Road: Week 4

 Four weeks in and Road is really starting to take shape. Today we finished blocking all the scenes!!

Mondays session began with Kirsty, and we continued work on our final scene with Eddie, Brink, myself and Carol. The final part of this scene were the monologues and the 'somehow a somehow a somehow' section; so these are both fully blocked.
In chronological order, Lewis did his monologue first. He is to be standing when he presents his monologue and has lines that direct him to moving around the stage, or to stand on top of the chair etc. Lewis' characterisation is coming along really nicely, Eddie is definitely coming across as the lad of the two, he knows what to do with the ladies and how to keep them, so this slight cockiness to his character is being portrayed nicely by Lewis.
Milo's monologue is presented sat (slumped, drunkingly) in his chair, which perfectly shows him being drunk, as are we all! Milo's accent is getting much stronger now that he's sticking with the Northern accent instead of the Scottish one. This makes it much easier for me to listen to everything the others say, and use the sounds made for my accent and lines: so him doing a northern accent helps me a lot more with my consistency of the accent as well as my confidence with it. I still feel uncomfortable doing the accent because I'm used to hearing the others around me (Phoebe mainly) doing such a strong accent, but there is still plenty of time for me to work on it which is what I shall be doing.
Phoebe's monologue is perfect! She presents just as Carol would, loud, boisterous but with the obvious hint of being drunk and making no sense whatsoever. As said above Phoebe's accent is near perfect as is her characterisation as Carol; so she is acting as my role model for this project, for me to live up to her standard. And finally my monologue. To start I was very pleased to have been able to do this whole scene and monologue without a script (or as much as I could) but I noticed that I wasn't confident in myself that I often looked at my lines despite the fact that I knew them, so it is obvious that my confidence is holding me back. But I was still pleased to have done all the scenes done today with little use of scripts. I stand for my monologue, and I like the forward effect: being closer to the audience as though directly talking to them. Lewis slumped on his chair as is Milo and Phoebe laying on the sofa meant that I was the only one standing; and I felt that the levels used in this bit were not consistent, seeing as I was the only one standing and the others all sat/laying down. But the stage balance, where we were all situated across the stage looked good. When we begin to say 'somehow a somehow' we all start to walk towards the audience, and the plan is that when we are saying this other characters appear on stage, in a spotlight, representing their character. Similar to what we did for '13', so SkinLad might be jogging on the spot, Louise and Eddie cuddling, Joey and Clare dead on the bed etc etc. This will prove a nice way to finish the play, however this section hasn't been blocked yet, so we shall have to wait and see how effective it will look.
We were also briefly introduced to the plans for the staging. The staging will be traverse, with the audience both sides of the stage, set out in a landscape plan. Entrances and exits will be scattered around in the audience and the set will remain the same but the play just travels up the 'road' stage so Joeys bedroom could be at one end of the stage and Eddie and Brinks place could be the other side, but both sets remain on stage the entire performance.
       After blocking the end of our final scene, we went back to the beginning of the play and began running it. This started with Louise and her brother (myself and Jake.) We haven't run this scene since its been blocked which is something me and Jake need to ensure doesn't happen again, because it was really messy! And the characters weren't being portrayed with the right emotions or the right level of intimidation etc etc. Which lead to the class finding it funny (or laughing at us, either or), and stupidly this knocked my confidence because I was struggling with bringing this scene to a good standard when we were performing it to the class, and due to us not really knowing what we were
doing due to not touching it since we started Road, it was an incredibly weak scene. Things like this situation are probably good for me as it makes me determined to avoid this happening again, due to it being so very embarrassing. Although annoyingly we have a two week Easter break so this will prevent us refreshing and rehearsing this scene, but it might be confirmed that we work on this scene Thursday morning or if we get a chance to split off, I will request working with Jake instead of the other three that I am usually working with. We need to make this scene really smooth, so set movements will really help the two of us, especially Jake as there are certain stage directions that he has to stand and approach me etc.
I also have a better understanding to why this scene was so weakly done, it is entirely my job to react to the brother as he is sat, quiet silently throughout the scene and its Louise leading the scene, which is a nice contrast to what happens with Louise in her last scene, which is completely conducted by Carol. But this means that it is all up to me to present Louise's emotions well for the audience to grasp the relationship that's being shown to them in this scene. So I went through this scene and did an exercise that I was taught a school, its called the 'I'm' task and you go through all the scenes you are in, and look to see if you can determine the emotion your character is feeling for that line or scene. So as you can see in the image, in blue pen, I have completed this task; noting what emotions or reactions Louise is feeling at the time or when she says each line. So for example, in the image on the left I have written 'persistent' as she continues to question him even though she most probably knows that he is going to retaliate. She would know this due to the fact that he is her brother and like many sibling relationships they pester each other for the fun of winding them up; which is what Louise is doing. So with that said, I will speak these lines with a young-childish tone to it, subtle but that annoying tone to it, such as saying "why do you not go out you?" much slower and each word slightly more drawn out so you get the sense she is on purposefully provoking him, but the reason for doing this is still unknown to me.
"You cant dance with your brother" - I'm intimidated but at the same time still trying to be brave. So I will speak these lines with a slight shake in my voice but to be sure to make my voice stronger to show Louise being brave and trying to stand up for herself etc. She knows if she fails at being strong then her brother will only force her into dancing or doing something she doesn't want to do, so she has learnt to stand her ground despite the fact that she is really, really frightened.
This exercise has really helped me, and it will help me when I begin my own rehearsing (at home) as I now have a clear understanding of how I need to portray Louise at these times throughout this scene, which will make her much more realistic. I know if I continue to work on these specific emotions that Louise is going  through, this will assist me on making this scene a lot more believable which will prevent it from being awkward and even comedic.

