G-Pilot

WEEK 3 

Sophie:

Playing this character is proving to be harder and harder. Like many of the chararcters Sophie has something to hide which at times, shows through. This underlying theme throughout the play, of hiding emotions with the personas we each put on is a key element to the connections made by the audience between the reactions of each character within the void to the memories selected.

The part I am finding most difficult is identifying times within the void which cause Sophie to go into her shell or come out. The stress of the situation is causing her to let her guard down at times but also tighten up as well.

 Sophie: I have a cut… here.

Alex: What?

Sophie: Nothing… it doesn’t matter!

There are several times in the first scene of the void where we see Sophie unknowingly open up and then quickly cover up what she sees as her ‘weakness’ with a harsh disconnected tattitude and tone. It is essential that the audience sees the difference between Sophie’s real feelings and the persona she puts on.

After blocking the first scene it is obvious that Sophie is filled with insecurity. This again brings up two options:

1. Taking on the ever difficult technique of playing Sophie as if she is covering her feelings about herself and her mother. Effectively acting as someone who is acting. (AAAAHHHHH!!!!)

2. Sophie is no longer herself in her memory and IS the 12 year-old girl. This means changing character completely and conveying youth and innocence.  

The void scenes are dead. Sophie is dead in these scenes. With little lines and not a lot of direct contact with other characters. She is invisible. My personal task for the next week is to bring her to life. I as well as some of the other actors are caught in this mind-set that if we are not being spoken to we are not reacting. Realistically Sophie’s mind is scattering causing a lot of figdeting and the need to explore her environment. There are also these three other people in the space with her who are complete strangers. A good excercise to liven up the space may be an improvisat of the scene so that there are no restrants on movements or diologue.

Lighting:

Adding onto my ideas last week about the use of shadows and through so, changing the dimensions of the stage I have built on the feel for ’Alex’s memory’. The normally bright stage for the void transforms to a blackout with centre spotlight to accentuate the change in environment. As the race goes on and Alex’s emotions run higher the light goes through a series of changes until it hits the climax (perhaps red) and then snaps back to the white void. The discussion in class as to whether it should snap straight back into the scene or have a slow fade was helpful as I was leaning toward the minority. Once a decision such as that is made it cuts down ideas and allows more specific thinking.

There is also some talk among the company as to the assignment of specific colours to each characters memories. This will be a good technique from the actors point of view as it helps the audience to identify with a colour connected with a character. It also helps the actor with their own changes in mood and feeling (something which is at work during any change in set or lighting).

Extras:

Watching class dinamics has been very interesting this week with the first real introduction of blogs as well as conflicts with ideas on various aspects of production of ‘100′. Theatre groups tend to bring together a wide mix of personalities (which is evident), who each react to things in different ways. E.g. constructive critism. The way in which we each take this on board is a good tell of character, as is the way we dispell it. Reading peoples blogs is an excellent way to identify this.

I don’t think there are a lot of clashes in the class which is good but there are a lot of people with leadership qualities which is not good. As a result there are a lot of poeple unwilling to make comprimises when it comes to their deligated area. Be objective. We all need to be willing to sacrifice our own ideas and i recommend perhaps taking a moment this week to step back to look and listen to the other people in the group.

Please feel free to leave feedback.

Pilot.

WEEK 2 

Sophie:

Through reading the script i picked up on something very interesting. “I’ve been here before.”, “I think so yes. This sensation… it’s familiar.” These lines, in the opening void, is the beginning of various links to Sophie’s chosen vision and her illness.

Sophie’s life is over-run with routine and consistancy. The memory which alows her to move to the after life is one of complete randominity. It occurs during her time in a coma. It is a dream but more like reality. During her time in a coma, Sophie touches on the after-life which is why she think she has “been here before.”

 Sophie’s life is a reflection on her personality - controlled. Everything she does she has manipulated to be that way. Nothing she does is random and it is because of that - that she is so unhappy. Thus the memory of her sucess during her second flashback is declined by the guide.

Sophie’s reaction to ‘the void’ is going to be very different to those around her due to her controlling personality (depicted above). She is going to feel very insecure and out of her comfort zone which means that she will break out like a rash. I use the word rash as a metaphor because often people suffering from nervousness or uncertainty may break out with one. Sophie will do the same thing to deal with her emotions but in a more physical way, e.g. scratching, fidgeting. Because her emotions are running wild she is also suffering angry outbursts which is uncharacteristic of her everyday life, “I wish he’d stop that!”

OR
She may go about her new surroundings, in the way she does everything else, calmly. Sophie may treat this as she would any other challenge in her life - an obstacle she must overcome whilst being as proffesional and detached as possible, making her surroundings un-important and out of mind. This take on the character of Sophie would be much more difficult to play, as it would be hard to justify her actions if the character is not fully developed and understood by the audience.  

SET AND LIGHTING

Receiving the photos of the Mechanics Institute Theatre was a great help in setting a picture of the space we have to use and the strategies we can employ to create a visual deception. The idea discussed of having a long backdrop which creates a curve joining with the floor, giving the set the impression it goes on forever is in my opinion a great idea. The photos from the set of ‘Ameture’s guide to Pornography’, with just a straight 90 degree wall-floor angle, show the potential for visual effects.

The stage, in my opinion (influenced by the set of ‘Ametures guide to Pornography’, should be dressed to the bare minimum. The after-life, when appearing in movies, is a very pure (white) place, or a place of wild fantasies, filled with colour and the unimaginable. My ideal set would be and empty black space, with black walls on either side creating and angle going out to the audience. The actors would then be dressed in very basic outfits in a neutral shade of  cream or beige. The idea of this is draw attention to the actors and to imagine what it is that they are seeing and feeling.

