Single - Contemporary Theatre Unit (FSN) - Blog 35 (Evaluation) - 16/12/15

Today was our performance of our contemporary play, The Flint Street Nativity and it was an extremely successful performance! The day after performing, I watched the recording of the performance to wrote down all the notes I could possibly make on my performance and also some very important notes on some of the other cast members performances which largely contributed to the success of the performance!

• Great movement fully portraying the role of a 7 year-old.
• Superb reactions in the conflict with Narrator (Ollie M) in opening argument.
• Opening monologue was great with confident, clear and characterised speech.
• Interaction with Gabriel (Rhiannon) was reputable with good pauses and stuttered speech to show fear.
• Upon entering, I didn't have my rocket as it was moved from where I placed it in the wings! I did well to exit when I shouldn't have but in a convincing fashion in order to find my rocket!
• Before exiting, I play with my rocket in the, "NASA to Voyager 10," part, so I did well to improvise and mime playing with the rocket then going to locate it afterwards!
• When waiting to deliver the, "Everyone's dead over..." line, I had to wait for Wise Gold (Hope) to say her line ("Ashley?"). In rehearsals, I always accidentally, skip over her line, however in this performance, I remembered but was left hanging in silence as she forgot about it, most likely due to my mistakes in rehearsals. This created an awkward 2 second silence.
• I stepped up onto the platform very slyly and made it look completely natural.
• My actions and gestures on the platform were very bold and large as to gain the audiences attention as I was further away than everyone else.
• My facial expressions and change of voice when Innkeeper (James) appeared were superb but my movement could've been a great deal better.
• When exiting off the platform into the wings, I notice that the trolley had been moved from the wings! This trolley held Peter Crouch and was vital to the next scene! Upon rewinding, I learnt that Angel (Cel) moved the trolley after we all dispersed following the song, "O Come All Ye Faithful." I was surprised that she'd done that as she'd never done it any of the rehearsals although it wasn't as much as of an issue as I thought as I quickly managed the situation by telling James the change of the trolley's location and how his movement would change based on it.
• My stuttering and stalling was effective at portraying Star's fear for Innkeeper)
• Great reaction to the escape of Peter Crouch with very loud, panicked screaming and cowering movement!
• Nice flowing and childish entrance after exiting with the Peter Crouch trolley.
• When sitting on the table waiting for my next dialogue, I did very well to interact with the other characters, Wise Gold (Hope) and Wise Frankincense (Ollie K), through mime. I also drew pictures and played with other toys on the table! I was very wise as to use the paper that was on the table to write a message to Ollie K; I didn't know where my rocket was and I needed to find it for my other scenes so I wrote on some paper, "Where's my rocket?" and he wrote in reply, "Somewhere in the left wing." This helped me find it a lot quicker including the help from Lorna when standing in the wings!
• When leading up to my next section of dialogue, ("Isn't! Isn't! Isn't!") my miming to Wise Gold (Hope) was in build up to our scene together! I was using physical gestures and spoke quietly as if we were already in debate before the audience actually hear us argue! This made the dialogue a great deal more fluent!
• After Innkeeper reveals the truth about Santa, we all coordinated well and gathered in the centre shouting and screaming to Miss Horrocks! We all stopped shouting at the same time as we had synchronised very well in rehearsals.
• In Act 1 Scene 2, my movement in my search for Peter Crouch was very effective at making it look like Marcus was wondering around. When I'm talking to Innkeeper (James) about my mission to find Peter Crouch, my gradient progression from large frantic actoins to small nervous gestures.
• My change in tone and pace of voice was effective at portraying the relationship between Star and Innkeeper and showed how Star, at first, needed to tell Innkeeper everything but later notices that Innkeeper isn't particularly bothered.
