UNIT 5/6:

                                 CITIZENSHIP PLAY

Script work-

When we first got given the script, we all sat and read through scene 1 of the 'Citizenship' play. After reading the first scene we got into partners and started practicing the first scene.Citizenship is a comedy play After a couple months I was partnered up with Henok to practise a new scene, where I played the 'Tarot readers daughter' and Henok played 'Tom' and Azo and Amelia played the same scene as Henok and I. 

Working on my lines

When working through my lines and trying to remember them took quite a lot of time as me and Amelia had a lot to learn. Firstly I read through the script to try and understand what the objectives were, what was 'Tom's' objective and what the 'Tarot readers' objectives was. As I was reading the script I had to understand what the objective was of the tarot reader was so I could have a clear understanding of how to act out my character.

                    

                                          CREPPE

Context:

Mark Ravenhill is an English playwright, actor and journalist . He grew up in West Sussex, England and found interest in theatre for early life by putting on a play with his brothers and other family members. When attending the Bristol university he studied English and drama and had many performing arts jobs, such as a drama teacher and workshop leader. 

In 2013 Ravenhill performed a speech at The Edinburgh festival talking about gay playwright. He said ‘GAY PLAYWRIGHTS ARE LESS VISABLE TODAY, WHERE ARE THEY?’ he explains that it only took one of his playwrights to make his name, ‘Shopping and Fucking’ In 1995. He was also apart of the youth culture movement and In-yer-face theatre.

IN-YER-FACE THEARTE

In-Yer-face theatre is a style of drama that came to Great Britain in 1990s.  In-Yer-Face Theatre: British Drama Today, first published by Faber and Faber in March 2001. Faber and faber is an independent publishing house in London, published authors and poets such as Ted Huges and William Golding are apart of this movement.

YOUTH CULTURE MOVEMENT

When Citizenship was published in 2005 Mark had written this for youth culture and young teenagers and had been performed in The National Theatre in London.

Research:

For the research during 'Citizenship' we all had to find out the themes that are portrayed in the play and what the objectives were with the characters we played.
Such as:

• Mental health 
• Sexuality 
• Identity
• Gender
• Youth culture
• Friendship 
• Peer Pressure

As I played the Tarot card reader I had to research about her character and what her objective was throughout the whole play. By this I mean what was her attitude and her thoughts throughout the play which was just to get money from Tom and try 'help' Tom discover his sexuality. I also researched how to act out my scene with Tom on YouTube to get and idea of how to play my part of the scene. 

Also, myself, Alana, Albiona and Mark had to present a presentation to the class about the play and why he wrote the play and what he was trying to get across with this playwright .

Planning:

A couple days before our actual performance we had to decided what costumes and props we needed to use to make the performance more realistic. As me and Amelia played the same scene with Henok and Aso, So me and Amelia had to discuss what we were going to wear and what props were needed for the performance.

Props used:

• A normal black scarf 
• all black clothing 
• Tarot cards 

Problem solving:

The Problems we faced as a group, was I was quite behind on my lines as I thought learning my lines was one of the most difficult tasks given to me as I had so much to learn. Also I had problems with overplaying my role,staying role and working on fluency. After each lesson when everyone has performed their scenes, Rob would give us feedback about what we need to work on for our next lesson, working towards when performing in front of the Level 3's and second years.

Corrections given by Rob:

• Don't rush your lines 
• if I forget my lines I must play around with the lines and it will help with my character
• Have subtext when performing my lines 

Evaluation:

How did the research element of the assignment help you with your acting development?

The research element helped me with my performance as I had asked my aunt, who reads tarot cards and explained to me what the cards mean. This gave me an idea of how to act out my scene which made it much easier as I had and idea of what to do during my performance. I have also seen other tarot card readers before and have seen how they act so I had more options, as they all acted very different to each other. During rehearsals I had used the idea of what my aunt portrayed to me, as acting 'normal' when doing tarot cards with me, but when coming in to class and using the idea given to me by my aunt, Rob wanted me to stereotype my acting when playing the tarot card reader as most people would think that most tarot readers are 'weird' and act different to 'normal' people. So During the performance, I feel like I created my own version of a tarot reader as I didn't want to stereotype my character when performing my scene so I decided to act neutral during my scene and act 'normal'. Also during my research element I have researched where it was set and what genre it is and researching my character on Youtube to get an idea and enhance my knowledge on my character. To help with our research element each group in the class had to do a presentation on Mark Ravenhill to help with the research element for our blogs, we had to present who Mark Ravenhill is, what movements he was apart of, what the themes where in the 'Citizenship' play and any other plays he has published. After doing the presentation with my group about Mark Ravenhill, I had a clear understanding of the themes which helped with my performance as it had enhanced my my knowledge and had helped with my performance as I had done extra research to help.

What skills do I think I have developed over this course and this project?

As a whole, I really enjoyed the project of the Citizenship play, I have learnt how to manage my time as we were given a certain time to be off script, which help the class as we could then focus on the objectives our character was playing and then focus on the subtext, fluency and staying in role. One skill in-particular is voice projection, at the start of the course I was very quite and most people couldn't hear when I performed. I have also improved on staying in role, at the start of the course I couldn't stay in role at all and my fluency wasn't very good either but as we started to get more scripts and deadlines on when we had to be off script it really helped and I have improved on that massively. During this course and this particular project I have improved massively on my confidence, at the start I was really shy to try new things and step forward to go first, but now I feel much more confident when performing and stepping forward first.