All weeks into one

                                                 UAL LEVEL 3 PERFORMING ARTS:

Week 1:

MONDAY:

On the first day of the UAL LEVEL 3 course all the students got to know each other through various means for example we had to walk around the room and make eye contact with one another and every now and then the teach would tell us to stop and team up with the person closest to us and to play the ‘Yes and then’ game and then the 1,2,3 game. I found this helpful in how it made me settle down with the group and helped to get to know some of the people I would be spending a lot of time with. We then read the first scene of Romeo and Juliet together in a circle. In our second lesson, we got into groups of two and told one another about eventful happenings during our summer holidays and then we got into groups of fours and told one another about each other’s holidays, after that we had to create a piece that made sense using occurrences that had happened in each other’s holidays which ended up being planned on the most part but also improvised. After performing each other’s scenes in front of the group we each received an applause and some constructive criticism as to things that could either have been expanded on or wasn’t necessary which was interesting and helpful.

Tuesday:

On the second day, we began the lesson by laying down on the floor and doing some breathing exercises which then went on to us breathing in and breathing out but whilst doing that we also had to make a high-pitched sound and then a low-pitched sound. In a way, it was also good for confidence as it made everyone comfortable to be in the same room as others and just freely make these funny/strange noises. We then proceeded to learn some mouth exercises and massaging the jaw, alongside this we also were told/taught the importance of the jaw and mouth in acting and I found what was told me useful and that it would be helpful for future reference for if I was to do a monologue in future I could always quickly do some of those exercises to enhance my voice. After that we got into fours and sat down to list in chronological order what we remember of Romeo and Juliet and this was quite useful in that it helped groups of people who may not have known each other well communicate and get to know each other to further help to get everyone in the class become comfortable with one another. We then had to agree on three most important scenes of Romeo and Juliet and had to perform freeze frames of them with someone saying a line that a character would say in the scene to enhance the scene and we did this without telling everyone else in the class what scenes we picked. Everyone had performed their scenes and got applauded for their work by everyone else in the class. The three important scenes which most groups picked were:

1.Romeo and Juliet meeting at the Capulets party

2.Romeo and Juliet getting married

3.The death of Romeo and Juliet

Wednesday:





On the third day we met with the second years doing the LEVEL 3 UAL course and got to know them through various means. One for example was the ‘yes let’s’ game and after that we had to get into groups of twos with someone we didn’t know from the other class and took turns improvising a story that the two would have to act out and then we become groups of fours and did the same thing. We then got into groups of eights and had to line up next to each other. We then had to use our peripheral vision to try to copy one another’s movements with one person leading the whole group, and that was a slight challenge for some as it would be hard to see what both hands of the person next to you would be doing but it was a fun exercise and it was successful in helping everyone bond. Then all the students split into groups of threes and played ‘yes let’s’ in big circles which also helped everyone bond.

Thursday:
 
We discussed what would make this year successful and we split into twos and listed 10 important qualities to have to make this year successful. We then had to collectively decide what the three most important qualities were and out of that we all started to debate with one another our ideas and this was quite enjoyable to take part in as we got to see what others were like in that kind of situation and who would take a leadership role and in a way it helped me to see what kind of people I would be working with so it was quite an experience. We had all decided that the three most important qualities were:

1.Attendance and punctuality (organisation with time)

2.Communication

3.‘Resport’ (Respect and support)

In the next lesson the teacher would pick a student to sit on a chair and play the ‘yes or no’ game with him in front of the whole class, and the aim isn’t to say yes or no. Having the chance to play this I can say that it was good for confidence to just sit down and take the challenge as everyone would be observing you. We then got into groups of two with people we wouldn’t usually work with (getting to know more of the group) and created an improvised piece that had to start with one of the people saying ‘I don’t think we’re meant to be here’. After performing these to everyone each group got an applause. After this we read the beginning of Romeo and Juliet and discussed the purpose of the chorus which we thought was to set the scene and let the viewers know that there are two families that have a history of tension which would then lead onto a situation where there was tension like when Abraham and Balthazar bump into Sampson and Gregory. After this some of us were picked to get up and perform a drafted version of the chorus and the fight between the four but at the same time we had to get creative with it so that it wasn’t boring and like every other stereotypical Romeo and Juliet opening scene. It ended up working quite well and we got some constructive criticism from our class who talked about space and how it is important that everyone watching can see everything going on which made everyone more observant and mindful.

