Identity

Identity

Over the past 5 weeks. As a group, we had to think about what our own identity and what it meant to us individual. 

What I have learnt so far:

First Week;

In the first week, we played a number of games in Rob’s class, which helped me feel more confident within myself, and more importantly helped me build a bond with my classmates. A game that we played together to help us get to know each other better was called TIME BOMB; this game had very simple rules. We had to call out our classmate’s name, whilst walking/running towards them and if they did not reply with another name then they are OUT! This helped break the ice and we felt more comfortable with each other. This meant we could begin our project.

Warm Ups:

In the first few weeks we also learnt warm ups to get us ready for our lessons/rehearsals. They included warm ups like; Tongue Twisters, as they were tricky than they sounded. As soon as I started to practice at home and in lessons, they became less tricky and more comfortable and easier to say. Another warm up I did not like initially but when was called Imaginary Chewing Gum; this warm up exercise helped me loosen my jaw as we had to stick out our tongue and make weird noises. I did not enjoy this as much as you think but as we played it became more enjoyable to do. We also did simple stretches to loosen our joints and this made sure we did not harm our body or ourselves.

Games:

The more we played games the more relaxed we felt, trusting our fellow actors as well as being helping us to feel very energized for the lesson/rehearsals and performance in order for our minds are buzzing with creative and freedom to devise, perform our rehearsal without any stress or any worries. The last game we played was called Wink Murder; this game made us focus as a group to not only to see who the murder was but in order to know who was being killed.

Skills:

We have reviewed generally acting that we need to have as an actors. These skills will help us in later life if we want to go into the industry. I will give you a list of the top 15 skills I have learned.

1.      Don't apologies -  this might seem weird but as an actor when you make a mistake you don't need to say “sorry” if you get it wrong just carry on that is the power of improvisation. However, if you are in Movie/TV, you can reshoot the scene but if you are live on stage, you have to improvise.

    

2. Have Confidence - everyone says this but as an actor, you have to have confidence in order to go the distance and nail the role or part.

  

3.      Stay in character - not everyone knows this but staying in character is very important if you come out of character sometimes you can throw off other actors off and affect the whole performance.

4.       Good attitude - As an actor you need to have a good attitude towards your fellow actors because acting is not a one-man job!

5. Be able to work with other people -    you need to have be able to work with other people weather you like it or not. Acting is not something you do on your own, you work in a group.

6.      Eye contact - You have to directly look at your co-worker or even the audience if you are not making eye contact then you are not really selling your character.

7.      Go for it - Acting is not about holding back; it is about being open-minded and going for it. You truly cannot hold back, you might just as well not be an actor.

8.      When you are performing, take your time - when you are acting you need to take your time to learn lines and perform.

9.      Do not worry if you forget your lines- Not to worry if you forget your lines just improvisation and then when the other actors come on stage they can get the play back on track
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10. ENJOY YOURSELF – As an actor you need to enjoy yourself and your role. This gives you a chance to sell your character as you are enjoying it more and fully embracing the role you have been given therefore you can enjoy what you do and so will the audience .

11.    Projection – As an actor on stage, you have to speak clearly but you have to be loud but not shout. You have to speak with clarity and avoid shouting.

12.    Focus – As an actor you should stay on the task at hand not be distracted at all sometimes that can be hard but leave all your troubles and just act

13.    Punctuality – As an actor you should always be on time to rehearsal.

14.    Stay in character – As an actor you need to stay in character and not to break it.

15     Stay power tenacity an air of vulnerability – You need to leave everything you believe in and not even think about your personal life just the characters  

Research:

We have been researching what verbatim theatre actually is. In order to make sure that we are doing verbatim theatre we did interviews with family/friends, we researched what identity meant to us by doing this as we wrote monologues; these have been incorporated into the play.

We are the play writers as this is a devised piece. In order to achieve this I looked at some verbatim theatre/TV shows and I even remembered my own GCSE drama piece. 

which was a mixture of verbatim and devised. 

Verbatim Theatre can be used to teach people at schools, college or even at work about how to deal with certain topics that make people uncomfortable or even what people do not want to think about but it can also teach people aware of the signs and how to help in a certain situation.

Devising our piece;

As this is a verbatim performance, we needed to gather information about people’s childhood and growing up. Getting this information was not easy, as we had to think about what question we wanted to ask or if they are available. However, we managed to get what we needed to put this performance on stage.

We wrote monologues; to add to our piece. We used a part of my monologue for our final performance; this was used near the end my group’s piece and I made people think. Well the young woman in the group made young men think about what it might be to live in the woman’s world.

