UNIT 2 Engaging with an Audience

Glasgow girls.

Review

I tried to observe this piece more than to enjoy the story of it, what I really liked was the energy of the actors on stage, I can also say that the lighting and sound was good, I have to admit that it wasn't my favourite play, If I would have to talk about my favourite play I could talk about it for hours, but I appreciate the professionalism that I've seen in their work, the staging was good, I feel like every single detail was a part of the subtext, which i found really complex. It was an inspiring story about human rights, an ambitious project meant to underline the fact that even if Glasgow was not the ideal city, it was their home after all. The last dance was the best, in my point of view, the choreography was hard but they made it without any mistake, to draw a conclusion, I can say that it was a good piece of theatre, directed and staged well.

Musical Theatre Performance

Before our performance on stage we had to watch the students from Musical Theatre performing, I feel like their performance went really well, the staging and directing was good, lighting and sound was good, I found their performance catchy, interesting, I enjoyed it. The students from Music also performed on stage, I loved their performance, they have amazing voices and they choose great songs, I feel like we've done a real show.

Drama, Level 3, Year 2 performing Peter Pan

It was amazing ! I enjoyed every minute of it but most of the time I couldn't see anything because of the lights, I have to say that the lighting and the arrangement of the chairs in the Theatre was not that good. I loved the fact that they were confident on stage, they liked what they were doing, the boy who played Peter Pan was really good, he connected with the audience in a beautiful and friendly way, I was impressed by their performance, the big pirate was funny and charismatic and the dog was really into the character's skin.

UNIT 4 - Context

Greek theatre

What was the time period? -> Greek tragedy as we know it was created in Athens around the time of 532 BCE, when Thespis the earliest recorded actor. In the classical period.

What else was “happening” at this time? Was it important and how did it affect any dramatists? -> After the Great Destruction of Athens by the Persian Empire in 480 BCE, the town and acropolis were rebuilt, and theater became formalized and an even greater part of Athenian culture and civic pride. This century is normally regarded as the Golden Age of Greek drama.

Who were the main playwrights?-> The most famous playwrights of the genre were Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides and many of their works were still performed centuries after their initial premiere. 

What were their main works?-> Greek tragedy led to Greek comedy and, together, these genres formed the foundation upon which all modern theater is based.

What are the themes of these plays? Were they socially relevant?-> Tragedy or comedy, yes in that time period.

Brief contextual background to Stanislavski

I researched online and this is what I found:

Constantin Stanislavsky, famed Russian actor, director, and teacher, influenced the theater of the 20th century and beyond. Throughout his long life, he developed a variety techniques that became known as "The Stanislavsky System" or "The Method." His books My Life in Art (an autobiography), An Actor Prepares, Building a Character, and Creating a Role are still studied today. During adolescence he developed a love of the theater; he defied the expectations of family and social class by becoming an actor.
He dropped out of drama school after only several weeks of instruction. The style of the day called for unrealistic, over-dramatic performances. It was a style he loathed because it did not truly convey human nature. Working with directors Alexander Fedotov and Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko, Stanislavsky would eventually co-found the Moscow Art Theatre in 1898.
His international success in the early 1900s is tied to the rise of Anton Chekhov's popularity as a playwright. Chekhov, already a beloved storyteller, vaulted to higher levels of fame with his unique comedic dramas, The Seagull, Uncle Vanya, and The Cherry Orchard. Each production of Chekhov's major plays was overseen by Stanislavsky, who realized early on that Chekhov's characters could not be effectively brought to life on stage by traditional means. Stanislavsky felt that the best performances were the most natural and realistic ones. Hence, his method developed, revolutionizing acting techniques throughout Europe, and eventually the world.

What is the Stanislavsky System?

The goals of the "Stanislavsky System" was to portray believable, natural people on stage.Most of the actors tend to be melodramatic, Stanislavski helped to change that. In many ways, Stanislavsky is the father of today's style of Method Acting, a process in which actors immerse themselves into their characters as much as possible.

