Evaluate the skills and techniques in used in rehearsal and discuss how you responded to direction and feedback to develop work
Our performance this term was a piece of children’s theatre, our aim was to introduce the children ages 2 – 5 to the story 'The tiger who came to tea.' Children's theatre involves the use of different types of media such as dance, music, art, theatre and movement to educate or entertain. To engage children, interaction and colour is used to keep the children focused. Many people believe that children's theatre comes across as basic and simple but good children's theatre often has a deeper meaning and is for both adults and children to enjoy. It is there to give them a better understanding of life and the world they live in so that they can be taught about issues and learn lessons which may add to the child's knowledge. This piece of theatre is often thought as being a play put on but it can also be a devised piece or facts which teach and entertain the children. Children's theatre should be accessible to all, children often tend to have a short attention span but by using your voice in different tones and positions, your body to portray movement and by delivering words clearly to the whole audience whether to the side or front will create a piece of theatre that is exciting and interesting to watch. To aid us in performing I needed to become a total artist. The theatre did not have to be basic I just had to be clear, producing clear pronunciation, giving across energy and speaking with accuracy and control. To work on this I exercised my mouth regularly to pronounce words properly, and I learnt all my lines so when it came to rehearsal I knew exactly what I was supposed to say and do. We decided to choose a jungle atmosphere so that we could use different types of energy and interact with the kids. In this topic we all had to work as an ensemble which I found difficult at times because some people had not learnt all their lines but even though it was challenging it allowed us all to have input in our performance and it also allowed us to experiment because we had to use our child inside to create an interesting piece of theatre for such a young audience. "To be an actor you have to be a child." - Paul Newman. Working for a young audience was one of the key factors of the performance and it was completely new for me but I thoroughly enjoyed the experience also working with other strands because I have learnt lots of new skills and techniques I can use in the future. Here is a little video showing how working in unison really can help:
At the beginning of the performance I began on stage in a tiger costume, in the lesson we focused on movement, moving our spines around, this movement portrayed a tiger which I could use in the performance. During the second performance I decided to go up the staircase, this allowed me to be able to interact with the children and set the scene using the movement of the tiger to tell a story. I really think this opening added to the piece because it helped set the scene and it gave the children something to focus on and laugh at so that they were enjoying the performance from the start. Working with voice and body together was another key factor in the performance, the tiger movement was one skill we learnt, I actually really enjoyed this exercise because at the start we didn’t understand what we were doing but when you went with it I could see a tiger start to emerge. We felt that using voice and body was extremely important because the children were so young having movement will help them get a better understand of what is happening and will keep them focused.
In our dress Rehearsal when we entered on stage there was a sudden burst of energy however by the time I was on stage because I had to change out of the tiger costume I felt that the energy had dropped and the audience were losing interest. Being unfamiliar to the space we began to start working towards the back leaving the front of the stage empty therefore we were not balancing the space. In the dress rehearsal it was quite difficult to see who was saying the line when we all repeat our phrases after one another, not knowing who was saying the lines and everyone moving at the same time we thought would probably confuse the children and the stage would be too busy. We improved this for the real performance by making everyone freeze and look at the person who it talking, this allowing the audience to focus on one person and it gave the actor the chance to project their phrase clearly to all sides of the audience without worrying what everyone else was doing. To improve the entrance we needed to vary our dynamics and levels to interest the children and keep them engaged; we also had to balance the space and become confident to perform at the front of the stage. Sustaining energy in performance is extremely important otherwise the performance will be 'lifeless and empty'. In the book 'Free to Act' by Mira Felner She comments how actors must think of their emotions as a 'constant flow of energy on stage'. Vsevolod Meyer believed the energy flowed in a cycle from intention, to realization to reaction. We improved our entrance on the main performance by entering bit by bit on stage and I improved by following this cycle having an intention to search for something completing the action and then discovering something else so that my movement was telling a story to the children. Jason Bennet comments on how 'Audiences receive an energetic "feeding" while attending any kind of performance event' therefore throughout the performance we had to keep feeding them with new movements and new actions so that they can fully visualise our jungle scene. I believe, in this section, I responded to direction well because in the live performance I varied my speed and dynamics. I also decided to move with my line after being directed to because it meant that all attention was on me especially because everyone else froze as I spoke and moved. Originally I said the line quite quietly but in the second performance I increased my volume so that I could be heard. He are some tips I found useful when trying to learn how to project my voice:
"Acting is a sport. On stage you must be ready to move like a tennis player on his toes. Your concentration must be keen, your reflexes sharp; your body and mind are in top gear, and the chase is on. Acting is energy. In the theatre people pay to see energy." - Clive Swift
This quote really inspired me to use more energy and it made me work a lot harder in the entrance section because through both body and voice combined we were introducing the children to a story and had to keep their attention on us by being active throughout the entrance and the rest of the performance.
