Evaluation for humanity in crisis

Humanity in crisis                            Dan Smith                                30/12/2015

On the 14th of December we performed our performing arts devised piece for humanity in crisis, we performed in the main school hall at around 2pm, I had the role of four very different characters, a controlling father, a stranded hopeless migrant, a man against the suffragette movement, and a human trafficker, all characters were very different so i wasn't stuck with just the one. Our performance went extremely well and we brought around some important topics that have altered history over the past century, we focused on one specific topic which was “womens rights’, But we cleverly had four different stories which all linked into the one topic, we had, feminisation in migration, which is the struggle for women refugees, Human trafficking, which displays the dangers of women being abducted into trades, suffragettes, which showed the movement of female power which brought around equality, and finally, arranged marriages, where both young males and females are forced to marry without consent. We wanted our piece to have an effect people to walk away from our performance and think about the fact that all the hard work from the brave women back round the early 20th century, is perhaps starting to dissipate due to the fact equality is still uneven. Despite the performance going well there were some small problems which could have been fixed, especially during the rehearsal process.

Our performance was pretty much flawless, i will explain below a few of the successes, and a few of the weaknesses that could have been turned into strengths if the rehearsal process was better structured. 

One thing that went well with the performance was the transitions between the four segments, we had a specific light colour which would let the audience know that it was a costume change between scenes. We chose the neutral colour of blue every time. Also in the background we had the same song play each time which also defined that it was a transition, this song was by the band “Five Finger Death Punch”, entitled, “Coming Down”. Im extremely happy the transitions ran so smooth, this was one of our main concerns, had it not been for the good transitions, the audience would have not understood that we were following into a different scene, and may not have understood the entire piece. We left transitions until last because we were so focused on getting the scenes perfect and making sure we had our lines learnt, i feel we should have put maybe a bit more time into the transitions as we worked with each scene, we would have felt more confident then during the performance.

Another thing that went well was the extremely difficult lifts during the suffragettes piece, funnily enough we spent the least time on this specific scene, towards the end we were even considering cutting it out, due to the fact we didn't balance our time well, however on the week of the performance we put every effort into the scene to bring it to life, it ended up being the most factual and intricate scene in the entire piece, the main girl character in this “emily Davidson”, one of the suffragettes leaders, was played by Ellie. and one of the most historical events in the world happened because of this woman, sadly though her actions caused her own tragic death, i feel that when we showed how she died it should have had a strong impact on the audience, a young woman being mowed down by a speeding horse, just to prove a point. This is why the scene was so important to have. We reenacted the death of Emily Davidson, but instead of hiring moving horses which would have cost an extortionate amount of money, we decided to use physical theatre, because its always interesting to tell a story through actions and not words, we wanted to make the audience think about what was actually happening, so it kept them engaged throughout.

The dialogue in the performance went perfectly with the physical movement, it was graphic and really showed the audience, what really happened to the suffragettes, all the pain and abuse they went through to have the power to vote. During every scene we through facts and figures around to  back up our movement with some statistics. In was concerned at the start because we had quite a lot of dialogue to learn, for instance one of our performers had to learn a monologue. Another good part of dialogue we used is when in suffragettes, a man actually stood up for the movement in a courthouse. This was quite powerful because it showed a male going against one thousand others using powerful dialogue.

Although the performance was executed well there were some problems technically and problems with the rehearsal scheme.

One of our weaknesses was trust in the group, at the start of the devising unit the chemistry of the group was extremely good, we all came up with good dialogue, movement and facts that we wanted to use and we were all bursting with good ideas, unfortunately the group had a big falling out and a loss of trust, the chemistry of the group went down and we had lost friendships within the group, which was very unprofessional and ended up throwing us off at a tangent, we didn't get work done for a few days, the problem we had was when we were doing the main lift in the suffragettes piece, one person was supposed to be counting as we lifted her above our heads, unfortunately with a miscommunication within the group two people were counting but at different times, so as one side of us brought her down, the others raised her again, causing her to crash down onto her head. This erupted into blame and anger, which should have and could have been controlled if we had listened to one person, we were a bit careless when it came to safety and we ended up paying the price. The groups trust was damaged for a few lessons as tensions were still high. We should have formally dealt with it there and then to restore trust.

Another weakness was the fact that during some of our scenes we experienced technical difficulties. During the refugee piece we were supposed to have “welcome to the jungle”, played, which is a song played by “Guns N Roses”, this went along with a projection of pictures which was on stage, sadly due to the song not coming on due to a problem with the stereo, peoples attention was not drawn toward the stage, so the hard work for the projections suffered in the end, as the attention of the audience was focused on the people onstage, i feel personally that the projection should have been put in a different place, maybe on the floor of the performance space, so both the projections and characters could have been seen. We could have evaluated this during the rehearsal process however we weren't able to spend much time overviewing small potential possible problems which ended up being quite big problems for our piece.

There wasn't really any other weaknesses when it came to the performance, i would like to say how proud i am of my group for pulling through the disastrous rehearsal process and actually producing something quite professional, however this could have been doubled if woe had only looked over minor issues that we ignored. Like potential technical problems. Our improvisation for the problems was good on the day, because we managed to keep the audiences attention controlled. Nd one of the audience members stated that he would have “paid to see it”, which made us all feel extremely impressed with our work, i must add that i was skeptical with the women rights idea, but after researching all these different stories and facts, and learning movement to songs, we ended up making a very powerful and moving performance. 

Refugee idea single

I'm the lead role in the refugee idea. Freya and Ellie play the sisters who have travelled without their family, theo Kai and dom play the guards. What we are trying to do is display how awful it is for women in the refugee camps in Calais. How the women are outnumbered by men refugees 1:8. And how this makes it even more of a struggle for them. We want to get across that they would be in danger from war at home and be at danger of rape at the camps. Also the girls are showing me how they have to sleep in numbers.  And can't even go to use the showers. It is therefore especially bad for women. Stuck in the middle. We have written out a script of what we say. This will be in a separate blog 

Restaurant man and priest

For the restaurant man I'm going to have a notepad to take down orders. I'm also going to have an apron and maybe a white shirt. 

For the priest I'm going to have to get a collar and maybe a bible. Or a book that looks similar to one. 

