Lesson 10 Homework 10 - 22.01.2015

Meeting my Target: 

In my second target I stated I wanted to develop my character in tale 6. My character is a young boy sitting in a pub. At the beginning he feels way out of his depth in a pub. Feeling that this isn't the place for him and that he wasn't to leave. This shows he probably hasn't been around pubs very often and is quite young to feel so uncomfortable in a pub. He is mainly looked after by his brother as he's the one who is picking him up. Although considering the meeting place is a pub I don't think his brother is quite aware of his youth and innocence. Something in the play tells me that the hard sly man he's talking about is his brother. This is this line here tells me this 'because my poor trembling brother can't hold the glass straight'. He comes from a troubled background and enjoys seeing his brother talk to this lady. Probably because it represents some sort of happiness and he's glad to see his brothers happy even if it's just for a moment. Coming from a troubled home he try's hard to make his family happy as he doesn't like to see them suffer. He finds it difficult to see this as he would like to believe that everyone's very happy and everything's fine. He feeds of other peoples happiness like his brother when having a drink with the warm tired women as he's spent so long caring about his family's feelings he doesn't care about his own anymore. Their feelings are what make him himself. 

Set yourself  three rehearsal targets:

1. To go over the blocking of Tales 4 as when we came to it in the lesson I couldn't remember all of the direction.

2. I would also like to develop my character in Tale  because I feel like I don't have a good grasp on that which is affecting my acting as I don't know who I'm playing. 

3. I want to loosen up while on stage so I can perform physical movement more accurate and effectively. 

Reflect on the targets set:  Have they been achieved? How?           

I have went over the blocking from tale 4 both reading it from my script and trying to learn it without the script. Sometimes also going through the motions in the Tales direction to get it into my head. I think I have nearly achieved this target because I have invested time into going over the Tale. However in order to keep it consistent and not just learn it for a day and then forget as I usually do. I am going to go over it as much as possible between here and the performance. My second target is met as I have done some writing on my Tale Character which is evident in my blog. My third target is met as I am committing fully into the warm ups in class. This then frees up my body allowing my to stretch it further. I am also going to raise my energy and get into theirs frame to push my body enabling me to act physically on that. 

What would you give yourself for today’s rehearsal? 

I think I achieved a merit this lesson because I was focused through out the rehearsal and actively adding direction to my script in order to help me to remember the blocking. I also felt like I developed my character slightly and got a better understanding of the way I wasn't to act out my lines in this tale. 

Marking criteria:	Why?
P2 Demonstrate personal and technical skills in rehearsal making a positive contribution to the process
M2 Demonstrate personal and technical skills in rehearsal, consistently making a positive contribution and constructive contribution to the process.
D2 Demonstrate personal and technical skills in rehearsal with consistently positive and constructive contributions, engagement, commitment, input and self- reflection.

Final Evaluation - 14.02.2015

Final Evaluation -

This project has been around working as an ensemble to lift a scripted play of the page and into a piece of theatre. The show was physical theatre based, with a lot of exaggerated symbolic actions used to convay deeper meanings within the play. The piece was in the style of story telling, therefore you aren't directly acting out the scenes. Because of this there isn't much dialogue where the characters physically interact with one another to create the scene.

Over the course of the project our ideas developed massively as we got to understand and expand our knowledge of the play and its surroundings. We did this by researching the different aspects of the East End. This research gave us an idea of the characters present in the East End, thus allowing us to develop our characters and scenes based on this research . In order to develop our characters further we each wrote a monologue for a character in Tale 6. This enabled us to get a deeper insight into their mindset and explore the 'sub text' of that character.

 I loved the constant use of 'The Weakest Link' in that Tale, especially Matteos ending speech: 'So we close our eyes. You are the weakest link. Goodbye.' To the characters its just a casual TV programme that the father watches, however the hidden meanings woven into that choice of programme are so effective and clever. This whole idea of being 'the weakest link' and the constant battle for survival that all human partake in. It was linked into the fact that the neighbours never helped the women at number 4, she was just left to suffer for she was the 'weakest link' and therefore she had to go. They never helped her because they saw it as 'none of their bussiness' again showing this idea of every man for them self. If they had helped her then it would no longer be this battle for survival that the weakest link shows, it would be a struggle survival where all of the human race struggle together and if one becomes weak everyone would help them until them become strong again. 

