The purpose of today’s lesson was to explore your chosen characters objectives and actions. 

 The objective is what the character wants/desires to do. This can change throughout the scene due to the characters choices and how everyone else reacts to help the scene develop. Knowing the characters objective is very useful because it helps you understand the character even more and enables you to explore the character you’re playing in more depth. It allows you to be able to think how the character does so you can then portray the character in the correct way.

 Actioning is using transitive verbs to describe what each actor does to other actors on stage. An example of a transitive verb is ‘interrogate’. An action links to an objective as it shows a strategy used to help persue an objective.

 In class we worked on a scene from a play called ‘Mogadishu’. In this particular scene it starts off with a foreign boy running late to class called firat. As he is running he accidentally bumps into a boy called ‘Jason’ (He is foreign himself because in the text given it describes him to be black). At the time he bumped into him Jason was lighting a ‘spliff’ and has he is pushed the end of it went into his top leaving it with a hole. After this the scene escalates dramatically and after a few words between firat and Jason, Jason starts to get very irritated and starts shouting out abusive and racist words to firat. Jason’s friends start to encourage his behaviour and after a while Jason starts to attack firat. As he does this a teacher called ‘Amanda’ comes along and tried to break up the fight. As she does so Jason reacts and pushes her to the floor. Leaving Jason shocked at what he just done. My character ‘jasons’ objective was to look ‘cool’ for his friends and be ‘dominant’ over firat. Jason’s objective stays like this throughout the scene until the end where he pushes his teacher to the floor. Although we didn’t carry it on from there I could tell from the little description given of how Jason reacts that his objective changes dramatically. He realises that what he has done is so wrong and can get him into trouble so he tries to play it off and act innocent. 

 My characters action was to interrogate firat. He wanted him to fear him so he looked good infront of his friends. Jason is seen as the gang leader so in order to keep that title he feels like he needs people to fear him so no one can over take his title. Knowing this really helped me become my character. I felt the way he did. The anger he did in the beginning when a hole was burned into his top and then at the end of the scene, his guilt and regret for when he pushes his teacher to the floor. I believe in order to make it believable that you’re playing the character and not yourself is to fully understand the objectives and actions of the character. 

 My strengths in the scene to portray my character was raising my voice so I’m more powerful than ‘firat’. I also got into the person playing the characters ‘personal space’ to make them feel uncomfortable to make the feelings real to the audience. 

 The personal contributions I made to the scene was, I made sure everyone without a big part had some lines to say so they wasn’t left out. I asked them who’s side they wanted to be on and during rehearsals I would interact with them so they felt part of the scene as well.. 

 The things I feel like I need to work on is not having my back to the audience. During rehearsals everyone in my group kept telling me to stop putting my back to the audience. I felt it to be such a difficult challenge. Even in my performance I still sometimes put my back to the audience. So next time I feel like I need to practice it more so next time I don’t do it again. 

The Bogus Woman is about a young lady who is left nameless. In the script it says that she is an African woman that has escaped her country. Her family were murdered in front of her and she was raped by the soldiers.

This woman is a journalist and believes that the soldiers came to murder her and her family because of the things she wrote about. She suffered a lot from racism and found it very hard to live her life remembering the traumatic experience she had to go through. In Africa she tried to tell people her story but no one wanted to listen to she decided to flee to England to start a better life.

The woman comes to England and gives the English border false documents about herself and her situation because everyone in Africa didn’t believe her. She gets taken into a room and is interrogated because no one believed her story. She claims her father was killed with bayonets. Husband and mother were shot and her baby daughter was killed with a machete. She then goes on to explain that she was raped by the soldiers and miscarried a foetus in a bucket whilst hiding from her families murderers. The interrogator finds this very hard to believe and questioned her to the point where she broke down in tears, remembering the death of her family. After a while the English border let her out of questioning and into Britain. She is left with no food, no money, and no shelter, absolutely nothing. So she decides the only way she can survive is to carry on writing. She turns her whole life into a one woman show. She starts out by performing it in the streets, then after some time a man came across her performance and fell in love so he decided to help her book a room where she can perform it to a real audience. She explains to this man she has no money and no home and he takes her in. He believes she has a real talent for writing. However she never mentions to anyone that this is a true story on her life. 

