Road: Week 3

Today was a continuation of the blocking for Road, as we had blocked some scenes with Kirsty the previous week; we showed these to Deborah so she is aware of the blocking for the scenes she missed etc.

However, today we had a Greek Theatre (Context lesson: with Kirsty) In this lesson we are covering the three theban plays:Oedipus, Oedipus at Colonus and Antigone. Today we purely focussed on Antigone; the story of Antigone (main character-protagonist). Her two brothers are fighting for the throne, they both die. Antigone's uncle Creon (to be King) wants one brother buried with a full funeral/ceremony and the other to not: to purely just rot onland. Anitgone, being brought up with love and kindeness, goes against Creon demanding that both her brothers require a proper burial. The fight continues, Ismene (Antigone's sister) takes her side. Antigone is sent to a cave to die. A blind prophet comes along and again, demands to Creon that Antigone should be released and the brother to have a proper burial. But it is too late, Creon goes to release her but she, and her husband-Haemon, have both killed themselves. 
The moral of the story is that Antigone set out to do well but due to the flaws in the other characters such as Creon it lead to her demise.
But whilst talking about all the characters in Antigone I briefly linked them to some in Road. (Bearing in mind that this is all very loosely done) Carol as Antigone. Carol plays a very dominant women and does not let the boys (Eddie and Brink) walk all over her nor does she let the boys think that she is 'easy'- "For a minute then I thought I was at the Ritz"- she is also very sarcastic and rude. Antigone, for the era, was seen as almost a 'wonder-women' having a female as a protagonist back then was a big deal and very rare- due to womens rights etc. Carol plays the leading female protagonist in the final scene with the four of us. She doe'nt necessarily do all her actions in order to make things right like Antigone does but she is definitely flowing closely in the footsteps of being a leading women, who has her own opinion and will do and say what she wants and what she believes in. As I said, it is loosely linked but I thought this was a good link to Road at the same time.
Ismene could be linked with Louise. Ismene is Antigone's sister (both Oedipus' daughters). Ismene states that she would die in order to help her sister. They are very close. So I've linked Ismene and Antigone for Carol and Louise. Ismene; perhaps the tag along to her sisters bold actions in her demands to Creon, but still she supports these actions as does Louise. Louise is fond and close to Carol and acts as very much the tag along to her with all the 'Louise laughs' 'Louise splutters' etc. Ismene is scared of Creon, a very dominant male character in the play. Just as Louise is scared of her brother- the only dominant male in her life that we are introduced to in the play, Louise is intimidated by her brother and I also get the impression that Ismene is of Creon. However Creon doesn't scare Antigone nor would Louise' brother scare Carol, if they ever did meet.
So perhaps Creon could be linked with Louises brother- someone who always believes that they are right and will fight for this perhaps...
Which leads me onto this particular relationship (Antigone and Creon.) In a short National Theatre clip watched in class( I annoyingly can find the link for this. I will keep searching), it is to be said that this uncle and niece relationship is not like any 'normal' family relationship, as you might expect- something like love and kindness shared between the two. However, this relationship is far from this. "He treats her like a criminal" ~Jodie Whittaker whom played Antigone in a contemporary version. Similarly to how the brother treats Louise, not quite like a criminal but he certainly doesn't treat her nicely or even like a normal brother would- with bickering and petty arguments.

These links to the theban plays we are covering in a different lesson; I think, are very interesting. It proves that 2000 years on these classic tragedy plays are still having a huge (but an unconscience) effect on plays being written in this 21st century! Which is brilliant and it just shows how much we owe this pleasure of a college course and industry to the Greeks themselves!

So in our actual dedicated Road lesson we did: scenes that I had already taken notes for; so tried to look deeper for more thoughts about the characters and scenes: In Dor and Lanes scene (Act 2 page 47) they both mention how they 'are not going home to him'. Him is written in italics to show emphasis needed here. Which made me think that they are both married which naturally knocks up their age range to about 30 onwards. Although saying this, I had imagined Dor and Lane to be young and in their twenties enjoying the pub and club life of a young adult. So perhaps their 'him's' are boyfriends or even brothers or fathers. As if Louise were to be saying these lines she would most definitely be referring them back to not wanting to go back to her horrid brother. Their age can be decided on this very argument (whether its their husbands or boyfriends etc?)

