Unit 12 Research

The Time Period of The Play

The time period that the play was written in was influential as to how the play was written. Samuel Beckett wrote 'Waiting For Godot' in the year 1948 in France. He used a foreign language to portray his story when writing. This would explain how sometimes in the play the speech is very strange in terms of the placement of certain verbs and nouns. It was because during his time in France his work was translated from that foreign language to french so some of the script must've been interpreted the wrong way. This was important to keep in mind when learning lines as some lines wouldn't make sense to me so I'd had to try and understand it so I could say the line with the right context so that it made sense otherwise for some lines I would be saying them without a certainty that I knew what I was communicating.

Unit 12 Proposal

Proposal 

Skills Audit

Over the course I have made a lot of progress. In terms of as a performer, and also as a person. In this skills audit I shall be including the skills I have gained through the progression of this course. Throughout this course I have developed skills I already had and also learnt new skills that will help me in the future. Some of the skills I have learnt is being able to have a dynamic stage presence, being able to adapt to a stage mistake and also being able to stage a production in the first steps before performing it. Firstly with staging a production you have to think about how it will look for the audience, if at any time in the performance there is an unbalance in the stage then you need to make it so that it doesn't happen because it can effect the aesthetics of the production, so that is one of the new skills that I learnt. Another new skill that I learnt is dynamic stage presence. This skill helps when it comes to claiming the stage when in character and being able to not be lost on stage.  

Project concept

With this project I want to perform the play 'Waiting For Godot'. I am going to make sure that I complete research that helps me with the context of the play for example with the time period of when Samuel Beckett wrote this play was very influential in the style it was wrote so I would include that in my research and it will also help me understand certain things that I maybe didn't understand at first. In terms of the production I'm hoping to make sure that even when cutting down the production to a suitable length I still make sure that the key elements of the story are still included and make sure the true meaning of the play isn't lost. I'm also going to research the play in terms of costume and character development to see how my character; Estragon, is portrayed by a different actor and also the costume choices in different production will evidently effect the choices that I make when choosing how to dress my character. This will effect the performance as it will show to the audience our representation of these characters and also making sure that they go well together otherwise the satisfaction of watching a culturally correct production goes away as the audience will be asking questions that don't link to the acting but to the costumes and production value. 

Evaluate

• To help evaluate my performance I will make sure to self reflect at every chance I get. 
• Make sure that I ask my peers what I can do better to make the experience better for them 
• A Diary will help make sure I keep all the steps of the process noted down so that I will remember them for later use
• A Self evaluation will help me figure out what I need to improve on personally to make me a better performer.
• An audience survey also helps me to widen the range of my peer assessment stretching to friends and family but also making sure that the assessment is not bias. 

Bibliography 

Samuel Beckett, 2017, Encyclopaedia Britannica
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Samuel-Beckett

Background:Waiting For Godot, 2014, Theatre 271
https://pages.stolaf.edu/th271-spring2014/background-waiting-for-godot/

Director: Michael Lindsay-Hogg, 2001, Blue Angels Films
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=izX5dIzI2RE

Demmer Dewan, 2014, Off the Wall Plays
https://offthewallplays.com/2014/06/12/baggage-claim-british-drama-plays/

Waiting For Godot Analysis, 2019, Schmoop University
https://www.shmoop.com/waiting-for-godot/duality-symbol.html

Surrealism: From France to the World at Princeton University, 2017, International society for the study of surrealism
https://surrealismstudies.wordpress.com/2017/06/09/blog-post-title/

Time Line 

Week no	Task	Notes
1	Choose A Play	Make sure the play is engaging and fun and you perhaps play a character you haven't played before.
2	Once you've chosen the play read through the play separately in your own time.
3	Read through the play together and decide which characters which people would like to play. Make cuts if necessary	Deciding characters
4	Reading through again together.  Maybe starting to stage to see how it would look.	Start learning lines while reading through
5	Perform to peers to see progress and see what kind of peer assessment you can get to help you with you performance.
6	In Depth Rehearsals. Continuously learning and running lines along side.	finalising staging ideas and focusing on the spacing and nuances
7	Continue to Rehearse, start to think about props and set.	Note down lighting ideas and set ideas if any
8	Start to think about costume remembering the research we've done to help us with context.	Lines should pretty much be learnt by now
9	Technical Rehearsal and in full costume	Make sure to voice your ideas
10	Performance!!	Have Fun!

