Questions:
- Discuss your exploration and development of TTWCTT taking into consideration key factors and relevant ideas and input you to the process.
- Evaluate the skills and techniques in used in rehearsal and discuss how you responded to direction and feedback to develop work.
In this essay I will evaluating and analysing the creative process and the final performance of "The Tiger Who Came To Tea". For our final term we focused on adapting and shaping material for a young audience using many different artistic mediums such as; singing, acting, lighting, soundscapes etc. As an individual and part of a collective I/we worked to produce a 7 minute segment for a bigger show. We devised it all from scratch using exercises and tasks set by our teacher.
First off a little bit of background. Children's Theatre is a form of entertaining (whilst) educating and audience of younger and less advanced minds. Due to the fact kids have't fully developed yet and are still seeing the world through new eyes their brains are still susceptible to new thoughts and ideas. We can use Children's Theatre to touch on social, historical and classical issues using fun and innovative ways to characterise problems in a child friendly manner that excites but is also factual. In my opinion it is an effective method of delivering more mature themes and adapting them in such a way that it stays with a person for a long time even maybe through their entire life. However it may be perceived as immature and silly and may even trivialise a problem leading to the issue being represented a comical or not important.
A great Children's Theatre performer must be able to experiment freely, finding new ways to give a performance and discovering other ways of delivering lines and movements. Don't think... feel! Energy must flow through the performer like it will never end. Children can and will be distracted easily so if there is a drop in the energy levels on stage they will feel it and lose interest very quickly. A good performer should keep the energy of the stage alive at all times. The body and voice should be connected together. This is true for all types of performance but especially in Children's Theatre where each movement and word is very expressive, in order to communicate everything to the audience clearly one must first make sure that each fibre of their being is in touch with every chord in the voice. Exercises like "I am a slimy frog" will cause an actor to become aware of the sound they are producing and then they can use it to join the movement of their body. Modulating the voice can be key in keeping the attention of an audience of children. If you speak in a monotonous voice they will lose interest but if you change the register of your voice, go up and down in pitch and volume they will think it is exciting. A good Children's performer should be perceptive and consider every variable when working in different spaces. We played to three sides so we needed to be considerate of the fact that we needed to give attention to all sides and not block anyone's view. We had to Allow the audience to be a part of the story and if they give you something react with it and use it! I used the vertical and the horizontal, reaching up and get down low! Going from side to side kids like all there senses to be used and I'm sure they don't want to see something on one dimension! These are all the ways I readied my mind and body as an actor for the task ahead.
We found out about an American artist called Patty Smith. She is a famous art maker, political singer, punk, poet and many other things. She took inspiration from a Poet named William Blake, who lived during the 18th and 19th century. He wrote out of the pain of the loss of his little brother who he adored. The poem Patty took as her own inspiration was the eminent "The Tyger" which was published in 1794. She adapted it from a spoken word poem into a instrument-less melody. Her voice was certainly unique as she completely gave new life into the poem. It gave me a sense of melancholy and irrefutable dread. The words that came to mind in the group discussion were things like "lament and dirge" and I felt that was fair! It was useful in the way we could adapt it to fit in with our performance however in it's pure version we found it would actually hinder the piece. We thought that the slow pace would lose the attention of the young audience so to fix this we amp it up a bit. I personally found slightly monotonous so we could change it by changing the expression in our voices. One of the positives is that it added an extra performance medium to our segment. This means we have more levels and layers than just straight act. On stage Patty was stationary. We of course need to be active the entire time or again the children will lose focus so we must add something to the song. A final suggestion is to change the language as I highly doubt a 2 year is going to know what a sinew but because we got the tonne and energy right it worked!
Nearing the end of the devising stage we were taken into our actual performance space. This was so we could get used to acting in that particular theatrical configuration.. Mr. Rennison took us for an exercise which involved directing our energy to all sides of the audience. We had to direct our head to one side whilst simultaneously showing our chests to the opposite side. The first analogy we was given was as follows; In your left hand you're gripping a dagger for defending attacks, in your right you hold a rapier for attack. You must always keep deflecting attacks whilst delivering blows with your rapier. This made us consciously concentrate on keeping on adjusting my body as I moved around the stage. The second way of explaining I found more useful. I was told to envisage the two different body parts as torches sending out beams of energy. I could easily imagine the direction of energy and now could see how to move without disrupting the travel of the light rays I was producing. We further complicated this task by adding objectives. This helped us to strengthen our use of spatial awareness and how to balance the space as well as making us play around with physical movements and body placement. I found this hard because there was a lot of things to concentrate on. I will need to practise this all before our performance. I can replicate this exercise using chairs or furniture in my house.
Some of the work we developed included:
The Here Kitty section: From the pyramid into this section, the transitions are tremendous! It helps to create an electric and slightly dangerous atmosphere as we are searching for this tiger. It is very theatrical as we make use of unison sound and movement. We use prop torches and the light will make the action on stage still clearly visible to the children. It will appeal to little people because they find the dark mysterious and slightly frightening. Utilizing this well make our piece even more enjoyable for them.
An example of an idea that was ineffective was the transition from our singular lines into the "scared tiger mumbling". It just didn't work. The physical cue wasn't big enough so some people missed the change. You can't hear Fenton's line so I it was lost. The ensemble doesn't become quiet enough in time for the next section. We realised that it just wasn't working and decided to cut it completely from the show. We improved upon our initial pyramid by curving it round. This means that now the audience on all sides can see the formation. We made this more theatrical by all looking up when Fenton says his lines to make sure the audiences focus goes towards him. The younger audience will enjoy the aesthetics of the pyramid and will marvel at the size of the this physical device.
