Unit 9 Developing performance and production skills

Task 1 

A)

Since starting collage i think each performace have gave me more experience and an understand of my knowledge through acting. Starting with the Ghost light tour, I think it first of all taught me how to performance in a immersive theatre setting and also taught me how to act professional in different theatre space but the most important is to always keep in character. this is very important skill to have to switch on and off character at any given moment. Moving onto Christmas with peter pan I learnt new skills like stage combat and improving on my singing but I also understood how to command the stage because playing Captain Hook and being the leader of the pirates i was very important to command the stage and it a role im very good at that I came to learn. Next up I did the connection Piece for the National Theatre And I also learn two main thing, The first was making sure that you never repeat or try to go for a role you have already done, I tried to go for the role of con because I like how his character was the leader of the freaks and geeks as it was like Hook however the problem was that is it was not a challenge for me. So i got given the role of Sam who was one of the cool boys / bully and he was a very fun character to play.  My final role i play this year was Chief Bromden in one flew over the cuckoos nest, This has been the hardest role i have ever done before because He is such a complicated character and i had to do a lot of research to really get into the mind of this character and with the help from the globe i had the skills to keep in character through out the whole show as chief does not leave the stage at all. it was a hugh honour to play that role and its a role i love to play again one day.

B)

My goal and improvements would be to do more singing as i think i am good at that and would like to do some more work on that and i would like to get into a really big UNI so that wise the last few weeks i have been working really heard and finally i like to play a really hard role to finish of my time at SRC

Task 2

A)

Stockton globe 

My goals for this project was to play a new character who was either more crazy or more aggressive, My role last year was William T stead from the Titanic and he was more of a creepiness around him so i did not want to play a character like his again. I wanted to scare the auditions with aggressive. The character I wanted to play was Clyde barrow from Bonnie and Clyde, i wanted to play him because I love how crazy he was. Clyde was a ruthless killer who murder police and civilian in there 18 month crime spree with his partner Bonnie Parker who was just as evil. he would also manipulate Bonnie to stay with him to carry on there run. It all came to a bloody end in May of 1934 when they were ambushed and where shot to death in there car having over 184 bullets go through them. I wanted to show how he was so messed up  with him wanting to be famous but also always having to look be hided his back. Sadly i did not get Clyde i got Bill Sykes from Oliver twist who is a very aggressive and the dentist from little shop of horrors who is very crazy. Now to review my performance. My vocal work with bill Skye was very good i thought because I had the accent perfected and my articulation was good I split with a few words but nothing bad, My volume was great as well it took some time to figure out when i was going to far and damaging my voice. For dentist my Articulation was really good you could understand every word i was saying however my accent did take me a little bit of time to sort out as its a New York accent but i sometime its slip into a red neck accent but it did not go like that for the performance which is very good.My volume was good as well as he not a shout character so i could make the audience jump when i acted crazy. My movement for bill Sykes was good but it was hard with the space being in the stall as me and Imogene who is my Nancy. The part that was the problem was after i killed her i go to the audience and scare them by running at them, we made it work in the end which was good, but the space we had was hard to move around in was perfect for our scene as we could be very creative. For the Dentist his room was perfect for his role, the space was easy to move around in and i could interact with the audience very easy as well. For Bill Sykes i worked with imogen who played Nancy. we worked really well with each other and we both had good ideas with her death and such. Moving onto props and costume for bill Sykes my costume was cool because it gave of this creepy vibe about him and the prop was very important as his bat scared the audience and kill Nancy. For Dentist My props where the show of it all. from my drill that i scare the audience with and my tools just give the creepy vibes.my costume was really good as well. My creative choose for bill Sykes was to first run into the audience to attack them until one of the tour guides stop me by point to the person who has Bonnie trinket and i would take it. It was a good idea but it did not really work but its was still good. Then another choose i made about my character is that he would be a little crazy as he would seem to calm down before going angry again. For dentist my chose where to use a drill to try drill out an audience member teeth them take them backstage to "work on them" and they come our with a banadge around his head. I think overall my strengthen was my character it self and my interaction with the audience and my charterer its self i think i played both of them very different but still very good. something i would of done different is try and move the space a little better like i said me running to the audience was a bit of and hit and miss. If i did the globe again i would of try to do the spacing better so its better for me as an actor and the audience.      

Christmas show (Pinocchio)

My audition evaluation.

