Unit 1 Task 3- Writing about my Ideas for a Showcase

Unit 1 Task 3- Writing about my Ideas for a Showcase

After discussing and experimenting with various ideas such as a police department struggling to keep the justice in a terrorist stricken New York, to a family of brothers, struggling to cope with the absence of both their parents we decided to go with the idea of Victorian England, where we focus on the stories of characters such as Sweeney Todd, Jack the Ripper, Sherlock Holmes and Edward Scissorhands. We felt that going with this theme was particularly exciting as there is so much room top expand our ideas and make our performance original and unique.

Obviously, much needs to be considered as a producer. For example, we need to create a really specific atmosphere, therefore need to adjust our ideas and dialogue to suit a particular atmosphere. The same applies for music and lighting, if the wrong music or light is used, then the atmosphere we have spent so long trying to create will be ruined and the showcase weakened as a result. In addition, the potential use of blood packs poses a health and safety issue in the fact that the stage will become slippery and covered in liquid, which will make performing difficult and dangerous. Finally, we must take into account our target audience, which is our parents, relatives, staff at the school and possibly young siblings and children. This limits us as to what we can do as gory deaths and swearing are obviously not suitable for children, or particularly those with delicate ears! However, these challenges present the opportunity for me and our group as a whole to show that we are very capable actors as well a producers and directors. Should we overcome such challenges we will reinforce our dedication, ability and determination as young actors.

Ideally, we would like to create a very dark and mysterious showcase and instead of flicking between random stories we would like to link all our stories together but at the same time give each individual piece a sense of identity and originality. I identified the Globe Theatre in London as a dream venue as it possesses a rustic feel which is perfect for our Victorian themed showcase. Our inspiration, bizarrely, was Jim Carrey. We though that a sketch show would be perfect but then remembered that Carrey voiced Scrooge. With this film being set in the Victorian era we began to brainstorm ideas. We were then given a potential venue, Battersea Power Station, where we first thought up the ideas that are currently in production, the ideas of Sweeney Todd, Jack the Ripper, Sherlock Holmes and Edward Scissorhands. We have tried to incorporate a range of ways to perform, from music, acting and contemporary dance which gives everyone their opportunity to shine and all the roles given have been given in order to give each of us equal time in the limelight.

I wouldn’t particularly say we have a target audience, although we want to create a mysterious, dark and gloomy atmosphere, we also want to make it confusing and odd, so much so that we have confused ourselves in rehearsals. Evidently, we will have to keep some sense of discipline in how confusing we make it as we need the audience to be able to follow the storyline but at the same time be totally oblivious as to what twist could occur next. We want to keep the audience on their toes, and with the showcase containing death and a mature, intellectual storyline would probably be appreciated more by an older audience of parents and staff rather than younger children. Our main focus is for the audience to enjoy the performance, but also keep them focused, with is why we have mixed up the structure of the performance and have linked all our stories together to allow the audience a chance to predict the next scene or leave them deep in admiration or thought.

When I started this drama course we were asked “What are you? Actor, Musician or Technical?” I was focused on becoming an actor, so put my name down on that side of things. So, obviously during this showcase I want to demonstrate my ability as an actor, by venturing out of my comfort zone and playing dark, confident characters, which was my target given to me by my assessor after The Lord of the Flies production. If I had to choose another skill to focus on and demonstrate would be my acrobatic ability, I would try to incorporate a sort of martial art dance, however, it would not suit our showcase which is why we will focus on our movement piece and exaggerate our actions.

Research a Potential Venue for Our Showcase

Research a Potential Venue for Our Showcase

I have decided to choose the Central Theatre in Chatham to research in order to locate a venue for our showcase. I feel as if the Central Theatre was the most suitable venue due to its proximity and size.

