Dracula 10

Why is it you always chat and giggle during exercises?

I feel like the class is particularly terrible with chatting and giggling. Personally, I do try to be silent and respectful in warm ups and group work. I admit, I do sometimes slip up and allow myself to get distracted however I am often – almost to the point of being really annoying to the class – trying to get people to focus and work harder. I think that certain groups/individuals urge each other on and make each other worse, through in jokes and general lack of concentration. Often people seem to forget that boyfriends, gossip, Facebook arguments etc do not exist within the drama studio. I feel like there is a rather big degree of the amount feeling self conscious of looking silly in some of the exercises we do, and I think that people use humour to brush it off which is obviously not helpful whatsoever for the group. I did, a few weeks ago whilst we were doing a self directed introduction to Dracula, initiate a group discussion about the attitude about focus and talking, explaining how much I felt that it was important for u s all to start properly working as a team and focusing on the job, especially since we’d need to work twice as hard on Dracula as the other productions. Backed by a few members of the group, I explained how much i hated the fact that people were constantly giggling, talking and generally being unfocused, and also how difficult it was to get everyone in a group together for rehearsal in a lesson, let alone get people motivated enough to turn up for rehearsals outside of class.

Whilst the group was, at the time, very receptive it clearly has not had much effect. I feel like this is a very serious problem, I do have a natural instinct to try to push people I’m working with to be better (yes, I have been made fully aware by my siblings, Max and Liam that it is more like being bossy!), and I do work incredibly hard both in class and out and it’s very disappointing to have my work not met by other members of the class in regards to focus and attention. I do know that I can sometimes slip myself but I do try very hard to keep focus up and it’s very annoying to have it be such a problem with in the class. I feel like for half the people in the class this is their passion, their life. They want to carry on to drama school/university and make a living out of this. For others, it's clear they want to act but clearly don't consider the class to be helpful enough for their career to commit to focusing and working at their best. Then for the rest, well they just don't seem to think it's important whatsoever. I understand that not everyone in the group is planning on going to RADA and becoming the most renowned actor in the country but I feel like there could at least be the decency to not waste everyone else's time. I think there needs to be a stricter way of dealing with this, if not immediately then certainly when considering people to come back next year. I don't want to have to work with people who are spoiling really important exercises with giggling and joking around and only doing things at 30% because they're too busy checking Facebook on their phone.

Why do you always have to be reminded to stand in neutral, wear correct clothing, tie hair back etc

Again, I do consider myself to be quite on top of things in regards to being ready standing in neutral, having hair off my face and being in the correct clothing. I often bring in my hippie/harem pants and dungarees and get changed into them before the lesson, until now I was working under the assumption that my dungarees are appropriate as they are baggy, comfortable and easy to work in, however if this is not the case then please do let me know. 

Why is this all so important regarding your acting?

Professionalism! Basic professionalism, if you turn up late to an acting job in inappropriate clothing, with your hair in your face and giggle through the first 10 minutes of the job you’ll get fired. Simple as that. Also, if you can’t even do a 5 minute exercise without giggling ridiculously then you clearly don’t have the self control and simple confidence to get up in front of an audience and act to your fullest. You’ll constantly be trapped inside your own head and won’t be totally free as an actor, and won’t reach your full potential.

Dracula 9

Lord Of The Flies

Whilst reading through the play, I came across a quote by Grice where she's talking bout Renfield and refers to him as "Lord of the sodding flies". This got me thinking and I decided to reread the novel, Lord Of The Flies by William Golding.

The main plot of Lord Of The Flies is a group of boys marooned on an island having to set up their own mini-democracy, however the group is soon divided into the hunt and the hunted. Now, the main theme of the book is mankind's conflicting impulses towards civilisation, which brings to mind Artaud's views on this subject. Indeed, the book really supports his ideas, the basic laws of civilisation are soon lost on the boys as they descend into barbaric and basic primal instincts.

One of the first things that starts to tear apart the group is the belief of the boys that there is a "Beast" that exists somewhere on the island. Of course this completely relates to Dracula. I found this so interesting, especially since that is something that tears apart the characters in the play. Those who have that weakness and may let him in and those that don't. 

