Audio Ensemble - Post 04

Audio Ensemble Performance

Tuesday 5^th – Friday 8^th January 2016

     Returning after a short break we proceeded with the rehearsal process.  With our minds fresh, full of our previous research, we initiated what we already learnt and put our skills to the test and see if we could bring the play to life, as early as possible before the performance date.

Rehearsals

     Establishing the plot, setting, characters, and tone of the radio play we set about making our performances all the more reflective of what we currently knew.  Focusing on the first half of the play we worked:

·         Pacing

·         Vocal Structure

·         and Questioning our Characters

     Pacing wise, we knew that the radio play was to be thirty minutes long, therefore timing was essential to this play, but how were we going to pace it?  We, as an ensemble cast, agreed that the play had a dramatic progressive tone; therefore we wanted to reflective the rather serious and dramatic build up to the tragic climax of the play.  We took the pacing to lower structure, while select lines and dialogue moments needed a fast pace. 

     An example of this would be found in SC10 Page 19; “John: Saying dirty… I’m not sure I… you mean when I said-  Lovvie: You say it again and you’ll get a smack in the mouth!”  It is in dialogue like this, that the pacing needs to increase a little, in order to establish the thought process of the characters and enhance the dramatic, as well as a hint of humorous, tone.

     As for the rest of the play, we will be taking a slow pacing structure to ensure detail and realism in the characters speeches.  Taking time to explore the setting and characters in a way where the audience will truly envision the story.  Plus, we would be constantly hinting towards the dramatic build up towards the tragic ending, making the audience response all the more effective.

     Vocal structure wise, we had to take our scripted lines apart.  Piece by piece we would be able to understand our character’s thoughts and feelings throughout the play, and project the truth vocally.  Staying as closely as possible to the pacing of the play, we knew to take our time, to articulate each letter and, project exact emotion to ensure truth and efficiency in our vocal storytelling.

     Now, to questioning my character, I took note of several questions, on several performance elements of mine, and these questions I aim to answer in the future when studying and profiling my character John:

1)      What does John want?

2)      Why is John helping Lovvie?

3)      What does John hope to get out of this?

Response to the Script

     After various read through and rehearsal sessions, I wanted to give my personal response to the script, having more background info about the play itself.  Staying truthful to my initial response, I am still fond of the play.  What do I like specifically?

·         The Characters – with each having a unique quality and story to tell I like each of their roles and the impact the plays events have on each of them.

·         The Setting – I particularly like where this play is, I do find a story more relatable when you can truly envision where it is.

·         and The Climax – reading through this play time after time, I do get strongly attached to these characters so when the play concludes it is a little heart breaking to see not all dreams come true.

     Taking in all these notes, I hope to reflect my love for this script vocally to ensure detail and entertainment for our audiences.

Response to my Performance

     To conclude this week of rehearsals I gave myself several feedback notes on what I felt I was doing well and not so well in my performance.  My aim was to establish these positives and negatives as soon as possible to ensure a better progression in the rehearsal process, in time for the main performance.  My self-observation notes were:

Positives:

·         Good pacing.

·         Understanding what the character is feeling.

Negatives:

·         Hesitating on certain lines/sentences.

·         Inflicting more passion in John’s lines.

·         Picking up the pacing for Lovvie and John dialogue.

Audio Ensemble - Post 03

Audio Ensemble Performance

December 2015

     It was in this week that we finalised research plans and concluded to turn our full attention to rehearsals.  Our main research areas of focus were:

Setting –                     Where are they?

Answer -                    In our previous sessions we established, based on lines of dialogue that the play is set in the South of England.  In a small town, full of market streets, where Lovvie, her sister Norah, and her family earn their livings.  The town also has a small theatre, where John takes Lovvie, and a church hall, which is where they rehearse.  The script also depicts a gypsy traveller site, where our lead characters live, which I imagined would be walking distance away.    

