Wednesday, 13 June 2018

Unit 8 week 1
Monday 18th april 2018

(Sick)
Tuesday 17th April 2018

For our first lesson we had a Lesson with Rob where we got told to sit down whilst he explains to us what unit 8 is and what it is about and what our focus would be on. He then gave us a proposal template which asked us about how we thought the year went and what we learnt and what we hope to do with them skills in the future. I then began to write some skills that i had learnt from the various plays and rehearsals that we had done. An example of this is when we did Romeo and Juliet and we learnt a lot of different skills. 

In the second lesson we were introduced to the play that we was going to be doing for unit 8.The play that we was doing was called "fugee" which was written by Abi Morgan. The play that we was going to do is about refugees what kind of struggles that each of the refugees had which lead to them migrating to another country. We started off by doing a read through with everyone participating. After reading through the play Sharon asked our first impression of the play and what we thought about characters and scenes. Everyone's opinion was that we thought it was a really good production and we could definitely do a good job as actors performing it. 

Wednesday 18th April 2018

For today's lesson we had a discussion about "fugee"  as we read through the script last lesson. During our discussion we talked about what was good about the play and what the difficult things to portray show when it comes to our performance. Also according to  Sharon the writing style of the play was very similar to the writer and practitioner Brecht. The writer Brecht wrote in a certain way that the actors did not  portray the characters as much as you would in an Anton Chekhov piece. After that we were put into groups and we were given the task of writing what we could remember about the play when reading it the day before and what we thought were the key points in the play. We picked what parts of the play were the most important out of the 36 scenes and we shortened it to 6 short scenes. We then performed it to the rest of the class and they performed theirs to us. As we chose mostly the same scenes this shows that the class has similar understanding. 

Thursday 19th April 2018


For our first lesson we had a drama lesson with Sharon where we focused on Fugee again but this time we were focusing on the categories; Characters, Themes and Scenes. Each of our groups had to focus on the category that we were each given and we were told to start writing down everything to do with it and to explain every detail that we can include. After that we went into different groups and each person had to pick a character from the list of 23 characters and then as a group we had to pick a theme from the play and try make a very good improvised scene that is not in the actual play.

Friday 20th April 2018

(day off)
Unit 8

In unit 8 we was focusing on the play fugee. The play was written by Abi Morgan. I did some research on her.

First question who is she?

Abi Morgan is a welsh playwright and screenwriter and was born in 1968. She is known for her works on television where she was involved in some shows, which are "sex traffic" and "The Hour". Abi Morgan was born in Cardiff, wales. She is the daughter of pat England and theatre director Gareth Morgan. Her parents were in the industry for  very long time and you can just imagine that she was strongly influenced by them. She has written plays for the Royal Exchange studio theatre, the royal  lyceum theatre, the traverse theatre, the national theatre of Scotland and royal court London. Her 2001 play "tender" for the hampstead theatre rewarded her a nomination as "most promising playwright" at the 2002 Laurence Olivier theatre awards.

What has she done?

Abi Morgan has also written for a cinema. Her 20017 adaptation of Monica Ali`s novel "brick lane" was critically acclaimed, but created controversy. Some brick lane Bengali's labelled the film defamatory and a royal film performance was cancelled.

She has also written for BBC  one about an article about exploring modern marriage and divorce. This had originated from a conversation that she had with a mother on a hockey pitch. She told her that she was a divorce lawyer and she thought that the divorce law was dominated by the males as they were more superior. Divorce lawyers are family lawyers, so deal with adoptive cases, surrogacy, pre-nups and post nups. She realized the notion of family that feels very simple becomes complicated when you bring the law into it- the law exposes the fragile nature of family. She also found out that we all live in a world where nearly 50% of marriages end in divorce.

Evaluation:

Themes of fugee:

In our lessons with Sharon we were asked about the themes of the play. We worked as a class to think of the themes in the play and we came up with:


  • Rejection
  Due to Kojo(main character) being rejected by the refugee center. 


  • Communication
In the play communication is a bit hard due to their being so much kids from different backgrounds under one roof so therefore they needed a translator. 


