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Show day was a good experience for everyone. Us level 2s and the level 1s had all day to rehearse our plays! Level 1 was performing Mumma Mia, I would’ve loved to involved in it because I love musical theatre and I can be more creative and my energy for it is really high! On this day we rehearsed really hard and we filled in any unnecessary gaps. We went over scene 4 over and over and over again until it was just right. We finally developed our characters in the most depth possible and we all made sure we had reactions to everything. We finally had a rehearsal in our costumes which I was looking forward to. When it came to the performance, everyone showed enthusiasm and put in their best efforts. We all knew our lines too, apart from one or two lines from a couple of people that needed a bit of prompting. Our show went really well in the end and our audience enjoyed it.

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During the week before the show we stopped doing theory work and kept our main focus on intense rehearsals. Some people still hadn’t learnt all their lines but I had positive hopes that during the week everyone would know them all. We went over each scene a lot, we did this until each scene was perfect and there were no odd silences etc. we also cut down some on the scene as they were quite repetitive and wordy. Even though a lot of my lines were cut from scene 1 (I wasn’t too happy about this at first), it helped to speed up the pace more and other individuals who watched our rehearsals said that it was much better and quicker. During this week we also created transitions to go in between each scene! I really enjoyed this part and with the music and lights being added in, it created a really interesting atmosphere that made an audience want to see more. Although show week was intense and we had to focus the whole time, it was worth the out come.

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During our third and 4th week of rehearsals we had our focus put on our theory work. Doing this meant we could research more into the play and the hacking community, and expand on our character profiles! We took a lot of time doing theory which meant we could understand the play more, have time to individually plan what we will do to be ready on show day, annotate anything important in our scripts, and carry on adding to our Padlet’s in which all our theory for this unit is on. We were also given the choice of making a sketch book if Padlet wasn’t our thing.

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During week 2 of rehearsals for Hacktivists we started exploring our individual character profiles and expanding on social interactions. The play is fueled by the relationships and “banter” between the characters. So it is important that our group push ourselves to create a more realistic school atmosphere. This can be done by increasing the pace, staying in character, creating contrasting dynamics between characters and learning lines.

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During our first week of rehearsals for Hacktivists we focused on blocking the scenes. I spoke about this under the heading: ‘Blocking’. Some of us have began to learn our lines and some haven’t which has brought the process down a little. Hopefully this will change soon and once we all know our lines we can focus on our characterization and movement in the space, rather than being stuck in one space and not moving because of being too focused on looking down at the script.

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Fear, Trust, Loyalty, Justice, Power, Manipulation, Greed

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Our poster advertising our performance!

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By Prodigy
Transition One we used:  'No Good'.
Transitions Two we used: 'Firerstarter'
Transition Three we used 'No Good'

We decided to use these pieces of music because we felt they were strong and therefore suited the theme. We wanted to keep the same artist for all transitions because we felt they it helped to connect the transitions.

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We had 2 months to learn and put on the play. At the beginning we had many challenges which were: What will our set look like? Will we all have a good understanding of the piece? What friendships will our characters develop trough the play? How will we look at the spacing of the piece? What sound effects would we use? To over come these challenges as a class we discussed what we wanted to communicate to the audience. We used improvisations as a starting point to staging the piece and researched information on Hacktivists to help us understand the contents of the play. Research also helped in the development of my character. Through research I realized that an Hacktivists is offer obsessed with issues, I decided to use this to help my characterization, making her intense and confidence. At the end of each session we filled in our logs which helped us to reflect on the rehearsal that day. Then a class or individuals the teacher would give us feedback at the end of each session. For example, I needed to work on not using gestures as much and make the movements more naturalistic. I also needed to work on my projection, my delivery of lines were to quiet. If I could've made any changes to the process I would preferred for us to have more organisational skills as a group, so we could of used our practical time effectively. This would help us with our characterization and developing the piece even more. I played my character differently to how I thought would at the start. Rather than being full on goody too shoes I acted more as if I was nervous, exited and involved with everything that was going on. My character liked to think a lot and gaze off into space. I used lots of facial expressions as well to help communicate my intention to the audience. We staged the opening then decided to use music and sound effects a school bell. I feel that this added to the piece and helped to bring the characters alive and play alive, helping to character an atmosphere. When we added lighting to the stage it created an interesting atmosphere and helped to communicate our intention to the audience. In one of our transitions we used torches and we created a pattern of movement with some music in the background. I felt this was different and gave a deep dynamic quality to the piece. Overall, I did begin to enjoy the process as it went on. It was interesting to see how you can layer a piece with music and movement and how it can help to bring a theatre piece alive. I feel like our performance as a whole group got better and better the more we rehearsed.

