13th Cat's dance

In today's lesson we learnt a new part to the dance where we have a phrase in either pairs or three's . i'm with Amber and Livvie . Myself and Amber step around Livvie and then push her down. We then hold a position with our cameras .

13th kims lesson

Today we started the lesson off with a warm up , 3 of us demonstrated a vocal technique to the rest of the class. Also we started to develop the song 'Everything you didn't do'  . We focused on breath control and diction within the song today. I enjoy this song as its upbeat and has some nice harmonies.

5th blocking britney

In today's rehearsal we had ago at blocking the Britney scene . We focused on staging and positioning. We where in the dance studio today so we will have to reorganize staging when we are in the theatre today.Today the lines where a big problem. It made the pace slow which made it difficult to maintain character when you'd have to keep getting prompted . So that's what I will need to improve for the next time we do the Britney scene. Also I found it hard to relate to what was going on during this scene.My first interpretation is that they are all mad and are trying to make it complex for Lisa to find her hour when it doesn't need to be. The attitudes I think Lisa is feeling in this scene is frustration and impatience.

I think in the next rehearsal we need to have a clear and accurate interpretation of this scene for it to work and come together.The main focus will be line accuracy and confidence .

10th march Birtney scene

In today's rehersal  we ran through the Britney scene . Both casts ran through it twice. At some points it was slow and the pace was too slow to make things flow so that made getting the right lines in the right place difficult. It was clear in that this scene needs the most work because it was very pacey and had alot of characters on stage at the same time. We blocked all of this scene and discovered that its a very active scene. We will need lots of props and it needs to be comical to work. Also its clear that lines are very important for this scene . That will be a target i will set myself. To make this scene flow and be successful all lines will need to be correct and delivered in confidence. Every one was prompted on lines in this rehearsal so that will be a target for all of the cast. However the energy and enthusiasm we brought to the rehearsal was good.
I feel we have a better understanding of the Britney scene , the theme of this scene is distraction and spontaneity. The super objective is for Britney , laughter , inhibitions, ticket and argument to delay and mislead Lisa from her hour.

3rd March Jane/Britney scene

In today's lesson we started blocking the Jane scene . First Holly had a run through with Amber and then myself and Liviey blocked it. We had to do this scene on the floor because in the real scene we will be doing the scene in set that looks like a plane!
The main target I have for this scene is to make the fact that we are in a plane obvious . For this  I think I will have to be very mellow dramatic and exaggerated.To do this I will have to look down as though im up high and most of all be really dramatic about it to make the audience imagine the shock it would be to think you where getting in a car when your actually in a plane.
We aslo had a discussion about Jane , her back story and who she represents to Lisa within the world of  Dissocia. We agreed that she may represent Lisa and how she puts up with an abusive relationship, but blocks it out and doesn't see how serious it is . Also we said that Lisa finds it hard to accept that Jane accepts the abuse inflicted on her which could show that Lisa see alot of her weaknesses in Jane.
Another target for myself in this scene would be to focus on interaction with Jane with lines , que's and keeping the story alive and interesting through facial expressions and tones of voice.

27th Dance Cats

In today's lesson we started devising some of our own phrases to go with the main phrase. I'm part of the paparazzi group and we came up with some ideas involving cameras. We also practised the main phrase all together. I have set myself some targets for the cats dance.
1. I need to improve my co-ordination with my arms and legs. Especially with my left leg as its my weakest leg. To do this I will practise the co-ordination trick where you pat your head and rub your tummy. I will then try and in incorporate this trick in my dance.
2. I need to practise the dance in order to remember all the moves. And get my peers to help me .
In today's lesson I put some good ideas forward like the lift where Amber is lifted and could snatch a camera off henry.
Also in the main phrase I find the roll really hard to get up from so i need to practise that so it looks neat and professional.

24th feb Status and Goat scene

In today's lessons we thought about character status through out the play. As Lisa; myself and Holly thought how Lisa status changes . With out Lisa there would be no world of Dissocia however when Lisa is in Dissocia the other characters change her seemingly high status.Everyone teamed up with their character in the other class and had to think about there status on a scale of 1-10 . One being low status and 10 being high. Myself and Holly decided that Lisa would come under a status of 5. We feel that she would change dramatically through out. For example Lisa is of a high status over all as it is her story , however her status in the lift scene could be portrayed as low because of how alien she is to the ways of the people of Dissocia.
After this warm up we blocked the goat scene . First Henry and Holly went then myself and Luke blocked it. It was interesting to see how Lisa would interact with the goat especially as the scene starts off with the Goat coming across as a low status character. In this scene switches from one extreme to another. By the end of this scene Lisa is faced with sexual assault. This was a challenge for myself and Luke to over come. We found it hard to act this scenario out on stage as well as give it the seriousness it needed. That is a scene where we will have to try more ways then one to make it look realistic and effective . 
My target for the next time we do this scene will to not stop mid flow and corpse out of character, I  will just carry this scene out until the end and see how me and Luke improvise together to make this work appropriately. 
My first interpretation of this scene is discomfort and threat. I think improvisation will really help during the blocking of this scene as it will help give the scene the raw feel it needs. 

