᷿25/09/17- 29/09/17
The production of The Archers is led by Vanessa Whitburn, the editor, alongside a 10-strong production team and 11 writers. The planning for the drama is done at monthly script meetings roughly two months ahead of transmission, after each meeting four of the writers have to produce a week's worth of scripts each in 2 weeks. It is a contemporary drama set in a rural setting. The Archers is recorded in a studio at the BBC Mailbox building in Birmingham, occasionally going on location and recording scenes in Germany, France and the Netherlands.
Character research:
Name: Lynda Snell
Played by: Carole Boyd
Born: 29th May 1947
Age: 70
Relationship status: married to Robert Snell
Occupation: hotel receptionist
Lives at: Ambridge Hall
Works at: Grey Gables
Likes: Dramas, llamas, wildlife, gardening
Dislikes: Pollen, poor timekeeping
Highs: The birth of llama Salieri
Lows: Not being able to have children, Robert's computer business failing
Family: Robert Snell (Husband), Coriander Snell (Step-daughter), Leonie Snell (Step-daughter)
Love her or hate her, she certainly gets things done. If you need a piece of land protecting or a building saving, Lynda's your woman. She will grasp a campaign and pursue it like a terrier until all around her wilt under the pressure.
She shows a similar tenacity with her amateur dramatic productions, beating people into submission with her school ma'am tones and sniffy attitude. She has a softer side though, reserved for husband Robert, llamas Constanza and Salieri, and those with a genuine need, including over the years some of Ambridge's teenagers. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/profiles/2SBf17mJq4P9jsvHgJlZLlS/lynda-snell
Sound effects:
"To recreate the sound of a lamb being born at home Archers-style, all you need is a pot of yoghurt, a wet tea towel and some old audio tape. The sound effects person squelches their hand in the yoghurt and then throws the damp tea towel onto the audio tape to create the right sound."
"Another sound recording trick is to recreate the sound of a farm gate closing through swiftly collapsing an ironing board."
" In order to keep continuity in The Archers, a careful note of all sound effects, including doorbells and telephone ringtones, is kept by the production team."
http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/pressreleases/stories/2010/12_december/10/archers5.shtm
02/10/17- 06/10/17
Hope Springs audition
Evaluation:
To prepare for this audition I researched the context of the play and then thought about the purpose of Sam's character within the storyline, this was; their personal journey towards better mental health, providing one of the pivotal focus points within the storyline and creating a balance in energy in comparison to the other students. I also took time to read through Sam's monologue and annotate moments when I needed to pause and words or sounds that I felt I needed to stress; in order to show that Sam had a lower energy due to their mental state. In my audition I feel that I projected well and showed clear diction and articulation throughout Sam's monologue, I think this was particularly necessary as Sam's actions are pivotal to the storyline and the purpose of their monologues throughout the play is to slow the pace and tone at certain moments and also to carry the storyline. I also feel that my physicality to an extent showed that Sam had a low energy, reflective of their mental state, as I turned my shoulders in slightly to show a lower confidence and that Sam isn't very open to others. However, as I was reading from a script I was limited in the movements I could do and therefore was unable to use my physicality to the level I would have liked to. Additionally, it is very evident that I am nervous throughout this audition as I rambled right through the monologue the first time I read it and again the second time despite following my annotated pauses. I think this is because I wasn't in the right state of mind going into the audition and had too much energy for the character I was portraying and it unfortunately wasn't until the third time I read the monologue, I read it at the pace and had the tone and physicality I intended to present. To improve in the future, I will definitely aim to get into the right frame of mind/energy level for the character I will be portraying; as I let myself get distracted by others I didn't allow myself to be best prepared which clearly had a negative effect on my performance and confidence. I will also aim to learn whatever material it is that I am auditioning with in order to be completely unrestricted in regards to using my physicality to my best ability as I believe the way I use my physicality is one of my main strengths as a performer and that I need to show that off.
09/10/17- 13/10/17
Blocking Hope springs Act 1 Scenes 1-4
In this rehearsal we blocked Act 1 Scenes 1-4, personally I think that I took stage direction well and that I also displayed a good level of professionalism. I think that I need to work on characterisation, in particular making sure that I create a clear difference vocally, between my 'all parents' character and Pupil 6. I also need to focus on creating the correct reactions, for my character, towards the Ringleader's plans. At the beginning of the play, Pupil 6 is very on board with what the Ringleader is doing so I need to clearly convey my support through confident body language and subtle gestures that show my agreement.
16/10/17-20/10/17
Vocal and physical differentiation:
Character
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All parents
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Pupil 6
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Island voice
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Parent 5
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Staff 1
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Voice
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Desperate tone, stresses random words within each sentence, higher pitch
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Slightly cocky, alternates stressed-unstressed, increased volume at moments of passion e.g. "I want to torch it!"
