Acting

11/09/14

Today we had a new script, "The seance" by Anthony Neilson. A. Neilson is a scottish playwirght who has written about 20 plays. His most recent one is "narrative" (2013) played at the Royal Court Theatre. The seance was played at the National Theatre in 2009.

I play "Phoebe", the character was played by Charlie Bannocks at the National Theatre. Phoebe's used to doing seances, because of her
mom who let her join them. She's the one taking the seance very seriously and organising it.

19/09/14

Today during the warm up we were given numbers from 1 to 10, 10 being the highest and had to act according to the number we had. I was 8 and 9, posh! Then we had to look at everyone to get a clue of their number and get in a row in the right order. We also "go, stop, run jump" exercise.
After the warm up we continued working on "the seance".


22/09/14

Today we kept on staging "The Séance" and tried to do it without the script. We also had the end of the script.

Stanislavsky

Stanislavsky (1863-1938) is a very famous Russian actor, director and drama teacher. He was born in a rich family and was very passionate about theatre. Most of actors at that time used to really exaggerate their way of playing, but he was more sensitive, more "human".

He wrote several books such as "An Actor Prepares" and "An Actor's Work: A Student's Diary".

09/10/14

Today during warm up we had to improvise a scene based on the theme "A fight just happened". I'm really not good at improvisation, words just don't come out of my mouth! I need to be more confident to improve and make my work better, not only in improvisation, even in "the séance", and in dance.

10/10/14

Today we performed the séance in front of the rest of the group and had feed backs from Sean to make it better.
Sean's feedback: talk more slowly in order to let some suspense, character needs to be more directive, more "serious".
Personal thoughts: I felt like I wasn't doing it right but had no idea how to make it better, now I do, I also need to be more sure of my lines and more confident. It is really not the type of role I like/I'm used to play, which is good cause a good actor needs to be good in every role, but it really does feel quite uncomfortable.

15/10/14

Today we practiced the séance a lot before tomorrow's performance and assessment. We've had the chance to see a short act from the a-levels students too, which was really good, I hope we can do that well tomorrow.
I feel like I get the character a bit more but I still need to work on my lines, I always know them when I'm not acting but as soon as I'm on stage I get distracted. Work work work!

16/11/14

Today we've done a characterisation walking lesson. We walked in several different ways: fast or slow, light or heavy and direct or indirect, combining them all. We then wrote how we felt like after doing it, what feeling it gave us, and what character it made us think of.

Direct, fast and light:
lots of things to do, kind of concerned, in a hurry to do work, worried.
Made me think of Henry Higgins from My Fair Lady and Anybody's from West Side Story

Direct, fast and slow:
in a hurry, late, angry. It reminded me of people walking into the college in the morning or me when I'm late or want to go home quickly.
It made me think of Trunchbull from Matilda and Javert from Les Mis.

Direct, slow and light:
sad, lost, tension, scary person.
Reminded me of a supervisor.
Made me think of Eponine from Les Mis when she sings on my own

Direct, slow and heavy:
lazy, don't want to do anything.
It made me think of the brother from Matilda, I don't even think he's walking during the musical if he did I think that's how he would.

Indirect, fast and light:
looking for something.
It made me think of the Engineer from Miss Saigon.

Indirect, fast and heavy:
Trying to avoid people in the station, pissed off.

Indirect, slow and light: 
thinking, looking for someone in a crowded place, in a park, on holiday, happy.

Indirect, slow and heavy:
Bored, depressed, drunk, 10 felt like someone who has just been hot.
Made me think of the ensemble in les mis when they sing "look down"

21/11/14

We started working on our contemporary monologues. I am working on Theresa's part from Bombshells. Theresa is a young woman who is about to get married. At the beginning of the monologue she says how thrilled she is to get married, but then we learn she doesn't actually love her fiance but just wants to get married. By the end she realises she doesn't love him and regrets her decision. I had to cut the monologue so it was about two minutes.


"Delirious! I am so fucking happy! I'm so happy I could scream! *screams* I look incredible! I look like a... Like a fairytale! Lovely! I am so fucking, fucking happy! I've been waiting that day since third form when Leanne Snowball and I planned our Big Days whilst tanning our legs outside the maths room. Anyhoo, I've got Ted. What a guy! What a lucky girl, what a lucky, lucky... Ted. In an hour, I'm going to be somebody's wife. Somebody. Anybody. A wife. A wifey wife. A wifely wife. A wife. Wife. WIFE. Weird work "wife", I've never really thought about it before. It sounds like... a kitchen implement. The point is, I'm going to belong to someone! I'm not going to be floating on that endless ocean of single hood. Ted has rescued me from eternal nights with girlfriends complaining about men, legs waxing, cosmopolitan reading, wardrobe obsessing desperation! I want to be possessed. I want to be held, nurtured, nestled, owned. I want to excel at supporting and obeying... I do love Ted. I said that didn't I? You do love Ted, don't you Theresa? Do you regret it? I do.  What have I done? What have I done? It's all about the dress. It's the dress' fault. The dress is to blame! What the fuck have I done? Mum. MUM! YOU WERE RIGHT"

Bombshells is a play by the Australian playwright Joanna Murray-Smith and was first published in 2004. The play is composed of 6 monologues, each about different women's life. The youngest is a teenager and the oldest is a 64 years old woman. There is only one performer on the stage to perform the six monologues, it was first played by Caroline O'Connor (on the right picture).



12/12/14

Today I performed my monologue in front of the class for the first time. I'm really glad with what I've done, for once, because I went for it and didn't hold myself back. I thought the energy was good. I wasn't sure at all when I picked up that monologue, I felt a bit unconfident but now I think it's actually a good one and I'm really glad because I understand the character, I see how to play it. I was kind of frustrated during the séance because I could get it right, even though I tried, and now I think I can really "be" that character when I perform the monologue, not just myself trying to act. I feel like I can work on it and use it for auditions. Alex's feedbacks were really good too so I was really happy with myself, it makes a nice change. However, I need to work on my articulation, diction, prononciation, etc. and need to remember my monologue a bit more so I don't get lost.

12/01/15

Today we did a very interesting exercise. We had to pick up an animal and start incorporating 10%, 20%, 30%, etc until 100% of it into our "human walking" character. Afterwards, we only incorporated 5% of the animal and tried to figure out which character could actually be like that. For example a dog looked like a paranoid junkie.
It's really interesting because it applies to every character we play, you just have to find which animal it would be and then incorporate a bit of that animal to make the performance more real.