4/4/15 - Research

Some of these blog posts will be transferred into the specific categories, determining on the content of them. But for now they will remain as individual posts until I get round to it.

Thursday 19th March

For the first half of the lesson, we watched a few videos about the historical context of Antigone.

BBC Ancient Greece The Greatest Show on Earth 1of3 Democrats

An Introduction to Greek Tragedy

Here are my notes from the videos:

For the second half of the lesson, we were able to finally practise reading parts of the real script. We had to partner with someone of the same sex (I was with Poppy) to play the roles of Antigone and Ismene. We were asked to just read the first scene to each other. As I was speaking as Antigone, I had a few paragraphs to deliver, which I found quite a mouthful to read. As I haven't had a lot of experience with different types of Theatre, this script and how it is set out is another new challenge for me. I found myself tripping over my words as I read out the mini speeches given by Antigone, but I did my best to add emotion and facial expressions/hand gestures/body language when needed. 

What is also weird about the script is how it is written and laid out, there are no stage directions apart from the 'entrances' and 'exits' so it leaves a lot to the imagination when bringing the piece to life. This script reminds me of the 'East-End Tales' script because of this feature. 

We also had to get into partners of boy/girl as we read out a scene that only included Antigone and Creon (I was partners with Eric).  As soon as we started to read the lines to each other, we immediately clicked into our roles, and managed to get the mood of the scene right. I think that having to act from the script straight away without analysis is really helpful for an independent thought process, it made me think for myself of the character traits everybody has, and their personality. 

- Matilda ^_^

EXPLORING THE TEXT

Throughout this unit, we payed the most attention to two particular scenes, the conversation between Antigone and Ismene, and the conversation between Antigone and Creon.

Antigone and Ismene
When analysing this scene we picked out how and why Antigone and Ismene were so diverse as characters. We explored the characters by discussing the choice of language being used and how we think they would say their words and then we brought it to life by acting it to each other in pairs. We read out the scene to each other multiple times, trying new ways to say certain passages of speech, to be able to connect with how the certain character must have been thinking/feeling. From doing this research, we discovered that Antigone's personality is much bolder than Ismene's. She speaks her mind confidently and plans to carry out what she thinks is right, even if it's defying her uncle's law. Ismene, however, has been written as a typical woman of the Athenian times, she is much more obedient to the laws and won't do anything against her government. She isn't heard as much as Antigone because she is much quieter and 'well-behaved'. 

Antigone and Creon
For this scene we focused on what men thought of women by the two character's argument. Just like the other scene, we got on our feet, chose partners and we acted out a couple of times, how we thought the characters said their lines. This relationship is very angry, mainly on Antigone's part. The vibe I got from the scene was that Antigone was extremely angry with Creon because of his lack of care and respect for the Gods, and Creon is annoyed at Antigone but understands her struggle, because he must feel sympathy for her, but at the same time the rules that she broke were his own laws. This all linked to historical context because of the difference in how women were treated compared to men in Athenian time. Women were seen as a lower class then men.

WOMEN IN GREEK THEATRE

After watching a video about women in Greek Theatre: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lM3SxO0Erq8 I managed to gather a lot of notes about the subject:

• Women were seen but not heard, they were seen as being in the low pecking order
• There are so much more women being portrayed in Theatre now
• The plays were written by men and performed by men for men to watch, women weren't allowed to have anything to do with it
• They lived in a society where women were seen as the underclass
• Antigone was very different to how other women were seen, she had a huge personality and great intelligence, so many people thought it was strange. There were also many powerful Goddesses in the Greek world
• Some ancient scripts say women are annoying, "It's better to bury a woman then marry her."
• Some people, however, recognised how important women were. They may not have had a political voice or have been let out of the house, but they were very useful in the Ancient Greece society. They created new life/children and they ran all of the main religious festivals
• In tragedies, the tension between recognising women's importance and the need to control and subdue them worked really well
• They always dealt with issues of sexism through theatre rather than real life because it was safer, as it made everything seem quite unreal/fantasy
• Antigone wanted to bury her brother, and she was so passionate about it because a burial of someone is a religious offering to the Gods, and women were very devoted to their religion
• It seems that in Athenian times, if you weren't a white male who's over 30 and is more wealthy than the average citizen, you had a much easier time being heard politics-wise
• In the plays, the women were always the characters doing the most extreme deeds, and this allowed the audience to relate more to them as they gave off more strong/extreme emotion

