Week 6

Tuesday 31st October

Lesson 1 - Sharon

To start this session we started walking around the space in neutral (switching directions, freezing, etc.) according to the instructions given by Sharon. We then started walking around the space as our character, making them as exaggerated as possible. This helped us to create more room for us to bring down our character at a later time. We also did this exercise where we had to "spin" into character. what we had to do was bend down and point at the floor, we then had to spin around and draw a circle with our finger as we slowly came back up. one we were fully up straight we should have dropped into our character, here's what it looked like:

After this we created three character actions, this helped us see more into our character. here were my three character actions- writing a poem, bird watching, sharing feelings. This showed that my character was a big softie at heart. This helped me to know what I should research to make my character more believable. 

Thursday 2nd November

Tutorial

In this session we talked about different technical acting skills. This was to help us improve our skills so that our performance would look more professional. Here are some examples of technical skills that we discussed:

• emotional memory (links back to Stanislavski)

What is it?

Emotional memory is when an actor/actress remembers a situation that relates the situation of their character, this helps them to drop fully into a character

How to build the skill

To build this one needs to build up a repertoire of memories that show extreme emotions so that the actor would be able to dial down the emotion to fit the character. 

• vocal projection

What is it?

Voice projection is the strength at which an actor uses their voice to land their lines within the whole auditorium/theatre. Vocal projection also helps with clarity of lines.

How to build the skill

 To build this skill one would need to do vocal exercises daily and practise speaking lines from the abdomen rather than the throat/chest area. 

• understanding character & characterisation

What is it?

Characterisation is the act of an actor/actress forming a character from the information given to him/her through either a script or a character bio.

 How to build the skill

 Always read through the whole script before trying to portray a character, once one has read through the whole script one would have more of an insight into your character.

• stage presence

What is it?

Stage presence is the ability to be so 'energetic' on stage that the audience cant take their eyes off the stage.

How to build this skill

 To build this skill the best thing to do is to learn your lines off by heart because then one can put  effort into their physicality and vocal projection.

• communication and engagement with audience (links to one of the tips from workshop - Land your lines & embrace the audience magnet)

What is it?

Communication and engagement with the audience helps the audience to understand and stay with the play.

How to build this skill

To build this skill one must try and play out to the audience space in rehearsals because it will build up a habit for you so that on stage you will be embracing the audience.

• articulation (which I really need to work on)

What is it?

Articulation is how clear one presents their lines, having very good articulation allows the audience to understand your character and in that understand the world of the play.

How to build this skill

This skill can be built using different exercises, such as tongue twisters and mouth muscle exercises. This helps relax the muscles in the mouth which helps one to articulate better.