Introduction

In this portfolio I will be writing about the drama we are creating inspired by the stories of refugees.  We’ve directed a piece of drama to do with refugees. Before we directed this drama we took in consideration the five Ws and H, this helped us a lot as the subject of ‘refugees’ opened up and we realized a bigger story about it which shocked us. A refugee is a person who is outside their country of citizenship because they have a reason to be fearful for their lives and the people they love around them, as well as the fear of being persecuted. It could all be for there race, religion, nationality or being part of a political group which opposes the government in which country they are in, and they eventually need to escape because of the fear of dying and they are unable to gain protection. For example in today’s world refugee is always amongst us like the Syrians escaping Syria as they are in war and it is not safe for anyone. This made me feel a bit guilty as I knew at the back of my head that young children, babies! were suffering due to war and I was at home watching TV and doing nothing.

My partner and I decided to create something based on our first performance, we decided to create a scene that included trust and betrayal as it is included in our every day life’s today. We had many ideas but we decided to mainly focus on a plot twist because we both felt this mostly would keep the audience entertained and also make it fun as they want to know what the plot twist is and its also a surprise. So our performance was a direct scene after the situation which happened between the three of us, me and Mikel start of talking in a park, we did this as we wanted to show the audience what was happening after we left Henry so they had a clear idea and didn’t have to be questioning what’s happening? We start of by saying we haven’t eaten for many days to make the audience know how long it had been since the thing happened with Henry, afterwards we started talking about what we did back in our native countries and why wanted to come here as we wanted the audience to know a bit about our characters so they understood the play better. We got many inspirations from different stuff but one of the main inspirations were Cass (The prison part), this is because we liked the idea of Cass being in prison and writing stories about his life, we added the prison situation in our play and Mikel getting a shock of what had happened before the story is shown in Mikel’s dream that’s why he gets shocked this is a technique which is called anecdote. We also had an idea of making the scene a 10 years later scene as we wanted to show the audience what happened after 10 years, for them to create questions like, are we stable? did me and Henry ever speak again? But we didn’t do it because people would’ve wanted to know what had happened between this time which would’ve made the whole situation very complicated and the plot twist idea was a much easier thing to create and more exciting as the audience would think that the story would end in a way they thought it would but it wouldn’t so it came across as a surprise which makes it more interesting for the audience.

We had two main characters me and Mikel, Mikel’s name was Abdullah and my name was Akram we picked these two names as they are traditional used names in Syria and Turkey so we wanted to make it as real as possible. We were both males we decided to choose being males because It would’ve been easier to play them as we are both males and playing women would’ve been harder to play as the we might’ve confused the audience, we never decided on how old we were as we never thought about it. Our background is very known to us and the audience as there is a scene at the beginning of the piece were we and Mikel mainly focused on, we wanted to get to know each other better so we start speaking to each other about our previous life in our native countries and why we came here, which was good for the audience because they knew more about the characters they also would’ve understood the play better. We also had one objective, the objective was we wanted to make the audience know that most of the refugees that come to England or places like Germany, have had a stable life back in there home country and all of them come to these countries as they are afraid for there life’s and seek help as they could be killed. We wanted to make this point as most people think that refugee’s are poor annoying people that just want to beg in the streets of London, but they are actually not they just don’t have the same resources they did have back in there native country.

I tried to base my character on someone who has lost everything in his life as he had lost his family and money but a person that would never give up fighting and would do his best to try get the best possible life he could get. I based my character on a film that I recently watched called The pianist, the story is about a Jewish pianist who lives in Poland, the Nazis had just invaded Poland, so the Jews eventually have to be put in concentration camps which leads the pianist to be separated from his whole family and live the rest of his war life scared and poor, he never sees his family again. I got inspiration from this movie as I could see the pain this man was suffering and I tried to put it in my actions which helped me as I could compare my character with the pianist as they were in some way alike and use the same expressions he was feeling and to put in my character.

