Project Proposal

The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui – Project Proposal

A review of your progress and achievement to date.

Since the beginning of the course I feel I have learnt so many acting techniques, from Stanislavsky, Epic theatre, Theatre of Cruelty and Chekhov, and I feel these practitioners have all helped me to become a more rounded actor, and I feel confident with my abilities. An example is from our last play, Twelfth Night by Shakespeare, I played a woman pretending to be a man, and this was the first time I had played a male part in a long time, ever since I began at College I always played female parts so being cast as Viola in Shakespeare, made me much more confident with my abilities as I feel I succeeded in my role as Viola and I learnt much more about how to change my physicality, so knowing that in Arturo Ui, most of the characters are male, I feel like I can succeed playing a male role, whereas before, I would of been very sceptical of this idea. Brecht plays are very physical and contain a lot of movement, and I feel my movement skills have become much stronger, ever since we did Dracula I feel my physical skills as an actor have improved, as I found a natural strength in Naturalism, which is not a very physical style of acting, so I feel Dracula, which was inspired by Theatre of Cruelty, bought me out of my comfort zone and helped me break through my body and become more physical. So I feel much more prepared for this play as I feel I have developed as a physical actor, and have become more confident than I was last year.

A proposal for your production and performance roles within the play.

PERFORMANCE ROLES (I have updated this as my characters changed) Who have you been cast as? I have been cast as Betty Dullfeet, Dockdaisy and Sheet. What happens to this character? Betty Dullfeet: Betty is Ignatius Dullfeet's wife, who is a news reporter, and writes stories about Ui and his men. Ui does not like Dullfeet, and he is very cautious of the couple. Betty is a strong woman, but she loses her husband in scene 13, and her character changes dramatically, she becomes weaker and very distressed, whereas in scene 10 and 12 she is very upbeat and positive, she supports her husband, as he is a very nervous and timid character, she is definitely the strength in their relationship. She eventually at the end of the play succumbs to Ui's plan, and ends up supporting him, even though he murdered her husband. So Betty goes through a lot of emotions and change in the play. Dockdaisy: This character is very funny, and I really enjoy playing her. I was an understudy for this character, but when Jade left, I took over her role. Dockdaisy is a young drunk woman who is very light hearted and flirtatious, she is having an affair with Givola and lies for Ui and his men on two occasions and does not seem to have a care in the world. She is the opposite of Betty, which is fun for me as I can play around with both characters. Nothing drastic happens to Dockdaisy in the play, she is seen in scene 3, 7 and 8, drunk and behaving inappropriately, she does not suffer upset or loss like Betty, she is just like a puppet for Ui and Givola, and they use her to make themselves look better in public. Sheet: Sheet is a male part, and he is an accountant type character for the Cauliflower trust, he is an "honest" business man, I think most of the characters are quite dodgy, but Sheet is not a gangster and does not have anything to do with Ui. Sheet is only seen in scene 1B, and his character is quite serious, yet sarcastic. In this scene, he is with Flake, and there is tension between the two men, as they are worried about the Trust and what Ui will do. Sheet is only seen briefly at the beginning, and then in scene 5 it is announced that Sheet has been found dead in his hotel room. So Sheet has clearly been murdered by Ui and his men because they did not like him, and in scene 1b, Sheet says to Flake, Ui needs to be stopped and fast. Sheet is branded a "gangster" by Ui, which is a clear lie. but Ui never admits to killing him, even though everyone knows he did. Sheet is a good man, but is killed for his opinion about Ui and his men. Sheet also owns dockyards, which again, attracted Ui to him. What acting skills do you need to play them? As the play is Brechtian I will need to apply the Brecht epic theatre skills to both my characters . I need to make sure to not use naturalism as I find naturalistic acting enjoyable and quite easy, I will have to work hard to not apply this skill to my characters. Epic theatre skills enable the actor to portray the idea that the character is NOT real to the audience. I need to have versatility skills as I am playing more than one character, which is new for me as in all the other shows we have performed I have Always played the same character throughout. Another skill I will have to use is physical theatre skills. For example, I am playing a woman and a man, so I will have to work on my physicality as I will have to have a physical difference for all my characters, I cannot keep the same pace and body language for all my characters. "The quotable gest" is another Brecht acting technique I have been using for my characters. It helps the audience distinguish my different characters, and also makes my performance stronger, as I will have completely different gests and physicality's for all my characters. For example, for Betty, I feel she is very grounded and strong, so her gests are sharp and sustained, whereas Dockdaisy is very ditzy and seems younger than Betty, so her gests are more light and free, she breezes around  the stage and always seems drunk, so her movements are very airy and she sways quite a lot when she walks. Sheet is a man, so my physicality of him is completely different, he walks with a jump in his step, and I have been working hard on my entrance for this scene, as I want the audience to see me entering as a man and not as a woman playing a man. Sheet is serious, but  sarcastic but he is also stressed in this scene, so my gests for him are quite stylised and sharp, he is holding a brief case in this scene and his free arm is quite sustained, sometimes in his pocket, scratching his chin, adjusting his tie, I want his movements to be choreographed in this scene, and I can repeat these three gests throughout the scene. What about the role interests you? Betty Dullfeet interests me because she is one of the only female "main" characters. There are only two female roles in the play and I have been cast as both of them, which I am really happy about! Betty is a strong character as she is involved with the gangster crime world and is not kept in the dark from her husband who is a reporter but he is somewhat involved in the gangster world and is disliked by ui , which proves to me that she is a clever woman and is not just a house wife, which back in those days, most women probably were. Betty is opinionated and gutsy, and stands up to Ui in scene 13, which is the funeral of Dullfeet. All of the characters I am playing interest me, as they are all very different from each other and come from different backgrounds and situations. Betty interests me the most out of Sheet and Dockdaisy as she is the most complex and her characters goes through a timeline of emotions in this play, whereas the other two characters do not show much emotion, as Dockdaisy is acting throughout, as she is lying for Ui so we never see HER real emotions or character, and Sheet is killed off very quickly, so we never get to explore his character or background. Why will you be good at the role? I think I will be good at playing Betty Dullfeet as I have played strong female characters in the past and I do tend to be cast as these types of characters very much, which is a good thing as I am good at playing them and I enjoy playing these types of women. Betty Dullfeet definitely has a dark side which interests me even more about her character, as plain female characters with no edges do not interest me and I would be bored playing these types, but characters like Betty, who are definitely very strong, edgy and brave. Which is everything I like in a character so I will be good at playing her role as I can portray this very well. And will have fun playing her. I feel playing Dockdaisy is refreshing for me, as she is not serious at all, and is the opposite to Betty, so the audience will see me playing two completely different women, and I have really pushed myself hard to make sure the two characters are not similar at all, or that I do not slip into the same physicality when playing both characters, which I feel I have achieved. Playing Sheet, is really fun and I enjoy playing a man, I am happy that I get the opportunity to play both females and a male in the play, as it is widening my acting abilities and it portrays to the audience and my teachers that I am a versatile actor, and particularly in this play, I use three different physicality's.  - What is the job you would like to propose yourself for? Set design - What are the main responsibilities for this role? Making sure the theme for the audience area is effective and relevant, the staging design and layout fits the theme. Researching the 1930's and applying this to the theme of the hall. Being in charge of how the hall will look on the show night and the layout of seating. - What do you think are the main personal attributes needed to be successful in this role? To be creative and artistic, which I feel I am, and I am interested in interior design which makes me feel more interested in this role, as I love to make any space look good by using whatever I can. I feel I will need to be thorough in order to succeed and make sure there is continuity, so the staging matches the audience. I will also need to be patient and make sure that everyone likes the ideas I have. - What about the role interests you? It interests me because I have a strong interest in art and interior design and I feel this role interests me the most out of all of them as I already have an interest in this area, and I already have idea's for the show. I want to create a speakeasy cabaret theme for the audience, and have VIP seating on the floor as well as  the usual roster audience set out. I also want to have jazz music playing in the background, and to have a bar at the back selling wine, which we normally have anyway. It interests me as well as I love to create an atmosphere in spaces and I feel we will all be able to create the speakeasy theme in the hall, it is quite bland and wooden, so we will need to use coloured materials, table cloths, candles, music, empty wine bottles, dimmed lighting, lampshades and possibly rugs on the floor. These are some ideas I have had already. - Why would you be good at the role? I feel I would be good at the role as I mentioned before I have an interest in interior design and I am creative and come from an artistic family background. I am also realistic, and I know that the hall will not be able to look like a perfect speakeasy, but I know that we can all work together and make the hall look different and effective. I have quite a quirky style when it comes to interior and art, so I will have to make sure that my ideas suit everybody and will make everyone happy. I feel interior design comes naturally for me, so I will be good at this role as I already feel confident about it and have had some ideas.

