Feb 8th: Drama

On February 8^th, we were doing about hot seating and roll on the wall.  First of all, good hot seating should make the actor learn more about their characters personality and/or history.  We hot seated Miss Woffinden and Tomas and they both gave feedback about what to do and how they felt when being interviewed.  We also gave feedback to them about what made their ‘performance’ good.  Both methods of feedback were useful because we could then apply it to our own pieces.  We said that quick thinking was vital when being hot seated and a varied pace is also good.  You don’t’ have to answer straight away, you can pause ans think about it as long as you do so in character.  Both pieces were intense as the responses were spontaneous and we didn’t know what was coming next.  We discussed the idea that this made us as the interviewers worried and a little  tense, I was worried about the fact that sometimes when I asked a question, especially to Miss Woffinden and she looked away or didn’t answer before a long pause, I was worried that I’d 'crossed the line’ with the types of questions I asked.  Costume helps get into character, even if it’s a simple as a pair of glasses or a scarf.  It also helps if you walk out of the door and walk back in again in character as this helps the actor focus.  Body language and gestures as with any other piece of drama are important aspects of the piece as are facial expressions and the language used.  Good hot seating should make the ‘interviewers’ feel uncomfortable as they are probing into the life of somebody they don’t really know.  We agreed that the questions should be linked to the previous questions asked unless there is no more to say on that subject then it is ok to change the subject completely.  All questions should be open and should make the actor reveal more about themselves to them self and us.

Hot seating is useful during rehearsals because if there isn’t much plot or character development in the piece, then hot seating will help.  It can also give ideas for the other characters development as if the hot seated actor talks about their relationship with another character, then this tells us more about them.  Also, if you hot seat a character ans ask them a question they don’t know the answer to, then that points out what more needs to be researched.

This could be useful in a Theatre in Education workshop because if the topic in the drama is a bit sensitive and there are people in that might be in a similar situation, to be able to hot seat a character from the drama could be a part of their healing process and help them out with their situation. 

We all discussed afterwards what we each thought about hot seating.  Imogen thought it was hard to play some one of a different age to her.  Olly said that he could build tension but he ran out of ideas.  I found it hard convincing the interviewers that i was right because hey seemed to gang up on me almost and they disagreed with me.  Frankie found it difficult when the audience started laughing as she didn’t know whether they were laughing at her or with her, she found it misleading.  Emily found it difficult to be spontaneous, Tomas enjoyed improvising, Beth commented that her character didn’t have much to say in the piece so she didn’t have much to work on and Fran thought that the questions asked were very provocative therefore easy to answer.

Roll on the wall is when you draw the outline of a person and on the inside, you write what the character feels on the inside and about their personality and family but on the outside, you write what other characters think of them and how they view them.  For example, in the play Cloud Busting, for the character Davy, on the outside it would say things like ‘loser’ or ‘loner’ but on he inside, it would say things like ‘best friends with Sam’.

Roll on the wall is useful during rehearsals as it stores all the information you have found out from hot seating. Is also shows us how much the audience know about the character and how much they don’t know (the stuff on the inside).

It could be useful in a Theatre in Education workshop as the participants could find out all the things on the inside of the person and this could maybe help them understand why that character acted the way they did.  It could also help them to understand real people as well.

10 Questions and Answers for my character

1.  What got you into football in the first place?

I’ve always done it really, it’s was part of my growing up.  I remember when I was 6 years old and I asked my parents to join the football team at my primary school.  I didn’t realise at the time that they weren’t really keen on the idea and wanted me to be a girly girl.

2.  Do you get bullied or picked on at school?

What?  Just cause I’m a ‘tomboy’?  Well,  to be honest with you, yeah, a little bit but it doesn’t bother me cause I’m proud of who I am.  I don’t really care...well at least I don’t show that I care...

3.  Do you prefer hanging out with boys or girls?

Boys, they’re less bitchy.  Girls are usually the ones making fun of me...I don’t really have any friends that are girls, they’re all guys from my football team.

4.  What is your home life like?

Well, my mum is really supportive of everything I do but my dad, well he’s not so supportive.  He wants me to be a ‘real’ girl.  I just ignore him though...I don’t want to show him how much it hurts what he says.

5.  Are you into anything else other than sports?

Not really, as i said, it’s something I’ve grown up with.  I do ok at school, get B’s and A’s mainly but I’m not that interested in it.

6.  So you don’t want to take your education further?

Well, I want to get my A Levels because there isn’t much work for a female a football player.  I at least want a back up plan and to waste all my good grades and hard work would be kinda stupid and to risk it all on a career that’ s far fetched would be even stupider.

7.  Do you not think you’re going to make it as a football player then?

No!  It’s not my ability as such that I’m doubting, I know I’m good, it’s just the fact that there isn’t any teams that would accept a =female player and the female teams are exactly well known or advertising sports products.

8.  Would you rather play on a male team if they were to accept you then?

Yeah because, at least people actually care about them, no ones cares about the female teams and how they’re doing in their leagues.  No one would accept me anyway so it doesn’t matter.

9.  Do you have a boyfriend?

No.  Never have really to be honest.  Never really wanted one either because i don’t see my guy mates in that way, it’s weird you know, going out with your best mate.

10.              What do you do in your spare time?

I don’t really have much spare time, in between school and training, i practice my footy skills, revise, and do my bits of homework.  Not much else.

I can now make a role on the wall for my character.

This is my roll on the wall for my character