Research for Debbie Tucker Green :

Me Saskia and Kj found different sources for our presentation.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Debbie_Tucker_Green

http://www.blackplaysarchive.org.uk/explore/playwrights/tucker-green-debbie

http://www.theguardian.com/stage/2005/mar/30/theatre

Saskia found a really interesting fact which was in the play 'Hang' the character THREE has to look at a letter and every time they did the show she didn't know what was written on the paper so she reacted in a real manner every time and so every time they did the show her reaction was always different, I found this really interesting and also a really good idea because then it makes the reaction real.

She spells her name in lower-case letters because she dislikes the look of a capital letter. if you notice how in all of her plays start in this way. We think this is because it looks more dynamic. Softer start to an intense play.

The plays we took inspiration from and included into 14 by 14:

Motortown:

This play is by Simon Stephens and is written around the time of the London bombings of 2005. Danny returns from being in the army and is unwell. It is dangerous because he can be very violent. Danny comes across people he has a past with called Marley, Jade, Lee and more. Marley used to be his girlfriend, he kills Jade and Lee is his brother who has autism. I did like this play and I had a scene with Michael with him playing Danny and me playing Marley.

Hang:

This is written by Debbie Tucker Green, and involves three characters and one of them is wanting to kill her husband and the reason why she called the play Hang is because she decides to hang him. I loved this play and I did a scene from this play too. The character THREE is meant to be played by a black woman and ONE and TWO have to be either two boys, two girls, or one boy and one girl.

Shopping and Fucking:

This was basically the first play that we read and I wasn't overly keen on this play because I didn't quite understand it but I think it was a good play. It is the first full-length play that Mark Ravenhill. It involves a lot of sexual violence. It involves drugs, phone sex, sex, gay scenes and is really mainly about that sort of origin.

One for the road:

This play was written by Harold Pinter and is about a man called Nicholas who is torturing a family. OneOne for the Road, considered Pinter's "statement about the human rights abuses of totalitarian governments",^[1] was inspired, according to Antonia Fraser,^[2] by reading on May 19, 1983, Jacobo Timerman's Prisoner Without a Name, Cell Without a Number, a book about torture on Argentina's military dictatorship; later, on January 1984, he got to write it after an argument with two Turkish girls at a family birthday party on the subject of torture. The play is set in a room the whole day throughout the morning, afternoon and night. 

Sing yer heart out for the lads:

This involves racism, this show was written by Roy Williams and involves the match of 2000 England vs Germany football game. It involves supporters coming to watch the game at the pub with Gina and her dad, Gina has a son called Glen who messes around a lot and gets in with the wrong crowds who also has a dad that does nothing for him.

Confirmation:

This was the play where Saskia used her monologue from which was written by Chris Thorpe and is performed by Chris as well which is about politics and can be seen as some racial issues brought in too. We watched the play of this and I really liked it because he interacted with the audience and really made you think.

The colour of justice:

This is by Richard-Norton Taylor. Kj did her monologue from this play which was a lady giving a speech at a court case. It was produced in 1999. In 1993 Stephen Lawrence who was a black teenager was stabbed to death in a racist attack by a gang of white youths. The police investigation failed to provide sufficient evidence to convict. Based on the harrowing transcripts of the public inquiry, this is a dramatic reconstruction of the first hearings which reflected the national outcry at the police's mishandling of the case. First seen at the Tricycle Theatre, London, this remarkable production received instant acclaim and subsequently transferred to the West End.

Extra evaluation:

I think us performing in the round was very different and very challenging for us because we have never done anything like it. I really think we pulled it off and did well, Although I did feel we stuck to facing more sides than others. That could just be how we set our scenes or just where the props were for us to pick up from other people.

I think it was really good for us to hold up signs for which show we was doing scenes from. Although I think it still confused some people in the audience, it helped a lot more otherwise I reckon people may have thought it was just one show.

Being so close to the audience was very nerve racking and the fact we had to sit there with a straight face and not being able to talk to anyone was very difficult as some people got confused whether we was audience or performers, some people asked the actors if the seats next to them are being used or when does it start/how long we had been there for etc. That was hard because we had to ignore them and I felt so rude at the time but it had to be done. I had my dad sit next to me in the six o'clock show and my mum sit next to me at the 8 o'clock show, I wish they didn't do it, but it was a good chance for me to challenge myself in ignoring them. The show seemed to go on really quick. I was really nervous to perform the shows but I was so excited to show it to the audience because contemporary is something I haven't done before and nobody in my family had seen me act in that way before.

I loved my scenes, my favourite was definitely the one I did with Daisy because it was so different for me, I felt like the character development was so good in that scene. I was so happy with how it went and I'm glad we changed it to me moving around more so people could see Daisy more. I felt like me and Daisy worked really well together and you could really feel the tension in that scene I felt.

