My Voice Portfolio

                                        Voice

With my voice I don’t feel like I have many good qualities about it, I don’t even really like my own voice and hate to listen to it played back. I may have some good qualities like I feel like I can be quite confident when speaking and have a strong voice if I know the lines well. My projection has got better but there are still things to be worked on and I emphasise words well.

There are a few main things that I need to work on as they've always been a problem when it comes to performing. These are projection, pace, articulation and elongating words. Both Karen and Sally have pointed out that I elongate my words and that I need to make them snappy. My previous voice teacher Sarah always pointed out that my articulation needs improving and my previous drama teachers said that I need work on projecting. I’m happy Karen has gave us this task as I hope to make massive improvements in my voice and I think pointing out my weaknesses and then finding exercises to help improve and record myself doing them will help loads. Due to the fact I will be able to see the improvements and hopefully keep them up in the future so they become my strengths.

Vocal warm-ups

Projection is a key thing when performing as it’s important the audience can hear you throughout the play. I think the exercising I’m going to use to help improve is a breathing exercise. I’ve learnt that the key to projection is efficient working of the lungs, intercostal muscles and diaphragm. The diaphragm helps push air out of the lungs, it should move down and push the belly out when breathing in, and move up, pushing air out of the lungs and pulling the belly in when you breathe out. In order to make sure my diaphragm does this and my projection improves I will be carrying out the following exercise every day for 15 minutes.

 http://www.salt-box.co.uk/uploads/1/0/1/9/10196192/3-simple-techniques-to-improve-your-voice-projection.pdf

Place hand on your belly (below the ribcage, over your belly button) and one hand on your back. Breathe in slowly, and feel the gap between your hands get wider as your belly moves outward. Take a few deep breaths in and out and feel the hand on your belly moving out and in as you do so. Now place your hands, with fingertips touching, across your belly, just below the ribcage. Breathe in and feel your belly move out, then breathe out making a hard, quick “Huh” sound – you should feel your belly contract as the sound comes out. Repeat several times.  Practice this abdominal breathing regularly so that it becomes normal and natural (in the car, watching TV – anywhere). Then try making different sounds. Hear how much stronger and clearer the voice is, and how much more it projects when you breathe abdominally.

Pace when delivering a play is also key because the audience need to be able to understand what you’re saying in order to know what’s happening. I always find it really hard to slow what I’m saying down because I always want to pick up the pace if it’s an intense conversation on stage. Something that I’ve tried doing when learning a script is using the punctuation to help me slow down. I think the best exercise to do would be to record myself saying a speech normally, listen back over it and then mark down where in the speech I could take a breath or pause a little and then record it again and keep doing this until clear improvements are shown.

Articulating is one that I really struggle with I think but when I concentrate more when reading a play, I feel like it has been improving slightly. There are so many exercising to do and I think the breathing technique I will be doing with help a lot too because you need good breath control. The exercises I’m going to be doing is first a simple one which is just stretching the articulation muscles by running my tongue along the walls of my mouth and stretching the jaws. I then will continue by going over the following:

·         How can a clam cram in a clean cream can?

·         The thirty-three thieves thought that they thrilled the throne throughout Thursday.

·         Roberta ran rings around the Roman ruins.

Elongating my words is my biggest struggle at the moment as I keep doing it at the end of each sentence when it needs to be short and snappy instead of long and high. The best way to help improve is to probably work on saying the words as one syllable so they don’t drag out. I’ll probably do the same thing like I am for pace and record myself speaking and then re-record myself saying it with my syllable so I don’t elongate and it should hopefully sink in after doing it so many times so that I end up not doing it anymore. This will also help the scenes to flow nicely and not drag out.  

This table shows roughly when I plan on doing the exercises and how long they’re going to be.

Days of the week	Morning	Afternoon
Monday	Projection Exercise 15 min
Tuesday		Pace exercise 20 min
Wednesday
Thursday		Articulation 20 min
Friday	Projection Exercise 15 min
Saturday
Sunday		Elongating 15 min

Reflection

All the exercises have clear benefits that will help on stage and in general conversation. The benefits of the breathing exercise are to help the diaphragm by allowing more air to get to the lungs. This is important so we can breathe from the diaphragm and excel out, speaking loud and clear. After doing it for a while it should become natural and it will no longer be a weakness. Hopefully once doing the pace exercise that will also become natural thing so I won’t have to go over and over something to slow it down. It will also help with my general conversation with people and stuff because I tend to speak faster when I’m annoyed or excited. Articulation is about using your whole mouth when speaking to get the right sounds and pronunciation which is obviously a benefit. Once I stop elongating words, lines will flow much nicer along with the scenes.

I have been doing the exercise for over two weeks now and I’m starting to see an improvement that I hope as I continue will show much more obviously later on. I feel as if I am already beginning to speak much clearer and louder. My pace is still fast but as I continue to practise it should slow down to a normal pace and when I stop elongating my lines should be smooth and clear. I hope after doing these exercise for a while I won’t have to do them so often and it will all become natural and be a big improvement to my voice and my performance’s.

It’s been five weeks since I started my voice warm ups and I’ve noticed an even bigger improvement in my voice. I feel like I’m speaking clearer and able to project and have good articulation which I’ve always found hard. My pace has definitely improved in the last three weeks as using the punctuation is flowing nicely now.

It’s been two months and I am so happy with the progress that I’ve seen in my voice. My voice has improved so much and I’m so happy with the way I deliver speeches now. My diction and articulation have improved massively but I feel like there is still a little work to be done as I still mess up a little. My pace is good; I no longer rush unless my nerves get the better of me. I feel like having a good pace has helped my projection as well, I feel like I’ve improved really well. I don’t elongate on my words either and even though I’ve been doing the exercise it feels like it happened almost naturally. I’m really happy and actually starting to like my voice now that I’ve improved, I really want to keep it up and maybe look into other exercise to help my voice overall.

