- Liesel wakes up
- The classroom
- The fight
In the post-school rehearsal, we continued 'montage-ing' and mapped out the scenes of:
- The 1st book stealing
- Liesel and Rudy's race
- Liesel and Rudy cloud watching
Thursday, 27 September 2012
Rehearsal: 27/09/12
We had a lesson and a longer, after school rehearsal today, where we continued on the montages. In the lesson, we worked on our appalling stage combat skills (leading to numerous injuries) and eventually choreographed the playground fight scene. At this point we had 3 montage moments/scenes mapped out:
Rehearsal Lesson: 26/9/12
Today was a typical rehearsal lesson. we all brought in stimuli, mainly photos of the 1940s German Education System or the Nazi Book Burnings, and there was also a video entitled Hitler's Children: Seduction, highlighting hiw Hitler brainwashed the children of Germany in his years in power.
Practically, we re-created the classroom scene using a naturalistic style, which then stylisticly cut into the next scene of Liesel and Ludwig fighting in the playground.
Practically, we re-created the classroom scene using a naturalistic style, which then stylisticly cut into the next scene of Liesel and Ludwig fighting in the playground.
Tuesday, 25 September 2012
Monday, 24 September 2012
24/09/12 Planning lesson and rehearsal
Today we made a timeline for 'The Book Thief', starting now and ending on Thursday 14th March 2013- the performance date.
We also went through our whole piece so far with the teacher verbally, and it was at this point that we realised we needed to do some practical stuff quickly.
Cue afternoon rehearsal...
We did surprisingly well considering there were only 4 of us. We worked on the Hans/Liesel scene leading up until Liesel's first day of school, and came to the conclusion Josh is good at Hans, Sanna is good at Liesel, Nikki is good as Rudy and I am good at narration. So all in all, a good rehearsal, exploring character's and developing the plot line :)
Fin.
We also went through our whole piece so far with the teacher verbally, and it was at this point that we realised we needed to do some practical stuff quickly.
Cue afternoon rehearsal...
We did surprisingly well considering there were only 4 of us. We worked on the Hans/Liesel scene leading up until Liesel's first day of school, and came to the conclusion Josh is good at Hans, Sanna is good at Liesel, Nikki is good as Rudy and I am good at narration. So all in all, a good rehearsal, exploring character's and developing the plot line :)
Fin.
Tuesday, 18 September 2012
18/09/12 First Active Lesson
First lesson where we actually moved from our seats today. Had our 1st out-of-lesson rehearsal in which we fine-tuned the plot line and started throwing ideas around for specific moments. We had a really nice outline for the book-burning scene, but we have been warned by the teacher to keep details to a minimum at the moment.
In the actual lesson, we discussed using a montage of short scenes to show Liesel and Rudy's relationship developing throughout the play, which will ultimately make the ending more heart-wrenching/depressing for the audience. We picked out 13 moments in the book for the montage, and then we decided to improvise the 1st one, which was Liesel and Rudy's first football match.
This was quite amusing. In a dramatical sense, it showed we were all very out of practice when it comes to the practical side of the course. Eventually (after a lot of encouragement-cough-direction-cough from the teacher) we were able to construct several freeze frames and finally a whole scene.
We did have problems with pretending we were 10-year old boys from Germany in 1939, but I think that's common to most actors who have a) just returned to the profession after a 4-month hiatus and b) are a group of amateur teenagers from Essex.
Generally, these traits do not coincide.
Anyway, at 2:29 on the dot, we completed 1 of 13 short scenes, with only another 12 to go.
Over and out.
In the actual lesson, we discussed using a montage of short scenes to show Liesel and Rudy's relationship developing throughout the play, which will ultimately make the ending more heart-wrenching/depressing for the audience. We picked out 13 moments in the book for the montage, and then we decided to improvise the 1st one, which was Liesel and Rudy's first football match.
This was quite amusing. In a dramatical sense, it showed we were all very out of practice when it comes to the practical side of the course. Eventually (after a lot of encouragement-cough-direction-cough from the teacher) we were able to construct several freeze frames and finally a whole scene.
We did have problems with pretending we were 10-year old boys from Germany in 1939, but I think that's common to most actors who have a) just returned to the profession after a 4-month hiatus and b) are a group of amateur teenagers from Essex.
Generally, these traits do not coincide.
Anyway, at 2:29 on the dot, we completed 1 of 13 short scenes, with only another 12 to go.
Over and out.
Monday, 17 September 2012
'Love and Information' by Caryl Churchill
We went to see a play at the Royal Court Theatre on Saturday 15th called 'Love and Information' which we thought would help us with ideas for 'The Book Thief'.
'Playwright Caryl Churchill’s latest venture at the Royal Court Theatre is Love and Information: scene-after-scene of self-contained snapshots of conversation, in a slick stream of consciousness – dozens of short and punchy postcards of British life.