I'm also playing the part of mr Jefferson. So I'm going to take my apron off then put on a tie. My costume changes aren't too difficult because my clothes are quite similar with each character. Quite formal. 

However in the scenes where I'm playing just a member of the apartment I'm going to try and look quite tatty. Wear shorts and a big furry coat. This will display that we can't afford to pay for clothes let alone the rent. I've been told I have to have my hair down. So I'll make it look messy and untidy when just playing a member of the apartment. 

Rent set

The past few lessons we have been looking into how we want our stage to look. We are thinking of levels, also I had the idea of tge stage looking unorganised and dangerous. Like having steel beams everywhere. So it sort of looks a bit like a shanty town. Everyone's ideas looked very similar. For instance there is a lot of ideas that involve stairs aswell. Or ladders. Which lead up to different levels. I'm worried the stage might not be enough so we might have to extend the front of the stage a bit. 

Inspiration for our devsing work

This picture helped us to understand the reason why arranged marriage is despicable. Most partners aren't even allowed to meet until the day of the wedding. And from the picture we can see they normally stay anonymous to each other. This shows us that there is barely any feeling in these arranged marriages. The men see the woman as a requirement to keep a family being raised. And the women are there to literally clean up for them and to raise their children, pretty silly right? So with our piece we plan to make sure that dom (the son) is exactly like his father; arrogant. Cruel. Sees a wife as an object. Is quite the shovanist. And for Freya she is quite lost because her mother passed away and me (her father) I am very forcing of her to marry this young man. However they meet before the wedding (awkward) I think we've proved the point and stuck to the picture quite well.

These two pictures are showing us the harrowing truth of human trafficking. Women are taken off the street wether that be through kidnapping or being promised a better place to go to. These women are tricked into becoming sex salves. The bottom picture shows a girl in handcuffs with help me written on her hands. She wants out so much. But she will never get help because she is so restrained. There is nothing she can do but live her life pleasing men. This we'll hit the audience hard. The above picture shows a girl with a barcode on her head. This shows that she is being sold to lots of different men. Shows that to these men she's just an object. That can be reused. Which is so incredibly wrong, we want to show its wrong by being very rough with ellie who is going to be playing the main girl, she is abused and abused until she eventually is killed, nobody batts an eye in the end which really should hit the audience. The basic idea we get from the picture is that the women are completely helpless. Freya who is a girl who has been in the trade for a while helps ellie to get used to it, we use a deliberate term to also get a good effect, that quote being "use a slave to catch a slave."

In this picture above we see a distressed woman running away with her child, note how there is no husband in the picture supporting the woman, he has probably already fled. The picture is showing us how much we need to get across that the child is in danger, we can in my opinion perhaps use alot of physical theatre, to show maybe the mother and child being separated, however the difficult part of physical theatre is making sure the audience is understanding whats going on, so we need to make it clear whats happening, maybe show soldiers attacking then the families fleeing, kind of like a story board. The other picture shows a group of females carrying babies, even a young girl is having the responsibility of carrying a baby, two young boys are also in the shot and again, the fathers are nowhere to be seen, we need to show this, however it will be difficult because we don't have alot of girls in our group, in fact only two, so its going to be difficult, we may have to use physical theatre or just make our classmate dom dress up as a girl, that could possibly work. It should be distressing for the audience to see a mother and child struggling to find safety, and i want to show how every country keeps turning them away, and they become more and more desperate.

Santa Fe

https://youtu.be/ED-mnwaqrKc

We have started working on the dance for Santa Fe, towards the end of last lesson, meg; our
main choreographer, watched the song with us, she then started setting out a routine for it, 
which came together really quick, (video above) 

I struggled to learn the dance because I'm not really a very dance orientated person, ill get 
there after a few practice runs though. We have only done the first fifteen minutes so far, what i
find difficult is acting and dancing, but i can work on this

Miss cordell single 19th October

Today we looked at lots of different topics within our women's rights idea. I came in with a new idea because I thought our old one with just women on the frontline was a bit bland. We couldn't really do very much with it technique wise. And I hadn't really brought much to the table where ideas are concerned. So I came in today with the migration idea. I want to create a piece that has a powerful effect on the audience leaving them thinking about the story. I also think that we could look into feminisation in migration. To link it to women's rights. 

We still kept the idea of having the women fighting in the front line. But we are going to try to cram lots of different stories into one. This way the audience won't get bored because there will always be something new to think about. 

Another major factor in women's rights was getting the vote. A good source is the film sufreggette which I just recently watched. It shows how women lost there life's fighting for the right to vote. How they rebelled and protested and finally won. 

Here's the page I was researching on. During the lesson we also started working on a little movement sequence. We decided to look into human trafficking. We had theo at the front saying things like "come to England". "We will pay for you to stay and work". Then we showed Ellie being carried to her "salvation" but then being used by the people that she trusted. Using physical contact improvisation techniques and other types of lifts. It's looking quite hard hitting aswell for the audience as we use hair pulling stage violence and other emotionally powerful movements 

Ideas and arranged marriage

With our origional ideas. We all really liked the woman's rights ideas. Some of us weren't too keen on it however. But after looking further into woman's rights we realised we could link lots of different ideas together. 

For example I wanted to do do something world war based, so we managed to use that as a part of our piece because women weren't allowed to fight on the front line. They technically still aren't. So we found something online where a man argues with a woman about whey wines should fight on the front line. The ironic thing is that the man is saying why they should and the woman why they shouldn't. So I feel this will make people question the thought of women in the front line.

We have started working on the arranged marriage idea. Where I play Freya's dad. And Tom and Ellie are the parents of dom. We are basically forcing the both to marry each other. Freya feels like she should find love by falling in love. And dom is very much like his father where he calls a wife a requirement and it's not something to look forward to. The women are literally forced into these marriages without a say because of tradition and religion. This should have an immensly powerful effect on our audience 

Single drama. Beginning of arranged marriages.

We have started looking at the second part to our piece now which is "arranged marriage" In an arranged marriage, while the meeting of the spouses is arranged by family members, relatives or friends, the spouses agree of their own free will to marry. By contrast, in a forced marriage, one or both spouses are coerced into the marriage - the union takes place without their freely given consent (under duress, threats, psychological pressure 

Arranged marriage  is a type of marital union where the bride and groom are selected by a third party rather than by each other.

