Unit 12 - Extended Project

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Auditions,

This is the final stetch till the end of level 3 and to finally show off all the skills that I have gained over my two years at college. The character that stuck out to me the most was Mr Harvey from the Lovely Bones. I particularly liked this character because this year I have set a goal to become a more well rounded actor by challenging myself with the villains. The villain role isn't usually something I take on and I wanted to challenge myself as usually I am type casted as the young charming characters. The Lovely Bones covers very dark and harrowing topics, themes of grief and frustration, therefore I need to be mature enough to take on a role like this. This is also a very naturalistic piece which is one of my strong points in acting. 

The monologue I chose for this audition was Micky Nox's monologue from Natural Born Killers. I thought this piece suited the nature of the character of Harvey because I feel this is how he would think and act if he was confronted/interviewed for his violent acts. During this monologue, the character of Mickey is confronted with his mental state but feels as if he is being picked apart. This leads him to go on a tangent about vivid nightmares he used to have as a kid. I felt this was a good direction to go in to audition for the role of Mr Harvey

This monologue showed off my ability to handle the dark themes within the play and showcase some disturbing moments convincingly. Mr Harvey's character is very unassuming which makes him such a difficult role to play as deep down he is a murderous psychopath. I believe I acted this monologue out very well physically and also hit the emotional beats. The use of eye contact was very effective as well as it helped me to make things seem uncomfortable. I positioned myself at an angle like an interview (as the character is being interviewed) which added more detail to make it seem more realistic and believable. To improve on this, I thought I could take some more brave creative decisions as in I used the same accent like in the film when I could've experimented and tailored it more to make it a less unassuming and Texan character.

Name	Noah Dixon
Pathway	Performing and Production Arts – Acting for Stage & Screen.
Project title	The Lovely Bones
Section 1: Rationale (approx. 100 words)
Over the past 2 years I have seen a clear development of my skills. year 2 has been exceptionally helpful, I have tackled things outside of my comfort zone and took on some challenging roles. I have constantly been expanding my range in my acting abilities. I have pushed myself even further out of my comfort and have even took on leadership this year by leading more warm ups. one thing that sticks out to me most is the ability to work better as a team, before coming onto the course I felt like I never really worked in a company and now, I  am able to express ideas and collaborate.
Section 2: Project concept (approx. 200 words)
I had clear aims when I set out on this journey, I want to prove that I can play these types of characters, my biggest fear is to be type casted. By  stretching myself with these characters I hope to fully complete every type pf character I can possibly play before going onto my next chapter. George Harvey to me in my opinion is the most sadistic hard to capture villain you can play on stage. This is the ultimate challenge for me. An incredibly hard challenge but a fun one. Since I'm also playing the role of peter in the railway children its giving me new light on how to lead a performance as a team since its a trio. All of these challenges are contributing to my aim to becoming a more well rounded actor. I will do this by putting in the correct research, as there is already a book of the lovely bones that is incredibly detailed I will have to comb through it for character traits and backstory. Some of the more uncomfortable scenes I will have to breakdown and figure out how not to go to creepy and to keep the audience engaged.
Section 3: Evaluation (approx. 50 words)
I will evaluate all this by documenting my research of the character that include my findings my thoughts and creative decisions. I can video and photo evidences of my rehearsing and explain my process through the rehearsing.
Proposed research sources and bibliography (Harvard format)
There is much documentation about the lovely bones as a piece, as I  mentioned before there is a book but also a many plays and a film. For my research for this character I can use the play, book and film as a resource. Since this play is set in a specific time period there is a lot of context I can research about that time specifically serial killers of the time.

Character Development

The character of George Harvey is a tricky one, Its easy to go down a root were he's either to creepy or to normal. His biggest character trait is how unassuming he is. My first creative decision was to change his accent. I know that he doesn't stick around a lot, he's killed many other girl's in different places, so giving him the accent that's native to were its set seems a bit confusing for me. I decide to give him a Canadian accent. I've done this to make him unassuming, I believe the accent to have that stereotypical friendly sound, Softer vowels and rising intonation. I believe it fits his facade. In the film, Susie salmon says that "he took comfort in the fact that nobody was looking at him." I took away from this that that Mr Harvey is a very reserved man, so physically, I do more thought out actions, only move or do something for a reason. Clothing wise, I believe Harvey would keep everything neat and wear what is appropriate, depending on the task or the weather. He does have etiquette. 

