Monday's lesson we allocated the three sections to the three different groups of four (Caitlin came back - yay) we got the middle section, and we began splitting it into four personalities. We decided on Mother, Sexy, Angry Psycho, and Ditzy Gossip. I got the angry psycho which will be fun to do.
The splitting of the lines was actually quite difficult, trying allocate the most appropriate and effective lines to each personality, whether it was ironic or just suiting the character. The script and the character also turned out to be crazy and I swear we landed the most weirdly sexual part of the whole monologue. I think it'll be good fun to work out and create, and much easier than the first part which we attempted last week and completely failed at.
Wednesday, 24 May 2017
Lunch and Woman Alone 10.05.17
Caitlin was ill again! This meant we had to perform Lunch with only three people, so followed the adaptation of it. We weren't sure how to pull it off at first, either there are two sun-consciences or the female does both real and sub-conscience, in the end deciding on the latter. This meant that Charlotte had to suddenly learn all of hers and Caitlin's lines and in way which meant you could tell which part was sub-conscience and real. I also had to adapt to being the only full-on Berkoff person, as before I was working with and interacting with Caitlin, and using her energy as well as my own to pull off an engaging performance - therefore it was pretty difficult.
It was hard to adapt at first, but once we got into the swing of things it began to get pretty smooth. In the end, the first two pages had a lot of energy, and a decent amount of valid Berkoff style action, somehow managing to work out the last bit of page two which was an interlocking dialogue with me and the girl. The last page was also pretty good as the two 'real' began to have more movement, the problem came from the fact that it didn't have quite enough pace, energy or engaging movement, plus, I din't really have much to do other than listen, but I think considering our circumstances and how much we had to adapt, it turned out pretty decent.
From the feedback of the performance, although apparently my voice had the right volume and energy for Berkoff, it was a little too much too much of the time and I needed to add more variation. Furthermore, I stumbled very obviously on a couple of my lines, Charlotte doing a far better job despite half of her lines being new that day. The physical movement was good and appropriate to the lines, though it slackened towards the end. However, overall, it had a good reaction and I believe that we did pretty well considering we lost one of our cast members.
After the lesson, during N2C, we began looking at Woman Alone in the same groups as Lunch. The first thing was splitting the monologue into the three different attitudes, we had gossipy House Wife, Mother and Sexy. We split the lines and then began adding the physical movements but we found it quite difficult to achieve - partly because we just exhausted - as the text didn't have quite the same indication of physical movements as the last two.
We didn't really come up with nearly enough Berkoff movements, and the ones we did come up with were generally not quite defined or mimetic enough. This was especially with the dancing which I hadn't realised until the performance. I found that the whole lacked an energy or a confidence required for Berkoff and I had no confidence performing it: it felt awkward and slow. Did not go away from the lesson feeling like I'd achieved much.
It was hard to adapt at first, but once we got into the swing of things it began to get pretty smooth. In the end, the first two pages had a lot of energy, and a decent amount of valid Berkoff style action, somehow managing to work out the last bit of page two which was an interlocking dialogue with me and the girl. The last page was also pretty good as the two 'real' began to have more movement, the problem came from the fact that it didn't have quite enough pace, energy or engaging movement, plus, I din't really have much to do other than listen, but I think considering our circumstances and how much we had to adapt, it turned out pretty decent.
From the feedback of the performance, although apparently my voice had the right volume and energy for Berkoff, it was a little too much too much of the time and I needed to add more variation. Furthermore, I stumbled very obviously on a couple of my lines, Charlotte doing a far better job despite half of her lines being new that day. The physical movement was good and appropriate to the lines, though it slackened towards the end. However, overall, it had a good reaction and I believe that we did pretty well considering we lost one of our cast members.
After the lesson, during N2C, we began looking at Woman Alone in the same groups as Lunch. The first thing was splitting the monologue into the three different attitudes, we had gossipy House Wife, Mother and Sexy. We split the lines and then began adding the physical movements but we found it quite difficult to achieve - partly because we just exhausted - as the text didn't have quite the same indication of physical movements as the last two.
We didn't really come up with nearly enough Berkoff movements, and the ones we did come up with were generally not quite defined or mimetic enough. This was especially with the dancing which I hadn't realised until the performance. I found that the whole lacked an energy or a confidence required for Berkoff and I had no confidence performing it: it felt awkward and slow. Did not go away from the lesson feeling like I'd achieved much.
Monday 8th May
It was a pretty relaxed session today, just a few drama games then forty minutes rehearsal. Played a weird game where we have to pass pens or something and it was way too confusing for my brain's capability.