I decided to go for the role of the dad who is giving his daughter away. I want the character to show truthfully how forceful the parents can be in these sorts of situations. For example if the son or daughter refuses to marry the third party decided bride or groom, they will be forever dishonoured from their families, many have tried to flee their parents by moving away. But this is extremely dangerous because they would automatically have to change who they were and their lifestyles 

When the parents decide who they feel suits their son or daughter they usually look at the other families; wealth, land, general status. 

20th october

Today we worked on the "tango maurine" where Joanne and Mark are doing a dance, i was partnered with Dom and weve been working on a routine which is a tango dance, it looks really good and weve only worked on it a little bit

21st october 2015

In this lesson we developed our Human trafficking and finished it. We do the song to radio active by imagine dragons, we added a couple more lifts, and also we found facts off the internet for example, how many people die through human trafficking a year, and we add these small facts in the movement sequence, which also helps the audience understand whats going off if they are struggling to understand what its about.

I really like how it shows how human trafficking is dangerous and how it tricks girls, miss cordell watched our movement piece to give us a review on it, she really liked it but thought it could be more aggressive to really have a good effect on the audience. So for instance in the opening, me and Tom grab ellies arm, so if we do that powerful, the audience will be able to understand that ellie is the victim, and will show that she is in danger.

I do think that we should have dialogue aswell, its a bit plain without it, and i want to have some powerful dialogue.

video of movement sequence for human trafficking

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sOLiAprOcV0

Rent miss cordell

For double drama we have started looking at the show "Rent" which is a clever all singing performance where a group of young adults share an apartment that is falling to pieces and are struggling to pay the rent. In fact they forget to pay up a few years running. I didn't really prepare much of an audition because I'm quite nervous when it comes to singing so id prefer not to be in the spotlight.  

I decided to audition for the part of benny. Because I liked his character. I didn't really know the play at all when we first started talking about it, so I wasn't really familiar with the parts. 

I really do like that it's all singing. I think it makes it quirky and I can't wait to work with the part I'm given 

Mr Webb pillowman 3

I auditioned for tupolski and Mr Webb really enjoyed it. He also got me to read tupolskis monologue about the story of the dead Chinese child, it was very hard to speak because the story was all over the place. But I managed to get through the whole page of it. I put on quite a stereotypical policeman voice. Very boomy. And I feel this gave a good effect on the audience and my teacher becaus  I ended up getting the part I wanted 

We have also found out that we are splitting the class in half and teching each other's performances. Like doing the lights and music. The reason the teacher has got us o do this is because if we end up going to uni. We would have to tech one of the older years performances. So he wants to give us experience now so that we are more confident when it comes to the real thing. 

We are also building the pillowman. And the other group have given us a pretty crazy idea of what they want theirs to look like. So it's going to be a challenge 

Mr Webb Pillowman 2

We now have to audition in a few days for the parts we want to go for. I'm still interested in tupolski because I love how he's sarcastic and a bit stingy. I feel Ill be good at playing that character. He has a lot of lines but I like a challenge. Im going to act the scene where tupolski is saying about katiurians retarded brother. I have looked into the other characters and don't feel they would suit me. So I'm definitely going for this part. I feel I can make the interrogation scenes very cool with the lights. Maybe keep them dim red then use fake cigars. The red or white spotlight would give off the effect that katiurian has done something and is the main person being questioned. Then tupolski and Ariel (the policemen) would be in the shadows. 

Mr Webb Pillowman 2

We now have to audition in a few days for the parts we want to go for. I'm still interested in tupolski because I love how he's sarcastic and a bit stingy. I feel Ill be good at playing that character. He has a lot of lines but I like a challenge. Im going to act the scene where tupolski is saying about katiurians retarded brother. I have looked into the other characters and don't feel they would suit me. So I'm definitely going for this part. I feel I can make the interrogation scenes very cool with the lights. Maybe keep them dim red then use fake cigars. The red or white spotlight would give off the effect that katiurian has done something and is the main person being questioned. Then tupolski and Ariel (the policemen) would be in the shadows. 

Mr Webb Pillowman 2

We now have to audition in a few days for the parts we want to go for. I'm still interested in tupolski because I love how he's sarcastic and a bit stingy. I feel Ill be good at playing that character. He has a lot of lines but I like a challenge. Im going to act the scene where tupolski is saying about katiurians retarded brother. I have looked into the other characters and don't feel they would suit me. So I'm definitely going for this part. I feel I can make the interrogation scenes very cool with the lights. Maybe keep them dim red then use fake cigars. The red or white spotlight would give off the effect that katiurian has done something and is the main person being questioned. Then tupolski and Ariel (the policemen) would be in the shadows. 

Mr Webb the pillowman 1

We have started looking at the play "the pillowman" I have ordered my own copy and am looking at the parts. I'm very fond of the character tupolski. Right now we haven't really started on the actual play yet. We've been looking at other pieces of work which sort of go hand in hand with the style of ours. So we looked at a Scottish performance of soldiers in the army. And we saw some good techniques used by the actors. It was a little hard to understand the accents at first but after understanding what the were doing. Like using the red snooker table to represent death I feel that would be a really cool idea. 

Other devising ideas I like

The picture below shows the movement of migrants. Moving away from the place they used to call home. But is now a war zone, at home they are unsafe. In other countries most of the time they are the rejected 

The photo above  shows evacuees in world war 2. They are young children being forced to move away from home due to intense bombing. Many of them don't get to see their parents again. I feel we could come up with some good ideas with this picture technique wise

The photo below is of a war torn town. And shows the inhabitants storming out of the broken place that would soon become a ghost town. They now have nowhere to go. So they are in a way stranded 

Devising getting an idea of our final ideas

We have been looking at a lot of different ideas for the 'humanity in Crisis' topic. For example we have been researching a lot into different ideas like 'women's rights', 'Slavery' and 'war'. We all like the women's rights ideas. I was a bit sketchy with it at first because I didn't think we'd be able to do much work off the title. But after looking into different drama tecniques we have come up with some pretty good ideas for it. For example the first scene we have devised. Tom and Ellie are arguing about women fighting on the front line. Me and dom, Kai and theo. We are in the audience who are circled the argument scene. So that kind of puts them in the action aswell which is quite a cool effect. Also as tom and Ellie are explaining their reasons for why women should/shouldn't fight in the front line,the four of us in the audience act out small scenes/tableaux to go along with what the two are talking about. We thought this would look clever and keep the audience engaged at all times 

