1.     Who am I? (Diary entry)

CLAUDIO: 
I am Claudio son of wealthy lawyer from middle america. My father is very respected and has instilled a respect for justice ever since I was young, however I always felt that being a lawyer wasn't enough to make a difference. Despite this I still intended to go to law school to keep my father happy, but once the gulf war started and terrorism became an intentional threat i decided i would in list in the army and make a difference there.
The stress of war has left me, for a moment I felt unusually empty. Euphoric that the war was won and by a landlside victory but in the back of my mind I felt as though that war was my purpose, what fulfilled me, and now the war was gone and with it my purpose. But as soon as I saw Hero again I was flooded with feelings, as though my empty shell of a body had been filled with warm smooth honey. It amazed me how I overlooked her while I stayed her before the war. I just knew right there that I was in love, that I had to marry this girl,  however I'm anxious that she wouldn't feel the same. My traditional views on true love may not be appreciated in the modern era, maybe not even in her culture.  I just want more than anything for her to be mine, to spend the rest of our lives together. The life of a bachelor has been fun but has to end, you have to grow up at some point. I feel sorry for Benedick, that he won't allow himself to settle down with a good woman. Maybe he is truly happy living as he does but I doubt it. If he and Beatrice were less stubborn perhaps they would end up together, but the chances of either being less stubborn is impossible. 

scene 1: courtyard of the palace, just arrived, morning, 

scene 2: party scene, night, inside, 

scene 3: outside party, night

scene 4: outside party, night

scene 1: all the other soldiers, allies don pedro, benedick, wary of Don John and his goons. Very affectionate to Hero, use fountain to cool down. Stay aware of Benedick spouts with Beatrice, and react.  

scene 2: watch Don John woo Hero, anxious, nervous, excited, suspicious. After party, wary of Don John and his goons, yet still believe every word they say.

scene 3: furious at Don pedro, embarrassed by Beatrice. this changes to euphoria when I realise I was wrong.
scene 4: Benedick, Don Pedro and Leonato, Benedick is hiding and thinks we don't know he's there. This is played on by the characters as they try to get him to believe Beatrice loves him. Happy and elated after finally hooking up with Hero, want to help my friend do the same. light hearted attitude.
scene 5: teasing Benedick about his blooming love for beatrice, Leonato and Don pedro do the same, all friends on stage leonato and benedick leave, Don jon enters and changes the atmosphere from joyful to tense. This is because Don jon lies about Hero and Claudio gets furious.

5.     What's my relationship. (People and things)

6.     What's just happened before the scene starts? (what happens after the scene ends?)
scene 1: Just come back from war, sucsesfull, happy, relieved, redy to relax. After this go to dinner and eat a large welcome feast prepared by leonato.
scene 2: before: get ready for party, discussed details of don pedro's plan with him in detail before party, anxious about the whole thing.
after: feel completley disapointed and betrayed by don pedro. Probably pace around the palace mumbling angry thoughts to himself. Preparing himself to confront Don Pedro with his anger.
scene 3:after: run off with Don pedro as he tells us his plan to make Beatrice and Benedick fall in love.
scene 4: after: send Beatrice out to get Benedick and while she is gone celebrate how well the plan went.
scene 5: before: notice Benedicks changed attitude towards Beatrice, dropped several subtle hints to Benedick and have disscussed the plan further with Don pedro and Leonato.

7.     Objective (What do I want?)
my super objective for most of the performance is to get together with Hero. It then changes to try and get Benedick and Beatrice together. And after that in my last scene changes to discover whether Hero is faithful or not.

8.     Obstacle (What's in my way?)
the obstacle for Claudio and Hero getting together, not that either of them know it, is Don Jon and his goons. From the very begining he's out to cause as much trouble as possible. It is only at the end of the play do the characters realise what he's done. 

9.     Action (Tactics to get what I want?)

To get with Hero, Claudio asks Don Pedro for help and advice. 

Plead, ask, urge, request.

To confront Don Pedro, 

Laban

I was having trouble finding my character so I decided to turn to Laban, recommended by my dear friend Sam Johnson. I found that flicking was the most apropriate combination of words, broken, light and Indirect. Immediately after doing this I found the excitement that exists within Claudio. He has just been a war and survived, he is relieved and not only that he has been praised for his efforts, he is elated. He has done the hard work it's time to relax and I feel this upbeat happy time in his life would be embodied by light and indirect. Light because he is weightless no anxieties or insecurities, indirect because he is free and has no worry. This playful combination is also really good for Claudio and Benedicks moments of tease, as it makes it more natural and easy to embody and most importantly more comedic.

Broken however is for the moments when Claudio is led on by don jon about hero being unfaithful. When Claudio's beautiful passion for life gets twisted into a much darker anger at the hands of don Jon, however he is so easily manipulated because he is so gullible and naive. When acting in these scenes I would have to use the energy I had previously used for happiness and convert into anger.  The intial shock would halt the happiness and in the empty space the happiness left anger and a deep hurt would take its place.

