Today was the day that we started Titus Andronicus rehearsals. We were joined with the Technical Theatre students who will be creating our set and costume for our performance - in a way, this was quite intimidating since we had not previously rehearsed this play together and to have an audience for the first time threw me off quite a bit since I was very unsure of my lines.
Warm Up
To start off the rehearsal, Ben taught us a 'Side Stretch'. This began with us starting in a Warrior Pose, which is starting with our feet hips width apart, crouching with our bums tucked in and our arms stretched out at a 90 degree angle. Staying in this position really began to burn the inside of my thighs, meaning that I knew it was working and it was stretching the muscles in my thighs.
From the Warrior Pose, we then moved side to side (right way first) with our heads sharply turning to the side we were leaning towards 8 times. This looked quite ritualistic and warrior-type. I can also hear slight clicks coming from the top of my back, as well as hearing them come from my sides therefore warming up my back.
The next step of this warm up is to bring my right arm around to meet my left arm; I then straighten my right leg and bring both my arms slightly upwards so that my body creates a diagonal line. This stretches my legs and my arms as one leg is bent, so my legs and in a lunge, and my arms are suspended in mid air meaning that they need to keep themselves up there; together, this creates a stretch, not only for my legs and arms, but I feel a stretch down my side.
After this, I then do a down stretch, which involves my arms going onto the floor (on the inside of my bent leg) so that I further stretch out my straight leg as I can feel a pull and stretch on the muscles in my leg. When we then go into a press-up, I understand that it is supposed to work the arms however I find this quite difficult as I can't successfully do a press-up. We then tuck out right arm under our bodies and roll onto our backs where we rest for a few seconds; this acts like a reward for our bodies as they should be getting tired if we are doing the warm up properly.
The next step is going into a 'cradle' position, which is when we lift our legs and cross them by the ankles, at the same time as lifting our arms in a sort of ballet pose and lifting our heads up to look through our legs. This is very hard on the core so the only way to do it with minimal pain is to breathe through it. I find it quite hard on my neck as I do not think that I am successfully lifting my neck and I feel a massive strain on it while performing the move. We then get another moment of rest, which is very rewarding after the cradle.
Following this, we then roll onto our front and do a 'caterpillar bum', which is lifting our bum slightly into the air while keeping the rest of our bodies on the floor. This then leads into prayer position, which is really good in stretching out any muscles that weren't properly stretched beforehand. We lift our palms up to the ceiling and sit on our heels. This is called 'curve sitting' since we picture a circle running through us. When we feel the impulse, we seamlessly get up.
We are alive in the space and we are all connected so when we hear Ben shout 'HA', we all get into warrior position and say 'HA' at the same time. This shows how effective this warm up is, especially for Shakespeare as we are acting as ensemble a lot of the time, as it gets us all to connect with each other as well as our bodies. After repeating this exercise, starting in the other direction, it also ensures that my body is completely warmed up, which is also really good since this piece is very physical theatre based.
Leaning Lines
Since Ben wanted to do a run through with everybody off-book, we all had to make sure that we knew our lines. This was hard because I find Shakespeare very hard to learn as it doesn't make any kind of sense in my head. Because I struggled to learn the lines, Ben gave us a long break to go over our lines. I decided to sit on my own and learn them however I could only seem to remember one line. Since I have a small part, I started becoming really annoyed with myself that I couldn't even remember a few lines and cues. This made me worry even more since I'm in the first scene so I knew I was going to make a fool of myself (although Ben said an embarrassing experience will make me want to learn them even more).
After this, I then do a down stretch, which involves my arms going onto the floor (on the inside of my bent leg) so that I further stretch out my straight leg as I can feel a pull and stretch on the muscles in my leg. When we then go into a press-up, I understand that it is supposed to work the arms however I find this quite difficult as I can't successfully do a press-up. We then tuck out right arm under our bodies and roll onto our backs where we rest for a few seconds; this acts like a reward for our bodies as they should be getting tired if we are doing the warm up properly.
