Evaluation; The Wardrobe, Scene 7

Basics
My lines were a strength because I said them all correctly and correspondingly to Katrina which made the scene run smoothly and allowed the correct emotions and expressions to be directed. A line that I was weakest with was; "I saw her admiring it". I found it to be a tong twister for some reason and just generally found the "ing" and "it" hard to say after one another. I feel that I overcame this line by slowing down the pace slightly and articulating clearly. I feel this worked as I was able to keep up the energy whilst being clear and linking back to the objective of being naturalistic and realistic.

Keeping up the pace was a strength because I walked with purpose onto stage in order to achieve my characters goal. I feel the audience saw this and was gaged for the first line. I kept the pace going through the whole scene but found it hard to keep the pace up during the lines "I swear to god I will". This is because this is where Joffrey breaks down and tears up and it was hard to be pacey when I'm sad as my all the emotions were rushing through Joffrey's mind and its painful so everything is slower. In the end I think by slowing the pace here showed this and therefore was actually a strength and links back the objective as it creates naturalistic realism.

Stylistically
The Wardrobe is a naturalistic and realistic play and I feel that we achieved that as a whole group. Our scene; 7, achieved it by successfully having a fourth wall, by not over acting or excessively emphasising words and emotions or actions. As a strength, I feel that our emotions portrayed in the last section "So then, are we agreed?" where we both changed our energy states from defending ourselves from a serious punishment to agreeing that we are in the same situation and are not that different from each other. As a weakness in our scene, I feel that my reaction to being blackmailed in lines "I will not mention what I saw pass between you and Arthur Scott" could have been more realistic. I feel that I could have tapped into "the System" more and released the energy less forced and fake in order to achieve the out come of realistic and naturalistic anger from Winifred's defiance. This also shows how my outcome was achieved.

Actors Skills
Characterisation went well. During the performance I really felt like I was Joffrey. Before I went on stage I just stood their back stage and thought about my objective and how Joffrey is feeling. I was thinking of the emotions that he faces and linked them to my life. I thought what it would be like to be stripped of one of my human rights and I managed to get into the energy state just before waling on so I became Joffrey before entering the wardrobe. Once on stage I felt the connection between Joffrey and the wardrobe and how he is hiding. I feel I reacted to Winifred as a Master would when he sees a slave wearing his coat. And throughout the scene I feel I kept the energy with me and reacted accordingly to Katrina's acting and lines. I believe that the part where I say "how can you call yourself a lady" I portrayed the reality of Joffrey's reaction. I believe that my characterisation was successful in creating Joffrey in the performance and therefore helped create a naturalistic and realistic performance.

"You'd do well to remember your station" This line I feel I was strong because of my movement. I feel I reacted to Winifred's defiance and Joffrey trying to demote her by increasing my posture and lifting my head to stand over Katrina and to show class. A week point was in the line "Return it to be washed again" In this line I don't think I made it clear that it was an order. I used a hand gesture to be directive but I feel I could have been colder and seemed harsher to allow the audience to feel more sorry for Winifred.

The Teamwork
Me and Katrina both had the write level of energy and pace in the scene I think, which lead to our characters reacting to each other and  creating more naturalism in the scene. I think this was because we both got on and were supportive during the performance. Everyone in other scenes did the same and it made the whole play seem harmonised and showed their was chemistry in the performance. This lead to the execution and consistency of the motive of everyone's characters being shown and therefore being a strength.

To conclude I feel that the performance as a whole achieved the objective of naturalistic and realistic story telling and my own performance had many strengths by using material like:http://plays.about.com/od/actingessentials/a/The-Stanislavsky-Method.htm

The Wardrobe, Character Profile for Scene 7

Joffrey

My character is Joffrey. A 16 year old boy. He is a closet homosexual who is in love with a boy called Arthur. He is not allowed to be gay and if anyone were to find out he would be punished. He is a high class citizen and is the son of a Master of the house. Joffrey and his house use slavery freely and without thought. He lives in England during 1805.

Who am I?

