Monologues

Today, we started our new project, we had to firstly choose a monologue from Shakespeare's play. I choose a monologue from Macbeth on the scene where Macbeth and Lady Macbeth are talking in their chamber. I cut the part Macbeth is talking and left the part where Lady Macbeth is talking. This is my monologue
''He has almost supped. Why have you left the chamber?
Know you not he has?
Was the hope drunk

Wherein you dressed yourself? Hath it slept since?

And wakes it now, to look so green and pale

At what it did so freely? From this time

Such I account thy love. Art thou afeard

To be the same in thine own act and valor

As thou art in desire? Wouldst thou have that

Which thou esteem’st the ornament of life,

And live a coward in thine own esteem,

Letting “I dare not” wait upon “I would, ”

Like the poor cat i' th' adage?

What beast was ’t, then,

That made you break this enterprise to me?

When you durst do it, then you were a man;

And to be more than what you were, you would

Be so much more the man. Nor time nor place''

For my next lesson I will look through my monologue in a detailed way so I could understand the monologue and understand my character.  

Evaluation

Today we had our performance, we firstly had to set out the stage for the first group and to clarify who is changing the set for the next scene. Tayo and I was the 3rd group to perform. We went through our lines before our performance, this was a good way to refresh our minds to the scene and our characters. When it was our turn to perform we had set out the staging having the table in the middle if the stage and two chairs. We only had 3 props so it was easy to get on stage and on time, we had: two glasses and a bottle of wine. During the performance I believe that I as a character did not put in the effort I have put in during the rehearsal period. I believe that one of the main reason for not doing as well as we should have was because we had a long period before doing the performance and we had gotten out of character. The quick rehearsal and recap was useful before we performed. We could have made our character relationship a bit more obvious by making clear actions such as being close whilst we was sitting. Some of the good sides were that we had kept in character throughout the whole performance, there was a part when I hit the plastic plait by accident and it flew, I still tried my best to keep in character as everyone was laughing, I tried to not giggle.

Looking much more into my character gave me a better understanding of my character and the scene made me feel so much secured with myself whilst acting. Looking at http://www.gradesaver.com/top-girls/study-guide/character-list the character views on Joyce is ‘Angie’s adoptive mother and Marlene’s sister. Joyce and Marlene do not get along well. Joyce raised Angie because Marlene wanted to escape Ipswich and pursue a career. Joyce represents the perspective of the working class. However, she is not a particularly sympathetic character and is very resentful of her sister.’ This gave me a base to set my character circumstances, so who my character is, where are they, what are they doing, why are they doing it and when is it. Looking at the circumstances who is Joyce, she is a 46 year-old female who does not work so she is a housewife which looks after her younger sisters child since the baby was born, for when we planned with Tayo to do it in the evening after her character has come from work, this is shown when my character is making dinner in Joyce’s house. The part we done was from a scene where Angie the 16 year-old was talking to Marlene (her actual mum) and Joyce, after Angie goes off my character and Marlene carries on talking, it leads to an argument about Angie’s life and also their parents. The tone, pace, volume and speed in our voice showed our anger we had towards each other. My character blames Marlene’s character for leaving her own child, and Marlene’s character blames my character for accepting to look after her. Marlene’s character and my character are sisters, my character is older but Marlene has more power as she is the manager of a company called ‘Top Girls’. Both characters still show that they care for each other but still blame each other for being in the state they are in.

Our rehearsal process was at points difficult as we found it difficult to get in together a lot of the times so this really made it difficult to improve our character relationship, we could have shown our sister relationship much more clearer than we did in our performance. This could have been with our actions, being a bit closer to make it clear. We also could have developed with the scene as we needed to make the lines easier to understand by ethicize certain words to allow the audience to know what our character is trying to tell them.

Overall I believe that my performance skills have improved throughout my AS performing arts and A2. I have been much more involved with this project than the group performance we had to do. I believe that this is because it was easier to work with a small group of 2. Our next project would be monologues, I think that I could do a better performance because that I'll be working alone and I'll have a better understanding of the monologue than a play. This will give me a chance to work on myself and my performance.

18/03/2016

For the whole week my partner and I rehearsed through our scene. We decided during the rehearsal that we will do a bit more character research, so we watched the scene again, this helped refresh our characters intentions and beliefs in this scene.  

11/03/2016

Today was another rehearsal day. We looked at the Top Girl performance again to make it clear to how they performed their characters.

