On Wednesday, we went to film our monologue. I found it hard to only speak my monologue without any big expressions and movements as I rehearsed. I'm very used to memorize my lines with movements, so when I did an action I know what I need to say. What's easy for me in this filming, is that the person I'm going to speak to is the camera, which means I only need to look into the camera when I speak. I've got a bad habit when it comes to acting/performing, is that I tend to look around the space when I'm supposed to be focused on only a spot. Having an object to look in to is way easier for me instead of looking to an imaginary person in front of me.
This week, we continue to work on our script.
Week 5
On Wednesday, we watched everyone's monologue video we did last week. I could see everyone's energy was very strong as they're keeping their eye contact with the camera, and we were able to watch that. I think Gabriel and Abe did a really great job as they raised their volume more when it comes to an intense part of their monologue. I could see them changing the softness and fierce in their eyes.
Running order for
A Christmas Carol
GROUP DISCUSSION
Jeremy wanted the audience to feel involved in the play, he suggested we could look at the audience and have some interactions with them during the show. Brad said Christmas Carol has always been a very cheerful and fun play to watch, so we could amplify the moral in the play which is the changes of Scrooge's attitude. We could perform Christmas Carol in a whole different way that audience will never expect by making it more serious and emotional. Some of us disagreed on that as we wanted it to be fun for the audience to watch. I suggested adding some scary elements in the play, when Marley comes out, we could scare the audience by letting Marley to come out from the audience seats. We might also add the sound of the chain to make it more real.
What we want the audience to think of our performance
In this week, with Rob and Sharon, we've been discussing a lot about what are we going to achieve in our second year. A Christmas Carol, a play we are going to perform just before the end of term one. It's just two months away, and this term will be the toughest term as beside a performance, we need to be done with another two units as well, which is our personal statement and an essay with 1500 words.
For the essay, we were to write about things that we're passionate that relate to acting. For that, I would like to do something with the Theatres in the UK and compare them with other countries, to see how different are the opportunities in and outside of the UK could give for the people who learned ACTING.
Things I'm going to research for my essay:
The three places that contain much work opportunities for actors/actresses. China, America, England.
Percentage of students in acting courses chose to work in the performing industry as well.
Theatre and TV, which is more popular in few different countries.
which requires fewer skills? acts behind a camera or on a stage?
On Wednesday, we watched "A Christmas Carol" film in class. This is to rewind our memory back to the story. Rewatching it makes me realize that I've forgotten some of the important events in the film. As we are going to perform this play, I put more focus in it throughout the film as I know I will not watch it at home myself after that. I've plotted the important parts in the play.
Why is listing down the important things from a play/film helpful?
Writing down all the points I got from the play as an audience shows what a real audience might also see when we perform it. In order to make our performance better than others, is to show more things to the audience and make them bring away the same old play but brimming with more emotions. I now know that large pieces from the play, so it's time to work on all the small but interesting details in there that will catch the audience more.
Week 2
After getting our script for "A Christmas Carol", we were asked to pick a character or two to audition for, the challenging part was this play contains lots of songs that are needed to sing out to the audience by certain characters, just like a musical play. The character I was going to audition for was Belle, Scrooge's ex-wife.
Why did I choose Belle? (reason) When Belle shows up in the play, she falls in love with Scrooge right away just like Scrooge did. She loves him so much and she supports what Scrooge was doing to make a better life for themselves in the future. Slowly, when Scrooge's life became richer, he only cares about the money he's earning and forgot how much love and attention he used to give to Belle. For me, Belle is a very elegant and understanding woman. The way she ended the relationship with Scrooge could show the pain she's in, she could be hurt so much the only reason was that she cared too much as well.
What will I need to do while playing Belle in the audition? The scene I'm doing was where Belle was ending the engagement with Scrooge. For that, I actually watched some of the videos on the internet to see how other people did with their emotions. As I wanted to show more on Scrooge's fault, that he was the one ended our relationship with his greediness and cold-hearted. I need to show more hurtful so that the judges could see me trying my last chance holding Scrooge back by breaking the relationship, still believing in him that he might come back apologizing in any minute. But until the end, Scrooge never realized how much he had changed while he was pursuing the wealth he actually possessed long ago. By saying "you fear the world too much", I am actually trying to let Scrooge know that he could let go of the fear and we could still be happy again without taking being wealthy so serious. I need to be persuasive when I was telling Scrooge how much he has changed after our engagement, the fascination with money covered his eyes for being a good husband.
On Thursday, we were divided into three groups representing Christmas Past, Christmas Present and Christmas yet to come. Abe, Abdul, Georgine and I were in a group of Christmas Past. We need to improvise the scenes that happened in the past. Four of us came out with a few scenes, including
Abe as the ghost, he brought Abdul, as Scrooge travel to the past.
Me as Fan, went to Scrooge's school to tell him that dad agreed to let him go back home during Christmas holiday.
The dance party that Mr. Fezziwig host after a long day of work.
Scrooge's proposal to Georgine, as Belle.
Belle coming in to end their relationship.
What's about our improvisation? I liked my group's improvisation quite well as we make use of every cast member in the group even though when one of us don't have to be in any character in a scene. In the very beginning, when Abe holds Abdul's hand, they traveled around the space like they're flying, whilst Georgine and I were standing straight putting our hands above our head to make a triangle at the back as buildings. Abe and Abdul used most of the space we got but not taking too long flying in the whole beginning, they stopped by jumping once on the ground together as they arrived at one of the scenes in the past. I personally like the jumping part, although it might not look so good, both of them took the effort to alter their pace for each other in order to jump at the same time. Abdul was fascinated by the place in front of him, the school Scrooge used to go. In the meantime, Georgina and I became little kids running around happily because it's Christmas. Scrooge walked forward to sit on his desk as flashing back to all the memory while he's here, I ran to the back and walked into the scene as Fan telling Scrooge that he can go back home for Christmas. We hugged before the scene ended, Abdul deviated from my hug but I remain frozen until Abe and Abdul went flying again to another scene. I think everything ran smoothly here as we were having problems on how are we suppose to bring the young Scrooge out from there as we got only four people. And I think the changes when Fan enters the scene was really nice, as the audience might only think Scrooge is yearning at his desk from the past until Fan comes in, that's the moment Abdul change from old Scrooge to young Scrooge. I went in again with Georgina, both were freezing in a dancing pose, Georgina raised both her arms like she was dancing with someone until Abdul came into the scene. We started to dance for a few seconds and Abdul began his proposal to Georgina. Both of them hugged each other and Georgina left with a blessed, but coming in again with a very upset face, she wanted to divorce with Abdul and said she has lost the "golden one" then ran out of the scene. This two scene was quite difficult as Georgina needs to carry both emotions with her, both very different expressions, one was the happiness Scrooge brought to her, another one was the disappointment to Scrooge.
