Monday 13th until Friday 17th June 2016. What we did in lesson this week?

On Monday we had Becca for Tutorial and with the 1st years level 3 working on our blogs. What went well was we tried to do as much of the work as we could in the lesson we had been given.

The reason being we did this activity was in order to get the blogs up to scratch and make them look good and make sure the spelling and grammar is all correct before updating them. Also making sure everything looks clear and snappy and we have enough information about what we did in the weeks gone and still too come.
How it helped me with my learning was made me remember what has been completed and incomplete and what should be improved even more to look more polished and perfect. It also made me understand and realise the difference between a blog which has a lot of in depth detail and one that should be worked on more. The techniques I would have developed if I still had the chance too would be maybe add more videos and film more in class so it is easier to discuss what we have done and so I have more evidence to show the person reading the blog as evidence and maybe get in the habit of not forgetting to label my work every time by doing it straight away before writing the blog.
How I will use it in the future is if having to update a diary or blog in the future it is vital to know how to do on and how it works especially in different circumstances, purposes or occasions.

On Tuesday morning we went through things needed to be completed for Blood Wedding work. What went well was we tried to complete the tasks given to us by the teacher in order for the work in the blog to look better than it originally had been and also remembering the tasks we did for the Marketing and production side of things.

The reason we did this activity was to make sure like I said before everything was complete and ready before the day were everything will be examined and assessed and proofread to make sure it matches the teachers criteria and feedback and so we all have shown that our capability and work is proved to be as good as the teachers and we as individuals expected it to be which is only happening if we put in the work and effort. The same went for the presentation about the programme and so on it was good to reflect and talk about the different aspects of what and making sure we knew and could picture all the things we did in order to tick the boxes for having a great show.
How it helped me with my learning was made me see what I have done and what I need to do or proofread in order to feel that I have 100% finished all the work and got it to the standard I want it to be and I think it should be as long as I put the time and focus into producing that piece of good work which will show in the amount I put in. Also the presentation for the Marketing and promotion side of things made me realise and learn so much and see how it feels to be involved in something special we created ourselves and made me learn how to do the job properly in case I come to doing such a job again.
The techniques I would have developed if I still had the chance to is reread my work to make sure I have less spelling mistakes and errors and making sure their are enough pauses and shorter sentences for the reader to breath in between. The techniques I would have developed more further with the posters and tickets is incorporate more ideas from each other so at least it showed we both agreed more and saw the differences and individuality in our work.How I will use it in the future is for my daily life or in the next two years when doing Drama at college or even when doing a job in the future making sure I bear in mind my English language. How I will use what I learnt form the marketing and promotion side of things is plan and sketch ideas on paper before putting it on a document and completing it finished and finalised to the point we feel it is ready to be presented and then printed which is something we can think about for future productions if we are given more time.

On Tuesday afternoon in Mandy's Dance lesson Darcey and me rehearsed our level 3 dance certificate routines in preparation for the day after, while on the other hand the others rehearsed their sport dance sequences they created themselves and we watched them. What went well was they were all in synch with the background noise.

The reason they did this activity was probably to show their understanding of over the top sports and know exactly what it was they researched and how the images would look like in a reality and real life situation. How it helped me with my learning I cannot say Darcey and me were not able to participate due too us having to prepare for the exam the next as told by Mandy. The techniques I would have developed for Darcey and my rehearsals is making sure I knew when to come into her dance and she in mine and making sure the dancing is in time with the music and we are making everything bigger and longer. Were as for the classes dance routines maybe as well make the images bigger and more over the top and speed some up and slow some down by showing some contrasting levels and speed of movements but only certain ones and making those clearer but as a whole it was really good and fun to watch. How we will use these things in the future is hard to say.
On Thursday and Friday we continued doing our blogs and were given the units on the board to know exactly which each unit is exactly.

Friday 10th June 2016. Level 2 performing arts unit 6 project: Our Day Out

Please describe below the character you are playing and what they do?

