Song One.
Character -
Lily
Caucasian
17
Present day
Difficult life with family she was brought up with, treated like the outcast my her siblings for being adopted, Finds out her birth mum had her young and had a very rich life style but decided to give her up.
Song Two.
Character -
Michael (Mike)
Caucasian
16
Present day
A very bright, kind boy, who got mixed up in the drug world, dropped out of college mucking up his chances of getting good grades. When he turns 17 he then gets a girlfriend whom he loves so much, he can't imagine a life without her and wants nothing more than to turn his life around.
Song Three.
Character -
Alice
African/American
Life leading up to the age of 25
1980's
Brought up with a very loving family, but struggle for money, as soon as she turns 16, she gets two jobs just to help out her family. She was a beautiful girl with a beautiful voice, and her mother loved to hear her sing, when her mum died when she was 18, it pushed Alice to strive for her passion.
At this point in her life she has three jobs to help her dad who cant work because of his bad back.
Monday, 12 January 2015
Tuesday, 6 January 2015
Electra Final Notes
How were the plays staged and performed to their original audiences?
In Greek times plays would be performed by men only (women were forbidden), they would be shown in an open air theatres named amphitheaters and would be viewed by thousands, back in Greek times everyone went to watch plays. If the play was not enjoyed or actors were not performing to a high enough standard, the groundings would throw rotten food, such as tomatoes or potatoes, luckily this tradition has faded out over the years ad we did not get food thrown at us. Typically all of the actors would wear larger than life masks that could be seen all the way from back of the huge theatres they would be performed in.
This was very different with our performance of Electra as we had the audience on 3 sides instead of all around, so they had a more intimate experience with our production.
What social, cultural and political themes were contained in the play Electra?
We are exposed to few political themes within Electra, the first one we were educated on was how women were permitted not have any kind of control in any situation if a man was involved. Women in this time weren't allowed to seek revenge for the murder of a family, this duty was looked upon as the role of the eldest male son. The culture and social themes I have explained in other posts.
The social themes in Electra are based around family issues and mental heath problems. In Electra, you witness a family which is broken, due to their father's unfortunate demise. Instead of acting rationally and resolving the problems they have between them, Electra refuses to listen to anyone and begs that she be left alone to mourn and be miserable as she has been forbidden the choice to wed and have children, the play exploits extreme brutality - a brother and sister murdering their own mother and stepfather
Are they meaningful for both the original audiences and current theatre goers?
As modern day audiences are educated to understand that period of history, in school as well as media, they can relate to the period Electra was set in. So even if they don't have a knowledgeable source of the themes they can relate to the characters and the story line. Everything in the play is relatable because of the way the emotion is portrayed to the audience.
What did you do to ensure you were fully appreciating the context of the plays?
Before I started learning my script, I read through all the scenes I was in, payed strict attention when we went to see Electra at The Old Vic, the reasons behind me doing this was so I had a good understanding of the story line, giving me a better understanding of what I was saying because every line was in old english, the thing that stopped people from learning their lines was due to the fact that they need not understanding what they were saying.
What were your intentions for your characters?
The intentions I had set out for my character was that the audience needed to sympathise with Electra and the emotional roller coaster she experiences over mere hours.
In Greek times plays would be performed by men only (women were forbidden), they would be shown in an open air theatres named amphitheaters and would be viewed by thousands, back in Greek times everyone went to watch plays. If the play was not enjoyed or actors were not performing to a high enough standard, the groundings would throw rotten food, such as tomatoes or potatoes, luckily this tradition has faded out over the years ad we did not get food thrown at us. Typically all of the actors would wear larger than life masks that could be seen all the way from back of the huge theatres they would be performed in.
This was very different with our performance of Electra as we had the audience on 3 sides instead of all around, so they had a more intimate experience with our production.
What social, cultural and political themes were contained in the play Electra?
We are exposed to few political themes within Electra, the first one we were educated on was how women were permitted not have any kind of control in any situation if a man was involved. Women in this time weren't allowed to seek revenge for the murder of a family, this duty was looked upon as the role of the eldest male son. The culture and social themes I have explained in other posts.
The social themes in Electra are based around family issues and mental heath problems. In Electra, you witness a family which is broken, due to their father's unfortunate demise. Instead of acting rationally and resolving the problems they have between them, Electra refuses to listen to anyone and begs that she be left alone to mourn and be miserable as she has been forbidden the choice to wed and have children, the play exploits extreme brutality - a brother and sister murdering their own mother and stepfather
Are they meaningful for both the original audiences and current theatre goers?
