Level 3 Diploma - Performance and Production Arts Assignment Brief.
Final Project Love and Information by Caryl Churchill
Unit 8: Collaborative Performance Project
Level 3 / 24 Credits
Assignment Leader: Shenagh Cameron
Assignment Verfier: Shenagh Cameron / Monique Campbell
Start Date: 23/04/19
Assessment Date: Performance 30th May 2019
Learner Name: Daniella Obomanu
UAL Reg. ID:
Centre name & Number: Westminster Kingsway College 11072
Project proposal title: Love and Information
Main Area of Activity: Acting
Tutor Name: Shenagh Cameron/ Monique Campbell.
Rationale
After the seven units I can say that I feel more confident as an actor. Something that I have kept with me is "love the art in yourself and not yourself in art". because it's a reminder of my reason for wanting to be an actor. I've learnt that acting isn't just reading lines, there are different styles and views. During The Seagull I learnt about Stanislavski Terms; subtext, objective, given circumstances, through line, magic if, action, emotional memory and circle of attention. There has also been great opportunities, working with Broken Youth Theatre or having a Q&A with the West End cast of Hamilton cast, where I learnt that auditions can also be a great place to learn from other actors. It really changed my mind set. Reflecting, I am constantly learning and evolving into a better actor. all these variables have only made me more sure that I want to continue learning and acting.
Project concept
This term, the production we are working on is Love and Information. Love and Information is a play by Caryl Churchill. The play is a kaleidoscope of 57 scenes that are divided into 7 sections. The scenes can individually last from seconds to 5-6 minutes, each scene has its own title and is in itself a representation of the contemporary world. Although there are 1 to 4 characters in every scene, this play will require everyone to not only work together as an ensemble but to develop our divergent thinking abilities so that we can produce our best version of Love and Information. Our knowledge of practitioners like Brecht and Stanislavsky will help us to build a character with techniques like, subtext, through line and emotional memory. The themes of Love and Information; ethics, relationships, mental health, technology, memories, facts, truths and love. Gives us a opportunity to connect with the audience. Sensitive issues like who, how and what you love or what you do with the knowledge you have or how you communicate and use technology are often not discussed enough or at all so with this project, I hope a discussion about mental health, duty of care, accepting others different from you and LGBTQ+ is opened up. A classmate (Mya Howlett) of mine said "If we can perform this and also send a message or make people feel more comfortable with who they are, then we've done more than our job. "The script has little to no stage directions, no assigned genders to characters or an exact order for the scenes. This leaves space for interpretation and creative input. It is a change to our past productions which were set BC-19th century. The research that I will be doing for this project is estrangement effect and ethics. An aim that I have for this production is to build a character, overlap well so that it seems like a natural conversation, for the set to be unique and to connect with the audience. Some challenges that I think we could come across is building a character, disagreements and respecting each others time, however, these are all things that can be easy to work through.
References
Characterisation
Evaluation
For the evaluation of this unit, I will take notes, for my blog and document my ideas and my characterisation process, show what I altered and how I am developing my ideas and characters. As I will be apart of an ensemble, I will get peer feedback as they can see something that I'm not aware of. I can also recorded rehearsals and see how I can get the best version of the scene.
Context
Caryl Churchill was born 1938 in London, she spent most of her childhood in Canada after moving when she was 9. Churchill wrote more than 45 plays and has been given awards for her writing. Bertolt Brecht influenced her work and in her early years she went on to develop his modernist dramatic and theatrical techniques of epic theatre, this helped her to explore matters of gender and sexuality. Love and Information was launch in September 2012 at the Royal Court Theatre. The contemporary play was originally directed by James Macdonald who worked with 16 actors, the small cast played over 100 characters. Miriam Buether, the set designer, created a white box where the actors would perform inside of it.
Rehearsals
Start: 23rd April 2019
Teacher: Shenagh Cameron
Our first task was to prepare and give a presentation answering the following questions.
Presentation
How do her (Caryl Churchill) plays experiment with theatrical conventions?
