Westminster Kingsway College - 10240
Troy Wilson - 3912
Unit 8 Proposal
UAL Level 3 Performing Arts - Acting
SECTION 1 - REVIEW
Through the first seven terms, I have improved my skills by being involved in famous projects and participating in activities. In Greek Theatre, we were introduced to four stories: Oedipus, Antigone, Medea and Trojan Women. I did Oedipus. Overall, in the process, I learnt many skills of acting, not just for our plays but for the good of the course: awareness, vocal intensity, confidence etc. Once we finished the performance, all of us had our parents' evenings, that was when we were introduced to Chekhov/Stanislavski. Rob Alexander introduced me to the Cherry Orchard. After half-terms, we began rehearsals. All rehearsals and the show were outstanding. During the rehearsal time, it was announced that two more plays are to be done: The Seagulls and Three Sisters. The skills I learnt from that project: I have good improvisation skills, I'm physically engaged, I can be vocally clear etc. Development of Macbeth began on a day of Acting Class, when we started learning more about William Shakespeare. On the beginning of December, we did our first read of the script. The following week, we got our roles. I got the role of Macduff. There were some minor setbacks in the rehearsal process due to the Rob being taken ill but then Shenagh Cameron came to save the day. We were split into three groups: Pink, Blue and Black. I was in the Black Group. I think Macbeth is my first big major play in the college, overall, it's my fourth. The skills I learnt from it were being able to act in any kind of genre/style, to have good observational skills and reacting to the environment. All the skills I developed have been boosted so much, out of all three productions and it's all thanks to Shenagh Cameron, Rob Alexander, Monique Campbell, Sharon McKevitt and two companies: Papa-Tango and the Broken Heart Youth Theatre. Overall, when we were introduced to our parts of this play, it allowed us to use the skills we have learned. The simple process of Stanislavski: who and what our characters are, where they're from, its relatives, its objective, its super-objective etc. This play is not like any of our plays. Its structure of the play is entirely odd and different but it enables to use our newfound skills to help ourselves make up the play as we go along.
SECTION 3 - EVALUATION
I will make blog posts of Acting Classes on a daily basis. I will take information and collect data on things that need to be improved. I will use my crazy imagination to build my character but wisely. I will use an audio recorder and record a full feedback session from teachers and take action on what's been said. I will watch examples on the internet in order to learn how to physically embody the character.
I will make blog posts of Acting Classes on a daily basis. I will take information and collect data on things that need to be improved. I will use my crazy imagination to build my character but wisely. I will use an audio recorder and record a full feedback session from teachers and take action on what's been said. I will watch examples on the internet in order to learn how to physically embody the character.
RESEARCH LINKS:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yabr9pBUO6Y - Example of Dissociative Identity Disorder - Movie clip from Glass (2019) - James McAvoy's performance
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dissociative_identity_disorder - Dissociative identity disorder
http://www.danrebellato.co.uk/spilledink/2013/3/11/love-and-information - Love and Information Themes
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caryl_Churchill - Research on Caryl Churchill
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tOrPnXqtp4U - Virtual (short film)
*********************************************************************************
CONTEXT/RESEARCH
When we came back from our holiday we were introduced to a play by Caryl Churchill called Love and Information, which was first staged at The Royal Court Theatre in 2012. This is a contemporary play with 58 scenes, we chose to cut some. Churchill explore themes around parenting, knowledge, technology, relationships, power, war and control to name a few. The play is written in seven sections. Caryl Churchill (born in London, 3rd September 1938) is best known for her use of non-naturalistic techniques, and for her exploration of sexual politics and feminist themes. Starting this process, Shenagh asked us to begin research on Caryl Churchill. We talked about structure and form; and how she goes against what is traditionally thought of as a play structure by using the terms of narrative structure, character and her non-naturalistic techniques. I asked Shenagh what knowledge means to her ans she said knowledge is power and I took that to my advantage for Lab. That led me to creating this evil scientist with multiple personalities. I recently watched three projects that are based around that sort of "power" and that's Split, Glass and a superhero TV show called Doom Patrol. A scientist having dissociative identity disorder was the perfect choice for Lab.
REHEARSALS - PROJECT PLAN
While both Rob Alexander and Sharon McKevitt were away, Shenagh Cameron and Monique Campbell took over as directors of the play.
