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.

last lesson 24th april

For this acting lesson we had another college student take over our warm up for acting, her name was Megan, her warm up was quite interesting, she told us that different parts of our tongue pronounce different words for example the back of your tongues produces the word G, where as the front of your tongue produces D, she then told us that your lips produce your Bs, Ms and Ps. We then moved onto our teeth which produces your Ts along with your tongue. This helped me pronounce my words better, it also warmed up my voice. Then we participated in another warm up but with emotions which was Anxiety, Excitement, Sadness and Anger, What we did was we walked around the room and Megan shouted out an emotion but from a scale of 1-10, 1 being boring and 10 being over dramatic, We acted in that emotion and it helped me realize that every emotion doesn't have to be over dramatic. I found that Megan's warm-up help me out a lot. 

After we got into groups and our task was for all of us to have group meeting about our clubs (bouncers and shakers) were going down under so we had to introduce ourselves one by one and then discuss what our ideas were to keep  the clubs open, this helped me understand my character a lot more because I'm not just reading the script I'm thinking what would I do if that was my club, so it helped me get to know my character  well and it would help me more when it comes to performing the show.

last lesson 17/04/13

in this acting lesson all we did was learn about john gobder, the director of shakers and bouncers and also about his inspirations. John Gobders inspirations was Shakespeare, Brecht, cartoons, soaps etc.

After this we got into our groups and rehearsed our shakers script, and got into our groups, I'm in 2 groups, 1st is Nikita, Jess and Shyanne and the 2nd group is Nadine, Lisa and Nicole. So we went through our script and we then decided on what movement we are going to do alongside the script.

Research on Shakers

Shakers

Shakers is set in a trendy cocktail bar in the town of hull, there are four waitresses named Carol, Mel, Adele and Nicky and they work in a bar called Shakers. During the play they play the character of men in a Pub and shop assistants in a supermarket.

Carol is a student with her A-levels and Art degree but she has no proper job, Adele is a young mother who works to support her 3 year-old child, Nicky is a dreamer and is wanting to become a dancer and Mel who has seen it all before. Each main character has a very distinct personality

The show was written by John Godber and Jane Thornton in 1987, the actually play itself was directed by Tim Taylor, the show is more of a comedy and an enriching drama. Shakers is like Bouncers only in Bouncers you have 4 males and in Shakers you have 4 females.

Character Profile Carol Nickleson

Character Profile

Carol Nickleson is 23 years old she is currently living her mother and two brothers in Hull, Yorkshire. Her relationship with her family is good, she gets along with her brothers well, Her ethnic background is White British but she does love her Italian food. She enjoys DVDs, takeaways and going shopping with her friends.

Carol is more of a positive, down to earth woman, who is confident, loving and caring. When it comes to kindness, she can be generous if their generous back, on the other hand she can be mean when she needs to be. Carol is the type of person who is honest with anyone, if someone lies to her she would never speak to them again, liars make her angry.

Lets talk about who Carol actually is... Carol is the type of person who is very dis-organised, when she sees mess she will leave it until it starts to annoy her. Her stresses and worries are quite basic really, all she worries about is her Family and the future, as she is afraid her family will leave her.

13/03/13 lesson

In this lesson we learnt about melodrama and melodrama is drama, such as a play, film, or television program, characterized by exaggerated emotions, stereotypical characters, and interpersonal conflicts.

it is the dramatic genre characterized by this treatment. Melodrama come around in the 18th century.

 

In this lesson we was put into 4 group of 3 people called A, B and C we got given a script and in thi script was a hero, villian and damsel. The script characters were called villian, godfree and rose-marie,

I played rose-marie (Damsel) Jamie Glasgow played godfree(hero) and nikita played the villian, and we had to overdramatically perform the show  but without any speech, we then had to perform them to the class. After we then again had to perform the same script but with speech. After we got into 3 groups, two groups of 5 and one group of 4, we had another script and there was parts I was a narrator, jamie was the damsel, ozzie was the villian, Nikita was the hero charlie was just a postman. With this script we had to cross cut which was a explorative Strategy and is used a lot in Drama. Once you have written the script for a couple of scenes you use Cross-cutting to re-order them and create a piece of drama, with this script only the narrator speaks the rest of the cast perform the script without speech, we performed them to the class.

Acting lesson 6/03/13

In this lesson we all participated in a warm-up created by Jamie Glasgow and Leanne Gair, and there warm up was to stand together and one person say a letter beginning with A then the next persons says a letter with B and you carry on through the Alphabet.

After we learnt about mimers and how they work, so we watched two videos of different mimers and how concentrated they were, so we got into pairs and the pairs were labelled A and B and B had to mirror exactly what A were doing we did this twice, then pair B created a mime and I had to follow but I was her shadow. 

Then we stood facing the mirrors and we had to pretend we were in a box, then we had to show the class. We tried different types of mime like climbing a Ladder or Pulling a rope and we then had to show the class,  

We then got into groups of four and then we created a miming scene which ours was double douch.

I got some Research of Mimers

To Become a mime you have to have a lot of practice to become a mime, the skills to become a mime are fairly difficult, you have to have to learn the art of non verbal communication using your body language, sign, symbols and facial expressions to convey your message, its always good to produce your own make-up styles and performance.