There are many ways her play experiment with theatrical conventions. Looking at Love and Information, you will be able to have directors input, so you can have a freeze frame within a scene or you can decide to keep the fourth wall up during scenes. In scenes like "Mother" or "Terminal" you can add pathos.
Is a play still a play if it defies traditional conventions of narratives, character and production techniques?
Yes because I believe the point of a play is to tell some kind of story and Love and Information does that perfectly as the stories are reflections of the world today.
What are the themes of the text?
Love; relationships, feelings, friendship, lovers, religion, connections and our capacity for love.
Information; knowledge, technology, memories, facts, truths, mental health, communication and is it ethical?
Caryl Churchill is a feminist playwright.
Where is this evidence in this piece (Love and Information) ?
If any?
As there are not many genders assigned in Love and Information there is little evidence of feminism, however, I think that's the point, it's left up to the direction or actors to represent feminism the way they want.
Teacher: Monique Campbell
Later that day, we worked on improv with Monique. You get given a letter and you have to "read" it and react. The next improv we did was "audition" for the x factor as a character and the class will guess who you are. This can help us with Love and Information as we need to be able to react to our partner and our surroundings. The audition improv not only shows that stay in character is challenging but also actually having a character
Date: 24th Wednesday April 2019
Group Two
1. Daniella Obomanu
2. Danielle. Bonsu
3. Madelina Bejat
4. Favour Dantes
5. Chloe Hawthorn
6. Mya Jarrett
7. Deja Lee
8. Roman Norman
9. Tristan Fernandez
10. Ben Mills
11. Jean Paul Caiceda
12. Troy Wilson
13. Pedro Small
14. Diogo Cabral
15. Kieran Smith- Helder
Initial Responses:
Every scene is different.
You don't know what happened before of afterwards so get to decide your characters through line.
You can have many people or just one.
It's thought provoking, every scenes makes you think.
Different types of love is sown in different scenes.
Idealism.
It doesn't say anything about gender so you get to decide if you want represent the LGBTQ + community.
We casted ourselves and came up with ideals as a group.
I am in
Secret with Chloe Hawthorn
The Child Who Didn't Know Pai with Jean Paul Caiceda
Wife with Favour Dantes
Wedding Video with Everyone. (Maya Jarret and Madelina Bejat)
Ideas
For Secret, two young adults or teenagers having a girls night, watching a movie or something, eating popcorn and drinking with a face mask on.
For The Child Who Didn't Know Pain a doctor asking a patient questions, white light or spotlight, a hospital feel.
For Wife, having dinner with a warm light and a sound effect at the end like doctor who materialising in.
For Wedding Video, maybe a freeze frame or a voice over of us talking, or an actual video.
While casting we looked where we can have LGBTQ + representation so in Ex we have two male actors (Caiceda and Smith-Helder) and in Wife, two female actors (Dantes and I),
What are my scenes about?
Secret: Person A has a secret and Person B wants to know what it is. At the end Person A tells Person B the secret and Person B reacts to it. The audience is left in the dark about the secret.
The Child Who Know Pain: Person A doesn't know what pain is so they are asking Person B to explain what pain is to them. At the end of the scene Person A still doesn't fully understand what pain is.
Wife: Person A doesn't believe that Person B is their wife so Person B tries to convince them but at the end, it is unclear if Person B is actually Person A's wife.
Date: 1st May 2019
The goal is to learn lines as quickly as possible, today we rehearsed with our partners, did some hot seating, tried to get comfortable with them and critically think about who we are, how we know each other and how you are our characters are connected.
Secret: Hawthorn and I decided that our characters are friends.
The Child Who Didn't Pain: Caiceda and I decided that I am his characters therapist.
Wife: Dantes and I decided that I could have dementia so I cannot remember if she's my wife.
Rehearsals
The rest of our rehearsals were very much trial and error. I spent my time directing, coming up with ideas, characterisation and the obvious, learning my lines. During the first week I had a discussion with Maddie (Tech), we talked about the set and what her vision for the set was, her idea was to build a house on the raised stage using white pvc pipes, I then told her about my idea, which was to cover the stage in newspaper, the reason behind my idea was for the stage to somewhat represent information and to be an example of how information is all around you. Originally for our set we were going to use, chair and tables, however, after having a conversation with Shenagh, we all agreed on using white blocks. This added to the abstract feel of the stage. The stage turned out exact how I imagined it and I couldn't have been more happier about it.
