Mad, mad world…

 

The subject matter was crucial in the development of my central character……

The subject matter also requested the use of……

Key elemnts of the subkject matter that our group decided to focus on were…

Prompted by the stimulus material…

The development of my character… was based upon…

My decided to represent.. through the use of….

The processes involved in the creation of the ensemble work…

This subsequently led to the creation of the…..

The expressive skills that i select to use for my chaacter were…

These were essesntilal to the realistion of the ….. character because..

so um, here is some notes!

Subject matter: Affected our performance - we played on the spiritual martyr side of Mlk jr because of the addition of song.

Transformation of time and place/disjointed time sequences - we deliberately chose influential persons who existed in very different eras of time and different geographic locations

within the mind/tableau/alternate ending - tied in together and we came up with the idea of inside a news reporters head in the alternate world. We presented their ideas in tableau because of the sporadic, confused nature of thoughts.

narration/song/within the mind/transformation of time and place/disjointed time sequences/episodes: we decided to transcend between episodes of influential people by using the recurring classroom setting, and ‘narrated’ (through song) the thoughts of the classroom children when contemplating their influential person.   

Development of the characters: well, we used MUSIC (the music we used in the cleopatra scene) to help us develop cleopatra - get a feel for her physical movement and how we would stage things around her. we used the EXERCISES ms crg ran in class to help our expressive skills - sitting as our character, speaking as our character, ‘thank god you’re here’ etc etc. we put our characters in the ‘HOT SEAT’ to squeeze out every historical detail we could remember, and then we watched FILMS and READ UP (RESEARCHED) on the person to see how other actors interpreted them, and how we could put our own spin on it.

Epic Theatre: placards, labels, political message (about racial conflict re MLK Jr scene), song, actors playing multiple roles, simple staging, fragmentary costumes, didactic (to teach - we taught the history of these people, and the consequences our thoughts and actions can have)

Non-naturalism: disjointed time sequences, transformation of time and place, tableau, episodes, pathos

Question 1 - Analysis and evaluation of the development of character(s) within the Ensemble Performance
* Analyse the effect the subject matter had on the development of your characters within the e.p
* Evaluate how useful and effective the dramatic and stagecraft elements were to you and your group when you came to develop the characters
* Provide a description of the expressive skills used to portray your character

Question 2 - Analysis and evaluation of the realisation of character(s) within the Ensemble Performance
* Provide an analysis of character portrayal in the realisation of the e.p
* Evaluate the effectiveness of the non-naturalistic relationship between performer and audience

Question 3 - Understanding of the collaborative process involved in the development and realisation of Ensemble Performance
* Give an evaluation of the collaborative process of your e.p
* Analyse the use of n-n construction techniques and devices your group incorporated into the rehearsal process
* Describe how your group incorporated the performance styles and theatrical conventions, give specific reference to those outlined in the subject matter

Dramatic Elements:

Dramatic elements: Luckily, as we planned out our performance, we were all thinking about last years ensemble performance, which had to include symbol and other various dramatic elements very similar to this year, apart form Dax of course, and i think subconciously we created it with symbol, conflict and contrast already incorporated, simply because they fit the nature of non-naturalistic performance. When we reviewed our performance, after roughly blocking the whole thing, we were able to add and refine the symbol, conflict and contrast.  

Climax: The death of Mark Antony

Cleopatra and Mark Antony being ripped apart 

Elizabeth being shouted at by the ‘thoughts’ of the government, her sister Mary Tudor, and the church

Elizabeth being taunted about love.

Battle scene in Alexander(?)

Conflict: The “Whites” and “Blacks” not getting along in the Martin Luther King Jr. scene, signifying our hatred through the very start with our evil looks to one another.

depiction of snakebite, battle scenes

talkling over each other loudly in alternate ending (conflicting thoughts)

Contrast: The actor singing/saying what the main character is thinking to establish “Within the Mind”.

Colours: black and red 

Characters: ATG - military leader - MLK Jr - somewhat of a pacifist/against conflict: Cleopatra - seductress, affairs with more than one man - Elizabeth 1 - cold, untouchable, Virgin Queen, married to her country.

Mood: “Pathos” the audience felt sympathetic for MLKJ when being killed because of his strong belief of what he felt was right.

Rythm: The “heartbeat”, sound of snake in Cleo. and the marching in Alexander.

Sound: Daxie singing the speech, the “SPEAK”-”THINK”-”FEEL”-”DO” musical before each scene and the “tick-tock”.

