First Lesson

ARCHETYPES

In our first session, we did a warm up on archetypes, the most common archetypes and how they would present themselves. We all presented our own versions of the three most famous archetypes to each other: the hero, the villain and the damsel in distress. Although those are the main archetypes that people think of straight away, there are still many more stereotypical roles that can be found along with them, for example, the wise old man, the caring nurse, the evil sidekick, and the lover, etc.

As I have learnt about archetypes for the past two years it was easy for me to understand the task being given, and I could easily point out the certain postures, gestures and facial expressions that would commonly fit each role. A hero would usually have their chest out and head up, looking into the horizon, their feet wide apart in a stance and hands and arms out. This makes the hero look strong, confident, and ready to battle at all times. The damsels in distress are rather coy, innocent and vulnerable characters so a lot of their moves will be closed in and very small, almost as if they are scared all the time, as they constantly need their hero to save them. Finally, the villains are usually bent over, or lower than the hero, with their faces covered. This is to show an air of mystery to the role and the hunched backs represent a lower class compared to the hero, that they are sneaky and not to be trusted.

MELODRAMA

Melodrama is a type of acting that uses major exaggeration to excite its audience, it is usually very over the top and unrealistic, making it hard to relate to. Melodrama usually includes:

• surface acting
• loud voices
• archetypal characters
• large gestures
• physical demonstration of emotions
• always facing the audience

During our archetypes warm up we practised the elements of melodrama by performing to someone opposite the room who would be our lover, we had to physicalise every emotion and word we said to get the message across that we loved them. I found it very weird to do because it felt so unnatural and that is not what anyone would do when admitting they love someone in real life. It would definitely be unsatisfying to an audience as it also does not relate to them so they may get bored of the style of acting as it's just too fake and over-the-top. The opposite of melodrama would be either realism or naturalism, which is what we discussed afterwards.

Melodramatic theatre back at the end of the 19th century had a famous 'star' system where the most famous actors (who would most likely be playing the lead roles of the hero) would allow the play to pause so the audience can applause for their entrance. That still happens slightly today in productions, as many roles are filled by very famous people to bring in more viewers and buyers. Stanislavsky also found this type of theatre very unsatisfying, and that is what started his ideas on naturalism and realism.

NATURALISM VS REALISM

Naturalism in theatre is showing life exactly how it is, and to every single, specific detail, whereas realism in theatre is showing life but only the important parts so that you can understand what's going on faster.

To differentiate both terms we watched someone in our class perform a mime of them making a cup of tea, but she performed it to every last detail, including waiting for the kettle to boil, getting out every ingredient from their own cupboards, washing up the spoon used for the sugar, and then putting everything back where it came from again. Although all of this was performed in mime, almost everyone understood what she was doing, and this is the act of naturalism.

After this, we spoke about the key points in making a cup of tea and using our ideas, someone else had to mime making a cup of tea again, but this time only doing about three/four key actions instead of doing every last detail. The mime this time only included: waiting for the kettle to boil, taking out the teabag, stirring the tea and then taking a sip. This version was about a minute quicker, yet we could still easily tell exactly what she was doing, realism shows only what needs to be shown so the audience understands. Stanislavsky preferred realism overall but he went through the process of naturalism first as a starting point for the rest of his research and experimentation.

STANISLAVSKI'S IDEAS

Stanislavsky had a few activities and ideas that he used/taught to his students to help them relax and use their imagination. He said that the body should be fully relaxed before a rehearsal/performance, so in this session we did an exercise of tensing every single muscle in our body one by one, and then one by one again, relaxing it, and it worked a lot as afterwards it felt very refreshing to be relaxed and I felt more loose and ready to move when needed.

He also like the use of sun salutations a lot so we did a routine that included the downward-dog a few times, this really stretched out my muscles and put tension on parts of my body that I never really use, so it really was a workout for me, at least I know that I should maybe sign up for yoga.

IMAGINATION

To start off our work on imagination, we did a warm up where we all closed our eyes and had to imagine something that we don't like, and we had to think about whether it was an animal or inanimate object, its size, colour, texture, weight, where you would find it etc. We then heard two people's descriptions and with our eyes still closed we had to guess what they were talking about. I found the first person's description interesting because they were talking about a spider, and that is what I chose, and yet her description was very different to mine, but I still managed to guess what she was talking about. This exercise was to establish that all objects have specific key elements that help us know exactly what it is when being described, for example, a tomato is round, red and it is stored in the fridge.

Finally, we did a 'Magic If' task where we had to respond to a series of 'What if...?' questions (What if it started raining? What if my crush started walking towards me? What if I found a £10 note on the floor) The 'What If' statements were very naturalistic so when I responded to them I made sure to respond naturally, in the way I would, which means that there was never a lot of facial expressions or exaggerated body language because nobody else is meant to be there with me, the audience are merely viewing my life from beyond the fourth, which I, the actor, cannot see. I enjoyed this exercise a lot because it helped me realised how easy it is to start using your imagination, simply saying 'what if......?' immediately sparks up the actor's imagination, and this can be naturalistically, realistically, or even in an abstract way, (What if I was in love with the floor? What if I came out the house with no trousers on? What If I got abducted by an alien?)

~Matilda