dinnertime!

how about now

AAAAAH! i just wrote a MASSIVE post about today (workshops/characters/acting) AND IT DELETED I CAN’T EXPRESS MY ANGER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Today we had a much needed,lengthy production meeting. here are my recordings of what happened in the meeting, of course including my opinions and reflections.
Scott.S - told us that most of the acting he’s seen is pretty good and we’re well on our way, however, we can’t yet relax! There’s still a while to go.
Kimmi - described the set design, including the new idea of having a bar as part of the set - with much discussion we decided that this may not be appropriate as it may not fit in context with certain parts of the script. it was suggested that we have a bar outside the space, in the corridor at which audience members can get drinks (may or may not be included in ticket price). this incorporated the idea of having a bar - also makes the bar more “real” in context with the play and also Mond’s previous idea of byo/grape juice with mocktails. I feel the bar and mocktales really contribute to setting the scene AS soon as audience members arrive.
We then realised that we need to think up an alternative for a place for Mond to be sitting in order to control the techi business - Scott thought of maybe having a “kitchen area” other ideas were to have a little station where you pay. (only problem with this is…they discuss the bill…is the bill in front of them when being discussed?) Other things kim reported to us were that there will br 10 square tables, each with 6 people - so we will be aiming to have an audience of 60 a night. There will be two round tables for main actors on a platform - with carpet. She has some Ken Done to hang up and a picture of dogs playing poker. She’s also started sending out media releases….good work kimmi:)
Yaniv referred us to all the research he’s done on his dramaturgical post - there’s a lot of good research there worth looking at-but i think it needs to be put into context with our play - and how it effects our play.
Mel - we discussed props, and what will be on the tables - bread bowls and butter, most likely no individual plates.
Elise - spoke about hair. Mel - no red streaks. Goofy - grow his hair. Yaniv - grow hair and shave. Also informed us that Mrs Mac will be teaching her make-up stuff during the musical! And she told us about her experiences at a pub bistro on friday night - at which the bar was very separate from the restaraunt (even for diet coke!!!)
Jono - discussed the cardboardband - the class seems to be split down the middle as to whether this is a good idea or not. I don’t mind it either way:)
There will be a dancefloor at the back, which i really do like the idea of:)
I stressed the importance of blog updates and reading eachothers blogs. Also spoke about researching your character on a broader spectrum and how this is really positive influence on your performance - i found it helped me alot. For example, yaniv, you could research coping with divorce. Other than all this, i think our play’s coming along well - once we physical things start coming together we’ll be able to envisage it well and i think this will be a big motivator too. it seems that further research needs to be done across the board, on all aspects and all ideas and i think its really important that we update eachother on all our research and decisions.
i know this has been a long blog, but if you survived through it - thanks for reading:)
peace out

hello friends
After a meeting with Scotty and discussing my role - he gave me the idea of research coping with grief in the 80’s as this is what Monika had to go through - and there may not have been the same grief coping services in the 80’s .
I found some information on grief but there wasn’t much to be found regarding coping with grief in the 80’s specifically. i’ll continure this research, possibly through phoning a service and asking them what was available in the 80’s but for now this is some of the stuff i found that could be useful to me in understanding Monika.
Grief - the emotional response particularly of sorrow, over a great loss such as the death of a loved one.
Grief is a healthy and necessary process. It is not healthy to avoid grief or to deny a loss for a long period of the time. Avoidance of grief may lead to serious physical or emotional problems later in life. - Monika doesn’t deny her loss, however she does seem to avoid dealing with her grief properly and doesn’t seem to know which channels to go through in order to deal with her grief - causing her outbirsts - her avoidance to deal with grief and determination to forget the past and have a fun night out (possibly in order to escape from coping with grief) may cause problems for her later.
People who are grieving may need to keep certain coping tips in mind, including:
• Avoid isolation. It is important for grieving people to talk to others and explain how they are feeling. They must not be afraid to ask for support. - this may be Monika’s motivation to go out with the girls (she doesn’t want to be alone) and it explains her outbirsts and insistance to talk about her husbands death. she tells Paula and Dympie that they’re her best friends - she seems to be alone and not have anyone else to talk to - explaining her motivation for opening up to Dympie and Paula.
• Postpone major decisions when possible. Grief may interfere with judgment. Major decisions may need to be postponed. - her judgement may be skewed and affected by her grief - this helps us to understand what motivated her to get drunk, take drugs and especially helps to explain her decision to go home with Stephen, so soon after her husband’s death.
This research has helped me a lot to understand some of Monika’s motives and reasons behind her behaviour - i feel that this deeper understanding of my character will help enhance my performance. i recommend this kind of research to all actors! - research broader topics that seem to be apparent in your characters life in order to grasp a greater understanding of them.