Space: The use of space in the Elizabeth scene when spinning off to each chair/country.

Symbol: Cleo’s movement symbolized her sexuality.

symbol: red - passion, death, battle, love, blood, royalty, seduction
black - neutral, authority, death, royalty, control
ball - brain, world, (global) power, a thought, birth, royalty
rope - boundaries, struggle, imprisonment, connection of thoughts, death, snake, gunshot
sheet - death, repression (cleopatra?), seduction, the brain, thoughts flying (?)
books - new thought ‘opening’, pictures symbolic of character

crown - royalty, power

cross - church

Timing: The point at which Elizabeth finishes with a loud climax of her control ”England for the English” and then goes into a silent death with no control.

Tension: Alexanders people one min. loving him “long live the king” and then stabbing him in the back “spitting on his ground” causes tension to enhance the performance.

Focus: 5 min. of focus was incorporated for all actors. Also we equalled the amount of focus between the actors so no one had more than the other. eg. the audience was focused on the love connection between daxie and I which created pathos and gained emotion. Also not only was the audience focused on the actors but the actors were focused on being their characters.

StageCraft Elements:

Costume: As opposed to our N/N performance we wore our handy blacks, so no real costume was necessary though is was part of our E/T criteria. Instead we incorporate some props such as the “black and red sheet” as a robe and the crown for Elizabeth to enhance the performance. Props were indicative of minor characters eg

Cross - church official

Ball - current govt power

Labels - countries of Rome and Egypt, represention population groups Black, White and Everyman

Sheet and placard - oracle

Properties: Are main props that were used throughout the performance. THESE WERE USED TO ENHANCE CHARACTERS SEE: COSTUME - They were: the red ball (brain/world/dominance),red and black sheet (death/romance/blood etc..),red rope (death/connection/symbolic figures eg. pyramid etc…),the red books (display of characters),and chairs (deathbed/tomb/countries/hard labour etc…).

Make-up: Though make-up is a part of E/T our proportion of it was slightly small only to enhance the image of the character. eg. cleo’s cat eyeliner eyes and elizabeths pale and rosy cheeks.

Lighting: The lighting was the same for all the performances which was a brightly lit stage with the ability to see the whole front row audience.

Sound: The only sound that was used as a stagecraft element was the music of the song ‘Kissing You’ by Des’ree during the love scene between Cleo and Mark Ant. and the song ‘Destiny’ by Take 6 for introduction to Cleopatra and the way her Egypt existed.

good luck!

em xoxo

Well guys here are a few notes we can bring in for our sac. Also please add in anything i have missed or correct me on anything that you feel is wrong. Good Luck!

*CRITERIA- MARKING SHEET WITH “A”.

*SUBJECT MATTER- RED SHEET “WITHIN THE MIND”

KEYTERMS:

• Detailed: name, explanation, and example. eg: symbol (ball), represents the brain, and incorporated before every character scene in the performance.
• Analysis: To analyse something means to examine something in detail. To do so you break it down into its important parts and then look at what is going on in each one. You are asking yourself “how” and “why” something occured and what this might mean.
• Evaluation: To evaluate something means to appraise it. To do so you place a value or make a judgement about its worth and its quality.
• Description: To describe is to create for the reader an unbiased impression. A description does not require an opinion from you about the topic. Instead it is the facts that are recorded.
• Development: Progression of performance, background used, and how we grew. (start to finish)
• Enhance: to improve or intensify the quality of something. eg. the red contact on the ball made it stand out.
• Application: The way you applied yourself on stage. eg. dramatic and stagecraft elements used to fufil criteria.
• Manipulated: The way we manipulated Subject Matter, stagecraft, and dramatic elements. (we had control)
• Portrayed: The way an actor conveys or represents a character to the audience. eg. Pathos was incorporated through the audience engaging sympathy during love scene of non-naturalism.
• Critical: Facts with opinion. Critical analysis of subject matter. eg. would have prefer to incorporate more tablue.
• Developemental Stages: (Construction Techniques)
• Non-naturalism: Disjointed Time Sequence, contrast, character transformation, min. prop, relation to audience.
• Epic Theatre: Didactic (to teach something), symbolic, partial makeup to character.

Criteria 1.