For my audition i went for the character of Geppetto, i went for this because last year i played Hook who was a villain and i wanted to play a person who  is a hero, Geppetto is such a kind and caring character which makes it a challenge for me to play as i am used to play villains most of the time. How i prepared for this audition was firstly watching the Disney Pinocchio and see how he acted in the film and see how caring he was, Then i read the script and started to understand the character story and journey though the musical and finally i did my research into his backstory, he is an orphan who never found a love life who's a very talent toy maker and has always want to be a father. Geppetto can not really relate to any other character in the show as they see them as bad parents because they tell of there child or lose there temper with them.Its not until the end when he lose Pinocchio he realise its not as easy as it looks.

My acting audition went really well, my strong points was how i bounced of other people and my accent. I also thought i understood both scene pretty well. However there was some room for improvement, Kelly mentions about how i still acted like hook with some parts of my movement but in the recall i made sure he was all gone. It was the walking that was the problem but it was a quick fix.

My movement audition went good Abi did a Disney work shop with up that is the auditioning process for becoming a Disney character. I am very proud of myself for giving it my best shot i thought i did very well with picking up the moves and such but how i would improve is that i think i need to give more character to my dancing because i was so focus on getting the moves right i kind forgot about characterisation.

 My singing audition went really good because i loved how i acted through song when looking up at the star for " i even wish on the wishing in star " and then to finish it off by covering over Pinocchio. The only thing i would improve would be my accent through song as it did drop in a few place but nothing to bad  

My Warm up review.

For this unit, we where given a task to do our own warm up for one of the morning. I partner with Kieran and we had a think about what our theme could be. Some of the other groups where about being siliant as we had a small problem in the class with people talking when over where trying to speak and the show was only a few weeks away and people started to become a little more stressed so we decide we wanted our warm up to be more relaxing and more funny. So what me and Kieran plan was to play 3 silly but completive games. The first one being my favourite game of all time the Czechoslovakia game, How you play this game was very simple we all sing a song and do movement to the song and it will speed up over time 

"Czechoslovakia boom chi chi boom I got the rhythm in my hands ( clap 3 time on beat ) I got the rhythm in my feet ( stomp three times ) ive got the rhythm in my Hips a 2 a 1 2 3 4 ( we would move our hips side to side then repeat )

After playing that we moved onto Kieran game which was a race game where people would get into teams of two one would go on all fours and the other person would go on there parnter backs and then they would balance on there back until they reach the finish line. This was a fun game and there were people who could not do it and they did sit out which was completely fine. The final game would of been another race but sadly some got hurt in the class and we need to make sure they where okay.

If I could do this again i think i may of change the game for the final race into some that was still completive and fun just not really racing and maybe could of added a cooldown at the end of the session.

My Production Role Evaluation.

My production role in this show was again the Relax performance team which i love doing so much as it mean the world to me. However this time around it was going to be a lot different because i also needed to have a team of people so i could pass it onto them if  i go to UNI this year. 

After the globe project there where a few people asking me about the team so i got a list of people and we got them into a team chat and ask them to fill out 3 question and send them too me. Some of these response where really heart felt and personal and it really made it hard however I chose 5 people out of the 13 who said they would like to be apart of the team. these are.......

Sammy 

Faith 

Mia 

Jasmine 

Daisey 

All of these people where the perfect poeple for the job and looking back I'm so glad I had them on the team because they where quick to reply and had really good ideas on what we could do. Now moving on me and Will who are the leader of this team split the process into two phase's. PHASE 1 was the prep for the performance where we would get a list of school who would have student who would of benefitted from this performance and we would send them email too inform them on what we do as a collage and what this performance is all about. However this is were a few of our problem began, he heard nothing from most of the school and we tried ringing them but they where not interested. Another problem we had is that other school or groups back out last minute because of them booking Pantomime or other thing like that which is a shame because the attendances this year was not as good as last years however it is always a learning curve. Moving onto PHASE 2 we all got into different teams them being ACTING / LIGHTING / SOUND and as a team we all talk about way we can make the show more adaptable for the audience for example we did not use water gun in this performance because it could scare them or make them feel overwelleimed and we change some of the jellyfish movement to make sure that did not freak them out. 

Looking back the performance was a massive success and the same as last year but i did come with its challenges. I am very thankful that i had such a good and strong team to power through this journey. However this time around i did learn ALOT of new thing that i hope that next year time will take into mind or if i get the chance to do it again next i will take into account. I would get my team before we finish goal then it is set and ready to go after we come back and we can get started straight away. i would also looking into ring the school and group instead of emailing them then we can get a faster and better response instead of never hearing from them. Finally for net year team if all 5 of them do it again i would not let in anymore then 2 new people as my worry this time around was i brought on to many poeple but that was not case but it was alot.     

