Physical Movment

We had a lesson were we focused on improving and controling our physical movement to help us with portraying our character. Movent helps portray a character because you get a lot from the way character, stand, walk and sit.
We chose one monolgoue to focus on and improve the physical movmenet of that character. I chose the character form 'Like a Virgin,' Angela.

Tension StateWe focued on the movement of our bodies and where should hold tension. The exercise we did involved walking arounf the room the room in a nutral status and slowly changing into the mood of the character that they are feeling during the monologue. Whilst doing this exercise we had to focus on where we were feeling tension and what body part was naturally leading. In the case of Angela she was leading with her head because she was in an angry mood and had a point that she wanted to prove. She was focusing with her eyes on what was infront of her and had a large amout of tension in her upper body to she her anger and agression.
This helped me in my monogloe becuase it made me awair that i should focus on one spot when directing talking to Maxine to show I was talking to someone.  This exersie also helped me to hold my body during my monologue and hold tension in my shoulders. This helped me to control my physical movement.

Warming Up

In our rehearsal process we have been doing a series of breathing exercises before each rehearsal to warm up our vocals. These sessions are clips made, recorded and published by the National Theatre.
Breathing

The breathing exercises help to control our breathing whilst on stage performing. It also helps to extend the capacity of the breath as well as help to get a scenes of deep breathing all the way through the body. This has helped me in my acting because I find it easier to day longer sentences without having to take pauses to breath. It has also helped to stretch out my body and muscles were I should be breathing, such as my lungs and lower tummy.
It is very important that an actor has control over the body. The breathing is known to be one of the hardest things to control. This is why this video clip is very useful because if done on a daily basis then it can improve control over the breathing. It is especially useful in an audition because the panel will be looking for control and this will help show you have control over every part of your body. Being able to control your breathing will also help when in a situation were you may get nervous, like an audition. When people get nervous often the breathing gets deeper, louder and faster. Being able to control the breathing will help cover your nerves which again is essential for an audition.    

Suitability

The reason why I have chosen these two monogloues is because I feel I can relate to aspects of both of the characters which makes them highly suitable for me.
Rosie
I feel like I can relate to the character of Rosie. I can remember what it was like being eight years old and growig up with older siblings in a community where I was playing with other children up to 10 years older than me. I was very much like Rosie in the fact that I always wanted to be like the older children and always pretended I was older than my actual age.
Also, like Rosie, I was very much in love with dollys. I always used to play with them and talk to them which helps me understand the relationship and the way Rosie would be acting towards the dolly in the monologue.
This monolgoue exites me becase I think that it desplays a very typical eight year old who's birthday is going all wrong, stroppy, upset and angry. This exites me because it gives me the opportunity to use facial expressions to display how I am feeling.
Angela
I feel like I can understand the character of Angela making the part suitable for me. I am ony 17 years old so Angela is of a very similar aged to me at 16 so I have the physical appearence of a 16 year old. I also know what it is like to be that age, as it was only a year ago. Some may argue that this is not a suitable monologue for me because Angela has Lukeamia and I have not been through anythng like that in my life or nessaccerelly known someone who has . However in a previuos peice of work we deviced a perfomance about a little girl with Lukeamia. This involved carrying out a lot of research into what it was like to have it and all of the mental effects that it has on the patiants and their families.
This monologue exites me because it could be interpreted in so many different ways. When people are diegnosed with terminal illnesses they have very different reactions. This allowed me to take my own unique edge onto the monologue and perform it in what ever way I like expressing what ever emmosion that I want to. I have chosen to take an angery approch which is very similar to ym personallity. It also exites me because I have the opportunity to perform using a Northern accent which will help show my versitility in my vocal skills.

Contrast

Contrast

To fit the criteria of an Audition for an actor I chose the two monologues, Angela from 'Like a Virgin' and Rosie from 'My Mother Said I Never Should,' because they are very contrasting.There are three main ways how these two monologues contrast and that is through style, age of characters and character accent.

