Evaluation on FMP

All preparation  and performance has past as fast as wind. In total, we had around 7 weeks to get ready and show what we have got which was more than enough time to smash our performance. However, as always there was some difficulties we had to overcome in order to achieve our best.

I really enjoyed the last show as it seemed different from other shows. This was our last show and it meant we all had to get on with it. In my opinion, we got to perform a bit tougher play than other half of a class. Love and information was Brechtian style play which meant it has to be performed in Brecht`s style but with Stanislavski`s characters. There were no exact roles and lines who has to say what. In this case, that gave us a whole ocean of opportunities to interpret the piece by ourselves and with a help from Sharon and Rob. A huge involvement was seen from everyone. The ideas was just suggested one after another so that was the hardest part to try the ideas and reject the ones that is not suitable, without making feel any one outcast.  

To make the performance easier we all designate ourselves a job, which was done during the Easter Holiday on a group chat. That means that everyone can researched their specifically given areas and come back to college prepared. Toya and I were responsible for props. First Tuesday after we came back to college after holidays we sat down together discussing each scene what ideas we have for props as well as communicating with actors and asking their own opinion as we might have missed something. In the end, everyone did their homework and we avoided unnecessary mess and arguments as everyone cooperated together.  

As we all decided the actors (us) remained on the stage throughout the whole play which was the first experience for me to perform the whole play being on the stage and judged by audience with no rest. At first, I thought it is going to be very hard to deal with as I tend to get breaks through different scenes, remembering Shakespeare`s play The Tempest. And this time it was a whole new thing. Moreover, we had different characters to play, switching from one to another in a matter of seconds. I have to say that during the rehearsals I was shaking because both the excitement and nervousness but when the actual performance came I was calm as Buddhist. To mention that during the God`s voice scene I was actually meditating on the stage that I have never done before. And it really helped me to calm down and focus on the next scenes.

We used physical theater skill such as slow motion (scene Stone), levels (Fan!), miming (Star),  assemble work (Throughout the play), assemble shout (Facts, The Child Who Didn`t Know Sorry) etc. Also the music played in between in the end of each sections worked very well as we had to freeze for 10 seconds. The lighting team did a good job, catching up the cues and putting the right lighting on the spots where it was needed.

The scenes I performed in:

• FAN! Everyone is pretending that Ryan is a superstar and all of us are his fans. Everyone seems very excited talking about him. Also we had some lines that was said by everyone at the same time. For example `wait!` and then everyone change the direction, stand up or down the chair. 
• Lab. Jerome and I were high school students, trying to learn about the chicken and their beads in the laboratory, while Sam (crazy scientist) and Melody ( all-knowing scientist) are the scientist explaining about how chicken learn to bead and what they bead. 
• Star. Matthew and I are looking at the endless sky, full of stars. We are good friends.  My character`s grandpa told the facts about how far the stars are and I passing that information on to my friend. The starry sky in the background gives the audience more understanding about what we are talking about. 
• Wedding video. All of us a friends or relatives watching an old wedding video of mum and dad. To mention that, the whole section is related to memories and past. 
• Savant. Me and Elvina are at the bar. Two old friends met up and had a chat in the bar. I questioning her in order to make sure she remembers the day when we met. 
• Wife. Jerome sits in front of the chairs and Melody, Toyo and I stand behind him. The meaning of it is that it is a nightmare for Jerome as he and his wife got into car accident in which his wife died and now he is hallucinating her. At first he is very calm as we can notice it experiences it not for the first time but as the hallucinations get stronger he explodes and drowns in his own thoughts, all frightened and depressed.
• Facts. It is like a TV show where are two teams on each side, where all the all-knowing people gather in two teams and wins the one team who answer the question first. In the end all of us shout Sea Anemone and freeze. The lights fade out, the end. 

Despite the arguments we had a week before the performance everything went smooth and me and Matthew smashed the Star scene. I believe, everything happens and as we are actors we have to get on with it very quickly it was very unfair from my and Matthews side that others started deciding and changing last minute without asking us if we feel comfortable in that way. But everything ended up great and that is the most important thing. Also he really did well doing the American accent in God`s scene where Rob asked him to give it a try. 

