16/10/14 Brecht work

Taught by rob Alexander 

In today's quick run through with rob we went over our Brecht work, it was a short run through of the work as we are normally scheduled to have rob on a Friday. There wasn't much to the rehearsal but rehearsing. I'm working with Abigail on scene 11 the 'black shoes' I'm not 100% comfortable with this scene as I don't think I can show my full potential in it, it's quite a suttle scene with not many lines and not a lot of expression my feedback from rob is to learn my lines in which I have since this lesson, I'm abit more comfortable with my lines but not 100% happy with the scene I need to rehearse more with Abigail as we are both looking to only achieve distinctions. 

16/10/14 buisness

In today's buisness lesson we looked at the previous roles we chose on who we'd like to be when devising our play for schools etc. 

my role was a sound designer. 

Somebody who works with the director on the music to match each scene and sounds for tension, happy moments, funny moments etc. I chose this role as I really have a passion for music and how it links to someone's feeling in a particular moment in time. I've worked as a sound designer before when devising my gcse piece in which I achieved a A* for. 

In the lesson we were given a sheet on how our role links with other peoples roles and how. We had to write this on the sheet I linked my with 3 other roles including the theatre director and the animite. 

14/10/14 donmar workshop

Lesson 4 

Criminal justice 

Taught by Naomi 

In today's lesson we had 3 visitors not including Naomi who has been teaching us, they are all linked to the donmar project and came to see us in action!

We started the lesson off with a quick warm up, what else could it be other than fi fii foo! After impressing out visitors with our fantastic choir skills we was asked to show our rehabilitation scenes. Emma's group went first, I really enjoy this groups scene as it's quite scary but real at the same time showing brain science, Emma and Kurtis being in the chair with a helmet on being questioned and given tasks by 4 different doctors I really loved sharnae a doctor activity when she asked Emma and kurtis to right how they feel Kurtis wrote a smiley face and he passed where as Emma wrote HELP and failed the test the only thing they can improve on is cutting the time limit and making sure it's clear what is going on in the scene as it could be confusing for the audience. 

It was then our groups turn to perform our yoga rehabilitation scene, I think our scene went extremely well as it was clear straight to the point it still had a dark edge but was yet slighty funny from the audiences reaction. 

Our feedback was for the yoga people to be slightly more aggressive when forcing misharlie to sit down and participate, we then went off to improve our scene and decided instead of circling misharlie we will stand in the same spot shouting at her and moving aggressively in yoga positions this shows even more how intimidated rose is in this scene as she doesn't even have to be touched to feel that she has to do something showing rose is getting weak in solitary confinement 

After this Naomi asked us as a class to think about all the things we have done in the past 3 weeks then called out our running order and the stuff we'd be doing in our final performance this is when it all came together! 

Our first scene is Emma singing the song we learnt "on my own" with her saying "my name is rose" and everyone else from the wings singing on my own in a low pitched voice then everyone enters the scene sitting down in their own space doing the activity of rose in the cell with music on and our 5 positions/movements. 

Then we had our lines myself Conor gifty Abigail and sharnae say our lines one by one mine being "I live in concrete" we then go to the Christmas scene my group devised in previous rehearsals when rose returns home from solitary confienment the first time. 

We then go to the second lot of lines where another 6 people read out their lines then it's the first rehabilitation  scene   Being Emma's group and the brain science. Then onto my groups yoga scene we then go to the part we done in rehearsal the story telling of rose stabbing the girl who wanted to fight her and how she ended up back in solitary confinement again. Hangela starts off by standing up and shouting while everyone else leafs after saying their own lines out loud to the invisible girl infront of her we then have a cue when hangela lifts her arm we all stab and freeze, slowly lowering back into the prison cell. 

As you can see the plays structure is not in chronological order. This gives it a quirky edge and doesn't lay it out for the audience they have to think and really understand the play. 

We then have the last batch of lines and then it's Sarah's group and the boot camp scene. 

Then finally we all stand up and are talking to rose as the judge telling her she's been sent to Mars as she is a criminal and will participate in solitary confinement as the play is set in 30 years time. 

Last but not least we all returns to our prison cells just like the begining with Emma singing "my name is rose" and the class singing back in role "on my own". 

9/10/14 donmar workshop continuation

In today's lesson we looked at rehabilitation to continue on with the final performance at the donmar theatre. 

Naomi asked us to create a rehabilitation scene, rehabilitation in prison means to help someone and try to function a good mindset. 

Our group decided to do a yoga scene 

My group members were, Parys, hangela, Mischali, fru, Mario, Abigail and justina. 