The art of mime is going to give you confidence in the body language skills that you would need so that you can during your future performances be able to really show the emotion that's withing the script. so your audience are seeing the emotion through body language and movement as well as hearing it when your trying to portray anger or any other emotions.

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y0cHCnuNGJc

Here's an Example!

last lesson 27/02/13

In this lesson we learnt about improvisation which is were you make it up on the spot, also improvisation is were you create a scene without any objects. First we all participated in a Warm-up which was a game called shaky and what you do is you shake one part of your body and transfer it to another part of your body and then give to something else by making eye contact. 

After this we got into 3 groups labelled AB and C and we  had to create a scene without talking and using no props and the scene was that we were in a jungle and we had to pretend that there was a log or pond or any jungle props and we had to make to one side of the jungle and back again, After we then again had to create a scene without talking and our scene was a wedding, After this we had to create another scene different from the others which was a surprise party and we were allowed to use props and the other groups had to guess it. 

Then we got into pairs and my pair was Jamie  what we had to do was I sat on the floor and Jamie was standing and Jamie was an artist and I was clay and Jamie had to create a sculpture with the clay (Me) and then the artists (Jamie) had to describe what it was. After the we had to create a scene by one person standing up and pretending to sweep the floor and then everybody got up and it turned out to be a cleaning scene, then we made another scene which was gym, Then we got into two groups and decided on what scene we was going to create and we decided on a party. The other groups scene was bullying. 

We then got into Fours and we had to pretend we were in a car picking up a hitch hiker but the hitch hiker had to either be mad, drunk or a druggy, we had to pick the hitchhiker up and then gradually pick up habbits of the hitchhiker and then become just like him.

Duologue assessment

On Wednesday the 13th on February me and Leanne had our Duologue assessment. To start our lesson we done a Relaxation method which was to lay on the floor and to visualize, we had to tense our muscles starting from our feet through to our head, then we had to imagine all our stress and worries are in a bubble and that you push the bubble away. After this we did a physical warm-up which was to walk around the room pretending we were a old person, prisoner, superstar or our character. Then we did a vocal warm-up which was to stand in a C shape and one of us at a time say a line from our Duologue. and that was our vocal warm up.

I worked with Leanne Gair and her Character was Hazel Brent who was Frances best friend and my CCharacter was Frances Stein who was a Nerd

In our performance I thought I did well compared my last assessment, I mainly thought about my lines so I didnt forget them, but for this assessment I took some thought about my breath control to aim for a distinction, We added movement to the duologue, which made our performance look more realistic. For the assessment I put on a little posh voice to make me sound like a geek but also like a 12 year old and I thought that the posh voice made the characeter stand out. In the last assessment I had to work on the Projection of my voice and within a few lessons I have improved.

Half way through the performance I did say the wrong words and the wrong time but I tried to make it look like I mis-read the notebook. If I had the chance to perform the Duologue again, than I would Re read my lines and I would make sure that I Perform my lines correctly.

The targets I would set my self would be to work more on speaking with an accent or posh voice, so It would add more interest to the scene, also even as I improved a slight bit on my Breath and projection I still would work on that main subject to make sure I perform as best as I can.

Character Profile

Frances Stein

Frances stein is 12 years old, she lives in Lincoln with her Mother, Father and Brother. Her hobbies are to spend time with her best friend Hazel she likes to spend time with her family as well. 

Frances Likes to eat home baked food made from her mother. Frances is very creative, she is colorful and a happy girl.

Her fashion sense is not so good, she likes to wear socks with skirts to keep her legs warm, She only wears clothes that will keep her from catching a cold and she likes to wear appropriate shoes, so like trainers walking boats. 

She earns 5 pound a week if she completes her chores, she saves her 5 pound a week to save up for a Trampoline. 

She doesn't have many friends, but she doesn't care about that.

she is the type of girl who hates cruelty, loves animals.

6/02/13

In this lesson we had to go through our duologues in our pairs my pair was Leanne Gair, we did go through our duologues with script and then we practiced without script and we knew our duologues and we read through them again but this time we got videoed  As Me and Leanne knew our duologues off script we started to plan out our movement.

Todays Lesson 30/1/13

In today's lesson, we got got put into partners and we spoke about the main priorities of the voice, which was accent, pronunciation and projection.
 Then we got given a sheet of techniques for acting and along side the techniques was what the technique was. Some of the techniques were accent, pronunciation, projection, expressions and enunciate.

After we got given a choice of duologue of either two girls, two boys or boy and girl duologue, then we read through them in our partners and we decided if we want to use the duologue for our assessment piece, so we heard all the other duologue synopsis to see if we was interested in it, but me and Leanne (my duologue partner) chose "The Garden Monster" which is about two 11 year old girls who are best friends decide to use chemical from her dads Labatory and create a baby monster. Then we read through them again and then we had to write some facts and points down so we could get to know the character.

