Road: Week 6

Before I dive into the normal routine of class discussions/work/feedback and performing etc I went to Birmingham this weekend and it was scary how much it reminded me of Road. I have quite an imaginative mind so like when I spoke about Valeries' monologue I really felt as though she was talking about drink and not her husband- so perhaps I have a playful/abstract mind. I can play around with words and meanings behind them as well as meanings behind characters which I have demonstrated in various blog posts. So when we were first introduced to 'Road' I had mentally pictured what I believe Road to look like. And it was literally exactly how Birmingham looked! The car journey was long and boring so my mind was set on relating it to 'Road'. We drove through a very run down area and the streets were identical. Houses ran all the way down the roads, with only a couple of meters apart from one another. No driveways or pretty plant pots out the front nor nicely coloured front doors. They were all just identical, in every way possible. With everything around me I most probably gathered everything in which I linked to Road and created this 'council estate' Road design but it was precisely how I had pictured 'Road'.
Me and my sister also had great fun when out shopping on the sunday of our road trip, talking in the 'Road's' northern accent so this outing was educational at the same time ha!

Week 6 of Road already, so not long until we are on!

With that in mind we went for a full run of the play, start to finish, going through making changes and giving feedback as we went in order to continue in improving it as a play. 

It was a patchy run through because we were missing a lot of characters so scenes were missed, and this was relevant for the pre-show; as it didn't work with just the actors we had today, it's a scene in which we need everyone here in order to practise and perfect. But we still managed to run through the pre-show reminding ourselves of the orders etc.

We began with Louise and brother scene, and I felt that it was a lot more successful than when we did it last week. We had less laughs and silly comments today which was a nice change because the louder members of the group were either absent or drained of energy; but this helped me and Jake go all out on this scene. A important note I made for this scene is to speak to Deborah on where she wants the mirror placed in this scene, as with experimentation we have tried to get it so the mirror doesn't block me from the right side of the audience and vice versa, but when trying it without the mirror it's hard to place where it should be. It is also important that Louise leaves it in the right place on stage as Carol and then Eddie both use it in scenes to come. 

I think that the emotion portrayal was good as was the 'face rub' however I still think it could do with a lot of work, which will be done on Wednesday if we have the opportunity to go off and rehearse scenes. My feedback for this scene is AGAIN to react more on 'shagging' so unfortunately this has been an ongoing piece of feedback for me, another big thing I will look at with Jake on Wednesday! And also pace and energy!!! Which will be looked closely at on Wednesday, I keep saying this will be done Wednesday because Deborah has already listed those she wants to specifically work with then, so hopefully we can go off and work individually. 

A re-occurring thing is that I keep messing up or forgetting my lines when practising them physically in lessons. This is really frustrating as I know them, word-for-word but I haven't been able to prove this to anyone yet. This is a confidence thing and nerves but it's something I really want to conquer to show the others that I do know what I'm doing and that I've been working a lot one i.e. accent work. So it is important for myself that I show that I do know my lines, instead of managing to mess up the pub names and monologue (these are the two main sections.)

I promised myself that I would take shallower looks into other characters when watching scenes and instead watch them physically and help them that way; as this is the only thing that will improve them for the performance itself. However, when watching Jerry I discovered a meaning to one of his lines, 'the weather always seemed to be misty' What does he mean by this? I gathered from it what I could and came to conclude that the weather was the only thing that stayed the same each time he returned back from war. Other things changed such as 'the girls, and how they 'used' to stay in the dance halls' and so years on, in his reminiscing years; he (or Cartwright) makes the weather an important thing for Jerry as this was his only home-like memory perhaps? So Jerry, I think, needs to take the time to really think as he's saying this, instead of as though he is asking himself a rhetorical question but more as though he is remembering 'yeah, it was always misty, wasnt it?'
Sticking to my promise however I did note down that he (he, being Frank) needs to make the monologue a bit more dynamic, so add some movements, get up from your chair etc. This way the audience will be more drawn into what you are saying if they can see your moving as you go through your monologue. [Foreshadowing... Thursday this feedback has been taken on board...]
Not sticking to my promise long at all I got excited when I heard Clare (sorry, Frankie) mention 'getting top marks in a quiz'. And her second response to getting top marks was that she was really quite proud of herself. With all the negativity that surrounds her she still manages to shine through with a sense of pride and also hope for her future. Although it hits quite hard; because with her knowing this- knowing that she could get out of here, she has the brains to the right quiz results to go and find a better life for her- however she loves Joey. And she sacrifices all this for him. I would normally say that this needs to come across when delivering these few lines but thinking in a more realistic context: For example if you gave up going somewhere, that somewhere being a place you really wanted to go too, for a friend of yours who needed you (perhaps because of anxiety, depression or stress) most of us would give it up to be with them but wouldn't say "oh I gave up going to... for you" So raking it back into Road, Clare would just give it up for Joey; therefore I would say she doesn't need to give any extra emphasis or meaning to the lines she says in this section of the scene.

Joey: Joey being one of a few of my favourite characters including SkinLad, Scullery, Brenda and him. I tried to write notes for him to improve on instead of going off on a tangent talking about all the meanings of every line in Road. I noted that Joey (Brandon) should put that extra bit of emphasis on the news paper headlines he reads out. These headlines mean a lot to Joey; they are quite politically directed 'Maggie's tears, Our Queen mum'  so it shows us that Joey has a lot to give and would probably be a very feisty, head strong character if we didn't know him as weak as he is now. It would be like if I knew that I could have a decent say in politics; I know I would definitely give it all my energy and my best shot. So surely Joey would draw up all his energy to deliver these headlines with his most meaningful opinions on them- in which I gather are quite negatively drawn.

This was the end of our lesson with Kirsty but we jumped straight into it again with Deborah. We were in the posh dance rooms for this lesson and I think this really helped. The dance rooms have no furniture in them so the acoustics are really effective; but it also makes our voices lost in the large rooms, so it encouraged us to project even more so.
I came up with an interesting thought about Bauld when in the scene searching for the keys. He needs to take a lot less time to decide whether or not he will help Dor find them as soon as he finds out that they have a bottle opener on it; for him to instead of asking the audience 'have you seen any keys?' To be asking 'have you seen a bottle opener?' This would, on the surface quite comedic as it's almost like we all know someone whom is a beer fan however looking deeper into it its quite sad. He will only help her because of the prospect of having a bottle opener. It shows the sort of depression in which they were all in at the time; a lot of it thanks to Margaret Thatcher to the fact that so many people became unemployed so perhaps Cartwright wrote it to mean that drink is all they had now that they've lost everything else. A rebellious act towards Thatcher? 

The last character I really looked into, before it was my time on stage, was Valerie. Valerie was the first character in which I was shown before we were really told that we were doing Road. I think she is a really good character but some people might brush her aside because she only appears in one scene. But as a clever playwright would do, Cartwright has written a lot of hidden meanings into Valerie. We (Deborah and Sophie) have made Valerie completely and utterly in her own world. From this I think she can create a lot more meaning to her monologue. For example when she says 'fat hard hands in bed'  Soph could really react to this as though she is completely re-living that memory entirely. This way, the audience will get a better understanding of what she is telling them and they will also clearly see how much this has effected her and her life. Its a bit like me with the reaction on 'shagging' it can be fairly subtle, instead of freaking out (OTT) but with a change of the way she says, her eye level (preferably looking down showing her vulnerability) and even a change in the way she sits, perhaps more rigid to show a sense of fear- will all add to the dynamics of the monologue and will save her from just sitting and delivering her lines.
      I really enjoy getting down notes about other characters in the hope that it will help them with their character development; and it is also a nice way for me to write down all my thoughts about what we've done that day etc.

Moving onto our ending scene we were told that we will be dancing.
We tried it first, completely improvised to the song- Try a Little Tenderness by Otis Redding, and for me I found it incredibly difficult. We had to act extremely drunk and then dance, letting ourselves go completely. In front of the class. I hated it, to be blunt. It was really difficult for me to just go all out on dancing, being drunk etc. The second time round of doing it, Deborah got the class up, dancing like us but in the confines of the audience pit. And I'm not really sure if that made it less awkward or even more so. We did a third time, alone this time. But needless to say I found it stupidly hard, and I am annoyed with myself for finding it so difficult. Especially being alongside Phoebe and Lewis who could do it no problem.
The song starts off really quite slow and quiet, and for me it feels really awkward and unnatural to start 'getting into' a song. As the song builds we have to start letting go more and more and becoming more drunk. Maybe I find it hard to be in that drunken state of mind? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OM71e8ovUos This video is telling me all about the four different types of drunk that you can theoretically choose for your character (not to choose when you are drunk.) Its hard to define what Louise would be but, she uses this drunk opportunity to test her limits, both with speaking her mind and with Eddie. In the dancing, she tries it out with Eddie a few times, and I need to show that it's almost like she has gone past this quiet persona of a character, and that like in the video "the drunkenness has freed" her. This is also clear in her monologue as this is finally her chance to tell the world everything she has kept up for herself for so long. It doesn't faze her that Eddie, Brink and Carol aren't listening she is just proud that she is finally doing it. So the drunkenness needs to bring out a more confident but honest side to her.
     To really get a feel for what I should be acting like in the monologue I went through it, labelling the things I should perhaps be thinking, or doing or simply how I should be delivering the more prominent lines.

