Week Twenty-Six Part Two: Junk

Physical and Staging Rehearsals

 

Wednesday 23rd April 2014

 

     Today was our first Physical Theatre session using the college stage as a rehearsal area.  Our goal was simple to rehearse as many scenes, from the play ‘Junk’, as we could.  The idea of implanting our Physical Theatre lessons into our production process was to ensure that there would be more time spent on rehearsing our lines as well as getting a plan of how we were to physically present the characters and scenes.  Previously in our first Physical Theatre lesson, focusing on the play, we looked at some video footage to show examples of what it was like to live in the time period, of which the play is set, and what the personality of a punk was like.  Looking at these videos was helpful as it gave us all an idea of what the characteristics of a punk were like, both physically and verbally.  But it was today’s lesson that we began to plan our staging of certain scenes.

     From the selected scenes we explored what was happening, what had happened and what would the end result be?  Looking at each of the selected scenes we explored theatrical techniques in which we could build up the drama and ensure that the audience understood what was happening.  Freeze frames and slow movement were used in particular.  The freeze frames were used to highlight suspense and for characters to present monologues, all to bring the audience closer into the play as addresses what is about to occur and bring the audience into more detail about the characters and the plot.  However the slow movement was put to good use as it was to increase the ironic slow pacing but intriguing story. 

     This was a great start to rehearsing the staging of the play, as we explored dramatic techniques and planned what we were to present in our next rehearsal.  In conclusion, my input was making suggestions as to how we could change the slightest presentation, such as reminding what the time period the play is set in and what effect the a technique would give during the performance.



Week Twenty-Six Part One: Junk

Character Profile: Vonny

Character’s Name:

Vonny (Victor) – Mentioned in Act One, Scene One: Richard “I’m Richard and this is Vonny.”

 

Character’s Age:

20 to 24 – Mentioned in Act Two, Scene Eighteen (Set four years after character introduction): Vonny “I kept thinking, she’s eighteen and I’m twenty-four”.

 

Where is the character from:

London – Mentioned in Act One, Scene One: Tar “I’m off to Bristol.”  (Bristol is the setting for the majority of the play).

 

What is the character's Status:

Single

 

Does the character have a Best Friend:

Richard – Mentioned in Act One, Scene Thirteen; showing friendly gestures between the characters Richard and Vonny.

 

What does Vonny love?

Vonny is a young adult who, in the gang of Squatters, appears as the secondary father figure towards each individual member of their gang.  The other father figure is Richard.  Vonny being one of the father figures, he is the character in which everyone looks up too.  Whether it if for advice or to talk about concerns and Vonny really enjoys the company of his closest friends.  Vonny also enjoys cooking and is the chef in the gang, however he’s hobbies consist of outdoor sporting activities.  The sport in particular that he likes the most is badminton, which is shown in his final scene in the play when he goes to college and plays the sport.

 

What does Vonny hate?

While many characters look up to Vonny as the father figure, he has many dislikes in which give truth to the phrase “nobody’s perfect”.  In his second appearance, we see Vonny preparing a meal for the whole gang, and then later get frustrated at the fact that not all the members of the group are present and their meal practically goes to waste.  This shows a little side note that the character can be a little impatient, but learns to stay under control of his emotions and moves on.  As the play goes on, the main character Gemma starts out as a simple young teenager who doesn’t know what she wants, evolves into a completely different character.  Vonny does not like this as he doesn’t like ones changing attitude towards other people.  It also backs up the fact that Vonny is also not a great fan of drugs, such as heroin which takes a key part in the plot.

 

What are Vonny’s Dreams and Aspirations?

One of Vonny’s life long dreams is to live a normal life and own a house of his own.  Another side not to what Vonny’s dislikes is the gang’s constant changing locations.  Whilst Vonny is considered a professional in taking houses, for the gang to live in, he does not like the constant changes in their location and would prefer to stay live in one building.  Not only does Vonny dream of having a house of his own, he also has an ambition of receiving a decent education and a college degree.  All his dreams and lifelong ambitions play a key role in his motivations towards his close friends and give him hope to one day have a decent future.


Tuesday 22nd April 2014



Week Twenty-Five Part Two: Junk

Rehearsals Begin

Tuesday 1st April 2014

     Today was the day of our first official rehearsal.  Beginning abnormally, without a warm up exercise, we received some unfortunate news about the lesson being shortened; this meant we had less time to rehearse as many scenes of the play as possible.  So once every member of the tutor group was present we began rehearsing as many scenes as we could in the little time we had.  To begin with we set the room up in the style of how we wanted the staging to be for the main performance.  Having the audience seated on the front and the sides of the stage, including six entrances and exits for us actors to enter our scenes.  With the room set us as our chosen staging we then turned to our teacher who gave us the scenes, which we were to be rehearsing, and we also planned our staging in which a certain actor would enter a scene and why, as well as beginning to create the scripted atmosphere.  With everything ready on stage and actor ready, with scripts handy we started.

