ryan dennis

Discuss the intentions of your character how were they shown?

My Intentions - When I played Mr. Basford (deputy head teacher) I needed to show that I was angry and a strict teacher I needed to show this more and to show the audience the Mr. Basford was a serious character I think I could have done this better. I needed to do this by shouting, being loud and to stand up straight. I need to do this because by standing up strait and being loud shows that I am a very strict teacher and doesn’t take no for an answer.  Also when I was playing the part of Mr. Nixon I needed to be a lot more nevus but trying to stand his ground I didn’t do this very well. I needed to show this when Mr. Nixon was having a confrontation with Oggy Moxion when Mr. Nixon said ‘I am going to report you’ severly time this show he was trying to stand his ground. Also I needed to play him as a nevus character when Oggy get right up in his face Mr. Nixon. I showed this by shakes and walks back. I did this because I wanted the audience to how serious I was playing the character.   

Hannah Williams

Discuss the intensions of your character. How were they shown?

During our class production ‘Teechers’, I was involved in the first scene which was when I was Mrs. parry, It was the part where Jordan was explaining about Mrs. Parry coming up on stage in school assemblies talking about educational matters when really she would like to say ‘Knackers school’. For this part I was only on stage for a few moments, as I had to walk across stage and mime. When I walked across the stage, I lead with my arm out in front of me, to lead the way, in the direction that I was walking. I then moved my arms around me in very big circular motions, to show that I was explaining something. Then I put my hands together at the end and said ‘Knackers School’. The reasons for doing these actions instead of just simply walking across the stage, is because Mrs. parry is a very large framed woman, with big over the top actions, with a loud opera voice to match. So by exaggerating my actions, it showed that I was playing a big over the top character. My next scene was playing Gail performing with Grace (who played Oggy). During this scene I was talking about Oggy and saying what he was like. Gail is quite a flirty girl, but she is also quite slutty, and chavvy, so as you can imagine she can be quite mean to the people she doesn’t like. Gail doesn’t really like oggy, so I had to show this, which I did by backing away, although Gail always has to look quite flirty. I showed this by twiddling my hair and standing with my arm resting on my waist, this also showed that I had a bit of an attitude. For my last scene I was playing Maureen Witham who is quite the opposite to Gail, she is a hopeless old teacher who doesn’t really know how to teach properly, but she is also quite quiet with a high pitched voice. I played the small part where I go over to Jeff and talk to him about the times Ed. I spoke in quite a high pitched voice, to show that I am a nice lady, and then when Jeff said ‘No I’m not into that’ I said ‘Oh’ then sat down next to him. I began to feel sorry for him at this point, and by sitting down next to him, it showed that I was there for him, when I was giving him advice. I also toned down my voice to show that I wasn’t trying to bug him, by having quite a high – pitched voice and being quite jolly, when he was clearly upset, with his face buried in his hands.

 

Dicuss the use of lighting and sound in Teechers. How did it add to the plays intensions?

During the production the Lighting and music had to be thought of carefully because it was constantly changing. At the beginning of the production when the audience was entering the auditorium, we had a Pink Floyd song being played; it was being played quite loudly, this showed that immediately the audience would have an opinion of what they were about to experience. The loud music makes you think that the school is going to be quite loud and disruptive, making it not a very good school! Compared to if it was a production about a private school, the music choice would be very different. Throughout most of the production, the lighting was very bright, this was because we didn’t want the audience to be in darkness, instead we wanted them to always feel involved and engaged, and we wanted them to feel like they were in the school with us, like they were a part of it. There were quite a few big monologues that people had to perform, so the lighting was changed for this, instead of bright lighting we changed it to a spotlight, so that the audience was only focusing on that one person in the middle of the stage, doing this also meant that the person speaking and performing could give direct eye contact to each member of the audience.

trree

Discuss the intentions of your character. How were they shown?

