11th nov the tempest

Today was a very productive day for me and Dan because we got lots of blocking done which took our piece from being very bland and simple to a lot more lively and interesting for an audience to watch. We have had a very planned and set out blocking for this scene for a while now and in this lesson we developed this and thought about our characters and how they would wove in the space in correlation to their attitude and approach to things. For example my character Miranda is a very free spirit who is very child like and playful in her physicality, after performing our scene to the class i was told in my feedback that i need to be more 'fairy like.' I have been working on this in the lesson and think i have achieved a more flowing and girly physicality through walking with my shoulders held back and being lighter on my feet. In this lesson we added lots of different blocking ideas and i decided to use the set more than we have been in the past, on the line "pray, rest yourself hes safe for these three hours" I jump up onto the stage blocks with my legs swinging and relaxed this created interesting levels in the scene and through me and Dan crossing over in this section it keeps it interesting and makes it less static and awkward like it was the first time we performed it. Also me and Dan have been thinking about our character connection as when we started we acted like two goof friends rather than two young lovers and this makes all the difference in a performing context. To create more of a love connection which comes through clearly in the performance we added playful chasing into the scene and suspense moments where Dan and i get really close to the point were we are almost touching and then one of us walks away. We didn't do those in our performance in front of the class as we are yet to perfect it and feel completely comfortable doing it without bursting out laughing. I still have a long way to go in my characterization and i will be working on the points which i was given in my observation feedback, for example i need to be less breathless in some parts of the scene where i get a bit carried away in the Shakespeare aspect of it all and put on a bit of a Shakespeare voice which i need to stop.