Mr Webb audition

Today I auditioned with a piece for me Webb today from the pillowman. I auditioned for the part of tupolski because I feel I can play that character the best. After doing part of a scene Mr Webb told me to do a monologue by tupolski later on in the play. And it went really well. Hopefully I get the part 

Contact improv lessons 3

in this lesson we finished off our contact improvisation movement sequences that we started in the previous lesson. Ours was about slavery and how the slaves had a revolution against the leader. It looked clever because we involved contact improvisation. The other class performed a similar one but with a slightly different ending. It's quite clever how we had the same bass line to the story. At the end of the lesson we started working on voices. Because we had been studying movement. We were beginning to workshop voice. Which I particularly enjoy. We put on an eerie piece with a sort of soundscape idea. Of a mental hospital. We did it in the dark to add effect and portray the idea of using our voices more 

Working on voice Mr Webb

worked on voice. WEBBS. I was a scared character this time and not a serious one like before. Which was difficult for me because I act a lot better when I'm serious. 

Mr Webb. WW1 poem workshop

In today's lesson. Mr Webb gave out a WW1 poem for all of us to look at, at first it was hard to understand. But after he explained it to us I figured out which individual part meant. Quite an interesting play. So after looking at the play we got into pairs. And I paired up with Kyle. I was a professional soldier so I was very chilled out about going over the trench. However Kyle was a scared young inexperienced soldier who had just signed up. I found it easy to play because I'm good at being serious and violent. After performing it we got some good responses from the audience of how we showed how we felt and how our two characters were portrayed very differently 

Devising lessons 1 + 2

Devising 2:  in both lessons we worked on worshopping contact improvisation. At the start of the lesson we were watching dances and examples on YouTube of professional contact improvisers to get ideas on how to move and the way they flow. It was quite difficult to get the hang of because it's difficult to keep serious when performing it. After this me Kai and theo got in a three and began work shopping contact improv.  It was hard to start with. But we ended up creating quite a good piece.

Blood knot

I did see some monologues before this one that I liked. Including another one from "Blood Knot",  However both other monologues were a little off my age range, this ones young adult. So I can easily slip into the character well. I also read it and I can shorten it a bit to the appropriate length. But it suits perfectly as a serious monologue from a clearly serious play

University of Windsor problem

The uni requires two contrasting monologues. Contemporary and Shakespearean. However the two I was going to do are both of the same genre. For instance one of them is "Alls well that ends well" it's a comedy play and is Shakespearean. And i want to do this one because it's a requirement but I can also imagine playing it. The problem is the contemporary monologue I was going to from "unbareable hotness" is actually a dark comedy. So although it may sound different. It's still a comedy. So now I need to find a contemporary monologue that's not a comedy and that I will be comfortable acting with 

The Merchant of Venice

Bassanio. What find I here?
[Opening the leaden casket]
Fair Portia's counterfeit! What demi-god
Hath come so near creation? Move these eyes?
Or whether, riding on the balls of mine,
Seem they in motion? Here are sever'd lips,
Parted with sugar breath: so sweet a bar
Should sunder such sweet friends. Here in her hairs
The painter plays the spider and hath woven
A golden mesh to entrap the hearts of men,
Faster than gnats in cobwebs; but her eyes,--
How could he see to do them? having made one,
Methinks it should have power to steal both his
And leave itself unfurnish'd. Yet look, how far
The substance of my praise doth wrong this shadow
In underprizing it, so far this shadow
Doth limp behind the substance. Here's the scroll,
The continent and summary of my fortune.
[Reads]
You that choose not by the view,
Chance as fair and choose as true!
Since this fortune falls to you,
Be content and seek no new,
If you be well pleased with this
And hold your fortune for your bliss,
Turn you where your lady is
And claim her with a loving kiss.
A gentle scroll. Fair lady, by your leave;
I come by note, to give and to receive.
Like one of two contending in a prize,
That thinks he hath done well in people's eyes,
Hearing applause and universal shout,
Giddy in spirit, still gazing in a doubt
Whether these pearls of praise be his or no;
So, thrice fair lady, stand I, even so;
As doubtful whether what I see be true,
Until confirm'd, sign'd, ratified by you.

This is an ideal monologue because its Shakespearian and my gender, which is what the Drama universities require, however I have no background knowledge of this play what so ever, im thinking of doing a little research into it to get a better idea of what its about. Obviously I have already shortlisted 2 Shakespearian monologues, and they only require 2, so after researching this one more I will decide if I want to swap anything around.

After doing some research into the play and monologue itself I don't think that I will be able to act as this character, the character is trying to woo a girl, and im not very good at playing a lovey role. Im more of a serious or comedic actor, although the play is quite an interesting one, I don't think it suits my acting capabilities

Dreaming of dragons by D.M Larson

What do you dream about? I dream about dragons.  All the time.  I know they're not real but I want them to be.  Sure, most boys dream about superheroes but I... I love dragons... And fire.

I want to ride my dreams in to the night sky and fly over the moon.

Dragons live in dreams.  But what if we could make our dreams real? I could fly away from here and never come back.  Leave a world of worries behind.

Does that mean the nightmares would be real too?  Maybe.  It's not worth it then.  My nightmares are pretty bad.

I'll keep the dragons in my dreams. I don't need any more nightmares in my life.

I like this monologue because its quite funny, however I find it difficult to act a younger age, I can do older aged things because I find it easier to relate to a mature character. However acting like an 8 year old is my weak spot and it may show when im trying to act it, this monologue is also very short so I doubt ill even pass the one minute mark, although the monologue is my gender I don't think its right for me, because I cant easily put myself in the boys shoes, A monologue like this one wont do my acting skills any justice either, because its around 30 seconds long. I don't think that Morley college or the uni of Windsor would accept this monologue, so im afraid 'Dreaming of dragons' doesn't make my shortlist.

Unbareable hotness.👌🏻

I just fuckin’ killed Chuck. I think. I mean, he’s just laying out there.  He's not moving.  I don't think he's breathing.

