Jessica

These two classes were the most productive classes we have had on our solos.

On Thursday we discussed the frame of mind we should be in, and where we need to be with our solos before the end of term (which is this Thursday). In the Thursday class, we also did a character exercise to get ourselves ready to perform and refine our solos that period. This exercise consisted of walking around the classroom as your character and acting out how they would be. It also involved interacting with other characters exactly how your character would. This helped me to put into context the voice I would be using, how I would walk around in the space, and also the pace of my movements. After this exercise I gathered my script and began to perform my solo. The script I had created worked well, and was easy to act out. I soon discovered that I needed to slow down the performance and use more gestures, as well as find interesting ways to move through the space.

The next lesson on Friday, helped me to get some feed back on my ideas. Maddi and Leah watched my solo (the amount I had been acting out) and gave me some new ideas to add to my performance such as choreograph the opening sequence so the dancing to music is not completely random. Also I watched Maddi and Leah’s, Maddi is a nerd and Leah is a cheerleader, this gave me an insight to the ideas of my classmates and opened my eyes to more options such as different levels in the performance eg. sitting on floor, lying on table.

The next two lessons I hope to refine ideas and move on to develop, as well as act out, more scenes.

I have also been thinking about the type of costume I should be using, and incorporating the dramatic elements into my performance.

For my costume I have decided to wear a typical girly girl outfit with lots of pink because my character Ellie is a real girl. She loves make-up and music and I want that to come across in my solo. Incorporating sound into the performance to show her passion and love of music will count for the dramatic element sound. Another dramatic element I have used is climax. There are 2 climax’s in my solo performance, one when Ellie is so angry with her parents for not letting her go to backstreet boys, and another when she is singing and her mum walks in just as she becomes really excited.

For her mum I was thinking I could put a thick jacket over the top to make her appear important and proper. This will show the difference between Ellie and her mother.

Last drama class, which was on Tuesday the 19th of March was a very productive class. I have now completely finished my script and in the process of rehearsing, while making the performance tighter. While making my script I wanted to incorporate a secondary character and thought about the best character who would give an insight into the teenyboppers life.

Firstly I better say that my solo is about a girl who gets EXACTLY what she wants all the time, everything comes easy to her. Finally one day when she wants to go to a Backstreet Boys concert she is not allowed. She pushes her parents into saying yes by the end, but discovers that she does not have true friends because when she tells them that she cannot go at first, they all leave her and push her away.

The best insight I decided to go with was her mum. The audience can then see the anger and frustration her daughter has brought her to, and relate that to their own lives with their parents. I am now up to improving and shortening my script, while rehearsing.

Over the last two weeks in Drama, we have been studying the play called ‘Destin’. The Monday before last on the 5th of March the yr 11s from Avila and also the yr 12 went to see this. The standard was extremely high, and the stagecraft elements incorporated by the director were extensive and effective.

 Although this production had great depth and imagery throughout, and it was interesting to watch, the downside is that we missed 4 valuable classes for solo performance time. I was worried that I would not have enough time, but our teacher Mr. Cash changed the performance week, to the first week of term two. So the last 4 classes have been theory and a SAC. Although this has not been used as solo time, the concepts discussed have helped with my ideas and processes of my solo performance. We have been talking about non-naturalistic theatre, and I have incorporated this into my performance. My Solo is developing well, and I have begun to write more of the script with non-naturalistic theatre in mind, so I can incorporate it into my solo.

Last week, we received the criteria sheet for our drama solos. Brainstorming what I was going to do also happened on the same day. I first thought what character would best portray the area needed (subcultures), but as well as this, what I am suited to. I came up with two ideas, ‘emos’ or ‘teenyboppers’. I looked up information for both subcultures, and even though there was more information on emos, i decided to go with teenybopper because that is what I am best suited to. The next class, I brainstormed the sort of areas I wanted to cover in the performance. While looking at the information, I had some controversy and conflicting opinions between the definition of teeny bopper. I concluded that a teeny bopper is a teen in her early yrs, approx. yr 7-9, who is following the teenage fashion in music, clothes etc. Once I discovered this, I knew which direction to take with my solo.

 The same lesson, I started my script where ideas that I had formed in my head about what I wanted on stage were put down on paper. I am going in the direction of a girl who thinks life is perfect for her, and everything goes her way, but suddenly her parents have decided to become tough on her. She reacts poorly to this and push’s her mum to breaking point. At this stage I have rehearsed some of the script but not too much, the next step I would like to take, is to develop some form of symbol in the solo. Most of us are worried that our solo time is a great deal shorter now, as we missed all of this weeks classes due to viewing a play, analysing and then our SAC which is on Tuesday. I hope that I can get it done in the allocated time, as I am aiming to do the best I can.

The end.

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