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Improvization 6 - final

During the sixth lesson on improvization we practiced all our abilities gained throughout the course to get ready for the summative. It took place just after the lesson and was in front of not only our year but also the one above. Dring class we revised shortly the theory of improvization and then begun practicing. We were doing scenes in three people groups. We were given some feedback from the rest of the group and the teacher so that we can perform better in an exam. The exam was also in trios that were chosen randomly among all the students present. We were given only a place and sometimes a brief information about the carachters. The rest we had to figure out on ourselves and do out best!

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IMPROVIZATION 5

During the fifth lesson of improvization we had a guest. He was conducting the lesson so we gained also a different poinf of view and some new tips what to focus on. At first we were giving 30 second improvised speahes about some random topics. Later we played a few games as a whole group to practice and put our mind into improvization. At the end four chosen student had a task to improvise in pairs changing every few minutes. They had to remenber the scene they had started with each other to later be able to come back to it. They did it really great and it was very fun to watch. All in all the whole leson was very beneficial for us, espexially as the next week we have the summative.

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IMPROVIZATION 4

During the forth lesson of improvization we were given some objects but had to use them as something extrmely different from the original purpose. At first we did some exercises for this, which required a lot of creative thinking. Then we began the improvizarion. We proseeded as normal but during the performance one object was to be given to us and we had to use it somehow. It was fun to observe other students think of different uses of the objects. Most of the time, the new object changed the scene and situation of some character completely.

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IMPROWIZATION 3

During the third lesson of improvization we focused on working in the groups of three. It was interesing as in every performance the patern of two people collaborating and than one changing side repeated. It was also intriguing to take part in it as with three people there were more possibilities and ideas which does not mean it was easier. It was extremely different from working in pairs.

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Improvization 2

Durig the second lesson about improvization we had the same task as prviously, but without using any words. Before, we had some time to calm our minds and prepare for the task, but it was still difficult to find yourself on the stage. It was challenging to communicate with the partner without speaking but even though, most of the scenes came out very good. It was a pretty successful continuation of the previous lesson.

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Improvization 1

During the first lesson about improvization we revised some information about the construction of a play and later started practicing. We were improvizing in pairs while one person was allowed only to say "YES" and the other was speaking freely. Doing that, we had to create a place and situation that we were in and show the status of the characters. During the scene the status had to be changed with remaining in the same space and character. This was a very nice and educating task for our first improvization class.

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Playscript creation

Our task was to choose a playscript, and without changing the dialogue, place the action in different times and situation. We decided to read the playscript of "Harry Potter and the cursed child" by John Tiffany and Jack Thorne and place it in the scenatio close to "How I became a gangster". We chose these, because the last part of Harry Potter is a very nice lecture and it was a lot of fun working on it, and the film not only suits the atmosphere we were aiming for, but also gives perfect background for the story. After the creation of the changed playscript, I am very pleased with what we came up with.

This is the final version of the playscript (with explanations):

Harry Potter – The Cursed Child

Act 3, Scene 16

The place & scenography:

Pruszków, living room of an old classy villa. The walls are in light colour that will perfectly work with plan light so it looks rich and like work done by true architect. Wooden floor is placed in dimond pattern which is considered to be luxurious. There is a magnificent chandelier hanging from the ceiling. Which is not visible in the graphics. It looks like it is made from true dimond. In the middle there is a table with a big pile of files on it. Next to it there is a comfortable but stylish sofa and 2 cupboards against the walls. There is a big window behind the sofa but it is fully covered with a heavy curtain.  The curtain is there so that people from the outside cannot see the inside. Decorations are ones typical for luxurious villas, there can be a famous painting on the wall.

The context & background:

In the 90’s there was one main gang in Pruszków. Their inner sign of belonging was wearing a green cloth in the upper pocket of a jacket. The other side – considered the evil one is the police and gangsters who betray their gang. Those gangsters are considered a danger and have a special sign tattooed on their necks – small black wings.  All the gangsters use very specific and unknown by the rest of population language – their own slang.

