Unit 9 - Final Performance (A Vampire Story)

For this unit we are doing a play called  'A Vampire Story' By Moira Buffini. The play is about two young women trying to settle in a small British town. As the youngest of the two tells her story, a strange and ambiguous past is revealed. A Vampire Story was written for the National Theatre's connections programme in 2008 and a film was made based off the play. Moira Buffini was born on the 29th May 1965. She is an English dramatist, director and actor. She advocates for big, imaginative plays rather than naturalistic soap opera dramas and is a founder member of monsterists, a group of playwrights who promote new writing of large scale work to British theatre. Buffini is also a prolific screenwriter, she adapted her play 'A Vampire story' for the screenplay of Neil Jordan's film Byzantium (2013). other plays that were adapted by her or other plays she adapted: 'Tamara Drewe' (2010) film adaptation of Posy Simmon directed by Stephen Fears, her adaptation of 'Jane Eyre' (2011) for BBC Films and Ruby films. She also took part in the Bush Theatre's 2011 project 'Sixty Six Books' where she wrote a piece based on a book of the King James Bible. 

History Of Vampires

A vampire is a creature from folklore that survives off drinking human blood as their source of food. In European folklore vampires are undead creatures that visited loved ones and caused mischief and death in neighbourhoods they lived in when they were alive. They wore shrouds (a cloth that cover or protects some other object) and often described as bloated and of ruddy or dark appearance. The existence of vampires have been recorded in most cultures; the term vampire was popularised in Western Europe after reports of an 18th-Century mass hysteria of a pre-existing folk belief in the Balkans and Eastern Europe that in some cases involved corpses being staked and people being accused of vampirism. Other versions in Eastern Europe were also known by different names, such as shtriga in Albania, Vrykolakas in Greece, and Strigoi in Romania. In modern times, the vampire is known as a fabricated entity, although beliefs in similar vampiric creatures such as Chupacabra still persists in some cultures. The charismatic and sophisticated vampire of modern fiction was created in 1819 with the publication of 'The Vampyre' by English writer John Polidori. Vampire literature cover the literary work concerned principally with the subject of vampires. Before becoming one of the stock figures with gothic fiction with the publication of Polidori's 'The Vampyre' which was inspired by the life and legend of Lord Byron. Later influential works include the 'Penny dreadful Varney the Vampire' (1847); Sheridan Le Fanu's tale of a 'Lesbian Vampire', Carmilla (1872), and the masterpiece of the genre: Bram Stoker's 'Dracula' (1897). Some authors created a more "sympathetic vampire", with Varney being the first, and Anne Rice's 1976 novel 'Interview with the Vampire' as a more recent example. 

Finding out about the history of vampires as well as Vampire Literature gives a more in-depth idea of why and how Vampires in stories and movies are so popular and is very helpful for me as it helps picture as to why Moira Buffini would choose vampires as a way to drive the story and lure us in as an audience and catch our attention.

 Links  

Moira Buffini - Wikipedia
Vampire - Wikipedia

Vampire Literature - Wikipedia

Characterisation
The character I play in the performance is Ella. Ella as a character is I would say very awkward and weird in the way she moves and talks, The way she moves would just be a bit fast paced as if she doesn't want to be in the place she is at and just wants to leave as soon as possible. The way she talks as a character and the tone of her voice would be a neutral tone and almost if she's out of it and a bit in her own world depending on who it is ad what she is talking to. For example, around Claire (her sister)she would probably talk and use of a more aggressive tone towards her as they don't see eye to eye and aren't that close to each other but when she's in school she's more neural and doesn't want to be there and seems more out of it and is distant with other people, almost like she doesn't fit in with the people around her or has many friends until she met Frank. Ella and Frank grow close through out and you can see that they bond over the fact that they are both outcasts with not many friends and know what it feels like to be misunderstood by others like their family. Not only that she doesn't have the best relationship with her sister Claire as they don't see eye to eye most of the time because Claire tries to stop Ella from telling their secret that they're vampires and because of that Ella doesn't like Claire forcing her to keep their secret. Ella I just think wants to speak her truth and stop hiding from who she really is without people stopping her even if it means people think she is weird, that's her mind set throughout the play. She just wants to be free and be herself without anyone stopping her. To get into character better in class we watched a movie based on the play called Byzantium and throughout the movie I watched how the actor portrayed the character of Ella and compared it to how she is the the play and how I can portray it in my own way with added inspiration from the movie as well.

