Tv and Screen Acting

Acting with TV and SCREEN:

We were shown a documentary on acting and these are the notes I took down during, and what I considered when filming scenes and shots.

Notes:
-hide pain behind eyes
-its the bravery that moves us
-focus on surroundings and where you are
-environment
-eyes think about your eyes
-less is more
-who you're talking to
-don't tell the story of the plot, just be the character
-more emotion in the face, lighten face and make it brighter.
-Use of imagery (imagine what you need to see in your head)
(for example if you are acting where someone is talking about a ex that cheated, imagine him there, this allows to locate that pain on your face when you actually think of him.
-Being specific to who you're talking to.
-Breath on the impulse
-Replace characters name exercise
-Look around, be aware where you are.
-Don't always have to look fixed on the person we are talking to all the time.


During the Tv and Screen acting lessons, I have realised how different it is to acting on stage or in theatre acting. Stage acting is all about feeling and TV is a lot more technical. Everything from the angle of the camera, the eye line of the actor or the expression on the actors face all needs to be taken in a different perspective. First of all we watched a documentary where I took notes as the ones listed above. The documentary showed us studying actors listening to the directors notes and then taking them on board. Examples were where the actor was given a scenario and they had to be aware of their surroundings, environment, and who they were talking to. They were given exercises like swapping and replacing names in order to create a more realistic reaction to what the other person was saying.

First thing we did was experiment with the camera in lesson 1. We first looked at Joe who took a few lines from a monologue and then spoke them whilst being filmed. His eye line wasn't on the camera, he was looking at Alicia who was stood behind the camera and he was talking to her. His eye line looked different on the camera when we watched it back on the screen. By watching it back on the screen it was easier to pin point when Adam had a suggestion of what to try differently or improve on. I was asked to go next, and I did a few lines from my monologue from 'Like A Virgin' from Gordon Steel. We did a take for rehearsal and then we went for a take. I used less emotion with my face and just focused on my eyes and how i used them, I didn't always focus on who I was talking to and I smiled a lot to try and take away the tension and the pain which is what I felt I needed to use when taking on quite a dramatic piece of text. My eye line was based on Zac who was sat at about 25 degree angle right from the camera. After getting a chance to actually try a few shots, I realised how different I looked on camera, and how the camera picked up a lot more. We tried over the shoulder shots and took in turns to shoot our shots and up close shots.

We learnt about a technique this week where it's like 3 weeks rehearsal in three minutes. Basically you take a line and try it in a different way every time you say it. It was really interesting to watch because you had more time to experiment and decide what worked and what didn't and if more than one of them worked which one felt the best or looked the best when you said it. When the man was saying his line to the lady, the lady naturally gave the line back in the way he delivered it. I liked this exercise and I plan to do this because I think it will really help me get the right mood and emotion when delivering my lines. Or even with partner work it could help me when having to deliver a line to someone and try and get the right connection/feeling between the characters and what they are saying.

Learning about physical metaphors interested me. Being able to match what you are saying with an actual action was quite difficult because it seemed like I was being over the top and it felt forced. But doing the exercise opened up new ideas where I could actually take away smaller element from this action and make it more personal and realistic.

We worked on a script given to us today, which was American and so it tested our accents today. I struggled a little bit on the accent though as it's not something I have really introduced before. This scene would have gone better for me if I hadn't of 'Under Acted' which was my feedback for me today. I held back on some of the actions and I could have afforded to be a little bit more bold and go for it. I learnt that it's better to go for it and get pulled back than to not go for it at all and hold back.

We did a spontaneity exercise. We paired up and learnt a few lines each and then got up in front of the camera and improvised them. We were to be completely spontaneous and do every take differently.

Don't Underact, go for the cringey bits. It's better to bring stuff to the table than to play it safe. Accidents by nature are organic. If something is spontaneous, it's unplanned which means making it original. Sometimes it doesn't always work, but a lot of the time it's creative something completely new and authentic. Accidents within speech bring a level of realism to it. You don't plan it, but this is what makes it what it is. A fortunate accident, so by being bold with accidents this will be picked up by the ear of the listener, and I can use this to my advantage to be noticed.

