3rd October (Tuesday)
We focused on our character in R&J. Sharon listed down some questions for us to think of our character, for examples:
- Who am I?
- Where do I live?
- What work do I do?
- Friends?
- Family?
My name is Gregory, age around 16-18. I am a servant of the house of Capulet. I live in the same house with Capulets family. My job is to serve the family well in house and in charge with the houseworks. My friends will be Sampson, the closest person in house, who is also a servant like me. I do not have any family member, but see Capulets as my family.
We then separated into groups with people in the same status. I was in a group with Nikaya Shamsul, Eleanor, Carla and Jaychelle. We're all servant for Montague or Capulet, except for Carla, she is the nurse to Juliet. We were asked to improvise a story that's related to our character but not in the scene of R&J.
Six of us went to another room and started to think ourselves a story line. This is what we came up with. And that's what we got
The pregnant nurse(Carla) is actually the real mother of Juliet but she's too poor to take care of the daughter after giving birth. She finds the servants for help and they suggested her to give it to Lady Capulet as she still couldn't get a baby for herself after 5 years of marriage. In this way, Carla can still stay in Capulet house to take care of her daughter as a nurse. While she was discussing with the servants of Capulet about what could she do next, both servants from Montague walked towards them, in order to protect the nurse. The servants went into a fight...
5th October (Thursday)
During our tutorial class in the morning, Sharon told us that we will be performing in the school theatre on next Wednesday, and we're going to the Conway Hall in Holborn on next Thursday for workshop as well. And we're only going to perform the opening scene from the whole play.
In practical class, Sharon gave each of us a piece of paper with full of questions about our character in R&J. We were asked to think of the answer in a modern way like which part of London will they live and what kind of house, their personality, their outfit and more questions that we couldn't find any answer by only knowing the play. Because this is about building up our character so that when we speak, we will know how to perform it if also knowing the personal story of that character.
This is the picture of the sheet:
What I learned from above?...
For a successful performance, it is a must for actors to know their character extremely well. As every character is played by other actors in the past, probably got mostly the same characteristics. In order to make the audience be amazed by us, we need to do something different, like think of another story line for this character before the story comes out. So in every line we say and every movements\ we do will have its own meaning behind. The more we understand our character, the more the audience will understand the story too, as we will be acting it out with full of comprehend.
In the afternoon, We combined our class with Musical Theatre students. We were asked to find a partner with opposite class and tell them a 2 minutes story about how we go to college in the morning while they will do the same to us, our objectives were to distract each other and let them stop and listen to us. My partner was a girl from musical theatre (i forgot her name), both of us talked about our story with incredible endurance, we did not stop to listen or laugh. But we enjoyed it so much as we will be talking louder and louder to cover one another's voice and starting to speak with strength. When Rob asked if anyone get what each other was talking about, only few mates put their hands up.
What i learned from above?...
It's really hard to maintain focus on what i want to say when someone is talking as well, but it gets to train an actor's focus ability. In order to be 100% not getting distracted, i need to think of the story that I'm going to tell in my mind first, and need to be clear of the order of story that I am going to tell someone opposite. And speak out with powerful words and sentences make sure that the emotion for my story is enough then I can put more focus in it.
After that we were given a five minutes time to work out a short story on how we go to college, it can be one story chosen between two person or a combination story of both. As nothing interesting happen in my story, I suggested to act with her story.
Before showing the story to class, this is what we came out with after 5 minutes of sorting out unwanted parts and added some new parts in the story,
Speaking out loudly and clearly has been a very common technic for an actor, but what if we're going to act out the entire play in silent? I've noticed the challenging part of it and this is what i got as a new acting knowledge. Doing exaggerated movements in a play to show more things other than speaking. How to show the audience when i'm in panic while she did not get her lunch box. I stamped on the ground hard but lighter the force on my feet when it's touching the ground as i do not want to make any sound in the play. It is just a movement for audience to look at my expression and know how i feel. For another example, when we were squeezing in to the train, we wont show any exciting part in our play if we just walk in and stand there straight. To make our play in better quality, we moved every part of our body just like our bones are falling apart because of the crowded train. It shows our difficulty from getting onto the train.
In practical class, Sharon gave each of us a piece of paper with full of questions about our character in R&J. We were asked to think of the answer in a modern way like which part of London will they live and what kind of house, their personality, their outfit and more questions that we couldn't find any answer by only knowing the play. Because this is about building up our character so that when we speak, we will know how to perform it if also knowing the personal story of that character.
This is the picture of the sheet:
- My name is Gregory(male).