One of my scenes was when I played Mr. Basford (deputy head) and I was having an argument with Mr. Nixon (drama teacher) over the education system and how all schools should be fair. Mr. Nixon believes that everyone has the right to the same standard of education no matter what the family situation is or how much money is available. However Mr. Basford doesn’t care, as long as his kids have the best education possible. When I played Mr. Basford, I used a cane as a prop. I used this in a way that I walked on it and used it to show anger by pointing it at Mr. Nixon when we were arguing. This is because it shows his aggression towards Nixon and his lack of care that he is invading Nixon’s space and threatening him with a weapon.  I also tapped my hand with it impatiently before the argument got louder and more aggressive. This shows Mr. Basford doesn’t care what Mr. Nixon has to say and is just using his cane to show this to him because he doesn’t think Nixon is worth it until he says something that involves or angers him. Basford also paces around the room while he is explaining his actions to Nixon. He does this slowly and at his own pace to show his authority and power over Nixon. Basford slams a chair on the floor halfway through the argument. He shouts over it at the same time. He loudly shouts and slams the chair to show he is very passionate about the subject and cares an awful lot about the outcome of the argument. It also shows his anger at Nixon and that he wants to beat him because he disagrees with him.

 

 

 

Green- Why

Blue-How

Red-What

 

 

Redirect a scene

I think the scene where Oggy Moxon (The school hard nut) and Mr. Nixon have an argument, needs to be redirected. This because the performance was more of a standoff, but I think it should be Oggy ripping Nixon apart. This could be done by having Oggy Moxon circle around Nixon and getting the crowd to side with him. This would show that Oggy has control over the teachers and that the school are scared of him and let him argue with teachers and mock them in front of other students. It would also show his confidence and how he knows that he can threaten teachers and get away with it. From the point of view of Nixon, it would show the audience that maybe he isn’t all that he thought he was and that he still has much to learn about life at Whitehall (the school he works at). Dennis could stop being so active and jumpy when Nixon turns up and be more cool. To do this he should just stop when he sees Nixon, and then act all cool and follow after Oggy. This is because I think it would show the audience that the whole school can have a go at the teachers and get away with it, suggesting the school is rather bad.

 

 

I believe that the play was good because it was full of energy and made the audience laugh, but at the same time it had serious scenes to progress the plot. I think the audience were engaged because they didn’t know where it was going next as I am sure they didn’t predict that they would be involved. This makes them stay on the edge of their seat, but at the same time entertains them.  

Lydia

Discuss the use of lighting and sound in “teechers”. How did it add to the plays intentions?

Lighting and sound played a big role in the production “teechers”. The song by Pink Floyd, we don’t need no education, was played at the beginning of the production. This was to show what type of school Whitehall is. The audience gets an understanding that the school may not be posh, the children don’t care about education and the teachers are struggling. When there was a school disco the children pretended to be teachers by using dance movements from the 80’s. This was to show the audience that pupils do not dance like teachers. The song hit me baby one more time, by Britney spears, was used as this song is from the 90’s. Also later on in the next scene Mr Nixon, the new drama teacher, hits Oggy Moxon (the hard nut at Whitehall). The song hit me baby one more time is used again. This is supposed to be comical as Nixon is hitting a pupil just as the song says “hit me”. At the dance Gail, a student who fancies Mr Nixon, goes up to Nixon at the dance and throws herself in his arms. The song lady in red is played whilst the pair is dancing and the tempo is changed half way during the song to show the audience that Gail wants more to happen. In the scenes where there is only one person on the stage, the spotlight is always on them, this draws the audience’s attention to that one person.

sophie walkers crisps

Drama ‘teechers’J by Sophie Walker

What scene was I most impressed with?

The scene that I thought that had the most feeling and the most thought and effort gone in to it, was brad and Callum’s scene.  It impressed me a lot as both their facial expressions and body language had shown true meanings to the audience.  The way they used the space and walked around and didn’t corpse and made the audience feel involved was fantastic. They used their words very strongly and in a powerful way. They had performed this so well because they had practiced hard and felt strongly for this particular scene.  They also made it really believable and as their tone and pitch of their voices changed  they really made it feel like a power ful scene.  They had changed the tone and pitch of both their voices  to make it seem like they are generally being serious  and they ment what they were saying.

 

 

What was  my thoughts on the sound and lighting of the play teechers?

