Task 4
4.1 - When I first started this college, I had already done shows with my secondary school and outside with Nunthorpe Players, so I already had an understanding of theatre practitioners and had acting skills. Throughout this year I have learned more about the practitioners I learned about in GCSE Drama and have also learned about new ones like Uta Hagen. When we learned about their ideas, we would put them into practice by doing scenes which helped me further my understanding. We also did lots of shows which gave me new and multiple opportunities as each show introduced different opportunities. For example, in Ghost Light the challenge was having the audience in front of us and interacting with them. The Christmas show is a musical, so the challenge is the singing and dancing which we don’t really focus on in our lessons. I have also grown in confidence and my singing and acting abilities. We also did short films throughout the year which was a new challenge that I enjoyed doing.
4.2 - The objective of this performance was to clearly tell the story of Susie Salmon and what happens to her family and how they handle her death. We wanted to take the audience on a Journey from Susie’s perspective as she watches her family and friends and how they handle the loss of her. To help the audience see Suzie’s perspective we had the Salmon house, Harvey house and Fenermen’s desk on stage always with the characters to felt how Susie can see everything always.
My characters where Rita Johnson, Principal Caden and Miss Flannagan. Rita Johnson is the mother of Ray Johnson, so her emotions are upset as she feels sorry for Ray as he is grieving as he loves Susie. She also is very smart so when the police come and accuse Ray of killing Susie, she is calm and collected because she knows her son. Her first care is her son and his well-being, so she is always with him comforting him as she wants him to be okay.
Vocally, I was okay but could have done better. My articulation and diction were fine except for the scene where I spoke to Fenermen as I always struggled to clearly say all the lines. My volume was consistent and could be heard throughout, but I needed to be louder. For the character of Rita, I was supposed to have an English RP accent, but I struggled so just spoke in my normal English accent.
For Rita she would strut and always have a cigarette in her hand. Throughout the show I kept her physicality consistent. When sat I would have my legs crossed as she held herself very proudly. With blocking I was always near Ray or Lynn as the characters became close friends due to both being outsiders.
In ensemble scenes like the memorial, I would be with Ray, and I would talk to the others like Jack Salmon and ensemble. I think I responded well with scene partners and clearly showed Rita’s relationships with the other characters. I know I did this well as I got feedback from my tutor who said that she could tell that I really do care about Ray.
For costume I had different costumes for my different characters. For Rita I wore jeans, a stripy turtleneck top, a denim jacket and converse. I also had some fake cigarettes in my denim jacket pocket as Rita was a smoker. I wore this as it was set in the 1970s in the USA. To get the costume right I collaborated with the costume team, and we talked about the research they had done about clothes in that period and shared ideas for costumes. For principal Caden I wore a blazer, the turtleneck, jeans, heels and wore glasses. I kept this costume simple as it is a quick-change backstage from Rita to Caden. For Miss Flannagan I wore the same jeans and converse but changed the top to a band t-shirt and a red leather jacket as I portrayed her as a 22-year-old character.
My creative choices for Caden where for her to be awkward and really nice as she doesn't really know how to handle dealing with student issues like the death of a student’s sister. I did this because I wanted to emphasise how rare and unheard-of children being killed was in the 1970s which is how her scene with Lindsey contributed to the overall atmosphere and storytelling of the play.
My strengths where the characterisation of my characters and thinking in character which was apparent with my facial expressions. In particular, my scene with Jack in the Johnson house where he tells me he knows who killed Susie.
My areas of improvement are volume and accent. Although my volume was consistent and good it could have been louder to make sure the audience fully hears me throughout the whole play.
Some goals for improvement are accent, diction and volume as I struggled to learn the accent needed for Rita which was British RP.
I asked Will who played Ray for some feedback. He said “You did a convincing job at portraying a motherly figure to Ray on stage yet also playing the strict woman that Mrs Johnson is. My only bit of feedback would be to play into the comedy of Principal Caden more but aside from that you did a brilliant performance.”
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