Elements of his Method

Although the Stanislavsky System cannot be thoroughly explored in a brief article such as this, here are a few defining aspects of the this famous teacher's method:
The "Magic If": A simple way of beginning the Stanislavsky Method is to ask yourself "What would I do if I were in this situation?" This is a good way to consider natural reactions to the events in the story. However, Stanislavsky also realized that these types of "what if" questions do not always lead to the best characterization. "What would I do?" might be a very different question from "What would Hamlet do?" Still, it's a good place to begin.
Re-Education: Actors must rethink the way they move and talk while onstage. Being onstage in front of a large audience can be an intimidating experience -- certainly not part of most people's everyday lives. Theater began in Ancient Greece with masks and choreographed sequences; styles may have changed in subsequent centuries, but they were still characterized by an actor's over-emphasis found in early theater. However, in real life, we don't behave that way. Stanislavsky compelled actors to find ways to exhibit true-to-life human nature, while still being able to project loudly enough for audiences to hear.
Observation: Stanislavsky was the ultimate people-watcher. He encouraged his students to carefully observe others, focusing on their phsyical traits just as much as their personalities. After studying everday people, he would often disguise himself as a peasant or an old man, and interact with the townspeople to see how well he could fit in. Every person is unique. Therefore, every character should exhibit unique traits -- many of which can be inspired and adapted from an actor's observation.
Motivation: It's become a cliche actor's question -- What is my motivation? Yet, that is precisely what Stanislavsky expected his actors to consider. Why does the character say this? Why does the character move to this part of the stage? Why does she turn on the lamp light? Why does he take a gun out of the drawer? Some actions are obvious and easy to explain. Others can be mysterious. Maybe the playwright doesn't even know. (Or maybe the playwright was just lazy and needed someone to move a chair across the stage for the sake of convenience.) The actor must study the text thoroughly to determine the motivation behind a character's words and actions.
Emotional Memory: Stainslavskly didn't want his actors to simply create a fake smile of an emotion. He wanted his actors to actually feel the emotion. So, if a scene called for extreme grief, actors needed to put themselves in the mindset of the character's situation so that they genuinely experience the feelings of intense sadness. (The same goes for all the other emotions.) Sometimes, of course, the scene is so dramatic and the character so human that these intense emotions come naturally to the actor. However, for actors not able to connect with the character's emotional state, Stanislavsky advised performers to reach into their personal memories and draw upon a comparable life experience.

Stanislavsky's Legacy

Stanislavsky's Moscow Theater thrived during the days of the Soviet Union, and it even continues today. His method of acting has influenced many other renowned drama teachers including:

• Stella Adler
• Lee Strasberg
• Uta Hagen

(Wikipedia, 2017, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanislavski's_system)

October 2016

Working at Greek Theatre

We've been working on our plays for Greek Theatre with Rob. Mine is Antigone, I chose to be Antigone because she is a fighter and I think that I can find myself a little bit in her character. The other character, Ismene is a coward, she is afraid to bury his dead brother because a law forbids that.
To help us get used to our characters, and to build our roles, we worked on two acting books: Stanislavski's technique and Uta Hagen. I learnt that, as an actor, you have to express your feeling not to show them.
At the beginning of every single lesson we were doing acting games, vocal and physical warm up, that woke us up, such as the tagging game and freeze frame and concentration exercises so we can be focused on what we have to do. I think that doing these games all the time train us to become good actors and help us develop our skills.

Engaging with an audience

The level 3 year 2 class came to see our rehearsals and they gave us a feedback. Mine and Sara's was really good, they said that we only need to practise our pronunciation. Rob also gave us a feedback, after every single rehearsing day, he said that it was genuinely good and that we should try to use the space that we have, to be aware  that the audience has to see my facial expression, to face the audience and not let my hair cover my face, he said that we were listening and reacting to each other, to turn the melodramatic theatre into our thing, to be in the skin of the characters. He also tried to help all of us by writing some advice when we were rehearsing and talking about this at the end of the lesson when he was giving us the feedbacks.