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In Internet activism, hacktivism or hacktivism is the use of technology to promote a political agenda or a social change. With roots in hacker culture and hacker ethics, its ends are often related to the free speech, human rights, or freedom of information movements

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For the performance we are all going to be wearing a school uniform. We will all be given a school shirt and tie to wear and then we are individually in charge of providing the rest for ourselves. These would be school trousers or skirts etc.

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11th June 2019

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Planning in theory

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This is a snap shot of what’s going on in Up Stage Right, at the beginning of scene Two

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Every time we go over our scenes again I try to make sure I am staying in my character and also thinking of new ways that I can move around the performance space, as well as making sure I react to what is going on and interacting with the other characters and using facial expressions/body language.

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After we put a set together we began to look at our scripts and block our performance together in chunks at a time. So during our sessions so far we have been blocking as much as we can, scene by scene. We go over everything we have put together as much as we can which helps us to develop our characters more.

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In scene 2 of Hacktivists we find out that the Character Archie had got down on his knees, and begged Daniel Cooper to let him and his friends in to the party they weren’t invited to! Just for a bit of fun we decided to film a mini clip with all of us improvising what could’ve been the scene. We came up with the idea of filming this because in the beginning of scene two a group of us are surrounding Hugs who is showing off the video that has been posted on YouTube!

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When we came back to college after Easter we created a set for our performance. This consists of tables and chairs. So we have two tables and four chairs on one side, and another 4 tables with 8 chairs on the other side. In the centre of the performance space we put out 4 or 5 chairs in a line to represent a sofa which we will use in our dress rehearsal and main performance. We have also thought about the theme of the play, so are going to have a few laptops out on the tables too.

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Starting from the 29th April we began to look at our script for the show. We had a lesson where we would do some research on the play, looking at the definition of Hacktivists, who the play write is, who the characters are in the play, and some facts about National Connections. Since this we have began experimenting by reading through the script all together as a group. This was a great way to learn/understand the storyline of the play. I agree that this was a lot better than individually reading the script, as its a lot better to read out loud together. Not long after this we found out our roles and we all began to look at the script in our own time to do some annotations on it and begin to learn our lines!

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National Theatre Connections - Wikipedia

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Connections (also referred to as New Connections and formerly Shell Connections) is the Royal National Theatre in London's annual youth theatre festival. It was founded in 1995 and sponsored by Royal Dutch Shell until 2007 when the Bank of America took over the sponsorship. The plays are also published by the National Theatre each year.

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The National Theatre annually commissions ten plays from established playwrights which are performed by youth theatre groups across the UK. Groups are invited to perform at Connections Festivals held at a professional theatre in their area. A random performance group from each play is then performed at the end of the Festival at the National Theatre.

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Each year the National Theatre commissions ten new plays for young people to perform, bringing together some of the UK's most exciting writers with the theatre-makers of tomorrow.

300 youth theatre companies and over 6,000 young people from every corner of the UK are producing a Connections play this year. Ten companies will come to the National Theatre with their productions of plays by Luke Barnes, Rob Drummond, Katie Hims, Dawn King, Benjamin Kuffour, Ndell Leyshon,  Lajaune Lincoln & Ben Baily Smith, Laura Lomas, Katherine Soper and Tom Wells.

