Sapphira's lesson 17th april

Our singing lesson we had today was very intresting as we were told by Sapphira that we were performing at an Old peoples home called 'The Sunshine' on the 15th of may. We were singing a range of songs from the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s.

Once i was told about the performance, i was very excited to make the old people smile and enjoy our company. I have sung in an Old peoples home before and i was very proud to hear that they enjoyed my visted and would love for me to come back, i was hoping that i would get the same feeling after this performance coming.

I have asked if i can perform a solo however i have been offered to perform a duet from the famous west end production 'West Side Story' with David. The song choice was 'Somewhere'. I was very excited to sing this song with him because its a song from one of my favourite musicals. The song is lovely and has lovely lyrics. Me and david were told to act out the song to show more emotion.

Our aims for this week were to learn the two songs, "If you aint got that swing" and "Sway"

Both songs are really good song choices for the whole group to sing to as the beat wants to make you dance around.

My aims are to:

Listen to Sapphira more, concentrate and not muck around in her lessons.

Do the singing warmups daily as this will help my voice get stronger and control my breathing.

Rehearse with david for the solo and choerograph movement.

21st March 2nd&3rd Performance

Today we had our 2nd and 3rd performance in one day which meant as a group we were all quite busy and nervous.

Our 2nd performance was not as successful as the first as we thought because the first performance was very good the second was going to be even better however we didn't really like about it much and thought it would just come to us. The energy was very low and we didn't pick up the pace.

I felt that i had stayed in character the whole time and didn't corpse however i wasn't very quick on my cues and could of had a more stronger confidence on my lines. I feel that apart from all the little mistakes we had to clean up the performance worked rather well, we all knew to learn from all the little mistakes and perform our very best for the next performance.


Our last performance had some brilliant feedback from the audience. I feel that i had put all my effort into this performance, i wasn't afraid to play around with it seen as it was our last performance at nescot. i feel that i had very good connection with the other characters and also the audience.
As a group i feel that all our cues were very good and kept at a good pace, we were also very good at remembering lines.

Overall the sound and lighting gave a great Aribian Nights atmosphere and i think this helped us get into character.

20th March First Performance

Today was our first performance, we were very nervous but we had all listened to our feedback from the open evening and turns out that the first performance was very successful seen as we all did very well at staying in character, rememebering our lines and our cues.

The stories were very clear and the energy was kept at a high standard, we also showed very bold movements. We still had some difficulties with the flats but we managed to work around it without the audience really noticing.

I feel that the story of Ali Baba wasn't as good as it shouldn't of been, as a group i think we have rehearsed this story many of times and we are now at te stage where we are very bored of it which slows down the pace.
Idividually i feel that i should of had much more diction and had more projection when i was saying my lines.

20th march Open Dress

Today was our very first performance however it was only a dress rehearsal and we didn't have a big audience, becasuse it was only a dress rehearsal we were allowed to call "LINE" if we needed help and if we also forgot a prop or que it wouldn't down grade us.

The first act went rather well especailly when it was our first performance to an audience. The ques were kept at a good pace and everyone was staying in character however in the story of Ali Baba we still wasn't positively sure about moving the flats.
The second act the energy was thrown to the ground when we performed the story of the Envious Sisters. many of the props were very messy seen as Nicole accedently hit Demi withone of her props which caused all the cast come out of character and start laughing which is very un professional. Luckly enough Daniella saved us by putting ALOT of emotion towards her monologue.

Overall the two stories (Little Beggar+Abu Hassan) was our strongest stories seen as the audience was reacting with huge laughter which is what we aimed for and the two stories (Ali Baba+Envious Siters) was our weakest  stories because they were both running very slowly and we definitly needed to improve on our lines and ques.