 

My thoughts of the lighting, I think it went well because when we needed a spot light it came on at the right time and went well with the scene of whatever one it was . In the disco scene there was a disco ball and it filled the whole room with a rotating light of glimmer and shine, which made it seem like a actual disco.  Made it seem like real life and got everyone involved.  We put a disco and there was lighting up anyway so all we had to do is turn them on and switch them off at different times. The sound matched our school enviriment  because it was a ruff school and it was lould and came on at the right times and it all went brilliant.

unfinished

The character I played was called Gail Saunders. She has a crush on the new drama teacher. She was a flirtatious, spoilt, promiscuous teenage girl, with a high sense in fashion. My intentions were to show this as my character to the audience. What I did to portray this was

Lisbeth

Alice footBall

Redirecting a Scene and Thoughts on the Performace

 

One of the only scenes in our drama performance that I think could have been directed better is the intense scene between Mr Nixon (the school’s drama teacher) and Oggy Moxon (the school bully and hardnut). This is because the argument is supposed to go on between the two of them whilst a massive crowd gathers to cheer them on. However, in the scene that we performed, there wasn’t a massive crowd. Instead, there was just an argument between Oggy and Nixon whilst Dennis (Oggy’s weedy friend) took on the role of the cheering crowd. When we actually performed the play to the audience, the person who played Dennis forgot to mention that “a massive crowd had gathered”.  I think that it would have been better if a crowd had gathered or the actors offstage had shouted remarks at the characters to show that the students at the school liked to watch a fight which suggests that they are from quite a rough, violent area. This also would have made it clearer to the audience. I would also redirect the scene so that the gap between where Nixon and Oggy stood clearly got smaller as they got closer to each other and the fight became more intense because I feel that this was unclear in the performance and would have been quite effective had it been carried out properly. 

Overall, I think that our class performance went very well as everybody remembered their lines and queues which meant that it ran smoothly and the audience did not feel awkward. As the show went on, the actors began to feel more confident which showed in their performances as their characters became more exaggerated and confident.

t-rex

Green =what

Red=why

Blue=how

discuss a scene that needs improving

I think that the scene with Mr. Nixon, oggy and Dennis needed to be improved because all but Dennis didn't show engagement in this scene. This scene is when scruffy Dennis is given a porn magazine by Oggy moxon, Mr. Nixon argues with oggy and almost gets himself hurt, it was Mr. Nixon’s first encounter with a school bully. He doesn’t go about it as well as he could have done. Personally I think that Charlie toomer played Oggy too quietly when oggy is meant to be vicious and full on, Charlie needed to make his voice louder and stand with a better posture. This would show that oggy thinks he owns the school and is very powerful, it also shows that he thinks he’s bigger than the other kids and stands above everybody else. Ryan Dennis was playing Mr. Nixon, I wasn’t happy with the way he played it because he was too subtle when confronting oggy moxon, he should have been acting as if he were in charge, after all Mr. Nixon is a teacher. He also should have been louder because no matter who a teacher is talking to the teacher will always be loud and make himself look like the bigger person and make himself look in charge. I was happy with the way mason acted as if he was Dennis; he portrayed himself as if he were a young lad looking at his first porn magazine. he got really exited and was shaking as if he'd discoverd a new species

 

talk about my performance, what was good and what was bad

I think that I performed well in the scene where my character Mr. Nixon had a run in with Mr. Basford who was played by Callum, they had a disagreement and we had to act out an argument. We both rose our voice as the scene heated up and we both used body language to show we had strong opinions, for example for a few of my sentences I would poke him in the chest to show I disagreed and what I thought had to be heard. I wasn’t happy with the scene I played as Mr. Nixon when I tried to control the class and they were just ignoring me, I should have been a lot more aggressive and I should have shouted to show I was angry and wanted their attention.

 

I was very pleased with how the whole play went, we had great feedback and I think it went very successfully. My mum said the whole cast performed well and showed they also really wanted to get involved. The way our class performed got the audience very involved I also think the lighting helped with this because it feels like we are not in a drama room but in the school that the actors were pretending to be. We made the audience feel like this by picking some of the audience up and getting them involved.

wibbons

Discuss the intentions of your character. How were they shown?