When one of the boys, Jack, decides to separate from the main group led by Ralph, he decides to set up a new camp at Castle Rock, where the beast resides. This of course matches Dracula's own castle. They recruit new members by holding a fest and performing rituals, painting their faces and giving sacrifices to the beast. This is so connected to the work we've been doing on Artaud and that which we've been planning on using in our performance of Dracula. 

Then, there is a boy who is possibly epileptic who wanders off and finds the head of a pig, a sacrifice for the Beast, however he envisions it being the Beast itself and names it the Lord Of The Flies, due to the flies which are now buzzing around it. The Lord Of The Flies tells the boy that the Beast never existed, that the group created it and that the real Beast is inside them all. This is so eye opening. It makes me see Dracula and the evil so clearly. The idea that Dracula, whilst being a real thing in the play, is simply a physical form of the evil that exists in all humans. It's shown, he is the taboos we try to suppress. Temptation, lust, desire, everything we fear most about ourselves and try to push down and out of our conscious thought. He is all of that. it's incredible.

The fact that Liz Lochhead has included this in the play is fabulous, it's so clever and I feel like it cements everything I've interpreted about the book and the play up until now.

Dracula 8

Final responses from read through

Act 1, Scene 13:

• Lucy has succumbed to lust/temptation and allows Dracula to come to her, this ties in with Artaud's ideas of subconcious desires being crushed down by civilisation and Dracula's role in the play
• Jonathan is symbolic of these oppressions
• Renfield is a free spirit, he is now free from the above desires
• Dracula is releasing people from the taboos, allowing them to be free to do what they want, highly symbolic!

Act 2, Scene 1:

• Van Helsing is introduced
• He knows of Dracula and what he truly is, he knows how to fight him and recognises the signs

Act 2, Scene 2:

• Lucy told Florrie to go to her sweetheart, Jem, who has now been killed in action and Florrie is pregnant
• Incest! This is a taboo and there's a definite sign that Lucy and her father's relationship was incestuous, this only comes to light when Lucy is almost at death's door. 
• Huge  importance in my development of the character, also to Artaud's ideas about taboos and breaking the seal that suppresses these

Act 2, Scene 3:

• Grice Lord of the Flies reference
• Will go into more depth in a separate blog entry
• Talks about Renfield going to Carfax, Dracula's newly bought property
• Religious quote, says "Religious ones are the worst", crosses and other religious symbols are used to ward off Dracula, interesting...

Jonathan Harker - symbol of Victorian values, suppressed desires

Arthur Seward - symbolic of science, modernity

Dracula 7

Brighton Shed Productions workshop

Today we had some people come in from the Brighton Shed productions to do a workshop with us.After they had spoken a little about their ethos and ideas, they took us to the dance studio and went through the workshop. The session comprised mainly of working with the ideas of journeys and travelling. First, in pairs, we had to develop a short travelling sequence across the room incorporating lifts and other techniques we'd been shown by the Shed Productions team. Then each pair would partner up with another pair, Heta and I were placed with Max and Liam, and we had to think of a story about travelling to Brighton. Our group chose Heta's story of travelling from Finland to the USA and then to Britain. Having devised 3 small tableaux telling the story, we put it together with the travelling sequences we'd made and presented to the whole class. I think it happened to tie in really well with Dracula, since journeys - both emotional and physical - are a huge motif in the play.

How can we use Artaud's ideas in Dracula?

After the workshop the group had a full discussion about Dracula and we spoke a lot about symbolism. We noted that there was a great  sense of travel, not only the actual travel between England and Transylvania by Jonathan and around England by the rest of the characters, but also there were lots of personal journeys. As I will be playing Lucy I noted that she goes through a huge journey, completely changing as a character throughout the play. There's also the symbol of lust/touching/sex, which of course hugely ties in symbolically with the ideas of temptation and taboos in the play. 

How can we start the play?

