Styles of acting - Vaudeville Evaluation

With Vaudeville I thought that it was good but I thought it was quite challenging. I thought that it was good in the fact that I was able to be mellowing dramatic and that the movement could be over the top. However I didn’t like it as it has to have a pace to it and it has to be speedy and I don’t feel like I can’t move fast enough and in a way slightly kill the mood/ atmosphere for the this style of performance. When reading the lines for the script I thought that it would seem more like a kind of sketch from a TV show. I thought that the character “milkman” was quite a gullible character and was slightly comedic.   

Styles of acting - Vaudeville

Pre -Vaudeville (1881 – 1920)

·         Was before the civil war theatre was dominated by burlesque and had many risqué things.

·         Theatre was not only a place to entertained, was for men to have a drink, aimed at a male audience.

After the civil war

·         1881 – tony pastor said that theatre shouldn’t be just for men and shows having a wide variety of different performances in one evening are missing a completely separate audience. 

·         He banned drinking in the theatre

·         He then started to perform Shakespeare, acrobats, singers, presentations of dance and comedy all at in the same evening.

·         He removed all the risqué and inappropriate content and aimed to make it for everyone.

What he found out

·         He could make a huge amount of money if they kept putting on performances like this.

·         As the years went on more amusements became available to choose from (circuses/mimes/singers etc)

·         Performances in saloons and burlesque houses still continued

The purpose

·         The sole purpose of Vaudeville was to entertain the audiences.

·         Over the years (1880 to the early 1920s) the easiest was to this was to make people laugh.

·         There was an increase in Comedy Sketches which was full of slapstick comedy e.g.           Charlie Chaplin

The Demise of Vaudeville

·         Over years it became more and more popular appealing to many different audiences, and for the first time Irish performers and black performers.

·         When Silent movies started to be released for cheaper prices , meaning Vaudeville started a big competition.

·         Vaudeville in theatres became less common as they could not support themselves as ,uch as they once could.

So what is Vaudeville now?

·         Shows like Britain’s got talent and the Royal Variety performances.

·         However we also have kept the comedy sketches that were bought to life by Vaudeville  (Laurel and Hardy).

·         This is called New Vaudeville .

What makes it new Vaudeville

·         Over the top physically

·         Comedy sketch type performance

·         No character relationship with the audience

·         Often recognise your audience. Acknowledging the they are there. 

Styles of Acting - Shakespeare Evaluation

I had the role of “Bottom”. The character is presented as stuck up actor who thinks he is superior to the other actors in the upcoming play. The way I made him seem stuck up is by having a mellow dramatic British voice and I tried to make my body movement as big as possible as it would mean that the audience would look at me more than any other person, meaning I’m thinking more like my character. When analysing my script I looked at ways in which I could say certain and when Bottom says “the raging rocks, the shivering shocks…”etc, I thought it would be comical to do it in a monologue style and rather over the top as it would be funny.

Style of Acting - Shakespeare

Shakespeare

·         In 1576 James Burbage (father or the actor Richard Burbage) bought a lease and permission to build “The Theatre” in Shoreditch London.

·         The Lord Chamberlain’s Men (A theatre company led by Richard Burbage, performing Shakespeare’s plays) were the company in residence from 1594 1596.

Theatre Shakespeare Style

·         Writers began by presenting their ideas for a plot. The actors and managers then decided whether they liked it or not, and offer a down payment for its completion.

·         Writers created their characters with certain actors in mind. For example knowing that Richard Burbage was the Chamberlin’s leading man, and that he had a good memory for long scripts, Shakespeare created the parts for Richard III and Hamlet for him. And as the actor grew older, Shakespeare made his characters more mature.

·         This meant that he would not see who else was going to be on the stage until they actually rehearsed the scene.

·         Rehearsals were used to sort out the details not specified in the script. Entrances, costumes, and songs were filled in by actors.

1593 London Theatres close due to outbreaks of the bubonic plagues in England

Moving across the river

·         From 1596 to 1597 the city of London authorities ban the public performances of plays within the city limits of London.

·         1597 Dispute over the lease of “the theatre”. The puritan owner, Giles Allen. Disapproved of the theatre and the acting troupe. Burbage opens negotiations to re – new the lease of “the theatre”

·         1597 Shakespeare Company of actors moved to the Curtain Theatre after failed negotiations for a new lease for the theatre.

·         1598 Timber from the “theatre” taken to use for the building of a new venue you be called the globe

·         1599 The globe theatre is opened on bankside, London.

1603 The bubonic Plague returns and killed 33,000 people. In 1608 Theatres closed

·         In 1613 June29th, Fire at the globe during a performance of henry VIII

·         1614 Is rebuilt

After Queen Elizabeth

·         After Queen Elizabeth’s death in 1603, King James took the throne. This is known as  the Jacobean period and ran until 1625.

