We were given the last scenes of top girls which is about two sisters during the times of Margret Thatcher the play begins to focus on Marlene who has a powerful career at an employment agency in which she begins to explore her decisions in her life for her successful career.
we read through the last scene because we have never read any background of this play before it was quite difficult getting into it, but once we understood what was happening it was quite enjoyable. I wanted to read some more plays before I made a final decision.
so I began to research others plays
Been so long
Before reading the play, I watched the musical on Netflix which starred Arinze Kene as Raymond and Michaela Cole as Simone. I didn't quite like the film but I still gave the play a chance if it changed my perspective on the film.
Georgina and I began to read the play, the storyline didn't grab us as we wanted it to. So we began to look for another play.
Gabriel and Brad read the play story which is a one-act play written by Edward Albee in 1958. The story follows two characters Peter and Gerry who meet on a park bench in New York City the play explores themes such as isolation, miscommunication and dehumanization in a materialistic world. Gabriel both enjoyed this play throughly and decided to pick this as their final performance. As there were so many groups it was hard to give each other feedback all the time but I did say that their characters could be more animated so that they are not on just one note and show the difference between both characters bigger from the start so the audience can go on journey with each character as well as the story.
Evaluation of zoo story
While watching zoo story I made notes;
The simplicity of the stage and lighting was great since it was only one act two benches and a backdrop was actually quite effective. I also wonder if they had a massive budget on the production how would they have done the stage that way. I believe the lighting only changed once throughout the whole thing and that was when Peter stabbed Gerry and was a red colour this worked really well as if they lighting could only change one this was a great place to put it.
Articulation throughout the play was good I could hear every word clearly and even if they were speaking fast it did not seem like I was straining to hear what they were saying. Articulation is something I personally struggle with especially since I have a small problem with speaking fast even when it's not necessarily. I would have liked to know the company of Zoo story procedure to make sure their words were correctly articulated.
Dynamic between characters was great to see especially since it was a note that I gave them, it was great to see that they took this on board at work on it for their performance. You could definitely see how each character felt when the other one was talking either by how they responded on by their actions while the other person is speaking.
Fast paces cues were very effective in this peace.
Torn
We read through the play torn which is about generations of secrets which have broken within the brook family. I really enjoyed this the dynamics between each family how fast the cues were and its nothing like what we have done before. Some people in the ensemble didn't think this play was suitable as in this play they have to play a character that fits there appearance, for example, the character Steve needs to be played by a white male because he does a whole speech about slavery and the context of the speech would not make sense if Steve was portrayed by a black male.
Even though this was an issue we still started to work on characters that we read through. I read the character of Angel who is the youngest member of the family and calls this family meeting to sort of the secrets that the family has been hiding. So we did a mind-map of all the characters we had contact with and what we think of them.
Angel (me)
-15 year 10
-youngest
-wearing a tracksuit
-no religious belief
-hot-headed
-Aunty L favourite person
-no favourite person in the world
-emotionally frustrated
-rebellious
1st twin (mother)
-strained relationship
-dysfunctional
-no respect
2nd twin (aunty) - Samantha
-overprotective over son
-not a good relationship with twin
-tailor
-compassion for son
cousin (cousin) - Emanuel
-thinks I'm always lying
-interesting male
-sociopath
-stylish
-says he's not gay constantly
-like an uncle
-21
brother (brother) - Dejean
-trustworthy
-closest too sometimes
-funny
-thinks I lie
-still needs to grow up
Aunty L (aunty) - Leverne
-mothering figure
-funny
-relatable
-loving
Steve (stepfather)
-racist
-35
-says he loves mix-race people like they are a prize
nanny (nanny)
-loving
-use to take me to portabello road
-bought seabass
We realised that we were unable to do this play as the role had to be race specific for it to make sense. Some people were unhappy with this as this did not want to be cast because of the colour of there skin.girls
finalise a play that we want to do which was girls. which is about three teenage Nigerian girls who were taken away about the Boko Haram and there journey about they stay alive
Character analysis
Since we know which characters we are going to play now we can start thinking about character analysis to really think about in depth of our characters and this knowledge that we now know can be taken into the performance.
