Title of piece: Red Light Alley
Option 3: Improvisation
Theme: Homeless youth
Genre: Gritty realism/tragedy
My class and I devised a play based on a research project about homeless teenage runaways. The storyline is about a group of homeless teenage girls living in extreme conditions in a rough and dangerous environment. A new girl arrives in the alley in which they reside from a wealthy and comfortable background, however she has been forced out of the house by her parents who can no longer support her due to her reckless behaviour, so to teach her a lesson they pushed her onto the streets to see if she could survive on her own. After being mugged, she stumbles accross the girls who provide her with shelter and protection for the night.
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Our target was mature audiences, due to some content of the play being explicit and gritty. I played the role of Dreamer, a homeless young drug addict who due to unfortunate circumstances was pushed into a life of reliance and addiction to substances. In my portrayal of the character of Dreamer, I had to adapt my personality to the role I was playing, and doing so I had to work on many aspects of my regular self. To give the impression to the audience that I was under the influence, I had to make my tone of voice more high pitched and slur my words as well as changing my gait to an unsteady, arbitrary stance at all times. Silences were essential to my characterization as it gave the impression that I was fading in and out of reality, which is why I employed this technique mid sentence so as to make it seem as if I was unable to keep track of my own thoughts. My facial expressions had to appear spaced out and intoxicated, therefore I made sure to not concentrate on a certain thing for long periods of time, as well as rolling my eyes on occasion, as well as avoiding direct eye contact with all members of the cast, so as to seem afraid and confused. I also had to adapt my posture to the character, and to …show more content…
In fact 2 weeks into our performance preparation time, I took it upon myself to change characters with another member of our group, who was struggling to get into character with her role at the time. At first this caused me great difficulty due to having to learn a whole new set of lines as well as changing to an entirely new character with a completely different story, however I was able to perfect it after a week or so. I believe I was able to adapt to my character with relative ease due to the amount of research I did on the topic. I also watched movies such as “Trainspotting” to help me really identify with the mentality of a drug addict. For example in my line “what a happy life right?”, I employed a rhetorical question to create dramatic irony, as the audience could clearly see that my life was precisely the opposite. Also in the scene of the confrontation between Slash and Jo, I run frantically into the corner with my prop joint, and smoke it at a rapidly increased speed, as well as making sure that my hands were as shaky and terrified as possible, as well as assuring my facial expression was that of confused fear. I believe my most succesful moment onstage was the scene in which my character kills herself, as the acapella performance of Roxanne induced heartache to the audience.. When I sang the lyric “you don’t care if it’s wrong or if it’s right” I made sure that my
The book, Heat written by Mike Lupica, is a novel about a young boy named Michael Arroyo who faces many difficulties throughout the book, all for his right to play his beloved game of baseball. Michael lives with his dad, Papi, and his brother, Carlos. They are all Cubans who came to the United States for a better chance to follow their dreams. Papi always encourages Michael to play baseball and he always has high hopes for Michael’s career in baseball. It is right to believe in Michael so much because later he fulfills his father's dream for him. After Papi dies of heart failure, Michael still continues Papi dream for him, to be the Little League Champion. Throughout the book Michael meets two characters who have significant impacts on him,
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Our task was creating a split scene in groups of 5, presenting Judy after the accident and in Retrospect. In the middle of the piece, Actor 1 (Bob) handed Actor 2 (Jo) and I (Judy) each an imaginary glass. We sat in a line, shouted “Drink!” once each, then in unison before going into a still image. Here I delivered my line at a fast pace (element) with a loud voice (medium) to show signs of intoxication. I exaggerated my body language while entering the still image by throwing my head back while sitting up and opening my mouth wide to mimic drinking. I tried portraying Judy being overwhelmed by alcohol, which leads to disastrous consequences later on. I could have improved by switching to a higher-pitched voice to sound more convincing in terms of characterization (element). We had a series of quick mid-sentence cross cuts towards the end of the piece, finishing with Actor 3 (Retrospect Judy) shouting “No!” before everyone falls forward onto the floor as Actor 1 slams a block with his hands (sound effect-medium). Actor 1 is expressionless but stares outwards menacingly, symbolizing death. Everyone falling to the floor in unison showed that the crash was inevitable, given Judy’s drinking habits. I think Actor 1 could have improved by turning his head slowly as he stared out to suggest that death is always looking for more victims. In this hour, I learnt that P.C Caten was helpful by assisting Judy through this traumatizing
Andie (Molly Ringwald) The main character of the story is a rejection according to the students in her Chicago High School. After school ends Andie spends most of her time working at a record store, her older boss (Annie Potts) Is one of her best friends and Co-worker. Andie likes to hang out with Duckie who has a crush on her, Andie helps Duckie study because if he doesn't get good grade he won’t be able to pass the year. Blane first meets Andie at the record store, she works at after a few days Andie starts falling for him, but does not know if she would be socially accepted. “Pretty in Pink” was released in 1986.
