Double - Auditions for Actors - Blog 12 - 21/10/16

Today we performed our monologues for our final performance. We were asked to leave the room and we were called in to the audition room in a random order. This was very realistic as this is the typical procedure for a drama school audition.

I was first asked to perform my monologue, after being asked who my character, what play my monologue is from, and some generic background into the scene and the characters feelings.

I feel that I was very effective at portraying the energy of my character in my performance with frantic and quick movements and my young tone of voice was very suitable for showing my character's innocence.

Next, I was asked to approach my monologue in a completely different style. As opposed to being performed on the stage, I was asked to perform my monologue for a TV programme and that the camera being used to film my performance was zoomed in to show my face only.

I feel that I struggled with this as I began to focus on just my upper body as opposed to just my face but throughout the monologue I continued to put my focus back into my face. I feel that my inquisitive facial expressions were very useful at communicating a innocent vibe to the audience.

Next lesson, we will look at finding contrasting monologues.

Single - Applying Acting Styles - Blog 18 - 21/10/16

Today, we added to our piece and rehearsed ready to perform to the class and film.

We decided after rehearsing that the piece was too short just on its own so we added a short news reporter section to the beginning to give the piece some context to the audience.

We started now with me in my seat and Kat and Hope entering from each side as news reporters, speaking to an audience on the TV/radio. These weren't legitimate news reports but using the info on the case online, we created our own report speeches.

We rehearsed the scene multiple times and performed it to an audience. Below is the video:

Single - Applying Acting Styles - Blog 17 - 20/10/16

Today, we moved on to our final acting style: The Theatre of Cruelty.

We began by presenting our research on the practitioner, Antonin Artaud, and his famous approach to theatre. Doing this exercise was very helpful as all of or research collated together ensured that no details were missed and we were all able to contribute something to our knowledge on The Theatre of Cruelty.

Following this, we were given a stimulus for us to devise a short Artaudian piece around in groups (Lorna, James, Ollie M, Ollie K, Charlie/Rob, Kat, Hope, Me) (keeping in mind that we wouldn't have Rob or Ollie M next lesson). Our stimulus was a painting by Salvador Dali pictured below:

My first idea was inspired by the authoritative figure in the top right corner of the photo holding a spear. Upon seeing this figure, I envisioned our piece clearly in my head: we'd have a clock ticking noise throughout and it would be set in a classroom. The class would be in a sort of detention scenario (due to not having enough people in our class to represent a whole class) and we would have a teacher. Upon a student dropping a pen or making too much noise tapping on their desk etc. the teacher would take a step towards the and blackout. When the lights come back on, that student would be gone. We'd repeat this until every student was gone, with the class looking more and more frightened after each disappearance. As great as it would've been to perform this piece, we believed that it wouldn't work out due to us only having two people as students.

From this idea, we continued on with the theme of murder and this led to us researching different murderers including Mick Phillpot, Robert Black and Mary Bell. But our attention led to the story of fourtenn-year-old, Joshua Phillips of Jacksonville, Florida. He was sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole after he murdered his neighbour, Maddie Clifton, 8. His attempt at hiding the body was the most gruesome part of the story: he hid the body with his water bed and was only found when his mother recognised a peculiar leak.

We found this story very horrifying which was perfect for an Artaudian styled performance! We wanted the audience to feel just as horrified as we were. We decided that we wanted to put a huge emphasis on the waterbed but not make it obvious. We looked for sound effects for dripping noises to represent this but felt that this wasn't very relevant to a water, but more just water dripping. We then looked for water sloshing noises as this noise is much more relatable to a waterbed. However, we couldn't find any sound effects that worked very well so we drifted our focus away from technicalities and focused more on the piece itself. We wanted to have our murderer in the centre with their conscience telling them why they should (not) have committed their crime. We had Hope play the evil conscience while Kat played the good conscience.

