achristmasday

[achristmasday]

November 6th- 8th

Monday

On Monday we started the class with a warm up that really enabled everyone involved to get in the correct and focused mind set to be able to produce quality work together as a company. For this warm up, everyone had to randomly place their chair randomly in the room and to stay seated on them. There was always one empty chair. Paul and a consistent walking pace went to sit on the chair that was closest to him- our objective was to ensure that he couldn't sit down. We were not allowed to talk, we had to signal with facial expression who was going to move chairs each time. This took some practice however, we all ended up doing really well in the end.  This warm up helped not only team work for the performance but ultimately will also help with the professionalism of students. These techniques, of communicating without speaking translate into other situations for example: in the wings and sorting out problems with props/ costume, fixing issues in the performance without making a scene. Having this skill as a company will help in so many different situations. 

The decision was made to swap Thomas’ and Jasmine’s lines in the trench scene so that Thomas now says “Please God, help me” The reason why these lines have been switched was so that it subtly links to the fact that Izzy represents Angel Gabriel, and the Angel Gabriel answers peoples prayers. 

The WW2 choir scene was quite a large part of rehearsals this week. After run troughs last week the group came to realization that everyone was not talking authentically- It was still very much modern day.To fix this general issue with the scene we changed some of the dialogue and slightly shortened it so that it would represent how people would actually speak in the 1930′s. I also made a point of making everyone stand up straight, feet together and hands held in front of their bodies to try and make it look more formal and give it the “stiff underlip” kind of vibe. After run troughs today we all agreed that it wasn’t the best of rehearsals, it was sloppy and unfocused. It was more of a walk through than an actual profaneness which is a shame as I try to tell the actors that its so important to give your all in rehearsals because yes, it is always better on the night but  it can not be the absolute best that it can be if you don’t absorb notes and make the most out of rehearsal. The show should be even better than the best rehearsal, so I hope moral picks up again very promptly.   

Tuesday

Tuesday we started off with a selection of warm ups. We had to go to our mark firstly and run on the spot in different ways. After this we then had to incorporate different emotions into the ways that we were running. We had purpose behind it with different scenarios- running in a race to win but only getting second place, running from a murderer who gets you in the end. This allows us to use everything all together in unison, movement of the running, the physicality/ posture based on what situation you were put on, the expression to show the emotion on your face, reactions. After the physical warm up we did a vocal warm up. This consisted of humming the letter M. Each time we hummed we had to focus on making a different area of our face vibrate- lips, forehead, cheeks. e then continued to hum the letter M however, Paul would count to ten and when each number got bigger so did the volume of our voice- until we got to the number 10 and we finished with a loud and clear “maaaaar” sound. 

After a thorough warm up we workshopped the final scenes in the show.The idea is that in the cafe Jimmy talks about his wife and how much he loved her and how her grave isn’t too far away. Gabriel then says that they can go get some flowers for her which they go to do. However, I wanted to  mirror the street scene at the start of the show. The idea is that everyone walks on the same order as before however not as rushed and all of their focus is on Jimmy, they are warm and friendly towards him as they each hand him a single flower and this time Thomas does not acknowledged them- this completely juxtaposes the message at the beginning. The metaphor this presents me is that people care when its too late. After this we did a full run through to work out what we have to work on tomorrow. 

Wednesday

I didn't come in due to having a panic attack in the morning followed by a migraine. 

Strengths/ weaknesses and my response:

Strengths include warm ups, I feel that this puts everyone in the correct and professional mind set. Allowing everyone to pick up on different. knew techniques and to evaluate/ add to their own performance. 

Team work is pretty solid. Myself and Jasmine worked together devising the flower scene and I feel that our ideas bounced off of one another very well.  

My personal weaknesses this week have been to do with my mental heath. I’ve been finding it hard to have one constant emotion. It seams that I��m either really happy and hyper or super down and horrible and there is no in between. However, my antidepressants have just been increased again so it could just be my body getting used to the increased medication as well as everything else going on. 

What will happen next/ Personal targets for next week:

We will continue to go over and to perfect the work that we have devised. Trying to make it the best that it can be ready for show days. Notes are becoming more detailed now. They aren’t as generalized as before which is exciting and shows progress. So we will be continuing working together across all three path ways as well as on our own as actors as we will continue to do until the show. 

A personal target for myself next week is not to be so hard on myself and to try and come across as less abrupt and more approachable by listening more and allowing others to voice their opinions before I say my view or just dismissing it.

[achristmasday]

October 30th- November 1st

WE HAVE A TEACHER AND HE’S REALLY LOVELY!!!!!! Paul came in today and we had our first lesson with him, and my initial impression is that he’s a brilliant teacher. I love his approach and I am just so happy to have a consistent figure for hopefully the rest of the college year. 