On 3rd April 2019, we finally introduced ourselves to Love and Information by Caryl Churchill and we were given assignment briefs for this. On 4th April, The Broken Heart Youth Theatre visited us and we had more workshops and they taught us how to hone the skills of acting. It was dark and intense but it was a wonderful session after we had our 2 week Easter Holiday. When we got back, we finally started rehearsing Love & Information. Throughout the rehearsal process, inside the dance studio where we most rehearsals take place, we had red tape on the floor of top elevation shape of the blocks that we use as a second stage or something to sit on or stand on in any scene we do.
Wedding Video is a scene in this play but we divided it into seven parts, hence the sections. I appear in the fifth part of the scene with Favour Dantes and Chloe Hawthorn. Overall, we are watching a wedding video of a married couple but there's a slightly negative twist as the end. We just sit on the blocks and pretend we're watching the video and talk about it. It's very short, I only have two lines. It was a last-minute add-in to the entire play The lighting was normal
Lab is a scene is another scene I do in the play alongside Mya Jarret. I play a mad scientist who suffers from dissociative identity disorder and has six different personalities. In those personalities, I speak in five more accents because as normal, I speak normal. The others are neutral American, southern American, Russian, Scottish and a pirate. Jarret is basically my apprentice/intern who is super interested in my work. I tell her all about it, normally it may seem quite barbaric but it's fun for me. I transform every time throughout. For the set, there's a white block at the far end on top of the lower black block and as we start, I form the table by lifting the second white block and put it on top of the first white block, making it into a table that filled with baby chickens inside. Every time I transform, I knock the table twice. The lighting was also normal but there was this biohazard radioactive logo projection on the curtains. For research, I asked Shenagh Cameron what knowledge truly means to her. She said "Knowledge is power". At home, I've been putting that together and after doing additional research on dissociative identity disorder, I truly believe that having a mental disorder is what displays unlimited power and that's what I provided for my character in this piece.
Virtual is a scene in the play I do alongside JP Caiceda. Both of us play a pair of high school students just waiting for the bus at the bus stop. In front of the black blocks were two white blocks on each side. We sit on them as the seats of the bus stop. My character has recently found out that JP's character is romantically attracted to a mechanical, functional piece of machinery, presumably artificially intelligent. He becomes so super obsessed with it/her, he ignores everything I say to him. My character becomes completely hysterical, crazy, shocked but helpful at the same time because if you read my lines in the script and contextualise them, you'll find out that he's not wrong. The lighting was normal.
WEEK 1 - On 22nd April, I wasn't there due to first-day-back mix-up but on the 23rd April, I was told that on the previous day, we were split into groups and they made us do a research context presentation about the entire play and its creator: Love and Information by Caryl Churchill. On 24th April, we were finally cast into our pieces for Love & Information. I was doing Lab with Mya Jarret, Virtual with JP Caiceda, Stone with Pedro Small , God's Voice and God with Favour Dantes. On 25th April, we reviewed/recapped who's doing what, Maddy was there so it's obvious that we discussed stage production and we finally started rehearsing our pieces.
