Waiting for Godot homework

Before starting the task I wanted to u destined the main contents of the film "waitingforGodot2001".
I began my research by looking online at "Beckett on film.com",from here I was able to view information about the director, cast and synopsis ( A brief summary of the film ).
However I was not able to pick out the main themes of the film, though I got a bit of background knowledge on the play.
The task I was given was concentrated on the first scene of the play, so whilst I was watching the YouTube video I read the script along the way.
These are my notes on the staging, lighting and directing:
-In the beginning of the film the mood seems empty.
-lighting(Beginning) Main white stage light, upstage from actor, slow fade on  Estragon who is center stage.
The use of a white light is to highlight that Estragon is a main character, it also puts all the audiences attention on him.
-Whilst the light fades on Estragon he could already be taking off his shoe
This helps the audience understand what's going on as soon as the production starts.
(Estragon Carry's on action whilst the character Vladimir enters)
-lighting(On Vladimir who is positioned right center stage)Another main stage light(white) 
At current moment both stage lights are focusing on main characters. Stage is black only thing visible are two characters
-On the lines "nothing to be done"(said by Estragon)Vladimir turns head slowly to Estragon
This is to show himself as a mysterious character.
- Vladimir begins saying his lines,after first line,his head faces back to the audience,looking out into the distance.
-After line "And resumed the struggle"(said by Vladmir)All stage lights come on
This is to show the audience the setting of both characters.
-In the film(YouTube clip) Vladmir says the lines "so there you are again in a different tone to the lines said before,this shows a change of mood,and all the stage lights on could represent that.
-Once all stage lights are on,Vladmir walks towards Estragon whilst saying his next lines,Estragon responds.
-Vladmir stops centre stage next to Estragon once lines are said.
-Vladmir says:"Together again at last!"-Hands reaching out to Estragon as if he was going to hug him,next line said fast,Vladmirs face confused,showing he's thinking to the audience it's as if he's talking to himself.
-Estragon interrupting Vladmir with his next line
-As the directions in the script require Vladmir to be "hurt coldly",his hands come back in from the position
This is to show he is hurt & forlorn at that moment.
Current moment-no lighting change.
Estragon says next line with no enthusiasm,both characters at this moment are centre stage.
-Back and forth speach from both characters
Vladmir-Enthusiastic Estragon-Dull

Tuesday 27th September 2016

Our morning session was very early,having to get to school at 9.15 is a struggle for me as I live far,the key for me is an early nights sleep which I never usually get.
We started of in the morning with a context session in which we were in room 222,
Before we got taught about blogs and blog work,we got into a few warm up excersises and games.
Today we played a game in which a class member had to go out of the room and everyonce else had to pretend they were a celebrity/Famous public figure.My favourite one was Juan,we had to pretend he was Kim Kardashion.He got asked questions like: "Why is your bum so big","omg,why did you do this". It got the person thinking and it was on our on initiative if we were to involve ourself in the activity.This helps us as actors with confidence and learning to involve ourself in different things which in my eyes links to characterisation,becoming characters we are not familiar with.
learning and understanding how to layout our blogs.We got the opportunity to look at an ex Level 3 students blog.This helped me understand the high standards blogs have to be like.The main message Alex(the ex level 3 student) was giving us was that our blogs are basically a personal response,they show individuality in each student,noones blog can be the same as we all have different opinions about different things,I took this message on board and looked back at my previous blogs and added more from my personal view about the things that happened in certain days.
I made a note at the front of my note book about the things to put into my blog
(Image)
After the lesson we went had a break,I was able to catch up on my energy levels by eating a healthy snack,I felt more enthusiastic and ready for practical,with a proactive attitude.
Our last lesson was with Rob,this was the acting techniques lesson.As a warm up fbefore practicing our scripts we mostly trained our voices,my favourite part of the warm up was where as a class,we had to create a voice machine,we created a weird sound and had to figure out were each person fitted in the machine.This excersise really helped me with my team working skills and as today we had new people,we were all able to involve them in the activity helping them feel more welcome and comfortable in the class.
After our warm ups we went over lines and perfected staging.The thing I found hard was staying in role,although I had done read Earth on the play,I found it hard to stay in role.We also perfected out staging,I took role in staging for the begginging as after watching odipus on YouTube I had an idea of the staging in our group.
Weirdly I found it quite nervous performing in front of everyone today this was probably because it was my first time performing in front of the class using language from that era,however I have learnt a Victorian script for an audition before.
I did feel confident in the staging for my group got good feedback from another group who looked at our group while rehursing,this was effective to me as an individual for my group,Dijarn and Emily accepted my input and together we worked upon it.
After performing we were given feedback from Rob,these are the keynotes I picked up:

