UAL Assignment 4 - 2024 - End Of Year Show - Auditions, Character Insights And Research!
Auditions
The auditions for the end of year shows were a different approach and something i have never experienced before. Kelly didn't want us to audition for a specific character this time and wanted us to prepare a monologue to show her. This monologue had to show what i can do, my capabilities as an actor and something new she hasn't seen from me before. The point of this was to showcase my talent without saying what role i want, so she can see what skills i have and what role suits me based on my acting. This was also done because it gives me the experience i need for future jobs, introducing me and my peers to different types of audition processes is essential as it means we aren't as nervous when going to an audition. This process in particular will be extremely useful as this is the type of auditions expected from drama schools and universities to get in, which i am hoping to do in the future. I really enjoyed the monologue i chose to do as it was something more bold and exciting that i haven't been able to present before. Looking in depth into the different emotions she was feeling during the scene, as she was being betrayed by her brother and made to look like an idiot, so she was sad, frustrated and angry that nobody is listening to her was a big part of it, being able to analyse the lines to figure out at which point she would feel these different things. The monologue was from a play called Appropriate by Branden Jacob-Jenkins and it was about a disfunctional family who all come together one last time to sell their dads things. Reading this play there was a lot going on, and a lot of bottled up emotions come out and everyone gets angry and upset, which i interpreted into my monologue. I think i did quite a good job with this monologue and the audition went well. I was quite nervous therefore i know i messed up on certain parts that didn't go exactly how i wanted it to but it was still along the right lines of what i wanted. I definitely will keep this monologue for the future, as i enjoyed looking into it and i love the raw emotion it has.
ALL INFORMATION FROM THIS POINT IS NOT FULLY MY OWN WORK, IT IS BASED ON RESEARCH FROM DIFFERENT LINKS WHICH ARE PROVIDED UNDER THE RESEARCH TASKS
Research On Production Role
VOCAL COACHING:
The main reason overall that my production role of a vocal coach is to ensure that the actors are using their voice safely and to focus on certain aspects of weakness within the ensemble and their vocal abilities. Their aim is to ensure that the ensemble has the ability to use correct diction and articulation, as well as providing specific warm ups which focus on different parts of your vocal ability. I have learnt as a vocal coach, not every warm up works with everyone, some people struggle more than others with different tasks, therefore setting a level of boundaries with each warm up is a good thing to do. Ensure that for people who are having difficulties with it, there is a compromise which allows them to still be focusing on that area of weakness as well as fitting their needs, or people who are doing it no problem ensuring there is a bit of a more difficult path to push their boundary and ensure they are doing everything to the best of their abilities.
SET DESIGNS:
Throughout the years, 'Radium Girls' has been done by a lot of different professionals and the set has always been big and elaborative. Looking into it all, in most designs they have dials or clocks on either the wall or floor of the stage, representing the radium plants at all times. They had about 3 long workbenches, a couple desks and chairs for other things and big lighting designs, lighting up certain parts of the stage to create an image of loneliness or power or even emotional aspects. This is all shown through these pictures:
Based on this, we have looked into these designs for our set, however we are putting on a lower budget production, therefore we won't be able to put on these elaborate set designs. From this however, we have taken inspiration from these and we are using projection to put on the back wall of the theatre with a giant clock, showing time progressing as the play goes on. We are also using large black tables for the radium girls to stand at as shown in the photos and a sofa like shown in the photos. It is very similar with these sorts of designs just on a downscale. 3 pendalum lights lighting up tables.
Research In General - Helping My Performance
ORIGINAL PRODUCTION:
Radium girls was produced at Playwrights Theatre of New Jersey, May 11th - 28th 2000. This was commissioned by Ensemble Studio Theatre of New York & Alfred P. Sloan Foundation for Science & Technology. Directed by Joseph Megel. Set design by Jim Bazewicz, Costumes by Valerie Holland Hugues, Lighting by Valerie Holland Hugues and Sound by Dean Gray & Jonothan Taylor.
This information will be helpful for our production as we can look into their work on the production and take ideas from it, it also gives us the information we need to put in the program for copyright issues.
