Historical Context of Variety
American Vaudeville-
Vaudeville
Monday, 24 November 2014
Friday, 21 November 2014
18/11/2014
In todays lesson, as we had finished developing the scenes, we began work on some of the bits that needed more attension. such as scene 2 and the start of 3, we did our first rehearsal outside in the performance area. This took more time, as some of the entrances and exits had to be swapped to make it fit in the area. Such as where my character first entered the woods, and spots LRRH and the Wolf. As when we blocked this in the studio i entered and hid behind as tree, however in our new area there is nothing to use, so i had to change my que line to a later time, and just walk in and merge from the trees/bushes
I felt that by entering at a later date and using the scenary such as the trees, i could really creap in on them and be able to catch LRRH by suprise.
We also did a technical run after college, this involved putting up the seating rig and working out where different parts of the set were going, once we had put up the seating rig, we noticed that we had a lot more space at the front of the stage, we took advantage of this in the scene for It Takes Two, as we now come alot closer to the audience as i sweap bryleah down and around the stage. I was also given the take of building the rapunzel tower, this is made up from staging blocks stacked then going down at the back in a stair like fashion.
I felt that by entering at a later date and using the scenary such as the trees, i could really creap in on them and be able to catch LRRH by suprise.
We also did a technical run after college, this involved putting up the seating rig and working out where different parts of the set were going, once we had put up the seating rig, we noticed that we had a lot more space at the front of the stage, we took advantage of this in the scene for It Takes Two, as we now come alot closer to the audience as i sweap bryleah down and around the stage. I was also given the take of building the rapunzel tower, this is made up from staging blocks stacked then going down at the back in a stair like fashion.
Sunday, 16 November 2014
11/11/14 Developing scene four and open evening rehearsals.
We began to do more in detail work on scene 4 today, I feel that this scene is very significant to the show, as this is where it all comes together, The Baker and his wife get a new cow and the slipper and give all of the objects to the Witch so that the curse can be lifted.
in the first unit of scene 4 my characters objective is to move on and start searching for a new cow, my character seems very controlling by ordering the Bakers Wife into going to find another cow and gives her a bean and tells her to "Tell them its magic". I delivered these lines with enthusiasm as my character knows that there is not much time left to get the items, My character then turns very cold, when it is suggested that he goes to find a new cow as he feels that the roles have been reversed and that he doesn't have much of the control in the relationship any more. This is where the it becomes clear to an audience that the Baker cares so much for his family and having a happy life, that he would even turn on his wife, and say something that is very personal to her. By doing extra work on these lines, I tried to say the line " Then resign yourself to a childless life". In lots of different way, by changing the pace and volume, I felt that I worked best saying it fast and loud as if my character didn't mean to say to his wife, and that I just slipped out at the spur of the moment. As I didn't feel it right to say it slow and quiet in a dark and mean way, as my character is mean he just wants a family and what is best for his wife, not to hurt or push her away.
After this scene my character is in the dance in the background of Stay With Me. In this dance we have to keep our movements slow and flowing, as we want to look mesmerising and not draw attention away from the Witch and Rapunzel. However still keeping our characterisation from the other scenes, where we are scared of the woods and what may lay ahead.
in the first unit of scene 4 my characters objective is to move on and start searching for a new cow, my character seems very controlling by ordering the Bakers Wife into going to find another cow and gives her a bean and tells her to "Tell them its magic". I delivered these lines with enthusiasm as my character knows that there is not much time left to get the items, My character then turns very cold, when it is suggested that he goes to find a new cow as he feels that the roles have been reversed and that he doesn't have much of the control in the relationship any more. This is where the it becomes clear to an audience that the Baker cares so much for his family and having a happy life, that he would even turn on his wife, and say something that is very personal to her. By doing extra work on these lines, I tried to say the line " Then resign yourself to a childless life". In lots of different way, by changing the pace and volume, I felt that I worked best saying it fast and loud as if my character didn't mean to say to his wife, and that I just slipped out at the spur of the moment. As I didn't feel it right to say it slow and quiet in a dark and mean way, as my character is mean he just wants a family and what is best for his wife, not to hurt or push her away.
