Week 5

 Monday 9th October 2023

characterisation and script writing

To start off the week we were introduced to an activity that involved taking random people from the lonely harts column (which was basically an old fashioned dating website in the newspaper)- taking peoples profiles and using them to embody our interpretation of that person. Going on "dates" with other actors characters so they can eventually find matches. The selection of the characters were random so you couldn't go through and choose exactly which one you wanted, and instead had to use what ever vague description you got to bring them to life. I was personally really excited to do this activity- due to the fact that in depth characterisation is something I really enjoy and delve deep into, but because the descriptions were so vague (like on a dating site) I kind of had to use a lot of initial instincts- taking the characteristics listed and relating them to people I've met, characters in tv shows and how society interprets certain characteristics and personality traits- for example relating a labelled "bubbly person" as someone who is prone to chattiness and laughter. So after I started thinking about what the person was like and how they fit into society I moved on to their voice/accent and the way they spoke or the kind of slang they use- because even when using your own accent your still not going to speak in the same mannerism or tempo, because your not playing yourself- and although I would normally tend to focus on the way a character walks and breaths I thought for this particular activity it would be better to switch it around due to the lack of information on their overall emotions (which often fuels the way someone can hold themself). This is an activity that we are going to take on further in the future, which is when I will figure out more about my characters physicality and reaction/opinions to other characters.

The second half of the day was focused on our enrichment project- mine being script writing/ the national theatre connections competition. Script writing is actually something I'm really interested in, and hope to develop and take with me in the future- so after learning that we had the opportunity to focus in on this alongside acting and performing I immediately started brainstorming ideas and thinking of concepts in my head. When telling a story it tends to work well if you show/comment on the other side of societal creations, which is why the national theatre play "dear England" came up in conversation- portraying the flip side to playing football for England which is something that is never discussed or know within our society and instead has been hidden from the public eye. Because of this I began to think of industries that you only tend to see the one side of- which lead me form a loose idea showing how difficult and mentally straining it can be to work as an actor within the creative arts industry- especially when it comes to being a women and stereotypes/societal ideals. This is one of a few ideas I have for the script, but I am incredibly excited to really delve into it and experiment with new things I have yet to learn. 

Wednesday 11th October 2023 

warm up activity- improvisational game

Although we have done multiple improvisation games I personally found the one we did today to be interesting and fun- feeling it was incredibly useful to practise the skill of breaking the initial awkwardness and hesitation when acting spontaneously- not knowing exactly who your going to interact with or what situation your going to be put into. The main concept of the game was that two people selected randomly had to go into the middle of the circle and act out a situation that was randomly decided by someone else in the circle. You didn't get a chance to plan out what you were going to do and instead just had to take whatever came to you- the person who came up with the situation could also throw in another curve ball by handing one of the two people within the circle a peace of paper with something they have to say on it, changing up the situation entirely. The reason I found this activity so affective is because you constantly had to keep in tune with the other actor you were working with, making sure you both kept within the brief and setting each other up so you could keep it moving. I feel this worked the best if one of the actors added in more humours element whilst the other one added in a sense of naturalism- this way it stopped the scene getting to out of hand while still remaining entertaining and constant. This also created more opportunity for spontaneousness, because both actors were adding in something opposite meaning things could very easily be pulled towards comedy and then quickly brought back to realism by the other actor or vice versa, meaning the scene was constantly changing.