Bad Girls Tech

Bad Girls Tech

Lesson 1

Today we all decided our tech roles for our production of Bad Girls. I was first interested in costume but a lot of people was also interested in doing this. My second choice was anything to do with the advertising. There was very aspects of the advertising we could do, e.g. programmes, posters, websites, tickets. I chose to focus on the posters.

To start work on my tech role I did some research into posters in general.

A poster is a piece of printed paper which is normally stuck to a vertical surface. They often contain both graphics and text. They are designed to be eye-catching but also inform passerbyers.

Posters have been around for a very long time. They were used to advertise plays by Shakespeare. However posters grew popularity when they had the development of mass production cheap printing which allowed more posters to be made in a cheaper way. This meant more people could afford them.

In the 1890's this idea had spread across Europe and many famous French artists began to use posters as part of their work. The growth of posters lead to them being used for more and more different reasons. People began to use them to advertise everything.

In the 1960's was the growth of pop art and protests which all used great use of the poster idea.

In the first and second world war posters were extremely popular in helping to recruit people.



Lesson 2

Today I decided to research posters from very recently and posters from many years ago. Here is a collage I made of lots of old posters and then a collage of posters from the past few years.

 

Old

 New

Comparing the posters was very interesting. A main difference I notices was the fact that in all the old posters its all cartoon and drawings, there is no real pictures. You can tell how much technology has changed for the amount of detail and different effects used in the new posters. In the old pictures the writing is mainly all bold and contains no smaller writing whereas the newer posters often have a lot of detail on them so some of this does have to be done smaller.



Lesson 3

I decided that today I would choose one company that has produced a lot of posters over many years and look at them. This is a collage I have made of posters from a brand of drink, Coca Cola.

Lesson 4

This lesson I decided to research into posters for Musicals.

I learnt that most musicals posters give nothing away about the story. They all have the title of the show extremely bold and ensuring it stands out. The colours are always very strong and often reflect the show. For example the Wicked poster is green to resemble the idea of having a green coloured main character. Another thing I learnt is that most the posters I looked at have a quotes from audience members on. For example the poster from We Will Rock You has a quote saying 'Guaranteed to blow your mind'.

Here is some examples of musical posters I looked into.

 

 

 

Lesson 5

Today I decided to make some sketches of ideas. I looked online for other versions of posters for the same production. I then came to a conclusion of the designs I would use. Here is the sketches of a few key parts to the poster.

Lesson 6

Today was the day I made the poster I had been designing on paper. Making the change from paper to online was exciting and went very well. I used an online programme called 'Ipiccy' to create the poster. Once I had created it I received some peer feedback which then led to me editing and re editing the poster.

This was the original poster I created to show to my peers for feedback.

 

The feedback I received was to move the writing at the bottom which is talking about prices, and ensure its not overlapping the shoes so we can see it fully. Also I was told it would be good to add the 'Academy of Performing Arts' logo.

 

This is the logo.

 So I replaced the original Worthing College logo with the new purple logo.

This is the outcome of that.

 

 

 I then again showed my peers and asked for feedback. They said it looks good using the purple logo but need both the 'Worthing College' logo and 'Academy of Performing Arts' logo. So I then re edited the poster to make both logos fit.

This is the outcome and this is now the official Bad Girls poster for our production.

 

Bad Girls Evaluation

Bad Girls Evaluation

When I first looked at the script I really liked it. I found it very easy to follow the storyline and also very easy to understand each character. The way it is written gives each character a chance to give away parts of their story without having to literally have a monologue to tell the audience about them self. The script has a good balance between serious stuff then a comedy scene to make the performance not so depressing for the audience to watch. Some of the themes explored in the storyline are very serious and have to be dealt with in a serious way. For example the lines referencing to the idea of rape are all taking it seriously and not making fun of the idea. A negative to the script I feel is the end. The storyline feels like its still going when it suddenly gets to an end. It also feels like its forgotten that its a musical. From audience feedback a comment often made was that they wanted an encore at the end of the show. It ends with a big group song but they felt there should of been one more song. A lot of musicals feature an encore song which gets the audience participating. Doing a medley of a few songs from the show would of been a perfect end.