My performance evaluation 

When I got the role of Geppetto, I gave myself some goal to complete to make sure I have fulfilled this role to its full potential. my first one was to show the three different side of Geppetto. First one being Caring and warm, Second being rude and ignorant and finally sadness and regret which makes the show comes full circle. I  also wanted to perfect my singing to make sure I hit the rights notes and also sound like an old man at the same time. The last goal I want to set myself is to master the physicality of my role.

Lets start with reviewing my emotional engagement. I think I did a really good job at emotional connecting to the audience. It was really important that I showed the fully circle of my character and hopefully partabts in he audience could connection with Geppettto in the way of not having a child who behave well but there world would not be the same without them. What i did to insure that was making sure i had a really good father son connection with both of my Pinocchio and displayed my emotion clearly on stage.

Now considering my Vocal Performance, I thought i did a very good job when it came to my singing through out the show and even my Italian accent which i have done a lot of work on. I think compared to last year where i played Hook, The song have been harder to sing because i am used to singing low song but Geppettos have been quite high but I am proud of myself for doing a good job.

Analyse my movement, i think i played an old man physically good as I played him with an arch with my back to give a warm and old man vibe. I did have a few problems when it came to having my backs to the audience in some of the bringing scene but we ironed them out pretty fast. I really work on my  physicality as well learning how to walk with care and kindness instead of commanding the stage. i also did alot of work on my poster and my hand movements.

It was very important for the story as my Character to work very well with the rest of the cast and Ensemble. From the opening song " Toys " interacting with all of the children and parents and all of the other character like Stromboli ,Pinocchio and most importantly The Blue Fairy. Me and Lily RV who played the Blue Fairy had a really good connection between both our character which made for some really funny moments through the show. Working with the Ensamble was again very imporant because without them it would make the scene look boring and not interesting, for example for pleaser island scene where i was carried and had to interacted with all of the miss behaved kids made it a very fun scene to-do.

My costume was inspired  by the original Cartoon film from Walt Disney's Pinocchio, with a green Shirt and brown old waistcoat with brown trouser and boots. We also had help from the amazing make up Artist Neve and Tegan making me into Geppetto with his face make up making me look like an old man and his wig and moustache. This first of all gave me a very realistic old man look but also help my role as it make it feel more really like i am the real Geppetto. For my props, i had really important story line props the most important one being my Music box as its reflex how lonely Geppetto is in the story and reminds him of his connection with Pinocchio. Then i have props that help me get into charrater if thats my tools or my Paint brush's that really help me look the part.

As an actor, i decide to my some Aritistic chose to help me make Geppetto my own version instead of playing just any old man. One of the thing I did first was  show how angry i could get when thing did not go the way i wanted it to be. For example when Pinocchio first come to life and does not any of the rules i get annoyed  more fastly and act like a kid myself to show that i have no experiencers with looking at children. However on the flipside i would act annoyed at myself in the second act of the dhow when my Character starts to realise that he was the one in the wrong not his son. I think this decision also help with the story telling of the show. 

After review my whole performance as Geppetto I think my strongest point where my Emotional engament with the audience. i think i did a really good job with show some of the funny and saddest scene of the show making people cry out of joy at the end of the show is always a good mark. I also thought that my Physically and my voice work where done really well i thought i mastered the Italian accent. To rounds thing off, i thought my artist chose help my character stand out because it make my acting more believable to the audience. 

However there are some thing where i could off done better, like my Movement and my blocking was not the best at time when we first started but we did get it all ironed out like i said. Another play i thought i could of done better was maybe my singing through song looking back i thought in some of the song like " Just because ts magic" on one of the night my wig came off and i lost my focus and begin to laugh so i wish i could of powered through to the end of the song.

I now made some new goal going into my next project. I think that I want to play a character that is just completely nothing I have done before. I want to be in completely different it come to roles as such i want to play a role i have never tackled before. The Goals i will set for my next challenge are as followed work on my blocking and space awarise as an actor and character, Another goal i will work towards will be try to really stay in the character even if thing goes wrong. I do feel like i need to do some work again about staying in the moment and the character as for the next projects it will become very serious and naturalistic so it will be easier to stay in the moment but i want to just make sure if anything goes wrong on stage I can keep on going. 

 feature film  (Curtain call )

My goals for my role as Theo in Curtain call was to give an convincing audiences that I was the killer. Curtain Call is about a drama group being apart of a murder mystery and I play one of the suspects. My character Theo is a very chill and has an "Old soul" type of guy but in the film I am a red herring which means i am supposed to play guilty like i did the murder but i did not do it.