As I have watched the video of the filmed performance I noticed that some of us didn`t speak with the same projections. That means if someone in the scene used more projection and articulation, making other seem quieter but that is the problem we would need to work as an assemble, working together on our voices. 

To sum up, everyone did a great job and put a lot of effort in it. The role allocation helped to solve different areas such as costumes, props, set, rehearsal time and saved some time which was used wisely for rehearsals. Our group even came during the Easter Holidays to make sure everyone is on board, not forgetting their lines and just to work on the bits which needs to be improved. During the preparation time the time just flew and the performance approached very quickly. I know for sure I will remember these 3 years spent in college for the rest in my life. 

FMP Last Rehearsals Log Book Part 4

The last weeks have gone as wind. We had the technical rehearsal last week which went little bit messy. Also there was another thing which disturbed me a lot as because of some people didn`t learn their lines they started changing everything, including my scene, around without asking me. Everything happened on Thursday afternoon when Ria was told to do the God`s Voice and that came out that she wasn`t be able to do the Star where Matthew swopped with Ria. I did not feel comfortable about it at all as this is too short of notice to change everything, I believe the best option was to cut the God`s Voice scene without making such a big mess. However, as I said my opinion that I don`t feel comfortable changing that last minute, some people had a go on me that my scene is going to be cut off, which is totally not fare. In the end of the day, Matthew was ok to learn the lines very quickly and will do the star scene.

The main notes from Sharon and Rob was:

• to articulate more and project as much as we can, especially for me in the Star.
• Schizophrenic. Try to get around the lights that adds more energy to it.   
• Savant. There should be a background chat in the end to make it more alive as the action takes place in the bar. 
• Wife. What is the meaning of that scene? As we all discussed he man is in coma and his wife is just the illusion. It`s like a bad dream. 
• Stone. Wait for the spotlight to come up on Ryan. 
• God`s Voice. Pray in different ways. For instance, as Buddhist, Christians, Muslims etc. 
• And the main note for everyone is projection!

So as Today is the last day of rehearsals we really need to work on small bits which needs to be polished. 

Working on FMP Log Book Part 3

Only a week left until we break up for Easter Holiday so until then we have to polish every single aspect. LAst week we ran trough the whole play, working on the bits which needs to be worked on. After each rehearsal time Sharon and Rob gave us plenty of notes on what we should improve:

• Mark sections. (There are 7 sections in total, which should be separated one from another) It can be done by using freeze frames, title, changing seats. Everyone really liked the idea of changing seats and using the freeze frames. 
• Set up the scenes. Even in the imaginary way. For example, for God`s scene we decided that it should be a supermarket but it is not clear for the audience. So this morning we were working on it. We came up with idea walking around in circles and then standing in 2 queues and buying products. Meanwhile, Matthew pretends he is speaking with everyone but every body tries to ignore him, finally he reaches the end of the queue and start talking with Toya. 
• Take our time. We are too quick with the scripts and the audience need time to understand what`s happening next. 
• Fan scene is very good but Sharon suggested maybe we could mime something while standing on the chairs. For instance, we could pretend to be the statue of Freedom in New York, or eating something, etc. 
• All the scenes have the same pace. God`s voice seems too slow and doesn`t stand out from the other scenes. We though that we could all be praying in different ways: like a Christian, Buddhist, Muslin, etc. 
• For the scene Child Who Didn`t Know pain Divina suggested using Trestle masks instead of miming the emotions and then play the particular emotion. 
• In the Wedding Video people who has got on couple of lines should be miming eating popcorn in slow motion. We also changed some people lines just to make in in the right order. 
• Learn the words you don`t know. I wasn`t too sure about the word Savant, which is the name of the scene in which I am in. So as I researched that means a learned person, especially distinguished scientist. 
• Mainly, we need to work on sections 5 and 6 as the energy drops to a low level as this is the longest part in the middle. 
• Wife scene location wasn`t clear enough. As I suggested Jerome should be in the hospital, waking up and his wife (in this case wives: me, Toya and Melody) standing behind him and looking at him. As he stands up and walks around we follow him with our eyes. There might be a doctor who comes to check his pulse or drip at the beginning. 

