Acting 1

Create 24 Festival

This year for 2024, Gloucestershire College is putting on an arts and media festival outside Llanthony Secunda Priory and us, as higher education performing arts students were asked to perform something, though at the time we didn’t know what that would be.

On 7th March 2024, we went to see 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' at the RSC theatre, and we all really liked the play, so we decided to make that the performance we’d do at Create24. Our course leader Sonia found a shortened script of 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' for us to use. Though we did end up changing up the script so that it would better fit what we were able to do with it and what we wanted to do with it. These were a few of the problems we had to sort out;

• Cast size

• Location

• Length

• Language

• Cast

• Directors

• Backstage roles/ Crewing

• Timeline

• Costumes

• Set and props

Cast size.

In the original 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' there are a  total of 19 characters. So from the outset we had a problem. In HNC and HND combined there are 9 students. But 1 of those students only works on the technical side rather than the acting. Meaning we only had 8 actors to fill in 19 roles. So we had a discussion as a group, all coming to the agreement that the best parts from 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' were the actors and that that was the part of the play we wanted to focus on. Charlotte happily agreed to go over the script and make it so that it mainly focused on the actors and the part they played in it. This not only helped to shorten the cast size to 13, but also helped shorten the play from what we believe would’ve been close to an hour to now only being around 25 minutes. Though there were still 13 parts to fill with only 8 people to fill them. So we decided to try and take some inspiration from the RSC performance we saw. The 4 fairies in their performance were portrayed using voice over and handheld lights. So we decided to try and use those techniques to portray our 4 fairies. But we still had 1 character who couldn’t be filled in. The only characters left were the actors and the fairies. So we figured we’d have to get an actor to play multiple roles. In the end we decided to merge the characters of snout and starveling together, as it couldn’t cause too much of a difference.

Location.

Our performance would take place in a tee-pee located on the grass outside of Llanthony Secunda Priory. Which has its advantages and disadvantages. Having it take place in the tee-pee meant that we weren't able to rehearse in the place we were going to be performing as the tee-pees wouldn’t be going up until the week of the performance. Which meant we couldn’t be 100% sure on how much space we were going to get to perform, only knowing small amounts of information about the size of the tee-pees. Though we knew it wasn’t going to be a lot of space, which meant we were limited on lighting, sound, scenery and backstage access. So we all tried to keep that in mind when rehearsing, directing and planning changes to fit what new information we found out.

Length.

The original production of ‘A midsummer Night’s Dream’ is around 2 hours long, which for the type of festival we are performing for, is way too long. The type of audience members that we are going to get at a festival like this, are not going to sit or stand around watching a 2 hour performance. So when deciding to focus mainly on the actors part in the play, it allowed us to cut out a lot of the play we wouldn’t need anymore. Mainly by cutting the lovers storyline, we were able to get our version of the play down to around 25 minutes. Which is the perfect length for a festival like this, as it meant we were more likely to get people to stay and watch the entire thing. Though another benefit was that we were able to make it so we could fit the show in three times in one day. Which due to our lack of space, meant it would allow more people to come and watch it.

Language.

The language Shakespeare used is very different to the language we use today. Which can sometimes be a problem for modern audiences to understand, especially for those who are younger. But there’s something about the speech used in Shakespeare's work that just makes it a classic piece of literature, which can be hard to properly translate into a more modern dialect and have it still feel like Shakespeare. So we decided to keep it mostly the same as the original, apart from a few changes Charlotte made to help the actors understand the meaning behind the words they were speaking.

Cast.

There are 13 Characters with only 8 Actors. Though after we decided to make the fairies a voice over instead, it lowered it to 9 characters. Luckily at this point we all knew each other pretty well, meaning almost everyone had an idea for who they thought would play which character best. 6 of us were easy and had no clashes, though 2 people had to audition for the part they wanted to play. We decided to make them both audition twice, so they could both read two characters, meaning we could decide on which character suited which actor and decide on the final cast list that day. Which meant we could go home and start learning our lines. The cast list is as follows:

Directors.

