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Recap
For the end of term show, our entire group is going to be performing the Chekhov comedy sketches. To prepare for the performance in June, we were all told that we were going to participate in auditions in May. For our auditions, we had to learn the first half of ‘A Reluctant, Tragic Hero’ and start rehearsing to be off script over the course of a few weeks. For my audition, I would have to stand in a room and perform my monologue in front of the panel. After performing the audition, we would then be told our roles for the Chekhoff comedy sketches and I received the role of Nyukyin from ‘The Dangers Of Tobacco’.
For the end of term show, our entire group is going to be performing the Chekhov comedy sketches. To prepare for the performance in June, we were all told that we were going to participate in auditions. For our auditions, we had to learn the first half of ‘A Reluctant, Tragic Hero’ and start rehearsing to be off script over the course of a few weeks. For my audition, I would have to stand in a room and perform my monologue in front of the panel. After performing the audition, we would then be told our roles for the Chekhoff comedy sketches and I received the role of Nyukyin from ‘The Dangers Of Tobacco’.
Once I knew who I was playing as in the show, I would go and find a video of someone’s performance of ‘The Dangers Of Tobacco’ and watch how they performed.
After watching the video of the performance, I noticed that he was using a lot of casual movement with his upper body such as pointing to himself and throwing his hands around. He seemed to be using his body to help convey what he was talking about. From what I could observe, the actor himself seems to be using a lot of realism in his performance, which also relates to how Chekhov seems to write his work with realism.
Chekhov's History and His Guiding Acting Principles
Anton Chekhov was born in 1891 and first studied stagecraft at the Moscow Art Theatre under legendary stage practitioner, Konstantin Stanislavsky, who had already masterminded his own system. In 1922, Chekhov took over as the director of the Moscow Art Theatre.
Chekhov’s innovative ideas put him at odds with the USSR’s communist regime, forcing him to relocate to Germany and the United States. His unorthodox approach to stage technique caused a rift with his mentor, Stanislavsky, whose own philosophy focused on naturalism. Chekhov went on to become a thought leader in his own right; his acting system was adopted by many Hollywood stars of the 1930s and 1940s.
Here are 4 of his guiding principles for acting:
The Psychological Gesture: This important aspect of the Chekhov technique is derived from the theories of symbolist writer, Andrei Bely, who sought to depict spiritual ideals through allegories. It involves physicalizing a character’s internal want, need, or impulse into an external gesture. The actor practices this movement until it’s use internally and gradually minimises the exaggerated gesture until it’s internalized; they are then able to draw upon the emotions that emerged from it.
Movement: Many Chekhov exercises encourage students to express themselves physically. Yoga and other aerobic warm-ups are very important in helping a performer feel in touch with their body
Radiating: One of the primary goals of the technique is to share your intentions and the choices that drive your performance with your scene partners. This is called “radiating” and it is designed to help attune an ensemble to each other’s energy.
Improvisation: Many Chekhov classes are centered on group improv work, whether verbal or nonverbal. However, some exercises can be done individually. For example, ask the actor to begin a scene with one mood and end on a very different one, creating a story that takes you from one to the other along the way.
To start the rehearsal process, our whole class did a read through of the four Chekhov comedy sketches which were ‘The Bear, A Reluctant, Tragic Hero, The Proposal and Dangers of Tobacco’. After reading through ‘The Dangers Of Tobacco’, I would go off and start planning out how I would go to perform this piece by myself. Thinking that I could start by using hand and arm movements and emphasising my words, exaggerating what I'm talking across the monologue.
I then started trying to learn the script of ‘The Dangers Of Tobacco’ by using the process of associating words with movement that I learned from researching Chekhov's acting principles. I was able to read the first chunk on page 61 by associating movement with the words that I read without the script.