                For the opening of our performance of teachers I was playing the role of Salty. Salty is a student at the secondary school and is the character that is performing the drama play within our play. He is a loud and energetic character that comes on to the stage with lots of energy and confidence. When Salty is first introduced into the play the audience knows straight away that he is a child that is restless and hyperactive. To display this to the audience I spoke loudly and never stopped moving. I sway my arms around and walked about when the other characters on stage with me were talking. I shouted my first line and strongly emphasized my other lines. My intentions of playing the role of this character this way were too show the audience that Salty is a mischievous character that is all ways causing trouble and annoying the people he is with. By shouting and talking to the audience and not leaving them alone showed that I was not going to be quiet and that I loved to bother everyone.  Also in the production I played the role of Nixon, a drama teacher at the school, he is an easy going teacher that has quite a laid back teaching style. I played Nixon as quite a relaxed character but in one of the scenes was depressed and angry. In the scene when Nixon was depressed I put my hands on my head and sat down facing the floor, I talked slowly and sighed multiple times. I kept shouting at the people in my class and ignoring what they were saying, then at the end of the scene I jumped to my feet and shouted and gestured to with my hands. The intention of having my hands on my head was to show the audience I was depressed and didn’t want to look/face anybody. Looking at the floor shows I was feeling down and didn’t want to be teaching in the lesson. The fact I was ignoring what the people where saying was to show that I was not focused and I was distracted by my depression. The constant shouting of the two girls in his lesson were building up to the final point of when Nixon jumps to his feet and the anger over takes his depression as I shouted at the top of my voice to tell them to put there hands on their heads and their fingers on their lips. Using hand gestures in the seen just emphasizes my anger.

Katie Miller

Intentions Of My Character

In teechers I played the role of Hobby, a under confident shy chav, who goes to whitewall school. The first impressions I got from reading Hobby’s lines is that she is bored most of the time and doesn’t want to be in whatever situation she is in. For example in the scene I was in, The scene where Gail, flirty character, and Hobby are telling their Drama teacher,Mr Nixon, about the plays they have done before in drama, Hobby seems disinterested . She says the line ‘We done it’ A few times, this shows she is bored and doesn’t care what is going on around her or what Mr. Nixon has to say. I also think she has a manly aggressive nature about her. When I played hobby I made my actions slower and acted lazier. I also ate a mars bar in between lines to show she is always eating. I played the character of Hobby like this because of the stage directions and the manner of in which she speaks. I also created a picture of Hobby in my head and tried to make it come across in the way I played her. As We didn’t have set costumes for each character, we just wore uniform, If we did have costumes I think Hobby would of worn a hoddie as it shows she doesn’t really care. A few other people played the character of Hobby as well as me. Alice and Sophie played hobby as an Aggressive manly character. They Changed their accent, the changed their accent to a low, deep tone. This showed she was quite intimidating and manly. This adds to the fact she may be shy and under confident as she doesn’t like her voice or personality.

Lighting and Sound

In teechers we used sound and lighting throughout the show to create tension, build up scenes, to make people stand out and to set the scene. We also used sound and lighting in the show to improve our performance. Lighting was used for every scene in the show. For example in the scene where Gail, a flirty character, and Hobby, a shy character, are telling their Drama teacher,Mr Nixon, about the plays they have done before in drama, when another student,Peter Saxon , approaches Mr. Nixon and starts a speech about drama;A spotlight was used to single him out and to make everyone focus on him, everyone also cleared the stage so that he could be alone while he carried out his speech. This was done to create tension and to make people feel intimidated by his height, as he is a tall character. It was also done to show the types of students that go to whitewall. There was also a big use of sound within Teechers. Sound was used to set the scene; it was used as a transition from scene to scene and was used to relate to the scene, so the type of music would relate to what was happening in the scene. For Example, in the Disco scene where Gail and Hobby are at the disco waiting for Mr. Nixon, the music is disco style and upbeat. As soon as Mr. Nixon arrived a slow song came on, creating the perfect moment for Gail to appear in Mr. Nixon’s Arms, ready to receive the kiss she had been waiting all night for. ‘Hit me baby one more time’ By Britney Spears was used at the start of the scene to show the upbeat side of the disco but as soon as Mr. Nixon arrived the music changed to ‘Lady In Red’ a perfect song for Gail and Mr. Nixon to dance to. The song ‘Hit me baby one more time’ Was used to show upbeatness, fun and chaos with in the disco, whereas ‘Lady In red’ was used to show a serious romantic side to the disco and scene.

