Tuesday 20th January- lesson

Today, we started the lesson looking at the 7 states of tension. These change depending how you are feeling and are as follows;

1) exhausted 

2) laid back 

3) neutral 

4) alert 

5) suspense 

6) passionate

7) tragic 

The 7 states if tension are a way to summarise how characters can be feeling with in acting. These will normally fluctuate during a play, however some characters remain on the same number depending in their personality. 

We started the lesson walking around the space, going through the levels of tension, walking how we felt was appropriate for that level of tension. For example, level 1, exhausted was an extremely slow and sluggish walk, with no motivation or emphasise behind it whereas on the other end of the scale, level 7, tragic, needed an energic run around the space to convey passion and the need for something. I felt this exercise helped me understand the meaning of each of these states and made me think about my character Lisa and what state she might fit in to at certain points in the play.

In the next part of the lesson, we did some characterisation development with the other person in the class who is playing the same part as us. Izzy and I worked really well together, firstly discussing how we were planning to okay Lisa and deciding on what level of tension we would give her in the first and second act if the play. We decided that in the first act, Lisa starts off as a level 3 however as she makes her way in to the world of Dissocia, her state raises to a 5, peaking at 7 at points. This is because in Dissocia, she has to be aware of her surroundings and alert to what's happening because she is new to the world needs to be aware of the characters she meets and who they may truly be. 

We then were asked to find a few lines from out character and act them out with the appropriate state if tension. I chose two contrasting lines, one with laid back level 2, 'I would. I'd very much like to hear it. Is it nice?'

And the other with a level 5, suspense. 'No! If you loved me you'd help me! Vince said they would be people trying to mislead me but I didn't think it would be you.' 

We performed these to the class and everyone had to estimate what state of tension we had intended the line to be persived in. Most or less we all made accurate judgment of this, suggesting we all understood the menaing of these states of tension. 

In the second half of the lesson, we discussed the meaning of subtext. This means an underlying theme that comes up during a conversation. Meaning, when someone is thinking something separate to what they are saying. For example, my character Lisa says 'And I want to have a cigarette' the subtext for this sentence would be- I'm off for a cigarette, now get out my way. She was thinking the subtext however didn't think it was appropriate to  say it exactly like that, therefore tries to imply the meaning of the subtext with out sounding rude. By saying her line instead if the subtext line, may actually have a better chance of getting her want she wants, therefore says it instead to avoid unnecessary arguments. 

To finish off the lesson, we created some subtexts for the lines we had for our characters in act 2. I am again Lisa in act two and I noticed whilst doing this activity that she does at some points become aggressive and you can clearly pick out what she really wants to say from what she is actually saying. Here are some of my examples; 

I felt that Lisa was getting to a high state of tension, a 6 / 7 at times as she really is determined to get well and return home to her family. She also knows she needs to please her family and get well and doesn't want to let then down however the support from her family members isn't prehaps what she needs it to be.

For the rest if the lesson we split in to our serperate casts and devised together act two, which lasts roughly 15 minuets. My main focus was my characterisation skills when I came to the scene that Lida has her beloved Walkman taken off her. She is dancing in the bed at one point and I feel I need to work on how the audience perceive this, they need to be aware that her music is her escape from the hospital unti she has been placed in and that's why she gets so angry when it is taken away from her, her only escape taken from her reach. 

The rest if act 2 today we were just getting used to and developing the personality of our characters. Going through the act with our cast helped me to develop Lisa by feeding off of the characters around me. I took in board how the characters interacted with me, and acting towards them how I felt someone living with Lisa's condition may act. Thinking about the levels of tension also helped me think about how someone suffering from her condition may act and I felt it was appropriate I acted Lisa in the higher region f the scale, high 5 to 7 due to the content if the text, pressuring and agrovating for her.