After a few years of performing, her show gets very popular. She ends up falling in love with the man who took her in and starts a family with him. However she can never forget what she went through and can’t bring herself to tell her new husband that her play is written on her life. Until one day one of the soldiers who killed her family came to watch her play not knowing what he’s in for. 

Whilst she is performing she looks out to the audience and recognises the man. She starts to freak out and the man realises who she is. She goes and tells her husband everything and the solider gets arrested and taken to prison. Although it was only one man taken away she felt like her mind was now at ease and she can live the rest of her life knowing that someone out there believes her and her story.

Firstly, what do the theatre companies need to do to make the performances suitable for the audience?  For example children audiences, In order to make it appropriate for them they have to make sure the play is suitable for ages under 12. This means there can’t be any swearing or sexual references. The companies need to add excitement for the children. During plays children have such short attention spans and can get bored very easily. So in order to stop this from happening companies make plays a lot shorter than plays for teens or adults. 

The companies always make the plays interactive so it is fun for the children. The most common thing children shout out is ‘boo’ at the bad guys in the plays. In some plays the actors even ask for volunteers and this excites children because they always like to interact and join in. During the performances they need to make the plays fun and interesting and educational. An example of a company that educate the child audience is ‘Big Brum Theatre’. They say that they use theatre and drama to make meaning of the lives of the young children and the world around them. They also explain how their plays are educational and enriching to children’s lives. In their performances they also use costumes and colours; children find this very exciting and mesmerising which hooks them into loving it even more. Another thing they use is dramatic action, this is to lure the audience in and get their focus. This is a big aim when performing in front of children since they get so distracted and lose their focus so easily.

Another example is teenage audiences, to make plays appropriate for teenagers the plays need to be relatable and educational. Plays about drugs and sex are very popular with teens because it is very relevant for them. It helps them understand why drugs are wrong and why we’re all too young to have sex.  It educates them in such a strong way and helps them understand right from wrong. Without this in their plays teenagers won’t learn anything and will be lost. An example of a company that educates teens in their performances is ‘Teen theatre sex’. They encourage teens to talk about sex and helps teens understand that they need to protect themselves from getting diseases. 

Secondly, the conventions the company use to meet their target audience. For a child audience the company uses drama techniques like ‘audience participation’. This is where the actors let the children contribute in the play. They ask them questions and the children get to respond. This is so the children don’t get bored and they’re continuously active and paying attention to the show. By using audience participation it hooks the children and gets them listening to what’s going on. If the play did not allow the children to join in then they would get bored and start moaning etc and then distract other kids and children theatre would not work.  

For a teenage audience one of the drama techniques the company use to meet their target audience is thought track. This is where the character speaks about what is on their mind. This can relate to loads of teens out there who get bullied or have a problem with something but they’re too scared to say anything.  If they see the character in the same sort of situation as them speaking their mind it might give them a confidence boost to speak up for themselves. It also educates teenagers that it’s okay to speak about what bothers you in life. For example, if the play is about someone getting bullied about their skin type or sexuality or religion, and they stick up for themselves or they tell a teacher or parent about their situation it could encourage the people in the audience that is going through the same thing as the character to tell someone. In some cases it could even save lives. 

Lastly what factors the companies must consider, for a child audience they need to make the budget of the tickets low. They can’t price their tickets the same as a west end show because it is not exactly west end quality because it is for younger children. They also need to make sure that there is no inappropriate language or actions. This will put the parents off letting their children go because they are still so innocent and too young to be listening and understanding what is going on. For a teen audience the factors need to be relatively the same. The price can’t be too expensive because teenagers don’t really have a lot of money. There can be inappropriate language but only to an extent. This is because teens are old enough to understand what you can and cannot say whereas children do not understand that.

Overall I have discussed what a company needs to do to be successful in attracting their target audience to their plays. It goes from the characteristics, conventions and factors that they need to consider.

