Medea - Mask

The mask workshop was extremely helpful for me as my character in Medea wears a mask.

To start with we learnt the rules of wearing a mask.

To put these rules into practise in groups we created a lazzi  

 

 

In our lazzi we had to perform a internal monologue.

 

 

 

I was in a group with 2 others. We each chose a mask. There was lots of different facial expressions to choose from and we chose ones which we felt could act out and interpret. Our story for our lazzi was we had a chair with a 'do not sit' sign on it. Wearing a grumpy mask I walked on and placed the sign on the chair and then walked off stage. Seconds later another character comes on wearing an 'o' shaped lips mask, they are running and out of breathe so sit down on the seat. I then enter again with my grumpy mask and tell her to move and we both exit the stage. Then a sad faced masked character enters the stage, acting tired they decided to take a nap on the 'do not sit' chair. Then both me, the grumpy faced character, and the out of breathe mask character enter and wake the tired character and angrily exit the stage together.

 

 

 

I found this exercise extremely helpful because of my character wearing a mask in the performance of Medea. I never knew about the rules of wearing a mask until today.

I learnt that you cannot touch your mask or another characters mask. I thought when trying to express something you could use your hand to interact with the mask to make it seem more human like.

 

By doing this task I also learnt how hard it is to keep facing front when wearing a mask. When walking on even though I was walking straight across the stage I had to keep my head facing the front, or the audience would only see the side of my mask. You have to be very aware of who is around and if there is any objects on stage, where they are.

One thing I will need to practise is breathing in the mask. It is so close and tight to your face that if you breathe heavily then it will create more heat and sweat under the mask. If on stage for a long amount of time I will need to ensure I aim my breathing downwards to the bottom of the mask. Plus laughing is not a good idea while wearing a mask as creates too much heat.


Todays lesson learning all about masks will directly impact on my character in Medea as I now know how to perform correctly while wearing a mask. I will be able to take the rules and tips I have learnt and use them on and off stage. Before I go on stage I will be able to do an exercise I learnt today which involves looking at the facial expression of the mask, resembling it using my face and body and then putting the mask on. This allows you to get your body into the mode of this mask but also gives you a few minutes alone to compose yourself.