Skills audit
As an actor I believe my strength is my ability to become and completely embody my character whether it be a police officer or a struggle teenager. I am able to achieve this through researching about my character also by looking at my character wants an needs whether it be physical or mental.
Another one of my strength is that I able to approach any role with maturity and this allows me to take on much more serious roles, as actor I believe this is a great skill to have because there will be times where you would have roles that are out of your comfort zone and this is where your maturity comes in to play and for you to show that you are capable of handing the role.
This has helped me a lot because not only does it help you take on harder and greater roles but it also shows other actors how serious and determine you take acting and cause them to acknowledge your talent and to show you respect.
In addition to being mature and the ability to take on many different roles I believe one of my key strengths is that I am versatile, I have the capability to play many different types of characters like I have already done, for example I have played a police officer, a king, pirate, a struggling teenager looking for acceptance and many more. I think that all my strengths help me to become the actor that I am today because I have used everything I have learned and applied it to my craft but they are also many things that I need to learn to become a better actor.
As well as having many strengths I have many weaknesses and improve to overcome to become a better actor for example one of my weakness is that I sometimes struggle with my articulation espicassly if I have not been practicing. This is not good for an actor because if the audience can't understand what your character is saying they won't understand your play or the story, so this is a skill I should always keep practicing also articulation is needed when doing classical plays such as Shakespeare where the language is quite old.
Also another one of my weakness is my projection because I could be doing a play and thinking I am speaking really loud but in reality I'm not speaking loud at all and the audience would be struggling to hear what I am saying and especially if they are people sitting far in the bar rows they won't hear at all. To improve on my projection I practice different ways if using my voice for example finding the right tone and pace at which to speak at so that everyone can hear me clearly.
My goal is to hopefully get into drama school and then study and become an actor and to build connection with many different people and companies on my way, I would like to work in theatres and television. I would really like to work in theatres because they are many theraical plays that I love and have insirpired me to be apart of thetaerical plays for example the musical Hamilton.
In year one we done many small scenes from different play for example Our Country's Good and I played a police officer, we did Oedipus I also played Oedipus, I have also done some classical scenes from Shakespeare and we did a scene from the comedy of errors, We also did Peter Pan and I played a pirate and I done a play called Last Summer and I played the character of a teenage boy struggling to find his identity and want acceptance. As well as plays we also done some divising through the year and in the second year we done a bug dividing project where we had to create a twenty minute piece about anything we like and we done a murder mystery playa and I played a reporter.
I have applied to drama school for BA in acting because I want to train and become an actor and I feel that drama school will provided the right training for me and I will be able to developed my ability to it fullest. I also like the style is which many drama school use to train the students and I would like to be trained in that way.
Pros and cons of higher education
One main advantage of higher education is that after you finish studying you can earn way more money in your chosen field, because you would have much more knowledge about the work and also because society looks upon a degree more meaning that if you have a degree most people think you will succeed and grow in whatever you do because you have a degree. By going into higher education you also get to develop your skills and perfect it before going into the job which I think it a really good thing because you gain more experience study then someone who just went in and got the job.
Another advantage of going into higher education is that you get to see different places that is depending where you are going for example if you live in London and you want study outside London you would get to see new places and that also mean experiencing new things that you haven't experienced before and you get the chance to meet many different types of people who will be interesting to you. Some people believe that this could be a bad thing because they don't want to go to far from where they live beccause they are scared of leaving family and friends and sometimes they may feel that where they are going isn't safe or they wouldn't fit it but I believe this to be a good thing because you get to explorer new places.
On the other hand going into higher education can be a really bad thing because it is very expensive and the price continues to raise. The price of higher education is around nine thousand per year and the average person spends threes years by the time you finish studying you will be a dept and that can be really hard to pay back until you find a good job that pays well. You can take a loan from the government to fund your studies which many people do but you still have to pay everything back which leaves you in more dept. This is also why many people do not want to go into higher education because of how expensive it isand they may feel like they don't want to put that much pressure on themselves when they have to pay back all the money.
Another disadvantage of going into higher education is that most time you do not get any practical experience and it's all just study and study and exams this can be very stressful having that massive amount of workload on your shoulders all the time and most people tend to crack under the pressure because they couldn't handle and cope under all that pressure. Also with most jobs you need to have some practical experience and most higher education places do not give you that which makes it harder for you in the future when apply for jobs and realising that you can't work because you don't have the the practical experience that they want and need.
Wednesday, 1 February 2017
Wednesday, 4 January 2017
Unit 9 Peter Pan rehearsal
We did the Musical Peter Pan in college and I played the character Bill Jukes who was a pirate.
This was a big production so we collaborated with the musical theatre and dance students to make the production run smoothly and successfully.
We were given 6 weeks to do the production which means we had to use all of our time wisely, we had divided up our rehearsal schedule so we could rehearsed everything that we had to do.
There were many rehearsal session that we had to cover for example some days in the morning we would have singing rehearsals cause we had to learn all the songs that we were singing in Peter Pan for example songs like 'When You Believe' and 'Consider Yourself 'and then in the afternoon we would have dance and movement rehearsals this is where would would work on any cherograhpy that we were given and needed to learn for the scene foe example in the scene were thinker bells dies and everyone comes together and sing and do the dance that we created, this consisted from dance rehearsals to stage combats rehearsals where we would practice the fights scenes. for example the fights scenes between the Pirates and Lost Boys.