In our early rehearsals we took part in a three sided workshop, the focus was on both body and voice. We completed the rapier and dagger exercise, which means having our chest and feet face in a different direction to our head. I found this exercise difficult and unnatural because I was thinking about it too much, to improve I needed to practise this technique so that I could reach the final stage of consciousness - unconscious. Also it was difficult because I often bumped into other people so we needed to practise working in unison, being aware of each other and balancing the space. Pretending to have a rapier and dagger in opposite hands did really help me change the direction of my head and chest because it allowed me to picture the weapons and become more confident with the exercise by thinking about attack and defence. This exercise was very important because it allowed us to work with our angles on stage and allowed energy to travel to all parts of the stage. In addition this exercise was very useful in our performance because when speaking and walking round as an explorer we needed to have our body at two different angles in order to keep the audience engaged on all three sides and it helped us become familiar with the space. We needed to adapt both our spacing and our voices to the performance space, which we didn't do very well because we were unable to balance the space. Jean Sabatine talks about exploring the space and working with others around you so that you can slot in filling the space in every direction, similar to the filling the space exercise we did with at the beginning of the topic. To improve the projection of my voice I will undergo the exercise Evangeline Machlin has suggested by repeating lines moving further way from a partner, this will allow me to try out different ways of speaking and will help me relax my mouth when I am further away so that my partner will be able to hear what I am saying. In the live performance I managed to use the three sided technique quite well because I tried to direct my facial expressions and lines to all three sides of the stage, I found it a bit easier than when I first learnt the technique but I think I still need to practise. The working on three sides was extremely important and I think we did great seeing as there were so many technical faults and we are only beginners in this skill, however to improve every performance I do now I am going to think about projecting to all different sides of the stage.
During the performance I thought the call and response 'A Tiger, I saw one' 'A Tiger? Who saw one?' was very effective because it allowed us to smoothly transition into the pyramid. It also was very theatrical because it was similar to a pantomime moment when they are saying 'he's behind you' which the children were able to relate to. I believe it was very appealing to the 'Little People' because it was a catchy rhythm which the children could join in with. It also comes across as believable because we were not looking at Fenton making the children think we actually couldn’t see him. I think this section was really good because it allowed the children to join in either saying the phrase with us or trying to tell us where Fenton is. When trying to lift Fenton in the first rehearsals we began with the idea of Charlie lifting Fenton but that wasn’t very safe or stable so we tried a human pyramid which also was not successful, however in the next lesson we managed to polish a perfect pyramid. I brought in a photo of a pyramid which we managed to achieve when working together in an ensemble. On stage we were able to build the pyramid quickly and safely with only a little wobble. I thought the pyramid was very effective because we were able to use different levels and having the speech come from different levels drew the audience’s attention to different places on stage. Also by having Fenton at the top and in the middle the audience could now quickly recognise that he was the person that found a tiger. I believe the pyramid was theatrical because it created a big shape on stage and made the performance more interesting than if the lines were