TASK TWO: Production Blog- Halloween Tour

​​​12/09/22 In today’s lesson, we began to plan out stimuli for our Halloween Tour at the Globe. We did this by discussing the premise of ‘Immersive Theatre’, with Kelly talking about ‘The Woman In Black’, a production which involves the main apparition of the piece- the woman in black- hovering around the auditorium. This was very informative as nobody in the class has seen this live, nor had anyone seen any immersive theatre live; immersive theatre is the goal for our halloween piece at the Globe. After this, we were told to share our phobias- in order to brain-storm ideas to incorporate into our piece which would scare an audience and quickly eliminate phobias which were either uncommon or hard to act within the facilities of the Globe: Rebecca mentioned a fear of bollards, which was scrapped as it would be near enough impossible to demonstrate that fear and for it to leave an impact on an audience. Later within the session, we were put into small teams and then given a single sentence which we then used as a stimulus to create a short scene in the horror genre. I found our stimulus quite interesting; As dusk fell over the cemetery, the widower entered the graveyard. Despite my interest in the prompt, I didn’t feel confident enough to voice my ideas for the piece in my group, and let another member of the group steer the project- which as a result left me and the other group members feel quite confused- as the person who took charge of the project didn’t have a clear direction themselves, yet still insisted on leading us. I believe this has been a learning curve for my first day, and has really taught me the importance of communication within a team, and that without communication, there is no clear collaboration on the piece- which overall affects the quality of the piece. 

13/09/22 In today’s lesson, we had a theory based lesson with Kane about the importance of facial expression and body language when acting; facial expressions and body language is the most important and clear way to portray an emotion as an actor. We investigated this by watching a scene from two classic films- ‘La La Land’ and ‘Whiplash’- expect with no audio, and we were made to note when a shift in emotion happened within the scene. For example, within the scene from ‘La La Land’, the main protagonists were having an argument over dinner- which had a build up of various emotions; beginning with content, shifting to tense, then erupting to confusion, shock, anger, then despair. Despite not knowing the reason behind the argument, we could read the emotions of the actor to understand the atmosphere of the scene. To further build our understanding, we were then told to get into small groups and create a scene with a range of emotions without using audio- for this, my group came up with a bar scene which showed the stages of the characters becoming more intoxicated. I feel I have really developed from yesterday, since I actually felt this group gave me the space to collaborate and share my ideas. Despite this, my goal for my next session is to keep building up my confidence so that I can continue to create successful pieces in the future.

14/09/22 In today’s lesson, we were organised into small teams to create an improvisational piece with a family dynamic. Within this family dynamic, we were to play three interchangeable roles- the victim, the prosecutor and the hero (for example, the prosecutor goes after the victim, only for the hero to defuse the situation). Within my group’s family dynamic, we had a parent (played by Keira), an older brother (played by Ash), and a younger sister (played by me). Despite this being planned, I had a panic attack before beginning the session, which heavily affected my attitude towards the activity- I lost the entirety of my confidence and found it hard to talk without crying. Even with this boundary, I managed to put myself back on track after a short time stepping away from the activity, but even then I felt as though I let my team down significantly, as they couldn’t produce the task properly without a third member- a target for next session for me is to control my emotions better in order to not negatively affect mine or anybody else’s performances. 

15/09/22 For today’s session, the first year actors were introduced to the first year filmmakers in Film and TV. We were then given our task for the next coming weeks- to recreate an iconic scene from a movie exactly, to the best of our abilities. For this side-project, I am in a rather large group, with only two film makers- Hollie and Meg- which intimidated me at first, as I thought it would be difficult to get a scene which engages all of our actors, however with the help of the filmmakers, we are looking into options which has a large ensemble cast; Harry Potter, The Hunger Games and The Lord of the Rings were mentioned. I believe my next aim for this project is to cement a pick, so we can begin this project as soon as possible, to make it easier for the filmmakers to edit the films by the end of the half-term.