Parys was the yoga instructor teaching the lesson Mischarlie plays rose and gets thrown into the scene by hangela playing secruity. Rose is then asked to sit and refuses the yoga people circle her mentally making her bilitulled until she gives in and sits down to participate. 

We will be showing our scenes to Naomi next week. 

7/10/14 donmar workshop

Lesson 3 

Criminal justice 

Taught by Naomi 

To start off the lesso. Sharon got us to warmed up by playing duck duck goose and cat and mouse, games we had played in recent lessons This helped us to build our energy for Naomi’s lesson

Naomi got us to warm up by us doing the vocal exercises we did last week ‘’ FI FO THUMB’’ we then sat in a circle and told Naomi about our character we had devised in the other lesson being rose.. 

Here's some points about rose:

• espanic background, aged 18 

• has a daughter aged 2

• sexuality: lesbian and has a girlfriend 

•been in solitary confinement before 

• done a criminal act and is now returning to solitary confinement 

• dad is a alcoholic and her sister raped her as a child

After hearing about the character Rose, Naomi wanted us to find a space and make it our own cell and show what Rose is feeling and does all day in the cell

We all spread out and got into character as Rose with music playing in the background to create tension and the real feeling of rose Naomi then wanted us to get up on our feet and show how Rose feels out of prison being free, and I chose to just smile and walk around the space like being in an open park with her daughter  then Naomi told us to go back into our cells so Rose has landed back into prison after doing another offence. Then we got up again and this time Naomi wanted us to show Rose free again going home to her girlfriend and to see her daughter Rosalina. I suppose as a class having to repeat this showed real frustration within rose she was BACK in solitary condiment AGAIN it also taught how to go in and out of the character.

Naomi then asked us to do some improv imaginative work in which the character rose is walking around the space and is then approached by old friends asking her if she has anytime before going home for a quick catch up ( this is all told by Naomi while we act it out) thd four girls are then approached by four other girls talking and shouting at rose, talking about her past and stuff which has a emotional meaning to rose, rose absolutely looses it when the last sentence was spoken about her baby rosalina. Rose then black outs only to see a knife in her hand and the girl dead on the floor 

"She's back in solitary confinement again, and it's not her fault". 

This exercise got me very worked up and angry I really felt as if I had got into character and felt the moment. 

Our next activity was to split the class in half into two groups and create a small circle this was the prison cell each person who created the cell had to step inside and create a still image of rose whether this be her self harming, laying on the floor, peering out the window, her imagining her baby etc. Naomi then put music on to help us flow in and our of the picture using techniques we done in the last lesson to exit a picture but still making it flow abstractly. 

In these two groups we was then asked to create two scenes one being when rose comes out of prison and the second when she finds out she's going into prison

For the first scene my group being Danielle, Conor, Eliot, Parys, killah, Abigail Wendy, Kurtis and justina we decided to do a Christmas party and rose (mysekf) and Wendy the girlfriend walking in to have awkward silence by the family Danielle then blurts out "so what was prison like" with everyone then looking at Danielle in disgust, Sighs and huffs and puffs my line is then "where's rosilina I want to see her" to be refused by the family I sneak upstairs pick my baby up while everyone is in a still image I walk through the picture and say the line "my angel".

The second scenario is the justice system in 30 years, my group came up with the idea of Abigail and Kurtis being the T.V and Myself and Elliot are the news presenters, Parys is Rose, Danille Rosalina, Wendy’s the girlfriend, Connors the drunken dad, Keylheir is the sister and Justina is the friend

We start off the scene with Parys and Wendy (rose and girlfriend) entering the room to be cuddles by rosilina, rose then switches the telly on (Kurtis and Abigail) to then see Eliot and myself look up and get into role of TV bbc news presenters we talk about crimes recently been done such as a crisp packet dropped on the floor and the guy has been sent to solitary confinement showing how out of hand the criminal act law has gotten in 30 years time we then say have you seen this girl who has recently killed someone with Parys (rose) face appears on the screen rose then screams switches off the telly and panics with rosilina screaming in the background Parys then try's to talk to her dad (Conor) who is drunk and rejects Parys yern for help. Parys then turns to Danielle and says shhh you didn't see mummy on the telly and exits the scene.

Our feedback was for maybe the tv presenters to come out of the scene and grab Parys to create more of a futuristic feel. 

The final task we was given for the day was to choose two lines to say as rose in our prison cell mine were "I live in concrete" and "I blame society" the first line I said as rose but the second line didn't have as much heartfelt Naomi told me I needed to find rose on the last line. 

3/10/14 auditions and Brecht

In today's lesson we started off straight with our audition speeches I decided to sit back and watch over people's pieces today as last week I was the first person up I thought I would see how different people would take a different approach on their speeches. It was interesting watching other people and their feedback I have now decided to change my monologues I don't think they are right for me. 

