Month: November 2015

Macbeth: In the beginning, you can see that there is no visible flaws, but as if you pay attention to the way his friends talk about him being such a good leader and strong, noble warrior, others say he is a more cold and brutal warrior. By them saying he’s a cold warrior suggests to me that he might be getting carried away and acting in a savage manner and I think it could cause him to constantly think that way bringing out his darker side on the people he cares about.

His first flaw would be when my prediction actually happens and he finds himself in a dilemma when Duncan becomes king and Lady Macbeth starts brainwashing him and forces him to kill Duncan, plant the daggers and wipe the blood and two guards to try and raise the suspicion off of himself and it did work and nobody knew who it was, or no one would have even suspected that Macbeth would even do such a thing as to kill the most powerful, respected man in the land.

Macbeth’s second flaw is when he was told by the 3 witches that in the future Banquo was going to become king, so Macbeth thought the only way he will become king is if Banquo is dead, and that’s exactly what he did. Macbeth hired assassins to kill Banquo and that was the last time he was seen. Later in the story his guilt gets the better of him and he totally loses his mind, it all happened when Macbeth is having a feast with friends and family and suddenly his eyes lock onto something, that something was Banquo’s ghost coming back to haunt Macbeth because Macbeth was the one who actually had him executed.

Scrooge:
In the beginning of the story A Christmas Carol the character of Ebenezer Scrooge is portrayed as a stingy and tight fisted old man.
A perfect example of this would be on page 4 where it says “Scrooge had a very small fire for himself but his clerk’s fire was so much small that it looked like there was one single coal, that’s goes to show his stinginess.

But as the story goes on his flaws come with it. On page 11 his image as the tight fisted old man turns into the horrible, cold hearted old man, it all starts when he is walking home and he is stopped by a charity worker and is asked could he make a little donation and scrooge returns with “if they would rather die, they better do it quick and decrease the surplus population” ,that goes to show how evil he can be.

But the same with Macbeth, it caught up with him and later in the story he has 3 visits from 3 different ghosts: past, present and future and they make him realise that his attitude and his manner will end up with him dying a very lonely man. In the end of the story he fully ends up cleaning up his act and transforming himself in to a brand new Ebenezer Scrooge for good, so he pays a visit to his nephew and has a meal with him, then he goes into his shop and say’s to his clerk “I’m giving you a pay rise” and as he’s walking down the street he greets everybody with a simple “Hello or Merry Christmas” and the people are shocked because scrooge has never liked Christmas or even attempted to or in fact even think about saying hello. But the last thing he does gives a morel to the story, he sees the charity worker and gives him a donation, and that morel is no matter how bad your personality is, you can still change for the better and there is no limit to how long you take making that change.

CONCLUSION:
The conclusion is the two characters have two different persona’s and totally different flaws. Macbeths flaws where jealousy and mixed emotions which lead him to murder two people: Banquo and Duncan and in the end Macbeths actions caught up to him in the end when Duncan’s son murdered Macbeth in battle and beheaded Macbeth as a trophy as revenge for his father’s murder.As for Scrooge his flaws where his manner, attitude and disbelief, his actions caused him to have a lot of hatred behind him until he was told that his actions were not getting him nowhere and he ended up changing his act and proving to everyone that he is not the same person he used to be.

Brian Woolland worked as a van driver, a helper on a farm, a wine merchant and a photographer; as a teacher in mainstream education and in a therapeutic community for maladjusted adolescents before becoming an Advisory Teacher for Drama. He then took up a post at the University of Reading.

On the BA he taught a wide range of courses, specialising in educational drama, theatre production, Early Modern theatre, and modern American theatre. In 2005 he resigned his post as a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Film, Theatre, Television in order to focus on writing and working at his own will, meaning he works for himself and he is his own boss. He is widely published as an author of educational and academic books, where his specialism is theatre of the early modern period. He has also had considerable success as a playwright – with ten plays commissioned and produced by professional companies, and five published in book form.
His most recent play, This Flesh is mine, used The Iliad as a starting point. It previewed in Ramallah, Palestine on 8th May 2014; and opened in Battersea, London, on The 19th May. The play was co-produced by London based Border Crossings and Ashtar Theatre of Ramallah, Palestine. He regularly leads theatre workshops and teaches creative writing, but spends most of his time working as a writer, and theatre director.THIS IS NOT MY OWN WORK. HERE IS THE URL

(http://www.brianwoolland.co.uk/biography.html)
This source helps me understand what he was thinking when writing this play because it tells me his past experience and

WHAT IS GREEK TRAGEDY?
Greek tragedy is a form of theatre from Ancient Greece and Asia Minor. It reached its most significant form in Athens in the 5th century BC. Greek tragedy is an extension of the ancient rites carried out in honor of Dionysus, and it heavily influenced the theatre of Ancient Rome and the Renaissance. Tragic plots were most often based upon myths from the oral traditions of archaic epics. In tragic theatre, however, these narratives were presented by actors. The most important authors of Greek tragedies are Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides. THIS IS NOT MY WORK. HERE IS THE URL
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_tragedy)

UNDERSTANDING OF CHARACTER
My character is Achilles, Greek warrior in the Trojan War but he is the strongest warrior. But In my scene Achilles previously gave Patroclus his armour to fight with in the war but his plan backfired and Patroclus ended up being killed and Achilles armour was robbed by hector from the dead body of Patroclus and when Ajax returns with the body of Patroclus accompanied by Phoenix Achilles is upset with himself because his armour didn’t protect Patroclus as hoped and is also angry with Hector for stealing armour that does not belong to him.

CHOICE OF COSTUME:
My choice of costume consisted of Green cargo combat trousers to represent battle because green is a bold and a quite army colour and I thought wearing green cargos will represent combat, a white long sleeved shirt which to represent that I am in a higher status because the others were wearing either a black or some sort of dark coloured shirt and that shows that I am in a higher status than everyone else and to finish with white adidas superstar trainers to match the white long sleeved shirt and the green cargos. The white trainers symbolize a higher status because the other two characters are wearing black shoes. Overall my costume symbolizes that I am stronger than the others and to show that even though I have no armour I am ready to fight.

How successful was the project/performance?
The performance was very successful, everybody was on cue with their lines, and even though we were one man down (Gabriel filled in for Kaine) the performance still went well but the only thing I myself could have done better is look at the camera more and move about a bit more because it will make the audience more interested in the performance because there is more than one thing going on and not just one person standing about.

What areas need further development or re-thinking?
I think my area that needs further development is I need to speak a bit louder because while I was watching my performance I was kind of struggling to hear my lines and that could be a problem if I was doing an actual staged performance because if you cannot hear the performer then you will not understand what is going.