Style

The style of the piece is very clear following Stanislavsky's work in naturalism, naturalism is a style in theatre which developed in the late 19th century and moved up into the 20th. Naturalism refers to a form of theatre which aims to create the perfect illusion of reality. Naturalism was criticized in the twentieth century by a whole host of theatre practitioners one for example is Constantin Stanislavsky he used a form of it is a form of modernist realism. We use as much realism in our work as possible through using Stanislavsky's system and other techniques of which we are learning as we go along. I think that we do manage to achieve realism as we work but Lofty does find it difficult to convey emotion as he doesn't naturally show his feeling to others. But I do think that he has come along during the rehearsal proses and I think it will only get stronger with practice as today he showed real improvement of which I was able to feed off brilliantly and fully.

22nd of may rehursals

To kick off the morning we started with a conversation about the previous session on emotional memory, this obviously didn't go down well with the class as they all expressed their anger towards what Jill asked us to do. I personally found the experience enlightening and a useful experience but others found it too emotionally demanding and deep.      During the morning’s rehearsals with Jill we worked on concentration following Stanislavsky's system, Dan and Danielle were asked to simply pour and drink a cup of tea. Dan kicked off the exercise giving us a very theatrical performance which I personally didn't find very realistic, this was due to him being too aware of the audience, then Danielle did the same thing and was a lot more fluent and relaxed, this highlighted how realistic and believable acting is on a very fine line alongside unrealistic performance. I learnt through concentrating on what you are doing and for filling your characters super objective to drink a cop of water you create a believable and truthful performance without even knowing it.                          During Daniels lesson today we were left to our own devices to go through our script and add our own twist on the direction we were taking with it. I really feel like me and Lofty made a connection as actors today and were able to feed of off each other’s emotion, this made our run through very emotional and true. Due to the workshop of emotional memories we had with Jill the previous day, I was able to channel some of my emotions into the scene and this really helped me. Today we also planned some movement and proxemics into the section, we added some powerful stage directions such as Lofty hitting the table when Alison (me) tries to leave. This was put in by us to express Jimmy's anger towards her trying to leave the situation just when it gets hard. This is followed by the line "you never even sent any flowers to the funeral" this is a very important line in the scene as it highlights the point when Jimmy showed emotional turmoil over the death of Hughes mum. Hughes mum was a very important figure in Jimmy's life as she acted as his surrogate mother and the fact that the woman he loved didn't eve send flowers angers him as he thinks she doesn't care about the most important person in his life. This would affect my character Alison as she would notice the emotional pain Jimmy is feeling in that moment and it would make her feel bad for not showing she cared in some way.

Emotional truth

Today’s session was a very emotionally gruelling one and many of the group tapped into their feelings extremely deeply. Most of the group started off sceptical and didn't want to get emotional as they felt uncomfortable around negative emotions. We were instructed to each tell a story from our past which provoked emotion, Andrew started the session with a very heart saddening story involving his mother and himself, this really hit me emotionally and I couldn't help but cry, due to my tears Jill told me I was next. I’m not going to lie, my story really opened me up emotionally and induced a lot of tears not only from myself but from my friends around me. I found the whole experience extremely draining but it opened my eyes onto how I can tap into emotion from past emotion, I have now realized that I can channel this emotion into my character of Alison and really find an emotional truth within the character. After we told our personal stories we had to take part in a completely different scenario in which we channel the emotion, Andrew told the story of the three pigs, due to his emotion and sadness in the moment the whole class hung off every word he spoke, this really made an emotional connection as it formed an emotional connection with Andrew and his story, due to us knowing his story I could clearly see the connections he was making with himself and the pigs, it was very moving. I have to do Lauren's hair whilst creating convocation which provokes and reaction, due to the rawness of Lauren's loss we had to end the exercise prematurely as she broke down and it became too close to home for her. Over all I now know how Stanislavsky wanted his actors to really connect with their characters and how deep you have to retreat into your past to draw out emotion to use in your acting.  

rehearsal 20th of may

In yesterday’s rehearsal we started off with a worm us given by Zoe, this was a good way to start off the rehearsal as it allows us to relax and get into our work fully warmed us reducing the risk of injury to the voice which is the actors most precious commodity. Through relaxing before we work we are practising Stanislavsky's system allowing us to access our characters with a more relaxed and clear mind. After this we moved on to our scripted work and rehearsing our lines and positioning, Chloe wasn't present for this session so me and Lofty just rehearsed the last bit of the script. This was very useful as this is the most emotional section to the piece and will need work so that we can portray the emotion clearly and make a connection with the people watching us. I and Lofty worked on bringing tears to our eyes as quickly and as realistically as possible, this proved to be more difficult than first expected. After a good 15 minutes of attempting this I managed to create a tear and to be hones I was pretty proud of my tear, lofty on the other hand gave up... we will try again next session. I also watched Lauren perform the last monologue which Alison says just to compare our different styles, I noticed that she went for a more angry and annoyed performance where as I go for a more emotional and sad approach, I won’t let this effect the way i work but it was nice to see different ways top approach and interpret this script.

my char/ ] r a � ) P) y this through facial expression and producing a swell of tears in my eyes.