Week 3
We watched a play called "King Lear" in Duke of York's Theatre. It was my first time watching it and that was a very wonderful show. I never read about the story before either as I always thought "King Lear" is a very boring story and it's all about kingdom, wars and fights among the people before reading its plot. After watching the whole play, I've changed my mind completely about the play. The play is full of many emotions and climaxes. I love it so much.
On Thursday, everyone got their role for A Christmas Carol. I got the role of one of the solicitors and also Fred's wife. The characters were not what I expected, why? (refer week 2 for which character I wanted to play at first)
What I think of getting Solicitor one? Solicitors visit Scrooge for fundraising to the poor but got rejected in a very ferocious way. I always believe that an exciting play/production often start their beginning with a big tension. Being the character that's going to be remembered throughout the whole play, I think this is a challenging one. To show how a horrible person is Scrooge, it's all from how he trying to be isolated from everyone else. Yelling to the solicitors, rejecting his nephew, Fred (in another scene). These are the details showing how cold-hearted is he especially when he talks about money or relates everything with money, while everyone was awaiting for Christmas day, he became more and more frustrated as he didn't know the happy of it and he doesn't understand why couldn't all these people use the time to earn more money instead of cheering around.
What I think of getting Fred's wife? Personally, this is a character I didn't want to get, not being mean to this character but I think Fred's wife is a lady that listens to her husband most of the time as Fred in-charges everything throughout their marriage, playing this role is like being a side role's side role, she doesn't even have a name in the play. Fred definitely is a wealthy man, not as wealthy as Scrooge but at least hosting a Christmas party is not a problem for him. Fred's wife is probably a woman wanted to marry a rich man in order to live a better life than before. She probably knows that Fred got a very wealthy uncle as well, so she decided to get near Fred and wanted to be a part of this wealthy family, but she never knew how Scrooge protected his money since he started earning them. She wishes to get something from Scrooge but he has never acknowledged her at all, that is why she was feeling impatience.
By the end of this week, we've rehearsed a few scenes by knowing how are we going to enter the stage and where should we stand while speaking, we haven't yet focused on our expression. Also, I've got another role which is Mrs. Cratchit.
What I think of getting Mrs. Cratchit? I think Mrs. Cratchit is a very loving and motherly woman. With her family's financial status, feeding four children is tough enough. The reason she dislike Scrooge so much is because her husband, Bob Cratchit, who works for him was downtrodden for working overtime and only getting very less wages. Her anger was triggered when Mr. Cratchit mentioned Scrooge's name during their Christmas dinner, but she's able to calm herself down and drink for Scrooge's health for her husband's sake. She is a very strong woman that she needs to take care of all the children also understanding his husband.
Ebenezer Scroogeis a miserly, cold-hearted, greedy businessman who thinks only of making money. He rejects a Christmas dinner invitation from his jolly nephew, Fred; he yells at charity workers; and he overworks his employee, Bob Cratchit. At night, Scrooge's former partner, Jacob Marley, has been dead for seven years, visits him in a form of a ghost. He has come to tell Scrooge that he is to be visited by three spirits over the next three days.
Christmas Past shows some of the main events in Scrooge's life to date, including his unhappy childhood, his happy apprenticeship to Mr. Fezziwig who cared for his employees, and the end of his engagement to a pretty young woman due to growing love of money. Scrooge shows newfound emotion when revisiting these scenes, often crying from identification with his former neglected self. The Ghost of Christmas Present shows him several current scenes of Christmas joy and charity, Bob Cratchit, celebrate Christmas with those they love, also how joyously are Fred and his clerk having a lot of fun in the room. Finally, a ragged boy and girl crawl out from the Ghost's robes. The Ghost calls them Ignorance and Want and warns Scrooge to beware of Ignorance.
In the final night, the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come shows him what he will leave behind when he is gone. He expresses the hope that these scenes of the future can be changed, and vows to incorporate the lessons of the past, present, and the future into his adoption of the Christmas spirits. Scrooge awakens on Christmas morning, a new man intent on doing good and celebrating the season with all those around him.
Charles John Huffman Dickens was born in Portsmouth, England on 7th February 1812, to Elizabeth Barrow and John Dickens. Charles was the second born of eight children. When Charles was 10, his family was facing huge financial difficulties, they decided to move to London all the way from Kent. In the year 1824, due to family poverty, Charles was sent to label bottles in Warren's blacking factory. During the same period, John Dickens was imprisoned for debt in Marshalsea prison.
The rest of the family moved to live near the prison, leaving Charles to live alone. This experience of lonely hardship was the most significant event of his life. It colored his view of the world and would later be described in a number of his novels.
In the age of fifteen, Charles was again forced to leave school and work as a parliament journalist and the clerk of an attorney. By 1832 he had become a reporter for two London newspaper and in the following year, he began to contribute a series of impressions and sketches to other newspapers and magazines, signing some of them "Boz" as his pseudonym. These scenes of London life went far to establish his reputation and were published in 1836 as Sketches by Boz, his first book. On the strength of this success, he married Catherine Hogarth, daughter of Evening Chronicle editor, George Hogarth. Together they had ten children. His early works
In the year 1836, Charles also began to publish The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club in 20 monthly installments. Pickwick became one of the most popular works of the time and continued to be so after it was published in book form in 1837.
Charles began publishing his new novel, Oliver Twist, his first novel, follows the fortunes of an innocent orphan through the London streets. The book was inspired by how Charles felt as an impoverished child forced to get by on his wits and earn his own keep. He was now editor of Bentley's Miscellany, a new monthly magazine. He continued publishing his novel in his later magazines, Household Worlds and All the Year Round.
Though Charles's career was successful, for the next decade, his books did not achieve the standard of his early success. These works include Nicholas Nickleby(1838), The Old Curiosity Shop (1840), and Barnaby Rudge (1841).
In 1842, Charles was as popular in America as he was in England, he and his wife, Catherine went on a five-month lecture tour of the United States, speaking out strongly against slavery and in support of other reforms. On his return, he wrote American Notes, a book that criticizes American life as being culturally backward and materialistic. His next novel, The Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit (1843), describes a man's struggle to survive on the ruthless American frontier.
