Interpretation & Language - Gotcha

          Interpretation

 Playwright   -   Director   -   Actor   -   Audience

        (Ideas)            (Script)         (Script)    (Performance)

                                                                 Character

                                                                 Director)

 

Interpretation is how someone views an action, event or the meaning of something. For example the order of interpretation of a play goes: the Playwright interprets the ideas of the play; the Director interprets the script; the Actor also interprets the script; and finally the Audience interpret the performance, the character, and the director.

 

Introduction-----> Development-----> Conflict-----> Resolution

                         (Scene 1)                              (Scene 2)                          (Scene 3)

I thought that the Introduction of Gotcha started in Scene One and went on till the start of Scene Two; the Development of the play went all the way through of Scene Two; the Conflict I thought started in the beginning of Scene Two, and ended at the beginning of Scene Three; and finally the Resolution started right at the end of Scene Two and went on till the end of the play.    

 

We had to choose a character from 'Gotcha' and we needed to choose ways that we use to interpret that character. I chose to do the Kid and I interpreted him in the following ways:

 

- Angry, literally about to blow his top.

- Short-tempered, on the verge of going mad at everyone.   

- Frustrated at the teachers, more importantly the school.   
- Depressed because of how school is for him, and also how no one knows his name.

- Sarcastic and arrogant towards all the teachers because of how he's invisible to them.

- Twitching fingers reminding him of the piano.
- Sad because of how his school-life is and also how he is treated by the teachers.
- Jealous because of everyone else achieving and he isn't.


I think that some of these interpretations are shown on page 66  - which is where the Head is talking to Kid about what he is hoping to achieve, which he says with a rather negative attitude.

References:

• "Ah ha. Ha Ha. I've heard that one before." - I think that this could suggest to us that he is showing his frustration towards the Head through the use of sarcasm in his tone of voice.  
• "Here, in this place, everyone's so busy ACHIEVING, everything else is...invisible." - I think this could suggest to us that he is frustrated, depressed, sad, and jealous because everyone is achieving apart from him, and also because he feels like he is invisible.  

I think the some things that are mentioned in other parts of the script also tell us about the context of the Kid.

References:

• When he says about his grandmother, "they locked her up, in a room no bigger than this. This could suggest to us that he is having some personal problems in his life.
• When Lynn says to him, "I feel sad for you...and your loneliness", suggests to us that he is unwanted, invisible, and quite lonely as Lynn is implying that he has no friends and is not wanted by anyone.

 

 





Vocal Awareness - Gotcha

The Six Properties of Voice are:

• Pitch
• Pace
• Volume
• Timbre
• Accent
• Emphasis

In one of our lessons, we had to do an exercise with a partner about directing a monologue from the script of 'Gotcha' by Barrie Keefe, and they had to perform the monologue we chose for them to do. We had to annotate the monologue with instructions for our partner on how to perform it in terms of accent, tone, pace, volume, pitch, and also the words we wanted them to emphasize. I worked with Chandler Goddard, and I chose to direct the monologue where the Kid is talking about when he first arrived at the school. He would speak in a East end accent; with a very harsh and quite sarcastic tone to it; the pace would start off quite fast but then it would slowly drop towards the end of the monologue to show the more emotional part of it; the volume would be loud to start with and would then drop to a more quiet volume to go with the pace of it; the pitch would be quite low because it is like he is mumbling away to himself in sadness; and finally I wanted the words 'lovely', 'great', 'bona fide', and 'first' need to
be emphasized.
Did the actor respond well to your direction?
I think that Chandler responded very well to my direction, he performed the monologue exactly how I wanted it to be done in all the ways.  

What worked when put into practice?
I think that everything worked when it was put into practice, the accent was well spoken and projected; the tone was very good, I think that the sarcastic tone made it sound more effective; I thought that the pace being fast and then dropping to slow worked well; and finally I think that the volume of the monologue worked well and it made the sarcasm work better as well; I think the pitch worked very well being low because it showed us that he was quite down in this part of the story; I think the emphasis on those four words worked very well because it helped show the audience that those words are important. I think all the pauses work very well too because it showed to the audience how he was feeling at those moments.   

What didn't work when put into practice?
I didn't find anything to not work when it was put into practice.  