Shakespeare Rehearsal Period

Rehearsing Shakespeare:

Week 1:

In the first week of being introduced to Shakespeare, we headed up to London to see Julius Caesar performed by professional actors at The Globe Theatre. This experiance was great as it is quite a change from sitting down and watching a musical or play. i was dreading standing up for hours watching a play I didn't think I was going to understand. I thought it was going to be bone dry and I was going to have to work really hard to understand what the actors were saying. The characters and the play got my attention straight away by starting the play off with some of the actors joining in with the crowd and letting us become part of the show. It was really well staged and I had a lot of fun feeling as if I was in the show. Before the show we got to take part in a workshop which allowed us to take some of the text and add different techniques into it. Some of which we did was adding an action with a specific word. We did this in pairs and watched how it effected the way we accented some of the words. We were introduced to the iambic pentameter which is something to help create a rhythm in the text. It usually shows and emphasis on every other line and usually has 10 symbols in each line.



Week 2:

This we looked at starting to experiment with pieces of text. We looked at a speech from the movie Annoyomus called "O for a muse of fire". We were asked to work together as a group and think about how we were going to stage it and deliever the piece. One thing that didn't go to plan was every one had really good ideas and tended to want to do what they wanted, we have a lot of good leaders in our group and so it didn't work at first when everyone wanted to rush in with there ideas. I see some good points in this because it showed that a lot of us were interested in trying out what we thought might work well. In the end we decided we'd each suggest an idea if we had one, try it out and if we didn't fond well over it we would move to the next suggestion. I think I worked well in this situation because I see myself as a peace keeper and therefore some of my suggestions were put across maturely and therefore received a lot better. An idea I had was to express it using different tones in our voice and mixing up the tone so it wasn't just all on one level. Adam stepped in an tried an exercise where we had to perform it as if we were drunk. This was really interesting because it added different levels and emotion. It added a type of energy that was a bit different too.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ue2bUpz_uRw

Week 3:

This week we were finally put into groups. I was given the part of Caska along side Shelby playing Cassius. So I started learning about Caska and trying to understand what he was saying in the scene. Later on Shelby was leaving us, and Imogen offered to stand in and be Cassius. It wasn't until quite late on in the rehearsal period that we realised that I didn't have a lot to say and Imogen had another character and therefore we switched and I became Cassius. I was excited about being able to do more, but I was also anxious about learning the lines because I'm not a confident line learner but I knew I would give it my best shot. The only downside was that I had already started on the character of Caska and felt like I had lost time. I didn't get to perform with everyone else last term because I was ill. Over Christmas I started to look into the character of Cassius a bit more, he seems to be quite a manipulative and controlling character. I think because I am performing her as a girl I am going to base her on a modern day character from Sons of Anarchy "Miss Stark". This is because she is always out for her own gain and I feel that Cassius is doing this too. Due being ill I never got to block the character for Cassius, or rehearse for the character. I did however get an insight into the setting. They are outside and it is thunder storming.

Character Study (Cassius)

Cassius: Character Study.








Cassius is a large role of one of William Shakespeare's most popular plays 'Julius Caesar'. He is one of Rome's noble soldiers, or so it seems. Until he became envious of Caesar. Cassius and Julius Caesar are long time friends. When Caesar becomes powerful and successful Cassius becomes jealous of him. Caesar knows Cassius and does not trust him, and therefore Cassius knows in order to dis-empower him he must along with the other men, kill him. He starts to target Brutus he long time friend who trust Cassius and starts to talk him into killing Julius Caesar. At first he introduces the idea to him, but later on in the story allows Brutus to lead the conspiracy.

 Cassius reminds me of  Tywin Lannister in one of today's tv programmes Game of Thrones. He is described as a ruthless, calculating and controlling man. He reminds me of him because he is the person who feeds people ideas and sits back and watches it happen in order to enjoy it for his own benefits. He doesn't actually go on his own he uses people and controls them with his persuasive power. Cassius is a manipulative man who uses Brutus' good nature and character to destroy the life of Julius Caesar. Cassius writes letters, stating they are from the people of Rome, and sends them to Brutus in order to make Brutus think the people of Rome were concerned about Caesar's power. I had the idea of basing my character on "Miss Stark" from a modern tv programme "Sons of Anarchy". She's out for her own gain, and will do everything in her power to make something she wants to happen. She uses people and turns people against eachother.

