Week 12: N2C

Reviewing the performance

We performed on the 15th of December to an audience of around 40 people. Before we went on, our director, Lindsay, asked us to get into character and do some quiet line run-throughs with people that we had scenes with. I went through a scene with Jay which involved a lot of movement that we rehearsed in a small space by ourselves. Whilst we were doing this, we discussed how we react to each other and how we could make these actions bigger. We concluded that we needed to angle our bodies towards the audience so that the audience would get the full impact of the movement and also, move slightly more apart so that our actions would hit the other person. After this I went through the final scene which was between me and King. We wanted to get the space in between each of our lines as small as possible so that the audience would be engaged right to the end. 

When directing the last scene, Lindsay said that she wanted Mouse's reactions to King to be completely juxtaposing to her reactions in the quiz scene. My reactions to King in the quiz scene were exaggerated to make it look like I was disgusted when he didn't know the answer to some of the easiest movie quote answers like Star Wars and Titanic. So in the last scene, I had to still keep some of the disbelief in the straight answers that were in response to some detailed questions but also create a friendly atmosphere that made the audience feel welcomed as the relationship between Mouse and King had changed. We needed to show the development of their relationship throughout the play and show that they went from being enemies in the film and then to being the co-directors of the play. We tried to show some of the relationship development through King directing some of his questions towards Mouse. For example, once he's shown the whole group his new film, which is around the middle of the play, he asks Mouse for her opinion on the film which shows King's developing his appreciation of Mouse's knowledge and experience with film.

One of the scenes that I thought went particularly well was the scene where the cast is introduced to the Platinum Class cinema screens. I think that the Godber style was clearly shown throughout this scene as it was labelled at the start and also many different stereotypes were shown when the new class was introduced. For example, Fish was over exited, Mags didn't really care and Spike and Elton looked as though they thought that they'd played a huge part in the creation of Platinum Class when they actually had nothing to do with it and just watched King make it instead. In this scene, I was the only character that didn't seem impressed or appreciated how amazing this was as, at Mouse's old cinema all of the cinema suites were like Platinum Class as so Mouse was impressed because this was what she was used to. 

A scene that I think could have done with some improvements was the montage scene as that was only directed quite late on in the process and some characters, like me, weren't given any specific directions or lines to say which resulted in, firstly me just being frozen in position and I had to tell some of the cast members what action they should do and in conclusion all of the characters final position was them all frozen in the same arm position but in the reverse hierarchy position.

I think that the hierarchical staging was a good way of showing the uprising of Mouse and also how the hierarchy changed from beginning to the end. It clearly showed the audience who was at the top of the food chain and who was at the bottom with the positioning of the characters. For example at the start, I was laid on the floor because I was a Plankton which was at the bottom of the food chain but when we got into the reverse hierarchy position, I was stood in place of King who is a Buff and at the top of the food chain.

Overall I feel that the performance went well from my perspective as an actor as all the Godber aspects were shown clearly and there were hardly any mistakes that were made. The space between lines were quite short and all of the staging movements went as smoothly and the audience were laughing the whole way through the performance, which was one of the main goals we were aiming for.

Week 11: Classwork

Monday

Mondays lesson is only an hour and so we use this lesson to go over the start sequence that we had previously created and make sure that we had remembered the directions that we were given when we had performed it the first time. We also tried to shorten the amount of time that it took us to complete the whole sequence from start to finish because the first section took us 5 minutes but we didn't want to use 5 minutes just to introduce the characters to the audience so we wanted to compress the opening sequence to under 3 minutes.

We did this by closing down the gap between each pair or group of people who walked in to the room and also the queue for the prologue to start talking was for the one who was playing Antigone to sit down so we tried to make that quicker so that the play would flow better and we could keep the audience intrigued. 

Wednesday

Because Wednesdays lesson is two hours, we use this is add new content to Antigone. We started to go through the prologue's speech and pick out the lines that we thought would be key lines for adding elements to the play and we also tried to make the staging as interesting as possible.

When the prologue's speech begins Antigone is sat cross-legged at the front right-hand side of the stage as she has separated herself from the rest of the group. We were asked to think of a sentence that our actor character would react to the news of whoever was sat at the front becoming Antigone. We had to imagine that this play and the actions involved were real, so we hide to truly believe that whoever was given the position of Antigone was going to die and the other characters involved were going to bury her alive, which would lead to her dying by her own hand.

The first time that we did this I was sat as Antigone and I had to think of a sentence that I would say once I was given the role of Anitgone. My sentence was "I wanted this, and I've got it."

In my head, I was hoping that it was me and so when it was given to me I decided that I would step up to the plate and completly immerse myself in the character in Antigone as whilst there were things going on in the background and so I sat staring forwards accepting the role I had been given and deciding how that should be played and projected to the audience.

In the video that is linked, I wasn't the one who was playing Antigone so I changed my sentence to fit my actor character at this point. My sentence became "It should have been me, she doesn't deserve to die." 

I am another actor who plays Antigone so I wanted to put myself in place of her because I didn't want to put anybody else through that pain and suffering that Antigone goes through and I understand what it's like because I have studied the character of Antigone at the same time as her. I feel the need to put myself before the others and so when she is picked I feel that I should object but you can't go against who was pciked so I try and show the pain that I feel through my facial expressions.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4rp9BVAKVFs&feature=share

Week 10: Classwork

Wednesday

We started to work on the fight sequence that happens after Antigone is found bury her brother. We wanted to create an atmosphere that made the audience feel uncomfortable and as though the situation was out of control, but the actors on stage would be in control of the sequence.

We started off with how we would indicate to the other actors on stage that Antigone would be moving to attack them. We decided that step clearly in the direct that we were going to swing in before moving the stick, we were using sticks to practice instead of metal poles as we weren't confident with the sequence yet, because that would give the people, who were in a range of being hit, enough time to move out of the way before the Antigone tried to swing at them.

The people around the edges of the stage were extra guards that come on after the two main guards to taunt Antigone. The guards were the main culprits for the uncomfortable atmosphere as they hadn't realised the this girl was Creon's niece and so made vulgar comments and made it more of a game for them whereas for Antigone, this is her fantasy and it is all planned out in her head but these guards are getting in the way of that which causes her to lash out at them.

Here's the final product that we came up with:

https://youtu.be/O3WJLzZUEWQ

One improvement that I think we could do next time would be that when Antigone had been detained she could struggle more as I think that it would be infuriating for her to be held down and so instead of just laying there I feel that she wouldn't want to admit defeat and be detained by men who have verbally abused her.