The units end

The classical theatre unit has now come to an end, but I will keep developing the skills which I have learnt and the information I have gained. I have found this unit incredibly challenging but also very interesting as I had no idea how much classical theatre had to offer. It was also amazing to see the journey theatre has taken over time, how it has evolved and who and where these changes happened e.g. I think its incredible how clever the architectures of the ancient amphitheatres must have been to create them in such a way which projected speech and seated around 15,000 people!(especially with the limited technology they had). I have learnt just how much theatre and drama has influenced and affected so many lives throughout history and in the modern day e.g. productions have even been specifically designed to express a certain point or opinion, often politically or religiously (morality plays).
http://www.theatrehistory.com/  -  interesting website concerning theatre history

What skills have I learnt or developed?

• Monologue performance
• presenting skills
• vocal skills -projection, enunciation, pronunciation, intonation and punctuality
• I have learnt more about the old English language and how it has evolved
• team working skills
• The importance of independent study and reliability
• performing on your own- confidence building

I hope to put these skills to good use in future units and to keep on developing and improving them.
below is a video which will explain the history of theatre, it is part of a series of videos which you can locate on youtube- if you are interested these videos will help explain the history of theatre in an understandable manner.

presentation- final assessment

Today we performed our presentations for the final time, therefore It was our final chance to improve the grade (for the presentation). Since the initial assessment I changed and added a few pieces of information to my presentation e.g. Melo-drama and molieres death on stage, I also added a prop (a shilling replicate). After I had made the changes to it, I rehearsed it in front of my family a few times to make sure I remembered the information correctly and to get a second opinion.

How did my presentation go?
In some ways my presentation was better today, as I pronounced moliere correctly and had more information in it than previously,  Although the way I presented it was less effective e.g I said some of the information in slightly the wrong order and got a bit lost half way through. Although this was annoying, I don't think it affected it massively as I still managed to get the information across in an understandable manner. I also think I projected more effectively, yet this is still a skill in which I aim to improve.
If I do a presentation again I will make sure to rehearse it further and try not to be put off by having an audience.

I tried not to turn my back to the audience whilst explaining information

Final assessmnent- Monologue and scene

Today we performed our monologue and scenes for our final assessment. I have been rehearsing my monologue throughout the half term, working on all aspects of feedback (given by my tutor and myself) with the aim of improving it as much as possible. I used the ideas I came up with after the initial performance (see blog-monologue assessment-feedback) and added them into my monologue, I then rehearsed them to see if they suited my character (Frosine) and to make sure that they worked and made sense. I had to discard a few ideas along the way as I didn't believe them to look correct e.g. I was going to walk behind Mr Harpagon and pretend to have money in my hand, as if reminding him that she can supposedly make him money, I discarded this idea as It just didn't look natural during performance. I hope that the gestures added and the changes made have improved my monologue.


Personal interpretation of my final assessment- monologue
I am slightly happier with myself than the initial assessment, yet I am still frustrated and a bit disappointed with myself as I know I have performed it much better on other occasions, I also used my props differently as I had improved there use over the half term, yet I just completely forgot this during the performance. I believe these issues to be due to confidence and nerves (something which I am aiming to improve). Yet on a brighter note I know that it was better than the first assessment, as I projected my voice better and used more gestures. It is interesting for me to see how it has changed from my first reading of the monologue to my finished product in a way.
Personal interpretation of my final assessment-Scene
Our group scene mainly went to plan, the couple of mistakes that were made were well hidden. I still know it could of been slightly better but I suppose in a way you can never improve anything enough!. This experience taught me the importance of working together as a group and individually to create a group piece of work. It  has also shown me how much the industry and the acting profession relies on everybody working together, rehearsing and putting the work in themselves as one person can affect a majority of people.

In the future I hope to be more creative with my use of gesture and perform pieces it to my best ability during assessments!. I think I also need to experiment further and be more brave with my movement choices.

Monologue assessment - Feedback

Monologue assessment-feedback
I  received feedback from my tutor concerning my monologue- this is the feedback I received  

• It was fairly good but it has the makings of being a good monologue, I just need to be more creative and add in some more movements e.g maybe I could stand up on occasions when my character is getting carried away with herself.
• I need to project my voice further
• when I am taking down notes at the end, I need to make sure I actually look at what I am writing down!

