Monologues Part 2

For the next 2 monologues I have chosen a dramatic  Morris from "Blood Knot" by Athol Fugard, and this is a contemporary piece, my second is a classical, its Benedict from "Much ado about nothing" by William Shakespeare.

Blood Knot:
This play has very resemblance to the social apartheid between white's and black's in south Africa's society, and I have also learnt that the writer Athol Fugard loathed the apartheid. Morris (White) shares a one room shack in the nonwhite slum of Korsten with he non illiterate and mentally slow brother Zachariah. Morris has been saving a small amount of Zach's pay in order to buy a small farm away from people in the future so they can live like normal people, however Zach concentrates more on the present than the future and resents his brother's strict attitude. Morris eventually gets Zach a pen pall in the newspaper to find him a woman, Zach tells his brother what to write to a lady called Ethel Lange, who they later find out is white.

Morris:
Is white and it is important as such, as it contrasts with his brother Zachariah who is black. Morris's age is unspecified through out the play, and there isn't a reference in the monologue i have chosen, however I would say he is older than his brother, this is because he feels guilty about his brother because he is black and so Morris feels as if he has to prove himself to his brother, he adopts a wiser and father like character in the play when talking to Zach, which is why I think he is older. Morris is determined to prove to Zach that they do indeed have a "Blood Knot". One of Morris's predominant characteristics is that he is driven through-out the play to become closer to his brother, he even takes on domestic house roles such as, cooking and preparing Zach's foot baths. Morris has a dream of owning a farm away from civilization where him and his brother can live as normal individuals.

Much ado about nothing:
"Leonato, a kindly, respectable nobleman, lives in the idyllic Italian town of Messina. Leonato shares his house with his lovely young daughter, Hero, his playful, clever niece, Beatrice, and his elderly brother, Antonio (who is Beatrice's father). As the play begins, Leonato prepares to welcome some friends home from a war. The friends include Don Pedro, a prince who is a close friend of Leonato, and two fellow soldiers: Claudio, a well-respected young nobleman, and Benedick, a clever man who constantly makes witty jokes, often at the expense of his friends. Don John, Don Pedro’s illegitimate brother, is part of the crowd as well. Don John is sullen and bitter, and makes trouble for the others.
When the soldiers arrive at Leonato’s home, Claudio quickly falls in love with Hero. Meanwhile, Benedick and Beatrice resume the war of witty insults that they have carried on with each other in the past. Claudio and Hero pledge their love to one another and decide to be married. To pass the time in the week before the wedding, the lovers and their friends decide to play a game. They want to get Beatrice and Benedick, who are clearly meant for each other, to stop arguing and fall in love. Their tricks prove successful, and Beatrice and Benedick soon fall secretly in love with each other.

But Don John has decided to disrupt everyone’s happiness. He has his companion Borachio make love to Margaret, Hero’s serving woman, at Hero’s window in the darkness of the night, and he brings Don Pedro and Claudio to watch. Believing that he has seen Hero being unfaithful to him, the enraged Claudio humiliates Hero by suddenly accusing her of lechery on the day of their wedding and abandoning her at the altar. Hero’s stricken family members decide to pretend that she died suddenly of shock and grief and to hide her away while they wait for the truth about her innocence to come to light. In the aftermath of the rejection, Benedick and Beatrice finally confess their love to one another. Fortunately, the night watchmen overhear Borachio bragging about his crime. Dogberry and Verges, the heads of the local police, ultimately arrest both Borachio and Conrad, another of Don John’s followers. Everyone learns that Hero is really innocent, and Claudio, who believes she is dead, grieves for her.

Leonato tells Claudio that, as punishment, he wants Claudio to tell everybody in the city how innocent Hero was. He also wants Claudio to marry Leonato’s “niece”—a girl who, he says, looks much like the dead Hero. Claudio goes to church with the others, preparing to marry the mysterious, masked woman he thinks is Hero’s cousin. When Hero reveals herself as the masked woman, Claudio is overwhelmed with joy. Benedick then asks Beatrice if she will marry him, and after some arguing they agree. The joyful lovers all have a merry dance before they celebrate their double wedding." (1)

Benedick:

Benedick is a young lord of Padua in service of Don Pedro. He is good friends with Claudio, and also a good solider. Most things are a joke to him, and he enjoys directing people, for instance he try to tell Don Pedro what he should say at the courting of Hero, this leads me to believe that, he caress not for peoples emotions. All though he says he is not for a relationship, he proves more that he isn't ready to be tied down, but that says his tune changes when he hears words that Beatrice loves him also. He leads me to believe he is a childish man and so I would says hes 30. When he speaks of love to begin with he loathes it and laughs at it, but he changes when he finds another loves him. He is a solider so I would say he's loyal in person, but can stab you in the back if necessary. He seems like a joker, and a bit of a jack the lad in-front of his friends, but is more stern and made be sexist in-front of women, but this is a decoy to show he doesn't love someone.

(1) Much ado about nothing synopsis- http://www.sparknotes.com/shakespeare/muchado/summary.html 

Punk Rock (1)

In this blog I will be talking about the play and how certain scenes affect my character, I will also be talking about bits and pieces of the rehearsals and the skills I need to develop on and how i have tried to work on the problems.

Scene 1:

My scene objective in scene 1 is "to get to know Lilly" Lilly is the new girl and William, my character, has taken a liking to her and so I play him as if he is an excited puppy, quick firing questions and compliments, as well as being the first to introduce everyone to her and from time to time he tries to by funny by making jokes among-st the conversations, or saying knowledgeable things to make himself look smart in-front of Lilly. He also is very protective of her, by interrupting a conversation between Lilly and Nicholas as William feels threatened by how well they are getting on, and William sticks up for Lilly towards the end of the scene. But throughout this scene he is always trying to prove he is helpful as he is always trying to help Lilly. Later in the rehearsal stage we looked at the characters in the scene and what we see them as, kind of like objects, at the beginning William sees Lilly as a rare object and he acts like a excited puppy, but speaks to her as if she is delicate. He sees Bennett as an elastic band its fun to play with but when it snaps it hurts, he sees Nicholas as a tool its helpful, he feels that introducing him to Lilly will help William to make conversation with Lilly, he sees Tanya as a hurdle he has to get over, as she comes in and interrupts what he is saying to Lilly and this irritates him, and he sees Chadwick as a comfort blanket as he feels that Chadwick understands him.

