Final Monologue for performance

In my group we have all decided that will create and perform a

monologue each, based on our own issues we have in life, using a Stanislavski approach character wise, as we want to use real life situations as inspiration for our monologues, in order to create moving and empathetic monologues, we want the audience to be able to relate to our monologues, as our piece on the whole can be quite hard to grasp and will inspire many different interpretations from the audience, but we want our monologues to be very clear, as our piece is quite abstract, we want the monologues to add some realism to our piece.
The monologue I have written is all about situations I have been in or am In currently, and are mainly based around change and loss. It is not a negative monologue as I have included some happy memories and situations I have been in this year, but I am mainly focusing on change of circumstances and loss. My monologue is not characterised or copied from anything else, it is simply just how I envision the performance and what I feel suits the piece and it has aspects of the truth and real emotions and feelings. It has taken me a long time to write this monologue as I want to express raw emotions but without the monologue becoming too lengthy or generic. 


THE GAME OF LIFE: SOPHIA MONOLOGUE (1:14:35) approx 1min 15 secs
I am not a weak person, but believe me when I tell you I have been in situations that have made me feel like I have no strength whatsoever. Things have happened to me this year that have changed me forever, I will never return to the person I was before. Did I do this to myself? Do I deserve this pain? Some times I feel like running away, escaping, breaking free. But then I know you cannot run from your problems, as they will always follow you, no matter where you go. I am in love, but it's cruel, it's a love that lingers over me like a dark shadow, I do not want to be in love, it consumes me and reminds me of painful memories. I am stuck within a viscous cycle, where is everybody? Where am I? Life is a game, every move you make and wrong turn you take, changes everything. Life to me is not about winning, it is about living. Tell me, am I living? 

21.10.14

In today's lesson myself and my group came to a point where everything is starting to fall into place. Today was quite an emotional rehearsal as we really dived into our emotions and certain things that have happened in our lives. We are using Stanislavskis method in a way as we are interpreting our real emotions into our piece to create a strong and meaningful performance. As our piece is about life and the different pathways people chose in life and the circumstances people get themselves into, we really needed to focus on how we feel about our own lives and what are the main issues we feel at the moment in our lives, and how to convey these emotions to the audience. We want the audience to understand our performance and see how different decisions and circumstances can change you and lead you into things you would not think you would do. 

As a group all 3 of us discussed our lives and the main situations we feel passionate about and how they have changed our lives. Jade focused on being a teenage mum and what it meant for her and how hard the decision was for her to make and how it has made her a better person , this conversation really touched me and we have became much more close as a group. We each listen to each other and understand what we all want to portray from this piece. Max was focusing on drugs, and how drugs have affected his life and how they have changed him and not negative reasons but positive reasons, but I was not present for the whole conversation. And the main point I wanted to focus on is loss and change, I am not a very open person and I tend to bottle my feelings up inside myself, which I try very hard not to do. I did not go into too much detail as it is hard for me to talk about certain things which have happened but this year I have suffered loss, which has predominately led to change, which is something I personally do not like too much! I want to portray how life can lead you down a pathway, but sometimes that pathway changes and everything that you thought was going to happen, actually does not happen and how loss changes  you as a person, and changes the way you view things in life, Even if you do not want to change sometimes it just naturally happens. I want to portray my raw Emotions and express myself to the audience as a being in the world who has suffered loss and has been pushed into a corner and has had to just accept the way things are, even though things are not the way I would like them to be at this present day. This project has so far helped me to portray my emotions and just try to understand that life is not fair and even though it is my life, it's not always about what I want and I have to sacrifice feelings I have for the sake of others. 

This lesson today allowed me to be become closer with my group as I was quite upset in front of jade and max today which is nothing like me, and was able to tell them what was on my mind and how I was feeling about it. I trust my group and I know that I find emotions very hard to deal with so coming out of myself and letting my feelings be seen was hard today, but worth it as I feel a lot more calm now that I have let some emotion out, and it has helped me a lot performance wise as I now know what my monologue is going to be based on and how I am going to show these emotions to the audience on the night of the show. 