Lessons and Rehearsals

The beginning of this unit we read through the script together. My initial thought of the play when I first read it is that I found it very confusing and I didn't understand much of what was going on but at the same time I found it quite imaginative in a way. Then we got into groups and wrote about the themes, plot, and the meanings behind the play and the significance it has. After we created a scenario based off the themes of the play. The themes of the play are abuse, manipulation, and isolation. This can be shown with the abuse Ella has faced in present times and in her past life with her abuse on eating disorders and the abusive relationship between her and Claire mentally both in present and past as well as the abuse Ruthven gave to 19th century Ella by forcing her to be a prostitute at a young age. Themes of isolation in the play can be shown in school as Ella is secluded from the rest of her classmates for being different and this can also be shown for 19th century Ella  trying to survive in the world from a young age by herself. For manipulation goes back to the relationship between Ella and Claire with Claire manipulating Ella from keeping her to tell everyone their secret. In our groups we also looked into the symbolisms in the play and what it could mean along with what it could try to tell the audience. For example, in scene 6 at Franks party throughout the scene Ella refuses to eat anything which to the audience can indicate that Ella struggles with an eating disorder but as she has mentioned previously in the play that she's a vampire it could symbolise her resistance towards human food and a temptation towards human blood instead. Doing this group activity is useful as it gives us as the actor a better understanding of the play, plus, a better idea of what the characters in the play are like so when starting to rehearse and getting into the play we have an idea on how to portray the character we're playing as.  

  

 During Friday lessons we did warmups one where one person would ask a question and the rest would have to answer. This helps because it made us more aware of our surroundings and made us wake up more and work our brain. As well as that we did vocal exercises and tongue twisters. This is to help expand our vocals and pronunciation. We then did an improv where we would start a sentence in alphabetical order then did another improvisation where we had to improvise the first sentence and carry on from there .e.g. "Where are you going?". What I learned from this is improving and working on our listening skills and being more aware of what is going on. We then started rehearsing and learned about blocking which is the movement of the character in the stage space as well as that worked on thought process meaning being able to react and use facial expressions in the moment when other actors are speaking, basically what the character is thinking during the process on what's going on around them. What I learned from this is trying to play off from other characters and how to react when I'm not speaking. We then cut out scenes from the script and continued working on thought process. during lessons we also learned about profiling which is the act or process of general information about a person based on known traits. Learning this is helpful as it helps understand my character more and pick up on the habits and tendencies my character usually does and focus on how I can develop my character better. We also did more warm ups and exercises. On lessons with Shenagh we focus on more mouth and breathing exercises such as breathing in for four seconds and out for ten or vocal exercises such as "G G G B B B D D D" or tongue twisters such as "Around the rugged rock the ragged rascal ran"  doing these exercises regularly helps stretch out our vocal cords and helps with projecting our voices better as well as helping with our pronunciation. During the first few weeks of rehearsals we were mainly focusing on scenes 1-5 and focused on getting our lines down. For the first few weeks of rehearsals it was a bit difficult to get the lines down especially since I have a lot of lines to remember but by the end of the week I managed to get most of my lines from scenes two-three down since I practically already knew my lines from scene one. We recorded each other during rehearsals to look back on and see what we could improve on for future rehearsals. 

As it got closer towards performance day I had gotten use to my lines and have practically learned most of my lines from the script there were some lines in certain scenes I would keep mixing up or forgetting but other than that everything was fine, everyone else had been getting on with rehearsing and we had been progressing really well when it comes to scenes and remembering lines and just being quick about it. There were days where we didn't have much energy and just didn't practice as well as other days so in order to pick up the pace Shenagh made us walk around quickly and she would say a number and whatever that number is we would walk in that pace of the number while saying our lines quickly in that pace. I would say that was very helpful because it help me think more quickly and helped me become more aware of what's going on when focusing on when my  next line is, But other than that most days we were very focused and concentrated in rehearsals. Few weeks before performance day we focused more on scenes nine-twelve those few weeks I was struggling the most because I couldn't remember some of my lines as I kept either forgetting or mixing it up (same for scene five) but I managed to get a hang of it a little The last few days of rehearsals we had technical rehearsals. The first day of our technical rehearsals was basically just a run through and setting up  the cues for what lighting appears for what scene and when it changes and how and where everything is set when it comes to props as well as for music and what cue does the music come in. We were all focused in making sure to remember when and where our cues were and we were all just patient and concentrating throughout. Second day of technical rehearsal we did a proper run through with the lighting and music cues and getting used to when we need to appear or leave for certain scenes and just memorising and getting use to the lighting and music. Throughout the first two technical rehearsals there was still a few lines I kept missing or just mixing up but other than that everything went really well and everyone worked well together and pushed through with the rehearsal. 

