Peer Assessing

During our rehearsals, we were asked to peer assess one of the members of the cast and I peer assessed Dru Dawkins. Positive things I saw from Dru was his strong commitment to his given when he chose to sustain his character. He had clarity in his voice whilst speaking, had clear and confident facial expressions to demonstrate his character's given moods and used body language that suited his character to identity it as clearly as possible. Nonetheless, once he slipped out of character, it took him a while to get back into it as he tended to get distracted easily. 

Advice I would give to not only Dru but to other actors is to aim to remain in character at all times during rehearsals and especially on the day of the performance.This helps to make your character more believable to not only yourself but to audience members given that when they act, they see your character and not who you are as a person.

Peer assessing helped me to identify what to do and also what not to do. There's so much you can learn from other members of your cast and peer assessing is just one of the great ways of learning from them. From assessing Dru, I learnt to always commit myself to my given character with confidence and to always remain in character. 

Evaluation of Nation Performance

INTRODUCTION:

On Thursday 23rd April 2015, the cast and I performed the play 'Nation' by Terry Pratchet at Stanley Halls (in the theatrical configuration traverse)! With more than 120 people attending, that night is truly a night I will remember. Through all of the ups as well as downs, at the end of all our rehearsals and preparation, as a company we managed to succeed in performing to a great standard!

DISCUSS HOW I SHOWED EFFECTIVE USE AND CONTROL OF PERFORMANCE SKILLS THROUGHOUT THE PIECE:
Ways in which I showed effective use and control of performance skills throughout my piece was by bearing in mind how to portray my character as successfully as possible. I remembered using different energy levels, showing different emotions and staying in character throughout the performance. Ways in which I did this was by using harsh facial expressions to show when I'm angry, changing my tone of voice to displays moments of when I was happy and excited and always remembering that on stage, I am Locaha and not Lara. I believe who I am definitely contrasts against the characteristics I designed for Locaha: evil, wicked, conniving and extremely weird! Therefore, in order to communicate my role well and the intentions of the piece to the audience, I had to leave who I am at home and adopt the personality and body language of Locaha not only on the night of the performance but throughout the whole rehearsal process.

HOW I COMMUNICATED MY ROLE AND THE INTENTIONS OF THE PIECE TO THE AUDIENCE:
Other ways in which I communicated my role well was through my body language, vocal colour, tone and pitch and through makeup and costume. When I performed as Locaha, instead of walking normally, I made the choice to walk crouched with bent knees and used the palm of my hands to support me. Furthermore, I spoke with a croak in my voice with a low pitch creating a harsh sound to communicate my character. I also wore dark makeup, a black maxi skirt with a black vest and had black-coloured patterns on the side of my face (scroll down the blog to see this). Collectively, the effect this had was to elaborate and exaggerate who my character was: death. Black has connotations of death and gothic-related themes. Therefore, I made black the prominent colour I used in the performance. 
My intentions were to scare the audience. I aimed to make them feel awkward and uneasy when Locaha was present as death is not a character that most people find welcoming! That is why I chose to wear all black, have a croak in my voice and walk in a weird way to show death in the best and abstract way.

HOW I MADE A SIGNIFICANT CONTRIBUTION TO THE SUCCESS OF THE PIECE:
I believe I have made a significant contribution to the success of the piece by giving constructive criticism as well as praise to members of the cast through peer-assessing. When the actor of 'Mau' was not present during a rehearsal, I replaced him as he is an extremely vital character within the play. Furthermore, I was appointed as one of the assistant directors of the play which meant I was given a lot of responsibility. Whilst rehearsing for the show, I recognised that many people had a negative mindset towards how successful this play will be. I must admit, there were times where I doubted the success of the play of myself due to the lack of effort people were putting into rehearsals (see previous posts for rehearsal reflection). Many people seemed downhearted and lacked optimism on the success of the play. On the night of the performance, I decided to send this quick message to the cast:

"Hey guys.. I was just thinking about how most of us aren't really feeling this play but it is our last performance we will be doing as a year group cos in post 16 we will have new people joining and for some people it will be their last ever performance at Brit so I think we should just try as hard as possible tomorrow to make the play as successful and enjoyable as it can be tbh cos at the end of the day we are getting graded on it too and no one wants to look like an idiot in front of everyone! We haven't spend months rehearsing for nothing! I'm sure we'll be more than fine on the night anyways. Let's just try our best and try and make it a good performance for our last ever performance of us all together as a strand Xx"
(Pardon all of the grammatical errors, poor sentence structure and abbreviations!)

My reasons for sending this message was to try to give a little hope to the cast. We spent many months rehearsing for this play and I am sure no one wanted it to go to waste! Given that I was appointed as one of the assistant directors, I took it upon myself to try to motivate the cast.

WHAT HAVE I DONE WELL?
Things I believe I have done well is refining my character to a good standard, taking initiative to make my character believable as much as possible and helping others during the rehearsal process. Ways I did this was through my choices of characteristics, bearing in mind different vocal techniques that were taught to us and giving advise to other cast members. To make the play successful, we had to work as a team. If one person slipped up, that could make everyone slip up also. Therefore, I made sure I tried to be well-prepared, attentive and full of enthusiasm at all times to help make the play a success.