A rationale that explains why these roles are the most appropriate for you and support the production as a whole.

Production roles: The role of set design is the most appropriate for me because I am very creative, and I come from an artistic family background and have a strong interest in Interior design, I have thought a lot about a career in interior design/property development so I feel this role is the most beneficial for me, as it will give me a chance to prove that I have good ideas, and I know how to make the most of the space. I also feel it will support the whole performance as I have knowledge of set/interior design, I am genuinely interested in the role, so I won't just be doing it because I have to, its because I want to. I feel I have a lot of creative idea's to give to the performance, as I have already been thinking of ways to create the 1930's feel for the audience and for staging. I think I will be focusing more on the design for the hall and the audience area's, as the stage is mainly for props, montage and visual arts, which are all roles that have already been assigned.  I am able to give creative and artistic ideas, and will use whatever I can to create the speakeasy theme I am very strong with researching and then applying my research to my work and ideas, so this will benefit the production as a whole as my ideas for the speakeasy theem will be realistic and very precise, my class will trust my research techniques and will know that I have not just made the idea's up, I have documented my research of speakeasy's, fashion and the 1930's in my blogs Performance roles: My characters are a good choice for me because, it gives me the opportunity to develop my skills on playing a male character even further, and to continue becoming more confident and strong in my physicalities. I have a lot of experience with playing strong women, so Betty Dullfeet is a great character for me, as she is strong, grounded, witty and brave. Me playing Betty definitely supports the whole production as I am experienced with playing these types of characters, I am confident with my abilities to pull off this role, which will make the performance stronger I feel I am stronger at playing women rather than men, so having been cast as the two female parts in the whole play is appropriate for me, and I am able to play both these characters to the best of my abilty and I can make distinct character choices for both of the women, so they are not similar in anyway.

Your brief interpretation of the play and a proposed staging.

I have been watching the play on youtube, it is in 4 parts. I have ordered my copy of the play but as I wait for it to be delivered I have been watching the full play. I like that the play has comical elements to it and is not all SO serious, as the plays themes and objectives are quite dark and dangerous. The play explores gangsters and the rise of Arturo, who is shown as a visually comical character, as he is not scary to look at, but he has the dark traits of Hitler and becomes obsessed with power and controlling others. I feel Brecht has used this characterisation on purpose, as it adds humour and unpredictability from Arturo, but also I feel Brecht is being honest, as Arturo was not always a gangster, he is expressed as quite nerdy and not intimidating at the beginning, similar to Hitler, as he lived a bohemian lifestyle as a water colour painter, and then become involved with politics and formed the Nazi party. I am looking forward to reading the play so I can form my own interpretations of the play, the political meanings and the characters. I can tell already that I would like to perform this play in a more dark and disturbing way, and not make it too comical, as the historical events that are portrayed through this play were very serious and Hitler killed thousands of people, and this needs to be emphasised through the play. To me it has a deeper meaning if it is performed in a serious dramatic way, rather than a comical way. Comedy kind of takes the power away from performances like this in my opinion. The play is very politial, and contains deep meanings about society, and Brecht clearly felt very strongly about comunnity and politics. The play is a dark satire of Hitler's rise, and mainly focuses on Hitler's "rise" and not his reign in power. Brecht is showing how Hitler came from nothing, and used the public in order to gain more power, he manipulated the public eye and made them believe he was trying to help them, but all he wanted was to become more and more powerful and to enforce corrupt laws and use harsh methods of punishment on people who did not follow him. The play is highlighting how Hitler influenced many people, and was quite mentally unstable, especially towards the end. The play is quite comical in parts, but it is mainly very dark and serious. Most of the characters in the play are real life people, I have gone into more detail about these characters in my blog, but a few examples of public figures that are portrayed in the play are, Paul Von Hinderburg(Dogsborough) Joseph Goebells(Givola) Betty Dullfeet(Alwine Dullfuss) and Ignatius Dullfeet(Engelbert Dollfuss) My first thoughts of the staging would be to use the main stage AND the rosterer, to mix it up and keep it versatile for the audience and actors. I would shy away from using the main stage too much, as the sound is not very good on the main stage and this play highlights important topics, so every word needs to be heard. I would also like to use the audience space as a stage as well, I think it would be interesting to use the floor, like we did in Dracula and Playhouse creatures, and also to act quite close to the audience, like have scenes with character entering and exiting through the audience.