We began rehearsing our Lunch scenes, in our groups of four, but Caitlin wasn't there - she was ill. This made it a little difficult coming up with sequences especially as the other sun-conscience she was the only other one with large Berkoff movements. We managed without her, and actually came up with quite a bit of choreography in this lesson. By the end of the lesson, the first section was quite smooth and rehearsed, as we already had an idea of what Caitlin was doing from the previous lesson and it had a lot of me being very loud. However, the next two pages are still a bit under-rehearsed and we have very little Berkoff movements. We find the text pretty confusing and it's hard to understand which part is sub-conscience and real, and so hard to make movements to fit to the dialogue.
We definitely made some progress through the lesson in our rehearsing, but it still doesn't fell secure, and doesn't have the right energy needed for Berkoff.
We began rehearsing our Lunch scenes, in our groups of four, but Caitlin wasn't there - she was ill. This made it a little difficult coming up with sequences especially as the other sun-conscience she was the only other one with large Berkoff movements. We managed without her, and actually came up with quite a bit of choreography in this lesson. By the end of the lesson, the first section was quite smooth and rehearsed, as we already had an idea of what Caitlin was doing from the previous lesson and it had a lot of me being very loud. However, the next two pages are still a bit under-rehearsed and we have very little Berkoff movements. We find the text pretty confusing and it's hard to understand which part is sub-conscience and real, and so hard to make movements to fit to the dialogue.
We definitely made some progress through the lesson in our rehearsing, but it still doesn't fell secure, and doesn't have the right energy needed for Berkoff.
Tuesday, 23 May 2017
Wednesday 3rd May - East then Lunch
In the lesson time, we were again working on the section from East from last week. At the beginning of the lesson, I was having doubts about whether our performance would be suitable for Berkoff, and whether it was any good at all. You never know until you perform it... so after the first twenty minutes Chipp made us do a sneak peak of the first twenty seconds to see if we were on track. Naturally I was nervous, of being revealed as awful at Berkoff and any form of self-directing! But it was fine - turned out we were on the right track after all and people seemed to enjoy the performance so thumbs up from me.
Therefore, with this report, we decided to carry on in the same nature as we had done previously, and because we're just such damn good workers and real goody-two-shoes, we added a little extra bit on to the end. One bit of advice we tried to act on from our twenty second preview review, was to add more sound effects. We added a couple, but I don't feel like it was to the right extent or effect, watching another group's later I realised they were pauses in the dialogue whereas we tried to incorporate it into the dialogue making it a bit rushed and ineffective.
After rehearsing for an hour or so, I can certifiably tell you that Berkoff is extraordinarily exhausting. At the end of our piece, I end up lying on the ground and found that the space of time between me finishing and getting up increased with each rehearsal - apparently I am not in great physical shape at the moment.
One of the major issues for me personally was coordinating the lines coming out of my mouth with the movements, remembering the lines whilst moving, remembering the moves, then the facial expression and characterisation on top of that, as well as the Cockney accent (still atrocious), so basically, I had a problem with everything.
However, with copious (exhausting) rehearsal the piece got pretty smooth and had a very good pace to it. It was energetic with a lot of movement, and I think it went down pretty well with the audience. I certainly felt pretty good after performing it, though it wasn't perfect, I think it began to capture the idea of Berkoff and had a lot of good energy.
Therefore, with this report, we decided to carry on in the same nature as we had done previously, and because we're just such damn good workers and real goody-two-shoes, we added a little extra bit on to the end. One bit of advice we tried to act on from our twenty second preview review, was to add more sound effects. We added a couple, but I don't feel like it was to the right extent or effect, watching another group's later I realised they were pauses in the dialogue whereas we tried to incorporate it into the dialogue making it a bit rushed and ineffective.
After rehearsing for an hour or so, I can certifiably tell you that Berkoff is extraordinarily exhausting. At the end of our piece, I end up lying on the ground and found that the space of time between me finishing and getting up increased with each rehearsal - apparently I am not in great physical shape at the moment.
One of the major issues for me personally was coordinating the lines coming out of my mouth with the movements, remembering the lines whilst moving, remembering the moves, then the facial expression and characterisation on top of that, as well as the Cockney accent (still atrocious), so basically, I had a problem with everything.
However, with copious (exhausting) rehearsal the piece got pretty smooth and had a very good pace to it. It was energetic with a lot of movement, and I think it went down pretty well with the audience. I certainly felt pretty good after performing it, though it wasn't perfect, I think it began to capture the idea of Berkoff and had a lot of good energy.
In the N2C time we began looking at another of Berkoff's plays: Lunch. This involves and man and a woman and their sub-consciences in which the couple are constrained by societal etiquette / awkwardness whilst the sub-consciences have free reign expressing their thoughts, getting pretty weird, sexual and a bit uncomfortable (to perform at least) at times. I took the part of the males sub-conscience despite being forced to play the female one in the read-through because I "always play the guy" or something. It was pretty fun getting into this part, and trying to get rid of all reservations and just go for it. I think I was maybe a little too loud, forgetting to be subtle at times, but the voice kind of worked for the character.
