On our final rehearsal before the performance on Wednesday, we had about two hours to go over any final pieces that needed improving. Because we spent quite a long time on Saturday working on my scenes with The Boy, the majority of this rehearsal was spent on the middle scene with all of the band members and the actor playing The Singer wasn't there so I filled in for her. We focused on the moment where the Drummer takes the Boy into a headlock and humiliates him, says that he is going to shave all his hair off. Before we worked on this The Bass Player and The Singer had a very unrealistic, muted reaction to the abuse taking place so we really had to work on building up the pace of this scene to make it more realistic and make their reactions more shocked, fluid and natural. So we decided that The Bass Player and The Singer would have a moment where they looked each other in complete shock and confusion before they approached The Drummer hoping that he would stop the aggression but also with trepidation because they obviously have fear towards him because of his violent nature. And because I had filled in for another actor in this scene, before we performed on the Wednesday I had to fill her in on what we had done, what we had changed, and the way she should respond to everybody else's lines and actions in the scene as well.
We have started studying the theatre style of Stephen Berkoff in our drama lessons. Berkoff's style is non-naturalistic, he focuses much more on the movement of the actor rather than the voice, he states that the only use for the script is to 'minimalise and physicalise' the story; it enables the story to be told in the simplest, most effective way. His Actor's use techniques such as background movement, repetitive actions and mime. Berkoff said that it was important 'to see how I could bring mime together with the spoken word as its opposite partner, creating the form and structure of the piece'. This very interesting concept provides the core of his work, the mimelike, staccato movements accompanied by vivid, imaginative language. Berkoff studied at L'École Internationale de Théâtre Jacques Lecoq. Jacques Lecoq was originally a gymnast and athlete who later found physical theatre after becoming aware of the beauty and rhythm in athletic movemen...
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