Jill's session on "The Magic IF"

In Jill's first session we looked at the magic if, this is quite a simple concept of questioning if something happens to my character how would I react? We were placed into groups of three and given the scenario of being robbed in our home. I worked with Andrew and Danielle, Andrew was the robber and Danielle was my daughter, I was asked if you were robbed how would you react? We firstly didn't do too well as Andrew wasn't comfortable in performing this, but the second time we gave it a go we all really got into it to begin the improvisation but some of us got too into it and it got out of hand. This was a good example of how quickly a piece can move from realistic and truthful to theatrical and unbelievable within a second. We did this exercise to work our imagination through improvisation and to experience the sensation of becoming a character and reacting truly and honestly to a situation. After this session I have started to use the magic if when approaching my character, especially in the last monologue, originally I performed it quite neutrally with a lack of emotion but then I asked myself: how would you feel if you lost a child? How would you feel if you separated from someone who you had left your whole privileged life behind for? Would you feel resentment towards Jimmy for not caring for you and the child? Or fighting for your relationship? All of these questions came up in my head allowing me to become more emotionally connected to my character and portray this through facial expression and producing a swell of tears in my eyes.

The plays themes

   One major theme in this play is loss of childhood, this impacts the characters of Alison and Jimmy. Osborn Makes this very clear through Jimmy's farther dying when he was only ten, and how he had to watch his dad both physically and mentally break as a man, this highlights how Jimmy has had to cope with death and a family breakdown from very young age, only for this to be repeated this in his present life. Alison's loss of childhood is very common as to how she was forced to grow up before her time through marrying Jimmy at a young age and losing a child under the mental abuse of which her husband bestowed upon her daily, breaking her spirit and causing her to lose her youth and lust for life. This will be a very important aspect for me to portray when playing Alison, as I will have to emit a sense of loss and pain whilst being real and believable. In my scene the monologue in which Alison highlights her anger and sadness over the loss of her child and her husband displays this theme massively as not only has Alison been forced to grow up and face difficult reality at a young age, her lost child has literally lost its childhood. Osborn symbolises a socially common loss of youth through making reference to the war and the fall of the British Empire.    Due to Jimmy's anger towards the people around him I would like to make reference to his need for a so called "real life." I see that the character of Jimmy uses anger to covey his emotions, in the 60's  men were extremely masculine and a man like Jimmy wouldn't be too sparing with his emotions, this is why he compensates with anger firstly towards trivial things he finds in the newspaper and then progressing to the people around him as the scene moves on, this is shown in my scene through him saying "is your friend still with you?2 this is a very passive aggressive comment with the intent to make Alison feel unwanted and worthless. I can use this when developing my character of Alison as when he enters the scene I will have to channel and awkward unease around Jimmy and I will feel his anger and resentment towards my character. Jimmy is a very judgemental character and has a large longing for a lustrous life and blames his lack of joy on the "slothfulness of the world" around him, this suggests that he thinks that everything around him is boring and not meeting his standards as a human being. Ironically this slothfulness is strongly highlighted in the character of Jimmy who is seen perched in his chair surrounded by scattered newspaper having connotations with his laziness in life; this is also shown through his lack of effort in his relationship with Alison. Osborn added this to his work to suggest that Britain was lazy and this was the primary cause for its problems in the time. Masculinity is a large aspect of the play and is highlighted throughout, Osborn shows clearly the view on women in the time through the troubled and abusive relationship she has with her husband, this highlights the lack of respect which most women had in those days and emphasises Jimmy s horridness as he proceeds to call her and abuse her openly in front of his friend Cliff. Jimmy's character is juxtaposed by the character of Cliff who is kind and sweet to Alison, this is Quickly put aside by Jimmy and cements his confidence in the knowledge that Alison will never leave him as it wasn't a woman's prerogative to take charge in the 60's, this is fundamental to supporting and emphasising her defiance towards Jimmy when she leaves him with full knowledge that she will have to raise a child alone, I know that I won’t have to portray this aspect in my scene as I am returning to my old home but I will have to have this new found confidence within me, knowing that I have the ability to stand up to Jimmy as I have done it before. A universal theme which is shown through the play is love which is a relevant today as it was in the 50's. Love is still used as a theme in almost all modern theatre and will carry on through far into the future. As this is a strong theme I as a character will always have to have a sense of love in things that she does as her love interest is Jimmy who she spend the majority of the play with. I know I will have to fine a happy medium with all of these themes as a character as a theme such as love can’t fully construct my character as it wouldn't be realistic to the situation due to the way she is treated and how she would respond to that, it wouldn't be in a loving way.       I do think most of this information would have been extremely relevant when first written and performed but I think now it's outdated and wouldn't be emotionally excepted by a modern audience as it wouldn't have much of a connection with problems of today's society. The difference between the issues of the 60's and modern life today is quite significant due to women becoming more self-reliant through working and there not being as many social views on how women should act, obviously there is still some people who believe that women should stay at home and look after children and cater to their husbands needs but this is a minute percentage of society and these people are seen as socially nostalgic living the life they are comfortable in due to the society they were raised in. There are themes which stand today such as social class which is still present today just not as prominent as it’s not as selective and separate as it once was. 