My name is Haleema, young black teenager 14 to be exact. I am quickly mistaken for being angry but it's just because people don't know me, people don't know the struggle I have been too seeing your parent being slaughtered in front of you and being dragged by your hair in a large van where girls who I have seen a couple of times Tisana and Ruhab crying and vomiting in the back, I want to comfort them but being weak is the reason why I am here in this situation so let me just sit in silence.
Mama was a sweet lady, tall long hair and beautiful fair skin that I envy of but I look like papa. When I was younger I used to sit in the bath trying to scrub to make it like mamas. when times were simpler on Sunday mornings we use to skip to the markets together. One morning that all changed. I mean the morning was the same skip the same path and same market. But as we strolled back something was different the dust was thicker.
1. When does my character live? - My character lives in the past 2014 to be exact. Through my research, I know this because this Boko Haram event happened when the kidnapped the girls happened in 2014.
2. Where does my character live? - Before my character got kidnapped they lived in a rural area where there wasn't many shops or tourist attractions but it was a very welcoming family orientated area.
3. What is the socioeconomic background of my character? - My character comes from a low social economic background, they use the bare minimum for resources. My characters parents have low-income jobs which don't supply the family with much money to the household.
4. Does my character work? - My character does not work before I got kidnapped I just started to go to school regularly but my father mentioned to me that I will have to leave school soon to start making money for the family.
5. What is a typical day for my character like? - before I got kidnapped A typical day for my character is waking up early around 5am to go fetch water from the local water hose and trying to collect enough so this can be used for bathing for my family of 6 and cooking. By 7 I should be making my way to school with Tisana and Ruhab after school I get home to start my homework briefly and begin to prepare dinner before my father gets home. Finish my homework and prepare for the next morning.
6. Who lives with my character and what are their relationships- I have 4 siblings 3 brothers (9), (6) and (4) and 1 sister (2) as well as my father. during the day my siblings say with my aunty hafsat while I am at school.
7. Who else heavily influences my character- My father's sturdiness and strong will influence my character as well as Beyonce Knowles confidence and perfection.
8. Is my character very religious, political, or otherwise a member or some kind? - My character is not religious or political in any way but the people that my character spends the most time with our from Islamic and Christian backgrounds but this has not affected my character.
9. What is my character’s biggest life goal - My characters biggest life goals is to be known as a hero and to congratulated all around the world as a hero
Hello, I'm Haleem... yeah that's it nothing more to say.
How am I feeling? I'm fine, I said I'm fine. I'm FINE!
What is my earliest memory? It's funny how life treats you, my life was great up until the age of 6. But the day after my 6th birthday was when it happened. I was getting ready for church grand-mama bought me a pretty blue dress with white flowers all over it. As I walked into the hallway mama told me that we weren't going to church and it was an important day. I wanted to ask what was happening but something told me I didn't want to know. Aunty came round shortly afterwards.
No, I don't know her name she is just aunty
she asked me "are you ready child"
I did not answer. mama told me to go into the bathroom and be a big girl now. Aunty grabbed my hand and dragged me to the bathroom. She asked me to take off my dress. I froze. I was scared as to what was supposed to happen. She took out a piece of glass from her right jean pocket, it was an orange piece of glass probably one of the Fanta bottles from the market. She told me to lay down still on the bathroom floor and try not to move. The bathroom floor was wet and cold and all I could do was close my eyes she pressed my chest down firm with her hard hand and grabbed the piece of glass and cut. I couldn't scream. I couldn't move blood went everywhere. That was the last time I saw that pretty blue dress.
