Unit 6 & 7- National Theatre connections assignment 2024
Candidate Declaration - I confirm that the attached portfolio is all my own work and does not include any work completed by anyone other than myself
Task 1 – Documenting your journey
See hayley pb acting blog term 3 and 4
Task 2 – It’s all about design
I chose to do the props for the mean girls, and make sure we all had our costumes sorted. For props we have makeup that is all painted pink with the same black lining as on the set for the show, this is to go with the burn book that I have made as my character development. I also helped with the set for the show, it was all painted white with the black linings on, the aim of the set being like this was so that the characters were brighter than the set and the set makes them come to life more because people are not focused on the set, they are focused on the people
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Task 3 – Creating your characters world
For this, I created a burn book, in the burn book it has photos of all the freaks and geeks, students, and teachers, there is insults written about all their characters and it looks like the burn book out of the movie ‘mean girls.’ For this I used a mini thermal printer to print out pictures of everyone and I wrote everyone's’ name at the top pf the page and around the page it had insults about all the characters in the show. For this I also filled out character development questions, filling everything getting to know the whole character from what she wears to where she lives and how she feels about her family.
Task 4 – The National Theatre
What is The National Theatre?
The national theatre is a company in the UK, they work closely with a lot of young people. They offer the opportunity to participate in things that grow their knowledge about theatre and introduce them to viable career pathways.
Young people
Every Year, the national Theatre puts on connections, which commissions new plays for young people to perform in their nationwide youth theatre festival.
They work with 36 theatres across the UK for their youth theatre festival Connections.
History
The National Theatre was officially launched in 1965, but it was another 13 years, (in 1976) before they got a dedicated building, and they were open to the public. In 1937, they found the money for a theatre, but due to World War 2, they could not open. In 1949, parliament finally passed the National Theatre Bill, which authorised £1m of public funds for building, in 1951 the foundation stone was laid, but as plans changed so did the site.
Inclusion
The ambition of The National Theatre is to achieve diversity in areas of gender, race and ethnicity, disability, sexuality, faith, and age. They have made it a big part of their mission to create an inclusive organisation so that all people feel valued and that their voices are heard.
They focus on, Setting and meeting targets for directors' writers and actors on their stages. Developing a workforce that is as diverse as the UK, support the wider performing arts sector, with diversity and inclusion.
The National Theatre believes they are a place where artists can make their best work, they have set targets such as; having 50% of writers for their stages being female, and the same with their directors. A 50:50 gender balance on stage and a lot more.
Task 5 – Your performance
On the 21st March 2024 we performed our home performance of shout, we have been rehearsing the show for a couple of months, and we have come along way over the journey you could really see the growth of everyone’s characters as the rehearsal process went on, at the start of the rehearsals, we were all sceptical on how we were going to portray the characters and bring them to life and it took a while, but after completing our character development questions, we were all really thinking of everything about our characters, from the clothes they wear to childhood best friends. So, when it came to the show, we knew the characters inside out which meant we knew exactly how to acts in all situations. At the start of the rehearsal process we were all clearly just actors in a space pretending to be other people. But during the show on Thursday, we were the characters, we knew who we were, and we were not ourselves anymore we were those people that we brought to life. During the process the message of the show really came to life, we understood more the message we were giving to people which meant we could really show people what we meant through the show.
24th April.
Task 6 - Evaluation of your work
Objectives
The objectives of the play, were, to show people the meaning of the script, , the message was that nobody is perfect and we all have differences and nobody is perfect, but it also shows the divide between the school society everyone being isolated, and bullied if you don't fit in to a 'category', this created an overall theme of difference, because every character represents something in the play, and every single character is different in some way. And every character group contrasts to the others, from characterisation to costume. This helped to highlight the separation of the groups within the school, that is a huge part of the whole plot of the play. There was also other objectives we carried out as a whole company, some of which were, being able to show distinguishable characters, I know personally as a group me and the girls were able to do this by creating our backstories and relationships between the girls, and their different friendships, even down to the way we stand and walk, and the creativity and skill, our character work was very detailed and extensive, we even decided what our character would wear on every occasion, which also helped us design our costumes for the show, something that made the experience better for the audience, it really felt like you were stepping into the characters’ world and not just watching a play. With our performance we did not just want to entertain the audience, we aimed to educate them too, we wanted to really portray the story of a girl who has selective mutism, a disorder which is very misunderstood in society, but we really gave a truthful representation. My character is Trinh, one of the mean girls, although the girls make Dana’s life hell, my character does not like being mean, she does it to fit in because she just wants to be accepted by the people she has known her whole life.