Script notes

Script notes

With Deborah we continued more work on our final scene with the four of us. She got us thinking about different parts of the scene and why we do what we do in this scene. To start we showed her the scene up until the monologues and she gave us some notes to improve on. The first and main one being ENERGY! The scene is lacking energy, and although it is quick paced, it is lacking real motivation and the quick relationship understanding moments and the 'flirty' glances etc etc. All the small gestures and movements will add to this scene so I, again, went through my scene labelling what I should do (in terms of movement) for various lines. So as you can see in the image, this is just one page of the dialogue I put movements or actions too, but the little things such as 'raising my eyebrows' to show Louise being of disapproval towards Carol, who could lose Louise's chance with Eddie. 'Friendly nudge' when Carol and Louise are having their 'friendly-banter' conversation which shows their level of friendship etc.
The little examples I have given you are just some of which I have marked into my script but the point of this exercise was so I know what little gestures/actions/movements I can do which will help me significantly build on my character and it will also help with both the energy of the scene and the dynamics also.

Script notes

Deborah went on to pick out certain parts in the scene that needed work such as the movement we choreographed for the kiss between Louise and Eddie. Last Thursday when we worked on it, it was really smooth and worked so so well, but today it was really awkward as we ended up getting in each others way. Described as 'clunky', this short bit of movement definitely needs work as me and Lewis have to be confident with it to make it look smooth but not too rehearsed at the same time. I like the bit of movement we have for this scene so no changes need to be made, we just have to make it look less awkward.
I think this whole scene is coming along nicely but it still has a long way to go; I know I personally need to get into the full character of Louise, so move, talk and react as she would. I also need to build my confidence when playing her and that I think is partly because of the accent, which is much better than it was but I'm still finding it hard to be this character when the accent is still weak. But I know, I now have two full weeks to focus on Louise as a character and really build on my accent and have my lines learnt to perfection etc etc and all this will naturally build my confidence.

I went home and worked on my ideas for Louise's costume: I firstly decided I wanted it all to be dull colours as I get the impression that Louise is trying the classy look because Carol does... But I was thinking red converses would add some colour to the outfit, perhaps one rolled down and the other up: bit of an odd but funky look//unique? I found a picture of Madonna which gave me all my influences for Louise's costume, below left. She is wearing a big, plain white t-shirt with thick trouser braces and then plenty of black//gothic styled bracelets and one large cross earring.

Madonna: Louise's costume influence

I want Louise to wear pretty much this outfit, one because it is very typically the 80's style and two because it is fairly simple and according to my mum, everyday people wore this type of clothing. (Not many people wore the florescent, all-in-one tracksuits everyday etc!)