During the year in which Chuzzlewit appeared, Charles also published a Christmas story, A Christmas Carol. The book features the timeless protagonist Ebenezer Scrooge, a curmudgeonly old miser who with the help of some ghosts, find the Christmas spirit. Charles penned the book in just six weeks, beginning in October and finishing just in time for the holiday celebrations. This book was a success, selling more than 6,000 copies upon publication. Readers in England and America were touched by the book's empathetic emotion depth. Despite literary critiques, the book remains one of the Dickens' most well-known and beloved works. Information from here & here & here
The real reason Charles Dickens wrote
A Christmas Carol
A Christmas Carol was intended as a social criticism, to bring attention to the hardships faced by England's lower classes. As from the researches above, I've noticed that Charles Dickens often writes what he experienced and seen in the society to his paper. In 1843, Dickens was horrified by reading a Government report - The Parliamentary Commission on the Employment of Women and Children, showing the horrific conditions under which very young children were made to work underground or to work tremendously long hours in appalling conditions in factories. Dickens read this and described himself as being "perfectly strike down by it" and he determined that he would strike, as he said, "the heaviest blow in my power" on behalf of these victims of the Industrial Revolution and in October 1843, he was giving a talk in Manchester. It was in the course of giving this talk in this large industrial city, that the idea came to him that the best thing he could do by way of calling public attention to the horror of this report, would be by writing a story, rather than an article - as he said, "something that would come down with sledgehammer force" - and this was the conception of the Christmas Carol, beginning, with the conception of Scrooge - that wonderful name, Scrooge - a combination of screw and gouge. Dickens hopes to illustrate how self-serving, insensitive people can be converted into charitable, caring, and socially conscious members of society through the intercession of moralizing quasi-religious lessons. He was involved in charities and social issues throughout his entire life. At the time that he wrote A Christmas Carol he was very concerned with impoverished children who turned to crime and delinquency in order to survive. He thought that education could provide a way to a better life for these children. The schools provided free education for children in the inner-city. The movement got its name from the way the children attending the school were dressed. They often wore tattered or ragged clothing. Dickens is also concerned to make his story the vehicle of Christian truths. The theme of A Christmas Carol is not simply Christmas feasting; it is a story of conversion, of release from the imprisoning chains of grasping covetousness worn by Marley's Ghost into the freedom of compassion and generosity, the smog-filled streets of the town in which Scrooge sees the ghosts of avaricious, selfish and grasping contemporaries.
We were asked to perform both days Wednesday and Thursday for two times each, so we're actually performing the same thing for four times.
What I think I did well
In the urban street scene, I kept my freezing position in much energy and did not change my facial expression even though I think no one will look at me during that time when Kojo is speaking in the center of the stage.
In scene 5, when I'm taking Kojo around the refuge, I imagined the bathroom and bedrooms at where they supposed to be, and I pointed them out in a believable way that the audience might also get to see my imagination
In scene 9, when Kojo met the social worker, I moved my chair to face the front more so the audience could see the expressions I made when I think the social worker is talking nonsense.
During my short monologue in the same scene, the other characters will stay freezing and I stood up while I was talking, to be in a funny way, I spelled out the "Mustash" that the social worker wrote wrongly. I also took his clipboard to show that I'm actually reading his note when I say "the young adult has a light mustache and a deep voice. That's what he'll put in Kojo's note."
In the second last scene when I am on stage as Girl Two, I did a lot of "bitchy" movements like playing with my hair or look around the audience seats to show that I'm eyeing for boys. And when Girl One says "this is what we always do" I took my phone out to take selfies. To show it more realistic, I turn my volume to the loudest so when I really take pictures, the sound of a picture is taken will be heard by the audience.
What I think we did well
Again, the freezing scene was so good when everyone walks into their position and stop moving until Kojo says "it starts...now". Everyone continues with what they were doing before freezing, Girls talking to each other, Cleaner starts sweeping the leaves on the ground, Woman with buggy walking leisurely with her baby. The whole stage becomes so lively that everyone was doing different things but all were so nice to watch at the same time because we worked as an ensemble.
In all the scenes when the man died, everyone shouted over each other, the chaos was so real to watch at as everyone on stage started to focus on the man and there're fear, panic, fright going on.
We used the area on the stage wisely as we leave enough space for others to go through but not too far away, we did not leave the awkward gap between one another. And when there're scenes with less than five people, they are aware of their blocking, they make sure everything happens in the center of the stage.
Everyone did a fantastic job picking their cues, there are no long pauses during the performances. In scene 21, Hassan and I did very well shouting over each other's line, it has risen the intensity to the highest, then all broke down when Kojo stops us by saying "ok, it's ok". I love this scene because it was full of different emotions by the characters that can be clearly seen by the audience.
I like Kojo's acting the most, he breaks the 4th wall very often throughout the play so means he needs to be in and out of this character in a single scene. When he tells the audience about the story, his voice is loud and clear, he will add the sad expressions when he started to talk about his family. But when he's in the character of Kojo, even though his voice is still able to be heard it has actually gone much softer than when he talks to the audience. He was really scared about most of the thing, when he first meets Ara, he doesn't even dare to go nearer but only stays a distant away. His eyes were very unsure, whenever someone is talking to him, he wouldn't look into the eyes of that person, he often looks around to show the insecurity of him.
Overall: We all did an amazing job for all four performances, our confidence and energy were stronger after each show, we did not lay back thinking doing the same show is boring. We used all the skills we earned throughout the year and pour it in to this final performance, I can't say this is a very perfect show, but we did our very best to perform it. Running a show is not easy, and we did four amazing shows in two days, I'm really proud of the results after putting so much effort in during rehearsals. Thinking back to the first performance this year, Romeo and Juliet, my improvements from there had gained so much and I definitely learned more than I can imagine. I'm looking forward to next year, performing a brand new style of play.
We did a full read through after getting the play FUGEE by Abi Morgan. I first thought it was very confusing because of all that flashing back, and I think the play can be shorter by reducing the times of flashing back. But in my other thought, I'm excited to know how this play will be performed to the audience because unlike any other plays I've known, this play begins with its ending scene.
At the beginning of the play, Kojo stabbed a random man on the street. Then, the story started to flash back a little showing what happened before that lead to this ending. Kojo is a fourteen-year-old boy who his family members were killed by children soldiers during his eleventh birthday. In order to save himself, Kojo's uncle made him a fake visa to travel to the UK. He was brought to a refuge where he met his new friends from different places.
The style of the play is pretty refreshing different from regularly plays they often start with telling everything step by step and end with its climax. Abi Morgan begins the play with a big scene that includes death, he then slowly reveal little bits of information in order to show the connection between the first scene and other scenes.
After reading through the whole play we had our own discussion in class, I think the play is interesting that it doesn't tell the normal story first, and let the audience to guess what happened before this and that. This can prevent the audience from getting bored or guessing out what's going to happen next as for FUGEE audience need to pay more attention to the story in order to know what happened before the man from the first scene was killed.