WEEK 6 – YOUR PRODUCTION

RESEARCH: Research your own Shakespeare play: Much Ado About Nothing, Love's Labour's Lost or Titus Andronicus. What is the play about? When was it first performed? Find a contemporary production of the play you can get an idea of and research it in terms of concept, style, design, casting. Give some attention to your own character and their role in the play.

Our version of the play is set during the Gulf war, to understand the given circumstances I researched the time period and how it fit with the play.Research:

Iraq was secular, religion and gov were separate, neutral gov. Iran taken over by islamic fundamentalist. Sadam Husain blackmailing kuwait for two million dollars or will be invaded, Sadam was a dictator. The USA didn't remove Sudam Husain from power because "better the devil we know, than the devil we don't." No islamic fundamentalism when sadam in power

UN posted a ultimatum that if Sadam did not back down the allied countries would fight sudam.

End of soviet union caused global interest turned from Europe to the middle east.

oil control economies, countries want to control oil flow because western industries are built on oil, too much oil lowered its price.

Though the long-running war between Iran and Iraq had ended in a United Nations-brokered ceasefire in August 1988, by mid-1990 the two states had yet to begin negotiating a permanent peace treaty. When their foreign ministers met in Geneva that July, prospects for peace suddenly seemed bright, as it appeared that Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein was prepared to dissolve that conflict and return territory that his forces had long occupied. Two weeks later, however, Hussein delivered a speech in which he accused neighboring nation Kuwait of siphoning crude oil from the Ar-Rumaylah oil fields located along their common border. He insisted that Kuwait and Saudi Arabia and cancel out $30 billion of Iraq’s foreign debt, and accused them of conspiring to keep oil prices low in an effort to pander to Western oil-buying nations.

Though the Gulf War was recognized as a decisive victory for the coalition, Kuwait and Iraq suffered enormous damage, and Saddam Hussein was not forced from power. Intended by coalition leaders to be a “limited” war fought at minimum cost, it would have lingering effects for years to come, both in the Persian Gulf region and around the world.

From this research I can conclude that the USA and other countries in the UN destroyed a large part of kuwait, turning it into a warzone. This kind of behaviour is reflected by the characters leaving empty beer bottles and cups around the palace, littering the beautiful location. Having little consideration for the culture and being much more concerned with partying and hedonism.

 Much Ado About Nothing is a comedic play by William Shakespeare thought to have been composed in 1598 and 1599, as Shakespeare was drawing closer the middle of his profession. By means of "noting" (which, in Shakespeare's day, sounded the same as "nothing" as in the play's title, and which means gossip, rumour, and overhearing) the title implies that a great fuss ("much ado") is made of something which is insignificant ("nothing"), such as the unfounded claims of Hero's infidelity and the unfounded claims that Benedick and Beatrice are in love with one another. The title could also be understood as Much Ado About Noting. Much of the action is in interest in and critique of others, written messages,spying, and eavesdropping.
Much Ado About Nothing is set in Messina, a port on the island of Sicily, which is next to the toe of Italy. Sicily was ruled by Aragon at the time the play was set.
The play was very popular in its early decades, The great nineteenth century stage team Henry Irving and Ellen Terry counted Benedick and Beatrice as their greatest triumph and Charles Kemble also had a great success as Benedick. John Gielgud made Benedick one of his signature roles between 1931 and 1959. the Royal Shakespeare Company's highly praised 1982 production. Director Terry Hands produced the play on a stage-length mirror, against an unchanging backdrop of painted trees. This set is very different from our own, not only is it very vague and simple it gives no indication of time period or location. This may have been because the play was very loose with its interpretation staying close to the way it would have been performed in Shakespeare's time, it may have also been because it was awhile ago and theatres were not given as much for funding and could not invest it in set etc.

EVALUATION

4:30 PERFORMANCE:
Was enjoyable and had a nice atmosphere because the majority of the audience were our peers. This made it easier to get laughs and positive reactions from the audience. However we couldnt rely on this as a truthful reception as they were our peers and most likely saw us as ourselves not as actors or characters.

Personally I felt like my excitement and adrenaline were providing me with the energy needed to engage the audience but also threw me off slightly. Several times I cut peoples lines, being too early, this was unprofessional and may have disengaged the audience. there was a cue from Beatrice which I missed also. It also hindered my performance as I would lose Claudio for a moment and have to re-immerse myself while making sure I was saying the right line. I felt like my voice was loud enough to be heard but still could have been louder. as my current level may not have hit every wall in the Theatre. I also need to fully embrace the space and use it, having moments that I would take to the corners of the stage and give it out to the audience.

