Unit 7

Unit 7: Prep for specialist study

Since I have started college I can say that I have developed various amounts of skills while doing either the Shakespeare project that I am currently working on or our country’s good project I have done last term. Doing the Shakespeare project I believe that I have developed my vocal skills well because in other plays that I have done they were not written in a very different way but simple English but this Shakespeare play is slightly difficult as it is written in old English that is not very easy to pronounce nor understand and I feel that working on this play has helped me a lot  with my pronunciation especially because I have a lisp so I struggle to say certain words and Shakespeare uses a lot of ‘th’ and words with ‘ s’. In lesson Rob helps us to develop vocal skills by doing warm ups at the start of the lesson, we do exercises to work the diaphragm such as saying “Oo oh or” in a deep voice because if we have a scene in which we have to shout doing that exercise could be very helpful.

Another skill that I have learnt is using my memory. You may wonder how is using your memory a skill but in drama you have to use it in order to remember your script and any monologues that you need to learn at the top of your head.  It is difficult to memorise a lot of things at once especially if you have a really long play it is hard to remember some of the lines that is why it is good to learn them in chunks for about 30 minutes a day because if you push yourself to do longer than that you’ll end up frustrating yourself.

One other skill that I have learnt is articulation. It is very important to pronounce the words as clearly as possible because your audience need to understand whatever you are saying. Whether you are talking fast or slow your mouth needs to be moving correctly to pronounce anything you want to say correctly.