Rehearsal of 'The Cherry Orchard'

In today's lesson we looked at a Stanislavski approach of acting called 'Outside-In' which works to first find the literal voice and language of a character, and allows the words in that voice to act on the actor, penetrating their psyche, so creating the whole character. We got into pairs and had to say a few sentences about our journey to college and then our partners copied the sentences back to us. I then listened to my partner describing their journey to college and repeated it back to them. This was a helpful exercise, as I had to change my accent and physique to portray my partner and got me out of my own self. It was also helpful listening back to my character repeating my sentences, as I wasn't aware of certain traits I had such as talking softly and using my hands when speaking.

To root ourselves into our character for 'The Cherry Orchard' we used 'creative imagination' to work out what has just happened thirty seconds before coming on stage. By doing this I found my through line which is an invisible thread that binds your story together. I imagined that 'Varya' (my character) had been worrying before coming onto stage and trying to keep her calm about Lopahin not proposing to her. She was listening to Charlotta and Pischik conversating but in deep thought about the cherry orchard and about her non existent love life.

By doing this I was able to go into the scene with more emotion and understanding of the scene. It helped me to get into my characters mind set and deliver my lines with more realism. Having this background information, I clearly knew where I stood in the scene and felt a connection to the lines and the whole scene which felt more holistic.

Varya is a bossy character as she states to Dunyasha the maid: "Dunyasha. Coffee. For Mother." Her assertiveness comes from a place of care as she feels she has to put on a 'strong' front for the rest of the family, however deep down she is lonely and fearful of the world and life without the Cherry Orchard.

Furthermore, Varya is easily wound up during the play and shows this during an argument with Trofimov. She states: " And you're so ambitious? To be a student. All. Your. Life. Is that it?" She has a sarcastic tone and has very high standards for those around her.

If my character was to be described as an animal, I would choose a hedgehog as they are scary and hard on the outside because of their spikes which are prickly and they can hurt you but they only show their spikes as a defence mechanism to hide their vulnerability and keep a strong image to everyone around them. Varya is similar as she wants to keep everyone under control and keep a strong image and that she can manage the cherry orchard and everyone around her, however deep down she is sad and anxious about her life and over whelmed by all the responsibility she has.

Classical monologue - Macbeth; Lady Macbeth

In today's lesson we started off by moving around the space to get into our neutral stance and be aware of our bodies. This helps me to ground myself and be prepared and open as an actor to all the tasks ahead.

We were handed out the classical monologue 'Macbeth' by William Shakespeare and it was Lady Macbeth's monologue. Lady Macbeth is one of the most powerful female characters in literature. The fact that we meet her alone on stage means that we are privy to her innermost thoughts, which are filled with the imagery of death and destruction. And when she speaks, in her next soliloquy, of her "fell purpose," her intentions are described in the most grotesque and frightening terms. First she bids the spirits to literally deprive her of her femininity, to thicken her blood, and to stop her ability to weep. Next, she prays that those same evil spirits should suckle her, converting what should be her nourishing mother's milk to "gall" (bitterness). Lastly, she calls upon the night itself to hide her actions in a "blanket" of darkness.

We learnt that it is important when reading Shakespeare to always pause when there is punctuation and to keep the energy levels high until the end of the sentence.

To get familiar with the soliloquy, we each started off by reading out a word that stood out to us, then to build up our vocabulary we said two words which stood out, followed by a sentence which was repeated back by the rest of the class. This helped to get my articulation warmed up and to get used to the language being used. We then walked around the room saying the monologue, which improved my understanding of the monologue and this then helped with my confidence and increased my energy levels as I was aware of what I was saying. Moreover, we analysed the words that we still didn't understand such as 'direst' which means of very poor quality, 'compunctious' which means a feeling of guilt that follows the doing of something bad.
Next, we added three gestures to the piece and the gestures I added were opening of the arms on the words 'unsex me here', holding a fake knife whilst saying 'murdering ministers' and touching my chest whilst saying 'Come to my woman's breasts'. The gestures added more life and energy to the words which also explained the story more clearly. We then chose 3 key words to emphasise whilst saying the monologue and I chose 'sightless', 'direst' and 'remorse which varied the tone and added more interest and attracted the audience's attention.

