Prior to the training I had received by taking this two-year UAL performing arts course, I had a very simplistic understanding of the skills and techniques that a good performer required. When I was introduced to Naturalism and the Stanislavski system it helped me gain a better understanding of how to develop a character you are portraying in an authentic, three-dimensional way. I used this technique in a duologue to implement motivation for my character and in return react accordingly. This technique highly influenced my career path as I have always idolised how some dynamic actors and actresses separate themselves from a character and fully embody a role. By practising this technique, I have been able to critically analysis films and performances I watch. For Unit 8, exploring the form of theatre my monologue uses, I used in-yer-face theatre. This technique presents to the audience confrontational and aggressive language, designed to intentionally make the audience feel uncomfortable by touching on real life situations usually in relation to psychological and extreme emotions such as sexual abuse. My monologue for example was a long-overdue explosive argument between a religious complicit mother and her eldest daughter regarding her paedophilic father. In Unit 10 we executed the Brechtian technique, applying physical theatre to tell a fairy-tale-like story with a subliminal darker message. Brecht focuses on political and social issue-based theatre in aim to awaken the audience in an abstract style to problems in modern society which may be overlooked. This type of theatre is created to educate the audience and resonate with them so when they leave, they think about what they’ve just seen and form an opinion. Musical Theatre has taught me that there are three tiers to a performance and how all three disciplines are needed to successfully perform a song and create depth. In Unit 8, I performed a song in an in-class examination called ‘Go Back Home’. The song originates from a musical called ‘The Scottsboro Boys’ based on a real-life story. Learning the historical context of the musical helps give a clearer understanding of the character you are playing. It creates colour and informs you on what type of emotion you should be delivering to the audience for them to have a direct connection to your character. These skills will be implemented into the production HAIR because the piece is performed in a stylised and abstract way. A few scenes are performed using the Brechtian technique and there will be a lot of opportunities to implement techniques we’ve learnt such as method acting and physical theatre.
The idea of ‘Hair’ is a group of politically active hippies living a bohemian life in New York and fighting against conscription into the war. Living in a conservative America, Hair became a product of the hippie counterculture and sexual revolution of the late 1960s and several of its songs became anthems of the anti-Vietnam War peace movement. The concept is encouraging ‘The Age of Aquarius’, a new age for love, harmony and peace. The form in which I will present my final realisation of HAIR will be Brechtian and stylised. The research and ideas that will support the productions development, will be the dialogue; using our creative minds we have the chance to make an acting choice and present that with how we interpret the dialogue. I will also be using research I find from various sources online and I have already watched some documentaries such as ‘America In Colour’, I anticipate that this research will help create depth to my character.
I intend to record my decision making by creating weekly reflective blogs. Reflective blogs are online journal entries, where I can critically reflect and analysis my progress throughout my training and the process of the production – my findings, what I find difficult or successful, how I incorporated my own ideas and my understanding of the text and how I intend to put theory work into practise, which will help to structure and further develop the piece. When working collaboratively as an ensemble, the possible adverse ways this could impact our progress is punctuality and attendance. Every individual amongst the group needs to ensure they come to every scheduled rehearsal session on time, in order to make sure it doesn’t disrupt the progress of the production. Also, a conflict of ideas, could cause animosity and waste time, to avoid this we need to listen to each other and remain professional. Conversely more positive attributions to the class such as sharing and exploring various ideas, mutual effort and cohesively working as a unit, will minimise disruption to our progress, resulting in a successful outcome for our performance.
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