Term: September - December

To begin with, as class we looked at the various units that we would be covering over the year such as:

• Unit 9 A Christmas Carol
• Unit 10 UCAS and Monologue
• Unit 11 Essay
• Unit 12 Final Performance

After looking through the units together we spoke further about what we have to do and how long we have to do it. We looked at the unit 11 essay which we need to write 1500 words on something in the performing arts industry which interests us. We also spoke about UCAS and the courses that we could choose and the places where we would choose to study. Then to finish we spoke about the contemporary monologue that we would have to perform which has to be from a published play written after 1980.

We also created a timeline that we would follow through the term that would require to do certain things by certain deadlines, like being completely off script by the end of October.

(This is our timeline)

Monologue Preparation

We have to choose a monologue to perform along side the Shakespeare monologue that we and performed earlier in the year. I chose to do Robert's Monologue from Betrayal which was written on 15th December 1978 by Harold Pinter. I chose this play because I feel the piece that I am performing is very powerful if performed correctly which I believe I did well, it it is also very relate able  to modern situation that many people are placed in today. The Shakespeare monologue I chose was Romeo's from Romeo and Juliet when he sees Juliet on the balcony after the Capulet Party, this is a monologue I am comfortable with as I have performed it before.

Work In Class

During this term we will be working with the Dance and Musical Theater classes. Considering the increased size of our group we put that to good use as we all spoke about what we could remember about the well known story. Following this we watched the film of a Christmas  Carol and made notes on various things such as the way they used their props, costume and lighting. It also allowed us to see how they decided to demonstrate the story and their depiction of the character Scrooge, which allowed us to get an idea of the contrasts between theirs and how we will choose to perform ours.

I focused mainly on the characters that I was interested in most such as Scrooge, Fred and the Ghost of Christmas Present. In the film they use very different sounds and pieces of music for each character, for example when Scrooge is first introduced, the music surrounding him is very dull and menacing, this helps us to see that he is a miserly mean old man and that he is not a kind caring person, Fred on the other hand is a good contrast as the music is more relaxed and positive. I feel like the Ghost of Christmas past has the best music surrounding him as he was demonstrated as the most jolly and up lifting character in the film having many Christmas songs being his introduction and exit into the scenes. I feel if we demonstrated his character well enough in the show that it makes people feel happy and excited, then it would be a good contrast to the arrival of the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come who brings a more menacing vibe to the story. I also feel like there are parts of the play that could be improved on greatly such as the arrival of Fan to Scrooge's younger self when the Ghost of Christmas Past takes him back in time, and the scene in which Bob Cratchit is eating with his family at dinner and Tiny Tim blesses everyone. I feel like the scene with Fan visiting Scrooge is very rushed in our play so I would like to slow it down and work more things into it as it is a part in the play where we see what Scrooge has changed into from the person he used to be, even when Scrooge is watching himself and fan the lines he speaks are very melancholy and sounds deeply regretful, this shows us just how much he misses his sister and that her death affected his persona quite deeply. Equally, the scene with the Cratchit's could be made better with the use of different props and technical effects such as dirty clothes or damaged furniture, this would help to further show the financial state that the family is in because of Scrooge. In the film it was hard to see and it was in black and white and the scenes inside most buildings were quite dark because of this, it also impeded our sight on things like furniture and costume and the physical state that the family is in, as many of them looked incredibly healthy for the state that they are supposed to be in. In our version I would like to use make-up to make the family seem dirty or unhealthy.

The next day, we read a synopsis of the play to make sure that everyone understood the story and the key events of the play. After this the teacher split us into 2 groups and we were instructed to make short summaries of the play with what we thought the most important parts were. My group and I decided to perform it as if it was a game of Dungeons and Dragons, having one actor play the Dungeon Master and have Scrooge play out his story by asking him a series of questions. I found this to be an interesting way to show the story as it had never been done before making it unique. A problem that arises with this idea was that not many people in the class understood what Dungeons and Dragons was and how it is supposed to be played, this made many of them confused at parts when we were trying to move the story forward.

