Acting 1

What is acting?

Acting is the art of portraying someone or something different to yourself. An actor takes a character from a story and brings it to life for an audience to see and it can be done in a wide variety of forms such as film acting, stage acting, commercial acting and radio or podcasts, to name a few. 

https://www.backstage.com/magazine/article/what-is-acting-76250/ 

Important people in the acting world

Stanislavski

 Konstantin Stanislavski was a Russian Actor, director and theatre practitioner, specially famous for his 'system' used for actor training, preparation and rehearsal. Stanislavski created this system in the early 20th century as a way for theatre to move away from its 19th century style (over the top and dramatic) and into a more naturalistic one by encouraging the actors to fully embody the role the are playing, not just pretend to be the character but become the character themselves; understand what the character is saying, why they are saying it, how they are feeling and every detail of that characters life before, during and after the performance. Stanislavski's 'system' has 8 separate parts to it:

• Emotional Memory- Emotional memory is when you use a real-life experience to help trigger certain feelings, e.g. if your character had to be happy, you think of a happy memory, if your character had to cry and be sad, you think of something that upset you and use those feeling to make yourself cry. 

• Method of physical actions- this is when a character behaves in a certain way that is recognisable to the audience 

• Sub-text- Subtext is the meaning and motivation behind the words or actions that are written. For example, "I wish you were here" could be a friend writing about their latest holiday (happy), or it could be a grieving parent missing their 2 year old child (sad). The subtext helps provide a deeper understanding of the characters without having to literally say everything about them and helps the actor gage the correct delivery of the lines. 

• Given Circumstance- Given circumstance is what information we have been given about a character or play as a whole, e.g. where is the play set? What is the character doing there? How are they involved in the story? It is important information that the writer has included about these characters as a starting point for the actors to use to evolve that character. 

• "If"- "If" or the "magic If" is a technique where the actor asks themselves "if it was me?". its used to help actors put themselves in their characters position to help make the acting more realistic and believable. 

• Objective- The objective is what your character wants to do right now and why you are doing it e.g. my character wants to make a sandwich, because they are bored. Its used to help an actor focus on their character and is constantly changing as the story progresses e.g. my character wants to make a sandwich because he is bored. Now my character wants to make a coffee to go with the sandwich, etc. 

• Super-objective- The super objective is the overall goal of your character, is usually linked to the theme and outcome of the production and a characters 'objectives' might be steps towards their super objective, e.g. my character wants to make a sandwich because they're bored (objective), they want to make a coffee to go with the sandwich (objective), they buy a store and open a sandwich and coffee shop so they will always be busy (Super-objective).

• Through line- When a characters Objectives act as a clear path towards the characters super-objective, this is called a Through-line. Its basically stepping stones for your characters story from A to Z.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Konstantin_Stanislavski 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/zxn4mp3/revision/1 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/zxn4mp3/revision/5 

https://www.backstage.com/magazine/article/the-definitive-guide-to-the-stanislavsky-acting-technique-65716/ 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/zxn4mp3/revision/7 

Later on, Actioning was added into stanislavski's technique:

• Actioning- Actioning is when you assign a verb (doing word) to what you are acting out and then verbalise it. (e.g. a character is saying "I pray thee gentle mortal, sing again", the character is begging, so the action would be pleading).

https://www.backstage.com/magazine/article/actioning-acting-explained-75443/  

The Chekhov's

Anton Chekhov was a Russian playwright, writer and physician who is known for being one of the first practitioners to include early modernism in his theatre. Before Chekhov, theatre was very traditionally rehearsed, produced and performed (i.e. obviously actors playing a character) but with the introduction of modernism, theatre became more naturalistic, believable and experimental. Modernist theatre includes symbolist, naturalist, surrealist, futurist or expressionist performances. 

Anton Chekhov's nephew, Michael Chekhov, followed in his uncles footsteps and studied under Stanislavski at the Moscow art theatre, and later developed his own technique; the Chekhov Technique. The Chekhov technique aims to connect emotions and feelings with physical gestures or movements through 5 key or 'guiding' principles:

• The technique (Acting) is psycho-physical- The body and mind may be separate but they are still one being, and the body has developed a sensitivity to what the mind thinks. Therefore, when actors move on stage they can use this principle to develop their concentration and imagination skills by consciously moving around, thinking deeply about how they are moving and what that movement conveys to the audience. 

