How did rehearsals and the production process contribute to the final performance?

How did rehearsals and the production process contribute to the final performance? Although the majority of the rehearsals involved working closely as a whole group, there were occasional times where two or three members worked separately to focus on a particular element. One example of this was me, Dan, Josh, Sam and Nicole ensuring we were communicating the same facial expressions and gestures at the appropriate moments in the Positive Hour scenes. Our characters were desperately trying to make Hannah's character (Miranda) realise that her husband (Nick) was homosexual, and so we had to react at exactly the same moments to illustrate this "his yeast isn't rising". Our eyebrows would rise at moments of high sexual innuendo, and we would sigh in frustration when Miranda remained in denial. By designating specific movements to specific lines, the emphasis was stronger and the audience's understanding of the scene heightened. Watching this particular part back with the use of video definitely helped; it enabled us to see from an audience's perspective what was working, and what wasn't. Outside of group rehearsal time, we continued to research ideas as individuals, which often had a very positive effect. Having just two members in a more relaxed environment talking about certain scenes meant far higher levels of concentration and ensured the other person was always listening.

  • Word count: 1212
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: Drama
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Bertolt Brecht.

Bertolt Brecht. Brecht was born Augsburg, Germany in 1898. He then attended university in Munich in 1917. It was while he was at university that he witnessed the Bolshevik Revolution which was the first event to influence him. Brecht wanted what had occurred in Russia to repeat itself in Germany as he saw all there was to gain from a Revolution. This was the first influence that gave Brecht his voice in social and political issues. In 1918 Brecht was called up for World War 1 as a medical orderly. Here he witnessed some of the worst medical injuries created by the war. This experience made him an extreme pacifist. This was the second most influential event that took place which in turn caused him to be in opposition to those international opinionated political powers. He saw them as being capitalist populations, sending innocent men to be murdered meaninglessly, for their own efficient profitable gain. He felt misery as the human potential completely contradicted its entire meaning by the brute actions of humans around the world. Marxism was the influence that gave Brecht hope that there was good within humans although some needed re-awakening. He had seen the Russian Revolution and witnessed the collapse of Germany after World War 1 and the fall of the Royal Family of Europe. This all influenced Brecht to write his first play Baal in 1918. This raw play and episodic

  • Word count: 568
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: Drama
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Messages and Values in police/cop shows

Compare the representations of police and criminals in two police series. 24 is a American drama with a very high production values. It has lots of locations and high status actors such as Jack Bauer. As its producer Fox, is very powerful. Its shown on Sky One which is a entertainment channel for young audiences . 24 is sequential and fast paced , which is suitable for its target audience , which I think is young men in their 20s because it's technological and up to date; there are lots of gadgets and electronics. The male actors are wearing suits and have sophisticated guns . Also because there is lesbianism depicted, very good looking actors and girls who are vulnerable, which is appealing to most young men. The Bill also popular is shown on terrestrial television, Itv. Itv is a popular, traditional, commercial based channel. Usually aimed at middle-aged people and families. The Bill is targeted at people in their late 40s . You can see this because it is routinely shown ; middle aged people usually like routine. Also the adverts in the break are about houses and furniture and the majority of the actors are middle aged. There are actors who are have appeared in programmes with similar targeted audiences because people find pleasurable to recognize actors. The actors are also look realistic to appeal to older people. The Bill episodes have recaps so you can

  • Word count: 854
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: Drama
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Blue Remembered Hills

