Final Term write up

I am officially a second-year student and I couldn’t be happier that I made it through my first year at university. Speaking to my friends in year above made me aware of the fact I had to be better with time management and work harder to pass and make it into my third and final year at university. This year kicked off with a directed performance of Italian straw hat and first things first was to audition for my role. Initially I had no idea who I wanted to be, nor did I understand Farce, however though the process the play got more and more fun to work for and I really started enjoying this module in the end.

As I wasn’t sure who I wanted to be or who I was best suited for, in my audition I read for more than one male role so that the directors, Tom and Benny could decide which role they saw me best suited for. I was given the character of Emile, a very angry solider who broke chairs and demanded for apologies. At first I wasn’t too keen on my character as I felt I couldn’t act much or my character didn’t play any means to the play but as we read through and ran our scenes, I could fully immerse myself into my chosen character of Emile and understood that the reason that josh’s character Fadinard is in such a worry, is because my character demanded back Anais hat that the horse ate at the start of the play.

I put myself forward to help on construction and set and I feel as though I really got myself involved in the making of our set and props even though a large chunk of that was me and a couple other of the stronger guys moving the heavy bits of set around the different rehearsal spaces we used. I enjoyed the process of building the set which included work such as sawing pieces of wood and fitting them together, using the drill and screws to make frames for the doors, putting together brand new doors and refurbishing old ones, painting the flooring. In the end, we managed to put on a very funny farce play before the term ended. Another highlight of this term was visiting Berlin before the Christmas holidays. My aim for university was to go on as many university trips as I can, and Berlin was a hundred percent worth going. After a great trip, and an amazing production of ‘An Italian Straw hat’ I was excited for next term to begin.

After a nice Christmas break I was ready for this terms module of negotiated studies. For this project, I aimed to take part in creating a short film, which focuses on stereotyping and the on-going issue with racism today. I don’t understand why today in 2017, racism is still an issue in our society. Racial stereotyping whether by top news articles or bouncers at a local night club still exists and racism has been an Issue for hundreds of years. So my plan is for the short film to question ourselves and ask ourselves why it still exists and whether it will ever stop.

My role in this project was to assist in directing and editing the footage we have for our short film. The short film we created lasted roughly 10 minutes even though we had a lot of extra footage we could have put in. If we had used all our footage, we would have exceeded our limit for the task although felt it was necessary to film extra for editing purposes. One of my initial ideas was to create a film about 3 completely different characters who somehow unite against racism together in some way. Yet once our group was formed, we came together and realised that we could use our multicultural backgrounds to discuss the issue with racial stereotyping. I have witnessed and personally been racially stereotyped and believe that if we all bring our personal experiences involved, together we could give our audience a broader look at how stereotyping affects a range of different people in different ways.

I collaborated with Fraz, Reece, Jacob and Elliot and together we created “We Are Human”. it’s based on how racism personally affects us and other Coventry university students. I wanted to capture footage that will portray of our thoughts and emotions and to stimulate our audience’s minds. We shot in different locations around the Coventry university campus and asked ourselves and students on different courses and of different multicultural backgrounds 3 main questions. “have you ever been a witness to or been a victim of racial abuse?” “Why does racism still exist?” and “How can racism be combatted?”. Whether we stuck with our first idea of creating fictional characters, I believe we’d still be able to portray a ray of different backgrounds and personal experiences. Based on the feedback we got from our peers, our short film raised awareness and shared the right messages.

If I worked by myself, I would have focused more on the personal experiences I’ve been a part of However, working collectively as a group of 5 allowed us to put many more ideas and skills to our project, we all helped each other on all areas of the task but assigned certain roles to each person which allowed us to maximise our time.

Alongside the short film, we gave a 5-minute presentation, answering any further questions about our project. This presentation gave us that little bit more of what we needed to go more in depth about our research and views on the current situation.

Alongside this module we started our new landscapes ‘site specific performance’ module whereby we created an immersive performance based on the devil statue on the old Coventry cathedral with a twist. Liam was due to tell his part of the story but gets kidnapped by 3 males dressed in black with their faces covered up. The performance then changes to hunting Liam’s kidnappers to find him.  This was a fun module and I learnt a lot about site specific performance. We ended up creating a sequel for the second part of this module. As the term was finishing, it was time to prepare for next terms module of new landscapes and alongside that the third years Final major projects.