When we watched Julius Caesar at the globe, I liked how the actor portrayed his manipulative strength, but he didn't really mix up his level, he stayed on the same level through out the play, and so I would like to show a mix of level in my tone and emotion. My scene that I am doing takes place on the streets with a thunder storm. So I have to act as though I am standing in the middle of a thunder storm when I deliver these speeches. Today this sort of conversation could be to do with two friends not particular best friends, but people who know each other and Caesar well enough. It could be perhaps two girls talking about kicking someone out of a social club, or perhaps the government talking about kicking someone out of power.

Punk Rock Rehearsal Period

Punk Rock: The Rehearsal Period!

Punk Rock, isn’t like anything our group has done before. It’s very different, exciting and full of surprises. I think this play suits our class members as it has a variety of different complex characters that give us all a chance to really have something to work with. The first week we read through the script and I really liked Tanya and Cissy and these characters seemed to be personalities that I was drawn too. I really liked the Idea of playing Tanya, particularly for the end scene and she has to portray quite a serious amount of emotion. I saw this as a challenge I was eager to do. I would have been happy playing any of the girls but It just so happened that I was casted as Tanya anyway which I was quite pleased about.

Scene One & Week One:

The first week of rehearsals we started from the beginning with scene one. In this scene we meet all of the characters including the new girl lily. My characters reaction to Lily are a little different just like how everyone reacts to something new in the room. It's as if everyone is curious. As soon as I knew what character I was playing I decided to look into her a bit more. Everyone was required to write down a list of things particular to the character. We were asked to fill out a table including facts about our characters that are mentioned in the script, things she said about others and what others said about her, stage directions, and what she said about herself. I saw Tanya as quite a motherly character straight away so I started to take this on a bit more when it came to delivering the lines. I found it worked for some situations but in others it didn’t work so well and therefore I resorted to delivering them across as if she were trying to impress. Lines where I found it worked were when Tanya was trying to stick up for Chadwick and when she was standing up for Bennett. This Idea back fired a little when I realised that Bennetts lines push Tanya’s status back down and so I felt when I was doing this it wasn’t working so well and I was having difficulty with delivering some of the lines and getting them to sound right.

Scene One Recap & Scene Two:

 Luckily on the second week we started to get introduced to actioning and objectives. This helped me a lot because although naturally I was trying to think and place my characters thoughts in the right place, I didn’t actually know what actioning and objectives were but they made life easier. Actioning is where the actor finds a transitive verb to accompany every individual line. So from then on I actioned my scenes to make it easier, starting from scene 3. The verb we choose is to get the right reaction from the other actor for example;

Tanya ‘Leave him alone it’s boring’- I warn you

I used this verb because this is what I wanted Tanya to do to Bennett I wanted her to provoke a warning, although this doesn’t stop Bennett I felt like this is how the line should be delivered. We were asked to research actioning and I found a document on it called Max Stafford-Clark who we were advised to search for. This researched helped clear up what Adam meant by actioning. It introduced me to Units and Actioning.

I didn’t block anything in scene two as I wasn’t in these scenes, however I quite liked being able to watch the direction happening because this was the scene that we first used actioning and so it was helpful to be seen played out. It also showed how having a characters objectives worked out and their appropriate transitive verbs, to see the difference in the delivery of the lines. Also it’s interesting to know the characters thought processes.

Scene Two Recap & Scene Three:

Scene three gave me a chance to try out my objectives and actions.

Objectives written more clearly from one of the pictures in scene three:

Tanya wants to Marry Mr Anderson.
 Tanya wants to have his children.
Tanya wants to impress the girls.

Other objectives used for Tanya:




Tanya wants to stick up for Chadwick (short term) (maybe even long term)

Tanya wants to belittle Bennett ( short term)
Tanya wants to exit the room (short term)
Tanya wants to get good grades (long term)
Tanya wants to see Mr Anderson (short term)
Tanya wants to be seen as the mature one (short term)
Tanya wants to stand up to Bennett (short term)

Scene Three Recap & Scene Four:

Scene three was a more challenging scene as it was hard to get the pace up as we were still on book when blocking the scene. This was challenging for everyone. I found it useful to go over lines when other casts were running scenes to get off book quicker in these situations. Being able to understand peoples thought processes in this scene helped a lot, but juggling this with trying to action, keep the pace, provoke a reaction from the other characters was definitely a challenge for me and most of the 

other cast.