20/09/22 In today’s session, we had yet another theory lesson led by Kane- this time on the significance of vocal delivery within performances. Similar to last week, we began by watching a scene from two well-known and respected movies- instead this time we only had audio to decipher the emotions of the scene: we were without visuals. Again, it was clear to pick out the shift of emotions by the incredible deliverance by the actors- however I believe I will still need a bit of a journey to be able to replicate such subtle and naturalistic switches of emotions. 

21/09/22 For todays task, we began to build on our improvisation work by the use of the Lonely Hearts Column; a column in local newspapers used to contain so single members of the public could publish their interests in people, in hopes people would contact them. We were given an actual submission to a Lonely Hearts Column on a small piece of paper- and were told to become that person. Not only did this put us on the spot to develop a character, but it also pushed us to improvise; when other characters were introducing themselves, it became natural to commentate and use their introduction to bounce off of, which not only adds depth to my own character, but to theirs as well. My character is called Paula, is in her mid 50s, and is looking for someone to 'accommodate' for, which already gives me a solid base to build a character on, as I feel she has a lot of features which I could greatly exaggerate to make her personality- for example, I am considering making a key point of her character her age, and how she could feel quite behind on current 'trends' and could potentially have her physicality altered to show a much older demeanour (for example, a slight limp because of an ailment due to her older age). For my next session, I aim to have all of these details organised so I can really begin to invest myself into the character of Paula.

22/09/22 Today we decided on our scene to replicate with the Film and TV crew; we are doing a scene from 'Avengers: Age of Ultron', when the team of Avengers attempts to lift Thor's hammer- Mjölnir. This was the decision our team came to agree on because it involves a large group of characters- which all have large amounts of screen-time and importance within the scene- making it accommodating for all of our group members. Within this piece, I will be playing Hawkeye; in this scene, he is the first to attempt to lift Mjölnir, and fails miserably. Despite this, he still appears to be arrogant and cocky when other members of his team fail. I believe this will be a push for me, not only because of his personality being such a heavy contrast to my own, but also since the scene is a direct replica of the original product, I believe I will have to portray Hawkeye as a male, which will stretch my vocal chords to be able to imitate his voice believably. The only obstacle the whole team faces currently is how we are to do a believable copy of a character within the scene- Ultron; we believe we cannot get the physicality of Ultron to come across on camera in a serious way. However, when we pitch our ideas to Kelly next week, we will discuss this with her- and find a way to tackle this issue. After this, we moved to the theatre to be given a duologue piece with very vague context, so that- similarly to Lonely Hearts- we can push our character development skills. The piece me and my partner (Ash) were given was one by the title of 'The Painting', which follows the story of two people having a conversation over their opinions on a modern art piece- one loudly protesting against the use and aesthetics of modern art and the other is calmly disagreeing, and is defending the piece. It is later revealed that the one that is defending the piece is actually the artist behind the modern art. For this script, I decided to take the role of the person who hates modern art (who from this point forward I will be referring to as the name I gave to my character- Kevin), as I believed that a comical character such as Kevin would be an interesting character to ease into and develop, since his lines show potential to demonstrate a very complex character beyond the comedy, which could greatly show my current skill level. Saying this, I believe my next step for this character is to flesh him out- so I can begin to show an audience this character and for them to be able to understand the different layers Kevin could have to offer.

