Solo Radio

                               

                                         Solo Radio

Going on a bear hunt  

I picked going on a bear as my children’s story because it was one of my favourites growing up. Although it doesn’t have character voices it does have different sounds affects like when they go through the grass and it goes “Swishy Swashy!” and have things I can show a different tone between like “It’s a beautiful day!” and “We’re not scared.” I'm telling this story in an energised and exciting way as if I was reading it in front of children that’s how I’d need to say it in order to keep the children interested. With children you need to help their imagination by doing voices for characters and putting on a hyped voice to make it sound really good and interesting. I need to try not to speak with a fast pace because when I talk with an excited tone I pick up pace. If it was really young kids, I would maybe use a baby voice because that really attracts them to what you’re saying.

ADR – Fallout 4 and Halo

Doing these games was a great contrast to the children’s book and monologue as I used an accent and it was fiery, especially in Halo. My character in Halo had quite a weak voice compared to my one in fallout. She definitely had an accent which I think was Mexican which I couldn’t quite grasp. She paused a lot and had a calm but direct tone about her, even though she was in a battle she didn’t sound worried or anything which showed her status as well which was probably commander. With this voice I wanted to match hers as much as possible so I kept my voice on quite a low tone and at the end when she’s asking for help I projected a little as you would when there is a battle happening around you.  When watching Fallout 4 I realised my character had an accents and when replying a few times. I enjoyed talking as she did with a bit of an American accent. My character saying “I have a question, the only question that matters. Would you risk your life for your fellow man? Even if that man was a Synth.” I felt as if this was a serious matter in the way she was saying it which was slow, soft with a good few pauses. I think the technique of using a soft tone and slow pace creates a deep meaning which is why it worked well with this.

 Sasha monologue

I felt as if this monologue was a great contrast as it’s more gentle and I feel like I can relate to it.  I wanted to read this in a softer and slower tone to enable the true meaning to come across. I think that it’s a create technique when it comes to talking about love and deep subjects like that. When it talks about what love means to us women, I’m going to speak about it in an express tone and a bit hyped because us women enjoy talking about the things we love. The monologue is deep but happy at the same time because she takes prides in everything she does for her partner and it’s beautiful to listen to. I need to sound in love so like emotional and happy because it’s clear this character is. Everything she is saying is very important to her so using a soft and loving tone will help show that.

https://www.voices.com/directory/radio

I’ve listened to a load of adverts and radio plays and until now I never realised how a simple slower pace or slower tone can make such a difference in what you’re saying and how it is delivered. I think it’s important to think about that because it defiantly helps with the message of the speech for the audience. When someone is saying something serious I think a slow and soft tone with a few pauses to. If you were to talk about something deep and personal I think maybe the same pace and tone but depending on what you’re talking about you can sound hurt or happy. If it’s something personal and your angry maybe do a bit of grinding the teeth and project but still make it sound personal.  With children’s story’s it’s important to keep it fun, exciting and interesting so that the kids are. When watching adverts, even ones on telly your always drawn in by how the actor sounds. Like with festivals they always make it sound so good and exciting that you actually look it up and consider going.  Most adverts now also have songs that draw you in or different effects on the voices like making it high pitch or deep, robotic and many others.

Atching Tan

                                                  Atching Tan

I think this radio play is really good because the emotions jump so much and it’s going to be a challenge to show that with just our voices along with showing the changes between different scenes. It’s going to be hard to show the emotion between characters because although voice is a key part in acting, I’m used to showing it by the way I use facial expressions. There’s also a lot of stage directions that we’ve got to show is happening through our voices like when Nelius tries to kiss Lovvie or later on when he grabs her harshly. That all needs to be shown by the way I say things like when it says he’s trying to kiss her and my line is “Your hands are dirty” I will need to say it in a playful kind of way and not like a “Ew your hands her dirty” kind of way. There are a few parts like this that I will need to make sure my tone of voice shows it.