CULTURAL CONTEXT

There were four main performance conventions in Sophocles' time:

1. Verse
2. The chorus
3. Acting and masks
4. Stage, devices, levels of acting area

Source: http://englishesf.wikispaces.com/Conventions+of+Greek+Theatre

Verse

All Greek dramas are poetic dramas. The characters speak in verse, either through dialogue or choral song. Iambics were used in a lot in the character's dialogue. 

Iambic - a metrical foot consisting of two syllables, a short one followed by a long one.

An example of Iambic Pentameter:
Shakespeare's 'Richard III' (Act 1, Scene 1)

Now is the Winter of our discontent
Made glorious Summer by this Sun of York;
And all the clouds that lour'd upon our house
In the deep bosom of the ocean buried.

Choral passages were sung and accompanied by dance. Dancing along with dialogue was very common in Greek Theatre because the Theatre was built around a dance floor. 

Chorus

The chorus wore masks

Every tragedy has a chorus, they sing and dance between episodes. In a tragedy, this will usually sing a light-hearted song after an emotional episode, to lift everyone's spirits a little before continuing with the play. 




Acting and masks

Examples of masks in Greek plays

Masks were a constant feature in Greek plays. Masks meant that detailed facial expressions couldn't be seen, but if you had the mask off anyway, the audience were so far away that they wouldn't have been able to see it. So the mask helps give a bold picture of what the character is thinking/feeling by the clear face on the mask, and by a bold body movement. 






Stages, devices, levels of acting area

Illustration of  the flying machine

Plays were always performed outside in the daytime, so if actors wanted to represent the night-time, they had to light a couple of torches. There was moveable painted scenery to change the scene. A machine was also invented to lift the 'Gods' onto the top at the end of a performance. 

     







Along with masks, costume was very important in Greek Theatre. A general look would consist of a full-length/short tunic, a cloak and soft leather boots. Tragic actors were heavily disguised and this had a religious purpose. The actor was to give up his identity in order to let another speak and act through him. Costumes were usually an elaborate version of their everyday clothes: robe, overgarment, short cloak, short lace-up boots, another overgarment and a cloak.                                                                   

SOCIAL CONTEXT OF ANTIGONE

Social Context - the immediate physical and social setting in which people live or in which something happens or develops.

The 5th Century BC was a big turning point for Athens, it was a new society. It had a new judicial system, new military organisation and a new navy. It was wealthier than previously and it was sure to show every other city, including Sparta and Corinth. 

Aristocrats

Most Greek city-states at the time had oligarchic governments (meaning the government was led by a few) and were run by a few aristocrats of that city-state. Athens had previously experienced this way of government too but from the 6th century BC onwards, Athens developed into a democracy. Pericles (Athens' leading statesman) said "Our constitution is called a democracy because power is in the hands not of a minority but of the whole people." So in Athens, the aristocrats had lost their complete power of government and religion, but were still seen as very important people.

Citizens

An Athenian citizen was the male child of two Athenian parents. Out of a population of 315,500, only 172,000 were citizens, without including women. The lowest class (the thetes) benefited immensely from the new democracy and were very supportive of it.

Metics

Metics were 'resident aliens' with no political rights in Athens. In 431 BC there were approximately 28,500 in Athens and they weren't allowed to own land and couldn't obtain citizenship. Many metics became very wealthy because they were involved in trade and industry, and soon the citizens started working for the industry too, working side by side with the metics. 