Moving on from this, in groups we looked at the themes of the play, the characteristics of the main characters and wrote them up into a mind map and put them on the walls around our class:

(THIS IS MY GROUP'S MIND MAP)

Working with Musical Theater and Dance

In one of the first lessons with the other classes we were split up into 3 groups where we were told to pick one of the major themes of the play, my group and I decided to go with self evaluation while other groups had the ideas of redemption and reflection. Our group decided to use a still image to show our ideas, we used the demonstrations of evolution to represent our chosen theme, unfortunately I was unable to capture a picture of this but I am able to show what it was modelled from.

We showed the self reflection of scrooge by having 2 people stand opposite each other as if they were looking into the mirror, but as this was to show the change of the character one was of the past and the other the future so their facial expressions were very different. In between them were 3 other people acting out small parts from different scenes in the play, one was of younger scrooge in school, the other when he is working in the counting house and the final one of him in his grave this would help to represent Past, Present and Future. After the groups were finished working on their images we showed them off to each other and tried to guess what theme they were aiming to show. We also gave feedback on how they could've demonstrated their ideas better and how to position everyone in a clearer more interesting way. As a class we all put them together and recorded how they looked.

We then had to bring the images to life by adding movement and various amounts of dialogue to give off the impression that it was an actual scene in the play. I played one of the drunk characters and decided a route to walk through which allowed me to engage with every other actor in the scene. This worked well as the scene we decided to go for was the party as Scrooge's nephews house.

After this, we did exercises where the teacher would call out a number and we would have to get into groups of that size, sometimes she would call out a place or object and in that group we would have to create it, for example the teacher said a racing car and London Bridge. We found this useful as it allowed us to practice creating still images and we could apply this to the work we will be doing for our show. The way we showed London Bridge was by having 2 people stand opposite each other with their arms extended and 2 people behind them acting as the rigging by reaching out towards the floor. 

In the lesson after that we were again put into groups of 3 and had to devise a scene based around the 3 ghosts in the play. My group was given the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come. We decided not to have Scrooge in the scenes as we felt it pulled the focus more to the other characters that we decided to use. The scene began with 2 people robbing Scrooge's dead body of his shoes, funeral attire and bed curtains and selling them to a merchant, it ends with me saying one of the lines from the play, it then moves into someone looking at the grave of Scrooge and spitting on it as they walk by. As usual we performed what we showed to the class and vice versa and we continued to gave each other feedback on the work we had created. The class said to us that it was a good idea to not have Scrooge visible and that what we acted it out was immersive and made them feel like it was a part of the play. The transitions were also smooth and there was never a dead-stage.

Beginning of script work

Early on we decided that creating a timeline to work around would be useful as it would allow us ensure things are done by certain times, such as crucial things like knowing all lines and the costumes we are wearing for the main show.

(This is the time line we created in class)

To audition for the parts we wanted to play in the show we had to read through the script and look at the characters we were interested in, I was mainly interested in the role of Scrooge but was told by the teachers that I was more like the role of Fred's nephew and auditioned for that instead. On the day when we received our characters I was extremely disappointed with the roles I had been given seeming as they were roles I had no interest in and did not audition for at all, instead the role of Fred was given to my classmate who also felt as if he had been miscast as he had no interest in Fred and hadn't auditioned for him. Instead the roles of Fezziwig, Topper, Mathew and Business Man were given to me which I feel is a shame as I am forced to play characters I was not interested in and feel as if I would've done better as a character I wanted to be.

We looked at the beginning sections of the play, pages 1-15 and started acting them out how we wanted them in the show, this meant we decided the songs for the scenes and worked out the blocking for the characters. The scene we focused on most was the entrance of Jacob Marley's ghost warning Scrooge of the 3 spirits who will be visiting him as we felt it was a major part in the play that required a lot of time to be worked on.

Some of the people in our class also began looking into what songs could be used further in the play, such as 'Hard Knock Life' from Annie in the scene when Christmas Present is showing Scrooge the poorer people of London. They also worked on choreography for the dancers in the class to use.

