150 words on language for Streetcar

In lesson we went into pairs and directed each other, looking at the text and how its written and also what words are used throughout the text that create the character and how to perform. When I directed Emily I said that the italics showed aggression and with passion also the repetition of words were italic on the last repeat and the use of commas created the build up of tension and aggression. Also when performing Emily pointed out the same points but said that after each exclamation mark the tension fell, therefore on the build up to this it create aggression and became louder and more aggressive up to an explosion of anger and then the cooling down to start the next sentence.  

150 Words on Context for Equus

We took scene 6 from Eqqus where Dysart explains to Hesther about Alans situation with his father not agreeing with TV and Dora and Frank are discussing their views on TV. When performing we chose to have Dora and Frank on separate sides to represent the modern views of Dora and old fashioned views of Frank to show the contrast in Context. When performing as Alan I chose to show an on edge character when talking about my mother because of context, Where Alan's mother wanted Alan to be happy where as Frank wanted Alan to be successful and as a successful man in the 70s Frank was very anxious to allow Alan to become religious because in the time religion was very much covered up by men. When explaining what Frank had said as Alan I very much imitated him because he seemed to be the only one drilling it into Alan's head therefore this to Alan was how it should be said.   

150 words on Context for StreetCar

To start with in the lesson we did a bus stop scene using different eras of people that got onto a bus, this was to show the contrast between contexts and to think about what contextual elements are used in Streetcar. After that we were to create of off text scene of streetcar but still use an idea from the text, our idea was to use the poker scene but have my character, Billie as the modern views character. When the men were talking about their wives and how they were used merely for sex and what were considered as lady jobs in the 40's I as Billy disagreed and gave modern views telling them how wrong it was and sexist which is how it is now. This showed the contrast in the eras and also showed how we used context to produced our characters where the other men were very slouched and load I was, straighter and more quiet and sincere to show the way the men acted in the 40's. 

150 words on Visual Aural and Spacial Streetcar

First of all we established what type of staging we were going to use, we decided to use a curved end on staging like a semi-circle against the wall, I was against the wall with the table for the poker scene in front of me and the other men gathered very close to me to show Mitch is intimidated by the men and they close in on him to patronise and anger him. The staging chose helped to create the immersive theatre that we aimed for to allow the audience to fell in the room as it happens and feel a sense helplessness. James and Toby acting as Stanley and Steve slowly closed the space between me and them throughout the performance, when I went to stand up to leave for the bathroom Stanley forced me back to my chair and against the wall to show his integrity towards me and to surprise and shock the audience.  

150 words on Voice For StreetCar

When concentrating on voice in Streetcar we chose a scene in groups, we created the scene on the night of the poker scene, where the men are at the table playing poker and mitch is belittled because of him attachment to his mother, in this scene I acted as Mitch I lowered the volume of my voice and increased the pitch of my voice very slightly. This was to show Mitches soft personality, but at times I raised my voice and put a slightly more masculine voice on that came from the chest to show that I wasn't to be messed with and to patronise them slightly as Mitch is described as a bear, bears can be cute and cuddly but aren't to be annoyed as they can be very angry and aggressive.

150 words on Practitioner For Street Car

When looking at Emotion Memory I looked close to my own way of showing angry and thought of our own experiences, then when i acted I was pacy but inclosed and self preserved, when angry I get very physical and target others to let it out therefore if in the situation of being with others I would have shown a more physical interactive anger however alone I wanted to face a wall and over think almost having twitchy movements. When then looking back again to a memory of this angry emotion I thought more about my interactions with other, bursting the anger towards them and in-needingly blaming them for something that wasn't even there fault or anything to do with them.

Equus Context of the Play

The first production of Equus at the National Theatre in July 1973. Firstly the play came to Shaffer after driving past a stable with reminded him of a story he had heard at a dinner party. He knew only the horrible detail it then aroused an intense fascination. The act had been committed a few years by a disturbed young man. It had deeply shocked a local bench of magistrates. However lacked an overall explanation to the story. The friend who recited it to him then died without finishing the story or completely giving an explanation, name or place. However Shaffer knew what he wanted to portray and created this in his own personal way.

Tennessee Williams's Life.

As teenagers, when Williams’ older sister Rose first became infatuated with a certain boy, Williams soon realized that he was also attracted to the same boy and his own sex.- Therefore in many of Williams' plays especially Street Car there are strong uses of bondage between siblings such as Stella and Blanche. 