The decisions for the staging took a while to agree on. The idea of having 2 levels on a diagonal has always been agreed to by all cast members. The decisions started when we experimented with putting up the staging. We had to decide an amount of stage blocks to use, we had to put into consideration how much stage we need use and how much space to perform we need. Also we had to ensure that the staging didn't go any further than the back curtain as the wings need to be free from any obstruction. We changed the plans for how many blocks to use several times as we kept finding problems and issues but we finally agreed that we should use 4 stage blocks at the top level, then one step down block along with the back level, then 3 stage blocks to step down on a diagonal.

I feel taking it from page to stage was easier than I thought. We did it in stages. Began with just script read through. This was helpful for just beginning to understand the storyline and your characters back story. We then started attempting to run through scenes still using the script. This then gave us idea of movement and also gave us a chance to think of possible ways to stage it. We then gradually began using set and props while running scenes but also still had scripts. I feel we took longer than we should have to run scenes without scripts. Once you know your lines confidently its so much easier to get into character and start creating strong characteristics, like the way you walk and talk. We then gradually began to rehearse scenes with all the set and props and block the scene completely. Once it was all blocked it was a case of just running the whole thing regularly so the lines and movements and scene changes get stuck in our mind. I feel the script could of been set and acted in a few different ways. The characters don't all have very strong story lines which leaves the actor the opportunity to create the character them self. The set also is very loose. There is no strong description describing exactly what you need for the set, every production simply needs to make sure its obvious its a prison so using maybe bars or a bed. Comparing the ways other company's have produced the script is interesting. In the London west end musical version of Bad Girls the character of Rachel was portrayed as a very unstable and emotional character throughout. In every scene she is seen crying and always in a state. When researching how to perform the character Rachel I looked at reviews and asked for peer feedback, most people disliked how the character is performed in the west end because she is too over the top with the emotions. This is why I decided to act it in a more controlled emotional way. You could tell by the quietness that I was keeping myself to myself and wasn't emotionally stable inside but was trying to keep a front. The comparison between our productions set and the set in the west end was obviously very different simply due to money. When doing a big scale show they have the funds to create incredible set where as a college production don't have the same money available.
The dances were all made up completely by college students/teacher, none of them were copied from any other production of Bad Girls. To create Baddest and the Best we listened to the music and read through the lyrics so we could have an understanding of what sort of feel and atmosphere we needed to create through movement. We then looked at various different versions of the song by different versions, some from west ends, some from other countries. We used other videos for inspiration but the movements are all our own. The journey from page to stage for the songs with dances could of been very fast if had just chosen a version of Bad Girls and copied all the routines but we felt this would be cheating.

I experimented various ways of playing my character. The first idea was to be more emotionally unstable throughout the piece. When acting in the song Guardian Angel I tried to perform it as if I was crying throughout it. I feel this was too over the top and if this was a real situation Rachel would be able to control her emotions more. Another idea I tried for my character was to slowly grow my confidence throughout the first act. This would mean that I begin to interact with other character more and speak out more. But after trying this is various scenes I decided it was too soon for Rachel to get that confident compared to what she started like. I wanted to make the character as realistic as possible so I decided to stay quite shy and nervous throughout the first act. The final idea I tried was the way I held myself when playing Rachel. This was a very successful idea. I decided that I needed  to use more than just my vocals to show how unconfident and nervous I am so I began playing my character with my eye focus mainly down. This then changed my posture, I ended up having my shoulders slightly hunched over. My body posture was helped when we started rehearsing in costume. My outfit had a jumper which had pockets so I could place my hands in my pockets helping with the unconfident posture.

