Devising and Rehearsing process for the Christmas Play

September - October : plans and preparation to creating the script

For this unit we had to create a story that was based around Christmas. We wanted something gripping and would excite the audience and not perform an already written script because the language could be dated and we want the audience to understand what's going on. So we thought of a great idea to make the Christmas show family friendly with soft adult humour that the jokes would go over the kids heads if they were brought along to watch the evening performances; which would be to devise and perform a fantasy meets pantomime. We sat in a circle and each put forward our ideas. The popular idea was that it should be set in a dystopian future and either Christmas was whipped from existence, but only a select few characters would remember, images and visions of Christmas would appear to them as an epiphany; or that Christmas had simply been banned by an order in charge, and a group of people would try and stop it. We were then put into four groups and were told what ideas we had that revolved around the main body of the idea we already had as a class but to create four different versions and to perhaps merge them; in which we did.

My group's plan was  to use the black mirror inspired idea. A secret service performing experiments on random individuals  who've had their memory removed of Christmas. Yet one of the kids would still have memories of Christmas tucked away, and as the play would have gone on more and more memories would emerge until the child would have a revelation and they then would embark on a quest that would put a stop to the order and save Christmas. I thought that this was a pretty good idea that our group came up with as it had a stable story line and a smooth plot. But I do think that the final product was as good and incorporated our idea really well. The main idea of the play as it finally stood was that; There are five children who all go school together, their parents have been taken by the "Evil One's" soldiers as they all illegally celebrated Christmas - Christmas has been banned. The five kids track down the realm of the Evil One and discover a book that transports them to different points in time ( WW1 and Victorian era). When they finally reach present day again, The evil one plans to dress up as Santa Clause fooling the kids into thinking they have saved Christmas, Unbeknownst to them they were going to be blown to smithereens, however this plan was thwarted as the parents who were imprisoned and the kids all managed to deliver the real meaning of Christmas to him. It came to light that he Evil One's parents were killed in a car crash when he was 5 and he has hated Christmas ever since blaming the festive holiday on their death as they went out Christmas shopping.

October - November : Developing The main Body of the Script and Rehearsing.

After receiving our parts; we also received a working script written by Rob. It was a combination of all our ideas to best that he could and it was also made just so we could rehearse with something. I was given the Role of ,"Sam" sharing the role with my fellow class mate Chloe as we both insisted that wanted the role of one of the 5 kids in the play. The performance took place over two days and two nights so I performed one day and evening and so did Chloe. Sam was the typical misunderstood, a bit of a "nag" type of character. He was always trying to prove himself to his friends but always got shut down because what he did didn't coincide with their cool factor. He was a bit of a science geek and movie fanatic; category of sci-fi with a mixture of Bond too. This was especially evident when he created "operation Redhawk" which was the protocol of breaking into the premises of the Evil Leader who banned Christmas to retrieve the arrested parents and the irony that came when the clan came across some wire somewhere within the premises that blocked their way in proceeding further; same had thought it was laced with poisonous chemicals yet his kid brother Alex cut it and nothing happened. For me Sam is always one step ahead, it is clear when he enacted "Redhawk" that he had been planning this for a long time. He seems to use his knowledge of movie scenarios and Science to over estimate the real life circumstances that they tackled within the play. 

As the rehearsals went on the Body of the script took its full form. With more people adding ideas and putting in research. For example; the most research went into the time travelling scenes when the book transports the 5 children to different time periods. We had to tread carefully on writing for the Victorian period because certain books that could have gotten mentioned by the kids may not have been written yet, and it may not have perhaps caused a rupture in time like it does in the movies or tv shows, it would have been factually incorrect. We had set it in 1842; A Christmas Carol was yet to be published in December of 1843, so we came up with the idea that Dickens would have been writing it since the previous Christmas to get the Christmas based ideas. One of the kids makes a comment on the fact that they liked Oliver twist, which was written in 1838 so it was ok to put that line in the script. before the script took its final form; we had improvised the scene in rehearsals and kept most of the lines in baring one which was Great Expectations in the place of the Oliver twist comment. Great Expectations wasn't written until 9 years after the time period scene was set, so not until 1861, so it had to be corrected. With Chloe also playing the role of Sam I decided that while she was performing I would, in my own time, rehearse independently. I had all my lines learnt by the end of the week so I then had time to prepare characterisation and objectives for my character. For me, this needn't have been discussed with Chloe, even though we were playing the same character, because it was what we individually brought to the table with our own characterisation for the character. The super-objective I believed Sam had was that he wanted to be noticed. As I had said before he was always at the pointing end of the finger for cheap laughter; yet even if he did overthink the situations with his geeky and scientific brain; the majority of the time he actually came up with valid observations, especially when he realised that they were in the past, yet all the others brushed it off. His objectives for most of the scenes were either to be heard or to find the logical explanations to what caused the situations.