I mean, there I was just up on the roof with Marissa – talking, laughing, having a great time. I tell her she reminds me of Sandra Bullock. I tell her I loved “Hope Floats.” Who knew those would be the magic words? Next thing I know her clothes are off and we’re loosening roof shingles like there’s no tomorrow. And then there’s biting and kissing and touching and suddenly someone starts beating on me, I mean, just pounding on me and growling. Yeah, growling. And I look up and there’s Chuck. And I’m like, “What’s the problem?” and he says “The problem is, dude, you’re fucking my girlfriend.”

So I look at Marissa and I’m like “You’re someone’s girlfriend?” And she says “No.” Then it comes out Chuck just wishes she’s his girlfriend but actually she’s his cousin or something, so he’s got these feelings of guilt about wanting her...and then he starts crying.

So that ruined the mood. Marissa puts her clothes on, and she goes back down through the window, back into the party. And I’m left with Chuck. Blubbering, whining, crying Chuck.

And he starts in on how he’s just this total fuck up and maybe he should just throw himself off the roof. And for a split second I’m thinking “YES! Throw yourself off the roof! Do it!” But I don’t say that. I say I “You’re gonna get a girl, buddy, just maybe not your cousin, huh?” And then I give him a friendly pat on the back. A nice manly slap on the back. And he looked heavy, I mean, who knew he’d go flying.

Who knew he’d go flying right off the roof?



This would be an ideal monologue for me because its around 2:30  minutes, which is ideal for what both universities are after, also something good about this monologue is that although its quite serious, its actually funny as well so it can show off both acting abilities, and ill be comfortable doing it. The play is quite modern and I spoke to one of my older friends and one of his friends did  this same piece for his monologue and apparently it was really good, the other contemporary ones I have found are inappropriate, because they don't relate to my gender unlike this one.
 I feel that both Universities will enjoy watching me act this piece, I can relate to the character because he is my age and it is long enough.

The Vampire Is A Strange And Wonderful Creature

on the phoneHello? Hello, hi. Accounts Receivable Management? Yes, this is Stephanie Smith. Oh, you're calling about my Visa debt. Right. No, I know I haven't paid it. Yeah, I did know that it's overdue because you've been calling every morning at 8 a.m. To tell me. Why haven't I paid it? Uh, because I'm pregnant and alone and my boyfriend left me and they cut off my food stamps, so I've got to hold onto the little money that I've got right now. So, I guess that's why I haven't paid it. Oh, you'd like to work with me. That's great. Thanks so much. No, like I said, I can't pay the full amount right now. Well, hold on for a minute. My sister's right here. I can ask her.
to Sister
Accounts Receivable Management wants to know if you'll pay my Visa bill
back to the phone
She said hell, no. Well, my dad's dead, but I can ask my mom.
to Sister
Accounts Receivable Management wants to know if mom will pay it.
yelling out
Mom! Will you pay my Visa bill?
back to the phone
My mom said no. Well, I know that you're only trying to help me out, but I don't really know what else we can do. Wait a minute. Unless...OK, here's my plan and I think it'll work. I'm having a baby. Maybe I can sell it, and then I could get you the $125.00 that I owe you.
beat
No, I'm not being serious. And stop calling here at eight in the morning because everything they tell you in your debt collection training program is true: I really am a lazy bitch who expects society to take care of me. I usually stay in bed until about noon and I don't like being disturbed by a ringing telephone at eight o'clock. Oh, yeah, and one last thing. Eff you!

After looking into the details of this play, I really do not think it would suit me or the auditions I am going for, first of all the character is female and not male, so that causes problems straight away, it doesn't say anywhere in the audition requirements about not doing a different gender piece, but I don't think they would recommend it. After reading the content of the monologue I laughed to myself imagining me performing it and saying how 'im pregnant and my boyfriend left me', I wouldn't even be able to act this because id feel embarrassed. My strengths are comedy so this wouldn't suit me even if it was my gender. So 'The vampire is a strange and wonderful creature' is cut out of the shortlist also.

All's well that ends well 👌🏻

PAROLLES
Virginity being blown down, man will quicklier be blown up: marry, in blowing him down again, with the breach yourselves made, you lose your city. It is not politic in the commonwealth of nature to preserve virginity. Loss of virginity is rational increase and there was never virgin got till virginity was first lost. That you were made of is metal to make virgins. Virginity by being once lost may be ten times found; by being ever kept, it is ever lost: 'tis too cold a companion; away with 't!

There's little can be said in 't; 'tis against the rule of nature. To speak on the part of virginity, is to accuse your mothers; which is most infallible disobedience. He that hangs himself is a virgin: virginity murders itself and should be buried in highways out of all sanctified limit, as a desperate offendress against nature. Virginity breeds mites, much like a cheese; consumes itself to the very paring, and so dies with feeding his own stomach. Besides, virginity is peevish, proud, idle, made of self-love, which is the most inhibited sin in the canon. Keep it not; you cannot choose but loose by't: out with 't! within ten year it will make itself ten, which is a goodly increase; and the principal itself not much the worse: away with 't!

I really really like this monologue because its Shakespearian, which is what both universities require for the audition, not only is it Shakespearian, it also is a comedy, so I can show off my skills with olden monologues, but still have the hint of comedy. Im not very good at speaking in old time English but it is a requirement to do a Shakespeare monologue, this one is quite informal compared to his other ones. Im pretty sure the gender is the same aswell. The length is also reasonable. 'Alls well that ends well', makes the shortlist.

Macbeth monologue 👌🏻

Is this a dagger which I see before me,
The handle toward my hand? Come, let me clutch thee.
I have thee not, and yet I see thee still.
Art thou not, fatal vision, sensible
To feeling as to sight? or art thou but
A dagger of the mind, a false creation,
Proceeding from the heat-oppressed brain?
I see thee yet, in form as palpable
As this which now I draw.
Thou marshall'st me the way that I was going;
And such an instrument I was to use.
Mine eyes are made the fools o' the other senses,
Or else worth all the rest; I see thee still,
And on thy blade and dudgeon gouts of blood,
Which was not so before. There's no such thing:
It is the bloody business which informs
Thus to mine eyes. Now o'er the one halfworld
Nature seems dead, and wicked dreams abuse
The curtain'd sleep; witchcraft celebrates
Pale Hecate's offerings, and wither'd murder,
Alarum'd by his sentinel, the wolf,
Whose howl's his watch, thus with his stealthy pace.
With Tarquin's ravishing strides, towards his design
Moves like a ghost. Thou sure and firm-set earth,
Hear not my steps, which way they walk,
Thy very stones prate of my whereabout,
And take the present horror from the time,
Which now suits with it. Whiles I threat, he lives:
Words to the heat of deeds too cold breath gives.
[A bell rings]
I go, and it is done; the bell invites me.
Hear it not, Duncan; for it is a knell
That summons thee to heaven or to hell.

