Unit 8 collaborative performances project
Candidate Declaration - I confirm that the attached portfolio is all my own work and does not include any work completed by anyone other than myself.
Task 1
look at "One flew over the cuckoos nest production diary / unit 8" for all dairy entry's for this unit.
TASK 2
Task 2.0
During the audition, I think it went well. Kelly was impressed with my knowledge of the play "Inside" and One flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest. I felt amazing afterword because I thinks I just smashed it. The part that I like the Mostly was the ending, the transition when I finally lose it and just let it go was just perfect. The part I would like to improve on if I was to-do it again is when I bang on my chest about my father punching me, I think I could have made more of it.
Task 2.1
For my character research, I have uncovered everything about Chief Bromden from where he was born to when he finally escapes the hospital. I started my research into my character by watching the film and reading the script. What I first realised was the film and the script where different in their own ways, what I mean by this is in the film we see everything in McMurphy perspective but in the script it’s both chief and McMurphy perspective. What I learnt about Chief was really the very basics of his character. He is scared of the Combine ( "Combine" means hospital to Chief ) its McMurphy's influence that enables him to be big again ("big again" means that Chief has his confidence and courage). We also know that his real second name is Tee Ah Millatoona and he get the name Bromden of his mother who was a town woman. Through the script we understand more about how his father died and how he used to be a Chief of an Indian village. To carry on my character's research I decide I would read the full book of One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest. This was the Holy Grail for my character because the whole book is in the perspective of Chief. The first thing we discover is Chief's childhood, talking about some government men snooping around his land trying to find his Papa to see if they could buy the falls. We also get a better understanding about how evil his mother really was. It was because of his mother belittling him " made papa too little to fight ". This is telling us that she manipulated him to sign the paper's to the government which handed over the village and the falls to the government. Chief also served in world war two as part of the America air force. It never said which battle he fought in or what year he joined the war. We then learn after this he started to have paranoia, because of what he witnessed in the war. After the Chief's father death, his mental health spiralled leading him to being sectioned. Chief has been in the institution longer then everyone else there even Nurse Ratched. The book also tells us other events and death's that happened in the story such as some of the old inmates who are not in the ward anymore as well as something that he Witnessed the black boys do to the other inmates. This all lead to Chief's Escape, when he finally lifts the electrical box up of the ground proving to himself and Mcphurphy that he is finally big enough. After he leaves the Hospital he runs up north back to the falls to see if any of his old tribe are still there.
I did not stop there. I also looked at the historical context of the whole play. The year it was set in was 1962 so there was a lot of thing different then compared to now. For example, segregation was still happening at this time and Homosexuals would be put into mental hospital's. This was supposed to help them but in fact they would just be tortured, this is clearly shown throughout the play with the shock shop and the practise of lobotomy. I was also taking notes that men never opened up about their feeling and about their struggle leading them into a depression after the second world war. The final context that I discovered was the threat of Communism and the threat of a nuclear war.
So, with all of the information I have found about Chief's life and the world
around him. I could start to see his journey throughout the
play. The way I have shown this is by showing how traumatised he is with everything
that has happened in his life. By giving off the thousand yard stare everywhere
I look and understanding that he ignores everyone not because he hates them all.
It’s because he is scared of the combines so much that they have gave away his
voice. When McMurphy arrives giving him hope again. So, with that being a
massive part of the story I decide as an actor to show my confidence grow
through my body language. At the start I seem very dull and deaf but at the
end I am my former person.
