Bad Girls Rehearsal Diary

Tuesday 7th Jan 2014
Agreed rules of rehearsal process, for example:
- We would learn our scripts
- Honour the roles we've been given and don't complain
Signed agreements:
We wrote down the agreed rules on paper and signed with our signature for evidence of our agreement to abide by the rules.
Discussed staging:
Rachel drew up an example of what the stage set would look like as invisioned by Kim, the picture of the inside of a prison going diagonally side on.
Distributed production roles
We were all assigned to different departments of production roles, for instance I am now in charge of the male costumes and have the opportunity to dress them in a way I think will look best for the show 'Bad Girls'.
Selected name for Theatre Company - Sealight Theatre Company

Tuesday 4th March

Before this lesson we had been assigned production roles and for independent study we had to draw our ideas for production, mine being costume I had to draw how they will look and annotate them. Here are pictures from this lesson and everyone's work which is part of my production role: 

My production role was the male prison guards costumes. For the boys costumes they would be wearing black trousers, black shoes, white smart shirt and a black tie. Around their neck would be a name tag and on their trousers would be key chains. I done some research into what a traditional prison guard wears on duty and these were what featured in a prison officers uniform.

Production Role

I'm assigned to the role of costume. I'm in a group of 3, the two girls in my group are taking charge of the female costumes in the show and I'm responsible for the male costumes. I've got to select the costume I want and how I want it to look. Luckily the costumes I'm in charge of are for the prison officers so they're simple. 
This link includes the job roles of a costume designer:
http://getintotheatre.org/job-profiles/details/costume-designer

I've made brief designs of how I expect the male officers to look on stage. 

Here is a drawing of what the boys will be wearing, it includes a smart white shirt, black tie, smart black trousers and smart black shoes. Also including accessories like name tags, badges and the shoulder patches. These are traditional uniforms for a prison officer as I had done research into prison job roles. 

I have also designed a prison badge to be worn on the uniforms of the prison officers and the number one.

The badge is bottom of this picture, the idea of the bird came from my research into the Latkhall area and found things such as primary schools and youth football teams had this symbol displayed on their logos so I thought it would be appropriate to use that. 

Tuesday 1st April

This past week we all performed our Boal warm up exercises, each testing different areas and skills needed within acting. I performed mine in the first session on Tuesday 25th March, mine was 'blind person and the bomb' testing your senses of awareness on stage. 

I now know how to apply this into my performance in Bad Girls. I'm on stage in big groups most of the time so I need to have good spatial awareness at all times. 

Earlier on today I read through Jean Benedetti's THE SYSTEM and looked through page 32 on concentration, the technique is to attract the audience more, have them at the edge of their seats. 

 

Tuesday 8th April (half term)

I've learned all my lines and now must characterize all my lines which will now be done with in the next three weeks, the show is on the 30th April (22 days). My character is so different to all the others, the prisoners and other prison officers. Justin is a kind person but isn't necessarily a push over, as we see him constantly stand up to Sylvia and saying sarky comments such as "Why do they keep sending us prisoners? Don't they know Sylvia's on her break?" in the staffroom very sarcasticly.
So my characterization needs to be precise to each scene. I'm going to study the life of a prison guard further than what I've done already.

 Friday 11th April (half term)

I've developed my characterization further and I feel confident in what I have to do to make my character better. I'm happy with all my progress and now we just have to do a run through.

Character backgrounds and attributes

 Justin- Prison Officer
Justin is the new officer on the block and is intimidated by some of the prisoners and despises Fenner and finds his attitude and behaviour towards the inmates appauling and disrespectful. 
He brings a sarcastic charcterization into the officers which stops him from looking weak and vulnerable compared to the experienced and older officers who may make fun of Justin for being more considerate towards the inmates.
Justin shows concern for Nikki Wade, he and her have a meaningful brief conversation about her court hearing and how Wade is always looking for trouble.
I can imagine the life of a prison officer isn't the most flattering job but is certainly a job where you will see things you probably wouldn't have nightmares about. In this story from the link we hear of a story of a prison officer who was held hostage: http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/feb/17/prison-officer-feared-life-inmates-hostage-court

Here is a list of how life is like for a prison officer from:
http://www.prisonofficer.org.uk/welcome1.html
Hours and Environment
Prison officers usually work 39 hours a week on a shift pattern that includes nights and weekends. There are opportunities for part-time work and job-share. 
The work is mainly indoors although prison officers often work outdoors when patrolling the grounds or supervising recreation. 
Prison officers will sometimes need to use physical force when restraining a prisoner. 
Your first post may be with a local prison but you may need to move to another part of the country for work. 

Annual Income
Figures are intended as a guideline only. 
In England and Wales, the starting salary is £17,400 a year. 
This can rise up to £26,500 year with long service. 
Senior officers can earn between £28,200 and £30,650 a year. 
Additional local pay allowances may be available. 
In Scotland, a prison officer starts on £14,400 a year. 
The top of the pay scale is currently £19,200 a year.

Justin's background

Justin was born in Croydon in 1987. His father was an American soldier who fought in the Cold War. Unfortunately his father was killed in an IED explosion in 1991 when Justin was just 4 years old. His older brother who was half way through high school couldn't handle the situation and it drove him insane, causing him to commit suicide. So in the space of 5 months Justin lost his father and brother. It was just him and his mother. When Justin was in primary school he had the local constable visit his class who introduced them to the world of the police force and other emergency services including army and navy services. Justin was inspired by his father and wanted to follows in his footsteps. 

After his GCSEs Justin became a part of police cadets and when he was 19 he went to Birmingham to study law. After receiving his degree he moved back to London and started a new job as a junior police officer. After one year he was promoted to sergeant then after a year of patrolling the streets he looked into a job as a prison guard.  

This is a timeline of Justin's life. Including key events like the deaths of his father and brother.