Me and Ria rehearsing The Star

This week we started working on the scene running order to be smooth. People had to stay the first line and the last line of their scene and then the action moves to another scene. Sharon was watching us and reminding about 10 seconds freeze between the sections which we decided to do last week on Thursday when rehearsing in the theatre. I think that works really well because firstly, it looks very Brechtian and secondly, it is much clearer in between the sections, and just to remember what scenes follows next. 

Caryl Churchill

About the Author

Caryl Churchill born 3 September 1938. She was born in London, England, later on her family emigrated to Canada She is a British playwright known for her non-naturalistic plays, highlighting the themes of sexual politics and feminism. She is a follower of Bertolt Brecht techniques of Epic theatre, exploring issues of gender and sexuality.  She attented a girl school in Montreal, as her parents moved to MOntreal, Canada when she was 10. And later on she returned to England and graduated Women University of Oxford. After the explosion of A Mouthful of Birds she began experimenting with dance-theatre, including the teachniques taken from `Theatre of Cruelty` by Antonin Artraud. 

                                                                                             About LOVE AND INFORMATION

It is a freshly baked play which was released at the Royal Court House, London in September, 2012. It has 7 sections, which makes total of 57 scenes with as much as 100 characters throughout the play. It portrays everyday situations that people face in real life. However, it may only require 2 actors to act but the best option would be 12-15 actors. Impressive that some of the scenes takes no longer than 25 seconds. Moreover, the scenes are not related one with another but has the same meaning behind them. Basically, it is a play about modern society, the love, overdose of virtual life and connection between each other.


The main themes 

• Virtual communication/information. The author portrays that very well, especially in the Virtual, where a man falls in love with the computer and believes that it is a true love. It shows how the society has changed and fallen for the technology. But does that really affect us in a good way? It seems the technology starts taking over our lives and even commanding how to live. People became less confident in talking to each over and more attractive to corporeal things. There are just too much of information given to us.
• Love. We forgot how to communicate and appreciate things that actually breaths and exists. Everyone seems focused on their own stuff, forgetting that the love is most beautiful thing in the world and that makes people happy.
• Memory. There is the whole section which focuses on the memories. Section 5 includes the scenes such as Memory House, Wedding Video, Flash Back, etc. All our experiences shape who are we now, depending on what we had to go trough. It reminds that every single one of us survives the times that could hardly be survived and when we happy we have to share it with everyone. 

Final Major Project Love and Information Log Book 2

The last few weeks on working on final major project were great. You can see how everyone is working hard and doing they best. This week we improved a lot on analysing our characters and trying to run over the whole play.

After a week of absence I was little bit confused about the Fan scene as everyone are in it and Isabella gave a short notes of what to do and we performed in front of the other half of the class. Each of us were paired in two with those who playing in blue room. I was in pair with Shaday.

In her notes she mentioned I would need to improve on:

• Energy levels because it has been little bit low so far.
• characterisation just be clearer about my playing characters because now its just line reading 
• make sure to stay in character even though I dont have any lines. For example, when other people are in the scene and I`m just sitting on a chair in the background make sure my legs are down and I`m focused. 
• Be more faster with my lines. I believe that will come when I learn my lines and will be off bok by the next week. 
• projection. I have setted a target to do work on OO - OH - OR every morning. 

In Rob`s class we did a quick warm up before we kicked on rehearsing. In the afternoon we split in two groups: Blue Room and Love and Information. Blue Room went rehearsing first, we followed after. Mainly we focused on the last acts: 5, 6, 7 and scenes which are in it, including the last one. I appreciate how everyone is throwing ideas and giving it a try. For the last scene, we thought of making like a TV show with two presenters: Katie and Ryan. There will be two groups, each competing whose answer the question first. It`s more like a smart question game "Who`s going to win a million?". As the last question comes up everyone shouts out at the same time, Ryan and Katie hugs and everyone freezes, black out.

Sharon helped us to transform from one character to another very quickly which is very helpful as in love and information we have multiple characters. For instance, I have 5 different characters. Moreover, all the time we are on stage so there is no time to relax. The focus has to be kept all the time because even a tiny mistake can make a huge difference.