Subject Matter: 

• Max number 32min.
•  clearly lit stage
• Expressive skills should communicate the non-naturalistic characters within the ensemble performance. Stagecraft elements should not dominate, but rather be used to define and enhance the non-naturalistic performance.
• Theme- We are what we think, All that we are arises with our thoughts, With our thoughts we make the world.
• Setting- Within the Mind
• Performance Style- Non-Naturalism with aspects or Epic Theatre
• Theatrical Conventions- Narration,song,transformation of time and place,tableau,disjointed time sequence, episodes.
• Dramatic Elements-Contrast,symbol,conflict
• Background-Explore one or more influential persons in history whose thoughts have helped make the world.
• Plot-
• Explore the thoughts and subsequent actions of one or more influential persons in history.
• Show the impact of these thoughts in making and/or changing both the world of the influential person(s) and that of the world around him/her/them.
• Explore the possible outcome(s) if the person(s) had alternate thoughts which led to different decisions being made.

The effects that the subject matter had was concentrating on that 5 min. of focus and tablue.

Development of character: We as the actor needed to ”BE” the character, meaning gathering as much information as possible to gain knowledge of what are characters are truelly about and also being able to incorporate it through the diff. elements. eg. Cleopatra is a seductive but controlling woman therefore by using the string through the love scene it exposes her sexuallity but it also unravels the other side of cleopatra that she is known for. She as a ruler when she uses those strings to gain control over her men (puppetry) and there by defines her character.  

Dramatic Elements:

Climax: The death of Mark Antony when commiting suicide through his emotion.

Conflict: The “Whites” and “Blacks” not getting along in the Martin Luther King Jr. scene, signifying our hatred through the very start with our evil looks to one another.

Contrast: The actor singing/saying what the main character is thinking to establish “Within the Mind”.

Mood: “Pathos” the audience felt sympathetic for MLKJ when being killed because of his strong belief of what he felt was right.

Rythm: The “heartbeat”, sound of snake in Cleo. and the marching in Alexander.

Sound: Daxie singing the speech, the “SPEAK”-”THINK”-”FEEL”-”DO” musical before each scene and the “tick-tock”.

Space: The use of space in the Elizabeth scene when spinning off to each chair/country.

Symbol: Cleo’s movement symbolized her sexuality.

Timing: The point at which Elizabeth finishes with a loud climax of her control ”England for the English” and then goes into a silent death with no control.

Tension: Alexanders people one min. loving him “long live the king” and then stabbing him in the back “spitting on his ground” causes tension to enhance the performance.

Focus: 5 min. of focus was incorporated for all actors. Also we equalled the amount of focus between the actors so no one had more than the other. eg. the audience was focused on the love connection between daxie and I which created pathos and gained emotion. Also not only was the audience focused on the actors but the actors were focused on being their characters.

StageCraft Elements:

Costume: As opposed to our N/N performance we wore our handy blacks, so no real costume was necessary though is was part of our E/T criteria. Instead we incorporate some props such as the “black and red sheet” as a robe for Elizabeth to enhance the performance.

Properties: Are main props that were used throughout the performance was: the red ball (brain/world/dominance),red and black sheet (death/romance/blood etc..),red rope (death/connection/symbolic figures eg. pyramid etc…),the red books (display of characters),and chairs (deathbed/tomb/countries/hard labour etc…).

Make-up: Though make-up is a part of E/T our proportion of it was slightly small only to enhance the image of the character. eg. cleo’s cat eyeliner eyes and elizabeths pail and rosy cheeks.

Lighting: The lighting was the same for all the performances which was a brightly lit stage with the ability to see the whole front row audience.

Sound: The only sound that was used as a stagecraft element was the music of the “romeo and juliet” song during the love sing and the “egyptian type music” for the exposture of the true goddess herself “Cleopatra”. “woot-woot ahhhh”

Criteria 2:

Realisation of character: They way in which the characters were purtrayed on stage. eg: Elizabeth was a untouchable, relentless (didn’t stop) woman this was known through expressive skills.

Expressive skills: The class mates were all amazed when first opening their books with a happy grin and a ..ahhhh.

Stagecraft Elements: The way in which the stagecraft element was used to help create the character. eg. Elizabeth had a crown which showed her dominance and then in the end when it was taken from her it showed her powerlesses.

Relationship/Interelationship between audience and performer:

• Didactic Technique: the use of the plaque cards to teach the audience.
• We added pathos because it was a non-naturalistic technique but this hindered the ‘alienation effect’ which is an epic theatre convention because we didn’t expect the audience’s emotional response.