• Intangible means of expression- this aims to teach us that the best of what we can offer is unreachable unless we have full concentration. These un-reachables include; atmosphere, radiation, space, relationship, inner movement, imaginary centre and imaginary body.

• The creative spirit and the higher intellect- the creative spirit is used to reference the creativity and unity needed when creating a character. Creating a believable character is not as simple as 1,2,3 and requires lots of small aspects to be carefully merged together to create the final thing, the creative spirit (or your imagination) has to do all of that. 

• The technique is one thing; it awakens the creative state- Each technique an actor learns is its own unique component and requires a lot of effort to master, the creative state brings all the those components together. 

• Artistic Freedom- Artistic freedom allows the actor playing the role to add their own spin to the character. Characters usually have some kind of backstory and given circumstances but often there is wiggle room for the actors to experiment a little, they might have imagined playing it in one kind of way and artistic freedom gives them the opportunity to try it out. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_theatre 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anton_Chekhov 

https://www.routledgeperformancearchive.com/browse/subjects/form-genre/modernist-theatre#:~:text=Modernist%20theatre%20includes%20works%20considered,the%201880s%20and%20the%201930s. 

https://www.backstage.com/magazine/article/what-is-chekhov-technique-acting-explained-74762/ 

https://www.craftfilmschool.com/userfiles/files/The%20Michael%20Chekhov%20Handbook_%20For%20the%20Actor.pdf 

Meisner

Sanford Meisner was an American actor and acting teacher who created the Meisner technique. This technique aims to teach actors to focus and concentrate on everyone else in the room besides themselves. this improves improvisational skills while also teaching actors how to access their emotions ready to merge the two together when performing. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meisner_technique 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanford_Meisner 

Adler

Stella Adler was an American actor and acting teacher who developed the Adler Technique. The Adler technique is based off of Stanislavski's emotional memory technique, except instead of using personal memories to fuel an emotion, an actor can use 'real-life observations' and their imagination to create a character. 

https://dramatics.org/stella-adler-acting-technique/ 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stella_Adler 

Brecht

Bertold Brecht was a German practitioner, playwright and poet responsible for creating the 'Distancing effect' ('Verfremdungseffekt' officially, V-effect for short), used in theatre today and is branched off from Naturalistic theatre. Naturalistic theatre aims to fully absorb the audience into the story, provoking feelings, reactions and emotions from the audience based off what is happening in the play. Brecht thought that the audience lost the ability to think and judge properly when this happened, so he decided that he wanted the audience to remain as enthralled with the story as they were, whilst retaining the ability to make their own decisions about the characters without connecting to them personally. He does this by breaking the 'fourth wall' (the imaginary 'wall' on stage that separates the actors from the audience) and reminding the audience that they are watching something made up. He does this using various methods including, Narration (having someone talk the audience through the story), coming out of role/ Third person narration (an actor breaking character to explain something to the audience), speaking the stage directions (self explanatory?), Direct address (an actor talking directly to the audience, breaking the fourth wall) and using placards (signs). 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/zwmvd2p/revision/1 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/zwmvd2p/revision/4 

Complicite

Complicite is a British theatre company founded in 1983 by Simon McBurney, Annabel Arden, Fiona Gordon and Marcello Magni. They are heavily influenced by Jacques Lecoq's 7 levels of tension and fucus on 'collective enquiry and collective curiosity'. They aim to create imaginative, original, challenging, ground-breaking theatre that often has a message.

Lecoq's 7 levels of tension: (1-4 are levels that we cycle through daily)

1. Exhausted or catatonic- there's no tension at all in the body. Like a jellyfish

2. Laid back- very chill and relaxed.

3. Neutral- neither tense or un-tense, just being.

4. Alert- your slightly tense, sitting up, sitting down etc.  

5. Reactive or suspense- all the tension in the body is concentrated between the eyes. Your worried and ready to do something, but not doing it yet

6. Passionate- Something is happening and your reacting to it. fear, anger, love, ecstasy, whatever it is, its big!

7. Tragic- Your body is as tense as it can be, you cant move or think. This is the end.

https://www.dramaandtheatre.co.uk/practical/article/practitioner-focus-complicite 

https://dramaresource.com/seven-levels-of-tension/ 

Grotowski

Jerzy Grotowski was a polish theatre director who's approaches to acting, training and theatre production have impacted the theatre industry dramatically. He often experimented with his actors, pushing the boundaries of physical, spiritual and ritualistic performances as well as challenging them to consider what is it to be a performer compared to what is it to be a spectator. This is this is why he is considered one of the founders of experimental theatre. Grotowski's main technique includes:

• Acting through focus and awareness- Students under Grotowski were taught in 'hyper-focus' to allow them to completely submerge themselves into their character and avoid any mental blocks on the way. Students were also taught to convey a text entirely through the use of their body's and voices (no- speech) to improve their non-verbal storytelling. 