Monologue work

So I begin, talking to Carol as though to build her confidence as she knows she can talk to her. She then begins to get into the swing of it, when she starts asking 'whys the world so tough?' She then really gets into when she begins directing at the audience, 'i'm a quite person me.' Later on she starts listing off everything that she really wants in this world, and hopefully by this time she has built herself up to really letting it out. I know that I don't want to make her act drunk, drunk. If that makes sense? I think her drunkenness can be just giving her the confidence to tell the world all of this. In the video he says about making drunk acting realistic as so many don't and that's why I don't want nor do I think Louise would be the stereotypical drunk. I find being drunk-ish whilst doing the monologue so much easier than the dancing as I know my limits when acting, and probably don't when dancing. But you can't even call it dancing. With all that said about the 'dancing' scene, which I quite frankly hated doing; I'm not saying I wont try my best and go for it, nor will I refuse to do it as the whole point in life is that you overcome things. Very much like my devising project with the mannequin, looking back on it now I'm pleased I did it, as I can see that I personally overcame something I hated (and to some people, it mightve been really easy... we are all different.)

My acting book bible says: "The second time the improvisation will undoubtedly assume a more definite shape. The group must repeat its efforts again and again until the improvisation looks well-rehearsed. " The book quote is basically saying how the more times we rehearse we will become more and more confident on it and we can then start making it more realistically drunk instead of making it look awkward (probably just me.) We won't want to make it look well-rehearsed but that's a fairly easy job with a few drunken mistakes etc to mess it up a little bit. I think its just really important that we rehearse this, preferably away from an audience, so we really get the feel for the song, as well as knowing roughly what we can do so it makes it less aimless and awkward.
       After the 'dancing' we went through our monologue and I did a good job of messing up my lines and personally doing a really rubbish job- so today wasn't a good day for me haha. I also can tell that I'm loosing my accent a fair bit, which is a shame because I've worked so hard on it. I know I've got a lot to work on now, seeing that we haven't got long until we perform... And I' am only talking about my own mistakes and rubbish acting today, noone else.

With the accent I went through my beginning scene, writing all my accent notes I've been taught over the six weeks:
I am really frustrated with myself that I have lost the accent and I knew it could happen if I didn't practise it enough, but I felt that I kept it up over the easter break- obviously not enough. And it was frustrating for me as I traced all my steps back, getting me to square one with the accent in the hope I can build it up again.

Re-capping accent work 1

Re-capping accent work 2

Still annoyed with myself, I went home and went through all my lines again, as though I was on stage, with the best accent etc etc. With the one audience member (my sister) she noticed a big difference in the monologue work that I had done, as it was clear now that she was trying hard to build up this courage and then when she goes for it, it hits the audience hard. I got my lines right all the way through so it is still a confidence thing and the accent was supposedly dying down on some lines but then others it was stronger- so the consistency was weak. Which isn't very good seeing as Louise is an northerner.

Wednesday: lets hope it's a better day for me!
It started with the 'dancing' and ended with me forgetting my lines.

We recreated the pre-show structure, getting the all the characters on through our dance, Bisto coming on last as though using his dj desk to turn off the music. You might've guessed that I messed up my lines again. Why? I don't know. Ask my closer friends on the course and my sister-they'll know that I know my lines, word perfect.
We then got round to rehearsing the 'somehow a somehow might escape' bit. At first I thought that this section was really, really weird and had no real reason for it being there. However I have seen it in a new light and I understand it more now. We have all just had a chance to let out everything, about our lives etc, we all speak of how we want to escape or some with hints of how they would rather be out of here i.e. Carol. So the 'somehow a somehow might escape' means that somehow- the way being incredibly unclear and probably even impossible. 'A somehow' being like 'a someone', but not at the same time. (Its a bit of a hard one to understand.) 'Escape' to me is a powerful word. (It sounds even better in the accent.) But, for me, it literally sums up Road. Too many characters to count don't like their lives and where they live apart from Scullery and maybe Prof. Us four at the end are summarising and gathering everyone's opinion and simply telling it as it is: we all want to escape.
We rehearsed this with us four saying it a few times, whilst everyone else gets on stage, and for the final 'somehow...' everyone joins in.

I was then able to go off and work individually on whatever. I went through my monologue, really paying attention to both my accent and meanings (monologue work above.) This proved really useful for me as it gave me time to properly work on everything I'd just been through with Deborah that lesson. The four of us also went through lines for our entire scene.

Going back a fair few weeks I looked back on some of our really early lessons with our new lecturers and saw a short thinking activity that we did. The question was "What do you think theatre should be?" My response to this was "It should let you forget the real world. Doing this through the mediums of realistic elements and entertainment." This is what we are trying to create. Entertaining theatre for an audience. My aim is to live up to this response so I think it is good to refresh myself with what I am really here for...

Our accent/voice lesson was a bit more successful for me. Me being a bit of a teachers pet, I took notes down on everything that I thought each group could work on whilst jotting down everything Sarah said, then giving these to each character.

Accent/voice lesson notes

I did this mostly for me to steal helpful tips to ensure I can put all of this into my accent work. But it also helped the others. Inflection came up a lot which is raising the pitch of your voice at the end of a sentence or word. So for Jake it was going up at the end of 'ciggy' turning it into 'cig-eh'. Sophie's was to work on the glottal sound of 'dog' making it sound almost like the name 'doug'. I put for all of them that they can afford to elongate their words and say everything a little bit slower.
Jerry's accent needs to be drawn out more so, which will both help him slow down and also for the accent to appear more strongly. For example 'I can' stand it' could become 'Ayeee, caaan't staaaand it'. He could also benefit from delivering it in a deeper tone. Brenda and Carol have pretty much aced their accents however they could both do with slowing it down a lot more, otherwise their lines are misheard.





I also looked back on my first impressions on Louise and how they have changed. I said how I knew she was a quiet character and the tag-along to Carol. I didn't really expect her to go for Eddie however as Brink would've been the quieter, more well-suited to her. I would now say that perhaps she isn't the tag along. But perhaps she sticks with Carol as a protector, because she is so loud. I can sort of see this in quick lines that Louise says in agreement to Brink that Carol is aggressive. It's like Louise has built up her confidence around Carol to be able to do this. I first put how she is the perfect tag along for Carol as she pretty much does everything she is instructed to do so I love the bit in which she is ready to stay a bit longer when Carol is ready to leave. Phoebe often gives me a look of disapproval probably because this is the first time Louise has ever done anything like it. I also think that Louise is a little bit like me. She is quiet but I think at a push could be a lot more confident if she tried and if she were around her close friends.