Inside his home, I keep things very neat and pay a lot of attention to his dollhouses as they are very important to him and he would handle them with care. I would like to make a big thing out of this. There are very few moments where he is angry and I would like to show these moments rather differently to how I think angry would look like. For Harvey, I believe his anger I believe comes from when things don't stick to his plan or when he doesn't have control, for example when Lindsey Salmon breaks into his house. I show more frustration than anger. Since I am not very big physically in real life, I don't try and make myself bigger to become this villain. I lean into it physically which adds to him being unassuming. He is a very lonely person but by his choice, he finds it hard to connect and doesn't feel the need for any other pleasure that aren't from his killings. He obsesses over his killings like he does his dollhouses by keeping trinkets to remind himself and  I believe that for him, all he needs is to keep on killing. 

Character Research

Context of the time: the play is set in 1973, however spans over many years and given that my research has concluded that George Harvey has killed 8 people. All girls apart from one women. It is crazy to think how he got away with it for so long. However in 1970s America, murder investigations heavily relied on eye witnesses and physical evidence. At the time forensic techniques were not as developed as they were nowadays so given the context of the time, George Harvey definitely had an upper hand. A classic American serial killer such as Ted Bundy, was caught because of these things. He left physical evidence such as bite marks alongside eye witness accounts. This is why George Harvey is incredibly careful with physical evidence and any traces that lead back to him except for his trinkets). He secretly disposes of any and all evidence very meticulously. He keeps his house tidy, in the case of Dennis Neilson, a plumber found human remains in his drains outside because he flushed them down the sink.  Acts like this, to Mr Harvey, would not be sensible. This is why I believed he dumped Susie in a sinkhole far away in a safe. Now I needed to take some characteristics from these famous killers, in the film Stanley Tucci wears a pair of 70 gold wire glasses that have the exact look of the pair worn by Jeffery Dahmer, I took inspiration from this and wore a pair of these glasses. Dennis Neilson also had a pair of wire glasses that he constantly had to a just just which I assume was because of the weight and in my theory a common physical practice to make yourself look normal. Now I needed to get down on a mental level, what makes these killers tick? what was there motive and when do they start to show emotion. A quote from the department of justice reads "Serial killers kill to fulfil an emotional need for power and control over others. The fulfilment of sexual fantasies is a secondary aim. They select victims who are vulnerable and easy to manipulate." This is very interesting as all of Harvey's kills are part of a control complex, he traps his victims in structures or anywhere he has full control over with his second aim being that of a sexual nature, this relates to the like of Ted Bundy and Denis Neilson. But how do we know if he is an actual psychopath? what makes one and does he tick the boxes? well I had a look into this and it turns out there is no definite signs that point to psychopath but there are some behave patterns and characteristics that are closely related to the mentality of a psychopath which include: 

• Lack of Empathy: Psychopaths struggle to understand or share the feelings of others, making it difficult to form genuine emotional connections. 
  
Manipulative Behaviour: Psychopaths are skilled at deceiving and exploiting others to achieve their goals. 
Lack of Remorse: they never show guilt or regret to the harm they have caused others
Pathological lying: they will lie frequently very easily even for no reason 

Some of the behaviour patens include:

• Cruelty to animals 
• Obsession with fire setting 
• persistent bed wetting past the age of 5 
• sexual predatory behaviour  

Now this was all incredibly useful information, the characteristics of the psychopath helped very much

 in how to portray George Harvey and exactly when  to play them. He is a Pathological lair and all he 

really does in the play is lie. He lies to Fenaman and Jack salmon then later on, manipulates another

 cop to avoid being caught. He has a complete lack of remorse for what he has done and even goes

 as far as to taunt the victims mother and father quoting ~ "I hope they get the bastard" and of course

he has no empathy what so ever as proof of his killings. We do know that from the book that George

 Harvey kills animals to try satisfy his urges and we do know he displays clear signs of sexual 

predatory behaver given the majority of his kills are under aged girls which he exploits 

sexually during his kills. We can dissect from this that a qualified metal health professional can 

say for certain that George Harvey is indeed a psychopath. 

