Final Major Projects

The rehearsal process When we were first told that our final performance of the year would be Animal Farm, we were feeling unsure of how to feel. For myself and peers we were unsure of the story or context and didn’t know how to first approach the show. It took a few weeks if rehearsals for us to really grasp and accept the show for what it was. It was by far the stances (and fun) show I’ve had the pleasure to being a part of. By the end of rehearsals and the shows themselves we were all toughly in love with the performance and I feel that we wouldn’t have done it any differently. In the beginning we started by watching a short documentary of the Russian revolution time line and understanding the context of the piece. And the cast list was revealed. We also spoke about the allegory of animal farm, and the definition of Communism, totalitarianism and socialism. Communism - a theory or system of social organization in which all property is owned by the c...

The shows overall. Overall I feel that the show was a success despite issues that happens on the show days/nights. This first show we did was on Thursday the 14th June to Oldham academy and a few members of the public. This being our first public performance of course things did go wrong, lines where forgotten accidents happened and overall this performance (to our director, in the nicest possible way) was a bit like a car crash. The emotions where too much going from too harsh to too sad. It felt as though we were performing for ourselves and forgot the audience and the message we wanted to send. After going away I think on the feedback we were given by the time of the second performance that night we felt like we were more ready. This show was particularly important for me as this was where all of my friends where coming to see the show. It didn’t go as smoothly as it could have but it was definitely a huge improvements to what we had at the start of the day. The next day ...

Costume: Our costumes where simple our director wanted us to show as much skin as we possible but  within our own comfort zones. We had a colour scheme of nudes, creams and badge to give the illusion of nakedness. After we fist brought in all out costumes there was a lot of disagreement on what else we needed some of thought we looked too clean fro farm animals, it didn't feel like we where in costumes which really change the atmosphere with all of us. We though that we had a good show but when (for me anyway) we where in costume we didn't have the moment of "this is my character". We didn't want to just be animals we wanted an abstract way of looking using objects to be a representation not the thing itself. For example for ears like the sheep we didn't want literal ears so we experimented with the use of hair. This is a techniques commonly used by Brecht as he believes that elaborate costumes might mean that the sense of pretending of being something e...

Tec Week: Rehearsal schedule: Tec week started on the 11th of June and the plan was to be finished by Wednesday for two dress runs. As rehearsal in the grange started on the Monday we all used discipline and patients to finish the finish the first act. It was slow going at first but we where all excited as the show with all its aspects where finally coming together. The tec crew who had come into some rehearsals had already spent hours plotting the lights and with the help of the actors the set looked amazing. I think that as a cast the atmosphere from being in the studio changed dramatically from the atmosphere of the studio, it was more professional but also there was an air of suspense as it came close to the opening show. We spent Monday in the theatre 9am to 4:30 pm a full day of running tec and organising the dressing rooms. A few of the second years including my self chose to have dressing room three a place where the majority of us have always been for...

Being a hen, act two: After my character Snowball has been executed by Napoleon's d ogs I had the choice to come back in act two as any character I wanted, I originally wanted to come back as a horse, because of different the movements are compared to a pig. However after noticing this It was clear that I wasn't the best idea as Mollie had already been expelled from the farm, and as the actor Who played her could be considered quite similar to me to the audience perspective. While rehearsing  a scene where a group of hens try to defend their eggs against Napoleon's scheme to sell them to other famer, it is described as "a rebellion" but their wasn't enough hens for this to look affective. There for myself and the actor who played Mollie are both resurrected as hens. I did enjoy being one the hens and at some point I enjoyed it even more than when I played Snowball. I think this was because I didn't have the responsibility of h...

Extra research The Bolshoi Ballet: Later in the rehearsal process we found that if we kept researching throughout the rehearsal period our performance would keep improving. We found out about the Bolshoi ballet later in rehearsal and the information we found helped us have a deeper understand of the arts in the time period of the Russian revolution.  The ballet company was formed in 1776 and is one of the world’s oldest ballet companies. "Bolshoi" translated from Russian to English means “the great ballet", throughout the 19th century there where many prestigious choreographers like Marius Petipa who was one of the most influential ballet practitioners, famous for his choreography of swan lake, the nutcracker and sleeping beauty.  http://www.roh.org.uk/people/marius-petipa . It also saw people such as Carlo Blasis an Italian ballet teacher and writer. He was the fist write technique's , history and theory of dancing in his "Traité élémentaire, théori...