Characters –              What are they?

Answer -                    We envisioned our characters to be unique and identifiable vocally, all the while inflicting a sense of stereotypes.  For example, Lovvie and her family scripted speeches are written to have a similarity to “chavs” from the South of England.  Therefore performances as gypsy characters will be stereotypical enhanced, to ensure they have their own identity and audience members can envision who is who.  In comparison, my character, John is a well-educated drama teacher, who lived in London for a select period of time, therefore I will be sticking closely to my neutral Southern English accent.  Thereby ensuring the character’s identity, amongst the other characters and his ability to stand out for the audience.

The Play –                 What is it?

Answer -                    The radio play, ‘Atching Tan’, is a contemporary piece of drama that offers new twists to story lines we have seen/heard of before.  The love triangle offers a unique spin on the ‘Romeo & Juliet’ tragedy.  The setting offers a perspective on real matters/issues in today’s lifestyle.  But the characters offer a relatable brand of storytelling that will enthral audience members to listen on.

Audio Ensemble - Post 02

Audio Ensemble Performance

December 2015

     It was in this week that we began to plan the research process for our radio play, ‘Atching Tan’.  Initially it was difficult to find other interpretations of the play, therefore we turned to various other areas of the performance for research that could support our overall interpretation of the plot, characters, and atmosphere of the play.

Gypsy Slang

     After several read through sessions we established roughly what the setting was like, where the characters were, what wardrobe they would have.  But in this session our goal was to establish a visual background giving truth to our interpretation of the Gypsy lifestyle.

     Firstly, the language and accents.  What was this language depicted in the script?  Plus, where the any accents required for the gypsy characters?  

The Language –                         Described in the script as “Romani”, and written to have similarities to the language of Romania, this made us question whether the characters were even living in the UK?  Although in SC3 Page 5 of the script translates the language to her singing: “Honour to you Romani people.”  Plus in SC12 Page 26 John mentions to Lovvie there is an audition for her to attend in the New Forrest.  Therefore all doubts about the play not being set in the UK were pushed aside.  Not only that but we now knew that the language is sung by Lovvie out of respect and honour to the Romani people, by people we can only assume that she’s making reference to the gypsy people.  But we still had a few unanswered questions; how does the Romani accent sound?  Plus, do the gypsy characters need an accent to support their characters?

                                                     Through difficult research we managed to find several clips supporting the Romani language.  The most useful being the video clip here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QP1v_WIH2C8.  I personally found this clip very useful, as not only did I get an understanding of what the language sounded like, but various video images showed more of the lifestyle of a gypsy traveller.  Accent wise, there wasn’t much to support us in this particular video clips.  Therefore we research some more.

                                                     Unfortunately there wasn’t much to work with when researching the BBC radio website: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00w1zlr.  Although useful in the sense that we managed to find images showing the recording sessions and the cast in costume, giving us a little idea of what the setting and wardrobe looked like.  Accent wise though, there was no evidence of the original performance to support our performances.  Fortunately there was a clue written the script.  Lines like: “tweetie pie”, “dordie, dordie”, “chavi”, and “ain’t it cushti” hinted to us that the characters have a rather stereotypical Southern England chavi accent.  Therefore that is the accent we decided to use.

     Secondly, the gypsy lifestyle.  Did I find any links that supported my research in getting a decent image of the characters lifestyles?

The Gypsy Lifestyle -               Through our research, as mentioned above we found various websites, video and photograph clips to support our understanding of the gypsy lifestyle.  But, was there anything else we found?  One article I discover really supported the understanding for the age range of our characters and their lives as a gypsy traveller.  Published by ‘The Guardian’ the articule goes into various details, which I felt emphasised the image of a lifestyle on the road: http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2009/sep/07/gypsy-childhood-prejudice-education.

