Unit 10: Self Reflective Blog 2 (Singing)

Finalising A Decision On A Song:

I decided to choose 'I Know Where I've Been' from 'Hairspray' sang by Queen Latifah as my audition song.

cover information:

Hairspray is a 2007 musical romantic comedy film based on the 2002 Broadway musical of the same name, which in turn was based on John Waters's 1988 comedy film of the same name. The film was a British-American venture^[2] produced by Ingenious Media and Zadan/Meron Productions. 

My reasoning for choosing this song instead of  'When Your Good To Mama', from 'Chicago' also sang by Queen Latifah is because I think it is a strong and powerful soulful song I can connect to and deliver a story through song and performance. I believe because the 'Hairspray' has been a successful film and then musical brings attention to the racial strain of time - it's a testament of struggles to the historical struggle of African - Americans. It also reminds us that racism is still alive and African - Americans still have to work a lot harder to be considered equal in success to white people. I believe that by singing this song it will bring attention to me in an audition room because it will present my diversity as an individual, especially that there most probably won't be a lot of people that look like me if I did choose to take a Musical theatre course ( just being honest). If sang right this song can resonate with the panel and that's exactly what I want because if I can do that it means I'm showing my potential. It's a powerful anthem that reflects on the past whilst still endeavouring to fulfil the promises of the future.

I have not yet performed this to Tom but how I have prepared for the song is by rehearsing alongside someone playing the piano on Youtube instead of learning the karaoke version because then I will get an understanding of how the musical version is sang and I won't be surprised when Tom plays it because the musical version differentiates from the film version. 

I did feel like I was struggling at some parts of the song because I began to become breathless coming towards the end of the song where the bigger notes are. Due to me becoming doubtful I did consider on changing the song, it was suggested to me that I should sing ' I'm Here', from 'The Colour Purple'. However I decided to stick with 'I Know Where I've Been' instead of shying away because then if can prove to myself that with hard work I can successfully deliver this song then it will give me the courage and confidence to take on stronger roles that involves singing in the future. 

To achieve this I will keep practising the parts I do find challenging and alternate the song in a way where it sounds the same but it is easier for me to learn and reach the notes I need to.

 

Unit 10: Self Reflective Blog 3 (Singing)

 Learning Audition Songs Pre 1965

To help prepare us for auditions which required musical songs from pre 1965, Tom issued us two different songs for females and two for men, each of which would provide us with enough vocal range and dynamic to successfully present ourselves.

The first female song was ' I could have danced all night' from the musical 'My fair Lady', the homework given was to take the song away and practise it independently so we could perform it to Tom in our next session. He would then be able to work with us individually and give us feedback on what we need to improve on and how we can help us achieve the best performance.

To be honest, I feel like I struggled with the song in many aspects. For example the song is sang in soprano and although soprano is stereotypically the range girls are supposed to sing in, it is not befitting for my voice and I find it hard to consistently reach those high notes whilst staying in tune and projecting my voice. Because of this I feel like it lessened my confidence when singing because I was not comfortable and I was aware of that.

As I was not the only one who found this challenging Tom showed us two female practitioners who are able to successfully perform a song in any vocal range using story telling and projection and pronunciation to emphasis to us that with enough practise and confidence we can sing a song out of our vocal range without sounding completely horrendous.

The first one being Lillias White, age 67, is an American singer and actress of stage, she is particularly admired for her Broadway musicals.

The second performer being Audra McDonald an artist we have previously looked at in earlier units, she is primarily known for her work on the Broadway stage and her exemplary stage presence. She has six Tony Awards which is more performance wins then any actor. She also performed in Carousel the musical, a musical we have looked in to previously in class when studying how romance is portrayed in musicals/films.

CLICK HERE! To see a duet performed by both singers for inspiration.

Unit 11: Essay Question

How has the Stanislavski System Influenced Contemporary Acting Practice Since The 1950's And Informed My Own Practise?

“Every person who is really an artist desires to create inside of himself another, deeper, more interesting life than the one that actually surrounds him.” – An Actor Prepares, Constantin Stanislavski.

