The 'Identity' Project

Artistic and Technical Targets:

One target was to be able to demonstrate the use of a range of techniques in support of a performing arts activity which I think was done well as a whole as we devised a whole scene, developed it from a complete improvisation piece into a complete production, and came up with a set of lines that were used and slightly tweaked throughout the whole course of the project.

Another target was to communicate ideas to develop a performing arts activity which we all did well as the focused communication that worked so well all the way throughout was what led to such a good performance overall. We also as a group at the start communicated ideas well as we all came up with ideas of what our scene could be about and worked through each one to decide which one would end up being the best one to use and would be most enjoyable to not just watch, bit to perform as well.

Furthermore another target was to assess selected techniques and processes which was all done as when we were all working with each other we all gave feedback on our improvisation work and used the feedback to better improve our characters.

Devising Process Issues:

There were a few issues while devising the scenes, such as picking what scene to actually do as the overall part in the play, for example my group and I had various different idea about what to do or the main piece at the start of the whole project and as we acted out each idea we decided which one would best display the idea of 'Identity' to the audience and we ended up choosing school and background, but even this had issues as different people were still more interested in doing some of the other ideas that we had thought up so as a group we worked on how we could best include their ideas and make them work in the one we had made the final choice on.

We also had issues on the use of different props and scene length and actor layout for the audience as at the start we did not know that we would later link both groups together so my group and I were fully focused on making the scene as long and as enjoyable for the audience to watch as we possibly could.

Group Strengths and Weaknesses:

There were a variety of strengths and weaknesses as a group, a few strengths were that we all managed to work well together and help each other to improve. It also allowed people to be more confident around each other which reflected very well in our overall performance as none of us were shy or embarrassed to perform in front of each other as we all had good relationships.

Another strength was that we all helped each other to improve on cues and lines which made it run more smoothly for the audience to watch. On top of that, a major strength for the group was that nearly all of us had done some sort of acting in the past, be it from school or other but it meant that we were all used to the atmosphere and ability to perform in font of other people confidently as we had done it before.

A weakness for the group was that during rehearsals, some people did not show up or were not in to do their parts, this meant that someone would have to stand in for them and act out their part whcih meant any changes made to that part would have to then be showed to the person who was not in which meant having to run through that scene multiple times until they understood the new part and were able to act it out well. This then meant that there was less time to improve the whole performance.

A major weakness was that on the day of the performance, a person did not show up which meant that someone had to learn and act their part on the day as well as their original piece, which meant that they were less confident acting the new part and found it more difficult to remember certain cues that entailed to that part. But overall the part was played well even without the original person playing the part it was still run smoothly and full of energy and was acted in a way that made it enjoyable for the audience to watch.



Performance Overall:

I feel overall that the performance went very well due to the planning and rehearsals that we did beforehand, I thought it was well devised and put together, for example the use of a flashback incorporate 2 different scenes to make it work better for the audience and also made it run more smoothly.

On top of that there were also various other things that worked well in the production, for example the music that we used to signal scene changes was included well as the play was about identity so it made it much more realistic to have a song based around the same theme.

Also I feel that the ending of the performance was a big success as it ended with every saying "I'm human, none the less" in various different languages which further helps to link in with the ideas of equality and fairness, it also gives the audience a better insight to the different cultures which is a main key aspect in identity overall.

The group as a whole was very focused when it came to performing as we did not miss any cues and all lines were said clearly to the audience. We were all also very confident when it came time to perform which better helped our focus, concentration, and ability to engage well with the audience.

Individual Improvement Areas:

I feel that I could've improved with my projection towards the audience, as most of my parts were spoken to the other person in the scene rather than speaking more towards the audience which would help to make them feel more connected to the play and also make it easier for them to understand and hear what is going on during that scene.

Furthermore I also feel that as an individual I could've improved more on the use of props during my scenes as it would've helped the audience to differentiate the different characters that I was playing, it would've also been better if I was more prepared for scene changes that included different props as during one scene change I found myself desperately looking for a phone that I could to better signal to the audience that I was actually on the phone, also the use of a housing book was replaced by an algebra sheet which again was also down to the lack of preparation before the pay and before the scene changes.

Also I feel like I could've worked more on the remembrance of certain lines consistently as I often found myself changing certain words at different rehearsals, for example when playing the headmaster I address a student played by Benedict when I would call him either Mr. Benedict, Boy or Man which makes it hard to get different cues right as the change of words makes it difficult to realize the time when.

UAL Level 2 Week 5

Monday 10th October

Blog Lesson:

• Carried on working on and updating our blogs.

Moved onto our final Tutorial Lesson where we:

• Reviewed the things that we looked at in our previous tutorial lessons and completed a test consolidating our new knowledge on the subjects

Tuesday 11th October

Had a Drama lesson where as before we:

• Focused on improving our piece on 'Identity' in the theater and we made the final arrangements to the layout of the chairs on stage. We ran it through twice and tweaked a few things, for example placement and body language on stage. After running it through we played different improvisation games such as Expert where there was an expert on a topic but spoke in a made-up language and a translator who had to work with the expert and look at body language in order to give replies. We also played another game where we were not allowed to say 'Yes' or 'No', we then had to reply to the person talking to us  in the best what possible and try and survive a minute.

