Blue Remembered Hills - Part 1
Scripted Performance: Blue Remembered Hills In November 2009 we preformed a scripted assessment of Blue Remembered Hills, as an ensemble performance, in which I played John in scenes 11 - 16. This was based on the research we did about life in the Second World War and the writer Dennis Potter. In this essay, I will compare Blue Remembered Hills to Blood Brother by Willie Russell. I will look at the similarities and the differences. Blue Remembered Hills is very different from Dennis Potters other plays as it is much more naturalistic and simplistic in form and content. However, the simplicity and naturalism in the writing is in direct contrast to the performance; this is because Potter has chosen to have his seven year old characters played by adults. This does not keep with the naturalistic themes of the play; by doing this Potter has managed to highlight the children's emotion and actions by having them all most magnified. Blue Remembered Hills is the story of a group of seven, seven year olds on a summer holiday afternoon. They are: Angela, Audrey, Peter, John, Donald, Willie, and Raymond. It is set in the west of England, in the Forest of Dean in 1943. At this time Potter would have been around the same age as his character, implying the facts, language and storylines in the play could have been based on his own experiences. On the other hand, Blood Brothers is about
Improvisation involves a variety of different factors.
Improvisation Improvisation involves a variety of different factors such as: * Imagination * Co-operation * Immediacy * Thinking quickly * Listening and Watching * Being Open to others suggestions * Relying on feelings * Word association * Brainstorming If all these factors are combined then a good improvisation will be formed. The first type of improvisation we studied was ' Spontaneous Improvisation'. This involved three sections impromptu, polished and extended. The first piece of 'impromptu improvisation' we did was done by us being given a title and then devising a scene for it. The first title was running away, in which we had to pair together and come up with a scene. For this title my partner (Jelani) and I did a scene in which two people were going crazy staying where they were and wanted to run away. We created this scene by shouting at each other and talking continuously to give the impression that we were going crazy. Also we used body language to suggest getting away such as moving our hands away from our bodies and we fidgeted to reflect the fact that we weren't happy and wanted to get away from where we were. I think this improvisation worked well because me and Jelani made it believable and we were very lively and vivid. The second title we were given was " On the Streets" for this improvisation we worked in-groups of 5 or 6. In my group were
"Heat" - Structure: The structure of this story leads you to believe that the characters death will revolve around the heat.
Jamie Hinkle Professor Maas Eng 202 Journal "Heat" Structure: The structure of this story leads you to believe that the characters death will revolve around the heat. In a way this is true. The twin girls go out for a bike ride one hot day to get some ice cream. This is were the tragedies take place. The boy in the ice cream truck, Roger Whipple, lures them back to his house and kills them. So in a way, the title heat is very important because this lets us know why Rhea and Rhoda are going there in the first place, and lets us know more about the two characters better as a whole. This is better for our knowledge rather then just going into the story and us seeing them go get some ice cream. The way they are able to go get the ice cream is because they steal the money from their grandmother. This lets us know that they do everything together, it isn't a relationship were one wants to do something and the other doesn't. They are always together. This is very important for us to know, because this is what gives us our insight when the girls go to Roger Whipple's room together, and why they have the feelings they do when they are apart. We are able to see that Rhea and Rhoda never go anywhere alone, and because of this they have a great bond with each other. So when one of them is in some sort of trouble, the other is very easy to recognize this. Even though it
Development Phase- Unit 1 (Drama)
Development Phase The first half of the stage is the attic of George and Ella's semi-detached house in Salford Manchester, everyone in their neighbourhood is white. The stage is divided into two parts, the attic is slightly raised, and a step ladder is needed to reach it. This contrasts to the other half of the stage, set in the war time, an Anderson bomb shelter. The whole stage must give the impression of a dark and musty place. The attic is littered with objects- ancient mobiles, toys and bric-a-brac, there are also boxes stacked against the walls. Whereas the bomb shelter is empty except for piles of yellowing newspaper and a couple of mouldy blankets. Whilst in blackout Ella: Meenah Silence MEENAH? Meenah: Did you say something mam? Ella: I have some boxes I need you to take up to the attic for me. Meenah: In a minute, I'm just... Ella: Not in a minute, NOW Meenah: Alright alright, I'm coming! Ella: mutters audibly I should think you are! Lights are up on the attic, Meenah Enters. Meenah: she is heaving a box, her footsteps are loud and heavy, she is muttering angrily to herself why is it always me? She drops the box and a newspaper, a book of ration tickets and a necklace fall out The boys never have to do anyth- she pauses, bends down and picks up the newspaper Junk! Me Mams making me cart up her junk! She begins to read '8th of September 1940'- Wow,
This monologue has been developed form a split scene performance about a young, aboriginal child, who has been taken away from her aboriginal family so that she can be adopted into a white family.
Tanushri Gukhool (10c) GCSE Drama (1699) Paper 1, Unit 1 Portfolio Task 1 (AO1) - Development This monologue has been developed form a split scene performance about a young, aboriginal child, who has been taken away from her aboriginal family so that she can be adopted into a white family. Clover unfreezes. She is five years old with long dark hair, messy and unbrushed. Her white outfit stands out against her dark skin. Her face shows uncertainty and pure confusion. She doesn't feel she belongs there, but she ahs no choice. Why am standing here with people who look so different to me? (She looks to the audience for an answer). This can't be right, mum mummy and daddy look like me, have the same skin, same hair, same eyes, same everything. So do my brothers and sisters. We're all the same (looking around confused). Not like these people. My family wears the same clothes as me. (Pause - looks down in disgust as what she is wearing now)...not what I'm wearing now! (Face suddenly turns bright and happy, and her voice gets louder) we live on land, outside with nature and the wilderness. (Remembering where she is her voice gets deeper and quieter, begins to sound upset) Not in houses with lots of beds and a church. (Voice gets louder, she looks up) We make our own music, with our own instruments that we made. We share stories, poems, and the grown ups teach us how to survive
Drama Scripted Coursework: Think of a story quickly and Cage birds.