WHAT DO I WANT TO IMPROVE ON?
However, there are also things I want to improve on. I believe I could improve my analytical and research skills to enhance my performance skills also. When given a character, it is good to aim to
develop them into your own and I believe I did this! Nonetheless, I could have done more research on other characters similar to my character e.g. Rumplestiltskin (being a trickster), and things such as "the angel of death". Furthermore, I could have directed the cast more as I was assistant director. I believe that I should have taken more initiative and control and not be afraid to point out things I thought could have been improved. Acting requires you to use your initiative greatly, be bold and courageous and think outside of the box. I believe I did this! However, there is always room for improvement.

WHAT HAVE I LEARNT ABOUT ACTING?
I've learnt many things about acting. I've learnt that you must lose yourself in a character to portray it as well as you can, not think about your actions but instead feel it, let your actions influence your speech and never be afraid to make mistakes along the way. Nothing is perfect. However, we can aim to make things as great as it can be through many processes (e.g. finding objectives, creating tactics, marking thought changings etc.). That's what I believe acting is about: processes. Finding yourself as well as losing yourself, immersing yourself within different characters and going on a journey with your given character. With acting, there is no limits. You can do whatever you want to do, be whoever you want to be and you can be yourself. That may sound weird as acting is thought of to be when you play another role. However, I believe in every character an actor plays, an element of themselves is within them. I am not implying I have evil in me! However, I believe every person has an element of weirdness in them like Locaha. A side to them that is free to do whatever they want, say whatever they want and does not let anyone control them. That is one of the things acting is about: finding that freedom. Finding that lack of remorse within yourself and the side of you that is not afraid to break boundaries! Acting is an incredible thing that allows to grow so much as a person. 

WHAT HAVE I LEARNT ABOUT MYSELF?
Through acting, I have learnt so many things about myself. I've learnt to break out of my shell and become more confident and well-rounded. I've learnt what it means to be committed to something and not to be afraid to do things outside of my comfort zone. I've learnt to believe in myself and my ability and believe I can do and achieve anything I want to with these three words: confidence, determination and faith. Confidence can make you go far in many things. It is important to believe in yourself and your ability. Having determination makes you want to achieve things. It makes you want to strive for things and not just let opportunities pass you by. Lastly, faith allows you to believe in things. Like confidence, it encourages you and makes you believe you can do anything - there is no limit! I've learnt that with confidence, determination and faith, anything can be possible. I've learnt that to grow as an actress as well as a person, I must be more daring and enjoy what life has to offer me in the exciting, amazing and insightful world of acting.

GENERAL EVALUATION OF THE PERFORMANCE NIGHT:
In general, the performance was great! As a cast, we put aside any negative things that happened in past rehearsals and performed to the best of our ability. Performing 'Nation' really showed me how important it is to work as a team as without teamwork, our performance would have not been successful. Doing 'Nation' made me learn a lot of things: without working as a team, you can't achieve half of what you aim to, you must never give up and always think out of the box. 'Nation' will be a play I will always remember and I feel blessed to have been a part of such an incredible performance.

GROUP RESEARCH TASK (Tobi, Nicole, Sam M, Courteney and I)

Polynesian Culture:

Sometimes entire Polynesian traditions were taken to new islands. For example, on the island of Taha‘a in Tahiti a taniwha named ‘Aifa‘arua‘i is said to have terrorised people travelling between Taha‘a and Motue‘a. It was killed by a man from Ara‘ura. The tradition was carried to New Zealand, where Kaiwhakaruaki was a taniwha who lived in the Parapara Stream, in Aorere (Golden Bay). It attacked and ate people travelling between Parapara and Motueka, and was killed by a man from Arahura.

• 
• Polynesia, a vast string of islands in the Pacific Ocean, including Hawaii, New Zealand, Easter Island, Tonga, and French Polynesia

• LANGUAGE: Native languages of the islands; Maori; Tahitian; French; English
• RELIGION: Christianity with elements of native religion

• Most traditional Polynesian societies rely on fishing and horticulture (growing flowers, fruits, and vegetables).

• In some parts of Polynesia—Hawaii, Tahiti, and the Marquesas in particular—men and women used to eat separately. In general, this pattern is no longer followed except in the most traditional communities and in certain ceremonial contexts.

• One of the most well-known Polynesian musical instruments is the Hawaiian ukulele. It is the Hawaiian version of the Portuguese mandolin

• Men are responsible for fishing, construction, and protection of the family units

• Women are responsible for collecting and processing horticultural products and for manufacturing basketry items and bark cloth

polynesian dances:

http://youtu.be/mZwh690i0lA polynesian women dancing

http://youtu.be/FRCqdMGrc2w  polynesian men dancing

polynesian art:

polynesians tend to turn their artwork into the form of tattoos

The tradition of Polynesian tattooing existed from 2000 years ago. In 18th century this operation was strictly banned by the Old Testament. In early 1980′s, tattooing started to get a renaissance. Since then many lost arts were retrieved by Polynesians. But due to the difficulty in sterilizing the traditional tools, the Ministry of Health banned tattooing in French Polynesia in 1986.

