Weekly Notes for Macbeth and As You Like It

Week 1-3

The first week was just being introduced to the pieces were are doing. I am doing Macbeth, Act 5 Scene 1. This week, I have been doing research and reading the script. I also went on Spark notes to find a English version of the scene that I am doing. I also did character research on the Scots Doctor and his characteristics.

In rehearsals this week, I have been trying to give my lines different dynamics while portraying anger in a natural way. But it’s a lot better than my first attempt at having a go.

Because I am meant to be angry in the scene, I spoke on one level all the way through and there was no difference in my emotions and it just sounded mono tone. 

In this week, staging was thought about but our main focus for now is working on our characters.

One person I think have a similar character is me and Sean. It is not as similar as I might be considering it to be, but we are both angry at points in our scenes.  His energy at this point compared to mine is massive. I think I should be a little bit on his level. But I think the difference is that he is aggressive with his actions and me, with my voice. I have authority in my voice and my status and he has it with his actions.


Week 3-4

This week was the presentation of our pieces sharing our research done in week 1-3. This was in depth research from the history of the play to the social context.

Week 3-4

In week 3-4, we are trying to get our piece together. When I enter as the Duke to banish Esther’s character, the girls need to work on their mood change. It needs to be more distinctive. The girls should be more excited and happy and my character should destroy that completely and that is something that is weak in our performance. Also, they need to they need to match my energy in order to get my energy full out. If not, it is like scoring in an empty goal. I need to work on how to portray my anger in different ways to show a contrasting feel to the scene. Also to stress more words while saying my lines especially when its in a big bunch.  

Also in this week, Michael Parr and Mat came in our lesson to do a workshop developing our pieces in the best way possible. Matt is a director by profession and he directed our Shakespeare pieces giving me a better understanding of what the text conveys.

 Michael Parr

Michael Parr is an actor who has known about what his future is going to be even at an early age. According to Michael, He has no GCSEs because he went straight into acting. He loves Film and TV and has acted in Casualty, Hollyoaks, and is now currently filming with Emerdale. He has a good acting experience and helped us a lot with our pieces.

Week 7
This week was actually getting on my nerves because our scene for Macbeth did not get watched by Alex. But then on Wednesday, finally, Alex asked to see our scene. Even though our scene was already at a good standard and the lines were off book, I still wanted Alex to watch our scene to see if opinion would be the same as Yusuf. He had a lot of different feedback points from Alex and we as a group both points to make our scene even better. By the end of the week, Yusuf said he no problem with the scene and the only thing we should do is work on being consistent till the night of the performance.

In Brendan and Mauricia scene, Mauricia said that Brendan had difficult with his character and we allowed him to watch the Macbeth scene I am in to see how it can help him in any way.

Peer Feedback

Feedback I received from peers for As You Like It is that I should be more authoritative with my voice, I should be still, and think of myself as a king. These feedback as helped me a lot as I found out it was much easier when I am still. I have also been told to use my diaphragm when I am shouting in the scene which is 80% of my lines.