In class writing

What do you intend to set as your intention(s)? What do you hope the impact(s) on the audience will be? How might you assess the efficacy of that in the talkback (what questions can you ask, etc.)?

9/2

My intention for the solo project will be to bring the audience/viewer into the mind of the character in a short period of time.  Succeeding with this task may be a bit of a stretch due to how little time 4-7 minutes is to develop a character. But it will be the main focus, after all, method acting is meant to make the character more believable, understandable & make the entire performance more truthful. I hope the audience feels compassion or sympathy for the character. I don't think they will feel any disgust as you might feel when you watch the whole play "The curious incident of the Dog in the Nighttime"  This is due to the fact that you haven't seen the character before this intense moment, the solo project will be Ed's monologue to Christopher on page 46.  This is Ed's most emotional moment in the play, we find out that all along it was he that killed the dog. So in the moment of the play, I hope that the audience feels shook at first and then slowly fall into sympathy or just hate him, that is up to the audience I think. But for the solo project there really is no build up in the words "I killed Wellington". The solo project could start with that and it would have no significant impact on the viewer.  So I will have to focus on the performance itself instead and make the most out of my abilities as an actor to bring the words from the book into the hearts of the viewer. 

Solo project revision

My solo project last year was very rushed and not very well thought trough. For instance I choose to do a phone call... Not the best choice for a solo piece. I would like to do a real monologue this year from a play that I actually like. Something that shows off my good abilities as an actor but also something that is relatable too the audience sense I really like method acting. This year is going to have to be all theatre for me due to my injured knee, soo there won't be any excuses this year for not going all in and doing my best job with every performance I do. I really hope to become a better actor this year, now when I have the time and have chosen to commit to theatre I really have no choice but to become better. This is what I wanna do for the rest of my life. Be that movies or theatre, I really just love acting.  The solo piece was in no other words a disgrace by my own standards of myself. It was bad due to how I didn't put my hear and soul into it, it wasn't "important" to me.

This year I will focus more on character development for my performance. Show of the characters strengths and weaknesses. Focus on emotion and delivery of words.

final project performance

https://youtu.be/GXMky9EmLEA

Final report

For my solo project i decided to focus on realism. The text i chose for the project was from the play ‘lose ends’ its from page 26 when Paul and Ben are arguing over Pauls style of life. I decided to have the text as inspiration to my performance. For my performance i wanted to do a phone call, just a simple phone call. This due to how the simple stuff is usually where most people don’t focus as much or pay as much attention. However i did not live up to my own expectations, I didn’t prepare as much as i should have. I should have spent more time on the actual performance instead of spending most of my time looking for a text to work with. Overall it didn’t go as well as i hoped, peace.

Theorist background info, context and discussion.

Konstantin Stanislavskij, born in Russia 1863. He is considered to be the man who “created” method acting. He is also the co-founder of the Moscow art theatre (MAT) His system, methods and techniques are still used today to train actors. He grew up in a wealthy family and was introduced to theatre at an early age. His family even had their own little theatre were Konstantin grew up acting, writing and performing. He wanted to be a great actor himself but ended up being one the greatest directors ever. What fascinates me the most is the fact that one man changed the standard of theatre in itself. He gave the world what is today know as just “acting” to many. All the big movie actors use his methods to portray a believable character.  
Two of my favorite examples of this is Heath Ledger’s “Joker” in Batman: The dark knight (2008) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RWgyKDfFC_U  and John Bernthal's Punisher (Frank Castle) in Netflix’s “The Punisher” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xWh6A6ZIpfo  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=czxlWXqaIzo

The Scene from Batman: The dark knight with the joker (The interrogation scene) is considered to be one of the best scenes in movie history. What is displayed in the scene is the many months that Heath Ledger put into his character. Heath locked himself in a hotel room for weeks on end and perfected the insanity of the Joker. His character and his work with it is considered to be one of the best examples ever of pure and perfect method acting. John Bernthal’s Punisher is also a great one but not equally as critically acclaimed as Heath Ledger’s Joker. Yet his job as The Punisher is one of my favorites and is a great job of method acting. The first scene is The Punisher (real name: Frank Castle) showing Daredevil his place in this world. We see and hear the pain in his voice as he explains why all these bad people have to die. In the second scene we see The Punisher in court, explaining the same thing to the courthouse. And just like Ledger, Bernthal perfected his character using the same methods.

The realism within the characters is what Stanislavkij’s directing style, method, theory and artistic beliefs is all about. He always wanted to show the most believable characters to the audience. He wanted us to feel what the character was feeling and wanted us to be able to relate to him/her,

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1wDcYxpxjFS9NAmMVoRB04OSb5aDh7fLp7tHoLyxrsP8/edit?usp=sharing

Solo project 1.

Konstantin Stanislavskij: 
His base concept was realism, considered the purest form of acting. Method acting changed the way  actors created their characters. Gone where the days of exaggerating movements and words. With method acting it was all about being real and making the audience believe everything you said or did.

The Stanislavski System:

1. Relaxation, relax while performing.

2. Concentration, respond to your imagination.

3. Work with senses. Recall sensations.

4. sense of truth, trust your instincts.

5. Given circumstances, great the world

6. Contact and communication, improvise with the world.

7. Units and objectives. Divide role into individual units, defined by character goals.

8. Logic and believability, objective = consistency.

9. Work with the text, Uncover and perform the social, political and artistic meaning of the world,

10. The creative state of mind: An automatic culmination of all the previous steps.

Stanislavski’s working method could be compared to his system, it started from within and eventually was displayed on the outside. The method is obviously to project naturalism, the way his method starts is by asking himself all the questions that link him and the character together, these questions would be answered and the answers would activate psychologically and eventually be displayed physically. His working method is about starting from within and eventually finishing on the outside 

monologue reflection

My monologue was very challenging to perform. The words made no real sense and the character had no clear back round. It was fun and challenging at the same time. But for next time I think I'm going to choose something a lot less "theatre" meaning I would perform something more clear. Something that has more of a clear story and have me depend on acting out certain emotions. For this monologue I could perform the words however I liked due to how the words made no real sense :)