Assignment 3--- Connections (SHOUT) Assignment

 Connections assignment: 

Task 1- Documenting the journey:

Charlie's Acting journey (charperacting.blogspot.com)

Task 2 - It's all about Design 

Below are some screenshots of my beginning ideas for my characters costume- taking inspiration from elements of hippie style, especially with the homemade knitwear and jewellery such as wooden/pasta necklaces, big earrings etc. I wanted her to appear like one of those "arty" middle aged women, who thinks their really original and cool- whilst also adding this sense of business women sleekness but do it a bit oddly. I wanted her to be over accessorised to the point that it looks like to much and you can tell as an observer that she's trying to hard to give of this vibe.

I decided to delve further into the "home made hippie vibe", and actually made some long chunky pasta necklaces with some plain string and pasta- layering them up and experimenting with length so they looked as clustered as possible. I also sourced some homemade sleeves that my sister had made, just so the costume really had that DIY undertone that fit with my characters sense of craft. 

Task 3 - Creating your characters world:

Over the course of our connections rehearsal I ran a few improvised "mindfulness" sessions as my character the therapist (Andrea). Some of which were done collaboratively with some of the other actors playing different teachers- one of which being the classics teacher were we ran a "student yoga session" as our characters and had the other actors participate as their characters within the play. But the main session I ran was a "Fading in snake exposure therapy session" were I made all the "students" wear the snake puppets they had just previously made, and use them in the same way we later used them in the play itself. I too used a snake puppet, as I demonstrated in character the "fading in" method, which consisted of the other actors (in  character) imaging they are in a dangerous forest embodying a snake- this included the snakes movements, mindset etc. The session then further developed into being in the jungle itself and feeling that environment around you, I also made the "students" embody jungle animals- moving around the space as their animal and interacting with each other as their animal. My character as a person is very self centred, she truly believes that these odd hippie "artistic" (as she would say) sessions are helpful. And in her mind these students need her, she also thinks they highly enjoy her sessions- which they very much don't as there painful to be in. 

Doing this session was one of the most helpful things I did when characterising Andrea as a person- figuring out the way she views every part of the world, the way she views different groups of people- even the random thoughts that just come into her head on a daily basis. 

*My character Development sheet can be found on my blog under the title Character Page 

Task 4 - The National Theatre 

The movement to found The National Theatre  reaches back to the 1800s, coming from two different movements: one- to found a national theatre and two to create a monument to Shakespeare. The two of these joined forces and created the Shakespeare Memorial National Theatre Trust (SMNT). This then led to the SMNT committee lending the site they owned for the purposes of building a National Theatre behind the British Museum, the building being a YMCA hut that was used during the first World War for recuperating ANZAC soldiers. Because of the War the Women involved in the movement to found the NT shifted their focus from campaigning to the National Theatre to performing Shakespeare plays to the soldiers in the hut.

The National Theatre fully started to progress in August 1962 when Laurence Olivier was appointed Director of the National Theatre. Laurence Olivier decided to bring younger, more radical talent, such as directors John Dexter and William Gaskill from the Royal Court Theatre- making the venue an actors Theatre and assembling a 50-strong company, one of which being Maggie Smith. By the end of Olivier's tenure he had established the National Theatre as a Prestigious and influential actor- led company, and after much challenge was able to agree a design for a new building on south bank by Denys Lasdun and perform the ceremony in 1973.

 The National Theatre strive to make theatre, for everyone. They make theatre more accessible- pushing the creative boundaries whilst exploring the beauty of theatre itself and the impact it can have on the way we view our society. They also commission freelance theatre-makers to create inspiring and challenging work. Alongside this the National Theatre are also extremely passionate about shining light on young talent- making it easier and more accessible for young talent to be seen.

National Theatre Connections 

NT connections is an annual youth theatre festival that was founded in 1995 and sponsored by Royal Dutch Shell until 2007 (the bank of America then took over the sponsorship). Ten plays are commissioned by the NT which are then performed by youth theatre groups across the UK. These groups are then invited to perform at connections festivals held at a professional theatre in their area. A play is then selected to be performed at the end of the festival at the national theatre. Connections has been running for 29 years and stands as a symbol of the work the NT do to help young people within the industry, creating a platform for not just the young performers but the writers as well. 

Task 5- Performance 

Task 6 - Evaluation of the work 

Reflect on the objectives

The overall objective of the performance was to highlight the heartfelt meaning that the script highlights. This being the message that no one is perfect and that we all have our differences, along with showing the harsh divide within adolescent school society- being segregated into boxes and being isolated and bullied if you don't fit into that popular category. This created an over riding theme of difference, as every character group vastly in contrast to the next through both characterisation and costume/colour pallet- making this theme obvious to the audience and further creating an exaggerated image of the separation in school that is beneficial to the plot line itself. We also carried other objectives as a company, those being to show distinguishable characters, creativity and skill- which I personally feel was executed well, with our character work being extensive and detailed, something that was obvious the audience and the NT director who came to watch and review our play. Our performance was not just their to entertain the audience, but to educate them- highlighting a story of a girl with selective mutism, a disorder that is often misunderstood within our society but is given a truthful representation within the play. My character is Danas therapist, which although would normally create the initial theme of support and helpfulness- my character Andrea is not. She does not have massively ill willed motives within the play and in hindsight is very much just a  bad therapist. But she is very self centred and selfish, with her overall motives being that of a Freud as she cares more about the way her being a therapist makes her look amongst others, than what it actually does for the people she's supposed to be "helping".