·         Jacobean theatre was dark and disturbing – Grotesquely violent and often shockingly obscene.

·         Sexuality was very prevalent in Jacobean performances, along with a heightened sense of violence and General immoralities

·         As the economy declined, so did the delicacy of theatre performances moved from outdoor to indoor, because of the changeable weather.

Jacobean Dramas

There are two types of Jacobean Theatre : Revenge Plays, Tragicomedies

Revenge Plays

·         Revenger plays were very obscene and violent

Theatre in decline

·         1642 The English civil war broke out between the parliamentarians and the Royalists

·         Parliament then pulled down the globe theatre and was replaced with council houses

·         All actors were to be arrested and anyone who went to see the plays was fined

·         King Charles I was executed by Parliamentarians

·         Oliver Cromwell becomes Lord Protector of England 

Styles of Acting - Physical Theatre (Including Evaluation)

So this week we have been put into our groups for physical theatre and we straight away searched for a religious/political issue that has had a really big impact on people lives. We all decided that 'je suis charlie' would be a good idea for us to use as it is a rather recent and very tragic issue. Straight away I thought of how the Muslim community have gotten the aftermath effect and seem to be looked down on my members of the British community, and that not everyone that is apart of that religion is a mass terrorist who's to kill everyone. To try and simplify this idea and make it into something physical, I thought of having this ball which represented the entire Muslim community and through out the piece, we go back to the 'representation ball' and show that it's slowly falling apart and that it's getting a worse reputation for the actions of the extremists that were involved in the incident.

As a group we have taken on board the type of movement we will use and we have come up with different techniques that are used within Physical Theatre ( Not moving, Contact Improvisation,  Movement, Gesture, Mime). We use some contact improvisation when showing the the death of those that were in the building at the time of the shooting. We also use the "not moving" technique to show that the extremists have a lot of fighting power and push the rest of us (who are representing the police) away. Towards the end of this, what was a ball is now just one person (me) who is left alone in the middle of the floor, no one to support or defend this representation of the Muslim community. The whole purpose of this is to show people how far prejudgement and stereotyping a religion can go and how it can ruin people's lives.

We are performing the piece to a song called "Once upon a Time:The battle of life and death" by Good Charlotte.
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b3gRyrZF0x8

Evaluation

For the small performance on Physical Theatre that myself and the group made together, I genuinely enjoyed it. Personally I would say this as I believe that we worked well as a team and that we really took on the techniques on board for what physical theatre requires. One thing that I thought could have been better is the music choice as it seemed a bit short for our piece however I did like the fact that when the song ends with the heartbeat monitor we all freeze and I think it gave that bit of engagement with the audience as they aren’t sure what’s going to happen next and the heartbeat monitor sound could symbolise the end of the extremist’s life or those who were seriously injured in the terrible incident. 

Styles of Acting - Brecht (and evaluation)

Brecht

·         Was born in 1998 in Germany.

·         During World War 1 he was a medic and he then became a pacifist due to the effects it had on people.

·         He moved to Berlin in search of a career in theatre.

·         He citizenship was removed when he moved to America.

·         He was a communist and due to that was put into the House of Un- American.

·         He then moved back to Europe in 1947 and formed “The Berliner Ensemble”.

Epic Theatre

·         He wanted to make his audience members think when watching his pieces.

·         “hang up their brains with their hats in the cloakroom”.

·         Brecht was against Cathartic theatre

·         He wanted to distant his audience from emotional involvement.

·         He has a range of theatre techniques to remind the audience that they were watching theatre.

Verfremdungseffekt

·         Aka the alienation effect

·         Brecht didn’t want this in his audiences to be alienated, just distanced.

Brecht Techniques 

·         Narration

·         Coming out of role

·         Speaking stage directions

·         Directly addressing the audience

·         Using placards

·         Multi – rolling

·         Minimal props/Costumes/set

·         Symbolic props

·         Symbolic lighting

·         Song and dance

·         Montage (a series of short scenes put together)

·         Spass (fun!)

·         Gestus

·         Narrative which jumps around in time (non-linear)

·         Freeze Frames or Tableau 

Evaluation of Brecht piece

For me performing a small part of a Brecht performance in his style was weird to me, personally due to the fact that I found it rather difficult to read the script and understand what was going on. However when taking on the task, I thought I would see how many of his techniques I could take on, in the piece I was able to multi role and wear symbolic props (monk,peasant & another woman). Personally I though it would be a slight comedy so I thought it would be rather funny to take on the role of a monk and change people's expectations of him. At first I was going to try an Asain like voice as Monks are commonly found in parts of Asia. However to change the expectation of this character I thought it would be a good idea to have a Chavy/London accent in attempt to add a bit of comedy to it, however I think that it didn't really work that much as I didn't hear much of a reaction from the audience.