Voice work

Radio is the thing we are currently working on and will be recording soon so it’s something we’ve been focusing on in voice to help us. Voice is key as it needs to show the different emotions during scenes and the different tones between different characters. The play I’m doing which is Atching Tan is very all over the place with emotion and it’s not clear when scenes are changing and we have to show that through change of tone and emotion. For example, I could be in a heated scene with my parents and then it goes onto me being half asleep and talking to Norah. I think that’s the thing I’m finding hard the most, the quick change in tone and to show emotion, especially when I show emotion better through actions and eye contact with the other person.

When rehearsing the play in voice, Karen gave us some feedback to help.  She said we need to bounce off each other and that I need to say my words with one syllable to make it flow more. She also said to pronounce the T’s to show her being a bit spiteful. When hearing myself back I also think I need to show a change in scene by using a different tone depending on who I’m with and the environment. More emotion in the voice and react with lines from the stage directions.

When doing Shakespeare, I found it quite hard to get the hang of because to me the lines don’t make sense as I don’t understand Shakespearean language. Which is why it was so helpful when Sally made our first lesson about the language and then suggested we all look up words we don’t know in what we say to help us and it was such a big help. For example, playing the character Ursula my line was “The Pleasant’s angling is to see the fish, cut with her golden oars the silver stream and greedily devour the treacherous bait: So angle we for Beatrice; who even now is couched in the woodbine coverture. Fear you not my part of the dialogue.”  This line is basically Ursula saying how they’re going to trick Beatrice into thinking Bennedick loves her. I did this throughout the play which helped me a lot when thinking about my tone of voice and actions to do.

When performing in front of the Karen my feedback was for my first scene to put emphases on certain words so I went through my script and underlined the words that I would emphasise. When it came to the scene where we are planning the trap for Beatrice and Bennedick, Karen said to say it ‘in a nearly whisper’ and all excited like we’re dare devils because we really want it to work and get really carried away with it. At the same time, it’s important to not rush because I have a thing to pick up then pace when I’m really excited about something or trying to sound excited. So it was important that id didn’t do that and that I project when speaking. When I rehearsed in class I got feedback tease more when talking about Beatrice to make it more funny and slow it down. Luckily I didn’t have any difficult words to say which made it a lot easier for me otherwise I would have struggled much more.

We’ve just started doing Greek chorus in voice and my group which was me, Lewis, Luke and Matt are doing the second chorus part and our ideas on the vocal delivery were for kids watching TV, on social media and in a salesmen conference.  We decided to do the salesmen and that we would do 3 lines each and have a drum. I knew it wasn’t going well because we were all shouting, I suggested whispering some of the lines but by the time I had suggested it we had to show what we had to Karen. Luckily the following week there was much more of an improvement, Phoebe and Brandon also joined us. We moved our decisions forwards by saying the lines as if we were trying to sell stuff at a market and we were all going to say our now two lines each differently and then we all said the third line together. Our product we were going to be selling was the word ‘justice’ so we repeated it after every 3 lines. Finally, with the last two ‘justice’s’ we were going to shout and then whisper the last one and say the last line “With your blade” with pausing in between each word.

Whilst rehearsing it was difficult as everyone would constantly shout the third line which made it so you couldn’t hear the different ways people were saying it. We wanted it so everyone could say their two lines and their ‘justice’ that they said after their three lines however they wanted to go with the marketing theme. Then with the third line everyone joins in saying each one a different way to get various tones in there to help with the variation of the speech. After going over it a few times and constantly reminding everyone to NOT shout the third line it started going really well and I think we ended up with a good and powerful peace with loads of different variations of tones of voices in there.

I’m not a big fan of Greek Chorus stuff. I found some of the words to say hard, like I couldn’t say Agamemnon at first. I kept having to get people in my group to say it so I could get the pronunciation right. The same went for Atreus too. I found it easy to do a salesman at a market voice after Phoebe did a demonstration for us.  Then once I got through all that and figured out how I was going to say all the lines I was saying it went really well in my opinion. I was pleased with my delivery and don’t think it could have gone any better.

                             

                              

My solo speech that I’m doing is Sasha from the play Ivanov. I really liked this speech because I feel like I can connect with the character more. Sasha is a kind, compassionate and always helping others and finding the best in them. Which is why when performing the monologue, I want the passion to flow through and for the audience to feel what I’m saying. I think I really connect with this monologue the most because I understand what she’s saying and feel the same way. I want it to be passionate and happy as I deliver the speech. I’m going to deliver it in a normal pace, with a good clear tone and hopefully good articulation and diction. I’m going to perform it standing and focus on a spot behind everyone to allow me to have better focus too. I didn’t really have any struggles with this monologue, the language is quite easy and modern and there were no difficult words or anything so I had no difficulties learning it.

Classical Theatre Assignment 2

Rehearsal Preparation

We are currently working on the play Much Ado About Nothing by William Shakespeare and we're modernising it for today audience. Like most people I personal don't like Shakespeare very much not because the text itself isn't good but because I can't understand it. Luckily Sally worked on the text first with us giving us some Shakespeare words with the modern English version next to it and some verb inflections. This helped a lot because I began understanding a little more about the language so that when it comes to getting my part I would have a better understanding. Sally also showed us the modern version with David Tennant which definitely gave me a much better understand because I could understand more of what they were saying through their actions and humour. I'm really happy Sally should us the modern version first and that we’re doing this specific play as it’s made my feelings towards Shakespeare change completely. Due to this play I am actually really fond of doing Shakespeare and I'm really looking forward to performing it. In order for me to have a even better understanding of the play Sally had us write our lines in modern English.  This helped me so much because when I went through my scene with Issie I suddenly knew exactly what the scene was about and what we were actually saying to each other. My main part is in Act 3 Scene 1, where I play Ursula. The meaning of this scene is for me and Hero to set a trap for Beatrice in order to make her believe Benedick loves her. When watching the David Tennant version this scene was a comedic scene and we want ours to be the same. - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mzfthz-I8aM 

During this scene all the lines are iambic pentameter and it's important we enthesis on important words. Sally has gave us many tips in order to help us understand our scenes more, for example she had us write next to each line what our objective is when saying that line. I think that in my main scene the main objective is definitely to convince, persuade and trick Beatrice into thinking Benedick loves her so that she can accept her true feeling towards him which is that she does love him too. I believe my role in the scene is to just play along with Hero and just have fun with it because we know she can hear us which is why we big it up and exaggerate.