After this scene my character is in the dance in the background of Stay With Me. In this dance we have to keep our movements slow and flowing, as we want to look mesmerising and not draw attention away from the Witch and Rapunzel. However still keeping our characterisation from the other scenes, where we are scared of the woods and what may lay ahead.
Tuesday, 11 November 2014
Monday, 10 November 2014
It Take Two duet with Kim
When we first rehearsed this song we just sang it to get used to the lyrics, the first few lines I did I say fairly low, which I felt comfort with, then to push me even further, Kim pushed me to sing it higher like the man in the soundtrack.
There is one part in the song where the two parts harmonise on the line "and once were past, lets hope the changes last". I found it difficult to get the notes right, so to understand where to go up and down Kim got me to draw in arrows next to the words where to change note. I could then follow this when singing. However I still had difficulties with the harmonising so it was suggested that we switch the parts round so that I felt more comfortable with it. With some more rehearsal I will hopefully get to know the part and then look into adding some characterisation.
There is one part in the song where the two parts harmonise on the line "and once were past, lets hope the changes last". I found it difficult to get the notes right, so to understand where to go up and down Kim got me to draw in arrows next to the words where to change note. I could then follow this when singing. However I still had difficulties with the harmonising so it was suggested that we switch the parts round so that I felt more comfortable with it. With some more rehearsal I will hopefully get to know the part and then look into adding some characterisation.
It Takes Two Dance with Kat
For this song we got a lot of inspiration from the rumba, which is a Latin dance which is linked to romance and love.
In the bit where of the song where Bryleah (Bakers Wife) is singing we mainly stick to the basic rumba foot steps in a generic hold. This gives it a slow, loving feel and looks very sweet. When doing this I have a lot of focus on my arms and have extension which reaching my arms over. When I start to sing I have Bryleah in a hold and then slide down onto one knee. During my singing it is very slow and ends with us walking around the area. We are to use facial expression to show our love between each other.
My main goal to improve this dance is to get the story between the two characters right, I feel that Bryleah has the right level of tension and love between the couple, and she really shows this through her face and her eye contact. I will go through the song and pin point parts where I will have strong eye contact with her to raise the tension and then break it off and then come back to it. I think that this performance skill will help to tell the story of the two characters and why they care so much about each other. In one weeks time I will be showing this dance to the rest of the class, and by then I hope to get the right feeling in the dance and show the passion between the couple through my use of facial exspression.
In the bit where of the song where Bryleah (Bakers Wife) is singing we mainly stick to the basic rumba foot steps in a generic hold. This gives it a slow, loving feel and looks very sweet. When doing this I have a lot of focus on my arms and have extension which reaching my arms over. When I start to sing I have Bryleah in a hold and then slide down onto one knee. During my singing it is very slow and ends with us walking around the area. We are to use facial expression to show our love between each other.
My main goal to improve this dance is to get the story between the two characters right, I feel that Bryleah has the right level of tension and love between the couple, and she really shows this through her face and her eye contact. I will go through the song and pin point parts where I will have strong eye contact with her to raise the tension and then break it off and then come back to it. I think that this performance skill will help to tell the story of the two characters and why they care so much about each other. In one weeks time I will be showing this dance to the rest of the class, and by then I hope to get the right feeling in the dance and show the passion between the couple through my use of facial exspression.
17th October 2014 Opening song dance
In todays lesson with Kat we were taught the opening dance. We were taught the main marching sequence which is revolved around marching in a box, and then we had to devise our own 8 beat sequence to add into it. We then put this all together to the music and worked out all of the transitions. For the marching sequence we have to have strong extension and sharp punchy moves to fit with the fast beats of the music.
There is one bit with in the song where the Baker and Cinderella have a line together "There's something in the glade there". We had originally choreographed to have a lift on this line yet it was said that it didn't really fit in with our characterisation of two scared characters.
For the 8 beats I had chosen to do a fast piece with different levels, however during the song I have a solo line when it is this part so I had to change it to something different so that I am in the right position to sing my lines.
