Sypnosis of 'My Mother Said I never Should'

The play depicts four generations of women through the changing times of post war. It is about women and womanly relationships. It gives an insight in to the changing roles of women and their individual personalities and how they relate to one another. Though they are each connected by family resemblances each character reflects their own individual hopes and expectations and it is a play about how women relate to men and also at different times, to be a wife and a mother.

Our first scene set in a wasteland background whereby Rosie and I as Doris are play acting doctors and nurses conjuring up ways to threaten and kill their mums with notions of ritualistic spells.

I feel the dialogue is not as clear and straightforward as the revelance of the phsycological tensions between each character is predominates.
Each character reflects their own personality, Margaret always appears anxious and unsure, always trying to maintain her position and authority yet exposing a long suffering woman who is caught in the middle and feeling the ongoing strain. Doris appears as if she knows best, slightly detached and yet caught up in tradition (as older Doris), as younger Doris looking up to Rosie as if she knows what she is talking about and shy in her conviction at that age. Rosie always complicit, and Jackie underneath the surface wild, defiant and experimental as well as being independent. It is a play about possessions, lost and found through time.

The four women play together as girls. Doris and her daughter Margared prepare for an air raid in 1940. Jackie visits her grandmother Doris at 61, and Jackie starts to rebels against her mother Margaret. Margaret then has a miscarriage. Jackie has an illegitimate baby Rosie,and her mother Margaret takes her away to bring her up as her own.

Scene 3 -

Our characters appear as children, Rosie waits for Doris in a wasteland playground playing with stones. Rosie dramatises the context of 'Curse' implying that their mum may have her period or some spell. Doris doesn't have an understanding of what 'the curse' is so they seem both carried away with their imaginations to conclude their individual meaning. Then follows a doctor's and nurses scene whereby they take it in turn to lie down while the other plays a male doctor examining a woman. Doris is cuatious of ther mum's insight so clams up and says 'she say's she can see inside my head.' Lastly they finish the scene going through the process of childbirth.

It seems as if the scenes are set in environments which restrain the spontaneity of emotions. The tensions between the characters are felt as they are not sitting in secure places, they are in an open wasteland for this scene. The dialogue leaves you feeling uncertain and up in the air about things without any sense of conclusion.

Scene 4 -

Margaret tries her best to challenge her daughter Jackie who has had sex for the first time. Margaret's attempts to try and make Jackie see the truth in her eyes of the situation anbd how and what is she going to tell her dad this news. Jackie retaliates with anger and feels defensive towards her mother's insistence. Her mum implies that Jackie had no reason not to wait until she was older to have a baby and that she was putting her life on hold and not continuing with her education.

Scene 5 -

I as Doris arrange a rug on the ground for a picnic and I call for Jack over the sound of the lawnmower. I go back in the house to get the tea tray. Jackie and Margaret sit down for tea and Jackie states that Grandad let her use his real paint. Margaret has had a break and been away in the lake district. Doris reminds Margaret to take her iron tablets. Margaret feels alienated and knowing she has had a miscarriage.
Doris and Jackie are warm towards one another. Jackie finds Margaret's old doll and Jackie thinks that her mum assumes she has broken the doll as she spends time putting the doll to bed. Doris understands Margaret's distress and attempts to hold Jackie but Jackie runs away and Doris' frustration with Margaret prevails stating that if she hadn't be so hasty to get a temping job she would never have lost the baby.

Scene six -

The scene is set in a concrete council flat in which Jackie tries to quieten her own baby Rosie who has kept her awake all night. Rosie dressed in her all in one suits aged eight doesn't enter the scene but stands at the back of the scene. Jackie starts to put away the baby clothes in to the bags. Margaret walks in eager to take the baby whilst ken is waiting in the car but the tensions rise between Jackie and her mother as unexpressed emotion and a competitive tension underlies whom wants to hold the baby. Jackie makes it clear to her mother that she had an agreement to bring up her daughter and that Jackie's dad supported her in her decision. Jackie states she is keen to pursue her education through Art school. Margaret tells Jackie the importance of Rosie knowing that she is her sister but only to be told that at the right time and when she is sixteen. Jackie still feels her mother has unrealistic expectations of her and she suggests Jackie stays with Doris and Jack until Christmas time. Jackie feeling the tensions between her and her mother feels upset for both of them, whilst Margaret leaves with the baby and Jackie is left crying whilst observing her baby's clothes.