As a group in our next rehearsal time we need to begin to devise the second scene of our performance, which involves Max rolling the dice and the game of life beginning. When max does this me and jade will take it turns to "move" on the game board and each roll of the dice takes us to different parts of our lives which have affected us the most. So the audience are seeing snippets of our lives and how the decisions and situations we have made have taken us to where we are today. We do not want to have specific  characters, we do not want to create a personalised character with a name and objectives, but we want to portray 3 beings all trapped in the same universe, who have all been through something in their lives which has caused them to be where the are today and we want the audience to be able to relate to our piece and to understand how we are trying to portray life in an abstract way rather than creating too much of a narrative. We do not want our 3 characters to interact with each other, we will physically as we are working as a group and it is not just a one man show, but we do not want to talk to each other, we want to create the illusion that we are 3 vessels, trapped in the game of life, all in similar situations, but do not know each other exist. Myself and Jade need to create a monologue each, or a few mini monologues, to portray to the audience what stage of life we are in after the dice have been rolled, when performing my monologue I want to use movement as well, gestures to show my emotions and how it is effecting me, rather than creating a narrative and a storyline, it is almost like we are individually sharing our memories  from our own minds with the audience, UN aware that we are being watched.... 

14.10.14

Progress on devising

We came up with the idea to include rolling dice into our piece
After Max' monologue, me and Jade will come out of the
side room in our performance room, and Max will roll
the dice and the "game of life" will begin....

My group and I have made massive progress for our devised piece. We performed the first 5 minutes we have put together on Wednesday to our class mates and recieved postive feedback.

We have found 2-3 pieces of music we are going to use for our performance. We are still staying with the "game of life" idea, and are also incorporating the "abadoned school" theme to it as well, we want to create an eerie, circus feel to our performance, we have together founmd 3 very creepy and edgy pieces of music..

This video below, is the piece we are using for our movement piece at the beginning when we begin with a movement piece we have devised from flocking, grid work and mime. And we also use the bamboo stick exercise we have learned, the movements are very flowing when beginning the mime, we want the audience to be able to see that all 3 of us are stuck inside a box, the mime is showing how we are trying to break free. All 3 of us push off the invisible wall and move into the middle. This is when we start our flocking and grid work exercise, we use very sudden and almost robotic movement, so the movement varies a lot which will keep it interesting for the audience. We want to create the feeling that we are trapped vessels inside a box, and we cannot escape, whilst at the same time using the school theme. This first song contains speech from a young girl, which sounds very creepy and effective, she talks about playing tag and hide and seek. Myself and Jade begin to chase each other, using the cue from the song, so we are included "le jeu" the game into our piece as well. When the little girl in the song says "tag your IT" Jade physically tags me and we both go running into the side room in our performance space, showing the audience that we have broken out of the box, whilst Max remains to begin his monologue, about life and how it is a game and everyone is welcome to play.

The second piece of music is a creepy version of " Pop goes the weasel" which we all really like and were going to use for Max' monologue, but we ran through this and the music did  not match the pace of his monologue, so we have decided to use the last video for this monologue. We will however use this piece as it is an effective piece of music which matches the theme of "abadoned school" we might use it to open our piece as the audience are arriving , or maybe towards the ending. We are going to have the audience in the round, and we have made a rectangular shape which will act as our stage in the middle of the audience.

Research on " Old School"

On Friday, we all had the idea to have another theme as well as the apple, a school theme. As this college used to be a high school, " Stanley Deeson" and Marina High. Our teacher asked us all to research the previous schools and why they were in special measures, and any other history about the schools.
We want to create the idea that the performance is in an abandoned school, almost with a ghostly feel to it, we want it to be eerie and to keep the audience guessing and being drawn in.

http://www.theguardian.com/education/2005/aug/09/schools.uk ( this link I found very interesting to read)
STANLEY DEASON
"The school that died of poverty"
Stanley Deason opened in 1976, and was Whitehawks main school. The school closed in 2005, and all the pupils aged 11-16 were re located in schools around Brighton and Hove. Stanley Deason was under special mesaures as the school was not achieving targets and had very rebellious students, mainly all from Whitehawk. This is partly down to the postcode rule, which only allowed students to attend schools local to their area. Which amounted in S.D taking on Whitehawk children, which were notorious trouble makers, however this has changed today as Whitehawk is very different. 
S.D was closed down and renamed MARINA HIGH in 1997. They changed the uniforms, name, logo and teachers. Believing that this will make a massive difference, and their student numbers would increase. Then in 1999, the name changed AGAIN to East Brighton College of Media Arts, as it specialised in art, drama and dance. This only lasted a few more years and it was completely closed down in 2005.0

Research Report on Stimulus

Research Report on APPLES.