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Slightly monotonous, very clear and articulate
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An almost condescending tone towards Parent 6, punchy- to the point, confrontational, lower pitch
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Very controlled, patronising tone at times, snappy, authoritative
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Physicality
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Neutral parallel stance facing stage right, head snaps to face audience. when talking
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Wide parallel stance, often looking over left shoulder, confident walk with chin lifted and relaxed shoulders, at moments of passion large expressive arms and lower weight through bent knees, Habit of cracking knuckles. However, at the end of Act 2 becomes fidgety, anxious and closed
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Always in a neutral parallel stance with good posture, looking straight ahead
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Wide parallel stance while facing the front, shoulders back- similar to pupil 6 in confidence, also increases in volume at points of passion e.g. "professionals!"
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Shoulders slightly turned in, chin lifted, sharp head turns to address various pupils
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30/10/17- 03/11/17
This week we managed to block up to Act 2 Scene 5, I like the blocking of Act 1 scenes 8 and 9 as they are mostly movement based and provide a good contrast to the scenes in which we are all simply just stood still, to further improve these scenes we need to focus on making our timings really sharp in order to look really robotic and non-naturalistic, this can be made evident by creating a direct correlation between movement and dialogue. Additionally, I think that the sections that we are all stood still in could be improved by adding small, subtle movements to create more visual interest, as there are multiple scenes in which we are stood still. As Laura knew her lines well she was able to convey a good amount of tension, which we all fed off of and allowed us to explore our own reactions to her plans- personally I am on board with her plans and need to focus on conveying this through my body language and subtle gestures. Unfortunately, the majority of the class aren't very secure in the knowledge of their lines and the pauses within the dialogue kill all of the tension and flow of the scene. To change this we all need to pull our weight and take time to learn our lines, so that we can flow through the dialogue and add the correct emotions, levels of tension for each scene. Personally I think that I am projecting more and adding what I feel is the correct emotions to my dialogue as I'm quite confident with my lines. However, I need to work on applying my vocal profiles to ensure that I am conveying a difference, vocally, between characters.
06/11/17-10/11/17
We focused on the blocking of the last 2 scenes. To transition from Scene 4 to 5 we all pivot to face the audience, and adopt our neutral island voices posture to show that we have clearly changed characters and are ready to narrate the next section- in this scene I trying to ensure that I make my voice clear and punchy, specifically reflecting the divisive nature of the line "and so the factions fractured, the divisions divided". As the island voices end we all disperse to sit back on the staging and remain in these positions for the rest of Scene 5. At this point my faith in the Ringleader begins to waver a little, In order to show this I've decided that my line "perhaps we should" should be said in a questioning/ sympathetic tone. For the final scene the blocking leads us from USL to DSL in a curving pathway to show us travelling away from the island, we finish sat across the lowest level of staging, which is representative of a boat. We decided to use the "shh...shh...shh..." 's to create the transition into this scene, this also effectively sets the scene on the water.
Personally, I believe that my confidence in my lines is now allowing me to focus on appropriate volume, for example, "I want to torch it" in Act 1 Scene 3 needed an increase in volume to show my passion and impulsiveness and also to clearly reveal a large element of my backstory, and also the appropriate intonation for example, as previously stated, I've decided that my line "perhaps we should" in Act 2 Scene 5, should be said in a questioning/ sympathetic tone to show my wavering loyalty towards the Ringleader. However, I think that I need to work on finding confidence as a leader within the ensemble, as I'm currently holding back for others particularly on how much I'm projecting and the level of energy within each scene. If I confidently took lead and increased my volume, emotion and energy levels, the others who are less confident should follow suit, hopefully creating a more energetic and emotive performance.
To further improve the piece so far, I think that in Act 1, Scene 4, on the line "with each approaching step the tension rises", everyone should work together to crescendo volume through the line to create tension, creating a correlation in tone between dialogue and vocal presentation. Also, we could add moments of movement when we are stood in our clump/boyband formations, in response to certain ringleader lines e.g. "manipulate and control" to add more tension and again create a correlation between dialogue and movement.