• Although the movement I did in this scene was very effective in entertaining the audience and showing the relationship between Star and Innkeeper, but I feel there wasn't enough movement. Upon looking back, I noticed that my movement seems very, "stop and start," and this can be improved by increasing the amount of movement I do and exaggerate this movement.
• When performing my song, "O Little Town Of Bethlehem," I remembered all of the lyrics and put emotion behind every word with tone/pitch/volume of voice and movement linking to the lyrics.
• During rehearsals, Rob always got two lines the wrong way round in his song with Mary (Lorna), and he did the same thing in our final performance however this time he saved it amazingly! He changed his line in order to fit the rhyme scheme of the song! The audience weren't aware of this change which was what was needed!
• When I performed my small Innkeeper part, my movement was very good and provided comedic value to the scene! My intentional costume change was very quick and made the audience laugh! However when getting changed, I lost my star when running through the doorway and it landed on the floor on the stage! When I run back in for the final time during the scene I picked up my star on the way out to make sure I had it ready for the next scene.
• During this scene, I enter and exit three times; the first time I exited, I entered the wings and Charlie told me that Jesus is still onstage and on the floor and he's needed for the next scene! So upon entering the second time, I performed my dialogue then picked up Jesus and exited. With the play being very make shift as it's a primary school nativity, we could afford to make these mistakes and resolve them in this way as this is how it would be resolved within the play.
• When I perform my small dualogue with Innkeeper (James) for the second time, my movement was a lot better than the first time as I had more larger and exaggerated movements.
• When Hope wonders around looking for Adrian (Ollie K), she noticed that Jesus was left onstage when he shouldn't have been AGAIN!! She improvised very well by picking up Jesus and saying, "Oh no! Someone left Jesus again!" This was great as she was able to bring Jesus back to Lorna when she exited ready for the next scene.
• When Star sees his Uncle Ted in the audience, I was extremely loud and provided a convincing reaction with amazingly exaggerated gestures/actions, excited facial expressions and very loud speech!
• When we had to line up for Silent Night we get in the order, Me, Ollie M, Katya etc. and then when James enters he should stand between Ollie M and Katya but instead, in the final performance, he stood on the end next to me. This meant that when we run away in slow-motion James was in the wrong place so he had to run across Ollie and I. This meant it was also very difficult for Ollie to kick James when he's in my arms.
• My reprise of, "O Little Town..." was very emotional because of the tearful tone of voice I used and my lack of movement combined with my slouched posture. This helped portray the harsh truth that Marcus had gotten angry with a star! I performed this song for the perfect amount of time as this song is used for the rest of the cast to change into their adult costumes. I purposely performed the song for a long time to give the cast enough time and it certainly worked as I entered the wings to find everyone ready.
• My entrance as Uncle Ted was loud and confident just as it would be! My movement was very large and exaggerated and my voice was loud and wasn't hesitant at all.
• When the penny drops and everyone finds out Uncle Ted isn't Marcus' dad, I completely changed the character! My movements were contracted and very nervous with stuttered, quiet speech to represent the dip in confidence.
• For the rest of the scene, I kept consistently moving to make sure the scene wasn't too static. This included constantly walking, eating food and conversing with other parents.
• When it came to Sarah Bennet's Breakdown, a part which has always been an issue in rehearsals, we did very well! We started arguing quietly and progressively built up to a full blown argument. I feel the only way we could've improved is by taking our time a little more as it was over within 15 seconds.

