Josh Dann looking for volunteers for event

Hi V,

Just messaging to see if any of the first years are interested in being part of this experience I’m doing on the 6th of june. Its for a massively covered event in Brighton and they have asked me to get actors to
1) usher guests in
2)interact with guests prior to the main event
3)usher guests to stage
4)Perform outside of venue as ring leaders and mad hatters
5)perform at the after show party

The theme is twisted circus, how ever I’ve got them excited to do it in a mad hatter style.

Im looking for as many actors that i can get that are comfortable with interacting with audiences and are also fairly good at improvisation.

The event is next top model and the final in Brighton hilton hotel. The lady running it has also asked to see if Northbrook have any costumes that would fit this for them to wear and to get the make up department in, she is going to credit Northbrook for everything they do, as well as give full references and sign off as work exp.

Is there anything we can do?

Thank you

Josh

The Little Prince

Thank you to those that made it to Brighton to support second years and The Little Prince. They have had a great review in the Argus.

http://www.theargus.co.uk/leisure/brightonfestival/brighton_festival_fringe_2014/news_previews/11233623.Brighton_Fringe__The_Little_Prince__The_Warren__Brighton__until_May_24/?ref=arc

information on this week and next!

Thanks to all of you who worked so positively and offered feedback so generously and thoughtfully to each other today.

Tomorrow ( wednesday) you will all need to be in, rehearsing with Rapture (as you requested). This will be at the Durrington Campus.

Thursday, again at Durrington, you have a movement workshop with Dan Ford.

Friday is your study day, although there should be space if you want to come in and find studios to work on your physical/vocal pieces for next week's assessments, or to rehearse with Rapture if called.


From Monday, you should be at the Durrington Campus everyday. We are hoping to get Ryan to act as outside eye for your assessment pieces on Monday, and then on Tuesday, we will do the assessments: voice in the morning, and physical in the afternoon.
I will post the times later, but expect to be warming up from 0930 on Tuesday morning.

Remember that you will need to be appropriately attired in rehearsals blacks, introduce your piece by Play, author and character, and consider your relationship with audience.

You can refer to the guidance I posted on this blog a few weeks ago, and to the assessment criteria on the project brief. Any questions? come and see me or e mail me!

Wednesday will be rapture rehearsals, and performances on the Thursday and Friday.

The following week we will do wrap up tutorials with you all, and of course you can come and support Jake in his performances which are on the Tuesday and Wednesday. We will post Tutorial times and dates nearer the time.

thanks,

Lisa & Vanessa

Hey

Hey guys,

What did I miss today?

Hopefully I'll be in tomorrow not feeling like I was going to throw up/faint like I did today :D

Xx

Next week, and tomorrow!

Hi all,

Next Week ( Tuesday)
Just a reminder that you will need to have learnt more of your monologues, more of the sonnet ( ideally all of the lines for both!!), and watched the King Lear extract from digital theatre before Tuesday morning's session.
Remember that I'm being observed - not you! so you don't need to stress - the observer will be looking at how my teaching practice helps you, not at how you are doing on your monologues.
Please take time to look at your voice exercises on the blue sheets that I gave you the session before last, and bring them with you to Tuesday's session.

We might have a section where we get some of you to speak some of your monologue to the group  and then we give feedback - a bit like what we do with the physical pieces in the afternoon, so have a think about what you are prepared to show from your monologues or if you would like to have a go at the sonnet.

Tomorrow (Friday)
 If you fancy having your make up done for a night out , or just want to experience a make over, for the sum of only £5, you can book a session with our FdA Make Up & Hair students tomorrow afternoon, they are fundraising for their final exhibition. E mail their course leader Amanda, on a.burns@nbcol.ac.uk. Or just turn up to the studio and see if they have a free slot!

Wednesday

As we discussed on Monday, tomorrow Wednesday you will be working with second year group Rapture. Please meet them outside the office to arrange rooms. You also have free tickets to the Warren for the musical please make use of them; it's a good opportunity.

On Thursday you have an acting workshop to help with your audition pieces and then you are free to go to Brighton, look at venues and come and see the Little Prince in the evening. See you there.

DNA Show

Hello,

The level three FMP is on this week !!! Please come and see their final show !

