About my Act.

1. What is the musical, play, dance piece that I am performing from?

The play is called “Born Bad”.

2. What is the song, piece that I am performing?

I am performing a monologue from “Born Bad”, In the scene where Dawta unleashes her withheld anger onto her mother.

3. Where and when is it set?

It is a modern day piece, set in a religious Caribbean household.

4. Who is my character and what function do they have within the piece?

My character is the eldest sibling of three, in a nuclear family. Her position in the piece is basically bringing to light the fact that she has been sexually abused by her father in her childhood. Something her family tried to ignore for a long time.

6. What is the mood and intention of the piece?
The mood is very uncomfortable, because the intention is to bring awareness to sexual abuse.
7. What is my characters objective and how are they feeling?
My characters objective is to really drill it in to her Mums mind that her Mum betrayed her and she was hurt by it. She wants to let her Mum know how angry she is and how she really feels about her. Sumblinally all she really wants is an apology from her Mum for not protecting her.

8. What vocal and physical skills will I use to communicate this effectively in the piece.

I will block my performance and varie my tone of voice, I will also use gestures and facial expressions.

Charlie Chaplin Research

Charlie Chaplin born on 16th April 1889 was a actor/filmmaker, A man of English decent influenced by his parents who were both actors and vocalists where he would of gained and inherited natural talent from. Chaplin Rose to fame in his early teenage years When he debuted his first film Making a living in 1913 under the film industry keystone pictures. Only 2 years down the line after signing his deal he co founded a distribution company which gave him full control over his films which is where we began to see his full potential. In 1940 Chaplin went on to release his most commercially successful film The Great Dictator, it was a political comedy drama that was scripted, produced and directed by himself subjected around the world war 1.



As a class we choreographed a physical theatre piece, to a speech Charlie Chaplin made in ‘The Great Dictator’, Where he played Hitler. We modernised this speech and basically wanted to look like individuals from our society that have been programmed to move the same and to act the same. Throughout the speech it becomes more empowering and our movement moves much quicker, until we fight back and end the speech strongly. The ending to the performance was my groups idea (in one lesson we were split up into groups to choreograph the ending and afterwards see who had the best ending). We basically used the domino effect and we started off on the floor, drained from all we feel we have to keep up with and then one person makes a stand and then we all begin to follow and on stage we stand as like a open arrow and when Chaplin says, “UNITE” We all raise our hands in the air and lift our heads as one, we had no expressions and it looked really strong.I was moved to the front of the ensemble to help lead the marching, because the group were supposed to move as one and I felt confident in myself that I knew the movement and that I had the stage presence to take on that role along with several others.

Invocation And Instructions To The Audience

Invocation And Instructions To The Audience - Song By Steven Sondheim,an american composer. The song comes from the play The Frogs,1974 - Bob Gunton company, “A Steven Sondheim Evening”, released in 1983.

In our variety show we performed this song as an ensemble for the opening act.For me, learning this song was very difficult because there was alot of words I myself didn’t know and the pace of the lyrics were fast and tightly put together so I felt as though it made me struggle with my pronounciation of words at times- I felt tongue tied. Although I did have a solo part, I did not sing it in the actual show. The reasoning behind this is because I didn’t feel confident and comfortable at the key it was meant to be sung so next year I think I need to work on my confidence in doing so. Another thing is that, I had been absent for one session and my part had been given away to Ruth, who is a good friend to me in my class and also a brilliant performer, so to take my solo back from her I sort of felt shy and embarrassed because In my head I kept telling myself shes better than me.

In my opinion the performance as a whole needed much more time to rehearse and prepare because the impression I get from the song is that it is supposed to be slightly comedic and sarcastic. But when we performed it we stood in two lines for most of it. Because its a big song, it should be performed big and theatrical as well as the fact that it opens the entire show. The imagery I get when I think about it is each act comes on one by one and sings along with movement and then when the song is coming to an end all of the acts will be standing on the stage.

