When I performed Rosie's monologue from 'My Mother Said I Never Should' I feel I portraied many aspect of it very well. I feel I protraid the age of Rosie very well even though I found it challenging. I tried to make my physical appreance more like an eight year old by tying my hair up in bunchies. This was approreate for an audition because it was a simple appearence and took little time to change but made it very effective to my performance because I looked younger so my character was more beleiveable. Not only did I use appearance to show my age, I also used my vocial skills to help show my age. I didn't pronounce my words as well as I natually do for example already. I didn't pronounce the 'D' in the word. I also used a stroppy tone to my voice which not only showed the age of the character but it also reflected the mood she was in. She was unhappy because her birthday wasn't going well. I feel aswell as my voice, my physical appearence showed both the mood and the age of the character during the monologue. At the start of the monologue I stamped my foot to the floor and through my arm down to show I was in a strop, this is a steriotypical action for an upset child.
During the monologue I was talking to a dolly however I was miming it. I showed that I was talking to a dolly by holding my arms in a position of how a dolly would be held. To help me do this, in some of my reahersals I used a dolly so I could get a feel for how it would be held, thrown and lifted. Doing this helped me a lot because I feel it came across in my performance that I was holding a doll.
I used my physical movement to show my age by sitting on the floor for most of the monologue. This is often a symbol of youth, it also helps show that I was useing different levels as at the begining of the monologue and end I was stood up but during the middle I was on the floor. I also fidgeted and changed positions a lot to show my flexability like young children have. Children are also known for fidgeting.
I feel that I used my physical and vocial movement very effectivly in my performance and i feel that I portraid the age and mood of my character in the way I planned.
Thursday, 9 May 2013
Tuesday, 7 May 2013
Like a Virgin:
The second monologue that I am going to perform is from the play 'Like a Virgin' by Gorden Steel.
the play was inspired by Modonna's hit 'Like a Virgin' and sees the lives of two 16 year old girls from Middlesbrough who are obsessed with being famous like so many other teens in the 80's.
The character that I am playing is Angela and during the play she descovered that she has Lukeamia and she is going to die from it.
Leading up to the monologue her best friend, Maxine, had just confronted her with a question asking her if she wanted to go out a group of boys.
Angela is a troubled teen not only having to deal with her terminal illness but also has to deal with the horrific break up of her parents.
the play was inspired by Modonna's hit 'Like a Virgin' and sees the lives of two 16 year old girls from Middlesbrough who are obsessed with being famous like so many other teens in the 80's.
The character that I am playing is Angela and during the play she descovered that she has Lukeamia and she is going to die from it.
Leading up to the monologue her best friend, Maxine, had just confronted her with a question asking her if she wanted to go out a group of boys.
Angela is a troubled teen not only having to deal with her terminal illness but also has to deal with the horrific break up of her parents.
My Mother Said I Never Should:
The first monologue I am going to be performing is from the play 'My Mother Said I Never Should' by Charlotte Keatly, written in 1985.
The play see four generations of women addressing the issues of relationships, motherhood and teenage pregnancy. The character that I am playing is Rosie and in the monologue it is her 8th birthday. To the eye Rosie is the daughter of 48 year old Margret. However the rest of the play reveiles that Rosie was taken off of her true monther Jackie when at 19 years of age she descovered she was too young to care for a baby.
The play skips between the different generations showing different stages in the womens lives. Just before my monologue is a scene between Margret and her mother Doris when Rosie is a baby.
The play see four generations of women addressing the issues of relationships, motherhood and teenage pregnancy. The character that I am playing is Rosie and in the monologue it is her 8th birthday. To the eye Rosie is the daughter of 48 year old Margret. However the rest of the play reveiles that Rosie was taken off of her true monther Jackie when at 19 years of age she descovered she was too young to care for a baby.
The play skips between the different generations showing different stages in the womens lives. Just before my monologue is a scene between Margret and her mother Doris when Rosie is a baby.
Audition Preperation
To prepare for our auditon we did a series of things involving what would happen on thre day of the audition. This partly links in with prepareing for improvisaion. When the audition starts you are expected to give an introduction to your two monologues and talk about, the writer, time period, basic synopsis, your character and a lead up to the monologue. No only dos this show that you are confident but it also shows the audition panal that you are well prepard and you have put the effort in to take time to read and research the play. This will give a good impression from the start.
We spent some time writing and preareing an opening to intorduce our two monologues. We wrote a short paragraph displaying our research and our knowlage of the play. This made me feel confident that I was able to do an intoduction before I went into the monologues because I knew that this would help settle my nerves, control my breathing and feel comfortable in the unusual surroundings before starting my monologues.
We spent some time writing and preareing an opening to intorduce our two monologues. We wrote a short paragraph displaying our research and our knowlage of the play. This made me feel confident that I was able to do an intoduction before I went into the monologues because I knew that this would help settle my nerves, control my breathing and feel comfortable in the unusual surroundings before starting my monologues.
Saturday, 4 May 2013
Improvisation
From research and from being informed by our teacher that in auditions often it is required to do a bit of improvisation after the monologues have been performed. We had to make sure that we were prepared for this in case we were required to do a piece of improvisation in our auditions.