They’ve been working with Sean on the play DNA.

The show is on

Wed 7.30pm

Thurs 2.30pm & 7.30 pm

Its 1.5hr in total and it’s going to be awesome!

Please come and see them off with a bang, clap, hurray!

Sarah

Mime Artistry

For my solo movement piece I have been looking into different forms of actor movement training. I am very interested in mime and have been focusing my reading on practioners such as Jacques Lecoq and Rudolf Laban.
 Having researched into different ideas and styles of mime I have found I am particularly interested in character mime and occupational mime and wanted to incorporate this into my movement peice. Using pandora's box as a stimulus I have explored both physically and theoretically how a movement can denote an emotion and vise-versa. I am keen to explore differnt emotions within my peice and want to use mimicry as a way of expressing this.
The following videos are short sketches by Marcel Marceou a reknown mime artist and shows clearly how mime can be used to portray emotion and how his physicality can narrate a story to his audience.

It is fasinating how much precision goes into seemingly simple movements like picking up a cup or dancing, as shown in the clip. I was keen to explore how this was acheived and have pursued this in practical sessions with some simple mime excercises. From my reading I know it is important that you recreate the illusion of something using only your body. I was interested in the mechanical side of the discipline and began to take notice of how I hold a cup and the position of the hand, which muscles I am engaging and where the point of effort is for each singular movement, no matter how small or seemingly unimportant. Stanislavksi said that "You should always act truthfully" (Allen, 1999) and developed a method for actors to reach an inner truth, emotion memory etc. I see this search for truthfullness in mime artistry as well, the precision of movement and knowledge of the mechanisms of the  body all create the illusion that actual weight/object is being handled. It is a very 'truthful' way of acting, albeit a diferent kind of truth to what stanislavski was striving towards.
In practical workshops so far I have explored excersises designed for students as an introduction to mime and found some of them very useful as a gateaway into the art of mime. As they are fairly simple movements which can be repeated or developed further, it is easy to play around with different attitudes and emotions and change movement slightly to enhance the excersise and generate more moves and ideas to explore.
The following video's are from last week and show two excercises that I particularly liked and found usefull as an introduction into mime. Georgia and I researched a few group movement excersises as well which would be good to try as a group one day this week maybe? In the video's we are setting up a tea party and working on basic movements such as picking up objects and discarding items.

Pecknold, Adrian 'Mime: The step beyond words, Dundurn, 1998

Allen, David 'Stanislavski for begginers' Writers and Readers, 1999

Fringe Festival

I made a list of a few free shows at fringe that I want to check out if any one would be interested in coming?
I am up for seeing as much free stuff as possible, comedy, music, theatre, whatever really?

'Am I right ladies?' - comedy - 24th-25th May

'Pint sized plays' - theatre - 21st may

Electric caberet, moulin rouge - 30th may

'A work in progress - comedy - 21-22nd may

'Host' - 23-24 or 30-31 may

The night witches - theatre - 19th-25th may

any one in for seeing any of these as well?

REMINDER.....

Hi all,

Just in case any of you had forgotten, you need to have watched Kafka's Monkey by tomorrow's session - we will be discussing it as part of our session.
( you can access digital theatre via Blackboard, or just type in digital theatre.com to google.)
Hope your line learning ( of the sonnet and your monologues ) is progressing well.
In the afternoon, you need to plan to share part of your physical pieces, so do consider what that will be and what feedback you will be asking for.

Looking forward to working with you again

L

Ideas for next years shows. Thoughts - Feedback

I've been thinking a lot about when Vanessa asked me what would I like to do next year, in terms of shows. I didn't really have a proper answer, but as time has gone on I've been thinking about doing something completely different. I have been trying to find scripts, books and films that might give us some ideas for a show but this is what I've come up with:

1 - A fun, sexy, comedy play based around the 1920's (I was verrrryyyy inspired by The Great Gatsby last week) which could combine acting, music and dance to show off all our unique talents (we could even add in juggling/magic tricks into the mix). Even thou I see it as a comedy play you could turn it on it's head - so it could be about someone who is madly in debt because he/she is an alcoholic and gambles away everything they own and their 'lover' tries to help them get their life back on track. It could also be a combination of The Great Gatsby, Guys & Dolls (by Jo Swerling and Abe Burrows) with Bugsy Malone - cheeky chappy, elegant but fun girls mixed with booze and money. (Stanislavski acting)

