Abigails party
Introduction to Mike Leigh
Mike Leigh was born on February 20, 1943 in, Salford, Lancashire, England. His first play, The Box Play, began his use of improvisation and collaboration with actors.
-His devising process;
1. Mike Leigh has separate conversations with each of his actors. He proceeds to ask questions on the people they know, even if it was just for a short period of time.
2. One of these moments are selected as a stimulus for the character, for example; going to a party.
3. The actor forms a persona, constructing her/his life with such intimate detail, to the point where they know what secondary school he/she went to, and discovering every cranny in his/her very being.
4. Once the characters are formed, the actors then begin to devise a lot of different improvisations to create their own world. – All the while having fundamental knowledge on the actual story, just how they will partake. In terms of when i was at this stage, the only thing i could work with were the given circumstances.
5. After step four, the actors are out of their zone and into the real world where they begin to test the personas they have created on the general public, who know nothing. As the different conversations happen, they are watched from a distance. In class we did this by presenting our religiously practiced improvisations to an audience.
6. A rough draft of scenes for the finished script is given to the actors. The actors then start to improvise precisely around these, while an assistant notes down what goes on. At this point in the devising process, what we did was use a section from 'Abigail's party' script and picked a character. I chose Beverly and from what i had read, i had to improvise my interpretation of Beverly.
7. The best lines and sections of improvisation are taken and scripted
-Why we used this process;
Abigail’s party was written by Mike Leigh and knowing that he has a very intricate way of devising, it is important for it to be applied
Mike Leigh was born on February 20, 1943 in, Salford, Lancashire, England. His first play, The Box Play, began his use of improvisation and collaboration with actors.
-His devising process;
1. Mike Leigh has separate conversations with each of his actors. He proceeds to ask questions on the people they know, even if it was just for a short period of time.
2. One of these moments are selected as a stimulus for the character, for example; going to a party.
3. The actor forms a persona, constructing her/his life with such intimate detail, to the point where they know what secondary school he/she went to, and discovering every cranny in his/her very being.
4. Once the characters are formed, the actors then begin to devise a lot of different improvisations to create their own world. – All the while having fundamental knowledge on the actual story, just how they will partake. In terms of when i was at this stage, the only thing i could work with were the given circumstances.
5. After step four, the actors are out of their zone and into the real world where they begin to test the personas they have created on the general public, who know nothing. As the different conversations happen, they are watched from a distance. In class we did this by presenting our religiously practiced improvisations to an audience.
6. A rough draft of scenes for the finished script is given to the actors. The actors then start to improvise precisely around these, while an assistant notes down what goes on. At this point in the devising process, what we did was use a section from 'Abigail's party' script and picked a character. I chose Beverly and from what i had read, i had to improvise my interpretation of Beverly.
7. The best lines and sections of improvisation are taken and scripted
-Why we used this process;
Abigail’s party was written by Mike Leigh and knowing that he has a very intricate way of devising, it is important for it to be applied