The character I am playing in the piece Our Day Out written by Willy Russell is Carol. The significance or important thing about Carol is she knows what her life is like but there is nothing much she can do about it, "Sir if you'd been my old feller I would have been aright".
She thinks if someone like Mr Briggs had given her a chance in life
she would have succeeded. The audience realises that Carol has tried
and is trying to make the best of her life, unlike some of the other
pupils with her. Willy Russell has used Carol in the play to influence
the audience. The irony is that Carol won't progress, the sad thing is
that Carol knows this.

 

Also what she does in the piece highlights or tells the audience what their life is really like in those times and how they felt with not having a good education and coming from a bad society and neighbourhood were they are not recognised as much but rather are the outsiders and isolated ones by thinking they have nothing at all to look forward to in the future and no future ahead of them.

But rather it is recognised as a celebration of the joys and agonies of growing up and being footloose, fourteen and free from school. But this is more than a romp - it points up the
depressing present and empty future for these comprehensive no-hopers
from the backstreets of Liverpool.

 

Rehearsals Dynamic: What's working, what's not

 

 

What worked during the rehearsals of Our Day Out was our comittment to the play and the energy and amount of times we went over it until it stuck in our minds on the day of the performance were we felt very confident and determined to do well although we were nervous and exhausted from all the hard work of rehearsing over which was part of the coarse challenges and ups and downs of studying Drama which is a subject you can enjoy but also remain patient with as well.

What did not work as well is at some lessons we would start to swith or feel less focused as we were tired and had to spend alot of time going over scenes to remember when to come in and say our lines and to practise speaking clearly and projecting our voices to be heard enough by the audience.

Who wrote the play? What else have they written?How has the research helped with your comprehensionof the role/play? 

 

 

The playwright or person who wrote the play ''Our Day Out'' was a man named Willy Russell. Other plays that he wrote himself that were also well known and familiar especially in his area or birth place Liverpool included: Blood Brothers, Educating Rita, Shirley Valentine, Stags and Hens and last but not least John,Paul, George,Ringo and Bert. which was based on the story of the Beatles in 1974 as a Musical.

 

How the research helped me with my comprehension of the role was by watching the movie of the play and researching her character I have found out she can be firm and is also keeping herself isolated and spaced out from the others. Additionally, when she talks to Mr Briggs is firm with him telling him the truth about Less the lollipop man saying the kids have no hope and are all backward In liverpool as they are poor suggesting they are not getting a proper good education and he is being harsh on them but the only way it will change for them having a good future is if Mr Briggs helps them get abetter future and makes them feels safe and happy by changing his personality. In a way you could argue or stress that Carol and Mrs Kay are the symbols of hope where as Mr Briggs is first the symbol of sadness and anger, but then changes his mind by also becoming a beacon of hope for the future of the children. How the research has helped me/us with the background of the play is by reading the scenes and highlighting the lines and extra peices of information and detail has made us more aware and made it more clear what time it was set in shall I say period and what the place looked like in that moment in time and how you would presesnt it on stage to make it look like a proper school and bring us back to the the 19's century also thinking about the types of clothes style they would have to make it suite the character and style of the production and time or setting/ location.

 

How do you feel the performance went and what would you do differently in order to achieve the performance you strongly wished for?

 

How I felt the performance went on the day was pretty fantastic as the amount of energy and enthusiasm we put into the show was really impressive especially the individual characters and set up and blocking all those tiny peices of detailed summed it up into to one good show and made it look good on video, we also remebered all the lines and rather were concentrating on getting the character to look strong and the though process or inner monolouge to look believeable wether on stage or entering and exiting the staging. What I particularly thought went well was the staging and layout of the set on stage as we had simple staging layout and formats to focus more on the characters rather than the staging and made as a whole and individually look more the centre of attention to the audience and make us rely on our ourselves rather than getting distracted by other things on stage which is not particulary necessary and was not an issue also the level of focus and listening skills was also very good and the attention to detail. What we would have done differently is set up the staging maybe to look more like a cafe and beach if we had the props and set for that and feeding back to acting skills maybe project our voices a touch louder to be heard better by the audience on stage but mostly the speaking clearly was not much of an issue on stage.

