Unit 9- Developing performance and production skills

TASK 1- Developing your skills:

A- I started year 1 off in the deep end when it came to pushing myself and stepping into bigger roles that applied quite a heavy amount of pressure onto myself. For example taking on the role of a tour guide in the ghost light tours, and having to maintain a constant sense of improvisation when it came to audience interact and engagement. This then led into leading a show- playing Peter Pan in Peter Pan the British Musical", and holding that presence on stage whilst being responsible for having to move the story forward through my scenes. This was an incredibly fun role to play, but I was very anxious throughout the whole process- getting to much in my head about my performance and who was watching me or if it was terrible, which is one of the worst states to be in as an actor, as it can stop you from fully accessing your character and letting yourself take bigger risks or making more interesting bolder choices. 

This is why when we then moved onto National Theatre connections, that I got the chance to focus a lot more on character and making myself mentally comfortable in the role I was playing- delving into the supporting character of The therapist, were I got the chance to put all my focus into one main scene instead of spreading it out across multiple. This was one of the funniest most freeing characters I have had the privilege to play, as there was less pressure surrounding my performance, along with more time to make her something brilliant. I also got to understand the significance that supporting roles can have- learning how to make them eye catching without drawing all the attention away from what's important within the story. 

In my first year I also took part in one end of year short film, which is something that throughout the year I hadn't properly looked at. At the time this was nothing I was quite nervous to begin, but found that I learned a lot from it. One of which being communication with the people you're working with, along with learning some of the difficulties that comes with acting on screen and just how different it is from stage. 

The last show of my first collage year was our end of year show "Radium girls", along with "one flew over the cuckoos nest". I feel this personally was one of my strongest points in the year, arguably my strongest- getting to delve into some naturalistic work and push myself in a completely different direction than before. I was a leading character in this show, but unlike at the beginning of the year I wasn't as anxious in rehearsals or while performing like I was in Peter Pan, and actually had to really make sure I wasn't stuck in that cycle so I could understand the character I was playing completely. In this performance I played a women called Kathryn Schaube, playing her as a teenager but also an adult, whilst also showing her deterioration into radium poisoning. I got to perform a really emotionally charged duologue in this show with the leading character Grace, which I look back at as a very high moment for me that took practise and hard work. 

B- Personally I feel the gaps in my understanding differ depending on the acting style, but overall I am always wanting to improve my naturalistic skill set further and everything that falls into that category. This includes acting on instincts/reflex, along with a deeper understanding of naturalistic practitioners and which of their specific techniques are the ones I find the most effective. I also want to create a more freer headspace for myself when acting, especially when devising as I find it to be a weaker point for me in general, as I tend to overthink what I'm doing to much. 

TASK 2,3 and 4 ⬇⬇⬇

Blogger Link- https://charperacting.blogspot.com/ 

Ghost Light Tour is documented from weeks, 31 to 37- Evaluation included 

Pinocchio is documented from weeks, 38 to 43 - Evaluation Included 

National Theatre Connections/ Feature Film is documented from weeks, something to something  N/A

Below I have attached each individual evaluation for the separate shows of 2nd year. These evaluations have already been posted on my blogger separately as stated above, but I have attached them all together for the assignment: 

Ghost Light tour Evaluation

My mindset approaching this ghost light tour has been a lot different to last year, as I found myself last year focusing on what was the hardest role to play- what was the hardest thing to do. Whereas this year my mindset has shifted to what have I not done before and what can I learn from doing some thing that I haven't. Although my role was not as technically difficult as last years role of a tour guide, I found myself learning a lot more than I would've learned if I just played a tour guide again. The experience of guiding the piece and being in it are two very different experiences, and the way that you break the 4th wall and interact with the audience is completely different too. As a tour guide you had an objective to be friend the audience and make sure gaps were filled efficiently- but when playing Nurse Ratchet within the tour my objective was souly based around having a quick, strong overall effect on them of fear. Which completely changed the way I interacted with them and the way that I had to command their attention to leave my mark in small time frame. I Felt a different kind of anxiety being placed within the tour, personally I felt that as a tour guide I had space to hide behind improv and the scenes that we would visit- whilst on the other hand playing Nurse Ratchet everything was fixed and planned, when I would perform and interacted, they would watch and listen instead of trying to create a fluent conversation like atmosphere. After re visiting the ghost light tours I am defiantly more equipped within immersive theatre, and find that now I'm also better at understanding my objective when performing- after having to focus on multiple different aspects of the same performance. 

