Today we worked on off text improvisations with The Tempest characters, and I was paired with Dan. I play Miranda and Dan plays Fernando. Daniel gave me and Dan the scenario of 'the first date'.
We instantly knew that this exercise was a springboard and allowed us to put our characters into different scenarios to allow us to get to know them and create some what of a background and build relationships with other characters. When talking about the scenario, Dan and I realised how much of a different background our characters were from; Ferdinand was this guy who had so much experience of the world and women and the attention of ladies, whereas Miranda had never come across any other man other than her father or Caliban, so this was a whole new world for her and she had never even been on a date or even took pride in her appearance as she never had any idea of how a lady is supposed to look or dress. So when performing the scene, we made these points obvious. Miranda was fascinated by Ferdinand although she was very shy, and Ferdinand was doing all the talking and the asking of all the questions. This exercise made me realise a lot about my character as she hadn't really been in any other environment other than her home or with her father so anything else was completely extraordinary to her, and her relationship with the father was the strongest and only ever relationship she had ever had.
Saturday, 20 September 2014
Production Meeting
Firstly today, we discussed what we think the set would look like, and we thought we would like to use the Shakespearean style and language but make it more current, and we are currently still coming up with different ideas where we can contrast the two styles together. We also discussed what order we would like to do our extracts in, which turned in to quite a debate; some of us thought we could intervene the two as it would make it more entertaining and more exiting to keep switching, but others argued it would make the audience more confused and switch off a bit as they wouldn't know what was going on and there would be too many characters, which I agree with. So we decided to do our extracts from The Tempest first, then have an interval, and then do Twelfth Night extracts, which I think is a lot more of a smooth order and would make us and most importantly the audience less confused.
We also created a rehearsal process/schedule, to help us step by step allow us to learn about our characters scenes, and give us plenty more time to work out more ideas. We begin the schedule with character building workshops, off texts improvisations, working our way towards hot seating, relationships with other characters, and themes etc.
We also created a rehearsal process/schedule, to help us step by step allow us to learn about our characters scenes, and give us plenty more time to work out more ideas. We begin the schedule with character building workshops, off texts improvisations, working our way towards hot seating, relationships with other characters, and themes etc.
Iambic Pentameter
Iambic Pentameter is a form of verse and often found in poetry, an iam is a foot or beat involving an unstressed syllable. Pent stands for five as there are five sets of two syllable bits, and meter resembles the rhythm.
De Dum De Dum De Dum De Dum De Dum (sometimes followed by De at the end for an extra syllable, known as a softer and more feminine ending) is the best way to define Iambic Pentameter. The Dum is highlighted because this is stressed and some people say that its so natural that the beats resemble a heartbeat or the stress in the voice when we stress certain words.
In Shakespeare, you can often to the De Dum beat in your head whilst reading it aloud, and if it often doesn't fit in its because one character may have been given half of the iam and the next character will finish it off. Also when reading Shakespeare you must carry on reading even if it has gone to the next line and there is no comma or punctuation, only stop reading or take a break if there is a comma.
We did a number of exercises today to practice using Iambic pentameter. The first exercise was standing alone reading the Shakespeare script in our head and tapping our legs along with the De Dum beat. This exercise helped me a lot with understanding what words to stress on etc. We also did an exercise with the punctuation in the extract, and we would walk around the room reading out extract out loud and when we come to a form of punctuation we would stop and go a different direction, and I think we all found this helpful as it allowed us to know where to stop and when to carry on reading. We also underlined the stressed words in our scripts.
I think Iambic pentameter is really useful when reading Shakespeare as it allows rhythm and even makes a script easier to learn.
De Dum De Dum De Dum De Dum De Dum (sometimes followed by De at the end for an extra syllable, known as a softer and more feminine ending) is the best way to define Iambic Pentameter. The Dum is highlighted because this is stressed and some people say that its so natural that the beats resemble a heartbeat or the stress in the voice when we stress certain words.
In Shakespeare, you can often to the De Dum beat in your head whilst reading it aloud, and if it often doesn't fit in its because one character may have been given half of the iam and the next character will finish it off. Also when reading Shakespeare you must carry on reading even if it has gone to the next line and there is no comma or punctuation, only stop reading or take a break if there is a comma.
Prose refers to ordinary speech with no
regular pattern of accentual rhythm. Lines of text do not all have the same
numbers or any pattern of stressing certain words. In Shakespeare, characters
of a lower status tend to use prose as oppose to iambic pentameter e.g. Miranda
uses a mixture of the two, whereas Prospero is always speaking in iambic
pentameter, however Trinculo never uses iambic pentameter as he is of the
lowest ranking and the ‘joker’.
We did a number of exercises today to practice using Iambic pentameter. The first exercise was standing alone reading the Shakespeare script in our head and tapping our legs along with the De Dum beat. This exercise helped me a lot with understanding what words to stress on etc. We also did an exercise with the punctuation in the extract, and we would walk around the room reading out extract out loud and when we come to a form of punctuation we would stop and go a different direction, and I think we all found this helpful as it allowed us to know where to stop and when to carry on reading. We also underlined the stressed words in our scripts.
I think Iambic pentameter is really useful when reading Shakespeare as it allows rhythm and even makes a script easier to learn.