He started the lesson with a proper warm up that I joined in with, I felt this was important so that I can interact with the first years on the same level instead of just telling them what to do. We all got asked to find a mark in the studio and then after this we were told to walk around the space, switching direction- not just to walk around in circles, also changing the speed of our pace when asked. At random times we were asked to find a partner and act out different scenes/ become different things together. The first scene was patty cake, the second two Russians arguing over a menu at a restaurant and the third was crying pandas. We would continue to walk in between scenes changing pace still. Paul would then call out the scene name and we would have three seconds to go back to our partner and act out the scene again. This warm up I think Paul used to see how far that he can push us. It’s important to hold no ego in acting. You can’t be embarrassed when acting the fool, you just have to get on with it. It was so nice to see everyone properly participating in a proper warm up.    

Another warm up that was conducted this week consisted of us all finding our mark. We were then given an emotion that we had to transform into. The first emotion was sadness. My interpretation of this was picked to show the class, I feel this was predominantly due to my posture. I tried my hardest to come across small whilst standing up. I stood with my head down and arms folded with my legs a little apart. I was trying to use emotional recall in order for me to be able to feel the feelings asked. We were then collectively asked to portray the emotion anger. Everyone automatically changed their posture and went to go to the position they thought portrayed anger best. Paul then asked the class what was wrong with what had just happened. Nobody could really come to the conclusion. Paul then pointed out that there was no emotional journey, we all just switched which is not realistic. This I feel made the whole class realize that you have to sometimes think outside of the box to fulfill the best performance possible. Exercises like this should help the actors no end as it will allow them to internalize their characters. Understanding motivations and the journey needed in between different scenes as well as knowing the starting point and the end goal. The bit in the middle is equally as important.  

We also reviewed  the war scene again this week. At the start of the scene when everybody was mumbling sentences it didn’t come across clearly, it I feel would come off as messy to the demographic. To get passed this problem myself and Paul came up with the solution of everybody individually saying their line when in freeze, creating a thought- tracking affect. This technique was used by Brecht and ignited my idea for everyone to be in blacks for the first scene with one item of clothing that represents a soldier, then all together each element makes up one solders uniform. I feel this would be a clever use of alienation as well as not being too offensive and taking away from the message being given. Instead of mumbling under their breaths Paul came up with the idea to create a soundscape, through the actors each making a sound effect eg: coughing due to the gas, a bomb, a plane. Another thing that was proving an issue with this scene was the use of levels and spacing. The message was getting lost because the scene looked so two dimensional. Paul asked me to fix it as I pointed it out to him and he agreed. So, I staggered the actors making some sit, some kneel, and some stand.The actors that were sitting were playing cards, the ones standing were climbing ladders. The ones kneeling were ion pain or soothing somebody who was in pain. This made everything much more visually exciting. Paul also gave each actor a character profile for example: a Sargent. This helped the actors with physicality, posture and tone. It allowed everything to be much more naturalistic. The two main practitioner influences in this scene i would say are Brecht and Stanislavsky. These two practitioners are complete polar opposites however, the mix of alienation through semiotics and the insular emotion that each character is feeling breaks this alienation and creates a profound effect that I think will not only allow the audience to view the scene from a slightly more objective standpoint but also empathize with the characters and feel bad for the issue- promoting change. Which is what both practitioners wanted, however they just both had very different ways of expressing this.#

The next part we changed was the way that the actors move to surround Thomas. Originally the Actors went from tableau and then slowly walked into the middle of the stage surrounding Thomas. This, conveyed no purpose. Now the transition is much clearer and smoother. It’s much more attractive to the eye. The actors now climb out of the trenches and then in slow motion they act as if they are heading into batten the creating the circle surrounding Thomas. Whistles are then blown and then “GAS GAS GAS” is shouted before everyone dies, slowly however not in slow motion. Facial expression here is very important. Everyone who is dying needs to look as if they are in horrific pain to make this effective. Everyone dies reaching out to the audience, almost asking for help, this again creates empathy. Charlotte Dodd then sings “sleep in heavenly peace” and takes off Thomas’ gas mask- the same gas mask as the dancers use in bitter earth. The dead actors then slowly in a ghost like fashion walk off stage singing silent night, followed by Charlotte escorting Thomas off stage. 

We also adapted the telegram scene after the trenches. Mia now see’s a commander coming towards her. As the commander approaches Mia you can see her upset increase more and more until she is physically on the floor sobbing. I really like the effect of this as I feel it not only shows the impact of the death from the first scene but it also almost shows some of the stages of grief, the realization is a predominate thing here- her entire world has just fallen apart. 

