Final Evaluation

East end tales is a collection of scripted stories inspired real life events in the east end and developed through improvisation then refined and scripted. The tales look at social and moral issues as well as the way in which society as a whole and its individual members interact and react in the world. Though the tales aren't directly related they are all set in the east end and are performed one after another with though intricate, quite definite transitions. There weren't any costumes used in the play although voice, gesture and at times props were used to define characters.

In the development of the play, although we were encouraged to use our own thoughts and ideas to enhance our performance, the script was always central to our process. In order to develop ideas we looked at small pieces of the text and devised pieces of theater around them, for example after reading the play i devised a monologue in which the landlord who is portrayed as a 'tight bastard' (tale 6) debated the difficulties of running a small business in the east end. We also when looking at Tale 8 created a piece of physical theater focusing on the sounds and atmosphere of a dark alley.

As well as developing the play through improvised work we also developed our ideas throughout the rehearsal process, because of the amount of times we repeated the piece it very quickly became apparent as to which scenes excited the cast and which didn't. For instance tale 4 was originally really hard work to block and seemed to drag throughout the rehearsals, after a few weeks the director decided to hugely change the movement of most of the cast when Nina walked through the rain and met the old lady. This really changed the energy of the cast and the feel of the piece for the better. Also in devising some scenes on our own we really gained confidence in our ability to act and perform.

The strengths of the piece were the way in which one tale transitioned into another, and the way that all of the tales felt connected. As a cast we all were really invested in the play and this was shown through the energy and commitment people portrayed in their acting. The moments that worked best were the real high energy moments where several different things were going on for example in tale 3 where we were playing a 'jack of all trades' character trying to sell the audience something. my favorite moment was tale 2 because i felt as though we had all devised and developed the piece together. I thought the way we portrayed different types of girls was a really good way to open the show as the play was showcasing the diversity in the east end. I wanted the audience to feel at first the lightheartedness of the piece but then also feel the change in atmosphere towards the end of the tale. i think it was perceived this way by the audience because not only did the vocality change but the type of movement also changed.

In tale 3 Matteo played the character of a man who had previously beat a man to death, towards the end of the tale his character relived the night he killed a man and i thought it was a really touching scene. The way that Matteo contrasted his earlier blaze attitude with this softer remorseful side of the character was an effective decision.

Some of the weaknesses of the piece were the consistency of the energy and commitment among all of the cast, while some people were very committed and kept the energy up throughout the whole piece others struggled to be constantly in focus, to overcome this as a cast we encouraged each other and covered lines when they were forgotten. As well as this some of the lines were spoken too quietly and especially over the music this was quite frustrating! Overall though the show was amazing and everyone worked really hard.

This term I've really developed the quality of my acting and physical theater skills, at first i found it really hard to act well with only a few lines in one go and when i wasn't acting as one character throughout the play. due to this i really had to work hard on my character development and condensing what would usually be shown over a scene into two or three lines. I've also developed my ability to tell a story through more abstract means of theater because east end tales isn't a traditional play I've had to work harder in telling the very dynamic story using physical theater and other means. I've learnt that acting isn't always about playing one character throughout a play and its not just about what we think of a classically 'acting'.

I think that I've managed myself quite well over the course of this project although i have struggled with keeping my blog up to date and handing the work in by the deadlines. In the classroom i think I've done well in contributing in class both creatively and critically and I've stayed on task in all the lessons. I think in terms of developing my characters' roles I've shown a lot of growth over the last 17 weeks.

Overall i have really enjoyed working on east end tales the past two terms, the dynamics and constantly changing mood of the play have kept me interested, challenged and sometimes frustrated. As a company we took this play from the page to the stage and in my opinion did a very good job of it, i have grown as an actor and have learned to become more open minded in what i perceive as 'acting' I've almost been humbled and learned the value of creating a piece of theater not just as an individual but as a company of actors.

Quotes From The Play

Prologue

'Yeah i get all sorts in here'

Tale 1

'even the traffic stops for him when he crosses the road'

Tale 2

'at night she dreams of rainclouds'

Tale 3

'but his past is where its really snowing'

Tale 4

'yesterdays stories that the rain might wash away'

 

My Objectives

Prologue

'Shit jumped a light there"

-  tell Matteo hes jumped a light

- Urgent, reflexive

Tale 1

'mixed race'

- Tell a friend about a boy i saw

- flirty, excited

'and his dad used to hit him'

- Checking i heard that right

- Confused, Solumn

Tale 3

'He wont look you in the eye'

- Convince someone that im right

- Dismissive, Serious

My Characters

Prologue

In the prologue me and Sarah are Matteo's headlights, although we are inanimate objects, the headlights to me are always there through every road and every passenger with the taxi driver. They have seen and heard everything yet they are still stable and reliable.

Tale 1

In tale one my character is that stereotypical teenage girl who spends all her time on her phone texting her friends about boys and gossiping, when i read the line 'and his dad used to hit him' theres a very breif moment where my character realises how serious that is but almost immediately she is back to tweeting and taking selfies.

Tale 3

At the beginning of the tale i am the same girl is was in tale 1 but three or four years later, shes still the same at heart but is now more interested in drinking with her friends.

I then become the 'handyman' and he is quite lazy and alright at his job but dosen't really care about his customers. After scratching his head and looking at his phone he says to his client he can fix it next week and til then they cant use the water. he was born and raised in the east end and lives for the weekends.

