Monologue

 I chose Lady Macbeth monologue it’s when Duncan is entering the castle but he doesn’t know that Macbeth is going to kill him and Macbeth is wanting help from the spirits that she’s calling to help her and to help Macbeth kill Duncan and I chose thins because I wanted to take a challenge and explore a character a tiny bit older than me so lady Macbeth would be perfect. I also liked the language Shakespeare uses for lady Macbeth and I can kind of relate to what she’s doing

Pros and Cons of higher education

Pros Of Drama School

- Great training for all types of performers, particularly actors;
- You get to meet important industry people and create strong connections and get more contacts.
- Final year showcases attract a lot of good talent agents;
- Agents and casting directors value actors with drama school training more.

Cons of  Drama School

- It’s difficult to get accepted 
- it’s expensive 
- some additional training maybe requires after graduating 
- there’s an extremely busy timetable


Pros of University 

- easier to get accepted 
- there’s a less packed schedule 
- enjoy student life

Cons of University 

- little chance of getting contacts and agents 
- it’s same cost of Drama school 
- poor acting training and it’s more hands on and theory 

Acting CV

Jessica Gale

                                                 

Mobile: 07321564333  

Email: galejessica36@gmail.com

Height: 5’2”

Build: Average

Hair colour: Brown

Eye colour: Hazel brown

Accents I can do: British

Skills: I do karate; I won a Bronze Arts Award and a multiple medals in Karate.

Credits

Theatre

Year	Type	Role	Production	Company	Director
2009	Play	Various	Rockford’s Rock Opera	Foulds School	Mrs Lam
2015	Play	Doctor George Bradman	Blithe Spirit	Queen Elizabeth Girls School	Mrs Malone
2015	Play	Landlady	Road and Two	Westminster Kingsway College (kings cross)	Rob Alexander
2016	Play	Hecuba	Trojan Women	Westminster Kingsway College (kings Cross)	Rob Alexander
2017	Play	Host/Elgamour	Two Gentlemen Of Verona	Westminster Kingsway College (kings  Cross)	Rob Alexander
2017	Play	Various	Blackout	Westminster Kingsway College (kings Cross)	Rob Alexander

   

TV and Film

2016

Short Silent Film

Teenage Girl

Chase

Westminster Kingsway College (kings cross)

Rob Alexander

Steven Berkoff Research

Steven Berkoff, is an English character actor, author, playwright and theatre director. As an actor, he is best known for his performances in villainous roles, such as Lt. Col Podovsky in Rambo: First Blood Part II, General Orlov in the James Bond film Octopussy, Victor Maitland in Beverly Hills Cop and Adolf Hitler in the TV mini-series War and Remembrance.


Berkoff started his theatre training in the Repertory Company at Her Majesty's Theatre in Barrow-in-Furness, for approximately two months, in June and July 1962.
As well as an actor, Berkoff is a noted playwright and theatre director, with a unique style of writing and performance. His earliest plays are adaptations of works by Franz Kafka: The Metamorphosis (1969); In the Penal Colony (1969) and The Trial (1971). In the 1970s and 1980s, he wrote a series of verse plays including East (1975), Greek (1980) and Decadence (1981), followed by West (1983), Sink the Belgrano! (1986), Massage (1997) and The Secret Love Life of Ophelia (2001). Berkoff described Sink the Belgrano! as "even by my modest standards ... one of the best things I have done"

Metamorphosis

Today we started looking at Practitioners for instance Steven Berkoff and Samuel Beckett and we got into groups and wrote down what we researched and Steven Berkoff and created a mind map. I knew that he starred in a film called "Beverly Hills Cop" as Victor Maitland, and I found out that he likes playing villain's and I quote "all the best actors assumed villainous roles". We then started to look at the plays he wrote and the most well known was "Metamorphosis" and we got given the first act of metamorphosis and read through it and got into groups and chose a section to act out.

Blackout Evaluation

On the 1st June we performed our Blackout play. The things that went well in the performance was that no one forgot their lines and even anyone did someone said it for them so it doesn't leave a dead stage. Another thing that went well was that everyone knew what they were doing and everyone knew their cues. The thing that we could improve on as a group is that the last scene could of been worked on more because we were all supposed to say "blackout" together but it ended up with one person saying it. The things that I could improve on was in scene 14 when I played James I had a tiny monologue although I was nervous I could of slowed down a little and not rush it.