Summary -

It felt as if the aim of our play was to forge our own individual traits of our character in accordance to the dynamics of the family. I would say that in all three scenes there is a feeling of suppression of emotions together with feelings of duty, responsibility and social issues. Margaret who is ever enduring patience and tolerant at times trying to keep an equilibrium between her daughter and Margaret's mother. The visual aesthetics were prominant in the believability of the play and created an exposure of uncertainty and unpredictability between the family as a whole due to the chosen scenes: wasteground, garden scene, and council flat.

Evaluation of Performance

Prior to when the show started I felt the main theme of each character managed to feel at ease with themselves. When we were sitting at our tables I felt the the guests weren't sure entirely why we were sitting there. It felt that although the guests were having a meal etc there was an element of excitement between us at one table, stags and hens and the other table, my mother said I never should. It was having an awareness of them (the guests) and respecting their space. This might have had something about the fact that we were all sitting in a line behind our tables . Despite the fact that we were not eating I felt the guests who were sitting closest to our tables felt slightly uncomfortable as to where we were sitting regardless of the fact that we were in our characters.

If the restaurant had been bigger we could have intergrated more with the guests more and they would have felt more at ease as to why we were there. Our intention was to communicate to each other in character which we maintained.

The first performance, 'Bouncers' came across in a very realistic way and were really energised in their role. Luke really projected his voice well and let himself go in the role. There was a real sense of unity and clear communication between the four of them. At times I couldn't always hear Jack but I felt he made a really good attempt. I thought they did so well and the humour really came across and the dynamics between them. The play envoked wit and humour and at first when the four actors Matt, Luke, Ben and Jack came on to stage there was a comedy light hearted feel to their performance. They were playing the role of four bouncers in a nightclub and revealing cross gender roles. It reflected an example of a group of men from working class backgrounds in a nightclub setting portraying an insight in to an example of society which can be seen as a disposable one highlighting broken up relationships and how easy it is to replace the person with someone else very quickly. I didn't feel the roles of the actors showed any real depth of character as I didn't feel this was the aim of the play or the roles, but I did feel Luke's vulnerability shone through his outwardly appearance. The aim of the play was to reveal different stages of drunkeness and considering they were not in a real club or bar setting the target was their voice and how they manoevered and how they communicated their body language to the audience.

Shakers, took their role seriously as waitresses and waiters in the shakers bar setting. It was humorous, informative, quirky and each character was very individual. There was a bond between them and the dialogue was kept interesting as they had no props so they had the challenge of having to keep up the expectation of their character in role throughout. I felt each female character was intricately portrayed giving a real insight in to each one revealing their differences. Initially, I felt Sapphire's role showed a very distinctive character but then equally Lola and the quirkiness of Sophie's character really shone through and the fact that they all managed to maintain their character throughout was quite an achievement. Each actress very much showed their own individual style and appeared confident in their outward appearances. I felt the play was cleverly written showing a variety of gender roles and how they complemented one another. The play was an insight in to a working class background in which they highlighted men who had taken them for granted or worse, loneliness and isolation, alienation and social prejudices as well as economic that have had some degree of effects on all of them. I felt the actresses came to life even more as the play moved on and particularly when they were getting ready for a night out on the town.

We didn't see stags and hens performance as we were waiting to come on stage afterwards.

I feel the characters in the performances that I was able to see really kept in character throughout including my fellow performers in 'My mother said I never should' and I really enjoyed participating in the performance and look forward to our next challenge. Furthermore, although I felt the complexity of the play of 'My mother said I never should' I was concerned that the play may not be tangible to us as the performers but also to the audience as well. The scenes were fairly short so it was our challenge to intergrate a multitude of cross meaning and depth. Out of all the plays I felt ours was the most challenging as it highlighted changing roles of women and how they view themselves and also if we had performed the entire play I believe it may have made more tangible sense to the audience. I felt pleased with my performance and could have improved on my role to further expand my character by having more self belief.

