Side Stretch
Today, we started by doing Side Stretch but in two separate groups - one group watching and the other doing the stretch. I was in the first group. At first, I found it quite weird to perform the stretch to my peers as my group was quite small therefore I felt as if I was constantly being watched. When Sybil said the 'HA', it wasn't loud enough therefore we all had a half response, which kinda of took away some of the effectiveness.
The stretch went well and then we got feedback. The group watching said that it looked very effective as this was a new experience for them to watch it as we are all normally doing it together. Katie said that my body throughout was very straight and focused, which then led on to Ben telling me that, naturally, I am very good at standing in neutral and looking engaged in a scene where I am not the focus - he said that this draws good attention to myself and it gives a good base to jump into action at any point.
Watching the other group was also an interesting experience. It was really nice to watch it as a group and see what the other group meant when they said it looked really interesting to watch. At the beginning, there were a few people who were out of time and did not look fully focused however this then led onto synced moments that looked really effective. There was a moment when everyone was getting up from prayer position where Ellie had very strong legs with a good posture, which then looked as if she was a warrior therefore showing signs of Titus characters. There was also another moment where Chloe and Ellie were out of sync with the rest of the group however they had such focus on their face and in their bodies that it drew everyone's attention in a good way as they both looked like they were completely immersed in their movement, which is really engaging to watch.
Comedy Run
After Side Stretch, Ben said that we were going to do a comedy run of Titus Andronicus. He wanted our comedy run to be under 15 minutes, which actually turned out to be 27 minutes, meaning that if we half the speed of this incredibly fast run then we would be on track and on time for the one hour show (instead of having a 2 and a half hour show).
Doing a comedy run was incredibly funny! We were all talking a lot faster and being a lot more sloppy with our actions, at the same time of making fun of our actions, at the same time as running the play in the correct order! Since our run was very fast, we had no time for in-corrections therefore if there was a problem onstage or there were any faults, they had to be quickly corrected therefore making us work harder.
Run Through Outside
To continue with the lesson, we decided to have a run through outside. This was for several reasons, one of them being that the room was very hot however it was mainly so that we could practice our projection, not just for the theatre but for Brighton. Working outside was really nice as we had passers by, which forced everyone to work harder and not lie around since the passers by were people who went to our school therefore we wanted to represent theatre strand as well as we could.
Taking all of Ben's notes onboard, I feel like I developed my character in more depth and detail. Also, I really used this time to work on my projection and voice quality as there were instruments and singing coming from the primary school next to us therefore we had to compete to be heard.
A really nice bit that stood out for me was when the Much Ado About Nothing cast was outside on break and they could see all of us rehearsing; this was because there was a moment where we performed the second Hacca and straight after we could hear clapping and cheering coming from their direction. This made me really realise, not only that our performance was getting good enough to get an applause but, how supportive the rest of our year group really is therefore it removes some of my worries of if the performance goes badly as I know that the rest of the year will, hopefully, be just as supportive as they were in this moment in our rehearsals.
The run through went really well and we got our running time down to 1 hour and 28 minutes! This was great news as we needed to make the piece shorter so that we would not have to do two showings of it one straight after the other. Ben seemed to be very pleased with the piece's development as well as I was! I am really happy to be part of such a committed and focused cast and I hope that this good work continues.
Notes From Ben
The first thing in which he commented on was our feet in the Hacca - we all keep doing wide stomps however he wants our feet to kick backwards. This is something that I really need to work on because I keep resorting to doing the wrong footwork since I find it more Hacca-like as it looks more wild so I need to make sure that I can do the footwork correctly in future.
He said that at the start we all were laughing at ourselves however, as the rehearsal went on, we all found ourselves realising that we actually can do it and that the performance is actually really good. He said that it is as if we all went on a journey together to find this out and it really showed to Ben. His exact quote was 'You know it. Don't laugh at yourselves. The show is going to be really good. Your voices are really excellent. Don't apologise for being you'. This is making me really believe in our performance even more! I'm getting so excited!
Another comment that he gave us on Nicole's 'O'. Nicole did this amazing 'O' that she elongated and heightened showing her emotion in this scene. I thought that I was the only person who really realised the power and strength in it however Ben and everyone else seemed to see it too! Ben said that she was the first person who really aced the 'O'. I can learn a lot from Nicole as I have two 'O''s in the play therefore I want to take note from her and really begin to find the power in my 'O''s.
Exercise 1
After hearing Ben's notes, we went into an exercise where we were all stood in a circle. In this circle, when anyone felt like it, they would go in the circle and create a moment with someone in the circle, using their lines from the play.
Katie first went in and created this beautiful moment with Sybil where she was gently speaking her lines while stroking Sybil's face and hair, showing how much her character cares for her daughter when speaking. This was amazing to watch as it created a really nice atmosphere where I found myself completely immersed in the scene!
This soon changed when everyone was really scared to go inside of the circle for whatever reason. One of the reasons I found myself not wanting to go inside of the circle was because I was finding it hard to think of any lines that would 'create a moment'. After a few people went inside the circle, I decided to go in and use my 'My Lord, you pass not here' line with Katie to create the moment in which she kills me. It went well although, when Katie went to kill me, there was no one to lift me up or anything so I was unsupported.
I can see why Ben wanted us to perform this exercise however, due to no one wanting to go inside the circle, I cannot say that I learnt a lot from this.
