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.

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.

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.

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.

Evaluation for final major project

To prepare for my final major project I use all the research I have gather over the year. Most of my research was consisted of secondary research that I done with my group and also by myself. I also done some primary research to help me get into character and to help me understand the play.   
Some examples of this were getting information from the playwright by getting her to come in and speak to us and having a guess speaker come in to talk to us about F.G.M.

Mistakes and accidents can happens anytime when performing,it's up to an good actor to overcome these mistakes and move pass them and keep on striving to become better.

When an actor is performing and they are in the moment, a lot of things could happen such as forgetting lines or missing cues. They could also be good things such as the reacting to a particular line in a different way which may caused a certain reaction from the audience. 

When I was in the acting and Was in the moment, sometimes I would completely react to certain line differently than I did in rehearsal because in that moment I reacted instinctively instead of what the stage directions said. For example in the scene with me ,Brunilda and Sally I was meant to react to Sally scaring us by running away ,but when we were performing to the other half of my class before the final show. I changed what I had done instead of running away pretended to trip and fall down. 

The audience reaction was much more positive so we decided to keep it for the  final play.

I believe that when you are in the moment, that can cause many things for the actors whether good or bad. This is because you live every scene step by step which caused the actors reactions to be authentic and in that moment you completely embodied your character.

I think my final performance went well because everything went to plan. Everyone remembered their lines and put 100% energy into their performance and as a group we all collaborated well together, all our hard work paid off. We used all the techniques we have learnt over the years from tutors and personal knowledge and put it all into our performance. Despite having problems with our lighting and sound we all managed to do the play successfully.

One thing that could be improved in my performance was that we during one of our changeover of a scenes there was a slight problem with someone forgetting to take off a prop but we worked around it. When performing a live piece of theatre you can expect something to go wrong either with the lights and sounds or props, but it's up to actors on how they recover from that and don't let it get to them and affect their performance.
Another thing that I thought we could have improved for our final performance was to slow down our the scenes. I think because everyone was so excited to perform that our performance felt like it was over in a blast.


As for my individual performance I thought it was pretty good overall such as I spoke with a loud and clear tone throughout the performance, making it easy for the audience to understand what my character was saying. One thing I would change is that in during some scenes I could have reacted faster to my lines because in the moment I was acting and reacting and was pretty good on picking up my cues but for some of my lines I felt that it could have been much faster which would have made the scenes better. From the audience's perspective the play was "quite interesting", "awesome", "very informative"  etc. We felt that the audience reacted the way we wanted them to meaning that they laughed at the comedic scenes and were very attentive to more serious scenes. Over it can be concluded that this play was enjoyed by both the audience and the actors.


In conclusion I felt that as a group our final performance was incredible because over the course of 4/5 weeks from when we got into groups and started this play, we all bonded together even more and got close with each other and that enhanced the relationship between everyone in the group. Having that bond between us made the play  more enjoyable for us when rehearsing and performing it, also it made our performance more entertaining for the audience to watched. One improvement for us as a group would be to make our scene transitions more effective and efficient because for some scene the changeover was slow and for other scenes the transition was smooth and done with ease.

What drama schools want

Drama schools are looking for people who are committed and determined to acting. They want actors and actresses that are able to work perfectly with anyone and any team and they also want them to be able to work great on their own. 

Drama schools want actors that are easily adaptable so this makes it easier for them to work with the actors. They also look for actors who are very well rounded background; for example, the actors not only has an interest in acting but they enjoy sports, science, history, etc. This shows that the actor is always keen on learning new skills as well as being devoted to their acting career. 

Three important things all drama school will look for in actors:

(1) Self motivation/self belief. The reason why drama schools will look for this is because acting requires a lot of hard work and consistency which some people may not able to cope with. Drama schools want actors who will stay motivated and believe in themselves no matter how many times they have failed which would be a valuable asset to themself and the drama school.

(2) In addition to self belief drama schools also want actors who are always looking to better themselves and improve. No one likes a self obsessed actor who thinks they have nothing to improve on. Actors that show that they are always willing to improve themself to become better is something drama schools want because this shows you are aware of your strengths and weaknesses and you are able to improve on them because you know yourself and your acting capability. This is important because by always trying to improve yourself and making yourself a better actor it will motivate the people around you which in turn will make them better too.

(3) Self-reliance. As much as drama schools will help and support you they also want actors who are capable of supporting themselves from time to time. They want actors that they are responsible. They want them to be able to know what to do by themselves; for example, they need to learn lines, research about a play or make time to rehearse with their group.

