Off text improvisation is acting without a script or any directions. In our lesson we did a scenario of a counselling session after kojo had stabbed the man. I found the improvisation really useful because you were able to think of body movements, reactions and what your character would say. For example as rosa I would imagine her as a somewhat self centred person who may be bored at a meaning like this as you would have to listen to other people's problems. Because of this I would often yawn and fidget during the improvisation.
I thought Jacob and Rosie did very good performances. This was because they were very consistent in their characters, this made their performances very eye catching and they developed their characters very well, especially with the tone of voice Jacob put on.
Wednesday, 19 December 2012
Sunday, 16 December 2012
Diary entry - improvisation meeting
The meeting was full of people going on about how hard their lives our, at least some of them have money and family, at least they don't have to worry about where their going to be this time next year. I could be dead, I could be living on the streets with no money and nowhere to go.
Sure this man has died because Kojo stabbed him, what an idiot does he not realise what their going to do to him, but instead of the people in the meeting doing anything to help him, about it their all just sitting here talking looking for sympathy, well not me see I have a life away from all this I don't need to be dragged into something I didn't do or had no part of.
This Group leader is just like all councilors and social workers, they just want their pay check they don't care about you or your problems. Going to that meeting was a waste of my time.
The meeting was full of people going on about how hard their lives our, at least some of them have money and family, at least they don't have to worry about where their going to be this time next year. I could be dead, I could be living on the streets with no money and nowhere to go.
Sure this man has died because Kojo stabbed him, what an idiot does he not realise what their going to do to him, but instead of the people in the meeting doing anything to help him, about it their all just sitting here talking looking for sympathy, well not me see I have a life away from all this I don't need to be dragged into something I didn't do or had no part of.
This Group leader is just like all councilors and social workers, they just want their pay check they don't care about you or your problems. Going to that meeting was a waste of my time.
Wednesday, 5 December 2012
what do other people say about my character?
Hassan page 27 - 'shes from Iraq too, were all good looking in Iraq'
not much is said about Roza, i think this is because she has quite a hard exterior in the play and is quite feisty so people may be afraid of angering her. Its only really Hassan that mentions her and i thunk this is because they are from the same country so he can understand her and knows her enough to annoy her.
What does my character say about herself?
Page 31 - 'I remember the bombs'
Roza dosen't say a lot about herself, i think this because of her past and her hard exterior that she has built up. we can see from the quote that she has a lot of bad memories and maybe she is still haunted by them and fears that if she lets something out she will remember them even worse.
What does my character say about others?
Page 27 - to hassan 'yeah right' replying to him saying hes good looking.
Page 27 - 'I'd rather fuck a fish hassan'
Page 27 - to Kojo 'hes cute'
Page 27 - about Kojo 'he doesn't talk much. hey.'
Page 31 - to translator 'why doesn't she shave her legs, her legs are hairier than a gorilla'
Page 47 - about Kojo 'hes a kid hes younger than me'
Rosa says a lot about others, i think this shows how she speaks her mind completely and isnt afraid of what others will say about her. Also she says a lot to hassan i think this is because they speak the same language which means they are able to have a lot of banter with each other.
Hassan page 27 - 'shes from Iraq too, were all good looking in Iraq'
not much is said about Roza, i think this is because she has quite a hard exterior in the play and is quite feisty so people may be afraid of angering her. Its only really Hassan that mentions her and i thunk this is because they are from the same country so he can understand her and knows her enough to annoy her.
What does my character say about herself?
Page 31 - 'I remember the bombs'
Roza dosen't say a lot about herself, i think this because of her past and her hard exterior that she has built up. we can see from the quote that she has a lot of bad memories and maybe she is still haunted by them and fears that if she lets something out she will remember them even worse.
What does my character say about others?
Page 27 - to hassan 'yeah right' replying to him saying hes good looking.
Page 27 - 'I'd rather fuck a fish hassan'
Page 27 - to Kojo 'hes cute'
Page 27 - about Kojo 'he doesn't talk much. hey.'
Page 31 - to translator 'why doesn't she shave her legs, her legs are hairier than a gorilla'
Page 47 - about Kojo 'hes a kid hes younger than me'
Rosa says a lot about others, i think this shows how she speaks her mind completely and isnt afraid of what others will say about her. Also she says a lot to hassan i think this is because they speak the same language which means they are able to have a lot of banter with each other.
Punctuation
In our exercise punctuation dancing I was given the character Ara to explore. I found she uses a lot of '...' when speaking to others, I think this shows that she really thinks about what she's going to say before she says it because of her caring nature. She never really uses exclamation marks which shows that she doesn't get herself worked up easily and instead rationally thinks about situations. When she is speaking to Kojo she uses a lot of question marks, this could be because of their language barrier, but I think it is mainly to do with her wanting to know more about him because she really loves him.
