My objective

My super objective for the play was To be  free - I am going to achieve this by over powering other people in my scenes and having power over other characters. This is Especially easy to do with George and Thea however, for Brack I am going to find this difficult to do because we are constantly in a battle over who has the power between the two characters which he eventually wins. 

My objectives during my section went through : 

to tease tesman

To prove tesman has no control over me 

To calm Thea down 

To insult Thea 

To conceal the love of power I have over Eilert 

To get judge Brack away 

To end all of the pressures that have been put on me over the development of the play. 

Evaluation

Personally I believe that 12bma's performance of Hedda Gabbler was very successful for the short space of time that we had to rehearse. I played Hedda Gabbler in the final act and I think in the performance I was very successful in the suicide section at the very end because I felt an emotional connection between my character and the gun. I felt that this section of the piece was stronger in performance than it was in rehersal as I incorporate all of the interesting experiments I did with the scene into one which felt honest and real .

Something I needed to improve on was my awareness of the audiences positioning because at one point in my scene when Thea enters and I say "what's happend?" I felt as though my line was lost because of the action I was trying to do to put thes into a seat made it so that my back was to the audience. I think if I had targeted this problem in rehersals and found a more effective way of getting Thea to a chair this scene may have looked more flowing and free. 

In my part with Hector (Judge Brack) half way through our lines were said in a different order but I believe that we recovered with this well and because for us everything was running on the actions of each character then it still worked because we were able to act through it while still making it understandable. Also, I took notes from the dress run to react more to judge Brack when he invades my space and I took this into consideration and In the performance I more confidently grimaced and reacted to him touching me. 

Tesman and Hedda's part at the beginning of my section was paticularly successful because our lines were near perfect and I seemed to be getting more pace and speed and emotion as it went on because I was truly reacting to Tesman.

My performance was so different to the way that we rehearsed it because I feel sometimes in rehearsal I was slightly better in some rehearsals however, for some parts of my performance I believe it was the best time I've done it for example the last part of the suicide  really connected with me.

The Stanislavski techniques that we had worked on during the rehersal process really helped to allow my character to feel real and genuine. The circles of attention technique was so important for me during this play because my outer was to show composure and keep my upper class status where as my inner was to end life (both mine and the babies) 

1950's Hollywood

1950's Hollywood

The theme for Hedda Gabler is 1950's Hollywood. I am really interested in this theme as I think it perfectly fits in with the unattainable desires for luxury and the American Dream-based around freedom and ownership of ones own things is similar to the Dream's of this play's protagonist.


For 1950's Hollywood, culture, glamour and fame were of high importance. Some of the top actresses who sprouted in the 50's were Grace Kelly, Marilyn Monroe and Jayne Mansfield, all of whom were beautiful style and fashion icons for centuries after. In Hedda Gabler I would really like this theme of luxury and indulgence to come through especially in my character of Hedda who in the theme is an up and coming movie star of the time.

In the fifties, the world was recovering from world war 2 and the Cold war was beinging to develop between The USA and the Soviet Union. This was eesentially a battle between communist and Capitalist ideaologies. The Usa was thriving in the 1950's with an amazing focus of Hollywood films and stars and the idea of fame itself. The era was also one of technological development with the advancement in Nuclear weapons and the Space Race's rockets and tech.

The USA in the 50's esxperienced intense economic growth with an increase in manufacturing and home construction as well as a Post-war economic boom.The thriving atmosphere was pushed along with the idea that capitalism was the ideal way for people to live happy lives. This was reflected in the fashion, culture and films of the 50's.

Following on from the hardship of World War II and rationing, the fifties was a time of relative prosperity. Disposable income combined with an increase in mass media encouraged the consumption of fashion. 

New hair care products, including one-step colours, were designed to allow women to do their own hair easily at home – and women did everything that was possible to change their hair.

Here’s our look at popular women’s hairstyles during the 1950s, what influenced style and some common accessories.

Context and Background for Hedda Gabler

Hedda Gabler is a Norweigan Play written by Henrik Ibsen in 1890 and first performed in 1891. To effectivley perform it is extrmley important to have a well rounded understanding of the time and place that the play was written in because them circumstances influence the story.
 When typed into google 'Norway in the late 19th century' 7 of the top 10 results were about the roles of women and feminism. This in itself shows how important the role of women were in this time. Making Hedda Gabler's defiance of the typical expectations of women so contreversial for the time that it was first performed.
In 19th century Norway, Prostitution was legal and a very popular job for many women. Married women were seen as delicate whereas for the men these Harlots were used as a form of escapism from suffocating worlds they lived in, which effected even the 'cultured' families in society. In Hedda Gabler Loevbourg during his drunken night ends up at Madamoiselle Diana's brothel, because it was common for men at the time to be familiar with brothels it would not have shocked audiences in 1890 however, in today's society it is far more of a taboo and is fairly shocking. In contrast, Masturbation was seen as vulgar in these times and there was no contraceptive pill which made unsafe sex very common. There was also an extreme pressure to fulfill the womanly duty of having kids and raising a family. Aunt Juju in the play hints multiple times at Hedda to have children and this pressure must have been so overwhelming for women back then.
With the wave of female power came a phrase called 'Penis Envy' where women would desire all of the benefits to having a penis, like the unachieved automatic authority over others, the respect and the ability to have a well paid and high power jobs. Hedda definetley has a case of pensi envy because she is so jealous of Judge Brack and his authority. She wants to be the powerful character and this is why she plays with her manipulative powers of Loevbourg.
Some other expectations of Women in the 19th century were that to become a wife you had to be a virgin, female victorians were advised to be seen and not heard. Marriage was seen as a nesscitiy (maybe why Hedda felt obliged to get married to Tesman) and to be a good mother you had to be meek and conform to your gender role.

Set plan ideas for Hedda Gabler

Anthromorphasising

Characteristics from animals
This excercise is also called Animal Study, and It was one of the most effective ways of accsessing a character for me because it gave me the ability to find detail in the charactrer of Hedda which I didn't think of before. The animal I found most similar to Hedda was a snake because she is a very dangerous and highly sneaky character. My physicality when invisioning the snake as hedda became awfully slow and my hips became overly sexualised. 

This excercise was in five parts:
1. Rhythm of life - this includes their pace and speed at which they move, and their movement in general. As a snake this was slow and controlled.
2. Breath - Their breath is vital because it's what drives the animal along and therefore I chose to concentrate a lot on this one. The snake breath was hissy and short. The short shallow breaths allow the anthromorphasised character to feel as though they live like their animal.
3. Spine - The snkae spine was ever changing and moving from side to sid. A snake's spine has hundreds of vertabrae to allow this kind of movement and the slideing that the snake does when its about to creep up to it's prey much like Hedda, her physicality goes very controlled yet slimey and slow when she's leading up to an attak. 
4. Veiw of the world - This is how the animale would see the world and from their point of view. I thouight as a snake their view would be very narrowed and squinted due to it's ability to target 
5. Weight