26/09/22 Today in lesson, we began to rehearse for a 15 minute segment of 'The Muppets: A Christmas Carol' we are performing in the Globe in November with Tom. We began by warming up our voices through a variation of vocal warm ups such as '1 2 3 4 5', where we had to sing a specific rhythm to the numbers 1-5 without going out of rhythm. I found this challenging because it seemed like by the end of the warm up, I had lose sense of the 5 numbers- and just felt as though I was muttering along instead of engaging with the activity the way I was intended to. However, it did help me focus and causes me to centre my attention, so I could try and sing the correct lyrics. We were then introduced to the the first song of the showcase, which is called 'Scrooge'. We were given the lyrics tithe piece and were walked through the song by Tom on the piano. Tom challenged us to characterize ourselves by making our singing voices more coarse and harsh: I took this advice and used it to show the fear and hatred my character has for Scrooge, which I believe was very effective. After this, Tom asked for a group of soloists for the first verse of the song, which I volunteered for, as I wanted to push myself out of my comfort zone and show that I would be willing to play a bigger role in this project if given the opportunity. We then moved to the opposite dance studio and began to block the song. I struggled with this as the timing were very quick paced, and I felt as though I didnt have enough time to get to my positions- especially after the first chorus, when I only had 8 counts to move past to the rest of the cast and kneel into my position. Despite this, I felt this experience was very helpful in building layers in my character as I could develop my characters thoughts and feelings into actions. In today's task, I felt as if I was really invested in putting myself in my characters shoes, and by utilizing skills used in previous tasks last week (such as the Duologue and Lonely Hearts Column), I was able to give my very minor character depth, so that they fit into the environment of the piece better. I think moving forward, my next goal should be to learn the lyrics- so I can start to focus more on immersing myself within the blocking, rather than just having my head buried in a lyric sheet for the entirety of the number.

27/09/22 Today in lesson, we were continuing our demonstrations of vocal delivery. I began to draft a script which would allow for me and my group to demonstrate a range of emotions without the piece feeling overcrowded, or becoming too centric on one person. For my script, me and my group decided to do a crime scene interrogation; they involve many people in one space in a very controlled manner, while also giving each person a chance to demonstrate their emotional range in a way which doesn’t feel forced. I made a rough script for our group to follow while we recorded our audio, just to see the rough estimate of how long the piece would be, and to see how I would fit in everyone a considerable amount of time with a span of emotions; the recording came to about ten minutes- which means for our next session with Kane I must adapt a new script which is much more concise, as the maximum timing is three minutes.

28/09/22 In this session, we continued our character development journey- by furthering the narrative of our Lonely Hearts Column characters by meeting a person to date. Our characters met at a community event, which was organised for lonely members of the community to interact with each other. During the event, I interacted with many people in various different ways; Keith (a character played by Ash), which I have identified as a potential love interest, and Roger (a character played by Connor), which I had a very heated argument with. Both of these characters helped me expand on the two ends of the spectrum of my character- how Paula can be highly confrontational and blunt irrationally but can show a grea amount of consideration for people she cares about. For example, by the end of the session, Roger and Paula had been put in the same group for a quiz at the end of the event; Paula's highly confrontational attitude led to me having to project my anger onto Roger everytime we got a question wrong, which perfectly mirrored Roger's dry sarcasm and cold attitude. I feel I could have improved by delving further into showing my interest for Keith, rather than expanding all of my passion into a character which I would not even pursue, or use to add to my characters development. Therefore, for next session, I will dedicate much more of my time interacting with Keith, and using the bluntness of my character to really find a link that both of our characters share, and build a connection.

29/09/22 For this session with the Film and TV students, we pitched our final idea for our copycat scene to Kelly; our Film and TV crew put together a concise powerpoint stating our ideas for the project and what time and resources we would need to make it possible. Kelly shared out concerns for executing Ultron in a way which would be suitable- but apart from that gave our project approval, which means I can begin to fully look at the script and dedicate time to perfecting my lines. After this, me and Ash made final preparations to perform our Duologue to the class; by giving our characters a secret- giving a character a secret to be thinking about while you perform can subtly change your performance as a character, as having even a small secret can give the illusion you are in that character's mindset. I gave my character a rather large secret that linked with the piece, however; the reason my  character is actually in the art gallery to begin with is to impress a girl who likes modern art, which not only gives a clear motivation for my character to be at the location he otherwise would not be at, it also shows a more caring side to my character, despite my performance being centric on his dismissive approach to the art. I feel this lesson has taught me to really come out of my shell and has made my confidence spike- the performance ended up going really well, and I managed to make the audience engaged and actually laugh at parts during the performance- which demonstrates I can make an audience immersed. Despite this, a target for me to improve in future performances is keeping consistent eye contact within the performance- my fear of eye contact I felt affected the performance negatively and could have broken the immersion for those in the audience if they noticed.