All four generations on stage as children, talking across the time periods but quite naturally. Innocently as a child of five.
Bend down when I say will she die?
Exciteable and innocent. Rosie is more dominant who has all the answers. I run in after Rosie has sat down and fiddled with her sweet wrappers.
I bend down when I say ' Will she die?'. My character is light spirited and inquisitive.

Doris in Scene three
'That's my husband's fault, you can't trust him'
'Oh he's upped and gone'
My manner is jovial as if I have heard a person saying it .

Using Brechtian techniques-
In context to the play - speaking to the audience, label on me 'Doris' age 5.
Location on screen, year and noise effects if needed.
Reminding audience we are doing a play always on stage.
Sidelines, preparing to put on a wig, use of props in a little pile next to us of what we need.

In our lesson with Shanaz we worked on little gestures.
I wrote down through the script when I lie down and when I get up and my gestures.
Conclusion - It has helped working with Shanaz as she has helped to explain appropriate gestures and mannerisms.
The play will become more 'real' and the audience will be able to identify with the characters as it will be interactive.

Targets

Self awareness, letting go. Self conciousness. Merge notes with my workbook. Lose my inhibitions.

Constraints-
Where have the limitations been in the rehearsal process?
List the hooks and why?

The hooks in our play in which I was performing were when Rosie says in her line in Scene three, 'She might turn into something.' This was a hook for me to draw nearer to her and say, 'Will she die?'. I was anticipating the shock that what I was hearing might end in her dying.
Rosie says to me, 'I'll have to feel it', and I jump up and push her arm away as I reply, 'Dont touch'.
Together we both say, 'Doctors and nurses!' and then I say, 'Bags be nurse!' and I lay down in the centre of the stage as if on a hospital bed and my reply is, 'All right. I'll be patient and you be doctor and then it's my turn.'
In scene five, my line is' 'The rug will do quite nicely for me, and I sit down on the rug and say to Margaret, 'Sit down and have some tea.'

Lastly in the end of scene five, feeling irritated towards Margaret i snatch the painting from her and say, 'That's for Jack. He wanted something form his grandchild.'

The limitations were the technical hiccups, and not enough time to rehearse with the props.

Further Targets -

To remain in character
Conscious of others in our play
If lines are forgotten to still be able to keep the momentum up and carry on dialogue
Timing
Projecting the voice
Knowing the lines precisely
Make the character believable and real
Respect fellow performers
For student participation, enthusiasm and attendance to improve.

Feedback from Shanaz during lesson rehearsal

In an irritated and angry manner almost malicious, 'That's for Jack, he wanted something from his grandchild'

Doris aged 61 as I come in to the scene I call out 'Jack', pause, awaiting for a response, then impatiently ranting around the chair whilst calling out 'Jack' again, 'Are you coming to have some tea with Ken and Margaret'. Accentuate the 'My' in the lily of the valley sentence. Well you'd better do round the front, target to where I think Jack is, ' I don't want grass clippings in my tea'

-Aims and Targets-

How can you feel or tell the difference between my ages?
Don't let my voice get too quiet.
Push! - Accentuate the Push, not too quiet.
Know where my positioning is otherwise I am at a loss as to where I should be.
My voice gets stuck in the higher realms.
Work out the meaning behind the words if you can.

A night in the 80's performance evening

The evening began with us in the restaurant in which we had to be in character. I noticed once we sat down at our tables; my mother said I never should sitting at one table and stags and hens at the other table. We began to interact with one another and it worked well. My character was Doris aged 61 and I was implying that stags and hens were being too loud in a humorous manner as we had our young Rosie with us and that they needed to be aware of that. Also I noticed a few of the guests who were in couples looked slightly uncomfortable where they were sitting as I dont know if they knew our reason or purpose for sitting where we were.

I think if it had been a larger restaurant it would have been better to have interacted although I dont think it needed any more character's walking around than there were that evening.
I feel if the guests had been given a programme describing what they were attending and the character's and the evening's line up this may have made more sense.