19th March Tech Rehearsal

Today was our Tech rehearsal which was a very productive reheasral. Our aim was to get two whole run throughs completed by the end of today. We had worked very well as a group however we needed to have alot more confidence in using the props. The first run through we had excellent focus however most of the cast needs to learn their lines and ques. The second run through went much better seen as the rehearsal ran through very smoothly and most people practice learning their lines during the break we had between the two run throughs however we need to pick up the pace of the show so the energy doesn't drop.

Feedback:
-Project our voices, so our voices are heard over the music
-Stay in character in something goes wrong
-Take more care where putting things down
-Much bigger physically and vocally
-Always be careful of sight lines
-Very good at the little beggar
-Es-Sindibad wonderful to watch
-Envious Sisters...Characters needs to be quicker on the que lines.

15th March Gavin

Today we had ran through the whole show seen as we had blocked everything and now all we needed to do is improve everything that needs improving. i feels that this run through was very poor because no-one was used to the flats yet.

In the first act i think the characterisation was at a very poor level as people were very unfocused, however during the second act the energy was kept at a very high standard and it was flowing quite well.

12th March Gavin

In today's rehearsal I helped out create 'The Story of the Envious Sisters'

usually Shanice, Becca and Laura had the roles for the sisters however Shanice and Laura were unable to turn up to the rehearsals but the story had to be created asap. I offered to help and step in for Laura and Paige also offered to help and step in for Shanice.

We started acting out the scene with help from Gavin.





Shanice had come back from being late to rehearsals and played her origianl role.
Gavin noticed how well i was playing the role and asked if i could take that role instead of Laura, I accepted.

7th March with Gavin and Alex

Today we had a very long day of rehearsals seen as we had to stay till 8pm for open evening, because of all the rehearsals today we had completed many stories such as:
The second part of Ali Baba and the forty theives.
Abu Hassan
the finishing touches of  'The story of the little Beggar'

When Gavin helped Daniella, Arnold and Chloe with their characters, Alex took the rest of us into a different room and gave us the roles for the story 'How Abu Hassan broke wind'
Bradley-Abu Hassan
Teri- Abu Hassan Bride/ Second wife
Demi- First Wife
Choe-Marrige Broker
and the rest of the cast either was a guest at the wedding or part of the table.

The table was created with a red sheet over them and when Abu Hassan farts the table gives the effect of a mexican wave, this was a huge comedy part to the story.



The opening evening gave us alot of time to recap all the storys, improve them and write down any feedback we got. My feedback was mainly to project my voice and stay in character when on either side of the stage.

6th March Gavin&Alex

Jamie had not made it in for today's rehearsals so Alex had helped us run through the story of 'Es-sindibad'.
Everyone was getting frustrated in this lesson because we all felt we needed to finish this story instead of just keep running through with what we have. Jamie wasn't there to help us finish it so Alex helped us improve it.

In the next lesson, Gavin helped us go over the prologue and the transitions into Ali-Baba and also helped us run through the story of 'The Little Beggar'.

In the rehearsal for the story of 'The Little Beggar' the first couple of run throughs were not worked at the biggest standard and most of the cast didn't play their characters to the best of the ability.

5th march Gavins lesson

In today's lesson we started creating 'The story of the woman who wouldn't eat'
We started the scene with daniella saying her lines to introduce the story and introduce the character 'Horoun' whilst the rest of the cast was walking around like they were walking through the street markets.

This lesson was at a very poor standard as the whole class was very un-focused and the energy was very low. I think in this lesson we could have completed the story if we listened to the director and had more positive actions towards the rehearsal. I feel i have learnt from this rehearsal and will think about how i will behave in future rehearsals.

1st March Gavins lesson

Today we finally finished creating and improving 'The story of The Little Beggar'. Today the energy was kept at a very high standard which helped our class get alot of things done.

In the first lesson we had gone over what we had created in 'The story of The Little Beggar'. I had given the role of the maid, i didnt have much dialogue at all but i was told play my character very lazy and not bothered this then helped build the comedy for this scene.