New landscapes for me in the third term was a strange one for me because I really enjoyed this module to start with. I was always involved and ready to work with my group for our telling of the story of clever Hans. But over time this module started to drag due to certain members of groups lack of motivation. Which in turn started to demotivate me. I loved learning the acrobatics and thought it was fun and enjoyable being the base and support for others. In fact, me and Tk grasped the acrobatics super quick, but as the acrobatics got more advanced, I started to distance myself as I felt I couldn’t be of much help. I also didn’t have the time to go back and relearn previous circus skill training I had on juggling and diablo for the walkabout acts before the show. It was hard for to balance term time studies, Final major project rehearsals and a Part-Time job. I was however excited to get involved in the musical aspects of the performance. If it wasn’t for playing the drums in everyone’s stories, I would have hardly done anything for the final performances.

Although I couldn’t do the acrobatics to a higher standard like some of the others in the class I made up for it in drumming for the entire acrobatic sequence and being part of the band. I even got my own applause as the drummer at the end.

My absolute highlight of the year though would have to be playing lead character in Chantel’s, Ollie’s and Zoe’s FMP. In all honesty, it’s what I had been looking forward to doing most for the entire academic year. I auditioned for role of Shakilus Townsend, an 18 year old murdered in 2012 by Danny and his gang the Shine My Nine. After I found I had got the role and through weeks of devising and rehearsing, I was extremely excited and enjoyed being involved in this every week. I loved that it highlighted gang violence that our youth face today and hoped that our play could spread awareness about it. After the peer showings and throughout the process there was a lot of talk about our FMP which made me want to do well even more. I believe it was due to the marketing we used to promote our performance. On May 27^th, we put on an incredible sold out show and the atmosphere that night was incredible. We found out show was chosen to perform at Belgrade theatre and I was extremely happy and don’t think I’ve been happier this year. A highlight of the year for me was of course keychain theatre company becoming like a family. Through rehearsals and productive trips to London, our cast bonded together and became close. I feel that our chemistry off stage helped towards our stage presence and it was amazing to have such an impressive response from our audience. Looking back, after an amazing second year I’m looking forward to starting my final year at university. I know it’s going to be tough but I’ll be able to power through.

Our assignment brief was to Create a drama workshop or a Forum Theatre or a Theatre in Education Participatory Performance that demonstrates our understanding of a particular type of practice within a particular setting. As a group we decided to choose social media as our area of focus. Whilst we were sitting down thinking of what we could do we looked around and saw people using their phones. They may have been using their phones for research but as people were on their phones we could hear the social media notifications. This is when we decided to use social media for our idea. We thought that we’d aim this session at at young people as they are most vulnerable when it comes to using social media. people as young as 11 have a social media profiles. I personally felt that social media would be a great workshop as nearly everyone in our class has a social profile page. Facebook is an amazing way to communicate to loads of people however it comes with it’s disadvantages, and we wanted to discuss this.

As we decided that one of our tasks would be to create a group performance, it was suggested that we provide a stimulus to help get on with the task. I took it upon myself to put together some information and statistics based on the dangers of social media. whilst doing research I came across important information that I felt would be perfect to include. “Mobile phones, Internet access and social networking have opened many doors for teenagers to stay connected to one another. However, it’s also brought the dangers of bullying to the forefront, as more and more teenagers are exposed to its verbal and visual violence. In today’s interconnected world, bullying poses a serious problem for countless teens.” (Cyber Bullying, 2016). I then decided based on the information that I found that I should find a few case studies to include with the information to help get the students a better understanding of the dangers by learning about real life stories. These case studies could be used in anyway they find useful whether for inspiration or a reenactment. It would be up to the students to decide how they use the information provided.

I am a huge fan of working in groups especially when you have a great team of people who are willing to work together and work hard to produce something great. My workshop group decided that the young students who would take part in our workshop should work in groups due to the benefits of group work. Group work can broaden knowledge, help with communication skills and help with student learning. “A broader range of skills can be applied to practical activities and sharing and discussing ideas can play a pivotal role in deepening your understanding of a particular subject area” (The benefits of group work, 2010). Due to the research I did for our assignment, I was able to come across a website about cyberbullying and the affects social media has young people. There were many examples of case studies where social media, especially Facebook and ask.fm had a negative impact on a young person. I believe that Jamie’s sessions every Tuesday prepared us for this assignment and allowed us to get on with it efficiently by incorporating all that we have learnt throughout the year. I am happy that we have ended with this assignment as I felt it was great way to finish the module.

At the start of the year I struggled to understand why we are doing this course and how it would benefit us. Unfortunately, when Liselle did these workshops I often found that I didn’t know what she wanted us to do. I found it hard to understand what she wanted from us thus found it it difficult to achieve what she wanted us to achieve. I felt that she would think of something and have all these different ideas based around it that she struggled to have a clear concept. Due to this I felt I lacked concentration and didn’t get a clear understanding of the task at hand. However, when I did understand, it went well. We were able to think critically after each session.  When it came to working in groups we may not have understood the task at times however we were still able to show something and justify it.