(This is a sheet summarising what we had worked on during the week)

Continuing on we looked at pages 15-27 mainly focusing on the visit of the Ghost of Christmas past and setting that up in a way that gets the audience excited to the arrival of the other ghosts. In order to do this,in the lesson we were put into groups of 3 and had to devise a scene based around the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come. We decided not to have Scrooge in the scenes as we felt it pulled the focus more to the other characters that we decided to use. The scene began with 2 people robbing Scrooge's dead body of his shoes, funeral attire and bed curtains and selling them to a merchant, it ends with me saying one of the lines from the play, it then moves into someone looking at the grave of Scrooge and spitting on it as they walk by. As usual we performed what we showed to the class and vice versa and we continued to gave each other feedback on the work we had created. The class said to us that it was a good idea to not have Scrooge visible and that what we acted it out was immersive and made them feel like it was a part of the play. The transitions were also smooth and there was never a dead-stage.

(Another sheet on what we had worked on)

The first lesson after we read through the script as a class as there were not many people who showed up. I found this very useful as it not only allowed me to recap on my lines and see what needed to be improved. We were then asked to try and explore our characters on a deeper level, my friend and I had the idea of writing down a day in our characters lives that would better explain them and show the kind of person they are. A mannerism also had to be included with our character so I decided to go with checking the time, this would show that Fezziwig is a person who is eager for Christmas to arrive, always counting down the time until it arrives, it also helps to show his obsession with the concept of time.

Then we moved onto a hot seating expertise where we questioned my character Fezziwig and the characters Jacob Marley and Plump Girl, they found this useful as it allowed them to get some back story which would help them with their characteristics. I found this especially useful as it allowed me to improvise with my character in a way I hadn't before, I asked my classmates to ask me questions in their character in relation to mine, for example the person playing Young Scrooge asked me why I hired him, this allowed me to talk about how good Scrooge was when he was younger,  making for a better contrast when he is seen in the later scenes. 

When more people showed up we worked on blocking some of the scenes and rehearsing parts we did not feel happy with. One of the scenes we decided to work on was the first scene in Bob Cratchit's house, the main reason I feel we have difficulty with this scene is because people are not consistently in, so other actors stand in for scenes that they are not in, to further complicate things, when the actors do show up they have failed to know their lines despite the deadline we had agreed on in earlier timelines, resulting in missed cues and failed transitions. 

More scenes that we felt required work was the Fezziwig party scene and Fred's party scene, the teachers then thought it would be a good idea to add dances into these scenes regardless of them seeing people struggle to be an ensemble and do their lines, I felt this was a ridiculous idea as it put more pressure onto people who were already struggling with what they already have. We thought that having the dances was a nice concept as it allowed moments of joy for the characters which would blend well with the themes of the scenes. Luckily the dance class had been working on these dances and only had to teach us the movements and find a time to put them in the scene whilst continuing with the continuity of the play. 

(Insert Fezziwig dance video here)

The dance class felt as if the Fred's party dance needed more work, so in their own time they worked more on it and came back when they felt comfortable with what they had, this is by far my favourite dance in the play as it feels like the one that connects the characters the most by having everyone dance with each other at least once.

(Insert Fred dance video here)

We spent one lesson working in groups about our character's journey throughout the play and had to create backstories for them. My group and I worked on the Cratchit family as it has the most characters whose stories connect with each other, I found this very useful as I play the parts of both Mathew and Peter, 2 sons in the Cratchit family.

(This is the character journey for the Cratchit's)

The lesson after this was spent trying to incorporate yet another problematic dance piece into the already struggling show, another fantastic idea given to us by the teachers who for some reason fail to see how other people in the class are struggling. Many people whilst trying to learn it spoke about how difficult it was to learn and how they felt it didn't link in ti any of the themes of the play. By the end of the lesson some people had learnt it and none were close, but the teachers said that the next lesson would be spent trying to make it fit into the final scene.

One lesson was spent rehearsing in front of another class the level 2's, I feel that some parts of the play were good yet others were just embarrassing, made worse by people failing to show up or missing their cues and lines despite being given a script weeks prior, this led to a disengaged audience who in turn could also see how the play was lacking in certain areas. This was yet another 'great' idea given to us by the teachers at a time when they knew people were struggling, the end result had a classmate hiding mocking the show's progress on social media.