This is the type of actor drama school want because it shows how passionate and dedicated their are to acting. Overall, I think drama schools want an actor or actress who has some talent and has the will and potential to learn and improve. 

Feedback for final play

For our final project we are doing a play called "Last Summer". The play follows the life of 3 teenagers and the challenges they faced and have to overcome.

The first character is called Massie and she's a polite and well mannered girl who's always looking to help everyone in which ever way she can. However she suffers from cancer which makes it hard for her to help people and get on with a normal life.

The second character is Sareeya and she's a fun and loveable girl who try's to live a simple but enjoyable life, she likes to hang out with her friends and and she is also a great big sister. Sareeya has been a victim of F.G.M (Female genital mutilation) which has caused her to have trust issues because she is not comfortable with herself anymore and has lost her self esteem.

The third character is called Jas. Jas is Muslims but he is not devoted to his religion, he can be funny and has a very inquisitive personality.

The character is gay and he is in denial of his sexuality this makes it hard for him because he is always questioning himself trying to find answers to why he is that way.

All three characters have one thing In common and that is the fact they all have their own individual problem that affect their life both mentally and physically, this makes life horrible and unpleasant for them, they all wish to have a normal life one day.

Some feedback I have gotten while performimg during rehearsals are;

Slow down while speaking in some scenes because by speaking too fast it makes it harder for the audience to understand what I was saying.

Also to work on my projection because there is a scene where I am laying on the floor and while speaking im facing upwards so the audience can't hear what I am saying 

I need do improve my projection for that scene. 

Why I Chose The Role I Chose

I chose to do the play Last Summer and it’s about three characters and their all have their own story for example the first character is Jas and he’s gay but he is in denial and finding it hard to deal with it, the second character is Massie she has cancer and is going to die and the last character is Sareeya she has had female genital mutilation and it will happen to her little sister.

I chose this character because I have played many different characters before such a soldier, father, brother etc. but I have never played a like Jas. Jas is Muslim and he’s gay and he finds it really hard to accept who he is and why he is that way, and so I wanted to play him because this would give me the chance to stay that I have played a character like that before and I have had the experienced and understanding of what it is like to be that character.                                                          

I can say that I have played many different types of character and not just the same character over and over, also Jas is different type of person compare to me such has him being quite religious and he’s strong in his religious belief also he seems like the type of person who’s is really calm and relaxed but does have a bad side when he’s upset or not in the mood and the fact that he’s gay.

I also wanted to play this character because I do have friends that are gay and from being with them I know how it can be hard for some people to accept it and very easy for others. I also have a friend that’s a Muslim and gay and from him I can kind of relate to this character and see what’s it’s like to be in his situation and like the problem he faces such as it’s hard because their parents might not know about it and they would be scared to confront them and talk to them about it which is similar to Jas when he told his brother he got beaten up by his brother and his cousin. Also another problem Jas face his that he believe him being gay is a bad thing and it’s making him seem like his bringing a bad name to his family and letting the people around him down.

I believe that playing Jas won't only give me this experience but it will also help me look at the problem in a new light because that is something that some people and family still find it a big problem and some don’t know how to react or deal with it and as Jas I think I that it would give me more insight on it and I would be able to give a more clear and in depth opinion about the situation base on my research of what I know and me being the character.

production designed

The play Romeo and Juliet have many different versions including many different movie versions too. They are many versions because directors and writers are always updating the play to suit the audience and time period, this makes it easier for the audience to understand because Shakespeare was writing in 1597 and if an audience in 2016 was to read it they wont understand some parts and words.

Baz Luhrmann who is a director adapted and directed his own modern day version Romeo and Juliet, the way the filmed was designed and portrayed was very impressive because it was more appealing to the modern day audience. It was set in the 1990s and the director altered the script to suit the time for example it was set in a place called Verona Beach and the Capulet and Montague were two rivals gangs. I think this was a clever idea and by making this small but vital adaptation to the play it made it more engaging for the audience to watch. Also things like instead of swords to fight they used guns and the guns were called sword which was another clever idea by the director.

The whole concept of the play remained the same and the director followed the main story line, as for costume they were different the actors wore normal clothes like what style or fashion that period was that was the clothes they wore for example they wore suits depending on their status. I think the music was very important to the scene and the music that was used went perfectly with the scene for example the scene were Romeo and Juliet first met, the music that was playing in that scene was smooth/slow music it really set the mood and atmosphere for the scene it also helped build up the tension in the scene. Also the scene where Mercutio dies is another great example where the music captures the audience/viewer attention.