How you will evaluate and review your progress in the project.

I will evaluate my progress by constantly self relfecting after every lesson/rehearsal, and then documenting my self reflection in my blogs. I will also use videos, to evaluate my progress in my characters after rehearsals, so I can SEE what I need to change and what I am doing well. I will evaluate my production roles in my blogs, by sharing the ideas I am having for the set design in my blogs, and then checking back on my blogs and seeing if I achieved this or not. I want to set myself and the group targets in my blogs, so I have an aim to work towards everyday for my roles. I feel this helped me a lot when rehearsing for Dracula last year, so I feel it will definitely help with this play as well, because Dracula was very physical and epic, similar to Arturo Ui. I feel another good way for me to evaluate myself is to hear other peoples opinions on my progress, so I will ask my class mates how the feel my characterisation is coming along, or how they feel I am doing in my production roles.

Production roles

- What is the job you would like to propose yourself for?
Set design

- What are the main responsibilities for this role?
Making sure the theme for the audience area is effective and relevant, the staging design and layout fits the theme. Researching the 1930's and applying this to the theme of the hall. Being in charge of how the hall will look on the show night and the layout of seating.

- What do you think are the main personal attributes needed to be successful in this role?
To be creative and artistic, which I feel I am, and I am interested in interior design which makes me feel more interested in this role, as I love to make any space look good by using whatever I can. I feel I will need to be thorough in order to succed and make sure there is continuity, so the staging matches the audience.
I will also need to be patient and make sure that everyone likes the ideas I have.

- What about the role interests you?
It interests me because I have a strong interest in art and interior design and I feel this role interests me the most out of all of them as I already have an interest in this area, and I already have idea's for the show. I want to create a speakeasy cabaret theme for the audience, and have VIP seating on the floor as well as  the usual roster audience set out. I also want to have jazz music playing in the background, and to have a bar at the back selling wine, which we normally have anyway. It interests me as well as I love to creata an atmosphere in spaces and I feel we will all be able to create the speakeasy theme in the hall, it is quite bland and wooden, so we will need to use coloured materials, table cloths, candles, music, empty wine bottles, dimmed lighting, lampshades and possibly rugs on the floor. These are some ideas I have had already.
- Why would you be good at the role?
I feel I would be good at the role as I mentioned before I have an interest in interior design and I am creative and come from an artistic family background. I am also realistic, and I know that the hall will not be able to look like a perfect speakeasy, but I know that we can all work together and make the hall look different and effective. I have quite a quirky style when it comes to interior and art, so I will have to make sure that my ideas suit everybody and will make everyone happy. I feel interior design comes naturally for me, so I will be good at this role as I already feel confient about it and have had some ideas.

Show night & rehearsals

Notes from 1st full run: 

Build up distress in scene 13 

Run off downstage into audience and push past sophie & Sav 

Lines in scene 12 

Enter from VIP table in scene 7, putting makeup on(dock daisy)

Scene 1b: sheet to be more stressed and frantic and worried when seeing ui 

Notes from 2nd run: 

Handbag and lipstick for Betty in scene 12, less walking around flower shop, slow down pace 

Scene 13: lower voice angry level: look at audience may God protect us: hair out of face 

Queue for scene 12: were suddenly in the grip for organised crime(Mr ui my husbands human too!) 

Bertolt Brecht

"Art is not a mirror with which to reflect reality
 but a hammer with which to shape it"

Research I have made on Brecht, the master of "Epic theatre"
German Poet
Playwright
Theatre director

His full name is Eugen(his name as a child) Berthold Friedrich Brecht. He was born in Augsburg, Germany on the 10th of February 1898, and he died in East Berlin on August the 14th 1956. Brecht had five children with 3/4 different women.
The house Brecht was born in is now preserved as a Brecht Museum. He lived a comfortable middle class life. Brecht first began his love of theatre when he went to school in Augsburg and met Caspar Neher who he began a life long creative partnership with and Caspar created the sets for Brecht's dramas and he helped Brecht create the visual iconography of Epic Theatre.
When Brecht was 16, the first world war had began and he refused to become "swallowed up by the war" and wanted to go study on a medical course at Munich University. He then studied Drama instead, and began his passion and love of theatre and creating drama.
Brecht wrote his play "Baal" in 1917, whilst he was studying at University and it was about suffering caused from excessive sexual pleasures, at the same time Brecht's mother was heavily dosed on morphine because of her progressive cancer, so I am not sure if this play is something to do with his mother's sufferings? Or his mothers illness is what inspired him to write such a abstract play.
From research I have learned that Brecht's sexuality was very undecided throughout his life, he experimented with homo sexuality and visited brothels to widen his experience and his mind, he is said to have been with 8 different women at the same time between the ages of 16 and 20, and one of these women, Paula Banholzer, gave birth to his first child, who was seen as "Illegitimate" and was born in 1919, when Brecht was 20/21. His diaries stated that he needed males and females in order to satisfy his sexual desires. Suggesting that he was bi-sexual.
I never knew any of this about Brecht, and it makes me wonder that his political plays all stem from his own personal struggles. As he lived a very erratic life.
He travelled back and forth to Berlin throughout the 1920's, his play "Drums in the night" first opened in Munich and then later in Berlin, he attended the rehearsals of very famous directors, including Max Reinhardt.
He also met his first wife, Marianne Zoff when he was 24. And his second child was born a year later, Hanne their daughter, who later became a very successful actress. Brecht had multiple affairs and spent little time with his wife and daughter, and he moved to Berlin in 1924, and his wife moved in with her parents and stopped contact with Brecht due to his erratic lifestyle and poor parenting. He met a communist actress in Berlin, Helene Weigel. When Brecht was 26, he had his third child with Weigel, a son called Stefan. And in 1929, after getting divorced from Marianne Zoff, he married Helene and in 1930 Brechts fourth child, Barbara was born. By this point, Brecht was only 31 and had already married twice and had four children, 2 were illegitimate. He was a womaniser, but saw all the women in his life as very important for his writing and inspired his plays.
Brecht was obsessed with the idea of "abandonment" and was constantly ending relationships and moving onto someone else, I feel he was never satisfyed with his life and constantly wanted changes, and I feel he liked the idea of using women and leaving them. Maybe this could be stemmed from his mother dying when he was at a young age.
Some of his mistresses helped him write some of his plays, for example, "The Threepenny opera" was largely accredited to Elisabeth Hauptmann.
Ruth Berlau was another one of his mistresses he had whilst he was stilled married to Helene Weigel, and she gave birth to his third illegitimate child in 1944. His wife was very tolerant of his affairs, which is bizarre to me, and she often warned other men off his mistresses as Brecht became upset when his mistresses were seeing other men! 