just said. The pyramid gave the children a stable structure to focus on which interested and amazed them because when looking into the audience I could see a lot of the children saying ‘Wow’. We also managed to make the pyramid curve into a semi-circle, so that we had adapted to the three sided audience. Also by having Fenton at the top we could tell he was the odd one out, having seen the tiger and he was able to project his lines to all of the audience and that meant that when the lights black out there is a contrast between us all being together and then going off on our separate ways. I responded to direction well because we were told to use our faces in the pyramid to keep the children interested, I think my research really helped us because in the performance we were able to keep a good strong pyramid and it gave us another idea to experiment with. This is the Picture that influenced my version of the pyramid:
During the torches section we all followed the objective - to search - looking for the tiger. We repeated the line 'here kitty kitty *kiss noise* x 4' I think this was theatrical because we were all saying it in unison however in previous rehearsals it wasn’t together and sounded quite scary, we were able to fix this by practising as a group in unison and putting more energy into our voice. I think having the torches would have really appealed to the children because it would have given them different beams of light to follow and involved the audience more - We could shine the torches on the children's faces thinking they were the tiger. However unfortunately in the performance the blackout did not occur but we still went with it trying to get the impression across that a tiger was loose and we were very scared. I used my facial expression and movement as much as possible to get my feeling of being really scared and I used my torch to show my face to all three sides of the audience. I did find the torch section quite difficult because it was hard to know where to point the torch because when it went in your eyes it was difficult to see. In this part and in other parts of the performance I used the two skills we learnt at the beginning of the year – slimy frog and stages of tension. The stages of tension created by Jacques Lecoq really helped me when being scared because this exercise allowed me to use my body in different ways when being scared on stage, the slimy frog exercise also helped me. This exercise was repeating the word 5 times but slowly getting bigger and exploring more with the world. This exercise helped us learn how to use our body to the sound of the word and allowed us to look stupid and explore the sounds of the words in an environment that gave us the freedom to experiment. I found both of these exercises difficult when first learning them particularly the slimy frog because I originally didn't let go enough but now I feel as though it is really helpful in creating movement and is a skill I can use in the future. I found the tension exercise used up a lot of energy so I found it difficult to maintain the energy level I was on but again this skill really helped in the scared torch moment because it allowed me to adapt my voice and body depending on what 'here kitty' I was at. To perform these exercises we needed to know, follow and understand these points:
· It doesn't matter what you look like, experiment and live in the moment.
· Commit to discovery, change your movements to gain energy, don't repeat.
· Don't think or over think you should feel and respond.
· Allow the sound and the body to be one, you should experiment and remember the word doesn't have to sound like a word.
· Give each other the freedom to experiment and be supportive to allow them to do this.
· No critical self-awareness - accept what you are doing.
· Commitment - give energy.
· If your doing level one do level one, if you’re doing level five do level five, give the right state of tension and play with that level.
· Modulate voice - change placement (nose, throat, pitch).
· Improvise - don't rehearse otherwise not in the moment and you are repeating which is boring because it has already happened.
