Evaluation

What have I learnt from acting?

Throughout this process I've realised how much self belief and confidence I needed in my character choices to make my interpretation come to life. An actor's personal decision on forming a character comes a lot from research; what they'e previously seen to be successful and letting their imagination take control.  For me this whole journey was about specifying my ideas and refining to make an original character the audience would believe and feel presence from. Theatre's about taking characteristics and exaggerating or expanding the spirit of the character for the audience to relate to and be thrilled by. You have to take risks.
Although ,some of the most effective moments in theatre are made through subtlety, silence and naturalistic choices. film is the most realistic performance and closest to  truthful behaviour. Therefore this idea of not doing too much, nor too little was a constant thought i had in mind. However in this case there needed to be bold choice made at the same time or else that acting would be lost and not translated n such a large space. Especially as everyone is giving a lot energy and larger than life action into their performance. Hopefully what i deliberately chose to do at specific moments contrasted and differed to the other 3 Locahas. As we are a collective of four individuals making one character, there needed to be similar links and actions to convey the idea of general evil within different people.
Acting's taught me you don't need to be the loudest or have the biggest part to be successful in grabbing the audience's attention. The most important part is the conviction, body language, voice portrayal and intention. An example of this which inspired me was one of the boys who played the part af the you're son in 'Six Characters in Search of an Author' from the Common Ground show. The role he created stood out the most to me. The intensity in his presence and  disturbed silence was there ad you could tell how traumatised he was. Without playing a major art in the first Act, his role really intrigued me and i found myself looking at his reactions the most. It was an outstanding performance. The absence in dialogue and tension in looks was something I focused on due to the past performances i've watched.
From the night's event, i've learnt that as an actor something to take into consideration are the things given to you. It's vital that you're the one who's able to make changes and adapt, rather than have the director make those changes for you because you're unable. If  you're given an extra line on the night or instruction, then you work with it and not against it. Be flexible and be prepared to deal with pressure that comes with the theatre industry.
I was lucky enough to be given a significant amount of time to perform in. However in the future or the professional world , it's unlikely to jump into so much work. From that and from hearing other's complain at first with the amount of time they had, I learnt t make the most of my time. When you're older it's likely you'll be waiting a long time to go on stage so you have to take that time t perfect what's going to happen once you get up, whether that;s going over director's notes or going over lines. Make the most of your time and be in the moment. The likelihood of it is there'll be more preparation than performance-at first.
Many people such as Katie and Danny performed in the style of transformative acting. It's embodying something or someone with a persona very different to yours. I believe those actors who are able to do that and put their stamp on it are the most successful. Such as Meryl Streep as the witch in 'Into The Woods' and Johnny Depp as 'Jack Sparrow'. It also comes with a lot of experience and being able to utilise your skills to their fully potential.

Effective use of and control of performance skills throughout the piece:
As an actor you have to be able to immerse yourself into other people's world. I love the fact that with  acting comes new opportunities and no monotonous rehearsals. You always learn something new.  However it means you have to dedicate most of your time on research, whether that's on the computer  trying to find context information or going somewhere literally to see it for yourself. Actors have to be scientists, historians etc. and therefore have the task of perfecting any role they take on. It serves week when performers dig into the background of their role that bit deeper -it just becomes easier once you get on stage. You have the confidence from the evidence you've researched to do whatever you want.
Being a large ensemble, a major responsibility is to convert the atmosphere of a normal venue into an atmosphere of our play. It comes with being vocally and physically committed to throw yourself into the space of the stage.
From the start of this journey we had the duty to fulfil the director's vision. It comes with being the front foot; giving options to pick from; offering something to the table; interpreting your own work; being open minded and versatile.

Successful in...

• ...Being specially aware. No one wants to block an audience member so it's important to be on the move most of the time so that the audience have access to every part of the stage and you. My group who worked on Locaha moved about a lot to ensure everyone was being seen and heard. I remember being taught to position your body on one point and face your head in another. Even though it feels unnatural, it does a lot for the audience as they're able to see more of you.
• Being fully committed in the moment. All of us gave a large input of energy which came across well the minute we ran onto the stage. It meant the audience were confused at first but had a starting point to be involved in. 
• I know some people clearly took a strong stand in leadership, such as Holly with directing staging and Courteney with physical holding and carrying. It showed a focused group of people working together to get through technical moments. 
• We had to be open minded on the day as we were given a lot of last minute changes or ideas to insert into the piece. It can be hard to do but everyone was so excited about it that it was automatically taken on board. People had to be fully committed, focused and, be giving 100% effort at all time. 

One thing I continuously worry about is not being good enough so I want to have enough faith in  myself to experiment and try new things.

 Should work on...