There was a song called ‘Putting It Together’ that links with this song, but unfortunately it was cut on the day of the variety show because the class as a whole didn’t properly prepare and it wasn’t presentable. To be fair I think both these songs had be rushed to learn and out of all the songs we had learned in the past those were the hardest. 

Evaluation of Chorus Line - continuing from last term.

This evaluation is about a musical theatre piece that is combined with singing and dancing. It is a famous finale ensemble using unison from the musical 'Chorus Line'.
           Firstly I will evaluate my professional practise . Throughout our the weeks of learing ‘One’ as though I was very dedicated to the project, dance lessons always started in the afternoon so I had no reason to be late, I also made myself available for out of lesson rehearsals. I think that my focus in lessons were very good as I was in the front line, I had to be very vigilant because our choreography was slightly more complexed then the back line. I believe I did well working as a team with the rest of the dancers, we really had to help eachother out to make sure we were all doing the same thing at all times. I found at times when I couldn’t quite understand how to do a move I would ask Ruth to go through it with me slowly and she would kindly do so.
            In the beginning I struggled with the cross- ball change, because we had to cross-ball change to the right and then turn around and repeat the same on the left, but for some reason it really confused me and It looked messy and It would put me off. However I wasn’t the only one who stuggled so the choreography was adapted in a way for us to exit the stage before the cross- ball change so then I felt more comfortable knowing what I was doing. Closer to the date of the final performance it was changed again for me to then be doing the cross- ball change in order for the staging to look better I was very nervous and anxious for the show because I didn’t want to be the one to mess up because it would be noticeable.
          In my opinion for the beginning of the piece I had really good muscle memory, I picked up the moves quickly and could do the moves without thinking, but I feel like as the song went on, even though alot of the dance was repetitive there were slight adjustments that needed to be added and so I began to forget some parts and felt myself using my proriveral vision to see what the other dancers were going to do next and I felt like it was like this because the ending was very rushed and we had a very small space of time to learn it.
         I have a habit of having a very serious face when I am concentrating especially if I haven’t got a mirror In front of me, so you sort of forget what your facial expressions are like and you focus on remembering how the choreography was done in the mirror and how you need tp execute it the same way just with out the mirror. Because ‘One’ is from the 70s era and it is also a finale song, facial expressions are everything, you need to be overly happy and overly expressive with every thing you do and basically look like to the audience that the whole ensemble is very easy and this is what we do all the time because we are professional dancers. If i’m honest I managed to remember to keep smiling sometimes throught the routine. For example when I made an entrance to the stage and did the step kicks and then again when we formed a snake and exited the stage the re-entered with step-taps and then finally at the end of the song to finish the song.
           In my opinion the allignment and accuracy in some aspects of the performance. For example when the back line exits the stage and the front line runs in a line to further down the stage and start the cross-ball change, I feel as though the line wasn’t as straight as it could’ve been because at that point of the song and dance the tempo changes and speeds up a bit so the line becomes less straight as we rush in to place. Alot of times in rehearsal spacing became an issue, as we would go too far to the right, that a dancer would end up going off stage. I noticed accuracy and allignment became an issue when the frontline took of there hats in cannon, I felt like it was rushed and could’ve been tighter.Then the effect would’ve worked much better, just like the movie. In the finale the front line had to turn around in canon in order to go on to repeating the first step of 8 in the routine. We did learn this vey last minute and I feel like there was alot of uncertainty of when to turn around, some thought straight away after the second beat of eight and others thought to wait until the person in front of them turned around but I think if we had rehearsed that a bit more it could’ve been on point.
         When singing and dancing at the same time I realised like 2 minutes through the song I had lost my breath and was struggling to keep up with the singing, my sound was getting quieter and so I focused on dancing and tried to pick up the singing at some points in hoping the audience would be distracted by my smile because I was really tired and I tried to make sure my performance didn’t start to slack.
         Timing throughout the ensemble seemed really good, but could always be better and even tighter, when watching the perfomance back, I realise I posed to finish the finale to early, so I was waiting for everyone else to pose so that we could throw our hats up.