I found a 'frankie goes to hollywood' and 'wham' tshirt design which I thought was quite fun, and people did wear these as you see people in their One Direction merchandise t-shirts now etc, however Louise leaves in a poor area and is poor so it is unlikely that she would own one of these but the plain white t-shirt is a good alternative: they are used to making good of what they have and can afford.

Dull red

High waisted jeans were popular then but not dark colours that we are all so used to now, it was mainly denim coloured ones, so that will add some more colour to Louise's outfit. I only want colour because she strikes me as one of the more different characters on Road, as she mentions how "nothings interesting" "everything's so dull" "everything's been made ordinary in our eyes" She's telling us what she thinks of Road and her life, and she tells us a few times that its dull. This is a short but powerful way of describing it, it is also allows our imagination go wild: I can only picture Road in black and white and the houses with dulled down colours such as red being a dull, rusty colour (above, right.) Louise also tells us how she wants 'a Jesus to come along and change things again" the use of the word again implies that she believes that Jesus help change the world once and she is very much hoping that he will do it again, but she says 'a' Jesus' which makes me think that she isn't hoping for 'The'Jesus' but perhaps is so desperate she just wants someone to do what Jesus did, and she probably doesnt mind who as long as they do a good job at giving her 'magic and miracles, and all the light out on the pavements' etc.

Sorry, it won't rotate: But my costume design for Louise.

Black trousers braces are actually a style I would happily wear now, and I want Louise in them because it will give a nice contrast into what Carol will be wearing: perhaps a short skirt and low cut tshirt to show her confidence and her feminism, where as little Louise will be in a tshirt and trouser braces. I own a pair of braces so it will be worth me trying out this outfit for one of our Road sessions to get a feel for the costume and to see if it actually works practically and if it works alongside the other characters.

Louise's accsessories

And finally plenty of bracelets and necklaces and perhaps laced gloves also. This will show that Louise is trying to make an effort but at the same time trying to look not too dressed up and look casual instead. Similar to how we (girls, well and boys) would if we were aware that we would meet someone at the pub on a night out etc, you want to attract peoples attention but not too much, and this is what Louise is doing.

We Will Rock You!!

Due to taking part in the musical We Will Rock You at school, I own a lot of rock'n'roll gear such as the bracelets, necklaces, fish net gloves and tights and florescent sweat bands (below, left is what I would wear as Louise). WWRY is set in the future, but at the same time in the era of the famous rock band Queen, which so happens to be the 80's which is when Road is set.
To the left is my costume for this show: Red braces, black tshirt, fish net glove and tights, shorts, red converses, sweat band around my thigh, four different necklaces and plenty of bracelets. The outfit is very typically rock style, but not far off of the 80's style in which I have decided for Louise in Road. For the shows my hair was bat-combed which could be an idea for Louise. But The WWRY outfit just gave me some inspiration and ideas to what and how I wanted Louise to look in Road.




Wednesday started with practical! We were put into groups, Lewis, Phoebe, Milo and Hannah whom acted as our director. It was our task to run through a part of this scene and work on improving 5 things: such as dynamics, pace etc? The first time we showed Hannah this scene, today, she gave us feedback:

• Lewis: "My names Eddie" like he's fed up because she should know his name
• 'Nice wine int'it" changing the subject, needs to be a pause before so it is clearer she's changing the subject// it needs to be awkward also
• 'tut' Louise is fed up with Carol at times, as she could well be ruining Louise's chances with the boys. Louise secretively likes these boys: and this needs to show between Carol and Louise. 
• Louise is relaxed in this setting unlike Carol!

Hannah's points of focus were simple to work on; we went over the scene a few more times to ensure we had taken on board these points. This relaxed run-through gave me time to properly work on the part when Louise spills her drink, as the past times I've done this it's been so awkward and looks incredibly fake! After faffing around with different methods, admittedly trying methods that meant we were just messing around with it, we settled with: 

Carol: No you two are slow

Louise nudges Carol, in disapproval to the fact that Carol is probably making the boys like the girls less and less

Carol nudges Louise back, a lot harder than poor Louise expected, leading her to knock her drink out of her hand.