My target for my opening song is to work on my musicality with the song, I think by making my movements in time with the song will give me the chance to bring my character to life. I think that this will help bring my character fear of the woods to life. I will go over the dance at home in my own time and go over the dance and add little trait to show my characters fear. I hope to have this complete before the next run of the opening scene, so I can use the other characters in the scene to bump up my characterisation.
There is one bit with in the song where the Baker and Cinderella have a line together "There's something in the glade there". We had originally choreographed to have a lift on this line yet it was said that it didn't really fit in with our characterisation of two scared characters.
For the 8 beats I had chosen to do a fast piece with different levels, however during the song I have a solo line when it is this part so I had to change it to something different so that I am in the right position to sing my lines.
My target for my opening song is to work on my musicality with the song, I think by making my movements in time with the song will give me the chance to bring my character to life. I think that this will help bring my character fear of the woods to life. I will go over the dance at home in my own time and go over the dance and add little trait to show my characters fear. I hope to have this complete before the next run of the opening scene, so I can use the other characters in the scene to bump up my characterisation.
Dance Performance final 26th September 2014
For our first dance assessment we devised and performed our own interpretation of DV8 Enter Achilles. This style of dance is contemporary, using physical theatre to give the piece a non-naturalistic theme. Our piece is about 'Lads' getting ready to go out to a bar and then their mannerisms whilst they are drunk. We performed this in the dance studio in front of the class.
The start of our piece focused more on the characters meeting up and greeting each other. To show this as I entered I waved my hand up in the air to say hello to other characters. To still show my characterisation of a drunken man I really flopped my arm around whilst having my knees bent to keep my core closer to the ground. As it went on when we had all entered we went into the main dance this features a sequence of moves, such as we started off by swaying side to side and raising our glass. We repeated this move a few times at the start of the piece. To show our characterisation had my knees bent and swayed a lot, sometimes not to the rhythm of the music. Another move that featured was when we all dropped down onto one knee in unison. we then all jumped up onto our feet using our right hands as pivots. This move is what brought a non-naturalistic theme to our piece as this is not what you would expect to see with these types of characters.
One of my strengths of my performance was that I had good focus and good extension of my limbs. I did this by by keeping my arms as straight as possible, like when I raised my glass up I pushed my arms as far as they would go and then kept my focus onto the cup by pointing my eye contact towards them, as this is the focus of the piece. I belive that this is one of my strength as during the performance I could feel that I was pushing my extension as far as I could. Another one of my strengths would be my timing, I felt confident with when I should be doing things in the piece. When going into the main dance from the entrance sequence I knew the timings well and didn't rely on the rest of the group when to go into the next moves. One of my strengths when it comes to my interpretive skills I felt confident about my characterisation of the scene. I kept in character throughout, by keeping my knees bent and stumbling around as if I was drunk. I feel that my characterisation really helped the audience understand what was happening within the piece.
However one of my weaker points within my performance was my flexibility in my physical skills, When performing I felt that my basic dance skills, like when getting up from being down on one knee could of been done a lot smoother. I felt this could be done with a lot more confidence and fluency. With my interpretive skills I think that I could have improved on my facial expressions, during my performance my facial expression did not fit my character very well, it was very clear through my face that I was concentrating to much on the moves and what I would be doing next, if I was to do this again I would pay more attention on what my face is doing, by thinking about eye contact with other characters.
Overall, in order to improve my performance I will think about my confidence in the moves that I am doing and believing that I know what I am doing, I could already see a improvement in this from my first performance. For the next performance that I do I will pay a lot more attention in what I am doing and focus on my characterisation rather than the moves. Another target for my self is to be more adventurous with the moves that I choose to do. For this last performance I kept my moves very simple and not really stretching myself with what I did. To improve further I think that I need to challenge myself more by being rehearsing more to get my performance to a higher level, I will use my spare time to make my performance level higher, I will hopefully see an improvement in this soon.
dance skill definition
Physical
- Posture - Having a good structure not to cause strain or hurt
- Flexibility - The ability to bend without breakage or strain
- Balance - The ability to hold a position without struggle or wobble
- Strength - The ability to do things that require a lots
- Stamina - To keep doing something for a length of time and keep it up
- Co-ordination - To be able to do two or more things at once with holding focus
- Extension -
- Alignment - showing clear lines in what you do and showing a well choreographed piece
Interpretative
- Focus - how intense you make a piece by looking and concentrating on something or making it loose and messy.