THEMES
Teenage pregnancy
Teenage pregnancy is a pregnancy of a female "under the age of 20" having a baby at a younger age can cause more complications compared to having a baby later in life. These complications "include not yet being physically ready for pregnancy" for example "maternal death." There is a "risk of maternal death for girls under 15 in low and middle-income countries is higher than for women in their twenties."
www.wikipedia teenage pregnancy
Mother
Education of teenage mothers is usually effected as they are no longer able to attend school after the pregnancy and is some cases during. I wondered what some mothers did after the pregnancy if whether the had the opportunity to go back to school and if the did, do they? While reading a book I found out that " mothers who attended a special school (which could be a school which 'supports pregnant teenagers, teenage mothers and their baby') did substantially better in later life than those attending a regular school." This surprised me slightly but I do think the drive and ambition may be bigger once they had their baby.
book- Teenage mothers attitude towards education p.17
http://www.moathouse.stockport.sch.uk/
Baby
In addition to the mother having complications during pregnancy, the child has a higher chance of having complications throughout their life. For example "children of teen mothers are more likely to be born prematurely with a low birth rate" statics show that "teens, who give birth between the ages of 15-19 give birth to lower weight babies. I found out that they generally perform worse in school compared to the children that do not have teenage mothers. It is shown that "children of teen mothers are at higher risk of intellectual, language and socio-emotion delay.
Teenage pregnancy in Africa
Since the play is set in Africa (Nigeria.) I wanted to look into the effect of teenage pregnancies in Africa shockingly I found out that "The highest rate of teenage pregnancy in the world is in Sub-Saharan Africa. " For example "In Niger, 87% of the women that were surveyed were married and 53%, had given birth to a child before the age of 18" This leads me to believe that having a child at a young age in Africa is the norm compared to other continents such as Europe and North America were is may be looked down upon. Because of the high rate of pregnancy in Sub-Saharan Africa, it is not surprising that they "face probably, the highest risk of pregnancy-related mortality, of delivery complications." There are a few reasons as to why there is a large amount of "unexpected pregnancies" amongst the young females in Africa. These reasons include "early marriages, culture, religion, curiosity and peer pressure"
Wikipedia -teen pregnancy
book - determinate of adolescent pregnancy in sub-Saharan Africa: a systematic review
Teen pregnancy in Nigeria
Relating it to the play Ruhab who we decided to establish is 15 (the eldest) becomes pregnant in the play by one of the soldiers "Ishy." But how accurate and common is this in Nigeria. After researching, that generally "the people of Nigeria are young, 43% are younger than 15 years of age." This factor will contribute to the high rate of pregnancies in Nigeria. In addition to this "Nigerian women are also very fertile" static's show that "the average women in Nigeria give birth to almost 6 children in her lifetime." As well the teenage pregnancy rate being high so is the child/early marriage rate. linking it to the play, before Ruhab entered the camp it is mentioned that she is married to a man called Moses but is not said that they have any children but they might have been planning.
Miscarriage
A miscarriage is the loss of a pregnancy during the first 23 weeks. The main sign is vaginal bleeding, which can be followed by cramping and pain in the lower abdomen area.
Symptoms
Vaginal bleeding during a miscarriage can vary from light spotting or brownish discharge to the other end of the spectrum such as heavy bleeding and bright-red blood or cots
Causes
There are many reasons as to why someone can go through a miscarriage. If a miscarriage happens within the first 3 months. The general cause of the problem is with the foetus (the unborn baby.) Statics show 3 in every 4 miscarriage happen in this period.
If a miscarriage happens after the first 3 months, this may be because of the mother's health conditioner. These late miscarriages may be also caused by infection around the baby. This can lead to water breaking, this is before any pain or bleeding.
Some women are unaware that their baby has died an, unfortunately, they only find out during an ultrasound.
Miscarriage in teen
Teenagers are at a higher risk of having miscarriages and complications during their pregnancy. This does happen to Ruhab, in the camp so I wanted to see how common it was with teenage girls and later in my research, I wanted to see how common miscarriages were in Africa and then specifically Nigeria.
Miscarriage in Africa
The play is based in Nigeria but I wanted to zoom out of that and look at Africa as a whole. I noticed that there was a big abortion problem in Africa. For example "Miscarriage is still one of the major causes of maternal death south Africa." Surprisingly "Each year in Africa, 4.2 million miscarriages are estimated to take place, for every 1,000 women 22 of them have a miscarriage. This is roughly estimated to 1 per every 7 live births." This is very high as compared to East Asia which has the lowest rate of miscarriages at 11 women per 1,000.