The second week after we got our script, everyone needs to think of a character they want to play for, but we got fewer casts, so some of us will need to be in multi-rolling.
The first character came to my mind was the woman with a buggy. I chose her because I'm interested in her exaggerated reactions throughout the beginning, and I really love playing this kind of character, I think it's because being crazy is easier than being normal actually, because deep in me, I'm quite a crazy person, so with this character I do not need to put in much effort as I can really play it naturally. I told one of my tutors, Sharon about this, she gave me an advice which because I've played a character like this before when I was in high school, why not try a different character to give myself a challenge and a chance to upgrade my acting.
I thought about it for awhile and came up with another choice, which was the refuge manager. I also took some time to re-read the scenes which when the manager was in. The reason why I ended up choosing this role it's because I have not tried any character like this before, in my experience, I've only tried roles that doesn't mean much to other characters in those plays. But for refuge manager, I felt like a big boss with people that need to listen to me. I can feel the importance of me after choosing it. I'm looking forward to act as a "team leader" for my first time.
Improvising the important scenes from the play
We were divided into two groups and each will need to improvise and perform with the important scenes we remember after reading the whole play. Abdul, Jeremy, Gabriel, Jaychelle, Ilonka and I came out with some scenes that we remember.
a random man was stabbed by Kojo
in the airport when Kojo does not have his passport
Kojo's uncle gave Kojo a fake visa and ask him to leave
Kojo playing basketball with new people in the refuge
Counselor asking Kojo questions about himself
Ara teaching Kojo English
Kojo was told to leave the refuge cuz he's above 18 which is not true, he's only 14
Children soldiers killing Kojo's parents and his brother
Rehearsing the play
We have gotten our roles and acted out the play from the beginning. We focused on one thing first which was our blocking rather than focusing on our energy and tension in the play. I think working on our blocking first will make the whole progress easier after as we now know the cues for speaking our lines. We were able to know how we want our character to say that certain line in a certain position and how we want our character to be on the scene. We can avoid blocking other characters while saying our lines, also, other characters will know their best way to be on the stage in order to be seen by every single audience.
What did we achieve?... We were able to pick up our cues and be in the position as smoothly as we can. We get to work on our transitions as well, also our entrances and exits as we need to be straight into the next scene to prevent the audience from waiting too long.
We then worked on the scenes where most casts were in it, that was on the urban street where the man was stabbed by Kojo. There are casts like the market trader, young girls, cleaner and woman with buggy. Also, In scene 20 when Kojo describes the situation he first joins the children soldier. At the end of scene 20, it was a truck scene where everyone needs to be in, and scene 21 will be the scene where Kojo needs to leave. It's a bit rush for me to go into that scene as I need to exit with everyone else and come straight in again. For a better result, Rob asked me to stay at the end of scene 20 instead. In the truck scene, I'm one of the soldiers, so while the scene ends everyone will still need to exit with their facial expression on, but for me, there's gonna be a huge difference on my emotion. During the end of it, I will turn my body and walk neutral until I reach my position for the next scene which is walking towards Kojo from behind with his luggage.
Here's the video of scene 20 when Kojo is saying his monologue. Click to watch!!
After everyone is familiar with their cues in those big scenes, we started to do rehearsals according to the order of the scenes, I think this saves a lot of time as we do not need to worry more about people's absence as much as we all know what to do in the scene and people could just stand in to read the lines for people who are absent. During the other smaller scenes, while some of the people are doing their rehearsals, people that are not in the scene could continue with learning their lines. What I think about our rehearsals?... My movements and actions get more and more natural as I've been doing it many times, Rob and Sharon would stop us when they think we can add or change the style of acting a little, both of them are very responsible, as sometimes correcting a single scene might take up to half an hour. I like their spirit of how they wanted us to look nice and clean. I never complained about the tiredness during rehearsals to be honest, we actually just do what our tutors advice us to do. So during each rehearsal, I would put in my best concentration in order to get my acting as perfect as I can. I am aware of all reactions I made while other speaks, I will always make sure that I'm not just standing on a spot waiting to say my lines.
What is the 4th Wall?...
The Forth Wall is a theatrical term for the imaginary "wall" that exists between actors on stage and the audience. The actors pretend that they cannot hear or see the audience and the audience gets to enjoy the wonderful sensation of being a fly on the wall. The same effect often occurs in movies, only the fourth wall in that instance is a camera lens.
In the play Fugee, we broke the 4th wall most of the time especially Kojo, he often talks to the audience by telling his feeling in that moment or some additional plot from the story. As the refuge manager, I broke the 4th wall in scene 9, when the social worker is interviewing Kojo to know about his background. I tell the audience what I think about the social worker and also what do the social worker usually do.
more information about 4th wall can be found here.
Themes
Friendship - The very first friendship appears was when Ara and Kojo first meet, Kojo did not join others during movie night, he went upstairs himself and Ara follows his back to check if he's okay. Kojo was looking at his family photo, he must be missing them so much at that moment and Ara appears, Kojo must feel warm in his heart even though they don't understand what each other was saying. Ara is a very cheerful girl, she took the initiative to approach Kojo to let him get used to being in the refuge. Then, Chueng, He and Kojo sleep on a bunk bed where Cheung sleeps on top and Kojo sleeps underneath. In the first night, they chatted for a little about how they end up here in the refuge, Cheung knows that Kojo will be meeting with the social worker the next day, he reminds him to shave if not the social worker will think he's over-age. In scene 22, Kojo was on the train leaving to the hotel, the other kids (Ara, Roza, Cheung, Hassan) follow because they didn't want Kojo to leave alone, but got kicked out by the ticket collector just after the next stop as they got not enough money to buy a ticket.
Diversity - Represents the kids, They're all from different places around the world, they speak the different language have a different culture. I think it's some kind of fate that they could gather up and form a friendship bond.
Rejection - Rejections are what made the play happen. Kojo got age-disputed by the social worker after the next day of his arrival at the refugee camp, when he thinks he could finally be safe at that place but got rejected because of the hair on his face. Also around the end of the play, when Ara visits Kojo, they both know they like each other but when Ara asks him to "say it!" , the three words, Kojo replied something else instead. It's a rejection for Ara as Kojo doesn't want their relationship to go beyond friendship. Maybe Kojo is not ready yet, or maybe he doesn't want to impede Ara's bright future for staying in the same place as him and live the rest of their life underneath everyone's footstep.
