Principles of Acting

Principles of Acting 

Section One: Actor’s Log 

11/01/19 

During this lesson we learnt about Stanislavski, a practioner who believed that an actor should try as best as possible to convince the audience that they were watching a character and not an actor playing that character, the way he would do this would be through methods such as Emotional Memory and “The Given Circumstance”. 

16/01/19 

In this lesson, we had the central school of speech and drama come and do a workshop with us, we worked on imrpov and audtion techniques. Althoguh this was fun, I didn’t find any particular personal gain during this workshop.  

17/01/19 

During this lesson we continued with studying Stanislavski, one of the tasks during this lesson was that we had to mime out lifting something heavy or moving something really hot without getting burnt. This was a very useful exercise for me as it allowed me to concetrate on my facial expressions and body movements.  

18/09/19 

During this lesson we began studing the Practitioner Lee Strasberg. Strasberg is the creator of method acting. He believed that instead of an actor using memories to portray a character that instead they should replace old memories of themselves with memories of the characters they are playing. He believed that becoming the character during the process of making a play would give a more authentic performance.  

23/01/19 - Strasberg (Cont.) 

In this lesson we continued looking at strasberg, we began with a relaxtion exercise that would help us ease any tension in our body and would allow us to gain good focus. 

30/01/19 - Brecht 

During this lesson we began looking at Brecht and started work on Gestus.  

6/02/19 - Berkoff  

During this lesson we began to look at Steve Berkoff, the lesson started with a warm up in which we had to imagine a string pulling us up by the head, this was so that we could keep a straight posture. We had to walk around and had to keep eye contact with everyone we went past. The execrise was good, for me personally, as not only did it help with our posture but it helped me focus however I did laugh a few times because of how awkward I felt locking eyes with people.  

7/02/19  

During this lesson we had to morph our bodies into different objects, this lesson began with us walking around in a circle and then Rebecca would shout the name of an object and we would have to go the nearest person and make that object. This was very useful as it helped me develop my physical theatre skills, something I am not confident with. 

8/02/19  

In this lesson we looked at the seven levels of tension those being, Exhaustian, laid back, neutral, alert, suspense, passionate and tragic. In groups of 4 we had to go on stage and act out a scenario Rebecca would tell us, the level of tension would increase when Rebecca told us to. This exercise was fun but I did find it difficult trying to keep up with the execrise. 

28/02/2019  

In this lesson we were given our scripts. My group was given the play Pronoun and I was given the role of Kyle. I was excited to play this part as Rebecca had told me that my personallity was very similar to that of Kyle’s. 

13/03/19 

During this lesson we discussed that sets and costumes we would need for Pronoun. As a group we decided that the best costumes for our characters would be plain black as it wouldn’t distract the audience from the main theme of the video. The sets we came up with simple, we would have a mirror that would stay constant throughout each scene.  

20/03/19 

This was the lesson in which we began blocking scenes. I had a fun expierence with this as it allowed me to understand my character more and it gave me and donny a chance to experiment with different ways of doing the scenes, Some of my cast members had told me that although I was good with the more comedic elements I was very quiet and needed to speak up. 

21/03/19  

During this lesson we continued Scene 1, myself and Donny performed the scene with more energy and volume in our voices and the other cast members said this showed which I was very pleased with. We also began blocking scene 4 today. 

22/03/19 

We finished blocking scene 4, to me the scene wasn’t perfect as some of the cast members needed to bring more energy to the scene and I felt that I couldve added more volume in my voice. 

4/04/19 

We began to go over the scenes that needed Polishing, one of those scenes being Scene 4. we needed this to be better because the scene lost its vim half way through which was something we needed to work on. I realised when going over the script for this scene that my character was the comic relief of the moment so I decided to incoporate that into my acting.  

24/04/19 in this lesson we had to perform a scene to the other cast, we decided to do scene 4. unfournately this scene wasn’t perfect due to the lack of energy and emphasis on character. There was also a few actors during the scene who clearly didn’t know their lines which hindered the scene and our perfomances  

25/04/19 

In this lesson we attempted a full run through however, we did not do a full run through due to the lack of focus amongst the cast, myself included. I believe this was unfair to the cast members who wanted to do an entire runt through. We did the first 4 scenes, some of the feedback given was that I need to project my voice louder and use more facial expressions to make the scene funnier.  during scene 4 there was a lot of constructive critism which I was kind of annoyed at as had it no longer being pointed towards me but to the rest of cast within that scene instead, this lesson was two weeks before our performance and unfourtanetly we had made very little progress which I could see was frustating for a lot of the cast members, myself included. 

26/06/19 

We performed Scene 4 as part of a workshop. I was happy when people had told me that I was funny as that was what I was working on with the character of Kyle and the audience really liked the fact we used naturalism well. However, depsite the fact that this was said and noted many times the scene lacked energy. At this point I was getting angry as I felt as if the critiscm wasn’t being listened to.  

8/05/19 

This was the day we performed Pronoun, I don’t think this was the best it could have been. During the first scene I muddled up my lines which luckily nobody noticed. unfourtantely, scene 4 still lacked the energy it needed. The first half was very strong however as the scene progressed I could tell that morale was becoming low this was the same the same thing for the entire performance as backstage a lot of the cast were moaning due to the fact that a few cast members were missing cues and forgetting lines. I personally don't think that the play was as good as it could've been due to the lack of preparation and rehearsals. I personally was somewhat pleased with my performance as I had acted upon criticisms that had been given during rehesals however due to the lack of rehearsals for the later scenes I struggled to remember lines and cues. 