When it came to deciding who would play the murderer, obvious choice was me as I was the only person left but we wanted to go outside the box. We wanted to give our audience the full Artaud experience of leaving a theatre feeling enriched by their experience; experience being the key word. So with this we decided that we'd have the audience extremely close to the action and one of them seated as the murderer. In this position, we'd have the consciences sat either side of the "murderer" and they'd argue their cases across him/her. I'd be sat behind the "murderer" giving the illusion that I was the murderer; but I was. The people in the audience would recognise that I was the murderer, but our "murderer" would think that he was while his consciences argue through him. When he/she least expects it, I come from behind him/her and hold them ready to choke them sharply followed by a blackout. We feel this would be very effective at spooking the audience.

As a solution to the sloshing sound issue, we decided that the consciences would both have a water bottle which they would slosh throughout, starting of soft but getting more vigorous through the piece.

Next lesson we will perform our Artaudian pieces.

Triple - Musical Theatre Unit (RENT) - Research - 19/10/16

RENT
Broadway debut: April 29th, 1996

Rent is a rock musical, loosely based on Puccini's opera La Bohème. It tells the story of a group of impoverished young artists struggling to survive and create a life in New York City under the shadow of HIV.

Many of the characters and plot elements are drawn from Puccini's La Bohème. Below are how the characters link between RENT and La Bohème:

La Bohème is a story about the lives of young poor artists just like RENT. Tuberculosis, the disease of Puccini's masterpiece is replaced by HIV/AIDS in RENT.

Single - Applying Acting Styles - Blog 16 - 18/10/16

Today, we performed our new physical theatre piece after a quick rehearsal. However, I was unable to be there due to outside circumstances so when the piece was performed, James took my place for all movement in the piece. Below is the recording of the final performance:

We then shortly looked at our new acting style, Artuadian. For next lesson, we've been asked to produce a presentation on Artuadian theatre. Below is my presentation:

Triple - Musical Theatre Unit (RENT) - Blog 10 - 17/10/16

Today, we were asked to create a character profile on our character in RENT along with a picture of them. However, this profile must also include not only the given circumstances from the musical but our own interpretations (for example my version of Collins isn't black as I am not black myself.) Below is my character profile:

Double - Business - Blog 4 - 17/10/16

Today we progressed on through the Business unit and were asked to collate evidence of our work on preparing audition material/applications for our chosen course in the last task. This includes audition monologues/songs/pieces and our personal statement/letter of application. Below is my evidence:

Also find below, my personal statement:

Currently at my Sixth Form, I am studying for an Extended Diploma in Performing Arts which I am loving! One of the modules I find extremely fun is devising; this gives me the ability to creatively draw ideas from a stimulus and demonstrate my ability to create a piece of drama based on the key themes from the stimulus. On one hand, I am also very fond of monologues as they give me the opportunity to showcase my independent abilities as an actor and prove that I can perform on my own just as well as part of a cast. On the other hand, I am passionate about physical theatre as it is a very expressive art form and relies a lot on your partners when performing; physical theatre, in my opinion, is extremely effective at not only establishing bonds between characters, but also each other as actors.I am much looking forward to the musical theatre unit as I have so much experience in it already and have been in productions of Rent, Grease and Les Misérables (twice). One of my favourite acting styles is Naturalism which I really look forward to studying. Anton Chekhov being one of my favourite playwrights cements my love for naturalism. Most importantly, I am excited to perform my final public performances during my third year as I feel it embodies what drama was made for: entertaining people at a public event!I am very passionate about group workshops as they not only develop us as actors and help us hone our skills in a topic or production but also bond us together which produces much better performances.I feel that acting is brilliant course because it offers so many transferrable skills such as excellent social skills and being more confident but also the arts provide a service to the public in the form of entertainment; whether it be in film, TV or the theatre, acting brings a lot of joy and entertainment to the lives of others.I feel that I would be very suitable in the performing arts industry as I’m not only brilliant at learning lines and brainstorming ideas for devising, but I’m an extremely confident individual who always takes on constructive criticism as I’m always wanting to improve. I feel like my strength and excellent teamwork skills would work very well too, especially in physical theatre.Being an avid theatre goer, I am extremely interested in the performing arts and I hope to one day make it more than just my interest: my career. I have been to Broadway and the West End to see many plays and musicals such as The Woman in Black, School of Rock, and The Scottsboro Boys. I am absolutely obsessed with the Broadway sensation Hamilton and hope to one day be part of the cast.During my time in AS Chemistry, I have become so much more aware of safety hazards and dangers and I feel this would be very important in an acting course as a lot of styles of drama can be very dangerous. Also, as I take an Extended Project, I feel that I am very good at meeting the deadlines which are set for me whilst still maintaining a high level of quality in my work.Being an enthusiastic reader of The Stage magazine, I am always in the know on all things theatre. Some of these include the quite recent Tony awards where Hamilton was nominated for a record 16 awards, and musicals such as Les Misérables and Phantom of the Opera who have reached their 31st and 30th anniversaries on the west end respectively.In my extended project, I am preparing a monologue based on my research into depression. I feel that this shows not only that I am passionate about performing outside of my regular performing arts classes, but that I am very dedicated to researching a topic enough to be able to produce a piece of drama about it.Through my part-time job at Dobbies Garden World, I’ve become more efficient at solving problems whilst boosting my ability to take leadership of my colleagues which makes me very productive as part of a team. My passion in theatre and music allows me to be even more friendlier with colleagues over such as creative interest; this has also boosted my confidence considerably. I believe that my interest in reading shows that I am very dedicated to long term objectives. In my opinion, reading is very good at boosting your focus and that it matches rather well to my interest in theatre.I believe, through further studies at university, I can improve myself and hone my skills to one day become a successful leading role actor.

Double - Auditions for Actors - Blog 11 - 14/10/16

Today, we spent time in pairs (James & Lorna/Charlie & Ollie/Rob & me) ,continuing to go over our monologues in order to get them perfect for next week.

Rob performed his monologue from Of Mice and Men to see if it was any better than his Killing Chuck monologue while I stuck to my Fading Joy monologue as I knew this was the one I was best at.

When Rob performed his monologue I felt that it took him a while to get into it which I feel is only because he was unsure on which monologue to do. When watching him, his posture, voice and gestures were great for his character but I feel some of his gestures were very repetitive so they needed changing up a bit from time to time. I also felt that his tone of voice didn't very a great deal but this was due to him not being totally familiar with this monologue.

When performing my monologue the first time, I received the following notes:

• Very good tone of voice.
• Brilliant movement.
• Some typical gestures of mine were repeated so change it up a bit.
• Try not to speak too fast or your words get slurred.

Throughout the lesson I worked on all of the negatives I was given and I felt that my monologue was finally up to scratch and ready to perform

At the end of the lesson, we were asked to perform our monologues and receive feedback from the class. After performing my monologue, I received this one and only note:

• Get off of script.

I need to learn my monologue off by heart because with a script in my hand it's very distracting from what I'm doing and I almost stop acting when reading the script for my next line. Also, we're not allowed scripts in our actual performance, so it needs to be learnt. 

Single - Applying Acting Styles - Blog 15 - 14/10/16

Today we were given a stimulus to create a physical theatre piece. Our stimulus was a poem by Stevie Smith and we had to incorporate the poem into our piece somehow by either choral speaking, whispers, repetition, chanting key words, projection etc. The poem is as follows:

Nobody heard him, the dead man,   
But still he lay moaning:
I was much further out than you thought   
And not waving but drowning.

Poor chap, he always loved larking
And now he’s dead
It must have been too cold for him his heart gave way,   
They said.

Oh, no no no, it was too cold always   
(Still the dead one lay moaning)   
I was much too far out all my life   

And not waving but drowning.

We began the lesson by reading the poem and coming up with ideas for a story to portray. We decided that from the phrases, "Nobody heard him, the dead man" and "not waving but drowning," we would base it on a late teen who suffers from bullying. We wanted to show that in all aspects of his life he is mistreated which led to his inevitable suicide. We wanted to show all these aspects in shorter scenes and demonstrate on each scene what effect that has on our troubled character.

