Thursday 16th April

Today we recorded the moment of choral speaking and some breath. Why did we do this?

We have decided to record ourselves speaking part of the chorus lines and also breathing so that we can add another element of multimedia to our scene. If we simply spoke the words of the chorus whilst doing the physical theatre actions that we have created with it, then it would not be as effective than if we used a speaker to blast our recording down to the basketball court where we will be performing, whilst our audience watch out of the window.

How will having the pre-recorded sound support this moment of the performance? The audience will be listening to this whilst you perform on the basketball court. 

The pre-recorded sound will help to support this moment of performance as the sound will be a lot clearer and louder for the audience to hear, rather than if we were just saying the words ourselves. 

How is your piece relevant for an audience?

In our groups, we discussed how and why our scenes from Antigone were still relevant to a modern day audience. Our scene is about how Antigone was going to be sent to a cave to die, although Ismene would be spared. We thought that this has some kind of a similarity to how people are often sentenced to prison or even to death for unjust reasons. It also made me think of countries in the Middle East that punish women to an extreme extent for the smallest of things- simply because of their gender. Also, our scene picks up on close family ties and how a difference in beliefs can pull a family (or in our case, a sister-bond) apart. Lastly, our scene also shows Creon as a powerful dictator who makes laws that would result in unfortunate outcomes if misused, similar to Kim Jong- un (North Korea’s supreme leader). 

How is the moment of multimedia in your scene relevant to the piece? 

Our use of multimedia is relevant for our piece as it shows a harsh, edgy video of Antigone being pulled away to her cave, which illustrates her defeat and anger towards Creon. It also shows her strength towards her beliefs; although she is reluctant to be taken away, she would rather do this then apologise the burial of her brother. Video clips of Ismene and Creon flash quite often in the video, to show her crowning thoughts whilst being viciously pulled away by the guards. The multimedia also adds a slight twist to our theme, creating a sense of horror/thriller. Although we did no filming today, we worked on where and how we were going to film our scene. We continued to brainstorm as a group. All in all, we decided that we would all be wearing simply black- except for me (Ismene) who will wear a white t-shirt (which is what I will be wearing in the performance). We have chosen music to put behind the video- it is slow paced and edgy, the kind of music you would hear in a horror movie. 

Here are the notes I wrote up for each group:

Antonia's group:

• Comedy was brilliant. Antonia and Tim work well. Sometimes the comedy seemed a little too forced, though. 
• Audience enjoyed/ felt comfortable- broke the 4th wall
• Use of multimedia- mobile phones, modernised

Logan's group:

• Choral movement was interesting 
• Movement links into the script and spoken words
• Body language and characterization by Eric made it clear that he was Creon, the leader.
• Sherene delivered lines well- she seemed strong and rebellious- like Antigone.
• 
  
•  The modernization of language made Creon’s character more casual. Like a prime minister- relates to a modern day audience.

Rory’s Group:

• Use of multimedia by Tara and Phoebe- interesting, illuminated the main characters of the scene 
• Rory as Haemon showed a desperate and passionate love for Antigone. 

Harmony’s Group:

• Characterisation by Jake was convincing- nice use of voice and physicality to show his blindness.
•  Harmony and Natasha used the space well- nice physicality

What meets need to be developed and why? 

I think a major improvement that we could all work on is learning lines- a few people still had their scripts in their hands whilst performing. This dulled the scene slightly as the actor did not have their full concentration on the space around them and their physicality. Also, I think that we could all improve our timings to make sure our scenes are fast paced, making transitions smooth between each different scene.

How did the pieces become relevant for a contemporary audience?

The pieces became relevant due to the multimedia that was used- it allows the audience to familiarize with the scene if some element of modern technology has been added to it. Also, most groups have modernised their script so that the audience grasp a better understanding of what is going on in our scenes. Physicality has also been developed, giving the play an abstract feel to it which is often visually enjoyable as an audience member watching a performance.

Mondays lesson- How to incorporate Multimedia

My group are doing the scene where Creon announces that Antigone will be sent to a cave to die, but Ismene will be spared. After spending some time discussing as a group and brainstorming ideas we have decided to use the guards of Creon to represent the Chorus. We will start by having the guards asking Creon what decision he is going to make- what is he going to do with Antigone and Ismene? We have decided to have Antigone and Ismene tied up by two ropes that are hanging from the poles of the ceiling, to show that they have been captured by both the guards and Creon. 

