GCSE: Reviews of Personal Performances
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In this unit we looked at the beginning of Steven Berkoffs adaptation of Metamorphosis. We used various dramatic techniques and devices such as improvisation, freeze framing, mime and unison work.
The point of this was to establish a better understanding of the character of Gregor and how he feels about his life and his job. We performed an off-text improvisation to show this. We also decided to look at the monotony of Gregor Samsa's daily routine and reflect it within our piece. We did this by taking one daily cycle of getting up, going to work, coming home and then going to sleep and repeating it again and again. We also focused on the use of exaggerated mime in this exercise; we thought it would be more effective to show
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Teechers - John Goodber. Our play is a social comedy called Teechers and is all played by just 4 characters
My first act was to study all the different teachers of the school, I hoped this would help me into understanding my role as Mr Nixon more. I mainly looked at their body language, such as their stance when they in a walking or standing position and also their posture. When they spoke I considered their tone and also when they raise their voice and at what type of situations they do this in.
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Teechers - John Goodber. In my performance of teechers, I played the role of Jeff Nixon,
An example of this in my drama piece of teechers was when I had to teach a class, and, without the research I would have been unsure on how to act as if I am an older teacher but I did, which resulted in a more useful role. Along with that I also researched the time period it was set, the eighties. A time when education in poorer areas was appalling and was letting the students down. I needed to look into this as I am meant to be a man who has extremely strong views about it this, a mouthpiece of John godbers views.
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During the monologue I played the main character Ben and I explained how my friends and family tried so hard to make me happy but it never worked
I wanted the audience to understand in detail how Ben felt about the whole situation. Another piece of drama we created was about Ben's life. We were split into small groups to create a piece from. The form for the piece was still image and we also added narration, giving/telling each image a title. The first image was about Ben's 5th birthday, we showed this because we wanted to show the audience that Ben was not always grumpy and sarcastic but a happy boy and that he had his friends and family with him.
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The piece was based on domestic violent. The group used four still images. The first still image showed a happy family
On the second image it showed the dad attacking his wife and the rest of the family with sad faces, this showed me that the dad was not nice to his wife and the family knew it but they just couldn't do anything about it but just watch in sadness. The third image showed the dad putting on a normal face with the rest of the family putting a sad which showed that the dad didn't care about him hurting his wife and it also showed that the rest of the family were powerless.
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"Perils of Pauline"- Analysis. When we started our piece our teacher showed us The perils Of Pauline a melodrama in script form. When I read it I was excited about starting it because it was very over the top, an area of acting I love to pe
Moreover, we were unsure of how to stage a crash, so with careful thought, we decided upon using sound effects and a dramatic "flung forward" movement on our chairs. It seemed to work perfectly, and avoided the hassle of falling on the floor and having to get up quickly again. When reading about each character, we thought about what kind of status they had in the play. We considered that the voice quality was a certified signification, therefore brain storming the different tones sufficient for our individuality.
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Drama Explorative strategies - playing the role of Kipps in The Women in Black
* This still image was effective as it symbolised the confusion and inquisitive tension being made by Kipps' one look. * I particularly enjoyed the second groups still image, in which they portrayed the rescue attempt to where Kipps struggles to save the dog. Kipps was bent over, with one knee soiled into the ground, stretching forward with all his might, the body language revealing his frantic feelings to save the dog. The women in black is stood over Kipps with her neck craned and her arms stretched out, with her hands drooping, suggesting she is causing all of the horror.
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Drama coursework based on the play "Metamorphosis". Costume and personal performance.
No one else seems to notice so maybe I'm just exaggerating, I once heard someone say you get worried about the people you love; maybe that's what's happening, maybe I am feeling scared of my brother overworking. It's just sometimes; I wish he would speak to me. We've always had a connection Gregor and I, I was always the closest to him. We got along better than he did with any one else and I feel I could tell him everything.
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Drama journal - Voice is a huge part of drama and dance. Voice is an important communication skill which everyone requires. In voice you need clarity, you need to be accurate, you should keep a constant speed and you need to be able to sound more natural.
