Final major project part 2

 For the last week I have been rehearsing with my group we have been doing run through's of the play Pronoun. I'm happy to say I have learnt all my lines and I can't to perform in the coming weeks.

At home I have been doing my usual set tasks to learn my lines ,performing to myself in the mirror so I can see the facial expressions my face makes. While I'm acting to my self in the mirror I self examine my self to make sure I'm acting to my full potential which I know is expected high. 

Last few weeks I just need to fully block my scenes to perfection and make it performance ready. Need to work on my thought process while saying my lines best way to perform ask your self why am I saying this? This brings the best of your character. 

What I have found a big challenge about this role is playing 40 year old man but this is good experience for me. Its best to have those experiences so you know what the expect in the coming future.

Out of all the plays I have done in my life this was my biggest challenge, the mood in this place was all over the place and if you didn't fully understand it you were in trouble. At the beginning I was in trouble I keep being stopped while acting because my thought process was all over the place. For our recent rehearsals  I pulled my self together and finally good the thought process right.

The process of rehearsals were going well ,although it was close to being performance ready. It still needed a bit more clearing up , especially the scenes were Dean and Josh would argue. This really brought the mood out of play the love they had for each other. While rehearsing everyone was getting stopped none stop to tune the play to perfection. Today I solely worked on the thought process which was the hardest part of my character. To play any character you really have to understand the purpose of your job in the play, to find it the easiest way to play your character.


My tone of my voice wasn't coming from my thought process which was a let down for me in todays rehearsals , I must outside of college time practise saying my lines to my self and make sure my tone matches the thought process. I must carry out some more research related with transgender subjects to cement my role as dad. Another challenge I faced was not to  move my hands and feet while on stage, I do this a lot this is just a natural thing I do. When playing a character your in their shoes your not yourself. You must adapt to your surroundings when in the moment you have to me your character and know one else. When in the moment I felt very contained in my rehearsal room, this helped me to evolve into my character and develop complex emotions for my character.


Today we started to suggest set ideas to reflect our plays purpose for us and the audience , our ideas raised were mirrors hanging from the ceiling to suggest that dean was constantly looking at himself slowly evolve through his process of turning into a male. I thought this was very clever idea to really show off the themes in our play , this idea really set the mood of the play.


What was suggested for my time on stage was complete darkness and only spot light on me and my wife, I thought this was clever idea I've never acted in a spotlight like that before I couldn't wait to. This was going to really test to work in such a small spotlight , I must make sure I work within the space and don't move. For this at home I will act in small spot in my house and feel the moment to get used to working in small surroundings , to feel the moment of my character.





 

Unit 5 - Production skills and context - Shakepeare project part 5

If I was going to design and direct a comedy of errors  my self ,I would like to set it in my country I come from which is Cyprus. It would be good to do it somewhere unique , I think Cyprus would make a nice new challenge and give A Comedy of errors a fresh start. I would like to do A Comedy of errors partly on the lovely beaches in Cyprus and small towns they have. It would give it fresh legs and see it from a different view it would make a Jurassic change. Instead  of most Shakespeare pieces  being set in high valued citied , I would like it in a nice quite island. The themes would be as in the play a bit over the top but still the tension rising and rising in between the lines and at the end it all the anger and frustration comes out. The costumes I would like smart not to smart and not to casual I want everyone to have a sense of the right clothing to fit there characters and to show there statuses in the play. For lighting affects in the production I would to use quite a few affects to add extra tension to the Shakespeare pieces , this gives its more legs to walk even further then usual to be over prepared to ensure the quality is high. From the show The Homecoming I liked how they used there lighting , I would like to use a similar lighting affect to there's if I had to direct m my own Shakespeare piece.

Unit 8 Performance evaluation

Unit 8 Collaborative performance project evaluation

My performance went great it couldn't go any better, everything went smooth , I'm happy for me and my class members. Being in the moment was a great feeling I love performing its what I do , so I must add that being in the moment was a pleasure as always. My energy I had for the whole process was great, I was looking forward to it from the first day, I was energized from the beginning to put on a good show for my audience and most important of all my class. My focus was standard because I prepared for this role at home and at work , at work while it wasn't busy I would walk on my street in role up and down saying my lines and doing my hand jesters. I was in character the whole to time to control the thought process my character was having , to absolutely nail my role to the wall. What I wanted to achieve was successful run through's for the upcoming show and for the performance to have gone successful ,which I'm proud to say it did. I think I achieved this the best way I could due to fact I never lost concentration or focus for this project as for every free moment I got I spent on my characterization for this production I feel every aspect went successful from the performances as well as lighting and set.

