units 1-4 week 4 and 5
UAL - Level 3 PaPA - Acting Pathway - Unit 1 - 4
~Ilonka Flora
02.10.17
Sharon's lesson:
Who did I work with:
Everyone.
In this lesson, we continued from where we left off with Rob, But mainly scene 5, the party scene. Working as an ensemble understanding when to act a certain way when observing the other actors. We were polishing it off by training how to control the level of 'party' noise to keep the main characters of the scene the main focus. Learning how to control the ambience.
3.10.17
Sharon's Lesson:
Who did I work with:
-Everyone
-Brad, Gabriel and Molly
During the first part of the lesson we discussed as a class what actors do we think have played very contrasting roles but can do both roles impeccably. Names such as Samuel.L. Jackson, Denzel Washington, and Natalie Portman were just a few actors that were spoken about and their ability to execute a character extremely well. We then began to ask how is it they do it...I learnt that you need to know or create your understanding of who the character is, what are they going through, what are their motives and project your understanding of this character into your acting, making it a truly believable piece.
We began to engage this with our own characters from Romeo and Juliet. My character is Lady Montague because her motives appear minor in the play with vague descriptions about her, I was able to conjure my own motives for the character when put into groups of four with Brad, Gabriel and Molly. We decided to come up with a super interesting backstory:
The story begins one night during a party where the Capulets and Montagues are attending, during these times, the Capulets and Montagues were business partners and family friends. During this night a lot changed the relationship between these two families. Firstly Capulet sneaks out of the party early to tend to 'business' whilst Lady Montague stays at home looking after young Romeo. Montague spends most of the night mingling with lady Capulet, resulting in an affair. Later after the party has ended, Montague comes home to an upset Lady Montague letting him know that Capulet double-crossed him and their business, taking 75% of the Montagues' earnings. This is where the feud originates. Lady Capulet fell pregnant with a baby girl however she was insecure not knowing who the child belongs to, which is why Lady Capulet isn't very close with Juliet as a mother as she is a living reminder of her twisted sin. Montague also suspects that there is a possibility she could be his which is another motive for why he doesn't Romeo and Juliet together.
Lady Capulet's guilt pushed her to show kindness to Lady Montague through mingling and gossiping like 'friend's would'.
Lady Montague has her own issues too. Insecurity from not being as financially stable, like the Capulets are. Because of this, her insecurity shows through bragging at parties and whatnot about pieces of garments and pieces of jewellery that her husband 'bought' her. She covertly wants to seduce Capulet to gain more riches in order to feel important. As a mother, she sees Romeo as a normal boy for his age with a healthy mental state which having friends and being interested in romance and parties.
Sharon's lesson
Who did I work with:
-Abdul and Brad
-Everyone
We started the lesson with improv in groups, I was paired with Brad and Abdul. We played our characters from Romeo & Juliet. Our story was me and Brad ( Lady Montague & Montague ) walk through our home speaking about what to eat for dinner when we hear a child playing, Montague sees young Benvolio around 5 years old playing alone and doesn't recognise him and begins to ask who this child is and why they're in their home. Lady Montague finds it funny and explains how it's her nephew from her sister Katherine, Montague is shocked 'When did Kathrine have a baby!?'. He then goes talk about how it's shame that Benvolio's father passed away, revealing a truth that Benvolio didn't yet know.
The next part of the lesson we made notes on what we believe are the minor and major objectives of our characters.
- Lady Montague pic, here shows the backstory from yesterdays lesson being used today.
The minor objective is to keep the peace but the deeper and also the major objective is to keep Capulet safe from harm as she desires to seduce him and gain riches from him which originates from insecurities of not having enough money & riches. From looking below the surface and thinking of details we are creating an emotional memory, which is an early element of Stanislavski's acting method which has become now the main technique of acting. He asked that actors tried t bring emotion and personality to the stage when becoming their character and to try to empathise with them too so they can understand this character and perform it with more strength.
We were polishing off our work, Going over scene 1 a couple times to make the argument between the servants believable and avoid 'corpsing'. When we could get past the first scene fluidly we were able to continue tweaking other parts of the play.
11.10.17
Week 4
02.10.17
Sharon's lesson:
Who did I work with:
Everyone.
