This week we were introduced to two historic figures of acting, Anton Pavlovich Chekhov and Constantin Stanislavsky. They brought awareness to 'Naturalism' into our knowledge of acting.
- Was son of a grocer
- Trained briefly and worked as a doctor whilst pursuing a journalism career, and write short stories
- He wrote his first play 'Ivanov' in 1887
- In 1889 he joined forces with another famous play write, Stanislavsky and The Moscow Arts Theatre where his play finally received success.
The system:
- Imagination
- Imaginary Moving Picture
- Action
- Units & Objectives
- Emotional Memory
- Circles of Attention
- Solitude in Public
- The Magic If
- Given Circumstance
- The Super Objective and Through Line
New Learning:
This week we did some exercises that introduced us into some of the work of 'The System'. I was asked to play a woman who had to show the emotion of a woman not knowing if her husband had returned from war alive. This exercise was really interesting, because I realized I really enjoyed playing someone who had to show, paranoia and anxiety. This character had fear and was constantly hoping for the positive. To show this I personally had to channel 'Emotional Memory' to start me off, but it was mainly 'The Magic If' that worked as I just played it how I probably would if i was put in that situation.
We then got to do some improvisation exercises which was a lot of fun at times, but also could be very emotional. The first theme of the this exercise was boredom, I loved the idea of being completely made up, and this seemed to make it more real, because we were no longer looking like we were memorizing lines of scripts, and we didn't look like we were playing a different character, we were ourselves. I think everyone will remember this exercise and use it to help them when they are working on their own characters.
The more emotional improvisation game, was more challenging but i think it was a nice contrast to go from analyzing something funny, to being able to watch your friends and be drawn in to actually believing what they were saying. I think Charlotte was especially good at this.
The Magic If, was shown to us by doing an exercise that involved us all to literally ask ourselves 'What if this was actually happening?', 'What would I do if I was put in this situation?'. As we were doing it it opened our minds to more questions. I found that it's really hard to be believable when you know what you are doing in this exercise is not true, but when Karen decided to experiment with us, by pretending the exercise was over and making us actually believe Imogen had lost her ring, because we thought she was telling the truth, the actions we took to look for the ring, looked honest.
Creative Ideas:
This week has made me think about how I can use some of the System techniques to help make the scene and my character more real. The ones that stand out in this idea is 'The Magic If' and 'Emotional Memory', and maybe even 'Imagination'. I think I need 'The Magic If', to help me get to the idea of what it was like if the plague was around, 'Emotional Memory' to help me channel the right energies, and Imagination to create my own characters personality and energy. We thought our wardrobe would be made of oak, as it represents the hard and rough times of the families, and people who were around during the plague, but it also isn't as strong as other materials, because we wanted to show how defenseless it was against the plague.
Development:
A way to develop our scene could be to look at the setting
of our scene, for example where would we stand, how would we use the space,
what levels would be right for our scene. We decided to place our wardrobe in
the B area, as we need to use the front section of the stage for the end
section where Anne, collapses. We also thought B would look right as some parts
we want the scene to be intimate and closer to the audience because we want to
provoke a reaction, and an atmosphere where they can feel the paranoia and claustrophobic
conditions of the girls when the pre dramatic and dramatic event happens. We
developed some of the way we said the words
Devising:
We didn't focus on devising as much this week but we did workshops on techniques that we can inbed into our characters and scenes. We have learnt new ways of approaching a scene when it comes to devising. I will consider this when we start to block our scene.
Continuing Research/Insights:
I love my character, I think she has a very big and strong personality, at first I wanted her to be really sarcastic and the bitter one of the three, but now I see, that she isn't exactly how I saw her at first, after I have done a little research into those times, I think she needs to be a little more light-hearted, not bitter, but the one to keep humor and laughter in the air in order to make light of serious situations. I think deep down I want her to be a little envious of Anne, as I feel as if Sarah has dreams too, but I think she knows that the reality of it coming true are second to none.
Exploration Process/Trial and Error:
We explored many improvisation techniques this week. The strength that I got out of this exercise was that it helped me to understand that improvisation needs to be real, as it's really hard to plan everything, and therefore it will also look forced and fake. The challenging part of this exercise was trying not to laugh or break character, because at times when you laugh it automatically breaks the reality and is no longer real. This helped me to understand that sometimes I can be easily distracted, and I need to function my focus a little better.
Input to the process/ Scene development:
My input into this weeks work, was nothing huge, but I always try my best to involve myself as best I can. I helped with the drafting of our scene, for example, where we should enter, how we should place ourselves. I decided to suggest using a table in our scene, which we didn't necessarily have to keep, but I thought it would be nice to experiment with levels. I thought this would compliment the fact that we would have limited space in the wardrobe, and it would also reflect a better use of space for our characters, as the energy of our characters seem to be the sort that could put the table to use.
Teamwork examples:
Me, Paige and Rae, worked well this week as we were just starting to get an insight to our scene. We managed to get some of our first ideas together and make a first draft of our scene. I really like how the casting worked out and I think we will work well together. I think personally we compliment each others acting, and are able to highlight each others strengths when we perform and weaknesses during the rehearsal period.
Problems and Solutions:
We didn't have any serious problems this early on in the play.
Aims for next session:
To carry on with blocking the scene, and to get more of an insight into my character.