- I live with the Capulet family, no specific places that i wanted to live.
- I work with the family as a servant, and also Juliet's personal fitness trainer.
- I do not have any family member. I see the Capulet family as my own.
- My closest friend will be Sampson, who is also a servant of Capulet.
- I always dress myself in a clean and tidy suit with bow and tie.
- I have good personality, treat everyone in my best way, but because of my beloved master (Lord Capulet) hate the Montagues deep in heart, so it causes me hating them as well.
- I've got one quirk which is love to swim in the private swimming pool when Lord Capulet and the family are not around.
What I learned from above?...
For a successful performance, it is a must for actors to know their character extremely well. As every character is played by other actors in the past, probably got mostly the same characteristics. In order to make the audience be amazed by us, we need to do something different, like think of another story line for this character before the story comes out. So in every line we say and every movements\ we do will have its own meaning behind. The more we understand our character, the more the audience will understand the story too, as we will be acting it out with full of comprehend.
In the afternoon, We combined our class with Musical Theatre students. We were asked to find a partner with opposite class and tell them a 2 minutes story about how we go to college in the morning while they will do the same to us, our objectives were to distract each other and let them stop and listen to us. My partner was a girl from musical theatre (i forgot her name), both of us talked about our story with incredible endurance, we did not stop to listen or laugh. But we enjoyed it so much as we will be talking louder and louder to cover one another's voice and starting to speak with strength. When Rob asked if anyone get what each other was talking about, only few mates put their hands up.
What i learned from above?...
It's really hard to maintain focus on what i want to say when someone is talking as well, but it gets to train an actor's focus ability. In order to be 100% not getting distracted, i need to think of the story that I'm going to tell in my mind first, and need to be clear of the order of story that I am going to tell someone opposite. And speak out with powerful words and sentences make sure that the emotion for my story is enough then I can put more focus in it.
After that we were given a five minutes time to work out a short story on how we go to college, it can be one story chosen between two person or a combination story of both. As nothing interesting happen in my story, I suggested to act with her story.
Here's her story
She forgot to take her lunch box in the morning and need to go back and take it after leaving house for 10 minutes, when she arrived at the station, it was so crowded with people that she has to wait for the second train and still need to squeeze in after. She was being squeezed by other passengers on train for 20 minutes. It was raining in the morning before she arrived in the college and she hates that because her shoes will get wet eventually.
Before showing the story to class, this is what we came out with after 5 minutes of sorting out unwanted parts and added some new parts in the story,
- We decided to act out a silent play with zero noises, I will be the mother for the beginning making breakfast and preparing lunch for her but she forgot to bring her lunch box out, and I shouted her back(without noise) then she off to college again.
- As it was raining in the morning, during the walk to station we both took out an invisible umbrella, i will be a passerby on the street that going to the same station with her.
- When the train arrived, we make weird movements and exaggerate it as we squeezing on to the train. We stayed 10-15 seconds for the scene to act out the situation in a crowded train. Our bodies were not standing straight but kinda look crooked like there will be many passengers on train too, we need to look like there's no more space for us to breathe.
- We moved our body right and left repeating as the train was operating to show the real happening and the speed of train.
- We used some time to squeeze out from the train then took out our umbrella again, what we did this time were not only walking normally to college. We added some dance movements like in situ rotation, or slide from left to right with umbrella in our hand.
- We then walk neutrally to the college.
Speaking out loudly and clearly has been a very common technic for an actor, but what if we're going to act out the entire play in silent? I've noticed the challenging part of it and this is what i got as a new acting knowledge. Doing exaggerated movements in a play to show more things other than speaking. How to show the audience when i'm in panic while she did not get her lunch box. I stamped on the ground hard but lighter the force on my feet when it's touching the ground as i do not want to make any sound in the play. It is just a movement for audience to look at my expression and know how i feel. For another example, when we were squeezing in to the train, we wont show any exciting part in our play if we just walk in and stand there straight. To make our play in better quality, we moved every part of our body just like our bones are falling apart because of the crowded train. It shows our difficulty from getting onto the train.
I enjoyed a lot with their performances, here are some of the examples of how other groups performed their story,
- Reflection technic, both doing the same thing opposite each other, I was so amazed by their eyes contact with each other as no one can tell who's leading with the movements.
- Getting ready with their own after waking up, then ended up meeting each other on the way to college.
- Use a song to present their story, both wake up and tidying themselves, they started to sing in duet. And wind up with a very nice pose.
- Some groups they used dance movements to show their emotions in the story, like big jumping movements to show their excitement and i love all the interactive movements between both person.
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