In the next lesson we were each given a monologue from Romeo and Juliet and had to recite it whilst walking around in the space but we had to put a specific emotion into each section of the speech. We then had to whisper it and read the monologue to objects around the room but treating them like a crowd. After this we got into groups of four and each four got a different section of the monologue and had to read them out and get creative with how they did it. Each group ended up performing each piece to the rest of the group one by one fluidly. It was quite interesting to see how each group decided they would perform their section seeing one group having people say a line in synchronization or another group actually performing each part of the monologue, and there was plenty to learn from the other groups. This was another helpful group exercise helping everyone get
to know each other.


Week 2:




 MONDAY:                                                              
                                                     
Today we had our lessons in the theatre. We began the lesson by walking alright the space pretending we were holding candles and at the same time we had to whisper to the candles a line from the play in such a way that the whisper shouldn't blow out the candle. The line I decided to whisper was 'But soft, what light, at younger window breaks'. We then stood in a circle and played the name game: In this game you say someone's name and wait for them to say yes before walking up to them and they continue the chain. This was to get the new students comfortable with joining the group and to wake us up and make us more energetic for the day ahead. Next we lifted our hands in front of us and moved them around letting our bodies follow the movement of our hands, and at the same time we had to make noises of our choice that we thought were appropriate to go with the movement which was quite fun. This exercise was more for the teacher to see who is confident enough to step out of their comfort zones and do something weird around others and it was also very good for peoples confidence, which is ultimately why I loved this exercise. We then got paired up and in the pairs we had to decide who was A or B. In the beginning all the B's sat down and observed the A's first whisper loudly a line of choice to the candle, then to a chair which was about 7 metres away, and then to the audience, and vice versa for B's. We then stood still and closed our eyes in the space and had to create characters in our minds and specific properties to them:

Name
Age
Occupation
Special Skill
A joke of choice

We then had to pair up with others and share information about us to one another pretending we were all at a party. We then just focused on copying each others skills, and this exercise was more of a bonding exercise in my opinion and it helped me to get to know more of the level 3's. At the end of the lesson we paired up with our partner from the A and B exercise and did an improvisation of person A repeatedly saying but soft, what light, at yonder window breaks trying to calm person B down, and then person B trying to be-little A but repeatedly saying 'Two households both alike in dignity'.

In the next lesson, we began walking around the room and pairing up with the closest person to one of us and the person you are working with has to make a statement or ask a question at which you have to go along with as an actor. This exercise was quite effective in making people mentally sharper for the lesson and getting people in the mind set to start acting. We then got paired up with other people and had to do an improvisation that made sense at which we had to take turns to speak to each other and each sentence spoken has to begin with the next letter in the chronological alphabet IE:

"An apple just fell from that tree!" person 1
"But did an apple really fall from it" person 2
"Can't you see that an apple has fallen" person 1

This exercise was to see how sharp people were and to see what people could come up with along with the pressure of trying to figure out what to say next, and these elements made the exercise all the more enjoyable. After this everyone sat down and the teacher needed two volunteers which I happily offered to take part in and he spoke to me privately and the other volunteer privately and I had to try to get her to get off a chair whilst her goal was to not get up from the chair, and not knowing of each others goals we ended up doing quite a funny improvisation. Then Jeremy was also picked and a table with three chairs were set up, Jeremy and the other volunteer had to try to flirt with each other but one was my best friend and one was my wife and so another funny improvisation happened from there. I learnt that from volunteering you get to go really fun stuff and acting in front of a class of 18 and more really helps in making me and the others more confident.





Tuesday:




Today we began the lesson by walking around the space and walking and Sharon would call out numbers from 1-3 each number indicating something the students have to do differently:

1=Walk around with no energy and make movements heavy like a zombie
2=Walk around with some energy but look quite tired
3=Walk around with good posture and with lots of energy

This exercise helped in getting the Level 3's into the correct mindset for the lesson ahead and it would have been an exercise to train us to walk as though we are part of a background which could be developed or could aid us in the future. After this exercise we then walked around the space again and paired up with the closest person to us as the teacher instructed and we had to work on making a slow motion fight scene. This would include making facial expression or use sounds to enhance our act, and this exercise helped me get to know some people which I still hadn't crossed paths with in my group and showed me what kind of people I will be working with. We then formed two parallel lines which each contained one half of the class then we were instructed to make it so that each of the two lines in slow motion starting fighting each other from a distance and took a step each time they either attacked or countered an attack which then progressed onto us moving into our small group in slow motion from the line to then execute our own separate fight scenes which was quite successful. This exercise was more for exercising co-ordination more than anything else because we had to be in sync when walking up to each other in our lines and we needed to start our tiny group fights one by one in a specific order so we had to be focused and I found it quite helpful in that way.