Konstantin Sergeivich Stanislavski officially adopted the stage name Stanislavski by the year 1884, he profoundly influenced the theatre of the 20^th century and beyond. Throughout his long life of 75 years, he developed a variety of naturalistic performance techniques that formed a system – ‘The Stanislavski System’, also referred to as method acting. Method acting aspires an actor to complete emotional identification of a character. Stanislavski went on to writing many books, which critically evaluate his career and his accomplishments in his autobiography, ‘My Life in Art’ he speaks carefully on his early passion for theatre. Stanislavski defied the expectations of family and social class by becoming an actor, after enrolling in drama school, he dropped out several weeks after. In his era the style of acting was unrealistic and over-dramatic. This emphasises the raw idea of Stanislavski’s system, Stanislavski loathed this style of acting because it did not truly convey human nature. Stanislavski believed that an actor should inhabit his role and learn the details of their characters life off stage to enhance a more three-dimensional performance. Stanislavski co-founded the ‘Moscow Theatre’ in 1898 with Vladimir Nemirovich Danchenko, it was highly successful and with Stanislavski’s birth right wealth he was able to comfortably endeavour on new fields. In the era of Stalin’s dictatorship Stanislavski’s hand was forced into reflecting the political voice of the USSR, he was able to keep his beliefs as a follower of realism, but the company’s work purely promoted political beliefs up until 1970. The theatre thrived and his method of acting inspired and influenced many over renowned drama teachers including Stella Adler.

           The quote above was taken from “An Actor Prepares”, one of the four self-written books by Stanislavski. It highlights Stanislavski’s belief in realism and authenticity. This quote illustrates Stanislavski’s thoughts on how he urges practitioners to break traditions and explore their own method of acting instead on depending purely on his system. It suggests that if one is passionate enough about the art then they will have the skill to look further in depth within themselves to manipulate and form a character completely different to their natural self and take advantage of the ‘magic if’ by implementing themselves in the situation of the character.

              Stella Adler, a prodigy of Stanislavski, who trained closely with him in his theatre group interpreted the method differently and using her own interpretation she went on to becoming an acting lecturer herself, building a studio in her name. Her ideology and teachings became responsible of helping to craft one of the most memorable and legendary actors the world has ever seen. Marlon Brando. One of the techniques that complete the Stanislavski method is ‘emotional memory’, she considered drawing on a painful memory to create a role as sickening. Adler granted the technique ‘given circumstances’ more useful for an actor. She believed an actor should imagine the given circumstances of the situation when creating a character or playing a role in comparison to recalling moments in their personal lives. She understood the external and internal research an actor would need to embark on to create a realistic performance. The research would require an actor to think, how would my character feel in this situation? What emotion would be most useful to convey in this situation? How would my character walk? What does their voice sound like? The actor must use the material from their research and the text to become the character in question, Adler theorized that without doing this research then the actor walks on the stage ‘naked’ because the actor would be faking it. 

        Film acting using ‘the method’ became majorly popularized by who is known as one of the most memorable and remarkable actors of all time. Marlon Brando. Before Brando acting in the 1950’s was highly theatrical and emotionally confined, and Marlon shattered fixed conventions by mastering the Stanislavski system and leading an acting revolution. Brando is well known for his award-winning roll as Terry Malloy from the film On the Waterfront. Adler recalled that once she instructed the class to act like chickens and added that a nuclear bomb was about to fall on them. While most of the students in the class ran around and clucked, he was sitting calmly and pretended to lay an egg. When Adler asked him why he chose to react that way, he explained, “I’m a chicken – what do I know about bombs?” This is an example of how the technique helped him develop a unique sense of realism, he understands the truth in his role and to do anything extra would be fake and amateur. It is eye opening to see how naturally as actors fall into stereotypes without understand what they are being asked to portray. From personal experience in a lesson at school, we had to do an exercise where we had to act as if we were trying to walk through chin-high water. Everyone in the class, including myself, lifted their head up and slowed down their pace in walk. We never considered the circumstances of what the rest of our body is presenting, we had to remember that the audience can still see our bodies therefore we should show how every part of our bodies is being affected by the circumstance. We also didn't consider that we were underwater and that if the water is chin-high then it would be getting in our mouths. It really highlights how much we can miss when developing a character which is why actors require research because without research your character is not truthful. 
        Stanislavski’s development of naturalistic acting explored, changed and adapted the industry forever. His work heavily influenced the film acting from the 1950’s, which then lead to his work influencing modern day theatre acting for example I watched a political and social issue based devised play by Lynette Linton. The story of the play follows the under educated knowledge a young mixed race teenage has of her dual-heritage. She creates a YouTube channel surrounding makeup, but whilst fetishizing her tone of skin and those that share the same light complexion as her, she denigrates darker skin a face a huge backlash for it. However, the play also addresses that although mixed race people have apparent privileges, they still face racial abuse and aggression. The teens older brother attempts to pick up his fair skinned daughter but is prevented because he is of a darker tone. Stanislavski is implemented in this because he reacts truthfully which shows the audience he is emotionally connected, and we therefore understand the circumstance he is in and take on that emotion; we feel his frustration and hurt. This is effective because we leave the show with more social awareness and knowledge.

