This is the evaluation of the performance; I believe that the show went well even though a few mistakes were made. Unfortunately I was one of the people who made mistakes, I forgot my lines two times and there were a few seconds of silence, however luckily I did not come out of my character and I remained focused. Even though I couldn't remember the line I remembered the trace of my characters thought in that moment. I forgot my lines in the part where Thea is telling Hedda about her relationship with Eilert. my line was about how Eilert made thea feel alive and cared for. So i improvised it but still went along the bases of my line. During rehearsal I found it difficult to know when to come on stage, this was because we were outside of the room; we couldn't hear our ques. However instead of trying to listen for my ques instead I looked out for body language and movement from other characters. My queue was when Hedda got up and walked down stage left near the corridor. I would then come in but not straight onto stage, I would be in the corridor as thea and be waiting to enter the house of eilert and hedda.
I was very surprised that I forgot my lines on stage, because not once did I forget them in rehearsals on that day, honestly I probably did better in rehearsals then on stage. I feel a reason as to why I forgot my lines is that i was concentrating too much on what to say next rather than living and being in the moment. For a tiny second I knew what I had to say but then I just lost it and it went out of my head, but like i said before luckily i had an idea in my head of what my character was feeling at that moment.
I found the exercises we did before the show helpful as well, One of the excersies were to pick one line from the play that had the biggest intention on effecting another character, this highlighted to me that This was my major wham line which has to be said with the most conviction.
Also during the performance my friend said a line too early and missed out the bit where he was supposed to ask me for eilert's address. so I stepped in and said "Here I think yout might want to take his address"That action i did did not change the flow of energy, it kept the energy on stage keep going.
From this performance i've realized that plays can never fully be finished as there is always something that you can do to change it and I've learned you will never know how well a performance can go until you are performing
Tuesday, 13 October 2015
Applying techniques
I have done some research into Stanislavsky's techniques to see the different types of techniques he has created and to find out How i could apply them to my character work, I discovered one of his techniques; Physical actions- it is said if it is arranged in a certain order (e.g the order could be building up tension) it can provoke the necessary emotions in the actors performance.
Because I am playing the character of Thea and she is very "mouse" like i portray that in my body language, so i always make my self look small, I never open up my body in the scene. My hands are always together, fiddling with my fingers, My shoulders are never fully dropped low, there is always a form of tension in then, they are slightly perked up nearer to the middle of my neck. If I have to sit down in the scene I am very hesitant about it. Or if i choose to sit down I would never lounge out on the seat, my legs would always be very closely together.
If I physically make my self look small this will have an effect on my emotions, I wouldn't feel comfortable or relaxed, which is definitely how Thea is feeling, she feels anxious that she is in the house of hedda and tesman, because she has some little secrets that she doesnt want to reveal such as how her husband didn't know that she was coming here; to heddas house.
Again by me physically moving around the stage, taking small little steps in the space, makes me feel nervous, which is true. Normally when you are nervous you cant keep still, it is as if like you are trying to search for safety or reassurance. So because I know taking small steps around the space provokes these emotions I choose to move around the space when Hedda is confronting =/ integrating Thea about her relationship with Eilert and her husband. This is how I applied Stanislavsky's physical action technique to my rehearsal process.
Emotional Memory requires that an actor recreate an event from the distant past in order to regenerate the ‘feelings’ experienced at that time. These feelings thus regenerated are then used in the current acting situation in order to fill out the role with ‘human depth and personal involvement’ (Benedetti 66). The necessity of the event being from the distant rather than recent past is because Stanislavski felt (at that time) that time distilled events and feelings, acting as a ‘splendid filter for remembered feelings.’ Stanislavski believed that the quality of the actor’s performance depended upon the sincerity of his experience. This sincere experience went through a ‘time filter’ that transformed the quality of the experience into a ‘poetic reflection of life’s experience’ (Stanislavski quoted. in Moore 42). On stage the actor lived, not a real life, but a true stage experience.
From this, one can gather that stage emotion is not the same as emotion in life, because as Stanislavski put it, on stage it is a ‘repeated’ experience, not a ‘primary’ one. The actor can stir the needed emotion in him/ herself by remembering a parallel situation having a similar emotion. This emotion would then need to be brought out at the exact moment when called for on stage. This ‘evoking’ of past experience was called ‘Emotional Recall.’ Thus, through rehearsal and training techniques, the actor developed a conditioned reflex.