After the lunch break we went to theatre and ran over our Brecht work, this was a long process but has to be done we went through scene by scene laying out our exits and entrances. I'm doing scene 11 the 'black shoes' about a mother and daughter having a conversation about the butler youth group, a group of children who are involved in likes committee equivalent to a Girl Scouts now but yet ran by hitler but which would have been poisoning the youths mindset back then my character being the mum doesn't really know how to approach her daughter on this and doesn't like the fact her daughter is involved and so caught up in it her mum is slight aggravated in the scene but hides it in her words but shoes it in her tone sarcasm and actions. 

Our feedback was to learn lines. 

Donmar workshop

Lesson two 

Criminal justice 

In today's second Donmar based lesson we continued with Naomi from where we left off last week. We started with a general discussion as a class, we reflected on last weeks lesson and how Naomi had said she had a brief idea of what we could do for our final performance from stuff we did in the last week. We then done a warmup game led by Naomi I was interested to see what she was going to bring to the table next as all her warmup games have been very energetic fun and engaging but yet challenging and efficient in getting warned properly in all aspects. She done a game which involved our bodies and voices repeating short lyrical lines in beat then eventually moving to the lyrics engaging with other actors in the circle and then finally being confident enough to move around the space dancing singining and engaging with everyone else, considering our class is an acting pathway I genuinely think were pretty good at choir work all sounding in tune and confident. 

As the warm up came to a close we sat back into a circle, and Naomi had told us she had seen this BBC documentary about solitary confinement, and how it was like and how the prisoners were treated. We used the subject as our stimulus for the lesson. She had told us that young teens from the ages 17-18 in 30 years time would be in prisons solitary confinement. She had also told us things that they'd do to communicate with other prisoners, as they are locked up and have no access to communicate with the other prisoners and that they'd be in their cell for 23hrs out of the 24hrs a day and that they'd only be allowed get an hour of the 23hrs to be let into the yard and have fresh air. And that they'd have ways of communicating with each other by using string which would be connected to the other cell and they'd pass notes around once the guard had his back turned. Also when they wanted to protest they'd do many things, either self harm, cover there cell window with tissue, spread their foetus's on the wall or their blood on the wall. So we had a general discussion about that then started our exercise.

After speaking Naomi asked as a few questions these were:

1• what does an inmate do in the 23 hrs they spend in solitary confinement?

2• In solitary confinement prisoners still find a way to protest about their situation - do they do it?

3• All prisons are not allowed physical contact... How do they communicate?

4• What happens when they lose their identity?

5• Can rehabilitation change people if they don't want to be changed? We was then told we had to do a improvisation exercise and at the end we'd find out the answers to these questions using the questions as a stimulus we did an improv exercise. Where an actor starts a still image and another actor joins and then the first actor leaves, the second actor that joins has to connect their image to the first actors, so once the first actor left, someone else would join, no one was suppose to leave the actor in the space hanging, so the still images would continue until we were stopped, we were told to think about our entrances and our exits, so it doesn't look like bus stop acting and looks abstract and flows nicely, After getting a hang of it Naomi then added music to it, so it flowed. We had to think about how we'd come out of the still image without disturbing the other actors image this could mean climbing out their arms bending sliding and twisting. 

Afterwards we were split in half of the circle down the middle, so there's be two groups and we were asked to do the same exercise but this time there was a theme, our themes were the Justice system & solitary confinement. We were asked to choreograph a sequence with each actor entering the space three times, we has to think of 'what the life of the individuals would be like', we'd tell a story with the images. 

Our next activity was in pairs, we were asked to find someone who was a similar build to us my partner was grace the activity was that their is a prisoner and a gaurd, we both sat on the floor and myself being the prisoner had to escape from the guards arms legs or however they had me locked as soon as I stood up yh myself I won. This was a very fun game but yet shows the struggle of a prisoners life and also the struggle of a gaurd who has to keep things under control no matter how hard the situation is. 

Our next exercise was we got into groups ( Conor, Sarah, Grace, Tutu, Gifty) we had think about ' what crimes will our peer group be committing in 30 years time? My group said drugs and trafficking. Then with the same groups we did the prisoner/guard exercise but with blocking, we'd have one prisoner which was Conor in the middle and the rest of us being the guards would be around Conor and blocking him, we first tried a technique of keeping him very close in a compacted area this didn't work as he still got out we then tried a different approach of us being spaced out blocking himhis aim was to try and escape from us. After this we done it as a whole class, Conor again was the prisoner and the rest of the class were guards but this time we'd do the opposite of what he does, when he stands we'll bend, and when he moves to the right we'd go to the left. So we did this activity to end the lesson.