Acting
John Abbot
John Abbott is an English practitioner and character actor who has starred in many films such as The Tempest, The Saint in London and The Great Commandament.
Abbot was born in 1905 in England. During his earlier stages of life he worked for the British Embassy in Moscow, briefly during World War II. His acting career later started when he stopped of at the United States whilst working and was
offered a role in the Hollywood film industry in 1941.
In 1994, Abbot made his debut break when he was cast as the lead in Mary Chase’s “Harvey”, however he left the production as there were “artistic defenses”. He was an inspiration to all and teached many young aspiring actors in Hollywood how to act.
Later on, Abbot released a book about the skill of improviststion, where he listed his top ten rules to improvisation. He decided to publish this book as he wanted to not only teach people how to improvise, but how the skill can be used as a tool and when searching for hidden dynamics in scenes. The book allows actors to connect with improvisation to the creation of characters, stories and relationships. For example, some of his rules consists of “don’t block” or “always use your own names”. Abbot advises actors to try and stick to the improvisation rules as much as possible because this will allow more experience to be gained, so that you can make your own, bit by bit.
Dance
The origins of Ballet
Ballet begun in the 17th century where flamboyant entertainments were used to celebrate marriages or for rulers to show ff their wealth and power. In this century, ballet was told as a story and were mainly inspired by many myths of Ancient Greece and Rome, with themes of natural world or foreign
Costumes in the 17th century were very imaginative, decorated with lots of symbols that helped the audience to recognise who the characters were. Ballet dances were based on social events of the royal courts which consisted of floaty arm and upper body movements.
One of the main artistic directors of ballet was George Balanchine. Born in 1904, Balanchine was the co founder of the new your city ballet, one of the first American ballet productions. He was a choreographer of many ballet dances and even went on to working with leading composers in musicals on broadway. In addition, most of his work and choreography was inspired by his time at the Imperial Ballet school and other schools that he fused with on broadway.
During his early life, Balanchine was not into ballet but his mother insisted that he and his sister, Tamara should take part in an audition. His sister also shared the love of the art with her mother. Based on his one audition in 1913 (age 9 at the time) George was accepted in the Imperial ballet school that was set in Finland , where he became a student of Pavel Gerdt.
Between the years 1924 and 1929, he created nine ballets and worked amongst lots of composers as well as creative artists such as Picasso. Picasso helped Balanchine design the sets for his productions.
However, the very first ballet director was a man called Pierre Beauchamp in 1671. Beauchamp became the first director of the ballet school in Paris, where he invented the concept of the characteristic “turn out”. Also during that century, other characteristics such as “port de bras” and “ballons” were invented.
In the 15th century, Italian court dances were originated, with the first one to be staged in 1581 (duration: 5 1/2 hours). These dances were originated by the Italian dancer, Enrico Checci who specialised in mime.
Ballet begun in the 17th century where flamboyant entertainments were used to celebrate marriages or for rulers to show ff their wealth and power. In this century, ballet was told as a story and were mainly inspired by many myths of Ancient Greece and Rome, with themes of natural world or foreign lands.
Costumes in the 17th century were very imaginative, decorated with lots of symbols that helped the audience to recognise who the characters were. Ballet dances were based on social events of the royal courts which consisted of floaty arm and upper body movements.
One of the main artistic directors of ballet was George Balanchine. Born in 1904, Balanchine was the co founder of the new your city ballet, one of the first American ballet productions. He was a choreographer of many ballet dances and even went on to working with leading composers in musicals on broadway. In addition, most of his work and choreography was inspired by his time at the Imperial Ballet school and other schools that he fused with on broadway.
During his early life, Balanchine was not into ballet but his mother insisted that he and his sister, Tamara should take part in an audition. His sister also shared the love of the art with her mother. Based on his one audition in 1913 (age 9 at the time) George was accepted in the Imperial ballet school that was set in Finland , where he became a student of Pavel Gerdt.
Between the years 1924 and 1929, he created nine ballets and worked amongst lots of composers as well as creative artists such as Picasso. Picasso helped Balanchine design the sets for his productions.
However, the very first ballet director was a man called Pierre Beauchamp in 1671. Beauchamp became the first director of the ballet school in Paris, where he invented the concept of the characteristic “turn out”. Also during that century, other characteristics such as “port de bras” and “ballons” were invented.
