The first scene that involved me was the riot scene, already I had thought prior to the rehursal how this scene may be constructed to show a peaceful protest that gets out of hand, to do this I had a meggaphone to shout my lines through this was useful as the crowd could follow and copy what I was saying this wasn't as simple as it looked as I had to instinctively judge when it was good to change the chant so that it was clear as a group. One exercise that could help with this is the stop and start task where we as a group connect and try and start walking and stop walking at the same time making us gel as a group.
Another aspect of this scene to make it bolder was to increase the number of protesters without adding more people this was done by scattering and moving towards the line of police officers.
In addition thinking about my objectives -being to protest I found another tactic to annoy this was by saying chants through the megga phone into the police officers faces this acted as a natural provok casting them to react irrationally in the situation making the scene flow.
However problems that I found with the scene is the fact that we are playing to three sides so it's impperitive to a knowlage that factor. To overcome this we did an exercise where we counted numbers connecting to our breath with a partner while opening ourselves to the audience (face or chest) creating some form of action. This exercise was then developed into "tell me" , "no!" a question and answer exercise following the same patterns. I feel I got a lot out of this exercise as it showed me the importance of not performing to the front and traveling, rooting and performing your emotions with control.
After blocking the first ten pages we then devised to scrap it all and start from the beginning using the techniques of Miesner a practioner that was all about truth and that we should live not act on stage. One of his most useful methods is the "you have, I have" exercise that consisted of actors stating what they could see. ( more general info on Miesner on top tab)
Doing this exercise only works if you as an actor becomes vunreble and takes in what the other person is stating to you for example:
"You have curly hair"
"I have curly hair"
"You move you cheeks when you talk"
"I move my cheeks when i talk"
This as you helps you understand how people view you. The exercise was then developed into who we were for example:
"You have curly hair"
"I have curly hair"
"Your hair looks messy"
"My hair looks messy"
This then helps you delve even deeper into the next exercise that taps into you on an emotional level for example:
"You have curly hair"
"I have curly hair"
"Your hair looks messy"
"My hair looks messy"
"It's messy because your lazy"
"I am lazy"
Actually doing this exercise made me realise the depth I needed to go into to make a belivable performance and chracter and not to say anything unless it felt right making the performance live.
"If you have the emotion, it infects you and the audience. If you don't have it don't bother; just say your lines as truthfully as you are capable of doing. You can't fake emotion."
- Sanford Meisner
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