Scene 2:

For scene two I have two scene objectives, but they both intertwine with one another. One of them is "to open up to Lilly," in this scene he tells Lilly a few things about himself and even lies about some things he says, but this is all to gain Lilly's sympathy. My second objective is "to ask Lilly out" I use this objective to help with my blocking and the way I say the lines, a play him almost like a nervous child who really wants to say something but he cant, this fits with the lines as he does tend to ramble on a lot especially when Lilly looks at him.

Scene 3:

Scene three William says he has lost 100 pounds, we decided that he was lying about this as well, just like when younger people ask someone out and when they are rejected they act out so that the other person can see them, basically getting more attention. So scene 3's objective is "to gain sympathy" or "to be the center of attention" I say this because even though he hardly speaks in this scene, he wants attention from Lilly and later lies to Chadwick about how much money he will inherit so he can get more attention.

Scene 4:

Scene 4 is when William becomes very distant from his friends his thoughts are very scattered and this makes it difficult to choose an objective, by this point William knows Lilly doesn't love him, Lloyd has had a heart attack, and now Bennett has mocked William and his dead brother. This is the predominant scene where William has snapped this is the scene that changes his through line completely.

Scene 5:

William's objective in this scene is "to warn Lilly" with everything that's happened William latches onto the only thing that makes him "happy" he tells Lilly to meet him, telling her what's going on with him, at this point i think he knows he is going to kill his friends. But as a class we did wonder if William does kill Lilly as in scene 6 he says that Lilly is dead, then says she is actually in  a lot of trouble.

Scene 6:

His objective in this scene is "to kill everyone", I play him quite distant from reality as if he thinks its just a game, but there are points where anger comes through, but by the end of the scene he is completely different than he was at the beginning. in this scene we do not know what happened to Lilly the night before, and so we looked through the text and found that he says she is dead at the end, and in one part he repeats the word rape, so we came to a conclusion that he had raped her and killed her as she isn't even mentioned by the doctor in scene 7 when William asks how Tanya is? Now although this may not be what actually happened to Lilly it gives me something to bounce off whenever he mentions Lilly in this scene.

Scene 7:

Throughout scene 7 we looked at the fact that most people who have committed a crime and are caught, feel that the only thing the now have is their crime, so they talk about it a lot and consider themselves celebrity's. So the way I play William in scene 7 is that he is looking for a reaction from Dr Rachel Harvey, and when he doesn't get one he acts out in order to get one e.g. there is a part where William asks "does it make you sick what I did?" he doesn't get a reaction from Dr Harvey and so repeats it again, but firmer when he gets an answer he immediately changes the subject

TO BE COMPLETED

Through out the blocking stage of rehearsals, I have been finding it difficult to understand how to play William in each scene, you see he isn't played exactly the same through the play he changes how he feels in each scene. To work on this I have been reading the play more and more in order to understand his lines as well as finding certain bits of subtext withing lines or scenes. However another problem picked up in class by Adam is that i play William on a level for each scene, we didn't know whether this was because i was reading the lines, but to make sure this doesn't happen i have been learning my lines and reading them in different ways until if feel comfortable.

Character Study's Monologues.

Paul (Left) Danny (Middle) Jade (Right)
Motor-town by Simon Stephens

The contemporary piece I have chosen to perform is "Motor-town" by Simon Stephens, it's a dark look into the life of Danny and is set just after the Iraq war, the way that the script is written is fantastic the only character to be seen all the time throughout the play is Danny, and the other characters such as Lee, Jade and Paul crop up in different scenes, which allows you to concentrate on Danny and understand where the twists in his life lead him to. Now the character I will be playing is Paul, he is by far my favorite character in the play, purely because he is so eccentric that you grow to understand the character more than the others in the play, with the expectation of Danny, Danny goes to Paul in his shop to get his gun fixed, whilst there Danny meets Jade for the first time and also gets a rather random lecture from Paul that stems from, the meaning of life to what he feels the poor are really like.


Paul is a very observational, and a judgmental person you can tell this by looking at lines such as " It's full of fat kids in football shirts, isn't it? Lovely that. I like it round here more, though. I like the views, you understand?" and also "Good man. Good man. Good man. He's a bit of a weird old cunt though, don't you think?". He talks about some very touchy subjects in a vile manner, that at times makes sense, so I think that he is a very angry man who sees no consequence in what he says for instance he says, "You know the real reason why people tell you to adopt the brace position in the event of an emergency on an aeroplane? It's so the impact of the crash on the neck forces the spinal column into the skull and into the brain and kills you immediately. Rather than allowing you to suffer a prolonged and horrible death. That's the reason why, really." 
I also noticed that he comes across very protective of Jade but in a weird way, and maybe to protective of her, "Can I ask you this? Do you ever get that feeling? When you're in, you're in, you're in say a, a, a, a bar or a restaurant or walking down a street, and you see a girl. A teenage girl. You see the nape of her neck. In her school uniform. With her friends. All pigtailed. And you just want to reach out and touch. You ever get that?"But on top of all of this i think that Paul is a caring person, he is polite in his own way as well as understanding of problems, especially when Danny is talking about his wife's death:And he later talks about 9/11, "They don't let you take anything onto planes any more, Danny. Did you know that? Since 9/11. Fucking nothing. Apart from pens, oddly. They should take pens off you. That's what I think. The pen can be a lethal instrument. You can stab somebody in the eye. Push it all the way in. Cripple them at least. Cut into the brain. Leave them brain damaged. It'd be easy, that. I'd leave the end sticking out, wouldn't you?".