In the play, I find it hard to relate to some things and therefore if i cannot relate to them I cannot put my emotional memory into practice for example. asking someone to write a letter for me, however for the things I can relate to, emotional memory plays a big part in it. Especially when Hedda confront Thea and thea doesnt want hedda to know about eilert. When I act out this scene ,I remember times when My mum would ask me questions e.g where have I been, why are you home so late. And I didnt want her to know the truth. When this happened I felt very nervous and panicky, as if a mouse was dodging around the room trying to avoid the answers. So when it comes to this part of my scene Emotional memory is constantly being used. Because I can incorporate this technique into my performance I feel like this is the part where it feels most realistic for me, as I can have a sort of connection with it
Because I am playing the character of Thea and she is very "mouse" like i portray that in my body language, so i always make my self look small, I never open up my body in the scene. My hands are always together, fiddling with my fingers, My shoulders are never fully dropped low, there is always a form of tension in then, they are slightly perked up nearer to the middle of my neck. If I have to sit down in the scene I am very hesitant about it. Or if i choose to sit down I would never lounge out on the seat, my legs would always be very closely together.
If I physically make my self look small this will have an effect on my emotions, I wouldn't feel comfortable or relaxed, which is definitely how Thea is feeling, she feels anxious that she is in the house of hedda and tesman, because she has some little secrets that she doesnt want to reveal such as how her husband didn't know that she was coming here; to heddas house.
Again by me physically moving around the stage, taking small little steps in the space, makes me feel nervous, which is true. Normally when you are nervous you cant keep still, it is as if like you are trying to search for safety or reassurance. So because I know taking small steps around the space provokes these emotions I choose to move around the space when Hedda is confronting =/ integrating Thea about her relationship with Eilert and her husband. This is how I applied Stanislavsky's physical action technique to my rehearsal process.
Emotional Memory requires that an actor recreate an event from the distant past in order to regenerate the ‘feelings’ experienced at that time. These feelings thus regenerated are then used in the current acting situation in order to fill out the role with ‘human depth and personal involvement’ (Benedetti 66). The necessity of the event being from the distant rather than recent past is because Stanislavski felt (at that time) that time distilled events and feelings, acting as a ‘splendid filter for remembered feelings.’ Stanislavski believed that the quality of the actor’s performance depended upon the sincerity of his experience. This sincere experience went through a ‘time filter’ that transformed the quality of the experience into a ‘poetic reflection of life’s experience’ (Stanislavski quoted. in Moore 42). On stage the actor lived, not a real life, but a true stage experience.
From this, one can gather that stage emotion is not the same as emotion in life, because as Stanislavski put it, on stage it is a ‘repeated’ experience, not a ‘primary’ one. The actor can stir the needed emotion in him/ herself by remembering a parallel situation having a similar emotion. This emotion would then need to be brought out at the exact moment when called for on stage. This ‘evoking’ of past experience was called ‘Emotional Recall.’ Thus, through rehearsal and training techniques, the actor developed a conditioned reflex.
In the play, I find it hard to relate to some things and therefore if i cannot relate to them I cannot put my emotional memory into practice for example. asking someone to write a letter for me, however for the things I can relate to, emotional memory plays a big part in it. Especially when Hedda confront Thea and thea doesnt want hedda to know about eilert. When I act out this scene ,I remember times when My mum would ask me questions e.g where have I been, why are you home so late. And I didnt want her to know the truth. When this happened I felt very nervous and panicky, as if a mouse was dodging around the room trying to avoid the answers. So when it comes to this part of my scene Emotional memory is constantly being used. Because I can incorporate this technique into my performance I feel like this is the part where it feels most realistic for me, as I can have a sort of connection with it
Tuesday, 6 October 2015
Actors Log 8/09- 14/10
Here is some information that I got from a website:
He was a famous Norwegian playwright, theatre director, and poet, Henrik Ibsen is often considered as “the father” of modern theater andout one of the founders of Modernism in the theatre. Ibsen is often ranked as one of the greatest playwrights in the European literature, also perhaps oneof the greatest playwright since Shakespeare. When European theatres were expected to show strict mores of family life and propriety, his plays were considered scandalous as they revealed the reality that was hidden behind many facades
1828: Was born in Skien, Norway.
1843: He was forced to leave the school, moved to Grimstad.
1850: Went to Christiania (now Oslo) intending to matriculate at the university, published his first play, the tragedy Catiline and staged his first play, The Burial Mound.
1858: Returned to Christiania and became the creative director of the Christiania Theatre, married Suzannah Thoresen.
1859: His son, Sigurd was born.
1864: Left Christiania and went to Sorrento in Italy.
1865: His first commercial successful play “Brand” was published.
1867: His successful play Peer Gynt was published.
1868: He moved from Italy to Dresden, Germany.
1873: His most important work, “Emperor and Galilean” was published.
1875: Moved to Munich.
1879: His play “A Doll's House” was published.
1882: His controversial play “Enemy of the People” came out.
1884: “The Wild Duck” was published.
1890: “Hedda Gabler” was published.
1891: Returned to Norway.
1892: “The Master Builder” was published.
1906: Died in his home at Arbins gade 1 in Christiania (now Oslo).
