Candidate number:
Pathway: Level 3 acting.
Project title: Love and information.
Rationale
Overall I noticed a dramatic improvement in my acting. Starting off from Oedipus I had seen that I was very loud shouting my characters lines and I didn't characterise also I was not in the moment with my character. I didn't seem to have ask myself the questions who is my character, why am I here in this situation, and Who am I in relation to the other character. This is what I dramatically improved on. Also I improved on not breaking concentration this could be from forgetting lines or from stumbling over my words but tongue twister in preparation helped.
Project concept
What I would like to do for love and information is to learn lines and depict a different perspective to Churchill’s depictions or other directors in my group. I will think creatively bring ideas to the group and discuss how the process of our hole play is going to be. I will characterise my characters for the audience fully acknowledge the character change and commit and not break role.
As a whole Stanislavsky objective, and actions will be my main goal and showing naturalism in my acting. Also implementing Meisner acting in "imagined circumstances". I will also need to research so I can get into role for certain scenes that involve violence, being restrained in jail and geologists. Ultimately ,the concentration with my group work needs to stay consistent and know what I'm helping others with.
Evaluation
What I want to do in this unit, is Note down feedback I get from acting lessons from teachers and take ideas that other associates suggest that will make my piece more impactful. Also ask I would blog my progress. And I would improvise with my partner to get ideas for my characters in the scenes. This will help me understand my character more. Learn all my lines and can perform it different ways to show different approaches I can take. Most importantly be able to characterise each character so the audience can depict each different character.
Research sources and Bibliography (Harvard Format).
I will watch this production for my research:https://youtu.be/17eg13lOCyE. This is so I can get Idea of what this play can be depicted as. Also I will also use research pack for love and informatonhttps://d19lfjg8hluhfw.
Information on the seven deadly sins: www.bibleinfo.com/en/questions/what-are-seven-deadly-sins
Love and information Act 1 (2016):https://youtu.be/O5_P9Y7xSAk.
Project Action Plan and Timetable.
Week 1
- Get the script and discuss ideas.
- A script will be needed for this.
- And group members.
- Notes.
Part of Week 1
- Organise who will be acting each scene.
- A full group with members choosing scenes.
- Scripts.
- Notes.
Week 2
- Begin to finalise the ideas and tell the group the ideas.
- Our group, scripts and feedback.
Part of Week 2
- Line revision and running it with group members.
- Script needed because not off book yet.
Week 3
- Some scenes off book but some needed work on.
- Group members and script to help memories lines.
Part of Week 3
- Off book organising play and the running order.
- All group needed off book so we can do the whole play as a whole and get feedback from teacher.
Week 4
- Concluded the ideas and technical rehearsals.
- All group members, script for prompt. Lighting and sound needed.
Part of Week 4
- Perform, watch the footage of my performance.
- Video evidence which is helpful for notes.
Week 5
- Note down feedback after the performance.
- Notes in phone, video evidence and feedback which will help my evaluation.
Caryl Churchill is a female playwright and wrote the play love and information which has different stories. The play came out in the royal court theatre September 14 2012 which could have a underlying meaning as well of writing this play and that relates to love and information such as technology has been established and part of everyone’s lives and their love for a device that gives a broad spectrum of information. These stories have different endings some can link if the director chooses to link them due to Churchill saying that it’s up to the director interpretation to the construct and structure the way they wanted it to be. Love and information is structured episodically meaning that some scenes can intertwine and link to each other (if the director chooses) but it can all be different and it would be totally fine because it’s just a bunch of scenes which the audience could think and make an opinion on the scenes. I have a scene with Troy and we are doing Stone (one of the scenes in Love and information). The play has 7 sections which could be depicted in different type of forms like the seven deadly sins which is different facets of life. Love and information gives us the chance to question our society and give a different perspective on life to the audience.
In the play love and information it does not have characters so the director chooses how many characters are in each scenes ( so the play could just be played with three characters).
The titles of each scene could mean what is going on in the scene.
Secret
The scene could be shown as a secret someone is hiding. Which is very common choice directors use.