WEEK 2 - On 29th April, we continued for a second rehearsal on our pieces in our latest project Love & Information. Again, I was rehearsing with Pedro Small to work on our scene in Love & Information called Stone. JP Caiceda wasn't present. Favour Dantes wasn't present but she arrived later in the session and we started working on our scenes: God's Voice and God. Mya Jarret wasn't present. During our break, Pedro and I were instructed by S-Came to make an improv scene of a week or a month prior to the events of our scene. Basically, the scene is set one week before the scene, we're both geologists but Pedro's character was slightly a drunken recluse. I find a really good-looking stone, admire it and I bring it to Pedro. At first, Pedro doesn't care but then he asks to me to get his magnifying glass to get a closer look. I try to persuade him that the stone could make us famous. I demand him to give me the stone, which he does so reluctantly. I tell him that the stone is safe and sound and that I'm returning to HQ by emancipating. One week later. Stone. On 30th April, we were in a computer room and we were updating our blogs and we were also doing presentations on our research of Caryl Churchill and; Love and Information. On 1st May, we continued for the third time rehearsing our pieces from our latest project Love and Information by Caryl Churchill. Mya Jarret wasn't present. Favour Dantes wasn't present but arrived two hours after the session, unfortunately we didn't get rehearse God's Voice and God. Today, I got to rehearse with JP Caiceda and Pedro Small on our separate scenes: Stone and Virtual. Pedro and I performed Stone to Monique and she was astounded. The acting and the blocking was absolutely on point. All we had to do was learn our lines. With JP, we started rehearsing for the first time and we made rapid progress with a little help from Ben Mills. We worked on the blocking, acting and the spacing. It was perfect. All we had to do was learn our lines. JP and I had to work on our "improvisational prequel". We were doing the same scene but we were saying the lines differently. On the other hand, when we were performing it in front of everyone, it took a wrong turn. It was supposed to be a scene that was set either one week or one month prior to the piece. So, we set our scene, one week prior, in a house and we played two friends playing on a PS4, I keep losing every time. JP introduces me to this woman that he fell in love with but gives me strange remarks. I get confused. The scene ends with JP finally showing me who she looks like. I'm disgusted and shocked but I hide it with positive interest and admire her instead. On 2nd May, we took a break from rehearsing our pieces from Love & Information. We started doing self-assessments/interviews about ourselves in the course: what aspect of the course are we good at, describing our skill set, what kind of character do we want to be etc.
WEEK 3 - 6th May was Bank Holiday. On 7th May, Shenagh was off sick. In Context, our Programme Manager and the Head of the Music and Performing Arts Department: Charlie Round-Turner talked for the entire lesson about the future after college, our grades and how we can be able to enter Year 2. It was very interesting. We had a little break. After that, we had our actual Acting Class in Room 222 with M-Camp. S-Came and M-Camp were negatively concerned about how we act in each of our scenes in Love & Information, so we all decided to rehearse our pieces but also to rearrange our characterisation: change the way we portray our characters. JP Caiceda wasn't present. I finally got to rehearse God's Voice and God with Favour Dantes. We just had to learn our lines, organise the blocking and create a prequel - a backstory leading to the events of the scene. Mya Jarret was present but she had to work on her scenes with Chloe Hawthorn and Danielle Bonsu. Pedro Small was present but he also had to work on his scenes with Ben Mills and Kieran Smith-Helder. Scheduling conflicts! On 8th May, we continued rehearsing our pieces/scenes/backstories in our latest project: Love & Information by Caryl Churchill. Favour Dantes wasn't present. JP Caiceda, Pedro Small and Mya Jarret were present - Virtual, Stone and Lab. I spent an all-nighter trying to learn my lines for Virtual and working on the setting and the blocking for Stone. On 9th May, we continued to rehearse our parts in Love & Information.
WEEK 4 - On 13th May, apparently we were told we needed to learn our lines at the end of this week, because I think we had five weeks to go and also my GCSE English exams were happening in five weeks. That drove me incredibly insane. Throughout the entire session, I suffered from a temporary stress-induced mental breakdown. I spent the entire session, learning lines for Lab, for that session, that was my number one priority, regardless of the fact that Favour Dantes and Pedro Small were present. JP Caiceda and Mya Jarret wasn't present. We continued working on our parts for our latest project: Love & Information. On 14th May, we continued rehearsing our pieces/scenes/backstories in our latest project: Love & Information by Caryl Churchill. We mostly spent time having a discussion in our different groups about characterisation. In that session, I made my character from Lab significant. On 15th May, we spent half an hour doing some brutal workout training. We improved our physical strength and endurance; we did warm-ups; cool downs; and vocal work. Then, we continued on rehearsing our scenes/backstories/pieces in our latest project: Love & Information by Caryl Churchill. Pedro Small and JP Caiceda were busy working with other people. I worked on Lab with Mya Jarret by arranging the blocking and I spent most of the time, rehearsing my lines. After a long period of time, we performed some of the scenes in front of everyone including M-Camp. Mya and I performed Lab and I explained to her everything about my character and she loved it. We just had to work on our special awareness and physical personifying bodily gestures (miming, basically). We watched the rest of the performances. Everyone was great. On 16th May, Rob Alexander finally returned. We did some physical warm-ups and vocal work. After that, we spent the entire lesson, rehearsing our scenes/backstories/pieces on our latest project: Love & Information by Caryl Churchill. But this time, we performed some of our pieces to him. I performed Virtual with JP Caiceda. A big relief that I know that I did that performance...off-script.