Practical skills I worked on first things first physical skills I worked on to my self in the mirror where my jesters while acting my character I worked on if that was actually me in real life what would I do, the thought process helped me shape my movements while on stage. Vocal skills I worked on to pin point the vocals of my character , was recording my voice saying my lines to understand the dynamics of my voice to see if they suited my character ,I felt it did. In college we done a variety of tongue twisters which helped me wit articulation of some of the words I had as my lines that were tricky to pronounce. These tongue twisters really help to wrap your mouth around words which are a challenge to say. This helps to develop your vocals to a further extent as you know vocals are the most important  aspects when it comes to performing.

My first initial thoughts of the play were that I was looking forward to be performing the play, the reason why because this was the most challenging script I've done to date. It was a very dark play with elements of humor ,which is always a pleasure doing for me because it sets a new bar for me to try which is always a tough but fun one. This is the most toughest play I have been in so far. I still asked myself a question how is this production going to be successful only if you give it your 100 percent which I feel I did. 

The research I carried out for the play was simply reading of it a few times to understand the mood and the themes of the play, the mood of the play was serious at times with little elements of humor but above all it was a very serious play about a transgender coping with difficulties surrounding there life during the process. To get ready for my role to play a father in his 40's I watched some movies that the man character is in his 40's dealing with daughter or son issues this helped me to pin point my role accurately. The themes of the play were dramatic and humorous at times, the main dramatic bits were Dean the main character the transgender (female to male) arguing with her boyfriend who loved her when she was a female and still loved her as she changed to a male. 

My process when I first got the script I  registered 2 things one how to accurately play a father in his 40's and the chemistry between his wife. This was my most challenging role to date, so I had to make sure I understand why I was on stage? My role was to explain the difficulties the parents had putting up with a transgender. That's one of the main things a character asks themselves why am I here ? This helped me to play my character to perfection. The thought process that's carried out in your head is the reason your there that controls your every step to performing the character. When I was on stage I and to show the difficulty it was talking about our daughter changing to a male , I had to really think hard of how to play this character to perfection as I've never had any experience playing a father. So this was a big experience for me ,for the coming future. After all this I sat down and said to myself wow that was my biggest performance to date it feels very good , semi-professional I'm happy with everyone's hard work.

What worked well? I say everything from the effort put in by everyone to work as a cohort , they all wrapped their head round the script and we put on a fine performance. I thought the set really worked well I particular liked the pocket mirrors hanging from the ceiling. This idea really brought out the true colors of the play from a female changing to a male their constantly going to be looking in the mirror to see the change time by time. Thanks to our set designer Alex she really put a lot of effort for the backstage including the lighting. The lighting was fantastic this also brought out the themes of the play and made a clear image to the audience about what the play was about.



The only thing that was a let down was my groups projection while performing , I was in the audience that's were I would enter the stage to give the play more tension. From sitting in the audience some scenes I really couldn't hear, for our next performance my group must work on their projection. But otherwise everything couldn't go any better well done to everyone

Overall I would like to congratulate everyone who played a part in making this show successful. 

Final major project part 3

The last week before our performance! Everything is going smooth me and classmates are rehearsing non stop to perfect our scenes to the best they can be. Over the weekend I must try my best to cement my character realistically , and work on the thought process.

Its been challenging playing this character but I like it to be challenging, I can experience playing a variety of roles. The hardest thing I've faced is the thought process of how to imagine having a daughter who has turned to a boy.




Today we did hot seating this helped me to further develop and to make sure my role is stuck to me still so I don't lose any focus on my character. My intentions today are to nail my character to the wall for our performance coming up very soon. As the dad my objectives are to react to myself talking about my daughter changing gender and the challenge , I will face when talking about it. I have to make sure the tension between my wife is increasing because during the play they don't get along ,I have to show this with the way I deliver lines so the audience can understand we don't get along. One of my main approaches to showing that my character isn't getting along with his wife was for when saying my lines I was trying to say them in different ways and see which works perfectly.