When people in the cast wasn't on stage they would be annotating their scripts and giving ideas for the scenes. I was helping people build on their characters for example i helped laura to build on her character as the Cheif of police, i had told her to shout and be more aggressive towards to other characters because she would then keep up the energy and the audience would be drawn to her, i also helped paige with her character as the Doctor, i told her be more melo-dramatic when she thinks she has killed the little beggar and not smile when her character does something funny because this would make her character more funny and interesting to watch however if she smiles the audience wont find it as funny and might lose intrest.

I also helped choregraph the fight that demi (steward) and joe (little beggar) have. We thought that if the fight could be like a cartoon for example demi hits joe on the head with a plate and joe goes still and falls on his back, this got many laughs from the audience.

The steward leaves the beggar leaning on the market stool, she physical puts a smile on his face and awkwardly walks away.


















Gavin then helped Charlie with his character.

29th Feb Jamie's lesson

In today's lesson we carried on rehearsing the story 'Ali Baba and the Forty thieves'

In this lesson the class was very focused and had excellent concentration as we wanted to get this story done. We kept recapping what we had done and started improving it, for example, making sure we were quick on our cue's and making sure that the transitions were running at a reasonable pace. I play the role of kasim's wife and during this rehearsal i had to really look in detail at how i was going to portray my character and what are the elements to my character. I think i played my character very well as i really felt like the character during the story.

when focusing on the part where Kasim was going towards the cave, the cast and I gave alot of ideas on how to make this dark but intresting.




 

23rd Feb Gavin's lesson

We ran through the Prolouge finishing off the set of the wedding scene of Sharayar and Sharazad, and then we worked out the transitions into the story of 'Ali Baba and the Forty Theieves' i feel that the transitions works really well as we all still look like we are listening to the story whilst being in it and then we just go straight into character. Many of the characters in this story have now started playing their roles very well and have decided to add an accent to help build the character.

In the next lesson Gavin had told us to seperate into different rooms to learn our lines. whilst we were all seperated gavin wanted to work on 'The story of the Little Beggar' so he kept the main characters and started creating the scene. I thought this was very good as their was no descrations for the people who was trying to focus on 'The Story of the Little Beggar' which helped them start the story quicker and improve on it later. The people that were involed were 'Jonny(the Tailor) Shanice(the Tailor's wife) Joe (Little Beggar).

22nd Feb Gavin&Jamies lesson

In today's lesson we carried on blocking the story of 'Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves'. We rehearsed what we had done, making sure we knew our cues and how we were going to protray our characters.

In this story we had used many different effects to set the scene, for example throughout the story, the sticks were used as a multi role playing prop. We also used the flats for the doors to the cave.

When Ali Baba said that he was climbing a tree, we had the idea of six people holding two sticks each at different levels, whilst Ali Baba walks on the sticks. This was a successful idea and has now been put into the show.

21st Feb Jamies lesson

Aim: To start looking at 'The Story of Es-sindibad'

We were looking at how the show emotion through your body and to do this we used different masks with different emotions on the mask.

We have dicided that the story is going to be silent with the story being narrated on recording with music in the background.

The characters in the story (laura,demi,jonny,nicole,paige and myself) had been given the task to shoe emotion whilst wearing a mask, for example jamie told us to be happy, sad and also surprised.

 






After having an idea of how to show emotion through our bodies when then moved on and started creating 'The stroy of Es-sindibad' We used our creative ideas to create an abstract house...



The three merchants (me, paige and nicole) were told to create a tree using props (sticks), they had to use the rhythms of 'Impulse'

I had very good focus during this lesson and listened to everyone I showed very good strong movements however I should have co-operated with the class more.

8th Feb- Belly dancing workshop with Gillian

As part of our arabian nights perfomance we had to have a clear idea of the arabian culture, so Gillian done a Belly dancing workshop with us as many women do Belly dancing in the arabian culture. Gillian has done Belly dancing in the past which helped us know the basic movements.

