No Context Characters - Breaking and Entering

Thursday 15th September 2022 - Starting as a duologue 

We were told to get into pairs as we were given a script for a duologue. I paired up with Jack and our script was called 'Breaking and Entering'. The script is about 2 guys who are trying to steal evidence for the police.  We were told to pick if we wanted to be 'Person A' or 'Person B'. I'm 'Person A' and Jack is 'Person B'. Our task was to read over the script and perform it in our pairs, after which our homework was to give our person a name an age and how they react to the situation they are in. 

I learnt from the homework for this lesson how to bring a character to life by adding some of my own context to the piece as to how we think they got in the situation they were in. Also by giving my character a name and age and how I can base there reaction to the situation due to the age I have given them and the way the lines were written. 

Thursday 22nd September 2022 - Backstory

In this lesson we were tasked with making a backstory for our characters with the little context we had. The backstory we came up with was that Spike and Butch (the names we gave our characters) were Father and Son and that Spike was framed for a robbery, so he gets his son involved to help steal evidence for the police and clear his name. We find that Spike is comfortable in the situation as he is a past criminal committing many robberies before with his wife who died in the last 1. He then retired after the death of his wife until he was framed, this is where he gets Butch involved but has a lot of anger towards him as Butch is less experienced than his mother. Kelly also tasked us with creating a secret for our individual character to see if it would change the way we deliver our lines. I came up with the secret that I was going to be a dad so Spike was going to be a granddad, so I delivered my lines in more urgent but also stuttering way as I jut wanted to get it over and done with. We also performed this in front of Kelly and the rest of the class after we created the backstory for them both. 

The information I took from this lesson was how to delve a bit deeper into our characters and to sort of create more of a context for them both. It was also to work on our line delivery and how confident we are performing in front of people. I also have added a bit more depth to how I say my lines by giving Butch a sort of anxious stutter because he doesn't like the situation he has been dragged into but also because of the secret he wants to get back home in one piece. This helps further on down the line as I will be able to have an understanding in how I will deliver lines for future characters when I create that mental backstory for them. 

With how well I did in the lesson the backstory creating went well as me and Jack were able to come up with a solid backstory that fits really well into the them of our piece, it also creates that depth and context for the characters that wasn't there before. There was one problem I ran into when performing in front of Kelly and the class was that I forgot one of the lines and it ruined the flow as I stood there for 2 seconds trying to remember but then I moved onto my next line which confused Jack a bit as he wasn't ready for that particular part of the piece yet. We managed to bring the flow back and keep it going for a good end but for future performances I need to try keep the flow going even if I forgot a line.  

Thursday 29th September 2022 - Making our duologue a scene

In the last lesson of our duologue, we were tasked with bringing in an item or piece of clothing that would represent our characters. I went and got 2 balaclavas for me and Jack, I also brought my hoodie and some black gloves. Today our work was to get into another pair and give them feedback on their performance and they do the same for us, we paired up with Zia and Will who were doing their duologue called 'runaway.' The feedback they gave us was to project our voices a lot more so that they were able to hear us as the balaclavas limited how loud we were. The feedback me and Jack gave Zia and Will was to also project their voices and for Zia to look like he is packing a suitcase to run away with. After we gave each other feedback we had to then try and fit the pair into our duologue to make it a scene, but they weren't allowed to talk. We added Zia and Will as sort of security guards or policemen that were patrolling the area, so when I say my line "I think I hear someone coming" Zia and Will would then walk past and start having a conversation while me and Jack turn around to not get spotted.  For Zia and Wills performance it was harder to add me and Jack into it, but we came up with the idea of being Zias characters parents in the other room watching tv while Zia and Will are near the front door performing their piece. 

We did this to show how to work well in groups and how to use the feedback we were given to improve on our performance. Also to show that we understand how to change a piece into a scene and that we have to improvise ourselves in another groups scene. This is to work on our confidence with improvisation as you have to think off the top of your head what it is you have to do and how your going to add yourself without ruining the other groups piece or by making it confusing for the people watching.

What we found hard about today's lesson was me and Jack adding ourselves into Zia and Will's piece as it was easier to add them into ours as it was for them to add us into their's. We managed to come up with something at the end that we thought was a good idea to add and it doesn't take away from Zia and Will's performance.  Another thing me and Jack need to work on is projecting our voices so that we can be heard since the balaclavas limits how loud we can be but we also don't want to project extremely loud as we have to be quiet for the piece as well since were thieves. So the balaclavas was a good choice as into bringing the characters to life but not with how line delivery.