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.