Hi Everyone,
Ouch, my head. What was in that cider? And sorry, guys, I didn't get along to the party in Haggerston. The cider wiped out half the address from my brain. I remembered the 37a bit. But not the rest. However, well done everyone on the show. I think we gave a good account of ourselves and the punters all seemed impressed. Jacek particularly so.
Re tutorials, January 14th seems a good day. So why don't we start at 10.30, and those of you who want some feedback sign up on the list below. (you get into it by going to the dashboard, hitting the 'posting' button and and 'editing' this post with your name on whichever time you want..) First come first served.
Have a great Christmas and New Year 2008 everyone!
10.30
10.45
11.00 Lee
11.15
11.30 Chantelle.
11.45 Emma
12.00 Juancho. (Where was your office again, Steve?)
12.15 Kendra.. think i can do this - if not ill let u know asap
12.30 Abigail & the 'PIG'
12.45 Gemma
By the way, thought you might be interested to know that, as a result of yesterday's marking and assessment meeting after the showings, Joelle, Max, Lucy and myself, unanimously awarded the pig a 2.1.
Tuesday, December 18, 2007
Sunday, December 16, 2007
When shall we ten meet again?
O.K. Guys! Here we gooooo! Let's show them what we're worth!
Gooood Luck Everyoneeeeeeeee!
After all, this could be the last time we work together, let's enjoy it!
Gooood Luck Everyoneeeeeeeee!
After all, this could be the last time we work together, let's enjoy it!
Last Friday Dress Rehearsal
General Notes:
I’m making the decision: NO CLING-FILM, MAKE-UP ETC. Only our own natural and gorgeous faces.
The back-lighting torches and the acting is interesting enough.
I will also make sure all the torches are charged, give them to certain dependable-looking members members of the audience, sit them in the front row and ask them to light the main actors in each scene. I will definitely ask Hetty to be one of the torchbearers.
The BIG note is really a collective one. To re-emphasise the shape-making and image-making potential of the whole group. See the Strehler post that follows this one…
To emphasise: your focus – when you are watching as a witch – has to be on the speaker. As if your particular witch has never heard this story before and is hanging on every word said. Nothing should look relaxed. Nothing should look taken for granted. Each witch-watcher has to make it look that her life depends on the outcome of each scene on M or Lady M’s decisions and actions …
Also, as a general rule, as witches, strike an interesting pose in an interesting position at the BEGINNING of a scene and only move IF SOMETHING SPECIFIC IN THE SCENE MAKES YOU MOVE, including, of course, an M or a Lady M moving through the space. Get out of their way! They’re the King and Queen etc. Otherwise, generally the movement needs to be minimal, during scenes
Of course, in the banquet scene, when you are a Lord and an active participant in the scene, you react and move completely differently – you are ‘in’ the scene.
Chanatelle. Much better work on Friday. However, don’t stick your bum out at the back and your chin out at the front when you’re getting into High Intensity acting. Instead open your kwa, connect your feel to the ground and lower your centre of gravity. Sticking bum and chin out means, effectively you’re not balanced. The Macduff was very good, playing off the audience. Don’t rest on your laurels now but go forward and be even better. By the way, you were LATE IN JUMPING UP AS THE EQUIVACATOR ON FRIDAY. Please check your cue again.
Kendra. Very good work on both pieces. Obviously the Lennox has had little or no rehearsal but even in the two times we ran it, it was already coming on by leaps and bounds so keep looking at the lines and just remember the note about not moving along the table. What you were doing – getting comfortable, crouching – standing – sitting on your heels etc all works and feel the freedom to do the whole speech within those parameters and it will be great. We will do a little work on the crowd reaction to your speech during the hour we have to warm up and get ready so don’t worry. The scene won’t be naff by the time it’s seen Monday at 3.30 or whatever..