My favourite moment was at the beginning of Tale 5 when all the girls are putting make up on over their bruises. I enjoyed it because it felt very powerful and moving. The music and the slowness of the action made it meaningful and the actions seemed vulnerable. This contrasted with the brutality of the neighbour who was banging on the door and telling us to 'turn that racket off'. When in that moment I felt empowered and I could genuinely feel the emotions of the abused girlfriend. I think, as this opened the scene, it would really engage the audience and immediately make them start to think about the whole topic of abuse and whats to come in this Tale. This is then followed by Jake and Sherenes fight, by then I think the audience are slightly shocked as this Tale opens so dramaticly. The whole opening moment should make them feel as sense of realisation and questioning as abuse isn't something that people normally think about and I  doubt they came into the theatre expecting that level of intense drama. I think the audience definitely felt this sense of shock however weather or not they really looked at the issues being raised is questionable. Like in Tale 5, some people do have a tendency to shut out topics that are not only difficult to deal with but can cause them to feel upset or distressed.I think that the moment Roseby created in tale 7 while behind the bar was brilliant. There was a clear sense of character and a really good variation/transition between all the different emotions that were going through her characters head. This then made it clear for the audience to see the emotions and therefore made it extremely interesting to watch. 

The play did have some weaknesses, because we didn't get the whole peice blocked untill quiet late into the project and people had a lot of issues with their lines, I felt like we didn't quiet get enough time to rehearse properly which caused a few silences in the first show as people weren't entirely sure of when to come on. However, these were covered up  by other actors on stage. Learning lines was also another large weakness, it took me a little while to learn my lines to the point where i could remeber both my lines and the physical direction.
However, by putting the work in I managed to learn both yet it meant a lot of the rehearsing wasn't used as efficiently as we spent a lot of time going over lines when other things like character and transitions needed addressing. 

 I think I wasn't as disciplined with learning lines as I could have been, it took me a long time to become confident in my lines. However, my focus during lessons was good it was just a case of bring my energy up and not giving in to the tiredness. I really enjoyed this unit and felt that I have improved a lot. I felt that I improved in terms of being in a ensemble as the more we worked with each other the more comfortable we became with working with one another and the more understanding we had of how we worked together. By working with the same people for so long we are also able to learn of each other. I learnt how to use my body a lot more in my acting and really be aware of what my body is doing and how it contributes to my character. My acting skills have also developed as I found it quite hard to act multiple roles with only one or two lines within them and flick between characters. However, by working on my story telling and creating separate characters for each tale i think i really developed in that area of acting. 

Lesson 11 Homework 11 - 29.01.2015

Q1: upload your REHEARSAL SELF OBSERVATION SHEET.

A1:

*I mean't to write Handy man in Tale 3 not Tale 4.



Development of my characters:

Handy man in Tale 3:
This character is a con-artist.He makes the customers believe he is highly skilled and that the price he charges is cheap and resonable for the job he has to undertake. Of course after getting the money in cash he does a really bad job, clearly showing he has no skill what so ever and isn't even trained in that area. He will then dissapeare with the money. For him to treat people this way shows he has no respect for them as a person and is self centred. All he cares about is his profit. Due to the amount of running from jobs he does, he lives his life constantley moving from one place to another. Never settling down for good. I doubt he has any regared for the food he eats and probably lives on beans on toast as this is a cheap easy meal to make. To me, this sort of life style isn't very fufilling. Therefore, I think although on the outside it looks like his life is great, he actually feels quiet empty and like he hasn't achieved anything. He never admit this to any one, he probably doesn't even relise it himself as as soon as he registers this it beomes real. So for the moment hes 'happy' to just carry on conning people and living his life 'on the edge'.

Here is a clip from 'Only Fools and Horses' where Del is trying to sell something. His character is very similar to the Handy Man.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_akYdDIqYiE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3SmMizTz-YQ

Lesson 9 homework 9 - 15.01.2015

Q1: You need to write a brief reflection on the work that you did today. How did the scene develop that you have been directing as a group?