The Stimulus we have been provided with for our first show since returning for our second year is an Apple. This stimulus at first impressions seemed very simple and un inspiring. However, after brainstorming and researching I have discovered the depths and deep meanings an apple holds as a stimulus for a performance. As a group we each had an apple, and a piece of paper. We all started to write down everything we thought about when looking at the apple. After this, we all had a group discussion  and the meanings of the apple sparked a very interested discussion and all the interpretations of the apple were really interested and a lot deeper than I thought.

Biblical meaning of the APPLE
In biblical terms, the Apple represents temptation, and almost has a negative symbolism. The apple in the Garden of Eden tempted Eve, and resulted in dire consequences for Eve. The apple is seen as a mystical and forbidden fruit in biblical terms. When Adam held the apple, it was portrayed as a sin, but contrasting, in the bible when Jesus holds the apple it is seen as "bringing life" as Jesus is represented as the "second adam" In the old testament, the apple is seen as a sin and a fall from man, but in the new testament it is seen as a redemption. This shows exactly how much the bible differeniates over the years. The term " adams apple" came from Adam swallowing the forbidden apple, and it becoming stuck in the middle of his throat.


Artistic meanings of the APPLE
Particularly in art, the apple usually represents seduction, sexuality and love. In many paintings including apples, it is usually held by a naked lady, which gives the idea that the apple, particularly red apples, represent temptation. They are portrayed as an alluring fruit, o tempt men to women. 

Tribal meanings
The apple from ancient times up until now is very significant in tribal families. When a couples first child is born, they are given an apple by their paternal grandparents. And if this apple is rotten and has a worm inside, it means a  very bad omen is coming for that child, and on the childs 21st birthday, the child will have to perform a tribal ritual dance to the fruit gods in order to spare the lives of their future children.  It is taken very seriously and many tribes still do this today. The apple symbolises life to them, and the lives of their children are based around the condition of the apple randomly picked from a tree. It is a very important fruit.

Greek Mythology
In ancient greek times, the apple was also a very important factor to the lives of the greeks.
Hercules, the greek hero, was told to travel to the Garden of Hesperides and to pick apples from the Tree Of Life, right at its centre. Atlanta, who was a female goddess from greek mythology, raced all her suitors in an attempt to avoid marriage. She outran all but Hippomenes who defeated her by cunning, not speed. Hippomenes knew that he could not win in a fair race, so he used three golden apples to distract Atalanta. It took all three apples and all of his speed, but Hippomenes was finally successful, winning the race and Atalanta's hand. So the apple was used as a weapon in some aspects, as everybody knew just how tempting they were, so they were used to other peoples advantages. This backs up my logic of how apples are not always a symbolism of health, goodwill and life.
Technology 

As everybody knows, Apple Inc is one of the most successful technology company in the world and has bought us iPhones, iPods, iPads and Macbook computers. All these devices have the half eaten apple symbol on the back of the screens. The founder, Steve Jobs chose to name his Corporation Apple because he felt the name was very friendly, fun and not intimidating. He had also just came back from an apple farm after undergoeing an apple diet, it is his favourite fruit and he simply thought "why not?" 

I agree with Jobs in the sense that the name apple seems very wholesome and friendly. And as the "apple" is recognised internationally, it has enabled the branch Apple to become so successful and popular as everybody can relate to an apple in one way or another, it is a name you could not forget.

