LOGBOOK 19th NOVEMBER 2013

19/11/13                              ACTING AUDITIONS

DIARY ENTRY     

In today’s lesson all of us got up to do our monologues to see where everyone is at with their pieces. The first person that went up was Bicton and his monologue was from Anthony & Cleopatra. I think that Bicton has worked hard on this monologue, I liked his stillness, focus, and thought process but his character was supposed to be angry at ‘Eros’, 2^nd time round he did this piece, he had to be more angry and invest more energy. Here's what we've been doing throughout the lesson..........

 

Today was fine...........

LOGBOOK 22nd OCTOBER 2013

22/10/13

DIARY ENTRY                     ACTING AUDITIONS


Today all of us had to do a presentation on where we're at with our Drama school application forms and our monologues. Gary got Tyler to stay in with us in our lesson for a couple of minutes and talk about where he is at now and what he would have done if he was at our stage now. He said he would have got another Shakespeare monologue because he only had his two modern's and one Shakespeare. Also at this time last year he wasn't reading both his contemporary plays and the only thing he did was just look at them. By hearing this it has made me realise that I should be reading my plays more now and analysing the scene where my character delivers his speech. To be honest I did that with both my contemporary monologue's but with my two Shakespeare monologues I feel that I haven't spent enough time on them, especially with my 2nd Shakespeare monologue because it's a romantic piece I feel that it's going to be challenge for me and some of the language there I am going to struggle with. Hopefully soon I will be a lot more confident with it. After Tyler did his little presentation, Ahmed got up and told us about both of his auditions at 'Guildhall & Alra (The Academy of live and Recorded Arts)'. With his Guildhall audition he was 30mins late, which was quite disappointing but when he delivered his monologue to the panel it went well but they did not redirect him or ask him any questions. All the other candidates had 30mins with the panel and Ahmed only had 5mins, maybe because he was late. Again since last year,Gary has been going on & on & on & on telling us DON'T BE LATE!, which could affect our chances of being offered a place at Drama School. I obviously understand how important it is to be early buy by hearing Ahmed being late at Guildhall it has made me realise how important 'PUNCTUALITY' is. Ahmed's audition for alra went very well, this time he was early ! :D. He enjoyed the warm up games/exercises they did and got to the last round which meant that he must have done well with his monologues, but he claims that the only thing that brought him down was the improvisation exercise. Mahin also had his audition on that day and also got to the last round. Despite that both of them were not offered a place they still enjoyed there audition and said it was a good experience.


During our lesson Gray gave us a Final Year Check-list sheet with 8 questions -certain questions on how ready we are and where we're at at the moment ?, here's what I've answered for my check-list................