Grace Lockyer

Callum’s performance as Basford I felt was really good because Basford is a character that is quite strong-minded. He knows what he wants and his views and opinions are always made very clear. He is strict with the pupils and always gets what he wants. In a scene with Basford and Nixon, they argue over under privileged children and how they seem to have been different opportunities. Basford, being the father of two children who go to the independent school St George’s becomes really defensive. Callum portrayed this by having a really strong posture; standing completely straight. His movements were quite harsh. They weren’t understanding movements which showed that he really believed in his opinions and was adamant he was right. For example, when he slammed his cane on the floor he showed that he was dominant. His voice was very loud and his diction was clear. All of these factors show Basford’s opinions and his position in the argument.

Lighting and Sound - Leah Quinn

 

In my class’ production of Teechers we used lighting and sound a lot throughout. We began the play with a voiceover from the head teacher of the school (the very flamboyant and eccentric Mrs Parry, played my me). This was very loud and obvious to the audience to set the tone of the play which is also very over the top and comedic. The voiceover welcomed the audience or ‘the pupils of the Year Eleven Leavers’ Assembly’ into the hall and was then quickly followed by ‘Common People’ by Pulp which put the play into context as it is about a lot of working class people who aren’t very well off or well behaved. The intentions of this were to show the audience that Whitehall (the school in which Teechers is set) is a very rough school with working class pupils who are quite badly behaved. Throughout the play we kept the audience in the light of the stage and set out the chairs in a round so that the audience was completely surrounding the stage. This is so the audience feel they were really part of the play and they too are vulnerable to attacks from the pupils of Whitehall just as much as the actors playing the pupils on stage. Later on, during the scene at the Christmas disco when Gail is trying to get the attention of Mr Nixon her new drama teacher who she has a crush on, lighting and sound were used to create a very slow, romantic atmosphere. We did this by playing ‘Lady In Red’ which is very slow and romantic as well as spinning the disco ball very slowly so lots of little lights reflected off the walls while the rest of the room was really dark. We did this to build the tension in the room and make the audience believe that Gail had romantic intentions, as in this scene she attempts to kiss Nixon. I believe lighting and sound was used effectively throughout the play in many different ways.

 

Grace Lockyer

Our class production was Teechers. This is about a comprehensive school with a lot of problems such as a lack of funding, undisciplined students and soft teachers. The play shows the journey of a new teacher, Nixon, who the pupils become very fond of, and how he ends up leaving to go to a better public school.

Our performance was done in a round instead of seating them all in rows along one wall. This made our performance a lot more personal and it was easier to communicate with the audience. We wanted the audience to feel involved in the play, not as if they were just onlookers. We tried to improve their feeling of involvement through the lighting. Our lighting was not very dark, as it typically would be, but quite bright. This meant that the actors could see the audience’s faces which meant we were able to look them in the eyes. As the audience felt they were involved, our actions got a better reaction. Also, there was a lot of direct address which if the audience were in darkness, would have been a lot harder to make genuine. We needed to be able to see our audience in order to interact and the brighter lighting enabled us to do that. At one point in the play, a massive boy is meant to come on stage and become a scary pupil. We wanted to create humour by using a contrast and we did this through the sound. We also wanted to create an atmosphere through lighting. We made a voice over of a really low voice making the audience believe a giant guy was going to come on, when instead a small boy came on. This created humour because the audience already had an image of what the boy would look like, so when Ryan came on, it was a complete contrast. When Ryan was talking about how he once locked a teacher in a store room cupboard, there was a spotlight on him which showed that everything was about him and it created tension.

The class play we chose to produce was Teechers. It’s about a comprehensive school with its fair share of problems. A number of undisciplined teenagers go to Whitehall high school. The production shows a new drama teacher arrival, till he leaves. The drama teacher, Mr. Nixon, becomes very close to three individuals at the school, Salty, Gail and Hobby.

