Week 6 of 13 by Mike Bartlett

Week 6

 

This week was the last week before production week. The first activity was to come up with three gestures symbolizing my character. I found this hard at first but once I thought about it began to fall in to place. I thought about Shannon and about how she reacts to people such as Ruth and Zia. For example Shannon loves Zia when she first meets him. I think that because she feels awkward she distracts herself by fiddling with her hair and making herself look pretty for when a conversation comes up. I also thought about my other character Alice. When Alice enters Edith’s house Alice feels scared because she was thinking questions such as is she dead? Has something happened to her?  . So I came up with stroke her other hand very slowly as she was imagining that she was going through her files. Then when Edith jumps the gesture is dropped. I think Alice does this gesture to keep her body calm then what going on in her head. Also I think Alice will breathe faster to bring tension to this scene. Alice will keep behind Mark for security and defending herself. I think Mark feels that he should protect Alice because he is the reason why Alice is here because of his work as a lawyer.

The main focus about this week was the pace of all the scenes.  Act three was a great start to the week with clean transition. Fast scene changes make the play quicker and less boring. This was the first time that I have seen that ‘13’ is coming together. This play is always about thinking ahead. I think that everyone has improved in there character. For example Issie who plays Rachael has expressed her emotion of anger in Rachael’s character. She has also connected with Amir which makes it look naturalistic. The chemistry that Amir and Rachael have brings the play more realism.

 

Act four was a lot better that previous times rehearsed but there is still some improvement. For example the scene with Ruth John and Stephen needs to be faster to allow that scene to move forward. If the scene is not faster than the audience will switch off. However the pace has improved after a couple of times. Also making the 12 come to pray position makes it more symbolic and respectful for Ruth because of son Simon. I researched the definition of grief. It says

‘Grief is multifaceted response to loss, particularly to the loss of someone or something that has died to which a bond or affection was formed’

From my research I think that Ruth went through this when she lost Simon. When John brings Simon, Ruth tries to change the subject so she doesn’t think about it too much. However she can’t get it off her more because it’s a traumatic experience for a loving mother. If John knows something about Simon then Ruth has a right to know the facts about Simon. I think that Ruth went through a hard time and that she didn’t time off work for it. The reason why I say this is because John says about how they love the person that runs the party not the party itself therefore Ruth has given a hundred per cent into her job. This is why John is right about what he is saying about her political status.

After the rehearsals of act three and four we then moved on to act one and two which needs to bring up the pace again. Once again Act one and two are coming together with the transition. However the pace needs to be faster. With the pace it will give the audience more to look at and no pauses will help it.

Next week’s target is to try my hardest with my performance. In the performance I will be confident with my character and try and not be myself and always my specific character. I was thinking about having headphones in when Shannon enters singing with the hoover to make it more funny for the audience. Then when Ruth looks at me it gives me a signal that something is wrong which makes Shannon say something.

Bibliography

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grief published 14th October 2014