Electra Rehearsal 1

Today we started blocking Electra. We are going to have three stage blocks at the back of the stage and the three Electras are going to be standing on the middle block, with the family on the right and the men on the left. As all three Electras represent the same person, we will be standing in a triangle linking arms and as one person goes on stage there will be a struggle between us to break free and a struggle again to rejoin the triangle. Whilst one Electra is on stage, the other two will make sharp and distorted movements to represent her mental state. 

We didn't spend a lot of time on Act 2 today and focused mostly on my entrance. When I escape from the other Electras I walk around the stage staring at the audience. We are setting our performance in the round like a real Greek play would have been, so by walking around the stage I can connect with the whole audience, rather than just those in the rig. I then hide behind the chorus who in our performance are going to represent my imaginary friends. I stand behind them for protection. This is all we did in today's lesson. 


 

CATS Dance Audition

I have been watching a few videos from the live recording of CATS in the West End to get some inspiration for my own dance. I have noticed a lot of crawling on the floor, cat claw shapes and sniffing/licking like a cat would. Here is a spider diagram of all the movements I noticed: 



I have decided to do my dance to Macavity as it is one of my favourite songs from the show. Although it starts quite slow, the music builds up and I think this would be a good way to base my own choreography. I could start low perhaps crawling on the floor and end with leaps, rises and lots of extended arms. However the song is over 5 minutes in length so I will have to find a way to cut it down to 2-3 minutes. 

Check list

Beth Bayes

1. Make sure you are doing all work in posts and linking the posts correctly to their Unit (See Ashley or Katie for help if needed)

Costume

1. Upload pictures of each page in your Costume Portfolio, you should have;
   1. Character and text analysis
   2. Costume research – Period and social status
   3. Costume plot for THREE characters
   4. Written work about how no. 1 has contributed to no. 2
   5. Colours, fabric swatches and measurements
   6. Initial designs - Based on established period and social status
   7. Established designs with written work about practicalities, character portrayal, portrayal of mood/emotion

Dance

1. Reflect on your Bugsy dance
2. Reflect on how your CATS solo is progressing

Drama

1. Reflect on blocking and the rehearsal process for Electra
2. Look at each show of Electra and how well you are doing identify strengths/ weaknesses and what you could do to improve for the next one.
3. Include a review of Electra Performance at Old Vic

PAB Assignment 3

Here is a budget from Southampton Uni that i analysed in my presentation.

They thought they would earn £1189.57 but actually the show was more popular than they predicted and made about £400 more on ticket sales. However they thought they would get £50 from programme sales but they didn’t sell any.

They thought they would have to spend 217 on technical things but actually spent 282.24 but then because they didnt spend anything on other stuff where they thought they would need £30 and and nothing on programme printing where they thought they would need £30 they ended up not spending anything so it balanced itself out. In the end they made a profit of £788.37

Here is my budget for our production of The Wardrobe.

 

DIFFERENT TYPES OF FUNDING

Private Funding

Funding In Kind - This is where people you know help you out with your production. For insatnce if your mum is good at sewing she might be able to make the costumes for free. If your uncle is a carpenter he could make the set for you for free. You then work out how much this would have cost you if you had to pay for it, for instance if the costumes would have cost about £50, then you put it in your budget plan as "£50 Funding In Kind". Another good way to get FIK is to ask someone to perhaps do the lighting for free but say to them that they will gain experience and knowledge from it.

Match Funding - This is where Arts and Business look at what funding you already have and match it. So if you had £1000 Funding In Kind they will give you £1000.

Public Funding

Arts or Local Council - You can go to the arts council or your local council to apply for a grant. You can get between £1000 and £100000. It usually takes about 6 weeks to process. Some local councils such as our worthing one do not offer a lot to the arts so you may have more luck going to the arts council than your local council it just depends on where you live

Lottery Fund -  You can apply for a grant from the National Lottery who use money raised from lottery ticket sales.

PAB Bibliography

http://disneycareers.co.uk/en/career-areas/entertainment/theatrical-show-stage-production/

http://www.thestage.co.uk/recruitment/advert.php/8010/general?p=2

http://www.internwise.co.uk/events/details/11654/

 http://www.designingdisney.com/content/hong-kong-disneyland-celebration-air-photo-report

 https://nicksimmons.wordpress.com/2013/04/28/keep-the-magic-alive-an-interview-with-the-greatest-toy-shop-in-the-world/ 

http://www.mumsabouttown.co.uk/,

http://careers.theguardian.com/insiders-guide-to-becoming-screenwriter

http://courses.bournemouth.ac.uk/courses/undergraduate-degree/scriptwriting-for-film-television/ba-hons/34/course_information-course_overview/

 http://www.cssd.ac.uk/course/writing-stage-and-broadcast-media-ma-mfa

 http://careers.theguardian.com/insiders-guide-to-becoming-screenwriter

http://www.bbc.co.uk/writersroom/send-a-script

http://www.theguardian.com/money/2014/oct/21/how-do-i-become-scriptwriter

PAB Presentation

Here is my Performing Arts Business Presentation.