Our Day Out scene from film

       

 

Wednesday 1st June 2016. Evaluation of  Blood Wedding level 2 Performing Arts

 Proposal

1. My initial aims or what I aimed to achieve in Blood Wedding for the Acting side of the production was making sure I pronounced my words properly and projected my voice to be heard by an public audience. furthermore, making sure I or we all stood in neutral not getting distracted by our hair and hands or standing with the feet crossed on stage or moving strangely from place to place rather than being relaxed staying tense especially with the posture enlightenment and last but not least making sure we have thoroughly read through the play to understand the character in the way the react and act to objects and other characters, how they behave what they like to eat and what would they wear. What I trying to say by that is that we should ourselves in their shoes in a specific moment and see how they would feel but what I learnt about my character is she generally is over excited, talks alot and very spirited meaning she is full of energy and determined. But on the otherhand when I am not performing what I aimed to do was have the confidence to just say to myself I will go on stage and relax and if something goes wrong just stay in role and continue and that is what I did exdcept for Thursday morning as I did well until I felt the confidence go a bit after we all messed up as a class and lost our confidence and character but then found it and got it back after rehearsing for our final show by the point were we physically were tired but were determined to not give up for the main characters and the whole class. The other two things I and I am sure everyone else had or felt at times was the nerves before the performance and during making less relaxed and always stress out but the best way to help me relax and take my mind of things and ease myself a bit was breathing to make me focus on what was happening at this point rather than later or before, also the other thing I was worried about was stage fright or forgettig lines or frezzing on stage but what helped was thinking about others and other things to make me stay calm and focused especially when at home I started learning the lines but felt tired or pyhisically I could not handle learning the lines I just thought of positive and happy thoughts and that helped me get into the positive mind frame.

Research

 

 

 2.  What play?
The play is Blood Wedding a tragedy by Spanish dramatist Frederico Garcia Lorca. It was written in 1932 and first performed in Madrid in March 1933 and later that year in Buenos Aires. Theatre critics often place it in the catergory with Yerma and The House of Bernarda Alba as the "Rural Trilogy". Lorca's plan for a "trilogy of the Spanish earth" remained unfinished at the time of his death. Its success showed a degree in which Spanish audiences around 1933 were happy to accept new sugestions and ideas in theatre and literature that were being developed during the turn of the century. The play included many interesting mixtures of things within the play itself such as songs, chants, poetry, music, dance and rhythm, as well as the action in the play and the set on stage being very symbolic and stylised. In the play the non- naturalistic and antinaturalistic techniques took the chance of advantaging Drama as a live event as to say making the actions in the play or even sets seem exactly like the types of things you would see in everyday life. The play mostly plays out the conflict between individual wishes and societal decrees and laws, but on the otherhand for the people who view the play more on the historical context Lorca's theme is based mostly around rigid laws of the lovers (Bride, Bridegroom and Leonardo's) community in Blood Wedding. It was also fasciation that heavily influenced the most famous tragedy play Blood Wedding. But one of the main reasons why the play was so inspirational was due to the fact of Lorca reading an article in Madrid about a sensational crime in the daily ABC in 1928 that he came about having the idea of writing a similar story of the play known as Blood Wedding which is now known as a well loved classic both in Spain and internationally also translated in English.
 
Who wrote it?
The playwright that wrote the play ''Blood Wedding'' was a man named Federico Garcia Lorca who was 38 years of age.
 
Background?
 
 

                                                

Federico García Lorca was born in Fuente Vaqueros a isolated village just a few miles from Granada in southern Spain. His main passion was learning, he first read about law at the University of Granada, but later persude a career becoming an expert pianoist and guitar player. In 1919 he settled in Madrid. Lorca met Salvador Dalí Lorca in 1923 and the two developed a passionate friendship that would influence Lorca for the rest of his life. 

Lorca had discovered that he also had an inspiration for folk and gypsy music. In these works he used old ballads and mythology to express his tragic vision of life. As a traditional thing, he often enjoyed  reading his poetry aloud.

In 1927 García Lorca gained fame with his romantic historical play (Marina Pineda), with scenery constructed by Salavador Dali. After living in New York and then making a short visit to Cuba, García Lorca returned to Spain by 1931. He first wrote and then produced a series of often experimental and controversial theatrical productions.

