Notes from journal

Types of staging:

• Proscenium arch


• Thrust stage


• Promenade


• Traverse


• Arena


• Site specific


• End on

Theatrical Practice- tradition

Practice and tradition are different

Staging one element that identifies tradition from practise

R.I.

• not creative task


• Research task


• Practicable advice


• accumulating information

Stanislavsky

• wrote An Actor Prepares, Creating a Role, etc.


• Moscow Art Theatre


• Russian


• realist, naturalist, before him most acting was imitation


• before there was a master/apprentice, after there was the 'owning' of the creative process and emotional attachment to the character

Oct. 8, 2008

In groups we had to come up with a short performance and then perform in front of everyone and the other group watching had to say how the actors were feeling and what was going on

I watched Tasha and Georgia, Tasha was a daughter who was rebelling but inside she wants her mothers attention and love, while Georgia was a mother who was busy but still wants a connection with her daughter

Oct. 21, 2008

Uncle Vanya- Unlocking the Text

Facts:

• theres a house


• theres a terrace


• tea set, a samovar


• an avenue of trees


• benches and chairs


• a guitar on bench


• a hammock


• 3 o'clock, cloudy day


• Marina- old lady knitting


• Astroff walking


• Marina asks if she can pour tea


• Astroff unwillingly accepts


• he says he doesnt want any


• Marina asks if he wants vodka

Questions:

• How big is the house? where?


• How big is the poplar?


• How many are set for tea?


• What do benches and chairs look like? old? new?


• why is there a guitar? who plays it? what kind?


• a hammock between trees?


• what is the significance of the time and weather?


• who is she knitting for? what does stocking look like? how old?


• what is she wearing? how is she sitting?


• how old is he? whas is he wearing?


• what does he look like? who is he?


• who is she addressing? is he her son?


• why is he unwilling? How does he take the glass unwillingly?


• why doesnt he want any?


• why is she asking if he wants vodka?

Immediate Circumstances:

Where are Marina and Astroff coming from?

In Stnaislavsky the action is

• physical


• inner intensity


• purpose


• -meaningful

Oct. 22, 2008

Stanislavsky: Imagine the magic "If"

What if?-creative experiences, if I was in the situation, what would I do?

The given circumstances

• conditions of life of the characters


• story of the play


• facts, events, epoch, time and place of action


• actor's and regisseur's (directors) interpretation (text)


• production, sets, costumes, properties


• lighting and sound effects

=TRUTH

C. of Life- IVAN- sleeps, professor and wife disrupt daily life ASTROFF- hard worker, doctor, moustache MARINA-nanny/nurse/maid (?), old, experienced (?)

The 'Imagination' - have to imagine that what is onstage is real

Oct. 27, 2008

Auditioning

Research-Preparation

Research

• character study


• production characteristics


• -director style


• -space


• -character? ensemble?

Preparation

• what are my strengths?


• what to wear?


• what to recite?


• 1st Audition


• -call backs?


• - 1st Day of Rehearsal

Oct. 28, 2008

Space, Audience, Lights, Relaxation

• The world, "where dies it fit in?"


• -General Context, "what else is going on around me?"


• - Close interaction, "who else is involved directly?"


• - Immediate objective, "what I'm doing"


• - Solitude in Public, "me"

Units and objectives

Units of Action:

• not necessarily chronologically portrayed


• Driven by OBJECTIVES


• -change the objective


• - new unit

Objectives

• drive unit forward in a play


• verb other than noun


• "want power"- "want to power"

Super objective- throughline of Action

Oct. 30, 2008

Emotion Memory

-portray emotions, find your own, used to act like character, not "be" it

Tempo- Rythym in movement

Physical approach

Nov. 10, 2008

Uncle Vanya

Memorization: no scripts: no prompting

• clothing old


• black comedy


• all characters are truthful

Nov. 12, 2008

Set Design

Rehearsal plan-deadlines

artistic expression

• setting:


• remote (cocoon), bubble, dry, dusty, locked in time, nothing new, no change - nostalgia (fake, past-illusion)


• Set in 1980's, earlier


• audience - Tragi-comic, no caricature, nothing exaggerated


• designs 0 model box, 1:25 miniset


• January 7, materials collected and full model bow (ready to build)


• January 13 or 14, set built