Is it easy to respond to direction from your peers?
I thought that responding to direction from my peers was quite straight forward as all you need to do is listen to what the director requires you to do and follow their instructions, but then I think as well it can be quite stressful when the director is getting you to do something how they particularly want it to be done, but me and Chandler didn't really have that problem as both directions of each monologue were done successfully.

Non Verbal Communication - Gotcha

Rudolph Laban - System of Efforts 
Seven States of Tension
One of Laban's ideas was the seven states of attention.
1. Dead - You hardly have enough energy to move
2. Californian - You are quite laid back, relaxed and cool.
3. Stage Manager - Neutral, no emotions, moves by changing direction using the whole body to turn.
4. Director - Interested, engaged, questing, searching, on the front foot, the look as if an idea has just occurred.
5. Suspension - On the front foot, excited, eager, searching as if you are looking for something.
6. Passion - You have lots of tension in your body, you are also full of fear and desperation.
7. High-Catatonic - You have complete tension in your body, you literally can't move.

We were introduced to the seven states of tension in one of our lessons and were shown how Laban relates them to performance in drama. We did an exercise where we would all spread out around the room and our teacher would then tell and describe to us what each state was, and we would then have to demonstrate it by walking around the room in that state of tension.

We had to perform a part of the script from 'Gotcha' three times in groups of three.

For the first performance, I was with Jamie Campion and Lucy Parke. We performed from where Ton says "Cigarette burning, up in smoke" to where the Kid says "Ah" to the part where Ton says "bloody fool". I played the Kid, Jamie played Ton, and Lucy played Lynn. I thought that my state of tension was at a level 7 because I didn't really move during this because I was being told off by Ton for most of it, so I was standing still just getting yelled at, so therefore my body would be very tense, nervous and full of fear. In terms of polarities, my timing was sustained because I am quite calm in this scene, so I would be quite sustained when I'm saying my lines; I think that my weight was heavy because I think that I moved quite slowly around the stage; I think that my space was quite indirect as I didn't really know where to go as the Head was just looking over me; I think my flow was quite bound because I didn't really move because I was in a fixed position for most of the performance.

In our second performance, I was with Chandler Goddard and Eilis Coughlan. We performed the part where the Kid and Ton are arguing with each other, and we went from the line where Kid says "You tricking bastards!" to where Ton says "Preaching morality at us...all day". I was Ton, Eilis was Lynn, and Chandler was Kid. I thought that my state of tension was at a level 6 because I think I showed a lot of fear when Kid pushed me onto the floor because he is meant to be really threatening towards me. I think I also had a lot of tension in my body to show my anger towards the Kid, especially when we stood up face to face with each other. In terms of polarities, my timing was quite quick because he was quite fast when he was yelling at the Kid, I thought this was present especially at the point where Kid says to Ton "bastard", and Ton is quick to react by saying back to the Kid "little shit" to show that he isn't going to let the Kid  just insult him and not saying anything back; I think that in terms of my weight, it was quite light as he is always quite quick to react to what the Kid is doing and also what he says; I think that my space was direct, as for most of the time I was always directing my speech towards the Kid; I think that my flow was quite free as Ton didn't seem to be held back by anything to prevent him from moving around freely.

In our third performance I was with Charley Bennett and Connor Thompson. We performed the part where the Head and Lynn are talking to the Kid about how they don't know his name and also how the Kid wants to see the Head hanging from the ceiling. I was the Kid, Connor was the Head, and finally Charley was Lynn. We started from where the Head says to Kid "You won't tell me", which is the point where the Head is trying to get the Kid's name out of him, and we performed till the Head says "ah,ah,ah" . The point in doing this performance was to look at what state of tension we were at in the performance. I thought that my state of tension of the Kid was at a level 5/6 because I thought that I was quite quick on my feet and very alert, but then I also thought that I was quite tense because I am trying to show my extreme anger for both the Head and Lynn. I think in terms of polarities, my timing was quite quick, as he is so mad at the Head and he says it quicker to make it more dramatic and to show his anger; I think that  my weight would be quite light as he is very; I think my space would be quite direct because the Kid is always moving towards the Head and therefore knows where he is going; I think my flow would be quite free as I seemed to move quite easily to where the Kid would be in the script.