In my opinion, I believe that, with my teacher acting out the different movements that we planned together to help me remember the next lines coming up, I'll be able to reach the next page without reading from a script by the end of next week. Hopefully, I will be able to add more movements in my next lesson to help prompt myself of what to say next and then to help me remember when I'm at home, I will either record my teacher or another student and have them perform the movements associated with the next line that is coming up next.
At the start of our lesson, we were given a choice as an entire class for our final show to either continue on with our Chekhov comedy sketches or do another performance entirely. For me, I didn't feel confident in the progress that I was making for my monologue ‘The Dangers Of Tobacco’, so I said yes to doing the new performance.
We found a prompt for us to start with and we decided on making a performance called ‘The HighwayMan' and that our idea was that we create a puppet of some kind animated by us actors to give it an actual character. Following the short storyboard we all put together, we would put together a short experiment performance with the puppet and other actors.
Videos of us practicing with the puppet
With Faith and Yana holding the puppet up and acting with him and Mike and Fru being the background characters, we needed a narrator since we thought it would be better to have a silent performance. I decided that I would pick up the role of Narrator which gave me the role to finish writing an entire performance from the prompt. To start my writing process, I would start writing up ideas for The HighwayMan such as how he became an officer and that the other officers were jealous and turned their fear into hate.
In this lesson, we asked a previous student from the higher education at Gloucester College Performing Arts for a fencing workshop since for most of the fight scenes in the play, The HighwayMan and the 2 other actors have to sword fight with each other. So we were all taking part in this fencing workshop to build up our knowledge for how to fight using swords to create fight scenes between The HighwayMan and other enemy soldiers that seem more choreographed and realistic and not just swinging swords at each other, hoping it looks cool.
Before we all started rehearsing, Fru and I quickly put together the entire script by putting our ideas together and brainstorming up different plots for the entire performance of The HighwayMan such as having him go through his previous memories and then having him join the army, ranking up into an officer.
Fru then put all of our ideas that we thought of and wrote about into an AI generator to help generate a script from all of those ideas. We then printed five scripts off for the entire class to read them and approve of the script for The HighwayMan.
After handing the scripts out, we decided to read through and fully look at the story of The HighwayMan, putting out any of the ideas we thought about for the performance and how we would actually put these ideas into reality.
Before starting our rehearsal, we all did a vocal warm up to prepare our voices for long periods of speaking out loud which will tire us out. For the warm up, we did 'Bravo Vavisimo', which is a small song that we sung a few times. We were then split up into groups, singing the same song but I was in the group that had to start singing the entire song after group 1 finished their first verse. Making us warm our voices up and start thinking more so that we can be more progressive with our rehearsing.
Coming from the rehearsals from this lesson, I really struggled with projection and how to have my voice carry across the theatre so that the other actors can hear me so I need to work on projecting my voice further and louder without voice cracking and losing power across the performance.
However, I was able to keep talking throughout the entire performance to help the actors get used to performing with the puppet and brainstorming ideas with the script and how we can follow it but I believe I was able to do good today but I will need to work on projection in future lessons and at home by talking loudly and lowering the script to project my voice further across the theatre.
We were able to run through the first page to the top of page 2 for our script progression.
After rehearsals, we all started talking about our different ideas for the script and how we would portray the events in the story to the audience such as during the war scene, we could use a smoke machine with Mike and Fru dressed up as Soldiers and running with puppet, calling out retreat with our live voices and recordings that we will do.
After being disgraced by retreating, have Mike walk up and medal cut off of the HighwayMan with scissors to show him losing his officer status in the army and being sent to the workhouse. Once there, the HighwayMan would brush the floor with a broom and have lights going from daytime to night to show repeated days at the workhouse.
For our rehearsal session today, we didn't have Faith in to help Yana with lifting the puppet up so we decided to do the rehearsal without her but instead of Yana holding the puppet by herself, she was using herself as a placeholder for the puppy to help Mike and Fru.