late November - December; piecing the final show together

With the final Rehearsals in gear, the piece started to come together smoothly. People were prepared with what they were doing and knew when and where they had to come on. We were performing it  in the theatre now so we all prepared; performing productions in the theatre in the lead up to the date is always fun because that's when it really starts to come to life because it feels like you are performing it for real rather than in a rehearsal space doing it in front of the exact same faces which is the off stage cast. Lighting and sound had been set so the meat was being put on the bones with the play as it started to feel like a professional show by this time. All props were given out and the use of set had been put up; so no longer having to mime it during rehearsals. Everything began to feel on a professional level.


The Day of the show

The atmosphere I wanted to create was hope. My character tried to figure the situation with his brother and friends alone rather than wait at home for the parents to arrive. I successfully came across that Sam had a sense of determination that he and the rest of the crew would find the parents and they did. My proxemics on the stage was fairly good as I wasn't ever too far back or too far to the side I thought I used the space of the stage quite effectively. What I wish I did better was stay in the light of the spotlight because I sort of was swallowed up by the darkness outside the light. I feel that we as a cast conveyed the play quite well as everyone understood what was happening and there weren't points in which the audience was loosing focus or the plot of the story. Most of the time when Sam felt underappreciated , I feel that the audience did feel sorry for him at times because all he was doing was trying to help so I know my goal for creating this mood in the first place was reached. My volume I thought was good; I had clarity and diction when I spoke so all my lines could be heard and understood by the audience members, even the ones sat at the back where they may be hard of hearing could understand what was going on. What I feel I could do better would be that even though Sam is very misunderstood, I always seemed to play him with anger where as I could have at some points played him a notch down and maybe embarrassment because he is at the centre of constant mockery from his "Friends". I thought the overall play worked well with the cast and production working together like clockwork to produce a really well thought-about play.


   My personal props were a reading book a map and phone. When I first enter the stage Sam is reading a book, which adds to his geeky persona. Whenever there is a time where Alex or his parents aren't communicating directly with him he has his head buried in the book, this shows that he would rather be left alone and study than be annoyed by his little brother and by his parents constant dragging on him about being nice to Alex. Also , to note, when the parents are taken and Alex and Sam are pacing in the spotlight I thought it would be a good idea to have Sam flick through the book for any possible answers for the current situation, because in his mind there is always a logical explanation for something and it adds comic effect because it could literally be a random book but he is sure that whether it was a science film or novel that he'd been reading something like this had happened before in the make belief scenario that he had read about or watched before. I thought that the idea came across well to the audience making it a successful idea.

When Sam called operation Redhawk which was essentially what Sam called the scenario  that if t ever the parents were captured, he would assemble his friends to break into the facility where the parents were taken. When devising we came up with a split screen scene with all of the friends on stage in the blacked out areas while Sam and Alex were onstage thinking of how to cope with the situation in hand ; when each friend was rung up , the spotlight would be placed on them. We wanted to come up with this comical scene as Sam rung up his friends repeatedly saying "Redhawk is a go!" enfusiasticsly like it was his greatest idea of code red scenario ,he clearly been working on for a long time because he even gave it a name ; but the comedy behind it was that he had explained his greatest invention to his friends but as per usual he was never listened to so none of his friends knew what he was going on about - the only one who understood what he meant by just the shear mention of the name "Redhawk" was the stereotypically dim witted character.
My final personal prop was the map that located the coordinates of the entrance of the facility for them to break in. The comedy behind this was that he acted very happy with coming up with this and bringing it along when the friends met up at the market but when he unraveled it and the friends held each end of the map - it displayed illustrations that could have easily been drama by a toddler - which came across quite successful as the audience understood the scene. 

