research

for our research, we chose to be working on the renaissance, more deeply, shakespear Rome&Juliet. We found many Theatrical techniques in Romeo and Juliet.for our research that we could discuss and analyse. Even though Romeo and Juliet is a cliche play to choose, it is still one of our favourites. In addition its perfect for the setting were looking for SETTINGS (TIME)  · Renaissance (fourteenth or fifteenth century) some of the literary techniques that we have found are the following: 
 TONES  · Passionate, romantic, intense, rhapsodic, violent, prone to extremes of emotion (ecstasy, rage, misery, etc.)

THEMES  · The forcefulness of love; love as a cause of violence; the individual versus society; the inevitability of fate

MOTIFS · Light/dark imagery; opposite points of view

SYMBOLS  · Poison; thumb-biting; Queen Mab

Its the forbidden love that inspired me to research about this, since we live here, in Saudi Arabia we could all relate to it since we cannot show that kind of love. Its forbidden by the law and is looked down upon by the elders.

realism vs naturalism

we got introduced to Naturalism and Realism. Naturalism is the art of  creating an illusion of reality through a range of dramatic strategies while realism is basically discussing a social issue or threat. We practiced each of them which helped me better understand them. I never knew that each of these theatrical categories had a background and a time period to why it was so interesting for people to watch back then. The exercises we did in class made me think more about these time periods and what factors mostly influenced the theatrical work back then. 

tableaux

I learnt what a tableaux was by doing an activity that allowed us to show the audience a story but in a picture. In other words a picture that the audience could know the story from. This helped me emphasize my actions like facial expressions and physical posture to further convey the story we were acting while frozen. We give out a theme to the audience with our physical appearance. Its a good imporvization skill when there are many characters because it helps us bring the plot of the story from creating still images. I was also introduced to realism in acting which allowed me to better understand it since i was put in a group and had to research about it, then create a mini skit based on realism.

summative devising

for the summative, I was very overwhelmed and was under alot of pressure since we made last minute changes and had a missing actress. It was hard managing the lighting and music right and to cope with having a large audience specially when I am not used to it. It was a very fun experience, I learnt a lot and the feedback that the audience and classmates and ofcourse Mrs.Morris gave back was very helpful. We had some issues during our play but we managed to continue and go with the flow and improvise since the audience really does not know what our original plans were. I think we did better or our formative than our summative but I really think we did a great job and i'm proud of all my group members and for the class for support. Every single one of us put effort and ideas into this devising act which made it what it is. I really enjoyed it.

formative devising

during our devising formative act, we had finished all our planning and had everything ready for our formative. We had the music set to create a mood, we had the lighting ready to create an insidious atmosphere and costumes to add imagery and a reality affect to our act. I experienced having an audience which added more pressure and stress and made it harder for me to stay in character and remember my lines and timings. I kept wondering weather or not they liked the act or maybe thought it was boring. Im glad we gave the audience a lesson about the outcome of rape drugs and i hope the audience left with strong understanding of what happened. Reflecting on myself, I have learnt what music lighting and costumes could add to an act and how to use specific objects to symbolise or foreshadow the events.