Rehearsal Diary

This post will contain everything that I discuss and do to do with  my final major project performance.  The play we are doing is called 'Waiting For Godot'. We've picked this play after going through a number of other plays and ideas changing because of  either opinions on the play or the play  not  fitting us as a group. Here are the plays we looked at. I will be explaining the pros and cons of picking that play and why we didn't pick it but also why we picked the play we eventually picked.

The first play we looked at was Torn. Torn was written by Nathaniel Martello-White. It's a play about generations of secrets in a family and how the secrets broke them apart. The play shows a very disfunctional family and very hectic throughout, spotlighting their problems and also showing how hard it is for them to find a resolution. Themes that are contained in the play are; Family, Growing up, Abuse and Loss. I liked this play because the unique way it is staged and how nobody goes off stage at no point in time and because of the structure of the play it was very intense and enjoyable. The reason we didn't pick this play is because we were restricted by the fact that the play had to be type cast for it to make sense and be effective. Another reason why we didn't pick this play is because of the fact that we had some people that had to play a certain role and were not reliable in terms of attendance we couldn't pick this one.

 The next play we looked at was 'Our Country's Good' written by Timberlake Wertenbaker.  The play is a highly rated play and had the interesting story of convicts putting on a  play for the guards and other convicts with the theme of redemption. In my opinion Our Country's Good was the best play out of all the options but the reason we couldn't  do it is because of how big the cast is. For us to do this play as a class we need every single student to be in all the time and have a very high attendance, even then it would still be a massive challenge as an ensemble so we definitely couldn't do it.  

The next play we looked at was 'Noise' by Alex Jones. This story of this play is that a pair of teenage newly weds that are pregnant move in to their new housing association flat. Their neighbour plays loud pounding techno music constantly and the audience sees how they deal with this new challenge.  The reason I didn't want to do this play is because of the character that I had been cast as. In my opinion it was a character very similar to my previous roles. He was a character who was very balanced in terms of not having much conflict or always being the peacekeeper. I personally wanted to play the weird character, who was the neighbour as it would've been a role I would've been more interested in working on as an actor.

The last play we looked at before we finally picked our play was Baggage Claim. Baggage Claim was  a production set in an apocalyptic era. The plot of the production was that unknown people were placing duffel bags around the country. They would place 50 duffel bags, 25 of them would contain 100 thousand pounds in cash and the other 25 would contain lethal bombs. One of the characters found one of these bags and brought one home to his best friend and his girlfriend. They then have to decide whether they want to open it and risk their lives along with the baby that they're expecting. Themes that are featured in the play are; Family, Sacrifice and Relationships. The reason we didn't do this play is because of how there wasn't many in depth research points that we could explore. It helps for our play to have detailed points to talk about when researching it so that these research points can help us when it comes to the context of the play helping us understand our characters more.

The play we picked to do was 'Waiting for Godot'. The reason we picked this play is because unlike any other play we looked at the play had a very weird and unique concept which was two old men waiting for nothing. When looking at this play we found it very entertaining and intriguing that helped make the choice to perform it easier. The play is written by Samuel Beckett.

After picking our play we had to read through it and realise which characters we were playing after reading through it once and discussing it to make sure we all had an understanding of what the play was about we chose our characters. I chose Estragon because I felt that out of the two main characters him and Vladimir Estragon is less dominating of the conversation and I feel it will be widening my range of character when playing this character. He is more of a character that sits back and goes with the flow of whatever happens. Then we read through the play but as our characters. realising it was too long we took a few days to cut it down to a suitable length and also making sure that the story wasn't lost or not piecing together otherwise it would make no sense.

Cutting it down and then reading it through we made sure it made sense and then went onto learning lines while simultaneously staging and just line reading over the course of 3-4 weeks. We had to perform to our peers to show our progress and also see what we could improve on in terms of the performance value. While performing our peers had informed to us that they lost touch with the piece as we were missing a character that we hadn't cast yet and it made that section of the play a bit weird. Apart from that they said that the chemistry between the two main characters and their relationship was very clear but they thought that we could make that relationship clear consistently throughout.

