Evaluation

Evaluation of the performance:

• How did multimedia enhance the overall performance? 

Multimedia enhanced the performance by making the audience see Antigone from a very modern and relatable aspect. By using live feed, music, videos ,lighting and so on, we were able to highlight the important messages of the play. Which were:
How society would react to a unfair dictatorship, The power of women (feminism) and how it can affect the political and social views of men and women of that time and also how it possibly escalated to this day.

• What impact do you think it had on the audience and why?

Looking at the reactions of the audience I was certain they had a definite understanding of the story and how it could be related to their daily lives. From what my parents and my friends relatives have told me they felt enlightened, when they came to their senses about how this could happen in the world. Such as war happening in other countries (relating to the brothers war that begun it all) Feminism and how women back then were treated very harly and differently as they are now because they now have almost the same rights as men etc.

• Would the performance have been as effective without the multimedia? 

Without the multimedia I believe it would of been a bit harder to relate to Antigone because we wouldn't of been able to connect to strands of information or videos that could of given us a back story that could of explained where we were coming from and the interest of the audience wouldn't of been as enthusiastic as it was. Therefore, if it was regular theatre people would of followed the story line but then would not take the time to have a deeper think about how this can affect heir lives or their society.

• Which moment of multimedia was most effective and why?

I believe the most effective piece of multimedia we used in the play was the music for the chorus. This is because it really put the attention on the physical theatre and people could generate in their minds what was going on and how this was part of the play. They could listen to the story and visualise what it may or may not have looked like. It also made other scenes seem intense at times and got the right atmosphere to the particularly scene which kept the audience listening.

Sherene Jordan.

Rehearsal Blog

My group had a very basic scene where we have studied this scene even before we were allocated to our scene. Meaning, we pretty much had an idea of how we were going to stage it and show our interpretation of the scene.

We decided to sit down and plan everything before we brought it up to its feet and have a quick read through of the scene. We gave each other roles and we read the lines in the scene and then was told on where we are going to perform it. One of the theatre directors suggested that we use less multimedia inn our scene than any other group to balance out the multimedia show. We agreed because our  scene couldn't be developed anymore considering its very straight forward and if we added some thing it would make the scene too much and not understandable.

The second rehearsal we brought the scene to its feet and put it in action. We originally wanted to swap Antigone's between each performance, due to the reduced amount of lines as the guard (which is split by two people)  however later changed our minds. We were later evaluated by our peers and judged based on characterisation, projection and staging.

By now we have learnt our lines and I was absent on our two other rehearsals so we decided to go through the scene and modernising it by adding one or two props to make it a bit more relatable. We decided on costume:
- Creon shirt and tie
- Antigone red top (symbolising rebel)
- Guards 1&2 wear black with shades and ear piece.

group thoughts and answers to questiions

the story synopsis At the start of the play the main character antigone learns that her brothers

killed each other in battle. ETeocles has been given a proper burial but her uncle and the new

ruler issued a royal edict banning her other brothers, Polyneices, burial. Antigone defies the

law and buries her brother, and then is caught. When Creon locks her away she kills herself.

Her fiance Haemon, Creons son, finds her and kills himself. Just as Creon finds out his son

died he is informed that his wife also killed herself. Creon is ultimately left in despair and srro

regretting his actions.

narrator:

Over the past few weeks we have been working on A greek tragedy called Antigone through

our project about historical context and multimedia. In our play we incorporate multimedia into

each scene whilst also working on the dramatic aspect behind Antone and how it links to life

today.

The piece is still relevant today because socially the matters that arise in the play are always

rooted in our society regardless of the era. Society goes in a constant cycle and only when we

bring different mediums into it (theatre) then we can escape it happening again by educating

everyone on the subjects and still keep that element of surprise in our piece.

We had a look at set design as part of looking at the context of our adaptation to a traditional

text of greek theatre antigone and at how we can make it relevant to life today by. in our set

design we discussed a range of lighting that could affect the mood of piece and how we could

portray a scene using minimal lighting and more of a multimedia setting of atmosphere.

Multimedia was huge part of our performance as without it we might not have had the same

affect on our audience that we did. For our play we used a variety of media to affect the mood

and atmosphere of each scene. We used lighting, music, live feed, videos and other mediums

to create our scenes. They really built onto the story and gave the audience the opportunity to

view the perspectives of the characters that a regular performance may not. It affected how

the audience saw them and their interpretations of the performance.

we could use levels and height to show status for example between Creon and Antigone and

how it could affect their relationship. This relates to life today as today status between higher

and lower class is less obvious however if teacher spoke to a teacher disrespectfully or went

against them then they would be punished accordingly just like antigone was. A teacher who

was taller or larger than their student would be more capable of asserting authority as they

would be looking down on the one who they’re punishing so thats why the higher and lower

levels are important. However in ancient greece they may not have had these options as their

technology and theatres were a lot less developed.

