The day in which we filmed the news bulletin was effective for me because I knew my lines already and was able to say them clearly and efficiently.
Problems that did occur for me was the transition from stage to screen and how much I would’ve had to decrease expression and objective, facially in order for it not to be too intense or distracting. Also the noise outside around the school created time restrictions and pressures as we felt a bigger need to complete the shoot perfectly.
What I learnt was to internalise everything that was occurring as well as trust in the work that you’ve done to come out rather than over think, and ruin it not only for yourself but for others in the shot. As well as the importance of remembering your lines, not just for yourself but out of respect for other people and the hard work that they’ve put in that you may have failed to match or go beyond.
It was also really enlightening to see the clothes on for the first time, I think it really added to the role and helped immensley in terms of feeling like someone else and having a different survival sense about you due to the quality of the clothes.
First thoughts. I didn’t realise how incredibly huge the space was and that it was outside a cafe. This caused me to overthink the possibilities of sounds, playfulness and general hullabaloo that a park brings, not including a cafe also.
Speaking to the teachers I learned that the importance of this is to project, as the wind and the space is so large and heavy it really takes out of your voice and bestirs what you’re hearing. So the warm up initially really helped to toast up the vocal chords and ready them for how intense and loud you had to be.
Warming up in the park was a really nice experience because although we werent able to prepare and reherse on the stage we were able to get used to and feel the space. It allowed ups to get rid of neerves and enjoy the glorious weather we were lucky to recieve on the day.
Another thing that threw me, was the fact that performing to 3 sides wasn’t necessary anymore and the thing that had been engrained into my characters decisions about physical openness were crushed as I was able to do the thing most actors are inclined to do, however I was not. I found myself directing slightly sideways unnecessarily and if i could improve upon something I would like to improve my flexibility with how efficiently I can adjust my proaction and physical direction to cater for the audience.
Moreover the non existence of wings added extra difficulty as you had to hide behind the set but still be able to see or hear what was occurring without making yourself overly distracting for the audience watching. I think that made it intensely hard when performing as well as that as soon as you stepped out of the scene there was a sea of happy busy smiling park goers that through you as I personally felt I couldn’t fully enter into the character after seeing such contrasting images to the main themes of play and how we had built and rehearsed as a collective.
The loss of a character hindered the ability for exploration as although it went smoothly we were all aware that the script had been changed and this challenged us physically and verbally even more. But the show must go on.
I loved the challenge of it all and think its so important to experiment with blending theatre with real life so as to bring life and art into one.
The rehersals recently havent been going as swiftly as we had planned due to the stop/start nature of the script and the fact that we havent been able to perform it without hesitation or problems which is slightly worrying. However Will hads created a template sheet that we could use in order to mark it all down as well as all our movement, additional notes, objectives etc.
Personally I think it's really challenging to act efficiently and still move the blocks at the same time, Ive had a problem with moving the blocks and think that when Im on stage it'll be better, since I'll b running off adrenaline and my own character. However for now I'm worried about getting technique correct and placement also.
Holding the grid correctly was majorly important after I cut myself in the final dress rehersal and found myself wiping the blood on my face, but I just need to be a bit more aware about the placement of my fingers and the roughness of my caralling in one of the first scene changes.
So without loosing momentum and character development I spoke to my partner and we adjusted it so as not to cut myself! Luckily it didnt happen!It's interesting that you can develop a sense of spacial and physical awareness when youve spoken and worked on it for so long that it comes naturally, Ive learnt that you can be stuck in your head too much of the time and to just focus wholly on the task ahead collectively is such an important skill for ensemble work. Especially with large props.
PREPARATION FOR THE SHOW:
My character is a politician, he is an adviser and he is loyal. I wanted to watch some modern day speakers and politicians to kind of enable myself to get a whiff of what its like to see a professional talker and how they deliver speeches to attract the masses, to act stern and yet likeable. Two charctersistics that I sturggled to merge.
orator
ˈɒrətə/
noun
a public speaker, especially one who is eloquent or skilled.
an official speaking for a university on ceremonial occasions.
noun: public orator; plural noun: public orators
https://youtu.be/xw6FAf5tXSE
1:17 mark
Hitler was undeniably an incredible orator, although he uses his power for evil it is simething we explore constsantly throghout the play and is used to temper Coriolanus. The eye contact and passion that was leaking out of every fibre of his being is what made Hitler such an attractive authority figure and thus such an intense leader. I was thinking about if I wanted Coriolanus to speak well, I would have to address him well too, if i didnt noone would listen to him as he wouldnt listen to me. I needed to build upon what made people increasingly invested in what someone is saying, so much so that they change their political stance or loyalties. Hitler was able to address different poeple making different promises to each, and I think I can improve through seeming much more appealing to the "plebians" and others that abhor Coriolanus and the Romans.
