Thank You

I hope you have enjoyed reading my blog and find it useful.

Overall

Through out this assessment I felt like I was experiencing something truly special and new! Even though at times I all felt frustrated I was determined to put as much into the task ahead. Because of the dedication of the class and Anna I think we created a truly human piece of theatre. It had a story, scenes and a clear message that the class could respond to. After the performance I felt happy and close to everyone just like the family in the performance.

Music influences

I really love listening to all types of music. Anything from musical theatre to electronic house music. The music that inspired me through out this assessment were interesting pieces;

I listened a lot to the soundtrack of the musicals 'Hair' and 'Spring Awakening' as they have strong emphasis on ensemble work and harmonies. This is very apparent in the songs 'Aquarius' in 'Hair' and 'The Song Of Purple Summer' in 'Spring Awakening'.

I love the atmosphere of singer/songwriters such as Agnes Obel and Kate Rusby. The former creates interesting sounds with a mixture of classical and folk techniques and the later has a beautiful voice that works well to an audience.

I listened to film score to look at how the music was used to capture a scene and listened to alternative groups like Cocorosie who used different styles and genres to influence their music and the sound is sometimes quite eerie and unworldly.

Focus

One of the things I tend to struggle with is switching off. I find I have lots of thoughts swimming around in my head and I really had to focus to turn it off. Luckily the more I enjoyed the piece the easier this became and by the final performance I was ready to focus on what was happening in the moment and this helped me embody the performance more.

Weeks before the performance

In the last few weeks before the assessment we run through and set the piece in more detail. These sessions were my favourite as I felt like everything was working well and finally coming together. It seemed like we were all putting more energy in and enjoying working together. Through out the second semester people were missing from class. I  also missed two sessions due to illness. This made it hard to work consistently but in the last few weeks it became easier to motivate each other and I think the result was really good.

Characterisation

When characterising yourself into the performance world it is first necessary to create a world.
'The Tiger's Bride' is a dark fairy tale similar to the story of 'Beauty and the Beast'. Lindsey had lead a interesting character workshop in on of the lectures which helped us imagine the world of the Tiger and create a character to interact in the scene.
When imagining a character I remembered my cat mask from first semester and developed it more in depth. Sensing so of the other characters I saw my animal to be stand offish and more wary than some of the younger characters. I imagined that I would avoid the Tiger and Daughter to avoid trouble but defend the more naïve characters. I still involved some of the cattish movements and wanted  human and animal mannerisms.

Class discussions

In the second semester we were led into more class discussions on the division of the piece. We talked about how to tackle the story of 'The Tigers Bride' by Angela Carter. We discussed how the piece felt and how much of the story should be represented. We talked about whether the story should be linear or more broken up. There we discussions on the involvement of none related texts. It was decided that the performance would not be a complete retelling of 'The Tigers Bride' but set in our imaginations where the character create the world of 'The Tigers Bride' focusing on the relationship of a Father and Daughter. The main elements were; day, night, love, fear, loneliness and family.

Outside work

As some of use were struggling to remember the pieces from one week to the next we decided to get together outside of lecture time to discuss the things we had learnt and go over material such as the 'Coming of Age' dance. These meetings helped everyone in coming together and understanding the material. It allowed for us to start writing up the set list and meant we were more prepared in class for the work style. If I were to do this module again I would have had more meetings in the group as it really helped ground the piece.

Some warm ups

The warm ups used were designed to help prepare the body for the work it would be doing during the session.
Passing the clap was essential to establish rhythm and pulse as well as getting everyone to interact by making eye contact.
Using the pelvis as a mechanism to achieve low and high notes safely was used to widen the range of voice used and free the voice from constraint. It helped get the voice in the body. I sometime struggled with the lower, more masculine sounds, as sometime my voice lacked grounding but with focus it got easier to release.
Rhythmic timings were tested by working on off-beats in pairs and threes. I found this difficult as I always seemed the want to go slightly before or after when the beat was suppose to accented.
I really enjoyed the harmony exercises where we could work together the create chords looking mainly at triads. This was to help use tune our ears to harmony to help with devising without a piano. I liked this exercise as I love trying to find notes that fit with chords.

The Waltz song

The Waltz song was my favourite piece and I really enjoyed performing the upper octave line of the melody. The Waltz reminded me of Dmitri Shostakovich's Waltz No. 2 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mmCnQDUSO4I

I love the eerie sound like the Danse Macabre by Camille Saint-Saëns
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YyknBTm_YyM

To go with the music we practiced waltz movements. We followed each others movement around the room swapping the leader. This was is in preparation for the skirt dance for the story of 'The Tigers Bride.'

The Waltz song was used twice in the performance. Once where it was hummed in the background but only the harmony line. The second time was before 'The Coming of Age' dance where everyone waltzed. The song was first sung by everyone and then I would sing the upper octave of the melody on my own.

This is the score of the Waltz Song as written by Aleksi to help everyone practice the piece.