1. Institutions I have applied to ?- 5 university's & two Drama schools

2. Are all applications sent ?- all uni's done and my Arts Ed form is sent off

This is where I'm at now so far

Today was alright :/

LOGBOOK 15th OCTOBER 2013

15/10/2013

                              ACTING AUDITIONS DIARY ENTRY


Today all of us had to get up and show our monologues, since Mahin has his alra audition on Friday we as a whole helped him. The monologue he is doing is from 'A Winters Tale' and the character he is portraying is Autolycus, same monologue as Cameron. First time round he delivered his speech was good but he was rushing it and I couldn't understand what he was saing half the time on certain bit, maybe because he was scared to attack the language. Also he had to emphasize on certain syllables/phrases so we can understand what he is talking about. I think that he had good energy but it wasn't strong enough. I also feel that he should slow everything down and take it apart more. To get Mahin energised, Gary did this exercise which was to run around the Theatre until shouts 'Now!' - he should go straight into the monologue. When he did that it felt much better, but we still have to understand what he's saying. It is Mahin's job to make us as the audience understand what's going on in the scenario of his piece. Not just Mahin same thing applies to all of us aswell. As an Actor it is your job to make us understand your monologue/piece. Another thing I think Mahin has to work on is 'Clarity' again I didn't understand what he was saying and I still did not get a picture or sense of where he was. I feel that Mahin can do more with his physicality because t the moment he's abit stiff and stale. Last time round Mahin had to go full out without stumbling or any interuptions as while he's perofrming his monologue. This time it was much better but he could do a lot more with it. Overall it was a lot better fom when he first started. Unfortunately Gary couldn't het anyone else up to show their monologue because time was running out :( . For our next task we had to get into pairs and work with someone different. My partner was Sean, we had to choose who is going to be partner A or B-obviously because my name starts with an A I had to recite my lines from both of my Shakespeare monologues and Sean could stop me at any bit if he didn't get the meaning of what I was saying. I know y 'Taming Of The Shrew' monologue (2nd Shakespeare piece) but I didn't understand what I was saying. I understood a few bits but there were just words that I di not quite understand myslelf. When Sean asked to see my Julius Caesar monologue (1st Shakespeare piece) which I'm very string on. The first time I did this monologue I did not paint a picture of where my charcter is and who he I talking to. Sean told me with him seeing my monologue it's much better, he understood what I was saying and it has come a long way. He also told me to keep working on it and I should be fine :). On the other hand I have a lot of work to with my 'Taming Of The Shrew monologue :( and because it's a romantic piece I have a feeling that I am really going to struggle with it. Hopefully within a week or two it should be at a good standard.

Today was fine :/
             
 














  

CLASSICAL THEATRE UNIT: SHAKESPEARE THEATRE RESEARCH

Classical Theatre Unit:

                                    ROYAL SHAKESPEARE THEATRE 

The Royal Shakespeare Theatre is a 1040  seat stage theatre owned by the Royal Shakespeare Company and  dedicated to William Shakespeare. The location is in the town of Stratford-upon-Avon, Shakespeare's birthplace which is in the English Midlands, beside the River Avon. The Royal Shakespeare and Swan Theatres re-opened in November 2010 after undergoing a major renovation known as the Transformation Project. The Globe was built in a similar style to the Coliseum, but on a smaller scale - other Elizabethan Theatre's followed this style of architecture, they were called amphitheatres. The Theatre was built by a carpenter called Peter Smith together with his workforce. 1597 they started building and it was finished in 1598.

The Theatre opened on 23 April 1932 on the site adjacent to the original Shakespeare Memorial Theatre (opened 19 April 1879), which had been destroyed by fire on 6 March 1926, whose name it took. The architect was Elisabeth Scott, so the theatre became the first important work erected in this country from the designs of a woman architect. It is now owned and managed by the Royal Shakespeare Company and was renamed Royal Shakespeare Theatre in 1961.

In 2011 they celebrated the 50th anniversary of the RSC, but the history began long before 1961 and the idea of a theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon was not new in 1875 when Charles Flower donated the building site. His radical suggestion was that it should have a permanent subsidised ensemble company of actors.

Yearly performances

April 1879 when the Shakespeare Memorial opened it held annual festivals. Between 1888 and 1917 Frank Benson's touring company appeared every spring. In 1911 a consortium led by Archibald Flower, the Memorial's Chairman, took over Benson's management. For the first time the theatre almost had its own company. 1919 marked a turning point as new directors and companies were invited to perform and on that autumn a resident company was opened, directed by William Bridges-Adams who stayed in post until 1934. When  the Second World War ended, a new way of work began. Barry Jackson employed a completely fresh company opening eight plays across the summer, each with a full month's rehearsal.

ELIZABETHAN ERA/HISTORICAL CONTEXT/THEATRE CONVENTIONS

During the Elizabethan Era many actors, playwrights and theatres were constantly busy. This was the high culture of the Elizabethan Renaissance which was best expressed in it's theatre due to the historical topics, they were especially popular but not to mention the usual comedies and tragedies. Plays were performed in the the courtyards of the inn, they were referred to as 'inn-yards''. 500 people would attend play performances and there was clearly some considerable profit to be made in theatrical productions.

ROMEO & JULIET HISTORICAL CONTEXT: 

During Queen Elizabeth 1st reign, England was still suffering from the aftershocks of the War of the Roses. As her father, King Henry VIII had been forced to deal with a long bloody civil war of his making, she found herself inheriting a new civil conflict that her father had created. This was also partly due to a question of succession but was greatly complicated by a ''holy war'' between the traditional Catholic church and the upstart Protestant sects. Throughout Elizabeth's reign, this uncivil fighting was perhaps less bloody but more pervasive as to a '' witch hunt'' type of persecution of Catholics who refused to convert to the new religion of the realm.