Valeries monologue, this was the first time we got to see this monologue as we went off and did our accent work when Sophie (whom plays Valerie) blocked this scene. The first introduction to Road, a couple of weeks ago, I was chosen to present my interpretation of this monologue: so to play the character of Valerie. I tried to incorporate some movement into mine such as when she mentions how "dry her hair is" I tentatively looked at my hair as though reminiscing to how she used to look and how her hair used to be. This will show how she feels about herself which will also gives us a bit more of an insight into her character; seeing as this monologue is her only scene!

Script notes

She goes on to tell us how she "feeds every baby in the house" and "'does' everything else I can" etc which made me think that she is bored of her life. It's repetitive and dull, and Valerie isn't the only one to think this as Louise mentions this also. 

Valerie is so poor she begs for money off of the same people and her only thanks she can give them is to say 'thank you, thank you' 'til it makes you sick.' When I heard this line in Sophie's version, it made me believe that she wasn't apologetic that she has to beg for money, it sounded more like disgrace to herself and that saying thank you every time made her sick with hatred towards herself and her life?

She then goes on to talk about drink/alcohol. "Drinks a bastard" this is a massive contrast to what everyone else on Road thinks about alcohol. Others use it as a method to forget the world in which they are living in. Whereas Valerie talks about how it has ruined her life. I

I picked out an interesting thought: that when she mentions "him" "he" "not his fault" that she is referring to the alcohol as "him". On the surface it is to be seen as though she is talking about her husband (whole we never actually meet) which can only lead me to the conclusion that perhaps the drink is her life; as would a husband be if she did have one. However saying this she does mention "his fat hard hands in bed" which is almost certainly a reference to a human male but it, again, could be seen as though the "fat hard hands" are the feeling that alcohol has left her-hung over and a negative attitude to life in general? "He's so big and hunched and ugly" tells us that she is scared of this husband or the alcohol as it has changed her life considerably as she goes on to talk about how she "hates him now, and I don't want to". She's asking herself more than the audience what changed in her life . 

This entire monologue has more meaning to it now. As I can see it in the context of the play. Valerie is weak and alone, and she only has the husband or alcohol. Cartwright has written a few characters whom appear to be lonely. I think this is because he writes the theme of sex as such a casual thing and that love in that sense wasn't a big deal then; it was more casual and it didn't seem to matter if you had sex with someone you didn't like let alone love. Making the characters lonely in their family or relationships that are mentioned, gives us a clear insight into what life was like on Road-"dull" lonely, "slag heap" and "where things all come but don't drop off."

I will, again, be passing on my notes to Sophie so she can improve on the things mentioned, this way I am both helping myself, as an actor, develop and am helping others too.

Talking to you on Wednesday evening of this week: I can now say that I expressed my feelings to Sophie, about how I felt that Valerie is talking about 'him' as alcohol instead of the top layer of it being that she is simply talking about her husband. Matter of factly, I feel that Sophie didn't take this suggestion openly mindedly as her immediate reaction was too far abstract it was. This halted my idea completely so I felt that I didn't get a full opportunity to explain my suggestion. I can fully understand why she blocked off this suggestion as I clearly see how far out the idea is from the naturalistic play of Road that we are to be performing. However I am pleased I expressed my point to her as I will continue to do so to both improve my skills as an actor as well as assisting others.

This led us to my scene with Eddie, Brink and Carol (Lewis, Milo and Carol.) This scene was blocked on our previous Thursdays lesson so we just presented this back to Deborah. During this, I noted that I need to work on 1. My accent. Milo and Phoebe have mastered the accent really well, and because Phoebe is playing a dominant and loud character, I, and my character, are represented as very little and quiet! Which is said to be as though I am playing someone too much like myself, which is something that I desperately do not want to do. And 2. That although Louise is the tag along of the group she also has her moments of sticking up for herself such as when she repeatedly says "Carol" in a motherly sort of tone as though to be telling Carol off; only because Louise really likes these boys and probably wouldn't mind the sexual tension that begins to rise. 

