Jessica

After this shortfall of production we were named the ‘procrustinators’, not something I am usually labeled, so we decided to work hard to prove that we really are worth more than that.

During this time the yr 12 ensemble was performed as their final assessment. As well as this 6 girls from our class performed their solos. The yr 11 girls all lifted under the pressure, and performed at their best. As for the year 12s, they were absolutely inspirational. We were so flabbergasted by their performance, and knew that we had to improve our ensemble after seeing theirs.

So our ensemble group decided that we need to push ourselves, so we scraped the idea we had (not completely) and went with the new idea of using a narrator as a non-naturalistic technique (along with our placards). We now have a start which we didn’t have before and the beginning of a first scene. Heather is the narrator and explains the nature of the TV in different places around the world. Maddi is a French lady who despises football, Leah is a little child who only wants to watch Hi-5, and I am a bogan absolutely disguised by the performance of Carlton. We then move into the 1900’s scene in which Leah, Maddi and I are painting a car in pain as we have poor pay, and Heather is the manager pushing us along as the car is for the queen.

After todays lesson I feel better about our ideas and production of the performance. Thanks to Mr. Cash we can now complete a dramatic performance rather than a comic one.

Well done to Jess, Jaqui, Nadia, Laura and Felicity for their ensemble performance at Creative Arts.

Things slowly began to go downhill from here.

In one week we did not have one full rehearsal until the Friday where Mr. Cash was to decided which group were going to perform in creative arts. Heather was the first to get sick out of our ensemble group, but then Leah over the following two days. I too came down with a cold, and Maddi after me. This caused a slow to our progress, and as we were all a little crabby from the lack of sleep we’d been getting from our sickness, and were too tired to actually come up with something beneficial.

We also discovered over this week that none of us were really comic actors, we don’t have the quick whit like some of our classmates, and realised that our performance really wasn’t as comic as we first thought. From here we began to over think our ideas and no scene would come out smoothly. Our whole group began to stress and realise that we were not going to be in creative arts for our performance.

Heather and I now know that we can be comic if the script is given to us, but we are more dramatic actors in producing a script ourselves. We decided to just keep going and deal with the hilarity of our performance a little further down the track. We quickly added another scene on the Friday so Mr. Cash could see some new material, even though it wasn’t too smooth.

The scene we added consisted of walkie talkies as the technology involved. A captain was in a ship waiting for advice from the main land, yet the walkie talkies fail and the message to not push the red button comes across as ‘do push red button’. This scene ends with Leah explaining that the outcome from the red button was not covered in the budget.

After the end of our ensemble was produced, we began to have disagreements over future scenes, as we all have different ideas and passions for technology. We began to develop another scene of the 1980’s where Leah and Maddi are the central characters. In this time frame the Boom box was a big craze, so we incorporated that into the script as well as an ipod, to show the contrast from different time frames. Maddi would be from the 1980’s and on the wrong ‘floor’, so she ran into Leah with her Boom Box. Maddi and Leah are each fascinated by the others contraption, and the contrast is evident with the lack of knowledge for each others technology.

 While this scene was being constructed,Heather and I continued to develop ideas for other scenes with some minor disagreements. We settled on the idea of a tattoo parlour and a ‘bimbo’ walking in looking for breast implants, little does she know that she is really in a tattoo parlour. The tattoo artist doesn’t understand what sort of tattoo she is interested in, and is so laid back that he does not care. The bimbo then realises that she is in a tattoo parlour, but doesn’t care. The idea here is to show contrast between the two characters and also to stereotype the characters.

In this scene we had problems with the language and timing of movements. I was to play the Bimbo, and Maddi the tattoo artist. Maddi had some struggles in actually acting like a man, seeing as she is really proper. Heather however tried to show Maddi, so we decided that maybe Heather should be in the scene. Moving around the characters I was moved out of the scene and Heather was to be the Bimbo and Maddi still the tattoo artist. Another reason I was moved out of the scene was because I’d already been in 5/5 scenes and needed a break.

I haven’t blogged in awhile.. so i thought its about time i should. I have been very busy lately, but we have been keeping an ensemble book of our process.

