Tuesday 17th
We just got back from the easter holidays and we went straight into reading FuGee. Fugee is a play about an eleven year old boy whose parents are killed when it's his birthday by troubled kids, and he gets taken in by them and learns to smoke and shoot guns. Over time he eventually finds himself in a refuge and the manager there is very harsh and tries to get him out of there by pretending he is much older than he is. Eventually he gets kicked out and kills someone. This play is meant to be shedding light on cases like his own and much others which never get resolved as these care takers want as little responsibility over these kids as possible. I feel as though the play really strikes deep for me as I have had a series of refugees in my family who have gone abroad and faced problems, and I am quite excited to help to highlight these problems through this play and make a positive impact. Everyone seemed keen to want to act this out as our final production. We also discussed that this play is written in the style of the writer Brecht as when the characters may sometimes speak it would seem that they are aware that they are being acted by an actor acting as an actor playing the character. This occurs quite a few times with Cheung, especially when he says his monologue. Using knowledge of Brecht's style I will need to study how to play off certain lines in order to give the effect more emphasis. The play may be written in this form to remind the audience that this play is almost including them or making them know that what is happening is simply just a story being shown from a second/third person perspective in a way, and to make the play seem more like a documentary as it is based of real happenings.
Wednesday 18th
We discussed some of the themes of the play and our thoughts and feelings. Some people did say that they struggled to get their head around how the acts were set up, as they were many small acts jumbled around in a seemingly random order to show the events of what had happened in his life. I really liked how we got to see scenes of the young boy slowly deteriorate in terms of sanity and to see him make friends and lose them, because it makes you have more of a connection with the character. We also conversed about how we will be working as an ensemble and how we will be able to achieve the transitions from one scene to another scene. We all agreed that with this production everyone will need to put in maximum effort and energy so that we can all work together in harmony. In terms of the stagecraft, we had decided that maybe having split scenes on stage or using lighting, sound or freeze thaw are quite popular techniques we could use. We also recalled back to our prior two pieces which we had done and that we needed to make sure we could match the past speeds at which we swiftly went from one scene to another, and also match the concentration that we contributed to our previous pieces.
Afterwards we split into two groups and we listed all the events that had happened in the play in chronological order, as in the play they are jumbled in a random order, and after this exercise we were to perform a quick 5 minute or so improvisation summarising the play as best we could. As we worked on the improvisation we speedily casted each other, and it was great because nobody complained and everyone seemed happy to act as whoever they were told to. We quickly worked through our improvisation piece and every now and then there may have been someone who needed help to be directed and everyone put in the same effort to try to explain what was happening. We worked in harmony and when the time came we performed it to the other group. Their piece was equally as exciting to watch as they had picked nearly all the same scenes we had picked yet they did it in a completely different fashion, which in turn was very fun to watch. They performed in sync and made a great ensemble.
Thursday 19th
We spent the lesson writing in chronological order each scene on a4 paper on what happened in Fugee, and this encouraged me to remember the events that happened in the play and get a better understanding of how it works and that the events that do happen are in a sequence that actually makes sense, rather than random as I initially thought. Once we had completed this we watched the other groups perform a scene from the play. One of which was a scene at which one of the characters is being interrogated by the Social worker and watching this made me really believe they were who they acted as. I felt as though through body language and composure, the effect of the scene was very powerful.
Tuesday 24th
We began the auditioning stage for our characters. I picked Cheung as I felt that his energy, immaturity, and ego match that of what I was like when I was a child up to when I turned around 14. I also picked Cheung as he has a much more important role compared to my prior two characters I played from Romeo and Juliet and Three sisters, and considering I would like to one day become a great actor for my time I need to start pushing myself to my utmost limits. Then I did a quick scene with someone else who also wanted to audition for Cheung and we both did a split scene where at one half of the room we did one scene where I was Cheung and he was my sub consciousness, and on the other side he was Cheung and I was his sub consciousness. This had worked well as we both had equal opportunity to play Cheung and that we also learnt more about his character from a discussion before hand. After performing we had watched others also perform their scenes and I found it quite interesting the way they set up their scenes and I had seen the thought that was put in so that no one stood in front of one another when performing it.
