WHO AM I?
Name: Eileen is a name gifted to her in remembrance of her grandmother who died on the titanic.
Age: 80 yet tells everyone she is 75 as she is avoidant of admitting her age, especially to the people at bingo.
Job: She is retired yet claims her job is to stay at home with her dog Bruno, who is 12 years old.
Pets: She has a westie dog called Bruno and a wild hedgehog who she occasionally feeds her leftover veg from her Sunday roasts.
Fashion sense: Knits all of her own clothing and occasionally is seen walking around with holes in her clothes after she falls asleep or forgets mid knitting session and never resumes thinking its done. She adores colours and matches them to reflect her emotion for the day for example if she is grumpy she will wear deep blue however if she wears red she is looking for a suitor.
Weight: Eileen is a very free spirit who doesn't care about her weight. She is proud to have grown and birthed such beautiful children and understands its the least of her worries. She has a curvaceous figure and gives the best cuddles.
Favourite things: LOVES Cliff Richard and everything Christmas. She loves spending time with her family, baking (even though due to her dementia she forgets some of the ingredients) and knitting. She likes going to the shops and treating herself to retail therapy when she feels a bit lonely due to losing her husband. She currently has a giant teddy bear sat in her living room in her husband's old seat so she feels as though he is still physically with her (as she knows he's with her whether she likes it or not everywhere).
Hair colour: White hair so it's versatile with all of her multicoloured outfits. She wants to embrace her age in addition to not wanting to dye it due to her dementia (might forget she has the dye on). Also, her husband loved her natural hair and forever wanted her to embrace her greys so she honours him in that way.
What advice do I have for my children: Never settle for anyone who doesn't make you happy or make you feel good about yourself. She understands her luck in finding her husband so early in life who she kept the promise of 'til death do us part' but she is smart enough to acknowledge that most people don't get it so easy. She roots for happiness for everyone but especially her children and grandchildren.
Do I have any mannerisms?: SHE IS TERRIBLE AT LYING. When Eileen needs to lie she does it successfully until it gets to the last word and she starts to giggle and gives the entire thing away. It's either that or she will sneeze, she doesn't understand why but she has done it so much that people have picked up on it and she will forever be the worst person to have lie for you. Furthermore, she is always falling asleep, she will fall asleep anywhere anytime and the worst time she does it is when she is on the bus because she misses her stop. Thankfully, the bus drivers know her now and are able to call her name for her stop...even if it gives her a fright and she screams in front of the bus (her giggles after are the funniest thing).
WHO AM I?
Name: Lisa after Lisa Marie Presley as her mum adores Elvis.
Age:
Job:Waitress but is a hairdresser for many of her friends as she is always the first person they call when they want to die their hair.
Pets: A mouse called Gus (after cinderella)
Fashion sense: Heavily influenced by pinterest. She is constantly going to different charity shops and lives on vinted because she believes shops will never have what she wants (and most of the time she’s right). She is always wearing the most obscure socks because her nan is constantly making her fluffy socks as she loves to knit and she wants to make her happy so she wears them (she secretly thinks they’re the finishing touch to any outfit she wears)
Favourite things: She loves F.R.I.E.N.D.S and constantly rewatches it even though she can practically repeat the entirety of the script because her mum raised her with it from birth. She adores Harry Styles and has seen him on tour (practically fainted when he got close to where she was in the audience). She lives with her headphones in because she doesn't like people...especially in the morning and has an attachment to her dinosaur teddy that she was gifted as a child and can't sleep without him.
Hair colour:
Brown hair with a streak of blonde under her hair at the back. The reasoning for the blonde streak was she thought it would be cool a year ago to die a streak of her hair blue and she never got the colour to fade. Especially because she rarely ever cuts her hair.
What advice do I have for my children:
Never mess with your eyebrows! She plucked them too much in her teenager years despite her mother telling her otherwise and now they’re really thin. Furthermore, don't be afraid to pick people up on something that they have done wrong whoever the person is. She is secure within herself and her morals and she won't have anyone disrespect her or the people she cares about and they shouldn't either.
Do I have any mannerisms?:
Always using gestures when she talks because she is very expressive. She could be whispering and still moving her hands when she talks (not at all discreet). Also, when she is shouting at people she will always lift her finger as she feels sometimes people wont take her seriously without it.
Line learning
I used the first letter technique to learn the lines for both of my performances as after evaluating them a week prior I found this one to be most effective. It helped me recall my lines effortlessly whilst also helping me become familiar with cues and giving me the ability to pick up a line from anywhere in the script (which was demonstrated as a task in my filmed exam). As a visual learner, by seeing the letters on the page it meant I could use them as an aid if I was to get stuck on a line, with the extra benefit of having to use my memory rather than just looking up the line within the script and not challenging myself.
In addition to the first letter technique, as rehearsals progressed and we were closer to the performance I relied more on the recording my voice technique. This significantly helped me prepare for the live performance and get used to reciting my lines out loud and become confident with them.