COMPARING AND CONTRASTING This year our practical assessment in Drama has been a three month project, from September until December, on 'Blue Remembered Hills' written by Dennis Potter, who also wrote other popular television programmes, films scripts and plays such as "The Confidence Course" that he wrote in the early part of his career in 1965, onto things like "Sufficient Carbohydrate" in 1983. Although he mainly wrote a lot of his scripts for television and films, script such as Blue Remembered Hills, originally written by Dennis Potter in 1979 for a small television programme telling the stories of a group of seven year olds adventures in a forest, on a summers day during the Second World War. However the tale was so popular that it was re-written as a theatre production suitable for the stage. Since then it has been made into a number of different films and theatre productions across the world. One example is an amateur production that we went to see in hove performed at 'The Barn Theatre' in Hove. The production was very successful, with sell out seat every night, proving it to be a very popular play to this day, not only to perform but also to go and watch. The themes of Blue Remembered Hills are very well shown through out the play, the themes include; Friendship: The string that holds all of the children together as friends. Pain: Something that in various form,

  • Word count: 1258
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: Drama
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Brecht Portfolio

A- level Theatre Studies Portfolio "Fear and misery of the III Reich" Bertolt Brecht . Dramatic Aims "Show, don't be." Our aims for this production from the historical point of view are to present the lives of people in Nazi Germany as they were and to show that because the past has changed, the present is changeable. However our main purpose is to make the audience realize how the play is related to their lives today and that if they want to change the world they have to start from themselves. "Proper plays can only be understood when performed. (...) The production has got to bring out the material incidents in a perfectly sober and matter- of- fact way. Nowadays the play's meaning is usually blurred by the fact that the actor plays to the audience's hearts. The figures portrayed are foisted on the audience and are falsified in the process. Contrary to present custom they ought to be presented quite coldly, classically and objectively. For they are not matter for empathy; they are there to be understood. Feelings are private and limited." ("Brecht on theatre" Conversation with Bert Brecht) "Fear and Misery of the III Reich" is an episodic play consisting of 24 scenes related through the political message (life in Nazi Germany 1933- 1938) but able to exist separately. This is one of the aspects of Brecht's idea of Epic Theatre which shows the world as it is- full of

  • Word count: 3742
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: Drama
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Briefly outline and justify your casting decisions for Antigone and Ismene and then explain how you would direct your actors in their first appearance together in order to convey your interpretation of their relationship at this stage in the play

Briefly outline and justify your casting decisions for Antigone and Ismene and then explain how you would direct your actors in their first appearance together in order to convey your interpretation of their relationship at this stage in the play I am choosing to set Antigone in a police state. Thebes will be a country under civil unrest, with Creon and his family fighting for the state apart from Polyneikes who is fighting for the citizens of Thebes and is a part of the anikist group called Argos. Antigone tells her sister that she is going to go against Creon, who I would have as a general, and bury her brother. The stage should be end on with no staging bar a backdrop showing high fences with barbed wire on the top along with two security cameras on the stage corners attached to the ceiling that focus upon the centre of the stage occasionally moving slightly to the left or right Security cameras Ismone and Antigone should be of a similar height and build with dark hair to show there relation. Their hair should be scraped back into a pony tail and their faces should be without makeup. This shows that the compound is based upon practicality and not looks. There costume should be of a military combat style in all black and both are to wear army boots. Both are to have armbands stitched with patches that show their individual achievements and ranking, Ismone’s is to be

  • Word count: 912
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: Drama
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Mad About The Boy, explain how the actors used vocal and physical theatre to change the audiences emotions throughout the play.

3 Explain how one or more performer(s) used their vocal and/or physical skills to create changing responses in the audience during one live production that you have seen and assess the effectiveness of their performance(s) at particular moments. On September the 28th, Taunton School AS drama went to the Old Vic theatre in Bristol to see Mad About The Boy. The three characters were Boy; played by Bayo Gbadamosi, Man; played by Simon Darwin and Dad; played by Jason Bennett. Gbolahan Obisean wrote the play. The first skill that was used was by the Boy right before the play had even started. He was standing on the stage as we all walked in dancing to hip hop music and pointing and laughing at the audience. The music was very loud and the dancing very stylized so we straight away we knew what type of person he was going to be. At first glance he was a rule breaker and a rebel. He used non-verbal dialogue such as laughing and whooping to relate to the audience. I was lucky enough to be sitting in the front row at the theatre and he made eye contact with me. This really made me feel comfortable and like I knew him before the play even started. He had successfully broken down the actor audience relationship without saying a single word! The choice of music also made the audience get drawn in further and further and as you watched him dance you wanted to get up there and dance with

