Lesson 2 - 13.11.12

Lesson 2

PROLOGUE

We were assigned a task to 'create' the prologue in pairs by adding in lines that aren't in the script. The prologue consists of a Taxi driver talking to a passenger. I was in a pair with Eric and we decided to have the taxi driver have a conversation with the passenger. Eric had the role of the driver and I was the passenger. 

Firstly, we decided to stage our scene having two chairs diagonally to each other as we were trying to avoid the common "car set" with chairs set in the formation of a car.

We added in extra lines in the second paragraph to make the scene more interesting and so it would be more fluid. This is the original scripted part:

So you leave early did ya?

Oh right

Yeah right shame that

Never mind

Yeah it's still early for me

I'll probly go back

Pick up more punters

Knoworramean?

This is our edited version: ('E' stands for Eric, 'B'stands for Benji)

E: So you leave early did ya?

B: Yeah bloody early.

E: Oh right.

B: Y'know how it is.

E: Yeah right, shame that is.

B: Never mind, this the usual?

E: Yeah it's still early for me

B: What do you do on ya breaks?

E: I'll probly go back, pick up more punters. Knoworramean?

B: Yeah yeah

Another pair that I found was effective was Jake and Matteo. I thought theirs was very effective because their characterisation was very good and they used pens as props for cigarettes. They also added in some interesting but effective lines.

We also did a whole class hotseat where everyone had to take on the role of the taxi driver. Hot seating is a an effective technique to use in a rehearsal because you can really delve into the character you're trying to portray.
I decided to put a comedic edge on the driver I was portraying. I made him quite camp but I kept the slight East London accent. At one point Mr Worden told everyone to take the role of my character and the whole class read out the script together whilst staying in the character of my driver.

We didn't actually get on to doing the ensemble taxi driver piece with Mr Worden.

TALE 8

In groups we read through Tale 8 and we had to underline anything that suggested a location, weather or atmosphere. My group (consisting of Aaron, Rory, Eric, Oliver and Me) decided to focus on the first part of the script (as you can see in this photo):

Once we did this we went through what we underlined and created a scene using sounds and movement.

This is a rough idea of how our scene went: 

Aaron and Rory played the parts of "Jon and Michelle" as directed in the script. I then came along and greeted both of them. Oliver strolled on stage and said "Imagine, Imagine, Imagine." That was a cue for Eric to make a clapping sound and all of us apart from Rory fell to the ground. The clap represented the thunder. Rory then exclaimed "There's a clap of thunder'.

Everyone then got up and created a "human tunnel" type of thing and Rory walked through saying "A lawless tunnel in the gangland war". The 'tunnel' represented the alley way in the script. 

Unfortunately we ran out of time and weren't able to perform these.