Criteria 3:

Collaboration process: Our group worked really well together as opposed to a few of the other groups. Rehearsal did lead to a bit of discomfort amongst a few members because of the controversy of incorporating a certain scene.

Construction techniques:

Specific- Stanislavski-The Magic If, Emotional memory, circle of attention.

Epic-Didactic,Use of fact, no improvisation in performance (include factural research, script and structure)

-make a judgement on how successful these techniques were used.

-be specific to NN construction techniques.

*bounces off walls*

This is some much needed back tracking from me, due to my recent lack of blog updates, so here goes.

The days leading up:

Main trouble was position of props and “clean” use of them as well. Troubles were that once the props were used, there wasn’t an exact spot where to leave them and so they were easy to trip up/walk over so that was a major problem. Also, some of the props had to be fixed up before the performances (books) but that was nothing too major.

Tableu was a BIG problem. We decided on definate scenes where to actually have tableu, which also helped in lengthening the performances (originally 15-16mins). There was *atleast* 1 scene of tableu for each episode, some scenes had more (eg, Alexander, Elizabeth.)

Scenes:

Alexander: WE FINALLY GOT THAT FINISHED! Polished that up and we were all quite happy with how that turned out. In my opinion, I saw much of the NN side of things come out in this scene.

Cleopatra: Added music and ran in through in the “love” scene. Ran perfectly, only real glitch we had in that was the tagging of the countries, rope (both in draping it over Cleopatra, and the pulling of the countries except that was brilliantly fixed) and draping of the cloth, except that too was fixed.

Elizabeth: Major changes in that scene but content stayed the same. Put in something to represent her walking/making her way/show her power, by having her walking on chairs. Kinda like a catwalk. Including a handclapping scene (mockery, taunting, etc). Changes with the whole adversary countries, pulled it off incredibly well!

Martin Luther: The song got done at the last minute. Some of the roles were changed around and it worked just as effectively. We didn’t go with doing harmonies for the song since it would be too messy and possibly risky so we left it as call and responce. No real major changes in Martin Luther.

Alternate Ending:

Update more later…

Subject Matter: (Slightly edited, nothing major chopped)

Theme
We are what we think.
All that we are arises with our thoughts.
With our thoughts we make the world. (Buddha)

Setting
Within the mind.

Performance Style
Non-naturalism, with aspects of Epic Theatre.

Theatrical Conventions
Narration, song, transformation of time and place, tableau, disjointed time sequences, episodes.

Dramatic Elements
Contrast, symbol, conflict.

Background
Explore one or more influential persons in history whose thoughts have helped make the world. 

Plot

• Explore the thoughts and subsequent actions of one or more influential persons in history.
• Show the impact of these thoughts in making and/or changing both the world of the influential person(s) and that of the world around him/her/them.
• Explore the possible outcome(s) if the person(s) had alternate thoughts which led to different decisions being made.

Example key phrases to use:

The Subject matter was crucial in the development of my central character … to incorperate particular Theatrical Conventions, Dramatic Elements and also to help select a particular character in which to portray. The subject matter would we what we would need to incorporate into out central character as well as what we will be marked against.

Key Elements of the subject matter that our group decided to focus on were … tranformation of time and place, symbol, conflict, disjointed time sequences and tableau.

The development of my character [Eg. Alexander] was based upon … Alexander was based on research and expressive techniques to express the character and also conflict (Alexander was a man of war, fighting, battles etc…)

My group decied to represent [Eg. Symbolism] through the use of … The colour red (red rope, red/black cloth [also symbolistic of netural prop when represented on the black side], red ball.] All which were incorperated into each character’s episode. (Alexander: Gordian Knot, Cleopatra: Pulling of countries, Seperation from Marc Antony, Elizabeth: Sanity, Prejudice, MLK: Chains of oppression, “gun”.)