Very Well Recieved Jokes:

• Dirty Pedro
• Sheppey in Spain
• "She's not gonna be Mary"
• MY DAD!
• "Don't grow up like my dad!"
• "There's me Dad!"
• Star enters in wrong costume
• Mary gives birth
• "THAT'S MY SOCIAL WORKER!"
• "Thank you!" (At the end of Shepherds song)
• "Jesus' heads fallen off!"
• "I've wet me leg"
• "38-40"
• "Stole jeans from MATALAN"
• "Longer playtime and biscuits!"
• "Frankenshit!"
• Wise Frankincense and Ass' song
• Bringing on Herod's palace
• Star seeing Uncle Ted in the audience
• Jesus is a twin?
• "More Myrrh!...AND FRANKENSHIT!"
• "These nativities are crap bless'em!"

Single - Contemporary Theatre Unit (FSN) - Blog 34 - 15/12/15 & 16/12/15

15/12/15
Today was our first time performing on the stage! We first familiarised ourselves with the wings and our entrance and exit points and then got down to some rehearsing!

We first performed the adults scene to get a feel for the space we had and we worked on our movement to increase fluidity and efficiency. During this rehearsal, the breakdown of Sarah Bennet was a train wreck to say the least. Focus disintegrated rapidly and everyone was more concentrated on getting all the right lines at the right time instead of saying anything which would lead to Sarah's breakdown a great deal faster. After much discussion, we decided that we would not focus on our actual lines and we'd just say things which linked to our lines. This would stop everyone focusing on when to say things because in a realistic situation like in this scene, people wouldn't wait for someone to stop speaking before they start, they'd speak over them.

After this we performed Act 1 Scene 1, with props and set! From this rehearsal, I decided that I needed to improve my body language to fully illustrate the relationship between Bradley and Marcus and show Marcus' fear/ Bradley's intimidation. I will do this by constantly moving my feet which shows someone's wish to leave a situation along with fearful facial expressions and a mixture of fast and slow movements.

16/12/15
Today was the day of our performance and we had a lot of rehearsing to be getting on with! We first set up the staging by building the Christmas tree, pinning up, tidying the wings and building our new platforms. These new platforms were placed upstage for they represented the home corner (along with a children's tent) and Miss Horrocks' special cupboard! We decided to use platforms as everyone having to come offstage for a short scene between Innkeeper and Star would be ludicrous as they would have to come back on a minute later! With the platform there, Star can make his way up then walk over to Innkeeper in the home corner and thus begins their scene.

After sorting the stage, we started rehearsing, we first started from the beginning and went through the entire show slowly to make sure everyone entered and exited where they should. After this we worked on the individual parts which needed improving! One of these was (surprise surprise) the breakdown of Sarah Bennet! Because everyone was focused on getting their lines right, whenever someone got their line wrong, the next person to speak would pick them up on their mistake, ruining the flow of the entire breakdown. We discussed this issue and decided that when performing this scene, to not worry too much about getting our lines spot on as when we do get every line correct, the whole breakdown sounds choreographed which isn't the effect that we're trying to have on the audience.

Another point brought up was those who aren't speaking as children need to do something whether it be drawing, playing, wondering around, anything! If we're all sitting still doing nothing at all, the whole piece would be dead and abandoned. Schools are very busy and hectic due to the high energy of children so if we're all just sat down waiting for our next lines, then the classroom will be boring.

Finally, we ran the entire show once more but this time in full costume! After this run through, I found that the thermal blanket I was wearing as Star was inconveniently loud! Any large movement produces a loud rustling noise which not only distracts the rest of the cast but also drowns out all other noises onstage which proves very difficult for the audience to hear everyone else onstage! This effect is just as strong when I'm in the wings too! From this I've learnt that I should restrict myself from large movements as much as possible when onstage and restrict myself from any movement at all when in the wings!

When I perform, "O Little Town Of Bethlehem," in the second act, everyone else has to get changed into their adult costumes! This ranged from Lorna only having to take a dress off and put jeans on to James having to take off a robe and put on a suit! After gaining knowledge of this, I decided that I'd try and long out this song as much as possible to give the rest of the cast enough time to get changed! When I tried that in this runthrough, I entered the wings to find James topless and Lorna with no shoes on. This meant they didn't have enough time to get changed so for next time, I'll have to perform the song even slower! This means I'll have to add in pauses and speak the words slower.

Single - Contemporary Theatre Unit (FSN) - "Nativity" Film Research - 13/12/15

Today I watched the film, "Nativity." Nativity is about a group of primary school children putting on a nativity play for their parents to come see but they are met with many trials and tribulations! I decided to watch this movie as I assumed it would clearly demonstrate the behaviour of children in most situations and it would portray the children's reactions to 'Naughty words,' the events of the nativity and being told off. Below is my research:

When a rude word was spoken, children looked at each other, gasped and muttered quietly to each other statements such as "ummers." I will use this when Shepherd (Kat) says, "The french are a a load of shppt-"

When performing, all the children looked very happy but still very nervous! I will use this for when I perform, "O Little Town Of Bethlehem" for the time.

When talking to the teachers, the children always sound innocent and slightly fearful of punishment but they still speak truthfully. I will use this when I get told off by Miss Horrocks when Mary (Lorna) and Joseph (Rob) search for an Inn.

