Thursday, April 17, 2008
Hello! I'm here to revive my blog.
Apologies for the super last minute post.
It looks like i never do any work right, its NOT!
I've been working hard and working long.
now i shall tell you what's been happening.
Session 1 - 17/3/08
We discussed the basics of the performance, based on what kinds of expectations and standards and hence came up with a timeline on what to do during our rehearsals. As decided by Mrs Kamal, majority of our rehearsals would take place during lessons, however, i feel the need to have some after school rehearsals to polish it up further. Mrs Kamal briefed us on what was expected and what was to come, including our upcoming performance at the Arts House on 24th of March
Session 2 - 20/3/08
Today we decided that for the performance at the Arts House, we would be going to perform our family scene and voting scene for them to watch. However, we had problems to solve. Many, many problems. Given that the performance was 4 days away. We had no proper breakfast to eat, our acting was not up to scratch, we had no idea how the voting would take place and we didnt know what costumes to wear. Hence we had a discussion.
It was decided that we would have a test tube breakfast and i would be in charge of getting the testtube holder and clean test tubes for us to put food inside.
The voting would hence be done on drawing block and so all those who had to vote, (the other 5), would have to make their own voting slips. It would be done tribal council (survivor) style.
As for costumes, we would just salvage what we can from the black box store and the MPS store room to give our characters varying shades of colours.
Acting wise, it was just practicing and rehearsing.
Session 3 - 21/3/08
During this rehearsal, we practiced and workshopped further, our family scene. We managed to get more conflict and tension between the relationships of the family and managed to work a few contrasts out. For instance, the relationship between pluto and venus vs the relationship between pluto and her father.
However, all the emotions returned back during the scene where pluto leaves for war. It is to show that the family, influenced by diavolo, is becoming more and more able to feel for one another. We agreed on the different feelings each character should have and left each one to return home and explore further.
Performance wise, i plotted the lights for the upcoming external live moderation and the breakfast props were done. The food for breakfast would be brought individually on monday. Costume wise, everything is settled!
Session 4 - 24/3/08
Today we took some time to do a few runs after school and prepare ourselves for our performance. Touching up some of the props and having bits of fun here and there, we slowly got into character and travelled to the arts house.
Our performance at the Arts House lacked climax and tension. The conflict was very vague and the energy level was low. Overall i felt that our performance was weak. However, it was work in progress and we will just have to improve.
On my part, i felt that my character was more or less strongly developed. However, my portrayal as the father is a little bit weaker than as the president and it hence brings out contrast and confuses the audience, i feel. Therefore i will need to try and balance both my roles. After all, they are the same person.
Session 5 - 25/3/08
Today, we gathered in a circle and gave feedback about yesterday's performance. I felt that the arguements and bickering between siblings could be much much much more intensified than it was at the arts house. The actors also need to pay attention to each other and not dream in their own worlds. Following the feedback session, we had one run before the examiners came for our live moderation.
We performed slightly better than yesterday. The energy levels were higher and more conflict could be seen. However, the characters felt under developed and some characters like mars were not doing or saying much. That made me feel uneasy. Her additions of comments about the screen which were supposed to be about the family did not work and many things felt awkward after it happened.
I missed a line today. During pluto's farewell. But i managed to save myself by bringing it up again. The dislike for the performance starts to fade.
Session 6 - 4/4/08
"All of you are like talking heads!", exclaimed Mrs Kamal. For today's lesson, mrs kamal made us redo the prologue, at first miming and then later only allowing us to say 2 lines each. This was to reduce the lines we had as the script was too "talky" and we would be restricted by our lines and stage actions. We tried many methods and eventually managed to reduce our prologue.
I was the one who complied the ideas into a script. For me, i never noticed how much dialogue my script had until mrs kamal pointed out. This just goes to show how much we think we know will never be enough. It was time to decide which scenes we didnt want. We went back and thought about the significance of each scene and contemplated cutting the scenes.
Session 7 - 10/4/08
Today we sat down as a group and decided specifically which scenes were dismissable. There were some who felt that the president's scene was not important and should be taken out. personally i felt that the president scene is important, both for our characterization sake and for the means of getting the message across. I argued my case, saying that the president scene is needed to show the "what's so special about this family?" question being answered.
For one, nothing is special about the family except that it is the presidents. That would need to be depicted by showing the entire brainwashing of society and hence the president's power needs to be firmly established before he can appear later on and show his power. Hence this scene shows the social setting and the psyche of the society and would definately be needed.
Convinced, the group decided to sit down and take away lines, not the plot. Things which were redundant were removed, but the storyline remains.
Session 8 - 14/4/08
Today Mrs Kamal watched our group perform the prologue and gave us even more suggestions for improvement. I realized my character was weak nearer the floor and she advised me on how to shift. Following that, we workshopped the president scene. This time round, without a blackout for scene change. This then brought about the idea of Diavolo wearing a mask. I immediately thought of my mask from ze masquarade - last year's farewell party for seniors. We would use it as a symbol of facade in the performance.
The teen also now has much lesser lines to say and the entire scene is short, concise and to the point. It was a mark improvement with Mrs Kamal guiding us.
Session 9 - 16/4/08
During this rehearsal, we workshopped the family scene which we had already more or less done for our external live moderation. For a start, we sat down and talked about what worked and what did not work in the previous scene. Then we cheorographed the waking up movement to syncronize with each other.
Finally, we went down to the basics of the performance and improvised, based on the lines, what we felt the script should be. We changed many of the lines and stage actions. As Afiqa and I had little parts in this scene, we substituted those not present and made the performance more cohesive. The workshopping was done by the actors bouncing off each other and breaking out of character to give comments and feedback to improve the performance.
After this rehersal session, i felt that the performance was more or less coming into place. All was left is the war scene.
Session 10 - 17/7/08
Today during lesson, we did a full run from the top of the performance, filling the other group members who were not present about their roles and stage actions. We also discussed about the costumes each member was to have. Finally, we decided to colour code them so that each character would be distinct and have a colour to show their character trait. Hence we made plans on what to do during the rehearsals.
After school, i went to buy black cloth for my costume. It would be made by my grandmother to show diavolo's darkness, a little inspiration from lord voldemort and the sith lord. Interestingly enough, i have the feeling my cape would add to the erieness of the whole performance.
During rehersals, Mrs Kamal sat in and gave us audience feedback for our performance, it was felt that i was not scary enough and that our blocking is not appropriate to maximize the uses of the stage. Hence we changed and decided that instead of chairs, each character would use something else to differentiate themselves and their corner of the room from another. That would solve the awkward setting during the president scene as well as give the play more life. Following that, We took our sticks (soon to be light sabres), and i cheorographed the war scene to suit the movement of Pluto being finally killed and taught the rest. We ended off stripping the current poles and planning to replace their coverings.
The actor froze at 8:16 AM