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In the play I am playing the role of Nisha. She seems like a goody too shoes and not highly confident sort of character.

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A black hat hacker is a person who attempts to find computer security vulnerabilities and exploit them for personal financial gain or other malicious reasons

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The term "grey hat", alternatively spelled as "greyhat" or "gray hat", refers to a computer hacker or computer security expert who may sometimes violate laws or typical ethical standards, but does not have the malicious intent typical of a black hat hacker.

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The term "white hat" in Internet slang refers to an ethical computer hacker, or a computer security expert, who specializes in penetration testing and in other testing methodologies that ensures the security of an organization's information systems.

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I recon that I'd be a great back stage hand! This is because over the past 3 years and even still now, I have been involved with my middle school that I went to. They have 1 or 2 shows a year which I come back and help with. I have been in charge of costumes and props many times. In terms of costumes I have been in a very large costume cupboard with a list of each character in whatever play it is, and what those characters need. So I would look for the right sort of costume for them all to wear. I am fully a where that this can take a long time. In terms of props, I have sometimes had to create things within the art department, this is only if we are unable to provide the prop we need. This has developed my creativity. I've also been a caller for the actors so they know when to be ready. I have also been involved with lighting, creating a lighting script for each show. All of these has increased my knowledge of the different things that go on backstage and with the tech. I quite enjoy this sort of thing as well as being a performer on stage.

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A group of young actors talking about the play that they are performing

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A group of young actors talking about the play that they are performing

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This video helped me to understand the play a lot more. This is because the people talking in the video look a similar (if not, older) age to me.

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Lyceum Youth Theatre:  What is Hacktivists?

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Each year the National Theatre commissions ten new plays for young people to perform, bringing together some of the UK's most exciting writers with the theatre-makers of tomorrow.

Every year, 300 youth theatre companies and over 6,000 young people from every corner of the UK are producing a Connections play this year.

The National Theatre's Partner for Learning is Bank of America.

Connections is supported by The Mohn Westlake Foundation, The Buffini Chao Foundation, Andrew Lloyd Webber Foundation, Delta Air Lines, The Peter Cundill Foundation, Mactaggart Third Fund, The EBM Charitable Trust, Samantha and Richard Campbell-Breeden, Susan Miller and Byron Grote, The Broughton Family Charitable Trust and Katie Bradford.
Photograph by The Other Richard

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Each year the National Theatre commissions ten new plays for young people to perform, bringing together some of the UK's most exciting writers with the theatre-makers of tomorrow. Every year, 300 youth theatre companies and over 6,000 young people from every corner of the UK are producing a Connections play this year.

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All characters can be anywhere between 13-18 years old, with the exception of Archie, Beth, Steve and Eloise who should be at the upper end of that range. The characters names are: Archie, Beth, Steve, Mark, Hugs, Eloise, Tania, Cath, Jenny, Drew, Pez, Nisha, Seb.

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The play is a lot to do with friendship and a group of 13 school kids who are all good friends. It’s also about the responsibilities we have to one another as friends and even as a society. Manipulation is also involved in this play.

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This video helped me to understand more about the play.

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Please go to our new YouTube Channel below

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National Theatre Connections 2015: Ben Ockrent

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Ben Ockrent has said he finds the subject of his play “particularly interesting because of how engaged we are with the internet now on a daily basis, especially young people, how much we are online.”

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The piece has quite a complicated and unique theme, and it is interesting to follow. The story is of a young girl called Beth who joins a gang of computer experts and eventually causes a revolt against the government, taking control of the gang and leading them into trouble.

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Hacktivists was written by Ben Ockrent, who has also written for television programmes such as Waterloo Road (BBC) and Youngers (E4).

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Hacktivists is part of the Connections festival held at the National Theatre, hosting a collection of plays that are written by up and coming writers for young adults.

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A Hacktivist is a person who gains unauthorized access to computer files or networks in order to further social or political ends.