New York
As everybody knows New York is internationally known as the "big apple" this intrigued me to find out more, and find out why it is nick named this. The name "The Big Apple" was popularised in the 1920's by John J. Fitzgerald, who was a sports writer for the new york NYC Morning Telegraph. Since the 1970's the name big apple has became even more popular due to advertisement and promotional companies. It seems to me that anything associated with the apple, means that it is very popular and successful. New York is the city of opportunities, whether it be for work, travel or love. New York is always seen as the best place to live, as it is so alive and fresh and always getting better over the years, which is similar to Apple Inc. The apple is also used as a promotional sales object. For example, the designer DKNY, has a perfume brand named " Be delicious" and has used the apple as the main selling point. It is portrayed as very fresh, trendy and successful. It also links to the "big apple" as DKNY stands for " Donna Karan New York" as DKNY's main fashion office is based in New york and was created there in 1984. Apple symbolises wealth I feel, and is used to business owners advantages as they know the Apple has became extremely popular throughout the years, and most businesses who incorporate the apple mostly are very successful. It is seen as a good luck charm to businesses, and I can see why.



Poison
This is a prime example which shows that the apple is not always symbolised in a positive way. In the disney film "Snow White" the witch gives Snow White a beautiful deep red apple, which on the outside appears to be tasty and tempting. But actually on the inside it is poisionious and deathly, and it will send its victims into a "sleeping death" and the victim can only be revived if kissed on the lips by someone who truly loves the victim. Although the apple seems  very wholesome and friendly, this can be used to an advantage, as eveybody will just naturally feel the apple is good and will be tempted into taking a bite, just like what Snow White did. But the apple, usually red apples, symbolise death and temptation. This was my first thought when brainstorming about apples, and I want to use this idea in my devised piece. 

Shakespeare Monologue's

That I did love the Moor to live with him,
My downright violence and storm of fortunes
May trumpet to the world: my heart's subdued
Even to the very quality of my lord:
I saw Othello's visage in his mind,
And to his honour and his valiant parts
Did I my soul and fortunes consecrate.
So that, dear lords, if I be left behind,
A moth of peace, and he go to the war,
The rites for which I love him are bereft me,
And I a heavy interim shall support 
By his dear absence. Let me go with him.

This monologue I have chosen is from William Shakespeare's Othello, 1603. The monologue is by Desdemona in Act 1, Scene iii.
I studied Othello at Bhasvic when I took my English Literature AS Level and I always really enjoyed this play and studied it in depth.
This monologue I will definitely use as 1 of my Classical monologues for auditions for drama school and Universities. I am mainly applying for Universities but I am applying for Italia Conti & possibly another drama school, but I have not decided which one yet.Othello is typically a Tragedy, and Desdemona is very much the centre of all the tragedy as she is Othello's wife!
As I have been made aware of, I should pick at least TWO Classical monologues, and have to be a tragedy AND a comedy, so I cannot pick two Shakespearian tragedies or comedies. 
Othello is a definite choice for me and this is my favourite monologue by Desdemona, I feel I can relate to Desdemona, as she is a strong woman, although she is stereotyped as very meek and obeying, there is a depth to her persona that really interests me as I can relate to this, and I have just always found myself drawn to her character, even when i was only 16 years old at Sixth form college I related to her, and even more so now as I am 4 years older and have developed a maturer understanding of her motives and objectives.

For My second Shakespeare choice, I am contemplating reading the play "The Tempest" I have never read the whole play, but I have read little parts of it when studying English Literature and Drama at school and sixth form. It is a romantic comedy, which contrasts highly with Othello as it is such a serious and political play, so I feel this contrast will be interesting, and will show how I have studied two completely different plays, and carefully selected a monologue after reading the play and getting to know the characters.
I am aware that there are only 1-2 female parts in The Tempest, Miranda, who is the daughter of Prospero, Miranda has never been around any men other than her father and Caliban(her fathers servant) Miranda has a very innocent and naive nature, and does not make judgements on people and is very genuinely kind and caring. I am not sure if this character is the best choice for me, as I am always more drawn to female characters who have more depth to them and have a darker side, like Desdemona. When I have read the play I will make a decision whether to use a monologue from this play.
I was always under the impression that Ariel, who is a spirtual figure in this play was a female. But during my research I have learned that Ariel does not actually have a gender, Ariel is commonly referred to as a "he" as he is Prospero's servant who he saved from imprisionment.
"Ariel -  Prospero’s spirit helper. Ariel is referred to throughout this SparkNote and in most criticism as “he,” but his gender and physical form are ambiguous. Rescued by Prospero from a long imprisonment at the hands of the witch Sycorax, Ariel is Prospero’s servant until Prospero decides to release him. He is mischievous and ubiquitous, able to traverse the length of the island in an instant and to change shapes at will. He carries out virtually every task that Prospero needs accomplished in the play." (Sparknotes)
This monologue by Miranda, draws my attention, I have been reading all the monologues by Miranda, and this is the only one that I feel I could perform well as I understand it to a degree, I am goign to have to research further and when I have read the whole play I am confident I will understand it further:
One of my sex; no woman's face remember,
Save, from my glass, mine own; nor have I seen
More that I may call men than you, good friend,
And my dear father: how features are abroad,
I am skilless of; but, by my modesty,
The jewel in my dower, I would not wish      (DOWER is a provision accorded by law, but traditionally by a husband or his family, to a wife for her support in the event that she should survive her husband (i.e., become a widow)
Any companion in the world but you,
Nor can imagination form a shape,
Besides yourself, to like of. But I prattle  (to prattle is to chat idly, or to " babble" foolish babbling or rambling)
Something too wildly and my father's precepts
I therein do forget