Wednesday:





Today we spent our lesson at the dance studio and we played a few games such as wink murder, grandmas footsteps, yes let's. This was to create more friendships in the group and to make us a stronger team. We then continued to develop our fight scenes doing them twice in slow motion and twice in fast motion and all the fight scene elements we had been doing from Tuesday and Wednesday would help us for when be began working on Romeo and Juliet as it could indicate the tension between the two households and could make the play more interesting for the audience.
Footage of me and Kenya and I  making friends




Thursday:




Today we had been told that the casting stage has been finished and we had all been told which character we were to play, and for me that character would be Tybalt. I was excited that I managed to get the role of him because he has a lot of action sequences in the play and he's also in a way portrayed as a villain in the eyes of Romeo the protagonist but he's also seen as a victim to the Capulets so I find his role very intriging. We then practiced the first scene trying to implement some ideas into it and also having Rob guide some people as to how they should be playing roles for example: Benvolio has to run into the scene and stop a fight rather than walk in and try to stop it. We also looked at different ways characters could walk onto scenes and we looked a bit at spacing and how it's important to take advantage of space to make the visuals of the play enhanced for the audience. We had continued with this later on during the day as we had tried to look at other scenes and develop them for the play to make them look great but also unique compared to any other Romeo and Juliet play and we also starting to think about how we could implement the fight scene in the play. On the next lesson we had performed what we had done so far and gave a few minor tweaks to it, and then we proceeded to site read the rest of the play. This was a good experience as for me it boosted my confidence to site read aloud in front of a big crowd rather than family or friends and it would have given the teacher an idea of how skilled certain students are in site reading.


Week 3:




Monday:




Today we spent the first lesson practicing the first scene which we had looked at on Thursday and continued to work on other scenes (we worked up to scene 5), and we had also spent a bit of time improving and brushing up on the first couple on scenes. We focused on the space on the stage and how we could use it well. We had also worked on trying to make the changed between each of the scenes as fluid as we possibly could make them. One example of what had happened was that Benvolio had to run into the scene where the lower class montagues and capulets fought one another instead of walking into it as was what he tried to do, and that made the scene all the more exciting and gave it more of an action element in my opinion.  In the lesson after that we proceeded onward looking at other scenes and I had to perform my scene at the party and I was instructed on using more spaces and was given suggestions as to where I could stand as I performed my role. He had also told us to be more vocal/loud as Romeo was being quite quiet on a scene where he had talked about Juliet. There was also a scene where Juliet was standing on a white bench and we thought about how in the actual play we could use people to create vines to make it clear and make the illusion that she's on a balcony strong. We had also discussed ideas such as maybe loads of people pretending to be dead in the final scene as Romeo and Juliet are supposedly in a graveyard. We also looked at trying to make the party scene more interesting with loads of us in the background talking to one another and sharing our skills (referring to what we did in that lesson where we made up characters and each character had a role). In the next lesson we looked at the lists that we had created on week one which were writing the chronological order of the scenes in the play, and the three most important ones. We then had to perform what we had done to the class and develop what we had done. We had to add three more scenes to add to the list of scenes and perform all six in chronological order, but we also had to do it by efficiently using all the space on the stage which meant we had to get quite creative. This was very successful as the teacher in the end gave us praise for using the space well, and I had learnt more about how to make an act more interesting and much clearer for an audience by using the space well. I had also been told to write intentions next to where my character would speak, and this would help me to bring out that intention when performing. Tybalt is generally quite angry and fustrated so I had to keep this in mind for future rehearsals.





Tuesday:




Today we ran through scenes 5-12 with Sharon and tweaked a few aspects of it for example I was asked to walk into the scene when other characters were speaking but not to speak until they were silent, rather than interrupting them and talking what's on my mind to put more emphasis on me. Romeo was another great example as when he spoke to Juliet he spoke too softly and not loudly enough, and from this I realised that in theatrical acting even if you were whispering to someone who speaking softly and gently you still need to be loud so even people at the back of the audience can hear you.





Wednesday:

Today we had played Park Bench which is an improvisation game. There are two seats and everyone sits down and at random 3 people need to get up and pretend they are in a park doing their own thing. Every now and then someone will leave and someone else who hadn't gone up will go and perform with everyone else. This game is to make people more confident to try new and weird ideas in front of everyone and it makes people more confident too. You also have to go along with something someone says so if someone walks up to you during your time in the improvisation and says "Hi dad how are you doing" you're going to have to go along with what they say. This is important as young actors as you need to get out of your comfort zone to try new things, and this is an important lesson in life. After we had played Park Bench we then did some devised pieces based on either two parents not accepting what one child wants to do or one parent not accepting what one of two children want. This was quite a fun exercise as we had time to get adventurous and create a funny story out of our imagination and I was working with Abdul and Gabriel. Abdul and I were both brother and he was the disliked child that no one wanted and I was the one who get everything they liked. So the piece was Gabriel and I telling Abdul that he's the least favourite and that he's a liar and that we don't accept him as who he is. This was quite fun to perform in front of everyone and it was quite and serious yet comedic scene. In this exercise we had to speak loudly and the audience were slightly far from us and so this helped us be more vocal in our performances. We ended the lesson by the teacher picking a student to get up and do a freeze frame of them in an imaginary place in their mind i.e. someone would freeze whilst playing football in the park, and then 6 others would have to join in the create the image of a park. By this point my approach to performing in front of everyone had changed from wanting to be second last to wanting to be first as that initial shyness I had three weeks ago had disappeared. I was very happy about this as I had found that I have become for confident than ever before.