Scene Six:

Scene six was a very intense scene to block and run. It required us actors to try and portray a realistic reaction for when William pulls out a gun in the middle of a classroom and is talking like a crazy person. Obviously and fortunately none of us have been in this situation before and so trying to create a naturalistic performance of this came as quite a challenge but one we were all eager to try. I loved creating this scene and I felt it really gave me a chance to go for it, it felt powerful and I could sense that what all of us were doing was creating the atmosphere we wanted to achieve. This scene did require some work with breathing, all about trying to trigger the tears with the breath and the tensing of the stomach. 

Summary:

I think the rehearsal period allowed me to pin point my strengths and weaknesses each week, showed me that trial and error was normal and it's all about practicing to make progress and it also opened my eyes to a new way of being able to relate to the character and becoming that character. I'm looking forward to playing the role of Tanya, as I'm eager to see what all of the in depth research in to her life will bring in a full run of the performance. I think things I'd like to work on are getting off book quicker in order for me to progress quicker, and understand the thoughts easier without the blockage of reading off a page. I was happy with my progress in class though as I feel like the work I have put in with the character really helped benefit my performance. 

Break A Leg !

Character Study (Tanya)

Character Study on Tanya Gleason

By Charlie-Rose Lane

Name: Tanya Gleason

Age: 17 nearly 18

Place Set: In a Grammar School in Stockport

The first time we see Tanya is when she walks into the library to meet Lily who is sat with William, Cissy, Bennett and Nicholas. Tanya first enters flustered and annoyed and we see this expressed in a mild aggressive way when she comes across Lily, who has also helped build up the tension inside because Tanya has had to run around looking for her even if it's not something she wanted to do, and therefore with the year sevens having annoyed her it is quite clear she hasn't had the best of mornings. I think this shows that Tanya has a sensitive side even if it comes across in an aggressive tone when she has to deal with it.

Tanya has a serious crush on Mr. Anderson, which the others just seem to think it's mild; I think Tanya actually devotes her mind to him. In scene four I think she describes it in a way to make the girls think that she and he are a possibility although it’s most likely it never will be. I think Tanya does not want to be seen as the fat one, and so instead adopts the characteristic of the motherly one. I think everyone has something they want to be seen as but often doesn't have a choice in the stereotypical name they are given. Cissy for example wants to be liked and wants to be seen as the popular one, I think she tries and achieves this by having a high status boyfriend and keeping in the good books of other people like Tanya so it's easy to use the personal information they tell her against them or for her personal use.

Tanya puts on a strong front and often sticks up for other people. I think this allows us to see that she believes in equality, sticks up for people when they are being bullied and that her heart is in the right place. I think Tanya is a genuinely nice person who doesn't like it when people are upset. She tries her hardest to balance her sensitivity with real life issues. As well as being seen as the motherly one I think Tanya wants to be seen as the mature one. She seems to be the only one trying to stop the negativity at times whilst everyone seems to stand around and watch. I think she wants this status game to stop. I don't believe she's afraid of Bennett and often tries to stand up for herself but I do think she is wary of him. Tanya takes it to heart when Bennett calls her fat, probably because she thinks it’s true. Girls have enough problems when it comes to worrying about their appearance let alone when people like Bennett announce it to everyone who she has to see on a regular basis. I think she is more humiliated than anything.

Relationships with other characters:

Cissy: Cissy is Tanya's best friend but Cissy has upset Tanya a few times due to her gossiping traits. In scene one we see the first glimpse of this when Cissy has told her boyfriend Bennett about Tanya's biggest secret and fantasy which includes her being married to Mr Anderson and having his children as expressed more clearly between the girls in scene 3.

Lily: Lily is the new girl at the beginning but later becomes good friends with Tanya. Tanya being the friendly and mature one easily accepts Lily and looks after her.

Nicholas: Tanya isn't really close with him, just mutual friends.

Bennett: Bennett is not exactly friends with Tanya. I think they are mutual most of the time but they both get on each other’s nerves. I think Tanya has to put up with him because of Cissy but in the same time doesn't let him walk all over her and therefore gets her own back and suggests hints of knowledge about him she has gained from Cissy and tries playing him at his own game.

Chadwick: Tanya likes him as a friend, and looks out for him.