Many of the characters in the play relate to modern life today. The main character Antigone,

for example, shows many extreme characteristics of a feminist background and anarchical

behaviour. And especially today it relates to a major motion picture franchise called the

hunger games. A film in which the main character katniss everdeen also shows these traits

and has a very similar (almost identical) personality which furthers the point of being relevant

today. Both characters go against their government and fight for their lives against a political

power in a patriarchal society.

the play antigone was one of the first with a major female role that went against men as in that

time women were regarded as inferior to men and were not even allowed to view greek plays.

This shows a lot about how far women have come in terms of their rights and abilities (to do

certain thing), although in some parts of the world women still aren’t even allowed an

education. An example of this is a young girl Malala Yousafzai who was shot multiple times

just because she wanted an education. That’s why such pieces of theatre and films like the

hunger games and antigone are so important as they remind us that not everyone is as lucky

as us but we can (as actors and acxtresses) explore these themes and show a level of

maturity, sympathy and professionalism.

At the beginning of the play Antigone there was a war in which the main characters brothers

both died although they were on opposing sides of the war. This shows that even in Ancient

greece there were conflicts referring to who was in power. An example of how this relates to

modern life today is the current war in Afghanistan where one in seven children are dying

before the age of five, and landmines are littering the land, Afghanistan is one of the most

dangerous places to live. Our technology since ancient greece has come extremely far and so

have the weapons which have made war a lot more viscous, where as in ancient greece they

would not have iweapons and would have most likely fought with swords and knives. Although

today we don’t decide who’s in power through wars but through elections and democracy

although many could argue that our supposedly fair system has become corrupt. This links to

what has happened in afghanistan and ancient greece.

This play would have also been seen as quite controversial as it questions the authority of

those in power and also supports a leading female role. Another main part of the play is

religion as the whole play is based around Antigone’s faith towards the gods and her concrete

belief in an afterlife. Her actions (the burial of her brother) are all because she believes in the

fact that if she doesn’t do this then he will never pass on to the afterlife. In contrast to this

religion has a much smaller influence on people’s lives today as science has shown us that

many theories including religion are possible. Many people today are atheist’s which is where

they don’t believe in god at all, and in ancient greek times this would’ve been unheard of as it

was such a huge part in the way that people lived. However in the UK we are a lot more

culturally diverse so we’ve grown up with many religions such as christianity, judaism,

buddhism and islam and these can all affect whether we chose to become a theist, atheist, or

even agnostic. However in certain parts of the world many people would feel the same

towards their religious commitment as Antigone did, in places like the shaolin monastery, also

people who are trappist, even the terrorist group ISIS as they believe that what they are doing

is right as it is their faith.

Historical context

Today we recorded the moment of choral speaking and some breath.

Why did we do this?

So that we can do the chorus movements over it and we added the breathing to make it sound effective and to show we are going on a journey with the audience.

How will having the pre-recorded sound support this moment of the performance? The audience will be listening to this whilst you perform on the basketball court.

This will support the scene because it gives it more of an effect and its more likely to grab the audience’s attention than the chorus shout out the lines whilst doing the movement from a difficult distance and getting to their next scene on time.

Antigone set design and scene stage plan

This is what my group came up with for the benefits of our scene and the audiences.

Looking closely at the uses of multimedia

Testings and Teaching

Today we were taught about how to live feed and use garage band, in case we wanted to use these mediums for our scene. Garage band could be used to make music and sounds, or make a voice recording that can be played through our scenes. Music is a great addition to performances involving just acting or  physical theatre, as it would be also portraying the emotions and atmosphere of the actors. However, this could be an issue because this could over power the scene and take attention aware, due to technical errors or something else distracting because of it.

Live feed was a interesting use of multimedia. It gave me good ideas of how we could position a scene and see it from an audiences pint of view. There is a lot of wiring and relying on the cameras and the rest of thee connection to work, but it seemed like a fun way enhancing the scene.

 

Extra Notes

ANTIGONE AND CREON

Antigone is the niece of Creon and Creon’s son is Antigone’s cousin who is the boyfriend of Antigone.

What do you think of this story?

-          I think that it is a strong example of many years when men took charge of everything and everyone and women never had the chance of freedom of speech, so therefore Antigone had to stand her ground and do what was right, despite the fears and consequences.

Why do you think Sophocles wrote this play?

-          To teach people that men and women are equal to the same rights and everyone has different opinions and beliefs and no one should be allowed to restrict you away from your beliefs and control you.

Why do you think the Greek audiences might have wanted to see this play?

-          Because it is interesting to actually look at what society is like and to see the retaliation of males and females when they are not allowed to do something, which could then result to them having a bad fate because they ignored the laws of the Gods.

What information does Antigone give to Ismene at the beginning of this scene?

-          That Creon has banned people from burying Polynieces and if anyone attempts to ignore the rules then they will be punished, which is being stoned to death.

What has just happened in the sisters’ family?

-          Their two older brothers were fighting against each and both killed each other.  The uncle of Antigone and Ismene forbids everyone to burry polynieces but later finds out that his niece (Antigone) attempted to bury her brother. After we learn that Creon turns into the fault of disaster and sorrow.

Does Ismene plan to join her?  Why or why not?

-          Ismene does not help Antigone at the start because she is scared if Creon finds out then she will have to die; towards the end she changes her mind because she wants to reconnect her relationship with her sister and become loyal to her again.