A1:  In this lesson, I found it difficult devising our own peice, however I think we spent our time constructivly. I was imputting a lot of ideas into the peice, yet the trouble we had as a group was turning those ideas into a physical peice. This is where we lost time, causing us to have not gotten as far into the text as we should have. I think we worked well as a group to incorparate and listen to all our ideas, however it proved difficult as some people were not as willing to give ideas as others. This mean't group leaders emeged to voice other peoples ideas. The scene in our group developed in terms of creating choregraphed movments in pairs. These should be symoblic and abstrct to represent something. However, we need to develop it further as we are struggling to make it abstrct, therefore it becomes to literal. It also developed as we got more familar with the physical aspect of the peice, making it more fluent and clear. Ideas that had not been put into practise the week before become part of the peice, giving us the chance to play around with these ideas and develop them as a group.


Q2: What action have we added to Tale 5? What do you think the impact of this might be?

A1: We have added the sounds of Jake and Sherene's argument coming from back stage. I think this is so effective as it makes the situation a whole lot realer. Things like abuse are so extreme and difficult that audience members may find it hard to visualise the reality of this event. With these sound effects the reality is clear and it makes it more dramatic and intense. The action of building the door way is also very effective as it adds a bit of movment and dynamic to the play. For the majority of that scene the stools stay in the same place. By moving them to make a door way, it demonstrates creativity and helps the audience see visualy whats happerning and it adds some variation. The making of the cafe also addes a variation. The action in the cafe of looking over at the pram was added. This impacts you as an audience member a lot as it shows how out numbered the lady is. It represents how everyone is watching and noticing yet no action is being taken. I think this is effective as it singles out the lady as not only a victim but someone who doesn't fit in with society. The lifting of Taffy at the end is also something that was added in. While im saying my lines, the rest of the ensamble gather in the corner and lift Taffy up altogether. They then carry here across the stage, this symbolises her being carried in a coffin as she has now died from her abuse. This impacted me a lot as it revisited the idea of a unified group. Only this time they were carrying her dead body. It also again singled out Taffy and made her seem important and significant. To me, it showed how once the event is over, only can the sorrunding people acknolwedge and particpate in her remembrance and bring her abuse to attention. 

Q3: Please upload your REHEARSAL SELF OBSERVATION SHEET

A3: 

Unit 15 Performing Scripted Plays Rehearsal Self Observation

Marking criteria:

P2 Demonstrate personal and technical skills in rehearsal making a positive contribution to the process

M2 Demonstrate personal and technical skills in rehearsal, consistently making a positive contribution and constructive contribution to the process.

D2 Demonstrate personal and technical skills in rehearsal with consistently positive and constructive contributions, engagement, commitment, input and self- reflection.

Set yourself  three rehearsal targets:

1. To be activly more invovled in the rehersal so I can have the best beifits from the lesson. This is because sometimes i find my self lossing energy and therefore i feel a little bit like I'm dragging along the back of this lesson. I need to push that feeling away and get involved. 

2. To develop and focus on my voice and projection, while still mainting the physical aspect.

3. To work more on my lines again so their COMPLETELY LEARN'T. Allowing me to focus on my physical aspects without dropping my lines. 

Reflect on the targets set:  Have they been achieved? How?       
 I have made a promise to myself that next lesson I'm going to lift my energy up snd grab the lesson with enthusiam and  energy.  I have nearly achieve my second target. I have started to try to be aware of my voice at al times so I will be more aware while I'm on stage. I also am going to challange my self my going louder when I think im too loud as normaly im shying away from it an I'm actually quite quiet. However to know weather I have achieved this fully I must see if I continue for a long length of time showing consistency. To improve my voice I have also learn't my cues and lines (linking into my third target) this frees up my mind to focus on things like projection and my voice. For my third target I spent some more time learning my lines and I feels as if I know them, however that could change when I add my physical and vocal aspects to it.
 What would you give yourself for today’s rehearsal? 

Marking criteria:	Why?
P2 Demonstrate personal and technical skills in rehearsal making a positive contribution to the process
M2 Demonstrate personal and technical skills in rehearsal, consistently making a positive contribution and constructive contribution to the process.	I think i achieved a merit today as I worked really hard for most of the lesson. When I was a part of the peice i was activley enganged and giving a lot of effort. However, I spent a lot of time sitting of stage as other people did their lines. I feel that instead of wandering of in my head I could have put that time to better use such as taking notes about how the production is being put together and aspcets of the directing. Or I could have spent that time going over my lines, making sure I knew them.
D2 Demonstrate personal and technical skills in rehearsal with consistently positive and constructive contributions, engagement, commitment, input and self- reflection.