 

Production role

  I have to say I did dabble around with my production roles, I was originally an accent coach which is what I was last year, but after I helped out there I moved onto content creation for marketing. Being an accent coach can be quite difficult at times, trying to get people to learn an entirely new way of speaking can be very challenging. Most of the time this comes form the vowels and a lot of random words like talk or cornfield. The play is set in early 70s Pennsylvania which has twangs of the typical north east American accent but shares a lot of similarities to the New York accent and especially Boston. It’s a very difficult accent and nobody was expecting anyone to try it so majority settled on the bog standard American accent, more commonly heard in the mid west and Seattle. We focused to educating the class on vowel sounds and for the American accent the “R” sound. For us folks living in the north east of England this can come at a challenge because the “R” is very insignificant to us as we sometimes miss it out all together where Americans would emphasise it more in the case of words like “our”.  Tongue twisters were our best friend in this situation, we gave the class special tongue twisters to try and strengthen and help people move there mouth around these tricky sayings. My other accent coach came up with a tongue twister that focused a lot on the “R” sound, it went like this: “Red range rovers ran rapidly and rugged through red lights” This helped a-lot to say it using our American accents. We helped out in vocal warm ups and I specialised in areas that would help strengthen vocal folds and the mouth, this included the jaw the tongue and even the lips, this helps so much to slide into and accent, it makes your body more comfortable to get round those vowel sounds and them tricky random words like talk and before. Anyone can do an American accent but for the most part it will probably sound terrible if you don’t pick out the details. Straight off the bat a lot of people will over pronounce the “R’s” and go way over the top with it which makes it end up sounding very stereotypical. We didn’t want that at all so focusing on these small details made so big a difference. Now I mentioned that I moved onto content creation, I knew I was very creative to begin with and the idea came to me last year during one flew over, it would be amazing to make an actual trailer and teasers for the show just like they do for professional theatre productions and even films. This is also something we lacked heavily in Pinocchio before film and tv stepped in, and isn’t it such a shame to work so hard towards a show and have no one end up watching it at the end? We needed a way to draw people in and to use for the cast to share. I got cracking on an idea I had to promote the show during rehearsal, it would be a compilation of exiting scenes in the show pared with a clever opening that introduced the show being the lovely bones and ending with the full cast displaying the dates and the venue. It worked out so well that even the college reposted it on there story.

I was very proud of this edit, it was funky and I think drew a lot of attention. Next I wanted to make something for each individual cast, we have three casts which is unusual for an end of year show, so a lot of competition! I decided that it would be a good idea to do a cast introduction for each night that the casts can post l, I saw a lot of people on Instagram posting my video with the caption “come see my night” or “ watch me play Abigail on the 12th” so I just thought it made sense to have a video explaining it and it definitely made us look more professional company. Now I had to do something for the railway children, since we were moving venue I was asked to create a sort of  “come with us’” to this new venue (Someone else on marketing had already made a few videos during rehearsal). It was very cheery and fun to watch, it fit the theme of the show very well and yet again included the dates and where the venue was. Coming into show week I wanted to show off what we had done with costume props set and lighting and given we had it all to our disposal now to get cracking with the show I decided to make a trailer. Most of the shots were done in slow motion to make it look like a movie and it even had some voice over to really seal the deal. It was another success with the college reposting the edit and even my tutor posting it on her private Facebook account, thanks Kelly.