I think my weakest scene was my scene with Michael in Motortown purely because I had no idea how to act Marley, I had less knowledge about Motortown even though I had read the play. I just felt like out of my three scenes, this was my weakest scene.

Overall I'm really proud of myself and everyone else and gutted that was our last show together. I am going to miss working with my group so much.

14/14 Evaluation:

This was the poster for our show, it's pretty clear why it was called 14 by 14. It was a mix of different contemporary shows and doing scenes with either two or three people all together and we involved Kj's and Saskia's contemporary monologues as well.

Personally I think the show went well considering we had to switch the dates up a lot. I really loved the fact we didn't go on the stage and that we performed it in the round, with us sitting in the audience, I felt like that was way more powerful than the audience watching us on the stage. I felt the tension in the air and the awkwardness that the audience felt in certain scenes for example subjects involving race. I really think we drew the audience in really well and I'm glad we held up signs saying what play we was doing the scene from, otherwise I don't think the audience would have understood at all.

Overall evaluation:

Our set was very basic, it was based in the round with black curtains on a stand around every face of the square. We had very limited seating with us actors in the audience as well. I feel like the set worked really well with the show, it brought so much more tension into the audience and made them feel really uncomfortable. We always sat in the audience, so the audience never knew who was going to act next which I thought was good in the way that they was always guessing who would be next. Being in the round was challenging for everyone I think personally, this is because we have never done it before and you constantly have to move around so that everyone is the audience see's you.

The costume was very basic. It was a modern period of clothing which included black jeans, white t-shirts and then people would add costume for the characters such as cardigans or blazers that was meant just for that character, for example Lily wore a cardigan for Marley's character and I then had to wear that next as I was playing Marley and so it didn't confuse the audience. The costume definitely worked with the set as it was as blank as the set & lighting was. It didn't make us look like outcasts, and it made everyone look the same.

We used sound as the audience came in, it was the same song on repeat and then we used music before every scene and at the end of every scene when we was finishing the scene and it went into a black out. Ella had a directors vision for the show, she wanted us to feel the music and breathe the music in and out to really become the piece and the music to be part of us. I felt like it really impacted the piece because the music was quite eerie and I felt like if it was performed with no music, it wouldn't of had the same vibe.

The lighting was very natural, it was one bright light in the shade of white and we used slow blackouts with still some dimmed lights so that we could see and that was the only lighting we used as we didn't want to overdue it purely because of the set and our costume, it all needed to be neutral and linked together. There was no moments when it really impacted apart from when it was going into blackouts and the end of the scene was quite serious.

The characters were all different shows so there was no same characters and stuff. But the characters were from contemporary plays. But we all did developments of the characters in different ways, so for example Lily played Marley a lot different to how I played Marley. I didn't use an accent to be honest. But I did play my voice down a little bit because I am quite a well spoken person and Marley is not a well spoken person at all so I had to play down my diction a lot.

My character of Nicolas developed so much. i already had to change it around as the character is originally a male. I made the character come across so evil but in a subtle way because I didn't want my character to almost come across like a panto villian.

To be honest, I could not really do much for my character of 'ONE' in hang because it's almost completely normal.

There was definitely some moments of impacts such as when there was explicit scenes/when political issues such as racism, and rape made it really impact on the audience. There were certain subjects brought up or shown in these scenes which you don't really hear people say out loud and I think it made the audience uncomfortable being surrounded in it. There was no way that our show would have been as affective without it being in the round because it kept the tension throughout and made the audience be drawn in more.

How I developed the character of 'Marley'

Marley:

At first I really wasn't sure how to play Marley, I didn't know whether she was nice, unkind, chav style, polite or what her voice was like. I would say I am a well spoken person most of the time and I felt like I needed to bring that down in this scene with Michael.

After a few times of us doing the scene in front of Ella, she felt like I needed to come across as if I'm almost about to reach out to the character of Danny, but he almost pushes me away even though in other scenes it comes across that Marley is all he wants. We added him holding my hands at the end when he asks me to go back inside.

So when I first started playing Marley, I was playing her as if she was really cold towards Danny, with slight concern but she doesn't really care. Some of my lines came across like she was teasing Danny, so I played with that. Eventually I started to play her a little less cold, bit numb towards Danny, but also showing concern for him, and showing that I still care even if he is really unwell.

Working with Michael was great, I felt we created a great connection with the relationships of the characters.

HANG - SCENE WITH LILY AND SASKIA

Ella asked me to do a scene with Lily and Saskia in the play of 'Hang' by Debbie tucker green.Hang has three characters in it called 'ONE, TWO AND THREE' Three is usually played by a black lady and one and two can be either both male, both female, or one of the other sex. In this scene, I play ONE, Lily plays TWO, and Saskia plays THREE.

In this play, in some of the scenes you will see this '/' which basically means whoever is talking will get talked over by the person who has the next line. I have never seen this before I read this play so I found it interesting but this can be difficult because sometimes the overlay isn't done at the right time and can be quite difficult. This scene is definitely a challenge for me and I like the scene itself.

