Physical Theatre Lesson 4 - A Day In The Life Of Your Character

Physical Theatre Lesson 4 - A Day In The Life Of Your Character

In today's physical theatre class we explored a day in the life of our character from waking up in the morning, throughout the school day, when we came home in the evening and to sleep, I chose to be Lou as throughout the course and reading the play i thought she was a male part but was ecstatic to find out that the part was actually a girl so i wanted to explore her character more and get a feel for her and her daily life out of D.N.A. From reading through the script i can tell Lou is a very popular, strong and feared character as John Tate explains that shes not scared of anyone and lots of people are scared of her giving me the impression that in a school environment she would be one of those girls that you wouldn't want to get on the wrong side of. When acting out a day in the life of her i tried to play her very strong headed and confident and very socially connected, she walked around with her head held high and always on the phone and texting and calling all of her many friends. I think this exercise was very beneficial to us and would be a very good thing to do once we know are parts because it will help us to gain a better understanding of are characters back story so we can play the characters honestly and portray there characters personality convincingly. 

Lesson 3 - Creating Truth (part 2)

Lesson 3 - Creating Truth (part 2) 
Task: Konstantin Sergeyevich Stanislavski was a Russian actor and theatre director. His system of acting has developed an international reach. Stanislavski treated theatre-making as a serious endeavour, requiring dedication, discipline and integrity.

Born: January 17, 1863 Died: August 7, 1938

Q9- Subtext is the hidden truth behind a characters lines. 

Q10- We worked out the subtext behind Leah's monologue so we could try and fit the way we said those lines to the actual text. 

Q11- I think it did help us have a better understanding of Leah because it really showed me how Needy Leah is. 

Q12- A truthful performance is important for DNA because it is set in this time period and this means we need to play the characters as we would if we had those feelings. 

Lesson 3 Ceating Truth (1)

Lesson 3 - Creating Truth

Q1- We want to create truth on stage so that the when we are performing we can make the audience belive what we are saying because if we dont belive it neither will the audience.
Q2- We played this game to push ourselfs to try and make the other performer genuinly believe the line we are saying to them.
Q3- I learnt that if i say a line in a way that i would say it if i was in that situation i can really make the other character feel what im saying and it encourages them to do the same.

Q4- Chem had just got a girls number that he had liked for a very long time, at first Chem found it challenging to show the emotions that he would feel in the situation but after we gave him some constructive critisism to improve his performace he performed very well and created a truthful performance, Chem did this by us telling him to really put himself in the situation and think about a girl he liked and how he would feel when he got her number.

Q5- Non Verbal Communication is when you us facial expressions and physicality to tell a story and interact with another character.
Q6- I created a scene with Romy and we where in a Hospital with a young girl waiting to hear the news if her father had passed away and the nurse tells her that he didnt make it causing her to start crying and morning.
Q7- We made the scenes truthful by watching the other performances and by watching others it was feeding us emotions that we could express in our scence.
Q8- I thought Mia and Ellas was really good as when they hugged in theres you could see how much emotion they where feeling from how strong it was.  


(TO BE CONTINUED...)

Lesson 2 - Exploring the characters

Task 1 :
Q1) We created one minute versions of DNA to help us identify the main key scenes and parts of the play.
Q2) By doing this it gave me a better understanding of the story line of the play.
Q3) When watching my class mates perform there 1 minute versions of DNA i noticed that nearly all the groups picked out the same key pieces of information, such as bullying Adam, framing the postman and then when Adam turns out alive killing him.

Q4) The fact that we never actually see 'the postman' makes it even more interesting as we don't know anything thing about him making him seem completely innocent and i think makes us feel sorry for him when he is framed.

Task 2:
Q1) I think we made the 'roll on wall' characters to make us understand the different character more and there feelings as when we play the characters we need to know there emotions to therefor portray that character well.
Q2) I found out that Leah (the character my group explored) is very neglected and this explains why she just cant stop talking as she is very insecure.

Log Book Task:

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jmXZKzG3uYQ

I chose this song as i think it gives the message that Leah is very alone and neglected and has gone a little bit crazy as she as portrayed as quite strange and from the way she acts i get the feeling that she would be quite lonely a lot of the time.

Task 3:
Q1) A back story refers to a characters past.
Q2) It is important for characters to understand there characters back story so they can try to show that characters deep emotions in a performance.
Q3) In my group we created a snapshot where Leah's mum is getting ready to go out and she is talking to her but she is being ignored and she does the same with her dad and gets the same outcome, then after her mum and dad leave abruptly she tries to call her 3 friends , one rejects the call , the second hangs up quickly after insulting her and the other sits at the end of the line listening to her babble while not saying a word, then after the final call person (Phil) hangs up she sits in the house lonely and sad looking uncomfortable and unstable.
Q4) Another group i liked was Phils group as they tried to show us why Phil is so quiet, they showed him living in a busy family where he is outcast-ed and only speaks when he genuinely needs to.  

Task 4 :
I think that when we are in the years of primary socialization ( primary school) we are dependent on our parents and older siblings to show us how to behave in society but when we get to secondary socialization (secondary school) we start to pick up and learn new habits as we are old enough to make are own decisions .

First set blogging excercise

1.  My first response to the play was that i like it but its also abit on the edge as it reminded me of a BRIT performance i have been to called ' Something for the winter' as in the main scene everything is fun and games and the teenagers are joking around and then everything becomes completly different and is very serious and intense, ( referring to the scene where Jen and Mark are talking about what they did the boy. 
2. I think the themes of the text are bullying,deceipt, desperation, vulnerabilty.
3. I am looking forward to exploring the play and the different characters.
4. I think a main chalenge is the workshop or audition for the parts and when we all get parts learning the emotions behind our characters and there realtionships with the other characters.     

1.  What is your first response to reading the play? Do you like it? Discuss your response to the characters and the plot.
2. What are the THEMES of the text?
3. What are you most looking forward to during this project? 
4. What do you think the challenges will be of this project?

Lesson one - Reading the script

Today we found out that we are going to be doing a play called DNA and i am really excited! we did a read through of the script and got a better understanding of the characters and the story line of the play, i really liked the parts of Jen and Leah , as Jen had interesting conversations and realtionship with Mark and Leah was very funny with the way she spoke to Phil and her characters backstory was gripping.