Today was the day where we finally had a full run through!!!!
I went into the lesson with a new attitude; I was a lot more alert and active while also participating in the group discussions a lot more. Looking back at past lessons, I really could see the error of my ways so from today I have decided to continue with this positive attitude for the rest of Shakespeare in order to further develop my part in the play.
We began the session by refining the physical work in the play. I am very grateful that we did this first as it ensured that we would not have to stop the run through or make it look sloppy as we were sure on what we were doing. Also, by not going straight into the run through, it gave me time to get used to the idea that we were about to run Titus and get me in the mindset of doing a Shakespeare play. An area that I'm glad we went over was the Hacca scenes as, every so often, there are moments that we all go out of sync as we are all performing different moves.
The run through was a success! It made me realise how good our play actually is! The only major negative about this run through was that it was over two hours as our play was meant to be around one hour. In fairness, we did stop and start quite a lot therefore making it longer. Ben said that we would have to cut some bits or make them shorter if people weren't on it for their lines or they weren't fully committed. Hopefully this comment will have the same effect it had on me and it will kick people into gear, ensuring that they are constantly on their A-game. Another negative was that after the giving birth scene, energy levels dropped drastically as most people's energy levels went down and their stamina wasn't amazing. Hopefully this will improve in further rehearsals as, if this play continues to be a very long play, we will need the energy to ensure that the telling of the story will not have gaps or become boring.
Notes From Ben
After our first run through Ben gave us each notes and things to work on. The first note in which he gave was for Samara to speak her lines with her head leaning back so that it can enhance the fact that she stands for dead bodies in the war, before returning to a sat up position. I completely agreed with this point as I feel as if it will give her character more of a back story to why she is saying the lines.
Ben then went on to giving me feedback; he said that I had to make my character at the beginning very different from the Nurse. He wanted Mutius to be still and grounded, while also wanting most of my characteristics to be what I am doing in the Hacca as I am playing 'Uber Warrior'; I completely think this will be better however I think I will find it hard to introduce these characteristics while remaining grounded. To improve on this, I need to do some more research on the Hacca and watch more videos of tribal characters to observe their mannerisms, etc.
Notes he had for Chiron and Demetrius was that he wanted them to react more to Jamilah dying when I kill her. This is understandable since it's such a big moment, in reality, if your brother has just been killed so, as an ensemble, we all need to react to deaths more. Later on, Ben showed us a clip of a scene where people are being killed (as he said we all need to die better); in this clip, the lady gets her throat slit however, before she falls backwards, she has a moment of stillness where you can see the body registering that it's life is ending. I feel like we can all really take note from this and die in more realistic ways so that the audience will feel more of an impact to the deaths.
Other notes he had for the ensemble was not to react to if another character looks at you, in the sense that when Shanay looked at Jamilah, Jamilah started laughing therefore Ben said not to break character at any moment as this has happened a few times in rehearsal. Sybil and Chloe started smiling in their scene as, in previous rehearsals, Sybil had been laughing when Chloe was properly trying to have a moment so now she is scared that she will laugh if she does it again so she smiles to prevent it - I see that a lot of characters are having this problem as today was the first proper time where we were all trying to be serious therefore I fear that this problem may reoccur in further rehearsals and maybe in the actual performance. Also there needs to be more interaction between characters in certain scenes to show their relationships - especially in the forest scene - as it is a scene where characters are walking through a scary forest therefore they would be more scared therefore closer together for safety reasons.
The final notes that were given to me was about the Nurse scene. Shanay was told that every time I say 'Oh my Lord!', she was to twitch as my character really annoys her. He said that my line where I say 'thee' 'thy' thy', I have to push the baby into Shanay to force it into her arms - I can see why this would work really well as it is as if she has no other choice but to take the baby, which is where she first begins to develop this connection with her child. I have to ensure that I make her hate me due to the way I treat her but at the same time I need to fear Aaron. When she gets all up in my face, I need to show that the Nurse is genuinely scared as he is a 'devil-man'. When I say the 'What shall I say unto the empress?', I need to cry as my character is very comedic and over the top while she is also scared of the outcome. I now need to do a little scream when Shanay kills me to cue the cast to do the pig noises - I am so grateful that I now do this as I was unsure about my death since I was not directed to have any reaction to this.