First, I learn about Joffrey's background. He is high class. This means he is wealthy, lives in a large household and has a high status in society. His family own slaves such as Winifred. ."Take it off" and "wash it again" show how he has been taught to order slaves and servants. This shows he has no moral issues with slaves and uses them as he sees fit; probably influenced by his family during his upbringing. By knowing this about Joffrey, I now know that my character will have to be direct, order Katrina's character in order to be realistic and I know I will have to perform with a higher class state of mind by objectifying Winifred, and not caring for her, and being shocked when she disobeys me. "I am afraid I cannot do that Master Joffrey." To this line I know that I must react shocked and surprised that this slave has answered back which then adds more realism and naturalism and increases the tension and powerfulness of this reaction; "how dare you!"

I feel that Joffrey's characteristics on the outside are cold, stuck up, miserable and he likes to demote people and finds enjoyment punishing the lower class people. "how can you call yourself a lady" This shows how he is demoting Winifred to make her feel bad and to put her in her place. Also, "do you really believe he would accept your word over mine?" He uses a rhetorical question here and abruptly answers it "my father will never see you as a daughter" purposefully trying to hurt Winifred. This shows how his personality is dark and nasty on the outside. Know I understand this I can perform my character with a lot more dark energy to really feel like I am fighting with Winifred in the scene. Therefore making it a more powerful performance and more naturalistic and realistic. 

Joffrey's inner personality is not the same however. He is homosexual in a time where it is against the law and punished by death. http://rictornorton.co.uk/eighteen/nineteen.htm
Because it is illegal he has been forced to hide and be introvert about his sexuality. I feel that the hidden emotions he feels everyday of his life are made up from pure sadness and hopelessness. I believe by hiding his real emotions and pain inside himself, he has built an layer around himself off anger and a false sense of vile arrogance such as "You are at best a pet" and believing he is above others. I also feel that as soon as Winifred brings up his homosexual activity with Arthur, his pure inner emotional state is released and his true personality is shown to the audience. "If any harm comes to Arthur, I swear I will, I swear to god I will" As I began to understand the way Joffrey feels, my character became more realistic and I new which energy states I needed to use. Overall, this created a more powerful natural performance.

Where am I?

The wardrobe is the object of this play. It is important to Joffrey because he uses it to escape society and to unravel his inner personality in order to cry and release the emotions that have been barricaded away. The wardrobe is an escape and the only place where society and judgement don't exist. "it is clear that Joffrey has been Crying" I tried to think of something in my life that I used to escape and it allowed me to feel the emotions Joffrey feels and allowed me to perform to the naturalistic and realistic goal.

My Goal in the Scene

My goal in this scene is to put Winifred back in her place as a slave and to fail at convincing her to stop blackmailing me.

Why I want this Goal

Joffrey wants no one to find out about his sexuality because he could be sentenced by law to death. "Beat Arthur until his skin breaks" He also doesn't want Arthur to be hurt. This is Joffrey's goal in the play. As Joffrey I must use all I have learnt about the "System", the historical context and who Joffrey is as a person to make it believable to the audience that my character is in deep trouble if he doesn't successfully stop his slave from breaching her rights and blackmailing him, then he will be punished for being gay.

How I will get this Goal

Know I know why I must achieve these goals to tell the story of Joffrey in my scene, I must interact with Winifred in a naturalistic and realistic way. I have to react accordingly to her lines. "Please may I?" I interrupt her with "Go away Winifred". This shows how I will prove my character to the audience and achieve the goal.

My Obstacle

The obstacle for Jaffrey is that in order to win he has too loose. "As does his temper" and "Jaffrey shakes Winifred's hand" show that the tone changes from Jaffrey being angry to him agreeing to Winifred. He has lost in a way because usually he would have ignored anything his servant would have said, but because Winifred brought up such a dangerous subject about his sexuality "What I saw pass between you and Master Arthur Scott" he was forced to agree to her in order to save his own life. I believe that Winifred un peals all of Joffrey's outer personality, and releases the inner core, the pure sadness that he feels from being trapped and then takes the metaphorical bar of tension down to a point where they are both the same. For once they are actually equal. They are both being trapped and condemned by society and for once they both understand each others feeling and pain. And I believe that it took all of Joffrey's anger against Winifred and for Winifred to stand up for her human rights for them both to understand each others pain and emotions. "Handing Winifred the crumpled coat" I feel that the evidence is here in the word "handing" This noun symbolises that everything is calmer and shows their is a new level of understanding and respect for each other. It is not a harsh noun like "crunching" where Joffrey is angry. In my opinion this point I am making is our super objective and if achieved should make our overall performance as a team powerful and meaningful to the audience whilst being a realistic way of portraying my characters emotions naturalistically.