The class then evaluated everyone based on clarity, accuracy and if they had a fast speed. I enjoyed this activity greatly because I did one of the difficult ones and I won! Tongue twisters can improve your pronunciation and articulation. The alternations of phonemes cause a person to pronounce and articulate the tongue twister wrong. Repeating it over and over again can improve your pronunciation and articulation. Also, repeatedly saying a tongue twister will help to strengthen the muscles necessary for proper speech, while you practice the correct placement of your tongue, lips and teeth. I liked the way of how this was done, but everyone just told the one they knew the best.
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As a part of our GCSE Drama course we have explored the script of After Juliet.
One activity we did was to explore multiple characters through role-play. We were asked to create different interpretations of a conversation between Benvolio and Valentine in our assigned pairs. Charlie and I decided to interpret the conversation between the two characters as a friendlier, joking confrontation. I suggested that we start the role-play with Benvolio sitting on a bench and Valentine pacing in front of him until the two start arguing. This worked well in our scene so we decided to add movement for our characters, for example; when Benvolio questions Valentine and asks "Do you call my love a trout, sir?", while holding onto Valentines shirt collar.
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As a part of our GCSE Drama assessment we have explored the topic of Stolen Lives. Which focused on war and how war steals lives within a society.
We showed this recruiter standing and greeting a young man in the first image. In doing so we used the Brechtian idea of having a placard saying 'Recruit for a damaged soul!!' This illustrated the idea of a boy blind to the reality of war because a Lieutenant has made him believe that he will come home as a hero. In the second freeze frame we showed the Lieutenant (played by Georgia) during the year 1916. In the image he is stood over Moritz and beating him, this helped the audience to understand the reality and brutality of war.
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Discuss in detail how you would play either Audrey or Angela in Scene 8 of Blue Remembered Hills. You will need to refer to voice, movement, gesture and facial expression, as well as to know how your chosen character responds to the other ch
So therefore she would not let someone else touch her pram or push it along unless the person did something for her, as we find out near the end of the scene. Also as I push the pram, I would now and then look at Audrey to see for signs of jealousy and also have a grin on my face because I will be enjoying the feelings of Audrey. When Audrey is speaking at the beginning of the scene; "...and her wouldn't...I said" I would have a very concentrated face and I would achieve this by frowning slightly and looking directly at Audrey and occasionally nodding.
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Discuss in detail how you would play either Peter or Willie in Scene 2 of Blue Remembered Hills. You will need to refer to voice, movement, gesture and facial expression, as well as to know how your chosen character responds to the other cha
Just then, something else grabs their attention. If I was playing as Peter, I would say the line, "Can't you...matches?" in a pretty commanding voice and with my hands, I would mime striking a match with a grin on my face. Then I would act as if I am lighting a gorse bush as I'm saying the line "Set fire to a gorse bush" and I would stick my tongue out in excitement as I set fire to my imaginary gorse bush.
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Throughout the second Drama course, we have been studying a play called East is east. We used a variety of different medium and elements of drama as well as explorative strategies
My group and I used four individual scenes to represent the stages of the marriage. At the end of each scene we would use the exploitive strategy, still image, then a transition into the next scene. This helped create an image in the minds of the audience that allowed the play to be simpler and more creative. Each audience member could visualize their own interpretation of what was to occur next and why. Mediums and elements used such as levels, created the effect of authority and minorities in the play. Moreover, the characters could be seen as 'respected' who were higher up and minorities who would be lower to the ground.
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Throughout the aboriginal research and acting drama course, my drama group and I have made impressive progress as everyone has proven to be an incredible performer. Some of the drama texts we captured and performed mainly consisted of art, music and play
One of the plays we studied and performed was rabbit Proof Fence which mainly consisted of the stolen generation. We rehearsed the scene where the police officer would take away the children; this was a perfect opportunity to effectively use the strategies in order to emphasise the moment. The strategies used were still image, thought track and role play. Still image was used in the beginning of the play and at the end of the play to ensure the audience could understand the scenario; we used different levels to create a greater effect and gestures to show each characters different emotion.
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Drama Assignment. We chose to do our drama assignment on improvisation as we could make up lines whilst sticking to a certain theme when we were acting.
Here, I showed how happy I was, being with my friends and making food. It soon burst into song as we were so happy! The song was about different types of soup and flavours. We were all happy and talkative until Lucy knocked over a vase that Molly received from her Grandma that recently passed away. Anger ensued and I tried to talk them away from anger since I felt awkward in the situation. Here, we saw the flaws that our friendships had. Later in the performance, we soon saw Molly arguing with her parents and getting mixed in with the wrong types of friends.
