30/09

2 major outcomes from today's rehearsal ... 

My group and I have finalised our performance which is a great outcome, we have all the scenes and the structure is looking really well developed. It has improved vastly since our last lesson on Friday and is looking much more complete. 

Another major outcome from today's rehearsal is the decision we have made to set our performance in the present day rather than having it set back in 1991 when the song was made. We feel it's easier and more realistic if its set in the present day as we can relate to the situation more. For example- we all see homeless people everyday in and around Brighton so we know what it looks like and how serious it is, rather than basing it in the past. 

How did we come to those outcomes? 

We came to these outcomes as a group by running through our performance 5-6 times, improvising and seeing what world and what didn't. We have made a lot of progress and our performance is a lot stronger now. 

Also we came to our outcomes by deciding what would make more of an impact on the audience and playing around with our lines a bit more. The outcome to set it in this present day rather than the past came from my group discussing how this will make more of an impact as the number of unemployment and homelessness is so high at this present day, so our performance will reflect what is happening right now and will portray urgency. 

How are we using the song lyric and research? 

We are using research but rather than research about the past when the song was produced, we are researching about the present day and how the economic situation regarding poverty and homelessness is very high. But we are still using the song lyric as it was our stimulus and has given us all the ideas for our performance. 

'Just be'

Describe the exercise "Just Be"

Just be is a very simple yet challenging exercise. 

We all had to stand on our own and be focused on a spot in the room, be drawn to that spot and just be in that spot, relaxed and calm. It sounds very easy but when doing it it is not as easy as I thought in my mind!

You have to allow your body and mind to just relax in front of everyone in the class and not let your brain take over and make you feel awkward and uncomfortable just standing doing nothing. It is quite an un natural stance as it is not something you would do on your own. 

My reaction to this exercise before doing it was quite indifferent as it sounded very easy and simple, during the task I tried to remain as calm and relaxed as possible, and I felt once I got into my bodys rhythm of being still and calm I felt at ease and did not feel awkward, even though in the back of my mind I could hear my thoughts saying 'this is very awkward and strange'

It is a very good acting exercise as it helps you to become comfortable and relaxed in your own body and feel you can stand in front of a number of people not really doing anything and still feel confident about yourself.

It also helps you to work well under pressure, with everyones eyes on you at all times it could feel slightly embarrassing but this exercise allows you to not feel embarrassed it just lets you be as you are no matter what you are doing. It helped my ability to focus on being relaxed, which to me is important when it comes to acting because if I am not relaxed and in tune with who I am, it would affect my acting abilities.

How can you apply any of todays exercises to your scenes?

I can apply todays exercises to my scenes as they have taught me how to be more comfortable and in tune with myself being relaxed in front of other people in such an uncomfortable situation. In my scenes I can now feel even more comfortable with my group and the rest of the class as an audience. 

The exercise we did today when we had to fixate ourselves to different spots in the room and be drawn to them will help me in my scenes as it required determination from within to reach that spot even though it was only me telling myself to get to those spots. I also feel a lot more playful after the exercises we did today which will also enhance my acting abilities in my scenes. All the exercises today can be applied in my scenes as they were all to do with trust, honesty and being comfortable with yourself.

Performing to the classroom 23/09

What worked and why?
I feel what worked in my group's performance was our determination to show to the audience what message we are trying to convey. In our scenes we are really focused on portraying how hard it was for homeless people to get a job and how the support for those people was not as great as it is now.
I feel we work really well together as a team and our characters are coming together really well. I also feel our body language works really well in our scenes, for example- when Unis comes into the Job Centre looking for work his body is very open towards my character and he seems nervous and in contrast my characters body language is very closed and not interested, this contrast I feel works really well.

What do you want to work on more?
I want to work more on the structure of our performance and stage positioning. At the moment we have the ideas and we have the characters dialogue in place but we need to work on how we look on the stage. For example when Unis is talking to myself and Greta he needs to be facing the audience but facing us at the same time, we need to work on Unis not having his back to the audience.
In my monologue I need to move around more as well, as an idea I would like to fall to the floor and change the levels as it adds a more dramatic and desperate feeling to match my monologue.
Another idea I have is for the ending scene which my group and I have planned to have all 4 characters coming together to unite and encourage freedom of speech and protesting. I think it would be a good idea to have slow motion and tableaux  involved in this scene, as it could show us protesting in slow motion and ending in a tableaux  portraying freedom and victory.