She is explaining how she has never been around a woman, as she was bought to the island at a very young age, she has been so isolated from the world, and as she is only 15 years old, she has very naive perceptions of people, allowing her to be violated by men, in particular, Ferdinand who is set to marry her, and as well Caliban, who has admitted that he once tried to rape Miranda, both men would like to take Miranda's " virgin knot" so she is very wanted by both men, but in different ways. I feel Miranda sounds older than a 15 year old girl, I was surprised when I learned her age.
This is a modern version of the monologue I am interested in I found on Sparknotes:

     I do not know

One of my sex, no woman’s face remember—

Save, from my glass, mine own. Nor have I seen

More that I may call men than you, good friend,

And my dear father. How features are abroad

I am skill-less of, but, by my modesty,

The jewel in my dower, I would not wish

Any companion in the world but you,

Nor can imagination form a shape

Besides yourself to like of. But I prattle

Something too wildly, and my father’s precepts

I therein do forget.

This monologue is aimed at Ferdinand, as they are expressing their love for each other. The more I depict it, the more I actually really like this monologue. It is quite deep, and it is showing how Miranda has never been around any of men other than her father and Ferdinand, and servants of her father. 

8.10.14

Today in rehearsal myself jade and max were in our room we have chosen for our performance and began the first steps in physically devising our piece. We have made decisions about how we are going to open our piece. In our room there is a separate small room which we are going to enter from once the audience are inside the room. We are going to use a piece of music at the beginning of our performance to open it, we have decided on using an acoustic instrumental piece, with a slight eerie vibe to it. We want the lighting to be very dim and flickering, Siou gave us the idea of holding lights below our faces, and when we begin our monologues to turn the light on, this would instantly grab the audiences attention and would create a very intense feeling. We want to make our room look abandoned and neglected, to create a rural feeling. 

We have been beginning to plan out our movement piece, I feel it would be a good idea to open the piece with some music and devise a group movement piece in unison, whilst travelling around our "set" we have created, which we refer to as the game board, because it is like a chess board and we are the chess pieces, moving through life individually but we are all in the same world. 

7/10/14

Today we all went off into our devising groups to the location we have all chosen for our performance. Myself jade and max have chosen an abandoned class room which is on the top floor and is very big. It is an open space with a lot of room for ourselves and an audience. We have made excellent progress today for our piece and brainstormed ideas together and also created a set with some black wooden surface tops we found in the classroom. This symbolises "the walk of life" visually and metorphorically and the different pathways individuals take in their lives. We decided together that all 3 of us will be playing individuals who do not know each other and do not even acknowledge each other in anyway throughout our piece. We want to create the idea that we are just "vessels" who are choosing their own pathways in life, we want to show that life is not always as good as people see it to be, and using the apple stimulus we want to show how an apple does not just represent life and health and rebirth, it also symbolises poison, temptation, destruction and death. 