Sarah Jane. Felt you’d lost impetus a bit on Friday – maybe because you’d missed the previous rehearsal. In running terms, you seemed ‘behind the pace’. But I hope that’s just a blip because your work has been good up to now. Don’t forget to play as much as you dare OUT FRONT, connecting early with the audience. Look out towards them reading your letter to them etc. See also note to Gemma about the witches on the table. The lines from all of you seemed a bit dull and mechanical… In everything you do, keep it fresh! Surprise yourself. Have fun… Don’t just go through the motions…. or tick the boxes…
Lee. Don’t drop your voice at any point during the performance, which you started doing on Friday. The lack of light in the space and maybe the proximity of the audience was lulling you into thinking you don’t have to project. I’ve been very pleased with your work over the semester but we don’t want anything to let you down at the last moment Also remember my previous notes to play M as ‘OLD’ as you can, lowering your voice and to really relish everything you say. Make sure that Mac is a much older, and a completely different man from Banquo…. Also: Pronunciation, pronunciation, pronunciation!!! You don’t have to rush anything!.
Juan. Good work on Friday – now just enjoy the performance on Monday and see if you can keep discovering little things as you’re playing. Keep in mind the note about not ‘pushing’ the emotions and just be as clear as you can in your diction. Also take the note that now that you’re playing so well with SJ and Emma, just try and include the audience more in it. You tend to leave them out of the equation. Maybe some lines you can play off the audience? Some moments when you can look into the audience for a reaction?
Kate. Still feel you need to go a lot further with your ‘knitting together’ of ‘moves’. Because that’s just what too many of them look like at present – moves. You don’t seem to have incorporated them into your performance. Your note, then, is to be light and nimble and dynamic. As if anything can happen at any time. Really listen and react to the other actors. And rehearse and rehearse and rehearse your text… Also don’t hit individual words in any sentence but speak the sentence naturally, punctuating it as you would normal speech. All your lines make perfect sense. Don’t colour them or embroider them or make them at all artificial sounding. The ‘poetry’ will take care of itself as long as you know what you’re saying and say the words in the right order.
Emma. Still not enough kwa during the going out with the daggers moment on Friday but maybe you were thrown by the red cloth. I’m asking Juan to leave it when he sets down the knives … and I think you pick it up somehow and hold it by a corner for the last moments of the scene. Let’s look at those two moments on Monday. Remind me on Monday. The diction is good but don’t let it fall back between now and Monday afternoon. And keep remembering about sticky out bottoms.
Abi. Good work on Friday. Was there one line of yours that Kendra said in the banquet? Or did I imagine that? I want you to do all the lines in that scene. Lady Duff. Good shape and it’s all there so just try to keep it as fresh and spontaneous as possible, have fun with it and see if you can find one of two more new moments of your own with it. I think I missed the smack bottom Friday. Make it very visible, it’s fun. Keep your voice strong, clear and HEARD and when you go to get the brush let the audience in more on that moment up at the table. Death good. The Cabbage moment can be held in a feeze-frame longer and we need to get everyone else to frame it with their own actions. Remind me we need to do this at 1.00 on Monday.
Gemma. Same note as I’ve given a few people. It can be very good, your work, but make sure you keep it fresh. Be in each scene for the very first time. Listen as if you’ve never heard any of the play before. That’s the secret. Be surprised. Surprise yourself. Don’t find yourself ‘ticking off’ the scenes. Or thinking: ‘ Oh, right, this is the scene where I have to climb onto the table and stick my arm up in the air etc. Feel it! Experience it. Apropos of which, the witch on the table can be more sinuous and snake-like. All the table witches from ‘Call to Forres’ were a bit dull, slow on their cues and leaden on Friday. Make sure they get that note. By the way, Glamis is pronounced GLARMS. One syllable to rhyme with ARMS.
Paul. Same as note for Gemma. Keep it fresh. Don’t rush, but make sure that your first Porter lines are heard by the audience – and that you connect with them eye-contact wise. Eye contact with them throughout is very important. You did a good job of remembering that the Porter is having fun – you can still go further with this. It’s a case of: ‘Watch this folks!!!” Hopefully you’ll get some feedback from the audience that you can play off. If you don’t get feedback enjoy it all the more. If you do get feedback, then play the feedback… The Scottish is good. Take your time. Also a bit of bottom sticking out detected on Friday. Keep a good, low, open Kwa so you always look centred. Sort with Chanatelle the equivacator cue. I think she was late…
I’m making the decision: NO CLING-FILM, MAKE-UP ETC. Only our own natural and gorgeous faces.
The back-lighting torches and the acting is interesting enough.
I will also make sure all the torches are charged, give them to certain dependable-looking members members of the audience, sit them in the front row and ask them to light the main actors in each scene. I will definitely ask Hetty to be one of the torchbearers.
