Contemporary Theatre (21) (Page 11 - 27)

Today we went ran the play from the beginning up until page 27 for Charlie to learn what we did (as he was not in the lesson before) and for the rest of us to polish what we had done. Whilst we have been blocking the play and going through it, I have been making detailed notes on my script, not only to help me remember what we do, but to give me a better understanding of the play and the opportunity to see deeper meanings within it. As well as making notes about blocking (e.g. sat in semi-circle, Winston DSR), I have being making notes on locations and voice directions and intentions. Every time that we change location I draw a blue line to separate the locations, and I write in capitals what location we are now in - I find this useful as I can keep track on where we are and ensure that I understand the play fully, to enable the audience to understand the play. I also make notes on how we should say certain lines and why (e.g. as if bored of having to say the same thing over and over again) as to fully understand the characters attitudes and motivations.

Below are the choices I have made so far and what effects they have on my character:

• Pg12 - Kat says "doublethink" at the same time as me, and then she continues reading - I felt that her character was eager to read and get the spotlight on her. The fact that she has interrupted my character and then took over what I was saying, I believe that my character would feel irritated so I would have irritated facial expressions (by scrunching my nose and perhaps raising one eyebrow) and would then slouch in my chair (having sat up straight).
• Pg13 - Before my next line I would gradually become less irritated and become more engaged in what is being said as my character is interested in the book they are studying. I know this because my character keeps offering her opinions and she describes it as "wonderful".
• However, on page 14, my character is interrupted again (this time by Man) so I may drop my shoulders (which were previously slightly raised as I am trying to get my point across and am concentrating on doing so) to show that I am a bit frustrated. However, the Man does answer my query so I am not frustrated for long.
• Pg14 - "Love. The Future. Hope. Humanity. Freedom." - For this section where we call a lot of words related to the book out, we had to decide on how we would deliver these lines in a naturalistic way but by all being different. I decided to be quite excited with my approach (having previously described the book as "wonderful") so I called my first word out, and then listed then next three on my fingers (as if I was counting how many themes the book has) and I left a slight pause before saying "freedom" as if it was an after-thought (though I raised my voice slightly on this and used a slightly high pitch than normal to show my excitement in coming up with a good answer). 
• Pg17 - "Also, it does take a while before it really..." - this is the third time I am interrupted, therefore I have become much more frustrated. I am especially frustrated as it is my husband that interrupts me (although he does agree with my point). However, he is then interrupted by Martin, so I smirk a little bit as I believe karma caused this to happen. 

Moreover, in this lesson we changed our minds about transitions - we have decided that we shall not take the chairs off to the side and will instead leave them in the semi-circle throughout (or move them to the nearest wall, rather than all at either side, if we need more space). The reasons for this are as follows:

1. The transitions took too long (the audience may become restless during the transitions and lose interest in the piece)
2. Moving the chairs were noisy (thus losing the illusion that we all just disappeared)
3. Accidents could happen in the blackout (such as tripping over chairs, and this could lead to injury or more noise)
4.  Leaving the chairs in the semi-circle could be symbolic. They could represent Big Brother as the chairs are always there, suggesting that you are always being observed and studied, much like how Big Brother keeps an eye on everything.