In 1948, Brecht and his wife travelled to East Berlin and set up together the Berliner Ensemble, with the full support of the Communist regime. Later in 1950, Brecht and his wife were granted full Austrian citizenship.

Brecht's four great plays were written between 1938 and 1945. These included, for one, The Life of Galileo, which followed history slavishly. It dealt with the protagonist's self-hatred for giving up his convictions in the face of the Inquisition. The others were Mother Courage and Her Children; The Good Woman of Setzuan, which in some ways follows from Mother Courage in examining the compatibility of virtue and a capitalist world and lastly "The Caucasian chalk circle" which introduces questions about power and who is entitled to own things. After this period, Brecht worked on his famous adaptation of Antigone and spent much of his energy recording his theoretical ideas.

All his life Brecht had suffered with a heart condition, he had his first heart attack when he was just 12 years old, and was sent to a medical institution to calm him down, as he was always very nervous and used to twitch a lot.

This remained a problem his whole life, and in 1956, he died from a heart attack, whilst in the middle of working on a play called "Waiting for Godot" Brecht was very interested in modern drama and had very strange requests for his funeral, he instructed that a stiletto be placed through his heart and that he was buried in a steel coffin so his body was not riddled with worms. I think his stiletto request definitely stemmed from his sexual fantasies and desires. His will said that he wanted to give specific mistresses money, and his wife Helene Weigel did this for him generously. He was buried in Berlin.

Brechts life was very turbulent and erratic, which reflected in his plays massively. 

Performance roles

PERFORMANCE ROLES
(I have updated this as my characters changed)

• Who have you been cast as? I have been cast as Betty Dullfeet, Dockdaisy and Sheet.
• What happens to this character? Betty Dullfeet: Betty is Ignatius Dullfeet's wife, who is a news reporter, and writes stories about Ui and his men. Ui does not like Dullfeet, and he is very cautious of the couple. Betty is a strong woman, but she loses her husband in scene 13, and her character changes dramatically, she becomes weaker and very distressed, whereas in scene 10 and 12 she is very upbeat and positive, she supports her husband, as he is a very nervous and timid character, she is definitely the strength in their relationship. She eventually at the end of the play succumbs to Ui's plan, and ends up supporting him, even though he murdered her husband. So Betty goes through a lot of emotions and change in the play.
• Dockdaisy: This character is very funny, and I really enjoy playing her. I was an understudy for this character, but when Jade left, I took over her role. Dockdaisy is a young drunk woman who is very light hearted and flirtatious, she is having an affair with Givola and lies for Ui and his men on two occasions and does not seem to have a care in the world. She is the opposite of Betty, which is fun for me as I can play around with both characters. Nothing drastic happens to Dockdaisy in the play, she is seen in scene 3, 7 and 8, drunk and behaving inappropriately, she does not suffer upset or loss like Betty, she is just like a puppet for Ui and Givola, and they use her to make themselves look better in public.
• Sheet: Sheet is a male part, and he is an accountant type character for the Cauliflower trust, he is an "honest" business man, I think most of the characters are quite dodgy, but Sheet is not a gangster and does not have anything to do with Ui. Sheet is only seen in scene 1B, and his character is quite serious, yet sarcastic. In this scene, he is with Flake, and there is tension between the two men, as they are worried about the Trust and what Ui will do. Sheet is only seen briefly at the beginning, and then in scene 5 it is announced that Sheet has been found dead in his hotel room. So Sheet has clearly been murdered by Ui and his men because they did not like him, and in scene 1b, Sheet says to Flake, Ui needs to be stopped and fast. Sheet is branded a "gangster" by Ui, which is a clear lie. but Ui never admits to killing him, even though everyone knows he did. Sheet is a good man, but is killed for his opinion about Ui and his men. Sheet also owns dockyards, which again, attracted Ui to him.
• What acting skills do you need to play them? As the play is Brechtian I will need to apply the Brecht epic theatre skills to both my characters . I need to make sure to not use naturalism as I find naturalistic acting enjoyable and quite easy, I will have to work hard to not apply this skill to my characters. Epic theatre skills enable the actor to portray the idea that the character is NOT real to the audience. I need to have versatility skills as I am playing more than one character, which is new for me as in all the other shows we have performed I have Always played the same character throughout. Another skill I will have to use is physical theatre skills. For example, I am playing a woman and a man, so I will have to work on my physicality as I will have to have a physical difference for all my characters, I cannot keep the same pace and body language for all my characters. "The quotable gest" is another Brecht acting technique I have been using for my characters. It helps the audience distinguish my different characters, and also makes my performance stronger, as I will have completely different gests and physicality's for all my characters. For example, for Betty, I feel she is very grounded and strong, so her gests are sharp and sustained, whereas Dockdaisy is very ditzy and seems younger than Betty, so her gests are more light and free, she breezes around  the stage and always seems drunk, so her movements are very airy and she sways quite a lot when she walks. Sheet is a man, so my physicality of him is completely different, he walks with a jump in his step, and I have been working hard on my entrance for this scene, as I want the audience to see me entering as a man and not as a woman playing a man. Sheet is serious, but  sarcastic but he is also stressed in this scene, so my gests for him are quite stylised and sharp, he is holding a brief case in this scene and his free arm is quite sustained, sometimes in his pocket, scratching his chin, adjusting his tie, I want his movements to be choreographed in this scene, and I can repeat these three gests throughout the scene.
• What about the role interests you? Betty Dullfeet interests me because she is one of the only female "main" characters. There are only two female roles in the play and I have been cast as both of them, which I am really happy about! Betty is a strong character as she is involved with the gangster crime world and is not kept in the dark from her husband who is a reporter but he is somewhat involved in the gangster world and is disliked by ui , which proves to me that she is a clever woman and is not just a house wife, which back in those days, most women probably were. Betty is opinionated and gutsy, and stands up to Ui in scene 13, which is the funeral of Dullfeet. All of the characters I am playing interest me, as they are all very different from each other and come from different backgrounds and situations. Betty interests me the most out of Sheet and Dockdaisy as she is the most complex and her characters goes through a timeline of emotions in this play, whereas the other two characters do not show much emotion, as Dockdaisy is acting throughout, as she is lying for Ui so we never see HER real emotions or character, and Sheet is killed off very quickly, so we never get to explore his character or background.