Style

I feel that these two monologues contrast in style as one is more comical containing an archetypal character and the other is of a more serious style.
My monologue from 'My Mother Said I Never Should' shows my character, an eight year old girl, toughing a tantrum because her birthday is going badly. To start this is a very typical thing for an eight year old to do. When your young your birthday is the best event ever and you feel on top of the world and children are not happy if it goes wrong.
It is also very amusing to the audience to watch because in the monologue, Rosie, is burying her dolly because she states that she is too old for them. However even though she is convincing herself and the doll that she is too old, she is talking to the doll and hearing responses from it. For example, in the monologue, Rosie says, "Mummies give there babies away sometimes...They do." This shows she is hearing responses form the doll and reacts to it like children do, displaying to the audience that she clearly is not to old to play with her dollies.  

My monologue from 'Like a Virgin' address very serious issues. Angela talks to her friend about her condition, Lukeamia, and how it is killing her. She talks angrely about how people react when she tells them she only has 4 weeks to live. This is not a laughable situation or issue creating the contrast between the two monologues. 

Age

This is one of the biggest contrasts between the two monologues. Rosie is 8 and Angela is 16 which is a large age gap and in this time you grow from a child to a woman showing different, physical, mental and vocal differences. To show this I am going to use mainly my body and facial expressions. I will use my body as Rosie as being low to the floor because children often sit on the floor, I will fidget and show flexibility in my legs.
For Angela I will stand for much of it, use a broader and more harsh voice. I will also pronounce my words better to show my age difference vocally. 

Accent 

This is the more obvious contrast. Rosie is from South-London as where Angela is from Middlesbrough. I will perform my monologues in the two difference accents. This will help show a big contrast in my two characters that I will be performing but will also show off to the audition panel my versatility of vocal skills.        

Rosie's Monologue

This is the monologue that I am going to be performing in my audition from the play 'My Mother Said I Never Should.'

It's my birthday and it's all gone wrong already... I'm going to bury you, Suky, eight is too old for dolls. I want a Sex Pistols t-shirt. Some hope. Unless, Jackie, brings me one. I would have buried you ages and ages ago, Suky, if you hadn't been Mums. I couldn't care less if she sees me doing this. Suky. Stupid name. Even cutting your hair off didn't make you go punk...I bet Mum cuddled you and stuff didn't she.. Well I only hug people when I want to. And not when its visitors. When I want to, I can hug harder than anyone, in the world... I'm saving it. I was going to give you away to a toy collection at school, did you know that? Mummies give their babies away sometime. They do! Shut up crying... I'm putting you in this urn, see. People get buried in urns. Jackie will be here soon. She never cry's. No one else at school has a sister who's a grown-up. I could easily run away and live with her. Then you'd be sorry, Suky. So would Mum... I'm going to paint the cherry tree now, for Jackie.

Angela's Monologue

This is the Monologue that I will be performing in my audition from the play 'Like a Virgin.'

No, you go. I don't feel up to it... I've got to live a bit. Maxine, I'm dying. I don't know why but I am. I don't know why I've been picked to have such a shit-awful life. What have I done that's so bloody wrong?
So you can piss off with your, 'Let's be jolly,' routine. With you, 'Lets pretend everything's alright and we'll have a laugh like we used to in the old day's.'... Do you know something? I've never had sex. I'm a virgin. Yeah I know what I said, what we said, but...well, they were just stories full of me, us trying to be gorwn-up. But I'm never gonna grow  up. I'll never grow up and be a woman and have children. Why me? Why the fucking hell does it have to be me? It's not fair. How would you like it if someone told you that you were gonna die? Come on, it's not easy is it? YOU ARE GOING TO DIE. You have got four weeks to live. What are you going to do? It's not easy is it, is it, and people are so full of understanding... so full of shit. 'I'd go on holiday, I'd travel.' What is the point in spending your time in spending your time in strange lands with strange people? S you'll have lots of happy memories and photographs to look back on. When? I haven't got time, I'm dying. What's the point in laying on the beach getting a tan? So I'll look good in coffin. So people will be able to gork into my coffin with...with..tear-stained eyes and say...'She looks really good'...'She's the best suntanned corpse I've ever seen'... Well, they can all fuck off. Sometimes I feel as though I should have some dignity and write poems and raise money for charity an' all that...Be a symbol for other people to look up to. But why should I? What has anyone ever done for me? Look at you, you're pathetic stood there not wanting to say anything in case you hurt my feelings. Making excuses for me. 'It's her condition... It's understandable... She's just a bit down.' Well don't patronise me. Tell me to fuck off. Slap me. Go on. Go on. Go on, do something.

