Rofiat Ajisegiri LSC performing Arts 16/17

It is now almost 15 years since Damilola Taylor died.  Damilola lost his life because of enormous problems in this society. his family moved to  London from Nigeria

the play Fallout by Roy Williams was introduced to us and we read the script to this play for the next few lessons  in order to help us understand the script so that we will know what we were doing before casting the play out. After finishing reading the play, we were casted parts from the play and I was given the part of Ronnie. Getting to know Ronnie I had to do a lot of research and ask myself different type of questions like what are their personality traits etc., as for Ronnie I thought she was a unique girl she was always left out and people didn't really like her much, from the script I knew she was in love with Dwayne and she loved Shanice as well because she was her best friend because people didn't really like her .They called her a troll because they didn't like her , she was a working class girl who was very lazy and she was just 17 years old , she got kicked out of school at the age of 16 . she doesn't believe in god because she doesn't really hav

From the devising piece the strengths within the performance was when ; we used multimedia to show the audience what the piece was going to be about, at the beginning of the piece  we used the projection to show how police act toward people and what stop and search had led to. we also used multimedia at different parts of the piece. we used sound effects and music to set different atmospheres.  we used proxemics in our piece to communicate the perception of the police as hunters of young people, we did this by moving in large group in unison to show that were trying to intimidate young people. we used the sound effects of us stamping our feet as an ensemble  to show how intimidating the police were, also the music we used was a panic song and it helped build tension and suspense leaving the audience to wonder what was going to happen next. we used projection with our vocal range, body language and facial expressions when we had to come out of the frozen image from the party s

in this lesson we decided to try and extend the second to last scene of our piece where the police were chasing the youths, we had to find a way to move around and use the space in order to communicate the idea of the police hunting the two young people. We wanted to fully experiment and play around with proxemics to show the control and intimidating nature of the police.   so we decided to use the entire space by making the youth run on stage to the centre stage so that the police can come after them together walking and moving in unison to create suspense and create tension and then we use slow motion to create tension we slowly turned our heads around to look at them and then quickly turn.  then the youth ran away upstage and froze so we the police turned around in canon to go after them then we froze and swapped position to tell them to stop three different times to show the controlling nature of the police. then the youth ran back to centre stage then we all surrounded them

For this lesson we were talking about how to improve the transition since it was the next day after our first performance of the show on the 17th of November with the audiences comments on how we could improve our performance. From the responses we got we decided to add more stuff to the piece to help us make it better so this lesson we decided ; To add an audio asking the audience if they have ever been stopped and searched before to get them engaged in the scene.  we also added music (siren) to the transition scene from the mother and son scene into 'this is Trey scene'. we also changed the transition of the next scene by leaving the characters on stage whilst the rest leaves in order to increase the pace of the transitions. we also decided to add sound effect to the second to the last scene to create the effect of being locked up in prison.

for this lesson we decided what order we wanted the piece we made since we did them in random order so we had to talk as a group and decide which one goes in were and why, then we rehearsed it in the different orders we suggested and it didn't work or make much sense. then we decided to make it in this order because it was understandable and it was easier and faster to transit from one scene to the order. During this lesson we were able to give our ideas on how to improve the scene or the order, it also helped us think about the transition and how we could improve it and make it faster and better.

first few lessons.

we were rehearsing what we made from the research we did on stop and search  and the videos we watched in order to help us develop this idea. first we started with the mother and son scene where the mother is talking to her son about staying home and protection and he accidently talked about 'protection' as in he carries knife. we did this scene by using the ensemble to create tension by stamping their foot each time the son mentions 'going out' this created tension because it could infer that going out is dangerous . then we transitioned into the next scene by running downstage and then round the exit to get back upstage . then we did the scene with Trey going to school and being stopped and searched because of how he was dressed, but then they didn't find anything on him so the ensemble reacted by sighing . And then we did the LED light scene where we used the LED lights to show the police searching people , we all moved in chorus to show the effect of the pe

for our dance lessons we have been practising a new dance choreography about a play called urinetown, this was choreographed by our dance teacher Albertos  ;

for the next lesson we came into class with three songs we had listened too and chosen to sing for the jazz night, then we listened to all of them and attempted singing them, we also had to altered some parts of the song to our ability.  i chose;  Cry me a river - Diana Krall  At last - Etta James If i can't have you - Etta James i chose these songs because i felt like they were different to the type of songs i would normally chose to sing, also its challenging to sing. then we had to go home as homework learn the song and bring a printed copy of the lyrics back to class ready to be practised in lesson.

 For the next two lessons we came back and we all had to tell the stories from the assignment given and then we wrote a letter to the person that was involved in our story and we were told to tell them how we felt on that day and what we wished we could have said. After writing the letter we had to read it to the whole class.  the purpose of that lesson was to help us whilst acting, especially when we have to act scared or sad, we were told to think of a time that we felt like that. e.g. when we have to act sad , we need to think of a time we felt sad and a time that makes us feel sad . this helps us whilst acting because we will look sad and more natural because we were thinking of a time we felt sad so it wouldn't be /look exaggerated.

