Directing and Acting in Plays West Side Story and Blood Brothers

Directing and Acting in Plays West Side Story and Blood Brothers

For paper one unit two we were told by our teacher that we have to

become an actor and a director of certain plays. The plays that we

choose and are using for our coursework are 'West Side Story' and

'Blood brothers'.

In this essay I will be describing the experience of the director and

actor. I will explain positives and negatives and how things work out.

Thought this essay I will be mentioning explorative strategies that

helped me develop into becoming an excellent director and actor. For

example 'Thought Tracking' where you pause the scene and the actors

say how they feel the character is feeling at that apparent time. That

would be an example more from an actor's point of view, from the

directors point of view we used 'Forum Theatre'. Forum theatre is

where the director helps the actor improve on the scene by telling

them what to do, for instance, facial expressions or the use of space.

Another way this can be shown in Forum Theatre is where the director

trades places with the actor and show the actor what they should be

doing, by doing it themselves!

Through out the essay I will explain in detail our experience as a

group and as an individual.

On day one I did not really know what to expect. Fortunately I had

seen 'Blood Brothers' in the theatre recently although I had never

seen 'West Side Story'. When we watch the film I was pleasantly

surprised and was ready to start this task.

As soon as we had started acting I was given the role of a director. I

was pleased with this as I had not done too much before. The roles

were given out and I started to direct. I used many ways to get across

what I wanted them to do. At first it was quite hard as you have to

get them to respect you but that came quite quickly. After everyone

had got into there roles I made them sit in a circle and do 'Hot