Its important when doing a group production that we all put input into ideas. A decision I made when we got the whole cast together and began doing full runs was about character interaction when I didn't have dialogue. I had certain cast members who I told to dislike me and intimidate me and the odd few who I spoke to about being more caring and friendly to me. This idea worked really well as gave them and me something to do while not talking and also meant we could really work on developing our characters more. Another decision I made was about choreography. I worked with 2 other class members on the routine for Baddest and the Best. A main decision I made in that dance was the movements for the chorus. A phrase of movements which consist of sharp movements and punching fists I created and is then repeated throughout the dance. I think this worked well for giving the atmosphere of anger and powerfulness. It was also simple so everyone could easily pick it up but at the same time looked very effective. The third idea I inputted was to do with staging. My idea was to have side panels on the 2 cell doors that opened. This would mean when using the doors as an entrance you could stand behind the door and not be seen by the audience. Sadly this idea couldn't happen simple due to time and money. We would have needed the money to buy the material and the time to set it up.

What was the main strength of the performance?

The main strength of the performance was the music and singing. When performing a musical the songs are so important and have to be performed to such a high standard. I feel the most powerful and well performed song in the whole performance was 'That's The Way It Is'. This song ended the first act and was the crucial riot scene about the death of Rachel. This song is performed by all the cast and is a battle between prisoners and officers. The singers are accompanied by the piano, guitar, drums and viola. This song came together so much stronger once all the cast were in position and using the set. The prisoners were all on the bottom level, centre stage and the officers were lined at the top level staging. This gave the prisoners a chance to really project up to them. The lyrics are very powerful and meaningful. I also feel a strength with the music is parts where the music plays whilst there is dialogue. It was very important the dialogue was all said exactly to the script as some of it was cue lines. This worked very well and also was great for adding atmosphere. By having the dialogue said with music to fit the moment was very good. Every performance the music and dialogue worked perfectly. Finally I feel the music just worked and flowed very easily. There was no moments of silence or hiccups, it felt very well rehearsed and make actors and also audience members feel confident about the music.

What was the main weakness of the performance?

For me a weakness in the performance was costume. I don't feel like we researched enough into what we should of been wearing and also think a group discussion on it should of been done to ensure was all doing the right thing. A common material used by most cast members was denim. This was a good idea to wear this material as when this was set, in the 2000's, denim was very in fashion but also cheap. Most the characters aren't overly wealthy so a cheap material is most likely what they would wear. The weakness with the costume is how similar it all was. Pretty much everyone who wasn't a main character was wearing denim and this then began to look like this was the prisoner uniform which isn't what we wanted. The all denim look made it more of a 'We Will Rock You' feel rather than a cramped, smelly, woman's prison. This is something that could of been very easily improved by either still letting everyone choose their own costume but be stricter, so only have certain amounts of people wearing denim. The other way of doing it would be to be very strict and allocate exact costumes for every single cast member to ensure we get the look we want.

What could of been changed?

I feel something that I would change if had the opportunity too would be the set. The set we had was 2 levels of a prison made up from black, metal staging. On the staging we had grey prison doors along the top level, with only 2 doors being able to open. The move able set we had was 2 tables and several chairs for the group prisoner scenes. For scenes in the officers office we had a old looking single sofa seat, a stool and a coffee table. Any scenes in the prison cells were performed using just a simple cell bed made by the college. To make some changes it would be a case of more time, so can create more abstract and interesting set, and money, so can have more materials to create things. The changes I would make to the set would firstly be to have more cell doors that could actually used as exits and entrances. To do this we would need more staging behind the doors so the actors could safely step down/get up to the top level staging. We would also need more material so we could make them all like the 2 doors that open rather than just being static set. I feel this change would be good because it would give a more realistic feel to the audience if we all went into cells rather than just to stage left. Also when the prisoners all come on and are talking about how nice it is to have some space it would be more realistic to both actors and audience if we get the feel they've just come out this tiny space. Another change I would make to all the set that is move able would be to put wheels on it all. The prisoner tables were the only set that had wheels and it was much more practical to bring them on and off stage compared to the other set because it was quicker and quieter. By having wheels on the set it would make scene changes much quicker and also quieter because we wouldn't have to lift and put down any heavy set, just simply wheel it off. To make this change we would either need the money to buy completely new set with wheels already attached or money to buy wheels and the time to put the onto the set we already have. I feel the set is very important in a performance because for both the audience and actors it gives a realistic feel to where it is set and helps believe the story more if they can picture what's happening. Also it adds to the overall experience of watching a show. It gives the stage a lot more life and gives the audience something to look at.