At first we were walking around in circles, changing direction. Then, Sharon gave us a task to draw a circle around ourselves, starting from the ground and slowly going up. Once, we are back in our normal position, back straight, we have to become the character from the play. I have chosen a school girl from the Lab scene, which is very curious about everything. When Sharon raised her hands up the character had to be exaggerated up to maximum, when she slowly lowered her hands the character is very close to neutral position but the energy has to be kept the same.

Following task, required to get into pairs and interview each other. But interview a character, asking questions such as, who are you, what is your favourite colour, do you have any siblings, where do you live, etc. Personally, that helped to create the actual life for my character and believe that she truly exists which was hard to understand beforehand.

The setting is quite an usual as well as simple. It is very close to Brechtian theatre style as we don`t use much of furniture neither decorations. Just chair, setted like they are mirroring each other. It is really important to mark on the script where and when we change seating just to avoid unnecessary misunderstandings.

On Thursday morning in Sharon`s class it was only me, Jerome, Isabella and Ria. The theatre was free of use so we used the opportunity to run over the scenes in a theatre. Mostly, we worked on the scenes in which at least one of us are. However, working in a theatre was very useful, just to get used to bigger space than we used to rehearse in small drama studio which I believe affects on our projection as we tend to speak quieter.

As we had more time, I had a chance to annotate my scripts. I marked and crossed all the scenes we are in and sticked a paper tape with a name of the scene and number. It took a while but it is very helpful in rehearsal, especially in s play like Love and Information when it is so easy to get lost.

In the afternoon, was the first time we ran over the whole play twice. Tired and exhausted, we felt we done really great this week and worked very hard. Of course, it worked well because all the group members were in so we did not need to read in for anyone. Hopefully, for the next week we can be off book and ran over the play as many times as possible.

Working on Final Major Project Love and Information Log book 1

So we finished off with Noises Off and moving on to the next stage final major project. We looked at both plays : love and information and the blue room. Myself I would prefer playing in the blue room because I found it more changeling as we are not used to perform sexuality on stage and I think that would be a great experience. On the other hand, love and information is a very `free` play which means we can play it as we like it. We can interpret how do we think it should be. Also there no specific characters so we can have as many characters as we want in scenes. Let`s the scene can be played by 2 or 5 actors and it is going to be completely different.

As I found out I am in love and information I was that upset even though the play is not the greatest one we have to give it a try and as I could say we are nailing it. All of us giving a lot of suggestions about the setting, transactions, scenes and characters. Yet some people are really not happy about the play everyone is doing they best and trying to be a part of it. Moreover, we have only 5 weeks to go until the actual performance and technical rehearsals so really need to get on with it.

To be honest, the more I read this play the more I like it. That`s why because we put ourselves into it and start devising it. At first, we have chosen the scenes we like. Important to mention we are going to do all the scenes people wanted to do. Also we all the people who wanted to do a particular scene are going to do it, no matter if it`s 2 or 6 people. In order to make the scenes more Brecht and interesting we double up voices. Let`s say 3 people including me, Jerome and Isabella wanted to play Schizophrenic so me and Jerome reading the same lines at the same time while Isabella reads alone.

The play itself is more like Brecht style which involves a lot of actions which is not likely to happen in real world. For example, in a first scene when Divina tells the secret to Toya we all stretch our ears and go `pshpshpsh`.

As probably everyone noticed the play has 7 acts with 7 scenes in each act which makes total of 49 scenes. We thought we could somehow highlight the title of each scene. For instance, Dream, someone can stand up, shout out DREAM! and everyone else can repeat it or we go straight into the scene.

Evaluation of Noises Off

We had our last performances of Noises Off on Thursday 28th January. In total there were 4 performances Act 1 followed up by Act 2 and after that we repeated Act 2 and Act 2 just with different cast. So I was playing Belinda in both Act 1. Even though we performed it twice but each time it was different. And I believe this is nor al thing because it it would be the same cast, it looked the same but with different people in it comes different staging and acting. I believe, that all of us could improved on learning the lines quicker, catching cues and just bringing more energy into it. However, we all were nervous as we knew rehearsal time is finished and this is an actual performance on which we are getting graded, also Level 2s and first years were watching us which gave more anxious. That`s why some people forgot their lines or didn`t catch the cue because all attention was on thoughts how not to mess up and not forget the lines. I think if we would play some games before our performance we would be more relaxed as games always helps me to relax and gives me some confident credits.

