Script blocking.

  From blocking, my group have come up with different scenarios for different parts of the scene that we are creating. For example, when we started blocking the very first section of our scene we had different views on what we should do. Ryan (playing Cliff) wanted Dan (playing Jimmy) to pace up and down whilst reading out his speech about women and how dreadful they are, but when looking into this we realised that it wouldn’t really be very natural for someone to just start moving around with no purpose so decided as a group to not go through with this idea. Then Dan had the idea of Jimmy to stay seated until a certain point, the point being when he leans over to Cliff being horrible and Cliff tells him to stop, that could be when Jimmy stands up because this would give him a purpose of movement and still be naturalistic. We then decided to go with this idea as it made sense and gave the audience something to look at too which to us made it more interesting.

  Another example of blocking that we have done would be when Cliff and Jimmy dance. There were many discussions about this particular scene, Ryan wanted to dance and then say his lines but I suggested a different idea of whilst they are dancing, every time they are facing the audience in their spin they could say their lines then. This then went a lot smoother and there were a lot less pauses too which was better. The final blocking that we did this day was for the two boys to dance around and then knock into Alison with a bump, then the actual fall that we do. This also had some different ideas of blocking, first we thought that Alison should be behind the ironing board and that is knocked into, sending her and Cliff flying and eventually her getting burnt. Once we blocked this, we all realised that it was too hidden. This big section of our piece that was very important to the whole thing was behind the ironing board so the audience wouldn’t get to see the reactions, pain or anything really. We then changed this many times,  trying to adjust it so that the audience would see the hit, but also that it would be realistic and not just put forward just for the audiences viewing. After thinking a lot about this as a group, we tried out many different ideas to try and fit the bill. We tried putting the ironing board slightly slanted (this didn’t look naturalistic however and would give away what was about to happen with the random slant), we also tried getting Cliff to tip over the ironing board into Alison showing the hit before falling (but the audience still wouldn’t clearly see the fall or reactions), etc. Eventually we scrapped all of the ideas and thought again. Instead of everything being so restricted to behind the ironing board, we thought maybe we could think of a reason for Alison to leave from behind her ‘station’. This question was easily answered with my idea of Alison finishing folding up her ironing and then for her to walk somewhere to put it all away with the iron on top, accidently then getting hit and burnt. This was the idea that finally did work, it was a natural movement, it flowed, it had purpose, and it gave the audience a very clear view of what was happening without ruining anything and giving away any hints of what is about to happen. I really liked this final idea because it would add to the drama, if Alison gets hit from the way that we have blocked it, it would mean that the ironed clothes would fly everywhere and the iron would fall onto her burning her too. This would defiantly bring more anger, not just from the malicious hit or the burn from the iron, but also from all of her hard work now being demolished. Stress would play a big part in this and it would put the audience on her side and would equal a bigger emotion.

  Up to now with blocking, we have nearly finished. I think just learning our lines would really help and then it will go a lot smoother and work a lot better. I feel very confident about where we are now with blocking, and I feel it will go very well in the real performance as rehearsals have gone so well for us

  The ‘units’ and ‘objectives’ play a big part in our blocking purposes too because we do have to explain to each other why we do things in our suggestions. For example if we didn’t ask why when blocking the first section when it was suggested for Jimmy to patrol around the room whilst speaking, we would of just gone through with it and the audience could have been confused as to why that happened. This is why using the units and objectives rule is helpful because without it nobody would ask why. For this section of blocking the thing that would have been asked would have been the ‘unit’, as it is the movement performed.

