Learning Lines & Notes.

  22.04.2014

 When learning my lines, I have talked to people in the group about their techniques in doing so. With not long left till the performance we should all really know our lines and be comfortable with them. I did some research into the different ways of learning lines for the play, and also discussed it in class with others. My best tips are:

1.) Look - Cover - Write

  I really liked this technique, it works well for me to remember lines and is very successful. It helps me remember the line more too as I go over them, the way this works is that it is a repetitive task and requires you to keep going over lines which puts it in your head a lot more. This technique helped me a lot.

2.) Reading lines into a mirror

  This also works really well for me because when you watch yourself read out the lines, it looks like a different person and you hear them out loud which some how helps for each line to stick in your head.

3.) Read lines before bed

  This technique helps if you do it correctly. You have to literally read your lines, then sleep. I say this because most people would then watch TV, play a game, etc. but for this technique to work you have to go straight to sleep after reading over your lines. This allows the brain to only think about the lines and nothing else, while you sleep you will be solely going over the lines in your head. This is an overall great technique, it allows the lines to sink into your head more so you should not only remember the lines, but also very clearly and confidently. I have not yet tried out this method but I do plan to this week (this will be a target.)

4.) Rehearsing with partner (not necessarily in the play)

  This could be practising with a parent, a friend, or even better a person who is also in the play. This is not only a great memory technique, but it also helps to know when you come in with your line. This will keep the rehearsals at a steady pace and not slow them down with gaps and pauses because of people not knowing when it's their turn to say their line. We have not yet gone over this technique properly in class, but we have individually that I have noticed. I have gone over my whole scene with Dan (Sir Whilloughby) numerous times with and without script so I know that this is a great way of learning lines for me because this scene is now engraved in my brain!

5.) Writing my lines & key lines in

  For this, I basically wrote on a sized piece of blank paper the end of the line before mine, then my line. This really worked for me amazingly because it shown me very clearly exactly where I came in and what my line is. I also wrote my lines the biggest so it was obvious that they were mine and because I reconized the hand writing some how it made it easier for me to remember them. This was one of my favourite techniques to use because it worked so fast and well.

6.) Taking notes

  When rehearsing, I usually write down key points on my page of either what action to take or how to feel at that moment. This helps in remembering lines because you then remember what happened in the rehearsals and it some how brings back the memory and you remember the line easier. For example, on page 43 I wrote next to 'the cheese alphabet', "Zoe with board, 'SMACK!', --> laugh" which makes sense to me as 'Zoe starts it off, she flips the whiteboard around as Mrs Brisket does too and it stage smacks her in the face, that's when I laugh (and get shouted at later)'. All of the notes that I have wrote on the pages really help me not only remember each line (because of the remembrance from rehearsals) but also how I should be feeling and how I should react from what works best.

Overall I would say that my best technique is probably 'Look - Cover - Write' and also 'rehearsing with partner'. They have both really helped me in the whole learning my lines process and now I know all of my lines and more or less when I come in too! For this last rehearsal week before the show I hope that it all goes smoothly and we all remember and deliver our lines confidently too!

Epic theatre.

  Verfremdungseffekt is using things to break the fourth wall, alienation, creating emotion and to make a point. It challenges emotional context and is to make something strange, different and interesting. This could be by using placards, the audience wouldn't know how to feel watching a Brecht performance. It is exaggeration.

The techniques used so far in wolves are:

 *narration

 *cariacature

 *creating the illusion of a different emotion

We played a game called 'tell me a story' (an improv. game). Chloe was the narrator, Dan acted out the story and Megan also acted out the story. To start, Chloe made the story, she could change and alter anything she wanted. The story started off as "One man, on his own felt like a woman. Mum came in, he doesn't notice her." Then Chloe added in 'dad' (Jay). Chloe guidelines the story, others can also alter the story but keeping to the narrators guidelines.

  Things in Wolves using verfremdungseffekt:

1.) The projection backdrop.

2.) Narration of chorus.

3.) Descrition in third person.

4.) Changing costume on stage.

5.) Direct address.

6.) Audience interaction.

Spass = (theatre version) fun/funny

Task: make an improv. (Short and spass, with a dramatic twist)

  I worked with Ryan and Andrew and we performed a 'this is Liverpool' mick take. Me and Ryan argued as stereotypical scousers then as Ryan goes to leave he gets shot making it a dramatic end.

Brecht.