The Wardrobe; Week 1 to Present

The Wardrobe by Sam Holcroft, is a play that follows a wardrobe through time, whilst telling stories about events that have occurred through the years.

Week 1

On week one we were told about The Wardrobe. We were all given a scene and a character. I was chosen to be in scene 9 and to play Hugo. Scene 9 is set in a catholic all boys school in the time of Jack the Ripper. Three boys are listening to the fourth boy read a newspaper article about the murders that occurred in 1888.

Jack the Ripper is the historical event of 1888. Scene 9 focuses on one boy reading the other boys a news article about the murders and the boys should react intrigued, and un intentionally comical whilst retaining disgust. In order to obtain these emotions. I researched Jack the Ripper to get an understanding of the nastiness of such an event enabling me to use that emotion when in character.

• en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_the_Ripper 

This evidence shows my research into Jack the ripper. To link that. Feeling freaked and weirded out by the murders, whilst being interested, made me able too, in rehearsals, make my character have a more interesting reaction to the newspaper being articulated. In my opinion, I think that this helped develop my character and made it more interesting and it enabled me to perform realistically.

To evaluate my performance in this scene, I could improve the other emotions such as laughing at one of the boys. I could have researched more about the life of boys in a catholic school in 1888 to start to create a personality for Hugo,  making him more developed.

Week 2 to Present

After performing scene 9, I was asked if I enjoyed playing Hugo. I wanted a change, so I asked to play another character. I also though that Hugo was not that interesting of a part. I was given scene 7 and the character Joffrey and to play along side Katrina as Winifred.

Scene 7 is set in a boys room in a high class household. Joffrey is a 17 year old  boy, who is the son of a master of the house. He is pompous, arrogant, and doesn't see slaves as people. Winifred is a slave that serves Master Joffrey. She is objectified and unkindly treated with no respect or humanity. The plot is that Winifred is caught by her master wearing Joffrey's coat. Joffrey wishes to punish her but Winifred blackmails him and they manage to reach terms. Joffrey is secretly gay and Winifred knows and if the truth were to arise, Joffrey's "lover" Arthur will be hurt or killed.

I was given the script and after reading in, I tried to put myself in Joffrey's shoes and tried to find the right emotions I thought Joffrey was feeling. This was before any research so I wrote the emotions next to the corresponding lines. Note: my evidence is on a piece of paper due to technical issues.
I did this so I could learn my lines with some draft emotion as soon as I got the script and too start to get an idea of what Joffrey personality should be like. This links into our first rehearsal where we used these emotions to figure out some movement and actions I could use. I believe that this lead to me being unrealistically over acting and over exaggerating  being angry. I was overly shouting and I think this was because I hadn't learnt about emotional states. This is because after learning how to create these states, I found that I could be angry more naturalistically and realistically which entailed in me shouting less and using more facial and physical expressions like a bunched up face, a cold look, serious eye contact, and focusing on one or two purposeful movements either with my hands or feet. Also, I feel that my lack of character and historical research lead to the same problem of being less naturalistic. To conclude on these points, by researching and using the relevant energy states, I made my character more whole and naturalistic.

Energy States
0 - Unconscious

1. Waking up
2. Stuck to the ground but pushing  to get up
3. toddler
4. business man
5. someone could be watching you
6. Someone is definitely watching you
7. Something is about to happen
8. Bomb is Dropped

These are the energy states that we learned. I used 5,7 and 8 the most. Someone could be watching you I feel made me start to panic slightly and got me tensed up which was useful for the section after Winifred says "I'm afraid I cannot do that, master Joffrey." This is because she is being defiant and I am shocked. I used something is about to happen when Winifred says "you will not mention." This was because after that line she mentions Arthur. That is the Bomb being dropped. As soon as Winifred mentions Arthur, Joffrey goes to strangle her. So by me using these energy states, I am naturally feeling the emotions and can realistically move with purpose and be in the right emotion at the right time.