On other days we would have full rehearsals where we would ran through the whole play from starts to finish with the directors then gets notes on what needed to be improved or what needed to be developed, then if we had time we would go through individual scenes that needed work and the directors would help us with them.
As the weeks went on our rehearsals sessions were getting better and better as we came close to our performance, around the final week of rehearsals we normally did full run through of the plays and focused on tighten up little bits here and there.
I think that the final performance went well because everyone was focused and ready and because they knew that this was our last performance they went all out and I think that was a good thing because it made the atmosphere and mood much better for the audience and for us as actors. Also another reason why this went well is because they was no trouble with the production team that did the sets changes and lighting and sounds everything went smoothly and had a great flow.
I would say that some of our rehearsals sessions didn't go so well because of various reason and at times we didn't listen and cooperate with each other cause everyone wanted to have there say in what was happening and was speaking over each other which made it harder to get any work done. This matter could have easily been resolved if everyone had just listen to one person at a time and planned out what we needed to do then it would have made things easier and we would have gotten more work done and it would have been a more productive and efficient rehearsal sessions.
As well as group rehearsals and working with everyone I also had to developed my character and my role.
Firstly I wanted my character to be the typical strong and brave henchman but also respects his crew mates and has great loyalty to his captain. I based my character on Lurch in the movie the Adam's family because he is always the one who does the heavy lifting and the dirty work for his boss without question or any complaints.
This was a big production so we collaborated with the musical theatre and dance students to make the production run smoothly and successfully.
We were given 6 weeks to do the production which means we had to use all of our time wisely, we had divided up our rehearsal schedule so we could rehearsed everything that we had to do.
There were many rehearsal session that we had to cover for example some days in the morning we would have singing rehearsals cause we had to learn all the songs that we were singing in Peter Pan for example songs like 'When You Believe' and 'Consider Yourself 'and then in the afternoon we would have dance and movement rehearsals this is where would would work on any cherograhpy that we were given and needed to learn for the scene foe example in the scene were thinker bells dies and everyone comes together and sing and do the dance that we created, this consisted from dance rehearsals to stage combats rehearsals where we would practice the fights scenes. for example the fights scenes between the Pirates and Lost Boys.
On other days we would have full rehearsals where we would ran through the whole play from starts to finish with the directors then gets notes on what needed to be improved or what needed to be developed, then if we had time we would go through individual scenes that needed work and the directors would help us with them.
As the weeks went on our rehearsals sessions were getting better and better as we came close to our performance, around the final week of rehearsals we normally did full run through of the plays and focused on tighten up little bits here and there.
I think that the final performance went well because everyone was focused and ready and because they knew that this was our last performance they went all out and I think that was a good thing because it made the atmosphere and mood much better for the audience and for us as actors. Also another reason why this went well is because they was no trouble with the production team that did the sets changes and lighting and sounds everything went smoothly and had a great flow.
I would say that some of our rehearsals sessions didn't go so well because of various reason and at times we didn't listen and cooperate with each other cause everyone wanted to have there say in what was happening and was speaking over each other which made it harder to get any work done. This matter could have easily been resolved if everyone had just listen to one person at a time and planned out what we needed to do then it would have made things easier and we would have gotten more work done and it would have been a more productive and efficient rehearsal sessions.
As well as group rehearsals and working with everyone I also had to developed my character and my role.
Firstly I wanted my character to be the typical strong and brave henchman but also respects his crew mates and has great loyalty to his captain. I based my character on Lurch in the movie the Adam's family because he is always the one who does the heavy lifting and the dirty work for his boss without question or any complaints.
Tuesday, 20 September 2016
Devising Weekly update
week one
On the first day back we had to get into pairs and tell each other one story from our summer holiday. Then we had to find another pair and tell them our partners story paying close attention to details.
After we finish telling each other everyone stories, we then had to devise a short play using one f the stories or joining them together. My group focused on one particular story which and did our best to developed it. We chose one story because we wanted to focus on details and the specifics of the story.
After everyone performed their pieces we then gave feedback back to everyone , which everyone used to improved their work. then they showed the class the new and improved version.
My group consisted of Me, Chris, Brunilda, and Zulaiha and we decided to focused on one story about one of our friend going on a date. The piece was about a guy going on a date and then realizing he doesn't have enough money to pay for the food so he pretended to go to the toilet then he left.
When we first performed the piece there was a lot of things that we could have done better and when we got our feedback our fellow actors and peers pointed it out for example we could have used spacing more and add more dialogue.
This was a great exercise to do because it showed us that we had a long holiday and haven't been acting much so we forgot some of the techniques that we had learnt over the pass year. By performing the piece then getting feedback and improving them feedback was a great help in refreshing our memory.
Week two
We first had to created a trailer about something that we were passionate about. Me and Sally created about trailer about a guy that was basketball but he got injured during the semi finals and couldn't play basketball anymore, but he got a doctor to help him get back on his feet and help him to recover because he didn't want to give up basketball.
When we created the trailer it was around one minute long and we just showed some key scenes for example when he got injured and when he ask the doctor for help.
After creating the trailer we had to turn the trailer into a five minute piece.
Some feedback we got about our trailer was that we gave the audience a bit too much information and that we could project a bit more in some scenes. So we took this feedback into mind and worked to make our trailer much better.
