Lesson 1:
First we started off the lesson with an relaxation exercise; created by Frederick Matthias Alexander, the exercise is better known as the Alexander Technique. The technique focused on warming up your body, voice and engaging your breathing.
Alexander (1869-1955) was an Australian actor who began to experience chronic laryngitis whenever he performed. When his doctors could not help him, Alexander discovered a solution on his own. He had not been aware that excess tension in his neck and body were causing his problems, and began to find new ways to speak and move with greater ease.
His health improved to such an extent that his friends and several of the doctors he had consulted earlier persuaded him to teach others what he had learned. Over a career span of more than fifty years, he refined his method of instruction. After teaching for over 35 years, he began to train teachers of what has now become known as the Alexander Technique.
The Alexander technique is still used today, in the NHS the technique is proven to improve your posture
During a number of lessons you're taught to be more aware of your body, how to improve poor posture and move more efficiently.
Teachers of the Alexander technique believe this helps get rid of tension in your body and relieves problems such as back pain, neck pain and sore shoulders, and other musculature problems.
Key principles
The main principles of the Alexander technique are:
- "how you move, sit and stand affects how well you function"
- "the relationship of the head, neck and spine is fundamental to your ability to function optimally"
- "becoming more mindful of the way you go about your daily activities is necessary to make changes and gain benefit"
- "the mind and body work together intimately as one, each constantly influencing the other"
When I was doing the Alexander technique I felt calm and relaxed, However strangely at the same time I felt very awake and energised, I felt like as if I could spring into action at any time.
Later on in the lesson we focused on the given circumstances which is the vital information an actor needs in order to develop and become the character . We all got in a circle and did an exercise where we had to imagine a black bird in the room, this exercise helped us develop our naturalistic acting, how would we actually react if there was a blackbird in the room? This exercise could also be refereed to as the "Magic If".
After this we played an improvisation game, there was one person in the middle of the room and they got told either the situation they were in or the emotion they had to portray. However it was up to the person what they wanted to do. The rest of the class had to watch and after the person had finished performing they had to guess what they were trying to portray or what situation they were in. When it came to my turn to "improvise" I got told that I had received bad news and that I am waiting at a bus stop. Now it was up to me how I wanted to convey that.
I used my emotional memory to help me with the exercise , I remembered the time when my dad told me that my nanny passed away. Thinking of this made me upset and put me in the right mindset in order for me to carry out my scenario.
Later on in the lesson we got given a plain blank script, this script was very basic with no stage directions and no character information. We got into pairs and the task was to come up with the scenario and characters for the script. The scenario could not be something "general" such as two primary school best friends. You had to include the given circumstances of the situation as well.
This was the script that we got given.
A: what's wrong?
B: Nothing
A: Yes there is. What is it?
B: Nothing
A: Sure
B: What?
A: Nothing
B: What's wrong?
When I was reading this script I found it difficult to understand the dialogue , because it was repetitive I got confused on who was saying it. For example at the beginning of the script character A says "what's wrong" Then at the end of the script character B says "What's wrong" I found it difficult to put an emotion towards a character because the throughout the dialogue the emotion switches around and is portrayed by the other character.
In the end we decided that the scenario was two friends at a party. character "A" was confident then near the end of the play becomes patronizing towards character "B".
Character B was shy and insecure, however at the end of the play becomes annoyed and mimics character "A" for patronizing her.
One thing that I enjoyed about this exercise was the freedom you had to come up with a scenario for the script.
LESSON 2:
First we started off the lesson by getting into semi-supine position, we breathe in through our nose then out through our mouths. This simple exercise helps us focus on our breathing, after doing this a couple of times we then vocalise on the out breath. when we breathe out we breath out on an "aah" sound. this exercise helps engage our vocal muscles.
Whilst in the semi-supine position we also did and imaginary exercise, we got told images and we had to think of them, this exercises involved the use of emotional memory. For example I got told to picture a wasp and what I saw was a memory of a wasp that I saw last week. I was in a theatre room looking out of the window and I saw a wasp on the window ledge just resting there and moving its antennas/ legs. and the body of the wasp was pumping up and down. These types of exercises really engage your memory and you remember things that you wouldn't remember on a daily basis. Its surprising how much detail you can get from a memory, e.g. the sound or the feeling you felt at the time.
After doing the individual work we got into pairs; one of us in semi supine and the other person making observations on the little actions or gestures make whilst doing the imaginary game. When I was observing my partner when he was told to imagine pineapples the corner of his left lip twitched, he had a slight tiny smile. When we had to talk about it he said that he really loves pineapples and remembering them made him hungry and happy.
When I got observed I got told to imagine the smell of burning plastic. straight away I remebrred the time where I threw my brothers plastic toy into the lampshade and the next morning the whole house stunk of burning plastic. When I was thinking of this I started laughing to myself because I remembered how much trouble I got in.
After this we did an exercise which made us more alert of the people in the room, this is when we had to pick a random person as a bomb and stay as far away from them in the room, then we had to pick a shield and keep our shield in between us and the bomb. This game made us alert of where people were in the room, at the same time whilst doing this exercise we had to balance out the space in the room. A couple of minutes into playing this game we all just ended up running in circles which was quite funny. It was also interesting to see how one person was a shield or bomb to many different other people.
Later on in the lesson we got given 7 very simple objectives/ tasks we had to do and turn it into a short one/two minute play on our own. I found the task difficult because I didn't know how to link the 7 objectives together to make the play have a smooth transition. The 7 things were:
1) Walk in from the rain
2) See a glass of water
3) Sway and recover
4) Laugh and recover
5) Touch face and recover
6) Sob and recover
7) Walk back Into the rain
The story that I came up with was someone remembering their friend that has passed away. The character sees the glass of water which reminds her of her friend because she always had a glass of water by the table ready to drink. She starts to sway and laugh because she remembers a song that they used to sing together. As the character is walking away to put her coat down she spots herself in the mirror and touches the scar when her and her friend got into a car accident. she starts to sob as she remembers how her friend died then goes back into the rain to go and visit her grave. This exercise showed me how important emotional memory was I think how much easier it would of been if this sort of scenario had happen to me ( apart from the friend dying )
After doing that task we moved on to this exercise called which I called it the "character walk". it starts off with all members of the class making two vertical lines facing each other down the room. Then there's on person who walks down the middle of the lines in neutral. The people in the two lines have to shout out any word that comes to there head when watching the person walk down the isle. For example someone might shout out tense, or nervous, or cocky. That's the impression the person down the isle is giving off, even with being in neutral. When doing this exercise I have realized that it is impossible to be in complete neutral without giving off a vibe or impression.
After doing this a couple of times the person in the middle then has to portray the personality traits of their character for hedd gabler, The person would tell us the words they are going to try portray for example. sexy, manipulative, daring, guilty. then when they walk down the middle the people in the two lines would say some of the words they are not portraying e.g if the person portraying sexy enough. then the person in the middle has to act on these words/ portray them more. From this exercise I realized how much emotion or traits you can portray just by walking so its important that you get the physicality right of the character you're playing.