When there is a small argument, the two children act rather agressively but childish with tongue-poking and dirty looks. I will use this when I have arguments with Narrator (Ollie M) at the beginning and during the slow motion escape from Peter Crouch

Single - Contemporary Theatre Unit (FSN) - Blog 33 - 11/12/15

Today in Single, we attempted another full runthrough which turned out really well! I felt I performed amazingly well as Star and my Uncle Ted was the best it's ever been.

I also performed in some of my costume for once too! I wore my Star hat which I made at home and I wore a thermal blanket as mentioned in a script!

I performed my song for the first time today without reading from the script fully but I kept it with me as a prompt. I only needed the script once and it went rather well! Next rehearsal, I'm hoping to do it without a script!

When we performed the adult section, there were a lot of mistakes! This was because, where we had a spent a lot of time on the child parts, not many people kept on top of their lines. This led to many prompts being needed especially in, "Sarah Bennet's Breakdown," part. The lack of concentration started getting us and this led to people sitting down, not giving it their all or getting angry at others. This attitude towards rehearsals needs to be changed as we're less than a week away from our performance and we won't be ready in time for the performance date.

Single - Contemporary Theatre Unit (FSN) - Blog 32 - 10/12/15

Today, we decided to go over songs! We started with, "O Come All Ye Faithful" as we are very confident with it! As we were confident with our lyrics, we decided to focus more on our movement as children. I swayed side to side and looked around as these are typical actions that a 7 year-old would do.

I then performed my solo song, "Oh Little Town Of Bethlehem." I already had cue cards with my lyrics wrote up on them ready for this practice and they had established which lines I was speaking and which I am singing. My main downfall here is people talking off stage which limits how much I can here myself. Next time, everyone in the wings should be quiet. I feel I performed this song well but for next time I should have the lyrics memorised.

We also performed, "Silent Night," which to be blunt was a train-wreck. Not many people were focused and it took us a while to find a suitable backing track but apart from this it wasn't too bad. 

Single - Contemporary Theatre Unit (FSN) - Blog 31 - 08/12/15

Today we performed a full production runthrough and I feel we did rather well! Most people remembered their lines and we all maintained 100% focus!

There was a small mix-up regarding the order of sequences of events though. Lorna thought that I start my search for Bradley earlier than I actually do. This caused confusion when Hope, Cel and Toby (filling in for Rhiannon) performed a part that they already should've done but was skipped due to James and I skipping ahead. This wouldn't of happened if James, Lorna and I knew the order of events better. For next rehearsal, we will make sure that we know our cue lines which cue other people and our cue lines for ourselves.

We discovered that, although we all had a great knowledge of our lines, a lot of us forgot the lyrics to our songs. For next lesson I will have my song remembered as much as possible!

Single - Contemporary Theatre Unit (FSN) - Blog 30 - 04/12/15

Today in Single, we decided to perform Flint Street but with a twist! We performed all of Act 2 (minus songs), however when we were the children we performed as if we were the adults and vice versa! I felt this was useful as this helped establish the relationships between parent and child a lot better and gave us a new challenge. However, I feel an ordinary rehearsal would've been more useful as this child/adult switch up activity wouldn't be how we'd perform it for the real thing.

Single - Contemporary Theatre Unit (FSN) - Blog 29 - 03/12/15

Today, we started with a worksheet! This asked us three main questions about our unit on Flint Street Nativity!

Below are the questions underlined.

Discussing one activity or exercise, explain how this as developed your own skills and understanding as an actor.

I wrote about the subtext exercise we performed during the adult section. This helped us explore character relationships by analysing the language used within the script. This gave us a great deal more understanding of the subtext of the script!

Because of this exercise, I now react differently to other people's lines due to my understanding of the subtext.

What research have you done into the play itself?

• watched the play (movie)
• spent time with my younger sister (Age 7)
• watched children's programmes with my younger sister

What are your recommendations for developing the production further?

• swapping kids with adults
• a student questionnaire
• film rehearsals for analysis
• swapping roles with each other
• perform a full uninterrupted runthrough
• sort out the staging

Single - Contemporary Theatre Unit (FSN) - Blog 28 - 01/12/15

Today in Single, we attempted to run the entire show but only got up to the introduction of Herod! I feel performed my part rather well today, despite not being able to use my script; this led to the needing to be prompted often. The majority of lines I forgot were from Act 2 so I will spend most of rehearsal time at home learning Act 2.