"Is it nececarilly harder for working class actors to make it into the field of acting than those of a higher class?"

An issue I would like to raise of concern will be that, “Is it necessarily harder for working class citizens to make it in the field of acting than those of a higher class?” The working class have always been downtrodden in society when matched against their middle and higher classed opponents. The dictionary description of working class citizens is that,” [we] are a group of people in a society who do not own much property, have a low social status, and who do jobs that involve physical skills rather than intellectual skills” (Collins, 2007). It is very clear to see that working class people are viewed as nothing but unintelligent and simply just exist to perform manual labour. We shouldn’t be judged based on our income or whereabouts we live, but unfortunately, this happens to be the case. When it comes to the field of arts and theatre, which is already competitive, it adds a new form of competition when you are based solely on your; accent, income, social status. Personally, talent shouldn’t be labelled; regardless if you have wealth or you do not, anybody can perform well if you work hard enough for it. However, there are a few issues I will look into, that prove the hardship working class citizens face with ambitions to be actors.

Being part of the working class community, this topic really hits home because in this day and age that young adolescents live in today there doesn’t seem to be much support for them especially with the lack of community centres in the local areas we live in. My parents have told me of days back in the late 1970s to the early 1980s in which the local youth clubs were the go-to places of the day. In my area, there was the Harrow Club, the Rugby Club, Kensal youth club and the Seven Feathers; in which some my parents had attended, where they met the majority of their friends. Nowadays, there just doesn’t seem to be that sense of community anymore. There is a huge lack of drama clubs in my local area; in Central London, home to most of the middle class population, is where the majority of drama clubs/companies such as the Young Actors’ Theatre Islington are situated. In contrast to my parents’ youth, I can only name one drama/youth club in my area in which I have attended previously, but they tend to aim more at the younger children and teens. I do attend a drama youth club called the Camden Peoples’ Theatre, but I only found out about it through my college. Ironically in the world we live in where technology is vastly improving, there is a lack of advertising in my area; so people in my area, other than me, who are interested in the field of acting have to constantly have an ear and eye out for these opportunities and grab them as quickly as you can. On the subject matter of Drama youth clubs, in 1968 , Islington saw the addition of the Anna Scher in the area. Established as an aim to teach drama classes to working class children as a means of keeping them out of trouble and off the streets because Islington was a renowned rough area in the 60s and 70s (Hatterstone, 2018). Scher’s classes specialized in improvisation, which allowed the children who attended to be anything that they wanted to be and they were always supported no matter what. Improvisation can be tricky for some, because the ideas could naturally flow with people on the spot or it might not come so easy to others; but it’s the freedom of showing off what you can bring to the table in improvisation that is key. Having attended for a short period of time between February and mid-April due to other commitments at the time, it was a real eye opener as her mantra hasn’t changed in the past 50 years, so she has stayed true in what she preaches. “Don’t be late, don’t chew gum, be considerate of others,” These are very vital points, not only for drama but for life skills in general. Scher is obviously very passionate about the working class children, because she wants to teach them well manners within the industry as well as society. Many of the actors have had that mantra drummed into them that they are scared to be late to places, so she did a good job in what she teaches. Not many people would give working class children neither time nor day unlike Anna Scher, contrasting to today’s society, nothing has really changed in the last 50-30 years. Working class people, especially youths are seen as a burden or trouble makers, but nobody, For example; the local council or government don’t want to fund in youth centres anymore because on record 760 youth centres have been closed down (Booth, 2019). But it was somebody like Anna Scher, who would have tried to prevent the violence on the street by generating all that Teen angst and violent anger into performing and using improvisation as a means of expressing themselves.

