Assignment - Unit 8 - Little Women - Collaborative Production project.

Candidate Declaration - I confirm that the attached portfolio is all my own work* and does not include any work completed by anyone other than myself

 Task one - Production diaries.

SEE BLOG

Task 2 – Audition process.

audition:

I'm going for the character of Amy so I chose a piece in the script that I think would show Kane and Kelly that I can do this role. The scene I chose was the part where Amy burns Jo's book. I chose this scene because I think it shows so many emotions at once and really shows how young Amy is. When I first did the audition Kelly asked me to re-do it with a bit more anger to show that she's annoyed she's being blamed. I think I took on this note well and showed Kelly I understood what she meant. After this I was asked to find someone who is going for Laurie to do chemistry read with. I paired up with Henry for this and we did the scene where Laurie is drunk and they are messing with each other.

I think my audition went well, I took on the notes I got and changed my performance accordingly, however I do wish I acted a little more childish when doing my audition for Kelly. The audition with Henry was good, it was slightly awkward as I've never worked with Henry before but when we finished the scene I did think that we had a good chance of getting the roles and we did. 

Task 2.1 – Review a range of research sources to support the production of a performance project.

Research that helped me develop my character and performance - 

Life in the 1860's for women: In the 1860's life was very different for Women, they couldn't live the way we do now. Women could not show their skin, they must always wear a bonnet and shawl outside. This was to protect their modesty, women were also expected to be homemakers and caretakers. To stay home and look after their kids while the men did the jobs that required strength. I used this piece of research for my performance by taking on these ideas and really exaggerating how much Amy wants to fit in with society, she wanted to be married and be a "women" the most out of the sisters.

In Little Women the 4 sisters have to hide the fact that they are creative as they are women and that was not allowed, they were meant to go to balls and find a worthy man to become a husband to support them and their family. All women in them days were expected to marry and it was frowned upon if you didn't and you would be called a "spinster". I found this effective because Amy gets promised to Mr Vaughn and doesn't seem to argue or try to stop this happening even though she doesn't actually like him, I think this is because being married is more important to her so she isn't labelled by others. This shows how society in the Victorian era is completely opposite to now.

This is also shown in the play when Meg says "you will turn up your hair now and know that you are a young lady". This is because in the 1860s you would have to wear your hair up to show that you are a mature lady who was ready to marry. This signified age and maturity. I will use this research to show how Amy has matured, she will have her hair down in the first half and her hair up in the second half. 

Etiquette in the 1860s: There was a lot of rules for women to go about their daily life during the Victorian era. 

Here are the ones I focused on to help me with my performance.

1) Women are never to fix their hair or clothes in public, they must only do this in the privacy of their own home. 

1) I focused on this rule because I need to remember that when Amy is outside I can't touch my hair or dress because they wouldn't do that in the Victorian era.

2) Women must never eat an entire meal and only ever take small bites so if they are spoken to they can answer politely without having their mouth full.

2) I focused on this rule because I knew I was going to break it as Amy March in the Christmas morning scene so I wanted to make sure I would do it right, pretending to eat as much as I could and talking with my mouth full. 

3) Women must never cross their legs when sitting.

3) I really struggled with this rule as I always sit with my legs crossed so I focused on the rule to make sure I didn't do it on stage, whenever I went to cross my legs I would stop myself. 

These are the main rules of etiquette I focused on as they effect and helped my performance the most.

Task 2.2 – Your production role. 

For Little Women my production role was costume, this meant I helped with deciding costume, getting everyone's costume ready and making sure they had everything for their show. I also made lists of every costume we had or needed it and updated it every time something was added or needed and sent it to Kelly and the others in Costume. 

here's one of the lists I made: 

✅ Aunt March : 

- All 3 ( green skirt, white and black top, black cape ). 

✅ Older Amy :  

- Charley, Latoya. ( blue skirt and button up ).

- Pheebs ( same dress as younger but with a regency jacket so looks different ).

? Younger Amy : 

- Pheebs ( blue regency dress ) 

- Charley, Latoya ?

✅ Mr Brookes : 

- Morgan ( Bought his own suit ). 

Harvey and Dev ( shirts, sienna's work waist coat and tie. ).

✅ Fred : 

- Will, Adam, Zia. (silver waist coat, black waist coat and shirt). 

❔ Laurie : 

- Waiting for Henry to confirm if he can buy the top and waist coat and should work for him and Aiden.

waiting for Callum to reply to know his costume.

✅ Jo : 

- All three. ( purple-ish skirt and button up ) 

❌ Meg :

- No costumes yet but need a dress for the ball and home dress.

✅ Beth : 

- Gracie, Freya, Jess ( regency dress don't know the colour ) 

❔Sallie : 

- Possible costume, Kelly has Cinderella dress that could work. Laura, Emily Howard. 

❌ Marmee : 

- Milly, No costume that I'm aware of, so need a dress for the house. 

I made this list so I could start planning on what people would need, originally we wanted Amy March to have another dress for the play scene but we realised that we wouldn't have enough time to get changed. To fix this problem La Toya and I created paper jewellery that Amy could wear for the play so she still looks different. 