- Facial Expression - Showing your emotion through your face to bring characterisation to a dance
- Projection - How you project a story or emotion through a dance
- Musicality - How well you keep in time to the music and do different moves on every beat.
Developing scene 3 and after college rehearsals. 6th November 2014
In todays rehearsal we started to work on scene three yet didn't get very far as we assigned production roles. I was given the role of costume, along side Jess and Izzy. We are going to start looking into the costumes of past productions and then think of new ideas using inspiration.
In scene three my character runs into Bakers Wife in the woods. my character tells her that he will make things right and then they "can just go about our life. No more hunting about in the woods for strange objects. No more Witches and dim-witted boys and hungry little girls". I feel that this really tells the audience about how he just wants to make things right for her so that she can have a nice life. I really like this line as it really shows how much he cares for her and how much their family and relationship means to him.
This scene also contains the Baker and his Wives duet "It Takes Two". this is when the start to look up at things as they find more items for the Witch, later to find out that one is soon to die. In rehearsal we didn't spend to long on doing this song in setting it as we are going to work on it with Kat and get a dance into it. Our director told us some general ideas on what to do like basic ballroom hold and spinning as it creates a romantic loving feel and show their true love for one another. We then relayed this over to Kat to put into the choreography.
After college we carried on with scene doing other parts, however I was not in any of these bit so I spoke to Jess and Izzy about possible ideas for costume.
In scene three my character runs into Bakers Wife in the woods. my character tells her that he will make things right and then they "can just go about our life. No more hunting about in the woods for strange objects. No more Witches and dim-witted boys and hungry little girls". I feel that this really tells the audience about how he just wants to make things right for her so that she can have a nice life. I really like this line as it really shows how much he cares for her and how much their family and relationship means to him.
This scene also contains the Baker and his Wives duet "It Takes Two". this is when the start to look up at things as they find more items for the Witch, later to find out that one is soon to die. In rehearsal we didn't spend to long on doing this song in setting it as we are going to work on it with Kat and get a dance into it. Our director told us some general ideas on what to do like basic ballroom hold and spinning as it creates a romantic loving feel and show their true love for one another. We then relayed this over to Kat to put into the choreography.
After college we carried on with scene doing other parts, however I was not in any of these bit so I spoke to Jess and Izzy about possible ideas for costume.
Developing scene 2 4th November 2014
In todays lesson we looked further into scene 2. In this scene this is the first time that the characters are in the woods. My character is first scene by Little Red Riding Hood and goes to get the cape. The baker steals the cape from her shoulders, then feels to guilty that he takes it back. I really worked on showing the guilt through my non verbal communication, by giving eye contact to the audience and biting my lip. Although it is instructed in the script for my character to run on to give the cape back to stop the crying, I felt to show the guilt I would walk on slower, so I came in slowly and made eye contact with the audience then ran over to LRRH.
My character also comes across Jack. This is where we find the cow and offer Jack the "magic" beans for it. This is where is comes first clear to the audience how much this means to my character and how he wants to do this by himself and not with his wife's help.
The audience would see my character as being quite mean and just wanting to take all of the glory by doing everything himself. But it comes clearer later on in the scene. My Director said that I should soften the line "Go Home, I will carry this out in my own fashion". As by shouting made my character seem harsh and controlling yet we want the audience to start to understand my characters true intensions.
Towards the end of the scene the Baker kills the wolf and then Granny gets confused and thinks that I am a hunter rather than the Baker. I then have a line "I am a baker". I rehearsed this line by saying it loud with pride yet the director said to say it a lot more shy as I don't have much pride in my job and feel a bit worthless.
My character also comes across Jack. This is where we find the cow and offer Jack the "magic" beans for it. This is where is comes first clear to the audience how much this means to my character and how he wants to do this by himself and not with his wife's help.
