Attempts on Her Life

For several weeks, including reading week,  we worked on group directorial scenes from Martin Crimp's Attempts on Her Life. In my group were Annie, Jack, Saoirse, and Yasmin. Over the course of our time together we decided to do scene 11 and worked on different directorial concepts that might be interesting for us to use. We planned to set up the stage area like an art gallery because of the nature of the speakers' comments in the scene.

Here are the notes from our first meeting:

Meeting One: Sunday 2nd February

From last Friday these things were discussed;

- both scenes have a connection to the grotesque spectacle in society; like in the news.

- the exhibitionist in the perpetrator seeks out the attention, it fuels them

- the second scene, they are creating a character for a book or film

- objectification (especially in scene 11)

- incorporate the idea of being grotesque

- the idea of a television on set

inspiration; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2GXDkw7eTm0

Staging;

- possibly use a screen (TV) or a projector

- possibly use photographs of peoples’ faces around the set

- polaroids, leather, blood etc things for the set / props

- traditional stage layout

Costuming;

- all wear sharp suits / posh looking clothing to set us apart from common people in society; we’re the upper class art critics

- except for Anne who will wear a hospital gown

Our rehearsals went fairly well, with the whole group meeting up once or twice, and the majority of the members meeting up at least once or twice a week. There was a slight issue when one member's grandmother died and they were consequently absent for the remainder of our time together. To work around this, we decided that this member could play Anne and would stand 'objectified' on stage, in silence as an uncomfortable reminder to the audience of how society objectifies people.

Here is our directorial concept:

For our group performance of Martin Crimp’s Attempts on Her Life, we have decided to do scene eleven, Untitled (100 Words). We thought that this scene stood out because it objectifies not only Anne but also her life and her suicide attempts. The speakers in the scene are highly critical and judgmental, often saying rather insulting things about Anne and her ‘work’. The mention of disturbing objects, images and videos around the space hint that the speakers are looking around an art gallery of Anne’s suicide attempts. Because of this we decided to hang up objects from the ceiling that are related to the mentioned words. We also decided to make a projection to play on the wall behind us while we perform so that the audience can see some of the disturbing footage we imagined would go along with suicide attempts. Some of the footage is quite triggering, as there is use of fake blood and knives to hint at someone slitting their wrists. While we understand that this might not be pleasant for people to watch, we also know that it will get across a good point to the viewers.
This point that we are aiming to make is that society today detaches itself from the grotesque and how it has a deep obsession with objectifying people on a grand level. We want the audience to be disturbed by how insulting the speakers are, and how they have displayed these intense images and objects for everyone to see as if it nothing of importance.
We chose to set it like a high-end art exhibition so we could have the speakers critiquing it harshly. We feel that these characters represent the small minority of members in society who reinforce oppression and discrimination against those who do not fit the mold of the typical upper or middle class ideals that society has forced upon us. We feel that they also represent the ignorance that is present in society today, in regards to mental health, self-harming and suicide. Although a lot has been done to help people suffering from mental illness, there is still a negative stigma around self-harm and suicide and not much has been done to prevent or help people who suffer. We felt that this is reflected in our scene, as the ‘critics’ seem almost comfortable with the grotesque images before them, proving how detached society has become. It also shows that they have no sympathy for those who do not fit into the stereotypical image of perfection, thus further proving how much objectification can affect people, in this case Anne.

Here are my notes from everyone's performances:

We came into the room to set up early and had to alter the way we wanted to set it up.

The performance went fairly well considering we were on book.

There were a few mess ups, but our set was received positively and our projection got a lot of great feedback.

our feedback:

- video worked well because it was subtle and emotive, made them uneasy and gave an impact on the audience

- liked having Anne there in silence and the speakers talking for her, not letting her speak her own opinion

- her hospital gown set her in a lower status

- the tableau imagery was effective, listening to the recorded words with the video

- the video was very successful

- it was weirdly stilted because of lack of energy

- having yasmin as anne was really powerful

- would have been interesting to have the audience walk around the gallery

- make sure to keep energy for the importance

Second Performance:

- sat in the dark arranged around the room in chairs.

- blindfolded

- actors walked around the space as they performed

- each blindfold was removed one by one

- with the sense of sight removed it creates a sense of anticipation

- the reality is then  revealed; we are human and the glamour is imaginary

- the camera does not love you; it loves itself

- the actors then spoke to an audience member directly, and naturalistically

- the audience members are being controlled and objectified by the actors

- poignant and interesting; use of voice levels made it textured and varied.

third performance:

- shows how technology replaces the personal aspects of communication

- use of physical theatre

- very well thought out, poignant

- incredibly managed considering they’d lost 2 group members

- shows how the media and technology makes Anne feel

- the way the ‘emotions’ were throwing her around and manipulating her showed how society and technology had reduced her to something impersonal and not unique

- she’s being controlled by the ‘emotions’

- lack of eye contact shows her isolation

- her suit shows although she has power in her career, she does not have power over herself

Technical Theatre

Stage Management

In this session we talked about stage management and all the different responsibilities that go along with this, the hierarchy of the management system and the key skills needed. We did a group activity where we had a plan a theoretical hen party, thinking about all the guests who might have special requirements and different timings etc. The principles used to organise anything can be applied to stage management, including use of time, delegation and communication. The group also looked at how to conduct a risk assessment and what limits are placed on us within the university in terms of health and safety.

Introduction to Lighting

In this workshop we were given a brief introduction to the lighting set up in ANG15. After some health and safety notes and some technical language information, we were instructed and demonstrated how to use the lighting system. The tech room at the side of ANG15 has a light board with many sliders and switches on it, which we had all explained to us and how to correctly use them.