Working at Medea

At the beginning of every each lesson we were doing acting games to help us get ready for the rehearsals, every single lesson had different games, that helped us improve our acting skills.
In our process, firstly,  we gave our lines, we staged the piece together, everyone came up with ideas. I've been the main character, Medea, but I haven't got any lines, instead of that, I had to use my emotions to express the anger and frustration that Medea felt at that point of the piece. We practised together and after we learned our lines and what we have to do, we started to work together as an ensemble. We decided to place Medea in the centre of the supporting characters for the audience to see that the tension was directed to her. The staging of our group was placed in a semi-circle shape around Medea to allow the audience to see all of the characters, this helped them see details, expressions and body language. Each line given by each person was delivered with a specific action.
We also had to do some written work at the end of every each lesson, Sharon gave us log books and we wrote there everything that we were doing during the lesson.
We received feedbacks from our partners and this helped us improving ourselves during the performance.
What worked was that we were flexible, we had to change lines every time someone new came into our group. Our vocal projection was good, we created the tension that we needed. During rehearsals, we improved the staging by adding more movement.
What could have been better is that we could have been more creative with the movements, we should have been more organised, we should listen to others opinions/suggestions, we should be in class in time because our team depends on us.
This work prepares me to be a performer. It will help me when I'll have to work in an ensemble and it helps me get used to the work on a stage. Everything that I learnt during this process will help me in my future career as an actor.

UNIT 3 Introduction to Professional Practice

1.

Task 1 - We discussed the amount of the roles in the creative industry.
Task 2 - We looked at if we were a producer theater

company what job roles would be involved, then we discussed the potential issues that could get in the way from doing these roles, such as money.

Skills actors need : communication, good vocal projection, strong voice, strong character, flexible, patient, determined, passionate, sense of awareness and timing, punctuality, improvisation skills, open minded
What you have to do to become an actress:
1. Study and learn how to use the acting techniques in college
2.Do your blog, the universities/drama schools are interested in what you were learning in college
3. NEVER be late, your class is your team,  if one member of the team is missing the others have difficulties
4. Go to Drama school after you finish college
5. Work hard and if you don't receive a role in a movie, you can make your own movie

2. Film Director


First of all you have to finish your Drama course in college then you have to go to an university which has the directing course, it equips you with the artistic and technical skills suitable for work or for further training in theatre, film, television and radio. Working closely with BA Acting, the course gives you a deep understanding of the acting process and a common language with performers. In the latter stages of the course you will experiment and express your voice in an increasingly challenging and diverse set of contexts across different media and gain valuable experience from professional placements. I will work both collaboratively and independently. Working alongside actors as part of an ensemble I will learn the importance of my creative contribution to the collective endeavour. I will engage in a range of collaborations with acting, writing and design students. In order to enter this course you have to accomplish the entry requirements which are :

An applicant will be considered for admission who has already achieved an educational level equivalent to passes in two subjects at GCE Advanced Level, supported by passes in three other subjects at GCSE Grade C or above.

This educational level may be demonstrated by:

• possession of the qualifications named above;
• possession of equivalent qualifications;
• prior experiential learning, the outcome of which can be demonstrated to be equivalent to the formal qualifications otherwise required
• a combination of formal qualifications and experiential learning which taken together can be demonstrated to be equivalent to the formal qualifications otherwise required.

For candidates whose first language is not English a certificate attesting to achievement of IELTS 7.5 or equivalent is required.

This course requires an interview

Entry to MA Directing is highly competitive. Selection to the course is determined by the quality of the application: this is indicated primarily in the quality of your interview and practical work.

• Foundation Diploma in Performance (Level 3 or 4)
• A pass in 1 GCE A level
• Passes at GCSE level in 3 other subjects (grade C or above)

OR

• Passes in 2 GCE A Levels (80 UCAS tariff points normally including one single award)
• Passes at GCSE level in 3 other subjects (grade C or above)

This educational level may be demonstrated by possession of equivalent qualifications; e.g. International Baccalaureat or High School Diploma.

Applicants who do not meet these course entry requirements may still be considered if the course team judges the application demonstrates additional strengths and alternative evidence. This might be demonstrated by, for example: related academic or work experience; the quality of the personal statement; a strong academic or other professional reference; or a combination of these factors.

English language requirements

All classes are conducted in English. If English is not your first language you will be asked to provide evidence of your English language ability in order to apply for a visa, enrol, and start your course. The standard English language requirement for entry is IELTS 7.5 with a minimum of 6.5 in any one paper, or equivalent. For further information visit the English Language requirements page.

Student Selection Process 

1: all applicants must submit an application form including a CV and personal statement;

2: on the strength of their CV and personal statement applicants will be shortlisted for interview.

3: Some applicants will then be recalled for a second interview and a practical directing exercise with student actors. They may also be asked to submit a portfolio of their work. 

4: You will be offered a place on the basis of how well you meet the selection criteria.

