Drama: Performance and Character Essay

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SECTION A
JUNE 2010 QUESTIONS

Describe what the piece was about; state the style, period and genre of the piece, the performance space and any technical or design elements used and your target audience. You should state whether your contribution was as actor, designer or technician. (10 marks)

The piece that we performed as a group were extracts from the play, Shakers. The genre of the play is a drama but it is realistic. It is a modern play based around the present time, as four waitresses working at a cocktail bar show their way of living, as well as playing previous customers and re-enacting previous events. We performed our play end on in our school hall. We used two different levels of staging; one being slightly higher than the floor of which the audience were sitting on and behind the bar there was a set of two steps to exaggerate the fact we were working behind the bar. We used natural lighting almost throughout, as the play we were performing was realistic. The ending was the only part of which the lighting was darkened to give an eerie effect, as the waitresses were walking home and the suspense rose. Our target audience was for teenagers and above. We found it would be highly inappropriate to perform to young children as there was much use of sexual references and bad language. My contribution to the play was as an actor playing many different roles, as the main theme of Shakers is multi-roling.

Explain how you applied your chosen skill to at least one aspect of the piece. (10 marks)

My chosen skill was as an actor. One of the parts i played was Daz, who was a man out with another male friend, looking for women to take home. I portrayed this as a character by constantly looking around, and if i spotted a woman, i would nudge my fellow actor, and look at him as if to ask for his approval. I responded to my fellow actor when he did the same, by making my hand into a fist and pulling my face as if to be happy with his choice. To show that we were going out looking for girls, my character would comment on waitresses and say rude remarks about her body. For example, to exaggerate this i would laugh with my friend after every joke was made to show that they were immature men who didn't treat women with respect. The tone of my voice was lowered to show i was playing a man. There was lots of crutch holding and sitting down with our legs wide open and elbows on our knees to exaggerate our masculinity. Another character i played was a common girl out with her friend, shopping for a new outfit. I showed that i was common by prolonging the ends of my words and talking with a very Northern accent. I also showed i was ditzy by pretending i had chewing gum in my mouth, and exaggerating the chewing motion. I also played with my hair a lot to show i though i was attractive and thought people were looking at me. When me and my friend went into the changing rooms, we had to mime getting changed. For example i did many motions such as, trying to squeeze into a pair of jeans by jumping up and down and scrunching my face up. I also did lots of looking in the mirror and smoothing my hand over my stomach as if to approve of the outfit.

Analyse the improvements that you made during the rehearsal process. You should refer to at least one specific occasion where you developed your own skill. (10 marks)

During the rehearsal process, our group did much improvement. We did mind maps to collect peoples' ideas or to expand on something someone had said which we thought we could use. One specific occasion where i developed my own skill during the rehearsal period was when we were rehearsing my scene where i played a common girl looking for an outfit. This character which i played didn't initially start off as common; she was just ditzy and had no common sense. I decided to make her common as i felt the character needed more depth and it would also make it funnier for the audience to watch. Once making my character
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