The first session of the workshop was called, "Explorations", where we carried out several warm-ups, both physical and mental ones. This was crucial in preparing us for Part B of the workshop.

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SEAN FITZJOHN

Drama Portfolio

PAPER 1 UNIT 2 WORKSHOP

PART A

The first session of the workshop was called, “Explorations”, where we carried out several warm-ups, both physical and mental ones. This was crucial in preparing us for Part B of the workshop.

We started by doing numerous body and vocal exercises. Light stretches and spine rolls were done to help us loosen our whole body from head to toe. We then moved on to reading tongue-twister lines and basic sounds such as “aaa, eee, ooo”. This was done to help us pronounce, articulate and enable us to speak with reasonable clarity and tone. Being able to project our voice to the audience is essential, and this exercise helped us to be aware of this in our Greek performance

Our next warm-up was an exercise called “Balancing The Stage”. The idea of this was for two (or more) people to walk in an imaginary square platform which is balanced on a pivot in the centre. In order for the “stage” to be balanced, the actors must walk in a way that the “stage” is balanced on each side. This exercise helped us to notice and be aware of other actors when on stage. Without this awareness, there would be the risk of other actors, or even yourself, being blocked by others on stage and this would cause serious problems. This is important in ‘The Frogs’ because there were many actors playing the role of the chorus. Since there are so many actors, there is a higher chance of the lead characters being blocked by the chorus and so we need to be aware of this when performing.

The next exercise, “Pass On The Focus” had a simple concept, but was just as important as the other exercises. In this warm-up, we had to form a line and one of us had to choose any certain spot in the room and focus on that, whilst our other group members focused on that chosen person. The focus would be “passed” by the chosen person nodding their head and focusing on another person in the group. The rest of the group would now have their focus on that new chosen person, and this would repeat. This exercise was crucial as it helped us, as actors, to be able to focus on one thing and not be distracted by anything else in the room. It built our concentration and this was important in a real play as a good actor would not be fidgeting or smiling at his friends during an important scene in ‘The Frogs’. We can apply this to ‘The Frogs’ as status can be shown by the focus of the characters, as well as the audience. Status is important in Greek theatre, as there are characters with vast amounts of power, such as gods, as well as characters with very little/ no power at all, such as slaves. This contrast needs to be shown to the audience well. This can be done by having the lower status people crowding (being aware of blocking at the same time) around the higher status person/people and focusing their attention to them.

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The next exercise, “The Great Game Of Power” had us thinking for a bit. We were provided with a table, five chairs, and a bottle. As a group, we had to think of a way to distinguish power between the objects, from high status to low status. A good example would be where the five chairs are lying on the floor around the bottle, which is standing on the table. The chairs could represent slaves, as they are lower and the table as a “throne” for the bottle, representing the higher power. This element of drama, power, can be ...

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