Unit 7-(Immigration) Production Values of Container
UNIT 7- Production Values of container
11/03/2019
Me being changed to another group in Sheena's lesson.
I've been changed to another group from the one that I was in before. Before I was in the second group which conceded of Joey, Ahmed and Maya aswell as a few other people who were Ahmad, Jemal and Fatima respectfully. (These are characters from the play that we are doing.)
Me and Joey were then put in group 3 which consisted of 3 other people as in the likes of Kamille, Irene and Tullullah, which one of whom hasn't been in the class during the last few weeks.
These last few months have been quite difficult with the performance happening in three weeks later in the time of writing and there are many people who still haven't learnt their lines especially me.
I think it's going to be hard for me because my character who is the agent has a lot of lines, despite the fact that I have to share the agents lines with Renee who also plays the agent.
But even if I get to share my lines with Renee, the lines of the agent would still be hard to learn because while most people have one or two lined sentences, me and Renee have to say quite a large paragraph.
There has been a lot of confusion and to make the play more shorter and more easier to learn lines Sheenagh has cut a chunk of lines out of the play.
Lining out the verbs in the script: With Sheenagh we went through the script and decided to write down emotions, feelings and adjectives that the characters could be having and for each word that we came up with we wrote it next to the line in which the character has the feeling or emotion. This is clinically proven to help us act out our characters better.
Another moment that occurred was the fact that my scene had changed in the time that I had changed group. The page that I was first reading from was the first time that the agent had appeared and my lines had been changed to lines that show later on.
I'm able to express myself but I'm not able to memorise the lines easily and as fast as the rest of my class.
At first due to the change of group I didn't know where to read from since there was quite a large part of the script that was cut.
Reading it together infront of the class for the first time:
When we were in the hall which is called room 034 we were put together in our groups and because there weren't many people in the class it didn't seem like all three groups were there.
That day was the first time that we had a taste of speaking in front of an audience for the play that were currently doing. This was the first practice that we've done where we were expected not to use our scripts.
At first I got off a bad start because I ended up reading the script from the wrong page.
Monique covering our lesson
Because the L3's performance was just in a few days, Sheenagh had to miss a few lessons with us and so Monique had to cover our lessons and the sessions that we've had with her have actually been sessions where we have been productive most of the times.
What I don't agree with is that we have to hear one group read through their lines while the rest of us have to follow.
I think what we should be doing is having to split into our own groups and spread out so that we can read our lines therefore we can get used to reading out our lines in front of everyone else and so that we can memorise our lines.
Having to cover for other members in other groups
When we have been in the hall which is known as room 034 and
when they have presented themselves in the manner that they would probably be when the moment of the performance is occurring. During those moments there have been cast members that haven't been in, so there have been members of other groups especially me who have had to fill in for other people. When I've been called to help other groups it had been difficult because I'm not used to working with that certain group that I'm assisting especially when were actually doing a scene and going through our lines, since the people who I'm helping are familiar with the scene and the lines of the part they are able to do the scene without a script but because this isn't my actual group then I have to use a script and when we are going through the scene it can be difficult to follow since I need to act out the part yet I have to read out the lines of the page because these are not my actual lines and I don't know them of by heart. So it can be hard and it slows down the process since I struggle to keep up with the rest of the following performers.
18/03/2019 Watching the L3's perform Macbeth. (1st play): The L3's were finally going to perform after so much speculation. I kind of knew how the setting would look like since in their previous plays they would use quite a dark coloured background.
Being in the theatre after a long time: After watching the L3's performance and after the theatre was cleared up, we were soon using after a long time, so long that the last time we used was when Rob was around and everyone else was so glad because the theatre would help us have a feel on what the atmosphere would feel like and what to expect on the day of our performance.
19/03/2019: 2nd Macbeth play and Rob's return.
For this play I wasn't in but from what I heard, this play has a zombie apocalypse genre. This was also the play in where I saw Rob after a long time.
21/03/2019: 3rd Macbeth play:
This was the second Macbeth play that I watched and I was hoping that it would look much different to the first play that I saw. Most of the costumes that I saw from the first play was either the same or similar from the 3rd play of Macbeth.
One thing that was different was when Banquo's ghost/spirit entered into into into the dinning room, the actor wore a white shirt covered in spots of blood unlike the other group where the person who played Banquo wore a blue skeleton mask.
This group didn't use a portable stage instead they used the whole stage space which was even grounded.
I think they should have used the stage for when Macbeth would be at a party or sitting on a throne since it would be suitable for a king to sit on his throne since he has the highest position out of everyone in the room therefore the stage should've been used to signify that he has the most authority.
22/03/2019: Critiquing the performance of L3:
We later on had to write a review on how the performance went. It had to be a word document that needed to be sent to the Head of performing Arts. Sadly I wasn't able to focus so I could't even write half of what I wanted to write let alone be able to finish.