My Character(on my point of view) Refuge Manager - Throughout the play, there's nowhere showing her name, her age or anything about her. All we can see was she is the owner of the children refuge. It is a difficult task that I can't get any information online while I was trying to do some research about the manager. At last, I've decided to learn about her by reading the script again. Her caring personality was shown a lot in the play for example In scene 5 she's patiently telling all the directions and everything that Kojo needs to know when he arrives in the children refuge. She's protective, in order to let Kojo stay, in the scene when Kojo being age-disputed, she defends Kojo by trying to let the social worker believe that he's only 14. She's not very powerful, in her words and how she apologizes to Kojo when she's forced to let him leave, I think she actually blames herself for not having the right to let the kid stay. In scene 21, which I can see the most of her, she was carrying many emotions with her in that scene. The sadness of letting Kojo leave, she must be unwilling to do that but she's only a refuge manager, she did her best to keep Kojo. When the other kids were listening to their conversations in the corridor and were all very upset after knowing Kojo needs to leave, she doesn't want the atmosphere in the room to be more down so she asked the kids to go down, but Hassan (one of the kids) shouted back saying "stupid pissing system", he must be feeling really unfair for Kojo and saying that on purpose to see if the manager could get him back. But yet the manager took away his chance for playing ping pong that day, behind it I think it's because the manager doesn't the kids to feel unfair, she wants them to learn about the cruelty of this society. To show the contrast of an elder and the kids, the manager needs to act really mature, the only way to calm the kids down, she needs to be more calm and steady and can't show much of her emotions. When Ara (another girl that is close to Kojo) asked what will happen to Kojo after this, the manager told her and the others that he will be processed and a decision will be made, they could get a visit in the hotel where Kojo is going to stay when he leaves the refuge. She told them like it's nothing to her, like she actually accepts the truth that Kojo needs to leave.
Costumes
For my character as the manager, I wore a plain white smart shirt with black trousers to show the professionalism in me. I also tie my hair up neatly, this is to show that my self-cultivation is high enough to be a good influencer for the kids.
For another character of girl two, I wore a plain black t-shirt as my top and others will be the same as when I'm the manager. Wearing black so that I do not catch the audience most attention from Kojo, Kojo's costumes throughout the play are all duller colour, if I wear a colourful costume as the girl, Audience will be really hard to stay focus on Kojo.
Sound & Lighting
We got the sound of a plane departing before the airport scene where Kojo did not have his passport.
The announcement voice during the tube scene when everyone's on the tube while the man speaks.
In the scene when Ara brings Kojo to the park to see trees, we got sounds of birds chirping and sound of the tree's branches hitting each other when the wind blows.
We got the sound of gunshots when Kojo's family were being shot by the children refuge.
There're some scenes when the man in the hotel was banging on the door, Abdul did the sound by hitting the floor hard.
At the end of the play, while some of the characters were saying their facts, the spotlight hit on them one by one according to the order they speak, to highlight them out as other characters will be on stage too.
Abi Morgan was born in 1968 in Cardiff, Wales. She was born into a family which was almost the stereotype of a theatrical family. Her father Gareth Morgan was the Artistic Director of the Gulbenkian Theatre in Newcastle and her mother Pat England was a successful repertory actor. Her parents divorced when she was in her teen year and her childhood was spent moving around the country while her mother acted in repertory theatre. She had attended seven separate schools during her childhood. Her sister is the fund-raiser at London's Unicorn Theatre.
After initial ambitions to become an actress herself, she decided to become a writer while reading drama and literature at Exeter University. She then took a postgraduate writing course at the Central School of Speech and Drama.
Her writing career
She made her debut for the stage with "Skinned" at Nuffield Theatre in 1998. She has written plays for some well-known theatre like National Theatre of Scotland, the Royal Court and Traverse Theatre. She got nominated as the most promising playwright at 2002 because of the 2001 play "Tender" for the Hampstead Theatre.
She was then commissioned to write the single drama "Sex Traffic" for Channel 4 in 2004 and won the 2005 BAFTA award for Best Drama Serial. She has since written a number of single dramas for television including "Tsunami: The Aftermath" in 2006, "Birdsong" in 2012 (it's a two-part television adaption of Sebastian Faulks's novel of the same title). She also wrote the legal drama "The Split", first shown on BBC1 in April 2018.
Morgan's first continuing drama series was "The Hour" in 2011. It was commissioned for a second series but cancelled after the second series was transmitted, all because of its ratings have been one quarter lower than the first.
In Abi Morgan's drama, the humanity and the disempowering nature of ideological structures are in a dance of constant tension with one another.
Click here to read more about Abi Morgan's experiences she shares with Simon Stephens
A refugee camp is intended as a temporary accommodation for people who have been forced to flee their home because of violence and persecution. Hostility built shelters means immediate protection, the camps allow UNHCR to deliver essential resources like food, water and medical attention during an emergency. They are constructed while crises unfold for people fleeing for their lives. More facts about refugees and refugee camp
2.6million refugees live in camps. Million more live in urban areas and informal dwellings.
80,000 number of refugees living in Za'atari refugee camp in Jordan. This is approximately the population of Scranton, Pennsylvania.
55% of refugees come from just three countries, Syria, Afghanistan and South Sudan.
By the end of 2016, 65.6 million individuals were forcibly displaced worldwide as a result of persecution, conflict, violence, or human rights violations. That was an increase of 300,000 people over the previous year.
3.5million of refugees that are school-age children not in school.
Bangladesh
Bangladesh has announced plans to build a refugee camp that could accommodate around 800,000 Rohingya Muslims pouring over the border from Myanmar. The camp would be the largest in the world.
The UN's refugee agency estimates there are an unprecedented 65.5 million refugees in the world today, split between urban centers or informal settlements, and more formal camps.
Here are some of the largest of these camps based on UN figures.
Bidibidi, Uganda: 285,000
Dadaab, Kenya:239,500
Kakuma, Kenya: 185,000
Nyarugusu, Tanzania:139,630
Zaatari, Jordan:80,140
One of the refugee companies in the UK
The REFUGEE COUNCIL is one of the leading charities in the UK working directly with refugees and supporting them to rebuild their lives.
The charity was founded in 1951 in response to the UN Convention for Refugees, which was created after World War II to ensure refugees were able to find safety in other countries. Since then, the Refugee Council has provided practical and emotional support to refugees from across the world to help them rebuild their lives and play a full part in society.
Children Soldiers
Thousands of children are serving as soldiers in armed conflicts around the world. These boys and girls, some as young as 8 years old, serve in government forces and armed opposition groups. They may fight on the front lines, participate in suicide missions, and act as spies, messengers, or lockouts. Girls may be forced into sexual slavery. Many are abducted or recruited by force, while others join out of desperation, believing that armed groups offer their best chance for survival.