At first we wanted to use accents with our characters as we wanted to make our scene look as real as possible but we tried it in rehearsal and it just didn’t work the flow was poor and we would laugh as we found it funny and we were wasting to much time trying to perfect the accents so we decided just to use our normal accents. Me and Mikel tried to make our scene as real as possible so we tried to act like the audience was not there, this technique worked as our piece flowed very nicely as we were not nervous or embarrassed. I used my voice in a simple way, not shouting or not too quiet I did it at a volume where everyone in the audience could hear me but my voice changed during the piece as Mikel wants to kill me because he thinks I have money, so my voice changed to scared and nervous and one of the ways I tried to make this part as real as possible was to actually create a question in my head of how would I act in this situation, which made it easier as I put that in the way I acted. My body language also changed during the play went on, I started of as being tired I showed this in body language by sitting on the floor and talking slowly, but when we start looking for food I get a burst of excitement as I have the thought that we might find some food plus I haven’t eaten for many days, the part where I get scared my body language completely changes I try and make myself shake so the audience instantly know I am afraid.

Hello the people of Milan,

I’ve made a big decision which may all upset you but it was for the better. This person is very close to our hearts but you must not be mistaken as he is a traitor, the news will definitely shock you but we had to do something about it as he did something evil something the people of Milan never deserve to hear about but as you are the people and this city needs you I will tell you, but do not be alarmed.

Prospero had been caught working with magic as we all know this is the devils work and can not be tolerated, he was caught on multiple occasions and would scream at me saying he was going to curse us all by contaminating the water. By the way he did, but luckily we caught him in the action so the water is fine now, thank God! When we caught him he tried to escape from us and ran like a cheetah catching its prey. Of course he didn’t get away as we have the most fierce army in the whole of Italy so we caught him and sent him to the prison of hell, where he was placed for two months. We call this prison the prison of hell as the prisoners are the worst of the worse, they are filled with diseases which makes the prison a plague full of nasty ill dirty scumbags and they are only allowed to eat nasty expired hard bread a day.

In addition to this after two months we interviewed him and he didn’t show remorse and he still said he would contaminate the water but worst of all he said he was gonna fill Milan with ghosts and nasty creatures so we could all be tortured till our death, therefore we exiled him and sent him to a island far away from anything on his own, we will never see him again and we should never speak of him or if you do you’ll be sent to the prison of hell and be sentenced without trial.

I’m going to end it there but let this be a lesson to all! and another thing is that I’m watching you all so be careful.

Shakespeare presents Caliban as a devil like person, he is regarded as a monster and is like a devil walking the earth. However we do find out that Prospero and Caliban have a friendly past and a better relationship than now, but what happened? By structuring the scene in this way, the audience wants to know why the relationship has broken and they begin to read on as they want questions answered. We do know one thing, that Prospero and Caliban were great friends when Prospero first came to the Island. Caliban was owner of the island as Caliban says ”This Islands Mine, by Sycorax my mother” which also indicates it was Calibans island. Furthermore Caliban betrays this relationship as he plots to hurt Prosperos daughter we do not know why, but in my opinion Caliban does this as he is angry and feels betrayed and reacts in anger making him do this because he feels like Prospero has stolen his island from him, which is very close to Calibans heart as it was his mothers.

I believe Prospero reacted in a way that any ordinary father would’ve reacted in, as every parent wants the best for there child and wants there child to be safe. So Prospero gave the worst punishment he could possibly think off to Caliban as he also tried to hurt something very close to Prosperos heart. I think Prospero went over the top with making Caliban a slave but he also might’ve reacted in this way as he knows what it feels like to be hurt as he was moved to the island by his evil brother and most likely does not want the same thing for Miranda and he also knows what being hurt feels like and does not want to suffer the pain again. If Caliban was such ‘GOOD’ friends with Prospero, than I think Prospero should’ve forgiven him by now. This structure enables Shakespeare to present this situation as unforgivable for Prospero which also backs up my point of Caliban hurting Prosperos heart by hurting something very dear to him for instance in this case Miranda.

