UAL Level 3 Diploma Performing Arts {Acting}

Warm Ups Warm ups are important so that we don't harm ourselves during rehearsals or performances. We also do physical warm ups to prevent us from pulling a muscle. For example, we stretch our arms and legs and warm up our facial muscles by lightly tapping all over our faces, and massaging our jaws to release tension. An example of a vocal warm up would be the following. Warming up our voices by doing exercises where we hum and pretend to chew gum. Tongue twisters, such as 'she sells sea shells on the sea shore' and 'the lips the teeth the tip of the tongue'. This helps articulation, dictation and overall clarity when speaking onstage. Work on projection by choosing a line from the play and saying it across the space as if a hill were in the way. ___________________________________ Health and Safety Risk Assessment College Theatre The wings backstage are very small, and have thigs like a ladder, desk and boxes to bump into in the dark of backstage so...

Context There are many differences between modern and Shakespearean theatre, with differences in technology and acting style and so on. One key difference is that women were not allowed to act in the Elizabethan era so all the actors would have been male, even the female characters.  In modern theatre we use a blackout, and sometimes a sound effect, to get the audience's attention and show that the play is about to begin. However, in Shakespearean theatre they did not have this, so the actors had to draw attention themselves. This meant that their naturalistic acting had a melodramatic tone as they needed to project and use grand gestures to maintain the audience's focus. Shakespeare's audience was a lot less respectful of theatre than the modern audience, who will sit quietly throughout. Shakespeare's audience, especially the ground-lings who had to stand in front of the stage for the entirety of the play. They were loud and did not always give their full atte...

The Performance Evening and evaluation At the start of the day we had an hour long tech-run at the Shaw Theatre in full costume and props. We ran our piece cue to cue with someone from the Shakespeare School Festival Company telling us when to stop and where to skip to. Following this, we had a dress rehearsal in front of one of the other schools performing 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' (we also saw their dress rehearsal). Once this had been done, we were allowed to leave for the afternoon and returned to the theatre for a warm up at 6 pm. All 4 performing schools did a vocal and physical warm up onstage to get the energy levels up and to warm our voices in order to project and fill the space. We were told the running order of the evening, starting with 'Macbeth' and 'The Tempest' with an interval before 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' and our piece. The show began at 7 after the audience arrived. We sat at the very back of the auditorium and watch...

Evaluation of music performances I saw a series of performances from the music students at my college. The use of a combination of old and new songs that are well known was interesting to watch as the audience felt included, and created a fun atmosphere. I really enjoyed the performance of 'Billy Jean' by Michael Jackson, because I think the group of singers' voices complimented one another, especially with the harmonies. I also thought that choosing to sing 'Stand By Me' half in Spanish and half in English is a unique and effective idea that worked well in the performance. As an audience member, I thought this was effective because this performance stood out from the others. As an audience member I enjoyed the blend of musical instruments because they were effective in complimenting the singers' voices. _____________________________________ Evaluation of musical theatre performances I thought that the dance moves in the interpretive dance pie...

Rehearsal Process When the casting was done, I was given the role of Lady Capulet. So I looked at the characters that I interact with and I thought about what Lady Capulet would think of them. For example, she would be respectful towards the Prince, and not dare to question what he has to say. At the back of the script we are using there is a list of characters and a short description of each character. The character notes for Lady Capulet are "she is anxious for Juliet to marry Paris, despite her daughter's personal wishes. She is rather uncomfortable in her position as a mother, and relies on Nurse for support in raising Juliet." I took the information that Lady Capulet 'is rather uncomfortable in her position as a mother' and I decided to deliver the line "tell me, daughter Juliet, how stands your disposition to be married?" with an awkward pause and hesitant step towards Juliet before I said 'daughter' in order to show her discomfort. ...

Week 1 Monday In our first lesson together as a group, we spent some time getting to know each other in order to be able to create an ensemble. We started reading the abridged script for 'Romeo and Juliet' and discussed the course, learning about what we will cover. I learnt about what we will be doing in this year, after our performance of 'Romeo and Juliet', we will be doing a project involving acting in front of a camera, and doing another performance at the end of the year. We had a group discussion about what makes Shakespeare boring for young people, and how to make our performance more engaging for a younger audience. [The red writing is what can make Shakespeare uninteresting to young people. The green writing is our ideas on how to make our performance more engaging.] We also discussed our ideas and opinions on what makes a good story. The list includes: Setting (clear and/or interesting) Context Good characterisation Character devel...

Shakespeare Timeline 1564  ~ Shakespeare born in Stratford Upon Avon. Date of birth is unknown, but assumed to be April 23.  1571 ~ Shakespeare started grammar school at 7. 1582 ~ Shakespeare, at 18, marries Anne Hathaway (26) on November 27. 1583 ~ Shakespeare's first child Susana was born on May 26, 5 months after the wedding (she lived to be 66). 1585 February 2 ~ Shakespeare's twins Judith and Hamnet are born (Hamnet dies at 11, while Judith lived to 77). 1585-1592 ~ Shakespeare left his family in Stratford to join a company of actors as a performer as well as a playwright.  1589-1590 ~ Shakespeare is believed to have written Henry VI Part One in this year. 1590-1591 ~ Shakespeare is believed to have written Henry VI Part Two and Henry VI Part III . 1592 ~ Shakespeare received criticism for lacking in originality as he borrowed ideas for his plays. Theatres in London close because of the plague. 1592-1593 ~ Shakespeare i...