     Our teachers main focus was the Dual Casting choices, the idea was to have both actors who play the part of Tar in act one and act two to perform their opening scenes.  As well as both actors who will play the part of Richard.  This was important in our rehearsal process as we need the actors to both understand how they were to create the character and make their performances similar.  As well as making the fact that they would have to present to the audience that both actors play the same character.  So when it came to the last scene in act one, our teacher decided to include a scenario of when the first actor changes into the second actor and it would make the change more obvious so it wouldn’t confuse any audience members on the actual night.

     Rehearsals were under way, and we managed to create the scenario of when the actors change.  The scenario consisted of both actors on stage saying their lines aloud and then slowly the first actor would exit, whilst the second actor would remain on stage delivering their lines and continuing the performance.  This was all extremely helpful as we managed to get a bit of line rehearsals out of the way, as well as working out stage directions for entrances and exits.  There still needs to be work on staging and movement, but all in good time we should be able to construct the performance in a professional manor and make ‘Junk’ and entertaining and above all and interesting performance for audience memebrs.      



Week Twenty-Five Part One: Junk

The Plan

Monday 31st March 2014

     It was the second week on our ‘Junk’ assignment and this week was the beginning of our structure plan for the production process.  As per usual we began today’s lesson with a warm up exercise, preparing us for the week ahead.  But once we began working we started with some editing.  Like our previous assignments we have had to remove certain scenes in which to make the plot of the play flow a bit more and keep a decent time stream in the whole production.  Just like our first assignment piece, ‘Scaramouche Jones’, we had to remove a lot of scenes due to the amount of actors on stage, and we managed to perform the play in a running time of exactly one hour, with scene changes being obvious by the change of actors yet same character.  Whereas our second assignment, ‘Shakespeare’s House Party’, being six different scenes from three Shakespearean comedies, we didn’t need as much editing but we managed to perform our production in a total run time of thirty minutes exactly, and scene changes made obvious with the use of dance and music montages in between scenes.  So when it came to the editing of ‘Junk’ we also had to consider the approximate run time.  Our teacher explained to us the plan of including an interval in between act one and two, thus being able to spread the story further to include ever bit of detail and present it to the audiences.  We didn’t have intervals in our previous assignment pieces, so I thought this would be a good opportunity to explore more theatrical strategies in presenting a production piece with a longer time run.  We predicted that the approximate run time for ‘Junk’ would be around about one hour and thirty minutes.  So when it came to editing our teacher showed us the scenes in which included characters that we were unable to cast, due to a lack of female cast members.  In the end we managed to alter the script in way in which keeps the plot, without minor characters and has an equal amount of scenes in each act.

     Once the editing was complete it was now time to hand in our homework.  From last week our homework was to print off and hand in images that were categorised on themes that were essential to the plot of ‘Junk’.  Themes such as: Drugs, Squatters, Prostitution and Domestic Violence.  We handed in our images and created a mood board, which we would observe during our rehearsals.  The idea was that these various images could support us during rehearsals as it could us as actor’s picture what the characters looked like, what the characters have been through, and what the setting of each scene would look like.  From the sea side town of “Minely-on-Sea” to the city houses in Bristol.  I thought this was extremely helpful as not only will we be able to constantly observe the images on the mood board but we were also given more homework in which was to bring more images every lesson, so we can add to the mood board and it also implies the thought that every member of the tutor group is focused and committed to these lesson and want to complete and achieve a high grade in this our third assignment.

     With each member of the tutor group inputting images, of the plays themes, and witnessing them we already had a decent idea of what we could visually imagine when rehearsing, but now we had to create a plan of how we are going to structure the stage for the main performances.  First of all I inputted that we should keep the stage facing the audience, but onstage have a number of props in which we could refer to during the performance, also we could place them in a really messy fashion as to give a general view of what world these characters live in.  All of which would imply that they are constantly moving from house to house and constantly making a mess, but it was also imply the moral message that these characters have got nothing to go back home to, like they’re trapped in this cruel world.  This was my input but then we all discussed that we use the stages structure of facing the audience in our previous assignment pieces, so this time we all agreed that we should change the structure of the stage to fit a style that was both original and suited the plot of the play.  So the structure of the stage that we agreed on was a structure that had the audience surrounding the actors on stage.  In some ways like William Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre, except that our structure would be rectangular shaped so the audience can view the performance from the front and the sides.  This would allow the audience to view every part of the stage and view all the actors, so whether an actor’s back to one audience member they would still be able to view another actor’s facial expression in their performance.  Personally I like this idea because in a in sort of represented the stage as a street, which backed up the plan to make it show the themes of the play, in the characters being squatters on the move and I felt it could also deliver the moral message of the whole play being a journey that follows the two lead characters, Tar and Gemma.  In the end we all agreed on this stage structure and planned the entrances and exits for the actors, for the main performance.

     As the day’s lesson came to an end, once again I felt confident with our plan towards the presentation of the play, and I also had a lot to input.  Such as I presented my images of the themes of the play, and I also inputted my ideas as to how we could create a decent stage structure that worked for our plans for the play.