When doing this scene it came across quite comedic which really worked because if, in a fantasy situation:

If me and Phoebe were messing around and then she gets me back with a much harder push which knocks my drink out of my hand, we would be in hysterics and it would probably stick, being an inside joke we would constantly remind each other and laugh about! We need this sort of friendship between Carol and Louise, so I think a friendly laugh would fit well just after I spill the drink because me and Phoebe would naturally find this funny if it happened out of character, so this needs to be portrayed as Carol and Louise! So messing around with this made it much more natural looking and we still found it funny so the laughing was natural. But when we got to presenting back what we had worked on Phoebe forgot to nudge me, so the spilling of the drink returned to being as awkward as before but again this is something that will come with practise and the more times we get it wrong the funnier it will become which is sort of what we want as it will be a genuine insight into our friendship as Carol and Louise. 

After working on our scene it was mine, Lewis' and Milo's time to direct Phoebe and Hannah in their scene as Brenda and Carol (mum and daughter.) Me and Lewis worked together on the directing, coming up with points such as: 

• 'From that to that' make this much slower as though reminiscing
• Carol: rush//frantic//organised? A good contrast to how Louise gets ready...
• Brenda: look her up and down//disapprovingly? 
• Brenda: approach Carol less intimidatingly when you say 'let's have something then'
• When I enter, I choose what Carol should wear then say my first line//friendship//close friends etc
• 'what's up with you?' I need to react as though I am confused because it should be me asking her due to the tension between her mum.

This scene is of such high standard, the two girls really go for it! And their characters are portrayed so well as well as their accents being very good too. So there wasn't much for us to point out for them to improve but the things we did, did really work and helped vary the scene at times so it wasn't quick all the way through. 

Everyone had been grouped and told to work on bits of dialogue, so it was really nice to have a chance to watch what everyone else had done and to see how much these sections of Road had massively improved to when we first saw them being blocked:

I made notes on each character we saw: These are straight out of my book...

SkinLad: "Cracking your knuckles and neck was really good//preparation as SkinLad and not Nathan. I noted that he sounded like a tv presenter: the way he begins to tell us the story, which made me think that SkinLad is a lonely character and that his only way of good entertainment and company is telling stories to himself about his life and how it has changed. It's also very clear that he is proud of how his life has changed for the better. He is classed as the 'nutter' because he is so different, Nathan embellish this! You are a lucky character in Road and also very brave but at the same time how did SkinLad get over being classed as this 'nutter' as you can only imagine how other characters on Road would treat you...?"

Curt: "The actions before your first line are really effective, they give us a clear insight into your character immediately. The laugh you did when you said 'I'm not suppose to drink with what I'm on' was interesting. It still leaves the impression that you've been on it along time which has led you to not care anymore. Nyakeh, what drugs do you think they are? Anti-depressant? Why do you laugh when you say it? Do you really not care? Or is it because you are on purposefully rebelling against what you are being told to do? Are you an ex-forces/army/navy man and was your childhood hard/abusive/single child so all your life you've had to live by other peoples rules so because this doctor can't make you take the medicine or not drink when on it, you purposefully rebel against this?"

Bisto: "Luke you were made to play Bisto. It is highly comedic which works so so well in the play itself. Good audience interaction but make more of this, why not when you can? Try not to keep on alternating your weight on your feet: nerves? Think: Bisto wouldn't do this! Tone down parts when you are waiting for the audience to react, as though you are genuinely waiting for someone to enjoy your company and the jokes you are making, you are lonely. Is he desperately trying to find a friend or girlfriend? 'you'll get used to me, you better' softer? You really do want someone to have as a friend, quite sad how lonely you are."