PaulWhat happened to your wife, Danny?

DannyShe got killed.

PaulNo.

DannyWe got robbed. She got shot in the chest.

PaulGood God, Danny, that's awful.

DannyYeah.

PaulWhen was this?

DannyA couple of years ago.

PaulDid they catch the fucker?

DannyYeah. He was a soldier. Some squaddie.

PaulFor God's sake. I'm really sorry to hear that. Aren't you, Jade? Aren't you sorry to hear that?

All sections in Speech Marks were taken from "Act 4" of the play Motor-town. 
I used Drama Online to read the script: http://www.dramaonlinelibrary.com/plays/motortown-iid-14115/do-9781408167373-div-00000022 

Monologues (Blog 1)

The two contemporary monologues I chose to looks at were Liam from Dennis Kelly's "Orphan", and Paul from Simon Stephen's "Motortown" I spent the first lesson exploring the text to grasp a basic idea of what the character was feeling.

Liam from "Orphan" in this scene is showing remorse to the fact he wants to be like Danny, Liam's Sister's husband, he explains how he wishes he was Danny, but it sickens him that he thinks like this. The play first saw the stage at the Edinburgh Fringe festival in the summer of 2009, its the story of Liam, who first arrives on stage covered in blood explaining that he was helping a victim of a stabbing who was lying in the gutters, but this is however a lie. Helen, his sister, is very loyal to her brother and so is torn between between doing the right thing and get him arrested, or protecting him from his own violent crime.

Paul from "Motortown" is explaining what he thinks of the poor in England, whilst fixing Danny's P.99, his pistol, the first time I read it I thought he was angry about what is happening to this country and so comes across very annoyed, however the gruesome fact about the scene is that he talks about everything so casually in such a vile manner. Motortown is an insight into the Iraq war, it is violent, fierce and controversial. Danny has come back from the war "I don't blame the war. I miss it. Its just you come back to this." is what Danny says, and so from this line you find that his view of England must be revolting. The story follows the difficulties he finds coming back to this estranged place that he fought for, with vivid images of violent torture running through his mind.

I had eventually decided to do Motortown, I felt there was more to work with and on, and it would be interesting to look at the character, Paul, in more depth to understand why he thinks this way, is it because of his brother or was it the way he was brought up, which leads me onto say that I feel that this character is very diverse there are many ways to play the scene and I would like to explore them until I find what's best for me.

The Two classical monologues that I have chosen to look at are Benedict from Shakespeare's "A Much Ado About Nothing" and Mercutio from Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet", with my classical I was looking for a speech that had fluidity to it making it different in the sense the pace would vary throughout.

The monologue extract for Mercutio is taken from act 1 scene 4 of "Romeo and Juliette" in this scene Romeo, Mecutio and Benvolio are wearing masks, on their way to the Capulate feast, yet Romeo is wondering how they are to get into the feast as they are Montogues. Throughout this scene Mercutio is mocking Romeo, by taking Romeo's words of love and twisting them into innuendos, Romeo explains that he had a dream that going to the fest is a bad idea, and this monologue is Mercutio telling Romeo that he has been visited by Queen Mab a fairies who visits your dreams, the speech tails of into bitter words until Romeo steps in to stop it.

Benedict's speech is taken from act 2 scene 3 of "Much Ado About Nothing", this scene looks at Benedict who speaks his thoughts aloud in the garden, whilst his friends plan how they are to trick Beatrice and Benedict to confess their love for one another, Benedict is explaining how love makes men into idiots, he talks about how Claudio could be turned from a good solider into a soft hearted man, and therefore he believes it is unlikely he will be able to love or be loved.

I have chosen to use Benedict's speech for my classical, as there is a significant difference from my contemporary, although you could say this about Mercutio's monologue he still shows bitterness towards something, just like Paul in Motortown. Also Benedict is very unsure about himself he observes and judges others, without realizing he is only judging the fact that he cannot confess his love for Beatrice, Paul, "Motortown" however is very sure of himself and judges other purely for the fact he can making him more confident in how he judges others so freely.

Punk Rock (Blog One)

Punk Rock looks into the school life for 9 Sixth-Former's, who are preparing to take their mock A-levels, whilst they go through the struggles of teenage life.

To look deeper into our characters we created a table with 5 categories, what my character says about themselves, what others say about my character, what my character says about others, facts and stage directions. We then looked through the script and filled in the table in order to find small personality factors about them, for instance William Carlisle is 17, my character, he
talks about others a lot and the things he says are observatory of the things characters say or do, which leads me to believe that he watches everyone very closely, but whenever he talks about him self he lies, and the only truthful things he says are "I'm rubbish me. I'm a waste of space. I'm not even worth the space I take up. I'm not even worth the paper I'm written on. I've got no friends. I've got no imagination. I've got no ideas." This proves that he doubts himself and has low self esteem

Looking deeper into the lines we found that William's home life is "rather ghastly" as he says in the play about Chadwick's home life, you see William lies about his parents death, when actually it is his brother who died as we find out later, but the way William talks about his parents was as if he wished they were, if you think about it a parent losing a child is heartbreaking and having another child to remind them of this could bring out the pain in a variety of ways such as smothering the child, spoiling them rotten to make up for the lost child, or it could be a constant reminder of the fact their child had died and so they don't treat their son kindly, and this is what we believe is happening with William, I also noticed that he has a weird relationship with his teacher Mr Lloyd, and I think that Lloyd is almost a parental figure in his life more than his parents.