• Human contact- Grotowski believed that the best way to form connections between actors in a production is to actually be with them. Actually looking and listening to other people was extremely important and being aware of your impact on another person was equally important. 

• Silence- 'The actor should begin by doing nothing'~ Grotowski. He believed that the first thing any actor should do is learn and practice silence, because an external silence will help the actor gain inner silence and therefore have the ability to concentrate deeper on their characters. 

• Memory work- Grotowski's memory work is very similar to Brecht's emotional memory. He believed that having an actor channel an honest memories feelings into their character will give a more honest performance. 

• Voice- Grotowski believed the voice was an equal instrument to a guitar or piano, and taught his students to compartmentalise their voices as if they were coming from separate parts of the body. he also wanted the actors to be able to use their full vocal register, from low to high, and so they trained and practiced to become some of the strongest vocalists out there.  

• Physical training- Grotowski believed in the body's range of physicality and thought that a persons body can express anything, so he taught his students to focus on every detail of their body's and the physicality in the smallest movements (think an eye twitch, bulging vein, nostril flare etc). this allowed them to concentrate on each detail of their bodies and become incredibly skilled performers. 

https://www.backstage.com/magazine/article/guide-to-the-jerzy-grotowski-technique-74788/#:~:text=Grotowski%20students%20are%20trained%20to,the%20sake%20of%20the%20performance. 

Artaud

Antonin Artaud was a French artist who was came up with the idea, 'Theatre of Cruelty'. He was well known for his raw and surreal work, often pushing social and moral boundaries in his productions. 

The encyclopaedia Britannica describes the theatre of cruelty as "a primitive ceremonial experience intended to liberate the human subconscious and reveal man to himself". This type of theatre shocks the audience and aims to have the audience connect with the actors on a spiritual level and read deeper into the production as a whole (the scenery, props, actors etc each have their own story to tell about life and hope to make the audience think deeper about their own lives). 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antonin_Artaud 

https://study.com/learn/lesson/theatre-of-cruelty-antonin-artaud-characteristics-examples.html#:~:text=The%20"Theatre%20of%20Cruelty"%20is,to%20the%20Theatre%20of%20Cruelty.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theatre_of_Cruelty 

Berkoff

Steven Berkoff is an English actor, director and playwriter who uses total theatre (theatre that encompasses multiple mediums e.g. multimedia, physical, movement, scripts, lighting etc) to tell the story in his productions as well as expressionism (over-exaggerated movements). This combination is known as 'Berkovian theatre'. 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/znn4vk7/revision/2 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steven_Berkoff 

Meyerhold

Vsevolod Meyerhold (...no that's not a typo!) was a Russian theatre director, actor and Producer of German descent. He believed that a production should not be naturalistic, but should evolve further and be over-exaggerated and inspire the audience to think controversially to the time period (e.g. votes for women pre 1918) and act differently that was expected. 

https://sites.google.com/view/vsevolodmeyerholddoe/vsevolod-meyerhold/philosophical-and-theatrical-approach 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vsevolod_Meyerhold 

Boal

Augusto Boal was a Brazilian theatre practitioner, drama theorist and political activist who created 'Theatre of the Oppressed (TO)'. TO uses theatre as a tool to help create change and is used globally for social and political activism, conflict resolution, therapy, community building and more. TO invites spectators to be 'spect-actors' and get involved in the production and have their own opinions and viewpoints of the piece.

https://imaginaction.org/media/our-methods/theatre-of-the-oppressed-2/ 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augusto_Boal 

https://sushoreline.wordpress.com/2017/02/17/theatre-practitioners/ 

Create24 Festival

This year (2024), Gloucestershire College is putting on an arts and media festival in Llantony priory and us as HNC/D PA were asked to perform. The big question was what would we be performing? 