I particularly enjoyed when we had different practioners and workshop leaders who came in from outside the university to come in and teach us about themselves and there workshop styles. It made me think about all the different types of theatre out there and made me realize that there is still so much more about theatre that I need to learn about.

Overall I think the Theatre Skills & Workshop Facilitation Module has been great fun and I am very pleased to have this module on our course. It got better towards the second and third term and I got a much better deeper understanding of why we are doing this course. Throughout this course we have learnt about Theatre in education, Theatre in prisons, Theatre for the disadvantaged. We’ve learnt a lot about doing workshops with those who have a disability and those who may have a mental illness. Not only have we done workshops that would be aimed at a vast majority of people but we have learnt how to create workshops ourselves and think about what we’d do if were going to put on these workshops on for other people.

 

Bibliography

bbbpress (2013) Drama game: Splat! Available at: http://www.bbbpress.com/2013/11/drama-game-splat/ (Accessed: 12 May 2016).

Critical thinking (2011) Available at: http://www.skillsyouneed.com/learn/critical-thinking.html (Accessed: 16 May 2016).

Cyber Bullying (2016) Available at: https://nobullying.com/category/types-of-bullying/cyber-bullying/ (Accessed: 16 May 2016).

Stories of 7 teen suicides because of ask.FM bullying (2013) Available at: https://nobullying.com/stories-of-7-teen-suicides-because-of-ask-fm-bullying/ (Accessed: 23 April 2016).

The benefits of group work (2010) Available at: http://libweb.surrey.ac.uk/library/skills/Leicester%20Study%20skills/page_85.htm (Accessed: 16 May 2016).

 

Project Week – Monday 8th – Thursday 11th

I believe that that this week has been very successful and very productive having come so far from when we first were given the initial brief. On Monday we kicked of project week discussing what we took from pitching our ideas to the class and our little meeting with Joff, we then decided that we would come up with a structure and an order for our piece. Taking on board all of the ideas we took from the Tate modern, and putting it together so that we could pitch last week Thursday. once we had the order of our scenes it was time to start developing them, improvising with ideas and writing the scripts.

We wanted to sort out our set/props quite early. We wanted to keep it simple yet effective so discussed ways in which we could do so. I came up with the idea of using blocks so we went round looking for some and decided it would work. after Me, Aga and bianca worked on our middle scene decided toThe war is a modern war, but to keep with the style of the Crossfire‘s play we do not mention specifically what war we’re in. And we formulate the boxes in such a way that they look like a barricade.
Then we improved our second scene by now knowing what we are going for. The idea that after the first scene, Bryce is coping from the effects from war and that his best mate (which I play as) is now part of his subconscious adding to the contrast that I’m there in spirit as well as Bryce finding solace in the normal world.
Wednesday
Bryce and I started scripting scene two. Unlike the first scripting where we had the play Crossfire as our stimulus, this time round we recording our improvisation and then typed it down, making edits where we felt fit.
Last Sunday (the 7th), Dad and I went clay pigeon shooting and I sought it fitting to record some sounds that we ended up using, which I found to be more ideal as we’re not looking for authentic gun sounds. I gave the sounds to Tristen who’s using Q-Lap to mix our sounds cues while we still have them. Later that day, I went out shopping to buy some a pair of toy guns to use with while we rehearse as Bryce and I have something to play with while we act.
Thursday
Bryce and I managed to script our final scene simple by I writing a sentence and then Bryce replies with another sentence. We knew what we wanted in our third and final scene so it made the writing easier. The idea that Bryce (now called Mark and I, Carl) is now coming to terms and is willing to be a father. This is also the point where we address that I have been dead all this time after the first scene and I have been part of Mark’s coping mechanism. We wanted this scene to appear ambiguous so the audience can take from it what they like. From either the religious aspects to the psychological aspects, but Bryce and I were more interested in the telling of the story and Mark’s predicament.
And, as a group, we managed to create an opening and how we’re all staying onstage, moving the boxes around the stage to create new scenes, props and levels, and how to integrate ourselves. From this we looked at sound cues and managed to watch each others scenes thus far, how to improve them, and we have about half the skeleton of the show finished.
With the boxes dotted around the stage with a white long box with a plant pot on top (where we each individually plant a seed) looks like a art gallery. And the image of us who are not in a scene are just sitting onstage listening to the scene before them adds this inclusivity to the piece. And we, as chorus, can switch from listeners to people in the scene, as in Aga’s first scene she’s in a park or busy street, we as chorus can act as if we’re in a park talking to one another. In Brenda’s speech, she talks about how she’s been abused and, on certain words, we gesture, in unison, the pulling of our sleeves and applying make-up to hide our bruised faces. We also noted that we needed to use the plant pot in some way to act as a constant reminder by using it as something else like a make-up brush holding in Tia’s and Brenda’s scene or just simply having it in view.