Choosing the people to direct each scene was a simple process. We asked the group who would be interested in directing a scene of the play. Four people were interested including myself, Charlotte, Hollyann and Sam, with our course lead Sonia overseeing all of us. Charlotte, having experience directing before, took on the responsibility of directing scene 5, the longest scene in the play. Me and Sam decided to work together on directing scene 1 and 4, the two shortest scenes. We decided this would be best as my directing experience has solely been in directing film, so with this being a different medium, I wanted to start off with a simpler scene. Which then left Hollyann with the job of directing scene 2 and 3, as she was eager to challenge herself. All of us worked together to create an overall feel for the play and to make sure scenes flowed well from one scene to the next.

Scene one - Directed by Ryan and Sam.

Scene two - Directed by Hollyann.

Scene three - Directed by Hollyann.

Scene four - Directed by Ryan and Sam.

Scene five - Directed by Charlotte.

Backstage/ Crewing roles.

With there not being that many of us, backstage roles fall to everyone to do a bit of everything. 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. Our main crew people however, were Josh, Hollyann and Basia. It was their responsibility to make sure that costumes and props were where they needed to be when we needed them. 

Timeline.

Since starting this term on the 4th March, we had 15 weeks till show week. We held the Auditions on 12 April and handed out scripts that day. That gave us 9 weeks to learn our lines, direct scenes and sort out everything production wise. So we went through and made a schedule for what we would do each week:

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

29th April - Scene 2 (+ Fairy voice overs with Steve from tech)

10th May - Scene 3

13th May - Scene 4

20th May - Scene 5 

3rd June - Run throughs

10th June - Run throughs

17th June - Run throughs

19th June - Show day

Costumes.

For Flutes costume, I immediately thought of an old cobblers outfit. With Flute wearing a work shirt with the sleeves rolled up, to protect them from getting dirty as he worked. With a work apron on carrying the tools he needs to do his job. Then I thought loose fitting trousers and smart shoes would fit best. In the end I had a black shirt with the sleeves rolled up, a work apron carrying a selection of random tools and props I found, light brown chinos and smart brown shoes.  

Thisbe's costume however, was harder to find. We knew we wanted it to be a long flowy dress, but we struggled to find one for a while. With how short the play was as well, we needed it to be something that wouldn’t be too difficult or take too long to get into. In the end we found a perfect flowery dress that fit me well enough and we put a white cloak to go along with that.

Flutes costume inspirations:

Thisbe's costume inspirations:

Sets 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, but we didn't have the space to put any set into the tee-pee, so sound and lighting were pretty much out, apart from an old portable speaker that could provide us with music outside. The venue space meant that the best way to perform this piece would be in the round. This meant we didn't need a background or any scenery so we limited 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

By the day of the performance though, this prop list became massively outdated. First we decided to swap out the bed for 2 boxes as it would be safer, as it was sturdier and they would be easier to transport outside. These 2 boxes later became 4 boxes after revising scene 5, thinking it would work better with 4 boxes instead of 2. We got rid of the chair, because I didn’t want to be carrying a chair around the stage where I’m close enough to the audience to be able to hit them. We got rid of the tail, as it became a hassle to try and figure out how to attach it securely and quickly enough during Bottoms transformation. We got rid of the milk bottle, as it wasn’t needed and because it was made of glass. We didn’t end up implementing the autographs and the programmes. Though we also added some more props. My character got a block of wood, a pen, scissors and some tape. Bottom got a flower in the last scene for when he dies. Oberon got a staff. The final props list looked more like this:

Scene 1 -  (The 4 blocks on stage throughout), Scripts for the actors, Flutes tools, measuring tape, notepad and pencil

Scene 2 - The 4 blocks, Scripts, Notepad and pencil, calendar, Changing hoop, the hat with the donkey ears in it, Flutes tools

Scene 3 - The 4 blocks, Honeybag, hay, Oberon's staff 

Scene 4 - The 4 blocks

Scene 5 - The 4 blocks, Sword, white cloak, wall, lantern, bottoms flower, Oberon's staff

Stanislavski

Konstantin Stanislavsky was a Russian actor, producer, director, and founder of the Moscow Art Theatre. Before Stanislavsky, acting was primarily presentational. Actors relied on broad, mechanical gestures and stiff theatricality. Stanislavsky understood that the theatre required technical skills like vocal projection and cheating out toward the audience, but he despised unnatural voices and artificial movements. Stanislavsky created his own acting method, which was a series of training techniques designed to help actors create believable characters and develop natural performances. The late 19th century was a period of rapid change for the theatre, and playwrights like Anton Chekov and Maxim Gorky were writing stories about everyday people, not gods and kings. These new stories required a new kind of acting, one that displayed a character’s interior life rather than their grandness.