        

 

In total I was in three scenes and two movement piece. The first scene I was in was the first scene of the play. I played the character Hero and only had one line but that didn't mean I wasn't important. I read through the scene so I know what was happening and it was basically the audiences first look on the relationship between Benedick and Beatrice and when Claudio and Hero first meet and fall in love. Being Hero meant that I did have an important part because I had to show the love connection between me and Claudio from our first meeting. I also have to laugh at what Beatrice was saying which is actually really hard especially when I don't have a clear understanding of the Shakespeare language. Due to only having one line which I knew what it meant to get a better understanding I spoke to my fellow piers who were in the scene with me. We also changed some of the words to help make it more modern. I feel like this scene its self just shows the true meaning of the play because you see Beatrice and Benedick putting on a front that they hate each other when really they love each other. Then there's Hero and Claudio, the lovers who feel in love at first sight of each other, the fairy-tale love. Later on you see love at first sight isn't always the fairy tale ending. When you look back to the Elizabethan era it was also very unlikely that a women would Marry someone she truly loves and it would normally be an arranged marriage by her father. I think the reason why her father allowed it is because Claudio is at a high status like them.

My second scene is act two scene one where I am Hero again with the one line again. This scenes hows Beatrice's humour and thoughts on men and my main job is to react. I rather like this scene because you get to see Beatrice's personality which is really funny because she's all about not needing a man and just being a strong independent women. Which when you look back to the Elizabethan time women weren't independent, it was a women’s duty to look after her husband, the house and the kids whilst he went out to work. I think she's a great character and I love the way Catherine Tate portrays her in the modern version. She shows then women don't need men in their lives and can be much happier without them. I've thought about how Shakespeare would have got this character of Beatrice and my theory is Queen Elizabeth because although she was married she was the women in charge and he used to go see her often so maybe that whole independent thing with Beatrice could be a bit from the Queen.  The scene shows the comedy side to the play so the laughter and comedy needs to be high throughout the scene.

 

 

My third scene which is my main scene, I play the character of Ursula. This scene is to convince Beatrice that Benedick loves her. After reading through the scene I feel like I had a true understanding of Beatrice was and how she worked. I read through the scene quite a few times at home as this was the only scene Ursula was in so it was all I had to make my own interpretation of her. This was a very important scene because the real love of the play is between Beatrice and Benedick and we're helping Beatrice realise it. They both say that would rather be on their own but back in the Elizabethan times you had to get married, you had no choice, man or women. When watching the Catherine Tate version of this scene this was my favourite seen so I was so happy to be able to do it. The one thing I worried most was trying to make it funny as it's so hard to make something funny when it isn't already.But I like a challenge and I look forward to starting to rehearse it and hopefully it goes well.

 

Character study - Hero

My interpretations of Hero is that she is a fun, outgoing, young and a girly girl type of girl. I feel like she adores her father and he adores her as she is his only daughter and he only wants what's best for her. I do feel like he has her feelings at his best interest and when she falls in love with Claudio he fully supports her. "Daughter, remember what I told you, Ii the prince do solicit you in that kind, you know your answer."She has a great relationship with her cousin Beatrice also and wants the best for her. I know this because in act three scene one she's tricking her cousin into thinking Benedick loves her but that's only because she knows she does like him and she wants to see her happy. Hero's objective in the play is to marry Claudio and when she is accused of something she hasn't done it's to make things right and prove her innocence. Which is obviously very hard as Claudio knows that he witnessed it himself and her own father doesn't believe her. She's young and just wants to have fun and I think she just loved the idea of a fairy tale wedding and the fact that it was love at first sight for her and Claudio. I feel like she gets embarrassed easily, for example when Beatrice mocks her in act 2 scene one or in act one scene one when Don Pedro talks about her and she goes all shy. She's very innocent and loves to party, she's happy to help out with anything and doesn't need anything in return. I feel like she was more than happy to help her father out with whatever he needed. Yes her father is pretty wealthy and she has maids but she never treated them or anyone else any differently to how they should be treated and saw them more as her friends. A true lovely and hear warming young women. I wore shorts, crop top and a shirt tied around my waist with my hair curly in plats to give of this young, stylish look.

Me as Hero  Joe as Claudio

 

 

Ursula

 

I see Ursula as a funny, overeating, energetic and a bit dumb sort of character. In the modern version she is played as a middle aged women but due to us changing it a bit ourselves by making it a festival I thought I'd bring her down a little bit and make her younger. I decided to make her just a bit older then Hero and I saw Hero as being 24 years old so I made Ursula about 26 years old. Ursula was more seen as Hero's friend in act three scene one but like the sidekick friend, the unpopular one compared to Hero. I put her as a bit dumb because when she's saying all these things about Beatrice she doesn't know how far to go or when to stop. For example she goes too far when saying "Sure, sure, such carping is not commendable." She's saying Beatrice is so hard to please she doesn't deserve all this praising, which is obviously way too far, especially when she can hear. I wanted to have her laughing whenever she wasn't talking and moving around to show that energy and the weird laughter. I see Ursula as one of the last people you would pick to be a spy with you but because she's the only option she gets so excited you've actually picked her and just goes overboard with the whole thing. That's how I see Ursula due to my own interpretation of her from how I read the script and because we changed the setting to modern day. Her role in the play is to just convince Beatrice in the best way possible that Benedick loves her and try not to give away too much when doing so because Beatrice doesn't know they know she's there.

Sophie has Beatrice Issie as Hero,

 Frankie as Margret and me as Ursula

 

 

Rehearsal Development

I've been given the role of Hero from the play Much Ado About Nothing in act one, scene one and again in act two scene one. I also have the role of Ursula in act three scene one which is the main one I've been working on as I have way more to say. We have made our performance into the modern day and after Sally suggesting have it at a festival we all loved the idea so that's what we decided to do. We had to change some scenery to make it work like in act three scene one we had her hide in a porterloo instead of a woodbine coverture in the garden. This allowed the audience to have a better understand as most of them were students at the college and would probably have all been to a festival, it also made it more fun for us.

