Unit 19 Performance Workshop : The Seagull: September 2016

Tuesday, 27 September 2016

TEXTUAL ANALYSIS LOG

This is a textual analysis log. In this post I will posting any textual analysis I carry out, some things may be seen twice in other log posts however I thought it would be easier to put it all into one post for ease of marking.

FACTS ABOUT ACT 4 – THE SEAGULL

· It is two years later than Act Three

· Masha and Medvedenko visit Konstantin

· Sorin is in poor health

· Paulina says she feels sorry for Masha because of her unrequited love for Konstantin

· Dorn and Medvedenko argue

· Dorn asks Konstantin about Nina

· Treplev tells Dorn that Nina had an affair with Trigorin, became pregnant, the baby died and Trigorin left her for Arkadina whom he was with while he impregnated Nina, cheating on them both.

· Konstantin recounts how Nina played starring roles in summer theatre plays outside of Moscow that moved to the provinces but that she played her parts badly

· Masha went to see Nina but Nina refused to speak to her

· Arkadina and Trigorin enter and Trigorin is friendly to Konstantin

· Konstantin is left alone in his study. He looks over his writing and criticizes himself out loud for being a cliché

· Nina comes through the window to Konstantin

· Konstantin professes love for Nina

· Nina professes to Konstantin her love for Trigorin

· Konstantin shoots himself

HERE IS THE WORK I HAVE DONE ON UNITS AND OBJECTIVES:

UNIT 1

A unit in which Konstantin is overwhelmed by Nina's sudden entrance but is also pleased. He has seen Nina for the first time in a very long time.

Objective: To greet Nina

UNIT 2

A unit in which Konstantin is slightly naive about people coming through the door although Nina is paranoid.

Objective: To reassure Nina

UNIT 3

A unit in which Nina starts to ask Konstantin questions. He tries to flatter and woo her with his feelings.
Objective: To flatter Nina

UNIT 4

d A unit in which Konstantin lets out his anger towards Nina. He questions Nina on why she didn't visit. He tells of his torment and loneliness.

Objective: To get Nina to understand his pains

UNIT 5

A unit in which Nina goes slightly mad. Her speech is fragmented and she begins to lose her train of thought quite a few times. She tries to explain but doesn't succeed.

Objective: To try and understand Nina's torment.

UNIT 6

A unit in which Konstantin professes his everlasting love for Nina. Nina is dismayed and tries to leave swiftly.

Objective: To get Nina to stay

UNIT 7

A unit in which Nina is paranoid about Arkadina intruding. Konstantin seems to answer reluctantly.

Objective: To not let Nina change the subject

UNIT 8

A unit in which Nina questions Konstantin on why he loves her and he slowly starts to let her go.

Objective: Reluctantly let Nina go

CHARACTER PROFILING

After this we then got on to rehearsing our extracts. At first I found it quite difficult to get into the character of Konstantin as he is quite complex, psychologically and emotionally because of all of the stuff he goes through prior to this scene. From research that I've done, Konstantin is aged at "twenty-something." So physically, I didn't think I needed to alter my physicality much. However as I ran the scene I felt it wasn't right and that because of all the emotional torment he is put through, ending in his suicide, that he may have the physicality of someone who considerably older than him. Also, in the script he says "I feel I've been living on this world for ninety years." which is proof that not only he looks older, he also feels it.

I did some more WANT! DO! FEEL! work on my character as well.

WHO? - Konstantin Treplev

WHEN? - 1896

WHERE? - Family estate, Russia.

WHY? - To get away from family so I can write in peace. Also to get Nina to stay in this particular scene.
FOR WHAT REASON? - Because he feels everything he writes is not good enough. He loves Nina and wants to be with her.

HOW? - By trying to explain his feelings to her.

Here are some pictures of my script, I have circled any points where I have put in my actioning (I...you.). You will also find how I split up my script into units:

GIVEN CIRCUMSTANCES:

"The term given circumstances is applied to the total set of environmental and situational conditions which influence the actions that a character in a drama undertakes."

The given circumstances of my scene:

It takes place in the drawing room of the house of the estate.
Konstantin is not in a good mental state
In the scene before, Konstantin was irritated by the rest of the people in the house
It is raining outside
It is evening, around dinner time
It is cold outside
Konstantin still loves Nina, madly.
Konstantin is 28
Nina is 21
Nina is adamant on leaving which frustrates Konstantin

KEY MOMENTS IN MY SCENE :-

Nina enters the room where Konstantin is writing
He begs her to stay, she ignores him
Nina starts to waffle, it is clear she is emotionally and physically exhausted
Konstantin starts to explain the torment he has experienced the few years they had been apart
Nina says she does not feel the same way.
Nina leaves

I have a lot of opportunities in my scene to have some very intimate and emotionally driven moments. I decided it would be best to get my lines learnt and out the way so I can really focus and experiment on how I can say my lines. My actioning and uniting really helped with this.