Prospero and Miranda describe Caliban as a slave,who never yields us kind answer. They call him a slave as he does everything on the island, for example Prospero says ”he does make our fire, fetch in our wood and serves in offices that profit us” this quotation shows that he is a slave as he is doing all the dirty work like fetching wood or making the fire.

Prospero rely’s on Caliban to do the dirty work and slave work as he is described as a demi-devil and a slave, by being described in this way we know as an audience that Caliban has to everything which a normal human shouldn’t and should be treated nastier than the average human as well.

Prospero and Caliban were best friends when Prospero first arrived on the island, however during there friendship Caliban had other ideas and he wanted to hurt Miranda, and he also wanted to make Caliban babies to fill up the island, so Prospero felt betrayed and has not forgiven him. Prospero promises to punish Caliban by giving him cramps at night, stitches that hurt him so much he can barely breath and pinches that feel like a big yellow dangerous bee has stang him a million times.

Caliban claims that the island is his as it was his mothers before and claims that Prospero has tricked Caliban in the past. He was treated well when Prospero first came to the island as it says they were good friends, but Caliban broke this friendship as he wanted to attack Miranda and she cannot bear to look at him, so Prospero’s imprisons him due to this and makes him a slave.

There have been many adaptations on the Christmas Carol as it was a huge hit, it also changed many people’s lives as miser’s became guilty and decided to give more to charity furthermore charity incomes increased hugely since the book was released by Charles Dickens in 1843. This indicates that the book as well as being fantastic it was also a learning curve for many people and changed many people’s lives, no wonder it is still amongst us till this day.

If I were to create a modern day Christmas Carol it would be based in Chicago. I would pick Chicago as it has a very rich side full of skyscrapers and the outskirts is full of poor people which no one knows about. When a tourist thinks of Chicago they see the beautiful skyscrapers such as the Willis tower, and they instantly think its a very stable place with no poor people in sight. However when you reach the outskirts of Chicago such as South Side, is not known and ignored by everyone who’s powerful or rich in the stable part of Chicago. This side of Chicago is poor and has destroyed homes with no windows and some with no doors as well where children and single mothers are living, with this being the case gangs are starting to take over this part with a lot of violence taking place. Kids go hungry in this part of Chicago and being near shoots outs and gangs everyday influences them and gives them no choice but in being in a gang as they are not given the opportunity which other kids get.

The actor I would choose is Mark Wahlberg as he is a very famous actor and is also very entertaining, however in his early years he was arrested for many things and was also was part of a gang this represents in the book the part where Scrooge had a troubled childhood as well as Mark did so I feel like they would relate well and he would defiantly do a great job.

I read Liccle Bit which was written by Alex Wheatle, I believe this book to be an inspiration for the youths of today. It also shows an average life of a young teenager being brought up on a estate and the pressure of being in a gang and of fitting it also shows a side that if you do eventually get caught up in a gang their is consequences, that are death or ending up in prison.

The story is about a young teenager called Lemar his nickname is ‘Liccle Bit’ as he is the second shortest guy in his year group. Lemar falls in love with the hottest girl in the year but his two best friends never tire of telling him he has no chance with Venetia or any other girl. Things aren’t much better at home, his mum is permanently hassled, his sister a frustrated young single mother and a dad who moved out years ago. Lemar dreams of having an easy life and money to make his life better and to have better clothes and shoes or maybe even a new phone.

However with the urge of making money he leads himself into a troubled life, when Venetia starts paying Lemar attention, he hopes this is the chance to get with Venetia. However a new gang war has started with young people being killed every week in the area and Lemar finds himself doing something sinister which is not him. One of the gangs in the area takes an interest to Lemar, asks him to do jobs and in return will give him money, but when he hears about the killings on the estate, Lemar is forced to question himself and was it his fault?

