~ 'Fugee' by Abi Morgan ~
The first week was rehearsing and performing our Shakespeare monologues.
Week 2
We read through the script as a group, and discussed our thoughts on the play. We all agreed that the contemporary, non-naturalistic style was a welcome change from the naturalistic, old language in the Shakespeare and Chekov plays we've done earlier this year. When you first read the script, it is difficult to understand the events of the play, as it opens with the end scene and the events are told in flashbacks, out of order. However, once we had discussed the events of the play, and (using the script as a reference) verbally put the events in chronological order, we all understood the play better. 'Fugee' is a play following Kojo, a 14 year old refugee from Ivory Coast. The play opens with Kojo stabbing a man to death, and the rest of the play is a series of flashbacks that reveal that on Kojo's eleventh birthday his family were killed by child soldiers. Kojo himself becomes a child soldier, and manages to make it to the UK when he is 14, but is age-disputed. This means that a social worker has officially said that Kojo is 18 (and lying about his age).
The next day, we discussed what we could remember from the play, and created a short 10-15 minute improvisation based on what we could remember. My group wrote the events of the play down, and discussed which ones we thought were the most important, and how to sum them up. We also decided that it would be more effective, and less complicated for us to perform the scenes in chronological order. Especially considering there was little rehearsal and performance time. We chose the following scenes because we believe that they are the most important to Kojo's story and his character arc. Starting with his eleventh birthday, because this is when he lost his family and became a child soldier, having his life changed forever. We included him arriving at the airport, and the refuge centre to show how his past has impacted him (he does not feel comfortable around the other kids in the refuge). We also wanted to show the scene where the kids are in a park together, because this scene shows how they are getting close, and care for each other. This was also important to show because of the next scene, where he meets with a counsellor. His meeting with the counsellor is important because in this scene he is age-disputed, which means that the social worker believes that Kojo is lying about being 14, and is in fact 18. Stating that he is 18 means that, because he is not a child, he has to leave. We then showed a scene in which we see the hotel he has to move into, where a strange man who wants to get into Kojo's room, also lives. Our final scene was of Kojo accidentally stabbing a man to death, as this concludes the part of Kojo's story that we see.
The next day, we discussed what we could remember from the play, and created a short 10-15 minute improvisation based on what we could remember. My group wrote the events of the play down, and discussed which ones we thought were the most important, and how to sum them up. We also decided that it would be more effective, and less complicated for us to perform the scenes in chronological order. Especially considering there was little rehearsal and performance time. We chose the following scenes because we believe that they are the most important to Kojo's story and his character arc. Starting with his eleventh birthday, because this is when he lost his family and became a child soldier, having his life changed forever. We included him arriving at the airport, and the refuge centre to show how his past has impacted him (he does not feel comfortable around the other kids in the refuge). We also wanted to show the scene where the kids are in a park together, because this scene shows how they are getting close, and care for each other. This was also important to show because of the next scene, where he meets with a counsellor. His meeting with the counsellor is important because in this scene he is age-disputed, which means that the social worker believes that Kojo is lying about being 14, and is in fact 18. Stating that he is 18 means that, because he is not a child, he has to leave. We then showed a scene in which we see the hotel he has to move into, where a strange man who wants to get into Kojo's room, also lives. Our final scene was of Kojo accidentally stabbing a man to death, as this concludes the part of Kojo's story that we see.
After reading through the script as a class, now that we had a better understanding of the play, we started to think about which characters we wanted to play. By this point, we had decided to use multi-rolling, so we would be likely to play more than one character. I liked the roles of Ara or Roza, because of how they are directly involved with Kojo and his story. However, after reading over the script again and looking into the characters more, I realised that I didn't like the idea of playing Ara's character. This is because I found that Ara was not a good fit for me, and I connected with Roza's character better.
We discussed the themes of the play as a class, based on the events of the play, and chose the topics mentioned below:
- Rejection
- Communication
- Acceptance
- Systems
- Family
- Refugees
- Diversity
- Duties
- Desperation
- Past, present and future (and how they impact each other)
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| {We started to look into the themes of the play, and what areas to research in order to understand the characters.} |
We also decided that we should do some research around some of the themes of the play, in order to understand the characters, and their situation. We discussed what areas we were interested in, and I decided to look into refugee's stories, and to start with looking into the playwright (Abi Morgan) and the areas of research she could have done for writing this play.