Things that went well in rehearsals was almost everyone by the second or third week knew their lines so we could focus on the more physical side of the scenes. The thing that could of been improved on the most was attendance and punctuality because on one of the days we had most of our group not in and only five people were in and we couldn't rehearse because the people that weren't in were in most of the scenes and almost everyday a couple of people from our group were 30 minutes late and in that short time we could of rehearsed a lot more then we did.

Blackout Rehersal 13

Today we worked on the last scene which is scene 20 and we thought that everyone should be scatted around the stage and we divided the lines up to everyone and at one point we do actions to do with James's past and the last line which is "blackout" we all say together and then the lights go black. We then ran through all the scenes and see what works and what doesn't and we changed on thing in the last scene which was we took out the actions because everyone kept messing them up and some people didn't know when to do their action.

Blockout Rehersal 12

Today we rehearsed scene 18 and came up with idea of three people in the back centre as judges and around them the jury and then the person playing James in the middle so it's like a court room and every time the judges said "ten years" the jury would whisper to each other "ten years". We then rehearsed scene 19 which was a small scene with James and his mother and James explaining what his mother would as he's coming out of a court room.

Blackout Rehersal 11

Today we worked on scene 16 and came up people on the side in a pyramid shape and the person playing James in the middle of the stage and as James says "punching, kicking, and you can feel your hands around someone's neck" the people on the side would do actions to do with what James is saying. we also worked on scene 17 and we decided that the scene should be a monologue. We then went through all the scenes we done and we changed scene 17 so instead of having James on the stage alone we should have the people who we in the pyramid stay on the stage instead of leaving.

Blackout Rehersal 10

Today we worked on scene 15 and how we were going to stage it, so we thought that at the start we should have the person playing James and we thought as the scene sounds like it's in a police station we would have a police officer questioning James. and as James says "it starts coming back to you" other people could come onto the stage dancing as James is talking about a party and it's like a flashback. After going through scene 15 we decided to go through from the beginning until scene 15 and see what works and change bits to the scenes.

Blackout Rehersal 9

Today we went through the scenes we done so we didn't forget what we done. After that we discussed what to do in scene 13 and we thought of having the person playing James do the scene as a monologue. For scene 14 I'm playing James and I suggested to get James on stage we could have one person push James on stage but have hands behind his/hers back and then once on stage have police wardens and prisoners around me. At one point when I say " and then the key worker guy comes back with your file" the person playing the key worker guy they could come on stage with a paper and hand it to me.

Blackout Rehersal 8

Today we worked on scene 11 and we decided that we have James say the lines but as a monologue so we have it simple and not all the big a physical. We also decided to work on the beginning of scene 12 and we had the idea that the person playing the mother would be in the audience and saying her lines and have James at the beginning of the scene by himself and then later on in the scene have the friends come on to the stage. After we discussed the scene we went through all the scenes we had done and thought of the different transitions between each scenes.

Blackout Rehersal 7

Today we worked on scene 10 where we discussed the ideas we have for the scene and we decided that as the scene is based in school we would have people scattered around the stage as it's like a playground so some people would be sitting on the floor and others would be standing up and we would all be talking and as soon as the person playing James walks on then we would all go quiet. we also had an idea of James and a couple of people having a fight so we choreographed the fight and went over the scene a lot of times because the fight needed to be perfected.

Blackout Rehersal 6

Today we worked on scene 8 and the ideas that we came up with was that we all start out of breath and as were saying the lines we are just a tiny bit out of breath as well. We staged it as we are all scattered around the stage and some lines we add a little action for instance when someone says "you get a pair of scissors and cut your hair pure short" we all mime scissor movements and cut our hair. We also stared coming up with ideas for scene 9 and we decided to all that five people should stand in a diagonal line and say a line each and towards the end the last couple of lines we would do actions for the lines.

Blackout Rehersal 5

Today we worked on scene 7 and we decided to recreate a jail cell again and when James says "and they took you to a secure care unit" we all split and some people would be police wardens and the others would play prisoners and as James is saying the lines for instance "and they took away your belt" the police wardens would mime a action like taking away our belts. We also worked on our transitions between the scenes that we have done so it all flows and that we don't have a dead stage.

