The Cherry Orchard blogs X UAL Acting

The Cherry Orchard x UAL

Well the time has finally come for a new chapter and its a funny one. Mainly because we have the serious case of the laughs.With the next project covering Anton Chekhov's comedies Three Sisters,The Segual and lastly the play that i will be starring is the famous Cherry Orchard.

Different play means different groups. But this time twice the size of people per group and lines as well.Before we had only groups of 2 or even 3,but know and expansion of either 7 or 8.This time we are learning that working in a bigger group means its easier to manage from a leadership point of view (better visibility over tasks).In this project I had a group of 8. In the course of this project we also use Stanlevski methods to help intune it into our performances. 
-Philemon
-Sebastion 
-Ben Taylor
-Troy
-Deja
-Tia
-Chloe

What is the characters e Cherry Orchard about ? 
This is how it goes down! 
being the last play the Anton made he want to make it a comedy but was made out to be a tragedy. In a nutshell the story is about The play concerns an aristocratic Russian landowner who returns to her family estate (which includes a large and well-known cherry orchard) just before it is auctioned to pay the mortgage. Unresponsive to offers to save the estate, she allows its sale to the son of a former serf; the family leaves to the sound of the cherry orchard being cut down. 

In the thought that there were just 8 of us we couldn't use all the characters. So our amazing teachers gave us the main characters and the main scenes of the play. 

-Mrs. Lyuba Ranevskye/chloe/danielle- Mrs. Ranevksy is a middle-aged Russian woman, the owner of the estate and the cherry orchard around which the story revolves.She seems to exemplify love with her generosity, kindness and physical beauty.

-Yermolay Lopakhin/philimon/troy- A businessman, and the son of peasants on Ranevsky's estate. Lopakhin is extremely self-conscious, especially in the presence of Ranevskye.

-Varya/Tia - Varya is Ranevksy's adopted daughter, who is twenty-four years old. She is in love with Lopakhin. Varya is hard-working and responsible and has a similar work ethic to Lopakhin. She is also something of cry-baby.

-Peter Trofimov - A student at the local university, he knows Ranevskye from tutoring her son Grisha before he died. Trofimov's ugliness, belief that he is "above love", and forward-looking nature contrasts with Ranevsky's beauty.

Simon Yephikodov/ben taylor/Sebastian - Yephikodov is a clerk at the Ranevskye estate. He is a source of amusement for all the other workers and amusement for all the other workers.

Dunyasha - A maid on the Ranevsky estate. She functions mainly as a foil to Yasha, her innocent naivete and love for him emphasizing and making clear his cynicism and selfishness. She is also the object of Yephikodov's affections, a status about which she is very confused.

Session 1 
In the first session/week we wanted to familiarise ourselves with script even though it is a modern version the way that they spoke at that time in Russia and figuring out what accents are appropriate for this play.So in this week we sat in a circle and read our play. Coming to the end of the week we my  group an I had a private session with Sharon where we talked in depth of  what our first impressions are of the play Cherry Orchard. My impression was that there was loads of characters in this play to be played.But I do know that the names are Russian and that means that theirs a meaning behind also names. having a meaning to there name means that it would help me to get more into the character. There's not a character with whom Chekhov doesn't seem to sympathise, so much so that when it comes to determining the protagonist, we have a few options.My main impression was were the comedy really at ? Then i did realise that the comedy is mostly in the stage directions then in the lines and that if we all annotated some stage direction that would make it more modern funny. 