Liccle Bit was a very good book as I could relate to the character in the book, as I live in an estate and have the pressure of being in a gang. It also taught me that being in a gang can cause depression as you may have done something you didn’t want to do. However at the beginning of the Liccle Bit I found it quite hard to engage with the book as I found it boring and not interesting but as I got to the 4th chapter things began to kick off, I would recommend this book to anyone as it is a good book and you could learn something from it.

The techniques for the distancing effect that he done was achieved by the way that the actor or performer would not seem to act as their was an audience or a wall surrounding them

The audience can no longer have the illusion of being the unseen spectator at an event which is really taking place” (Willett 91). The use of direct audience-address is one way of disrupting stage illusion and generating the distancing effect. In performance, as the performer “observes himself”, his objective is “to appear strange and even surprising to the audience. He achieves this by looking strangely at himself and his work. Whether Brecht intended the distancing effect to refer to the audience or to the actor or to both audience and actor is still controversial among teachers and scholars of “Epic Acting” and Brechtian theatre.

By disclosing and making obvious the manipulative contrivances and “fictive” qualities of the medium, the actors alienate the viewer from any passive acceptance and enjoyment of the play as mere “entertainment”. Instead, the viewer is forced into a critical, analytical frame of mind that serves to disabuse him or her of the notion that what he is watching is necessarily an inviolable, self-contained narrative. This effect of making the familiar strange serves a didactic function insofar as it teaches the viewer not to take the style and content for granted, since the medium itself is highly constructed and contingent upon many cultural and economic conditions.

It may be noted that Brecht’s use of distancing effects in order to prevent audience members from bathing themselves in empathetic emotions and to draw them into an attitude of critical judgment may lead to other reactions than intellectual coolness. Brecht’s popularization of the V-Effekt has come to dominate our understanding of its dynamics. But the particulars of a spectator’s psyche and of the tension aroused by a specific alienating device may actually increase emotional impact.^[8] Audience reactions are rarely uniform, and there are many diverse, sometimes unpredictable, responses that may be achieved through distancing.

Actors, directors, and playwrights may draw on alienating effects in creating a production. The playwright may describe them in the script’s stage directions, in effect requiring them in the staging of the work. A director may take a script that has not been written to alienate and introduce certain techniques, such as playing dialogue forward to remind the audience that there is no fourth wall, or guiding the cast to act “in quotation marks”. The actor (usually with the director’s permission) may play scenes with an ironic subtext. These techniques and many more are available for artists in different aspects of the show. For the playwright, reference to vaudeville or musical revues, will often allow rapid segues from empathy to a judgmental attitude through comic distancing. A very effective use of such estrangement in an English language script can be found in Brendan Behan‘s The Hostage.

Dickens uses a narrative voice to explain the characters whilst doing this he will explain the personality of the character he is talking about. Dickens also uses listing to talk about Scrooge in Extract A. The effect of listing is to emphasise what you are saying, it allows us the readers to have a view on what the author is trying to get across to us for example Dickens describes Scrooge as ‘ a squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous, old sinner! which indicates that the author wants us to know that Scrooge is a negative representation in the story which he has sinned countless of times.

Dickens language gives me the impression that everyone was afraid of him not only humans but also the blind man’s dog. An example that dickens gives to why everyone is scared of him is ‘no beggars implored him to bestow a trifle’ which suggests that the poor would stop everyone to ask for change but as soon as Scrooge walked by they didn’t stop him in the street to ask for some change, this is because they were afraid of Scrooges’ reaction or what he could do to them for asking. One more example of this effect is ‘no children asked him what it was o’clock’ this gives me the impression that even the children was scared to ask him such a simple question, these two quotes shows me that Scrooge is a very selfish man and he liked that people were afraid of him as they would just ask him for money and he just did not want to give any away.

However people knew he was rich and he could spare some change also demonstrating that Scrooge is a miser as he has a lot of money and is wealthy but tries to spend as little as possible so I wonder, what’s the point of being so rich and working so hard when you won’t be spending it on anything?