dinnertime!

I officially hate this website! (although it is very good) but it deleted my detailed, long, lovely blog 5 times! So now im typing it on word so I can SAVE it and I’ll copy it onto a blog after, hopefully it’ll allow me to publish it this time! Forgive me if this blog isn’t amazing as it’s the 6th time I’m writing it and am beginning to feel quite frustrated!!
SO, here we go:
Today was an interesting and different day. Firstly, Scott.S spoke to us about acting, using expressive skills such as facial expressions, gait, voice and movement. He referred us to the textbook (page 12) for further information which I look forward to reading. We then did some workshops with Scotty before continuing to block. In our first activity, we began walking around as ourselves, then as 10 times heavier than usual, followed by ten times lighter. Our next activity was in reference to characters. We started off standing as ourselves with our eyes closed and had to envisage a tunnel with a figure in the distance slowly approaching us until we could finally make out who it was. We had to imagine the figure right in front of us, with no facial expression and we had to picture how they’d be standing and what they’d be wearing. We then had to step out of ourselves and become that person, we had to walk as them and portray them under certain circumstances, which Scotty outlined. We did this exercise with the characters Paula and Stephen. It gave us an insight into the other characters. I realized a few things about Stephen through this exercise. I think there’s a lot more to him than we think, and certainly a lot more too him than is portrayed on the outside. He’s a much more complex character than we give him credit for. While being arrogant and outwardly portraying this attitude, he actually has many deep insecurities, it is therefore possible that he’s not being true to himself and putting out a façade. We can draw some parallels between him and Dympie and I think these two actors could learn from each others performances. We can also draw parallels between Gordon and Monika in that they’re both dealing with a loss. Paula on the other hand is original within herself. The one thing they all share is loneliness and the desperate need for companionship, though they all express this very differently. This exercise is a good way to get into character and further develop your character. We then did an activity regarding gait (woo, Nai learnt a new word). We began by walking around as if a rope was coming from our spine, out of our head and we had to follow it around, we then repeated this with chest and pelvis. We discussed what kind of people walk in each style, and established that those who walk with their head are very aware of their surroundings, those who walk with their chest are unaware of what’s around them and those who walk with their pelvis are concerned with themselves. We established that Stephen would be a pelvis walker, Monika and Paula would be chest walkers and Gordon and Dympie would be head walkers. This activity made me realize that while being Monika, I have to abandon “Nai” in every sense of the word. I have therefore been trying to stay in character all through blocking, even when we stop to receive directors notes, because once in character I find it’s more effective to stay in character and fully absorb this new person, rather than attempting to click from being me to Monika. I learnt that I really have to establish a walk and movements that fit Monika in order to fully realize my character. I look forward to working on this more, further developing my character and fully absorbing her. With some more research, determination and hard work I think we’re well on the way to achieving some great acting! I’m pumped! Woo!