In this lesson, we continued from where we left off with Rob, But mainly scene 5, the party scene. Working as an ensemble understanding when to act a certain way when observing the other actors. We were polishing it off by training how to control the level of 'party' noise to keep the main characters of the scene the main focus. Learning how to control the ambience.
3.10.17
Sharon's Lesson:
Who did I work with:
-Everyone
-Brad, Gabriel and Molly
During the first part of the lesson we discussed as a class what actors do we think have played very contrasting roles but can do both roles impeccably. Names such as Samuel.L. Jackson, Denzel Washington, and Natalie Portman were just a few actors that were spoken about and their ability to execute a character extremely well. We then began to ask how is it they do it...I learnt that you need to know or create your understanding of who the character is, what are they going through, what are their motives and project your understanding of this character into your acting, making it a truly believable piece.
We began to engage this with our own characters from Romeo and Juliet. My character is Lady Montague because her motives appear minor in the play with vague descriptions about her, I was able to conjure my own motives for the character when put into groups of four with Brad, Gabriel and Molly. We decided to come up with a super interesting backstory:
The story begins one night during a party where the Capulets and Montagues are attending, during these times, the Capulets and Montagues were business partners and family friends. During this night a lot changed the relationship between these two families. Firstly Capulet sneaks out of the party early to tend to 'business' whilst Lady Montague stays at home looking after young Romeo. Montague spends most of the night mingling with lady Capulet, resulting in an affair. Later after the party has ended, Montague comes home to an upset Lady Montague letting him know that Capulet double-crossed him and their business, taking 75% of the Montagues' earnings. This is where the feud originates. Lady Capulet fell pregnant with a baby girl however she was insecure not knowing who the child belongs to, which is why Lady Capulet isn't very close with Juliet as a mother as she is a living reminder of her twisted sin. Montague also suspects that there is a possibility she could be his which is another motive for why he doesn't Romeo and Juliet together.
Lady Capulet's guilt pushed her to show kindness to Lady Montague through mingling and gossiping like 'friend's would'.
Lady Montague has her own issues too. Insecurity from not being as financially stable, like the Capulets are. Because of this, her insecurity shows through bragging at parties and whatnot about pieces of garments and pieces of jewellery that her husband 'bought' her. She covertly wants to seduce Capulet to gain more riches in order to feel important. As a mother, she sees Romeo as a normal boy for his age with a healthy mental state which having friends and being interested in romance and parties.
4.10.17
Sharon's lesson
Who did I work with:
-Abdul and Brad
-Everyone
We started the lesson with improv in groups, I was paired with Brad and Abdul. We played our characters from Romeo & Juliet. Our story was me and Brad ( Lady Montague & Montague ) walk through our home speaking about what to eat for dinner when we hear a child playing, Montague sees young Benvolio around 5 years old playing alone and doesn't recognise him and begins to ask who this child is and why they're in their home. Lady Montague finds it funny and explains how it's her nephew from her sister Katherine, Montague is shocked 'When did Kathrine have a baby!?'. He then goes talk about how it's shame that Benvolio's father passed away, revealing a truth that Benvolio didn't yet know.
The next part of the lesson we made notes on what we believe are the minor and major objectives of our characters.
The minor objective is to keep the peace but the deeper and also the major objective is to keep Capulet safe from harm as she desires to seduce him and gain riches from him which originates from insecurities of not having enough money & riches. From looking below the surface and thinking of details we are creating an emotional memory, which is an early element of Stanislavski's acting method which has become now the main technique of acting. He asked that actors tried t bring emotion and personality to the stage when becoming their character and to try to empathise with them too so they can understand this character and perform it with more strength.
Week 5
9.10.17
We were polishing off our work, Going over scene 1 a couple times to make the argument between the servants believable and avoid 'corpsing'. When we could get past the first scene fluidly we were able to continue tweaking other parts of the play.
We were in the theatre today, we rehearsed with the Techinal theatre team, whilst rehearsing they controlled the lighting, so we had a gist of what it would be like during our performance on Wednesday.
11.10.17
We started later at 1pm, we rehearsed independently until it was time to perform at 2pm. The evaluation has been posted.
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