Thursday:

Today we had gone through the whole play twice and we didn't look too much into detail but rather just getting through it and having an idea of how long it will take and if any extra scenes will need to be implemented into the play to fill space. It turned out that it lasted for a good thirty three minutes so if anything we needed to cut down. Our homework was to learn our lines and put emotion and intention into our speech so that it flowed better with the play.


Week 4:




Monday:




On Monday we spent the lesson brushing up on the first 5 scenes. One example of what we had done is that we worked on a part of the chorus where Jayshel says "Two households both alike in dignity", and after this is said all the Capulets and Montagues line up and face each others. We had improved this so that we didn't just simple stand in line and look at each other to show the tensions between the two households but we had also been instructed to pose to show anger for example I pose by holding the shoulder of the Capulet next to me to show strength and unity in the Capulet household, but I also look at one of the Montagues with hatred and bite my thumb at them ( equal to erecting just your middle finger at someone). This was quite nice as it gave a better representation to the audience as to how the mechanics between the Households in the play was like. In Sharon's lesson, we had been refining party scene. For example when Lord Capulet and I are done with our verbal fight I storm off in anger as I don't get my way and I need to barge Romeo, and after I barge Romeo he does a spin and catches Juliet which then initiates the next part of the scene. I learnt quite a lot from this for example how you can easily get creative, and make smooth transitions from one scene to another and in that way the audience won't get bored. After I am done barging Romeo, everyone in the party scene in the background needs to go silent and freeze to give emphasis to the scene going on between Romeo and Juliet.





Tuesday:




On Tuesday we had worked on Character/character development with Sharon. We started the lesson by sitting in a circle and discussed what makes a character for example looks or personality or background. Then we had to write down some details of our characters that we had knowledge of:

Who am I?    Tybalt
Where do I live? Capulets Household
What work do I do? N/A but I thought Tybalt would be a drug dealer he has no care for laws
Friends? No friends
Family?  Lord Capulet, Lady Capulet, Juliet

Then go into groups of fours and create a scene for each character which could get the audience to get to know more about their past. I came up with a scene for my character with Romeo where I was in love with Roseline and then as I was flirting with her and trying to make a move on her Romeo comes in and steals her heart from me, and it made sense to the play as it could explain how Romeo and Tybalt became enemies to one another.





Wednesday:




On Wednesday since not all of the class had attended the lesson on time, the Montagues and Capulets split up at beginning of the lesson, and each family had to create a scene containing all the characters having a conversation just so that we got to know one another's characters better. We had discussed some actors that do contrasting roles and how they managed to pull off the roles well, and the reason why was because they look for the motive of the character they are looking to play to create such a strong effect. We briefly spoke about Naturalism by Stanislavski and also projection, emotional memory, the magic if Objectives and discussing what our characters objectives. Then we continued to go into groups of twos with someone else in the play whose character could have a past with our character. I worked with Romeo again and we had built on yesterdays idea with him stealing Roseline's heart. At this point I have become quite comfortable with just going up and performing a piece to the rest of the class and so I asked to go first which we did. I enjoyed our semi-improvised scene and it went smoothly, and everyone felt it was quite comedic yet serious.






Thursday:




On Thursday morning we had done a joint lesson with the dance students. We spent the beginning of this lesson in a circle doing all sorts of exercises, some of which were stretching and others were vocal exercises. One example was the 'Ma ma ma ba ba ba pa pa pa" at which we say that but talk in such a way where we are trying to get our voice to hit the other side of the room. This game is to get us out of our comfort zones by making silly/humiliating noises to the other side of the room which for me had increased my confidence, and this exercise is also good for the vocals just to warm them up. After this we got paired up with another dance student and using any technique we wanted we had to perform a quick 2 minute piece on how we got to college. My partner and I had performed a comedic piece where we would perform an action for example walking. but we did it over the top and say 'Then we walked'. This went well as the crowd got the humour and had laughed and I used this exercise to make my voice stronger in front of crowds, whereas normally I get quiet when I am performing in front of crowds of people I don't know. This had worked as I felt quite confident performing in front of all the actors and dances and I was proud.  In the next lesson we got in a circle and wrote details about our characters down



: IMAGE HERE



then we partnered up with another person in our group and we had to read out about their character in front of everyone else and the person whose characters attributes are being said has to act out some of their description. An example of this is if I write that I'm evil and my partner reads it out I need to do a hand gesture or show anger through body language to portray this 'evilness'. This was a fun exercise and it made me more confident in myself in front of big crowds.