We decided to lay out our cast as characters and they are as follows:
Charlie - The Bullied child
Lorna and Ollie K - The parents
Hope - The Girlfriend
Ollie M - The Boss
Everyone else - Multi role

We decided to use to create an outline for our story so that we have an idea on what we want to do with the piece. Below is the outline we went with:

• Opening Death Scene
• Childhood Bullying
• Child Abuse
• Work Issues
• Death

We decided to show the Bullied Child's death scene to begin with to foreshadow what's to come later. The blocking for this scene is as follows:

• Charlie starts atop two stage blocks facing the back. Ollie K and Lorna start on the floor downstage and start reading the opening line. Whilst they read the opening line, Ollie M, Kat, Hope, Rob and I support and lift Charlie as he falls backwards off the blocks.
• We carry Charlie to centre stage and lay him to rest, Ollie K and Lorna stand and watch as he's lowered down. The next scene begins.

We wanted to show how The Bullied Child suffers immensely in all aspects of life, that he's slowly "drowning." We wanted this to start off at a younger age where he would get bullied as a child and then move on to Child Abuse and followed by issues at work. Below is the blocking for the bullying/girlfriend scene:

• Charlie rises from being dead and walks slows downstage centre. Kat, Ollie M, Hope, Rob and I all stand behind him in a line. Kat leans in to hug him and in a chain we all link and hug the person infront of us. This is the idea of the bullies being deceptive and giving The Bullied Child a sense of false security.
• Kat releases from the hug slyly and stabs Charlie, holds him and leans back. As she leans back, the person behind her leans back and this results in us all leaning back and then throwing Charlie forward onto the floor; this represents the act of betrayal.
• Kat, Hope and Rob exit, while Ollie M and I remain. I kick Charlie and lift him up. Once Charlie is standing, Ollie M and I grab his arms, (Ollie grabs left with left, I grab right with right), we turn over our opposite shoulder to our active hands (Ollie rolls over his right, I roll over my left) so that we have our backs to him, We then lift him up by leaning forward due to shift in body weight and then we let go and drop him down. Ollie M and I exit.
• Hope then runs in and offers to help Charlie. This then leads to a short hymn hands sequence which leads to Charlie being pushed away and left alone.

We though after this scene it would be very effective to show the progression of The Bullied Child and their gradual breaking down. We decided to showcase this in three short sequences, all very similar but each more intense. Below is our blocking for the scenes:

• After whichever scene comes before, Charlie staggers and sits at centre stage. Ollie M, Kat, Hope, Rob and I would surround Charlie like walls (Hope and I stage right, Kat and Ollie stage left, Rob at the back.) One hand would be flat as if it were pressed against an invisible wall, the other would be a fist banging on the wall.
• After the first scene (bullying) we pound rather slowly and throughout Charlie looks confused at this new pressure.
• After the second scene (child abuse) we would pound the imaginary wall at double speed, resembling a heartbeat. Charlie would seem more freaked out by it this time after being surrounded by this for quite a while now; he would even be twitching too.
• After the third scene (work scene) we would pound very fast on the imaginary wall, Charlie begins twitching a lot which leads to him lashing out. He runs at each of us at the wall and aims to hit us through the wall. Every time Charlie tries to hit us, we press both of our hands flat and once all of us have our hands flat, Charlie walls to the floor.

We feel this scene is very effective for portraying the gradual emotional break down of The Bullied Child.

For the work scene we wanted to incorporate some Round-By-Through, something different to the rest of the movement we've been using throughout the piece. Below is the blocking for this scene:

• We start the scene from the second imaginary walls section and Charlie begins walking towards me. He goes to shake my hand, I grab it and turn under his arm and walk towards Kat and I stand where she was and she walks towards Charlie.
• Charlie gestures for a hug but Kat places her left shoulder underneath Charlie's left arm and lifts him out of the way using the distribution of her body weight. She moves towards Hope and stands where she is and Hope walks towards Charlie.
• Charlie walks towards Hope smiling but she spins around him seamlessly and walks towards Ollie M. She stands in his place and he walks towards Charlie furiously.
• Ollie M approaches Charlie very angry and pointing at him, accusing him of not doing what he was supposed to and throws him to the ground to show that Charlie's been fired. Ollie stands where I stood at the beginning.

