Day time performance

During college we performed a matinee performance for our peers and staff inside college, I think that this show was a great success as it allowed us to correct mistakes made in the previous show such as Dan interjecting my lines and performing the extract too quickly. This performance was a lot more chilled and had a lighter atmosphere around it as people were confident in their extract and there was less stress on people who did well in the previous show. I personally enjoyed this show a lot more as the audience had a more positive reaction to the show and laughed through out, this was due to the audience being younger and appreciating a good nob joke in comparison to adults who watched the first show. 

This show overall went a lot better but I personally preferred my performance in the first show as I was much more fluent and comfortable, where as I felt the nerves in the second show because I find it more intimidating when my friends watch as they add a layer of pressure and I believe this showed in my performance, as I was a lot more weary of what I was doing and concentrating too much on my lines. My tempest piece was better in both performances as it had more dialog and emotion to build a character on in comparison to Maria in Twelfth Night who is only in the extract briefly and doesn't show her character completely like she does in the rest of the play.

characterisation techniques

Miranda

When looking at the characterization of he character Miranda from The Tempest I used many different character exploration techniques such as identifying the physical aesthetics of the character and then making this a reality to get a feel of. He character. I learnt from this that the character was in need of a dress which flowed with her movements as she is a free character full of youth. When I put the costume on I felt so much more in character compared to when I was running the scene in my normal clothes this was due to the costume giving me more freedom to move and explore the characters mannerisms such as the way she walks with a hop in her step and her jumping around when she is happy. 

Another excessive I tried was looking into the characters dialogue and how she would say it, I did this exercise with Dan during a rehearsal and we read through the script at different passes and in different emotions first trying it in a sad dramatic way creating a very theatrical performance, this varied to extremely happy and energies where me and Dan danced around the stage and ran through the script to fit. I found this experience extremely fun and rewarding when It came to character exploration, this was due to how clear it made my character and how it allowed me to see how Miranda needed to be a happy medium between the overly exited ball of energy and low energy more realistic character we had when first reading the script. 

I missed e lesson when the class hot seated their characters but I took the opera unity to do my own hot seating with Dan in lesson, we had a full discussion about our characters and why they do want do in the scene and why they feel and react to certain lines throughout. This convocation heeled me to cement the meaning of lines in our extract for example the line "I do not know one of my sex, nor woman's face remember,save from mine glass mine own." This line clearly means that she hasn't seen any other women's faces except her own. But due to my discussion with Dan we deduced that Miranda would be a masque in character as she has never had a strong female presence such as a mother, this helped me not only with characterization but with my costume also as I decided that the character wouldn't have good hair or clothes as she wouldn't feel the need to look feminine and attractive for Ferdinand as she wouldn't have been taught to do her hair nice or fix her clothing like women would have done.

Before I started this extract I watched the film version of the play online to get a feel of the character and how she I'd portrayed by other actresses, I watched many different interpretations of the character and decided that I wanted to play the character a little differently, because I noticed that many people tent to play Miranda as quite ditsy and girly, but after looking into her background I don't believe this is how she would have been. I believe she would have been a lot more rough and not care what she does or looks like due to her growing up on an island. To highlight her rough side I threw wood across the stage without a care rather than softly placing them down as a more girly Miranda would have done. Also I steel the pile of wood from Dan and run off with it in contrast to Miranda tenderly taking it from Ferdinand in a more kind way, this highlights her child like side and how playful the character is. The way I created my character Is not based on another character but is derived from how I didn't want to play MIranda in comparison the the way I have seen others portray her.

SHOW DAY

The show was very good in my opinion as it was full of energy and pace and you could tell that the whole class where not only happy to get going but excited throughout. The show seemed to keep the audience engaged and interested in what was happening and received a positive reaction afterwards. i was proud of the way my groups performed in our extracts as we flowed with each other an made it a much smoother experience in comparison to how it could have gone. At first i had my doubts on how the extract where going to tun out as I am no he biggest fan of Shakespeare, but after the month o work i have grown o appreciate its complexity and how interesting the language is, i think this helped my performance because i started to like my wok more an when i enjoy what i am doing my work quality in my opinion improves massively.
There were many aspects of the show that went well in my opinion for example the sound effect such as rain and lightning ran smoothly and acted as a vial part the show and how engaging it was. I liked the transition music for both halves of he play but i preferred the more modern music in the second half as it was more relevant to the audience and something they would prefer listening to. I understand the reason we have jazz music for the first half as it related to the gangsta theme which we are incorporating into he piece, i personally think we haven achieved making the gangsta aspect that clear as no one in the class in using an accent and the costumes do have nuances of the era but not enough to make it clear o a stage.  

Things did go wrong nearing the end of the show when a board got stuck on a curtain chain and this threw one of the scenes off but i don't think it was too disastrous as the scene went on as normal just not to the standard it could have been. A major problem which i came across was the blackouts in the storms as it became a hindrance to building the set, usually we fix the set with ease as there is external light coming though the doors. During the show all the curtains where closed so i couldn't see a thing and there was a massive possibility that the set wouldn't have been properly built and would have been left with no rostrum lids and danger hazards scattered around it. To fix his problem in the show on Thursday we are going to make the set a lo simpler to fix and this should eradicate any problems which we had in the past. Also during mine an Dan's scene in the Tempest there was a slight error when Dan interrupted my line with a very assertive "No" this didn't throw me off as Dan managed to work around his mistake with some fumbling over lines and we pulled it back effectively, his kept the scene going and allowed us o stay in character throughout.    