So now we were faced with a problem of not having a Lucky which is the character we were missing, if he was not there then the play would like the person we were addressing isn't there. So we had to find a Lucky and quickly get to rehearsing with them so that those scenes were as good as the others as they weren't rehearsed with a Lucky before. Luckily a student in another acting class volunteered to help us and we now had filled the role of that character. After getting the role filled we quickly started rehearsing with them letting them now specific cues and trying to make sure that they knew where they had to be and who they were. The role was easy for the student as Lucky didn't have much lines because of how out of the ordinary he was he didn't speak at all throughout the production.

We were mostly ready for performance apart from a few scenes that were slightly slacking in terms of smoothness in delivery of lines and the stage awareness when it comes to those parts. So while rehearsing those parts we were coming up to the technical rehearsal where we would have to implement our ideas onto our stage production and make sure that the stage looked aesthetically pleasing and also fit with the play's context. We decided that we should have rocks and boulders all over the stage to show that this place isn't elegant or clean or somewhere very nice. We also had a little bench towards the front corner of the stage which came from inspiration from the official production of the play where they had a small mound where Estragon sat at points during the performance. Also making sure that a main talking point in the play, a tree, was involved by making sure that two projections were made on the back wall to show clearly to the audience the tree we were referencing.

Whilst going through the technical rehearsal we were picking the light colours to help depict the mood of the play or even the time of day during that moment. We decided that during the first 30-35 minutes of the play we should have a early morning kind of feel so we had a orange/white kind of colour to create that feel. Something to improve on next time would be to add sound effects to help immerse the audience even more into the story and the production. Next lighting cue we added was at a time during the play there was a sense of night time falling upon us so we decided to add a kind blue midnight look to add to the feeling of that scene. For the audience entry and bowing we chose the song 'You've Got A Friend in Me' by Randy Newman. The reason we chose this is because I was familiar with the song and knew that the lyrics had contained content about friendship which I feel is one of the main themes of this play because of how important Vladimir and Estragon are to each other.

Finally before the performance I was choosing my costume keeping in mind the inspiration i used which was from the 2001 production of Waiting For Godot, I decided that I should go with a more rough and poor. I tried to find a raggedy kind of jacket that he had and managed to find one quiet similar. I think this is what helped me fully embody the character as initially I wasn't comfortable in it but as I rehearsed with it I could see it on my character and that very much helped. After all of these rehearsals we had done our performance.

Final Evaluation 

When it comes to the performance overall it went very well. There were a few mistakes that were brushed over using improvisation. Out of the two performances that we done on the day I feel that the second performance in the evening was better. The reason for this I personally think that I put a bit more energy and effort into it, that's not to say that I didn't put effort or energy into the first performance but because of me being more personally attached to the second performance because of family and friends of mine in the audience. Something that I done well was making sure that the stage was well balanced. If during the performance I felt that the stage was unbalanced or heavy on a particular side then I would make sure that it's re balanced. This may have been done for example by going in character to a fellow cast member and pulling them aside in character but also making sure that it wasn't too off putting or didn't make any sense as that would've been very distracting. Something that I could've improved on is keeping the same level of energy in my dialogue throughout the whole performance. A habit of mine is that I tend to lower the projection of my voice subconsciously and it causes me to go quite quiet which doesn't help the performance as the audience will not be able to hear what I'm saying. After the performance I asked 3 members of the audience who had come to watch and asked if my voice projection was good or if there was at any point they couldn't hear me and they said that there wasn't many but towards the middle of the play where I was sitting and the energy from the start had kind of gone. This was encouraging as it showed to me that I am recognisably getting better at keeping my projection of voice loud.

Another thing that I did well was my interaction with other character making sure that my position on stage was helping showing the interaction and reaction between me and whatever character I was interacting with. This helps the audience gauge the kind of relationships they can see between the characters on stage and the more will help them do that the quicker they figure them out and the more of the story they understand. So not only does it help me to get into the habit of positioning myself on stage to make sure the audience can see everything but it also helps the audience to understand the play a lot quicker if the communication between the actors and the audience is very good.

Personally I took too long to learn my lines. Having planned to learn lines on a certain date and not to learn them then puts the whole schedule at risk as it moves everything backwards and delays certain things you can do, for example if you don't learn lines then you can't do a full no script run and if you can't do a full no script run then you can't move on from the acting side of things and focus on the production side of things like programmes and costumes and set. So in the future it would be beneficial to not just me but the whole cast for me to learn my lines as quick as possible so that we can progress quicker and get things done efficiently.