The time:

1995, April, night – around 2300

The characters:

Scorpius Hyperion Malfoy – played by Jack Dylan Grazer – 15 years old member of the gang with Albus, assigned to the task that went wrong, now trying to destroy the evidence. Always cautious about the situation, logically thinking. 

Albus Severus Potter – played by Cole Mitchell Sprouse - 15 years old member of the gang with Scorpius, assigned to the task that went wrong, now trying to destroy the evidence. Confident, impulsive, unable to see the “bad side” of some people.

Delphini “Diggory” Riddle – “The Augurey” – played by Lily Rose Depp – 23 years old member of the the gang, a traitor working for the police pretending to take part in the task with Albus and Scorpius. Clever, mysterious, coldblooded, undetected staying under the cover.

The costumes:

Scorpius – black suit with grey waist suit. Green pocket square located in right upper pocket of the jacket. With shirt with grey or green tie. Everything is custom tailored to show social status. Golden watch as symbol of money. Black shoes. Short blond hair.

Albus – black suit with grey waist suit. Green pocket square located in right upper pocket of the jacket. With shirt with grey or green tie. Everything is custom tailored to show social status. Golden watch as symbol of money. Black shoes. Short brown hair.

Delphi – black jacket with grey or black trousers. Green pocket square located in right upper pocket of the jacket. White shirt or top. Everything is custom tailored to show social status. Black high heels. Golden and green jewellery that includes necklaces but also may include earrings. Long curly blond hair that covers the neck most of the time. Wings tattoo on the neck.

The props & vocabulary:

Time turner – a pile of documents proving the illegal real estate trade

The Augurey – “crown witness” (often represented as a creature with black wings)

Confringo – to tear something up

Expulso – a shredder

Bombarda – a gun

Stupefy – to fire something up/fire

Wizard – a gangster

Spell – the method

Witchcraft – methods used by gangsters

Second task – the task from the past

Dementor – policeman capturing gangsters

Voldemort – sheriff

Dark magic – capturing gangsters by the police

Death Eater – policemen

Care of magical creatures – senior gangsters explaining the basic rules to the new ones

Hogwarts – neighbourhood

Fulgari – “got you”

Owlery – the meeting room/space

“Send an owl” – send a message

Muggles – common people

The text & action:

Scorpius and Albus enter the living room with piles of documents in their hands. The night is quiet but some shouts can be heard from a distance.

Scorpius

                So, I think a simple Confringo.

Scorpius states confidentially.

Albus

                Definitely not.

He angrily slams the documents on the table. Beat.

                For something like this you need Expulso.

Scorpius

                Expulso?

Now Scorpius slams his part of documents on the table.

Expulso and we’ll be clearing bits of Time-Turner from this owlery for days.

Albus

                Bombarda?

Albus says it uncovering a gun in his pants for a moment.

Scorpius

And wake up everyone in Hogwarts?

Beat. He quiets down and continues in a much calmer voice.

 Maybe Stupefy. They were originally destroyed using Stupefy…

Albus

                Exactly, it’s been done before – let’s do something new, something fun.

In rage he “crazy” smiles at the last words.

Scorpius

Fun?

Scorpius becomes more and more irritated by the simple-mindedness of his colleague.

Look, many wizards overlook the importance of choosing the right spell but this really matters. I think it’s a much-underestimated part of modern witchcraft.

Delphi enters the room without anyone noticing.

Delphi

With a friendly contempt, giggling.

‘A much-underestimated part of modern witchcraft’ – you two are the greatest, you know that?

Scorpius looks up surprised to see Delphi has emerged behind him.

Scorpius

                Wow. You’re… um… what are you doing here?

Albus

With irony in his voice:

                It felt important to send an owl – let her know what we’re doing – you know?

Scorpius looks at his friends accusingly.

                This concerns her too.

Scorpius thinks, and then nods, accepting this.

Delphi

                What concerns me? What’s this about?

Albus points at the documents on the table.