WEEK 5 - On 20th May, I was off sick on that day but I was told by Shenagh Cameron that the official show of Love & Information is more than a week from now. We started doing run-throughs to make sure that everything is perfect and everyone knows their cues and lines of by heart. On 21st May, I was off sick on that day too but I was told by Monique Campbell that we, in our groups, continued on working and rehearsing our pieces/backstories/scenes in our latest project: Love & Information by Caryl Churchill. She called pair by pair up to show her. When we did, she gave us pointers, where she felt it needs improving. On 22nd May, we started doing run-throughs, this time, in chronological order. I ran through Stone with Pedro Small and The Godly Saga with Favour Dantes. The Godly Saga is basically what I wanted to call the fusion of God's Voice and God. Throughout the entire session, Favour Dantes and I practiced in private to learn our lines and I miraculously succeeded but Favour needs to improve just a little bit more. I recently found out that I have been cast to do a quarter of Wedding Video alongside Favour Dantes and Chloe Hawthorn. I only have two lines so that definitely shouldn't be a problem. On 23rd May, For the third time, we did run-throughs but randomly because some people weren't present. I had to fill in for Rosely Litityo to do God's Voice with Elena Chiriac. I practised in private to learn my lines for Lab. Our group got sent up to Room 222 to rehearse and do run-throughs of our own. We did it in chronological order. Unfortunately, we didn't have enough time to do Virtual with JP Caiceda. We ran through Lab, Stone, The Godly Saga and Wedding Video - Part 5. In the afternoon, we went to the college theatre to watch The Rocky Horror Picture Show. It was...something.
WEEK 6 - The official show of Love and Information was Thursday coming. Rehearsals were two days before. 27th May was Bank Holiday. On 28th May, we continued on rehearsing our scenes for our latest project and final exam: Love & Information by Caryl Churchill. We did a run-through. I practised in private to learn my lines for my own pieces. I had a private rehearsal session with Favour Dantes to practise the Godly Saga. After spending the lesson, learning lines, that was the first time, I finally managed to execute my lines all at once. On 29th May, we rehearsed on our own. Students Daniella Obomanu, Danielle Bonsu and Ben Mills were in charge. We managed to start doing a run throughout the entire play, M-Camp arrived later on in the lesson. During that lesson, Pedro Small asked to make a cameo appearance with him after the fourth part of Wedding Video straight after the 7-minute interval. He told me he was going to sing the quote but he wants me to do it with him and create a funny ending before Tristan Archer-Fernandez, Danielle Bonsu & Deja Lee come in to do Recluse. Also, I make an appearance at the final part of Wedding Video which is the final scene of the play with the entire cast but I don't speak but react. I react to Ben Mills after he physically slaps Roman Norman for cheating on him. We are all watching a video of the couple's wedding day. In the second part of the lesson, we successfully did a run through the play in the actual theatre. We're ready.
EVALUATION - 30th May - THE SHOW
No one messed up. The show was a commercial success. No one failed. On both afternoon and evening performances, it was incredible. After everyone left, Rob Alexander and Shenagh Cameron called us to the audience seats and gave us feedback.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yabr9pBUO6Y - Example of Dissociative Identity Disorder - Movie clip from Glass (2019) - James McAvoy's performance
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dissociative_identity_disorder - Dissociative identity disorder
http://www.danrebellato.co.uk/spilledink/2013/3/11/love-and-information - Love and Information Themes
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caryl_Churchill - Research on Caryl Churchill
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tOrPnXqtp4U - Virtual (short film)
*********************************************************************************
CONTEXT/RESEARCH
When we came back from our holiday we were introduced to a play by Caryl Churchill called Love and Information, which was first staged at The Royal Court Theatre in 2012. This is a contemporary play with 58 scenes, we chose to cut some. Churchill explore themes around parenting, knowledge, technology, relationships, power, war and control to name a few. The play is written in seven sections. Caryl Churchill (born in London, 3rd September 1938) is best known for her use of non-naturalistic techniques, and for her exploration of sexual politics and feminist themes. Starting this process, Shenagh asked us to begin research on Caryl Churchill. We talked about structure and form; and how she goes against what is traditionally thought of as a play structure by using the terms of narrative structure, character and her non-naturalistic techniques. I asked Shenagh what knowledge means to her ans she said knowledge is power and I took that to my advantage for Lab. That led me to creating this evil scientist with multiple personalities. I recently watched three projects that are based around that sort of "power" and that's Split, Glass and a superhero TV show called Doom Patrol. A scientist having dissociative identity disorder was the perfect choice for Lab.