Overall in terms of the whole process including rehearsals, research and performance the process was very enlightening to certain things helping me realise what works and what doesn't work very quickly and working efficiently as a group. Something that I would change about the process and what we done is select a play quicker because of how we selected 'Waiting For Godot', in a rush, we picked the play but didn't think about any research points initially so when choosing research points we found it hard to look for them where as if we had chosen a play with substantial amounts of research points and also with us having the same amount of interest then we would've done a better job on the research side in terms of the process. 

My Higher Education Plans.

My Plans For Higher Education. 

For my future career plans I plan on being an actor

For Higher Education I plan on applying to both universities and drama schools. 

The universities that I plan to apply for are The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama and UAL Drama Centre. 

The Drama schools I plan to apply for are RADA and LAMDA. 

I chose to apply for both Drama schools and Universities because I feel that applying for both will fully widen my range of opportunity and rather choosing one over the other I decided that doing both is better for me.

I favour going to university rather than going to drama school. 

This is proof of my application on UCAS track. This is a print screen of my Personal Statements.

Unit 10: Higher Education Essay

The Pros and Cons Of Higher Education

In this essay I will discussing the pros and cons of higher education. I will be weighing it up and giving my overall opinion at the end. I am going to list and explain first the pros and then the cons.

The first pro that should be taken into consideration when thinking about Higher Education is that it makes you more employable. When stepping into the higher education world some will be doing the course they're doing because they want to develop skills they feel they will need in future life, which i will discuss later. But most are doing the course they chose because the career path that they have chosen links to it. So by choosing to go to higher education and picking a course that links to your career path you are essentially setting yourself up for success as you will gain skills from this course that will definitely help your case. Compared to someone who wants to dive into the career path you will be more equipped than them in terms of skills. Though it will take more time, you will have skills that will be beneficial to you. Increasing your skill set also increases your earning potential as it has been known that graduates earn more over the course of their lifetime than a person who hasn't gained a degree. 

Another pro of going into higher education is the gain of independence. In my opinion being able to work in a team of people is very important but what is also very important is being able to be independent as there are certain responsibilities that require you to be independent. By going into higher education you gain the skill of being independent and that helps you later in life and also at that point in your life you need to be responsible and independent for stuff like bills and your well being. Living without your parents which most higher education students do is extremely independent.

The final pro of going to higher education that I will be discussing is that you are provided an opportunity to make new friends and connections. What I mean by this is that by doing the course that you have chosen you meet people who also are pursuing the same career path and maybe even people who are accomplished in that area. You will gain contacts that will introduce to new opportunities. You also have new friends that when possible will support you with your workload and provide you with a possible career companion, someone you know is going down the same career path as you.

On the other hand there are plenty of cons when discussing this subject. For example one con of going into higher education is the cost of it. Expense is a big aspect to take into consideration when applying for universities and other things. For most it's the reason they decide not to go into higher education. Yes there are scholarships but not everyone can get one so for people who are less fortunate and maybe don't have the finances available for higher education they don't really have a choice but not to go. Student loans can help with that but even after you graduate you will have to start paying back the costs after you've earned over a specific threshold. 

Another con of higher education is that you will have an intensive workload. This con could be interpreted as a pro as the intensive workload prepares you for the real world and the type of workloads you will get in the business. But the intensive workload is sometimes very stressful as it will restrict you from doing certain things for your enjoyment. The intensive workload will definitely cut some of your free time short as there will be stuff that you have to get done urgently.

A final con that I have to discuss is the fact that you may change your mind.  After applying for your course and being a few weeks or months through the course you might have a change of heart and decide that it isn't the course for you. This means that you will have to leave the course and wait for the next academic year as that is when you can next go into another course. All the costs you've already paid for will not be refunded and if your living situation has changed it will now set you back.



Overall I think higher education is a good choice because the type of doors it opens and the things it can do for you in later life. Yes there are financial disadvantages but there are always ways around it.



https://smartandrelentless.com/the-pros-and-cons-of-higher-education-from-a-graduates-perspective/

Unit 10: Skills Audit

Skills Audit 

Strengths:

• Vocal Projection 
• Ensemble Work 
• Taking Direction on
• Stage Awareness 
• Physical Awareness 
• Articulation 

Goals:

• Organisation; learning lines and cues during the rehearsal period. 
• research skills; researching key facts that will help me in terms of context for this play.
• Taking criticism on board; taking people's criticism and thinking why they're saying that and how I can get them to think differently about it. 