Research
In my research on child refugees I found the story of a boy named Hamid, from Afghanistan.
His story was told through an article by The Children's Society on their website on the following link: https://www.childrenssociety.org.uk/news-and-blogs/childrens-stories/hamids-story-a-young-refugee
He didn't want to leave his country, but he was shot in the hand in the war and he couldn't use it, so he could not go to work or school. Because of this, he was forced to leave the country. He had to travel through mountains and jungles on foot, and when he reached Iran he was treated poorly by police, as many Afghan refugees are provoked and having money taken from them by the Iran police.
Upon arriving in the UK, the article states that he was arrested (reason unknown) but "treated well" by being given clothes and being "good with [him]". He found out about The Children's Society through someone from the organisation visited his shared house. The worker he met with was also from Afghanistan, so Hamid could speak his own language when telling the worker about his experiences, and could get help for his problems. The Children's Society also took him to a doctor, introduced him to a youth club, and a mentor who meets him multiple times a week. Now he wants to become an engineer.
This story is one example of a few I looked at in my research, [more stories about child refugees here: https://www.refugeecouncil.org.uk/animation ] and was incredibly useful in developing my characterisation.
How I used my research
The aforementioned story was useful for Roza as she is from Iraq, and would have been in a similar situation to Hamid. This helped to picture what she could have gone through, and then I was able to use Magic If, a Stanislavski technique I've learnt this year, to help me understand her attitude and opinions. In her lines Roza seems to want to be helpful to others, nut otherwise is relatively indifferent about her surroundings. I imagine that she has been at the refuge for a while, a year or more, and has adjusted to her new life and wants to help other kids do the same.
Week 3
As a group, we read through the script and started to put some of the scenes on their feet. We read for various characters, including our preferences. We did this to get a feel for the characters, and start to decide how to portray them. We read for characters that were not our preferences because this is an ensemble piece where we will be multi-rolling, so we might not get our choices, or may not. I stepped in to act as the man who gets stabbed (Dying Man), and one of the child soldiers.
We had auditions where we acted out scenes as the characters we wanted to play, so I read for Roza from scene 10. As part of the auditions, we devised a short scene, that is not in the script, which included the characters we wanted to play. This was to show that we understood these characters. For our scene we had Roza, Ara, Kojo and Cheung. We decided to make the scene about them leaving the camp and going out together, because we thought that they would be more like themselves when they are together and not under constant watch from the manager. We discussed what we thought they might do, and someone mentioned that in the script they steal something, so we agreed that it is plausible that they could do this often. We improvised a scene where we go into a shop and steal some food and drink while Ara distracted the store clerk. After going over it a few times we realised that this was a very sort scene, and discussed how we could add something to it. We decided to have the kids pick-pocket some people on the street, then go into the shop and buy some things. This elongated the scene, and gave some insight into the characters' daily lives, as well as showing the audience their situation (i.e. how poor they are).
We decided that we would do double casting, because some characters were very popular. For example, 4 actors wanted to play Cheung. This would also be better because it would mean that we would all get the opportunity to have more time onstage. At the end of the week we were casted, I share the roles of Roza and Mother (I play Roza one day, while another actor plays Mother, and vice versa). I was also given the role of Dying Man.
We then moved on to block the other scenes, in the order they appear in the play, with people filling in where necessary. The first run was slow, because we hadn't started to work on transitions yet, and we didn't know the scene order very well.
As we rehearsed, we started to see where there were some issues with transitions. For example, in scene 14, I play Dying Man so I end the scene lying dead on the floor. I then have to be Mother for the next scene. Although this was still theoretical (we were rehearsing in a drama studio, not the theatre, and hadn't thought about costume yet) I knew this would be an issue. I discussed it with my teacher, and we decided that there would be a lighting change, with a pre-recorded sound effect of Kojo speaking to cover the transition. This would give me enough time to do a quick costume change.
We started to look at the costumes, sound and props we would need, in groups. One group went through the script and wrote down all the props we would need, another looked at costume, and my group wrote down all the sound effects we needed. We wrote these up as a list on paper and put them up on the wall in our rehearsal room. We gave a copy of the list of sound effects to the Technical Theatre students who are doing the tech for our show.