Justin Mentee Session 1 - Style and Content

In this mentoring session we began to research and plan. I looked at the content and style of the play. I did this so that I could present the monologue the right way and understand why my character might experiences this emotion and the reason for her, what appears to be her anger and hatred.
The style of the play is In-Yer-Face theatre which is acting that challenges its audience in a clear and direct fashion, displaying extreme emotions and topical issues which can be displayed in a comic, serious or aggressive form. In-Yer-Face theatre also exposes moral wrongs which invades the audiences personal space and can often aim to make audiences feel uncomfortable but at the same time also highlights awareness to the issues being presented.

The content of my monologue is a very serious and often unspoken about topic. Sexual Abuse. Although throughout the play it is never directly acknowledged as sexual molesting, it is implied. To embody Dawta I must think about how some parts of my research related to her and then embed that into my monologue.

• The amount of any kind of other trauma you may have experienced : Alot.
• Your age when you experienced abuse :  A child. 
• Your relationship with the person/s who abused you : My father
• How long the abuse lasted : Until Late Teens.
• How people in your life have responded to your disclosures (whether you’ve been believed): My mother did not believe me. In fact she chose me.

Some of the most common effects you experience may be as follows:

• Helplessness/powerlessness. You may have felt as a child that you had no control over your own life or even over your own body. You may have felt that you had no choices available to you. - My mother chose me. The choice was made for me.
• Responsibility. Your abuser most likely made you feel responsible for keeping the abuse a secret. You may even have felt like it was your responsibility to keep the family together and the burden of this responsibility interferes with experiencing a normal childhood. - We live in a religious household, my mother doesn’t say anything and I want to protect my younger siblings.
• Isolation. Abuse survivors often feel ‘different’ from other children. They usually have to keep secrets and manage a lot of stress alone. This may have isolated you from non-offending parents and brothers and sisters. -  I thought that I was the only one being abused, I didn’t realise my father was abusing my brother aswell.
• Betrayal. Children who are abused feel betrayed because they are dependent upon adults for nurturing and protection and the abuser was probably someone who you should have been able to love and trust. You may also feel betrayed by a non-abusing parent who you feel failed to protect you. - My mother failed to protect me. 
• Anger. Not surprisingly this is one of the strongest feelings which you may feel about your abuse. You may feel anger against the abuser and also against others who you feel failed to protect you. - I am extremely angry at my mum and what makes me more angry is that all I want from my mum is an apology and to understand how she could let this happen.
• Flashbacks. These can be like nightmares which happen while you are awake. They are a re-experiencing of the sexual abuse and you may experience all the feelings again which you felt at the time of the abuse. This can feel terrifying.

UAL Unit 8 Research - Form of Theatre

17th May 2018

Style



In this mentee session as part of my research and reflection plan I had to explore the form of theatre of which my monologue uses, which is Born Bad. I am going to be using In-yer-face theatre.

This style of theatre is what ‘Born Bad’ is all about. The confrontational and aggressive language is supposed to make the audience feel shocked and uncomfortable. This style of theatre touches on real life situations and presents extreme emotions to the audience.

 Playwrights who use this technique are drawn to psychological and extreme emotions such as sexual abuse.

What’s a Complicit Victim?

A Complicit victim is someone who is involved in something that is morally wrong.
 So in this case the mother in Born Bad is a complicit victim, we know this because, she is fully aware about the father abusing the children but does nothing about it. The children are innocent therefore they are only victims.

In-yer face-theatre depends on a small audience, preferably between 50-80 people. This is to highlight the relationship between the stage and the audience. It is to invade the privacy and comfortability of the audience in order to provoke extreme emotions.

