This week began to look at our new project, this project is about Greek theatre and the play that we are studying and performing is Orestes from the Oresteia by Euripides. Over the past weeks before we started the project we had been doing essays on Greek theatre to help us increase our knowledge on not only Greek theatre but the play itself.
In our first real session on the project we did casting for the parts, because the play didn't have enough characters, but also because it is rather long Karen our team leader split the roles of both Orestes and Electra into four separate roles in different parts of the play. This meant that most of us got to receive a good role and even if we weren't cast as a role we were able to be in the chorus and the chorus in Greek theatre plays a much bigger part than the characters do as they narrate and tell the story. To do the casting we went through various parts of the play and tried out a few characters each just to get a feel for what each character was like and weather we would like to play them. Being able to get a feel for different characters has also helped in my understanding of what each character is feeling and gives me a reason for their actions within the play. After roles had been cast I found out that I had been given the role of Electra 3, I did want to play Helen because I could easily see what I would do with her character, but in a way I am glad that I also did not get the role of Helen because Electra 3 challenges my skills as an actor as it is not a role I would normally play. As an actor I also enjoy trying to figure out new roles that are unlike ones that I have never played before, Electra gives me a way to look at someone who is being put in a situation where she has to stand up and really mess with someones emotions and try to get to them through that.
We ended the week on working on a scene between Tyndareos and myself as Electra 3. We used the scene where Electra stands up for herself in front of Tyndareos and tries to get him to see why they killed their mother. To stage this we used two blocks, mind you this was only an experiment as to how we would work the scene, we placed one block on either side of the room and I stood on one and Bradley as Tyndareos stood on the other. Around us we had our other cast mates as the Chorus and Orestes 3 (Dan) and Menelaus (Zach) on the other sides of us two on the box creating a diamond type shape. This scene is a confrontation between Electra and her grandfather, It is where Electra finds her voice to tear down her grandfathers built up walls and his pride. To get the effect that we wanted we used the Chorus to tell us weather they believed what we were saying and weather it was full of enough emotions that went with it. This was a brilliant way to get what we wanted out of the scene and although it meant we would sometimes have to go through one line ten times, but it worked and even I as the person performing it could feel the difference, I could feel Electra's hatred for her grandfather and her longing for justice as she had been promised this by the gods.
This week proved challenging because we were thrown into a new play and Greek theatre is not as easy as contemporary theatre as it has so many differences such as the chorus playing a bigger part than the characters of the story. The nature of the story as well with the gods and the revenge that is exacted in the play is not so commonly seen in contemporary plays or at least not in the same way. I so far am enjoying this challenge of a type of theatre that i have not yet done before and am looking forward to learning more not only about the play itself but also about the type of theatre that it lies within.
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