The cast of 16 deliver over 100 roles in a confident and self-assured production, holding the audience’s attention through a journey of 58 scenes in seven sections.' Huffpost Culture
The play itself was worth seeing, as the acting was superb and the effects were brilliant and all worked well. But it did not inspire us hugely with our own piece, as the style and the story have nothing to do with ours. The play had very little variation from the same plain basic set, with only the odd furniture change to show there had been a scene change. The only possible bit of inspiration we receieved was the scene transitions which made use of a black screen covering the stage, and a soundscape which had some relevance to the next scene playing while we waited.
The use of multi-roling was again something we thought we would find inspirational, and again we were disappointed, as the scenes were too short (max. 3 mins) for trhe story to develop enough for us to be aware there was any multi-roling taking place. We didn't get enough of a grasp as to who the characrers were and what their stories were to be awed by the multi-roling, and although they proved that it was perfectly possible, it was nothing we hadn't seen before (cough-39 steps- cough).
Overall, certainly not a waste of money, as far as culture and a day out is concerned, but certainly not overly helpful for our piece.
'Playwright Caryl Churchill’s latest venture at the Royal Court Theatre is Love and Information: scene-after-scene of self-contained snapshots of conversation, in a slick stream of consciousness – dozens of short and punchy postcards of British life.
The cast of 16 deliver over 100 roles in a confident and self-assured production, holding the audience’s attention through a journey of 58 scenes in seven sections.' Huffpost Culture
The play itself was worth seeing, as the acting was superb and the effects were brilliant and all worked well. But it did not inspire us hugely with our own piece, as the style and the story have nothing to do with ours. The play had very little variation from the same plain basic set, with only the odd furniture change to show there had been a scene change. The only possible bit of inspiration we receieved was the scene transitions which made use of a black screen covering the stage, and a soundscape which had some relevance to the next scene playing while we waited.
The use of multi-roling was again something we thought we would find inspirational, and again we were disappointed, as the scenes were too short (max. 3 mins) for trhe story to develop enough for us to be aware there was any multi-roling taking place. We didn't get enough of a grasp as to who the characrers were and what their stories were to be awed by the multi-roling, and although they proved that it was perfectly possible, it was nothing we hadn't seen before (cough-39 steps- cough).
Overall, certainly not a waste of money, as far as culture and a day out is concerned, but certainly not overly helpful for our piece.
Friday, 14 September 2012
14/09/12 Planning lesson
The final (initial) story line (ish) has been created, excitingly:
1) Exposition- Nightmares
2) Complication- The Amper River incident
3) Climax- Book burning
4) Anti-Climax- Procession of Jews
5) Denouement- The Bomb/Rudy's death
In effect, the story of Rudy and Liesel's friendship, told through various moments and focusing on themes such as:
- Love
- Friendship
- Words/Propaganda
- Fear
- Nightmares
- Opression
- Injustice
We also considered costume as a potential problem today; the obvious choice for a multi-roling cast is to wear all black, but this is somewhat overused, and so the possibilities of:
- Earthy colours (pastel orange, green, brown)
- Monochromatic (Black, white, grey)
- White for Liesel/Rudy, Black for others
It has been decided (for now, meaning we'll probably change our minds again in a month's time) that we will all wear grey, and then an aspect of suggestive costume will be added (i.e. a cap for Rudy, a pinny for Liesel). Obviously, this is subject to a change in plans, ideas and general mish-mash of idiocy which will no doubt cause no actual decision making to take place until some time next year. Fin.
1) Exposition- Nightmares
2) Complication- The Amper River incident
3) Climax- Book burning
4) Anti-Climax- Procession of Jews
5) Denouement- The Bomb/Rudy's death
In effect, the story of Rudy and Liesel's friendship, told through various moments and focusing on themes such as:
- Love
- Friendship
- Words/Propaganda
- Fear
- Nightmares
- Opression
- Injustice
We also considered costume as a potential problem today; the obvious choice for a multi-roling cast is to wear all black, but this is somewhat overused, and so the possibilities of:
- Earthy colours (pastel orange, green, brown)
- Monochromatic (Black, white, grey)
- White for Liesel/Rudy, Black for others
It has been decided (for now, meaning we'll probably change our minds again in a month's time) that we will all wear grey, and then an aspect of suggestive costume will be added (i.e. a cap for Rudy, a pinny for Liesel). Obviously, this is subject to a change in plans, ideas and general mish-mash of idiocy which will no doubt cause no actual decision making to take place until some time next year. Fin.
Tuesday, 11 September 2012
11/09/12 Planning Lesson
Lesson spent discussing predicted grades, possible theater trips and 5-point plans for the narrative of the play.
Possible theater trips:
Possible theater trips:
- Julius Caesar: shows political concepts
- Boxing: Jewish Fist Fighting
- Train and Voices: Multiroling
5-point plans:
- Max and Liesel
- Hans and Liesel
- Rudy and Liesel
- The power of words
- War
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