For the second lesson we were introduced to Konstantin Stanislavski and his techniques Naturalism and Stanislavski Constantin Stanislavski was a Russian stage actor and director, he  believed in naturalistic performances that were as realistic as possible, and he developed the naturalistic performance technique known as the "Stanislavsky method". Emotion Memory; requires that an actor think of an event from the past in order to regenerate the feelings they experienced at that time. These feelings that have been regenerated are then used in the current acting for example ; As an assignment we were told to think of a time we felt really upset , frightened or angry. And to come back and describe what happened and also where we were,we had to describe the feel, the surrounding , the sound, the time of day etc. We had to give as much detail as possible. this is linked to emotion memory because it will help us explore having to regenerate emotions in order to used them wh

For the first lesson we did a couple of warm up exercises and ice brakers to get to know each other, then we did a couple of characterisation excersies which helped us learn how to characterise. we did a master and servant exercise which helped us understand the difference between having power and not having power. this also helped us understand how the characters were feeling. From that lesson I was able to see the difference between how much energy you had to include in the way you act as being the servant because you had to obey every order made by the master. it would be even better if I gave feedbacks to what others did.

Todays lesson we did the same warm up routine we normally do then we had to sing three different songs as well in order to help us practise holding to our lines whilst singing different parts of a song as an ensemble.  we then all learnt 'our love is here to stay' together as a group , then we all had to sing it as a solo . I wasn't able to sing the first part properly at first because I didn't practise it enough because I  kept stopping when I made a mistake, however when I heard others sing their parts I listened to it and practised sing it , then I was able to get it right. As home work we had to go listen and learn three other jazz songs in order to perform it at the Tuesday night jazz club which will start next week.

we did the same warm up we normally do , then we received a new song to learn. this was a totally different type of song because it was jazz and it is called 'they cant take that away from me' then we had to learn the song which we sang over and over again. we then received another song which we had to go home and learn the melody and that song was called 'our love is here to stay'.

For a good vocal health you need to get a lot of sleep, drink plenty of water, and participate in exercise, you also need to make sure that you; Drink plain water to keep your vocal cords moist. Sip water on breaks when singing to moist the vocal cord. When the throat is dry its bad for your vocal health, so you to make sure that you avoid doing these things; Smoking; It dries and irritates the throat. Alcohol; dries the throat. Talking while smoking is very damaging. Caffeine also dries the throat. so avoid it or limit your intake. Never yell or scream in conversation, especially in dry climates. For your voice to work, your voice needs: A power supply; The power for your voice comes from your breath. You talk or sing using the air you breathe out . Your spine supports the air you need when talking or singing. A sound source;  The sound for your voice comes from your vibrating vocal cords. The vocal cords are small bands of muscle inside the larynx. When the edges of

After the individual assessment we all sat down and talked about our strengths and weakness and how we could have made the assessment better. then we were given feedback from Tom the musical theatre teacher then he gave us all a melody to sing then we had to sing it by ourselves and he gave us feedback from what we did.  I was able to sing the melody he gave us to sing however I wasn't able to hit the note properly at first because I had a cold and sour throat we was just clearing off. however I did hit the note after clearing my throat .

After practising the song for a few lessons we had our individual assessments which we had a one to one assessment with the teacher tom, we did a few warms ups then we had to sing the song we were practising for the past few lessons which is called seasons of love. before the individual assessments we did a group warm up then we had to wait outside the classroom for our turn or go to the hub and work on the written task given as homework. in my assessment I felt like it was alright , however I could have done better and listened to the notes being played before singing it in order to keep it in tune and also I could have open my mouth wider in order to tune the song and give it a louder pitch. But overall I think the assessment was okay,.

for the next lesson we did the same warm ups and after that we started singing the song we learnt from the music sheet. then we were separated into three music groups upper girls lower girls upper boys I was in the upper girls group and we were taught how to sing our parts, at first I found it hard because I felt like the notes were too high to reach then afterwards I was able to hit the notes. however I wasn't able to stick in my part because there were two other parts being sung so sometimes I end up singing the upper boys part. And we kept on practising and practising for the next few lessons.

on the first day we did a few warm ups as the foundation of what the rest of the lessons are going to be about.  the first warm up we do was the 'nio-wio-nio-wio-wi'  exercise which we do in order to be able to pitch our tone of voice and articulate our words. This also warms up/wake up the muscles in our face. then we do the 'La La - La-la-la-la' exercise which helps us open our lungs and project our voices. then we do the 'popa-cata-peddle' exercise which helped learn to open our mouth as we sing because we sing it really fast and it also warms up our lips . the we do the La-la-la-la   La-la-la  Laaaaaaaaaaa to helps us tune our voice to the right pitch, it also helps us project our voices and it improves how long we can hold the length of the note. And then we were given a music sheet and we were taught how to read it .

in the devising classes we started off with the warms up on the first day , which were like the foundation of what the lesson was going to be about. we were also set an assignment for the next lesson to search and learn more about stop and search. the next day we talked about our research and we developed our ideas with the information we found out about. we then wrote down the facts and more useful information from the research in other to use it in the future . we were then split into groups of two teams; the police.         And the young teenager. I was in the young teenager group and we were told to make up two different sentences for the teenager to say   with an action that represents them and what they are saying, we had to use choral movement and speech whilst doing this to represent one body/person. After practising this we then perform it to each other and gave each other feedbacks on what we could improve on.