William also has a childish side to himself, for instance he asks very personal and awkward question, like a child would because they don't know any better, also in scene two he and Lilly are talking about their lives and its almost as if they have to one up each other, Lilly says her mums a drunk and William reply's by saying his mum is dead, he then ups the anti by saying his dad is dead too, which then leads onto Lilly basically showing William her scars from self harming, which eventually leads onto her showing William how she burns her skin, this in tern is like two children in a school having an argument about who's dads bigger than who's but with more of a darker edge.

William has a lot of suppressed anger, which comes out more through out the play starting in scene two when he talks about the chavs he gets quite violent and malicious about it, i think this is because William doesn't talk to anyone about his problems, you can tell this because whenever he is with Lilly he is open about his life, whether it be lies or not, but when he is around the others he is just trying to fit in, as any young person has done.

I think that his long-term objective is to be accepted into Kings, a college he's applied for, then eventually make it to oxford or Cambridge like he says, his super objective is to be normal to settle down with some kids to be an architect and to own a house, which he says at the end of the play to the therapist, however the through-line that stops him from achieving this, is sadly the fact he kills his "friends."

In my opinion I think that William is ambitious, intelligent, hes very observant of his surrounding
, but on top of all of this he is troubled with anger and no way to express this therefore he is childish, viscous at times and has a very low confidence.

Classical Performance (Part 1)

In this extract of my four part blog assignment, I shall be looking at the social, historical and cultural background of the classical roles. I will be using my knowledge of my visit to the globe, and my thoughts and feelings on the play Julius Caesar, as well as research I have gathered on the characters.


Julius Caesar was a tragedy, that was thought to have been written in 1599, it looks the 44 BC conspiracy surrounding the Roman Dictator Julius Caesar's assassination, and then the fall of the conspirators at the Battle of Philippi, it also looks at the themes of honour, patriotism and friendship between the characters. The play is based on true events, but also sheds light on 16th century English Political views, for instance at this time Queen Elizabeth was 66-years-old, it was clear that she was never going to produce an air to the throne at this time, and so many of her subjects questioned what would happen upon her death. Many of them believed that chaos would hit the streets, once she died, so they were looking at who would take her place, and who would be fit to rule. If you look at the history and the play itself they intertwine with one another for instance, Julius Caesar had no children, just like Queen Elizabeth, also the play looks at Caesar "subjects" and how they are worried about how much chaos his death would bring to the people, which in turn does happen after Mark Antony's "Friends, Romans, Countrymen lend me your ears" speech, so it is as if Shakespeare was foreshadowing life events before they had happened. Also chronological errors within the language for instance Shakespeare has characters mention objects such as hat and doublets, that did not exist in ancient Rome, Caesar is written in to be wearing an Elizabethan doublet instead of the traditional Roman toga. 


However a lot of the play has true events of Ancient Rome written into it for instance:
The play begins with Caesar arriving from the Battle of Munda in 45 B.C, which summed up quickly is that the son's of Pompey wanted to avenge their father "Pompey the Great" who was assassinated trying to flee from Caesar after a battle over power, Caesar tracked down Pompey's sons to Spain where the battle took place.

Also the assassination of Julius Caesar was done so by Roman senators, who went by the name "Liberators", they were led by Gaius, Cassius Longinus and Marcus Junius Brutus, they committed this deed adjacent to the Theatre of Pompey on the 15th of march, also referred to by the Soothsayer when he warns Caesar "beware the Ides of March", at this time Caesar was declared a Dictator, and the senators feared that he would become too powerful and eventually overthrow the Senate who were in favor of tyranny, yet Caesar's assassination never led to the Roman Republic being restored, instead it caused a civil war between the "Liberators" and the Roman Empire, in which like the play the "Liberators" fall.

Our trip to the globe was a real eye opener, the experience of being stood in the pit was great, it really made you feel part of the atmosphere, and it added to the atmosphere being in such a large space with others shoving you about, as well as having the seated people see us in the pits made me feel more like a part of the play itself. The way the actors used the stage as well as the pits meant that there was no need for set, as they didn't have it back in Shakespeare's time, and this wasn't a problem as they took a completely different approach to it which was fantastic. We did a workshop during the trip and one thing that fascinated me was Shakespeare's approach to scripts, he didn't want to give people the script in full in case somebody stole his ideas so he gave them a script with their lines and line cue lines on it and just thought it was a fantastic way to not only protect his plays but also to learn cue lines, and I will in the future use this technique.

Blog 1 (Second Year)

The beginning of this year we have started to look at many things such as Shakespeare and classical texts and we are currently studying the play Julius Caesar, we are looking at a more contemporary play called punk rock by Simon Stephens which we will preform in college, and also we have been looking a lot at higher education, and have started to prepare monologues and are starting to learn how to come across in our auditions and interviews.

The first topic I shall be talking to you about is classical texts, and specifically Shakespeare, in our first lesson we watched a film called Julius Caesar that was staged and filmed by The Royal Shakespeare Company and whilst we were watching we had to look at the relationships between each character and connect them and explain why. We then in the next lesson looked at Iambic Pentameter which is kind of like the rhythm in which the sentences are said, for instance every other syllable should be stressed when you say it and there are mainly ten syllables in one sentence, and a lot of people think that Shakespeare plays only have a full stop at the end of the play because there is always something ti be said each sentence flows into another, another way of putting stress on certain words is to look for things such as Alliteration, Assonance, Rhyming, Paradoxes etc. in my opinion i think that it is much easier to understand what the character is feeling by listening to the stressed words for instance in Mark Antony's famous "Friends, Romans, Country men, lend me your ears" speech you can hear that he is trying to win them by his side and trying to make the people do what he wants just by listening to the words he stresses.

We later visited the globe theater to watch Julius Caesar from the pits, I personally didn't like watching the play, but listening to it was an experience in its self, and I know many people would have preferred to be able to sit whilst watching it, but being in the pits gave more of an experience with cast members walking through the crowd and people yelling in the pits, it felt like I was appart of the crowd.