I have come up with a few ideas to improve this:

1. when my character (Frosine) is getting carried away during the line "I could match the grand Turk and the venetian republic" I am going to stand up, yet she remembers very quickly that Mr Harpagon is watching her therefore she shakes her head in dismissal and sits back down. I am also going to stand up during the lines "she has not any hankering after extravagant dresses, expensive jewellery or sumptuous furnishings" and " do you mean to say that a modest appetite, a sober taste in dress, and a dislike of card playing don't amount to anything tangible? why, they are a marriage portion and an inheritance rolled into one!" during the first line (she has not any..) she stands as she is getting excited about the dresses she is talking about, she twirls and tugs at her own jewellery showing this; It also gives off an impression that she is a bit gossipy, which i believe her to be. She stands during the second line as she is confused and slightly frustrated that Mr Harpagon can't imagine what she believes to be flawless and wonderful ideas! she will shake her head and glare at Mr Harpagon in frustration.
2. I am going to work on the aspects which need improving e.g projection and making sure I look at the notebook when writing.

I intend to go closer to Harpagon, similar to the
picture. I wish to mime money in my hands
to show that Frosine is using His greed to her
advantage

                                                                              

  

 

Presentation and feedback- 9th Febuary

Today we were given some time to look through our presentations, during this time i chose to read through my presentation to ensure that it flowed and contained the correct information. I also added some information that I thought might help; the information I added was about the different sections of the theatre and their entrance prices e.g the pit, galleries-(1shilling). I added sections of this information on my note cards (as a stimulus) to remind me about these aspects, for example I wrote down "pit" and "stage sections" which reminded me to mention this in my presentation. I chose to use note cards as this would prevent me from constantly looking at the slides (on the PowerPoint), which shows that I fully understand what I am talking about!.

First assessment
We showed our presentations to our tutor, who then gave us feedback and the grade which they would currently achieve. overall I performed my presentation quite well, however I did get some words muddled up at the beginning, although I recovered from this fairly quickly.
Tutor Feedback

• Its clear that I understand what I am saying
• Overall it was a really good presentation which would achieve good grades
• I just need to check up a few bits of information that i may have got wrong or confused about e.g. Mrs Marwood is not gay!! My group has just interpreted the script incorrectly!
• Mention melo-drama and how over dramatic the actors were at the time

Personal interpretation of my presentation

• I am quite pleased as it went better than I expected
• I just need to correct a few pieces of information e.g. pronounce Moliere correctly.
• I am going to continue rehearsing it for the final assessment after half term.

                                                                         
 





Monologue assessment

In the morning we were given some time to rehearse our monologues and scenes.
I read my monologue through a few times (without the script) to ensure I could remember the lines and the pronunciation of the words, I also read it out to make sure that my intonation suited my character and what she was trying to say.
In the afternoon we were given individual time slots to perform our monologues to our tutors. This was our first assessment of our monologues, therefore we will be given feedback so we can improve them for the final assessment. For monologues many aspects are being analysed, these include:

• vocal skills: projection, enunciation, pitch, intonation, pronunciation, pause and inflection
• movement and posture: does your chosen posture suit your character?, do you have any nervous habits or in other words do you look wooden or awkward? do you add in appropriate gestures and facial expressions?
• Lines: how well do you know your lines? do you understand them and can your audience understand what you mean/

What layout and style have I chosen for my monologue?
I have decided to use the two chairs facing (tilted) to the audience, I talk to Mr Harpagon (the chair!). I have 2 props which are a note-book and a pen, My character uses these when she is calculating the cost of Mr Harpagon being married to Marianne, she also has the pen in her hand constantly and waves it about slightly, After experimenting i decided to do this as it gives the impression that Frosine (my character) does this sort of business all of the time, and is therefore used to carrying a notebook and pen around with her, this means that the pen might have just become a habit of hers. I know that if I was in her place I may have picked up that habit (the StanislavskI system) -http://www.kryingsky.com/Stan/Biography/bot.html----
This link contains more information about the Stanislavski system and putting yourself in a characters shoes to make the performance seem "real" and not "fake", this is what a man called Konstantin Stanislavski believed to be essential, the link will explain this :-)


My monologue performance went alright, but to be honest I don't really know how well i did. I remembered my lines correctly and I think I enunciated well. I know that my projection wasn't great and that I didn't use some of my planned gestures, I aim to improve these skills for my next performance.