Information from: https://www.stmaryspdx.org/uploaded/Radium_Girls_Script.pdf
PLAYWRIGHT:
D.W Gregory is a famous writer and playwright, mainly known for her plays: Dirty Pictures, Memoirs Of A Forgotten Man, Radium Girls And A Thing Of Beauty. She was born in 1961 and her work is usually based around American culture however usually done through politics and bits of humour spread throughout. Her work tells a story yet also gives the audience something to latch onto emotionally. In our case looking into the Radium Girls, the emotional connection is Grace's journey of losing her friends and herself, getting her justice yet dying, and tells the story of what actually happened to these women in the radium plants, its a bitter-sweet educational play. She has worked with the Youth Theatre and the Radium Girls has been named for the last 6 years by Dramatics Magazine one of the top plays produced in American high schools. Her writing is famous globally. She claims in her plays "comedy and tragedy exist side by side because they exist that way in life." and she is happy she can bring attention to a situation yet also tell a story people will enjoy watching.
This research helps our project because we could interpret this comedy/tragedy through characterisation. Our character's body language, facial expressions and interactions with other actors on stage will be able to fully pick apart these moments, from comedic aspects such as the reporter and sob sisters talking to the general public. We can overdo these characters, showing a more positive aspect of life giving our audience something to laugh about, however the tragic and serious scenes such as Irene's death impacting Katherine, we can give the actors a big moment, full of serious line delivery, pauses and even crying to show the depth and importance it has in the play.
Information from:
https://newplayexchange.org/users/139/dw-gregory
https://pwcenter.org/profile/dw-gregory
COSTUMES, CLOTHING / HAIRSTYLES:
Suprisingly, the girls who worked at the radium plants wore their best dresses to work, so that they would glow when they went dancing. They also painted their nails and teeth at work before they left.
TIME PERIOD:
The time period was the 1920s all the way through to the 1940s for this specific play, which meant science wasnt very advanced.
WHO WERE THE RADIUM GIRLS:
https://allthatsinteresting.com/radium-girls https://blog:/the-radium-girls/
HOW WERE THEY EFFECTED:
As part of this job, the girls were required to bring the paintbrushes they were using to a fine point using their lips to ensure the detail was perfect and correct as the dials were small. This meant that the girls were ingesting the radioactive substance at a constant every day. They thought this was safe to do, however they were slowly killing themselves.
1933 was the last death of the radium - they all died
RADIUM PLANTS: ABOUT & CONDITIONS:
Radium plants were big factories where hundreds of women worked to paint dials clocks and any machinery needed to help the war. These were based in the US and there were 3 major ones where it had a big negative impact, one based in Ottawa, Illinois in 1920s, one in Waterbury, Connecticut in 1920s (which gets mentioned in the beginning of the script) and the last one being in Orange, New Jersey which is the focused radium plant of our play.
Information from: https://en.wikipedia.org
Character Development: Irene Rudolph
Character Development: Irene -who is she, what is she like, what is her history.
Context: Irene Rudolph was one of the girls who worked at the factory in the play. She is shown at the beginning working alongside her cousin Katherine and her friend Grace but then she gets ill from the radium and is one of the first girls to die. Her death is impactful to the play as it gives the original motivation for Katherine and Grace to look into the factories and radium poisioning more. She is also shown in one of Grace's dreams already dead when Grace is ill, a reminisance of her old friends.
Irene Rudolph was a real person. She was born in 1902 and died at only 21 years old on July 15th 1923. She suffered from jaw necrosis. She lived in Orange, New Jersey which is where her radium plant was based. She worked at the radium plant for 2 and a half years before she died, therefore started working there when she was around 19 years old.
She worked at the plant with her cousin Katherine Schuab, and they together wanted to know why they were dying at such a young age. They consulted a dentist Dr. James Davidson and an oral surgeon Dr. Walter Barry.
https://www.decidedlygrim.net/?p=13586
Character Development: Harriet- who is she, what is she like, what is her history, about her class for the time period
Context: Harriet is Arthur Roeder's daughter in the play. At the beginning of the play, Harriet is a 9 year old girl in the 1920's who is briefly saw at the end of Act 1, climbing trees and being a happy little girl who is oblivious to what is going on. She is then shown at the end of the play as a fully grown woman in the 1940's looking after her father, still sort of oblivious to what had happened in the factories as she was very sheltered from it, but her father is going insane from it and she is trying to sway him away from this insanity in the final scene.
Harriet Roeder was also a real person, although i can't find much information about her, based on the fact she was in a high class in the 1920s-40s she was definitely niaeve and sheltered from the world.
.jpeg)
Comments
Post a Comment