Albus

We need to destroy the Time-Turner. The things Scorpius saw after the second task… I’m so sorry. We can’t risk going back again. We can’t save your cousin.

Delphi looks at the pile of files and then at them both.

Delphi

Complains irritated:

                Your owl said so little…

Albus

Imagine the worst possible world, and then double it. People being tortured – dementors everywhere – a despotic Voldemort – my dad dead, me never born, the worlds surrounded by Dark Magic. We just – we can’t allow that to happen.

Delphi hesitates. Then her face breaks.

Delphi

                Voldemort ruled? He was alive?

Scorpius

                He ruled everything. It was terrible.

Delphi

                Because of what we did?

Scorpius

Humiliating Cedric turned him into a very angry young man and then he became a Death Eater and – and – it all went wrong. Really wrong.

Delphi looks at Scorpius’s face carefully. Her face sinks.

Delphi

                A Death Eater?

Scorpius

                And a murderer. He killed Professor Longbottom.

Delphi

Impatiently:

                Then – of course – we need to destroy it.

Albus

Surprised:

                You understand?

Delphi

I’ll go further than that – I’ll say Cedric would have understood. We’ll destroy it together, and then we’ll go to my uncle. Explain the situation.

Albus

                Thank you.

Delphi smiles at them sadly, and then takes the documents from the table. She looks at them and her expression changes slightly

                Oh, nice mark.

Delphi

                What?

Delphi’s suit has loosened. A crown witness tattoo is visible on the back of her neck.

Albus

Curiously:

                On your back. I hadn’t noticed it before. The wings. It that what the Muggles call a tattoo?

Delphi

                Oh. Yes. Well, it’s an Augurey.

Scorpius

                An Augurey?

Delphi

Haven’t you met them in Care of Magical Creatures? They’re sinister looking black birds that cry when rain’s coming Wizards used to believe that the Augurey’s cry foretold death. When I was growing up, my guardian kept one in a cage.

Scorpius

                Your… guardian?

Delphi looks at Scorpius. Now that she has the Documents she’s enjoying the game.

Delphi

With visible disregard and arrogance:

She used to say it was crying because it could see I was going to come to a sticky end. She didn’t like me much. Euphemia Rowle… she only took me in for the gold.

Albus

                Why would you want a tattoo of her bird, then?

Delphi

                It reminds me that my future is mine to make.

Albus

Albus in a sudden childish interest:

                Cool. I might get an Augurey tattoo.

Beat.

Scorpius

                The Rowles were pretty extreme Death Eaters.

A thousand thoughts inside Scorpius’s head. Albus coming to his mind and getting annoyed with the hold up.

Albus

                Come on, let’s get destroying… Confringo? Stupefy? Bombarda? Which would you use?

Scorpius

                Give it back. Give us the Time-Turner.

Delphi

With annoyance and superiority:

                What?

Albus

Yelling at Scorpius:

                Scorpius? What are you doing?

Scorpius

Remaining calm:

                 I don’t believe you ever were ill. Why didn’t you come to Hogwarts? Why are you here now?

Delphi

                I’m trying to bring my cousin back!

Scorpius

Realizing what the situation is. A bit worried, strongly accenting every “you”:

                They called you the Augurey. In – the other world – they called you the Augurey.

A slow smile grows on Delphi’s face.

Delphi

                The Augurey? I rather like that.

Albus

Confused:

                Delphi?

She is too quick. Taking out her weapon, she repels Scorpius. The papers fall down on the ground next to her as they get into a fight. And she is far stronger – Scorpius tries to keep her back, but she quickly overpowers him. She shoots him at the right bark. Scorpius roars from pain.

Delphi

Shouts mockingly:

                Fulgari!

Scorpius

Concerned, despite the pain hastens his friend:

                Albus. Run.

Albus looks around, bewildered. Starts to run. Delphi shoots again aiming at the same spot. Albus fall to the floor nearby his colleague. More grunting can be heard.

Delphi

Arrogantly, with satisfaction:

                Fulgari!

