Character Profile

Character Profile

Name: Meggie McGregor
Age: 45
Date Of Birth: 2^nd May
Height: 5”3
Favourite colour: White
Previous Job: Nanny for the Hadley family
Current Job: Cleaner
Aim in life:

• To make sure Calum gets the best education and lives a long, intelligent and independent life.
• To create peace between the Noughts and Crosses

Hates: Liars
Loves: Her children
Brothers & Sisters: 3 brothers and 1 sister
Mum & Dad: Ann Samuels and Derek Samuels
Children:

• Jude McGregor
• Lynette McGregor
• Calum McGregor

Hobbies: Cleaning, cooking, baking and reading

 

Thursday 25th September 2014

Monday 22^nd September 2014

In class on Monday we focused on our scripts and we studied on traverse theatre. This is where the stage is set up differently. This is where the audience is on two parallel sides from each other. Our performance is going to be performed traverse. We also practised a new, exciting and interesting way to perform the end of the play; it’s very different and unique. I am excited to perform this show. Performing theatre traverse is a good way to perform spatial awareness and can help me develop skills in this new way of performing.

Thursday 25^th September 2014

How you use your voice to get across your emotion?

When acting, people use their voices to get across many different emotions. Sometimes to show sadness they are quiet or sometimes even silent. To show anger, sometimes their voice gets louder. To show happiness, sometimes their voice can get higher. Using your voice is a key way to inform your emotion towards your audience.

Technical terms: Voice –

1. Sound and Silence (an example of silence in my script):
“Meggie: And what if they told you there wasn’t? Would you have refused to be involved then?

Silence.

I can’t bear to look at you.

Pause.”

• The silence in the script is the longest pause in my script. This silence shows that Ryan and Jude didn’t know how to answer the question
• The pause in the script is the shortest pause in my script. A pause is different from silence, silence is longer than a pause.

2. Pitch (an example of pitch in my script):
“All those people killed and maimed and that’s what you have to offer?”

• In this sentence, my character pitch varies a lot. This is to show that that Meggie is so disgusted and shocked by her husband and son’s behaviour. When someone is shocked their voice usually gets higher at the end to show this emotion.

3. Pace (an example of pace in my script):
“Ryan, you promised me there’d never be anything like this. You promised you’d only be involved in the background. You promised.”

• In this sentence the pace is very fast; this is rushed because Meggie is upset and angry. And generally when somebody is very upset and angry at someone they generally rush their words.

(Another example)
“I know exactly who you’re doing it for. But she’s dead, Ryan. And murdering innocent people won’t bring her back.”

• This sentence is very different from the above one. This sentence is slowed down, more emotion is put into this line. Meggie is talking about her daughter who committed suicide, it’s a sensitive subject therefore her emotion would change to sadness.

4. Intonation (an example of intonation in my script)
“And what about all the Noughts you just killed?”

• In this sentence, intonation is demonstrated. At the end of the sentence, there is a rise in pitch.

(Another example)
“I want you out of this house.”

• In this sentence, my characters voice changes its intonation by making the sentence all the same pitch, this is an example of a demand in the script.

5. Volume (an example of volume in my script)
“You promised”

• These two words demonstrate volume. The volume is soft, this point in the script is where Meggie is disappointed and feeling betrayed, and therefore her volume in her voice will lower.

6. Tone colour (an example of tone colour in my script)
“you killed- you murdered all those people.”

• This is one example of tone colour in my script. Every line that is performed had tone colour. It depends on what mood your character is in, for example; at this moment in the play my character is upset, disappointed, disgraced and blue.

7. Emphasis (an example of emphasis in my script)
“This isn’t happening”

• The way I say this line is full of a lot of stress. Meggie is worried about what she is going to hear next. This is a key part in my script where it shows a lot of stress piled on top of Meggie.

(Another example)
“You should’ve said no”

• In this line, I emphasis the word ‘should’ve’.

 

By: Robyn-Mae Harriott 10CRE

Thursday 18th September 2014

Thursday 18^th September 2014

Today in theatre we worked on articulation, voice projection and staying in role. Practising voice projection helped us to make sure our voices were heard. This lesson had helped me learn to develop my character even more to reach its strongest ability. After we finished our warm-ups and stretches, we rehearsed our scenes we were given. My character is Meggie (Calum’s mum). After my group performed our short piece, we were given feedback. I understand that being given feedback is to help get a better understanding of how to develop your character further. One way I learnt how to enhance my role was to think of how my character talks, my character is lower class, so she wouldn’t talk very posh, she might talk with a more common voice. Also I realised a way to improve my acting was to control my movements, I noticed that when I act sometimes a shift on my feet. So for next lesson I’m going to work on improving my movement, because I now know that it is quite distracting and unnecessary if I don’t need to move.

However I did receive good feedback, this was that my voice projection was clear and I didn’t rush my sentences so everyone understood what I was saying. I was also told that my body language and tone of voice was very good at representing my characters emotions. One more thing that I was told was good about my acting was that using pauses really helped enhance the tension and emotion in the scene. Pauses also give actors a chance to show their emotions through their facial expressions and body language. I also understand that staying in role has a huge impact on the audience. If somebody breaks their character for a split second the whole of the scene is ruined for the audience because the character has been broke and the actor has stopped acting.

