Earthquakes in London Project

 I chose this image based on equality. 

Preparation:

                                                                                The images I have chosen are based about the government and the aspects of society.          
 

Image about diversity 

Slide 4 - Narrative, Plot and Character 

• Each minor character is important to the play. Big impact on the plot.
• Older woman - dwells on the past and old people hold on to the memories. 
• They bring colour to the performance based on their actions, words and personalities. 
•  The Mothers - Serious. Seem to be happy caring mother turn out creeper. 
• Liberty - bringing colour to Colin's life

Idea - colours of the characters after Freya's death

Idea - colours of the characters

Slide 5 - Themes 

Broken families 

The topic of dysfunctional is one of the important themes Mike Bartlett has based the play on.   

• In the UK, they are 72,000 dysfunctional families who have no father at home. 
• About one in three children's parents in the UK are either divorced or separated.
• The reason why more issues of broken families come round is that in the UK there are many teenage pregnancies and where couples don't always say together.  More families are getting divided up.

Slide 7 - Brecht 

• Brecht was born on 10^th February 1898 in Augsburg, German Empire.
• He died on 14^th August 1956 in East Berlin, East Germany.

 Bertolt Brecht is a German poet and playwright 

Achievements (Career)

• In 1918, aged 20 Brecht wrote his first play ‘Baal’.  It was the story of an aimless youth involved in several affairs. In 1923, the play was theatrically produced.

•   ‘Drums in the Night’ was his second play he wrote.  It was written between 1918 and 1920 but, produced in 1922 before his first play (‘Baal’). 

• In 1923, he wrote the script for a comic, slapstick film ‘Mysteries of a Barbershop.’ Even though it wasn't successful in his time, it later on came to be regarded as one of the most important films in German film history.

•  His play ‘Man Equals Man’ was produced in 1926 which explored the themes of war and human identity.  In 1928, the musical ‘The Threepenny Opera’ was premièred under collaboration between Brecht, Kurt Weill and Caspar Neher.

•      In 1930, Brecht’s play ‘Rise and fall of the City of Mahogany’, a political satire opera, composed by Kurt Weill was performed.  In the year 1932, he wrote the script for ‘Kuhle Wampe’ which is a German film dealing with issues of unemployment and left wing politics.

•  His play ‘Life of Galileo’ was written between 1937 and 1939 but, was only produced theatrically till the middle of 1940’s.  It was a historical drama concerning the later years of the Italian philosopher and scientist, Galileo Galilei.

•  ‘The Threepenny Opera’ is a musical that premièred in 1928 which had been translated into 18 languages and performed more than 10,000 times across Europe by 1933.

 Award – achievement

•   He was awarded the prestigious Kleist Prize in 1922 for his first three plays ‘Baal’, ‘Drums in the Night’, and ‘In the Jungle.

      Slide 9 - Social Political, Content and context introduction

•  Equality Act was created in 1970 introduced by UK Parliament as they wanted to address discrimination. All these acts, failed to meet gender equality. 
• However, in 2010 UK Parliament passed the Equality Act.  It's been growing stronger and they have done away with the old opportunity laws and made a more encompassing law. 
• This one act is to ensure that all people in the UK are treated equally. 

Slide 10 - Politics 

• Chris Huhne was minister for secretary of state for energy and climate change in 2010.
• He came across as an manipulative person especially when he got his wife to take the blame of a motoring offence. This meant the points were added to her licence. 
• Huhne became a member of the Liberal Democrats' key negotiating team to arrange the agreement with the conservatives to form a coalition government.
• The relevance of persuading people to be environmentally friendly is still as importance today as it was in the time of the play.
• Chris Huhne reminds me of Robert as they both are championing the cause to 'save the planet'. 
• On a news report on the TV on Friday 5th March 2010, the Earth is warming up due to burning fossil fuels. 
• Only recently, lots of countries have got together and come to an agreement to reduce their emissions.  It's taken 6 years to agree the way forward.
• The ice capes our melting and the polar bears habitat's are disappearing that would still be recognised today as it's still relevant because it's getting worse.  (Man in polar bear scene also Robert and Steve's scene talking how Steve likes the simple things).

Vocal Development from performances

Contemporary performance

In The Wardrobe which was our first production, I played my character of Susan with energy and enthusiasm.  About half way through the scene, my voice started to sound shaky and the pronunciation wasn't as clear as it was in the beginning.  My nerves got the better of me and I found it difficult since I missed time of college due to mild concussion.  I was still suffering and wasn't so prepared which contributed to my nerves.

Naturalism:

In my second performance of The Cherry Orchard, I still had problems with my shaky voice as my nerves were still there and this effected my articulation.  Charlotta was meant to be portrayed as a strong character but, through the emotion and various pitches in my voice I made her  sound weaker than she was.  This changed some of my characteristics vocally.

Chorus

In our adaptation of Greek Chorus, our setting we chose was in a school and we instantly felt that using chavy accents was perfect for our characters.   I felt that my voice had energy most of the time but, I found it hard to sustain the accent.  As a ensemble I felt like all the different pitches at the end of our performance,  when we say 'na na na na na' which created a menacing and intimidating atmosphere.  As a chorus, I felt like we gave a realistic performance based on the peer pressure in schools.