On 7th March 2024, Sonia (our course leader) booked us in to see 'A Midsummer Nights Dream' at the RSC in Stratford-upon-Avon, and we really liked what we saw, so we decided to make that our summer project. Sonia found a shortened script for it (Guessing from around 2 hours to 1 hour) for us to use as our starting point however, there were a few issues we needed to identify and fix: 

• Cast size

• Location

• Length

• Language

• Cast

• Directors

• Backstage roles

• Timeline

• Costumes

• Set and props

Cast size

In HNC and HND combined there are 10 students: one works independently from the group, 1 works in Technical rather than Acting and we have 8 actors. Therefore, we only had 8 people to fill in 19 total characters from the original 'A Midsummer Nights Dream'. As a group we all got a little bored with the lovers (sorry, but we are more action than romance!), so we decided to cut the 4 lovers (Helena, Hermia, Lysander and Demetrius) out of the production. Not only does this help with cast size but significantly shortens the production (guessing from around 1 hour to around 30-35 mins). That left us with the two royals, the fairies and the workmen, totalling 15 characters. The Royals (Theseus and Hippolyta) don't appear at the same time as the workmen (who we are choosing to focus the production on), until the very end and even then it is very minimal, so we could easily adjust the ending to not include those characters...2 more down, 11 left.  As we were watching the RSC's performance, the actor who played 'Puck' used handheld lights to portray a fairy trapped in his hand. If we used this same technique we could cut another 4 characters down (Peaseblossom, Cobweb, Moth and Mustardseed). That left 1 to find. We figured that at this stage we could get an actor to multirole (play more than one role in a production), as long as we chose our characters carefully. That sorted the Cast size.

Location

The Location would be outside in a tee-pee located on the grass at Llantony priory, NOT in the theatre where everything is designed and prepared for a production. The location of the production means that we will have very limited space, scenery, sound, lighting and backstage access so we would need to keep that in mind when rehearsing scenes, planning changes and directing the production. We will also be sharing the tee-pee with other HE courses, so space will be limited further by their exobitions.

length

As mentioned earlier, 'A Midsummer Nights Dream' when it hasn't been cut down, is probably around 2 hours. Taking out the lovers storyline has cut the production down further but ideally we want a piece that is short and sweet and can be repeated throughout the day. because of its location, people will be able to pop in and pop out at any time they like and it is not a ticketed event, so what we put on has to be interesting enough to get peoples interest, engaging enough to get people to stay and short enough so that people wont get tired of standing up. Equally, running a short production throughout the day gives the audience more flexibility and chance to see the show. You miss the beginning of this one? Don't worry, its on again in 2 hours! So overall, short seemed like a better option. We were aiming for around 20-25 minutes so didn't have much left to cut down, so I looked at and edited the script down to around 20 minutes. 

A Mini-Summer nights dream is a shorted version of Shakespeare's, 'a Midsummer nights dream', which follows 2 storylines; one being of 4 lovers, Helena, Hermia, Lysander and Demetrius and one that follows the rude mechanicals as they prepare for a play. 

For the Lovers storyline, Hermia is in love with Lysander but her father wants her to marry Demetrius, who Helena (Hermia's lady in waiting) loves. Lysander and Hermia run away and Helena tells Demetrius, who follows them, who is followed by Helena. The 4 Lovers end up being separated. Oberon feels sorry for Helena chasing Demetrius and orders Puck to put some flower drops onto Demetrius' eyes, but Puck puts it on Lysanders eyes in a mix-up as well as Demetrius. Helena then has both Demetrius and Lysander chasing her while Hermia has been abandoned. Once all 4 find each other a fight breaks out and Oberon puts them all to sleep. Puck fixes his mistake, Helena is with Demetrius and Hermia is with Lysander again and they all go back to the city to watch the rude mechanicals play. 

For the Rude mechanicals storyline, Quince (a carpenter) has written a play about Pyramus and Thisbe and has grouped Bottom (a Weaver), Snug (a joiner), Flute (a bellows mender), Snout (a tinker) and Starveling (a tailor) to act in it. They first meet in the city but decide to rehearse for the play in the woods. The first rehearsals night they all arrive in the woods. During rehearsals, Bottom leaves and Puck gives him the head of an ass. This cares the other mechanicals and they flee back to the city. Bottom does not understand the joke and staying in the forest close to where Titania is resting. Bottom begins to sing and she wakes up, instantly falling in love with him. She then takes him back to her home and dotes on him until they both fall asleep. Oberon appears and puts antidote on her eyes so she is no longer in love with bottom. When she wakes she is mortified and leaves with Oberon, asking what has happened. Bottom wakes up alone and assumes it was all a dream. He goes back to the city where the other mechanicals have been looking for him and together they put on a production of Pyramus and Thisbe for the Duke (Pyramus and Thisbe love each other, there's a wall in the way, they agree to meet in a cave, Thisbe runs into a lion and gets injured, Pyramus sees blood and assumes Thisbe is dead so kills himself. Thisbe sees a dead Pyramus a kills herself...its very Romeo and Juliet). 

