Identity

                                       IDENTITY

What I have learnt so far:

• improvising
• warm ups (humming and exercising the mouth)
• games
• time management
• developing our confidence
• supporting each other
• Punctuality
• Voice projection
• good posture
• openness
• eye contact
• team work / group work
• staying in character
• facial expressions
• positive mindset
• positive attitude 
• articulation (pronunciation of words)
• taking my time

Rob's Performing Arts Lessons and My Personal Achievements:

At the beginning of each lesson I have with Rob we ensure that we are warmed up ready to start the day, Rob's different exercises allow us to work on different things, the warm ups start by placing an imaginative chewing gum into my mouth and chewing on it while exaggerating the action. This helps by becoming comfortable with my classmates and it's important as we will be working with each other throughout the year, we then move on to doing another exercise this can be anything, for example putting an empty bottle on the floor and improvising with it. One person can use it as a phone and the next as a microphone etc...

The next couple of lessons were mainly focused on our individual performances and how we act in front of an audience, our task was to pair up in groups of 3 or 4 and make up a performance based on the topic we were given, an example would be the topic homecoming. In our groups we had to make a performance based on that, at times I found it challenging however it was always enjoyable.

 Devising work : Verbatim Theatre

What Is It ?

Verbatim Theatre is a is a play constructed from the exact words spoken by people at interviews talking about a specific topic or event.

Why is it useful ?

Verbatim's aren't planned, invented or imagined it's just simply the truth. It's authentic because it presents first-hand experience. It's also useful because it is important to express ones past experience through a play or production to convey what life is really like outside.

 How Does It Work ?

Verbatim Theatre is based on the process of an interview, the interview would be on a specific topic or issue. The person interviewing will record what's being said, then use those exact words in performing with no changes made.

Our Verbatim Piece :

Since we've started the course we've been focusing on the theme of identity and what it means, for example what it means to be a man or a woman and what its like living in different cultures.

In lesson Rob has been giving us sheets of paper in each of our groups brainstorming different ideas on identity, during this time we had to gather up information about each of us, our task was to pick a topic, mine was culture and I spoke about my traditions such as food, clothing, etc...

                                              Evaluation Of The Identity Project : 

Necessary Skills That Are Required In A Performance:

• Projection of voice
• confidence 
• vocally clear
• focus
• eye contact
• stay in role
• taking your time 
• punctually
• enjoying the performance 
• make it realistic
• stay in character 
• improvise if needed

What Skills I Have Developed:

During lessons I have learnt to stay in character even if having the need to improvise, taking my time with my speech, making sure I project my voice, and most importantly eye contact. Eye contact is a very significant part of a performance because the audience have to feel engaged especially if performing a soliloquy. Projection of voice is also connected to eye contact because without having a loud voice the audience wont be able to hear what you are saying causing them to loose interest.

My Targets For The Next Project :

I can definitely project my voice more and have better articulation when performing, as demonstrated through my performance in class.

                                       My Acting Skills :

What were my first impressions of the course ?

• Interesting
• Captivating
• I felt confident
• I was intrigued to see what activity's we were going to be given and how I was going to approach my task along with everyone else
• I had a good first impression on the people in my class, they were all very kind
• Most importantly I was excited as the subject is something I am interested and motivated about, therefore I will Strive for nothing but trying to achieve success in the course

what exercises are used to improve certain things ?

In our classes we do different exercises that work on different things, for instance as actors and actresses we have to work on stage rformances, projection of voice, improvisation etc...… so in order for us to work on those things we have to practise. Some of the things we do are stated below.

• In groups of 2, one person will close their eyes whilst the other directs and gives them directions on where to go around the room. The person closing their eyes must trust their partner and keep their eyes closed throughout the time we have to do the activity. Now during this process the person guiding them on where to do must ensure their partner doesn't bump into anyone or walk into the walls, doing this they have to keep in mind that others are moving in the same direction and be aware of the surroundings. After this the 2 partners swap and so the person guiding will become the person to close their eyes. This activity helps by trusting our team mates and creating a relationship will others.
• Secondly, we have another activity which works with the group as a whole standing in a circle. The aim of this exercise is to help with our voices and our projection of voice. We all start by placing an imaginary chewing gum in our mouths and exaggerating he noise, we do this for about a couple of minutes then move on the next activity.
• Another thing we work on in class is improvisation, this is very important as it can help in our performances if something or someone goes wrong. The activity we do is standing in a circle with an object in the middle, for instant a plastic bottle, each person then has to walk into the middle pick up the bottle and use is as something, for example I pretended to use it as a phone and was talking to someone. Then someone else goes in the middle and has to do something different, another example would be a microphone. We all get a chance to do an improvisation which brings out the creativity of each individual.
• In addition to all exercises already explained we also have to make sure we're confident when in front of an audience, so we get into groups of around 4 or 5 and we make a performance based on the theme or topic we are given. However we only have a limited time to do so, we approximately get 5-15 minutes depending on what topic we have and how long the performance is going to be. This activity is one of my favourites because its one where I can explore my creativity with. Not only does this help with our creativity but it also helps with voice projection and confidence.

