Gabriel's English Journal

To help me and others with ideas for this drama, as a group we discussed what improvisational techniques we could implement into our drama. Some of the ideas that were brought up were characterisation and symbolic meaning that relates to the stimulus. This helped me stimulate ideas even before the stimulus was presented to me.

The stimulus for this improvised drama was the song ‘7 Years Old’ written by Lukas Graham. Once this stimulus was played out loud, a group activity that I participated in was to pick out a line that stuck out for me. The line in the song that I chose was ‘by eleven smoking herb and drinking burning liquor’. This line presented a very scary and sinister image of a vulnerable 11 year old participating in very disturbing acts for someone his age. Another activity that was used to stimulate ideas for this task was to try and describe the song in one/a few words. The word that came to mind was ‘Tragedy’ as although Lukas gains fame and fortune, in his later years of life he is lonely and isn’t loved any more. Other ideas presented by the group was that Lukas’s poor childhood was due to a lack of a responsible father figure. However when researching information about the song, I learnt that Lukas saw his father as the perfect father a son could have.

When me and group (3 people) assembled, the two ideas that were strongly in our minds was a discussion with Lukas’s mum and dad and the 3 Lukas’s (11, 30 and 60 years old) all encounter each other. As a group we decided to go with the second idea as it presented a stronger meaning of good and evil trying to get their own way. The 30 year old Lukas Graham was presented as stubborn and single-minded (“I only see my goals”), so our group decided to create a character who would reflect this, through the swagger in his walk, cheeky comments and his general rudeness to everyone. The 60 year old Lukas is the complete opposite, as he lived and seen the effect of his poor character to others (“I hope my children visit me once or twice a month”). 60 year old Lukas isn’t loved any more by society and is alone, but he wants to try and change the 11 year old Lukas’s ways so that his might change for the better even if his existence might hang in the balance. So me and my group decided to create the 60 year old Lukas as caring man, through his posture and calm/gentle response to other characters.

The storyline that me and my group created is that the 30 year old Lukas knows that the 60 year old Lukas is trying to intervene and make a better change for their lives. However if the 60 year old succeeds, both the 30 year old and 60 year old Lukas would be wiped out of history. Knowing this the 30 year old Lukas intervenes, and they both meet with the 11 year old Lukas. In the end none of them succeed and Lukas is left confused and hurt. We decided to leave the drama at a cliffhanger so that the audience can make their own judgement for the 11 year old Lukas.

We also employed the use of spilt stage as the 30 year old and 60 year old Lukas come alive into the drama at the two ends of the stage and stay at the end of the stage for the whole performance. Even though the 30 year old Lukas is the bad, negative character, as a group we want to allow some room for the audience to make their opinion about him. The use of split stage is to present the metaphor of the 30 and 60 year old are actually the 11 year old Lukas’s conscience (good and bad) and that the whole scene is being played in his head.

Analysis of Rehearsal Improvisation

Although there was a lot of flashing light and the fact that two futuristic characters are in the drama, the performance style we decided to go for was naturalistic. To make the performance more real, we decided not to use dramatic inventions such as breaking down the 4th wall. We did this so that the audience can relate and believe the performance more easily than if it was non-naturalistic. The message of the drama was to broadcast how past events can positively/negatively effect someone’s life. I think this message was presented successfully in our rehearsal improvisation. However there were two things that our performance lacked: my character (60 year old Lukas) didn’t really reflect the intentions I had for that character. The way I performed this character came out as more as a 16 year old boy than a considerate and caring 60 year old Lukas Graham. My character came out across as arrogant and rude, just like the 30 year old Lukas Graham and this wasn’t my intention. This improvisation has great potential to convey a powerful message about life decisions and its effects to the audience.

Analysis of Lighting Presentation

I didn’t discuss the potential of using trailing spotlights on the 60 and 30 year old Lukas’s to suggest their thinking throughout the performance . I also forgot to discuss how the blue lighting could be used to represent the neutral and confused mentality of the 11 year old Lukas. The use of flashing light when the 11 year old Lukas is roaming from side to side to amplify the stress he is going through and that he can’t make a decision. I also forgot to state the use of a blackout as a transition of scenes when the 30 and 60 year old Lukas’s leave to amplify how lonely the 11 year Lukas feels to the audience.

Analysis of Character Development

I accidentally stereotypically said that all 60 year old’s need walking sticks to walk, which is wrong. I was supposed to say that to actually the way I had to act like more of a 60 year old is the way I respond and interact with the other two characters. I also should have elaborated how putting my character in totally different scene would have allowed me to understand the motive and the morale of the character more, as the more I understood the character I was meant to play, the more I became him. This plus the use of lighting really characterised my character and would make my character believable. Another type of character I took part in but didn’t mention in the presentation was that I only chose one line and said and acted that line in different ways to practise how to play 60 year old Lukas. Because of the character development, the drama now has great potential to develop and create a back story for the 60 year old Lukas as the understanding of the character is now higher.

Analysis of Karver Joseph’s Lighting Presentation

Karver successfully described how the use of each light, the connotations behind the light and how the audience views the light. This is good because he relates the lighting connotations back to his drama and how it helps with the overall intention of the drama. This good description of lighting could also help the other actors in his group understand their role better as the lighting allows them to understand what they are meant to be feeling/showing at the time.

However in the presentation Karver repeats his points in the presentation. Karver also could have presented his ideas better by playing out one or two scenes from his drama and narrating how the lighting shows emotions, motives and feelings. Karver could have also benefited from discussing about more types of lighting e.g. strobe lighting and blackouts.