I felt gutted not doing well In the Macbeth review since that could've been proof to Charlie (The head of Performing Arts) that I was serious about progressing to the next level whichever course it is.
Work Pasted from Unit 4
The production side of the course for Immigration- Unit 7
Context:
There were four groups in total so that we can come up with ideas for the play so that the play can look appealing. I was assigned with Kamille, Irene and Anastasia.
For this Unit we were assigned to come up with the soundtrack, props and lighting for the play.
We were a few weeks away of our performance and we needed to act fast.
I really liked this part of the "Immigration" project because I like working in a team and I enjoyed it because I was the person that did majority of the work and I like to be the main person of the group. It was different from when I was doing group work with Chinzia, Mya, etc for the battle of the concerts work, since there was conflictions.
Research- The genres and the problems we faced
Since London is a multi-cultural city it wasn't hard for us to inspiration for our characters and for the play overall. We decided to use our experiences and use our every day life to decide what our characters should be.
A great example of this is Somalian women who tend to fully clothe themselves from head to toe with an abaya, knowing this makes things more easier for us to know what Fatima should wear since she is from Somalia along with her niece Asha.
In a way we were kind off stereotyping and using our own perspectives of how someone from a different country would dress as well as looking in google and search for Islamic clothing which would be appropriate for the following characters; Jemel, Ahmad, Fatima, Asha and Mariam because they are all from countries in where Islam is the predominant religion and where clothes that only show a small part of your body is used.
The soundtrack- We thought about using music that was related to do the countries of the characters of the play. Turkish music is very common around Europe especially here in London. Even French music for the scenes when the refugees are being drove around the country.
The Props:We decided to use our scripts to know what we should use as our props. We thought that for us to take the role more seriously it would be best if we had the props from the script to have a sense of what sort of objects do they value and to try to understand what their intentions are behind these precious items to them. E.g. Fatima's most prized possesion is a ring that she wanted to give to her son but couldn't because she had to raise funds to buy her daughter a ticket.
Planning
The Lighting- Because the setting is based on a moving truck driving around Europe we thought that it would be necessary to have a blue square in a certain area to signify to the audience the size of the container. Other colours that we thought it would be good to use and ended up being used was red and yellow especially for the parts when the characters are about to be searched.
The exit: Our teacher recommended us to go out from the top-right of the stage when it's our scene so that it can be seen as the door by the audience.
Costumes/Props: To Identify ourselves more with our selective characters we thought that we should highly prioritize our time to look for the specific props that are used in the play. We think that by having these props it helps us more to connect with our character. I didn't really need to stress what I need to wear to the performance because my peers had already decided that I should wear something smart such as a suit or just a white shirt with trousers but I don't agree with this since in TV shows that is based on immigrants crossing a border, asylum seeking, etc, I've never seen an agent wear a suit, I think that someone like my character would at least try to blend in with the crowd and if you consider the conditions that he is in it would seem like he's dressing up way to nice for the dump of a place he's in.
Problem Solving
I had many issues with my group as there were people who did not contribute any ideas to the group whilst we have had Production Arts classes for this exact unit. Yet at the last moment in a week or two before our performance the girls decide to contribute and there were moments when they mentioned things that weren't relevant such as 1930's French Piano music.
Becca our production Arts teacher asked the Production Arts class to order items in behalf of us but I think that Becca should give us all actual roles, so we could have a team that orders the props or costumes that we need so that complications don't happen since many mistakes have happened previously when it comes to ordering. Just like we suspected a mistake was made and it was an error that would impact in grave manner had there not been spare props that Sheenagh had retrieved on her own.
During the performance we had moments when people forgot their lines and their cues so what most of my class ended up doing was improvise their lines even when it didn't make any sense.
Other times during the play there were people who stood in the wrong places during rehearsal and despite many hours of practice there were people who still couldn't get their positions right. The only solution to do was for us to have a spotlight in the middle for the characters who stand when they are in the such as Jemel and the agent who is the character that I play.
Evaluation
These production values have supported during our journey towards learning and performing the container. The music helped us not only to understand where we are but it may have been used as a cue for us to know when we should end up coming to the stage, when it's our part.
The costumes were useful especially when the roles were switched in the second half of the play so that the audience and ourselves also can know who was who in the play.
The lighting felt like a huge asset for us because at least we knew where to stand during the performance hence-why we didn't make a lot of mistakes whilst we did our performance.
Honestly my group wasn't the best to work with because they were distracted at times, so I had to do most of the work on my own. I even created a list of things to come up with for the day of the performance, yet I managed to enjoy working on my own.