Following on from the discussion about symbolism, we then asked ourselves "Well how can we start the play?" As theatre makers we can do anything, the world is our playground - if you'll excuse the pun - and we want to really scare the audience. First we thought about what's scary, what really gets us up at night, too afraid to cross the room to shut the door? Sound gets me. it's the creak of a floorboard of the whistle of the wind at night. We liked the idea of using breathing that we'd explored on Tuesday, and there were lots of ideas thrown around. Some people liked the idea of trying to drown out the breathing with music, however the most common idea was a sound scape. The general discussion was incredible, everyone was pitching ideas. We tried to focus on the symbols of the play: lust, temptation, obsession, sex, manipulation, penetration, seduction, taboos, animalistic - animalistic! Wolves! 

Final idea

We decided that the Front of House would actually be the start of the performance. The minute the audience steps into the building, they are met by FOH dressed as villagers. They wouldn't allow the audience in until the last minute, acting scary and strange, finally leading the audience into the auditorium with lanterns. The room would be dark and possibly even the sound of wind playing. The scene would start off with a blackout and heavy breathing from all of us. Chloe will run onstage, panicked, then start to run up the 1st set of stairs to the the back of the stage. As she does this, the rest of the group, as wolves, will slowly advance growling with the exception of Max, Heta, Harry and myself who will be waiting off stage at the back corners of the top stage. Chloe, clocking the wolves runs up the rest of the bottom set of steps and sees Harry, Max, Heta and myself who by now have come on stage, also growling. She is blocked, surrounded, looking up she see Greta as Count Dracula, smiling. There is a moment of silence before the wolves jump on Chloe and devour her as she screams. Chloe then becomes one of the wolves and we turn to face the audience, as if only just becoming aware of them, and slowly advance, growling. Then as one we all run in attack towards the audience as the lights blackout.

Dracula 6

Start up exercise

Today we started off with the same exercise we began the lesson with a week ago with the instruments in a circle, however there was one key difference: we had to run it ourselves. It started off with us all sat in a circle unsure of what to do, however eventually Yunusa took initiative and stood up and everyone followed suit. At first there were only 2 or 3 people swapping the role of trying out new beats and leading the group however as people became more confident and inspired it became more of a communal exercise. It took loads of complicity and simple, silent communication to make it work, but it felt so much better than a week ago. I felt like us having to do the work and leading meant that everyone had to work harder, some on focusing on the entire group so they'd understand what was happening, some learning to take the responsibility of stepping forward and leading the group which may be out of their comfort zone, and arguably the even greater responsibility of some to actually step back - I particularly felt this was something I needed to work on - and let others lead. 

Workshop

We were split into pairs and told to devise an epic, huge argument without using a single word. I was placed with Liam, which was good because I feel like we work well together. He inspires ideas in me just as much as I inspire ideas in him. We decided that our argument should be the kind that you have right at the end of a relationship, the final argument, where it's so epic and so long that you lose every ounce of self control you once had and end up forgetting what you were fighting about in the first place. I decided to incorporate the Silent Scream, which has always helped me work with the physicality of pain, both facially and in my full body. Behind me Liam would be using things like groans and breathing to build up the anger "vibe" whilst I simply screamed and rocked in complete silence. Then I started crying and panting before pushing him away and he would laugh. I slap him, he pushes me away and I start to scrabble at him, holding him and trying to keep him close before he pushes me down. The scene ends with me once again on the floor, crying and lying still as the tension slowly drops. 

We had to perform this in front of the class and in the moment, as I pulled Liam close,the word "Please" escaped my lips almost as part of my breathe. It was involuntary and a reaction, however Andy commented on the fact that we could now employ one word in our scenes. When we were working on them again I used more vocal reaction to Liam, screaming at my own frustration and at him, no words just animalistic screaming. He would then laugh and it was so frustrating. Even though we were acting, feeling that much emotion being expelled from my body and seeing him just laugh literally made me want to slap him, and when he pushed me down I went flying across the floor and let my body go with it, allowing myself to just lie there trying to recover from the shock of it. 