Click here to watch children soldiers talking about their experiences and escapes
How are the pieces of information aiding me in my acting?...
From my research, I was surprised by the huge amount of vulnerable people around the world, I never knew there are so many people suffering for their whole life worrying about a safe place to live. By putting myself into the world of theirs, as a manager, I'm getting more realistic emotions inside me. I helped myself by imagine if my refugee camp is not the kind of very big ones, and only be able to support children, everything would start making sense as a child over 18 is considered as a young adult. In the play, I believe that Kojo is only 14, but for the social worker, it's impossible for him to believe a 14-year-old child will have hair on his face.
I've never experienced the situation like them or have any knowledge about this before knowing the play. The sympathy I feel for them can also be shown in the play as a manager.
And why, I pray you? Who might be your mother,
that you insult, exult, and all at once, over the wretched?
What though you have no beauty.
As, by my faith, I see no more in you than without candle may go dark to bed.
Must you be therefore proud and pitiless?
Why? What means this? Why do you look on me?
I see no more in you than in the ordinary of nature's sale work.
Od's my little life, I think she means to tangle my eyes too!
No, faith, proud mistress, hope not after it:
Tis not your inky brows, your black silk hair,
your bugle eyeballs, nor your cheek of cream,
that can entame my spirits to your worship.
You foolish shepherd, wherefore do you follow her,
like foggy south puffing with wind and rain?
You are a thousand times a properer man than she a woman:
Tis such fools as you that makes the world full of ill-favour'd children:
Tis not her glass, but you, that flatters her.
And out of you, she sees herself more proper than any of her lineaments can show her.
But, mistress, know yourself, down on your knees, and thank heaven,
fasting, for a good man's love:
For I must tell you friendly in your ear,
sell when you can, you are not for all markets:
Cry the man mercy, love him, take his offer,
Foul is most foul, being foul to be a scoffer, so take her to thee, shepherd:
Fare you well.
About the monologue
This monologue took place in a Shakespeare's play As You Like It (Act 3 Scene 5). It's where when Rosalind and the group from the court encountered a young shepherd, Silvius in the forest. They watched him being rejected by a shepherdess, Phoebe, as he declares his love for her. During the scene, Rosalind is in the role of Ganymede (a male character).
About Rosalind
throughout the play, we could see that Rosalind is an example of ingenuity, good humor, and patience. She also proves to be a truly loyal friend. In this lesson, we will learn more about this admirable heroine.
How I want it to be performed?...
As Rosalind is not being herself in this monologue, but her strong personality is still there, the heroine side of her is shown strongly in this monologue. In the play, Rosalind can't stand the way Pheobe rejected the love from the young shepherd, Silvius, so she as Ganymede (male version of Rosalind) was giving exhortations to Pheobe, telling her that she should appreciate for a man's love and also she's not for all market. As a male character acting by a female character, it's a new challenge for me. Imagine me being a guy, I will put my chest out and look at the person I'm talking to straight in the eyes. The way I speak need to be strong and full of energy, it needs to be powerful enough not only for the characters in the play to believe that I am a guy but also the audience. I will not do any girly actions like playing with my hair or putting them behind my ear.
Feedback by tutor
feedback from tutor, Rob
What went well?...
My voice projection
The energy I brought up
I know my character very well, I am able to get the right expressions at the right timing
Even better if...
Focus at only one spot for the imaginary character, I tend to look over the space when I'm speaking to the person.
Keep the energy strong not only during performances, rehearsals are important as well.
Overall (evaluation): I forgot my lines halfway and not able to continue it, I should spend more time practicing my monologue when I'm free (before going to bed or the free time when I am traveling from home to college). What I did really bad with my monologue was I did not get a very clear imaginary character there, so when I was supposed to speak to her I look all over the space instead. Overall for this monologue exam, I need urge myself to practice more and more, not only to memorize properly with my script also to really act it out to see the difference.
I think instead of where am I, I would like to know where I want to be. Not a place that I want to be in, but an improvement and target I want to hit. Throughout the whole two terms, I've learned a lot.
In term 1... Romeo and Juliet I've learned to stay in character even though I got nothing to say. I'm able to understand that everyone on stage is important, it won't be a perfect show if one of us left, no matter how small your part is. I always look out at my position, I will never allow my back facing the audience zone during a performance, and for others as well, I will cheat on my feet and move a little distance away when I see myself blocking others. I'm always aware of the 'Kiss or Kill' position, I will only go near to one character when there's a necessary scene that says I need to, besides, I will stay more than a foot away from the character, this can prevent from stopping the character to move or do actions. We also did a lot of work about understanding on our character, the play focuses on two families and the detest between them. We were told to think of our character's background that doesn't show in the story, in order to give ourselves a rough outline of our character. In my first term, I also learned about freeze frame, we did a very cool freeze frame at the beginning of Romeo and Juliet play, both groups of people stood opposite each other, showing their hatred and ferocious face towards each other. I am able to freeze in a pose and not losing any of the energy even though the time is long. Overall, In this term, we've worked a lot on the basic acting skills and improved them to a higher level. Now, I'm still remembering the 5-top-tips that I learned from the workshop in Shaw Theatre. I will never forget what I learned from there and will take those abilities to work better for my upcoming performances this year. In term 2... The Three Sisters & The York Realist We focused more on ensemble work, with the instructor from Donmar Warehouse, Toby. He has taught us many fun warm-ups like passing invisible energy ball, WA, etc.(more details here Sessions with Toby ) During the sessions with him, I found it really fun to start the class with games and end it with games as well, apparently we did a lot of gaming stuff. But surprisingly, they're all exercises that will build up our ability in acting unwittingly, that's the reason why I enjoyed a lot in Toby's lesson. I've learned how to improvise a short scene and also a short script, I might run out of ideas but if I continue to practice more or do more improvising exercises, I will be just as good as others. Memorizing script is really not my kind of thing as I got a short-term-memory brain, I will need to work harder than others all the time to catch up their speed. But since I've got contact with drama course before in my high school, I have skills that can make me more prevailing, at least not the worst. I learnt how to stay engaged with the others to present a very good teamwork, During the York Realist that we're performing, most of the scenes are to fill up the space and leave no big gaps, especially when we're playing with the energy ball. Also to stay with other characters on stage even if I have nothing to say in the scene for example, at the beginning of the scene of The Three Sisters, I interacted with Jaychelle (Olga) to show a closer relationship for the sisters. As both of us were sitting on a table, audience could see our legs under the table, so we sometimes kick each other to show how playful we were when we are with each other.
a feedback sheet we need to fill in ourselves
This is a feedback sheet for us to fill in ourselves, to know how we did in the past few months. My understanding of text - I understand text very well, I am able to tell the important points in a single sentence of what the character wanted to show. My vocal projection - My projection of voice is not always a problem, I always had a louder voice during performance and I am able to let my voice be heard by the last row of the audience. Timing - I often spend too much time memorizing my lines and I will lose my ques to say it because I did not spend time knowing what others say first. Character - Same as my lines, I need more time than others to did it well, so I often drop out of character during rehearsals. Movement - I usually do not show my nervousness on stage, so this is not a problem for me. I know exactly where I need to be the minute I stand on stage. I am aware of my blocking so that I do not show my back to the audience. Focus - I put a lot of concentration during rehearsals, I actually need to work harder than others because I'm a very forgetful person, so during each rehearsal, I will put my best effort to remember everything and get all the instructions from tutor or others and also will note them down after.