Our ensemble started off full steam ahead, as our group’s acting skills complemented each other such as Maddi being a creative script writer, Heather setting the scene on the performance area, and Leah for her humour. Our First lesson was filled with brainstorming and ideas from all ends, as we were excited to have a bit more freedom than the rigid structure of a solo with only yourself. We were excited to be doing a comic structure (except for Maddi :P).

We decided in the first lesson that it would be best if we kept an ensemble book with all our thoughts and research, as it is easier to access in class time. Maddi was kind enough to get the book for us, and Leah to decorate it :].

After the second lesson we settled on the idea of demonstrating the changes of technology over the centuries, with mini-scenes beginning from the 1920’s. This basis allowed us to set our scenes in a clear order and sophisticatedly. We started to develop scenes from the 1990’s, as MSN was big in that decade, we decided to use that idea, and play on the audiences experiences with the parents and the kids. Me and Heather were the parents in this scene and discovered that it is harder than we first thought to come up with sophisticated language from the top of our heads that doesn’t drag, never the less, we completed this scene and moved on to the 2000’s. This would be a scene with Heather as a little child and me and ‘Santa’. Heather stereotypes and kid, and what all children really want for Christmas.

 So our ensemble was developing smoothly after 3 lessons.

WOW. that pretty much sums up my thoughs on top class.

I loved every minute of the performances. They have inspired me to do the best I can possibly do now, and push myself harder so I can be even better in yr 12. I loved the solos, they have so much depth and emotion in them. You can tell the amount of effort in them, and the thought put into every second of the performance.

I exceptionally loved the pirate character. I love the movie Pirates of the Caribbean so these solos automatically drew me in. They were hilarious, but also had so much content, that wavering your concentration for a second would be an enormous set back. This is the same with all the performances, but I loved them all the same. Some were so confusing that I gave up and looked more at the stage craft elements, and even the the performances were flawless. The focus of all the performers was insanely brilliant. No one lost focus, and remained in character without dropping a line (that I could see anyway). The tension in the dramatic performances like Dr Jykell and Mr Hyde were ecstatic. I loved every minute of them, I was so enthralled and drawn in.

Genelle was the high light of top class. I loved her performance and she has inspired me to do something special and individual in my yr 12 solo. I was a most inspiring day over all.

Tara: ‘The Mum’. Tara showed the struggles experienced by a mum in life in depth. She allowed us to see into her world. The use of signs added to the non-naturalistic convention required and pulled us in. It was a humorous performance.

Felicity: ‘The Hippy’.The use of sound was appropriate and the playing of the guitar was effective as well as the use of signs. The story line was easy to follow, and showed the everyday life of a hippy.

Adriana: ‘The Band Geek’. This solo was HILARIOUS. I loved the theme, and the instruments she used as her passion and desire. I think Adriana did an amazing job in reacting to the scence she was in. I loved the tension created between her mother and the character, showing a tough bond.

Laura: ‘The Street Urchin’. I was emotionally drawn in by this performance. I felt like I was really on the streets watching her move about with no home, helpless to stop her. The timing of Laura’s movements was perfect in creating tension.

Jacqui: ‘The New Mum’. HILARIOUS. Jacqui always manages to made the audience laugh easily. This performance created tension through silence, and the transformation of props was extremely smooth.

 Chloe: ‘The Nerd’. I liked her performance, as she had VERY smooth character transitions, but you were still able to tell that she transformed into another character. The costume also showed us that she was school based, but higher up.

The performances were impressive, but Mr. Cash told us that the marks ranged between a B and a C. This is good in a way because we will know our weaknesses and strive to do better and meet his standards.

STRESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS.

This entire day I was completely stressed about my solo. I knew that I was prepared, but I was nervous about dropping a line, or falling on a prop or something to destroy my performance.

During our study in first period, Maddi, Jess, Leah and I all rehearsed our performances, and delivered them to each other. Watching some of the girls made me feel a fair bit intimidated because there scripts were so deep, and mine (being a teenybopper) was impossible to allow for depth. Never the less, I retained confidence and changed into costume at the start of the class.