Week three
This week we had to get into
groups and create a short story base around a quote that we were given the quote was "The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing", we created a story about a guy that wanted to impress his friends and he done a dare to break into someone's car and he got caught and was in a lot of trouble also he got badly hurt during the process.
Then we had to make three freeze frames from our short play, we chose to show the three made turning point in the play for example the first one was the scenes were all the friends sat in circle and was daring each other to do dangerous things, the second freeze frame was when I broke into the car and joseph was taking a picture of me, the third freeze frame was when I was on the group and the guys car who I broke into was standing over me.
We then performed our piece to the class then our next exercise was to have one person narrating the story from the start and someone take over from them and carry on the narrating and while doing this everyone had to be doing the same actions.
After we performed this to the rest of the class and everyone showed their work we then had to turn our images into physical theatre which was interesting because we had many ideas on how to show our work in this style.
For our first image we done a scene where me and Stephan we pretending to be chairs and sally and joseph were sitting on our back then from their we went to the scene were I had to break into the car and for this scene sally pretended to be the door and joseph pretended to be the car wheel we thought this was a great way to show physical theatre and for our last images we put joseph on Stephan's back and sally on joseph's back and Stephan was standing over me this was to show that Stephan had a lot of pressure on him because his car was broken into.
I feel like showing these images in such a abstract way made it different to showing it as normal piece and caused the audiences and us the actors to look at it in a different way that we did before. We then gave feedback to everyone as a group.
I believe by doing all this devising work it will help us in the future for when we start devising our pieces to take into secondary schools. This is giving us more experience into devising because some people may not like devising while some may not like script work so by doing as much devising work as we can now before starting that project is giving us an advantage and will be really helpful.
Also devising is a great skills for an actor to have because it can always come in handy when acting especially if you are a young actor in college.
week four
This week we had to create a short piece about a model student, the piece my group done was about a guy who was a nerd and got bullied by his fellow classmates but in the end he became successful.
We are doing this work as practice for when we start our main devising project, all of this is to give us as much practice and experience devising as we can.
We also did a workshop with a lady from the Donmar theatre called Debbie, we did some group work and a bit of solo work for example we done a exercise where she was standing in the middle and we had to keep her in the center but moving as an ensemble with her so when she walked to the left we would too.
I thought this was a great exercise because it brought the group together and we really had to come together and work as one to do this task perfectly which we did.
Also another exercise we done was that we were in groups and Debbie gave us a piece from the Tempest and we had to read the short script and give our interpretation of it. Everyone had one part of the script to do.
week five
We done a exercise where we had to get into groups of six and create a story using one sentence each and then we have to bring that story to like life. My group done a short piece about telling a story and we done it in the style of sitting and looking at the audience.
we also had to create a 10 minute workshop to do with our class, my group decided to focus our workshop on improvisation and devising. We started off our workshop by getting everyone to stand in a circle then everyone would take turns to say their name and a random fact about them, this was a great way to start because if we are doing the workout with a new group of people it would be a great way to get to know their names and something about them, this game was lead by Kieran. Then we went on to play the clap game that I lead to get everyone ready and focus and that lasted about one and a half minute from there we got everyone to play the game 'Yes Lets' which was run by two other members of my group Grace and Stephanie.
After play two games we then put them into groups of three and gave them a task, this task was run by Jamie another member of our group, their task was that their were given three lines to be use as script and they could only use the three lines that they were given and they had to make a short story with theses lines.
This workshop was very helpful as it helped us prepare for when we actually go into schools and give them a 20 minutes workshop, also apart from giving us practice it help us get a feel of what it will be like running the workshop and all the things that we would need to consider while planning it.
Week 6
This week we started planning our 20 minutes devising piece and we decided to create a crime mystery piece. The name is American Noire and it will be about these two detective trying to solve one of hardest crime in their career, we started planning our ideas and talked about characters and the story line.
We have also allocated different jobs to everyone to make sure everything runs smoothly for example my secondary job is time and stage Manager.
Also as well as creating a short piece to perform to secondary schools we also have to create a workshop to do with the students, we also started the planning for our workshop and it will be base around the same theme as our play which is crime and mystery.
week 7 and 8
In the past two weeks we finished the script and have been rehearsing and finalizing scenes. Now we have a good foundation with the script and we know what direction we want to take the play in, the only thing left for us to do is for us to learn our lines and to think about what style we could do the play in and what other techniques we could possibly add.
We performed our play to the rest of the class as a draft not the final piece, we received feedback back from everyone and we are going to take the feedback we are given and improve upon them for the next time we perform our piece. Some feedback we got was that we needed to develop our character a bit more and go into more depth with our characters.
week 9
This week we went to a secondary school and done our workshop and performance our piece to year 9 drama students. we decided that it would be best if we done our workshop before our play because it will give the students some information of what our play is about and some context in why we chose that topic and so they would know what to expect from the piece.
On the first day back we had to get into pairs and tell each other one story from our summer holiday. Then we had to find another pair and tell them our partners story paying close attention to details.
After we finish telling each other everyone stories, we then had to devise a short play using one f the stories or joining them together. My group focused on one particular story which and did our best to developed it. We chose one story because we wanted to focus on details and the specifics of the story.
After everyone performed their pieces we then gave feedback back to everyone , which everyone used to improved their work. then they showed the class the new and improved version.