Scullery and Blowpipe: "Jake be careful, you are closely playing your Ode To Billy Joe character. Matt look for Blowpipe haha! Jake if you are extending the character of 'Louise's brother' you've completely lost the intimidating persona which is a shame. But it still works, is it because as soon as he is away from his sister he is a different person? But you played him too dopey and quiet as I couldn't imagine him turning that soft? Find the middle. Have a different personality but not so stark different. Scullery don't call 'Blowpipe' if he is going to be my brother, do we need to find him a new name? Scullery believes that Blowpipe/Brother could do something serious when he storms off stage so Jake you still have to have that intimidating and angry attitude. "

We then presented our piece (the four of us, not Brenda and Carol's scene) And: Deborah really liked the friendly nudges that we included as it well portrayed the friendship and banter between the two of us. Nathan liked the facial expressions and the portrayal of the different relationships such as me and Eddie etc. But the class liked my character, but she just needs to be a lot bigger but it's getting there so I'm pleased. It was mentioned again to tone Carol's voice down at times which will add good variation to the scene; such as light and shade times as Carol's journey continues through the scene. And Nyakeh pointed out that my accent was a lot better which boosted my confidence, just at times I lose lines when I'm focussing too much on the accent so I just need to be aware of this when practising lines etc and the diction of the lines in the accent is sometimes dropped so lines were harder to understand. All things I know I can easily work on.
But overall I'm pleased with how it went today, I felt that we got an awful lot done and it was also nice to be able to work with an extra class member (Hannah) because the four of us have worked closely alongside each other for a while now, so Hannah broke this up a bit for us. It was also really nice to see what the others had done in this session and the improvements made were of a really high standard.

Today concluded with us being given the cuts made to each of our monologues for the final scene, which will help make the scene shorter etc etc. I have already learnt the monologue so theoretically it should be easy to learn the new version. My monologue is now:

It's all gambling this, in't it? Gambling with gabble to see what come out. Why's the world so tough. It's like walking through meat in high heels. Nothings shared out right, money or love. I'm a quiet person me. People think I'm deaf and dumb. I wanna say things but it hard. I've got big wishes you know? I want my life all shined up. Its so dull, everything's so dull. I want magic and miracles and I want a Jesus to come along and change things again. And not keep forgetting everything. I want the surface up and off and all the light and gold out on the pavements. Anyway I never spoke such a speech in my life and I'm glad I have cos if I keep shouting, somehow a somehow I might escape. 

Quite a bit has been cut out of the monologue, but I feel it's all the right bits that had no obvious impact to Louise herself or the scene. I'm also pleased with the sections kept in, and it should be easy for me to learn this version due to it being shorter etc.


Out of Road lessons I was listening to some 80's music whilst doing coursework and discovered Dexy's Midnight Runners Come on Eileen, and when listening to it, I thought this song would fit perfectly into Bisto's disco scene. It is a well known 80's song, upbeat, and it is the type of song you could expect to hear in Bisto's disco because it fits his personality well. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jC1vtG3oyqg I feel that if we choose a song more well known to us for this scene, the more relaxed and messing around side of us all will appear more compared to a song that none of us knew nor could hum along to etc.

Thursday was structured by simply going through the play with an audience (the rest of the class) and it was our task (the audience) to write feedback sheets for at least one other person that we saw performing their scene/monologue etc. So today challenged us all to really watch and take in the scenes and then to be able to put this into writing to help another actor, both developing our skills and theirs at the same time.

So starting from the beginning of the play, it was opened with my first scene featuring Louise and her brother.
We ran through this scene with Kirsty alongside us, making minor changes which in the end will  improve the smoothness of the piece. We closely worked on the 'face rub' which is where Louise's brother wipes his oily hands down Louise's face. I think this part could be extremely uncomfortable for audience as well as it should be for Louise; although it didn't pan out this way. It was more Jake than Louise's brother and me not Louise- which meant the scene  had no energy, emotion or characterisation.
To lead us up to the face rub we blocked that Jake would stand when he says "Lets dance" and then from then on he is standing. The silence as he is making his way over to rub his hands on my face is quite painful and you can tell he's going to do something. We then have Jake rubbing right hand diagonally down my face, over my eye, cheek, nose and chin. With one hand Jake will do this, which gave of the impression that he knew exactly what he wanted to do to his sister and he also knew the consequences in that she will have to go and do her make-up again.
There is also a part in the scene in which the stage directions instruct us that 'Louise's brother throws engine at her' which for a college show like ours is a bit out of our zone. So it was decided that he'd flick a lit cigarette at me, in the aim that it burns me on the way down to the floor. I prefer this to the engine because if you were to throw an engine at someone you would blatantly know that it would do some harm, whereas a cigarette is a lot more subtle. It will burn and always leave a scar, it also proves a bit more psychotic as though the cigarettes he smokes are his permanent weapon?
These minor changes really worked in  the scene, it allowed me and Jake to have a better understanding of the scene and the movements in which we had to react to etc etc. So to conclude, I feel a lot more confident with this scene now due to having blocked it further. And it also coming along well, it just needs a lot of work done by me and Jake individually on our characters as I feel this is what is letting me down and maybe Jake also.