Assessing Emotional Engagement - vocal performance and physical analyses 

I feel I captured and conveyed my characters emotions effectively, whilst making it clear to the audience just what kind of person my character is and the exaugurated stereotypes that she's based off. My character is one of accidental humour, as the way she speak and the things she says are funny- yet she herself is not aware of this and takes her "craft" very seriously, making her as a person coincidentally more humours. Articulation was important when playing this character, as she emits a very "upper class" sense- this was intentional so I wanted to do it well, taking on a RP southern English accent; raising the pitch of my voice and pushing the sound up into my noise to create that winier sound. I kept her tone of voice quite soft, but structured whilst extending her sentence slightly- adding in a regular "okay", "ye" and "uhu" to the end of sentences or even just slotting them in randomly whilst speaking. I made sure my pace was a level speed, embodying the therapist nature of steadiness- although I did have a tendency to speed up slighlty when delivering certain sections of my dialogue, along with paraphrasing words and improvising the ends of sentences throughout my delivery, which is definitely something I need to work on moving forward as its a frequent habit I fall into when learning a script. But as a whole this created a more condescending way in which my character would speak to Dana, communicating clearly to the audience that she doesn't view Dana or anyone else around her with much status. Talking down to Dana as if she's an infant, making my character appear annoying and patronising as a result. This persona was further emphasised through my physicality- moving around the space slowly but with big movements, creating the impression that she's trying to appear "fun" and "exciting" to such a "young" and "troubled" mind  like Danas. I also actively chose to use multiple hand gestures throughout my performance as I feel it added more to her theatrical sense, whilst also building on the condescending delivery of her therapy sessions. I made sure to utilise as much of the space as possible, standing on chairs, sitting on benches and circling the area surrounding Dana- showing the playfulness she's trying to bring to her sessions whilst highlighting to the audience her extensive commitment to making her "snake therapy" interesting. My interactions with Dana also carried this same tone, as I would pear over her whilst patting her on the shoulders- creating some levels and further highlighting to the audience the way my character views Dana. This level of interaction with Dana was continued with the sock puppets, using my sock puppet in a similar way how they do on kids TV shows- taping her on the face with it and moving it around her in the space surrounding her.  I do feel I could of made my posture more proper as in the script it is noted that she maintains perfect Alexander technique positioning when moving, and on reflection feel I let my frame slip- especially when sitting down on the bench next to Dana as I naturally tend to slump forward when sat down, so posture is definitely something I need to improve on moving forward when ww take the show to York Theatre Royal. 

Ensemble Dynamic 

My character only speaks in one scene yet she appears in multiple throughout the show, meaning a lot of the work I did involved filling out scenes with other actors- adding in a deeper layer to the moments occurring right in front of the audiences eyes, and creating a very busy image to look at. I was also involved in a few transition scenes, meaning I needed to collaborate cohesively with other actors on stage who were also involved in the transition sequence. Ensemble wise the transition sequences were the most difficult to perform as you need to be hyper aware of the people around you so you don't accidentally injure anyone, whilst also making sure your end placement of the set is correct- otherwise the next following scene will be effected. This is something that required a lot of work and patients, which is something I feel I brought especially in rehearsals as it was easy to get frustrated with one another and the sequence itself- but I made sure throughout to actively apply constructive notes that were being given by the person directing the sequence, whilst also listening to the needs of the others involved in the sequence. The main transition scene I was involved in was the wave scene; which involved us carrying chairs in a forward motion into a line beside Dana, we then had to pull the chairs back and forth to mimic waves- actively listening to Danas monologue which prompted us to lift the chairs over our heads and back into their fixed positions. I feel as an ensemble we executed this scene efficiently, especially as on the day of our performance we had to add in some new people into the sequence as others had to drop out of it, meaning that as a group we had to make sure that the sequence was still going to work and that it was still going to look polished for the show on the night. 

Costume and Props 

Throughout shout I use multiple different props whilst playing my character, the main one being the sock puppet I use within my therapist scene- using them to add a deeper sense of humour to my characters actions, but also as a way to build up more of a backstory on the preparation my character has done for her "snake therapy", as I am seen sorting through them in the freaks and geeks scene that occurs before the therapist scene. These snakes are also used by the ensemble that are in the therapist scene building further on her commitment to making her "fading in" therapy work as she's roped in half of the collage to help with her sessions. One of the other props I used that contributed to the atmosphere of my character was the note book I carried around throughout multiple scenes- I even got a black sharpie and wrote "the fading in method by Andrea Tarte" in it and then carried it around like a placard in the freak and geeks scene, holding it like a trophy that I'm trying to show off. Personally in my case I found props to be something that was vital in depicting my character to audience, as they not only helped me feel more like the character, but they also helped me add another dimension to what is being seen. 

Personal Goals 

My personal goal would be surrounding how efficient I am when learning lines, and how I translate that when performing, especially with my habit of paraphrasing but also the way I break down my dialogue when trying to take it in. As I could avoid slipping into paraphrasing a lot more if let myself fully learn and absorb the dialogue, instead of trying to learn it by seeing how much I can recall from memory straight off the bat, which is what lead me into resorting to paraphrasing.