21 SEPTEMBER 2014 WAYS OF SEEING

That little bit of courage was enough for her to turn her life
around and feel like she was ready to face this world.
R.M. Drake
Start of the process
At the start of this week, we received our rst brief 'Ways of Seeing'. After that we got
given a stimulus, which was an image of a feather. Initially, when I rst saw the image of
the feather I was a bit disappointed and had no idea what we were going to do with it. My
initial thoughts were how can we possibly create something from this empty image. It
wasn't until I took some time to really look into the image, that I started to notice all the
little details. That's when I realised this stimulus has endless possibilities, there is no right
or wrong it is your own interpretation on what you see. From there as a company, we all
brain stormed ideas and words that came to mind when looking at this picture. We all
asked ourselves questions like, how does this make us feel? Most of us agreed that the
feather appeared lonely, which then lead us to isolation. What does it mean? We started
to think of different scenarios, to how the feather got to where it was. This then lead us to
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THE FIRST STEP
Credited: Google Images
21 SEPTEMBER 2014 WAYS OF SEEING
the question of where this image was taken. This process
was interesting to me because everyone's individual
thoughts always lead to another possibility or meaning.
After this, we combined lots of ideas and came up with
the four elements earth, wind, water and re. Im excited
about this process now because I think it has a really
strong starting point and I believe there is a lot of
potential for this to grow into something magical.

The next day, my company and I experienced our rst
leadership workshop with all the rst years at the Miskin
Theatre. I felt that for me, as the newest member of my
company it was great as I got to know everyone a lot
better including the other groups at the Miskin Theatre.
The rst group we had (the advanced group) went really
well and we got good feedback from them. However, I do
think that not all of the games were suitable for a rst
session. The rst game we decided to play was the 'I went to the shop' game, so they
could get to know each and every one of us better (the HND's). I noticed that most of
them got bored and agitated half way though. I believe that this was because there was a
lot of people and it seemed to take forever. Therefore I noticed that the energy and focus
dropped in the room. After that, as a company we all discussed and agreed that we
needed to try something different with the second group (the intermediates). In our
second leadership workshop, we played the same name game however, we switched it
up by adding in a few extra elements (for example a ball) And made the process faster.
This was really effective, the game got really intense which made everyone focused and
in tune with everything going on around them. From this I have learnt that different
techniques and different methods work better than others depending on the situation. It's
not what you're doing, it's how you do it. I've also learnt that getting to know the newest
members of The Miskin and letting them get to know you is really important because will
we be working together throughout the year I also think we can learn a lot from each
other's personalities.

As a group we were set specic challenges to complete and give evidence with either a
picture or video. This was called the 'Buddies challenge'. We went round the college
campus and completed a number of tasks as a group. I think for me this was really good
because it was about working together as a team and building that relationship with
everyone.

This week I experienced my rst text workshop. We were all given the same monologue
'The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui'. After we read it through a couple of times, we then got
into pairs and started to concentrate on emphasising certain words that stood out to us. It
was really interesting for me, I noticed that when you emphasis different words in the
same sentence, it can really change everything. Throughout this workshop I learnt that
the rst thing you should do after reading your script is to ask yourself, 1. What do you
know? 2. What do you think you know? 3. What you would like to know more of? This
really helped me get better understanding of the text.

I think that the Physical skills workshop was really fun. I really enjoyed improvising
different scenarios such as being at a festival and a surprise birthday party. This helped
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Games and Exercises
1. I went to the shop
(Remembering names)
2. The beat game (rhythm)
3. Flying Birds (letting go)
4. OI, TAKE IT, NO
5. Cat and Mouse
6. Wink Murder
21 SEPTEMBER 2014 WAYS OF SEEING
me relax and feel more comfortable with my company. I also realised how important it is
to always say yes to others around you in an improvisation. You have to imagine your
surroundings but in a way that there is room for change. It's about working as a company
and listening to one another.

