Double Performing Arts Lesson (13th November 2015)

At the start of todays lesson we all sat down and broke down all the scenes we have completed and discussed any additional work we felt was needed in those specific scenes. We ran through the scenes we have already completed to tie up any loose ends.

For Example- In preperation for the shooting scene I had an idea to drum during the scene to show a little suspense but not enough to scare the children. I started drumming on the window sill and Miss McSherry liked the idea so included it in the scene for the shooting. The children would find this comical because as the situation gets more intense and Mr Fox smells something, the drums then stop and he shouts, "Fried Chicken!!!".

Single Performing Arts Lessons (10th and 13th November 2015)

10th November

In today's single lesson, we created character profiles for our parent rolls. Once completed we presented our profiles and received feedback from Miss Cordell and the rest of the class.

For my profile I explained my relationship with my son and my hobbies, (E.G- talking to Phill!! and Andyy!!).

13th November 

In today's single lesson we went through the adults scene again. Once we completed our run through we all sat down as a class and went through the scene and wrote down where we were at each line in the hopes it would help us with our movement and positioning on the stage during out performance. 

Double Performing Arts Lesson (9th November 2015)

In today's lesson Lewis and I continued getting James up to speed on the farmers scenes. We began to introduce James into 'the shooting' scene and after going through the scene with him, we work shopped specific details in the scene (E.G- The slapstick poke) We believed work shopping these small specific details will boost our performances in turn boosting our overall grade. 

I used these ideas for my own character for the way I sneak round the back With Bunce and Bean. I am very fat so I seam to waddle when I walk in character.    

Double Performing Arts Lesson (6th November 2015)

In today's double lesson we spent the first section planning out the scenes we still need to devise. We separated the scenes we've completed and the scenes we need to complete.

As we began to work on our scenes Lorna decided to exchange her roll of Bunce to James. So Lewis and I began to run through our farmer scenes with James to catch hi up with the work we've done. 

Although this decision pushed us further away from completing our unit and created more work for us as a group. I believe the change was for the best because it allowed James to get more involved in our production of Fantastic Mr Fox.  

Single Performing Arts Lessons (5th and 6th November 2015)

5th November 

In today's lesson we worked on character actions and motives. We ran through Act 1 Scene 1 again focusing mainly on exaggeration the actions of the children in the Flint Street Nativity.

6th November 

During this is lesson we went through Act 2 as the children and stopped when we reached the adults.

We decided to work on development of movement for our characters. 

-For example- Ryan sits bottom right of stage at a table playing 'Question of Sport'.

                        When he moves outside to the playground, he moves bottom left of the stage. 

Single Performing Arts Lesson (3rd November 2015)

In todays single lesson we created character profiles for our children characters. We created these to help us understand our characters more. (E.G- How our characters act and why they act like they do.)
We discussed each characters emotions, why they feel these emotions and how they deal with them.
Once we complete our characters profiles we ran Act 1 Scene 1 again with our characters emotions in mind.

Single Performing Arts Lesson (23rd October 2015)

At the start of this practice session we sat down and Miss Cordell went through the 'marking criteria' for this unit with us. We went into detail with the requirements for Merit and Distinction.
I now understand the clear difference between merit and distinction work needed for my blogs (e.g descriptions and explanations). However for me to achieve a high grade I need to pick up on the 'theatrical vocabulary' and included more of the terminology into my blogs.

For the second part of this lesson we continued with the adults scene but we began to include different movement exercises into our scene to boost our performances. So one of the exercises we introduced was a 'no dialogue' exercise. This helped us to know where we would stand and move too throughout the scene. It took the main focus off the actual speaking and more onto the movement. Making up think about what sort of character we are and how they would move.

Single Performing Arts Lesson (22nd October 2014

In today's Single lesson we rehearsed the adults scene again and expanded on the improvement from last lesson. We tried a new technique today to help us improve our understanding of our characters. Miss Cordell called it 'The clapping game'. we would start by acting out our scenes like normal but when we felt that our character would think something, we would clap, everyone would stop, and we then say what we would think our character is saying. This resulted in mostly insults or throwaway comments towards the other characters.

This exercise was used to help us understand our characters subtext. Showing the contrast between adults and children. (For Example children just say what they think but adults don't).

Double Performing Arts Lesson (21st October 2015)

In today's double lesson with Miss Cordell Olly Kelly joined Jame's and my group for Greek Myths, We were working on the story of Odyssey. Previously I had done some research on Odyssey and Odysseus and printed off s booklet for Myself and James to

work with.

As a group we came up with a few ideas for the story. James suggested recreating the fight with frantic assembly but Olly rightly said he didn't think there was enough of us for that idea. Then I suggested split stage and we ricocheted ideas off it. Like Olly's idea for James being Odysseus and me being The Monster and switching the story to make the audience feel sorry for me. (For Example- I wrote a monologue about how I was defeated by Odysseus, and how people laugh at my name.) 

To finish off the lesson James also wrote a monologue on how he is loved and praised for defeating me and how he was called a hero. 

Single Performing Arts Lesson (19th October 2015)

For this Lesson we focus on the adults scene for The Flintstreet Nativity.

For me (Herod's Dad) I focused on movement (where i stand, who i talk too etc....). I rehearsed my entrances and exits from the stage (where I go out from, where I come in from and who I move too)

I struggled with my leaving lines like 'ANDYY!' and 'PHILL!'. Miss Cordell gave me ideas like having one hand on my ear and gesturing to Olly as I walk out to boost the exit.

Once we rehearsed the adults scene a couple of times, we went back to the beginning of the script and went through again from the beginning. 

Double Performing Arts Lesson (19th October 2015)

During this Lesson Charlie, Rhiannon, James and Lorna went into the other room and worked on their new Fox Family scene whilst Lewis and I worked on the new Farmers shooting scene we created from the last lesson.

Olly Kelly stood in for Lorna's place as she was working in the other group, so we decided to work on spacial awareness and movement.

To help us understand the importance of movement on stage we were given a workshop on Laban. We learnt about the 3 opposite styled pairs of movements he used (Light & Heavy, Direct & Indirect and Sudden & Sustained).

After our workshop Lorna Lewis and I ran through our new scene using the techniques we just learnt in our workshop. 

Double Performing Arts Lesson (16th October 2015)

At the start of today's double lesson we decided which chapters would go in which scene (we created a scene outline).


Then we went through the two different groups scenes they had created (Charlie, Rhiannon, Lorna and James created a digging scene) (and Lewis, Lorna and I created a farmers scene).
However Lorna and I began to struggle with our scenes and couldn't create a different image and sound for out characters so we discussed with Miss McSherry Different techniques and ideas to create our characters.

After this we had a run through of our new and improved script for the shooting putting into practice our new voices we just created with Miss McSherry.