Wednesday 25th
We were instructed at the beginning of the lesson to find a scene for each role we wanted to play and to find partners to help us do our scene. Everyone had already been paired up as the teacher instructed and I was left alone to perform a scene. I managed to find a scene and at the beginning of it I found that Cheung had a large monologue which he uses as an opportunity to introduce himself to the audience and tell his back story. Practicing the monologue and speaking loudly as I did so did spark some strange reactions from those who were learning their scenes and I felt like that vulnerability made me a stronger person. When it came to performing I asked if I could go up first to recite my monologue to the class and I didn't feel like I was held back by anything as I had made sure I was loud and put my 100% into practice which I could see no one cared or minded. This had put me in the mind set of who cares if people judge the way I do this because I like it and I feel like its good. In the end I got a positive response from the audience and I felt no anxiety when performing which is rare. I feel like ever since our performance of Three sisters I have no longer felt like I need to hold anything back in case I get judged as it is in the end about being fine with being vulnerable.
Thursday 26th
In our lesson we watched a few videos on the importance of personal statements and that by the end of the year we should have an idea of which drama schools we want to be applying for the year after next. We then spent the rest of the lesson writing aspects about our selves which are interesting as we try to sell ourselves to these judges and whatnot so that they can decide for themselves if you're more unique than the other 1000's of students applying for their courses. Then we walked around and discussed our lists with the rest of the class.
We spent the next lesson watching each others Monologues which weren't performed on Wednesday and it was an interesting experience watching what other people had decided to do. After this we were told on the spot to quickly find a scene in which our second choice of character would be in and perform it to the class. I picked the Refuge manager and I felt that even though I was put on the spot to perform him I still managed to hold it together and swiftly, and smoothly get through it. We then spent the end of the lesson rehearsing the first two scenes of the play as whoever we liked and performed it to the teacher once they came back into the room. In the first scene I decided to be the street cleaner and doing the first scene was nice as it got me back into the spirit of the act, as the last thing I had performed was on the Three Sisters. I felt a little let down as we were told the day prior that I we may have the chance to look more in depth at our scenes and possibly perform them the next day again and so I had learnt my whole monologue. At least I learnt that under pressure I can learn a page of monologue read to perform it at any given time which is a useful skill as an actor.
Monday 30th
We continued working on the rest of the scenes in Fugee. I tried to take every opportunity possible to play Cheung, yet it was challenging as there was so many people to compete with for the role. What I have remember from this experience is that even though in life you will have plenty of competition it is always important never to hold a grudge, feel anger, and even have bad intentions when in that situation as non of these emotions ever help. Another important thing I remembered is never to have too much pride or to expect yourself to get the role in the end as that will cause lots of sadness whereas just going for it and having fun without expecting anything will make you happy til the end. So I tried to have plenty of fun whilst doing the auditions. There were three scenes at which love was being discussed and which Cheung who I was playing took part in, and when we rehearsed this we did it so that the characters in the three scenes were standing on different parts of the stage and each time one of the scenes initiated the others froze. It was quite interesting how it was done and I felt that in the actual play it would make for a great idea. Problems we had discussed yesterday was how many people wanted to play specific characters and also staging for different scenes for example the one with Kojo and Ara when they are playing and Kojo wants to climb trees.
We had discussed the importance of making a timeline so that we know exactly what we should be doing at what time as organisation is very important. The timeline we created which suited our needs most is seen below:
Wednesday 10th
The cast had finally been established today and we began running through the scenes of the play that were in the town. We decided on having everyone contribute to the first scene and third scene as it's in the town and a better effect of a town is created with more characters playing pedestrians. This goes back to prior work we have done for example in Romeo and Juliet when we decided on having everyone in the party scene and it made the effect that there is a party going on. This was quite sucessful as it is important to always have background characters who are not important to boost the overall performance. In this scene I decided to play the cleaner as I felt I could do the job well because over the year I feel my abilities in becoming a background character and part of the ensemble was greatly increased and that doing this role can help to show myself how far I have gone. What makes this first scene power is the use of freeze framing when Kojo gives his monologues because it highlights who the important characters are compared the characters of lesser importance. We also decided that when Kojo speaks about trees that we all freeze in shapes of trees in order to make it look like his imagination is coming to life. Most the other scenes in the town were showing the final moments of what we see of Kojo's life which is when he stabs the man. I played Cheung and so using my work on Stanislavsi and drawing a character audit, plus looking at Refugee stories I gave my best attempt to make his react to Kojo's insanity very real. In order to achieve this effect I needed to also do some reading of the scenes that they have spent together to better know about their history, as the teachers have advised, and compiling that information in my mind I tried to make my performance in auditions work. I feel as though the read throughs we did in class were quite helpful for that element of research and the group discussion that we have done were also very helpful.