For Higher education we have been looking at UCAS, I do have 5 universities/Drama Schools that I would like to go but i will only share three, one is The Napier Universities in Edinburgh, they have a course there for acting for stage and screen, one of the reasons i would like to go there is because they have put both types of acting into one course, which makes it easier for me to learn it all at one time rather than spending many a years moving through higher education, also Edinburgh has the Fringe festival on and so it would be an amazing experience to try and perform in that, and I also i'm rubbish when it comes to accents I find it easier to pick up on them when i'm surrounded by the accent and so I do wish to travel a lot to learn more accents.

The next one is Regents university to study Acting and Global theater, the reason for which I want to go is because the course is so weird and wonderful that i could pick up new techniques in order to experiment with my different styles of acting, this course is part of the Kevin spacey foundation and he does 2 masterclasses with you, and I find it easier to learn something from someone who is in the industries now and so can talk to you about the demands etc.

The third one is St Johns in Liverpool, their course looks a lot at screen acting, but throughout the course their they send you on work experience and set you up with the BBC, and so they teach you whilst trying to get you into the career at the same time.

We have been looking a lot at auditions and interviewing tactics, and currently I am learning a monologue from Motor-town and it looks at a guy called Paul, he seems to be very racist but I think that that is purely down to his upbringing and how annoyed he is when he looks around him. When I first preformed this speech I played it too angry because I only had the words in front of me and didn't know the actual play, I was told that i should be more laid back talking about it as if it was normal to say these things, and i think this would shock an audience more.


Currently we are looking at a play called Punk Rock, it is set in the present day and looks at 9 characters who all attend a six form college, it looks at the struggles of each very different character and in my opinion is relate-able to our young society today, which if you get to the end is very frightening. When we did the read through I liked the part of Bennett and also William, i think this was because they were unlike any characters I had played previously. After the read through we were given parts, I am playing the part of William, which at first I was a little worried about, but now im more curious as to what I can bring to the role.

On the first week of looking and performing the script we looked at objectives, there are 5 parts to objectives one is short term, which is what you character is thinking in that exact moment of time, whether it be I need some water or I am hungry, then you have your scene objective, so what your character would like to get out of at the end of the scene, which is normally something to do with another character, then you have long objectives which is where your character see's themselves in 10 or so years, for instance my character would be looking at what university he would be going to, then super objectives, this is your end life goal, which for most normal people is to be happy, the thing that changes how you get to the super-objectives is the through line, these are events that change you path through your characters life.

An example of these are Scene one Williams short term objective is to put his headphones away as he has seen Lilly, his scene objective is to try to make Lilly like him, then his long term objective is to attend Oxford or Cambridge, his super objective is to be an architect, to have children, to buy a small house and to be normal, but this is changed by the through line which get changed during the events of the ending.

I liked looking at objectives because it made the scene more playful and gave you something to think about at all times, it made it easier to get into character just by thinking what would he do in this situation, or what is he thinking about at this exact time.

Commedia Dell'Arte (Blog 1)

Commedia Dell'Arte is an improvised kind of popular comedy that was in Italian theatres in the 16th–18th centuries, and it used a variety of stock characters. Actors adapted their comic dialogue and action according to a few basic plots (normally their love intrigues) and to topical issues.

We first looked at the different characters used in Commedia, these are called stock characters, which are a range of characters who all have different personalities and traits, and when they are put in a scenario with other characters the outcome is different every time and also very funny, male stock characters include:

Magnifico- We had a look at this character, but didn't really play around with him, personally I think he is a bit boring and I couldn't see any comic potential form using him.

The Lovers- They are also known as actor one and two, me and Reece created an improvisation using two male lovers who were talking about a girl they had just met and were boasting about it, but little did they know that they were talking about the same girl. I really enjoyed playing a lover, and I think that me and Reece bounce off each other well.

Pantalone- Pantalone was by far my favourite character to improvise with, I think that his comic potential comes from his stance, and also the fact he is an old man who thinks that ladies love him.

The Doctor- I didn't have a chance to try out this character, but watching others adapt the stance into a hippie like doctor was hilarious, I think he is funny because he claims to know everything about illness, but he doesn't he just makes everything up and everyone is convinced.

Punch- Punch is a very difficult character to play because he is meant to be very rude and in your face, but playing him is hard, as you have to play his character without having the audience shocked at what's happening because you want them to laugh.

Harlequin- I didn't like the harlequin very much as they had to be very quick on their feet, and their comedic potential lied in how they move and the things that they did to get in the scenarios.

Brigella- Brigella is a smarter version of Harlequin and takes pride in doing their work, but in initially I wasn't drawn to this character as it just seemed very boring.

The Captain- I found that this character was also very funny, but there was only one thing I could think to do with this character and that was to boast, The Captain makes out they do a lot of dangerous things, but is really a coward.

Zanni- These are the lowest of the low in the master servant role and they are very stupid, I think that there is potential with the Zanni as they can look very visually funny.

So after looking at characters we started to look at settings, at first this seemed really easy it wasn't until we try to improvise the scenes that it got harder, some of the scenes I looked at were as follows:

BBC Studios- this was the first setting I looked at, we went down the children's show route as we thought it was very simplistic, little did we know how difficult it was and I found it difficult playing a punch character in this scene.

Bank- Later I went in a group who tried a bank scene, we had the idea of having everyone in line and having different problems in the bank, this was easier but it did drag out for a bit.

One of the settings I was drawn to was Buckingham Palace, now I didn't get a chance to try this setting but watching others do it was fantastic. I didn't like the prison idea as it seemed to be very complicated.