The final day of the technical rehearsal AND the day of the performance we got to do a costume rehearsal and by the third and final day we all got the hang of it and made sure we all got the cues right in time and managed to memorise our lines. I'd say that the final technical rehearsal went really good everyone was focused and knew what to do and most of us were pretty confident in our lines and knew what we were doing. When we had to do our actual performance I was pretty nervous as I was worried I'd forget my lines or that I'd miss a cue and was worried if everyone else would do the same. There was this one scene where me and Chris (who stood in for someone else) had to swap places but that didn't happen immediately which made me panic a bit but we did end up swapping places so it was good. There was bits of scene nine where I did forget to say some lines but it wasn't noticeable to the audience so I wasn't so worried. I remembered most of my cues and lines and did a pretty good performance and I'm happy that everyone was mostly able to get their cues right and remember their lines. Overall it was a pretty strong performance from everyone and we all acted really great and I'm pleased with how things turned out in the performance. If there was anything in the performance I personally thought I could do better it would be to be more exaggerative throughout and speak up a bit more as even though I did well I felt like I could do better and pull of a more stronger performance. 

 

Vampire Story production (lighting)

For production I was chosen to do lighting and was paired up with Keana work with. When we got paired together we both started working on what we thought would look best on stage and what lighting would work well and what would not so we worked on diagrams to map out what we thought the staging of the lighting would look like. Each week we would focus on working on the diagrams and giving ideas to each other on what we each thought would go best for the performance and would work on our own then come together to share our ideas and combine them together in what we thought would work and fit in. On days where we had Becca we would all go sit around a table to discuss about production and give ideas on what each of us are going to do. We didn't do all the diagrams for each scene in one day so whenever we could in lessons with Becca. Overall, for certain scenes when making them were simple and not much had to be added to them like for the first three scenes were very simple as it's just a floodlight being use with a little bit of colour used for in the background. The scenes for the lighting weren't that complicated and there was only for two scenes where we had to use bright or bold colours for which that we didn't use any natural lighting at all. Since the diagrams was in Keana's computer she had to send them to me but there were problems in which I couldn't download them so I decided to redo them and save the diagrams on my computer. I think overall we both did a good job working on lighting, if there was anything I thought I could do more it would be to participate and give more ideas than I should've.

Unit 4 - Silent film

For this Unit we have been working on Silent films. A silent film is a film that has no dialogue or any audio at all so actors in the film need to exaggerate their movements and facial expressions for the audience to understand what's going on. 

History of Silent films

In the 1800s inventors like Thomas Edison and the Lumiere Brothers worked on machines that projected images. The term 'silent film' is a bit wrong as these films were almost always accompanied with live sound. During the silent era (mid-1890s to late 1920s) a pianist, a theatre organist, and small orchestras would often play music to accompany the films. Pianists or organists would either play from a music sheet or improvise. Theatres in small towns usually had piano accompaniment, while larger theatres would just bridge the gap between a piano and an orchestra with massive theatre organs. Just like contemporary films, music was seen as essential to the viewing experience, changing the mood of the film as well as providing the audience with emotional cues. Sometimes a person would even narrate the intertitle cards for the audience. Intertitle cards were first seen in 1903 and consisted of framed texts either written or printed, that were inserted randomly between sequences of the film for one of a variety of purposes. Generally there were two types of title cards: dialogue inter titles which were used to convey dialogue, and expository intertitles which provided a narrative incase what was photographed couldn't convey the full situation by itself.  Title cards were also used for narrations in the same way that films today use voiceovers. There was even an Oscar given to a film for an extraordinary use of intertitles.

Though experiments in synch-sound motion pictures date back to the Edison lab in 1896, it wasn't until the 1920s that the necessary technology, such as vacuum tube amplifiers and high-quality was available to make "talkies" commercially viable. Over the next several years, there was a race to see which company would bring silent films into the sound era in the best, most efficient way. It could have been done in a number of ways:

Sound-on-disc

Sound-on-disc would involve using a phonograph to play a film's sound in sync with the film, but with a separate system with a mechanical interlock to keep the audio and video systems syncronised.
 