After this we went over and perfected the tableau scenes that follows into the poem. We re staged the tableau's so that they could all be scene by the audience no matter where they were sitting. This has been an issue throughout rehearsals, blocking other actors on the stage. Myself and Paul thought that it is quite possible to draw a laugh from the audience on the Easterners scene and we wanted to try and make sure that this would happen.  Paul decided that to add a more of a comical effect, right at the end their should be a break of the forth wall. In this break of fourth wall all three characters in unison stare at the audience with a look of shock. 

The next thing the whole class focused on was the first Cafe scene between Izzy and Thomas. The thing that was so obviously wrong with this scene was the obviousness of the link between what they were saying and the hot chocolate dance. Of course, these things have to be linked together in some way but not in such a slap dash, in your face way. Myself and Paul split the class into pairs and asked them to create scenes that were different than what Izzy and Thomas had come up with between them but stemmed off of the same kind of idea. The idea of this was for everyone to work as a team and to find ideas off of one another instead of just myself and Paul all the time, I really liked doing this exercise I feel it made everyone able to work better as a team. 

Strengths/ weaknesses and my response:

WE HAVE A NICE TEACHER WHO IS GOOD AT HIS JOB AND REALLY NICE AND CARES ABOUT THE STUDENTS AND THE SUBJECT HE TEACHES- literally the biggest strength to happen to the course since the start of term and I feel like I’m in love with my subject again, which is a fantastic feeling. 

Team work has improved incredibly, I feel this is due to getting a new teacher and him getting everyone to work more effectively together. I really feel as if we have grown stronger and closer this week, which is great as this has been one of my insecurities- not getting to know the first years properly. 

Blocking others on stage has been a weakness, however this issue is being improved in rehearsals by pointing out when it is happening and getting the actor to fix it then and there on the spot before we move on. 

What will happen next/ Personal targets for next week:

There has been mention of some kind of voice over or poem to be included so we will explore this idea in more detail next week as a class, to see what we can come up with to link each scene more effectively together. 

Personal targets for next week include staying as positive as what I feel this week. I feel that this is a fresh start and defiantly needed so I just hope that I can stay positive about the course and have as much excitement as what I currently do. 

[achristmasday]

October 23rd- 26th

Monday

Today the actors went over what we had already put together with Annette. Myself and Annette stopped and pointed out what things needed improvements the most. We went over each scene again and again until it was of a better standard. We changed elements of the war scene. Now, when the solders die in the trench scene Charlotte now shouts ‘GAS GAS GAS’ in order for the audience to understand straight away the relevance of the death and how it relates to solders. When the cast first died they died very quickly, however myself and Annette after discussion with Izzy came to the agreement that they should die slowly to draw emphasis on the cause of death- Gas. Gas would kill soldiers over a short period of time, symptoms would be coughing and itching. 

Tuesday 

Today all three pathways got together once again to show the improvements / new ideas or scenes. I find this very beneficial as it is so important to communicate. Especially as  we are all working as a collective but also so separately in our different classes.  I really value the time that we all spend together rehearsing as it really allows me to envisage how the show is going to come out. That really motivates me to strive to help make it better.  We all showed what we had done and improvements made. The dancers had choreographed a dance for the end of the show and had titled this “snowflake” they had devised this with the actors in mind, leaving space of the actors to come on stage and do little mimed scenes playing in the snow. At the end of this dance Thomas goes and proposes to Sophie. This whole dance routine is supposed to signify some of Thomas’ memories.

Wednesday

After watching the show yesterday Annette had realized that the actors were not on the stage as much as the others so to even out stage time Annette had asked me to devise a physical theatre piece with the acting group. She didn’t give me any boundaries, just that it defiantly needed to be physical theatre and preferably comedy. However if the group collectively decided not to do comedy we could change it. 

Firstly I asked a cast member to conduct a physical and vocal warm up with the group before we started to ensure everyone had the correct energy to be creative in a productive manor. Whilst this was happening I set up the interactive whiteboard so that the class could brainstorm what they already knew about physical theatre. I gave them the definition of what physical theater means:  A form of theatre which emphasizes the use of physical movement, as in dance and mime, for expression. I told the class to research into Frantic Assembly to help them link the workshop/ session with their coursework. 

After this I conducted an intro to physical theatre with everyone. I explained what hymn hands were and asked everyone to get into pairs and conduct the technique that I had shown. After this I got them all to do another technique “round, by, through” where in three fluid movements you need to become back to back with your partner. It creates a physical sequence of movement. I asked them to connect the two things together to create a longer sequence. Once this has been done we all sat in a circle and each pair showed the class their sequences one by one. After this exercise we talked about the importance of it and why I decided to use that as an introduction over something else.  The reason behind this was that I wanted the class to feel comfortable with body contact. Although drama is an intimate subject it doesn't always require touch. I wanted everyone to feel comfortable and to know that it was okay. I feel like we wouldn't be able to pull the full potential out of the actors if they were not at ease with what they were doing. 