Mother
Sibling telling a surprising truth. " I've something to tell you".
Grass
Someone gives a police officer an a secret tip. "What do you thinks going to happen".
Recluse
(including three characters) Someone hiding from persecution. "Don't answer its only"
Stone
(includes 2 character) A geologist lost his bosses stone. "Hes got a special stone"
Staging
Thinking of the stage, Maddie put tape on the ground outlining the space we was going to perform and we was to use it for during the rehearsals so we can picture how we are going to block the scenes. In the scene changes we limited the amount of blackouts that are used and made the transitions flow well into each other. Our goal is to make our play episodic so we would intertwine Anger, Happiness, Frustration. We want the audience to create different interpretation.
Decisions
All the decisions were made in our context lessons. All the ideas we discussed was taken and adjusted so we can make our play successful. Lighting as I said before was limited because it would be annoying for the audience getting random blackouts after each scene. But for sound we chose for individual scenes for example: Secret has television sounds in the background to give the effect that the actors are having a good time laughing. Using a strong spotlight for certain scenes would enhance specific scenes. The child who didn't know sorry would be very effective.
For Stone we used green spotlights so we could show a difference in the location which is a forest. This would immerse the audience and they would pick up what we intended to show which is a forest atmosphere.
In schizophrenic we had a front wash in normal lighting because we were in front of the stage. This is for a static impression to the scene. It was suppose to have a weird vibe. The audience is suppose to be questioning what is going on.
Shrink had the same lights as schizophrenic because it was after and we transitioned after that swiftly. So we didn't need any blackouts. From the audience perspective it could look likes its linked.
Changed the storyline
As a group we had the idea to rearrange all the scenes and split up the wedding video into seven section. We used wii music to give the audience a sigh of relief for each wedding video because its meant to be funny and take you out of the action. The wedding video involves everyone in our group we split up into groups having different situations. We added quotes that questioned the themes of love and information , And it also questioned life as well. Adding this gave a deeper depth to our scenes. Furthermore the audience would question themselves as well as that is our intention.
Rehearsals
Week 1
We got our script for love and information, and this was at the time when we just finished Macbeth I feel compared to when I started I massively improved with characterisation for example . First glance at the play I noticed that there wasn't any character present in the script, so it looked weird at first glance. As a class we had to think about what we saw at first glance. Another student (Diamond) had suggested that we could make our own character and shenagh approved. So this brings up the idea that this play (love and information) could be your own interpretation which I like. Knowing this knowledge shenagh split us into two groups. This is the group members for a month ill be with: Mya, Danielle, Ben mills, Diogo, Troy, Jean Paul, Favour, Tristan, Kieran, Madelina, Deja, Daniella.
In acting class me and my partner Troy thought of an idea that I would be looking for a mystery special stone which is lost. It starts abruptly with me panicking looking for the Stone and Troy is just asking me about the stones, and it ends with us throwing a bunch of stones away at the end. We got this idea from improvising giving a back story for the characters. Both of us was acting as geologists. I was the one that was lazy and smoked and looked as if I didn’t really care. Troy was enthusiastic. energetic. passionate about the stone. Troy found a rare stone and brings it to me as I’m smoking, I look as if I don’t care until I realise the stone and its significance. I tell him to keep it safe and I’ll get back to him as I was smoking, and I was lazy. That whole improvisation is a week before the Stone scene. So, this was an effective way of figuring out and distinguishing our scene because another person could of scene a different perspective of the story. Props needed rocks that could be thrown.
Week 2
Me and Danielle is working together and we chose shrink. Initially it would be easy to make a scene because our scene is shrink which the definition means a psychiatrist. So its easy to do a psychiatrists scene but ultimately everyone would do that so it really isn't a creative idea. We both were trying to get a creative idea but we couldn't. I had a idea brother and sister but Danielle didn't really like it from her viewpoint and didn't really understand how the word could correspond with the acting which I agreed with. There wasn't a main objective in that scene which we liked. That scene was just a conversation.