[Exit]  This is a classical Shakespearian monologue, which I am very familiar with, having studied Macbeth throughout secondry school I understand he play and the reasons why he is hallucinating and seeing a dagger. I also will enjoy doing it because I can do serious monologues, its good to do a mix of comedic and serious monologues, the actual monologue itself is performed by a male, so its the right gender. The universities will like this monologue because its a classic, and its a Shakespeare monologue. Its quite a popularly chosen monologue when it comes to auditions, which means that it is quite a successful one. 'Macbeth' makes the shortlist because I can picture myself doing it confidently. 

Morley college

Acting Level 1 is for beginners and does not require audition or tutor approval: you can simply enrol.
Acting Levels 2, 3 and 'Acting: The Company' all require audition, unless you are progressing from the previous level.
(NB - Learners who successfully complete Level 1 do not need to audition for level 2. Learners completing level 2 will not need to audition for level 3)

A prepared (learned) contemporary or classical monologue (speech) of not more than 2.5 minutes, followed by a short informal interview. This will assist us in assessing your level and the most appropriate course for you to follow.

University of windsor

The Audition

On the day of the audition, please wear comfortable clothing and be prepared to move and participate. Wear soft-soled shoes with a low heel. Do NOT wear jeans or other tight, restrictive clothing.

As part of the audition process, you will learn and present a movement sequence. The audition will also include physical and vocal warm-ups, a cold reading, and improvised scene.

Candidates are asked to memorize and prepare two monologues. Each monologue should be approximately 1 minute in length. One monologue should be by a character from a play by Shakespeare. The other monologue should be by a character from a published modern or contemporary play. The monologues
should contrast with one another.

Free Audition Workshop

In preparation for your audition, the School of Dramatic Art offers a free audition workshop in November, designed to help you prepare for the Spring entrance auditions. Workshops are held in the Jackman Dramatic Art Centre at the University of Windsor.

childrens theatre research

Childrens Theatre

Polka Theatre is one of the few venues in the UK which is dedicated to producing and presenting work for young audiences. Since the doors opened in 1979, this unique venue has been entertaining children with resonant, engaging and exciting theatre. Over 90000 children visit Polka Theatre a year and are inspired by theatre.

At Polka children aged 0 to 14 enjoy a wide-range of experiences designed to make theatre a natural part of their lives, the company put on well-known children plays and stories such as; were going on a bear hunt. The company also put on newer stories like, ‘cloud pictures’. Stories are told in a very visual way, and even 9 month old babies can come and be in awe at the colourful theatre. Audiences can expect imaginative new writers, dynamic performers, inventive adaptations of popular stories and resonant subjects.

Polka is actually a registered charity! Up to 800 children visit Polka every day and Polka introduces thousands of children from disadvantaged backgrounds to theatre for the first time each year. Creative programming keeps Polka’s work fresh and relevant. Audiences can expect imaginative new writers, dynamic performers, inventive adaptations of popular stories and resonant subjects. Everything they do is focused on providing children with thrilling world-class theatre.

So basically the theatre is actually funded well by donations from the general public, meaning the prices of the tickets don’t need to be so high, so are therefore dropped to a lower price, this means that children from a not so good background or parents who didn’t have enough money can now give their children the theatres experience and everything it has to offer.

Playtime Theatre Company

Playtime Theatre Company was established in 1983 with the aim of bringing innovative and entertaining drama to young people in the South of England. Since that time we have established ourselves as one of the leading children's theatre companies, taking our productions to schools and theatres throughout the UK.

Our Maxim Think of drama as a tool, a multi- faceted tool that can sharpen interest, hammer home a point, take the edge off a difficult subject and smooth it’s transition, bridge the gap between the written word and reality, expand a person’s horizons and lift their confidence - and, lest we forgot, it should entertain .

Foreign Touring Plays for 5-11 Year olds Plays for 11-16 Year olds Plays for Foundation

It’s a tool that you can use to make your work easier and feel confident in the knowledge that it will benefit your students too, not only during their days at school, or college but also in their future lives. Drama is a tool, a tool that you can use and we can help you to do so. Playtime Theatre has been providing drama for educational establishments since 1983 and in that time, we have performed to countless numbers of young people, in many parts of the world, so we know our business and we know drama works.

 

Another way to teach children lessons is through story telling, the stories are usually engaging and contain a moral, the story books also usually have colourful pictures in them, a prime example being, ‘The Hare And The Tortoise’. The moral of this story is more haste less speed.

The Hare And The Tortoise

“The Hare And The Tortoise”, this is possibly the most popular children's story that I’m sure everyone has heard, it is based around the saying “More haste less speed”, the story is again two animals, which is good for engaging children, although it has a moral to the story, there are also a lot of other lessons.

In the story we can see that the Hare braggs a lot about how fast he is, and how the tortoise got fed up with him. This happens in day to day life, for example some people can be very loud about how good they are at something, and it can be an annoying thing to listen to, after this the tortoise, (Being the slowest creature), stood up to the hare and asked for a race, this shows courage and bravery, that such a small slow creature, is standing up to a fast hare, it shows the audience that being smart and witty is much more effective than just being the fastest at doing things in this case, the race , this is something we could powerfully show through movement. It also teaches kids that rushing things may ruin the end product, taking things slowly and steadily may be a slower process, but you gain a lot more knowledge.

Another story is called ‘The lion And The Mouse’, which also involves animals, which are a good way of portraying an interesting story.