After this exercise we started discussing what our Christmas scene could be. There were various ideas consisting of: A child opening presents, a Christmas tree, family Christmas shopping. 

I asked everyone to form a Christmas tree. I made everybody stand in a line in height order. So that we could make the tree staggered like it would be in real life. We had a few issues with the first placement. I split the actors in two groups and made them get into position one at a time, the tallest going on first from one side (eg SL) and the the next tallest going on from the other (eg SR) The problem was that it wasn’t obvious to the audience that it was a Christmas tree that we were creating.  Tammy had the idea of having the tallest person (Henry) come on stage when everyone is in position and pull their arms out to make it look like an artificial Christmas tree that needs its branches pulling out. We then did this and it flowed a lot better. It made much more sense. I then had the idea of the actors coming in dancing to their positions and then freezing. I picked the piece of music “Rocking Around The Christmas Tree” as I thought that this would make it even more obvious to the demographic what was going on. I will include the video of the first proper run through of this scene as evidence. We went and showed Annette what we had created and she loved it. She thought it was funny and fitted the brief that she gave me. This is my favorite scene that I've directed so far because it’s so different. I’m excited to see what kind of reaction we get from the demographic. 

Strengths/ weaknesses and my response: 

This week I feel that the entire company is starting to really excel with communication. Coming together is staring to really help and I think this is showing through the quality of the work that everyone is producing. 

I feel that my decision making has been better this week. I have been focusing on the demographic and what they will/ wont understand. eg: Christmas tree.

I have been good at taking instructions, and meeting what has been asked of me from Annette. 

I have been helping the first years with points of research. I told them to look into case studies of actual soldiers form the war to help them understand how they would be thinking/ feeling. This will enable them to get into character better and really internalize it. I also gave the Frantic Assembly to look at to link with physical theater. The piece at the start is very much stylized and you can tell its origins is from  physical theatre piece. So hopefully this research will work harmoniously together. 

Weaknesses for the class as a whole has been absence and how that effects rehearsals.  Absence cannot be helped of course, it just becomes frustrating when we are moving forward and changing things and the actors who are meant to be doing specific bits are not there. For example: as Charlotte and Isacc were not in on the day we did the Christmas tree they are not in that scene as there is no way we can now fit them in, which is a shame but we have to move forward. 

What will happen next/ Personal targets for next week:

Next week I would like to focus on polishing what we already have to get it up to optimum standard. We need to start focusing on technique eg: blocking in scenes. 

The Christmas Carol Scene needs to be looked at as the actors have not gone over that since Steve has been absent. Harry has also left the course who is the conductor for that scene so we need to reappoint rolls. I also haven’t really seen that scene yet, not all the way through so we 100% need to focus on that next week. 

[achristmasday]

October 10th- 11th

Tuesday

Tuesday when we came in we all had a cast meeting with Paul, we spoke about profeshinalism etc and at the end of this meeting my roll as Producer and director for the actors was offically defined. I don’t havea part in the show but I am happy that at least I have a roll that I can be graded on. Although I have a placent at Norwich I have decided to stay and finish my course at CWA. We as a collective appointed Annette as overall director. So this means thats she has complete control over Acting, Dance and Musical Theatre. I am extreemly happy with this decition.

Over the next couple of days that we returened to college after the half term break we rehursed our performance multiole times. All three path ways collectivly rehursed together, we came up with a semi running order and spent all of tuesday after the meeting rehursing and rehursing and rehursing, perfecting what we had done up to this point.

Wednesday

Today I helped the actors create sketches to perform for the TV scenes that they are doing. Firstly we did a class warm up, there has been a lack of this thus far. Steve never made the actors warm up however I feel this is benifishial as it puts you in the correct focused head space for controlled creative work. I then asked the class to sit and brainstom different types of chirstmas specials / films / TV programs and them assigned each group of four one of the said topics to do a small sketch on. I gave them 20 mins to come up with this. They originally had 15 mins but some of them needed an extention. I went round each group helping them asking them questions to try and help provoke some ideas. After the 20 mins were up they all sat and watched one anothers performance. We evaluated the techniques used- what was good and why, and what could be improved to create optimum affect.

The bare bones of what I invigised was created but its a starting point. I will definatly go over these seens with the class in greater depth. I feel that our mood as a whole was lifted today and everyone was on target and looking forward to actully doing work. For the first time this termI’m feel excited/ positive about the show.

Strengths/ weaknesses and my response: 

My strengths this week include my attitude. I have defiantly come back to college with more of an open mind and excitement about what is going to happen.

In reflection I still feel that my actions towards Steve were justified, I wasn’t rude to him i simply put my point across. However, I have never confronted a teacher like that before so I feel quite guilty about it, But I know that I am not in the wrong.

