Mrs. Alexander Scene 8

Mrs. Alexander Scene 8

During our lesson with Shaun on Tuesday, Dan and I worked on our first scene where Christopher first talks to Mrs. Alexander. We wanted to work on this scene to discover better ways of introducing Mrs. Alexander and her relationship with Christopher. We started off by showing him what we had already done but we realized in order to make this scene more believable we both had to have a background story, for example Christopher is coming over to ask questions about the death of Mrs. Shears dog, Wellington. Whereas I did not have one, which for me, looking back on it made it harder to relate to the scene as I didn’t know what I was doing as my character before Christopher enters. I decided to be playing with my dog in my front garden, which I believe was her normal day to day life, as soon as Christopher enters, the order of her day has been displaced but she is happy that someone is talking to her no matter what the convocation is about as I feel she gets rather lonely. Christopher’s questions are quick and fast about the death of Wellington, but when he finishes his questions she immediately tries to create another convocation starting with her grandson (whom I am guessing she does not see a lot, because she forgets how old he is). She is taken back by the fact that Christopher answers back and in some way she is drawn to him as he is around the same age as her grandson. I feel she wants to connect with him better so she finds things that they have in common, that they both like and have pets, they both drink squash and like biscuits. She wastes no time asking him “Do you want to come in for tea?” (p.19), but when his reaction is “No”, she completely understands and finds a better way of making him stay with her by telling him “Well maybe I could bring some tea out here. Do you like lemon squash?” (p.20), she almost seems to be making such a huge effort for him to stay by trying to cater to his every need. She is shocked by the fact that he doesn’t know what Battenberg is, because its probably her favorite but is fascinated by the way he describes it in such an interesting way, I think she then realizes that this young boy is very intelligent.  

Next I shall be analyzing scene 11, where Mrs. Alexander tells Christopher about the affaire. 

My individual challenges for this project

My individual challenges for this project:

One thing I found challenging at the start was having to play multiple characters I have done this in the past but not to the same extent as in this performance my main character Rodger doesn’t appear till the second part of the play and before then I play a variety of very different characters. I normally like to go into a lot of detail into my characters (backstory, intentions, and relationships) but with some of my characters only having one line or no information I had to go another root to make them stand out using gestures and different types of characterization like animalistic’s  gestus and work on my vocal skills to make my characters unique from each other and stand out to the audience. After working on each character I have managed to develop them into their own unique parts. Now looking at playing multiple characters I can see that it has given me lots of freedom to try out different acting techniques and work on completely different characters and what was a problem has now become a positive allowing me to make characters that can stand out even with only small cameos before going into my main character Rodger.

Another challenge I found was ensemble chorus work.  I have done ensemble chorus work in previous performances but were as before I was leading the chorus now I am part of it and there is no one leading it. I have found this difficult as I am involved heavily and that meant there was loads of ques to remember and as we developed the movement people where still learning lines and missing out que words which made it hard to learn the blocking. The main difficulty I found was getting my movement exactly the same as everyone else’s and at the same time if this is not done it looked sloppy and didn’t add anything to the performance. The chorus work is hugely important to improving the scenes and has to be spot on. One difficulty was swapping from chairs that we were using in lots of the blocking work to blocks which were larger and needed two people to carry this meant we needed to re work lots of our blocking and find ways round certain problems like switching positions quickly, stomping on the floor but the best way I found to sorting this out was just to keep going over it which was another problem as we needed everyone to do these scenes so practicing was hard as we had to get everyone involved and available at the same time.

My view of what the main themes are in our play:

 

My view of what the main themes are in our play:

I feel the main theme in the play is the battle for independence and this is shown mainly through Christopher. I feel that as he is experiencing what most teenagers do the need for freedom and independence and this is clearly shown through his relationship with his farther Ed as the play develops he continuously ignores Ed’s orders and runs off on his own. This theme greatly influences the change and development of Christopher through the play and I feel is the main and most important theme as it is looked into in almost every scene. At the start of the play he can’t handle difficult situations often breaking down and trying to block out his problems (curling into a ball and moaning) he eventually with guidance from Siobhan manages to get to London by himself and take his maths A levels showing that he has become a much more independent person. I feel the play revolves heavily around Christopher so his development is the key to the whole play making this theme in my view the most important.

Another key theme in my view is: Loss as every main character in the play has suffered some kind of personal loss (Christopher has lost his mother and the dog wellington) (Ed has lost his wife through her affair) (Judy had lost Christopher) these losses have a huge impact in the development of the story and shape the whole play. These losses from before the play is set are the main turning points of the play when they are uncovered and as Christopher goes through the play investigating he discovers all these past losses and sets in motions the key events of the play. Looking into this theme also helped me a lot with the development of my character Rodger as he is linked into the losses of all the main characters this helped me develop how my character would react with the events and other characters in the play.

One site that helped me understand the themes of the play is http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/the-curious-incident-of-the-dog-in-the-night-time/themes.html hope this helps you all.