Tuesday, 20 September 2016

CHEKHOV RESEARCH LOG

Chekhov Fact File

Name: Anton Pavlovich Chekhov

Born: 29^th January 1860

Died: 15^th July 1904

Nationality: Russian

Lived: Taganrog – Southern Russia, Moscow, Ukraine

KEY MOMENTS IN CHEKHOVS LIFE – NON THEATRE RELATED

· In 1876, Chekhov's father was declared bankrupt after overextending his finances building a new house. To avoid debtor's prison he fled to Moscow. The family lived in poverty in Moscow, Chekhov's mother physically and emotionally broken by the experience.

· In 1892, Chekhov bought the small country estate of Melikhovo, about forty miles south of Moscow, where he lived with his family until 1899.

· In March 1897, Chekhov suffered a major haemorrhage of the lungs while on a visit to Moscow. The doctors diagnosed tuberculosis on the upper part of his lung.

· By May 1904, Chekhov was terminally ill with tuberculosis

KEY MOMENTS – WRITING/THEATRE RELATED

Started by writing short humourous sketches and vignettes of Russian life Wrote for papers

The Seagull was written in 1895

OTHER FACTS ABOUT CHEKHOV

He liked to explore heavy issues like love, life and death but does so in a lighthearted, comedic manner.

He was very interested in exploring how people were and how they existed.

Focuses a lot on what happens between the lines - subtext.

Lesson 3 - 20.9.16

Lesson 3 - 20.9.16

To start the lesson we did a relaxation exercise with a partner. One of us had to lay in semi supine whilst the other started to massage the others arms, hands, legs, feet, neck and head. This was just a small exercise to help get nice and relaxed before we get into character.

We then had to get into our partners that we are with for our performance of The Seagull extract. We were instructed to talk about the major events that happen in the scene and make sure we knew what they were. After that, we had to improvise that scene, off script, and with modern language. This helped me to understand the scene and the characters feelings towards each other much better. This is because there wasn't a barrier to me fully understanding as I could carry out the scene in my own language. For example, I could understand how Konstantin really felt about Trigorin as I was free to convey my emotions in a modern setting. As an actor, simple exercises like this can really help improve understanding of a scene.

Afterwards, we then had to look at the script of the extract and divide it into units. "Units of action, otherwise known as bits (or beats), are sections that a play's action can be divided into for the purposes of dramatic exploration in rehearsal." We needed to split our script into units, every time there was a thought change, and write our character's objective for that particular unit. Here is a picture of my script that marks out where I decided to put the units:

Here are my descriptions of each of my Units my character's objective:

UNIT 1

A unit in which Konstantin is overwhelmed by Nina's sudden entrance but is also pleased. He has seen Nina for the first time in a very long time.

Objective: To greet Nina

UNIT 2

A unit in which Konstantin is slightly naive about people coming through the door although Nina is paranoid.

Objective: To reassure Nina

UNIT 3

A unit in which Nina starts to ask Konstantin questions. He tries to flatter and woo her with his feelings.
Objective: To flatter Nina

UNIT 4

d A unit in which Konstantin lets out his anger towards Nina. He questions Nina on why she didn't visit. He tells of his torment and loneliness.

Objective: To get Nina to understand his pains

UNIT 5

A unit in which Nina goes slightly mad. Her speech is fragmented and she begins to lose her train of thought quite a few times. She tries to explain but doesn't succeed.

Objective: To try and understand Nina's torment.

UNIT 6

A unit in which Konstantin professes his everlasting love for Nina. Nina is dismayed and tries to leave swiftly.

Objective: To get Nina to stay

UNIT 7

A unit in which Nina is paranoid about Arkadina intruding. Konstantin seems to answer reluctantly.

Objective: To not let Nina change the subject

UNIT 8

A unit in which Nina questions Konstantin on why he loves her and he slowly starts to let her go.

Objective: Reluctantly let Nina go

CHARACTER PROFILING

I did some more WANT! DO! FEEL! work on my character as well.

WHO? - Konstantin Treplev

WHEN? - 1896

WHERE? - Family estate, Russia.