Stages of character

My character

Rachel Hicks

She is 19 years old.
She is serving a year in prison for possession of drugs.

Voice
Rachel has quite a quiet voice. Its rare to hear her raise her voice. Very often when seen she is upset or nervous, this gives her voice a slight stutter. She raises her voice slightly when she is talking to Jim about things that have annoyed her, this is party due to her feeling comfortable around him.

Movement
Because of her young age you would expect her to be very lively and energetic but in fact she is very placid. She doesn't hold herself very confidently, she is naturally very hunched. This is from having her head tilted down as her eye focus is most often down to the ground. She stands with her feet slightly turned in and her hands in her pockets.

Appearance
Rachel isn't someone who stands out from the crowd, she has a very plain and a person who happily blends into the background. Her hair is not in a bad condition yet as she is new to the prison. She has it messily tied up in a very simple way. Her clothing is all plain colours and cheap. She wears 3/4 length plain blue jeans, a plain vest top and a light coloured old hoodie. Her footwear is white trainers which aren't in the best condition. She has a very plain looking face, no bright or crazy makeup.

Back story
She didn't have a very good upbringing. 
She has a baby named Maddie to man who died of an overdose just before she was born. Rachel's mother took Maddie in but she had to put Maddie into foster care as she was unable to look after her and wanted her life back.

Here is a timeline explaining Rachel's major life events

This timeline is based on our production of bad girls being set in 2002.

Vocal confidence

A challenge I found when working on learning my script was confidence in my voice. When learning the script I try not to even think about the physical or blocking side of things, this means my voice is my main focus so I can really work on this. I felt very unconfident in how to say my lines, which to project, how to pronounce them, when to say them. To help with my vocal confidence I went through my script very thoroughly looking closely at what I say. I then chose scenes where I felt I was struggling and went through the lines, without any blocking, with the other characters in that scene. By running them again and again I began to understand the script more and also make it more into a conversation rather than just line after line. I feel having confidence in your voice and how your saying your lines is so crucial. The audience don't want to watch a performance where the actor is obviously nervous as this makes them feel uncomfortable.

Prologue scene

My prologue scene was set in the prison when I first arrive. I am new to the wing and am currently going through the strip search to check I don't have anything I shouldn't have on me. This scene is performed by me, Rachel, Sylvia and Helen. This is the first scene to the whole musical so its important its performed well and creates a good first impression to the audience. This scene took a while to block as we couldn't decide the best way to do it.
My character needed to somehow show that I was having to be fully naked while being looked and judged at by a prison officer. We wanted this scene to look at realistic as possible and create a really eerie, horrible atmosphere but while also not fully exposing myself to an audience. We discussed a few different ways of staging this scene. The first was to have the strip search done behind a screen, we thought either with the screen just blank or by having my shadows, but we felt this wouldn't give across a strong atmosphere of how horrible this would be to have done. So we then looked at various ways we can use costume to show this scene. I did some research into skin coloured leotards to see if we could get an outfit that would make me look totally naked. I found that although this would be easy to get hold off from online I felt it was too extreme to seem totally naked to the audience. I then came to the idea that a good way to block this scene would be to use a towel, this way I could cover up my body. Then after some peer feedback I came to the conclusion of how to stage it. I will wear a strapless bra and top so there is no straps on my shoulders. I would also wear short shorts so that I could wrap a towel around me and it would give the impression I'm naked. Then by facing the back of the stage I could open the towel up and to the audience they would get the impression I'm naked without the uncomfortable ness for the audience or me. I feel this was a very successful way of blocking the scene because it cleverly gives a very horrible atmosphere which lets the audience know how uncomfortable my character is feeling and what a stressful and horrible environment I am in.