From some class discussions and research I have come to realize the Ibsen was a very daring playwright and he exposed the truth about family life in his work. One of the characters that he created was called "Hedda" This character went against everything that Victorians believed a women should be like. ( I say Victorians because this was the time when the play was written; 1890) Hedda was a spiteful, manipulative and envious character. When the Victorians watched the play, I assume they were probably horrified as they have never seen a lady act in such a manner before. Even though this character went against gender "norms" it still could reflect the feeling of women in the Victorian period. This was a patriarchal society so women were controlled by men, Hedda did not like this, she loved the idea of having some sort of power over them like hedda, Maybe the Victorian women wanted some power too.
This was Konstanstin Stanislavsky, This was the man who revolutionised 21st century theatre. He was born on the 17th of january 1963 in Moscow. He was born into a wealthy Russian family, with four brothers and four sisters. His childhood was spent in the performing arts industry, he spent his time at the theatre, opera, circus and ballet. in 1877 his father converted a room at their country house into a theatre. Stanislavsky was the founder of the Moscow arts theatre in 1898.
Here is some more information that I found about Stanislavsky:
1883: Stanislavski briefly attends drama school but leaves before graduating.
1897: Stanislavski meets Russian playwright Nemirovich. They found the Moscow Art Theatre after a meeting that reportedly lasted from 2pm until 8am the next day.
- Out of the course in the play
-what does she want in life
Why do they want it?
What's their motivation?
What's their obstacles?
What are they willing to do?
What does my character say about herself?
What do other characters say about them ?
What stage directions give my character detail?
What's the unit called for my bit
I would say that the thing my character wants in the scene is comfort. She wants to know if eilert loevborg is okay as she is worried for him since he left when his book came out. Because there is so much temptation where he is staying such as alcohol and prostitutes thea is worried that he will go back to his old habits. Moving on to what she wants over the course of the play I would say she wants she wants to be with and look out for loevborg, as over the course of the play she starts to become increasingly worried and concerned about him. especially when she found out he was shot.
In life I would say that my character wants to be happy and wants to be with someone who loves her, she wants to be apart of a family and possibly even have kids. I feel like her motivation is loevborg, she has seen the type of man he becomes when they wrote the book together. She has the idea in her head that she "saved" him and bought him back to life because she made him start to write again.
In the first half of the play I would say that thea's obstacles would have been trying to find out where eilert is as she hasn't heard from him yet, that's why she's worried (as well as the thought of him being tempted by alcohol) . She's willing to do anything to find him as she has left her husband, She doesn't even care if people will talk about her leaving him ( as cheating/ leaving your husband wasn't something that they accepted back in the 1880's) .
Near to the end of act two, loevborg describes thea as a "fool" saying that she wouldn't understand what went on between him and hedda. When thea enters the room loevborg then says "isn't she lovely to look at". Hedda then gets mad at thea and says "shut up you idiot" because thea doesn't understand how unhappy and powerless hedda feels.
This was Konstanstin Stanislavsky, This was the man who revolutionised 21st century theatre. He was born on the 17th of january 1963 in Moscow. He was born into a wealthy Russian family, with four brothers and four sisters. His childhood was spent in the performing arts industry, he spent his time at the theatre, opera, circus and ballet. in 1877 his father converted a room at their country house into a theatre. Stanislavsky was the founder of the Moscow arts theatre in 1898. Here is some more information that I found about Stanislavsky:
1883: Stanislavski briefly attends drama school but leaves before graduating.
1897: Stanislavski meets Russian playwright Nemirovich. They found the Moscow Art Theatre after a meeting that reportedly lasted from 2pm until 8am the next day.
1898: Moscow Art Theatre opens on October 14th with Stanislavsky’ production of Tolstoy’s Tsar Fyodor Ioannovich. In December, he directs and plays Trigorin in Chekhov’s The Seagull. Meyerhold appears as Konstantin.
Meyerhold preparing for the role of Treplev
The success of this production makes both Checkhov and MAT famous throughout Russia, and the MAT adopts a picture of a seagull as their emblem.
I have the part of Thea in the play Hedda Gabler. My scene is act one page 22-35 . in the lesson we received a number of questions that will help us with our character analysis.
what does my character want in the scene ?- Out of the course in the play
-what does she want in life
Why do they want it?
What's their motivation?
What's their obstacles?
What are they willing to do?
What does my character say about herself?
What do other characters say about them ?
What stage directions give my character detail?
What's the unit called for my bit
I would say that the thing my character wants in the scene is comfort. She wants to know if eilert loevborg is okay as she is worried for him since he left when his book came out. Because there is so much temptation where he is staying such as alcohol and prostitutes thea is worried that he will go back to his old habits. Moving on to what she wants over the course of the play I would say she wants she wants to be with and look out for loevborg, as over the course of the play she starts to become increasingly worried and concerned about him. especially when she found out he was shot.