The BIG note is really a collective one. To re-emphasise the shape-making and image-making potential of the whole group. See the Strehler post that follows this one…
To emphasise: your focus – when you are watching as a witch – has to be on the speaker. As if your particular witch has never heard this story before and is hanging on every word said. Nothing should look relaxed. Nothing should look taken for granted. Each witch-watcher has to make it look that her life depends on the outcome of each scene on M or Lady M’s decisions and actions …
Also, as a general rule, as witches, strike an interesting pose in an interesting position at the BEGINNING of a scene and only move IF SOMETHING SPECIFIC IN THE SCENE MAKES YOU MOVE, including, of course, an M or a Lady M moving through the space. Get out of their way! They’re the King and Queen etc. Otherwise, generally the movement needs to be minimal, during scenes
Of course, in the banquet scene, when you are a Lord and an active participant in the scene, you react and move completely differently – you are ‘in’ the scene.
Chanatelle. Much better work on Friday. However, don’t stick your bum out at the back and your chin out at the front when you’re getting into High Intensity acting. Instead open your kwa, connect your feel to the ground and lower your centre of gravity. Sticking bum and chin out means, effectively you’re not balanced. The Macduff was very good, playing off the audience. Don’t rest on your laurels now but go forward and be even better. By the way, you were LATE IN JUMPING UP AS THE EQUIVACATOR ON FRIDAY. Please check your cue again.
Kendra. Very good work on both pieces. Obviously the Lennox has had little or no rehearsal but even in the two times we ran it, it was already coming on by leaps and bounds so keep looking at the lines and just remember the note about not moving along the table. What you were doing – getting comfortable, crouching – standing – sitting on your heels etc all works and feel the freedom to do the whole speech within those parameters and it will be great. We will do a little work on the crowd reaction to your speech during the hour we have to warm up and get ready so don’t worry. The scene won’t be naff by the time it’s seen Monday at 3.30 or whatever..
Sarah Jane. Felt you’d lost impetus a bit on Friday – maybe because you’d missed the previous rehearsal. In running terms, you seemed ‘behind the pace’. But I hope that’s just a blip because your work has been good up to now. Don’t forget to play as much as you dare OUT FRONT, connecting early with the audience. Look out towards them reading your letter to them etc. See also note to Gemma about the witches on the table. The lines from all of you seemed a bit dull and mechanical… In everything you do, keep it fresh! Surprise yourself. Have fun… Don’t just go through the motions…. or tick the boxes…
Lee. Don’t drop your voice at any point during the performance, which you started doing on Friday. The lack of light in the space and maybe the proximity of the audience was lulling you into thinking you don’t have to project. I’ve been very pleased with your work over the semester but we don’t want anything to let you down at the last moment Also remember my previous notes to play M as ‘OLD’ as you can, lowering your voice and to really relish everything you say. Make sure that Mac is a much older, and a completely different man from Banquo…. Also: Pronunciation, pronunciation, pronunciation!!! You don’t have to rush anything!.
Juan. Good work on Friday – now just enjoy the performance on Monday and see if you can keep discovering little things as you’re playing. Keep in mind the note about not ‘pushing’ the emotions and just be as clear as you can in your diction. Also take the note that now that you’re playing so well with SJ and Emma, just try and include the audience more in it. You tend to leave them out of the equation. Maybe some lines you can play off the audience? Some moments when you can look into the audience for a reaction?
Kate. Still feel you need to go a lot further with your ‘knitting together’ of ‘moves’. Because that’s just what too many of them look like at present – moves. You don’t seem to have incorporated them into your performance. Your note, then, is to be light and nimble and dynamic. As if anything can happen at any time. Really listen and react to the other actors. And rehearse and rehearse and rehearse your text… Also don’t hit individual words in any sentence but speak the sentence naturally, punctuating it as you would normal speech. All your lines make perfect sense. Don’t colour them or embroider them or make them at all artificial sounding. The ‘poetry’ will take care of itself as long as you know what you’re saying and say the words in the right order.