This kind of theatre was a radical break with much of the drama of the 1980s. At its best, its aim was to use shock to awaken the moral responses of the audience – its desire was no less than to help change society. -http://www.dramaonlinelibrary.com

Content

Experiencing sexual abuse in your childhood can have a wide range of effects on you in adulthood. Some adult survivors experience no o very few mental health problems, while others experience many and severe mental health problems. Sexual abuse is a kind of trauma and the effects of trauma include a complex combination of factors:

• The amount of any kind of other trauma you may have experienced
• Your age when you experienced abuse
• Your relationship with the person/s who abused you
• How long the abuse lasted
• How people in your life have responded to your disclosures (whether you’ve been believed)

Some of the most common effects you experience may be as follows:

• Fear. Your abuser may have sworn you to secrecy or threatened you and members of your family, they may have told you that if you tell something bad will happen. Sexual abuse is usually accompanied by coercion, bribery, physical and emotional abuse and threats. You would have been afraid to tell because of what the consequences might be. e.g. punishment, blame, abandonment or not being believed.
• Helplessness/powerlessness. You may have felt as a child that you had no control over your own life or even over your own body. You may have felt that you had no choices available to you.
• Guilt and Shame. You may have known something was wrong and blamed yourself. Your abuser may have encouraged you to feel that the abuse was your fault and you may have felt like a bad person.
• Responsibility. Your abuser most likely made you feel responsible for keeping the abuse a secret. You may even have felt like it was your responsibility to keep the family together and the burden of this responsibility interferes with experiencing a normal childhood.
• Isolation. Abuse survivors often feel ‘different’ from other children. They usually have to keep secrets and manage a lot of stress alone. This may have isolated you from non-offending parents and brothers and sisters.
• Betrayal. Children who are abused feel betrayed because they are dependent upon adults for nurturing and protection and the abuser was probably someone who you should have been able to love and trust. You may also feel betrayed by a non-abusing parent who you feel failed to protect you.
• Anger. Not surprisingly this is one of the strongest feelings which you may feel about your abuse. You may feel anger against the abuser and also against others who you feel failed to protect you.
• Sadness. You may feel grief due to a sense of loss, especially if the abuser was loved and trusted by you. You may grieve your lost innocence or the fact that you had to grow up too fast.
• Flashbacks. These can be like nightmares which happen while you are awake. They are a re-experiencing of the sexual abuse and you may experience all the feelings again which you felt at the time of the abuse. This can feel terrifying
• Loss of trust in others
• Impact on relationships:  survivors relationships may be characterised by lower relationship satisfaction, more overall discord, an increased risk of domestic violence and greater likelihood of separation and divorce
• Increased risk taking and low self worth

Psychological effects:  survivors of sexual abuse are 3 times more likely to develop psychological disorders in adulthood. Adults with a history of sexual abuse often present for treatment with a secondary mental health issue, which can include the following:

• Depression or feeling ‘low’
• Post Traumatic Stress
• Low self esteem
• Drug addiction
• Alcohol use / dependency
• Suicide attempts / self harm and self mutilation
• Anxiety
• Personality Disorders

-https://www.survivorsintransition.co.uk/resources/the-impacts-of-childhood-sexual-abuse/

Performance Day!

Friday 22nd June 2018

Today we did a dress rehearsal of the variety show at 10:20, we had to make sure Tyler knew the beginnings and ending positions for each of our acts so we could check that the running order would work smooth and accordingly. After that we did a full run through of the variety show as practice including dress changes. For me the dress changes weren’t a rush, because throughout tbe majority of the show I wore black on black. Then I changed for the finale, but there was acts between my piece and the finale, so I had time to change and prepare myself because some of the acts were long. We were then given a break that lasted 1hr 30 minutes,after the break, we worked with Katy to neaten up our Charlie Chaplin piece. I was moved to the front of the ensemble to help lead the marching, because the group were supposed to move as one and I felt confident in myself that I knew the movement and that I had the stage presence to take on that role along with several others. We then did another run through of the show, making sure there was no errors we had missed out and that each act was up to standards. The feedback I was given was that although I do not speak directly to the audience, I must make sure that my voice is still heard, because I do get really close to Zayn at one point and the volume seems to be lost.

