January 9th 2024:
Talking about Universities:
Today we started at 1pm, we started off with our welcome back to college talk and we went off into our 1-1 sessions with Tom and Kelly. During this 1-1 we had talked about what we wanted to do and where we was on our University applications, and also talked about where we were up to for our personal statements. I had gone first because of my name, and so because I wasn't sure if I wanted to go to University yet or not I told them that, and so we had talked about where I was on Personal Statement. After we talked I had come down into the LRC to sign up for the 'Level 4 Performing Arts Acting for Stage and Screen,' after I had finished applying I went back to class and we started talking about what Universities everyone had applied to and their assignment question. On my choices on UCAS I had put LMA and York St John, even though I am unsure if I am going or not I still put down two places that I would like to go to. My for the assignment I wasn't completely sure on what question I wanted to do but I came up with 'If you change the way you look after you've already made a name for yourself in the industry will you still get roles?' But I couldn't find any solid proof of this being true. After talking about our University choices, Personal Statements and our Questions we had begun talking about how over the years our attention span has gotten worse and how our generation (Gen - Z) can only keep their attention for 25 minutes. And we also talked about how we need to become the change that the future needs.
January 10th 2024:
First Read Through of the Connections script:
This morning I didn't get in until 11am due to having a doctors appointment. But when I got in we had done a read through of the connections script, I liked the character Viv - Dana's (main characters best friend) Best Friend. This play is about a girl who is a selective mute, her and her Best Friend Viv are currently in high school. It also has multiple others who are neurodivergent just trying to live their lives. They still label themselves as "Freaks and Geeks" because they know they are different, but they don't let their differences define them. They also have their own little safe space within the school, that is just for them. It has also got all of your stereotypical type of people: the jocks, the mean girls, the weirdos, the cool kids and so on. Whoever plays Viv is going to be able to be good with their facial expressions because obviously Dana doesn't speak, so facial expressions are an important part in this play.
January 11th 2024:
Letting Go:
Today was all about letting go and getting out of our heads. Abby had told us to bring in headphones or Air Pods and to pick a song that makes us let loose, I choose ‘Juicy Wiggle’ by Red Foo. With this task it was like a silent disco, you don’t worry about who is around you or what’s going on around you because you are just concentrating on the music and how it makes you feel. Once your song was finished you had to sit on the floor and wait for everyone else to be finished, even though some of us were still in our heads Abby made us all do it again it felt amazing to let loose and not panic about anyone else even though I didn't let loose until the second time we done it. After we done it a second time Abby had given us all the same song to listen and vibe to, 'So What' by P!nk. Once the song finished Kelly told us how she saw that we let go and that we didn't care, and she could tell when the beat dropped because we all fully vibed to it and started to move in a similar way.
After all of that we had all come back together and started talking about rooms in our high schools for people with mental health struggles, additional needs and so on. In my high school we had S.E.N, The Chill Room, The Farm and The Construction Site. We talked about this because in the play they have the 'Freaks and Geeks' room, which is where all the people who are 'different' were put because they didn't/don't fit in. So, because we were talking about having safe space within our high school's so that helps us in a way to connect more to the script. After that Kelly had told us to get into groups of 5 and talk about times we felt like we were different or when we felt out of place and it also helps us to see that we aren't alone when we struggle, that others struggle as well. Shout will have its difficulties because we aren't just throwing on a mask and getting on stage, we are tackling real 'issues,' real life problems.
January 16th 2024:
Talking Brecht:
This afternoon we done work on theatre practitioners, but we mainly discussed Brecht and how to spot a Brecht piece if we came across one. But then once we had a look we all realised how many things were Brecht involved, after discussing Brecht we moved onto Stanislavski (The Creator of Method Acting). We also talked about how other practitioners just steal each others ideas, but it seems to be the person who writes it down first is the creator because they documented it first. Once we finished with this we had gone to Tom's class to perform a piece of text, this text is an old piece by this I mean that the text is being performed or well narrated as well. After we finished up with the scene we had we went back to our class and it was time for Kelly to teach us - well talk to us - Kelly asked us what ideas we had to help stretch us and a few of us said directing, filming etc etc. She had also asked if we wanted to continue our pieces that we were doing before Peter Pan and a few said yeah and the rest said no, our piece that we were Directing was difficult to get a grasp upon due to there not being any names next to the lines so we had to figure it out ourselves and we didn't even get through half of the script so we didn't do it. We called it quits.
January 17th 2024:
Auditions:
Today are the auditions, Kelly has said that we are auditioning in front of everyone. I was going to audition for Viv, Dana's best friend. I like the way she carried herself and the way she didn't care about the way people thought about her because to her all that mattered was her and her best friend. Kelly had let us go off and practice for an hour and then we'd all gather beck together and sit to watch the auditions. I had gone off and practised the scene that I was going to do, which was the scene where Viv was mad at Dana because chose to speak to a 'man' before she ever spoke to Viv. I felt as though this scene would bring out the most emotion for Viv.
January 18th 2024:
Audition:
Today I am auditioning with a few others for Freaks and Geeks, I am auditioning for Mo and Mo has ADHD. He isn't your typical character who is just there as a filler, Mo is the comedic relief for the Freaks and Geeks and that's shown through most of his lines.
So, today that is who I am auditioning for, along side Will, George, Dev, Evie B, Ben and a few others. We have to perform it in front of everyone as well, we had gone to go get some chairs for us to use and once we got set up we performed and then we had to do it again because Will and George swapped roles.