Thursday 9TH
We spent this lesson going through the scenes of the play which we hadn't done on Wednesday. We decided to go through the scenes 1-10 and develop those scenes. We already had good structure in the first three scenes as we had performed them. Though in past performances we were quite slow with cues and today I had observed quite a difference. This may have been because the ensemble had much more energy compared to yesterday. What I have learnt to adapt to was the group some days having more energy than others and trying to learn to live with it and not complain. I got to recite my Monologue as Cheung and it was quite successful especially because of the research I have done on Refugees. I feel like with the research I had done I was able to further my understandings of Cheung and able to put in a different range of emotions into the words of the Monologue to match someone of refugee status.
Monday 14th
We had worked on the rest of the play from page 171. We decided that in the scene when Kojo and Ara run around trees that everyone else in the play were to stand around with their arms in formation of branches to make the trees. I felt this was very successful as everyone stayed frozen in place as he ran around and as we had so many people it was clear that we were acting as trees. It is quite important to always have people do roles that make up the background as it is that element of having a background which makes the play what it is. We also did work on the lorry scene which we also had added everyone into. When Kojo talks about how they played football with his brothers ball then everyone else who wasn't part of the scene would come in and play football to emulate it. Then when Kojo talked about rap music in the background and the violence he endured I dragged Kojo to the ground and a group of us froze around him with fists and facial expression of anger. This was also quite successful as to the audience it would help them to further understand Kojo's story and give more emphasis to the message of the play which is that these kids suffer bad pasts and that they need safe refuge. From this experience I have learnt that using still images can really create a powerful message to the crowd if executed correctly, and I hope to carry this information forward so I could recommend it in future productions or if I were to do my own production one day.
Wednesday 16th
Technical requirements
As seen from the above image, we had scanned through the texted and using the stage directions and some of the sounds characters made we had put down ideas for where we could overlap sound effects. This helps us to improve our comprehension of the text and also develop our ability to scan through text and find relevant information. Other groups did such work on costume and props. This exercise has also taught me that if I were to direct a piece of theatre, that there is so many variables and work behind the scenes that need to get done in order to make the production work.
Thursday 17Th
We went through two run throughs of the play and as an ensemble we got quicker with our ability to change from one scene to another and our cues were much faster. We have come quite far this year in terms of working together in groups and accomplishing great ensemble work with high energy, enthusiasm, and focus is faster periods of time.
Monday 21st - Wednesday 23rd
We worked on the play on Monday and the energy was very low and people were corpsed quite a bit and everything was very slow. The teachers had suggested that we needed to make our transitions faster and that we have a long way to go before our performance the Wednesday after. This was quite a worry and it was definitely true. I felt as though it may have been because we just had our weekend and that many of us were quite tired. The next day we decided to do a speed run and everything was going quite well. The teacher used this strategy to find out where the holes were in the script and what took longer than other things. This was quite a successful idea and we actually had no holes in the script where a scene took longer than others. The problem had come from us being lazy and lacking pace with our transitions. The transitions had become much faster and everything had worked well. Now all we had to do was take the energy that we just had and execute it into our final piece. One other issue everyone had faced was with scene changes. The play isn't in chronological order so trying to remember the scene orders is a challenge. One possibility around this issue is by creating a list of the scenes and what happens on an A4 piece of paper which is very helpful which is what we decided we were going to make.
Thursday 24th
Technical rehearsals
We began working on co-ordinating the scenes with lighting and sounds. The whole process did take a couple of tiring hours but it was very worth it. I began to get used to the changes between certain scenes and knowing what happens next so I could efficiently transition from one scene to another. We also decided on having different lighting for different scenes for example when Kojo and Ara are in the tree scene there were more ambient lights as it was later and it would have represented the shadow cast by trees. Lights definitely have a strong effect on the scenes and I learnt this from observing what the technical team could do. In the street scenes the lights were quite bright to represent liveliness. In the final scene when all the characters give statistics on real life example of refugee's being age disputes and such we decided to put a spot light on each character who gives their statistic to bring extra attention to them. I found it so interesting how much lighting can effect shows and the concept of the hidden parts below the iceburg which make the play what it is. We had also just begun thinking about scene transitions and which side of the backstage certains we had to enter from. So far the whole process has been slow and moving smoothly but we only have one more day to rehearse the play before performing it to others in the college. There is some pressure that we all feel but as long as we can keep strong as an ensemble and keep positive everything should run well.
