hid under my chair. We decided to use this workshop in Ruth's speech scene in order for the audience to see everyone's big reaction to what Ruth has to say. The workshops have really helped me to realize how the simple things like the four corners can really make a scene so much better and have more affect. In my opinion I think all the workshops are amazing because they each have their own great affect on the different scenes that we choose to use them in. 

Blocking

We blocked bit of act one this week and Karen added me into other scenes as an extra like the riot scene and Stephens speech where I walk past whilst talking on the phone. I also learnt to play the drums this week for Ruth's speech and during this scene everyone did their chorus movements like happy and sad. We also did mine and Milo's scene with everyone joining in as the crowd and did the four corners and the chair duets. This has a good affect on the scene because by using different things without it looking messy you get the park scene effect. I really like this scene because I think Holly's feelings towards Mark and what they've been doing really comes out. You also see why Holly is scared of Mark because is angry side comes out.  I also sat and watched as Karen blocked other scenes so I could have a rough idea on how to block my scenes so it would be easier for Karen.  

'13'

This week I actually found out a lot about '13' and what could of influenced Mike Bartlett to write this play. I think it's based around war and politics around that time which was 2010 because England was unsure whether to go to war with Iran as there was a theory Iran had nuclear weaponry and it was obviously down to politics if they did or not. We also believe it is related to the Bible as a prostitute named Holly just like my character is in the Bible. We were also able to relate John to the Bible as Jesus.

 

Goals

My goal for next week is to learn all my lines, start coming up with my own ideas for the scenes that I am in or help contribute to others. Volunteer myself during workshops and start answering questions even if I'm not sure if it's right. Work more on my character and the way she acts and speaks and start to use more gestures when speaking. I also need to slow down when saying my lines and show more expression.