Evaluation
East End Tales is a series of short stories written by Finn Kennedy about the East End.It was written as part of a Half Moon Young People’s Theatre Scriptworks project for Mulberry School for Girls in Tower Hamlets, London. It was performed on Thursday the 12th February 2015 at The BRIT school. When performing we used no special costumes, props or set, except from our pink stools that we used to help create specific set points; for example the pub, the sofa, the door for no.4 etc. In total, the play was very physical. This project was for our scripted plays unit (page to stage) and it was a complete ensemble piece.
Throughout our progress of East End tales we have done various exercises to help develop ideas for the performance- for example the monologues we wrote for our characters, our roll-on the wall exercise, hot seating and finally group work. Group work has been a key factor towards developing our final piece, as we were split into two groups to divise our own tales with very little direction. As a result, i believe that we all worked hard to come up with our original ideas which we collaborated together to create our final scenes. This small group work was very well utilized and i am proud of what we managed to create together.
In terms of whole group work, i thoroughly enjoyed working as a class ensemble for tales 3,4 and 5 as we used all our own strengths to create one big, amazing piece of theatre. Working in ensemble has allowed me to gain better relationships with everybody in the class due to the teamwork that was necessary. Our connection as a cast has strengthened throughout our time of working on East End Tales, as not only are we supportive when being able to cover for lines or queue lines, but we also created a safe, friendly environment which meant every actor was comfortable when rehearsing and performing. I think a particular moment where we all worked well together was when we all took on the role of an animal; it was incredible to see how we could all us theatre to exist as something outside of our own bodies.
When developing our work in rehearsals, we used particular exercises to help develop not only our piece but our acting skills. As i mentioned briefly before, we each individually wrote monologues for specific characters. By doing so we were able to micro analyse the character chosen and allowed us to make creative choices as actors and as writers. It also allowed us to incorporate our own ideas and opinions of the themes of the play into the piece, instead of following the structure of the text. The roll-on-the-wall exercise we did consisted of us drawing a figure, and wrote how the character was feeling on the inside of the figure, then wrote how the character was perceived around the figure. Not only was this extremely useful when developing our characters and our acting skills, it allowed us to think more about perspective in general life. I often find myself subconsciously taking life lessons from our theatre lessons, without direct intention.
A moment of the piece which served to be a main strength was the start of tale 5 where the girls are spread out across the space whilst the boys are lined up against the back wall- some sitting, some standing. Whilst the girls are tentatively applying makeup to cover up the harsh bruises given to them by their boyfriends, the boys are at the back with a daunting, terrifying look on their faces whilst they crack their knuckles in a threatening manner. The juxtaposition between the two groups is almost sickening as it harshly exposes the violent result of domestic abuse. I think as an ensemble cast we were able to get across this message to the audience throughout the whole scene, however that particular moment was my favorite.
Another moment created by an actor that was extremely effective was when Oliver delivered his lines in Tale 6, when he says something along the lines of "fag smoke hanging, pulses banging". I personally found his whole paragraph very captivating due to his approach on how we told the story; not only was this effective but at the same time the rest of the actors made heart beat noises and slammed their hands against their chest to build immense tension within the scene. This moment of the piece was very well done in my opinion as i was not in this scene so i was able to look at part of our piece from an audience perspective.
I think that in terms of our weaknesses, an area we could (as a whole) improve on is projection. Sometimes it was difficult to hear certain voices over music or any other noises made within the scene. It is important that everybody projects loud enough for the whole audience to hear, otherwise if lines are lost then the energy and focus within the scene is automatically lost as well. Characterization was key within our piece as we each had to take on various different roles throughout the play, meaning that more research had to be done when creating your character. I believe that it was a challenge to juggle so many roles, as it is important to always remember character objectives; yet it is more difficult to do so when you have 7 characters to play rather than 1.
These past two terms i have certainly developed my use of physicality, as i am often afraid to incorporate physical theatre into the work that i do, however i have now built up more confidence and i am a lot more willing to explore the physicality of a piece rather than just looking at text and subtext. This term i have learnt to take risks as this often results in a brilliant outcome; i have learnt this by watching certain choices my peers make in rehearsals. I have also learnt that having costume, props and set is not always necessary; sometimes all you need is a determined and focused cast of actors and a performance space. This simultaneously allows you to take control of direction, thus ridding you from any limitations.
My line-learning this term has been fairly adequate; i was able to be off script when we were told to, however i felt like i lacked when looking at subtext, and next term i really would like to be more disciplined when it comes to blocking and character objectives. Exercises like roll-on-the-wall are extremely helpful, so when i am presented with a character in the future i will utilize this in order to ensure i am trying my hardest to connect with my role. My focus in the class room has been strong in most circumstances however i sometimes let this slip when getting distracted by my peers. I know that this does not benefit my class of actors or the scene, so this is also something i would like to work on. I found our rehearsal process thoroughly enjoyable and i contributed at any time i could throughout our lessons, so i feel my personal progress rehearsal wise has been to a high standard.