 

When I went through my main scene with the girls I automatically put on this excited tone as in my opinion the scene is very upbeat due to the humour of it. I thought this because of the way they performed it in the modern version of the play. This scene is about setting a trap in my eyes, setting a trap to make Beatrice believe that Benedick loves her. The trap is for her to believe he likes her so she can then realise her true feels for him which is that she loves him. Our main problem for this scene is making it funny, I personally find it hard to make things funny.The girls in the scene and I had a discussion about what we can do. During something I say, Sophie who is Beatrice spits out her drink so I thought maybe I should go up to the porter-loo where she was and say the line then react after hearing her spit out the drink. After that as a group we thought of other things that would help like whoever isn't speaking reacts to what the other person is saying and then have Sophie reacting as well so it’s funny on both sides. I also let the girls in my scene a trick that I used in the last play I did to help keep the funniness in the scene. I said when someone is speaking the other two need to whisper something the other person finds funny because laughter can be contagious. Our scene has developed so much, we just need to keep the ‘banta’ throughout the scene and make sure we have constant expressions and laughter to keep it upbeat. Beatrice needs to react to what we’re saying and we need to react to her reactions but due to her not getting a hang of it for a while because we hadn't actually gone through it in class it was hard and we just had to try. We helped her through it to see what she could do and how to deliver her lines. I demonstrated what she could do when in the portaloo and what lines she could react to and stuff then we went over it all again with Sally. I also helped her with her monologue in the scene by showing her videos of other people like Catherine Tate performing it so she could get an idea on the tone and expressions. The main feedback I got was to keep overreacting from the beginning to the end, slow down the lines which I always find quite hard because I'm a fast talker anyway. I got feedback from Matt that I was also very breathy saying my first line as I'm supposed to be whispering it to Hero so I had to work on that a lot at home so I wasn't and I think I sorted it so I wasn't. He said to tease more as I am trying to trick Beatrice and get carried away with it more. I feel like due to us practising a lot and discussing what we could do it really helped us to bring it up and it was a great success in the end.

 

 The first scene of the whole play obviously has to be upbeat because it's the first scene and it has to draw the audience in. I didn't have much say in this scene as I only had one line and Sally had directed what everyone was doing anyway. I think I might have suggested doing the flags but I'm not 100% sure. I'll admit at first it was hard for everyone to try and make it funny because it's all about the understanding and delivery of the lines. We also kept going over and over it was not much progression so it also got a bit boring. We didn't give up though, we ran through it helping each other out on how to deliver the lines to bring the energy up and what we were all doing. Due to me having my one line I had to be doing something throughout but making sure I was reacting to what everyone was saying. During the scene I'm putting up flags for decorations with Beatrice whilst listening to Leonato who is my father talk to the messenger about Don Pedro coming to Messina. Due to us modernising the play this was all set at a festival and Don Pedro was part of a band that was the main performance. So at the beginning of the play when that line has been delivered me and Sophie act excited and happy because anyone would be happy to meet a famous band. The next thing to react to was obviously Beatrice moaning about Benedick which at first I would just laugh a little to the bits I knew that were funny but it was hard as Sophie didn't but the tone needed to it. After practising she got it and then it was much easier to laugh and everything. Then I have to pretend to not be able to actually hang the decorations so Claudio could help me and then you see the love connection which wasn't hard as me and Joe are quite close. Whilst doing that we listened into the rest of the scene and would love a little when necessary. I feel like by the end the scene flowed really well, everyone still had a few key things to work on and mine was mainly to react and make sure I'm projecting.  Throughout the scene I just wanted Hero to come across as a young, fun, girly girl and I feel like I've achieved that on stage.

 

The second scene of the play in my eyes is to show Beatrice's character and the comedy side to her and what she thinks about men and marriage. I play Hero again so she makes a few comments to me due to Hero and Claudio being in love. I think it was hard for all of us to understand the scene and know what we were going to do. Issie and I decided it would be good to set up a table with drinks as at the end of the scene is the silent disco. Again it was about reacting but it was hard when at first I didn't understand what she was saying and Frankie hadn't developed her character enough to make it funny. We practised this scene on our own a few times to help each other as we didn't really get around to doing it in class a lot of the time. I soon got the hang of everything and it naturally become really funny so most of my laughter throughout the scene is real. This scene like the first scene relied on our reactions to bring up the energy which wasn't that hard once we all knew what we were doing and saying. I only had one line for this scene and at the beginning I honestly couldn’t say 'melancholy' so we had to spell it out and I was saying melon and colley together so I could actually say it and then I was finally able to after practising a lot at home. I didn't get much feedback for this scene as I only had the one line, all I really got was to react at the beginning but then by the end I was getting good feedback because I was reacting. During this scene I wanted to show the family connetection  between Hero and Beatrice because they're close cousins and are more friends than anything. We show it through when Beatrice takes the mick out of her and we decided I'd joke around and push her a little whilst laughing to show the playful side.

 

The first dance sequence was the silent disco and Sally wanted us to come up with four moves that we could do that was linked to a festival. We all found it really hard and then Luke came up with poo, smoke, drink and selfie so we call decided to do the same that. Of course Sally didn't like the first one so we changed that into our own individual dance moves. We ran that a couple of times and then moved on to where the front show which was me moved around to the back and Phoebe and Lewis (Beatrice and Benedick) did a little sequence. Then it went to slow Mo and then me and Joe (Hero and Claudio) did our little movement bit. Ours was to show him proposing to me so we thought have him propose on one knee and then go into a lift we it ended up him walking off whilst carrying me in bridle style. We had a few troubles so we practised a lot to make sure we got it right and that he could lift me and that I could get my leg over and back over for him to catch me. Then we had to add another 8 counts as we were stood waiting for a while so he spun me from the top of the stage down to the front and then he picked me up and spun me. It wasn't that hard but we did have to practise a few times to make sure we had it and there were a few times we messed up because our headphones got tangled and I put my foot in the wrong place so we just practised and we got it. I think it went well when we performed it.