As modern day audiences are educated to understand that period of history, in school as well as media, they can relate to the period Electra was set in. So even if they don't have a knowledgeable source of the themes they can relate to the characters and the story line. Everything in the play is relatable because of the way the emotion is portrayed to the audience.
What did you do to ensure you were fully appreciating the context of the plays?
Before I started learning my script, I read through all the scenes I was in, payed strict attention when we went to see Electra at The Old Vic, the reasons behind me doing this was so I had a good understanding of the story line, giving me a better understanding of what I was saying because every line was in old english, the thing that stopped people from learning their lines was due to the fact that they need not understanding what they were saying.
What were your intentions for your characters?
The intentions I had set out for my character was that the audience needed to sympathise with Electra and the emotional roller coaster she experiences over mere hours.
Doctor Faustus Research
Social, Political and Cultural Themes
The main theme of Dr Faustus is Evil will prevail if you sin. Doctor Faustus showed his greed by making an interest in magic and signing away his soul to the devil in exchange for being an omnipotent being for 10 years of his life, after which he would preside in hell for eternity, he turns his back on God. Through out the play Faustus contemplates asking for forgiveness but keeps being persuaded not to.
How Are They Meaningful To The Original And Modern Audiences?
Christianity was a huge part of society and life in Elizabethan times, the idea of anybody sinning was taken very seriously, the audience then would relate to the play in understanding the temptation and knowing it is wrong. In today's society religion is still a widely ranged thing and being sinful can still happen as everyone has their own temptations/weaknesses and can relate in trying to stop themselves from doing what they believe to be wrong. Good vs evil is a very common theme in a lot of plays now a days, Doctor Faustus has had an influence on many play writes who take the theme on board because it is such a popular and interesting subject. Everyone struggles in their day-today lives with temptation with food, drink, drugs and they know it's bad for them but some people give in, this is clear proofs that show battling temptation isn't just to do with religion or faith.
Electra Final Rehearsal
Electra Final Full Rehearsal
When we had our final rehearsal of Electra on the Tuesday it went so much better than the run through's of the previous day. The first run we blocked as Rachel wanted to make sure all the staging and blocking for each act was correct. This was helpful because it allowed to get to know the lighting better, where I would be light correctly and seen properly, it also allowed me to explore the stage more, and run through things that I hadn't tried before.
By this stage the majority of us had all of our lines down, and only a few lines were being forgotten or missed, this was a vast improvement to ours previous rehearsals the week before, in which almost whole pages were being prompted. This showed the lack of discipline and professionalism everyone had to making time to learn and understand their lines. For me this was a big of a struggle as I found it challenging to learn my lines in such a short amount of time, another factor that did not help was the language it was written, at first its quite difficult to wrap your head around what your saying and its a lot easier to learn lines once you understand the meaning of what you're saying. When everyone understands their lines and knows their lines it helps the play to flow more easily.
The second run we did went a lot smoother and everyone knew their movements and lines to a really good standard. We ran the whole play in the time set which was an hour and 10 minutes. There was a few pauses due to some people struggling with lines and their ques but other then that I feel things were going to go well for the performance that night.
I feel that I portrayed the part of Electra with great conviction and clarity, I understood every line said, I empathised with and portrayed all the confusion and pain that a person would go through with an experience such as this. My voice rang clear and aged as a person would be with a life like this. In happy moments I went ecstatic, running around, over smiling, throwing my arms about, as if every emotion I felt was the most extreme version of itself.
The second run we did went a lot smoother and everyone knew their movements and lines to a really good standard. We ran the whole play in the time set which was an hour and 10 minutes. There was a few pauses due to some people struggling with lines and their ques but other then that I feel things were going to go well for the performance that night.
I feel that I portrayed the part of Electra with great conviction and clarity, I understood every line said, I empathised with and portrayed all the confusion and pain that a person would go through with an experience such as this. My voice rang clear and aged as a person would be with a life like this. In happy moments I went ecstatic, running around, over smiling, throwing my arms about, as if every emotion I felt was the most extreme version of itself.
Sunday, 4 January 2015
Elizabethan Theatre
Elizabethan Theatre
- Elizabethan theatre was usually based in London but theatre companies used to travel all around England and some parts of Europe.
- Theatre groups rarely performed a show/play two days in a row.
- Most plays had a political message involved which sometimes had to be banned from stage due to authorities not allowing it.
- They had all male casts as it was illegal for women to perform on stage. To over come to the difficulties with having no women to portray the female characters, they made masks with long hair attached to them and cast the younger men as the women roles, for their higher voices and womanly figures. This was exactly the same in Greek Theatre.
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