January 22nd 2024:
With Zest:
Us 2nd Years are off with Zest until February 2nd.
February 5th 2024:
Ensemble Work:
Today we started off with concentration games to get us settled and calmed down ready for lesson, after those few games we done Kelly had us all stand still and then we would proceed to walk as one and become one. We had to walk, run, jog and much more. This exercise is meant to help us as I said become one, which will help us when we do the ensemble work to go off of each others energy and to know when we need to move whilst also being aware of those around us. This allowed us to become more focused and aware of our surroundings so we can work better as a team. I find that these exercise really bring out the best in us because then we not only focus on ourselves we focus on others and we know that no matter what everyone has each others backs, it also helps us connect more to the script.
After our break we had moved on to moving to the beat of the music, which is basically another letting go game. We had started off with on our own, then the number moved up to two, then three until we were all in on big group dancing and being free.
These exercise that help you feel free and much more relaxed is amazing, it helps people fully let go and just get on with the task and not worry about who's watching or who's 'judging' because you have fully let yourself go.
February 6th 2024:
Year 2 Lesson:
Today was a catch up and talk about Universities.
February 7th 2024:
Independent Work:
Due to Alan's show 'Snowdrop' being put on in 2 days and they have to rehearse for the show so Kelly has given us the chance to go catch up on whatever work we need to catch up on and prepare monologues for our University Auditions. So, a few of us had gone to the LRC to do blogger and some went off to do Monologues. This was beneficial to us second years so that we could learn monologues and/or doing blog work we needed to do because we need to catch up.
I had also decided to help out with the costume side of the show but then also props. I may not be taking part of it but I still want to help out in whatever ways I can.
February 8th 2024:
Working from Home:
Due to rehearsals at the ARC for 'Snowdrop' we are working from home so we have to do our Character Development for Connections - Shout.
https://alayahparris.blogspot.com/search?q=character+development
February 12th 2024:
Ensemble Work:
We started off with games one of those games was 'Passing' and within that we had to mime our favourite food and pass it around for everyone else to eat and to also try out, with this we had to also try guess what they were miming.
After our little game we had then moved onto a scene that we struggle on to get right, because this scene is where we have to show Dana's side of the anxiety and fear within being in school. So, for this scene we had used university books and we stood in a circle passing them around in a pulse sort of beat. But due to everyone going at different speeds it was difficult and everyone kept dropping the books so I had made a few suggestions to try having the same sized and same length type books. This ensemble scene requires us to be synchronised because of the sort of type of vibe we are going for.
Once we had finished up doing the scenes I went off to go do my monologue for my Uni Auditions for LMA.
February 13th 2024:
Year 2 Lessons:
For today's lesson we had just had a little catch up session to see where we are at for Universities.
February 15th 2024:
Shout Scenes:
We mainly went through the teachers scenes today, which started with the classics scene. Kelly had decided on doing the chairs facing away from the audience and this is what we spent most of our time doing and so because I am not in this scene I sat out on the side lines and watched and took photos for those in the scenes.
February 26th 2024:
Improvisation Scenes:
February 27th 2024:
Year 2 Lessons:
February 28th 2024:
Freaks ad Geeks Scene:
February 29th 2024:
Assembly Scene:
March 4th 2024:
Beginning Scene:
March 5th 2024:
Year 2 Lessons:
This afternoon we had started the lesson with a little concentration game with three balls being thrown around, we had to throw each ball to a different person - Green, Yellow and Blue. After we had done this memorisation/concentration game we had then moved onto a game where we had to say 'To be or not to be' but you had to make eye contact with someone to save you from the other person coming towards you saying it and then they had to do the same thing. This game was/is basically a concentration game and also a memorisation activity.
After we had wrapped those tasks up Tom had handed out some scripts that had Roald Dahl's Little Red Riding Hood on, we had to turn it into a scene. I had been teamed up with Aiden and Millie Trodden, I had suggested that we turn it into a 21st Century thing - and with this I meant adding a phone and changing the plot but Aiden had a whole different idea and that was to make it 'sexual.' By that I mean he pushes himself on Little Red and it's a whole toxic relationship thing, but not only that but the narrator knows that all of this stuff is happening but they just cant say anything. I had felt grossed out because this was portraying parts of society people tend to just turn a blind eye to, and I felt grossed out with myself because when Millie looked at me for a sign of help I just turned away and acted like I didn't see anything because I didn't want to get involved.
We had then been given scenes that we had to act out and film for Kelly and have them handed in before Thursday.
March 6/7th 2024:
Going over scenes that need polishing:
On both of these days we just spent time polishing and going through the scenes we had already done.
March 18th 2024:
Working with Transitions:
The run through today was really messy because no one seemingly seemed to know where to place their chairs or tables or benches. So, Abbie had taken some time afterwards to do a quick transition run. It was something that's for sure, people kept either placing things where they shouldn't be placed or just not moving their chair/table/bench that they are supposed to be moving at all. So, it was much more stressful then needed be.
This Photo is the Freaks and Geeks final scene.
March 19th 2024:
Year 2 Lessons:
March 20th 2024:
Tech Run:
March 21st 2024:
Show Day:
March 25/26/27/28th 2024:
I was off ill.
April 24th 2024:
Connections final performance:
We are off to York for our final Performance of 'Shout'
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