Tuesday 29th
Today we had continued to work on the tech side of the production so that everything was prepared for the next two days. We continued to work on making the transitions as clear as possible, being more conscious whilst being backstage of what is going on around you, the doors backstage and to make sure they don't slam shut, when to come on stage and to be quiet when talking to others backstage. When performing I felt like we had come such a long way since a week before. We had made transitions faster thanks to the speed run our director suggested us do, more people present to be in the play and a higher energy. I have become very optimistic at this point in time about the play going well and making it as great a show as it deserves to be. We did one practice run today just to make sure everything was fresh in our heads for tomorrow. During the run, nearly everything was executed with great timing and precision except for the transition from scene 28 to 29. We were meant to create trees and the illusion that the kids were all ontop of the trees having fun after talking about love but nobody knew what to do, even the character for the social worker walked in by accident. We went through the same part 3 more times by instruction and we finally got the transition right. It was helpful that the directors made us repeat the same thing 3 more times, even though it was painful to repeat it over and over it got the job done. By doing this it further proved to me the power of patience and not moving too quickly otherwise things can and will end up looking sloppy.
Wednesday & Thursday 30th/31st
FINAL PERFORMANCE ANALYSIS AND EVALUATION
The amount of emotions I have felt through these two days were quite varied. During Wednesday morning I felt alive and energetic, ready to get through the day without a sweat. We began by doing a practice run just so that all the scene changes are fresh in the minds of the actors, along with our vocals warmed up. We directors assigned one person to play Cheung on Wednesday and the other on Thursday thus both people could be graded equally, I was Cheung on Wednesday so that was my day to do a practice run. The practice run went much better than the one we had done on Tuesday and nothing was missing too which was great.
In the minutes before the audience walked in I did feel a bit of anxiety which is now a feeling I have grown to love in the performance space. I feel that when I build up that tense energy and my emotions are going through a roller-coaster I can then channel that into my acting which I later did do which made everything 10 times much better. Looking back over the year I can definitely say that the nervousness I feel backstage has decreased by a great amount and that my confidence in myself has really improved. I feel like this has effected every corner in my life for example when I teach in Kung Fu class. Whist we did the production to the audience at 2pm we got a few laughs here and there from them and they all seemed to love the play. The lights and sound effects also went in sync with the play. One unexpected sound effect that was added in at the last minute was the gun fire from the guns the child soldiers had and it was quite interesting to see how something as little as a sound effect could make the whole audience laugh so much. That was evidence that below the iceberg so many other variables are what can make the play more entertaining rather than the actors themselves. All of the cast members were working hard and did a great job in keep the audience entertained. Not many of us showed signs of anxiety or stage fright at this stage and we were all working off of each other. When we did finish the show I could hear some of the audience members laughing and saying things as far as that was actually really entertaining compared to prior productions. This meant that we were successful for sure in entertaining them. When we sat down together in the end the teachers discussed how we could improve for the next performance. They had told me that my acting and lines were executed soundly but maybe in future try to be more in the moment because it was clear that in one particular scene I was really trying to get my lines out rather than playing around with them and experimenting and letting the other actor play off of the way I said my lines. I really liked this advice and I managed to use it later on during the evening performance. In the evening the only people who watched were the teachers and my family as the other families were to come in on Thursday afternoon. This meant that there was more pressure on me particularly to make my performance the best it could be. I listened to what the teachers had told me to do and I said certain lines a different way and interacted with the other actor more during the scene I had trouble in and he played off of what I did very well. I really enjoyed what we had created as an ensemble and even though everyone was tired and had barely any energy left as they had walked around for the 4 hours doing nothing between the performances they were also very hardworking and focused to make the evening performance better than the morning performance. The advice the teachers had given us were understood and some scenes came out so much better than before. The whole process was quite quick and rapid this term to get the production done as we only had around 5-6 weeks. I feel like over the course of the year everyone had improved so much and that we were prepared to take on any piece of script, whether it be Shakespeare or more modern scriptures.
We just got back from the easter holidays and we went straight into reading FuGee. Fugee is a play about an eleven year old boy whose parents are killed when it's his birthday by troubled kids, and he gets taken in by them and learns to smoke and shoot guns. Over time he eventually finds himself in a refuge and the manager there is very harsh and tries to get him out of there by pretending he is much older than he is. Eventually he gets kicked out and kills someone. This play is meant to be shedding light on cases like his own and much others which never get resolved as these care takers want as little responsibility over these kids as possible. I feel as though the play really strikes deep for me as I have had a series of refugees in my family who have gone abroad and faced problems, and I am quite excited to help to highlight these problems through this play and make a positive impact. Everyone seemed keen to want to act this out as our final production. We also discussed that this play is written in the style of the writer Brecht as when the characters may sometimes speak it would seem that they are aware that they are being acted by an actor acting as an actor playing the character. This occurs quite a few times with Cheung, especially when he says his monologue. Using knowledge of Brecht's style I will need to study how to play off certain lines in order to give the effect more emphasis. The play may be written in this form to remind the audience that this play is almost including them or making them know that what is happening is simply just a story being shown from a second/third person perspective in a way, and to make the play seem more like a documentary as it is based of real happenings.
