Review for the York Realist in Donmar Theatre

21st February (Wednesday) 

These are what we discussed the next day after watching the play from Donmar.

Synopsis & Interpretations

Lights & Sound & Costumes & Set

Pros & Cons

Characters 

The York Realist is a play written by Peter Gill in 2001, it evokes life in the 60s in a small cottage. The play focuses on an unusual relationship between two characters named George and John. The small cottage in York is where George and his widowed mother live, while John is an assistant director in London. How did they meet each other? Before George come back to York, he was an actor in the theatre where John is now working at and they found out that their feeling towards each other is beyond friendship.

Throughout the play, I was really amazed by how they portrayed sunrise and sunset. The warm light shined through the window and gave the wall a little shadow of the house, and the chirping sound from birds. It was too realistic that I would believe the characters are actually living in there. In the scene where it ended when George and John went up to the second floor, the whole stage area gone blackout but only left with the light from the stairway, even though the door was closed, audience still get to see the light from the gap between. I think the director actually wanted us the audience to spend some time focus on what's going to happen behind the stairway door. The sound of the boiling kettle was really on point, especially during the awkward silence between characters, the boiling kettle makes everything on stage so lively.

Besides, I think the costumes that the actors wore suit their characterization. For example, Doreen and George's mother, they both have maxi skirts to show the fact that they are "church going" type of people, and it's a religious thing that they can't show too much of the skin of their legs. And for George most of the time, he wore a tattered jumpsuit and a pair of boots covered with soil, we can tell by his costumes, he works in a farm. In the opposite, John from London, he wore a blazer and a pair of clean leather shoes. The different styles of dressing up themselves make a clear difference between their living environment and background. 

a snap of the stage area

Stage setting and props description

The very left showing the space of the kitchen, in the corner of that space, there's a backdoor to the farm. On the floor beside the sink which the picture does not show, that's the boots George needs to wear whenever he's going to the farm.

Come to the middle of the stage there's a built-in stove and in front of it there's a one seater sofa. Beside the stove, there is a stairway door to the second floor.

On the upstage, that's the dining area where everyone eats and have their tea. Lastly, the top right of the picture, that's the main entrance of the little cottage.






After seeing the real stage with my eyes, I get to see the difference between this stage and the stage we made in college. We have our kitchen off stage because of lacking space. But with Donmar, they had the whole kitchen on stage. It's really nice to watch when there are some additional messages from the characters for example when John came over, George went to get some tea but additionally, he stood there and let himself to calm a bit in order to face John, but only audience could see that. Also before George open the door for John to come in, we get to see John from the window, he was showing very nervous and tried to be normal.

Overall: I think the performance was really successful, the acting was natural and the portrayal of the character's characterization was good. The set of the stage was realistic and is believable enough for the audience. This performance will become a reference for me to work on ours, the actors had put in much of the skills and also their effort. For a successful performance like this, even though they had done this many times, but the quality of their performance did not lay back at all, I can tell because their performance was full of energy and their objectives towards other characters were really clear. Before watching a real performance of The York Realist, most of us were unclear about some of the scenes especially for the flashback at the beginning. But after the show, every one of us had a bunch of ideas in our head for examples, the awkwardness between John and George, the interactions between Babara and George also the mother, the exits and entrances(how we want the characters to enter the scene and exit from the scene), and many many more details that we didn't think at the beginning. Watching a show by professional actors is aiding me to become one of them, I get to learn their skills that I'm lacking and see a different way of showing the exact same thing with different people. Overall, I think this show is helping me a lot and it leads me to a direction how I will want myself to be in this play. 

Term 2 unit 5&6 PETER GILL & THE ROYAL COURT THEATRE (research work)

Peter Gill's Background

Peter Gill was born in 1939 September 7 and raised in Cardiff, Wales. He was educated at St Illtyd's College, Cardiff. He lived from the 1960s until 2006 in a small flat in the Thameside house formerly belonging to George Devine and later bought by playwright Donald Howarth and his civil partner George Goetschuis.

Gill was an actor from 1957-1965, he then directed his first production in August 1965 at The Royal Court Theatre. Having begun his career as an actor, he is now best known for his work as a director and playwright. He became an Assistant Director of the Royal Court Theatre in 1964 and then an Associate Director in 1970. He was the founder director of Riverside Studios in 1976. From 1980 to 1997, he was the Associate Director of the National Theatre and also the founding Director of the Royal National Theatre Studio in 1984 to 1990.

National Life Stories conducted an oral history interview with Peter Gill in 2008 & 2009 for its "The Legacy of the Englis Stage Company" collection held by the British Library.

Many directors in the generations after Gill's including Sam Mendes, Nicholas Hytner and Richard Eyre have become wealthy from putting on songs and dance shows. So does he ever feel a twinge of envy? This is what he said "I'd like the money. But I wouldn't like to do a musical under the thumb of Cameron Mackintosh. I wouldn't have the competence. I'd simply have to do what I was told, which isn't directing."

Informations from link below: 

http://www.petergill7.co.uk/

History of the Royal Court Theatre 

I did my presentation base on this title. Here are all the research from me.

