Finished script I hear you say!?

That's right! We are not only amazing, we now have a completed script adaptation, fully united and ready to put on its feet! I'm so proud of all of our hard work as a group, we have set about to play strong independent women and along the way we have discovered just how strong we all can be.

The following rehearsals are going to be hard work for all of us, as students we are not only battling uni stresses but also personal issues that will no doubt crop up. I can only speak for myself on this but  so glad that we have become as close as we have and am so excited for what we are creating!

We had another session with our mentor again Friday and he's happy with the script, we tried getting up and just improving the movement that could go with the first three units. There was some frustration during this task for lots of reasons, firstly I think we struggled to let go of the words after spending the last month falling in love with them and secondly because we kept stopping and starting. Although this was a pain it's good because we are starting to learn not only what makes each other tick but also what ticks each other off. All part of the learning process 😜

Oooooshhh!!!! And we nearly have all of the costumes sorted 👔👚👗🎽👖

To do list:
-Finish costumes
-Go for coffee with Katie (female bouncer)
-Get scene one on its feet

-Sam x

18th group rehearsal

As usual, we met in our spot for a 10-1 rehearsal. Today's main focus included working some more on the theory side towards our piece. 

The forever working hard Samantha was already writing up some more of our script when we arrived, so we continued with that. We have now got most of the script written up and are extremely looking forward to acting out our scenes. We were going to start today, but as we are studying Stanisksvski we know it is more professional to have a completed script and some of our lines learnt before getting up and doing it. 

Whilst Sam and Lauren H worked on the script, Lauren C and I carried on with actioning some of the lines within the script. We have decided to do this bit by bit as the process is quite long and should not be rushed. 

As we are very excited about our script we again as a team went through and read out our lines in order to familiarise ourselves with the new sections. As of next week we are going to start on the practical side. 

As a final note we have also arranged to take a trip next week to Milton Keynes to get our costumes. This will be exciting!

To do list:

- finish actioning the script

- the last few pages need to be written out. 

- buy costume 

- start working on scene 1

Aurevoir for now 

Sophie x 

18th March - Rehearsal time photo ;)

Just a note!

I just want to say what a pleasure it is working with such an amazing group of talented ladies! Apart from the small stupid disagreement previously documented by Sam hahaha! It was soon sorted out after a cornflake cake. After actioning our script we will be well on our way to getting the performance of Bouncers on its feet! P.s you'll hopefully see a lot more photos too!! 

Love you all …. Just realised I'm legit writing this like we've got the biggest following on our blog ever haha! 

Lauren Head xx  

Session Four

It was inevitable that, looking at Stanislavski approach to acting, that A LOT of round-the-table analysis would be involved. But, of course, we were prepared for that! In this session we got stuck straight in with the analytical work, and so didn't do a practical warm-up.

In our class time we began the Max Stafford Clark process of Actioning. For every single change of motive in the script, we had to apply a verb that matches the intention of the text, to indicate the manner in which the line is, or could be, performed.
Although we didn't get very far in the script, we went into a lot of detail! (Who knew how many actions can be applied to one-word lines?!) But it has set us on track to continue applying and using this technique on the entire script. 

So, signing off for now, but will keep you updated with our progress!
- Lauren Carman x

Round the table analysis

Well! Not only did we unit our whole script today but we also hit a milestone! Our first group disagreement! Dun, dun, dun!! However it wasn't over where the units go, or who gets the best line or even the directorial concept instead it was over where on the page we put the 6 W's!

Yes that's right as a group of strong independent women our first ever argument was about the layout of something that didnt even matter!

What can I say girls! If we keep this up we will be unstoppable!

I so happy with our progress, commitment and dedication to this project and our little theatre company!

Much love to everyone! I hope you're laughing at this as much as I did writting it!

-Sam xx

Session two

n today's session, we began to include voice work into our exploration of Stanislavski rehearsal techniques. We started by massaging our faces, focusing on each part of the face individually. Then we had to "chew toffee", where we had to pretend we had a toffee in our mouths, chewing on it until we eventually swallowed it. Both these exercises warmed up the muscles in our faces and jaw. This exercise was lead by Lauren H and comes from the physical warm up of stans body and mind interlinking.