The main reason I chose to be on costume was because I knew I wanted to make sure that I felt comfortable on stage and being able to have a say in my costume made me feel a lot better. This is because the one thing I was worried about was not having a costume but luckily Kelly understood this and helped me out by making sure I was comfortable in the dress I had gotten. 

To start off with costume we got into our group and planned out what we would do each day, for the first couple of days we would get everyone's clothes and shoe size, after this we would make a list of who would be able to share dresses so we wouldn't have to spend to much money on costume. Money was definitely a big struggle for costume because dresses weren't cheap and trying to find a way around it was difficult at first but I had found new dresses that were cheaper and would work, the other girls weren't on board at first as they looked to much like ballroom dresses but we needed to think about what we could afford so everyone had costume.

Task 3 - performance.

Task 3.1 - Take part in both the rehearsals and final performance working at a professional level and demonstrating your understanding of the script. - produce a professional show that meets the audiences expectations throughout and demonstrates your ability to collaborate with others.

First performance - part of the ensemble as a ballroom dancer, I wore the same dress as I'm going to where as Amy. A couple of problems when dancing as Jamie accidentally rotated the wrong way but it was okay because Morgan realised so he didn't rotate and it went smoothly after that.

Second performance - Amy March - Wore my blue dress throughout the play and a shawl for the second half. 

Rehearsals for the play were my favourite ones as it's my first time having a main role and it's a really difficult play so it was great to push myself and improve my acting skills.

Task 3.2 – Carry out your production role fully ensuring you communicate at all times with other team members and ensure everything works smoothly together.

When it came to the shows costume had a big part in it as we were the ones who had to make sure everyone was ready and in costume. 

There was some problems with my cast as Millie T needed to wear the costume Emily S was wearing as the other Jo costume didn't fit, however we had a back up plan and gave Emily S another dress to wear which actually fit her character better so it worked out for the best and went smoothly. 

Like I said before Amy wouldn't have time to get changed for the play scene so I made sure that Charley and La Toya knew where the paper jewellery was so they could wear that for the play scene.

Another thing we realised from the first play was that the ribbons on the dresses would move so we knew for the other plays that we have to pin them in place.

Task 4 - Evaluation.

Task 4.1 - Write a detailed evaluation on your personal journey throughout this project demonstrate your ability to communicate and collaborate with your peers and professional staff to bring a professional level project to life. AND. Task 4.2 - Write a detailed evaluation on your final performance and the journey you have been on to meet the requirements of the play. Comment on both your work and also the work of the ensemble.

This play was probably the most nerve wracking thing I've ever done, I loved it but I won't lie I was terrified of messing up and letting everyone down. When I got the role of Amy I was in shock and very excited. I knew I could do it but I knew it would be difficult and nothing like I've done before.  

When I first started college I was nervous and didn't even know if I was cut out for this course, I went for lion and got aunt em which shook my confidence a bit, I knew why but at the time it was awful. However I look back now and am so grateful for how it went down, I've gone from Aunt Em having 4 lines to Amy March in Little Women. The reason I'm mentioning this is because I felt a lot of pressure to prove that I deserved such a big role. I didn't want to make anyone think they had made the wrong decision, because of this I had way more determination to not only prove to everyone else I can do it but to me too. 

And I did, this is first performance I've ever done where I've been able to walk of the stage and be happy with what I've just done. The show didn't go without its faults but that didn't matter because I knew that my cast mates and I were going to be able to bring it back around and we did. The first time I had made a mistake was when I was pushed on stage because someone thought it was my scene, I don't blame anyone for that because everyone was confused and it actually filled in an awkward gap so it kind of worked, it also showed me that I can improvise under pressure which made me feel much better about my performance. Normally if something like this happens to me I start to stress out and feel like I can't go back on but I was able to keep calm and know that the audience wouldn't actually know whether that was meant to happen and carried on. I'm very proud of that because I really just wanted to enjoy being Amy March and to be able to do that was great.

My favourite scene in the play was definitely the play scene with the March sisters, It didn't go fully to plan but it was funny and such a great experience. The audience was laughing, clapping and just enjoying it and it was great. All I know for sure is this play and character made me know for definite that this is what I want to do in life.

Working with my cast was incredible, everyone was so enthusiastic and we had great chemistry together, Sophia, Jess and Millie knew what they were doing and to be able to play there sister was great. I think the only thing I would change if we were to do it again was to be more comfortable hugging each other as I think it would make the sibling thing even more believable.

Henry was my Laurie and working with him was fun, he was very very quiet on stage though so the only thing I would want him to change would to be louder. But besides that it was fine. Considering we had never spoken to each other before this play he wasn't awkward on stage which made the scenes much easier.

Feedback from others: 

"Be more childish" - This was the main piece of feedback I got from everyone as me being Amy March, if I was to ever do this role again or get a kid role I know for next time that you can never be to childish.

"Be less passionate with Fred and more with Laurie as it looked like you liked them the same" - This piece of feedback shows me that when I do relationship scenes I need to really understand the scene as I knew Amy March didn't love Fred but it still looked like a did, if I was to do this again I would make sure that I can differ between fake love and real love facial expressions.