  • Acceptance
Acceptance is key due to Kojo having to accept certain things in the play that he wants to do but he cant. This prevents any problems. he has to also accept the fact that no one believes that he is 14. 


  • Systems
When we say systems it refers to the way the refugee center works because it could be fair or unfair. 


  • Family
Family is a key theme in the play as Kojo talks about his family a lot whether in the UK or in Ivory Coast. 

  • Refugees
When it comes to this theme here it basically sums up the whole play due to most of the characters being a refugee. 



Tuesday, 12 June 2018

Unit 5/6 `York realist`

"I live here. I live here. You cant see it though. You cant see it. This is where i live. Here."

Monday 8th January 2018


Our first lesson was with Sharon. We were told to sit down in a circle whilst we was told about the play that we was doing, which is "the York realist" by peter gill. We were told that we are working/ performing at the Donmar theatre. Before we did any rehearsals we were told that we were going to watch it at the theatre. In our first lesson we were given a quote which u can see at the top of the page. Our first starter was to think about what it meant. Everyone had different opinions. One person spoke about immigration due to the fact of the quote having the word here in it.  After we had a class discussion about what that quote meant we were told to get into pairs and try to devise a piece from the quote. We had to use the quote either at the start of the piece or at the end of the piece so we could show our understanding of the quote. I observed everyone's pieces and they were very good. One group who was in a group of 3 because their was a odd number of students and they based it on 2 older brother and one younger brother running away from home. This was effective as it showed a understanding of the quote and it showed what ideas people came up with. After everyone had performed we  discussed about what was interesting about each pairs pieces because everyone thought differently to others.

Wednesday 10th January 2018

For our first lesson we had a lesson with Sharon. Our starter was to read through the first scene in The York realist. We read through it as a group with each student being picked temporarily to read the roles as it wasn't casted yet. As we read through it we kept on stopping and starting due to us not knowing what some of the script meant. So every time we stopped we discussed everything that happened in that scene so everyone understood. After we read it we were told to think of a staging for the scene.

  Image result for york realist staging
https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=york+realist+staging&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj1saeItM7bAhXUe8AKHZkdC-EQ_AUICigB&biw=1920&bih=974

This then gave us an idea of where and how to set our scene. Some people were given temporary roles so we could start to devise the first scene.  This helped us to start to get used to performing the play and to understand it a bit more.

Thursday 11th January 2018

On this day we again worked on the script again but this time we changed the people playing the characters so others get a proper understanding of the play and get used to playing different characters. Whilst we was doing this our drama teacher picked a temporary director who would stop and start the scene and give her/his opinion on the scene. For example, emotions, projections etc.

Monday 15th January 2018


For our first lesson we had a drama lesson with Rob. We were told to sit in a circle and read through the play together with Rob assigning us each role to read. We spent most of the lesson going through each act so we know what the play is about and how to set each act. This is useful because we started to get to know more about the play and to know more about the characters in the play. We then got told to put the scripts away and sit in the audience so we can play a few games. The first game we played was when one person had to go out of the room and everyone else had to think of a person (famous) and then they had to come in and we had to act like they are that person. When they new what the person was they had to say who it was from all the clues that people gave them. For example, Adolf Hitler because he only likes white boys with blonde hair and blue eyes. This shows the racism towards all of these innocent people (Germans).

For our second lesson we had a drama lesson with Sharon. We were told to take out our scripts and sit at the back in the audience whilst Sharon picked a student director for the lesson. Sharon chose Georgina to be the director so she casted some of the people in the class to perform it for us. So we can see how it looks. But some people wasn't sure on the set so Georgina got them up to date about the different areas, for example, the kitchen, the stairs, the dresser , the outer door, etc. So the other students in the class performed what was rehearsed so far so everyone can see what they missed out if they missed out on something.

Tuesday 16th January 2018

For our first lesson we had a blog session where we updated our blogs. For our second lesson, we were told to sit in a circle and get into pairs so we could mark down all the changes in the scenes. This will help us as it will will give us a better opportunity to work through the play and know it better. Then after that Sharon told us to tell the rest of the class what change we found. As a class we found quite a few. Shortly after that Sharon told us to go in a group of 4 or 5 so we can improvise one of the scenes. This was useful as we got a understanding of the play and we showed it in our way. We were given some time to rehearse then when we came back in the class two groups performed.