And that is the first spell I’ve had to use on you. I thought I’d have to use plenty more. But you’re far easier to control than Amos – children, particularly male children, are so naturally pliant, aren’t they? Now, let’s sort this mess out once and for all…

Albus

Fighting the pain, asks desperately:

                But why? But what? But who are you?

Delphi

In rage and madness shouts:

                Albus. I am the new past.

She takes his gun and throws it out the window breaking it.

I am the new future.

She does the same with Scorpius’s’ gun.

I am the answer this world has been looking for.

She picks up the documents and leaves the villa.

The TEAM description:

Tension – Tension in the scene is builds as the tension between the characters builds up. It is build under the influence of the mysterious atmosphere surrounding the scene as the audience does not clearly know what is the problem and how important are the documents held by the characters. The tension reaches its climax as Delphi turns out to be a traitor.

Emotion – For the characters it is at first relief as they are in possession of the important documents and are able to destroy them. Then, they feel slightly happy that Delphi showed up. With Delphi’s arrival the tension builds up gradually, creating a feeling of suspense and mystery. Then, when the tension reaches its climax the scene is overwhelmed with the feeling of disbelief, anger and shock.

Atmosphere – Because of the lack of clear introduction the atmosphere is constantly mysterious. At first the mysteriousness is accompanied by a slightly relaxed atmosphere which is quickly substituted by nervous an chaotic energy.

Meaning –  The scene is an altered impression of the creation of a crown witness position. Rise of this law left a huge impact on the mentality of Polish gangs as well as safety of potential witnesses and citizens. The scene is supposed to give a transformed insight into the creation of the position, leaving a sense of familiarity (as many people watched “Jak zostałem gangsterem”).

Bibliography

“Harry Potter and the cursed child” part one and two playscript, by John Tiffany and Jack Throne, published in 2017 by Sphere.

[asiatheatre]

"Hamlet" by Jan Klata

The play "Hamlet" directed by Jan Klata is an interpretation of the original story, moved to the XX century, to Poland. Not only the background and the costiums varie from the Shekspire's, but also the dialogues and the music do. The songs play pretty big role in the whole show and are very recognisable. They not only create the atmosphere but also ilustarte the events and support them. The play is made in a mood of solidarity and some very significant Polish accents are added, like the Husary or some famous quotes as "Yes, yes, yes" (said originally by the politician). This version is much more appealing to the Polish teenagers, as it is something new and easier to understand. It can also inspirate to create unconventional, modern art.

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"Hamlet" by Peter Brook

The play "Hamlet", directed by Peter Brook, is done as a poor theatre. Mostly as the background and the clothes have the minor role in the show, and the actors need to put great effort into showing the action, place, emotion and atmosphere.

The scene of TEAM, so tension, emotion, atmosphere and meaning, is for me the moment of Hamlet killing Polonius. The tension is built throughout the talk with his mother, it's break through is in the moment of Hamlet puting the sword into Polonious hidden body. The emotions are very notisable. At first the kind, calm talk, then the Hamlt's madness and his mother's fear, and at the end the Hamlet's confusion and satisfaction. The atmosphere is build by the emotions and the great acting, as it is mysterious, scary and finally breath taking. The meaning of this scene is huge, as it contributes to all later events and is in some kind the trigger to all following deaths.

The scene when the famous Hamlet's quote "To be or not to be" is said, happens a little after Polonious's death and just after Hamlet seeing Ophelia (Polonious's daughter). In this monologe Hamlet wonders about the meening and purpose of death. He asks himself how is it to die and if it is the same as sleep.

youtube.com/watch?v=qT5rLk40fnM

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Peter Brook

He was born on 21 March 1925 in London, and died on 2 July 2022 in Paris. He was a British theatre and film director. At some point, his creations were inspired and influenced by the innovative "poor theatre" invented by Jerzy Grotowski (a famous Polish theatre director). He directed his own adaptetion of "Hamlet" by Shakespeare.

