Week 1

We started with doing an exercise for which we had to point at objects in the room as I found this to be very strange yet easy as it was rather simple, however I discovered that the other one was slightly trickey as we had to point at the object once again but say the previous name of what object was before it, I would like to improve on being able to stop overthinking something to improve my spontaneity by next session and to do this I will achieve this by practicing to do some brain fry for where I enter the space calling out as many random items, objects repeatedly before pausing.

In our first session about The Crucible we was given a synopsis of The Crucible Act 1 to create a very quick couple of minutes performance of breaking down the play.

Week 2

In today’s lesson we did some relaxing exercises on imagination as well to connect with our body more as we had to get into a circle as a group with our eyes closed as we then would move into the centre of the circle in a synchronized time with steady steps which then we would move out of the circle jumping at the same time which was very difficult as it wasn’t possible to know when the others would go, I found out that these exercises was to help with our ensemble coordination as well teamwork for where we had to all work as one group silently in attempt to land on the goal by using some techniques before,

This was to focus In on our body and to zone In on one of our goals In attempt to land a perfect synchronized jump as well movement as If we was thinking as one.

We also aimed for improving on self-control by doing activities and exercises in disciplining ourselves such as how we act, respond and interact throughout the session whether It was talking consistently or listening out for one another as well knowing when to act and speak with a strong steady posture from the bodily warm up.

We was given the assignment to do the synopsis of Act 2 for the Crucible

Week 3

In the third week we was taught about the crucible and was told we are going to do this as our performing piece which that we would have to work with a pair to perform. We got into small groups as we was able to go through the characters back ground information and we moved onto being allowed to select a scene arranging from Elizabeth and John Proctor or Abigail and John Proctor, my partner and me agreed on doing the Elizabeth and Proctor because of the collaboration of use of context and how much it changes the way through it.

Week 4

Today was our official starting day for rehearsals as we used it for rehearsing lines consistently as well set the staging and where we was going to stand as well perform as my partner and me was given an exercise for which was quite odd as it felt uncomfortable at first which was to walk away whilst my partner was saying the lines to me and then I would turn around and do the same, I found this to be quite affective because of the impact it had with certain parts such as when they got to arguing, I found It rather difficult to get any kind of emotion for when my partner was saying certain parts back to me as I found It difficult to pick up any kind of respond or feeling towards my partner since I didn’t have a strong understanding of the performance as of yet even after doing the synopsis such as the characters intentions and goals,

 I began with breaking down certain parts to help me have a better understanding of the characters In the beginning for when I have to perform the scene. Unit 1 shows that John is changing the subject by asking If Elizabeth Is alright. Unit 2 Is showing that John Is complimenting Elizabeth’s cooking full knowing that he decided to season It as It didn’t taste right for him, which he does to try to make her feel slightly more better whilst knowing what he’s done.

Week 5

Today we continued to set out our staging as well rehearsed more of our script which then we repeated the past warm up where we had to do a couple of relaxations as well bodily warm ups such as walking around the space and not talking, this was good as it helped with improving my concentration levels as well the matter that we wasn’t allowed to communicate or even think they was around, I was finding It slightly difficult to block out everyone as I was still allowing myself to be distracted whenever another pear walks past me as I was taking notice of them and focusing too hard on how I looked when walking around of whether I was doing It correctly, I would like to be able to completely make my mind oblivious to my surroundings and zone In on how my body Is feeling more effectively by next week and to do this I will be practicing at home to focus on one spot In the room or to even do some relaxation warm ups such as standing still, closing my eyes and focusing on all the sounds inside the room then outside of the room.

As I was at home I continued with uniting my performance of the Crucible. As Unit 3 Is where John proctor decides to talk change the conversation about the farm which then Unit 4 Elizabeth mentions about John going to Salem for which then John Proctor claims that hasn’t thought of It since sometime, In Unit 5 Elizabeth prompts that fact that Mary Warren Is going to be there which John Proctor wasn’t happy about as he didn’t allow her to go.

In Unit 6 John is caught off guard by how Mary claimed to be an official of the Court, Unit 7 is when Elizabeth brings up the subject about promised hangings as Unit 8 Is when Elizabeth insists that John must go to Salem.

Week 6

In the sixth week we started with rehearsing again as well started to work on accepting the impact of how our characters had an emotional change to what they was discussing or how we would use the context to create a reactive respond in our performance for the other character, I chose that john was quite dominant yet felt emotional for certain parts such as when he argues the case that he doesn’t want to be judged anymore by Elizabeth.