“I enjoy transformation of every type whether of characters, objects or space through the actors’ imaginations and those of the audience”.  - Christopher Heinmann.

The lighting is key to the stage setting as well as the over-all feeling of the play.The use of bright colours and many of then can create a very ‘out of this world’ experience. It can be also used during memories as symbolism for the kind of memories and characters being played as well as the emotions being amphasized. Lighting is great in this way as by using a small shade of one colour, mixed in with a large shade of another can draw attention to perhaps a underlying theme in a particular scene, and though the audience may not be aware of it their mood is altered.

The other option in lighting is simply going with the basic white lights but in different magnitudes. Using this effect once again draws back to the bareness referred to in the costume and set section. it also makes the shadows of people and objects more defined and obvious.

A large part of lighting, shown by my research is going to be creating the illusion of depth and dimensions via the shadows of the set and props.

‘Lighting designer Adam Crosthwaite, using relatively few instruments, achieves marvellous effects, particularly when the shadow of a stick changes with the position of the sun leading Ketu to believe the sun orbits around the earth.’

The above statment is from a review of the original show, ‘100′, produced in London. It is going to be inspiration for many of the lighting effects used throughout the different scenes. Using this technique the set will be altered without actually being altered which will not only be extremely interesting to the audience but simple to do. 

These are my ideas so far and though put in very ‘black and white’ bending and mixing concepts will be inevitable in a group driven process such as ours. I hope at least some of the concepts I have come up with are appealing but if not please do not be afraid to disagree as I am aware that compromise is apart of our ‘team’ decision making process.

On a side note I would like to say that blocking is moving too slow. I understand that it is a time-consuming and needed process but there is too muchenphasis from the company on the delivery of lines and acting in general. Can we please keep in mind that the blocking is a the building block for the development of characters and though you may have great ideas on how to better a character’s scene or line, please leave it until running of the show begins as it is important for the actor to understand and create their own character. At that time constructive critisism and advice will be much appriciated.

I urge you to please leave feedback or a note for discussion.

Gemz (pilot).

WEEK 1 

Day 1:

On the first day of most classes a certain amount of shyness and modesty is expected. Well not in theatre studies! Within the first few seconds I, as well as 3 other poor souls, were bombarded with a hammer of noise. Yes, noise - the sound of people yelling over one another to create one large bit of sound. AND I LOVED IT! Theatre studies class, as it would appear to me, is like a dark dirty bar with an old daggy music selection. A place where you can go to let your hair down and not be recognised by anyone from the outside world. Everything said within that P2 classroom is confidential and saved from the world. On a more serious note, by the elimination of several of our selected plays, ‘100′ seems to be the choice. I look forward to beginning production.

 Day 2

The best lesson of theatre studies I have ever experienced took place today. We read through our recently elected senior play, ‘100′. the read through is always a good indication of what the affect on the audience will be like. If we are shocked then they will be shocked, or if we are inspire they too will be inspired. For me, the read through was quite difficult but very fun. It is always hard doing the read through with no prior knowledge of the circumstance or history of the time and character, so, as I read through I started to change my character and guess the direction of each line. I think that the roles given to people as a trial were perfectly suited and in some, perhaps even similar to their actual personality. The character i read for, Sophie, is HARD!!! But also challenging and I am always willing to take up a challenge and have no doubt that it will all ‘come good’. She is an emotionally deep character who is isolated from the rest of the characters and is very hidden, which is something very difficult to portray on stage. The use of only bamboo sticks and an orange for props is a very interesting concept at the moment but i am very eager to find out more. And finally, I am interested in the physicality of the play. With the changes in setting and times, the creation of the different scene with merely bamboo sticks and an orange will be interesting.

Day 3

Today we discovered the wonderful world of Vine Blogs! I am not very knowledgable in the ways of the internet so today was a pretty hard lesson for me, however, i am very eager to learn. I am glad that vine blogs is used for this class because it gives us a forum to discuss the our progress and unlike myspace, it is exclusive and private. It is also great having the ability to discuss and confer with fellow victorian theatre studies students, and all available in the one place.

 Day 4

Today’s lesson was one of the more tame. It wasn’t what is so far considered a ‘typical’ theatre studies class but more a necessary class. We, as a group went through times and dates for the production as well as lesson plans leading up. We also briefly talked about budget and managing money which is an interest for me. I really enjoy working with numbers, particularly money, so i am excited to get stuck into the budgeting, working out how much money can go into what areas and how much will be needed to make back in ticket sales, etc.

 Day 5

Our class routine is now beginning to take form with the warm up games being established. ‘The mole’ is the first game on our list. It is always very interesting watching people lie and decieve and seeing who does it well/not well. The class is filled with so many different characters and therefore there are so many different tactics used in the game. I think as we play this game more often we will tend to see a pattern emerge in the order of which people ‘go out’. The people who tend to swarm to the ball tend to be trusted perhaps because they seem to not be hiding anything, where as the more quiet and mysterious people are un-trustworthy. The budget for the production was also semi-established this afternoon. We are really going to have to gain a lot of support from the people in the school if we are going to be able to make back the expense of the entire process. Key to gaining this support, in my opinion, is going to be promotion through the musical. The musical gets a very high attendance each year and perhaps more this year because of the popularity of the selected musical, attracting that same support to our play will be crucial.

Gemma.

I am welcoming any advice or constructive critisism on a way to better my blogs, so feel free to leave a comment. thank you.

hi everyone from theatre girls 2007! this is gemma’s new vine blog page.