To conclude, we got into pairs and added in each others gestures and key words to make a complete monologue with a beginng gesture, middle gesture and ending gesture. This gave the monologue structure and explained the story using body language, tone and facial expressions.


Spoken by Lady Macbeth, Macbeth Act 1 Scene 5 The raven himself is hoarse
That croaks the fatal entrance of Duncan
Under my battlements. Come, you spirits
That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here,    -open arms-
And fill me from the crown to the toe top-full
Of direst cruelty! make thick my blood;  *emphasise*
Stop up the access and passage to remorse,  *emphasise*
That no compunctious visitings of nature
Shake my fell purpose, nor keep peace between
The effect and it! Come to my woman’s breasts,   -touch chest and beckoning-
And take my milk for gall, you murdering ministers,  -holding knife in hand and stabbing air-
Wherever in your sightless substances   *emphasise*
You wait on nature’s mischief! Come, thick night,
And pall thee in the dunnest smoke of hell,
That my keen knife see not the wound it makes,  *emphasise*
Nor heaven peep through the blanket of the dark,
To cry ‘Hold, hold!’

The Cherry Orchard - Varya

The character I am playing in the Cherry Orchard is Varya who is the adopted daughter. To understand my character in more depth, I went through the script and listed all the descriptions labelled about Varya by other characters and listed them on a piece of paper. This has given me more insight into my role and it has helped me to develop myself as Varya in my scene.

Varya is the elder daughter of Lyubov, she seems the only realistic character in the play which is willing to face the harsh and bitter reality of her life.Unlike her sister Anya, Varya holds a lot of responsibility in the family as she owns the entire state which she has to manage on her own. This leaves her feeling very lonely as she sees a lot of the other characters settled, however Varya is in love with Lopahin. She desperately wants to be with Lopahin but refuses throughout the play to propose to him and is in a lot of doubt that he will propose to her.

The wisdom of Varya earns her nothing except homelessness forever. Her realism is very evident when Anya asks her if Lopakhin has proposed her and she responds in the most clear and acute manner:
"His mind is all consumed with his deals, his business; I'm the furthest thing from it... Everyone is saying we're congratulating me, but the truth of it is there's nothing there, nothing at all whatsoever, it's all just a dream".
This leaves Varya quite pessimistic towards other characters as she holds a lot of stress and resentment. I learnt that Varya comes across as a bossy character as she states to Dunyasha the maid: "Dunyasha. Coffee. For Mother." Her assertiveness comes from a place of care as she feels she has to put on a 'strong' front for the rest of the family, however deep down she is lonely and fearful of the world and life without the Cherry Orchard.

Furthermore, Varya is easily wound up during the play and shows this during an argument with Trofimov. She states: " And you're so ambitious? To be a student. All. Your. Life. Is that it?" She has a sarcastic tone and has very high standards for those around her. 

She knows the estate is going to be auctioned and nobody will be able to save it all. She is mentally prepared to become a nun adopt the convent. Moreover, Varya wishes to be a nun and leave to go to a convent as the play states: "Varya is just as she used to be, just like a nun." Her inner character is loving and protective yet she shows firm boundaries on the outside to cover up her vulnerable side.

My characters super objective in the play is to keep everything in order, including the estate, her love life and her family.

Review of The Cherry Orchard - Simon Stephens

By reading the review written by Simon Stephens, I learnt that he felt he wasn't good enough to write the play which suggests to me that the language Chekhov used was challenging and intellectual. Moreover, Simon Stephens explains that in Chekhov's plays and short stories he portrays the human condition with more honesty and tenderness than any playwright's he's read.

By reading the review, it helped develop my understanding of Chekhov and his style of plays. Stephen Simons states that it is incredibly hard to translate a play from a century ago from Russian to English and to capture the vitality, sensuality, pathos, rage and compassion of the spirit of the play. This also explains all the different aspects and themes in the play and the variety used in Chekhov's style.