2 - A war story that is created and combined by several stories that come together - they all interlink (there is a play that does this - can't remember what it's called - Heroes TV show does thou). I came up with this idea from watching "Private Ryan" and reading "Private Peaceful" by Michael Morpurgo as their stories are incredibly gripping, hard hitting but heart warming at the same time. From watching 'Brave on Reflection" I thought the reading of the letter as an audio worked really well and I think it would be very powerful, emotional and effective to do the same thing - how the brother writes to the girl back home while sitting in the trenches (split stage maybe). (Stanislavski & Artuad acting styles combined).

(Beautiful book about war, memory, power and love - also be great to act this out)
http://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/sea-and-land-and-sky-9781408140550/

The reason why I have come up with these ideas is that I personally have never done a 'older', historical show before - yes I've done a few but nothing like these. I totally and utterly adore comedic plays but I thought, why not push myself and to try something different - out of the blue. I wanted to put this up to see what you think. I'm sure there will be loads more ideas for shows as time goes on from all of us.

Thanks

P.S - I hope this blog post made sense…? It's alright saying it but writing it is harder.

Upcoming Dates for Shows

I'll keep this updated, but these are the various shows that have been suggested. Please link me to other shows in the comments and I'll update it too.


The Little Prince:  @The Warren (Main house), Brighton
22nd May
23rd May

Agatha Christies Black Coffee, @ Theatre Royal Brighton
27-31st May

Much Ado About Nothing: @The Connaught Theatre, Worthing
Friday 30th May
Saturday May 31st

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nightime:  @The Connaught Theatre, Worthing
Thursday May 22: 7pm
Saturday June 28: 7.30pm

forgot...

well done on some excellent movement work yesterday. It gave me the idea that we should make a very lovely treasure box full of our best moments to use in next shows. starting with some of the movement motifs and your fictional characters from our first workshop.

Plays

I saw someone reading a newspaper on the bus and saw a sneak peak of this being advertised on the back of it and considering we all did this as our first piece together I thought it might be a good idea to see it. It's on 22nd this month. 

http://www.cineworld.co.uk/mobile/whatson/nt-live-encore-the-curious-incident-of-the-dog-in-the-night-time

I saw this the other day being advertised going passed Worthing station (as there's a poster of it there). I've always really wanted to go and see one especially because it's a Agatha Christie Murdef Mystry - plus again concidering that we have just finished a Murder Mystry show I thought it would be great go go and see this. The tickets are around £16 I believe but in sure as can get. Student discount or something. Plus as it's in brighton we can all go out for a bite to eat, drinks and then watch the show then drinks after as well haha :)
Just a thought. 

http://www.atgtickets.com/shows/agatha-christies-black-coffee/theatre-royal-brighton/

It's also the second years show next Thursday & Friday - I'm thinking about going Thursday Night. 


Let me know what you all think :)

TIm Crouch Show

Shall we all go to the Royal Court to see Tim's new play to finish the year?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=392eE8ByzAY&feature=youtu.be

Prom

Movement solos

some videos for inspiration

Push Theatre co

Pina Bausch

Buster Keaton

Movement workshop

• Exercises

• keeping eye contact
• one partner keeps eye contact, other partner follows another
• conversations with isolated parts of the body
• partner work with constant physical contact
• group conversation with isolations
• study of emotions (express not represent) rage/heartbreat/melancholy/elation/happiness/understanding/boredom
• Notate your movement
• Use only 3 of the actions below to make a solo movement piece
• DOCUMENT/VIDEO both pieces for reference and peer critique

• Actions

• flick
• pivot
• swipe
• shut
• swing
• close
• push
• tilt
• rotate
• skim
• float
• swerve
• stop
• repeat
• bend
• jump
• fall

flyering job

Hello £40 for 4 hours in brighton job sent by  colleague

Pick flyers from the Warren in Brighton in the next day or so, and get them to as many bars, cafes and venues as possible in 4hrs. The contact is Susan Winter: s.winter@greenwichtheatre.org.uk

Wednesday & Thursday

Hello all, tomorrowWednesday please remember we are at ivybrook. Please be in blacks for a movement session in the morning.  We then have use of all ivybrook spaces to use for your pieces.