• Why will you be good at the role? I think I will be good at playing Betty Dullfeet as I have played strong female characters in the past and I do tend to be cast as these types of characters very much, which is a good thing as I am good at playing them and I enjoy playing these types of women. Betty Dullfeet definitely has a dark side which interests me even more about her character, as plain female characters with no edges do not interest me and I would be bored playing these types, but characters like Betty, who are definitely very strong, edgy and brave. Which is everything I like in a character so I will be good at playing her role as I can portray this very well. And will have fun playing her. I feel playing Dockdaisy is refreshing for me, as she is not serious at all, and is the opposite to Betty, so the audience will see me playing two completely different women, and I have really pushed myself hard to make sure the two characters are not similar at all, or that I do not slip into the same physicality when playing both characters, which I feel I have achieved. Playing Sheet, is really fun and I enjoy playing a man, I am happy that I get the opportunity to play both females and a male in the play, as it is widening my acting abilities and it portrays to the audience and my teachers that I am a versatile actor, and particularly in this play, I use three different physicality's. 

24.3.15

Today we continued to read through the play, we have nearly finished reading the whole play. It has 15 scenes, some are very short, and some are quite long.
After reading we had a discusison about Hitler and the nazi's, and about Hitler's background and his rise and how it relates to Arturo Ui,

Mein Kamf: this a book hitler wrote when he was in prison for the first time after his failed attempt at a campaign and March. The book goes into detail about how he will rule Germany and become a powerful and legendary dictator. I feel his time spent in prison changed him for good and his power hunger grew and grew. Hitler was a very determined man and he succeeded at what he wanted to do, he had passion and drive, which worked in his favour. 
Givola in real life was Gurbles, Hitlers first man in line, his sidekick, and has been seen as the influence over Hitler about the Jews
Gurbles was a poet in real liufe.
He assigned people to burn books, so that Jewish children and adults could not read or be educated

We spoke about how Hitler changed so much from his young bohemian life in Vienna. When he was younger he had a passion for art and applied to art school twice and was rejected both times. I think he was rejected purely because of his upbringing and wealth status. His dad passed away when hitler was very young and his mum was a single parent with little money. After this Hitler moved away from

Home and worked as a painter for several years, painting scenery on the street of Vienna. He lived a very relaxed bohemian life staying in hostels and shelters. This sounds nothing like the hitler we all know, but the contrast of his life in Vienna as apposed to Germany is very different and he sounds like a completely different person! This is similar to UI as he begins very different to how he ends as a character. 

Planning review

Throughout this play we have had consistent production meetings and have delegated production roles. So far, the majority of the class feel that some people are doing more than others and I feel this isn't fair, we have all been given production roles and have to fulfil these roles! My role I have been given is Set Design with Chloe. Although this role is not very specific, as there are roles for props and for montage, set design is more aimed I feel

at the style and layout of the hall at Pelham and how we want the audience to look.
I feel so far I have shared my idea's with the group about how I feel the lay out should look and we all agreed on the VIP tables, and it was my idea when we had a meeting about the staging and audience a while back to have it like a cabaret theme with audience members having the opportunity to have VIP tables, in which they can reserve and have wine bought over to their table for them.

We decided to use the silver rounded tables at Pelham and East campus for this, and we are going to have 4-6 VIP tables on the floor, and then have the usual raised audience.
At my work we got a completely new refurbishment and we had a lot of tables and chairs that needed to be taken away, and I did ask my manager if we could use these black tables, but they never got back to me and then they told me that they had already been taken away. This would of been really handy, but the tables at my work were black and square, and the ones we are using are round, and I feel round ones look better and they are not as big as the square ones. Also the work tables are heavy,and the rounded ones are not heavy.
I have also asked family members if they can let me borrow their ashtrays, as they have glass clear ashtrays, which will look really effective for our performance, as the actors are going to have to have ashtrays and we want to have some on the VIP tables.
I feel I have given my ideas and opinions on most aspects of the show, particularly the staging and set design, but also costume, sound effects and props. I think when creating a show everyone should listen to EVERYONE'S ideas and hear what everybody has to say about it.
I always respect and appreciate the group's ideas, and I feel so far our show set up is looking and sounding really good, and I want to create the ambiance as much as I can for the audience, as I want it to look like how a speak easy looked back in 1930.