In life I would say that my character wants to be happy and wants to be with someone who loves her, she wants to be apart of a family and possibly even have kids. I feel like her motivation is loevborg, she has seen the type of man he becomes when they wrote the book together. She has the idea in her head that she "saved" him and bought him back to life because she made him start to write again.
In the first half of the play I would say that thea's obstacles would have been trying to find out where eilert is as she hasn't heard from him yet, that's why she's worried (as well as the thought of him being tempted by alcohol) . She's willing to do anything to find him as she has left her husband, She doesn't even care if people will talk about her leaving him ( as cheating/ leaving your husband wasn't something that they accepted back in the 1880's) .
Near to the end of act two, loevborg describes thea as a "fool" saying that she wouldn't understand what went on between him and hedda. When thea enters the room loevborg then says "isn't she lovely to look at". Hedda then gets mad at thea and says "shut up you idiot" because thea doesn't understand how unhappy and powerless hedda feels.
After having my first rehearsal it made me realize how much I needed to work on my character and think if the meaning behind the lines. When I was reading my lines in my head I thought the meaning behind most of them were sad and sorrow, as if she needed someone to reach out to. However once I actually performed the lines I felt the meaning behind them changed. When it got to the second half of my lines it made me realize that my character had more depth to it, my character has two extremes and they are : passion and fear and sometimes these traits can be shown through one line e.g " it is true.. he doesn't care about anyone, maybe the children maybe" the first part of the line shows the passion and fury thea feels towards eilert. However near the end of the line the mood changes to fear as if she has had some sort of realisation about the situation she is in, and tries to hide her anger from hedda resulting in her being in "fear" If hedda finds out what thea has really done.
To make this easier for my self I have decided to pattern co-ordinate my lines. If a part of my line reflects passion I would underline it in a dark pencil and if my line reflected fear I would underline it in a lighter colour pencil. This way I can easily identify and pick out the bits that I need to portray differently. so If I'm reading my line and it goes from passion to fear I know that I would have to change my voice and portray the idea of "scared and in danger"
I felt like the first rehearsal could of went better as when we rehearsed I didn't know all of my lines yet so when it got to the bit where I didn't know them I found it difficult to act as I was constantly looking at the next line that I had to say.
https://youtu.be/RC9kVqTYByc This is the scene that I'm doing from hedda gabler as thea. I do not like the way thea is being portrayed in this clip, this is the henrik Ibsen version so it's not the adapted text by Richard Eyre.
As usual in lesson we started off by doing the side stretch, I feel like after doing the side stretch a number of times I have improved on my balance; part of the side stretch involves doing a 360 turn on one leg.
After doing the side stretch we had to get into partners and insult each other but "nicely" one of us was the servant and the other person was the master. The aim was to insult each other without being too obvious, but it needed to be noticeable enough for the other person to realize. I found that when I was doing this exercise I felt bitchy, and for some reason without me even realizing it I started to smile whilst I was insulting the other person.
After doing the side stretch we had to get into partners and insult each other but "nicely" one of us was the servant and the other person was the master. The aim was to insult each other without being too obvious, but it needed to be noticeable enough for the other person to realize. I found that when I was doing this exercise I felt bitchy, and for some reason without me even realizing it I started to smile whilst I was insulting the other person.
At first I had no idea how this exercise was beneficial, but when our teacher explained it at the end everything made sense. The exercise was about the importance of subtext and how there's loads of It in the play, so after that note I analysed and looked for the subtext in my characters key moments in the scene that I'm doing.'
| Add caption |
This is one of the key moments where subtext is important, the pink highlighted lines say " did I ? my husband didn't know i was coming here" This is the part where Thea realizes that Hedda knows that she has left her husband. Subtext is important because it gives you an idea on how to say your lines, Because Thea isn't asking "did I" because she doesn't know, she is in fact saying "Did I" because she's scared, and she's realized what she has done, and know her friend hedda knows her secret.. This is also the part of the play where I make my own decisions on where to place my character, to me when I say this line it feels right to get up and walk away from Hedda, Now that I am up and standing it allows me to have freedom with my character plus I feel more comfortable saying my lines, I can move when it feels right. If I did not have this freedom I would feel very restricted and the lines won't seem natural to me.
Looking into my character appearance this is how I Imagined her to look like, when I look at this picture I get the sense on gentleness and naivety which are personality traits that Thea Elvsted seems to portray, If I look at this picture and think of an animal related the the picture I see a mouse, someone who is quite timid and shy, someone whose always on the move and trying to hide. Which is exactly what thea does, she leaves her husband and quikcly finds her way to "safety" which I would say is the house of Hedda gabler and the place where eilert is living.
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