Miscarriage in Nigeria
Once I had information about Africa it was time to take a deeper look into Nigeria. "Health experts have mentioned that a major cause of miscarriages in Nigeria is malaria" Although the factor of Ruhab being such a young age of her miscarriage. After research malaria might also be a factor with this knowledge, Georgina can make a decision to portray Ruhab differently.
ISLAM
Definition
Islam is the religion of Muslims a belief that there is only one God, faith regarded as revealed through Muhammed as the prophet Allah. Regardless of concerns of the reliability of early sources. It is believed that Islam started in Mecca and Medina at the start of the 7th Century approximately 600 years after the founding of Christianity.
History
The history of Islam changed between the political, social, economic and developments of the Islam civilization. Most Historians believe Islam originated in Mecca or Medina round the start of the 7th century (600 years after Christianity.) As some people believe that Islam started with Muhammad. Muslims believe that it did not. But it was the original faith of others. Who they call prophets such as Jesus, Noah and Adam. Muslims believe that Islam is a faith that has always existed.
Muhammed
Muhammed was a deeply spiritual man. One night he was meditating on the mountain and he was visited by an angel Jibreel, which is the angel Gabriel in Christianity who ordered him to recite words which he believes these words came from God. Later in Muhammed life he continued to recite these words and receive these revelations, these words were recorded are remembered which was formed the text of the holy Qu'ran.
Islam in Africa
Christianity first arrived in North Africa in the 1st or early 2nd century. Islam arrived round the
early 7th. I started to question how did Islam come to Africa and how is travelled so quickly.
Africa was the first continent where Islam spread. Muhammed told his early disciples who were facing persecution to seek refuge across the red sea in Axum. Twenty-three Muslims migrated to Abyssinia where they were protected by its king who later acknowledges Islam. They were followed by 101 Muslims later that year. In 641 CE, Muslims took over the country now know as Egypt and conquered current Libya they next year. Muslims then expanded to Tunisia in 647 CE. The conquest of North Africa continued under the Umayyad dynasty which added parts of Algeria to parts of it terriority around 680 CE and Morocco the next year. Islam gained momentum during the 10th century in West Africa and the rulers and kings embraced Islam. Islam then spread slowly in much of the continent through trade and preaching.
Rehearsal Diary
WEEK 1 - The ensemble read through the entire play. We discussed things we liked and disliked and spoke about themes that are shown throughout the play. These themes include
WEEK 2 - As an ensemble, we began to put the play on its feet, by going through each scene discussing what stands out for us, making keynotes of these.
WEEK 3 - Look into more depth of the writer of the play their views and why they wrote this play use this information to have a better insight into our characters. Discuss themes more and go into depth in our blogs.
WEEK 4 - We Research as an ensemble how other ensembles did the play; what things did they have in common? What things did they change from the script? We Use this information to take on our own creative direction about how we would like to adopt the performance.
WEEK 5 - We started thinking about handy nuances that we can add into our play as well as adding entrances and exits so that we learn these as we learn our lines. The ensemble should start to scenes 1-5
WEEK 6 - We started to film rehearsals, blocking through the whole play. Making solid objectives, stakes, beats and moment before. By using the Chubbuck technique and incorporating this in how we portray the characters to make them more believable and understanding of the audience. Also, learn 6 -11 and have our peer members and an industry professional watch what we have so far and give us constructive feedback.
SCENE OBJECTIVE: What your character wants over the course of an entire scene, which supports the character’s OVERALL OBJECTIVE.
INNER OBJECTS: The pictures you see in your mind when speaking or hearing about a person, place, thing or event.
BEATS AND ACTIONS: A BEAT is a thought. Every time there’s a change in thought, there’s a BEAT change. ACTIONS are the mini-OBJECTIVES that are attached to each BEAT that support the SCENE’S OBJECTIVE and therefore, the OVERALL OBJECTIVE.
MOMENT BEFORE: The event that happens before you begin the scene (or before the director yells, “Action!”), which gives you a place to move from, both physically and emotionally.