Williams’ advice to young playwrights: “Don’t bore the audience! I mean, even if you have to resort to totally arbitrary killing on stage, or pointless gunfire, at least it’ll catch their attention and keep them awake. Just keep the thing going any way you can.”- This keen interest and passion in exiting performances that constantly have a build of tension and various climax's with various view points and social problems to excite the audience and sustain their attention.

Williams changed his birth date from 1911 to 1914 to enter play-writing contests that he would have been too old to enter otherwise. And the fact that at the age of 12, Williams began to write.-These both show his outstanding interest to write amazing texts and why they are all so inspiring.
 
Williams was repulsed by bullfights.- This may be the reason for Williams use of a Bull as Stanley because he believe him fighting and beating Stella was repulsive.

Williams’ mother Edwina had a permanent blemish on her nose after her husband Cornelius slammed a door in her face.-This may suggest why he chose to use the violence and dominance between Stanley and Stella because of his mothers past with hiding what her husband had done much like Stella does. Also the covering of her imperfections much like Blanche because she is scared of how she will be perceived by others.

Williams once had a friend named Stanley Kowalski the same name as a central figure in Williams’s A Streetcar Named Desire.- This shows even further about how his personal life had influenced his making of his famous novel, Streetcar.

Williams' sister suffered from mental problems and was taken away to a mental asylum- This shows that Williams had used his sisters condition in his writing and possible influenced the personality of Blanch Dubois being mentally unstable.

Both Williams and his father were alcoholics.- Again this has clearly influenced Williams Streetcar where Stanley is very precious about his liquor especially Whiskey and Stanley expressing his love for Whiskey and how it "touches people often" maybe speaking from personal opinion.


Source- http://flavorwire.com/161476/71-things-you-didnt-know-about-tennessee-williams/7

150 words on Visual Aural Spacial for Equus

We performed the end of act 1 where Alan is explaining to Dysart about when we rode Eqqus. This scene is symbolic and shows Equss as a god, Alan names Equss as "My God-Slave" we as a group decided to take this symbolism meaning I, as Alan crowned Eqqus with the horse mask after being led by the horses to my place on Eqqus's back much like a god's slave.
The levels between the different horses and Eqqus was used in order to show Eqqus's superiority from the others. In the text Alan say's " The King rides out on Eqqus, mightiest of horses. Only I can ride him" we took this quote and created an image of the other horses on knelt beside Equus to connote a God like figure. I was on top of Equus commanding him to show that "Only I can ride him".   

150 words on Non Verbal Communication for Streetcar

Use of non verbal communication is a very intense performance practice, without the use of words acting becomes a lot harder to accomplish. I started with the scene in which Stanley patrols into his house drunk and causes quite an up rawr in the house aggressively stopping the good vibe and finally hitting Stella. 

When thinking about communicating this without the use of voice I knew that movement was to be very important and the use of facial expressions. I therefore create a very heavy walk and threw myself about much like a Bear. I also created a very wide face opening my eyes as wide as I could, blowing up my cheeks slightly and then biting very hard. I was charging around much like his zoomorphic animal figure of a bull and was finally settled down towards the end.

150 words on Movement

Movement is used in drama to help create a character and to express the emotions of a character and themes of a peice. We created still images that were to connote "trapped". My group and I created images of jail and a mental asylum. 

We then took scene 4 from "Street Car" The poker scene. Here Stanley, Steve, Pablo and Mitch are playing poker. Mitch clearly doesn't feel comfotable and to show this I, as Mitch, became small and very on edge using quick pacy movement to show that I was promt to leave. Mitch also was quite fragile due his sick mother therefore again used fast restricted movements to show aggression but attempting to remain calm. 

150 words on Interpretation and Practioner for Eqqus

In todays lesson we performed our devised Artaudian performance to the audience of our class, it was very successful and left the audience effected in the way we had forecasted to happen. We new from Artaud's techniques that the performance was to be very audience absorbed, we therefore chose for the audience to be Dysart and for us to be the children, we has children tormented each member of the audience to show the torment that Dysart felt as a result of the dream, this all helped to engage the audience and force them to feel like they we in the situation which is another one of Artauds techniques to make a performance as real as possible. 