When we all start saying our lines and transition to the edge of th stage i see my character as beeing someone who knew jack really well but now has drifted apart after the accident.

Tale 4

In this tale i see myself  as someone in the community watching how this young person is treating this old lady. I'm suprised at how nice and helpful she is being as i picture the 'youths' to be rude and disrespectful

Tale 5

At the beginning of tale 5 i am a woman who has been abused putting on makeup to cover a black eye. She dosent notice the boys moving past her as she is focused on the practical side of her situation not the emotional, at this point its been going on for a while and though she recognises the severity of her situation shes no longer hysterical about it.

Creating Tales 3&4

Tale 3

Tale three is staged with the boys sitting on stools dotted around the stage, we enter the stage as if we were walking into a pub and mill around before leaning back as if downing a pint on 'londons calling'. we then sayb in unsion 'if the east end was my friend' then freeze waiting for the line 'a bit of this a bit of that' after which we approach the audience being handymen while the boys are building the bar from the red stools. when the bar is built Matteo slams his stool down. We then move to sit at the edge of the stage on the three sides. At the line 'whitewashed' a sheet is bulled across the center of the stage which a body (roseby) lies under. Our torchlight, whichuntil now was lighting the bar, is placed onder the sheet at the end of the line 'where the body of a man lies covered in snow'. the body moves out from under the sheet on the line 'the loudmouth routine is just a disguise' and Matteo replaces on the body on the line 'Cos under it all his a lost little boy' at the end of the scene the lights go out.

In this tale i play the character of a young girl going for a night out at the pub. This Character is quite loud but very breif. I then play a handyman. I approach a member of the audience and tell them that both their plumbing and electric are shit and it will take me about a moth to repair it.

The atmosphere of tale three is slightly more naturalistic than tales 1&2 which are quite styilised. There are a lot more improvised pieces and the tale feels quite light until the end. With the use of the londons calling track at the beginning the pub atmosphere is immediately set. Then lighting of the sheet then transitions the piece to become more serious.

Tale 4

Tale four is staged with us all under umbrellas at first in pairs, and then in a huddle low on the ground. we then form the road diagonally across the stage. later on we move to becom aisles of the shop. and then we are sitting casually at the sides of the stage.

In this tale i play a person in the rain, then i am the road while being the commentator for the horse racing. later on i become part of the aisle, and then just a spectator.

Further Questions

Over the past few weeks i think i have developed more confidence in my acting and my decision making, instead of just asking every question that i think of im getting better at taking initiative and working it out. Due our monday lessons i think ive also become better at improvising which is helpful in the breif improvised parts of east end tales. Ive discovered that i can be a lot more mature and professional in lessons than i sometimes am.

Ensemble

To me the word ensemble in theatre means a group of actors acting together, wether a main actor is being supported by an ensemble to create mood or scenery or wether all the lines are said in unison or divided between the actors.

To develop a sucessful ensemble every member of the company has to be foucused and has to have energy because if even one person dosent know what they are doing or dosent do it right it will throw the whole piece off.

My favourite ensemble moment so far has been doing tale 1 with all the girls. it was my favourite moment because we all really worked hard together and were proud of what we were doing, i think we were all quite suprised by how good the piece looked so fast and i personally felt like we were being directed rather than taught which felt nice. when we showed the boys what we had been doing it felt really good to have another group of people acknowledge the merits of the piece and i really felt that we'd reached another level of teamwork. Everyone was really focused and we all helped each other out and felt really comfortable with everyone in the room.

Rehearsing

Thrust Staging

Using thrust staging allows the company to be more creative with their staging, you can more effectivley have more than one thing happening at once it also means you can act more naturally on stage as there is more than one front you dont always have to be facing one direction.

however a disadvantage of thrust staging is that as an actor you have to work harder to make sure that you can be understood from all angles, you also only have one point of entry or exit

As an actor i think i will struggle to keep up tghe energy and intensity required to engange the audience  on all three sides of the stage.

The Prologue

We have staged the prologue with seven groups of four dotted around the stage with the taxi driver sitting down, the two headlights either side of him and the passenger behind him. I think we are staged like this so that we dont as a company focus on one side of the audience, it dosent look as though its aimed in one particular direction. The effect of this is that the stage looks very full busy. the use of torch light in the dark emulates the streetlights in the dark on the roads and is really effective in creating that 'middle of the night drive home' feeling.

Tale 2

My role in tale two is to say the lines 'if the east end was my friend' 'mixed race' 'which is a start' 'and his dad used to hit him' and 'even the traffic stops fro him when he crosses the road'

Tale two has been staged with all the girls sitting in two rows back to back in the middle of the stage, some are on the floor and some on the red stools. as we say our first lines we illuminate our faces with our torchlight and act as if were texting on our phones, after the line 'cause his dad used to smoke' on our lines we stand up and move towards the audience. on the line 'even the traffic stops for him when he crosses the road' we all turn and point our torches to the middle.

These choices have been made to face all three audiences, to make the piece more stylised and to punctuate important lines with movement.

I think the strengths of the piece are definatley the diversity of voices that we all use to deliver our lines and the symbolism of the piece.

To improve the piece we need to get sharper on our lines and movement.