We decided for the end we wanted to repeat the beginning because it brings the entire piece full circle and shows that bullying is a never ending topic and will continue to repeat itself.

Triple - Musical Theatre Unit (RENT) - Blog 9 - 13/10/16

Today, we focused on Santa Fe again by adding movement and other people and also worked on the majority of duet/group songs.

When rehearsing Santa Fe we felt that it would be better to add more people in (Will, Tyler, Warren) to do some of the "Oh's" to give the song more depth. This motivational number is about taking something small and making it big, so a growth in people during the song would do well to show this. We also added some movement into the mix too as the song would be incredibly dull without. Although all we added was simple gestures and interaction with each other, it made the scene much more interesting to watch.

Throughout the lesson, we sang through a lot more songs such as Take Me or Leave Me, Out Tonight, Tango: Maureen, Rent, Life Support, and I'll Cover You.

When singing I'll Cover You, Owen and I had lot more chemistry as we had sung through this song a lot more. However, we often get confused on a couple of harmonies but with a lot of time left until the final performance, this will sort itself out over time as we both get more experienced.

We started singing Life Support today which is a song that includes a lot more non-Main characters. I feel Tyler and Warren did very well in this song and it showed that they had listened to the song a lot before today. I knew this song very well due to being a big fan of RENT before this unit so it was only a matter of teaching Cameron where he comes in as Mark.

Next lesson, we will most likely run through Life Support, Seasons of Love, and Santa Fe.

Single - Applying Acting Styles - Blog 14 - 13/10/16 ***ADD VIDEO***

Today we focused on Physical Theatre, our new acting style. We looked at a couple of scenes from a previous Year 13 groups from their production of Let The Right One In. This was the play we were aiming to create a scene for. The way the previous students performed their scenes was very effective as they used a great deal of repetition. After watching their performance, we decided that we wanted to something very similar to produce a similar effect. We were also given a short dialogue scene which would follow on from our physical theatre scene. We read through this scene and we all found it very horrific and we all wanted to reflect this in our performance.

When searching for a song we had lots of different options in our head such as:

• The Scientist - Coldplay
• Young Sinatra - Logic
• Tilted - Christine and the Queens
• Lost Boy - Ruth B

However with all of these songs, we didn't feel that it changed much at all and we really needed a turning point in the music to vocalise the ideas we had. We then turned to Afire Love by Ed Sheeran and we feel that it works perfectly for our piece but we decided to use an instrumental version as the lyrics of the song didn't fit the mood of our piece.

When devising movement we wanted to show how our character of Oskar is left out of everything and express his sorrow through depressing repetitive movements. Ollie M, thought it would be good to show him doing very tedious chore such as shovelling snow off of his driveway as it not only shows him uncomfortable and depressed but it also makes it clear that it's set in a snowy environment which works well for the following scene.

We then had everyone else performing happier motions behind me to show the contrast between Oskar and everyone else. Our aim was to then have everyone pretend to accept Oskar and then shun him away.

Below is our movement:

• I start from the back and slowly start walking downstage, shivering and blowing on my hands to keep warm. At the right point in the song, I started miming shovelling snow then warming up my hands. While I did this, everyone else behind me performed a routine where they slide, pick up snow and throw it towards the audience.
• Once Rob gets to me, he gestures towards everyone else smiling, suggesting I join in. Excited by this, at the next point in the music, I repeat their routine and turn around for approval but they all have their back to me. I turn back to my shovel and hand warming routine. Whilst I'm doing this, everyone arranges themselves in a circle and turn to show a formulation of a scheme to hurt me. 
• When Rob is facing towards me, the circle disperses into a line and Rob gestures to me to come join them. I run over to Rob, excited at the prospect of friendship, but when I get there, Rob lifts me up and chokeslams me down with my assistance.
• After falling to the floor, Lorna and Ollie K, come over offering help. They lift me up but Kat and Ollie M push me back down to the ground and the group exits leaving me on the floor ready for the dialogue scene.