My group consisted of Me, Chris, Brunilda, and Zulaiha and we decided to focused on one story about one of our friend going on a date. The piece was about a guy going on a date and then realizing he doesn't have enough money to pay for the food so he pretended to go to the toilet then he left.
When we first performed the piece there was a lot of things that we could have done better and when we got our feedback our fellow actors and peers pointed it out for example we could have used spacing more and add more dialogue.
This was a great exercise to do because it showed us that we had a long holiday and haven't been acting much so we forgot some of the techniques that we had learnt over the pass year. By performing the piece then getting feedback and improving them feedback was a great help in refreshing our memory.
Week two
We first had to created a trailer about something that we were passionate about. Me and Sally created about trailer about a guy that was basketball but he got injured during the semi finals and couldn't play basketball anymore, but he got a doctor to help him get back on his feet and help him to recover because he didn't want to give up basketball.
When we created the trailer it was around one minute long and we just showed some key scenes for example when he got injured and when he ask the doctor for help.
After creating the trailer we had to turn the trailer into a five minute piece.
Some feedback we got about our trailer was that we gave the audience a bit too much information and that we could project a bit more in some scenes. So we took this feedback into mind and worked to make our trailer much better.
Week three
This week we had to get into
groups and create a short story base around a quote that we were given the quote was "The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing", we created a story about a guy that wanted to impress his friends and he done a dare to break into someone's car and he got caught and was in a lot of trouble also he got badly hurt during the process.
Then we had to make three freeze frames from our short play, we chose to show the three made turning point in the play for example the first one was the scenes were all the friends sat in circle and was daring each other to do dangerous things, the second freeze frame was when I broke into the car and joseph was taking a picture of me, the third freeze frame was when I was on the group and the guys car who I broke into was standing over me.
We then performed our piece to the class then our next exercise was to have one person narrating the story from the start and someone take over from them and carry on the narrating and while doing this everyone had to be doing the same actions.
After we performed this to the rest of the class and everyone showed their work we then had to turn our images into physical theatre which was interesting because we had many ideas on how to show our work in this style.
For our first image we done a scene where me and Stephan we pretending to be chairs and sally and joseph were sitting on our back then from their we went to the scene were I had to break into the car and for this scene sally pretended to be the door and joseph pretended to be the car wheel we thought this was a great way to show physical theatre and for our last images we put joseph on Stephan's back and sally on joseph's back and Stephan was standing over me this was to show that Stephan had a lot of pressure on him because his car was broken into.
I feel like showing these images in such a abstract way made it different to showing it as normal piece and caused the audiences and us the actors to look at it in a different way that we did before. We then gave feedback to everyone as a group.
I believe by doing all this devising work it will help us in the future for when we start devising our pieces to take into secondary schools. This is giving us more experience into devising because some people may not like devising while some may not like script work so by doing as much devising work as we can now before starting that project is giving us an advantage and will be really helpful.
Also devising is a great skills for an actor to have because it can always come in handy when acting especially if you are a young actor in college.
week four
This week we had to create a short piece about a model student, the piece my group done was about a guy who was a nerd and got bullied by his fellow classmates but in the end he became successful.
We are doing this work as practice for when we start our main devising project, all of this is to give us as much practice and experience devising as we can.
We also did a workshop with a lady from the Donmar theatre called Debbie, we did some group work and a bit of solo work for example we done a exercise where she was standing in the middle and we had to keep her in the center but moving as an ensemble with her so when she walked to the left we would too.
I thought this was a great exercise because it brought the group together and we really had to come together and work as one to do this task perfectly which we did.
Also another exercise we done was that we were in groups and Debbie gave us a piece from the Tempest and we had to read the short script and give our interpretation of it. Everyone had one part of the script to do.
week five
We done a exercise where we had to get into groups of six and create a story using one sentence each and then we have to bring that story to like life. My group done a short piece about telling a story and we done it in the style of sitting and looking at the audience.
we also had to create a 10 minute workshop to do with our class, my group decided to focus our workshop on improvisation and devising. We started off our workshop by getting everyone to stand in a circle then everyone would take turns to say their name and a random fact about them, this was a great way to start because if we are doing the workout with a new group of people it would be a great way to get to know their names and something about them, this game was lead by Kieran. Then we went on to play the clap game that I lead to get everyone ready and focus and that lasted about one and a half minute from there we got everyone to play the game 'Yes Lets' which was run by two other members of my group Grace and Stephanie.
After play two games we then put them into groups of three and gave them a task, this task was run by Jamie another member of our group, their task was that their were given three lines to be use as script and they could only use the three lines that they were given and they had to make a short story with theses lines.
This workshop was very helpful as it helped us prepare for when we actually go into schools and give them a 20 minutes workshop, also apart from giving us practice it help us get a feel of what it will be like running the workshop and all the things that we would need to consider while planning it.
Week 6
This week we started planning our 20 minutes devising piece and we decided to create a crime mystery piece. The name is American Noire and it will be about these two detective trying to solve one of hardest crime in their career, we started planning our ideas and talked about characters and the story line.
We have also allocated different jobs to everyone to make sure everything runs smoothly for example my secondary job is time and stage Manager.
