Rehearsal 7 - Key pointers

• Care about what you say - understand the text and the subtext, don't throw away the lines use every word you have to project meaning.

• Be in character prior going on - before entering the stage take the time to find your character, perhaps walk or talk in your character to ensure that you bring energy on stage and can emerge yourself in the life your character is living.

• Don't allow large gaps - bounce of the other characters in the scene, be energised, alert and alive. Allowing gaps of silence kills the scene as the energy dies down, only allow gaps of silence if it is justified in the moment.

•  Visualise surroundings - imagine the scene surrounding you. Visualise the small details like the cracks in walls, creaking of floor boards or the dust. Imagine what it is like to live in that era, in the scene as it helps you not only become your character but live as your character. Have an opinion on your surroundings, do you hate it? love it? long for it? and so on.

• Don't be repetitive - keep changing the scene up, moving into different spaces, use the props around you allowing yourself to make instinctive choices as your character. Repeating the same movements makes the scene boring and stops your from living in the scene, as you think about the movements you have previously done like "oh right, now i have to move here, speak, move" it creates a rigidness that hinders the flow of the piece. 

• Have an opinion - always have an opinion on both what your saying, what others are saying and the other characters in the play. Doing this makes you more aware of your reactions and interactions with the others on stage and creates a more well rounded character for yourself that you understand, this also interlinks with knowing the relationship you have with the other characters.

• Use the space - don't clump together or make every interaction a personal circle of attention, open up the space, use all areas as it visually looks better and more inviting for the audience as they are able to see and hear whats going on, it also is realistic as when you speak to people in a space you are often not really close to one another.

• Don't devoice - don't reduce the sound of your voice at the end of your line, it kills the energy and stops the audience from hearing what you say. It is also un realistic as in real life people will speak an equal level until the end of their sentence. Use the all round power of your stomach voice and project.

• You have something to loose - throughout the piece act like you have something to loose. Every character has something to loose if the cherry orchard is sold and this needs to be expressed, the characters are passionate and desperate.

The magic if

The magic if is one of Stanislavsky's methods of creating a character. You begin by getting into your character and then fabricate a situation in which your character has to deal with, this forces you to react in the way your character would and helps build your character. 

Stanislavsky believed that no actor could truly believe in the truth of events however he believed that you can begin to believe in the possibility of those events. He believed that if you create difficult circumstances for yourself, your effort to solve them automatically leads you to natural internal and external reactions. 

Logical action = Truthful acting

Here is a quote from Stanislavsky himself which i have annotated in order for me to fully understand the full meaning behind his teachings.

Rehearsal 6 - Evaluation

During today's rehearsal i have learnt that i need to be more confident and comfortable in my role and embrace being a male. I will do this by learning my lines inside out so that i am able to fully be confident on stage and be free to explore more without lines constricting me.

I also feel like I am over thinking my actions between lines - my interactions with others and objectives aren't flowing. In order to make my performance better i need to live naturally and freely in the scene. Living and thinking as my character rather than myself.

Overall i believe i could work harder and make more of an effort to be bolder. However i do believe i have been an active member of the cast, staying engaged, making notes and communicating well with my fellow actors. 

One of my favourite moments so far is when Lopakhin explains to Ranyevskya that the cherry orchard can be sold here Joe did really well living in the scene and understanding the context and his objectives. His performance was interesting and enjoyable and can learn from his performance and put that into my own.

Rehearsal 6 - Speaking with meaning

Throughout this weeks rehearsal speaking with meaning was the most prevalent direction given as throughout each scene actors (including myself) where saying their lines with no true feeling and understanding. I have learnt that each word that you say has to be understood and moments of importance highlighted through your body and voice. 

For example on page 303 the scene where Madame Ranevskya talks about her love for the orchard, Chloe began by speaking well but not feeling the passion and burning love that Ranyvskya would be feeling for the orchard. In particular the line "you're young and filled with happiness, and not abandoned by the angels". When performing it looked okay but there was a lack of sensitivity and truth, so when Chloe began to speak with boldness and understood the importance of the lines it made the performance 100x better and you began to understand the connection between the characters and the cherry orchard therefor leading us to understand why the characters are so attached to the orchard and find it hard to not only let go of the orchard itself but the precious memories that come with it. 

I admire Chloe's work in this weeks rehearsal as she took on the feedback she was being given in her stride and worked hard to change and understand her role.

Another useful tip that i have learnt this week is to be in character at least 4 steps before you get on stage. This really helped me because you have a purpose when coming on stage and bring energy straight on. It also allows you the time to think, focus and get into the mindset of your character instead of rushing on and not taking the time to ground yourself.

Key idea from today's rehearsal:

"The more you don't get into patterns, the more your piece will flow."

Rehearsal 5 - Evaluation

In today's rehearsal i believe i worked well with my fellow actors - communicating and discussing our characters objectives and super objectives. I believe i did push my self however i feel i could push my self more.

However i believe i could have taken more time to understand my character Yasha's objectives and the meanings of my lines, as not knowing this really hindered my performance and stopped me from living in the moment because i didn't feel comfortable with what i was saying. Although i felt like i had a good idea of my what my characters super objectives are, i feel like some of my objectives like 'to take the piss' and to 'irritate' i didn't quite understand in line with the context.

