DIANA: I have always thoroughly enjoyed doing voice work with Diana. Last year during my time on Introduction to Drama I was too nervous within myself to be open to trying singing in front of an audience, however this year I promised myself to go outside of comfort zones and fully immerse myself. I was able to choose a song that suited my voice through Diana’s guidance, I chose the song ‘Dream A Little Dream Of Me’ , the Mamas and Papas rendition. To prepare myself I made sure to drink plenty of water, get a correct amount of sleep and lead a healthy lifestyle. I’ve also continued to work on character worksheets and analysis, which helps me connect more with the emotions and mindset of the characters I’m portraying. The things I have enjoyed most with Diana is the warm ups, as it really energises me. I particularly enjoy the circle warm ups where we bounce off of each other, this could be when we do a specific body movement or a vocal stim.

Diana’s feedback after my first time singing: Open up more when singing so there isn’t tension, connect with the words and emotions that are shown through my analysis and find the correct pitch.

Steps I did to achieve/improve this: I rehearsed more at home, found my pitch (especially the starting pitch) and really connected with the song. Upon further reflection I would have chosen a different song, something more musical theatre based. An example being: Poor Unfortunate Souls from The Little Mermaid. I have also struggled with projecting so to improve this I am researching vocal coaches, something I have also spoke to Martyn about.

Diana’s feedback on group scene ‘T-Shirts’: During Diana’s lecture today (11/11/2025) we performed the scene for the first time, and only time as the performance is next week. She gave very similar feedback/comments as Clara (see in the ‘Weekly Reflections’ column). She enjoyed my comedic aspects I bring to the scene during the first part, something I was glad to hear as I truly feel that my character holds comedic energy close to them (could be a possible defence tactic?). I feel confident with both Diana and Clara’s feedback and fully feel I portray that during the final performance.

ELEANOR:

With Eleanor’s sessions we began by focusing on imagination and the power of what it can do. We did an exercise where we closed our eyes and imagined we were on a train, and the train stopped in a tunnel. We then had to imagine breaking out of the train and head towards the light at the end of the tunnel and see where we walked out into. My imagination had me walking into a Tudor England city, with muddy streets with lots of noise and chatter with horse and carriage draping through the streets. Afterwards we got into groups and had to act out someone’s ‘vision’, mine was chosen and we decided to display the story of King Henry the 8th and his wives. Afterwards Eleanor said that it was interesting because most of the groups didn’t actually stick to her brief, which was reenact what they saw when they first got out of the tunnel, but that was actually a good thing because we used our imaginations without even realising.

However, after reading through them I really loved the freedom these scenes give us to work with the words given and make them our own.

On Friday we were with Aisling and we looked a bit more into Alice Birch and who she is as a person and as a writer. We were split into groups and tasked to look at different aspects. My group got to look into Alice Birch herself, and we accumulated information on her and turned our presentation into an acted out piece. Above you will find a video of our presentation. Or press the link below.

https://dunedincollege.sharepoint.com/:v:/s/UAL3202526/ESIKccYyor9FozhHXi4407oBWMj6uu5ZXCYJx9SsUk4JfQ

My group scene (1), ‘T-Shirts’:

The Scene ‘T-Shirts’ is a 4 people scene about a group of people who are meeting up to discuss what they’re going to do in regards to a friend who’s gone missing. My character (character C) is 50/50 about what’s going on, they don’t really care as much as other characters, and treats it a bit like a joke. I don’t really know if the missing person is dead or alive, but I don’t show much interest either way. I’m working with Reese, Kay and Megan on this scene.

My group scene (2), Poutsch: We were initially told that our second scenes would be between two people, but I was put into a group of 3, which was interesting. This scene shows a group of 3 teenagers studying for an exam, although they are also drinking when studying. Towards the end of the scene Kay’s character talks about how the police came to the their house asking questions about the missing friend (referenced in my previous scene). It slowly starts to feel as though Kay’s character has a hidden agenda against me. I want to portray this scene as I know/did something I don’t want them to find out about.

In the script ‘Putsch’ I mentioned before that I believe she had something to do with the disappearance of the girl from my school, so I used that hunch when filling out the character card.

In the script ‘T-Shirts’ I really wanted to look into the background of the character as they come across as quite cocky at times. I went with the approach that this is a facade I put on, as I come from

quite an abusive and neglectful home.