Also as well as creating a short piece to perform to secondary schools we also have to create a workshop to do with the students, we also started the planning for our workshop and it will be base around the same theme as our play which is crime and mystery.
week 7 and 8
In the past two weeks we finished the script and have been rehearsing and finalizing scenes. Now we have a good foundation with the script and we know what direction we want to take the play in, the only thing left for us to do is for us to learn our lines and to think about what style we could do the play in and what other techniques we could possibly add.
We performed our play to the rest of the class as a draft not the final piece, we received feedback back from everyone and we are going to take the feedback we are given and improve upon them for the next time we perform our piece. Some feedback we got was that we needed to develop our character a bit more and go into more depth with our characters.
week 9
This week we went to a secondary school and done our workshop and performance our piece to year 9 drama students. we decided that it would be best if we done our workshop before our play because it will give the students some information of what our play is about and some context in why we chose that topic and so they would know what to expect from the piece.
Tuesday, 14 June 2016
End of year targets
From the beginning of the year I set some targets for myself. Theses were smart targets.
My first target was to improve my articulation, this was because by me having a deep voice something when performing and I spoke you couldn't understand some words that I said. By improving my articulation it made my words clearer for the audience to understand. This has been an on going goal of mine because as much as my articulation has improve a lot over the year it could still get better. How I worked to improve my articulation was by doing the voice warms up with Rob and the vocal exercises but that wasn't enough I also did my own voice exercises at home. I did this by practicing tongue twisters at home, I would aim to spend 10 minutes a day for 3/4 times of the week practicing theses tongue twisters and I would also look for different tongue twisters so I don't get used to the ones I had been doing for a while.
Another target of mine was to try and read more plays also go and see more plays. I think this was a great target because they are many different type of plays and people are always changing and redoing plays in different styles and ways. Also this was a good target because I would like to do some theatre work when older and this would be very helpful. I started to read play a week but as time when on and we started preparing for our final project I had to optimize my time and prioritise my works so I couldn't read a play a week no more but instead I would try and read a play a month so that most of my time and focus was on my final project and other work I had to do. I did not set a deadline for this target because they are always new and exciting plays to read and watch.
My first target was to improve my articulation, this was because by me having a deep voice something when performing and I spoke you couldn't understand some words that I said. By improving my articulation it made my words clearer for the audience to understand. This has been an on going goal of mine because as much as my articulation has improve a lot over the year it could still get better. How I worked to improve my articulation was by doing the voice warms up with Rob and the vocal exercises but that wasn't enough I also did my own voice exercises at home. I did this by practicing tongue twisters at home, I would aim to spend 10 minutes a day for 3/4 times of the week practicing theses tongue twisters and I would also look for different tongue twisters so I don't get used to the ones I had been doing for a while.
Another target of mine was to try and read more plays also go and see more plays. I think this was a great target because they are many different type of plays and people are always changing and redoing plays in different styles and ways. Also this was a good target because I would like to do some theatre work when older and this would be very helpful. I started to read play a week but as time when on and we started preparing for our final project I had to optimize my time and prioritise my works so I couldn't read a play a week no more but instead I would try and read a play a month so that most of my time and focus was on my final project and other work I had to do. I did not set a deadline for this target because they are always new and exciting plays to read and watch.
Monday, 13 June 2016
The Homecoming
The Homecoming
We went to see a play at Trafalgar studios called The Homecoming, directed by Jamie Lloyd. The designer of the play was Soutra Gilmour, the lighting designer was Richard Howell, the sound designer was George Dennis, the production manager was Dominic Fraser and the fight director was owain Gwynn.
The Homecoming was first premiered in London in 1965 and then in New York at 1967.
The play was written by Harold Pinter and it consist of 6 characters only, there was Max who was the father and the head of family, then there was Sam who was Max’s brother and also he was a chauffeur , then there was Max’s 3 sons Teddy who was the oldest and a philosopher , Lenny who was the second and was meant to be a pimp , then there was Joey the youngest who worked in demolition and was training to be a professional boxer and finally there was Ruth the only woman in the play and was Teddy’s Wife.
The play was set in a house in north London and all of the scenes take place in one room the living room which was the largest room in the house ,the living room had pieces of furniture inside such as a chair and two stool etc., it was summer time in the play.
Harold Pinter is also know for other work that he as done such as betrayal, the servant, the go between and many more. Harold Pinter also directed and acted in many radio , stage ,television d film production this incudes his work and other playwright work.
The main starting point of the homecoming would be when Ruth and Lenny first met, I think this because the conversation they had and the tension between them some people would say at the point that Ruth was already starting to mess with teddy's head and was beginning to show her true side. I also think this because this is when then play started to get interesting and at some points confusing because I didn’t quite understand what Ruth was doing until the play went on and then later I understand why that happening and everything started to become clearer to me.
I would say in my opinion the play had 3 main theme which was sexism , dominance and control, I think this because with everything that went on in the play it all linked to those 3 theme. I think sexism is one of the main theme because there was a scene where they were talking about making Ruth a prostitute in order for her to stay with them also they were talking about sharing her between them self and Ruth was considering doing it, this showed me that Harold Pinter was trying to show the audience how in that time men always use to try and use women but also women had control over the men in a mentally way for example when Ruth was teasing joey this showed that she was teasing to keep control of him because she knew that after that he would do anything for her.
