Wednesday 6th april notes

On Wednesday we got to look at the set box for our show for the first time, the model gave me a better understanding of what the space looks like as in rehearsals so far I have been unable to visualise the space so have found it hard to block things and come up with creative ideas however now i have seen the set box I feel like I can contribute more. We also looked at what the costume department were doing, they haven’t got much so far but they showed us a mannequin of the kind of materials we will be wearing. The costume is a leotard with leggings underneath. Seeing this was good because a lot of our show is physical so we need costumes that will allow movement and i feel like this costume will.

this is the model box of our set. 

After the meeting with tta we ran pages 19-22, this part of the process was quit boring for me s i wasn’t in the scene but I  took notes on what happens in my script anyway so i can refer back to it. We also started to devise bassianus death however the rape of lavina which comes straight after that hasn’t yet been devised as it is going to be very physical.

I felt as though we didn’t devise too much in this rehearsal, the other groups are at a point where they have devised most of their piece however I do understand that it is because our piece is a lot more physical and so therefore harder to devise.

character research

Who I am? 

Why am I here? 

What do I want ? 

Where am i?

What will I do want achieve my want? 

I am Demetrius; my mother is Tamora queen of the Goths. and my brother is Chiron, i have and older brother who is killed in the beginning of the play. Tamora is married to saturnine. I am a prince of the Goths. I am not a character that has much meaning other than to harm other people. I am an evil person who is very violent and lustful. I am a murderer and rapist.
I want to serve my mother and do whatever she wants done, I want to also cause havoc. I am angry at Titus for killing my brother and I revenge this through raping and cutting off lavinas hands
 I am in Rome just after a ten year war is over, the effects of the war still show in the people of Rome. I will do everything to achieve what I want. I have no remorse except for when it harms me.

Tuesday 5th April notes

We started our rehearsal with our usual warm up, we came into the room put our stuff down and came into the space and began to warm up independently, rolling down the spine and stretching any tense parts of our bodies. This is a good way to start our rehearsals as it means I can independently stretch what I need to and warm up what I need to warm up before the group warm up of the side stretch. we found warrior pose and tucked in our hips more meaning we are more grounded, my side stretch has improved as I feel i know it better now and can focus on connecting my breath to the movement which allows a deeper stretch and warm up, it also connects my words and physicality which is helpful as our play is very much about the connection between words and movement.

After warming up we went straight into running and blocking. Today I focused on how I was pronouncing and articulating my lines, using the punctuation from the text and including these into the way I spoke, every piece of punctuation in Shakespeare’s work is important. i haven’t yet found a way of saying my lines i am happy with i feel as though my character should have a distinct way of saying the words they say so i am going to look at this and explore my vocal techniques. 

Next we looked at the animals we researched and did some animal building in the lesson. for my character this was especially useful to do as he is more animalistic than many of the other characters. i had already completed my research on hyenas so i had a knowledge of my animal. We started by sitting comfily in the space with our eyes closed. we then balanced our weight as to how our animal would balance theirs. for me this meant being on all fours and moving most of my weight on my front legs. i found it useful that we had our eyes shut during this exercise as it is a embarrassing exercise but very helpful. we then began to move our spines as our animal would and moving in the space, connecting to how our animals would breath and also connecting this, once we had physicalised our animals we then opened our eyes and looked at the world through the animals eyes, we interacted with each other, for me i kept cornering Sybil as she was clearly a weaker animal then me and I was a predator. Then we reacted to danger, it was interesting to play the different roles of being predator to then being pray and how the animal would react. my animal moves away from situations that cause danger so i am quite cowardly. This exercise helped me quite a lot and it made me really understand who i am in the world of Titus. 

Peter Brook

Peter brook

Another practitioner that has inspired our play is Peter Brook. He has links with Yoshi Oida, an actor and director who I briefly spoke about in a previous post with oida working in brooks Theatre Company in Paris.

He was born March 21^st 1925 and is a director who works on both film and theatre winning awards such as  the tony and emmy awards. His first English production was Marat in 1964, this then was moved onto Broadway and won awards. He is still a working director today with many pressures of creating good theatre even being called the greatest living theatre director.

Brooks inspiration comes from the practitioner Artuad and his idea of theatre of cruelty who we studied in experimental term.  Artuad theatre of cruelty  was the idea of showing audience members there fears and giving so much meaning behind movement and words it taps into the unconscious of an audience member. It is evident he takes inspiration from Artuad, he directed the theatre of cruelty season in 1964 and was the starting point of his career

Knowing his inspirations and how he works is useful to me as i know the concept Ben is looking for in our play and the atmosphere we need to create as an ensemble for the performances. 