I researched what made a good orator and here are somethings I am keeping in mind throughout.
1) Eye contact- sustained and assured, eyes are the windows into the soul and I need to believe in order for not only the other characters but the audience also.
2) Preparation- I have filmed myself multiple times and have used certain verbs to help me get accross what it is I my objective is and what I want from the others.
"Alack you are transported by calamity,
Thither wheremore attends you and you slander the helms of the state."
This could be recieved negatively by the rebels, but the way in which i believe it will be most effective is if I give them tough love, the scoulding as well as an answer to their problems.
Although this has already been filmed this part I believe really sets the tone for our characters as it exposes our ability to not only converse with the other sides but also persuade.
3) Speak off of breath- something I've realised throughout is that If I didnt prepare my body for a long sentence I would eventually ruin the sentence and its meaning, the breathing exercises that we did initially allowed me to flex my vocal chords and allow the expansion of lung capacity. I also spent lot of time pre show alone running lines, practising diction which really helped me to feel comfortable before going on. As well as bit of exercise to shake off the nerves, and get my heart rate and breathing to a nice primal natural flow allowing me to create raw emotions voally rather than clouding them with what I think "sounds nice".
Throughout the real performance I did feel like my character was a continous human, living and existing even outside of the stage, which helped for when I came on to feel natural and stopped myself from intellectualising it. The movements and fights worked well because even if I slipped up and moved into the wronfg position it felt justified as I breathed and lived through the moment. I have learnt so much from just one performance and found that allowing myself to trust in the research and character development I was able to attack this performance with ease, that previously felt shaky in the dress rehersal.
For example in the section wherein Coriolanus is betrayed and we are attacked, my long coat got in the way of the piece and came off, I was unable to put it back on again smoothly and found myself hidling it defensively not allowing anyone else any more of my dignity. This didnt feel jarring because of the development i was able to react truthfully and deal with a hiccup that i didnt initially expect.
NOTES FROM THE FINAL DRESS REHERSAL:
ill go to him fist raise=more conviction "I'll go to him, and undertake..." This quote wherein i must raise my fist was told to do with more conviction vocally and physically.
don’t leave before someone pulls you back
I need to wait for Brutus' last line before I can leave, otherwise I take my leave to early.
Learning from others Zion is able to live so truthfully that she mesmerisies the audience, i find myself drawn to her because of her investment in the theatre that she creates as a world.
Overall I think that our performance was incredibly successful and that all the creases were ironed out as all the development really kicked in and we were able to create the piece that we aimed for at the beginnning of this monumentous challenge.
In todays rehearsal after two runs of Coriolanus we were asked to write reviews on both performances as ever run of the play needs to be as good as, if not better than the final performance.
Theatre reviewer:
"The first performance of Coriolanus was incredibly slow and awful, The lines were learnt poorly and the cast were clumpy as if they had no idea what they were doing. The transitions included conversations amongst the cast and they were slow and not very securely learnt. They stopped and started and you could read that they didn't know what they were doing or have any idea about their objective or character as they entered the space. Rather they relied on other, more oblivious cast members to recall what they were meant to be doing. Utter disaster."
"After much deliberation I decided to give the performers another chance. This performance improved immensely as it was a much faster and speedy performance, the Coriolanus brothers acting as a ticking time bomb for their destruction. The pace added to the performance as the transitions were swifter and made more sense in correlation to the story. Some of the cast members knew it well and were able to follow through with what their objectives were, and you could feel the stakes being raised as the play progressed. There were real moments of tension."
NOTES:
We need more investment in the beginning for the first 10-15 minutes, it needs to be pushed with belief of the society and characters within.