So eventually we started to pick groups we didn't settle on two scenes only one, so one group looked at the Buckingham Palace idea, and the others looked at many settings that they could do, but eventually we decided to join as one big group and do the Buckingham Palace idea. We also chose characters, but when we looked at them we also looked at what sort of character they would be in the Palace, I first chose to be a Captain and we thought about him being David Cameron, but then we thought that the Captain could be Prince Williams publicity double, and I really liked that idea, after trying a few scenes with the Captain I eventually came to a block, I couldn't think of how I could use him to create comic scenes, so I decided we should make the publicity double dumber, and want with the character Harlequin, now at the beginning of the module I didn't want to play a Harlequin, but after improvising a few scenes I loved the character.

Vocal Essay

The voice is and actors main tool, as well as the body or the face, and in this essay I shall be explaining how to keep a healthy voice and what to stay away from.

The first thing I will talk about is what you consume, this is because what you eat or drink can affect your voice in different ways as your oesophagus and trachea are so close together:

Alcohol - Alcohol can cause "Vocal Strain", you can put you vocal cords at risk of drying out because the muscles in your throat can become restricted. Drinking Alcohol and using your voice daily can cause permanent damage to your voice, and it can also change your vocal range.

Coffee - Coffee in excessive amounts can cause discomfort, but saying this it isn't the worst effect, coffee can tighten your muscles which results in your vocal range being restricted.

Milk and Dairy Products - Milk contains lactic acid, which can create a thick layer of phlegm, this can stop you from having clean and clear sounding vocals. If your going to drink milk before a performance it is best to drink some water after in order to get rid as much phlegm as possible. Milk doesn't not damage your vocal cords, but it can effect it before a show along with other dairy products.

Acid Fruit Juices and Fizzy Drinks - Acid Fruit Juices can cause a build up of mucus, which as I've already spoken about can effect your vocals, but Fizzy Drinks or any Drinks with Aspartame can damage your vocal cords.

Food - Cheese, yogurt, ice cream (dairy products) can create phlegm. Excessive salt, oranges, lemons, grapes and pineapple are acidic and can dry out your throat. Green vegetables can create gas and a feeling of bloat. Chocolate, ketchup, tomato products, fried foods, mustard, citrus, onions, peppermint, vinegar as they are heartburn triggers. Foods that are salty or contain caffeine may dry out your mouth and make it difficult to sing. In addition, heartburn triggers are important to avoid. No singer wants their stomach acid running into their oesophagus! If this does in fact happen then you may experience inflammation in your vocal cords which will damage your voice and has the potential to lead to the loss of your voice.

Hot Food can also damage your vocal abilities, but you can heal them by, drinking a lot of water to soothe your vocal cords. Just as mentioned here earlier, water is the best lubricant for your vocal membrane and it will help you to heal fast if your vocal cords are damaged. You should drink lukewarm water to soothe your vocal cords and avoid it when it is too cold or too hot.

 

Things that can improve your voice for a performance are as follows:

 

Baking Soda and Corn Syrup Solution - This solution is especially useful if an air-conditioner has dried out your throat. It involves using baking soda as a throat gargle.

 

 

 

 




Honey and Warm Water - Honey has a soothing effect on your vocal cords. Mix a 1/2-tsp of honey in with a glass of lukewarm water before you begin your performance. If you suffer from pollen-based allergies, using a local honey has the added benefit of helping build your tolerance to local pollens. As allergens can have an affect on your voice, any chance you have to avoid them would be to your benefit. Also, remember that sugar can sometimes coat your throat and have negative effects,
so it best to use a honey labelled "all natural"as some regular store brands have added sugars.
 
 


  

 

 

 

Pure Fruit Juice - Drinking fresh, pure fruit juice, such as pineapple, grape and apple juices, help you maintain a high level of energy, and generally help your immune system. Do not drink acidic fruit juices such as orange and grapefruit any less than an hour before you're due to sing as the citric acid can cause mucus to develop in the throat.

 

 

 

Food - Hard candy, liquorice tea, herbal tea and water are all soothing for the throat. Chicken, almonds, fish, yellow vegetables, apples, eggs, and rice. Ginger and Ginger extracted hot drink. In the
Philippines, they call this hot, soothing drink salabat. There is a place there called Cebu wherein most people are fond of putting ginger in any kind of food and they also drink the salabat regularly. In this place, a lot of people have good singing voices. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Do you have excessive amounts of thick mucus?

Heavy mucus and preforming is a big No No. The heavy phlegm will stop the laryngeal ligaments from vibrating fast for a high frequency or a high note. Abused vocal cords = Nodules!

If you have allergies you will need a doctor to give you antihistamines as the mucus will certainly affect your health. Antihistamines dry up the heavy mucus but at the same time will dry your natural saliva which means - NO PREFORMING while on antihistamines!

Home Remedies to sooth the voice:

Don't use your voice - Talking while you have an infection in your throat otherwise known as Laryngitis can cause permanent damage to your vocal cords and promote the growth of vocal cord nodules which you definitely don't want.

Use Alcohol - Other people advise against alcohol but they are wrong. Alcohol is a powerful anti-bacterial agent. Don't gulp down the alcohol. Just micro-swallow it. Use the highest proof alcohol you can get your hands on. The idea here is not to get drunk so do this once per hour. Just a tiny bit.

 

 

Use mouthwash and let just a tiny amount of mouthwash to go down your throat - You don't want to drink it but a tiny bit won't hurt you. Do this once per hour. The next day you will be amazed how much your throat has improved.   

 

If your suffering from vomiting you need to protect your vocals and you need to because vomiting can cause irritation to the lining of the oesophagus. Vomiting forces stomach acid usually used to digest food into your voice box and that can cause burning of your vocal cords. The effects can be reduced volume when projecting or pain when projecting or speaking. Worse, it may bring about the need surgical voice repair. On the other hand, this can be avoided by through discipline. Eating the right kind of food, regular exercises, proper hydration and avoidance of stress can all help. Remember, prevention is better than cure.