Wednesday 17 January 2018

For our first lesson, we had a drama lesson with Sharon. We started off in a circle in drama neutral and did a couple vocal warm-ups. This is helpful because it helps us to rehearse and it helps us with our vocab. We worked on the play 'York Realist' and we worked on one particular scene which is the first scene. Where Georgina was the director for that lesson and she casted everyone. We then got up on stage and acted out the scene.

Thursday 18th January 2018

For our first lesson, we had a Drama lesson with Rob. We worked on Robs play with the prozorov sisters. For our starter we were told to stand in a circle (in drama neutral) and do some vocal warm-ups, to get us ready for when we rehearse. He then played a little game with us where one or two people( in my case) have to put their hands on your belly and push it in as you breathe out to show your voice. He then gave us a couple tongue twisters for us to go through. This helped us with our articulation. We then sat in a circle whilst Rob gave out the cast to half of us because some of us was in class and some wasn't.

For our second lesson, we had a drama lesson with Rob. We worked on Robs play with the prozorov sister. For our starter we were told to stand in a circle (in drama neutral) and do some vocal warm-ups, to get us ready for when we rehearse. He then played a little game with us where one or two people (in my case) have to put their hands on your belly and push it in  as you breathe out to show your voice. He then gave us a couple tongue twisters for us to go through. This helped us with our articulation. We then sat in a circle whilst Rob gave out the cast to half of us because some of us was  in class and some wasn`t.

For our third lesson, it got cancelled due to Sharon being ill.

Friday 19th January 2018

Day off. 

Monday 29th January 2018

For our first lesson we had a lesson with Sharon. In this lesson we read through scene 2. We did this by giving everyone a character that they can read as, only temporary. After we read through it we discussed what we thought was going on between each of the scenes due to certain words being said. As we done this we were told to put the scene on its feet so we can see what it looks like whilst performing it. We done this by staying as the same characters to prevent any confusion. Sharon helped us through the scene by helping us with our characterization.

Tuesday 30th January 2018

For our first lesson we had a blog lesson with Rob. Where we were told to update our blogs.

For our second lesson we started working on scene 3. As we done this we were making progress through the play, lesson by lesson. This was a good thing as we started to get a better understanding of the play. Whilst we was rehearsing we kind of changed the set to help the actors as the scene was not looking naturalistic due to people not knowing what to do and standing in the background. We changed the table in the scene to a bigger table to allow more chairs around the table so we could involve each of the characters.

Wednesday 31st January 2018

For our first lesson we had a lesson with Sharon. For this lesson we worked on our fourth and final scene for the play. We jumped straight into it and acted out the scene to make sure it was clear. Whilst we was rehearsing through the scene we then discovered some more weird things about George and John. We also heard the quote in the play for the first time. "I live here. I live here. You cant see it though. You cant see it. This is where i live. Here."It comes in the play when George and John have an argument about who is moving in with who. This shows their relationship between each other and this shows the love they have for each other. George shows this by saying a long speech contemplating what he should do. After we did this Sharon thought we should get into pairs and work on the speech as one of us being the George that stays and the other one who wants to leave. This shows us a good understanding of George because we can see that he really likes john. One of the groups showed a good piece where they both face back to back and whoever comes first faces the audience and says their opinion. After that Sharon stopped us and asked us about which character that we want to perform as in the play. Some people picked George and John as they have a very good understanding of him in the play.

Tuesday 6th February 2018

For our first lesson instead of us being in the college we went to the don mar theatre studio which was near the college and we watched some theatre makers and we had to try think of a way to make it a 10-15 mins play so we can perform it to the other schools. First we worked with one of the directors at the workshop called Toby. Our first exercise was that we had to think about where we felt most comfortable or the most ourselves or where we felt our home was.  We also had a discussion about if it was necessary to move in order to succeed in your career or if your career would always come before your family. This all linked to the play "The York Realist" as it is something that George needs to think about which is weather he wants to move out or move in with john.






















