Theatre Studies Teacher

This week, I felt, saw a lot of progress.  It is great to watch a project like this ‘take shape’.  The work being done by all of the actors and the assistant Director is fabulous. 

I still feel that people need to loosen up their physicality a little and develop reactions when they’re not directly involved in the dialogue of the time.  Some cast members are so intense into their character that they’re not letting it grow and take shape for itself.  Others are physically tense and too aware which is restricting them and their interactions with each other.  Others a not paying enough attention to each other’s characters and the dialogue/scenes going on around them.

With physical theatre, it is also important to get rid of scripts as soon as possible.  Many actors find it awkward to use their hands and move around freely once their lose the ’security blanket’ of a script in hand.

The greatest frustration this week was discovering the classes we are going to lose over the next few weeks.  This highlights the importance of working individually outside of class and keeping up with research, learning lines, working on designs and blogging!

This coming week is ‘Audit #1′.  Some people don’t seem at all ready for this.  The process is simply a matter of reveiwing your progress within each of your stagecraft areas.  It should also provide an opportunity for setting some goals and direction over the coming weeks to ensure everyone is working towards the same end point.

I’d like to see people more positive about the Vineblogs task…viewing is as a help to the learning process rather than a hinderance.  It requires honesty and an openness to discuss the process and the project.  The critically evalaute our own efforts and being willing to learn from each other.  Given a chance, it is an extremely valuable and, in fact, time SAVING task.  It is a little frustrating that I sometimes need to chase people to get the work done.  I appreciate just how much each of you have on your plate…. and like one student commented, discovering one thing blurring into another is rather unsettling.  For me it is the Musical, Theatre and then my other classes.  It is possible however to train yourself to focus on each independently.

The blog task is the only consistent homework for Theatre Studies and should take no more than about 30 minutes per week.  Alternatively, as was suggested, doing five minutes each night…..

For this week, that’ll do me!!!

This week has been an extremely enjoyable one for me.  My fears at the start of the year related to whether the class would embrace my choice of play, when I know there were others they might have preferred, and whether the class would rise up the the challenges presented by their individual stagecraft areas.

The sometimes heated but always deep discussions that have been had about the play, suggest that the class has welcomed the choice and are taking ownership of the play.  There is a real sense of bonding developing which bodes well for the future of the project.  There is a healthy amount of respect being demonstrated towards one another and everyone has demonstrated a willingness to add their thoughts and opinions on the project.

With the choice of play, some of the stagecraft areas are perhaps fairly challenging.  With very little to work with from the script, students who perhaps don’t have a truckload of experience with a stagecraft area are expected to be creative and explore technical possibilities.  The collegial nature in which this task is being undertaken offers great hope for the process and the product.  The class is working together so well as ‘a production team’, with people offering ideas to other stagecraft groups, in much the same way that any Director would be hoping his/her production team might work together.

It is especially pleasing to realise that no one person is taking over the project, something that some members of this class may have been guilty of in the past.

The blocking is going slowly but with a reasonable level of committment.  One of the tasks set early on (and perhaps we could have spent more time as a class doing this) was dramaturgy.  I posed some questions for each of the characters to consider, research and decide.  Some of this work was undertaken and some wasn’t.  It seems now that the actors are realising how this may have helped and are in fact, seeking out clarification during the blocking.  Perhaps if eaach actor went back over the questions and undertook some research/character development then things might move along a little quicker.  Overall though, I’m not unhappy with the progress as it is really about quality and not quantity.  And the quality of the work being developed is very good.

My only disappointment this week relates to the misunderstanding about the casting.  My intention with the casting was to try out different people in different roles, then discuss the ideas with the class and the individuals involved.  Timing got the better of us with this task and we didn’t get the opportunity to discuss things as a class and I didn’t get to talk to all of the actors.  It was also unfortunate that the most of the initial casting used in the read through also turned out very well for the final cast list.  I wonder if the two roles which changed had been reversed for the reading, would it have been an issue?

One of the most difficult jobs a Director faces is getting the casting correct.  It is sometimes more difficult when the number to choose from is limited, as in a school situation.  Thoughts about the casting continue right up to and often well beyond, opening night.  Have I made the right choice here?  Time will tell however, it was made in good faith, based on the information available, past experience and keeping in mind the look of the overall production and the desired end product.