I've done some research on the radio play and found the one that was on BBC Radio 4. I thought this would help with the accent but they didn't use accents, they just spoke a bit chavy. After discussing with Sally and then with my group we decided this would be the way we would speak.

Meaning of Romani words

Atching – stop or stay
Tan – place or tent
Hotchi witchi – sex
Ladging – embarrassing or shameful 
Rakli – girl
Dordie – my god

When rehearsing the play in voice for the first time so Karen could give us some feedback 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. Karen 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. To help me more with this I did go through my script and write lots of notes to help me when rehearsing and performing.

When rehearsing in class with Sally she helped to make sure I had the right emotion during scenes as there is a lot of different emotions in this play that jump around a lot. My character acts so differently around each character in the play. I felt as if she acted herself around her younger sister Norah but as she started to keep secrets from her she distanced herself from her and everyone else close to her. Around Nelius she’s happy but at times uncomfortable because I think she found it hard to know her true feelings for him as she didn’t want the life he could only give her. She wanted more, she knew there was more to life than just living in a caravan and that was the life she really wanted. When she met John, at first she felt unsure of him and then as they kept meeting up their relationship grew and there was something there between them. He had shown her a life she actually wanted, opened up doors to acting and made her feel “Worth something”. She wants the life he has shown her as she’s found something she’s good at but her family would never allow it. When with her parent’s she’s very on edge, I think it’s because they’re all about their way of living and won’t do anything that’s “Georgiarified” like water coming through the pipes.

When it came to thinking about Lovvie’s character and how she is and the way she acts. I thought of her as strong but shy at times, she just wants more and there’s nothing wrong with that. She’s very emotional as she has to make a big decision which is whether she is going to do something is good at and have the life she wants or go back to the life she was born to have and live in a caravan. It’s all very hard for her because she ruins everything with her family by doing something they disapprove of and hiding it from them. Lovvie goes through a lot during the play so it’s important for me to show that and due to the different scene changes I have to change my voice tone depending on who the scene is with. She’s challenging but as I go through the script over and over I begin to understand her more. She’s a confused girl who wants more to her life but doesn’t want to upset her family so realises it’s best to just with them.

I definitely found this play challenging as it has a lot of emotion in it which I myself don’t show or let anyone know what I’m going through. It was more hard that I had to show it through my voice as I’ve never found my voice a strong instrument of mine even though it is very important when acting. I also found it heard because when you can’t see who you’re talking to it’s hard to show a connection there and show the emotion in my tone of voice.

During rehearsals I got a lot of feedback to help me for when it came to the actually recording session. The feedback I got was to feel what I was saying so then I went back over the script and thought about every scene and what was happening and what she was going through. I then wrote on the script how it makes her feel and what tone to use when saying certain lines so when I go through it with everyone I know and can say it in the right way. I was also told not to perform so I went back to what Karen told us, which was pretend the microphone is who you’re speaking to so you don’t need to project so much or act out, just treat it like you’re talking to someone and not performing. A big one was emphasis on words so I did go back and underline words to emphasis when reading out. Another big was to use the ‘…’ because it just sounded like I was ending the sentence when that means you’re searching for something to say.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/academy/production/article/art20130702112135389

There are so many techniques used in radio to create sound effects and to show someone walking away or walking towards someone. In radio it’s hard to get the right sound like the sound of people driving in a car as or a bird. When that don’t work you try something that might sound like it. In the archers for example they open and close and iron board to make the sound of a metal gate opening and closing. For a bird flying past they use a feathered pillow and for a baby lamb being born it only takes a wet towel, old audio and bowl of yogurt to create that sound affect.

We have a few sounds affects in our play like the sound of a shower, people walking in the forest which needs to be added in. We’re not actually making these sound affects ourselves but if we were I’d use a sand shaker for the shower and just break some twigs for the forest. Things like walking towards someone or walking away we can do by just simply walking to and from the microphone.

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.