Rofiat Ajisegiri LSC performing Arts 16/17

After reading the play Mother Figure i have discovered that Lucy's character might have postnatal depression due to the symptoms of the illness and how it's evidently linked to her behaviour in the play. ( click link to read blog -http://rofiatajisegiril3performingarts.blogspot.co.uk/2017/10/blogging-research.html ) I have also carried out detailed research on postnatal depression in order to deeply understand the emotional perspective of this character( here is a link to a website that talks about all the different types of depression that can affect new mothers - http://everyonesbusiness.org.uk/?page_id=6 )   ,After researching about post natal depression i read the following case study of someone who also suffered from the illness. ( http://mummyitsok.com/blog/my-postpartum-depression/ ) this helps to understand how the charcter is actually feeling so i can truthfully react to her in a way that wont make it look exaggerated because the style of the play is natu

What is naturalism? Naturalism is a form of creating the illusion of reality for an audience. It’s is very bealiveable and it is not always glamorous. In order to portray the theatricality of naturalism in a play you need to be able to; pay a lot of attention to detail. slow paced. 3D characters (attention to detail) . very authentic. Domestic settings.  Naturalism is like a slice of reality, it should absorb the audience in the play because it always comments on human behaviour, nature and the relationships. 

John Godber was a drama teacher in Thatcherite Britain, how does this influence the theme and theatrical style of the play Teechers? John Godber was a drama teacher in Thatcherite Britain and this influenced the play Teechers in various ways,  the play had subtle messages behind it, for example when Mr Nixon was talking to Mr Bashford.  Below are the main aspects of his past that i think might have affected the theme of the play whilst John Godber was a teacher in Thatcherite Britain. Margaret Thatcher became Britain’s Conservative party leader and then became the first woman to hold the position of prime minister in 1979. She was prime minister for 11 years (1979 -1990) and was nicknamed “Iron Lady”. During her three terms, she cut social welfare programs, reduced trade union power and privatized certain industries.  Thatcher was first subsequently appointed the cabinet as secretary of state for education and science - This could have affected the theme of the play because t

After working on my vocal weaknesses i research a few more things to do in order to improve them and make them my strength and i found theses exercises and what they do; Relaxing the jaw -  This is so important, it creates room in the mouth for the tongue to move freely, which is the part of our mouth that creates the shapes for us to articulate sounds , so it really helps with oral resonance. Try saying “ahhhh” with a tense jaw and then hear the difference when you allow the jaw to drop open. Do this a few times to warm up your jaw and it will help relax it. Strengthen your tongue.  Do exercises such as letting the jaw drop open and pointing out the tongue, touching it to the top lip, bottom lip, top teeth, bottom teeth, top gum ridge behind your top teeth, and the bottom gum ridge behind your bottom teeth, the hard palate and the floor of mouth. Repeat the sequence five times and don’t forget to breathe or make sure that the jaw  remains relaxed! Breathe consciously.   Brea

Themes / ideas in our play  Motherhood / Motherly love.  Suspense. Friendship. Relationship (struggles). confusion. Change of identity after becoming a mother. Research  . Confusions  was written in 1974 by Alan Ayckbourn. it is stylised and it deals with common theme of loneliness and relationships and especially change of identity when joining parenthood. Alan Ayckbourn said  "I don't think that I've ever been a political writer, but I think I've been a social writer,". He is interested in the world around him even though he genuinely writes about the domestics which had full real emotion and pain, and even violence. He used the elements as subtle message through the use of comedy and theatrical ingenuity. https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2014/mar/28/alan-ayckbourn-never-political-social-writer I believe that the cultural context of the play is that "Women stays at home to look after the cave , whilst men goes out hunting for food fo

Q1.Reflecting back to when you first started your voice and actor unit how would you describe your voice? When I first started the voice and actor  unit I think my voice was weak because my clarity whilst projecting was really bad. I found it hard to clearly say my lines whilst trying to project. Also I wasn't able to articulate well  because I have an accent so saying the lines clearly and articulate was hard for me and it felt like a tongue twister.  Q2. Once you began to be more aware of your voice when working on text, what would you describe as vocal strength as a performer? When working on text , I think my vocal strength was projection and breath control these are my strengths because I was able to project my words in order for the audience to hear me, I did this by picking a point on the wall and then I sent my lines to it. Breath control  helped me process my words without losing too much breath in order to stop me being breathless whilst saying my lines. Q3. Onc

