Blocking and Staging

We dove straight into the play and started slowly walking through it blocking as we went along. The director left the actors to make decisions about where they would place themselves when delivering their lines or when in a scene, this allowed the scenes to be more natural and instinctual , if those decisions didn't work the director would offer some input or change the positions. I haven't gone on yet as my part is later on in the play so observing the work starting to happen on the play was very interesting and answered questions that i might have asked when i got on stage.




The set is a major part of our play as it helps create two worlds, the work of the women factory workers and the world of Henry V. To help make the transition between these two worlds the pieces of props have been purposefully made or placed in our set so that they can have a double use.

For instance the tables that we use as a workstation in the factory, we use as our main stage in the play. I really like the visual of using props for two different things and think it is very clever. i also like the representation of the women using anything they can find to be transported to this world as an escape from the war and literally clinging onto anything they can find to take their minds of the devastation.

While I was off stage i did some work on my script, such as summarising the Acts and Scenes to help me get a better understanding of the play. I also paraphrased my lines so that i could understand exactly what i was saying and how i would say it. 

The changing role of women

Watching The changing role of women, made me realise just how dangerous and life-threatening working in a munitions factory could be, and how they were willing to put their life on the line to help ensure the safe return of their loved ones and win of the war. Women were forced to take on the many different job roles men had, when they left to go to the war. One of the was popular jobs for women was shell making in a munitions factory with around 1 million women working in one. Work included such things as making shells, bullets and guns and each task left room for injuries both large and small. 

The munitions factories were a very dangerous place, one, The Woolwich Arsenal had the inside described as ' then the evil smell become more noticeable', the impending doom that loomed over these factories was unshakeable. The smaller injuries caused in a munitions factory would be cuts on fingers or grit in the eye but one of the most deadly were caused by the TNT in the shells.

Women who would be handling the TNT poison or were anywhere near the shells would inhale the fumes and begin a slow death, starting with a cold like symptom and ending with a painful death. 

Watching this video made me realise just how much these women were willing to go through to help out the men and their country. Death did not shake these strong willed women who not only did incredibly hard work but also risked their lives whilst doing so. I now have a better understanding of these women and what their roles were, I feel like my woman character needs to have alot more determination and pace in her work, also the thought process of why she is doing the job and how she feels about the possibilities of not only her husband dying but herself dying also. 

'well we don't mind dying for our country' 

Laban

Laban movement qualities 

CHARACTER

When applying Laban techniques to my character Henry, it was very eye opening as I got to master his physicality by matching up my idea of Henry with a Laban technique. After exploring the 8 different Laban movement qualities I decided that Henry most suited GLIDE. This was because my idea of Henry was that he was of course very royal and high up, but also very graceful and purposeful. He walked everywhere strong and with a purpose ( direct ) but was elegant and refined in the way he did so ( light). Adjusting the GLIDE from extravagant to more naturalistic was helpful as i could see where i felt Henry would be placed, my end result was more towards the naturalistic side but it still carried an element of extravagance. 

We then applied a Laban movement to a scenario that could possibly be our opening scene. The scenario was at woman’s work factory (where our play is set), everyone is busy with their own job when suddenly a telegram is delivered to Sophie which informs her of her husbands death. I decided to apply PUNCH to my factory worker as not only was this quite different to Henry but was also an interesting character match to explore. When Sophie received her news i kept getting on with my own business and didn't take my eyes of where i was going and what i was moving. I decided that to the outside eye my character would appear quite unsympathetic but inside my character was an undertone, this was that she didn't want to think about telegrams or react to Sophie’s news as it would just make her think about her husband or son causing her pain and sadness, so by focusing on the work, took her mind elsewhere.

I found looking at Laban enjoyable but mostly incredibly useful as it allowed me to focus on the intricate details in my characters. I knew that a characters physicality could change the way they were perceived but I didn't know how the small details in the physicality's could make the audience see completely different personalitys, just from being direct or indirect, heavy or light and sustained or quick. Through the development of my character, by applying Laban techniques I can make conscious physical choices and movements depending on which Laban movement choices works best with the character. 

Exploring text

To start the lesson we got to see a model box presentation of our set from the set designers and a presentation of the costumes from the costume designers. Seeing the set really helped me visualise the final outcome of the play and was really helpful in getting to understand the directors concept of a WW1 women's factory, for the first time i could see Shakespeare and WW1 working together. The costume designers also helped provide a visual aid to the concept as they showed us sketches of the costume and brought along the top half of the costume we all would be wearing. Henry's costume looks very different and original as they have gone against the stereotypical man wears trousers idea and have instead put Henry is a dress and a blazer like jacket. 

"There is an energy that runs through Shakespeare an energy that runs through the text which is not a naturalistic one; an energy which impels one word to the next, one thought to the next, one speech to the next, and one scene to the next. I would say that there is really not a full stop until the end of the play"  The Actor And The Text, Cicely Berryp.82 

TEXT

We responded to this quote and were looking at applying voice techniques to text in the first half of the lesson. The first important lesson we learnt was how to stand in a way that would allow us to both read our lines but also be present and responsive to the actors you are in a scene with. This technique I found really helped me with my role in the exercise because I was alert and comfortable as I could see what was going on around me but I could also see my script clearly. After getting to know the right way to stand, the next task proved to be a lot easier than it would have been. We had to read a line each from the opening speech of the play spoken by the chorus, I delivered my line from my stomach and projected it out into the open space we created as a circle. We changed this up by changing the line we recited and adding a push towards the end of the line, when I got pushed i got slightly distracted by the fact that i had just got pushed and reacted by giggling. This threw me off my line and when i pushed the person next to me they also reacted with laughter and put them off, an advantage of this though was the fact that the last couple of words i spoke were the strongest as they followed the sharp and quick movement of my arm pushing against someone else.

Walking into the centre and delivering a line from the opening speech put the posture of the actor into play as i was able to walk comfortably with my script away from my face in my left hand and also deliver my line ensuring the speech was energised and followed the rhythm the person before me had set with the pace of their delivery. Reading the line one after the other, at a natural pace mimicked the way one person would have read the whole opening speech and showed us ( especially the chorus ) how we can comfortably split lines up spontaneously but still keep the text sounding fluid and natural.