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.