03/10/22 Today, we took a visit at the Globe- we toured the building for a clearer understanding of the route we would take our audience on the Ghost Light Tour. We were led around in two groups- one of which began with a tour around the facilities, led by Josh, showing us different areas of the building which we could utilise for the performance, and the other taking us to the 1935 bar to discuss the history of the Globe from its creation to its restoration. I began my journey talking to four senior volunteers: one event they mentioned linking to the Globe was the story of a man whom died during a performance and was escorted out of the venue during the interval; in the words of Mrs Joan Chadwick via her stage manager's log "he was swiftly removed- thankfully he didn't disrupt the performance". This part of the experience gave me a lot of information develop ideas which can be used for our final performance. In addition to this, my ideas for the performance were greatly clarified after Josh gave us a tour of the facilities- it was very enriching for me as it meant I could plot out ideas that were not only to the past, but accurate to the present building. Despite this, I felt I should have asked more question to deepen my understanding and to aid any future research I may need.

04/10/22 In today's lesson, we were told of the audition process for the Tour Guide for our Globe project; a short ghost story to learn and to adjust to make it sound conversational- a anecdote which you would say while giving someone a tour, in a very similar style to Josh’s role. I decided to push myself and go for the role of Mrs Chadwick, one of the tour guides, as I wanted to stretch my confidence and show I can make an audience intrigued at my journey as a character; the tour guides are quite serious and naturalistic entities to act as, and I would like to challenge myself with a more relatable and human role, which doesn’t require me to exaggerate a character trait to the point of it becoming comical. The audition piece I received was the story of a haunted snow-globe, which a former prop master at a theatre encountered two times- it is of considerable length and is written in a very refined manner, which poses a large challenge to me as it will be very difficult to make the exact extract I have been given sound natural; I will work on this before my audition next Monday in order to give an adequate audition. 

05/10/22 For today's session, we concluded the character building of our Lonely Hearts Column characters, by going on a date with a person we met when searching for a partner last week. I went on a date to a bar with Keith, and was very intoxicated before the date even began- I demonstrated this by exaggerating her limp when walking to meet with her partner, not only to show the extent of her intoxication but also to show her anxiety towards meeting with Keith again- increasing the time it takes for her to get to Keith while also showing she's quite helpless and physically can't run away from him- while simultaneously showing that mentally that she has no more options of happiness to run to. We improvised a date, then we were challenged by Kelly to include a strong opinion which our character feels passionately about into our conversation- which Keith shared and allowed me to rant about; this opinion linked to the prop I had brought for my character- I brought a mechanical pencil which I passed for a syringe of medication for my faulty knee, so I felt that made for a natural transition for the conversation to make. This session really taught me the importance a highly developed character, as without the layers I have given Paula, it would be very difficult to improvise with the circumstances given. I feel my next point of improvement is within my improvisation- most of what I said in character today felt very dry and repetitive in comparison to the last time I played Paula, and I feel as though I must push myself to investigate different scenarios with Paula, and stop perceiving her from one angle.

06/10/22 To make progress towards our copycat scene- during our short time with the Film students- we commenced a full dress rehearsal; not only to get a feel for the blocking of the scene and how to accurately depict it with the resources we have, but to also see the cast’s progress with getting costumes. My outfit was already organized; the rehearsal proved to be the main challenge for me, as it proved to be one of the first times we did a full run through. While I have met my target from our last session by managing to get the voice within the confides of the character comfortably, articulating Hawkeye's mannerisms proved to be much more challenging; for example, at the beginning of the scene, there is a moment in which Hawkeye twirls drumsticks around in his fingers- which I have not had an opportunity to practice. As a result of this, the movement wasn't clean and looked very inaccurate to the original- to counter this, I have decided to dedicate this weekend to refining the movement so that the final product can seem more authentic to the Jeremy Renner's original performance.