Costume:

I think Tanya Gleason wants secretly, maybe not as much as Cissy but enough to fit in. I think she would be the sort of girl to wake up an hour early to do her hair and make-up although I think her hair would be natural and easy her make up would have more effort done. I think she wants to look effortless without looking like she's made the effort. I think she would wear a nice coat on top of her basic uniform, have a nice handbag and wear patterned tights. I think she would have a item of jewelry that she always wears for example a necklace or a ring.

Things I think Tanya does which aren't specific in the text....

Tanya is probably the girl who goes home and eats loads at night, and doesn't eat during the day due to the fact she doesn't want people to think of her as the fat one. I think this wouldn't help her with her weight but she thinks as long as no one see's her eat it will be okay. I think this theory works because in scene 3, Cissy and Lily are seen eating on stage and Tanya does not eat. I think Tanya tried her hardest to make it seem she's healthy, for example when she says the line 'I think that's really dangerous, human beings have to eat, it's one of the things we do, five pieces and fruits and veg a day, thirty minutes exercise three times a week'. This seems as if she is trying to explain that she eats, but is healthy and does exercise. 

I think she is the sort of girl who would pretend she's reading so it makes her look smart but actually is just skiming the pages thinking of something else. 

Auditions For Actors (Angela, Grusha & Viola)

                               'LIKE A VIRGIN'
Contemporary speech: Performed by the character Angela in a published play written and directed by Gordon Steel.

The play was first performed by the Hull Truck Theatre Company at the Dovecote Arts Centre, Stockton-on-Tees, on August 15 1995, at the Edinburgh Festival and then on a nationwide tour. It is set in Middlesbrough. 

The Original Cast included:

Angela: Caroline Wardle 
Viv: Carole Copeland
Ken: Michael Hodgson 
Maxine: Samantha Seager 
Monkey: Michael Hodgson 

The Cast for the National tour was:

Angela: Jill Halfpenny 
Viv: Carole Copeland 
Ken: John Tierney 
Maxine: Vicky Entwhistle 
Monkey: Michael Hodgson 

Choosing a suitable speech for me took a few weeks because I felt the need to find one that suited me as much as it could do. I finally decided on a particular speech from a play written by Gordon Steel called Like a virgin. When I read the speech for the first time only by reading the first few lines I knew it would dwell well with how I can express emotion through a speech. I wanted to choose something I could get my teeth into and show as much emotion as I could. The speech is spoken by a character called Angela who falls ill to Myeloid Leukemia. This speech has a light hearted atmosphere following a quite sad and dark plot. I think I liked the play because it has the light hearted funny atmosphere which the audience needs to be able to enjoy the show but also to understand a realistic message that the writer is trying to put across. i feel like Gordon Steel wants the audience to think and feel emotions during this show and to realise that this could be a very real situation in every day life. 

Angela has a best friend named Maxine and they are both besotted with Madonna. In this speech Angela has just been told by Maxine to stop feeling sorry for herself, it's difficult but she needs to get out there and live a bit. This speech is a mix of a reaction to those words from Maxine and also what I believe is a build up and climax of Angela's fear, anger and curiosity. I chose this speech because it stood out to me when I read the first few lines and I was attracted by the different levels of emotion I could use. I already had inspiration of what to do when using this speech. I also found the speech sweet as it follows a close friendship between Angela and Maxine who are best friends and both dream of becoming famous. This stood out to me as it reminds me of the friendship I have with Alicia. The play is full of innocence but also contrasts with the more adult themes. 

The lead up to the speech shows Angela and Maxine in scene 4 Act 2. Maxine has just gone out with Jamie Powers, the guy she fancies. Maxine admits they had sex on the first date and she wants to go out and celebrate. Angela doesn't feel up to it. Maxine ends up pushing her buttons.

Classical Speech: 12th Night spoken by the character Viola. Written by William Shakespeare. 

I left no ring with her. What means this lady?

Fortune forbid my outside have not charmed her!

She made good view of me, indeed so much

That sure methought her eyes had lost her tongue,

For she did speak in starts distractedly.

She loves me, sure! The cunning of her passion

Invites me in this churlish messenger.

None of my lord’s ring? Why, he sent her none.

I am the man. If it be so, as ’tis,

Poor lady, she were better love a dream.

Disguise, I see thou art a wickedness,

Wherein the pregnant enemy does much.

How easy is it for the proper false

In women’s waxen hearts to set their forms!

Alas, our frailty is the cause, not we,

For such as we are made of, such we be.

