Warming up & hot seating 3/10/13

Voice and physicality warm up:
We started off the session with rolling our hips in different directions. This helped us warm up and loosen our bodies. We then went on to doing an exercise where we learnt against a wall saying a line in our script in different ways to get in touch with our character and discover the way we could say that line effectively that will suit the role and the time of the play. We spoke from the head (Direct voice with no sub text), heart (Open, sensitive, soft voice), guts (Going into battle, deep down, bad news reaction voice), hips (Soft, central, relaxed) groin (Energy from the floor, balanced on the ground and sturdy), this was effective because we were able to see the different ways in which we say things that we mean in an effective way. We carried on by doing mouth and voice warm ups to get ready for the session and to be alert in the session.

We then went on to do our character status walking. This is what we do to see what our character is like and how they are seen by people. This exercise helped me realise the truth about my character and her feelings and emotions at my point of the play.

Hot seating:
The next activity was hot seating each character in order of the play. It was useful seeing other peoples thought process because we were able to build up a good background story of the entire play from start to finish and from different perspectives. It was also useful to be my own character because I was able to improvise effectively and speak about my characters thoughts at this part of the play (first starting school and initial thoughts on other characters).

 I was asked questions such as:
1. How are you?
2. What are you feeling about the school?
3. What is your opinion on Nicholas, Cissy, Tanya, Bennett?
4. What is your family background like?

Each question entitled me to be quite closed about my emotions as I was new to the school and I didn't want to show that I was soft and then be walked all over or stubborn where people don't want to know me. My character was quite nervous however was in a situation where it was vital to keep neutral with everyone as best as she could. I was able to develop my character further by listening to other people be my character at different points of the play. The task it's self wasn't particularly difficult but it was more useful to see what peoples reactions were to the questions that were asked and what and how they answered.

We then went on to do 'funky chicken' to shake us off and still be alert after the hot seating activity.