10/10/22 Today, we continued working on our 15 minute segment for 'The Muppets: A Christmas Carol' with Tom, and began the lesson with a similar set of warm ups as the previous weeks- including '1 2 3 4 5', yet this time the number two was replaced with 'cat', while the number four was replaced with the word 'dog'- which severely increased the difficulty of the warm-up. On the contrary, today I feel as though I was much more engaged and active during this warm-up, which developed my concentration significantly. For our lesson today, we went over two more songs that we will perform at the showcase- 'One More Sleep Til Christmas' (which Tom told us will become a solo) and 'It Feels Like Christmas' (which is a fully ensemble piece). I found the songs to be quite simplistic, as I used my characterisation from our previous session with Tom to my advantage, and was able to rapidly make the song fit the atmosphere of the play- so, I believe to push myself, I will audition for the solo song; it would push me out of my comfort zone even further and would really stretch my confidence, while also demonstrating my skill in a way that won't be too strenuous, since the project is just before our next project- 'The Wizard of Oz'. After lunch, we began our auditions for the Tour Guides of the Globe Halloween Tour- these characters being Alfred Lewis, Charles Lewis and Mrs Chadwick. This audition was split into two segments; recounting our audition piece in front of Kelly, then chemistry tests with a draft of the script. My audition went better than I expected- I managed to make the convoluted text sound natural and believable once I began my audition. Despite this, I still froze up before beginning out of fear, and while this didn't affect my overall performance, and I still received the role I auditioned for, it was still an aspect which I will work on to improve the quality of future auditions, as I see it as a barrier in my confidence which could significantly damage my performance in the future. This being said, the second half of my audition went much smoother- since I had other people around me to connect with, to make the chemistry between characters more natural; which ultimately led to me getting the role of Mrs Chadwick. I have a long way to go in perfecting this character to make her ready for the tour, but I am honoured to get the opportunity to be able to play her at all. 

11/10/22 Today was the day in which our copycat scene group had dedicated to filming our scene. We decided to use the Film Room opposite the theatre for filming; it has a key set piece which was nearly enough impossible to find anywhere else in the college and cannot have been transported- a sofa, as well as it being very closed off and soundproof to cause little disruption to other people around us, in addition to the face that it was the only set option on campus, which made it easier to get time out of lessons to film, since we were still on campus. It was an exhausting process; shots had to be delayed since there was a show by the Musical Theatre course playing opposite us at a very high volume, which caused their performances to be caught by the microphones and interfered with the audio quality of our own piece. In addition to this, I found the filming process to be very different to performing a stage piece- many scenes had to be redone at least twice in order to have a selection of shots- many of which had to be reshot multiple more times after that, whether it was the lightning not being exact to members of the cast breaking character. It was definitely an enriching experience- it gave me a basic overview of how the filming process is complete within the industry, and it taught me to extend my patience when I wasnt needed on set, or if a shot needed to be filmed numerous times- the reality is that this is how many professional environments work. As for my character, I feel as though I successfully used my skills which I have built through the rehearsals and portrayed them onto camera- and the final product really demonstrates the efforts of everyone involved: acting and film students alike.

12/10/22 Today's lesson involved auditioning those who didn't already receive a large role from the Tour Guide auditions, which gave me the opportunity to independently go over the script. I found the script is written in a way which reflects an older time period (1935- which is the time Mrs Chadwick began to co-own the theatre)- which poses as a barrier between me and quickly grasping the lines. Despite this, I believe it'll be an effective way to build on my understanding of more complex texts, and will help improve my skills from learning the original audition piece for Mrs Chadwick.

13/10/22 For our lesson today, we, as a class, had our first look at the script for our next project- the play adaptation of 'The Wizard of Oz'. I volunteered to read through for the part of Dorothy, as I am considering for auditioning for her (as well as the Wicked Witch of The West); I want to go for these roles as I want to show I can portray characters with very large personalities and stage presences and I feel both Dorothy and The Wicked With both do this very well. We read up to a part in the script where Dorothy passes out in a field of poisoning poppies- halfway through Act One; I felt I have read through enough of the script to cement my options for the two characters I'll audition for, however I feel to ensure these are the right choices, I should read through the full script before beginning the project officially to see which of the two I would prefer to go for.