On Thursday, you have a dance workshop with Emma in Studio 2, to help with your movement pieces. In the afternoon, you are working on your own or in pairs on your pieces. If you prefer to work from home in the afternoon on your audition pieces, make sure that you let me know.
Variety of spaces available.

Theatre bar work

Hello, thought this might interest you especially if you live close by and can walk here for the odd shift? See Mary at box office if you are.

Hello!

Do you remember that we chatted about maybe Fdeg students who lived nearby being given the chance to join the Theatre Bar team?

It would be great if there was someone who wanted the chance for casual work (i.e. basically when the theatre is open!) to help with bar shifts.

We have a mixture of students, so they wouldn’t be asked if they were in one of their own shows, but as we run bars for college level shows, HE shows across all disciplines etc, there would be some shifts available for someone who lived nearby?

Do you think you might have someone who fits the above description?

Much obliged (and fingers crossed!),

Mary 

Shivvy's Unit 6 Monologue

Monologue

I have picked a monologue from the book

‘Audition Monologues: Power Pieces for Men’ by Deborah Maddox, 2006

I picked this specific script called ‘Erase Hate’ it completely stood out to me personally. I felt I could relate to it.

The script is about a man who has had enough and decides to confront a co-worker. 

I see it differently,

I see it as an act of racism the reason why I chose this monologue because I have been in this situation many times.

I will be performing it naturally in the style of Stanislavski because I want the audience to feel my emotions to try and make them understand my experience.

Shivvy's Unit 6 Movement Idea

Movement Piece

I have 3 options: to work solo or as a trio.

I have 2 ideas but I want to try and pursue my first idea and see if I can make it work.

Idea 1

I am going to perform a movement/dance about robots, the idea came to me when I was thinking of Transformers and I thought it would be a great piece to do.

I haven’t decided which style I’m going to do it in, as for now the movements is the main priority.

The movements should be performed slickly, heavy and some slow motion, robotic because it’s a robot.

The stimulus is a bit undecided but along the lines of a story, it’s about a robot who is in an unfamiliar place and is trying to survive.

I chose this because I wanted to challenge myself in terms of movements, I have a good background around dance and this unit has given me an opportunity to work with dance again. Robotic is a difficult style to do and I want to see if I can achieve it.

Idea 2

It’s a movement showing the sculpture of the main Hinduism Gods, again challenging to show but I like the challenge of it, it’s my alternate idea. I will show what each God is known for (Ganesha, Shiva, Krishna) it’s far more different than Bollywood dance this is legitimately cultural.  I like expressing my culture as I am in a new town and I just wanted to show everybody a sense of my culture.

questions =]

Hey Y'all !

*MOVEMENT*

What?

My movement piece is going to revolve around smoking and the characteristics that come with smoking for example; the different ways in which people smoke and how people hold cigarettes. My stimulus for this piece is a character named Rust from a television series called True Detective. The reason I chose Rust as my stimuli is because throughout the series Rust smokes countless cigarettes, but the way he smokes intrigued me, which then lead me to think about how I smoke; then how every smoker smokes differently to the last. I will be looking to Growtovski's gesture to help me create this piece, I feel this; if used correctly could create a very disciplined and entertaining movement piece.

Why?

I chose this movement idea because it's an extremely broad topic to explore, I also think that once tightened and polished could look and sound interesting , the use of gesture will help create a feel of repetition, which is a theme i think is closely linked with smoking. 

How?

I will be using the the instrumental to a Gorillaz song called "Fire Coming Out of The Monkeys Head" 

I will be playing around with different positions to hold a cigarette and once I've got a skeleton for the piece i can begin to put more interesting shapes and movements into the piece.

*MONOLOGUE* 

What?

~Classical~ Prospero - The Tempest - William Shakespeare 

~Contempery~ Dennis - This Is Our Youth - Kenneth Lonergram  

both monologues will be approached with Stanislavski in mind.

Why?

I have chosen these bits of script because I feel they both challenge me as an actor to present 

different emotions within on piece of text.

i have chosen Stanislavski beceause I think this approach will give both these monologues justice and a real sense of character.