I found this exercise very useful because I discovered more about her personality and how she isn't the most excitable kind but is very caring. Also it was interesting to learn how much punctuation in the script can tell you about a character/characters and their relationship with others as well as their personality.
In our exercise punctuation dancing I was given the character Ara to explore. I found she uses a lot of '...' when speaking to others, I think this shows that she really thinks about what she's going to say before she says it because of her caring nature. She never really uses exclamation marks which shows that she doesn't get herself worked up easily and instead rationally thinks about situations. When she is speaking to Kojo she uses a lot of question marks, this could be because of their language barrier, but I think it is mainly to do with her wanting to know more about him because she really loves him.
I found this exercise very useful because I discovered more about her personality and how she isn't the most excitable kind but is very caring. Also it was interesting to learn how much punctuation in the script can tell you about a character/characters and their relationship with others as well as their personality.
Given circumstances
This picture shows the given circumstances for our play fugee. Some key ones we wrote down were:
- ara and kojo love each other
- hassan and roza speak the same language
- all of kojo's family are dead
- the social workers don't believe Kojo is 14
We thought these were very important in the play as they set the mood and relationships characters may have with each other on stage as well as their back stories for example kojo's family not being alive.
Other things we put down we're
- kojo witnessed his fathers death - I think this is very important in the play because it affects his attitude to violence and his trust towards people because he has witnessed something so terrible.
This exercise helped me with understanding how our play will look on stage and who would fit each roles. I could do this by looking at where the play was set as well as characteristics of the characters such as Chung having 'strong arms'.
What we did in the lesson - given circumstances and workshop auditions.
In today's lesson we began by learning about given circumstances in fugee. As a group we got a lot of circumstances down such as Kojos family being dead and rosa and hassan speaking the same language.
Finding all the given circumstances was very useful as it set out the structure of the play for me. Knowing where it was set, the characters backgrounds and what they look like created a strong image of my mind of how our play may turn out, who would Suit each part and how we could stage it to give our audience the best experience we could. It was also useful in that we could see what other characters had said about each other and themselves because this gave me a greater understanding how characters may act with each other on stage as well as what their personalities may be like.
After we began our workshop auditions, I really enjoyed this part of the lesson because it was interesting to see what some of the scenes may look like on stage as well as how people in the class worked together and how they chose to play the role.
I was happy with my audition and think I put 100% of effort into it. I sometimes found it hard in Reading the scenes as because it was the first time for everyone acting it through it was hard to bounce off one another because everyones face was either in their script or we were too busy concentrating on the lines to work out how we would move ourselves on stage as well. If I could do it again I would definitely spend less time worrying about the script and more on my body language and interaction with other actors on stage.
In today's lesson we began by learning about given circumstances in fugee. As a group we got a lot of circumstances down such as Kojos family being dead and rosa and hassan speaking the same language.
Finding all the given circumstances was very useful as it set out the structure of the play for me. Knowing where it was set, the characters backgrounds and what they look like created a strong image of my mind of how our play may turn out, who would Suit each part and how we could stage it to give our audience the best experience we could. It was also useful in that we could see what other characters had said about each other and themselves because this gave me a greater understanding how characters may act with each other on stage as well as what their personalities may be like.
After we began our workshop auditions, I really enjoyed this part of the lesson because it was interesting to see what some of the scenes may look like on stage as well as how people in the class worked together and how they chose to play the role.
I was happy with my audition and think I put 100% of effort into it. I sometimes found it hard in Reading the scenes as because it was the first time for everyone acting it through it was hard to bounce off one another because everyones face was either in their script or we were too busy concentrating on the lines to work out how we would move ourselves on stage as well. If I could do it again I would definitely spend less time worrying about the script and more on my body language and interaction with other actors on stage.
Saturday, 24 November 2012
These pictures were drawn by refugee children from Darfur, they show conflict and death in a shocking manor. These images show the kind of memories and experiences some of the refugees in fugee will have to now live with.
I find them a useful source for the play as they help me in understanding why the refuge may be so full of conflicts and constant noise. they are also useful in understanding why Kojo may feel the need to stab the man because of what he is used to and what he must have seen every day on the streets.
I find them a useful source for the play as they help me in understanding why the refuge may be so full of conflicts and constant noise. they are also useful in understanding why Kojo may feel the need to stab the man because of what he is used to and what he must have seen every day on the streets.