Directed : An Italian Straw hat 10/10/16

Notes

Timing is key when it comes to comedy.

 

Directed – 8th December

Notes on today’s dress run for my scenes:

Band to be scared when I go to break second chair.

Make sure jumping behind sofa is more visible.

More snappy.

if sheet is not covered properly, going to have to kiss Anais.

Big cheesy smile as guest.

kick paint cans to make crash sound behind door four.

 

 

 

 

American Theatre

From the beginning , American drama has cut against the grain:

According to the poet and pamphleteer Philip stubbed, plays are “sucked out the devils teases to nourish us in Ydolatrie, heatherine, and since.”

Examples of the development of drama in America 1700-1779:

• As early as 1702, American colleges became a natural locus for dramatic activity
• Between 1716 and 1718, the first colonial theatre was built in williamsburg, Virginia
• By 1767, Charleston, Philadelphia, and New York had permanent theatres.
• In virgina, august 1665, three residents were arrested and tried for acting in ye bare and ye cubb, The first recorded performance in America.
• all the colonies had laws whose effects were to prohibit or deter theatrical activity.

The plays of this period foreshadows contemporary drama

• The condemn political corruption and critque society.
• they mix linguistic play with facial or symbolic action, and show the language of the “common folk.”

They reveal an implicit faith in the playwright’s ability to promote social .

American Variety

• Variety was americas most popular entertainment in the early to mid 1800’s
• variety was not out to attract a family audience. the audience was primarily all male.
• Nudity and verbal obscenity were forbidden, but “blue” acts and songs depicting sexual situations were common.

Minstrel Shows

• crude, low-grade style of song, dance and comedy entertainment.
• impersonation of negro life and manners by white men in black face.
• The music,songs, dances and comic chatter reflected a plantation experience that never existed.
• The first to popularise blackface acts was thomas d.rice in 1828. He sang the patter song “jim crow” which created the craze for blackface performers
• Jim crowe became a synonym for any black male.

• The most famous graduate of minstrelsy was Al Jolson.
• Jolson immortalised his blackface routines in several films, including the talking landmark
• By 1870, the minstrel show began to fade; however, minstrel traditions were transformed:
• the variety acts evolved into vaudeville. the specialties led to the revue.
• The burlesque paved way for others in, what else burlesque

 

Vaudeville

• The origins of the term vaudeville are still unclear.
• For our purpose, it comes from the French phrase, “voix de ville” or “songs of the town.”
• Show business entered a gold age of new and gaudy showplaces.
• Nearly 2,000 theatres featured weekly programs.
• By 1924, management became very sophisticated.  The vaudeville bill may have looked like a melange of entertainment, but it was skillfully put together.

 

• Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II
• The First “popular” and “serious” show that featured African Americans.
• Introduced controversial themes which were considered impossible for the musical stage.
• Brought with it a new level of literacy–based on Edna Ferber’s novel.

Showboat

• Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II
• The First “popular” and “serious” show that featured African Americans.
• Introduced controversial themes which were considered impossible for the musical stage.
• Brought with it a new level of literacy–based on Edna Ferber’s novel.

1

New landscapes – 13th March

Sonia  – animatics, breathing exercises etc.. April 3rd 1:30-3:30

May  22nd- 23rd 2 hour session with Sonia.

 

Research circus performers that I’m interested in in, Diablo, juggling, etc…

 

Name down for drumming.

Keychain Theatre company

Keychain Theatre Company

World Theatre- 2nd March

Why John cage left college

“I was shocked at college to see one hundred of classmates in the library all reading copies of the same book. instead of doing as they did i went into the stacks and read the first book written by an author whose name began with Z.”

Minimalism. also known as… 

• ABC art
• minimal art
• Reductivism
• Rejective art
• Literalist art

miniliam describes movements in various forms of art and design. especially visual art and music where stripped down to its most fundamental form.

it is identified with with developments in post world war 2

Features

• geometric
• often cube forms purged of metaphor
• equally of parts
• repetition
• neutral surfaces
• solid panes of colour

Mark Rothko (1903- 1970)

• Latvian born, introduced a compositional format that he would continue to develop throughout his career.

Theory Behind the work of Rothko

• ‘The elimination of all obstacles between the painter and the idea between the idea and the observer.”
• obstacles include: memory, history, geography.
• interpretation unmarred by subject matter.

“The Rothko Chapel is a spiritual space, a forum for world leaders, a place for solitude and gathering. It’s an epicenter for civil rights activists, a quiet disruption, a stillness that moves.” (Rothko chapel, no date)