Task 2.2
For my production role, I
volunteered to be part of the fight captains Team for One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest. I was also partnered up with another person called
Aiden to work alongside me. Our first step was our planning,
both of us looked and broke down the script scene by scene deciding if there was
any sort of stage combat in that scene. In the end we broke the scene up into
fighting scene's and physical scenes. The physical scene means that there is no
fighting in that scene however there is a lot of movement between all or one
character. we decide that there were 3 scene's where there is some sort of stage
combat. The first being in act 2 scene 3 when McMurphy is standing up for chief
and has a fight with Warren. Until Chief stands up and starts fighting Warren
before cutting to blackout. The second fighting scene is in Act
2 scene 6 when McMurphy attacks Nurses Ratched because she blames him for Billy's death. The final scene with stage combat is Act 2 scene 7 After McMurphy
returns from his lobotomy Chief kills him in his bed. There were also a lot of
physical scene's like I mentioned before including when Chief lifts up the box,
the world series game, the shock shop scene and many more. After breaking down
the scene's we talked about a plan for what we were going to-do in the scene, we
created this thing that helped me and Aiden to pull off a more safe and realistic
stage combat. I called it the two "S" of stage combat. The first one
is all about safety, as fight captain we needed to make sure that that anyone
was involved in a fight understood what they’re doing. As a fight captain needed to know what their limits are and make sure that it is done properly and safely.
The second S is selling, what selling means is too make sure that the fighting
looks natural and real.
So, with all this planning in mind
when it came to the fight scene when we crossed it in lesson, we were both on
the same page. The first fight scene that we did was with McMurphy, Warren and Chief. How the scene goes is Warren goes
over to chief in the group meeting after Chief cry's out to McMurphy for help.
McMurphy then trips up Warren and they get into a scuffle where Warren comes out
on top. He then start to kick McMurphy until Chief come up behind him
into a choke hold as the other black boys come to get Warren off him as it cuts
to a blackout. We did have to change the choke hold a little because one of
the chiefs was not conformable with the hold so he does a teddy bear hug
instead but because we taught them to sell it so it still looks as realistic as the
choke hold. Then we moved onto the final scene with Chief and McMurphy, we
showed them away where Chief can look like he is putting all of his effort onto
the pillow but there still a breathing spot for McMurphy to breathe through. We taught the McMurphy's how to act when they were getting choked but it was
very similar to the shock shop scene so they got the hand off it. Final we went
through the nurse Ratched fight scene with McMurphy, this was very hard to-do
because it was a very technical scene to-do but we taught them how to-do the
choke hold and how to choke someone as well then, we said it would go to a
blackout.
For our final part of our production
role involves working alongside another group to help our Fights be
stronger and look better. The first group we can go too is the movement and
warm up groups, we can go to them if we need a certain part of the body warming
up for example our backs because there is a lot of lifting in the show. They
can also make sure that all actors involved with warm up's are ready for the run
through of the stage combat. The second team we worked with is the sound team
because if we are needing or wanting a certain sound for that scene they could
provide it too us. for example, when chief kills McMurphy the ending
music play's over as he is doing it. the final production team we will be working
with is lighting. We are in the talks at the moment about what lighting can be
done for the fight scene and they said they will come to us with ideas.
Task 2.3
evidence for Task 2.1
Evidence for Task 2.2 production roles
TASK 4 / EVALUATION
My journey through this whole
progress has been a very long one. When I first found out about being given the
role of Chief Brodemen I knew that I would be working very close with Callum
Gordon who played my cast of R.P McMurphy. Chiefs and McMurphy friendship are a
very big part of the story. It’s important that Callum and I got both our
character's to a pin drop and get both our character's friendship down to a pin drop. I
decided that during my monologue in act 1 I was the old version of my former
self and when I’m not doing my monologue I am the version of chief that
lives on the ward. who acts deaf and dumb and does not interact with anybody.
Then as the play goes on I show because of McMurphy presence on the ward, that I
am starting to get my old self back until I speak to McMurphy for the first time.
This is probably one of the most important scenes in the show because this is
the first-time chief has spoken in over 22 years. What we did was we made
the point that I won’t speak fully like a normal person because I have not
spoken for so long. So what we did was have chief speak very low and with a dry
voice to communicate to them that he is not used to talking at all. As the
show progresses to the end it’s in the party scene where we see Chief as his
full self but there is something that is still missing. He can’t leave with
McMurphy because he is " Not big enough". he still scared of nurse
Ratched and the combine itself. Then for the final 2 scenes when McMurphy has
been lobotomised I play Chief as his old self scared and terrified but his body
posture was like his older self and becoming even bigger when lifting the box.