On the other hand if a theatre company did Romeo and Juliet the changes they make would vary from the changes the film made, they would stick to the script in Shakespearean language. When I saw Romeo and Juliet performed at the Royal Albert Hall, the style that they had done it in was creative and interesting unlike the movie they had dancing and singing scenes. The theatre portrayed the play in a more artistic way than the movie.  

Shakespeare in da house evaluation

My overall performance for the Shakespeare in da house project was a great experience the idea to try something new and to get out of your comfort zone was very interesting. When I first heard about the Shakespeare in da house project I was a bit sceptic to how it works but it went great and everything worked out.

We performed on in people houses which was the main purpose of the project but we always performed it in the theatre also went to Ipswich and performed there. My performance at Jamie’s house was fun and engaging, me and Jireh had to adapt our scene a little to make it worked but because we always used to rehearse in a big space and Jamie’s living was smaller than the space we normally rehearsed but we still had enough space for everything else to go as plan.
Also performing at Jamie’s house was interesting because during our scene there is a part where I start hitting Jireh with a newspaper and Jamie had a dog so when we done that scene his dog got sacred and stared barking but me and Jireh didn't lose focus and stayed in character. We kept the moment and proceeded with the scene; we didn't lose the chemistry and stayed attentive to what was happening around us.

Finally our performance was funny and interesting to watch because of our knowledge of the scene, we did our research about the play and scene and look at many different interpretations of it done but different actors in different styles. From looking at many different versions of it we then decided how we were going create our own diverse scene which included changing and redoing the scene until we felt it suited the script and the audience. We tried to make our performance comedic because it was a comedy play but not too comedic then it would look over the top and unrealistic so as well as making our scene enjoyable for the audience to watch we also made it look naturalistic.

While working on our scene we also had some draw backs for examples while researching about our scene we found how that it was to do with two sets of twins both separated when they were young and in this scene they were all together but because they didn't remember each other. At first it was a bit of a challenge to get your head around but once you got it everything made sense, so our job was to find a way how we were going to portray to the audience that there was a mix up with the twins and the whole confusion is because of mistaken identity. Watching the scene at first glance you won’t understand what’s happening unless you knew some background information about the play and scene, our solution was that before we began the scene we briefly gave the audience a little insight about the scene so that they have some understanding of what’s happening and can pick up as the scene goes on.

Some minor problems we also faced was how to direct the scene but Rob helped us out by giving us some ideas on what to do, like with the part where I needed to hit Jireh we were thinking how should present it, some examples we came up with was for me to slap him or use a prop like a fake baton etc. In the end we decided on me using a rolled up newspaper to hit him which got a great reaction from the audience when we performed it.

Personally I thought I performed well but there are also some improvements I could make such as  being louder at some parts because watching back the video of me performing I felt that at the times where I was meant to be louder I wasn't. For example there’s a part where I have to do a stage whisper and I felt that I could have gave it more work and practice it more than I done.
Another improvement I would make is that I would think more about costumes for my character because that’s one part I didn't pay much attention to and I that it could have enhanced my character more for example status and what kind of person he is.

Shakespeare in da house

The new project we are doing is called Shakespeare in da house and is where we are in pairs and will perform some Shakespeare do duologue such as Much to do another nothing,Hamlet ,The Tempest ,Comedy of errors and many more. We will be performing these scene in to our friends family in their living room, we done it this way to try something new and different instead of the typical rehearse a play and perform in the theatre.

The play I'm doing is Comedy of errors and the character I'm playing is Antipholous of Syracuse and what is happening in my scene is that I gave my servant money to hide for me and then I saw someone that looks like him thinking its him and start having a go at him asking him for my money back but he's confused because he has a master that looks like me and is wondering what I'm talking about so we both don't know it's not the right person we are talking to.

My objective throughout the scene was to find out what has happened to my money and where he had left it, this was my main objectives and it didn't changed my character only keep getting more and more frustrated until he started beating his servant.

My improvements for this scene was:

- [x] Work on how we going to present it like our own interpretation.

- [x] Also while performing my projection dropped for a few lines then build up again so I should try and keep a clear Loud tone throughout my scene.

- [x] My last improvement was to slow down while speaking my lines because at time I spoke to fast and it was unclear.