Month: May 2016

When we first got our Stimulus. (Lukas Graham – 7 Year old) we read over the song and listened to the song.  We then proceeded to read between the lines and try to fully understand the song and what it is actually about. We know that the song is very emotional to him and that it is about his father and some of his regrets in life.

After we took our time to understand the piece.  We narrowed it down to the ages Lukas sings about in the song, which was 7,11,20,30 and 60.

For each age we planned out what scene could happen.  As we were a group of 4. It was planned very easily and was successful. Aaron was playing a nurse. Darnell  was playing the older Lukas Graham. Burke was playing Lukas’ mother and I was playing Lukas in all the years till 60.

Darnell starts the scene off as an old man demanding things from his nurse Aaron, then calls him over to tell him story and get it off of his chest. Darnell’s story is split into multiple parts for each age group. He says a line about every age set then Aaron and Darnell freeze whilst me and Bruke act it out In front of them. This proceeds to happen until the very end where the age becomes 60. When the age becomes 60. Darnell walks off of the stage and I proceed to sit where he was and carry on the conversation as I have reached his age and my story was told.

Monologue

When I performed the monologue, I performed it in a shocked and appreciative emotion. I spoke slowly to show the audience that I am out of words to say and am lost at the situation. The situation is that someone random comes and asks for a picture of him and my character. My character had a tough childhood and struggled to get to the point he is now. During the monologue multiple times I stop and think about the situation I am in and ask rhetorical questions like “who would have thought” giving an impact to the reader that I cannot understand the situation and that I finally achieved what I was aiming for.

During the monologue I put my hands on my hips and often stare at the ground or into the distance, I think this is a good show of the characters emotions as it shows that I am contemplating what happened and in dis-belief. Multiple times in the play I repeat my words and take deep breaths. Not because i am failing my character, but because that is the characters reaction.

In my opinion the monologue had a good impact on the piece as it gives the audience a separate one on one view of how he feels internally and not how his parents roles changed him. It shows the inner child in him. The highly wanted wish to be famous and recognized. Even after the troubles he had as a child with his family.

I chose to do a monologue because I feel that I can do very well at expressing a characters emotions through just words and facial movement, In my opinion for the monologue I covered all the fields needed. I spoke my words with true emotion and my facial reactions all fit in well together.

Character Development

Character development was both simple and tricky at the same time, i had to act out my character at the ages of 7, 11, 20, 30 and finally 60. The age range is quite wide so there are multiple ways I need to act in a short amount of time.

I started off at the age of 7, for that age I was sat down quietly leaning back and forth playing video games like a child would, my characters mother would come in and tell me things and I would ignore her for the first time as I am heavily distracted by the game, my mother repeats it for me and I just tell her to go away and that I do not care about what she says and that video games are better. I say this firmly but also childishly as I cannot speak badly. I do not make eye contact and just carry on playing.

My next age is 11, at the age of 11 my character is smoking herb and drinking burning liquor, something which should not be done. My characters mum comes in whilst my door is closed and I am doing the things I should not be doing. My mother knocks on the door concerned and I carry on doing what I want without listening to her. I keep her locked off. In the scene I just slouch in a chair and do the actions of smoking and drinking. Whilst smoking I fake a cough which made it seem even more realistic. My voice is very careless and I speak very rudely to my mum and tell her to go away and that she cant see me at the moment.

I then go on to act the age of 20, at this age I am successful and have been going well in my life. The scene starts with me getting recognised in public and asked for a picture by someone random, the scene freezes and I have my monologue, in this scene I am very natural and do not have any special attributes.

At the age of 30, I am a father and I tell my kids some things about my life, some of the things they should do in life, some of my mistakes they should avoid. I act like a stereotypical dad caring about my kids, my body language is normal and the way I say things is very normal with nothing special being said, just some deep breaths to give the scene an impact.

I then become 60, at this point I replace Darnell on the stage as we are one character, I do not have many words here. I just slowly go to Darnell and take his seat and thank the nurse for listening as the lights fade off.

I chose to do Character Development as I think I can change personalities very quickly and very believably. I think that I covered all ages well and my age was obvious through each scene. I knew that I could improvise from an age very well so I decided to be the actions of the piece. In my opinion the words and actions I made for each age was appropriate and fit in well, it did not make the audience confused about what age my character is. I knew that I could portray the character in the correct way to make the audience enjoy the piece