 

The second dance sequence was okay but I found it all very confusing and didn't really understand what was going on myself. I gave some ideas on what to do but Sally didn't want to overcomplicate things and just wanted it to be simple for the audience to understand. During it you see Don John and Borachio doing through with their plan to stop Hero and Claudio getting married by getting off with Margret, Hero's gentlewomen and pretending its Hero so Claudio won't want to marry her anymore.  We go into a wedding scene which is still part of the dance sequence where we show Claudio pushing Hero away using this pull and push move that I suggested as there was no talking. The rehearsal process for this was pretty long as it had to be in time and everything and we had to do certain movies on the right beat but it turned out really good by the end. Like the first one, five of us at to think of four movements to do with if we were watching a performance at a festival. Whilst Hero and Margret where lifted onto the boys shoulders so they kind of knew they were the main focus. Our four moves were fist pump, body twist, lean back and lean forward. I and Phoebe were at the front and we thought it would be a good idea to have like a barrier like they do a festivals. Well we didn't have one so we used wooden poles that we held and put together so it looked like one. We began using them and then after a while I hated them because we couldn't hold them straight and everything but Sally still wanted us to use them until our performance week when she also agreed to get rid of them. We had a lot of trouble with the music for this scene but on the show week we finally got it done and the scene went really well.

I feel like I’m definitely taking some responsibly in order to help improve the scenes as I’ve gave the girls some helpful tips and I also helped Sophie with her reactions and monologue in the scene as it hasn’t had much work done to it. I feel like throughout rehearsal I have tried to give my opinion on what would be good, I’m very happy I’ve started to do this and have become more creative because I couldn’t do any of this last year. Throughout the process I feel like I have grown and I’m able to develop my character and the scenes I am in. Sally gives me more confidence as an actor to perform and give feedback and my opinion on things to others. I have been very opinionated throughout the rehearsal process but that's only because I want to be able to enjoy and like what I'm doing but I learned that it doesn't really matter if I look stupid, just as long as it all fits together. I think it was mainly the dance scenes I wasn't fond of, I just didn't like them but I tried anyway and put in my idea and we actually put a few of them in.

 

Much Ado About Nothing

 

  

Classical Theatre Assignment 1

Classical Theatre

http://nosweatshakespeare.com/resources/shakespeares-theatres/shakespeare-globe-facts/

 

The Elizabethan Era is seen to be one of the most interesting era’s, in the History of England. It was between 1558 -1603 and was names after the “Greatest Queen”. Not only is it famous for the Queen herself but also for the great explorers and the first theatre. The globe theatre was built on the south walk on the south bank of the River Thames in London by Peter Smith and his workers. It began getting built in 1597 and was finally finished in 1599, Richard Burage funded the project. I think the reason why Richard funded the project is because his father owned 'The Theatre' which was one of the earlier theatres and wood used to help build the globe theatre was rescued from the 'The Theatre' his father owned.

The globe is a big, round opened air theatre, where there is a roof covering the seating area. This theatre is similar to a Greek Theatre but much smaller. It holds three stories of seating and able to hold 3,000 people. The seating arrangement was determined by the class you were in back when it was first built, for example the lower class would be on the bottom floor having to stand for the whole show. During the Elizabethan times the amount of poor people increased highly that there was actually a law made that was devided into three catagories. Middle would be sat on the first balcony and the higher class sat up on the top balcony. Some of the really higher class people sat upper stage above the performers so the lower class could see them. The pit was the area at the base of the stage which the lower class people would pay just a penny to watch the show.

 

 Shakespeare was a share owner of the globe and owned 12.5%.

The theatre used colour coded flags to signify what sort of play was being performed. For a historic play, a red flag would of been shown. White for a comedy and black for a tragedy. The inscription "Totus mundus agit histrionem" which was above the main entrance is Latin for playhouse. To allow the audience to know that the play was beginning and for them to take their seats a trumpet would be played. You would only see male actors on stage as performing was seen too 'risque' for females.

 When the 'bubonic' plague was serious in London, The globe theatre was forced to close in 1603 and 1608 to stop it spreading.

In 1613 the globe theatre was burnt down due to a cannon used for a performance for Henry VIII set the thatcher roof a light, the fire quickly spread causing the globe to be burnt down completely in 2 hours. According to a few surviving documents no one was hurt during this event. After the globe was then re-built in the exact same spot in 1614. In 1642 a order by the puritans was made suppressing all stage plays and in 1644 is was turned into tenement housing, ending 85 years of history.

We all see the globe as a circle building but in the late 1980's a small part of it's foundation was uncovered where it seemed the building was a polygon of 20 sides.

In 1997 "Shakespears Globe Theatre" was built close to the original site of "The Globe Theatre", this was the third version of the globe theatre. The new globe theatre has been built using 1,000 oak trees and 6,000 bundles of reeds for the roof.

 http://www.theplaygroup.eu/globetheatre.html

 http://verymary.hubpages.com/hub/globe-theater

http://blog.forbestravelguide.com/getting-to-know-shakespeares-globe-theater

http://promptguides.com/london/attractions/globe_theatre.htm

The globe theatre used many special effects such as a Cannon

Trapdoors

Wires, ropes and harnesses

Fireworks

Flowers and petals

Music

 Live Animals

Bones, intestines and blood of dead animals

 

These would of been used throughout many different plays but the one thing the Globe didn't have was scenery so it would have been quite plain on stage during the performances but back then people focused more on their voices then the physicality so it wouldn't of bothered them as much. For the play Much Ado About Nothing “One of Shakespeare's most popular comedies" the theatre had pillars which would of been great for the Act 3 scene 1 when Hero and Ursula are talking about how Benedick loves Beatrice whilst she's secretly listening and they would of been great for her to hide behind. In the David Tennant performance they use the pillars for that scene as well as ropes and harnesses which would have also been good to use and possible was back when it was first performed. I would have also had it that maybe during the scene Beatrice stood on the trap door and had to climb back out because it would have been very amusing for the audience. The main theme is love, the love of Hero and Claudio and the love between Beatice and Benedick, both very different. The way is see it is Hero and Claudio's love is all fairytale where as Benedick and Beatrice can't admit there love to each other. Other strong themes are humour as it is a comedy and gender which I think is based on Beatrice and Benedicks relationship because they mock each other ad it's battle of the gender with them I feel. It was written by William Shakespeare and performed in the late 1590's.William Shakespeare is one of the most famous people from the Elizabethan era, he is considered to be one of the most famous play writers of all time. He has wrote 34 plays and are written in early modern English. Much Ado about Nothing was set in Messina in Sicily and back then the English was very fascinated by the Italians. A few of Shakespeare plays were set there. It was thought that Shakespeare and Elizabeth were very close as he would regularly be invited round along with his acting company and sometimes they would perform for her. Elizabeth was very fond of the theatre and due to her support helped to not have it shut down.

