Context Homework - 26th March 2015

Which scene did you work on?

During this lesson my group and I chose to work on the scene which included Creon finding out Antigone was to bury her brother once he had already refused.

What did you think of the style of the writing?

The style of the writing within the scene was very direct and the two characters of Antigone and Creon were not scared to confront the other about their views and how they felt towards this situation. They didn’t sugar coat their vocabulary to in order for it to be taken in a more polite manner.

These are two examples...  

 

How was this scene different to the other script used in the lesson?

This scene I personally believe was different in the aspect that there was a lot more of a response between the two characters. In the other script I believe that there is more dialogue between each character when speaking so not as many responses are made.

Did the language make the characters change?

I believe that the language of this particular scene made the characters seem very strong minded in a way that they weren’t afraid of the consequences no matter what they said. For example even though Antigone was a woman and she was speaking to a strong male leader, she still wasn’t in the slightest afraid to say what was on her mind exactly the way she felt without trying to be respectful. I believe this technique made the characters seem as if they had a lot more power than they might have in the actual play.

In groups you then created a version of Antigone focusing on setting it in a specific context. By doing this you had to focus on the use of the language in the piece.

What did your group create? /What characters were developed?

What was the setting?/How did you use language?

In my group when recreating the scene with Creon and Antigone, we decided to create the scene by having Atigone meeting with her sister Ismene and then explaining that they together should go to bury their brother Polynieces but Ismene denies. After two people overhear the conversation, they report it straight to Creon and Creon instantly sends for Antigone. By creating the scene in this way, it enabled us to add more characters rather than just the two characters of Antigone and Creon.

The scene was set in a cafeteria and then was moved into Creon’s palace/castle. In terms of language we decided to set the scene with the characters all coming from a very high class. This affected the way in which they spoke as their pronunciations were a lot more clear and precise. This also affected the language drastically because it meant that the characters had to speak in a more respectful way whereas in the script we used, the characters use of language was straight to the point.

 

two people in the scene realising Atigone is telling Ismene about her plan for the burial of her brother

Notes on other group performances...

Jamie’s group –

·         Set in school

·         Included synchronised speech

·         Very expressive characters physically

Michelle’s group-

·         Used multimedia e.g phones

·         Very creative

·         Expressed speech within a facebook group chat

Sherene’s group-

·         Language was a majority of slang vocabulary

·         Humourus

Cameron’s group-

·         Set in big brother house (tv series)

·         Effective as they expressed a narrative as the charcter of big brother

·         Characters went to big brother for advice

Thiago’s group-

·         Set in an American restaurant

·         Language very aggressive and direct (explicit)

Eric’s group-

·         Set in Milkshake bar

·         Boss (Creon) blames everything on Antigone

·         Humorous

 

 

 

 

Women in Greek Theatre

 

Q.  How were woman viewed in Greek Theatre?

• • Women seen but were not heard
  • Weren’t seen as that high of importance
  • Performances written by men, seen by men and performed by men
  • Women were an “underclass”
  • However In the stories such as Antigone women would have extreme power
  • Important in the sense that they created children
  • For Athenian unless you were white and over 30 or were of high class then you didn’t have a voice. This was the same way in how women were always perceived.
  • Theatre made men think about what they were doing to women by treating them as if they didn’t hold the equal qualities as everybody else

  Source

Cultural Context

·    What were the performance conventions in Sophocles' time?

The performance conventions in Sophocles' time included stages that didn't have much technology at all as society hadn't been as developed. However one of the only type of technology they did mange do add into their performances included cranes. These were used in performances so that performers were able to float up from the stage especially when they were rein-acting the character of one of their Gods.
 

·   What were the trends or fashions within the performing arts?

In terms of fashion trends within the performing arts, performers would usually wear wooden shoes that didn’t indicate left or right. These shoes would also usually have quite high platforms so that the audience were able to see them from a far distance. Another thing performers also wore in terms on costumes include...

· chiton (robe or tunic)

· chlaina (overgarment)

· chlamys (short cloak)

· himation (overgarment)

· peplos (cloak).

Exploring the text

 

We explored two scenes:

Antigone and Ismene

· What did we focus on when exploring this scene?

We focused on the scene when Antigone and Ismene were debating the case of burying their brother Polynieces.

· How did you explore the characters practically?

We looked at the dialogue practically by getting into partners and each running through the script as either Antigone or Ismene.

· What did you discover about the relationship between the sisters?

We noticed that in the relationship between Ismene and Antigone, they are both very strong minded people and whatever they say they will stick to. By this I mean that Esmene is a person to think more with her head and follow the law whereas Antigone is a person to think with her heart and do what she thinks is right.

· How did this scene link to some of the information you discovered in the session about the historical context?

It linked to the information of historical context because the scene demonstrates how important the law was to some people. For example Ismene was still certain that see would not go against their leader Creon, even if it meant not paying that respect to her own brother by burying him correctly.

Antigone and Creon

· What did we focus on when exploring this scene?

In this scene we looked at the moment when Creon is extremely angry with Antigone as he finds out she is planning on burying her brother.