How Have We Worked Together ?

Throughout the course we've all had to work together, whether it's for the performances or for the class activity's. For our performance we did a Verbatim theatre play which is about interviewing each person and getting information regarding their background, ethnicity, family, cultures et...…. 

During class one day we were given instructions to pair up with someone and do a recording of an interview, I interviewed my partner and my partner interviewed me. After doing the interviews we had to go to the front of the class and read out what the other person was saying in the recordings. 

We all had to work together for our performance, this meant being at every rehearsal and having to talk to one another about our different parts and how each part went off into the next. In the performance there was a scene where all the girls had to stand up and say something at the same time, for us to have got the timings right we had to communicate by giving eye contact and knowing when to say the piece.

Another way we had to work together was to do brainstorms, we had to sit and think in groups about what to say about the specific word given, for example one time we had the word Identity and we all had to come up with things that linked with the word, We came up with words such as DNA, ,heritage, personality, skin colour, religion, name, age, nationality, family, appearance etc….

How Successful It Has Been ?

Overall, I think it has been successful so far, the rehearsals were a success because we all got better. Everything so far has gone well and there is not anything that wasn't unsuccessful.

So far, since I've started this course I have met new people which is amazing because having relationships in the class you are studying in make you feel a lot more confident because you already know who you are working with and who you are performing with. Having achieved things like being apart of a performance makes the experience a lot better as we've managed to accomplish our first achievement as a class.

What is a devised piece?

A devised piece is not a script written for us to learn and perform it's a performance made by a group. We do group activity's in class and gradually begin to make our own performance. Not only do we do group work but we also have to talk as a whole and discuss what the appropriate way of going about it is. For example certain people might disagree with certain things or have ideas to include in the performance.

                                        CREPPE:

C-  context 

The context behind our piece is to show our identity and what makes us different as individuals, The piece that we have focused on is a devised piece which focuses on our story/background. There was a specific type of play we looked at called verbatim theatre.  In class we brainstormed ideas such as 'What is Identity'?  we came up with DNA, ethnicity, culture, family, relationships, background story and other subjects.

RE- research

To create our performance piece we had to look at the style of theatre we were doing in this case it was Verbatim Theatre.

Verbatim theatre is based on the words spoken by individuals about their lives and the story behind it, after retrieving that information we put it into a performance having to include everybody's story's. In order to get all the information we needed we had to interview one another and ask questions, for example how many siblings do you have ?,  where are you from?, what country did you grow up in ?, what's your ethnicity ?, etc...

P-planning

To plan the play we all had to work together, but most importantly attending each and every class punctually meant we all had the right amount of time to practise. The more practise we had the better the performance was. We had a dance routine at the end of the performance meaning we had to learn the chorography during and after lessons, To make sure I personally executed the dance  routine correctly I recorded myself in class doing it to look back at it and see what I could do better. That way I could see myself gradually improving.  

To make sure I worked collaboratively I made sure I memorised my lines and where to go during my performance.

P-problem solving 

At first it took some getting used to as it was our first time working together,  however as we started to get more into the performance we all started to get the hang of it and managed to do well with our pieces. Throughout out rehearsals I didn't face any major difficulties however people learn in different ways and being apart of the group you have to be patient and be understanding.

E-evaluation

Overall the entire project was extremally successful as we managed to plan and rehearse it in 2 weeks. After having completed the performance I felt content, managing to do it without any mistakes showed the audience and our teachers what a great performance we have done. During our rehearsals I felt myself improve at certain skills such as eye contact, not knowing where to look in a performance can make you look unfocused and distracted however I managed to pick a spot to look at and focus on it during my performance I also had to project my voice so that everyone at the back row could hear me loud and clear. As a whole I think that it went well. 

In my opinion my dance could have been better, during the dance I had forgotten a step however I managed to not make it obvious and no one realised. From this performance I have learnt to always be confident and to never be thrown off your performance even if someone in the audience is trying to distract you, this will be taken on board in future performances.

RE - research

For the research we had to find out a bit more about the themes and the story line of the play as a whole. For example we had to look for what age our characters were and how they spoke etc....

In the play I play the character Amy, she's a sixteen year old who's in secondary school. Another part of research I've done is going on YouTube and searching the play citizenship to see how other people/schools have done it. While watching a group of people act out my part I got a visualisation of how I want to present my character I also got some ideas from watching it, such as the accent I'll speak in and what to wear. Overall my research helps me create my character by helping me see different aspects of different points of view, the part which has helped me most is seeing someone else perform it therefore I get an insight o what my performance will look like.