Drama in the Making – Rehearsed Improvisations and other information.

We were shown our stimulus, which had been the music video, “7 Years” by Lukas Graham. We had then watched the video numerous times together with my group and had eventually come up with the idea of having a young and misguided Lukas being visited by his lavish and successful 30 year old self as he receives advice and guidance which had seemed quite convincing until 60 year old Lukas bursts in and challenges him. We had decided to structure it as if the 30 year old Lukas, played by me was the devil like figure on Lukas’s right side and Gabriel had been on his left playing the angel like figure. We had also later devised recently in the play that we could help show this by using lighting. We would use red for the 30 year old Lukas to signify the devil and evil, whereas we will have a blue light for the 60 year old Lukas to signify an angel and the good side.

Item 1

For my character in the improvised performance I had made him act very brash and obnoxious as this was the stage in Lukas’s life where he had been at the height of his career and was making a lot o money compared to what he had been making before with selling botttlecaps as a kid for cheap change. Then it would show how the money had got to him and how he had become a product of money and the twisted society of fame. His costume that I had constructed had been a suit that his many advisers and makeup stylists had squeezed him in to and how they had also got him a fresh haircut to symbolize how he has to keep up his public appearances. Rings and a shiny watch I had worn to reinforce how he had money to afford such things.

The three items that I have chosen are; Character development, Costume design and our compulsory joint performance. I had chosen character development and costume design because they are very closely linked and can both benefit each over as they can almost intertwine because they are both to do with ‘the method behind the madness’.

The dramatic potential is promising because it could be a possible short independent film in which we could possibly get to see the back stories to the three characters so that we could be more immersed into the characters. The performance could even be for the music video of the song, “7 Years”.

The stimulus had been great because in “7 Years”, the Danish group, ‘Lukas Graham’ reflect on their lives and wonder about how their life would eventually turn out as they grow older. There is prominent nostalgia from the ages 7, 11, and 20 which are openly reminisced, before the band goes on to wonder about their life in the possible future; specifically, when they’re at the ages of 30 and 60, or when they have children of their own, or a wife.

Throughout the poem there are two prominent themes of loneliness and family. An example of this is Lukas attempting to remember and heed his parents’ advice at all times, “Once I was seven years old my momma told me,
Go make yourself some friends or you’ll be lonely. This helped me to understand what the protagonist had had to experience and how the character would react to certain situations. For instance, if someone had randomly started a conversation with him or he had been ‘put on the spot;, then he might have trouble communicating and may not be very open to others, seeing as he had not had a lot of interaction with other children in the past.

In verse 1, “It was a big big world, but we thought we were bigger
Pushing each other to the limits, we were learning quicker
By eleven smoking herb and drinking burning liquor”. This gives me the idea that they had to adapt to the socially challenged community of the world, by doing so it had changed them, and introduced them to the harmful substances and depressants of life, Alcohol and drugs.

This also indicates that his Mothers advice had worked in some way, although negatively as the first and second verse indicate that he had been hanging round with a rough crowd and because of this, his Father had maybe deduced that if he is taking drugs and drinking alcohol, then sooner or later he will come into contact with girls, so gives some simple relationship advice as Lukas begins to enters a period of sexual awakening. Perhaps his father was hoping that he would get “settled down” at an early age.

“Something about that glory just always seemed to bore me
Cause only those I really love will ever really know me”. He finds that he is oblivious to the people that are attracted to his fame, but instead on the people who truly matter, like his family or close friends. And on the next chorus he talks about, “Once my story got told
Before the morning sun, when life was lonely”, suggesting that being famous and being successful isn’t very enjoyable and is quite lonely despite all the attention.

The next verse talks about positivity and how despite all the negativity, he had triumphed. This would help me get to grips with the character and how he views himself at this age as he talks about how some peoples voices can make a big difference and have an effect on him, while he has his friends and all those that matter, beside him; “I only see my goals, I don’t believe in failure
Cause I know the smallest voices, they can make it major
I got my boys with me at least those in favor
And if we don’t meet before I leave, I hope I’ll see you later”. The last line also refers to the afterlife in which Lukas says that if you don’t meet him before he dies, then he hopes to see you in heaven.

Lukas refers back to earlier lyrics to show how his life had progressed. When he had imagined himself with a successful music career, married with children and will have eventually found true friends to share his life with. “I’m still learning about life
My woman brought children for me
So I can sing them all my songs
And I can tell them stories
Most of my boys are with me
Some are still out seeking glory
And some I had to leave behind
My brother I’m still sorry “. Lukas had also mentioned in sadness, his friends who were unable to escape the rough upbringing of alcohol and drugs that he had also experienced.

“Soon I’ll be 60 years old, my daddy got 61
Remember life and then your life becomes a better one
I made a man so happy when I wrote a letter once
I hope my children come and visit, once or twice a month”. This Talks about Lukas looking into his future, not knowing what it would look like. His father died at a relatively young age, When he says “I made a man so happy when I wrote a letter once”, he is referring to how even the smallest of things like writing a letter or making a phone call to your parents means the world to them, and he hopes that his kids will do this when he is older.

It then ends with the chorus.

The dramatic potential is vast because it displays a range of emotion and events that an actor can work with, in the sense that he or she has a lot of stimulus material to work with and therefore can put themselves into the shoes of Lukas.

