04/01/19

Starting off with today’s lesson we had already started to begin with exploring the morning warm up to get all of our limbs into shape ready to work, as we then began to explore the Suzuki stance as this was produce down in Toga somewhere in Japan; a male called Tadashi Suzuki and aims at assisting actors to increase the level of awareness of their bodies as this helps with mainly using the core part of the body.

It’s been inspired within martial arts as well that he’s created a gree style theatre next to a massive area of land therefore creating a competitive challenge for actors to deliver and oppose with views.

The exercise we began to learn was to do with three different poses which represent some sort of iconic hero movement as within a battle such as Greek Friezes and statues (Crouching)

The first position relies on a passive/neutral squatting – centred; as the second position is more of ‘battle’ which is where you’d squad further down with some sort of stance to the arms and the final third position is when the knee’s are still squatting yet we are on our tip toes with a different stance.

I found this exercise to be extremely combating since it would easily drain me as you’d have to put so much effort into it otherwise you wouldn’t be able to get any kind of feeling or benefit out of it; however no matter how strong my leg strength would be It would drain me rapidly and I found it extensively hard when it came down to holding my position whilst someone else gently pushed on me.

we then moved onto doing something more ritualistic which was rather inspirational as it opens my views to other methods of creating a more sacred based performance and how I would come by doing that with such synchronicity or coordination, I had to embody some sort of worshipper who’d follow the ritual no matter what any free bystander would say as I would’ve had to select some sort of object to carry around treating it like a book of jurisdiction.

I mentioned the book being a book of life and had to treat it like I was holding ‘gods’ trust with me no matter where I stood as If I was on some sort of sacred landing.

11/01/19

We started off with warming up again in the morning however this time we was exploring some sort of Warrior position with Yoga and I found this very relieving my body as we would take stretching to a length that I’ve not gone before.

We continued exploring the Greek Theatre as was asked to research some facts into it which Is where I put a bunch of pictures together regarding positions which also captured several stances that I was able to use for today’s performance on Suzuki stances.

Someone mentioned about the Greek amphitheatres are built in an extraordinary way that you could hear any kind of small noise no matter where you was at the place as the Greeks would set it up in a certain way for landscaping as the chorus would orchestrate whilst the actors did the performances for the scenes as they also wore different masks as most of them aren’t that appealing for the fact that they could be made with several things such as hairs, fur and it would also then allow them to explore in depth with the movement whilst the mask say’s it all with the movement involved.

We separated into two different groups then creating a group piece of moving freizes which we used pictures from our research to help us explore the movement with stances as we was given a short period of minutes to develop something to perform and whilst we was doing which then we had to put the masks on when ready to perform as this would give us blank like states allowing the body to be the message deliverer at the time to the audience who was the peers in the room.

Once we done our pieces we showed them off to one another, however it was interesting because it was extremely quiet whilst everyone else observed and I wasn’t at all concerned or bothered what I was doing or who I was at the time since the mask meant I was someone or something completely different therefore giving me the freedom to try out anything possible at the time.

As we was doing our piece Gemma would be reading some sort of information from the book whilst we performed and even If we ran out of movement we would have to keep going till she stopped, so I continued to improvise steady yet relaxing movement with my peers to help to collaborate as a group piece.

For the final bit me and Tony joined as a pair for where I was of somewhat resembling a happy based person who was giving a gift to tony as he was playing a greedy big sized character and that no matter at what time he would take the opportunity to snatch or even eat something.

I found this really funny and enjoyable at the same time since we could exaggerate as much as we wanted whilst exploring the whole goal of the pair grouping by turning our faces into masks.

18/01/19

We continued with doing the warrior yoga pose for a morning warm up routine, yet for today’s session we began with going further with it such as introducing ourselves with the ground by exploring more core based work as this enforced warming up with my muscles even more and that today we explored further by pressing everything practically together whilst keeping the core centred again.

I’d have someone that was next to me being Poppy to gently nudge me or even push me slightly from each angle to see whether I would move and finding out that I wouldn’t move unless I was pushed from my left side therefore noticing that for next time I would like to increase my capabilities with holding my stance more securely.

We took this into a stomping motion now following up with a repeated action of doing so as I found this hard due to the fact of hitting the back of my foot against the floor or by doing it far too hard, so I had to make sure that my foot was flat before doing so each time and from there we added in some sort of gliding motion to one direction then repeating it in the other direction allowing us to have a steady motion.

once this was done it was added that we had to go on our toes for a couple of seconds then releasing and we had to do this every couple of seconds often near the end of the cycle and as we finished learning the several patterns we then moved onto developing this into a coordinated cycle so everyone had to do it as a huge group instead of doing it individually as when was informed that Macbeth would be the piece that we will be producing our work towards.

25/01/19

We started today off once again with the warrior yoga posing exercise however I found it more difficult each day since I would feel rather fatigued or drained from the last week of sessions with movement and yet I was willing to try each time since I considered it to be interested as I like to remain active and moving.

