A Midsummer Night’s Dream – Tech Roles 

Your responsibility as a tech team is –

·         

1.       Create ideas that are realistic and achievable on a very tight/no budget.
2. ·         Bring those ideas to Jocasta - You need to email to book a time, I am available on Wednesdays from 10.30-12noon and Thursdays from 10am – 2.30pm
3. ·        Put those ideas into action – Our first tech rehearsal is Wednesday 30^th November and all elements must be finished and ready to go.
4. ·         You need to ask for help when you need it from staff – Jocasta, Sarah, Nadine, Lizi, Alex.
5. ·         You may want to make friends in Art and DT if you want their help too.

Lighting and Sound	Set Design and Props	Costume and Make up
Alena Emily Dave	Grace Anthony Maria Sarah	Jess Olivia Liv Lucy

My tips –

• Keep it simple, this is a very short period of time to prepare and the main assessment focus is on your performance.
• Keep up – Do not fall behind, set a time at the beginning of each week that you meet up to prepare and develop.

Let the fun begin...!

I hope you are all pleased with the role you have been cast in for A Midsummer Night's Dream, Sarah, Nadine and I can't wait to get stuck into preparing the performance when we return after half term!

As we prepare and rehearse next term you will be continually assessed on the following things - 

1. How you respond to research and apply it to your devising and rehearsal process - 

to achieve distinction you must be imaginative, disciplined and skillful in the way you apply knowledge gained from research and discussion/analysis to your rehearsal process.

 2. How you develop your role - 

To achieve distinction you must be creative and imaginative with your performance ideas and apply these ideas skillfully to your performance

3. How you behave in rehearsals

You must rehearse with a high level of self discipline, taking a pro active role in rehearsals, leading warm ups, group work, staying on task and being positive.

Sarah and I have discussed that our overall interpretation of the text will be about a young girl running away from a conservative thinking family to elope with her girlfriend and en route stay in a forest where they find themselves in the middle of a rave/festival/impromptu party held by the fairies and where a group of amateur actors are preparing a play for an event.

For our first lesson back after half term I would like you to do two things -

1.  prepare ideas for this interpretation. 

Please bring in pictures/photos for design inspiration and ideas for how your character will fit into this interpretation. You may have additional ideas for the overall interpretation, please bring them and share them. These ideas should also be in your log book.

2. Prepare a physical warm up that you could lead the class in for 5 to 10 minutes. We will be choosing one person each lesson to lead the warm up. The warm up should be active, get you warm and focused ready for the rehearsal ahead.

3.Bring in any props/costumes to use as inspiration for Wednesday 2nd Nov.

Have a great half term

Jocasta 

6 day Shakespeare Masterclass £299

London 24th - 29th October 2016

http://www.nyt.org.uk/courses/masterclass-performing-shakespeare

Are you intimidated by classical text or struggling to find the right Shakespeare audition speech? This course is ideal for those wanting to get to grips with their approach to classical performing.

Lead by top industry professionals, this six day course will help you unlock Shakespeare texts and showcase your new skills to a panel of experts offering you personal feedback and advice.

Ideal for those preparing a classical speech for an audition or performers who would like to gain further understanding in approaching Shakespearian plays.

On the course you can expect to:
•    Rehearse a Shakespeare monologue to a polished performance standard
•    Explore the language, themes and depth of Shakespeare’s plays
•    Rehearse a duologue to performance standard
•    Take part in an evening Q&A with a prominent Shakespearian actor/director
•    Perform monologues and duologues to an invited industry panel and gain feedback on your performance

Thought for the week...

Shakespeare’s Globe to live-stream A Midsummer Night’s Dream for free

Shakespeare’s Globe has teamed up with the BBC for the first ever live stream of a production from the theatre.

The final performance of A Midsummer Night’s Dream will be broadcast online for free on a BBC website on September 11, and will then be available on iPlayer for the following 60 days.

Meera Syal will introduce the production before broadcast, while the Globe will also air a series of live behind the scenes tours on social media in the run up to the live stream.

Globe artistic director Emma Rice said the broadcast would enable the show “to reach even more people than we can fit in the Globe over an entire summer season”.

“This is the best gift to the audience I can imagine and will catapult this amazing play and extraordinary venue into living rooms around the country,” she added.

Peter Maniura, head of digital development at BBC Arts, said it would be a “fitting climax” to the online Shakespeare Lives festival, which the BBC is co-curating with the British Council.

He continued: “Theatre is all about the live experience and I'm delighted that the energy, brilliance and sheer fun of Emma Rice's smash-hit production is going to reach the biggest possible audience globally through this live stream.”

The broadcast follows a similar project that saw Don Warrington’s performance as King Lear at Manchester’s Royal Exchange Theatre uploaded to iPlayer earlier this year.

Watch it here

Please make sure you go to see -

A Midsummer Nights Dream

The beautiful gardens of King’s College form the perfect setting for Shakespeare’s delightful fairy-tale world of love, jealousy and youthful exuberance. 

This captivating production brings to life all the magic and humour of Shakespeare’s best-loved play. Why not invite your children to come along dressed as fairies to add to what promises to be a spectacular evening

11 July - 30 July 2016

7.30pm

King's College Gardens

(Entrance via Queen’s Road only)

Adults £16 Concessions £12

Presentations - My Expectations

We have high expectations when it comes to presenting. 

As Performing Arts students you should be considering your skills as a presenter as well as the content and format of your presentation. 

When you leave college you will be expected to speak publicly and deliver information, whether at an audition, interview or as part of your job.

After watching you present last year I have created a set of guidelines - 

Personal presentation skills - 

1. Be prepared! Practice your presentation at least once to at least one person - you would never do an assessed performance without rehearsal! 
2. Speak clearly and project - we need to hear what you are saying 
3. Don't rush your words 
4. Know your subject and your presentation content - be confident in your delivery
5. Look at your audience - do not just read from the screen or computer with your back to us.
6. Smile and relax.

Presentation Content

1. The content of your presentation must be well researched and only relevant, useful content included. Make sure the examples you give are relevant and correct.
2. The vast majority of content should be in your own words - there is little skill involved in copy and pasting paragraphs straight from websites.
3. Include photos / videos where appropriate, no one enjoys a presentation of just writing and a photo/video can tell you so much more.

Presentation Format

1. Don't put too much information on each slide - keep it brief and elaborate verbally.
2. Don't repeat yourself, often students don't do enough research and instead repeat themselves just using different words, saying the same thing in a different way, delivering the same content just in a slightly different way - you can see where I am going here! 
3. Use formatting tools - italics, underlining and bold to highlight key words, quotes or sentences, it makes the content much easier for you and your audience to read.