According to many scholars, one of those stubborn Catholics was John Shakespeare- a self-made man who lost virtually all of his position and fortune during the latter period of his life. His son, William also suffered personally from Elizabeth's anti-Catholic policies. As William later became a famous and wealthy member of the entertainment community in London, he was in a position where he could use his intellect and access to the public to voice many of his social and political thoughts. However, as Elizabeth could easily decide to imprison or execute anyone who voiced their opposing viewpoints too loudly and too directly (and did exercise that power on many occasions), William was intelligent enough to make most of his opinions behind the thin curtain of the stage.  In his “Response to Hildegard Hammerschmidt-Hummel”, E.A.J. Honigmann points out that “Shakespeare’s two greatest rivals, (Christopher) Marlowe and (Ben) Jonson, both were Catholics with underground contacts, and both experienced interrogation and imprisonment—and in Marlowe’s case probably murder.

'Romeo & Juliet' was a veiled warning to Queen Elizabeth I of the dangers and evils of continuing this policy of allowing persecution of her own citizens to go on in her name because of a difference in the way people chose to worship Christ. This was a rather none sense feud and if Elizabeth did not end this civil strife in some way that would show that all of her subjects were truly one nation, then all would be ''Punished''.

During that era as Elizabeth I came to power, England was still suffering from the aftershocks of the War of the Roses. As her father, Henry VIII, had been forced to deal with a long and bloody civil war not of his making, Elizabeth found herself inheriting a new civil conflict that Henry had created.

JULIUS CAESAR  HISTORICAL CONTEXT:

Julius Caesar is set in ancient Rome in 44 BC ,conspiracy against the Roman dictator Julius Caesar, his assassination and the defeat of the conspirators at the Battle of Philippi. Rome suffered from constant infighting between ambitious military leaders and the far weaker senators to whom they supposedly owed allegiance. The empire also suffered from a sharp division between citizens, who were represented in the senate, and the increasingly underrepresented plebeian masses. Later on a succession of men aspired to become the absolute ruler of Rome - but only Julius Caesar seemed likely to achieve this status. Citizens who favored more democratic rule feared that Caesar’s power would lead to the enslavement of Roman citizens by one of their own. After that a group of conspirators came together and assassinated Caesar. The assassination, however, failed to put an end to the power struggles dividing the empire, and civil war erupted shortly thereafter.


The plot of this play includes the events leading up to the assassination of Caesar as well as much of the subsequent war, in which the deaths of the leading conspirators constituted a sort of revenge for the assassination. Shakespeare’s contemporaries, well versed in ancient Greek and Roman history, would very likely have detected parallels between Julius Caesar’s portrayal of the shift from republican to imperial Rome and the Elizabethan era’s trend toward consolidated monarchal power. 1599, when the play was first performed, Queen Elizabeth I had sat on the throne for nearly forty years, enlarging her power at the expense of the aristocracy and the House of Commons. As she was then sixty-six years old and her reign seemed likely to end soon, yet she lacked any heirs (as did Julius Caesar). Also a lot of people feared that her death would plunge England into the kind of chaos that had plagued England during the fifteenth-century Wars of the Roses.

