30.1.

   Today we finally started to work on the act 4 scene 2, where Malvolio is captures and Feste gets to play around with him. I have been reading the scene on my own and we have experimented with the cage a bit before, but today Andy and Siou gave me their time to work on the acting and blocking of scene. The blocking is quite simple, Malvolio(Michael) is stated in the cage, where as I get to go around him and use the stage. Andy gave me a very good note to really play with it, and even play a game where I do not want to be seen by Michael. I want to experiment this more next week, now that I am getting more comfortable with the lines, and hopefully I will be able to be memorized to fully use my body to my advantage.
   Also, finding the character of Sir Topas was in discussion. When I first went over the lines in character, I made him very large, masculine and threatening, but as Andy pointed out, it isn't clear enough transition from Feste. So, I did then show a different version I have been working on, more of an old character that is even a little patronizing towards Malvolio. Why I was afraid of this version at first was because it uses a a nasally voice  with a slight lisp, so it make the lines very unclear and using diction even more important. This was also pointed out to me, especially since our space will be bigger there the annunciation might get muffled easily. To work through this, I should work on doing the lines more in this character, to find all the difficult words and phrases that would be easily lost and do tongue twister such as "She stood upon the balistrated balcony""Sheila found a seashell on the seashore" to work on my clarity. Both of these tongue twisters have different S's that sound usually the same with a lisp. It will help me to focus on the speech and clarity of it, while still maintaining the hilarity of Sir Topas.

   Next time, I'd like to really start working with Michael to find some humour between the two characters and explore with the physical possibilities of Malvolio. I feel that working together on Michaels characters is also important to me, since it will help me to perhaps have Feste make  fun of him, but also create some humour together for the audience to laugh at. Even though it is a lot about how Feste is on the stage,it is also important to find a balance between these two characters and their actions.

28.1.15

If music be the food of love, play on,

Give me excess of it that, surfeiting, 

The appetite may sicken and so die.

That strain again, it had a dying fall.

O, it came o’er my ear like the sweet sound 

That breathes upon a bank of violets,

Stealing and giving odour. Enough, no more,

’Tis not so sweet now as it was before.

O spirit of love, how quick and fresh art thou

That, notwithstanding thy capacity

Receiveth as the sea, naught enters there,

Of what validity and pitch so e’er,

But falls into abatement and low price

Even in a minute! So full of shapes is fancy

That it alone is high fantastical.

We ran the whole beginning of the play today, with the movement in the beginning, song with all the Feste's, Orsino's speech and Orsino's talk about Olivia. We hadn't done the movement piece for awhile, so it was a little bit off, and got told about that, People are still getting their steps wrong and I think some are unsure where and when are they supposed to do things. I would like to put up a video of this here,but our tutor hasn't put it up on YouTube yet. With this movement piece, I think it is important to stay in character, the high status royalty that we are supposed to represent, but also incorporate the movement of the sea to create the storm. I've learned that during this movement piece that even if I mess up, it is more important to stay focused and not show the mess up to the audience and just pick up with others.
   The song is getting better and better every time we do it. I feel we still need to be connecting with the others and eventually the audience more during the song, but otherwise we are singing it well acapella and in unison. The speech is going better as well. Where before my group had trouble with the lines, having me basically leading everyone, now people were actually speaking up and being more confident with the lines.
   We've also continues this scene with Greta rising from the ground as Orsino. The others will ask him in unison "Will you go hunt, my lord" playing as Curio. Orsino then continues to talk about his love towards Olivia, which we have to react to appropriately. We are shocked when Orsino compares himself to a hart and right after relief'd. There is also many sexual innuendos within Orsinos speech such as "When the rich golden shaft" which we have to laugh at gently, remembering that these people are graceful and completely relaxed.

I have received a lot of direction, what have I learned from it?
   A lot of the direction we received today was about the movement piece, which we have been working on for a while now. I think we all really need to start listening to our director's better, since the movement should be going a lot better already, where as people are still stumbling, because they are not either present or listening. Also, using my own imagination to create the scene in my head helps a lot with creating the mood for the whole scene and I want to explore the scene more with active imagination exercises, such as trying to do a relaxing exercise right before going trough this scene. I'm also going to be working on my imagination with the other scenes as well.