I felt the evening went really well. Our play was at the end of the evening. In Scene three with Kat and I, it felt as if we really in character and the dynamic between us flowed really well. I was focusing my attention to the details of being Doris age 5 and aware of the physicality, I played with my hair and i felt more fidgety and restless. In my speaking line, 'Truly? Let's go and look', I jumped up on to my feet and was exciteable.
In Scene five I felt I managed to project my voice well over the sound of the lawnmower and hopefully my sense of irritation and impatience towards Jack came across too.
Doris in this scene felt serious in my character,concientious and caring. At the end of the scene Doris displayed her feelings of anger towards Margaret as she had been hasty to get a temping job and consequently had lost the baby. Doris snatched the painting from Margaret implying the importance and relevance of the fact that the painting was for Jack and that he wanted something from his grandchild.
In scene six i was sitting in my chair on the side whilst Bobbie, Michelle and Kat were in the scene.
Despite my concern about my nerves in performance I managed to recite my lines and was pleased that I did it which gave me confidence.

The intention of performing our plays were to introduce an insight in to the period of the 1980's, showing examples of social behaviour, class distinction, social conditioning, social poverty and trends of the time, together with gender and social issues, behaviour and psycholigical patterns of behaviour. Firstly we introduced 'Bouncer's and 'Shaker's in the restaurant environment followed by 'stags and hen's' and 'my mother said i never should' in the theatre.

Dress rehearsal

We rehearsed on the day using props, sound and lighting. We had to place our chairs in position in which we would be lit. I realised we had to communicate well between the four of us as we had to work out who where the props would be laid on the floor and delegate who was going to take the props away in between scenes.
Considering this was the actual rehearsal using sound and lighting we did well. We managed to rehearse scene three, four and five. The challenge was after the garden scene in scene 5 to take away the props quietly and promptly so that the next scene could begin.
It felt good to be in our costumes as the character's came to life, our hair and make up also contributed to feeling more complete and in keeping with the character.
Obviously if the technical side of things had be possible earlier in rehearsals this would have made everyone feel more confident in their ability to perform.

States of Tension using your body and physicality. The meaning behind the words that lie under the surface, i.e. 'I did tell Jackie', and the tension in Scene 5, 'Mother'
If it isn't right in the actual speech it isn't going to be convincing.
Learning the dialogue - intricately linked you have got to listen to what is being said.

Hold on to Jackie with my arm to her arm 'Jackie'. At the point she says, 'I didn't break her', i go to hold her and comfort her then I say 'ssh', and Jackie breaks free.
I then get up to say to Margared angrily, 'If you hadn't been so hasty. . ' 'That's for Jack....'
My tone and meaning is motherley and comforting towards Jackie when I state 'Jackie'

I am beginning to imagine the scenes and how it feels to be in them instead of just speaking our lines through.

One of the challenges is to get the feeling of the connection between the four of us as well as continuity. I hope we can achieve this. I am sure we will.

Although initially i felt it was quite a complex play I think we can bring out the playfulness within it and make it fun. I am aware that I need to feel relaxed with Doris age 5 and 61, and having observed the habits and characteristics of those ages I feel more able to adapt them to Doris and carry it through to performance.

Jill showed us a film that was in Berkhovian style, and I made notes on the following -

Physicality -

Use hands and bodies to demonstrate what they are saying. Not naturalistic acting, not a direct interpretation of acting.

People at the back are the'chorus' adding to the main piece. They went out, had a fight and now they are talking about it. It's very stylised, physical theatre. A stylistic way of acting. The guys use different eye levels. They were using narrative in their dialogue. Plays looks at life and those characters in them. Exaggerated facial expressions, eyes always have a very distinct focus.

Task -

Go over a scene and adopt a Berkovian style - Steven Berkhov is a very distinct style of theatre. Brecht wants aduience to believe they are in the theatre. Berkhov uses alienation as if the audience aren't in the theatre.

Berkhov in our scene, chorus commencing at the back, stylised gestures that are big and exaggerated.

I have been reciting my lines over half term and when I am not thinking too much I remember them!!

I think once we are in our chosen dresses etc in our rehearsals it will start to feel more real and therefore likely to be able to get more absorbed in to our chosen character's.

I am hoping that I will be able to feel relaxed in my character once I am confident with my lines.

I feel quite excited by the challenge and I would say the only thing I feel I am not quite so confident about is the physicality of 'Doris' particularly when she is aged 61 in Scene 5 and that is what I still need to work on.

11February 2010 -

Michele and I concentrated on power point today as we were not all present to rehearse our play so we went to the library and came up with some visuals for the wasteland in scene one. We managed to find a garden scene and a picture of the family home that we felt resembled the feeling of the house in the play together with an opening picture of a photograph depicting 'My mother said I never should'.