The Four Polarities & Effort Qualities
Time: Quick/Sustained
Weight: Heavy/Light
Space: Direct/Indirect
Flow: Bound/Free

                    Time        Weight       Space          Flow
PRESS     Sustained    Heavy       Direct          Bound
PUNCH     Quick        Heavy       Direct          Bound
DAB           Quick        Light         Direct          Free       
FLICK      Quick        Light         Indirect        Free
SLASH      Quick        Heavy       Indirect        Free
WRING   Sustained    Heavy       Indirect        Bound
FLOAT    Sustained    Light         Indirect        Free
GLIDE    Sustained     Light         Direct          Free

On Thursday 3rd October, we were introduced to the eight effort qualities, press, punch, dab, flick, slash, wring, float, and glide. We did an exercise which was doing these eight different movements along to the song 'Physical' by Olivia Newton John. The song was just playing out loud and our teacher would just show us one movement after another and we would do it, and then once we had done all eight of the movements then we would put those into a sequence all together.

We then later got into small groups where we had to improvise a short scene of before Lynn and Ton were in the cupboard. I was in a group with Kitty Smith and Henry Marshall; I played Ton; Kitty played Lynn, and finally Henry was another P.E teacher called Bruce. Our scene was set in the staff room during the lunch break before the incident in the cupboard occurred. Our scene started with Ton and Bruce in the staff room complaining about a student called Gary who irritates them both; then Lynn enters the staff room and tries on several occasions to get a quiet word with Ton but is constantly interrupted by Bruce who continues to talk about the Gary, the irritating student; but Ton finally manages to stop Bruce from talking by asking to make a cup of coffee for them and Lynn as well, but Bruce continues to talk by cracking jokes about Ton, while Lynn and Ton are trying to talk and when they finally get to talk to each other, they discuss about the difficult situation they are in about them seeing each other and they arrange to meet in the science cupboard.

Since our first lesson, we have started more a less every lesson by doing a warm up game called 'Shut it' which is where we stand in a circle and there are three movements from which we can use to send it around the circle. One of the movements is where you do the movement of slapping someone around the face which is called 'Shut it' which just moves it on to the next person. The second movement is where you put both your hands up in the stance as if you are about to be shot, and this sends it the back round the other direction of the circle and this movement was called 'watch it'. The third and final movement we used was where if the 'shut it' movement came towards us we could send it to some across the circle by saying 'bonafide'. If the 'shut it' came to us we could also say 'play time' which then meant we had to dance into another circle formation while constantly singing the lyrics 'Hey Ho, lets go', which are lyrics from the song 'Blitzkrieg Bop' by The Ramones until we were in a new circle formation. Whenever the 'shut it' was sent to us, and we hesitated or said the wrong movement to send it around the circle, then  we would have to go down on one knee, but if we then did the next one right, then we would be redeemed by being able to stand on both feet again.

We linked the four polarities to performance by observing other group's performances and seeing what their time, weight, space, and flow was like. The four polarities are in a way linked to the exercise 'shut it' because it looks at the weight, time, space, and flow of the movements. For example the 'shut it' movement has a light weight, a free flow, the space is direct, and the time of it is quick.

Movement 
Laban said that movement can be described through six categories, body, effort, space, shape, relationship, and phrasing.

Response to practitioner - Konstantin Stanislavski: Gotcha

The Stanislavstree & Stanislavski Techniques

Magic If
'Magic if' is a technique that is used to inspire the actor's creative state. For example, What would you do in this situation?' The key to 'Magic if' is to make the actor think about what to do in a situation or circumstance.
Advantage: It helps the actor think about what they would do if they were in a difficult situation or circumstance.

Imagination (Visualisation)
The Stanislavski term 'Imagination' is the actor's capacity to treat fiction circumstances as if they were real, to visualise the details of the characters life specifically, and also to fantasize about the events of the play. Visualisation is the key to turning what is going on onstage into theatrical reality which links to the term 'realism', but if this doesn't happen then it won't be realistic and it won't be acting. The key to using imagination is to connect to your character and create belief that you are them. Doing this will make your acting look more realistic (realism) and also, naturalistic (naturalism).
Advantage: It helps actors to make their characters more realistic and to connect to their character to create belief that they are them.
Disadvantage: It may not make their performance more realistic.

