Single - Contemporary Theatre Unit (FSN) - Research on the behaviour of children - 17/10/15

To help me prepare for my role as Star (Marcus) in our contemporary play, "The Flint Street Nativity," I performed some research activities to help me analyse the behaviour of children. My main focus on this activity is my little sister, Alyce, aged 7.I performed activities such as watching her reactions to children's programmes, asking her questions about bullying and friendships, and observing her behaviour in general.

I firstly watched a children's programme with Alyce this Saturday. Together, we watched one of her favourite programmes, "The Haunted Hathaways," a comedy about an ordinary family sharing a home with a ghost family. I noticed immediately that most physical gags within the show got a positive reaction from Alyce with lots of laughter and smiling. I could behave in the same way when talking  about when, "that boy in Maghulll fell off a climbing rope an' his leg came out through his bum," and Declan who was going to be Joseph throwing up in a sock. Evoking the same reaction provides an authentic and convincing child role.

Alyce asked me a few times what some words meant which were too long for her; I kept a mental note of her puzzled facial expression and uncertain body language. This says to me that children of 7 aren't too suited to longer words. When a longer word is spoken or something that Marcus wouldn't understand is said, I now know what sort of facial expressions I should use and how I should use my body language.

I next asked Alyce some questions!

Q) What would you do if you were scared of someone
A) I would, um, run away from them

Q) Is there someone you're scared of at school?
A) Yeah, Mrs Wright

Q) Why's that?
A) Because she's got weird teeth and she gets grumpy at me 

Q) What do you do when she talks to you?
A) I look away because her teeth are ugly and horrible!

Q) Who's your best friend?
A) Lily and Jess and Connor and Rhiannon

Q) What do you do with your friends?
A) We play games in the playground and we, um, sit next to each other at lunchtime!

Q) What do you do when you have an argument with someone?
A) What do you mean?

Q) Well, when you have an argument with someone and you think they're wrong what do you do?
A) I shout and them and I say, "YOU'RE WRONG!"

Q) Do you ever think that you might be wrong?
A) No because I'm always right!

I feel from this research I can definitely improve my performance in:

• the argument between Star and Wise Gold (Marcus and Jess)
• how Star reacts with Innkeeper (Bradely)
• how Star interacts with the children who actually like him (e.g. Narrator, Shepherd, Ass)

When observing her general behaviour, I noticed her being told off by our mum. At first she seemed argumentative, but when she remembers that mum has a higher status and a lot more power than her, she backs down, apologises, and takes her punishment. I can use the recognition of power and status when Marcus talks to Bradley and when Marcus gets told off by Mrs Horrocks.