The first theatre on Lower George Street was opened in 1870 under the name of The New Chelsea Theatre. Several of early plays by William.S.Gilbert (an English dramatist) were staged here including Randall's Thumb, Creatures of Impulse. After that, Arthur Cecil (who had joined the theatre's company in 1881) was co-manager of the theatre with John Clayton. They produced a series of Arthur Wing Pinero's farces, including The Magistrate (1885) and The Schoolmistress (1886), among others. The theatre closed in 1887 and was demolished.

The present building was built on the East side of Sloane Square replacing the earlier building and opened in 1888 as the New Court Theatre. The first production in the new building was a play by Sydney Grundy titled Mamma.

By the end of the century, the theatre was called "Royal Court Theatre". It ceased to be used as a theatre in 1932 but was used as a cinema from 1935 to 1940, until it was forced to close due to serious damage caused by bombs during the World War II.

The building reopened as a theatre in 1952 and was taken over by the English Stage Company (ESC) in 1956. Royal Court became a subsidized theatre producing new British and foreign plays, together with some classical revivals.

In the early 90s, the main auditorium and the facade of the theatre were attractive, but the remainder of the building provided poor facilities for both audience and performers, the stalls and understage often flooded throughout the 20th century.

The theatre was on the brink of contravening health and safety regulations and guidelines, it had deteriorated dangerously and was threatened with closure. The Court was told that, within eighteen months, the building would be forced to close. In the same week as the New York Times described the Royal Court as the most important theatre in Europe, The Times called the building a 'DUMP'. One year later, the interior of the theatre was completely built, except for the facade and the auditorium, and reopened in the year 2000.

The Royal Court also presented two of Peter Gill's first plays, The Sleeper's Den (1965) and Over Gardens Out (1969) which were both written and directed by himself. Peter Gill also directed stories and plays from Chekhov and D.H.Lawrence. 

Informations above from link below:
http://www.atgtickets.com/venues/royal-court-theatre/history/

Term 2 unit 5&6 THE THREE SISTERS

THE THREE SISTERS by ANTON CHEKHOV

My Character

Masha, the middle sister, 23 years old. She is married to her husband, Kulygin, when she was 18 and just out of school. She once thought her husband clever but she has been disillusioned by his 'small-town mentality'. Masha falls completely in love with the idealistic Lieutenant-Colonel Vershinin at first sight when he starts going on about how life in the future will be beautiful. Vershinin clearly has a broader and more hopeful view of the world around him, and this is pretty refreshing for a lady as brilliant and as bored as Masha.

Masha did not try no hide her love towards Vershinin at all, they begin a clandestine love affair. There's a fire, and in the middle of the chaos, Masha confesses her affair with Vershinin to her sisters. When Vershinin has transferred away, she is very heartbroken but returns to life with her husband who accepts her back despite knowing what she has done.

Masha has a short temper, which is seen frequently throughout the play especially being really mean to Vershinin when he has to leave to attend to his crazy, suicidal wife. Masha is also the sister who disapproves the most of Natasha.

The setting of the play

Setting of this play is given as "a provincial city". The Three Sisters takes place in a province because the emotion that occurs on stage is centered around what the main characters think of where they live. Olga, Masha, Irina and Andrey all feel that their lives would be much better if they were living in Moscow.

More specifically, all of the action takes place at the Prozorov's house. The Prozorov family can be seen as a rich family as their wealth and refinement are evident in the decor, the piano, the presence of servants and the ability to host a big birthday party. It may be a boring town, but at least they're living the cushy life.

A couple years have passed (Act 3), and the sisters have retreated to the attic at the demand of Natasha. There's a more claustrophobic feeling in that smaller room.

By Act IV, Natasha has succeeded in almost entirely evicting the Prozorovs from the house. Even her husband Andrey pushes the baby carriage around in the garden while her lover Protopopov sits inside. The sisters are bidding farewell to the departing soldiers, and Masha now totally dissociates herself from her home. "I'm never setting foot in that house again," she says.


Themes of the play

Relationships - This play is all about relationships between the characters, Masha regretted it for being married to Kulygin in the first place when she was only 18. She meets Vershinin and totally falls for him after listening to how he says about knowledge. Besides, Vershinin has married to a woman and had two kids, but he talked about how not comfortable it is when he's being together with his wife during the play. And for Kulygin, he confesses to Olga that he would want to marry her if he wasn't Masha's husband. Here's another example, Andrey and Natasha. Throughout the play, Andrey shows more of his soft and cowardly side by how he did not fight back with Natasha even when she treated his sisters badly.

Conflicts - Whenever there's relationship in a play, there will be more conflicts around, not only for the moments when actors show it directly to us during the play, most of it was what we think about it. When Kulygin says "Masha loves me, my wife loves me". It may be a very normal sentence for a husband to say, but for me, it sounds like Kulygin was trying to make Masha feels better or beloved as he knows that their relationship is falling apart. Conflict can sometimes be seen as subtle, something that was made up in audience's mind. It depends how much the actor wanted to show. In the play, all character seems to have their little story behind, it makes more conflicts between each character when they are together. Especially when the main characters are a family.

Term 2 unit 5&6 STANISLAVSKI SYSTEM

Stanislavski System

STANISLAVSKI'S SYSTEM was developed through his own cross-cultural experience as an actor, director and businessman. He constantly updates his method through inter-disciplinary studies absorbing from a range of sources and influences, such as the modernist and avant-garde developments, yoga and Pavlovian behaviorist psychology. He believed that actors needed to inhabit authentic emotion while on stage so they could draw upon feelings they'd experienced in their own lives. 