Item 2 Character Development:

My Character had been that of someone that is a troubled antagonist who had been wronged in some way by society. The character would be very distant from everyone else. loneliness is a prominent feeling with him. He feel’s empty inside and it almost feels like nothing matters and that nobody cares about him. Apart from his caring parents who are trying their best to provide for their son who suffers from minimum wage work and past due rent, he forgets about those true to him because he had always seen the world from a disadvantaged point of view. Where his peers at school would use money and purchase items frivolously, where he had had to conserve the little that he gets.

I had based part of my development on Stanislavsky’s theory of really inhabiting the role that the actor would be playing by tapping into my emotions and using memories of times when I had felt angry and sad as a drive for the character so that the audience would see the subtle movements in my face and that would make it more realistic and real. The actor shouldn’t only know what lines he or she needs to say, but the story behind the why for those lines, but also every detail of that character’s life offstage as well as onstage. I had devised the character so that he could possibly be at the stage before someone would turn into a villain that you would come across in a story, where he would have plans to unleash fury on the world for his somehow preordained past. He had been used to getting the wrong end of the stick and always bullied for his individuality as he has a foreign name from everyone else and so on. So a good way to get into character would be to isolate myself from social media or interacting with friends as this will give me a feeling of the loneliness that he had felt throughout his adolescence. Another technique that I would also use would be to listen to music that had a sad tone which would get me feeling emotional and with the thoughts of how would I feel if someone that I had loved was taken from me. This would get me to the point of my eyes watering. By using Stanislavsky’s theory I would use my emotions and emotional memory for which I would focus internally to portray the character’s emotions onstage.

I had done this for a day and latter in the evening I would sit in a chair in-front of a mirror and ask myself various questions for my character. When I was asking questions, I had used a different tone of voice than to when I was answering as the character. The voice that I had used for the character had been a quiet confused voice in order to show a distinct difference. Even simple questions such as what did I have for lunch would help me get into character, for instance he would have eaten something bland or rather very simple and maybe not even eat anything at all due to the fact that he wouldn’t be going out to meet friends or have a game of football with the lads because he wasn’t invited or wasn’t ever taught to play.

Item 3: Costume Design

For the costume I had used a spider diagram in order to brainstorm through some ideas to what the character would wear. For instance, I had started off with the shoes, so would he wear sneakers or the more practical choice of boots ? If sneakers then what type, running shoes or simply ones for casual wear, perhaps I had thought to myself, casual because running shoes would indicate that he would have an affiliation with sports, but then again casual sneakers are seen as quite popular and we need the character to stand out and seem unorthodox, so the running shoes it is. These would be worn with untied laces. I had then chosen to have my character wear a hoodie because it is a comfortable top that is universally worn by teenagers and he would wear the hood, so that the character would conceal himself. Rips and holes as it has been constantly worn. Jeans would be the choice for the lower part of the body because they are comfortable and durable whilst being quite fashionable, but they would not be of a designer brand and would not fit properly because they were bought from a charity shop. They would also slouch because there wasn’t a belt.

There is also practicality, with looking at if there is a lot of action, then the actors’ clothes must be easy to move in. For quick costume changes, perhaps there must be adjustments on the costume so that the actor or actress can take it off themselves. I will also have to check how the lighting projected onto the stage affects the material. For instance, for some of the rehearsals we had had to take off our jumpers so that the different color lighting could take effect on the white shirt.

Evaluation:

Improvised performance:

What had went went well in the first improvised piece had been how we had all acted fluently and there had not been an occasion where we were lost for words so therefore we had been confident and the performance would be real.

What I would do better next time would be to exaggerate with what I was saying and my actions so it would seem more clear to understand my character.

Character Development:

What had gone well had been how the posture and body language had told you what the character was going to be like even before he had spoken a word.

What I would improve would be to prepare and get into character for a longer period of time before the performance.

Costume Design:

What had gone well had been how I used specifics on how the costume would be worn and what type, the for instance, jeans would be.

What I would do better would be to have alternate design ideas showing the many different alterations from experimenting with different ideas.

Other Peoples performance:

Amjad and Josh’s performance had been very interesting to watch and the concept of having a duologue between Lukas at 7 and Lukas at 60 because it was showing the two extremes. It showed this because Amjad who had played Lukas at 7, had been very naive and this was good because it had displayed his understanding of the character being at that age and therefore had understood how someone at that age would react. Josh, who had played Lukas at 60, had been somewhat depressed and battle-worn, as he had experienced the scorns of time and is now perhaps paying the price for the mistakes that he had made when he was young, by not having anyone to celebrate his 60th birthday with him. At first I was skeptical about the use of lighting as they had only used blackouts, but It had in fact worked well as they had obviously worked on their character development.

There is mostly praise, but I believe that it would have been more powerful If they had there is also the subject of costume design. Well, it is evident that they had not put the majority of their attention onto their costume as Amjad had been acting as a 7 year old child with a fancy wrist watch. Also Josh had not put in much thought as someone of that age would not have a ‘fat tie’. This could have been changed by Amjad wearing clothing that would indicate at first glance to the viewer that he had been of such a young age as it had seemed that the only indicators had been the body language. Josh could have worn brown and earthy-like colors to indicate that he had been old and wise, like a tree perhaps.