Week 5:


Monday:


On Monday morning we spent our time developing scenes 1-5. We specifically spent our time developing the first fight scene between the two peasants from the Montague and Capulet families and between Tybalt and Benvolio. With the fight scene between Mercutio and I we changed our positioning as Tybalt tells Benvolio that he isn't really keeping the piece, and instead of us standing at a fair distance from each other we are nose to nose. This creates a lot of intensity for the viewer as when I get close to him my voice tones also changed and so does my facial expression to show anger and hatred. We had also choreographed the fight scene which was quite easy to learn and also looked quite impressive on camera. We had to shout each time we strike with our swords to emphasize the effort that we put into wanting to kill each other as our families are enemies to one another. As I have gained a lot of confidence doing this course over time I had no problem in doing this and I did not feel shy about it which I was quite impressed about. Later that day, we performed everything that we had done thus far in the play to Sharon which was quite successful as no one complained about anything which a couple of students usually do and we swiftly went from one scene to another. After we had performed to Sharon we had gone downstairs to the theatre to perform a technical rehearsal up until the 5th scene.


Tuesday:



On Tuesday we watched the music level 2 and 3 students (Check evaluation)


Wednesday:



On Wednesday we had spent 1 hour warming up our bodies and throats with imaginary chewing and opening our mouths wide and making noises. After we had done this we played a game where one person would look at another person in a circle and walk up to them, and that person that they walk up to would have to look to someone else and the cycle repeats. When we had finished with all the exercises I had asked the teacher if we could spend the last 20 minutes just rehearsing what we had done so far as we would be performing it in little under an hour time and she told us that we had permission to. We ended up getting through the play up until the fight scene twice successfully. ( Check Evaluation)


Thursday:



On Thursday we visited Conway hall to do a workshop for Shakespeare School Festival. Samuel Rhodes School. We began by walking around the space and every time the teacher told us to stop we had to stop, and the same applied to walking jumping and clapping. In the beginning it was very wonky but after a while we managed to get into synchronicity. After this we walked around the space and every time the teacher called out a number we had to get into groups of that number. This got us to get more comfortable with the other students. We then got into groups of fours with two students from SRS and WKC and briefed each other on what plays we are doing, characters, important events, and favorite characters. After this we developed the first couple of events in the first scene which the person who was hosting this collaboration with the other school named William. It was enjoyable and it was new experience being guided by a different person. One example of a scene we developed was when we were doing the introduction, and instead of standing in a line at the back of the stage we came from both sides of the stage. It gave the scene more 'personality' and made the play more alive. We showed the first 5 scenes of our play to the other school, and they really enjoyed it and one of them even got Goosebumps at my act. Other things that William had picked up on was the fact that some students were not in character enough and didn't use facial expressions or hand gestures that they should be using in their act, and he successfully swayed them away from repeating these previous mistakes. I feel as though after today I should put some research into past plays that have been done at the Shakespeare school festival and have a look at more creative ways that we could change up previous scenes.

1. Land your Lines
2. Stay in character
3. Embrace the audience magnet
4. Avoid the kiss or kill
5. Cheat with your feet





Week 6:




Tuesday:



In the first lesson with Sharon we started off by walking around the space trying to give off the impression of being in the background and being neutral. We had discussed what elements were needed from an individual to achieve this effect in both standing and walking:

In standing what was helpful was to have feet shoulder width apart and both feet facing forward as though they were like train tracks. Along with this it is also helpful to keep shoulders relaxed, and to keep your body posture straight as though you were a puppet and there was a string coming from the top of your head keeping your spine straight.  Keeping your facial expression neutral was also important.

In walking around it would be great to keep the strides you make with equal distance and to move smoothly and without making a great tone of twists and turns. Keeping your facial expression neutral just like standing stationary is needed along with keeping the energy you give with each stride to have not too much energy but enough.

After this we all took to different spaces in the room and performed three separate actions which we thought could represent the personality of our character, and also helped us understand more about our characters thus helping us become our characters. For Tybalt I felt as though it would be appropriate to pretend I am fighting with some of the peasant Montagues, smoking whilst contemplating who I will pick a fight with next, and sword fighting. I picked these because Tybalt is a very violent troublemaker who seems to think he is the best. Doing this exercise helped me as a young actor to further become my character and understand what kind of life he would be been living.

