My thoughts on doing Shakespeare's Macbeth
When I was first told that we are going to be doing Shakespeare within our next term I was very excited. Every play that I have studied from Shakespeare's works I have enjoyed and I know this time will be no different. Previously when I have studied his works it was a challenging thing to do in terms of his language and the fact that at first sight it is hard to relate to his work because of this. However once you get past the language barrier and start to understand the characters objectives you develop an appreciation for the plays.
The play we are doing is Macbeth which is one I haven't once yet studied, however I have read it and know the story. I am really happy that I am not having to restudy a play because I want to do one I haven't yet performed and so will be able to develop new skills that this play will require.
Sunday, December 16, 2018
Wednesday, December 12, 2018
Rehearsals 19-22 november
This week we started off with an improvisation activity. First off we filled out some sheets surrounding our characters and their profiles. They included the 6 w's (who, what, where, when, why, how). Within the activity we decided to take our characters out of the play and place them in a 21st century classroom. We threw away the script but kept the characters, their traits and stories. This was really beneficial because it was a challenge to be able to keep all of the traits that make our characters who they are, when we take them out of the enviroment we are most familiar with them being in.
In rehearsals this week our main focus was to make sure everything was starting to look prefect and just tweaking a few things that didn’t feel true to our characters. I decided to change a few things my character Olga did because it helped me place truth behind what I was saying.
Firstly I felt like I wasn’t getting excited enough over meeting Vershinin. He was from Moscow and that’s where Olga wished she was right now so I should super happy and trying to squeeze as much information about Moscow out of him as I can. Right now I just wasn’t portraying that and was pretty relaxed about his arrival. Therefore now when I get dragged on scene by my sister to meet him, I get seated in the chair next to him and have wide eyes filled with joy and don’t take my eyes off him. I basically hang on to his every word.
Next thing I slightly tweaked was the way I delivered the line about my mother being buried “ in the novidevinchy cemetery”. The lines I say before this are very happy and fast with characters bouncing off each other in the wake of Vershinins arrival but then it turns to the subject of my mother who is dead. I’m finding it hard to suddenly lose a bit of my energy and have a moment of sad remembering but then finding that upwards energy again so soon afterwards. Right now I am adding to much happy energy into the deliverance of the line and so just needed to work on it. By the end of the week I had managed to do this and it felt real when I said the line and so I am happy with this progress.
For the last week of rehearsals we decided to not change anything because we were happy with what we had and didn’t want to add things in last minute that might throw the group off guard in the performance. We just ran it through continuously and made sure it was all polished and ready to be performed.
In rehearsals this week our main focus was to make sure everything was starting to look prefect and just tweaking a few things that didn’t feel true to our characters. I decided to change a few things my character Olga did because it helped me place truth behind what I was saying.
Firstly I felt like I wasn’t getting excited enough over meeting Vershinin. He was from Moscow and that’s where Olga wished she was right now so I should super happy and trying to squeeze as much information about Moscow out of him as I can. Right now I just wasn’t portraying that and was pretty relaxed about his arrival. Therefore now when I get dragged on scene by my sister to meet him, I get seated in the chair next to him and have wide eyes filled with joy and don’t take my eyes off him. I basically hang on to his every word.
Next thing I slightly tweaked was the way I delivered the line about my mother being buried “ in the novidevinchy cemetery”. The lines I say before this are very happy and fast with characters bouncing off each other in the wake of Vershinins arrival but then it turns to the subject of my mother who is dead. I’m finding it hard to suddenly lose a bit of my energy and have a moment of sad remembering but then finding that upwards energy again so soon afterwards. Right now I am adding to much happy energy into the deliverance of the line and so just needed to work on it. By the end of the week I had managed to do this and it felt real when I said the line and so I am happy with this progress.
For the last week of rehearsals we decided to not change anything because we were happy with what we had and didn’t want to add things in last minute that might throw the group off guard in the performance. We just ran it through continuously and made sure it was all polished and ready to be performed.
rehearsals 12-15 november
Today we had a look at what our characters objectives were.
Scene objectives- these are the little objectives that play out within each scene
Overall objectives- These are the big objectives your character aims to achieve throughout the play
We also had a look at the objectives within each line.
All of this helps us give meaning behind each line and understand what we are saying. By understanding the words we can give the audience a more convincing performance.
You can find the objectives of my character Olga within my entry labelled 'Olgas character profile'.
In rehearsals we decided to change a few things.
The first thing we thought about was the lack of affection that is being shown between the three sisters. I felt like we needed to have more physical connection between us to show our bond as sisters. When Irina and Olga talk about going back to Moscow, "yes to Moscow soon", Olga instead of just sitting down next to her and replying we are going to have them instead hug each other. Originally we planned to do a high five but it felt really awkward. We have also added in a part after when Irina talks about feeling all aglow where she holds hands with Olga, who pulls her onto her lap and they have a sweet enduring moment.