Cats dance with Emily and Kat 6th

In todays lesson with Kat and Emily we went through the cat dance we learnt the pervious lesson. We then went off into our previous groups of paparazzi and journalist. I'm part of the paparazzi group with Henry,max,holly hop, Taylor,livvie and amber. We devised a new lift involving livvie and amber being lifted and snatching cameras off eachother. I lift Livvie with holly hop and she get her camera snatched by Amber . It an awkward lift to do so we will have to practice it until we get it neatly choreographed.

Singing Lesson with Kim 6th

In todays lesson we where given a choice of vocal techniques to choose from. I choose diction to study and research. We  had to find out what the best exercise's  where for our chosen vocal techniques I found out that holding a pencil in your teeth and reciting a tongue twister was good for the improvement of diction. If you practice this exercise in different paces and with different tongue this should improve your diction. After writing about it we then had to teach our exercises to the rest of the class. I choose the wood chuck tongue twister "how much wood could a wood chuck chuck if a wood chuck could chuck wood".

Pace Home work and Lesson on pace

For home work we where told to research the artists Cocorosie and devise 10 different actions into a minor routine. I listened to a a selection of Cocorosie's pieces and choose a song called the gallows by them to do my devised piece to. I really only thought the intro worked well with Lisa's persona. The song starts with the chime of a clock and is then slow paced . I thought this worked well with Lisa because the chime of the clock represented her missing hour and the slow pace of the song represented the second half where Lisa is imprisoned in the psychiatric ward.I think it will be interesting to work with holly to put our ideas together to mirror the different Lisa's . I believe we could create a unique phyisical pace phrase. This was an important task to practice as pace is a very important factor in this play. For example the pace in the Britney scene is fast and snappy , however the pace in the whole of the second act is slow and repetitive.
Cocorosie

Thursday 12 of February

In today's lesson we blocked the lift scene and the guards scene. The guards scene is a mixture of comic timing and pace. It was quite hard to keep the pace going when we didn't know our line's that accurately as it was our first blocking of this particular scene. Once the lines flow the characters can really reveal themselves in their true nature and manner.This lift scene is massively based around comic timing. In the lift scene im trying to communicate the emotion of embarrassment and awkwardness through my body language more then vocally in this scene . Its about being uncomfortably close to the other people in the lift.To do this i make my facial expressions of embarrassment highly exaggerated and i exaggerate the cramped , claustrophobic surrounding im in by uncomfortable folding my arms close to my chest and standing in a awkward position.Also gritting my teeth shows the discomfort Lisa is feeling. I did this because i want it to be so obvious to the audience that Lisa is uncomfortable in the most awkward way.I want it to be comical and i think doing exaggerated facial expressions and having closed body language with tight gestures will show the lack of personal space in this scene.

10 Feb stage blocking and Victoria scene

In today's lesson as a class we discussed how we would like our staging to be laid out for the audience to get an internet look into our world of Dissocia. We.We decided on an end on production so the audience get a full view of the stage but interestingly have the stage blocks positioned around the out side of the stage in levels.
Also in today's lesson myself , Holly hos , Holly hop and Paris took it in terns as a cast to block the Victoria scene. I was really interesting to watch watch Holly Hos portray the persona of Lisa because it made me evaluate the comparisons and differences in the way I portray Lisa.It really useful to watch her way of performing because it makes me really think about how I can develop Lisa's persona and manners in my own way .
The hardest part for me as an actor is how to react to the crazy characteristics of Dissocia. It's to understand how Lisa should react to Victoria when she telling Lisa that she needs to go on a mission to retrieve her lost hour. Lisa at first seemingly normal is hesitant to open the door to Victoria. However through the scene she starts to trust Victoria and listen's to what she has to say , even believing her . Its hard to switch from a hesitant attitude to then Lisa ready to take part in a mission , in a new world to find a lost hour? Even though this may be a challenge for me , to over come it i play the part with very instinctive feelings. At first i show Lisa as a timid shy character by having her arms folded and head down . Then to seem interested she has her hand on her hips to show an open body language and her head up to show confidence . Her drastic change in emotion could be due to her disorder. The themes of the play are fantasy in act one and reality in act 2 . Two very opposite themes. So it will be a challenge to go from being very animated then to drained.




Here's a picture of the aesthetics of the staging. There will have to be alot of focus on the space we will have on the stage. We may have to consider working on the different levels of the staging or how we will bring the performance out.

Lesson Tuesday 27th Kim

In Today's we created power points groups about the vital organs that allow us to sing.We had to present them to the rest of the class and kim recorded them so we would have a saved visual document of our work.
I presented the slide on the larynx and diaphragm. I was in a group with Holly Hoskins , henry , max and together we created an informative persentation and poster.
Heres some of the posters we created .