REHEARSALS - PROJECT PLAN
While both Rob Alexander and Sharon McKevitt were away, Shenagh Cameron and Monique Campbell took over as directors of the play.
On 3rd April 2019, we finally introduced ourselves to Love and Information by Caryl Churchill and we were given assignment briefs for this. On 4th April, The Broken Heart Youth Theatre visited us and we had more workshops and they taught us how to hone the skills of acting. It was dark and intense but it was a wonderful session after we had our 2 week Easter Holiday. When we got back, we finally started rehearsing Love & Information. Throughout the rehearsal process, inside the dance studio where we most rehearsals take place, we had red tape on the floor of top elevation shape of the blocks that we use as a second stage or something to sit on or stand on in any scene we do.
Wedding Video is a scene in this play but we divided it into seven parts, hence the sections. I appear in the fifth part of the scene with Favour Dantes and Chloe Hawthorn. Overall, we are watching a wedding video of a married couple but there's a slightly negative twist as the end. We just sit on the blocks and pretend we're watching the video and talk about it. It's very short, I only have two lines. It was a last-minute add-in to the entire play The lighting was normal
Lab is a scene is another scene I do in the play alongside Mya Jarret. I play a mad scientist who suffers from dissociative identity disorder and has six different personalities. In those personalities, I speak in five more accents because as normal, I speak normal. The others are neutral American, southern American, Russian, Scottish and a pirate. Jarret is basically my apprentice/intern who is super interested in my work. I tell her all about it, normally it may seem quite barbaric but it's fun for me. I transform every time throughout. For the set, there's a white block at the far end on top of the lower black block and as we start, I form the table by lifting the second white block and put it on top of the first white block, making it into a table that filled with baby chickens inside. Every time I transform, I knock the table twice. The lighting was also normal but there was this biohazard radioactive logo projection on the curtains. For research, I asked Shenagh Cameron what knowledge truly means to her. She said "Knowledge is power". At home, I've been putting that together and after doing additional research on dissociative identity disorder, I truly believe that having a mental disorder is what displays unlimited power and that's what I provided for my character in this piece.
Virtual is a scene in the play I do alongside JP Caiceda. Both of us play a pair of high school students just waiting for the bus at the bus stop. In front of the black blocks were two white blocks on each side. We sit on them as the seats of the bus stop. My character has recently found out that JP's character is romantically attracted to a mechanical, functional piece of machinery, presumably artificially intelligent. He becomes so super obsessed with it/her, he ignores everything I say to him. My character becomes completely hysterical, crazy, shocked but helpful at the same time because if you read my lines in the script and contextualise them, you'll find out that he's not wrong. The lighting was normal.
Stone is a scene in the play I do alongside Pedro Small. Both of us play a pair of somewhat qualified geologists with a low IQs. Pedro's character is keen and eager to find this special stone that someone else had but in the most uptight way. We don't know who it is, it's a great scientific mystery, what a twist! It's a very short piece. For the set, the blocks stay the same but we relied on the lighting because it was bright green because this scene is set in a forest with pebbles on the ground but the pebbles were made of newspaper. My character is quite adventurous, daring, quite uptight, naïve, selfish, hilarious but careless at the same time. Every one has a good side and a bad side. Inner demons. Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. Personifying the lesser of two evils.
The Godly Saga is a culmination of 2 scenes in the play, basically a fusion: God's Voice and God. I perform this super-scene with Favour Dantes. The entire room is dark. I appear as a hooded person and I activate a hologram and Favour appears and we talk about what she has experienced, religiously speaking. Favour's character is non-stop religious in God's Voice and my character is extremely interested. Journalistic. Probably an agnostic. In God, I think there's this role-reversal metamorphosis happens. I become extremely religious and she becomes interested but in a careless way. The entire set is the same. The white blocks at the front, we literally stand on them and perform the saga. For lighting, normal lighting on me but Favour's a hologram, so we decided to put very dark blue spotlight on her. It turns off when I say "Click" at the end, to turn her off. It's entirely the opposite at the beginning.