My Experience of The Curious Incident of The Dog In The Night-Time

When I first learned that for our first drama performance we would be studying "The Curious Incident...Dog In The Night-time" I initially thought it sounds dull but my opinion changed when I started to read the book play version. The novel was a best seller and because of the huge success it was adapted into a script and performed in the West End. When I read the scripted version of the book I thought it very interesting, I enjoyed it and I completely changed my views on the book. I felt amazed and proud that we were performing this and I couldn't wait to get started.

The Themes  
The themes I gathered in the play were Curiosity, Tragedy, Love, Hate, Independence and Ambitious.

I say these are the themes in the play because even though it's in the title a curious incident did take place but also to find out the way the dog had died is a tragedy. To find a garden fork stabbed inside of a dog is not only sick but also unnatural. Love and Hate varied throughout the story, I say the main themes is independence and ambitious. The character Christopher found himself to be independent when he went to carry out an investigation of the dog all by himself. Ambitious because finding out who killed the dog Wellington was his goal and he had nothing else on his mind until he achieves that goal.

I think the play was structured very creatively. I say this because the story is very strange and full of surprises and it was so unexpected. The character Christopher Boone really stood out to me not because of his Asperger Autism but the fact that he is 15 years old and wants to take the matters of the dog's death into his own hands and find the culprit. It makes an incredible storyline.

Castings
I think everyone were fairly happy with their role in the production and wanted to work as soon as possible.

Rehearsals
In terms of rehearsals for the first 2 weeks we only rehearsed in class for a couple of hours. It didn't give us enough time to work on all scenes. We were given feedback each time from our teachers and classmates for improvements. For this production to even stand a chance we came to as a group decision to decide to stay after hours to work on the production. Altogether after hours we have had approx. 4-5 rehearsals but it has been difficult since not all casts were present.

Challenges
Using my own previous experience of rehearsals, I know it is not easy it's very difficult because there are always obstacles in the way. Such as lack of commitment, lack of motivation, appropriate communication, rehearsal priorities are not always number one on the list. In this production I have seen some familiar obstacles which has occurred.

In Conclusion
I think the production will be a great success not only for us but for the audience as well but in order for this to happen "Commitment" needs to be number one! 

Shivam 'Shivvy' Modessa

Movement scene

This is part of the letters scene, I think creating this was brilliant because it developed into the movement Peices, before it was quite dull, the only thing that needs sorting is keeping it in unison. Also possible to make the bit with Siobhan and christopher in the letters scene

What are the themes of the play - in depth

 What are the themes of the play?

I feel the themes of this play are: The struggle to become independent:

The novel is based around Christopher who is becoming of age, to become more independent which is a challenge for him as he has Asperger’s Syndrome, which means he has trouble understanding people, dealing with new situations (train station/tube (p.68)) and making decisions. If at any time he feels frightened he shuts downs, curling himself into a ball and making noises or counting numbers (p.93) to help him concentrate. Even thou he has this he is a typical teenager who wants to take care of himself and to do his own thing, for example in the play you see him arguing with Ed because he has been lying about doing investigation to see who killed Wellington (pp.33-35). By the end of the play you see Christopher being more independent, planning for college and wanting to live by himself.

Subjectivity:

The book is based on the murder of Mrs. Shear’s dog, Wellington but half of the book is Christopher’s thoughts and feelings on physics or the supernatural. When Christopher finds the letters his mother has written to him, he almost immediately believes that the letters maybe for a different Christopher when he discovers the date on the postmark (p.39, 16^th October 2011), whereas the reader would see that Ed has been lying to him and that his mother hasn’t died. Although he does say “I decided that I would not think about it anymore that night because I didn’t have enough information and could easily LEAP TO THE WRONG CONCLUSIONS” this shows the reader that Christopher is thinking for himself and does not want to get himself into any more trouble than he already is.

Science, Technology and Math Problems:  How do the casting decisions affect your group's interpretation:

Throughout the play Christopher’s life has to be structured and logical, for example at the every beginning when he’s at the police station he empties out his pockets and every item he has with him is for a specific reason (p.7). He refuses to take off this watch as it’s in his nature to know what time and date it is so he can recall on what happens and also gives him a peace of mind “I need my watch to know exactly what time it is”. The scene before he is recalling on the when Siobhan when she says

“I want to do sex with you.’ I never said that.”

“Yes you did.”

“I didn’t use those words Christopher.”

“You did on 12 September last year. At first break.”

Shows the audience just how Christopher relies on his watch and how well he remembers certain issues.

I believe everyone, no matter who you act out; everyone has his or her own interpretation of each of the characters. Some people see Christopher as a rather dumb child that cant understand and cant interact with other people whereas I see him as a very intelligent young boy who tries to become overcome his condition and loves the simple things in life like achieving his goals (A-level Math’s, discovering who killed Wellington and likes learning new facts about science) (p.8 “For a long time scientists were puzzled…”) (p.27 “I’m going to do A Level Math’s next month. And I’m going to get an A*…” and making sure everything is in it’s place.