The audience would see my character as being quite mean and just wanting to take all of the glory by doing everything himself. But it comes clearer later on in the scene. My Director said that I should soften the line "Go Home, I will carry this out in my own fashion". As by shouting made my character seem harsh and controlling yet we want the audience to start to understand my characters true intensions.
Towards the end of the scene the Baker kills the wolf and then Granny gets confused and thinks that I am a hunter rather than the Baker. I then have a line "I am a baker". I rehearsed this line by saying it loud with pride yet the director said to say it a lot more shy as I don't have much pride in my job and feel a bit worthless.
Developing Scene 1 30th October 2014
In todays lesson we began looking into scene one again yet in a lot more depth and accuracy. As we had already done the blocking we knew where we were going to enter, exit and stand. So now we could look into conveying the meaning of the words and start to think about how we were to say them.
We started of by focusing on the opening sequence, and getting all of the timings right. When we first did our blocking me and Bryleah (Bakers Wife) mimed making the bread and taking it to the ovens. However when we revisited this in developing I felt that it looked very repetitive and dragged on a bit. So we changed it up by making some bread, mopping the floors and cleaning the surfaces. In rehearsal I find it hard to get into this sequence as we don't have any props yet and the work bench is not there. Yet with the props and set I think I could really get into the character of the Baker being this friendly, loving, hard working man.
Later on in the scene my peers felt that when the Witch came in that The Baker and his Wife were together to much and that the Baker should break away from her and get closer to the Witch. I did this on the line "I had a brother". On this line I walk towards the Witch to help show the interest of my character that I may have possible family.
We started of by focusing on the opening sequence, and getting all of the timings right. When we first did our blocking me and Bryleah (Bakers Wife) mimed making the bread and taking it to the ovens. However when we revisited this in developing I felt that it looked very repetitive and dragged on a bit. So we changed it up by making some bread, mopping the floors and cleaning the surfaces. In rehearsal I find it hard to get into this sequence as we don't have any props yet and the work bench is not there. Yet with the props and set I think I could really get into the character of the Baker being this friendly, loving, hard working man.
Later on in the scene my peers felt that when the Witch came in that The Baker and his Wife were together to much and that the Baker should break away from her and get closer to the Witch. I did this on the line "I had a brother". On this line I walk towards the Witch to help show the interest of my character that I may have possible family.
Dance Performance final 26th September 2014
Dance Performance final 26th September 2014
For our first dance assessment we devised and performed our own interpretation of DV8 Enter Achilles. This style of dance is contemporary, using physical theatre to give the piece a non-naturalistic theme. Our piece is about 'Lads' getting ready to go out to a bar and then their mannerisms whilst they are drunk. We performed this in the dance studio in front of the class.
The start of our piece focused more on the characters meeting up and greeting each other. To show this as I entered I waved my hand up in the air to say hello to other characters. To still show my characterisation of a drunken man I really flopped my arm around whilst having my knees bent to keep my core closer to the ground. As it went on when we had all entered we went into the main dance this features a sequence of moves, such as we started off by swaying side to side and raising our glass. We repeated this move a few times at the start of the piece. To show our characterisation had my knees bent and swayed a lot, sometimes not to the rhythm of the music. Another move that featured was when we all dropped down onto one knee in unison. we then all jumped up onto our feet using our right hands as pivots. This move is what brought a non-naturalistic theme to our piece as this is not what you would expect to see with these types of characters.
One of my strengths of my performance was that I had good focus and good extension of my limbs. I did this by by keeping my arms as straight as possible, like when I raised my glass up I pushed my arms as far as they would go and then kept my focus onto the cup by pointing my eye contact towards them, as this is the focus of the piece. I belive that this is one of my strength as during the performance I could feel that I was pushing my extension as far as I could. Another one of my strengths would be my timing, I felt confident with when I should be doing things in the piece. When going into the main dance from the entrance sequence I knew the timings well and didn't rely on the rest of the group when to go into the next moves. One of my strengths when it comes to my interpretive skills I felt confident about my characterisation of the scene. I kept in character throughout, by keeping my knees bent and stumbling around as if I was drunk. I feel that my characterisation really helped the audience understand what was happening within the piece.
