Mini-Master Classes

Monday (November 19) we started our Monday by pitch of Lydia which Mr  Fearnehough giving some idea on how to improved in doing the pitch.

Wednesday (November 21) We started to have a mini master class that Hailey Rose volunteered to start it.
We learned about some difficulties in thinking what you would do, and how we express the movement of our body and the hand gestures, and we learned about the three princples of movement this are:
- Translation
- Rotation
- Inclination

Next one is bekki, at first we think that we lost our energy, but when she started to tell us what we gonna do, we like having more energy it was called YES GAME or YES WARM UP, which is it started to a lower voice saying yes and it became higher and higher.
Then another one is the BEARS AND LUMBERJACKS,  i love this, because at first we got laughing but we need to concentrated on what we are doing that is the thing that we need to apply on doing something that is need more concentration.
We tells us about what kind of performer are we, and we explain it, and remember the 3 important word in pair.

Theatre after the holidays!

So here it is. I know, I know, I'm terribly late and I do apologise. The "blogger" reflex is one which I desperately need to acquire! Well, without further ado, here is the blog covering the last two weeks and today's lesson.

So to recap, I am missing entries from the first week back from the holidays. So let’s start with that one. The first Monday was sports day so our first real lesson was on Wednesday. Despite having masses of homework due in, we started off with our TPPP presentations. Lydia went first, and described her TAPS as many different lessons that which made her feel clearer about theatre in general. Halley's presentation was about about her newfound understanding of theatre, seeing as she joined the class after having been on TAPS. Bekki's presentation was more about finding herself as a theatre student and the effects of TAPS concerning this. My presentation was a sort of day by day account of what happened and how it changed me.

On the Thursday following this, we dedicated an entire lesson to finding out more about “mise en scene”. Literally the action of “putting on the stage”, mise en scene is everything that is concerned with the process of producing a play. We saw that everything from lighting to set design, all in relation to the performance concept, is crucial to the mise en scene. For homework, we had to write our pitches in relation to a play we saw at TAPS.

The pitch needs to include every aspect of the play in a maximum of 250 words. I misunderstood this and wrote a sort of advertising pitch to show off the play’s qualities. Mr Fearnehough then told us to rewrite this, first at the original 250 word limit, then at 50 and then at 10! This quickly became hell but I tried. This was to show us that it helps to completely break our work down to a few key words and then do it again from those words.

Following this, we started our master classes. So far, we have had Lydia’s, Bekki’s and Halley’s, with mine to be done tomorrow. Lydia’s was centered on immersive theatre, Halley’s on mime and movement and Bekki’s was on creating an ensemble. Mine is on Verbatim theatre and lineals and I can’t wait!

Pitches, Scheduling Drama, Masterclasses , OH MY!

This week started off with the task of us writing a pitch for a show we saw in London. The purpose of the exercise is literally tied to one of the IB tasks we'll eventually have to do; pitch your proposed project in 250 words including the creative concept, message, and audience type. However, in addition to being useful in IB theatre, writing a pitch requires you to express an idea clearly and concisely, while still making it interesting.  The "Spielberg Scenario" was referenced on multiple occasions where we were put in the extraordinary situation of being stuck in an elevator with the film-making legend: our task was to successfully pitch our idea. I chose to pitch "Damned By Despair" and was very content with my work, thank you very much. After discussing Lydia's pitch in class, we were forced to rewrite our pitch using more exciting language and specific details referencing creative choices such as costume, sound, lighting, etc. After finishing my second 250 word pitch, I now believed that one to be the best! (Taking into consideration the additional notes on the creative concept and good dose of the magical "rule of three adjectives", the 2nd draft was by all accounts better than the first) To make life difficult, we were forced to rewrite our pitches in 50 words! Honestly, I was pretty bitter about this assignment :/ I understand that sometimes you need to get your point across in a short amount of time, but I still...50 words?? I suffered through it and eventually come up with a pitch that lacked any sort of specifics and was basically a wordy run-on sentence summary of the production. I did, however, have a chance to redeem myself and have since rewritten a 10 word "pitch" (if it can be classified as that...) for "Damned by Despair". This process has taught me that editing your writing is actually very helpful, and sometimes your best work is just around the corner.

On a more practical level, on Wednesday we presented our masterclasses! Yay! I volunteered to go first and presented a class on Etienne Decroux's Corporeal Miming. This was part of the first exercise I did in TAPs and really warmed me up to theatre in general. As dancer I am much more comfortable with motions and movements so I found it very easy to approach theatre from a physical level. I first explained the three principle movements: translation, rotation, and inclination. These three types of movement are the core elements in all types of movements. Speaking of your core, Decroux believed that emotions and stories should be expresses using your whole body (as opposed to facial expressions or hand gestures) and thus must emanate from your core. Because of this, I made the class do 10 crunches and then hold that position for an additional 10 seconds. The warm-up activity took everyone by surprise but it also tuned people into the fact that they must keep their core engaged to understand the path of motion. After doing an exercise on robotics we moved into the story-telling aspect of the class. First I had the "students" move around the space and then freeze. Upon freezing I asked them to come up with a story based on the position of their body. We repeated the exercise except the second time they came up with a character or story in their head, and then came up with physicality to match that. This process is essential in characterization and can be used to express emotions simply through how you move on stage. In Damned by Despair for example, the devil character moved slowly and leeringly. The way she moved affected the mood of the audience because the atmosphere became creepy when she was onstage. Additionally, her movements were very distinct from the rest of the characters, which helped to signify that she was unlike the others; she was supernatural.