Energy

The main struggle in the process of performance project was energy levels.
I know that I am a worrier, and I hate getting things wrong, so I always felt nervous about having high energy levels as I know I am not one of the loudest in the class and I try to be consistent.
As a collective we work at are best when everyone is putting there all into the work. It can be noted that at the moments of low energy everyone felt effected. Anna has amazing energy especially when the class seem to hold back. I feel that because Anna showed us how to continue though tiredness a valuable lesson was learnt in the process, which is to put everything into the moment and support others.
Energy levels were the biggest obstacle. Even when we had learnt the music and lyrics it was the lack of energy that could bring the pieces down. When we were around the piano the energy levels were better but not always satisfactory. So when we moved away from the piano the energy drop really effected the pieces. Once we had decided as a collective to work together, which happened rather silently around the last four weeks, the effect was enormous and the strength of the piece grew as well as the energy levels

Room changes and effects

Through out the sessions we experienced different rooms and learnt how they effected the performance outcome.
The first sessions were experienced in the Dance Studio. This room was large and had a good energy when cool. The mirrors could be distracting sometimes but were also useful for visual effect. The biggest problem with this room was the central heating which made everyone very tired.
The second room by contrast was the stage room in PAS. This room, although came with seating, was very cold which made it hard to focus and did not have a vast amount of space.
We sometimes used the second dance room in PAS which was much like the first Dance Studio only it was often in use and had a darker feeling.
The final room, and the one used in the performance, was on the bottom floor of PAS. This room was lighter and more open which allowed for more movement and energy. The room's temperature was neither to hot or cold which made it easier to work in.  

Things I have been inspired by!

When looking for inspiration I decided to read some poems on a similar theme.

The first poem I looked at is called 'A man and his beast', which I felt reflected how the Daughter saw the Beast and herself as the poem reads 'The claw that poisoned me once Now fills my dreams with darkness,' this made me think of the Daughter falling asleep and having a nightmare with all her dark fears.

http://allpoetry.com/poem/12017428-A-man-and-his-beast-by-The-Mad-Penner

The second poem I looked at is called 'Beauty and the Beast' and I thought this poem was interesting as it is a reflection on a similar story to 'The Tigers Bride' by Angela Carter which are assessment piece is based on. The lines that effected me were 'They both need each other to survive, Both are nothing without each other.' This made me think of the silent scene between the Beast and Daughter.

http://allpoetry.com/poem/11468094-Beauty-and-the-Beast-by-SnowBunnyLynn

The final poem I looked is simple called 'The Beast' and it reads 'The snarling beast vocals its resent' which reminded me of the scene where the beast in the performance growls and storms to the window.

http://allpoetry.com/poem/11602193-The-Beast-by-Potatos

How I felt the assessment went

Before the assessment I was very nervous but after the final run through I felt a lot better. I was able to stay in the performance zone through out the assessment which I normally struggle with as I am normally the kind of person who over thinks. I really enjoyed working in the ensemble supporting everyone achieve the best possible performance. It was amazing seeing people grow and rely on each other. I performed a solo section in 'the Waltz song' which was an octave above the original melody line. In rehearsals I sometimes struggled to pitch the notes but after the performance people told me that I had got the pitch right. I felt very in the moment and free at this point in the assessment. Another thing I struggled with was the pitching of the last note for the soprano line in ‘Kagda Molod’ but I managed to in the assessment. Everyone seemed to struggle in pitching the chords in 'the Coming of Age' dance but I think this was mainly due to not being able to do the dance at the same time.
I think the performance went very well as everyone enjoyed themselves and supported each other in telling a beautiful story.
I feel like my energy levels improved by the end of the assessment and we all learnt how to work and devise as a unit. I think the areas I would need to work on is my confidence in paired work as we as time signatures. I struggled in this area as in paired work I didn't want to hurt anyone and I have dyspraxia which means my muscular reactions from brain signals are slower than most people however with more practice I think I could become better in this area.

The final running order

Performance Project running order:

1.       Everyone around the room.

2.       Everyone moves around the piano.

3.       Everyone interacts in rhubarb.

4.       Three people change places, and every time selected people make a noise it is a gesture for a change of positions.

5.       The boys introduce a bass to follow

6.       Introduction of  the story gestures such as: day, night, father and daughter.

7.       When the gesture of daughter is used Marin is identified as the Daughter

8.       Aleksi identified as the Father

9.       Three pairs of Fathers and Daughters use the Father and Daughter sound scope.

10.   The remainder of the Ensemble support and the paired work and hum the island song

11.   End paired work

12.   Group interact and Laura places chair

13.   Ensemble face the exit door opposite to Father and Daughter

14.    breath work followed by Aleksi's Kagda Molod’ with harmonies

15.   boys follow Aleksi's gestures, and girls guide Marin to the chair that Laura moves, boys move to card table

16.   Boys start the gambling scene and girls put Marin to sleep

17.   Lindsey acts as narrator and starts the gambling rant that crescendos to wake Marin

18.   Girls eee...eeeh and move around the gambling table and Daughter tries to look in

19.   There is a pause and then the girls beat the 'Dash Boq' rhythm

20.   The gambling scene continues and breath is used to follow 'Dash Boq'

21.   David become the Beast and the Father loses Daughter

22.   Mutation of gambling scene into 'Gilom Gilom' where David transforms fully into the beast and the father and daughter are separated resulting in Marin being lifted in the air.

