Unit 8 - Final Project

What I developed throughout the course

We started the year with a research about the Greek theatre. I can say that I've already learnt in my country everything that I needed about the beginning of the theatre which helped me with the research because everything that I wrote in my blog about this subject I already knew from 3 years ago when I first studied that. More over, I was so familiar with this subject and with many more, for example I knew Stanislavski's techniques and I practiced it in the past 3 years so I didn't have to read the book again.

Furthermore, when we started to work on our first project, I received the role "Antigone" in a scene from the play with the same name, which was a fight between Antigone and Ismene. It was not the first time when I was working in a pair so I can say that it was easy to do. Although I had some troubles with pronunciation and learning lines because it was my first year in England and it's hard to perform in a different language. Throughout this year I improved my pronunciation and I started to think in English which is really exciting, I can even develop an intense emotion, using Stanislavski's method "Effective Memory".

In my point of view, working in pairs prepared us for working in a team. When we were working with Mr. Rob Alexander at the scene from the play "Antigone", in the same time we were working on scenes from the play "Medea" with Mrs. Sharon. We all had to work together as an ensemble. She split us in groups and gave us the lines and then we had to decide what we were going to do to make it more affective. During the process of the rehearsals I learnt how important it is to be in on time and to not miss because everyone is depending on you when you work in a group and the rehearsals are incomplete if you are not there. I tried to be there in time and to learn my lines in time so I didn't cause troubles to anyone in my group. Even if the scene was not long and it didn't have that many lines, I think that it was really intense because of the scream that I had to do in the end. The feedback that we received for both performances was really good, the opinion of the audience really helped me to build my confidence.

We started to work on the play "The Cherry Orchard" and I received the role "Ranevskaya" which I don't think that really suited me because she is an old woman who lost her child and suffered a lot because of the men in her life. I had to deal with that and to put myself in her character, it was not hard, it was challenging. At the beginning I hated it but then I started to bring my sad memories in the present to feel the pain of a mother loosing her child and it became really fun to play with my emotions and to transpose myself in her character. More over, I received a good feedback again, the only thing that still needed to work on was my pronunciation, which was also improved but still not the best.

The biggest project that we had to do was the play "Much Ado About Nothing" by William Shakespeare. We read the play, we watched other ensembles performing it and we discussed the work that we had to do and the subject of the play. Mr. Rob Alexander directed the play and set up the scenes, the rehearsals went really well and we enjoyed performing it twice with a different audience this time. I developed my use of Stanislavski's and Uta Hagen's techniques. I received the role "Beatrice" and I think that it was suitable for me, I enjoyed performing it on a stage in front of people, this time even more confident and prepared than ever. I've researched on the internet about my role and I put myself in the character's shoes. Again, the feedback that I received from my teacher and from my family this time, was really good. Everyone enjoyed our performance.

The final project that we worked on was "Blackout" by Davey Anderson. I can say that this one was the biggest challenge that I ever had to deal with in my life as an actress. It was more difficult because after Mr. Rob split us in two different groups, we had to deal with all of the work that he was doing until that point. We had to direct and set up the play together as a group. We researched the background of the play and we found out that it was based on a real story, which, I can say that made my life more simple because I can relate to real life stories. We watched different ensembles performing the same play and we also made our research about the ideas that were in the text, so we could have a better understanding of the play. During our rehearsals we had some issues because no one was in on time and it's hard to direct a piece with a lot of people because everyone has a different point of view and a different vision of the entire play. We managed to learn our lines in time and we set up the piece using everyone's suggestions and deciding together which one was better to use. We were happy with the result. The piece was incredibly affective and it showed exactly what we wanted. Even if we had to show to the public that all of us was the same character we managed to do it and the audience understood our point of view and the idea of the piece. The feedback that we received was amazing, everything was improved, even my bad pronunciation become better.

Blackout evaluation

Thanks to this final project I developed my acting skills and built up my confidence. I worked on my articulation and pronunciation, now it's way better than before. I've got used to learning lines and now I can learn them faster, without any effort. I've experienced team working and enjoyed being on a stage as an ensemble with my classmates. I've got rid of the stage fright and started to enjoy being on a scene. I started to feel the power that the audience can give you, it's the best thing in the world! I've tried out the new acting techniques, that I learnt throughout the course, such as Uta Hagen's. I've worked on improving my use of Stanislavski's techniques and showed understanding to the methods he is using. 