Criteria for Selection 

Your Application Form should reveal:

• Your keen interest in theatre and/or film from CV and personal statement
• Your understanding of the role of the theatre and/or film director
• Your grasp of the training opportunities as outlined in the Drama Centre Course Book

 Your First Interview should reveal:

• Your ability to respond to a particular classical text (set in advance)
• Your ability to present yourself with confidence
• Your ability to express your ideas clearly
• Your engagement with the role of the director
• Your enthusiasm for the course
• Some knowledge of the world of theatre and/or screen
• Your  understanding of the role of the theatre director
• How well you grasp the training opportunities as outlined in the Drama Centre Course Book
• Your future ambition

 Your Second Interview/Workhop should reveal

• Your ability to respond to a particular directing task ( a contemporary, naturalistic  text set in advance)
• Your ability to engage with actors
• Your ability to analyse and interpret a piece of dramatic text
• Your visual imagination

 Interview and directing advice

• At both interviews you will be interviewed by not less than two people and a maximum of four.
• You will be assessed on how well you have performed in the tasks set.

The interviews, will last 20-30 minutes, You should arrive in good time for your interview and should be free within about an hour of your allocated time. Refreshments can be found in the canteen or within walking distance at a range of shops, takeaways and cafes.

After you finish the university you need to find a job as a director.

(Dramauk, 2017, www.dramauk.co.uk)

UNIT 1 Principles of Performance

Principles of Performance

We've been working on our greek theatre plays, I had to be Antigone and my partner was Sara, her role was Ismene, Antigone's sister. After our performing we started working with Rob at "The Cherry Orchard", I was Ranyevskaya, the old,silly and sophisticated mother of two girls who has been through a lot lately and she was about to lose her home in the scene when I was playing her character. My partners were helpful and we tried to understand the subtext together, we worked all the time as a team and I liked the results, we also received a good feedback from Rob after the assessment, he said "Well done! Everyone progressed." , I felt like our assessment went really well. We've used Stanislavski's acting styles and techniques, for example : the classical acting, using the expression of the body, voice, imagination, personalizing, improvisation, external stimuli, and script analysis. We also used Uta Hagen's exercises, I think they are really helpful, my favourite exercise says "Keep it simple by avoiding melodramatic situations", I know that I'm not melodramatic but I love how this exercise can help the others, I don't know if they can see my evolution after using these exercises but I can see theirs and I like it!
In Sharon's class, firstly, we had to work on "Medea" as an ensemble, I said in September's and October's blog how the rehearsals went, the main idea is that the end was good, our performance went good and we managed to work together as a team. After the performance, we had to work on our story telling and on classical monologues, I choose to do Helena from "A midsummer's night dream" by William Shakespeare, we didn't had enough time to rehearse it in class so we had to rehearse it at home, I used Uta Hagen's exercises to become more familiar with the text "The exercises will all take place in your re-created room - where you live now. Do not set them in any other environment.", I feel like the assessment went really well, again. I felt confident on the stage, Sharon gave me a good feedback, also Jessica B helped me with her feedback, she enjoyed my moment and I enjoyed it too. After the assessment we had to write down our work, as usual.

Characteristics of Greek Theatre

1. Identify two things that greeks gave to theater
Festivals and playing on the stage

2. Who was Dionysus?
Greek God of wine

3. Identify and explain the parts of the Greek theater
-Theatre
-Skene: A large rectangular building situated behind the orchestra, used as a backstage. Actors could change their costumes and masks. Earlier the skene was a tent or hut, later it became a permanent stone structure. These structures were sometimes painted to serve as backdrops.
Rising from the circle of the orchestra was the audience. The theatres were originally built on a very large scale to accommodate the large number of people on stage, as well as the large number of people in the audience, up to fourteen thousand.
-Orchestra: A large circular or rectangular area at the center part of the theatre, where the play, dance, religious rites, acting used to take place.

4.What is the function of the chorus?
They comment on the action and fill the audience in on what is not seen.

5. What was the function of a mask in Greek theater?
It was used instead of makeup

6. Describe the scenery used in Greek theatre.
There were no scenery changes; instead, these changes were accomplished through a messenger.

7. How is Greek theater different from the modern theater? 
In Greek plays, the audience members had to use their minds and think about what they saw; they had to use their imaginations to create the setting and events talked about, but not seen. In modern theater, generally, the viewer doesn’t have to use imagination to supply the setting and other aspects of the play because elements of production—lights, scenery, costumes, etc.—tend to be employed.