Pinocchio Evaluation 

when appropriating this project I wanted to make sure that I focused on the opposite of what I did last year- taking on one of the main antagonists in the play and adopting characteristics that juxtaposed the ones I embodied last year. I made an active effort to experiment with bolder more difficult character choices that I knew I would find more difficult to execute- especially as character acting is something I'm quite comfortable with I wanted to really try and make it as exciting and challenging for myself as I could. When approaching the character of Stromboli I made sure to cover different sections of research before hand so I could create a backlog of information to refer back to and build off when delving into his mindset and emotions. I also used my research to help me finalise my acting choices and add my own backstory to the choices I would make. An example of this is the relationship Stromboli has with his Marionettes and how I used the backstory I had built from research and influence to form this- taking the direction of mania after being a failed performer and driving himself crazy. This is something I really made sure I communicated to the audience by making certain consistent choices through my performance. One of which being the discrete mannerisms I would adopt, such as rapid eye movement, regular twitching (especially when switching between marionette personas) and playing with my clothing. Although my angle on Stromboli was one of slight craziness I made sure not to try and let that over power every Stromboli scene, as that was not the focus all the time, and would of actually pulled from some of his underlining motives and emotions that he experiences throughout the show. A good example of this is his opening scene, were Stromboli tries to encourage the blue fairy and Geppetto to see his Marionette show- his aim is to deceive them in this scene and make them feel sympathy on behalf of the fact that he's penniless and without an audience. Aggressiveness and an inconstancy of composure wouldn't have been effective here, but also would have made the scenes later on when he is more unstable less impactful and character defining.

The vocal and Physical aspect of Stromboli was both challenging and rewarding, finding it very difficult to maintain the physicality choices I had developed along side singing his main musical number. This is because the energy I was using whilst sining to stride walk, shout, and really push my facial expressions, was taking away energy I had to use to vocally maintain the difficulties that are within his songs. This was a prominent struggling I was facing during Rehearsals, the tech run and even for my performance on stage which lead to my longer held notes being weaker towards the end. This was mainly down to my lack of strong breath control but also my physical stamina- which is something I'm definitely going to have to improve as a performer so I don't have to compromise small elements of execution when performing difficult songs such as this one. Although there were struggles I had when it came to performing his songs I also feel as if I excelled when it came to acting out the song and not letting the character slip whilst singing- maintaining the accent a long with the energy. Characterisation and stage presence was a large part to the way I played Stromboli, not just within musical numbers but throughout the whole play utilising the creative freedom I had to move around the stage freely by  coming very far down stage, breaking the fourth wall and snarling at the audience when openly talking to my Marionettes. I felt it was important to address the audience through quick glances or gestures when asking myself questions on stage or talking to the multiple puppet personalities- because for me it was an extra way to highlight to the audience that he's an entertainer, and still consistently throughout the play will refer to them as a way to seek outward approval that he is so often deprived off. I feel this added an extra layer of depth to my character and even encouraged the audience to feel more involved within the performance, so much so that I actually had an interaction with a young boy who was asking me about what I was going to do when I found Pinocchio. This wasn't just a test on my improve, but on my characterisation skills as I had to fully stay in the moment as Stromboli whilst talking to the boy, but then also pull the attention back to the actual performance without getting thrown off track. This is a situation that really showed tester-meant to the development I've had going from first year to second year, as I would say I handled it smoothly and didn't let it de rail my performance which is something I definitely wouldn't of been as confident doing this time last year. 

Ensemble was a key part to playing the role of Stromboli, and without the rotating Stromboli support and trust our scenes would not of been as strong, and the actors on stage would not of been as confident. This is because every person who played Stromboli would swap out to play each others Marionettes in the alternating casts, but because there was four Stromboli's the Marionettes we would play would change depending on the Stromboli, so we ended up learning three separate individual parts in the same musical number. This meant that we all had to be very in tune with one another and make sure that whatever role we were taking on in the scenes was not mixed up with the other roles we had. This was especially challenging for me when it came to the lifts throughout the song because depending on what Marionette you were would decide your role within the lift- for example in the first couple of shows I supported the Strombolis back when being lifted, but for my next Marionette shows I was supporting the weight of the Stromboli using my thighs. There's never been a time before taking on this role were I've had to know more than two parts for the same given scene, so found this experience to be one I've learnt a lot from, especially when it comes to trust and the importantance of a united ensemble within scenes- being pushed to pic up choreography faster and become a more reliable actor when collaborating. 