My overall target and achievement: I need to work hard at picking up cues to prevent long pausing. In order to do well with my characterization, I can do some research about my character to know about their background, also search about what others think of this character because each person will have a different idea. This is the way to learn about my character well. I get to see which is the best way to play my character. How have I developed the skills I possess?...
My understanding of text actually aids me to memorize my lines faster, I get to understand the subtext in each sentence and also their objectives. I remember someone said that to me but I can't remember the person, he told me that 'the audience will never know if I said my lines wrongly'. These few years, I've always remembered this and so when I get my role for a play, I will look deeply into my character first and understand why would my character say each line. Because I can change the sentence myself but I can't change the personality of a character in a play.
I love to sing, vocal warm-ups has been my everyday routine, even though I can't sing really well, but lucky that I could still project my voice nicely. The reason I did vocal warm-up every day it's to avoid voice cracking every morning. It's a really embarrassing thing if you want to say a good morning to your neighbour in the morning but your voice crack. Most people think that vocal warm-up is just doing some weird sound that's it, yes if I want to project my voice nicely. But for an actor, that's definitely not enough, sometimes I do tongue twister as well, it leads me to pronounce every word clearly.
I also developed my movements on a stage, This is a hard one actually because some people will move more when they're nervous or some will be opposite but what if they're not supposed to that with their character? It's gonna be not natural enough to watch at. I am able to stay calm on stage and move to the blocking I'm supposed to be.
I was involved in the first scene where everything began and also the most important part of the play, the audience will observe the personality of the characters at the beginning in order to understand the whole play. During the very beginning, there was a very long period of me not saying anything, it will be very dry for the audience to watch if one of the characters sits at the corner reading book quietly while the others were having non-stop conversation.
I added some interactions with Jaychelle as she was sitting next to me to show the relationship between the sisters like peaking at what she was writing the whole time and make an expression to show that I'm not interested in that boring thing at all. When I get bored at reading my book, I kicked Jaychelle softly under the table and got smacked by her because of my playfulness. Another example was when I walked my way to kiss Kenya, she doesn't want to be kissed or be touched by me because I decided to leave earlier on her birthday, but I touched her shoulder on purpose just to show that I don't even care if she hates me.
Interactions between the sisters can be very strong in the play, even though I don't talk much throughout the whole beginning, the audience still gets to see that I'm actually in the scene with other characters.
One of the things that were being worked out perfectly was the pace of entering the scene and our cues to speak. During our rehearsals, everyone was tired and not being in their character and stuff, but there was a complete reversion during the performance.
Also, there was a scene where I need to shout "Lets drink and be damn" before the birthday dinner gets heat up, it was a very bold sentence. I definitely knew I did better than during rehearsals, as I gave in more energy. I got a lot of amazing feedback from others for what I did on the performance. I would really be looking forward making another huge improvement in my next performance. Feedback from others:
The interactives between me and two other sisters were nice to watch, the audience gets to tell we're in a close relationship.
The shout was unbelievably good, as it was louder than when I was rehearsing. The craziness inside Masha was being released.
16th March (Friday) The York Realist
At the beginning of our performance, we are able to show the audience many different ways of us playing with the energy ball. There were some of us passing the ball with very slow pace and very carefully, also some that speed up the pace and pass the ball with full tension to keep the scene fresh. I went in the scene wanting to catch the ball before other people did, it makes me become a more competitive character on stage.
During the war in Molly's scene, instead of just shooting people from the other side, I put in some exaggerated expressions to make the audience feel interesting, for examples, staring at the person on the opposite side fiercely, and also a shouting expression but not really shouting out as I do not want to over cover the background music. In Abdul's scene, when we were supposed to move from the side to the center of the scene, I make my movements as slow as possible. I started with squatting on the ground, and slowly coming up until 50% of my body is straight as I was moving along with others. Then only completely straight facing the front when I'm in the center. I actually do like this part because audience gets to see the levels between us, by doing this we can also prevent from blocking Abdul before he finishes saying his lines.
In Georgina's scene when every one of us was standing in two lines going on with our own conversation, I was standing at the very front. To make it good for audience to watch, I actually added a few expression, I was pretending that I broke something from one of the family members, at first I was frightened and kept saying sorry to her, after a few seconds I started crying as my apology was not accepted. I heard people shouting, singing or scolding behind me to make a very noisy environment to show the situation in Georgina's house, so I decided to make a crying little scene for that. Everyone did great in this scene, although is a overall scene with everyone, and the audience probably did not look into every character but I think all of us put in our best in that scene.
Also, the scene I enjoyed the most was Malcom's scene, we danced around while Malcom was DJing, it was really fun to be crazy on stage during a performance. We totally influenced the audience as I know most of them were being driven by the music and also us.
Overall evaluation:I think all of us did very well with the ensemble work, it's gonna be impossible for one person to do a performance like this. I had a great time being the foil of other people's story, even though I don't have my own story. In this performance, I've learnt that everyone is important in a performance no matter how small your part is. A perfect show is just about building up all small parts to perform a big performance.
We walked around the space without leaving any big gap between each one of us. And each time, Toby will add in a movement for us and we need to quickly react to it when he shouted words that represent those movements.
Here are the words for the movements of this exercise
Clap - clap together
Jump - jump together
Side - use the fastest speed to move to the side, standing straight and be ready to get back into space
Center - quickly move to the center of the space, standing like the atoms in a solid.
Survivor - one person in the group stays standing, and the others will kneel down on the floor
Sacrifice - opposite from 'survivor', only one person will kneel down while the others stay standing at where they were.
TV - There will be an invisible television and all of us need to squeeze to the front together in order to watch what's on the television
What did I learn from above?...