We Started off by doing a warm up which was very different to any other warm up we have done in the past. We were standing in a circle and had to 'isolate' many parts of our body such as hips, arms and also head. I found this very difficult as it was very new to me because I had never done it before however after doing it for a while I started to find it getting easier and easier.

When we had learnt the movements, we were all told to get into groups and create a little belly dancing sequence.

I never found intrest in Belly dancing however after this workshop with Gillian I have really been excited to perform a show thats based on a different culture.

6th feb Gavin's lesson

Aim: to start blocking the prologue

We did not achieve the target, some people didn't read the script over the weekend when we were supposed to, i admit i was one of those people. So those people had to go to the LRC and read through the rest of the script as a group in a private quiet room, the others then gave Gavin some idea's about how to create the prologue.

Then we had our headshots to be taken in the photography room, the photo's will be used to go on our actors CV.

15th march rehearsal, first run through

The first run through was ok, not great but it could have been better if we had focused more and remembered our lines, however I was always sure that in the next few rehearsals we were definitely going to improve. Their were many times where we had to stop during rehearsals as we had many problems with the unstableflats seen as usually in rehearsals we used flats that only two people could move however when it came to the flats we were using in the performance we found that they were very unstable and had to be moved by four people, one person lifting up the weight, one person taking off the leg and two people rotating the flats. I think the flats caused alot of trouble to the performance as when the flats had to be moved we had to have eight people for the two flats this meant usually eight people would be late for their ques to come on stage.

Feedback:
-Interact with the audience when walking down the rostra
-Think about the emotions your character has
-If your not in the the story then sit on the mats either side of the stage acting like your really interested in whats going on
-Forty thieves instead of acting like the horses come on stage with a strong pace.
-When ali baba is astonished to find all the gold coins David says his lines in mother tongue then snaps out of it and carry's on the with the lines in English.
-Keep the energy going by focusing more and getting into character more.
-Keep the pace going for the little beggar
-Marjarnah had very good diction whilst saying her lines
-Teri was really good at staying in character for Kasims wife
-Bradley was doing really well with the accent is Abu Hassan story
-Have more commitment with the ensemble bit in story of 'The woman who wouldn't eat'
-Projecting our voices on stage because then we immediately
-Becca, Teri and Shanice are really doing well at playing the characters in the envious sisters story
-Movement with the old man was very good but the sight lines need working on
-Old man needs to travel into the centre
-Have the confidence of the performance
-The story without an ending is very powerful
-Needs more focus

20th Feb Gavin's Lesson

Aim: Recap what we did with the prologue.

We improved the bit when shahrayar says the que 'one night only' and the women walk forward centre stage with their heads down in worry- From the start we all said the line 'Until a thousand young girls perished' at the same time. We thought it didnt work as their was no emotion shown, so to improve this we thought only the middle person in the line (demi) turns to the audience and says it herself then all the rest of the girls slowly walk towards our starting position. I felt that the women could have had more movement than just turning around with their hands down and one person said a line, i feel that their could have been a dance sequence as it would show more emotion to line as it is very important in the story.

Once we had improved this scene we moved on creating the rest of the prologue (when Shahrazad asks the Vizier to marry her to the king Shahrayar).We divided ourselfs into groups in the positions we were sitting in using props and sheets to set the scene. I found this scene very good as it builded tension towards the two characters Shahrazad and Vizier.

When we all went for a break Daniella (shahrazad) and Bradley (vizier)stayed behind to improve and practice there lines together and to build more tension on their characters.

We had many ideas for the marriage scene- We used a big white sheet with leona holding it round the edge creating the image of a beautiful white shelter where sharazad and shahrayar get married underneath the shelter with two guards (Charlie + David) either side of the shelter. This was to show the importance of the king, whilst the two groups are downstage left and right.

DULCE ET DECORUM EST

In today's lesson our whole class got given a poem (DULCE ET DECORUM EST) we had to read, analyse, anotate it, underline the sentences that meant something to us or gave us any powerful imagery and provide a starting point for movement ideas and trsanspose these words into dance movements (to do so, we had to observe the tone, theme, determine whether it was abstract or literal or if there was any rhyming scheme or repitition used).