The Anna Scher theatre is notable for quite a few career starters for some actors who made a name for themselves since attending the club. Susan Tully , born the 20^th October 1967, known for playing rebellious teenager Suzanne Ross in the hit children’s drama series Grange Hill from 1981-1984. It was in 1984 when she was only 16 when she landed the role of Michelle Fowler in EastEnders, and therefore became a household name and involved in the famous controversial storyline where she became pregnant by the Landlord of the Queen Vic and the Fowlers ex-close friend Den Watts. Since the late 1990s she has directed quite a lot of work, such as EastEnders, London’s Burning, The Bill (1999-2004), Secret Diary of a Call Girl (2007), Silent Witness (2010) and Truckers (2013). She grew up on a London council estate, and was educated in Barnsbury, Islington. Her father was a watch-case maker and her mother a housewife, so she has had a working class upbringing and with support of the Anna Scher theatre landing her the role on EastEnders which depicts life of working class people in a more serious way, was awe inspiring since they cast real life working class people in the roles made it even more so real and believable because to an extent the actors can identify with their characters. Kathy Burke was born 13^th June 1964, in Islington, London. She attended Anna Scher during the 1970s when she was 13. Some people didn’t know what to make of her, because of her working class lifestyle; she was an up and coming actress of the time. She didn’t wear make-up, attend red carpets or drink champagne; so she was never about the rich and lavish lifestyle. She describes herself as “a member of the non-pretty working class” (Marsh, 2017) in response to Helena Bonham-Carter’s statement that she’s not taken seriously because she is “middle Class and pretty”. Maxine Peak’s story is a factor supporting my argument entirely. She was questioned upon auditioning for a role, because the character had been to “University”, and Peak’s accent sounded too working class. Peak hit back with a response that she, “attended RADA and trained for three years”. At Rada, they provide elocution lessons to help you lose your accent; Peak also added that, “If [she] attended RADA and never lost her accent, then [she’s] pretty sure people at university will have an accent” (Sherwin, 2016).She also gave an insight that people, who happen to from up north, do receive education, can go to university and have electricity. I think that this is an appalling way to treat people from a different class to someone else, or even if you are educated make you feel uncomfortable from coming from an area where typical of a lower class.

George Wilson is an actor born in Liverpool, Merseyside. He had starred in Liverpool set soap opera Brookside and most famous for his role as “Ziggy” Greaves playing Robbie Wright’s (John Alford) best mate in Grange Hill as well as writing his own play material. I am in contact with him via social media and he kindly accepted to take part in the interview. He believes that working class actors are ”better”, that they have struggled a lot more than middle class actors and “appreciate it” a lot more when they get a break. I certainly agree with George here because a typical actor from a working class background doesn’t get handed roles as often as someone who has studied at drama school or if the casting director knows their social status. George continued to add that working class actors tend to grasp the naturalism to acting a lot easier because they haven’t been taught. For example the show “Grange Hill” was set in a state school, so someone of working class background acting in this school setting would already know what the certain setting feels like because they would have lived through it, just the situation the pupils get into may be different. He also feels that working class actors have an equal chance to anyone of a higher class once they get through the door of an audition; adding to my previous that talent shouldn’t be labelled with social caste. He agrees that the Anna Scher theatre and shows like grange hill encouraged working class actors into acting because they were natural actors from the streets, and many progressed because of Anna Scher. It’s a shame that shows like Grange Hill, which encouraged so many working class actors that they can do it, no matter what social class you belong to, have changed with the times and has faded with time. George says that you should’t “remake the actual show [Grange Hill] itself, but create similar shows set in a kids home or a council estate”, would work just as good. Having heard from a working class actor physically has really opened my eyes that I am not alone in my views. Even though my generation has since surpassed the times when Grange hill was at it’s height, I do personally enjoy watching episodes on YouTube, because that was the only time, other than shows like EastEnders, where the cast was made up entirely of working class actors.

To conclude, I have researched into valid points that back my argument up that is very hard for working class actors to enter the field of acting than those of a higher class. In Maxine Peak’s situation, she was judged by casting panellists before she even began the audition because her accent was very working class, yet it didn’t even cross their minds because they were to ignorant to realise that she may have attended higher education and got a degree. Due to cuts in the number of Youth centres being run, there is little hope for actors who live in an area where there is hardly anything for adolescents anymore, especially for acting. Yet my area is just a shell of what it used to be now, when there was a time when it was teaming with loads of people in common attending clubs. Our social class have even been defined as unintelligent; which I think is insulting when some of us could contribute a lot to society, one being acting, but sadly are hardly given a chance.

Works Cited

Booth, r., 2019. The Guardian. [Online]
Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/society/2019/may/07/youth-club-closures-young-people-risk-violence-mps
[Accessed 25 November 2019].

Collins, W., 2007. www.collinsdictionary.com. [Online]
Available at: https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/working-class
[Accessed 25 11 2019].

