Rehearsal 1

This is our first rehearsal for D.N.A as our characters. I was in the first scene therefore I was directed. I was told to enter from downstage left and walk to centerstage canter and deliver most of my lines then move upstage cent up where I will stand for the rest of the scene. I find it easy to be directed, the way I stand and what I do when I stand I will have to figure out myself, so I get a better understanding of my character instead of being told what my character should be like. I will bring in a more realistic character if I personalise him and decide myself what he does and why he does it. It will be more believable and less wooden.

We were asked to devise an opening section for the play which is not officially part of the play but will help the audience understand that there is more than one actor playing a character. The opening scene shows what our characters do in the morning when they wake up. Me and TJ kept it simple, the Richards would walk to the centre of the stage facing outward to the audience then brushing his teeth, washing his face, spraying deodorant and putting on a hoodie finally walking off in opposite directions. In the coming weeks we might adjust thing slightly.

Staging

Trust stage

Advantages

·         Creates more intimacy between performers and the audience

·         More versatile

·         With a small audience most of them can easily hear you

Disadvantages

·         Hard to face the entire audience

·         With a larger audience you need to project your vice more

I will be hard for me to face most of the audience mostly the left side, I don’t have to worry about how loud I am because I am shouting most of the time so I don’t have to worry about the audience not hearing me.

Lesson 4

In this lesson we all observed a casting workshop, where everyone had the opportunity to read in for specific characters.

I enjoyed the casting because as I read in for multiple characters I started to see which one of them suited me best and which ones didn’t for example I thought fill would be a good character for me to go for but as I read his part I did not feel happy about the way I was saying the lines so I tried for different characters I think I read in for most of the parts. I was not sure who I wanted to play because I did not mind which character I get put with so I told miss to choose one for me. 

I found it quite hard to observe and choose who I thought played the part the best because I thought that some people had played the parts well with some improvements in areas and others would be good at what needed improving in the other part but needed improving in what the last person did well. (Sorry about that a bit confusing but I couldn’t explain it any other way) 

I was impressed with Eloise & Romy for the parts of Leah because they were both prepared and when I was watching the scene I did not look at the script and I had no idea that they had made a mistake or skipped some lines I thought it was just part of the script because they carried on as if nothing had happened.

Lesson 3

“Truth on Stage” we want to create truth on stage to make people believe what we are doing is real. We want the audience to be able to relate to how our characters are feeling and believe that it is real.

We played a game called “I don’t believe you” you would be given a situation e.g. you came into the room and everything has just vanished then you would need to make it believable and not too over the top which can be challenging for an actor. This game would help us to bring truth on stage by practicing certain cinereous and using similar feelings you have previously experienced in your life and using that too create a believable atmosphere. While watching a few people perform I learnt that saying nothing is like saying everything you don’t need to speak to get your point across in fact not speaking is more effective than speaking. 

Chem was one of the people who went up and his situation was that he has just got the number of a girl he fancies and has just come into his room. The first time he attempted it, it was too over exaggerated and everyone shouted “I don’t believe you” we told him how to improve and the second time he calmed down a bit more but was still not believable because he was talking to himself and only a few people shouted “I don’t believe you” This time he did not talk to himself and acted more truthfully instead of being an entertainer which made it all more believable.

After break we explored braking bad news using non-verbal communication which is exactly what it sounds like, to communicate without speaking. Me and Ben worked together and in our scene I was breaking the news that someone had died Ben’s character knew that this person was in the hospital but was not sure of the state that he/she was in. To make it believable we made sure it was not too sudden e.g. burst into tears but give a more slow approach and build up the emotion. 

I thought that George’s group was effective because it seemed so real and to not talk made everyone’s pieces more effective but the way George’s group broke the news was good because it had good variations, happy confused denial then sadness it is how someone would react in this type of situation.  

We briefly learnt about Stanislavski who created the theatre genre we call Naturalism

 

Born-Konstantin Sergeyevich Alekseyev
17 January 1863
 Died-7 August 1938 (aged 75)
Moscow
 Occupation-Theatre director, Actor

We worked on a bit of subtext. Subtext is the feelings of the character when they say a line and what they are really trying to express, it’s like a back-story for the lines. We worked out the subtext for Leah’s monolog to help us get a better understanding of her and what she is trying to get across to Phil. Also we are able to know how to say her lines in more confidence and power depending on what she is trying to say.     

Because this play is so real and has probably happened in one way or another we have to communicate this to the audience. Each character is individual and will have a certain way of acting depending on the situation. The writer has made this play very life like e.g. the way each character talks is the way we would talk in real like and does not seem so robotic. This is what the writer wanted to show and this is why it is important that we should show a truthful performance