Our particular scene is when THREE finds out when ONE AND TWO have a letter from THREE'S husband from six weeks ago and she is not happy. ONE is basically lying saying that they had only received it a few days ago and then TWO comes in and basically tells the truth which is that they read it five weeks ago.

REHEARSALS :

I have done a read through with Michael:

This was done before we ever showed it to Ella. When Ella watched it she said Michael needed to be a bit more of a weirdo/crazy/mental. She thought he was being to soft especially at the end when he tells my character to go back inside, Ella said he needed to sound more threatening then sad. Also that I needed to be a little bit more blunt with him but also stunned at some of the stuff he says too my character.

Due to the commedia workshop we haven't done many rehearsals and have had to move our show which we are now doing on the 17th & 18th of March. We are performing in the round and we will be sitting in with the audience. I am really excited to perform this way as I have never done it before.

How I have developed the character of 'Nicholas' :

My character in 'One For The Road' is 'Nicholas' which as you can tell, is a male. Ella said right from the beginning it may be interesting for partners who have say two girls or two boys to try and switch genders in the play and make a boy character played by a girl and the other way round etc.

So when me and Daisy chose to do the scene between Gila and Nicholas we read through it twice, one time each so we could both have a go at the character. We couldn't really choose what character we wanted to play as we both didn't really mind but it ended up with Daisy playing Gila and me playing Nicholas.

How have I developed this character?

- Obviously I started by not being too girly. Nicholas is originally a male but I don't mean that I am hiding the fact that I am a girl. I mean that he has a very menacing way about him and if I am too girly then it would not work.

- By reading it through with Daisy I have found ways I feel more comfortable to read out certain lines and have found that I find it a lot easier to keep a straight face.

- I get energy off Daisy so this keeps me feeling strong in my character as Daisy's character is belittled by my character a lot in the scene, the energy that she gives off helps make that work.

- I took the feedback of standing up more.

- I decided as our way of performing it is 'in the round' it made me want to move around more so that other people could see me in different angles as Daisy's character already isn't moving the whole scene.

- I feel that by me being a girl and playing this character...in some of my lines that I say it can be a lot more shocking that a girl is saying it rather than a man. I feel like this works and makes the scene stronger.

- I have wrote on my script what my motivation is in the scene and how I should say my lines or what emotion I should feel / give out on that line.

Marley & Danny - Scene with Michael

Motortown was written by Simon Stephens in 2006 and the setting is in Essex.

Danny, returning from duty in Iraq, finds integrating back into society difficult as he seeks to connect with his mentally-challenged brother, ex-girlfriend and various strangers. As each encounter leads him further and further into instability, the question becomes whether the war made Danny this way or was he like this all along?

I haven't performed this scene with Michael yet we have only been reading it through with each other. We are still trying to work out how it should be set and what my interpretation of Marley's character should be.

Marley seems (in my opinion) that she's very blunt and doesn't really want to know or talk to Danny. Danny seems very mental and controlling/jealous. He likes to make people feel bad and it doesn't seem to work with Marley. She's got an effect on him.

http://www.castingcallpro.com/uk/play/1017/motortown/character/2282/marley

On this website it gives you information on people who have played characters from Motortown in performances in the past.

Women who have played Marley:

For example, Freya Poole who recently played Marley in 2015 has brown hair, blue eyes, she's white and has an average height. As you can see from the examples, most of the girls who have played Marley have the same sort of look. Although another girl who played Marley from the list is Shannon Anthony who is blonde and has green eyes.

Danny has many different ways he could be portrayed but I genuinely think his character is very odd and messed up. All he seems to remember is the past and he isn't very forgiving. He seems like he lives in the past.

 

As you can see from above from people who have played Danny is the past there is a massive difference to them all looks wise they all look very different. 

 

Performing 'One For The Road' scene with Daisy.

Ella started blocking our scene studies performance. We are performing it 'in the round' and we will be sitting in with the audience as well.

Each pair had an opportunity to perform our scenes to Ella so that she could block it so that it works well in the way we are setting the show. I only have performed my scene with Daisy from 'One For The Road', so we volunteered and I remembered last time I performed it the feedback I got was to stand up more so I used that a lot more when I felt I needed to stand.

I was shocked that Ella didn't stop us, she told us the way we did it was fine and it didn't really need to be changed. It worked well and I was happy with how it went. I stood up more and in feedback I was told it worked a lot more and that Daisy just standing there worked really well. I moved around so that different sides of the audience could see me in different angles as you won't see Daisy in every single angle. I marked my script with what my characters motivation in that scene is which is to torture Gila's character. I also wrote an emotion or how I should speak that sentence or word or line. This has helped me a lot more with how I make my character.

I feel my scene with Daisy is very strong, I am looking forward to when we perform this one for real.