Lorca then occupied himself with the writing of what has been referred to as the “rural trilogy” three plays concerned with life, love, and tragedy in rural Spain.  Blood Wedding, the first part of the trilogy, was performed in 1933. Yerma, the second part, performed in 1934. Finally, the House of Bernarda, written just before García Lorca's death in 1936 and published in 1945.

García Lorca's central themes are love, pride, passion and violent death, which also marked his own life. The Spanish Civil war began 1936 and the right-wing forces of General Francisco Franco saw García Lorca as an enemy. The author hid from the soldiers but he was eventually found. García Lorca was shot in Granada on August 19 in 1936 without trial on the charge of “liberal politics,” though it is certain he was also executed for being a homosexual.  The Spanish Civil War followed  by the especially brutal fascist regime of Franco that lasted into the 1970’s.

Lorca’s works had been banned in Spain until Franco’s death which was during the period of the  1970’s, and his passionate and lyrical treatments of love and tragedy in rural Spain have since made a tremendous increase of rivival. Today he is recognised as one of the most distinguished Spanish poets and playwrights of the century.

What are the themes of the play?

 

Some of the main themes in the play ''Blood Wedding'' are as follows:

• Generational Conflicts
• Gender Roles
• Physical and Emotional Isolation (within Society)
• Blame
• Humanity in nature/Nature itself
• Greed
• The exchange in Information
• Fate
• Death
• Family/ties/ (bonding and staying together or apart)
• Loss
• Love
• Dinial
• Faith (hope and religion)

The main symbols in the play Blood Wedding are as follows:

 

• Knifes and flowers as they talked alot about Dahlia and Orange Blossom which were both famous flowers in Spain at the time of the 1900's but thet traditional wedding flower was Orange Blossom used on the Bride's wedding ceremony as a symbol of purity and beatifulness.

How we also addressed this in discussion and rehearsals is reading over the play and highlighting key peices of information to remember and help us later by giving us hints and answers to later questions for the research and by researching it on the internet to benifit and help us for writing the evaluation as well as dicussing the key elements needed for the ingredients to make a good peice of evaluation writing.

 

3. In terms of ''style'' what did we decide on in terms of how to produce it?

 

First of all looking at a variety of styles by actresses performing the role of the Servant in trailers, photos and as described in the characters description she is generally very happy and light spirited and chatty and comes across as a friendly person unless of coarse she gets angry with Leanardo the one who most concerns her and she has to protect the Bride against getting anywhere close to each other. Futhermore, in terms of style we decided to produce it differently to the original script as in the normal play for the homes they use minimal stage settings and direction, limited scenery. Rooms are painted yellow, pink or white and are usually decorated with flowers and simple furnishings, where as the Cave in which the bride lives were often used as dwellings in mountainous parts of southern Spain, mostly by Gypsy families. The entrance to the bride’s cave is completely decorated. However, the outside of the cave is “as hard as a landscape” on ceramic decorated with white, gray, blue and silver colors and a completely made up of white house. The building is made up of arches and white stairs, walls, and floors that resemble those of a church in rural Spain. The Neighbours meet here to discuss the ill-fated wedding and its deadly aftermath which is all too much to set up on the type of stage we have in college and would not be enough from the amount we are given budget cost and spending wise to produce such a massive staging in such a short space of time we had and would take the whole class and alot of time to produce into a good result as a result of the rehearsals on top of that. So instead we had to first of all cut the play down to an hour roughly to sustain concentration thoughout dress rehearsals and the show, we had to style the theatre performances in a certain way for example reducing the budget income of how much we spent on costume, make up and props for each day to save enough for extra thing needed last minute as well as having less props so it would be easier to remember what to take on and off stage with us as well as being able to move and carry the set not needed for the next scene which was included as part of the show and remembering which person/people in the group do it at what exact stage. bearing all those things in mind. We also kept audience engaged by exaggerating the characters and making them as believable as possible and not focusing on the words but rather the character itself and the way we potray and present ourselves to the audience and make it seem like we brang them back to the Spanish era by the over the top and fun dancing to get the audience on our side and enjoying themselves to the melodramatic and over the top acting to express how the characters really felt inside and out and also bearing in mind the thought process we had while on stage and coming off and on at certain points as well as thinking about the reasons for example my character went on stage searching for the Bride while the mother and Bridegroom were talking alone on stage. these are things we should always think about and bear in mind at all times. Now here are links to some of the websites I researched:

 

 

http://www.gradesaver.com/blood-wedding/study-guide/character-list

 

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=servant+blood+wedding&biw=1280&bih=840&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj0urGl4pvNAhXlKMAKHT8UAikQ_AUIBygC#imgrc=Vro3bwqoS7MhzM%3A

 

https://vimeo.com/78027208

 

 

4. Rhearsals: What worked? What didn't? How did we get round this?

 

What worked during the rehearsals for Blood Wedding was we helped each other as a team if something went wrong and supported each other and improved the mistakes when given feedback from the teacher, learnt from them until we got them right and they stuck in our heads. What didn't work on the otherhand was the group peice for the wedding ceremony from the poetry to the lines as it was under rehearsed and it showed that we were not confident because of lack of focus and determination or concentration of having the capbility and time to get it done and right independently without the support and help from a teacher which showed as it would have different if we rehearsed several times. How we got round this was with the time we had still in technichal and dress rehearsals and after those we rehearsed a few times getting right the parts we messed up on previously to make it was smooth and crisp for the shows on both days.

 

5. Performances: What worked and what didn't? 

 

During all four shows what worked well was the confidence we showed when we performed as we had a good use of posture enlightenment as well as body language and facial expression showing we had a good understanding of the characteers we played and the way we were  positioned in each of the scenes showed we were able to be seen as most of the time we were aware of spacing and blocking and also by the proxemics it was clearly shown that we could see which characters had better friendships and relationships between them onstage. Futhermore, the amount of focus showed also helped us to listen out for one another and when to say our lines and come on stage. But on the 1st Thursday performance we lacked focus which made it hard to listen of when exactly to come on stage and say our lines as well as it bringing down our confidence level which was also due to tiredness and stress and which was the main reason we messed up the big group peice as well as lack of rehearsal which showed a bit as the energy at some stages in the show was lost especially the middle section on some days. Another thing most of us struggled with in this and other productions previously was projection and pronounciation which meant we rushed and said the words to fast not pronouncing them properly to be heard and understood by the audience which is why it is important to practise tounge twisters and vocal techniques in our spare time.

 

6. Evaluation

 

How you have attained certain goals you set yourself at the start of the year?

Every few months we would set ourselves goals to reach for each subject and as a person for acting and everyday in College in general which would help us to reach to that certain stage we are at now where we have reached things we did not feel that confident with at the start such as talking loud and performing infront of bigger audience as well as aiming for bigger more challenging roles for yourself as a person that would not necessarely go for but is good challenging yourself now as in the Acting industry it will get harder and more independent as now you get the extra support which will be harder to recieve and benifit from in the future.

                                                                Marketing and Publicity

 What you did and how you did it?

What we did is firstly researched images related to Blood and Wedding in two different styles to show an contrast in presentational features and styles of fonts, to make it stand out when shown around our college, secondly we had to present the initial and final ideas to the class, in order for them to vote which one they felt would suite better for a performance. Additionally, we did a Programme in a simple layout form, from giving the address to making sure the audience have guidelines on how to get to there destination, to a scene by scene synopsis, cast list (Thursday) and thanks and messages of greetings for all those who got involved in some way. We used dark red colours and black to focus mainly on incorporating Blood to represent danger and pain, darkness representing darkness and isolation. But also focused generally on sticking to the initial themes in the play throughout all the marketing areas. Another example was white bubble blood like writing to blend in with the background strongly but to match the size of the programme to be readable in the point of view of the audience watching the show. Finally, for the entrance we decided on the materials we wanted to use, then we were developing the materials by sticking Spanish images on the wall to create a Spanish feel to the evening shows as well as putting up a cast list so they knew the roles we played throughout the production, we put a blue cloth and fairy lights with tickets on the table to promote our tickets but could not print them out due to the amount of time spent on rehearsals. additionally, the resources we used included the internet for images, theatre cupboard to get additional things needed for the play and recycled material from home in order to find things that  the college don't already have.