I learnt that Chekhov wrote four acts which were performed with a 45 minute interval between each act which is very different to theatre in this day and age, as the audience needed constant reminders of what was going on. This suggests the plays were very intense with a lot going on.

The Cherry Orchard was first performed at Stanislavski's at The Moscow Art theatre in January 1904 and has never been out of production and has been performed all over the world. This suggests to me that the play is well written and the themes are very relatable as it is still watched today.

Moreover, I learnt that the play was performed to evoke the sense of loss and tenderness which takes place throughout. This teaches me that Chekhov always had the audience in mind whilst writing. By reading the review, it helped develop my background knowledge of the play and what drove Chekhov to produce 'The Cherry Orchard' as the review states: "The war was the first catastrophe that manifested the terror of that Chekhov seemed to foretell for his characters." This was done to grip the audience's attention and give the sense that something bad was going to happen.

Simon Stephens expresses that the play is very truthful, comedic and appealing which helps me to understand how the play should be represented. In addition, the review uses a lot of articulate language such as 'refraction', 'shuddering' and 'excavate' which helps me to develop my use of vocabulary.

The Cherry Orchard script

In today's lesson we started off by doing a physical warm up by stretching our muscles and moving around the space. We then got into partners and did a simple exercise of counting 1 to 3 and replaced each number with a clap, stamp and a suggested movement. This helped to let go of any tension and to be able to practise our scripts with more flexibility.

We then moved onto an exercise to explore finding our inner circle. In order to do this we sat on the floor and closed our eyes and focused on our breathing. We then focused on any sounds in the room and lastly focused on any sounds from outside the room. To conclude the exercise we came back to our own breathing and this grounded us to get into our characters for 'The Cherry Orchard'. Stanislavski believed that an actor needed a sense of isolation in order to produce a characterisation and avoid unnecessary tension. They needed to concentrate on themselves. This is the first circle of attention. Stanislavski referred to it as Solitude in Public. Beyond this, the actor might, in the 'second circle', be aware of the character he is addressing and in the 'third circle', the rest of the production. There's no direct awareness of the audience in this. These circles of attention are achieved through focus and concentration.

After this, we got into our groups and practised our lines and actions. We were told to remember the 'Fourth Wall' whilst performing which is the space which separates a performer or performance from an audience. We also did an improvisation exercise, where we said our lines in our own words which was a good exercise to let go of any tension and it helps not to be so rigid with the lines given. This then made going back to the original text more effective, as we got a deeper understanding of the scene and could deliver the lines with more honesty and truth.

The Cherry Orchard - Working on script

In todays lesson we got into our groups for the play 'The Cherry Orchard'. We started off by finding our characters objective in our scene. I explored the text by reading a few sections before my speech and found that my character Varya's objective from page 57-61 of the play was to try and hide her annoyance towards Ranyevskaya and Trofimov.

By finding the objective, enabled me to practise the scene with a motivation and gave me insight into my characters mood and tone. It allowed me to find my characters need during the scene.
I also wrote down next to each of my lines the action involved with my line which I learnt that the action comes first and this allowed the emotion to then follow. The action is used to achieve the objective and helps the character with their overall motive. Moreover, I learnt that actions exist even in stillness and silence by listening to the other character and reacting how I would in the given circumstance. My action which was to stand up for myself, changed when other characters stepped in and moved to fussing and frustration.
To stay rooted in the moment, I used inner monologue such as "What are these people talking about?", "I am so annoyed"; which helped me deliver my lines truthfully and naturally.

In addition to this, I kept my lines and movement subtle by keeping a normal tone unless I felt very strongly about a point such as the line "It's not that. Like that. Mother, I can't propose to him.", as I empahised my annoyance at being misunderstood and found this more realistic.
During the other characters lines, I was constantly reacting in a way that was true to myself and my character which involved the constant inner monologue and thinking how I would act in the same situation. For example, when Trofimov explained to Ranyevskaya "Madam Lopahin, you must get more money-minded", I shook my head which expressed annoyance without words therefore concluding that by acting out an action an emotion follows.