Sound-on-film

Another option was sound-on-film, which involved physically recording the sound onto strip of film alongside the frames of the picture. This made synchronisation of sound and picture seamless but that meant new and expensive projection equipment.

Acting in silent films was a much more physical process. Since actors weren't able to speak, they relied on body language and facial expressions so the audience could understand what's happening in the performance. In some cases, directors wanted their actors to portray a larger-than-life body language and expressions to add emphasis to scenes. Slapstick comedy was a common acting form due to it being very visual; actors could be funny with their outlandish movements and not need to have much emotional range or depth as actors. Actors such as Charlie Chaplin was very well known when it came to slapstick comedy. However, American audiences began to express their preferences for more natural and realistic performances as early as 1914. As the frame sizes grew and the audiences could see in more detail, it allowed for more subtleties and allowed actors to be more experimental with their emotions. After the invention of film, exploring methods of communicating dialogue to the audience led to title cards, intertitles. First used in 1903s 'Uncle Tom's Cabin', intertitles made translating films for foreign audiences simple: All you'd have to do is replace the title cards with translations of the text, put the new cards in the same place in the film, and the film could be enjoyed by viewers in other countries. This is where the idea of subtitling came from. However, when the invention of sound was invented in the 1920s intertitles were no longer needed, so foreigners could hear the dialogue but could not understand it. Studios considered making films where the actors would shoot multiple scenes in different languages but this was too expensive and would take too much time.

websites:
Link: https://octaneseating.com/blog/history-of-silent-movies/
Link: https://www.vicaps.com/blog/history-of-silent-movies-and-subtitles/
Link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silent_film

Silent Film Shorts

In class we had to work on a short silent film that could be a romance, comedy, or horror that have to include transitions, intertitles, and music. In groups we had to come up with a storyline then record using our phones making sure we had different scenes and camera angles. In my group I was with Aya, Ola, Duana, and Keana. Our short silent film is about two robbers who plan to kidnap this rich lady's daughter and in return to get her daughter back she needs to pay them £2 Million. However, the robbers have a few setbacks along the way. This was an idea I suggested to the group and everyone agreed and went along with it. When it came to the setting and what locations we should use as we were meant to have different scenes it was hard for us to choose so we all agreed on just using one room for the whole short film. Our first time recording we just did a practice run through to see what our scene would be like and planned it through step by step to get an idea of what we want our film to be like and played around with camera angles to see what we thought looked better for the film. Overall, I thought the film went really well and we all worked together and had fun. This helps because it works on our communication skills and team work as well as making sure we are paying attention and listening to each other. 

Solo Silent Film

During online lessons we also did our own silent movies which also had to be romance, comedy, or horror themed. During online lessons we got to watch a silent movie called 'Häxan: Witchcraft Through the Ages' (1968). The whole short film was basically about the director Benjamin Christensen's study of the Malleus Maleficarum, a 15th-century German guide, Häxan is a study of how superstition and the misunderstanding of diseases and mental illness could lead to the hysteria of witch-hunts. This was helpful when watching as it gives an idea of what a silent film looks like and how it should be filmed and helped me with what kind of silent film I'd want to make in the process.

We also had to draw a plan on what our we want our silent film to be like. My silent film is Horror themed and it's about this person who is home alone watching tv when suddenly they hear a knock on their door, they go to check who it is but nobody's there. They go back to watching tv thinking they're alone when in dark someone or something is lurking watching them. Recording this silent film was really fun and I had fun in creating the story and messing with different camera angles to see what was best for the film. If there was anything I would say to improve on that it was a bit rushed and I didn't use many different camera angles so if I ever had to do any sort of film in the future I would take my time and be more experimental with the camera angles and make sure that everything is perfect instead of rushing things just to finish them. Doing this project helped me become more independent when it comes to creating things like this and coming up with ideas on my own and tested my creativity when it comes to coming up with ideas leading up to recording the silent film, if I had a chance in the future to do something like this again I wouldn't mind because this was really fun to make.

Unit 5, 6 and 7 - Devised scripts

RESEARCHING OTHER SCRIPTS

 https://www.bbc.co.uk/writersroom/scripts/tv-drama/the-nest

The script I decided to research on is a show called The Nest. The show is about a couple called Emily Docherty and Dan Docherty who aren't able to have a child together so Kaya offers to be their surrogate. The script I will be focusing on is episode three. In the script we find out that Kaya is 24 weeks pregnant while also in a relationship with Jack. Dan meanwhile knows that Kaya when she was 11 years old stabbed a woman while pregnant and is scared to reveal the truth as it would affect his marriage. It's all when his sister Hillary who gives it all away to protect her son (Jack) who's willing to throw away his future education for a girl he barely knows. Researching for a script like this can help give an idea of how a script should look like and how to write one as well as writing ideas of what kind of scripts you would like to write about.    