Character development

  So far, my character has changed significantly. For example when Alison used to just stay at her station, she now moves around a lot more and has more curiosity and emotion towards other characters. I feel my character has progressed a lot more from the start; I have tried to use more emotion in my words, when I say “I really don’t Cliff. I don’t think I can take much more. I think I feel rather sick.” When saying these lines, I have left more pauses for emphasis whereas at the start, I would just say it all in a panic but from playing around with a few ways of speech I thought that pauses would be more naturalistic and also sadder too. In addition, I have created Alison to be more of a strong women but not all of the time (sometimes she is quite weak especially with Jimmy), but overall she s now a lot more headstrong and can fend for herself. When the commotion of the fall happens, at first she was quite timid to me but from changing it up I have made her more dominant and annoyed at her husband. This to me creates a bigger impact for the audiences viewing and also shows another side of my character that is usually quite reserved and calm, but is now standing up for herself and is showing passion and anger. My character will eventually progress some more but for now I am happy with how it has developed already.

The system

  Since researching Stanislavsky’s system, I have tried to use the three parts (relaxation, concentration, imagination) in rehearsals of Look back. This has created more of an understanding for me because actually using it making it clearer for me. I have used the system in the following ways:

1.)    Relaxation – I relaxed my mind and body when reading lines through rehearsals, it made my words come out a lot more natural and clearer. It also looked more real and flowed a lot more too.

2.)    Concentration – By keeping focus on my character, I kept in the zone of Alison. This worked well for me because it made me have the same mindset as my character, which put me in her shoes and worked for a better rehearsal.

3.)    Imagination – Thinking about what it would be like to be my character, this also really worked for me because it put me in the mind of my character which worked better because it gave better reactions. For example, when I get hit by the boys and I imagine that I am Alison, it made me have a greater reaction to the hit which was more powerful to watch in my opinion.

This has developed my understanding of the system much better by applying it to my own character in rehearsals. I like using the system and I can see why many actors use it positively.

Word for the week: Motivation.

"a reason or reasons for acting or behaving in a particular way." (https://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&q=motivation&meta=#hl=en&q=motivation+meaning&spell=1)

Emotional memory and Magic if

“The magic if - Questions to ask yourself about you character. E.G. If this happened what would I do. If I were my character what would happen in this circumstance. It is a way to get to the real and truthful objective for the character.” (https://uk.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20090318150950AAnB8a0) Using ‘magic if’ you allow yourself to ask your own questions about if you would do something or not, and also why. You ask ‘what is really going on in my character’s head right now’ and then apply that feeling or emotion to your character’s performance. This works well because if you are the character then it comes across more natural to the audience and realistic too. You ask yourself “How would I react?” “What would I do?” “What emotion would I feel?” then with the answers, use them in the performance. For example, when Alison falls and hurts herself with the iron getting burnt I would ask myself them three questions and the answers would be:

“How would I react?” – I would probably scream and get annoyed if I knew it was malicious. I would be angry at whoever did it and seek help immediately.

“What would I do?” – I would seek help and run it under cold water, still in pain.

“What emotion would I feel?” – I would feel anger at whoever did it, pain from the burn, and moreover annoyance at myself for being in the wrong place at the wrong time really.

  A method of Stanislavsky’s, for emotional memory it is basically what would you do if you were in the same situation as your character. When doing this exercise, we shared stories with each other that had an impact on our lives. This could then be applied to any particular scene of Look back, using the same emotion as our situation but for our characters situation instead. My situation could be when I was younger; I was hit by a car when crossing a road with my bike. The emotion that went with this could be applied to the section of our scene where I get pushed over and burnt by the iron because I remember that my emotions at the time were confused but also quite unsteady. This in my opinion would work well with this situation because I would imagine that both reactions would be very similar, apart from the fact that Alison is a lot angrier than I was when I got hit by the car. This is because Jimmy’s action was malicious and my situation was not done on purpose.

  In Alison’s head, there is a lot of anger and hatred, but also calmness and stability. There are many situations that I have been in that I could apply here with this method of emotional memory, like when I tell Jimmy to “Stop shouting! You’ll have Miss Drury up here.” I could just think about a time when my younger cousins were being loud and my granddad was in bed so I had to tell them to be quite. Many simple things can apply to my situations as Alison, even as easy as that. ‘Emotional memory’ for me really works well; it creates a greater impact on the audience and makes you really believe that you are the character that you are.