03/03/2016

For this lesson we went through our scene and made our scene improved by carrying on with the feedback we got in our last performance we done to our class. We developed our characters actions and made our sister relationship with the way we used our acting.

24/02/2016

This lesson we went through the feedback we got last Friday. I added more energy to my character and also made my movements much more suitable for my character. I also try to make my vocals cle by makin my rojections better. Next lesson we'll carry on improving the scene.

19/02/2016

Today we went through our scenes and showed our group so we could get some feedback from them. We used props which made it better because we didn't need to mim the glass. Some of the feedback my character got was mainly in between good and needing some work to do. For my vocal my articulation, pace and tone was good. My modulation and projection needs extra work to do. I personally believe that my vocal is good overall. I believe that I project my voice well for the audience to hear. For my physical my posture, gesture and characteristics was good. My movement was okay and my energy and tempo-rhythm needed some work on them. I personally agree with my energy and also my movement, I need to have more energy as a character and make my movement clear. In general my communication with other characters and my communication with audience is okay. Which I do not agree because I think that I am very good with communicating with my partner. My effective listening and response is good. For next lesson I will take this on board and use this feedback to make my acting better.

18/02/2016

Today we rehearsed through our scene. We went over it a couple times and made sure that we made our characteristics clear. For us to make our characters clear we went through the script again and looked into our characters words and thought about what our characters feel like whilst saying the words. This made it easier for us to give our lines across but from our character's perspective.

17/02/2016

For this lesson my partner and I went through our scene and we showed our teacher a run through of our scene, our teacher gave us some feedback. We got told that we need to be much clear with our actions, we need to make it clear with our character. For our next lesson we'll carry on rehearsing.

15/02//2016

12/02/2016

Our teacher has told us to show the scenes to the class and be filmed and getting feedback. My character was hot seated because my partner came in late. I got asked questions such as 'do you work' 'are you married' 'do you have kids' 'does your daughter know about you not being her mother' and I also believe that I answered in character using the right posture, voice, and speed of my language.

08/02/2016

Today we got given some time to go over the parts we've been doing so we could show them to the group and get some feedback. We got a lot of positive feedback such as how we show our clear characters and our relation with both Marlene and Joyce was clear. When we watched the other performances I thought that a lot of my classmates showed a lot of realism and they made their characters look very real.

04/02/2016

Today was very productive and effective. Our teacher told us to use more of the space to make the scene look more realistic instead of sitting on the table. He suggested that my character should be in the kitchen cooking. He also told me to be more angry and shocked by using my voice. 

Next lesson we'll apply these to the scene. 

03/02/2016

For today's lesson we showed our teacher a part of our scene. She said that we need to really highlight the important part of the script. We put more pauses to make the scene look more dramatic and realistic. We also looked at the Top Girl play online and looked at the scene. Both our character was exactly how we imagined them to be, they were marking the points very clearly and they were also very clear with their characters.

01/02/2016

We started the scene. I believe that we got a lot done today. We started to use some props such as a glass of wine, glass and a chopping board. This is because the scene is set in Joyce's kitchen and Marlene is drinking alcohol. This made our actions much more realistic. Our teacher watched a part of the scene and she gave us some ideas how to improve it. She me to make my character a bit more angry as she is not happy that Marlene is back into their lives. She also told us to be more specific with our actions because they are arguing and we are also sisters so we need to be a bit more obvious. 

Next lesson we will carry on with the scene. 

28/01/2016

Today we learnt our lines and also looked at our characters. This helped us to understand more about our character. We started to use the IF strategy and put ourselves in the character's position. See what they wanted in the scene and why.

Joyce is very angry at her sister Marlene for leaving her child to her and never showing up till now. She doesn't like that Marlene is trying to come back in Angie's life after leaving her for her career. Joyce is very sympathetic women she cares a lot about Angie because she has brought her up till the age of 16. Joyce is a working class women, I believe that she does not work she stays at home. I can imagine her as a messy type women as in she does not care about her physical appearance. She is very mad that Marlene has a better life than her.

27/01/2016

This lesson we decided to change the script. Our teacher gave us the same play 'Top Girls' but another scene. This scene is between Marlene which we are already very familiar with her character and also her sister Joyce. We decided that I'll be Joyce which is the sister of Marlene. She is older than her and she is also the one that Marlene left her baby Angie at. So my character Joyce is the women that brought up her sister's baby for Marlene benefit to go on with her career. This scene is a argument between the sisters. The are arguing about their mother and also how Marlene left her baby to her sister.

I believe that this scene is going to be better to do. Next lesson we'll learn the new script and get started with the scene.