As the run through continued and we reached my second entrance in Brenda and Louise's scene: we decided that when Louise and Carol leave, like on the televised version of Road, we go off stage mimicking Brenda saying "generous, generosity, generous, get summit down you" so just repeating random lines that Brenda says, so in a way this is Carol getting back at her mum knowing what she's doing as she leaves will hurt her mum. This even more so highlights their relationship as mother and daughter and it is more and more obvious that Brenda is jelaous of Carol's young pubbing age and getting all the lads which is why we later see Brenda trying to 'get back in' with Scullery.
As we saw more scenes I began writing notes and feedback sheets for selected people in the group. I'll start with the notes in which I made; I firstly noted that it's really important that we play some loud music in Eddie and Brinks first scene as the dialogue revolves around them not being able to hear each other. A song suggestion could be Frankie Goes To Hollywood Relax. It's got a good beat to it and a feel good feel when listening to it. It could also link well to how Lewis has interpretated Eddie, about him being quite nervous and trying to make himself as presentable as possible when getting ready in this scene 'he ties the tie, re-does it straighter this time'. The music video is all lads at some sort of club so it fits well with the lads of Road (Eddie and Brink) and it fits to them getting ready for some ladies. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wN2tHv8gPm8 (Relax, Frankie Goes To Hollywood.) And I also think it's important that Lewis and Milo have a fair few rehearsals with a song playing so they know in which bits of the song do they speak/move/'bang the wall', and all this will help improve the scene in general.

Thursday book notes: 

        I also think that Milo looks very awkward in this scene, due to it being Eddies time to get ready and he takes front stage. But, from what I imagine Eddie and Brink are close friends and have been for a while, which means Brink should be quite relaxed in his house; as we would be if we were familiar with our friends house etc. So it would be much more informal and relaxed if Milo sparked up a cigarette and sat on the arm of a chair while Eddie's getting ready. Eddie could even take a drag from the cigarette and continue with getting ready? This will help add to the 'strong silent type' Brink character and it will allow Milo to read more off of this action into his friendship with Eddie and how it clearly lasted a long time due to him being so relaxed.