Unit 10: Log

Wednesday 3rd October

On this day we visited the Westminster Kingsway Soho Centre to perform our monologues to a camera. This helped us practice the TV/Film aspect of acting and making sure that we know what type of skills we need when performing to a camera. This will help as an actor getting used to not only theatre acting techniques and skills but also TV/Film acting techniques and skills. It's important to be versatile when entering acting industry so that you as an actor can play a variety of different roles and different types of acting. I was told before filming my monologue that we should underplay the emotions and actions of our characters and look straight at the camera. This took a little bit of getting used to when first getting into the monologue but as I went along it got easier. Learning the skill of having stage stillness really helped with this as it was a very similar skill.

Friday 12th October

On this day we started our UCAS process. We had already handed in our first draft of our personal statement so we had gotten the feedback from the first draft and we are now starting to finish if off. We also got shown different examples of bad and good personal statements depending on how the person started their personal statement, so that helped us to understand how we should write ours.

Thursday 22nd November

On this day we visited the YATI centre and we had a practice audition to prepare for auditions for drama schools. We received feedback for what we did and how to improve it from Nicholas Khan. 

After performing this to other students, Rob and Nick, Nick gave me some feedback. He said that my vocal projection and articulation was good and the physicality of the character was very well portrayed. He said that something that I can improve on is my eye-line when speaking because it keeps slipping down and I kept looking down but if I keep the eye-line up then it adds power to the monologue instead of losing its effect. 

Unit 9: Log

Week 1:

We started off the school year with learning that we are doing a joint performance with musical theatre second years. The performance that we would be doing would be 'A Christmas Carol'.  After finding out that we were doing Christmas Carol we then had to watch a version of it all together, so we watched the 1951 rendition of A Christmas Carol. I thought that this version was very entertaining but because it was interesting to see how dramatic they made it in comparison to later versions of it like the Muppet's Christmas Carol or the Jim Carrey animation. They were versions that had a light hearted comedic tone to them. Whereas in the 1951 rendition it was quite dramatic. Although there were certain moments of comedy for example when the charwoman thinks that Scrooge is going crazy because he wished her a merry Christmas. But the dramatic tone outweighs the comedic, light-hearted tone. This doesn't make the production bad, I think it just doesn't make it emotionally available to all groups of ages and people watching the production. Maybe this is because back in those times people in the film industry weren't fully aware of all parts of society and that's why they wouldn't aim their films towards them.

The next day of that week we read through a synopsis of the story just smooth out details in the story that some people might not have known from watching it the previous day. After reading through the synopsis we were split into groups and were given the task to make a mind maps of what we enjoyed about the book if we had read it or what we enjoyed about the movie. We wrote down things like the Christmas carolers in the movie which we were thinking about incorporating into our performance in one way or another. Or the way Tiny Tim was presented in both the book and the movie was amazing and we were hoping to show exactly how important a character he is. Me and my group finished making the mind map of things we liked about the book and movie early so we were given an extra task to make a mind map of all the themes of the story. Some themes we came up with were; Grudges, Poverty and Family. Both of these mind maps help us to understand the story even more and when it comes to the performance we will be able to confidently tell the story of Ebeneezer Scrooge.

After this we stayed in the same groups and we had to choose a theme or a pair of themes and make them into a still image. We chose poverty vs wealth. The still image we created was of two people who were poor and struggling. They were asking Scrooge for money but he wouldn't be generous enough. Then a spirit was showing Scrooge the error of his own ways. We then had to create an improvised scene based on the still image. This was pretty easy because we basically just had to move and speak how we thought the character we were being in the still image would move and speak. For some it was easier than others as they knew their characters back story because they were Scrooge or a spirit but if we were a beggar then we would have to come up with the reason we were doing what we were doing, which is also fun. Another group had chosen the theme of change and made the the still image remaking Charles Darwin's evolutionary depiction. Straight away I could see that their theme was change as they made it very clear. Then when they added the lines they used lines from the actual script from different points of Scrooge life and his mindset. 

We were then put into groups of 5 or 6 and we had to make a remake of the Christmas Carol story. My group decided that we should modernize it. We decide that we could make the story into a game that's playing out. So we used Dungeons and Dragons because in that game there are choices which is similar to life. We modernized it by putting a game that young people are playing these days. Playing out the events of the story in the form of a game was really interesting and helped us see another angle of performing this. 

