Skills overview

When I started this course I wanted to gain a few skills within acting, from the start of the year I started to participate in vocal warm-ups and practise vocal techniques within these warm-ups, I wanted to use vocal techniques to create a better performance. I then participated in some movement exercise to control my body when performing, I found these warm-ups/exercises helpful because after my first assessment I didnt know the emotion within the script so as soon as I noticed the emotion in the script I could add particular movements to help portray my character. After my second assessment I got told that I needed to work on my projection, so during my third assessment (shakers) I had practiced my projection to hopefully achieve a higher grade for my final assessment.

During the course I wanted to improve and achieve a higher grade on my vocal techniques, so during all my assessment I felt that I have improved on my vocal skills which include accents, breathe control and pronunciation however I haven't improved on my projection until my last assessment. I found that movement exercise has helped me in my assessment because in my duologue assessment I found that movements really shows my character. Using the internet to research my character has helped me know my previous characters; also to help me get into character is creating a character profile to also help me understand my character. I found that in my first assessment I didn't add enthusiasm so I gradually improved when it came to my last two assessments.

Throughout the whole year I'd say I would have improved my breathe control, pronunciation and slightly on my projection, for vocal technique I'd say I have improved on my accent, especially for shakers. During every movement exercises I have concentrated more on the body control to create better movement for my final performance. To create a better character for shakers I took my research further by watching clips on youtube and doing in depth research about my character (carol), with this research I developed a more stronger character, to perform, during the rehearsal times we had planned I had developed a even more stronger character for the audience to believe.

Acting lesson 12/06/13

In this acting lesson we had to perform shakers again because our original performance wasn't going as well as we performed it, so we had performed shakers but without our original set/props, I felt that a 2nd chance to perform shakers helped both of my groups a lot because it gives my group a lot of time to read through their lines, so if they read throguh thier lines it makes a better performance and with a better performance it shows of your chracter more.

Acting Lesson 05/06/13

In this lesson we started the day with a physical and vocal warm-up, the vocal warm-up was leaded by thomas his warm-up was to get in a group of 3, name yourselves A,B and C and then say a line in a accent you were given, my line was "what lovely weather were having" I had to say this line in a scottish accent, the other two accents were liverpoolian and russian.This vocal warm-up helped me create a stronger yorkshire accent, which will also help me get into character alot better.

before this lesson, we arranged a rehearsal for monday after college, only leannes group, and half of my group turned up, I was alright withit purely because we used the rehearsal time to go through lighting cues and tp test the lights alongside of the script.

We then arranged another rehearsal for tuesday 2-4pm, and only me, nadine and nikita showed up, I wasnt happy because I had told my group before this date so they knew; anyway we read  through the script and then me and leanne helped nadine with lines that she had trouble on.

We had rehearsed on wednesday during lesson and we had to performthe whle play backto the class, my first group (nikita, jess, shyanne and me) was good we knew the cues of when to go and they knew there lines upto Daz and trev, I found that after this performance it made our group more confident.

My second group (nicole, me, nadine and lisa) didnt go so well, they had learnt there lines but at some point they cut out some of the script because they didnt know there cues, so the script didnt make any sense; so we arranged a rehearsal at leannes for thursday for my second group and they all showed up, we rehearsed the lines and explained that the play was a rhythmatic play, so we went through the poem parts so they understood it.

On friday we had our assessment for shakers, my second group went second from last, the reason I chose for them to go last is because the time of the other shakers group and the bouncers group would give them enough time to go through their lines, so we went third and it went well but we got stopped after the business men scene.

Then my other group went last, this group went well because we knewour cues and our lines, so the poem made sense, and it made the audience laugh which was good, but we got stopped on the waitresses break scene.

Wednesday 22nd May

In this lesson we had a read through of our script, discussed were we had learnt to in our script then done a full run through up to page 201.

In my group most of the people have to learn up to page 201 off-script then perform the rest of the play with script, the reason why they're performing the rest of the play with script is because I want to achieve a higher grade so I would perform off-script throughout the whole play.

We ran through the whole play adding movement while we're rehearsing, we then decided to add movement to the last 3 scenes within the play, we havent gathered our props for the last 3 scenes yet.

we then decided what scene we were going to perform to the class, and our  group was going to perform the  "Daz and Trev" scene. We then got given feedback.

Last Lesson 15/05/13

In this lesson we started with a warm-up, which was to stand in a square and speak a line in character that wasnt in your script, we then got told we had to speak in a northern accent througout the lesson. I find that if I spend a few days speaking in a northern accent it makes it more and more easier for me, because the play was set in Hull so the lines had to be spoken in a northern accent so by reading through my lines in Northern made it easier to learn. When I recieved the script I spoke in an northern accent and it helped me learn my lines alot quicker.

We then got in our groups, read through our script and then decided to get into our costumes, I find that getting into my costume helps me become my character before performing because being in my costume makes it feel abit more "real life" and for me it is alot easier performing as carol because that is my character.

I brought some small props in to make our shakers performance a bit different from the others so I brought in some cocktail umbrellas, Glaced cherries, bright coloured shot glasses and some cocktail sticks; I thought of the umbrellas for my character because I find that having that extra little detail would add a bit more characteristics to the performance.

last lesson8/05/13

In this lesson we got into our groups and discussed where we had learnt up to in our shakers script and in our group we had learnt up to page 196, we then had to perform off script how far we new, this helped our group by knowing when your Cue is.

We then had a Shakers meeting to discuss how we did and if we attended a rehearsal before our next lesson, which we didn't, then our group was allowed to cut our script down to page 101, this is because it would help Lisa, Nadine and Nikita because they have trouble learning lines. We then discussed a rehearsal day to rehearse and that was for tomorrow at 11.

last lesson 1/05/13

In this lesson we all participated in a warm-up, this warm-up was a improvisation warm-up and doing this is helping me with the shakers assessment.
We then got given a character profile booklet, we filled these out while other people were having 1-1's about our last assessment. while filling this booklet out it helped me realize who carol was in shakers and doing this is helping me get into character more quicker.

I then got told my grade for my last assessment and that was 4 merits and 2 distinctions which I'm very happy about but I would like to achieve higher for my shakers assessment.