Restoration theatre- further study

Last Friday we watched a presentation about restoration theatre, this explored what it was, how it came about and what it involved. I believe the following information to be important and interesting:

• After 7 years of civil war Charles 1 was removed from the throne and beheaded by Oliver Cromwell, leader of the puritans in 1649- the next 11 years were known as the commonwealth- during this period basically everything was classed as sinning included theatre, this meant that almost all theatres were burnt or destroyed by the government.
• In 1660, Charles II, who had been living in France, was invited by a newly elected Parliament to return from exile and rule England. The Monarchy was restored and this period was called the restoration.
• Restoration Drama- Unique fusion between Elizabethan stage conventions and Italian and French styles. French culture was especially influential in Restoration society as Charles 11 bought back various parts of french culture back when he returned from France. Serious Drama- consisted of Heroic tragedy and restoration tragedy.
• Restoration comedy- consisted of comedies of Intrigue (daring exploits of romance and adventure with complicated plots) and comedies of Manners (Focuses on the fashions and foibles of the upper class – gossip, adultery, sexual escapades).
• Actors- actors were mainly men, although women were finally allowed to act during this period of time( this hugely influenced theatre). Actors learnt their craft through apprenticeships and were offered jobs via contract. rehearsals for plays could last just 2 weeks. 
• Theatre Architecture- All buildings were indoor and the stage was divided into two distinct halves. lighting was difficult yet they managed by showing performances in the afternoon to use some natural light, they used candles alongside natural light as well. –

Time line of outfits during the restoration period

"The way of the world"- character interpretation and ideas

My character in our group scene is a maid called "Peg", After experimenting and analysing the script I have come up with a few characteristics which i would like to incorporate into the role.

• I would like "Peg" to be loyal to "Lady Wishford", yet she can still get irritated by her arrogance and occasional selfishness. She shows this by sighs, secret looks and eye rolling.
• I quite like the idea of making her rather nosey, She can be listening subtly to the conversations going on around her, yet she resists in-put (although its obvious that she would like to participate via eye and mouth movements). I believe that she would like to speak because if I was in her situation I would think that Lady Wishford and Mrs Marwood's conversation was slightly petty and immature, therefore i would want to subtly make them realise this. But in this situation "Peg" knows her place (as a maid) and knows better than to speak out.  

How is the scene developing and making progress (as a group)


The scene is becoming more structured and understandable with rehearsals and line learning, the ideas are developing and being used during rehearsals. Vocal skills are good as i would say everybody sounds in character and has added in comical characteristics to their voice (and movement skills for that matter). We have also discussed props and costume, we came to the conclusion that we would use an empty brandy bottle (cherry brandy), an empty liqueur bottle (red ratifia), plastic glass's and a mirror for the props, we have decided who will bring in which props to ensure we all know and understand what we need for the performance day. Costume wise we have all decided to find them individually, as we know our own characters the best. I have simply decided to wear a black top with an apron or cloth as i believe that is suitable for a maid.
Overall I believe we are working well as a group, sharing opinions and are making progress, yet further rehearsal and development is still needed.

Thursday 2nd Febuary

Today was completely focused on our monologues. We had some time to rehearse independently or in groups, I read my monologue to Matthew and Peter (on my course) who gave me feedback so that I could improve. My feedback was that overall it was well-spoken yet I need to project  my voice further and add in more movements. I then listened to their monologues (Matthew and Peter) to give them feedback before rehearsing independently.

After a short break we got given time slots of which we could work on monologues with Sonya (our tutor), this gave us the chance to get useful feedback, to discuss what was or wasn't working and to develop new ideas.

What did this achieve?