Hatternstone, S., 2nd of April 2018. The Guardian. [Online]
Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2018/apr/02/how-anna-schers-maverick-acting-school-created-so-many-working-class-stars
[Accessed 25 November 2019].

Hatterstone, S., 2018. The Guardian. [Online]
Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2018/apr/02/how-anna-schers-maverick-acting-school-created-so-many-working-class-stars
[Accessed 25 November 2019].

Marsh, S., 2017. The Guardian. [Online]
Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2017/oct/29/kathy-burke-interview-lifelong-member-of-the-non-pretty-working-classes
[Accessed 25 November 2019].

Sherwin, A., 2016. INews. [Online]
Available at: https://inews.co.uk/culture/television/maxine-peake-told-northern-play-barrister-silk-539505
[Accessed 25 November 2019].

Pro's and Con's of going to a Drama school vs going to University

It has been a hard decision in deciding what route to pursue after I leave college. My initial thoughts were that drama school can be very competitive in terms of entry, and the hours focused on doing drama would be far greater than what you would receive at a university. At a university, you have a diversity of people on different courses to socialise with in halls, and where the hours aren’t so heavy you will have more free time to work in the comfort of your room and you can relax with friends. University can also teach you life skills, whereas Drama school primarily prepares you just for the profession, i.e.; receiving agents and putting on productions where agents are invited to watch. Whereas, university offers you to study an area specific, for example; Drama and film is the profession I want to work in, I will then study that at a university and just that. In addition, I am also very interested in Music, so I can join social clubs where I can socialise with people of similar taste and interest. Now that I have researched, it has opened my eyes into the range of positive and negative points that apply to both Drama School and University. When you value up pros and cons, it’s then easier to narrow down the suitable path you may choose. 

A drama school can be entirely “independent”, or in can be a drama based institution which can be joint with a school, college or University. Whether the institute is part of a university or not, the higher education will still be validated by universities. Because then they won’t be authorised to provide people with a degree. In the eyes of the academic hierarchy, drama schools are below universities, although they normally provide students with graduate and undergraduate programmes. The coaches make sure that you soak up as much of the opportunities to train as an actor as much as possible because the scale of the training you will receive at drama school is not nearly as detailed and as vigorous elsewhere. It seems that you are remain within the institute from eight till five pm; Monday to Friday. You study theory in the morning and then after lunch you put all the research and studying into practice. When you are not rehearsing in your free time you will be catching up with homework, research and essays. You cannot afford to take time up because one day training will consist of research and practices over the course of a nine hour period , so that will be a lot of training and information distributed missed. It is clear to see that the training’s outcome will be that you will become a much disciplined individual because of the intense training. You must limit yourself to partying and drinking your time away; find the balance between staying on top of work and letting your hair down. However, it is advised that you spend the majority of your time training than going out as you can’t afford to lose out on research; they adhere to a heavy schedule. At drama school, you train in body, vocal and movement exercises to warm you up. You use your whole body when you act, be it facial expressions gestures and you must be able to channel all of the outward energy in to embody the character but then channel the inward energy out to play put on a good performance. Dedicated actors, don’t over play yet don’t underplay their characters because it takes a lot of effort to portray characters naturally hence why you need to do diction practises, pronouncing your vowels and consonants with clarity you need to know how loud your voice can go and how quiet it can go so you get the fine balance of your stage voice and know when to amplify it. 

 In comparison, a “university of acting” doesn’t exist. The programme, whether acting or theatre, will provide a three year training course and at the end a Bachelor of arts or a Bachelor of fine arts degree when you have reached the end of the journey. In the UK, the degrees cannot be labelled a “Drama school” because the government have a strict policy of what can be labelled so. They will 