Wednesday 18th
We discussed some of the themes of the play and our thoughts and feelings. Some people did say that they struggled to get their head around how the acts were set up, as they were many small acts jumbled around in a seemingly random order to show the events of what had happened in his life. I really liked how we got to see scenes of the young boy slowly deteriorate in terms of sanity and to see him make friends and lose them, because it makes you have more of a connection with the character. We also conversed about how we will be working as an ensemble and how we will be able to achieve the transitions from one scene to another scene. We all agreed that with this production everyone will need to put in maximum effort and energy so that we can all work together in harmony. In terms of the stagecraft, we had decided that maybe having split scenes on stage or using lighting, sound or freeze thaw are quite popular techniques we could use. We also recalled back to our prior two pieces which we had done and that we needed to make sure we could match the past speeds at which we swiftly went from one scene to another, and also match the concentration that we contributed to our previous pieces.
Afterwards we split into two groups and we listed all the events that had happened in the play in chronological order, as in the play they are jumbled in a random order, and after this exercise we were to perform a quick 5 minute or so improvisation summarising the play as best we could. As we worked on the improvisation we speedily casted each other, and it was great because nobody complained and everyone seemed happy to act as whoever they were told to. We quickly worked through our improvisation piece and every now and then there may have been someone who needed help to be directed and everyone put in the same effort to try to explain what was happening. We worked in harmony and when the time came we performed it to the other group. Their piece was equally as exciting to watch as they had picked nearly all the same scenes we had picked yet they did it in a completely different fashion, which in turn was very fun to watch. They performed in sync and made a great ensemble.
Thursday 19th
We spent the lesson writing in chronological order each scene on a4 paper on what happened in Fugee, and this encouraged me to remember the events that happened in the play and get a better understanding of how it works and that the events that do happen are in a sequence that actually makes sense, rather than random as I initially thought. Once we had completed this we watched the other groups perform a scene from the play. One of which was a scene at which one of the characters is being interrogated by the Social worker and watching this made me really believe they were who they acted as. I felt as though through body language and composure, the effect of the scene was very powerful.
Tuesday 24th
We began the auditioning stage for our characters. I picked Cheung as I felt that his energy, immaturity, and ego match that of what I was like when I was a child up to when I turned around 14. I also picked Cheung as he has a much more important role compared to my prior two characters I played from Romeo and Juliet and Three sisters, and considering I would like to one day become a great actor for my time I need to start pushing myself to my utmost limits. Then I did a quick scene with someone else who also wanted to audition for Cheung and we both did a split scene where at one half of the room we did one scene where I was Cheung and he was my sub consciousness, and on the other side he was Cheung and I was his sub consciousness. This had worked well as we both had equal opportunity to play Cheung and that we also learnt more about his character from a discussion before hand. After performing we had watched others also perform their scenes and I found it quite interesting the way they set up their scenes and I had seen the thought that was put in so that no one stood in front of one another when performing it.
Wednesday 25th
We were instructed at the beginning of the lesson to find a scene for each role we wanted to play and to find partners to help us do our scene. Everyone had already been paired up as the teacher instructed and I was left alone to perform a scene. I managed to find a scene and at the beginning of it I found that Cheung had a large monologue which he uses as an opportunity to introduce himself to the audience and tell his back story. Practicing the monologue and speaking loudly as I did so did spark some strange reactions from those who were learning their scenes and I felt like that vulnerability made me a stronger person. When it came to performing I asked if I could go up first to recite my monologue to the class and I didn't feel like I was held back by anything as I had made sure I was loud and put my 100% into practice which I could see no one cared or minded. This had put me in the mind set of who cares if people judge the way I do this because I like it and I feel like its good. In the end I got a positive response from the audience and I felt no anxiety when performing which is rare. I feel like ever since our performance of Three sisters I have no longer felt like I need to hold anything back in case I get judged as it is in the end about being fine with being vulnerable.
Thursday 26th
In our lesson we watched a few videos on the importance of personal statements and that by the end of the year we should have an idea of which drama schools we want to be applying for the year after next. We then spent the rest of the lesson writing aspects about our selves which are interesting as we try to sell ourselves to these judges and whatnot so that they can decide for themselves if you're more unique than the other 1000's of students applying for their courses. Then we walked around and discussed our lists with the rest of the class.