As Mon Mon is having an adventurous time backstage, with drugs, drinks and men - i’m not being blocked for as while, so in addition to pondering Monika’s experiences and how these would influence her behaviour over the rest of the night, i decided to have a production meeting with Scotty.
I was confused as to where to go from here with my folio and how to refine and develop my work. i learnt that i have to continually question my work in order to be able to improve it and will do that from now on.
We discussed the costumes:
Scotty challenged my costume concepts causing me to rethink some of them:
Dympie - a red skirt may not be suitable as she does not like attracting attention and attempts to blend in ( a red skirt being an attention attracting colour does not achieve this)
I realised i still have a while to go until costume concepts, and the physical costumes are finalised.
We discussed how my costume work has been refined and developed over time:
It started by deciding on an 80’s theme with the set being a Pub bistro. I then researched 80’s style costumes and gained various ideas of how costumes could be formed, keeping the characters and their personalities in mind. After which i though of a vague concept for each character, i then made my first sketches. I made a costume concept map, outlining each characters concept and what they’ll be wearing, with pictures gathered during research. I went opp-shop shopping in search of perfect costumes and took photos followed by making first purchases. this process will continue to be refined, as finishing touches are added to the costumes and concepts are developed.
This meeting got me thinking about the costumes, how representative they are of the characters and how they can be developed, it also helped me to realise that i have a while to go before finalising the costumes.
well, thats all for now, peace be the journey!

I haven’t written in a while so im due for an update and since i learnt quite a lot today, it seemed the perfect day to do so.
We continued with our blocking and blocked scenes with the three girls.
We focussed a bit on the interaction between the characters. At times, with their conflicting opinions Dympie and Paula indirectly fight over Monika. Monika is often caught in the middle and this proves to be too much for her upon a rushed exit.
Scotty spoke to us today about attempting to absorb the character, even through blocking (even though this can be difficult) as once in a habit, it is tough to get out of it (and we don’t want to be stuck in the habit of acting out of character). Monika is a complicated character and as i myself have had much less life experience than the character it is tough to fully grasp her and i’ve realised i’ll have to work hard on this. I try put myself in “a zone” in which i push Nai (as sweet as she is) aside, attempting not to portray my own attributes and personality and letting myself show through the performance, but rather fully capture Monika thus achieving a much more believable performance. After Scotty spoke to us today, i’m putting more effort into being Monika during blocking. Today i tried to think as she would, even when not speaking so as when i do say my lines, im on Monika’s wave-length, thinking and behaving as she would - this seemed to help me be in character and i feel as though it enhanced my performance. Each day i get more of a grasp on who Mon Mon is and how to act her, and i hope to have fully absorbed her by performance time! i always have to start thinking about motivations/what Monika wants and needs.

This wonderful week, we finished the cold read and have started blocking.
now, that we are in production development, key decision have been made and everybody is making good progress on their stagecraft elements, i feel like we’re well on the way to putting on a great production, of course with a lot of blood, sweat, tears and hardwork
Blocking is progressing well, actors realised we have to start thinking about portraying the body language that our characters would. i feel that actors are still in the process of getting to know their characters and blocking will very much help this process along. i know i have quite a long way to go with character development but am confident that with the help of our trustee director and fellow cast members i’ll be able to master mon mon in no time!(well maybe not no time, but well see how it goes) hehe.
Scotts doing a great job of directing, everyone is participating well and what else can i say? we’re on the way to having a blocked play:)
WOOOO rock oon!