In total, i believe that by participating in this project i am able to walk away from it with a much more positive attitude towards physical theatre and also have build a stronger connection between the actors in my class which is something that is very important when rehearsing and performing. I thoroughly enjoyed working on East End Tales and i could not have asked for a better cast to have done it with!
Throughout our progress of East End tales we have done various exercises to help develop ideas for the performance- for example the monologues we wrote for our characters, our roll-on the wall exercise, hot seating and finally group work. Group work has been a key factor towards developing our final piece, as we were split into two groups to divise our own tales with very little direction. As a result, i believe that we all worked hard to come up with our original ideas which we collaborated together to create our final scenes. This small group work was very well utilized and i am proud of what we managed to create together.
In terms of whole group work, i thoroughly enjoyed working as a class ensemble for tales 3,4 and 5 as we used all our own strengths to create one big, amazing piece of theatre. Working in ensemble has allowed me to gain better relationships with everybody in the class due to the teamwork that was necessary. Our connection as a cast has strengthened throughout our time of working on East End Tales, as not only are we supportive when being able to cover for lines or queue lines, but we also created a safe, friendly environment which meant every actor was comfortable when rehearsing and performing. I think a particular moment where we all worked well together was when we all took on the role of an animal; it was incredible to see how we could all us theatre to exist as something outside of our own bodies.
When developing our work in rehearsals, we used particular exercises to help develop not only our piece but our acting skills. As i mentioned briefly before, we each individually wrote monologues for specific characters. By doing so we were able to micro analyse the character chosen and allowed us to make creative choices as actors and as writers. It also allowed us to incorporate our own ideas and opinions of the themes of the play into the piece, instead of following the structure of the text. The roll-on-the-wall exercise we did consisted of us drawing a figure, and wrote how the character was feeling on the inside of the figure, then wrote how the character was perceived around the figure. Not only was this extremely useful when developing our characters and our acting skills, it allowed us to think more about perspective in general life. I often find myself subconsciously taking life lessons from our theatre lessons, without direct intention.
A moment of the piece which served to be a main strength was the start of tale 5 where the girls are spread out across the space whilst the boys are lined up against the back wall- some sitting, some standing. Whilst the girls are tentatively applying makeup to cover up the harsh bruises given to them by their boyfriends, the boys are at the back with a daunting, terrifying look on their faces whilst they crack their knuckles in a threatening manner. The juxtaposition between the two groups is almost sickening as it harshly exposes the violent result of domestic abuse. I think as an ensemble cast we were able to get across this message to the audience throughout the whole scene, however that particular moment was my favorite.
Another moment created by an actor that was extremely effective was when Oliver delivered his lines in Tale 6, when he says something along the lines of "fag smoke hanging, pulses banging". I personally found his whole paragraph very captivating due to his approach on how we told the story; not only was this effective but at the same time the rest of the actors made heart beat noises and slammed their hands against their chest to build immense tension within the scene. This moment of the piece was very well done in my opinion as i was not in this scene so i was able to look at part of our piece from an audience perspective.
I think that in terms of our weaknesses, an area we could (as a whole) improve on is projection. Sometimes it was difficult to hear certain voices over music or any other noises made within the scene. It is important that everybody projects loud enough for the whole audience to hear, otherwise if lines are lost then the energy and focus within the scene is automatically lost as well. Characterization was key within our piece as we each had to take on various different roles throughout the play, meaning that more research had to be done when creating your character. I believe that it was a challenge to juggle so many roles, as it is important to always remember character objectives; yet it is more difficult to do so when you have 7 characters to play rather than 1.
These past two terms i have certainly developed my use of physicality, as i am often afraid to incorporate physical theatre into the work that i do, however i have now built up more confidence and i am a lot more willing to explore the physicality of a piece rather than just looking at text and subtext. This term i have learnt to take risks as this often results in a brilliant outcome; i have learnt this by watching certain choices my peers make in rehearsals. I have also learnt that having costume, props and set is not always necessary; sometimes all you need is a determined and focused cast of actors and a performance space. This simultaneously allows you to take control of direction, thus ridding you from any limitations.
My line-learning this term has been fairly adequate; i was able to be off script when we were told to, however i felt like i lacked when looking at subtext, and next term i really would like to be more disciplined when it comes to blocking and character objectives. Exercises like roll-on-the-wall are extremely helpful, so when i am presented with a character in the future i will utilize this in order to ensure i am trying my hardest to connect with my role. My focus in the class room has been strong in most circumstances however i sometimes let this slip when getting distracted by my peers. I know that this does not benefit my class of actors or the scene, so this is also something i would like to work on. I found our rehearsal process thoroughly enjoyable and i contributed at any time i could throughout our lessons, so i feel my personal progress rehearsal wise has been to a high standard.
In total, i believe that by participating in this project i am able to walk away from it with a much more positive attitude towards physical theatre and also have build a stronger connection between the actors in my class which is something that is very important when rehearsing and performing. I thoroughly enjoyed working on East End Tales and i could not have asked for a better cast to have done it with!