THE TAMING OF THE SHREW: SHAKESPEARE MONOLOGUE 2 RESEARCH

18/06/13      

THE TAMING OF THE SHREW: SHAKESPEARE MONOLOGUE 2

RESEARCH

Synopsis/Plot

Starting with the induction of this play it begins with a poor beggar/ tinker named Christopher Sly who becomes the target of a prank by a local lord. Finding Sly drunk out of his wits in front of an alehouse, the lord has his men take Christopher to his manor, dress him in his finery, and treat him as a lord. As Sly recovers, the men tell him that he is a lord/nobleman himself and that he only believes himself to be a tinker because he has been insane for the past several years. Waking in the Lords bed, Christopher refuses to accept the men’s story, but when he hears of his “wife,” a pageboy dressed in women’s clothing, he readily agrees that he is the lord they purport him to be. Sly wants to be left alone with his wife a pageboy dressed in women’s clothing, he readily agrees that he is the lord they purport him to be. Christopher wants to be left alone with his wife, but the servants tell him that a troupe of actors has arrived to present a play for him and that play that Christopher watches makes up the main story of ‘‘The Taming of the Shrew’’ which is set in the Italian city of Padua and about a young rich man named Lucentio who arrives with his servants, Tranio and Biondello, to attend the local university. Lucentio is excited to begin his studies, but his priorities change as he sees Bianca, a beautiful, mild young woman with whom Lucentio instantly falls in love with. 

There are two main problems: Firstly Bianca has two suitors (A man who pursues a relationship with a particular woman, with a view to marriage.)…………….

 1)  Gremio – an elderly suitor of Bianca, and Hortensio - suitor of Bianca and friend to Petruchio      (spends some of the play disguised as Litio, a music tutor)

 2) Bianca’s father, a wealthy old man named Baptista Minola who has declared that no one may court Bianca until first her older sister, the vicious, ill-tempered Katherine, is married. 

 Lucentio then decides to overcome this problem by disguising himself as Bianca’s Latin tutor to gain an excuse to be in her company. Hortensio also disguises himself as her music teacher for this same reason. While Lucentio pretends to be Bianca’s tutor, Tranio dresses up as Lucentio and begins to confer with Baptista about the possibility of marrying his daughter.

The Katherine problem is solved for Bianca’s suitors when Hortensio’s friend Petruchio, a brash young man from Verona, arrives in Padua to find a wife. He intends to marry a rich woman, and does not care what she is like as long as she will bring him a fortune. Lucentio (Disguised as Tranio) agrees to marry Katherine sight unseen. The next day, he goes to Baptista’s house to meet her, and they have a tremendous duel of words and as

Katherine insults Petruchio repeatedly, Petruchio tells her that he will marry her whether she agrees or not. He then tells Baptista falsely, that Katherine has consented to marry him on Sunday. By Katherine Hearing this claim, she is strangely silent, and the wedding is set.

THE TAMING OF THE SHREW: PETRUCHIO MONOLOGUE (ACT 4 SCENE 1) COMEDY PLAY

Well, come, my Kate; we will unto your father's

Even in these honest mean habiliments:

Our purses shall be proud, our garments poor;

For 'tis the mind that makes the body rich;

And as the sun breaks through the darkest clouds,

So honour peereth in the meanest habit.

What is the jay more precious than the lark,

Because his fathers are more beautiful?

Or is the adder better than the eel,

Because his painted skin contents the eye?

O, no, good Kate; neither art thou the worse

For this poor furniture and mean array.

if thou account'st it shame. lay it on me;

And therefore frolic: we will hence forthwith,

To feast and sport us at thy father's house.

Go, call my men, and let us straight to him;

And bring our horses unto Long-lane end;

There will we mount, and thither walk on foot

Let's see; I think 'tis now some seven o'clock,

And well we may come there by dinner-time.

This file was created by Tee Quillin and distri

ANALYSIS OF THIS SCENE

In this scene Petruchio and Kate are about to arrive at Petruchio’s country house. Grumio arrives first, however, complaining that he has been sent ahead to ensure that the servants prepare for the arrival of their master and his new wife. Curtis, another servant, greets him and hears his tale of the journey from Padua—Kate fell into the mud. However Petruchio flew into a rage, and the horses ran away. Grumio then orders Curtis to assemble all the other servants, properly attired and on good behavior. Curtis calls for them, and a few arrive just as Petruchio and Kate return. Petruchio immediately becomes enraged, claiming that his servants fail to attend him properly. They do their best, but clearly he is not pleased by anything. He demands dinner, and they prepare it as quickly as possible, but he claims that the meat is burned and pushes the whole meal off the table.