Exercise 2
For the next exercise, we went into 413 where Ben then asked Titus (both but then only one) to sit inside the circle. He then placed Lavinia, Lavinia with no tongue, Titus's dad, and Bassianus around Titus, instructing Titus to ask them questions and if we don't agree with their responses, we can go behind them and speak for them for what they think they should say. We were all very confused so he changed the exercise so that it was just Lavinia there and she was begging him to kill her - we all went to different sides whether we think he should or he shouldn't and then we would all voice our opinions and reasons why. I went on the side that I don't think he should kill her and I kept saying things like 'You're her father' 'If you really love her, you would show her love in existence instead of pain in death'. Hearing other responses really made me think about the decision Titus had to make and how hard it must've been for him since she was his daughter. This then led me to thinking about decisions the characters have to make in the play because it must not have been easy to make any of them.
We then did a similar thing with the two Bassianus' and Tamoras. The two Bassianus's went out of the room and we were told to 'Boo' them each time they tried to speak but cheer for Nicole each time she spoke, and with the Tamoras, they both say in the middle of the circle with four small groups of people around them creating this soundscape of negativity. With these two characters, I think it really helped them in developing their characters but I did not find myself learning as much about my own characters as my characters do not have any scenes with either.
Run Through Outside
To continue with the lesson, we decided to have a run through outside. This was for several reasons, one of them being that the room was very hot however it was mainly so that we could practice our projection, not just for the theatre but for Brighton. Working outside was really nice as we had passers by, which forced everyone to work harder and not lie around since the passers by were people who went to our school therefore we wanted to represent theatre strand as well as we could.
Taking all of Ben's notes onboard, I feel like I developed my character in more depth and detail. Also, I really used this time to work on my projection and voice quality as there were instruments and singing coming from the primary school next to us therefore we had to compete to be heard.
A really nice bit that stood out for me was when the Much Ado About Nothing cast was outside on break and they could see all of us rehearsing; this was because there was a moment where we performed the second Hacca and straight after we could hear clapping and cheering coming from their direction. This made me really realise, not only that our performance was getting good enough to get an applause but, how supportive the rest of our year group really is therefore it removes some of my worries of if the performance goes badly as I know that the rest of the year will, hopefully, be just as supportive as they were in this moment in our rehearsals.
The run through went really well and we got our running time down to 1 hour and 28 minutes! This was great news as we needed to make the piece shorter so that we would not have to do two showings of it one straight after the other. Ben seemed to be very pleased with the piece's development as well as I was! I am really happy to be part of such a committed and focused cast and I hope that this good work continues.
Notes From Ben
The first thing in which he commented on was our feet in the Hacca - we all keep doing wide stomps however he wants our feet to kick backwards. This is something that I really need to work on because I keep resorting to doing the wrong footwork since I find it more Hacca-like as it looks more wild so I need to make sure that I can do the footwork correctly in future.
He said that at the start we all were laughing at ourselves however, as the rehearsal went on, we all found ourselves realising that we actually can do it and that the performance is actually really good. He said that it is as if we all went on a journey together to find this out and it really showed to Ben. His exact quote was 'You know it. Don't laugh at yourselves. The show is going to be really good. Your voices are really excellent. Don't apologise for being you'. This is making me really believe in our performance even more! I'm getting so excited!
Another comment that he gave us on Nicole's 'O'. Nicole did this amazing 'O' that she elongated and heightened showing her emotion in this scene. I thought that I was the only person who really realised the power and strength in it however Ben and everyone else seemed to see it too! Ben said that she was the first person who really aced the 'O'. I can learn a lot from Nicole as I have two 'O''s in the play therefore I want to take note from her and really begin to find the power in my 'O''s.
Exercise 1
After hearing Ben's notes, we went into an exercise where we were all stood in a circle. In this circle, when anyone felt like it, they would go in the circle and create a moment with someone in the circle, using their lines from the play.
Katie first went in and created this beautiful moment with Sybil where she was gently speaking her lines while stroking Sybil's face and hair, showing how much her character cares for her daughter when speaking. This was amazing to watch as it created a really nice atmosphere where I found myself completely immersed in the scene!
This soon changed when everyone was really scared to go inside of the circle for whatever reason. One of the reasons I found myself not wanting to go inside of the circle was because I was finding it hard to think of any lines that would 'create a moment'. After a few people went inside the circle, I decided to go in and use my 'My Lord, you pass not here' line with Katie to create the moment in which she kills me. It went well although, when Katie went to kill me, there was no one to lift me up or anything so I was unsupported.
I can see why Ben wanted us to perform this exercise however, due to no one wanting to go inside the circle, I cannot say that I learnt a lot from this.
Exercise 2
For the next exercise, we went into 413 where Ben then asked Titus (both but then only one) to sit inside the circle. He then placed Lavinia, Lavinia with no tongue, Titus's dad, and Bassianus around Titus, instructing Titus to ask them questions and if we don't agree with their responses, we can go behind them and speak for them for what they think they should say. We were all very confused so he changed the exercise so that it was just Lavinia there and she was begging him to kill her - we all went to different sides whether we think he should or he shouldn't and then we would all voice our opinions and reasons why. I went on the side that I don't think he should kill her and I kept saying things like 'You're her father' 'If you really love her, you would show her love in existence instead of pain in death'. Hearing other responses really made me think about the decision Titus had to make and how hard it must've been for him since she was his daughter. This then led me to thinking about decisions the characters have to make in the play because it must not have been easy to make any of them.
We then did a similar thing with the two Bassianus' and Tamoras. The two Bassianus's went out of the room and we were told to 'Boo' them each time they tried to speak but cheer for Nicole each time she spoke, and with the Tamoras, they both say in the middle of the circle with four small groups of people around them creating this soundscape of negativity. With these two characters, I think it really helped them in developing their characters but I did not find myself learning as much about my own characters as my characters do not have any scenes with either.
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