I really enjoyed the performance and It was a great experience and in a way it was a great way of connecting to our background since this story really relates to many of us because many of us come from different backgrounds, with our parents having a similar story to the characters of the play.
The items that was used during the play was very helpful and it really supported us when letting our characters take over our bodies so that we can behave just like them which was helpful for the audience to know the religion, the heritage and other information about our characters.
These last few months have been quite difficult with the performance happening in three weeks later in the time of writing and there are many people who still haven't learnt their lines especially me.
I think it's going to be hard for me because my character who is the agent has a lot of lines, despite the fact that I have to share the agents lines with Renee who also plays the agent.
But even if I get to share my lines with Renee, the lines of the agent would still be hard to learn because while most people have one or two lined sentences, me and Renee have to say quite a large paragraph.
There has been a lot of confusion and to make the play more shorter and more easier to learn lines Sheenagh has cut a chunk of lines out of the play.
Lining out the verbs in the script: With Sheenagh we went through the script and decided to write down emotions, feelings and adjectives that the characters could be having and for each word that we came up with we wrote it next to the line in which the character has the feeling or emotion. This is clinically proven to help us act out our characters better.
Another moment that occurred was the fact that my scene had changed in the time that I had changed group. The page that I was first reading from was the first time that the agent had appeared and my lines had been changed to lines that show later on.
I'm able to express myself but I'm not able to memorise the lines easily and as fast as the rest of my class.
At first due to the change of group I didn't know where to read from since there was quite a large part of the script that was cut.
Reading it together infront of the class for the first time:
When we were in the hall which is called room 034 we were put together in our groups and because there weren't many people in the class it didn't seem like all three groups were there.
That day was the first time that we had a taste of speaking in front of an audience for the play that were currently doing. This was the first practice that we've done where we were expected not to use our scripts.
At first I got off a bad start because I ended up reading the script from the wrong page.
Monique covering our lesson
Because the L3's performance was just in a few days, Sheenagh had to miss a few lessons with us and so Monique had to cover our lessons and the sessions that we've had with her have actually been sessions where we have been productive most of the times.
What I don't agree with is that we have to hear one group read through their lines while the rest of us have to follow.
I think what we should be doing is having to split into our own groups and spread out so that we can read our lines therefore we can get used to reading out our lines in front of everyone else and so that we can memorise our lines.
Having to cover for other members in other groups
When we have been in the hall which is known as room 034 and
when they have presented themselves in the manner that they would probably be when the moment of the performance is occurring. During those moments there have been cast members that haven't been in, so there have been members of other groups especially me who have had to fill in for other people. When I've been called to help other groups it had been difficult because I'm not used to working with that certain group that I'm assisting especially when were actually doing a scene and going through our lines, since the people who I'm helping are familiar with the scene and the lines of the part they are able to do the scene without a script but because this isn't my actual group then I have to use a script and when we are going through the scene it can be difficult to follow since I need to act out the part yet I have to read out the lines of the page because these are not my actual lines and I don't know them of by heart. So it can be hard and it slows down the process since I struggle to keep up with the rest of the following performers.
18/03/2019 Watching the L3's perform Macbeth. (1st play): The L3's were finally going to perform after so much speculation. I kind of knew how the setting would look like since in their previous plays they would use quite a dark coloured background.
Being in the theatre after a long time: After watching the L3's performance and after the theatre was cleared up, we were soon using after a long time, so long that the last time we used was when Rob was around and everyone else was so glad because the theatre would help us have a feel on what the atmosphere would feel like and what to expect on the day of our performance.
19/03/2019: 2nd Macbeth play and Rob's return.
For this play I wasn't in but from what I heard, this play has a zombie apocalypse genre. This was also the play in where I saw Rob after a long time.
21/03/2019: 3rd Macbeth play:
This was the second Macbeth play that I watched and I was hoping that it would look much different to the first play that I saw. Most of the costumes that I saw from the first play was either the same or similar from the 3rd play of Macbeth.
One thing that was different was when Banquo's ghost/spirit entered into into into the dinning room, the actor wore a white shirt covered in spots of blood unlike the other group where the person who played Banquo wore a blue skeleton mask.
This group didn't use a portable stage instead they used the whole stage space which was even grounded.
I think they should have used the stage for when Macbeth would be at a party or sitting on a throne since it would be suitable for a king to sit on his throne since he has the highest position out of everyone in the room therefore the stage should've been used to signify that he has the most authority.
22/03/2019: Critiquing the performance of L3:
We later on had to write a review on how the performance went. It had to be a word document that needed to be sent to the Head of performing Arts. Sadly I wasn't able to focus so I could't even write half of what I wanted to write let alone be able to finish.
I felt gutted not doing well In the Macbeth review since that could've been proof to Charlie (The head of Performing Arts) that I was serious about progressing to the next level whichever course it is.
