Ben's Marvellous Memories Made Through Acting

This show marks the end of my journey of my second year at Stockton Riverside College, and I believe that it really has shown how much I have grown as an actor over my two years at this college, with Mr Harvey being my most challenging role I've taken on.  Every role I have performed at this college has given me a unique opportunity, stretching me in all sorts of different ways, and ending on such a interesting character truly encapsulates my journey.  During the rehearsal process, I spent it trying to get into the headspace of Mr Harvey, as obviously he is a character I share no similarities with, so the research I did for this character really helped me bring him to life.   For this performance, I had a few goals I wanted to achieve by the end of it, the main one being to successfully portray the pure remorseless and sadistic nature of Mr Harvey, really creeping out the audience with how I acted him out.  For this I really put thought into every action I did o...

I confirm that the attached portfolio is all my own work* and that any work created by anyone other than myself, including AI-generated content, has been appropriately referenced. When we were given the choices to choose what we were doing for our production role, I immediately jumped at the opportunity to create the program for our show, since it was something I hadn't done before and I wanted to challenge myself, with Connor also wanting to help alongside me.  For this project, me and Connor have used the website Canva to put it together, organising which characters went where in the programme.  Originally, we planned on having the Salmon family all on one page for each cast, however quickly realised there was not enough space to hold them all.  Firstly for the programme, we needed headshots of each member of the cast, so we worked closely with Kane to organise a time to get them done, choosing the Thursday as there wasn't really a day we could spare, so chose then to g...

I confirm that the attached portfolio is all my own work* and that any work created by anyone other than myself, including AI-generated content, has been appropriately referenced.   Character Breakdown: Character relationships: General research to enhance the character of Harvey: When researching for the character of Mr Harvey to make my performance of him more realistic, I watched Stanley Tucci’s performance in the film adaptation of “The Lovely Bones”.  While the stage show is quite different to the film, Mr Harvey remains quite the same between both adaptations.  Stanley Tucci plays up his creepy side, especially in the bunker scene, which is helped by the up-close camera angles and the cramped feeling that the shots give the viewer.  So I wasn’t just copying off how Stanley played him, I also looked into other serial killers, most notably Jeffery Dahmer, to see how they acted, seeing if I could draw parallels between him and Harvey.  I watched the Netflix sh...

I confirm that the attached portfolio is all my own work* and that any work created by anyone other than myself, including AI-generated content, has been appropriately referenced. Name Ben Spruce Pathway Performing and Production Arts – Acting for Stage & Screen. Project title The Lovely Bones Section 1: Rationale  Running upto the end of my time on this course, these two years have given me many opportunities that have helped me truly grow and change as an actor.   Each of these opportunities has challenged me in different ways, from thinking on the spot with the Ghostlight Tours, to stretching myself emotionally with roles like Adam.   Before I began this course I never thought I was capable of such things as an actor, which is why I want to stretch myself further by staying on the level 4 course.   Finally, I believe playing a role like Mr Harvey will rea...

  I confirm that the attached portfolio is all my own work* and that any work created by anyone other than myself, including AI-generated content, has been appropriately referenced. TASK 1A: Check Blogger post titled: PROJECT PROPOSAL. TASK 1B: Check Blogger Posts “Week Commencing 1st of April” until "Week Commencing 19th of May" TASK 2: Lovely Bones Audition: Check Blog Post Week Commencing 1st of April As well for the auditions, I answered these questions to help further understand the character I was auditioning for. 1. What were your initial thoughts on the script that you have chosen?   To begin with I was quite doubtful of the choice to perform lovely bones as I found it a very interesting kind of script due to the nature and themes involved within it, however, once I fully read it and analysed the characters, I found myself incredibly excited for the chance to perform it.  Furthermore, I am interested to see how we stage the show, as reading through the script ...

Monday 19th of May In todays lesson, we did a run through of cast 2, which obviously I was a police officer in.  This meant that I wasn't in it much, so most of the day I was learning lines in the corner.  Due to this, I feel quite confident in saying I believe I'm completely off script for Act 1, so hopefully we do my cast tomorrow. Tuesday 20th of May Today we did a run through of Lovely Bones where I was Mr Harvey, and I think it went incredibly smoothly, especially since I'm off script for the first act, I feel I'm in a great position for the show as I mostly know act two as well.  I also got to do my death scene for the first time which is quite fun and can't wait for the whole thing to be put on the main stage. Wednesday 21st of May Today we focussed on running scenes that people were struggling with.  One of these scenes was the mat tent scene, which has always been a scene I’d struggled with.  We changed this scene as for when Harvey, Jack and Susie all ...