Unit 9

Mid-September:

For the first week we were to start deciding what our new performance should be. The class and I knew it had to be based off on Christmas but we wasn't sure of its storyline. Our mentor made us split into four groups and gave us a task. The task was that each individual group must create there own Christmas based story. Then perform it either that the day or the next. We would discuss more things about each storyline as time goes by and then around the end of the month we would decide which idea to choose. The groups were made and mine consisted of five people. Including myself there was also Roman, Rosely, Teigan and Danielle B. At first we were at a lost for what we would create. Them I had come with the idea that Santa has given up on giving people presents. Though to give it more depth, Teigan suggested that Santq has given up on Christmas because he thinks that people have naughty and sont deserve presents. We all approved of that idea and started to work. This is a summary of what we were able to create:

Santa has given up on Christmas as he sees children are being more and more naughty by the second. He can't take it anymore so does an ultimatum. He completely ends his Christmas career hoping that children might change the ways if the realised that their selfishness and naughtiness has caused this. A few years has passed and Santa's choice has taken its toll on the people of the world. Children are sad and depressed. People have no other reason to look forward to the 25th of December. Unless they are celebrating Jesus' birthday. Society has taken this decision by Santa in a negative way and rejected Christmas completely by banning it. The people ar being more cruel. Though for Mrs Claus she finds this as an opportunity to take over Santa's legacy. Though her methods are way different. Instead of giving presents to children she is selling black market items to criminals and Santa has no idea its happening. Can Christmas be saved? One day a meeting at a community centre is made. A band of rebels against the Christmas ban are requesting if there can be anyone that could help find a way to bring Christmas back. They suggest that a group of people go to the north pole find Santa and ask him to continue Christmas. Most of the audience have left the centre because they believe it is reckless, unreliable and insane. There are a few people left though (young adults at the age 18 - 25) they tell the rebel that they will go and bring Christmas back. Not caring about their motives he allows them to do it. He supplies them with gear to help them on the journey. A few day later they make way on their journey to save Christmas. It has been two months and they have found no signs of Santa's workshop. Until one day of them comes back saying he found a clue. They come upon a sign that was hidden by the snow. With joyfilling their hearts they make their way to Santa's workshop. Once they arrived, they find Santa in his office. Their is a long debate with santa and the special group. They are begging for Santa to bring Christmas. Santa is refusing, implying that his only reason for doing this is so that everyone can be nice, good and better people. Though they tell him that what he is doing is the opposite. They tell of how the world is darker than it's ever been. Then an surprising discovery is made one of the people in the group is actually a spy for the government who was sent to investigate on Santa's tyrannical actions. The spy pushes that to the side and tells santa of how his wife has been selling things to criminals in the black market. Santa is shocked and sees what he has done was wrong. He has still given up hope and says he cannot change things. Disappointment filling there hearts the main characters are sent back to the city. A week has passed and it's Christmas day. Well was Christmas day to the people of the world or so they thought. News across the world is that presents and Christmas decorations have been presented on people's homes. Joy has been brought to world and Mrs Claus has been punished and has broadcasted a massive apology to the world. The main characters are shocked could they really have saved Christmas.

The next we were performing our scenes and the section that the group and I wanted to perform was the main characters trying to convince santa to bring Christmas back. We were able to see the other 3 groups performances aswell. I remember one of them was about a small group of friends who came upon a magical book that transported them through time. The day of which Jesus Christ was born. Two weeks have passed and we're deciding on which story we should go with. Our mentor then decides that it would be best to combine all our ideas as they were really good and connect to Christmas. Everyone was fine with that so next month all we had to do was make a full play with using the ideas from our individual stories.

October:

Our mentor liked all of our stories but was very intrigued by the fact that Christmas should was banned from my groups story so he wanted to use that as a catalyst. He created a short summary/introduction of what the play should be about. Christmas is banned and parents are being taken away by an evil tyrant. A group of kids must find there parents, rescue them and try to bring back Christmas. This gave the idea to someone in the class about the magical book from the group who did the jesus story idea. Another student suggested it be a giant book that allows the kids to go through time. This was the beginning of creating our own performance and everyone was filled with ideas and even though a lot of them were good, we couldn't use all of them. We were able to come up with characters that were casted (some double casted to give others a chance to fully act) and it wasn't like an audition. Some people just created them on a whim and some where ideas from either us or our mentor. 

Characters

Main:

Sam- Harry + Chloe

Alex- Troy

Charlie- Ben T

Jordan- Deja

Jamie- Daniella O

Tim the Dog- Kieran

The Evil One- Ben M

Minor:

Acolytes- Diamontae, Philamon, Elena

Officer Marley Shtern- Myself

Officer Doris Shtern- Kenya

Evil One's personal soldiers- Madalina + Tia

Bob- Pedro

Edna- Favour + Teigan

*Jeff*- Michael

*Stuart*- Roman

*Lydia*- Rosely

Shopkeeper- Danielle O

Charles Dickens- Mya Jarrett

Opening scene soldiers- Michael + Diamontae

Side: 

Marching soldiers- ensemble

Shopkeepers- ensemble

Customers- ensemble

German soldiers (×5)- ensemble

British soldiers (×3)- ensemble

Dead soldiers (×3)- ensemble

In the end we were able to cultivate a pantomime type play that was very comical. It contained a lot of vines (filmed comedic skits) and sarcasm, which usually entertains people my age. There was also tension between some characters to give the play some emotional dramatics.

Conclusion:

For the last month and one week, we had been adding a few more character (character names with (*    *) next to them) and stage directional ideas to polish it off. As time passed I had been focusing on my character. I really liked my character because he was really someone you can go to the extreme with. The way I di it was physically. At my Saturday drama classes I have learnt that with physical comedy your body type matters. The right body type can make a comedy scene really funny. For me, I have a long body so I've learnt that for me I must be flexible and use my legs a lot to make my character funny. For Marley that was what i needed to and it was perfect. I also knew that for this type of character I need a lot of energy to those physically things so I would have to train my stamina and try to get myself pumped. Physically warm up always helped and it encouraged me to do consistently do warm ups with everyone before every rehearsal. To connect to my character I had to figure his personality and I wanted it between childish to completely idiotic/stupid. This because my "partner/sister" Officer Doris is supposed to be the one with a lot of confidence/the smart one in our dynamic duo. In the end I've really connect my character, made it my own and I hope the audience enjoys him on our performance.

EVALUATION

What Went Well:

What I think went well with my acting was my energy and charisma of my character. I can remember from the performances that I got a lot of laughs which means my comedic goal was achieved. I know was always keeping up the energy so that people recognize my character. What I also think went well was the teamwork with everyone because without them there is no play and that's not just to the actors. It's also to the the production team. 

Even Better If: 

What I know could've been better were for me were cue lines. There were times where I dropped the ball due to me taking to long with saying the lines and it's not to do with  forgetting them. It just would've been 10% better if it was mor snappy. There were also times where I was swallowing my words so people may not have heard me a few times. I'll have to remember about diction and articulation next time.