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.