This exercise is to let us work together and assemble with the others in a group. Like 'Survivor' and 'Sacrifice', none of us know who's going to be the one different, we can only communicate with each other by using eye contact. This exercise is also helping everyone to stay focus on the activity and concentrate on what Toby is going to say next in order to stay engaged with the group. I need to be in a multitask situation while assembling with the others because most of us forgot our first objective was to fill in the space whilst walking without leaving more gaps in between.
Then, everyone stood in a circle like how we play 'WA'. But this game needed everyone to look down and when we were asked to look up we need to pick a person to look at. If the person you're looking at is also looking at you, then both of you are out.
What did I learn from this game?... This was an intensive game, it made my heart pound as I was waiting for Toby to say look up, I do not want to lose the game so quickly, so in my heart, I was wishing that the person I'm going to look at wasn't looking at me. But it was also a surprise when you found out that the person you're looking at is also looking at you, it was something like a tacit understanding. I don't think it's a bad thing as if I am an audience, I would love to watch if there's something like that on stage. Looks like the characters on stage are related in some kind of way. "This is for you." "For me?" "Yes, for you." "Thank you." All of us sat in a circle facing everyone and someone started off with the first line by walking towards a person he wanted to pass an invisible gift to. The person receiving will say the pink lines. All of us need to react with each line we said, including when we're going to pass a gift to someone. It must be creative and contain with stories. I did mine like this...
When Malcom handed me a gift, I received it with full of confusion to show that he'll never give me a gift for nothing. I opened that gift, it was a smaller box inside and when I open the second box, again, a smaller one. As I was opening the gift I became more and more angry because of being fooled by Malcom. Bringing the anger with me, I hand another gift to Abdul angrily too, I walked to where he was sitting at a faster pace and saying my lines in a higher volume.
What did I get from above?...
I got to see different ways of how people reacting to their gift and how they tried to build the story. I found it interesting by them reacting with exaggerated facial expression. This was a game to build up our creative ability, to produce something that everyone else couldn't see with our actions and expressions.
27th February (Tuesday) 3rd session We did an exercise before starting the class. In the first round - we pointed at anything in the room and said their names out loud. In the second round - we pointed at anything in the room but saying names of other things. For example, I was pointing at the chairs but said bags. In the third round - we pointed at anything in the room and gave them random names that do not even exist. For examples, saying "rondidondi" or "gatalala" at anything. In the fourth round - At first, we need to point at a thing but not saying its name first, then point at the second thing and say the name of the previous thing. For example, I point at the lights first and then point again to the projector, but saying lights when I am pointing at the projector and so on. Which round I found easy and which is hard?... The easiest one must be the first one because whenever I point at a thing, the name of that thing will pop up into my brain even without thinking of it. I think the fourth one is hard for me because I must be really focusing if not I will keep saying the original names of those things I was pointing.
We did another exercise that was about improvising, everyone will be in pairs and we started off with saying "no, but..." whenever we wanted another person to stop telling the story, then we will need to start with another story until that person stops you with "no, but...". The second one was "yes, and...", this will able the story to continue but in their own different way. For example, Jaychelle started with a line "The other day, I was walking down the street..." then I interrupted her with "yes, and..." and continued with "... there was a homeless guy eating fried chicken..." and she will come in to interrupt me with her lines. What I think about this exercise?... I found this difficult because I will run out of stories as the game going further and further. This exercise actually helped me to think faster and to pay more attention to one thing, I will definitely need to think fast during a performance and be able to improvise with something when other characters couldn't remember their lines.
After that, everyone stood in a circle and one person went into the center and froze in a pose/action, the second person then had to go in to improvise a short scene with the first person, the first person will need to work with it as well. When people outside think the story was going bored, they could shout "freeze" and pat on the first person's shoulder then the person who shouted "freeze" will now be the second person. Only one person can shout "freeze" at a time. Everyone will take their turns to go in and improvise a scene base on the action of that person inside. What did I learn from above?... Toby always reminds us of how we need to work as a group. This exercise helped us to be brave and step in to help out others when their scenes were getting boring. We then started another word game, which we need to create a story starting with "Once upon a time" and end it with "They lived happily ever after". Each person can only say one word each round. We kinda failed it in the first game as everyone was giving out random words and the story was unable to be connected at all. During the second game, some people weren't listening to others carefully, and there were so many long pausing in between and the game just couldn't continue smoothly. In the third game, Toby asked all of us to close our eyes in order to focus on our hearing and be concentrate on what did others said. I think the story was going on well, at least better than the first time. There were still some cracks in between like random words were added in, but we were able to finish the whole story.
5th March (Monday) 4th session
We began with a person holding an invisible energy ball, in order to pass to someone else, we need to clap our hands towards the person and the person will need to clap his hands to receive it. We were walking in the space as usual, Toby then passes an energy ball to someone to start the whole exercise. During the exercise, few people tried to make it interesting by adding some movements rather than just clapping hands. As the game went along, we started to put in levels from low to high while we were catching the ball or when we wanted to pass it.
Slowly, Toby took people out to give them objectives, for examples, Ilonka came in being really kind, whenever she gets the ball, she will pass it to someone by walking slowly towards him and clap softly to pass it hand over hand. In the opposite, Georgina came in to start blocking everyone's clap. What went differently?... Everyone started to play in a more energetic way as people tried to catch the ball will many big movements like jumping or sliding over the floor and in between of it some people will slow down the pace by having the ball for a longer time to increase the tension between all of us. Toby then asked everyone out one by one and left only Molly in the space. He then added people in again but this time once they get the ball, they will have to do a daily routine in the space and shout "This is where I live" after 10 seconds. There're many different movements like martial arts by Abe and Jeremy did his sprinting, Ilonka was drawing. When it's my turn to join in the space, I thought of a movement which was sleeping on the floor as I love to sleep and my routine will be way more smooth and chill compare to others, I thought this will be a way to stand out in audience eyes because it would be really boring if everyone was going to do all big movements. After that, we started to work on the story that Toby wanted us to write about, a thing/person that makes us feel comfortable with. There will be two groups working on different things, Molly will be working on hers. It was about her being around with her little brother. And Kamal, Gabriel and I will work with Ilonka's story, it was about the place that she feels comfortable with. What I think about Ilonka's story?...Without knowing we're actually going to perform this in the Donmar Theatre, I really think Ilonka's story is very beautiful. It was about trying to escape from a place called "home", but when she really got out from there, the cruel wind and lonely feel make her think of returning back to that home which is also the safest place to be. Words she used in her story and the emotions, and how she described the place and all that feeling around her. It was a really nice piece to work on. But due to the lack of time, we did not really get it well at the first time of working on that.
