Daddy’s gunna get you!

In Drama we made up a play about a girl Jo who becomes possessed by her friends late father, we got the idea from a story that Miss Risk read out to the class, the story was like a mystery story and contained clues to why this person called Jo was found at the waste ground, the clues where little like, her posters were torn off the walls and her mirror was smashed into pieces in which her mother saw and followed to find the girl at the site, we made sure we used the clues in our play as well as other ideas that we came up with such as, my friend Charlotte came up with the idea of using a ouiga board for the possession and another friend that I worked with called Nina came up with the idea of the destroyed, haunted house were the wasteland currently is. We all came up with many ideas, some which we could not use because we found them hard to do or they became confusing to the audience, one of these ideas was that we inserted flash backs and forwards, as if the audience was seeing what the girl went through to see where she is now but we got confused doing it so we figured if we were confused and we knew what was going on in the play, we realised that an audience who had never even seen the play before would have no idea what was going on so we had to cut those scenes out. In my play I worked in a small group, which consisted only of four people, those people were: Nina Elliott Charlotte Ireland Zoe Hammett And of course myself, the parts we played were significant and individual to the actress and character in the play. Charlotte played the part of Jo's friend, Sophia; she is a shy girl she dresses very girly and acts sweet and innocent, Sophia is really a very nice girl she has just been bought into the wrong crowd of people. She lives with her Mum and her Step-Dad near Jo's house. Sophia and her Mum have recently been falling out over the fact that Sophia wants to know her real father, her mother is too scared to tell her because Sophia might find out the secret of what really happened and she doesn't know how her new husband (Sophia's Step-Dad) will react, Sophia only wants to know a few things about him, she doesn't see the problem she just wants too know, What he looked like, his name and most importantly weather or not he is still alive, She is a very curious character and is quite easily pushed into things, Sophia is almost a complete opposite of My character. The character I play is Jo, a girl with a few problems (although she doesn't like to admit it) She dresses in a gothic style and doesn't care what people think or say about her, she doesn't care about other peoples feelings just as long as she gets what she wants and she would never do anything for anyone else if she doesn't see what she can get out of it. She is definitely a character that most people would call a bully. The people she hangs around with are outcasts like herself, they have been disowned by their old friends because things like the way they look, act or their insecurity problems, all they really have friend wise now is each other. Although Jo tries to hide it she really loves the super natural but because of her gothic style she hides her emotions (Well except her sarcasm) My friend Nina played the part of Lavender another of Jo's out-casted friends; she is more ‘down to earth' and mellow, she dresses like a hippy but also like Jo loves the super natural but unlike Jo she does hide it; she studies it, she studies a lot of what she is into and is dying to know what has been covered up in the small village they live in (if anything at all) Lavender is the one who brings the ouiga board to school and catches Jo's attention with it. Lavenders mother doesn't mind at all about her looking and studing things like that as long as she doesn't try them inside the house that is what brings it all to Jo's house because no way would Sophia even touch the thing let alone let it into the house and that is one thing she was not going to be pushed into. Zoe played the part of police woman and the mother to all three girls, she didn't want a main part and we did not give her one because she is away a lot of the time from lessons which is the only time we would get to rehearse it. I choose the people I did to work with because I know them well and they are my friends, I knew they would have very good ideas to contribute to the play and I know how very talented they are at acting I knew that whatever the part maybe that they would be capable of reaching out and helping me construct the play from every tiniest detail of reactions and facial expressions, the people I choose to work with encouraged me and each other when we need help, we helped with constructive criticism and by being not only actresses but directors as well. The play was about a young girl named Jo who was found at the wasteland near her home, we made up a play showing how she got to that stage and what happened afterwards, In the first scene Jo's friend Sophia is arguing with her mother about the whereabouts of her real father, when the scene changes to school we see the first appearance of Jo and her friend Lavender, Lavender is reading a book and Jo is looking impatient, they talk about the whereabouts of Sophia until she turns up at which the subject is changed to ouiga boards and they all end up agreeing to meet up at 6 at Jo's house. Then comes another scene between Sophia and her mother, her mother is about to tell her something but then her Step-Dad walks in the house and her mother stops. The scene changes to Jo's room where they attempt the ouiga board only to conjure up a spirit which possess Jo to tear all her posters down smash her mirror and write on the wall in her own blood she then stumbles to the waste ground where the taunting screams of ghosts make her faint. The scene at school Jo comes in late her friends are scared of her by the way she acted and ask her why her mum let her to school where she explains she blamed it on them, Sophia refuses to use the board again while as Lavender is pushed into it, Lavender then goes on to ask her mother about what happened to her friend, her mum tells her that her friend has been possessed and Sophia mother finally tells her of her father, his name, his looks and the fact that he is no longer alive. Lavender and Jo are about to use the ouiga board again when Sophia walks in, the spirit in Jo awakens again and everyone figures out that the spirit is Sophia's Father, Sophia shoots Jo in the arm causing her to collapse in pain, there is then scenes of the after effects. The scene where Jo is put into the â€Å"special care† unit the police take Sophia away, Lavender is put under a protection unit where she is given a new name address and identity, and then as a last scene they show Sophia what she has meant to have done to her friend where Jo is talking to herself and going crazy locked up in a padded cell. My character is quite lazy and doesn't seem bothered by those around her, she slumps in her chair in the 1sst scene and in the second scene you see her she's sitting on her bed grumpily, the expressions show that she tries to maintain a high authority, the voice and accent she speaks in is quite nasty but isn't really an accent there and if there is id have to say it is a London accent. The way my character moves, when u do see her walking you can tell that she doesn't really like what she is doing and she shuffles her feet, she is not a very active person and remains in a grumpy, sad mood through out the whole play except when she is possessed when she becomes psycho and angry and her expressions tell the other people in the play that she doesn't like them and she gives them evils. As time went on while I was practising my piece I came more familiar with my character, I found out that the more she looked like she didn't worry about anything the more she seemed it and the more she acted it, people commented that when I was in my part and dressed up as my character I seemed like I was actually gothic and the way I acted was as if a real gothic person would act and that the comments I made where really sarcastic, In my final performance we performed it quite well but not as well as it could have been, we made some changes at the end to try and make it better but it ended up because we didn't have enough time to practise this part, it all went wrong. What we tried doing was too add a music scene at the end with all the end consequences mimed and only turning the music down at one point to hear what the police officers are saying to Lavender. The idea of our piece at first to me was to pass a drama exam but as time went on I realised that our play could be actually passing on a message to the audience, the message to me that was being passed onto the audience was that things are not always easy and that people need to work things out and that playing with ouiga boards is not a game but is a serious business that can have very serious effects. I think my character displayed an attitude of soloism amongst her friends I think the audience realised that she gained the respect and that all the events seemed to revolve around her house and that it was her friends that she dragged into it and that if it wasn't for her none of the events would have happened. Overall I was happy with the play that we performed, I felt my character role was important to the piece and I felt that I played this role well, my friends in my group encouraged me when I needed it and gave me constructive criticism when I needed it, I felt like I have learnt a lot about how bad life can get from this play, I have learnt that even though peoples lives might look cheerful inside they might be hurting more then anyone else. I have also learnt more dramatic skills and feel that these will help me in the future for when I perform other roles. I have learnt that in a play the characters mood at the beginning is how the audience interprets them through out the entire play. I am really happy with the play e have produced and hope that my future performances will be just as good or better.