22/11/16-Single

In this lesson we ran from scene 1-4 of Mother Courage. Overall I think that the run through went really well, we was focused, energised and just went for it. It did take 1 hour and a half to do 4 scenes, this was without songs as well so we do need to pick up the pace. Our goal is to get the whole play in under 1 1/2- 2 hours. However we are half way through the play and bit shouldn't take much longer before we finish, and start to complete full run through.


Scene 1

This scene was full of energy and you could really see that everyone was putting in lots of effort. However I do think that Henri needs to add some comedic value to his performance. When Taylor was playing Mother Courage in this scene , you could really see the energy she was putting into her character, her projection has improved a lot since we started this year. Also even though she is putting on a really hard accent her diction is still really clear so she is heard by the audience. I think that Warren needs to work on his breathing technique as I do find that at some points he can become out of breath, this is also partly due to his pace as well. Perhaps this is something he might like to work on. I think for Amy, she needs to work on her facial expressions more, as Kattrin doesn't speak words properly she can't say how she feels, Amy really needs to make sure she can convey Kattrin's emotion through her face. Although she could try and work on the groans Kattrin makes, perhaps different groans for different emotions as well.


Scene 2

In Scene 2, Joe is really good as the role of The Cook, I think he makes this scene as his character is extremely funny. You can really see Joe use of characterisation in this scene. Warren plays his second character The General is this scene, I can't really see a difference in character here as they sound the same. Perhaps he could try and work on an accent to try and distinguish the characters between each other. In this scene, Cameron really starts portray Eilif's arrogance, I think this can be seen through his analysis of Eilif as in Subtext. He has really shown the development of his character since we first saw him at the start of the play.
Scene 3

This is the longest scene of Mother Courage and so much occurs in this scene, I think that this is a reason as to why the run through took so long. I play The Quartermaster in this scene, I still think I need to work on the characterisation of The Quartermaster. I am not properly portraying as a wheeler dealer. I am going to take some inspiration from 'Only fools and horses'. I think Del Trotter is a great representation of The Quartermaster, the kind of character you make dodgy deals with. I think Alice is great at playing the role of Yvette, she uses projection really well, the only thing I would say Alice could work on is maybe adding coughing/hacking to make the disease Yvette has believable not just a said truth. Hugh portrays The Chaplain in this scene, I think he is really good at portraying The Chaplain, his accent suits the character and his projection is excellent. However one thing Hugh could work on is his pace, he does tend to say his words to fast. Will plays the role of Swiss cheese in this scene, I think he does a great job of making Swiss cheese seem young, this is due to the pitch of his voice, he makes Swiss cheese have a really high pitched voice which in turn created Swiss cheese as a young character. However one thing Will could on is his tone of voice, at the moment I think parts of speech are very bland in tone and do not portray the right emotion.

Scene 4

Scene 4 is the scene where I play the role of The Clerk, I think I was really confident when portraying this character as The Clerk is my favourite characters to play. As I was comfortable in this character it really allowed me to immerse in the performance and out lots of energy into it. Again I think I should now start to think about and use tone of voice with my accent so I can convey The Clerk's emotion through this. I think Warren really shines through in this scene, he does a great job at playing a drunk role, however if Warren wants to enhance the effect of his drunkenness. He could perhaps slur more of  his words and use more of the space available to him. Stumbling around the stage could make him seem more drunk. Tyler, who plays an old soldier, is excellent at using a hoarse voice to highlight the old age in the character, when he does it over the top it adds comedic value to the scene as well which is great.

21/11/16-Single

This lesson we started to stage Scene 4. I play The Clerk in this scene, previously I  had read over this scene. From looking into sub text I gathered that I should portray The Clerk as a rough, dodgy character. However after reading over the scene with my teacher. We decided that The Clerk should be portrayed as one of them posh receptionist who is always annoyed and has a bland expression. I think that this was probably the best representation i just interpreted the sub text wrong.