All the costumes i’ve bought so far fit - which is great. I now need to establish finishing touches.
These are the things i’m relying on you to bring from home, so PLEASE let me know if there is any problem with the following list as i need ample time to provide alternatives.
Jono - Black pants, white shirt, black shoes.
Scott - Black pants, white shirt, black shoes.
Kim - Black pants, white shirt black shoes.
*i am going to look into aprons for you guys.
Yaniv - Black shoes and Shirt, i want to differentiate you from the waiters and would therefore prefer you to find, a pink or baby blue shirt, it need to be a soft colour - let me know asap if you can or can’t bring a shirt of this colour. if not, i’ll try and sort something out or we can resort to white - which won’t be too much of a tragedy.
Mel - Bone tights, and PLEASE let me know about shoes
Elise - Good job on the dress and also PLEASE let me know about shoes.
You guys need to tell me about shoes asap, as if you don’t have anything, i’ll have to get something - if you do have a photo would be great or detailed description, if you don’t have, let me know your shoe size!
Goof - Jeans and either black shoes, or like vans (or whatever they’re called), and you and I will go shopping for your jacket some time soon.
All girls - let me know asap if you have some colourful, tacky bangles at home, these would be a great help.
If anyone has any ideas of things they want to add, let me know im open to any suggestions! like i said please react to this blog and give me the ok or the ba bummm (negative answer) lol
Thanx guys, love ya!

just wanted to draw your attention that i accidently published two blogs as pages, so i have 2 blogs listed in my pages, you have to click on them to read them, they’re not just there. so if you’re interested in the process of choosing our play, or the process of choosing our stagecraft elements, that’s where you’ll find it. thanx dudes, peace be da journey

SO dudes, today Scotty was speaking about the Stanisluvski method (hope thats spelt okay) and how we need to have an emotional link with our character in order to establish a more believable performance. He’s also told us about how its important to establish a backround story for your character. I’ve tried a number of times to research the characters of this play and have found it very very difficult to find anything substantial (so if anyone has found a good site or some good character information, please let me know!) On this blog i’m going to put together everything i’ve found so far along with my perceptions of the character from reading this script. throughout this process, i’ll update this page as i find more out about Monika and further establish her story, so if anyone’s interested in Mon Mon, please read on.
Monika:
Monika is an office worker and has been recently widowed. She is seeking a good night out with the girls. She seems to be suffering with grief and depression from her husbands recent death and at times imagines he’s still with her. She is confused and a virgin to this kind of environment and outing. She’s been fairly sheltered through her years of marriage as we learn that Martin (her late husband) didn’t like to go out much, they usually stayed at home. She reveals that she never drove, but was always driven and is late as she had trouble getting ready (not knowing what to do first, make-up or hair), she couldn’t find her car keys, and gets lost on the way, her melways missing pages. We get the idea that she wasn’t a very independant woman, but rather did what her husband wanted and spent her life working in the office and taking care of him. She’d cook and clean for him and sleep with him when he wanted it, even though it wasn’t satisfying for her, if anything a vile experience. As the night goes on, she reveals that she didn’t shed tears for her husband and his death, but rather for herself and the fact that she didn’t lose him sooner. We find out that she was stuck in an unhappy marriage, and perhaps to insecure, scared, adjusted to get out of it. Through an argument with Dympie, we learn that she didn’t live for herself (she lived selflessly)and she now makes a decision to please herself rather than always trying to please others (as she did with Martin). She’s in fact pleased that Martin is gone, not distraught but judging by her behaviour, she seems to still be suffering from grief of death of someone who was so strongly involved in her life. She never says she didn’t love Martin and I sence that she did, but the key problem was that the marriage was dysfunctional and unhappy for her and she never did anything to solve it, therefore, to her, his death seemed like a solution and a gateway to a happier life. We learn that she wants to take a man home with her, have a one-night stand and leave him before he wakes up. From this desire, i learn that Monika is not looking for another serious relationship or a new marriage, all she is looking for at the moment is FUN, she wants to experience things, break away from normal and old routine, as her past years in marriage have restricted her from doing so. The negative experience of being stuck in an unhappy marriage, with an unsatisfying sex-life has drawn her to look for fun, more teenage-like experiences, rather than a relationship. Monika is lonely (as i sence she has been for a long time, even in her marriage) and confused but after this night, she is on her way to building herself the life she wants.
…Well, this has certainly helped me get more of an insight into Monika - and hope it has for you guys too, i recommend all actors do this themselves, as i believe it’ll help enhance performance. As i said, i’ll update this blog as a learn and realise more about Mon Mon. thanx for reading (if you did) Asta Manyana