Slaves

Slaves made up the lowest class of the population with 70,000 in Athens. Privately owned slaves worked in the upper class houses and held many positions of trust. State slaves worked on the roads , in the dockyards and on public buildings. A few ways in which where a slave came from:

• Prisoners of war
• Unwanted children, abandoned and left to die
• Children/men who had been sold into slavery for debt
• Children/men who had been born and brought up into slavery

I think the target audience of 'Antigone' were citizens and also aristocrats. The Athenian citizens corresponded to the basic tenet of traditional Greek religion: humans both as individuals and as groups paid honours to the gods to thank them for blessings received and to receive blessings in return. Honors consisted of sacrifices, gifts to the gods and festivals. Athenian citizens were expected to have respectful qualities (like openness,) a rational mind and belief in their authority. 

Antigone herself was very loyal to the Gods and she believed in them more than the laws of the government, this can relate to how much the citizens worshipped the many gods. Creon was influenced by the harsh government, before the new democracy took place. Only men used to go to watch the theatre as women weren't allowed. 

The relationship between Theatre and politics is that if you make a piece of theatre based around politics, especially making it relevant to the current events, the audience members may take in the importance of it more, same goes its relationship with religion. I think that if you take a subject of any matter and perform it on stage, it will make the audience think and it will actually styay inside their heads more.

CURRENT EVENTS

The Theatre piece 'Antigone' was created by Sophocles in 442 B.C.E

Year 442 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. It was written at a time of national fervour, with fervour meaning ´great warmth and intensity of emotion´. In 441 BC Sophocles was made one of ten generals to lead a military expedition to Samos, a Greek Island in the eastern Aegean Sea. It was a rich and powerful city-state, particularly known for its vineyards and wine production. 

I have gone through many timelines of Ancient Greece. In 422 BC, Cleon (an Athenian statesman and a general during the Peloponnesian War) and Brasidas (a Spartan officer during the first decade of the Peloponnesian War) meet outside of Amphipolis (a municipality in the Serres regional unit of Greece). They both die there during the Battle of Amphipolis. 

The Peloponnesian War (431-404 BC) was an Ancient Greek war fought by Athens and its empire against the Peloponnesian League led by Sparta. The reasons for the war are:

• The Spartan fear of Athens's growing power and prosperity.
• Athens made an alliance with Corcyra, Rhegium and Leontini, this endangered food supply to the Peloponnesian city.

In 421 BC, was the peace of Nicias. The peace of Nicias was signed to mark the end of the Archidamian War (the first part of the Peloponnesian War), however, as soon as it had been signed, it immediately collapsed because Thebes refused to sign it. 

Amphipolis 

In 450/449 BC, Athens signed a peace treaty (Peace of Callias) with Persia. But from 449 to 448 BC, Athens had the second sacred war with Sparta.

I couldn't find any huge historical events but at the time, law and politics was a common discussion point in Ancient Greece. Just like Creon, laws were given out by one person and fail to abide by those rules, meant a horrific punishment, most usually death. There was only one religion and one set of Gods in the times of Ancient Greece, and everybody worshipped them. Sophocles' pieces always included the Gods because they were a topic of discussion that never went away or got old. The whole play was about the consequences of not abiding to the God's rules, and that what the God's want is more important than the rules and laws of man. 

Samos

4/4/15 - Multimedia research

Many apologies for the lack of posts, let's just say I have a lot of catching up to do! We are on week 3/4 of our work on 'Antigone'. Here are some posts from the weeks that have passed. 

Monday 16th March 2015

A summary/introduction to multimedia in theatre was given to us and we watched and analysed videos about it. I had already done a bit of research before-hand so I understood everything that was being discussed. We watched three videos and took notes on each:

Exploring multimedia in Katie Mitchell's productions
Devising a multimedia production
Acting in a multimedia production

This is the information that I gathered:

• You have control over how the audience feels towards the piece.
• The multimedia on display shows the chaos of real life.
• You know that whoever is watching the piece is interested in both the film and the multimedia.
• Directors in these performances are more known to be the editor. The actors bring the ideas of their own to the table.
• Once a paragraph is set, they take a picture to eventually create a story-board.

-Matilda ^_^