After performing, Assistant Director, Ashley, gave us notes on how to improve as a group and also positive/negative feedback individually. As a group we needed to make sure we were looking up when listening to Mrs Horrocks, be a great deal louder (this led to some people not hearing their cues for their next lines), characterise our movement a lot better for when we enter/exit and walk around onstage and finally be fully 100% confident with our lines/lyrics. Ashley said that I maintained high focus and energy throughout the runthrough and that I was making great improvements!

When we came to, "Don't Grow Up Like Your Dad," (Star's song), I was asked to perform it! This was the first time I performed it within a runthrough and excluding the one time where I skipped a few lines, I feel I performed it rather well! 

Single - Contemporary Theatre Unit (FSN) - Blog 27 - 27/11/15

Today we continued looking at songs and deducing how to make our lyrics fit with the tune.
With my song I discovered that it would be more effective to speak some parts as opposed to trying to sing the whole piece. This would avoid the effort of having to fit the the lyrics with the tune. After two run throughs of the song like that, it sounded not too bad! With further rehearsal it will sound terrific!

After going through individual songs we ran, "I Wish," and also staged it. We had it so when a parent has a solo they step into one of the 3 spotlights we used in the children's part. Thus way there is a focus on this parent as opposed to the whole group! When it comes to Mary's Mum's solo, we all split off and Mary's Mum appears from the centre and performs her scene with Narrator's Dad. When they, "Go inside," we all come back from each side and start singing, "We Wish You A Merry Christmas," again.

Single - Contemporary Theatre Unit (FSN) - Blog 26 - 26/11/15

Today in Single, we started work on songs! We first started matching up our songs with what Christmas carols they were in the tune of. After this we all went off separately or in groups to learn our songs. Lorna and Rob learnt, "Watch How Mummy Does It," Charlie and Ollie worked on, "If There Was a God," and everyone else learnt, "Massive Newt."

I individually learnt, "Don't Grow Up Like Your Dad," which is in the tune to "O Little Town if Bethlehem." I found this song difficult because all of the songs in this play have lyrics which don't match up with their tunes. This is because this is how the children would've sung the songs, so we have to replicate this style of singing. We would have to rush if there were too many lyrics and slow down if there wasn't enough.

I then helped Katya learn her song, "Shiny Silver Caravan," and Cel learn her song, "Lucky Lady."

After our individual work we all got together as a group and learnt, "Massive Newt," with the direction of Hope, James and Rhiannon and, "I Wish." In my own time, I will have to continue to work on, "Don't Grow Up Like Your Dad," as I'm still unsure about on the timings of the lyrics

Single - Contemporary Theatre Unit (FSN) - Blog 25 - 24/11/15

Today in Single, the plan was to run through Act 2 minus the adult section but once we got there, we decided that it would be worth it to run through the adult scene too as we were there.

After this we tried an exercise which tested how fast we could perform but also whether we could maintain our characterisation. We started from the beginning of Flint Street and worked our way up to the projection of Peter Crouch, performing it in double the speed. This was very effective at making sure we were prepared for our lines as they would come a lot sooner.

Single - Contemporary Theatre Unit (FSN) - Blog 24 - 20/11/15

Today we had a rehearsal of Act 1, except we put a large amount of focus into our movement. This would make us think about how a child would move when walking, running, playing and throwing! I based my movements on the research I had done on 7 year-old's prior to this blog.

