WEEK 2- 3RD SEPTEMBER: LANGUAGE OF THEATRE/PRODUCTION PROJECT

Tuesday 3^rd September:

PRODUCTION PROJECT:

Today in our lessons we all grouped in ‘The space’. Firstly we doen some exercises which helped us to settle in the space and feel comfortable and relaxed with the people around us. This exercise was based around relaxation and explore your inner self.

Relaxation in muscles:
Before we started to work we performed a relaxation exercise which was taken from page 118 in Konstantin Stanislavsky. 

We started by lying down on our backs with our eyes closed and just relaxing our whole body by keeping our neck free and allowing our bodies to sink into the floor. My feet had to be facing upwards and my hands had to be at my side with my palms facing upward.
This exercise gave me allot of knowledge as it allowed me to understand how the physical relationship is able to determine the way you approach acting.

'You can't do inner work if your physically too tense'

'Lie on the floor and work through the body, consciously tensing and releasing each set of muscles from the feet, the calves, the knees, the thighs, the buttocks (then the whole leg), the stomach, the chest (then the whole torso) the upper arms, the lower arms, the fists (then the whole arm), the neck, the face, whole scalp

Melodrama

To introduce us topic/ lesson we were all introduced to the Charles Darwin theory of Evolution and this was cleverly interpreted as it helped me understand the way in which we had to attempt Melodrama. Charles Darwin’s’ theory was the basic idea behind the theory of evolution which was that all the different species have evolved from simple life forms. These simple life forms first developed more than 3 billion years ago. Alongside this he also believed in Natural selection. 

This process of development and adaptation in this theory interlinked well in terms of understanding the process of moving from Melodrama to Naturalism and it also helped me understand how it evolves gradually in stages as the scale was 7-1 therefore it was obvious to see how each stage was varied but refined at the same time. 7 was the peak of melodrama and this was a very expressed state, we showed this state through picking a stock character for example damsel in distress.

SCALE 7: 

External, 2 dimensional, unrealistic, demonstrated, hyperbolical, physicality 

SCALE 1: 

Internal, facial expressions, connected, realistic, emotional, 3 dimensional 

This contrast was able to bring Darwinian understandings of the determining role of the environment into the staging of human drama because I was able to see how most of the stock characters have been stereotypically based and as a result they have been fictionalised as a product of the environment etc.

After, we carried on developing our workshop techniques and this was achieved through various exercises but I found one specific exercise 

Exploring the room as yourself then character:

The task involved us walking around the space and mumbling each and every detail to ourselves of which
This was an insightful task because I was able to notice details about the room that I had not seen before, a

We then were told to do the exercise again and this time I was able to create a storyline
This helped me get into character because it made me realise other things that I could think about other than my scene for example i was able to create a background

STOCK CHARACTERS:

• DAMSEL IN DISTRESS: 

This is a classic theme that is expressed throughout many aspects of life such as art, film and video games. This character is usually a beautiful, young woman who is placed in a 'life-threatening' predicament either by a villain  who requires a hero to achieve her rescue.She has become a stock character of fiction, particularly of melodrama. She usually has a high pitched voice,  is very feminine and expressive.

• LOVER: 

The lover is a character that is very expressive and it is also a character  whose objectives is  to get together, despite the blocking effect of other characters.
We created a sound for this character and it was 'ah' and i felt that this was a good representation of the character because it felt like the character was dwelling on the though of being in love/ thinking about there love.

• HERO:

The hero is another typical stock character which has a strong masculine figure and is usually the character that is able to save the damsel in distress.