This exercise really showed me the raw, helpless, uncontrollable emotion you can feel as an actor working in this style. It was so effecting and I genuinely felt shaken and overwhelmed by the end of the lesson. It was also so moving watching other people's pieces. For example Harry and Sav had a scene and at the end Sav was lying, whimpering and sobbing on the floor as Harry held her down by her neck, shouting and howling in her face. Seeing that, feeling the energy pumping out of the scene like an Aurora of emotion, made me realise how heavily this style can affect you. It was so much stronger than if they'd run around shouting endless, empty words at one another for 30 seconds. I felt my stomach drop and my hands reached up to cover my eyes but some how I couldn't.

I think that this style is so deeply affecting, not just on the basic emotional sense but in this indescribable way that makes you feel like clawing your eyeballs out but also like it's something you want to watch forever, I think it will be so incredible to incorporate it into Dracula.

Castings

We also got cast for our roles at the end of the lesson, and I was cast as Lucy. In all honesty she was one of the characters that I was least interested in playing. Partially because I felt  so inspired by so many of the other characters, but also because I feel that I've played her before. I can easily be type-casted as the kind of girl Lucy is, often pretty, lively, young, sometimes spoilt, the lovely damsel of the show. I enjoy it sometimes, however over the last 4 or 5 shows I've been involved in - some in college, others not - where I've been cast by a director, it's been as those kinds of girls. In Dracula, however, I do recognise that the part of Lucy's story which I will be portraying will be the most fun one. She has been bitten by Dracula, she is succumbing to her animalistic temptations, brimming with rampant sexual desire and pure madness. Reading through the part I'd been given is that there's a part of her which is kind of like the female Renfield, and I'd love to take her to the full extreme of an animal, insane and completely embodying sex and madness. 

Dracula 5

Antonin Artaud 

Whilst reading The Theatre And It's Double, by Antonin Artaud, I came upon a section where he discusses a painting by the Middle Age artist Lucas van Den Leyden called Lot and his Daughters and how it relates to language on the stage.

He explains how his first glance at the painting "affects the mind with an almost thunderous visual harmony", and that it raises an awareness of great importance within the painting. This shows how just looking at something can raise such an emotional reaction and awareness without the use of language. He then goes on to explore this and question whether language on the stage is even necessary to convey thoughts and messages. 

He claims that, in Western theatre as we know it [at the time of him writing the book] everything that we can't express through speech is left in the background, and that it is only considered "theatre" if there is dialogue. He states that the stage is a physical space asking to be filled and to be given it's own language to speak, and that this language is intended for the senses. According to Artaud there is a poetry of the senses, just as there is written and spoken poetry of dialogue, and that spoken language is unable to properly express the thoughts and emotions that the actor is trying to convey, so we must instead use the language of the senses and physicality. He also says that, when working with an audience and trying to reach them through theatre, instead of trying to reach the mind you should try to reach the senses first and let the intellectual levels come about later.

This language he talks of is made up of everything that can be created on the stage that addresses the senses and emotions, as opposed to addressing the mind which is what language does. This actually makes perfect sense because language, whilst being beautiful and expansive and incredibly useful, primarily affects the mind. You hear something and you think "Oh yes, lovely phrasing, wonderful metaphor, I totally agree with you", however it doesn't really hit your gut and your heart and your soul the way other things can. For example, hearing someone say "Her baby was crying and wailing, it was a heartbreaking sound" doesn't make your gut twist and flop the same way the actual, simple sound of a baby's crying does. 

However, I don't quite understand how we can use this concept of less talking in the play of Dracula as it is a scripted play where we'll be abiding by the script. I imagine we'll instead make use of the "poetry of the senses" concept by incorporating ritual, movement and other noises such as breathing and non linguistic voice. 

Dracula 4

Antonin Artaud

[to be written up at college]

The exercises we did today

Starter exercise

Today when we walked into the classroom, Andy had set out a circle of small instruments such as bells, wooden sticks and such and we were told to silently put down our bags and sit beside an instrument. When we were all sat down Andy picked up his own instrument and began to shake it in a steady beat. He motioned for us to follow suit and then proceeded to conduct something that was almost a ritual, walking around the room with all of us playing our instruments to a range of beats. It reminded me of a pagan ritual ro something, dancing around making no noise but the beat of our instruments. When we finished we all sat down, still in complete silence, and allowed ourselves to feel the silence. I felt very meditative, it felt like we're were still in part of the ritual, and we all shared how we felt about it, using a single word to explain how we felt. I could feel the energy of everyone around me and I felt so revitalized, like when you've just taken a long drink of cold water on a boiling hot day and you can feel it rushing through your body and filling you with energy.