Week 2 

The first lesson of this week we worked with musical theatre and dance students that we would be working with for the rest of that term. Our main focus of that lesson was Tableaux. Tableaux is the official name for a still image which we were working on in the previous week. The main point about a tableaux is making a frozen image that tells a story very clearly. So if a member of an audience was looking at it they would understand it. We were put into 3 separate groups. In those groups we were given different places and we had to make a tableaux based on that place and show it to the rest of the class. The point of this was to see how effective our presentation of the place was and how the audience interpreted it. We then stayed in the same group and instead of given places we were told to pick a main theme and make a tableaux based on that theme. My groups theme was self reflection and we made a tableaux where we had Scrooge looking back at himself in the mirror remembering what he had been through and how he was going to change. We then showed it to the class and they had to guess the theme. One person guessed the theme but to help bring the clarity to the whole class people who were confused got the chance to slightly change the tableaux and make it more clear for them. This would help all of us as it shows us what makes tableaux more clear for the audience and what as an audience makes a tableaux interesting and intriguing to look at.  Things like levels, spacial awareness help to make a tableaux interesting to look at. A variety of different levels and particular spacial awareness really makes a difference. 

After that all groups merged tableaux and we made one massive tableaux. Taking on all of the changes from other people and incorporating it 

into the massive tableaux is what made it very special as it was spaced out very well and included a variety of different levels. 

The next exercise we had to do was create tableaux appropriate for the 2 party scenes. We split into 2 groups one group did the Fezziwig party and our group did the Fred's party. Not only did we have to create the tableaux for the party scene but we had to bring it to life and make it move. It was interesting to see what different kind of dances we all came up with what we had and the dances were similar in terms of dances that a group can do but they were different in terms of tempo and the amount of people that were dancing in the two different groups were also different. One group decided that nearly everyone should be dancing whether it's all the same dance or different. The other group only had one pair dancing together so maybe they thought that the less people dancing and the more people acting naturalistic then the tableaux would be more effective and in my opinion it was. 

Again we merged together to make one moving, dancing tableaux. This felt really nice as it filled the space completely as a real party would. I think everyone had the feeling that they actually felt they were in a party whereas previously I don't think they would've felt it as strongly. 

The next day of this week we had auditions for the roles that we wanted in the play. I auditioned for the role of Bob Cratchit. We had to read a small passage from the script as that character. We then had to sing any song that we had prepared. I didn't have a song prepared but I sang the chorus of Merry Christmas. I feel that my Sight reading went very but my singing wasn't great because I'm not confident in my singing ability. 

Week 3 

To start off the week we had to make a timeline of what we were going to be doing for the lead up to the performances we would be doing on the 12th and 13th of December. The timeline helps us to realize where we are and where we need to be at a certain time. We can then set general goals for the class and personal goals for ourselves for when the performance comes around so that when it is time to perform we are 100% ready. Next we had the task of creating an improvisation of the events of each ghost. There were multiple groups and they each got a different ghost whether it was future, past or present. The group that I was in got the past ghost so we had to improvise/ summarise the key events of when the ghost of Christmas past is involved in this story. These kind of improvisation summary exercises are very valuable because it helps all of us to more understand the story characters and also if we were thinking of playing a certain character, by doing these improvisations we get more in touch with characters as we don't have a script telling us what the character is saying but we have to figure out over time what our character is thinking at certain times. We then get feedback from our fellow students and they can help us by telling us what worked and what didn't work to either keep and use for the final performance or change it and adapt it for it to help us. 

On this day we got casted to the roles that we were going to be playing for the final performance. The roles that I was given was the role I auditioned for, Bob Cratchit, and also Old Joe. I am glad to be playing 2 quite different characters as they are different in age, profession and passion. This will help me as an actor playing different characters and increasing my range. We did a sight read of the play with everyone reading the role that they got. This helped us get used embodying our characters vocally. 

On the final day of the week we went through pages 1-15 blocking it and seeing how the scenes look off the page. This session was mostly focused on the nuances and starting to bring it to life with background characters and making the stage come to life. We didn't have the whole cast but we were still able to apply the nuances and make the scene come to life. We would have to make notes for the missing actors so that when they do come back they can slot straight back into the scene and it won't be difficult. 