Several times there were backstage accidents, like the deck chair falling over, the loud crash it made totally took the audience out of the scene probably making them more interested to find out what was happening backstage. These accidents were very unprofessional and unacceptable in a professional performance. However I think it didn't effect our performance too negatively because in my opinion our play felt a little messy and that was its charm. The play wasn't perfect but it didn't need to be.

7:30 PERFORMANCE
This performance felt more settled and less fuelled by sparatic excitement. I was less excitable and more relaxed in my self as a performer and my character. My chemistry with Hector playing Benedick was very good as was my chemistry with Sasha playing Hero, in both relationships we all actively listened to each other and reacted accordingly making the relationships feel real and authentic. Especially with Hero where we have practically no written dialogue together so we had to just improvise and have our own interactions in the foreground of a scene.
The party scene was slightly better as TTA managed to turn down the music, but the audience still even after that couldn't hear the actors.

I still could have immersed myself in the role more as before going on stage I would have to remind myself of my actions and objectives instead of knowing them subconsciously. Usually reminding myself of the one main objective I have for the scene as this would drive my characterisation.  I felt more settled in my vocals but didn't achieve sufficient volume when whispering to other characters.
I also need to make sure none of my energy is wasted to the floor, I often found myself delievering my lines to the floor, or looking down. This was when Claudio was feeling sad or embarrsed but it hindered the audiences experience of my performance. I also need to break away from the safety of other actors eyes, and use the stage to deliver lines to the audience.

the 7:30 show was better because everyone was more condfident in the play and knew what worked.
I still had moments where I cut people too early, but picked up on a cue that I had missed in the 4:30 show.

BRIGHTON:
I enjoyed this show as I accepted that it wouldnt be perfect and that there would defitnley be mistakes. One of these was me being to early on a cue to open the doors for the party scene, but because I was prepared for mistakes I didn't let it drop my character or vocals.

However when performing in Brighton I found that I was more concerned with my vocals being heard rather than my acting or characterisation. I hardly thought about physicality or charcater and trusted that I could convey these things while on auto pilot. Again here I would have benefitted from being more immersed in Claudio as characterisation would be embedded in my mind. There were moments when I put too much strain on my voice and it btoke, this would disengage the audience from the illusion that I'm talking casually. I also need to understand the space more as I projected my voice int the wrong directions, places were my vocals would be lost or heard by only a small portion of the audience.

The production was hindered because music began to play across the park and made it even harder for the performers to be heard. Some moments that were played for laughs dried up like the Boarchio bumming scenes, this may have been because Brighton is he gay capital of Britain, or that Tom wasnt fully going for it or that they audience was made up of old white people.

PEER ASSESMENT

VLAD
Plays the soldier well, effectively shows gradual anger that builds up within Claudio. Consistent accent, however needs to have a stronger voice, from belly not throat or chest. His voice is sufficient for the rehearsal room but will not transfer well into the theatre. Needs to fully find the character of Claudio so he can start to trust his natural instincts. Manages to go deeper than just an emotional state, making clear actions and decisions. Stays committed during rehearsals, even in between runs when other people around him let go of the world of the play. Doesn't blandly portray the emotion of anger, successfully shows all the vocal colours and embodies a truthful physicality.

Takes the audience on an emotional journey by truthfully going on the journey when portraying Claudio, form anger to love. Needs to feel more comfortable in Claudio's instinctual actions. Good chemistry with Benedick. Stays within world of the play, stays concentrated even while sir is directing other performers.

What do people say about my character?

Claudio is said to have received great praise from this war. Don John dislikes Claudio and refers to him as a "proper squire."
Benedick sees Claudio as a fool because he has fallen in love
Beatrice feels bad for the noble Claudio because of his new brotherly relationship with Benedick. She later hates him for wrongfully shaming her cousin.
Don Pedro helps him nurture his love for Hero, sees him as good soldier who needs guidance. Leonato is grateful for his efforts in the war, he knows about his budding relationship with Hero and gives his blessings for the marriage. He later is disappointed that Claudio believed such lies and that he tried to shame his daughter.

Generally he is said to be quite niave, and gulliable. Prone to have quite childish tantrums and is thought to be quite spoilt. Despite this he was an asset to Don Pedro in the war and gained respect. He is known to be good friends with Bendick and the two are infamous for being a duo.He is a romantic and as much as he enjoys the life of a bacholer he secretley longs for true love, this is why his infactuation for Hero becomes so great. Bendick thinks this romance is foolish and sees this as a sly betrayl from Claudio, "bros before hoes" Benedick might say.

·                     who is your family?

BENEDICK, DON PEDRO, 

·                     Who are your friends?

LEONATO, BEATRICE

·                     Who are your acquaintances? 

MARGARET, URSALA, ANTONIO, 

·                     Who are your enemies?

CONRADE, DON JOHN, BORACHIO 

·                     Who do you openly like?

HERO, BENEDICK, DON PEDRO, LEONATO,

·                     Who do you openly dislike?
DON JOHN, BORACHIO, CONRADE 

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