WEEK 1 - On 22nd April, I wasn't there due to first-day-back mix-up but on the 23rd April, I was told that on the previous day, we were split into groups and they made us do a research context presentation about the entire play and its creator: Love and Information by Caryl Churchill. On 24th April, we were finally cast into our pieces for Love & Information. I was doing Lab with Mya Jarret, Virtual with JP Caiceda, Stone with Pedro Small , God's Voice and God with Favour Dantes. On 25th April, we reviewed/recapped who's doing what, Maddy was there so it's obvious that we discussed stage production and we finally started rehearsing our pieces.
WEEK 2 - On 29th April, we continued for a second rehearsal on our pieces in our latest project Love & Information. Again, I was rehearsing with Pedro Small to work on our scene in Love & Information called Stone. JP Caiceda wasn't present. Favour Dantes wasn't present but she arrived later in the session and we started working on our scenes: God's Voice and God. Mya Jarret wasn't present. During our break, Pedro and I were instructed by S-Came to make an improv scene of a week or a month prior to the events of our scene. Basically, the scene is set one week before the scene, we're both geologists but Pedro's character was slightly a drunken recluse. I find a really good-looking stone, admire it and I bring it to Pedro. At first, Pedro doesn't care but then he asks to me to get his magnifying glass to get a closer look. I try to persuade him that the stone could make us famous. I demand him to give me the stone, which he does so reluctantly. I tell him that the stone is safe and sound and that I'm returning to HQ by emancipating. One week later. Stone. On 30th April, we were in a computer room and we were updating our blogs and we were also doing presentations on our research of Caryl Churchill and; Love and Information. On 1st May, we continued for the third time rehearsing our pieces from our latest project Love and Information by Caryl Churchill. Mya Jarret wasn't present. Favour Dantes wasn't present but arrived two hours after the session, unfortunately we didn't get rehearse God's Voice and God. Today, I got to rehearse with JP Caiceda and Pedro Small on our separate scenes: Stone and Virtual. Pedro and I performed Stone to Monique and she was astounded. The acting and the blocking was absolutely on point. All we had to do was learn our lines. With JP, we started rehearsing for the first time and we made rapid progress with a little help from Ben Mills. We worked on the blocking, acting and the spacing. It was perfect. All we had to do was learn our lines. JP and I had to work on our "improvisational prequel". We were doing the same scene but we were saying the lines differently. On the other hand, when we were performing it in front of everyone, it took a wrong turn. It was supposed to be a scene that was set either one week or one month prior to the piece. So, we set our scene, one week prior, in a house and we played two friends playing on a PS4, I keep losing every time. JP introduces me to this woman that he fell in love with but gives me strange remarks. I get confused. The scene ends with JP finally showing me who she looks like. I'm disgusted and shocked but I hide it with positive interest and admire her instead. On 2nd May, we took a break from rehearsing our pieces from Love & Information. We started doing self-assessments/interviews about ourselves in the course: what aspect of the course are we good at, describing our skill set, what kind of character do we want to be etc.
WEEK 3 - 6th May was Bank Holiday. On 7th May, Shenagh was off sick. In Context, our Programme Manager and the Head of the Music and Performing Arts Department: Charlie Round-Turner talked for the entire lesson about the future after college, our grades and how we can be able to enter Year 2. It was very interesting. We had a little break. After that, we had our actual Acting Class in Room 222 with M-Camp. S-Came and M-Camp were negatively concerned about how we act in each of our scenes in Love & Information, so we all decided to rehearse our pieces but also to rearrange our characterisation: change the way we portray our characters. JP Caiceda wasn't present. I finally got to rehearse God's Voice and God with Favour Dantes. We just had to learn our lines, organise the blocking and create a prequel - a backstory leading to the events of the scene. Mya Jarret was present but she had to work on her scenes with Chloe Hawthorn and Danielle Bonsu. Pedro Small was present but he also had to work on his scenes with Ben Mills and Kieran Smith-Helder. Scheduling conflicts! On 8th May, we continued rehearsing our pieces/scenes/backstories in our latest project: Love & Information by Caryl Churchill. Favour Dantes wasn't present. JP Caiceda, Pedro Small and Mya Jarret were present - Virtual, Stone and Lab. I spent an all-nighter trying to learn my lines for Virtual and working on the setting and the blocking for Stone. On 9th May, we continued to rehearse our parts in Love & Information.