  Verfremdungseffekt = creating emotions, for example: an actress is playing a character who has been raped and the audience feels what she feels, but then a clown is behind her making fun and you laugh. You are then conflicted, you question it and are confused. Brecht wanted to his audiences to leave thinking, he wanted to always make a point in his shows.

  This could help our play as we could incorporate it, so for example in screen 8 when Grimshaw snatches Sylvia's toy from her with plans to throw it into the fire, the audience should feel sorry for the little girl and hate Grimshaw. Yet by using this effect, if Grimshaw says his line "Barbeque it. I love the smell of burning toys in the morning." This makes the audience laugh when he looks at them with a creepy expression so then the audience are confused as to whether they should still feel sorry for the girl or laugh at him. I think that this works really well and it is using the effect perfectly too.

  'Placards' also by Brecht are blunt. Placards show a characters emotions, thoughts and feelings on a piece of card to tell the audience exactly what is going on. Brecht does this to move scenes on faster so that the audience already know what is happening without them trying to guess or wait for something memorable to happen. Here is my interpretation of a Placard scene:

The thought bubbles would be the placards. It is a type of narration, it sets the scene without having to say it in lines. However in 'wolves' we won't use them because for this particular play it is better to be subtle and Brecht wasn't really that subtle.

  There is also more narration that we are actually using in wolves in the chorus. This sets the scene but is still a lot more subtle than the idea of placards. It is story telling and Brecht liked that, he went to Greek theatre and the only thing he really liked was the chorus'. The types of narration are:

 *1st person- "I did this."

 *3rd person- objects that move.

 *in character

 *stepping out of character

Caricature = a joke of themselves, e.g. Miss Slighcarp, Mr Grimshaw, etc. They are not like real human beings that you would see everyday.

Stereotypes = sexuality, clothes, 'chavs', 'teen mums', etc. It is based on ignorance and speak from others. Easy to say, automatically being brought up with it. It is useful however because if you are trying to show a stereotypical character the audience will know exactly what it is meant to be.

Scene 4 - "literacy and numeracy"

  This is the scene that the inspector comes to see the girls school in Blastburn. We see mrs brisket showing off infront of the inspector and makes the girls perform their literacy first. Our first idea was for Brisket to poke the girls in the back (they are all in a line) in sequence so that they shout out the letters in pain showing how evil brisket really is, yet the inspector is always oblivious to the cruelty. We then changed this slightly as it was too 'in sequence' and wasn't random enough really. So we then thought it would be a good idea to keep the poking but not for the whole thing, but because in the story Bonnie is the only child that has been brought up well she should lead the sequence as she is the only one who really knows it so while she confidently says it, the other girls follow her lead. I really liked this new idea because it is very realistic, that would actually happen in real life and makes more sense too.

  Secondly, when mrs brisket is flirting with the inspector we thought that the girls should chuckle at her because it's weird to see her like that. She is usually a hard faced woman, but now is acting like a girly girl! I loved this idea because little girls would laugh at something like that, it also shows that the girls are really not used to her being nice for once so shock would be in there too.

  If I had to make an improvement on this scene however I would say that we could possibly involve more movement in the scene instead of just being in a straight line, so for example when the girls say their letter they could move forward because in reality, no matter how well trained little girls are they wouldn't really stay in a straight line facing forward for the whole time. They would be looking around, chatting and laughing at silly things. Even if one girl tied their shoe laces for a long time or played around with their dress, then it would work really well and remind the audience that they are all little girls!

  We also blocked another part of this scene when it is partly the chorus.

                "Detention for speaking too loud.

                 Detention for speaking too quiet.

                 Detention for working too slow.

                 They were punished for yawning at supper."

For this, we got Bonnie to read the first line (obviously loudly) and be dragged away by the ear to the centre. The second line is for Sylvia to say quietly and also dragged to the centre. The third is to be read by Emma, and the last for another girl at the school. This would end with Bonnie, Sylvia and Emma in the centre stage ready for the next thing of saying their numeracy. I really liked this idea because it is an easy way of getting the girls ready for the next bit instead of just walking to the middle because that is boring to watch whereas this is more interesting. 

Scene 3 - Blocking the carriage.

  When making the carriage we simply used the set from the passageway and added a box at the front for James to sit on, with miss slighcarp behind and the two girls higher up behind her.