We spent the next lesson watching each others Monologues which weren't performed on Wednesday and it was an interesting experience watching what other people had decided to do. After this we were told on the spot to quickly find a scene in which our second choice of character would be in and perform it to the class. I picked the Refuge manager and I felt that even though I was put on the spot to perform him I still managed to hold it together and swiftly, and smoothly get through it. We then spent the end of the lesson rehearsing the first two scenes of the play as whoever we liked and performed it to the teacher once they came back into the room. In the first scene I decided to be the street cleaner and doing the first scene was nice as it got me back into the spirit of the act, as the last thing I had performed was on the Three Sisters. I felt a little let down as we were told the day prior that I we may have the chance to look more in depth at our scenes and possibly perform them the next day again and so I had learnt my whole monologue. At least I learnt that under pressure I can learn a page of monologue read to perform it at any given time which is a useful skill as an actor.
Monday 30th
We continued working on the rest of the scenes in Fugee. I tried to take every opportunity possible to play Cheung, yet it was challenging as there was so many people to compete with for the role. What I have remember from this experience is that even though in life you will have plenty of competition it is always important never to hold a grudge, feel anger, and even have bad intentions when in that situation as non of these emotions ever help. Another important thing I remembered is never to have too much pride or to expect yourself to get the role in the end as that will cause lots of sadness whereas just going for it and having fun without expecting anything will make you happy til the end. So I tried to have plenty of fun whilst doing the auditions. There were three scenes at which love was being discussed and which Cheung who I was playing took part in, and when we rehearsed this we did it so that the characters in the three scenes were standing on different parts of the stage and each time one of the scenes initiated the others froze. It was quite interesting how it was done and I felt that in the actual play it would make for a great idea. Problems we had discussed yesterday was how many people wanted to play specific characters and also staging for different scenes for example the one with Kojo and Ara when they are playing and Kojo wants to climb trees.
We had discussed the importance of making a timeline so that we know exactly what we should be doing at what time as organisation is very important. The timeline we created which suited our needs most is seen below:
Wednesday 10th
The cast had finally been established today and we began running through the scenes of the play that were in the town. We decided on having everyone contribute to the first scene and third scene as it's in the town and a better effect of a town is created with more characters playing pedestrians. This goes back to prior work we have done for example in Romeo and Juliet when we decided on having everyone in the party scene and it made the effect that there is a party going on. This was quite sucessful as it is important to always have background characters who are not important to boost the overall performance. In this scene I decided to play the cleaner as I felt I could do the job well because over the year I feel my abilities in becoming a background character and part of the ensemble was greatly increased and that doing this role can help to show myself how far I have gone. What makes this first scene power is the use of freeze framing when Kojo gives his monologues because it highlights who the important characters are compared the characters of lesser importance. We also decided that when Kojo speaks about trees that we all freeze in shapes of trees in order to make it look like his imagination is coming to life. Most the other scenes in the town were showing the final moments of what we see of Kojo's life which is when he stabs the man. I played Cheung and so using my work on Stanislavsi and drawing a character audit, plus looking at Refugee stories I gave my best attempt to make his react to Kojo's insanity very real. In order to achieve this effect I needed to also do some reading of the scenes that they have spent together to better know about their history, as the teachers have advised, and compiling that information in my mind I tried to make my performance in auditions work. I feel as though the read throughs we did in class were quite helpful for that element of research and the group discussion that we have done were also very helpful.
Thursday 9TH
We spent this lesson going through the scenes of the play which we hadn't done on Wednesday. We decided to go through the scenes 1-10 and develop those scenes. We already had good structure in the first three scenes as we had performed them. Though in past performances we were quite slow with cues and today I had observed quite a difference. This may have been because the ensemble had much more energy compared to yesterday. What I have learnt to adapt to was the group some days having more energy than others and trying to learn to live with it and not complain. I got to recite my Monologue as Cheung and it was quite successful especially because of the research I have done on Refugees. I feel like with the research I had done I was able to further my understandings of Cheung and able to put in a different range of emotions into the words of the Monologue to match someone of refugee status.