In the 15th century, Italian court dances were originated, with the first one to be staged in 1581 (duration: 5 1/2 hours). These dances were originated by the Italian dancer, Enrico Checci who specialised in mime.
Acting
Konstantin Stanislavski is a Russian practitioner and method actor who specialises in the technique of naturalism. He was born in 1863 in Russia but then later died at the age of 75. His whole family was interested in natural theatre and during his childhood, Stanislavski was able to indulge in different amateur theatres.
In his work, Stanislavski focuses a lot on motivation and imagination. Also his style of work also is based around naturalistic behaviour and realism, something that is best described as a natural days work.
His methods of the 5 W’s are something that we use to this day in acting as something to be inspired in as Stanisalvski has already inspired lots of devised projects over the years.
The 5 w’s are who, what, when, where and why. However when acting, Stanislavski thought us the importance to base our methods of acting from 5 questions: “Who am I?” , “Where am I?”, “When is it?” “What do I want?” and “Why do I want it?”.
With these 5 questions, we can build believable characters that are natural, which is successful in acting. When following these rules, enabling the naturalists in our characters, the audience can truly connect with the character and their emotions, feelings and intentions.
Stanislavski also taught us to use our imagination in acting as this is to prioritise our naturalistic selves. It is beneficial that we use our imagination as in order to become believable characters, we have to be truthful so to conclude, we cannot be truthful with imagination
Acting
Observation of someone from the outside circle.
I decided to observe someone called Brandon, who is a member of the second year to the performing arts course and someone who I see regularly around the performing arts block.
He is always smiling and expressing himself to others in a bubbly nature, which could be influenced by something amazing that has happened in his life. On the other hand, this could also suggest that he is a happy and cheerful person. When he smiles, his eyebrows naturally raise, not suddenly but in a subtle manor. This is an obvious trait of happiness.
One of the other things I picked up on when observing Brandon was the natural projection in his voice when he is talking to a friend or is in a generally good and positive mood. I think this occurs because of not just the obvious mood, but maybe from a certain situation that has triggered his good mood.
When watching/ observing him in the Performing arts block, i noticed that he slowly walks up and down quite a lot, with his hands in the pockets of his joggers. This may be triggered by boredom as he has nothing to do, other than walk up and down to pass time. However this may indicate that he is having or had a bad day and would not rather speak to anyone as the body language can often differentiate what mood you’re in.
Brandon might have his hands in is pockets as a way of being natural and relaxed. This also may come across as a natural trait for him and he may not realise that he is doing this. This is due to the constant repetition of doing something, so much in-fact that it becomes an un noticeable, every day thing because your body feel the urge. For example, a common trait is twiddling your hair. You may not realise it because you’re too focused on something else to realise that your body feels the natural urge to do it. Therefore in Brandon’s case, I think he naturally wants to put his hands in his pockets as this may feel relaxing for him.
On one hand he likes to wear comfy black clothes also, which isn’t an obvious trait as everyone likes to ware these types of clothes every now and then. On the other hand, I have noticed him in a black hoodie/sweatshirt quite a lot which indicates that he is relaxed and his mood could be neutral. Although this could distinguish his mood, I also think the purpose behind wearing his hoodie is to feel comfy.
Singing
The Greatest showman. Google images The Greatest Showman (2017) [online image] Available at https://www.foxmovies.com/movies/the-greatest-showman (Accessed 7th October 2018) 
The main Cast (main):
P.T Barnum- Hugh Jackman
Philip Caryle- Zac Efron
Zendaya- Anne Wheeler
Michelle Williams- Charity Barnum
Keala Settle- Lettie Lutz
Rebecca Ferguson- Jenny Lind
Sam Humphrey- Charles Stratton
Paul Sparks- James Gordon Bennett
Ellis Rubin- P.T Barnum (young)
Skylar Dunn- Charity Barnum (young)
Yaha Abdul- W.D Wheeler
Will Swenson- Philo Barnum
This is me Google images (2018) The Greatest Showman ‘This is me’ [online image] Available at: https://youtu.be/CjxugyZCfuw (Accessed 7th October 2018) 
“This is me” is a very powerful, and one of the most important songs in the film. In the song, the Bearded Lady/Lettie Lutz (Keala Settle) is the dominant leader of all the rest of the circus acts that featured in Barnum’s Circus show. They feel frustrated by his betrayal to sign up with another contract with fellow Jennie lind, it’s almost as if they do not exist anymore.
