Don Quixote - Rehearsals

Before starting rehearsals and everything we took one class to brainstorm a few of the stories within the story Don Quixote. Each group researched a different story, and found out a bit about it. We based our play on the different stories we found. 

So far we have worked on 3 different scenes however they are not complete. We worked on the first on which is when Don Quixote is asleep and wakes up to see the love of his life dancing around him however it is all a dream [audience is watching his dream.] To figure out who would play Don Quixote and his love we were put into groups of 2 and we all had to do the same thing in the end we came down to 3 different groups. The final ones who were chosen were Kenny as Don Quixote and Ivy as the girl. After this Mr. Evans decided who would be the rest of the characters. 

Once we knew who the rest of the characters were we started the second scene when we are all doing our jobs the farmers, the butchers and the church people, then Santropanza comes in on his horse and stops at all the different stops and gets something from the farmers and the butchers. At first this scene wasn't coming together and it was out of place however once Mr. Evans put us into the correct places it started to fall together. Once we had this scene together we moved onto the last scene. 

In the last scene which we mainly put together in yesterdays two lesson we got a lot done. We had previously worked on this scene however it wasn't working out. We tried different things and kept changing it to make it work and in the end we succeeded and the scene turned our really well. Our main challenge with this was getting the devils to look scary and aggressive. In my opinion one of the best parts of that scene is the dragon because it helps it all come together. Lastly, we also had trouble with Don Quixotes Que. we had trouble getting him to come out at the right time, in addition he wasn't very stable however after a bit of trial and error it all came together. 

Here are a few pictures from yesterdays rehearsal: 

Dragon Asleep this worked really well
Danny and Pedro did a good job with the dragon. 

Dragons practicing moving around

Trial and Error: Testing different things with the devils

Naturalism - Stanislavski

Stanislavskis real name is Constantin Stanislavskis he was born in 1863 in Russia. He is the creator of Naturalism, wanted to make theatre more realistic so he decided create a system instead of regular melodramas. 

This is Stanislavaski 

Before Stanislavaski introduced Naturalism, melodramas  were very popular. A melodrama is a piece of theatre characterised with over the top expressions. Stanislavaski wanted theatre to become more realistic, he thought that the audience would connect better with the actors if they showed real emotions. So he introduced a system. He worked on providing guidance to the performers so that they could achieve deep and meanigful performances. Stanislavaski wanted actors to inhabit a authentic emotion on stage so that the performance would be very realistic. Many people refer to this system as the "Stanislavaski Method." 

The difference between melodrama and naturalism is that one is that a melodrama is basically a faked emotion whereas naturalism is when the actor connects with the performance and is able to show real emotion. 

"Constantin Stanislavski Biography." Bio.com. A&E Networks Television, n.d. Web. 06 Jan. 2016. <http://www.biography.com/people/constantin-stanislavski-9492018#opening-the-moscow-art-theatre>.

"Melodrama." The Free Dictionary. Farlex, n.d. Web. 06 Jan. 2016. <http://www.thefreedictionary.com/melodrama>.

Shopping & F***ing

Shopping and F***ing a play written by Marc Ravenhill is the first play write to become world famous because of its title. It is a considered a drama about the alienated unemployed of England and the corrupting power of money. The full version of the play is filled with explicit scenes, homosexuality, murder and it is a very realistic piece of art. 

Learning New Things

In todays lesson we watched the other groups performance, after their performance we all sat and had a long talk. Mr. Evans gave a lot of feedback to the other group. Personally, I learnt a lot from the discussion we had today. I found everything Mr. Evans said very interesting and it made me realise how important communication and team work is when your working together. In our group everything started running smoothly when we became comfortable with each other and we all took leadership and when we wrote the script that is when everything feel into place. At the start our group had a low communication because it was the first time a lot of us worked together however we over came all our issues and now we work really well together. Whereas with the other group there is an evident lack of team work and leadership. This made me realise how important it is for there to be leadership roles and that we need to push our selves if we want to succeed. This lesson won't only help me get good grades but it also taught me some different lessons that will help me in my life later on. Overall, I think it was good that we just went of criteria and sat down and got straight to the point of all the issues. 

Feed-back

During our lesson on November 12th 2015 we had a long discussion about having to work as team. We also had our first dress rehearsals, and did a full run. Overall, our feedback was positive, However we needed to be more emotionally connected to our character in order for me to do that I have to memorise my lines better because the paper being in my hand it taking away from my true potential because Im not confident enough so I just read. We also discussed props and decided who would do what. 

Tech Run

We had our Tech Run today, it took a long time however we were able to complete everything today. We have written up a Que. for Pedro who will be doing our lighting. The only thing that needs to be done now is our music, we will discuss our music and costume in our next lesson. Overall today was a very productive lesson because we completed our Que. so our full dress rehearsal will run smoothly. 

Testing lights for the Drug Dealing Scene 

Pedros Que.

Testing lights for the Interview scenes 

Lastly we also made a few changes to the script and added a few more lines to the narrator so that there was a more obvious transition between scenes. I think the changes help tie the play together a lot more. 

Rehearsals

In todays lesson we only rehearsed, we were able to run through the script two times. Personally, I think we could have worked a lot better. I found that the boy were not taking things very seriously, which made it harder for the rest of us to make good use of our time. However, I did notice the my memorisation of the script is continuing to improve.