Evaluation of the performance

Our performance was successful in many ways and in some ways not so. The first performance we did at 4:30 to an audience of our peers and teachers mostly, was extremely well received, the audience were laughing and even if certain points of the plot were lost to them they gathered what was going on in each scene, laughing on cue and encouraging the cast to enjoy themselves also. Though in this run of the performance, more mistakes were made, general staging mistakes were made where people stood in-front of others but quickly corrected themselves or when Iris and Ed fell in their greeting which was not planned but they played it off and it became intended humour. There were points when I would be standing on the boys section of the stage, breaking the illusion of the separate quarters. I believe this could have been improved by ensuring the space from the female characters was larger, which would allow for more space fro the props and for us to stand in, instead of being squished and becoming hazardous. Also I believe if we had more space then we could've added some hedges to the set that are included in the script so the boys could've completed their hiding letter scene outside like the script suggests it to be. I think that could've been a funnier image and the audience would have properly understood how Boyet over heard the boys talking about their plot to woo the girls.
Another way this first performance could've been improved is enthusiasm and control of nerves. In the first one I was so nervous that I was shacking on stage so when I delivered my speeches in this 4:30 show, they weren't as strong as the 7 oclock show where I was more confident with my place on the stage and what I was saying so I felt my character then had the opportunity to come out more.

Other places the show was successful was in showing the relationships of characters throughout the entire play. I feel like the relationship nd bond of the girls was clear to the audience as I have heard from feedback. I think the work we had complete in classing working on our synchronisity and responses to one another really paid of in both of the shows, we became a unit and you could see we'd known each other for a very long time and the status of each of the characters. For example the princess only sat on the ground once in comparison to the other girls of lesser status who sat on the ground frequently, the princess lead the train of girls when they would exit and apart from when the girls asked for permission or when Rosaline was dressed as the princess, they would defer to me and Daisy for their cues.
I also think the male female relationships were strong in both of our performances with the males and females who were so in love with less to loose kept looking at one another when they were on stage, the intensity was observed clearly by the audience as when asking some people who came to see the show who was in love with who, nd could you tell from early on?  They said, they could in fact tell who was with who.

Overall our main improvements could've been more audience interaction, eg playing to the fact there are people watching as it could be easy to forget or to start playing the jokes to each other instead of the audience who were there. And also working on remembering our props, though the letters were really confusing, in our first run Daisy and me forgot the letter for when we first meet Ferdinand, and there was some confusion later on when we were doing the dance masquerade section between who should have what letter and where Chloe's drawing was i the second run. To rectify this we would need to have kept a better eye on our props so this wouldnt become an issue.

HISTORICAL CONTEXT W6: YOUR PRODUCTION

 Research your own Shakespeare play: Much Ado About Nothing, Love's Labour's Lost or Titus Andronicus. What is the play about? When was it first performed? Find a contemporary production of the play you can get an idea of and research it in terms of concept, style, design, casting. Give some attention to your own character and their role in the play.

Love's Labour's Lost

What is the play about?

Loves Labours Lost follows 3 days of tumultuous and interesting relationships between vowed men and strong willed women. The King Ferdinand vows to abstain from women just before the French envoy arrives with The Princess of Aquataine, a woman who he's been crushing on for some time, accompanied by her 3 women in waiting (for Ferdinand's 3 trusty boys) and her trusty side-kick Boyet. The boys say the women will not come into their court, so the girls set up camp outside, annoyed and frustrated. The boys after seeing the girls are hook line and sinker in love with them, but none of them will admit it. In the background Dull a simple servant gets drawn into Costard's misadventures and mishaps as he flirts with Janquenetta a country wench who he's "well acquainted with. Armado a Spanish man who keeps with Ferdinand and his boys is in love with young Janquenetta. After masquerades and a bit of trickery with the women who change their favours

 to lure the guys into their jest, the men and women confess some sincere feelings for one another, The play concludes with the promise that the 8 will part for a year and return to solidify their love.

When was it first performed?

The  play was first performed at the inns Court for Queen Elizabeth I who commissioned for it to be made (in the mid 1950's).

Modern play interpretations

http://vidzi.tv/mtmlbk8gw7zg.html

The musical I watched was very similar in  a sense to the way we have done it. Both were transposed into the first half of the 1900's, theirs in 1930, and ours in the 1940's. The main thing that brought up a difference in time period was the fact the musical was based in America and ours was placed in the UK. With the character of the princess, I believe in this performance she was played much lighter than I played it on stage, very soft and gentle in her approach, she could handle the 'banter' between her and the King but it was in a more feminine way. The singing also created a different atmosphere of comedy to the way we created comedy. In this version of the play, the female speeches are mostly cut except for the Princess, but I do not feel as though she is the driving force of the female mayhem, in this production Costard seems to over shadow all the other characters in the play comedically. Also since this was abridged differently to ours we saw the Princess fall in love more, it was clear she was a little affected by Nevarr's presence and the boys seemed more in love as well.