Yoshi Oida

Yoshi Oida is one of the practitioners ben looked at when devising the concept of the play, i have done some research into him to help me to further understand his style.

Yoshi Oida is a Japanese actor and director who has worked mainly as a member of peter brooks company in Paris. as an actor he looks at oriental tradition of  control and perfection with  western performer's characterization.He believes  believes that once the audience becomes openly aware of the actor's method the performance dies,The audience must never see the actor but only his or her performance.

using his style of control and precision will make our performance more focused and intense. we as an ensemble need to commitment and power to make the piece successful.

hyena laugh

 My animal study focused on the hyena, as my character is one of the most animalistic Ben asked us to research the hyenas laugh and add this into certain scenes such as when lavina and bassianius are walking through the forest. watching the video and practicing the laugh also helped me to further understand the animal and characterize it.

Laban movement

Looking at Laban Movements for my character Demetrius I found helpful in finding the correct movements. The Laban Movements consist of combining direction, weight and speed. Direction is direct or indirect, weight is heavy or light and speed is sustained or sudden as the diagram below shows. During our piece we use the slashing movement during the fly scene.

I feel like my character is a light character as he is very sneaky, most of the movements i use are sustained so that leaves me with float or glide. I feel as though Demetrius would be better as glide as the way i move is very swift but now delicate.

I will further use the laban movements during rehearsal to find more character and develop movement. 

Animal study

I am looking at the hyena as my animal study as my character Demetrius is a very predatory animal, i decided to watch a documentary on the animal so i could watch footage of the way the animal moves and exists so i could embody this and bring it into my character. I have been told that mine and Chiron’s characters are the most important to look into animals as we are the most animalistic characters in the play and Ben wants to keep this nature of the animal. The documentary I watched is linked below. I have then answered several questions on the animal to help me look into the key features of the animal’s movement. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QwnUrmA8Nbw

How does the spine move?

the spine moves with a curve in the middle of the back. 

How does the weight move?
the weight of the hyena moves onto the front legs first and then onto the hind legs, the magority of the movement is in the front half of the body with the back suppourting. 

Breath of the animal
The breath of a hyena is fast and like a pant much like a dog, they also have a laugh which is like a low catch of the breath.

Rhythm of life/pace.

the hyena grenrally moves in 'clans' they are very brave in these clans however they are very cowardly when it comes to larger animals that may hurt them, this is very similar to my charcter in titus as i am very brave around characters below me and i feel i can dominate however higher stronger charcters such a titus intimiate me 

How does the animal view world?

the documentry i watched was good at showing how the animals sees the world, they are preditors so they see everything as either a danger, food or safety. when they face animals larger and more aggressive then them they movc away, whereas they pry on smaller animals. this links to myt character as he is a character that is very much dependent on my' clan' which is the goths. i couldnt cope on my own, i am especially reliant on tamora and chiron. 

Are they a predator or prey?
the hyena is both predator and prey, for the most part however they are predetor constantly seeking out new food sources. 

Lesson 2

Today we began devising the play, we started the rehearsal with the side stretch exercise which warmed everyone up and immersed them into the space. We were told that the opening part of the play was going to be some kind of haka dance, a traditional war dance.

Firstly Ben showed us videos of the haka dance so we had a better understanding of the energy it was supposed to have.

 We then started devising the piece by starting off of the floor, dead like maggots. When the beat is on the 2nd beat ( there will be a drum) we move coming slowly to life. Starting with only our backs moving and then our legs and finally the arms. Once we are all moving on the floor lavina will lift people out slowly, the Goths (such as my character) can get up without lavina pulling the up. 

lavinia then goes onto the podium and starts her speech. 

when she stops talking we surround Katie (Titus) in a circle and she shouts 'he' when she finishes we go down and also sound 'hee' (in a shout) we then break off into a 'v' shape like how our set will be and as the new theatre is a 3 sided space. 

We then perform the haka dance that ben taught us.

During the show whilst the audience are coming on we will all already be on stage on the floor ready to start the play like that. i think this is a good thing as it creates a good atmosphere for the audience to come into and will have the instantly brought into the world of the play. The haka shows our 'inner warrior' and since Titus is very much about aggression and violence i think this is a good link to the play.

i feel like we need to develop the transitions and add in more movement detail but having blocked it is a good start to devising the play.

these are our postions for the beggining of the play