Onto Lane and Dor, my two favourite characters as they remind me loosely of twins i.e. me and my sister. No we are not 'slutty' but: Lane and Dor and always on the look out for men, and they strike me as girls whom out shopping would constantly be pointing out good looking guys, which admittedly is what me and my sister do. They are also quite content in stopping life and enjoying each others company which me and Sophie (my sister!) do, we are happy to sit and talk about everything from college, people we like (or don't in some cases!) and some days politics and the more intellectual stuff. Dor and Lane do this a bit when sat eating their fish and chips and it proves a nice break from their busy characters which we meet first with Scullery. I feel, if they properly came across SkinLad they would treat him just as they do any other man on Road, unlike some of the other characters whom would treat him like he really is the 'outsider' and the 'nutter'; and I would like to think me and Sophie would do the same. Dor and Lane have quick personalities, 'what a view' 'ooooh I thought you meant me gusset!' they are two funny characters when together, due to them being witty, quick and almost like a double act who bounce off of each other- on good days, like me and my sister.
I perhaps get the impression that they remind me loosley of mine and my sisters close relationship (friendship) because Dor and Lane are shown as such close friends, which is basically what me and sister are. Dor and Lane will always be looking out for the other and other times they are so quick with their jokes to the other 'captain fucking pugwash' but only saying it knowing the other would find it funny. And I think Kennedy and Donna fit this criteria well because outside Road and their characters they are close friends, who are repeatedly having witty conversations and back and forth 'banter' about each other; as any friends do. Which leads me to when, in today's session, Matt missed a line and Kennedy and Donna both laughed. These sort of 'happy accidents' that were not meant to happen lead them to laughing, and this laugh was genuine and quite in sync with one another, and it really portrayed their friendship as Kennedy and Donna. So I want to suggest the more natural times in the scene that you are Matt, Kennedy and Donna will really assist them to work as their characters. And I can say from the work we've done between me, Phoebe, Lewis and Milo, these moments when we are messing around or include 'inside' jokes such as 'Christmas Carol' and other moments that have made us laugh previously all help to loosen the scene up, so I think this needs to happen in this scene to one relax Kennedy and Donna more and secondly to make the scene more relaxed.
I think this will naturally happen when Donna and Kennedy start using the accent, and hear me out on this one as I don't mean to come across rude, but I know when I started with the accent there were a lot of times we had a laugh at my accent when I came across a word I could'nt do in the accent so I'd either try and fail or just slip back into my southern accent. And this was funny and we were all able to laugh, but this only happened in the small group which consisted of me, Phoebe, Lewis and Milo so I was comfortable laughing along. So there will be moments when Kennedy and Donna try the accent a have a laugh about the accent as they begin to learn it, and this will naturally the relax as Dor and Lane and hopefully allow them to grab the 'Kennedy and Donna mannerisms' and insert these into the wonderful characters of Dor and Lane.

Above were all the notes I made about the scenes themselves, but I went on to write feedback sheets for various characters. I wrote for Joe, Frankie, Lewis, Phoebe, Nathan, Donna and Hannah.
(Due to me not taking pictures of each feedback sheet I gave out, I can't remember what I put for each, although you should hopefully be able to see these in their blog posts, but roughly I put for each: )
Joe's, I wrote how he should try with the accent more, and how perhaps he's playing Joe more than he is the professor. His personality or humour is quite awkward and this is rubbing off on the professor and at times Joe mannerisms override the professors character, so this is something he needs to watch.
Frankie's, was stuff to work on because she hasn't had a chance to do any practical work on Clare due to her partner not being in. So this was a help sheet as such for her, for example programmes to watch to help her on the accent and I also gave her points that I have noticed about Clare such as the already made one about her being 16 and hearing her mum cry and another to get her thinking why she joins Joey in the 'starvation protest'?
Nathans, included little helpers such as the pronunciation of 'dharma' and the meaning. And some notes of what I had made about SkinLad.
Below is an example of the feedback I gave everyone, and this is Donna's feedback sheet. They were all quite randomly written so it targeted lots of little parts of each character such as accent work and pronunciation. I personally like things when they are random and talk about lots of different things as it fits well with my way of thinking and my 'brain'. For example, I'll be thinking about a character and have a really abstract idea about them and my brain will create a story for this etc, similar to how I came up with the idea of Valerie and her alcohol being her 'husband' [see blog post 3.] Some people prefer a clear, and well written piece of feedback that they can watch their improvements off of, but like how I've written all the feedback I gave out today, they are random but still are in depth ideas about each character.
The feedback sheet idea itself, has really helped me! It provided me with an easier option of expressing my opinions and ideas about each characters such as Valerie and Clare (mentioned above) It proved an almost anonymous way of doing this and it got me out of having to express these ideas out loud as there has been times where I'll say an idea and because they are often quite abstract and unnaturilistic people find it funny. But this could be because my humour is quite sarcastic, so perhaps people aren't taking my serious ideas 'seriously.' So writing it down, allowed me to put my way of thinking and ideas and thoughts down on paper and to give it straight to the person who needed to know it, instead of me having to express these out loud infront of the class. So this method proved a really, really good method for me and in the future I can perhaps make my own handout feedback sheets with just my notebook notes and give these out.

Donna's feedback sheet: This is what most of those I wrote today included and read like. 