The symbolism of the song What A Friend We Have In Jesus

The symbolism of the song 'What A Friend We Have In Jesus', in the context of Born Bad. This song is scripted to be sung in the beginning of a confrontational scene between a mother and daughter. The fact that it is a gospel song displays what kind of household it should be - one with upliftment and higher morals and normally a loving home. So it becomes a shock to the audience when the daughter begins swearing at her mum and uses what appears to be aggressive language because we would think she would have a respectable manner about herself even in a disagreement.

Also people often use gospel music as an outlet for there pain and as a way to seek God and feel connected to him. It’s used as a way to ask God for help and the soulful energy of the music emotionally reveals some feelings for people. I feel as though my character was seeking the lord to help her deal with this pain and burden she’s carried with her for so many years. She carries so much hatred in her heart and I feel like she just wants to learn how to let it go, because she can’t do it by herself. I feel like she uses the lord to help her try to compose herself and have the confidence to say everything she feels she needs to, to her mum. Lastly I feel like she seeks the lord to help her understand why and how this has happened to her, to help her understand why her own mother didn’t speak up and protect her.

What A Friend We Have In Jesus - Aretha Franklin

Rehearsal With Tyrell

Wednesday 13th June 2018

Today in Justins mentee session, instead of working one to one with Justin, I rehearsed with Tyrell from second year performing arts. First I ran through my monologue in front of him, so he could see how I perform it and what he could do to help me improve it. His first piece of advice for me was that  I needed to emphasis every word I say in order for it to have an impact on the audience and the person I am talking to. It also helps my performance better because as I read the lines and take my time I hear what I’m saying and I channel that to what it means to me and what it means to my character and how would I be positioned when I’m saying it and what gestures would I use. We decided to focus on one section of my monologue so I could practise and grasp the techniques I needed to use throughout the rest of the monologue. I needed to be more spiteful and try and hurt my mother which each word I used, so it didn’t mean me having to shout, I just had to deliver my lines in a way where you could see my pain and anger and you could see the mental damage I was trying to give to my mum because she wasn’t giving me a reaction.

Variety Show Practice Run

On the day of the Variety Show practice run, I had to prepare some of my piece to show some teachers and the rest of my class, what I had to offer to the show. We had a running order and I went third, I was a bit nervous because I didn’t know most of my lines, although at this point I didn’t need to,however I hadn’t practice as much with my mentor as much as I felt other mentees had with theres, so I was quite hesistant. I used Zaynab as a prop to represent the mother in my piece,  because in the monologue my character voices her views to her mother and her mother silently listened. After my performance I got feedback from Katy and Jo and they said that my piece was strong and very interesting, however I need to work on using levels in my tone and really playing about with how I deliver some lines so it doesn’t appear in one tone. So now I know how I am going to improve my monologue and a goal for myself is to block my piece, so that I vary my movement and so that I am not hesitating with where I am standing when I am saying things. By doing this I will be more confident in what I am doing and delivering my lines and the audience will engage and believe in my performance more.

Tech Planning

Staging and Set.	Props	Sound/Lighting/visuals
Minimalistic Staging and Set: Two Black Chairs, one chair downstage and one chair upstage.	No props required.	Intercut images of child running and hiding with an atmospheric music as underscore.   The song ‘What A Friend We Have In Jesus’ by Aretha Franklin to be played at the beginning of My monologue and then lowered down till there is no music.   Dark Lighting Silhouettes

Born Bad - Research

Born Bad - debbie tucker green.