These techniques include emotional memory, which is using your own experiences to help develop the character. Subtext, which is using what isn't stated directly in the script and using context clues to create a backstory for your character and it helps you to think about why they do what they do. Objective/ super objective, which is basically what are your characters goals throughout the play. Their objective is what their immediate goal is in any given scene. The super objective is what your character's goal is that lasts throughout the play, like what is their long term goal. The 'magic if', This is basically where the actor puts themselves into the character's situation and asks themselves 'what would I do in this situation'. Plus many other techniques. I am planning on using these techniques and incorporating them into my warm ups and rehearsals to try and help me create a more believable performance and character.

The Stanislavsky Technique: an Actor's Guide | Backstage 

Stanislavski’s techniques - Naturalism and Stanislavski - GCSE Drama Revision - WJEC - BBC Bitesize 

Warmups

In these two videos we did a warmup where we put our characters into different scenarios and acted how they would act in that scenario. I feel like this helped me to understand that my character really isn't someone who is loud and always talking. He's quite quiet, sticks to himself, really only speaks when he's spoken to. And it taught me that he's a follower. He's not the leader, he doesn't make the decisions. He just follows along with what others say. This also taught me that it is sometimes better to restrain yourself for the character. In improv scenarios my main instinct is to try and say something funny. But with this it really taught me to step back from that and restrain myself because my character wouldn't just blurt out something funny that came into his head.

Meetings

Rehearsals

Annotated Script

My Character

Francis Flute - Character Analysis:

In a mini summer night's dream I play Francis Flute, the bellows mender. Francis is quite an easy going person who is very focused. He wants to make sure everything is perfect. At the start of the play he is very focused on his work, fixing bellows. When he arrives he immediately goes into carving a new handle for a bellows he’s fixing, his whole focus is on fixing the bellows. Until Quince announces he’s going to be playing Thisbe. At first he is annoyed about having to play a woman as he’s been struggling to grow a beard. But after Bottom attempts to steal his role, Flute gets a bit territorial over it, not wanting Bottom to take his role away from him. Becomes happier when Quince intervenes, not allowing Bottom to steal the whole play. In Flute's head, even though it’s not the role he would’ve preferred and he doesn’t like playing a woman, he is going to do all he can to try and play the best Thisbe ever. When they go to rehearse in the palace wood, instead of spending his time messing around with the others or looking around at the scenery, Flute decides to put his whole focus and time into going over the script making sure he knows the script 100%. When Bottom starts performing and gets up close to Flute, he’s sort of taken aback. He becomes lost in Bottom's performance, falling for him, truly believing Bottom to be Pyramus and himself Thisbe for a second. After Bottom runs off, Flute has to take a second to compose himself. Flute looks up to Bottom and his acting abilities, and to have Bottom talk like that to him made Flute a bit flustered. Then after Bottom comes back as a donkey, Flute is terrified, hiding behind Quince for protection from the monster he saw in the woods. But once Bottom is gone for too long and it’s nearly time for the play, Flute starts to panic and worry. Pacing around the room. Flutes main objective throughout the show is to do the play, and to do it well. But if Bottom isn’t there, they aren’t going to be able to do the play and that is very upsetting to Flute, causing him to panic. When Bottom is seen and Flute knows that they’re going to be able to do the play, Flute falls to his knees thanking his God, Happy. Then when they are performing the play, Flute is trying his best to act as a woman to not let his fellow actors down, interacting with the audience by waving and blowing kisses. Flute only loses character when he “kissed the wall’s hole” where he lost the high pitched voice for a second, but he immediately went back into character afterwards. When Thisbe finds Pyramus dead, Flute goes way too over the top with it. Slamming down on Bottoms chest and smacking him in the face because he’s upset that Pyramus would kill himself and leave him like that. Though at the end of the day after the play is done, Flute thought it went really well. He was a little disappointed that Bottom still got all the credit and most of the spotlight. But he’s still really happy that it went so well.

RSC - A Midsommer Nights Dream Production

Final Performance

• This is the original tent we was going to use. But ended up moving to the one half of the bigger tent as nobody was using in.