Emma. Still not enough kwa during the going out with the daggers moment on Friday but maybe you were thrown by the red cloth. I’m asking Juan to leave it when he sets down the knives … and I think you pick it up somehow and hold it by a corner for the last moments of the scene. Let’s look at those two moments on Monday. Remind me on Monday. The diction is good but don’t let it fall back between now and Monday afternoon. And keep remembering about sticky out bottoms.
Abi. Good work on Friday. Was there one line of yours that Kendra said in the banquet? Or did I imagine that? I want you to do all the lines in that scene. Lady Duff. Good shape and it’s all there so just try to keep it as fresh and spontaneous as possible, have fun with it and see if you can find one of two more new moments of your own with it. I think I missed the smack bottom Friday. Make it very visible, it’s fun. Keep your voice strong, clear and HEARD and when you go to get the brush let the audience in more on that moment up at the table. Death good. The Cabbage moment can be held in a feeze-frame longer and we need to get everyone else to frame it with their own actions. Remind me we need to do this at 1.00 on Monday.
Gemma. Same note as I’ve given a few people. It can be very good, your work, but make sure you keep it fresh. Be in each scene for the very first time. Listen as if you’ve never heard any of the play before. That’s the secret. Be surprised. Surprise yourself. Don’t find yourself ‘ticking off’ the scenes. Or thinking: ‘ Oh, right, this is the scene where I have to climb onto the table and stick my arm up in the air etc. Feel it! Experience it. Apropos of which, the witch on the table can be more sinuous and snake-like. All the table witches from ‘Call to Forres’ were a bit dull, slow on their cues and leaden on Friday. Make sure they get that note. By the way, Glamis is pronounced GLARMS. One syllable to rhyme with ARMS.
Paul. Same as note for Gemma. Keep it fresh. Don’t rush, but make sure that your first Porter lines are heard by the audience – and that you connect with them eye-contact wise. Eye contact with them throughout is very important. You did a good job of remembering that the Porter is having fun – you can still go further with this. It’s a case of: ‘Watch this folks!!!” Hopefully you’ll get some feedback from the audience that you can play off. If you don’t get feedback enjoy it all the more. If you do get feedback, then play the feedback… The Scottish is good. Take your time. Also a bit of bottom sticking out detected on Friday. Keep a good, low, open Kwa so you always look centred. Sort with Chanatelle the equivacator cue. I think she was late…
Friday, December 14, 2007
Giorgio Strehler and Contra-jour Acting
Ok. Well done everyone! Notes to follow. But before I knock off for the day, here’s Giorgio Strehler’s contrajour technique.
Contrajour, for all you photographers out there are photographs taken against daylight so that the figures tend to be in silhouette.
It has the effect of making the audience very aware of the SHAPE you are making agains the backscreen…
SO. MAKE INTERESTING SHAPES!!!!!!!!
Here are a few examples I’ve found quickly on the net from some of his productions. They can make for quite MAGICAL stage images…
Contrajour, for all you photographers out there are photographs taken against daylight so that the figures tend to be in silhouette.
It has the effect of making the audience very aware of the SHAPE you are making agains the backscreen…
SO. MAKE INTERESTING SHAPES!!!!!!!!
Here are a few examples I’ve found quickly on the net from some of his productions. They can make for quite MAGICAL stage images…
Of Torches and Parsnips and Skirts
Dear All
Don't worry. Don't spend any money.
If you don't have a torch, you don't have a torch.
If you don't have a parsnip, you don't have a parsnip; we'll find something else....
And between us, the costume cupboard and our colleagues we must be able to solve the skirt issue. See you this afternoon.
:-)
Don't worry. Don't spend any money.
If you don't have a torch, you don't have a torch.
If you don't have a parsnip, you don't have a parsnip; we'll find something else....
And between us, the costume cupboard and our colleagues we must be able to solve the skirt issue. See you this afternoon.
:-)
Thursday, December 13, 2007
Wednesday, December 12, 2007
Tuesday 11th Dec Rehearsal Notes
Firstly, Thanks Kendra for your note. I hope you're going to be well enough to come on Friday. Sarah Jane? Where are you? What happened?
Because of illness and the Northern Line, not the most focused or productive rehearsal we’ve had. But let’s take everything we can from the morning yesterday.
In particular to get very precise about all the actions of the banquetiers. These will have to be passed on to SJ and K, ideally BEFORE Friday. If anyone is a close friend or flatmate of either, then fifteen minutes spent with them could save a helluva lot of time on Friday trying to introduce them to it from scratch….