In terms of multimedia in our scene, we have decided to use a projector in our scene which will project a video onto the back wall of our room. The video will be of Antigone being taken away to the cave to die; the video will feature the guards, Creon, Antigone and Ismene, shown in a very horror-movie-type-of-way . The video will end with a close up of Connors face (who is playing Creon) and he will be repetitively mouthing Antigone's name. I think this ending scene is effective as it is a way to show how Creon is constantly clouding Antigone's thoughts, and how he has some kind of eternal power over her that she is constantly fighting. The use of the video and multimedia within our scene enhances our performance as it gives it a slight twist in genre, making it seem more like a horror/thriller. It also offers the audience some excitement within the scene, rather than having a life performance all throughout the scene. 

Here is a list of the multimedia idea's we brainstormed:

We also decided to make changes to our script. We decided to do this so that it would be able the fit in with our choice of multimedia; we thought it would seem a bit odd to have ancient Greek text whilst modern day technology was being heavily used. We decided to heavily change the script when there is a moment between Antigone and Ismene, so that the scene in total made more sense and had more text to work with (performance wise).

This is the finalised version of script between Antigone and Ismene:

Staging

Due to our heavy use of props and set within our scene, we thought it would be best to simply have the audience standing at the back of of the room, whilst we perform in-front of them. We also thought it would be best to use our space like this as it will allow every audience member to have a clear view of the video that will be projected onto the back wall. We thought about doing a traverse style of staging at first as we thought this would perhaps be more interesting as actors to perform with, however we came to a conclusion that it would not work well and would be better to keep it simple. At the end of our scene, Creon barges through the door at the back of the door, walks across the performance space and orders the audience out the other door. This is an easy and quick way to move the audience from room to room without having to come out of character to do so.

Monday's lesson- Live feed and Garage Band

In today's lesson we were taught how to use Garage band and Live feed which are two elements of multimedia that would be effective if we decided to incorporate them into our scenes.

I think that using garage band would be extremely interesting as we have been showed that there are various different sound effects that can be produced by it, and just by adding sound effects or even music to a performance, it can add to the piece so much and bring it to life in many different ways. Also, the app is designed to record sound, so the quality would also be much better than a sound bite from a phone. My group and I discussed the use of sound effects and music within our scene and in total we agreed that it would be an interesting idea and something we definitely would want to incorporate, whether we used garage band or not. After brainstorming for a while, I suggested a song idea for our scene. The song is called "Cold" By Lucy Schwartz and I thought that it would be an appropriate fit for our scene as it is somewhat spine-chilling and ethereal (the song could be played whilst Antigone is in the cave). 

In the lesson the live feed seemed extremely effective and compelling as an audience member. I liked the idea of having a scene being projected on-screen whilst a live scene was already going on. For Antigone in general, I think the live feed is a fantastic idea and can be used in various different ways to suit the play and its themes, although for my particular theme we did not think that a live feed would be very sufficient. We thought that due to the way our scene played out, it would not have the same effect that it would for other parts of Antigone, so we have decided to use different multimedia instead. 

In the lesson we watched some video's by Katie Mitchell who is a director for the National Theatre. She also uses a lot of live feed a lot in her work- she says this gives the illusion of transforming between real life and a dream- what actors see, and what is reality. Adding to this idea, you could change effects on the camera,for example; the lens used, the filter and the focus all clearly portray what the character is experiencing. I enjoyed watching the interview with the director as I had no previous knowledge on what a live feed was or especially how it could be used within performance. Although my group have decided not to use the live feed within our particular scene, i am excited to see how other group's will incorporate it into their individual scenes and i am also excited to see how i can use this aspect of multimedia in any future performances. 

Katie Mitchell's "Waves". She used a live feed for this play. 

Lesson 3, 26/3/15

In the lesson today we explored the two different versions of Antigone. With my partner Phoebe, we explored Version 1 of Antigone which contrasted majorly with Version 2. The version of the play I explored used very simplistic language which often became humorous although I felt that it sometimes took the intensity away from the scene. Also, it did not highlight Antigone's religious beliefs that led her to bury the body of her brother- instead it portrayed Antigone as a rebellious figure. Perhaps this was done to suit the modern audience; making Antigone rebellious for moral instead of religious reasons may make her more relatable. The other version of Antigone was written with  almost no punctuation, apart from hyphens to indicate pauses, or changes in ideas. Perhaps the writer left it this way to give the actors  more freedom to interpret the text the way they wanted to. In total, the two different versions of the play portrayed Antigone’s character very differently, and the language also changed Creon as well. In version 2, he is aggressive, and speaks to Antigone coldly, whilst his language in version 1 is friendlier. An example of this was that in version 1, Creon tells Antigone that he can’t believe she buried Polyneices, and asks her to deny it, whilst in version two, he has an accusing manner, saying that “it is my duty to have you punished”.