Our use of randomised proxemics also helped to create the realistic performance and also individualised the performance so that it was like 8 separate performance for each member of the audience. Blindfolding the audience create fear on the audience by removing a sense the felt more hopeless and had no idea what to expect.

150 words on Non Verbal Communication for Equus

In Equus we rehearsed the cinema scene, using stylised and synchronised movements, we also hit on guttural sounds to create a sound collage. When creating this sound collage each individual had a different sound these were then layered over one and other and increasingly became louder and fast, this was to create tension. Each actor in the chorus had different movements. I was Frank and used exaggerated movement in order to create an abstract and stylised character using nothing but movement and sounds. After the tension had been built to cause a climax I as Frank had realised that Alan was present in the Cinema and used the short, sudden sound of my foot banging at which point everyone stopped Alan's face drop almost exactly the same as Franks showing that we were both is sudden shock and embarrassment to be seen by one and other watching this Lurid screening.  

150 words on Voice for Eqqus

Dysart is very much sympathetic to Alan throughout the text trying hard to understand Alan. I chose to use spontaneous improvisation and actioning the text in order to delve deep into the character of Dysart and focus upon his character objectives, I took a small monologue from the play and I used Max Stafford Clarke's actioning the text to reveal my character's objective. I did this by speaking with sharp sounds, trying to reveal Dysart's frustration. This revealed Dysart's desire to reach out to Alan, whilst also portraying his worry about his professional life from hot seating as Dysart, I realised that he is possibly more frustrated with his home life than he has revealed, as he was unable to have children with his wife. I decided to use this to explore Dysart's paternal feelings toward Alan. For example when Alan is confronting Dysart about his personal life with his wife my voice became sharper with a "slight grumble" however I almost "swallowed" my words attempting to show concealed thoughts and happenings.  

150 words on characterisation for Street Car

In A Streetcar Named Desire Williams describes Blanch as being 'mothlike' which are known to be attracted by light. Additionally he describes Blanche as being very weary of her appearance when Blanche says "And turn that over-light off! Turn that off! I won’t be looked at in this merciless glare". This is a clear indication of the symbolism of light and connotes the meaning of light of numerous things in A Streetcar Named Desire. This first instance is the most important, and reveals Blanche’s fear of showing her leaving her insecure about her appearance. I used this information to influence my performance of subtext from where I used Blanches story of her husband and acted using it I then enclosed my movement and made myself feel small to show my own belittling as Blanche using quick movements to show my self-hate for my appearance these movements were almost "mothlike" too.

Vocal Awareness notes-

Vocal Awareness notes-
What did I do in the lesson that improved my delivery of the monologue?-

• We used Max Stafford Clarke's "Actioning the Text" to help improve our monologue
• We established the characters objectives
• We then named the action using a transitive verb "I ____ You"
• After establishing how the actor was attempting to achieve with individual lines in their monologue
• We then used this to vary the tone, pitch, pace and so on of our voice which helped up to deliver our monologues in a way that met the characters objectives to allow for a much smooth and meaningful monologue.

How did I experiment with pace and tone to build tension?-

• I used tone to adjust to my characters feelings and mood at the current time.
• This helped to create tension by creating a sharper, harsher tone on my voice to show anger and make the audience feel slightly threatened and intimidated. 
• Pace of my voice helped to speed and slow down my voice to show an element of anger and also to help to create the climax of the monologue 
• I then caused anti-climax by suddenly pausing and slowing down the pace of my voice 

How did you choose when to pause and why?-

• I chose to pause at the end of the climax
• To create the anti-climax and show the "cooling down" of my character
• However I also paused when I started to hit some lines that were temperamental to my character to show suppression from my character.
• Example- Actually it's a disgrace,(PAUSE HERE) you the son of a printer 
• Where I wrote "(PAUSE HERE)" was the pause in my monologue to show his thought process and to allow the audience to slightly sympathise with Frank and think about what is to come.

Did the audience understand your intended interpretation of character better that in your final performance? If so, why do you think that is? If they didn't, what might you experiment with further?-

• I believe that the audience understood my intended interpretation of character significantly better that my final performance
• This was because I had a much better understanding of my character objective therefore could change the pace and tone dramatically to ensure I emitted the best interpretation of my character.
• Pauses were also a great part of my monologue and allowed the audience to sympathise and sometimes almost hate my characters arrogance which I portrayed by a much needed sarcasm in my voice to match my characters personality of arrogance and selfishness.  