CHARACTER WORK: 1940's women and male relationships

The play focuses a lot on the power balance of male and female relationships. I thought to research the behaviour of male's and female's in the period that we have decided to set the play in. I found that women were encouraged to Wed at a very young age and promiscuity was still strongly frowned upon with religion still being a strong force of control in this time.

But also at this time in america, due to the second world war women were becoming more aware of the likely hood that their men may not return from the war. Relationship style began to change with men and women making public statements of their relationships by the males trading an item of their clothing with the woman who would wear them and reflect their current relationship status. This was called "going steady". I saw this in my research and draw a conclusion that it was very similar to the men in "LLL" giving the women "favours" to wear, as a sign of their romantic intent and possible emotional commitment
. This allowed me to rationalise what the favours would've meant in the time that we had transposed the play into and then react to them not only following the script but the time and intention.

Here was a video I found regarding dating in the 40's, It was really interesting to see a lot of the awkwardness that we feel today as girls and boys was present in the 40's, but the video also highlights a a difference in perceived dating etiquette, with one of the girls behaving in a coy and understated way. I believe the way she behaved is the way the princess of France would behave, so I will take it into my character. But the Princess is also assertive like the other girl in the video, so I will also incorporate that into my portrayal of the princess.

CHARACTER WORK: WHO IS THE PRINCESS

The Princess of Aquataine

 Character profile: 

(1940's Black Hairstyles)

Hopefully for the performance day I could Have my hair like this, so I can look the part specifically.

Who is she?

- The Princess is of university and marrying age

- She has 3 best friends who are her ladies in waiting

- She seems very quick witted but also very strong`to control situations when she believes the joke has gone too far.

- She is the daughter of an ailing king who is dying.

- She has been sent to him to secure a wedding match (as suggested by Boyet saying "remember why we came here" to The Princess before Navarre entered)

STATUS

- She is the most important of the women in the play, with the highest status, she is  high born woman with probably a reputation 

Relationships

Boyet and The Princess

These two get on like a house on fire, they are both smart and Boyet honours his role to the Princess by getting her all the information she craves about the King and his dalliances.

- Boyet is quick witted and also sometimes sexually cheeky with the women in waiting but the boundaries are always clear.

Me and Grace, have begun to bond more over this time doing the performance to truly show a real relationship between our two characters, there's a lot of reliance on Boyet as a go between the female and male characters due to the society the play is set in.

The Princess and her girls

The relationship between The princess and the women in waiting is strong but not too strong, they know each other but there's an element of formality between them and the princess that prevents them from becoming fully involved in the princess's feelings. The only thing that contrasts this is when The princess takes her lead from Rosaline on the plot against the men when they are coming back, otherwise The Princess controls most of the situation and exchange between the women. They are bawdy and reflect the men's slight obsession with them.

HISTORICAL CONTEXT W5: SHAKESPEARE TODAY

Analyse contemporary Shakespeare productions with reference to live performances you may have seen or clips or footage available online. You should comment on what you notice about them and how they differ from what you know about the original performance conditions of Shakespeare’s work? (Don’t be afraid to point out the obvious).
Consider how these productions are employing all the techniques, technology and resources of modern theatrE


One modern Shakespeare production I have seen was done by Frantic Assembly at the lyrics Hammersmith. This version of Othello was transposed into an early 2000's bar where there was gang violence and racial tension instead of war in the original Shakespeare text. Another difference in this production in comparison to what I know from studying the actual play text is the costumes worn by the company were extremely modern and current such as track suites and trainers being worn on stage instead of the extravagant hand me downs of the gentry that would be worn by the actors in the 16th Century. Another difference is women actually played women, instead of women roles being played by adolescent males or old comedians. Frantic being a physical theatre company put a heavy emphasise on physical sequences and physicality in their performances and in a sense like Shakespearian theatre with its difficult and challenging intense dance sequences , Frantics Othello had extraneous and complex physical sections that were awe evoking. Here is a clip


The clip also exhibits many other differences this piece had from 16th century theatre. The set for example was important in the overall story it became a living moving part if some sections of importance like when Casio gets drunk or Othello begins to spiral into negativity. The walls undulate and open up into a parking lot setting. They really took advantage of all the modern technology they had to their disposal. Also in this performance you couldn't see the entrances and exits of actors so the illusion stayed quite strong.
This was staged at The Lyric Hammersmith which is an indoor theatre again differing from the globe. Though indoor theatres had the use of artificial lights this production used many different lights and gels and other more modern lighting advances to create different moods for the audience to experience.
Another difference was that this performance had no problem competing with the audience on the case of volume, as they were completely silent and barely any were drinking.

