Unit 12

Gogol was born on March 31, 1809 in Sorochintsy now Ukraine and had been known as the Russian Empire.  He spent two years at the Poltava District College and then began his studies at the Nizhyn Pedagogical University. Making him very educated and seem as he is from a well of background, probably middle or upper class this suggests he probably knew a lot about the political issues; surrounding his time and the class difference was very clear to him. In 1836, Gogol published one particular work, The Government Inspector, (which we are studying) which caused quite uproar. Additionally, the work criticized the government under the kingship at the time and many people didn't like it. This left Gogol no choice but to leave Russia and settle in Italy, Rome for a short period of time. 

I did my research on the play to understand the elements and the themes of the play to be able to get a full understanding about my charecter Waiter and the korobkin.
In the begining I roughly knew how to portray the waiter because I read the script and found out that the waiter speaks a lot about Jesus so I knew that the waiter is very religious. The other character Korobkin was given to me because the original person playing it rarely came in so I was the understudy for him. I did my research on the character and based on the research I decided to portray him as middle class. 

We looked at practitioners that we would be able to use in The Government Inspector. The first practitioner  we looked at was Steven Berkoff. Steven Berkoff's work is described as 'The use of mime, stylized movement, exaggerated vocal work, direct asides and improvisations within an ensemble environment'. We used this in our piece, especially within characters such as Dobchinksy and Bobchinksy who are very slapstick comedy. The use of stylised movement enables us to create a fast-paced environment in our production as well as individual characters. The more we heighten the characters and make them less naturalistic, the more entertaining and comical the play will be. We also said we could use more Stanislavski techniques to create, naturalistic sections of our play, for this, we can use Actions, Thought Processes and Through Lines. This can help us get to our character with a mental approach rather than physical. The final practitioner we thought we could use was Brecht. Our show is political theatre, portraying corrupt government and even though the play was written in 1836, can still apply now. Brecht used political theatre to create performances, his main technique was alienation and breaking the barrier between the audience and the actors to acknowledge that they are watching a play that is. not real life. 

In rehearsals I didn’t find any problems with my characters. The advice Rob and Sharon gave me was to play the characters big and play off more with the other characters in the scene. I also had a backstage role and was the marketing side of the play and came up with this:

                                     

We handed out leaflets to library’s and theatre companies such as the old vic, Roundhouse etc


In conclusion I say that it was a very succesfull performance and all actors were doing a very good team work which helped all charecters to develope their roles and play around with them during the performances and we all had good energy . Every one was really focused and had a good commitment to what they want to achieve.


Bibliography
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Government_Inspector

OCR, 2015. Practitioners: Berkoff. [ONLINE] Available at:
http://www.ocr.org.uk/Images/281664-practitioners-berkoff-topic-exploration-pack.pdf. [Accessed 14th May 2018]

Unit 12 Characters Journey

Today we looked at our characters journeys throughout the play and before we get on stage. We also did and brief rehearsal but without any words and just when we got on and off stage and we thought about what our characters would wear. The clothes I thought to wear was Black leggings, black top, a white apron, black shoes and a crucifix necklace. The reason why I chose to wear these clothes because I wanted to keep it simple and I thought about what kind of  clothes would waiters wear and I took my own interpretation of it. I chose to wear a crucifix necklace because my character speaks a lot about Jesus so she's very religious. We also looked at the themes of the play and written them down on sheets of paper and put down all the characters and what class they would come under to get a rough idea on how to play out character.


                                                     

Unit 9 Research

Cyber Bullying




Cyber bullying is any form of bullying which takes place online or through smartphones and tablets. Social networking sites, messaging apps, gaming sites and chat rooms such as Facebook, XBox Live, Instagram, YouTube, Snapchat and other chat rooms can be great fun and a positive experience. Cyber bullying is rife on the internet and most young people will experience it or see it at some time. In our recent national bullying survey, 56% of young people said they have seen others be bullied online and 42% have felt unsafe online. Cyber bullying can happen 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and it can go viral very fast.







The Effects of Cyber Bullying




For many cyber bullying affects their everyday lives and is a constant source of distress and worry.  With mobile technology being so freely available it is an ongoing issue and one that is relentless.  Not only does it go on after school, college or work has finished, but it then carries through into the next day and the cycle continues.  It has been well documented that cyber bullying has resulted in tragic events including suicide, and self-harm and clearly, more needs to be done in order to protect vulnerable children and adults from online bullying.

Unit 12

On Thursday we worked on our characters. At first we were walking around the space in neutral 

and we had to think of one word that would describe our character and I chose outgoing, the reason why I chose the word outgoing is from the way the waiter speaks in the play sounds a bit straight forward and I wanted to make the character more cheerful to make it more interesting and to challenge myself. We next had to think of two gestures to go with the word and one could be totally different to each other I chose for my first one was jumping in with jazz hands and the second on was praying. I chose these because I remember whilst reading the script that my character mentions Jesus a lot so I thought maybe to incorporated something to do with Jesus and praying was the first thing that came to my head. Next we got into groups of three and we had our characters meet each other by using only the gestures, sounds and two lines from the script and created a mini scene. We then joined up with another group using the same gestures and words and we tried to make a scene. By doing this helped me understand my character more and how I may want to play it for the show. 

 

Unit 9 Cupcakes and Knives

Unit 9 Cupcakes and Knives








During the first week of rehearsals, we had to produce a trailer as a to get a rough idea of what theme we wanted put across.


The second week we got into our groups and we had to create a time line for the rehearsal process and writing down the concept of the play for instance the characters, a quick idea of a plot, location of the play. As well as writing down scene by scene the sequences of event.

 The third week we finalised the scenes and started bringing the performance to our feet by rehearsing it and the hot seating of the characters to get a background understanding of where each of them came from. We also thought about how we would stage it and the props needed and sound effects as well to help create a certain atmosphere and mood for the audience.

The forth week we had challenges as one person did not agree to the role she was assigned and so, we had to adjust to the needs of the actor so that she felt comfortable with performing the role. Then we rehearsed a bit more until we thought it was up to standard and ready for the technical rehearsal. Overall, the day was successful.

Week five was the technical rehearsal. We went through the piece as though we were performing it making sure that everything was in the right place and we felt confident with what we were doing and the entrances and exits on stage. At first out concentration was all over the place, however, once we got into the piece, we felt that it went quite well. Also, during rehearsal and performance, the translations between scenes and characters were very clear and the message of the play as well. What needs to be developed to make it even better would  be the party scenes energy, commitment and transition from the start to the end of the scene.
 
 

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.