Week 1 Reflective Account
This is a picture of us as a company in one of the first weeks workshops.
The following link is a video of myself and other company members who took part in a small dance activity with me to create a dance based around a routine we had been taught by a proffessional who came to teach us from dance united. From this I learnt of different dancing techniques and helped us to develop our skills and teach us how to choreograph dance pieces.
The 18th of september tothe 25th
Last week I researched the definition of devised theatre and how it can in to my own performances and characters I may play. I did this because this is what we are currently working on towards our first performance at the end of October and I want to be as prepared as I can.
I researched and learnt about sustainability and how much our earth needs sustainability in order to be able to survive. I did this so that i have a better insight into sustainability and how it affects our earth. I researched how pollution and global warming affects the earth and how much needs to be done by society in order to protect it. I feel that more needs to be done towards the way we as a population look after our earth. To sustain it for the next generation. I also devised my own lines to use during the performance and below is a screenshot picture of this that I did in the word application on my phone.
Last week I learned how to devise a dance using a direction map. I did this to improv a dance. I feel that I need to improve my confidence and working as a team to achieve the target, also to improve my co-ordination. By doing this I will work better with the rest of the company and over all this will benefit the whole team. I am going to do this by taking the time to dance more when at home or rehearsals and work on myself.
The following pictures are screenshots through a video of one of first rehearsals where we began to put our performance together and devise what we wanted to be where and how we wanted to perform it.
The three targets I set my self this week are too
- Work on my self confidence
- Watch more devised theatre pieces
- Work on my teamwork and giving more input
- To revise different types of choreographic devices.
Week 2 Reflective Account
The 25th of September to the 1st of October
Tuesday >
In class today I helped to choreograph a dance and how to incorporate choreographic devices such as Canon, levels and repetition. that we will be using in our performance in a couple of weeks time.
What have you learned? I have learned alot of different techniques that are used to create a performance. I have also learned what sound scape is and how it can be used to create tension or emotion.
What did you do well at? I think I did well at putting my input into dance routines and making sure that everybody in my group had input also so that it was a group effort collectively.
What did you find challenging? I found it challenging at times to keep in co-ordination with some of the others performers at certain points during the dance.
What ideas did you contribute to the brainstorm? I contributed ideas about the waves of the ocean going up and down during our dance routine and also the falling of the eco system.
Where do you fit within this project? I think I think in as a dancer/ actor in this project because I feel the this suits me.
Is there anything you need to prepare for your next session? What? How? No. I have already prepared.
Week 3 Reflective Account
The 2nd of October to the 8th
Monday the 2nd of October
- Today we have been rehearsing for our upcoming project on sustainability that we willbe preforming next week. I have got lines in the script that I need to rehearse and try to learn by heart so that I can preform to the best of my ability.
- We did a mock up of script for our chair peice and distrubuted the lines accordingingly, following is a picture of this
- Our stimulus for this performance is sustainability and I think that this subject a good way to get more people aware of the current situation our planet is facing.
- Today i have learnt the importance of projecting your voice when on stage so that everybody in the audience can hear you clearly and not fidgeting when on stage as it takes away from the performance.
Tuesday the 3rd of October
- Today we have been running through our performance and figuring out the final placements and order of the show. We have been looking further into our peices (dances and acting peices) and how we can improve and perfect them and make them as neat and proffessional as we can as a company. We have worked on our lines and our ques of when to enter and exit the stage. We created a peice around mobile device/ social media and this can take away and distract us frrom real life and also how it can cause a lack of motivation.
- I think i projected my voice well when doing my scripted part in the fast fashion/ chair peice.
- I think that I did well in having good focus and remembering most of dance moves.
- I need to change having more focus and getting less distracted from the begining of this term as we are coming up to the performance and are still getting it together.
Overall i think that this first performance is going well because of how far we have come as a company in a few short weeks. We have devised a whole performance based on sustainability and I think this will have the intended effect on the audience that we are aiming to achieve. I think that there has been a equal amount of stress but we have come together as a company genrally and looked out for and helped eachother.