Rehearsal Diary Entries:
Monday 25th November
On this day, we were introducing ourselves to the characters and reading more of the script in attempt to learn more about the context of the show and what different storylines are happening other than Eileen and Bethan's & Lisa and Bethan's which we explore during our performances. Myself and Iona also discovered what worked best with each other so we could make a comfortable workspace in addition to becoming familiar with our different approaches to rehearsals and what we may need help with. Even though this lesson was not very practical when speaking of working on our piece, it gave us a foundation to work with and helped us grow from there. We also exchanged ways to communicate outside of lesson and overall began a very good partnership between each other which will hopefully influence our performances seeing as we are meant to be close as our characters are family.
Tuesday 26th November
I was absent from college this day due to illness therefore myself and Iona had to find different methods to practice from home. We decided to each test all of our previous line learning techniques that we explored during lesson and figure out which ones suited us. Due to being unwell, I got my mum to read my lines whist I recorded her voice and kept playing it back to myself whilst resting in attempts to be in perfect shape for the next performance.
Friday 29th November
In this lesson, Iona and I discussed what we did after both missing the previous lesson and comparing our progress with the script. We both related on the fact that the lines were very wordy and difficult to get the hang of which helped us understand what we both needed to work on. I found I was struggling to learn the line 'Oh and you thought you would snog the first bloke that showed interest in you' therefore I made sure to focus on that particular line and dedicated more time towards it. Then we just practiced with our script and got used to speaking the lines out loud.
Monday 1st December
On this day I had an exam therefore myself and Iona lost rehearsal time. This meant that we decided it would be effective to learn our lines at home and explore our characters further in order to use future rehearsal successfully rather than waste more of it. Ways I rehearsed my lines from home was through recording my voice reciting my partners lines and trying to respond with my lines as well as the first letter technique. By having this time alone I felt I became more connected with the character and was able to use it as an escapism from exam stress.
Tuesday 3rd December
In this lesson we worked closely with animal exercise inspired by Artaud through facial expression. It was first led as a group activity where in a circle we all had to make the faces shown through the different emotions provided by our teacher. This helped us view a variety of interpretations and also become comfortable with being vulnerable around other people. Then we were split off into groups and had to portray various emotions accompanied by animals to show how we feel they would portray the emotions for example : if a bunny was shocked in response they would raise their ears yet humans aren’t capable of that therefore they raise their eyebrows. This activity was really successful as it prepared us for close ups and effective reactions for when our characters aren't speaking yet emotionally responding to the lines provided by our partners. We then practiced our scripts in front of the camera in order to prepare for the final exam. I found this really exposing seeing as everyone could see every expression I made through the camera being projected on a larger screen, yet learnt that this indeed was a reality within the industry and understood that I would have to do this regularly if I am to pursue this career in the future. This was highly successful for myself and Iona and helped us become more comfortable in front of a camera ready for the exam.
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| Rehearsing the animal techniques on camera |
Friday 6th December
In this lesson Iona and I decided to block our performance and become more familiar with physicality during the piece as that was restricted beforehand because of our hands being occupied by scripts. We made sure to discuss what we thought was effective and come to mutual agreements on how we wanted the lines to be spoken and received by each other. We then joined some of our peers who were doing the same scene in the setting we are going to perform the final products and watch their performances to reflect on how ours is different and potentially take inspiration from parts of their work. This helped Iona and I grasp how we have made ours unique and question whether we understood the narrative and were communicating the correct action (which we found we were successful). We then all spoke about our opinions surrounding the script and began communicating how we imagined the characters to be and what unique traits they would have as a way to explore further into our roles. We then discussed what we needed to work on from home and did just that.
Tuesday 10th December (Day of first performance)
On this day myself and Iona decided prior to our performance to have some extra rehearsal time in order to ensure our final performance was of the standard we wanted it to be. We decided to rehearse at the location for our exam to block how we were going to move and grasp an idea of where the camera will be and what will be effective in the shots when we complete the final piece. We recalled all of our lines perfectly thanks to both of our efforts at learning them at home to make sure we could use the rehearsals away from our scripts as successfully as possible. As the day progressed and we got closer to the exam we asked one of our teachers to watch over the performance and provide us with constructive criticism which we could apply in the final product. We were advised different ways to deliver lines and were praised for our interpretation and didn't have anything of major importance to change which reassured us massively before the performance. When the time came for the exam we both made sure to stay calm and understand how we were going to do everything and fortunately everything went to plan and the performance was seamless with no mistakes.
(NEXT COUPLE LESSONS CANCELLED DUE TO EXAMS)
Monday 16th December (Day of second performance)
Due to lack of rehearsal as the lessons were disturbed because of exam scheduling, myself and Iona felt underprepared when approaching the second performance. Our time slot was 10:10am therefore we decided to arrive at 9:15am and rehearse in the exact space of our performance in the time leading up to our turn. This was significantly effective due to us learning our lines yet not running them with each other prior to this, in having this time we were able to master our tone and physicality according to what we both felt was right. We added movement such as: my hand rubbing her back, rolling my eyes, Iona crying into her hands and many more. We also made sure that my character Eileen was spoken very softly whereas Bethan (Iona's character) was spoken more hesitantly and fearful of judgement. Due to my character being Bethan's mother, I made sure that my body completely faced her and my eyes didn't leave her, other than when she mentions her husbands antics. In doing this rehearsal, we felt our anxiety decrease and we felt much more comfortable which we feel was shown through our performance as well.
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