I think the play brings up the part when Hero is seen as un-loyal because religion was big thing back then as Elizabeth was religious herself and Catholics don't believe in sex before marriage. In the play when Hero is accused of this her own father dishonours her as it was taken very seriously because no man wanted a women who is unfaithful. A women’s reputation was everything and it shows that in the play with Hero. I feel like the relationship between Hero and Claudio is to show how everyone views love, like a fairy tale, love at first sight which some people believe to be true. Whereas Benedicks and Beatrice is very different, it's a love hate relationship, they act as if they hate each other when they do indeed love each other but they don't want to admit it. Beatrice also comes across has a very strong, dominate women when in a relationship it is normal the man who is. It's almost as it's try to show equality between sexes and as well the role would be performed by a man as women were not allowed to perform until the late 1600. During that time it was very little the women could do, they were mainly house wife’s and would stay at home to, cook, clean and looking after the kids.

The things that are the same of the Shakespeare version and the David Tennant version is probably that both used little scenery. The modern David Tennant one used pillars which Shakespeare would have had as they were on the globe stage and they would have used them during the bit where Benedick is hiding and the same for Beatrice and made out to be tree's. A difference would probably be that the modern play had a lot of beer and smoking involved which Shakespeare’s wouldn't have had. The masked ball would have been the same apart from the modern version was made more comical as they used masks like the Queen's face and back then it would have been plain masks with different facial expressions. The costumes would of definitely been different as theatre back then didn't have a lot of money so wouldn't have as good as costumes as they did in the modern version. The modern stage was able to rotate so that they could get one side of the stage ready whilst a scene was going on in front of the audience. Elizabethan audience would probably of carried horrible food with them to chuck at the actors if it wasn't good where as you wouldn't get that now.

Themes

Themes

 

There are many major themes in the play ‘Road’ I feel like one that is a big part of the play is poverty. I know poverty is a theme because of many reasons like the character Scullery who doesn’t have anywhere to stay and rummages through bins to try and find stuff to sell so he can earn money ”Old tap 30p. Basket, a bob.” He also wore dirty clothing and would get drunk a lot of the time. I feel like this fits in with the theme poverty because most people when they’re unhappy in some way drink they’re problems away and poverty is a massive problem. He would drink to see the better side of it, for example he lived on the streets so he would describe what a great view the road was to him when actually it was just a dirty old road with bins, rubbish bags, bottles, fag buts and maybe a pile of sick on the ground. They lived in poverty because during this time which was the 1980’s Margret Thatcher closed down the coal mines which meant 1,000 of people lost their jobs. I will use this research in the play to show through my character Doreen that she hates. She hates, the state she lives in and is tired of going out drinking every night. I know this because of what Doreen says in scenes for example in the scene with her and Lane when they’re talking about staying out drinking longer and Doreen says “I don’t fancy it” but Lane wants to. In my opinion this does show that Doreen is getting sick of going out drinking all the time otherwise she would have said yes and they would have continued drinking because why would you stop unless you had too?

 

 

 

Another theme is sex I consider sex to be a major scene because in the play characters use it as a tool and it’s mentioned a lot. It’s also used for the women to just get some attention because most of them are single and just want to feel loved. For example Helen who invites Kurt the drunken sailor to her place and then starts flirting with him even though he’s basically out of it. She doesn’t do this because she a bad person she just wants to feel loved and get some attention from a guy who’s new to the road. I also feel like sex and music can be linked as a theme because the music is what helped people enjoy themselves more. Their music in the 1980’s also spoke a lot about sex and would influence it. The popular music was pop and hip-hop and would help you to loosen up. I will use this research in the play for my character Doreen for when she starts to get drunk and after she’s come back from the pubs. I’d do this by showing it through her actions and gestures so showing she’s a bit more loosely after going to the pub, having a few drinks and a good time. In order to show this I’d start by walking all over the play so not in a straight line and laugh more because when people are drunk they do have a good laugh because the drink and music allows them to have a better time and enjoy themselves more. It will also be used in the last scene with Carol, Louise, Eddie and Brink. Near the end of their scene there will be music played to show that Eddie and Brink are going to liven things up a bit. During the time the music is playing you will see the characters start to get looser and looser and they continue to dance and listen to the music.

Social was another big theme when it comes to ‘Road’ because everyone on the road knew each other and everything about each other. Most of the characters have lived on the road are there due to not being able to afford to go anywhere else. For example the professor who wrote books before we lost everything. “I lost my wife, my family, half my stomach, everything.” This was because he wanted to do a study on road and “go down in history” but it didn’t go as planned. He now sales he’s books “for the price of a pint or chips” due to being so short on money. In 1980’s Margret Thatcher introduced poll tax which made many individuals income so low that like the professor they would do any small job just to get money. During to this and when Margret closed down the mines it meant everyone was doing whatever they could to get some money. There was a massive queue outside the job centres as everyone was trying to get some money to help them get by due to 1,000 of people losing their jobs.  Characters like Brenda would even flirt with other characters just so she could get a fiver. I will use this research for my character Doreen by showing her not taking money for granted and to show that she doesn’t have a lot of money. In order to show this for her costume I’ll wear plain clothing’s because if you didn’t have a lot of money back then you wouldn’t of been able to buy fancy fabrics like lace or one with a pattern on it. I wouldn’t talk about it though because although it was a difficult time for those without jobs, after a while you would have excepted it and made do with what you have.