Stanislavski was involved in a long and arduous practice making every actor better prepared for stage performance and eventually producing a less rigid acting style. He also developed exercises that encouraged actors to explore character motivations, giving performances depth an unassuming realism while still paying attention to the parameters of the production.

Although very complex, one of the basic goals of the "Stanislavski system" was to portray believable, natural people on stage. His actors worked hard to deliver perfectly believable performances, as none of his actors wanted to hear his famous verdict, "I don't believe."

Elements of his system...

• The magic "If" - A simple way of beginning the Stanislavski Method is to ask yourself "What would I do if I were in this situation?" This is a good way to consider natural reactions to the events in the story. However, Stanislavski also realized that these types of "what if" questions do not always lead to the best characterization. "What would I do?" might be a very different question from "What would Hamlet do?". 

• Re-Education - Actors must rethink the way they move and talk while being onstage. Theatre began in Ancient Greece with masks and choreographed sequences; styles may have changed in subsequent centuries, but they were still characterized by an actor's overemphasis found in early theatre. However, in real life, we don't behave that way. Stanislavski compelled actors to find ways to exhibit true-to-life human nature, while still being able to project loudly enough for audiences to hear. 

• Observation - Stanislavski was the ultimate people-watcher. He encouraged his students to carefully observe others, focusing on their physical traits just as much as their personalities. Every character should exhibit unique traits, many of which can be inspired and adapted from an actor's observation. 

• Emotional Memory - Stanislavski did not want his actors to simply create a facsimile of an emotion. He wanted his actors to actually feel the emotion. Actors needed to put themselves in the mindset of the character's situation so that they genuinely experience the feelings of intense sadness. However, for actors not able to connect with the character's emotional state, Stanislavski advised performers to reach into their personal memories and draw upon a comparable life experience. 

Informations from the link below:
https://www.thoughtco.com/stanislavsky-system-acting-method-2712987



What I think of the System?...

What Stanislavski concerned the most was naturalistic of each performance. Stories often go way more dramatic than in real life, it makes a performance more challenging especially when Stanislavski wanted his actors to perform them 'believable'. As not all human being will have an experience of facing any of the situations in a play or story.

I always believe in "QUALITY is more important than QUANTITY". Just like Stanislavski, he was an actor, and the way he acted was able to pass until our generation, people that know him will know how well he did in his acting career and how many nice performances he had directed. He gave himself achievements just to impress the audience. He wanted all performance to be perfect, and in the way he believes.

To be honest, before knowing that we're doing something related to Stanislavski, I've heard of him in some Chinese tv shows when I was little. But have no idea of who he is, his system went all over the world and was learning by actors from all different places. It was miraculous hearing this familiar name of his after so long and doing researches about this amazing person.

How is the System aiding me in my acting?...

By knowing the system, I will start to put my best effort into the character I'm playing for. Try to know the character in and out, watch some other versions of the play. Well understanding for the character I'm playing is leading me to perform in a more believable way.

While doing rehearsals, I will put myself in the situation, although I'm still not very good at it, Rob will sometimes tell me some other situations that I will probably face in real life, to make me react to that happening in the play more naturally.

Term 2 unit 5&6 KONSTANTIN STANISLAVSKY & ANTON CHEKHOV (research work)

Anton Chekhov's Background

ANTON PAVLOVICH CHEKHOV was born on January 1860 in Taganrog, Russia. His father, Pavel was a grocer with frequent money troubles. His mother shared her love of storytelling with Chekhov and and his five siblings. When Pavel's business failed in 1875, he took the family to Moscow to make a fresh start while Chekhov remained in Taganrog until he finished his studies.

In the autumn of 1879, Chekhov joined his family in Moscow. He enrolled in the university's medical faculty, graduating in 1884 as a doctor. With his father still struggling financially, Chekhov supported the family with freelance writing, producing hundreds of short comic pieces under a pen name for local magazines.

Few years later, Chekhov had become widely popular with a "lowbrow" public. He practiced as a physician and began to publish serious works of fiction under his own name. His pieces appeared in the newspaper New Times and then as part of collection such as Motley Stories.

In 1888, Chekhov published his first work "Steppe", an autobiographical work describing a journey in the Ukraine as seen through the eyes of a child. It was an important success earning its author the Pushkin Prize. Chekhov also wrote works for the theatre during this period. His earliest plays were short farces, however, he soon developed his signature style, which was a unique mix of comedy and tragedy. Plays such as Ivanov (1887) and The Wood Demon (1889) told stories about educated men of the upper classes coping with debt, disease and inevitable disappointment in life.

Informations from link below:

https://www.biography.com/people/anton-chekhov-9245947

Stanislavsky's Background

KONSTANTIN STANISLAVSKI was born Konstantin Sergeyevich Alekseyev on January 1863 in Moscow, Russia. His father was a wealthy Russian merchant. His maternal grandmother was a notable French actress in Paris. Young Stanislavski grew up in a bilingual environment. He was fond of theatre and arts, studied piano and singing and performed amateur plays at home with his elder brother and two sisters.

Stanislavski studied business and languages at Lazarevski Institude, the most prestigious private school in Moscow. He did not graduate, instead he continued self-education while travelling in several European countries and studying at libraries and museums. Eventually Stanislavski joined his father's company, became a successsful businessman, and the head of his father's business.

