Drama lesson 27 th september

Heyyy!!!! Yet again, we had a great lesson :)

We started with a discussion on ancient Greek masks and why they used them. After some research we found out that the reasons that they used them was mostly because the stage would be so tremendously large that the ones in the back would not be able to see the expressions on the actors faces. And ait was also due to the fact that in this time women were not allowed to act, so men would have to wear women's masks and pretend to be women. Another thing was that in a play there would be about 20 characters but only 10 actors, so they would have to wear the masks to play the different characters.

After this, we look at the Trestle theatre mask (we had the beginner and intermediate) and talked about the mask etiquette, in the beginners one, they had the basic expressions ( e.g. Shocked, goofy, angry) and we talked about how the experissions were quite exaggerated so it could be seen from far away.
We did a short activity where we each picked a mask and had to go up in front of the others and stay in character, it was a mime so we couldn't say anything, we could only use our body to indicate how we felt and to answer questions from the audience. This activity was quite fun because it was hilarious seeing the others act with a mask that didnt change throughout the whole thing. I had picked the angry mask so I had to stomp my feet, cross my arms and over do all my movements. It was soooo fun!
We then went in to partners and were told to devise a short comic scene, the scene was going to be set in a clothes store and one had to be the costumer and the other was the seller. Both of us had to be masked and we had to choose the emotions that would fitbest with our character. This was quite different from what we are used to because we have never done anything to do with masks but it was still a really cool experience. After we filmed ours, we watched the other group and theirs was really good because they fad the audience the whole time, michael made his movements really bold and quite goofy (it was his character). 

We then all came together and in a group of 4 we devised a short scene a lot different from the first one because this one was meant to be dramatic and serious, this ment that our masks also had to be serious and could not be funny. The scene was based on 3 characters bullying one person. Of course with the masks on, we weren't allowed to talk so it was a bit difficult but still pretty fun. When we were rehearsing, we did it without the masks and we were allowed to talk, this is so it would be easier to know what we were gonna say and easier to act knowing what was going on. After we filmed it, we watched it and discussed what we would change to make it better, we mostly said that if we added a little more movements the scene, it will look a lot better.

Then, we repeated our scene in the clothes store, but this time, only one of them was going to masked and had to mime, the other had to be completey normal without a mask and was allowed to talk. In our group, I was the seller and I was also the one to stay masked and when we were performing it, it felt a bit strange because the costumer would be talking to me and I would have to respond with physical actions. Outlf the two scenes, I think I enjoyed performing the second one because it was quite different and unusual frm the normal devised scene. 
Second lastly, we repeated the bullying scene but in this one, the only who wore the mask was the one being bullied. Since I was originally the one being bullied, I had to wear a mask and had to mime again. This scene felt a lot better than the first one because it seemed more like the bullies had more power over the one getting bullied.

We then went on to talking about how the use of masks can really make a characters features change. For the one being bullied, after watching the video, we could see that I had a lot less power, that I was completey isolated and lonely. Lastly we discussed why directors would use masks, and we found out it was because it was to show the change in time, for example, in a play when the character has a flashback moment,they use the masks to show that it is a different time then the present. They also use it in dreams, or nightmares.
 Thank you for another great lesson miss. Prior!!!!! :) 

Drama 19th September 2012

Heyyy!!!! As always we had an awesome drama lesson!

We started with playing a couple of warm- up games where we would a music piece and we had to make a scene to it and show Ms.Prior. We did this to expand on our creative skills

After Ms.Prior gave us each one card which either had innocent, innocent, judge or guilty. Whatever part we got, we had to play that part and stay in character the whole time. We tried two different scenes, the first one was modern, it was about someone who had stolen someone's $500 and the principle had to find out who took it. The second one was back in the 1690s in Salem and was about witch craft and three girls being accused of using witchcraft. We ( I was one of the innocent ones) got hammered with questions and got interrogated by the judge. We had to turn on each other to get the blame off ourself.
The point of this activity was to be able to play different characters and see the different points of view. Even though I was innocent both times, it was still difficult not getting blamed so we had to make things up and try and accuse the others of the crime.
I agree with what Stanislavski said about if you really believe in your role, then the audience will believe you.
After we made 2 still images with one judge, two accusers and one who was being accused. I was one of the accusers in the beginning. And we all had to make up one very powerful line that we would say repeatedly. Kelsey started first, then Elisa went, then I went and then Michael went. We also had to add movement to make it more powerful and after rehearsing it a couple of times, we thought that the one being accused would be on the floor in the middle and being pulled up and thrown just like a puppet. Since michael (who was the accused one) was not abled to do it, I became the 'puppet' and had to be thrown on the floor by the rest of the group. (It was pretty fun hehe)

Thank you Miss. Prior!!! :))))

Drama 14th september

Heyyy!!!