We also came to the realisation that sisters bicker and argue over stupid little things. When Masha goes to leave because she is upset we decided to have Irina get annoyed at her leaving because its her birthday. We feel like this would be the natural first reaction for any sister in this circumstance. My character Olga is the oldest sister so feels the responsibility of the day to turn out fine on her shoulders. Therefore my character Olga will step in and diffuse the situation.
In regards to the target my group set ourselves about learning lines to help us pick up cues quicker and with more confidence, it has been a success. Most people in the group, me included, have learned all of our lines and it has reflected well in our work. We are starting to be able to gain a deeper connection with the lines we are saying and bond more with the character on stage.
Scene objectives- these are the little objectives that play out within each scene
Overall objectives- These are the big objectives your character aims to achieve throughout the play
We also had a look at the objectives within each line.
All of this helps us give meaning behind each line and understand what we are saying. By understanding the words we can give the audience a more convincing performance.
You can find the objectives of my character Olga within my entry labelled 'Olgas character profile'.
In rehearsals we decided to change a few things.
The first thing we thought about was the lack of affection that is being shown between the three sisters. I felt like we needed to have more physical connection between us to show our bond as sisters. When Irina and Olga talk about going back to Moscow, "yes to Moscow soon", Olga instead of just sitting down next to her and replying we are going to have them instead hug each other. Originally we planned to do a high five but it felt really awkward. We have also added in a part after when Irina talks about feeling all aglow where she holds hands with Olga, who pulls her onto her lap and they have a sweet enduring moment.
We also came to the realisation that sisters bicker and argue over stupid little things. When Masha goes to leave because she is upset we decided to have Irina get annoyed at her leaving because its her birthday. We feel like this would be the natural first reaction for any sister in this circumstance. My character Olga is the oldest sister so feels the responsibility of the day to turn out fine on her shoulders. Therefore my character Olga will step in and diffuse the situation.
In regards to the target my group set ourselves about learning lines to help us pick up cues quicker and with more confidence, it has been a success. Most people in the group, me included, have learned all of our lines and it has reflected well in our work. We are starting to be able to gain a deeper connection with the lines we are saying and bond more with the character on stage.
rehearsals 5-8 november
At this point we had all been given our characters for three sisters so we did a read through in role and then decided just to get it up on its feet and run with it. This is because we can start getting a feel around staging and the set. There is only so much progress you can make whilst sitting down and reading a script, best just to start moving with it and giving it some life.
At first I found it difficult and awkward to become the character of Olga not just because her characterist are different to anything I have done before, but I fact the whole play is a very new style and layout for me. The scene I am acting in is the opening scene and it is just setting up the story for the rest of the play and so not much is going on in terms of drama and strong emotions, it is all pretty relaxed and in a sense dull because of this. Therefore Olga doesn’t get up to much expect some light hearted conversations with her sisters and guests. It is all very naturalistic which is different to what I am used to but after running through it a few times with my group I started to vibe off of other characters and it helped me relax and slip into the character of Olga. Over time this should get better and hopefully by the end of this week I have Olga figured out and able to become her right from the beginning. To help me understand Olga more I am going to do extra research into her and expand my knowledge on her character profile.
In rehearsals we decided to play around with the idea of Masha being a stubborn, immature sister and it worked really well. At the beginning of the first scene she does not speak for quite some time so she will need to interact with her actions and facial expressions to get across her feelings about what is being said. She did things such as pull faces when her sisters tease her and flip through her book she is reading really noisily. These kind of actions just make it clearer to the audience that they are sisters and seems more truthful to her character.
One thing that me and my group need to focus on next week is making sure we are picking up our cues and the lines are flowing fluently. Right now we have little gaps and pauses here and there were people are unsure wether it is their line and so are not coming in quick enough for it to look like a natural conversation. Hopefully over the weekend people are also really focusing on learning the lines so we can start the week off without scripts. This is a target we have set each other for before next rehearsal. I think it is a really good thing to be off script at this point because you free up your hands and are not always looking down at a piece of paper, meaning you are instead looking at other characters and actually being fully immersed into the scene and what you are saying
At first I found it difficult and awkward to become the character of Olga not just because her characterist are different to anything I have done before, but I fact the whole play is a very new style and layout for me. The scene I am acting in is the opening scene and it is just setting up the story for the rest of the play and so not much is going on in terms of drama and strong emotions, it is all pretty relaxed and in a sense dull because of this. Therefore Olga doesn’t get up to much expect some light hearted conversations with her sisters and guests. It is all very naturalistic which is different to what I am used to but after running through it a few times with my group I started to vibe off of other characters and it helped me relax and slip into the character of Olga. Over time this should get better and hopefully by the end of this week I have Olga figured out and able to become her right from the beginning. To help me understand Olga more I am going to do extra research into her and expand my knowledge on her character profile.
In rehearsals we decided to play around with the idea of Masha being a stubborn, immature sister and it worked really well. At the beginning of the first scene she does not speak for quite some time so she will need to interact with her actions and facial expressions to get across her feelings about what is being said. She did things such as pull faces when her sisters tease her and flip through her book she is reading really noisily. These kind of actions just make it clearer to the audience that they are sisters and seems more truthful to her character.