When we played Act 1 second time Katy had scripts in her hands which means she didn`t know all her lines. However, it did not look bad because this is a play-within-play and that looks that this has to be like that. I believe, we would need more time to rehearse with second cast and everything would be better. I know for myself the more I rehearse the better I feel about my lines, catching cues and movements. It just becomes automatic. For example, the more you hear same words, the more likely you will remember it.

I learnt that playing farce is actually like a game with each other and the audience. As I observed, audience love to laugh from funny, absurd situation, which is even more exaggerated than in real life.

Noises Off What is Farce?

What is farce in drama? 

Farce is a comic play that uses very exaggerated situations, actors has stereotyped characters, and the whole play is a big mess. The plot always involves absurd and highly improbable situations, that are not likely to be true or to happen. It is important to follow up the plot due to it`s random twists and unexpected events that may change the plot upside down. However, it is still linked with the previous plot story. Farce includes both a verbal and a physical humour. In fact, all the hard work goes to the actor as he/she has to represent the farce not only through the mouth but also through the body. What`s more exaggerated movements performed by the actor makes it more farcical and funny.

Origins of farce are found in ancient Greek and Roman comedies of Aristophanes, Shakespearean plays and the operettas of Gilbert and Sullivan. The word itself born from French word `stuffing`. It was used to describe clowning, acrobatics and caricature and linked with entertainment show. French farce spread quickly around the world, bringing farce to top forms of comedy.

Farce is usually used in theatre plays and sometimes in movies but some people critically comment on farce, they say it is too much of exaggeration for the screen. However, there are couple of good examples of farce used in film industry. One of the best are Charlie Chaplin, Keystone Cops and the Marx Brothers who impressed the whole world with their unbelievable, farcical performance. Farce took over the television in 1970`s series Monty Python`s Flying Circus as well as brilliant, short episodes of Faulty Towers. In addition, British actor John Cleese is known as a gifted actor who could carry out farce better that any one else. I would also say that my two favourite actors, Johnny Depp and Jim Carey play excellent farce on-screen. Jim Carey shows his ability to demonstrate farce in nearly all of his movies, whilst Johnny Depp revealed his talent in The Pirates of the Caribbean. All these talented comics made farce one of the best physical forms of comedy.

How do I play farce?

It is important to note that Noises Off has quite quick rhythm, which means timing is very important. Actors job is to pick up cues quickly. Moreover, don`t over over exaggerate it because the characters has to be truthful and believable.

Our group rehearsing Act 2

Where should I improve?

This week we rehearsed couple of times in a theatre. It went well because everyone already knows their lines so now we are tidying up our movements and actions on stage. To be honest, once I learnt my lines and not holding the scripts any more, I found Belinda`s character very confusing. She has something that no one else does and to play that confident inside of her is really hard. As Rob said Belinda is like a glue holding everyone up together. She knows everything what`s going on between all the characters and tries not to draw attention to that. Moreover, she is very sarcastic but in a good way because no one takes it seriously. Belinda is like a perfect companion to everyone. Somehow, she knows how to adapt to make everyone happy and that is really hard because you can`t make everyone happy. And that`s where I should improve. Your body is what happens in your head and if I try to get inside Belinda`s head my body language will be more similar to hers. 

Rob`s feedback to us all was that we have to speak louder, otherwise people sitting in the back of the chairs won`t hear a word. I believe, that is because we get used to perform in a smaller space, such as drama studio, and our voices need some time to get used to a new environment. 

Also it is important to play the moment, don`t just switch off when I don`t have any lines, try to find a way to do something on stage even though it is a small mute chat with Freddie or smile exchanges with Dotty. For the first time I rehearsed with a bag on stage which gave more physical moves, picking up the bag and holding it in my hand.  It is important to react to what other people say so let`s say I need to react to Lloyd`s line `Ok, from Belinda`s and Freddies exit` so I get up, take my bag and go towards the door then Poopy comes in and stops me and Freddie from exiting. It is important to be aware of what other characters are saying and react to it. That`s what makes the play alive.