So over all, as human beings it is human nature to categorise things, and teenagers, just like homosexuality, interracial children/couples and divorcees fall under certain categories. And with each category comes a certain image. Yes it’s unfair, and yes it should be changed, but by stereotyping and categorising, this helps people understand what’s going on in the world and what kind of people populate it.
For one of the lessons, we had to do a drugs brainstorm of all the types of drugs we know. What was really strange was that, all the drugs we wrote down were all illegal drugs and did harm to you. We didn’t even think twice to write down drugs such as ‘’paracetamols, anti depressants’’. We completely missed out class c drugs as they are usually prescribed by doctors to help people and we see drugs as something which is harmful not helpful. Below is a table of the proper names of the three classes of drugs, some of which the group came up with some of which I added myself:
One of the most interesting activities we did was when we were told to compose a drug advertisement. The reason why it was interesting was because we had to actually ‘’sell’’ illegal drugs in an advert. This was pretty unusual, as we have never ever actually seen anything like this so from the beginning we knew it was going to be anything but realistic.
When trying to sell something in any advert you have to seem like your enjoying it yourself and at the same time be preaching about the benefits. This was a challenge and a half as all of our lives we have been taught that drugs are bad, and you should never be influenced and here we were doing exactly the opposite.
After a lot of negotiations and discussions we decided that all the characters in this advertise should be partially naïve in a sense. We wanted the characters in this advertise to be a family. This is because if we showed parents encouraging their own children to have drugs it will show the viewers that it is safe and ok to have drugs. Because a family portrays a sense of trust and by offering it to your own children shows that it is good for you and can’t do any harm. So in a sense we were abusing characters, which carried trust and authority to sell a bad product. We wanted the family to be a ‘’cereal packet norm’’ family what I mean by that is I wanted it to reflect the pleasant Ville family type where the mum stays at home and the dad goes out to work.
All the characters had to be happy, cheery with big massive smiles on their faces. The body movements had to be brisk and easy going, in a way relaxed and definitely not tensed. Our main criteria for this advert was to create a very light cosy atmosphere. We decided that in this advert we would not be using too much space, as we wanted it to be close together since we wanted to show the unity of the family and give a warm glow to everything. The levels obviously had to be high without a doubt to represent the happiness and the overall feeling of the advert. To make it more powerful we decided to have the children talking to the audience with lines like ‘’it’s cool to have these colourful fun drugs!’’
After that activity we were then told to compose a health warning. This was to be exactly the opposite of what we did before. Focussing on atmosphere, voice and character types below is a table showing the comparisons of a health warning and drugs advertise:
I strongly believe that the health warning was very effective to teenagers warning them about the dangers of drugs. This is because there was no jokes no blabbing just straight to the point and blunt, which is always a very effective way of getting the message through.
Another reason why it was effective was because we portrayed the pain and misery in a very heart rending way. We had people the same age as them just lying on the floor because of what drugs did to them and it showed them how it can disable teenagers physically and mentally. We also showed what’s it like being dependant on drugs and can’t find anything to satisfy your cravings.
I believe it was successful because it bought a few home truths to light and also the style of the advert added to the effectiveness because of our use of space.
Level played an exceptionally big part of the play. This is because we used different levels and status to depict the effect of the drugs. For example we had the drug users on their knees as they are sniffing. We had the people who have been affected by it seriously on the floor to represent a feeling of lowness and depression the person is feeling. And the people who were craving for drugs we decided to have them at a mixture of levels for example at first they are all over the place in a frantic rage to find drugs then as they realised there is no drugs they start to deteriorate to the floor.
When the time came to perform our health warnings to the class I really enjoyed all of them as the whole class depicted the dangers of drugs in different ways so there was a vast variety. However, one group in particular stood out, because I really loved the format of their actual performance as they decided to show their health warning in the form of a ‘’drug talk taking place in a rehab’’. I particularly enjoyed this one as it showed people at different stages of their drug addiction problem and how they are getting over it, and I also felt this was effective because the audience get to hear why drugs are not good from people who have already experienced it.