I feel that my directing is definatly developing and better. I am making more friendships with the first years and therefor know how they respond to certain things.

Profeshinal weeknesses this week have consisted of not knowing what the other groups were doing and lack of cominication. However, this was resolved by us all coming together and showing one another what we had done thus far in order to know how we can all move forward as a collective.

Steve wasn’t in this week which could be seen as a weakness to my peers however I feel that everyone was very focused and continued with work as usual.

What will happen next/ Personal targets for next week: 

Steve will more than likely come back next week and my goal is to come across profeshinal and put our differences aside in order to move forward and make the show the best that it can be.

Another personal target is to go to the doctors for a reveiw of my anti depresents, I feel like they may need to be increased.

[achristmasday]

September 25th-27th

Monday 

This morning Steve put on a workshop that was based around the idea of children’s Christmas Tv and film. The focal point of this was for the class to understand what was humours to a child and how we could incorporate this into the show as the demographic is that of a family nature. It is also important to keep the adults entertained in order to get premium audience interaction/ response. I already held some prior knowledge of this as last year we did a pantomime where the demographic was very much the same. The humour that children find entertaining is very slapstick and obvious. This will also entertain the adults too.

Firstly as a collective we brainstormed as many Christmas films and TV shows that we could think of. There was quite a variety of these, for example: EastEnders, The Grinch, Doctor Who, A Nightmare Before Christmas. We then had to create a soap opera based off of a film of programme that was previously suggested eg: Hollyoaks meets EastEnders.

After this the class got split up into smaller groups and got asked to create small snippets from different types of TV or film. The different groups got genres like children’s TV or soap operas. I helped direct and went around each individual and gave them direction.

In the afternoon the 2nd years had a group meeting with Steve where we discussed ideas for a storyline that would be predominate throughout the show. As the only second year actor I felt it important to make sure I had a significant contribution to this meeting to ensure that the actors voices were heard. I felt that the dancers and musical theatre have more of a solidified idea of what they are doing- however, this is because the actors are being used as tools to fill in the gaps to create the story. However, it is important that everyone agrees with it. A producer I was constantly battling for the actors importance and made a significant point of saying repeatedly how the actors deserve as much stage time as everyone else. I feel that my point was put across strongly and professionally.

After this meeting when the college day was over, I stayed behind for an extra 1 and a half hours to be part of a production. I consequently was late for work by 2 and a half hours. However, I felt it necessary to stay to make sure that furtherly the actors voices were heard. At the end of the day, this is what’s most important to me and I would prioritise it over anything and everything else.

In the meeting we discussed what we spoke about with the second years collectively. I will include the minute notes in my evidence.

Tuesday

I was off College today as I have recently had some really bad news. One of my oldest friends has taken his own life. I have been very upset and I’m really scared that this will effect my college work. My mental health has been getting significantly worse since this has happened and I’m finding it really hard to do easy day to day tasks or even get out of bed some days.

I got a phone call from a couple of people this evening saying that Steve had spoken about me negatively in front of all of the second years. I rang college and spoke to Annette about this issue straight away, however- I am really not happy about this situation ad I’m sure as you can imagine disappointed in a member of staffs lack of professionalism. I will be having a meeting with Paul Gibson in the morning to discuss matters further.

Wednesday

This morning I went into Steve’s lesson as normal, punctual and on time. The only conversation I had with him this morning was me saying yes to the register and then asking if I could go and see Paul.

I went to Paul and discussed what had happened with Steve yesterday. I told him how I felt and got quite emotional in his office. He made a note of what I had to say and said that he would discuss matters with Steve to ensure that this wouldn’t happen again. I find it hard to comprehend how Steve can talk about my lack of professionalism and how I apparently have not been turning up to meetings when he turned up 15 minutes late this morning with a cup of costa in his hand.

When I later returned to lesson I was sat waiting for Steve to include me in his lesson. Which he did not. I was sat there for two hours waiting to be told what to do, however this never happened. He proceeded to pull out a script that he had written, every single person in the class had a part specifically written for them with lines. Everyone that is but me.

I went to lunch and cried to Lauren and Jordan about how upset I was and then went and spoke to Annette I told her everything that had happened in the morning and she made a note. I then went back into Steve’s class after lunch to register and went off with the Techies as I saw no point in wasting my time sitting there doing nothing for another three hours. Arun came into the breakout room (where we were) and showed me a voice recording of what Steve had said in the lesson the day before when I wasn’t there. With this I was so angry that I went into Steve’s lesson and asked to talk to him outside about what had happened. His response was “Whatever you want to say to me you can say in front of the whole class” so I straight up asked him in front of everyone why he had said those things and with this he asked to speak to me outside. I went outside to speak to him followed by the techies, I wasn’t aware that they had followed. Steve’s reaction to them coming outside was asking me “Do you need you’re little cronies with you for support?” I told him that I did not and that I could stand up for myself. With this, things got a little heated. I never once razed my voice to him, I simply was putting my point across.