          Personally, I found it hard to use Stanislavski’s technique of ‘Emotional memory’ which is tapping into your own personal life, external from your character and borrowing those emotions to create a character. To do this you must allow yourself to be vulnerable and honest. In addition, I found no relation to the context of what my character was going through. So instead I used the technique “Given circumstance” and “finding the objective”. Now because I was presenting a monologue but still speaking to someone, the monologue had to be shown in a way you could see what motivates my reactions. Because I’m having a conversation. The monologue is quite vulgar and angry, so I needed to understand the storyline and what happens throughout the course of the play to see why my character (Dawta) could be so livid with her mother. Dawta labels her mother as a Bitch, because she felt her mother allowed her father to sexually abuse her but chose to ignore it so that she wouldn’t have to deal with the pain it would cause her mentally and how it would tear apart her family. Dawtas mother tries to mentally control Dawta by saying "Don't call me that" When she should be apologising, the irony is that she feels that she is owed respect from her daughter and is offended at the fact that her daughter is continuously calling her a bitch throughout their argument. It is almost as if her mum is neutral and shows no emotion or empathy at all to Dawta and doesn't even listen to Dawta, she just wants to win. My characters objective is to really drill it in to her Mums mind that her Mum betrayed her, and she was hurt by it. She wants to let her Mum know how angry she is and how she really feels about her. Sublimely all she really wants is an apology from her Mum for not protecting her.

      
“When you play an evil man, look to see where he is good. When you play an old man, look to see where he is young”.

        I whole-heartidly believe that Stanislavski’s method had a massive impact and contribution into why acting is what it is today and how people have used this method as a platform to tell the truth in acting. This quote is still useful today, it illustrates that instead of portraying complex characters in an anticipated two – dimensional way. We should use the magic if and think about why the character is how they are. What is their back story? Every protagonist has a flaw, so every antagonist must have a redeeming quality. Just like any older person doesn’t have to be portrayed as if their time is almost up, they could still be full of life an ambition just as much as a young person.

Unit 11: Research

Historical and Contemporary information:

It’s very easy to over-simplify the method of Konstantin Stanislavski, one of the greatest and most influential of modern theatre practitioners. The main thing to remember is that he takes the approach that the actors should really inhabit the role that they are playing. So the actor shouldn’t only know what lines he needs to say and the motivation for those lines, but also every detail of that character’s life offstage as well as onstage. In this way we can establish Stanislavski as a director and practitioner whose productions are naturalistic
Moscow Art Theatre:

The company was founded in 1898 by Stanislavski and Vladimir Nemirovich Danchenko.The company was a joint stock company owned by shareholders. This created a strong collaboration and community behind the venture. It did also mean Stanislavski was challenged at times but his wealth was undeniably useful to him when he was exploring or developing a new field. It was both successful and hugely influential in the world of the theatre and survived until it was split into two troupes in 1987. It was, of course, affected by the political turmoil in Russia from 1917.

When Stalin controlled Russia, Stanislavski was keen to appease him to ensure the survival of the theatre. During this time the company’s work reflected the political voice of the USSR, as represented by Socialist realism. Stanislavski was able to remain a follower of realism but the theatre company’s plays promoted socialist political beliefs. This remained the case until 1970 when there was a movement back towards the essence of Stanislavski’s method. -https://www.bbc.com/bitesize/guides/zxn4mp3/revision

Styles and Techniques:
Bear in mind that Stanislavski was committed to realism throughout his career and came to stand out against the scientific idea of naturalism. Remember too that experimentation was his key approach to theatre. There may be typical productions of Chekhov plays with extraordinarily realistic sets but Stanislavski also, for instance, explored symbolism

The System

This term refers to the methods used by Stanislavski to foster a good performance in his actors. It focuses mainly on helping an actor recall the emotions needed for a role. Don’t confuse ‘method acting’ with the System. Method acting is how Stanislavksi’s work was interpreted by others, in particular, actors and directors in the film industry. -https://www.bbc.com/bitesize/guides/zxn4mp3/revision

Emotional memory is when the actor finds a real past experience where they felt a similar emotion to that demanded by the role they are playing. They then ‘borrow’ those feelings to bring the role to life.