In the year 1888, Stanislavski founded the Society for Arts and Literature in which he performed and directed for productions for almost a decade. In June 1897, he and his partner, Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko decided to open the Moscow art Theatre, which would be an alternative to standard theatrical aesthetics of the day. They opened with staging of "Tsar Fyodor", a play by Aleksei Tolstoy, then stages "The Seagull" written by Anton Chekhov specially for the Moscow Art Theatre.

Stanislavski invited Anton Chekhov to see several plays while he brought the Moscow Art Theatre on tour in Sebastopol and Yalta in Crimea. Chekhov admired the company's stage production of his plays and respected the theatrical achievements of Stanislavsky and Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko. He then collaborate with the Moscow Arts Theatre legendarily. It resulted in creation of such classics as 'The Seagull' 'Uncle Vanya' 'The Cherry Orchard' and also the play that we're working on 'The Three Sisters'. These four big plays which remained in the repertoire ever since.

Informations from link below:
https://www.biography.com/people/constantin-stanislavski-9492018

9th week 20th - 23rd November

20th November (Monday)

We repeat our performance twice for Rob and Sharon, both were longer than 30minutes. We were told to keep everything fast for examples, during our scene to scene exits and entrances, Rob asked us not to stay for too long in the backstage waiting for character from previous scene to exit first, it's better to enter the stage while the last character done with his lines. Then we could fit our performance within 30 minutes, audience get to see everything faster too without waiting for characters to come on stage. 

21st November (Tuesday)

(check performance blog)

23rd November (Wednesday)

We've been working on the Papa Tango script work. Learning how to write a complete script by adding all the details like, characters, conflicts, relationships, scenes and more. It was really fun doing this because I could put all the weird ideas together and create a story then a script by myself. 

Performance day !!! ROMEO AND JULIET

21st November (Tuesday) 

ROMEO AND JULIET IN SHAW THEATRE

8.45 in the morning, we were asked to gather at the foyer of Shaw Theatre to get ready for a technical rehearsal. Performers from another school will do their technical rehearse first while we will be in the dressing room and get dressed. After they've done with that, they will be doing the full rehearsal with dress and we will watch.

Then will be our turn to do the technical rehearse, we ran through this very quickly by reading the last of our lines in each scene so that the technical person will know when to blackout and light up. After that we ran through a dress rehearsal and the students from another school watch us.

After the preparation in Shaw Theatre, we went back to college and Sharon was going to talk to us of things that we need to change during performance and telling some people about their mistakes. 

What we need to be considered during performance?...

• Speak out to the audience, as the audience area was really big. We shouldn't be thinking of ourselves at the theatre in college as we need to project our voice much more bigger than usual in order to let the audience at the back hear us. 
• This was what I did during the dress rehearsal, when i was leaving the stage after my scene, i immediately lost my character and have forgotten that i was still on stage. Sharon used this as an example for other member that we should still be in character until we walk in to the curtain beside the stage. The way we leave the stage needs to be fully in character. 
• Always know when you're next. During the dress rehearsal, some of us were not ready to get on stage so has been wasted some time of the play. We should not go to other places or talking with others while the performance are still going on. Even though we are in the back of stage, we still need to be concentrate on what's happening in front.
• As we only got 30mins of performing time for this two hours long play, we need to do everything quick. Not saying our lines quick but we need to use the time wisely, when it's our character's turn to be on stage we need to quickly move on, and not waiting for the previous character to reach backstage first, we doesn't want any pauses in between scene changing for too long. 

After 20mins of talking, we were dismissed from college and need to be back at Shaw Theatre by 6pm to warm up and get ready before the audiences come.

At 6pm evening, all four schools gathered on stage to start with warm ups. We did some stretches and voice projection exercises. We were told that our school will be performing last, we get to watch the first two schools perform in the audience seat, and when the audience are getting some break after two performances we will then move to the dressing room and wait for our turn to perform. 

First performance will be 'Macbeth'. All feedback are given by myself on what i really think about them. 

Feedback for "Macbeth" play:

• Lady Macbeth spoke her lines in a very clear voice and all words can be heard by everyone, we were watching their play siting at the end of the audience seat and still be able to hear her. 
• The changes between scene to scene were really nice. There was one when they were doing something in a soft background music then when a hot music came off, they started running in a circle with very fast speed. They caught audience's full attention by this. 
• I love their fighting scene too, they were doing it with slow motion, this will able the audience to see through all details and movements they put in this scene. And they used the level really well, as some of them were lying down on the floor struggling and some were kicking or punching with higher body level. 

Second performance will be 'The Tempest'. 

Feedback for "The Tempest" play: 

• They do not have any exit or entrance part as all cast members were sitting on stage showing their backs to audience in a semi circle, only characters that need to speak stand up and turn around then act their scene. 
• This is a long play, but when the students were acting this out, they were able to fit all important scenes in the play with only 30mins and didn't miss out anything. 

Third one will be 'A Mid Summer Night's Dream'.

