This week I experienced my rst tutorial.

I did feel a bit anxious going into it because, I

had no idea how well I done. Once I received my mark which was a merit, I was
disappointed in myself because I was one mark from a destination. However, at the same
time I was so pleased and happy with my feedback because it was positive and
personally, I feel like it was a big achievement for me. This tutorial has really helped me
reexed and understand my own strengths and weaknesses a lot better. I really want to
progress and work on my weaknesses in this next process. In order to do this, I plan on
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Exploring My Imagination
My Dairy-Week 1
Amber-Lily Foxon - 25 October 2014
Credited: Google Image
becoming more active on the company Tumblr site, by staying consistent in starting
conversations, debates but also just making sure that I comment because everyone
opinion matters. I also want to gain more condence in the rehearsal space to ensure that
my voice and ideas are heard. Bring on the next process...
I loved the workshop we had on creating a neutral position. I was amazed at the difference
in everyone's bodies and their idea of neutral. I was shocked at how everyone's idea of
neutral was actually wrong. Before this, I thought I knew what neutral was but after
breaking down each part of the body for example, the distance between the feet, the bend
in the legs, the bend in your back, the feeling of your stomach muscles and your posture. I
soon realised there was more to this, than I expected. I discovered my own natural
standing position which is shocking bad but to me its comfortable and it's what I am used
to. I stand with my feet slightly outward, my legs are straight which I have now discovered
puts unnecessary pressure on your spin, I also
have an arched back and my arms sit slightly
inward at the sides of my body. Though analysing
my posture, I learnt that this is just a female instinct
to protect the womb. I have realised that it is
impossible to maintain a perfect neutral position
because everyone is different and everyone has
naturally different habits that can easily be slip
back into after a long period of time. After being in
the position for a long time, I started to experience
a numbness in my feet, my body temperature
dropped and my vision became blurry. This was
because my blood pressure dropped and my body
started to shut down. I found this difcult to
maintain for a long period of time because it became really uncomfortable and painful at
times. We then got into a yoga position that monks often use for hours on end to self-
discipline themselves. It was a kneeling down position with our feet tucked under and the
feeling of stretching your toes. This was to stretch out the feet muscles and observe the
importance the feet have to the body. The lower half of my body is exible so in the
begging I found this easy. However, not long after I started to experience excruciating
pain. Through doing this I have learnt that you can over come pain through breathing,
complete concentration and by creating yourself a trance emotional state and mind set.
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My favourite part of this workshop was when we played the massage game with our eyes
shut. This game was to test ourselves on how well we thought we knew each other
without seeing. First of all it was my turn to pick someone and massage them without
giving any indication to who I might be. I remained completely silent and massaged
Harriet's entire back by using just my hands. Interestingly after massaging Harriet for a
few minutes, she was the only one out of the whole company to guessed correctly. Harriet
explained to me that she knew it was me because she used all of her senses. Then when
it came to me being massaged by someone else, I thought I knew who it was straight
away but then, I started to doubt myself as the pressure in the touch and the pattern of the
way this person hands moved had changed. However,mI knew it was a male from the
smell, the heavy hands and deep breathing. After doubting myself and overthinking and
analysing the situation, when it came to my decision I was wrong. I really enjoyed this
game because it made me really think but it was also frustrating for me at times because I
wasn't sure within myself if it was right or wrong. What I leant from this is that, we don't
actually know each other as well as we think we do but I personally have learnt that I
should always just go with my gut feeling and instincts because if had gone with who I
originally thought it was I would have been right.

After this we closed our eyes and took it in turns to study and analysing each other up
close. This to me was very strange because I actually found things that I had never seen
before. When doing this exercise, I picked up on a few small detail for example; I noticed
that Charlie has a birth mark on his right arm, Lewis stands with his feet turnout slightly,
Levi has a really dened jaw line, Harriet's ears became really noticeable and Erols had
slightly rounded shoulders. These are just a few of the things that stood out to me but I
nd these things really interesting because each individual has something different which
denes them as a person. I love analysing body language because, I think you can really
tell a lot about someone from it. However, I think I am someone who naturally plays a lot
of attention to detail in terms of what I see because I am a visual person and I nd it easier
to learn from seeing and doing.
Exploring My Imagination
I really enjoyed the workshop we had with Innes about reacting to different colours
because there was no right or wrong way it was your own imagination and interpretation of
the colour. I found that some colours were easier than others. I Personally just went with
what came to mind straight away and I automatically created a place and character which
somehow always lead me into a scenario or story. However, I did noticed that the colours
that I found more difcult, I took a different approach. I imagined an object or place for
example, with the colour orange I though of sweets and with light green I imagined a park
so I based my actions around this object or this place. Whereas with the easier colours
such as blue, red and black I found that I was responding more based on emotions. To me
this is interesting because they two completely different ways of approaching this task.
The dreams and nightmares workshop with Innes was amazing because we closed our
eyes and he took us on a journey to a place which was so beautiful, breathtaking, magical
and peaceful. It was a safe environment where I was surrounded only by sea, sand and
sun. I felt free in this dream and I felt like I had no worries. I just imagined laying on the
beach on my own, looking up into the sky and just relaxing with a pia collards . Not much
happened in this dream because I didn't explore much of it I was just taking it and
THEATRE DIRECTING 3
enjoying it for what it was. Interestingly the place that I was imagining was actually a
memory of mine. I used my holiday to Miami as an experience and feeling that I remember
and recreate it to help me feel that real emotion of happy. The nightmare was a complete
contrast to the dream. The next journey Innes took us on was dangerous. It was pitch
back at night with only the moon shinning light, in a forest with an owl starring right at me.
I felt scared, lost, cold and alone. I began to feel so uncomfortable, that I went into a state
of panic. I felt trapped like there was no way out. I enjoyed both journey but I did preferred
the nightmare in sense that it was easier to imagine because it was so intense and there
was a lot going on. What I got from this is that, it is important to be able to feel and
imagine yourself in different situations. It's taught me that you have to be versatile and
ready for what ever is about to happen next. I liked the idea of being creative and having a
good set of imagination skills because it is private and there are no limits to it.
Creating a short divided piece about dreams and nightmares as a company was so much
fun. We didn't have much time so we just were under pressure to come up with something
fast. Firstly we spoke about each others dreams we have had in the past and then we
spoke about each persons individual fears. Therefore we just included everyone's ideas
dreams and fears and improvised most of it. We let our imaginations take us on a journey
as a company. It wasn't the best piece of work but we came up with 3 and half minutes of
a piece within less than an hour, that is really good compared to the time it took us to
come up with 7 minutes in the last process. Overall, I enjoyed performing this because it
was nice to laugh and include everyone's ideas. It really made me feel like I was apart of a
company.
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Credited: Google Images
Games :
Eyes closed Massage game (instincts )
Personal questions game (knowledge)
Different Music/different character game (personality)
Ball game (Rythum and focus)
Zip zap bound (speed/focus)
React to colours (emotions)