Week 4

We started off the week by going over the scenes that we blocked on Friday. Today we had the actors that were missing last week so we could properly rehearse our scenes with the people playing the characters that they were actually casted as. This helps everyone as it gets them getting used to working with that person and learning lines. It also helps everyone as an ensemble not have any confusion coming to future days.

We went through the script very fast paced so that we could get used to the entrances and cues. This will help us think ahead and think about where we are next and what scene we were in next. Then when it comes to the final performance it will be easier for us to remember our cues because of how familiar we are with the play in all situations.

This is the choreographed dance that we learnt in the last lesson of the week.

Week 5

This week we started off with character work. We lied on the floor and closed our eyes. When we opened our eyes we had to be our characters and go through a normal day as them. After we finished the day we went round the class explaining what our character was doing. My character Bob Cratchit was mostly focused on his kids making sure they were ready in the morning but apart from that he pretty much worked the whole day. We were asked what our character was wearing, this will help us later when deciding what kind of costume of character will be wearing. We then walked around the room as our character and asked to make our movements bigger and more animated. We had to think of a word to describe our character and I chose Jolly as Bob Cratchit is quite a positive and happy character.  To finish off the lesson we moved on to hot seating. When hot seating we had to be in character and answer the questions from classmates in character. I found this hard at times because when asked sad questions about Tiny Tim's health I decided on a more serious tone but I got feedback that because of how positive and jolly a person I am I should be trying to be positive even though the topic is a saddening one. This will 100% help me in future rehearsals. 

On this day we discussed what we wanted the audience to feel and how we could bring that about. We needed to completely committed in the performance to make sure that the audience fully feels with whatever character they need to feel with. If any scene is not done with full commitment then the audience will feel that and won't fully get the message or feel the emotions of the scene. Also taking them on that journey that Scrooge is taken on is very important so that they understand why Scrooge changes instead of leaving the performance thinking why did he change. We then blocked through the whole script.

Week 6

In our first lesson of the week we did a full casted line run. This line run was useful to us as again it helped us vocally to get used to our character and the way we should be communicating with other characters in the play based on the relationship between them.


On the next day we had our first proper dance rehearsal where we learnt 2 dances. One dance was for the Fezziwig party and the other for Fred's party.

This dance is for Fezziwig's Party and comes right after his introduction. 

This dance is for Fred's party and comes just before his scene.

Performance Evaluation.

We performed 'A Christmas Carol' 3 times. Once to an audience of random students from the college on the 12th December. Twice on the 13th December, once to an audience of acting students from the college and school students and then the matinee performed to parents, careers and friends. 

Rehearsals

During the rehearsal period we were at the start just running through it and blocking it. This helped us get familiar with the script as we hadn't learnt lines yet and also to help us start getting into the character's mind we were on stage doing what we thought the character would be doing. Then as we got further into the rehearsal period we of course went off script and that is when the biggest change is made because once we start off script rehearsal we are confident enough with the lines that we don't have to look at the script and we're not thinking about the lines predominantly but instead thinking about how our character would do certain things and where we should be next if we are coming on. At this stage of  the rehearsal period we can start to also think about entrances, exits and cues. Cues in my opinion were the important aspect of this performance along with actors, actresses and dances passion when performing dances or anything else in the performance. As we got closer to the performance dates it was easier to see what scenes needed work with. For example the Cratchit scenes in the play weren't up to scratch in terms of the other scenes, this is probably because of the fact that not all the actors would be in sometimes for that scene so if the attendance was better then the scene would've been better. 

Performances. 

First Performance (12th December)

In our first performance we performed to random students in the college. I feel like even though all performances should have our utmost passion and dedication this first performance was a way to feel out the audience, see how they would react to certain things in the performance and maybe how we could maybe make the performance more entertaining or eye catching for the rest of the performances. The fact that the audience was quite small kind of helped us actors because we didn't have as much pressure compared to if the audience was bigger. This helped us relax and have a bit more fun with it. To improve on this performance we got feedback that our voices were not projected enough and there were times that the audience couldn't hear us. We had to take that on board and make sure we will implement that feedback onto our next performances. 

Last 2 Performances (13th December)

For our last 2 performances we were performing to acting students and other students of the college in the afternoon and then parents, family and friends in the evening. These performances were definitely better than the other one because we were able to start a new day with our feedback and implement it onto the characters we were playing. The audiences being in bigger attendance also I think gave a little edge to the performances as we were all eager to please and entertain them.