Normalised Evaluation 

My main goals when approaching normalised and playing the role of Rosa was to nail the character journey, as Rosa's main role within the show is to join the groups together and push the moral justice. Because of this I knew it was important that the audience warmed to Rosa as a character and found comfort in her decisions throughout the play.  I feel personally that I met these objectives well by adding in light moments of humour throughout the story, whilst also keeping the queer joy alive through the relationship of Rosa and Sam. I actively decided to make Rosa someone who is relaxed and chill, whilst also being a person that is up for a fight as it felt right to build on the point that she wants to always push for justice- which I think helps let the audience warm to her more. Rosa as a person is quite different to me- although there are moments that Rosa goes through and experiences that I can relate to that helped me emotional engage with her as a character. I feel some of the main ones are with Rosa and Bo, and Reema an Rosa as it shows the difficulty Rosa faces when trying to make her friends understand how the homophobic undertone throughout the play effects her. There's points were I can personally apply some of these moments to myself and by doing so actually allowed me to fined a clearer understanding when it came to Rosas intentions and the importance of the play. After assessing  my performance technically I am aware of some clear areas of improvement both physically and vocally. Throughout the performance there were points were I dropped my volume, one of the main moments being the beginning football scene- as I struggled to push my projection and vocally support myself whilst running with the imaginary football. Throughout rehearsals I did improve this slightly by using the note of imagining that me and my scene parter were playing across a very long football field, which was very helpful and allowed me to imagine the setting a lot more which as a result did help my volume within that scene. I still know my volume could have improved in general throughout the show along with my diction clarity and pronunciation, as there were moments that I found myself garbling words slightly and getting court within sentences slightly. This Is something I can improve with tongue twisters and diction exercise, and have been using them recently to help me try to iron out this issue within my performances. 

Normalised was a very collaborative peice, wether that be group collaborations or collaborating in just a pair or trio, and I personally found collaboration and ensemble dynamic to be particularly important in the being opening scene of Normalised, were Rose, Bo and Keiran play football together across a field. I would personally pick this scene out when it comes to ensemble, because without a strong ensemble dynamic the scene just wouldn't of worked at all- especially when it came to the imaginary football as we had to use each other as a way to figure out the movements and the speed of the ball itself. This scene also felt like a nightmare when it came to the spacing and to make sure that we weren't blocking/upstaging one another we had to constantly be in tuned and aware of each others movements so not to do so. 

Originally when we first performed the show for the home performance, we were all in school uniform- which did partly feel fitting as their all teenagers in school/collage- but at the same time we felt as a company that we were loosing some of the personality of the individual characters by doing so and that to change the costumes up for the Newcastle performance would be a good idea. I had already figured out what I thought Rosa would wear casually before we changed the costumes around, so used that as an influence to pick out my costume for her. Rosa is quite a chill person, and she's not really big on fashion or clothing trends. She more the type that finds something she likes and sticks with it. For me this was slimmer fit jeans and a sports jumper, rolling up the sleeves in certain scenes and cuffing the bottom of the jeans to show how she fits her clothes around her and her life and what's more practical for her in that moment. I also used my jean pockets quite a lot when performing- more specifically when she was a bit more nervous or felt a bit more awkward within scenes, she's not really a fidgeter so for her this was the equivalent. When it came to props in the show we didn't particularly have loads, instead it was mainly bigger pies of set but when we did use props they tended to lend to the smaller details of the show- for example the small electric candles in one of the memorial scenes that were placed on the shrine to then light up in a blackout. For me the use of these props were really clever and didn't just visually look good, but also held a very sentimental sort of peaceful tone with them when used. I even used a singular candle when singing and went and placed it on the shrine as a way to show the personal loss that my character was a feeling but not showing, whilst also using it as a crutch for that scene and place to push some of my emotion onto.