 So far in Mother Courage,  I have been focusing on voice as one of the main skills that I would like to develop. As I am playing 3 different characters, using an accent will help distinguish the characters between each other. I think focusing on accent/dialect will help me in the development of my characters. There have been many struggles, for example at the start of Mother Courage before we was given our roles I would try characterising certain characters with different accents from around the British isles, however the one problem that kept happening was that I would found myself not sticking with one accent, I would end up travelling around the whole of the UK using 4 different accents. Once we was given our roles, I think that I found it difficult finding a voice for each of my characters as I found myself sounding the same. For scene 5 where I am portraying The Clerk, using Accent/Dialect is extremely important. Using a posh accent effectively will mean I can show the clerk is quite snobby and didn't really care about his customers. This something I  really need to focus on as The Clerk only appears in this scene.

I have done some research into accent  and I have come across this YouTube video about posh accents. The video is by someone from america, I thought that if i could use someone form a different region with a different natural accent to mine. I could analyse how they have interpreted the British accent, and I did. Here is the video:

In the video Professor David Ley talks about how posture can affect the sound of an accent. When I am portraying The Clerk I am sat at a table, which will be the receptionist's desk.  I am going to try and sit as upright as I can, hopefully this will aid my diction and the way I speak. He also stated that  people from different regions of the world use their tongue on certain places in their mouth, this creates their accent, moving your tongue downwards will help produce the stereotypical British sound. He suggested putting a hard boiled sweet at the back of your tongue and try to speak without it moving, this will keep the back of it down, this will help you make 'ah' sounds. I am going to try and use this exercise on The Clerk to see if it makes any improvement on my accent. Lastly he stated that Quadrisyllabic words will become triple syllabic words, I will also see if this works as well with some of the words The Clerk uses.

21/11/16-Double

This lesson I worked on 'I'll Cover You' with Lewis and our choreographer, Dan. We had previously worked on this song and choreography in our own time however when we showed the dance to Dan, he said that it doesn't catch the growing love between Collins and Angel, which is the key pivoting point in their relationship. I agree with this as I think the dance wasn't as creative as it could be. Dan is a dancer so he obviously has more experience than me and Lewis in this area. When we performed our own dance to Dan me and Lewis forgot some of the dance which I think made it look sloppy.  I think that this dance routine in 'I'll cover you' has helped me with my physicality, as Angel is a feminine and I am not, so this role has challenged me, hence the development in this skill. Dan added a lift during a dance break into the song, just after the first chorus, however when I jump into Collins arms i find myself pointing my feet outwards. Dan stated that this makes me look masculine so I need to keep working on pointing my toes towards the floor in order to come across as feminine, the more I practice this the more it will come naturally to me.

Vocally, I think that I am now really comfortable with this song so I find no trouble when singing it. I feel as though now because I am more relaxed in this song it reduces tension in the muscles in my throat, this decreases the strain that I am putting on my vocal chords which allows me to sing easier and use my projection more. However, Dan has pointed out that Lewis and I need to work on the harmonies as they are still not right. I think this is because Lewis' singing is in a low octave and I sing in a high octave.

I also worked on singing and choreography of 'Today 4 U'. To start off, I went through just the singing of the number. I was given criticism which was that I need to put more charisma and energy into the song. Personally, I think that my characterisation is lacking here and it needs to be improved. Dan indicated that this number is the first song where they see Angel as the loving person he is even though he is talking about killing a dog for money. When Collins introduces me I enter from the back, I need to strut as if I'm walking down a runway. I found this very difficult as it wasn't coming naturally to me so I felt that the strut was forced and it didn't look right. To help me practice this I am going watch some videos of catwalks and fashion shows to get inspiration and ideas from. Apart from this my only other criticisms as for dancing is that I need more energy in my dance and Also that when I was dancing in my heels I need to make sure I am taking smaller steps and not larger ones as it looks more feminine. These criticisms fall under Physicality, so this skill is something I must carry developing as it is an important skill for the role I am playing who, at parts, is portrayed as the opposite sex to me.

For the improvement of 'I'll cover you' Me and Lewis need to go and see our singing teacher to help us correct the harmonies. I also need to respond to my criticisms of 'Today 4 U', I will go and practice these in my spare time.