Initial Response to Characters

     Being cast as John in ‘Atching Tan’, I felt a huge responsibility to bringing what I referred to as “the nice character” to life in this play.  Initially I really liked the character.  There are many qualities and distinctive aspects of the character that I can relate to.  Therefore I was obliged to construct an early character profile, to show my early understandings of the character, and take note for future posts where I will make a complete character study and profile.

Name:                                    John

Age:                                        Early-Twenties

Occupation:                         Drama Teacher

Status:                                                Single (unmarried)

Home:                                                London

Hobbies/Interests:               Theatre & Acting

     These character profile notes are based on my initial responses and the read through.  Taking these notes in mind, I hope to soon expand on them is greater detail so I bring enough layers and detail to the character as possible in time for the recording session.

     I also find the character very relaxing when I read the character lines out loud.  I can truly relate to what he is feeling, how he would speak these lines, and what is going through his mind.  Plus we learn in the script that the character is well educated and is from London, therefore he would be well spoken and would have an accent, unlike the gypsy characters.

Setting

     Through various research links we have gained a decent picture in our minds of what the setting for the play would look like, all by reference of the script.

     Firstly, there is the gypsy camp where Lovvie lives.  We know it’s a large field area, and Lovvie, with her family and boyfriend, live in various caravans.  It was this image here that I found extremely reflective of all these notes:

     I found this image to be extremely reflective of a messy environment that it clearly not suitable for to raise a child in.  While, at the same time, inflictive a sense of homely living style for travellers.

     Secondly, there is the market town where Lovvie and her family earn their money.  It later scenes we know that Lovvie and her sister Norah do chows in their caravans, as well as make some money for their parents to keep them living.  One image stood to me in particular was this:

     I was fond of this image because it shows the market life, full of busy people both buying and selling.  Plus the picture inflicts an understanding that this town is clearly not part of a city.  It is more than likely to be in the country side where the gypsy camp is close by.  An appropriate setting for this radio play, and suitable for our understanding. 

     Finally the town centre itself.  We know Lovvie spends time in the market earning money for her family, but what about the town centre where she and John work on her singing?

     I found this image to be the most accurate to how I envisioned the town centre.  In the script it depicts that Lovvie and John rehearse in the town’s church hall.  They also spend some time at the theatre, while there isn’t a theatre in the image I like to image there is one close by.  Plus, like the market town image, we do get a strong sense that this town in located in the country near a gypsy camp site.

     In conclusion, while this week wasn’t very productive, it was extremely useful as we have now gained enough detail about the character’s performance styles and the setting’s environment.  All of which, I feel, will support our performances deeply.  

Audio Ensemble - Post 01

Audio Ensemble Performance

December 2015

     For our next assignment titled ‘Audio Ensemble’ we have been tasked to bring a contemporary Radio Play to life, through audio performance.  As the assignment process began we were tasked to read through various radio play scripts and decide upon which to perform and what the casting will be.

Read Through

     Beginning the assignment we were recommended by various different types of audio plays.  These plays offered a variety of different genres, characters, and intriguing plots.  Although the two main plays that we agreed on were:

·         Atching Tan by Dan Allum

·         Far Side of the Moore by Sean Grundy

     Both tell interesting stories, told through intriguing characters, and both make an entertaining script read.  What were these plays about?

Atching Tan -                        The play tells the story of a gipsy travelling girl, named Lovvie, who has a talent for singing.  She meets John, a drama teacher, and together they aim to bring new found love for performing/theatre to life.  However, her priorities with her family, and her boyfriend, pull her back.  This brings about a drama filled scenario where Lovvie must decide whether to follow her dreams or stay where she belongs?

Far Side of the Moore -        This radio play tells a near biographical tale of the late Sir Patrick Moore’s early career and rise to fame.  Set in the pre-1980s the play follows Patrick Moore and his struggles socially and actively.  We see his rejections and successions to becoming a television presenter; as well as being labelled as a “mad scientist”.  Similarly to a BBC television drama we see the story from various point of views, with no lack of dramatic emphasis.  The story is interesting and the characters are entertaining, all bringing about an entertaining radio play.  