HOW? - By trying to explain his feelings to her.

Sunday, 18 September 2016

Lesson 2 - 13.9.16

Lesson 2 - 13th September

In today's lesson, we started by doing an exercise in pairs. I was with Sian. We were labelled A and B. A's objective was to get out of the room, and B's objective was to get them to stay. There was no script so we didn't need to speak; we had to have a physical conversation to establish what we want. After a few minutes if this improvisation, we we're then instructed to do exactly the same thing, however we could speak this time. A was only allowed to say No, and B was only allowed to say Yes. We improvised for a few minutes and then were instructed to do all that we have been doing, but to think of a justification - a reason as to why you are having this conversation and to establish the relationship. At the end, we shared our objectives with our partner. My decision was that I'd asked Sian's character to marry me but she had said No. Sian's decision was that she wanted to go out to a party but I wanted to stay in. This exercise was especially useful as you could do a lot of internal work on your character. It also helps you understand that dialogue is not always needed to make an interesting scene. And even when we added dialogue, it was still minimal but very clear. It is a really helpful exercise for developing a character, and really digging deep into something that isn't there initially. This is a method that I definitely with apply when I have to start working on my extract.

After this, we explored Stanislavski's idea of tempo and rhythm. It is an important condition for concreteness and truthfulness in the execution of physical actions and building of truthful character. Must correspond to given circumstances of the scene. We did an exercise based around tempo and rhythm. In a basic form, the tempo of scene is the speed at which the entire scene is moving. If the scene is a busy train station at rush hour in the evening, the tempo of the scene could be pretty fast as there are lots of people around and everyone wants to be somewhere as fast as possible. Rhythm, is a characters personal speed. For example, if there is a character in this rush hour scene who is tired and sluggish, their personal rhythm would be slower than the actual tempo of the scene. On the other hand, if one character is agitated and wants to get home fast, their internal rhythm may be quite high or even faster than the scene's tempo. We did an exercise where we were put into groups and we had to establish a location. My group decided on a train station early in the morning, and that all the trains were delayed. We then had to establish personal characters. My character was a business man who gets slightly agitated when trains are late as I have an important job to get to. A metronome was put on a tempo of 66 bpm. We had to internally decide our personal rhythm and compare it to this tempo as our scene starts to take place. My characters personal rhythm was much higher than the scenes tempo as my character was getting more and more agitated as the train was taking longer and longer to come. Other character decisions in my group consisted of: 2 school kids - friends, discussing rumours from school. Their personal rhythms seemed to be much higher as they are getting more excited as they speak. This is an interesting technique to use for characterisation as you can get a deep insight to your characters tendencies: what irritates them, excites them, bores them etc.. It is very useful to, when blocking a scene, spend some time thinking: "What is the tempo of this scene?" and "What is my character's rhythm?".

In the next exercise we looked at using transitive verbs and physical actions to show literal meanings of characters lines. According to grammar-monster.com, the definition of a transitive verb is: A transitive verb is a verb that can take a direct object. In other words, it is done to someone or something. We used an extract from The Seagull, a scene between Trigorin and Arkadina.

I firstly started off by finding my characters objective as I thought this would really help me find out what he wants. I then had to add the phrase "I ... you" for every single line, and instead of the ellipsis, there would be a transitive verb. For example: I inform you, I mock you. We also had to add an over the top physical action to this phrase to make sure that it stuck and to secure it to the transitive verb. For example, the line: "Release me then.", I decided that "I resist you" was accurate for this line. My physical action was to get down on my knees and physically beg. This helped me as I could link the physical action and it helps you remember the over the top motivation. After performing it while vocally expressing our transitive verb sentences and doing our physical action, we removed them and performed the scene as it normally would. Subconsciously, while performing, you are actually thinking about all the work you've done on the lines and it really really helps you for when it comes to actually performing it.

Here are a couple of sheets we used to help with this transitive verb exercise:

Thursday, 8 September 2016

Lesson 1

In today's lesson we explored different types of Stanislavski' methods. We started by exploring

Melodrama. A dictionary definition of melodrama is: a sensational dramatic piece with exaggerated characters and exciting events intended to appeal to the emotions. Melodrama is usually a type of drama that most audience members can't relate to as it is so exaggerated.

In the 18th century, melodrama was usually a spoken word piece accompanied by music. However by the end of the 19th century, melodrama had died down to a specific genre of salon entertainment: basically rhythmically spoken words. This exercise helped me understand melodrama a lot better and understand that it used to be a very popular genre of theatre.