The next step is going into a 'cradle' position, which is when we lift our legs and cross them by the ankles, at the same time as lifting our arms in a sort of ballet pose and lifting our heads up to look through our legs. This is very hard on the core so the only way to do it with minimal pain is to breathe through it. I find it quite hard on my neck as I do not think that I am successfully lifting my neck and I feel a massive strain on it while performing the move. We then get another moment of rest, which is very rewarding after the cradle.
Following this, we then roll onto our front and do a 'caterpillar bum', which is lifting our bum slightly into the air while keeping the rest of our bodies on the floor. This then leads into prayer position, which is really good in stretching out any muscles that weren't properly stretched beforehand. We lift our palms up to the ceiling and sit on our heels. This is called 'curve sitting' since we picture a circle running through us. When we feel the impulse, we seamlessly get up.
We are alive in the space and we are all connected so when we hear Ben shout 'HA', we all get into warrior position and say 'HA' at the same time. This shows how effective this warm up is, especially for Shakespeare as we are acting as ensemble a lot of the time, as it gets us all to connect with each other as well as our bodies. After repeating this exercise, starting in the other direction, it also ensures that my body is completely warmed up, which is also really good since this piece is very physical theatre based.
Leaning Lines
Since Ben wanted to do a run through with everybody off-book, we all had to make sure that we knew our lines. This was hard because I find Shakespeare very hard to learn as it doesn't make any kind of sense in my head. Because I struggled to learn the lines, Ben gave us a long break to go over our lines. I decided to sit on my own and learn them however I could only seem to remember one line. Since I have a small part, I started becoming really annoyed with myself that I couldn't even remember a few lines and cues. This made me worry even more since I'm in the first scene so I knew I was going to make a fool of myself (although Ben said an embarrassing experience will make me want to learn them even more).
First Run
Although Ben had the idea of doing a full run and then going back next week and blocking it out, it didn't exactly work out when we only got through 22 pages. I think one of the reasons that we didn't get through that much was because nobody knew their lines and also because there was no directing going on so nobody knew what anyone was doing.
I tried to do some lines without the script however it didn't work out when I didn't know my cue or anything past the first line. Because the TTA people were watching too, I didn't feel very comfortable trying to say my lines as a lot of people, including Theatre, started laughing however once I picked up my script, I felt a lot better.
At the beginning, Katie put her arms around myself and another person as she said her lines however, because Ben let us try to direct ourselves and I had no clue what was going on, I didn't know how to react and I was just staring blankly at her.
As the run went on, nothing really went as plan. Ben said that no one was really going for their death so when Katie stabbed me, I thought I'd just make some death noises. Because nobody was really taking the run seriously, it was quite hard for anyone to go all out because everyone was laughing at everyone, making it a really tough environment to work in. When I went offstage to watch what was going on, I still had no idea what was happening (although I had looked it up the play translation in the holidays) so when Fifi explained what was happening, I was so shocked since I really didn't see any of that happening in the play. This had taught me that I need to get more into Shakespeare and do extra research so that I am more prepared for this term so that I don't embarrass myself anymore that I did today.
Although Ben had the idea of doing a full run and then going back next week and blocking it out, it didn't exactly work out when we only got through 22 pages. I think one of the reasons that we didn't get through that much was because nobody knew their lines and also because there was no directing going on so nobody knew what anyone was doing.
I tried to do some lines without the script however it didn't work out when I didn't know my cue or anything past the first line. Because the TTA people were watching too, I didn't feel very comfortable trying to say my lines as a lot of people, including Theatre, started laughing however once I picked up my script, I felt a lot better.
At the beginning, Katie put her arms around myself and another person as she said her lines however, because Ben let us try to direct ourselves and I had no clue what was going on, I didn't know how to react and I was just staring blankly at her.
As the run went on, nothing really went as plan. Ben said that no one was really going for their death so when Katie stabbed me, I thought I'd just make some death noises. Because nobody was really taking the run seriously, it was quite hard for anyone to go all out because everyone was laughing at everyone, making it a really tough environment to work in. When I went offstage to watch what was going on, I still had no idea what was happening (although I had looked it up the play translation in the holidays) so when Fifi explained what was happening, I was so shocked since I really didn't see any of that happening in the play. This had taught me that I need to get more into Shakespeare and do extra research so that I am more prepared for this term so that I don't embarrass myself anymore that I did today.
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