Summary of performances:

Jess P: ‘The Wog’. Her performance was different to the comic type the class has come to expect from her. The solo showed that she is truly an amazing actress, because she was able to touch the audience with a dramatic interpretation of a wog. The tension between the father and daughter in the performance was well developed and drew the audience in. Her costume was perfect to illustrate her background.

Maddi: ‘The Nerd’. This solo personally I loved. You can relate to the emotions of her character, and also the dilemmas faced. Her use of space allowed us to follow the change of scenes and characters clearly and effectively. The nerd character draws the audience in making them feel sorry for the pain endured, and maddi showed this.

Nadia: ‘The Greaser’. Her performance was about the only one where the symbol was clear and not randomly added at the end of the solo. This performance was the right character for Nadia, as she worked towards her strengths, showing us the depth that she can go to in a solo script. I loved the costume; It was exactly was is needed to show a greaser in full flight.

Leah: ‘The Cheerleader’. Personally I could relate to this performance more than anyone else in the class as I am a cheerleader. Leah used my uniform and also my pom poms during her performance, which were perfect as she is a cheerleader. This solo showed the enviroment in which cheerleaders live in seemlessly and richly. Leah created the mood which typical cheerleaders live in well.

Jess M: ‘The Bum’. I found this solo hilarious. This is exactly what my dad is like, with the beer in one hand, and a footy in another. She used the props in her performance efficantly, interchanging some for symbolism. Her focus was steel like, as it would have been tough to act drunk and maintain the character.

Heather: ‘The Metal head’. Heather has complete focus of steel. You can tell this through the way she portrays the character like she has complete and total belief that she IS a metal head, and the story she is illustrating really happend to her. Her depth of script is like no one else in our class.

The standard of the performances was extremely high, but I was SO glad the my solo was complete, and now all I had to do was enjoy the others 

The holidays were a good break, but also a good time to stress over my solo. The first week was break time, even though i felt guilty for not developing my solo further, I needed a significant break. So in the second week I hit it hard and completed as much as I could within the first 3 days. This enabled me to perfect scenes and tweek ones I was not satisfied with.  

So the first day back.. WAS MEANT TO BE THE FIRST SOLO PERFORMANCE… including mine, luckily Mr. Cash decided that we could have the lesson to rehearse. This was the best thing for our solos. Leah, Heather, Maddi and I showed each other our solos, and gave feedback as to where we need to improve and change scenes in our performance. This I found, was the best thing for our solo’s as now we knew that our solo was on the right track. I was worried in the holidays that I could develop it incorrectly, or the script would be immature (which is what I felt throughout the entire holidays). Showing these girls put my worries to rest, and I was now confident that I could perform

Its taken me awhile these holidays to get into the mode of being able to do some productive work, but I am able to now.

The first practise was not too eventful, i rehearsed the first few scenes of my solo so i knew how much long it had to be to meet the criteria. The first timing was 2:46, so I continued to develop more of my solo, and decided that I was about half way.

 Moving in between scenes has been hard to perfect, but I think it is working well, I have changed into a different scene by moving across the space, and changing my mood/stance as I do so.

This is working well for me, and I now am almost completely finished.

hope everyone is enjoying there holidays. xx

 Drama this week was a mix of production and impovement as well as excitement because our formal is TOMORROW.

So basically I discovered that I need to improve my transitions between scenes so that they are smooth and clean. When I change from being the teenybopper, to being her mum, Mr. Cash has been teaching us this week about seeminglessly smooth transitions so that the characters sentence is submerged into the next characters.

I worked on this so that I could make my performance tight and my movements across the space precise. As well as this, I worked on the pitch at which I am going to be talking. My character is a tough one to make a decision on as I could use an american accent or be a complete ditz. I decided to go with a bit of both as blending them both together created some contrast in my solo. I did this in two of the lessons but, during the final one we watched some of the previous top class solos for inspiration as well as ideas, which for me did both. I discovered that I need to incorporate symbol as well as more gesture. One of the solos we saw, the boy over acted everything but it became effective. This caused me to decided I needed more gesture.

so.. its the end of term.
HAVE A GOOD HOLIDAYS EVERYONE.     xx