Fall play review

The fall play was in my opinion to long, it had way to many long and useless conversations.

That could have been cut out. The long and "boring" conversations made me feel like time was

passing by extremely slowly. There were some good parts where the jokes made me giggle, but the

long boring conversations that led up the finale where Algi and Jack are confronted by there two

loves did not do the play any good. For example the scene where Jack and Algi are arguing at the

coffee table should have been 2 minuets instead of what felt like 20.

On the other hand I did like the back and forwardness with Algi and Earnest in the beginning of the

play. It set a sertatint tone to the play right from the get-go. We see what type of character Algi is and

how he uses blackmail to push Earnest to talk about personal matters. This opening scene makes Algi

a pretty unlikeable character and he never makes up for it. It is also one of the reasons it does not

feel real when he gets Cissaly at the end. Speaking about the end, it in general felt very forced.

The character just blindly go back to being in love and all is forgiven.  Other than that the play

was very good. The actors did a solid job bringing out specific emotions for specific scenes.

I would rate this play a solid 7/10

Workshop experience

The workshop reminded me a lot of my improv theatre classes back in Sweden. The way it was

structured was just like a normal theatre session, exercises and improv. The improv part is what I was

most comfortable with.  What was different was when we sat down to talk about the various text they

brought with them. Analyzing the texts and then implementing them into an small scene gave me an

even better understanding for creating a play. Other than that I really liked the session with Ben &

Steve and would gladly do it again.

Top five takeaways pages 69-94

1. Time and place, How important timing is and where to place sertatint scenes.

2. The importance of the first meeting

3. constructing a ground plan

4. theatre space

5. Transplanting a play to another world

Top 10 take aways: Thinking like a director

1. A director must be above all Passionate

2. passion is what energizes the directors search for the animus or inner life of a play.

3. Every event has a purpose or function.

4. Interpretation is now recognized as central to the directors work.

5. Every scene between actors could be called an event

6.  It is easy to "miss the forest for the trees" don't get to caught up with the characters. This can make the play shortchanged

7. Architecture is very important for all types of theatre.

8.  A director must be a master of narrative

9. The use of language can change the feel of a play. (change the whole mood)

10. Every change of action produces a new segment, called a beat.

What I am confused about

1. types of research

What I want to learn more about

1. Analyzing language

Directors vision: The sandbox

Director's vision: The sandbox

The play is set in Sweden (no specific year period) We are introduced to a kindergarten with kids running wild and having fun. Everything seems ok until one of the children discovers a dead body buried in the sandbox. Panic erupts, children screaming and crying. The body is one of the workers at the kindergarten. My vision for this scene is to have the lights turn to a most uncomfortable red. The stage will become completely silent, the audience must be able to hear a pin drop. This silence will go on for about 5 seconds. Then there will be hard and loud drums (as in a orchestra) We see all the children around start to panic and the adult staff will try to contain them. But the child who discovers the body will stand completely still in shock. The scene will then go dark.

In the next scene we see detective Ulfbjorn  standing outside the kindergarten just a few feet away from the sandbox which is now a crime scene. He stands with his notebook taking down notes. The light in this scene is not particular sad. It is warm and in the back round we hear the birds sing (this to indicate that it is the next morning) The other detective (detective Rosling) walks up to him and starts a conversation asking him what happened. Detective Ulfbjorn does not respond, he just squats down and looks at the sandbox closer. For this scene i want the audience to really start to think about what happened. Not just the fact that someone died, but also why. Detective Ulfbjorn says “Lets go inside”  The two of them begin walking towards the building. They get to the door and stop, The whole building then starts to rotate. The lights begin to fade and turn dark, at the same time music that sounds interesting starts playing. (like when the main characters in a movie walk into a haunted house/building) The stage is rearranged at the same time as the building rotates. The inside of the kindergarten looks old and i want it to give the audience a sertain chill down their spine as if something is wrong with the whole building.

Stage model

Sketch design concept.

The sketch model is presenting the model concept that I came up with during class.
A kinder-garden. The perfect stage to hold a criminal drama. Nothing is considered more innocent than a kinder-garden, until someone gets murdered in the sandbox.

My first thought was to have the play set in 1940's Sweden. Then include the mistreating of jews into the mix. And this sounded interesting until I realized that a kinder gardens play ground in the 1940's did not include sandbox. Soooo that idea quickly went in the trash sense I was so hooked on the concept of having a murder investigation where the crime scene is a sandbox.

I decided to have the kinder gardens main building rotate, this I believe will give the audience a better feeling when it comes to immersion. Just seeing the whole building spin will be very cool I think. When the building rotates the Sandbox outside will be removed and 4 school benches with chairs will be brought out instead.

And for the main object of the play, The sandbox. Its sides will have a dark red color and the top edge will be a pretty standard blue. I also think that adding real sand in the box will also add to the realism of the play. So for example when the victim gets murdered there will be splashes of sand as he fights for his life. After scene, sweepers can simply come in and quickly sweep the sand that spills over away of stage. other there will also be a jumping jack chalked out on the floor and a play ground painted in the background for added depth.

For the lighting I will have it very warm and happy for the scenes before the murder and during 1 or 2 love scenes between one of the teachers and one of the main detectives. But the remainder of the play will be pretty dark with hints of dark blue light and gray shades.

My directors vision for the play will be me own. It will have hints of Stanislawski and Peter brook. So my vision for theatre is very similar to Stanislawskis vision, I will simply try to make the audience not able to clearly separate the good from the bad. This I will do by adding evil into the characters when it is not expected. And add kindness vise versa.

Sketch

What is theater?

Theater is something that has been apart of my life for as long as I can remember. For me it was an escape from my daily life. But it didn't start out that way, it started with a more innocent beginning.

I was just 8 years old when the whole concept of pretending to be someone else in front of people became a thing for me. But as I got older I realized that it's so much more than that. 

To me acting & theater is a way of making people feel different emotions. Not just the basic ones like laughing, crying & and the feeling of tension, but feelings like betrayal, friendship, companionship, whats right & whats wrong, compassion. So to me Theater is simply a way to make the audience FEEL. I want them to really feel what the character is going through. And I as a watcher of theater want to feel what the character are feeling. 

So in the end, the word "feel" comes up a lot when I think or talk about theater. I can't really put all of my thoughts about theater & acting into a single post. Would probably need a 700 page book to do that. But even if I wrote a 700 page book about it, I would still come back to that word... "feel"

TEST