First tech run

Today we had our first ever full tech run incorporating the two storms and following a specific running order. I think that this went well but could have been better, the pace was slow and people didn't really have much energy but this was due to the class mentality that it was only a tech run. There was a few slip ups with lines and knowing which scene was where but this is a problem which is easily solved through writing down the scene order and just going over lines repeatedly. I took the opportunity in this run to apply my class notes to my extracts for example I learnt that the line "gaskins fall" in my Twelfth Night piece means pants falling down, I applied this knowledge to my work through making my character much more playful trying to pull Festes (Ryan) pants down and being dismissed in a comical way. When I first tried to apply this I didn't manage to apply it as it was new and I forgot to do it but after a small five minuet practice with Ryan I felt confident that I would be able to do it in the show. I have addressed the mistakes I made in this run through and know confidently that I won make the same mistakes again in the show. When the run began I was suppose to say my line to open the show and I forgot to stay on stage after the storm this was something I struggled remembering as it was a last minuet change but I decided that during the storm I would get into position so when the lights come up me and Megan are already on stage, this helped with pace and was effective as it allowed us to jump straight into the show with out a long entrance. There was a small debate during the tech run as to weather the storm was to act as a motif and be repeated for the second half, as we know that both plays start with a storm we decided that having the storm again would be relevant and a good way to keep the audience interested in a difficult performance to keep up with. I like the storm as its very interesting and different in comparison to the extract in the show.

 

1st December The Tempest

During today's rehearsal we ran through the scenes to get a rough timing of each extract so we can see how long the full show will take to perform. This run was very relaxed and allowed people to have a good go at running their scenes without their lines to hand. My partner wasn't in for this rehearsal to I ran through my scene with Ryan, due to the relaxed feeling of the run I sailed through it without being too serious and too into it. After the performance my feedback informed me that the relaxed nature allowed me to relax into the character and portray the character of Miranda with a much more child like manner which I have been trying to emulate over the past weeks of rehearsal. I am planning on trying this relaxed care free approach in the next run through to see if I can get the same feel for my exam. Through this day of refusal I learnt more about my character and how she would be less love struck stalker which I was border line in past rehearsals and more of a free moving, care free type of person which was explored in this rehearsal.

Blocking of scenes "Twelfth Night"

During a group discussion we spoke about the beginning to our "Twelfth Night" scene and how we can improve it. To start with we had a very simple opening which was static and boring to watch, after contemplation we thought about the opening character Feste and his personality. As Feste is a clown character we came to the decision that he need to do something comical and playful to introduce his character the same way as he means to go on. Ryan who plays Feste in our extract tried out a few different ways to open the scene such as jumping in and announcing his arrival and climbing in over the set. We didn't think this was quite right for the situation in the scene then we though what do naughty kids to and derived the idea of blowing a "raspberry" as my character Maria, this worked well and we kept it as the opening to our scene. 9/12/1012 Over the weeks we have improved on this scene massively and the raspberry which starts the scene was found to be effective and we kept it in but elongated it to make it more clear and comical. I started the project with a nerdy character which turned out to be wrong for the character and not work in the scene, I changed my character over the weeks making Maria progressively more relaxed and free eventually ending up with a more teenage girly girl who has banter with her class mates. in my scene where I say "he is a fair young man and well attended." I decided to hint that my character has a crush on Sir Toby who she is referring to. I decided to do this due to my research into the play where I learnt that my character ends up in a relation ship with Sir Toby, therefore she would have a crush on him when she first saw him.

Themes "Twelfth Night"

The themes of Twelfth Night are very simple even though they represent confusing situations such as mistaken identity.  The main theme in this play has to be mistaken identity as it is the foundation of the play.  This theme is seen in modern television today and is a widely used subject for modern drama such as “the parent trap” which is also based on twins.  Mistaken identity is a very good subject matter in my opinion as Shakespeare was able to construct a whole play around it whilst keeping an audience entertained for two and a half hours. Mine, Chloe's and Ryan's extract doesn't contain this theme but a good example of this would be Jess's scene where she plays a girl playing a man.