The singing workshop was a new experience for me as I have never sang before or had
a kind of training in that subject. We started off with a humming exercise to warm up our
voices. I found this task hard as I quickly lost focus because I didn't understand exactly
what was being asked of me. We then went on to sing 'I dreamed a dream' in groups. I
believe that I tried my best but I know that I have a lot of work to do.

My rst dance workshop was amazing. I feel that we really got pushed to our limit. I really
enjoyed the warm up, even though we were dripping in sweat. It made me feel like I was
making a difference and improving my bodies tness and exibility. When I was
stretching my leg in the air and pulling it back towards me whilst laying on the oor, I
experienced lots of shaking throughout my body. I learnt that this meant that you was
working yourself to your maximum ability and that this is when you know you are doing
the movement right. Overall, I did nd this workshop very challenging but I believe it was
very benecial for me because being t, staying exible and keeping active is really
important as an actor.


At the end of this week, we discussed Shakespeare plays and audition prep with Denise.
As a company we all sat down and one by one we all gave our opinions on what kind of
Shakespeare characters would be suitable for us as individuals. I found this really helpful
for me, as I don't particularly know and fully understand all of Shakespeare's work.
Having a second opinion but also the ideas from the other company members was also
really good. The feedback that I got from my company was something 'mysterious' or
'dark' that's what they thought would suit me as a character. I think this is interesting
because we are only 2 weeks into the process but yet their opinions are somewhat
accurate, I like a challenge and I like taking on mysterious roles. Therefore I will be
looking at Desdemona in Othello and also Cornell in King Leila.

I have really progressed this week within The Miskin Theatre because I feel that I am
slowly coming out of my shell and feeling more comfortable and condent within myself
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Credited: Google Images
21 SEPTEMBER 2014 WAYS OF SEEING
and with my other company members. I believe this is from doing many different
workshops and games with each other.

As an individual artist, I think this week has been a really important week for me, as I
have just started to get to know everyone including the actors and the directors. I have
also experienced a lot of new activities this week, including a vocal singing workshop and
focus games. These are both new skills that I am now going to be developing. I am really
excited and looking forward to developing these skills because the more skills you have I
think, means more opportunities and wider casting opportunities.

As an active company member I have started to observe everyone's individual strengths
and weakness within the company. I am getting to know my company members better
everyday by interacting in workshops and with them on a one to one basis. For example,
I am starting to get to know people's personality from doing all the different workshops, I
have realised that everyone has their own strengths and their own weaknesses. This was
very important for me because as the newest member I did have doubts and worries that
I would not t in or be accepted. However, this is not the case everyone in my company
has been so welcoming and friendly. I am now really starting to feel apart of the team.

This week I think that my strengths were, my physical and mental ability to push myself in
the dance workshop. Although it was painful at times I never gave up, this is because I
know that to better yourself and your skills you have to work hard, there is no easy way of
achieving success. Another strength that I noticed within myself this week was simply just
putting myself out there, and being open to trying new things. I can admit that 80% of
actives and tasks we did this week are all completely new experiences and things I have
never done before. Therefore, to me this is a strength because I am out of my comfort
zone. My weaknesses this week, I noticed were that I was slightly reserved and quiet
when doing the leadership workshops and towards others Miskin company members. I
think this was because I didn't know any of the games or activity that we were playing. I
really wanted to be apart of leading the workshops but I just wasn't condent enough
within myself to do it. You can't be a leader if you don't know what you are doing so that is
something that I really need to work on and get to know better.

Throughout the rest of the process, I think what really stands out to me and what I need
to work on is my leadership skills, my condence, my interaction with others and my
singing. These are all achievable targets, I just need to believe in myself more and focus
as well as understand what it is that I'm doing.

This week my other company members have really inspired me to just go for it. Whatever
it is, as long as you try your best that's all that matters. From watching them I have
noticed that as HND's we need to set the standard.

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