Towards the end of the song in the film, we see all the circus acts dancing together in choral. They go back to the circus and protest in the ring, where all the action happens, a way of showing that being an act in the circus has become such a wonderful thing.
From the way that Keala Settle is the dominant leader and joins hands with all the other acts during this song, represents the loyalty and trust that they have in each other but also highlighting the symbol of togetherness as they unite as one. They want to bring forward the message that, they are not afraid of what others may think of them anymore and also that they are not going to let any criticism get ahead of them. This can be influenced by the lyric “i won’t let them bring me down to dust” or “I’m gonna send a flood, gonna drown them out”.
It is vital that through the lyrics and overall tone of this song, viewers must understand the importance and reality of identity and discovering who we are. During the song, we begin to realise that the circus acts have a real talent and this is what they want to do. No one can stop them from being themselves and accomplishing their dreams.
What was the film ‘The Greatest Showman’ based off?
The film, The Greatest Showman was based on a True story of the circus owner, P.T. Barnum.
Singing
Research of:
Breath control
Breath control is a vital skill in singing as it you need to control the amount of breath taken in from the diaphragm, as well as how much is being released when you breathe out. Most people tend to find out that as they inhale, their chest rises slightly which can impact your vocals. You can improve your breath control by having a stronger posture and by completing a range of breathing exercises. 
It is generally said that when we sing, the breath is inhaled from the diaphragm and that this is the correct to inhale. However when we sing, we inhale from a combination of abdominal muscles, intercostal muscles and the diaphragm. When we inhale, the diaphragm contracts downwards, and the lungs fill up with air, descending down to the stomach and moving everything out of the way. The intercostal muscle expands sideways which result in the general expansion around the stomach, side area ad back. When we exhale, the diaphragm relaxes upwards as the the air is released. When the lungs are empty of air, the abdominal muscle is responsible for the exhalation of breath in which the speed of the breath.
If the amount of breath is not controlled and certain breathing exercises have not been done properly, then you will have a general struggle with signing in general. For example, you may run out of breath half way whilst singing due to the un controlled breath.
Posture:
The first step to maintaining good vocal chords is the ability to have a good posture whilst singing. Your body is seen as an instrument and poor alignment and unnecessary tension will impact on how well you sing. A good and strong breath can be maintained by your posture.
A good posture consists of the core being engaged at all time, the pelvis tucked in and the hips wide apart, spaced out by the feet in a parallel position. A good exercise needs to have even weight distributed in both feet, relaxed knees ands your arms rested by your side.
Once you have displayed a good posture, you can work on controlling your breath. Having a good posture can really benefit with singing. This is because you can then inhale more breath which means that your voice can be projected snd your vocal range is stretched.
Acting
Banana Boys by Evan Placey
list of core ideas:
Sexuality
Gender
Love
Relationships
Friendships
Environment
Society
Identity
Growing up
Truth
Education
Acting
Evan Placey
Evan Placey is a Canadian/ British playwright who grew up in Toronto but now lives in London. Some of his most well known plays and books consist of: Banana boys, Girls like that, Holloway Jones and Pronoun. All of the plays in which he had written have an inspiration or a back story.
Evan tends to write a lot about personal statements like transgender issues, sexting and children who were born in prison, never being shy from challenging discussion and exploration. Many of his stories can be found inspirational as it is stated by Placey that: “It enables people, especially young people, to ponder issues and to ask questions in a ‘safe’ depersonalised environment”. “That’s what theatre is about what it’s for”, he also states.
Evans personal story began in Toronto when his mother encouraged him to get into performing arts, someone who was well known to the industry but worked as a special needs teacher until her retirement. He went to the theatre all the time with his mother when he was a child actor and dancer doing videos, commercials and modelling.
When he was eight, Evan’s mother persuaded him to transfer to a specialist performing arts school although he didn’t initially want to change schools. He was sent to the Claud Watson School, a part of the education system in Canada which achieved academic requirements.
At thirteen he transferred to Earl Haig Secondary School where the Claude Watson program continued as a separate strand within the school. He took part in plays like the wizard of oz and performed with newcomers and also people who lived outside of his area. Around this time, Placey really engaged in acting after his modelling career ended due to weight and puberty problems. From the word of the teachers, he relished that his success as a dancer wasn’t as good as some of his other peers at the school and therefore stuck to the origins of theatre. He began to learn how plays and theatre worked, later on producing and directing student written plays whilst he was still at school.
