UNIT 5 & 6 & 7 - Immigration and ' The Container '

   


At the moment ,  Rob is away due to illness and so we have a new teacher called Sheena.  We have been looking at creating a devised piece based on immigration. The piece doesn't have to be very serious and we wanted it to be different from our ' identity ' piece, we have been working on doing this by looking at different stories surrounding immigration and thinking about how we can use the stories we found to develop characters and a piece of drama from them. 

We have been thinking and talking about the different aspects of immigration and different scenarios that could arise. In the first lesson we had with Rebecca, before Sheena, we watched a clip from a sitcom called ' come fly with me ' which is about the running of an airport and an over zealous and dumb border controls officer who is comically blocking entry to the boarder to a polish man.  making fun of right- wing points of view and saying things like ' all immigrants are smelly ' etc. This video was a good example of how we could take the piece into a more humorous direction. 



Here is the clip:    Come Fly With Me - Officer Ian Foot



Also, we talked about how some of our own families have been affected by immigration and shared stories of how it has effected us. For example, both my Nan's came here in the wind rush generation and my dad was a barrel child ; children who are abandoned or "left behind" by their parents who are seeking a better life abroad (temporarily or permanently), my dad arrived in England when he was 6. 

We were also very lucky because a student called Shabir was brave enough to share his own very harrowing story of coming to this country as an immigrant and how he got here.  It was a story that reduced many of us to tears. He broke bones, travelled across the sea in a speedboat and also in a freezer in a lorry where he was told he had a 10% chance of making it to England alive. Some of his family died and he did the journey on his own at 12 years old, after being recruited by the Taliban and trained to blow himself up. It was the first time any of us had  heard a personal story of his like that before and i think it genuinely affected us all and for me personally,  inspired me to to work hard in this unit and made me feel passionate about creating a piece that was accurate and told the stories of all the immigrants this country is built from. 

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In this lesson, we looked more at how immigrants are affected by immigration laws and what happens to the ones who don't make it across the boarder.  This unit has been very much research led, as i think its important to tell an informed and insightful story about how immigrants really live. 

We went online and read an article published by the guardian, telling six different stories of migration. 

Six Real Life Stories Of Migration - The Guardian

This was good because it allowed us to understand all the different aspects of immigration and how different people are affected by it, immigration issues aren't always the same cliché story of  a person hiding in the back of a lorry. 

We took it in turns and did some hot seating exercises based on these stories that we had just read and tried to develop characters from them. We spoke together about how a character in that difficult situation might think, feel or react.  We asked questions about where the character was from , what had lead them to be in this situation and stories from back home in order to try and develop backstories for our characters. 


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Today we carried on researching immigration by learning about refugee camps and again how we could use the information and stories we see to create in depth characters.

We looked at a famous unofficial refugee camp called ' The Jungle ' which was located in Calais and we watched videos about what it was like for the immigrants who had to live there. 

Overview of the make-shift shanty town 

          

          Child watches and protesters burn the camp.

We learned about a charity called the ' good chance ' who work in coordination with the young Vic theatre, who went out to the jungle in order to try and help create a space for the migrants to express themselves and forget about the terrible circumstances that they have to live with. 

through theatre and art, Good Chance creates new kinds of communities to empower artists from across the world and connect people, stories and cultures. This seemed to be a great escape for the people that lived in the jungle as it gave them a place to think, reflect and express the hardships that they had been through.

It was incredibly difficult and sad to watch as it is hard to imagine a place like the jungle was ever allowed to exist, let alone an hour from Paris and an Hour from London. 

Here is a link to the video we watched: 

•           The Good Chance's Work In The Jungle

The work that was done in the jungle also inspired a play to be written to bring awareness to the situation in Calais . It premiered in December 2017 at the young Vic and did very well across theatres.

• The Jungle - At the Young Vic

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The container

Today we started looking at a script called ' The Container ' , which we will be performing for our assessment. It was written in 2007 and is another play about refugees and immigrants.

 We started by looking through the script and reading through it together as a class. We  picked characters from the script and did hot seating exercises where we talked about possible past experiences that may have lead to the character trying to enter the UK in a container. Following this, we split the play and the class in to two parts and were given our characters in the play - My character is a forty year old Somalia lady and my group is doing act 2. 