LET IT GO: While The Chubbuck Technique does use an actor’s intellect, it is not a set of intellectual exercises. This technique is the way to create human behaviour so real that it produces the grittiness and rawness of really living a role. In order for you to duplicate the natural flow of life and be spontaneous, you have to get out of your head. To achieve this you have to trust the work you’ve done with the previous11 tools and LET IT GO.
WEEK 7 - start to discuss how we will like the set, props and lighting as well as songs that we will like to incorporate and why we will like to incorporate these things into the play and how this will impact the performance for the better. We looked at a variety of stages and these ones stood out for us. As well as learn scenes 12 - 16
- I really liked this stage as I could picture these tree-like stands as trees in Africa. I also had an idea that if we walk through the stands it could be a new scene. Thinking about this stage we would need someone to construct these for us and get these into the theatre. This was not practical but if we had unlimited time and money we could hire someone to construct this for us.
- Now from the start, I knew that we could not do this stage as the budget would not reach this type of stage. But I thought that maybe we could take some ideas from this play and try to match it to our budget. For example these trees that our in this picture instead of having trees constructed. We could have a picture of trees presented on to the backdrop with light sounds of trees moving in the wind.WEEK 8 - Everyone knew half of there lines by now. So we began perfecting the first half of the play. We had another peer assessment to show how far we have become now that we are more comfortable with our lines. We started to talk about costumes and special effect. Depending on the different types of scenes we needed to decide how many costume changes were needed. We started to talk about the poster and programme designs as well as the ticket prices. As we are sharing our night we another performance we had to discuss whether we want to share our programme and poster design or have separate ones. We did some research on theatre programmes to see what we like and take ideas from it. Learn line 17-21
- We looked at the similarities between these programmes and the differences. These each has Bold colours and a type of image whether its a picture or words it sums up the play briefly without even looking through the programme. The name of the performance is big and clearly visible.WEEK 9 - We started rehearsing with props as well as in the performance space so we can know how to balance out the space as well as our vocal projection. We got industry professionals to critically analyze our performance and give us an evaluation of what we can improve and what works with our performance. Begin to start having a meeting with the technical theatre team about what we would like in our performance and whether it is possible or not and if it is not then we came up with substitutions. For example, there is an explosion and the end of the first scene and I wanted a massive explosion with dust. They explained to us that this may not be possible so we substituted this a massive loud explosion sound effect and a full blackout. Learn lines 22-25
WEEK 10 - The ensemble knew all their lines so we started rehearsing without any scripts at all. We worked on scenes that specifically needed work by recording it looking back at the recording and noticing things that we could change. We began making first drafts of the poster and programme. We wanted to invite industry professionals to come and watch our performance. We wanted agents, directors, writers and casting agents to come and watch so we started to draft an email to send out to them.
WEEK 11- We had a dress rehearsal in the space with props and discussed and problems that we may have with the costume and props. For example, we have no fake blood or a realistic shiv. So I took went and bought fake realistic blood from a party store and we had a deeper look in the prop room to look for a more realistic shiv other than a plastic knife. We also created a second draft of the poster and programme and record dress rehearsal.
WEEK 12 - We had a tech rehearsal in the space with the tech team and problems that occur. One problem that occurred was that we had a video with news stories from the time the play was set each one of them overpowers the new story of the girls that were taken away. When we tried to play this video during the tech run the words were slower than the actual video. Once we finished the rehearsal we look back at this video and rendered it again, once we did this the video worked perfectly. After this, we had another tech and dress rehearsal. We created the third draft of the poster and programme. The ensemble had one last peer assessment to see if there were any last things we could refine and change before the final performance. We also discuss the ticket prices and as an ensemble, we decided that the ticket prices should be free so it could be more accessible for everyone.
WEEK 13 - We finalised the programmes and poster.
Evaluation
Research
As an ensemble, we did a large amount of research to help make our characters realistic and believable. For example, one action that we all do is clean garri. No one in the ensemble knew how to clean garri so we all did research in what was garri? where it came? what we make it with? and of course how to clean it? By doing this it would give us all a clear understanding and it will help with portraying our characters. We also looked at video footage on how to clean gari so we can have clear footage of what it will actually look like to do it.