    

Characterisation 29/09/14 MG

Characterization

 

In today's lesson we looked further into the characterization of Stanley, Blanch and Stella from 'A streetcar named Desire'. We first did a frantic assembly warm up to get us up and moving ready to do some improvisation. We then created still images from scene 3 in the play where we see Stanley calling for Stella to come back after he had violently hit her, Michael and Hannah did a really good example of the idea that Stanley stood for his dominance and masculinity however still relied on Stella's presence to calm him and almost that he feels he would be destroyed without Stella being there with his and possibly feeling slightly dependent on Stanley much like a child is on their mother. Michael and Hannah's interpretation of this was Stella stood with her back towards Stanley while Stanley grabbed her hand looking hopeless. Me and James created a still images of Stella standing up while Stanley was on his knees with his head resting on Stella's stomach, this was our attempt to show the child like image of Stanley and Stella's relationship to hit on Stanley's childlike dependence on Stella like a mother and her son.

 

After doing this we continued on to pursue in doing some improvisation using the idea of Stanley and Stella's marriage. We looked at the scene 4 where Stella first brings up their marriage and how Stanley smashed light bulbs with the heel of her slipper. We were then asked to improvise Stella first telling Blanche that she was getting married. Personally James and I felt that we were to set this before Blanche had ever met Stanley in order to rid of tension and upset from the improvisation but to show the "sisterly love" between the two characters and show Blanches reaction to marriage on a whole and not just to Stanley being the groom. This is because we wanted to hit on Blanches past marriage to show her sorrow of marriage and show hoe her experiences have affected her overlook on marriage.  





Dysart Objective. What he says about himself

• I'm lost 
• I'm wearing that horse's head myself
• I can't see it because my educated, average head is being held at the wrong angle 
• I'm desperate 
• I can't jump because the bit forbids me 
• I handle children's heads 
• I must presume to be more complicated at least in the area of my chief concern
• I'm sorry. I'm not making much sense 
• I can take no more patients at the moment. I can't even cope with the ones I have
• I share this room with two highly competent psychiatrists
• My names Martin Dysart. I'm please to meet you (meeting Alan's parents) 
• I like it better than the other two (talking about Alan's advert jingles)
• I was wrong I really do think that one's better (again talking about Alan's advert jingles)
• I had this very explicit dream. In it I'm a chief priest in Homeric Greece I'm wrestling wide gold mask 
• I've started to feel distinctly nauseous
• I redoubled my efforts to look professional
• I'd like to spend the next ten years wandering very slowly around the real Greece
• I gave him the right answer 
• I tried to discover none too successfully 
• I shall find out on Sunday 
• I want to have a look at his house so invited myself over 
• I understood Mr. Strang doesn't approve( with Alan's mothers teaching of the Christian belief)  
• I'm fascinated by the fact that Alan wouldn't ride 
• I said the truth 
• I've never been on a horse in my life 
• I felt real alarm
• I'm delighted to see you 
• I don't quite understand 
• I'd have thought he'd have wanted you to work with him 
• I told you I'm married 
• Antiseptic proficiency. I was like that in those dogs 
• I see us in our wedding photo 
• I sit opposite, turning the pages of art books on Ancient Greece. I still trial a faint scent of my enthusiasm across her path 
• I wish there was one person I could take to Greece, and stand in front of certain Shrines... and say "Look!" life is only comprehensible through a thousand local Gods 
• If I had a son, I bet you he'd come out exactly like his mother
• I'm sorry about our row yesterday
• God then leave me behind
• I can hear the creature's voice. It's calling me out of the black cave
• I can trace them. I can even, with time, pull them apart again.
• What am I doing here? I don't mean clinically doing or socially doing. I mean fundamentally
• I haven't seen him, I cancelled his appointment this morning. 
• I am almost tempted to play the real trick on him 
• I shrank my own life 
• I settled for being pallid and provincial, out of my own eternal timidity. 
• I need her sympathy mixed with resentment... I tell everyone Margaret's the puritan, I'm the pagan. 
• I say "What instinctual truths were lost with it"
• I sit looking at pages of centaurs trampling the soil of Argos. 
• I watch that woman knitting, night after night - a woman I haven't kissed in six years- and he stands in the dark for an hour, sucking the sweat off his God's hairy cheek.
• Can I make it up to you now? 
• There's a sea - a great sea - I love... It's where the Gods used to go to bathe 
• There's a village I spent one night in, where I'd like to live. It's all white
• I don't actually enjoy being a Nosey Parker you know
• I'll take it away 
• I need more 
• I cannot call it ordained of God I can't get that far