• I learnt that overall my vocal-skills during my monologue are good, i just need to project my voice further and leave gaps during the last part of my monologue (which is as follows)- "Do you mean to say that a modest appetite, a sober taste in dress and a dislike of card playing don't amount to anything tangible? Why they are a marriage portion and an inheritance rolled into one" as this would make it clear that she is both confused and slightly irritated that he isn't completely agreeing with her.
• During a discussion with Sonya I have developed some new ideas, Although i was originally planning to stand up i have now decided that i could sit down opposite another chair (placed slightly forward so it is still visible), directing the conversation to an imaginary Mr Harpagon who is sat there!, this means i could also use props like photos which i would be showing to him (obviously photos were not invented in 1668!, but we can modernise the style of the monologues).
• I can now experiment with the new ideas to finalise the blocking for my monologue, once it is finalised i can improve it with rehearsal.



The chairs would be positioned in this
manner so they are visible and so that it is obvious 
that Frosine is talking to somebody 



Wednesday 1st Febuary

Today was based on independant study, scene work and rehearsing monologues.
In the morning I rehearsed "The way of the world" with my group, we looked through the script first and did a quick run through to familiarise ourselves with the lines and previous ideas (written on the script). We then got on our feet (group decision) to perform the scene and put it into practise (act it out), this was highly productive as we have developed and memorised parts of the blocking.
The afternoon was basically independent study (monologues and lines) and a small amount of scene work. I read through my monologue a few times before performing it off-script, I believe I have now learnt my monologue which means i can focus on the movement and vocal aspects of the monologue more thoroughly . We did a small amount of scene work ("The way of the world") which consisted of idea devising, line learning and rehearsing: So what did this achieve?

• We have come up with an idea for our scene- Mrs Marwood gets pushed into the closet to hide from Foible,  yet she puts her glass out and looks at peg for a refill (blatantly not attempting to keep hidden effectively!)  and Peg (the maid) is trying her very best to cover for Mrs Marwood by taking the glass and pretending it was hers.
• I have rehearsed and learnt my monologue so i can focus on other important aspects
• As a group we have developed our scene further and gained ideas and blocking.

http://www.enotes.com/way-world- if you would like to understand more about "The way of the world" the link will explain the plot and history :-)

London - Sites visited and information I have gained



Inside the globe theatre.
It was interesting to view the
 estimated layout and
 style of  the globe



I went to London with college for 3 days; We visited some sites which I have found helpful for this unit. These included The Globe theatre, the new London theatre, the Royal Opera house and St Paul's (the actors church). It was interesting to discover how theatre has evolved from Shakespeare's time. Theatre was hated by the church, women were not allowed to act and the style of plays were different yet still effect theatre today. During the Restoration women were finally allowed to act, some church's were accepting theatre  as a good thing and  plays were becoming increasingly popular. Nowadays theatre and drama is a huge part of life, and comes in many different forms e;g theatre, ballet, comedy, pantomime, TV. It is completely accepted in society and is enjoyed by millions if not billions of people.

We also went to see the show War horse in the national theatre, this was a great example of how focused you need to be when performing, as it was clear that every performer was completely focused and giving the show everything they had.

The actors controlling the horses must be incredibly
focused to move the horses in co-ordination with each
other. They also have to make precise movements and sound
at the correct moments throughout the performance.
They did this brilliantly which made you see the puppets
as real horses during the show.

Frosines Monologue, ideas and rehearsal/ Molieres intentions

I have realised that when I perform my monologue I don't move or use gestures enough, this makes it look a bit wooden. Therefore I have been experimenting with gestures and movements which my character would use, I have come up with a  few ideas which i could in-corporate:

• When my character is calculating sums in her head, she could be counting on her fingers to make sure shes right
• I could add in a small pace or wander to make it look less awkward and wooden
• When there is an important line e.g. "why this girl will bring you twelve thousand a year" (as it is a persuasive line), i should put emphasis on the important words to make them stand out and make a point.

I am still experimenting with my monologue to see what suits my character in terms of movement but also with her intonation and volume. I have realised the importance of these skills, because you can know a monologue and read it out but this means nothing unless you can actually perform it, as in create a character and show its meaning.


I was also curious to see where Moliere took his inspiration from and why he wrote "The Miser".