Titania, Oberon and Puck link the two storylines together. Oberon and Titania are married but have separate kingdoms. Titania found a changeling child and kept it as her own. Oberon did not like this and so told Puck to find a flower that will make anyone fall in love with the first thing they see. Puck finds the flower and applies it to Titania's eyes (followed by Lysander and Demetrius's eyes). Oberon then asks Titania for her child (while she is in love with Bottom) and she gives it to him. Everyone is then released from the spell. 

This script focuses only on the Rude mechanicals and so a lot of Titania's backstory is missed, therefore I had to find a way to include enough so that it would make sense to the audience. By adding in Oberon to explain in scene 3 it helped explain the story a lot, but I needed to make my characterization obvious between 'love spell Titania' and 'normal Titania' so I tried to make the switch obvious (smiling to neutral, doting to independent etc). The original style of this play is set in Greek times, but because of the length  of scenes it would be difficult to portray that throughout, especially as half of the scenes involves a fairy who didn't follow the clothes of that time, so we decided to just try and keep it as simple as possible. 

Language

Shakespearean language is very different to language today. Not only have words changed meaning, but the way you say words has been changed too, and Shakespeare was very fond of his timings and rhythms, so that had an impact as well! Most of the language I decided to keep the same, as 'A Midsummer Nights Dream' is quite easy to read compared to some of his other works, but there were a few changes I made to help the crew understand the meaning behind the words they were speaking. Its not hugely modern, but its a bit more updated!

Cast

The cast! 9 Characters, 8 Actors....what to do? Luckily, we all work really well together and almost everyone had an idea for who they though would play who best. I asked everyone to send me who they would like to play. 6/8 of us were easy and had no clashes...2 had to audition! We decided to make them both audition twice, so they could both read two characters and decided on characters that day so that we could go home and learn lines. The characters are:

Quince- Hollyann Freeman

Bottom- Sam Gwilliam

Flute- Ryan Thornton

Snout/Starveling- Elijah Matos

Snug- Basia Klimek

Titania- Charlotte Rich (thats me!!!!!!)

Oberon- Jay Greening

Puck- Misty Coates

Although Snout and Starveling are in the same scenes, they are never really conversing with each other, so it made sense to multirole them together. The next thing we needed to sort were the 4 fairies (Peaseblossom, Cobweb, Moth and Mustardseed). We decided that they would be lights, but they do have a line each. We could either ask one of the level 2 or 3's to come and help us, or we could voice-over them. Since the Level 2 and Level 3 performances are on that week, we decided it would be best if we voice worked those characters so I asked Misty, Sam, Ryan and Hollyann to voice them. 

Directors

I have had experience directing before and enjoy doing it, so I wanted to be involved in the directing process. There are 5 scenes in the script; 2 long ones, 1 medium one and 2 short ones. Sonia and I asked the class if anyone would like to have a go at directing and Ryan, Sam and Hollyann put their hand up. We decided that as a team we would direct the production together, Ryan and Sam working together on Scenes 1 and 4, Hollyann taking scenes 2 and 3 and myself taking scene 5, with Sonia acting as an overseeing director to everyone.

Backstage roles

When working with such a small crew, backstage roles fall to everyone to do a bit of everything, rather than have 1 person doing 1 thing only. Costumes, props, scenery, everyone has to contribute to get it to work properly and so we decided to try and not 'assign' backstage roles, but rather just ask for help if needed. This may or may not have worked...

Timeline

Since starting this term (04 March), we had 15 weeks till show week (30 lessons). taking 7 lessons out (half terms and bank holidays) that left is with 23 lessons to put on a full production, start to finish. we held Auditions on 12 April and handed out scripts then. that gave us a MAXIMUM of 9 weeks (15 lessons) to learn lines, direct scenes and sort out everything production wise. So we went through and made a schedule for what we would do each week:

W/C 22nd April- Scene 1 (25th April Costume ideas deadline)

W/C 29th April- Scene 2 (+ voice overs with Steve the tech)

10th May- Scene 3

W/C 13th May- Scene 4

W/C 20 May- Scene 5 (Lines must be learnt!)