Speaking with honesty, I feel as though my level of acting is being held back in this scene because I have found myself apprehensive of the two kisses. Which sounds daft coming from an actress but the surrounds I imbed myself in (other teenagers, friends, peers etc), it is quite hard to explain that the two kisses are only for acting purposes and mean nothing more. This being one naff excuse and the second being that I have been holding back with the thought of having to block this scene in front of the class, as we have been doing so for other scenes. 

So with all this beared in mind, I personally feel that I am holding myself back from this scene and that the energy I have been giving this scene has been low due to the false lead up's of blocking this section and then not blocking it. With all that said, I am now more determined to jump this acting career hurdle, as I know, silly as it may sound, that I will be pleased with myself to overcome this 'apprehensiveness.' I also feel it best that I am honest with myself and my thoughts about my acting in the early stages of Road and I feel as though I am pulling back more than I should. With that said, again, I'm even more determined to take this scene away this weekend and learn the lines so by Monday Iam at least off script for this scene, this way I can begin to really become Louise and focus on the characterisations of her which will remove p, hopefully, aspects of my own personality so when it comes to the kisses, I am Louise kissing Brink and Eddie, two boys who have chatted me up etc etc. 

Going through this scene again was really helpful as it refreshed us with the new blocking that had been set and it also meant that the rest of the class could see it, with that said I asked what the others thought of this scene and the relationships that are in the midst... I did this because I wanted some feedback to improve on in these early stages of Road so I can have something to go on for the next couple of weeks: 

So I asked firstly, Joe. I asked Joe because he seems quite observant, he takes in a lot and notices how people are around others which is a great skill. Joe's feedback (via message) was: 

Joe: I thought it was very good with what you have so far. The only thing I feel though which is just Phoebe being herself, which means that she takes away the lime light away from you as she performs to an extent in which blocks you. I know that's her character but I'd really like to see you at every availability when speaking or an action to put yourself out there even more"

Joe's comment is very detailed and extremely useful. My main points noted from what Joe has said is to make Louise that much bigger, not to overpower Phoebe, but to reach nearer that level of performance status. This is feedback that I will be sure to take on board for the next couple of weeks!!

I then asked Kennedy, the same question of her opinions on the final scene. I asked Kennedy mainly because we never seem to work along side each other so this way  I was able to be made aware of how she responds to what she sees on stage etc: 

Kennedy: I only saw you begin learning lines but I just think once you get confident in your lines it will be great! You just need to make the awkward bits funnier so they're not awkward in a sense of being real-life awkward." 

By this she meant the kissing section specifically as we have been sharing our thoughts on both mine and her scene (in which she has to kiss Nyakeh!) But her main message was that as soon as I get confident with the lines I can begin to imbody the character of Louise. Again this is another really beneficial bit of feedback for me. 

I thirdly asked Sophie. Sophie is good fun to be around and she gives some really detailed feedback and honest opinions which is what you need in this industry: 

Sophie: Overall its a working progress. The first time I saw it, it was a bit bossy from Carols behalf. But then Deborah said how she was too shouty and to bring it down a notch. So Phoebe varied her voice which made it better. I also liked the eye contact moments that you made with Lewis. And also the dynamics of the relationship between Brink and Carol. On the whole the piece is looking good. 

Sophie's feedback was again very detailed. She points out that now Phoebe has toned down her characters voice there is now more limelight on the other characters; similar to what Joe said. The eye contact moments with Lewis were, obviously, noticeable and they helped to lead us up to the physical contact made later on in the scene. So I will keep up the eye contact moments with Eddie however I need to also do this to Milo's character also, as the scene leads to me kissing him as well. These eye contact moments need to represent the thoughts of Louise such as when you can simply look at your friend and know what they are thinking. The eye contact needs to show the audience that Louise likes them.

I have found this feedback to be extremely useful. They are all giving me constructive criticism as well as the parts there were good. I will endeavour to take all of this feedback on board in the next couple of weeks of Road, and I look forward in showing them how I have improved on these points etc.
To finish of Mondays session, Deborah spoke to me about all the little aspects of Road/Louise. She firstly mentioned my accent and that how I am being overpowered by Phoebe's very good northern accent; and so this was suggested by her to work on the accent more to bring my voice up to Phoebe's level. She also spoke to me about how comfortable I felt in kissing Milo and Lewis. I expressed my opinions to her honestly. Talking to Deborah about all of my apprehensive feelings cleared things up a bit for me and it also gave me more motivation to beat Phoebe's level of the accent-which I know will be a very tough challenge for me but I am willing to put my best into it all.