 

Lesson 8 Homework 8 - 08.01.2015

Q1: Make some notes of what you need to do better within each tale.

A1: 

• I have learn't my line for TALE 1 however my cue lines are still a bit shaky. I find that I'm so focused on my phone acting that i lose my awareness of the lines going on around me and I therefore miss my cue line. 
• I also think my character could do with some work as I find it quite hard to play an east end teenager. The line 'doesn't see them any more' I find particularly hard to do as Im not entirely sure of the context of the line. In order to improve, I must work out the context of this line and my objective.
• My projection is also something that has slipped over this term. Therefore i have realised that I need to work on it constantly for it to sustain it ability and improve. 

Q2: You then started working in two groups on Tale 6. Write some notes on the creative choices that were made. Write about the work that you need to develop further.

A2: 

• We made the creative choice to include the aspect of torch light in our piece. This would be represented by a silhouette of the scene were describing. However, we made the choice to have a contrast in light. The main lights would not be off through out the whole piece. We decided to turn them off as soon as the fight scene starts which is at the line 'shit'. 
• We also chose to use a pint glass to represent the same character. This cup would be passed from actor to actor as they spoke their lines. The pint glass is relevant as were are all in a pub.
• We also chose to say the line 'she looks like your fucking mum' all together too represent the pub all thinking the same thing as a unit. However, we took the line 'Like one big creature' as a stimulus to come together and form the creature they are talking about. We use our bodes to morph together and create a deformed creature. This is were we speak our line from. 
• We need to develop the rest of the tale to complete it. We were thinking about some choreographed actions that carry on through out the piece. These would be abstract and representative. These actions need to be developed into a polished set of actions relevant to the scene.
• We also need to clarify our devised scene as some people are unclear on what we're doing. Once we have clarified this with the whole group, the movement will become smoother.
• I think we need to develop the physical aspect as well because at the moment it isn't every abstract or physical. This is will come from our choreographed movements.  

Unit 15 Performing Scripted Plays Rehearsal Self Observation

Marking criteria:

P2 Demonstrate personal and technical skills in rehearsal making a positive contribution to the process

M2 Demonstrate personal and technical skills in rehearsal, consistently making a positive contribution and constructive contribution to the process.

D2 Demonstrate personal and technical skills in rehearsal with consistently positive and constructive contributions, engagement, commitment, input and self- reflection.

Set yourself  three rehearsal targets:

1.  To learn all cue lines and lines, for next week so i can focus on the physical element of the play and not on what lines or cues I have.

2. To be constantly focused throughout rehersals and give 100% effort in all my lessons.

3. To go over all the blocking we have done so far, so its all engrained in my mind, allowing me to not have to focus on the blocking and move on to other aspects of the play.

Reflect on the targets set:  Have they been achieved? How?          

My first target has been mostly met. I've spent some work on going over my lines and trying to remember them. I feel I do know them however their not as solid as I would like. I do occasionally forget my lines showing I haven't learn't them to best that I can. My cues are just about there however I find that I consontrate so much on the physical aspect of the play that i lose track of the lines going around the room. I need to find the balance between being aware of the lines and of the physical aspect. I think I have fufiled my second target. In order to meet this target I think about it as if every preformance that I do is my last, so I make it the best I can. My final target was partly fufiled in class, as we did an exersice where we went over all the blokcing we've done so far in our head. I did this activity is a lot of detail to get the best result. However, I think I need to do this exersice for frequently for me to really know the blocking propaly as I can easily forget it.
What would you give yourself for today’s rehearsal? 

Marking criteria:	Why?
P2 Demonstrate personal and technical skills in rehearsal making a positive contribution to the process
M2 Demonstrate personal and technical skills in rehearsal, consistently making a positive contribution and constructive contribution to the process.	I think i achieved a merit today as although I was focused most of the time their were times where i drifted of. However, for that time that I was focused I was imputting my ideas and thinking constructivaly about the peice we were devising. I was commited to the peice we were preforming, although towards the end I felt my energy drop causing me put in less effort and commitment.
D2 Demonstrate personal and technical skills in rehearsal with consistently positive and constructive contributions, engagement, commitment, input and self- reflection.

 

Lesson 7 Homework 7 - 18.12.2014

Q1: Go through your script tale by tale and work out the character that you are. Write about each character briefly. 