We sat as a group, and discussed the costumes for our characters, and what pieces we would bring in. I decided that for the Dying Man, I would wear a white formal shirt, as he is most likely an office worker. We agreed that the kids would have simple t-shirts because they are poor refugee kids, I chose a red top for Roza. The only issue was that I didn't have anything for Mother, so I looked in the costume cupboard to find something. But the other girl playing Mother had a dress a could wear.
We did more run-throughs, timing them to see how the clean the transitions were. the first time we timed it, it was 1 hour and 20 minutes. We discussed the transitions, and did a speed run to make sure they were as clean as possible. When we timed it again, we managed to do a run in 1 hour and 5 minutes.
We did a run-through in the theatre, to see if we had to adapt any of the blocking. We decided to put rails just behind the curtains for costumes, and tables backstage for props. We had 5 chairs placed at the back of the stage so we could get them when we needed them. We went through the whole play slowly, telling the Technical Theatre students the cues for lighting and sound. We did a few runs until they were clear with their cues.
When I play Roza, I have to play Dying Man in scene 35, and Roza in 36. I tried changing my shirt for the t-shirt. But I couldn't change in time, so I wore the t-shirt underneath my shirt which made the transition, and costume change, much quicker.
For when I play Mother, I have to change from a shirt into a dress from scene 14 into 15. So we decided that I would leave the scene and the others would continue acting through improv and slowly clear the stage for the next scene while I changed. I also had someone backstage helping me, by handing me the dress the correct way round so I wouldn't struggle.
We had auditions where we acted out scenes as the characters we wanted to play, so I read for Roza from scene 10. As part of the auditions, we devised a short scene, that is not in the script, which included the characters we wanted to play. This was to show that we understood these characters. For our scene we had Roza, Ara, Kojo and Cheung. We decided to make the scene about them leaving the camp and going out together, because we thought that they would be more like themselves when they are together and not under constant watch from the manager. We discussed what we thought they might do, and someone mentioned that in the script they steal something, so we agreed that it is plausible that they could do this often. We improvised a scene where we go into a shop and steal some food and drink while Ara distracted the store clerk. After going over it a few times we realised that this was a very sort scene, and discussed how we could add something to it. We decided to have the kids pick-pocket some people on the street, then go into the shop and buy some things. This elongated the scene, and gave some insight into the characters' daily lives, as well as showing the audience their situation (i.e. how poor they are).
We decided that we would do double casting, because some characters were very popular. For example, 4 actors wanted to play Cheung. This would also be better because it would mean that we would all get the opportunity to have more time onstage. At the end of the week we were casted, I share the roles of Roza and Mother (I play Roza one day, while another actor plays Mother, and vice versa). I was also given the role of Dying Man.
Week 4
We started doing read-throughs of the script, and putting some scenes on their feet. We started with the street scenes, because they are the ensemble scenes, and more difficult to block. This scene is visited 6 times throughout the play, so it was important that we get them all to look as similar as possible. We hadn't casted the smaller roles yet, which meant that the blocking was not definite as people would be in different places depending on what role they played that day. This made rehearsals challenging and slow, as different people had to do different characters depending on who was there, and the blocking had to be explained multiple times.We then moved on to block the other scenes, in the order they appear in the play, with people filling in where necessary. The first run was slow, because we hadn't started to work on transitions yet, and we didn't know the scene order very well.
As we rehearsed, we started to see where there were some issues with transitions. For example, in scene 14, I play Dying Man so I end the scene lying dead on the floor. I then have to be Mother for the next scene. Although this was still theoretical (we were rehearsing in a drama studio, not the theatre, and hadn't thought about costume yet) I knew this would be an issue. I discussed it with my teacher, and we decided that there would be a lighting change, with a pre-recorded sound effect of Kojo speaking to cover the transition. This would give me enough time to do a quick costume change.
Week 5
We also finalised casting for the smaller roles, such as Market Trader, and Passport Controller in the airport. This helped rehearsals run smoother as it meant that people could focus on their own lines and scenes.We started to look at the costumes, sound and props we would need, in groups. One group went through the script and wrote down all the props we would need, another looked at costume, and my group wrote down all the sound effects we needed. We wrote these up as a list on paper and put them up on the wall in our rehearsal room. We gave a copy of the list of sound effects to the Technical Theatre students who are doing the tech for our show.