Scene of our assignment

In this photo my group and I are rehearsing our first full scene for our assignment.
The scene shows Unis who is playing a poor, homeless young man who desperately needs to find any kind of job, myself playing a belittling, cold and arrogant receptionist who does not care for the young mans welfare at all, and Greta who is playing another receptionist who has a slightly different persona to my character. She is as well no help at all to the young man but she is much more polite than my character is, but she still does not care for his situation.

We developed this idea buy trying to picture just how hard it could be for a homeless young man looking for work back in the early 90's, our research told us that poverty in America in the early 90's was a major problem yet the government and the rich did not do much to help people in need and they were seen as 'the bottom of the food chain'. Therefore my group and I wanted to portray just how nasty and corrupt 'upper class' people were about the seriousness of unemployment and homelessness.

This scene links with our song lyric as the song itself is all about poverty, corruption, money, power and American government.
Our scene projects to the audience the stimulus to 'Money don't matter tonight'
 We feel that the song is trying to get a message across to the public just how corrupt society is and America's obsession with money, social status and hierarchy. Our scene definitely portrays social status to the audience, as myself and Greta are very condescending and patronising to the young man and try to maintain the upper hand and look down our noses at him. We believe that this is a precise example of how American society was to people of lower status in the early 90's.

The next thing we want to work on is our monologues. We all have a basic idea of the characteristics of who we will be playing, but we need to develop their personalities and their background information i.e- where they came from, why are their lifestyles the way they are now.

Song lyric

How can we improve what we have done in class? 

My group and I can improve what we did in class today by establishing the location of the ensemble we put together. We also can improve what we did in class by projecting our individual characters personality a little bit more so the audience can be drawn into our performance and feel in tune and connected with us. 

What more research do we need to do? 

Within my group we need to research the protesting that happened in the early 90's and get a feel and an image as to how we should be portraying the protesting in a more realistic and emotional way. 

I feel we also need to research into how serious poverty was in the early 90's and how it is today. We need to get an idea of why the numbers of homeless people is so high and try to find out why that is. In order for us to be able to portray poverty in our ensemble in an urgent and precise way. 

How can we use what we learned from today's exercises? 

In today's lesson we experimented with improvisation,freeze frames and movement. I feel I have learned how to bring emotion to freeze frames and how to be vocal to an audience without using my voice, but with using my facial expressions and body language. 

My group and I can use these skills in making our ensemble more clear and express what we are trying to show in our freeze frames and slow motion with our bodies better. 

This is a photo of my group and I showing one of our protesting freezeframes. 

Song lyric

What are the main feelings you tried to express? 

The main feelings my group and I tried to express were control, power and happiness. 

The song we have studied for our performance "money don't matter tonight" is about poverty and government control. It expresses the feelings of greed, anger, hopelessness and sadness. In our tableaux we expressed people on the streets in the early 90's which is when the song was produced, protesting and practising freedom of speech and embracing poverty and sadness. My group and I don't just want to show the audience sadness and poverty we want to express the positive side of the song which is about people who don't rely on money and materialistic objects, we were expressing hope and peace. 

1 idea for what you would like to do next in the scene? 

An idea which I would like to do in the next scene is an insight to the lives of the people in the early 90's living in poverty stricken areas particularly in America as the song is based in America. I would like to recreate the lives of the people and express their social status and their attitude to 'freedom of speech'
My group and I have spoken about involving protesting scenes as the song has given us ideas about people wanting peace and not being interested in the amount of money they own.
 I would also like to show other aspects which involve the people who are obsessed with money and feel the amount of money they have impacts on their social status. The song overall portrays the bad habits of American society and how government greed has led to 'war, child war, poverty and death' over the years. And as a group we want to produce this but also show positive aspects such as 'freedom of speech, protesting for peace and happiness on the streets' 
Additionally we have all discussed and agreed that the song portrays the introduction to hiphop and rnb on the streets and we would like to have an urban vibe to our ensemble.