When we had finnished anotating the poem, we individually created 8 different types of movements to run alongside the poem. I chose 8 different quotes for insperation for my 8 movements, i chose to do it in this way because having one quote per movement provided the avalibility for more ideas.

My favourite movement of them all was when i dragged myself across the floor because it gave the impression of trying to escape. I chose to do this in a way to show a panic because of the quote; 'Gas! Gas! Quick, boys!'.

I think the most interesting thing about the poem is that the poet describes alot of imagery throughout the poem, however, he gives a powerfull ending, he leaves the reader hanging on to the question of whether the poem is truthful. He in effect says that you wouldnt describe such horrific imagery to a child "for some desperate glory". This was effected because in the poem it says "To children ardent for some desperate glory, The old lie; Dulce et Decorum est Pro patria mori." My opion of this quote is that i feel the poet is trying to say you wouldn't say this to your children.

Analysing movement

Analysing movement

The Carman

Choreographed by Matthew bourne

Action: what the body does.

-Shows that they are working

-Very physical movements

-Energetic

Dynamics: how the body moves.

-Heavy + quick when working and when taking a shower

-The boss shows much more slower and suttle movements as hes in his office and working as hard as the others

Space: where the body moves.

-Big bold movements

-Two dancers on the floor the rest all standing up showing the different levels

Relationships: with whom or what the body is moving or moves with.

-All the workers show that they are all friends through physical movements with eachother.

Aural settings: the set, the music, the props ect...

-Lighting is very bright

-Steam showing hot water in the showers

-Music changes from sudden and quick working music to jolly and happy to show that their finished working and their free to go.

Analysing movement

Lullaby 2008

Yesterday

Choreographed by Jasmin Varaimor

Dynamics: how the body moves

-movements are very strong + sharp to show a battle between the woman and the disease.

Space: where the body moves

-The woman and the man with the pillow use quite alot of space to open out the space they need to fight around in.

Relationships: with whom or what the body is moving or moves with.

-Man, woman and the pillow (disease)

Aural settings: the set, the music, the props ect...

-Music and lighing at the begining and the lighing never changes

-War
-Victory
-Dying
-Love
-Klub of the eccentric people

Stanislavski

Lesson 1

Stanislavski 10 elements
-Given Circumstances
-Magic if
-Imagin
-Concentration
-Relaxation
-Action/Objective+Units
-Truth/Belief
-Sense memory
-Communion
-Adaptation

Lesson 2

I quite enjoyed lesson 2 as we continued learning about Stanislavski's 10 elements. Gavin gave us a task to improvise using the 10 elements and react to the given circumstances. I found this task quite fun and challeging as my given circumstance was quite complicated and difficult to react to as it was 'escape plans' however I found it quite enjoyable because I had to show good improvisation whilst avoiding much dialogue.

Lesson 3

Lesson 3 was the most intresting lesson because it showed me the importance of focus and concentration needed for a performance and how effective it can be.

Whilst we were sitting on a chair in a space, Gavin told us to focus and really imagin that we were in a Cafe in france. We had to imagin every little detail of the Cafe for example, what colours were in the Cafe, what the Cafe looked like, what the Cafe smelt like ect...

Gavin played some French music in the background to help us imagin the Cafe a bit more.

Once we had focused on the detail of the Cafe Gavin told us to pick up the cup of coffee underneath our chair and again had to focus on every little detail of the cup of coffee for example, what were the colours of the coffee and the cup, what the cup and coffee looked like, smelt like and also tasted like. My opion on the coffee was strange as I normal find that coffee has a horrible taste however after thinking about every detail, texture and taste I found the coffee was quite nice. Gavin also told us to do the same with Dark chocolate, my peice of dark chocolate was wraped up in tin foil and when I was told to look into detail on the chocolate I thought I might aswell do the same to the tin foil. I looked at the colour of the tin foil, what the tin foil looked like, the sound the tin foil made when I scunched it up in my hand and what it felt like. After going into all the detail Gavin told us to replay all the movements we did without using the cup of coffee and chocolate this is called effective memory (effective memory is the art of recalling multiple senses to create the given circumstances of a situation)

What I found interesting is that when I replayed the dark chocolate I rubbed my finger's together miming the tin foil and it was like I could feel the tin foil between my finger's.