27.1.15

   We were missing quite a lot of people today in class, so we decided to start working on the cage in 4.2., where Feste fools Malvolio to think he is indeed crazy. Siou had told us that she wanted Michael to be very physical, and so the cage should enable movement and freedom to express. We decided that perhaps using the canes would work, since with them it is possible to make any shape we desire with some help from other people. This way the audience could also see Michael's body easily and he will have more room to explore.
   Max suggested at the start point a very extreme kind of cage. So we tried out having Malvolio in the middle and canes keeping him on his place by having them around him all the way, even having canes on this throat and capturing his legs. This looked absolutely fantastic, but it wouldn't give Michael any space to move. After this explored A LOT of different ways to have the cage. We tried having the canes in a circle around Malvolio, but this was way too simple and not clear enough as a cage, This was a problem in most of the suggestions, for example having the canes form a sort of a roof on top of Malvolio. It needs to be clear in this scene that Malvolio is captured and cannot see for the whole scene to be funny. Greta's idea about simply having the canes in a horizontal line was the best idea today, since it was simple but effective. We explored in the ways we could play around with this idea, spacing the canes differently, having them in different distances from Malvolio, but also with the possibility that Feste could perhaps open it and move it during the scene to play around with Malvolio. The only problem with this was that it does require quite a lot of people holding the canes and so takes focus away from Malvolio in the actual cage. We agreed to work on this more once we have Michael present and we can explore more with his movements and the interaction with the cage.

What I need to work on?
   I am still worried about the cage. Doing it with the canes means that there has to be about 4 extra people on the stage holding canes, taking focus on Malvolio and restricting the space. I would like to have Michael here to do the scene with me with some of the different variations of the cage, to see how he moves and how much space does he really need. I also want to be able to do the scene with Michael and the cage to block my movements as Feste and Sir Topas.

23.1.15

   I think today was very useful for me, considering my character as Feste. After the warm up, me cracked on with out scenes. Unfortunately Jade wasn't here, so me and Greta didn't get to do too much work with the scene itself. We've wanted to get a bit more playful with the scene and more physical for a while now, but it is hard to do when one of our main actors in the scene isn't here. Instead, we tried to explore the relationship between Orsino and Feste a little.
   I think Orsino very much thinks of Feste just as a normal jester, someone who entertains and makes a couple of jokes after, which honestly, he does. But Feste also sees through Orsino, and sees how he has feelings towards Cesario(Viola). In 2.4., Feste doens't have so many lines in this scene, but he gets to make a very important point in it; he sees how Orsino's privilege gives him the possibility to pick and choose how he likes, but Feste criticizes this privilege by calling him out on his floozy decision making and changing his mind so quickly. I still feel that I could have been more playful with Greta, but the game we played later on in the class helped a lot with this. I think our target with this scene, is to get to run it off-book, but also to have Jade with us, so we can get the playfulness and the physical connection between Orsino and Viola on point.
   So, later in class, rather than continuing with our scenes, we continued to explore our characters with the other people playing the same character. The task was to pick one line that is said by the character and create a gesture or way of saying it that embodies the character. There is three Festes in our play; me, Zac and Helen. I think all of us have quite different Festes in mind, but all have a whimsical nature to him. We decided to play around with the line "No pains, sir, I take pleasure in singing, sir. ". We thought this line was the perfect one to describe Feste, since it tells about his profession, jesting, but also how many different meanings one line might have. In context, Feste has just played a song for Viola and Orsino, who have shared a moment with each other. With this line, Feste is basically refusing to accept money from Orsino, because he has already been paid in knowledge, but also just doing what he loves. I thought that there should probably be some sort of simple and subtle gesture to show the audience, that Feste indeed is teasing with this line, So I thought a small wink would do it, but to connect it with a bow truly shows how playful Feste is. It first shows to be just a bow of respect and thankfulness, but truly it is just part of the joke. Zac also added miming a hat, since in those times it would have been polite to take of your hat when bowing, but this could also show Feste's tricks, by rolling the hat as you put it back on. We had to perform these to everyone in the class and just keep improvising different ways of saying the line, but still remaining the same character. I got a point from Andy, that I was very open in my body language and in character, and I feel this is something I have been trying to work on for a while now. I want Feste to be very much an open person. But this exercise also helped me to discover the playfulness of Feste, since you didn't have time to think your actions but just go with it. I noticed to that I played with the by making it more sarcastic or sincere, pretending to play with my instrument or actually taking the money off of Orsino. I think I should play around like this with the different lines more, to help me with my character.
   As a group, our next target should be to really play with these lines and the different ways physicalize them, to create the different relationships between the characters. We can definitely use this game within our group, since it can help explore a meaning we haven't thought of before.

19.1.15 - ACTING ON CAMERA

Today in class with Andy we started to shoot our soap opera scenes. We only managed to shoot two scenes, but it didn't mean that everyone else was just sitting around. We got the chance to operate the camera, mark places and operate the microphone. I got to do some camera work and marking places.