The relationship between the two characters is very tense. The interrogator who is left unnamed does not believe the woman’s story. In the scene the woman is crying as she is being bombarded with questions about her traumatic past. The interrogator shows no remorse and digs and digs until the woman breaks down into confusion which immediately makes her look suspicious. I feel like me and my partner really showed the relationship through our performance well because she used body language and different tones in our voice. For example, I was always sitting down slouched to show that I am uncomfortable and vulnerable whereas Indiana sat with her legs crossed and good posture to show she’s in control. She also would stand up and circle me to show dominance of the situation. However, if I was to do this performance again the one thing I would change is my tone of voice. Throughout the scene I was very innocent and quiet but towards the big shout at the end I should have built up a climax. To make the scene really pop and to make the big shout relevant and not random to make the audience understand the characters frustration more clearly. 

My characters objective was to make the interrogator believe her story and make her feel sorry for her. I believe I made that clear when I showed how distraught my character looks and feels. However I feel like I could have changed the way I made my character act. Instead of being sweet and innocent I could have acted persuasive and meaningful to show how true I am being. Although I feel as though at the same time the way I performed being innocent shows that I would never lie about something so disturbing. From doing this I have learned how to show emotion of a person going through something so painful and scarring. For example during my performance every time I had to talk about something emotionally draining such has the characters miscarriage I made my voice crack to show how painful it is to talk about past events and how much it has damaged the character. 

 

The other character in this scene at some points made it very hard for me to achieve my characters objective. My objective was to make the interrogator believe my characters story and every time my character was close to convincing her, she would think of a reason why the woman was lying. For example, when my character started to speak about how she was raped and how she miscarried a foetus you could tell at that point the atmosphere changed for split second. That was when the interrogator was close to having sympathy because of the big pause. Then she started to accuse the woman of lying because she thought it was impossible. It was almost like she didn’t want to believe her. When the interrogator started to talk about how her mother, father and baby daughter was killed, I started to make my character hyperventilate to show how disturbing it is to the character.  At that moment in time the interrogator was silent but still looking at the woman with disbelieve. Her arms were crossed and she was almost circulating the woman to make her feel threatened. That was then the woman’s chance to explain and make the interrogator believe her story. The one thing I feel like we could of changed was when the interrogator asked if the woman wanted a glass of water. We cut that part out because we felt like it was irrelevant, but looking back I think it would have helped the audience understand that the interrogator was slowly starting to feel sorry for the woman.

I used actions in my performance to support my objectives. An example of my objective is that I wanted to convince the interrogator that my story is true, the action I used to be successful is to persuade. For example, the interrogator kept accusing the woman of lying and then I felt like that was my chance to say ‘I’m not lying’ and sound persuasive. I was saying it as if I was desperate and tired to show that I’m not guilty and have nothing to lose. If I was to do this performance again I would include another action. However I think the only one relevant to my character is to persuade because she has no other motive. I feel like without an objective and action in the performance it has no real truthfulness and doesn’t have a real effect on the play because you’re not putting yourself in the actors shoes you’re just ‘acting’ but as yourself. 

My technical skills in my performance were good however there is still a lot of room for improvement. Throughout the performance I was very quiet and slow. I did this to create a sense of innocence for my character. I felt like if she spoke in a normal tone she would look guilty of lying. In the middle of the scene when I had to speak about the characters family murder I spoke again very quietly and I made my voice shake to sound nervous about remembering the traumatic experience of witnessing that to make it more believable to the other character and the audience. When the interrogator caught out the woman and made her stumble on her words I projected my voice to show confusion and aggravation. Then at the end when the character was so sick and tired of being accused of lying I projected my voice and spoke with a lot more pace to show how much it hurts when you’re being accused of lying about something that is true. If I was to redo my performance the only thing I would change is when my character stumbles on her words. I wouldn’t correct myself too quickly because when I did it made the audience believe I was lying even though this whole time I’ve been trying to convince them that I haven’t. 

 

In conclusion, I feel like me and my partner delivered this performance very well. I think we done it at our best ability. However there is always room to improve and work on things. I think we communicated the scene well and portrayed it the best we could. The research that we both carried out on the play helped us a lot to understand if the woman is lying or not. At first we thought she was so I acted in a way where I looked suspicious but then after we done our own research we found out she wasn’t lying so I had to change the way I was making my character behave to make it understandable that she’s telling the truth and it has really affected her. My strengths are that I can adapt my behaviour to fit the way the character is feeling. Also I am able to show distress and discomfort through body language. My weaknesses are that I find it hard to give eye contact to the other character. In my performance that was necessary but at certain points I needed to use eye contact but I always forgot to. Overall I think it was a really good performance and I met my targets.