Blackout Research

We are doing a play called Blackout who is written by Davey Anderson. The play is about a boy called James who is accused of dangerous crime and as a result ends in prison. Davey Anderson was inspired by the true stories of a young offender from Glasgow. Blackout is the true story of a 15-year-old boy charged with attempted murder who tries to piece together the events in his life that have brought him into a secure care unit and threaten to keep him there. This short play packs a big emotional punch with its stylistic economy and razor-sharp storytelling. It was performed at the grand nationals. It’s known to be a drama and the style is quite open meaning you can change it anyway shape or form making it adaptable to the audience members. The play is also physical theatre.

Dramaonlinelibrary.com. (2017). Blackout - Drama Online. [online] Available at: http://www.dramaonlinelibrary.com/plays/blackout-iid-133850 [Accessed 9 Jun. 2017].

Blackout Rehearsal 4

Today we worked on bringing scene 5 to life. The ideas that we came up with was that after we push The person who will play James down to the ground and we circle round him/her whilst saying our lines. We also worked a tiny bit on scene 6 and how we are going to stage it and who will be playing James and we thought it would be nice if we had one person on stage so it would be like a monologue.

Blackout Rehearsal 3

Today we started rehearsing scene 4 and the idea we came up with was that we would have some people scattered on stage and James in the centre but at the front of the stage but instead of James speaking it was someone else and saying it with a nasty tone of voice as though he's getting bullied. We also worked a tiny bit on scene 5 and how we would transition from scene 4 to 5 and we had an idea that as one James is leaving the other person playing James is pushed to the ground and it flows well with what's going on in scene 5.

Blackout Rehearsal 2

Today we came up with ideas for what we are going to do for scene 3 and we came up with having everyone on stage, one person would be James and another was Granddad and as there're speaking the rest of us could be doing actions based on what there're saying for instance when James says "and he taught you to play the flute" we would mime playing the flute. Rob had an idea of us coming together in the middle as the two people are speaking and at one point we would all shout something to do with football when James says  "and he'd take you to see the Rangers Game every Saturday".

Blackout Rehearsal

Today we started rehearsing our play blackout and we got through scene 1 and 2. We came up with an idea that everyone in our group has the chance to play James so it's not always one person. For scene 1 we had the idea of one person who's playing James in the middle and eight people around him or her so it looks like a jail cell. For scene 2 we would have people scattered around the stage and it's like a flashback of James's past life and I suggested that we have two people in the audience and as there is one part in the scene where James could be having thoughts in his mind so the people in the audience is his brain.

Tuesday 25th April

On Tuesday 25th April we got given our scripts for the play Blackout and we got given what groups were going to be working in. when we got into our groups we read through the script and got an idea of what the play is about and we asked everyone what they thoughts were of the play what did they think the play was about. i think the play is about a boy who gets bullied and driven to change the way he acts and behaves which results to him doing something bad and ends up in jail. My initial thoughts on the play is that i find the play interesting and there are various ways we can perform it.

Shakespeare Evaluation

What went well in our performance was that everyone was confident and they knew there lines and none of us came out of role if we forgotten our lines. Everyone knew what they were doing and where to walk on stage. In rehearsals everyone knew there lines roughly within three days of getting the script and that meant we could focus on working on where to move on the stage and our body language more. What didn't go well was that I forgot my lines and I stood there trying to think but fortunately the person I was in the scene with covered for me and came onto the stage and we continued the scene. In the rehearsals we didn't really rehearse my scenes as much so next time I should try and ask my group if we could rehearse it because I felt that if I didn't rehearse it then I would forget my lines and that's what happened. If I had to perform it again I would learn my lines properly and rehearse my scenes a lot. I would add more body language and more emotions to what I'm saying because half of the time I didn't really understand what I was saying. In the afternoon performance we got a lot of laughs from the audience but in the evening it was different because not of parents laughed but we didn't try to make them laugh we continued to perform like we did in the afternoon performance.

Monologues

Today we had Sharon and we had to get into pairs and we had to tell a story of what we did over the Christmas holidays. We then had to pair up with another pair and then tell them our story's and make up a piece of drama to tell what we did over the christmas holidays and we could combine our storys together or just choose one and what we did we chose one story and tried to make the story come to life on the stage. After that we then got our modern monologues and walked round the room saying them and thinking how we would present it.