I feel that the dialogue scene went very well and I think finishes up or short piece rather nicely.

Below is the recording of our performance:

Triple - Musical Theatre Unit (RENT) - Blog 8 - 12/10/16

Today I worked more on my voice and trying to find the right pitch for Collins.

When singing I'll Cover You, there were a few times where I completely changed the octave I was singing in which doesn't make any sense and makes the song sound messy. This is where I found it very difficult to find the right pitch for Collins. I first thought I was starting in a lower octave than necessary but when I attempted to sing higher, I was too high. I realised that when I was aiming to go up one octave, I ended up going up two. I found it incredibly difficult to find the correct octave but I got there in the end.

However, when performing Santa Fe, I made the same mistake; on the "Oh's" after the chorus, I started off too low so as they got lower, I couldn't hit the final "Oh" as it was too low. However, with help from Mr Webb and Lorna, I managed to get this right by the end of the lesson.

Double - Auditions for Actors - Blog 10 - 12/10/16

Today, we focused a lot on our characterisation in preparation for our final performance for our first monologue next week.

We started off by writing down the feelings of our characters and some background info on them. Below is what I came up with:

We then looked into improvisation scenarios where in partners (Charlie & Rob/Lorna & Ollie/James & Me) we would be given a scenario which we would react to and interact with our partners in our characters from our chosen monologue.

The scenario James and I were given was to imagine that there was a bomb in the room and we both needed to find it or die. When reacting to the given scenario, I feel I did very well to stay in character throughout and react as my character would. For example, I got very flustered and couldn't decided whether we should touch the bomb or not for various reasons.

Our pairs were then swapped up (Charlie & Ollie/James & Lorna/Rob & Me) and we were given scenarios again however we didn't know what our partners scenarios were. For example, I was asked to sit on a chair with a bomb underneath and I wasn't allowed to move off of the chair or tell anyone why or the bomb would blow up however, Rob was told I was mental patient and he was trying to coax me off of my seat to go and get breakfast. I feel like this exercise went very well as we were both very familiar with our characters at this point so we naturally performed better.

We finished off with performed our monologues again having done all of this work on characterisation. I feel this was the best time I've ever performed my monologue as I felt like I truly knew the character after spending so much time being them. My movement related a lot more to what I was saying and I feel that my character was a great deal more believable. The number one thing I need to work on is making sure I know my monologue off by heart because a large portion of my performance today was adlibbed which isn't ideal for my final performance.

Next lesson, I will perform this monologue again but having learnt it off by heart.

Single - Applying Acting Styles - Blog 13 - 11/10/16

Today we performed our scene from He's Talking and focused a lot on our voice.

As our characters all grew up in Chelsea, they are clearly from a more upper class background so we made our voices more posh for our performance. We also focused on our pronunciation of some words such as "Apartheid."

We then performed the scene and recorded it linked below (Miss Cordell stood in as Miles because Charlie was absent) (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=znPMdC_a6fc   /   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4djZcFtGVFI):

Notes:

• My tone of voice was very good at most points but at others it was lost.
• I feel that the entire piece was very static and we all could've used more gestures to liven up the scene more; this would've made the scene a lot more Naturalistic.
• We all weren't prepared for Miles' line so when it came we all didn't know what to do. We should've planned ahead for this and worked out a solution. (Hence the two video clips)
• I feel that we all had a good understanding of our characters and this showed in the performance. This is extremely important in Naturalism.