What went well?
What went well was Jacob and me worked well as a team co-ordinating together to make it stand out really well, and make it bright and simple but not too complicated for an audience to take in without any confusion the design we made before they enter the theatre and so we makes sure we are not giving too much away on the likes of the culture and hinting the countries traditional play. What we also learnt was you don't need too much to make the audience interested in watching the play for the entrance rather it was more important than focusing on what it looks like with less than more but still make it links and relates to the play. We also felt like we really got involved and felt like we had a big job and focus on getting the whole presentation of the design overall looking fantastic and making sure individually everything was standing out which was a massive responsibility on our shoulders, as well as learning and remembering what we needed to do in case we end up doing that role or something to that in the future but what I found interesting was we were able to do things independently and decide on what to put in the room and where to place everything and how to design it.


What did not go well?
What did not go well was the promotion side of tickets which we made but as a matter of fact could not print out due to the timing of things being rushed and us being stressed out about the shows and having to focus on getting ready and preparing ourselves for the first show coming up. What was another issue was the entrance and box office which Jacob and me and others in the class had to take charge of as the person who was originally set to do it was not able to due to the result of him not turning up we had to in 2 days complete to make it look finished enough for and audience and we just managed to complete as I put the effort and time and work into making it a stunning piece of art work and theatre box office to make the audience feel excited to see the show and get a taste of what to expect before even seeing the show.


The research you did?
The research we underwent with was searching for good images and getting ideas of things we could buy to make the entrance look good  from actual websites but making sure things were not to pricy and  so things looked professional, make the teachers and everyone think we put in a lot of effort into making it to our best so it would also result in a good night from the entrance to show. As well as watching the trailer of the play to get a better feel of the culture and how it looked in those periods and how we can relate and find pictures that relate to Spain the country as well as the period the play was written in focusing or going back to the time period or setting and context of the script when looking to get ideas. But I decided to get the images from the web and design them to look nice and stand out on the wall, but also making sure they matched with the other decorations. As well as focusing on the colours to bring the vibrance and also symbols talking about colours in the play which are mostly red, black and white.

 



Theatre entrance inside



Out side theatre entrance

 

Tuesday 31st May 2016. What we did this week in lesson?

On Tuesday Morning we had Rob for Drama were we got a sheet on the evaluation for Blood Wedding which has to be completed by Friday and we discussed as a class what to write for each section, as well as discussing on the Blood Wedding videos for the show and the photos taken. What went well was we all had the chance to say something and had a really interesting class discussion as a whole.

 

The reason we did this activity was to bring our mind back to the zone of the show reflecting on the positives and not so good sides of each nights show as well as making sure we have a good enough memory of the playwright and his biography and lifestyle or culture.

How it helped me with my learning was made me have a clearer understanding of what exactly to write to find it easier to know what we have to research exactly and so we have some sort of a guideline from the teacher as to what to write in the evaluation.

 

The teachniques I would have developed if I still had the chance would have been to ask more questions to be absolutely sure on what to write for each question and label them better so I know what goes where. How I will use it in the future is when going to Drama school that is if I do I need to bear in mind that their will be alot more people meaning I will have to work more independently when taking notes and learning certain scripts which is a task we have to get used to working on alone as well as recieving some sort of guidelines and support from the teacher but not always.

 

In the afternoon we had Mandy were we worked in two split groups and the task was with 24 different moves and a instrumental song we had to create a dance routine and as it was a part of the assignment another exam we had to perform it to the other half of the class by our teacher videoing the dance routine we produced and created ourselves as a group or team. What went well was we all co-operated well and worked well as a team as well as agreeing on the idea we came up with straight but it was tricky to choose the song but we got their in the end and as we rehearsed the routine over and over in the end we produced a pretty good dance in my opinion.

 

The reason we did this activity was to just have fun and show the teacher we are capable of producing something good when we are focused and determined enough and I felt it really worked well this time round as we bonded and gelled well together as a group. How did it help me with my learning was made me show the class I have a pssion for Dance and I am a creative person, also I showed when I am focused and confident I have the capability of creating something special and truely amazing I just have to put my mind to the task given to us.

The techniques I would have developed or we could have developed as a team if we had mor time was getting the timing and speed even in our dance and  make sure we extend and expand the moves more to make them look bigger but otherwise it looked good and became a success. How I will use it in the future I am not to sure about.