I found out that he was in a way adapting a fable ("The miser and his gold") about a greedy man who buried his gold (Harpagon also buried his gold). The man checked on it every day, until one day his gold was stolen. The man realised that the gold hadn't helped or made him happy in any way, therefore a buried stone would have been just as useful, so he buried a stone in its place. The morale of this story is that money is not the most important aspect o life and can do more harm than good. This is of great importance because there are many similarity's between this and "The Miser", Harpagon harmed many people out of greed including his horses (half starved them), he turned his children against him who later stole his gold!, and basically for a useless substance as he never put his gold to any use. I believe  Moliere was trying to tell people to care about their family and Friends over money.

                                                                      

This is a video which explains the fable in simple terms, it may be helpful to view it :-)

Independant study

I have decided to do some independent research into Restoration theatre, I decided to research the audience as i have little knowledge of audience's during Restoration drama/comedy.  

William Hogarth: The Laughing Audience, 1733

• Restoration drama was essentially written by Charles's courtiers for his courtiers and it was vibrant, colourful, brutal, and bawdy. Restoration audiences were notoriously ill behaved, often more interested in the drama of their own lives than that on stage.
• During this time the theatre was a "playhouse for the upper crust of restoration society".
• there are accounts of audience members climbing onto the stage (even though this was unsuccessfully forbidden in Charles 11's reign). Not only this but quarrels often took to the stage, which did on occasions cause injury.
• Orange Wenches- groups of women who would force their way through the walkways to sell fruit, they were tolerated but not liked as their prices were often extravagant.

Different audience sectors:

1. The Pit- a seat here cost half a crown (12p), although you were expected to keep to your seat all the way through the performance. This was by far the noisiest and rowdiest area of the auditorium.
2. The Boxes- This was the most expensive area costing 4 shillings (20p).Boxes were used to host the higher class, mainly women and their protective husbands.
3. The Galleries-This area was for the lower class of society and is often not accounted for in contemporary accounts.

http://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/~rtheatre/Theatres/Area_Aud.html- this is the link used to gain this information, therefore if you'd like to know more click here.

Friday 20th january

Today gave us the opportunity to work on our presentations or do some research.
I began my presentation, my original idea was to simply have a picture presentation and read the information separately. In the end i have done some slides with just pictures with the odd comment, yet i have added text on slides which need an explanation to make them understandable. I am still planning to learn and understand the information further so i can explain the information without constantly looking at the PowerPoint. I researched information about the Restoration period, the history and influences behind theatre at that time. I learnt some really useful information about restoration comedy and its social and historical influences.

here are some of the websites i used:

• http://www.cyberpat.com/shirlsite/essays/restor2.htm
• http://www.cummingsstudyguides.net/Guides2/Miser.html



An interpretation of Frosine and Mr Harpagon from "The Miser",
its helpful to look at different interpretations as it can help create ideas
and give you a greater understanding of how your character might dress

 This research gave me a greater understanding of Restoration comedy, this in turn helped me to understand "The Miser" and "The way of the world" as i understand some of the meanings behind them e.g "The Miser" outlines greed, love and serendipity (luck). I believe that it's crucial to understand your plays, characters and the ideas behind them, as it helps you to portray and explain your character more convincingly and in more detail.

I am going to do some research in my independent study time so i can improve my knowledge in this area. 

Thursday 19th January

Today we focused on our monologues and characterisation.
Firstly we arranged ourselves into small groups, together we read through our monologues and discussed characterisation or anything we believed to be productive.
notes i wrote about my monologue and character

• I have decided to perform my monologue standing up, i believe i can get more of my character (Frosine) across to the audience this way, by posture an gestures.
• I need to explore intonation more thoroughly, this means i can make important aspects of the speech stand out more. This will also help the audiences understanding of what she is trying to say.

To gain more feedback about our monologues we were asked to perform our monologues to the class. i managed to read out half of my monologue, but i had to stop due to nerves (something i will have to work on). I still gained some helpful feedback, i learnt that my enunciation, tone of voice and characterisation are all good, yet i need to be louder and perform with more confidence. We then had a short amount of time to think about our feedback and come up with some new improvement ideas.

During our last half hour we watched some classical theatre clips to give us a better idea of how it is performed and what it is all about. We watched David Tennants monologue ("to be or not to be") from Hamlet, Catherine Tate performing " a winters tale" and the modern version of Romeo and Juliet. It was interesting to see what facial expressions they used and how much the acting style can differ yet still be effective. I plan to research more about Classical theatre, especially from the restoration period, as my monologue and script are from that time era.