In Bekki's masterclass we learned about team building exercises. The main purpose was to learn that you have keep the energy of an ensemble very high, but at the same time balance that with a calm sense of concentration needed for performing.  In the "yes" exercise, the whole group became really energetic just by simply saying the word "yes"! (louder and louder and LOUDER of course). On thursday Lydia led her masterclass on immersive theatre. The concept still isn't extremely clear to me, but I think its theatre in unconventional situations that involve audience members. I was chosen to be the extra is Bekki, Axel, and Abigail's group and I actually played along! Woop woop! Success in acting :)

Week 9: Getting Back Into School

This week we discussed Performance Concepts and Pitches. 

Monday- We talked more about what was important to put in a Pitch.

• The message
• the target audience
• Performance Concept
• A brief overview of the story

We also discussed the message of 'Oh the Humanity!'

Wednesday- We talked about pitches again and Mr. Fearnehough had us reduce our 250 word pitches to 100 words.

• Then Halley taught us about miming and physicality. She taught us about miming and using your body to display emotion. She taught us about the three laws of movement- translation, rotation, and inclination, as well as the rule of opposition. This is used to for many things on stage such as when you are on stage but not speaking, it could be used to create a specific atmosphere (the Devil in 'Damned by Despair'), or to help block out scenes. We also learned that if you do one scene in a different style it will stand out more.
• Next Bekki went and taught us about ‘creating an ensemble’.  She showed us how to getting our energy going with “The YES! Game”.  The second exercise we did was the “Eye Contact Game”. We would stand in a circle and if anyone made eye contact with you then you were supposed to hold the contact and switch spots. Then she had us play “Bears and Lumberjacks”- to teach teamwork to the Bears and concentration to the Lumberjacks. Then we did an exercise about what type of performer we are. First we each struck a pose that represented what most enjoyed doing in a production. Then we each told a partner what made us like being this particular thing. After this we all came back together and each partner had to give three words that summed up what their partner had said. This really helped to focus on what was important and maybe prompt me to step out of my comfort zone.

Thursday- First we played the 'Voice' with our 100 word pitches. We went over what was really important to put in them. Then Lydia taught us about immersive theatre. She explained that is was about making the audience actually experience the story. It can be done in a hotel or school or any other type of public building. Then we split into two groups and made up our own immersive  theatre piece. This was very interesting!

                After considering my class choices all weekend and looking at all of the factors, I have decided to stay in theatre. I hope that it will work out and that I will be able to make up all of the work pretty soon!

Week 8:Indecision...

This was my first week back from break since I had not gotten back from America until Sunday the eleventh. 

Monday- This was sports day so we did not have class.

Wednesday- Today we went over the criterion that the TPPPs (Theatre Performance and Production Presentation) would be evaluated on.(mark scheme)  This week the rest of the group delivered their TPPPs and turned in their essays from the Pavis Questionnaire.

Represents the Performance Concept

Thursday-We went over what a ‘mise en scene’ is. It is a French phrase that literally translates to mean 'the act of putting on the stage'. We learned that it is the process of bringing a concept to an end product (most likely a play). We also discussed what the best way to write the pitch for our PPP was.Then, Mr. Fearnehough assigned us a 250 word pitch on one of the productions we saw in London.

During this week I have been having second thoughts about being a theatre student. During the break I had decided to switch to chemistry so I had not done any of the holiday homework. I had also decided to switch from physics to biology which meant I would have an enormous amount of catching up to do.  I have talked to Mr. Fearnehough and Mr. Faure several times about this; they strongly recommended that I only switch one class. Although I greatly enjoy theatre I feel that chemistry would be better on a college application and most likely better for me in the long run, but I need to consider it a little more now that have been able to talk to the teachers. 

TaPS MASTERCLASSES AND PITCHES 

On Wednesday 21st Halley and Myself did our masterclasses we learnt in TaPS.

Halley went first and taught us about Miming which was really interesting because although it seems very easy and people normally think it is easy there is theory behind it.

- Etienne Decroux
- Expression through movement
- 3 principles of movement

Halley was very confident and explained the whole theory of miming very well, and then made us do some little exercises to show us how we could do miming easily with the theory we've learnt. After Halley's masterclass we all discussed how miming could help us with future projects.

- Miming can mark moments
- different style of movements for different actors
- miming can be a helpful way to find the way a character would move.
- we found that miming can show a certain mood to an audience - e.g the devil in the performance damned  
by despair we saw which was a very sinister character and the movement that was used was well thought of.
- Miming can emphasis movement.

