Storytelling
Week – starting – 13th – 16th
Monday –
Semiotics
(See “Semiotics - Symbols, Icons, Index &
Advertising (Gucci)” on the blog)
Tuesday –
Body & Breath
Freedom train (Singing to warm up our
vocal chords and using the proper breathing technique to produce the right
amount of projection)
Why is it a good thing to warm up your
vocals before singing?
1. Sing with more freedom and consistency
2. Have fewer voice problems overall
3. Have a wider vocal range
4. Have more options for being expressive
5. Communicate their songs better overall
What’s a good warm up?
1. Increasing your blood flow through exercise
2. Making sounds – humming and lip thrills which creates
vibrations in your face and body (chest & throat)
3. Slow, descending scales which helps to show your vocal
range
4. Being able to use the right breathing technique through
your diaphragm as well as the transition to your head voice
As a tradition I always do a vocal
warm up before I go on stage and if I have time before I go on I always try and
sing this song “Somewhere Only We Know” by Keane, it’s a good feel good song
and it’s a very easy transition from you head voice to you actual voice or
sometimes I sing “Son Of Man” by Phil Collins or “Crash” or “Always Attract” by
You Me At Six. All of these I did and sung before I did before the second show
of The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time”, which I believe helped
my voice tremendously, projecting and announcing the words.
Wednesday – Workshop - Beowulf
Putting
what we learnt from Tuesday’s Breath lesson into practice, we used rhythm and
our voices to create an entrance idea for our show. Charlotte and I were
singing higher notes in-between the notes the others were humming, I feel like
it sounded good but I think we needed more practice and ideas to create a
better song to show an emotion. Whilst we were all singing we were walking from
all different angles, carrying pretend flames which when we met in the middle
came together to create a larger flame fire.
During
the afternoon we split into groups and told part of the story though song and
creating tempo-using parts of the body, hands, voice and feet. We found this
from the movie:
Song by Idina Menzel
Out of the mist of history he'll come
again
Sailing on ships across the sea to a
wounded nation
Signs of a savior and fire on the
water
It's what we prayed for, one of our
own
Just wait though wide he may roam
Always a hero comes home
He goes where no one has gone
But always a hero comes home
Deep in the heart of darkness sparks a
dream of light
Surrounded by hopelessness he finds
the will to fight
There's no surrender, always remember
It doesn't end here, we're not alone
Just wait though wide he may roam
Always a hero comes home
He goes where no one has gone
But always a hero comes home
And he will come back on a crimson
tide
Dead or alive
And even though we know the bridge has
burned
He will return... He will return!
Just wait though wide he may roam
Always a hero comes home
He knows of places unknown
But always a hero comes home
Someday he may carve his stone
The hero comes home
He goes and comes back alone
But always a hero comes home
Just wait though wide he may roam
Always a hero come home!
During
the workshop and through out the day I had a thought of how we could portray
the story of Beowulf amongst other personal or folk story’s. It’s rather hard
to explain but if you watch this link/video I think you will understand
what/how we could do this. This video shows Anastasia trying to remember her
past or what she thinks has happened in her life, the song and lyrics portrays
sadness, confusion and nostalgia trying to remember and imagine what is/was
life before, thinking that your someone else and all she has to remind her of
what she was before is a jewellery box.
The
idea was that you could have Beowulf or a person who has been knocked out and
wakes up and tells the audience a story on what they think has happened. When
the person is telling the story actors come running on to act it out and some
of them could step out of character saying “that’s not how it happened, it
happened like this”, “you weren’t that brave, remember when…”, “you didn’t do
that”, they could be commenting and playing on what the person is telling them,
but playing it in a comedic way. The actors are almost telling the person what
happened and telling them who and what they are, remembering the past.
Thursday – Tents (Look at Photos: Workshop, Paper, Tents - Shadow on the blog for photos)
Beowulf
- Grendel crashes celebration
- Beowulf creates army
- Wrestles ogre (rips arm off)
- Beowulf offers to get monster mum in lake
- Kills monster with magical sword in the cave (underwater home)
- Cuts off Grendel’s head and sets off home
- Dragon
- Wig-laugh cuts dragon and Beowulf says build a tower
- Beowulf dies with dragon’s gold
5 Main Points Of Beowulf:
- Beowulf creates army
- Celebration of him and his army
- Beowulf kills monster (Grendel) - gets treasure
- Dive under cave kills confronts Grendel’s mum (kills mum) Grendel
does
What worked well? Shadows? Tents?
- Faces (light from side)
- Distant light and figure
- Sensory theatre
- Shadow puppets
- Lying down
- Sound effects (thunder, monsoon rain)
- Strobe lights
- Glowing lights
- Pressed faces
- Scratching
- Dripping blood
ReplyDeleteExcellent documentation and thoughts. well done Anna and thanks this is really useful.
Pleasure, as soon as I get an idea I always write it down as well as writing notes throughout the day and by the end of the day i write about:
ReplyDelete- How can i use these ideas and show them to the class?
- How can we/where do we explore new ideas?
As well as others. It helps me keep an open, engaging mind to every session and to every day.