Road evaluation

                                      Road performance evaluation

 

Interpreting the text - After reading Road for the first time I wasn’t really a big fan of it. I couldn’t really see how it was going to work and how we could make it funny and interesting. My interpretation has definitely changed now that we have performed it, it has been one of the best plays I’ve ever done and it ended up being so comical. From the first time I read it I could tell they live in a bad environment in the way that none of them have a lot of money and most of them don't have jobs or have lost them. When I first got given my character Doreen, I saw her as a fun, loose character but she isn’t as loose as her friend Lane. Once we performed I realised that Doreen is tired of going out clubbing and just wants to tone it all down. I feel this way because in the scene with her and Lane they’re talking about staying out a little later and Doreen really isn’t up for it.

Rehearsal Techniques – I feel like I definitely could have done more to help improve my character during the first few weeks of rehearsal, luckily I used the last couple of weeks to my advantage and it honestly helped so much. I always arrived to rehearsals on time and I had a good working relationship with all my peers. I helped them with their characters by giving them my own view on them and by giving them helpful feedback on their scenes. I used helpful feedback in my performance by doing vocal exercises before going on stage as being clear and projecting was something I needed to work on. I worked on my accent with Hannah during our free time just before the final performance as throughout the rehearsal process I was finding the northern accent hard. The other main one was mine and Lane’s scene as it needed more energy so we worked on it before the performance and then back stage we gave each other some words of encouragement in order for the both of us to put all our energy into it.

Process – When first taking on the role of Doreen, due to my interpretations of her being loose but not as loose as Lane I thought for her costumes some colourful leggings would be good. After going through the script the she thinks Scullery looks up her skirts so I wore a mini skirt instead. I also realised she is still a slut because when Scullery says “Tuck in ladies” She doesn’t exactly say no, she basically just says not right now. I took many risks with the northern accent as it was something I didn’t want to do and was finding really hard. I also had to pretend to be drunk during quite a few scenes which was hard because you have to make it obvious and believable.

Performance – I am honestly so happy with our finally performance, it went incredibly well. I felt so confident after taking in all my previous feedback and working on all of it before the show then focusing on putting it in the show. I was fully committed and made sure I put myself out there physically and vocally. There was a clear friendship between Doreen and Lane and even Doreen and the professor. I made sure this was clear through my interaction with the characters. During most of my scenes I was drunk so I had to continue being drunk and getting more and more drunk throughout the play.

Strengths – My strengths during rehearsal would be giving my fellow peers relevant feedback to their scenes and helping them develop their scenes and my own scenes. During rehearsal time I made sure to work on my accent as I found it hard doing it on my own at home so I asked Hannah who kindly worked on all my scenes with me, I luckily improved massively. I also feel that my physicality was really good as I used it to show that I was drunk and to show how ditzy Doreen is. I felt like I was fully committed to showing the audience Doreen so much that I was Doreen, I don’t feel like I showed myself at all.

Weaknesses – My main weakness would be that I wasn’t focused during the first week of rehearsal and if I was I would have improved so much throughout the rehearsal instead of just before the performance. I also did everything too late, developing my character more and the accent, I feel that I didn’t work as hard on it as I should of and that’s something I will definitely keep on top with when it comes to the next show. I definitely need to improve vocally with being clearer and projecting so I need to do regular vocal exercises so that I can improve for future performances.

Target Setting – To grow as an actor I definitely need to stop getting distracted during rehearsal time and focus on what I can do to make my scenes better and develop my character. I need to spend my time working on my scenes and meet up outside of rehearsal time with the people I’m in the scenes with so it can improve quicker. I need to focus on what I need to do to improve within my character to make the audience remember me. I also need to work on things like accents, costumes and things like that ahead of time so if I do need to change anything it will still all be ready in time. I will also do more individual research on the play we’re performing in order to get a better understanding of it all.

Character Profile

Doreen

 

My character Doreen is a flirty character and I think she would show that throughout the play so everything little action she does would be flirty in some way. After going through all of the scenes and blocking them it has helped me get a sense of my characters and their relationships with the other characters in the play. For example Lane and Doreen are best friends in my eyes, the both like to have fun, be flirty and have a good old laugh. I would say out of all the women in the play they are the most loose, they're not really bothered if boys want something from them because they will give it to them. Although I think Doreen isn't as loose as Lane as she is willing to kiss scullery after talking to him for just a few minutes. I feel like even though they're both best friends, Doreen is more of the tag along.

I find this scene with the professor and Doreen a bit hard as it kind of changes my interpretation of Doreen because the scene is supposed to be with Lane. I think this scene could show how Doreen is up for as much as Lane is and she doesn't just follow Lane around everywhere. It will allow the audience to see Doreen without Lane and maybe understand her a bit better. It also allows them to know that it isn’t just about drinking for her, it’s just about living her life to the fullest. In this scene she is trying to make The Professor happy by talking about the stuff he enjoys like “The memories of Wood Street”. The he starts talking about depressing stuff so she tells him that he should enjoy life more “You morbid bastard. Life’s a spree, Prof. Me and Lane, we get our mouths around life and have a chew. Sometimes there’s nowt, sometimes it’s sloppy but we keep on snoggin’ through. (She slaps his cheeks.) See you later, Prof.” This just shows that she is having fun doing it and that she thinks you shouldn’t go through life being sad or not taking risks, you need to loosen up and have fun.

I have come up with a few things for Doreen though, for example I think she might have a small job as she's not trying to get money off anyone and she's able to go out buy some drinks and later on some chips. I do feel as she is very loose and up for anything but not as much as Lane. For example page 16 with Scullery him and Lane just start kissing and as Doreen goes off she says "Snog anything she will. Captain fucking Pugwash" which suggests she has a bit of class in the way she wouldn't kiss any guy walked past. I reckon she's in her mid-twenties so maybe about 24years old because of how loose she is and the fact she can drink. I feel like Doreen may be looking for a relationship and to calm her life down in some kind of way. I think this because the line that Lane says "What about Barry? I thought you were in?" suggests that she is committing herself to one guys. Also a couple of lines later they talk about staying back at the pub and Doreen says "I don't fancy it" which shows that she's getting a bit tired of going out all the time.