From these sessions I learned what skills I would need to develop in order to work in production or stage management, and also that the only thing stopping us from doing anything we want in the university is money, so long as we carry out a full risk assessment and put correct measures in place. I also learned how to use the lighting, so with a bit of practice I will be able to perfect that skill.

Group Scene Performance

The day of the performance was nerve-wracking for me. I was incredibly nervous about something going wrong or messing up. While we prepared out set, I was hyper-aware of everyone watching us and kept going over everything that could go wrong. It would probably have helped my nerves to do a more thorough warm-up before hand, and if we'd had a longer rehearsal before the performance. 

My group performance went very well, considering that there were a few bumps in it here and there with some of us forgetting lines and issues with props and costumes etcetera. We were all supposed to wear black ballet flats or jazz shoes, but I lost mine and therefore had to wear different shoes. While this wasn’t a big issue I feel it may have made my performance a little more clunky and clumsy than I should have been. I think if we had had more time and/or money, our set and costumes could have been better, but realistically, these things are not what we’re being marked on. I was incredibly nervous to begin with and was quite worried about forgetting lines. I even found my hands shaking half way through, although this may have actually contributed to one scene where I had to hold a ‘gun’ up to Katherine’s character, and the shaking made it look a little more believable. The was an incident where I accidentally cut through one of Imogen’s lines, but it wouldn’t have been obvious to the audience. Apart from those hiccups, I think I did fairly well, and managed to portray my character Olga to the best of my abilities. At the end I felt that we had managed to display the severity of the Romonovs’ situation as well as we could, especially in the more serious scenes. I understand it ran a little over the time limit, but to begin with we were told five minutes per person, so we only really went a over by a couple of minutes.

These are the notes I took about the other performances:

1; Jack and Ben

what was he searching for at the start?

use of silence, body language, eye contact

pace changes work very well

ben- use of flustering and frustration in voice

jack- use of condescension and authoritative tones

long silences for effect

2; My Group (Tracey, Katherine, Imogen, Me)

3; Saiorse, Yasmin, Verity

interesting set

nice use of props

perfect characterisation

funny and touching, great body language

4; Cynthia, Annie, Lydia

nice set, very clean looking

funny, realistic

well-performed with serious moments

5; Abbey, Lydie

nice set, very pretty arrangements

good use of accents

physical actions were tactful

ups and downs, loud and quiet

well-projected voices

fast paced moments still well pronounced

What did I gain from this?

I feel that after our performance was over, I was able to fully appreciate all of the hard work we had put into it, and felt happy with how it went. The teamwork put into the project made me realise how I can fit into a team to pull something together. We all worked really well together and were all on the same page about how we wanted the play to look and feel for the audience. I think this was something really important to learn from the group performances, since I'd never really done anything like this before.

Scene Work (leading up to performance)

Over the course of several weeks, my group and I had to select and learn a scene from a play of our choosing to be performed as an assessed piece for our class. My group had four girls in it (myself, Imogen, Katherine and Tracey). We chose a play called OTMA, which was about the four daughters of the last Russian Tzar in their final days before their execution. It was a very emotional and hard-hitting play with a lot of dramatic scenes. The entire play was set in one room, so we had no set changes, but this also showed the audience how close the sisters were in the time leading up to their deaths.

We did a few read-throughs of the play in different characters to try and get a feel of which one we suited best. In the end, we decided that I should play Olga who was the eldest sister. Tatiana was played by Katherine, Marie played by Imogen and Anastasia played by Tracey. Once we'd chosen our scenes and characters, our workshops were cut down to once every two weeks, giving us more time to rehearse in between workshops.

Our rehearsal schedule started out a bit bumpy with everyone being ill or not being able to make it, but eventually we settled into a solid routine that would start with a little warm up of some kind, followed by a read through, then blocking the stage area. There were a lot of instances though when one member of our team in particular wouldn't show up to rehearsals, even after they promised they would be there by a certain time. It got to the point where the rest of us were doing everything for them, including picking out costumes, sourcing props, and even reading their lines when they forgot them. They were incapable of following directions from anyone, and refused to acknowledge any useful tips anyone gave them about their posture, accent, line delivery and other important things. However, when it came to the dress rehearsals, she had at least managed to get there on time and remember her lines, even if she didn't take in the advice we had offered. It was quite a struggle for our team to cope when one of us was hardly ever present, but in the end I think we pulled it out of the bag for our actual performance.

I found it relatively easy to come off-script in our rehearsals, finding I could easily remember my lines by bouncing off of what the others' lines were before mine. Luckily, we worked well as a team and our characters became believable and a part of who we were. I myself became very attached to my character emotionally, and felt I was able to portray her thoughts and feelings relatively well. This is important for actors to feel, in my opinion, so that they can fully understand what the character was thinking at certain points in the script, and what their main objective is for the play. Olga was a loving and caring character, who only wanted the best for her little sisters. While she was the eldest, she was by no means the most uptight, and was able to have fun while maintaining boundaries between what was appropriate and acceptable and what wasn't.

So what did I gain from this?

I learnt how to cope in situations that are difficult, especially when the solution is utterly out of my control. I am so used to being in charge that when there was something I couldn't fix I became quite angry with myself and others involved. This was easily remedied by reminding myself that as much as I want to help, it is not always my responsibility and that my team are doing well regardless.

I also found that when a play or scene is particularly emotional, I am able to get into character really well and put everything I have into really becoming the character. I enjoy this part of acting the most, where you can truly feel like another person altogether purely by changing your voice or stance.