(General Feedback)

-Don't rush lines
-stand still when speaking
-Always look up (facing audience)
-Keep and engaged physicality


(Individual Feedback)

-Eyes up when speaking
-take time whilst reading lines
-Great staging-(This was Due to the research)
-After hearing that Odiepus' fathers dead respond quick/own the stage
-line-"hear this man" change to "hear this woman"
-line-"mating with your mother"-say in a more comical context

From the useful feedback received it was clear that maybe I didn't have a great understanding in the words and what they meant,to improve I will act upon what Rob has said & take onboard his comments,also I will research the meaning behind some of the words.This feedback benefits me as an actress because I can quickly learn from my mistakes and act upon it before I perform,I have learnt to do more research before performing.Dijarns feedback showed that he had a strong dominant voice which worked well in our group,Emily got feedback that her comical approach to her characterisation worked well which helped me respond in a serious manor allowing the audience to clearly see her comical characarterisation.Their delivery to the performance was good and they maintained a stable characterusation ,I also Performed with stability in my characterisation.After receiving this feedback I have also read part of the introduction in the book "Actors Thesaurus".The introduction highlighted the act of "Actioning" This action provides stimulation for the actor/actress to directly play each line of text and develop alternative ways of bringing their character to life,this helped me think out side of the box,considering my surroundings and speach when playing my character Jokasta.