Friday, 23 November 2012
Why I would like to play Ara
I would like to play Ara because i find her very interesting because of her confident nature and her presence throughout the play. She relates to me as i think she is very strong willed and is quite protective of her friends. Her relationship with Kojo tells me alot about her character and how she would relate to him on stage by bouncing off him. She has quite a lot of banter with people on stage which is something i enjoy performing as well as her being quite active on stage moving about walking and running.
Her background isnt explained much in the play but i think whatever has happend to her has made her quite strong and grown up which is something i can again understand for example moving to the brit school and leaving where i went for 3 years realy made me much more mature than how many of my old friends are.
It is for those reasons i would really like to play ara in Fugee although i think whoever gets the part will to it justice i would really like to have a go at doing so. Other parts in the play are also very interesting to me such as Roza because of her banter with Hassan on stage. I really enjoyed the audition in class as it was a good expirence in seeing everyone act especialy those whom are prehaps not as confident in class usualy and it was nice to see how everyone interacted on stage.
This is a photo from a previous production of Fugee, we can see the characters Kojo and Ara on stage interacting. This highlights Aras protective and comforting nature. You can also see her strong stance and this is the type of character i would like to play.
I would like to play Ara because i find her very interesting because of her confident nature and her presence throughout the play. She relates to me as i think she is very strong willed and is quite protective of her friends. Her relationship with Kojo tells me alot about her character and how she would relate to him on stage by bouncing off him. She has quite a lot of banter with people on stage which is something i enjoy performing as well as her being quite active on stage moving about walking and running.
Her background isnt explained much in the play but i think whatever has happend to her has made her quite strong and grown up which is something i can again understand for example moving to the brit school and leaving where i went for 3 years realy made me much more mature than how many of my old friends are.
It is for those reasons i would really like to play ara in Fugee although i think whoever gets the part will to it justice i would really like to have a go at doing so. Other parts in the play are also very interesting to me such as Roza because of her banter with Hassan on stage. I really enjoyed the audition in class as it was a good expirence in seeing everyone act especialy those whom are prehaps not as confident in class usualy and it was nice to see how everyone interacted on stage.
This is a photo from a previous production of Fugee, we can see the characters Kojo and Ara on stage interacting. This highlights Aras protective and comforting nature. You can also see her strong stance and this is the type of character i would like to play.
Wednesday, 21 November 2012
THE CHARACTERS
KOJO: As a class we imagined Kojo to be 'homesick' 'scared' and 'guilty', we thought this because of the death of his parents and the fact that he was all alone in a big city where he felt like no one could understand him. In the play he is described a a 'lier' 'skinny' and 'in love with Ara'. This shows his softer side but also goes back to him feeling misunderstood and alone. I think this shows us why Ara must mean so much to him because he feels like she 'gets' him.
ARA: We thought Ara would be feeling 'hope' 'loss' and 'love' mainly throughout the play. This was because of her hope for finding Kojo and no longer feeling alone with no family but also because of her worry shown from Kojo stabbing the man and having to run we thought she would have felt as if she had lost the one person she had left.
CHUNG: In the play Chung is a gymnast which we think would give him 'playful' characteristics. He is also admired by many girls for his 'strong legs' and 'dark hair' so this again brings out his cheeky playful side. much like Ara the play doesn't give you much information on Chung but this really helped in finding his personality.
CHUNG: In the play Chung is a gymnast which we think would give him 'playful' characteristics. He is also admired by many girls for his 'strong legs' and 'dark hair' so this again brings out his cheeky playful side. much like Ara the play doesn't give you much information on Chung but this really helped in finding his personality.
THURSDAY 15TH NOVEMBER - LESSON
In todays lesson we aimed to set the atmosphere of different locations in the play. We did this by laying with our eyes shut in a space of the room and when indicated each saying a different phrase, word or sound at the same time gradually growing and then declining. Our first atmosphere was 'at the refuge' here there was a lot of shouting taking place and knocking on the door as well as children panicking about where they have place their belongings. This taught me of how the refugees must be feeling and the environment they are in whilst dealing with that. The refuge came across as if you had 30 brothers and sisters all of which you disliked and had to share everything with. it taught me how different our life is to theres and how being able to watch TV whenever i want is something that i hugely take for granted.
We also created the atmosphere of the market, somewhere largely used throughout the play. The sounds were once again very loud and probably very intimidating to a 14 year old child. There was once again a lot of shouting but there was also an aspect of fun. The sound of laughter seemed alien but somehow fit perfectly. You can understand why Ara and Kojo would want to spend their time there because of its fun adventurous side. It also feels like you could be anywhere in the world which probably makes them feel very at home and safe. However because there are so many people and so much rushing at a market you can understand how Kojo would have gotten away with stabbing the man and then blending into the crowd. This atmosphere helped me with understanding why they would choose to spent their time there and also the intimidation that could have led to Kojo stabbing the man.
