Lesson 4 - 27.11.14

Lesson 4 - 27.11.12

We were asked to think about our favourite character that we have developed so far during our exploration of East End Tales. We were then asked to write a monologue by ourselves based on that character but in the same style as the play. I chose the character in Tale 5 who is a child who lives next door to a flat where there is an obvious issue of domestic violence.

This is my monologue typed up:

Fuckin' hell right
There's this woman
Was this women
Who lived next door
Had a boyfriend
Couple o' kids
Happy family type
Knowarramean?

Well
They were a happy family
It all happened one night
While Dad and I were cotched on the sofa
Watchin' weakest link
SMASH!
A plate
A pot?
Or a vase or somefing
Mum goes "Fuck me! What the bloody hell was that?"
Dad says
It's none of our business
And turns up the TV

The next night
Another smash
The night after
TWO smashes
Every time it 'appens
Dad just
turns up the TV
On the 10th night straight
There's a scream
Not a normal scream
A scream of 
Desperation
Distress
Anguish
Then silence
The slamming of the front door.
And then the sound of trainers
Running
Running
Running 
Down the stairwell
A few weeks went by before we realised something was REALLY WRONG 
He'd killed her
Fucking killed her
And the kids?
Dead too

Now Dad can watch the TV in peace
Must be nice
Relief I guess
It was none of our business anyway
I went to my room and closed my eyes
You are the weakest link
Goodbye

Staging My Monologue

I tried to keep my staging fairly simple and my movement moderately minimal. At the start I wanted to keep my voice in a sort of conversation tone, as if I was playing a story. I started my monologue centre stage, sitting down on a chair as I wanted my piece to start off quite simple. As I said the line "SMASH!" I changed the whole energy of the scene along with the emphasis on the line and leapt up and performed the next part of the monologue downstage left. I decided to play downstage left as that was an easy place to follow through to after I simulated the throwing of a plate. As I get to the line "He'd killed her." I slow my pace down and bring the volume down a small bit to fit with the sensitive subject,  and go and sit back down on the chair until the end of the piece. The energy doesn't really pick up much after that because I touched on the subject of death and I want the audience to feel as solemn as I do.

How did the monologue task help you understand the play further?

It helped me understand the play further because I was allowed freedom with what kind of character I could create because the script doesn't give away many characteristics.

We then performed and watched the rest of the class' work.

What monologue performed by a peer worked well and why? What had they written about? Who performed their monologue successfully and why?

I thought Eric's monologue was written and performed well because he really showed true emotion. He played the part of the "Hard Sly Man" I think this because the tone in his voice was very somber and solemn. He also had a sense of mystery in his scene so it helped leave a lot to the audience's imagination. There was another sense of mystery physically because he was wearing a hat throughout the scene. He also tipped his head down so it could also mean his character is hiding something. He had written about the struggles that he'd been through and what he was currently going through.

TASK 2

We did not get on to this part of the lesson so I cannot do this task.

I think I was working at D1 level today because I used the script of East End Tales to research about my character. I also used the high energy warm ups that we did with Chris, and converted that energy into my monologue to create an exciting atmosphere. I also kept my monologue in the same poetic, one liner style of the rest of the script. I feel I worked hard on this task.

Lesson 3 - 20.11.14

Lesson 3 - 20.11.14

Task 2

We didn't manage to do task 2 as Mr Worden was not teaching us on Thursday.  However here is my homework he set us:

Task 3

In groups of 5 or 6 we re-read Tale 6 and underlined all the people mentioned in the script. eg:

Individually we decided on a character and created a Role-On-The-Wall. This is the sheet we created it on: 

We then had to develop these characters and work in groups to devise a completely improvised pieces on how the character exists out of the play. My group developed scene 6 and because there were 4 of us who chose the "Hard Sly Man" as  our characters, we used that to our advantages and used our improvisation skills to create a piece where each of us would come downstage and individually talk briefly about the man's life and the troubles he goes through. The part that I said was: 

"Ever since I've come out of jail, I can't see my little girl. She means everything to me. My mum is terminally ill but no one really understands."

This helped me develop skills such as: decision of movement, improvisation, performing by myself and projection.

As my character I put on a typical East London accent, spoke a bit deeper and decided to push my chest out as he described as muscular, but I also walked with a bit of a slouch. I made these choices because the information on my role-on-the-wall was accurate from the script. It was also what I analysed from my own interpretation.
My group's piece consisted of a short monologue delivered by Roseby playing the Landlady. I also acted as a bed for the Landlady so we added in a bit of physical theatre. After Roseby's monlogue, Eric, Alabama, Jamie and I, who were playing the Hard Sly Man, all performed our short parts. After our group piece, Jed finished off with a monologue and he was playing the dying mother of the "Hard Sly Man". The actors then playing the Hard Sly Man all took it in turn to say something to the mother, but the it was as if there was a barrier between the mother and son.