A lady from student services came over and asked if we wanted to go into a meeting room. Steve agreed to this and we sat fact to face with this lady in-between us. He brought up the fact that musical theatre had told him that I hadn’t been showing up to meetings and I told him how I was late for work and stayed behind- I also told him to look at the minutes from the production meeting. He said he had been told by a “couple of students” when I asked who he wouldn’t disclose this information. I told him that he shouldn’t take students word over evidence without knowing the 100% facts. He said he had a problem with me coming into his lesion and asking to speak to him and I said I had a problem with him slagging me off behind my back when I wasn't there to defend myself.  He told me my roll as a student was to go to him and engage myself in lesions and I told him his roll as a teacher is to make sure everyone is engaged in his lesion. He said it doesn't work like that in professional theatre and I said but you're a teacher in a college it's not the same thing. This meeting went on for a while, I’d say 20 minutes and he made me cry. He said that I'm insecure as I'm the only second year and I feel because things have changed and I'm not as talented as some of the first years I feel threatened. I told him that I didn’t care about whether I got a part or not, at this stage i just wanted to pass this unit. I left the room crying and went to the toilets, the mediator came with me to make sure I was okay. She was really lovely and helpful. She got me a tissue and calmed me down a bit. I rang my mum crying saying I wanted to leave and that I couldn’t take being at college any longer.  I’ve never done this before. Luckily my mum could see the urgency of the situation and came in straight away and had another meeting with Paul.

I will include the Recording of Steve as evidence to back up this Journal entry. I have to say I have never been so humiliated by a teacher, or bullied. I have no idea how he comes with references when all he does is speak over students, not let anybody contribute and condescend. A teacher has never reduced me to tears until now. I have an interview at Norwich City College this Friday and I really hope that I get in, because I cannot deal with CWA right now.

Strengths/ weaknesses and my response:

My strengths this week I feel include coming into college given my current personal circumstances. I have stayed focused and on target even though I am struggling. My directorship skills are defiantly improving and I feel like I am starting to be able to work with my peers to draw the best performance out of them I can. I constantly ask them thought provoking questions and ask them to evaluate their performance. I really enjoy this. I also think that I dealt with the situation with Steve in a professional and grown up manor. I went to the source of the problem and spoke to him about what had happened to try and get a solution which unfortunately didn’t happen.

Applying to Norwich City College is another strength. I am being proactive and making a change if I feel is necessary in order to be able to finish this qualification and ultimately be able to study this at University/ drama school.

Although this week has been stressful and defiantly distressing, it has made me realise just how much I adore my subject and how much I will fight in order to be able to peruse what I love.

What will happen next/ Personal targets for next week:

My personal target is to try and stay focused and positive and to have my head on the end goal- university. I also need to make a start in my personal statement.

[achristmasday]

September 18th-20th

 Monday

Today we went over the ideas that we came up with last week with Steve and the scenes we have produced as a group. Originally we were told that the scenes had to consist of a story line between parents and children. The class came to the overall decision that there would be too many actors to fill up these rolls. Various people voiced  ideas. These ideas consisting of:

- A minimalist scene of children opening presents in order to represent how little things create a big impact. 

- Children to be in an orphanage that want to be adopted and to show the potential parents how special they are. There is one child in particular that is quietly playing by himself and the potential parents pick him, but he refuses to go as the orphanage is where he views his family to be. 

Lots of the class were keen on the idea of doing a comedy sketch to contrast the introductory scene of the world war idea. I was a fan of this idea as the demographic is a family audience and I feel if there is not anything to engage the children they will get bored and no longer engage. However we discussed the issues that we would face if incorporating comedy into the show.  It could be possible that the jump between the sentimental war scene and something funny could potentially offend the audience. However, I feel that this issue could be resolved as long as the transition was smooth and made sense. Henry then came up with the idea that we rule out the adoption idea all together and have the story line to be “A Christmas day” in a children’s home. Henry’s idea consisted of the fact that the children had never celebrated Christmas before- they don’t know what it is. Then a new child comes into the home and teaches them what Christmas is and they all love it. Steve then split us up into smaller groups and we had to come up with an idea based off of Henry's idea. 

My group came up with the idea that in the orphanage there is two rival teams that fight constantly. This I felt would mirror the initial war scene, linking the relevance as well as potentially bringing in a comedy aspect without it coming across as rude. Then a new child comes into the orphanage and stops the fighting and teaches them about Christmas and what the meaning of Christmas is. 