It is incredibly important that an actor always warms up their body and voice. Stretches for an actor’s body is important so that they don’t pull a muscle when acting. Theatre is supposed to be exaggerated so that all the audience can see what is being acted. It is very different from TV and film. So if an actor is on stage acting it’s possible that they could pull a muscle with their over exaggerated movements. Voice warm-ups are just as important as body warm-ups, if not more! This is because an actor is most likely going to use their voice sometime in a play, therefore voice warm-ups are very important to stretch all the muscles in your mouth and focus on projecting your voice. This helps for when you go onto stage to perform your voice is fully warmed up to be able to project your voice to the back of the theatre so everybody can hear loud and clear.

For next lesson I am going to focus on developing my characters tone of voice to show even more my characters class. I am also going to work on my unnecessary movements to try and relax my body when I act so that the whole of my body is acting as my character.

Thursday 11th Spetember 2014

Thursday 11th September 2014


Today in Theatre class (11/09/2014) we focused on breath control, voice projection, improvisation, freeze frames and transitions. I thought that the way the voice and breath control exercises were performed, was an excellent way to teach us how important projecting and breathing is as an actor. I also enjoyed the improvisation activity we did in theatre. The way we had to walk around the room -and when told to stop- turn to the nearest person and start a random conversation was challenging for me, at first because I had to think of something to say on the spot without directed lines. And when I tried this at first, I couldn't think of anything, my mind blanked out, because I was thinking too much. However as we practiced improvisation for a while I found it more easier to relax and let my mind think of anything that entered. Doing this helped me build more confidence as an actor in improvisation.


Later on in the lesson, we focused on certain lines from the play "Noughts and Crosses". We were given three short lines from the play. And from each line, we had to pick the most two important words to say. After our group decided on what words we were taking from each line, we had to create a freeze frame based on what that line meant, and within the freeze frame we could use the two words we picked. We had to do this for all three lines. I liked the way we didn't use the whole line but we used the most meaningful words from the text. I liked this because it was more effective to use one word than say the whole line, it was more interesting and captivating to the audience and at the same time, it easy to understand what was being portrayed through the drama piece by just using one word.


After we performed our short freeze frames we were sent away to work more on our pieces to make them more effective and practise how to add transitions. Our group developed our performance a lot, we added repetition to create tension and suspense. We also added slow motion within our transitions from one place to another because we thought it would show time passing and this would keep the audience engaged in our slow actions.


I think the activities we focused on today have really helped and improved my knowledge on my acting. I was reminded that not all drama has to have speaking in it and that you can use a few words from the text and it will still be clear on what emotions and feelings are being performed. I realised that you also didn't even need any words at all, with silence in a piece of drama can be really effective and full of suspense and tension because nobody is saying anything, its all being performed by using you body language and facial expressions. One more thing I learnt from my lesson today was that when you use transitions in a piece of theatre, everyone has to do the same movements during the transitions. Before this lesson, I was not told that everyone had to do the same thing, I thought everyone's transitions can be different. However after being told this, today I realised that if everyone's movements are the same, it makes the piece of drama look more organised and professional.


For next lesson I am looking forward to finding out our parts and start to rehearse.
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Shakespeare pack

How do the character's body postures help to inform you of their statuses? – The characters body postures help inform the audience what status they are, sometimes by levels. For example; within the first 10 seconds the use of levels has already demonstrated. Calum (lower class as a white person) is on the floor with his head in his hands, showing that he’s worried because he doesn’t know what to do about a situation. This confusion and distress he is showing, shows the audience that he is in the lower class because he is worrying. If you are upper class you wouldn’t be worried because you are in charge.

Also to show status, during the end of the clip where the shooting is taking place, Sephy is standing up straight, showing she is not afraid and that she is the higher class. She does not want to back down, however with Calum he wants to back down so he gets to the floor because he is afraid. This sacredness shows that he is lower class and is afraid of what is happening.

Acting Skills Audit

Strengths and Weaknesses

Strengths	Okay	Weaknesses
·        Keeping in role	·        Accents	·        Mime
·        Embracing all roles	·        Masked characters	·        Trust exercises
·        Abstract	·        Analysing	·        Improvisation
·        Facial expressions	·        Body Language	·        Physical theatre
·        Timing	·        Imagination	·
·        Interaction	·        Characterisation	·
·	·        Stillness	·

 

Thursday 4th September 2014

Thursday 4th September 2014

Today in Theatre class, we finished reading the play we are studying ‘Noughts and Crosses’. Once we started reading it in our first lesson, on Monday 1st September, I noticed that the play had a very similar storyline to a very famous Shakespeare play called Romeo and Juliet (which is one of my favourite Shakespeare plays) so I couldn’t wait to finish reading it the following lesson. I thought the play was very interesting and I thoroughly enjoyed the story line because I thought it was so romantic and captivating. However I would have liked it if Calum had lived instead of died, and witnessed his child grow up.

I liked the idea that the racial context was switched around- from black people being the lower class and white people being the upper, to white people being the lower class and black people being the upper. I think this switch in class made more people aware of how serious the racism was. The small, tiny details in the storyline where they talk about the “black-coloured plasters” and the “white-coloured plasters” and the word “whitemailed” really opened up my mind and many other minds of the class.

I think reading this play has really help me develop as an actor because it helps get an understanding of the characters, the play and how lines are said. This can help me because I can try and incorporate it into my character to make the role get to its best ability. When you are taking part in a play (no matter how big your role is) is extremely useful and important to read the whole script because it gives you a broader understanding of your character, how they act, how they talk, their thoughts, how they feel about different characters and what they’ve been through to make them the character that they are. And by using all of this information you can develop you acting and your role to it best quality.

I have really enjoyed reading this play and I cannot wait to start acting!