Abi is definitely playing the Lennox-Lord part, by the way.
Notes.
I hope it is clear now that what we have been doing over the last three or so weeks has been a process of CHOREOGRAPHING the scenes. And choreography should in no way make you think: ‘straightjacket’. Or ‘stiff’. Or ‘deprived of my imagination’. On the contrary, it will hopefully give you a structure in which to feel secure and be able to live and breath.
So trust the structure.
Enjoy going from your Californian to your Tragedy and back to your Californian, via a Lowest and an Attraction on the way. And play each SoI to the full. BUT DO KEEP LOOKING AT THE TEXT. ANY UNCERTAINTY ABOUT THAT WILL UNSEAT YOU AND SHOW AS ANXIETY IN YOUR PERFORMANCE. And, of course, lose you marks.
Also, just because you’ve GOT a choreographic structure, don’t get lulled into the false impression that you have the performance in the bag. You still have to put all the energy into your performance that existed when we first found that structure.
I noticed one or two worrying examples of people ‘phoning their performances in’ yesterday. Just going through the motions without putting their brains and hearts into gear…. I hope you know who you were!!!
Lee: a note I keep meaning to give you and keep forgetting. Prith’ee is two syllables. Not three. Pri – thee, with the stress on the first. Simple.
Juan and Gemma: Good work and co-ordinate so that you look as much as is humanly possible in your posture like the same Banquo, So that your arms and the angle of your head and body looks the same. Juan. Also, when you go into your Banquo, keep very still UNTIL just before the line that prompts ‘shake thy gory locks at me’.
Paul and Chanatelle. I think those changes we made now make the Porter scene work better. Keep practising and practising that jump. I think it will also need an eye-contact before you do it, Chanatelle. Also, the two of you, don’t make the chasing thing into a four act drama. It just needs a dodge to the left, a dodge to the right – and catch her. Don’t over-egg the custard, I think the expression is…
Lee: Don’t forget your mum’s meat-tenderiser.
EVERBODY REMEMBER TO BRING A TORCH WITH A GOOD BATTERY.
Everybody bring your own props/make up/costume for Friday. Kate and Lee the Maccers Mugs, for example. Chanatelle, not only the cake, but the paper plate it’s on ... etc etc etc..
Remember, boys, to bring you skirts! (by the way, if I didn't make this clear already, you will be wearing them over black trousers!! And the girls too if they want to.)
This will be the plan for Friday:
2.00 to 2.300 Warm-up, Speed run of lines. Set up props etc. Clear space. Get tables into position. Put on costumes.
2.30 – 3.00. Banquet scene. Integrate Kendra and SJ into action. Run and polish.
3.00 – 3.20 Kendra – ‘My former speeches’. Work.
3.20 - 3.40 Murder Murder Murder. And the battle scene at the end. Work.
3.40 – 4.10 Topping and tailing all furniture moves, who brings on what props, where the props are placed, where each witch is between each scene. What witch does what at the end of each scene etc. PLEASE BRING PEN AND PAPER TO WRITE ALL OF THIS DOWN SO THAT NONE OF IT IS FORGOTTEN.. and so you can think about it over the weekend.
The main issues will be:
4.15 – 4.45 FINAL DRESS RUN.
4.45 – 5.00 Notes.
Meet again Monday at 1.00.
Warm-up. Line-run. Setting up.
2.00 Showings begin. We are number 3 in the running order.
Because of illness and the Northern Line, not the most focused or productive rehearsal we’ve had. But let’s take everything we can from the morning yesterday.
In particular to get very precise about all the actions of the banquetiers. These will have to be passed on to SJ and K, ideally BEFORE Friday. If anyone is a close friend or flatmate of either, then fifteen minutes spent with them could save a helluva lot of time on Friday trying to introduce them to it from scratch….
Abi is definitely playing the Lennox-Lord part, by the way.
Notes.
I hope it is clear now that what we have been doing over the last three or so weeks has been a process of CHOREOGRAPHING the scenes. And choreography should in no way make you think: ‘straightjacket’. Or ‘stiff’. Or ‘deprived of my imagination’. On the contrary, it will hopefully give you a structure in which to feel secure and be able to live and breath.