Eventually we democratically picked Owens groups idea which consisted of and ex-army official that takes over an orphanage and despises Christmas. Then a new child comes and joins the children’s home  and explains what Christmas is and what it means to the other children.  As the child explains elements of Christmas for example- a Christmas tree, then a Christmas tree would come on stage  and the ex-army official would wrestle it off stage. This will also ultimately give the show more of a comedy aspect which I feel will engage the audience, especially the kids that will be watching. Eventually the old man realizes how wonderful Christmas is and buys all of the children in the home Christmas gifts.

Tuesday

The class looked into different practitioners/ areas to research.

-Blood Brothers 

-Caryl Churchill 

Both of these areas of research are relevant as it focus on adults playing the parts of children. It will allow the actors playing these parts to study the way that a child moves (physicality) Voice (tone, pitch, projection) stage presence/ stance etc. 

Strengths/ weaknesses and my response:

My strengths this week have been group contribution and coming up with new ideas. I feel that the first years have still been shy with expressing themselves and talking in front of the whole group. So when asked questions as a class I have been trying my hardest to contribute and try to spark ideas for them to feed off. 

My significant weakness this week I would say has been my attitude. I’ve been really struggling with my mental heath recently and have been to the doctors and referred to the well being team so hopefully I will make progress soon. Although this issue isn’t directly to do with college it definitely effects my mind state when being there and effects my momentum to do work etc.  

What will happen next/ Personal targets for next week:

Next week we will continue to develop the plot around what musical theater/ dance decide to do based off of the themes that we came up with on Monday.  

My personal target for next week is to develop my directing skills so I don’t come across as over baring.

[achristmasday]

POEM FOR THE PIECE (SEPTEMBER 13TH)

Twas the night before Christmas

And all through the house

Not a creature was stirring

Not even a mouse

The stockings were hung on the mantle with care

And dad was asleep in his favourite arm chair

Mother was knackered from working so hard

And cursing the uncle that sent us no card

My brother is giddy and full of Christmas cheer

The children will know that Santa’s been here

My brother is giddy and full of Christmas cheer

It’ll be more than the turkey mums roasting this year

The mistletoe is hung and the holly is decked

You know it’s Christmas because the sherry’s been necked

I directed this section after Steve wrote it. My original idea was for it to be performed in echo to incorporate this mornings session as I loved the effect it had. However, I feel that this didn't work so I allocated a line to each actor and asked them to get into a semi circle formation. when it was time for their line they  had to step forward and act it. I didn't want it to be monotone, I wanted this to really engage the audience after the idea of the war scene at the start I feel that we really needed something to lift spirits and engage the children in the audience. 

[achristmasday]

September 11th- 13th

Monday

On Monday we all returned to college. The second years got briefly introduced to the first years and level twos and asked to brainstorm ideas based around the title “A Christmas day.” We go given sub sections to brainstorm around too, these being: Christmas morning, Christmas dinner, Walk after dinner, Watching the television. The group of actors came up with basic ideas around these things eg: On the Christmas walk there would be a snowball fight.  We had no teacher at this point, which made me very nervous as I really want to do well this year and come out with a distinction again. I’m defiantly nervous this year as Kristy has left and I adored her teaching style. However I am open minded and hope that we manage to get a replacement soon. It would be nice to have the reassurance of a permanent figure at college over the duration of my final year here. 

Tuesday

Jordan was asked by Annette if me and her would run some introductory lesions with the new students. So, me and Jordan spoke and I constructed a lesson plan for me and Jordan to follow. We held a lesson for the new students to introduce them to college from a peers point of view. To link with what we did on our first day myself and Jordan decided to look into stock characterization with the students and labin movement analysis. Linking all of this to the demographic that we had briefed to us on the Monday-this being a family audience. I made the actors specifically create sketches that would suit this demographic and made them justify as to why throughout the duration of the class. Firstly, I explained to the class what a stereotype was and asked each person in the class to give an example. After this i explained what a stock character is. This being a character that complies to a stereotype that is easily recognizable for a demographic to distinguish through physicality (linking to labin movement analysis) I had a some PowerPoints that we used the previous year which I will include annotated in my portfolio. Stock characters are primarily used in pieces such as pantomime. I asked Thomas to come to the front of the class, I asked him as he is comfortable with the topic we were talking about as we previously studied this topic together. I was  aware that the new First years/level twos would be feeling on edge. I gave Thomas the stock character of a dame. The class was unaware of what character Thomas was. I asked him to walk from one end of the room to the other in the style of this character without talking and asked the class who he was trying to be. Of course they got it straight away as it is an easily recognizable character- but this was the point. I wanted them to explore the reasons as to why they knew this. What about his physicality, posture, presence. (Again linking to Labin movement analysis.)  After this exercise I then asked the students to get into group of four and come up with a fairy tale in a modern day environment using purely stock characters. I gave them 15 minutes to devise a script. We then moved class rooms and i asked them to perform The sketch they had just devised. They had 5 minutes to rehearse in the new space and then they had to show everyone. Each group went up one by one and the class discussed whether it fitted the brief and what stock characters were used and how we knew this. 