I also think dominance was a big theme within the play because every character had some sort of dominance in their hands for example Max he was the head of the house and had dominance over the others but then Ruth came and took over because in act 2 there was a scene Ruth was setting in the chair in the middle of the stage and everyone was around her this showed me that she had now gain complete dominance over them because she was the center of attention and she in the position that Max was in to me that symbolised that take over. Finally the theme of control is a big part of the play because it was from the start to finish for example when Ruth first came and was talking Lenny she was already beginning to start controlling him because in the scene she was saying things that was messing with his head and left him confused about what was going on, this gave the audience a glimpse of what Ruth was planning and then from then she ascended into control. Also Ruth showed the audience that she was in control when she was making demands about what she wanted in her apartment and she made sure that they would agree to it.
The production was designed by Dominic Fraser and it went brilliantly with this play of the way it was set up there was a door at the back of the stage to enter the house then their was two stair ways leading the bedrooms and then right in the center there was the living room which was the biggest room in the house and where all of the scenes took place. I think the production went hand in hand with the play because everything was well placed and balanced and in some scenes it gave an awesome effect for example there was a scene where everyone was on stage but there were all in different positions and Lenny was standing at the back where the door was and the lights began to darken and you couldn’t see Lenny anymore ad then when the lights came on he was gone and we didn’t even SSE him leave, I thought that was a awesome ideaand how the set was designed it fitted that scene perfectly.
The lighting designer is Richard Howell and he done a great job on the lighting for the play, the lights really set the mood and atmosphere for the Audience by evoking feelings and thought in their head and setting the mood causing them to have specific reactions. For example at the start of the play Lenny was standing at the door and it was dark so the audience barely saw him and centerstage was slight lit and the effect it had was very impressive it was like a scary/quite atmosphere and it made the audience start to ponder about what was going to happen.
Also another example where lighting was used well was when joey was at the edge of the stage and began boxing and fighting with himself and the lights keep getting dimmer and dimmer as he got angry and angrier until him couldn’t take it no more and shouted out and the lights all suddenly came on this was done pretty well because it made the scene much more better because with the lighting it showed the audience that everything was closing in on him and when the lights all came on it sowed them that he had enough it was a great effect and a great way to use lighting. Lighting was also used well in the scene where Teddy was in the living room and was hitting his hands to hold in his rage and Lenny was at the back standing staring at him and the back of the stage where Lenny was standing was dark and red.
I Richard Howell used the lights in the way he did in order to make the play realistic in a way meaning that with the scene with Joey that was showing that sometimes when things gets to everyone we hold everything in and we just feel all alone and that was what Richard was trying to show the audience.
The costumes helped the audience understand the character and what they are like for example Lenny mostly wore a suit this showed the audience that his was a type of uptight business in some sense and with Joey he wore tracksuit bottoms and a T shirt this showed the audience that he was a more laid back character. The costumes helped develop the characters even more as it gave the audience some insight on thecharacter for example with Ruth she normally wore heels and a shirt and top this gave the audience that impression that this character will be trouble and try and cause problems and she did.
I personally like the play it was fun and very interesting to watch, especially trying to understanding the main story behind it. I also think it was a very good play because the light and sound was done pretty well and went along great with the play. I really liked the scene where all the actors were in sync together like when they were all holding tea in their hands and then they all drank it at the same time also the sense where the men came out in a line and all lit a cigar together, the timingwas very impressive and was a great scene to watch. The only thing I didn’t quite get about the play was that main story behind because I ended up coming up with 3\4 different theories of what I thought it was which was quite confusing for me but it would have been easier to understand if it was based on one story line, but I later learnt that it was meant to be like that that’s style that Harold Pinter writes in and it almost like he wanted the audience to decided on what the believe is the main story and message behind his plays.
Rehearsal for finale major project
The rehearsal sessions for the play was very useful in the sense that we spent a lot of time changing and trying out new styles and techniques before settling down with one, for example some of our rehearsal session would consist of everyone getting their scripts and going through it page by page. This helped us in many ways such as becoming very familiar with every scene and to go into more depth with the content of play. Also we had to make some adjustments to the play to suit our capability for example in the play Massie was meant to be close with her grandma but in our class there is majority of boys over girls so we changed grandma to granddad.
Jireh the assistant director would be with us during every rehearsal session we had, he mainly worked on bringing the whole play together. When working with Jireh we would be working on scenes in the play and making sure everything looks up to standards. We would also work with Rob who was the main director for the play, while working with rob he would helped us developed our character and work on characterisation for example adding lines to the character to make them seem more believable to the audience. Working with the two directors was an great experience for all of us, as I believed it was very beneficial in many ways such as it made our performance much more stronger because we didn't improve on the play only we also improved on our acting skills, which made a big different to our play.
During rehearsals we made various changes with scenes some were more effective than others, some work and some didn't but all our trial and error helped us make the play the best it could be. Also we had to alter the play for it to be suitable for the audience because the play is based around many sensitive topics and we had to be careful about what we said and done since some people in the audience may have been often. With this play having sensitive topics we tried to keep professional attitude throughout the play in the sense that we wanted to show the audience that the topic related in this play does happen for real and it can affect many people's lives negatively.