Wednesday' session was a jumbled scene rehearsal. We were all put into pairs or groups in my case and were instructed to go an work on a scene which we were both in (the pairs: such as Clare and Joey, to rehearse their scene together) I was in a group with Lewis, Phoebe and Milo and we worked on our final scene together. We firstly went through all four characters, listing ideas and thoughts that we have made over the past couple of weeks in playing them.

We began with Eddie (played by Lewis.) Lewis said that he felt as though Eddie wasn't this 'swarve, lad' sort of guy like Deborah had suggested but he was a guy trying to be polite and to make the best impression to these girls. He got this idea from his first scene in which he is desperately trying to make himself look presentable when tying and re-tying his tie etc.
Carol: Carol has set out to make a point about her dominance and she is a feminist, Phoebe suggested no more about Carol but it is clear that she wouldn't let any man trample over her nor would she allow them to do this to Louise- "Give it here, sap. Top her up."
Brink: COCKY! He is very much the big headed, swarve and cocky guy you get in year 11 at school who thinks they are the best and that he just has to stand there and all the girls come swarming over! He's not particularly bright either. But amazingly, Carol manages to knock his ego a bit but he soon regains this when he manages to get Louise.
Louise: Louise is Carols tag-along, and at times encourages Carol . But I get the slight impression that she may be a year younger than Carol because this as well as the fact that she is quieter. But also the fact that perhaps Louise is very insecure, so she sticks with this loud, bossy person as a friend as a safety net of always having someone there to stand up for her...?
I individually noted down that each time the boys leave the room, which they do alot, they are secretively talking about us, just like we do to them. This proves an interesting thought and it would be something I would've liked have seen in the actual script by Cartwright because this would give us a clearer understanding of what the boys actually thought of Carol and Louise- but delving deeper than the fact that they might have a chance of having sex with them. So hearing what they actually think of the two girls personalities would've been very interesting and I can imagine that Eddie would keep as polite as he could, but be the one to like Carol, And for Brink to dislike Carol and really like Louise.

Still in the same groups we began reading through this scene but this time only focussing on our accent work. I am still finding the accent difficult but working alongside Phoebe's strong northern accent helps me to hear what it should sound like and I can take this and put it straight into my own dialogue. Milo is currently still using his strong Scottish accent; which throws me off of my attempt of a northern accent as I begin a slight Scottish accent when I respond to his lines, not that I can do the Scottish accent either but I inherit some of the sounds when I say my lines. Which makes my attempt of the accent inconsistent which isn't good! Lewis is getting there with his accent and it is definitely stronger than mine. With my weak accent in mind, that evening I found an accent app on my phone. The app doesn't specifically say Northern accent but instead I brought the Yorkshire-Sheffield accent. The app is really useful, there is a audio story read in the accent which I can listen to. There are also repeat-after-me sentences and a microphone device so I can speak my lines into the app and hear them back. The app will definitely be something that I listen to and experiment with a lot, as all this goes towards more practise in the accent which will resolve in me hopefully performing a decent northern accent in the performance.

We went over this scene with Deborah and she gave us some helpful tips into what our characters meant by the things they were saying such as Louise, whom repeatedly says "Carol" all with slightly different meanings. Such as one on page 69, the tone in which I plan to say this line is drawn out in a slight motherly tone as though getting her point across that she would quite like Carol to be quiet because she really likes these boys. This is made even more apparent when Carol wants to leave but Brink manages to change her mind and it is I, that moves first to put down my bag to stay a bit longer. Deborah suggested for Carol to be less aggressive and to bring down the character a notch. So she continues being a dominant character but just a bit less than before. Having done the scene after changing this, it felt as though the scene was evenly distributed between the four characters and the moments and dialogue Louise, Brink and Eddie have began to have more of a say in the scene.
Deborah also suggested that Louise was a lot more giggly, she really likes these guys so she is trying her best for them to like her with a flirty, ditsy and giggly attitude. This gives us a huge contrast between Louise and Carol as Carol sticks to her firm, and dominant attitude and doesn't let on that 'she might've liked the boys in the pub.' Making Louise more of a flirty characters suits this scene a lot better to how I had first interpreted her- like a shy and reserved character, and even though I represent her as quiet and polite she still knows how to get boys that she likes etc.

