Wednesday 9th January 2013 part 2

Wednesday 9^th January 2013
Tableaux and speed runs:

Today we received our scripts and quickly flicked trhough them to get an idea of the script and the storyline. From this, we created a sped up version of the play. We selected the most important parts of the play: E.g. The death of the clown, the arguing between the circus people and the school kids, the creating of ‘the people’s circus’ and the ending. We put this into a very fast version of the play so that we got familiarised with the script, the intentions of the characters and the overall point, and narrative of the play. We did this in groups so that we were able to watch other groups perform their speed runs. Doing this allowed us to acknowledge the points that each group were getting across, especially if they were something which we had missed, which meant that we were gaining even more from this exercise.

We were then asked questions about our characters;

What does your character say about other characters (in the script):
My character says that The character ‘Charlie’ is a loner, and calls Amy’s character ‘Missy’ a ‘bitch’.
I think that this does shed some light on my character, as a member of the gang, as they seem quite negative to anyone who isn’t in their ‘Clique’, which is probably relateable to some friendship groups around the same ages of the characters.

What does your character say about themselves;
My character doesn’t really talk about herself, but she does mention the group as a collective when discussing their ‘rights’
“The Right To Bunk Off” “The Right to Let off steam”
I think this another representation of the ‘pack mentality’ in that they are all for one, defend eachother, won’t do anything without each other etc.

We were then told to get into groups and discuss a time when we may have felt like part of a gang, or aware of anyone in  a ‘gang-like’ set-up with their friends. I told my story to my group which was:

One day at college, my friends and I were really hyper and in crazy moods, so we raided the prop cupboard, dressed up silly and went for a weird walk round college. We were being loud, and interacting with other students, who we didn’t know, which could have made them feel really uncomfortable or intimidated, which we hadn’t even really considered, because to us, we were just having a laugh.

Questions such as this, allow us to get into our characters a little bit easier. We are able to identify with the characters more which means that we can relate and understand more when it comes to rehearsals and the actual performance.

The final part of the lesson, we were told to walk around the space and join groups depending on the answers to the questions she asked about our characters personal lives:

Below are the questions asked, and my answers/choices:
Does your character have a good relationship with their parents?
I chose that my character had an average relationship with parents, in that, she was more interested in going out with friends, hanging out and having fun instead of being home. But, that when she was at home, there was no real drama or trouble, it was just very mild and normal. I made this choice as I felt that a lot of people always assume that kids in large groups who like to cause a little bit of harmless trouble, often have really bad backgrounds or are brought up so strict that they want to rebel. But I know many people from normal, happy homes who like to get up to some things that may be seen as bad by some people.

We were next asked if our characters were leaders, followers or negotiators:
I chose for my character to be a negotiator as I feel that she is really laid back and chilled, and can’t really be bothered with getting uptight about certain things, but was strong enough in her own mind that she didn’t need to follow around a “leader”.

These decisions that I have made, thanks to today’s task, mean that I have a base for my character so that I can make movement, posture and reaction decisions a bit easier. This means that my character will be more realistic, believable and more interesting to watch as an audience member, which will add to the overall performance.