Final PAB presentation

My Monologue

For our classical theatre unit we have to do a performance of a chosen classical monologue. For mine I have chosen to do.

Helena from Alls well that Ends Well by William Shakespeare.




Alls Well That Ends Well was written in around 1605/04 but was not published until 1623 in his First Folio.

Here is a short summary of the story from http://www.nosweatshakespeare.com/play-summary/alls-well-ends-well/






IN this particular monologue my Character Helena is confessing her love of Bertram a Count of Roussillon, to his mother, proving she really does love him and not just saying it.

Tempest - 28/2/17

In this lesson we were exploring our characters/groupings physically, as well as gaining an understanding of the character relationships and how to become accustomed to physically approach a process without scripts. As physical theatre is a large factor within our performance of the tempest we started by discussing the different elements in which were important whilst rehearsing and creating our performance.

What needs to be maximised when dialogue is minimal in a physical theatre performance -

• Facial Expressions/Gestures/Posture/Body language/Projection

• Proxemics - Actor -> Set / Actor -> Audience / Actors -> Actors

• Sustaining Characterisation  -    Stylising -> Exaggeration/Pace/State of Tension/Repetition (These are the main ingredients within physical theatre that transition pedestrian movement to stylised)

Pedestrian Movement - Everyday movements,gestures and phrases.

We then spoke about different physical theatre practicioners and how they were mainly based as well as their acting to dance relationships.

• DV8 -> Dance

• Complicité -> Dialogue 

• Frantic Assembly -> Dance/Drama 

• Knee-high -> Dance/Drama

Our production of the tempest is in Kneehigh style therefore we have to make ours a good combinations of dance to drama to correctly embody their style as an ensemble. Which is why we then went on to talk about and focus on State of Tension.

State of tension - The different states of tension you use in your body to create different levels of energy, or space with your character and the storyline their in. 

By ourselves we went through every state of tension, there are 8 states of tension, so 1 is barely moving, 4 is around neutral and 8 is high energy and over the top. This was effective to do first as it really allowed us to see the contrast between all the states and how much of a difference they can actually make to a performance/atmosphere.

We then had to think about what kind of state of tension our character would sit in, as my character is a part of the gentry, being very educated as well a bit older I put her as a 3/4 she's a bit slower but quite normal and always has a calm demeanour about her however I feel she would become 4/5 at some point when she is trying to be overly positive for the King. 

We then spoke about our different groups in more detail and the relationships they all have - 

Royals - Alonso, Ferdinand, Antonia, Bastiana

Prosperas Family - Prospera, Miranda.

Magical - Ariel (1 & 2), Caliban

Gentry - Gonzala, Adriana

Servants - Stephano, Trincula

In our groups we had to create movements to represent our characters in our groups. However we did it in levels to show how exaggeration is important when having minimal dialogue and with Kneehigh influence. 

We structured it as so:

1. Pose
2. Walk 
3. Groups building 
4. pair/trio - mixed building 

For me this started with a pose of me and Olivia sitting with our legs crossed, I was pretending to read a book. We then had to make it bigger to I stood up to highlight my status more compared to Olivia's character. Then in our pairs/groups we had to come up with a way of moving as our characters that was the same to represent our group, we created a walk , with ours we made it slow, dramatic walks with our noses in the air, to really show our authority compared to others, people will move out of our way not the other way around except the royals.

 As we showcased our movement we would get told to increase the state of tension, as we had to do this I increased my exaggeration within my movement, making my leaning deeper, steps bigger as well as amplifying my hip movement to create more of an impression. We also had to then say either selected lines of our characters or things that represents our character or they might say, with this as the levels increased the verbal got louder and more aggressive.

We then got put into different pairs/groups where we merged with a contrasting character from another group. In my case I was with Amber who is playing one of the Ariels from the magical groups. In this we had to repeat our movement creating a relationship within the characters choosing one of our lines to continuously repeat when doing the movement, I chose my line Be Patient as Ariels movement is quite buoyant and big, which si a contrast to my controlled and slower movement of my character so we made it that Ariel was getting mad as I was slow so continued to say Be Patient, making sure I said it very calmly and positive so to keep to my character.

When we had to then increase our state levels again, I increased my pace partly to keep up with Amber more so we had more of a connection. As well as repletion with the lines and movement but using more dynamic inflection when having to increase our state again. Also getting louder so that we could hear each other and be louder than the others, so we show the developing and expanding of our characters and their states of tension.

After we finished this section of the class, we split off back into our groups to work on musical elements/numbers within the performance. Me and Olivia were given the song We Fall In Love by Lamb. We listened to the song and really liked it, we had to create a small performance, of our song showcasing any harmonies or ideas, I came up with a few harmonies with Olivia singing the tune. In our song the background had a slight tribal, woods, magical kind of vibe in the background, I came up with the idea that its the Ariels singing the main section but have the other sprites disguised as the surroundings like the woods and such, and the ariels are signing it putting them under a spell very much like the scene in The Chronicles of Narnia when Mr Tumnus playing his enchanted flute which controls the fire and hypnotises lucy; giving off that vibe within this scene really emanating the theme of dark magic. We then showcased our example and our ideas.

This lesson really helped us as a class get into the idea of the physical theatre with shakespeare. Also broadening our knowledge on physical theatre skills and techniques. I really gained an understanding of all the different state of tension elements and the different relationships within the Tempest.