After finishing the practical side of our scene we were then instructed to cut out unimportant sections of each of our monologues, because the scene needs to be cut; even though it is quick paced it drags on to much! It was hard to get rid of parts of the monologue because it was written to make sense but I kept in mind that Louise was incredibly intoxicated with alcohol so even if it didn't make a lot sense after cutting it down it wouldn't matter much. The parts I have decided to cut out are not set in stone as we will be running past these ideas with Deborah on Monday however:

"Its all gambling this, in'it. Gambling with gabble to see what come out. That record its so about pure things it make you wanna cry. Why's the world so tough? Its like walking through meat in high heels. Nothings shared out right, money or love. Im a quiet person me. People think I'm deaf and dumb. I wanna say things but it hard. I've got big wishes y'know. I want my life all shined up. Its so dull. Every things so dull. When  that man on the record sings, you put the flags up. Cos he reminds you of them feelings you keep forgetting. The important ones. Once you wrap em' up and put em' away thats it, theres nothing left but profit and loss and who shot who? But its so hard, life. So hard. Nothings interesting. Every things been made ordinary in our eyes. I want magic and miracles and a Jesus to come and change things again and show the invisible. And not let us keep forgetting, forge-netting everything, kickin. everyone. I want the surface up and off and all the gold and jewels out and all the light out on the pavements. Anyway I never spoke such a speech in my life an' I'm glad I have. If I keep shouting somehow and somehow might escape." 

Louise ending monologue above and the highlighted bits are the sections I picked out to get rid of. At the moment its not much but I'm waiting to put this into practical action so we can hear what it sounds like in the scene. Event the little bits I've cut out of my monologue will contribute to the cutting down of the whole scene, especially if the others cut down sections of their monologue too. 

After doing this in lesson, I set out to work on my accent on my own. I focussed the accent work on my monologue as it is the biggest section of text Louise has. I began by highlighting certain words that I knew would have an obvious accent added to them. (Accent words are highlighted in blue, above.) Doing this meant that I could the recite my lines and focussed on adding the accent on these words first and then once this is done I can go onto work on the rest of the speech. Words such as 'come' and 'tough' I emphasise the 'o' sound, my mouth forming a slight pout structure. And words beginning with an 'h' I would turn into 'ad' from 'had' and 'igh eels' instead of 'high heels.' 

I then went through the whole monologue, the bits without book that I have learnt already, and put the accent on these words above (in blue). This was really helpful as it helped me learn my lines in the accent which means that whenever I recite the lines I will remember them if I do it in the same accent.

My line learning is also coming on with improvements as I have now learnt my entire beginning scene with Louise's brother in. Which means when we come to this scene I can now play that intimidated character who is probably trying to get out of the house as quick as she can. Doing this scene without my script in hand will also mean that I can use my entire body to react to the brother and include those looks at him and reactions. Overall I'am beginning to feel more and more confident in the role of Louise especially now some of my lines are learnt, and the accent is 'getting there but still has a long way to go.' 

Outside of college research:

I took out three drama/acting/accent and voice related books to assist me through this assignment and other assignments for other lessons. I issued an accent book 'Accents, A Manual For Actors'. Acting in general book, 'To The Actor.' A voice book, 'Voice And The Young Actor' and I also brought The Three Theban plays by Sophocles in Waterstones and the 'To the Actor' book, this weekend. 