Pace of vocals
A problem I began to notice was the effect my nerves have on my speaking. When I have dialogue and I feel nervous I begin to speak faster and faster. This is a problem which needed sorting as due to me rushing lines this could mean the audience would miss out on crucial information to the storyline. I also can feel my self slipping out of character more and more when I rush lines because my character, Rachel, is so shy and nervous that her lines are spoken more gentle and slow.


Returning in act 2

My character dies at the end of act 1, so to increase my stage time and ensure that I don't have nothing to do in the second act we introduced the idea of me coming back on as one of the prisoners but in disguise. At first I thought it was a bad idea as wasn't sure if would be able to disguise myself enough. Also another challenge I would concerned about was jumping to acting as another character so quickly and stopping myself from acting as Rachel. After discussion we decided it would be posible for me to do this and would be made easier if I created a character very different to the one I'm already playing. The scenes in act 2 that I would be involved in are all group scenes featuring all the prisoners. So a big character change I could have would be interacting with the other prisoners and being one of the more confident ones. When playing Rachel I have minimal contact with the other prisoners so by interacting, talking and being part of a group this is already a big character change. Another way to hide the fact of who I am is to use costume. When playing Rachel I wear mainly light blue clothing so in the second act will wear more dull, dark colours. Also I will wear a hat which will hopefully disguise myself well. I feel its important, if you are coming back into a show as a different character, to try as hard as possible to not let the audience realise this. If they can very easily tell its me then they may think I'm still playing Rachel and this would obviously cause a huge storyline change to them. Also it would simply take away the realism of the fact I am meant to be dead but am already back on stage.

Blocking movement

Once lines are learnt the next stage is the blocking process. We go through scene by scene and make decisions on where characters should go and about set and props. The second scene to the performance is a whole cast scene featuring the first song of the musical. Because of the amount of cast on stage a decision had to be made about how to keep that realistic busy prison feel whilst also ensuring the attention is mainly on what is being spoken and acted by the main characters. We tried staging this by having all the dialogue said at the very front and this worked perfectly. When blocking its important to keep all characters in mind, not just those with dialogue. So in this scene we blocked movements by all the prisoners. They are currently having food so they were put into groups of around 2 or 3 prisoners and they have to go from their position to go and get food/drink from the sever and once finished take the plate/cup back. This worked effectively because it kept the scene from being too static and also gave a chance for character interaction. A scene I found hard blocking was my final scene where I get raped. Its a very crucial moment in the storyline that had to be performed in a way that really sticks in the audiences mind. Also it had to be dealt with in a respectful way. We tried staging it centre stage, near the front as its such a key moment but this wouldn't work with the fact Him is meant to be saying his lines at the doorway to my cell. We couldn't block it using the cell door as these only became available to use near the time of our first performance. Blocking movement for scenes is important as each character needs to know where everyone will be but also blocking movements for any dance routines. The dance routine I'm most in as my original character is ' A List'. This song features all the prisoners and is vocal lead by Yvonne. Its a very upbeat and happy song. There were small parts of movement that I changed to suit my character. The lyrics mention touching breasts with other prisoners. The original choreography was too, all in partners, push their bodies against each other. I then decided that my character isn't that close with anyone and is still quite new to the prison so its unlikely would be that comfortable with anyone yet. So I adapted the choreography and at the point where everyone did that movement I step away and single myself out. I also use my hands to cover my upper body to show that I don't agree and don't feel comfortable doing what they're doing. Its important when doing a musical that you stay in character at all times. When performing a dance its easy to just smile and perform it perfectly but if you character is not happy or angry or shy then you have to keep that up even when dancing.