· How did you explore the characters practically?

We explored the characters practically, by getting into partners (preferably boy & girl) and each playing the part of either Antigone or Creon.

· What did you discover about the relationship between the characters?

I noticed that Creon very much looked down on Antigone because she was 1.Going against his rules 2. a woman and 3.not of the hierarchy. I believe the fact that as a woman she was standing up against a strong man leader, shocked him most and disgusted him even more because no one had ever really dared to against his character let alone a woman

· How did this scene link to some of the information you discovered in the session about the historical context?

This linked to the lesson on historical context because I was able to understand more in depth that in terms of Antigone’s character, in society she was doing what a woman was meant to do. Other than the fact that she was going against Creon’s rules, Athians strongly believed that it was important for women to make sure their family members were buried correctly to pay respect for the dead and that is exactly what her character did.

Social Context of Antigone

• What do we mean by the social context?
The term “social context” is referring to the physical environment that people in Greece lived in. It also refers to culture, people’s social beliefs and how they view and interpret situations.

• How did people live at the time Antigone was created?
People lived in a men dominated society were men had almost all the power. Women had very few rights and were expected to stay at home to look after their children. Houses were usually quite small and people spent most of their time outdoors.

• Who was the target audience for the piece?
Contemporary Athens who were young men and also people of higher class.

• What were the needs, values and beliefs of the target audience? • How did this influence the themes and characters of Antigone?
They believed it was very important to respect the dead as they followed religion strongly.this was shown when Antigone really wanted to follow her heart and bury her brother to pay him respect. Also they followed the and took much importance of the hierarchy so this influenced the themes and characters of Antigone. this is shown in the play when Creon says Polyneices should not be buried and Ismene believes she should follow even if it means not paying that respect to bury her brother. 

• What have you found out about the social context of Antigone? Think about what was going on at the time that Sophocles wrote the play. 
Some things that were included when finding out about the social context of Antigone, was that in terms of people's beliefs, many strongly thought that men were much more important to women which effected much on the equality of both sexes. This meant that when Antigone decided to stand up against Creon, it was very much looked down upon and out of the norm as firstly, women never had the right to go against men as they didn't have the right and secondly, no one had the right to go against someone who stood in a position of hierarchy.

• Who went to the theatre?
Only men were able to go to the theatre but in terms of the types of people that went, this included priests and officials.

• What was the relationship between theatre, politics and religion?
In terms of the relationship between the three, Greek theatre blended these together as for example in usually began with religion and they would incorporate the myths and gods along with that. In conclusion then the problems would later be resolved in law court which then involved politics. 

Current Events

• What was happening when Antigone was created?
• Was its creation influenced by any specific historical events?

There was a lot of tension when Antigone was being made in Greece 441BC between Athens and Sparta this soon then led to the Peloponnesian war. This led to tension being created within the play of Antigone which is shown with Creon and Antigone having their different perspectives of Creon believing in a world of following what’s politically right whereas Antigone wants to follow the heart and do what feels right for her, bury her brother Polynices properly to show respect.

Multimedia Monday 16th March

Multimedia theatre production

During this lesson we done our usual physical warm up and got into pairs to analyse and talk about our new assignment so that we could understand what our objectives were for the term. We then went through the assignment as a whole with the class and highlighted or took pictures of sections we personally thought were important to remember throughout the term.

 

We then made a list of how we could use multimedia in theatre performances. These included...

·         Phones

·         Social media

·         Projectors

·         Music

·         Tv

·         Digital artwork

·         Video games

·         Play animation

·         Radio

·         Lights

·         Film

·         Photography

We then got into groups of 4 or 5 and went around the school building thinking and taking pictures of areas we could use for multimedia



we could put speakers into the lockers to create the atmosphere without being able to see the speakers

we could use the tv to show certain part of the performance on the screen to the audience

we could use the small room to project animated art work on the ceiling while performers act out scenes such as monologues with not a lot of space needed in the room

Multimedia Theatre Production

 

Multimedia helps in its communication to an audience because it enables theatre to be performed to audience not necessarily always having to use direct language. By this I mean that the technology in multimedia such as the creation of image on screens and sounds mean that a wider audience can understand the piece while not having to always necessarily understand a specific language. Through image and sound it creates a universal language that everyone is able to comprehend.
It terms of what multimedia adds to the piece is that it makes theatre more engaging for everyone. As humans we all have a different way of understanding certain situations for example, some people learn better by listening to people speaking while others learn better by physically seeing things in motion. What multimedia does is emerge all these different ways together so that everyone is able to fully engage in the piece of theatre.

Review of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (Multimedia Production)

source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/theatre/theatre-reviews/10958547/The-Curious-Incident-of-the-Dog-in-the-Night-Time-Gielgud-Theatre-review-muted.html

"Bunny Christie’s brilliant design - a monochrome mathematical grid onto which are projected diagrams, rail tracks, emoticons and cascades of numbers - is an inspired representation of Christopher’s interior world.
But the set seems the most powerful presence on the stage."