I think these characters were effective characters because they all linked together in some way. I think our scene helped us feel more sympathy for the Hard Sly Man and the Landlady as we really got an insight on how both the characters are misunderstood. This is definitely going to help my understanding of these characters in the long wrong.

This is the criteria that we used to assess ourselves on the last task:

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.

Research - East End Tales

RESEARCH

History of the East End:

This is a film about the East End. It explores the history:

This is a link to an article about a recent gang fight on the 18th of November 2014:

http://www.eastlondonadvertiser.co.uk/news/crime-court/100_youths_clash_in_east_end_street_gang_fight_at_bethnal_green_1_3851924


This is an article that links to the topic of murder in the text. It is about two boys (one aged 11, one aged 12) who have been arrested after being linked to a stabbing in East London:

http://www.standard.co.uk/news/crime/two-boys-aged-11-and-12-arrested-after-stabbing-in-east-london-9859232.html 

I found this pie chart about domestic violence which is a topic used in the play: 

Here is an article I found about a cafe in East London. This could be a good factor we could use while exploring East End Tales.

"This dirty cafe in east London has been given a zero hygiene rating after inspectors discovered a catalogue of grimy blunders.

Staff were found to not wash their hands regularly at the tiny African Canteen premises where inspectors also discovered deteriorated chopping boards, dirty equipment, a filthy fridge door handle and extractor fan, and no refuse containers.

Walls and surfaces were found to be unsuitable for food preparation and there was no soap or drying facilities by wash basin full of pans. 

Despite being inspected three times and the local council declaring it is in need of ‘urgent’ improvement, the Rainham cafe has been allowed to stay open."

Here is some background information about East End Tales, written by Fin Kennedy:

East End Tales is a series of nine stories inspired by photos and news articles from local papers in east London.

It was written as part of a Half Moon Young People’s Theatre Scriptworks project for Mulberry School for Girls in Tower Hamlets, London. The story ideas were developed by a group of Year 10 Bengali girls over a number of weeks through a mixture of improvisation and written exercises, before being shaped and written up in a lyrical style.

The stories range from short contemplations on the nature of east London, through to longer tales of domestic violence, the drudgery of low-skilled jobs, petty crime and high density living. 

The play is suitable for performance by any group of young people with a good level of maturity. It is particularly popular with those studying GCSE Drama.

Because each tale is self-contained, it is possible to pick and choose among them to create performances of varying length, without affecting the overall narrative.

This research has helped me develop my characters in the play because it gives me an insight into what it's really like to live in East London. It does this through real life experiences devised by a group of Year 10 Bengali Girls at Mulberry School for Girls in Tower Hamlets.

Lesson 1 - 6.11.14

EAST END TALES

What did you think of it and why?

I found the play really interesting, especially because of the way it is written. There are no specified names to any of the characters speaking, nor genders given. I also like how it is written slightly poetically.

What is the play about?

The play is written in the different point of views of people living in East London. You get to experience things such as:

Violence
Crime
Money Issues
Weather
What it's like to live there

My favourite tale was number 5. I enjoyed this tale because it was very well written and quite suspicious. It's from the point of view of someone living next to a flat where there is domestic violence occurring. At the end of the tale it turns out that the women who was getting abused next door was murdered but no one tried to step in and help her. Everyone turned a blind eye as it was 'none of their business'.

At the start of the session I knew nothing about the East End apart from the fact that Eastenders is filmed there.
By the end I had learned a lot more than I knew before. I learned that there are many different people with different ethnic backgrounds. There aren't just the stereotypical "Fat, bald, white, West Ham supporter". I also learned that there aren't flat blocks and council houses, there are also big and expensive houses. A lot of the information I learned was from the input of Mateo and Jake as they are both from the East End. By the end of the lesson, a very negative view turned into a very complex and cosmopolitan one.

My group were asked to explore Tale 5. In tale 5 (as I previously stated) it is written in the point of a character (no gender nor name specified) who is living next door to a flat. The character starts to notice strange things going on next door. In the script it specifies "smashing" and "crashing", maybe of a plate? Or a plant pot? Or something along those lines. We were also asked to stage a part of our tale. I was in a group with Aaron and Rory and we staged our tale in quite an abstract way by deciding to stage it in a Police Station. Aaron and I (playing the characters that were next door during the crime) were being interrogated by Rory (who was a policeman) about a recent murder that happened next door to us.