Week Five Acting

We had filmed our scene the week before on Friday but unfortunately the takes could not
be used due to sound congestion and down to the fact that we only managed to film the
master shot and the angle looking upon my face. This was down to Bobbi not being able
to remember her lines when put under the pressure of filming, although we had been
rehearsing during free time around college and the filming location being next to a
building site.
Next time, I think the producers should check out the filming location more, as they had
not known about the building site or road behind the hedge that we were filming against
and knowing about this could've saved us from having to reshoot another day.
As a result of this, we weren't needed for filming on Monday in the first two sessions of
acting this week and took our time to go over the scene and do some work on Weebly.
On Monday the 9th of October, we watched a performance of Metamorphosis, based on
the book by Franz Kafka by Spendid productions.
http://www.splendidproductions.co.uk/productions/

"Are you normal? Gregor Samsa is. He has a nice normal job and a nice normal family and
lives in a nice normal house with normal wishes and normal dreams and a nice normal
future to look forward to. That is until the day he wakes to discover he has turned into a
giant insect. In a new creative adaptation, Splendid Productions get their scrabbly little
insect legs on Franz Kafka's chilling story of dislocation, mutation and isolation and
transform it into a slithering, creeping, wriggling, delightful, comical, tragical, musical,
physical theatrical adventure for everyone who has woken up wondering: has the world
changed, or is it just me? The production runs from September 2017 to March 2018."

"Splendids touring production for 2017/2018 is Kerry Framptons new adaptation of Franz
Kafkas short story Metamorphosis. Its an hour-long performance with a multi-roling
cast of three, employing a range of our regular student-stealable theatrical techniques
including:

Brechtian episodic structure

Strong physical and vocal ensemble storytelling
Choral precision
Breaking the fourth wall
Exaggerated characterisation
Music, mime and puppetry
The performance is suitable for ages 12+, and is ideal for students studying Brecht or
Berkoff, as an example of creative adaptation, an inspiration for devising or a well-
supported professional production for live review.
Please note that, like our version of Kafkas The Trial, this is a new adaptation based on
Kafkas original text that does not refer to Berkoffs version. However, as with every
Splendid production our work demonstrates many techniques that relate directly to
Berkoffs theatrical style."
In our third session of acting for the week we were introduced to Berkoff by a power
point and watching the opening of his version of Metamorphosis, which was not used in
the performance that we watched on Monday as that was based on the book. I enjoyed
the performance as they kept a constant theme throughout, however at points I either
found it hard to understand or it tended to not draw me in as much as Berkoff's version.
Steven Berkoff is a practitioner who is very true to his real acting style\performance
(Berkovian style) which is considered an extremely physical, non-naturalistic theatre
style. The emphasis of his work is on the development of the moving body through
mime and mask work. He is an actor, theatre director and writer who's work is highly
physical and visual. He trained at Jacques Lecoq School in Paris.
Franz Kafka's novel of Metamorphosis was originally published in 1915 but was adapted
by Berkoff and first performed in 1969, in which Berkoff played the role of Gregor Samsa
and went on to also play his father in a later production.

Key features of Berkovian theatre:

Soundscapes
Physical interpretation of emotion, meaning and narrative
Strong group work
Multi-rolling
Use of symbolism
Characterisation of inanimate objects
Grotesque
Exaggerated gesture
Emotive language
Energetic\fast pace
Choral speaking
Movement
Ensemble
Invited into a surreal world expressed through grotesque movement physical
body contorted or twisted to make a point about the character or situation
To start off our work into Metamorphosis, we watched a version of the opening scene
and were then given a script to try out the scene. My group consisted of Cameron W,
Anya and I but we only managed to get about half way through the page in the twenty
minutes left of the lesson that we were given.