just be labelled BA acting. Unfortunately, a degree from a well-respected Drama school completely cancels out a degree received at the end of university. The course is split into two modules. The theory modules cover history of theatre, influential theatre practitioners and key ideas. You get taught about notable practitioners like Brecht and Stanislavsky in higher detail and how particular themes are presented on stage such as political statements sexuality and gender. The roles in studying drama are more varied when studying at university. There is no specific; you can become a playwright, director, be involved in stage management other than just acting. The module also covers devising, technical theatre and physical theatre. Some courses may even offer opportunities of; clowning, puppetry, stage design, stand-up comedy. So it is evident that Universities opens up more doors to different involvement in the field of drama. The way it is taught is through lectures, seminars, practical workshops and in some cases rehearsals lead by a member of staff. You are assessed through the means of written exams, project work and performances. You may have to write essays research reports or log you work electronically. This is similar to the amount of work you have to complete at drama school, but the intensity of the amount is not nearly as much. Contact hours vary between each university and their modules. Roughly, you receive 20-25% studying theory and 75-80% practising what you have been taught, in groups or independently. It is expected of each student to study around 35-40 hours a week, which is equivalent to 9-5 five days a week. A university allows you to go down many different path routes within the main area of study; for example, “Drama with Film” some are theoretical studies of other people’s films and other modules teach you screen acting or filmmaking (behind the scenes) or “a joint honours Drama and English degree” which sounds more academic when you enter the field of work and allows the student to studies plays and scripts. 

There are a list of funding issues involved when applying to a University. There are economic struggles as the income received from the growing amount of students applying to the courses under the new fee regime, could help fund the provisional side of the costs, but there are still capital and infrastructure costings which is required to help the UK give a good quality experience. There are struggles for universities in England as public funding sources are relied on the most to support the growing amount of students. Because of this there may be an increase in higher education budget which is separate to the student loan which can result in department cuts if there isn't sufficient amount of funding. The government face issues with the loan system, seen as there are far more people applying to University. 

But even if these issues are faced, at our age, we will have more of a chance getting a place at university than at a drama school. The average cost of audition fees are about 50 - 65 pounds; if you go through the UCAS system which requires a maximum and minimum amount of five spaces of university/drama schools to apply to. This will then amount to 250 - 325 spent on just auditions alone, and there isn't even a certainty on receiving a place at a drama school; to spend over 200 pounds worth which could be wasted if you don't even gain a place is an issue which lower class, and even lower class people who could possibly even afford the amount have to face. 

The advantages of training at Drama School are;

-Most valuable degree in the industry

- Best training one can receive to be an actor

-Importance in meeting professionals and forming connections. 

- Final performance attracts agents. 

- Agents and casting directors value clients more with drama school training more. 

The disadvantages of training at Drama School are;

-Very busy schedule and a high amount of homework

- zero time to audition for outside work to support yourself finances.

-No preparation for the business and marketing side of drama

- Very difficult to be accepted 

- Additional training may still be required post graduation.

The advantages of training at a university are;

- Not such a busy schedule and workload

- There is more time to audition for extra acting jobs on the side-line

- You get to experience a real student's life

- May be a good introduction into the acting world

- Much easier to get accepted 

The disadvantages of training at a university are;

- Poor acting training

- Degrees are pretty worthless in the industry

- Little chance to get connections 

- Same cost as Drama Schools

- A significant amount of post graduation training is still required 

To conclude, as much as the university route is looked down upon, personally I would prefer to go down that path. The university I favour out my five choices is Royal Holloway and since being to view it, the training that you will receive seems very professional and well delivered. It is very practical based so you will spend a lot of time with the tutors, similar to that of a drama school. If University finances, in terms of tuition fees, are the same amount as a Drama School now, personally that doesn't draw me back because there will be no difference; the only difference is that Royal Holloway doesn't do auditions so no need to worry about additional fees. There are a fair amount of people who became successful after training here too. Royal Holloway have great facilities for Drama with Film ; having screen time and a professional television studio, and Television and film is the path I hope to proceed down .  

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Monologues

As we are fast approaching to audition at drama schools, or in some cases a university which will require an audition, we each have to prepare two contrasting speeches. One being classical e.g ; Greek plays or Shakespeare,  and one being modern/contemporary which must have been published post the year 1960. I chose to perform the pieces of ; Twelth night by William Shakespeare and Eight by Ella Hickson. They are both strong characters from strong plays. They are very different characters to play , but I would say the characters are both the same in age but their objectives are different and setting in which they are in are both dissimilar. 