Although I thoroughly enjoyed exploring the version of the text that i was given, I personally the other version of the play as the style of writing and language was raw, edgy and gave the actors a chance to experiment with a challenging scene.

After we explored different versions of the text, we were then put into groups. We were told that we had to make a short scene (no longer than 5 minutes) that summed up Antigone, although we could fit it to our own interpretations.  

My group decided that we wanted our piece to be set between two gangs. Creon, who in our scene was called "Big Mac" was naturally the leader of the gang. Haemon, who was known as "Killamanshankwa" in our scene was Creon's side kick of the gang. Polyneices was known as the traitor of the gang as he had tried to move to another gang, although he was shot (by his brother Etecoles) whilst trying. The leader of the gang- Big Mac said that he was a traitor of the group and he couldn't be buried. Antigone who was known as "Tiggy" demanded her brother to be buried. Big Mac refused, but Tiggy did so anyway. The scene ended when Big Mac found out about the burial and wanted to punish/ torture Tiggy, but she had already killed herself. Me and Sherene played the part of Tiggy (we shared the role) which I found extremely fun to play as it was interesting to take on the part of a female gang member who was rebelling against the leader. I liked the gang idea that our group came up with and i also think we used appropriate language to suit the theme, for example the names of the characters. The language used also added comedy to our scene, which was what we were trying to achieve. 



























We then watched everybody else's scenes and how they used their own interpretations to develop Antigone. Here are my notes for the scenes:

Tim’s group:

• Set in a extremely wealthy mans mansion/castle.

• A hilarious scene- Nice use of accents and stereotypes to create humor which the audience thoroughly enjoyed.

Susanna's group:

• Set in a school

• The chorus was a group of gossiping girls which was highly effective as they spoke simultaneously which made it clear that they were the chorus

• Creon was a Head Master, who was evidently the dominant figure who controls the rules. Often school students disobey the head teacher, which is similar to Antigone rebelling against Creon. 

Cameron’s group:

• Set in the Big Brother house.

• Realistic style acting as the characters argued constantly- just like the actual show

• Creon was represented by the big brother as all the housemates complained to him and was seen as a godly figure as he was ever-present. 

Nina’s group:

• Set within a Facebook group chat, whilst the chorus was represented as Siri which was brilliant for comedy. The use of multimedia was also excellent and well timed.

Roseby's group:

• Set in a  roaring 20's america gang-style theme.
• Gloria took on the role of Creon which was brilliant as she embodied an imposing, aggressive leader
• Elements of comedy between Gloria and those who were of a lower status to her

Eric’s group:

• The theme was slightly unclear although the characters were extremely clear and so was status

• The portrayal of Antigone and Ismene was excellent, because they were two young fiery sisters that were faithful and loyal to one another, turning Antigone’s crime more about family than religion.

Lesson 3, Set Design Task

Set Design 

Our task is to make our own set design for Antigone. At first I wasn't sure how exactly I was going to go about doing this- i thought maybe I could set it somewhere exotic like a jungle or a forest and have the audience doing a promenade (like our own performance) but I then had a different idea and that was to do it on a roof top. I wanted the rooftop to be somewhere urban, for example a rooftop looking over the city of Chicago or New York where there are hundreds of tall buildings that stretch across the skyline. I wanted this because the audience would be able to look over a buzzing city which could be represented as a modern version of the city of Thebes. 






I started off by thinking about lighting. I think that lighting is very important because when the audience arrive to the performance the first thing they see is the bright lights that surround the performance. Even the color of lighting can help set the scene and portray main themes of the play. I have decided to place four strong powerful beams on each corner of the rooftop which project out bright colored lights into the sky. The colors should be strong and powerful, for example deep reds, oranges and yellows. Throughout the performance the lights will move about, get brighter, get weaker or cut our completely. This will be  the main use of multimedia within the performance. 



In the middle of the stage there is going to be a raised platform, perhaps just a black block that has two steps leading up to it. This block will be used to demonstrate status- for example Creon will stand on this block when declaring that Antigone will be taken away, etc. The block will also be used for when Antigone hangs herself and when Haemon takes his own life. In total, the block will be used for important moments of key scenes.

The seating around the stage is going to be set up in an amphitheater- style way, where there will be rows of raised seats around the edge of the roof. On the floor there will be a projection across the performance space which will change image from scene to scene. For example, when Antigone is in her cave about to be buried there will be a projection of rocks across the floor. 