Single - Contemporary Theatre Unit (FSN) - Blog 23 - 19/11/15

Today, we experimented with the our roles in Flint Street and switched roles with other people. We did this to see how someone else played our roles and decide if we'd play our characters the same way they did. Below is the temporary cast list of that lesson:

Mary's Mum: Katya
Gabriel's Mum: Cel
Wise Gold's Mum: Rob
Shepherd's Mum: Lorna
Angel's Mum: Hope
Innkeeper's Dad: Ollie K
Herod's Dad: Ollie M
Star's Dad: James
Wise Frankincense's Dad: Charlie
Ass' Dad: Lewis (Me)
Narrator's Dad: Ashley (he had to join in as Rhiannon wasn't in the lesson)

I feel that James played Star very well but there are some things that he did which I wouldn't do myself. He didn't add any accent at all which I feel gives a great deal more character to the any role. When everyone became conspicuous of Uncle Ted, I feel that James wasn't the best at feeling nervous. Although, when he was talking about "quantum association," I feel he put a lot of emphasis and passion into it, just as Uncle Ted would.

When I played Ass' Dad, as opposed to Charlie's addition of an Irish accent, I gave him an Australian accent. I feel this was added an equal amount of variety to the character as an Irish accent but an Australian accent would something an audience may find more comical, especially matched with Ass' Dad's unique personality.

Single - Contemporary Theatre Unit (FSN) - Blog 22 - 17/11/15

Some of our group's pictures

Today, we created our paintings which would be hung up as part of our set. These paintings are reffered to oftenly in the script so these were essential to the performance.

My painting

I painted a rocket flying through space with Uncle Ted as the driver. My character sees his Uncle Ted as an idol and includes him in as many aspects of his life as possible; the creation of these pictures is no exception. I labelled the rocket with, "Uncle Ted," as Marcus is very proud of his uncle so he wants everyone to know about him and that he's in the rocket. The painting included a lot of stars which were all painted like, "proper stars." There were also appearance's of planets too featuring Earth, Mars and Pluto.

Single - Contemporary Theatre Unit (FSN) - Blog 21 - 13/11/15

Today in Single we ran through the adult scene and tried to perfect the breakdown of Sarah Bennett part. As I only have a few lines in this scene I sat out after my lines with Ashley, the assistant director, and discussed improvements. After two run throughs of this scene, we decided that instead of constantly stopping and starting the breakdown part, everyone should sit down and, line by line, write down what they are doing. This led to a much more successful scene. 

I also changed how I enter the adult scene. Whilst before I entered from Upstage Right, I realised that it looks weird as it looks like I've appeared out of thin air. So now I enter from Downstage Right so it's obvious that I enter the classroom (stage).

Single - Contemporary Theatre Unit (FSN) - Character Profiles - 11/11/15

Biography

Name: Marcus Pou

Age: Turned 7 last week

Date of Birth: 12/09/08

Family: Mum (Kate Pou), "Dad" (Jacques Pou)

Likes: Stars, Space, Jupiter (His favourite planet), Pizza, Playtime, Uncle Ted, Cats

Dislikes: Bradley, Birds, People who don't like Science, Carrots, People who bully him for being ginger

Thoughts on other characters

Jenny (Mary): Really bossy, fancies Ryan

Bradley (Innkeeper): Very scary, tall, quite bossy

Ashley (Gabriel): Pretty but scary

Zoie (Shepherd): Annoying, mean, but she's good because she's mean to Bradley

Poppy (Angel): Short, nice, always looks sad
Jess (Wise Gold): Smelly, mean, wrong, doesn't know who eats the carrots

Adrian (Wise Frankincense): Can't talk properly, really quiet

Ryan (Herod/Joseph): Really weird, talks to himself a lot

Jimmy (Ass): Very loud, wets himself, I think he's in the special unit

Tim (Narrator): Doesn't know his words in the nativity, everyone likes him

Analysis of language in the script:
- Obsessive: "My Uncle Ted works for NASA"
- Interested: "They've got a Jesus. What are you?"
- Factual: "And this right... this is Sirius"
- Scared of Bradley: "Bradley-y? Bradley-y? Are you-? Argh!"
- Considerate: "For the nativity. So he dun't get knocked"
- Obedient: "Miss Horrocks said"
- Easily panicked: "(In meltdown) Are y'comin...? Are we goin'...?"
- Flustered speech: "What it is, right, it looks like a stick an' what that is, right, that's when things, yeah, that might eat them"
- Excited: "My Uncle Ted's coming tomorrow"
- Argumentative: "Isn't. Isn't. Isn't."
- Bossy: "S'not allowed in there. Store cupboard's Mrs Horrocks' special place"
- Scared of an audience: "ah, I would go in, but we have to be back now"
- Respectful of the rules: "you said 'bugger off.' Mizz Horrocks's gone mad."
- Wants to stay in high status: "Yeah I er-think I'll let you borrow it."
- Serious (When it comes to stars): "(Suddenly deadly serious) He knows all about stars."