We decided to base our piece around social media, bullying and culture. 

Using verbatim theatre helps actor’s tell people real lives stories though methods likes interviews and surveys or research into statics about certain topic can help the play write and actors bring the verbatim theatre into a performance. This can bring never heard stories or topic to life on the stage. This can make think about how some people’s life are unfair and have more of an open-mind therefore using verbatim theatre can make people think and reflect. 

Problems when devising;

When we were devising our piece, we ran into a few some problems some sense we our original we had did not quit work. For example before the woman’s world speech were going to start it off with dance but we realised that was dry this meant that the speech about social media was given away and had no meaning to anyone so we went straight into a dance and that is when we added the Woman’s World Scene

On the other hand, I had an idea about doing something from my monologue about teenage girl’s confidence. How bullying and social media can tear down a teenage girl’s confidence; this was included in the performance.

Another problem we came across when devising was when Amelia was doing her verbatim speech were we just standing there looking like zombies not doing until the next scene. Therefore, Rob suggested we crouched down and start rising to show we were growing up an exploring university life, this gave the scene have a bit more flavour then we were going straight into the Hat Scene.

When we were practising the dance, we decided that we will have nine people dancing and the rest watching the performance as a support network, this dance signalled the end of the performance we wanted to on a positive note to show everyone can come to together and be one.

Evaluation:

What I have developed;

I have developed eye contact with the audience .I have also learned to improvise when something goes wrong or when someone goes off scripted. I have also learned not to care about what the audience members are doing or saying as this is my performance and I have worked hard and I am going to do it to the best of my ability.

I have also learned how to speak more clearly and speak more slowly; and how project my voice to be clearer and louder without shouting.

Targets for the next project;

1.    Stay power tenacity an air of vulnerability

2.    Be More confident in my words

3.    Speak slowly 

4.    Articulation

5.    Have more energy before I finish my lines

6.    Have more a creative flair

7.    Don’t lose the childlike creative mind

I got these targets for myself as I have identified what my areas of weakness are so when I am performing I can make these changes and when I perform next time this will better. I also felt I spoke too fast even though people could hear me clearly in the back of the audience.

I put being more confidence in my words, as I did not feel confident that I had enough emotions or confidence in them, confidence makes an actor looks more in character more convincing than your normal self when you are on stage. You are the character and not yourself.

Growing up, I was told to lose my child like mind and be more mature which I did. However when I started to do drama and becoming actor. I realised you need to be mature and have to be like a child creative mind. Therefore, to have a creative mind like a child with adult maturity for the performing industry but this depends on what your role is therefore it affect what sort of actor you have to be.

As an actor, you need to have a lot of energy to do the performance and even rehearsal. Most beginner actors normally run out of energy before they finish their line. Hoverer there is techniques to make as an actor does not run out of energy. One of the technique, I have used before is; when I speak slowly in order to not lose energy because if I finish speaking slowly you are using less energy therefore I am not running out of energy.

What the group identified at the start with the group;

·         Projection – Our voices

·         Confidence – as group when we are all together 

·         Stay power tenacity an air of vulnerability – forgetting anything that happened and just focusing on the job

·         Focus – Staying focused on our performance and nothing else

·         Punctuality – Everyone has to be on time no matter what. A performance needs all the actors’ not just half of the cast/class.

·         Eye contact - You have to directly look at your co-worker or even the audience

As a group of actors, we identified what we needed to improve on and what we need to do during a performance.

One of targets we identified together was staying power tenacity an air of vulnerability. This to make sure as a group we are not distracted by our personal worries; this might sound harsh but when we are professional actors we need to leave our troubles or what is bothering us at the door and just get on and act. Yes this sound insensitive and unkind but as an actor we need forget everything going on and just act. 

Making ourselves vulnerably is the only way we can make sure we are doing the job that we booked or auditions for done. Because at the end of the day if we are not focused, we are going to make mistakes and I think when you make one mistake on stage then many more mistakes can come. That is why when we make ourselves vulnerably will ensure we do not make mistakes.

Another one of target we have identified together. Is we need to improve is punctuality. This is to make that when we are show nobody is late, that includes cue and before the show even starts. Everyone involved that even means the understudies because if the lead actor is not there then the understudy has to step in. Everyone has to be on time to rehearsals and performance. People cannot turn up half way through or before it starts because that is going to mess with everyone’s timetable. This includes every actor, every understudy and even the director.

As group of actors, people need to be on time with their cues. As cues are important for the show to run smoothly. For example, if I miss my cue than the next actor will miss their cue and the show will not run smoothly at all. That is why we need to work on our punctuality together as a group.