- Emma

whelp, i don’t even think we should blog anymore seeing as…it’s over…but this is just a li’l note to say, i don’t believe there has been any thoughts in our head unrelated to this ensemble in the last week.

and lovely to meet you avila girls!

oh. my. goodness. you all did SO well. avila groups, slaac, and my gorgeous, fantastic, awesome ceed-mates. well done!

and now we never have to do them again YES!

good luck with the analysis guys

em(ily) xoxo

AAAAAAAAARRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I’m not angry, just a little hyper…2 more sleeps to go, and i better get off the computer soon so we can practice early tomorrow. well cuz of stupid open day we’ll have to just snatch any minutes of practice we can - we still have to polish the alternate scene and go thru the cleopatra music. this week so far has been awesome so far though - we have worked pretty much solidly from the moment we schedule to rehearse.

thanks for blogging guys! cya tomorrow

emily xoxo

Well firstly I’d like to say.. Ooo yeah sugar hunny babaa yeah! (my group knows what im doing right now).. lOl We are finally getting our s**t together. I’m so happy. Today in class we used the foyah space which was really helpful. Hard to work with two groups on stage but it helped us to get into focus. Also we extended our alternative scene.. by incorporating tabloe which we really needed to do. Rehearsal at free and recess was also very helpful.

At Emily’s house, we did so much. We finally made the alexander scene look good .. which was my main concern. Also we were confused on where to locate our props so it is easy enough to access in the next scene and not cluttered everywhere. So today we spent the time polishing the alexander and cleopatra scene in which we went through slowly so we new who was going to take each prop when finished. Also daxi brought a song that went well with the love connection between mark antony and cleopatra which i felt went really well with the climax in which mark antony commits suicide and cleopatra is left defending herself against Rome. All up the amount of work accomplished today was supurb and i am keen to see how we will do with the elizabeth and martin luther scenes tomorrow. hopefully by adding new ideas to extend the time and polish them so they look great! Can’t wait till rehearsal tomorrow morning guys. Eat a gOOd breakfast so we can get those ideas flowing~ 

xo calli

3 nights to go… today’s practices were really good today (EXCELLENT!!!).. we had time today to spend the theatrette just to get adjusted to the amount of area we have for our performance. it was a little hard today as we had to practice with S.L.A.A.C at the same time we were doing ours, but it gave us a chance to really focus on what we were doing ie. gesture, voice, sync etc.. guys we really need to CONCENTRATE and LISTEN to each other!! in order for us to polish our performances. apart from that, we achieved a lot of extra crucial elements, such as tableau for our alternate scene which i’m pretty impressed with (GOOOOOD!!).
practice @ emily’s house was really good again.. we worked out some idea of the positions for our props. so it not so messy on stage which is good.. also we polis ALEXANDRA SCENE (*my crazy laugh) which was really awesome, go CEED, and i came up with an idea to incorporate more movements for marc anthony and cleo through a song??? climax? anyway i’m going to finish working on the music for that.. tomorrow morning should be another fantastic session so.. goodnite ;)

the DAX

Thursday’s class:

Today was the day where we finally showed our whole performance. Meaning everything counted. Any aspects of Epic theatre eg. makeup and we had to acknowledge the little things such as black socks or NO socks and black undies or NO undies (pretty much the group looks the same). All up i think our performance went ok.. except that i did have some issues. If this was the performance that we were showing on the actual night i think I would be a bit disappointed because we as a yr.12 drama class should be familar with what is required in ensemble performances. Considering we did them last yr.

There were improvements needed such as:

•  The transition between the characters. (making it clean/flowing together)
• The way in which props were just left on stage when not needed.
• The ability to remain in focus.
• Extending the amount of tabloe.
• The alternative scene needed cleaning up and extending.
• The Martin Luther King Jr. song needed to be polished and memorized.
• We didn’t reach that 5min central focus for each individual.
• And last but certainly NOT least… ITS TOO SHORT!!!!

Other than that.. that is why Ms. Craig had us do our entire performance before hand. So we can recognize and fix what is needed by achieving everything that is required in the criteria but also having the abilty to reflect our GREAT acting skills.. (yeah i know.. we are super stars..) I also have to say that i’m proud of our group this morning by coming in early and getting these props finished. Fantastic effort.. Its called Team commitment! Which will later show success in the end.

xo calli

today’s rehearsal today was cancelled due to MOTHER’S DAY (”Happy Mum’s Day”) so i decided to reflect on how our practice performance went on Thurs-day.

to me, i thought our group performance was awesome!! but there are some bits that we need to really work on such as our time - we are about 12minutes too short! and each persons 5min aren’t obviously focused.
- martin luther king jr scene really needs to be polished a bit more, especially my song.
we got our props (books) done, which was realli good as it allowed us to fiddle around with them and incoporate them in our performance, yet we still have to establish where they are going to be left around on the stage.

Overall.. i think for the next practices that we have, we will really need to work hard!

the DAX