Part one drama
For our performance of 'Still I Rise' we wanted to use texts and performances we had seen and read in the past to help us make it better. A text we used from which to draw inspiration was The Crucible by Arthur Miller. Having studied The Crucible in depth, I feel that it is easy to see a resemblance between the two. As in The Crucible, some of our performance took place in a courtroom setting. In fact, our main themes were taken from The Crucible. For example with Still I Rise, we wanted to convey a sense of misplacement for Laura's character, who my character bullied into killing herself. This was to do with the outlawing of Mary Warren by the other girls in the courtroom scene and the way in which human nature tends to turn its back on outsiders. We also wanted to draw out the unfairness of the witch-hunts in The Crucible through our own performance and this is why we deliberately did not show a reason behind the cruel and unprovoked torture of Laura's character. We also wanted to give a feeling of Arthur Miller's writing, in which he puts in small movements and accidental outbursts of speech for each of the characters that hide things from other people. For example, when in Act 2 John Proct
In the same way we used a metal "box" or frame object, which was actually the base of normal staging, and two chairs as our only set. In Boxed Macbeth, all the actors wore modern sports wear in similar, if not the same style and colour to show the anonymity of the actual actor and to help them switch between scenes and different characters. For example when Lady Macbeth kills herself, the staging is used in such a way that it adds to the tragedy of her situation. This also helped to signify the personality and status of the character, such as I wore black and red to signify a passion for all things malicious and my connection with death and danger, whereas Laura's conscience wore white, which showed its comparative innocence and angelic overtones. I think this was because she had to climb up the triangle to fall down, dead, and the irony of this was quite poignant. or comes in from outside where it is taken that he has been with Abigail, he puts extra salt into the pot of food that Elizabeth has cooked for him then later tells her that it is "well seasoned. For example in Still I Rise when my character is standing in the dock I am standing in the bottom half of the staging frame, yet when I am standing in my cell, tormented by my guilt, I am standing in both the halves of the staging frame. Likewise, as Laura's character is consumed by self-pity and suicidal feelings, so therefore her conscience actively kills her and dies with her. This was a tetrahedron over 8 feet high, made of metal painted white with ropes interconnecting the metal poles. For example, my conscience and I both wore black trousers and top and had red influences to our costume, and we both wore the same colour make-up. The Crucible was the source for our main themes and plot, and Boxed Macbeth helped us to make decisions about our staging and costume design. We wanted to convey this for our piece as it is set in a courtroom and jail, and the happenings between the two characters central to the storyline are also brutal. It was used in many times throughout the play, for example when Macbeth saw the vision of the dagger, one of the other actors became the dagger whilst hanging through the centre of the tetrahedron. In their version of Shakespeare's Macbeth, they used a triangle construction as their only major set piece.
Common topics in this essay:
Boxed Macbeth,
Shakespeare's Macbeth,
John Proctor,
Arthur Miller,
Mary Warren,
Devised Drama,
Likewise Laura's,
Arthur Miller's,
Lady Macbeth,
Box Clever,
laura's character,
boxed macbeth,
wore black,
conscience wore,
main themes,
tormented guilt,
example rise,
laura's conscience,
staging frame,
staging costume,
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Acceptance Essays