WEEK 4 - On 13th May, apparently we were told we needed to learn our lines at the end of this week, because I think we had five weeks to go and also my GCSE English exams were happening in five weeks. That drove me incredibly insane. Throughout the entire session, I suffered from a temporary stress-induced mental breakdown. I spent the entire session, learning lines for Lab, for that session, that was my number one priority, regardless of the fact that Favour Dantes and Pedro Small were present. JP Caiceda and Mya Jarret wasn't present. We continued working on our parts for our latest project: Love & Information. On 14th May, we continued rehearsing our pieces/scenes/backstories in our latest project: Love & Information by Caryl Churchill. We mostly spent time having a discussion in our different groups about characterisation. In that session, I made my character from Lab significant. On 15th May, we spent half an hour doing some brutal workout training. We improved our physical strength and endurance; we did warm-ups; cool downs; and vocal work. Then, we continued on rehearsing our scenes/backstories/pieces in our latest project: Love & Information by Caryl Churchill. Pedro Small and JP Caiceda were busy working with other people. I worked on Lab with Mya Jarret by arranging the blocking and I spent most of the time, rehearsing my lines. After a long period of time, we performed some of the scenes in front of everyone including M-Camp. Mya and I performed Lab and I explained to her everything about my character and she loved it. We just had to work on our special awareness and physical personifying bodily gestures (miming, basically). We watched the rest of the performances. Everyone was great. On 16th May, Rob Alexander finally returned. We did some physical warm-ups and vocal work. After that, we spent the entire lesson, rehearsing our scenes/backstories/pieces on our latest project: Love & Information by Caryl Churchill. But this time, we performed some of our pieces to him. I performed Virtual with JP Caiceda. A big relief that I know that I did that performance...off-script.
WEEK 5 - On 20th May, I was off sick on that day but I was told by Shenagh Cameron that the official show of Love & Information is more than a week from now. We started doing run-throughs to make sure that everything is perfect and everyone knows their cues and lines of by heart. On 21st May, I was off sick on that day too but I was told by Monique Campbell that we, in our groups, continued on working and rehearsing our pieces/backstories/scenes in our latest project: Love & Information by Caryl Churchill. She called pair by pair up to show her. When we did, she gave us pointers, where she felt it needs improving. On 22nd May, we started doing run-throughs, this time, in chronological order. I ran through Stone with Pedro Small and The Godly Saga with Favour Dantes. The Godly Saga is basically what I wanted to call the fusion of God's Voice and God. Throughout the entire session, Favour Dantes and I practiced in private to learn our lines and I miraculously succeeded but Favour needs to improve just a little bit more. I recently found out that I have been cast to do a quarter of Wedding Video alongside Favour Dantes and Chloe Hawthorn. I only have two lines so that definitely shouldn't be a problem. On 23rd May, For the third time, we did run-throughs but randomly because some people weren't present. I had to fill in for Rosely Litityo to do God's Voice with Elena Chiriac. I practised in private to learn my lines for Lab. Our group got sent up to Room 222 to rehearse and do run-throughs of our own. We did it in chronological order. Unfortunately, we didn't have enough time to do Virtual with JP Caiceda. We ran through Lab, Stone, The Godly Saga and Wedding Video - Part 5. In the afternoon, we went to the college theatre to watch The Rocky Horror Picture Show. It was...something.