• I still personally want to be more aware of my physicality even when it feels like i'm doing enough. I want to be able to know who isn't able to see me and adjust my body to reach all angles of the audience.
• With voice I want to adapt more to large spaces. Articulation, projection and volume is key when filling an enormous venue and I know it comes with experience and training but I want to be able to expand my vocal set. 
• Sticking to one strong character choice. Sometimes I like to continue experimenting with the persona or physicality of my character and I need to learn to have that all sorted and decided before I get up on stage. No more editing at the last minute.

Locaha: The Power of 4

Having 4 females portray the voice of Locaha is an idea i think will turn out to be effective. 
A lot of ideas made to form Locaha have come from working together, aside of rehearsals, with the other girls of the ensemble. As a group we have spoken about the voice, physicality and costume of Locaha. This representation of evil should cover every aspect of what 'evil' could potentially be. We didn't want to stick a stereotypical villain or obvious depiction of a 'bad guy' in a play. Our formation is made up of 4 people: myself, Olivia Kiely, Lara and Eleanor. We've made the decision to each have our individual element or take on 'evil'.

Lara: Lara possesses the dominative voice of our group. She's purposely chosen to deepen her voice and make it very stomach deep. It works well with her physicality as she is crouching down low to assist the deep penetrative voice that comes out. When we were talking about inspiration and examples of such figures we came out with a gremlin of Gollum from 'Lord of the Rings'.
  I personally always like to refer or get my ideas from previous work and character choices people have explored. The more movies and theatre you watch, the more knowledge you have on what is successful.

Olivia Kiely: We decided that Olivia would fit the vulnerable side to evil so she embodies the character of  young  childish girl. In horrors, for example, children are often used as we deem them as less likely to do anything bad or commit a bad crime. However director are able to subvert our expectations and utilise youth to become the eyes and mouth of darkness. An image I had in mind was the girl from Orphan, or even that scary girl we know who seems very much in her own world holding a balloon in her hands. She uses a higher register and pitch to emphasise her age.

Eleanor: Eleanor chose to be the more playful one of our group. She hisses and smiles a lot as if she were in control of Mau's body and choices, almost sees it as a game. It includes a fast pace in her walk and very relaxed motion in her posture.

Myself: I gave our group the whole idea of individual characterisation and had lead on to explore Lara's character and Olivia's. I already had in mind that someone would play with audience subversion (that person being the young girl) and have someone embody the gut and throat of our piece( Lara). I gave Lara the idea of going down lower to contrast every other character and thought it would visually look could with a range of platforms. Key things we could play with was pace, voice and platforms. Another idea I had for Olivia's character was skipping ; fiddling and really having fun in playing a younger body who can seem quite possessed or mental at the same time. After having come up with ideas for the other girls I was unsure of what I could do and it would come across in my piece so i needed to make some sort of a strong decision.
  In the end I decided to be the feminine, mythical-siren form of the group. A figure of death or evil who could flirt or use lust as a tool to persuade her victims into her trap. I had a lot of ideas of what I could physically do and had chosen from:

• keeping the body in one pace and observing with the head angled down
• deciding not to blink 
• watch intensely and fiercely 
• slowing down words to give them depth and connotations of flirt
• slowing down the walk but striking at some points to contrast to previous pace

All these ideas developed from the mythical character of the siren. A beautiful yet dangerous creature which lured sailors with their enchanting music and voices to their side. A clear picture I had was the sirens from the 2003 movie, 'Peter Pan'. Even as a young child they frightened me but at the same time was fascinated and mesmerised by.

Where some of my ideas came from:

1) Deciding not to blink: I feel like the mythical creature of a siren wouldn't necessarily blink at it's prey or victim , just like medusa (a Greek God) which was why i chose to blink as little as possible. I didn't do just as a minor thing but to assist deep stares and gazes at Mau. In addition I watched an actor's interview from the film 'Warm Bodies' where he told the director, as a zombie he shouldn't really blink. Surprisingly the director told him then not to and so it leaded onto being a challenge from then on. 

2) Slowing down the walk but striking at some points to contrast to previous pace: when i watched the siren from 'Peter Pan' if they didn't get what they wanted once trying to lure the boy in, they dashed back in to the sea with a quick tail whip. It was very sudden and that was when you realised how evil and sinister those creatures were.

Overall I thought my choice of the siren was coincidentally quite well with the theme of our play and it being revolved around sea and various creatures.

Krakatoa- a Theme in Terry Pratchett's novel

It is set in an alternate 19th century, where a tsunami of Krakatoa proportions lays waste the oceans and leaves a native boy, Mau, alone on a devastated island with Daphne, a prim mid-Victorian girl marooned by the same wave. Their shy and difficult relationship becomes the centre of their drive to save the storm-washed refugees who reach the island, in the course of which they have to fight off attackers of all kinds to find the secret hidden in the island’s traditions, that almost literally turns the world upside down.