Thursdays lesson was only down to two hours, and it consisted of firstly going through some monologues and everyone giving feedback. I know if it were me I would only heavily appreciate constructive criticism, so that is what I did, as it is the only way they can improve:

• Jerry: 'You lost your accent at times, apart from the odd words. It became very southern. Be careful on your ad-libbing. At times it sounds like you've perhaps you've forgotten your lines. When you put your hands in your head, be careful not to slap your face as it made it slapstick/comedic and didn't fit.' Frank has really come along with his monologue, and like I said earlier on in this post, he added a lot more actioning and movements which made the monologue so inviting and interesting I was really drawn into what he was talking about. At times the speed could be picked up however.
• Helen: 'Careful on the word 'duty' as that got lost. Also careful from your line 'why me?' onwards as the accent faded after that. Try looking at him [Correction to which she isn't meant to look at him] so look at your plate of fish and chips more than the floor- you're a confident character.' This is the first time I've seen this scene and Helen for that matter, and I was really blown away hence why I didn't get much notes down!!
• Valerie: 'Come in a lot stronger on your opening line 'I'am fed up' you could even repeat 'I am'. Make your voice louder for this bit as well, or we won't believe that you are genuinely fed up. React to 'fat hard hands' as though you are re-living the memory. Give your accent time to come out, but that will come as soon as you project your voice more. Drop your 'h's. I found it quite static so do try asap with you props you discussed with Deborah, it will help you get a feel for it. A washing basket with clothes? Where did the ending come from? It was a sudden build up of anger, and I felt like it needed to be built up a lot more instead of going straight in for the kill.' I really liked it but I felt that it really needed some movement seeing as it's a rather long bit of text. 
• SkinLad: 'Be careful as some words sounded slightly Scottish. For example 'two' and you can also elongate your words to master the accent such as 'can't and stand'. Try not to have such a soft voice. We are now in a debate if it is 'dr Martins' like 'doctor' or 'doc Martins'? I would say 'doc'...' Nathan has come on so far with SkinLad, there is literally no elements of Nathan in him which is brilliant!
• Curt: 'Watch your accent in the beginning, as it only appeared a little way in. Keep up the consistency of you being ill, a few coughs throughout will do the trick. Be aware of your miming, I know you will have a proper prop but for now be mentally aware of having a beer bottle in your right hand.' Nyakeh enters on a really strong point, he has mastered the act of being drunk and not making much sense in his words which is really effective. 

Monologue notes 1

Monologue notes 2

All the monologues seen today are those that I haven't watched for a while so it was really nice to be able to see how far they have all come and it was also nice to have been able to watch these and hopefully help them with the feedback given. 

We also got round to doing starting a run through. Which as you might've guessed begins with me as Louise and Brother. I made sure to focus specifically on reacting to 'shagging' and building up the anger a lot quicker and to a higher level as soon as Brother wipes the oil on my face. I felt that this first scene went really really well! I then offered to stand in for Brenda so Carol could do her scene which was quite fun, as I know Brenda fairly well as I've seen Hannah do it many times. It was also helpful for me because I could copy the way Hannah says her lines so technically it helped me with my accent work. It can't have been as helpful for Phoebe as I wasn't reacting precisely how Hannah does. And it probably didn't help too much when I ended up doing my lines as well as Brenda's; but to be honest Louise isn't an important character in the scene so it didn't seem to matter. 

The 'pub name' scene also went smoothly however it could do with some proper blocking when we bump into Scullery as I turned one way to look at him and Phoebe the other; which wasn't the end of the world as it made it look natural but it might help to do it the right way next time. 

The main thing was that I DIDN'T MESS UP MY LINES! I am really pleased, I got them word perfect. Today I felt that all my scenes went really well, my accent is hopefully on the mend and my lines I got right which is something. 

Two weeks today until show day. I think Road has come along really well, and I am still loving it as much as I did six weeks ago. This week had it's up's and down's but I think, like I've said previously, that this pushes me forward more and tests me and my confidence which is usually what I need. I have made the effort to start working on everything I didn't do well today and will continue to do so, for Wednesday when we are back on rehearsing. 

Road: Week 5

So the first week back from easter.....

... and unfortunately we were delayed in our 'Road' process due to watching the first years Musical Theatre acting project performance of the play Tusk Tusk by Penny Stenham. The play is one I knew quite a bit about before hand because of my sister being in the Musical Theatre class and the occasions I've helped her with her lines for it etc. The performances were really good, but in the politest sense, some of them lacked confidence which made their acting really weak, so it was beneficial for me to see this in action as I know that this is something I 'suffer' from. I could see those whom were less confident in acting, compared to their talents in singing and dancing which I have previously seen, and because it was so obvious I can now totally understand this is something I really have to work on to conquer, which I am and will be still in the process of. So watching their performance wasnt all bad despite having delayed us a fraction.
I think a lot of my confidence issues comes from the atmosphere and reactions I get from my peers that surround me. I know, and I can be honest in saying this that when it comes to messing around etc I portray myself as a very sarcastic person, and yes that is my type of humour. But this reflects badly when it comes to showing back pieces we've done; such as when Louise spills her drink, which is still something we need to work on because every time I do it, I do it wrong and it comes across really awkward- supposedly making it humourus for the audience members. From the 'To The Actor' book I read:

"You will help yourself immeasurably by ignoring all shortcomings or unsympathetic features of the members of the group... To avoid unnecessary embarrassment and artificiality, do not overdo it with prolonged actions" 

This fits to me remarkably well! To interpret-ate, its telling me that for one it will hugely help me if I for one, ignore what's happening in the audience pit, so to ignore the laughing or comments. And to avoid this I need to not make what I do come across awkward, so like when I drop the glass, if we come to it tomorrow and we've not managed to properly rehearse I 'drop' it, with sincerity if you like, and try hard to keep the scene going immediately afterwards to destroy any humourus elements to it. I can see that it doesn't help with how I am outside of Louise, due to me being quite sarcastic and humourus but I feel if I really follow the book quote, we can push these comments and laughs away which should hopefully boost my confidence more and more.


With that said, Wednesday was set with a better start and a daunting tone: We only have a few more weeks before we perform...
But today we dived straight into the pre-show, with Deborah's idea of showing all the characters in a freeze frame from their scene. Similar to how we ended our previous contemporary play, '13' by Mike Barlett, all characters will be on stage as their character, so for example Louise on Eddie's lap. Brenda getting drunk on Scullery's wall, SkinLad still meditating.The link here is to our recording of '13', skip to (about) 1:54 onwards... http://sdcstream.southdowns.ac.uk/view.aspx?id=8957~4D~fNFnj3IR .

Pre-show staging

I am a big fan of this structure, having all characters on stage as themselves as it opens the play with some really good foreshadowing moments; as immedietly you can see that four characters out of the cast are in love with one another due to the fact Louise and Helen are sat on two of the men's laps, this leads the audience into already assuming they are thing, but later on proves that neither of them are, particulaly. The bed sheets being brought up on Joey, hints that he might be dead but it could also hint that Scullery is some sort of carer for him... But the way our play is opened, leaves the audience guessing, and I know if I were to see a play, I would be fond of this opening structure because I like to think about the play in a deeper way and see if I can uncover any hidden messages etc etc, so to summarise I never just simply watch a play!
During this lesson I roughly sketched the staging layout (above) labelling where each character is situated on stage and what they are doing there for example Bisto with his dj table, Joey and Clare dying in bed, Brenda getting drunk on the wall. From the sketch, you can see that the layout is very well planned and evenly situated around the stage, making the stage busy for the audience and aesthetically makes it look really really intriguing (hopefully!)
      As briefly mentioned on my sketch above, the Professor and Scullery go to each character, almost like introducing them or in the profs. case interviewing them. I think these two characters are perfect for the job, as do I think both actors playing the two roles are confident enough to do this as well as approach the audience members to interview them also. This is giving Road a slight abstract to approach to theatre which I love also, the immersive theatre really interests me and I love the mind set in which Deborah is in for creating this as contemporary and unusual as possible.

After setting this, and running through how everyone exits etc, we began a quick run of the scene order but noting down all entrances and exits from either stage left or right. Beginning with the opening scene, naturally, which is between Louise and her brother. And secondly for me was the scene I feature in with Carol and Brenda, and then finally the scene we list pub names. I noted down all my various entrances and exits and then that was me done, practical wise today. I took it upon me, to continue making notes on the process of plotting other entrances and exits.
But before doing so me and Jake had the opportunity to run through our lines for this first scene as Louise and brother, this was more for Jake's benefit as I am feeling really confident on my lines, but it was really useful to go over this scene as it's one of me least focussed on scene. I got Jake trying it out with the accent, but like me at the beginning he doesn't have the confidence in the accent he's currently producing. I can hugely relate to him, as this was me three to four weeks ago. However I think his accent is strong, and the more he practises it when learning his lines more he will soon learn the lines in the accent, so will end up using muscle memory of his mouth when it comes to performing it. Hannah and Phoebe were running through their scene at the same (this was just casually done in our break) but when it came to my entrance they both, synchronised said "pissing hell Louise there's always something with you" and I pointed out that they should definitely say this at the same time, it represents a good bond between the two of them, and as soon as that line is said they return back to their moods with each other. To me this element of relationship is so relevant, its like whenever your in an argument and someone makes you laugh or snap out of that argumentative head space, but then as quick as you came out of the bad mood your back in it, willing to win the argument... No doubt we have all had this, which means that when Brenda and Carol do it, it becomes quite comedic and highlights their relationship even more so.