The accent book focusses on tonnes of different accents, the only important one for me being the Yorkshire, Manchester, Northern section. The book, written by Robert Blumenfeld, teaches you the 'important sounds' of the accent, the vowels pronounced in the accent and it gives you practise texts and the sounds of the sentence that you should be producing. These specific sentences challenge the very words that the accent is heard the most such as 'but as I say, do you see that cloud passing overhead? That means rain, that does, before the afternoon is out. No it's not over yet, this rainy season.' For me, this sentence challenges some obvious words that the accent shines through on such as 'passing' saying it without the 'r' sound that us Southerners add into it. 'Overhead' getting rid of the 'h' sound on 'head'. 'Rain' and 'does', and also 'afternoon' turning into 'after/noon' with a slight pause.
The book also taught me how to see the Northern accent pronunciations written down such as: 'taught me' turns into 'tawLt mee' The 'l' sound isn't obvious but I tried to  focus on how I was saying it, and I could hear the 'l' sound. And 'me' is drawn out more than how we naturally say it  and I have found that I say it like 'meh' but again making it a bit longer. [See future blog posts for quotations from the books mentioned above] 

The Young Actors book, has a range of different subheadings in it that focus on specific subjects in the world of acting, such as Character and characterisation, gesture and movement, and the atmosphere and individual feelings. I flicked through this book briefly and I fell in love with it. It is pretty much the best actors guideline to everything we do, as actors, in our 'occupation'. I loved it so much that I actually brought this book for myself, so I can now highlight key things in it and fold over pages etc, so it acts as a sort of notebook for me. I haven't yet had the chance to really look into it and take things from it yet, but that is my task for this weekend and the Easter holiday.
         The Voice book is less relevant to Road but there are still good vocal warm-ups and exercises that I can take on board when learning lines or rehearsing at home and in class time which I will endeavour to experiment with and put into action.

When learning my lines today (Friday afternoon) is highlighted words that I struggle with in the accent. The mains ones being 'hello.' This should be easy to say but when I try and say it, it comes out too Scottish. For me, the northern accent for 'hello' would be written as 'ellow' in terms of pronunciation however when I say it like this it still sounds Scottish with a hint of Irish and Northern. The possibility of changing this to something like 'aye up' is there, if I still can't hack saying 'hello' in the accent. I will be making it my job to ask Matt, Phoebe and Sarah, my voice teacher, how to do this and hopefully by asking that many I can cotton onto how they pronounce it. (I' am asking Matt, because he is northern. Phoebe because she has the accent sussed, and Sarah as she is providing us help in the run up to Road with the accents.)
Another weak line for me is, when Louise says "very different". Every time I say it, I turn straight back into the well-spoken Southern accent I have. Or when I try really hard to get into the accent on this line I tend to roll my 'r's' which again sounds more Scottish than Northern.
"Well I like 'Hot Chocolate" is another that often doesn't sound very Northern when I say it. As well as 'miracles'.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pFGZPaUknRA&list=PLYZAE0tEtmh274WMmmrF9mq7RVQBJgjjo&index=1- Series1/5
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0IiaiDOcd1k&list=PLYZAE0tEtmh274WMmmrF9mq7RVQBJgjjo&index=4- Series 4/5
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3rUV_brvkiU&list=PLYZAE0tEtmh274WMmmrF9mq7RVQBJgjjo&index=5-Series 5/5

 I went onto research the tv series of Road that I found on YouTube. The last link is the ending scene in which Louise has her monologue.
But I originally set out to watch the series in a quest to find how Jane Horrocks, who plays Louise in this version, says the words that I' am having trouble with. She says it in a deep tone, 'ell/ow' She pauses slightly between the two sounds, and the 'o' sound is drawn out.
Annoyingly. in this series, they have cut out the section where Carol and Louise talk about what they think of the boys (page 68) which is where Louise says 'very different'. I am thinking; that the best way I can pronounce it, until I get a better understanding of the accent, to raise the pitch of my voice at the end of the word 'different'. This will add a slight ring of a Northern accent until I get round to asking Matt, Phoebe or Sarah in the week.
'Miracles' is said like 'miricles' so the 'ie' sound is a bit more dominant than how we would say it normally.

