Cruelty? part of the Australian experience

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/nov/28/cruelty-its-part-of-the-australian-experience?CMP=fb_gu

Pick an animal that relates to your character

I thought that a meerkat would relate to my character because with these type of animals they can be very friendly but also quite viscous. The way this animal noes reminds me alot about my character because they are both very quick on their feet always ducking and diving trying not to be seen. 

Meerkats are very family orientated which fits well with my characters obsession to make her ansestors proud. 

Act 2

Having the whole class sit round while I went over my lines was very helpful because I noticed that I need to open my mouth more as when speaking in an African accent most words are exaggerated. 

It made me think that when I'm performing my lines I need to open up my body more so that what I am saying can be heard from across the performance space. 

My lines have a lot of focus points in which my character will put a lot of entasis on to make sure everyone understands the importance of what is being said.

I think the one thing I need to remember is that I need to open up my body to be heard. 

Accents

http://www.wildmadagascar.org/overview/loc/27-minorities.html

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

My costume

This is my costume for the play my character is very dirty wearing a baggy ripped top and ripped trousers The orange belt that I wear makes the costume seem slightly more girly as I am playing the role if a man. 

I really live my costume because I think it looks different and makes my character stand out more since she doesn't really have that much to say. With this costume I will be able to move around loads as nothing is tight on me.

Costume

This is the costume for the cast of Our Country is good each costume reflects each of the characters in the play the officers are all wearing blue and white which are peaceful colours very sharpe to the point and clean which reflects the life of an officer in London. This is then a big contrast to what the convicts are wearing tight clothes very colourful but quite dirty to reflect the life of a lower class citizen in London.

Stage

This is the stage for our show there is a small table with a chair for Ralph's scenes in the tent. There is a bed and loads of cargo for when we are on the boat traveling to Australia. We decided to have a compass on the stage to represent that Australia is a new world for the officers as well as the convicts I like the fact that the floor is the map of Australia it's very abstract and different physicalising the atmosphere that each character is in. I also like the colours used very light and reflects a hot temperature I think with this staging when it comes to bringing the play to life. 

Actioning a scene

Unscripted improvisation

Off script improv is when you think about something that happened in your character's life that would help you as an actor to understand the role that they are performing. 

During this exercise thinking about a situation that could of happened to affect my character was hard because compared to the other roles my character isn't from England mine is from Madagascar. 

Which then had me thinking 

Why is my character on the island?

 What type of crime would she be caught doing?

How would she react in the situation?

 So I came up with the idea of it being a police officer shouting at me about my crime. 

This is the type if situation I could see Caesar would get herself into and it would have to be something silly such as getting distracted because something caught her eye. 

Also I feel that Caesar has a good heart and would never hurt someone out of spite or in this case steal something she wanted to get a closer look at the necklace and everyone automatically assumed that she was trying to steal it.

This exercise has been usefully because its has deepen my understanding of this character. Her personality isn't just a fresh person from Madagascar but a confused young woman who uses her culture as a cushion to comfort her. I think she feels that when she speaks she has to be loud as people will be able to hear and understand her. Also that she has the habit to be stubborn when she is trying to get her point across. 

Madagascar

Madagascar escape to Africa(2009) is an American computer animated comedy film produced by Dreamworks animation.

I noticed that King Julien who is originally from Madagascar is a very proud loud happy go lucky guy that the animals from Madagascar are very family orientated always sticking together. Each animal has very loud personalities especially King Julien.

I have decided that when my character does speak I want her to be loud like she has a completely different personality as soon as she opens her mouth I can compare her to the traditional african aunties who sit back and make facial expressions during deep conversations but as soon as they are in private they bitch. I don't want this character to be a mean person but more of a happy go lucky a dreamer that gets excited very easily.

I noticed that gestures as used a lot by King Julien which I want my character to use so it would make her so much more bigger

Character development

I discovered that my character's is a DABBER in her physicality as she likes to always keep it moving very fasted paced always exploring her environment can be referred to child like moments as she is also very light on her feet. I was thinking that I could make her sneaky creating a type of aura that is mysterious so that people don't notice her presences until she speaks. I also want my character to be slightly annoying towards the other crew members I would like them all to have their own opinion towards her.


During the exercise I found it hard to find something that links towards my character as in my opinion because she is on a strange island and extremely home sick her emotions and physicality is all over the place.


I still haven’t discovered what type of Laban force her voice is like but I feel it is something that I will discover during rehearsals as I will be able to play with different approaches towards this character