Theatr Brycheiniog workshop

On the 31st January we were invited to go to Theatr Brycheiniog, in Brecon. This theatre serves all the border counties and is the biggest theatre in our area. WE arrived in the morning and were greeted by Martyn Green, CEO. He was to be our practitioner for the day. He had once been an actor but eventually went into stage management and then management. He was very well versed in theatre and had offered us the opportunity of going to the theatre to work both in the studio and on the Main Stage.In the morning, he showed us around the theatre, talking about his development plans for it. After that we performed our contemporary monologues for the Auditions for Actors unit.

After lunch, we performed a series of improvisations on the main stage for Martyn who gave us a constructive critique at the end of each improvisation. It really was a new experience actually performing improvisation to a professional theatre practitioner and it really made me raise my game. I tried to apply the teachings of Grotowski, Artaud and Stanislavski where appropriate. I also gave thought to movement, gesture, projection, mime and most importantly,characterisation as, at all times, I wanted to create believable scenarios and characters.
We started off with a few warm up activities including physical theatre pieces where we had to create shapes like a motorbike, a creature, a four poster bed and an elephant.

https://youtu.be/xQo5beK9EKU

https://youtu.be/gWWwLLGyaGQ

https://youtu.be/ifxsIVxxrn4

THis is footage of our character development scenario.

https://youtu.be/SkThtlGaGRM

Extending improvisation

https://youtu.be/upRThYmzNfU

Stimulus - Difficult customers in a restaurant

In this improvisation we were required to develop a scenario. The strength of the story line  needed to be driven by maintaining our characters. The objective was to create an engaging story line by  working in the style of Mike Leigh, the director. He creates plays by bringing actors together and getting them to improvise around a theme. This can produce really dynamic results as he  carefully considers the cast before he introduces them.Their improvisations feed directly into the script he produces.
Feedback:
Feedback we received was that we weren't 'difficult' enough. It was all delivered on one level and there was no defined beginning, middle or end.The only element of dynamism was right at the end when we stormed off. I smiled when we stormed off which meant I was fully engaged with my character. We were commended for our naturalism, this would work in a t.v drama.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3tPBNHwB-TI

Stimulus -Fairytale

We were asked to re- create Cinderella with just the five of us. We were also given the task of doing it in the style of a soap opera. . However, we hadn't included any of the type of features you would expect to see in a soap.
This was a good experience for me as I had to multi - role as none else volunteered to take roles as the improvisation developed. I played a male role and an angry and unpleasant role. I tried to maintain each individual character by applying emotional memory in the style of Stanislavski. As a man, I had to dance with Angel so I tried to use a deeper voice as well.

Feedback:
Feedback I personally received was that I was spontaneous and seized opportunities as and when they presented themselves. Group feedback was that we had committed to following the original storyline and  that we had produced an entertaining and developed scenario. A constructive criticism was that we hadn't created a soap opera style of drama. For that, we could have raised the level of 'drama' and possibly by over-reacting to incidents or by slightly changing the story to include more contemporary elements.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=64GG7uAz0qs&feature=youtu.be

Stimulus - All change!

In this improv, we had to start the scenario off with two of us, then the third person comes in and changes whatever dynamic we have established. When Mikey came in and affected the atmosphere, Emily and I had to respond to this in a believable way. I was able to stay in character, despite the drastic change of pace and emotion.
Feedback:
We were told we had created a 'kitchen sink drama'. These became popular in the 1960's and involved a naturalistic acting style and often dealt with disturbing or emotional themes. We were told we sustained our characters successfully and we responded sensitively to each other.

https://youtu.be/QU2zzd4EXH8

Stimulus - Role Swap

This improvisation involved swapping roles mid way through the piece. In this improvisation I started off in the first couple so I had to carefully examine the role I was playing so that it could be easily replicated by the person that took my role over.We responded to feedback which was to observe more closely each others intonation and tone patterns, as,whilst we got the movement, the actual tone of the improvisation changed with the new couple coming in.  So, we had another go with the focus on intonation.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ipFIif2jbgg&t=99s

Stumulus _ Role Swap
Our second attempt at this stimulus. This time we really used listening skills to try to take on the vocal tone and intonation patterns of the person whose character we were taking over.. My aim was to make sure that any one who copied me, could easily mimic my voice and body language.