8. Why do you think so many people attended the theatre on festival days?
It was their only form of entertainment

September 2016

Introduction

First of all, we introduced ourselves telling our name in the circle's order then we were saying our name with a gesture in the same order, after this, we had to say our classmate's name and to copy their gesture, one by one, the whole group at the same time. This exercise helped us to get to know each other's name and to pay attention to details. After we finished the exercise, we started another game in pairs, my partner was Hayden, we had to introduce ourselves in 1 minute by saying what's our favorite song, what's our favorite book and which person we'll choose to be left with on a deserted island. Then we had to count up to three in turns trying not to get confused and lose, when we've finished this part of the game, Rob grew up its grade of difficulty by making us do gestures instead of numbers. We had one hour break then we've done an one hour English test.

Working with Rob
In the first week, we were getting used to each other so we've played the "names game" every day so we can get used to each other's names, a circle game where we had to look at each other,make eye-contact, spell our partner's name and then change places with him.
We've played different games that were supposed to make us get to know each other, to make us observe the small detail, to be patient with our partners, to always say yes to challenges when it comes to acting and we've practiced our improvisation skills. We've done vocal exercises and physical warm-up before acting every single day.
We've played a game in groups of 4 or 5 where we had to make a group photo which should represent a country and in the end, we had to choose one country and Rob had to guess what country it is so we choose Romania and he guessed so we've lost all of our points. Rob gave us the line "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to" and our group had to improve a short scene, based on this line in the beginning. We've done a lot of improvisation based on this principle, we were receiving lines from him and then we had to improve. Improvisation helps us to be prepared for everything and to handle every situation in the drama field. We started to work on a piece of theatre and I am playing Antigone and Sara is playing Ismene, we were practicing in our break and to help us keep in mind the lines we were saying our lines in our first language, no one told us to do this but we thought that this will help us to learn it faster.  

Rob talked to us before starting the rehearsals and he asked us what difficulties we will have and then he told us what to do for us to be easier to learn the lines and to be prepared to play it on the stage with an audience. Every day, before we finish the lesson, we have to play our scene in front of everyone and we receive feedback and advice from Rob that helps us improve our interpretation.

Every Friday we have a blog hour with Rob when we have to write our blogs, in one of our lessons he asked a bigger student to talk to us about the importance of the blogs and to teach us how to do them better. The blogs help us to be held, to be aware of the work that we've done, to know every each step that we've done in order to achieve our goals.

At the end of this month at the beginning of every class we've done the vocal and physical warming, as usual, acting games like "Alphabet Conversation" in pairs of two where we have a conversation on where each sentence begins with the next letter of the alphabet, this game help us accomplish our improvisation skills. We've also played "Count to 20" where we stayed in a circle, we had to look down so we can't see each other and we had to count together by turn, not at the same time from 1 to 20, this game help us to feel each other's actions, it's a focused game. We've played "Essence Machines" game where a machine is created by members of the group, using repeated sounds, words, and actions this is a game of mime and movement. We are always playing a large wide of acting games every day we are doing different games that help us perfect our acting skills. After the games, we were rehearsing "Antigone" and receive a different feedback and advice from Rob every day. He told us that we should stand still, stop "dancing" and let the words do the work, we have to watch pronunciation, he said that we have to do the deep moments looking up not down and to not let our hair cover our face so the audience can see what we're doing and feeling on the stage. I filmed his feedback for me and Sara so I can keep in mind his indications and correct my mistakes.