13/11/17-17/11/17
We focused on developing the Parent scene, by using Frantic Assembly's technique: Around, by, through, but with the rules of Chair duets- Parent 1 does 3 moves then Parent 2 does 3 moves, in order to manipulate our children. Firstly, we worked within our own families to create our manipulative phrase based on our dialogue. By having a direct correlation between movement and dialogue we are able to retain the non-naturalistic/ robotic feeling of the piece. It also effectively works to physicalize emotion, for example when Parent 6 says "we might as well hold our hands up and say we've failed", Harriet pulls up Olivia's hand before I (Parent 5) quickly snatch them back down to show my disagreement. Also, by using this technique, we were able to create a contrasting scene to the rest of the play as the dialogue has minimal pauses- as a normal conversation would- as the movements relate to the lines being said, this also affected the pace of the original dialogue as we had to speed up the lines in order to fit with the movement. This now means that I need to especially focus on making sure that I really articulate my first line as it is quite long and needs to be clear and punchy, as my character is the most dominant within our family and I intend to show this by making my lines clear and snappy with a condescending tone. However, by adding movement, Harriet and I have lost the tension we normally build throughout this scene, where we were initially face to face we were able to bounce energy off of each other and gradually build a high level of emotion and tension. Now we need to focus on keeping that tension despite having to feed energy both into the movement and vocal elements of this scene.
Each family then taught their movement sequence to the rest of the families, so that we could all perform in unison with the family speaking. I think this looked highly effective as it shows the intent of the scene, with the Ringleader pushing each family into the space, as this really emphasises the manipulation the pupils went through and highlights the fact that they're not just bad children as well as showing the human nature of the pupils. This is then further reinforced through the use of a heartbeat rhythm throughout the scene, which shows the one thing that makes us human and that we all share.
20/11/17-24/11/17
This week we focused on re-blocking the last two scenes. In Scene 6, the Island voices are spread out at the start, this enables the audience to understand the difference in our clumped Pupil characters and neutral, split-narrative Island voice characters. Further on in this scene the Pupils are sat in clumps on the front two rows of staging, when the Ringleader says "abusive", the pupils split into two defined clumps clearly conveying to the audience their stance on the Ringleaders opinion at a pivotal moment. Again, the Island voices are spread out- defining the difference in character- when the assistant and Pupil 9 find the principal. We start on the front two rows of staging and slowly form a line downstage after the cue line "the names", I think this blocking effectively builds tension, as we have multiple lines that are said in unison, and the small gap between us and the audience is fairly intimidating which works well as this is one of the most pivotal moments in the plot. We then form a curve when the Inspector enters and I exit with Dom and Lily on their command, this then allows us to bring on the props we need for the final scene seamlessly.
In Scene 7, the Island voices again start spread out, defining their character, and after the cue line "and it was silent", we all begin to collect our personal items from boxes and pick up our blankets coats and bags before slowly travelling upstage along the back row of staging to signify us leaving the island. I think this blocking is more effective than us just sitting on the first row of staging as it flows with the non-naturalistic blocking of the rest of the show. By leaving the stage at the end, it is clearer to the audience that we have left Hope Springs and the island rather than sitting on an unclear 'boat'. It also allows us to show more of our characters' personalities as we pick up our individual items throughout the scene.
full run-
27/11/17-01/12/17
Firstly, we focused on using the correct intonation for the All Parents lines in Act 1 Scene 1. I'd previously decided that my overarching emotion for this scene was frustration. However, as we've progressed through the rehearsal process I've become complacent and let this slip into anger, which doesn't convey the intention of our characters in this scene- which is to help persuade the audience that Hope Springs is a beneficial place to sent their troublesome children. Personally, I needed to focus on clearly conveying frustration when necessary and provoking empathy from the audience/recipients of the promotional video by emphasising certain words. For example in our first line "you just can't imagine what it was like for us", I immediately try to gain the audience's empathy by emphasising 'you' and 'imagine' almost commanding them to do as I say. I think by stressing these two words, I effectively engage the audience and lead them into really believing in what we are saying rather than just angrily shouting at them. However, I think this could be further improved by slowing the pace right down and really over stressing 'you' and 'imagine', this would also improve the impact of the final line as we slowly crescendo our pace and volume throughout the scene. In our second line, "we just didn't know where to turn", I change my tone to sound more defeated and also look to the other parents to show that all of the parents of the pupils in Hope Springs were in a similar position. I think this change in tone effectively makes our characters appear more human as we are showing a wider range of emotions in comparison to the Pupils and Island voices who are more robotic and restricted to just anger, fear and regret. In our fifth line "I'm asking you: What else were we supposed do?", I again aim to provoke the audience to really think abut what we are saying by focusing on really emphasising 'you' and directly addressing them. We then further engage them through our sixth line "What else could we do?" as this is almost an extension of the fifth line, I decided to change my tone to sound more frustrated and emotional- as if I were at the end of my tether- while stressing "could" to aim to make the audience feel sympathetic towards the parent characters. I think these changes now allow our characters to better convey our purpose within the scene while also providing a wider range of emotion, effectively engaging the audience in what we are saying rather than just angrily and purposely shouting our lines at them.
Full run:
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