Feedback we received was that this second improvisation was better, in terms of us assimilating the original characters.

Simple improvs+ weekly reflections

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G2hPp7Gux7s&feature=youtu.be

In this solo improvisation, I explored the space and used mime. I had to express my emotions through muttered speech and clear movement and gesture.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZOAhyeSht_I&feature=youtu.be

This was a solo improvisation in which I was driving and I shouted at the Sat Nav to shut up. I tried to understand the role of someone who was impatient and someone was late- but it wasn't their fault.  I learned that when you are carrying out a solo improvisation and it's up to you to engage the audience. If you falter, it means you're not in character.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qSjna2Nv5U0


In this improvisation our group had a disagreement. The blame changed to different people and the emotion changed frequently. Our feedback was that we worked together as a team and were able to switch the emotion well.

https://youtu.be/w0jKHRKyxqc


Callum and I were doing a pairs improvisation. We were really having to listen to each other so that the scene flowed.

11 September. We looked at quite basic improv work this week. In our small groups, we had some very little scenarios to look at. We did an exercise where one person left the room and in a pair, we made a scenario based on an emotion, and the person who left had to guess what the word or emotion was. We had a funeral, a therapy session, and a patient anxious for test results. This helped us to look at  what we were trying to convey, and how the audience would feel in response. On THURSDAY, we did scenarios in pairs as there were 5 of us. These pieces were contrasting. Fair example, one person wanted a pet, the other didn't. There were family scenes, friendship ones and school scenes. It really helped to work with a range of people, with different acting styles.I researched Mike Leigh and looked at his work on youtube. He is a very talented director. His actors are fantastic as they work in a team, without corpsing, and with the ability to devise scenes based on anything.   18 September. This week, we continued doing little scenes. We worked in a small group of 3, creating scenarios based on conversations or relevant group ideas. Callum discussed  the Mary Rose, so we made a scene about that, with a tour guide, a mother and a bored child. We also did a dispute improv, with a problem of different people wanting to watch different things at a cinema. We also worked on a difficult restraunt customers with conflicting problems. We also did a guessing game where we had to assign someone a character, or real person, and make them guess and imagine themselves in their shoc, in order to work out who was chosen for them. This was quite hard as the spectrum of types of character or real person are so broad.    25 September. This week we were introduced to solo improvs. This was where we focussed on one actor, with a scenario. Mina was a person none alone, hearing a sound at the door, and panicking as it was from the kitchen. My first attempt was with lots of speech, and my second had none. I found that without any speech, I found it hard at to portray what I wanted to, however, apparently my expression and movement was better that way. Too much speech took away from that. In future, I will try to use my body more, and speech a little less, but using a fair mixture. We were introduced to one line improv. We were given a line and one of us had to use it at first, launching in to an improv. WE worked together well on this, as the improv sparked from the line, and we worked together while put on the spot. We needed to be spontaneous and dynamic.   2 October. This week, we advanced the one liners, by only one person knowing what it would be. This stopped us from overthinking, or being able to plan much storyline. We also looked at people in a place with a problem, as this was a basic improv technique that helps you define characters, context and issue for a piece.   14 October. This week we worked on one line improv, in a group of 4. This is very different as this exercise began in a pair, and was increased to 4 people. We also looked at particular scenarios, like people on the edge of  a cliff. We had a couple of seconds to plan, but then we began. The topic was so broad that it could lead anywhere, and it actually traveled down the suicide path, and it was interesting for me to put myself in the shoes of some one trying to put a stop to a mass suicide.  
3 November    Today we devised and led a workshop where we taught basic improv games to some delegates who had come to the college to learn about working with V.I people. We taught Da Da Diddly, and Fortunately Unfortunately, also What Happened to Maria. They seemed interested and had a few questions about the course for us.   We then worked in a group to do a restauraunt improv. This improvisation focused on using mime skills.We each had a character trait to impersonate. Mine was a newly redundant character. We had five minutes planning time before starting. We then realised we'd been overthinking so we began. We got our timings  well, and worked together well. We then worked in pairs with doctor patient improvs. It helped us to work together, with enough room for dialogue. We also learnt how each other worked. It was good to work with Charlotte and Angel, as I had not worked with them much before.
As part of our Auditions for Actors unit, we used improvisation to learn more about our monologue characters. I found this a particularly useful exercise as it enabled me to make more of a connection to Charlie from 'Keepig Tom Nice' Below is some footage from this activity.