How will this fadge? My master loves her dearly,

And I, poor monster, fond as much on him,

And she, mistaken, seems to dote on me.

What will become of this? As I am man,

My state is desperate for my master’s love.

As I am woman, now, alas the day,

What thriftless sighs shall poor Olivia breathe!

O time, thou must untangle this, not I.

It is too hard a knot for me to untie!

              


Translation:

I didn’t give her any ring. What’s she trying to say? I hope she doesn’t have a crush on me! It’s true she looked at me a lot, in fact, she looked at me so much that she seemed distracted, and couldn’t really finish her sentences very well. Oh, I really think she loves me! She sent this rude messenger to tell me to come back, instead of coming herself, which would be indis-creet. She doesn’t want Orsino’s ring! Orsino never sent her a ring. I’m the man she wants. If that’s true, which it is, she might as well be in love with a dream, the poor lady. Now I understand why it’s bad to wear disguises. Disguises help the devil do his work. It’s so easy for a good-looking but deceitful man to make women fall in love with him. It’s not our fault—we women are weak. We can’t help what we’re made of. Ah, how will this all turn out? My lord loves her, and. poor me, I love him just as much. And she’s deluded enough to be in love with me. What can possibly fix this situation? I’m pretending to be a man, so my love for the Duke is hopeless. And since I’m a woman—too bad I’m a woman—Olivia’s love for me is hopeless as well! Oh, only time can sort out this mess. I can’t figure it out by myself!

I chose this classical piece because I believe it is an obvious contrast to my contemporary as it is more comical and shows a more playful side. This character has disguised herself as a man. Olivia has mistaken her love for Viola thinking she is a man. Viola has disguised herself as Cesario who is trying to obtain the love of her master. Viola is a likable heroin in this play and portrays the deepest love.

Trial and error:

Not having done a lot of classical speeches, it was quite difficult trying to comprehend the iambic pentameter. I also found learning Shakespeare was harder as when I tried to learn this monologue with out actually looking into it and with out understanding what she is talking about it was extremely hard. I went into deeper research and got a wider understanding of Viola and why she would want to dress as a man, what the plot was about and had a look at the translation of the speech in a way I could understand. 

I found it difficult to place an accurate mood for the piece and therefore had to look for clues in the text to help me. After some research I felt like the mood of the speech was actually quite light hearted and entertaining, with some pauses for personal thought. I think when she says 'poor lady' she actually feels sympathetic. I try and show different emotions by using dramatic pauses, more sweet toned vocal work to make it seem more of a lifted atmosphere. 


GRUSHA- 'THE CAUCASIAN CHALK CIRCLE'

My Last speech I will be performing is a speech from 'The Caucasian Chalk Circle'  By Bertolt Brecht. This speech was first performed at The Berlin Ensemble in 1954, and this translation of the speech was published in 1960. I chose this piece because when I first read the words they seemed powerful and meaningful, and I really wanted to try and take on the challenge of portraying the emotion of anger and disgust. These emotions are what I strongly sense this character is feeling. If i were put in this situation I would be more than angry I would do everything possible to be able to protect that child. I feel as though Grusha does not think this widow is capable of looking after this child and after bonding with this child and taking pitty on him the last thing she wants to do is return him to a woman who has no real feeling for the child. I think in this speech Grusha 'fights' with her words. I think her anger extends knowing that the judge is a drunken bribe-taker. I have decided to use a sense of power in my voice, and tense body language to help put across the frustration of the character i am trying to portray.

When the  Governor's palace in Grusinia is stormed and the Governor taken away and executed, his baby son Michael is abandoned by his mother and his nurse. Grusha, a young kitchen maid, takes pity on the child and flees with him into the Northern Mountains. After many adventures, she is brought before a drunken rogue, Judge Asdak. The Governor's widow has demanded that Michael be returned to her and asks the court to restore custody. The judge is on the widow's side and threatens to fine Grusha 20 piastres for contempt of court. In this scene Grusha accuses the Judge of bribe-taking and corruption.

Blog 1 (Shakespeare)

'Julius Caesar' the play written by William Shakespeare. William Shakespeare, the talented and creative writer who has throughout centuries stunned many artists and people.. or did he? Was it him? Sources have argued that he was an actor payed to pretend it was him who wrote these plays while other sources insist that it was him as today's population assumes. Nether the less I will go by the majority of the vote and avoid conspiracy's against Shakespeare for this topic, however I find this theory interesting.