Our rehearsal plan has been OK, but I do feel that we should have had more time spent on the scenes, as I feel sometimes we only did a scene a couple of times then moved onto the next scene, and we did not really go back to any scenes until when we had our first run through a couple of weeks ago! So I feel we should have spent more time on the scenes, but I understand we are under a time schedule,  but I feel in some rehearsals we did not really get anything done, due to focusing on other things or just not really concentrating. I pushed for a run through many times,but its hard to have a unanimous decision in our group because everyone has different opinions on the rehearsal schedule. 
But I am happy with how the play is coming along, I just feel production week is going to be really tough because we need to focus on the transitions and the energy of all the scenes, these our the main weaknesses I am identifying at the moment. I feel the characters are really good, and the structure and historical meanings of the scenes are strong. It is just the way the scenes move from one to another which needs attention, because a lot of the time we never just go from scene to scene, we always stop, talk, or wonder what we are doing. I just really want this performance to be amazing as it is our last ever performance all together and we have all worked really hard on this performance and it is not an easy project at all as Brecht is quite complicated and political.
This week and next week I want to focus on running the show and getting the transitions running smoothly and up the energy in ALL the scenes, we are all so capable we just need to push ourselves further.

10.06.2015

This is the song we have chosen to use for the transition from scene 10-11, which shows Liam turning into Ui.

Today was very full on, we had a 9am-5.30pm day and we had a full run through of act 2, which is from scene 7 until the epilogue. I feel today we made a lot of progress and tightened up the transitions. I have wanted to run the whole show for a long time now so today I was happy we managed to run through act 2, and we did act 1 last week, and we stumbled through reasonably quickly with no talking or standing around after each scene we ran pretty smoothly fr scene to scene. The run through took about 2 hours, which I feel was ok as we did stop a couple of times and were sorting out the music for the translations, I feel we did not waste any time today and I feel more confident about the show and my characters. Afterwards we received directors notes & the main notes I received for my characters were: 

Dockdaisy: In scene 7, make her more smiley and ditzy, before beginning her rehearsed speech she should look out at te audience and smile and get too caught up with the attention and almost forget what she has to say. I need to make it more obvious that she is lying and is performing a rehearsed speech.
Scene 3: Would Dockdaisy be smoking? Would she be drinking openly?
I have researched this, and I have found that it was socially acceptable for women to be smoking in the 1930's. Up until the 1920's it was seen as "improper" for a woman to be smoking, but this does not mean that women did not smoke. I feel in scene 3, it is set in a "Bookies" which involves gambling and drinking. We have had this discussion and I personally feel that the scene should seem some what dodgy and not legal, it should have an edge to it. I have link here which is the main source of research I used for this.
Women smoking in the 1930s

I want to have Dockdaisy smoking a cigarette, Greta ordered herbal cigarettes which we are allowed to smoke during the performance. I know Dockdaisy is a lady, but she is not a married woman, she has no repsonsibilties to anyone, she is a floozy who likes to drink and hang around with the gangsters. So I want to have her smoking a cigarette in this scene and I will inform the cast about my research. I also looked into women drinking alcohol in the 1930s, and this again was socially acceptable, as seen in lots of films from the 1930s, women drink cocktails mainly gin based and champagne. Dockdaisy is not an upper class woman, so I feel she would definitely drink in front of the men in this scene. I do think however the drinking should be very sneaky and secretive in this scene, as Ui is in this scene and he does not drink or smoke, he does not tell the others to stop smoking or drinking but I feel there should be an element of disagreement on Ui's face in this scene, and I will see what Yunusa thinks of this idea as he is playing Ui in this scene.
The way I have characterised Dockdaisy stems from the stage directions of this scene, which say Dockdaisy is "very drunk" and this what inspired me to portray Dockdaisy as a young, rebellious and flirtatious woman, as she is seen very drunk in her first scene, so I want to maintain my original idea's of having Dockdaisy drunk and smoking in this scene.
Smoking was seen to be "Glamorous" in the 1930's.

Betty: In scene 13, Betty needs to be much more traumatised and angry about the funeral and UI's actions. Try not to look down when I am crying, try to cry out to the audience and really make them see how hurt she is. 

Run off the stage crying after "never never never" instead of walking, maybe push past Giri, run in fear from UI's handshake.
Betty is a strong character and a strong woman, I am playing the only two female parts which I am really happy about, so it has been my motivation to create really strong female characters which are not over shadowed by the male characters. In Scene 13 I am going to make Betty much more upset and disturbed by Ui, and I am really going to lay into him, as I was thinking how awful it must feel for her to know the man who murdered her husband is standing over his coffin at his funeral talking in a nasty way about him. So I want Betty to really lose it with Ui, it will be entertaining for the audience to watch a woman laying into Ui, and to see how he reacts to it.
I feel in the first scene Betty is introduced which is scene 10, I need to make more of an impression on Ui, I want her to appear witty and smart, so the audience notice her straight away and can tell she is a strong woman. The notes I received from Siou have really helped me and have opened up my minds to more ideas for my characters and how to make them even stronger. I am really looking forward to the show as I really like all my characters, particularly the two women, and I want the audience to appreciate the female characters as it is such a male heavy performance.

Today we also rehearsed the transition between scene 10 and 11 and made some changes to it. We made the walking much more slower and intense, and made sure that the two guys keep eye contact with each other, Max is sizing Liam up, to see if he is good enough to take over as Ui. And we added the gest in at the end as well, as it looked stronger using the Ui gest, as this is one of the main movements that portrays Ui as each character has their own gests. I really like the transition as it is intense and shows a clear transition between the two actors, so it simplifies for the audience and it is Brechtian as he likes to play around with music and uses music to speak to the audience.
The group have fully completed and blocked the transitions from scene to scene, and they are looking smooth and keep the audience engaged and each transition is different, and we always use music with the transitions. Transitions help to make the performance more entetaining and keep the energy up, as it would be boring to just go from scene to scene with no transitions, and it would be the easy way, and we do not like the easy way!!

These are the feedback video's from after today's run through.