Shakespeare

Today we got given our shakespeare scripts and i got given the script for 'two gentleman of verona' and i got the role of the host and elgamour. We then read through the script as a group to get a rough idea of whats happening in each scene.  We then started to think about how were gonna stage it and where people are go to stand or sit. We then rehearsed act 1 scene 1 and changed a few bits and how to say each line.

Futures

Where Am I?


The skills I've developed so far are that I'm more confident in acting on the stage and I'm less nervous. I've also been able to project my voice more and have been working on my articulation and to help with that I've been reading tongue twisters.


Areas


The areas I need to work on is when I'm performing I need to be in character the whole time even backstage. I also need to watch more plays so they can inspire me and help me with my acting. I need to also work on my inner monologue. When I'm acting on stage I need to work on breaking the 4th wall.



Next Steps?


After I finished college I plan to apply to drama school and I have two in mind which are RADA (Royal Academy Of Dramatic Art) or LAMDA (London Academy of Music & Dramatic Art). I've already got a couple of Shakespeare monologues and a couple of modern monologues and I have been learning them so I'm prepared to audition for the drama schools. 

Into The Woods Review

On Wednesday we watched a film called 'Into the woods' which is a musical. I liked the film and I was very engaged with it. They made it very interesting because they combined different fairy tales such as little red riding hood, jack and the beanstalk, Cinderella and repunzel and they all meet in the woods because they all have to get somewhere and they all have to go through the woods. The Story's cross over because the witch put a curse on the baker and his wife and some of the characters have the items that witch tells them to get to release the curse.

The set wasn't basic and it wasn't confusing there were lots of trees and some stairs so Cinderella could run down from the castle it was all based outside.

The costumes weren't to complex but I felt the wolf from little red riding hood wasn't very well done and the wolf looked and sounded like a stalker.

I liked the film and it's music but towards the end I started to get a bit bored as there was a bit too much music. By watching this film it helped me understand more on how to keep an audience engaged and how to tell the story.

Shakespeare

If i was to design Two Gentlemen Of Verona I would Silvia's house throughout the whole play in the center then move backwards when they go to the woods. For the lightning I would have green and blue and have a tree stencil for the woods scene. I would try and modernise it so every age group could understand Shakespearean language. The costumes would also be modernised as well so for the men they would wear a suit, tie and trousers and for the woman they would wear dresses.I think the themes for this play is comedy/Romance

Introduction to Professional Practice

Sound Technician

What is a sound technician?

Sound technicians should be able assemble, operate and maintain the technical equipment mix or reproduce sound.

They can find the sound requirements for a task or situation and perform the appropriate actions to produce this sound for a person's performance piece

Sound technicians can work with different industries such as

Film

broadcasting (radio or television)

live performance (theatre, music, dance)

advertising

Audio recordings

What Qualifications do sound technicians need?

You don’t need a degree to become a sound technician. but it is important to show a good understanding of the physics of sound, technical aptitude, good aural skills, excellent communication skills and acute attention to detail.

you need general education. GCSEs or A-levels in maths and physics and qualifications in electronics will be particularly beneficial. The people who want to employ a sound technician are also looking for these qualifications as well:

broadcasting

sound design

audio engineering

acoustics

music recording and/or technology

media production

Music (Bmus)

How much does a sound technician get paid?

Sound technicians get paid depending upon the actual role and type of production they are in so for instance if I was in a popular film such as mission impossible I would get paid a lot because they would be using a lot of sound. In an established studio or in television and radio, starting salaries may be in the region of £16,000 to £18,000.

With experience this can rise to salaries upward of £30,000. Supplements for unsocial hours may be available.

Freelance work is common and in these instances you must be prepared to negotiate rates according to your experience and the type of production.

The Broadcasting, Entertainment, Cinematograph and Theatre Union (BECTU) recommended day rates for sound assistants working on feature films in the UK range from £275 to £385, depending on the budget of the film.

Who I work close with?

I work close with audio visual designer, sound designer, lighting technician and lighting rigger. The reason why I work closely with them is because without the audio there would be no sound. I work close with lightning technician because in a theatre they need sound and light and we can help each other out when doing the performance.