Monday 14th
We had worked on the rest of the play from page 171. We decided that in the scene when Kojo and Ara run around trees that everyone else in the play were to stand around with their arms in formation of branches to make the trees. I felt this was very successful as everyone stayed frozen in place as he ran around and as we had so many people it was clear that we were acting as trees. It is quite important to always have people do roles that make up the background as it is that element of having a background which makes the play what it is. We also did work on the lorry scene which we also had added everyone into. When Kojo talks about how they played football with his brothers ball then everyone else who wasn't part of the scene would come in and play football to emulate it. Then when Kojo talked about rap music in the background and the violence he endured I dragged Kojo to the ground and a group of us froze around him with fists and facial expression of anger. This was also quite successful as to the audience it would help them to further understand Kojo's story and give more emphasis to the message of the play which is that these kids suffer bad pasts and that they need safe refuge. From this experience I have learnt that using still images can really create a powerful message to the crowd if executed correctly, and I hope to carry this information forward so I could recommend it in future productions or if I were to do my own production one day.
Wednesday 16th
Technical requirements
As seen from the above image, we had scanned through the texted and using the stage directions and some of the sounds characters made we had put down ideas for where we could overlap sound effects. This helps us to improve our comprehension of the text and also develop our ability to scan through text and find relevant information. Other groups did such work on costume and props. This exercise has also taught me that if I were to direct a piece of theatre, that there is so many variables and work behind the scenes that need to get done in order to make the production work.
Thursday 17Th
We went through two run throughs of the play and as an ensemble we got quicker with our ability to change from one scene to another and our cues were much faster. We have come quite far this year in terms of working together in groups and accomplishing great ensemble work with high energy, enthusiasm, and focus is faster periods of time.
Monday 21st - Wednesday 23rd
We worked on the play on Monday and the energy was very low and people were corpsed quite a bit and everything was very slow. The teachers had suggested that we needed to make our transitions faster and that we have a long way to go before our performance the Wednesday after. This was quite a worry and it was definitely true. I felt as though it may have been because we just had our weekend and that many of us were quite tired. The next day we decided to do a speed run and everything was going quite well. The teacher used this strategy to find out where the holes were in the script and what took longer than other things. This was quite a successful idea and we actually had no holes in the script where a scene took longer than others. The problem had come from us being lazy and lacking pace with our transitions. The transitions had become much faster and everything had worked well. Now all we had to do was take the energy that we just had and execute it into our final piece. One other issue everyone had faced was with scene changes. The play isn't in chronological order so trying to remember the scene orders is a challenge. One possibility around this issue is by creating a list of the scenes and what happens on an A4 piece of paper which is very helpful which is what we decided we were going to make.
Thursday 24th
Technical rehearsals
We began working on co-ordinating the scenes with lighting and sounds. The whole process did take a couple of tiring hours but it was very worth it. I began to get used to the changes between certain scenes and knowing what happens next so I could efficiently transition from one scene to another. We also decided on having different lighting for different scenes for example when Kojo and Ara are in the tree scene there were more ambient lights as it was later and it would have represented the shadow cast by trees. Lights definitely have a strong effect on the scenes and I learnt this from observing what the technical team could do. In the street scenes the lights were quite bright to represent liveliness. In the final scene when all the characters give statistics on real life example of refugee's being age disputes and such we decided to put a spot light on each character who gives their statistic to bring extra attention to them. I found it so interesting how much lighting can effect shows and the concept of the hidden parts below the iceburg which make the play what it is. We had also just begun thinking about scene transitions and which side of the backstage certains we had to enter from. So far the whole process has been slow and moving smoothly but we only have one more day to rehearse the play before performing it to others in the college. There is some pressure that we all feel but as long as we can keep strong as an ensemble and keep positive everything should run well.
Tuesday 29th
Today we had continued to work on the tech side of the production so that everything was prepared for the next two days. We continued to work on making the transitions as clear as possible, being more conscious whilst being backstage of what is going on around you, the doors backstage and to make sure they don't slam shut, when to come on stage and to be quiet when talking to others backstage. When performing I felt like we had come such a long way since a week before. We had made transitions faster thanks to the speed run our director suggested us do, more people present to be in the play and a higher energy. I have become very optimistic at this point in time about the play going well and making it as great a show as it deserves to be. We did one practice run today just to make sure everything was fresh in our heads for tomorrow. During the run, nearly everything was executed with great timing and precision except for the transition from scene 28 to 29. We were meant to create trees and the illusion that the kids were all ontop of the trees having fun after talking about love but nobody knew what to do, even the character for the social worker walked in by accident. We went through the same part 3 more times by instruction and we finally got the transition right. It was helpful that the directors made us repeat the same thing 3 more times, even though it was painful to repeat it over and over it got the job done. By doing this it further proved to me the power of patience and not moving too quickly otherwise things can and will end up looking sloppy.