Next time i will insure i am fully comfortable and understand my objectives so that i can easily play and explore in rehearsal and be able to understand the meaning behind my characters actions.

I also feel like my group could have discussed  less about what we are going to do or how we are going to do the scene and just allowed the moment to happen naturally. Although we did do this more so towards the end of the rehearsal i felt like if we had done this from the outset we could of had a better understanding of out characters objectives and would have been more free to explore.

As my character is a male, next time i want to in body my character more and work with my physicality, voice and objectives as a whole- allowing the text to ride the action. In order to do this i will research male physicality and look at similar people as Yasha. 

Rehearsal 5 - Pushing actions and objectives

In this weeks rehearsal we looked at pushing our objectives to the full in order to test wether our objective worked and if our objective could be made clear to the audience.

We did this by taking our first objective and acting it out using our whole body and all of our voice. The aim was to make the objective as bold and over the top as possible in order to make it clear the the audience what our objective was. 

My first objective was 'to clean' so i did as much as i possibly could to show that i was cleaning, getting down to scrub the floor, rushing around, moving objects and tiding this was the physical side to my objective. I then used my voice to display 'to clean' as much as possible. I would vary my pitch and strength so if i was scrubbing the floor i was make my voice deeper and slightly warned out and other times would be slightly high pitched. This was using my whole body and voice to display my objective and i was successful in doing so, as my fellow actors in my group agreed that my objective was clear.

There were other moments where my objective felt awkward and couldn't be made clear. Such as my objective to 'take the piss'. When rehearsing i felt like i could easily display this objective and felt like it didn't work when using it in conjunction with the text. Therefor i have learnt that pushing your objectives is a key part to understanding the intention and meaning behind your characters actions and allows you to explore the "best" way or most comfortable objective possible.

In addition  i have also learnt that by taking your actions to an extreme allows you to then pull it back in and create a more realistic moment that still however, is true to the objective. If you don't push your character to it's limits, you will never know the full spectrum of how far your character can go.

Here is a rough version of my script in which i have put 3 objectives. To reassure, to joke and to plead.

Throughout rehearsal i felt uncomfortable with my objective 'to joke' and began to feel like this wasn't coming from a natural instinct but was being forced. I then looked at the script for help and saw that the line after, in the stage directions it says Ranyevsaya is irritated by Yasha's comment. Therefore i decided to change my objective to 'to irritate' which worked much better.

I have learnt that often the answer to your problems is in the text itself, you just have to look.

Rehearsal 5 - Context and objectives

This rehearsal we began by discussing how to identity the given circumstances of our characters and our objectives and how we can use these as a tool to creating a truthful character and interesting piece of theatre.

Given Circumstances:

• Facts and opinions about your character
• Who are you? What are you doing? Why are you doing it?
• What time is it? what's the date? where are you?
• The circumstances your character. Are they struggling with accepting the past? Are they dealing with loss? 
• Where you live
• Who you are related to

In order to find the given circumstances of your character you must go through the script and look at all the evidence in the text. It is key that your given circumstances are only from the text itself and not made up. This takes imagination on order to visualise and live within the given circumstances of your character. I have learnt that without identifying you characters given circumstances you are so unaware of who your character is and what there purpose is throughout the play.

Meisner one said "acting is nothing but the ability to live within the given circumstances" i would agree with this quote as if you were not able to live within your characters surroundings then you cannot truly be/feel and live that character. 

Objectives:

• Super objective - the characters task that spans the whole play. What are they after or need? Are they running away from something? Are they persuading? etc

• Objective -  the character's task in the scene. What are they trying to achieve in that scene

Knowing your characters objectives for each line is key to understanding what your characters intentions are, what the lines mean and unlocking what works for you on stage, wether it feels right or awkward. Its about finding the balance and going with what you believe the intention is behind what your character is saying, using this but continuing to change the scenes up. 

I have discovered that knowing your characters super objective for the whole play helps you understand what your character is feeling beneath the outskirts. In addition to this, bouncing off your fellow actors is also important, because your objectives may change depending on the other characters reaction. For example you may have an idea in your head about the objective behind your line, say it was to comfort but then the other person reacts badly and then you get offered leading your objective to change. 

Circles of attention

Circles of attention are the distance at which your charters attention is based.

=  Public

                                   Private   =                             

= Personal 

We did an exercise where we walked around the room and said a random number to someone In either public, private or personal and the other would have to repose in which ever circle of attention they wanted to. This really helped me see how you can in fact use all 3 circles of attention when on stage and can almost have a negotiation with that person, sharing a moment.

You can also have a private moment with your self. You can be "have solitude in public" as Stanislavsky says that draws your attention to that person. Being aware your circle of attention makes it both easier on stage as you know where you focus is and the closeness between you and the other characters but also and makes it more interesting for the audience to watch as you are drawing them in to the action by having a main focus. 

Main learnings:

• To change the scene up. Don't do the same thing or repeat yet relive the moment as if it had never happened before.
• Small idiosyncrasies for being are a male are chest out, legs spread when sitting, broad walk, heavy feet. 
• To you know your objectives 
• Bounce off one another and live in the moment "show situations as they really are" 
• Every scene is a chase scene, move around the space, once you catch them its over so keep it alive and active, ever changing and evolving.