Antigone

The background of Antigone and our script: 

When was it written: it was written in 441.BC and it would be performed during the festival of Dionysus, it would be performed alongside other competing plays where they would win at the end, they would not win money or gifts usually but it was the prestige that was received which would be the reward. The festival celebrates the God of fertility and wine, Dionysus.

 There would usually be around 12 to 24 people in a show including chorus with around 6 key actors for the piece. The chorus was used for a number of things, to relate to the audience, connect scenes and give a summary of what is happening. There would be no females in these plays as they were not considered as normal citizens but there role was strictly maternal. 

The original conditions of the play would be outside not in theatres and would be to an audience of around 14,000 people positioned in a horse shoe shape and on an incline so it would be like a bowl, this would mean that the performers would have to project there vocals and rely on their body language to tell the story a lot more although the acoustics of the amphitheatre would allow the sound to travel more, masks were a common appearance as they allowed for the facial expressions of the performer to be clearer to people sat further away, they would also be used in a chorus.

The style in which the play was written is Greek, but we managed to get a version that had been modernised to mean that it was easier to understand, this helps because it means that we will be able to make the scenes that we are in accurate to the emotion it is trying to portray. The person who modernised our play was David Fedlshah, he done this because the original performance would have been around three hours long, in today’s society a play that is this long will not interest a lot of people and even if it did you would have to make it very interesting to watch so that the audience stay engaged. David Fedlshah shortened scenes and reduced monologues so that the play flowed a lot more smoothly and also so it moved at a faster pace to engage the audience more. 

The original play would have been put on in a massive ampi-theatre outside, the amount of people that it would hold would be in the thousands, the reason why it held so many was because it was socially important to go, almost a necessity. Because the theatre would be so large it mean that people who sat at the furthest point would not be able to hear the performers on stage and if they it would not be well, so they would often use masks, using masks mean that it would clearly show that characters face, the actors would also be very melodramatic and by this I mean they would over act with their movements to clearly show how they felt where as in today’s smaller theatres microphones are used and the actors are usually seen clearly.

  Elizabethan era of acting:

Plays that were put on in the Elizabethan era were very contemporary to the time in the way that they were clothed. It was also seen as a very socially important event, this is because the queen at the time, Elizabeth the first, was a huge theatre fan, unlike greet theatre you did have to pay to watch the performances and also the plays were put on a lot more frequently.

There would not be any female actors on stage, all characters that were female were played by young boys who had not yet hit puberty.

How theatre is in today’s society:

In today’s society going to the theatre has become somewhat of an unusual treat, it no longer has become a social expectants to go. Because film and television shows are much cheaper and more available to see on a day to day bases it means that people are less likely to pay a lot of money to see theatre productions. Back in the Elizabethan and Greek era it was cheap or even free to go see the shows and you were expected to see shows. The actors  

Ideas that I have put into the chorus and how it should be set out:

The original idea was for it to look futuristic but this term may be very vague so I suggested that the style be steam punk for the royal family, this meant that all of us would look similar and also it would help set how we could set the style for the rest of the people. Because the style of costume is more contemporary and familiar it means that the audience will be engaged more and they may find it more interesting to watch, sometimes modern audiences find it difficult to connect with classical pieces, so it means it is important to make sure that you do everything you can to help them understand as they may not engage with the story if they do not know what is going on.

Sword fight: because the scene between me and Creon had seemed a little slow and was not as fast paced as other scenes, this could mean that the audience’s attention may be lost which then in turn would mean that they would fall out of the atmosphere created by the rest of the play. In order to make sure that this does not happen I decided to add a sword fight between us, this would add a different dimension to the play and also make the scene more intense which would grab the audience’s attention and keep them engaged. Because the idea of the sword fight did not get introduced until later on in the production it mean that choreographing the fight would be difficult, this is because to make a sword fight look interesting and pacey it has to be done at speed so it does not look staged, I decided to make it stylised so it could be done well and it would not have to have I high level of accuracy when executing it.

Royal family at the top: the original idea was to have the royal family frozen at the top in positions that showed that they were in higher power, but on the day I suggested that it would be more affective if we were conversing slowly in mime so that it looked more realistic.  