Also there are tensions in this scene with the character of Katherina as she shifts between desperate attempts to assert herself, sometimes through reasoning, sometimes aggression, and an imposed submissiveness to Petruchio. She complains that she is ‘starved for meat, giddy for lack of sleep’ and asks Grumio to bring her food. Grumio taunts her by suggesting various dishes and then inventing excuses why she may not have them, until Katherina strikes him. Meanwhile Hortensio & Petruchio arrive with food, which Katherina may only have when she thanks her husband. Petruchio secretly instructs Hortensio to eat it, and Hortensio shows some discomfort at the situation, saying that Petruchio is 'to blame'. Later on Petruchio then tells Katherina that they have to visit her father, describing the new clothes that she will have for the occassion.

As soon as the tailor he provides visual emphasis of the play's clothing imagery and associated themes. He displays a cap and gown for Katherina, but Petruchio rejects both, on the grounds that they are not good enough for his wife to wear. Katherina then attempts to express her option claiming that she will 'be free...... in words', and claims that Petruchio means to make a puppet of her, but she is thwarted every time. The tailor is dismissed and Petruchio announces that he & Kate will go in their 'honest mean Habiliments', asseting that 'tis the mind that makes the body rich', which implies that true identuty is more important than external appearance.

CHARACTER BACKGROUND

The character that I'm portraying for this process is Petruchio. Petruchio is a fortune seeker who enters into a marriage with a strong-willed young woman named Kate (Also known as Katherina) and then proceeds to "tame" her temperamental spirit. Petruchio is seen as unabashedly selfish, materialistic and determined to be his wife’s lord and master, but he also loves her and realizes on some level that domestic harmony (on his terms, of course) would be better for her than her current life as a shrew in Padua, but to this extent Petruchio goes to alarming lengths to impose his mastery on Kate, keeping her tired and hungry for some time after their marriage, but he insists on framing this treatment in a language of love which indicating his eagerness for Kate to adapt to her rightful, socially appointed place and his willingness to make their marriage a happy one.

CHARACTER EXERCISE/PREPARATION

The exercises that I have done to discover my charcter more were...................

1. Looking at a few YouTube clips on how each portarys Petruchio: I wasn't just watching on how they speak, I was mainly looking at their physicality and presence so that I can apply on some of these techniques to help me get into Petruchio.

2. Going over my monologue while I'm in bed: By doing this exercise it felt natural and I Felt more comfortable with it. Also it made sense because this monologue is a sweet romantic piece it helps me explore my character Petruchio more and gives me more hints on what 'The Taming of The Shrew'.

 

                

CONTEMPORARY MONOLOGUE 2 CHARACTER BACKGROUND

30/03/13

CONTEMPORARY MONOLOGUE 2 CHARACTER BACKGROUND

The Fastest Clock In The Universe Synopsis/Plot

'‘The Fastest Clock in the Universe’’ is about a young man named ‘Cougar Glass’ who adores his looks, but hates his age which he improbably claims is only 19. Cougar lives with Captain Tock, who is infatuated with him. As the play begins, Cougar & Captain Tock are setting a trap. Cougar has stalked and lured (Tempt- a person or an animal, to do something or to go somewhere, esp. by offering some form of reward: ‘’the child was lured into a car’’) 15 year old Foxtrot Darling to the lair the two men share under the pretext of celebrating his own 19^th birthday-yet again young Foxtrot has recently lost his own older brother, a role that Cougar hopes to fill briefly and expand upon. He intends to use the boy to satisfy his own desires, sexual and otherwise, and then to dispose of him as callously as possible, a repetitive scenario that disturbs the Captain. This plan is set awry, when Foxtrot arrives with his pregnant fiancée, ‘Sherbet Gravel’.

Name:Cougar Glass

Born: 23^rd February 1983

Age: 30

Eye Colour: Dark Brown

Height: 5 ft 11

Ethnicity: British

Class: Middle Class

Hair Colour: Black

Weight: 85.7kg

Siblings: 1 Brother

Best Friend: Captain Tock

Spouse: Savannah Tock (2003-2008)

(Deceased)

Hobbies: Pool, Tennis and Swimming

Occupation: Bar man, as well as pouring drinks for his customers, he even talks to them e.g. like Alfie Moon from Easterners who loves to chat and entertain his customers to make his pub a relaxing place.

