East End Tales is a play written by Fin Kennedy. It is a series of nine stories inspired by photos and news articles from local papers in east London. The story ideas were developed by a group of Year 10 Bengali girls, and as they worked with the play developing it, it was then written in a lyrical style. We performed the play as a physical theatre piece, using our bodies to show feelings instead of using our voices. It was performed on the 12th February 2015, at my school (The Brit School of Performing Arts).
I developed ideas for the performance by watching videos on youtube of physical theatre, and I also went to see a play performed at my school which was physical theatre. I learnt a lot of things in class as well, when we did activities and excercises for example when we had to use our bodies to create sounds which sounded like the weather.
The play script helped me develop ideas, when I read it I read between the lines I dug deeper into the characters, so each one I played, even the tiny parts, so in my head I had a whole background story for them, and this helped me play the characters better. I also used the playscript to help me with the soundscapes, I would read through knowing where the tale was set and what kind of weather it was, so I could make the sounds of it in the background.
At first I think everyone was kinda stuck in the aspect of developing the pieces and making them physical theatre. I think a lot of people found it hard to get comfortable with moving our bodies in different ways and being quite uncomfortable. When we started doing excercises in class and becoming more and more understanding and comfortable with physical theatre the tales started to get better and develop. When we all would work in big groups and focus on something I think the work produced was really good, when everyone concentrated and tried hard the overall product was really good. I liked when we did the monologues, I think it helped everyone to understand the play more on a personal level, as we wrote them ourselves we could really go deeper into our chosen characters emotions.
The moments that worked the best for me were the group tales, Tale 1 with all the girls and Tale 2 with all the boys worked very well. I think this because it was effective how the boys were acting out being a girl and the girls were acting out being boys. And because we directed them it was interesting to see what the boys think of girls and how they interpret them and how girls do the same for the guys.
My favorite moment was probably when the domestic abuse tale came on, I think it was good because its a subject that isn't talked about much and is a touchy subject and for 14-15 year olds to be interpreting their opinions of it is a very big thing. I think the audience was shocked as it is a big topic, and I wanted them to be because it would've drawn them in and made them think and feel something towards the subject. The play has a lot of different stories all which can happen in real life and domestic abuse is something that happens everyday to many people, and I believe its something that people find uncomfortable because its a very serious subject, and by us yr 10s performing about, I think this would've made a big impact on the audience.
I liked the tale about the lioness called Michele whose drugs get take from her. I think Michele played the character well, when the drugs get taken away from her she played the character so well, you could tell just from her eyes how badly she needed those drugs and how precious they were to her. She created a very tense atmosphere which drew all the audience in, the way she spoke and the way her body language was made everyone feel on the edge and she really did an amazing job.
The weaknesses were working as an ensemble. Trying to get everyone listening
and concentrated was hard especially when doing the soundscapes. And in my group trying to get everyone involved and engaged was very hard. We over came it by basically realising that we hadn't much time left and when we all realised that everyone worked really hard and pulled through because theatre is important to all of us.
I have developed my physical theatre skills and my accents. I am now more comfortable with physical theatre and have a better understanding of it. I also have developed my accent skills as I now can do an East End accent. This term I have learnt that when it comes to acting you just have to let yourself completely go no matter how stupid you feel doing it because what your producing will probably look really great. I also learnt that even if you don't get along or like the people your working with you have to find a way to compromise and get on with the work because in life there is always going to be people you don't work well with but you have to put up with it anyway.
I have become better at learning lines and being able to lean them quickly. I have practiced by focusing in the class more and concentrating on the work only. And finally I have learnt how to rehearse efficiently.
Overall I think the performance went really well. Everyone pulled together to create a really good piece of work. I believe I have developed my team skills and my physical theatre skills. I will always use everything I have learnt in this project in the future. I really enjoyed physical theatre and hope to do more of it.
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