Linking real life events to the events that your "playing" in the scene. I found emotion memory useful throughout my performance and it helps me live in my characters, for example when I am acting in An Christmas Carol playing the chairwoman scene even though I can't link to that character especially I think about a certain aspect of the Chairwoman that I can to link to my life and run with that so I think about a time I was looking through people things or being selfish. After getting this emotion memory I will use this to portray these feeling into this scene. (1)
Vocal Projection-
Speaking not shouting, to the character as well as the audience. But do it in a way that the back of the audience ( the cheap seats) can hear you clearly, without thinking your shouting at them. As I am near the end of the play, I need to grab their attention straight away by using my voice as a microphone to grab their audience. To increase my loudness I start to control my diaphragm, intensively. For this, I use a good diaphragmatic breathing technique throughout.
Understanding Character-
When working on a piece of drama, you have to ask the question to yourself to really know your character and become one with your character. These questions can include...
1. Who am I?
2. Where am I?
3. When is it?
4. Where have I just come from?
5. What do I want?
6. Why do I want it?
7. Why do I want it now?
8. What will happen if I don't get it now?
9. How will I get what I want by doing what?
10. What must I overcome?
Even though I play 2 characters, I still need to know who I am really am in depth. So my first character I play is the Chairwomen who is a maid and cook who lives with Scrooge. Thinking about my character I feel like I have just come from Scrooges' house trying to scrape up any last extra things I can get some money for, I made a backstory for myself in which I use to be homeless and Scrooge, when he was kinder, decided to take me in and work for him. Over the years he has gotten meaner and because I dont have anywhere to go I just stayed.
1. My name is Katherine but everyone calls me Kate of just Chairwomen
2. I live in the dirty rough side of east London locally known as Whitechapel
3. The year is 1843
4. I have just come from my late boss Scrooge's home which I hope would be mine soon
5. I want to make a large sum of money whatever means necessary. Dont care how I make it I just want to make it.
6. I have always been poor, treated badly, so I do believe I should receive some justice in my life
7. All my life I have been known as the poor child, There was a lot of children in my family we were all sick a lot of the time. I just wanted something better for myself, for my family.
8. I will be out of the street again which is what I dont.
9. Since Scrooge is dead, I cleaned his house for 20 years + and I know he had a fortune God knows he did. So instead of him be buried with all this money and jewels, I thought it would be a better idea if I took it to Old Joe
10. Even though I have worked with him for 20+years I dont actually know how much all of this is worthed, everyone says he has money but how much money does he actually have. Because the average bear has more money than me.
My other character is the solicitor, so for me to understand the character more and not just read lines of a page, I need to ask myself questions as if I am hot-seating myself to get a deeper insight about who I am.
1. My name is Cornelius Richardson
2. I am in the hear of Camden
3. It is the year 1843
4. I have just come from the Taylor's family who have given me a large donation
5. I just want to go home spend the rest of Christmas day with my family
6. It's Christmas day, I don't usually work on the holidays but I love meeting people who want to give me donations
7. I dont get to see my family much even though I love spending time with them so today shall and will be extra special.
8. I will be incredibly angry, I should be used to it but it still hurts me that I dont get to see my family that much.
9. If I say merry christmas that I see I do believe that my journey home will be quicker and more joyful
10. I dont want to see Mr Scrooge I try every year to ask him for money and every year he tells me "NO" and because I dont want my mood spoiled I rather not see him
Stage presence-
Being able to create a certain charisma and charm, that I, an actor possess which also draws in the audience and commands their full attention. The audience are generally fully attended during the start and remember the end the most. As I am near the end of the play, I need to make sure I keep the audience attentive all the time when I am speaking. I can use a few techniques to do this such as, raise in my voice, taking a pregnant pause, emphasising on certain words.
Engagement with audience -
Engaging with the audience is crucial throughout the performance, just to feel a certain connection with the audience thinking about my character when I am in the scene and not talking I could mime or use actual props to look at the items that I have brought to Old Joe. When Old Joe is talking to the laundress about the money he is giving her I could try to take some of her money or look through her bundle and see the clothes that she had. The reaction I would like from the audience is Laughter.
Stage awareness-
Being aware of the stage around me and using the stage space wisely. I have came up with a tip in which whenever I change the space when I am re-hearsing my voice stays the same. So if i am in the theatre or the drama studio my voice can still be heard from the back of the room. I do this for 2 reasons. 1. It is easier for me to make my voice quieter than louder. 2. The louder people speak the more confident they sound, usually when people whisper it shows alack of confidence. So sub-consciencely I am speaking confidently just by speaking louder. We have decided to remove the theatre seats and have normal chairs. As this is a musical so we have dancers and singers this gives the dancers more space to move and also this gives us a chance to walk through the audience, for example, Marley character who is known to be very spooky of every adaptation of Christmas Carol. As a group, we decided that he should come from the audience to scare the audience members.
Articulation-
Articulating my words so that my words do not just sound like one big mumble and the audience can connect with the words. When we talk with our friends we dont over articulate per word. But to act a character that is not ourselves we need to over articulate, so the whole audience can hear and understand my words clearly. Warm-ups to help with my articulation is doing tongue twisters such as "Unique- New York" really over pronouncing the U'S, N'S and Y'S another tongue twister is " sea, sells, sea shells on the sea shore" again really over pronouncing the S's and making sure I am saying the correct words and make sure I'm not making up words such as seahells. Longer tongue twisters work as I am saying a paragraph, so I should get use to being able to articulate for a longer amount of time
Characters Actions-
A quick activity we did in class to get to know our characters was to pick 3 motions our characters by ourselves and repeat them. My 3 actions were
1. Sneaking through corridors
2. picking up money from the floor
3. counting my pennies and grinning
These 3 actions told me about my character that I am a very sneaking and nosey person. If I was compared to an animal I think I would be compared to a Zebra, because I blend in with society but when time to run and escape I will and leave everyone behind. (2) I'm not ashamed to pick up money from the floor as long as it will help me to be richer in the long run. (3) Every little penny I earn makes me a bit richer even if I have to do dirty work such as stealing and lying
(1) https://heatheractingwork.wordpress.com/2012/12/20/emotion-memory/
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