Week 2 - Devising

Characters:
Billy Joe: Joseph
Bobby: Me
Father: Lewis
Mother: Kennedy
Brother Taylor: Luke
Sister Betty: Phoebe

After speaking about what we've already discussed for our play we all agreed that it was probably best if we didn't all play Billy Joe and Bobby as the audience might get confused since we were confusing ourselves. Before we began deciding on what we're going to do instead of what we originally planned we decided on our characters. Then we started linking everyone and thinking about their relationships between each other which is when we decided that Bobby was going to have an arranged marriage with brother Taylor the priest even though she is secretly dating Billy Joe who her father doesn't approve of. Bobby doesn't get on well with her father as he is very aggressive and violent to her mother who she does get a long with. Bobby is close to her sister  Betty. Betty and brother Taylor love each other but Betty is too young to be with him and he is suppose to be marrying Bobby.

There is a lot that we want to happen throughout this play but we have to see what works and what doesn't and we can't have it too complicated. We do have a lot of ideas like having the mother poison the father but then with everything else we need to happen we realized that was too much. I think we need a scene to show everyone's relationships and feeling towards each other. For example we was thinking about having a scene with Bobby and Betty to show that they are close sisters and during this scene have Betty confess to Bobby that she love's brother Taylor. Then we thought it would be a great idea to have a scene with brother Taylor and Bobby to show how they don't love each other and the awkwardness between them. We thought it would also be a good idea to have a wedding scene with them getting married but then I suggested why doesn't Billy Joe come in, even though we all thought he was dead. I also was thinking because we decided to not have the mother kill of the father maybe we should just have her leaving him as in a divorce. Our group has a lot of ideas we just have to play around with them and figure out which ones will work the best.

We then discussed our first scene and agreed that it would be good to do our last scene as our first scene and then do a flash back and then do it again as our last scene. This scene was going to be Bobby, Betty and their mother and father having dinner at the table. Even though you don't see it, Bobby had just been told that Billy Joe has died so she isn't eating her dinner and her father get's mad because she doesn't. During this scene we put a lot of  Berkoff movements in it to keep it physical. We don't want this scene to show too much because we want our play to be mysterious and secretive. Our second scene is going to be very physical, the mother and father are going to show the father abusing the mother. Brother Taylor and Betty will show they love each other but they can't be together. Billy Joe's and Bobby's are kinda the same as he's asked her to run away but they can't so they're also showing their love for each other.

Joe and I tried to make our physical little dance as cute and romantic as we could by having him rest his head on my shoulder and holding me close. We also added in a lift that Kirsty had showed us and had one or two moments where we're really close and looking into each other's eyes. We want it to show so much without saying anything as we don't want to give too much of it away.

During Kirsty's class on Wednesday she asked ask to do three freeze frames to show the story-line of our play. We decided to also do these at the beginning of our play to show a bit of mystery but also give a little bit away. I see our play a lot like a love story, like Romeo and Juliet where they want to be together but they can't due to their families feud.

This freeze frames shows the love between Billy Joe and Bobby as they're kissing here and then brother Taylor is on one knee with his arm reaching out for her because he's suppose to be marrying her. Betty is also reaching out but she's reaching more for brother Taylor. On the opposite side it's showing how violent the father is towards the mother because he is punching her belly.

This freeze frame is showing how they don't want Billy Joe and Bobby being together so they're both being pulled apart. We have come up with quite a few reason's why they don't want them being together. One because Bobby is having an arranged marriage with brother Taylor and the second is that her father doesn't approve of Billy Joe.

This one shows the father strangling the mother, brother Taylor with his arm around Bobby as they are too be married but Bobby is still thinking of Billy Joe which is why we put him on the floor and holding her hand. Sister Betty is holding brother Taylor's hand because she loves him but she's looking down because she knows she's too young to be with him.

Week 1 - Devising

This week we have been given some tools to help us get started with our devising pieces. We played quite a few games to help us get active and get our brains working. Deborah also said that we should make sure we stretch before we do anything and don't just walk into the class room and sit down. If we play a game it will get our energy pumping and could help us come up with some idea for our devising piece. Deborah introduced this stalking game to us which was where you pick someone in the room and stalk them without them knowing and then we gradually got closer until we got as close as we possibly could. Then she had us write for 4 minutes about how it made us feel and then we had to start cutting it down to we had 3 words. With these 3 words we made up 3 movements and then 3 sound effects to go with it. Deborah numbered us after and then called us up and made us walk to the performance area using our 3 movements and then freeze on our last movement. She then got 3 of us at a time to do it and move around in the space whilst making the sounds and then we all did it. Whilst doing this we all started to become face to face with each other as we moved around the space and then it started to tell all these different stories.

On Thursday Kirsty gave us our stimulus which was a song that's called 'Ode to Billy Joe'. We all listened to the song first and wrote down our first responses. At first all that came to my mind was that this sounded like a country song and brought cowboys and farmers to my mind. I then began to listen to the lyrics and a heard the date which was '3rd of June' which made me think maybe something actually happened on this day which is why it's in the song.  It also speaks about a boy called Billy Joe who jumped off Tallahatchie bridge and how this girl is being told this by her mother. From the song I could tell that this girl was upset, almost as if she had a relationship with this boy but her family doesn't seem to care so I got the feeling it was a secret relationship.

After we came up with our own responses and listened to the song a few times and looked at the lyrics we went into our devising groups which are three groups of six to see what their responses are and come up with some ideas on what we're going to do. I'm in a group with Phoebe, Kennedy, Joseph, Lewis and Luke. We had quite a few responses which we're mostly all the same and then with that we came up with some ideas. We decided to focus our play more on the relationships between the characters instead of the death of Billy Joe. Our first decision was to have all three of us girls as Bobby and all three boys as Billy Joe and then show the relationship between Billy Joe and Bobby in three ways. The first one was how they were in love, second one was after they had killed someone and the last one was after Billy Joe had died. We decided to make this our prologue scene in order for the audience to see into their relationship and we're going to have Luke as the narrator to explain the different couples. I'm interested to see how this scene goes and how we develop our play even more next week. I think it's going to be very interesting and that it's going to turn out really well.

Personal Assessment - Voice

I feel as if I have many weaknesses when it comes to my voice as I fail to show emotion in my voice when on stage. I have also noticed that I speak with a fast pace which makes it hard for people to understand what I'm saying and have to ask me to repeat myself. To help me to improve this when reading from a script I can put a forward slash at the start of a new subject and make that a pause before I carry on with the new subject. For example I want tea/ I'm very cold. I also mumble sometimes when saying words and don't pronounce them properly. To improve this I will work on the words I find hard to pronounce and practice saying them correctly for when I perform on stage.One weakness that I would love to be able to do is accents, I'm not good at them and I think it would be a great skill to have if I could. I also find it hard to develop a characters voice, I think it's because I've never really been taught how to use my voice properly. To help me with this I could use the techniques we're using in voice and use them to help me change my tone in voice and maybe look into an accent and try and pick it up.

I don't have many strengths when it comes to my voice but I think one of my strengths is definitely projection as I speak quite loud anyway which is great for when I perform on stage. I would say my voice is very confident which is a good thing because it means I'm not going to get nervous when speaking and it shows I've learnt my lines.

Vocal Health Poster

Portfolio Articulation

The third element of speech production is articulation. Articulation is the term used for all actions of the organs of the vocal tract that effect modifications of the signal generated by the voice source. This modification results in speech events which can be identified as vowels, consonants or other units of a language.

The passive place of articulation is the place on the more stationary part of the vocal tract where the articulation occurs. It can be anywhere from the lips, upper teeth, gums, or roof of the mouth to the back of the throat.

* The speech organs used to make the sounds are the tongue, lips and palate.

The human voice produces sounds in the following manner

1. Air pressure from the lungs creates a steady flow of air through the trachea (windpipe), larynx (voice box) and pharynx (back of the throat).
2. The vocal folds in the larynx vibrate, creating fluctuations in air pressure that are known as sound waves.
3. Resonances in the vocal tract modify these waves according to the position and shape of the lips, jaw, tongue, soft palate, and other speech organs, creating formant regions and thus different qualities of sonorant (voiced) sound
4. Mouth and nose openings radiate the sound waves into the environment.

Evaluation

'13' Mike Bartlett


We've been working on the play '13' by Mike Bartlett for about 5-6 weeks. We performed this play on the 12 and 13 of November 2014 . Our audience were our family members and friends, there were also some students in the audience.The play '13' is about 12 Londoners who have the same terrifying dream which is how they're all connected to each other and a young man name John returns home with a vision for the future. John also connects the 12 because they all listen to his speeches and become his followers in some sense.

I'm so thrilled that we decided to do the play '13' because it is so different to any other play that I have ever done and Mike Bartlett wanted it to be performed in a certain way. He said that "The play should be performed with a circle" so our opening scene was the 12 laying on the floor in the shape of a circle and they all sit up with the sound of the alarm clock to indicate them having the same dream. I think doing this made the performance every effective in a way that it was really exiting and made it more interesting. We also used some other techniques from Physical theatre, contemporary and Greek tragedy.For example we used the chair duet during the park scene in act 4 scene 3 with the four corners as well. I think the pace the play was at made it more better because it flowed into each scene but the only probably was that some people in the audience didn't understand the play or what the role of John was.

Throughout the play we did refer to the themes in order to help the audience understand. For example death, this was shown when Sarah killed her daughter Rudy and we tried to show it in a way that we didn't over do it but that it was still obvious that her mum killed her. Opinions and disagreements were shown in the scene at 10 Downing Street with the Prime Minister and her colleagues.

I think Thursdays performance was our best performance because everyone was fully focused and calm since we had already performed it twice already which made us all more relaxed and able to enjoy it. I was at my best during Thursday's performed as I was fully focused, remembered my ques and where to come on as well as my lines. I might of done bad vocally and physically because I don't think I was loud enough during every scene I was in. I'm also not sure if my character came across to the audience physically and emotionally. I'm happy that the last scene of act 3 before the interval when well because it was very important that everyone knew their lines, when to say them and that it was really snappy which it was. I'm proud of all our group because they put their full effort in throughout the play to make sure it was a hit and that the audience liked it and I think it went marvelously.

If we could do it again I think it would be fun to try and perform the play in more of a circle like Mike Bartlett wanted. It would of also been great if we did direct act 5 because I think that would of helped the audience understand it all much better. I reckon it would of been an even better ending to the play as well because it shows what John meant to the 12 and how he effected them.

Character Profile

My character Holly was one for the 12 in the play '13' by Mike Bartlett. Holly doesn't get on with her mum or dad "my dad's a shit and my mum gets anxious, about things?" but get's on with gran really well because her gran giver her money "Thirty?".  She goes to University and doesn't have any friends or money "I'm not liking University because I don't have any money or ... well friends." which is why she sleeps with Mark because he pays her for it "You mind fifties?". Holly has a very troubling life because she isn't sure what she wants to do in life but when she hear's John speak in the play she decided to make a website for him and video him so everyone can see his speeches online "I'll film it tomorrow, put it online,".These speeches start to help Holly because she finally confronts Mark about what they do and tells him she wants to stop even though she is scared of him "What we do. I don't like it".

I think that Holly and Mark maybe met through her gran Edith because Mark is her lawyer and goes round her house to speak to her and  Holly goes round there too so that's how I think they met. After that I reckon her gran might have tried to set them up because in the play she says to Mark "My granddaughter Holly, she's your age." Then they might have seen each other out clubbing because Holly likes going out and after the clubbing scene at the end of act 1, Holly is round Mark's in a dressing gown in act 2 scene four. The reason I think Holly and Mark started this was because she needed the money and she thought it was alright because she wasn't doing anything else and she was unsure. After act 2 scene 4 though we see a change in Holly feeling towards sleeping with Mark and that is that she wants to stop. Her objective throughout the play from there is to stop but her obstacle is Mark because he doesn't want to, he's be come attached to her and started to see her as his girlfriend "It's fine. Like having a girlfriend." I think that John's speech's help her to see that she is more then just someone who sleeps around for money and that she can actually make something of herself. Which helps her to stand up to Mark when he see's her and to tell him that she doesn't like it "What we do. I don't like it".

The first speech Holly hear's John say is in act 2 scene 6 when he speak about his thought on a battery hen. After talking about this battery hen he starts talking about us, how we think we'll work everything out and God and how we can't know what was before the universe. In my opinion this speech helps Holly see that there is more to her life then just sleeping with Mark, she just has to go out looking for it. This is also the scene where she first talks to John and decided to start filming his speeches "I'll film it tomorrow, put it online" and also figures out what to call the video "John in the park. That's what I'll call it." I feel as if this scene is what helps Holly make a start on something new and finally change her life around because this is where she stop going round Mark's to sleep with him. Her objective is to finally make something of her self and show off what she can do and actually help people but Mark still won't leave her alone "You haven't answered my calls. You're here every day. I see you on my lunch-break. Going round with your clipboard." But by the end of the play she doesn't sleep around with Mark anymore. John helped Holly a lot because he say her as someone who was desperate and lost in finding her passion.


When I was experimenting with my vocal, physical and emotional side for Holly it was a bit hard because I had to take her away from my self and I tried quite a few things before I knew I had brought Holly out. I found vocal quite hard because she would speak in different tones depending on the character she is speaking to. Firstly I didn't really bring her attitude out, I wasn't taking her away from me but then I began thinking on it. I thought that she would speak about her family and problems in a harsh tone because she hates her family and is annoyed that she has a "Shit life". When she speaks to her gran I thought she'd speak in a softer tone since she is one of her family members and she does like her gran "Thanks gran". With Mark I was thinking that at first she would talk in a nice tone for act 2 scene 4 until she has met John and realized she does't really like Mark so she speaks with a harsh, defensive tone when he starts saying that it's her fault "The things is, the simple thing is Holly, that you've fucked this up, this but of your life" so she needs to stand up for herself and finally say it's over.

In order to show Holly's character physically I went over stage directions which helped me come up with always having her on a phone or tablet because she records John speeches. It also worked really well because she's young and all young people these days are always on some sort of technology so it seemed to suit her really well. When it comes to how she stands I thought that standing straight wouldn't suit her at all so I decided to have her leaning to the right to give her more of an attitude within her posture.  My next movement looking at her nails to show that Holly had no interest in what was going on in that moment. I used this to show she was bored because I feel that when she is bored she would just completely zone out and maybe sigh sometimes. Another movement was hands on hips, I felt like this would show Holly's has an attitude and she wants to have all the attention. I also thought then when reacting to what people say to her she would show a big reaction and use hand gestures which helped take her away from me as well.

For emotion wise I found it every hard because I felt as if Holly wouldn't really show off much emotion, she has this guard up and doesn't really want people seeing what she's going through because deep down I feel like she is very emotional. I was able to actually relate this to myself because when something is going on with me I hide it so I used that to try and help develop Holly's emotion. When it came to Mark because of what's going on between them and the fact she wants to stop I showed anger especially when saying "Mark you're a bastard. You say it yourself." During the Alpha scene I tried to show a bit of frustration because she was actually opening up to the group and they weren't listening or understanding and just moving on to someone else. I thought she would also show anger and annoyed, especially at the end of the scene when Esther tell hers to "Fuck off". When it came to helping out John I showed that she was happy because she was doing something she enjoyed that was helping others and actually feeling apart of something instead of an outsider.

For Holly's hair our finally decision was to have it up in a high pony tail because it was taking her away from my look which is always having my hair down so it showed the character of Holly more.When picking what to wear I had in my mind a leather jacket and black skinny jeans so I decided to look up what Lara Rossi who played Holly at the National Theatre in 2011 wore. I was happy to find out that she did in fact wear a black leather jacket and black skinny jeans. I settled on that and then wore a white blouse and white converses as well to give her that young adult affect as well. For props I had my bag for the alpha scene because the stage direction at the end says 'Holly grabs her bag and goes'. I used my phone and a tablet a lot too so I could record John saying his speech and I walk past Stephen's speech in act 1 scene 6 whilst on my phone 'Holly on her phone'. I also have a tray with a plate and mug on to show I'm eating breakfast for act 2 scene 4 and I'm wearing a dressing gown 'Holly walks towards Mark's breakfast table, wearing a dressing gown with hood up'. My last prop was leaflets that I was giving out for act 4 scene 3 'In the crowd. Holly's handing out leaflets.'


When we discussed the things that influenced Mike Bartlett for the play '13' we discovered that the bible was one of them. Then I found out that my character Holly is based on the prostitute called Holly in the bible and how Jesus isn't ashamed to have her as one of his friends even though she does sleep around and everyone said he shouldn't be friends with her. In the play John actually says "she has sex for money" which connects to the bible in the way that Jesus was telling people about Holly and what she does and he didn't care that she was his friend.