Week 54

 Monday 24th March 2025 

Because of the heavy week of shows the week prior we only had a half day on Monday, focusing on devising and improvisation. We began the session with an improve game we've played before, were one person creates a scenario and makes it into a scene- and If someone wants to create a new scenario they have to jump into the pre existing scene and find a way to adapt it into something new. The more the scene changes the more people join the group- this is then reversed once the last person has changed the scenario and the group then goes back through all the previous scenes. I really enjoy this improv game as its very fast paced and forces you to think quickly and not hesitate- it's really good for problem solving practise, and helps us become better at instinctively solving minor problems on stage. It's also a very fun creative activity and encourages us to explore our instinctive ideas more. 

We then moved onto a devising activity and using two sentences as prompts- one that starts the piece and one that will finish it. As a group we decided to go down more of a funny route with what we were creating instead of going with what we assumed most people would have come up with given the prompts. When it comes to devising I've realised how important it is to work collectively as a group and build off each others ideas instead of just trying to stick with the first one that we think of. It's also really important to listen to each other when devising an 

Wednesday 26th March 2025 

We spent the whole of Wednesday reading both the end of year plays for our final project, one of which being the Lovely Bones and the other being The railway children. When it comes to the end of year project I want a big challenge and a big stretch emotionally- more specifically in character relationships/dynamics. This is why I'm going to be auditioning for The lovely bones as the play centres around the heavy topic of grief and the way we individually deal with grief in different ways. The acting is very difficult and if not executed properly it won't have the same effect or power for the audience. 

Thursday 27th March 2025 

Laban technique

Laban categorised human movement into four component part- direction, weight, speed and flow, and each of these separate parts has two different elements. direction is either direct or indirect- weight is either heavy or light- speed is either quick or sustained and flow is either bound or free. So for example if you had speed and the movement was quick you might think of a lack of time wasting, punctuality. Potentially a committed student- whereas with sustained you might think of a marathon runner, sustaining a speed or action for a prolonged period of time. Laban then combined these parts together to create the 8 efforts:  wring, press, flick, dab, glide, float, punch, slash- which can all be used as a way to characterise movement, and are techniques to help both dancers and actors when developing their performances.