WEEK 6 - The official show of Love and Information was Thursday coming. Rehearsals were two days before. 27th May was Bank Holiday. On 28th May, we continued on rehearsing our scenes for our latest project and final exam: Love & Information by Caryl Churchill. We did a run-through. I practised in private to learn my lines for my own pieces. I had a private rehearsal session with Favour Dantes to practise the Godly Saga. After spending the lesson, learning lines, that was the first time, I finally managed to execute my lines all at once. On 29th May, we rehearsed on our own. Students Daniella Obomanu, Danielle Bonsu and Ben Mills were in charge. We managed to start doing a run throughout the entire play, M-Camp arrived later on in the lesson. During that lesson, Pedro Small asked to make a cameo appearance with him after the fourth part of Wedding Video straight after the 7-minute interval. He told me he was going to sing the quote but he wants me to do it with him and create a funny ending before Tristan Archer-Fernandez, Danielle Bonsu & Deja Lee come in to do Recluse. Also, I make an appearance at the final part of Wedding Video which is the final scene of the play with the entire cast but I don't speak but react. I react to Ben Mills after he physically slaps Roman Norman for cheating on him. We are all watching a video of the couple's wedding day. In the second part of the lesson, we successfully did a run through the play in the actual theatre. We're ready.
EVALUATION - 30th May - THE SHOW
Rob said that he loved everything but the only problem was the volume. Some of us weren't projecting their voices and being loud; and clear. Kieran Smith-Helder's performance was praised due to his own portrayal of a woman in labour. Daniella Obomanu's direction was praised which is a little bit sad because Ben Mills helped too. Our self-cooperation, interpretation and the usage of the set was praised. Tristan Archer-Fernandez and Deja Lee in Affair, they need project their voices and be more loud so the audience can hear. JP Caiceda and Kieran Smith-Helder's performances were praised due to how they wandered their way around the scene as they act and the intimacy of it was praised but still they need to project their voices more so the audience can hear. Favour Dantes needs to project her voice more so the audience can hear when she is telling a story about "the child who didn't know fear" and try to keep her head up. Overall, the amount of energy that everyone was emitting, it was absolutely on point. Roman Norman's performance was praised due to external usage of props in Facts. I think we boosted our decision-making skills while making this play come alive. Both mine and my partners' performances in all of my scenes was praised.
I have to be honest. I don't self-evaluate myself much. The only self-evaluation I did was one of my least fellow students filmed me reading my self-evaluation sheet. I was talking about what skills I developed throughout the entire year, what I can do to improve and what kind of project would I be great in or be suitable for me. I posted it on both my blog and my social media, to be noticed honestly. When I'm given a new project, I just learn my lines ASAP and that's it but when I did Lab in Love and Information, it was an amazing idea to let all of us just interpret our own stories as we go along with it. It helped me out, learning more dramatic techniques to help me build my character but I'm still trying to get by with it. I may not be as nearly as skilful and fluent as an actor but I promise I'm getting there. I record videos on my phone and see where I've gone wrong within my acting and I try to improve that. I know that as an actor and as a student of this course, I know that I'm doing very well, I'm always positive that way. I do trust the other actors I work with but there are times where to get some serious feedback, and the only people that have sort of mind-set is the teachers. They always tell me that I'm doing well because I am talented, trustworthy and reliable. When I was doing Stone, we changed some things in the script. We made the speech sound like a traditional script and we added some comedic effect at the very end. To try and remember those things, we annotated them and analysed them, to see where it leads us.
In the future, as we get into Year 2, we will utilise the skills to absorb the presence of our characters in a play.
I have to be honest. I don't self-evaluate myself much. The only self-evaluation I did was one of my least fellow students filmed me reading my self-evaluation sheet. I was talking about what skills I developed throughout the entire year, what I can do to improve and what kind of project would I be great in or be suitable for me. I posted it on both my blog and my social media, to be noticed honestly. When I'm given a new project, I just learn my lines ASAP and that's it but when I did Lab in Love and Information, it was an amazing idea to let all of us just interpret our own stories as we go along with it. It helped me out, learning more dramatic techniques to help me build my character but I'm still trying to get by with it. I may not be as nearly as skilful and fluent as an actor but I promise I'm getting there. I record videos on my phone and see where I've gone wrong within my acting and I try to improve that. I know that as an actor and as a student of this course, I know that I'm doing very well, I'm always positive that way. I do trust the other actors I work with but there are times where to get some serious feedback, and the only people that have sort of mind-set is the teachers. They always tell me that I'm doing well because I am talented, trustworthy and reliable. When I was doing Stone, we changed some things in the script. We made the speech sound like a traditional script and we added some comedic effect at the very end. To try and remember those things, we annotated them and analysed them, to see where it leads us.
In the future, as we get into Year 2, we will utilise the skills to absorb the presence of our characters in a play.