Later (or earlier) on I go onto mention a quote from The Perks Of Being A Wallflower, and how I've linked it to Louise. The quote is about being a 'wallflower' which is someone who is quiet, hears and understands things, observes all of this but keeps quiet about it all. But I know want to link Louise with Charlie, the main character of the book/film. Charlie is played by a very good looking actor by the name of Logan Lerman. He is the wallflower. The story is all about him, and as the story unfolds it becomes more about his childhood and the things that he has kept from everyone in his life until he reaches his teens and he mental health gets worse and the truth is told. By no means is it a happy, feel good film with hot actors in but I highly recommend watching it.
Charlie has had a really hard childhood, he was really close to his aunt but it tragically is revealed that she raped him- maybe on one or more occasions. But Charlie loved her, as an aunty but she dies in a car crash. This ruins him, mentally. The story is told from his first day of high school in a diary form so you really do begin to be him. But linking this back to Louise I feel that she has secretly had a really tough upbringing. In no ways do I mean as tragic as Charlie's but I've come to the conclusion that her dad is or was abusive to her brother. Depending on how much the mum cares for her children this would ruin her as a parent but she stays married to him because it was almost looked down on to be single. And some people would still look down on it nowadays. This abusiveness has rubbed off on the brother which leads to him to it to her when the parents aren't around.
Like Charlie, Louise keeps this all to herself and comes strutting into her next scene with her head held as high as she normally holds it when she comes in contact with Brenda and Carol. Charlie struggles to find some good friends and he doesn't even confine in his parents for support that much, he is an introvert as such. Louise, I can imagine was very similar when starting school. It wasn't until she found Carol that she was really lonely, and would've had noone to talk to at home- like Charlie. Charlie sees a lot and observes people- not in a creepy way but he just see's things but will always keep quiet about them. Louise does the exact same, for example she knows full well that Carol secretly likes Eddie or Brink, or both for that matter as she puts this across as soon as they leave the stage: "Eh? But you fancied em' when you saw em'!?" Carol easily brushes this off, most probably because she knows Louise would never dream of saying it out right to the boys when they re-enter. Charlie does something similar when he walks in on his to-be friend 'making out' with another guy; he doesn't say a word.
Charlie has a huge downfall nearing the end of the book/film where the secret of him being raped is revealed and I think that one day Louise can tell someone about her abusive brother but that will only be when she escapes Road, because it is only revealed when Charlie gets some really great friends.



I was thoroughly looking forward to Thursdays session as I knew we were working on accents! We began with some basic vocal warm up exercises lead by us, seeing as we had just worked on this subject in our voice lessons. We did tongue twisters and humming also. We also did some physical warm ups such as star jumps and the plank. And also a mental warm up, the name game. All of this prepared us for everything; vocally, physically and mentally.

Accent helpsheet, including notes

As a class we then did a repeat-after-me accent workshop. Blogger, unfortunately, won't allow me to insert the audio recording I made of this lesson; I recorded it so I could listen back to the sentences and words we worked on in the accent- as a method of repetition of the accent. I even went to the extent of listening to this recording on the bus home, so I could listen carefully to the exact pronunciation of the words covered today. We were also given a sheet that matches the practical side of the accent done today so this will act as my guideline to learning the accent, as well as plenty of other research. Above is the worksheet we were given, and on it my notes that I made after class to assist me on how I pronounce these words in the accent. My main point of focus for the accent is the pronunciation: All use of 'the' and 'to' is replaced with 't', which is pronounced by replacing the vowel sound with a half-audible 'uh' noise, the kind you would make if you were lifting something unexpectedly heavy. EG: "I'm going in'uh woods". This is something that I have to really think about before saying because to me it feels so unnatural, this is my main point of focus for the accent in the next couple of weeks (over Easter!) 

Using everything we'd just learnt we then had to learn a section of our text (preferably monologues) in the accent and then present this to the class in the time limit of 10 minutes. I worked with Phoebe (seeing as she plays alongside me as Carol) Phoebe had began learning her monologue (on page 74) 

so this exercise was fairly easy for her, and her accent doesn't need much improvement on at all.

However for me, I had very much familiarised myself with my monologue but I had, admittedly, not looked at it much this week due to in class us working on the scene that led up to it and not actually the monologue. So this exercise was difficult for me, but I had learnt a good three quarters of it. But as soon as I had to present this to the class after the 10 minutes I managed to mess up the very first sentence which threw me off completely; making a right idiot of myself! This really frustrated me because I knew the monologue, but I still feel really un-confident with the accent so I think in the context in which we had to present these pieces of text, with no script, in the accent, and out of the normality of the scenes- and my nerves threw me off... 