Red Earth

http://www.redearth.co.uk/chalk.html
RED EARTH ENVIRONMENTAL THEATRE COMPANY.
In fridays lesson we all showed our group presentations we had created on Site specific, site responsive and theatre companies who use this.
Our teacher told us about Red earth and we were asked to research them.
They create theatre by using the environment, their aim is to transform the way we think about where we live and how our environment contributes to how society is today. They are quite policital, similar to the theatre company I researched called KABOSH. 
A particular piece they have created is called CHALK. Which was perfomed on the South downs in 2011. This performance explored the Archaeology and ecology of the Souths downs national park. This included perfomance journeys for the actors and audience, experiential walks over the downs and creating site specific installations. This performance was all based on the nature of the site, the history and the meaning it holds. It was quite spritual and invited peformers and audience members to collaborate with the land by walking through it, singing, performing and building on it. 
It is all about understanding and appreciating what we have and how the environment is so important for us, and just exactly what we can create from the environment through performance.

Personal statement

In our class with Andy today, we had a talk from someone who works at Chichester University about Personal statements. She gave us an idea of the sort of things we should include and things we should not. I took notes on my iPhone during the talk and then began to bullet point the main points I would like to include in my personal statement. I have began my first draft personal statement, but as the weeks go on I have no doubt that my statement will change and things will be added and taken out, I realise that we only have 600 words to define myself and why I want to study acting as a degree so I have created some sort of structure and all the things I would like to include....
I have so far chosen 4 Univeristies that I am interested in applying to;

• University of the Arts: BA Hons in Acting
• Italia Conti: BA Hons Acting
• Sussex University:BA Hons Drama, Performance and Acting (more academic)
• Kingston College London: BA Hons Acting for Stage and Media
• 5th choice: Not sure

I cannot decide on a fifth choice yet, but I will keep looking online and finding out about different acting courses that I might like, I feel like I should apply for 2 drama schools, as it will give me the chance to be auditioned, possibly be given a place or just to have the experience of doing it, as I feel auditions always help, even if you are not successful. The colleges that I am most interested in going to are Sussex and UAL. I attended the open day for Sussex last weekend and I loved the course, the tutors and the context of the course. It is 50% practical and 50% academic. This is perfect for me as I equally like both. I would not want to do a course where it was more academic as I want to be doing practical exercises as I want to act. Also students always get the opportunity to study in America, Africa, Australia or Asia in their second year as long as they are not failing miserably, and the fees DO NOT change, they still stay at the same rate as they would in England which is amazing. I would love the opportunity to study in North America or Africa as I have never been to these places before and both equally appeal to me. I have a strong taste for travelling as I have been before, so being able to study acting and go travelling at the same time is probably the most exciting thing for me! UAL gives students the opportunity to study abroad as well, although it does not specify when or where on the website, so I will have to find out when I attend the open days which are in December. 

Mini Introduction (3-4 lines)

• Drama is part of who I am. From a very young age I have continued to express a strong interest in the arts, particularly in acting.
• Acting has allowed me to become the person I am today and I am constantly driven to become a better actor and it has been a journey throughout my life and I wish to continue this journey by studying Drama as a degree.
• Acting has given me aspirations for my life

Analysis of the last 12-18 months

• I am currently in my second year,  studying a UAL Extended Diploma in Acting, Performing and Production Arts at Level 3
• Within the last year I have taken part in 5 live productions, 3 of which have been devised and 2 have been fully scripted
• I have learned about a variety of theatre practioniers ranging from Stanislavski, Chekhov, Artaud and Yoshi Oisha
• I have been involved in my colleges internal production company, Brighton live productions and have recently worked as Stage Manager for the first years performance. I have also promoted all of our college shows to members of public by using social media, posters and word of mouth
• I was elected by my class to be course representative for acting which I was extremely proud of as I am representing my course and am able to voice the opinions of my acting class in meetings on the main campus and help to make our course better for everyone
• Part of the student council and student committee

Outside experience (to do with acting and not)

• I attended Stage coach theatre arts of dance, drama and singing at a young age. I performed in an annual musical performance 
• I attended Adele academy of dance and drama in 2008 for over a year and studied GCSE Dance at the academy and took part in an annual performance
• Attended various summer work shops, including a workshop at The Hawth Theatre in Crawley
• I have worked as a model previously, from the age of 18 until 20. This included being involved in Fashion shows, photo shoots, websites and attending promotional events. I created my own website and gained business and communication skills
• I was employed by a luxury travel company and travelled to Dubai, Italy, Paris and Capri Island within the last 2 years, to evaluate their hotels. This work enabled me to explore different countries independently, learn about new cultures, meet new people and develop an advanced independence and determination
• I have taken part in a short scene for the BBC programme Boomtown, which was aired in 2013 and I have also attended castings for various films and TV shows, including Les Miserable
• I was casted as an extra for a low budget gangster film in 2013 called " It is what it is" 
• At secondary school I Was selected to be a dance leader for a local primary school and subsequently obtained an NVQ in Dance teaching
• 
  

