Ahmed's Notes & Evaluation.

Week 1

In our first lesson, we were given our Shakespeare play scenes and what characters we were, my character was Iago who is one of the most difficult character to play that Shakespeare has created.
We were also taught how Shakespeare language goes in rhythm (Iambic Pentameter) which was very helpful, it helped me organise the lines, gave me an idea on which lines to emphasise more than the others.
I think for the iambic pentameter I didn't do very well because it doesn't fit into every lines only certain ones.
To improve I need to go cut down my lines and find out the meaning of every word.

Week 2

Some lesson were unfortunately cancelled because of timetable clash, but what we did was played a game called murder where we had to find out amongst who the undercover murder is.
I think this game was a great exercise for actors performance just before going on stage or performing because it will keep him going.
Me and Charles did a line run but my partner didn't completely know his lines so we went off to do research of our scenes and characters.

Week 3

We had a social discussion in class. Social discussion is matter of theme that society's talking about, it could be issues, war, racism ext.
we were also taught how a play could solve that issue. for example; many modernised Shakespeare plays has been made for different matters, like Romeo and Juliet was modernised in 1996 because of gangs increasing in USA so they made that movie for young teenagers to see that gangs are useless and what it will lead to.
We also staged our piece for the first which wasn't very good because my partner didn't know his lines again but, we could only improve if my partner learns his lines so we can plot everything.

Week 4

We have worked with 2 professional actors , Matt and Michael who also helped us in our Shakespeare scene from Othello. They told us to make sure to move and speak with purpose and think about how we can get our characters alive, as in creating a world for them.
This really helped us because our piece didn't have much with it, but they gave us couple of ideas to use for the performance.
To improve we need to come up with ideas of our own.


Week 5

We were preparing for our first presentation and presented it to the class about our play. I think me Charles did extremely well on our presentation because we included everything we possible could and extracted all the information the pack and answered it on our presentation.
During this week me and Charles also staged our Shakespeare scene for the first time, to improve it we both need to find a purpose of moving.

Week 6

Me and Charles went off with our scripts alone and delivered it completely different in voice and action wise. This helped us know what would be the perfect level of performing or way of saying our lines on stage.
This helped us find out what our character's are like physically and what they're thinking at that situation.
To improve we could include or make up things that our characters do physically example; play with their hands or create a habit for them to bring them to life.


Week 7

Me and Charles said our lines while walking around the college. We made it seem like we were having a normal conversation. This helped us find the naturalism in the scene.
During this week Charles talked about the final staging, how our plotting will be and what costume we need, also what props we are going to use.
I think our piece finally coming alive and almost ready to perform.
we need to improve on our staging and use of space and we're ready.


Finally, me and Charles performed on Wednesday 23.10.2013
Performance wise I think me and Charles did pretty well putting up with so much lines. I am glad with my partner after all, he did learn his lines.
What I thought went well was the fact that we preformed very natural and we understood the play in depth. That helped us a lot with our actioning,  movements and we knew what we were doing and why.
To improve for me personally I would work on my articulation, although it's my biggest challenge I will have to overcome my lisp. I will need to see speech therapy or whatever it possibly takes.
If I was to do my piece again I try to push my partnern from the start in leaning his lines. I wouldn't think of staging our piece one week before the show and keep pushimg my partner. I would also work on my special awarness, because I did spill my drink once or twice.
Although our performance was quite strong I wouldn't give myself a distinction until I see myself improved on my voice completely.