Triple - Musical Theatre Unit (RENT) - Blog 7 - 10/10/16

Today, we decided to move onto solo/duet songs as we learnt that Henri wouldn't be with us until after the half term due to illness so it would be pointless to go over full company songs while he isn't here. We split off into groups and looked at our relevant songs:

• Lorna and Cameron went off to do Tango Maureen
• Owen and I started singing I'll Cover You
• Everyone else started on their solos or their sections in duets.

For I'll Cover You, Owen I wanted to start thinking about movement and actions straight away but we then felt this was unwise as we didn't know the song particularly well and felt it was foolish to attempt to sing a song whilst blocking movement when we're not too familiar with it yet. We listened to the song a couple of times and then began singing it together along with the regular track. I feel that this went very well and helped us find the correct harmonies for our character. In this song we want to portray our characters very deep relationship and how their feelings for each other are beyond sexual. We wanted to portray to the audience that Collins and Angel have such a strong connection. Also, this song needs to be perfect in order for I'll Cover You Reprise to sound effective! I'll Cover You establishes the bond that they share whilst I'll Cover You Reprise proves that even in death that the bond can't be broken.

After singing with the regular track for a while, we practised using the karaoke track.

Next lesson, we will work on this some more and possibly add some movement.

Single - Applying Acting Styles - Blog 12 - 07/10/16

Today we continued on from last lesson running through our scene for He's Talking and working more on how we say our lines and our movement when saying them.

We looked more into who our characters were from the given descriptions of them at the beginning of the play. I already knew that my character, Luke, was very supportive of the bombings and that only Rosie really supported him in this. However, I learnt that Luke was the only one who knew about Deon and Tanya's relationship.

Before when playing Luke, I played him as a more quiet strategic man, but after performing it again today, on the second run, I was more violent and more willing to shout. I performed more as a leader of the group rather than someone who was just there to support. I showed this by having a stronger tone of voice and having a deeper voice which suggests power.

Next lesson, we will continue working on this scene and finally record our final performance of it.

Double - Auditions for Actors - Blog 9 - 07/10/16

Today I performed Eddie's monologue from Fading Joy.

These are the notes I received:

• Sound more excited - your character is bouncing from one idea to the other so show some more enthusiasm with each new idea.
• You need to move more - perhaps even stand and pace around when changing idea; move everytime you change your idea.
• Know the meanings - annotate your script to decide what tone to take with each line.
• No reflective pauses - you take too long with your pauses so either shorten them a lot or remove them entirely.

After today, I have annotated my monologue with key notes on when to change tone, pitch, pace etc.

We were also asked to comment on each others monologues today and these are the notes I made:

• Ollie
• The plane miming was very effective and comical
• The rapid movement was very suitable for the character
• Your diction needs slight work in some areas as it's difficult to hear what you're saying
• Rob
• You calm down too quick after announcing Chuck's death; remain frantic until your pacifying line
• The section about Merissa was very comical
• When mentioning the roof shingles, sound more cheeky than nonchalant
• Avoid repeating the same hand gesture constantly
• The line about asking Chuck to jump was great and well delivered
• James
• Brilliant facial expressions throughout
• Don't look at your watch if you're not wearing one in the performance
• When beginning, look away from your watch, pause then address the audience; don't look up at the audience and stare them out as it doesn't match this character
• Lorna
• The monologue seemed much more rushed/fast paced as opposed to last time which I feel lost the effect and attention you had last time
• Your accent was excellent throughout most of the monologue but non existent in some parts
• Great facial expressions throughout (although one from last time wasn't used which I thought was very funny)
• Good movement considering you were seated the whole time
• Charlie
• I feel your voice and posture seemed too much like you rather than your character
• I believe you shouldn't be sitting down as your aim is to rally up your fellow soldiers and it's very hard to inspire that when sitting down
• At times, you were talking to people who would be onstage with you while at other times you spoke to the audience; choose one don't do both
• Very good facial expressions throughout

Triple - Musical Theatre Unit (RENT) - Blog 6 - 05/10/16

Today we performed Seasons of Love once more and moved on to blocking La Vie Boheme. We started off by just singing through the song a couple of times to get a feel for it, but then got up and started trying to act it out. We decided that for Over The Moon, the song before, we will have Alice on steel decking to the right of the audience and while she performs this song, the rest of us would, silently, set up the stage ready for La Vie Boheme, then sit along the edge of the stage and moo along with Alice when she asks the audience to do so! She would then step from the decking to the stage and greet us where we then step straight into La Vie Boheme.