5.06.15

Sophie as Givola and Chloe as Butcher

1930's female fashion, the second dress reminds me of Betty's dress style, the top image shows the CHICAGO 1930's style

Today we tried on all our costumes and did a run through of the show from the beginning until scene 6 which is when our interval will be, we did not do the run through in costume, but we did try all our costumes on before the run to make sure everything fits OK. Both my dresses fit me and I think they really suit my characters. My other character, Sheet, will be wearing a black suit jacket, a white shirt and black trousers with brogues. And he will also have a briefcase, which i want to fill with paper and have him running in holding lots of paper and trying to put it all in his briefcase, as he has been doing bank runs all day so I want the audience to see how exhausted he is and how much he has been trying to get a loan for the cauliflower trust.

The run through today went well and I feel the scenes are becoming much stronger, we next need to run through from scene 7 until the epilogue as we have not done this yet.

We need to work on the transitions from scene to scene as at points it was un organised and it did not flow from one scene to another. We need to have a rehearsal on transitions and I am sure we will achieve this shortly. 

Personally I feel confident with how my characters are developing and I feel the difference between Dockdaisy and Betty is very clear. Betty is much more mature, smart and witty, whereas Dockdaisy is very ditzy and flirtatious, she always seems like she is in her own little world whereas Betty is very with it and on the ball.

This is my costume for Dockdaisy, it is more revealing than Betty's costume and it portrays Dockdaisy as she is a flirty young woman, who likes to drink and is always up to something.

The brogues I am going to wear for my characters, including Sheet

This is my costume for Betty, it has a black hat to accompany it to, this dress is very formal, grown up and professional, which is exactly what Betty is like, she is a respectable married woman, unlike Dockdaisy who is a floozy who likes to flaunt herself to the men, particularly Givola.

This is the hairstyle I am going to try and achieve for both my female characters as it is quite easy to do with my hair and will look very 1930's. I will bring my curling tongs to a dress rehearsal and try this out, and I will also try it out at home.

This is another song we have found by Duke Ellington which we want to use for the show.

1.06.15

In today's lesson we used this for rehearsal time, as we no longer have our acting for camera lessons with Andy on Monday's, this is our chance to use the space in the dance studio for rehearsing.
We mainly focused on scene 10, which I have written about in my "all scenes" blog post.

We created a storyboard for scene 10, and how we want to portray Arturo Ui. As we have 4 actors for this character, we wanted to create a short video, showing the transitions between all four actors which are Heta, Max, Yunusa and Liam.

We all together had ideas about this video, and we thought it would look really cool to have all the Ui's walk out from the curtains of the drama studio and walk towards the camera, staring right into the lense. It was simple to film but looks really effective. It starts with Heta walking out from behind the curtain and towards the camera, then we pause and Yunusa appears and takes one step towards the camera, staring down the lense, and then pause again and we switch to Liam and he takes one step forward, and then the same with Max, and then it ENDS with Heta again, who takes more steps forward and gives a sinister smile and look into the camera, and rubs a black moustache onto her upper lip, using black eyeliner she had smudged onto her fingers. So the video will be very snappy and will change from face to face and end with Heta creating the Hitler inspired moustache. It is humorous in a way, as we are joking around with the moustache, but it is very eery and quite creepy to watch as they all have the same dead expression in their eyes, but you can see the evil and sinister within them as well.
I think it is powerful to the audience and also indicates clearly the transitions between characters, we did this partly for the audience's understanding of the character switches, and because it is creative and interesting for the audience to watch. We did this video for our website, but also we want to play it at the beginning of the performance, so the audience will be clear straight away on the character changes, as in the past we have had the same sort of feedback from audience members that the character changes confused them, so this a cool way to educate the audience without having to tell them directly.

3.06.15

In today's lesson, before rehearsals we relived Michael Chekov's acting techniques as a warm up, in order to become more physical and to play around with our body languages. Chekov uses three qualities or "states" of movement for actors, these are FLOATING, FLYING AND MOULDING. 

Floating movements are very light and free, they are delicate movements which appear very open and not restricting. We started doing an exercise where we had to envision three round objects we could hold and throw to each other, the object for floating was a very precious priceless glass ball, I visualized this as a small sparkly crystal ball, and I could see my reflection, it was not very heavy and could be put inside my pocket. I felt this vision worked well with my movements as they were very light and quite slow, I was in awe of the ball and did not want anyone else to touch it. It really helped me to make the movements more light, as the vision I had was a stimulus for the movement, as if I was not visualizing this I feel the movements would not have been as strong.

The second movement was "flying" which is very high pace, manic and quick. I used small and snappy movements, it reminded me of a rabbit, they move very quickly and sharply, and are always on alert for danger, but they make very small movements. We were asked to imagine we were holding a bomb, which was ticking and could explode at any moment. We all went into a state of tension and shock where we would panic when we had the bomb in our hands and quickly want to dispose of the bomb by throwing it to other people. When I had the bomb in my hands I noticed my movements were very erratic and all over the place, I did not have any structure to my movements I just let my body go into panic and I kept running in circles and screaming, which was funny and I would feel out of breath when I had the bomb in my hand as my body was very tense and this uses a lot of energy I found. The feelings of this quality of movement are very scatty and shocked, all you want to do is get rid of it, or just not hold it at all, and the feelings I felt in this exercise were definitely portrayed in my movements.

The last quality of movement was Moulding, which we have done a lot of work on this year, it requires a lot of detail about what you are doing, and it is the most realistic type of movement out of all of them, it is just more exaggerated. We imagined a canon ball which was very heavy, some people envisioned the ball to be very big, bigger than them, and others imagined it to be small but very heavy, this is how I visioned it. I was imagining a black bowling ball, which was very heavy and hard to hold. I could not throw this ball as it was too heavy, so I passed it with difficulty to someone next to me. Moulding allows you to be very particular about what you are doing, it is obvious to an audience what you are doing, and allows them to vision what you are doing as well, as you are kind of showing them exactly how you are doing something or how you feel. Using moulding, we imagined we were packing a suitcase, and every item we packed was exaggerated, like folding clothes, taking them off the hangers, opening drawers and picking out socks and underwear, and packing shoes. I like moulding as it allows me to create a clear image in my head, and afterwards I feel slightly warn out as it is quite physical, exaggerating and outlining every movement you are doing. 