In course of our second week, an objective of mine was to create a character and for a connection with them. I did this by identifying my characters with a name and an age. While working with Hawthorn on "Secret", we decided that our characters are young adults, my character was 19 and her name was Spencer, she has a secret that she didn't want her friend to know. With Caiceda, my characters name was Dr. D. Havens and my age was 39 in "The Child Who Didn't Know Pain." In "Wife", with Dantes, my character's name was Kristen and is 29. While rehearsing, feedback that I got from my teacher, Rob was to be "Bigger on characterisation" because of this, I realised that I only gave my character names and ages so I didn't really know who they are. I went back and gave them some characteristics. "Secret", Spencer is a Scorpio, she is quiet but fun once you get to know her kind of person, she has a little temper but most of time she is chilled. "The Child Who Didn't Know Pain.", Dr. D. Havens, she is a Gemini, she is a passive aggressive, possibly crazy, perfectionist and neurologist - I was still feeling distant from this character so in the scene I added three extra actors who were "taking notes" during the scene, (they were university students) and I also added a part where I received a letter (Information) and I opened it on stage, this helped my character (me) to explain the physical pain by explaining the mental side of pain, it kind of also shows you in a subtext way how information can cause you pain. "Wife", Kristen is an Aries, she is scared, lonely, she doesn't really remember who she is or anyone else, just her "wife". She has Alzheimer's disease.
One characteristic from each character and how I'll show them in my acting.
Spencer (Secret) - To show that she has a temper, in the scene I'll raise my voice and slam the remote down in annoyance.
Dr. D. Havens (The Child Who Didn't Know Pain) - To show that she is passive aggressive, my character will have an overly kind voice but her actions, for example, snapping two pencils will show that she is not as kind.
Kristen (Wife) - To show that she is scared, she'll run off stage, away from her "wife".
Contributions
I took on a directorial role within my group as I was unofficially voted. As a director, I listened and helped my group when needed. I delegated and came up with ideas to make our performance as unique and professional as possible. Leading was something that I enjoyed as there were not any conflicts, just discussions of what the vision is for individual scenes in Love and Information. Ad the director I got to do little things like help individuals with their scenes and work with them to think outside the box. My group wanted to rearrange the order of Love and Information so that it follows a storyline, storylines help the audience to connect with the characters and with what is going on in the play. As Ben Mills already had an idea for the order, I left it to him to make it. We then rearranged it as a group so that no one has to run off and on stage after scenes. I then pitched an idea to my group of splitting up the Wedding Video into sections and giving everyone a couple of lines, to represent how, in the real world, everyone is connected some way with each other and how everyone has information and love effecting their lives, one way or another, I also pitched the idea of having a quote after each, Wedding Video that reflects what each section will be about, the group like these ideas so I researched quotes that I thought would be suitable. When discussing sound and music, Smith-Helder, suggested to the group that we use WII music in between scenes and we all agreed on it.
"Love and Information" - running order
Quote - "Dear Love, I wish you came with a warning sign, an instruction manual, and with the enlightenment that I forever seek."
Wedding Video 1
Schizophrenic
Shrink
Message
Wife
Mother
Wedding Video 2
Quote - "The marks humans leave are too often scars."
Rash
The Child Who Didn't Know Fear
The Child Who Didn't Know Pain
The Child Who Didn't Know Sorry
Wedding Video 3
Quote - "We accept the love we think we deserve."
Secret
Lab
Fan
God's Voice
God
Wedding Video 4
Quote - " We don't get to choose who we love and who loves us back."
Recluse
Savant
Stone
Grass
Star
Wedding Video 5
Quote - "You can love people so much... but you can never lover people as much as you can miss them."
Dream
Ex
Facts
Flashback
Wedding Video 6
Quote - "Some people are meant to fall in love with each other but not meant to be together."