We decided for the tables, we'd have one for the left, middle and right with 3 people at each (Left: Lorna, Alice & Tyler/Joanne, Maureen & The Waiter; Middle: Taylor, Owen, Me/Mimi, Angel & Collins; Right: Cameron, Henri & Warren/Mark, Roger and Diner). We would then have steel decking on one side of the stage where Will (Benny) would be seated to show he has a higher status than the rest of us; this is a typical convention of Epic Theatre.

When walking in, we'd have Tyler chasing after Cameron, telling him to leave ("No, please no, not tonight...") whilst everyone frantically walks about the stage sitting down. This looks very comical as Tyler's attention is constantly changing between Cameron and the rest of us.

After a few runthroughs, I can only see a few issues but some of them are rather major:

• We all need to listen to the song more to get a feel for the rhythm and have a better idea of when we have a line and how to sing it.
• We all need to be more familiar with our lines as we spent more time looking at our lyrics than actually characterising our voices/movement.
• We need to add more movement and give our performance more emotion. This supposed to be the feel good song of the musical and most of the group don't look as happy as we should be.

Next lesson, we will continue on with La Vie Boheme.

Double - Auditions for Actors - Blog 8 - 05/10/16

Today, after a change in preparation, we had all brought one new monologue which we had prepared. After already having learnt Arthur's monologue from An Inspector Calls, I was well prepared for this lesson. These are the following notes on my first and only attempt on this monologue:

• Think about body language - think about your character, their age, their background, and what era they're in; would they sit slouched? Upright? Legs crossed? etc.
• Who are you directing this at? - Are you talking to? Someone else onstage? The audience? It can't be both.

From this, I know that now I need to be more precise on my characterisation otherwise the meaning of my monologue can be lost.

Next lesson, we must bring in either a brand new monologue, well-prepared, or to bring in a monologue we've already done before which we have decided to use as our final monologue for our first performance. I have chosen to bring Eddie's monologue from Fading Joy as I feel it's a monologue that I can perform very well and I am very good at characterisation when playing a younger role.

Single - Applying Acting Styles - Blog 11 - 04/10/16

Today, we ran through our scene from He's Talking. With James as Director he sat on the side and offered constructive criticism on how we can improve based on our voice, movement and positioning. When it came to where we were seated, we based this on relationships and the order our character discussed where they were now. For example, we had Deon and Tanya (Rob & Kat) sat next to each other because they were dating, Luke and Deon (Lewis & Rob) were sat opposite ends of the room because it's later revealed that they had an argument recently. Skeets (Ollie M) would be next to Deon but further away due to being quite distant to the group and everyone else inbetween would go from Luke to Deon in the same order they tell their stories; Oscar, Rosie, Sal, Tanya (Ollie K, Lorna, Hope, Kat).

After this we read through and rehearsed Scene 1 (replay 1) where I was now the director as James had to step in to be Miles to make up for the absence of Charlie.

Double - Business - Blog 3 - 03/10/16

Today we presented our powerpoints on 3 job roles within a theatre company. I feel that mine went very well and contained all the relevant info.

For next lesson, we must create portfolio on 3 different drama school/university/college courses within performing arts and give reasons for why we want to go to one of them and why the other two are not appropriate. Below is my portfolio:

Triple - Musical Theatre Unit (RENT) - Blog 5 - 03/10/16

Today, we continued working on Seasons of Love, working out the issues such as walking in at the right time, singing out with more volume, and getting different notes correct.

We also spent a lot of time getting familiar with, and singing, a few songs including Rent and La Vie Boheme.

Next week, we will work more on choreographing La Via Boheme.