After that we began to add detail and improve the scenes after the party scene which is where we stopped and performed up to in our induction performance. One example of how we improved some scenes is with the scene at Friar Lawrances cell when the Friar talks to Romeo, and they sat so closely together which at a theatre wouldn't look as good as them sitting far apart. This ties in with what we learnt in Conway Hill what which to avoid the 'Kiss and Kill' which meant always avoid being too close to one another. This was a good tip as it refreshed our memories from before the half term to keep conscious of your surroundings and what spaces between actors in a theatre.



Wednesday:



On Wednesday we had just revised through everything from the very beginning and we practiced the pauses during the party scene when Romeo and Juliet speak and when Lord Capulet spoke. Abdul and I had also worked on improving the Choreography in our fight scene as it was too quick and uninteresting previously and we felt quite proud of what we had come up with. During the time we worked on the scene we needed to keep conscious that we will have an audience watching us, and so we had to use what we learnt of using stage space to further develop the fight.



Thursday:



On Thursday we had just revised through the first and second parts of the play twice over. We needed to make sure that the changes from one scene to another were more precise and clean, and that some actors put some more spirit into their scenes. One example is when I die and my parents see me dead, and instead of them just standing there saying lines it was important to deliver the lines with some meaning/story to them. I liked the tip because it gave me more insight as to how one is meant to really become their character which could be through imagining how the character would exactly act out in certain situations.





Week 7:

Monday:



On Monday we had performed all of our play to Rob in the first lesson. He had written down what he thought we had done well and what we could have improved upon. Some of the tips he had given us as an ensemble is to over exaggerate our character roles a little more and just put in more energy, fine tune the play, focus more for people behind the curtains who may not know what scene it is, and to further develop fight scenes as a pose to sounds and swifter movements between the actors. One other important tip he gave us was to look at the audience when can could during a scene where two characters talked to one another, because this will create an atmosphere at which the audience feels like they are involved with the play. So I left the lesson having the rethink how I was going to play my character.

Sharon had also gone through various scenes which needed improvement for example the scene between Paris and Juliet when Paris seeks marriage from her, in this scene everyone was too close to one another. In the balcony scene Dillon and I were asked to become the balcony by holding our arms up in front of Juliet which though it was painful was accomplished by us. This in a way showed me that in the industry you can be expected to do painful things which you might not be comfortable doing in your day to day life and aren't expected to complain. She had also told us to over react a little more and to observe ourselves from a 3rd person point of view, and this was because some people needed to be a little more conscious of stage space and not to block people from the audience's view.



Tuesday:



On Tuesday we spent the day at the Shaw Theatre getting used to the stage space and trying to understand the dynamics there. We had only spent half an hour there so we quickly went through the whole play. One thing the teacher picked up upon in my fight scene was lack of being at the centre of the stage space which is something I need to think about in future. Luckily the space wasn't too different to the Theatre at College so having that familiarity helped everyone out. There were four lights at the back of the audience space which the teachers told us to look at when trying to engage the crowd with out speeches. One crucial thing that still needs to be worked on is the transitions from one scene to another, because at the moment the continuous momentum of going from one scene to another is lacking.



Wednesday:

We had spent the first half of the lesson trying to plan exactly what was going to happen from Thursday until Tuesday and we made a time table of what was to happen. At this current point we felt as though we needed to now begin to find out exactly what costumes we are to have and by next week we are to be ready to start doing dress rehearsals. One student who was meant to be playing an important character from the play may not be able to come in to the Shaw and so we also had to plan for the worst case scenario and this also told me about what could happen if something was to go wrong in the industry. We had spent the second half of the lesson working from the fight scene onwards and improved upon various aspects of the play, and especially the final scene when Romeo and Juliet die. This is because it is the last scene of the play and as it is, we need it to be very dramatic to leave a mark on the viewers of the play.


Thursday:

On the first lesson today we had worked on party scene and the cue for the dance that we created to make the party scene more lively and more party-like which was quite successful. Adding such a small detail made the whole scene have more life and it would have engaged the audience much more and that was an eye opener. After this we had run through the whole play trying to make the transitions from one scene to another scene have more speed and sharpness. I had learnt that in theatre it is very important to keep in mind when you need to go up on stage and how to do it. The teachers had taught us to not walk out of a scene and go backstage as yourself, but rather as your character and that such a detail like that really does bring the play to life.