Grid exercise

This exercise was demonstrating Artaud's philosophy of "Be cruel to yourself". Andy has us visualize a grid on the floor and walk along the lines as if "The possibility of being loved is what is pulling you". It started out fairly simple however the more into it I got the more emotional I felt. It got to a point where I felt desperate and powerless, I was rushing and bumping into people, unable to thing straight and feeling completely overwhelmed. My heart and mind were racing and I felt like I could shatter into a million pieces any minute and finally Andy said "Slow down". As I slowed I felt my emotions slowly overpower me and by the time I came to a stop I was crying. I felt so emotionally drained and like I had hundreds of emotions surging through me. I don't know why I felt so emotionally struck my the exercise or why I reacted that way, perhaps it was the idea of chasing love. When I was doing the exercise I pictured my family. My mum, my dad, my brother and sisters. It felt like the faster and harder I went in the exercise the further away they got and then I realised that I couldn't actually picture my youngest sister Miki's face. I felt like the exercise symbolised my life, with my family so far away and me chasing my dreams and living my new, independent life. However sometimes I feel like I miss so much. Every time I go back down to Devon they've all grown and changed so much and it's very difficult. Perhaps it was something else. I don't know. I think it was an incredible exercise though, I'm glad I got so much out of it and it really demonstrated what Artaud is trying to do with his ideas. I think that reaching that level of emotion and feeling that stripped back, and being that cruel to yourself is necessary in the style that we're working on. It's necessary to feel like that yourself before you can make the audience feel the same way.

Slow Motion & Emotions

The point of this exercise was to show the size of performance needed in this style. Many Theatre of Cruelty performances are supposed to be in huge spaces or even outdoors, and to be able to convey a performance in such an expansive environment you do need to make your acting size bigger. Also, however, you need to be bigger than usual because you're trying to make the audience feel very extreme things. You can't go half way, you need to be at 900%, if you act half way then the audience will only feel half way. This exercise helped us develop these techniques, as well as highlighting the need for trust, control and focus. The emotions exercise did the same thing, showing us how some things make us feel so much more and quicker than others.

Ritual

This exercise was so much fun, we had to create a war dance. When we first started to make it people were being really technical and trying to map out the whole thing however I didn't feel like that was the point. We weren't supposed to make a perfect piece of movement, we were supposed to make a war dance which should be both scary and pump someone up for war. We started beating our sticks together in time and I felt a sort of grunt or chant come up, and people started to join in. We just did this, using volume and pace, getting faster and faster and screeching and howling. When we performed it we started dancing around the other group, running around them pulling horrific faces and screeching and beating our instruments and the other group said that there were some times when they felt genuinely terrified. I think this is so cool, it showed that going "I am absolutely terrifying, I'm going to hurt you, raaahhhh!!!" is so much less effecting than simple beats and noises and facial expressions. 

Dracula 3

Research on Vampire Mythology

Vampires date back to the Dark Ages when, in the absence of science, people turned to religion and superstition to explain the world around them. In fact, at one point in Europe superstition surrounding vampires was so rife there were actually public executions of those thought to be vampires, much like the witch burnings. However this was during the 18th century, mainly thanks to European superstition and Bram Stoker himself that the term "Vampire" was coined, it is said that "Vampire" translated is "Dragon". Elizabeth Barthory (1560 - 1614) who was a Countess in Hungary was thought to have bathed in virgin's blood and feasted on human flesh, thinking it would make her look younger and retain her beauty. 

