Electra Mask Audition Workshop

Mask Audition Workshop

As part of our audition unit and an introduction to Greek Theatre as a class we took part in a mask audition unit. 
To start we were told about the rules of a mask when being used in the theatre.

Mask Rules

• Putting it on and off in private - provides the mystery element. As soon as the mask is on, you are immediately in character.
• Treat it like a real face.
• Face forwards as much as possible - do not show side of face to the audience.
•  Treat it with respect.
• Don't touch your mask face when it's on.

The workshop

At the start of the workshop we walked around the studio and then we were asked to slow right down and look at all of the masks and feel yourself being strangely drawn to one of them and to then look at them and not touch. Once we had all stood by a mask we were then asked to imagine and decide several things about this mask, so we were asked to give the character a name. We then were given 3 distinct personality traits about this character. We were also asked to think about the kind of things this person does in everyday life. We then thought about how the character would move and asked to leave our chosen character (Mask) and walk around as if you were portraying the emotion of the character. The mask I chose was a mask with a small open mouth and raised eyebrows and looked quite fearful. I walked around the room with my shoulders raised and my hands held together with tension to show that I was feeling fearful and afraid. We were then instructed to take a position with our masks on in the studio area in a status that showed and portrayed our character. I decided to stand with a slight lean as if looking cautious and fearful. Rachel then asked for some people to stand next to another person with a look to their mask which was a similar status. Cherkanah came and stood next to me and her expression to her character was fairly neutral with a straight lip. Cherkanah's position was on the floor when she portrayed her status and although I wasn't on the floor it was more our emotion and my use of hands which showed that  I was shy and sad which reflected that both of our characters were quite negative. Character's seemed to pair up well with the way in which their faces emotions seemed rather than the status they were stood in.

After the starter exercises with masks, we were given the scene between Electra and Orestes. The scene was Electra carrying her brother's ashes in an urn, and is on her way to distribute them. Along comes Orestes, who unaware to Electra is her brother, he insists that Electra knows him, however she is so distraught that she fails to think straight for a while. The scene ends on her realisation of Orestes is telling the truth, and is her long-lost brother, who she believed to be dead.

We then read the scene as a group first and then modernised the text and translated it as a soap scene, mime without and then with masks. 

Modernising the scene was quite challenging because i feel the language is difficult to get to grips with as a lot of the words aren't used today so finding substitutes for the words was a challenge. I enjoyed performing it as a soap scene because we were able to perform it quite intense, putting in dramatic pauses for effect. I also liked it because we got to speak in normal modern language which i felt was easier to portray what i was meaning to say. In the miming tasks, I found it hard to restrain myself from using my mouth at all. It's also hard to make miming look slick and professional, because as an actor it is funny to perform as everything is incredibly over exaggerated. For example in our scene, Cherkanah and I had a prolonged moment of shock and excitement facing each other before hugging. I found miming with and without masks was very different because once you under the mask you are so reliant on just your body to express your emotions. I felt that even though my face was hidden by the mask, I found myself using my face still acting behind the mask which really helped me to stay in character I feel as if i wasn't using my face it wouldn't have felt like I was performing properly as using your facial expressions is so key and important and is always used i felt i still needed to use facial expressions to get into character even though my face wasn't seen.

By the end of the workshop I definitely felt more confident using the mask and understood the correct way to use them because I had learnt the rules of handling masks and was able to have productive use of them. I felt the more extreme emotions on the character you were able to gage better their characteristics than the more neutral looking faces.  




Videos of my auditions are below:


Video 1


Video 2


Video 3