John Godber aims to create pop theatre. In what ways does his play ‘Teechers’ achieve this? John Godber is from the Northern part of England in Yorkshire, his father was a miner, he was seven years old when he first went to the theatre to watch a dance piece and that made him very interested in theatre.  He was first interested in sports and working out but then he went to a drama school called Bretton hall because he had a real desire to interest people in real life plays that highlights real life problems in his society, he also had the desire to communicate the importance of drama, theatre and culture. He didn’t fit in at his school because of his look, people thought he was there for the bricklaying course because he was very Hench due to his interest in weightlifting.   He wanted to make a type of theatre that can access everyone (pop theatre) in order to communicate stories about ordinary street life. John Godber was labelled as a Northern playwright because he was from

                                        vocal health programme                                                                    Strengths                                       Weaknesses  Clarity    Breath control  Articulation Projection   Pace Pitch   Tone of voice  Line delivery    Breath control is one of my weaknesses and I need to work on this because when I'm on stage saying my lines I run out of breath because I don't breathe properly from my diaphragm so I need to practise breathing from the diaphragm. In order to do this i need to follow this step by step process in order to improve. Step 1: I need  to stand feet comfortably apart arms by my side . Step 2: then breathe in for four. Step 3: hold it four four. Step 4: breathe out for four. And then carry this on from four to six to eight to twelve to sixteen to twenty four.  I also practice breathing from the diaphragm  by laying down

Explain why your character say certain lines that you feel a bit confused about initially? Ans ;  i think my character says some lines to cover up the fact that she is being laughed at, or maybe she just covers up the fact that she is trying to make conversation but they don't want to have a conversation with her so she just keeps waffling until she gets cut off. And sometimes i feel like she just says it just to be involved in the conversation. Give at least 3 examples? Ans ; the first example is when shulay says to her 'why do girls think it's okay to bum about play football all day and stink up the place' . And then Samantha replies saying ' that Pheromones that's what that is ' -  i think she said this just to hide the fact that she smells because of football just so her classmates don't laugh her. 2; I think when she started waffling about her playing a prank on students is to get her classmates to be interested in what she is saying an

Unit 50: Movement in Performance – Evaluation 1. What was the stimulus for the piece? Ans; the stimulus of the piece is to show how drug addicts feel with the withdrawal syndrome through dance and use of space and dynamics. 2. Explain your character or role within the piece and what you were trying to convey to the audience? Ans; my role in the dance piece is to be one of the addicts who also have withdrawal syndrome and I have to show this through my face and body language in order to make it more effective and real. 3. What physical skills did you use in the performance? Ans; Dynamics was one of the physical skills we used in the dance piece to show the qualities of speed, energy and sharpness and  the combination of contrast in order to produce rhythm and phrasing . 4. Explain how you used your performance and interpretive skills in the piece? Ans; I used my body language and facial expression in this piece in order to interpret the dance piece clearly

We worked with einez who made our dance piece for the chorus line and we went through the steps of the dance piece we learnt  in order they go in slowly  because the song is very fast and it was hard to do the steps fast, we had to go through the steps over and over again so that we will know what we are doing and how to do it.

Character question and Answers;

Eugene Ionesco  Eugene Ionesco was born on November 26, 1909  in slatina Romania , The next year his family moved to paris where he lived until 19255. His parents were divorced and he returned to Romania with his father in 1928. He studied French Literature and two years later he published his first article in the Zodiac review.  In 1931 and 1934 he published a collection of essays and in 1938 he received a fellowship from the Romanian government to write a thesis on subject of death in modern french poetry. He moved to paris and began his research then there was the German invasion so he relocated to Marseilles and then he moved back to paris five years later. he learnt English at the age of 40 but wasn't able too,  then and the decided to write his first play in 1948 which is called The Bald Soprano and it was staged on May 11 1950, at the theatre des Noctambules, under the directions of Nicolas Bataille. The second play, he wrote in 1951 is called The lesson. A summary v

Towards the end of the lesson we switched off the lights and we said our lines adding the vocal expressions to our voices.  when the lights were off we were able to focus on just our voices and it really helped us understand what to do even more to help us with our scripts. and the feedback we got  at the end of the lesson really helps us because we were told what worked and what didnt work.

This lesson helped us think about what we needed to do and how it could help us entertain the audience. 

