Greek week 5

Wednesday we started to run act 1, going over and smoothing out what needed to be developed and brushed up on. We started to Incorporated using newspaper in some of the scenes to create more of a journalistic image. I think this was a really good idea because it gives the scene a lot more flavor in the sense that everyone has something to work with, I feel it's easier to act with a prop to bring out my character. For example when we were asked just to walk around like journalists, we could just stop, notice a page or interesting headline, pick it up and start reading it, either on the spot or carrying on walking, this gave the piece more shape and became more engaging to the audience, but I also felt straight away that the chorus' energy level raised, because they had something to work with. We also developed this piece by adding in facial expressions, different dynamics, and type writing. We added the idea of writing up our stories, with all of the chorus being in rows, and using our stances (excited news) (thinking) (crafty look), these all helped create a great visual effect, and gave each chorus member great characteristics. We could use the newspaper to also hide our faces when we wanted to.

 On Wednesday night we watched a performance at Worthing college, called Medea. This was also a Greek tragedy and showed some good and bad qualities, that we could use or made me realize what maybe we shouldn't use. They have staged it different to ours in the sense that the chorus seemed to be split into three groups of social groups. I didn't like that idea as I prefer having one big chorus on stage at the same time, having the same aim and working together. On the other hand, I really enjoyed watching some of the movement they used, as well as the way they fitted music to the piece, it made the whole thing more creative and engaging.

Character research:
This week I have looked at some particular hairstyles that a slave, or Greek woman would wear.
Here are some examples I liked...

Though I really like these hairstyles, I may opt for having my hair down since I don't want to be too similar to everyone else. As for clothing, the Greek slave wore anything they could afford or were given and were all hand made, so it didn't necessarily mean white, brown or grey, sometimes they could colours like lilac, yellow or dusty pink. I like the idea of wearing either dusty pink, browns or lilac because I think they would be different to my journalist outfit (all black & white) and also give a colour balance to Electra who would wear a richer colour along with a crown.

This week we looked at the end chorus scene for the opening act. I was designated as the drummer again, so I was able to look from the front and help choreograph. I quite liked being able to see from the front because it gives me more ideas about where to go next or how to develop things more rather than actually trying to think of something on the spot. I helped by giving the usual tips for example I would say, make it bigger or try using it with a different aim for example instead or serious, be more patronizing. I also helped by saying things like change the pace, I would guide this by creating different beats on the drum so they could experiment with timing. I think it could still be developed by maybe having some repetition, to make to scene longer and more engaging. We could even use retro grade going back and repeating some of the lines in a creepy school girl way.

I feel I need to improve on learning my lines faster as the sooner I get off book the easier it will be to express emotion and experiment with movement. My strengths are listening and responding to feedback, I think I have been able to respond to the feedback given to me, especially in my blogs and improve on any details.
-I enjoyed working with the chorus this week and being able to put some points across that I feel would work.I didn't enjoy Wednesday morning, but it was partly because i was unprepared because i forgot my script, I didn't feel my best and because I was not here on Monday I felt i lacked confidence and it always takes away from my performance if i lack confidence.