   

The Tempest - Research, Story, My Character, Representations/Significance

THE TEMPEST:


In our classical theatre unit we are doing a main production and focusing on the play The Tempest. The Tempest is one of Shakespeare many plays written supposedly around 1610-11.



The Tempest, is based on an island in which Prospero a magician lives with his daughter Miranda. Prospero is the rightful Duchess of Milan however was commandeered by his brother Antonio who wanted the title for himself, but Prospero was helped by a good friend Gonzalo to get him and his daughter away in which they ended up on the island as a result.



Years into the future when Miranda is now 15 and Prospero has taken over the whole island as well as its inhabitants such as a grotesque island beast called Caliban in which he makes his slave. As well as other magical creatures on the island such as Ariel a magical sprite who had been trapped in a tree by Sycorax (previous ruler of the Island and Calibans Mother), Prospero freed him on the deal that Ariel would serve him.



At this time the King of Naples, Alonso as well as his son Ferdinand, his brother Sebastian, the duke of Milan Antonio, Gonzalo a friendly courtier and many other associates were travelling the seas on a ship back from the wedding of the Kings daughter Claribel to the King of Tunis. In this travel they embark a treacherous storm, throwing al the ships inhabitants into the sea, wrecking the ship just off the edge of the island.



Prospero and Miranda watched as the storm occurred and the ship wrecked. The people from the ship were dispersed around the island unscathed and completely dry.  Ferdinand, the kings son has been separated from the rest and the King fears him to be dead. Ferdinand meets Miranda, the pair instantly falling in love with one another, however Prospero puts him under a spell to work, to show that love can't come that easily.

On another part of the island, butler Stephano and Jester Trinculo were deposited from the wreck onto the island, where they meet Caliban who persuades to help him try to kill Prospero.


Simultaneously Antonio entices Sebastian to try and kill the King so that he will become King.

Ariel constantly leads them all towards Prospero. Eventually prospero approves of the marriage between Miranda and Ferdinand so sets him free. After putting the rest of them through different tests and punishing them, he leads them all to him. Prospero reveals himself, announces the betrothal of the young lovers, forgives the antagonists and announces that all the sailors are alive and the ship is in fine condition. He then proceeds to free Ariel before sailing back to Milan with all the others ready to take back his Dukedom.

My show budget - PAB

budget research - PAB

venue hire - I emailed the local theatre venues to look at prices seats and what I wanted, I discussed with the venue organiser and she said if was a youth project it would come under non-commercial, and have decided to use the assembly hall in the cabaret setting which then gives me 300 seats. This meant it came to £328 as I chose my show dates to be Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

    Having it in the cabaret setting allows my dancers to be able to be immersive within the performance making it more interactive for the audience.




For flyers and promotional elements Im using a family friend who is doing it within a deal for me, usually flyers are £99 for 1000 but I'm paying £99 for 650 flyers and then 10 A3 posters which he doesn't sell unless seriously demanded, the posters being around £4-£6 each would have been about £40 extra but got it included Inkind for working for them in the summer previous. He is also printing merchandise for me at the price of £100 for 5 jumpers, 10 t-shirts and 20 wristbands.

Jobs I would take to achieve my highest job - pab

I think I would work as a personal assistant for either the choreographer or the director.

Doing coffee trips and chasing files and all the other stereotypical jobs is normally the job everyone hates when depicted in films but its always been something that has interested me very much, taking it on as someones personal assistant is still a lot of responsibility as you have to learn about them and what they like, how their lives work and where you fit in to all of it and what they want you to do the majority of the time.

After working for them for a while I would hope to get promoted to make assistant assistant of either of the  kind of the roles, where you learn of the the higher role whilst still being in that place of an assistant but this time learning more and working at the same time. I think doing a job like this would hard to make time for auditions unless its only a weekday timetable in which you could try and fit classes and auditions in at the weekend. This is why I would take something I can continue to use to get to where I want to be in that situation.

Another one would be teaching at my local dance school teaching singing and drama, keeping my training going and staying active whilst still gaining money in which I could use for my in depth training in London at weekends as well as auditions if they arose. Something like this is effective when wanting to go in the performance pathway as it shows dedication as well as experience. I think that teaching is always a good thing to have under your belt whatever age or situation it is as it allows you to become more independent and organised.

Lastly I could work as a front of house in theatre near London or in London so I can still train and don't have to pay as much to commute saving money that I can the use for auditions and any other needs i require like kit and food. This would be one of the most sensible ideas and practical, as tallows me to keep on improving, saving money, making money and gaining more opportunities as a whole.

Non-performance opportunities - pab

Performance has been something I've been involved within my whole life so I find it difficult to think of myself in other domains outside of it as I don't have many other talents. However gibing it a think through I have come up with a few non-performance opportunities in which I would like to convey.

I have always had an interest in the marketing side of productions in theatre and film, I have always been in to art and designing so that side of the marketing is always something felt I would like to do If i were to journey down that path. They have so much control over the designs for the show, I would love to be apart of the merchandise designing or adverts like tv commercials/mini trailers, it really interests me as they are branding the show and their final designs are a big thing of what people will remember from whatever productions.

Another job I've always considered is cast directing, I've always seen it as a quite a slow job but they actually have more power than I thought they did initially. They still get involved with the movement work and the teams. They also get to create the real image for the production or company by deciding who they are as a group or end product. I was really interested into the research element of casting directors as they get all their information and then get to create the perfect cast for whatever production.

Producing was another situation that interested me within the theatre industry, they get to start it all really, creating the beginnings for everyone else and telling them where to start from.