Wednesday's blog notes

So it was originally set that we would talk to the professor who approaches the four of us on the sofa, but it was decided that we are all probably too drunk to talk. This drunkiness is showed when we walk off stage, all stumbling on our step. I also think it would be good if myself as Louise stumbled off with her arm around Eddie's neck, seeing as she's too drunk to care but sober enough to know what she's doing.

Another interesting thought made to me today, when watching the rest of the play being plotted, was how when we first meet Eddie he is in his home with his dad; so he's still living at home with his dad. This brings me back to the point I made in my 'Road: Easter week blog' post, with what Margaret Thatcher imposed, with the "3 million people unemployed" which can only show that Eddie and his dad are or have been affected by this unemployment, as the character of Eddie would've wanted to have moved out into his own place, a place he can continue to 'pull all the ladies'. However, when we properly meet Eddie in the final scene, his dad is nowhere to be seen. I asked Frank where he thinks Eddie's dad is at the time, and he said "that he is still at home, but has taken some strong pills either to help him sleep or to put him to sleep." I think this idea is good, however I feel like it's purely just a means and an excuse to say where the dad was, as I feel there's more to it. Perhaps, he has a wife or a lover of some sort, there is never any mention of a woman in the family through the likes of Eddie, which could explain the solidarity in which his dad lives in. But I think it's weird that Cartwright has written this mysterious character into a scene, just to sit facing away from the audience; and I can't think why... Perhaps there is a mourning process, of him just loosing his wife but then you'd expect Eddie to be reacting to this also. Or was this father figure featured, so lonely, into this scene to properly show that loneliness is such a strong, running theme in Road. Nearly all the characters have times where they seem lonely, either physically or in their thoughts i.e. Louise. So did Cartwright believe that loneliness was such a big thing then, loneliness because these people could do nothing about the leader of the country, at the time being Thatcher, a widely hated Prime Minister.

Again this is all really intriguing to me as all the deeper meanings of Road and the different characters begin to come to life.
but I had an inclining to perhaps he isn't fond of his son and his ways with girls and the new way of pubbing etc, because we well know he later tells us how 'he cant believe how things were back then'.

Closer to home to me as Louise, was when we spoke about Jakes character as the brother: Annoyingly I cant find a full image, but back in October, I played a female war engineer. She was incredibly manly, and this was apparent in my costume. I wore big work boots (scruffy versions of the tan Timberland look) I wore a big boiler suit as trousers with the arms tied around my waist, with a really oily white (ish) mens shirt, and oil all over my face and hands. And it only occurred to me that I was pretty much dressed as Louise's brother, as this is how I pictured him and also what we came up with today. So Ele Wainwright, the WW1 character I played, is exactly how the brother should look like, description above, but just the male version. It will make a good contrast with my chosen costume design, as I will be wearing a much more punk look, dressing up and going out sort of look and the brother will be the complete opposite.

Moving onto, now to Mr Bauld and Dor trying to find the key, which has a bottle opener on, which I think is what is more important to them. On surface, this scene could be quite comedic because its silly, two people crawling around the floor looking for a bottle opener. But when you look into it much more, its quite deep and dark. Bauld goes to all the effort to just find a bottle opener, and so it really highlights the lives people were living in, in this era (80's). Drink is so important to Bauld. Maybe because drink is the only thing that can make him forget the life he is living in and all the world and changes around him, such as the likes of Thatcher and Mr Bauld becoming unemployed because of her decisions.
      Everything that occurs in Road has a deeper meaning, and it really interests me when I find these deeper meanings to characters and what they say and do such as Brink never being seen to get ready, unlike Carol, Eddie and Louise all being seen; which I came to conclude that he was living alone, but in secrecy or that he had an abusive dad.

And finally to finish on the brief plotting of our scene between myself, Brink, Eddie and Carol.We are all to enter stage left, which is the opposite to what we've been practising but it makes more sense doing it this way, and whenever characters leave the 'room', this is done again on stage left. When it comes to our scene there will only be a chair center stage, and the sofa in the same position as it was in the pre-show, set diagonally to the audience, stage right. As we all enter, Eddie's job is to stack up the wine bottles etc, and it's Brink's job to pull the sofa round, to center stage, so as we enter, we are setting the stage to our scene. I think this is a really interesting way to set the scene, literally, as from my past acting experiences I have only known it to be done in a blackout, making it as discreet as possible, but it works so effectively, especially when we do it all in character so Louise and Carol enter, still looking disgusted at the state of the house, they can perhaps knock over a few wine bottles to add to the mess in which the scene is meant to look like. Meanwhile Eddie is bringing in and taking off wine bottles, glasses, taking dirty plates off etc. And Brink is pulling the sofa round, perhaps knocking off the dirty t-shirt which was sat there. By the time Louise and Carol are requested to sit, the stage is set for our scene to really begin.
This reminds me of a physical theatre show I went to see, done by Frantic Assembly 'Othello'. They highly modernised and set it in a pub, but each slight scene change was done on stage, in full view, but physicalised. So for example, if it were 'Othello's job (as an actor) to move the pool table to a vertical in order to kill Desdemona, he would do so by gracefully leaping on top of the table and do some short physical theatre sequence in order to move it to where it needed to be. It made the scene change a lot more interesting and its almost like what we are doing with Road, although we aren't doing it in the physical theatre style of acting, we do do it in our characters, still relying heavily on the characteristic's in which we have built up for ourselves in order to react to the scene change.
To end the scene we push the sofa back to its starting position, and re-turn to our exact positions in which we were in the pre-show, so Louise sat on Eddie's lap with her arm swung around his shoulder. Carol to the left of us, looking still quite stubborn with her back facing us more than her front. And Brink sat to the right of us, looking quite content in his own company, as usual. Whilst were doing this, we are doing this others are coming back on stage, to sit in their original positions, but this hasn't been practised yet.
To me, its like we are statues coming to life. We are frozen in our set positions, as is a statue, and then once we get the opportunity to come to life and tell our side of the story of ours lives and relationships and friendships throughout it. As this begins to run low, we return back to our frozen positions. This style, if it has a name, has a really slight hint that as characters we know we are performing, a very abstract approach to play writing and creating, but like in the recreation of EAST by Anton Chekhov that as a class we saw today, there was some mention in which they were aware, as the characters they were playing, that they were in a play and had an audience. So converting this to Road, its like we know that we are only going to be playing, moving/speaking for a certain amount of time, until we are told to stop, to evidently end the show.

To finish off this successful practical session, Deborah gave us new pub names to list off [page 12] for me and Phoebe, as Louise and Carol. We were originally going to find our own ones, but honestly didn't get round to doing so: However my new pub names, that I know need to learn are

• The One Eyed Dog
• Little Johnny Russels
• Porters
• Fat Fox
• Fleet and Furkin
• Molokos

Carol's new pub names are:

• The Centurion
• The Jolly Sailor
• Churchillian
• The Marmion
• Hong Kong Charlies
• Drift
• Spoons

I've never heard of any of them, and I already know that I have to have a really strong accent to say these as I wouldn't want the audience hearing the wrong thing!! But line learning in general is pretty much complete, its just practise, practise, practise and obviously to learn the new pub names to list. 

This week was our first week with Sarah in focussing on accent, in our voice classes. I knew that this would be really useful for me, as its just extra practise for me, and it also gives me another method of hearing the accent, as I found the more ways I try it, the better I become at it. We went straight into running through short sections of random scenes, and we started with Brandon and Frankie, as Joey and Clare. This scene is our least worked on, due to Brandon not being in on the days in which they go to practise it, so it was nice to finally see this scene in action, despite that we didn't do any blocking or movements we just focussed on our voices, as you would expect in a voice class. 

As the first half of the lesson wasn't for me specifically (aimed for Frankie and Brandon) I made notes on firstly what I thought they could improve on and what I pointed out, and combined this with what Sarah said afterwards. 

Voice, accent notes

For Frankie, I noted that she needs to slow down what she says a lot, which will lead to us being able to hear her words clearer that are produced in the accent.

Brandon, I suggested to them both that if they write down all the phonetics of their words, such as
"I aamm, sooo lone/lay. I aamm lie'in 'ere four days no/aw." This was the way I learnt both my lines and accent, as it will make him learn his lines in the accent, allowing him to use muscle memory when performing.