 

The Wardrobe (Week 8)

This week was our final chance to rehears before next weeks shows, we had all our scenes blocked, so we all practiced our scenes in order to get the movements smooth and efficient, after we ran the show in full whilst plotting the music and how long it would go on for, I think that this run through just helped the group to not stress about whether we would get the show finished in time and it also helped that we had the music to work with as it really helped to get into character during the performance.

Later this week we were looking at costume and props which took some time, but once it was done everyone seemed to enjoy playing their characters which really excited the group for the show to come, this will help for next week as Sam Holcroft the writer of "The Wardrobe" likes writing for young people as they bring energy to the performance, and I think all of this excitement will be turned into energy next week.

We finally managed to get the wardrobe in a space where we could use it in rehearsals, this helped settle the groups nerves as we worried about breaking it at first, towards the end of the week we looked at the prologue and the epilogue, as a group we wanted it to look like our characters were echoes of the wardrobe and so we played around with a few ideas again, but the finished project looks fantastic and I cannot wait to preform it next week.

The Wardrobe Project (Week 7)

At the begging of the week, we each drew something that we felt represented the wardrobe, I drew a picture of the wardrobe, with key objects from each scene surrounding it, my favourite was one that had the wardrobe, but with lots of squiggles outside, now most people didn't get it at first, but when it was explained they said that it was all the bad things trying to get in, making it look like a safe place.

This week I looked at both of my scenes, scene 10 and scene 3. When we looked at scene ten our focus was on the characters and how they can be played differently, this affected our blocking as at times we had to change certain bits to suit our characters personality, all though my character still needed work, we mainly looked at Nell and her personality and how she would react to something Antony does or says, which later we went into the relationship between Nell and Antony, this session helped me greatly as I felt that the blocking we had already done looked very awkward because neither one of us really understood why our characters where doing what they were, but in this session we created little bits of blocking such as Antony chasing Nell for the catalogue, this looks like both the characters are playful which is what we are looking for.

Scene 3 however hadn't been blocked up till this session for various reasons, I think most of the group including myself were nervous about this scene, as we didn't want to make Carol's death look comical and make the audience laugh. We tried a few ideas out for entering the scene, but we had to get it right because the moment you walk onto that stage for your scene, you either want the audience to understand the pre-scene events, or to wonder what is about to happen, which draws them in, the idea that we came up with for each character shows the difference in how each of them have reacted to the pre-scene event, my character, Henry, is scared, which is understandable as he is only 13, where as Bradly's character, Martin, is Henry's older brother and so when he enters he looks for the hiding spot to keep them both safe, when Tobias enters, played by Zach, he is numb as he has just watched his mother die in front of him, Yasmin plays Carol, and Carol has just watched her friend get dragged into the street, and her hand get decapitated in the door, so Yasmin plays her very frantic.

At the end of this week we started to think about the prologue, and try out ideas. We looked at each scene entering the wardrobe in sequence order, but personally I felt this was missing something and was quite boring, but I do understand why we tried the idea as we were looking at having the scenes look like echoes. We also looked at tangling our selves up inside of the wardrobe and then coming out, I thought that this was quite messy looking, and many of us worried about breaking the wardrobe. The final thing we looked at was doing our own tableaux's inside of the wardrobe, and I felt that this would look better as the epilogue.   

Wardrobe Project (Week 6)

This week we looked at the Nell and Antony scene, I had found it difficult at first because I was trying to find an energy or something similar that suited his character, we then experimented with trying to be like other people in the class, to see if that would take me away from being myself. Eventually we found that he was playful and naive, but deep down is worried about the coming events. After blocking the scene me and Charlotte looked at energy states for our scene we thought that maybe for Nell the bomb is in the room the whole time and she is bottling up what she is feeling, but Antony at this point is aware something is up, but is trying to cover it over until later in the scene where them bomb actually goes off.

 After that lesson I had a look at different films during this era, just to see if I could find someone similar to Antony, but unfortunately I couldn't, most WW1 films had very cocky men, who didn't seem to be scared, but I think that Antony is scared but doesn't like to show it and makes jokes about things.

Later that week we looked at trying to say our lines in a believable manner, I first started to work with scene 3 it took some time because the scene it's self is very tense and to feed the lines in a believable way didn't work unless we tried to act the scene out. Also with the scene three group we looked at doing our scene in a faster pase, and also in the style of something, this helped to look at different ways of acting the scene out. We later did some freeze frames for different key points in the scene, which I thought could be a good idea for the prologue, if we had everyone in the key freeze frame for their scene, so it gives the audience a taste of what is about to happen.

The Wardrobe Project (Scene Analysis)

Date: 19th June 1916



Location: Great Britain, Industrial, Auction House.
 

Character: Antony Edward Leverson Gower, Ellen Anne Rigby.

19th June 1916, was two years after WW1 had begun, it is also the year that the "Battle of Somme", which began July 1st 1916 the research a found about the battle is as shown:

"As the 11 British divisions walked towards the German lines, the machine guns started and the slaughter began. Although a few units managed to reach German trenches, they could not exploit their gains and were driven back. By the end of the day, the British had suffered 60,000 casualties, of whom 20,000 were dead: their largest single loss. Sixty per cent of all officers involved on the first day were killed." (1)

This leads me onto the pre-scene event, this was Antony being conscripted to war, I know this because:

"A man wishing to join the army could do so providing he passed certain physical tests and was willing to enlist for a number of years. The recruit had to be taller than 5 feet 3 inches and aged between 18 and 38 (although he could not be sent overseas until he was aged 19). He would join at the Regimental Depot or at one of its normal recruiting offices. The man had a choice over the regiment he was assigned to. He would typically join the army for a period of 7 years full time service with the colours, to be followed by another 5 in the Army Reserve. (These terms were for infantry: the other arms had slightly different ones. For example, in the artillery it was for 6 years plus 6). When war was declared there were 350,000 former soldiers on the Army Reserve, ready to be called back to fill the establishment of their regiments." (2)

These events appear in the scene when Nell says "I don't want a wedding present for a wedding I might not have", this is what both characters are very sensitive about in the scene.