In the next we had worked on the dialogue between Nurse and Romeo. As the person who was originally playing the nurse had left the course 3 weeks before the play had happened and so the new nurse needed to learn how to become the nurse from scratch.  After they had worked on their dialogue we were told collectively to work on punctuation, articulation and stage presence. We had then done a rehearsal and the apart from a few cases of people not being too aware of the scene changes we were getting the pace between scene changes faster.

Week 8:

Monday:




On the first lesson on Monday the first thing we were working with Rob on was stretching and vocal warm-ups. We all went around the circle to each individual who would show the rest of the class their stretch which everyone had to copy. By this point most people had lost that initial shyness or that feeling of being uncomfortable when making the chewing gum sound or shouting out "ba ba ma ma da da dah" and that includes me. After stretching we went straight into working on the party scene.
We had developed a small dance that all the guys and girls do at the party in the beginning just to give the scene more personality. I had also been instructed to work on my timing and to stay conscious of where I am on stage and when I should walk up towards the front of the stage to talk to the audience. One other scene that we had worked on was the fight scene between Tybalt, Romeo and Mercutio. In the beginning I was exaggerating Tybalt's anger but Rob had told me to instead underplay the anger and that was turned into a calm emotion with sarcasm. I found this very helpful as in in the beginning of that scene, Tybalt does seem to come across in the beginning as quite sarcastic rather than extremely angry "Gentlemen, good e'en". We were mostly just polishing those scenes.

In the next lesson with Sharon, we had shown her the all the scene we had worked on from the top. As we performed it was still clear that the swift change from one scene to another still wasn't there yet but apart from that there was no corpsing and all the scenes had been executed quite nicely as Sharon had told us afterwards. What we were told was to work on fight scenes and maybe add others and a bit more detail to them and give the prince more of a purpose to halt us, and to make Caputlet's line "What's all this noise" make a lot more sense.



Tuesday:



In the first lesson we were building upon the scenes post Tybalt's death. One thing that we had developed was the emotion behind everyone's reaction that Tybalt had died. For example Tybalt's aunt walked into the scene with no emotion and just saying lines, and that made it so that there wasn't really a character being played. What Rob always reminded us was that we always need to keep our purpose of what we are meant to be doing in a scene in mind when working on a scene. One comedic thing that was added was Ilonka's character who is Romeo's mother saying "That's my son" as a reply to the prince talking about how he wants to sentence Romeo to death, and that gave the scene more personality.

In the next lesson we were going through tutorial material for the first part of the lesson and in the second we went down to the theatre and did a run through for the tech theatre students to light. Apart from the exception of a couple of students forgetting to come on at the right scene it went quite smoothly with no corpsing and the change from one scene to another was much faster than yesterday. I quite enjoyed the tech students doing the lights and they even turned on different kinds of music for different scenes and I enjoyed having really tense yet epic music during Mercutio and Tybalt's fighting scene.



Wednesday:



On Wednesday we had spent our lesson in the theatre and we were brushing up on some of the scenes and adding some more details. One example of this was when the Prince said that Romeo shall be executed and the person playing Romeo's mum shouts that's my son. We had also added in Molly who was meant to be Tybalt's uncle's wife shaking his dead corpse as he died, and this was to make it look like she wasn't just standing there plainly like the person who died was more than nothing to her. Romeo and Juliet had also worked on the final scene as the actor for Romeo had struggled in trying to find ways to portray the emotion of sadness. I tried to help out by telling him to manipulate his breathing and how when one is sad and in a loss of words they stumble upon their words and that would definitely aid him in the scene which it did!





Thursday:


On Thursday we spent the first half of the lesson going through potential costumes and props and I found a nice leather jacket, which in my opinion perfectly reflected what I deemed to be what a modern day Tybalt would look like. We also found flowers for the balcony too which would help viewers to see Dylan and I knelling down more like a balcony. We had then run through the play once as we had some time left on our hands, and Rob criticized the lack of speed between scene changes which we still needed to work on. We now only had Monday left on our hands before the performance was to happen and the mixture of students not appearing, the disappearance of the characters who were meant to play Prince and Nurse, and slow speed changes from one scene to another had clearly effected the student's optimism for the play going well. In my opinion, everything was moving smoothly, and I had a feeling that everything was to go well in the end.
Costumes  and we were 222 and we went through the whole play


Monday:




In the first lesson, we had done some dress rehearsals and brushed up on certain scenes which had been lacking extra details or which had not been practiced enough. This was also the day that the replacement for the nurse could learn the lines they still did not know and actually perform scenes that they never got around to. I personally did not feel much pressure as I knew exactly when to come in, what to say, and how to exit all my scenes so there was no feeling of anxiety. The only real criticism we got was that we were 9 minutes over how long the play was meant to go on for so that was a little worrying. Later we managed to change 9 minutes to 3 minutes and that was a lot of weight off our shoulders.