However, it's thought that these superstitions were brought over to Europe from afar, as there are legends of blood feasting demons in other cultures from long before these times. For example the Egyptian goddess Sekhmet had a part of her soul called Ka which was said to emerge from her tomb and drink the blood of mortals if she felt she had not received adequate offerings. There are also stories in the Greek Mythology of the first vampire being born from a mixture of blessings and curses from various Greek Gods. Christians believed that vampires were demons - not the devil however - and therefor enemies of God. The earliest accounts of such beast in stories related to the Bible come from Hebrew texts that told of Lilith. She was supposedly the first wife of Adam, before Eve, however she was banished from the Garden of Eden by God. She then became the Queen of the Demons and would feast on the blood of babies and mothers. Parents would hang amulets and crosses over their baby's cradles to ward her off - perhaps this is the root of the myth about crosses being able to repel vampires. She was thought to be bird footed and a sexual predator, and "Lilith" translated from Hebrew means "night hag", "screech owl", "night monster" etc. Many ancient stories of vampires depict them as women, harlots or infertile who drink the blood of babies and are sexual predators.

Dracula 2

Today we began our read through and read from Chapter 1 to Chapter 9, pausing at the end of each chapter to discuss what we made of it.

Chapter 1: 

Lucy and Mina reminded some members of the group a little of Mrs Marshall and Mrs Farley. Lucy is flirtatious and childish, teasing and giggling and enjoying the fact that men enjoy her. Mina is more solemn however still beautiful and fully aware of it. They instantly set of the idea of temptation. Lucy teasing Mina about tempting her fiance by letting him catch her in her under garments. This scene may strike one as relatively trivial however if you keep in mind the theme of "Temptation" then I think it's of vital importance.

Chapter 2:

Introduces the character of Renfield, a madman. Also introduces the idea of something else, otherworldly, out of the current plot of the book. Introduces the theme of murder and flesh eating with Renfield catching a fly and eating it. 

Chapter 3:

Seward and Jonathan were in private school together, with Seward being Jonathan's senior and the latter being the former's "Fag", otherwise known as an errand boy. Now, the dynamic is switched with Seward working in an asylum, successful but lonely with Jonathan engaged to a beautiful woman with a good inheritance. There is an underlying sense of tension between the two to do with these switched roles. Yet again temptation and lust is hinted at when the two men discuss Jonathan's secretary, and Jonathan invited Seward to Mina and Lucy's home for a holiday.

Chapter 4:

Nurse Grice is abusing Renfield, treating him as a dog and an animal, Renfield also mentions his "Master" for the first time.

Chapter 5:

Lust, Jonathan cops a feel of Mina. Lucy has an emotional outburst and hints at mental illness/tendancies, Mina mentions her nervous disposition however Seward declines medical opinion before announcing he and Lucy are in fact engaged. Jonathan comforts Mina before begging they get married the next day and asking to "Come to her" that night, once again lust and temptation! 

Chapter 6:

Nurse Nisbett is abusing Renfield in the same way as Nurse Grice did. Once again there is a motif of animals, treating him like a dog and abusing him, taunting him. 

Scene 7:

Dracula is seen for the first time in Transylvania where Jonathan has traveled to. Jonathan and Dracula discuss Mina and Lucy with Jonathan showing Dracula a photograph of the two and Dracula commenting on how similar Lucy looks to the girls of his own country. Moving onto their country Dracula calls it a "Whirlpool of blood", however he does not talk in a negative way, indeed he seems almost reverent of the country's bloody history. Jonathan comments on how Dracula talks of war as if he had actually been there, well of course Dracula HAS been! Dracula enticed Jonathan to stay a month longer than intended and wolves are heard howling as the night gets on. Jonathan seems almost hypnotised by them. 

Scene 8:

Florrie is a maid at Lucy and Mina's home, however she does not appear in Bram Stoker's original book. She reminds me a lot of Doll in Playhouse Creatures, she is not significant in such a way as other characters are, however she is there to make a social point. In this case it's to show up the hypocrisy of Mina and Lucy and of their class in general. 

Scene 9:

TEMPTATION! Dracula's wives enotice and terrify Jonathan, sexual predators, Jonathan is in thrall. However Dracula drags them back. They exchange heated words about love, all as cold as each other, before Dracula tosses them a bag in which the squalls of a baby can be heard and they hurry off. 