The next person who I worked very close with was Millie Shield who played Nurse
Ratched, it was very important to show how scared of Nurse Ratched and
especially the Aids. It’s Important for my character and the shows story line
to show how afraid I am off Nurse Ratched and the Aids at the beginning and the difference in confidence McMurphy gives to become my full
self again needed to be clear. The way that we showed this in the very first
scene was when I run away in fear from Warren. Showing how scared I was by
shivering and pulling away from him trying to tie me to the chair. I later showed Chief's confidence when as fight captain I made sure that
both myself and Devonte (Actor who played Warren) sold the stunt as best as
possible. I also worked very close with my teacher Kelly Fairhurst when it
came to understanding how Chief acted. My original image would have been
acting like he did in the film. talking very low like a robot and showing no
emotion however Kelly told me that I need to show progression throughout the
story and that where the idea of chief being his former self began before and we expanded it. The final person who I worked very close with was Harvey
Farrell who played Dale Harding. We both shared the biggest
moment in the show which is the ending. We both agreed that we needed to
make the ending as best as it could possibly be, we worked the fighting team,
sound team and lighting team to create what we thought was the perfect way to
end the show. When it came to the acting and the scene we both knew why
Chief killed Mac, it was so he did not have to live being lobotomised for the
rest of his life. I made Chief very distressed because I think that McMurphy empowered him and was his only friends he had in years. Then after he lifted the box I made sure that
Chief was as proud and happy as he ever was during the show because he did the
impossible be lifting the box demonstrating that Chief had finally beaten the
combine.
The two role's I played in One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest over a span of
two nights where Chief and Turkle. even though both show where phenomenal there
where some improvement I would do.
Night one Turkle.
Pros.
I think that my performances over all was really good, I brought a lot
to the character and I really thought outside of the box. Instead of
him usually being portrayed as a sad old man who is an alcoholic, I portrayed him as a young man who's a bit of a rule breaker. I really loved interacting with
the audience and with everyone onstage having our own mini conversation while
some of the big plot moments where happening. I also think I did a good job
with vocal and projection.
Cons
The only major con I really have and should improve on is with
communication, as I have mentioned I got stuck in the audience as the show started. I
played it off very well with my improvisation skills using my torch and making
a joke saying " well this came in handy ". I also thought I could have
used my face expression a little bit more.
Improvements
Next time if I was going to play Turkle again, first of all I would make
sure that I was communicating to the Tech desk to make sure there is some sort
of sign when I should probably head backstage. For my facial expression I would
really look into that party scene and think what is his emotion at the time would be.
Night two Chief
Pros.
I think my performances as Chief has been one of my best performances
yet. I loved my body language and my change in tone. I thought I did
exceptionally well when it came down to my emotions. I also think I did really well
with my vocal/ my projection towards the audiences. The last thing I would say
would be my biggest accomplishment would be my change in body language. Chief barely talks through the show so my body language would have to tell my story
and my progression through the show.
Cons.
I found it very hard to think of any cons because of how well everything
went for me on the night and the video. The one thing I pointed out though is
myself keeping in character. The audience could not see but myself as an actor
almost broke character a few times.
improvements
The way I would improve my performances would be first of all
keeping in character and be ready for the jokes in the show, and I would say
maybe try to think when it is right to stay standing up or siting down for a scene.
I think for both shows I have met all requirements needed to pull of
this play. I’ve went into a lot of research behind Chief's character to make
sure I play all of my character's just right. I also
but a lot of work for this show coming in on time and staying focused with
everything that I was trying to make everything as best as possible. The final
thing I would like to say is how amazingly everyone worked with each other including
me. As a company working together on stage it was fantastic having our own
conversion that weren't on script (not adding new scene's or lines onto the show
for clarity). It's what made the show so good because everyone was so in character
and everyone worked together to make this show the best show I have ever done.
.jpeg)
Comments
Post a Comment