Stanislavski Background

Constantin Stanislavski was a Russian stage actor and director who developed the naturalistic performance technique known as the "Stanislavsky method," or method acting. Stanislavski’s real name was Konstantin Sergeyevich Alexeyev but he adopted the stage name of Stanislavski in 1884. He adopted the stage name "Stanislavski" in 1884 to keep his performance activities secret from his parents. He was born in 1863 to a life of considerable comfort as a member of one of the most affluent families in Russia, he died in 1938 at the age of 75. Up until the communist revolution  in 1917, Stanislavski often used his inherited wealth to fund his experiments in acting and directing. His family's discouragement meant that he appeared only as an amateur until he was thirty three.

In 1888, Stanislavski founded the Society of Art and Literature, with which he performed and directed productions for almost a decade. Then, in June 1897, he and playwright/director Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko decided to open the Moscow Art Theatre, which would be an alternative to standard theatrical aesthetics of the day. This allowed actors to use their personal histories to express authentic emotion and create rich characters. Continually honing his theories throughout his career, he died in Moscow in 1938.

The company opened in October 1898 with 'Tsar Fyodor Ivanovich' by Aleksey K. Tolstoy. The theatre's subsequent production of The Seagull was a landmark achievement and reignited the career of its writer Anton Chekhov, who went on to craft plays specifically for the company.

The Moscow Art Theatre developed a primary domestic and international reputation with works like The Petty Bourgeois, An Enemy of the People and The Blue Bird. Stanislavski co-directed productions with Nemirovich-Danchenko and had outstanding roles in several works, including The Cherry Orchard and The Lower Depths.

In 1910, Stanislavski took a sabbatical and travelled to Italy, where he studied the performances of Eleanora Duse and Tommaso Salvini. Their particular style of performance, which felt free and naturalistic in comparison to Stanislavski's perception of his own efforts, would greatly inspire his theories on acting. In 1912, Stanislavski created First Studio, which served as a training ground for young thespians. A decade later, he directed Eugene Onegin, an opera by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky.

During the Moscow Art Theatre's early years, Stanislavski worked on providing a guiding structure for actors to consistently achieve deep, meaningful and disciplined performances. He believed that actors needed to inhabit authentic emotion while on stage and, to do so, they could draw upon feelings they'd experienced in their own lives. Stanislavski also developed exercises that encouraged actors to explore character motivations, giving performances depth and an unassuming realism while still paying attention to the parameters of the production. This technique would come to be known as the "Stanislavski method" or "the Method."

After the 1917 Russian Revolution, Stanislavski faced some criticism for not producing communist works, yet he was able to maintain his company's unique perspective and not contend with an imposed artistic vision. During a performance to commemorate the Moscow Art Theatre's 30th anniversary, Stanislavski suffered a heart attack.
Stanislavski spent his later years focusing on his writing, directing and teaching.

The method that was created and used by Constantin Stanislavski from 1911 to 1916 was based on the concept of emotional memory for which an actor focuses internally to portray a character's emotions onstage. The actor shouldn’t only know what lines he needs to say and the motivation for those lines, but also every detail of that character’s life offstage as well as onstage. In this way we can establish Stanislavski as a director and practitioner whose productions are naturalistic.

In my own work on Greek theatre, I used emotional memory from The Method with my character Ismene and her sister Antigone. I used my own experience of my relationship with my sister to embody our connection and I used my memory of when we have had a disagreement in the past to feel the emotional truthfully in the scene. This made the piece more realistic and natural. Moreover, I discovered my objective of the scene at the beginning of rehearsals (which was to stop Antigone from burying our brother), which then helped me figure out what I was trying to achieve out of the situation.  I also used the 'Magic If', in which I asked myself ''What would I do if I was in this situation?" and this put myself into the character’s shoes to then stimulate the motivation to enable to myself to play the role.