Today was another great drama lesson because we got to read a part of the script which we had try to act out the day before.
We noticed that our devised scene was quite similar to the real one because we had said that in our piece, Reverend Hale had to continuously keep asking questions about 'the night' with Abigail and Abbie tries to get out of it but Revenerend Hale hounds her with every last questions until she looks like she is about to tell the real thing. This is what we made up and it turned out that it was basically the same thing in the real script. However something we did not add was when the reverends start questioning Tituba about her Christianity and asking her if she trusts in god and we didn't add that after, Abbie says that she 'danced with the devil' and 'wrote in his book' and suddenly goes into a trance and starts naming innocent people along with Betty.
After reading the script we made up 3 Tableaux of the start, middle and end of the scene.
Here are the 3 pictures to show our tableaux

The first one was at the beginning, was about Abbie (middle) being questioned by Reverend Hale (Right). Abbie is trying to get her uncle, Reverend Parris (left) to believe her. She is tugging on his shirt and begging him to agree with her.

The second one was in the middle, it was about Abbie accusing Tituba for the cause of Betty's incident.  You can tell that Tituba is low status because she is on the floor and crouching very low. Although you cannot see that Abbie's face clearly, you can tell she is a lot higher status then Tituba because she is smirking slightly and point directly at Tituba.

The last one Tituba is not in it but betty is, she is has just woken up in a trance and is saying a whole load of names. You can see that reverend Hale is shocked by his body language. Raising his hands, makes his pose seem a lot more realistic. You can also see that Reverend Hale is writing down everything that is being said and being done. 

After the three Tableaux, we went on to performing the end of the scene. This was the part where Abigail is confessing that she 'danced with the devil' and suddenly goes into trance where she starts naming basically everyone in the village, suddenly Betty gets up and starts naming names as well. Both of the girls are staring directly ahead and are just continuously saying names and Reverend Hale and Parris are both completely shocked because Betty has woken up. 
We did this scene 4 times, each time changing character and we did this so that we could see how it felt to play a different role and to see how everyone else acted in the role. We also used music to make the whole scene more intense and effective. As an actor it was good to try it with music, because you can actually start to feel as if it is all real and this makes everything seem more realistic. We do not have lighting in our Black Box Theater yet (because its new) but if we did, then I think that it would be awesome to have a dim yellow light overcasting the set and it could change color to a dim red when Abby and Betty start the chant.

THANK YOU MS.PRIOR FOR ANOTHER AMAZING LESSON!

Drama- 13th September 2012

Drama lesson 13th September

Heyy!
Today was such an amazing drama lesson!We started off with rehearsing our Opening of the play and changing our body language, voice, eye contact and movement. I changed some of my movement coming towards the end when Mrs.Putnam says '' ....Colin's saw her goin' over the Proctor's barn, and come down as light as a bird. He says!'' at that point, we thought ( to make it more interesting) that I should stand up and go over to a cart and make some tea, however I would still make it obvious that I was listening deeply in their conversation. I also had to find the right time to come back to my original seat after making the tea. Another thing we changed was that I was instructed to stand up when the reverend talks about my name being white in the village. I had to pretend as if my name was white even though I knew that it was not after my 'deed'
After that, Ms.Prior filmed our piece and when she put it on Youtube, I watched it and thought about what was good, and what wasn't as good. I relalised that when I went over to make the tea, it made the scene less boring because there was more movement involved. After we went on to talking about another scene in the play, which included two reverends, reverend Parris and reverned Hale. This scene starts with the reverends discussing something not loud enough for the audience to hear, when Abbie comes in and reverend Hales starts interrogating Abbie and asking her questions about 'The Night'. When Tituba enters the room, Abbie blames everything on her and the reverends start to believe her. We made a brainstorm about this scene and we talked about what sort of questions Reverend Hale would ask Abbie and what the answers would be. We decided to make it so that Abigail would answer wrong and Reverend Hale will know that she is lying. 
We then went on to devising the scene and this was the cast list and their status level:

Reverend Hale- Elisa 9
Reverend Parris- Michael 8
Tituba- Kelsey 1- 0
Abigail- Me (Tash) 8- 5- 8

Improvising the scene would quite difficult because it just seemed hard to stay in character the whole time without loosing focus for a second. But it was very different from what we normally do because in this scene, I had to make up answers on the spot and I would have to remember all the facts and figures so I do not get all the answers wrong. We also had to find the right timing for Tituba come in to the scene because if it was too soon then we could not build up to the blame and if it was too late then we wouldn't have enough questions and it could b one quite dull.
Even though it was difficult it was fun to try something new!!
Thank you for reading this!!!! Hope it wasn't too boring :)