EXERCISES I DID WHILE PREPARING TO WRITE MY SCRIPT

During online lessons we did free writing exercises. For example, Every lesson when we start we just wrote what we felt We did this because it helps us wake up and get our brain working as well as with our creativity when writing we start writing our scripts. 

 

The next thing we did was to make a list of things that made us angry one being the least and 10 being the most e.g. certain things from your own life, concerns, issues etc.

  I wrote about the ignorance people had this year and how frustrating it was how nobody was raising awareness for BLM like they did in 2020 and how I wish I could help more and do better as an ally.

The reason why we did this because like the first exercise it helps us write more freely and helps with our creativity and allows us to express ourselves better in things that we care about or what concerns us. As well as that helps us make an emotional connection to what we are writing about. We also did an exercise that involves two characters (A and B) and show a different want/objective the character wants from the other.

This is to show that conflict equals drama. The obstacles/conflict here show that A doesn't want to continue any further on their journey with B because A doesn't feel safe going anywhere with B indicating that they have had multiple journeys together in the past where it might not have been safe for the both of them to go to and A doesn't like the fact that B takes them to these places. This exercise  helps as it helps develop our stories lines better when creating conflict between two characters and the obstacles they have to face and help us create a more interesting story for the audience to enjoy. 

PLERFORMANCE EVALUATION

 When I first heard my script being read aloud for the first time I was very pleased as I really felt like the script was coming to life. I also think that the chemistry between the characters was really good and you can tell that they really went well together and that also helped with the script coming to life. There we somethings that could have been better with certain lines that probably could have been done another way or a more specific way that I should have mentioned. As well as that through out rehearsals not everyone was there so it was difficult to go through the script properly so if everyone was here we would have been able to capture the essence of the play more and bring it more to life other than that despite not much rehearsing the performance came out pretty well.

For production since I wasn't able to do the whole play I only did two scenes, one with a park as the background and the other being a bedroom. 

For the park scene I thought about using natural lighting to show that the characters are outside. There wouldn't be nothing too extra everything would just be simple.

    

                                                                                        

For the bedroom scene I thought about using a pink tint lighting to match the background and match the aesthetic of the room and give the vibes that it is a teenage girls room and actually make it feel like they are in a teenage girly vibe.        

If I had done the whole play I would have also used these pictures as backgrounds for other scenes:

Scene one, scene three, and scene eight

Scenes one, three, and eight would be classroom scenes whenever leading or transitioning to the classroom scenes I would use a bell sound to let the audience know that we are transitioning to the classroom scene. For lighting it would be a natural lighting as the classroom background has a bright and natural light.

Scene two

  

This would be used for the PE scene (scene two) and again for sound affects a bell would be used to show the transition between different classes. again not much would be done with the lighting and it would just be natural.

Scene four and ten

  For both Ash's bedroom scenes the lighting would be a natural or a cool lighting not too bright but it would match the background and the aesthetic of the room. For scene four there would be a notification sound affect used as Ash is texting Peyton so it would be clear to the audience that Ash is talking to someone.

Scene nine

 

This scene would be Peyton's party scene. There would be music in the background to really make it feel like it is a party and that everyone is having fun. For lighting it would be a pink or a purple colour to match the lighting in the background or just have randomised colours to make it feel like an actual party.

What I learned form this unit is to make sure to make your performance more like how you want it to be to tell the actor specifically how you want the character to act and behave and how they should act in a certain scenes so taking more initiative is something important lesson I learned for this unit. As well as double checking through you're script to make sure you're not making any mistakes and that punctuation and stage directions are important for the actor the understand what is being said and for them to properly portray the characters. Skills I will take forward in the future is taking charge more when it comes to ideas and what I want for certain performances if I ever make any plays in the future and just making sure that the ideas I have are what I picture comes to life.                                    