17/10/22 For today's session, we continued our preparations for our 'Community Christmas' Piece at the Globe with Tom. For today's session, we were refining the blocking for our opening song 'Scrooge'- which Tom stated needed to be polished- one step to achieve this is to make our moves concurrent with each other; if one person is doing a movement differently to everyone else, then that may jeopardize the whole piece. I found this to be challenging as I felt as a result of not rehearsing the blocking in a considerable amount of weeks everyone was very unprepared and unorganised- especially myself. It is very difficult for me to balance remembering the 'choreography' for the piece and singing for the piece, especially since the movement requires a lot if jarring movements which may affect the overall sound of the performance- however I plan to work on this by anchoring my singing more so I can focus less on this concern and focus more on being synchronised with the rest of the cast. Later into the day, me and other cast members did a verbalize run through of the script to Josh, the employee of the Globe which showed us around on our initial tour of the building. Despite me knowing most of my lines, I still clung to my script for the security that if I did make a mistake, I would have a back-up, which is an area of weakness for me; I cannot seem to leave my comfort zone and take the full leap into characterization, as I am too focused on the intricacies of the script and the cue within it. On the topic of characterization, Josh gave me a suggestion for how my character could have natural chemistry with both Alfred and Charles; by being almost their boss, and overseeing both the brothers and the audience for misconduct, and scolding them if they do. Not only does this get me into the mindset of Mrs Chadwick, but it also gives me a means of power if an audience member is disrespectful, for example being on their phones through the performance. Now having a clear direction to give my character during improvisation when in front of an audience has really given me confidence of my abilities for this performance. 

18/10/22 For today's session, we continued our rehearsals for our Halloween Tour piece. Me and the other two tour guides within my cast, Morgan and Callum were given an audience based of other cast members who were not needed for other specific scene rehearsals. Having those I am familiar with as an audience seemed to be an excellent idea in theory, however it posed many challenges. One of these challenges was the lack of focus within the audience- other cast members were not taking our rehearsal seriously, which ultimately led to a lack of productivity from us and led to very small progress towards the final performance, which really stressed me out because of how close we are to the deadline for the performance.

19/10/22 In today's lesson, cast one (my cast) of the Ghost Light Tour did a full run through within the theatre at college. This involved the entirety of cast one- with the exception of the children playing the runners, which could not be made possible due to the fact the actors playing the runners were in school. This run through, in my opinion, could not have been worse in furthering my journey as Mrs Chadwick- the rehearsal was very staggered and it was very hard to improvise and build chemistry between me and my two other tour guides when we were not in the Globe, as we didn't know the time we had between getting to each area of the building, therefore leaving us no room to experiment with improvisation. In addition to this, we couldn't get a grasp on how audience interaction would work- for this run through our audience was stationary, which really felt surreal and out of place, especially with the entire concept of the project to be removed from the idea of stationery audiences, giving me the irrational fear that as a result my performance was more stale to tailor to the nature of the audience. Of course I understand why this rehearsal was carried out in this way, yet I can't help but feel extremely under-prepared for this performance- despite my best efforts with everything which is in my control (learning my lines and researching my character, for example). Despite all these queries, I have faith that once we actually get into the venue and get the opportunity to delve into the atmosphere, my feelings will shift and my confidence will skyrocket once again. 

20/10/22 In today's session, cast two did their full run through of the Ghost Light Tour. Despite this not being the cast where I portray Mrs Chadwick, I still had a large role to work on today- my 'House Of Wax' character. I wanted to ensure my physicality was evident enough to be scary, and rehearsed with Mark, whom is playing the antagonist of the 'House Of Wax' segment- Vincent Price. Mark stated that I could exaggerate my head movement more, to really emphasise my struggle of being stuck in wax, which is something I will focus on before my performance as my wax character on Monday.