After giving us the feedback, we were given a chance to work on our lines/scenes outside while Ben worked with people on certain scenes. I was called in to work on the Publius scene, as I had no idea what I was doing when we were running it as Gemma was not in to work with me on it, however, due to running out of time, we did not get to go through it in enough detail however I now roughly know what I am doing in the scene.
Notes From Ben
After our first run through Ben gave us each notes and things to work on. The first note in which he gave was for Samara to speak her lines with her head leaning back so that it can enhance the fact that she stands for dead bodies in the war, before returning to a sat up position. I completely agreed with this point as I feel as if it will give her character more of a back story to why she is saying the lines.
Ben then went on to giving me feedback; he said that I had to make my character at the beginning very different from the Nurse. He wanted Mutius to be still and grounded, while also wanting most of my characteristics to be what I am doing in the Hacca as I am playing 'Uber Warrior'; I completely think this will be better however I think I will find it hard to introduce these characteristics while remaining grounded. To improve on this, I need to do some more research on the Hacca and watch more videos of tribal characters to observe their mannerisms, etc.
Notes he had for Chiron and Demetrius was that he wanted them to react more to Jamilah dying when I kill her. This is understandable since it's such a big moment, in reality, if your brother has just been killed so, as an ensemble, we all need to react to deaths more. Later on, Ben showed us a clip of a scene where people are being killed (as he said we all need to die better); in this clip, the lady gets her throat slit however, before she falls backwards, she has a moment of stillness where you can see the body registering that it's life is ending. I feel like we can all really take note from this and die in more realistic ways so that the audience will feel more of an impact to the deaths.
Other notes he had for the ensemble was not to react to if another character looks at you, in the sense that when Shanay looked at Jamilah, Jamilah started laughing therefore Ben said not to break character at any moment as this has happened a few times in rehearsal. Sybil and Chloe started smiling in their scene as, in previous rehearsals, Sybil had been laughing when Chloe was properly trying to have a moment so now she is scared that she will laugh if she does it again so she smiles to prevent it - I see that a lot of characters are having this problem as today was the first proper time where we were all trying to be serious therefore I fear that this problem may reoccur in further rehearsals and maybe in the actual performance. Also there needs to be more interaction between characters in certain scenes to show their relationships - especially in the forest scene - as it is a scene where characters are walking through a scary forest therefore they would be more scared therefore closer together for safety reasons.
The final notes that were given to me was about the Nurse scene. Shanay was told that every time I say 'Oh my Lord!', she was to twitch as my character really annoys her. He said that my line where I say 'thee' 'thy' thy', I have to push the baby into Shanay to force it into her arms - I can see why this would work really well as it is as if she has no other choice but to take the baby, which is where she first begins to develop this connection with her child. I have to ensure that I make her hate me due to the way I treat her but at the same time I need to fear Aaron. When she gets all up in my face, I need to show that the Nurse is genuinely scared as he is a 'devil-man'. When I say the 'What shall I say unto the empress?', I need to cry as my character is very comedic and over the top while she is also scared of the outcome. I now need to do a little scream when Shanay kills me to cue the cast to do the pig noises - I am so grateful that I now do this as I was unsure about my death since I was not directed to have any reaction to this.
After giving us the feedback, we were given a chance to work on our lines/scenes outside while Ben worked with people on certain scenes. I was called in to work on the Publius scene, as I had no idea what I was doing when we were running it as Gemma was not in to work with me on it, however, due to running out of time, we did not get to go through it in enough detail however I now roughly know what I am doing in the scene.
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