We found it hard to come up with anything, partly because it was difficult splitting the lines between real and conscience and trying to make it work in performance with the different interactions e.g. could the two sub-consciences interact, should they also interact with opposite gender's real person, should the two real persons act Berkoffian or should they have more realism. In the end, we decided the two sub-consciences should interact, though not with the opposite gender's real person and the real one should have more realism though the sub-conscience manipulates their bodies at times. It was also difficult because people were feeling a bit exhausted, and therefore not very creative or on the ball. By the end of the lesson, we weren't feeling any more confident with the scene then we did ten minutes in to the rehearsal process, all we were really confident with was the entrance. We didn't leave it positively, and were a bit nervous about having to perform it the following week.
Berkoff No. 2
Looking again at Berkoff (as I guess we will for the next couple of months) we began with an exercise in partners creating slow-motion, defined and exaggerated fight moves. We developed this gradually first through just coming up with the moves as a sequence of four with exaggerated mask-like faces, then adding words to the action, a little sequence at the beginning to give the moves context, the splitting apart and each facing the audience respectively. During the process, I began to realise how hard it was to maintain multiple disciplines at once: the face mask, the definition of the movement, remembering choreography and moves etc. during the practice, I realised my moves weren’t defined enough e.g. no definitive beginnings and ends to make as once I’d do a move, I might still move slightly, so I began working on making it more staccato and thinking of it in that way meant I did that more easily, though still not perfectly. However, in the performance, my downfall became clear: choreography. As always. Choreography is my failing in everything, my mind just pulls blanks for moves, and it did in this case as you can see in the video below:
Following this exercise we split into different pairs and began to look more into creating an actual scene. The theme of the scene we created was surrounding the idea of two waiters/ servants laying a table. Me and Hannah decided to have two contrasting characters, one who was a bit of a quiet perfectionist and the other (me) was arrogant, jealous and over the top. I think that the contrasting characteristics worked well for the performance, creating a great basis for an undercurrent of friction and argument between the two characters, and opportunities arose in which we could have little moments such as glares, and deliberate twitches of table setting to rile the other.
The physical movement was harder to create and subsequently pull off (especially with my lack of skill in choreography, memory and grace) especially considering the style of Berkoff. It was a massive struggle trying to remember the moves, (let alone the order of movements) the facial expressions, character etc. (thank god there weren't any lines). The first problem was creating appropriate movements, to also work with the music, some fantastically weird and groovy Tom Waits. We eventually came up with around thirty seconds of movement, deciding to do some synchronised movements, some responsive similar movements and alternate. Although I think the piece was quite fun, firstly, our timing went a bit off in the middle section when we're putting down plates (think it was my fault, I'm a terrible counter) but the main problem is that it wasn't extremely Berkoff-like. The movements were too fluid without beginnings and ends plus not precise enough.
Our next task was looking at the beginning of East. The setting was interesting, well, interestingly bare - just five chairs sat at the back for the chorus to sit on. The stage directions tell the cast to enter and sing a song off beat, different keys and descant, ( I think we spent a little too long trying to find the song on youtube to get the tune, you can't tell what the tune is anyway it's that bad) the first port of call was to create each character, I played the Dad which was decided was a bit of an in the pub guy, with a tuneless voice and overconfidence.
Again, my problem for the physical side of the piece was the beginning and end of moves, e.g. they're too fluid, need to be more "defined and mimetic". However, I repaired this issue before we performed it though the movements look a little awkward and unrealistic (in an unrealistic Berkoff way) but I feel we performed an almost-Berkoff like piece.
The next part of the lesson was spent on looking at the following section of East between Les and Mike which is a dialogue about the moment they became best friends. In the read-through I was given the role of stage-direction reader - there was one direction to read and the other readers skipped through it, my talent was wasted! But then half-way through we swapped roles and I got to show-off my perfect cockney accent (if it's anything other than middle-class Radio 4 accent or even posher, then I can't do it). Then in pairs we began working on a one-minute section of the first scene.
I went with Charlotte, Charlotte playing Mike, and Les: yours truly. The forty minutes before break were quite fruitless, finding it very difficult to come up with appropriate movements, or even good ones, we were feeling pretty hopeless. But after break, a spurt of creativity came and we were coming up with movements quick and slick. This came partly through adapting the section we were going to perform, starting a bit later, so that we started with my line "A crowd of yobs formed a ring of yellow face in the lamplight" rather than talking about going "round back" and something about "dragon's breath" cutting out a small section in the middle about police men and finishing after a small slow-motion fight. The editing of the script took a long time, with lots of different edits and failed choreography till we decided on which bits we were doing, but I feel that in the end, it was an appropriate script with a good number of suitable lines for each character. We decided to have a lot of synchronised movement to centralise the narrative (and make it easy for us and the audience to follow) as well as some parts with alternate, or even opposing movements.
Although not quite perfect yet (especially the atrocious Cockney accents), I think our scene is looking pretty promising for the performance next week.
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