  • Word count: 1045
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: Drama
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Character Analysis My name is Richie Swanson. I am thirty-eight years old. My appearance is unkempt but it comes across as perfect despite its imperfection

Peltier Adam Peltier Stephen Rockwell Acting Techniques 26 November 2012 Character Analysis My name is Richie Swanson. I am thirty-eight years old. My appearance is unkempt but it comes across as perfect despite its imperfection. Physically I’m in great shape thanks to my rigorous workout routine. I can do a thousand crunches now. I’m confident and I walk confidently with my head high and my chest out. I have a personality that oozes potential. Despite my confidence, there is a gentleness about me that comes across clearly. I can be someone that can be soft-spoken, good-natured, and really sweet natured. I’m also very obsessive over detail, right down to the designer suits I wear. Because of this I tend to categorize people by what they ware and how they look, I think people are more easily understood in terms of labels and stereotypes. Alcohol is my go to drink, and a bloody mary is my drink of choice. I like bloody mary's so much in fact I carry a capped pepper shaker in my pocket at all times. I was born into a wealthy family. My father was a defense attorney who was very successful. My mother was an archeologist that actually discovered the remnants of a wooly mammoth, after this she became a stay at home mom. I was the youngest of three in a family of prodigies. My oldest brother is named Chas. He is a world-renowned financial advisor. Margo, is my adopted

  • Word count: 672
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: Drama
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Describe the technical elements used to create realism in a production of 'Cat on a Hot Tin Roof'?

Outline the ways in which technical elements were used to create realism on stage at particular moments in one live production that you have seen and assess the effectiveness of these moments for the audience? On ___ October I saw a production of Tennessee Williams’ ‘Cat on a Hot Tin Roof’ at the West Yorkshire Play House in Leeds. This production was wholly naturalistic and the director included a vast number of technical elements that were added to conjure realism for the audience. As I entered the auditorium, I saw the play’s pre-set which looked like a single room with a small additions such as a balcony and a number of doors which presumably led to elsewhere in the ‘house’. The pre-set was lit brightly with a wash of soft yellow light. This created a sense of warmth and humidity, and made the audience believed that the room must be in a house located in a country with a warm climate. The source of the light in the auditorium was lanterns that were situated above the stage and to the sides, which, from the audience’s point of view, made out that this was sunlight coming in from the windows. This not only suggests a place, but also a time- either morning or evening due to the colour of the light. The source of the light helped to contribute to the realism created because in a real life environment, sunlight does indeed enter and light up the room from the

  • Word count: 589
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: Drama
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As a director, outline and justify your approach to a production of "Lysistrata" staged in your chosen performance space:

As a director, outline and justify your approach to a production of the play staged in your chosen performance space: As a director I place as much importance on my performance space as I do on the text and the actors. I feel that a performance space is integral to the impact that the play has upon the audience and the messages and ideas that the play presents. The overall approach I have chosen to take is a stylistic one that does not attempt to be realistic in its style of acting. In this sense this would keep in with Aristophanes intentions for when this play was originally performed. This is due to the fact in Aristophanes’ time the play would have been performed to a huge audience of up to 17,000 people and the amphitheatres were so vast many were not close enough to see things such as smaller set details and facial expression. Therefore Greek playwrights could not expect to be able to create realistic scenes on stage and therefore had to make the acting style and set design much more exaggerated. With this in mind I have chosen to take a Brechtian approach to emphasis the anti-war and feministic messages contained within the play. Therefore I have chosen to keep my stage fairly simplistic but symbolic, so as not to distract from this message. In designing my set I was influenced by Berkoff and his fascination with constructivism. I consequently decided to

  • Word count: 1003
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: Drama
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