Here is what Sarah had to say about me, Milo, Lewis and Phoebe as I couldn't make any individual notes:
Milo, to drop more 't' and 'th' sounds

Lewis, girls to gg-eugh-ls, make your sounds harsher and more nasally- watch Corrination Street

Phoebe, to make your sounds more glottal (I looked into what glottal means, and they gave me the example of 'uh-oh' some places it is said as one consonant, but us Southerners, say it as two. That is a glottal stop (correct me if I am wrong!) Also waiter to wait-eugh

And finally me, and I am quite pleased because all she recommended was for me to make my sounds more nasally, so again to watch Corrie. (This little feedback must mean its definitely better than when I started!!)
Talking about accent work, I furthered mine outside of college. I did this using the CD that the Robert Blumenfeld 'Accents, A Manual for Actors' book provided me.

Below are the notes I made whilst listening to the audio, under the subheadings of British Provincial accent: Midlands, Yorkshire, Manchester and Northern. He began teaching sounds that feature the glottal stop/sound: these words were such of 'bottle' and 'forty two' which I phonetically wrote down (to help me) as 'bot/ale', the / being a slight pause in speech, and 'fort/ay two'.
The open sound of 'a', turns 'cat' in 'caah/at' 'mat' to 'mah/at' and 'hat' to 'hah/at'. Remembering a slight emphasis on the 'at' sounds that feature at the end of each word.

A practise sentence he gave was "I cant draw the bath until I've finished my bottle of water" and again to help me I wrote it down to how I can hear the words which turns it to: "Aye, ca/nt draw/er the bath [no 'r' sound] til aye've finished ma bot/ale of war/ter."  These all being words and sounds that I have heard before in the accent, and also words I know I can say in the accent, this section was simple but it was a nice way to get into the accent to lead me onto the next sounds.

Now we were instructed to concentrate on the 'ugh' and 'uh' sounds, such as 'book' 'look' 'above' and 'rough'. These turned into: 'book' and 'look' having a slight extenditure on the ''o' sounds, 'ah/bove' being like 'dove', and 'rough' being 'roh/ff'? But this last one I struggled with, as I knew exactly how it should sound in the accent, as its one that features in Road so I've heard it before, but I couldn't see it written down to how it sounded.

Now another practise text [image no.2] ; "now look here, thats not what I told you to do now, is it?" I changed this into: "Nah/ow (like ow, pain ow) loook ere (no 'h' sounds), that's knot wot aye told ya to do no/ow is it?" I believe that I must be both a a visual learner, as I like seeing what I am being told, for example if someone is asking me how to spell something, I have to see it written down. But also because I like to make tonnes of notes, little thoughts and ideas on what I am being told about (basically a 'read, write learner'. With a hint of 'an auditory learner' so someone who is both a good and natural listener. So to conclude I'm pretty much all the different learners!! But I've previously come to this conclusion because as said earlier, the more ways I do something such as the accent work I've used books, the internet, phone apps, audio stuff, making constant notes in and out of class, recording and observing Matt (sorry Matt!) and then actually talking in the accent, has all got me to develop my accent, hopefully considerably.

The guy on the CD, read out my favourite practise text, the 'cloud passing over head' one, that I have mentioned before now. But when he spoke this in the accent, it was completely different to how I've been saying it, and also really different to how we have been taught the words in the text itself. I can only think that this is because he's american, so his natural sound production is different to say Sarah's, Laura's and Matt's (all people whom have helped me learn) because they aren't american.
But to honestly conclude my work done today, on my accent, I don't feel that this CD audio helped me, surprisingly it went too quickly, and didn't give me a chance to actually recite after him the words said, which meant it didn't sink in enough for me. However the notes I've made are really useful purely because they are written to exactly how I hear the words, and I think it would be beneficial for me to start writing all my lines down like so when I practise my lines at home, because of me being a visual learner this will add to my practise and confidence.

Accent work: Book CD

Accent work: Book CD

Thursday proved as an 'individual workday'. But it started with us receiving the new and fully typed script including all the cuts we've made, with this printed ready for todays session later I have had a chance to flick through it and bring it up to speed with all my notes for entrance and exit cues, as well as cues in which I move on stage etc.
To start our actual lesson, we began from the beginning of the show, which is Louise and her brother, and I am really pleased because this past week we've (myself and Jake) have had many opportunities to go through this scene as this was my only main worry for Road. So after doing this scene we got feedback from the class and Kirsty which consisted of: 

: For me to enter in more of a 'flap' to give the sense of rushing to get ready 

: To pick up the pace as it reaches the last page of lines, as it begins to drag a bit

: Again, to act more appalled and shocked when brother says "shagging" - it is an appalling thought!!

: Jake to not rush his lines, slow it down!!

: Jake don't walk too slowly when you walk back towards Louise, it drags out too much

: Jake pull Louise into you when you say "let's dance" 

: And me to begin building the anger as soon as he rubs the oil on my face and not to leave it just til "you piggin' bastard!" 

These are all the notes that (put together me and Jake got) and we both tried to take these on board as quick as we could when we went over it again straight after, and when I, sorry when Louise, reacted to the "Shagging" line I had a really good reaction of laughs and giggles! But it was an improvement to people laughing at me, they were laughing because the line delivery was comedic, so I felt rather pleased of myself!!! 

To contradict myself, I was annoyed with myself that I messed up on the lines a few times, I know this is only because we kept stopping and starting, changing the way perhaps Jake stands or the way I react, which put me off my lines, but knocking myself and myself only I was frustrated that I did mess up.
Below is an attached video of me and Jake running our scene in our break, the video is just of the "lets dance" line because I think this has become a really strong point in our scene, as it is a lot more tense and serious than when we first tried it back in blog post 1 and 2. Camera credits to Sophie as she really really likes this part of our scene, it was also her idea for Jake to pull me in on "lets dance" as though he's about to dance with me, see video.

        After running through this scene we moved onto Joe and Donna's scene together as Professor and Dor. I did'nt get round to making many notes as I was still writing about my scene and the feedback, however I did write down for Joe to be less like him, slightly awkward and become more like the professor! His voice was good, which made the obvious change of personality, but like Nyakeh suggested he could change the way he stands, perhaps grounding himself to a more sturdy hold of his body, instead of swaying as Joe.
For Donna, all I got was to sloooooowwwww dowwwwwwnnnnn!!! She spoke incredibly fast which is probably nerves, but I think she needs to become more confident on her lines, then on her accent which will all lead to her having more confidence which will allow her to slow down a lot more. For both of them, I think they just need the confidence of just going for the accent, because the quicker they try the quicker us (others) can step in at times and adjust their pronunciation of words. 

After running through these two scenes, we were set off to work individually on scenes, lines, characters etc. To begin myself and Jake ran through our lines for our first scene. This was really helpful as we ended up doing it about three times until we didn't get it wrong. We then tried it a few times, practically running through it. This again was helpful because of the changes we had made earlier today, we could put into proper practise, in privacy, so when we got it wrong we could simply try it again.
I then went on to make more notes of the scenes we'd just watched including mine and Jakes scene, ready to include here on my blogs. After this I refreshed myself on my monologue, writing it down from memory and then rehearsing it practically by myself. And finally I ran through all my lines in my first scene with Hannah, Hannah reading in as brother, and then I did the same reading as Carol. Me, Phoebe and Hannah ran through the scene in which we all feature in together, "hiyah Louise", and then all practised our ending scene with Hannah reading as Eddie and Brink. It was nice to have a relaxed lesson to just run through whatever we felt we needed too, and I felt that I did this, so I can say now that I feel a lot more confident on the scene with Louise and brother. And it was also useful for me to run through all my lines, however it would've been nice to have practically done our last scene because although we've worked on it a lot, we've not touched on it now that we're back from Easter.

Briefly I ran through props needed for Road and those in which I can supply:

A tape for the Professor
Plenty of empty wine bottles for any scenes in need, i.e. Ours at the end, Helen's, Brenda's house, Valerie?
A funky/old fashioned looking tie for perhaps Jerry as he's the older generation
Spare punk/ rock accessories for other female characters i.e. Carol?
Can maybe borrow a boiler suit for brother, and oily rags, oil can etc
Some sort of make up for me to put on in the mirror as Louise
Yogic/Buddist books... If SkinLad is ever seen with these sort of belongings
Stereo with a tape player included (whether it works or not is a different matter!)[UPDATE the tape and the stereo works, I just didn't know how to play it, its what happens if you were born in '98] for Prof
Glasses, also for Prof
Vinyl and records including cases as decoration of Bisto's dj table?

As Louise I don't need to many different props but above are things that might be needed and if so I can provide some of them, at a push, for other characters if needed. 