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Jerzy Grotowski

He was born on 11 August 1933, and died on 14 January 1999. He was a Polish thetre director. His ideas influenced the thetre world around the world, and the impacts can be seen even in current plays. He invented the "poor theatre". It's concept is for the viewer to focus on the acting and not the background. It is achives by minimalizing the stage decoraction and putting more effort in preparing the actors, for whom it is much harder to play, so that every scene in understood by the viewer. It is a challanging job for actor, but at the same time great learning opportunuty and improvement. This concept became more popular over time, and nowadays is commonly used.

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The King Hamlet's appearance

Hamlet, as a Shekspire's drama book is a commonly known title. The detailed story, however, is less known. In my play I would stick to the original context, as time, place and overall story. The first scene, of young Hamlet meeting his father, would be placed on the balcony with the background of old, magnigicent castle. The ghost would be dressed in same, old fashioned clothes as other caracters, but they would be covered in white, dustlike substance and overall less colorful. He would have very pale make-up. He would enter the scene, and remain throughout it, a little above the ground; so on some ropes. There would be some fog involved to make the scene more misterious. The whole scene would be in half-darkness.

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Two units summary

After the whole semester of attending theatre lessons, we did two main units. The most challenging thing that I came across, was the beggining of the etiude creation as well as the final presentation of it. We had to not only use the masks as the most important part of the play, but also stick to the topic of our previous presentation, so the ancient greek theatre. The most fun part, however, was the mask making, watching other groups' presentation and, in the first unit, all the integration games. I think that those games had some impact later, on our etiude creation because we bonded as a group and so, easier worked as one. I am proud of our group that at the end, the etiude went right and we did our best.

https://youtu.be/smeJDe8IF88

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Antient greek theatre

https://ibrasz-my.sharepoint.com/:p:/g/personal/igor_midak_msib_1slo_edu_pl/ETWyVhiFvNdMmj3l58YvXdMBuzfIVvv7w-B-xELsqwXqfA?rtime=3UgPM57i2kg

The process of making the presentation about the antient greek theatre, which you can see from the link above, was very interesting and effective. We devided the work among our group pretty evenly and all done our parts the best we could. The final product is very satisfying and informative.

In antient greek the masks were tha main atribute at the theatre, because only three actors were allowed on stage and no woman was an actress than. The theatre had specific construction as well as strict rules of plays that took place there. All in all, it would not be practical nowadays, but it was very compiling in the antient times.

Asia Szymańska

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Etude

An etude is the "Short show" performed in theatre, music or dance. It consists of an introduction, when the audience meets the protagonist and very often also the antagonist. Than is the develompent that results in the climax, where the plot twist appears. It is the unexpected change in action, behaviour of some caracter, or in other element of the story. After that is the resolution and the end of the show. The whole part before the climax, should take the 3/4 of the show's time, giving the 1/4 to the second part (after the plot twist). The etude is one of the most basic kinds of show and is often used.

Asia

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Mask Making

Durnig our classess, and partially at home, we were doing masks. Firstly they were made out of gypsum. We coved our faces in vaseline, so that the gypsum does not do any harm to the skin, and than we put 2 layers of gypsum around the whole face. When we took it of, it had to take time to congeal. The next week we were doing the inside layer, that would be later separated. It was made of 8 layers of paper and glue with water. Every second layer was from another paper, so that they do not mix up. After finishing the whole process, the masks were ready to be separated from the gypsum base and used. The whole prosess was really time consuming, but also fun. It was a very nice experience.

Asia

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School theatre trip

On 17-th November this year we went on the school trip to the Ochota theatre to watch the "Pustostany" show. It was a play connected with the workshops we had before it. The workshop was for us to better understand the play and not to get lost when watching it. There were many actresess, all around our age, so approximately 16 years old. The theme was about a jobless women's life. It was a "play about nothing", and so was the book that the play was based on. Some normal situations and habits were shown. The scene was constantly changing from one place to another, and the action had no breaks. It was a one hour show, but the amount of action was for three hours at least. Even thought, it was very understandable and pleasant to watch. I enjoyed this play.

Asia