All of our rehearsal sessions were helpful in more than one ways, especially when everyone was off script our rehearsal session was very effective. What would happen in most of our sessions was that we would first do a full run through of the play and our assistant directors Jireh would take notes and give us feedback on things we needed to work on either individual things our specific scenes that may need extra work. Also we would give our input on what we thought what we thought worked and what didn't work while performing. This helped us develop our play and acting skills because we would try and figure our weakest scene and try make it as strong as it could be which in turn made our performance strong all around.
Another problem that we faced in rehearsals was that we would always rehearse in one of our practice room, we never rehearsed in theatre until our tech run which was two days before we performed the play. I think if we had rehearsed more in the space we were going to perform in, it would have helped us because we would have gain a great sense of our surrounding which is good for actors because it helps the actors in many ways for example, when we were rehearsing in the room we would hear ourselves loud and clear also our projection was great but in the theatre it was different because the theatre space was much bigger so we realised we had to shout for some scenes so that the people in the audience at the back row could hear us.
I also think we should have rehearsed more in the theatre space because we would have been able to map and lay out our scenes much more better, all our planning for how our set should look was done on paper and only in the tech run we saw what it looked like but I believe if we had rehearsed in theatre more we could have designed a better set to suit the play in much better ways.
In addition to rehearsing on our own, we also done some rehearsal sessions with Sharon where we worked on developing our characters. for example we did an hot seating task where we had to make up our characters back story. This hot seating task was very helpful because it gave us a better sense of our characters and helped us to get to know our characters in much more detail. I felt that this task was very helpful because the script doesn't go into detail about the characters background and their story, but by doing this task I felt that it made my character much more realistic and gave me a much better understanding of our character.
Some problem we faced during rehearsal were issues such lateness or a member of the group didn't turn up and we wouldn't be able to work on those scenes that the person might be in but we would always find a way around it either to have someone else read in for them or to work more on other scenes. Other problems we faced were trying to decided the best way to portray a scene so that its clearly understood by the audience while also having an powerful influenced on them causing them feel sympathy for the characters and understanding their pain and struggles.
Jireh the assistant director would be with us during every rehearsal session we had, he mainly worked on bringing the whole play together. When working with Jireh we would be working on scenes in the play and making sure everything looks up to standards. We would also work with Rob who was the main director for the play, while working with rob he would helped us developed our character and work on characterisation for example adding lines to the character to make them seem more believable to the audience. Working with the two directors was an great experience for all of us, as I believed it was very beneficial in many ways such as it made our performance much more stronger because we didn't improve on the play only we also improved on our acting skills, which made a big different to our play.
During rehearsals we made various changes with scenes some were more effective than others, some work and some didn't but all our trial and error helped us make the play the best it could be. Also we had to alter the play for it to be suitable for the audience because the play is based around many sensitive topics and we had to be careful about what we said and done since some people in the audience may have been often. With this play having sensitive topics we tried to keep professional attitude throughout the play in the sense that we wanted to show the audience that the topic related in this play does happen for real and it can affect many people's lives negatively.
All of our rehearsal sessions were helpful in more than one ways, especially when everyone was off script our rehearsal session was very effective. What would happen in most of our sessions was that we would first do a full run through of the play and our assistant directors Jireh would take notes and give us feedback on things we needed to work on either individual things our specific scenes that may need extra work. Also we would give our input on what we thought what we thought worked and what didn't work while performing. This helped us develop our play and acting skills because we would try and figure our weakest scene and try make it as strong as it could be which in turn made our performance strong all around.
Another problem that we faced in rehearsals was that we would always rehearse in one of our practice room, we never rehearsed in theatre until our tech run which was two days before we performed the play. I think if we had rehearsed more in the space we were going to perform in, it would have helped us because we would have gain a great sense of our surrounding which is good for actors because it helps the actors in many ways for example, when we were rehearsing in the room we would hear ourselves loud and clear also our projection was great but in the theatre it was different because the theatre space was much bigger so we realised we had to shout for some scenes so that the people in the audience at the back row could hear us.
I also think we should have rehearsed more in the theatre space because we would have been able to map and lay out our scenes much more better, all our planning for how our set should look was done on paper and only in the tech run we saw what it looked like but I believe if we had rehearsed in theatre more we could have designed a better set to suit the play in much better ways.
In addition to rehearsing on our own, we also done some rehearsal sessions with Sharon where we worked on developing our characters. for example we did an hot seating task where we had to make up our characters back story. This hot seating task was very helpful because it gave us a better sense of our characters and helped us to get to know our characters in much more detail. I felt that this task was very helpful because the script doesn't go into detail about the characters background and their story, but by doing this task I felt that it made my character much more realistic and gave me a much better understanding of our character.
Some problem we faced during rehearsal were issues such lateness or a member of the group didn't turn up and we wouldn't be able to work on those scenes that the person might be in but we would always find a way around it either to have someone else read in for them or to work more on other scenes. Other problems we faced were trying to decided the best way to portray a scene so that its clearly understood by the audience while also having an powerful influenced on them causing them feel sympathy for the characters and understanding their pain and struggles.
Research for final major project
We did a lot of research about the themes of the play and also about our individual characters. Some of the themes in the play were Female Genital Mutilation also known as F.G.M, homophobia, religion etc.
To find out about the themes we conducted many group research tasks as well as individual ones. These tasks included having group discussions about some of the themes and how they are seen in the eyes of society; for example, one of our discussions was about religion because two of the main characters are associated with religion. Jas believes in Islam and Massie is an atheist but her dad is a vicar, so we were discussing about how Jas is treated because he's gay for example when he told his brother he was gay, Bash his brother and Omar his cousin beat him on. We discussed things like Bash may feel humiliated by who his brother is and he may be worried about his family name and what other people would think of them.