One of the most important ways I am evolving as an actor is my ability to take direction. After the first run on performance day I was in a slightly negative space as many things had gone wrong technically e.g. The lights not going out, the piano not turning on, the butterfly nets breaking etc. Mr. Worden had seen our work and gave some very helpful direction. He told us that we were not performing for our mates but for the children. This resonating with me! Some people were not giving 100% and were holding back at of fear of judgement and embarrassment. I have already discussed what a good Children's Theatre actor needs to be and two of the key elements were energy and not getting embarrassed. The only way I was truly going to entertain my audience was by giving myself to them completely. I felt in my second performance I exerted all the energy I could muster, I was more animated and I made sure my body and voice were connected! The evidence of this was in my singular line. I moved forward and showed my map to all sides of the audience going up and down. I then hit on the floor and looked up as I gave the "punchline". In the previous performance the audience didn't laugh but this time I could hear the laughter and I felt content with my delivery.
Another way in which I responded to direction was during the "Here Kitty" section. During the section my face being visible is key as it is the way I am communicating the fright and terror of seeing the tiger and creating terror and comedy on stage. I was holding the torch too close to my face and under my chin so that the light was only illuminating a small section of my face.This meant that all of the hard work I was putting into contorting my face was being lost moreover the audience of children would not grasp the comedic intentions of the action. Mr. Rennison pointed out that this was happening and told me to point it towards my nose and hold it further away. I responded to this by trying out different positions and checking which one highlighted my face better. I further improved upon this by going home and turning all the lights out in my room and then seeing how it looked in the mirror!
Finally I would like to discuss aspects of my performance that I feel I should make note of. For the duration of this unit I have been using Yoshi Oida's and Lorna Marshall's "The Invisible Actor" as a sort of guideline. The Book offered me countless pieces of knowledge I will keep as an actor forever but some insights related to the more performance in some very specific ways. Take the chapter on "Time" Yoshi Oida says:
"The first moment of the play is very important. For directors, the problem is how to start the performance, for an actor, the difficulty is arriving in front of the audience for the first time. When you drive a car, you out it into first gear, and you have to pump the accelerator. In the same way you need a lot of energy for the start of a performance"
One of the most important ways I am evolving as an actor is my ability to take direction. After the first run on performance day I was in a slightly negative space as many things had gone wrong technically e.g. The lights not going out, the piano not turning on, the butterfly nets breaking etc. Mr. Worden had seen our work and gave some very helpful direction. He told us that we were not performing for our mates but for the children. This resonating with me! Some people were not giving 100% and were holding back at of fear of judgement and embarrassment. I have already discussed what a good Children's Theatre actor needs to be and two of the key elements were energy and not getting embarrassed. The only way I was truly going to entertain my audience was by giving myself to them completely. I felt in my second performance I exerted all the energy I could muster, I was more animated and I made sure my body and voice were connected! The evidence of this was in my singular line. I moved forward and showed my map to all sides of the audience going up and down. I then hit on the floor and looked up as I gave the "punchline". In the previous performance the audience didn't laugh but this time I could hear the laughter and I felt content with my delivery.
Another way in which I responded to direction was during the "Here Kitty" section. During the section my face being visible is key as it is the way I am communicating the fright and terror of seeing the tiger and creating terror and comedy on stage. I was holding the torch too close to my face and under my chin so that the light was only illuminating a small section of my face.This meant that all of the hard work I was putting into contorting my face was being lost moreover the audience of children would not grasp the comedic intentions of the action. Mr. Rennison pointed out that this was happening and told me to point it towards my nose and hold it further away. I responded to this by trying out different positions and checking which one highlighted my face better. I further improved upon this by going home and turning all the lights out in my room and then seeing how it looked in the mirror!
Finally I would like to discuss aspects of my performance that I feel I should make note of. For the duration of this unit I have been using Yoshi Oida's and Lorna Marshall's "The Invisible Actor" as a sort of guideline. The Book offered me countless pieces of knowledge I will keep as an actor forever but some insights related to the more performance in some very specific ways. Take the chapter on "Time" Yoshi Oida says:
"The first moment of the play is very important. For directors, the problem is how to start the performance, for an actor, the difficulty is arriving in front of the audience for the first time. When you drive a car, you out it into first gear, and you have to pump the accelerator. In the same way you need a lot of energy for the start of a performance"
In our first initial performance there was a long pause between Fenton running off stage to the entrance of the explorers. This meant that there was a lul in the energy and instead of exploding onto the stage with new interests and intentions it was like we were seeping on wet and boring. This made the entire performance from that point on lacklustre and void of energy and power. In my own performance I was slow and didn't change the dynamics of my movements. All this made the pace of our piece abysmal and I could feel the audience becoming disinterested and bored. I felt like I was not exploring the space but I was just simply moving through it. My work lacked depth and excitement all because our entrances was not good. This really highlighted how important a good beginning is. So during the second performance I did not wait for a person to enter the stage, I ran on pushing my energy towards up-stage right. I then stopped, walked in a different direction then sped up again and then I slowed down. I kept on changing my speed and dynamics. I used levels and the other actors on stage as obstacles as I stepped over them. I was truly playing "to explore". I felt a tangible difference in the audience. They were now fully focused on what I was doing. It was interesting and exciting to them. From reading this book and from trial and error I found the correct way to enter the stage and give a continuous good performance.
In conclusion, I have acquired different rehearsal skills, learnt new exercises and creating some brilliant work this unit. I have had to refine and develop my own ideas and evaluate and analysis my actions in depth. All this work has helped to build upon my knowledge of how to be a better actor!
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