In a classroom based lesson after this study, we watched clips from different films showing rebellion over the decades and looked at similarities and differences of rebellion through time. We looked at the style of dress, mannerisms and music associated with a stereotypical rebel from each era.
Our next improvisation was also set in modern day, and was about arranged marriages. This time I was in a group of six, and I played a girl who had already got married secretly, but her parents had an arranged marriage set for her. I am the best friend of the main character in the story, who is a girl whose parents have only just told her that she is to have an arranged marriage. After meeting her future husband, she decides she does not want to marry him and runs away with my character, as both are in trouble with their parents.
My character was a rebel, with little respect for her parents. As such, I gave her a sarcastic attitude, and slumped posture. I thought it would be good if she smoked, as this would show that she was not bothered too much about her health or what other people thought of her. My main scene was set at my house, with me and the main character sitting discussing our lives. We sat on the floor to imply to the audience that really we were still children, as children sit on the floor. I sat in a kind of sprawled, half-sitting half-lying position to show I was laid back. In another scene I was in I was walking quickly and trying to light a cigarette unsuccessfully, showing nerves, because I had just been chucked out of the house following my parents finding out about the secret marriage. I do not even notice the main character coming towards me, which makes it evident that my character is anxious and emotional, even though she is trying not to show it.
On the final performance in front of the class, I think that I portrayed my character well. I did all the actions I had thought about which built up my character as a person. Unfortunately one member of our group, the girl who played the mother of the main character, was unable to perform. However, this was fortunate for me, as I took over her character as I was the only character who was not in any scenes at the same time as her. As such, I got to play two very contrasting roles and portray my abilities to play different characters with different body language, attitude, voice and actions. My new character was quite timid, and was ordered around by her husband. She put on a happy face in front of guests but was secretly discontented. She acted differently around different characters, which showed her to be unstable in herself.
I enjoyed playing both characters and, even thought it was a bit of a rush at the last minute to know when the second character came on and off and what she did; I think I played both characters to the best of my ability.
Some other members in my group I think used good body language to show emotions without words. I observed them and took this into account for future performances.
The next task we did as a whole class. One girl in the class was picked to play Amanda, a teenage schoolgirl with many problems. Each member of the class was given a role to play in connection to her. I was chosen to be an enemy of Amanda’s at school. We then as a class did a drama technique called ‘conscience alley’ , in which Amanda walked down the middle the classroom, and the other members of the class made two rows, one at either side of her. As she walked down the room, whoever se walked past would say something to her, or something about her, in their given character. I chose to say,
“Who do you think you are, saying stuff about me and my friends?”
I chose this phase as it has colloquial language (‘stuff’) and improper English (‘me and my friends’ instead of ‘my friends and I’) both of which are typical of a modern teenage schoolgirl. I folded my arms both for use of body language and to distance myself from the Amanda character, as my character would want to. Although I did not shout my phrase, I used an understated tome of anger and sinisterness in my voice.
I found my character interesting to play as the girl who played Amanda is my friend in real life and so it was unusual acting like an enemy to her. This built up my abilities as an actress to portray different characters ad emotions.
After this we did a similar technique called ‘the conscience chair’ where Amanda sat in the middle of the room and everyone came into the middle one by one to say their phrase or word to her and froze in their position.
After this, the class split up into groups and concentrated on one character in the group’s relationship with Amanda. Our group chose to concentrate on Amanda’s teacher, friend and confidante, Miss Black. She taught guidance and French. In our scene, she was getting cautioned by some of the staff at the school for being too friendly with Amanda and taking sides. In the piece, I played Amanda.
The piece started outside the office with me telling Miss Black about some of my problems. She told me to wait one minute while she went into the meeting. The stage was set up with a wall in between the two rooms, so as the meeting was taking place stage right, I could still be seen waiting stage left. This was a good opportunity to use gesture and body language to show my character’s emotions without speech, as my character had nobody to talk to. At first I sat in my chair biting my nails, to show anxiety. I didn’t sit still for long; I kept changing position in the chair, to show I was impatient. Then, I got up and put my ear to the door, to listen to the meeting, to show I was inquisitive. When the meeting was over, and Miss Black came out, I rushed back to my seat to look like I hadn’t been listening in, showing a lack of honesty in the character. When Miss Black wouldn’t talk to my character, my character gets confused and annoyed.
I enjoyed playing Amanda, as again this character was different from past characters I had played and broadened my character range.
The girl who played Miss Black chose to make her answer back to the people in authority in the meeting, and be quite outgoing and loud towards them. If I played that character, I would show her as more intimidated and quiet, even if she was not normally, because not only was she faced with people in authority, but they outnumbered her, so I think she would feel quite inadequate and small, and this would show in her body language and in the way she talked. However, I appreciate that different people have different views on how characters should be portrayed.
For our last piece of work on rebellion, we did freeze frames o rebellion in the world of work. We were in a group of four, and one person directed the freeze frame and the others were molded into position. In our freeze frame, two people were in the middle of signing a contract but a worker had stormed into the office and was attempting to take the contract off them and rip it up, as she was against it, and was rebelling. I played the worker. In the freeze frame, I used my facial expression to show my emotions.
We performed the freeze frame in front of the class, and others performed their freezes too. The rest of the class studied the freeze frame and had their own input into it, as in forum theatre. For one freeze frame, I commented on how the style of dress of one character was good as it reflected what their character was like. The character in question was wearing his tie in a very messy fashion, showing him to be lazy and untidy.
After the freezes we then went on to act out the scene leading up to that freeze, using dramatic techniques such as soliloquies.
During the whole rebellion work, I have managed to play many different and interesting characters and develop them. I have studied many dramatic stage techniques and ways of performing, such as forum theatre and conscience alley. I think that I have managed to expand my knowledge of playing different characters and different ways to show emotions, like understated emotions, body language and gesture, not just speech.