Character Objectives 24/09/14 MG

Today in class we create montages in groups from the lines in which the character Stanley used throughout the play. These lines were 2 things he said about other people, 1 thing he said about himself and 1 that other people had said about him. We took the lines and acted as the characters using out knowledge of Stanley after reading the whole text and also thinking about the way in which other characters acted and perceived Stanley to be. We then examined carefully at two scenes in "A streetcar named Desire". These were from different times in the play, one extract from the beginning when Stanley and Blanche first meet, and then other from towards the end just before Stanley rapes Blanche. These scenes were chosen so far apart because we wanted to really see the contrast between how we first perceived Blanche to how we do now and broaden our understanding of how Blanches "madness" developed over the time of staying with Stan. However most importantly we wanted to see the way in which our characters objectives have changed throughout the play. 

We then established a partner in which we were to perform this extract with. I worked with Fionna we were given the early extract. We first determined our characters objectives (this is what they character is trying to gain or do). As Stanley I was very set on being nice to Blanche and told her to "take it easy" asking her numerous questions and being friendly. However Stanley also wanted very much to impress Blanche and show his masculinity he did so but taking of his shirt after asking to "get comfortable" and then seemed to indulge himself in Blanches personal space almost forcing her to touch him to show his strength.

How does Williams explore the idea of a tortured condition in the text

Williams explores the idea of torture through the text via the tension that he builds through climax of the text for example when we are continuously fed information about the characters, such as Blanche.


Blanche faces alcoholism, faded beauty, and lost status; she tries to cover up past both as a teacher and in her marriage, all while desperately trying to keep up the appearance and her own delusion that she’s still attractive to men. This shows a tortured soul where she is constantly lying to herself and attempting to convince herself that she still lives in her youth and beauty but is constantly reminded that she is no longer a youthful, beautiful girl anymore, this connotes depression and self concision. This mentally tortures Blanche.


The same is to say for Stanley. He also suffers with alcoholism as well as gambling problems and a very short temper. This shows elements of torture because after infesting his body with alcohol, Stanley's mind is in a poor state and he is blind from knowing what is acceptable and therefore isn't in control of his body therefore says some things he doesn't mean. However his temper isn't because of the alcohol all the time, but is because of his tortured mind.


Stella seems to me personally, as the character that is most tortured in the play, not because she is personally effected by her own choices like Blanch and Stanley, but is tortured by both characters while trying to juggle the two of them and calm the scene however is always effected because they fight over her for example Stanley's alcoholism and gambling problems led him to beat Stella during a game of poker where Stella felt very vulnerable and upset due to this. Also Blanche caused torture upon Stella in a slightly sneakier way. This is because she acts like she wants to be around Stella because she is tortured herself after the loss of the plantation however is causing Stella to be sad because she wants to be there for Blanche however with Blanche's selfish acts she feels again vulnerable and very controlled by how Blanche is feeling.

Why are the advert jingles Alan recites important to the overall meaning of the play? What do they say about his state of mind and about the state of the modern psyche?

In Equus Alan is singing advertising jingles in his first meeting with Dysart (a psychiatrist). These jingles are in response to Dysart’s questions. Alan is clearly startled when Dysart coolly responds to the jingles as if Alan was speaking normally this helps to show the relationship that Dysart has with his patients to help the audience to see the difference between Dysart and the everyday people we meet through-out the text.

We see very early on that Alan seems to recites the advert jingles as if he were obsessed with TV and shows some foreshadowing on the reader or audience because we know that this is to be a theme that is later continued in order to ‘fill the gaps’ that need to be answered. It is them later carried on when we learn of Alan’s dad, Frank, not allowing him to watch TV therefore we are startled on how Alan is aware of these jingles and get the reader thinking about the overall meaning of the jingles.

These jingles are so important to get into the state of Alan’s minds and see that Alan can in some cases use these jingles to steer away from questions avoiding speaking to people and answering the questions that he being asked. This always shows him distancing himself from the other people.

The jingles show the modern life as being very TV orientated and to the modern audience remembrance of advertisement are not so strange but are seen as a reasonably normal thing for people to remember as TV is a very big thing in our culture.