I would say that Doreen's closet friends are definitely Lane, The Professor, Scullery, Bald and Barry. Lane is obviously her closet friend because most of the time she is on stage Lane is with her. I would say The Professor is too because when she meets him he says "Dor love" which suggests they know each other quite well. I thought Scullery would be a friend of hers because she speaks to him the first time she comes on stage and the things they talk about suggests they know each other and can have a laugh with each other. Doreen is also very close with Bald because as soon as they see each other he wants to have a drink and a laugh with her and she's more then up for it. I thought Barry would be a close friend because they obviously have something going on and I think she wants to get with him. Her family live close by but not on the Road. She has a mum, dad and a younger sister who is 20years old. I think she would go visit her family every so often but not that often. She is an Atheist, British, she has light brown hair, hazel eyes, heart shaped face, and shoe size is 6, 5ft 6 and size 6-8 in clothes. She is fashionable and try’s to stay in fashion with the clothes that she has. I would think she didn’t have a proper education because I don’t think her family would have been able to afford it. I reckon she is a bit brainy, not really brainy but she is definitely good at the simple stuff and a bit more. She can definitely look after herself because she has her own place and I know this because she said “I’ve lost my bastard keys, I’m locked out. Help me find em” which if she had a roommate or something she wouldn’t be locked out. I reckon should would of wanted to go to college and get a better education because like I said she is starting to get bored of going out and drinking all the time. If she got a better education and a better job she would be able to do much more and live her life even better then she thinks she is already. She's kind, pretty and always up for a laugh. She will say things just to make people happy for example in the scene with the professor she says "I'll give you one on 'Wood Street' because he loves recording everything that's happening or that has happened so when she says that he gets all excite because it's something he enjoys talking about. She is someone who puts other people before herself.

I can relate to Doreen in so many ways which is why I felt like she was the perfect character for me to play. I can relate to her in the way that she is quite loose and just enjoying life whilst taking some risks. I’m quite loose myself and I do stuff like go to concerts, parties, meeting new people and just enjoying myself. She also makes people happy and puts them first which is what I do on a regular basis and she is also really nice and I would consider myself nice too. I’m also really excited to play her on stage and bring out all these great characteristics that she has. I want to be able to show her giggly side, her friendship with Lane and for the audience to remember her.

I have been looking a people who have previously played Doreen to see what they wore and everything so I can get an idea of what to wear as this play is set in the 1980's. In the picture below the one on the left is the one playing Doreen in is scene. I knew that Lane was on the right from the way she's look at Scullery so I'm guessing they’re about to kiss. This picture also supports my idea about Doreen not being as loose as Lane because Doreen is wearing leggings and Lane is wearing a short skirt. Which shows Lane is more of a 'slut' then her because she covers up where as Lane likes to show skin. It also looks like the one playing Doreen looks a bit disgusted with what's going on and what's about to happen. The fact that Doreen doesn't kiss anyone or try’s to kiss anyone throughout the play also supports my idea.

 

 

From the clothing they're wearing I can tell that bright neon colours, hoop earring, ponytail to the side or big hair and scrunches' in their hair was the style which gives me a lot of great ideas for my costume. They also wore tartan shirts, denim jackets and dull colours as well as bright colours. The costume for Doreen would be to wear bright pink tights with a pink top underneath a leather jacket and to wear black high heel boots.

Week 7 - Road

Due to only being in college Wednesday and Thursday this week all our lessons were dedicated to Road. After this week I do feel very disappointed in myself because I don't feel like I've put enough effort and time into this play like I should have. I'm annoyed that I've only just realised on the last week of rehearsal but it just means that this week and this weekend I will be working on Road none stop until I have improved. On Wednesday we started from page 17 of the script and wrote down feedback for each other. I got some feedback from Issie and Jack which I have been looking back to just like my previous feedback from Kirsty and Deborah.

 

 

My feedback from Deborah on Wednesday was:

 

• Improve on Manfred, Doreen and Lanes scene
• Search for the key longer in Bald and Doreen's scene and be flirty
• Remember your drunk
• Energy! and keep it high
• Say the line 'Don't Look' to the audience

After this feedback me and Jake who is Bald worked out that he would start searching for the keys on the left side and work to the middle of the audience and I would do the same but starting from the right side. We then would both meet in the middle where we would find the keys. I also have to act drunk and flirty for this scene so I thought I'd swap to each side and keep moving my feet to try and stand still because when your drunk you feel dizzy and as if everything around you is moving. To act flirty I will do embaressing flicks of the hair because when your drunk you think you look good doing it but in reality it's so embarressing so I think it would fit well. I also have to remember energy! because I want the audience to go home remembering me.

 

On Thursday we did a full run through of the play without interuptions and then at the end Kirsty and Laura gave us all some feedback. My feedback was:

 

• For everyone to remember to walk on stage in character no matter what!
• I need to be clearer vocally
• Slow down the pace when speaking
• Make Lane pull me from the bottom of stage to scullery
• Make 'Don't look' more giggerly, girly and put more action
• During Proffessor scene face front
• React to the proffessor during his last monolgue of our scene
• Remember to be northern when off stage for Mrs Bald
• If suppose to be watching Manfred be giggerly and react to him

Once I got this feedback it became obvious to me I really need to work on my vocal work which I've always had trouble with as I always speak quite fast. In order to resolve this I have been looking through my vocal exercies I have done and wrote about for voice on articulation to help me speak clearer so since then I've been using these exercies to help improve. I've came up with an idea of how I'm going to act when I say the line 'Don't look'. I'm going to point at everyone in the audience whilst saying the line and then turn around to put my leg up on the wall and look back to the audience and give them an over exaggerated wink. For the proffessors scene Laura suggested taking the recorder off the proffessor as Dor would see it as a spot light moment and look towards the auidence so they can see all the expression. We want to show the audience that Dor and the proffessor are close to each other and mayeb even good friends so that's the sort of relationship we want to put forward. I've been working on my northern acceent for Mrs Bald and have tried my best to bring the tone away from the one I use for Dor to show the different characters. Due to only doing the scene with Manfred a couple of times me and Kennedy thought about just being a bit giggerly as it's after we have been drinking and have her maybe rest on my shoulder because alcohol makes some people tired.

 

I'm going to be 100% committed to this play this upcoming week like I should of been all the way from the beginning. My priority is working on all my feedback this weekend and to go back Monday and to have improved. I look forward to performing and giving it everything I have in order to make sure the auidence goes home remembering me.