Assessing emotional engagement
I feel like I captured my character very well, I feel like I made it clear to the audience who my character is and how she acts, in most of the scenes I held myself very shyly and I clung onto my burn book, I feel for my character her personality is a lot based around the book, she isn't herself without it, she wrote it all to show the girls she can fit in and she can be mean, so me walking round clinging onto the book I feel shows me desperately trying to fit in, without that book I feel like I have no place, but equally in the final scene I hand the book over to the teachers, because I have finally admitted to myself and everyone else who I am, and I don't need the book to be someone I am my own person now.
Vocal performance and physical and movement analysis
For my character, I made her voice when alone with the other girls very timid and drawn back, but when I was around other people and wanted in a way to ‘keep up appearances’ I was very loud and bold, acting like them trying to fit in, showing the way my character feels around the other girls. When walking about, I walked with a straight back and very strong legs, and when we were around other people, I held onto the book but I held my head high and walked the same as the other girls, but when it was just us alone, I would stand or walk with my back slumped and clinging onto the book, scared to say anything around the other girls because I knew they were all judging me.
Ensemble dynamics
I had a few scenes where I spoke, with the other girls, but a main part of the play was ensemble work, most of the big scenes were ensemble scenes for example the heartbeat scene where Dana doesn’t know what university she wants to choose, and the whole ensemble gather around her waving books and making noise, creating a heartbeat effect. This scene would not be possible without the ensemble, for us, the ensemble was a noticeably big part of the play. I got, myself involved in all the ensemble pieces because of how impactful they are, and I wanted to help with them.
Costume and props
For my character my costume and props played an especially important part in my character as a whole, we used my costume as a way of showing the difference between me and the other girls, I wear full black with a pink shirt tied around my waist, And I wear black boots. Whereas the other girls wore pink and white with white heels, as well as props playing a big part in my character, for me the burn book is a huge part, I feel like my character relies a lot on the book to feel like she has character, so I never go on stage without the book and I hold onto it tightly. And there is also a big part of the opening scene for us girls where the teachers take the burn book and try and give us detention, but we just do not listen to them, and we take it back.
Artistic choices
Choices I made for my character were that she would be nicer than the other girls and she is only a ‘mean girl’ because that is all she has ever known, I did this because going through school, you always had that dynamic between some of the mean girls, there was always the one who would apologise and make sure you were okay, but then when they were all together she would be just as awful as the rest of them. This links to the objectives, because we aimed to show the difference between people, and by doing this through me being the nicer girl it was to show that even the popular kids do not all have a good relationship with each other and there are still good people out there.
Strengths and improvements
I think that the strengths in my performance were, the scene where we all stand on our chairs after dana reads out her personal statement, in this scene from the start I don’t pay attention to the things that are being shouted out by the popular kids, and I listen to Viv and dana, and I take it in, causing me to stand on my chair and then admit to the girls that I'm not going to university, I think you can really see the change of my character, which was my aim as an actor in this piece. I think what I need to improve is my projection, and in the first toilet scene, when I am supposed to be sat on the toilet looking through my bag, I find it awkward, and I need to work on cues and projection in this scene.
Personal goals
I think from my self-assessment, that my goals should be to work on my projection and my cues, I also need to work on not being awkward in a scene, I think for me the idea of being sat on the toilet is awkward but I need to work past it and be able to do the scene better.
character development task costumes 
show day costumes
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