The Fart Yoga - Monologue:

For my monologue, I played Amy, the younger sister of Zelda.  I felt like it was effective when I spoke quietly at the beginning to make it sound like I have a dirty little secret which I only wanted to tell a close friend.  However, I would raise my voice to put a point forward in response to 'but could yo step outside for a moment.  Some of us are trying to practise yoga.'  I've had an issue with the speed where I start at a good pace then the momentum builds up and it's too fast. 

Yoga Fart - Amy's monologue

About the monologue - Fart Yoga

The monologue I have chosen to do is from Yoga Fart by Gabriel Davis.  The basic plot of this play is that Amy's big sister Zelda is getting married and it's not long till her wedding.  However, she wants Zelda to have a perfect wedding even though she slept with Amy's boyfriend.  To stay calm, Amy is focusing on herself by going to a few yoga sessions.

In this monologue, she talks about how proud she feels to find her 'greatest strength' which is not just farting in public.  Amy 'felt a lightness, wonder, awe' and it makes her realise that other people's disapproval won't stop her for being herself.

Thoughts and ideas to perform the piece

Based on what I found online, lots of people who auditioned with this monologue focused on making sure their voice was clear and didn't focus on their character so much. There's not much that I know about this monologue as I've never had chance to read the play.  When I do my interpretation of this monologue, I will be at home with my best friend as I try to teach her yoga.

Amy Amierah 

Recently I found someone on YouTube who had performed with different yoga poses which has made me feel less anxious performing yoga.  Amy Amierah's video has helped me see a lighter side to the character Amy.

Yoga Positions form Diana Antholis's Yoga video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nNokxiopp7s)

 Diana Antholis's yoga video - Mountain pose 

After watching a few of her yoga videos, I noticed that she started off in the same position called Mountain pose where you stand up straight, then start to focus on breathing in through your nose and out through your mouth to relax.  This is also a good way to help me with breathing control.  It helps to rest my hand on my stomach and have my eyes shut because I will be focusing on my breathing, also the character Amy is focusing on herself which is what I need to do but, show how I focus in my own way.

Next thing Diana said was to bringing the arms over my head as you breathe in and out then move your arms back down again.  When repeating the simple movements, I need to concentrate on my breath as it helps me to relax and warm up my body.  As I bend forward, I need to remember to let my torso hang then place my hands on the floor.  I bend my knees for a deeper hamstring stretch.  Looking up I need to flatten my back and hold onto my shins.  After that, I move into to the plank position (see picture below).

Plank position - Diana Antholis's yoga video

Plank position is something I have struggled with a lot and it takes a lot of focus let alone practise to balance yourself well.  From this position, I  need to lower myself to the floor and then push up on my arms this is called the upward dog.

Upward dog pose - Diana Antholis's yoga video

Downward dog - Diana Antholis's yoga video

Pushing backwards whilst lifting your hips to form a triangle shape. This is called the Downward dog.  It is extremely important to concentrate on your breathing, yoga is teaching me inner strength to cope with any situation.  These moves I shall be using throughout my piece and probably repeating them to become a routine.  At times I shall be using one of the most well-known yoga positions which is the Cobbler's pose.

Warm up exercises 

To me the Cobbler's pose is the easiest and most helpful pose to do but, I need to sit up straight this helps with posture.  Apart from focusing on these yoga positions, I also have practised on different warm up exercises whilst sitting in the position.  For example, red lorry yellow lorry or unique, New York.  Tongue twisters help with articulation and pronunciation.  I find closing my eyes helps me to stay focus.

Yoga Fart monologue

I farted in Yoga class.  It was loud.  And I didn't die.  My heart started pounding but it did not explode.  I thought I would be devastated but I was not.  Instead something unexpected happened.   I laughed.  At first a little giggle and then a full blown belly laugh.  In fact, I laughed so hard that I farted again.  And again, and again. Embarrassing, no?  No.  No.  

I could feel people staring but I didn't care.  I thought I would care.  Feel my palms grow clammy, my chest tighten.  No.  I felt a lightness, wonder, awe.  Who knew I had so much air inside me.  My body had deflated but my spirit had inflated!   I waited for the self loathing to come.  But there was only... Stillness.  Silence.  Then in that silence, a little voice.   I love you.  Your body is amazing.

I realized, this was why I'd come to yoga in the first place.  No, not to fart publicly.  To fart publicly and survive it.  I know, it's unladylike.   But in the depth of this indignity, I had found my greatest strength.  Here I was looking my fear in the face   And believe me, I had feared this moment.  I had played it out in my mind.   And it always ended with all the ladies around me pulling hidden rocks out of their lululemon attire and stoning me mercilessly. But not much happened. Here i was staring fear in the face and realizing...it was a bunch of hot air.  And i could release it!

I breathed in deep, so deep another loud exclamation of my new found freedom erupted from my behind.  "Excuse me," the woman behind me said.  "But could you step outside for a moment.   Some of us are trying to practice yoga..."   This should have destroyed me.  It should have sent me whimpering out of the room.  But I felt my calm breath, heard myself say:  "Excuse me,but I am practising my fartnassanas thank you very much."

Then something amazing happened.  A little noise erupted from another corner of the room.  A few other people giggled, then laughed, and then more noises erupted.  And it was beautiful.  A symphony of fartnassanas. I was free, they were free.  And I realized in that moment...I was free of you, too.   You can't hurt me any more.

This piece is longer than 2 minutes when performing with yoga poses.  As it's a long monologue I have cut it down a bit to fit it in with the time allocated. The red words have been removed because I needed to keep the funny aspects of the monologue but, make sure it still flows.