UAL Level 3 Diploma Performing Arts {Acting}

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...