If you feel like it's filled with aggression, instead of character detail and your characters plight then we need to work on why that is and what your characters going through because no one stays on that level it needs to be allowed to undulate emotionally and have layers to your character.
Don't forget 3 sides of the audience, open up physically to allow the sound and expression to travel and avoid speaking upstage.
Bitchiness and aggression are the two easiest ways of creating character, don't play aggression.
Got to get blocks in the right position because it will set the notes for the rest of the play and impede other performers as time goes on.
Don't walk offstage in neutral ever, you're still going somewhere and you still have something on your mind as a character, it all means something to you and you need to pursue that objective to the end, even in the wings.
You're in this world all the time, live breathe and research this world.
What can we lean from Henry V (suggestions from the cast)
We can learn that from the performance of Henry V it was incredibly picturesque, if you would want to take a picture at any moment you would find that it was beautifully blocked and very clearly plotted to make it as efficient and beautiful as a theatrical picture as possible.
However we found that some of the movements were clunky when they were changing scene or leaving and that impeded the audiences ability to hear what has been said and thusly they were unable to capture some relevant information. We need to make sure that as our costume shoes and set is very heavy we need to still allow the performance to be heard and for the set to be as efficiently quiet as possible. I found that the overlapping was really good, as soon as one scene had completed the next conversation would start, never allowing the audience to be bored or left waiting you were constantly at the edge of your seat and the stage was never left empty.
One thing that they could improve on as said by our cast was the working of three sides, sometimes it was executed with certain monologues but I can imagine that sometimes the conversations were faced inward and only available for the central batch of audience members to hear. This meant that the sides weren't able to understand or see the faces of some of the cast members in certain situations. Every scene needs to be a chase and as soon as you get to close the scene is over and you've gained what you wanted, you need to be available for more to come at you and so never blocking or achieving your objective because it doesn't enable you to justify the continuation of the scene.
Henry V Cast were incredibly good at not upstaging others, you could still watch the cast as they had created a world around them but you wouldn't of been distracted by what they were doing as they kept in minimal and focussed so that you could envisage the battlefield they were in without taking the focus away from the main actress.
Notes from the director were to stand in neutral at the sides, rather than playing with hair, as eventually the audience wont want to watch you as well as not using the doors greedily, and execute this by trying to go in in clumps
Reaction to costume The costume we have been assigned I feel will be difficult to live in under the heat of the lights and the movement that we have accumulated as it contains layers of clothes that may impede my ability to move as swiftly as possible. However I believe that the clothes will add to our character development and practicing in it will insure that we feel as if there is something to retain and keep as our possessions and luxuries may or may not (dependent on the character) be stripped away from you. Personally I need to add more layers to my costume and may have to add more accessories to ensure my "warmth" in a barren place of desolation.
Reaction to theatre My initial reaction to that of the theatre and the layout was fear, the fact that when you were meant to enter from the doors you would have to wait for as many people as possible, to insure that you wouldn't create too much sound as well as waiting at the sides in neutral so as to avoid anyone in the audience getting distracted, This is because if everyone remained in neutral no one would find you interesting enough to remain staring at you. The wings were also very close to the audience and the fact that most sounds could be heard as well as opposite sides of the theatre being able to see you through the exits at the wings meant that you had to remain quiet and still. Also being aware of your queues verbally so that you don't ever have to peak around to look at what the others are doing. However the lead up to the stage means that you can build up your character and step up to it, building your characters history and reminding yourself of your objectives.
Reaction to set I believe that the set may cause many problems on set, due to the ginormous nature of the blocks and L shapes, however the final product looks amazing and if we are all able to remain acting and still move the set effectively the transitions will enhance the performance and make it what it has been envisaged by Will. The blocks movement needs to be constantly under scruitiy and note taking as the movement from the room to stage may change the orientation of us as actors and the marks for the staging. As it is very different to moving chairs than moving huge heavy wooden structures. The backdrop looks incredible and adds a jagged nature to the play and the repeated pattern of grids and lines makes the set intensely more dynamic and really sets it up for the jagged and restrictive society that we bring the audience into.
Problems that did occur for me was the transition from stage to screen and how much I would’ve had to decrease expression and objective, facially in order for it not to be too intense or distracting. Also the noise outside around the school created time restrictions and pressures as we felt a bigger need to complete the shoot perfectly. 