The flag: I and the set team decided that the stage would look very bare and unengaging, so we decided to create a flag that would belong to the royal family to make the stage interesting, it would also give the play more depth because it would look like there was more of a story behind the royal family. We wanted to make the flag different and interesting and also make it look very royal and majestic. By giving the stage some depth and colour it makes it a lot more interesting to look at and this means that it draws the audience’s attention.

Suggestion of dragging James back into madness, was an idea that I put forward because I feel that it could be a really good way to show that Creon was getting sent back into madness by all of the people he had done wrong.

Character development:

The read through of the script was affective because it meant that we could get an understanding of the play and also start to tackle the type of language used in it. This is important because it allows us to figure out how to deliver each line so that it makes sense in the context of the scene, it is important to understand the language used so we can perform it properly and so the audience will understand better which in turn means that they will follow the plot easier.

We worked on the opening during this lesson, we had to make sure that it was interesting and that it grabbed to audiences attention straight away, this is because it means that they immediately engaged with what’s happening, as a class we decided to set up the beginning as if it was part of the festival of Dionysus.

The way in which I should use my voice is a lot different to how I have used it in the past, the reason being is I have to project a lot more than I usually would on stage, in the past I have been able to use microphones to pick up my voice so I could use a wide range of variations in how I should use my voice, for example if I need to whisper or be quieter. By being in the open air it means that I will be going against different factors that I usually wouldn’t have to compete with when performing in an enclosed environment. Also when performing without microphones and in the open I have to rely more on my body language to show how I am feeling and to emphasise what I am saying as well, this means that people who are sat further away will have more of an understanding on what is going on.

My character was different from the original because I used different vocal and acting techniques compared to what the original would have had.

My relationship with Antigone was very hard to show, this is because we were never seen together until the end. So it was very important that when she was on stage I showed my facial and body language reflecting what is happening to her.

Evaluation of my play:

I feel that the show went very well considering the style, what I mean by this is that because of the style of the play it is very difficult to get right and it is very unusual compared to contemporary play, for example chorus work is very unusual in contemporary productions, so it means that getting everyone in time and also to put emotion in the way they speak takes a lot of work.

At the beginning of the play I do not do much on stage but I am however in view of the audience, so this means that I have to pay attention to what is happening on stage so I am able to show my body language correspondingly and it looks that I am engaged in what is happening. The reason that this is so important is because it means that the people in the audience stay emerged in the atmosphere of the play, this will then in turn lead to them staying engaged with the story and this is important with classical pieces because the language used is a lot different and will not always be understood. 

I feel that my main scene with Creon went very well this is because it brought a lot of energy to the stage and also I and James fed off each other very well. The reason it is important to bring a lot of energy to a scene with only two actors in it is because otherwise it will seem dull to watch

In the scene with James It was very important to have the correct proxemics to him and the audience. For example at the beginning of the scene I am close to Creon but as the scene goes on the distance from him becomes further, this shows that I’m becoming increasingly angry with him it also shows that our relationship is slowly tearing apart.

My projection and my body language was very affective this is because I was able to project my voice to the whole audience while still getting across the emotion I want to show.

Monologue:

The monologue that I chose was from King Lear. It was Edmonds speech “this is the excellent foppery of the world” I chose this because it showed a character that I had not done before, it was someone who was quite sarcastic and bitter.

The way in which I performed my Shakespeare monologue was in the open and in front of the general public, this was very different to acting on stage because it was in front of people who did not know what was going on, it also was performed in many different locations so that the reaction was not always the same.

For one of my performances of my monologue I did it in a cafe this worked a lot better that just stopping in the street and doing it because there was a larger audience that was already sat down and also I was able to get their attention before I started this meant they were engaged with what was happening form the very beginning. The reason it is important that I had their attention before I started is because otherwise they might not be understanding of what is happening or be engaged in the context.

The way in which the original piece would have been performed is to a much larger audience, the plays would be put on in theatres such as The Globe and The Rose. Another huge difference to my performance now and then is at the time my play would have been put on the language used would be easy for the audience to understand as it would have been the language used at the time, also my monologue did not have any context behind it without the rest of the play to give it some.