 The theme of disguise flows through this plays not only through the character Viola but also with Feste when he visits Malvolio in prison. Also Malvolio’s tights and garters act as a personality disguise when he is trying to woo Olivia. This leads me back to mistaken identity as this costume is very feminine and highlights how people can be sexually ambiguous. Sexual ambiguity was briefly highlighted in out piece when Ryan puts the cloth over his head like a nun as he talks to Olivia.  Cross dressing goes on a lot in this play and is still a very common thing today as we have drag queens and cross gendered people, this subject is socially accepted now and this is how this play would be modernized as it acts as a musical comedy anyway throwing a drag queen in there would just add to is whilst also modernizing it and it would cater to a modern sense of humor. The cross dressing aspect would have also been a normal thing in Jacobean times as the actors where all male and would have had to cross dress to play women so the people playing Olivia and Maria would also be cross dressed so it would be a very socially excepted thing.  Actors cross dressing is where the idea that male actors are camp Came from and is the past the actors may have been sold for sex as they were skilled at emulating the female form, this portrays the similarities and connections with the past views and modern views which stemmed from each other.  Smaller and wider spread themes such as love are represented in this play as in much of Shakespeare’s other plays like “Romeo and Juliet.” Love acts as a motivator for many of the characters in this play such as Duke Orsino who has a passionate love for Olivia, but quickly falls for Viola making me question if there is another connection with homosexual tendencies with this love plot, as he would have had to develop feelings whilst Viola was a male to fall instantly in love with her when she reveals the truth. After erase arch into my character Maria I found that she and Sir Toby form a real relationship at the end of this play and to highlight this When She says "he's a fair young man and well attended" I looked all lovey Dover as a teenager who has a crush would using my body language to show this by swaying and smiling. Homosexual tendencies arise in the plot of Antonio and Sebastian when Antonio helps Sebastian to the island but doesn’t leave him alone claiming to have some sexual chemistry with him. Grief briefly shows in this through the death of Olivia’s family members and the separation of the twins, the theme of grief is shown in our piece as Olivia makes reference to her brothers death and how sad she is, this is mocked by Feste as he teases Olivia saying her brother won't go to heaven. Love, Grief and greed are all themes in this play which will never become old as they are used in nearly every piece of drama known to man in even the most mundane shows such as children’s shows and light television.  These themes don’t need modernizing as they will always be modern forming the foundation of any story or character.  

Themes "The Tempest"

There are many different themes flowing through The Tempest starting with a overlying theme of power and control highlighted In the text through scenes such as Act 1 scene 2 where Prospero admits to sinking the ship highlighting that he has some much power and control to change people’s fates and manipulate the sea through the help of his magic and Ariel.  Also in Act 5 scene 1 where another character Ariel shows his control over people through putting the men to sleep without their consent, causing them to conform to his power.  This theme is still relevant today as there are still people with immense power who control many aspects of our everyday lives such as the government and the queen, just as in those days where they had royalty and dukes. In mine and Dans piece we don't show the theme of power as the scene is a back and fourth between the two characters, originally we had Prospero looking over us displaying his omnipresence and power over the two characters but this was cut as the character wasn't needed in the scene. Obviously we don’t have real magical powers, but this theme of magic is used in many plays and productions today and shows something much more than human capabilities highlighting maximum power and control that humans wish they had. Magic is a theme that will always be used as it is a theme with a wide variety of things you can do with it from fairies to dragons. We don't use magic in out scene as it doesn't call for it but it flows through the play and this in my opinion is why the play is so popular as everyone likes to see the impossible. 

The theme of betrayal is depicted right from the start of the play when Prospero feels betrayed by his own brother after he is banished along with his daughter Miranda. Also the character of Caliban highlights betrayal as is he not only betrayed by Prospero who entices him with kindness but then turn to betray Prospero’s trust through attempting to rape his daughter. Betrayal comes about for all of the characters such as the two drunken men plotting to kill Prospero and also the king’s men’s mutiny with their plot to kill the King in his sleep highlights betrayal. My character Miranda acts as a symbol for betrayal as Prospero attemps to get her with a prince so she can rise above his enemies and show how he will always rise back into power even if he does this through the medium of his daughter. 

Love is a universal theme which is intertwined throughout all Shakespeare plays for example Romeo and Juliet and twelfth night. Love appears in more than one form in The Tempest between Miranda and Ferdinand in my scene which is the obvious love story of the play but a different kind of love is portrayed between Prospero and Miranda as it is a farther and child love which is unconditional and this is shown through Prospero wanting what’s best for her and aiding her to fall in love with the Kings son. Revenge is a small theme in this play as it appears in such a subtle form, Prospero gets revenge on Caliban for trying to rape his daughter through condemning him to be a slave and taunting him with the concept of magical spirits which are always watching him. 

Revenge is in all of the characters provocative but not all are followed through so this theme falls to the waist side a bit as it’s more the idea of revenge rather than the actual act itself. Lastly Forgiveness is the theme which ends the play as all is forgiven between the characters and they basically all live happily ever after. The play basically comes full circle as Prospero had a strong motive to gain his dukedom back and to give his daughter the life she deserves, when all of this comes to fruition he has no motive to be sinister or evil therefore all he can do is forgive people of their actions and going to live the life he had taken away from him by his brother.   All of these themes still stand today and don’t need modernising as they are wide spread in everyday life and heightened in modern television such as the show “Revenge” where the whole plot is based on: love, revenge, forgiveness and betrayal all themes highlighted in “The Tempest.” I don’t think it will be a struggle presenting these themes to a modern audience as they are widely recognised today and would be easily accepted without a need of modernising.  If you watch any modern television program or play you will see many connotations within them connecting to the themes of this play as they are a good platform to create drama and keep a production interesting.