Movement Lesson where we:

• Acted out our production and used concepts from musical theater to make certain parts more extravagant and less naturalistic which is what was wanted from the acting teacher. After acting it  through with the movement teacher saying different things to people about how to improve it, at the end it was a slower but sort of improved piece. 

Production lesson which allowed us to:

• Either focus on the continuation of our blogs, or the updating and improvement on our essay production roles, I decided to continue the work on my blog and fill in on the certain days that I had not done as well before.

Wednesday (No Lesson)

Thursday 13th October

Drama lesson which had us:

• Putting on the final touching of our performance making it as best as we can for the audience that would be watching us, we ran through it a few times making sure we tweaked it perfectly and making sure there we no mess ups while it was running through.

Friday 14th October

• We finally acted out our performance on 'Identity' in front of the Level 3 Performing Arts class and the Level 2 and 3 Music class. Overall I think that it turned out to be a big success and was an enjoyment to perform to and be watched by the audience.

UAL Level 2 Week 4

Monday (3rd October)

Blog Lesson:

• Focused on the improvement of our blogs.

Moved onto a tutorial lesson where we:

• Looked at different rights and conventions of the European Union and had to pick 4 which stood out most to us as individuals. Then we had to get into groups and pick 4 rights out of 12 which meant the most to us as a group. We then had to explain the reasons for why we chose those rights, for example choosing the 'Right to Liberty' was good because as a group we all believed in the right to have our own personal well being safe guarded and protected by empowering bodies such as the government and the want to feel secure as a person.

Acting lesson where we:

• Worked in the theater further developing our piece on 'Identity'. We worked on the beginning of the play where most of the group are sitting on chairs and the rest are standing up. At the start of the production we decided to have us all speak about what identity meant to us, but then we shortened it down to 6 people who took ideas from other people as well as themselves.
• We then worked more on linking the school scene in with the detention scene by looking more at actor placement on stage and the position the scenes will mainly be directed at the audience. Doing this is good as it allows us to develop on weaker parts that the audience would maybe not have been able to hear or see. 
• After this we worked more on the further development of the scenes then at the end when the housing scene is happening at the end, a foreign person comes in looking for a house then the housing agent who is racist tells her to go away as she does not want the likes of her in the country, then after that the foreign person looks toward the audience and says "I'm a human none the less", then after that the whole of the group come and and speak that line in different languages, for example German, Spanish and Italian and many others, this helps to promote cultural diversity, fairness and equality and also helps to give the audience a better understanding of individuality and an insight to the possible abuse that certain foreign people may get when going to somewhere looking for help.

Tuesday (4th October)

Acting lesson where we:

• Acted out the production of 'Identity' twice, whilst making improvement to various different things such as movement, voice exaggeration and gestures. Overall we decided that it would be best if we over exaggerated the whole of the play as before it was basic and too naturalistic so it needed something else to create emphasis and to excite the audience all the way throughout. 

• After running through twice, the group had to perform to the Level 3 second year students what we had come up with so far. I found this extremely useful as because they are far more experienced. They also gave us a deeper insight on things that we could improve on such as things like certain people in the group were not acting as if they were a character they were playing it as if they were just reading lines from a script, so from hearing this it allows us to better our performance and make our scenes better and not so realistic but more enjoyable and fun to watch.

Movement lesson in which we:

• Began to incorporate themes of musical theatre in our production which allows us to develop and build more on our body movement and gestures towards the audience while the play is going on, for example, we looked at the scene where we show the audience the sexist stereotypical views on the male and female gender such as make-up for girls and football for boys. We worked on these by adding better movements to signalise the different stereotypes and how to better link them with what we are trying to show the audience. After this we did multiple run through with changes to the whole performance base on the new movement actions and gestures we created in the movement lesson.

Production lesson which had us:

• Further develop our essay about our certain roles in the theatre.

Wednesday (No Lessons)

Thursday (6th October)

Acting lesson where we:

• Worked in room 226 focusing on improving our piece on 'Identity'. Room 226 is very small compared to the theater which made it hard to do the play run-through as it was difficult to do the chair lay out with all the scene movements as the space was very tight. 
• After running through the play a few times, we were able to improve on the ending scenes such as the housing agent scene, where we were able to improve on bodily movements, language and spacing in relation to the audience, I also had to fill in for a person because they weren't in which was good as it allowed us to continue working without problems.

Friday (7th October)

Acting lesson which had us:

• Still working on our 'Identity' piece in room 222, it was a bigger space for us to work in which made it easier for the layout of the chairs to be placed. We were able to further improve on our work. Which makes it better ad more 'cleaner' when we actually perform it to the audience.