                                                                        

This is one of the videos which we watched, i found it interesting to watch the use of facial expression and intonation

Wednesday 18th January

In the morning we learnt about shakespeare and what theatre was like at the time (Renaissance era).
What did i learn about Shakespeare?

• There are thirty-eight plays written by shakespeare around today, two more plays were lost in the past.
• Not much is actually known about shakespeare, there are very few paintings of him (all believed to be inaccurate), and only few facts about him can be accounted for e.g he was married
• His plays are split up into Historys, Tragedies and comedies
• He used rythm, sonnets and many forms of writing in his plays
• he is probably the most famous and popular playwright to date

We then talked about his use of language, as he used old english (from the time era) to write his plays.
In actual fact after reading through some of his material, we realised that its not that difficult to make out what he means or is trying to say, once you know this you can then research any unknown words. To explore this we looked at a poem called "JABBERWOCKY"(by Lewis Carol) which is basically written in a completely made-up form, yet you can create meaning out of it because they are believable words!.  We then looked through our monologues and scene work to make sure we actually understood what we are saying and meaning!, this is crucial as you have to understand a piece to be able to portray it correctly to an audience. I believe i now understand what my character is trying to say and what emotions she is expressing .
The afternoon was also research based, as we explored the Renaissance era.

What did I learn?

• Renaissance is the name for a time era (1500-mid 1600) the word means new birth. during this period the tudors and stuarts were in power (at different times of course).
• many aspects of life changed greatly in this era as new discoverys, beliefs and laws came into society e.g new lands discovered. This influenced theatre greatly at the time e.g war influenced theatre strongly.
• William Shakespeare, Ben Jonson, James Burbage, Christopher Marlowe and Richard Burbage were famous playwright/actors around during this era.
• Myths and Magic and the society highrank ,The chain of being (see picture below) had a great influence on theatre e.g women were seen as very low in society.
• classcial style was popular
• theatre was seen as quite un-civalised for a while, only being performed by lower members of society (outside of london) and frowned upon by many, including the church. Audience members could throw food at bad actors, talk as much and as loudly as they wished, and the atmosphere was crowded and roudy.
• In 1576 theatre became recognised slightly by higher classes, meaning the first theatre in london was built, and simply called "The theatre". The Swan and The Rose (both london theatres) followed soon after. Elizabeth the first fell in love with theatre and often held productions in her court.
• theatre companies were already around and toured outside of london. Shakespeare himself spent much of his career with a company called Chamberlaines
• Shakespeare's plays were performed in either "The Blackfriars" (higher class) or "The Globe" (lower class").                                                                













 I have found a video which will give you furthur information on William Shakespeare. I found it quite interesting, i hope you share the same experience :-)



THE CHAIN OF BEING
This helped me to understand the system so i hope it helps you to!



Thursday 12th January

In the morning i had a Tutorial to discuss my progress and parts of the unit which i didn't fully understand. In the afternoon we worked on our group scenes, we read the scene through in character and made sure we understood what the characters mean as language has changed greatly since the Play was written. We read through it a couple of times before getting up and running it through with the blocking and actions, this helps as it starts to build up an image of what the scene looks like and can bring ideas into mind. Within the group we all came up with independant ideas about our own characters, which we practised during the scene run-throughs.  We then moved on to monologues, in pairs or small groups we read out our monlogues to each other, everybody then got feedback and ideas back from each other.
this gave us practise on our monologues, helped us to learn our lines and gave us feedback (which can help you to improve).
Once we had finished we went down to the LRC to work on our presentation or gain further information for it. I came up with a few ideas for my presention, i would like to have an activity (possibly role-play), have a small quiz at the end, possibly in the style of mastermind, And have a picture powerpoint with the information read seperately.