'My Mother Said I Never Should' Research

Synopsis
My Mother Said I Never Should was a play written in 1985 by Charlotte Keatley, first performed in Manchester in 1987. The play explores the lives and relationships of four generations of women; Doris, Margaret, Jackie and Rosie. It shows the different relationships between these mothers and daughters exploring the themes of independence, growing-up and secrets.
RosieIn my monologue the character I will be playing is Rosie. Rosie has a complicated and secret background when she was born into the world by her blood mother and teenager, Jackie. Being born in 1971 the issue of teenage pregnancy was extremely frowned upon Margaret, Jackie's mother, took her baby Rosie to raise as her own. Rosie brought up with Jackie as a grown up sister and looks up to her making her often act older than she is.
My Monologue
The monologue I will be performing is set in Margaret's garden in 1979 on Rosie's 8th birthday. Rosie is in the garden with her dolly, Suky, that was passed down through the generations. During her monologue she is burying her dolly explaining to it that she is too old for dolls. This monologue has a slight comic effect on the audience as she is talking to her dolly like any young girl but is saying she is too old for them.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Mother_Said_I_Never_Should   

'Like a Virgin' Research

One of the monologues I will be performing in my audition is from the play 'Like a Virgin' written by Gordon Steel in 1998.
Synopsis
Inspired and written around Madonna's album 'Like a Virgin,' explores the lives of two best friends who are filled with all the teenage interests such as boys, parties, clothes and secret hand shakes. The two girls, Angela and Maxine are completely obsessed with Madonna, like many young girls in the 80's, and have dreams to be famous until Angela's path changes their feature forever.
Angela
The character I am playing during the monologue is Angela, a 16 year old girl who has dream to be famous. Angela appears to be a normal teenage girl growing up in the 1980 however she is dealing with much more than any other 16 year old. Angela has Leukaemia and during the monologue she has just been told that she has 4 weeks to live. From looking at reviews of the production it appears that Angela warms up slowly however rapidly changes from a go happy teenager to a young girl battling a deadly illness. On top of her illness she had also got to deal with the reality of her parents, Mum Viv and Dad Monkey, breakup. The family from Northern England have to deal with a great change from the separation of Viv and Monkey to the death of Angela.
My Monologue
The monologue I am performing is from Angela herself. She is in her bedroom with best friend Maxine reflecting on how society has reacted to the news of her life expectancy which Angela sees as very unrealistic and pathetic. She explains to Maxine how she finds it unfair that she is going to die and try's to explain what it is like to be told you will die. It is a very sensitive monologue that touches a lot of different emotions from sad to angry and from depressed to aggressive.

 http://www.fringereview.co.uk/fringeReview/2582.html

Lamda Research

Drama School Research 
As we are looking at audition for actor and specifically at drama schools, I did some research into a drama school across the UK to see what I could find out.

LAMDA
LAMDA is the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts. It is an independent drama school offering vocational training in acting, stage management and technicians, directors and designers. This helps young people develop skills and high levels of creativity in order to produce the best opportunities in theatre, film, Radio and TV. Many applicants apply for to attend LAMDA at 18 years or above. Some are called for auditions and interviews which a panel will see before deciding on the usual 28 that are offered a place at the school each year.
Audition Process
They offer many different courses that LAMDA offers but for a standard three, two or one year acting course this is the requirements for the audition.
     Applicants should present:

•   One monologue from an Elizabethan or Jacobean play. 
• One monologue from a play written in the 20th or 21st centenary but not a piece written by yourself or an unknown or little known author. 

 After this process has taken place, applicants will go for a short interview. They expect applicants to be prepared to ask and answer questions accordingly. This makes it very important that applicants research into   the drama school and find out as much information as possible so no barriers occur when answering questions.
The school don't just have audition requirements for the material basis but physical requirements. they state that all applicants auditioning for acting courses come to the auditions wear comfortable clothing with suitable footwear.  
After auditions, applicants usually have to wait 1-3 weeks to hear from the school again to find out if they make it through to the next stage of auditions.
LAMDA is on of the top drama schools in the UK and many people see this audition process as necessary in order to find the best theatrical students. LAMDA is a very successful school and that is partly down to their students so the audition process is vital for the future of the school.

http://www.lamda.org.uk/drama/auditions/auditionrequirements.htm