In today’s lesson we had our first part of the scene viewed by the tutor who gave feedback regarding that it’s somewhat more slow paced and is a direct conversation instead of continuous movement or even reactions, I was able to improve on the use of emotion when talking about certain moments in the performance such as how Elizabeth was frightened by Mary and for next session I would like to be able to improve on my response time.

I also found out that certain moments of the performance was to do with a truthful bonded discussion between Elizabeth and John Proctor, however I was finding It rather difficult to pick up the motion of when John got furious as I kept jumping straight to the shouting moment without any kind of reason behind of why he was angry, I am hoping to have the rest of my understanding of the performances context down by next session, to do this I am going to do more uniting on the upcoming scenes for which I decided to do whilst home as I broke down Unit 9 finding out that Elizabeth targeted John for being alone with Abigail for a moment and that Unit 10 Is when John Proctor was quite unsatisfied with Elizabeth’s suspicions and that they had that short change of emotion as well reasoning discussion which our tutor mentioned before as feedback for when we performed our scene, Unit 11 to Unit 14 shows that John Is demanding that Elizabeth Is to judge him no more and that she should check in with her own improvements In claim that he has nothing to do with Abigail anymore as he has forgotten her and Unit 12 shows that John Is insisting that he has gone to such lengths for Elizabeth and yet he’s still being judged no matter what he does Is doing.

Week 7

Myself and Georgina begun to show our presentation which I found to meet my satisfactory levels as we had an equal amount of work efforts involved as well a good level of communication and partnerships when it came to coordinating on when we gave the examples around as well spoke our parts, however to improve on this I could’ve had the images much bigger so they could be stuck to the wall for everyone to see, I was slightly uneased when performing in front of others with my part of the presentation as I found It slightly difficult for when I had to keep speaking after passing my resources/examples around for the audience to look at as I stopped for a couple of seconds to remember where I was at or what I was going to say for the next part, however I found this to be helpful as It helped me to have a more stronger understanding of the personality that John had and how he would act, walk and present himself on a daily basis as well clothe style, I’d like to improve on my presentation skills for next time I had to perform by creating some kind of mood board or bigger pictures to stick up for the audience to see instead of passing It around.

I would also like to involve my possible key points for why I chose these for the presentation and how I can link and reference back to them for possible future use, to do this I am going to do this I am going to do further research into structures or ways of presenting examples and structures for a performance and how other people have done It over the years.

Week 8

In today’s lesson we continued to rehearse straight after more warm ups which then we experimented with how we could change the part where John “Means to please Elizabeth”, from kissing to something else such as the head turning away from him, I found this to be more useful as it represented her acknowledgement of what he’s done in the past still as If he hasn’t been forgiven yet, we also continue with working on our use of project and voice as I was mistaking anger for volume since I would tend to raise my voice assuming that most of the time anger was just from yelling or even getting louder, however from previous feedback from a tutor in today’s lesson I found out that sometimes being angry could be In a more silent volume but Is expressed easier through the use of tone and emotion such as feeling from what my partner has said to me and then returning It whilst steadily building up how I felt at that moment after being spoken to which helped to easily build Into my last paragraphs for where I was arguing my point about getting judged no matter what I do.

I found this to be quite helpful as It showed that sometimes I need a more clearer understanding of why John Is saying that line and what does he mean and how he felt at the time such as what Elizabeth Is saying to me, so I had to attempt the same line over a couple of times “Women” and then properly express how I felt, by my next session I would like to be able to express myself more clearly through gesturing and body language

Week 9

Our groups we’re moved around today as I was put with Daisie who I was looking forward to working with especially for how committed she was to the performance and the motivation she had to come up with new ideas by working with me, as we started working together I was able to feel the tension as well emotion for when she was rude to me as Elizabeth which gave me a feeling for a proper reaction, however In today’s lesson I kept blanking or forgetting certain lines which lead me to thinking that I was needing to go more in depth with the meaning as well by repeating the same lines In the corresponding order to keep them on my mind and that I was still struggling with remembering the queuing order of what came afterwards. I would like to go home and practice my lines for the next week so I am able to remember what I was say next week for my performance as we didn’t have long left.

I also finished up doing my last uniting of the performance whilst spending my time at home for which Unit 16 was about Elizabeth being given the Poppet by Mary Warren which could be considered a tool of witches any time If someone found out as the town wasn’t very acceptable to witches and Unit 17 is when John asks Mary about the arrested women of whether this was truth or not, In Unit 18 Mary claims that Sarah made a deal/pact with Lucifer the devil himself for which then Unit 19 Is when Mary claims that Sarah sent her spirit out to attack and kill her therefore leading to witchery or even the work of the devil.