My role in steppin to the bad side is that I played a girl whose trying to get her music in the industry. However to do this she needs to get into the dodgy side of the business. My character was very feisty, sassy, and had loads of attitude. She’s always grown up wishing to be a singer and one day she met some people who promised her that chance. However they forgot to mention that she would have to go into the illegal side of music to try and get noticed and throughout this dance peace she is expressing how badly she wants to be a star through her performance.  

The skill that I used to carry out this role was confidence in myself. Throughout my rehearsals I was always too scared to put my all in it in case I looked stupid. However the more I practiced, I realised that over the top looks good. My character is feisty, sassy and has attitude so to show that I had to put it into my performance to prove that I can play my character well. I needed to make my actions strong. For example when I would bring my arm out it couldn’t look sloppy it had to look sturdy and professional. At the start when I walked out I had to walk with a strong posture to make the audience realise who my character is.

I think personally in my performance I carried out my role really well. However in my rehearsals I struggled to a lot. Performing the dance moves and showing my character all at the same time was a real struggle for me because I can’t coordinate at all. I found that if I gave attitude whilst dancing I’d forget the steps and look stupid. To fix this problem a peer and I rehearsed together outside of college to work on our character. Towards the performance I think I progressed and was really showing who my character was. In my actual performance I think my facial expressions as well as my posture and way of moving helped me out a lot. For example at the end of the dance when we was all in a circle and had to pose, I feel like my poses were very big and overdramatic and I feel like that helped the audience understand the traits of my role in the dance. 

During rehearsals my group and I would always go over everything again and again to make sure it is perfect. We also had our own choreography that we had to make up and I feel like by doing that we all gained confidence to dance around each other. For example, whenever someone would mess up a dance step we would all go through it with them to make sure they know where they went wrong and how they could improve. If we learnt something new in that lesson and didn’t feel comfortable about it we would after class go find a quiet area either in college or at someone’s house to go over it and work on showing our character whilst dancing. Another example is where my group helped me with a dance move I couldn’t master straight away. It was the one in the dance break where we have to climb over our own bodies. I have really weak wrists and I’m overall not very strong so my peers helped me out a lot to perfect the dance move. 

One of my weaknesses in delivering my performance is confidence. In the beginning of rehearsals my confidence was very low because I have a fear of looking stupid when I dance. After a few rehearsals I got comfortable with everyone in my class and was then able to be myself and dance without thinking I look ridiculous. However in my performance I feel like I could have done it so much better, but because of my nerves of performing in front of people I hardly know I think they got the best of me and I held back a tiny bit. Although I do think my performance was good. 

Another one of my weaknesses is coordination. I have mentioned this before but I find it very hard to dance and play a character because I then get too carried away and forget the dance moves. In my performance that didn’t happen because I was making sure I was aware about everything but in my rehearsals I kept making that mistake and you can see it in my face and it showed the audience that I messed up and that I had come out of character.

Lastly, one of my weaknesses is to stay in character. Whenever I dance I find it very hard to be my character and show sassiness because I will forget my dance moves. When I do forget my steps I make it very obvious in my face by instinct and it then shows the audience that I am no longer in character and that I have potentially ruined the performance for myself.

However, one of my strengths is that I can pick up things very quickly. When we were learning the dance I was able to memorise the dance steps straight away. This was helpful to not only me but to my classmates because when they would forget the dance I would help them learn it and help them and myself perfect it even more.

Another one of my strengths is emotion. Although I find it hard to stay in my specific character I am still able to show emotion on my face. This is very useful because it means that I’m not just dancing with a blank face. It shows that I can bring my dance alive.

Lastly, one of my strengths is flexibility. I’m able to kick my leg up or twist my arm to make my body be able to move in a certain direction. This is very useful because I have a good advantage to do loads of dance moves in my performance that can bring the dance alive and impress the audience.