Becci Geach 10WV Drama Scripted Coursework: Think of a story quickly and Cage birds. The practical work which we were assessed on, 12th May was a piece of scripted entitled, "Think of a story quickly!" by David Selbourne. This script covered themes of peer pressure, ostracism and conformity. There were three characters, one in which announces that she has a new boyfriend, this being Louisa played by Rosie. Automatically, the other two characters, Kathy played by Sarah and Jane, played by myself laugh hysterically and "poke fun" at Freddie Louisa's new boyfriend. This teasing leads to tension between the three girls and a total rejection of Louisa. In order to become totally in tune with my character I based myself upon someone I found very similar to my character and mirrored the way she spoke, she walked, the gestures she used, and her facial expression become an important part of Jane's character. I did some observation on year 9 girls and also watched a few old "Grangehill" episodes, We also closely watched another Play, Cage birds. This play conveys a strong political message of conformity, rejection, indoctrination and liberation. The characters are depicted as having bird-like qualities, twitching and move weaving through each other speaking in a series of desultory mumblings. It soon becomes clear that these are people who have been institutionalized and are
Comparison between our improvisation project and The Shawshank Redemption
Comparison between our improvisation project and "The Shawshank Redemption" During this term we have been working on presenting a play based on the theme of liberty. Our particular play is entitled Checkpoint Charlie. This is for option three, improvisation. I will be devising as well as developing this play with three other students from my GCSE drama class in a group of four. I will play the role of Hannah; the daughter of Franz and Bridgett and a sibling to Peter. Hannah is the oldest of the two children. Hannah cares a lot her about her brother, Peter and sacrifices herself instead of him to move away with her alcoholic father, Franz. We began working on this play in January and we expect to present this to the rest of our class in March. The storyline of our play is based on a German family struggling with the effects of a physical barrier; the Berlin wall. We have tried to include our research, for example the dates of which important events happened. We also did some research about a man named Peter who actually died trying to cross the Berlin wall, so our play relates to a true story. To research our project we watched the film "The Shawshanks redemption". The Shawshanks Redemption is a 1994 movie, written and directed by Frank Darabont. The film's main character, Andy Dufresne, was wrongly convicted of murdering his wife and was sentenced to two life sentences in
creating atmosphere
Creating an Atmosphere Recently we have been doing a play whilst trying to create an atmosphere. The idea behind this unit was to create an atmosphere that was seasonal at this time of year, which is winter. Normally when watching a film, which has a wintry atmosphere it, would be something like a Dracula, Ghost stories, Murder Mysteries etc, so one of these ideas would be ideal for a play, as ancestors & scriptwriters have described to us in films and stories for hundreds of years. Before we got into groups and started the improvisation we did a few warm ups to help. Some of these warm ups helped us to express our emotions more fluently, there was one activity in particular that was particularly odd. In pairs we had to do an improvisation based on a game of chess, however this was no ordinary game of chess, this game of chess was arranged with "Death" the grim reaper himself and an innocent human playing for his/her life in which the grim reaper would then posses. During this improvisation we had show many different emotions contrasting with this event such as fear, stress and nervousness. I used a few small expressions like biting my nails and hesitating whilst taking my turn, which showed the audience that I was careful/cautious. However I wasn't performance wasn't extremely effective in persuading the audience that I was. When we had
Drama Coursework on Education - The Response Phase
The topic presented to our drama group for this piece of coursework was education. A topic which we ourselves as pupils have much experience of, education plays a central role in modern society ultimately preparing each generation for adult life. Yet the educational system we experience today in the UK is profoundly different to the educational systems of the past and indeed, the educational systems of third world countries such as Africa. To explore educational issues and some of the similarities and differences of other educational systems in relation to our own, we were given a variety of stimuli, and it is these I will discuss. We looked at several different views of education from several different time periods, and explored them through the medium of drama. The first stimulus was in the form of a talk from our drama teacher. Her experience of education was from the 1960's and from a Catholic convent. A key difference which I noted between her education and our educational system today was the level of discipline enforced. Another important difference was the level of respect for teachers, and indeed other pupils. As our class discussed the issues raised from the talk, we decided bullying was an important issue raised from the discussion. To explore the idea further, we experimented with the technique of having a conscience alley. The idea behind a conscience alley is to
How I Developed My Characters
In my drama piece I have been creating during lesson times, I have played several characters to experiment with different ideas for the play. The characters I have played have ranged in personality and how they act; for example, the vicar I portray in the first scene is completely different to how I act as a Bully for the remaining scenes. I think that having the ability to multi-role in my performances show that I can be two totally diverse characters, showing personality traits that are nothing like me in real life. At the beginning of the year, when I had just started the drama course, I thought of some interesting personalities and habits for my characters as soon as we thought of some ideas. Although I had some good ideas to start with, those ideas have changed as the piece has progressed. Originally, I decided that the Bully I portray throughout the performance was going to be loud and boisterous, and she didn't care if she was caught because she would be more than happy with being excluded for a few days. This seemed like a good idea to start with. When my group created more scenes of the play, I decided my character would be different than I first planned. Now, the Bully is still mean to people she doesn't like but she is less upfront about it, and feels almost ashamed when she is caught by the teachers or other students who witnessed her bullying other people. I