In Robert Conroy’s book Red Inferno, the character of Steve Burke is a symbol for military intelligence is essential for winning a war. Burke is not a particularly manly and does not possess much physical strength. But, what Burke does have is a strong mind. Even if he himself would not be an effective soldier in the trenches, Burke serves an even more important role of military strategist. He accurately provides the right place to drop the atomic bomb to the top American generals. In a meeting with all of the top US military brass, Burke explains “Sir, if we take out their commanders as well as cause casualties, the survivors will be a leaderless mob until such a time as Stalin is able to correct things. If the bomb is as good as it is supposed
Red Queen is written with such passion, that it envelops the reader in the story, hung on each and every word. A beautiful tale of hardship, romance, and betrayal. Aveyard does an amazing job of making the reader feel as if they are right beside Mare Barrow on her journey, of becoming the Red Queen.
The hunger for power lies within every one of us, yet most can have the strength to resist it. However, occasionally the temptation is so strong that it corrupts the brain. All the person can think about is achieving that power, no matter the cost. Ji-Li Jiang’s memoir, Red Scarf Girl, tells the personal narrative of a young girl growing up during the Cultural Revolution in China. Despite being a black whelp, the child of a family belonging to any of the “Five Black Categories”, Ji-Li Jiang is able to overcome the countless tribulations brought upon her and her family. Although Ji-Li’s naivety enhances her involvement in the Cultural Revolution, her constant loyalty towards her family perseveres; nevertheless, without her earlier devotion
Through a young man’s eye we see how he views life and what is important to him and his reactions to the important life obstacles. Dexter is the main character we meet him young, he works at a golf course that he caddies for. We also meet someone important to the story as well who is young named Judy Jones. Judy is the girl of Dexter’s dreams and will be awhile down the story. Dexter has three desires that he thinks about through the whole book and they are love, happiness and, wealth. Dexter is put through these obstacles throughout the whole book and it has shaped his choices and feelings.
Everyone dreams of being a hero however the path is narrow. The mantle of responsibility is important aspects and the presence of the heroic traits must be shown in some form. However, there will always be outliers and deemed delusional who attempt to be heroes. In Watchmen, Moore creates an omnipotent hero who lacks humanity in the portrayal of the Dr. Manhattan as a psychopathic anti-hero.
For the final project of this course, I decided to create a children's story book on the website "storyjumper" that depicts the issue of youth homelessness titled "Angela's Bus Ride Home." This story is about a girl named Angela who comes from a middle-class family that consists of her father, Bob, and mother, Emily, and is the only child, so she is very privileged. She is a middle schooler as she is in grade 7 and is very outgoing and liked by everyone in her class. She is a social butterfly and talks to everyone, except for one person. There is one outcast in the class, that is a boy named Justin, who is known to eat people's food, and steal items such as extra clothes and school supplies from others' bags when unattended, and always manages
When my mom asked if I wanted to see this year’s Lakeside musical, I honestly was a bit unwilling. It’s not that I didn’t want to support my two or three friends up on stage and in the crew; I just don’t have a very good track record with high school performances. I’m a critic: I have always been very critical of myself, and very critical of others. I unwittingly judge the actors onstage, and end up feeling guilty because I probably could have done no better. On top of this warped superiority/inferiority was the nature of the musical they were performing; all throughout third grade I had been obsessed with the movie-musical Hairspray. I knew all the songs, most of the lines, and wasn’t sure if anyone could top Queen Latifah. But I was mistaken.
The Green Mile starts off with cotton fields which ironically represents what Coffey was treated as. Coffey comes into the prison as a man with not a whole lot of money as a sharecropper or a migrant worker. Coffey’s black male stereotype represents what slaves were taught to be uneducated, dumb, but strong to do all the labor work. Coffey appears to never wear shoes and has jean overalls with holes in it. He also has markings that look like whip marks on his arm. Coffey suffers and is in a constant state of torment just like slaves did. Feeling the pain of the world, He looks up to heaven, angels, and Saint Christopher as his way out of this violent and hellish place just like slaves prayed for a better world in heaven.
While David Baldacci talks about the consequences of actions in his exciting novel Hell’s Corner, he explains how people will never be able to undo their actions -- whether it happened years ago or just recently -- and that there will always be an effect to this action, whether it is a positive or a negative. Since James Brennan, the president of the United States, knows about what Oliver Stone did in the past, he gives him a task with great risk and reward; “If you fail … the Russians are as ruthless as they come” but if you succeed, “then you will never have to worry about your government knocking on your door again” (Baldacci 13). Stone must face the consequences of his action -- killing two powerful people, a friends of the president,