In the second lesson we had repeated the events of the first lesson, in that we went around 3 minutes over and there were still certain people who were getting distracted back stage and were not entering when they were meant to which was making some people question if the play would go well. Apart from people talking backstage and others forgetting to come on stage, everything had gone quite well and tomorrow's performance was looking to be quite the impressive one.





Tuesday:




On Tuesday we were instructed to be at the Shaw theatre at 8:30 ready for when the day starts at 9 so that students who are usually late can get in within that 30 minute gap, and it turned out that most students actually had appeared with the exception of one who came later that day. We began the day by sitting inside the empty Shaw Theatre with students from another school and were told about how we were each going to take turns to do both a technical performance and a dress rehearsal for the other school. When we did the technical rehearsal we went to the beginning of most the scenes and the teachers/directors instructed the lighting people on when the party music should be on and when other sound effects should occur for our play. Watching the other schools dress rehearsal first I was quite impressed with some of their actors. Apart from the odd corpsing of a few students they had performed quite the performance and I found it very entertaining. One thing that could have been improved upon in their play was use of space and using the center of the stage, because some scenes for example the death of one of the importance characters was performed on one corner of the stage and so not everyone could visually see what was going on, apart from this it was quite extra-ordinary for a school. The feed back we had received after we did our dress rehearsal from the other school was that it was 'Amazing' and 'Spectacular' which really boosted my confidence to be on stage as I have never really performed on one before. We had then left the Shaw theatre and went back to college together to assess what was going to happen and what to remember. One example is that Rob and Sharron had told us to be loud, exaggerate certain words or lines if you aren't putting enough effort in, remember cues to come in and off stage, don't exit where you don't enter, and to enjoy ourselves.

Later today we went back to the Shaw theatre and collectively with the three other schools performing today we had to exercise our vocals and do some physical movement as well. We did an exercise we had done a couple months back with the Samuel Roads school which was the Pineapple, apple, banana game which we had to do a physical action and shout one of the fruits after the teacher. We were then told the order at which we were going to do our plays and Romeo and Juliet was last! This was very good as the last play seems to be the most memorable. We then went down to our dressing rooms to get ready and meet up with out teachers in the main room. I all of a sudden started to get a little nervous and that nervousness started to develop bit by bit.  After this we were allocated our positions to sit which was at the back of the stage and we prepared to watch each others plays. I must have been feeling this nervousness due to not performing a role like this on a stage every before, ,and like all experiences that you are yet to experience which you know you are about to, I suppose the nervousness was natural. The two plays which were Samuel Roads and the American international school were quite amazing and were really influential as the kids performing were 3-4 years younger than me and I could really see the passion shining through some of them. After watching them we were to go down stairs in the area where the dressing rooms were allocated and to remain mute as the other school perform their play. My nervousness was starting to get bad and so I began to meditate in a hidden room which no one could enter since I locked it, and to my avail it worked as I became calm. Now I knew instinctively that I was in a good mindset and that I was ready I went back into the area everyone hung out and waited. Finally our teachers come down and retrieve us and take up back stage where we waited for the other schools play to end. It was interesting to see the facial expressions and reactions from my peers as they waited for it to end. I could see some students trying to look as calm as possible but their hands were shaking and others who seemed to remain completely calm. This helped me to learn more about what they are like as young actors and as people. The time had come for us to perform and we got into positions and went ahead and performed. Throughout that whole performance I felt inside that I was so alive, and all that inner nervous energy that I accumulated was transformed into confidence. The crowd went quiet when I went on stage and I took that as a compliment as I was meant to be evil and fearful. When Romeo lay on the floor on the balcony scene and looked at Juliet the whole crowd started laughing. When Romeo and Juliet had kissed the crowd even went wild which made some people who were pessimistic become optimistic about us entertaining the crowd. The energy was amazing and those who really put energy and effort into their characters had done a domino effect on the rest of the actors and made them do the same and it was all quite surreal. What some thought would be a failure was a success and it made us all happy. The crowd cheered when the play had ended and all the schools came together on stage and received feedback. Our feedback was that we were loud, articulate, and managed to convey a great response from the audience depending on whatever had happened on the scenes. In the end of the day, most of us had gone home, but I went out for dinner with my Dad and Gran who both watched the play. They told me of how they thought our play was quite professional, better than that of the productions my secondary school did, and that the majority of people in my class were amazing and those that weren't needed to put a little more effort into become the character in the world of Romeo and Juliet.


Wednesday:


Today we started working on Papa Tango. We got into groups of fours and sat together going through a character creator sheet