Salary: £200 weekly

Religious Views: Atheism

Residence: Tower Hamlets, East End of London

DESCRIPTION OF COUGAR’S HOME

Cougar lives in a council tax home next to a dilapidated room above an abandoned factory in the East End of London. Inside Cougar’s house there are many large cracks in walls, a table, hard-backed chairs, sofa, cupboard, sideboard, window, fridge, sinks, gas cooker and a mirror. However the main feature is birds-stuffed birds, china birds, paintings of birds, etc. - giving the room an atmosphere somewhere between a museum and aviary. Also inside Cougar’s house there are two doors: the first leading to his bedroom, the second- the front door- to a corridor outside. Out of these 5 Cougar’s favourite places is……….

*The bathroom,

*His bedroom

*The living room

His least favourite place is the kitchen, garden and store.

(COUGAR’S KITCHEN)

(COUGAR’S BEDROOM)

(HIS BATHROOM)

(HIS LIVING ROOM)

(CAPTAIN TOCK’S BEDROOM)

FAVOURITE CLOTHES

Cougar has a range of favourite clothes and here is the type of clothes that he loves to wear…………...

All of these are the types of clothes that Cougar loves to wear day in and day out but every now and again he would still wear Nike or addidas trainers/clothes. Cougar loves to dress casually and decent.

PROBLEMS IN THE PAST

During Cougar’s teenage years he’s been through a lot of stress and trouble, doing things that he shouldn’t have been doing and has experienced things very early. Cougar sometimes enjoyed his life but he always used to let the little things that bother him get to him which made him not able concentrate properly in school but he still passed his GCSE’s and passed his A-Levels AS/A2.

Also Cougar was a victim of bullying. He didn’t really get on with the other kids in his secondary school; he got into fights, quarrelling with the girls and unnecessary arguments with his classmates & the teachers. Time after time he was very close to getting kicked out of Cardinal Pole Catholic School.

Even though he as close with a few people at school he was not really sociable with them. The person he was really close with was his P.E teacher Mr Farrelly who would always pick out on Cougar whenever he did great stuff in his P.E lessons.

There are times when Cougar was bad and that he feels guilty about which he regrets doing. Here are the main 3 bad things that he did………..

1) Bunking his R.E lessons

2) Slapping a girl

3) Quarrelling with his teachers (Except his P.E teacher Mr Farrelly)

Out of these 3 the worst of them all is him slapping a girl and this is what got a lot of students to hate him. Cougar didn’t mean to hit this girl, he just wanted to attempt to slap her as a threat so that this girl could stop getting on his nerves. Since she continued to provoke him Cougar just lashed out and hit her. Later on that day Cougar was sent to the deputy heads office and was permanently suspended from Cardinal Pole.

Cougar is a nice bloke (was and now turned into a crazy maniac) but when you get on the wrong side of him that is when things would turn upside down.

BEST THING COUGAR DID

On that day Cougar was suspended from school, his mum was annoyed but at the same time she didn’t really care because the mother herself has been kicked out of several secondary schools with both her parents not caring so she decides to continue it on in the family. Plus the mother is a drug addict. That night Cougar went upstairs to his room and thought about what he has done which wasn’t right for him to do, not just him slapping that girl but the other bad things that he has been doing which were bunking his R.E lessons & quarrelling with his teachers and many more. Later on he got a pen and paper and wrote an apology letter to his classmates, his teachers and to that girl Jade that he slapped.

After Cougar had finished writing this letter he sent to his school and the teachers were so intrigued with that letter that he wrote and cut his 1 week suspensions to 5 days because he knew that he was really honest and that he wanted to have a fresh new start and stay out of trouble.