https://youtu.be/P_lpyYCCauI

https://youtu.be/wJKZ9Mzns5U

Contrasting monologues

I think my monologues contrasted well. My contemporary character Charlie, from 'Keeping Tom Nice' was confrontational to her parents and was obviously holding in a lot of pent up emotion. There was a lot of scope within this piece to explore anger and sadness and I really enjoyed the challenge of working with these emotions and creating a believable character.

My second monologue came from 'Taming of the Shrew', I was playing the character Katherine. She is confident, outspoken, loud and feisty and quite aggressive with her female counterparts. But she has realised that the way to be with your husband is to support him and not go against him as, ultimately, it will make their life experience so much better if they are living harmoniously.


Here is my final monologue.

https://youtu.be/7Lj2RCMuy0Y

Here is my final taming of the shrew monologue:

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SNdiP3_6gkg&feature=youtu.be

melodic phrases

Below is a link to my youtube account where there is a video of me carrying out my melodic phrases.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qC8ccd1H6ZI

Working on and refining audition speeches

 2 October.  So far I sadly haven't met my current learning target, despite reading through  the Piece and practicing it. One good bit of feedback was to not swallow words, and to make the character's anger more real. It doesn't have to be louder, only deeper and more real.   9 October. When I went in jo the class on Thursday, I thought that I had not learnt anything, as it was not staying in my brain. However, Cara gave me one word prompts and I had learnt so much. Sadly, there was no expression but this is  okay as I had not fully learnt it, by any means. Since then, I've been reading and practicing the script and I hope by next lesson I will have improved.   7 November. Today I did my monologue about 4 times. I am finally managing to remember all the words, but there are a few areas where I need prompting, mainly in the first bit. We were looking at ways to move the piece forward. From now on, I will use a chair as a prop, to express the character's emotions. For example, I could sit on it, stand behind it, stand beside it. It can be a guide to show the variety of emotions Charlie is showing. I will practica with my chair in my room, so that I can adapt to this kind of technique.

14 November.  This week, I kept practising my piece with no script.  I used a chair, and practised different positions of my body.  I sometimes start sitting and then stand, or sometimes I will go from standing behind the chair, to sitting, to standing in front of the chair.  I feel I can express my character very well, and put emotion into the piece.  I can understand my character and what she is going through, and I can portray her well.  I can also outline her background story.  This is good because the more familiar I am, the more natural I will be able to act.  I think now, the main target is to focus on remembering those phrases which I mix up a bit.

22 November.  This week was very much the same as last week.  We were going to do a fake audition interview, as if I was applying to RADA.  However, I was not well on Monday so I missed this.

30 November.  This week, I did actually carry out my audition interview.  I felt very confident as I am good at speaking to people.  One thing that was not right was the fact that I leant forward which I shouldn't do.  I had to redo the interview as it was accidentally deleted from the flip, and I was able to take these comments on board.  I also did my piece again, and I feel that I am almost at performance standard.

15 January: This week we spent most of the time going over our speeches.  With mine, we investigated the movements with a chair, and how I could walk in.  In this monologue, my character is frustrated and angry, so the way I move is important.  I tried moving from the door, and pretending to open and close a door but I found the gesture hard.  We also did an interview for Rada, which was useful as it helped us understand how an audition would work.  I did my piece, and this was followed up with feedback, such as try to perfect movements.

22 January: This week, we did character hotseats, where we could ask questions to each other about our characters.  I had to explain Charlie's childhood, and I also had to talk about her frustrations with her parents.  This put the role into perspective for me.  It made me understand what it felt like to be inside my character.

29 January: This week we kept practising our monologues, and we also did an improv based on our characters.  We were in a library and at the horse races, and my character, being very modern and quite young for her age, was very eager and asked a lot of characters, as she wants to see the world as the playwrite indicates.  as the only modern day character, this was very interesting.

