AS Level Drama and Theatre Studies Coursework: Process Journal.

AS Level Drama and Theatre Studies Coursework: Process Journal, Section One, Rationale:

The reason that Bacchae by Euripides was chosen as a set text to be examined on is because it is a classic ancient Greek performance. It offers us a look at how the Greeks lived in a completely different culture to ours. It also shows us how important religion was to them and how they worshipped different gods to us; it is very interesting because this is how theatre started off in ancient Greece. From choosing a piece of drama this old, we can see how our theatre today has developed from previous ideas and techniques. Another benefit of using the Bacchae is that it is the first ancient Greek play I have studied and so offers challenge, the Greek way of life is a whole new culture to get used to.

The scene that I have chosen to act out from the play is between pages 20 and 25 of the play and it is the part of the play in which Pentheus and Dionysos first meet each other. I have chosen this scene because I believe that it is a very important part of the play. It is a scene that contains a lot of stichomythia between the two very important characters in the play. This scene is a scene that would be enjoyable to act out, and also I feel that it is one of my favourite scenes in the play.

I will be playing Pentheus in the scene I have chosen to act out from the Bacchae. Also I will be playing Pentheus in the devised scene that me and the other three members of my group for the devised scene will be writing and acting out. Although for the scene from the original script I will be working in a group of two, in the devised scene I will be working in a group of four, this is for a wider range of Bacchae characters to use in the devised piece. The content of this scene will include a dialogue between the original Bacchae characters of Pentheus, Dionysos, Agave and Kadmos.The scenes, which we will include, will be a scenario in which Dionysos visits the house of Pentheus, A fight scene between Pentheus and Dionysus with music in the background and Kadmos Narrating the scene. The devised piece will end with the realisation that whilst fighting, Pentheus and Dionysos where approached by Kadmos, when the old man tried to stop the fighting, just as in the Bacchae he was ignored. A stray fist leads to the death of Kadmos and the ultimate betrayal on the behalf of Pentheus.
Connections can be made between the original script of the play and this devised scene in the way that it follows key themes of betrayal and ignorance, as well as having the same characters in modern day times, for the devised piece we are looking at what the characters would be like with similar personalities in the modern world. Instead of the characters achieving a state of religious ecstasy using beliefs and chants, the two main characters will use LSD for their religious purposes. The events in the story will lead to the death of Kadmos because Pentheus ignores his advice.

The initial ideas for staging the text piece are to place much emphasis on the acting of the dialogue between the two characters as they argue, both voice and body language are important and will be considered greatly in order to give the audience a true feeling of the emotions of anger and pride and disbelief that are shown clearly in the spoken dialogue of Pentheus and Dionysos in this scene. Initial ideas for staging the devised piece will be to once again to place great emphasis on body language and speech, also to use music ...

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Section 2, Development:

In order to develop my individual role with regards to my set text part of the play, I thought it would work best if I applied a number of various techniques to the scene when acting it out. I took into account that Pentheus is angry and sarcastic in this scene between him and Dionysos. After thinking about this I decided to use more of an R.P accent when speaking out the script and also to use a sarcastic tone of voice in order to bring across Pentheus’s anger and sarcasm. I also thought it would work well if I walked around Dionysos almost pacing and jeering at him giving him small pushes and laughing at him when he offered his side of the story defending his gods that Pentheus had no belief in.

Developing the set text in way of interaction between me and another member of my drama group who was playing Dionysos was done in the way that we planned out the interaction between the two characters as they argued over Dionysos’s beliefs. Physical interaction was used in a way that the body language of Dionysos showed that he was not bothered or scared by the threats of Pentheus. The body language conveyed in my role of Pentheus involved me pushing Dionysos and pacing around him whilst laughing sarcastically at him before speaking out my lines.

Development of the devised scene led to a bit of a change in storyline to what was first intended. The idea of drugs was dropped and we decided to approach our devised scene in more of an abstract way. Individually this meant that I had to act out feelings or anger and jealousy from the behalf of Pentheus. The devised piece was changed to see Dionysos visiting Pentheus’s house for dinner and Pentheus becoming jealous of the attention that Agave and Kadmos give to Dionysos this lead to a fight involving all the characters and led to the accidental death of Kadmos.

In the ways of developing the devised scene in terms of group interaction we worked hard to convey a sense of anger in the fight scenes and the argumentative scenes that we wrote. Both my character of Pentheus and another group members character of Dionysos staged a fight for the beginning and end of the play which was fought in a very slow motion style with a sequence of movements to a piece of music which we planned for two weeks. Also one of the props for the dinner table was a paper Mache piece of ham, this was picked up by my character in a threatening manner during an argument between the characters and both raised voices and body language was used to incorporate all our actions together.

Staging the performance did not pose many problems; we needed four chairs and a table for props along with a three cloaks. We used a end on style of seating and staging for the performance. We used different lighting effects to convey different moods, along with music in the silent fighting scenes and the abstract scene of the play to place emphasis on the different emotions that we where trying to convey. All in all we did not encounter two many problems when staging the play, and the effects that we did use worked well in the overall performance.

Section 3, Performance:

The set text scene went well when being performed, the only problem encountered by me was that I had to be prompted once due to forgetting a line. The ways in which the scripted scene could have gone better could have been more advanced lighting that changed the colour of the yellow spot light that was on the two main characters from yellow to red as Pentheus’s anger increased towards the end of the scene. Also I could have performed in a robe, as this would have suited my role more. However, both me and my partner for the performance of this piece of text worked well together using both body language and facial expression to covey the characters feelings.

I think that the devised scene worked better than the scripted scene because I was in a bigger group and we used four characters from the Bacchae in our devised scene. This gave each of us chance to develop our role as the character by studying their roles in the Bacchae and incorporating their feeling in the devised piece. Different lighting effects where used to convey different emotions in the performance and I think that this effect worked well. Improvements that could be made to the devised piece would be to make it longer so more of a development of the characters feelings, emotions, and roles can be incorporated from the Bacchae script.

Overall I think that my project went well. I think that the devised performance worked better than the scripted performance and I would say that I enjoyed the devised section more, both the writing and the performing of it because it offered more freedom to have fun with the characters and try to create something that would be enjoyed by both the actors and actresses and the audience. Although the scripted piece went fairly well, I was not s pleased with the scripted piece as I was with the devised because the devised had more advanced lighting effects , more developed roles and the use of music and pre-planned fight scenes which made it generally more interesting.

AS Level Drama and Theatre Studies Coursework: Process