CHARACTER: Week 5

Today we completed another section of "Loves Labours Lost" and received feedback from the rest of the class during our sections. Below is some of the feedback we received:

FEEDBACK

1. Bigger physical movement and characters to draw out the intensity of the scene
2. Respond to each other more
3. Know and understand your lines as it will allow you to convey the meaning of the lines to a modern audience who aren't well versed with old English
4. Hit the verbs to convey meaning
5. Make sure there is a reason for your movement
6. A personal note-  work on the relationship between me and Daisy so we have similar intentions when in the scene as we are playing the same character

RESPONSE TO FEEDBACK

1. To get bigger physical movement I believe that I need to use the beginning tasks that Sarah runs throughout the rehearsal so I stay in character. For example a very helpful task today was to imagine my character (The Princess) as an animal. We gradually transformed ourselves into the animal adopting characteristics, till we were complexity 100% the embodiment of our character as an animal. I chose a gazelle  

• Gazelle's like the Princess are very alert and sharp but they are also beautiful; striking even 
• They are also still very elegant creatures even though they move so quickly
• their main defence is their alertness, much like the princess who's sharp and witty retorts derive from her high intellect that allows her to always be aware of the situation at hand. 

2.  The way we could possibly respond to each other more is through eye contact, I think that is something we are lacking a lot of right now as many of us are looking down at our scripts for the next line or to follow the scene and aren't living the circumstances or the moments. To improve we all as a cast need to have learnt our lines so we can keep the pace up and work on our on stage dynamic.

3. Knowing and understanding lines http://www.sparknotes.com/shakespeare/labours/section1/page/2/
I have gone through my entire play after reading the scene by scene synopsis and connecting the descriptions of the scenes to our abridged version, I now believe I understand the gist of all my speeches in the performance, I will later have to go through the play adding circumstances and actions to my speech to act on the lack of physical character mentioned in no1.'s feedback.

4. I have gone through my play and highlighted all the active verbs, having said the lines with emphasise on the verbs I now notice that the meaning I'm trying to convey is now more easily understood.

WEEK4: THEATRES, ACTORS AND ACTING IN SHAKESPEARE’S TIME

What were the theatres or ‘playhouses’ of Shakespeare’s time like and how were plays staged in them? 

Playhouses
What were the theatres or ‘playhouses’ of Shakespeare’s time like and how were plays staged in them? 
The first playhouse opened was called the Red Lion, opened in 1567 by John Brayne in Stepney, just outside of London's borders. The next theatre built by Brayne and James Burbage was called the "Theatre". It had a simple structure much like what the globe would be like, with an open space in the centre of a walled of space, with seats in shaded tiers around the central performance space. The cheapest tickets were standing in the space surrounded by the walls,

 By 1595 Shakespeare had joined an acting troupe called the Lord Chamberlains, and was performing at the theatre. But the two founders of the space lost their lease and so began a two year building process of what would become the Globe. The Globe was also partially owned and funded by 5 other actor associations/ actors and Shakespeare was one of them.

Even though there were large unprotected parts for the audience to stand and watch the performances they would still carry on regardless of the weather. Indoor theatres did exist, but they were much smaller than your usual sized  Playhouse and were perfect for the colder months when the English weather could get the best of an Open air theatre.
The audiences would be quite loud and rowdy in comparison to modern day audiences, so actors had to make sure they grabbed the attention of the audience who would frequently be drinking and talking to one another.

The stages in Shakespearian theatre were frequently bare and did not have much more on the stage than the odd required prop and the scenery was minimalist and only there if necessary. The stage entrances and Exits were visible to the audience and there were too other more over the top ways of entering such as using the 'hell' entrance (the trap door) and the 'heavens' (from above the stage).

 Who were the actors of Shakespeare’s plays and how did the experience of being an actor differ from the experience today?

at this time women were not allowed to perform in the theatre, so boys, mainly pre pubescent boys would dress as women, wearing heels and full make up to portray female characters. Also acting in this time was mostly melodramatic. In the case of older more comedic female roles such s Juliet's nurse, they may be specifically reserved for older well versed Comedians, Actors or eve Clowns. 
The actors of Shakespeare's time were not only astounding at keeping an audience's attention but they were extremely skilled in stage combat, with many having to dual on stage live, with skill and precision. Other talents the actors would require, were like a singing voice, as on stage choral singing was often a requirement in a show as well as play songs and dance with fervour without getting fatigued.

The main actors frequently wore extravagant clothes once owned by real life noble men and women as costumes were an important part of creating the spectacle of the theatre.