This week we looked into Greek Tragedy and the role of a chorus in Greek Theatre as well as more development on '13'.
Greek Tragedy
"A chorus is a body of people who speak the same but do not think the same" (Greek Theatre video: http://sdcstream.southdowns.ac.uk/view.aspx?id=7462~4t~V3INjBBD&from=AuthSuccess )
The role of a chorus is to act ("A chorus has to spend a long time reacting to others") and react to things happening in the scene; and they stay on stage throughout the play. Behind the stage, is where the skene is situated and infront of it, is the audience. As we are familiar to today. In the image you can see the sketch of the skene, stage and the audience in a circular shape; this is called theatre in the round.
Greek theatre flourished in 550 BC and 220BC; it is commonly know as dark theatre with the constant theme of death. It is known to be "emotionally draining" for the audience as feelings are shared from the chorus to the audience which makes it so emotional for the audience. The reasons for this is because the chorus is the realistic interpretation, for the audience, of human tragedy and the "universal and unfairness of suffering unnecessarily" (From the link above)Greek Tragedy also covers
the aspects of human life such as;
Masks were worn in Greek Tragedy mainly because scenes performed on the Greek stages were often going against (making fun) those higher up i.e Gods. That meant that the masks acted as a privacy boundary for the actors who were recreating scenes that they perhaps shouldnt be. Masks were also worn because they were a part of a religious tradition; and it also enabled the actors to become different characters throughout the play as they could simply just change masks or for a man to play a woman etc.
We experimented with the role of a chorus in Stephens speech in Act 1. The scene before this one is a protesting scene in which Amir gets arrested and Rachel beaten up. This scene flows straight into the speech scene as all the other actors (excluding Stephen) slowly turn into students in the speech/lecture. Those who turn from protestors to students are the chorus in '13' as we show the scene change into a lecture; which is what the chorus's role is to show whats' happening on stage. As you can see in the image, we have people in the background reacting to things happening on stage. The strengths of this scene is the clever change over from protesters to students; as this represents teenagers/students being rebellious and difficult but when something interests them, the attention is turned. The students begin to listen to Stephen as though they are drawn to him and what he has to say. This could be a reference to schooling in the UK. Students are perhaps being taught the right things but not in the right way to reach them fully and engage them and their beliefs and their interests. So we created this scene to which some students really take an interest in the speech, and others who don't, similarly to a ordinary class. Another strength is the way Luke plays Stephen, his voice is performed soft but informative and I find myself genuinely interested in what he is saying because of this. He uses the circle of students to walk around and interact with each of us students.
The weakness of this scene is that Stephen is caged in by the ring of students; I feel that if he had room to escape the circle and then continue the speech directly to audience as though they are also students; which means the audience, as I did, can really focus on him and take in what he says, as its key to the scene, the students in the circle can continue to look up on the box, where Stephen originally stands as though he is still stood there. I think with Stephen in the circle of students the entire scene excludes the audience but letting him outside the ring helps to engage the audience before they lose concentration.
'13'
We looked deeper into '13' this week. We talked about the style, which we settled on a contemporary style. We talked about the issues that appear in the play such as politically, economically, geographically and culturally between Britain, America and Iran (in 2011). A large issue that is addressed in '13' is social media/networking. This is brought up in various parts of the play; in August 2011, the London riots began. These riots when on for days and caused chaos in the city. These riots were named the "BlackBerry riots" because social media helped them organise the riots such as when and where etc. However, Bartlett uses social media in a positive way in '13' as characters use it to 'advertise' Stephen and Ruth.
Home research:
Greek Tragedy
"A chorus is a body of people who speak the same but do not think the same" (Greek Theatre video: http://sdcstream.southdowns.ac.uk/view.aspx?id=7462~4t~V3INjBBD&from=AuthSuccess )
 |
| My drawing of the Greek Theatre layout. |
Greek theatre flourished in 550 BC and 220BC; it is commonly know as dark theatre with the constant theme of death. It is known to be "emotionally draining" for the audience as feelings are shared from the chorus to the audience which makes it so emotional for the audience. The reasons for this is because the chorus is the realistic interpretation, for the audience, of human tragedy and the "universal and unfairness of suffering unnecessarily" (From the link above)Greek Tragedy also covers
the aspects of human life such as;
 |
| Angry Greek Tragedy mask worn in the Greek plays. |
- Love
- War
- Sacrifice
- Fear
- Death
- Religion
- Politics
- Truth
And it was the choruses role to make sense of what's happening on in the scene, pick up on any emotions and tell it to the audience.
Masks were worn in Greek Tragedy mainly because scenes performed on the Greek stages were often going against (making fun) those higher up i.e Gods. That meant that the masks acted as a privacy boundary for the actors who were recreating scenes that they perhaps shouldnt be. Masks were also worn because they were a part of a religious tradition; and it also enabled the actors to become different characters throughout the play as they could simply just change masks or for a man to play a woman etc.
 |
| Public Scene in which we act as a chorus. |
The weakness of this scene is that Stephen is caged in by the ring of students; I feel that if he had room to escape the circle and then continue the speech directly to audience as though they are also students; which means the audience, as I did, can really focus on him and take in what he says, as its key to the scene, the students in the circle can continue to look up on the box, where Stephen originally stands as though he is still stood there. I think with Stephen in the circle of students the entire scene excludes the audience but letting him outside the ring helps to engage the audience before they lose concentration.
'13'
We looked deeper into '13' this week. We talked about the style, which we settled on a contemporary style. We talked about the issues that appear in the play such as politically, economically, geographically and culturally between Britain, America and Iran (in 2011). A large issue that is addressed in '13' is social media/networking. This is brought up in various parts of the play; in August 2011, the London riots began. These riots when on for days and caused chaos in the city. These riots were named the "BlackBerry riots" because social media helped them organise the riots such as when and where etc. However, Bartlett uses social media in a positive way in '13' as characters use it to 'advertise' Stephen and Ruth.
Home research:
 |
| Stacey getting angry with Jeanine. |
Web link-
We then rehearsed this scene again in class, and I felt that
I accessed the angry more realistically. As I imagined something that really
made me angry and expressed the anger through the lines I needed to deliver. I
felt it was a lot more successful this time round especially the slap as I got
the audiences reaction of slight gasps even though the audience was just
classmates who knew it was coming.
Personal Aims
My personal aims for this play is to get a comment, after the show, saying "wasn't Rachel a harsh character? Or a comment, in which they talk about the character and not who plays it. This would tell me if I fully became someone else and played her so well that the audience begin to know her as 'person'; because Rachels personality is so different to mine that would mean that I did'
nt act as Issie I was a completely different. I also want to feel pleased with how I did and get constructive criticism so I know how to keep improving because I will never improve otherwise.
Personal Aims
My personal aims for this play is to get a comment, after the show, saying "wasn't Rachel a harsh character? Or a comment, in which they talk about the character and not who plays it. This would tell me if I fully became someone else and played her so well that the audience begin to know her as 'person'; because Rachels personality is so different to mine that would mean that I did'
nt act as Issie I was a completely different. I also want to feel pleased with how I did and get constructive criticism so I know how to keep improving because I will never improve otherwise.
WEEK 2-You provide detailed links to the class work and demonstrate your response and understanding as well as examples of how the research is applied in class practical work- well done. You evaluate your scene work honestly and insightfully and demonstrate further research into your character- Well done!
ReplyDeleteWEEK 2 ACTION
1.Evaluate the strengths and weakness in the scene work e.g the chorus and Stephen. Make further judgements.