Tuesday, 20 March 2018

Monday 12th February 2018

For our first lesson we had a drama lesson with Rob. For our starter he told us to go in a circle and work on tongue twisters.

Tuesday 13th February 2018


Wednesday 14th February 2018

For our first lesson we had a drama lesson with Sharon where we were told to rehearse through each of the scenes in the three sisters in order for everyone to catch all of the cues. This allows people to understand the play more and memorise their lines more as we got more into the rehearsal.

Thursday 15th February 2018

Friday 16th February 2018

We were told by Sharon to be at the convent Garden station at 10 o`clock. We then went to the warehouse where we met Tobi and was told to wait in the kitchen area due to another lesson being carried on. As that lesson finished we walked into the rehearsal place and the first thing i saw was that the floors were taped up in the shapes of the Donmar theatre stage. This is very useful as it helps us to get use the stage, even though its not actually the real Donmar theatre stage. We then was told to go in a circle and start with our warm-up game of "wah". This is a very useful warm up game as it helps everyone with their focus and gets them ready for the rest of the lesson/rehearsal. We was then told to start with the rehearsal from the first act.We started from the first act working our way through each act by playing the "wah" game to show the different places where people felt them selves. As we was going through it Toby kept on stopping and starting each of the scenes to add in something else to it to make it look better. This is useful as we are making someone else give us a input about our acts in order for us to improve. We then went through the rehearsal and we understood all the cues and everything each person had to do.


Tuesday, 20 February 2018

Monday 19th February 2018

For our first lesson we had a drama lesson with Rob. For our starter we went straight into a quick quiz. Me j-chel and Georgina was told to answer the questions. We got some of the questions right but mostly we got them wrong as we didn't know them too good. We carried on answering the questions then Rob  told us to count how much questions we got right. My group got 3 questions right whilst the other groups got 6/7 questions right. This is helpful as it tests our general knowledge.
We then went straight into our play "three sisters".

Friday, 9 February 2018

Monday 7th February 2018

(no lessons)

Tuesday 8th February 2018

For our first lesson, we were told to meet at Covent Garden train station. We then made our way towards the Donmar Theatre so we could start our workshop. As we got their we put our bags and jackets down to the side and waited until we were told what to do. We were then told to go and walk around the hall as our first activity. We was then told to switch directions and speed up but it was a bit cramped due to their being 3 schools and a college. We then got told which room that we was allogated to go to. We went to our first class where we went and got told to go in a circle and play a game, whilst learning our names. This is useful as it helps us to form a bond between us and the workshop teachers. We then were told to stand in a line (agree or disagree) and he asked us a couple questions. We then had to justify our reasons of why we hose our spots. We then got told to go in a line again as they ask us another question to see what our answer would be. We then had to give our answers again but this time he wanted to hear from new people in the class. We was then told to show everyonewhere our parents are from and we had to pick the countrys. My dad is from Uganda and my mum is from the UK and Ireland. I chose my Dad`s side as their is more to talk about. Also, we had to show what side of Africa my country was from (east side). I had a neighbour with me called Abe who is also from east africa (somalia). This is helpful as we can both communicate well with eachother as we are both east african. We then got told to go to the country where our grandparents are from. We then  explained the capital where they are from. We then got told to tell the group what country we would like to live in. This helped us out as we could learn what everyones future is. This is helpful as it helps us to learn about other people.






Tuesday, 23 January 2018

Unit 4:

Monday 22nd January 2018

For our first lesson, I had a drama lesson with Rob. For our starter we was told to go in a circle and do some warm-ups together. This is useful is it helps us to be more focused and ready to learn. We then went to the theatre as it was free and sat in the audience whilst Rob gave everyone else their roles. After that he then told us to go into four different groups (4 acts) that each of our characters were in. This is useful as it helps us to get get to know the scene more better. We then went through the scene and read through each line had said. This is also helpful as it helps us to learn our lines Then two groups performed their acts for us and Rob told two students to sit at the back of the auditorium and to see if he can hear them.

For our second lesson, we had a drama lesson with Rob. For our starter

1. Given circumstances
-where are they
-what is happening
-think relationships

2. "all actions in the stage space must be purposeful, do,not act in general. have an inner justification".