For quite some time there has been a lot of mixed feelings about the legalisation of cannabis. For this particular lesson we decided to bring to light everyone’s point of view in a form of a debate. We each took on a persona of someone in a community for example anyone from a mother to a teenager. We then got separated into sections of ‘for’ and ‘against’ the legalisation of cannabis.
This debate taught me a lot about the pros and cons of cannabis, it was really eye opening. This was because say for example we were against the legalisation of cannabis, but we were put into the section ‘’for’’ legalisation of cannabis we were forced to think of reasons why this would be a good idea. I liked this because we had the chance to see the argument from both sides of the spectrum. It was also interesting to find out what other peoples point of view was and really uncanny to discover out how strongly everyone felt about the subject. Although the legalisation of cannabis is only a possibility now, the lesson made me realise the seriousness of the issue and that in a couple of years to come we might be able to buy a joint of cannabis freely anywhere. It was scary knowing that the government has the power to make a drug that has been illegal for so long suddenly made legal.
From the beginning of the lesson I’ve been kind of unsure about my views on the legalisation of cannabis. The motive for this is because during the lesson I heard so many good plausible points that I wasn’t sure which way to sway my vote. But I suppose if I were forced to make a decision my overall decision would be for it to stay illegal.
Below are all my reasons to why it should stay illegal:
In another lesson instead of learning about drugs we had to actually act out a likely scenario where drug smuggling takes place and take on the roles of a customs officer or one of the two smugglers. Tension had to be used to create a more real atmosphere. But the only way to create tension in the atmosphere was for one of the characters to be tensed. The likely candidate was the smuggler as it is the obvious choice. However it would have been really interesting to see if the smuggler took on a cool calm collected attitude.
Nevertheless, we demonstrated the two characters very differently in comparison to each other. The customs officer showed a very formal attitude and a very stiff formal body posture, to create tension within the scene; the customs officer also gave a lot of suspicious eye contact to make the smuggler feel more tensed. The customs officer also was very concentrated in their jobs, which consequently meant that the smuggler had to be extra careful and not make any mistakes this immediately put the smuggler under stress and again created more tension.
The smuggler showed the tension by acting very agitated and doing very small quick body movements so he doesn’t get noticed. The smuggler also never looked up and kept himself to himself. As a whole the smugglers body movement was more confined and restricted this was a good contrast to the customs officer’s body movement because although they were both on the same level, the difference in body language showed the different in status immediately.
The voices were evidently very different. The customs officer put on a very deep, well educated tone of voice and the smuggler put on a cockney accent and his tone of voice was like as if the smuggler was in a hurry and he also sounded on edge and twitchy. Again the differences were clearly marked in the different types of voices both characters took on.
We did a whole class spontaneous improvisation of a press conference. Our teacher was the police spokesperson and all of us took on the roles of journalists from different newspapers. It was our task to ask questions about ‘’why the police have failed to catch the drug dealers’’. This is how the scene was set out:
The spokesperson
This was really successful because it seemed and felt so realistic, the journalists wanted blood and were angry and the police spokesperson spoke fast and didn’t wait for a reply. This built up the atmosphere as the improvisation took on a very fast pace. I have to admit the grilling the spokesperson received was fierce as everyone took their roles seriously. This exercise was a good idea as we had a chance to explore into the storyline a bit more and fill in any gaps of information we had by just asking the police spokesperson.
Our teacher gave us a set scene, and our job was to compose a montage of it. The scene was a drug raid. Half the people in our group had to play the drug smugglers and the other half had to play the police.
The use of levels for montages is a very important aspect as it can be the key to distinguish the status and relationship between two characters, and because no words or movements are allowed getting the level and use of space correct is vital.
The way we used levels differed from scene to scene. But throughout the whole montage the police always kept a higher level then the drug smugglers, this is to let the audience know who is in charge and who is more important. Levels were also used to show what was going on in the scene and to give a bit of variety. We also used levels to depict the feelings of the drug smugglers and the feelings of the police at different times. The feelings of the smugglers deteriorated during the scenes so the levels gradually went lower, and the polices feelings sky rocketed because they successfully did their job, so obviously their level was very high with very firm postures and their noses up in the air.
