project- whats your specialism

Writing-

 we wanted to look at different acting techniques and i wanted to understand more of the writing aspect. I joined a writing group for the National theatre without a few peers of mine where we were tasked to write a script in pairs that could be shown at the national theatre. We looked at how to create a script, what to include in a script and tried to figure out what the National theatre wanted. I paired up with Latoya where we discussed what we think would make a National theatre worthy story. We spent weeks looking at different ideas and had to watch different plays online to see what we like. We decided on a story about girls our age that all have issues so we could try and make people feel less alone. We drafted it once and sent it off to a writer of the National theatre where she read it and made noted. We spoke to her today and she gave us advice on what would give the characters more depth by giving them all completely different personas and styles and she also wanted us to look into their backstory and figure out why there was a period of time they weren’t close. Now our next step is to use her advice and edit it. I have really enjoyed writing and I am excited to create more drafts. I find it really helpful in acting to look at the storyline and create a world for my characters when there isn’t one so it’s helping me with that. 

Improvisation-

We play lots of improv games at college because actors need to be able to think on the spot and save a scene. We okay games like bus stop and the improvisation interviewer, speaker and translated game. One time in particularly when I was really glad for my improv training was when I was doing the ghost light tour at the globe where people we didn’t know had paid to come and see it so there was a pressure for it to be perfect. Me and Emie played to actresses from a hundred years ago and we’re in our own room with Jack, we had a scene but we had no lines or actions for when everyone was entering the room so we improvised a whole scene where we were the two women talking like they would in those days. We used our understanding of the characters to create a whole scene at the beginning. We were helping each other out jewellery on as we were arguing and getting annoyed at each other, then when the time was right for Jack to enter with his fist line we swiftly went into the scene we had rehearsed. This made sure that there was no empty space on the tour and gave the scene a sence of realism and depth. Improvisation is something that’s very important isn’t he acting world. Directors need to know you can improvise to so they can trust you to keep the scenes alive in a show. Improvisation is key to saving a show and saving your peers scenes. That’s why at every audition for universities and drama schools, improvisation is it’s own part of the day. They need to see that you can improvise, that you can think quick to keep scenes alive.  Because of all the improv games we’ve played and shows we’ve done I now feel confident I could save a scene if need be. 

Monologues- 

For every drama school audition you need at least one monologue. For most you need two, a contemporary and a classical. We spent lots of time discussing with Kane what you need in a monologue to make it memorable and so you can youse lots of your acting training in it. He said to pick a monologue that shows a range of emotions. I watched videos online of people explaining what drama schools are looking for and I searched the internet over and over to find monologues. I also went to the library which is where i found monologue books. I picked a monologue but Kane didn’t think it had enough depth so I found another one and Tom the A levels teacher helped me pick a classical monologue. I spent lots of time practicing it in different ways. I read the play it was from to get a full understanding of the character and least how to fill the silence of being up there alone with emotion. Kane he’d a monologue competition to encourage us all to get comfortable performing with people watching and judging because that’s what the teachers will do at drama school auditions. I learnt how to do a classical monologue with my common modern day accent. I had to include the mannerisms and words of a classical piece but bring myself into it. It took some getting used to but after lots of practice I figured it out and got accented it onto the drama school I auditioned for and got an unconditional offer from Northampton university. 

Singing-

We aren’t a singing course so we don’t look into singing all that much but it is something we wanted to get a better understanding of so we told Kelly and she arranged for us to have singing lessons. Tom would teach us for a few hours a week, we would learn vocal warm ups and find our pitches. We decided to put our singing lessons to use at the globe Christmas concert where we sang two songs from Scrooge a Christmas Carol in-front of a whole theatre. This has given me confidence in singing. 

Characterisation-

For every character there’s a whole characterisation process we have to go through to figure out our character. The thing that I have found easiest is putting my work in a grid that has lots of different questions about the character that I have to try and figure out. After I’ve done this I always feel so much clarity and have such a better understanding of my character and their intentions. Characterisation is one of the main parts of the acting process so finding a good method is vital; here’s an example of a grid. ​ 

Violet Sherry Beauregarde Middle name is moms first name	Occupation: Violet has no job but her and her mam think she has 2. Sherry (her mom) treats her position as school cheer captain like a job. And Violet treats her gum chewing as a job two. Holding the Miss Bubble gum title is very serious.
Age - 13   ( But tries to act like she’s 18. Her moms always let V take control because she wants to be friends with her.)	Intelligence- She always skips class and her mom always excuses her missing assignments. Violet has no interest in being clever all she cares about is her gum chewing and cheer team ‘ The Dallas eagles’.
Gender  – female	Knowledge – Violet has no time for lessons like English or maths so academically she’s not knowledgeable. But when it comes to cheerleading she’s more knowledgeable than anyone. She wakes up at 4am everyday and has her mom drive her to her cheer gym and they practice. Her mom used to teach her when she was little but now she’s better than her mom. She trains so hard because either she does something and she’s the best at it or she doesn’t do it at all and her mom really wanted her to do it so.
Mannerisms – Violet is very up close and personal. She just doesn’t care about peoples personal space. She always tries to get the attention on her by putting her hand on her hips and striking poses. She is very peppy when she’s talking about her bubble gum or cheerleading. But if she’s not interested then she’s not.	Personality – Violet is very bossy and dominant. She is very judgy. She’s confident and mean because her mom has had her on a pedestal her whole life. Violet has never had people not look up to her because she’s always been the best at everything.
Clothes – she wears girly, lilac coloured clothes. When she goes to events she wears a lilac tennis skirt with white knee high socks that have two black stripes on them. Then she wears a white top with a lilac sweater vest with a big V on it. When she’s just dressing casual she wears a lilac tracksuit and a white top with a V on it in cheerleader font.	Temperament -  Violet is very snappy and blunt with people. She doesn’t see it as a problem and she thinks if anyone should change it’s the people who keep annoying her.
Grooming – Violet is the popular cheer caption,  She’s always clean and dressed up. Violet always makes sure she’s dolled up and beautiful and her mom likes to join in and help her.  She also dolls  up her mom so she doesn’t embarrass her.	likes/dislikes – she loves her bubblegum because she’s the  best at chewing it. She also loves her cheerleading team because she’s team captain so she can boss everyone around and is the most talented on the team. Violet dislikes fishes because it freaks her out that they can breath underwater. She also DETESTS losing because she puts a lot of self worth on it. V likes sunbathing because it makes her skin glow.
Movement – she’s very sassy and has a lot of attitude in the way she walks and holds herself.	Beliefs – Violet believes that we decide what we want in life and we’re responsible for getting it. She started at the bottom and now she’s on the top, she worked to get where she is when she was only young.
style of speech –  She speaks quite slang American with a Dallas accent.	Fears –  Violet fears that she’ll stop winning things and people will see that being the best at things is all she has. That’s one of the things that drives her to push herself. Another thing she fears is going back to having no money and living in the unsafe caravan park she was brought up in. That’s another reason she pushes herself.
Anything else –	Goals – Right now Violets biggest goal is keeping her chewing gum record. She wants to be the greatest at it and keep surprising people.
	self – image – Violet is only 12 so she’s confident with how she looks. However, she still likes to doll her self up with makeup and hair styles like her mom does. She thinks it makes her look more grown up.
THE CHARACTERS ‘WORLD’
Relationships with friends colleagues, lovers etc (DO they have friends? Are they married. Dating etc)  -	Violet has a lot of friends but most of them are fake and are only close to her because they’re scared of her or want to be popular like her. Her best friend is also her closest rival, Cornelia Prinsmetal. The daughter of Carrie Prinsmetal Sherry’s best friend and closest rival. They’ve been frenemies since their early days of bubble-gum competitions but they don’t go to the same school so they only see each other on weekends.
Ethnicity  & cultural background – (class, education, where they were brought up) -  Also personal history – (significant events in their the character’s life their personal ‘backstory’)	Violet is a white American just like her mom and dad. Violet and her mom used to be lower class but after winning all of the bubble-gum tournaments and getting lots of sponsors they’re now higher class. Violet and Sherry (her mom)  have always lived in Texas. They used to live on a rough caravan park that Sherry was born and raised on but from when Violet was 4 she entered her first bubble-gum pageant where lots of other kids from age 4-6 get all dressed up and start chewing gum then whoever lasts the longest wins £5000. Of course stubborn little violet won determined to get the money so her and her mom could have a better life. And that’s where the monster was born. After winning a lot more competitions, Violet and her mom moved to a nice house in a nice neighbourhood in Dallas.
Their general history –( what time have they been brought up in)	Violet was born in the year 1989 making her 12 years old in 2002 when she when to Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory. Violet and her mom are quite the feminist’s after violet has been brought up without a man in her life and she’s done well.

    Violet has a lot of lines in the play however, you don’t actually ever get to know Violet. She speaks with attitude and isn’t polite. She was only happy when something benefited her, seeing other people happy didn’t please her. When I started playing her she was twelve, but after some changes (which I written about in my other blog post) I made her thirteen, this made her voice a bit deeper but not as deep as my original voice, she still had to talk younger.  She just judges people and competes to be the best because that’s what her mom taught her to be like, she let her act like this.. Violet is always popping out a hip and dirty looking people, she is filled with confidence and arrogance. She walks with her arms swinging and her shoulders back,  she wants everyone to notice her. She wears quite natural makeup but she still wouldn’t go anywhere without it on. She has light purple hair to attract attention and also to advertise her brand. Violet chews gum 24 seven, she does it because 1. She earns money at pageants if she breaks records and 2. Because now that she has chewed it so much her mouth doesn’t feel right if she’s not chewing. My Violet is always fixing her clothes and hair and makeup because she doesn’t just want to be the best she wants to look the best too not just her best, the best. And she’s always posing for pictures her mom takes, she doesn’t really live in the moment.

( this part is from my  journey of Charlie blog)    I had a few different ideas for costume I didn’t want to dress like the Violet in the original movie because it didn’t fit my Violets personality and it was too much like Veruca’s costume. And then in the remake movie Violet and her mom wear matching costumes that are pretty iconic, I don’t want to wear a costume like that because then for the audience it won’t be about how well I played the character and the personality I created for her, it will be about how well I mimic the Violet in the movie and I want to make her my own character. My first idea was to make her a Pageant girl. I thought it would be fun to dress her in sweats but with the big hair and makeup crown and sash from her bubblegum pageants.but then I thought if I make her a bratty pageant girl she’ll be too much like Veruca so I needed to think of something more unique. Then I thought if she’s mean to the this all American cool girl I could make her a cheerleader. She could wear a Violet cheerleading costume so I told Kelly my idea and she liked it then she told me that it would be nice to wear a lilac tennis skirt with the over the knee socks with two black stripes at the top and a white top with a v on it, then me and kadie would have matching lilac wigs to become the iconic mom & daughter duo. So I went home and shopped online, I found the socks and the lilac tennis skirt with a white long sleeve top but I thought I didn’t have enough lilac so I also bought a lilac sweater vest. I also bought a pink Love heart shaped small mirror to use in the show. Then my mam and me ordered a varsity v to stitch onto the costume but when it came it was way smaller than it said online so my mum got a pillowcase and cut it into a v then stitched it onto the vest then cut up some of her black jeans to make the black outline. With the purple wig I think my outfit looks really good, she looks really American and it describes her character to wear it to the factory. Because she’s showing that she’s cool and talented. She’s also advertising herself with the big V in the front. 

In the book Violets Nationality isn’t told but in both movies she’s American. I wanted my Violet to be American because that’s what made the most sense for what I was going for. I wanted her to be like the American ‘it’ girls you see on the TV. She’s not described like I play her in the book, well she kind of is but we have our differences, in the book she talks really fast whereas my Violet doesn’t care that people have to wait for her, she goes at her own pace.  My character is American like both of the Violets in the movies, I feel like it’s iconic for her to be American like it is for Veruca to be English. I’m the 2004 movie Violet is more working for her mam whereas in mine and kadies version, we thought it would be good for her mom to be working for her instead, to change the story a bit. I wanted to keep her sassy like 2004. 

The audience could tell who I was because of my appearance with the purple hair and all American costume along with the obsessive chewing,. But personality wise, you can tell it’s Violet by the attitude and the lack of interest of things that aren’t about her. I think the audience were interested in my Violets time at the factory because the whole time she seemed like she was waiting for more, something that would really excite her, which she received(the three course meal gum). It really makes the audience wonder what’s coming because they know you wouldn’t keep a character like her the same the whole time there needs to be a shift. 

Violet was always wondering off to go wherever she pleased and she knew that her mom would trail behind her letting her do whatever she wanted. She is always in the middle of her friends but when she’s somewhere and she doesn’t freaky care to impress them she just goes wherever she wants. 

We were all allowed to turn our characters into whatever we wanted them to be, we pitched our ideas through how we performed our monologue at the audition. We were given direction on where to stand at some points and when to react but the rest was up to us to work with each other and do what feels right and what makes an interesting, entertaining show. 

 

Stage combat

My class thought it would be beneficial to learn about stage combat so we asked Tom our teacher who’s trained in it to teach us. He gave us all different scripts with diologue and put us in pairs. He taught us how to right hook someone, how to kick someone in the groin, how to pull someone’s hair and how to upper cut someone. He taught us the safe and effective way to do all of these. Then with our partners, we figured out how to effectively put them in the scene. Me and Emie won the competition so we got to have ours filmed professionally. 

Devising

We have to use devising a lot in our shows because we take a certain level of independence with our characters and although it’s blocked roughly we have to go through it ourselves and create a piece with more characterisation. A project where we had to use a lot of devising was the 2022 globe community festival where 12 of the actors( including me) were faced with the challenge of summing up all of the blood brothers show (1 hour 30mins) into a twenty minute slot. We had to add lines in to make it make sense, and take a lot of lines out to make it fit into the time slot. We were also on an extremely thin stage so we had to change all of the staging and we only had one lesson to do this. We were very proud of the outcome. 

Another time where we used devising was when we did the globe Christmas event with Tom. We had staged a simple song and dance routine, but there were many parts where there was no choreography and we had to devise in small groups or pairs what we were going to do. I worked with Kadie Emie Latoya and Adam in a small group where we devised a part where we were friends meeting up for coffee. Then I was with Alan and Milly and we had to devise a small piece on being afraid of Scrooge. Everybody devised their own things so the stage looked full of life.

Directing

Kelly (our teacher) wants us to have a collage of skills in the acting world. Therefore we have looked into a lot more than just acting, like directing. We’ve had lots of opportunities to direct. An example of this is our second years student made #yolo. We assigned Morgan as our director however that didn’t mean that we couldn’t all help direct. I had an idea for the last scene that we used for the actual show. I arranged the set and devised a scene for everyone to close the show. Everybody loved the idea so we used it and people were adding more things. Another time I helped direct was in our student kade show old times. Again, we assigned Morgan as director however he was very open to taking all of our suggestions. It feels really nice when you give an idea and the team likes it and uses it. As an actor I think we see directing differently, if a director isn’t an actor as-well, in a show like this, they do what they think will look realistic to the audience whereas an actor will do what they think feels realistic. That’s why it’s soo good when you have a director that Keats the actors help like our teacher, because I really we all want the same thing and taking creative advice from others can really help. I really enjoy directing  but I wouldn’t want to direct a whole show, I prefer acting , however I love to suggest ideas and help with directing.

Stage craft

Stage craft is very very important in acting. It’s one of the most important parts of being in a show because without stage craft everything else you did on stage would be overlooked. Stage craft is about facing the audience when you speak so you can be heard. It’s about not talking to the floor so you can be heard whilst projecting your voice. Were constantly told “don’t turn your back on the audience” because although it can feel natural to turn your head round to someone you’re speaking to, or turn around to get something, if you do that you’re taking away from the scene because nobody can see you’re reactions or hear what you’re saying. When an actor throws lines away it really takes the audience out of the moment and ruins the magic of a different world that the theatre is supposed to create. If an actor didn’t have good stage craft on the west end or on a touring show or any professional show, they would probably be recast because stage craft is the make or break of a performance.

After learning about it from Tom and Kelly, I now subconsciously apply it to my performances and if I ever slip up, I’m aware and know not to do it in the rest of the show.

Voice over work

Another skill I’ve covered is voice over work. Voice over work is a different type of acting that only uses your voice. You have to act out a script realistically without being able to see the characters world. We covered this with Kelly and Kane when we voice acted Jack and the beanstalk. We had to find background noises and sound effects which was a fun but challenging. I was Jack, It was a challenge creating the characters world but I created a world in my head and it made it so much easier. I also did voice acting for the Christmas movie I was in. It made me really cautious of if I was speaking clearly or if I had a lisp or something but I did vocal warm first so I could speak as clearly as possible. It turned out good in the end and you could hear me clearly. We also did voiceovers for a radio show with Kelly. Me and Kadie did it together, it was a completely different style of voiceover, very big and dramatic. It was really fun to play around with. I would definitely like to do voiceover work in the future.