We started to work on the play "Blackout" by Davey Anderson, based on a true story, inspired by a 15-year-old who committed a crime because he was bullied since he was a kid. We worked together as an ensemble. Even if arguments came up in our creative process of directing the piece, we found solutions and we showed understanding to each other, considering every idea suggested during the rehearsals and choosing together what was good or bad, in our point of view.

 In our process of understanding the piece we researched online previous performances of the piece, to build up a general idea of how it should look like. These videos inspired and guided us to direct the piece the way it was directed.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4f3RuKG61Fg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y8FzLQi7LPI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yZlsOIV4-pc

The themes and ideas of the play were gloomy and a bit scary. I didn't know much about it and I had to make a research for a better understanding of the "Nazi ideology". I found interesting historic facts that fascinated me, about their culture.

National Socialism (German: Nationalsozialismus), more commonly known as Nazism (/ˈnɑːtsɪzəm, ˈnæ-/^[1]), is the ideology and practice associated with the 20th-century German Nazi Party and Nazi Germany, as well as other far-right groups. Usually characterised as a form of fascism that incorporates scientific racism and antisemitism, Nazism developed out of the influences of Pan-Germanism, the Völkisch German nationalist movement and the anti-communist Freikorps paramilitary groups that emerged during the Weimar Republic after German defeat in World War I.

Nazism subscribed to theories of racial hierarchy and Social Darwinism, identifying Germans as part of what Nazis regarded as an Aryan or Nordic master race.^[2] It aimed to overcome social divisions and create a homogeneous society, unified on the basis of "racial purity" (Volksgemeinschaft). The Nazis aimed to unite all Germans living in historically German territory, as well as gain additional lands for German expansion under the doctrine of Lebensraum, while excluding those deemed either to be community aliens or belonging to an "inferior" race. The term "National Socialism" arose out of attempts to create a nationalist redefinition of "socialism", as an alternative to both international socialism and free market capitalism. Nazism rejected the Marxist concept of class struggle, opposed cosmopolitan internationalism, and sought to convince all parts of a new German society to subordinate their personal interests to the "common good" and to accept the priority of political interests in economic organisation.

(Wikipedia, 2017, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazism )

I used Stanislavski's technique "Magic If" to put myself in James's character and I had to feel all of the rage and pain that he felt when he was bullied. I can say that I managed that well. Also, I used the "Emotional memory" technique to bring memories from the past to empower the feelings that I already had and to make the character even more real and affective. The "Motivation" technique helped me to channel my anger onto the audience, I was saying everything to affect them, I imagined that they were my bullies when I was breaking the 4th wall. The "Re-education" technique helped me reduce the melodrama from the subtext and to hold myself on the scene, to not overreact. 

To improve our characters we filmed each other when we were rehearsing. The videos helped me to correct my mistakes and to observe the improvement that we made in our process of understanding the play. 

Rehearsals: 
https://youtu.be/Brrm1MogpVI
https://youtu.be/QklQtypxfYM
https://youtu.be/wAwkKFx110s

Coming back to the scenario, I realised the importance of the environment where a kid is raised, I assumed that his childhood was not that good and then I tried to put myself in his shoes because most of my lines were referring to James or were his own words. The play is inspired by a real story and in the introduction of the script, it says that all of the words used as a dialogue or as a monologue were James's words, recorded and then written in the script by the author. Being bullied all the time, James started to have, unconsciously, the wish to kill every single mean kid that ever hurt him, that's why he is comparing himself in a way with Adolf Hitler and starts to love his beliefs and the Nazi ideology.

This project helped us improve our Stanislavski and Uta Hagen techniques, made us work better as an ensemble as well. The concept of the piece is to have James as a voice and not as a character. The physicality that we added to this piece defined the actions. We split the lines randomly between the actors and we tried to make the message of the piece understandable and relatable to the public. This project allows us to put on the stage our ideas and to show to the audience our perspective of James's story. 

I can say that I am proud of myself after I finished this project because I was focused and committed to the work that I had to do. I've known all of my lines in time,I helped the team with ideas and opinions, we performed the piece two times in the same day and the feedback that we received was really good. I achieved my goals, we took our project to the highest standards that we could've possibly reach.

Feedback: https://youtu.be/ojg8Gl7QZjI