3. Play your objectives

4. READ THE PLAY

5. Through lines.

Tuesday 23rd January 2018

For our first lesson we had a tutorial lesson with Rob. He told us to go on our blogs and update them more for everyone to be up to date what happens next.

For our second lesson we had a drama lesson with Rob. For our starter we went in a circle and done some vocal warm-ups. This is very useful as it helps us to with our articulation. Then when we started to go through the play we was assigned our characters and then we went in turns to perform our act. This is good as it helps us to learn our lines and get used to the set. As we went through the set Rob told us to stop and start so we could add in different things in the scenes. This helped us as it helped us to progress through our acts and to see how everything looks so far. We then got some feedback at the end to tell us what we need to do to improve.

Wednesday 24th January 2018

(no lesson)

Thursday 25th January 2018

For our first lesson we was meant to have a lesson but it got cancelled.

For our second lesson we

Last lesson got cancelled.

Friday 26th January 2018

(no lessons)





Thursday, 11 January 2018

The three sisters
Monday 8th January 2018

For our first lesson we had a drama lesson with Rob. For our starter he told us to stand in a circle and tell everyone how our christmas and new years holiday was and what we got. We were also told to tell everyone what was our new years resolution. A couple peoples new years resolution was to make money but my one was different to everyone else's in the class. My other new years resolution was to stop fighting as i love to fight. This is useful as it helps everyone to know something about everyone in the class even if it is something small. We Then got told to sit in a circle whist he gives us our new assignment. Our new assignment was based on a play called 'the three sisters'. The three sisters is a play by the Russian author and play wright Anton Chekhov. It was written in 1900 and first performed in 1901 at the Moscow Art Theatre. But the play was re-printed by the author Benedict Andrews in 2012. The play 'The Three Sisters' is about three sisters: Olga, Masha and Irina Prozorov. The sisters waste their lives away in a Russian provincial town and dream about returning to Moscow, the big city where they grew up. Irina is the youngest of the prozorov sisters and you can see this through the way she acts. Masha is the middle sister. She wears black and is married to a dull-as-dishwater school teacher. Olga (Caretaker) is the oldest sister. She's kind of like Varya in the cherry orchard. She takes care of the house, her sisters and the servants.





Thursday, 4 January 2018



Image result for shakespeare timelineUnit 4:social context























How do we make Shakespeare relevant in 2017?

Shakespeare's influence on the English language runs very deep. Shakespeare is often identified as a sole user or first user of a first user of a word or phrase. For example, When William Shakespeare wrote the play Romeo and Juliet in 1595, he used English language to paint an imagery of both figurative and sensory language in order the portray the characters feelings and beliefs. One good place that the audience need to understand  the use of language and imagery in the opening the scene when we first meet Romeo.

Theme:

The theme of Romeo and Juliet is: The forcefulness of love. Romeo and Juliet is the most famous love story in the English literary tradition. The play focuses on Romantic love, specifically the intense passion the springs up at first sight between Romeo and Juliet.

Social context:

The most influencial writer in all of literature, william Shakespeare was born in 1564 to a successful middle-glove maker in stratford-upon-Avon, England. Shakespeare attended grammar school but his formal education proceeded no further. In 1582, he married an older woman and had 3 kids with her. But in 1590, he chose to leave his family and proceed with his dream to become an actor and he took this chance o travel the world learning new things as he went along. After Shakespeare went on tour people could see the progress he was making with his play writes and got given the most popular play write in England and part owner of the globe theatre.

What makes Romeo and Juliet so special is how Shakespeare tells the story. It has perhaps become his best-known play. Romeo and Juliet has been filmed many times and has adapted in all different ways. For instance, there are cartoon versions for the children, older versions with the rude jokes taken out, and others set with gang fights in the US.
There are also countless references of him in books, songs and normal conversations. For instance, a young lad who goes out with a lot of girls is called a `romeo`.
The play also uses a lot of expressions that Shakespeare invented and are still in use today, such as "on a wild goose chase"  or "fools paradise". More recently builders, have started to use juliets balcony(although many of them now spell it `Juliette balcony). This is a very shallow balcony with a rail in front of a patio door.