Initial Thoughts

     After the read through, of both scripts, we all had time to express our initial thoughts on the plays.

Which script did I prefer? -            Atching Tan

Why? -                                                I personally found the story and the characters to be more interesting, in comparison to ‘Far Side of the Moore’.  Instantly I could see ‘Atching Tan’ having a select few similarities to Shakespeare’s ‘Romeo & Juliet’, in the sense that the two leads want to be together but there is an elephant in the room about their statuses meaning they shouldn’t be together.  Plus the story’s progression intrigued me, and I was a gutted for our protagonist at the end of the play.  While I enjoyed reading through ‘Far Side of the Moore’, the characters and the story didn’t grip me as much as ‘Atching Tan’.  Therefore I was eager to get a role in this radio play.

Casting

     At the beginning of the casting process, was there any character in particular that I wanted to play?

John from ‘Atching Tan’ -                When reading through the script the only character that seemed “nice” from my perspective was John.  John is the drama teacher and plays a crucial role in this play, as he’s the one who helps Lovvie with her performance skills and confidence on stage.  He is also the one responsible for giving her a passion for theatre and advising her to follow her dreams.  Plus in his scripted actions, speech styles, and description, I personally could relate to him, more than any other character in the script.

     In comparison to stage play castings, there wasn’t as many physical exercises or workshops.  Instead we were tasked to pair up, or work in small groups, take selected scenes from either scripts and explore various vocal techniques/styles that could support a performance of that character.  I tried out for John and Nelius (Lovvie’s boyfriend).

     As the casting process came to an end I was relieved to receive the role of John in ‘Atching Tan’.  Intrigued to perform this character and gain a whole new experience in audio performance I was eager to begin rehearsals for Dan Allum’s ‘Atching Tan’.

Voice Portfolio - Entry 1

Vocal Development Programme – Entry 01
Date	Monday 11th January 2016
Exercise Used	-
Vocal Characteristics	Silent – a lot of whispering. Breathy – inhales and exhales through the nose. Precise – clarity and pacing in speech.
Vocal Reflection	Posture – Slouched, laid back, and relaxed. Tension Points – Lower back and shoulders. Breathing Capacity and Control – Nasally and averagely paced. Resonance and Projection – A minimal projected volume level. Diction and Articulation – Clear and precise in my sentences and delivery. Delivery – Clear, well-paced, and to a low whisper level.
Received Feedback	-
Strengths	Breath Control Articulation
Areas of Improvement	Posture – find relaxed and focus points to improve projection, diction, and remove tension points. Resonance and Projection – to find a new level of volume to improve clarity and delivery and support day-to-day speech. Practice Vocal Exercises – my goal for the next entry is to practice a physical exercise to see any improvements in my vocal state.

Vocal Development Programme

Vocal Development Programme

Wednesday 6^th January 2016

     For our next Voice assignment I will be analyzing my own vocal characteristics and exploring how vocal exercises and techniques can support my development as a vocal performer for both stage and audio performances.  For this first post I will give a brief description of my current vocal characteristic state, strengths, and any areas for future improvement.  In future posts I will monitor my vocal progression and make evidence of any exercises that support my progression as a performer.

Description of Vocal Characteristics

Physical Posture –                           Physically I do find unwanted tensions within my shoulders and chest captivity and this does have an effect on my posture as I fidget, until I find relaxation.

Rhythm and Articulation –             When rehearsing I like to memorize my lines through repetition, this allows me to gain an exceptional rhythm, in my projection of my lines.  Although I sometimes hesitate when articulating my ‘t’s and ‘th’s.

Breath Support –                              Learning and memorizing a rhythm to my speech does support my breath capacity, as I know precise points to inhale and exhale.