A member of our class, Sophie, I thought performed her character brilliantly. She played a big student, with a careless attitude toward everything, tomboy personality and hungry for anything. This character was called Hobby. She was one of the three main characters in the play. This student was best friends with the complete opposite characterizations as her, called Gail. What Sophie did was very impressive to show how Hobby was. She always had a mars bar with her to show her hunger and need for food. When she sat down her legs were wide, like how a boy would sit, and she wore baggy trousers to represent this too, she did this to show what sort of girl she is, and also what sort of things she’s into, as ‘girly girls’ like to wear skirts and possibly tighter trousers. To show her embarrassment toward Gail, she kept rolling her eyes, this is because normally when someone is fed up or annoyed with another, they would roll their eyes, so she tried to portray this to the audience.

Lisbeth

Hannah Ashworth

          Discuss the intentions of your character. How were they shown?

The first scene I was in looked at Nixon the new drama teacher first lesson at whitewall. My intentions for Gail were to show that she did not like Drama but also that she did not like Nixon at first. I showed this by siting back in the chair looking really not interested what Nixon was saying and look like I was not paying attention. Also to show that she was also a flirty character when she was standing explain to Nixon what they had done with the previous drama teacher I kept on putting my hand on my hip to show this to the audience and make my character clear. And to show that she was a bit stupid I changed my voice to show this audience this. I acted this way to make my intentions clear to the audience at what sort of character and person Gail was. The second scene I was is was when Gail was telling Hobby that she was in love with the Drama teacher Mr Nixon and was going to try and snog him at Christmas dance. My intentions for the scene were to show the audience that Gail is infatuated by Nixon. I showed this to the audience by moving around a lot and smiling when I mentioned Nixon to Hobby  and getting all excited when I told Hobby that Gail was planning to try and snog mr Nixon at the school disco. I did this to show to the audience that Gail was completely in love with Nixion.

Callum Ravenscroft

Discuss the intentions of your character. How were they shown?

One of my scenes was when I played Mr. Basford (deputy head) and I was having an argument with Mr. Nixon (drama teacher) over the education system and how all schools should be fair. Mr. Nixon believes that everyone has the right to the same standard of education no matter what the family situation is or how much money is available. However Mr. Basford doesn’t care, as long as his kids have the best education possible. When I played Mr. Basford, I used a cane as a prop. I used this in a way that I walked on it and used it to show anger by pointing it at Mr. Nixon when we were arguing. This is because it shows his aggression towards Nixon and his lack of care that he is invading Nixon’s space and threatening him with a weapon.  I also tapped my hand with it impatiently before the argument got louder and more aggressive. This shows Mr. Basford doesn’t care what Mr. Nixon has to say and is just using his cane to show this to him because he doesn’t think Nixon is worth it until he says something that involves or angers him. Basford also paces around the room while he is explaining his actions to Nixon. He does this slowly and at his own pace to show his authority and power over Nixon. Basford slams a chair on the floor halfway through the argument. He shouts over it at the same time. He loudly shouts and slams the chair to show he is very passionate about the subject and cares an awful lot about the outcome of the argument. It also shows his anger at Nixon and that he wants to beat him because he disagrees with him.

 

 

 

Green- Why

Blue-How

Red-What

bug eyes

Discuss the intentions of my character, how were they shown?

My intentions for the character of which I played (Doug the caretaker) were for him to be a grumpy old git and for him to be like he has got the weight of the world on his shoulders. This being the play “teechers” would have linked in with the fact that Doug was always in a mood and being grumpy because of the kids at whitewall were miss behaving and being rude which rubbed off on Doug the caretaker. He comes onto the stage with an arched back and a screwed up face. Doug shows that he is always grumpy and a git by the tone of his voice and how he talks. He talks like he has just breathed in a load of smoke and like there is something on his chest. I achieved this by putting on that voice by moaning and changing my voice so that the audience would understand who I am and who I wanted to convey across. The reason that I made it so I had an arched back was because then the audience would know that I was old and that old men can usually be grumpy and that is what Doug is like so that is why I made him appear to be old so that it seemed to make sense. Doug didn’t have that much energy so when I was in the stage I tried to make it that I was quite slow and I did that because then it would seem real.

