Monday 18th: What We Did In Lesson

We between our partners in class had to read out our play to everyone and perform it. Due to this being one of the 1st times reading it aloud within class we was still holding scripts and having to practically read it off of the paper. My partner is Sally and I am happy I have her as a partner as we have alot of chemistry which will help in our performance.
This play will bring out a slightly different side of me as it requires me to be a joker rather than a serious character to which I believe a more serious role is what fits me best as an actor. But despite that I am looking forward to seeing how this play turns out and making it as best as it possibly can be.

The Performance

Wednesday 2nd December

Me and the Class performed the peices that we had in Our Contry's Good. First off I would say that I congratulated everyone on their performances but me personally my performance I felt the lack of belief in the scene with me and Chris. Prior to the performance I did feel there was a missing momentum that was there for the Trojan Women piece that me and Dulce did which had to do with alot of things leading up to the performance e.g. where I am mentally and all the personal things in my life that may have caused me to not adapt to the role as best as I could which upset me. That was one of the performances I have to take the lessons and learn from it what I did wrong, what I did right and how I can make the next performance better. I believe the Chemistry between me and Chris wasn't there, could of been because of where I am at mentally meant I wasn't in the best place to receive his energy maybe. I've looked at my performance and saw many areas in where I never showed my worth. Balancing college, work and the situations outside has been very difficult for me especially since I'm a very self conscious person (I know when I am slipping up). I noticed my time being cut in half and maybe it's the Christmas period because I was meant to be part time but it's all hands on deck this time of year which is effecting all areas of my life.

All of this is being said to NOT make excuses, just to slightly vent what has been on my mind and to point out areas in which I'm lacking to do my upmost best in trying to right my wrongs in order to do what I set out to do which is to do my very best with this course and make my family proud of me.

Friday 27th

Today me and Chris performed our piece in front of Rob for the feedback. This was the 1st time me and Chris rehearsed since the 1st time we did shortly after we had the script handed to us. Robs feed back was to decrease the amount of pauses between lines (this was due to me truing to remember the lines as we went along) and to try and 'act' less meaning to let the lines do a bit more rather than myself push the lines. The feedback was food for me as I feed off of constructive criticism as it is only to help me be better. Therefore taking it into account I believe it's all down to learning my lines more which in turn will draw me away from over acting as I had to do that to over
overcompensate for not knowing the lines properly. I am looking forward to doing more practice with Chris to build our chemistry more which in turn helps our performance seem more natural rather than acting it. That technique really helped with the Trojan Women performance I did with Dulce because it felt more like our situation rather than 'me and you are performing this script' kind of thing.
This being our second performance I feel the difference between working with different people. Chris and Dulce are very to different people and because of that it's a different energy when working with him (beside the script being different). But that being said I do hope me and Chris's performance is of a good standard and hopefully we will bring the best out of each other to make this a great performance.

Our Contry's Good

Monday 16th

We have had out scripts for about a week and I am making great progress in learning my lines despite being very ill, still having to go to work do 10 hour shifts both Saturday and Sunday. My character is Harry Brewer in Act 1 Scene 4 with My partner Chris who plays Ralph. I am looking forward to working with Chris as he is a very enthusiastic person and I draw off of the energy of my partner so with his energy and mine I personally don't believe there is anything stopping thus performance from being of a very good standard.

This role is different from the character I played with Dulce in Trojan Women where I had to be slightly more militant but within this scene my character plays one of a more emotional and vulnerable role. This tests my ability as an cater to display my more vulnerable side. I've tried with different techniques at home to see which befits this character the most now it's just about preparing with Chris to make this scene great. It's all about teamwork.

Lion King

Wednesday 18th November 2015

We went to see the Lion King at the theatre in Waterloo. I was surprised at the production it turned out to be even more colorful than I expected....it was actually quite beautiful.
The actors individual performances were a great representation of the original cartoon characters. They had added effects within the show for example they had the scene just as Young Simba was about to get eaten by the Hyena's in the elephant graveyard and before he was about to get eaten and they began to sing a song that wasn't in the film. Things like that I had to take a while to get use to but with an eventuality I did. Overall I believe the performance was great and the fact that us students got in for free that did not take any value away from my experience. We went with Charlie to watch the show. I personally took alot away from the performance in terms of acting techniques, especially because they are doing things that I look to be doing in the future.
We also had the opportunity to meet 2 of the actors in the performance for a Q&A one of them being the actor who played Zazu and the other being the actor who played Nala. We asked them questions about the theatre business and how it's run for example 'has there been any mistakes during any performances? How long have you been in the business for? How many times have you performed this play?' etc. They answered all of our questions in the best way possible and did inform us of alot of things like the fact that they perform this play practically all year round which can get exhausting but for the people coming to watch it for the 1st time they want them to have as much of a great experience as anyone else who had come before.

