Unit 310 APPROACHES TO ACTING (Megan Lewis 3989)

 26/1/24 Today was tech rehearsal which meant I was in costume and finally presenting my work to Charlotte and receive feedback and experience what it will be like when I do my final performance. This did relieve me of some stress in addition to helping me feel more prepared for the real thing. Feedback : Increase volume of my voice Learn my one minute introduction Slow down when I speak at parts How I want to improve my performance: Move more Speak more formal (like the era the play is set) learn my one minute introduction express my emotions more calm down whilst on stage In my time outside of dress rehearsal I made sure to relax as I was overwhelmed from performing in addition to once again taking advice from other people from their experience in the dress rehearsals.

  23/1/24 Today was the first day of dress rehearsals to practice with set and the lighting. Myself and Ethan had our rehearsal on the 26th instead which meant that we prioritized preparation for that during this time. We found a secluded area in the college and ran lines. I already memorized mine which meant that I was just refreshing my memory and focusing more on the emotion portrayed through them. As well as rehearsing with Ethan, I made sure to help another person in our class and help him rehearse as his partner was absent from rehearsal. Emotional Memory In order to make sure I was expressing raw emotion when reading Nora's lines I used emotional memory to resurface old emotions as if I was experiencing the situation in real time. This was effective in having me portray her convincingly and make sure I interpreted the lines correctly. Relaxation To make sure I didn't over rehearse I did make sure to use some of Stanislavski's methods to relax my mind and body. This i...

  16/01/24 At the beginning of this rehearsal the entirety of the class participated in a frantic warmup which ensured to get us prepared and energized for rehearsal. We ran around the room, hugged each other, used eye contact and mainly concentrated on our ability to follow instructions. This helped us break boundaries and have a minor introduction to what the world of acting looks like if you want to pursue it as a career path. Rehearsal Myself and Ethan ran through our piece the best we could whilst still using scripts as guidance. We blocked our movements in the scene in addition to creating a general concept for what our final performance will look like. Due to repeating the scene multiple times, by the end we were quite familiar with the script and started to only look at it if necessary. Costuming During this rehearsal time we brainstormed ideas for the props and costuming we may want to include in our performance. Thankfully the acting department had provided some costumes ...

 9/1/24 Before we started rehearsing with our partners, Charlotte led a group warm up to help us relax and be prepared to become our characters. We did a roll down in addition to vocal warm ups to guarantee we can use the rehearsal time most efficiently. In our main rehearsal we began by improvising as the characters whilst reading off our scripts to try and get a basic idea of how we would like our performance to look. We started brainstorming what props and costuming we want to incorporate in addition to taking feedback from each other on our portrayals. We were also provided with the opportunity to view the costumes provided by the drama department and see if we wanted to use any of them. Emotional Memory After reading through the script once we decided that we needed to get into the role a bit more. We both began recycling old emotions to attempt to connect with the character better and make sure our performance is convincing. Nora is very defensive in the scene therefore I beg...

 Exam Introduction My name is Megan Lewis and my candidate number is 3989. I'm playing the role of Nora Helmer in A Doll's House by Henrik Ibsen. My chosen practitioner is Konstantin Stanislavski and due to him being such a strong advocate for realism for the entirety of his career, I thought his methodology would be best suited for this play as its covers  a variety of naturalistic topics. In preparation for our performance I made sure to dedicate a significant amount of time towards relaxation techniques as Stanislavski believed muscular tension disrupts with an actors inner work. In addition to this, off stage and on stage I used emotional memory to recycle past emotions in order to create natural reactions and ensure I give a convincing performance. I also use improvisation and 'The Magic If' on stage during my performance in attempt to think like my character and portray Nora’s anxious, defensive nature in the scene effectively. This ensures I move more freely and ...