Even right at the end of the play when he is taking his A Level Maths paper he reads out his favourite question about triangles and Siobhan tells him "You don't have to tell us how you solved it."... "if anybody wants to find out how you solved the maths question then they can stay and you can tell them at the end." When I read this, I can just see Christopher's face light up when this question comes up as he loves knowing the answer and showing people that he can do it. Although when he comes out of the test he questions himself as he believes that he didn't get all the questions right and then comes up with reasons why he couldn't think properly. By the very end of the play he is incredibly happy with his results and feels like he can take on anything.

How are you approaching rehearsals so far?

I believe that I am putting all I can into making this play, the main reason why I love acting this play out is that I feel like my character; Mrs. Alexander suits me really well. I feel like she’s an old lady who doesn’t have many visits apart from when her family sees her on special dates like Christmas, Easter and her birthday. So when Christopher comes investigating she pulls out all the stops to make him stay and chat to her, (p.19 “Do you want to come in for tea”?) (p.20 “lemon squash”, “what about Battenberg”, “Perhaps I should bring out some biscuits instead. Do you like biscuits?”) as sometimes she’s rather lonely by herself with only her dog to keep her company.

What are your individual challenges for this project?

I feel like one of the challenges we have as a group is listening which does sometimes become a problem when we do out of time rehearsals as we don’t dedicate someone to direct us, but this is something we are working on as a group.

My recent challenge is pronouncing my words and syllables with the accent I have chosen for my character. I feel adding this accent/voice has almost created more of a personality for Mrs. Alexander, so every time I do the accent I am immediately into my character, which helps me tremendously. 

To get a better understanding

To get a better idea of the story I decided to look into a few of the characters who I found most interesting, by doing this I have a better understanding of who they are and how each character is related to one another.

From the very beginning of the play you are drawn in, with Christopher finding Wellington - who is their neighbor's dog Mrs. Shear’s, who has been stabbed to death by a garden fork. Christopher is a very imaginative, intelligent young boy and is curious to find out who killed Wellington, which leads him into all sorts of trouble throughout the play. On top of this he has Asperger’s Syndrome, which makes it hard for him to understand body language and other forms of human interaction.

My first reaction to this play is that Christopher is rather childish because of his Asperger’s Syndrome as he doesn’t know how to reaction in certain situations, communicating with people, understanding emotions, hates being touched – unless they touch by fingertips (pg. 8, 76) and constantly groans or screams. He lives alone with his father Ed Boone, because his mother had died of a heart attack prior to the time when the novel begins, which we then find out later on that she is alive and well living in London with Roger. Christopher is a genius when it comes to solving mathematical problems or science questions and spends a lot of time watching TV or playing video games. He takes pride in the fact that he will be the first person at his special school to take his Math’s A-Level at the age of 15 and feels that this is a huge achievement for him. Even thou he hates talking to strangers he goes door knocking to ask questions about Wellington’s death, he seems to get more confident talking to people as the play goes on even thou he does not realize this. The fact that he makes it to London all by himself is a massive achievement for him, as he has never travelled independently before.

Mrs. Alexander seems like a lovely, little old lady who lives across the street with her dog, but is a bit of a stalker as she says that she says “I can see you sitting at your computer in your bedroom sometimes when I look across the street”(pg. 27). Mrs. Alexander represents significant development in Christopher’s independence as he can talk to her, she also provides Christopher with information about Judy’s relationship with Mr. Shears, even thou this is a hard subject she does try and make Christopher feel comfortable by taking him to the park to tell him. When you read through their scenes it is clear that Mrs. Alexander is like a grandmother to him, helping him with his investigations and making sure that he is well looked after, but he does not trust her and is afraid that she might hurt him.

Ed Boone loves his son Christopher more than anything else but does not know how to deal with him and he can sometimes loose is patience way to quickly and escalates, which is sad because the only way Christopher can deal with it is to curl up in a ball and scream. When Ed finds out that Christopher is doing detective work on who killed Mrs. Shear’s dog he becomes angrier and starts screaming out swear words to try and get his point across to him. The audience finds out later on in the play that Ed Boone had murdered Mrs. Shear’s dog. It is clear that he cannot cope with his wife having an affair and leaving him, which pushes him over the edge to lie about Judy’s death. When Christopher stumbles on letters from his mum that Ed has kept from him, it promotes him to leave home and find his mum. Ed hates it when Christopher ends up in London because it makes him anxious because he knows he will have to see Judy and try and take Christopher back with him, as he cannot imagine living without this son in his life, even thou he does not know how to cope with Christopher’s behaviour. He does try and regain the relationship with Christopher with buying him a Golden Retriever (pg. 97), which is what he had always wanted.

Judy Boone to me does not seem to be a very good mother as she runs off to London with Mr. Roger Shears, who she has had an affaire with without saying goodbye, which makes Ed Boone lie about why she left and then having to tell Christopher that she had died of a heart attack instead of telling him the truth. She insists that she was a terrible mother and Christopher would be better off without her – or is it that she is better off without him. I do feel sympathy for her as she does try and write, but at the same time why would Ed give the letters to Christopher, as it would just make him feel broken and unloved. Sending the letters she has almost broken the relationship between Ed and Christopher because Christopher believes that Ed has been lying to him for the whole time and no longer trusts him, which makes Christopher journey up to see him mother. By the end of the novel she has moved back to Swindon and Christopher is living with her.