The most important thing about my character is the thought process, I have to know were the put the right emphasis on the right parts to add tension to the piece. I must create an atmosphere for the audience to be on the edge of their seats. My character has a variety of thoughts when engaging with the audience, so the emotions have to show how the father feels about his kid changing gender. The challenge I faced was the expressions of the character  to show the difficulties he was facing with his child I found this hard to apply as I've never played a character with similar similarities to this character which was great experience performing.
In my spare time for preparation I practised to my self in the mirror to put my expressions to the test of my character.  I would say Stanislavsky's system really helped for the final preparations for our performance,which was working on vocal skills, physical skills to really understand my character. I already used Stanislavsky's system a while back for another production. This performance that was coming back was very Stanislavsky style so his system was able to aid me just before our performance.

The last minute research I carried out  before was again reading the script , so I knew my character to perfection. This was the last few days before our performance , I made sure my research was accurate going into our tech run. The teach run couldn't have gone better now I can say to its performance ready. We blocked all our scenes to the best of our abilities. We set the stage , done all the lighting affects. It couldn't have gone any better , now was the big day the performance we were all ready.

Final major project part 1

Recently about 2 weeks ago we me and my class mates received our final major project scripts, 2 scripts where split in the class one called Last summer and the other is Pronoun. I'm playing in Pronoun which is about a female who has turned into a transgender male and the play is about her facing her problems with being transgender around family and friends. So far my first thoughts of this play are that it seems to be a very challenging due to the fact I have never done a play to do with transgender.  I will research about transgender and find out all the aspects to help form my character together so I can play it to perfection.




This will be a difficult task for me I have been given the role of the Dad of the main character of the play the transgender male called Dean. The Dads character is challenging his whole part in the play is to tell the audience about his trouble he has faced with his child Dean and how he finds it hard to have child who has changed gender. He and his wife comes on to stage ,they have no communication with any other actors on stage they only talk between them two  and to the audience. They both share their views with each other about how they coped and challenging they found raising Dean through her gender transition.

For me to play the role to perfection I need show the struggle when speaking about my child transition period , to really show how challenging it was to cope with.


 I need to work on how to emphasis the words when explaining the stories of Dean growing up and stuttering to convince the audience how difficult it was raising a child who's transgender. Its a story so I need to work on how my voice will change when explaining the story to really interest the audience.



When doing this role I have to mainly stay still when acting no sudden movements only if its absolutely necessary to add extra tension when speaking. If I'm moving to much the audience might think in there heads what he doing? is that a part of his role? I don't want that if I move I want to move with cause so the audience can understand why I'm moving. My main objective is to play an older man to a high standard to impress my audience and peers.



The research I will carry  out will be to read  the play a few times to my self to really find out about the mood. Until I understand the play fully understand this play it will be  hard to play my character because I don't understand fully the mood of my own character. Once I understand the atmosphere in the play I will  get more comfortable with my character but this was a massive challenge for me this character.

The play is called Pronoun written by Evan placey , set in the present time. The themes of the play are drama and love really between Dean and Josh, the tension rising between the love they have for each other. I had to really take into account the themes to play my character , so I knew how to stage my character to talk about the transition of Dean when growing up. 

All in all though I will be honest this was a early run through. I wouldn't say this is a performance ready ,we still need to block the scenes to perfection which will take abit more time. I'm glad the play is set in the modern day period , this makes it easier for me already for such a tough role.

The Role I chose

Why I choose the role I chose?

I originally wanted to play the character of James Dean; I wanted to do this because I knew how challenging it would be to play an iconic person other actors look up to.   Even though I got a different role, this is the original character I wanted to play. I wanted to push my versatile acting techniques to the limit.

The role I got was the father, I have to play a character in his 40’s, and this is also a big challenge for me playing someone who is over 20 years older than me. My characterisation has to be near perfect to play a 40 year old father accurately to convince my peers and audience I’m an adult.

The synopsis for the play I’m doing Pronoun is about a transgender male, this means Dean was originally born a female but refers to himself as a male. He is going through his transition to become a male.  He has his friends and parents around him.

The other play Last Summer is about guy who comes out as gay it explains his troubles about coming out in the play.