During our rehearsals, I started thinking of ways to try and use characterisation as a narrator. For example, during the scene for the HighwayMan getting a medal for becoming an officer, I would smile while speaking to get a happier tone of voice than the low tone and slow speaking that I do for the rest of the performance. The reason for doing this is so the audience won't get bored by listening to the same low voice over and over again. So I will implement different tones of voice for the different moods of the performance.
To help with my projection, I will raise my head higher so that my voice projects across the walls of the theatre. I will keep my voice for the rest of the show by taking pauses and using diaphragmic breathing so that I can keep up the strong vocal performance as narrator and with pauses as breathing, it will give more time for the other actors to change and reach their places in time.
In the script, we decided to take out the part where the HighwayMan has his hat removed since it was too difficult to perform and we decided it wasn't needed.
Another scene we removed and replaced entirely was the scene where the HighwayMan decides to steal from a noble lady and gets caught. I decided to bring this up because I didn't like the sound of the moment and it didn't perpetuate the chaos of the scene and how incorrect the writing of the gun getting jammed so we all decided to brainstorm and think of a way to change this paragraph in the story. I brought up the idea of having him get startled by the horses, which causes him to drop his gun and get arrested by the nearby officer. The other actors approved of the scene and helped me right out the new and improved paragraph for the script. I liked the idea of having the bullet be described as being fired with a thunderous boom and whizzing past the horses, scaring them and leaping up makes the scene even better than what was written previously and helps enhance the chaos of the scene, the terrified panic from the noble lady being robbed and the HighwayMan being arrested, ending his story.
After our rehearsal session today, I was able to start reading slower to help assist the other actors with their timing and help me gain my breath so that I can remain using projection clearly throughout the entire performance. I also started to add more emotion into the character of the narrator going along with the mood of the scene. For example, with the final scene of him getting hung by the guards, I would read slow and sombre so that fits the mood of him getting hung.
Today was our last rehearsal session before the show day so we all came in and started performing, remembering our notes and how we performed last time. For my position as Narrator in The Highwayman, I would stand on stage right, leaving space behind me for the other actors and set to be seen by the audience.
For the performance on Wednesday, I was worried about my voice not being heard outside but I also wasn't sure about talking into a microphone and the reason being is that I was nervous of people hearing my voice cracking while I'm speaking. If I wasn't going to use a microphone, I would just have to start projecting over the noise outside from the people talking outside the tent.
Fru asked me if it would be a good idea to use a folder to hide the script from the audience and make me as the Narrator look more formal than just reading from a marked up script. I would also print off a new script with all additions I added to my old script last week for a clearer look.
I had to pick an outfit for the Narrator, which would consist of a white t-shirt and black or grey trousers. I decided to pick neutral colours to not confuse the audience with my role in the performance.
To start off our short rehearsals before the show, we did rehearsals with the sound effects we spoke about and collected, adding two gun shot sounds to fit some scenes in the war and when the HighwayMan decides to rob the noble lady, you can hear the horses galloping and neighing. I then had to do a rehearsal with the microphone and I did a few attempts at speaking, trying to get used to it and it didn't seem that bad. I didn't really hear myself and it was a lot easier on my voice than constantly using projection over the entire show.
Final Performance of The HighwayMan
When it came to the actual show and performing in front of the audience. I would be sat in the back behind the performance so they could easily connect one microphone to the actual sound system. I then held the folder on my lap and read the full script, talking into the microphone and alternating the tone of my voice to fit the mood such as smiling while talking while HighwayMan was getting his medals.
How I felt during the performance as the Narrator was that I was able to speak clearly and confidently, and the microphone definitely helped achieve that goal for me. I wasn't worried about my voice cracking as I kept projecting over the noises outside such as dogs barking and kids crying. I was able to achieve good projection and volume with the microphone.
However, to improve, I believe that I could have used more storytelling. For example, I could have started reading with a deeper voice, which would help my voice to stop cracking, and also take longer pauses between each sentence to really build up what was happening in the story. I also believe if I would have talked slower, it would have made it easier for the audience to follow the story of the HighwayMan.
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