Given Circumstances
Given Circumstances is an important term of Stanislavski's. The environmental and conditional conditions will influence your performance. For example, if I had just got off a 13-hour flight from Hong Kong then this would affect the way I would speak and move. Stanislavski believes that given circumstances should be soon as we are given a script. There are two forms of given circumstances, physical and mental. An example of a physical circumstance is having an itch on your neck and constantly scratching your neck during your performance to show the audience that a bad cough is your physical given circumstance is. An example of a mental given circumstance would be having a craving and a constant need for a cigarette, so you would need to constantly feel your cigarettes in your pockets to show us that a craving for a cigarette is your mental given circumstance. We used this technique in one of our three performances we did. We had to choose two physical given circumstances and two mental given circumstances to include in our performance, and the others would have to guess what our given circumstances were.
Advantage: It helps the actor to make their character more realistic.

Circle of Attention
The term 'Circle of Attention' is a devised theory of Stanislavski, and it is to help actors feel less tense while on stage. This is comprised of three circles that the actor should concentrate on. The actor should start by focusing on a small circle, then  extend their focus to a medium circle, before finally moving their focus to a large circle. The circle of attention is also used to separate the audience from the actors concentration and allows the actor to connect to the world of their character.
Advantage: It makes the actor feel less tense while on stage.
Disadvantage: It may confuse the actor about where they need to focus their concentration on.

Subtext Motivation
The term 'subtext' is what is underneath the actual meaning, so therefore 'text' is the actual meaning. We did an exercise in class, where Jamie and Bubu performed  some of the script from Gotcha. So Jamie and Bubu had to read the lines and also act how the characters in the script were feeling, and at the end of every full stop we had to say what we thought they were feeling and also thinking.    
Advantage: It allows the audience to look at how they think the character is really feeling in the script and what they're thinking as well.        

Emotional Memory
The term 'emotional memory' means an actor recalling an event that happened in the past and regenerating the feelings that they had at that time. So these feelings that have been regenerated are then used in the current acting situation  in order to play the role with 'human depth and personal involvement'. We did an exercise in class about emotional memory. This involved all of us sitting on a chair with our eyes closed thinking back to an event that happened in the past and how that event made us feel; and we had to choose two of four following feelings that the event made us feel. Those four were: frustrated, sad, cheated or fed up. Another part of the exercise was when we were sitting in our chairs around the room, we had a part of the script with us and our teacher would come round and randomly tap someone on the shoulder and they would have to read part of the script in a voice that showed those two feelings.          
Advantage: It allows the actor to use these regenerated feelings to help them in future performances that.  
Disadvantage: The regenerated emotions may not fit the character they are acting in their current piece.    

 

Visual, Aural & Spatial - Gotcha

Set for Gotcha
The set I have decided to use is the 'Thrust' setting because it allows people to see the play from different points of view.

In terms of props, the motorbike will be centre stage to show the audience that the scene is based around the bike. There will also be a television, a desk, 7 boxes, a chair rack, a door, a window, two sets of shelves, and a broom.

I think in terms of lighting there will be quite a dimmed form of lighting because it is closet, and closets don't usually have a lot of light in it, but there is a window in there which could let quite a big source of light into the room, only during the day of course but this scene is set during the day. I think the lighting should also be based on what emotions are being shown in the scene, so when the argument about the bike is happening, then the lighting should be low, but apart from then, it should be quite bright. But then I think it will be very difficult to cover all parts of the stage to make sure certain props in particularly the motorbike are shown clearly on the stage to the audience. I also think the weather should judge how the lighting is on the stage. For example, if the weather in the stage directions says it is sunny outside during the scene, then the lighting should be quite bright.

The music in 1976 was an era where punk was just starting to become popular but it was acts such as The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, and Rod Stewart that were popular in this era of music. Barry Keefe used one of the Rolling Stones songs to use in his Gotcha play. So I think the sound would be songs from acts that were popular at that time playing in the background. I think in terms of sound effects there only needs to be the sound of a knock on a door, and the opening of a door but other than this, no other sound effects are needed.

I think the clothing for the play will be as follows: the head will be wearing a suit, waistcoat, a shirt, a tie, and a pair of black shoes to show that he has authority over everyone else and also to make him look like a head teacher; the kid will be wearing a shirt, tie, black shoes and a blazer to make it look like a school uniform; Ton will be wearing a t-shirt, shorts, trainers and a whistle around his neck to make him look like a P.E teacher, and Lynn will be wearing a skirt (quite short) to make it look suspicious that something is going on between her and Ton, a shirt to go with the shirt, and flat shoes to make her look like a teacher  and also to give her some authority, over the kids in particular.