Stanislavski provided a route map for exploring what he called "that conscious road to the gates of the unconscious", which is the foundation of modern theatre. And it is a map that no actor, even today, can afford to ignore.Michael Billington, The Guardian. 9 May 2009

Quotes by Stanislavski: 

“Every person who is really an artist desires to create inside of himself another, deeper, more interesting life than the one that actually surrounds him.” 
- An Actor Prepares.
“It is not enough to discover the secret of a play, its thought and feelings—the actor must be able to convert them into living terms.” ― Konstantin Stanislavski, Creating a Role
“The verbal text of a play, especially one by a genius, is the manifestation of the clarity, the subtlety, the concrete power to express invisible thoughts and feelings of the author himself. Inside each and every word there is an emotion, a thought, that produced the word and justifies its being there.”
― Konstantin Stanislavski, Creating a Role

“Never lose yourself on the stage. Always act in your own person, as an artist. The moment you lose yourself on the stage marks the departure from truly living your part and the beginning of exaggerated false acting. Therefore, no matter how much you act, how many parts you take, you should never allow yourself any exception to the rule of using your own feelings. To break that rule is the equivalent of killing the person you are portraying, because you deprive him of a palpitating, living, human soul, which is the real source of life for a part”
― Konstantin Stanislavski 

“In the circle of light on the state in the midst of darkness, you have the sensation of being entirely alone... This is called solitude in public... During a performance, before an audience of thousands, you can always enclose yourself in this circle, like a snail in its shell... You can carry it wherever you go.”
― Constantin Stanislavski, An Actor Prepares
https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/54455.Konstantin_Stanislavski

Russian Konstantin Stanislavski, who developed "The Method", is the Patriarch of modern acting theory, with his three American prophets being acting teachers Lee Strasberg, Stella Adler and Sanford Meisner. With Stanislavski as the Patriarch of modern acting, Brando, via his work with his teacher Stella Adler, became its realized messiah. Before Brando, acting was more theatrical, mannered and emotionally confined. Brando shattered those stilted conventions by mastering the new way and ignited an acting revolution. He was a raw nerve, an open wound exposed to the world.
http://mpmacting.com/blog/2015/4/1/marlon-brando-and-the-big-bang
https://www.thevintagenews.com/2016/08/31/priority-time-marlon-brando-class-actor-even-acting-school/

Unit 10 :Task 2 - Critical Evaluation Skills

Communication Channels

Although I did not initially plan on applying for higher education, after taking part in a mock Arts Ed audition and workshop, I took a liking to the idea of attending drama school. As they were offering free auditions to those who took part in the workshop, I took the opportunity and Independently applied. How I went about this was by going to the Arts Ed website and creating an account for myself, once logged in I filled out the application form for my selected course; BA Hons/TCL Level 6 Diploma in Acting. I then input all my person details, alongside with my personal statement - which consisted of my reasoning for applying and why they need to accept my application. I also included a professional style headshot of myself, once I had finished my application and got to the payment page. I saved my application and forwarded my email to Jo Melville, the deputy head of performing arts, where she would then go onto cooperating with Arts Ed to by pass this payment page and make my application eligible for a free audition.

To offer myself more external opportunities that may help make way for me into the acting industry and make more industry contacts. For example a well known rapper who tells stories in the form of rap has been very successful this year by producing and creating a three part series called 'Shiro's Story'. He had an upcoming project that allowed non-professionals the chance to submit themselves for a role listed that they fit to description. I jumped at the opportunity but first confirmed that I could apply by asking my lecturer for permission to ensure that if I had been successful it would not affect my current studies. To submit myself I emailed the director, a picture of myself and a short cover letter along with the acting role name I was submitting myself for.

I am going to get my photo taken professionally at college with no makeup on, as this shows agents and producers the real and natural me and by doing this will enable more opportunities for myself as they would be able to see more visually which character would be best fitted to myself.

I will also be creating an acting cv which will consist of my full name, my height and weight, my gender; my training and a picture of myself beside it. Below this information will be a record of productions I have been apart of clearly stating, the title of the production, the name of the role I played, the director of the production and the production companies name. This will be for Theatre, Television and Short films.