Work Pasted from Unit 4
The production side of the course for Immigration- Unit 7
Context:
There were four groups in total so that we can come up with ideas for the play so that the play can look appealing. I was assigned with Kamille, Irene and Anastasia.
For this Unit we were assigned to come up with the soundtrack, props and lighting for the play.
We were a few weeks away of our performance and we needed to act fast.
I really liked this part of the "Immigration" project because I like working in a team and I enjoyed it because I was the person that did majority of the work and I like to be the main person of the group. It was different from when I was doing group work with Chinzia, Mya, etc for the battle of the concerts work, since there was conflictions.
Research- The genres and the problems we faced
Since London is a multi-cultural city it wasn't hard for us to inspiration for our characters and for the play overall. We decided to use our experiences and use our every day life to decide what our characters should be.
A great example of this is Somalian women who tend to fully clothe themselves from head to toe with an abaya, knowing this makes things more easier for us to know what Fatima should wear since she is from Somalia along with her niece Asha.
In a way we were kind off stereotyping and using our own perspectives of how someone from a different country would dress as well as looking in google and search for Islamic clothing which would be appropriate for the following characters; Jemel, Ahmad, Fatima, Asha and Mariam because they are all from countries in where Islam is the predominant religion and where clothes that only show a small part of your body is used.
The soundtrack- We thought about using music that was related to do the countries of the characters of the play. Turkish music is very common around Europe especially here in London. Even French music for the scenes when the refugees are being drove around the country.
The Props:We decided to use our scripts to know what we should use as our props. We thought that for us to take the role more seriously it would be best if we had the props from the script to have a sense of what sort of objects do they value and to try to understand what their intentions are behind these precious items to them. E.g. Fatima's most prized possesion is a ring that she wanted to give to her son but couldn't because she had to raise funds to buy her daughter a ticket.
Planning
The Lighting- Because the setting is based on a moving truck driving around Europe we thought that it would be necessary to have a blue square in a certain area to signify to the audience the size of the container. Other colours that we thought it would be good to use and ended up being used was red and yellow especially for the parts when the characters are about to be searched.
The exit: Our teacher recommended us to go out from the top-right of the stage when it's our scene so that it can be seen as the door by the audience.
Costumes/Props: To Identify ourselves more with our selective characters we thought that we should highly prioritize our time to look for the specific props that are used in the play. We think that by having these props it helps us more to connect with our character. I didn't really need to stress what I need to wear to the performance because my peers had already decided that I should wear something smart such as a suit or just a white shirt with trousers but I don't agree with this since in TV shows that is based on immigrants crossing a border, asylum seeking, etc, I've never seen an agent wear a suit, I think that someone like my character would at least try to blend in with the crowd and if you consider the conditions that he is in it would seem like he's dressing up way to nice for the dump of a place he's in.
Problem Solving
I had many issues with my group as there were people who did not contribute any ideas to the group whilst we have had Production Arts classes for this exact unit. Yet at the last moment in a week or two before our performance the girls decide to contribute and there were moments when they mentioned things that weren't relevant such as 1930's French Piano music.
Becca our production Arts teacher asked the Production Arts class to order items in behalf of us but I think that Becca should give us all actual roles, so we could have a team that orders the props or costumes that we need so that complications don't happen since many mistakes have happened previously when it comes to ordering. Just like we suspected a mistake was made and it was an error that would impact in grave manner had there not been spare props that Sheenagh had retrieved on her own.
During the performance we had moments when people forgot their lines and their cues so what most of my class ended up doing was improvise their lines even when it didn't make any sense.
Other times during the play there were people who stood in the wrong places during rehearsal and despite many hours of practice there were people who still couldn't get their positions right. The only solution to do was for us to have a spotlight in the middle for the characters who stand when they are in the such as Jemel and the agent who is the character that I play.
Evaluation
These production values have supported during our journey towards learning and performing the container. The music helped us not only to understand where we are but it may have been used as a cue for us to know when we should end up coming to the stage, when it's our part.
The costumes were useful especially when the roles were switched in the second half of the play so that the audience and ourselves also can know who was who in the play.
The lighting felt like a huge asset for us because at least we knew where to stand during the performance hence-why we didn't make a lot of mistakes whilst we did our performance.
Honestly my group wasn't the best to work with because they were distracted at times, so I had to do most of the work on my own. I even created a list of things to come up with for the day of the performance, yet I managed to enjoy working on my own.
I really enjoyed the performance and It was a great experience and in a way it was a great way of connecting to our background since this story really relates to many of us because many of us come from different backgrounds, with our parents having a similar story to the characters of the play.
The items that was used during the play was very helpful and it really supported us when letting our characters take over our bodies so that we can behave just like them which was helpful for the audience to know the religion, the heritage and other information about our characters.
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