I think my emotion Engagement was good. I knew as a character what my realotiship are with everyone in the Group, I had to act off with Gracie again to show some supposition about me later on if the audience click on to my dirty looks to her, and even how I talk about her after she died. I would say my best friend in the movie would be Scarlet character Lacy. Me and her where always together and if i did the murder i think she would of help me because we are so close. Finally i would say i have a close friend ship with Liam the director. Even thought he is a dick to me i still look out for him. I think the audience found me more of an funny guy which was fun to play as I've not done a character like this.

My vocal performance was impressive. I had two different voices, My first one was the one i did when we did the play scene which was very posh and my second is my nature voice. My voice did a good job of showing my emotions throughout the film. I was clear in both voice how i was feeling in that moment in time. 

My physicality and movement was normal, Theo is a cool guy so he just had a normal posture but when he played his character in the play he has a better posture like a butler is what I was trying to go for. My movement was normal and only move more fast in the more intense scenes.

My ensemble dynamics was really good. The cast of 8 us all worked really hard to try and through off the audiences, a very important scene is my main with scarlet when its reviled to the audience that it was not me. Making the audience believe at first that it was the both of us who committed the murder but infact we where just running lines. 

My use of props was clever, instead of me just standing there doing nothing I could be playing with it or checking the times as I do in some scenes, the other prop that I used was the dagger which is the most important scene when i relieve the bloody dagger.

My Artistic Choices for Thoe was to make him a little 2 face, again to trick the audience that i was the killer along side scarlet. I just really tired to make him as suppose as possible.

I think my strongest part of my performance was acting guilty and making people believe that i did it, Also my interaction with the other character during the film as well. However i think i can improve with my line delivery. At some point i think it was a little flat and the same tone but its okay it works this the character.

DNA

My objectives  for playing the character Phil was to show how much of a sociopath he is and show how he can manipulator any situation into his favour. My overall theme at the start of the show is a shy and quiet guy who is try to help, But by the end he is a monster who will do anything to protect his group. How i planned to meet all these objectives was my theory about phil character, that at the start he is an bonobo but by the end he turns into a chipamzie and it only when Leah leave he goes back into an bonobo.

My emotional engagement, Phil is a very complicated character but to put it in the best way, He is just cold. H e has no emotional and is one of the worst in the group. He use's Leah in every way and in the end Richard takes her place. in the group at first he seen as someone who quiet but caring, Bry falls for that. Phil Then uses her to get the postman arrested. I think the audience did connect to me as i made them hate him during my time on stage.

My vocal performance, I think i did a really good job with my line delivery and my sences of tone. One og my challange was to show my emotions without shouting. I chose to do this because my last line in the show being " She dead Everyone thinks she is dead, what different does it make" is the only time i shout and i say this to Leah. Which create a very powerful moment in the show.

My movement and Physicality in the show was on point. The way i moved as Phil was slow but powerful. Showing that I don't need to be the loads or the fastest in the room to show my dominances. My spacing was good because i always had my own space and i would only let poeple into my space when i am taking to them. Physically was a very relaxed body, Again playing of the themes of a Sheep in Wolfs skin. I think it help the storytelling with this choise.

The Ensemble Dynamic was on point again. I acted differently with everyone and even thought i never spoke that much you could see who i liked, was arlight with and hated on stage. In some of the gang scenes you could really see how everyone was involved in the cover up of  Eves murder. Like in scene 2 when everyone gather around Bry when she is crying and in the final scene when Eve is taking about what happened to her it just gave a powerful message.  

My costume and use of props, My costume was really good thanks to Imogen we both came up with the idea of me looking a little different then everyone in the group, So i had a black benni on with a black rain coat, red zip up hoddie and white shirt with jeans. it made me blend in but also stand out. The main props i use is the food in my bag which also cause for some funny moment, most funnest is with the Jam. The only other prop I use is the plastic bag which is used in the most awlful scene when i try and kill Bry which is a very hard scene to watch. 

My artistic choices where okay, I did not really change the character to much it was all about how i acted as the show went on. for example i used more hand gestures as the show went on to show my confident in the group. 

Overall i think i smashed my goals that i set for myself a the start, like my characterisation and my stage prestation was on point and how i acted around other member of cast cast really gave off i strong perforamces .However i think what i need to work on next time is my Artistic choices because i feel like i could of made more and my expression with my face because i think i went to big at certain point in the show. 

My school performace went okay i think i could o done better in the first scene and the ending of the last scene however i was covering for a mistake. I think i really shine in the second gang scene because i showed my emotions really well.

Task 3

(After May 1st i will post photos of our performances) 

Task 4

( Will be filled in on May 1st after our Fringe festive )