14 February: On 30 January, we were about to go to a theatre in Brecon, where we had a tour of the workspaces, the theatre, and were told a lot about the way it works there.  In the afternoon, we were able to do our monologues.  I was not nervous, but I deffinately wanted to do my best.  I think it went well, and despite the fact that I was in a new space, I navigated very well and as able to manage movement without letting it hinder the power of my words.  It was very helpful hearing from Martin, the CEO of the theatre, and seeing his reaction to our pieces.  He said mine was emotional and was very well done.  I feel that since my first year of the course, my insight into a character, and understanding of the components of a piece have really improved.

 https://youtu.be/62hkxs34bUI

This was the monologue that I performed  at the theatre.

Storytelling techniques - final evaluation

6 June. At the end of May we went to Forbury care home to perform our stories. I felt very prepared as I had a braille script, and the sound effects were ready to go. First Callum read his poem, and he read it very well, using a very narrative tone and his rhyming poem was easy to follow. Mikey's story then followed, his was very long and I had to say quite a few lines in his, but it was a very Blytonesque story, and I think the residentS enjoyed it. Finally, I read my story. As we were performino outside, we had to make sure our voices were clear and carried well. I felt my projection was very clear, and I used a lot of internation in my voice, as I  had a high voice for Grace and a slightly lower tone for Ted. The sound effects went very well. Usually, with braille readers, the braille script is hard to sight read, but I found that I could fluidly tell my story, with too much faltering. After the stories, although the residents did not properly remember our stories, they seemed happy and pleased. Marsha, who ran part of the story telling project then asked us to tell our own stories, which, although was not part of the work, still helped us to practice clear and well spoken naration.

19 June. Below is my story and final evaluation.

I feel I have gained an understanding of the benefits of a storytelling project on the ararget audience.  A lot of people with dementia do not have many memories of their own, as they struggle to remember what happened.  A story can provide the sences and imagery to mark a small amment of lucidity for a person.  It can also recreate a memory for them, even just for a few seconds, that can make them feel more human.  For some, even a smell description, or a farmyard scene, can bring baack nostalgia.  Storytelling can also have a calming effect on people, as it can create gentle memories and imagery in someone's mind to distract them from the confusing hum-drum of life especially when people are dealing with memory loss.

I think I applied  a range of storytelling techniques.  I spoke clearly and with internation, and used slightly different tones for different characters.  I also used a dream sequence that was dark and ominous, and I used a more serious tone for this.  I differentiated my voice between the reality and the dream to show that there was a difference.  I also used sound effects to influence my story, and to create emotion and memory.  I used school sounds, farm sounds, and creepy dream music for the nightmare.  I also used a waltz track in the end to tie up the story.  I read the story slowly enough that it could be heard, but with no pauses that could loose the astention of the spectators.  I used a simple writing structure with only two characters to make the story easier to follow, and so the spectators could focus on the words, and hopefully some knowind of memory they could inspire.  As I introduced the group, I hoped that the audience  were very familiar with my voice and my gentle tone which may have made it easier for them to follow my story.  I used soft tones, but at a clear and audible level, so that the spectators had a chance to follow the story if they could.

I feel that I have a strong understanding of the effects my storytelling skills could have on the audience, and the ways it was adapted to fit the audience.  I altered the story by simplifying the characters so that there was only two,, which would mean the audience would be able to follow the story more easily.  I chose language that was formal, but descriptive, so that it was not too much of a modernised story, I also kept the piece natural and not too elaborate so that the audience could identify with it.  If I was writing a piece for young adults about loneliness and being apart from your siblings, I'd talk about emails, texts, maybe certain social media, and might use more modernised vocabulary.  However, instead of receiving emails or facebook messages from each other, Grace received letters from Ted, and phone calls, which the audience would have a greater understanding of.  I also gathered only stimulai that I received from the group.  I hoped that the bird lover would like the sound effects, and the reference to farm animals and birds.  I hoped the farmer's wife would like the jam reference as that is what she told me about.  I hoped the teacher would relate to the classroom sounds, and the people who were born in Brazil and Germany would like the references to their professions and traditions, for example the German Gingerbread, and the Brazilian language programmes.  Some people also described their love for ballroom dancing, which was very periodic at their younger age, so I hoped the waltz would remind them of past memories of dancing.  I also made sure the storyline was interesting but not too complex, and the fact that there were only two characters meant that the audience, who all suffered with memory loss, would be able to keep track of what was happening without loosing their train of thought and unfocussing.