A1:  Tale 1: In tale 1 I play a typical east end teenage girl who is describing a boy. What I am saying seems to be gossip as you also have the element of being on her phone. One line is said on the phone as if you are talking to your friend about someone you know and the others are said as if I am texing my friends. Her social life is extremly important to her and therefore these convosations, both by text and by calling, are significant to her life and make up who she is as a person. 

Tale 3: In Tale we are again talking about who the east end would be if it was a person or my friend. In this Tale I am describing a character that doesn't exsist yet a lot of the idea must come from people within my characters life. I would say my character is middle agaed women as some of the points mentioned in the Tale are too mature for a teenager. In Tale 3 I also play a person who fixes boilers. This character has been expanded upon in my previous blogs.

Tale 4: In Tale 4 I am an narrator onto this Tale. From the lines I have like 'her eyes' and 'she looks up slowly' I can see that my character sympathises with the old lady. This leads me to think that maybe she can relate to it. For example, she may have an eldarly grandma in her family that is very frail and eldarly.

Tale 5: In tale 5 we all more or less play the same character, the boy next door who witnesses and hears abuse to a young women. He seems quiet aware of what is happerning next door and gets extremly annoyed when his father turns up the volume on electronical devices and pretends its not happerning. He seems to want to help this women although he doesn't have theconfidence or the knowledge to do so.

 

Tale 6: In Tale 6 I play the character of the young boy who is in a pub waiting for his brother. He clearly feels uncomftable in the pub environment but seems to be more at ease once the hard sly man and tired lady sit down and talk. From the play I think the hard sly man is his brother. The line ' cos my proor trembaling brother cant hold the glas straight' made me think this. 

Q2: Next, write out some of your lines from each tale and next to the line write your objective for saying the line. Think about why are you saying the line and this will help you with finding how you might say this.

A2: 
Tale 1-
"So eighteen" - Here I'am talking to one of my friends, about a new boy at her school that she likes. From what she's saying it sounds like he's very interesting. As my character is a typical rude girl from the east end, I'am trying my very best to gather as much information from her that could be used as gossip or influence over someone. The whole midset is very bitchy and selfish.
"Doesn't see them any more" -  This lines is used to explain a characteristic of a boy to someone else. My intention is to pass infomation to my friends which is essentially gossip. However, I think there is a small hit of concern  and interest into this boys line. Yet these emotions are covered by the loud fake rude personatlity that this character has.

Tale 3 - 
"A long time ago" - This line is telling the story of this particular man. My objective is to convay this story truthfully to an audience. It doesn't seem like the type of line where your delivering it to friends in an informal manner. It is more the type of line where your explaining it to someone of status like the police and therefore are telling the story with as muhc empathsise as possible on the events that happened. 

Tale 4 - 
"And she looks up slowly" - Here im witnessing this event, so even though im still telling the story its in the moment not a recollection. My objection is to help this lady as I can see her pain and relate to the lonleness she must feel. When I see this old lady, it reminds me of my own life and so although im descirbing her, theres a part of me that feels the same way. So im expressing my own feelings at the same time. The word 'slowly' connotes to her being vunrable and frail.
"And her eyes" - Im saying this line out of recongnition of the emotions that I see in her eyes. I'm not descibing her eys very much which suggests I can understand and relate to what I see meaning there is no need to descibe something that I'm completley aware of. I think my object is just stating what she sees. This brings attention to this aspect. I seems like shes just voicing her mind and not quiet aware of what shes saying.

Tale 5 - 
"Mum cried when they took her away" - Here my objection is to voice the aftermath of her death and to show how it effects everybody. Im very upset about seeing my mum so upset about her death and knowing that we could have probaly prevented it. Theres a lot of guilt and regret in this line, and a sudden relisation of what just happened. The whole situation from the shouting next door to her death just sunk in and became real to him. 

Tale 6 - 

"The go and sit down, and drink together! Serious!" My objective here is to convay how suprising this is and also to allow the recent event to sink in.This is because while my character was sitting in the pub he was convinced that they were going to have a fight. However when he discovers that they're actually going to sit down and drink togther he not only has to express his shock to the pub but also to himself. As saying it aloud makes it more real. So when he says 'serious' hes not only telling the pub that this actually happened but he's also telling himself 'seriously!' because he can't believe it either.