Krakatoa 
The 1883 eruption of Krakatoa in the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia) began in the afternoon of August 26, 1883 (with origins as early as May of that year) and culminated with several destructive eruptions of the remaining caldera. On August 27, two thirds of Krakatoa collapsed in a chain of titanic explosions, destroying most of the island and its surrounding archipelago. 
This event had inspired Pratchett to base his story on the tsunami caused by Krakatoa.

Terry Pratchett

Terry Pratchett:

 -Was an English author of fantasy novels, especially comical works.

Pratchett said that to write, you must read extensively, both inside and outside your chosen genre and to the point of "overflow". He advised that writing is hard work, and that writers must "make grammar, punctuation and spelling a part of your life." However, Pratchett enjoyed writing, regarding its monetary rewards as "an unavoidable consequence", rather than the reason for writing.

Pratchett made no secret of outside influences on his work: they were a major source of his humour. He imported numerous characters from classic literature, popular culture and ancient history, always adding an unexpected twist.

Pratchett had a fascination with natural history that he referred to many times, and he owned a greenhouse full of carnivorous plants.

Terry Pratchett himself seems like an interesting character so I decided to watch an interview on him and his idea of 'Nation'. In this Interview he talks in detail about the characters and themes behind his creations, including a sudden vision of a boy on a beach, Krakatoa and his Victorian girl. 

Starting Research...

http://www.theguardian.com/stage/2009/nov/25/theatre-review-nation-olivier-pratchett

'Nation' recreated by The National Theatre

I decided to look further into past performances of the play and started off by jumping straight into the National Theatre's version of it. I read a few reviews on it and was surprised on what critics had written about it. I've never had any bad comments on their pieces and most of the time they to tend to be very impressive. However in this one review that's not the case. Most recently I've been to watch Shakespeare's 'Othello' and 'The Light Princess'. In my opinion the National Theatre juggle with a wide spectrum of target audiences and varied genre. I also think they're very successful in bringing any fairytale-like narrations to life. 'The Light Princess' was just that and so I think it links quite a lot to 'Nation'. Both have the responsibly of eradicating make belief and transforming audiences' minds to believe anything is possible. 

This picture that was accompanied by the review is a clear shot of what their costumes looked like and how realistic to the actual book they tried to make it. The photograph is of Pilu and Mau's Father. Both are characters who come from a tribal background and contrast to the life Daphne is used to. They're utilised masks in their piece, something we can definitely take into consideration. I doubt we'll have any big costume but aspects of it such as feathers and paint could be very useful in our recreation of 'Nation',                               

Terry Pratchett in response to the criticism went to see the production based on his novel. 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/theatre/6824996/Terry-Pratchett-interview-look-what-theyve-done-to-my-book.html

First Impressions

So the play that our directors have chosen is 'Nation' by Terry Pratchett. To be honest I haven't heard much of Pratchett's work but I'm ready to learn about more about his work. From the discussion that I've already been involved in with other classmates, they've said it's quite a big play to put on. That may be the case as we're going to have to bring different communities ; animals and elements to life. And honestly, I don't have a clue on how it's going to go but I trust the directors to give us a clear vision of what it's going to look like.

    What scared me the most was hearing that the National Theatre had previously performed it and it's reviews weren't the best. If the National Theatre weren't able to convey a strong enough performance, then how are we? We're going to have to put all our faith and commitment into it.

After having read it:

  Truthfully from reading the script I'm quite lost. I already have a vivid image of what the characters could be built to be like but I'd don't know how some scenes are going to be put together. It seems so complex and not possible to be minimised. The sea is a key part of the whole narrative and i'm wondering how that can be achieved without making it look childish. 

On the other hand I think it's going to be really fun experimenting with this module. We're all participating in parts of the ensemble so we're going to get a real taste of responsibility and creativity. 

A Sense of the Play

After watching these two clips off of youtube I got a sense of how much the technical aspect of it mattered in the piece. Of course when costume and effects are stripped away all you can judge is the acting and intension that comes with the storyline. I wished I could of seen it for myself to understand why there is such an unbalance of comments between members of the audience. In the clip of audience feedback of course there isn't going to be anything bad said about it but I don't quite understand why I got such bad reviews. What part of the criteria did they not fulfil to make it successful? 



One thing i found very eye-catching and intriguing was the costume , set design and props for the piece. Due to the fact we won't be able to access any fancy costume or large animal heads, our performance is going to have to be purely based on the collision of two communities and the journey it takes the audience on. One second on the clip which really helped visualise characterisation was the contrast between Daphne and Mau. It's the minute where she courtesies and he reacts to her sudden movement. I think lack of understanding language is going to have to be clearly portrayed in out piece to give a sense of differentiation between two native countries. Already from her posture you can tell how higher class and well-educated she is. Whereas he has little knowledge of the world outside his and is a very traditional, culture-oriented man. Both personas work well together as they're so polar opposite to each other and are very oxymoronic. It's two ends of the stick and two ends of the world.