Grace wakes up early on a hazy friday morning and gets ready for the day.  She heads outside to collect the eggs from her chickens, she has 10 hens, and they'd laid a total of 8 eggs that day.  After putting them in the basket, Grace heads over to the cow stall and milks them by hand, she hates the new technology available to farmers' wives like her.  She sweeps the yard, feeds all the chickens, sheep, cows and horses, and tends to the crops.

She gets changed out of her farm gear and into her every day clothes, plus her flowery cooking apron.  She checks the big slate clock on the wall, it was 11 in the morning already.  It was time for 2 hours of jam making, Grace thinks.

In the kitchen, Grace makes a variety of jams, including plum, strawberry, cherry, raspberry, blackberry and a number of marmelades.  She would sell some, and the rest, she would give to friends or she'd keep to herself!

As the day grows later and later, Grace completes all her daily duties, and by the time twilight had set in she starts to feel lonely.  She wonders how her brother Ted is doing.  Was he in Brazil or maybe Germany? He teaches kids, generally abroad.  Grace misses him terribly.  She wishes he would come home and see her.  Maybe at christmas she'd see him again.

Meanwhile, Ted dismisses his class of 14 year olds in Germany.  He loves teaching, it was a passion for him.  He liked to see youngsters achieve so well each year.  He'd spend half the year in Germany, and when summer time dawned, he'd head to Brazil for all of the summer language programmes.  This left him very little time to see his Sister, Grace.  Grace was 2 years older than Ted, but he'd been the one to fly the nest first.  He walks home to his little Bavarian cottage which he shares with his girlfriend, and enters, kicking off his boots, ready to relax for the evening.  He gets out his laptop, and gets ready to mark some essays.  But instead, he finds himself on a flight finder website.  It was time to see Grace.

Grace heard a knock at the door.  She called out and then ran to answer.  A stoney-faced man waited on the doorstep, clutching a thick letter.  He gravely handed it to Grace.

"Sorry ma'am, bad news." Grace ripped open the envelope with quivering hands.  It read:

"Dear Mrs Blake.  I'm sorry to have to tell you that Ted died suddenly a couple of days ago.  I'm so sorry to have to tell you this in writing.  I'll send you somethings he'd like you to have.  With love, Ted's girlfriend, Anne."

Grace screams and sits upright, she'd obviously fallen asleep on the sofa.  She checks the time, 1 am! She hunts around feebly for the letter, the letter that doesn't exist.  She sighs with relief and collapses back on to the couch, falling into a deep and unddturbed sleep.

Two weeks later, Grace had not heard from Ted since that terrible nightmare she'd had about his death.  She'd phoneed him frequently, both at his address in Germany and in Brazil, to no avail.  She began to feel lonelz, anxious and depressed.  She even wrote him a few letters, again to each address, in the hopes of a response.  It was now Christmas eve.  Grace was carrying out her normal every day jobs.  She had been given little gifts from her friends for Christmas, but now she was sat at home by the log fire.  She pours herself a mold wine and sits on the sofa, feeling sad.

Suddenly, there was a cheerful knocking at the door.  Grace rushed to the door, expecting carrollers or charity collectors.  Instead, ted was standing there with a small suitcase, and a bouquet of flowers.

Grace screams with delight and embraces her brother, who laughs and hands her the bouquet of flowers, then crushes her in a tight hug.

"Hey, sissy! Missed me?"

Grace began to cry tears of joy.  Grabbing her brother's hand, she guided him round the farm, showing him all the animals.  When they were done, they sat by the fire and sampled Grace's homemade mince pies, and some of her jams, until Ted produced a delicious german gingerbread house, which they gladly shared.  After a while, they started sharing memories, laughing, and just like the olden days, the happy siblings began to waltz cheerfully round the  living room, viennese style, while the farm animals made their own chorus out in the snow.  Grace decided this was the best Christmas she'd had in a long time, and Ted thought the exact same.

19 June. Below is a copy of  the video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Bm027QFMU0&feature=youtu.be