We filled out character analysis sheets where we looked in depth at the way our characters acted and what they where trying to achieve in a scene. It helps to think about your character more deeply in order for you to act well. So thinking about your characters history, character traits, likes and dislikes is a great way to decide how they might act and react in a scene.

Here are some things that I came up with about my character, Fatima:

• Mature 
• Firm
• Protective over Asha
• Opinionated but respectful
• Traditional values and beliefs
• Motherly
• strong character 

This was good because it allowed me to envision Fatima as a real person and think about how I wanted to portray these qualities I had seen/ chosen for her.

 We went through the script again and analysed it looking for beats - which are the parts in the script where the mood or the topic of discussion changes. This is important because it breaks the script up in to different sections and gives the play a flow and interesting dynamic as apposed to just standing there and reading it line for line we can find the key moments in the text and the best ways to portray them.

Rehearsals have begun - Most lessons now are about reading through the script and trying to learn our lines and working on character development.

I have been working hard at learning my lines and am feeling confident about being able to learn them in time. 

Also, we have been working with Monique and Sheena on blocking - which is when you figure out where people will enter and exit from and combines movement and the physicality's of acting with saying our lines. It helps bring life to the script and makes it more engaging for the audience. Blocking and using the stage space well is  crucial for a good performance.


This has been really good because I feel that the more times we go through the play the more familiar and comfortable that it gets. At this stag everybody is more or less off script and we are more or less sure of what needs to be done, lines and scenes have been cut that people were struggling with or felt too long winded which has made things a lot easier.

We are using all of the research from our units and lessons spent looking at immigration and the affects that it has had and continues to have to create a performance that people will enjoy and be able to relate to. It has been really good to have so many reference points and things to draw inspiration from when It comes to this play and think it has really helped develop my understanding of characterization. 

I am looking really forward to getting the show done. 

PRODUCTION

It has been really interesting to think about all the different production elements of creating this show . I think it is the most extensively we have looked at and used the production team so far. 

The first thing that we did in our groups was create a list of props, lighting requirements and sound effects that we thought we might need for our scenes. 

This enabled us to think about what production techniques we could use to enhance the performance and make it better. We had to think about what sounds our characters may hear travelling in a container and what sounds they might hear along the way. We had to think about what kind of lighting they would have in the container, whether it would change depending what was happening in a scene and what props and costumes would be necessary. 

For example my group had a think and decided these are some of the

things we would use:

• Headscarf's ( for the Muslim woman )
• Bags and luggage
• Boxes / cargo 
• Gun for the character trying to bargain for her place on the container by selling the gun 
• chocolate and bread for the characters eating 
• cash for the agent 
• traditional music representing each characters nationality
• sound effects for door opening/slamming , going through tunnels and traffic
• dark lighting and tunnel lighting
• blackouts in between scenes and for changeovers 

It was a similar list for  all the groups and we were all on the same page about the production elements of the performance. Next was to relay all of this to the production students and work with them on timings and cues during our tech runs.

THE PERFORMANCE 

I think the performance went good and in my opinion it was the best one that we have done so far.

There are a few things that I think we did very well and things that we could have done much better. for example, I think most actors projected their voices well and the audience were able to hear the dialogue between characters.

Also, nobody missed their cue and everybody was where they needed to be on or off stage when they were supposed to be there. This was good because when we were rehearsing and blocking scenes prior to the performance some people were forgetting how their scene had been blocked which affected the continuity of the performance, however on show day everything seemed to work well and the production students were on point with music, lighting and sound effects which helped add depth to the show.

As always, there are a few things that could have gone better and a few things to take from how the show went as actors. Such as, having all our props ready yet somehow one actor went on stage without her prop which was a gun so had to mime the action, she also fluffed her lines. This was a shame because it took away from the good parts of the scene and everyone was focussed on why someone was standing on stage mumbling lines and doing gun fingers; it looked a little bit silly.

There were a few people that got their lines a little wrong but people were able to improvise and move scenes along well when this happened which is great. 

A personal target for myself would be to learn my lines solidly way before the performance date. I tend to learn my lines fairly last minute because I know that I can. This is a good skill to have but I think it weakens my performance because a part of my brain is still focussing on lines as apposed to throwing myself into a performance completely and confidently. So I basically need to be a lot less assured in my last minute line learning abilities and make sure I am putting myself in the best position to deliver my best performance.