Unit 3 - Vinegar Tom

 For this Unit we have been working on the topic of Vinegar Tom and the Stanislavski technique. Vinegar Tom is a play written by caryl churchill in 1976. Caryl Churchill (born September 3rd 1938) is a British socialist-feminist playwright. Her first plays were produced by student groups when she was at Oxford. Churchill is regarded as one of Britain's most influential playwrights, her work widely varies in different subject matters but mainly focuses on political or feminist topics. Vinegar Tom is set in the 17th century and based on the witch trials. Themes in the play include Feminism and gender and power relationships in the 17th century. The play was inspired by the Women's Rights Act in 1970, exploring the thought that women were treated unequally to men. The play uses Brechtian (Bertolt Brecht) technique. Bertolt Brecht was a marxist and made his theatre highly political. He wanted to spark an interest in his audience's perception of the world and caryl churchill agreed with this. A main example in the play is the use of songs throughout to make political statements.  Other techniques Brechtian techniques are: 4th wall, use of signs, freeze frames, use of technology, and use of narrator as well as that the narration needs to be told in a montage style. 

The witch trials in England began in the 15th century and ended in the 18th century with an estimated 500 to 1000 deaths, 90 percent being women. Witchcraft was a criminal offence until 1735, and was punishable by death during the Tudor and Stuart periods. In 1597, King James I wrote a book on witchcraft which suggested ways of identifying and catching witches. Ways people did to identify and cath witches was the swimming test. This was where they would tie a person up and toss them into a river if they floated (meaning if they could swim) they were a witch, if they sank they were innocent, either way the person being accused of being a witch would be dead. Another way people would try to identify if someone was a witch was if they had 'witch marks'. Witch-hunters often had suspects be stripped and publicly examined for signs of blemishes that witches were said to receive upon making their pact with satan. This 'Devil's mark' could supposedly change shape and colour, and was believed to be numb and insensitive to pain. It was easy for even the most smallest physical imperfections to be labelled as the work of the devil. Moles, scars, birthmarks, sores, supernumerary nipples and tattoos could all qualify. 1645-1646 marks a short period of time when 'witch fever' gripped England. A man named Mathew Hopkins, a renowned witchfinder, had 68 people put to death in Bury St. Edmunds and 19 people hung in Chelmsford in a single day. Witches were seen as the devil's helpers on earth. Often, people's lack of understanding led them to believe bad things were the work of the devil.

(Stanislavski's techniques)

 In the course we also have been learning about the Stanislavski technique. Konstantin Sergeyevich Alexeyev (Stanislavski), Born January 1863 in Moscow, Russia, grew up with a family that loved theatre so as a boy he was also interested in theatre. At the age of 14 Alexeyev started acting. He developed his theatrical skills overtime, performing with other acting groups while working in his family's business. In 1885, he gave himself the stage name stanislavski - the name of a fellow actor he met. He married teacher Maria Perevozchikova three years later, and would join her husband in the serious study and pursuit of acting. As a serious practitioner, he would make careful notes and evaluated his work, a thing he did regularly at the start of his career. Later he was to write major texts on the art of performance such as: My life in art, An actor prepares, Building character, Creating a role. Throughout this unit we have been learning the Stanislavski technique and how it helped our performance for Vinegar Tom and how it helped developing our characters. Those techniques are: Objective, Given circumstances, Magic 'if', Subtext, emotional memory. 

Objective is a main goal for a character or for a certain scenario. An example of this technique is when we were put into pairs and one was on a chair and the other wasn't. The goal was for the person off the chair to try and get the person on the chair to get off the chair. This is helpful as analysing the scene and the characters give a better understanding of the characters goal in the scene. When reading my scene it it didn't look like my character (Susan) had an objective throughout most of the scene apart from the beginning when she asked another character (Alice) questions about a man and a woman they saw riding a horse. But for Alice, her objective was to just test Susan and mess with her emotions and throughout Alice is just playing with Susans emotions and at one point there is a part where she just breaks down in tears. Analysing the script and analysing the objective of my character and others helped me add on to my character and made me think how their objective would affect my character and how I can apply that.