The thing that strikes me, this year, with the amount of work we need to achieve and the level of committment that will require, is just how essential it will be this year for everyone to keep up with their tasks outside of class.  One of these tasks includes journals and individual blog sites.  As I write this at 8pm on Sunday night, only four of the ten students has published a Week Two blog entry.  One of the important uses that I see in this task, its value as a learning and communication tool is negated a little.  I had taken notes from each of the four blogs I have read so far and had planned to publish an updated response for everyone to read on the class mainpage (aitkents07), however, I am unable to do that.

Interestingly, I see this ensemble task as a precursor to the solo monologue task later in the year.  The Blog exercise is going to become an essential way of supporting you and you supporting each other during Unit 4.  It is important that we make an effort to build good habits now, in preparation for next semester.

Although I think we had only set aside three of the four classes this week to block ‘100′, it might be necessary to use all four.  For those not acting then, you might want to use some of this time to undertake your own research, work with your co-designers if they are available or interact with the students undertaking other stagecraft areas.  We have created a great team and need to continue to build upon this through-out the coming weeks.

Thanks for a great week……Coops….over and out!

The new theatre class is fantastic, offering a great depth of talent in various areas.  Already, after just a week, the group is gelling together extremely well.

I was thrilled with the script reading and people’s reaction to the play.  Even with a cold read, I personally can picture how the final performance may look.  I must say though, it feels like we are quickly jumping into the work and will need to to get this play to the stage by the middle of May.

In my journal entries each week, I will provide you all with some of my thoughts on how the classes go, how rehearsals and production work is progressing and I’d also like to include details that I have posted in each of your individual journal entries for each of you to read.  They will be ‘qoutes’ so if you want to understand further, you should go and have a read through each other’s entries.  We can learn a lot from each other here, which is the main purpose of writing our journals as Blog entries, online.  I will indent them, as I have below, so that you understand these comments have been made within a context of someone else’s Blog.

As far as the ‘actor’s notes’, you might remember that I mentioned the need to undertake some Dramaturgy tasks and across the following week, that is just what we’ll do.  We’ll spend another session in IT/library and part of your homework will be to find out some more info on people’s near death experiences and what different people believe about what happens after we die.  On the surface, sounds a little morbid, but there is some really interesting stuff there as last year’s Yr12s discovered when researching stuff for their ensemble.
I’m happy that your feelings about the play have waivered.  I’d hate it if you all immediately liked what you saw/read.  To me, part of the challenge in performance, is making something work for your audience.  There are elements of ‘Fame’ that I found difficult, so I made slight alterations to the script and there are other areas that I still don’t like totally.  Part of my job as the Director of ‘Fame’ is to take these elements and present them to the audience in such a way that they will work better.
I also agree with your summation of the play now you have read it.  I hope one of the things you guys might learn this year is to not be closed off to the possibilities of a script/performance and instead to take the challenge on board.  There were some students who struggled with their practice monologues last year because they expected it all to come easily.  They chose the monologue they ‘liked’ best, which isn’t always the wisest creative decision to make.  You however, are willing to look for the challenge and work to overcome it, which is what made your monologue one of the most successful last year.
On your comment about the audience thinking about their lives when watching the play….if only one person in the audience is affected this way, then as performers, you have done your job.  You can’t force the audience to be touched by the subject matter, but hopefully, they will.  And I know that sometimes, it can be years later that the experience of seeing something like our play will come back to impact on a person.

 

Thanks to Lisa for providing the impetuous for these comments.

And these from Jarrod-

Your feedback on the cold read were especially welcome. As a Director, the hardest part is actually getting the casting right…which I think we are close to doing. I aappreciate your evaluation of the efforts by Josh, Lisa and Burak. Let’s make sure we support each other by also being willing to share our thoughts in class.
An important part of creating a “Production Team” as we need to for this exercise is that we are supportive of each other. Being supportive doesn’t just mean providing positive feedback, but being honest about your ideas. I always appreciate it when you guys give me feedback. The second tier to this then, is to take comments on board as professionals. This means that you can choose to agree or disagree with the comments, but you also genuinely listen and even if you don’t agree, you are willing to process the comment and try and work out what has led the person to make that comment. I have always said to you all, that I am constantly learning from you as much as you might learn something from me. And we can all learn from each other.