The scene shows both characters searching for a wedding gift, as they are engaged, they both are very naive and playful with one another, until Nell brings up Antony being conscripted to war, this is the dramatic turn of events in the scene, if I was to put this into an energy state, this part is when the bomb goes off in the room, both characters energies change drastically, going from about a 4, which is neutral as both characters are acting how they normally would to one another, to then change into an 8, when Antony realises that something is wrong, as Nell is acting differently, to eventually turn to a 9, the bomb has gone off, which is exactly when Nell brings up the conscription and the war to Antony and how she feels about it.



The character are Antony, who is 18 years old just about to be sent out to fight in the war there was such thing as the "Military Service Act" I found out:

"The Act specified that men from 18 to 41 years old were liable to be called up for service in the army unless they were married, widowed with children, serving in the Royal Navy, a minister of religion, or working in one of a number of reserved occupations. A second Act in May 1916 extended liability for military service to married men, and a third Act in 1918 extended the upper age limit to 51." (3)

 But Antony wasn't married just yet only engaged, but I do think that he would have signed up anyway because of how it was frowned upon not to, and I think that he thinks about his pride a lot also, but many young men forged their birth certificate, which also makes me believe he is scared about the war. And I think that he dies in "The Battle of Somme" because this is in the year he is sent out and also many people died in this battle, he is very playful with Nell, but is also very naive also.

Nell on the other hand seems to be very controlled by what her mother has said previously, I know this because she says about how she told her mum she is going to need a huge handmade wardrobe, to which her mother apparently replied "Fat chance, people like us only have two outfits to their names, a set of flannel pyjamas and a serving apron." This shows that her mother has a big influence on the actions and decisions she makes. Like Antony she is also very playful and naive, but the thought of Antony going to war is something she holds back a lot by the look of things because in the scene she’s trying to look interested, but the thought is sitting with her until she eventually brings it up later in the scene. Nell is 17 and this was quite normal to get married at this age, me and Charlotte both believe she is from a working class, but we also think that Antony is more middle class, as they are both looking for an expensive present in an auction.



Costume and props would have to be from their era, but they would have to be props that can symbolise their era and also the fact they are in an auction house. A few ideas I have for props are these:

 

Props:



Antique French Louis Philippe Mahogany Chest circa 1840-1850













 



Above is an Antique Louis Philippe Mahogany Chest, I have chosen this item because not only is this an antique, but it also dates back to before their era, which fits in with the auction house setting, but it also looks like something that someone from 1916 would by themselves, and it would also fit in with the wardrobe by the way it looks.





Victorian Vanity Table
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Above is a Victorian Vanity table, I have chosen this because it doesn't look too modern, like I have said I would like it to look like its before 1916 but I think that the wooden look would act the feeling of being in an auction house. Also I like this because in the script Antony refers to a Victorian Vanity table when he says, "or what about this Victorian Vanity Table?", which is why it would fit in well with the scene very well.

 

William Kay Blacklock (British artist, 1872-1924) Sunlight and Shadow
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I have also chosen this painting, as it was a bit before 1916, which would could symbolise an auction house, but also Antony mentions a painting, as he says "well what about a painting" this is when he is trying to take Nell's mind off buying the wardrobe as its very expensive.

 

 Costume:

For costume I have looked at images from 1916 to get a feel for what Antony and Nell might wear, here is what I had found:

 



First Image
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Second Image
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Final Image
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I think that Antony is middle class, and so I looked at what a few of them would wear, I chose the first picture because this looks like something you would on a day out with family or friends, and in this scene Antony is out looking for a wedding present. The Second photo I found looks like something that Antony would wear when working, all thought the bowler hats indicate that they were working class, I think that the rest of the attire would be suitable if Antony has just come from work to look for antiques. The final image I have found, would be the helmet and the jacket that we are planning on having Antony finishing the scene, as he steps out of the wardrobe and puts his uniform on in order to go to war, which would fit in if we were planning on having him die in "The Battle of Somme" we could hear a whistle which is when he exits, as they blew a whistle just before you about to go into no mans land.













Image 1
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When me and Charlotte were looking at our characters, we decided that she would be a lower class than Antony this is because there is a line where Nell says "Fat chance she said, people like us have two outfits to their name, that's a set of flannel pyjamas and a serving apron, that's all we will ever need. So I had a look at working class clothes for women in 1916, and from both the images I think Nell should wear a dress that is long, and plain, because as you can see in image one they don't have crazy patters its either plain or stripy, and in image two I noticed that their dress are quite light, even though its in black and white, and then they also have boots, and their dresses are not very reviling which is what I think Nell should be wearing. I think that as they are both out on a trip that Nell might wear a tea dress, or something as equally as innocent looking.



Image 2
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(1)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/worldwars/wwone/battle_somme.shtml

(2)

http://www.1914-1918.net/recruitment.htm

 

(3)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_Service_Act_1916  

(4)

http://www.1stdibs.com/furniture/storage-case-pieces/commodes-chests-of-drawers/antique-french-louis-philippe-mahogany-chest-circa-1840-1850/id-f_783100/

(5)

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Oak-Striped-Cream-2-pc-Victorian-Vanity-Table-Set-/390332514416

(6)

http://bjws.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/women-outdoors-with-their-dogs-1800.html

(7)

http://www.british-genealogy.com/forums/showthread.php/69789-Help-with-ages-of-men-in-early-1900s-photo

(8)

http://www.thebespokenfor.net/ronsfashionlife/2010/11/

(9)

http://www.edwardianpromenade.com/war/wwi-wednesday-the-uniform-of-a-british-soldier/

(10)

http://listverse.com/2012/12/16/10-ways-our-great-grandparents-screwed-over-women/

(11)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lowell_Mill_Girls


 (1532 Words)