We also had a lot of other drama forms that helped us, such as:
Physical theatre: This is when we use ourselves to create things physically such as a tree or a wall. We mostly used this in our nightmare. We used our bodies on the plane scene at the end to act out slightly falling back on the seats as the plane travelled upwards. We also used this when we acted out putting the seatbelts on and off. This helped us on our nightmare to make it look real, and so we did not have to use any un needed objects. This nightmare was all about when the celebrity took the daughter away from the adopted mother by bribing her through fame and fortune. I was the adopted mother, and spent most of my time chasing round after them through café’s, planes and show places in a dream. I felt really heartbroken when the daughter ran away from me because I just wanted her back for I loved her, but knew I was not good enough. Stephanie Charles was the husband who had ran off with the celebrity, for he just found her a lot more attractive for she was famous, and he had the chance to be with someone amazing and have lots of money at the same time. I felt really annoyed of this, because I met him first and also loved him too. He should of loved me for who I was, and stayed and supported me.
Thought tracking: When a person is acting, and stops to tell the audience what they are thinking. We mostly used this form when we did the drama piece on the celebrity town. Everybody had to be a thought in the town and use physical theatre to make it up. Me and Sophie were a telephone box, and when Mrs Doughty came to stand under us, the daughter was ringing up the mother to tell her that she had just won an Oscar for being the best actress. This would have helped us to understand that other things make celebrities happy apart from the paparazzi. Thought tracking helped us through this piece to show where a celebrities heart really was, and how their heart will never leave there, for the great things started out there.
We also did a drama piece on the daughters 16th birthday. The celebrity shockingly turned up at the adopted parents house, and the adopted mother experienced being left out by the celebrity and the daughter, for the daughter saw she had beautiful hair, gorgeous clothes, brought her amazing presents and she was just famous, which made the celebrity a person that the daughter looked up to the most. This made the adopted mother experience being left out, for the daughter did not find her interesting in any way for a celebrity was about. This also made the father suspicious, for he could see the tension between his wife and the celebrity, and he did not know why. The forms we used for this were thought tracking mostly, to show the thoughts of the suspicious father, the celebrity, the daughter and the adopted mother. We needed to know the thoughts of what the adopted father thought of the tension between his wife and the celebrity, the daughter of the celebrity and the adopted mother of the celebrity, an how worried she was about her husband finding out. The whole time she told him she was pregnant, while she just had a pillow under her top. Thought tracking helped us through this piece to show how much anger and anger there was of the adopted mother when the celebrity turned up at the door.
We also did a piece where the adopted mother and father had some time alone, and the mother told the husband that the child was not really theirs. There was a lot of tension and pressure on the wife, for she did not know how to tell him, and she was afraid she would lose him. She also did not want to lose the adopted daughter, even though she was not hers, because she had been bringing her up for most of her life, and had grown quite attached to her. The father at first thought it was a joke when she told him, but after a while of her convincing, he believed her, and he got really angry, because she kept it a secret for 16 years from him. The father in the end just said the daughter would go off with the celebrity, for the daughter would have lots of money and nice things. It would have been really heartbreaking for the adopted mother to tell the adopted child, because she knew the daughter would definitely decide to go with the celebrity, for fame and fortune and popularity. The forms we used for this were mostly thought tracking again, when the wife was saying how she id not want to lose her adopted daughter or her husband, because she loved them, and it helped us in this piece to show all sides of the story, and why different roles in this piece do things or lie to loved ones, usually in this case to protect, care for and avoid heartbreak and anger.
We also had to act out the most effective pieces when the celebrity came to the adopted mothers house. We did the celebrity at the front door to show the mothers tension, the dinner table to show celebrities influence on daughter, celebrities arm round daughter to show anger of adopted mother, the mother at dinner table looking angry at celebrity to show husbands suspicion and dad comforting adopted mother with child to show how worried the mother is of celebrity taking daughter away from them. We used thought tracking and freeze frame to really show how different people feel, and the solutions other people want but they know will never happen, because of something better influencing others. There would have been a lot of tension between the mother and the celebrity because the mother felt like the celebrity was quickly dragging the daughter away, for fame an fortune compared to the mother who saw herself as boring and ordinary, which she thought was a huge disadvantage. The mother would also have found it really hard to hold back certain emotions when the celebrity is taking her adopted daughter away. She was also worried that the husband would find the celebrity more attractive than she was, for the husband would have seen the celebrity as glamorous, beautiful, well dresses and exciting and the wife as boring, plain an simple. She was afraid she would be left alone.
The development phase
My letter was about telling the husband that the child was not really his. I was in the mothers shoes, and I was not very happy about telling him. I was scared about a number of things, such as losing my husband for never telling him, and him not fighting for her, because if he knew she was not really his, he would hate her, and therefore, hate her even more for not telling him. She was also afraid of the husband shouting at her, and just walking, and if the celebrity came an took the daughter away, there would be nobody there to stop the celebrity or fight for the daughter.
In my letter I tried to use lots of tension, with the mother converting to different things to talk about all the time, so she could avoid telling the husband the real truth. She was really scared of telling him, for how he would react, and she would have also been afraid of the husband telling the daughter himself, when she wanted to, to have the chance to try and sort things out.