Also we had a woman for a charity foundation to come in and talk to us about F.G.M and to give us more insight about it. Another group research task we did that was vital to us learning and finding out more about the play and the themes was that we got the playwright to come in and talk to us about the play. This helped us a lot because we found out what the playwright wanted to show in the stories behind each character and why those themes were so important. For example I didn't know much about F.G.M until this play but while working and researching my knowledge improved and I was much more aware of the topic and I'm sure by performing it we have educated and inform many people about it too.
As well as group research I did my own individual research about my character. Most of my research was secondary research, many things I found in books and on the internet. One thing I done for my research was I asked some people what they thought about someone that was gay and then I asked them what they thought about someone that is gay and religious. I found out that by adding the religion aspect to it some people perception changed while some remained the same, in my research I found that by adding religion it makes it harder for family and friends to accept them because if they were gay that would caused some contradiction but they would come to terms with it in the end. On the other hand, if they were Muslim and gay it would be much more difficult to accept them because of their believes. If you were followed Islam and you were gay in some countries you will be killed.
Also some more research I done was talking to my friend who is a Muslim and is gay. I was able to asked him questions like how did he tell his family and friends? , how they reacted? and some challenges he faced when coming out? etc. All that research helped me to formed and shaped my character from the way he acts, talks and also what he would be thinking about his inner thoughts. By using all the information I have acquired and my acting techniques I have gained, this helped me to transformed into my character Jas not only physical wise also mentally to think and respond like my character would. The acting method I used was Constantine Stanislavsky method acting and I used this acting style because two of my favourite actors Al Pacino and Robert De Niro uses this method to transform into the characters they portray.
Some other research that I had done to get into my character was to read books base on the themes of the play also I looked at other plays that had similar themes to Last Summer. This helped me because by reading other plays with similar themes it caused me to look at my play from a different prospective. I personally think this was knowledgeable because it helped to give me a better understanding of my play itself.
It was hard to research about the play especially because it wasn't a published play and it was a first draft. By the play not being published it was difficult for us to research and find out information about it. Also the play had never been done before, we couldn't look at any theatre companies that had done it or read about things people had thought about it , we couldn't look at different interpretation about it to try and see how it was done before we had to do everything from scratch. Having all those challenges made researching about the play and the themes within the play ten times harder and we done as much as we can.
To find out about the themes we conducted many group research tasks as well as individual ones. These tasks included having group discussions about some of the themes and how they are seen in the eyes of society; for example, one of our discussions was about religion because two of the main characters are associated with religion. Jas believes in Islam and Massie is an atheist but her dad is a vicar, so we were discussing about how Jas is treated because he's gay for example when he told his brother he was gay, Bash his brother and Omar his cousin beat him on. We discussed things like Bash may feel humiliated by who his brother is and he may be worried about his family name and what other people would think of them.
Also we had a woman for a charity foundation to come in and talk to us about F.G.M and to give us more insight about it. Another group research task we did that was vital to us learning and finding out more about the play and the themes was that we got the playwright to come in and talk to us about the play. This helped us a lot because we found out what the playwright wanted to show in the stories behind each character and why those themes were so important. For example I didn't know much about F.G.M until this play but while working and researching my knowledge improved and I was much more aware of the topic and I'm sure by performing it we have educated and inform many people about it too.
As well as group research I did my own individual research about my character. Most of my research was secondary research, many things I found in books and on the internet. One thing I done for my research was I asked some people what they thought about someone that was gay and then I asked them what they thought about someone that is gay and religious. I found out that by adding the religion aspect to it some people perception changed while some remained the same, in my research I found that by adding religion it makes it harder for family and friends to accept them because if they were gay that would caused some contradiction but they would come to terms with it in the end. On the other hand, if they were Muslim and gay it would be much more difficult to accept them because of their believes. If you were followed Islam and you were gay in some countries you will be killed.
Also some more research I done was talking to my friend who is a Muslim and is gay. I was able to asked him questions like how did he tell his family and friends? , how they reacted? and some challenges he faced when coming out? etc. All that research helped me to formed and shaped my character from the way he acts, talks and also what he would be thinking about his inner thoughts. By using all the information I have acquired and my acting techniques I have gained, this helped me to transformed into my character Jas not only physical wise also mentally to think and respond like my character would. The acting method I used was Constantine Stanislavsky method acting and I used this acting style because two of my favourite actors Al Pacino and Robert De Niro uses this method to transform into the characters they portray.
Some other research that I had done to get into my character was to read books base on the themes of the play also I looked at other plays that had similar themes to Last Summer. This helped me because by reading other plays with similar themes it caused me to look at my play from a different prospective. I personally think this was knowledgeable because it helped to give me a better understanding of my play itself.
It was hard to research about the play especially because it wasn't a published play and it was a first draft. By the play not being published it was difficult for us to research and find out information about it. Also the play had never been done before, we couldn't look at any theatre companies that had done it or read about things people had thought about it , we couldn't look at different interpretation about it to try and see how it was done before we had to do everything from scratch. Having all those challenges made researching about the play and the themes within the play ten times harder and we done as much as we can.
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