Feedback for "A Mid Summer Night's Dream" play:

• Their background music were on before they getting up on stage, and so it brings up audience's mood and they started to come into scene group by group. Their steps and actions were all so energetic. 
• Some of them forgot their lines a little but they covered it up fast, they knew how to add some facial expression when the pausing is too long while waiting for on actor to speak.
• There was one character that impressed me, she was 'Helena' in the play. I like all her facial expressions and actions as she was really into her character. I have not watched this play before and i think when i see her acting i can tell what the character Helena is like in the play. 
• They did not waste any of the cast member in this play, for the forest scene, there were trees all around casting by few members. I love how they use this as an idea for getting more people on stage.

After three schools done with their play, it's our turn to be on stage. We were all quite nervous while standing at the back waiting to be on stage, I think Jaychelle must be the most nervous one as she needs to stand in the middle of the stage before everything began. 

What Went Well during the performance?...(feedback from others and myself)

• We used up the space on stage as Sharon and Rob always mention that to us, all play will look better if actors/actresses have their own equal space between each other, not only for the audience to see all of us, also it would be easy for us to do any movements on stage and not hitting other character. 
• Everyone of us projected our voice beautifully, audience in their seats were able to hear us clearly. 
• We avoided our 'KISS OR KILL' position, we took what we learned from the workshop in to our performance.
• For characters that have long monologue, they spoke their lines out to the audience by looking at the highest space so that all audience can see them. 
• We did not show our back to the audience, when we did it accidentally, we will slowly turn ourselves around without letting the audience notice.  

Even Better If we could....

• We could make more props ourselves, like the actors in Macbeth, they made themselves tree branches as weapon to fight. Instead of fighting with an invisible weapon on hand, if there's something we could really hold on, I think it will be more realistic for the audience to watch. 
• We could have planned more on our costumes, for example, same colour theme on each side (Montagues or Capulets). So audience get to know who we are without any confusion. 

Overall: I think we did really really great as everyone else was giving us positive feedbacks, this performance really helped with my confidence. I'm looking forward for more performances in the future. And I enjoyed planning everything together in a group, it was fun having your own team together doing something productive. 

8th week 13th - 16th November (full rehearsal week before performance day)

14th November (Tuesday)

We ran through the whole performance once in the theatre to record how much time we used. And did some improvements in each scene. Some characters already put their costumes on, the rehearsal became more lively with costumes. 

15th November (Wednesday)

We worked on the scene where Tybalt and Mercutio died, and added 'That's my son!' to Lady Montague shouting at the Prince showing how much she doesn't want Romeo to be sentenced to death, even though she knows that he did something really wrong.

16th November (Thursday)

We did twice full run rehearsal with Rob, he wanted us to make it clear with our entrances and exits from scene to scene. 

Term 1 unit 3 HEALTH & SAFETY

For us actors and actresses, we stay on stage often or in backstage with full of heavy props. As that, we should be clear with our health and safety during rehearsals or performances.

What should we be aware of while we're at the theatre?...

• Make sure we keep all our belongings in the dressing room and not on stage. For examples, shoes, costumes, bags, etc. Stage floor should be kept dry and cleared with slippery materials.
• Backstage stairs should be maintained in good condition. 
• Make our entrances and exits clear so that we wont bump into each other while performing.
• All alleyways should be clear of litter and obstacles. 
• Make sure there're unblocked ways for audience, actors and crew members to exit. 
• Young actors/actresses should only use props or equipments that is age appropriate and skill level appropriate, for example, we shouldn't be using real knife or anything harmful as a prop during performance. 

What can we do in order to protect our voice and body during performance?...


Body
Warm ups before performance or rehearsals for an actor is very important, it helps to flexibilize our body and we will be able to do some big movements if it's require in the performance. Here's an example of an exercise we could do before starting anything.

1. Stand with your feet a shoulder width apart.
2. Stretch up with your left arm on to your toes as if reaching to find a key on a high shelf.
3. After 10seconds, lower your heels to the floor but keep your hand searching for the key.
4. Another 10seconds, drop your arm and follow it down to the floor with your upper body hanging from your hips.
5. Rest for a moment then reach up with your right arm repeat. 
6. Drop again and hang there. Your knees should be slightly bent and pointing in the same direction as your toes.
7. Sway slightly keeping your spine and head free. 
8. On an in-breath, slowly build up through the spine, vertebra by vertebra, until your head comes to rest floating on the top.
9. Your eyes should be open and engaged with what's in front of you.
10. You should have the feeling of being centred and released. 

This is the link for this exercise: https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2009/may/09/exercise-class-performance-actor

Voice

• Use good posture and breathe properly when speaking, we could get rid of voice cramp due to sudden breaking in. Limbering up the voice with some vocal exercises before going on stage also helps prevent vocal strain.
• Avoid overused our voice before performance, especially for teen actors like us. We often scream too much and it's possible to get a pitifully cracked and raspy voice. When this happen, we should sit quietly at the side and drink more water. As an actor/actress, we must learn to not scream and shout too much while attending events otherwise will strain our vocal chords especially when we have rehearsals or performance the next day. 
• Eat plenty of whole grains, fruits or vegetables that contain vitamin A, E and C to help keep the throat's mucus membranes healthy. Avoid spicy foods, it can create havoc on the voice. 

7th week 6th - 9th November

7th November (Tuesday) A DAY TO SHAW THEATRE

A standard proscenium stage.
https://theatredesigner.wordpress.com/theatre-design-101/stage-types-proscenium-arch/

We went to the Shaw Theatre!!