So now, to begin to conclude I got round to recapping all the feedback I've ever been given for Road and I wanted to see which I have completed, and those things I still need to work on:

• To be more confident, and start expressing the ideas in which I include into my blogs. I feel that I have started to do this more, but the more I do so the more confident I get with expressing my ideas however abstract they turn out to be (for example Valerie talking about alcohol not a real life husband!)
• To ensure I include book quotations from those in which I have loaned etc, which I have now since done on subjects such as accent and practical work
• Gain more confidence on my accent... Which I know I have definitely done, and am still working on
• Pick up the energy in the final scene; and this is something I think we could still improve on but it has been worked on briefly
• To make my character bigger!!! (It's getting there)
• Try not to loose my words in the accent
• Make my accent more nasally (watch Corrie!) 
• Stay in character, is now much more improved and is consistent as Louise now
• Show your vulnerability when intimidated by brother, could do with more work which will come with more practise of the scene
• React to "shagging" REACT! This has come up twice now Issie!
• Start character study... ooops!

All the bullet points above is my known recorder feedback advice, with a mixture of character work, accent work, blogs or practical. Majority of them I know I have definetly targetted and hopefully have improved on and some I am still working on, but now with the refresh and a clear list of what I have been asked to do from both my peers and lecturers, I can go away and revise these along with a practical element at home rehearsing etc. 

Assignment brief To Do list:

The images are of the highlighted Distinction criteria for Road that I am aiming to meet, I recapped them today (friday) as we get nearer and nearer our deadlines of performance and written work. 

Road: Assignment brief 2

Road Assignment brief 1

I was also lucky enough to have a copy of the grading criteria in which my two lecturers will grade me through: 

Unit 13 - Criteria 1 - Distinction Level = 'Research contemporary texts, selecting detailed features for their interpretation' 

How can Issie achieve this? There will be full understanding of the social and/or political purpose embedded in the themes of the plays, ideas for interpretation will cover all aspects of the aesthetics of the work in great detail. I have made a good start on this specifically in Blog post 1 in which we spoke a lot about of the historical context of Road, and there has been short mentions of political themes in my blogs such as the mention of Margaret Thatcher. 

Unit 19 - Criteria 2 - Distinction Level =  'Develop material for performance through confident and imaginative use of research, rehearsal and characterisation' 

How can Issie achieve this? Learner will approach work in effective and positive manner. Learner will approach research creatively, in disciplined manner. I am thoroughly enjoying Road so I would like to say that all work I am thrown at linked to Road I complete to my best standard with an 'positive manner' and my imagination has sort of gone wild when talking about characters and themes in Road, but I could extend this to specify just about Louise in my character study.

Unit 7 - Criteria 2 - Distinction Level =  'Present an interpretation of the role showing energy, commitment, making a significant impression on the overall performance'

How can Issie achieve this? Learners wil perform with energy and focus, showing a complete commitment to and absorption of their role/character.. the performance will stand out and have particular meaning, whilst not setting out to deliberately 'hog the limelight.' I cant speak about the performance just yet, but it is my absolute aim to perform with 'energy, focus, commitment' and its not really in me to 'hog the limelight' so I aim not to do so.

The writing in bold (excluding the 'how can Issie achieve this) is my words of how I think I am going to do this or how I have done so, this is really helping me to focus on the things I need to do in order to reach the distinction grade level. 

And finally I looked back over my '13' grading criteria and the things that I didn't do so well on: 

• D3 N : You performed demonstrating good control of vocal and movement skills, however you did not perform in an imaginative manner to physically embody character or interpret text with clarity and intelligence. Performance: To embody Louise, you are not Issie!
• D1 N : You showed considered responses to resource material, exploring its more creative possibilities as performance material with insight and attention to detail however, you did not show a range of detailed responses to source material, in which the possibilities as performance material are explored in a perceptive and comprehensive manner. Blogs: Looking at the grade I got for my Devising project for blogs, I feel this is something I am already on top of
• D3 N : Your performed with a level of skill that shows a degree of control in the handling of the chosen medium however, you did not show confidence, flair and assured control of the chosen medium. Performance: CONFIDENCE!
• D4 N : You evaluated the potential of the work in artistic, professional and vocational terms, with considered judgements about what worked well and/or less well however you did not always clearly identify strengths and weaknesses and make judgements fully justified and thoughtfully expressed. Evaluation: Again looking at the devising grade I feel I have overcome this. 

To fully conclude, this week was a big success and it's nice to be back and working on Road once again. I have clear work to work on after looking at previous grades and feedback, which I will endeavour to work on. My next big task is to crack on my character study, which I am feeling confident for, but I will have Karen's (previous lecturer) comments on my character profile for '13' to hand to ensure I reach the distinction grade in which I am aiming for. 

Road: +2 Weeks

Happy Easter!
This is my extra (two week) blog post, with extra thoughts and ideas I have come up with over the Easter break including everything and anything I have done towards Road in general: It is a very mixed blog post, including a lot of Road influences via films and programmes that I have linked to our Road:

I was watching Pride, a new out film: "Based on an extraordinary true story, Pride tells how a group of London-based gay and lesbian activists raised money to support the families of miners during the strike of 1984. Identifying a mining village in Wales, they set off to make their donation in person, and in doing so inspired "the best British" film in years." The film was absolutely amazing, it was so interesting to see how life was then and how gays and lesbians were discriminated immensely. The film has a few familiar faces such as Andrew Scott, who played Moriarty in Sherlock. George MacKay who played in the film version of Sunshine on Leith the musical, Bill Nighy and Imedla Staunton. It's a must watch...

As said above the film is all about gay and lesbians. Which gave me the idea, SkinLad is gay. It is clear in Pride that being gay in the 80's and before was tough, people treated them as though they were not normal. A bit like how they treat SkinLad in Road, he is classed as the 'nutter' because he is so different. So I came to a conclusion that he is gay. So he set off with his fighting, in an attempt to prove to himself that he wasn't gay and he was manly like all the others. Or that his fighting was a means of self defence so he knew how to protect himself, as like in Pride the gays were beaten up for being gay! So SkinLad turned to Buddism. This was a means of something telling him he was straight or a reassurance to himself that he was normal by following their rules, like many others did. Him being gay could be the very good reason 'he passed on the pornography at work' but made it his excuse that the Dharma taught him not to look at it, and not the fact that naked women wouldn't attract his attention.
In Pride, Joe comes out but not by telling his parents they discover it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b8jXlqlORR4 "It's such a terrible life" is the mums description of the life gays lead. People were being brought up thinking being gay is so wrong, so there was no chance that the next generation would come out of this vicious circle of believing it's ok to be gay or lesbian or bi. She says it's 'lonely' which links me back to Road and SkinLad, I've previously mentioned that SkinLad is a lonely character and him being gay could be the reason behind this, because even if gays back then found a partner, they couldn't be seen together as it would cause more trouble for them. We know little about SkinLad apart from the fact that he is Buddist, but I can clearly see how him being gay would fit with his character. He is content in his own company and has been for many years, so perhaps his family abandoned him when he told them he was gay? But he is still overcoming this, because he continues to be the religious Buddist whom lives by these new rules, perhaps as a distraction to what he really feels and what he really 'is'.

Pride: Costume ideas

Pride continued to help me, this time with costume ideas. Despite the fact I have chosen my costume for Louise, it still gave me some ideas. Such as I need to wear light coloured, baggy jeans like in the picture as this is what they wore in the 80's. To me the 80's is an era of being different, people were quite bold with what they wore including colours, non-matching items etc. So with Louise I have got her wearing all blacks and whites, then bright red shoes to show this quirky look. Majority of the men, again wore light jeans, and like the character in the front, a smart and casual look (such as a white tee and a jacket.)
The character (third from the right) is very typically the 80's look with her shaved sides hair, and the colour of it also. I am not quite dedicated enough to shave and dye my hair for Road, but I felt that Louise would have her hair like this as it was 'the look' as is the males 'ice gem' nowadays and the 'full fringes' etc etc. Louise is one of those people who is cool, but is always trying to stay cool, socially. So having her hair like this would assist her in keeping her coolness up, and it would also help her fit in; as I can only imagine that Carol was constantly changing her look, but most definitely not following the trend of others, so Louise does similarly.