W/C 03 June- Run-through

W/C 10th June- Run-throughs

17th June- Run-through

19th June- Show day

Costumes

I was in charge of designing Titania's Costume. I imagined her wearing a white, floaty dress with a thin cape over her shoulders and curled hair with a flowery headband on. When I was at the RSC I bought a fairy garland and I thought that would go perfectly! I also was in charge of the costumes for scene 5 (as I was directing the play in the production). I needed to find costumes for the prologue, Thisbe, Pyramus, Lion, Moonshine and wall. Lion seemed pretty self explanatory, we need a lions costume (mane, tail and paws if possible) and a plan under-colour, either actors whites or actors blacks. Thisbe would be wearing a dress and obviously feminine clothing, so I picture her wearing a floor-length flowing dress with a sunhat or parasol. Pyramus is supposed to be a hero, so having him wear fancy, heroic clothing seemed appropriate. Sam had decided to wear a waistcoat as Bottom so to make the quick change easir for him, changing over the waistcvoats and giving him a sword seemed like the simplest costume for him. When we watched 'A Mid Summer nights dream' at the RSC, the actor who played wall wore a cardboard 'wall' like a sign, with a 'Chink' on the bottom flap. i thought this was really inspired and funny, yet simple so decided to 'copy' that idea for this costume, and the actor playing wall has a quickchange into Moonshine....what would be an easy way to do that? the obvious thing seemed to be get actors blacks and put them underneath the wall, then use a lantern to distinguish moonshine, but blacks? In summer? In a tent? didnt seem wise to me, so thought about what they would have used back when this was set. White robes were all the rage back then, so why dont we improvise some? take a single duvet cover, cut some arm, head and body holes, done deal... so thats what i did! Prologue, Wall/Moonshine and Lion (because black will just be too hot) with now wear white 'robes' as their costumes for scene 5. 

Set and Props

Because of the venue we will be performing in, set and props would have to be limited. Not only did we not have the time to make extravagant props and move set out, but we didn't have the space to put any set in and we couldn't guarantee the safety of the equipment outside (it was designed for indoor use or is not weather resistant), so sound and lighting were pretty much out (bar an ancient portable speaker system that works like a charm!) The venue space meant that the best way to perform this piece would be in the round. This means we don't need as much background and scenery so we can limit the set to just 1 bed and a chair. Props wise, we want to keep it as little as possible because, again, we have limited space and have to transport everything outside, so we went through it scene by scene and created a set and Props list:

Scene 1- Scripts for the actors, Chair

Scene 2- Bed, Scripts, Chair, Notepad and pencil, calendar, Changing hoop, Ears and tail

Scene 3- Bed, Honeybag, milk bottle, hay, Flower, 

Scene 4- 

Scene 5- Bed, Sword, Cape, wall, lantern, Autographs, Programmes

We then decided to swap out the bed for 2 boxes as it would be safer (more stable than a wiggly bed) and easier to get outside. 

My Character

I am playing the character "Titania", Queen of the fairies and married to Oberon, king of the fairies. Titania is in command of her fairy kingdom with servants such as Peaseblossom, Cobweb, Moth and Mustardseed at her service. The backstory to a midsummer nights dream is that Titania has adopted an orphaned 'changeling child' that Oberon wants to take. Titania refuses Oberon's request and keeps the child for herself. Oberon decides to use a magic Flower (which makes a person fall in love) to trick Titania into giving away the child and then releases her from its spell once he has what he wants. Titania also believes that the troubles she has had with Oberon have affected the 'Human mortals' and caused havoc in their worlds (which they did...if Oberon and Titania weren't fighting the flower wouldn't have been used and the 4 lovers wouldn't have got mixed up.)

Titania is a strong and independent character when she isn't under the influence of the flower. When she is under its spell however, she is devoted and obsessed with Bottom, wanting to spend all her time with him, wanting to grant his every wish and keep her only for himself. Therefore I've tried to make my characterisation of the 2 Titania's noticeably different, having the lovestruck Titania with a higher voice, happier tone, lighter body language and staying close to Bottom. Then when she isn't under the influence, she has a lower pitched voice, more regal tone, rich but fluid body movements and takes up her own space on the stage. 