Wednesday 11th January

In the morning we received our group scenes and characters for the unit, my group (Demi, Chelsea,Chloe and Chloe P) have been given a scene (act three,scene one) from "The way of the world", a popular restoration comedy written by William Congreve in 1700. My character is called "Peg", "Lady Wishforts" maid. She is rushed off her feet by the Lady.
In the afternoon we did an improvisation exercise, once again we were given handouts about ancient theatre, we had to make them more interesting to make the information sink in to listeners. To engage an audience we added actions and role-play to the information being read out, this means that it should hopefully be much more engaging to watch and listen to.
After this we learnt about mystery and morality plays -see link
http://m.crossref-it.info/articles/147/Mystery-and-morality-plays


We then devised a morality play in groups which involved the seven deadly sins, an average person, a good side, and death, as Morality plays were used to explain how to live a good or just life. Our plays moral was to resist temptation or modern day peer pressure. This was helpful as it encouraged us to be creative in the way we think and devise scenes, plays or anything performance wise!. It taught us that information can sink in better if it is shown in an interesting way, of course at the time these plays were first performed they were performed in this manner so that people could understand them (as the average person wasn't very well educated).
Finally we rehearsed our group scenes ("the way of the world") we managed to block the first page and practise it a few times before the day ended, yet we need to expand on these developments as the blocking we devised isn't set in stone and it could be much improved e.g. the entrance of "Mrs Marwood" needs to be changed as we all ended up blocking each other on the stage.

Friday 6th January

We were situated in the computer room, as we needed to research more about classical theatre, our monologues and what theatre was like in the past and at the time our plays (the miser) were written. I found out some interesting information about Greek classical theatre, as we watched a video about Greek theatre which explained about an amphitheatre and what theatre was like at the time.


   


I also discovered more about the restoration period (when theatre made a come back after it had been banned for 18 years) and The Miser. The link below has a lot of helpful information about the play which has given me a greater understanding of the plot and its history. 
http://ecademy.agnesscott.edu/~dthompson/MiserWeb/Miser_Production_Concept_Package.pdf

This also taught me that the writer Jean-Baptiste Moliere, took inspiration from life and politics during the time period to write the play. before the day finished Sonya talked to us about the presentations which we will be doing (about our monologue and what theatre was like at the time it was written). The research we have been doing will be incredibly helpful when creating our presentations. They must also be interesting (not just reading out blocks of information).

Thursday 5th january

In the morning we had a group tutorial and learnt more about classical theatre, how it started, evolved and the large quantity of styles it contains. e.g roman, medieval, shakespeare, restoration.
After lunch we went to the dance studio, as a few of us hadn't managed to find a suitable monologue yet (for our monologue work), we went to the LRC to search for one. My monologue is from the Miser (a restoration comedy play), the character is Frosine, she is a match-maker who thinks theres nobody on earth she can't pair off! in the monologue shes trying to convince Harpagon (a rich but greedy man) that she can match him up with Marianne (a young, poor yet pretty girl in his neighbourhood). Once everybody had a suitable monologue, we had a quick disscusion about them before heading back down to te LRC to do some independant research, this was about our monologues and the time period in which they were set. i found a couple of useful links which taught me about the play itself, the characters and restoration comedy (time-period).

http://www.sccs.swarthmore.edu/users/08/ajb/tmve/wiki100k/docs/Restoration_comedy.html
http://www.cummingsstudyguides.net/Guides2/Miser.html

I also found a video which is from a movie of the miser, seeing somebody elses interpretation of the part was helpful and inspired some ideas. the monologue is differently worded in it but means the same.

Wednesday 4th january

This was our first day of the classical theatre unit, therefore in the morning sonya (our tutor) explained what classical theatre was (theatre before 1850's) and involved, also what work we need to complete for the unit. in the morning we undertook a small activitity, this involved presenting handouts (The Greek Theatre) in an interesting and engaging form, rather than just reading them out plainly. my group chose to use role-play to do this, we acted out what the presenter was explaining in a humorous manner to engage an audience. we performed these to the second years in the afternoon.
In the afternoon we learnt much more about Greek theatre and amphitheatres, we created a human ampitheatre standing in a semi-circle and positioning ourselves to demonstrate correct places for everything and everybody in an amphitheatre. after this we got into groups and acted out a given scene, my group got Lysistrata (a greek scene), this gave us a greater understaning of the language and style of plays which the Greek would perform E.G they are obssessed with war, women with power and sexuality.  Below is an example of a Greek ampitheatre, which gives an idea of the size and design.