Pride: Hairstyles

Pride gave me some ideas for music, also for Road. These song suggestions would be played in Bisto's nightclub, and I feel if we play the very typical 80's song we will be targetting our audience and their past more than perhaps some less well known ones that Cartwright has suggested in the script itself. A favourite of mine being 'Love and Pride' by King. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YlXtrnh-Ejo This song is up-beat and fast all the way through which means it matches Bisto's character. When listening to the song, after seeing the film, I could picture Bisto (and Luke for that matter) dancing and singing along to the song. It's one of those songs that once you hear it, you'll be singing it all day (apologises!) but that strikes me as this is something Bisto intends to do. He'll play a really catchy song to get his audience up and dancing and the sense of pride will shine through as his audience go away humming a song that he played. Its almost very child-like, but I think this would happen because he's lonely. As said before, he begins to reminisce about a past lover, "you know who you are, you bitch!" but this doesn't only imply that he had a past lover it also implies that one he is lonely and two because he's still in love with her. Another song suggestion, West End Girls, Pet Shop Boys. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fVkN0VhOuZ0&index=7&list=PLPskAFoPlyRX_XzvRb44dTdFudIZY-cnC This song could be played in mine and Jakes begining scene as Louise and her brother. He was originally going to be fixing an engine, which would make playing music more suitable for this scene. But now it is decided that he will be watching tv, but I had a thought that if the music was playing as well as the sound of the tv, it would get irritating. But it would be like he was doing it purposefully to annoy Louise. This will show a hint of a normal brother and sister relationship, but it would also show how Louise has learnt to put up with it, due to her not mentioning it. This idea was sparked by once, my brother playing a shooting game on his Xbox with the volume up full: purely just to annoy me and my sister in the other room! Getting Louise's brother to do this will also show a child-like and immature approach to his character, which could give us a hint to which Louise is the older sister, which is contrasting to what I had originally said, as I still believe that he is the older brother in the relationship.

Pride gave me some further information and knowledge into the working class loosing many of their jobs such as the closure of the mines. Margaret Thatcher is in power in the time of the play, and from already known knowledge she wasn't a very well-liked Prime Minister. Being the first female Prime Minister she should've become an inspirational woman instead she made a lot of decisions that a lot of the population didn't agree or like. Such as, her empowerment and decisions lead to 3 million people unemployed in the UK. So at the time of the play, it was a huge struggle for them, and Road is told as one of the very much deprived and effected areas of Thatchers decisions. As Joey well puts, 'I'm sick of it all' people were honestly 'sick' and fed up with living the way that Thatcher had forced them into, hence all the strikes such as the very well-known and well-remembered mine striking. Pride is following the mine strike over the year or two it lasted. A fair few characters give us the insight into how unhappy they are with their lives and the chances of this being because of Thatchers changes are very very high due to the year in which the play is set in. For example Valerie tells us "why do I stay?" in the context in which she talks to us (about her husband) it is easy to leave it there, but digging deeper it could easily mean 'why does she stay, in the life she is living'? Or 'why does she stay in this country, under the rules of Thatcher'? It could mean a lot more than just 'why do I stay with my husband' which is fairly boring and cliche'. Curt describes his home (Road) as "where all the crap comes but doesn't drop off" this is good use of imagery writing as I can picture it, in a way, that shows me how Road is a very negative place to live. The Professor is also in on this as he mentions "before I was made redundant' and again on the surface this could be for any other reason but it could also be because of the work of Margaret Thatcher and how she made "3 million people unemployed." Louise also, saying how "she wants magic and miracles... and a Jesus to come along and change things again... and everything's been made ordinary in our eyes" she's telling us all about how she wants what she did know, in the past, to return, to perhaps return to when Thatcher wasn't in power...?
Jerry also, and he is an interesting one to mention, for me, because he is the older generation, unlike all the other characters (excluding Brenda, whom is still trying hard to fit into that younger generation) he tells us how ' he would quite like things to return to how they used to be', with 'the girls waiting in the dance room while we all went into the bar, waiting for us to return', and I think it's interesting that he (or that Cartwright) has portrayed him as against the changes in government because it is almost too relevant. But at the same time he breifly tells us how "I cant get over the past, how it was..." which slightly implies that he is pleased it has changed.
        As you know parliament are in the 'election war' again, and at this time I find it interesting watching my grandad as this all comes and goes etc. He is very political but in my eyes always goes for the wrong party (in my opinion) so Jerry fits very well with my grandads personality as I know both would quite like to return to 'how things were' when 'the girls waited for us, in the dance hall' etc, and they are both against what Thatcher inforced. But Jerry starts the monologue as though he is surprised at how he used to live before Thatcher, and like my grandad was either publicy or secretivly pleased with what she did. Its a everlasting circle when looking into Jerry as I find it hard to identify if he was pleased or not or a bit of both... I will have to discuss this with Frank...

On the subject of songs, a song gave me some influences towards Louise: the song being 'I need' by Maverick Sabre. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1PmIARlm9EY To start, the lyrics saying "i need blue skies" I linked to Louise wanting 'gold and jewles, and all the light out on the pavements' they are both requesting or wishing for something aesthetically pleasing such as the perfect blue sky, or the pleasing look of pure gold. Its like they are both trying to see their world in different eyes and in different perspectives in order to live a better and happier life. Sabre goes on to say he 'needs them old times' and similarly Louise speaks of 'reminds you off them feelings you keep forgetting...once you wrap em' up and put em' away' They are both speaking of past memories or feelings that have since long gone, and they are both wishing upon their return in order to continue living the good life they previously had. The songs tempo and pace picks up a bit when it reaches the chorus again as though 'he' (the writer of the song) is trying to portray how many of us hide our feelings from the public i.e. family and friends, and those who put on a brave face. Like Louise, who acts as though nothing has happened, when she re-appears after her and her brothers scene which becomes quite tense and intimidating; as though she is putting on a brave face. "Was like the rain I used to see pouring down" This closely links to as though Sabre is finishing off the song on a more positive note (not literally) but the use of the word 'used' clearly implies that it was in the past, which means that he is now seeing, hopefully, 'blue skies' and not the 'rain' he 'used to see'. And this is something Louise is looking for in life, she tells us that she is fed up of life, "its all boring... everything's so dulled...everything's been made ordinary" she is bored of the life she is living and she knows what she really wants in life which is the life she lived once upon a time, perhaps when her brother wasnt born or to how things were before things changed, she really wants 'a Jesus to come along and change things...magic and miracles...gold and jewels, and light out on the pavements'. This tells me she is quite ambitious, in this monologue only however, but this monologue specifically makes her portray herself as determined to make these things really happen. But she revolts back into her normal persona of being that 'quiet person' who, the majority of the time, keeps quiet and just observes. She "You see things. You keep quiet about them. And you understand" Steven Chbosky~ The Perks Of Being A Wallflower. The definition of a 'wallflower' fits Louise's character quite well and my own personality also, which works due to the fact I am playing Louise; but Louise is a quiet character, partially because Carol being so loud and partially because of having to live with her brother which we have all met by now. She knows very early on that Carol fancies the boys, "you fancied em' when you saw em'" but keeps quiet about it, even when the opportunity comes up in which she could say. And she also understands why Carol doesn't let on to the boys, that she quite likes them, as she knows Carol has to have the feeling of dominance over all of the male kind, as that is simply her personality. Louise and I have something in common, which makes it easier for me to play her; but I have got to be Louise and not Issie!!!!

Educating Rita

A second big influence that I found for Road and Louise, was the film version of 'Educating Rita' by Willy Russell, which is another film I watched over these two weeks off. Educating Rita, a well-known and fantastic play in film form, is all about the downfall of the main character Rita, due to overworking herself and letting her work slowly ruin her life. I have linked Rita to Louise, and hear me out because if you know the play you'll also know that Rita is such a loud, fun, bubbly character and quite possibly the complete opposite to Louise. However Rita is trying to better herself through the likes of literature and written drama work, and it's quite a big thing due to the fact Rita couldn't be any more 'common' which again, is the opposite to all the 'posh, well-off' students that attend the school. However Rita has hints of Carol, with her quick and witty humour and her 'nosy' attitude. She is also very comedic, as is Carol. The accent used by the wonderful actress that is Julie Walters is a very strong Manchester one, which I will no doubt be taking tips from, although not too much as I, at times, found it hard to understand what Walters was saying, which is not a good habitat to inherit due to the fact I have a much weaker accent than hers anyway.
(Due to the fact I was enjoying the film too much, I didn't make many more notes on the play itself nor did I link it more thoroughly to Road, but the little bits I have mentioned, are still useful me as an actor playing the role of Louise.)