When the husband read this, he would have felt really upset and angry, because nobody ever thought of telling him this, even though he had the right. He also would have felt stupid to know that he thought his wife was pregnant when it was just a pillow. This would have destroyed his dreams of having a real family, because he has wasted most of his life away already on something that is unreal to him.
Writing the letter helped me to develop the character by understanding where different people stand in a family like this, and why they say things. They may by lying in a good way to protect the family, or just to have a family. I have realised by being this character that sometimes you have to lie, but in this situation, always in a god way, because family in this situation always came first, especially children. Some people have bigger advantages than others because of who they are, an what they do. Some people have a disadvantage, because in some peoples eye who are really important in the carers eyes, they are just not good enough. This makes this person not become good enough to themselves, for they want to be seen as something, when really, there is nothing wrong with them. It is very often just spite and jealousy in the word that take these important things away from you.
This made me realise that the celebrity would come out on top in the end, for she was attractive to the wife’s husband, and seen as young fame and fortune to the daughter. Children are always going to be interested in having lots of money, and lots of men go for women who can give them a good life. The husband just wanted something better when he found out the child was not really his, for he was angry and frustrated for not knowing this before with the wife. This makes him think she thought he was not good enough to know. The daughter saw all her expensive birthday presents as a really big advantage to get the things she always wanted and desperately desired. She thought she could be better than all the rest, and take shortcuts in life.
My script was all about the choosing between the wife and the celebrity. The whole class had to get into groups, and make up a memory. Me, Becky, Adelaide and Nick made up a memory where basically the wife and the celebrity got into a huge fight over who was going to have the husband. In the end, the husband chose the celebrity.
I think the husband chose the celebrity because he thought she was a lot more attractive, had more money and more fame. Even though he found her attractive, I do not think he went with her for looks. I think he did really still love the wife, but he just went with the celebrity for fame and fortune. He knew as soon as he saw her there was a lot of money involved, and he could have great things like expensive clothes and jewellery, and things like a spacey home and really fast car. I do not think the celebrity will be going with him for love, but just to mess about. One day, the husband will realise what he really wants, but the wife will not be interested anymore, for she will see him as nasty and judging.
We came up with a lot of these ideas by thinking about the tension between the wife and the celebrity, and what the husband would probably go for in the end. We also thought about how the wife would react to a confrontation by the celebrity, and how the husband would react. We also thought about how upset the wife would feel, and how much pressure the celebrity would put on the husband to go with her, and how she would do anything to persuade the husband that his wife is too plain and ordinary for him, and how she could make him a lot better.
We thought this memory was important for the funeral, for it reflected how much bad things the celebrity did to hurt other people just to get her revenge on the wife for being with the husband. This shows that the celebrity did not deserve a good life, for she took an advantage of it, and this lead to her terrible death. The death represented the devil coming to get back, to let her burn in dreadful hell for being such a horrible person. It also reflected that sometimes fame and fortunes golden shine defeats over everything, and if you do not have it, you cannot have it.
I think it was important for this to be commemorated because it showed that bad actions in life always lead to something worse. It also represented an important part of the celebrities life that we never saw before, and it adds on to our mystery about her, and makes a point to the funeral.
Evaluation phase:
The whole workshop helped me to gain an understanding of the whole learning process on how famous people live their everyday lives, and how they deal with things, which helped me gain a lot of confidence, because I was acting in somebody else’s shoes who I always wanted to be like. Acting as a celebrity made me feel privileged in life, and I played a different role there from my school life. It also helped me to understand how different people affected my emotions, and how I was desperate to be higher things than I already was, like being a size 0 model. Even though I already had everything, I always still wanted a lot more.
The part of the workshop I found most effective was doing the nightmare, because it really showed the different thoughts, feelings and emotions of all the people involved, such as the adopted wife, husband, celebrity and daughter. The fact that there was a nightmare made me realise it was going to end badly, and somebody was going to get badly emotionally hurt. In this case it was the mother, because she was not good enough for anyone else, from leading a normal life and not being able to give enough things such as money.
The worst part of the workshop for me was doing the letter from the adopted wife to husband. I found it really hard to deal with certain emotions, and how to write about them. I also found it hard to stop the pressure in the wife’s writing, for it was hard to literally tell what had really happened.
We evaluated Stephanie Charles group on the script we made for them, which was all about an award that the celebrity had won, and how some people admired her for her talent, and how some people hated her for being so selfish. In the end, the celebrity got really annoyed with al the attention, and bored with all the rewards, for she had had lots. She wanted something better than a reward. They needed help on the celebrity sounding really happy for herself when she won the reward, and the audience really complicating in their facial expressions and actions to show that they hated her, or admired her.
The social influences have been how the celebrity acts around other people, whether they are ordinary or not, and it has taught me how to let other people have their own space when they need it, and how a celebrity feels when other people constantly gather round them just for being famous. Historical influences have been how different people remember the celebrities in their own way. It has taught me how to tell memories of other people considering on how you care for them, whether you like them or not, or it could influence other peoples thoughts on them. From all this I can conclude that famous people go through really hard lives and we never know it. No matter how many pictures you see of them or how many stories you read about them, they will never reveal absolutely everything. Some things people will never know unless they are a good friend or a nearby relative, or just simply a normal person involved.