                     

Relaxation of the Imagination

Today in Jill’s lesson she leaded a workshop on the imagination and relaxation, exploring Stanislavsky's work in realistic and true theatre. We kicked off the lesson with a crumpled up piece of paper, this then became a little bird which was carefully passed around the class. We created a back story for the bird. Tweet was his name and the bird little had fallen from its nest in which he lived in, his mother had died and he didn't know how to fly, he had broken a leg causing him to be in pain... then Jill killed him by squashing the paper!! This exercise was used to show how creating a back story for something and forming an emotional connection can evoke a true and natural reaction to situations it’s in. This can be applied to our characterisation work. We can create back stories for our characters and this will help us connect with them on a deeper and more personal level allowing us to portray them with more detail and in a more concentrated way. After this we took part in a relaxation session of which Jill spoke calmly to us in the presence of calming whale noise music. This was done for the class to experience the feeling of relaxation and how it affects the way we move and feel. Stanislavsky believed that a actor must be relaxed to fully embody a character and be able to live in their life. I personally think that this is an effective way of getting into character as it removes all obstructing issues an actor may be carrying around with them emotionally and allows them to concentrate fully on their work and who they have to become.    Lastly we passed a phone around the class and where asked to improvise a naturalistic conversation which Jill could believe in, primarily everyone went for the comic rout which is the easy way to get a quick laugh and get your bit over with quickly. After breaking through this we all became more emotionally involved and concentrated, this evoked some really emotionally touching performances which were either drawn from real experiences or feelings. Personally I recreated a sad phone conversation in which I had previously been through, this in my opinion helped me connect more with what I was saying rather than if I had just winged it. Over all this session really opened my eyes on how difficult it is to completely get into an emotional state to create a realistic and believable performance.

Angry Young Men and Kitchen sink drama

The Angry young men moment acted for a short period of time between the years of 1950 and 1960.The men classed as the "Angry young men" were mostly working and middle class. The label was applied by the British media to young British writers who were disillusioned with traditional society. John Osborne became a kind of face of the movement as it was used to promote "Look back in Anger" whereas it was thought to be derived from "Angry Young Man" the autobiography of writer Leslie Paul, which was published in 1951. This movement has had an effect on modern theatre as it brought forward contempt and emotion in theatre; this is now seen as a theatrical cliché. This movement paved the way for "gritty" drama portraying more ugly subjects which are shown through drama. This Movement goes alongside the concept of Kitchen sink drama which was used as a form of social realism, which was used to highlight domestic situations of working class Britain. These works are used to represent a life in cramped living conditions and spending free hours drinking in gritty local pubs. Kitchen sink dramas were usually set in Northern England which was home to rough setting and local slang giving the appropriate mood and setting to productions facing certain issues.

  

 