We were planning on timing our lines but there wasn't time today. We are going off timetable for the next two weeks in order that we can focus on our dress rehearsals completely. Over the half term I am going to focus on reciting my lines.

Peer Observation worksheet - 8.2.2010

Feedback from fellow students -

My vocal when I was a child in the first scene was kept well and consistent all the way through. It was suggested that I should soften the tone of my voice when I say, 'Push, its like doing a big poo'.

I dont need to shout but instead project my voice but also soften it.

Re: Positioning of our characters
To lie down more central to the stage instead of at the back.

Re: Characterisation
During scene 5 there is no need to shout although my intention of doing that was initially that I was aware I had to shout over the sound of a lawnmower in order to be heard.

2.2.2010

Absent in this session due to my daughter's ill health.

1.2.2010

Absent in this session due to my daughter's ill health.

Watching our plays during our lesson - 8.2.2010

We watched our plays during our lesson today with the intention of rehearsing afterwards which we didnt have time to do.
My feedback from Shanaz and fellow students:
1) To learn my lines
2) To not wear a hat
3) I was shouting in scene 1 when I say' 'Push! It's like doing a big poo. Then the babby popps out.'
4) I had my hand over the front of my face when I was calling for 'Jack' over the sound of the lawnmower.
5) I had managed to keep my character well aged 5 years.
6) In scene one I was shrieking a bit when I was trying to access a young voice.

Rehearsing our play - 28. 1. 2010

We talked about the script and what our parts were, I have watched various clips on you tube.

I am pleased with our play as I feel it is multi dimensional and a challenge with the regard to the character I am playing 'Doris'. I am keen to learn how to switch ages from adult to a child.

Characters-

mother daughter relationship

four generations - Doris, Great grandmother

Margaret- Doris daughter

A wasteland when they are girls and they all meet up. When I am a child I am the youngest child. I go from a 61 year old to a 5 year old.

in the first scene the children are inquisitive. Margaret is mother of Jackie. Jackie has given birth to Rosie (due to limited funds to bring Rosie up)

Jackie gives up the baby to Margaret and Margaret brings Rosie up as her own until she is sixteen. Doris is Margaret's mother.

Really make scenes clear to the audience to help with our differentating ages.

We concentrated on blocking today and I was getting more in to the feel of the 'child like' character 'Doris'. This was the first time I really felt I let myself go and let my inhibitions go. 'Doris' aged 5 years came more easily to me than 'Doris' aged 61 years and I realise I need to work on more observation of age study and characteristics of someone of that age.

I think of the character 'Doris' as quite upright and correct in her manner with clear clarity of diction and middle class.
I am also aware I need to focus clearly on who I am directing my attention to when we are sitting in the garden scene five. 'Doris', 'Margaret' and 'Jackie' are present in scene 5.

Rehearsing our play 4 February 2010

4 February 2010

We rehearsed our play while Sarah our musical theatre tutor gave us feedback which was really helpful.

The feedback she gave me was she felt I had clarity in my voice, that it was clear and well projected.

As Bobbie was not here today Sarah suggested that I took the role of 'Margaret' to stand in for Bobbie and whilst doing so sit on the sides.

My challenges are that I need to fully engage with my role once I have learned my lines.

We have managed to read through our play together and work out where we are positioned on stage and concentrate on 'blocking'.

The first challenge was to work out who the characters were in the play and who they were related to.

We have had thoughts on whether to introduce the style of Brecht to our performance as this would enable the audience to feel more directed and give them the opportunity to be well informed by the use of this style in our performance.

We felt it may be challenging for the audience to completely engage in the performance alone without the use of Brechtian techniques.

A beat - is a pause or a cough

A beat is when you have a pause you change and it occurs in the way you are talking - realisation is a different interpretation.

A beat - cough - Put in the beats where you think they occur.

My mother said I never should Discussion

We were given our plays and Bobbie, Michelle and Kat and myself were given 'My mother said I never should' written by Charlotte Keatley. I have been given the role of 'Doris'.

We had the task of reading through our plays.

Primarily in Scene one Doris is aged 5 years then in scene five Doris is aged 61 years.