Babysteps of the big production

Description:

This week we finished the first sketch of scene 5, which is the scene of the banquet. This scene is HUGE, so we need special focus to make it dynamic and entertaining.

Analysis:

In order to make this scene dynamic and avoid it to be eternal, we need to solve some of these problems:

• Actors don't know their lines----> don't know when to enter---> energy is lost

• As we are dividing the scene in both parts of the counterpoint, joining it is becoming difficult

• Actors forget the actions we marked on the last rehearsal

This is making me realise that this process is about commitment. If people show some commitment, this scene will be awesome. However, we also need to provide them with things such as the texts, remind them to read them and learn their entries and be more strict in the time of rehearsing.

One of the things that bothers me about this scene are the relationships. For example, Redwood and Mrs. Redwood need to have a relationship full of passion and partnership. The audience needs to understand that they are  parters in crime. That they are willing to do everything to succeed as long as they are together. I understand that the relationship between the actors must be forced, but they need to understand that in the moment they enter the stage, they are not themselves, they are characters. This will require actors to break personal issues and leave them aside, in ALL the cases, this is just an example. 

As a solution, we need to work more in their characterisation, or remind them to do it. This is why we need to have a clear process. I propose to use the normal acting process:

We need to make the actors ANALYSE the role. In order to do this, they need the script to determine some information about the character, and the other information must be created by themselves. Also, he must understand the RELATIONSHIPS with other character and define the character's OBJECTIVES for each scene. There is always an INTENTION, PURPOSE and SUBTEXT behind everything a character says on stage. In the case of character RELATIONSHIPS, the most important objective will be the use of SUBTEXT, as it is important to explore what each character us saying under the lines. This will work as long as the intonation changes, and it is used to indirectly establish a relationship between two characters. The use of SUBTEXT will rely upon unspoken thoughts going through the mind of the character  showing  the underlying emotional motivations for actions that could be psychological and emotional motivations.

It is also useful to determine the role in the whole play. For example, Joaquin's role throughout the whole play is to be the comic relief in every scene he appears as his character itself is funny. 

Connections:

Robert Cohen's theories:  Robert uses the term "relacom," referring to "relationship communication."He states that all communication has at least two dimensions: the content dimension of the message and the relationship dimension of the message. He refers to the fact that we not only say things, but we say them in particular ways and the WAY we say things often tends to develop, clarify, redefine a relationship. So, it is very important to explore different SUBTEXTS under the lines

Past school plays rehearsals: We can see that in last school plays we had never applied properly the process of acting, but we just rather let the actors characterise by their own. This has sense as they have already learned how to do characterisation, but if they know, why do we keep repeating the same things?

Reflections:

This makes me reflect upon the factor of EFFORT and COMMITMENT. Another thing that is annoying me VERY MUCH is the fact that there are actors missing rehearsals. I think that that is always an issue in the school play, and I understand but it is a BIG disadvantage as I realise that a scene doesn't work if all the actor are not present. The energy is lost, people are lost and don't know when to enter. However, apparently there is nothing we can do about it.  I just don't understand why is people not coming to rehearsals if they commit to come...

This leads me to question, until what extend its the actors commitment important for the play to be successful? and if they commit to assist the rehearsal, why they don't comply either with coming or learning the things we did when they were not here?