These rehearsals took place over 9 weeks and through the rehearsal process I tried many different Stanislavski techniques to see which ones I found useful and which ones I didn't. I tried out Emotion memory, Hot-seating, actioning, Subtext, given circumstances, "if", Objective and super objective, and I considered the through line. 

I Used emotion memory in scenes 2 and 3 when Titania is falling in love with Bottom. I used my personal experiences of love to channel it into the character, and then exaggerated it to fit with the story. I found that this was really effective and I found it very useful in connecting with my character as it made it easier for me to imagine how Titania was feeling. I will be using this technique frequently!

I used Hot-seating during one of our warm-ups to bring focus and attention to the room as well as help the actors understand their characters more. Although I found the Hot-seating relatively easy, I think its because I related the character a bit too much to myself and so I answered how Charlotte would answer not how Titania would have. I did find it useful though as it made me re-evaluate some of Titania's actions and so I will be using it again. 

I used actioning a little bit during our final rehearsals but I struggled to connect the right word with how I was supposed to be portraying the character. The acting was right and I had understood how to portray Titania but I couldn't find the right word to go with it. I can understand how Actioning would be a useful tool to actors but I found it more confusing than helpful. 

In the script, the subtext is pretty simple as it corresponds to what Titania is actually saying. During scene 2 Titania is saying to Bottom that she admires him and will not let him leave her. Then she calls her fairies to take him to her bed. The subtext here is that Titania is in love with bottom and wants him to stay with her. I used the Subtext to determine how I would speak and act (if she was happy with bottom she had a happy and flowing voice, if she was strict she would have a harsh voice). In scene 3 the subtext changes. In the beginning she wants bottom to stay with her but once she has been released from the spell her subtext shifts away from bottom and more towards Oberon and herself. Before she was fully doating on Bottom and it showed in her body language (I imagined a puppy following its owner around), but now she is independent and strong again, not needing anyone, so she holds herself more regally, upright and fluid than before. Overall Subtext is so important for a story and I will defiantly be using this technique again.

The given circumstances are what gives an actor a jumping off point for their character. My given circumstances were that Titania is Queen of the fairies, Married to Oberon, Put under a love spell by Puck so that Oberon can have her child and has fallen for Bottom who has been changed into as ass by Puck (because Puck could and so he did...). She then takes Bottom to her bed, falls asleep, is released from the spell by Oberon and then wakes up to walk off with Oberon, very confused. This gave a a framework to build titania up from and I will defiantly be using it again. 

We worked on a few exercises using the magic "if" and although these were good to do, I didn't find them overly helpful in expanding my character and understanding my character more. I do tend to put myself in the characters shoes (get it...put myself in the character shoes...become the character...never mind), so maybe I've been using this technique all along and never realised but I found that I wasn't doing anything different to what I would normally do when getting into character and preparing for a role. I would use this technique again but I think I would need someone coaching me instead of me doing it alone. 

The Objective and Super objective are tied in together to I've grouped them as one. The super objective of 'A Midsummer nights dream' for Titania, is to live alone, in the woods, away from people with her changeling child in her kingdom. This is not put across well in 'A Mini-summer night dream' however because a lot of the story that you get this information from has been cut out (as we focussed on the rude mechanicals storyline, not the 4 lovers or the fairies), the only references to this are when Oberon mentions the changing child during scene 3. The Objectives however change during scenes so are a lot easier to track. Titania's objectives start with woo-ing bottom, then shift to taking him to her bed (or bower) and fulfilling his every wish (or getting her fairies to do it e.g. scratching heads, fetching hay). Then she want to rest with and take care of him but once she has been released she just wants to get away from him. her final objective is leave bottom and ask Oberon what's has happened. These objectives made it easy to piece together my actions as a lot of them are self-explanatory and so it was almost an unconscious decision to act like that. I think Objectives and Super-objectives are really important and I want to use them again, but I think I need a better understanding of what they actually are and how to use them effectively. 

I considered the through line for titania in a Mini-summer nights dream and although I can understand and see it, I don't think that we have given the audience enough information for them to see it, so the through line really depends on the production you are doing. 

Overall, the ones I found most helpful were: Emotion memory, Subtext, given circumstances and objectives. 

The Performances!!

Full cast photo (from left to right: Basia as 'Snug', Hollyann as 'Quince', Ryan as 'Flute', Elijah as 'Snout/Starveling', Sam as 'Bottom', Misty as 'Puck', Charlotte as 'Titania' and Jay as 'Oberon') with Josh backstage.