 

Given circumstances is the information given about the character before getting into and developing your character. When we started Vinegar Tom and got our roles we were given sheets of paper and wrote down what we knew about our character so far.  For this we analysed the lines of the scene as well as research about our characters by watching other performances and scenes with that character as well as reading the script and having our own interpretations of what we think the character is like. This was helpful as it gave me a better understanding of my character and a better idea of how I think my character talks and behaves and get into character better. Magic 'if' is when you imagine yourself being in your character's situation, if you were in 'their shoes'. An example of this is when we did a warm up exercise where we would act as if we were someone else in a random scenario e.g. What if you were 85 years old? What if you were homeless? We also did an exercise where we pretended to cook something. This helped me as when reading the script it helped imagine what it would be like to be in Susan's shoes and helped me get into depth of susans emotions and what she is feeling in the scene and how she acts and behaves and help me understand susan better as a character. Subtext is the hidden meaning of the lines that are spoken or acted out. An example of this is when we did an exercise where one person interviews the other and the interviewee's objective is to get the job but there is a hidden meaning behind why they want the job. This is helpful because it helped me analyse my scene better as well as getting a better understanding of my character and other characters and their intentions and what they are really trying to say and how I can apply that to my role. 

At the start of rehearsals we got our scripts and read through our lines analysed them and put them into BEATS and labelled each sections of our scene. When we broke our scenes down into beats we worked out each characters objective. The reason why we did this is because it helped us pinpoint where the conversation changes and find out the objective in each section and how you can add to that as your character. This was helpful as it made it easier to understand my character better as well as other characters in the scene. Throughout rehearsals especially at the beginning it was difficult to rehearse as there was always one person missing during rehearsals so we always just read through the script and memorise the lines. However, towards the end of rehearsals all of us were together so we managed to work on the scene and put a performance together, it was difficult starting off but in the end we managed to pull it off. The day of the performance I think went really well and the performance was very clean throughout and we were sure in what we were doing. When watching the performance on video I couldn't hear myself too clearly so to improve for next time I will try to speak more clearly and loudly. For rehearsals I feel like I could've contributed a bit more and spoke up more when coming up for ideas and could have tried a bit more in rehearsals when there was one person missing during rehearsals. 

 

                                                

                                                  

Unit 1 - identity Reflection

For this unit we were working on the topic of identity and then made a devised performance based on the topic. Devising is based on a stimulus or object which you build your performance around on. It starts back to 16th century Italy where commedia dell'arte, a new form of travelling theatre that would show players, acrobats and street entertainers, became more popular.Commedia dell’arte (Comedy of Art), means unwritten or improvised performances. This new form of theatre focused more on the performances of the actor than the subject matter of the plays. 

First off we got into groups and made a mind map on identity and listed all the things that make our identity. Using the mind maps we created and watching a short film based on identity we then used and created our own monologues on our identity. After writing our monologues we then chose a few monologues to put into our devised piece. With the mind map it helps us as actors with teamwork and being able to communicate with one and allow us to express ourselves and open up to others and be vulnerable. Once we chose the monologues, on one of the monologues we split the lines and were put into groups and created a scene of our own and put them into one performance. This as actors helps us get more involved and work together and being able to cooperate with each other and being able to work together to come up with a scene for the performance. We also have done some vocal warm ups and exercises as well as tongue twisters at the start of the lesson as warm ups before we get into the lesson. The warm ups help us be more relaxed and feel more comfortable when performing and for the vocal warm ups helps relax our vocals as well as help us pronounce words better and clear our voices and project more so the audience can hear better. 

We also had a look at verbatim theatre. Verbatim theatre is theatre based on real events. It is a form of documentary theatre, it allows theatre makers to explore events and themes through the words of people. This type of theatre was a big influence on political theatre at the beginning of the 21st century. Verbatim theatre is created from the transcription of interviews with people who are connected to a common event or subject. The interviews are then edited in a performance text. The actors are also participating in the research and then feeding it back to the writer. In lessons when working on verbatim theatre we watched a video on what verbatim theatre is about and then after that got into pairs and one of us was voice recording ourselves while the other had to reenact what the other person has said in the voice recording and vice-versa. This helps us as actors improve on our listening skills and paying attention to the details on the voice recording on how the other actor is feeling and what emotions they display on the voice recording and how the other actor listening can show to others and portray how the other is feeling.

During rehearsals I would say we weren’t very sure what we were doing at first and weren’t very focused but over time we were able to focus a bit more and work together in coming up with more ideas for our performance. During rehearsals we also added a few more monologues and worked on them during the rehearsals. What I could have done more in rehearsals was to participate and speak up more when it came to coming up with ideas for the performance. As well as that I feel like I should have payed a bit more attention during rehearsals other than that rehearsals went generally okay.

The actual performance in my opinion was okay and I think it went well despite not rehearsing much. I think during the performance we were vocal and projected our voice on to the audience. Another thing that was good was our focus throughout and we weren't getting distracted or getting out of character during the performance. However, despite our focus throughout, what I thought we could improve on is the energy on stage when performing because it didn’t seem like we weren't actually trying. Overall, I thought the performance went quite well.  