Years after his school life, Evan went onto studying English at university, where he met his partner Daniel. He worked well with a lot of young people and wrote his plays, focusing on young audiences and young actors. Placey’s first commission came from the Hampstead theatre, which Banana Boys was the result.
In 2014, Placey’s challenging and thoughtful take on transgender life was commissioned for its connections by the National Theatre. This is the scheme which enables youth groups all over the country, to stage one of six commissioned plays in regional festivals. The best play chosen performs over a single weekend on London’s Southbank.
How does Love affect all the characters in Banana Boys?
The Boys
Cameron: Love affects Cameron as at the start of the novel, he is confident that he is heterosexual and therefore begins a relationship/fling with Etta. However, the word love seems very confusing to him as he doesn’t really know the true meaning, or what he wants with it. When he realised that he has a connection with Ben, love became clearer but still remained complicated. Because of his undecided sexuality, Cameron feels very confused and spaced out.
Calum: Calum is affected by love because he shares the love of friendship between himself and Cameron. He and Cameron have been best friends since they were little but in scene 9 they lose their friendship and love when Calum punches Cameron. Later on in the play, Calum later on admits that he loves Pippa at the school dance.
Riley Max & Zach: Love has affected Riley Max and Zach in not the way of a relationship but purely through the love of themselves as they do not care what others may think of them and always seeks attention. In scene 8, he Riley purely makes fun of Ben’s sexuality by calling him “batty boy”, therefore suggesting that the verbal abuse to others makes his self love stronger. Similarly to Riley, Max and Zach share self love as they also like to make fun of Ben. However, the boys are very childish and don’t really know what love is as they haven’t really experienced love from anyone else. They think love is a cruel and disgusting thing.
Ben: The word “love” can seem very intense to Ben. He wants to be loved by everyone (all the boys), but unfortunately isn’t as he is teased for his sexuality and opening up about being gay. However love appears more strong to him as he shares a secret connection with Cameron after Cameron kisses him, later realising that he is actually loved.
The Girls
Pippa: Pippa is affected by love from the way that she is loved from Calum. The two are obsessed with each other. She finds it hard to confess her love to Calum, which suggests that her love him, as well as his love for her is undying and hectic. I believe that Pippa could feel like this undying love is bubbling up inside her, especially before she confesses it to Calum.
Alisha /Tanisha: love seems cruel for these girls as it is proven that they have not earned the affection from any of the boys even though they like them.
Falisha: love is complicated for Falisha as she thinks nothing of it, yet she is surrounded by it all the time from other couples like Etta and Cameron, Calum and Pippa etc. Love affects her as Riley has an affection for her but she does not feel the same.
Etta: Etta is affected by love in so many ways. Firstly she is affected from the surrounding of love from all the other couples in school. Secondly it is complicated for her as she has a thing for Cameron and expresses her love for him where as he realises that he is more into Ben, this suggests that she may feel confused and a little hurt by this. Love is many things. On the other hand, due to Zach’s large affection on her, she struggles to say her true feelings as she doesn’t like him back
Bob Fossey
Robbert “Bob” Fosse was born in Chicago Illinois in 1927 and was one of six children, all sharing a love in theatre and dance. When he was 13, he teamed up with Charles Grass, another child actor and toured all over Chicago. They performed in theatres as the “riff brothers” and three years later, Fosse went on to star in the show “tough situation”. It has been said that this is what inspired him to come up with techniques and styles of his dances.
Style and technique of dance:
Bob Fosse was known for his dances to be sexy, sassy and confident and was easily recognised in hit musicals such as “All that jazz”. His choreography is well known in the style of jazz dance.
His inspiration to his unique style of dance came from growing up in cabaret nightclubs, his signature style of his dance became sexually suggestive. Three of his signature moves consisted of: sideways shuffling, turned in knees and rolled shoulders.
In addition to his more traditional education of dance, Fosse had a single handed experience with the burlesque style of dance, a dance which originated in the 17th Italian century and was known for being very theatrical. The sensuality came from a choreographed nightclub number when he was 15, featuring girls wearing ostrich feathers.