Tattoo was a way delivering information of its owner. It’s also a traditional method to fetch spiritual power, protection and strength. The Polynesians use this as a sign of character, position and levels in a hierarchy. Polynesian peoples believe that a person’s mana, their spiritual power or life force, is displayed through their tattoo. Almost every Polynesian got a tattoo in ancient times.

• Tattoo masters are the most crucial people because they bear the meaning of symbols and motifs in memory and know how to combine them to create a meaningful work of art to each person
• 
• Tattooing is a sacred ceremony in Polynesian culture

• On the basis of mythology, human learned the art of tattooing from the 2 sons of the God of Creation Ta’aroa. Tattooing was operated by highly trained shamans (tahua) in the religious ceremony, who was an expert in the meanings of the tattoo and skills of the art.

Going Into Public Dressed As Locaha

After I had finishing performing 'Nation', I walked up a long road called Streatham High Road with my mother and friend. I must say the looks and comments I got were hilarious! I think what stunned people the most was my face makeup:

I took inspiration from other face makeup designs that I browsed on the internet. I wanted to look as weird and abstract as possible whilst making it look subtle and not too over the top. Seeing people's reactions outside made me believe that I had achieved my aim: to differentiate myself from other characters to really highlight my role of being death. People on the street said I looked "scary" and "scary" is exactly what I wanted to look like! 

If I could have improved my costume, I would have done some art on the rest of my body and not just on my face to make me look more abstract. I would have experimented with different designs whilst also baring in mind not to go too over the top. My aim whilst being Locaha was to contrast against who I am as much as possible through my facial designs as well as my voice and body language. I believe the face designs helped me to achieve this. Nonetheless, I would have done more designs to experiment in more detail.

BOUND FOR SOUTH AUSTRALIA!

At the end of scene 10, we all sing a song called 'South Australia' by The Pogues:

In South Australia I was born

 heave away, haul away
In South Australia round Cape Horn
We're bound for South Australia
Haul away you rolling kings
heave away, haul away
Haul away, you'll hear me sing
We're bound for South Australia

The purpose of singing this song is to demonstrate how happy and relieved we were as islanders that we found shelter and food. Before we sang the song, we all went to Mau's tribe to ask for his help and he gave it to us. 

Involving singing in our performance helped us to add more of an exciting experience for audience members. In plays, sometimes singing can be rare. Nonetheless, we decided to include another art form to make our performance as enticing as possible. 

As a successful actor, it is important to show versatility. Therefore, you must show you can do other things than just act. You must show that there are other art forms you are skilled in to make yourself as much of a well-rounded performer as possible! From including singing in our performance helped us to display other art forms and do the unexpected.  

Examples of Annotations Made On My Script

The following are examples of annotations I've made on my script to help me when rehearsing and learning my lines, actions and thought changes and movements:

Furthermore, here are annotations I've made on the plan of the stage to mark out my entrances and exits in the scenes that I am in:

Notes from Mr Rennison and Mr Hughes (30/03/15)

- don't switch off after Monday rehearsals, do work in own time

- "To do something, just be it"

- All have the ability to get distinction 

- work as hard as we can

- our show, make it the best it can possibly be

Today in class, Mr Rennison and Mr Hughes spoke to us about how rehearsals have been going so far. As a group, we have not been working to the best of our ability by speaking unnecessarily, going off task and not putting in full focus and effort in rehearsals - regardless whether or not we are on stage at a given moment. Due to our lack of effort as a group, we have gone massively behind schedule in our rehearsal process. This is was originally our plan for rehearsals that we made on Monday 16th February 2015:

A Plan For The Rest of the Unit

Week 5

Pages 17-27

Week 6

Pages 27-61

Week 7

Pages 61-81

Week 1

Pages 81-110

Week 2

Pages 110-144

Week 3 

Run through 

Week 4 

Easter

Week 5

Dress rehearsal in school

Week 6 

performance 

Week 7

Evaluation 

This week, we are in week 3. Within this week, we were supposed to run through the whole of play. Unfortunately, we have not started to even configurate act 2 which pulls us back massively in trying to construct the play as a whole. 

From observing and being in the class during the rehearsals, I have seen that as a group we have not been focusing and excelling to our full potential. We haven't been taking time outside of lessons to improve our work and rehearsal techniques which was evident in today's rehearsal.Nonetheless, we can still improve this as we do not have our performance yet. To improve this, we must make sure when we rehearse as a class, it is as proactive as possible. We must put in and use our full amount of energy to have successful rehearsals. To make this performance successful, we have to work productively as an ensemble. If we all aim to remember this throughout the rehearsal process and on the night of the performance, we should all excel in our performance and hopefully achieve the highest grade possible!