Unit 2 - Hair and Makeup

What do hair and makeup artists do?

Makeup designer is responsible for the visual  appearance of the actors and works closely with costume designer to support the looks for each actor that visually support their character. Hair designers also work with costume design and like costume design must analyse the work and create hairstyles appropriate to the theme and setting. Hair designers will typically work with the costume designer to create an appropriate style for each character, working with each other on what they're willing to change. Hair and makeup designers each play an important role in any production, designing hair and makeup for the performers in a way that's appropriate to the characters and production.

• Makeup artists responsibilities:
•  Enhancing facial features.
• Consulting with clients and creating custom looks based on their specifications.
• Taking lighting and setting into account when applying makeup.
• Working with costume designers, set designers, and stylist to ensure consistency.

• Hair designers responsibilities:
• Making sure that the hair design matches the theme and setting of the performance.
• Like Makeup artists consulting clients and creating custom looks based on their specifications.
•  provide designs that meet the production.
• Attend rehearsals to make future adjustments to designs.

• Skills both hair and makeup artists need:
• Research skills.
• Understanding the process of characterisation using visual appearance to portray the characters.
• An artistic eye with the ability to sketch ideas.
• Ability to work in teams with others.
• Ability to meet deadlines and schedules.

Process

The process for hair and makeup designers involves looking and carefully analyising the script, discussions with the costume designers and to research, sketch and take notes on design. Afterwards, the designers will meet with the performers to come up for a look for the performance, and once approved, will be used as a template for all the performers. Designers will often go through step by step through the styling or application process. After going through step by step and has been approved it would then be the hair and makeup artist job to handle  and create the style along with the help of costume design to complete the full look for the performance. 

Similarities with other productions

Hair and makeup designers aren't only just in theatre productions it also in others such as film and tv productions. While Film and tv hair and makeup have their differences (film and tv have are more subtle in makeup and hair as the actors perform more close on camera while theatre hair and makeup is used to make the hair and features more visible from a distance). Both designers need to make sure that the makeup and hair is suitable for the theme and setting for their performances as well as that look into and understanding the characterisation using visual appearance to portray the character. For both stage and tv/film, makeup can be used to hide flaws and make certain features of the actor's face more noticable and can be used to create the character, for example, adding features or aging the actor.

This goes the same for hair designers and how for stage and tv/film both take into account how the hair design matches with the theme and setting of the scene as well as that work with costume and makeup design and how they can match and add more detail to the actors appearance to match the theme of the performance and what to make more noticeable for the audience to see or what to make more subtle to match the character and to do that be able to work together on what they want their design to look like and making sure that it is ready for the performance.

Identity reflection

 On our first week on our unit for identity we watched a short film on the topic and then afterwards we got into groups and made a mind map about identity and what makes our identity and talked about how our identity makes us who we are, after that we started to write our own monologues about our own identity. We did this because it is important that as actors we know our identity as well as being able to explore ourselves and our identity and being able to be vulnerable as people. I think this has helped me as an actor to be more vulnerable in front of people as my monologue was very personal to me and has helped showed a more vulnerable side to me as an actor as well as showing more of my identity to others.

our second week we looked at Verbatim Theatre. Verbatim Theatre is theatre created from interviews from real life people about an event in their lives and then those people are portrayed on stage by actors. In class we watched a video on what Verbatim Theatre was and the meaning of it. After the video we had to do voice recordings of each other and then say and act like the person in the voice recordings. This is important because it helps with improvisation skills and make the performance more realistic as if the person acting out the voice recording like they are that person. I think this has helped as this helps improve my improvisation skills as well as my confidence in performing. As well as that helps us go further with our understanding with identity.

Third/Fourth week we took one or two of the monologues and used that to perform and act out for our identity unit where we were split into groups and where given lines to act out our scenes as well as going into further detail about how race and ethnicity goes with our identity from one of the monologues we read. This helps because it gives us as actors a wider range of different identities and make us more aware. We were also given a random script about this girl named Clarissa who found out her parents were not her real parents and we had to act out how the scene would turn out after the script and create our own scenario.  This has helped as this improves our improvisation skills as well as teamwork skills. The script we were given also links with identity as Clarissa never knew that the adults looking after her was not her real parents so that could suggest a part of her identity is gone and she doesn't know what part of her life is even true anymore that's part of her identity.