Our showcase revolves around the harsh, unforgiving and dangerous times of Victorian England. Throughout, we have tried to create a dark and suspenseful atmosphere to really bring our characters, Sweeney Todd, Jack the Ripper, Edward Scissorhands and Sherlock Holmes, to life which is why the 960 all seated, thrust style Central Theatre is perfect for our performance. We are very confident in our idea which is why performing to a reasonably large crowd is perfect for us. 

The stage is enormous and stretches out an incredibly long way forward, compared to what we have been practicing in, so there should be no problems in terms of space, apart from the fact that such a large performing area may throw our timings off due to not being used to performing in a larger space. Fortunately the stage is maneuverable as instead of seats, there are stalls on the ground in front of the stage so we can move our performing area around to suit our liking, or possibly perform in the audience, to really make them feel part of the action and as if what we are performing is real and happening right before their eyes. As the stage stretches so far forward, we can place curtains over the space we need to use as the backstage area, and as there are only four of us, space is not an issue whatsoever. If anything, we have too much space!

However one problem I have noticed is that, although most of the seats are near the stage, a large chunk of a good 200 seats seem to be a long way away from the stage, which may spoil the mysterious and evil atmosphere we have spent so long trying to create, and spoil the performance in whole.

In terms of technical facilities, a lighting bar is already in place, so as long as we have control of that lighting will not be an issue. However, we would have to bring our own speakers and DJing set with us. Other than that, no other technical facilities are needed and if they were needed, we would have to bring our own or pay for use of equipment already owned by the theatre company.

Thankfully, there are very little health and safety issues that arise in our showcase. As our showcase does not involve the use of water, we do not have to worry about slipping on water. But blood packs do feature in death scenes. In order to overcome the issue of a slippery surface we can either, avoid the use of blood packs altogether, or use them at the end of our showcase to prevent injury to performers. For our death scenes, we hoped to be able to fly our characters of to give the impression that their spirits remained to haunt the streets where they died. However, the Central Theatre does not seem to have the facilities to allow us to fly around. However, this is not a major problem as we feel that without the flying and ideas of spiritual beings, a more realistic style will be incorporated and lends our performance a sense of normality and a fair portrayal of Victorian England. 

In our groups we had to come up with another idea for our showcase. Inspired by the song "Things we Lost in the Fire" we decided on a story line.

Three brothers struggle to cope with their dad being thrown into prison and the mum leaving a while back. They stick together with the eldest trying to bring them up. Fortunately, they were rich and had a butler. Things take a turn for the worst when the eldest brother tells the middle brother to follow the youngest out. The middle brother agrees to follow.

Whilst hiding behind a wall the middle brother witnesses his younger brother taking drugs, he waits for the dealers to go before storming in and dragging the youngest brother back home. When the oldest brother finds out all hell breaks lose. Everyone shouts at each other before the oldest banishes the youngest from the household, leaving the middle brother alone on his own.

New idea for showcase

Last lesson we had to come up with a completely new and original idea. We brainstormed various ideas but decided to take an idea about the 9 11 attacks. Our idea was that the 9 11 attacks sent New York into disarray with the whole town being crime infested, with rioters, thieves, murderers and drug addicts. Everybody wants the Presidents head for not protecting their country from the terrorist attacks. Gangs and groups fight between themselves as the once magical city of New York sinks to the floor turning into a post apocolyptic death trap. However, within the violence and savagness of New York a highly trained police force strive for justice and to protect the President, sadly, the task they are given is impossible. Outnumbered, they struggle to cope with the crime rates and injustice. But the worst is yet to come.

Techniques: We decided that we could use a range of theatrical techniques such as: Monologues, Contemporary dance, Split screen, Freeze frames and split roles.

More ideas for showcase

I'm liking the Victorian aspect so far, I feel that there is so much we can do with this topic and we can go anyway with it. Ideally, whatever group im in, we should try to complete a scene without any deaths, dying gets very boring eventually and is an easy way to end things. Instead we could have an arrest or some dramatic ending of escape for whatever story we are doing. Hopefully we can incorporate some kind of contempary dance as well to a story of the becoming of the Grim Reaper or a twist (see what I did there!) on a Charles Dickens novel.