In the 10 minute break we had straight after this I was determined to learn the monologue, and to prove that I could do it, without script and in the best accent I could; this was like me proving to my self-confidence. I did it, too. But this whole situation has made me really push myself to set the target of learning my lines for Monday: SCRIPT DOWN! I' am still on the mission of proving to myself that I can do it and not embarrass myself again like I did today! 

So talking to you, Friday afternoon, I have learnt my entire beginning scene with the brother, and also my entire monologue at the end! I will continue with this aim, for Monday, and prove to myself, and myself only, that I can do it. Also, the quicker my script is dropped the better I can act in the scenes I am in, as I can be Louise, the, at first, intimidated character, and become this more confident, flirty character to the incredibly drunk character right at the end. 

        I need to closely work on playing drunk which means I will need to look into other actors in films etc doing this as this is something that I have personally never experienced. 

To finish off our lesson, the rest of the class were instructed to begin work on their character studies; looking into their characters costumes and props etc. Whilst me, Lewis, Phoebe and Milo were held back to finish the rest of our scene, covering the section that I have been apprehensive about...

We started where we had left off, on top of page 72. Louise is still sat, with Eddie close to her left and Brink on the sofa arm. We decided that when Carol leaves 'to go to the toilet' there is to be an awkward silence to prove that Carol was definitely the talker of the group. Brink then goes on to say 'what is it?' which picks the pace up again between me and Brink. Brink then leaves, which leaves Louise and Eddie sat closely together on the sofa. 'In one single movement, Eddie takes Louise and sits her on his knee' following this stage direction in the script we knew we wanted Eddie to sit Louise on his knee for the kiss but weren't, at first, sure how to do this. Lewis was sat to my right, and in the stage directions it says 'Eddie stands' so we choreographed that Lewis would stand, pull me up to standing and go to kiss me. But instead bring us both back to sitting, to the left side of the sofa, me on his knee. He then pulls me in with enough force so when we sit we are close enough to kiss. This whole movement sequence is done quite slowly which I feel is a nice way to contrast how Eddie comes across; as a 'cocky' with the ladies, (which means we will have to make this scene run smoothly to represent that Eddie has done this many a times before!) but because it was slowly done, it was represented as a lot more love-felt than how I would've gotten Eddie to do, but it worked and flowed well. 

    Then as soon as Carol comes charging in, ruining the moment for poor Louise who was probably enjoying herself, and the light is switched on, I move away from Eddie which clearly shows Louise's personality of being shy- similarly to how I would act in the same situation, so there are perhaps some minor similarities between the two of us. But there is a nice moment that Eddie goes to bring Louise back into him but due to Louise being confronted by two other characters she snappily moves away from him. This little moment is quite sad, because it is so apparent that Louise really does like Eddie but Carol has come in and ruined it for her. This isnt something Carol would on purposefully do but it highlights their friendship more. For example, if Carol was a really good friend to Louise, she would perhaps leave the room again and let Louise and Eddie regain whatever they had etc etc. But because Carol is such a dominant character, affecting Louise's confidence with Eddie doesn't faze Carol. 

Eddie does try and regain what him and Louise had with 'anyway' but the confidence is dropped by Louise because of her confident friend barging in. Louise quickly returns back to Carol's little tag-along friend:

Louise: Carol.

[Carol stops]

Carol: Come on the Louise [she gets her bag]

[Louise gets hers, they start leaving.]

Louise does what she told to do, despite the obvious fact that she would much rather stay because she really likes Eddie. And it is also obvious that she would rather do this because as soon as Brink persuades them to stay, Louise is already sat down, 'looking mystified' but most definitely a lot happier to be staying that Carol is. This is also, seen when they are 'downing' their drinks as Louise asks no questions and simply does it; purely because she wants to. Whereas Carol questions the action with 'what are you doing?' 

This where we reached on this scene today, the rest of the scene will be blocked on Mondays session. But overall, I am really pleased with this scene and all the work done this week on Road. The dynamics of the relationships the four characters have are really starting to build and the entire scene is beginning to be filled with the right reactions and emotions by each and everyone of us. By Monday, continuing with the target I set myself yesterday, I will have my lines learnt for this scene so when it comes to, probably, showing back what blocking notes we created to Deborah I can be off script, and really become Louise; which will help me overcome the re-occurring nerves of the physical contact that I will have to perform in front of the class.