   

Section Two: Character Development 

My character is named Kyle Winters, he was born on the 15th September 2000, which makes him 18 years old. Due to the fact that Kyle is currently studying A level drama at sixth form he hasn’t got time for a fulltime job however he does work a weekend shift at McDonalds to help fund his wedding. His biggest role model and inspiration is Amy, as cringe as that sounds I believe he really does look up to her in many ways and that probably why he loves her so much. Kyle has this constant fear that Amy will leave him and call off the wedding. If I had to describe Kyle in ten words it would be funny, annoying, caring, silly, loving, naïve, worried, immature, cheerful and kind of dumb at times. The best food to describe Kyle would be a jam donut because on the outside he looks like a pretty boring person (much like the donut) but on the inside he is filled with love and goodness (again like the donut).  

Previous Action 

Before the events of Pronoun, Kyle had recently become engaged to his girlfriend Amy, the pair had just started their first year of sixth form. 

  

Dramatic Action 

I think, despite his flaws, everyone likes Kyle and kyle likes everyone, hes a naïve teenager who just wants to make other people happy and people love for him that. Within in the script it is very evident that Amy can often find himself annoying and sometimes even frustating but I think this comes out of love and she can clearly see that the wedding between the two means a lot to Kyle. Kyle loves Amy and wants everything at their wedding to be perfect. He also loves Josh, his bestfriend who he has known since nursery, Kyle treats Josh like a brother because they both grew up together. During Pronoun Kyle develops as a character, we see him going from being an immature teen who was constantly worrying about his wedding to being confident and accepting of his vegan girlfriend (even if, deep down, he still doesn’t like it). I believe Kyle’s main objective is to try and make everyone happy, especially Amy. His subtext is that he is a worrier, he is constantly worried throughout Pronoun. He is worried about his wedding, it is more evident when Kyle is worried about being caught in the mens toilets. 

Characterisation (Internals & Externals) 

Kyle is a British white atheist who is mainly happy however he can sometimes become panicky when over thinking about the wedding and his future with Amy. No character in Pronoun had their own specific outfit as we had decided that wearing all black would be the best option for the play. Kyle is a very upbeat person and walks with a slight bounce in his 

step, his mannerisms are somewhat feminine as he often speaks with his hands.  

Section 3: Final Evaluation 

Overall, I enjoyed being a part of Pronoun. It was fun being allowed to play a more mature role than what I had previously played whilst still mainting the sense of fun and childlikeness which is something I believe I am strong at. If I’m being honest I never felt confident with the play due to the lack of focus and energy however on the second day of rehersals I found myself becoming more confident with myself as Kyle due to the fact that I had worked on previous critisms. I think we shoudlve done a hot seating exercise so that we could understand a characters more, this wouldve helped us during scenes. I was personally happy with playing my character infront of an audience once we had finished scene 4 because that was when I knew how I wanted to play him and I believe that translated well to the audience as they had told me that my character was funny and brought energy to the scene.  

Overall I think I portrayed the character of Kyle in a unique style that still remained true to the script, although at one point during the performance I forgot my lines I had manage to quickly save myself.  In hindsight I do believe the group would've benefited from more focus and rehearsals due to the fact that although the play wasn't terrible it was certainly not readyto be performed in front of an audience.

my character was very energetic and comedic so I decided to have more of a bounce in my step and more of an inflection in my voice to show the audience that my character was childlike and immature. 

I would've liked to have been given a second chance to perform the play because I believe that if the cast had focused more we could've given a better performance overall, the lack of morale during performance day definitely hindered my performance as the negative energy around the room did overcome me a few times. 

The Trial Research and Evaluation

after Pronoun we began work on "The Trial" a play by Berkoff based on a novel by Franz Kafka. I was put into group 2 and was given the character of Guard 1. this was an unusual experience for me as the characters in the trial are very stiff and emotionless, I found it difficult at points to keep a straight face during rehearsals and would often break character. I think that this is a common theme throughout all my performances and I am going to work on techniques that will help me with not breaking character. During the performance of The Trial I had forgotten some of my lines which created an awkward pause however one of the other cast members, Daisy managed to deliver her line in time which distracted the audience from my mistake. in the future I think the best option for me would to go over my lines a few moments before the performance even if I had already learnt them just to make sure that I was 100% confident with the lines. At one point during the play myself the other guard played by Chelsie had to pivot on one foot, I managed to do this correctly however I was slightly out of line with Chelsie so I had to move slightly to the left which created a distraction as Rebecca hold told us that the entirety of the cast had to work as one unit because this was Berkoff's style. Berkoff used a stripped back style and this was evident with our performance. our costumes were plain black and there was no set, this was to give emphasis on our performances and characters. the lack of make up and eccentric lighting created a more naturalistic feel to the piece.

in conclusion this unit was important to me as it allowed me to explore different types of acting. playing Kyle allowed me to expand on my levels of comedy which I believe that I have since become decent at. Guard 2 was difficult for me due to my lack of focus and ability to stay still during the scenes.