Week 10

For today’s lesson I had to do an exercise with Daisie which was to walk away from each other with one whispering as they’re speaking and the other one speaking loudly which was rather annoying as I found it hard to sometimes hear what my partners saying or even to get a sense of dominance for when I had to whisper as if I felt small compared to Elizabeth, however when I had to speak loudly it helped me to realise when I had to be quite dominant.

 I found this lesson to be quite helpful as It helped me to have a stronger understanding of what moments John could potentially be very affective whilst being dominant and how he would feel at the current moment as It also helped me to have a good understanding of the aspect of what happens If Elizabeth was dominant or in control instead of John Proctor,

I was able to also reside all of my lines correctly after rehearsing consistently at home during the morning and night time giving a small break between times so I was able to perform that day as I also found out that when performing I would overthink a mistake that I have done which would lead to me blanking or even messing up on my next lines, I would like to improve on this before the performance day and to do this I will be working on using the semi-supine and focusing exercise that we did a while ago to concentrate and to relax my mind.

Week 11

With the performance day drawing closer, we started to rehearse our lines whilst sitting down and then standing up which made it easier for me to remember the actions as well script at the same time since it helped with recapping both each time without overthinking them at the same time, In today’s session I was rather calm after spending the rest of my day relaxing by doing a couple of exercises at home and before the lesson started as this helped me to focus more on my goal which was to be able to perform a successful run through today which helped effectively.

 I needed to somehow overcome my mistake during the rehearsal which Is where I took notice of the camera and to do this I am planning to take a couple of seconds to do some breath exercises before starting my performance tomorrow in front of the camera.

Week 12

As this being our last week for rehearsing my partner and me did early warm ups before starting which then we decided to do continuous run through whilst correcting parts at the same time which then we moved straight onto doing a non-stop practice in ready for finishing.

Week 13

For our performance day we started off with a couple of warm ups which then we went straight into practicing in the small room for which we spoke a bit to get some kind of connection with one another going before doing another rehearsal, as we prepared after finishing our last rehearsal, everyone got into an audience ready to watch with the camera set up in front of us as I use to take notice of the camera which would put me off.

I used my small period time to focus my mind onto my partner alone so I wouldn’t take notice of the camera anymore which helped by locking onto that one position or person as we did before as one of the warm up methods in Emma’s lesson for where we had to focus on one spot in the centre of the circle.

Week 14

After we finished our performance for The Crucible, I felt rather relieved because of how much effort was needed however going over our feedback I thought that I could’ve improved on my character embodying better next time as well taking a deeper look into John Proctors context as at sometimes he would be emotional instead of being angry or serious for which he should’ve been. I also thought that for next time I could also work on regarding how I used my words as some of them missed the contextual meaning that they should’ve had and that looking back on the performance I considered that it would alright yet quite enjoyable once I had everything down in mind.

I found the performance and the backstory of It rather hard to understand In the beginning as It was something I wasn’t use to such as the use of language and contextual reasons behind each character and the goals and intentions such as links between each person and how they related and why they chose to do those type of choices which lead to larger consequences such as the court and a huge majority of people being hanged for the accusations and partitions of witchery and support.

I wasn’t sure how lopsided the social status of the village was back then such as the fact that If one person accused you with the slightest of evidence It would be held critically against you and that If you was considered guilty by the church that you wouldn’t have much of a chance actually turning It or fighting against them whether you was guilty or not.

Overall Evaluation

I found the performance rather difficult to understand In the beginning as there was so much more going on than I thought such as who was who and why they was doing it and what they was doing It for, a huge mixed variety of relations and stories about each character and that there was several contextual backgrounds behind It whether the girls we’re faking It or even that there was actual witches and that the devil and god themselves lived and was taking action, I found the language to be quite difficult to pick up since It wasn’t easy to define or break down the meaning per word and response since there was no proper definition on them and that most of the time the performance had to come naturally.

My understanding of John Proctor wasn’t completely aimed on who he should’ve been however I found It to be very enjoyable In playing the role of how they would act and respond back then such as placing myself into a different history of characters and stories.

I am hoping to achieve a more secure structure of research In future for each character relation, story, life style, clothes by using the feedback on creating more in depth presentations as well using my time more wisely on rehearsing and learning everything instead of slightly leaving It behind that I am more aware of the appropriate time rate needed for learning a scene.

I think that my performance overall went well since I was able to use techniques appropriately In creating a strong level of tension at certain moments and that my timing was perfect with delivering my response throughout the performance and that I used my chances to explore different circumstances of how It could’ve turned out and what happens If John had different intentions or emotions, however I would like to improve on my future presentations, directions as well a more advanced understanding of the context as I didn’t play John to his fullest.