Everyone was so excited to see the place where they are going to perform at. When we got there, everyone started to go on stage and explore about the stage and backstage and also imagine if there're audience siting in front of all the seats. 

Rob asked us to use our time wisely because we couldn't stay for longer in there. So we quickly went in to character and started a full rehearsal. We changed some bits in the play as we're now on the actual stage, the space are gonna be a little bit different from where we usually rehearse in college.

I think we did better on the stage in Shaw Theatre, we can feel the atmosphere there and we did the rehearsal just like if we're on the actual day. We could see the last row in the audience seats were really far so when we speak, we always project our voice loud in order to get the voices there.

During our usual rehearsals, most of us exit our scene randomly, but on the actual stage, the exits and entrances will be at the side (wings), so we will need to work on how are we going to exit and enter each scene to make it look clearer for the audience.

A visit before performance day helps us a lot like...

• Blocking
• Exits and entrances
• How loud do we need to project our voice
• Where do we need to look while performing

8th November (Wednesday)

12 more days to our performance day in Shaw Theatre!!

Sharon wanted us to make ourselves a timeline of what are we going to work on for the rest of the time before performance in the Shaw Theatre. 

A rough planning timeline suggested by everyone.

Timeline :

9th November (Thursday)

11am to 1pm - full rehearse 

3pm to 3.30pm - talk about costumes

3.30pm to 4.30pm - full rehearse 

13th November (Monday)

11am to 1pm - talk about props

2pm to 3.30pm - full rehearse 

no scripts allowed

14th November (Tuesday)

12.30pm to 1.30pm - work on our blog as usual

2pm to 3.30pm - full rehearse

15th November (Wednesday)

10am to 11.30am - full rehearse

11.30am to 12pm - talk about costumes

16th November (Thursday)

9.30am to 10.30am - independant work

11am to 1pm - full rehearse

3pm to 4.30pm - full rehearsal with costumes

20th November (Monday)

11am to 1pm - full rehearsal with costumes

2pm to 3.30pm - full rehearsal with costumes 

21st November (Tuesday)

(to be confirmed)

before 6pm - gather at the Shaw Theatre


What will go well after planning ourselves a timetable?...

• Our time for rehearsals will be really organise, because we know exactly what are we going to do on that day in each lesson, so when we go to college we will follow our timetable. It can reduce any extra time for us figuring out what are we going to do or waiting for people to arrive, we will start rehearsal and when someone arrive late to the class/theatre, they will then join in with group. 
• We gave ourselves some time to talk about costumes and props, so that during the real performance we won't bring props or wear costumes that doesn't even fit with the performance. 
• Besides from all full rehearsals through out the week, we also gave ourselves time to update with our blog work during both tutorial and context period, so that we won't miss so much to update after performance. 

6th week 31st October - 2nd November

31st October (Tuesday)

Three weeks till our performance day in Shaw Theatre!!

We did warm ups as usual, Sharon asked us to think of ourselves three actions or something that we will do in normal day as the character in R&J. Each of us took our little space in room and start doing things by ourselves. My three movements...

1. Cleaning the house.
2. Getting coffee ready for guests. 
3. Tidying bookshelves. 

My explanation to Sharon was, I enjoyed doing my job and i spend most of my time cleaning the house. I don't really have a thing that i love doing while I'm free, because houseworks are the only things I'm interested in. 

After that, we began to work on details for the party scene as that is the scene where all cast members will be on stage. Sharon wanted to make sure that we're going smoothly in the scene. Also, Sharon has worked on other scenes too, and few have improved by adding more details. 

5th Week 9th - 12th October

9th October (Monday)

We started our class doing tongue twisters like She stood on the balcony, inimitably mimicking him hiccuping, and amicably welcoming him in and Imagine an imaginary menagerie manager imagining managing an imaginary menagerie. 

We focused on the beginning scene up to the party scene that we're going to perform on Wednesday to the rest of Performing Arts students. For the very beginning, me, Nikaya, Shamsul and Eleanor will go first. Rob directed us from the top including, how am i going to realize the Montagues and when to start my line so that everything in between will look connected. Nikaya then decided to tie her shoelace before i notice the montague walking pass, so i will need to call her up and look what i see, after that she will continue with her line.

Then, we moved to the scene where Tybalt and Benvolio fight. Rob added some interesting fighting movements for them and asked them to try it in slow motion first, then fast in order to get familiar with those movements and work them well.

In the afternoon, we repeated the details we did with Rob for few times, then Sharon brought us to the theatre. We acted our five beginning scenes out together with the lighting and background music. Our performance became easier than before as we now know our queues on what to do next. Lighting makes our play more catchy and interesting, because audience gets to see the bright part and they will know where to focus more, which is important. For the party scene, we got ourselves a nice background music, our dance movements were more natural as we get to dance to the music and follow it with the same pace. Not like before, most of us were moving our bodies with different speed as everyone was having a different pace of music in their head.

10th & 11th October (Tuesday & Wednesday)

(check evaluation blog)

12th October (Thursday) A DAY IN CONWAY HALL

In the morning, we followed Rob and Sharon to the Conway Hall as we were going to have a workshop there with students from another school. We started our warm up by walking around the hall and the instructor will tell us when to stop, go, clap or jump. After a few rounds of playing, the instructor then jumbled up all the meaning of that four actions. For examples, STOP = GO, GO = STOP, JUMP = CLAP, and CLAP = JUMP. This gave us a total challenge as we are getting use to the original meaning. At first, some of us still get confused but slowly the group were getting more smoothly.