[Poldark: a now very popular tv drama. Ross Poldark (played by a very attractive male actor: Aiden Turner) is a British Army officer who returns home to Cornwall to find his fiance is marrying another man, his cousin. To re-build himself in the area, he opens a mine on the cliff side and marries Demelza, a 'scullery' maid. Which leads me to why I mentioned Poldark in the first place, due to the fact that Demelza (played by Eleanor Tomlinson) is said to be a 'scullery' maid, which made the obvious connection to Road itself, due to us having our own Scullery. So after looking into a dictionary, the definition of a scullery is:

scullery ~ a small room where washing up and other kitchen work is done

And because 'scullery maid' wasn't in the dictionary; the internet definition was:

a female domestic servant responsible for washing dishes and other menial household chores

However I still cant fathom to why Cartwright has named him Scullery, perhaps he was born in a scullery room although I feel that's a little on the sentimental side of Road, which as discovered the characters weren't really like so.]

i give it a year: is a fun, comedic 'chick-flick' film, another film watched over the holidays. But on an educational term, a scene that features in the film reminded me of the scene between myself as Louise, Carol, Eddie and Brink. The scene is set around a pool table on a meal out and it consists of a double date as such. A husband and wife, the wife's boss (who she is having an affair with) and the husbands friend (who he is 'seeing'). The scene reminded me of ours in Road because of the relationships present as well as the tension that was at height. The relationships, as just explained, made the scene really awkward due to the fact that both the husband and wife wanted the other male or female in the scene, but they had to keep up a false front like they are in love and in a good married relationship, despite the opposite was occurring. Similarly, our scene holds a lot of relationships one being that Carol quite clearly likes both of the boys but even more so Brink because when Louise and him kiss, 'Brink reaches out and takes Louise's hand. He leads her over towards him, he stands and kisses her,' and at this point Carol leaves the room, perhaps in jealousy which is an emotion I personally didnt expect from Carol- she being the loud, dominant and confident one who could click her fingers and expect boys to bow to her. Brink likes Carol seeing as he goes straight in for the kiss, but Carol pushes him away as she can't stand to be controlled by a male character. But Brink likes Louise just as much or, Louise is just an excuse for him to make Carol jeloaus because even though he is the 'quiet type' he probably understands and observes relationships and people more, hence how he knows that Carol secretly likes him. Eddie likes Louise, and this is made quite clear and it is clear in ways such as he doesn't try with Carol it is purely just Louise he wants. A bit like the characters from 'I give it a year' all four of them make it clear that they all like the guy/girl they didn't come with. And although it is clear that the relationships and the context of the scene are completely different to those that feature in Road, the loose link is there which is how I came to the conclusion of it being fairly similar to how we have and Cartwright have portrayed the characters in this final scene.

Pretty Woman: Julia Roberts is playing a prostitute who is offered a week job of being the girlfriend/lover of a very rich man. The twist being they do actually fall in love... A quick summary of the scene I am talking about and linking to Louise and the scene with her brother is when one of the rich friends discovers she's a prostitute, and evidently 'tries it on with her'. This rich guy in which Julia Roberts is now acting as the girlfriend role has changed her, and she no longer wants to give her body away like she did as a prostitute which is why she tries to push this horrid guy off her (pushing away the rich guys friend who is trying to take advantage of the 'local' prostitute) This very section of the scene [the guy tries to 'make-out' with the prostitute and the prostitute is trying hard to escape by pushing the guy off] but it is very similar to how Louise acts when her brother wipes oil down her face, but in a very, very different context. With Louise and her brother, the relationship is a lot more familiar to us as the audience more than in Pretty Woman however they are both as uncomfortable watch. The Pretty Woman scene gets you feeling tense and frustrated and leads to hating the guy in doing what he is because as an audience we have been brought along the journey of how the prostitute has changed. With Louise and her brother it is just as uncomfortable for us, and I wanted to mimic Roberts reaction to this happening to her as it is the eqvilant of a male being extremely intimidating towards a fairly innocent female character. Again this is another scene that I can't get hold of the clip for you, but if you know the films well, I hope you will also be able to see these links and all of the influences I have spoken to you about, from films and tv programmes all go towards my development as an actor for Road.

Accent app

After finding a lot of links between Road and many different contemporary televised formats I continued a lot of work on my accent as this is one main thing that has been a challenge and worry for me in this project so far. I am still relying heavily on the app that I downloaded on my phone. The image below is a screenshot of the app that I've been using: This section of the app is the 'practise text' where they encourage you to read the dialogue along side the audio woman speaking it in the accent. You can record yourself speaking this text in the accent and listen back on it, and even compare it to the computerised women with the accent. Now nearly learnt, I can recite the text in the accent and almost matching the audio, which I am pleased about. There are times that I slip out of the accent and lose where I am in the text, but apart from that I think it's getting better with the much help from the app. There is also a 'free speech' section which allows you to purely listen to the accent in a story form context. This has also been really helpful because I noted that I am very good at learning and remembering song lyrics, and that's through both practise (cliche') but also listening to the song over and over again. So listening to both of these audio's in the accent has helped me to begin to produce sounds like so.

This leads me onto a new form of line learning that my sister taught me over easter: It is to record myself speaking all my cue lines, in the accent to help me make it more consistent. Pausing as though another character is speaking their line i.e. Louise (me). So when I come to play it back, I can recite my lines as though someone is reading in cue lines for me. So it is basically an independent form of me learning my lines alone. Like the song lyric learning this is the same form of memory usage but for lines which happen to actually be of use to me!! This new form of line learning has so far been really really useful to me, and I can now say that all my lines are learnt. There's just the monologue I muddle up now because I learnt the original so when it came to us cutting it, I already knew it so I keep going back to that version, but it's only a few lines in the monologue so I am pleased with my process.

Returning to accent work, the book I currently have [Accents A Manual for Actors, revised and expanded edition] has been helping me a lot on the improvements to my accent work. Under the heading of 'Yorkshire' it lists all the important sounds and consonants in order to get the Yorkshire/Northern accent: "There is a tendency to shift voiced consonants to voiceless before a voiceless consonant beginning another word or syllable, as in the practise example; cloud passing becomes "Kloaud pah-sing""  "The 'h' is regularly dropped in the accent," so an example for me would be 'it's like walking through meat in high heels' would turn into 'igh eels'.
Under the 'vowels and dipthong' section Robert Blumenfeld (writer of the book) tells me "vowels are generally longer than in the Southern English accent" a example for this comment would be our pronunciation of 'task' features an 'r' sound in- 'tarsk' making it longer. However in the Northern accent they pronounce it how it should be when written down, so excluding the extra 'r' sound and a slight emphasis on the 'ask' sound instead. Throughout the northern section of the book there are little practise phrases which really helped me as I could take in the written information and then put it into practise; and my favourite practise phrase is: "But as I say, do you see that cloud passing over head? That means rain, that does before the afternoon is out. No, its not over yet, this rainy season."
So I wrote it down, in a very individual way, to how I think the sounds of each word should be written, phonetically: "bot, as aye wos sayin', doh ya cee that clouad pass'in ov'r ed? That means raain that dos, be-fouurr the after'noon is ouat. Noo, its not ov'r yet, this raainy season.' The exaggerration on some of the letters such as 'noo' and 'fouurr'  help me to remember to extend the sounds on these words so like dragging out the, what we know as a short word 'no' 'noo' but making sure that I raise my voice (pitch) at the very end.

So far this book has been a huge, huge help to me! And it will continue to do so, as I feel that slowly my accent is developing and I have also discovered the more ways I teach myself it, using the book, the app, watching actors in programmes with the accent such as in Ordinary Lies, Jason Manford, the likes of Paddy McGuiness also, the better my accent becomes.

Onto character work, I fully designed my characters look i.e costume. The sketch here is how I want Louise to look. As said previously the light, denim coloured jeans were 'the look' and so were high waisted jeans, so Louise will be wearing denim coloured high waisted jeans. I am stuck between a patterned tshirt, like in the picture of me, or just a plain white one like in the Madonna picture [see blog post 4] Although I do think the patterned/image tshirt I've got on in the picture below suits the outfit well, due to it being a square type fit. The red converse shoes, I think, look really good also and they fit the look and the whole outfit, it also adds a nice bit of colour. Finally I've dug out a load of punk/rock'n'roll bracelets, necklaces, rings and fish net gloves that I used in a previous show. And to me they top off the outfit making it look like a recreation of the Madonna look which is what I aimed for. As awkward as I look in the image on the left, I think the outfit looks really good and it fits the character of Louise. It is also something I am happy wearing which is always a plus! I've also managed to fit it as closely to how I drew out my ideas out before.

Costume design

Real life Louise costume

To conclude this extra week blog, I am pleased with all the research I have taken up over the holiday and I know that it has furthered my knowledge and understanding of Road. My individual character is coming along nicely and Im also pleased with the costume plan, as am the accent work that seems to be helping. So it is all coming together well at the moment...