Working with Sharon

Week 1 - Introduction to Medea text

Our lessons with Sharon are every Wednesday morning, we are making almost the same games and improvisation that we are doing with Rob but with Sharon, we have to make more movement. We are doing the "circle game" and the "walking exercise" at the beginning of every lesson with Sharon as a warm-up. These games are making an atmosphere of work and woke me up in those mornings.In the first lesson we've done the "circle game", we've walked around to fill the space in neutral position, in my country they were calling this exercise "Brownian movement", as Sharon was elevating the grade of difficulty of this exercise, we had to walk faster, to smile with the eyes to every each person we were making eye-contact with,then to touch the side of someone's foot with yours before they walk past you and finally touch their elbow with yours. After this, we had to work in pairs, to tell the story of our summer to our partners, after we've worked with different partners, Sharon told us to work in groups of 4 and to choose between one of our four stories and to put it together as a piece of theatre and then to play it in front of everyone. We chose my story and improved it with some fictional elements, we worked together as a team. After performing it in front of everyone we received feedback from our classmates. One of the feedback was from Joshua, he was my partner in that exercise, he told me that I should be careful with my tonality because I tend to talk to a higher range when I'm expressing good feelings and the audience can't understand what I'm saying. Then we introduced ourselves into "Medea". We had to work in teams, every each group received a different section of the piece. Me, Joshua, Laura and Midi received the last section of the piece, we divided the roles and directed the section and then we practiced it for one hour. We managed to get along with each other,we worked together as a team and the result was successful in my point of view. In the end of the lesson the whole class became an ensemble, every each group worked another part of the piece, we said those parts in order so that the audience can understand the meaning of the piece.

Week 2 - Working on a section of the text

In the second week, we had to introduce 3 new group members in our team, Joshua and Midi were late and Laura didn't come. I have learned that it is really important for us to be in time at classes and not to skip them because the whole team depends on us, every each member is important in a piece. The beginning of the lesson was the same as always, and we've also done a game where one of use stayed at one end of the room and the whole group at the other end, the person who is alone in the front of everyone has to turn around when he/she wants to, the others have to arrive near her so they can touch him/her, when he/she is turning around everyone has to freeze, whoever touches that person wins the game, this game is helping us to be more observant and to feel our partners future actions. We've also played the "Mirror game" where we had to do the exactly same moves as our partner, this game helps us to observe little details. After the acting games we had a 15 minutes break and then we started working at "Medea", I had some troubles with the new members, Georgia, Juan and Dejuan because they wanted to direct the scene completely different and I couldn't agree with this because we already learned our lines. Our problem, as a group, was that even if we were communicating we couldn't get to a common point where everyone can be happy because they were too busy to argue on who gets more lines, they couldn't understand that it doesn't matter how many lines you have but it does matter how you feel in the skin of the character and how you share the emotions you feel with the audience. When Joshua and Midi came everything came back to normal, Joshua has the ability to make them work and he is a good leader of the team, we didn't decide that we have a leader but he acts like one and this is good because everyone is working when he is there. I don't have the ability to be a leader because I don't want to be "bossy" with anyone and I don't want to make people hate me but sometimes you have to be in charge so you can keep things from falling apart, also you have to listen to every opinion each member of the team has because we don't want anyone to feel left behind and everyone has an important role.

Week 3 - Combining the sections in a whole piece of drama

We've done the usual warm up, acting games, the one with footsteps, the one with synchronization where we had to feel our partner's future movements and the "Yes, let's!" game where we had to say yes to every proposal our partner said, this game help us to be more creative, open to new things and be prepared to accept any challenge. We had a break then we started to rehearse "Medea". We've had arguments again because everyone had different opinions and I decided to stand apart and let them argue all the time because I felt like nobody is going to listen to me anyway, so they finally get along and added more movement to our moment because they felt like it needs improvement and it ended up good, when the whole ensemble performed the piece of drama it was a good atmosphere and it looked impressive.

Conclusion

It wasn't hard for me to be new in this college and even in the city because everyone is friendly here and everyone is trying to help you when you don't know something and no one is judging me for my language mistakes because English is not my first language and I am trying to get used to it. I was surprised when I found out that we have 2 hours breaks sometimes because, in my old school,the big break was 10 minutes. I like this College and I am glad that I came here, this past month I've learned a lot of useful things for my future and I've also improved my acting skills.

Waiting for Godot

I've watched the "Waiting for Godot" by Samuel Beckett on youtube, i didn't enjoyed it that much. It's a psychologically piece with a little bit of comedy, it didn't seem that funny to me, because I do not agree with the idea of a slave human being. I understood what the director was trying to do with this piece but I didn't liked his idea. If i had to direct this piece, I would have placed it on a beach with a lot of people and the old guy with the "horse-man" would have showed up at midnight. I would have make it contemporan and funny, I would've adapted it to our days. The actors would be placed in the backward middle of the stage, the old guy with his carrier would be in the front, the lights would be powerful at the beggining so that people can see that it's a bright day and as long as the piece is consuming I would've make it less brighter. If I had a big room I would've attached them mini microphones and if it were a small room the actors should make the sound by their own. The piece would've ended with them left alone in the darkness.