I am also apart of a WhatsApp group with over 33 participants who are also upcoming actors/actresses. In this group chat we send casting opportunities into the chat, in hoping to be successful in our individual ventures. So far I have responded to three casting calls.

Because I have not applied to UCAS, I have looked into taking short courses at CityLit. The courses that I will be applicable to will not start until next year however they are very affordable and will allow me to work alongside getting the training that will help my acting career. Advice I took on from ArtsEd after they learned that I wasn't taking the drama school pathway was to never stop training. I am interested in taking the screen-acting beginners course where i'll explore basic technical skills required for working on camera. I am also interested in their Acting intensive scene work which will provide me with advance skills and techniques as I move on to greater standards of professional practise.

I have looked at Spotlight as an option for casting opportunities and agents, they do have a page that lists top agents in the UK that I will be contacting and enquiring about being taken on. Before I contact an agent I will be looking at their client profiles and checking that I am different to their other clients, because then I'll have more of a chance. I will also be making an account on the website as a young performer where I will be creating a showreel and more in hoping to gain attention from agents in the industry.  I will also be seeking agents from a book I purchased.

My overall ambition is to become a successful actress, I aspire to be a big name in the industry like Taraji P.Henson. These are the progression routes I will be taking to help me achieve this. A dream would be to have a role in EastEnders, however only a short contract because I do not want to be tied down to one roll. I want to experience every opportunity the industry has to offer, I want to be a performer and take on rolls that require all disciplines, I want to make it in the US like Idris Elba has done and Joivan Wade and Rapman are doing now. I want my career to start whilst I am young so I can inspire people as I have been inspired by those actors and I want to have grown up in the industry so the world can follow my growth.

Unit 10: Self Reflective Blog 1 (Singing)

Independently Preparing For a Song

To begin preparation for drama school auditions we were given the task to select a pre-1965 musical number in our vocal range, we then had to learn the song off-book and print out the sheet music as we would in a real drama school audition that would require singing a song.

For my song choice I chose. 'When you're good to Mama" from the musical Chicago, sang by Queen Latifah - as "Matron Mama Morton" (The Matron of a women's block in jail who takes bribes from prisoners). I was already familiar with this song as I have watched the film which first debuted in 2002 and I have also performed this song when I was apart of the performing arts company 'Make Believe'.

Chicago is an American musical with music by John Kander and lyrics from Fred Ebb. The story is based on criminal justice and the concept of a celebrity criminal. It follows the trials and tribulations of a slick lawyer representing and defending Velma, a nightclub performer who murdered her husband for infidelity and Roxie Hart who shoots dead a man who manipulates her dreams and uses her for her body.

The original broad way production was performed in the style of Brecht and made audience members feel uncomfortable with the fourth wall being broken, the broad way production opened on June 3rd 1975 at the 46th Street Theatre and ran for a total of 936 performances. However the show struggled as the highly successful 'Chorus Line' came out the same year and beat Chicago in both ticket sales and Tony awards.

Chicago is a 1926 play written by Maurine Dallas Watkins that is best known today as the inspiration for the 1975 stage musical Chicago. The play is a satire and was based on two unrelated 1924 court cases involving two women, Beulah Annan and Belva Gaertner, who were both suspected and later acquitted for murder, whom Watkins had covered for the Chicago Tribune as a reporter. The play has been adapted as the 1927 film Chicago, the 1942 film Roxie Hart, and the 1975 stage musical Chicago, which in turn was adapted as the 2002 film Chicago. - Wikipedia

I learned the song off - book and was ready to perform however I was slightly nervous as I anticipated mistakes because it would've been my first time singing alongside the piano. In comparison to practising alone at home. I did quite well as Tom (the pianist and my lecturer) could see I have been practising as I could follow and keep up with the pace of the piano. My one critique was I would have to embody the character with much more confidence as Mama Morton has. It is a big song and Mama Morton is holds a big name of importance in the prison and I would need to represent that. Other than that I picked a well suited song for my voice as it is mostly sang in tenner. In future I will remember to make my performance much bigger and ensure I am telling a story through my song, in order for the audience to understand what I am singing about.

What is the song about?

Matron Mama Morton is in charge of the murderess row in a women's prison. In this number she shows a distressed Roxy Hart around the prison and informs her on how she runs the prison and if she wants to survive her best chance would be to stay on her good side. This is also the first appearance we see of the matron and therefore this is the introduction to her character. It is entertaining to see the contrast in characters, between herself, Velma and Roxie,her character engages us into wanting to know what actually goes on in that prison.