How it Works
In the audition after you have performed your monologues, a member of the panel will usually say that they want to see an expansion on one of the monologues. Then they will give you a time, place and situation. Then another member of the audition panel will appear on stage with you where you have 1 minuet to set up your improvised piece that matches the location and situation given to you. You and the member of the audition panel will then have 1-3 minutes to improvise a scene.
How we Prepared
How we Prepared
To prepare and practice this we got into pairs in our class. One member from the pair gave a character to the other explaining the situation, place and time of the scene in 1 minute. The pair then had to improvise the scene, after giving feedback to one another on how well the other did.
For example, I was paired up with Emily. We improvised a piece from her play 'Star Spangled Girl' where she was trying to leave to run away from a guy who was in love with her. I was playing the part of another man who was in the play to try to convince her to stay as I truly loved her.
This helped us practice simple improvisation techniques such as open questioning and avoiding blocking. It also gave us confidence in knowing that we are capable of improvising. It also allowed us to get a feel for how it might be in the audition making it not so scary when being faced with it.
For example, I was paired up with Emily. We improvised a piece from her play 'Star Spangled Girl' where she was trying to leave to run away from a guy who was in love with her. I was playing the part of another man who was in the play to try to convince her to stay as I truly loved her.
This helped us practice simple improvisation techniques such as open questioning and avoiding blocking. It also gave us confidence in knowing that we are capable of improvising. It also allowed us to get a feel for how it might be in the audition making it not so scary when being faced with it.
Thursday, 2 May 2013
Forum Theatre
Once we had understood our character a bit more we did some forum theatre. This is an old style of theatre where the audience could question the actor which may challenge or suggest improvements. We used this in our rehearsal so that we could learn from each other and gain feedback and improve our performance through other members of the class.
When it was my turn to perform I did Rosie's monologue from the play 'My Mother Said I Never Should.' I did this because it was the one that was finding the most challenging due to the age of the character.
After I performed it I was given a series of praise such as, they liked how I had mapped the space out and was referring behind me when I was talking about my Mother showing where she would be positioned if she was on stage. The main thing I got out of the forum theatre was a challenge from Sophie who said 'I would like to know more about your relationship with your dolly.'
This really got me thinking about how the dolly is actually quite important to in my monologue as I was meant to be talking to it. This piece of reflection inspired me to thing about how I could bring this dolly to life. It made me think about how I could practice to hold it, react to it and speak to it and from this I decided that when I rehearsed this monologue I would use a real dolly so I could get a feel for exactly how it would be held and spoken to.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forum_theatre
When it was my turn to perform I did Rosie's monologue from the play 'My Mother Said I Never Should.' I did this because it was the one that was finding the most challenging due to the age of the character.
After I performed it I was given a series of praise such as, they liked how I had mapped the space out and was referring behind me when I was talking about my Mother showing where she would be positioned if she was on stage. The main thing I got out of the forum theatre was a challenge from Sophie who said 'I would like to know more about your relationship with your dolly.'
This really got me thinking about how the dolly is actually quite important to in my monologue as I was meant to be talking to it. This piece of reflection inspired me to thing about how I could bring this dolly to life. It made me think about how I could practice to hold it, react to it and speak to it and from this I decided that when I rehearsed this monologue I would use a real dolly so I could get a feel for exactly how it would be held and spoken to.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forum_theatre
Wednesday, 1 May 2013
Character Building
We did a practical exercise that enabled us to annotate out scrip. the exercise involved us walking around the room with our scripts and doing a sharp 90 degree turn when we came to a bit of punctuation. This helped me to understand the pace of the monologue and how punctuation can show the mood of the character. I did this exercise with Angela's monologue.
From doing this exercise I learnt that Angela is quite snappy at the start of the monologue. There is lots of punctuation showing she is getting to the point. She is also speaking about her dying which may imply that she is trying to get to the point because she doesn't really want to say it and wants to get it out the way before it makes her upset. As the monologue goes on the punctuation decreases rapidly. This is when she is starting to explain to Maxine about how other people react to her and when she speak about wanting to have some dignity. This is less snappy and to the point as it is more explanatory.
This was a really useful exercise because it allows me to understand the character and how she is feeling at different parts of the monologue which is important because naturally our emissions change so often so by understanding how her mood changes and adding this into my performance will allow me to create a more believable character. As I was focusing on the lines one by one, it allowed me to understand what the character was saying and allowed me to appreciate exactly what she was saying which made me connect with her more. Once I had connected with her it meant I could portray the emission better as I understood her personality. I thought how I would feel in her situation and how I would feel in the hope I would make a believable character.
From doing this exercise I learnt that Angela is quite snappy at the start of the monologue. There is lots of punctuation showing she is getting to the point. She is also speaking about her dying which may imply that she is trying to get to the point because she doesn't really want to say it and wants to get it out the way before it makes her upset. As the monologue goes on the punctuation decreases rapidly. This is when she is starting to explain to Maxine about how other people react to her and when she speak about wanting to have some dignity. This is less snappy and to the point as it is more explanatory.
This was a really useful exercise because it allows me to understand the character and how she is feeling at different parts of the monologue which is important because naturally our emissions change so often so by understanding how her mood changes and adding this into my performance will allow me to create a more believable character. As I was focusing on the lines one by one, it allowed me to understand what the character was saying and allowed me to appreciate exactly what she was saying which made me connect with her more. Once I had connected with her it meant I could portray the emission better as I understood her personality. I thought how I would feel in her situation and how I would feel in the hope I would make a believable character.
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