Monologues Evaluation

On the 23 rd of April was our Monologue assessment. Me and my class mates had to perform two monologues one classic and one modern, our teacher Sharon assessed us. For preparing for this assessment ,the way I practised these monologues to myself in the mirror which is always the way I like to practise constantly watching myself. We done a lot of various techniques upon this performance in Sharon's lessons to get the characterisation to perfection. One of the main exercises was to close our eyes and think of our characters, walk around the room in our characters doing gestures and facial expressions to Sharon's command.

For me my performance was successful, I believed that I didn't make any mistakes and performed to my maximum quality which is expected to be high. I Found the classic text the hardest to learn it was a Shakespeare monologue from King Lear. I find Shakespeare text very hard to learn, its the language due to not being modern is very hard to adapt to. My modern monologue was easy to learn , it was called Mr Deeds goes to town , I played Mr Deeds a man helping people to reach the top of a hill he lives next to. The character for this monologue was challenging his emotions were everywhere to help those make the top of the hill.


This modern monologue was very different to any other monologue I have ever performed the emotions where at the point of struggling to make speech about helping others to get up a steep hill outside his house. The emotions for this monologue were also stress behind when I was performing it, due to the fact it was saying that no one apart from Mr deeds help people get up the hill.


The emotions for the Shakespeare monologue I performed where anger , my character was stressing his words coming out his mouth, this was hard to put together and make it performance ready.   

Evaulation of Shakepeare Performance

My performance went well, I felt that I had stayed very in role and thought I'd put on a pleasant show. My aim was to make the show engaging and enjoyable to watch which I believe I did, this is due to the reactions from my peers and teachers. For this role, In my free time I worked on learning the emotions and thought processes of my character to understand them more. By doing this, it would help me portray my character better during the play. For example, in the scene where my character really wanted his money back, I had to make the audience believe that my character was going to do anything to get it back. The main thing that was successful during the play was the built up tension, because of this it kept the audience hooked which led to my performance flourishing. I believe I performed the show to the best of my ability and met the standards for which I set myself , which is  the highest level it can be. I thought the jesters I used to show my anger were good and really engaged the audience to pay extra attention to the tension constantly rising which was very key. The whole point of you acting is to make the audience intrigued by what's going on and make them constantly ask themselves in the head what's happening next. I thought the pitch of my voice really stood out to show the anger and hostility of my character. All the voice work we did in our rehearsals really helped me to get it right for my character. The hand jesters I did I thought showed the urgency of my character wanting his money back asap. I thought the chemistry between me and my partner Stephan worked very well some parts went from being serious to comedic the reaction from the audience proved it.

 Just one main improvement I need to work on is being less nervous. Recently I have been too anxious which is unlike me, I am usually nervous before a performance, however for this particular performance my nerves were on fire  they peaked to another level. I've done this a hundred times It shouldn't be any different. So I need to work on controlling it better, another improvement for me  is when I'm standing if its not for the character then to stand neutral and no standing in an awkward stance if it doesn't suit the character I'm playing.

Overall I thought the whole production went very successful ,I believe me and my class all performed to there full potential  which at this time in the year very high. I would like to praise everyone who performed I was very impressed by everyone's commitment  put into  the project Shakepeare in da house. All credits to Rob as usual of him directing us to his full potential to bring the best out of us for this production.

Shakepeare project part 4

Been almost 2 weeks back at college, first week back there was much due to our  day of on Tuesday and a strike on Wednesday. The day we started the 22 ND of February , we just went over our Shakespeare   pieces for our performances coming up at peoples houses in the next few weeks. I performed to Rob my piece with my partner Stephan it didn't go to well my biggest challenge is doing Shakespeare because I have never properly done a Shakespeare  play. I find it very hard to speak the Shakespearian English , after this I hope to overcome that challenge and perform the piece on a high note. On the Thursday we came back from the two days off we did a lot of voice work such as working on projection , tongue twisters , physical exercises to really nail our roles in our Shakespeare pieces this was very helpful for me to feel my role more then ever. On Friday we had a workshop a production company by the name of the Broken hearted theatre , who came in and occupied us with a load of physical games for 4 hours. This was really fun this reminded me of how much you must concentrate in these physical games to stay on top. We played a lot of games were you must use eye contact to get someone's attention. The whole workshop was based on using your physical skills and movements to tell a story to the audience.  For example one of the games was in a circle were if you wanted to swap places with someone you would have to show direct eye contact to them to move to there places. The Workshop helped me develop my physical skills to the maximum level they could be.