Strengths: I feel that during these lessons I had very good focus and concetration which helped me use my imagation easily.

Weaknessess: I feel that in lesson 1 I should have listened more to help me understand the 10 elements.





Journey of Nescot

This morning in Jamies lesson we was told to sit on the floor comfortably in a space, close our eyes and think about our feelings and what it was like when we first joined Nescot college. This then brought back so many memories with all my new friends and made me realise how much everything and everyone has changed for example so many people have gained so much confidence since they started college...including me.

Jamie also told us to think about not only the positive things about the college but also the negative, I think from the very begining of college everyone was always together as one big friendship group and recently everyone is moving on and drifting into their own little groups, however we always feel like a big family.

After thinking and focussing really hard about our experience at nescot, we were told to pick up the peice of chalk that Jamie had placed infront of us whilst we were all thinking about the experience we have had in college. Our task was to draw our journey of Nescot from the begining to what we hope to achieve at the end, for example my target is to gain more confidence and to believe in myself more.

This is an example of my drawing...

Taking the dynamic of an element into our bodies

8th February

Theatre
Teacher:Gavin

Our aim for this lesson was to define what an element is and to explore taking the dynamic of an element into bodies.

Gavin asked our class "What is an Element" there are four elements that are used to help show emotion through many movements and dialogue. The Elements also help performers get into character through the emotions of the elements.

Four elements are: FIRE, WATER, EARTH, AIR

Gavin told us to create movement of an element, for example he told us to create movement using the space with the intension of fire. I thought, well how can I move like fire? but the question is how does fire move? once i had thought deeply about how fire moves I started creating big, bold and sharp movements. whilst moving around using the elements Gavin gave us an emotion for the element to get the drift of getting into character, for example aswell as having the element of fire he told us to have the emotion of anger and how fire and anger can relate. My movements were very fast and heavy, I was using as much space as I could.

There was a range of emotions Gavin told us to use:
-Anger
-Fear
-Love
-Happiness
-Sadness

Arabian Nights

First Scene, Act One
Acting Studio
Teacher:Jamie + Gavin

Jamie and Gavin tol us the Castlists:

Bradley - Visier

Daniella - Shahrazad

Chloe - Dinerzad

Arnold - Shahryar

David - Ali Baba

Charlie - Captain

Teri - Kasim's wife

Jonny - Kasim

Laura - Ali Baba's wife

Cat - Marjanah

Bradley - Baba Mustapha

Nicole - Queen (in first act)

Understudies

Leona - Shahrazad

Cat - Dinerzad

Charlie - Shahryar

Joe - Visier

ACT ONE

The Story of Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves

-In this story, the thieves are played as a chorus, becoming the horses, the cave, and the treasure inside.

The scene is set out with all the cast divided into two groups at upstage left and upstage right, all at different levels appart from Daniella (Shahrazad). Shahrazad walks from upstage to centre while saying her lines to the audience. When she starts talking about Kasim and Ali Baba they both walk towards Shahrazad from the groups they were in whilst in character, both their wives do the same. When Shahrazad say's "Kasim married a rich widow ect..." as im playing the role of Kasims wife I walk towards dowstage right with a powerful stance, i then hold Kasim by the waist and Kasim puts his arm around my shoulder's whilst in character, this then shows Kasim and his wife are in power as they are very rich and wealthy. When Ali Baba's wife comes forward she glances at the audience, turns to Ali Baba and hugs him for support as they both are very poor, this then shows that they love eachother even though they have poor living conditions and no money.