One thing that me and my group need to focus on next week is making sure we are picking up our cues and the lines are flowing fluently. Right now we have little gaps and pauses here and there were people are unsure wether it is their line and so are not coming in quick enough for it to look like a natural conversation. Hopefully over the weekend people are also really focusing on learning the lines so we can start the week off without scripts. This is a target we have set each other for before next rehearsal. I think it is a really good thing to be off script at this point because you free up your hands and are not always looking down at a piece of paper, meaning you are instead looking at other characters and actually being fully immersed into the scene and what you are saying
rehearsals 29-1 november
The first week of rehearsals
When we did our first read through we hadn't yet been given our characters. I think this is a really good step because it lets you take a good look at the play as a whole and not tunnel vision on the perspective of one character.
One helpful thing we did during lesson time was split into our groups, mine three sisters, and create a mind map around our plays. We looked at the general objectives of characters, their storylines and how they are portrayed as people. It was very helpful on gaining a more round understanding of the characters within three sisters because I got different peoples opinions and perspectives on the play. We also had a look at the themes and ranked them in order of which ones we thought are the most involved and relevant. My group chose this theme to be expectations 'vs' reality. This is because throughout the play every character holds high expectations of how their lives are going to turn out, but in reality none of these hopes materialise.
On Thursday we were given our characters. I have been given the role of Olga, whom of which I will research into deeper over the weekend ready to jump into role when we come back on Monday.
When we did our first read through we hadn't yet been given our characters. I think this is a really good step because it lets you take a good look at the play as a whole and not tunnel vision on the perspective of one character.
One helpful thing we did during lesson time was split into our groups, mine three sisters, and create a mind map around our plays. We looked at the general objectives of characters, their storylines and how they are portrayed as people. It was very helpful on gaining a more round understanding of the characters within three sisters because I got different peoples opinions and perspectives on the play. We also had a look at the themes and ranked them in order of which ones we thought are the most involved and relevant. My group chose this theme to be expectations 'vs' reality. This is because throughout the play every character holds high expectations of how their lives are going to turn out, but in reality none of these hopes materialise.
Tuesday, December 4, 2018
Performance evaluation
Skills I have developed over the past four weeks
My thoughts
I feel like my performance went really well. I managed to stay in character and feel as if I convincingly portrayed Olga how I saw her to be. The cue lines and fluency were my main two worries going into the performance but I am overjoyed at how good the lines flowed and gave a naturalistic performance. One thing that I felt I did need to improve on within my next piece of drama would be being able to become my character at the click of a finger. This is something my tutor also picked up on. It takes me a few lines to get into a role and so to help this not happen again in a performance I might try becoming my character a few minutes beforehand so I’m not warming up on stage but instead backstage. Also within my next assessment I will do a more extensive development into my character.
Tutor feedback
He felt like the thing was a little bit undercooked and flat at the beginning but gradually it managed to warm up and become a lot more convincing
I should speak a little bit louder so every word can be heard and so I don't lose certain lines.
My focus was good and I had a good attention to detail in terms of my character
Overall all our group managed to make the play our own
Peer feedback
I became my character and was naturalistic and real
My group used the space really well, in terms of my character the fact that I only used a little bit of space but moved around within it a lot showed my unrest as a person.
I had a clear voice but speak up a little bit more and project
I knew what I was doing on stage and looked confident within what I was doing. This was through good memory.
- memory
- creativity
- respect
My thoughts
I feel like my performance went really well. I managed to stay in character and feel as if I convincingly portrayed Olga how I saw her to be. The cue lines and fluency were my main two worries going into the performance but I am overjoyed at how good the lines flowed and gave a naturalistic performance. One thing that I felt I did need to improve on within my next piece of drama would be being able to become my character at the click of a finger. This is something my tutor also picked up on. It takes me a few lines to get into a role and so to help this not happen again in a performance I might try becoming my character a few minutes beforehand so I’m not warming up on stage but instead backstage. Also within my next assessment I will do a more extensive development into my character.
Tutor feedback
He felt like the thing was a little bit undercooked and flat at the beginning but gradually it managed to warm up and become a lot more convincing
I should speak a little bit louder so every word can be heard and so I don't lose certain lines.
My focus was good and I had a good attention to detail in terms of my character
Overall all our group managed to make the play our own
Peer feedback
I became my character and was naturalistic and real
My group used the space really well, in terms of my character the fact that I only used a little bit of space but moved around within it a lot showed my unrest as a person.
I had a clear voice but speak up a little bit more and project
I knew what I was doing on stage and looked confident within what I was doing. This was through good memory.
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What was theater like when Shakespeare was alive? - Only men could perform in plays - If plays were not liked the audience would throw to...
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Olga character profile The character I have been given to play in three sisters is Olga. -She is the oldest sister -Teaches at the schoo...
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The first week of rehearsals When we did our first read through we hadn't yet been given our characters. I think this is a really good...