22/01/2016

Unfortunately, my partner was not in lesson today as well. Our teacher gave us some sheets which included the characteristics, the who, what, when, why, where was writen. This helped get a better understanding of the character. I went through my lines and acted in character thinking about the five w's.

Next lesson we will decide if we want to carry on with this script or not because we find it difficult to do this scene.

21/01/2016

Due to not being in on Wednesday's lesson today my partner was also not in today's lesson which made it very hard for me to get the scene done. So I researched my character and also Angies and Marlene's characters and see their characteristics together in this scene. I also learnt some of my lines.

Next lesson if my partner comes in we will get some parts of the scene done.

18/01/2016

Today's Monday's lesson we started the scene and we didn't know how we could make the scene look natural. I feel like Tayo as Angies character struggled a bit to get her character feeling realistic. Also we struggled to learn a lot of the lines which made it difficult to do a lot this lesson.

For our next lesson we will learn the lines and started to get into character a bit more.

15/01/2016

For today's lesson my partner was not in. We was told to show a part in the scene which we have been working on. Due to my partner not being in lesson my character as Marlene was hot seated. I was asked some questions by my classmates and I answered it in my full Marlene character. I was asked questions such as 'how old am I' 'what do I do for living' 'am I married' 'do I have kids' and I felt like I have answered it just like my character would have answered as an educated businesswoman.

We watched some of the other groups and I really thought that they were making a lot of progress with the scenes. I really liked Lenrick's character, his character is very opposite to how he is like.

For next lesson we will start the scene properly.

14/01/2016

Today we looked at the play 'Top Girl' this gave us a better understanding of the play and what the play is about. We also looked at our characters and what kind of a person they are shown as in the play. This gave us a better understanding of both the play and the character. It gave us a background information. However, we still felt like we was not comfortable this this scene, this was mainly because we did not like the scene pertucurlary to how we link both the characters.

My character Marlene loves her work, this is the only thing she enjoys doing, being powerful and successful. She is a 40 year-old working class women that has worked her way up from nothing to something very successful. Marlene mainly spends her day at her office doing a lot of work. In the play she wants to start to become a good mother to Angie. In the scene she is trying to talk to Angie without making it obvious she is her mother. I imagine Marlene as a strong physically and mentally women, she is a businesswoman so she is clean and neat. I also imagine her as a brunet hair up in a neat bun with a class style. This is because she is a managing director of a very big business.

13/01/2016

For today's lesson we as a whole group exercise which was to get into character. We thought of moments such as happy times, sad times and even angry times. We then had to remember the emotions that was happening when these moments. This then allowed us to link with our characters emotions and feelings. 

We looked at our characters motifs and what they were trying to get out in the scene. Then we looked at the emotions and we tried to link our personal emotions which could have happened to our character. This was called the magic IF. 

11/01/2016

Today Tayo and I started with reading the script again. I went through the script at home and looked more into my character Marlene. As I was reading my characters lines I felt a connection with myself and Marlene's character. Her character is a hard working and career based women and I felt like I could understand why she has left her baby to her sister. She wanted to do the best for herself and not ruin her life at a young age because of a baby. I felt like I would have done the same as her. The connection I felt with my character was a good thing as it would have my action much more realistic. When we went through the script again we realised that we don't understand the moral of the scene. We found it a bit more difficult to link the two characters. We tried to go through a section of the scene but we felt like we couldn't link our characters to the scene. 

For our next lesson we are hoping to get a better understanding to the scene and link it with the characters.  

08/01/2016

Today we was introduced to our new topic which was Stanislavski's naturalism approach. We got put into our groups of two. I was put with Tayo and given the script from Top Girls which was written in 1982. The scene we was given was between Angie and Marlene. We first of all looked at the script and read through it to get a better understanding of the scene. After looking through the script we chose which of us is going to be either Marlene or Angie. I decided to be Marlene, she is a 40 year-old highly career based women, she is the managing director of the Top Girls employment agency. Angie is a 16 year-old female who is an unintelligent girl who is not doing well in her school. In this scene it is between Angie and Marlene. We looked at the 5 w's; who, what, where, when and why. When we looked at the 5 w's it gave us a better understanding of both the character and the scene.

Who:
Angie
Marlene
Where: London, in Marlene's office
When: 1982
What: Angie believes Marlene (Angie's aunty) is her mother
Why: Angie wants to get answers and also spend time with Marlene.

Next lesson we would go through the scene and start to look at our characterisations.