Improvisation is a crucial part of the rehearsal process and Stanislavski wanted the actor to reach far into themselves in creating the role. My partner and I used improvisation before our performance to explore our relationship ten years before our disagreement. We imagined our lives when we were happy with our brother and bonded as sisters naturally would do, which helped us to understand our background and what bought us together in the present time.

My career path

In order to work as an actor, my chosen career path would be to complete my Level 3 BTEC in acting and carry on attending a weekly workshop on 'Acting for Film and TV' to expand my skills and knowledge of the craft.

I will also apply to the drama school Italia Conti academy of Theatre Arts for the Three year BA (Hons) Acting. I feel attracted to this school as they make available to its students the widest possible range of ideas and training methods, so that each student may begin to construct a personal way of working, therefore I  feel this would equip me for the world of acting and theatre.

Moreover, I will be taught by a team of industry specialists who have extensive experience of the audition processes used by both professional theatre companies and the country’s leading drama schools.  In addition all of the Academy staff are successful professional practitioners (actors, directors, dialect coaches, movement directors) with excellent industry links.  They also work very closely with leading casting directors and theatre agents.

My second choice of drama school would be Arts Education School London as this has a good alumni and a strong team of industry specialists as well. Many successful film, TV and musical theatre professionals have attended this school and this makes me feel hopeful that the school has a strong ethic to helping students get work in the acting world. Arts Ed has a large range of professional dance studios, rehearsal spaces and classroom spaces which enables the school to offer increasingly flexible staging formats and recreate the conditions of a live TV studio, providing real, industry experience to prepare for future careers.

Jobs in the performing arts industry

These are a list of jobs involved in the world of performing arts that we looked at in the lesson other than being an actor:

Make Up Artist

Teacher - Dance, Singing, Drama, Music

Costume Designer

Set Designer

Lighting Designer

Director

Prop Maker

Location Finder

Artistic Director

Front of House

Presenter (TV, Cruise ship,  Stage)

Stage School Owner/Teacher

Special FX's

Camera Man/Woman

Caterer

Computer Graphics/Designer

Admin

Matron/ Assistant

Musical Theatre

PR

Events Management

Artist Management

Promotions

Choreographer

Stunt Person/double

Non performing role - Set Designer

A set designer is in charge of designing and creating the sets that appear in films, on television programmes as well as in the theatre. The role involves working and communicating with directors, producers, costume designers and other members of staff.  A theatre set should:

• suggest the style and tone of the whole production
• create mood and atmosphere
• give clues as to the specific time and place of the action
• offer creative possibilities for the movement and grouping of the actors

Set designers use different tools to communicate their ideas to the director and the other designers. These include:

• a rough sketch of the set in the preliminary phase
• floor plans drawn to scale showing from above the general layout of each set and the placement of the furniture and large props
• front elevations giving a view of the elements of the set from the front and showing details like windows or platforms
• miniature three-dimensional models showing how each set will look when finished.

Letter of application for Set Designer job:

Dear Sir/Madam,

I am applying for the position of set designer, which I saw listed on the National Youth Theatre website. I have worked for Questors Theatre for five years as an associate producer and as a senior set designer.

I have an excellent reputation, artistic skills, and a love of the performing arts industry. I have a strong eye for detail and great team working skills. I can transform a set with a number of different tools such as floor plans, front elevations and three dimensional models showing how each set will look when finished.

Moreover, I have attached some pictures of my past work and I would love to share these with you to represent my work to you visually.

Thank- you for your time and I look forward to hearing back from you shortly!

Kind regards,

Laura Youna

Camden Peoples Theatre workshop

Today we did a workshop with Camden People's Theatre and focused on many aspects of theatre. We looked at physical theatre and devising pieces of theatre. We warmed up by walking around the space in a neutral manner and then getting into groups to create a range of different freeze frames such as: at the best party ever, at a wedding and creating objects such as a spilt drink. This taught me to work collaboratively as a group and to use my initiative to create a clear image for the audience to understand. I used good team working skills to make sure everyone in the scene was connected and this also helped to convey a clear still image.