The rest of my annotations are written on my plan below:

Lesson 3, Multimedia Monday 16th March

Search online, a "Multimedia Theatre Production" and find a YouTube clip taken from the piece. Watch it and reflect on the following question:

"Within a Theatre production, how does the use of multimedia help in its communication to an audience? What does it add to the piece?"

The production I have decided to reflect on is a piece called "Selfie" which was performed at the National Theatre. The multimedia used was a variety of sound effects, music, lighting and a projector. The sound effects were used to help communicate to the audience as they  enhanced certain points of the play- for example a key scene where the protagonist gets into a very emotional, angry state, she starts to throw objects around the stage. The sound effects are used to enhance the crashing and smashing of these objects, which is effective as it allows the actors anger to be intensified for the audience through the loud, violent sound effects. The music used also help to communicate with the audience as it was used for transitions. As a scene was coming to an end, an actor on stage would start to sing, and then a backing track would come in and the lights would start to strobe, and then the next scene would quickly come into place. This would only happen when a 'party' scene was about to begin, so the use of music and lights combined helped to communicate to the audience that there was about to be a dramatic shift in scenes. The juxtaposition between the party scenes and the other scenes was demonstrated by the use of multimedia within the performance. Furthermore, throughout the play a projector was used to portray images that were suitable for certain scenes. At the start of the play, the character picked up her Ipad, and as she clicked on a photo of herself, the photo came up on the projector that was visible for the whole audience to see. What I thought was extremely clever was as the play went on, we see character development with the protagonist; at first she is a favorite, relatable character, but she eventually becomes an unlikable, spiteful character. As we see this happening, the image on the screen (that is ever-present throughout the play) starts off as a beautiful photo of the protagonist, but eventually ends up as a twisted, distorted image of the character by the end of the play. I loved the use of the projector as it communicated to the audience in a visual sense just how much the protagonist had changed and developed into something unlikable throughout the play. 

In total, I think that Multimedia adds to performances as it enhances important aspects, whilst allowing the audience to have their own interpretation of the piece as well. In ‘Selfie’ the Multimedia was fantastic to demonstrate juxtaposition, to enhance certain aspects of the play, and to show a visual representation of character development.

Additional work:

Find a review of a multimedia theatre production and see what Theatre critics have to say.  

In the holiday's I went to see the play The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Nighttime. The play was rich in utilizing Multimedia, so i have decided to look at what a theatre critic has to say about it.  

"Simon Stephens has done an expert job of translating Haddon’s writing into absorbing theatre. Instead of slavishly reproducing the book’s detail, he captures its spirit with silvery fluency. And while the depiction of Asperges syndrome is sensitive, it’s not the whole story."

"The complexities and peculiarities of his worldview are expressed through Bunny Christie’s magical design. Evoking the strange algebra of Christopher’s thought processes, it allows us to see him as if from the inside. The walls are his personal storage cabinets, yet as the set is spattered with imagery it comes to resemble a genius’s laboratory.

Confronting the chaos of daily life, he is troubled by sounds, metaphors and unfriendly colors." - Henry Hitching's

Lesson 2, Exploring the text pt. 2

Antigone and Creon

In the lesson today we focused on exploring the relationship between Antigone and Creon. In the same way that we explored the relationship between Antigone and Ismene, we started off in pairs (my partner was Ella) and we then shared our work to the class. Watching different partners explore the relationship between Antigone and Creon was interesting as I noticed in various scenes that anyone that was playing Creon would start off with an aggressive and brazen assurance which would then spark the character Antigone to grow increasingly more angry towards the situation. Both characters within the scene are very stubborn and both hold beliefs that they won't go against. Whilst Creon tried to persuade Antigone to drop her idea of burying her brother and to respect the city's laws, Antigone does not try to persuade Creon to spare her life. She is aware of her consequences due to her actions and does not want to be demeaned by Creon. Regularly, Creon  addresses Antigone's gender and blames her behavior just because she is a woman; he does so to reinforce status between the two that Antigone actively refuses to acknowledge. 

The scene linked to the historical context we had discussed in the lesson as the scene reflects how women were treated within Greek theatre and the importance of the consequences of our actions. Antigone is aware of her consequences but remains stubborn, in despite of Creon. 

"I don't care. There's no greater glory than this for me....everyone here would cheer me, if fear didn't silence them." I feel that she's trying to assure herself of this, because she is afraid that Creon will make her see the error of her ways, and then all this rage and pain will be for nothing.