So we went over everything repeating as of last time but this time for those who was absent or wasn’t around for it was observing to catch up on what was missed out and then we got into groups for which we did a sliding walk motion with the suzuki stance and I found this to be extremely difficult due to centring correctly; I had poppy holding onto my hips whilst I pushed through to the end yet feeling like I had some huge stone wall holding me back or some kind of weight.

This was easily draining me full knowing that I was willing to push through it no matter how hard it go, I could feel my legs going slightly exhausted after doing it a couple of times back and fourth which then Chloe, me and someone else was made to start off from a certain point and was observing demonstrating pushing ourselves to the point however I was absolutely finished at the point as we finally finished the exercise we was turned into some kind of parallel groups which we got into line stances with coordination we began doing battle stances with counts leading it to be rapid and quickfire.

“Blasted Heath, Wind and Rain”

We finally got into groups to choreograph a piece as I was with Chloe, Frankie and someone else where we made some kind of scene to do with the harsh winds.
so I contributed the idea of using the Suzuki stance to example off the horrific wind as it would put a tole on the body yet easily show that the winds we’re strong

01/02/19

Today’s lesson we started off with producing our first part of the performance for which it was based around the dead being arisen, I was paired up with Leila, Georgi, Ethan and Frankie as we came up with the idea of creating a rather glitch like jerk based movement which Is where I laid close to Ethan thrown on my top seemingly like I was flat dead against the ground; as we would work as a team during this by rising up from different moments and upon touch with on another causing a chain reaction.

I tried exploring it further by pushing myself far too much and this led to be twisting my leg which then I stayed to observe the rest and then I was sent away for the day.

08/02/19

I was capable of barely participating but taking it carefully without doing anything over exaggerated for which I had to work on my sword fighting scene with my partner where it was a 1,2,3 block and then a 1,2,3 handle bash knocking me back and this was a consistent repeating allowing us to keep a steady response as well an easy cap of what was happening.

It was added up that everyone then joined in doing the battles scene as this helped by making it into a larger scaled battle, as our swords kept colliding it felt nice to image the collision points every time my partners and my sword stopped against each other helping me get a grasps of what it felt like when my sword was stopped.

As we finished up on the sword fighting we moved straight into working on our army march which Chloe was decided to be at the front leading us with a small collection of sequences for certain stepping patterns before turning which then we all got split into Lady Macbeth and Macbeth as I was playing LadyMacbeth and Chloe who was my partner is playing Macbeth; we’d steadily walk towards each other from each side of the room with interaction with ourselves such as me washing my hands heavily till we meet up in the middle getting into a surprise hug slowly sinking down onto our knee’s.

As soon as we finished that me and Chloe got into a pair creating a rather delicate feather like duo as we would in a couple of steps move forwards at the same time for which I’d welcome her onto the seat grasping the arm gently convincing about the murder idea and then I’d spin and hold my position as I found this really pressuring because of the time I’d have to hold myself up.

01/03/19

We continue with doing a full on practice with our scenes by rehearsing each part for which when it came down to me doing the chair duo with Chloe again when I’d lean over holding the position I found this painfully hard for which then It was suggested by Gemma that I could do something else such as sinking onto my knee’s or down the sides of the chair instead of making it difficult for myself; I took this advice on board as I didn’t have enough time to experiment any other methods since I tried holding the chair as well but it made it too hard.

We then proceed with rehearsing other parts of the movement piece for in the end we did a small run through which certain bits took longer than they should’ve done in the first place

As we then finished up on rehearsing which took longer than expected once again.

My group agreed upon the idea of Millie being King Duncan for which then we with a steady idea with a team lift on Millie and after that a coordinate dance around as we would then enter a lined bow leading up to the finishing point.

15/03/19

In today’s lesson we had a recap about what the running order as well reminder of the story which was a good idea since I wasn’t able to remember It all and then we moved straight into practising our party scenes as well timing between scene transitions.

We had some team members that wasn’t in today for the lift so we had to improvise a new method of doing the Millie becomes Duncan part instead of raising her up so I ended up going to the front so I can gently slide her down as they raised her which created a soft sliding moment and it made it easier.

We had the idea of facial expressions into the party scene which also made it seem more creepy; as the year two’s also showed what they’ve created for the performance so we could see how it would make a difference as well be added into our play.

22/03/19

In today’s session we began doing a straight on run through with no stopping points to ensure that everyone knew what they was doing until it came up to the party bit that I was involved in which was the second party, I was also suggested to be the guy that runs up the stairs upon seeing the body, I would run alerting everyone “Raise the alaram” which would trigger the next scene.

Once we finally stopped the performance we moved straight into our chair duo’s again to clean up the final parts of our performance leaving us time to finish polishing anything else that we wasn’t sure on.

05/04/19

We finally did a full on rehearsal before finishing which then we moved straight into getting ready for our performance as we then completely a full successful run through, I felt like it went completely amazing, however If I was able to change or improve on something; I would’ve liked to explore further with the soft movement such as when I was sneaking around.