Working on the prologue
In todays lesson we explored the prologue in East End Tales. We took on the character of the taxi driver and explored the characterisation of the man in pairs. I paired up with Jed. We both were asked to stage the scene, but not in a generic 'hand on steering wheel' way. We both stood back to back and did not engage each others presence physically, only through the conversational responses of one another. We both decided to block the scene in this way as we thought about the taxi itself and how there is a separation between driver and passenger by glass. This was why we did not engage each others presence.
From this I learnt that sometimes its not all about connecting with each other physically or facially, but its also verbally. This is important as now that I've learnt this, I can react off of one another more realistically and effectively, leading to a better performance.
In our class we both thought that Alex's group was very effective as they were all feeding off of each other and that helped create realism to their performance. They also all reacted to the taxi itself by swaying in sync. This was effective as you could believe that they were sitting in a taxi and reacting to the drivers frantic driving.
Hot-seating
Later on in the lesson, we did a hot-seating exercise. Hot-seating in when you get asked questions about your character and you respond to them as the character using improvisation. Some of the questions we asked were:
- How long is your shift? when do you get back home usually?
- What do your family think of your profession?
- Do you enjoy your job?
We also asked simple questions to understand the character as a person better.
Hot-seating is a useful technique to use in rehearsal as it helps you develop your characterisation and it assists in adding realism to your performance.
Ensemble Taxi Driving
Tale 8 - Atmosphere
In groups we were asked to underline/highlight anything that indicated location, weather and atmosphere within the text. Here are some examples of what I highlighted:
- It's early
Eerie
Just before sunrise
And hailstones bombard the darkness
- The hail piles up like icy gravel
- But today, there's an atmosphere
Tension
Something about to happen
Usually it's silent here
- There's a buzz, a static
A eerie hum
- Sun's coming up
Away to the east
Morning light
Awakens the beast
Once we had gone through the text we created a series of sounds and movement that reflected the text. We created a soundscape to create the weather and used physical theatre to show the atmosphere.
- What was effective about the sounds we had decided to use?
The sounds we had decided to use were effective because they portrayed the emotions of the character in the scene and created a tense atmosphere. The description used in the text was very thought provoking and caused us as a group to explore a wide range of sounds from rain to footsteps and even a static hum.
- What was effective about the movement we had decided to use?
The movement in our scene was effective as we had used a variety of levels. For example, we started of crouched on the ground tapping on a chair creating the sound of rain drops hitting a roof. We then proceeded to move into a group at a higher 'standing' level and then fluidly moved back down into a crouched 'arch' position. The fluidity of the movement created slick transition from each section.
- How did the work make you feel?
The work made me feel the same as the character in the scene. I felt these because our movement and our sounds immersed me in an environment just like the text.
- What could have been developed further?
We could've made our piece longer as our scene lasted around a minute, maybe more. If developed further, the scene could have used more examples from the text and we could've explored more ways of portraying the atmosphere.
- Do the sounds and movement have the same impact as just reading out the lines? Is it a better way to help tell this story?
The sounds and movement definitely create the same amount of impact as if you would read the lines. Both the sounds and the movements helps the audience visualise the scene more clearly than they would if spoken aloud. Personally, I like to include both an equal amount of spoken word and physicality as both can create the same effect but in different ways and it is interesting exploring both of these together.