First Performance at the Hampstead theatre April 25th 2003

 A summary of the play - Research from backstage.com

As we begin, Dawta, the eldest child of four, is in a rage at her mother, delivering a scalding tongue-lashing. As Green's incantatory, jabb
ingly repetitive language spews forth, we start to suspect that Dawta is furious with her mother for facilitating Dawta's sexual abuse at the hands of her father. In finely wrought scenes of varying length, from fleeting to substantial, Green charts the effect of the revelation on Mum, who righteously defends herself; prim Sister #1, whose memory can best be described as convenient; aggressive Sister #2, in ferocious denial; and withdrawn Brother, who reveals his own abuse, heretofore unknown to anyone, to Dawta, while refusing to tell anyone else. But the lid is off the boiling pot, and attempts to restore it only lead to the inevitable explosion and devastating result.





Research from the guardian by Lyn Gardner

Her first sister tries to piece together bits of the story. But is her memory selective? Unreliable? Or straight as a die? Sister number two provides an entirely different perspective, her hostility to Dawta crackling across the room like electricity. Is she telling the truth when she says her childhood was all peaches and cream? If so, how and why? Who is she protecting? 

It is only gradually that the pieces start to fit together like some terrible jigsaw, culminating in an exquisitely torturous scene towards the end of a family game of musical chairs in which the unspeakable truth is finally revealed.

Review from Charles Isherwood

Justins Mentee Session 3 - Annotating the Script

Today in Justin's mentoring session, I went through my script, line by line and explained to Justin my understanding of the script.

Mum: "Don't call me that."

Dawta: "...bitch got summink to say, looks like bitch can't help herself.."

It was suggested that this particular line related to a relationship between another mother and daughter with an abusive background and that's Constance Briscoe, the author of the book 'UGLY'.

UGLY is a true life story of a loveless childhood. Written in a raw form, the author- Constance Briscoe, tells in vivid details of how she was abused emotionally and physically, especially by her mother, Carmen.

What kind of mother is void of love for a child she carried in her womb for nine months? Carmen was always furious about Clare's (Constance was called Clare as a child) flaw of wetting the bed... and often accused her of doing it on purpose. We also read in the book how different efforts were made to help Clare (Constance) overcome it, such as a special alarm set to go off once she starts wetting the bed. But it did not work. 

-Posted by Jennifer Ehidiamen on BlogSpot.


So the similarity both of the mothers share is the need to be right, their need to feel in control. Constance's mother took her to court and tried to sue her because of the book, when really she should feel taken back by everything in the book and apologise. Dawtas mother tries to mentally control Dawta by saying "Don't call me that" When she should be apologising also, the irony is that she feels that she is owed  respect from her daughter and is offended at the fact that her daughter is continuously calling her a bitch throughout there argument. It is almost as if her mum is neutral and shows no emotion or empathy at all to Dawta and doesn't even listen to Dawta, she just wants to win.



Unit 8 Colllabortative Show Running Order Draft

Unit 8 Colllabortative Show Running Order Draft

Act 1 (30 minutes)

1. Edward intro/magic (3 minute) 

2. Opening Ensemble (5 minutes) - Invocation And Instructions To The Audience

3. Born Bad - Myself, performing a monologue and maybe a short solo song arguing with my mother. This links to Andre and Erin's duologue piece about their abusive upbringing.

4. Grenfell Duet - Ruth and Felicia (3-4) Contemporary and Physical Theatre piece.
5. Carousel - Matas and Ryane (10 minutes)

Interval including interaction with the audience using magic tricks.

Act 2 (35-40 mins approx)
6. Charlie Chaplin (3-4 mins) monologue using Physical  Theatre.
8. Magic Act - Edward (5 minutes) Final Trick
9. Comedy Duologue - Remel and Sian (3-4 minutes) Saving a Marriage
10. Sondheim- Blaize,Zaynab, Leigham (15 minutes) Short Musical
11. Chorus Line - Ensemble (5 minutes) Dance using props.