Here is the audition video I comment on in my presentation:

Faustus Performance Evaluation

Here is a video of our performance of Doctor Faustus:

I was very pleased with my performance. I found it more challenging to learn the lines as they were written in a way I am not used to. However I remembered them all and I think I did well. 


STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES

Strengths:    
The staging of our performance was visually interesting and different. Instead of everyone walking on and off stage for our scenes, we all remained on stage for the entire performance. When we were not performing we were standing on a stage block and when it was our scene we went into the centre of the stage. Another strength of this setting is that we did not stand in chronological order of scenes which made it unpredictable. 

The lighting was very simple which meant the audience could focus more on the action rather than being distracted by changing lighting. The blackouts also established the beginning and end of each scene

Weaknesses
I feel that the all black costumes stopped the audience from being able to differentiate the story between each scene. For instance my scene was about businesswomen so I would have liked to have worn a suit to represent this. If another group's scene was about a drug addict they could have worn a hoodie and ripped jeans and have make up to make them look like an addict, instead you could not tell between either character very easily. However a strength of the costumes is that it allowed the people on the blocks to mix in with the backdrop and not be noticed too much.

I feel like I rushed my lines as I was very worried about them. I need to learn to slow down and pace myself to make my acting seem more reliable.

I think I could have improved on my mime. My group had envy so I acted quite vain whilst Catrina looked at my clothes, hair etc and cried. Perhaps we both should have been jealous of each other so it was more clear we were representing envy instead of vanity.

If we had more time I think we should have choreographed the part where the angels bring me jewels into more of a dance, which was our original idea. If this was a bigger project we could have had music and more than two dancers to make it look really effective as if Mephistopheles is persuading and bribing Faustus into making the deal. It also would have contrasted with the rest of our scene. 

Faustus Lesson 2

After learning the story of Faustus, Catrina and I developed the story into a modern day context and this is what Catrina and I came up with:

A high flying but arrogant Oxford graduate who comes from a privileged family, has a beautiful girlfriend and seems to have the perfect life. He has just started at a big company. The boss sees potential in him and convinces him to take a promotion which will allow him to travel around the world and become super rich. The job involves him alienating all of his friends and family and becoming corrupt. 24 years later he looks at his life and although he has lots of money he realises that he is lonely and has no one to share his success with.

We read through a summary of each scene of the play to decide which part fit best with our idea. We decided to go with Act 2 Scene 1 as it is the part where Faustus makes the deal with Mephistopholes. We decided this was appropriate as we could set it as the boss persuading the employee to take a promotion. 

After we were given the script we shortened it slightly and then decided on parts. I took on the part of Faustus and Catrina, Mephistopholes. We debated whether to play men or women. At first we decided to play men as they are more stereotypically the ruthless business person, however we changed our minds because we thought it might not be clear to the audience. We used the parts of the good angel and bad angel to be represented by the current boyfriend (played by Josh) and the guy she has a crush on at work (played by John). We came up with this idea as the boyfriend is good and doesn't want her to take the promotion and be corrupt. However the office crush is another temptation to go bad.

                                              

Into The Woods Research

Into The Woods is set in a fairytale land which is traditionally thought of as in a medieval time period. This means the females should wear long dresses and the men puffy sleeves, tights and boots. Here are some examples of medieval clothing.

 


I have chosen to design costumes for the Witch, the Ugly Sisters and Rapunzel.I think each character's costume needs to reflect their personality and look similar to how we would imagine the traditional character so that it is easy for the audience to recognize who everyone is. 

The Witch is an old hag so her costume and make up need to show this. After some research I have seen a lot of Witch costumes with a fake chin and nose like this:



I think this is too much and looks too stereotypical. I don't think we should use this look in our production. Instead she should have a big curly  wig with some braids in it and lots of leaves and dead looking flowers weaved into it. I think she should have the leaves because she loves her garden and is into making potions. Her wig could look something like this:



During my research I found that a lot of costumes were either very glamorous etc:

  

or very scary and ugly:

 

I am not particularly keen on either and I think we should instead go for somewhere in the middle. I think her costume should have a colour scheme of green, brown, red, black and purple (similar to the ugly witch in the pictures). Black and red are often associated with danger and evil so show that she is a bad character whilst the brown purple and green goes with her love of potions and plants. 

Here are my initial ideas: