#devised performance sample work; 1.3

  This week was the one where we finally worked out what was to be in our showcase, as well as focusing on devising ideas for our end of year show using characterization workshops. On the Monday we spent our time sourcing monologues, duologues and scenes that could be potential candidates for our upcoming showcase on the 27th March. The pieces that I currently had arranged was both a scene and the closing monologue from Neil Labute’s ‘The Shape of Things’, another monologue which isn’t from a play so highly unlikely it will be chosen, three scenes from ‘The Pillowman’ though we would only do one of them, one of two scenes ‘Punk Rock’ and when the boys discover they’ve all been dumped in Mark Ravenhill’s ‘Totally Over You’.  The majority of these would not be chosen as you are only allowed to do only one scene from any one play, so, for example, I couldn’t do two of ‘The Pillowman’ scenes as it doesn’t follow that rule. The ones that I was favouring at the moment personally was ‘The Pillowman’, ‘The Shape of Things’ monologue and the second Punk Rock scene and sure enough they were picked along with the Mark Ravenhill scene. For the Tuesday and Wednesday I started working these scenes, including all ‘The Pillowman’ ones as we hadn’t quite come to a conclusive decision on which one we were going to have in the showcase. I liked the selection I had as they were all very different characters, with different status’ and different outlooks and such, which meant I would have to really think about each one and show a different side to my capability. Being it was only the first week I was still on book for Totally Over You and Punk Rock as I hadn’t had them as long as I had had the other two choices. To end the week we did a characterization workshop, lead by Sophie Bonds and Leah Shine, in this workshop we were presented with a piece of paper that had three things on it; our characters name, a trait of that character and a drug, and so my sheet said Vinnie, predator and Viagra. I was told by Leah before it begun that she was looking forward to what I may create as the two girls had deliberately given me a rather challenging set, and so was expecting this type of character or similar. My first impression on the name alone, was that he was rather old, for the name ‘Vinnie’ to me doesn’t sound like the name of someone in the 21st century but a bit more dated and possibly within the 80s or something, so doing the math he would be in his 20s/30s. Also he has quite a street-like, urban, toughness about it, and sounds like someone who knows his area and the sort of characters that hang around it.  As for predator and Viagra, they were rather self-explanatory. Once we had our pieces of paper we were told to walk around the room and start bringing this character to life based on the things written on the paper given to us. Knowing the basic aim of the girls workshop and that everyone was the personification of an illegal substance of some sort, I started trying to work out who had what due to their mannerisms they were creating. It was also easy to distinguish what everyone had got due to their name, as it was very similar to the title of the substance, for example, Toby Redpath was called ‘Henry’ and his drug was heroin. We then proceeded to play different games together and so were introduced to the other characters more formally rather than just seeing them passing us when walking. We played games such as musical chairs, spin the bottle and as well as just having a genuine disco. I knew being given such a strange and un-friendly character, that this workshop would be a challenge, but I didn’t know what happened would be the outcome. Today really showed me how if you truly embody a character, and think and breathe there very essence what might become. I am both proud of what I accomplished but initially coming out of the whole experience I felt dirty and grotesque, and needed to be safe in my mind that everyone who was involved that I hadn’t done anything horrible or put them in a difficult position. I am glad for my company’s professionalism as well as being there for there fellow peers when in a difficult place. Sophie and Leah could clearly see I was effected by the first half of the workshop, and so let me sit out as a spectator for the next part. The second half of the workshop had Jasmine’s character, who was called Jenny, hosting a house party where all these other characters had been invited too. At first it seemed happy and jolly and everyone was just doing there own thing and enjoying the place. Suddenly Jenny started getting paranoid and subconscious, breaking down and screaming at everyone to get out. Everyone then laid down and said who they were and what substance they were. The shock was that Jenny was infact everything, which explained her irradic behaviour at the end and as well as the fact that everyone else was in her head, and the party was merely a crack den. It was clear Leah and Sophie had research and knew the effects of the drugs which is what made this workshop so effective, and it really sent a message of the dangers and risks you face when taking them. From this workshop ideas are flowing, and people are really interesting in incorporating this somewhere into the peice, whether that be a peice about drugs, or just using the methods and the characters we created. The second workshop we did, also led by Sophie and Leah, was more based around blind dates and murder mysteries. Using the same characters, except for me, we were set up on blind dates. Today the girls wanted to see a boy personify the result of taking everything, and so asked me if I could do that today instead of Vinnie. This was more for us to get a further understanding of the other characters and to see how the actor had further developed them since yesterday. There was then an incorporation of murder mystery and police questioning involved, as the lady in charge of said dating agency was murdered by one of the candidates that night, and so people were being questioned. My character was one of the detectives and so was doing the questioning, which threw off people as they original thought it was me due to the way I conducted myself in the dating. I really liked this idea, and would really like to do a murder mystery of some sort, so the workshop sparked more ideas as to what could possibly happen.

STRENGTHS

- Commitment; My commitment to Sophie’s and Leah’s workshop was really strong, and as a result of this I was able to go to a very deep place with the character I had created.

- Reading; I am good at bringing the lines off the page and breathing life into them, despite still having script In hand.

WEAKNESSES

- Too involved; Though the characterization was good, I wonder if I pushed myself too far and if I had of slowed down abit may have been able to partake in the second part of the warm up.

- Lines; I’ve had the scenes for a while and should be a lot more familiar with the text than I actually am.

PLAN OF ACTION