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GCSE Drama: Responding (Sparkleshark)
We wanted our scene to show that his parents really do care for him, but that the only thing Jake really cares for is his passion for writing stories. To show the parents' concerns for Jake, we had them constantly asking him questions as to why he was so late home from school and whether the reason he wasn't eating was because he was being bullied. Jake finally can't take it any more and storms upstairs to his room slamming the door behind him.
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Drama development task
Stand up for yourself, show the world the Beth Harrison I know, love and am proud of. Remember our first birthday, dad was still here. Mum and dad had given us a balloon each. Yours was white and mine was pink. I want you to have mine and always keep it with you, don't lose it, keep it with you forever. Remember our first day in school; everyone said that we were weirdoes. They kept calling us twinnies, and mum said that it was because we were special, that only special people were called twinnies or weirdoes.
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Brechtian Performance- Requirement
I thought my character was actually going to be quite comical aswell as the two contestants in 'America's next top model'. I thought the small comments i was going to make toward Tanisha playing 'the obese contestant; Tanya', however because of tanisha's character and Oliver's character being funny it wasn't such an issue. I think i need to think about what the audiences response will be towards what i will say and do. How i said things in the performance i think was essential to the audiences response; whether they laugh or understand what message we're trying to tell them.
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Brechtian Performance- Evaluation
We also introduced a god, who was 'God of the Gays'. ?? 2. How well did you think you used them (Popular audince reaction/engagement/understanding. Critical; opinions of other practitioners & Self; personal targets you may have set yourself)?? Our group used these techniques to our greatest ability. With montage, we had a slow motion scence in which we were chasing the robber, but we broke it to re-introduce the obvious humour, and used that as a transistion back into naturalistic. ??Hamzah, who played the God of the Gays, made sure that the god was as far from gay as possible, which made the contrast quite funny, because had he overreacted and exaggerated the
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Brechtian Performance- Combining Themes
But instead of introducing our group's piece in a conventional way, I spoke and referred to myself in third person while giving stage directions. This was to meet the criteria as well as to tailor our theatre piece into the style of Brecht. To go further with this idea we had 'God, played by Jasmin, directly confront our 'stage crew' about her 'theme song' and the audience by directly telling them who she was (her lines were simply, "I am God").
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Brechtian Performance- Message Delivery
Also, when God entered, the music We Will Rock You was played in the background, juxtaposing God's holiness and seriousness and creating opportunities for comedy at the same time. I think certain Brechtian techniques were utilized quite well in our piece of epic theatre. By choosing the tale of Adam and Even, we do not need introductions or monologues in order for the audience to understand the characterizations of the roles - even if not everyone is religious, I think it can be assumed that the whole of the audience are quite familiar with the basics of the tale.
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Brechtian Performance- Second Reflection
We also used a popular song the YMCA and changed the words according to our social issue and story. Other Brechtian techniques we used were scene cross cutting, gestus and greeze frames and we also had a narrator who introduced our play. 2. How well did you think you used them (Popular audince reaction/engagement/understanding. Critical; opinions of other practitioners & Self; personal targets you may have set yourself) I think that our group used most of the techniques very well.
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Brechtian Performance- Experience
We attempted to make the play funny and keep the audience interested. For example, with the cross cutting scene, even though Chloe was just reciting facts the audience were still engaged as they watched me eat chips and laughed. We attempted to 'break the fourth wall' by using placards when Oliver and I walked down the catwalk. When Oliver presented himself Nicola held up the "Clap" sign. When I walked, she held the "Cringe" sign. I would set myself the target of trying to make sure i don't cross the line between representing the stereotype and making fun of the stereotype.
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Brechtian Performance- Gestus
To add up more comedy into our play, we used a song to sing during the play. The song that we used is called 'can't help falling in love' by Elvis Presley, which also relates to our social improvement of gay rights and expression of love as the song contains lyrics which talk about those ideas.? Comedy routines and jokes are incorporated as well; they are used as speeches by main characters to convey to the audience about their feelings on the issues of the social improvement. Gestus is used as well, as each of the characters in the play are related to a specific part of society, such as Julius represents the populace of gay homosexuals and that the narrator is the 'law'.?
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