However one of my weaker points within my performance was my flexibility in my physical skills, When performing I felt that my basic dance skills, like when getting up from being down on one knee could of been done a lot smoother. I felt this could be done with a lot more confidence and fluency. With my interpretive skills I think that I could have improved on my facial expressions, during my performance my facial expression did not fit my character very well, it was very clear through my face that I was concentrating to much on the moves and what I would be doing next, if I was to do this again I would pay more attention on what my face is doing, by thinking about eye contact with other characters.
Overall, in order to improve my performance I will think about my confidence in the moves that I am doing and believing that I know what I am doing, I could already see a improvement in this from my first performance. For the next performance that I do I will pay a lot more attention in what I am doing and focus on my characterisation rather than the moves. Another target for my self is to be more adventurous with the moves that I choose to do. For this last performance I kept my moves very simple and not really stretching myself with what I did. To improve further I think that I need to challenge myself more by being rehearsing more to get my performance to a higher level, I will use my spare time to make my performance level higher, I will hopefully see an improvement in this soon.
Blocking Scene 5
My character is only in scene 5 for the end song. I enter for DSL with my wife who is pregnant. We then come into the semi circle arcing round the audience to sing the final song. During this song we have kept the choreography simple with just us all standing with some simple gestures and hand movements.
Blocking scene 4 Into the woods
In scene 4 the baker is starting to get in a panic as the cow has just died and the baker is starting to let bakers wife help him with finding the things. This is also where the we give the Witch all of the objects so that we can have a child.
We focused a lot on the stage directions within this scene, as we had to get the timings right of giving the Witch the items. I was given the role of going and getting the corn to give to her once the hair doesn't work.
At the end of this scene my character finds out that mystery man is his father but then he dies as the potion is made.
I added some vocal details on how to deliver my lines with the right tension and upset even though my character is just about to get a child. i cross over to my father as he is on the right of the stage where i am on the back left with the Witch doing the potion. As my character is not in scene 4 much i worked on my lines and started to think of some ideas to do for the It Takes Two dance with Bryleah (Bakers Wife).
We focused a lot on the stage directions within this scene, as we had to get the timings right of giving the Witch the items. I was given the role of going and getting the corn to give to her once the hair doesn't work.
At the end of this scene my character finds out that mystery man is his father but then he dies as the potion is made.
I added some vocal details on how to deliver my lines with the right tension and upset even though my character is just about to get a child. i cross over to my father as he is on the right of the stage where i am on the back left with the Witch doing the potion. As my character is not in scene 4 much i worked on my lines and started to think of some ideas to do for the It Takes Two dance with Bryleah (Bakers Wife).
Understanding my character of the Baker from Into the Woods
The Baker-
Deviant art (2008) [Online] Available from:
[accessed: 10/11/2014]
Things I know about my character:
- He cant have children due to a curse put onto his parents by the witch.
- The baker thinks he lost his parents in a baking accident.
- The baker has a sister that he doesn't know about (Rapunzel).
- He is in fear of the Witch due to an incident with her and his parents when they were caught stealing from her garden.
- The Bakers father is really alive and the baker meets him in the play.
The character of the Baker is very strong and it is clear to the audience that he cares for his wife a lot. In the play the baker forbids his wife from being in the woods with him, she takes this in the wrong way, as him not wanting to spend time with her. However he only wont let her as he cares so much for her and he realises what dangers are in the woods. I would assume that my character feels guilt towards his wife as he can see how much she wants a child, and he sees it as his fault for her not being able to have one as the curse was put on his family, I think this is one of the reasons that he is so dedicated to finding the four items that the witch wants to be able to reverse the curse. The baker then realises in scene 3 that his wife keeps coming to the woods to help as she cares for their family as much as he does, I think from this moment on in the script the become closer and work more as a team. At the end of the play, when the baker realises that the items are not valid as the witch had been in contact with them. This makes my character feel so heart broken as he and his wife had been on such a journey to find them, then to be shot down when the finally made it.