We were also tasked in making a playlist for our characters, to represent their personalities through music, I’ve always found this sort of task quite challenging because I personally don’t really connect as much to music as the average person. I shall link my Spotify playlists to this column. I combined the two scripts into one playlist, I discovered their music tastes to be quite similar in the fact the music portrays something they don’t talk about to people. For my character in Putsch; it’s a representation of the secret they keep about the whereabouts of the missing person. For my character in T-Shirts; the music represents their broken home and how it really makes them feel. The genre is quite grungy and emotional at times.

The playlist: https://spotify.link/feF0mVhpYXb

For my character in Putsch: I believe this character fits into the ‘Press’ Effort Actions. This makes my character move; Directly, slow, strong and bound. This can be applied via movement AND the way my character talks.

• Why do I think ‘Press’ applies to this character? During the scene my character starts off quite direct with peer pressuring Kae’s character to take more shots. Throughout the scene I am asking questions slowly but strongly, looking for precise answers. Towards the end of the scene my character is bound due to the amounting pressure to answers Tamzin’s characters questions.

For my character in T-Shirts: I believe this character fits into the ‘Float’ Effort Actions. This makes my character move; Indirectly, slow, light and free. This can be applied via movement AND the way my character talks.

• Why do I think ‘Float’ applies to this character? For this character it’s quite a notable difference when comparing both of my characters. In this scene my character is more ‘free’ with their attitude as they don’t really care about the missing friend. I move around the scene indirectly and freely. However towards the middle-end of the scene my mood does change, as the attention really gets drawn to the missing girl and my focus gets drawn to that.

First thing on Monday (10/11/2025) we had our movement assessment with Patricia. This assessment was given to us 3 weeks ago, and we were to create a piece that is all to do with warming the body up correctly. My group went for an 80’s style aerobics class. Patricia asked us to fill out a risk assessment and also an assignment brief, that highlights the specific area that we were warming up. I shall link both to this padlet column.

With Clara (Mon 10/11/2025) we performed our larger group scenes for feedback. This was the first time Clara had seen my group (T-Shirts). The feedback I received was to have my character show some more compassion during the more tense and emotional times in the scene, and to really express that through my emotions. At first I wasn’t sure how to take that feedback, as the work I’ve done on my characters background - and specifically in the scene itself- shows that I am not really there to help, and I don’t particularly care much for the missing girl. However, after sitting with that information/feedback for a day, I really can see the importance of drawing into the compassionate emotions and how that does shape the scene and make it more engaging for the audience and for myself as the actor.

With Eleanor (Tues 11/11/25) we all grouped in the theatre to do a very quick run through of the positioning for each group ahead of the performance next week. For my group (T-Shirts) I need to discuss with Eleanor/Martyn the possibility of us using a trolley for our scene. It has been a main focus so far so I am hoping it’s achievable and/or something that actually works for the scene. My group for Putsch then did a run through privately for Eleanor, and we received great feedback, with only minor adjustments. For example; we swap Kae and myself so I am sitting to one side and they are in the middle. This position change will help myself when it comes to my character starting to panic when the subject of the missing girl comes up, and also pulls focus onto Kae at the beginning. This will also help with the silent communication that happens between myself and Tamzin’s character.

Monday 17/11/2025 (one day till show day): In the morning we had Patricia for movement as usual, and we all decided to do a yoga warm up, which is always quite funny but also brilliant to loosen up the body. Usually I’d vote for something more up beat, but my dog Mash was at the time getting emergency treatment at the vet hospital so my mind was not as focused or energetic as usual. After we had done our yoga warm up, we were put into groups and given an image to create a Tableaux of. We were given a painting of Paris, France, with the Eiffel Tower. Once we had created that we had to create a total of 4 Tableaux images to carry it on. We did the initial Eiffel Tower image , then an image of the Paris streets, then an image of inside the Louvre during the recent heist, then an image of the getaway from the Louvre heist. After we performed these we had to create a 5th and final Tableaux, and we did an image of The Paris Catacombs.

After Patricia’s we were in the theatre doing a run through of the scenes, because my head was not really screwed on due to my personal situation, we didn’t quite get it right, however that’s what rehearsals are for and I believe we did a much better job the next day (see section ‘Show Day thoughts/feedback’ for on the day reflections).

Putsch feedback:

Feedback not officially given till the week after project one submission date.

T-Shirts feedback:

Feedback not officially given till the week after project one submission date.