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My Character

So my character in connections this year was a fun little challenge. Last year I had the joy of playing a police officer and being firm when questioning the kids while also in another cast being younger Kobi who I said was someone who at the time craved the attention from his friends that he was getting, so he was really energetic and lively around them all the time.

It was nice to have a change this year, in this years connections I played Tristans message or Tristans bitmoji. From the start Kelly loved the idea of the Bitmoji's being like real versions of the base characters of Tristan and Dana, so like the everyday Tristan that they see at school thats always sporty and wearing rugby gear, his bitmoji would wear something more comfortable that he can lay around in since in the show he has a monologue where he opens up to Dana about him not wanting to go to training all the time. When it came to the cast list and I saw that Aiden was Tristan, we had a chat about how the text message could be and what they would wear different to what Tristan would wear. I wrote the notes on the back of my script to be a constant reminder of the vibe I was going for. I wrote notes such as the text message was a "more free version of Tristan, maybe a little introverted." "Doesn't want the continuous cycle of what his parents want just because he feels like he has to make them proud and he just wants time to himself for once." I had to try and show off them notes in the costume and so we decided on a baggy brown hoodie with some black cargos and I think it was the best option. I also dyed my hair for this role to match Aiden's hair colour. 

The main challenge I had with this was having to read through the lines since much isn't given about the role, I had to talk to Aiden about the process of bringing this character to life and also working on it in my own time on how I would tackle the scene I have. 

Home Performance

I decided to go for a little bit of comedy but also show that it's still the same Tristan that Dana knows. So I kept the same attitude in tone of voice and the way I spoke my lines that Tristan has throughout the entire scene always matching if he ever changes it, my body language and facial expressions and the way I moved around was a lot different and thats where the comedic side came into it a bit, as you could see the visible annoyance in my face and the way I drag my feet behind him after he decides to not leave. I also showed that I was always listening and paying attention to what was being typed on the messages, making sure I was always reacting to what was being said. I managed to not mess up one of the lines I kept messing up but that was also because we changed one of the words to make it flow better since last time it felt like I was saying a tongue twister. We also had a nice little moment when me and Aiden (Tristan) is walking away where we both hear the ping read the message and then look back at the exact same time and give a little chuckle to Dana and walk off. I thought that was a nice little nod that happened to show that we move as one since we are the same person. When Tristan is talking about himself, reminding himself who he actually is I also come to that realisation as he's talking and start agreeing with what he's saying with just a slight little nod and smile. I kept in the double take of when Tristan types "whatever" and I panic to tell him to delete it, some bits I added in were a little head and eye roll once Dana keeps going back and fourth in the messages about interviewing for universities. 

The national theatre woman that came to watch gave us some feedback on what she loved and what we could work on, she said she loved the message scene and the comedic feeling that was given to it and the props used by Dana's text message with the emoji pop up. The clarity and volume of the entire show was good there were just some moments where it would dip down and come back up, also lines were being lost when transitions for other scenes were happening. Some of the stuff that was needed to improve on was just letting some of the moments sit and also health and safety when it comes to standing on chairs and tables.