So trust the structure.
Enjoy going from your Californian to your Tragedy and back to your Californian, via a Lowest and an Attraction on the way. And play each SoI to the full. BUT DO KEEP LOOKING AT THE TEXT. ANY UNCERTAINTY ABOUT THAT WILL UNSEAT YOU AND SHOW AS ANXIETY IN YOUR PERFORMANCE. And, of course, lose you marks.
Also, just because you’ve GOT a choreographic structure, don’t get lulled into the false impression that you have the performance in the bag. You still have to put all the energy into your performance that existed when we first found that structure.
I noticed one or two worrying examples of people ‘phoning their performances in’ yesterday. Just going through the motions without putting their brains and hearts into gear…. I hope you know who you were!!!
Lee: a note I keep meaning to give you and keep forgetting. Prith’ee is two syllables. Not three. Pri – thee, with the stress on the first. Simple.
Juan and Gemma: Good work and co-ordinate so that you look as much as is humanly possible in your posture like the same Banquo, So that your arms and the angle of your head and body looks the same. Juan. Also, when you go into your Banquo, keep very still UNTIL just before the line that prompts ‘shake thy gory locks at me’.
Paul and Chanatelle. I think those changes we made now make the Porter scene work better. Keep practising and practising that jump. I think it will also need an eye-contact before you do it, Chanatelle. Also, the two of you, don’t make the chasing thing into a four act drama. It just needs a dodge to the left, a dodge to the right – and catch her. Don’t over-egg the custard, I think the expression is…
Lee: Don’t forget your mum’s meat-tenderiser.
EVERBODY REMEMBER TO BRING A TORCH WITH A GOOD BATTERY.
Everybody bring your own props/make up/costume for Friday. Kate and Lee the Maccers Mugs, for example. Chanatelle, not only the cake, but the paper plate it’s on ... etc etc etc..
Remember, boys, to bring you skirts! (by the way, if I didn't make this clear already, you will be wearing them over black trousers!! And the girls too if they want to.)
This will be the plan for Friday:
2.00 to 2.300 Warm-up, Speed run of lines. Set up props etc. Clear space. Get tables into position. Put on costumes.
2.30 – 3.00. Banquet scene. Integrate Kendra and SJ into action. Run and polish.
3.00 – 3.20 Kendra – ‘My former speeches’. Work.
3.20 - 3.40 Murder Murder Murder. And the battle scene at the end. Work.
3.40 – 4.10 Topping and tailing all furniture moves, who brings on what props, where the props are placed, where each witch is between each scene. What witch does what at the end of each scene etc. PLEASE BRING PEN AND PAPER TO WRITE ALL OF THIS DOWN SO THAT NONE OF IT IS FORGOTTEN.. and so you can think about it over the weekend.
The main issues will be:
- What the CHAIRS are doing between the Lee and Chanatelle, Juan and Emma and the Porter scenes. And WHO is moving them.
- The POSITIONING of the ‘Support’-Chair that Paul sits on in the banquet. And for Lee to remember to move the other chair at the start of the scene…
- I will bring tape to mark floor positions…
- The crashing over of the table in the Porter scene. AND HOW WE GET IT SET UP AGAIN QUICKLY , UNOBTRUSIVELY AND EFFICIENTLY FOR THE BANQUET SCENE.
- The placing of the hairbrush before Gemma and Abigail’s scene.
- Who bangs the mallet when Lee is collared by the Porter…
- The placeing of the Mugs for Gemma and Paul to hand to Kate and Lee… et etc..
4.15 – 4.45 FINAL DRESS RUN.
4.45 – 5.00 Notes.
Meet again Monday at 1.00.
Warm-up. Line-run. Setting up.
2.00 Showings begin. We are number 3 in the running order.
Tuesday, December 11, 2007
Sunday, December 9, 2007
Extra Scene
Hi Steve,
One must say that i thought Fridays rehearsal was very productive. I still would like to have an extra scene or a few extra lines as i feel that my role in the play is not prominent as the others. If you feel otherwise, please inform me.
Thanks
One must say that i thought Fridays rehearsal was very productive. I still would like to have an extra scene or a few extra lines as i feel that my role in the play is not prominent as the others. If you feel otherwise, please inform me.
Thanks
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