The project proposal: As I come up to the end of my two years at Oldham college I've genuinely had the most amazing experience, as a performer and as a person I've changed a lot from when I first stared. I've had the opportunity to be in many style of shows that have improved my skills as an actor and a performer overall. " The Grinch" was the first public show I performed at college, during this Christmas show for young children I was in the ensemble for the first few weeks of rehearsals however some of the second year wasn't reliable and myself and another first year was where given a more substantial part. I played the part of a narrator which I was (for a first year) a huge part for me personally. We then later as the performing arts class asked by Oldham Coliseum to be apart of the community chorus in there local production of Meat Pie, Sausage Roll.  http://www.coliseum.org.uk/plays/meat-pie-sausage-roll/ A story about Oldham athletic during 1...

Dress Run: We had a call time of 9 am for the dress run an dthe paln was to strat by 10am have the dress in show mode including the intival. We had already brough in out costumes the week before to see if what we where all weari g looked good and what was needed. This hiweve was the first time that all the component of the show would be seen togethr for the first time , we had felt the pressure firt the performnce to be good. I had orginsed a close friend if mune to cme in and see the show( him being our first audimce member) to take photgraphs for us as hes an amature photographer. He said that he loved the show, and couldnt wait to see it properly on the Thursday night. The pivture he took blew us all away, and they showed the performnce in the way we wanted. The dress went fairly well, the first act only had sime spacing issues and a few momnets where lines went wrong but we did cover this well with improvisation and got back on the script soon after. This was also the frist tine...

Inspiration:  The Gesher Theatre Company After doing lots of research we found it very difficult to find a good remake of the play online, the play being so challenging it can either be amazing or terrible depending on the artistic vision that is trying to be portrayed. There was however one vision online that we found and though it was amazing. The style and characterisation of the cast was just exceptional. We all used it as inspiration for our portrayal of our animals and how we blocked the scenes.   This version is an adaptation by the Gasher Theatre in 2015, by Noam Shmuel. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2AMAiXs3Twc In this version the simplicity of the set and costumes really embodied the dark and gritty reality that each character is living, even all the cast wore similar costumes there where slight differences to show each individual. However this was done in abstract way like the hens used a red rubber glove where as the horses used metal tails which they u...

Primary Research: On Friday the 9 th  of March the cast took a trip to Lancaster farm, where we studied and researched put animals, looking at how they move, make noises and react with each other. Animals will always be different to humans but in the basic nature we are quite similar, nearly all species want to look after their young, find food and have a habitat. My character Snowball is a pig so I spent a lot of my time at the farm focusing on them. I looked at how the pigs moved amount their area . Pigs look more relaxed compared to other animals where the pigs seem slow and almost stupid if you look into their eyes there is an almost human like intelligence. There bodies are very close to the ground, with their heads down constantly sniffing. I used some of this in my performance more so in the beginning during the "farm scene". I chose to be more human at some point during the show however, you tell this when s peak in a more harsh tone because I needed to show that...

Techniques   We focused a lot on Lee Strasburg, inspired by Stanislavski and the Moscow theatre company his method encourages actors intensify their connection to the material by using their own emotional experiences to create their character. While method acting is similar to Stanislavski’s methods Strasberg’s method requires actors to go beyond simply playing a character but   to temporarily become the characters they are portraying using a technique called “Substitution” Method acting focuses on achieving realism, According to the Lee Strasberg Theatre & Film Institute website , method actors “…use their imagination, senses and emotions to conceive of characters with unique and original behaviour, creating performances grounded in the human truth of the moment.” Method acting says that actors should prepare for a role by immersing themselves as much as possible in the circumstances of their characters. This can include living on a farm, working in a factory, or t...