23.   She is place in front of David and the ensemble place themselves around the room

24.   Aleksi become the Valet by putting on the white skirt and gesturing to the Chores that he is the Valet

25.   The Chores acknowledge Aleksi as Valet and move behind piano

26.   Valet, Beast and Daughter interact as Chores hums 'the Waltz song'

27.   Valet interacts with Chores with whispers

28.   The Beast becomes angry and David storms towards the Window

29.   Chores become animalistic and move in the circle around Marin

30.   All sing 'Here Streams Run Deep' from the 'Island song' as Marin falls against the sides of the circle

31.   At the end the Ensemble become clockwork and follow Aleksi's gestures but become out of control and the Valet cannot stop them

32.   There is a sound scope and at the end Marin jumps on Aleksi and the Beast stops the clockworks

33.   The Beast and Daughter have a silent moment and touch hand leading to a dance

34.   The Chores watch and breathe in accordance to the dance

35.   This leads to' the Waltz song' and dance

36.   Marin/ Daughter starts' the Coming of Age' dance

37.   Everyone gradually joins and departs to the piano

38.   Daughter finishes dance and becomes sleepy

39.   Girls use the sleeping gestures to guide Daughter to chair to sleep

40.   Major eee...eeeh wakes Marin up and girls disperse

41.   Boys are still drunkenly gambling and leaving the scene

42.   Aleksi and Marin have a Father Daughter moment

43.   Marin uses gesture to end the piece and the whole Chores join in on 'Family'

44.   The Chores perform the whole of 'the Island Song'

George's sessions

On the 16th, 23rd and 30th of January we had George guest lecture are class in ensemble work.
I really enjoyed the two sessions I was there for but unfortunately I was ill on the 30th of January which was the final session.
In theses sessions we worked on some of the scenes that were developed in the first term including the coming of age dance, introduction of the beast and mainly the card game.
We worked on sound scoring the card game using the 'Dash Bog' bases as a sound scape. This was developed even more in session three with George.
Also during Georges' sessions we worked on paired support work which at first I struggled with but by the second session was getting better at.

End of semester one

At end of the semester, on the 9th of December, the group performed the material we had learnt to an audience. We followed the score that we had devised and used props such as masks, playing cards and chairs. The performance space was well designed for an audience  because it had seating available. The performance started with pulse work and gradually went into gesture work. I worked in trio with Heather and Lindsey and devised gestures such as rose, lady and music. The idea came from the Tudor courts in England. The three of us wore cat masks which influenced are characterisation and movements which became feline. Even though not all the scenes worked in the way we had intended, for example in 'Gilom Gilom', but everyone supported each other in their roles and allowed for the named actors to perform their roles to the maximum. Energy and support are the main roles of the ensemble.

Costumes and performance

When looking at costumes it was decided that;

The Beast should be wearing smart clothing to reflect the his position as a Count. David also would wear a clock in emerald colour and slippers that resemble the feet of a beast.

The daughter should wear black with a long white skirt to symbolise her simplicity and purity. The length of the skirt was a necessity due to its uses in the waltz scene.

The Valet also wears a white skirt to symbolise the eccentricity in the character as well as the reflection of the daughters father and mother. Aleksi plays both the father and valet.

The ensemble would wear a variety of colours, as long as they are not bright, with not logos or patterns. All clothes must be flexible to allow for maximum movement.

Introduction to performance project

Introduction:

Performance Project 1
Module Code: VC2908


In this module the class has been looking at various practices and techniques of devising theatre. We have looked at vocal creativity and organising a collective harmonic pulse within the group. This lecture is led by Anna-Helena McLean who created the Actor-Chorus-Text approach that we have been covering. The course has included many areas of study including Georgian Plain Chant, Eastern European Folk singing, partner movement work and harmonic voices. We have looked at ways of notation and devising scores of the creative work.




In this blog I shall be writing about my thoughts on the performance practices and looking at what interested me and what I found difficult and helpful.

Lesson eleven 9th December

Running order:
1)    COMMON ENERGY: PASSING CLAP – PULSE – INTO SPACE
2)    BALANCE AND TENSION BETWEEN PARTNERS
3)    FORMATIONS – triangle/circle/line with sounds – RORY and HEATHER sing ‘Island Song’
4)    GESTURES a) STORM (ALL BOYS) b) CHORUS (HEATHER, LINDSEY, ALICE) c) ALEKSI – Russian icons ‘Kagda Molod’
5)    PROLOGUE - MIDORI
6)    STAMPING – I E
7)    CARD GAME – ‘Gilom Gilom’ – exposing MARIN (hooded image)
8)    CLOCKWORK PUPPETS ‘Kagda Molod’
9)    PARTNER WORK
 
SONGS (ensure you know all your words and voices)
 
‘Island Song’
‘Kagda Molod’
‘STAMPING – I E’
‘Gilom Gilom’