28.1.15

In todays lesson we worked with the 1st years on our opening scene, the storm scene and the Orsino languishing scene. This was the first rehearsal on the Orsino scene "If music be the food of love" and I feel it went well and we all really got into the languishing style of the scene and I feel I really was absorbed into the singing at the start and the Food of love speech, which we all speak parts of in groups. The scene is really relaxing and I imagine I am in a luxurious room surrounded by rich and happy people, drinking the best wine and eating the best food and listening to beautiful music, and I am just living in it without  a care in the world, we are all Orsino's to a degree as we all love the same things and it feels like we all look up to him and aspire to be just like him. I really enjoy this scene and I have learned that when you imagine a setting and just be in the moment it really helps your concentration and focus, and it makes the scene more enjoyable. It is a very sensuous scene and we are all very engrossed considering we have only rehearsed this scene about 3 times now and the languishing vibes are very strong. I feel we can make this scene stronger by using more complicity, especially with the breaths we do in unison after Orsino(Greta) speaks.

The lines we all say together in Unison, are Curio's lines, so we are all representing Curio, who is Orsino's servant if you like...

"Will you go hunting my lord?"(all in unison)

"What, Curio?"(Greta as Orsino)

"The Hart" (this is a male deer)

"Why so I do, the noblest that I have, O when mine eyes did see Olivia first,

Me thought she purg'd the air of pestilence;

That instant was I turned into a hart (we gasp in unison)

And my desires, like fell and cruel hounds,

e'er since pursue me."

Narcissus are also a type of flower

During this speech we are all lounging on the floor all linked together by lying on each other, holding hands and looking up to Orsino, who is standing above us, at the front of the stage, talking to us, as if he is a story teller. Orsino definitely loves the sound of his own voice, but I feel he is not an arrogant character, he just loves the idea of being in love and is very high maintenance and materialistic, but he is not a bad person at all. He is very caring and kind, just he could be seen as very shallow and vain. He does come across as a Narcissus, which means someone who is very vain and self loving. The word "Narcissism" comes from Greek Mythology which we learned about in today's lesson, about a young man named Narcissus, who was a hunter and fell in love with his own reflection in the lake. He was the son of a river god, Cephissus and a nymph, Liriope. Narcissus was very proud and self loving, and Nemesis noticed this behaviour and attracted the hunter to the river, where he saw his own reflection and fell in love instantly, he did not realise this was his reflection and thought he had discovered a new Greek God, and went to the river every day to gaze at himself, until one day he fell in and drowned. This was seen as Karma from Nemesis, as being a Narcissus is a bad trait, and one who has a fixation with their own appearance is not a good quality to have. This is where the term "Narcissism" stems from.

We were all discussing how we feel Orsino has these qualities slightly, but as I said before Orsino means well, and just purely wants to love and to be loved.

I learned a lot from today's lesson, as we were mainly taking direction from Siou and Andy on the opening scene, and I have learned that envisioning a scene in my mind and creating a vibe within myself REALLY helps me develop characterisation and to be more involved in a scene. I really enjoy this scene and I have realised that letting go inside my mind really does help my performance and I really hope this shows. The directions we received were mainly about physicality and stage presence, and this has also helped me in my character development for Viola as the physicality of a man are quite hard to get into, but I feel I am making progress with this, and the goal I set for myself to be off script last week has been achieved as I ran lines in my spare time and in college time, and now the scene is coming along so much better as Sav and I are BOTH off script which allows us to be more free, and certainly helps me as I have developed my posture and the way I walk, I feel comfortable in this physicality as I keep practising it in my spare time and during rehearsals, whereas before it felt very awkward and quite funny, as it is such a change from my own personal physicality.