Character interaction

Its important that a bond is created between characters who interact because the audience need to believe the friendship. Through rehearsals I got to get more into character allowing the interactions to come naturally. Rehearsing a run through is when I began to create more of a character when I didn't have lines. Its easy to just blend into the background if you don't have lines but I wanted to ensure I kept in character by interacting with others. I learnt how important it is that you remember your relationships with each character. In the second scene Crystal vocalises that she isn't happy sitting next to me because of my involvement in drugs. This immediately caused some un comfortableness between characters. Later on in the show we are both mingling around with all the other prisoners just improvising. I often bump into Crystal and the first time both acted in a very friendly way but then realised that this was actually very out of character for both of us so next time we bumped into each other she kept in a very distant and disgusted way while I kept quite nervous around her. 
Here is some overviews of her relationships with other characters.

Jim - she instantly builds an attachment to him. She is totally unaware of his
        ridiculously bad reputation. She opens up to him and ends up taking her
        own life because of him raping her.

Shell &
    Denny -These two are like the double act bullies of the wing. They see
               Rachel as an easy target to show off their empowerment too. They try
               to encourage Rachel to buy illegal substances off them but she
               doesn't give in.

Yvonne - She is seen as the mother of the group. Also she is like a new lease of
              life to the prison, someone to liven it up. She is immediately shown as
              a very caring person. In her first scene when everyone is talking about
              going drinking and to a prison party she notices Rachel on her own
              and says "And who's little Cinderella, then? and says "And who's 
              little Cinderella, then?". This then made Rachel come along and get   
              involved.
 

Constantin Stanislavski

Constantin Stanislavski

He was born January 17th 1863 in Russia. He grew up in one of the richest families in Russia. He was born with the name Constantin Sergeyevich Alexeyev but used the name 'Stanislavski' so he could hide his performing identity from his parents. It was unusual to see someone of his social class becoming a professional actor as it was more of a lower class thing to do in Russia.


Early influences
He was highly interested in the idea of living the part. He looked into the ability to maintain a character in real life. He tried the idea by dressing as a homeless person and visiting a train station. He was also very interested in the performances performed at Maly Theatre. This was the home of physiological realism in Russia. Another group of people who influenced him were the foreign star actors who came to Moscow during Lent. In particular Ernesto Rossi who performed Shakespearean tragic protagonists in Moscow in 1877.

Stanislavski's system
This is his approach to training actors. The areas they study is voice, physical skills concentration, dramatic analysis and observation. His goal was to find a university approach that could be of service to all actors.

Emotion memory
His system focused on the development of artistic truth onstage by teaching actors to actually experience the part while performing.

Augusto Boal Research

Augusto Boal

 

He was born 16 March 1931 and died 2 May 2009.

 He was a Brazilian theatre director, writer and politician.

 

 

 He was the founder of Theatre of the Oppressed.

 It describes theatrical forms.

It was first elaborated in the 1960s, initially in Brazil and later in Europe.

He was influenced by a theorist Paulo Freire.

What did Boal believe in?
He believed that humans had the ability to take action while watching a performance and make changes that altered actions in the future of the story.

 

 

 What is Forum Theatre?  

 Forum Theatre is a chance for the audience to get involed. The chance to watch a performance and make their own choices on what happens. They can stop the performance and choose any solution or storyline which then the characters on stage have to portray.
The character they choose to work on is the character that is oppressed. This means someone that is being pressured. Someone who has had a bad upbringing or background which is changing how they are now.
 

 

 

What is Theatre of the Oppressed?

 Theatre of the oppressed describes the theatrical forms Boal created in the 1960's. The whole idea is that the audience become 'spec-actors' so they can explore, analyse and transform the show.

 

 

 

This was my exercise.



 Here is my Boal exercise I led for the class.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=529wctV8n68

What I feel went well with this is

I feel I could of improved it by

 

 

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augusto_Boal

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theatre_of_the_Oppressed
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theatre_of_the_Oppressed#Forum_theatre