Wednesday the 4th of October
Today we did runs of the whole production and tied all of the elements together. We worked on the neatening up of our perfomances and timings. We rehearsed our lines and made some adjustments where neccasary.
Today i think that I had good confidence and focus. I think I did well working as a team with others and ensuring that other cast members were ok and knew what they were doing
I would imrove my timing in the sustainabilty dance and being on time with the counts and remembering all of the dance moves and order of the when i grow up piece.
I feel a lot more confident in performing the show after running through the whole show from start to finish tody. i know exactly where every part of the performance goes in the correct order. I am also confident in the different roles i will be playing in the performance.
I have learnt the new terminoligy canon and understand the term correctly and confidently now. This is because yesterday we added a new piece into the show based around mobile devises and social media and how this can distract us away from real life and what is actually going on around us and now inside a small screen we cary around addicted to. Canon is to do a action or ovement one after another essentially a domino effect.
I also did a patch test for the make-up department today to see if am alergic to some of the productts that they could potentially use on myself. We do this so that if in the future make-up need to do a particular look on me that involves using one of these products, we know that i eihter am or arent alergic to these products and if they are safe to use or not on my skin.
Week 4 Reflective Account
Monday the 9th of October
Today we ran throgh rehearsals more thouroughly and tied the loose ends together and tidied the performance where it needed to be. Today is the first time we ran through rehearsals as a proffessional company. We went over what to do and what not to do, for example to not stand at the edges of the curtains or peak through them when behind stage.
This distracts the attention from whoever is on the stage performing, they are supposed to have the all the attention on them not whoever is back stage. To not fidget on stage for example touching your face or hair, hands in pocket’s or moving about. To ensure we adhere to the right dress code (costumes) or in our case for our performance to wear studio blacks.
To have confidence when speaking and project your voice. We discussed our various different methods of how we all learned our lines for example read, cover and speak. To record your self whilst saying them and listen back to it and repeat. To write them down over and over again, speak and repeat. There we also a few other ways. We helped other cast members who hadnt quite got there lines down to be able to learn and rememeber there lines and gave eachother tips and ideas.
I think that today my level of confidence was pretty well and that i learnt to have more patience with myself and knowing when to go, stop ect. I feel that i am confident in performing in the show on wednesday.
I would improve my focus and keep fom getting distracted.
Tuesday the 10th of October
Today we really really focused on parts of the show that wernt fully developed yet and progressed them further. We added a few pieces into the show such as two peoms merged into one that myself and another cast member will be reading/ speaking during the perfomance back and forth between ourselves. one of the peoms is directly about sustainability and mother nature the other about social media and how it distracts us from our surroundings/ real life. I feel that this is a great added extra to our show as it wil give the audience and better understanding or insight into the message behind our performance.
I feel like i have properly grasped the concept of devised theatre and i really enjoy the fact that the show is ours to make it what we want it to be.
We were asked on a scale of 1-10 how our focus was at the moment 1 being the least focused and 10 being the most. I gave the score of 7.5 I gave this score because I am still getting distracted and some points and find it hard to find my focus but also feel that my focus is alot better than when we started four weeks ago.
I feel that tomorrow my focus needs to be at a 10 so that I can give the best performance I can and not let myself or other cast members down.
Wednesday the 11th of October
Today was our perfomrance, in the hours leading up to the performance we ran the show about 3 times through to ensure that we had everything down, our dance was as clean as it could be in regards to being in time with one another as a company. we ensured that everybody had their lines and knew exactly what they were doing.
I feel like I have really made myself proud and proved to my self that I can do it. I am happy that the show went well and we had positive feedback from our audience. I feel that we acheived are goals to really get across the message we were trying to spread and that our audeince realy percieved it in the way we wanted in the way presented it.
I feel that the research I have done in the weeks leading up to the performance helped me when performing today because i was able to chanel how a lonely child whos world had been destroyed for example or a child that was happy with their friends not having a care in the world because it was protected by the older generation before us. I feel that the reaserach really helped me to understand the message behind sustainabilty and why it was an important stimulus to present in our performance.
For our next performance I hope to further develop my skills and strengths and give an even better performance than I did today.