Acting Assessment 23/01/13

On the 23 of January I had my first acting assessment and for our assessment we had to perform our monologues in our characters and make the monologue look realistic, for this we were allowed to have a costume the give the character personality and we were also allowed to props to make a scene.
To prepare for the assessment we done a relaxation method, which was to lay on the floor with your eyes shut and imagine you were sinking in the floor, then you had to tense your muscles from toe to head and release the tension, then we had to imagine three boats; one red; one blue and one yellow, and then you had to put all you worries an stress on to these three boats and push them away. When we finished our relaxation method we did a physical and vocal warm-up, so to start of we walked around the room in our character in slow or fast paces to warm us up. Then we stood ourselves in a C shape and walked into the center and spoke a line from our monologue as loud as we could. After this we did a vocal warm-up which was to speak these words (pop, pup, pub, bap, bop, thin, than, think, moth, bath, maths).

After getting warmed up we took in register order to perform our monologues in front of a camera with your scene set and in character.
In my performance, My emotions were Anger, Sadness, Sarcasism and Comedy. To show my anger the movement I did was, I stormed into the room with a box full of clothes and then I put them on the table and folded them up, on certain line I changed my emotion to sadness and what I did was I sat down on the chair hugging my scarf and this was on the line "Their fairy God parents were looking for them on the day they were born". When I got to the Line " What half decent prince would ever want to marry a girl who come from a kingdom that smells something like when a cat vomits up a dill pickle" I stood up and walked around the room sarcastically but still quite sad to show the Sarcasism. Then to show the comedy of it all I went straight into laughing from the line "All the fairies hate me because I wouldn't clap for Tinkerbell"  The props I had for my performance was A table, Chair, A box and some clothes. I did work on my speech and My projection of my voice and I did work on that but some parts of the monologue I was supposed to not be loud and be depressed.

Overall I thought my performance went well, It was far more better than my previous performances, because I had alot more emotions in it, and I used the given spaced provided.
The main thing I would improve on would be to speak more loudly and clearer this is because when I perform my monologue I need people at the far back of a theater or room to hear clearly what I'm saying.
If I had the chance to perform my monologue again I would think more deeply into the scenery, because it would help the performance look more realistic but also it would set a much bigger personality for the character. Since my last two monologue that I have been given, I have learnt what sort of emotions fit in well with the story line.

last lesson 16/01/13

To start the lesson of we did a physical and vocal warm-up; the vocal warm-up was to speak out 4 short list of words out loud, they were short for example (pip, pop, pub, bap) after this we did a physical warm-up which was to have a partner, and your partner has to shut their eyes while you give them signals on what way your going to turn, so you had to pretend that your was a car. After in our pairs we had to mirror eachother and copy what they did, and it could of been any move. After we walked around the room ignoring eachother then we had to stop and then start but when one person stopped everyone else had to stop.

When we did the warm-up we spoke about our character in pairs, and then shared the information with the group, after we performed our monologue one by one with blocking, and then when it got to mine I performed the monologue well , I projected the words clearer, but I need to work on the emotions of the story for when I next perform it, Overall I thought it was much better and clearer than the previous performances.

Last lesson 9/01/13

In this lesson we had to vocally and physically prepare to perform our monologue,  then we had 5 minutes to go over our monologues before we performed them. The monologue I had was called " Where have all the good princes gone" and its about a princess called bruenhilda and that she is depressed because she cant find  
love but the other princesses can, so she gets jealous and tries everything that the other princesses do, but everything fails for her. When I performed my monologue the main thing I need to work on to make it look more clearer is to speak louder and to work on breath control, and then I need to work out on what movements I'm going to perform with the monologue to make it look more realistic for next time when I perform it.

Summary

From the day I started I have currently learnt how to do mind visualization to relax the body and mind, to do this, you lay on the floor and concentrate on your breathing, then you tense every part of your body starting from your foot making your way up to your shoulders and then you imagine all your stress and problems are in a bubble, and that the bubble is drifting away out of the window. After this we got into pairs and stared in their eyes and then we had to give an emotion for the other person to think about, for example Fear, Friendliness, Afraid and Boredom.
We read a poem written from Simon Armitage, called "GIVE" and we had to work in pairs and for every word in the poem we had to communicate with others by moving in the given space we had.

After this we joined in some vocal exercises, and then we got some chairs and placed them one side of the room and we took it in turns to sit the other side of the room and get asked questions, and these questions were; If I ruled the world, My happiest Moment, The job I'd hate to have and why.
We got asked these question to project the volume of our voices to make sure people the other end of the room could hear us.

Then we got given some short monologues to memorize, then we performed them and then we went over different ways on how it would be easier for us to memorize lines, and then we got shown a list of questions that would help us create a character from our monologues. After we learnt about blocking movement and then we decided on what movement we was going to do and then we performed our monologues in front of the class.

We then learnt about the Constantine Stanislavsky technique which was "What If" and this technique is what if i was in that situation, we then compared our characters with ourselves, and that really helped us get into character when we needed to.
We learnt about Objective, Obstacle and tactic, which was we had to get into pairs and one of us picked an object and a sheet of paper with a word on it, then the other person had to give descriptive reason to why they want the object because they were trying to get it, and then we had to fight to stop them getting the object.