Planning and production
Before we started working we created a plan and timeline so we could stick to it as much as possible. For example, there were some days were we just rehearsed all day when we were supposed to do half a day of rehearsing and half a day of finalising costume, sound and lighting and this messed up our planner for the week so we would have to start the next day with the tech side of our performance. This is a learning curve for us as if we had a shorter time to put on this production this could jeopardise the whole performance. So as an ensemble we learnt that this was not always practical and stick to the time plan makes the production run smoothly.
Technical/practical skills
Along with the dramatic skills that I have learnt from the first performance; vocal projection, stage awareness and breaking the fourth wall just to name a few. This year I have looked at deeper and more powerful techniques, this year I have studied the Chubbuck technique and used these skills to enhance my final performance; overall objective, inner monologue and previous circumstances. Last year we did learn a lot about the practitioner bretch and I have learnt take tools for different practitioners and acting teachers and use what works for me.
Last year I did a sub-diploma in technical theatre so for our final performance I worked alongside the technical team to make sure the lighting and sound that our ensemble imagined were delivered. This was very insightful to me as I co tech and performed in my final performance. It also made the bridge between the actors and the tech team closer as I knew what the tech team could do and wanted as well as the actors. As I have not practised my technical skills I was unsure of certain things to do on the board the technical team was there to help me which was really helpful. Likewise with the acting if there were something that the tech team was unsure that the actors wanted I was there to help.
Problem-solving
We came across a large number of problems throughout this process that I have mentioned a few in this blog. As an ensemble, we learnt quickly no to dwell on these problems that we end up losing valuable time that could be used for something relevant. One of the biggest problems that we had was having the whole ensemble to rehearse this problem was throughout the process and it almost jeopardised the final showcase. As this was a 3 woman show not having the whole ensemble present meant that we could not practise any of the scenes. So we ended up wasting a lot of precious time. If we had to redo this play I would consider recasting with more punctual actors.
Final performance
After watching the final performance I analyzed each actor performance individually from a directors point of view.
https://youtu.be/-ht2khlzl14
Ilonka - Tisana
- From the start, you could be louder one of the main reasons of the first scene apart from setting the scene is to grab the audience's attention and I don't believe you did this straight away but gradually the volume of your voice started to pick up.
- I love how animated your character is, it really shows how young you are as well compare to the other actors on stage.
- Make the difference between Ruhab and Tisana bigger from the start. At the start of the performance, the difference between these characters is not absolutely clear. So I would suggest that you make it bigger to really show the dynamics between each character.
-When your wounds are taking care of I think you could be more dramatic not too dramatic in which it look over the top and panto-like but more dramatic that it looks like it hurts more.
-When Ruhab and Haleema are arguing what is your inner monologue even if you are not talking the audience can still see you.
-Surprise! from the baby shower could be bigger and over the top.
Georgina - Ruhab
- Well done for being well articulated I could ever word that you said.
-The journey that you took the audience on was very powerful.
-Likewise, with Ilonka make the difference between Ruhab and Tisana bigger from the start as well as when you are looking after Tisana's wounds.
-In the scene when you are pretending to be in the tv make the characters that you are playing extremely different especially when they are interacting with each other.
-I wasn't sure if you said portray or betray? so next time could you make that clearer.
Jaychelle - Haleema
- Quicker cues
- Make sure that you are louder and clearer, do more articulation exercises to help with this.
- Listen then respond when needed, it creates a bigger dynamic and tempo of the scene.
- Slow down so that the audience is clear in what you're saying.
- Create a bigger persona and manner for Mr ratuku, do research in African politicians to help you with this.
- No need to shout everything when angry, sometimes being quieter is more powerful.
-When dropping the knife don't make it so cliche, next time create fighting movement so it's rehearsed in some kind of way.
-Likewise, with Georgina create personas with being in the tv make it bigger.
-Really take in what Ruhab is saying when she is saying that she is pregnant. Use your inner monologues for this.
-While the prop of sewing is important, know when to sew and when to listen.
-Surprise baby shower should be bigger.
-The inner monologue should be more clear throughout especially in the singing scenes.