Our transition from one scene to another was very effective. This is because it showed the story unfold very clearly and we did it with no hassle, no fuss and very quickly with no contact with one another. The transition was also a break within the scene and because we did it really well we honestly looked like human sculptures, which came to life for about a few seconds before going back to another position.
Thought tracking definitely helps me personally as a performer as well as an audience member. It helps me as an audience member because it gives me an insight into what’s going on in the characters head and gives me another insight into the performance. It helps me as a performer because it helps me get into my role more efficiently. Because in order to thought track, you need to get into the thoughts of the character your playing, and to do that you need to be fully focused. Thought tracking is helpful in difficult situations because then you as an actor can tell the audience what you are feeling which gives a clearer performance.
One of the activities we did involved us getting into pairs then choosing which character we would like to be: the mother or the drug dealer son. Our job was to do an improvisation set in a prison visiting area. Below is a flow chart showing the feelings my character (the mother) went through during her visit:
Below is an emotional number line indicating the mother’s feelings at different points of the visit:
(10 being the most emotional)
5 minutes into the visit 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
15 minutes into the visit 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
25 minutes into the visit 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
For one of the lessons we had to make a monologue for our chosen character. My chosen character was the mother again as I felt I could do a better monologue with a character I was partially familiar with. After making up our own individual monologue we got into groups of three, each group had a:
- Drug dealer
- Drug user
- Mother of Drug User
We had to construct a performance, which included each of our monologues. This was quite challenging because it was going to be difficult to link all the monologues together, so we decided to experiment with different techniques first. We experimented with sound effects in the rehearsal time given, but it just didn’t seem quite right, so we decided to forget about any sound effects and for the scene to be silent and the only sound will be the person’s voice. We were glad we made this decision as it proved to be quite effective because there were no distractions and all the attention was on the person who was talking. We decided to compose our scene quite differently to previous performances. What we decided to do was have each character come on to the stage from different directions and at different times, and after one character finished their monologue they would freeze, and then another character’s monologue would begin. What made it good was each character was so different, that the performance had a lot of variety because of it.
DRUG DEALER = Relaxed, calm, well off and living in luxury
DRUG USER = Recalling his good days, when he had a good life, resentful and very messed up and confused.
MOTHER OF DRUG USER = Feels angry with her son, feels sorry for herself, tries to get on with her life like it was before.
However, if we were to do it again, I would try to link all the monologues together, because the performance was more about each individual then all three of them as a whole. I would link it together by having a very very short duologue with the next character.
Looking back at the last half term, despite all the drama skills I did use I felt that there could have been more skills I may well have experimented with for example:
- Miming
- Slow motions
- Accents
Because this topic was more to do with situations and concentrated on characters a lot, I can’t give a particular scene I would like to improve on. However, next time I would like to try another character role different to the one I undertook this time round. So instead of a mother I would like to be a drug dealer. I have also noticed that weI should really try and plan performances a bit better, because what we do in groups is discuss briefly the beginning middle and end, and then start with the acting. Next time I will definitely try my best to plan it, as it makes the performance more organised and I’m sure the timing would improve significantly as well.
My main highlight this half term was most probably performing the composition of the monologues, I enjoyed it because it was something different and very realistic, there was no over acting and no melodramatic acting, so it was really believable and it felt as if we were drawing the audience in with our tone of voice. Yes there were things that we could improve on for example connecting the characters together in speech but as a whole I was quite content with the outcome.
Overall, this half term has educated me in many ways, I have extended my knowledge on drugs and drug use extensively, I have found out things about drugs I never knew. But also I got a feeling of what it’s like to be in the shoes of someone who is involved or affected by drugs. This is quite unusual as we are often on the outside looking into situations concerning drugs, but this time I got the chance to feel how it truly is like.