Skill Development
I feel as an actor i have several strengths when performing. As i have been acting regularly for two years now i feel i have a good vocal projection range, this is helped by the fact i used to do singing when i was younger. I think i play angry or loud characters better than playing characters whose main aim is to use symbolism to get across their point rather than words. I am a very confident performer so i don't think this will prove to be a problem. I feel that when performing however i need to concentrate more on my positioning on the stage in correspondence to the audience and how my stature affects the impression i am giving. I also would like to work on my gestures as i tend to just randomly throw my hands about whereas i feel i could use them to more effect to emphasize my line or point that i am saying/making.
This is the first time i have worked with the people in my group so i would like to create more of a bond with them as well as learning their different acting techniques and what they are good at. This is my first opportunity to use a piece of audience interaction so i will be looking to develop this as well as making the audience member(s) comfortable with me.
To improve our skills and techniques my group rehearsed different methods of audience participation including a visual explanation of the plot and singing. But we decided on a comedy show where part of our group joins with the audience in watching, whilst also interacting with them about the performance. We practiced this with other members of our drama group who were not in our particular performance to try and perfect this technique as well as practicing in with one of my friends outside college. We spent a lot of time thinking about how best to show the dual storyline and decided on having a repeat scene at the start and finish but with different dialogue to show the journey our main character has gone through. We also decided to use two scenes which gave hints about the true identity of our character without revealing it completely.
In the early rehearsals's we used used techniques such as hot-seating and character placement to try and put together a character that would be best suited to the person acting and once done to put us in the right frame and mind and visualisation for the character i was trying to portray.
For my specific character, i needed to develop a very different posture and auora for my character. My character did not have a name as in our piece we wanted to stereotype him into the mean,rich,bully type who has everything his own way and bullies those under him. For this i had to develop a much more up-right posture as my natural one is quite sloppy and relaxed, i also had to work on my body positioning and eyeline as to show higher confidence i would always keep my head up and as still as possible. I needed to create a steady yet authorizing gait, and practice keeping my gaze as this would be important when giving orders or threatening Alex in the piece. I need to perfect my anger tone as this is what i will be using for the majority of the piece.
As my character I tried to limit my movement as this shows a much more commanding presence than someone who is constantly moving or fidgety. By doing this it also seemed that my character took up more of the space just because of his presence this was to establish the fact that he was of a high status and many people respected him. Throughout the piece I tried to keep a very serious facial expression as that was the type of character i was playing very serious and efficient. I used facial expression at key moments for example when i was showing my disgust with Alex's performance i looked at him with dis-taste as if i was looking at something worthless as this was the audience was supposed to be feeling for Al. I also used my vocal tone to suggest the realism of the piece. For example when Al was performing in his stand up scene i spoke to the people next to me in a hushed voice as if they were really watching a stand-up comedy show.
As i was playing a Comedy Manager/Mental Institution manager from North England i was not required to change or put on an accent. Instead i spoke with a very commanding and deeper than usual tone to show his status and experience.
I felt that in my final performance i managed to perform as an actor to a higher standard than i would have been able to before the project started, but i do still feel there is room for me to improve. I think my character needs to be exaggerated more to show that he is a symbol of all the people who have bullied Al throughout his life and just a typical version of them. I think my voice was fairly good and steady throughout but may have wavered slightly at some points, this will need working on. We also managed to perform a very successful play with only 4 people and two props, this showed me how simple yet effective theatre really can be. I also feel that this piece has made me want to play more bad guys in the future as i feel it suits my acting skills to play angry and nasty characters.