An example telling childrens stories can also be on television, for example there is a show run by Cbeebies which is called ‘bedtime stories’. You can also watch the stories on the website, there are a lot of other brilliant sections on the website. For example games which is a good way to keep children entertained and learning all the time, there are also shows and you can become a member on the website. Its good to have interactive websites for children on the internet because it means that you can watch something where ever. The bedtime stories show is designed specifically to calm down the young audience by using professional story tellers, who usually have extremely soft voices, and the stories are usually calm.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Friday 19th June Mr Kelly

Today was the second to last day we had before we did the performance. We ran it once and then worked on " got the magic " song. Because that's the dance I'm struggling with. Just remembering the moves and being in time is what I need to work on. I also really want to go over the top when I'm doing all my wolf parts. Because I know I can be quite comical and can make young kids laugh and stay engaged in the performance. 

Thursday 18th June little shop

Today we ran all of the musical numbers from the acts. And we especially went over "the gas" song. Which is between me and Kyle who is playing Seymour. It's fun to do because I can go as over the top as I want. The hard thing is staying in time with the actual track. For instance during the little music sequence there is a little boom which signals me trying to pull the mask off. So I need to be in time for that. Which I'm Not very confident about at the minute. In the second part of the lesson we ran act 2 fully 

Tuesday 16th June little shop

Today we ran the whole of act 2. And at the end of the lesson the teacher asked us to look at some of the numbers. Because I'm playing drums in the show on some songs. I'm quite happy that we are allowed to pick our own songs to play. So I can go for the slightly faster rocky stuff which is the sort of music I'm quite dynamic at 

Tuesday 9th June story telling

Today we carried on devising jack and te beanstalk. Personally it's my favourite one because I feel it flows a lot better and it's going to be a lot more engaging for the children. After a while I have also found that tom suits the part very well as he is good at storytelling with children. My favourite part of jack and the beanstalk is the small dance we do when jack gets to the top of the clouds. It's quite cheesy. But hopefully the children will find it hilarious 

Monday 15th June little shop

Today we ran over all of the dances from act one and from act 2 I feel a lot more confident with every dance now. Im finding my song a lot more fun to act because I know all the lyrics now. 

9th June. Tuesday. Dan smith. Little shop

Today in the lesson we went over all the musical numbers. I really enjoyed doing my song "dentist" without the vocal track. It helped me to play the character more. and it helped me to find the pitch that I wanted to sing at. I was very happy with how it went. Also I feel that all the other numbers ran well. The vocal warm up exercise at the beginning made a significant difference to my voice and I never thought it would work as well as it did. At the end of running the numbers we ran act 2 which I'm not in as much as Act 1. As I get killed right before the interval. 

Monday 8th June Dan smith little shop

Today we went over pretty much every dance. After sitting on laptops and doing theory work for a while. We headed next door in the second half of the lesson, I requested that we practice the "little shop of horrors" opening dance. Which is probably the hardest dance that's in the production. Also we hadn't gone over it for a long time so most of us had to recall all of our steps. We also went over "the meek song". Which isn't really too difficult at all, it's quite a long number however. Also there is another dance scene we went over which was "ya never know", which is also quite a tricky dance to do. But it ran quite smoothly and only took 2 or 3 attempts. 

Dan Smith thursday 4th June Meek song

This dance is probably the easiest one, however i want to go over it because i forgot some of the moves, also i have not learnt all the words yet so i need to get on with that. It would be good if we regularly went over each of the dances, Its would help us to remeber all of the steps, and then muscle memory would be able to kick in

Dan Smith Ya Never Know tuesday 2nd june

revolutionarts2016: 'Ya Never Know' Choreography



In this lesson we mostly focused on learning the choreography for 'Ya nevery know', we started learning it on Monday, but not everyone was in, due to exams being on during the lesson. fortunately i was in the first lesson so i had two whole lessons to get the dance right, Its quite fast and i still need to go over it quite a bit. Especially the Hula Hula part. Another dance its essential that we go over is, the Little Shop of Horrors opening dance is one of the hardest dances in the show, which took us actually at least 3 lessons to get right, we have not run it for a long time and i have pretty much forgotton all of it, so i need to bring it up in lesson that we need to run it occasionally.

Dances little shop of horrors

We will be going over some more choreography, and i need to work on the dances in my own time, because im quite forgetful. I find the first dance very difficult, although i finally managed to get it perfect, i need to go over it because i will have most likely forgotton some steps and movement. i need to make my movement in my song more exaggerated because i want to make it funny.

Dentist song progression

I have been working on my song alot over the half term, i have been practicing mostly in my garage because its quiet and nobody can hear me, so i can really go for it and not get embarrassed if my voice goes weird.
I also looked over my lines and did some character building, watching videos of the character so i can get a better understanding of how to act as him. I found that in my song, if i sing in a lower octive when i start the second verse i can do the higher note lower than normal, and its easier to hold. And i have a lower chance of voice cracking. Ive been starting to learn my lines, fortunately my part is only in act 1, and i have good amount of lines, but not too many. I need to practice my other small singing part, just before i die i have a few little lines that im singing to seymour. They sound quite difficult. But i have alot of frees to practice in.

10th- 15th may Little shop of Horrors

During this week we have perfected all of the dances, and everyone has improved alot, we are now in time when we dance and it actually looks good now. Ive been spending some time at home looking up my character 'Orin', and been trying to get his voice and style down to a T, i have the leather jacket so all Tom has to do is get his hands on a dentist top, because he is head of costume for the production.

Im very excited because I'm also playing drums in the show swell as acting, so i can show off my performing skills through music also, i need miss to give us the music sheets as soon as possible however, because it takes time learning a new song, especially musical numbers which are technically quite difficult. Especially on drums.

Towards the end of the week we have been focusing on mainly dialogue, we have run it from start to finish now, I'm quite happy because i have a big part in Act 1, then get killed before act 2, so it means i don't have to learn too many lines! I really need to start learning my lines now and practice the dances at home swell as in school. I also need to spend a little time at home working on my characters solo song, which will be quite funny if i get the character spot on, I'm going to watch youtube videos of the movie version and show version so that i can incorporate ideas from both and play the part as well as i can.

Next week i think we will probably run it a few more times to get us used to the play, and then maybe start working on individual songs, i need to ask miss about the sheet music as it is essential that we get it soon. Im a little nervous about singing because i haven't really sung solo in front of my friends, I'm sure if i practice enough ill be fine.