Projection and Pitch & Tone –       When it comes to projection, I feel I have mastered the appropriate stage voice, to an extent where I am not screaming my lines and I am inflicting the appropriate pitch and tone residence suited for my character.

What will I explore in future reflective entries?

     Identifying my vocal characteristics I have analyzed certain Strengths and Areas of

Improvement.  Currently my strengths are:

1.      Speech Rhythm Pacing

2.      Breath Support/Control

3.      and Pitch & Tone Variations.

     Plus my areas of improvement currently are:

1.      Find Relaxation for Posture

2.      Breathing Exercises to support Projection

3.      and Physical Warmups to Practice and Develop Articulation.

     In future posts I will be making a weekly entry reflecting my Vocal Development Programme, where I will be highlighting my:

1.      Vocal Characteristic State

2.      Strengths

3.      Areas of Improvement

4.      Vocal Exercises

5.      Evidence

6.      and Vocal Analysis.

     All highlighting and identifying my vocal characteristic progression, any new strengths or weaknesses I have gained, what vocal exercises I used for support, as well as keeping photographic or video evidence of myself practicing these exercises, and concluding with a self-analysis of my updated vocal characteristic’s state.  All marking my progression as a performer.

'The Man of Mode' - Post 01

Classical Theatre Performance Assignment –

‘The Man of Mode’ or, ‘Sir Fopling Flutter’

November – December 2015

Introduction

     When our September term began, we were told what our restoration play was going to be and when the audition, rehearsal and performance dates would be.  The play that we were assigned to perform if titled ‘The Man of Mode’ or, ‘Sir Fopling Flutter’.  Knowing little to nothing about the play, I was intrigued to begin the assignment process.  Firstly we began the audition process.

     During this process we were given scene extracts from the play, and were assigned character to try out.  For my first trial in the auditions I wanted to try smaller roles, only so I could practice small lines with the restoration language.  I was then put into small groups and our job was to perform selected scenes and we would take turns in interpreting the various characters in the scene.  Only then could our director see our abilities in performing the different character traits and styles, in the sense that there are rich and poor characters in status, plus we would also test our restoration language reading and speaking skills.

     I personally enjoyed this audition process.  I was able to adapt my abilities as an actor.  Performing as a rich household master, and explore the arrogant nature of the restoration man in power.  Or performing as the poor servant of the household master, and explore the harsh working environment of the lower class individuals of the restoration period.  All of these notes are elements that I hope to explore in further detail through this assignment’s process.  As the audition process came to an end I was given the parts of two characters (I was given two characters as both the character were to be double casted); both character’s ‘Dramatis Personae’ (from our printed scripts) reads:

·         Young Bellair – a gentleman about town.

·         Handy – valet-de-chambre to Mr. Dorimant.

     I for one was pleased to be cast as both an upper class gentleman and as a servant.  I was pleased and excited as I would have two different performance styles to explore and research for the main performance.  Once we all received our performance roles, the audition process came to an end and we began the read through.

Read Through

     It was in the read through process that we all had a true introduction to the play, it’s plot, and it’s characters.  I noticed that my characters lived up to their personae’s. 

     Young Bellair was truly a gentleman towards the opposite sex.  His scripted speeches and movement gave me a true sense of “posh” mannerisms within the character personality.  A few details about the character still remain anonymous to me, therefore research and explorations will be taken into my own hands to create a detailed character profile so Young Bellair is brought to life with exceptional intention.

     Handy on the other hand also lived up to his personae.  The character was just a typical servant to Mr. Dorimant.  I am intrigued by the character of Dorimant, therefore I made it a goal for myself to achieve to establish the relationship between Dorimant and Handy and establish whether it is simple or has more elements to it.

     As the read through came to an end, I did enjoy the language structure of the script, but I did struggle with certain plot elements/details.  But with more time and research I aim to find the true meaning within this play context and its outcome.  Thereby making our main performance all the more intriguing and layered for our audience.