Tuesday 31st March lesson

Run Through of Blocked scenes.

We started by running what we blocked in the lessons last week, this helped to clarify any blocking we were still unsure of and anything that didn't work and needed to be changed. It was also useful for me in setting the blocking in my mind further so i won't forget it. One thing i noticed i struggled with was remembering my entrances and exits on stage. To help me with this i drew a diagram of the stage and marked on it where i come on and exit from on stage.

We also worked with a movement director, Rachel, to help us with becoming the soldiers and walking as a man. The exercise with our coats was interesting in analysing a very everyday task that you usually don't think twice about. Having to change the way we did this meant that it felt more alien and at times unnatural/ uncomfortable. It was useful as it brought me to be thinking more about the way i move and how it is possible to change this action very simply and be able to create a completely different meaning from it. For example when we performed the action of putting our coat on as if it was freezing cold outside, just by speeding it up and having more of an urgency to what we were doing we were able to convey this.

Working on the physicality of a man and looking at how their bodies differ from ours gave me more of a sense as to how mens bodies may naturally cause them to walk, rather than looking at habits they may have picked up in their movements. Generally in the class we all began to walk in a way that made us take up more space, pulling back our shoulders and spreading our legs further when we walk. this also applied for when we sat down, extending our limbs more and spreading out in the space. Working on this walk will help massively for when we are soldiers in the play, it has also given me a basis to work on for my character. As my character is only 12 some of these movements will apply but others i will have to adapt so they aprear more child like.

With rachel we also worked on a Section for the opening in the factory. Looking at how we could stylise our movements to create something that refletcted the work at that time whilst also being entertaining for the audience to watch. In groups we created 5 movements to do this. For the group i was in i think what we came up with is really good pace wise and visualy however, it is something we now need to clean up and make look almost machine like to give the full effect.