Dracula 1

Today we were introduced to the play Dracula, which will be our piece for our next performance. We watched the 1931 film interpretation directed by Tod Browning and starring Bela Lugosi as the title character. This version was one of the first original film interpretations of the stage play written in 1924 by Hamilton Dean and John Baldeston, which in turn was based on the novel of the same name, written by Bram Stoker in the 1890's. We were told to look for certain features, including:

• What's their take on the style/look?
• What's the style of acting?

We were also told to think about how we could use this in our own interpretation of another stage play of Dracula, written by Liz Lochhead. 

What's their take on the style/look?

The costumes in the film hinted to a setting in the 1920's/30's, which would have been current day at the time the film was made, as opposed to the original book setting of around 1893, and all of the characters were dressed in blacks and whites - or at least largely contrasting colours from what we could make out of the grainy black and white picture. All of the ladies were in pure, lovely white dresses which led to an idea of mine to have colours represent people's character through black and white, then Sophie raised the idea of having "Marked" people splashed with something red, like a scarf or something.

The lighting in the film was also really cool, it often shadowed all of the actor's face except from their eyes which the group was really inspired by. Ideas were tossed around such as using face paint to do the same thing, also using really washed out lighting with little colour. Max picked up on the sound, noting on how there was constant noise due to the age of the film, and he was inspired by this to have possibly have constant noise in our piece with it cutting out  when something bad is about to happen, since silence is often far more "creepy" when it's contrasted with noise.

Style of acting

One thing that I really picked up on was hands. Whenever a vampire was about to creep out of a coffin, these deathly pale and sinister hands would always appear first and I personally found it absolutely terrifying. I thought that so much more could be made of that idea, for example at the beginning of the piece we could just have hands appearing first as everyone comes on stage. Perhaps people emerging from underneath the trapdoor next to the stage, having hands wriggling about and twisting and crawling, with people following, I thought it had such a chilling effect and gave me so many inspirations!

Another thing that I thought was really effective was the use of silhouettes, things like lighting, smoke machines and dark clothing meant that seeing the shadow and silhouette of a sinister character gave a really creepy look. I love the idea of playing around with shadows and silhouettes since they're such an iconic part of the old style of horror film. 

I noticed that the more evil/sinister characters had these huge facial expressions. Of course it may just be dated acting but I definitely noticed it more in Dracula and Renfield than in Harker or Van Helsing or Mina. I think that it made them seem more unnatural and weird, unknown and therefor dangerous and creepy. It was really cool to see the contrast between these really absurd, abnormal characters and expressions when placed in contrast with relatively natural/realistic characters.

The group also had an idea to help draw the audience in and make them feel genuinely creeped out which was to make use of Front Of House and have them be part of the world. They could either village folk, warning the audience not to enter the theatre and blessing them or have them actually act like members of Dracula's house, properly creeped out in full character and making the audience feel really uncomfortable as they entered. I think that makes it so much more real and scary and I love the idea of theatre not just being someone sitting down and watching a play then going for a cuppa in the college cafe, but actually transporting them to a world where they really experience the happenings and feeling part of it.

Research on Dracula by Bram Stoker

The novel Dracula is set in Transylvania, so my first task was to find out where the country actually is. "Sylvania" is derived from Latin "To do with forests" , and the area is situated in the mountainous, wooded area of central Romania. This is probably the extent of Stoker's knowledge of the country, as what would be a few hours plane journey today was several weeks journey for him. The world was far bigger and geographical accuracy was not high on Stoker's list of priorities. However, he got much of the description of the land fairly accurate.

The novel Dracula was written in 1897 and had a British audience, the same audience that would have read Sherlock Holmes, Dickens etc. Now at the time the levels of literally were at their highest, although today we would consider them appalling. This was largely in the middle to upper classes however, the lower classes were still working away in the factories, so Stoker's audience would have been these readers. The true upper classes would have been reading the classics such as Homer and the like, and Stoker was simply writing to entertain and make a living. His real audience would have been the middle classes, much like the one in J. B. Priestley's An Inspector Calls; financially secure but with no heritage or true wealth, social climbers.