We also learnt a way too speak the lines by marking where the new thoughts are and by marking where there is weight. Note: evidence for this is on piece of paper. The new thought marks showed me when my characters thoughts and feelings needed to change. The beginning line "Winifred, Why are you wearing my coat" is one thought. "take it off" is a new thought. In rehearsals I practiced my lines by saying all of one thought, looking down, breathing, changing too the right emotion or energy state and then say the next thought. By adding weight to the thoughts; such as verbs and nouns, I was able to know if I needed to move or do an action or; for example, "divert the conversation". I am trying to divert Winifred to avoid the bomb going off. In my opinion, this helped me a lot in rehearsals to learn my lines and it also helped Jeffrey become more human and less of a character and helped to make our scene more naturalistic.

We researched the scenes historical context. Note-in blog no.1. This allowed us to learn about the political, time period, historical event and cultural relevance. This contextual research outlined how serious a slave standing up for herself against her owner and homosexuality were in 1805.

The Atlantic Slave Trade and the Slave Trade Act Facts

• Atlantic slave trade took place from 16th century through to 19th century
• Mostly Western Africans
• Uk was the "New World"
• They would be sent to work on plantations or be servants for household
• The slave trade act in 1807 was a law that made slave trading illegal
• A group called the Quakers who viewed slavery as immoral and Wiliam Wilberforce, passed on the bill to the house of lords where it was successfully lawed
• This still meant that keeping a slave was legal

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slave_Trade_Act_180

http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/africa/features/storyofafrica/9chapter4.shtml

http://rictornorton.co.uk/eighteen/1805news.htm

By knowing the historical context and by looking at the evidence provided about homosexuality and slavery, I feel that I have more knowledge on the background of Joffrey and how he would be feeling and how he is hiding his homosexuality with Arthur because he is just not allowed to have the right to be gay without serious punishment. This is the reason why as Winifred mentions Arthur, I must feel the anger, hatred, pain and helplessness that Joffrey is feeling. Therefore this research was imperative to allow me to reach that level of energy in my scene without it being unrealistic and unnatural. I think this because if I don't feel or understand the real emotion then it my performance would be fake. I know that when we first got read the script and did a rehearsal, I didn't feel the anger or sadness or coldness that Joffrey is supposed to feel and only until I researched was I able to perform this naturally.

Aesthetical Research
This scene has a fourth wall where there is no interaction  with the audience. Our stage presence is in the wardrobe not facing the audience directly and everything has been done in a naturalistic way. This means we don't have stay facing an audience and therefore we are free to move around in a naturalistic. It means I can turn around and go to leave the wardrobe or face a wall. Everything with purpose to express a curtain emotion. I believe that having this freedom allows me to have more of an energy as Joffrey and to be more realistic with performing. Evidence for this is "how can you call yourself a lady?" where I turn around, laugh, and face the wall. This shows that I have no sympathy for her and only disgust as she compares herself to a lady. I also made an "ugh" sound before that line which I added in as a natural initial reaction to emphasise the disgusted feeling of Joffrey.

• Stanislavski's System- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanislavski%27s_system

I have researched Stanislavski's System which is a bunch of techniques used to draw believable emotions and feelings into a character. I have tried to use some of these method acting techniques in this scene. In rehearsals I tried the "Magic If" and asked myself; "what if I were in the same situation at Joffrey?" I did this a lot, especially for to think of myself getting angry at that situation and how I would react. It really helped me to reach a believable level of emotion and enabled me to justify myself when acting out line "as does his temper." This line I found hard to find the right emotion but by placing myself into a similar situation mentally, I found that I wouldn't still be angry, I would have come to terms with what Winifred is saying and cooled downs from the metaphorical bomb going off.

Another part if the system is motivation. I needed motivation in  the scenes to get angry and I found it hard to make it believable. The line "how dare you!" was hard for me to really exclamate. But by stimulating the motivation by thinking as Joffrey, to the past and creating a scenario where he has felt that emotion, then taking that emotion and using it for this line. This then should have made it more powerful and believable and naturalistic.

To conclude as a whole, my rehearsals have been comprised of Stanislavski's System, aesthetical research, historical research, creating and adding thoughts and weight to lines, and using energy states. I believe they all have successfully been used evidently for different lines and actions to add believability, naturalism and realism to the scene.