What I learned from it?...
While things lead to learning, concentrating and focusing always come first to everyone's mind. In order to succeed in something, we need to put 100% of focus and understanding on it so we can ensure that less thing will go wrong if we always keep our attention on it. 

Then, students from both school were asked to mix together in four, so there will be two students from our school and two from theirs. We then need to share what we were working on to them by telling them our play, characters, important events, where the play take part.

I get to know they were working on Macbeth play, I'm actually quite familiar with the story for this play as i did this in year 8. Everything crossed through my mind to remind me of little bits in the play. I was curious on how will they perform it after they said the title of their play.

After all the talking, we were asked to start our performance first. We will be performing from the beginning up to the Prince come out to stop everyone. After performing, we need to give each other feedback on how they've worked with their play. Both schools got many positive feedbacks.


Feedback we got from them after showing our part...

• We worked really well as a group, not only showing the connection of all of us off stage, also when we're acting. The conflicts between Montagues and Capulets are rich, and we took it well. 
• The projection of our voice were loud enough, and all of them can hear it clearly.
• The freezing part at the beginning scene were really nice, they can see who's from Montague and who's from Capulet. We froze ourselves in a reversed V shape, so that audience could see us clearly at the back. 
• All of us were full with tension. 

Feedback we gave them after they performed with their part...

Students from another school performing their beginning scene. 

• Their background music was good. 
• The dance movements they added to their play was really smooth to watch. 
• Their fight scene was in slow motion, we get to see details when they were fighting.

After, we were working with William, the person who's leading all of us. Both school will be staying at a different space and work on their play to make it better. 

What have we changed for the beginning scene?...

• The freeze frame at the beginning, most of us were posing without full energy. William asked us to talk about our character, my character will be an orphan and the Capulets let me be in their house to work with them, and they treated me well with good food, I will give up my life to protect my Lord and the family if someone else are planning to hurt them. As the same, Capulet and Lady Capulet hated the Montagues, I'm not very sure that what's the reason making them to hate each other, but i will always stand by the Capulets side. William wanted me to remember that while I'm freezing and exaggerate it with a bigger and more intensity pose. 
• Instead of walking in from the backstage and stand in our own place, William wanted us to get ready opposite and walk to another end where we used to be, while walking, we could add some conflicts like staring at the person walking towards your direction. 
• For the scene where Nikaya and I will provoke the Montagues first. Before, Nikaya will shout "Oi" while walking towards them. But this time, William said it's better to go after shouting, the scene will be much more nicer to watch. 
• When the Prince come out and starts to speak her lines, instead of standing right looking at her, William asked us to give responses to her, like 'No!' 'No way!' so it wont be only her speaking a long monologue. 

When we repeat the whole beginning scene again after changing some details, I can feel that it's more an opening scene now. The audience get to know our character more before the play when we walk across the stage in character before getting in to our freeze frames. It looks like we're just people living in Verona walking around the street, and the staring between both groups of people just like people who support the Montagues and Capulet.

Here's a picture of what we want our audience,
Rosie to feel when we're performing.

5 Top Tips we got from the workshop about what an actor/actress need to be ensured while performing...

1.  Land the lines - Voice projection is very important for a stage performer, if there's no microphone for us. We need to make sure our voice can be heard from the last row of audience. 
2. Stay in character - As an actor/actress, staying in character is very important. Audience doesn't want to pay and see a bunch of people walking in and out the stage reading their lines. The moment we entered to the stage, we need to stay in our character, even though there's no any line to say. We need to give responses to other characters while they're speaking, so that audience get to know the relationship between us. 
3. Embrace the audience magnet - Also means the interactive between us and audience. It's important to have at least once of this moment in a play, to make the audience feel involved, and not getting bored of only watching us perform for hours.  
4. Avoid the kiss or kill position - In a theatre with big stage, it's odd to see two person standing too close to each other while performing as there will be more extra spaces around. To catch the audience's eyeballs, we need to use as much space as we can, only if we're trying to kill or kiss the person opposite us.
5. Cheat with your feet - During performance, we can't resist there might be some moment that we need to face the audience with our back.But with this tip, we could slowly move our body to a position where the audience could see us with our feet.

Evaluation for 10th & 11th October

10th October (Tuesday) Review for Music Level 2&3's performance

We are going to watch the performance from Music level 2&3 students!!

Although i was not in college that time, I get to watch some little bits of the performance  through short videos taken by friend (not sure if it's alright to take video of the performance). There's a guy singing Billy Jeans by Michael Jackson, I think I'm in love with that just like everyone else on that day. I believe that not only the song that's taking our attention, but also his nimble movements on stage. He was so confident to show what he had been working on, as an audience, I can feel the joy he brought to everyone of us. 

What did I learned from above?... 

As an actor, sometimes we don't know how will we look like for an audience. This performance had made it clear for me, i think one of the most important point will be our confidence. Why? It's the same for a musician or an actor. We perform on stage, and show our story. Audience wouldn't want to pay and watch for you standing at the back of the stage speaking your line or singing with a voice that only you can hear it. 

For musicians, they need their voice, and also their skills on playing instruments. But for us actors, we need not only our voices, the movements and expressions will be as important as our voice. How do we perform them well all together? Confidence. 