My character's intenions - Leah Quinn

 

In my class’ production of Teechers, set in a rough comprehensive school in England, I played Hobby in the opening scene. Hobby is one of the three main characters who perform a play of their final year at the school to their year group in their Leavers’ Assembly. The main three are made up of: Salty, an over-excited sixteen year old boy who likes spraying graffiti on the walls of the school; Gail, the overly flirty and very pretty sixteen year old girl who develops a crush on their drama teacher Mr Nixon in her final year at the school; and Hobby, their uncaring friend who lacks motivation to do anything whether it’s work or every taking pride in her appearance and who eats constantly throughout the play. My intentions when playing Hobby were to show she is supportive of her friends whilst still being very uncaring and lacking in enthusiasm. In the opening scene the main three burst on stage to begin their play to their year group. Both Gail and Salty moved at a very fast pace and talked very quickly as if they were excited but, when I played Hobby, I entered very slowly and reluctantly to show the contrast in enthusiasm between me and the other two characters. I also used a very low voice when I spoke because I was trying to show the contrast between Gail, who’s very flirtatious and has a high pitched voice, and Hobby who just doesn’t care about trying to look attractive at all and so isn’t flirtatious like Gail. I tried to make Hobby sound really bored in everything she said so that it looked to the audience that she really didn’t want to be there. She was also eating chocolate bars constantly. This is because I wanted to show, unlike most teenage girls, Hobby is comfortable with eating loads of unhealthy food because she doesn’t care if she gets fat. I think the beginning scene in which I played Hobby went well because it showed she was a very reluctant type of person in comparison to Gail and Salty who both had loads of energy and moved at a very fast pace.

Lydia Taylor

Discuss the intentions of your character. How were they shown?
When I played Mrs Parry, who is principal at Whitehall School, at the beginning of the play I had to always walk gracefully and had to use wide movements, this is because Mrs Parry is dramatic and loud. The wide footsteps reflect her loud voice. I also had to use a lot of hand gestures, I did this by always moving my hands whilst talking, as Mrs Parry likes to show off what she has done in the past as she is proud of herself. I had to use an operatic voice, by using high pitch and elongating my words, to show that Mrs Parry is theatrical and has a passion for theatre. I always had to have a smile on my face and look happy, even when Mrs Parry was annoyed at Mr Bashford. I did this by keeping eye contact with audience to show that I was happy and not frowning. I did this to show that Mrs Parry is a bubbly character and always looks at the positives in life. Later on in the production I played a small part of Miss Jackie Prime. Jackie Prime is the P.E teacher at Whitehall and flirts with any male she can find. I jogged around the stage but I did so with little foot movement to show off as Miss Prime would. Her voice is flirty. To show this I had to have a high-pitched but soft tone to my voice. This shows the audience that Jackie Prime is always flirting whenever possible. I also played the part of Salty, who is one of the students at Whitewall. He is over the top and very energetic. To show this my movements were fast and I was moving even when I was supposed to be stood still. This shows the audience that Salty is a bit crazy. Salty is a boy which means his voice would be manly. To show this I used a low-pitch to show the audience I was playing a male.

 

Alice Ball

Drama Evaluation

Lighting and Sound

In our class production of Teechers we used lots of different lighting and sound effects to show the audience that we were in a school and also make them feel like a part of it. For example, there was a school disco scene where Gail (a flirtatious, girly character) attempted to try and snog Mr Nixon (the school’s drama teacher). We created a disco atmosphere by making the lighting very dark with only the disco ball reflecting patterns on the walls behind the audience. We then played some loud upbeat pop music, which is the typical type of music you would find at a school disco. By having the patterns reflected behind the audience, they were made to feel part of the disco and as if they were actually there. Furthermore, by having the music quite loud it meant that the audience really had to listen to the dialog that was going on onstage. This is similar to a disco or a dance club where it is difficult to hear what people are saying; therefore it made the audience feel like a part of it. We then formed into four lines (one in front of each section of the audience) where we danced like over-enthusiastic school teachers to Brittany Spears’ Hit Me Baby One More Time. I think that this was a good choice of song because in the play, Hobby quotes that “[…] all teachers dance like retards” so for the teachers to be able to dance really badly and be cheesy, we needed the song that played to be cheesy too. This added a comedy element to our play because all of the actors were doing really bad dancing. In addition, we used coral movement for the dance which added to the comedy element because we were all doing the same silly dance.