Wednesday, 17 September 2014
Introduction to Twelfth Night
Twelfth Night is a comedy play mostly about love. It begins with Orsino, the Duke of Illyria, Orsino, declaring his love for Olivia, the Countess. However, the countess is not too interested as she is still grieving the death of her brother who passed away which she is still struggling to come to terms with. A shipwrecked Viola thinks she is alone as she thinks her brother Sebastian has drowned in the wreck. Deciding to work for the Duke, Orsino, Viola decides to disguise herself as man names Cesario in order to be able to work for him, and then Viola finds herself falling for the Duke, although she is still disguised as a man and can not act on her feelings. One of the Dukes first orders is to deliver a message To Countess Olivia on behalf of the Duke himself, but Cesario (Viola) is in for a shock as Olivia actually falls for Cesario, even removing her vail which she has been wearing since her brothers passing to grieve. Later on, little love triangle has formed as Olivia loves Orsino, Orsino loves Olivia and Olivia loves Cesario.
Although Sebastian, Olivia's brother, who is in fact still alive, but instead believes Viola to be dead, arrives in Illyria, and with Antonio, who has been looking after Sebastian. After a lot of confusion with other characters getting Sebastian and Cesario mixed up, all the truth eventually comes out in the end after Olivia marries Sebastian thinking that she married Cesario and Viola finally comes clean to the Duke and the Duke then falls in love with Viola, and it all runs smooth in the end.
We are performing a scene from both The Tempest and Twelfth night. In The Tempest, I play a young Miranda who is sweet and innocent. Therefore, when acting out a scene from Twelfth Night, I wanted a character that would completely contrast with the character from The Tempest, and when speaking to Jess, she wanted to do the same, so we paired up and looked through the play together to agree on a significant scene to perform together. We ended up choosing Scene 5 from Act 1. In this scene, this is where Olivia falls in love with Cesario. Jess is playing Viola and I am playing Olivia, as I feel Olivia is completely opposite to Miranda in The Tempest; Olivia is a noblewoman, and hides herself away from the world, although she is aware of all that goes on, she knows that although she gets plenty of attention from the men in the play, the majority want to marry her just for her wealth and status.
Although Sebastian, Olivia's brother, who is in fact still alive, but instead believes Viola to be dead, arrives in Illyria, and with Antonio, who has been looking after Sebastian. After a lot of confusion with other characters getting Sebastian and Cesario mixed up, all the truth eventually comes out in the end after Olivia marries Sebastian thinking that she married Cesario and Viola finally comes clean to the Duke and the Duke then falls in love with Viola, and it all runs smooth in the end.
We are performing a scene from both The Tempest and Twelfth night. In The Tempest, I play a young Miranda who is sweet and innocent. Therefore, when acting out a scene from Twelfth Night, I wanted a character that would completely contrast with the character from The Tempest, and when speaking to Jess, she wanted to do the same, so we paired up and looked through the play together to agree on a significant scene to perform together. We ended up choosing Scene 5 from Act 1. In this scene, this is where Olivia falls in love with Cesario. Jess is playing Viola and I am playing Olivia, as I feel Olivia is completely opposite to Miranda in The Tempest; Olivia is a noblewoman, and hides herself away from the world, although she is aware of all that goes on, she knows that although she gets plenty of attention from the men in the play, the majority want to marry her just for her wealth and status.
Introduction to The Tempest
The Tempest is the very last play Shakespeare wrote by himself. The play involves a powerful magician, Prospero, who is referred to by himself and his daughter as an 'artist' who created a violent tempest to lure in the men who he counts responsible for his banishment from the throne, as Prospero was once the Duke of Milan, up until his brother usurped him from the throne. Ferdinand, who is umongst the shipwrecked men, and also son of the King, falls for Miranda, which is what Prospero has planned as he wanted his daughter to have her rightful place on the throne.
We were split into groups and given a scene, I am currently working with Megan and Zoe. Megan is playing Prospero, Zoe is playing Ariel and I am playing Miranda. The scene we are performing is the opening scene of the play, which I think is one of the most significant parts of the play. In this scene, Prospero is conjuring up a storm to seek his revenge having been usurped from the throne by his brother who is on the ship, whilst the ever sensible Miranda begs her father to have pity on the ship passengers. Then Ariel enters to receive more orders from Prospero and also question his freeodom.
I think this is an important scene in the play as I feel that this scene is responsible for all the events that take place throughout the play as none of them would have took place had Prospero not created the storm causing the shipwreck. Prospero informs Miranda about their history and how they ended up on the island for the audience as the audience need to know why Prospero was causing the storm, by the audience and Miranda knowing their history, the audience can understand that Prospero is attempting to seek revenge.
We were split into groups and given a scene, I am currently working with Megan and Zoe. Megan is playing Prospero, Zoe is playing Ariel and I am playing Miranda. The scene we are performing is the opening scene of the play, which I think is one of the most significant parts of the play. In this scene, Prospero is conjuring up a storm to seek his revenge having been usurped from the throne by his brother who is on the ship, whilst the ever sensible Miranda begs her father to have pity on the ship passengers. Then Ariel enters to receive more orders from Prospero and also question his freeodom.
I think this is an important scene in the play as I feel that this scene is responsible for all the events that take place throughout the play as none of them would have took place had Prospero not created the storm causing the shipwreck. Prospero informs Miranda about their history and how they ended up on the island for the audience as the audience need to know why Prospero was causing the storm, by the audience and Miranda knowing their history, the audience can understand that Prospero is attempting to seek revenge.
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