Danielle's idea was that I was a handicapped brother and my sister (Danielle) sees me on the bus and sits next to me. Additionally she wanted the brother to feel neglected by his sister but I thought I didn't really work in my opinion and also I didn't like it because I was conflicted on the actual objective of the scene it just seemed conversational again. We did not construct any ideas until we both asked Monique and she suggested that we could do a prison scene were my sister comes to see his brother in the prison which was a excellent idea. The objective in that scene is me trying to get my sisters attention as she's on her phone typing paying little attention. This worked well because my characters backstory is that I'm 19 and I'm in jail for a crime I didn't commit. I totally agreed with the prison scene and so did Danielle.
In rehearsal I came in downstage left with imaginary handcuffs getting pushed by an imaginary police officer and I struggled to sit down. I notice my sister walk in with her phone typing and I look a bit frustrated but I brace myself and cooldown. I say my lines and Danielle says hers with a bit of attitude, I look at her with a serious face questioning in my head is this the right time to be rude. The conversation goes on until I shout with anger hitting the table in complete rage " you spoil it, you completely spoil everything you always do". Props needed cuffs an acting police officer to help with scene.
Finally, I had schizophrenic with Kieran, and we had got a brilliant idea which Ben mills brought up. It’s a scene we are both siting close together mirroring each other in front of an invisible mirror saying the same words at the same time. Ideas like this may confuse the audience but it would be interesting and different some people may like it some wont. The most difficult part was is synchronizing both voices together but by much practice and if we have learned the lines the easier it will be. Our character has different personalities in the middle of our scene where we say "because it’s about you" this is intentional because it’s supposed to be two different people and then we go back to mirroring.
Generally, a lot of the class
learned the lines for some scenes from what I noticed except a few. And at this
time, we were thinking what the running order would be. We want it episodic but
not so episodic that none of the scenes ever linked. We wanted as a group to have
some episodic and some that linked to kind of have a story which I liked. Caryl
Churchill approves of changing the order because it’s up to the director’s
choice which gives us endless opportunities to be creative with the play, so as
a group we wanted blocks to use so we can make our scenes abstract and up for
interpretation.
Week 4
In this week mostly all our
lines are learned except a few but and we finally got the running order sorted
out. It’s what we wanted a little episodic and a little story. Rob was
watching our scenes in our running order and gave feedback to us individually.
The most general note was to raise our voice levels volume so the back of the
theatre can hear us. My individual feedback for stone is to feel the weight of
the stone as my partner Troy puts stones in my hands this shows the audience
how heavy the stones are. Feedback for schizophrenic is to slow down saying the
words to each other because it looks like we are rushing and we were stumbling
over our words, this feedback helped us a lot with our scene. I’m taking this
feedback and incorporating it so I can give my best performance. I brought the cuffs for the prison scene which was needed.
Week 5
Tech Rehearsal and Performance week
This week was for dress
rehearsal and getting everything together: props. costume, lighting and sound.
We had got pipes which I didn't know anything about, and the stage was filled
with newspaper but not all the stage for health and safety reasons such as
someone slipping on the newspaper. This staging set up with the pipes could be
viewed by the audience that the people that stand on the stage is trapped in an
alternate reality. The aim of this play is to get the audience thinking so there
is so many conclusions you can come up with. Tech rehearsal is very important
so that the light and sound team can queue everything right so we can elevate
the play. Before we started, we had a good 10-minute vocal warm which is very
effective for articulation and projection which is needed so it’s less likely
to break our voice mid-sentence.
Performance
Evaluation
Love and information is an intriguing play being able to make and
organise your own play with the words that you have been given from Caryl
Churchill. The process in which we had to characterise each character
differently really helped with me creating and embodying characters. Being able
to question myself who each character is, each gesture, and my thoughts within
my character ultimately helped be to vision what I wanted for each character.
Overall from the start I see the improvement with my acting using Stanislavsky,
Meisner techniques using imagined circumstances and Objectives. The outcome of
the of the proposal is accurate with what I intended to accomplish in Love and
Information practising different approaches to see which approach will be most
effective in rehearsal.
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