'What if: Two words with endless possibilities'

Using stans words as inspiration Sophie then ran an improvisation exercise where sophie gave us a scenario and one person had to take lead and the supporting actors had to role with what ever happened and improv until sophie changed the scenario. This exercise was really useful as this is how we will start to put action to our script after our round the table analysis of our adaptation.

We then reflected with our mentor about the improv and even did some with sophie, we also discussed how important improvisation can be not even just in the rehearsal period but also in the chance that something goes wrong on stage.

To do list;
Finish script adaptation
Find stanislavski quotes that work with our group ethos
Discuss possible characterisation

-Sam x

Inspirational quotes - Stanislavski

Inspirational quotes - Stanislavski

“In the circle of light on the state in the midst of darkness, you have the sensation of being entirely alone... This is called solitude in public... During a performance, before an audience of thousands, you can always enclose yourself in this circle, like a snail in its shell... You can carry it wherever you go."

“Never lose yourself on the stage. Always act in your own person, as an artist. The moment you lose yourself on the stage marks the departure from truly living your part and the beginning of exaggerated false acting. Therefore, no matter how much you act, how many parts you take, you should never allow yourself any exception to the rule of using your own feelings. To break that rule is the equivalent of killing the person you are portraying, because you deprive him of a palpitating, living, human soul, which is the real source of life for a part.”

“In spite of my great admiration for individual splendid talents I do not accept the star system. Collective creative effort is the root of our kind of art. That requires ensemble acting and whoever mars that ensemble is committing a crime not only against his comrades but also against the very art of which he is the servant”

First Blog- Here we go!

So this is our first blog! HEY GUYS!  We are made up of strong, independent women who want to challenge gender stereotypes.

Currently, we are looking at an extract from a well known play by John Godber, looking at how the male protagonists could be played as female, without removing any of the original characteristics.

Our approach to the text is rooted in the Stanislavsky system, including the exploration of practitioners who later adopted and further developed his techniques such as Bella Merlin and Michael Chekhov.

We are based in the University of Northampton, in our second year studying BA (Hons) Drama. We are from a variety of places, including Northamptonshire, Buckinghamshire and Norfolk.

Members are Lauren Head, Lauren Carman, Samantha Walton and Sophie Osbourne-Carr.

Session three.

06-03-2015
Well, another very productive day today! Not only did we get the green light on our group ethos taken from the legendary Stanislavski! But we also got the go ahead to start round tabling our adaptation of the script we really wanted to work with!

On top of all this we got to know each other a little better, our mentor included! We did an exercise called 'Guess what about who' there were six questions ranging from 'your favourite ice-cream flavour?' to 'when was the last time you were upset, and why?' Although we were all at ease with each other I know it was hard for all of us to think about the questions and actually admit things to ourselves.

This wasn't just a fun exercise it has also began to create the foundations for our emotion memory work. Although as a theatre group we completely understand the potential dangers of prolonged method acting we still feel like it's important to explore as a group!!

To do list;
-Start actioning our lines and uniting the script
-aquire a regular rehearsal space, where we can get up and start to improve, potentially using the magic if
-Start to think in more depth about our characters style and personality and how that relates to us as individuals!

-Sam x

Magical

Our inspiration for the day! ❤

-Sam x

First session

Firstly we had a session on mindfulness. Mindfulness meditation is an adaptation of Buddhist Vipassana meditation by which one learns to be mindful "the intentional, accepting and non-judgmental focus of one's attention on the emotions, thoughts and sensations occurring in the present moment. Mindfulness meditation can become "a mental position for being able to separate a given experience from an associated emotion, and can facilitate a skillful or mindful response to a given situation". Samantha led the session by firstly asking us to lay down in our own space on the floor. Following this, with Samantha's guidance we relaxed ourselves in to a mediative state focusing on different types of tension. Tension from our feet up to our head. We then focused on releasing the tension and having an awareness of were we found our centres. Weirdly enough all our centres came from our stomach … which upon reading I found that it means we are grounded performers and produce an honest performance when on stage. 

Signing off for now
Lauren Head xx