Ben's Marvellous Memories Made Through Acting

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 ...

Monday 12th of May Today for rehearsals I performed the scene where Mr Harvey gets interviewed by the cop about the drawing that Lindsey stole.  I enjoy this scene as I have to go from incredibly frantic and scared to calm and collected when the officer enters the space, all while keeping up the accent and ignoring Susie and the other dead girls.  Once I was no longer Mr Harvey, I became the cop for the other cast, which means I know all the lines for both characters which is quite helpful.   Tuesday 13th of May Because most people today were doing a Shakespeare workshop, I focused on working on my assignment this morning.  Then in the afternoon I helped move set pieces of the last show to the dance studio, which were large walls of wood, which we were thinking of using for Harvey and the Salmons house's.  As well as this, we brought in a large door frame that was plastered with paper, so we spent most of the afternoon removing it, while we brainstormed oth...

Tuesday 6th of May This morning we tried an exercise that helped us get into character, as we had to ignore the Susies as we walked around the room while they tried to get our attention, since in the script we cannot see Susie so if we look at her it ruins the immersion.  After this we did the Mat Tent scene, thinking of how to stage it and act it out, especially as Mr Harvey.  We also had a dollhouse added to our set for Mr Harvey's house which we could use to play around with while we weren't the main focus of what was happening on stage.   Wednesday 7th of May Since all of level 4 were off doing Jane Eyre today and tomorrow, it was quite difficult to do a lot of the scenes since we didn't have a chunk of the cast, so we ran scenes that only needed a select few people.  One of these scenes was the one that takes place after the interval, where Mr Harvey is starting to lose it, knowing that Lindsey has crucial evidence linking him to Susie's death.  This i...

Monday 28th of April This morning me and Keiran helped the class warm up by playing a game we learnt called flying sheep, which helped us all get energised as we would be spending this morning doing a readthrough of The Lovely Bones.  For this we read through to where Susie's grandmother is introduced, stopping after every scene to talk about how we think it could work and how we'd stage it, like the possibility of every character remaining on stage the whole play.  After this a small group of us spent the afternoon toying with the scene where Jack helps Harvey erect the tent, playing with the fact two scenes could be happening at the same time, just one in silence. Tuesday 29th of April Today we warmed up with a game of village as we didn’t want to get physical as it was incredibly warm.  We then split off into railway children and lovely bones where we thought about our characters living spaces, and how we would put them all together on stage, as we were running with th...