Jude - Eight 

In Ella Hickson's play there are eight monologues which are performed in sequence, forming the whole play. They each have a completely different character in the scenes , and each monologue has a different story to tell. The way the play is performed , before it even begins the audience all choose which monologues they would like to watch. The character who I will be portraying , Jude, speaks about the fact his dad sent him to the south of France to better himself in masculinity. His father is shown to be quite bigoted because it always seems to be what he wants for his son, and his views  seem to grate on his son rather Jude agreeing with him. As the monologue goes on, it is clear that Jude enjoys his trip to France even if he is reluctant to admit it because he doesn't get on with his father. As much as he dislikes his father, the reasons Jude's father sends him to France was to find a level of maturity , and he mentions about France having great women. All these points that Jude knocks his father down for , he ends up making these pointers his ambitions without realising that's what his father has been telling about. He wants to be "independent" and find "great women". This is a good portrayal of how teenagers typically don't want to listen to their parents as some view their parents as being old , but sometimes their points are valid. But I enjoy playing this character as it shows his resentment of his father and then straight away into comedy - its a level distribution of both. 

Sebastian - Twelfth night 

 Sebastian is described as quite a self righteous character. It is evident when he is wondering where Antonio has got to because he needs his problems consoled. In the scene he is trying to prove his sanity and believes the only logical reasoning to his deliriousness is the accident he had when we woke up on the shores or Illyria. Yet, everyone seems to believe he is mad so his objective is to prove that he is not. The way I play him , is that at the beginning, he is obviously ecstatic when he believe that he isn't going mad, he then composes himself and speaks about how Antonio has an eye out for him and the shipwreck has blinded him to the fact the he could be possibly going mad , and the others believe this too. Then he realises this isn't the case , and is now dumfounded because the whole situation is confusing to him still. The character is interesting to play because there is a combination of excitement and frustration emotions which he experiences and I find it fun to completely show the high energy that his is feeling to the change of emotion through the speech.

15/11/2019 - Monologues performed at Young Actors Theatre Islington

I performed the monologue from Twelfth Night playing Sebastian. I thought it went quite well, I performed it to my best ability. The constructive criticism I received from David Schaal would be to play the states higher. I really need to embody and take in what's happened. I have a good intellectual understanding of the text and what is happening, but I need to build a closer emotional connection with the character and bring more energy. It was quite an interesting experience because, even if it was a relaxed, than that of a professional audition - it gave us all a taster of what will come if we audition at drama school, and it actually was less daunting than I had imagined.  

Skills Audit

Over the past year I feel that I have developed a range of skills since studying at Westminster Kingsway. To be able to perform well and truthfully within your character, there are a set of skills one must have. For example ;We practice during rehearsal times, vocal exercises. This consists of  ; E, A, I, O, U pronunciations which refines clarity within your speech so you sound clear. It help with skills like , "diction", because you want the audience to hear you clearly. It's no use , being a decent actor , but your audience cant make out what you are saying, you want to sell the story to them and your talent. 

 I am quite a confident actor. I know I have certainly grown in confidence since starting the course this time last year. I like to take on a challenge, and it pushes me outside my comfort zone because yes you are on stage, but your taking form of a character, so if the character you are portraying is quite eccentric then you have to put a side a section of own self to the back of your mind, and become a different person that isn't you. I am quite a loud performer, which out of all the skills I have , would probably be the best one. It isn't about trying to be louder than the rest of the cast, or the one that gets heard over everyone else, because then you wouldn't be cooperating well with the other performers and would make the actor seem selfish and self centred. There is a fine line between cockiness and confidence , however. Being loud helps the audience with hearing the story. It also aids with showing that you're brave , which is quite an important trait when it comes to confidence. When I had started,  my nerves somewhat  caused my legs to stiffen, resulting in my walk look less natural. However since practising standing in neutral has helped my balance and helped my walk look more natural, because it had looked like I couldn't bend at the knees. It was just a nerve thing, but I have channelled that out , and I'm more used to performing in front of larger audiences now. I am good with dynamics and proxemics. I don't like standing in just one spot, I like to use the whole space. when performing on stage you bet loads of space to have your character being focused on. why waste all that space by standing in one spot, off stage its rare you get a lot of stage to perform in, especially in class. 

I am a very determined actor. when I get there, I know where I want to go with the characters I play. I experient playing the scenes differently during rehearsal, trying different ways of how the scene could go and if one is successful I stick to that because when reading about the characters initially I know immediately, roughly where this could go but the rehearsals help deciding the final destination. knowing that the set of skills we are required to have, is needed to progress onto drama school or university, I have a drive for expressing the skills I know I have. Sometimes, I used to get comfortable playing characters with the same qualities, but I feel that I have shown my development of characterisation, because not everybody is the same. If you have researched your character and given them a back story for the circumstances that they are now in the play, then it helps to form characteristics that they may have. Rehearsal techniques like hot-seating really does help because you find out more about the character through the type of questions that asked, and the answers you think of; the questions help you think more and delve down the path you want your character to go, and then it will help become them. 