A part from that, I think their band did a great job too, as a team. Teamwork has been a very basic knowledge for an actor, we are a group not alone. Everyone is going to have their own lines, own objectives and own characteristics on stage, but not on their own. For example, even as Montagues and Capulets, everyone knows that this two groups are enemies. So for us, we need to show much more conflict in between, in order to let the audience know we hate each other on stage but also working really well together with our eye contact to each other, interactive movements, and the pace we speak. All of it were the main common things that every performers should know, but showing them in different way.  

11th October (Wednesday)

It was our turn to perform what we learned and what we did during the induction period together with Musical Theatre students and Dance students. In the morning, all of us gathered ourselves in the dance studio. Sharon did some warm ups with us such as, tongue twisters, reflection exercise, and some voice projection exercise.

We rehearsed two rounds before we need to go to the theatre, i can see that everyone of us had fully into our own character with all the blocking, the lines and movements. We get a little nervous while watching other students performing their piece but still giving most of our attention to those performers while they were performing, and give them our biggest applause.

When it's our turn to be on stage, all of us started to be very serious and remember the little details Rob and Sharon told us like what to do and what not to do on stage. To be honest, i think we did better in the performance than in rehearsals.

What we did better during the performance?...

• we did not face our back to the audience and has used the space well, so that the audience can see every cast members on stage. 
• our tension during performance were much more stronger, we put 100% of focus in to our character. 

What we could improve for our next performance?...
During the party scene, most of us stayed at the back with our group, and left with a big space in front. We should move more to upstage so that audience will get to see us clearly. And we wont feel wasted for our party character as we did so much on our detail for the party as guests. 

Overall performance : Everyone put in their best effort in the play, and it does turned out not bad, audience enjoyed it and i enjoyed it too. For other performers from Dance and Musical Theatre, they did really well too, all of them were so energetic on stage,  their movements were so natural to tell that's been planned.

4th Week 2nd - 5th October

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?

I gave myself a summary with these questions. 

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:

• 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. 

We need to pair up with one person and understand their character. Each of us need to introduce our partner to the class, while he will need to act his character out, we then take turn between two person.

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.  

What I learned form above?...
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. 

Then, we were going to show musical theatre students our progression of R&J from the beginning to the party scene, I think we did a great job every time, as each of us are slowly getting more comfortable with our character, and be able to play it smoothly. Rob wanted everyone of us to remember our lines for these few scenes so that we could move on to work more on our little movements on Monday. 

3rd Week 25th - 28th September

25th September (Monday)

We continued to work with R&J play starting from the party scene. Everyone is going to be on stage during the scene where Romeo and Juliet meet for the first time.We broke into few groups enjoying with our little conversations without making any sounds as we were supposed to be the background for this scene. Romeo, Juliet, Tybalt and Capulet will be speaking with their own lines while we 'the guests' will continue to enjoy our party. We were asked to be quiet when getting our voices louder, because the loud noises in the background will affect the actors from saying their lines in front.

Having both groups of people on stage acting different things is a very good idea as audience gets to see the details we put in the scene. Yet, if both of the groups make noises at the same time, audience wouldn't know where to put their focus on. So, Rob has been so serious when we make too much noise at the back.

What I learned form above?...
It is important to let actors to know we do not only act with a character on stage but we also need to think of how we will look in front of the audience. For example, we all knew that it's going to be a party scene on stage, we enjoyed it, and putting all the big movements and voices in the scene and did not realize that it could be a bad consequent if audience couldn't get what the main characters are doing in front. 

Next we are going to focus on our understanding for the play and our freezing technic. We added three most important scenes in the list and we have to act it out by adding one dialogue for each scene and freeze for few seconds before moving to another scene. 

Here are the three important scenes in R&J showing with pictures...

The very first scene.
Nikaya represents Juliet from Capulet. Jeremy represents Romeo from Montague.
Abe play as Abraham and I'm Sampson. We both show our hate to each other from each family. 

The Party Scene. 
The scene where Romeo and Juliet first meet.
Abe and I represent the guests in background. 

The very last scene. 
The death of Romeo and Juliet.
Abe represents the Capulets and I represent the Montagues.
Showing that the death of the couple had brought how awful upshot to both family.

We presented the three scenes to class, then Sharon asked us to present it again with adding three more important scenes from R&J. Which will be six in total. After a ten minutes of discussion and demonstrating. We came up with the six scenes:

• The fighting scene between Montagues and Capulets
• The party scene where Romeo and Juliet first meet 
• The balcony scene where Romeo confess his love to Juliet
• The marriage between Romeo and Juliet
• The fighting scene that kills Paris and Tybalt
• The final scene where Romeo and Juliet die

Four of us used up most empty spaces in the theatre and the pausing time gap between each scene was just right. Besides, we did great in our levels too, we have half lowered body, laying done on the floor and also standing up straight.

What I learned from above?...

Freeze frames are one of the most important technics for an actor. As the play goes on and on actors change their expression fast from angry to more angry or less angry by any line they speak. But with freeze frame, actors get to show their facial expression in specific timing without any conversation with others and do not need to react from what they say. It is just all about what you see and what you feel about the scene. 

26th September (Tuesday) + 28th September (Thursday)

We finished with the whole play!!