CHARACTER EXERCISE/OBSERVATION

Monday 25^th March last week all BTEC Level 3 YR 1 had a task set for us which was to go out to any public place (outside of the college) and observe people, how they walk, talk and gesture with their hands- whether they’re at a park, shopping centre, bus stop, station or any place. For this task all of us had to work in pairs with the people in our groups. My partner for this exercise was Ahmed and the public place we went to was Tesco’s but the one in Lea Bridge Road Bakers arms. We could have gone to a better place/location, unfortunately because we both had our Maths lesson which was in an hour’s time we couldn’t go far otherwise we wouldn’t make it back to college in time which would mean that we would have been late for Maths.

When we got to Tesco we started observing. At first I found it hard trying to find the one person who would grab eye and would be interesting with their characteristics, but because there was so many and most of the customers would be leaving the store. This meant that me & Ahmed had to be very vigilant and make sure we both don’t get caught observing our people. Since I couldn’t find any person to observe I focused on the security guard of the store and there were 7 things that I spotted that this man does which were………………

*He walks fast/paces

*He’s very stiff

*Clenches his fist sometimes/Moves his hands

* He stands still and looks bored but at the same time he’s focused on the job

*Blinks Constantly

*Always has a straight face

*Backside moves side to side as he walks

These were 7 main things that I spotted for this security guard and out of these there are two main points that I picked out which I could use for my character Cougar Glass. These two pints are……....

1) He walks fast/paces 

2) Backside moves side to side as he walks

There wasn’t that much stuff that this security guard does except stand around at the counter near the main entrance and just look out for any trouble. For this task we had to observe a lot of people but I couldn’t because people were just all over the place.

The next day when Group 2 had to do the 2^ndexercise, again me & Ahmed went to Tesco’s and I

wanted to go somewhere else but because English was still clashed with my free time we had to do the same routine as yesterday. When we both arrived at Tesco’s we chose different people to observe. I only focused on two people for this exercise, an old man and a man with his wife. I only spotted five things for each of these 2 people.

Here are the five things that I spotted that this old man does……….

*He walks slow/normally

*Very relaxed, laid back

*Always smiles

*If another customer takes long at the till, he wouldn’t complain

*He fidgets with his hands a lot while he’s at the queue

What I think about this old man is that he comes across as a nice fellow, innocent, caring and fun. Generally I think this man is loved from everybody, whether he is at any public place people see him as a kind bloke. When I first spotted him in the store he was speaking to one of the employers, talking about why they throw away any roast or barbeque chicken that hasn’t been bought and how it starts to go bad. This was at isle where they sell barbeque and roast chicken. Also the old man was cracking jokes and talking about his life story. The reason why I think that this man smiles a lot because of the troubles that he has seen on the street, a strict/disciplined family or he doesn’t just care about himself he cares about others and wants people to be safe. These thoughts occurred to me as my first impression of this old man.

These are four things that I spotted about this man and his wife (mainly focusing on the man)…………………

*He’s a fast walker

*He’s very tense

*Always miserable/annoyed

*His hands are always in his pockets

My first impression of this man is that he comes across as an aggressive guy, always moody, rude and impatient. When I first spotted this man he was in the isle where they sell biscuits/chocolates, his wife picked up a big packet of milky bar and all I hear is ‘‘Can you buy something else, you bought that the last time!!!’’, his wife just sighed & rolled her eyes which shows that he probably does this regularly. The reason why I think that this man has an aggressive side to him is because he may not have been treated well by his or other students throughout his secondary- college years or maybe he grew up with not enough discipline.

DEVELOPMENT FOR MY CHARACTER: APPLYING TO WHAT I HAVE SEEN

Having doing this observation exercise was fun and I really enjoyed but what I found hard is that we had to be very vigilant and not get caught observing our people. Another thing that I find quite hard is that whenever you are trying to observe someone they always stop whether they’re on the phone or waiting for someone and you have for the next move. Overall I enjoyed this exercise and hopefully we should this again.

While doing this exercise I picked out a range of possible ideas that I could use for my character Cougar e.g.

1)The aggressive man with his wife

2) The old man

Here are the main points from these two characters that I could use for Cougar…………

* Very relaxed, laid back

* Miserable/annoyed

* Impatient

These are the three main points that I picked out which I could probably use for my character and I am hoping that these three ideas would help me play my character better and bring the excitement to the panel.

Video of myself doing my monologue