statement of intent

The role I am playing was created for a woman of the age, 35-40.

The dialogue was written for female performers, but there is no set dialogue or specific characters in the play, or even a prescribed number of actors required.

We choose to create the play into a duologue form as we felt that it reminisced better on the past events of the play and could help focus on what we felt was one of the key moments of the performance. The ladies are artists who are addicted to alcohol and drug use.

In this key extract my character has just lost one of her close friends to cancer and is coming to terms with this loss. An old friend of hers re-enters the life of the women and invites them all to her mansion to recover their losses. She is struggling highly to come to terms with their loss and has a lot of anger towards Sally (the old friend) for not being there to support them. They travel to her mansion and spend a night together drinking and reminiscing on the past.

My character is feeling a range of emotions in this key extract, including mourning the loss of her friend and feeling anger towards Sally. She is motivated to rebuild this friendship to make the pain easier.

I interpret my character to be a very loud, outgoing character, who has views she will put across and determination. Loud vocals with sharp physical movement to show this.

 The biggest musical on Broadway right now is Hamilton, and it is already proving to be most revolutionary indigenous musical to arrive there since Rent; a show that re-makes American history to make history itself. Its composer Lin-Manuel Miranda knows his musicals through and through, and though it speaks with its own unique rap voice, he populates it with references to other shows. And it's striking, seeing his earlier Broadway musical In the Heights again now in London after seeing Hamilton, how that show has led to the other.

This reviews opening is strong. It begins by calling it 'the biggest' musical on Broadway, the adjective biggest is a strong use of adjective, to compliment the play using the biggest highlights how strong of a performance it is. It is also strongly approved that they have mentioned the composer of the production, the musicals performance seems to be positive in this review.

Reviews of In The Heights

 "In the Heights’ is really a soap opera. Themes of immigration, heritage and gentrification play second sax to hope, home and young love, and cheesey metaphors abound. There are sunrises and sunsets, a heatwave and a power cut, and fireworks at the interval kiss. But you’re irresistibly caught up in the comings, goings and blazing interactions of the individual characters, through to David Bedella’s conflicted patriarch and his fearsome wife (during her solo, Josie Benson manages to stamp two heels at the same time).

But on press night it’s Victoria Hamilton-Barritt, as Vanessa’s melodramatic boss Daniela, who provides the defining image. Heavily pregnant in real life and still working the bodycons, she hurls a leg over the top of one of two freewheeling fire escapes and has at the high note with everything she’s got. This is musical theatre bursting with new life."

" In The Heights was bit disappointing. I feel that the storyline was not clear and felt myself getting confused throughout the performance. The songs are catchy and I enjoyed the musical side of it but I felt it came across quite in organised and wouldn't go and see it again to be honest."

Who wrote the play was not mentioned it either of the reviews, however the characters are mentioned in the positive review and they even mention the actors name not just their character, giving key characters is a strong point to include with in a review.

Neither reviews mention what kind of play it was which is necessary to sell the performance to people who have not watched it and are interested in seeing it. It is mentioned that the it is a musical in both reviews which is a positive as it gives the genre of the performance which is worth mentioning.

The first review is a positive review of In The Heights, shown through a use of adjectives such as 'Blazing' and 'Irresistibly".

The Review of the bottom one is negative, explaining that the music was not helpful towards producing a strong storyline and the script and music do not merge well together, but the script would of worked solo, so would the music if it was performed to a higher standard.

9.1

- choose 2-3 key moments and analyse them deeply making sure you include why you felt that these moments are strong moments in the performance.

- pick out the highest points and also the lowest points of each key moment you choose.

- physical theatre is about the live atmosphere (wouldn't engage enough people if shown on tv)

- focus on making points about the lighting choices, the sound and the set and analysis why you think it was good.

- evaluate and analyse each of the smaller sections or acts that interested me.

- live performances do not come across as interesting if seen recorded and not performed live, such as if a performance was filmed and placed on TV.

- they use the idea of live to catch the peoples eyes and draw them in to the performance.

OverView of 'As You Like It'

Characters in As You Like It:
.Rosalind
.Orlando
. Duke Senior
.Jaques
.Celia
.Duke Frederick
.William
.Audrey
.Corin
.Adam
.Charles
.Phoebe

Shared Experience have created a thrillingly distinctive performance style that celebrates the union of physical and text-based theatre. From their first production in 1976, they've managed to create theatre in this image. Risky, distinctive productions. Energy of live performance and the unpredictability of the stage.
The company was founded by Mike Alfreds in 1975 and in 1987 Nancy Meckler became the second Artistic Director, with Polly Teale joining as Nancy’s Joint Artistic Director in 2000. Shared Experience is now steered by a group of Associates including the directors Rebecca Gatward and Kate Saxon, the writer and director Jessica Swale and producer Conrad Lynch. Under their authorship, the company is entering its fourth stage and is creating a new body of work with a fresh voice.

I am looking forward to watching as you like it to gather my own personal opinion on the performance, I feel it could be well executed with strong vocals and acting that can be seen as wacky but strong. Hopefully it will be an all round good show.

My Director Ideas

If I was to put on a performance of The Tempest by Shakespeare, I would create a lighting effect on the stage that was quite dark, to represent the obvious of being trapped on a forested desert island but to further interpret the idea that bad is about to happen, and that a lot of dark troubles will be arising soon. In class I am currently working on Act 3 Scene 2 where Caliban leads Trinculo and Stefano into the trap of killing Prospero. The lighting being  dark would represent events about too occur however I would want to add a slight blue/green dipped light to represent the features of the island, such as the sea surrounding it and the grass on the island.

Family Tree in the Tempest

 Prospero has a large range of links with the rest of the characters from The Tempest. Prospero's brother Antonio, and Miranda Prospero's daughter who was exiled with him to the island.
You then have Caliban who hates Prospero as he is his slave and ends up planning to murder him with Stefano and Trinculo. Ariel is an imaginary spirit who guides and helps Prospero in the exchange or a promise to freedom. Prospero is respected by the King and the kings son wants to marry Miranda.


The kings brother Sebastian has planned on killing the king to try and take his throne from him.