After this exercise there was still some time left to play with so, me and Jordan decided to do some introductory group games. These were primarily improvisation games. The idea behind this was to push everyone out of their comfort zones and for them to understand that there is no wrongs in drama. The new students are defiantly lacking a lot of confidence and are quite defiant to participate in group exercises. I was quite dissapointed by the first years reaction to the lesson I felt that there was underlining feeling of carelessness and not as much passion as what their should be. However. it is only their first week and I know coming into new situations is really nerve racking, especially when myself and Jordan were the ones trying to help them out, without their being a definite teacher figure yet I can understand why there isn’t much of a mural at the moment. I just found it quite rude when a first year out rightly refused to join in when doing group exercises when myself and Jordan had gone to the effort of preparing a lesson for them.

Wednesday

Today when arriving to college we were all informed that there is a new acting teacher. We went into another class room (as studio one and the theatre is still not completed) and Paul introduced Steve. I am so happy that we have a teacher. It really puts my mind ease. It’s such a massive weight lifted to know that for at least this term we will have a consistent member of staff working with us. 

Straight away Steve got us to do a class surreal ensemble piece which I thoroughly enjoyed. We looked into additive and subtractive acting techniques. The warm up/ introduction to this was an activity where we had to walk around the class in neutral and think of a person without telling them. We then had to create a tableau and swap places with the person we thought of if we were asked to. The people that were picked had to work out their transition/ how they would swap places without bumping into one another. He made each pair do this one by one and then all together at the same time. This enabled us to work together in unison which defiantly lifted the mural from yesterday. I feel this showed the firs years that we all must depend on one another in order to act together- if something goes wrong or someone misses a que then we all go wrong. The movement also tells the demographic what kind of character you are. For example, if you walk slowly looking at the ground would could come across as sad/ insular. I f you walk with purpose with a good posture you will be seen as confident.

Steve then introduced the class to the technique of echoing. This I felt created such a brilliant effect and I would love to use this more in the future in my own devised work. One person said “once upon a time” this was followed by “upon a time” x2 and then followed by “time” x2. This sequence gave the initial words given so much more meaning. It made us explore What those words could really lead into. ” Once upon a time” is normally associated with children’s stories, however the use of echo gave it a much more sinister feel

Our second activity of the day was to teach us the power that words hold. This links to volume, pitch and tone and how this effect the way statements come across to the demographic. As well as silence and the effect that this can create when used correctly. All of these things used in unison tend to create a dramatic effect of tension or shock when showed to a demographic. In order for us to understand the depth of what Steve Was trying to explain he asked two students to volunteer (these students being Harry and Charlotte.)

After the morning session myself and Jordan stayed behind during lunch and spoke to steve. He asked me whether I wanted to become an actress and seemed suprised when I said no- I told him that I want to become a lecturer in classical theatre ad this sparked a whole conviation. He gave me some reading to do and told me to look at Ibson. He seems really lovely and I’m really looking forwad to us being able to work with him.

In the Afternoon the time we had was spent focusing souly on the show. I had espressed to Steve that I wanted to develop my directorship skills as well as being a part in the show, so I was so happy when he asked me to direct a physical theatre piece for the introduction of the show. I came up with the idea of the actors coming together and forming a present. I have a video of this which I will include on my blog as evidence. The idea is that everyone comes together in a square shape and then creates a lid. Aaron is stood in the middle- then the present unpeals, everyone is linking arms and this is meant to signify the rapping papper being taken off. Aaron is a toy solidior which links to the start of the piece and the origins of the menaing of christmas.

Strengths/ weaknesses and my response:

Professional weaknesses of this week include coping without a teacher for a short period of time and not having the correct space to work in. However these issues were overcome by the professionalism of the class and willingness to learn in the incorrect space.

Momentum was another weakness, It very much felt like The first years didn’t feel confident enough to participate. this will hopefully stop now that we have a new teacher. 

I feel that myself and Jordan did well doing a lesson for the first years. This shows leadership skills and willingness to learn. I feel this shows a that we both take our subject seriously and sets a good example to the first years. We did the best with the space that we were provided by the college. Next time if we were in a different space I would make sure to do a full warm up and the introductory games first. 

What will happen next/ Personal targets for next week:

Next week we will be going over the show in greater detail. My personal target is to get more comfortable with sinning silent night in German. 

I’d also like to work on building up a professional re pour with the first years, I’d like for them to feel comfortable enough to approach me as the second years last year helped me no end.