How? 

Both these monologues are challenging in different ways.

firstly the classical is in shakespearian which in itself is a challenge to get my head around.

The contempory is challenging because during the monologue the mood changes and finding the change in characterization will prove difficult.

Questions

Here are some questions to think about when you are justifying your decisions for the your movement and monologue pieces.



For your Movement Pieces:

What -
What are you doing?
What is your stimulus?
What technique are you using?

Why -
Why this movement?
Why this style?
Why have you made the choices that you have made for your piece?

Who -
Who is informing you?
Who's technique are you using?

How -
How have you created this piece, what was your process from when you began to your finishied performance?

For your Monologues.

What -
What script have you chosen?
What style are you acting in?
What vocal work have you done for this role?

Why-
Why have you chosen this script?
Why this style?
Why have you made the decisions that you have made in terms of acting and voice?

Who -
Who are you using to inform you?
Who's technique (s) are you using?
Who has informed your vocal process?

How-
How does this script challenge you as an actor?
How has this script challenged you vocally?
How do the techniques and styles that you have chosen benefit your performance?

Movement and monologe - solo work

For my movement peice I am using an instrumental peice of music from the Matrix called Clubbed to death. I have chosen to use this as my stimulus because I am interested to explore the contrast in music and how contrast can be used in movement to convey conflicting themes and issues.
I want the music and movement to convey a story to the audience, maybe from conflicting perspectives which could be highlighted by the change in music.

I am interested in looking at a few styles of movement to concentrate on mainly contempory dance and physical theatre, I have started to look into diffrent styles of dance and storytelling and will be looking into contemporary dance such as 'Last dance at the penguin cafe' and will also be studying physical theatre to inform my choreography once I have chosen a theme.

For my monologue I am working on  a speech by 'The Wild One' from Cagebirds by David Campton. I am familiar with the play but have never looked into the role of the 'Wild One'. I am going to be looking into ways that I can adapt the role for a more modern audience and apply modern day meaning and intent to the repression felt by the character.

As of yet i have not decided what practioner I will be using for my peice and want to take some more time to research this and see what direction it would be best to take the monologe in.

Monday

Hello all,

as Ria and I want to split you into smaller groups for the study skills sessions, please let us know what pairs you have for the movement pieces so that you can work for half the day on those when not with Ria
thanks

Dance Performance!!!

The level 3 dance showcase ‘Forward Motion’ will be in the theatre at 3pm and 7.30pm next Wednesday 14^th May. We would really appreciate your support! Thanks, Yvonne & Students

Tomorrow, Tomorrow, You're only a day awayyyy.

Helloooo!

For tomorrow's seshhhh please can you make sure that you bring your student card, or remember your student number.... there may be a trip to da Land of Books.

You're with Dan in the morning working on your movement pieces.
And you lucky lot have got me in the afternoon doing some work on analysis and research!  EXCITING!

Don't forget your fish bowl helmets!
See you tomorrow. 
Ria! ✌

Information on your Vocal and Physical projects for unit 6

UNIT 6 – FHFDR1

Vocal assessment

A chance for you to demonstrate how you have developed your vocal skills, and to add to your audition portfolio up before the second year!

Tasks:

1)    learn/refresh your learning of Shakespeare’s  sonnet 29 for next week & beyond – this will form one of your assessed pieces.

2)    Select a piece of published monologue material ( this should be a monologue which has been written for live performance, not a film scene or lyrics from a song.) This will form the other of your assessed pieces.

3)     

Guidance:

Think about pushing yourself in terms of your vocal skills, but be realistic about your own playing range, and also about whether using an accent is going to give you too much to deal with at this stage.

Your monologue should between 1 & ½  and 2 minutes in length.

You should not expect to use props other than a chair if necessary .

You should consider your attire, and how you present yourself  ( hair, tatooes, piercings, headwear, earrings etc).

Physical assessment

A chance for you to demonstrate how you have developed your physical skills.  No words are allowed, but you can use sound ( laughing, coughs, breath, etc).

You can also demonstrate your understanding of your own areas of strength and comparative weakness(es) in the selection of material. For example, if you feel that core stamina needs improvement, you might choose to work on a piece which requires you to focus on this area of practice.