Units and Objectives

My first unit is to pick up Jimmy's pipe and scoop up ash from the floor, this action is used to symbolize Alison's connection to her old house, she does this to highlight that no matter if she doesn't live there any more she still feels a compulsory need to look after what was once hers, this has connotations with her relationship with Jimmy, even thou he's no longer hers she still feels the need to look after him, this is highlighted in her pleading oh Helena to stay with Jimmy and "give him a little longer." During the line “you make a good cup of tea" Alison looks down into her tea cup as if she is trying to avoid facing the obvious awkwardness of the situation. Alison would feel extremely uncomfortable and unsure at this point in the scene as she would feel as thou she has no right to be in her Old house. This is shown through the direction to use her feet to play with the newspaper on the floor, she would be doing this as a nervous habit in an attempt to make her feel comfortable. When Jimmy first appears in the scene Alison rises from her seat this action could be construed in different ways but I think it is done to represent her feelings towards Jimmy, as if to present herself for the typical judgement and angry onslaught she was used to receiving in the past. One of the most impacting and emotional lines in this scene is "it was mine" this is said by Alison in response to Jimmy's house and cold response to the loss of his child. Alison says this under her breath this is done to show her inner turmoil with regards to her loss, the loss of a child is a massive emotional trauma for a mother and Alison's strength is shown through her holding back her emotions when talking about it to Jimmy. Alison's last emotional break on page 95 contains lots of physical direction which adds to Alison's character. Alison slides down against the leg of the table to the floor this is a very emotional action from Alison as it cements her inability to carry on supporting her emotional wall she has been keeping up around Jimmy, this moment is used to highlight her loss of strength and emotional stability. After Alison has let out all of her frustration she looks up to Jimmy and admits she has reached the lowest of the low, the level at which she honestly believes Jimmy wants her to be at. She does this in a last attempt to draw affection from her husband only to fall to his feet in a moment of emotional exhaustion. The couple end the play sat on the floor embracing each other as Jimmy attempts to comfort her trough dropping his harsh persona. Jimmy puts his arms around Alison to stop her shacking and weeping this little moment would make Alison feel calm and quite secure in Jimmy's arms, She then looks up at him saying "poor bears, oh poor poor bears" this highlights her peace with the situation and comfort in retreating to hers and Jimmy's magical world of squirrels and bears. 

The System

To start off the work on "look back in anger" we looked at creating a realistic character and looked at "the System" which was created by Stanislavski to help actors to create a realistic and believable character. "The System" is made up of three things: relaxation, concentration and imagination. Relaxation is needed in character development because it is impossible to become comfortable in a character if you are not relaxed, when you are relaxed you can let a character flow without any physical restrictions. Concentration is extremely important when thinking about your character this is due to the need to be focused on a character and their back story, this will help an actor to immerse themselves in the character world and feel what the character feels. Concentration on what is supposed to be happening around a character aids actors to picture it and for it to become real on their mind. Imagination ties all of this characterization together because without imagination you wouldn't be able to put yourself in your characters shoes; imagination supports your emotional connection with the character and helps you to sustain the character through a production.         The difference between Brecht and Stanislavski when it comes to character development is quite big whereas Brecht was more about the big picture of a show including things such as: set, music, audience etc... Stanislavski was more focused on actor training, character development and creating realistic and naturalistic scenes. Today we learnt about the threshold of which when crossed actors immerse themselves in their work and this helps tremendously with character development as it gets actors in the correct mood and forces them to get into their fictional world of which they will inhabit for the rest of their working hours.

Look Back in Anger first impressions

Today we received the scripts for the play “look back in anger.” We were asked to read through it during class to get to grips with the style of the piece and to get an idea of what the characters are like. I read the character of Alison who on first impressions made quite an impact on me as I made an emotional; connection with her story and struggle, I found that she is a woman trapped in a unstable relationship with a sexist tyrant with no regard his wife’s feelings. Alison is constricted by physical barriers such as pregnancy and human condition to remain in what is conventionally seen as normal and compulsory. There is lots of interesting relationships in the play such as the struggling relationship between Alison and Jimmy and the love which Cliff has for Alison which is extremely platonic. At first impression I know I would love to look into the relationship between Alison and her husband as if highlights issues which most women would have faced in a mainly male controlled society. At first glance Alison seems to be your typical unappreciated house wife but I see a much deeper character in her and think she would be brilliant character to get to know and explore. The piece is naturalistic following the work of Stanislavski who taught true to life acting. The opening exercise introduced us to Stanislavski’s work through provoking a realisation into true reactions to certain situations. Daniel took a ten pound note off of me and placed it under a book then told me to enter the room and look for the note as if I didn't know where it was, this opening part to the exercise highlighted how my actions where over acted and not quite true to life. This exercise was repeated but instead of showing me where the note had been hidden I left the room, then I entered and had to genuinely look for the money, this caused my actions to become more natural and genuine and in turn portrayed realism in a very effective way. Now I know that not everything has to be over performed and exaggerated, I just need to be me and be less aware of my actions and just let it flow naturally. As I have not yet read the full script I am yet to see characters develop and relationships become more complex, but I have good feelings about the play and can’t wait to get into it and explore the more realistic side of acting which contracts the theatrical style we have previously been working in for “Wolves of Willoughby Chase.”