This exercise was a really good idea as it got us all physically awake before our rehearsals, and it allowed me to think about how MY character(s) would do this exercise, how Betty would pack a suitcase or how Sheet would hold a really heavy ball. This exercise reminded me about Chekov's quality of movements and how important it is as an actor to have quality in your movements and to mix them up, and not stick to the same way of moving. And as I am playing 3 different characters, as are most of us, it allowed me to see that I need to have different states of tension for each of my characters and I will enforce this in our rehearsals. 

We also today looked at scene 15, and the epilogue. We have nearly finished blocking all of the scenes and today we mainly focused on scene 15 & discussed the Epilogue. I have gone into detail about scene 15 on my SCENES blog.

What do we want the audience to think after the show?

This question is a question I have been asking myself since beginning this performance. We had a discussion about this together and shared ideas. I think we all want the play to be powerful and make the audience realise just how corrupt Hitler was, and how corrupt the world is today. With reference to Hitler, Putin, Kim Jong Un, Mugabe and Gidaffi. All these dictators have shown the same traits Hitler had, and they all show corrupt movements and decisions at some point during their reign in power. We want the audience to realise that the world will always be contained with corrupt laws, people and governments. I also want the play to portray positive feelings for the audience, as I do not want them to leave feeling negative. I want the audience to feel they have just watched an intelligent and powerful piece of theatre which contains a lot of real life history and knowledge, as well as humorous characters. We as a group made the decision to use the "Heil Hitler" gest throughout as a repetitive gest, we use this in a comical way at the beginning in the prologue, and as the play develops and Ui becomes more powerful, the meaning of the gest changes and it becomes more sinister and brain washing. I want the audience to feel educated, as some audience members may know more about Hitler than others, and personally before this play I did not know much about Hitler, but now I feel I know a lot and I am quite knowledgeable about him, and I understand the things he did and why he did them. 

The epilogue is very important in what we want the audience to think as it is the last scene they will see, and the wording of the epilogue is very deep and meaningful. I have read through it a lot of times, and every time I develop a stronger understanding of the meaning and the sub text. We decided to have Sophie perform the epilogue, as she does this in the prologue and it maintains consistency and familiarity for the audience. 

I came up with the idea to have Sophie on stage, dimly lit, whilst all of us are behind the shadow screen, so the audience can see our silhouettes behind her, it creates a unified feeling and shows we support what Sophie is saying. We had different ideas about where Sophie should be, I personally like the idea of her being centre stage, not talking out to the audience directly, but almost like a wise old person, pondering in thought. She is educating the audience on what COULD have been and how different the world would be today if Hitler had not of died. But I also like the idea of having Sophie sitting at a table in the audience, having a drink, and then a spot light comes down onto Sophie and she begins the epilogue, so it is a more casual laid back way to end the show, and the audience members will feel more involved as she will be sitting with them, just like having a normal conversation.

We need to try these ideas out and see which one works best. We also want to create a montage video to be played as Sophie is speaking of famous dictators, the ones I have listed above, giving their powerful speeches, so it shows dictators from over the years and how they have developed and how they have also stayed the same. I think this is visually powerful to the audience and it is interesting for them to watch over the years how things have changed/stayed the same. We are going to find video clips of speeches from dictators, and maybe some clips of wars happening NOW, in Syria, Saudi Arabi and Russia.  

THUS LEARN YOU HOW TO SEE, AND NOT JUST LOOK,

AND ACT INSTEAD OF TALKING ALL DAY LONG;

THE WORLD WAS ALMOST RULED BY SUCH A CRROK!

THOUGH PEOPLE OVERCAME HIM, YOU'D BE WRONG 

TO PAT YOUR BACKS AND THINK YOURSELVES SO CLEVER-

THE OOZE THAT SPAWNED HIM IS AS RICH AS EVER!

The epilogue is a powerful and clever piece of writing. After reading through it, I have highlighted the main points of the epilogue. I feel the first learn is very important, as it is showing the audience/readers how people look at things all the time, but this does not mean you SEE them. People misunderstand situations and feelings all the time, by quickly jumping to assumptions without taking the time to really SEE the real problem beneath. It is very knowledgeable, and everyone can relate to this, as it is happens all the time all over the world people watching things on the news, reading articles, reading tabloids about celebrities, mis judging relationships and peoples feelings, without really doing anything about it or trying to understand the real reason! This again is portrayed in the second line, when it says how people need to ACT instead of talking all day long. People can complain about something all day long, but never actually do anything to change it. This is typical in countries, everyone has a problem with something, but very little people actually act upon this, they just work around problems or just walk away from the problem, instead of solving it or trying to make it better. This is partly because of the society people live in, where there are so many problems people give up trying to change it and just carry on with their lives.

The epilogue clearly indicates the Hitler did die and was not in power for much longer, and it portraying this in a positive way, as it brands him a "crook" which is true in ways, but Hitler did believe in what he fought for, but it was all very corrupt and disturbing. He was very extreme about everything and manipulated everyone to be on his team, he was not fair and did not let people vote for what they wanted, it was either be on his side, or die. 

The last line, is stating that the society who created Hitler, is as rich as ever. Even though Hitler did not reign for as long as he intended and he did die, the society he left behind were happy without him, and society did eventually regain its peace and unity. So society today is essentially better off without him, as we can only imagine how different it would be if he had not of died and gained power over most countries in Europe.

The subtext is very powerful of this epilogue, and it needs to be portrayed very carefully to the audience, as we want them to understand what this play is all about. So Sophie will have to think carefully about how she delivers this speech.

For next lesson I want to carry on with rehearsing the epilogue, and I also want us to start scene 13 as this is the funeral scene of Mr Dullfeet and we have not rehearsed this yet, and it is an important scene. Today I recorded the voiceover for the funeral, we decided that as I am playing Betty Dullfeet it would make sense for me to do the voiceover, but I did not record it in my character, I wanted it to be different, but obvious to the audience that it is my voice.