The three vocal exercise are; · the Larban effort ·Voice and Unvoice. ·Working with vowels ·The Larban The larban effort is used for visualising and interpreting words in order to make it sound effective with an intention, there are four different types of efforts; ·Push ·Dab ·Punch ·ring ·The push effort is when you slowly push out the word to give it an intention. So you have to imagine pushing a heavy trolley and then you push out your lines like you would do pushing the heavy trolley. ·The punch effort is when you punch out your lines, so you have to throw punches and say your lines with the effort you put into the punch. ·The dab effort is when you press against something lightly several times with a piece of  material in order to clean or dry it or to apply a substance. So when saying your lines you have to pretend you are dabbling a piece of material on the wall to lightly take of a stain so you say you line like you have to say it in a gentle and light manner.

i think my character looks like this when she is at school playing football and being herself . i think my character dresses like this on a normal day when she is not in school or when she is going out on an outing. so for the performance i will be dressed like the girl in the sports wear with a signed T-Shirt on because it's leavers day and they all have signed shirts. i think my characters was feeling a bit confident at the beginning of the the play because she feels like everyone likes her and she had a bit of confidence to try and socialise and talk to her classmates.However towards the end when her classmates were picking on her and laughing at her for the annoying / stupid things she was doing, her confidence went down and she was less interactive. this play plays with a lot of status playing; this is when they are giving each other status from high status to low status depending on who they socialise with and how they act / react with others. My characters status i

Existentialism - A  philosophical theory or approach which emphasizes the existence of the individual person as a free and responsible agent determining their own development through acts of the will. The analysis of existence and of the way humans find themselves existing in the world. The idea that individual people spends a lifetime changing their essence or nature. "a rejection of narrative continuity and the rigidity of logic" - The idea of neglecting the story that continues and of things that makes sense . " a radical devaluation of language which is seen as a futile attempt to communicate the impossible" - An extreme reduction of language which is seen as an unreal attempt to communicate the impossible. Farce - is comedy in which the scene are too ridiculous to be true, that the characters are exaggerated and  their motives are Absurd and undignified. surrealism - ( what is it? Can you find a surrealist painting ? What does it make y

After researching about children's theatre companies I found these ones;  ·Blunderbus company have been established since 1998 and they have been working for 18 years in a charitable way across across England and oversea. They've had over 200,000 children audience and they employ a small dedicated team of professional actors, puppet makers,musicians,writers and stage designers .They employ people who love working with children and has experience working with at least children age 3 - 7 years old and also someone who is full of energy and is physically fit , someone who can keep smiling even after adversity. After watching a few videos of their work it has helped understand that you need a lot of positive energy in working with children because as it children's theatre and the kids can get distracted easily, which means the actors have to have a lot of energy on stage so that the kids dont get bored, also they made me understand that asking the children questions which

After rehearsing our individual scene for the first few minutes we decided to practise our talk show scene and we had to improvise first so that we can kinda get an idea of what we wanted to do then afterwards each group wrote a script for their scene in the talk show. Before the lesson was over we all discussed our costumes and what we wanted to wear as our characters, we clarified what items we are going to get from home/costume cupboard . F or the costumes we couldn't buy online we had to make it for example the magic wand was made out of cling film and pink cardboard paper. we had a research time to find costumes we needed but didn't have/couldn't make, for example the pig's tail and ears . so we had to find cheap ones to buy and i found cheap ones for the pigs on ebay for them to buy ; http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/PINK-PIG-PIGGY-EARS-TAIL-ANIMAL-SET-adult-mens-ladies-fancy-dress-costume-/281865945673?hash=item41a0850249:g:QR0AAOSwxN5WVCaQ

What potential vocal challenges does random pose ? I think random post quite a few vocal challenges such as ; °Pace - how fast you deliver your lines in order to keep the pace going, Deby Tucker Green writes in a fast pace so we have to keep the effects going with the pace of line delivery. °Clarity- how clearly you deliver your lines- this is very important because in order for us to get the message across to the audience we need to be able to pronounce our words clearly so the audience can understand. °Line delivery- tone of voice - how u change the tone of voice in order to express emotions through your voice. °Body language( talking whilst moving)-we need to be able to control our breath whilst moving and talking so what we are saying is clear . Which vocal area do you feel may be a challenge for you in random? (Explain) i think the area that may be challenging in random is my vocal clarity.

G rasshopper and Toad  It's about a Grasshopper and Toad who are good friends. People always saw them together. Yet they had never dined at each other's houses. One day Toad invited the  Grasshopper to come and dine at his house.  The next day Grasshopper arrived at Toad's house. Before sitting down to eat, Toad washed his forelegs, and invited Grasshopper to do the same. Grasshopper did so, and it made a loud noise. the Toad then told the grasshopper to stop chirping because he cannot eat with such a noise, Grasshopper tried to eat without rubbing his forelegs together, but it was impossible. Each time he gave a chirp, Toad complained and asked him to be quiet. Grasshopper was angry and could not eat. so he invited the  Toad to his house for dinner the next day.The next day, Toad arrived at Grasshopper's home. As soon as the meal was ready, Grasshopper washed his forelegs, and invited Toad to do the same. Toad did so, and then hopped toward the food.  Grassh