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.