Wednesday & Thursday 30th/31st
FINAL PERFORMANCE ANALYSIS AND EVALUATION
The amount of emotions I have felt through these two days were quite varied. During Wednesday morning I felt alive and energetic, ready to get through the day without a sweat. We began by doing a practice run just so that all the scene changes are fresh in the minds of the actors, along with our vocals warmed up. We directors assigned one person to play Cheung on Wednesday and the other on Thursday thus both people could be graded equally, I was Cheung on Wednesday so that was my day to do a practice run. The practice run went much better than the one we had done on Tuesday and nothing was missing too which was great.
In the minutes before the audience walked in I did feel a bit of anxiety which is now a feeling I have grown to love in the performance space. I feel that when I build up that tense energy and my emotions are going through a roller-coaster I can then channel that into my acting which I later did do which made everything 10 times much better. Looking back over the year I can definitely say that the nervousness I feel backstage has decreased by a great amount and that my confidence in myself has really improved. I feel like this has effected every corner in my life for example when I teach in Kung Fu class. Whist we did the production to the audience at 2pm we got a few laughs here and there from them and they all seemed to love the play. The lights and sound effects also went in sync with the play. One unexpected sound effect that was added in at the last minute was the gun fire from the guns the child soldiers had and it was quite interesting to see how something as little as a sound effect could make the whole audience laugh so much. That was evidence that below the iceberg so many other variables are what can make the play more entertaining rather than the actors themselves. All of the cast members were working hard and did a great job in keep the audience entertained. Not many of us showed signs of anxiety or stage fright at this stage and we were all working off of each other. When we did finish the show I could hear some of the audience members laughing and saying things as far as that was actually really entertaining compared to prior productions. This meant that we were successful for sure in entertaining them. When we sat down together in the end the teachers discussed how we could improve for the next performance. They had told me that my acting and lines were executed soundly but maybe in future try to be more in the moment because it was clear that in one particular scene I was really trying to get my lines out rather than playing around with them and experimenting and letting the other actor play off of the way I said my lines. I really liked this advice and I managed to use it later on during the evening performance. In the evening the only people who watched were the teachers and my family as the other families were to come in on Thursday afternoon. This meant that there was more pressure on me particularly to make my performance the best it could be. I listened to what the teachers had told me to do and I said certain lines a different way and interacted with the other actor more during the scene I had trouble in and he played off of what I did very well. I really enjoyed what we had created as an ensemble and even though everyone was tired and had barely any energy left as they had walked around for the 4 hours doing nothing between the performances they were also very hardworking and focused to make the evening performance better than the morning performance. The advice the teachers had given us were understood and some scenes came out so much better than before. The whole process was quite quick and rapid this term to get the production done as we only had around 5-6 weeks. I feel like over the course of the year everyone had improved so much and that we were prepared to take on any piece of script, whether it be Shakespeare or more modern scriptures.
What was successful and unsuccessful (Proposal) :
We successfully and smoothly went through the whole process as planned in the timeline and from what we pictured this term should be like, for example how we read through the play and took time to research and understand the background of the play. This helped us quite a lot and gave us leverage compared to past performances when we didn't do as much background research. I learnt how important it is to organize step by step what you want to accomplish during the term and how breaking down the stages can save a lot of trouble. I have accomplished what I have set out to do which was research to get a clearer understanding of the play and how to play my character to the best of my ability, and reading through the play and getting an understanding of the scenes. On the other hand there were certain things I wish we could have done better, for example getting through the casting process much quicker. We took weeks to cast roles to everyone which should have been done over the space of a couple of days of hard work. Doing this would have saved us much more time which could have been used in rehearsals to make the quality of our play better and would have saved us a lot of stress over the lack of speed of the transitions between scenes, as they would have been dealt with long before.
We successfully and smoothly went through the whole process as planned in the timeline and from what we pictured this term should be like, for example how we read through the play and took time to research and understand the background of the play. This helped us quite a lot and gave us leverage compared to past performances when we didn't do as much background research. I learnt how important it is to organize step by step what you want to accomplish during the term and how breaking down the stages can save a lot of trouble. I have accomplished what I have set out to do which was research to get a clearer understanding of the play and how to play my character to the best of my ability, and reading through the play and getting an understanding of the scenes. On the other hand there were certain things I wish we could have done better, for example getting through the casting process much quicker. We took weeks to cast roles to everyone which should have been done over the space of a couple of days of hard work. Doing this would have saved us much more time which could have been used in rehearsals to make the quality of our play better and would have saved us a lot of stress over the lack of speed of the transitions between scenes, as they would have been dealt with long before.
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