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We are a collective of undergraduate acting students attempting to portray our refined perception of the real. We aim to enable our audience to step into a new dimension by invoking the answers to our question: What do you consider real? As a collective of undergraduate acting students, we have a shared purpose. Our theatrical endeavours aim to bring forth a heightened and refined perception of reality. We strive to create an immersive experience that invites our audience to explore a new dimension, provoking thought and introspection. Our ultimate goal is to challenge perceptions and ignite conversations about what is considered authentic.

Through our performances, we aspire to create a space where imagination and reality intertwine, blurring the lines between the two. By inviting our audience to question their own understanding of reality, we can open doors to new perspectives and insights. Our values guide us in our artistic pursuits. We value authenticity, vulnerability, and the power of storytelling. We believe in the importance of inclusivity, embracing diverse voices and experiences. We realize the significance of having a supportive and collaborative environment where each collective member can grow and flourish. Together, we embark on this artistic journey, seeking to challenge, inspire, and provoke. We invite you to join us as we explore what it means to be real.

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Acting as one of the costume and set designers of our production, not only did I collate different pieces from my personal wardrobe (Windbreaker jackets worn by Mike and Lucas) and the theatre store for our actors but we also explored the use of different fabric for the making of the Demogorgon. We experimented first with this cream stretchy fabric that, although looked frightening, imposed health risks on one of the actors. We then expanded the Demogorgon costume made from black bin bags, adding more volume and different types of fabric found in the scraps of the costume studios.

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Turkey Day Workout with Mrs. Wheeler | Stranger Things | Netflix

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I feel one of my passions surrounding art, acting and performance lies in cinematography and creating visually stimulating performances through a lens. I expanded my skills surrounding camera work and cinematography as well as screenwriting for the creation of the 5 minute movie of Joyce and Karen that introduces Hawkins in our play. This experience included scouting for locations and collaborating with my colleagues Leo and Gunes to attempt our representation of the real through acting combined with the (arguably) inauthentic nature of actually filming a scene (the concept of doing takes and chopping up sequences unnaturally so they can be filmed practically). In our collaboration we carefull thought through different shots and their symbolic value in the context of the scene to encourage further invocation from our audience.

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CHARACTER ANALYSIS

My character analysis for the character of Karen included, character and context mindmaps, studying the symbolism of Karen as a character in the original story and a little bit of method acting with the little baby doll Holly!

While studying the symbolism of Karen's character, I found Karen is a powerful parallel to Joyce, a significant mum figure in the story. Karen provides an example of a society- refined mum who later on in the show hints at feelings of entrapment through her relations with Billy ( she ultimately chooses her family and security).

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During this unit, I was introduced to editing - using Adobe Premiere Plus pro! I find it exciting that I developed skills to use IT software and technology to enhance me art. The image above shows a "sort-through" of the different takes for the clips used for the Karen and Joyce montage, before me and Leo explored a new programme to help enhance the reality of what we wanted to portray.

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Using the library!

Throughout the process, visiting the library for research to improve the accuracy of our representation of the real was a utilitarian approach. I found refined books that clearly explained and showed the nuances of specific tops of the technical production of our rendition of Stranger things - this was specifically helpful when planning ideas for costume and set design as well as lighting aspects. I found a text that showed 'Jewelry throughout the decades' that inspired Karen's earrings and a text that explained the different colours and what energy they represent, which was useful for incorporating colour symbolism into the lighting spectacle of the production.

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FRANTIC ASSEMBLY

The theatre company that I researched during this unit was Frantic Assembly whose manifesto and ethos focuses on 'collaboration, of empowerment, of that constant desire to improve. It is about telling stories in a voice we don't always hear and about finding talent in places we don't always look.'

I drew inspiration from this for our theatre company in terms of the focus on collaboration and the desire to improve, despite differing in terms of their use of physical and touch collaboration to create empowerment, I envisioned that we would still create this togetherness and empowerment through rehearsal - this energy is imperative to our performance that aims to represent "real" friendship, intimacy and family relations.

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Colouring, Emphasis and New thoughts

I utilized text analysis skills that i picked up from Steven's classes in order to gain greater understanding of my given circumstances and the context of the scene. I find this a really useful practice during the main process of production - I feel as though analyzing text in this way helps portray genuine feeling and emotion into the dialogue that creates a more dramatic and "real" experience for the audience.