Contempary Dance/Movement

Todays lesson began with the whoile class watching a scene of the 6th formers performance "What If." We focused on how they used movement to create some very powerful effects to the song "We Are Broken." by Paramore. 

Our task was to create a scene using stylisic movement to the same song within our groups. As a group we decided to stay on the topic of Victorian England and our Sweeney Todd/Jack Ripper characters from last Thursday. 

We felt that a backing story of why Sweeney Todd became so bloodthirsty would fit the bill perfectly, so we read into the story of Sweeney Todd. Our piece begins with Sweeney walking along happily with his wife and child. When the intro to the music is over The Judge storms on, followed  by his two masked assistants. Sweeney and The Judge confront each other, before his wife and child are taken away from him. Sweeney tries to fight back, but The Judge is too powerful and pushes him down onto the floor.

The distraught Sweeney seeks solace in a homeless man, "Mr Somes." Who he befriends as his assistant at the local barbers. Mr Somes lures various people into the shop, even those who try to move on. We used a slow feel to the luring in of the first character, with Mr Somes slowly spinning the victim around.

After Sweeney has killed his victim The Judge, followed by one of his assistants, is approached by Mr Somes. The assistant blocks Mr Somes off at first but The Judge tells him to back down where he is eventually led into Sweeneys barbers. The Judge is greeted by an empty room at first until Sweeney appears from around the corner. The Judge is startled and tries to make a run for it, however Mr Somes blocks his way. The three of them struggle with each other before The Judge is tied to the chair. Sweeney takes his revenge upon The Judge, who lays there motionless, with a cascade of blood rolling down his neck. Sweeney's rage takes over as he stabs The Judge and throws him to the floor.

Showcase idea 3

I feel as I have already thought up two darker, more serious ideas a little sketch in the showcase may be necessary. A comedy idea may include a spoof of a popular movie like Lord of the Rings or something. Alternatively, a more original idea could be drunk rockstars waking up in the morning after a heavy night of drinking and so on. I know its not much but is a good start considering this idea was first thought up on the geography trip.
#AldasSnow

Another idea for a showcase could possibly be a good old vampire story. was watching some vampire investigation thing on Nat Geo so I thought a story of 16th century vampire hunters could be confronted by a vampire digging up a grave but never really get enough evidence and are cast out as mad men. Just a little something !!!

Showcase Ideas

My first idea is one similar to what my group performed on Thursday. The story where the alcoholic re tells his story to a councelling group and the story is acted out by other actors. I feel that if we could make it a bit deeper, realistic and a lot less violent this piece would be reasonably successful. It used a range of techniques such as monologues, slow motion, physical theatre and maybe we could incorporate some sort of freeze frame. Ideally I would like to use lighting and music to really create a depressing atmosphere. Possibly Things We Lost in the Fire, referring to the death of the alcoholics brother, being killed by a gun fire. Alternatively we could use Winter, by Daughter as the harssh atmosphere really portrays a harsh winters evening.

In fact, we could just remake Avatar!

Positive Influence

I believe that all professional actors have the ability to influence me positively as they all have a wide range of skills and are all of a high enough standard to be able to act for a living. I personally believe that I can learn a lot from all professional actors.

However, one particular actor, who I feel has influenced me greatest is Benedict Cumberbatch. I feel his quirky twist on BBC’s Sherlock is utterly fantastic. He has an incredible ability to play such an intelligent, stubborn and comical character and to recall information like we all expect Sherlock to be able to do, but convince us that he is Sherlock Holmes and a legendary detective. The way he struts around, oozing confidence and charisma with every gesture, witty comments and sarcastic poses make him look completely at home in his role, which I admire. Not to mention the fact that he shoots a scene naked, this indicates to me that he has no fear and is prepared to do anything for the love of acting. This forced me to respect him as I could never picture myself doing such a thing in front of a whole crew.