Monday 26th September 2016

We started the day with improvisation activities and games to build our confidence.
Normally,before we begin practical sessions,we gather together as a class and stand in a circle and perform excersises useful to us as an actor.
Rob normally tells us to stand in "neutral",with our arms side to side,and legs shoulder width apart,imagining a string holding our head up,creating good posture,this is important because as an actor it is important to be able to take the shape of a character.I found that in secondary school i had a bad habit or foul posture,unaware of the way I'm presenting myself to the people around me,the position neautral helps me become aware of my posture and helps me come out of that habit,maintaining a dominant posture.Sharon also tells us to do this with no expression,showing no emotion to the people around us,this helps us as actors with our concentration and focus.
From Neautral Rob then told us to Roll our shoulders forwards and backwards,this helps us increase the range of motion in our shoulders and upper back,improve our posture and release tension in our muscles,allowing us to have control over our body.Rob then told us to roll each shoulder in a different direction to the other,I find this excersises challenging as i struggle multitasking,however after my muscles feel relaxed.Rob then told us to roll our body forward,allowing our heads to fall in front of us,still maintaini g a good balance,with our arms to the ground,reaching out to our feet.He then tells us to move from side to side,swaying our arms.we done this for about 15 seconds,Rob the. Told us to come up slowly,as a lot of blood as just rushed to our heads,after this excersise I felt relaxed and more loose in my body,I already felt ready for practicle.
We then worked on our voices,focusing on different parts of our mouth,tongue,throat and diaphragm creating different sounds consonants and vowels,pronouncing letters with over exaduration,working on the different muscles,helping us as actors with projection and pronousiatiin of words.
An example of an excersise using the tounge would be saying aloud the letters "L" & "N",using the tounge we would flick the tip upon our palate working the tounge muscles,
We then done a few tounge twisters,this to me is like speech therapy,challenging me out of my comfort zone,repeating similar sounds,words and syllables.
Tongue twisters can be used to treat speach problems but as an actoress  they help the brain connect tongue movements to sounds.Correct pronousiatiin allows an actor to clearly show their characterisation through speach,helping the audience understand what's going on.
My favourite one is : "Peter piper picked a peck of pickled peppers from a pickle tree.",probably because I can pronounce this the best out of all the rest.Tongue twisters are a great way of training our voices,which is important for me rasped jalopy as I want to get into drama school,I have to be unique from everyone else being able to pronounce letters and words correctly.
In our acting technique lessons we usually play a few games,these games help us build confidence and help us become melodramatic.my favourite game involved one of our class mates standing outside the class room whilat the rest of us stand scattered around the room,Rob chooses a leader and we have to follow their movements.The key to this game is not following the leader but the people around him/her,this way it's almost impossible for the person to find out who the leader is,it's a fun game where everyone is involved,it helps us as actors/actresses become aware of our surroundings and people around us.
Warms up and excersises like this help me as a actress get more into and involved in what we're doing,it helps me concentrate and get in the mood for practical work,teaching us to be willing and creative in our work.
After excersisig our bodies and mouths we then got into our scripts,the night before I watched the scene from the play and analysed it,also watching different inerpretarions of the play,helping me explore my character(Jokasta).research helped support my development in the script(understanding my character and different emotions that she may be thinking in the scene) and it developed me as an qctoress(helping me understand the depth of research needed to clearly understand a character)I thought thoroughly about stage directions and thought about how I can adapt speach.
I enjoyed the play more and got more comfortable with my characterisation after my reaserch
However I faced a few challenges which were: learning lines,stage directions,body language and my biggest challenge was pronounsinf different poetic terms,as I was unsure of some the the words and phrases from that era I wasn't quite sure about the context of them or how to pronounce them correctly,Me and my fellow partners overcame this challenge by asking Rob what context different words were in,from here we understood how to approach the text as a team,helping us get better diction.I didn't really find learning lines a challenge as I've had a lot of experience learning lines,normally I would record myself reading the other limes and respond,that way I am able to imagine myself speaking to another character.
I felt as I worked well with Emily and Dijarn and we all connected well,none took complete control of the group which was good as in secondary school I was used to having someone leading the group,but in my group we all show  an equal level of dominance,which made me confortable in my group,we all have freedom and show no signs of hesitation when sharing our ideas,which is good for me as an actress as I haven't worked with them before,it's good to work with different people and see
how they interpretate the text.Also if I disliked anyone and disliked them it would challenge me as an actress,putting aside differences and getting on with work.

Greek Theatre-Oedipus Week 1

We started off with Robs acting technique classes,in this we got more knowledge on Greek theatre.
We watched a documentary "BBC Ancient Greece The Greatest Show on Earth - Democrats - 1/3".
this documentary was very interesting,after doing my research on Greek theatre,I did not feel as tho I knew enough knowledge in the history of greek theatre & the reason to why it is so significant in today's society.
In this video I was able to get a look at how drama in Athens was deeply connected to Athenian democracy,it helped me realise how strongly Greek theatre and Democracy is linked.
I learnt that:
-Greek civilisation effects every aspect of our lives
-Greek authors revolutionised story telling
-Greek theatre was a reaction to real events(story of Athens)
-In the 6th Century Athens was ruled by Democracy,so they had more freedom after the war
- lifelike statues & sculptures were created
  Which helped the Greek authors when play writing
-All Greek performers wore masks as a signal of profession (masks were known to help people get closer to God),when you put a mask on it was as if you were a different person