It was then my turn to do my masterclass and i decided to do some activities we learnt in TaPS on Creating the Ensemble Feel. I first told the ensemble to remember  4 keys words throughout the masterclass ENERGY, MOMENT, RISK and JOY and i did 4 different activities,

- The Yes Game
- Eye Contact Game
- Bears and Lumberjacks
- What type of performer are you ?

The aim of these activities was to create energy in our small groups, reflect on the activities and taking risks in theater can have good consequences.
In reflection from my masterclass i think i did well at leading it even though i was a bit nervous at the beginning but i think i took on the role quite well and i would like to do that again.  

Thursday's lesson we presented our pitches and we got advice on how to improve them so that information would come out as much as possible. We have now been set to do from 50 words to 10 words which is gonna be hard!

Lydia then did her masterclass on Immersive Theater, she first talked to us about how it s used and how it is different from others because audience are actually in the piece which makes it more real for both the actor and the audience. We then got a set an activity to do in groups and perform a short piece but someone from the other group would come and that could change the whole piece to the way that they reacted which was very interesting. 

Lydia was very good at explaining and leading us through her masterclass and she made Immersive Theater which is not very well known, she made it known by us. 

Bekki xx

Masterclasses & PItches

Our double lesson on Wednesday was when Halley and Bekki did their masterclasses.

Halley's masterclass was about Miming. It was a really exciting and interesting masterclass and everyone has heard about Miming but had never been taught HOW to mime!

In Halley's masterclass we learnt about:

• Etienne Decroux 
• Expression through movement
• Three principles of movement

Halley did an amazing job of teaching everyone about miming, she was loud, energetic and fun. 

We reflected after the masterclass about how we could use miming later on in the course to help in projects. 

It can help by:

• miming can help break down movements
• miming can project a mood to the audience instead of showing emotions e.g the devil in damned by despair
• its a technique to find movements
• style of movement can be used when you're acting
• miming can mark the moment
• make a movement supernatural and emphasise a movement

Bekki did her masterclass on Creating the Ensemble Feel. We did 4 activites in the masterclass and kept in mind four words we learnt from TAPS which were: ENERGY, MOMEMTUM, RISK AND JOY. 

Bekki leaded the masterclass amazingly, she made the group join together, the energy level was so high and everyone was excited and interested in every game. 

The activities we did were:

• Yes warm up
• Eye contact game
• bears and lumberjacks
• what type of performer are you?

These activities helped everyone reflect on ourselves and us as a group. The "yes game" raised energy straight away and breaked the tension in the group. 

All the activites helped everyone realise not to worry about breaking the bounderies in theatre because taking risks is a good thing to do. 

Everyone also has a big responsibility in keeping the energy level up in the group because if one person breaks it, then energy falls for everyone. 

Thursday-

We played "the voice" when listening to eachothers 50 word pitches for a production we saw in London. 

We got advice on how to improve them to get the most information in our pitches as possible. 

Now we have to put the word limit down from 250 to 50 to 10 words!! 

Then it was my turn to do my masterclass on Immersive Theatre.

I first discussed with my group about what immersive theatre was and how it is used. I then split the group into two and asked them to produce a short immersive theatre piece. One person from the other group would join to group performing to get the experience of immersive theatre. Only one group got to perform as the bell rang but that group produce a good piece. 

The point was to understand what immersive theatre is and why it is used. 

I would love to reflect with the group on how Halley felt when she took part in the other groups performance and it would be good to reflect on how to improve these short sketches to make them more immersive.

TPP PRESENTATIONS AND MISE EN SCENE

We missed our lesson on Monday due to sports day, which my team won by the way...just saying.

Wednesday we had a double lesson which we fitted mine, Halley's, Bekki's and Axels presentation in. We also discussed the marking criteria for the TPPP which helped before we did our presentations and but good/bad points for the other presentations.

The presentations were about how we feel and have changed as an IB theatre student after TAPs.
We used 4-5 images and some of us used them differentely. My images were: Theatre in the world, Theatre in the making and theatre in performance. Another image was art that described me before taps and another after taps.
Reflecting about my own presentation, I could improve on:

• making my presentation longer to get the correct time.
• justifying myself more with more examples from TAPs. Like when we learnt comedia in Taps.
• Speaking more confidentely 

Axel and Bekki in their presentations spoke more about their experiences and reflections of those experiences in TAPs. This was a good way of understanding exactly what we did in TAPs.

Halley's presentation was interesting as she wasn't a theatre student in TAPs but it persuaded her to become one. It was interesting to listen to her thoughts and feelings about her experiences and knowledge of theatre.

Thursday lesson was about Mise en Scene.

We had no idea what this was before hand when doing our pavis questionnaire style essay. I did research it before the lesson so I had an idea what mise en scene was. Mise en Scene is the process of the the production from A to B. The process involves the performance, directional and technical aspects. The performance concept aspects involve:

• Lighting effects (LX)
• Sound effects (SX)
• make-up
• set
• props
• costume
• script
• acting style.......