Sharons lesson - 19th/09

The fundamental skills that we learnt today was knowing the importance of punctuation within a text or speech. It isn't the case of knowing what the punctuation is, but why it's there; the coma's are so that it allows you to perhaps change reaction adding naturalism to your performance. The full stop allows the actor to perhaps take a breather between lines and not rush them. one of the most important aspects to drama is that you must take your time while saying your speech. Its supposed to be an emotional and natural conversation essentially with the audience, they wont get any of that if you run a way with your words. 

Sharon was helping us prepare for our monologues and led a few helpful techniques for rehearsing monologues. As it is our final year at college, we are learning monologues so we can perform at auditions. The first exercise we did was saying only the first word of each sentence. Then we reached the end of the monologue we said the last word of each sentence. This helped to learn our monologues better; now you know when you begin your sentences and when to stop them. when you know when you start/stop you know where to place your breaks so you can take in the moment, feel like you're there at the scene and not on stage. It also shows you what words you must emphasise to add the realism of your speech. The next exercise we carried out was running up to someone when saying a sentence then saying the next sentence with a slower pace, then repeat till you finish the monologue. This conveys the energy you need to fill in that given sentence so you feel all the adrenalin rush when you are saying the line and it feels natural in that moment feeling the feelings in that moment, and then the ultimate switch and come down when they are more calmer taking in what they are saying. 

overall, they are good rehearsal techniques because even if tackling the true meaning of Shakespeare is hard, by reading and half interpreting the text and knowing what lines to emphasise, you will understand the text and character more clearly. It appears more natural and the audience will understand it better because they understand through emotion than the actual text itself. 

25/09/19

Today we played a warm-up exercise which experiments with physical theatre. One person from the class stands in the middle of the circle. Sharon/Shenagh would say become a washing machine, (you would have to do the action of a washing machine and do the sound). Then anyone can walk into the centre and act out a scene with multiple people playing different everyday objects. Next we all became the scenery of a park. I chose to be a swing and joined up with one person who was playing a tree so , with their hands in the air I was holding onto them looking like I was swinging. 

We then got back into the circle and studied the "quality of mercy is not strained " from the Merchant of Venice. What I believe is happening is that a woman is at trial begging that she be forgiven by what she has been prosecuted against. She believes that the prosecutor is getting a bit above his station and that his "temporal power" will soon wear off - yet should let mercy overcome him instead and set her free even though she knows deep down that wont happen. For what she has or hasn't done it is shown that he will "play god" when deciding whether she will be sent down or freed. They are Jewish whom are prosecuting against her , and for me this mirrors the biblical story where Jesus, who was starting Christianity, was prosecuted by the Jews because by calling himself (Jesus) the messiah they thought he was going up against god. She believes that god has mercy and that he should do too, but his simple request at his will and doing could send her down for something she may not have done. 

We then studied an extract the play " East " by Playwright Steven Berkoff . 

It set the scene where two parents were telling their children of times of better; as they were describing the children and parents both become the scene with tableaus and miniature scenes for example, "rollercoasters" or "ghost trains" to describe the funfair the parents enjoyed themselves at.

Berkoff's techniques are more pantomime-esque because when you play his characters you tend to understand the characters from the outside-in. You play them big and their inner emotions are shown from the inside by playing them from the outside. Its a useful technique because when someone's emotions are played melodramatically you can entertain the audience while they may also feel sorry for the characters. in contrast to previous practitioners that we have studied, like Stanislavsky, He teaches actors to explore the characters emotion from the inside-out. this is where naturalism comes into acting because you take the depth of the characters emotion and shine it to the audience through the outside. The characters appear like a lamp of motion essentially , the lightbulb (internal emotion) is inside the lamp and the lamp shade (your body and skin) protects it. But when it clicks within the actor that what they are feeling is true to the character's and in that given circumstances the light will shine through and show the audience the raw emotion , same way how no matter if the lampshade protects the bulb, the light will still flood through when its switched on.