LESSON EVALUATION FRIDAY 27TH SEPTEMBER
CREATING A SCENE BETWEEN OPENING PHYSICAL THEATRE AND START OF THE PLAY, READING A MONOLOGUE.
PART 1:
In todays lesson we worked in groups to create a scene that goes between our opening piece of physical theatre and the start of the play.
This was a useful task. From this I was able to understand the context of the play, have empathy for the characters and to an extent experience for myself what it was like for people in that horrible time. My groups piece explored how people such as Grampa felt at the time, he had lived there for years and as a family for generations. This was important for me because I could feel how he was attached to the place which would be an important for somebody acting him, to show his emotional attachment to the farm whilst trying to get him to leave. We also contrasted Grampas determination to stay by using some historical knowledge. Amanda acted Ma, she introduced a leaflet to the group everyone the new life in California. Im very glad we included this because it helped me understand the motive for the Joad family to move.
This leaflet would look very appealing to the family, it shows food, talks about work and gives the overall impression of a better way of life. Whereas the family have none of this. This section of the lesson we very useful, I can now act the characters with confidence knowing their attachment to the farm but equally there deep down feeling to move away from the dust bowl.
PART 2:
In the second part of the lesson we where given a monologue to perform, this was a great chance to practice the Southern Accent and to have an account of what the character was feeling / thinking.
My monologue was from Casy in Act Two. He talks about his experience with the Jail House to Tom, who earlier on the performance had left jail and came home to the farm battered by the dust bowl. The most important part of this task for me though was to have a continuos piece of speech to perform whilst applying the accent to it. GraduallyI believe I am getting better at the accent, its easiest to get it right on vowel sounds.
CONCLUSION:
To conclude I believe todays lesson was very useful for understanding the context of the play. I like how the other group showed how the group tried to fight the storm by boarding up windows - that was very, veeeery good.