Mr Kelly story telling 15th may

I can't really write much about this lesson because again the majority of the class were out of the room, we decided to try and cast everyone, which ended up taking the whole lesson because of a few debates, at the end of the lesson i was quite disappointed with parts that were given out because i didn't feel some people would suit the characters they were given, i also feel that not many people are getting a chance to be the main character and show us potential. I was quite disappointed when one of my classmates asked not to have a specific part and then was given it, i feel the casting was inaccurate and rushed, hopefully next lesson we can smoothen things out and ill have to just deal with who got what part. Next lesson we will be starting the first scene to jack and the beanstalk, i look forward to the sing songs we are having in the performance, as i feel this will engage and focus the audience, and keep them entertained

Mr kelly tuesday 12th may

In todays lesson most of the people in our lesson were actually taking an exam so were absent throughout the lesson, the rest of us who didn't have exams started planning the next story out, we began scripting each part, decided on how we were going to tell it, and what characters would be in it. We managed to get a brief full script by the end of the lesson, however we will have to go into more detail when the other classmates rejoin  us because they will maybe want to change ideas and move things around. We had the idea of adding in classic sing along songs like ' You've got a friend in me', when jack tells his mum he wants to keep the cow, we thought this would be a good idea because a sing along will be able to have audience participation, hopefully they will be familiar with the song because its in a very popular children's disney film called Toy Story. Although we thought this was a good idea, i had doubts because some of the children might not know the songs or the words, we don't want anyone feeling left out at all. Next lesson we will be sorting out a cast list for the short story of 'Jack and the beanstalk'

Mr Kelly Storytelling Goldilocks 8th may

In todays lesson we Finished off the story, We created alot of new images, for example, we made the bears beds and the table that the porridge goes on. The longest thing we spent on with the shadowing was the actual house, it was very difficult to make a cottage using shadows, however when we did manage to, it looked really effective, we had a chimney on the top to make sure the audience know its a cottage. We decided today that we would have Freya narrating the story, although this may sound a bit strange and sounds like it may ruin the effects, i feel that it will help the children to understand what is going on in the story. We also made the decision in the lesson to perform in our own school, that way we will be able to use our stage, and also it should look really professional because by that point, we would have practiced it on stage a good few times, also it will be fun for the kids to travel up to our school and will be an exciting experience for them.

Ive found out from doing silouhette work is that i have to be focused all of the time, because if your in another scene and forget to go on, it will ruin the whole piece, every shadow counts, if one person is missing the object doesn't look as it should, the children loose engagement because they can't follow the storyline and the whole thing goes kaput. So its imperative that i stay focused. Also the transitions between scenes need to be smooth ones. We decide to roll off which will show that there has been a scene change, the reason for us doing this is that it clearly shows we are changing the scene and moving on with the story, if we didn't and just casually walked off, it would look unprofessional and the audience would get confused.

Little Shop of Horrors 4th-8th May

In this week we have been working alot on the dance and movement scenes of Act 1, right at the beginning the song 'Little Shop Of Horrors', has a dance choreographed by Dan Mckay, it is really fast and it took me a long time for my muscle memory to remember the dance. Because I'm a principle i start off stage, then walk up the stairs and onto the stage, i am also quite near the front when we stand in our dance formation, which is a little out of my depth, especially when it comes to dancing, i usually stand at the back and copy what everybody else is doing, but I've realised I'm actually quite good at staying in time and acting while i dance. Which has made me more confident. We have also worked on the dance for 'Skidrow', which isn't add fast paced as 'Little Shop Of Horrors', however there is singing in it, I'm not a very confident singer, but I'm also coping well with singing all the right parts, and staying in time with the dancing. For next week i plan to start learning my lines. Because i have quite alot in Act 1, i want to focus mostly on my acting, and the way i want to play the character. It shouldn't be too difficult to get into character because I'm a crazy person in general, and the dentist is a bit mad so ill get along just fine

Mr kelly silouhette work 5th May

In todays lesson we again put of the silouhette sheet, and worked on our shadow story telling, I really enjoyed creating objects, for example when we made the forest that Goldilocks walks in, i became a tree with a few other of my classmates, one of us is quite good at making shadows and could make a bird, so they used their hands to show a bird flying around the tree, which looked really good. It took us a while to get used to acting with shadows, we spent quite a few lessons learning how to work with shadows. We have been working through the Goldilocks storyline, trying to get the shadows to look real, it looks good so far. In one part i have to become a building, which looks good because i make the building with another person to bulk the shape out. It looks really realistic. We also spent some time watching shadow movement videos of professionals performing on stage, to see how we can use our bodies to make different things. In the next lesson we will probably re-cap everything we have done so far, and then start to work on some more of the story, I'm looking forward to new scenes because it means we have to become different things. Overall I'm very pleased that we picked to do silhouette work because it will be fun and interesting for the children, and will keep them engaged for the whole duration. Its a great storytelling technique, but will have to be nailed with precision and accuracy, in order for the children to understand what the story is about, and what our shadows are.

Mr Kelly story telling

For the past few weeks, we have been creating fairytale like stories to perform to young children, we have incorporated alot of story telling techniques like Movement. In the first play we did little red riding hood, i play the part of the wolf. its really good because we have alot of different movement sequences which are good at keeping children engaged and focused. I also really enjoyed the fact that we created the forest or when we became animals of the forest, its also quite difficult story telling to children, because you have to use a completely different tone of voice to keep them engaged, also throughout little red riding hood. Dan Mckay narrates it, which is helping the children to understand the storyline.

Aswell as the small dances in the piece, there is also a song, and other ways to get the audience involved. My favourite part of the play is when the other characters are singing to the Wolf about how bad he is. Its very engaging for the children because we break the fourth wall of communicating with the audience, you have to get young children involved with whats going on up on the stage. Thats a very important way to storytelling.

In the next play we have been looking at different ways of storytelling, at the start of last lesson we got together different storytelling ideas, for example, puppetry work, silouhette, physical movement. After quite a long discussion about which one would be the best for children's storytelling, we decided to give the silouhette idea a go. So we blocked every window with paper and put a huge white sheet across the room and attached it to the ceiling. After setting up a powerful light. Mr kelly got us all to form different objects in groups as little as 3 people. Only then i realised how hard it is to work with shadows. I however feel that because it was so difficult, we may not have enough time to be able to do a full run-through without making a mistake, i think somebody had the idea of someone also narrating over it. So that way the children can again follow the storyline and not be 100 percent relying on our shadows to be perfect.