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Biography

Name: Ted Nichols

Age: 27

Date of Birth: 27/06/88

Occupation: Cleaner for NASA

Likes: Stars, Big Bang Theory, Science, Spaghetti and meatballs, Astronauts, Nebula

Dislikes: Marcus' "Dad", Bleach, Detergent, Mops, The security guards near the astronauts locker room.

Backstory

• Ted attended Hope University whilst he was 20 (2008).
• He went to a party where he met Kate Glym and they got on really well which led to a drunken one night stand; Ted had gotten Kate pregnant and neither of them knew.
• Ted failed his degree in Physics which depresses him and prevents him from taking his next step towards becoming an astronaut; his childhood dream.
• Following this, his fear of failure made him not want to retake his degree, he pursued a new career with NASA: Cleaning.
• He moved to America to become a cleaner at NASA HQ.
• He found Kate in his mutual friends on Facebook and got back in touch with her; they later (2012) arranged to meet again whilst Ted meets family back in England.
• When they meet she reveals Marcus, whom she is certain she conceived with her old boyfriend, now husband, who also went to HU, Jacques Pou; this was shortly after Ted and Kate's one night stand.
• Ted noticed the similarities between himself and Marcus and was convinced it was his child but didn't vocalise this. He spent a lot of time with Marcus those few days and told him a lot of facts about science.
• After leaving for home in America, he sends gifts to Marcus such as his infamous "Wallchart" featuring Sirius. The good connection between Marcus and Ted leads Kate to refer to him as Uncle Ted.
• Marcus' image of Ted has always been, "Uncle Ted who works for NASA." He may assume he's an astronaut but he doesn't know the dark reality of Ted's career as a janitor.

Analysis of language used in the script

- Enthusiastic: "Wasn't that brilliant?"

- Fearful: "Is he here?"

- Intelligent: "His mother and I went to Hope University together!"

- Nervous: "Ted. "Uncle". Well he calls me Uncle."

- Evasive: "Anyway..."

- Proud: " He's very bright."

- Bad with words: (Mary's Mum) "Before she got-" (Uncle Ted) "-pregant..."

Single - Contemporary Theatre Unit (FSN) - Blog 20 - 10/11/15

Today in Single, we looked over our character profiles for the children's parents as a class. We each presented our character profile and then received feedback on how to improve. For my profile, I had covered a great deal of language analysis from the script to pick out characteristics of Uncle Ted but although I had scraped the foundations of give biographic facts (e.g. Name, Age etc.), I needed to go into further detail with this and give a lot more info such as Occupation, Date of Birth and, most importantly, a backstory; what makes Uncle Ted the Uncle Ted he is today. I will make these relevant changes to both character profiles (Star/Marcus & Uncle Ted) and upload the reworked versions onto a separate blog post. 

For the rest of the lesson, we rehearsed Act 2 Scene 10; the adult scene.

Single - Contemporary Theatre Unit (FSN) - Blog 19 - 06/11/15

This lesson we went on to rehearse Act 2 and stopped before the adults scene (Act 2 Scene 10). This involved development of my movement and characterising my voice to illustrate my character and effectively portray Marcus' motives. We also recapped on our movement during our "Slow-motion part". In this part, Ollie M jumps into my arms, we turn to run stage right, we bump into James which leads to him being pushed in the chest by Ollie's foot, I let go of Ollie due to the force as Ollie pushes off of James' chest, Ollie stands and goes to run, his arm that was around me pushes me over, I fall to the floor face up, I get up and recover to center stage where I perform Marcus' song (Oh Little Town Of Bethlehem).

Single - Contemporary Theatre Unit (FSN) - Blog 18 - 05/11/15

Today, we ran through Act 1 Scene 1. After running through it, we ran through it again but this time going over the top by exaggerating our characters motives and actions. After this, we were told that this was how we were to perform it for the actual show.