As an actor, it is important to learn the basics of film and TV work, even behind the scenes, since it is something we probably will end up doing at some point in our career. Here are some of the things we learned today:

• You shoot with 180 degrees(a semi circle), so that the characters in the scene remain in the same places and won't confuse the audience. This way you can't see the crew filming neither
• the sound technician, or mic operator, much keep looking at the scene themselves, to see, where they are in shot or when they need to move to keep away from being on camera
• Hold the mic in a 45 degree angle from the actors to get the voice best(also just how to hold the mic the best)
• TV acting is a lot slower than stage acting, it is important to take it easy, because they can speed the scene up in editing, but not slow it down. So, an actor must take their time to first listen, react and then say their line. 
• The editing will edit to get the best story, not necessarily caring about minor details, like which way the pen is on the table. 

   My first job was to mark places. This was quite simple. After watching the scene first we then went trough all the marks in the scene, meaning the places people would move into. Then, as the actor stands in their mark, I would go and make a T-shaped mark in between their feet. This helps with the lighting, but also the balance of the shot. The actor must hit the mark, so that the light hits their face from the right angle. Andy also told us, that it wasn't so important if one of your feet wasn't exactly on place, you just need to have the balance of your body at the mark. This job also included me watching the actors(Jenny and Sophie) and looking out if they hit their marks or not. This was a easy job for me, since both of the girls were very good with their marks, and didn't miss them once.

   I also tried out being behind the camera, which was harder, but I did enjoy it too. I filmed a scene with Sav, Yunusa, Jade and Harry, so I feel it was a little bit more complicated than filming the previous scene, simply because the amount of people on camera. We took three different shots; Establishing shot, Medium shot with Yunusa and Sav and Medium shot with Jade and Harry.  What I found difficulty with, was that I didn't first really know where to center the shot and Andy taught me that when filming one person on medium shot, leaving 2/3 of the shot clear looks good. Even with two people this looks better, but then you can also center them. It was interesting to find out that you really do need to control the camera constantly, moving the camera to keep people in focus and everyone in shot, but also to make the scene look good. When moving the camera, the movement should be slow and steady, so that it leaves more room for editing.

16.1.15

   We had our presentations on different subjects all surrounding Shakespeare today, and we were asked to take notes on others presentations. Then, for blog we were asked to identify some pieces of info that can influence our scenes and research further. Here is the information I gathered during the presentations and what I have further research on the topics:

• Harry's presentation was about the actors of Shakespeare's time and I felt this information could be very useful for me with Feste's character. He's the fool and during that time, a lot of the jesters also worked or had worked as actors or playwrights. This explains how well Feste is able to take on the role of Sir Tobias, when fooling Malvolio. Most likely, Feste would have received the same kind of training as an actor would have, which meant he would have followed a fellow actor to learn their talents. Actors were often multi-talented, since they had to do their own stunts, including sword fights and convincing falls. But actors job wasn't exactly honorable, they were often thought to be on the same level with robbers and treated with suspicion. This really helps me with some of the reactions from the characters in the play towards Feste. Even though most act very familiar around him, since they have probably known him for a long time, some, like Malvolio, are more distant and suspicious of him. 
• From Sav's presentation I found more about puritans and their relationship with the theatre, especially how they wanted to shut them all down. Even though Feste isn't straight on actor, nor does he necessarily work at theaters, he still sees his profession as an art. I can use this information to work on the relationship between Malvolio and Feste and how Feste views Malvolio. 

Style of Feste

   After today's lesson, I started to think, what should be the style of Feste in our adaptation? We do not really have a set era of time, but as Andy said "era of not this time". I think we might be going for  sort of 'timeless' look, and so, should Feste be as well. I think Feste's character is very much timeless and ageless in a way. He is obviously older than some characters, he has been around, but he also has a youthfulness in him, that requires the actor to find the balance between these two.
   For the style of Feste, if we would go with the get up of the time, it would probably end up being very colourful and over-the-top. Fools' outfit was usually as funny as they were entertaining, representing their profession. Checker patterns paired with donkey-like hat emphasizes the jester side of Fetse, but I feel that out adaptation should be more timeless, and so less obvious and ridiculous. This doesn't mean the costume should be boring or plain, but I'd like to see something that could work in modern era, but also somewhere earlier in time.
   We have also seen two adaptations of this play where Feste had more of a traveler look, that consisted of coats, boots and relaxed worn out clothes. I'd see Feste as something in between, mitch-matching fabrics, as if all of the clothes he had picked out on his travels, and just wearing what he happens to acquire. I bit messy and worn out is something I see my Feste definitely wearing, and maybe a hat.