In a number of Fosse choreography, the typical costume of a male consisted of bowler hats -often tilted, vests, white gloves and fish net stockings or black trousers. The women in his choreography often exude sexuality, through the careful plan of movements and costume. 
Although Fosse preferred angles in his dances, dancers strive to create long lean lines. This may be accomplished with a turned in knee or a jutting hip. Fosse’s style also included isolated movements. Finger snapping is another common dance move, as well as “rolling” and strutting the hips. This gave a cool and modern feel to his work as his style is very old fashioned.
Here are some links to his states of his dances:
Acting
Katie Mitchell
Katrina (Katie) Jane Mitchell, OBE is a an English theatre director and practitioner, born in 1964. Some of her plays consists of: “The director’s craft”, “Some trace of her” and “Waves: A record of the multi media work”.
Mitchell’s theatre productions combine extreme naturalism with the use of creative multimedia along with the exploration of feminist themes. To all her productions, Katie influences loyalty, respect and an a fair amount of outrage.
Although she worked as an Associate director at the Royal Coart and the national theatre, working on her plays, she also spent most of her career working abroad.
In Britain, Mitchell is best known for her adaptations of other classic plays (specifically checkhov), for her neutralistic approach to stankislavskis work in performances and for her extensive use of multimedia. Her style of theatre is very different as it often doesn’t seem like theatre at all. This is because she wants to achieve the illusion of flicking through a novel, conduct the lecture on climate change, a nightmare take on hamlet or the achievement of the difference between a dream and a nightmare.
In prior to Mitchell’s play “Waves” a new type of theatre in which provoked a new type of relationship between a theatre production and the audience. A relationship that could be very challenging. This new type of theatre allows the audience to choose which character to “follow” and how much magic to believe in.
Mitchell also was responsible for “the five steps to high quality acting”.
They are:
- Facts & Questions
- Research
- Place
- Time
- Character Biography The reason behind this is to ensure that the actors can start to understand the play that they are performing in more depth, therefore engaging themselves more in the roles they are given.
Singing: Steven Schwartz
Steven Shwartz is an American lyricistv and composer. His most famous musicals were Godspell, Pippin and wicked. He was born on 6th March 1948.
The musical Wicked is different from the Greatst Showman. The greatest Showman is based on a true story where as Wicked is a fiction. However, they both explore the main role to be recognised. Both Elphaba and P.T Barnum want to make their mark on the world.
Banana Boys Facts and questions (Scene 12b)
| Riley |
– What is he doing? He mostly plays football in back garden during his free time. – Why is he there? His parents do not have a lot of money. They had to move to Hampstead Heath as the housing estates are a lot cheaper and it’s only what his parents could afford.
|
| The Girls’ Changing Room | – How big is the changing room?
It is very spacious
|
| Alisha |
|
| Tanisha |
|
| Riley asks Alisha for money | – Why?
|
| Tanisha Returns |
|
| Riley enters the changing room |
|
| Tanisha leaves the changing room, leaving Alisha and Riley together | – Why has she got to go?
– Where is she going? |
| Riley asks Tanisha how it would look if he was seen with her at the dance |
|
| Riley goes to give Tanisha something | – Does he want something in return? If so, what? |
| Riley gives Tanisha money, winks at her, then exits |
|
| Falisha |
|
| Tanisha looks at her reflection in the mirror and is about to cry |
|
| Falisha refers to Riley as a “sorry ass, mumbo jumbo, talking monkey” |
|
| The song “You Can’t Hurry Love” by The Supremes begins to play |
|
Bob Fosse Poses
Bob Fosse had a range of poses back in the 70s which featured a range of gestures (mostly hand gestures) and demonstrated small movements in a repeated manor. Each dancer could contort their body into strange positions to form gestures which represented every day life, machinery, sports, ventriloquism, puppetry and the military.
Fosse once said the poses/movements ”remind us that dance and the body are imbedded” in the history and the society around us, we must treasure with what our bodies are capable of.
During the 60s and 70s, Fosse movements were smooth, clean and confided grander gestures were used in a lot of his dances in shows and was often referred back to dance of the 20th century.
Often his poses will include the slight reposition (lifting) of the hip, the small gesture of the hands in a peacock position or lifting a bowler hat elegantly. These poses are known to be quite sensual as Fosse’s work originated from his experience in a nightclub and is part of the burlesque style of theatre.
Daniela Ciarleglio Winterfest 