Blocking scene 1 30th September 2014
In todays lesson we started work on the play. We began with the opening sequence and scene 1. In the opening scene the baker and the bakers wife are in the bakery and we are to mime at curtain up us making the bread and general bakery things. In this sequence me and Bryleah really worked hard on showing the relationship between the two characters. By giving each other eye contact and stoping to take moments to look at each other and comfort one another. I think that this helps the audience understand the my character from the start.
In scene 1 i was told to show more of a relationship between my character and the bakers wife. in the section where the witch comes in we felt that my character should be more comforting towards her. Where the witch is telling us about the story of my father and mother.
On the underlined words this is where we decided to come closer as this is where the Witch puts a lot of emphasis on her words. On the soundtrack there are to beats where these words are so we have to work on our timings so that it all fits together. I think that this is a good opportunity to have some contact and bring our two characters together for the first time in the play.
In scene 1 i was told to show more of a relationship between my character and the bakers wife. in the section where the witch comes in we felt that my character should be more comforting towards her. Where the witch is telling us about the story of my father and mother.
On the underlined words this is where we decided to come closer as this is where the Witch puts a lot of emphasis on her words. On the soundtrack there are to beats where these words are so we have to work on our timings so that it all fits together. I think that this is a good opportunity to have some contact and bring our two characters together for the first time in the play.
Thursday, 6 November 2014
Rehearsal for 'into the woods' 2nd October 2014
In todays rehearsal we started blocking and working on scene 2 of the play. In this scene this is the first time that all of the characters are in the woods. My character begins to look for the items that the witch wanted to reverse the spell. We did this rehearsal outside to block it properly and see what space we had. At first I found it hard performing outside due to the large performance area. I found it hard to project my voice so that all of the audience can hear me no matter where I am outside, To get over this I need to do lots of vocal exercises to bring my voice up to volumes, especially if I will be singing without the aid of mics. However by starting to perform outside it was good to get the feel with the surrounding and the scenery and working out how long it will take us to get across the stage, as you don't normally get to work with the set till later times.
Rehearsal for 'Into the woods' 7th + 9th October 2014
In this rehearsal we started working on character development and getting to know the plot of the play. We did this by starting to make up more of our characters, by thinking about the sort of age, I decided that the Baker would be about 30, however I had to talk to other cast members to make it fit in with them and the play. We also thought about or characters general moods and what they do for a living. My character is always quite optimistic yet can often doubt himself. I made this decision from the text as he is always talking to himself and making himself remember.
We looked at the plot my in small groups looking into one characters super objective within the play. A super objective is the characters objective for the whole of the play, rather than from scene to scene. In my characters case this would to be happy and have a family. In our small groups we divised a short piece that was the characters super objective yet with a fast pace. From doing this I found that my character is always doing things for himself, like stealing the cape, which comes across as him saving RRH and Granny yet he does it just to get to the cape and to get the cow. We also leanrt more about our characters backgrounds, by doing another devised piece with our characters in a different situation. I learnt more about my character, like I made him quite shy and timid yet then switched straight into the heroic man.
We looked at the plot my in small groups looking into one characters super objective within the play. A super objective is the characters objective for the whole of the play, rather than from scene to scene. In my characters case this would to be happy and have a family. In our small groups we divised a short piece that was the characters super objective yet with a fast pace. From doing this I found that my character is always doing things for himself, like stealing the cape, which comes across as him saving RRH and Granny yet he does it just to get to the cape and to get the cow. We also leanrt more about our characters backgrounds, by doing another devised piece with our characters in a different situation. I learnt more about my character, like I made him quite shy and timid yet then switched straight into the heroic man.
14th october into the woods Scene 3 blocking
In todays lesson we started to focus on scene three of the play. In this scene my character is given money off of Jack as he is mislead that he will be getting his cow back for five gold pieces. Then the Bakers wife tell my character that she has lost the cow. This made my character feel let down and really made him want to do it all by himself, he then tells her to go home as he goes on to find the last three items. I felt that i could spend some more time on getting the right levels of tension between Baker and the wife and making sure that i start to get irotated with her as the right times in the scene. We also started to block out the song. It Takes Two. We are looking to get inspiration from dances like the rumba and tango. Next week we will be spending some time with Kat to come up with some choreography to put to the song.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)