The Piece's Development
At the beginning our idea was to sit down right a story and choose characters then assigned each person to a character and go from there. We realised early on this would be much too unimaginative,pointless and uninteresting. So instead we took the type of character each of us felt we would be strong at playing after the hot-seating exercise and began to create a story around them. We then realised we were heading too much towards the realism end of the scale and a soap style performance. So this got us thinking again and we decided to use the dual-storyline so as to implement our naturalistic scenes but in a sense of non-realism. We also decided early on that unlike most of the other groups we wanted our performance to act as a light relief from the seriousness and to include humour into it. Saying this we also wanted to get across a very serious message and idea's of an insane person and did not intend for the whole performance to be humorous. We decided that the best way to portray that Al was insane without actually saying it was to show scenes of what he thought was happening. We then threw in little hints that Al was really in a mental institution and what the audience was seeing was only what Al believed was going on in his head. We added my character saying 'Time' to signal the end of visiting time when his sister was with him and also Danny character coming to fetch the Institution manager after Al attempted suicide. We did this to see wether the audience would pick up on it and if they didn't it would make them think, 'Why did they say that' thus increasing there interest and intrigue. We didn't set out in our piece to produce a action,comedy or romantic drama but let it flow and become whatever it wanted, this gave us much more freedom to experiment with idea's and suggestion's. It was this freedom that led to us introducing the box to our performance. The box was there for no particular reason but to stimulate the audience's imagination, we on purposely do not tell the audience what is in the box as we do not know ourselves, it can be whatever the audience want it to be. Although our original idea was that it was this thing Al was searching for in his life but could never find and this ultimately lead to his Mental breakdown.
My personal contribution to the piece was to sort out the music although in the end we decided that silence suited it better as it proved more effective to the audience. I also had to decide on my personal costume as did all the group whilst contributing in every rehearsal to things or aspects i personally felt could have been improved about the piece as well as taking into account other people's thoughts and suggestions.
As a group it was clear from the start that we all had very different personalities and idea's and this caused slight problems at first with some people wanting a more naturalistic storyline etc But as son as we got the base of our piece sorted the group gelled really well and everyone was very committed and prepared for the piece. We all listened to each others idea's and made constructive criticism about other people and ourselves and i think this helped a lot as it meant we could respect each other more as actors and take their accounts into view. We used the majority of the rehearsal time to good effect although at times it was difficult to concentrate due to one thing or another. We decided against using many props as we wanted our piece to be as character focussed as possible, showing the skill of the person as an actor rather than how well he/she can use props.
Overall our piece was one that made the audience think,question,wonder and pay attention throughout, i think this made for a very good first try at a devised piece of theatre. I as part of the group felt i was someone who was willing to try idea's, take advice and contribute.
Health and Safety
We rehearsed the majority of our performance on either the stage or the ground area and as these area's are mostly clear anyway there was not too much that needed doing health and safety wise. We always made sure we could make contact with the relevant person in case of an accident or emergency and we always made sure we worked in groups of two or more so that no one was on their own in case they had an accident.
The real performance had more opportunity for accidents to occur so we took much more care when making sure it was safe. All electrical equipment so in our case the microphone was P.A.T tested to insure its safety. We also made sure there was easy access available to all the fire doors and exits and that no more than 100 people were sat in the theatre to avoid over-crowding and a potential fire hazard.
Before our actual performance to avoid any chance of physical injury and also to help prepare mentally for the performance we did a series of breathing, vocal and muscular exercises.
Final Review
In terms of a piece of drama it was very successful we received lots of compliments from the audience and they found the piece very entertaining and funny. It terms of wether it got the reaction we were looking for it varied, we were very pleased to get the laughs at some of the places we did but at others it was not supposed to be funny, for future reference i will remember this and make sure we do something more clear to defiantly change the feeling in the audience. The audience participation worked very well as it kept them alert at all times and meant they were watching something a bit different to what they were used to.
I think we fulfilled our aims that we set out to do in the beginning as it defiantly left the audience wondering as many of them after the show asked me what was in the box. And i can receive as well from the laughter throughout the piece that our other aim of getting them to sympathise with Al was successful as well, they wouldn't laugh at someone they didn't relate to and feel a certain warmth towards.
From this project i have realised that you do need a varied group of actors as each can bring in their own certain skills and make a successful piece of theatre, you also need to approach it with an open mind and be willing to try things you might not at first like the sound of. The best thing to do is try because if you don't try things you will never get anywhere.
STAND UP, AL
AS Drama Devised Piece Portfolio
Luke Tremlett
