Greek Project (Week 3)

To begin this week, we looked at what we thought were the most significant scenes in the play, so what we did was draw 5 pictures of the main scenes that make up our play. I drew the scene with Clytemnestra killing her husband in the bath, I think this is the scene with the most significance out of the whole play because without it Orestes what not have a motive to kill his mother and therefor the people of the city (chorus) would not be begging for him and his sister's blood. I also drew 4 scenes that each have a different Orestes in them because the way we have split the character Orestes between 4 people it gives you an insight into how the character changes throughout the play. In our group I liked two peoples work Abbie and Ell because their drawings were abstract, I especially like Ell's butterfly because it symbolised the two different sides
of the play and also fitted with one of the scripts we had taken scenes from called "Blood and Light."

We later played a game that involved a master, a servant and an under servant, the master would ask for something then the servant would tell the under servant and then they would get the item the required. All though just a game I thought this helped us grasp an understanding of levels within characters whilst completing an objective. After this we did a chorus workshop, once again looking at lines and how we could preform them differently, this time though we were not given any help, we got straight into groups and had a look at the way in which we could say and preform the lines we had been given, our group took a line each from the small extract, but we were stuck on how to preform it in a better way than just saying the lines, we later came to the conclusion that we should act the lines and use our voice to show what is happening, for example Alicia had a line about choking, so she fell to the floor with her hands round her neck and then said the line straining her voice as if she was chocking.

During this week we blocked a scene where the chorus (journalists) were posing as mourners at king Agamemnon's grave, although I was not in this scene we were looking at how the chorus could come on whilst they were saying their lines which had been divided between them, we started by giving them an objective depending on what their line was such as, sneaky, creepy, cunning and ignorant ect. I didn't like this that much because I thought there was too much of an individuality within in the chorus, when the chorus is meant to work as one. After this we tried the whole chorus doing one style for an entrance we chose ignorant, as if your telling a child a story and sarcastic, personally I thought that some of these styles didn't go well with some peoples lines, finally we decided who's lines fitted with what style and I though this worked really well, as yes the chorus sounded like it had its own little groups within the crowed, but they are playing journalists and they work in teams to get the best stories.

On Thursday we worked on mine and Reece's transition scene, where Orestes  One becomes Orestes Two. My idea was that we had me and Reece standing on blocks facing the audience on either sides of the stage, a spotlight would be on Orestes One first whilst he started to say his lines, each time Orestes was meant to say something important that's when we would both say it and the light would flicker on both of us, then eventually once Orestes One finishes talking and Orestes two starts the lights would change over, but still flicker when we both say something. We then wanted to add Clytemnestra in as the dialogue is about Orestes killing his mother, so we decided to put her in the bath with her dead husband, and eventually she would slowly rise and make her way front of stage, there is also a line in the speech that says "That screaming mouth will stiffen," what will happen here is Charlotte (playing Clytemnestra) pulls a horrible screaming face. I like how we have staged this scene as it foreshadows what is to happen in the next scene, whilst creating a smooth change over between the Orestes.

Finally at the end of this week, the chorus did some work together, I am chorus for this piece, and we where using the workshop we had done at the beginning of this week, to stage an interesting scene, my group worked on the contempry staging of this scene, as we had looked at a contempry style of Antigone, where they stage it in a government style, so we decided to do this scene as if we were journalists writing up the story. I had an idea where we could stage it so that we would see a few writers creating the story then publishing it and handing it out in the office (whilst saying lines of course) then eventually the people who sell newspapers on the street could be selling them whilst chanting their lines as if the whole time the chorus have been reading out the newspaper. Finally this would end with an unveiling of three horrid statues one of Clytemnestra, another of her dead lover and King Agamemnon, which then the chorus would leave the stage pleased with themselves in a sinister way, this would mark the end of Act 1.