We then moved onto doing some pair work and we started off by doing trust exercises. We each had to fall back and be caught by our partner and this helped to connect our pairs and also to let go mentally and physically and feel looser. I learnt that you have to be flexible as an actor to be open to all different experiences to create the best theatre pieces possible for the actor, actors involved and the audience.

After we had to devise a piece of theatre based on the title 'Prison Break' and we did this by using the trust exercise movements and developing these into a piece, where we bent down to show us climbing under a fence, then running away on the spot and jumping for joy to show our success in breaking free. I learnt that you can create a strong piece of theatre with a basic stimulus and it taught me to use my imagination more freely as there was no boundaries.

Our last exercise was to devise a piece of theatre with a question or topic that we had written earlier on in the session. In my group we got given the title 'Travelling'. I started off the piece by stating: "I want to go travelling with my sister" and then tapped each member of my group on the shoulder as they revealed each country I wanted to visit. We started off by having Australia, and the actor playing this part spoke in an accent stating ''Good day mate'' and used physical theatre to portray a crocodile. We then represented France stating "Bonjour", Italy with "Ciao" and Spain with "Hola". This gave a authentic atmosphere and set the scene for the audience.

In conclusion, I learnt that to be a strong actor you have to be imaginative and use good team player skills to connect the actors to create a strong piece for the audience. Moreover, for the audience to understand the pieces devised, clear images have to be displayed with confidence and energy. I also learnt that it is freeing to devise pieces of theatre without having set guidelines as you can be as creative as you like which is beneficial to creating unique pieces.

Story Telling

We started the lesson by creating tableaux's of different scenarios such as: being on the beach, at the cinema and at the post office. We each added different freeze frames to the piece and I learnt that to make a strong tableaux the space has to be used well and different levels to represent different characters. We did this by having two characters sitting down in the cinema and two characters standing up representing the film being watched. This made the tableaux clearer and easier for the audience to differentiate between characters roles.

We then explored story telling and ways in which we could express short stories within a group. I was placed in a group where we discussed stories we knew well and altogether agreed on 'Little Red Riding Hood'. We each told the story with a few sentences each in a line and then performed to the class. The first time we performed it, our tones were neutral and we used little facial expressions. We then received feedback from the class, and I was told to use more projection and pitch. Our second performance improved drastically as we all used different tones to emphasise different parts of the story, for example when I stated the line: ''Oh Grandma, what big teeth you have!" and the wolf said  "All the better to eat you with", I emphasised the 'eat' to show the wolfs aggression.

Our next task was to summarise our story into three tableaux's, showing the beginning, middle and end. Our first tableaux was Little Red Riding Hood waving at her mum to go to her grandmas house. I showed this by using facial expressions such as smiling and waving to Leonie who was playing my mother. The second tableaux was Little Red Riding Hood's interaction with the wolf in the woods and I showed the anxiety and fear on Little Red Riding Hood's face with a shocked expression and leaning back to create space between the wolf and I. The third tableaux was of Little Red Riding Hood nearly being eaten and the wood chopper man coming to save her. I showed this by being on the floor and scrunching up into a ball. The use of different levels between the wolf and I, represented the power difference and dominance of the wolf. After performing these to the class, we received positive feedback that each tableaux was clear and the emotion was portrayed by each character and it worked well as everyone was involved in the frames. After watching others perform their tableaux's, I gave feedback on what worked which was the use of body language to express emotions and tell the story and clear facial expressions which explained the frames. I also stated that the use of the whole space would be useful as in the tableaux of 'Jack and the Beanstalk', it was not clear where the giant was as the rest of the characters were blocking him.

In conclusion, what I learnt from the class was to grab the audience's attention whilst story telling it is essential to start of with high energy and use a range of different tones, gestures and facial expressions. This makes the story more interesting and grabs the audience's attention. Moreover, I learnt that a story can be told effectively with the use of just the voice and no movement and vice versa, that a story can be told without speech and just freeze frames as long as there is structure; a beginning, middle and end.