Throughout the video I was able to maintain full concentration as I was quite interested in learning about the history of greek theatre,there were many eye catching moments in the video and it really caught my attention.
In the afternoon we were with rob for acting techniques in which we trained our voices and practiced tongue twisters,I struggled with this as I'm not used to saying tounge twisters but as this helps with vocal speech and as an actress punctuation in speach is very important,when I get time I will practice them as much as I can,these assist my learning and subsequent development.
Before getting our scripts we played a few games as a class,developing our skills as actors and helping us with team work,these games
We then got given our scripts and were put into groups for out Greek theatre unit 1 performance.
I like working with Emily and Dijarn as I haven't worked with them before,I like there approach on the play and characterisation.I feel comfortable around all of my class mates and don't ferl shy if I make a mistake or mess up around them,I know there characters and I know we all support one another and we all take in feedback and learn from our mistakes.
We read through our scripts in groups,My first impressions of the script was that I knew a lot of emotion was linked with the script,so before getting into it I had to understand the characters and research about them before I got into it.
I wasn't quite farmilliar with the language used in the scripts although I have auditioned somewhere with a Macbeth speach.The highlight of the day was receiving the scripts,even though I didn't know the limes I was already thinking about the staging and directing.

Greek theatre

I was given the task to research the history of Greek theatre and obtain information about it, these are my notes

What was the time period?(of Greek theatre)

The Greek theatre history began in 5th Century BC,in this era they hournered Gods with festivals,A God Dionysus was honored with a festival called "City Dionysia",During this festival in Athens the men used to perform songs,plays were also presented at the festival.Athens spread festivals like these to it allies to promote a common identity.

What else was happening at this time?

The Persians left Athens,which lead to Pericles Taking lead of Athens.
He had such a profound influence of Athenian society,he created an Athenian empire and lead his countrymen during the first years of Peloponnesian war.Pericles Created many buildings and statues,Introducing  art and design.He lead Athens into "The Golden age of Athens".
Greek theatre began from religious traditions honouring Dionysus,the great God of spring/vintage,this God was known to be the God of wine.

Was it important and how did it affect any Dramatists?

The Golden age of Athens created the era of artists,The main play writes Sophocles, Euripides & Aeschylus created comedy and tragedies still relevant in today's society.In the golden ageGreek authors revolutionized story telling expressing Athenian culture through plays.
Greek theatre was usually a reaction to real events for example "Trojan horse"
Trojan horse is first mentioned in Homers odyssey,a song describing the aftermath of a war a Troy that purportedly took place around 500 years earlier.
In the "Golden Era of Athens lifelike sculptures and statues were created which helped Greek authors when playwriting.Pericles introduced a new Athenian democracy leading to more freedom for the Athens.The new found freedom encompassed freedom of speech hence a new era of playwrights
The Greeks made theatre,they created an innovation that was not only theatre but entertainment that was closely linked to democracy and politics.

Who were the playwrights?
The main playwrites were Aeschylus,Sophocles 496-406 B.C.EEuripides 480-406 B.C.E

what were their main works?
Aeschylus- The Persians,Prometheus bound, seven against Thebes
Sophocles-Antigone, Oedipus the king, Philoctetes,Ajax
Euripides-Medea,The bachae,Hippolytus


what were the main themes of these plays:
Tragedy,Death,comedy were the three main themes in the plays.Plays in that era usually related to actuall events,sometimes the masks were created to look like greek leaders.

were they socially relevant?:
They were socially relevant as most of them were linked to real events happening in that era, they gave across different messages to the Athens and some of the actors were imitating the leaders of the greek society in that era.


After reading about Greek theatre it has helped me understand the depth and emotion involved in the plays and how important theatre was in that era,
It helped me realize that when starting my performance its not just about reading the lines,it's about my character and the message I'm trying to give to the audience and how actors in the 5th century would have acted it out and what message they wanted to show to the Athenian society.
In my opinion it was a way of giving different messages to the Athenian people  and it gave them an insite of what there leaders were like in that era,it gets the audience thinking,as it links to real life events and helps them understand whats going on in there society.