Another exercise we did was 'a day in the life' i was put as Ara and over a short time period we acted out a sped up day as them. I decided to base mine before Ara had met Kojo and when she was living at the refuge without him. I visioned her as a sensitive character helping some of the younger refugees by kindly offering them her food when they didn't get any. It was obvious to me that if she needed to she could stand up for herself but underneath that was a kind 14 year old girl who just wanted to live as a child. I imagined her trying to communicate with the others and make friends, but the language barrier didn't allow her. The experience was very helpful in learning more about her as we don't get much information on her background in the play.
In todays lesson we aimed to set the atmosphere of different locations in the play. We did this by laying with our eyes shut in a space of the room and when indicated each saying a different phrase, word or sound at the same time gradually growing and then declining. Our first atmosphere was 'at the refuge' here there was a lot of shouting taking place and knocking on the door as well as children panicking about where they have place their belongings. This taught me of how the refugees must be feeling and the environment they are in whilst dealing with that. The refuge came across as if you had 30 brothers and sisters all of which you disliked and had to share everything with. it taught me how different our life is to theres and how being able to watch TV whenever i want is something that i hugely take for granted.
We also created the atmosphere of the market, somewhere largely used throughout the play. The sounds were once again very loud and probably very intimidating to a 14 year old child. There was once again a lot of shouting but there was also an aspect of fun. The sound of laughter seemed alien but somehow fit perfectly. You can understand why Ara and Kojo would want to spend their time there because of its fun adventurous side. It also feels like you could be anywhere in the world which probably makes them feel very at home and safe. However because there are so many people and so much rushing at a market you can understand how Kojo would have gotten away with stabbing the man and then blending into the crowd. This atmosphere helped me with understanding why they would choose to spent their time there and also the intimidation that could have led to Kojo stabbing the man.
Another exercise we did was 'a day in the life' i was put as Ara and over a short time period we acted out a sped up day as them. I decided to base mine before Ara had met Kojo and when she was living at the refuge without him. I visioned her as a sensitive character helping some of the younger refugees by kindly offering them her food when they didn't get any. It was obvious to me that if she needed to she could stand up for herself but underneath that was a kind 14 year old girl who just wanted to live as a child. I imagined her trying to communicate with the others and make friends, but the language barrier didn't allow her. The experience was very helpful in learning more about her as we don't get much information on her background in the play.
KABUL
Kabul is the largest city and capital of Afghanistan, in our play it is where one of the refugees Ara originally comes from. Afghanistan has been at war since 1978 and is certainly not the place you would choose to grow up. British and American armed forces are heavily based in Kabul and are just as common as a poster on the street during every day life, we can see this in the video below.
Kabul is the largest city and capital of Afghanistan, in our play it is where one of the refugees Ara originally comes from. Afghanistan has been at war since 1978 and is certainly not the place you would choose to grow up. British and American armed forces are heavily based in Kabul and are just as common as a poster on the street during every day life, we can see this in the video below.
a shopping center, somewhere children hang out with their friends is patrolled by the army, growing up in this type of environment would create the idea that 'war is normal' and 'just something you have to live with'. However because the character Ara is a refugee in London this shows her determination and courage. Maybe she had believed that she didn't want this as her life but wasn't scared to do anything about it so she did and took refuge in the UK. This tells us a lot about her character and how she is strong minded and productive.
Wednesday, 14 November 2012
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'You will never find a place more unique than the Ivory Coast. The Ivory Coast has the most children in the whole world.'
It is 322,463 square kilometers. In Africa, the Ivory Coast is located on the western part of its coast.
The 2010–11 Ivorian crisis was a political crisis in Côte d'Ivoire which began after Laurent Gbagbo, the President of Côte d'Ivoire, was proclaimed the winner of the Ivorian election in 2010 this was the first election in the country in 10 years. His rival, Alassane Ouattara, and a number of countries, organisations and leaders claimed Ouattara had won the election. After months of attempted negotiation and violence, the crisis entered a decisive stage as Ouattara's forces began a military offensive in which they quickly gained control of most of the country and besieged key targets in Abidjan, the country's largest city. International organizations have reported numerous human rights violations, and the UN undertook its own military action with the stated objective to protect itself and civilians.
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| Laurent Koudou Gbagbo Gbagbo |
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| Alassane Ouattara |
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