My admiration of Benedict Cumberbatch further increased when I saw him play roles in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy and War Horse, where he drops his quirky, charismatic Sherlock act and evolves into two far more mature and serious characters with much more grief stricken looks, where emotion seeps out of every line in his face. Incredibly, he also managed to provide the motion capture for Necromancer, a goblin, in The Hobbit plus the movement of Smaug the Dragon. This, I felt gave him an edge of quirkiness, by playing the role of an animal and not a human. In Star Trek Into Darkness he drops his charming and endearing characters for a far more nasty, sophisticated villain. Cumberbatch also holds a rich theatre career, most notably starring in Danny Boyles Frankenstein at the Royal National Theatre.  Overall he is a very versatile and incredible actor, able to play many characters with what seems like ease. 

I believe I can use these skills Cumberbatch has shown for my performance of Lord of the Flies. By watching his every single gesture and action he has more than certainly helped me understand that by being so confident and by having absolute faith in your abilities and character portrayal, that you can completely lose yourself and act without any pressure as you are no longer yourself, merely portraying a character. I want to be able to portray a variety of characters with ease, but realise an incredible amount of practice, studying and ability is required.

The raw emotion and seriousness he can show through  his eyes has definitely got me practicing in front of the mirror every day so I can grasp how I react to certain places in the play, but more importantly how I should look at certain points and lines in the play, to feel the emotion my character is feeling in the real world, actually making myself feel what my character feels. I am able to use what I have learnt from Cumberbatch’s expressions in Lord of The Flies. For example, making sure I look furious every time Jack Merridew sniggers or snaps at my character.

His posh, well spoken accent is a great example of the accent I wanted to try and use in Lord of The Flies for my private school boy character of “Simon.” I feel that by watching Cumberbatch closely, I can improve the use of my facial expressions and physical actions, like posture (is my character confident or shy) or arm action when I am speaking as my character, but more importantly my facial expressions and posture when I am not speaking, what I do when not speaking is just important as speaking. He has more than certainly inspired me to carry on acting and pursue it as a potential career, and hopefully now to have a real good go at playing a confident or darker, evil character. But my main priority is that I can play the character assigned to me to the best of my ability and make the audience come out thinking, "Wow, that Kyle was good." Comments like that would definitely make all the work worth it, and give me courage to continue on.

Music for Lord of the Flies

Guys, I have found song for the opening we can play after our soundscape!

BastilleVEVO's channel

I feel it is almost perfect as the lyrics are very much focused on how people change and the theme of blood indicates, delicately, what Lord of the Flies is about. Also another song for the end which I feel is highly appropriate due to the fact that Ralph gets trapped on his own with the tribe chasing him.
 
My videos 

I know it says my videos, but there not mine it's just the link.
Hope you enjoy!!

Intro: The Soundscape

To start the play we open with a soundscape. To be honest this only took a a lesson or so to devise, but we wanted to invent an opening that is intriguing and original.

First of all we split our class into 2 groups to see what ideas we could come up with. 1 group came up with the idea of using the jungle sounds, whereas the other group thought up the idea of freezing in the middle all together. Then, as 1 group we devised our final idea of the soundscape which can be seen on GCSE Performing Arts. We are very proud of our final piece and feel the sound and atmosphere created is brilliant.

My Character: Simon Cambourne

In the play "Lord of the Flies" I have been given the role of Simon Cambourne.

A part of Ralphs group (Tom Falconar), he despises Jack Merridew (Toby Saddleton) with a passion, they used to go to school together and are bitter rivals. Through the way Simon speaks and moves around I have gained the impression that he is slightly more mature than the others and thinks things through before taking action. He is highly intelligent and is relatively composed, however, eventually the reality of their situation leads Simon to insanity before he has an epileptic fit, sadly, the worst is yet to come ...