I think this would have worked really well in the performance however the blackout did not occur so it was not great, due to our dress rehearsal being a non-technical theatre rehearsal,which was not useful because in a dress rehearsal everyone should be in full costume, have all props and the sound and lighting should all be working. We found it very difficult to rehearse because we didn't have a lot of our props and our sound cue's. This meant that in the real performance we hadn't actually rehearsed it in full and it led to lots of mistakes, for example the blackout didn't happen, the piano didn't work and the butterfly nets were not what we were expecting leading to some very bad transitions and to difficulty's on stage. Next time before the performance we need to have a full dress rehearsal so that we can be familiar with all the technical points in the performance so that not as many mistakes would occur. The tiger eyes were not very bright but I still think they shocked and interested the children due to our reaction towards them. Also by leaning in and away from the tiger it showed a contrast when we got more frightened and moving the eyes around allowed the children on all sides to feel involved
In the first lesson we listened to a song that talked about a tiger, written by William Blake and also about god which we could see in the line 'Did he who made the lamb make thee?' Patti Smith sang the song in a very haunting way which we thought would be scary for the children. Also the rhythm was very repetitive, the words were quite difficult to understand, it is in a low pitch and it sounds like a dirge, lament or hymn. However we tried adapt the song to make it more interesting and entertaining for the children. To make the song less haunting more than one person decided to sing it, I thought we could have maybe performed it in a round making the song more up lifting and jolly to sing. We also learnt how to sing this song keeping our necks loose and changing the pitch to suit our needs and make it more interesting. The dance performed alongside the song I believed it to be suitable because we were all able to embody the tiger which we shoed through the movement of the butterfly nets and our own movement. The song was performed better in our actual performance because we changed the tune, which I believed really lightened the song, however during the performance the piano did not turn on so most of us could not get the tune. I kept my facial expression as an excited explorer and put as much confidence as I could into the song. Unfortunately, the butterfly nets were not what they were expected to be so the tiger was not created properly and it was difficult to work with however we just had to go with it, next time we need to make sure the butterfly nets are how we would like them to be because it made the end of our performance look quiet messy. Even though the song was improved I still think we should have changed it because it lacked energy and the children probably lost interest after the first verse, but I put in as much energy as I could. In the dress rehearsal our tiger song did not go down well in the performance because we did not feel comfortable and also the tune still hadn't been changed, however we fixed this for the real performance by making it more upbeat and child friendly. Mira Felner talks about being able to show personality through song and this is exactly what we needed to do, we should have not been worried or felt vulnerable when singing we should have just shown our character and energy through the words. Cicely Berry said 'If you can feel your breathing, and get pleasure in the sounds of the words, you can build your confidence.' so I thought leading up to the performance I should not think about the negative points, I just had to bring energy and perform with confidence. When singing the song we should be understanding the lyrics and showing this through our voices, we should be able to perform the song as a spoken monologue. We also ended the tiger in the wrong position which confused everyone so we need to remember when we have set things on stage we should keep them there, this was fixed for our actual performance. Here are some other tiger songs which we could have chosen instead because they are a lot more jolly, catchy and child friendly:
In the dress rehearsal our exit transition was awful because we didn't understand the functions of the space properly, however I believe I took direction well and I decided to go to the other side of the stage where some of the other theatre class had moved to. This made the transition a lot easier, however the transition period took a long time and energy was dropped so to improve this we were directed to sing a song in a lullaby way, place the children down and then shush the audience, this helped involve the audience more and it gave the children something to focus on when there was a blank stage. We also decided to creep around the children to show we did not want to wake them up. This worked very well in the real performance as it helped us keep the children quiet and focused.
I believe during this term I was able to explore and become my character using the objective to search and also by using props and listening to sirs’ feedback. I responded well by using the props to influence the decisions of my character, I also considered the song was a dirge so having it changed in tune was a good decision. The feedback I got was to keep the torch on my face and also keep my energy up, I did find it difficult in the entrance scene to keep up the energy because it was very busy and hard to be at a constant high level but the tension exercise really helped in this area. I also learnt how to work on three sides and even though I got a bit of help and direction on this I took it on board and I now believe although I am a beginner I am getting better at the rapier and dagger exercise. I was also directed to move with my words which I found quite easy because the slimy frog exercise really helped my movement and voice being as one. Sir asked us to research human pyramids, and I did which helped us create a good pyramid in my performance so I got good feedback from the rest of the class. To improve the performance it would be a good idea to watch or look back on our performance so that we can see the areas which need to be improved and we should use all the skills we have learnt. In the future I would film the performance so I could look back and be able to direct myself in areas I felt weak in. I responded to feedback well because it allowed me to improve my skills and have input into the process of making this piece. Overall I have really enjoyed helping devise and create this piece of theatre because I have learnt a lot about children’s theatre and skills I can use in future performances. The performance was very strong until the song but that's due to lack of confidence and practise which we can develop for our future performances.
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