We sat as a group, and discussed the costumes for our characters, and what pieces we would bring in. I decided that for the Dying Man, I would wear a white formal shirt, as he is most likely an office worker. We agreed that the kids would have simple t-shirts because they are poor refugee kids, I chose a red top for Roza. The only issue was that I didn't have anything for Mother, so I looked in the costume cupboard to find something. But the other girl playing Mother had a dress a could wear.
Week 6
I decided to write up a list of all the scenes on an A3 piece of paper (the list we made was on the wall in the rehearsal space and was too big to move to the theatre). I wrote down the scene number and gave them a title based on what happens (e.g. Kojo gets a job), and the characters in the scene. I photocopied this and put them up backstage. |
| {One of the lists I put up backstage.} |
We did more run-throughs, timing them to see how the clean the transitions were. the first time we timed it, it was 1 hour and 20 minutes. We discussed the transitions, and did a speed run to make sure they were as clean as possible. When we timed it again, we managed to do a run in 1 hour and 5 minutes.
We did a run-through in the theatre, to see if we had to adapt any of the blocking. We decided to put rails just behind the curtains for costumes, and tables backstage for props. We had 5 chairs placed at the back of the stage so we could get them when we needed them. We went through the whole play slowly, telling the Technical Theatre students the cues for lighting and sound. We did a few runs until they were clear with their cues.
Week 7
We finished tech rehearsals, and brought in our costumes for a dress rehearsal the day before the show. This was useful as I could see where costume changes were necessary and how much time I had for them. We did dress rehearsals in the morning before the shows, with the costumes for the characters we were playing that day.When I play Roza, I have to play Dying Man in scene 35, and Roza in 36. I tried changing my shirt for the t-shirt. But I couldn't change in time, so I wore the t-shirt underneath my shirt which made the transition, and costume change, much quicker.
For when I play Mother, I have to change from a shirt into a dress from scene 14 into 15. So we decided that I would leave the scene and the others would continue acting through improv and slowly clear the stage for the next scene while I changed. I also had someone backstage helping me, by handing me the dress the correct way round so I wouldn't struggle.
Performance evaluation
The performances overall went very well, with only a few mistakes. In the first performance, an actor forgot their lines, and skipped a few lines as well. This threw the other actors off, except for one who managed to move the scene forward. This was a very good use of improvisation in a performance.
On the first day of performances, I played Roza and Dying Man. These two shows went well, I got my costume changes correct and on time. However, in scene 11 of the afternoon show, where the scene opens with Roza, a translator and a counsellor, the actor playing translator was not in the scene, and the counsellor said his line too early, as I had missed mine, and then apologised and gestured for me to say mine. This was not good as it was clear that we made a mistake, and should have just carried on with the scene. The rest of the play ran smoothly, and the evening show ran without mistake.
On the second day of performances, I played the Mother, as well as Dying Man. The afternoon show went well, the transitions were smooth because people knew their cues. The only concern I had before performing was having to immediately change from a white button-up shirt into a full length dress, from scene 14 (a street scene) into 15 (the Mother's monologue before she dies). However, with the other actors staying in the scene, and slowing down the transition by talking as they left the stage slowly, this gave me enough time to change, so the transition managed to go smoothly.
On the first day of performances, I played Roza and Dying Man. These two shows went well, I got my costume changes correct and on time. However, in scene 11 of the afternoon show, where the scene opens with Roza, a translator and a counsellor, the actor playing translator was not in the scene, and the counsellor said his line too early, as I had missed mine, and then apologised and gestured for me to say mine. This was not good as it was clear that we made a mistake, and should have just carried on with the scene. The rest of the play ran smoothly, and the evening show ran without mistake.
On the second day of performances, I played the Mother, as well as Dying Man. The afternoon show went well, the transitions were smooth because people knew their cues. The only concern I had before performing was having to immediately change from a white button-up shirt into a full length dress, from scene 14 (a street scene) into 15 (the Mother's monologue before she dies). However, with the other actors staying in the scene, and slowing down the transition by talking as they left the stage slowly, this gave me enough time to change, so the transition managed to go smoothly.
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