National Theatre 18th September

National theatre:

 Friday the 18th of September we went on a trip to the National Theatre for a tour backstage. We had to wear orange reflective jackets before we started the tour. We entered the Olivier Theatre, which was opened in 1963. At first I was so amazed at the lay out of the building. We were so high up, but I was shocked by how much effort and requirements the Theatre needed. Going into making the Olivier is great because every aspect wasn't rushed at all. The peripheral vision was 118 degrees which is the average a human eye could see from a stand still point. This was set so the audience is seen by the actor; this makes it less patronizing when performing as you can see all your audience in front of you. There is a total of I believe just over 1160 seats made in the style of a Greek Theatre at Epidaurus with an open stage and fan shaped auditorium. The Theatre was named after the first director of the National called Laurence Olivier Olivier and is also the largest out of the three theatres. We were told the temporary theatre will be taken down in 2017. Under the stage there is a massive revolving drum, which is a wopping 5 storeys high. It is very technical and is run from computers, a click of a button can make objects suddenly disappear from under the stage. The set is moved every 4 days for a new play and is also moved into the storage space behind. Original Greek Theatres were made entirely out of stone and as a result of a natural science it turns out that you could drop a pin and it would still echo. In order to recreate that experience over the seats at about 4 metres are these sound boards made to reflect the actor’s voice back so the performers can be heard all around the theatre and were put in random angles on purpose. The Olivier was made slanted so the sound boards were placed on the ceiling to amplify the noise from the stage. We then taken to the actors' dressing rooms  and then went downstairs to see the storage place in which the set would go. Was a treat to be able to see the props on the prop table and the lady explained to us how it takes a day to change the whole set which explained alot.
Afterwards we visited the Lyttelton Theatre which was more traditional rather than modern and everything was done by men and workers rather than electronic technology. We were informed in the times before people bought the most expensive tickets which was the box on the side of the stage so they can dress up and have people view them and envy them. Then Lyttelton decided to not add the box in because the focus should be on the performance and not the more classy people. The Theatre wasn't planned in advance, infact it was a rough sketch decided a week before creating it. As the audience is directly in front of the stage it is a Contemporary Proscenium Theatre.

Q&A with Mark Gatiss

Saturday, 17 October

Rob took us to a question and answer session in the Royal Theatre Haymarket with award winning actor and writer Mark Gatiss. He starred in some famous TV/Movies shows such as Doctor Who, Game of Throne, Sherlock and currently is in Three Days in the Country at the National Theatre. I learned quite a lot about Mark and how he reached the success he has today.

He is interested in crime and would like to write more plays about that.

To express ourselves we should definitely find something creative within us to expreress ourselves e.g. drawing, writing songs

"Entering Shakespeare is a strange mutual conspiracy...”

His response to what inspired him to become an actor and he admitted it was passion.

To be rejected, told no and fall you need thick skin in order to try again

He believes in surrounding yourself with people you believe in and respect. He also believes that persistence is key to success.

He directed a play which is coming out on Halloween

All he wanted to do was to write and act

‘worst journey in the world’ is his favourite book.

Gatiss believes giving up is part of the process and that we all hit a weak point sometime

When filming, he has a lot of free time in which is prefers to write

The best thing being an actor is working hard with your friends and having a group hug before going on stage

Gatiss feels his confidence decreases as he grows older. The worst thing being an actor is confidence.

Mark's favourite advice was “Stick at it, it will get better”

Gatiss agreed that phones are actually quite annoying whilst performing on stage and one time he felt like punching someone because they actually answered their phone in the middle of a performance

I throughly enjoyed this experience was great as I learnt so many things about Mark and a different side to him rather than what you see on the TV screen. Mr Gatiss is inspirational to many and as a student of this industry despite my lack of knowledge before I met him I will take the Jewels that he dropped within the Q&A.