  Firstly we decided that the two girls would be either side of slighcarp but then halfway through the journey Bonnie would move over to Sylvia to keep her warm. We then changed this so that Bonnie and Sylvia are sat together from the start. I think that this idea works a lot better because it is more realistic than Bonnie just walking across the back of the small carriage. It also makes it more clear that the carriage is still quite small, it is James' and he can't afford much.

  When the carriage pulls up at blast burn, the two girls have been asleep for the late part of the journey and still are when they pull up, heads together. However, when miss slighcarp raises her voice to tell mrs brisket that their "plan is working", the two girls wake up with a jolt and are very alarmed to their new sight of the girls school. I thought that this all worked very well because it shows the distraught feelings the girls are feeling and also a contrast in the calmness to the sudden alarm.

Blocking scene 8: "SLAP!" and The Secret Passage.

  I thoroughly enjoyed blocking and planning this scene. The characters being used here are Bonnie, Miss Slighcarp, Sylvia and Mr Grimshaw. Miss Slighcarp is seen wearing something of Bonnie's mothers and Bonnie is furious about it, resulting in a dramatic moment of Miss Slighcarp slapping Bonnie to the ground and throwing her into a cupboard with the help of Grimshaw. With this idea we straight away decided that a sort of stand off should happen between Slighcarp and Bonnie, coming in closer and closer toward each other then finally being pratically nose to nose in fury. I really liked this idea of a stand off because it shows the authority each character has (Bonnie basically still having control of Miss Slighcarp in a way but Slighcarp trying to take over.) Both powerful people trying to get rid of one another, this shows really well how they react to each other in a heated moment such as this.
   The first block of this scene was for Miss Slighcarp to only slap Bonnie to the ground and we worked out a way for it to work theatrically. We then decided that more should come from this scene. It is a big scene and could be so extravagant and better than that so we blocked it again. Our next idea was to involve Mr Grimshaw too and have him help out in the plan of getting rid of Bonnie and teaching her a lesson as he was evil too. Mr Grimshaw was to stand close but not too close to Miss Slighcarp and to grap Bonnie off her and end the process by being the one who throws her into the cupboard. We had to block this bit quite a lot so that it really worked and looked real without anyone actually getting hurt in the process which in the first place did not work as Ryan (Grimshaw) got a black eye so we had to try that all again so that this does not happen again in the future! We then decided to make it work, we would have to flip Bonnie around by her hair which Slighcarp has a grip on then throwing her backwards into Grimshaw so that he could then also involve the cane by putting it around her and pulling her by that. This finally all worked out but it took a lot of effort for it to properly work and look real too.
  We also blocked in this the first chorus paragraph of the servants being let go from their jobs and being paid their final wage. For this we simply got the chorus to climb pratically onto the set platforms but make it interesting whilst saying their lines, then they would jump down and all scatter into a line as soon as Slighcarp makes an appearance. We then all decided that it would be good if she threw their last wage into the air and they all run into the middle to get what they can fast, with one person still collecting when Grimshaw then appears, he would pull them up slowly with his cane to add effect to the whole scene. I really liked this whole idea very much because it was very fast paced and always moving with a lot going on so it is very interesting too. We blocked a lot in this scene and it all works really well!
  With Jill, we all were given an animal that we had to make our character act like. For Bonnie, I was given a puppy which I have to interoperate into my part. This was a good idea to do because it puts me in the mindset of what I have to act like when reading my lines and just on stage. In rehearsals, we then added this feature by getting Bonnie (me) to jump onto James (Adam) when I say my lines when James thinks that I have gone missing from the passage way.

  "I'm here! James - I'm dissapointed in you." This paragraph needs to be said with lots of excitement and enthusiasm, I have to leap to James from a higher level and from being given the puppy dog title I think that this really helped because it shown me what I have to do.

  In this scene we also decided that when Mr Grimshaw says about "burning toys in the morning" he should be very creepy and aim this line at the audience too. He has to be a real creep and show the audience how weird and horrible he really is and also with this line it will make the audience hopefully have emotions for these characters, hating Grimshaw for taking Sylvia's innocent toy!

  With the passageway we planned it on levels going up and down so it is more of a struggle to move through it for the girls when they do. This then looks more realistic and shows that it is not easy what they are doing it is effort but they want to get through the struggle rather than see miss slighcarp! The girls are crawling away but there is also a gap in the middle to show when they see Slighcarp and Grimshaw discussing in the library. When this happens the girls will be in full view but the other 2 never turn round to actually catch them spying on their plans.