The second pose is both of her hands in her pockets, this allows her to look casual and more relaxed in the scenes which she's at home etc. The cardigan in which as the pockets is very long and reaches past my hips, this means when she stretches out her arms this makes her look tall and really relaxed because her body language is open.
The final pose is the weight of my body laying on one leg, one arm resting on my hip bones out in the shape of a triangle, the other hand up near her face as she looks at her hands and nails. This is a common pose of being bored and impatient and many audience members will be able to pick up on this because so many people do it.
We were then asked to walk like our characters at the same pace as they would. Rachel, to me, would walk with a quick pace with long strides of the legs because she's always on the move and out to do something important. She walks with a pull from her stomach, so her head is held high and her body is pushed forward when walking. This makes her look much more important and with the head held high, it makes her look taller and confident.
We then had to experiment how the character would sit. I perched near the edge of the chair so I can get up quickly if need be. Her legs are open at a slight triangle shape, because she isn't ridiculously girly and neither does she care what she looks like nor what people think of her.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D7GQyrwFmR8 This is a YouTube link giving information about body language: the crossing of the arms. This is immediately described by Craig Beck as defensive as you close of your chest and heart; which is the most open part of your body. The cross of the arms represents a barrier between the two people talking, blocking themselves from everyone else.
We then went on to do a fun activity called 1 minute scene. My group were given Act Two. I took charge as some others in my group weren't getting stuck in, as such. I suggested all making an alarm clock sound then going straight into the "thirteen steps" with someone else passing over a mimed cup of coffee. These ideas were brushed off which is a shame because it resulted in our group being the only group with nothing to perform after me trying hard to give them ideas. I suggested some other ideas to briefly summarise the act, and Milo suggested for the ending, that we crowd around me (being the only girl) and 'kill' me as Ruby.
When we got to perform ours I did our first scene and it all fell to pieces. I really struggled with this task because I knew that I had to take charge in order to actually have something to perform. This was also a good experience for all of us because we all needed to contribute because the outcome is that one person attempts to get the entire group going but the idea of a team didn't work today. We watched the other groups pieces and they were quick, funny and they didn't necessarily stick to the full play layout which made it more comical. From this, I can only say that we've all learnt the lesson that if we have ideas then we all, as a group, need to layer up on these to create the final idea. We were then put together as a class and worked on act two together; this worked much better. It was disappointing for me because I have done a larger version of this at my drama group outside of college, and we don't rehearse we just jump on the stage when we enter say some lines or "he loves me" then jump back off again. This is at a much quicker pace and more comedic because the summaries of the scenes become jumbled up.
We got shown the final poster design today. The poster, to me is very intriguing as it tells no story. Meaning that you cant easily identify what the play is about; so hopefully the audience will be enticed to come and see what the play is all about. The explosion and Big Ben silhouetted suggests that Big Ben is exploded...
The rehearsals of '13' began again, starting with Rob's speech which was originally in Act Five which has now been cut to Act Four. This scene is now performed with Rob walking around each character, frozen in poses that show there characters. For example me and Amir are stood together, holding hands. Zia and Shannon are star-gazing and Edith is jogging on the spot. This is another scene which has all of the actors on stage and it gives the audience lots to look at and pay attention too. We continued Act Four until the end of the lesson. This time, we got the opportunity to observe each scene, which was nice because we havnt seen any of Act Four yet. This scene, being the final scene, needs to be just as good as the others acts, and it lived up to expectations.
There is one extremely long scene with Ruth, John and Stephen which if not acted well, will be very boring. This scene surprised me because I felt really intrigued to find out what happens next and they all acted it so well I was even understanding the subject discussed (politics/war etc) Luke who plays Stephen does so well, because his personality is nothing like his character. He is really easy to watch when he acts and he portrays the elderly side of Stephen perfectly and not stereotyped or over done. Ruth, played by Sophie, who today was the first time I've seen act, was brilliant. Again, I can imagine that Ruth is hard for her to act because they have such different personalities.
I think one main thing about observing my friends on stage is that I can take notes from how they act and use them to help improve my acting.
In a way, I am a visual learner because I can watch the other scenes during '13' and pick out bits which strike me as great acting even down to the smallest of movements or facial expressions. Such as Luke walking slightly heavy footed as though his body has become to heavy for the rest of his body to carry. This small act creates the perfect walk for someone who has problems walking as would an elderly person would. Matt, playing John, walks with a 'skip in his step' literally. He almost has a slight bounce each time his foot hits the ground. This is spot on for John because he is a character, above all and he knows that he is above the rest of us. The bounce represents how pleased he is with himself, also representing a slight big head/cocky side of him?
In the first image is Sophie, Matt and Luke playing Ruth, Stephen and John. This is one of the scenes I got the opportunity to watch and because my role on stage for this scene is to give up trying to protest and sit and look around then go into pray position later on. Watching this scene many times since we started the play, I have really seen it improve. As it is such a long scene they have to keep the pace going so overlap of lines were extremely effective and also added to the emotion of the characters, whether it be that they are angry or disappointed. Each line that they all delivered came across with so much meaning and even hints of true belief for what they were saying instead of just speaking their lines without any thought behind it. This makes the scene automatically more interesting for the audience because it allows them to forget that we are all young, teenage college students instead we come across as our older, more adult characters. This was portrayed mainly through the two Prime ministers, both Johns and Stephen who were casted as the older ones in the play.
The second image is of Luke playing Stephen. This is my favourite scene of his because he has nailed the lecturer-type presence about him. In this rehearsal he got down from the block and slowly walked around the circle, changing the distance he was from each student as though to gage their attention. Eye-balling each student he knew had all their attention on him. He had perfected the lecturer/teacher and in each one of his performances of this scene I found myself finding new meanings of the things that he says which only means that he managed to keep me generally interested because of the way he delivered the speech.
On Wednesday we focussed mainly on finishing rehearsals for Act Four. In the long scene with Ruth, Stephen and John two small groups of ensemble actors are stood either side of the stage. We are the protesters; so assumingly me and Amir are at the front. Our job is to be peering up as though we are looking up in the window of the Prime Ministers meeting room. This is again integrating the use of Greek Theatre and the well-known Chorus. The chorus are those who tell the story to the audience; in our case we move and react to the story that is told to us and the audience via the characters acting on stage.
In the image is one group of protesters who look into the other side of the offices. Ipads, cameras and phones are used in this scene because Social Media is big in '13' as it is in this century. When reaching the end of Act Four, just before Rob's speech, twelve Big Ben dongs are heard. On each dong a phone light will appear shining on each of the twelve. This is really effective, as the blackout takes a while for your eyes to adjust but as soon as the lights start appearing they will only shine on one characters face. I love this idea, as it incorporates the strong theme of social media and the use of mobiles etc. A spotlight could be used, but the creation of our own means of lighting makes the scene feel more tense with emotion as we create the atmosphere.My longest scene is in Act Three which we covered today. We had already blocked this scene, and we made it look very mirrored for the audience. For example, Amir would move as Ruth does, its a very symetrical scene. This scene is basically a long lasting argument between Rachel and Amir, and a heated discussion between Ruth and Dennis. After going over and rehearsing this scene repeatedly; when it came to performing it as part of the run through, it was very quick paced and it was almost like watching the tennis for the audience. The attention on the different characters is quickly delivered. Credit to Barteltt for this by writing the lines to overlap but still make good sense for the audience. This is my favourite scene of mine because it really reveals Rachel's personality; of being quick with words and extremely fiery!
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