WEEK 5

Workshop activities:

• Interviews in groups of 3 then describe character to panal.
• Hot seating of monologue characters

Continue to learn lines and develop monologue character.

Over the previous week I had done a lot of research on Arden of Feversham so that I understood my character (Alice) and the monologues place in the play e.g. What had led up to that point? What is happening in the scene? What is the characters intended out come of the situation? and what actually happens as a result of this scene? etc. I also found out that the play was based on a true story and my character was based on a real person not entirely a work of fiction. So by the time I reached the workshop I felt well prepared for the hot seating task.

The first task we were set was to work in a group of three and for two of us to interview the third person whilst they are in character. We had to learn about this character then give a detailed description of them, their life, status etc to the rest of the class. This task was obviously useful for Hayley, who Jenny and I were interviewing as Helena, as it helped in her development and understanding of her character. However it was also benificial to me as it highlighted a few questions that I hadn't thought of answers for, for my own part.

The other interviewers and I were then asked to volenteer for hot seating in front of the rest of the group, which meant that in character we would be asked questions be the whole group not just by one or two interviewers. As everyone seemed a bit reluctant to go first I volenteered this was partly so that I would avoid having time to get nervous waiting for my turn and partly because I felt confident that I had done enough work and new my character well.

It was a positive first exercise in character development as I found myself improvising and responding in a way I felt was appropriate to how Alice would respond. When other people were in the hot seat I tried to ask questions that they would need to be able to answer in order to be able to understand their role which would hwlp them with their character development.