After this exercise, we then partnered up and were instructed to stand one behind the other, with the person behind's hand on the other person's shoulder. The person behind then had to describe the most beautiful place they've ever been to and the person in front had to 'paint' the description with an imaginary paintbrush. I described a beach I went to in Hong Kong. We then switched round and my partner had to describe his worst fear while it was my turn to paint. His happened to be spiders. I found this exercise really helpful in aiding the opening of my imagination as when I painted the first spider, I had imagined it to be humongous, like something out of Harry Potter. So this exercise obviously helped me open my imagination. Stanislavsky would always advise his actors to open their imaginations before acting. It helps with getting more and more immersed into your character and the world of the play you are studying.

The next exercise we did focused on naturalism. Naturalist theatre is when the play is very realistic and life like. Stanislavsky wanted to move towards this genre. In this exercise we had to mime making a cup of tea. The first time we did it we had to make it at the same speed as you would in real life. This took quite a while. The second time, we had to take all the unimportant parts out of the tea making, and then run the process again. This is more how naturalist theatre works. This can also be called a slice of life. The sitcom 'The Royle Family' is an example of "slice of life". The show almost runs in real time making you feel very involved. It also shows every day family life which is relatable to almost anyone who watches.

The Magic IF...

The 'Magic If' was a way that Stanislavsky would get actors to use their imagination. Our class split into two groups and one group had to walk around the space and the other group would shout different scenarios such as: What if you just stepped in lava?' The other team would then timely react and act out that scenario. Stanislavski believed that an actor can't fully immerse themselves into their character, but they CAN believe in the probability of events. Even if the events are not realistic or you have not experienced them before, you can still tap in to emotional memory and try and relate to it in a certain sense.

I found this useful as it helps open your mind and helps you, as an actor, to start believing in the probability of all events in preparation for your character. It was also useful to analyse other actors when they reacted to the Magic If's to see how much each person would immerse themselves and how much they would allow their imagination to take control. During this exercise you had to make sure that you were using a good balance of imagination and level headedness as too much imagination can make it over the top and almost melodramatic, but too little imagination makes it much less interesting for an audience. Linking to this, we also explored how Stanislavski wanted to break away from melodrama which was a very common genre of acting in Russia at the time. He wanted to move into naturalist acting, to make theatre a lot more relatable and realistic.

Given Circumstance

After this, we looked at given circumstances. Kieran sat in a chair, and the rest of us had to make up the given circumstances. Where he was, what time it was, what he was doing, why he was there etc.. We gave a lot of detailed circumstance and Kieran to had to react internally to this. Internally is a key word because as we were studying naturalist acting we had to make everything as if it was real life. I had to do this in an exercise later on in the lesson and I found it difficult. For example, one of my given circumstances was that I had a heavy bag. In real life, I wouldn't have reacted as did when I was on stage, but naturally I reacted as an actor would: I shifted the bag from one shoulder to another and made sure my audience knew that I had a heavy bag. However, this was wrong, as in real life you wouldn't make sure that everyone around you had a heavy bag, you would acknowledge it yourself, and carry on with your life. The purpose of this exercise was to work internally in your head. I found it difficult as more information was given to me as certain bits of information were not as important as others, or another piece of information would be given and it's more important than another but you have to not disregard the other. I found this challenging to balance so much information of different importance.

Circles of attention

We then did an exercise on circles of attention. In a basic description, a circle of attention is the world around an actor. So a small circle of attention for an actor would be: his/her thoughts or things within a very close vicinity around them. A medium circle of attention would be the immediate surroundings: houses nearby, people nearby, sounds from other places. And a large circle of attention could be: the country where the character is, or the location of the character but on a larger scale. Thinking about your circles of attention is very useful for characterisation. You can get a lot of context and personality ideas just from doing this very useful and simple task.

WANT! DO! FEEL!

Finally, we did an exercise based on this sheet:

We partnered up and were instructed to create a short scene around the lines:

A: Hello

B: Hello

A: You're late

B: I know

Gabriel and I decided that I (A) would be an esteemed meditation teacher, and he (B) would be a budding student who was late for my lesson. We ran through the scene and then were instructed to add objectives for our characters. As simple as it is, it really makes a difference. My character's objective was "to teach meditation uninterrupted". It then adds much more character and meaning to your script. It helped me really connect with my character as you actually have a reason for your acting, the objective.

These are some facts I have about act 4, which is the act I will be studying -