Tasks:

Select a stimulus to help you start developing your piece.

Identify one or more approaches to the physical development of your stimulus.

Determine whether your piece is best suited to working solo, in a pair or as a trio.

Negotiate with others to join your group if you are not working solo.

Develop and rehearse your piece.

Guidance:

Consider a range of stimuli – a news story, a play, and idea or concept ( equal pay, globalism, the use of unmanned drones in warfare, the discoveries about the beginnings of the universe in the field of  particle physics), a piece of art, an era, a piece of music etc.

Frame the development of your idea within the approach of a theatre practitioner. ( for example, Brecht’s Gestus, Grotowski’s physical score, Laban’s Efforts )

If you are working with others, whose Idea will you all choose to work on? Is there any mileage in combining elements of more than one idea?

Will you use sound? Remember, no words, but sound effects can be used – are these live? Are these pre –recorded?

Tutorials

Please find list for tutorials.
Things to discuss; work overdue. Work to come. Assessments so far. If you are behind with any work, please work on getting it completed asap. If you are all up to date, a studio is available to work on your pieces, the library to work on your reading, and the time to think about what your long essay next year might be based on so that we can begin discussing it.

10.20 Georgia

10.40 Dan

11.00 Victor

11.20 Jordan

11.40 Shivam

12.00 Charlotte

12.20 Jack


13.20 Anna

13.40 Lissie

Wednesday 6th May

Hello all, not sure if Lisa got a chance to tell you.
I will be arranging tutorials rather than a group session for tomorrow at Durrington. I will put slots here a bit later. I think best to see you individually before we move on to the rest of this project at this point. Would like to discuss assessments so far, unit 2 , 4 and 5.

Thanks

vanessa

Tuesday 6th May

Please refresh your knowledge of the sonnet that Lisa set during vocal work. Tomorrow you will revisit that, begin audition pieces and organise the movement pieces. Also, 3 Ba shows in the afternoon and the evening. See mary or me for tickets.

Thank You!

Now that I've recovered from last weekend and the busy weekend at work, I just wanted to write and express my thanks to you all for everything you did for my event.

I honestly can't thank you enough for taking on such a huge task so late on and for producing a brilliant piece in the amount of time you did. It was so much more than I expected and I am so grateful for your hard work. I honestly can't imagine what I would have done if you hadn't have been able to take this project on.

The feedback I received from my guests has been very positive - they all really enjoyed themselves and playing along in trying to figure out the mystery themselves. There were only a couple of issues from their perspective with the table towards the back not being able to hear everything, although this was down to the issues with microphones that we encountered the day before. The other issue was due to the kitchen issues and food delays, which caused delays with the play but you were all so patient and understanding so thank you for that!
One suggestion I had was it would have been useful if you were wearing name badges, as some were getting confused with the characters so if you ever do something similar, keep that in mind maybe.

Other than that, the customers all really enjoyed themselves and would come again if another was held, which is great feedback to receive.

Once again, many thanks for all you have done and best of luck with your future careers. :)

Elli

another film

email from terri, find for you to do this week in terms of timetable.

Does anyone think they might have someone who would want to do a short film for a third year media student?? She wants to film on Tues and Wed but realises she needs to be flexible around timetabled lessons. 

Female actor required, playing age 18/19.  Nothing else specific!

Email details are…. Radhipatel664@yahoo.com if you have anyone.

Show today

Anarchy dance show with interaction today at 2.30
Commedia show promises to be very funny with lots of audience interaction.

BA shows from tomorrow.

Friday May 2nd Theatre	Tuesday May 6th Blackbox & Theatre	Wednesday 7th May Theatre	Thursday 8th May Studio 7/8 Theatre	Friday 9th May Black box & theatre
Anarchy 2.30	Trois 1pm 2pm 3pm Black Box	Faustus 4pm	Film 2pm & 3pm Studio 7/8	Hobbit 2pm & 3pm Black Box
Commedia 4pm	Bluebeard 4pm	Faustus 7.30 pm	Pregnancy 4pm	Alice 4pm
Commedia 6 pm	Bluebeard 7.30pm		Pregnancy 7.30	Alice 7.30pm
Anarchy 8 pm