Earthquake
Affair
Virtual
Terminal
Fate
Wedding Video 7
Quote - "And in the end the love you take is equal to the love you make."
The Number 7
There is a 7th wedding video but there isn't a 7th section following it, the reason for this that the audience is the 7th section because Love and Information isn't just a play but a reflection of our modern world. I wanted there to be a direct connection from the stage and the performance ending to the audience getting up and going home. You understand the characters in this play because you see or speak to these characters everyday or you are these characters so I really wanted the audience to see it in that sense. I think that Churchill chose 7 sections for a reason, this could be because biblically, God created the word in six days and on the 7th day he rested, looking further into that it could be like she has represented the world that God created in these 7 sections. There are also 7 deadly sins, pride, greed, lust, envy, gluttony, wrath and sloth which are all shown in Love and Information. George Miller of Harvard University, stated in 1956 that most people can retain roughly 7 items of information in their short term memory, this could be why she made each scene short so that you can take away something from each section. There a numerous reasons why Churchill chose to split it into 7 sections, the number 7 has been attached to the universe for a long time.
Ethics vs Morals
I believe that Love and Information is almost made to questions the audience's ethical and moral views, as Churchill said "We need to find new questions, which may help us answer the old ones or make them unimportant." The characters in the play aren't always ethically correct but they believe that they are morally correct. For example, In "Virtual" (which parallels the use of sex robots), Caiceda's character believes that he is morally correct to fall in love and have a sexual relationship with a computer, however Wilson's character believes that it is both ethically and morally wrong to have any sort of relationship with a computer and this view would also be most of the audiences view but in scenes like "Affair" or "Mother" where the answer isn't always so clear, like do you get involved and tell your friend that they are being cheated on or do you mind your business? Do you tell your son that he is your son, after him growing up as your little brother or do you keep it a secret from him? These are the kind of questions that divide the audience and the kind of questions that divide society, this is because there isn't a direct answer, just humans doing what they think is morally right. Love and Information forces the audience to critically think about and evaluate their ethical and moral views. We are then taught that we have to have a duty of care and that we cannot exist independently without effecting the person next us.
Verfredungseffekt
I want there to be elements of the estrangement effect in our performance of Love and Information. The quotes that I chose are the narration of what is going to happen in each section. I want the audience to be almost be forced to come face to face with the reflection of society, to think about what part are they playing and to think about who they are or if the information that they have could effect someone.
Evaluation
Dress rehearsal
The decided costume was a white top and a black bottom, the reason for this is because information is black and white, however love isn't as simple as black and white so the feelings and energy the (cast) characters bring will show this.
In our previous rehearsal I an idea for "Fate", where Bejat jumps off the stage/block at the end of her scene and just as she's about to hit the floor, there is a blackout with the gasp of the cast members behind the curtains so we tried that and it worked.
We decided to use minimal props. During the rehearsal we didn't rehearse with the pvc pipes or newspaper as we were performing on the second day so it will be too much to put it up and take it all down. The dress rehearsal still ran smoothly.
The Performance
The energy on stage was beautiful, everyone was bouncing off each other, acting and REacting, playing the moments and letting their words speak for themselves. You could not only see the hard work of each individual person but the hard work that went into this collaborative performance, we just worked really well as an ensemble.
Feedback from Shenagh, Rob, Monique:
General Notes:
F****ing good
Fantastic set
Really great
Naturalism in scenes are on spot
As an ensemble you worked well together
Great dynamics
Good decisions making when interpreting scenes
Keep it as you've got it because it's so strong
Keep the energy and build on it
Lift your feet when walking on set
Be quieter backstage
Don't play to peers, keep the fourth wall up
Well done
It was a lovely process
"The play asks us to consider how meaning is constructed and to participate in the process"
- Jennifer Wilkinson (writer)
The play "Reminds us that no matter how many sophisticated modes of communicating with other flawed humans that we can access, we'll still manage to misconstrue misconvey, then kiss and make up, just like always." - Kristin Tillotson
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