Shakespeare project part 3

On Monday me and my class mates we peer assessed each others performances  ,told them what we did well and what they could improve on. My main objectives I set for my self for my peers to watch if I achieved these were articulation, staying in role and remembering Shakespeare language.  I wrote these because sometimes my articulation is a bit in the air ,especially with Shakespearean language which has been a big challenge for me. Staying in role is key for me sometimes I get a bit distracted from the scene I'm doing.

Feedback I got was to really show the emotions of my character and to really show that he wants he money back. Another objective was to be neutral and not put my hands behind my back and to underplay my role to show what I was really thinking. Now I know what I must work on for the future to nail the performance when it comes up. 

Shakespeare Project part 2

In Robs lesson last week on Thursday we watched a show called The Voice to help us understand how important our voices are in the acting world. The show had things that I didn't know about how our voices work its quite fascinating actually and how the pitches of our voices change. This helped me to understand to purpose of how important our voices are and the science behind it.

What I found the most helpful in the show was when the guy was measuring the pitches of others voices this was interesting to me to see how our voices all differ.  For example when we inhale our diaphragms tightens and goes downwards this increases the chest cavity into which your lungs expand  the muscles between your ribs help enlarge your chest cavity this goes back to the purpose of things. Another interesting thing is how our pitches change when we talk to other people and when angry or excited at different things.

 This week on Monday Our director Rob made our lesson different instead of the usual just rehearsing the scenes, we did improvisation activities in role which really challenged us to see how well we knew our characters. Rob thought to do this because the lessons get a bit  repetitive , so he changed it up a bit. One of the exercises we did was coming home in our character and do the purpose of our characters to ourselves for example my scene is about trying to get my money back of my brother who I don't know is my brother.

This really tested me about how well I know my character this was much more helpful to me instead of doing repetitive rehearsals every lesson.  Furthermore we did another activity where we sat in the middle of the class and the class would ask you one of three questions favourite food , holiday destination and hobby. You would improve the whole thing in character which tests you if your done your research for your script. All of the improvisation activities have helped me to develop more skills and how to play my character to perfection.

Level 2 and 3 Music gig

On the 17 th of December I watched the level 2's and 3's music gig done in their own rehearsal room . The reason being that they did the gig in there own rehearsal room and not in the theatre , was because they wanted to perform in other locations other than the theatre.

I praise all the singers they put on a very good show, I enjoyed it very much the singers I could tell put a lot of hard work into there performances. I believe they met the standards they set out themselves to have a successful performance.

Shakespeare project Part 1

Recently we have just started our Shakespeare project , I am  performing the play Comedy of Errors I'm playing the character Antipholus of Syracuse  from ready having a few rehearsals with this script. I'm enjoying this script its all a pleasure playing completely  over the top characters in a comedy , its always good experience playing different characters. Rob watched our pieces and gave my play legs , we worked on the movements of the play and the way to say things for example low , anger. Rob told me to make sure present  my lines with the tension rising and rising then explode at the right point to cause even more tension in the play. We are performing this play at people's houses in our class this is going to be a good challenge its going to be the first time for a lot of people in my class including me to be performing at peoples houses. Its a big challenge I hope everyone gets through it and does well.

The story of my play I am doing is based on four main characters Antipholus of Syracuse , Antipholus of Ephesus,  Dromio of Ephesus and Dromio of Syracuse who are two sets of  twin brothers but they have no idea there brothers. Dromio of Ephesus is the slave to Antipholus of Ephesus.

My aims for this project is to make it is a success and meet the standard I have set myself which is very high. I want the audience and my colleagues to be satisfied with my performance ,that is well is what I want to gain from this project. Last but not least I want this project to be on my list of my best performances so I can look back on it to not miss a step.

Our audience is mainly in my opinion is  16+, this is because some Shakespeare plays are hard to understand what's going on because so much happens in a single Shakespeare story. For our audience I would like to hand out leaflets through out the college and even have stall outside the college to hand leaflets out to the public , that would be a good way to spread the word.  For our performance in the Theatre.

I'm performing this project because its what I signed on for when joining this course its all about performing ,which I like doing and will give all my best ability to be successful in every piece I ever perform. I take every performance very seriously If you give your all at the beginning you get it back out when you do the performance.