Week Twenty-Four: The Third Assignment

Junk

Monday 24th and Tuesday 25th March 2014

     The beginning of another week, following us completing our 'Shakespeare House Party' assignment, now came to an introduction to our third assignment piece.  From our two previous assignment work pieces we gave performances of productions such as 'Scaramouche Jones' and Shakespearean comedies performed in the style of a modern day house party.  Both assignment work pieces had us focusing on our physical and vocal skills on stage, and on Monday's lesson we were given our next assignment.  Our third assignment is around a production, based off a novel with the same title, and it focus' on the harsh reality of life, highlighting the problems and consequences of drugs, squatters and prostitution.  The play is titled 'Junk' written by Melvin Burgess, and adapted to stage by John Retallack.

     The story follows two teenage characters named Tar and Gemma, both characters are in a relationship and the story is based around them both running away from their home town called “Minely-On-Sea” to Bristol.  When arriving at Bristol, they meet a group of characters who live the life of squatters and have possession and use of illegal drugs, such as Heroin which they refer to as “Junk”.  The plot follows the characters as their lives go from bad to worse and how they live in this harsh reality.

     Starting the lesson with a few warm up games to bring everyone back into focus and preparing us for the surprises that were in stall for us ahead.  Then spending the second half of the lesson being introduced to the play and we were all given our performing roles.  Going through each character and the job roles each cast member would have to take on; such as taking on more than one role, as well as having one character being played by two actors (this is known as a dual cast).  Our teacher explained that there were some lead characters that had a lot of script and stage choreography learning, thus making it too difficult for one actor to take on.  It also allows our teacher to view how capable these actors are in taking a lead role and withstanding the responsibility of delivering a decent performance.  I, on the other hand, was given the role of the character named 'Vonny'.  Originally written as a female character we were able to alter the script as to make the character a male so I would suit the role and make it more believable.  Once each cast member was listed we began our read through of the entire script.  With each member of the group reading their lines and our teacher reading the stage directions we managed to complete the read through and receive a full understanding of the plot and what type of characters we were to be portraying.  Monday’s lesson ended with each member of the tutor group feeling confident and excited with our new assignment piece.

     Tuesday’s lesson came, we started as per usual with a warm up exercise and game, these were essential for this assignment, as we received our results from our Shakespeare assignment and the main improvements highlighted for each member of the tutor group was our physical and vocal skills.  These warm up exercises had us increase the movement throughout our entire body, and vocal exercises such as the “why fly so high” technique which has us using different phrases with different tones of voices.  Once the exercises were finished we were given our assignment brief.  The assignment brief told us the plan of the production process and what was needed of us.  What we needed to accomplish for this assignment in particular was to have full attendance, total focus, deadline meetings and above all originality.  What our wanted us to appreciate was the originality that some actors take in performing roles, such as visually having their own ideas of what the setting of the play would look like and what their own character would look like and what their origins were.  For understanding their character they do have the script at hand to study and understand their character, but if there was little detail in where the character was from and what their past was like, the director of the play would have to rely on the actor’s originality to give a decent portrayal on stage.  

     Our teacher also explained that our Physical Theatre lessons would also have an input towards the production process.  The reason being is that physical theatre allows an individual to highlight, understand and notice what their physical structure is like and how they can alter it to the style of a character completely different to their own.  In the past physical theatre has helped vastly in making us understand our own physical movement and how we can alter our movement in the style of a character completely different to our own.  For example, in our ‘Scaramouche Jones’ assignment physical theatre helped us to understand what type of clown we were in our own physical movement, and how we could create our own clown to portray the character on stage for the main performance.  This helped vastly and assisted in achieving a decent grade for the assignment.  So how was physical theatre going to help us with our ‘Junk’ assignment?  The idea was to have our physical theatre sessions focusing on how we were to physically move on stage with showing the stages the characters were going through, being on drugs and resulting to prostitution.  As well as the session helping in increasing our visual imagery of how the staging would look for the main audience and make the story more convincing.

     As Tuesday’s lesson came to an end, we were given some homework.  Our task in the homework was to print off some images, from the Internet, looking at the following.  Bristol Town Centre, Squatters, Drugs, Domestic Violence, Prostitution, and Sea Side Towns.  We had to hand in images (a minimum of one) from each of these categories.  These categories all come from our understanding of the pay and they all represent the important themes in which bring the whole play to a structure to telling the story.  The reason being, for printing these images, is to help us get a decent understanding of what the setting would look like and what we could do to present this view on stage to give that extra bit of realism for the main performance.

     Finally our week ended on Wednesday with a physical theatre session with us watching video’s which look at the 1980s and 90s punk era and what people dressed like and who their heroes were.  This helped in us understanding what the people of that time were like and how we could, in some way, relate to it in making our characters on stage real.  With this video out of the way, our physical theatre teacher spoke to us all about convincing and improvised acting.  We then learnt how these elements can make a performance convincing to show emotions that bring a deeper feeling so the audience are on the characters side.  I felt this technique was very helpful as it was able to help in present a realistic performance.

     When this week came to an end I felt confident with the technique I learnt in Physical Theatre in how I could present a decent and slightly more convincing performance on stage.  But mainly I was excited for receiving both the results of our ‘Shakespeare’s House Party’ assignment, and of course receiving the assignment brief and script for ‘Junk’.