Julius Caesar was written in 1599. It tells the story of Julius Caesar the Roman dictator. Julius Caesar only appears in fives scenes during the play as the actual plot focus' on the assassination of him, planned and plotted by Brutus and Cassius. Brutus is probably the most frequent character and is challenged to choose between his loving friendship between him and Caesar, or his loyalty and nobleness to his country. 

During the time of Shakespeare Queen Elizabeth was on the throne and often attended Shakespeare's famous plays and seated on the higher balcony as this was considered the seating where the royals, and higher status rich people would watch the plays. On the ground you would have the groundlings which consisted of everything from prostitutes to pocket thieves.

The Elizabethan era was a time associated with Queen Elizabeth I's reign (1558–1603) and is often considered to be the golden age in English history. It was the height of the English Renaissance and saw the flowering of English poetry, music and literature. This was also the time during which Elizabethan theatre flourished, and William Shakespeare and many others composed plays that broke free of England's past style of plays and theatre. It was an age of exploration and expansion abroad, while back at home, the Protestant Reformation became more acceptable to the people, most certainly after the Spanish Armada was repulsed. It was also the end of the period when England was a separate realm before its royal union with Scotland.

Audience members had to leave the city of London to go and see a play as theatre building were not permitted to be built in London. A flag would signal that there would be a theatre play that day and people would cross the river to attend. The globe's stage was more like a thrust stage than a proscenium arch stage. People who were well off enough would actually pay to sit on part of the stage on the balcony's. I believe this could have been for a social meaning and merely sat there so that they could be seen in their luxurious clothes. These people could easily steal the limelight from the show and therefore the actors had to work hard to keep all members of the audience entertained and therefore there was no no back to the audience rule or forth wall. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lF4NJrxu5Xo

The globe held around 3000 guests in it's 100 foot diameter back in 1599 when The Globe was built. It was built in Southwark on the south bank of London's River Thames by Richard Burbage. It was built by using wood and timbre that was taken from other theatre buildings. Nowadays for health and safety purposes The Globe theatre holds up to 1500. When I visited the Globe I found that I thought there were just the right amount of people in the audience, especially in the standing arena "The Pit" and could imagine that conditions of today are a lot more of higher standards. These numbers show just how things like health and saftey didn't matter in those days.

During our visit to the Globe I found that many of our class members weren't exactly looking forward to standing for 2 hours and 45 minutes watching a play that many people have different views on but nether the less was famous! As the day went on I think a lot of us started to be a little more enthusiastic about watching it espiecally when we got to take part in a workshop and start to get a better insight on how the actors would rehearse when the plays first started and how they would rehearse today! During the workshop our leader expressed how the actors of earlier times would only have about 3 rehearsals!! This stood out to me knowing that today we have weeks to months of rehearsals to polish and perfect! The fact that these actors learnt the script and managed to perform this showed how on point they must of been to achieve this. They used cue lines in order to help them learn when their line was! I also learnt that since their was no copyright laws in those days, in order to keep the play from being copied, Shakespeare would only give out the actors lines, instead of the whole script... hence the cue lines!

Julius Caesar is relevant to todays audiences because conflicts are going on in everyday life, no matter what century we are, no matter where we live.  The audience of that particular time may have related it to the monarch at the time. Audiences today may relate it to there everyday conflicts or maybe to something more obvious like wars, or perhaps parliament. 

Shakespeare was known to have written from 37 to 40 plays!

Quote below from :http://www.shakespeare-online.com/plays/numberofplays.html

Commedies :All's Well That Ends Well, As You Like It, Cymbeline, The Comedy of Errors, Love's Labour's Lost, Measure for Measure, The Merchant of Venice, The Merry Wives of Windsor, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Much Ado About Nothing, Pericles, The Taming of the Shrew, The Tempest, Troilus and Cressida, The Two Gentlemen of Verona, Twelfth Night, The Winter's Tale

Tragedies: Antony and Cleopatra, Coriolanus, Hamlet, Julius Caesar, King Lear, Macbeth, Othello, Romeo and Juliet, Timon of Athens, Titus Andronicus

Histories: 1,2, and 3 Henry VI, 1 and 2 Henry IV, King John, Henry V, Henry VIII, Richard II, Richard III