Nyakeh's feedback

As well as giving out feedback, I received some from Nyakeh and Phoebe:
Nyakeh said that I firstly had a good understanding of Louise and I knew what I wanted to do with her in ways of how I wanted to portray her etc. I feel that I understand Louise as a person and I also have a good understanding of where she sits in terms of socially which will help with my final scene. I had good use of space and the movements done in this scene (mine and Jakes scene) were really good. This includes the new movements we added today such as the cigarette flick, but I still need to work a lot on Louise and her emotions and reactions in this scene as I feel this is by far my weakest scene. And to my surprise the 'Northern accent is brilliant, and has improved a lot' which I was really grateful for Nyakeh to mention as it has boosted my confidence with it and I will continue pushing it until I am pleased with it.I am still working hard on it, using the app to listen to the text that is read out, and also repeating the text alongside the recording to hear if I hit the right sounds for each word. Also the pacing in which I say my lines works well with the scene, and the change of tone from being confident to being scared, which I would disagree with as I feel I need to work on this specifically a lot more on. Things to work on: Play on being frustrated and scared more, which is something I was aware of needing to do. Make sure to stay in character, keeping the scene consistent but this comes with practise, practise and practise and I know this is when Jake rubs the oil on my face, but I don't feel awkward doing this I think it's because Jake is feeling really awkward, that it rubs off on the scene. And finally to show Louise's vulnerability a lot more, when being intimidated by her brother.
All the feedback Nyakeh has given me is stuff that I can really work on over the easter break and come back improved as it's all stuff for me, and me only, to work on. I was really grateful for his comment on the accent as it boosted my confidence, and it was nice to hear someone who could see the improvement on it, its also made me more determined to improve it as I'm still aiming for the level Phoebe has reached, but a bit of competition has always helped me so this is a good way of thinking for me.

Phoebe's feedback

Phoebe's feedback:

Phoebe mentioned that my accent is getting much better. And the pottering round the stage in this scene really worked as it showed that Louise was trying to get ready, but it was still a good contrast to how Carol gets ready.

(A sudden idea: it's interesting that we don't see Brink get ready, we see Louise, Carol and Eddie all getting ready but not Brink. Perhaps he leads a very different life to the other three? He could be struggling with money and so his house is derelict and dishevelled, so we don't see him getting ready? Or is he poor enough to steal the clothes he's wearing, however he can afford the drinks he buys. I think that he could be hiding something, in his monologue he says about 'mummy left'. And this is something that affects anyone despite the age. My dad left my mum when I was four, and she was left with no job, no house and had to look after two four years olds and a six year old. And I believe that this had a huge affect on me and my upbringing and how I am now, as it would anyone. Iam nowhere near as fond of my dad as I am my mum due to him leaving us, so I can imagine that Brink is the same but with his mum, unless she left them on different circumstances to what happened in my situation? For example she left because the husband was abusive, but you can only imagine Brink would hate her for leaving him with the abusive dad? Has the dad left Brink also? So Brink was left to fend for himself? So this is why we don't see or know much about Brink, he is a quite character because he's lived alone? Or has learnt to keep quiet to satisfy his dad who he still lives with? These are all interesting thoughts and I will make sure to look into this more, but I shall carry on talking about Phoebe's feedback for now)

Things to improve on is to 'be more disgusted when saying the line 'where's mom and dad?' 'shagging' 'is they?'  And she's got a good point, most people would be really put out if they heard this, I know I would in the different circumstances. But it's important that I react a lot more to this, and by doing so this line could be seen as comedic which will be a nice relief to the heavy scene in which we have created. Although short, the feedback Phoebe has given me has given me one main point to improve on because it is important that I show the right emotion to 'my parents shagging' as this is something we would all react well to whether it be annoyed or disgusted etc.
       It was really beneficial for me to get feedback individually to me on paper as it has given me something physically, to work on in order to improve Louise and my acting.

This week was, again, really successful! Road is really coming together and I'am loving watching the other scenes progress. The set work we had, the feedback sheets, were really beneficially as it gave me lots of points to work on for Louise and it also allowed me to express all my thoughts, ideas and opinions of the characters I chose to write for; and I really enjoyed giving each character their feedback knowing that my ideas should help them as actors/actresses. It provided me a easy way to tell them everything I felt about their characters and it was interesting to see how much these scenes I saw on Wednesday and Thursday have improved from the first time I saw them a few weeks back.