Session 2 

in the second session we where assigned roles and our scenes. (My favourite part about role assignments is not just the suspense but how well Rob picks our role based on who we are he find us in the character)I was assigned the role of Dunyasha & Ranevskye. I will be share a role with Roslyn who will also be playing Dunyasha scene 1 act 1 doing the second run of the 1st scene. In the play we double role most of our scenes so I also played  the role of Ranevskye in the second last scene were we are all sat talking about politics and life.we talked about what we think our our roles through out the play. Well I thought that my character Dunyasha is an attention seeking and up to no good  kind of gal. From the "I think I'm going to faint and the I feel all woozy" she loves to make it about herself.  knowing me i kind of act like that I mean I'm an actor what can I say. Lastly Ranevskye the mother likes to hide her secrets and pretend that everything is OK so she hides her emotions and replaces it with a fake smile. With Sharon we also  summed up the play themes  in exactly 3 words.
-Contravercy
-Honey
-Love

  Session 3 x Week 2

Rehearsal Time 
Its that time again .But this time is different I was really put to the test of acting  two roles so that means 2 personalities. It like the the movie split in real life but a bit tiring.Seeing as it was a really hefty script rob cut it down and gave us 2 specific scene that stood out the most in the play. So in the first scene our group will have a first rotation of Roslyn playing Dunyasha and Troy playing Lopahin with the others playing their characters until page 12 were the sisters Anya and Varya speaking about marriage then is interrupted by clumsy Dunyasha. Then second rotation is me playing Dunyasha and Philemon playing Lopahin for the first scene ending on page 12. For the third and final rotation I will then change my character to Ranyvaskye  in scene 4 were we really have an eye opener of the world and what we use to cover up the mistake we have caused the world.In this performance we will be using props to engage the audience as well as the us engaging with our character. Did sometimes lose the true me in the character but I just remember the Hamilton Q&a where I learned that when we are together we create so I had the help and support of my peers to help me keep the true in me. 

Session 4 
In this session we were put to the test of knowing our characters. Yes the HotSpot. We started off exercising our minds around our characters mind so that meant thinking back in time.You would be selected to sit in front of the class and to your knowledge answer any question that is asked of your character. As if it is your speaking through you. Example questions such as Madalinas character in Three Sister Masha in another Chekhov play is always depressed so question like"Who broke your heart for you to feel like that"where asked and you will have to answer on what your character was feeling. We also touched on Stanislavski techniques.We had to devise a scene in a shop where 1 objective was to get a return and get your money back and objective 2 is to leave at 5:00pm and get ticket to see Jay-Z. I used the 4th wall effect where I start realising that objects have action,so to observe is key around you how can i get my money back as quick as I can , how can i us my surroundings to stay in character. Key Point:"Acting is behaving truthfully in imagined circumstances.             


Session 5 
After after about 2 weeks of us on script trying to make our performance more modernly funny for us and the audience , it was time to come off the script and more onto the actions were where gonna do. Acting out my different roles i felt like my movements for each character had to be portrayed differently because they had no similarities at all This  week my group and I had the opportunity to pick up on that challenge by having private group rehearsals time withe the geniuses themselves Rob&Sharon. In this private rehearsal I was able to move a certain way for Dunyasha. E.g Fast talking, always eye rolling and making faces. Ranyvaskye I had to sit up straight, legs crossed and free-minded. As soon as that actions were incorporated into the the lines it was much easier for me to remember the lines and keep the true objective and that was still let my inner me shine.Have that clarity then helped me and the team   through out the next 2 weeks until the day of the performance. 
Session 6 
The day had come after weeks and days of rehearsals and last minute check ups the day had finally come. Firstly for a quick rehearsal and prop check we where ready and steady to perform .I was set for Dunyasha and set for Ranevaskye.↓↓ 


Here we have the final performance The Cherry Orchard Starring the amazing ME
https://youtu.be/kLTSmoPKE64       

Session 7
 Its feedback time. The most crucial time after performance is the feedback. I have realised that feedback is very important because I am really literally getting a hang of it. 
Chekhov review from Rob : Some very good sustained work on the rehearsal process and you were strong in taking on feedback and building this into the development of your role. Well done. Once your work on the Blog is published , I`ll build on this feedback.  

Session 8
In the last session in the cherry orchard we all did a spider diagram of what we learned.