Conclusion: what style of actor am i? Why do I think I should be on the course? (short but precise)

• Since studying acting , I have developed a wide range of knowledge and skills from different methods of acting and practioniers. I have developed a flair for Stanislavskis Naturalism acting and feel I succeeded very well in a play called " Playhouse creatures" By April De Angelis, which I performed in February 2014. Naturalism is an area of acting I am strong  in, but I also have a connection to Antonin Artaud's "Theatre of cruelty" as it has bought me out of my comfort zone and has helped me develop as a versatile actor. My end of year show in June 2014 was Dracula by Liz Lockhead and this was heavily influenced  by Artaud. 
• I feel I am a very focused and determined person and I have a goal I want to achieve, and studying Acting as a degree will allow me to become one step closer to achieving my goal. Over the past few years I have gained a vast amount of experience, inside and out of education
• I feel I would be a valuable asset as a University student as I can bring unique and creative ideas with me to University and I have a constant desire and drive to become a better actor and to widen my knowledge within Theatre and studying at University would allow me to achieve my aspiration of becoming an actor.  

VIDEOS

As part of today's lesson in our devising groups, we took our iPhones and the college tablets and filmed the various areas around the college grounds which we would be interested in using.
We filmed 7 locations in total, but it comes down to the THREE locations which we have all been inspired by and feel our performance would benefit from the best.
The three locations myself, Max and Jade are interested in are;

• The mechanics garage- we have received permission from the Mechanics team that we can use an old convertible car as part of our performance. We could sit inside the car, potentially slowly move the car, base it around the car, sit on the car, the possibilities are vast, and this has sparked some really interesting ideas for our piece.
• The bus stop- we originally wanted to use the college bus for our piece, by performing inside the bus. But unfortunately due to budget, we cannot afford to pay to keep the bus past college hours as our performance would be starting at 7pm. But the bus stop is a really good location for our performance. We want it to be different and interesting.
• The painting and decorating rooms. These rooms are like boxes, which all have a different wallpaper or paint inside, and they are all in a row. It reminds me of a human zoo. The audience would come and look into the different rooms, which could have different lighting but would all link in with each other. We could have one person from our group in a different room, or as a group we could move from one room to another. This setting has an eerie sense to it, and could really work with our idea we have from the stimulus of the Apple.

Here are the video's I took on my Iphone of the locations:

1/10/14

In today's lesson we were put into threes and performed an improvisation using the bamboo sticks, after this we had a discussion about improvisation and were taught the MAIN rules of improvisation; 

• Don't say no- except what the other person is doing, never resist as this creates awkwardness on stage and self self-consciousness
• Take what you are given and heighten it
• Silence is okay- do not always feel you HAVE to speak to create a narrative or a spark for the improvisation to work
• Go to the environment-establish where you are
• Know each other- it always works better than acting like strangers to each other
• Make it about YOU- make it truthful
• l, creates naturalism 
• Make it important
• Choose a moment of crisis
• Give and take
• Share a common physicality- accept what the other person is doing
• Do not be afraid to play the back foot- to NOT take the major role

The exercise we did today involved the bamboo sticks, and mainly was improvised, using follow the leader and major and minor roles.

I was with Max and Jade. We used quite simple movements, but found it hard at times to keep up with each other or to keep the complicity. Sometimes we were too busy focusing on trying to make the piece look good, we forgot about the main thing, which was to maintain fluidity and precision. We were always aware of the space and each other, we just could of been more focused on keeping the complicity. This exercise was influenced by MICHAEL CHEKHOV as he believed in " Feeling of Ease" when improvising and to go with it and not think into it too much.  

I have learned from this exercise that concentration on others and precision is much more important than trying to make the improvisation look as good as possible by using complex techniques, simplicity in improvisation is much more easy to become absorbed into by an audience, and I will use this from now on when improvising.