Evaluation

Over the past two years I have experienced to so many roles its unbelieve to think. I have went from Iconic roles like Peter pan to comedic relief in an interactive tour as Jonny Walker to the lowest of the low brutal serial killer George Harvey. In the same two weeks I went from Peter Waterbury in railway children to the lovely bones as Mr Harvey. A very challenging task to end off on but I felt that through my whole time here at the college it has prepared me to the fullest. I started out the year not really knowing the basics, not knowing how to dig deep and all these techniques I wasn't aware of but I did know how to perform. So the first performance came around which I was very enthusiastic for, I wanted to take the bull by the horns and do something as interactive as possible. I ended up playing a serious role who springs in and out of the show, I decided I wanted to make him funny as like a comedic relief. This was the first time I ever had creative decision so I make this down as a very important part of my journey. Next came Peter pan I had show that I can take charge and capture an audience. I was dropped into the deep end and I wanted to keep going. So as Peter Pan I picked up new strengths, most importantly how to take lead and set an example as a year 1 with a new company. Looking back I feel like I could of stretched my self more with this role, I just know I could give it so much more thought. The next role I had was for screen as Jack in the college feature film tides. This was a whole new incite into another side of the industry which is where I want to end up as a career trajectory. It was so much different to stage and I absolutely loved it, I think I let myself of easy however as film itself is easy, I could of prepared more I think. But for a first time I thought my dynamics with others was nice and I had a clear character arc even down to the costume I chose. Now this one is interesting. Mt first ensemble role i9n the national theatre connections play "shout". arguably this was my most important role as it taught me so much as how to act as a team player, to not draw focus and how to build the world around me with what little I had. I came up with backstory a name and even relationships with other characters on stage. The end of year show rolled along very quick and it was a challenge, I felt at this moment I was ready to take on anything but I wanted as role that would fit, I also wanted some emotions layers I could get stuck into a research. So I auditioned for billy Bibbit. So far I hadn't played any dramatic roles apart from jack in Tides. I bagged the role of Billy and now I really had to think about how I act physically alongside taking on such a troubled mindset, I had to stammer while putting on an accent and really listen to what other people had to say. Perforce wise this was my best role yet and also the most confident I ever was with a role, when I stepped out on stage I didn't feel nervy or uncomfortable I really did feel like it was just my character stepping onto the stage. That marked my year 1 journey, and I learned so many skills but also how what to improve on and where to go from here. Next came year two and I knew what I needed to do, I needed to tackle the villains. I hadn't played one villain yet so that was my area I needed to grow, I always fancied playing one to. For the ghost light tours I immediately went for the role of Sweeny Todd, a murderess barber, completely insane. This was a good start for the year if I wanted to keep going down this path of the villains. My favourite role of the two years was Stromboli which was the next performance. These types of roles at Christmas really help me with my singing and even though I only had one song and a reprise compared to my six or seven song in peter pan, this song was the most difficult out them all. I really had to test myself with controlling my diaphragm and breathing, anchoring and all the while telling a story.  My characterisation for this role was the best its ever been, I adapted the story so well and especially how I interacted, I also learned a lot of backstage work as a stage manager, me and my friend became assistants to the technician. These were all shaping me as an actor and even in other areas of the industry was being stretched. The next role I took on was another villain role in this years connections. This was the first time I got to use people from my own surroundings to use as examples. I live in an area that can have some not particularly nice people but these where exactly the type of people I needed to take inspiration from. These was my most naturalist performance as I was playing my own accent as people who I can see everyday in my village. I found a strength here to really hone in natural tones.

Starting out on this task to play Mr Harvey, I knew I wanted to make this as convincing as possible. Not a convincing Theatre villain as such but a convincing person who you would potently see in everyday life, this juxtaposed against Harvey's crimes a true intentions is were I believe the true horror comes from. I wanted the audience to understand that it could always be a neighbour next door. This doesn't mean I didn't want to make him evil however. I believe I met this criteria very well, It was obvious that the audience were in tune with my intentions after I head multiple audible "ooooh" as I approached my house while Lindsey salmon is secretly in there hiding and looking for clues.

 The emotions of George Harvey are a tricky one as there is a lack of them, the only time he is seen upset or remotely angry is when he thinks he's going to get caught. Apart from that he is calculating and incredibly calm as it is all part of his "plan". I managed to stretch myself with this mindset quite well although I could of probably played the secret better. Connecting with him on an emotional level would be impossible for me given his motive is killing girls so the magic what if was used quite a lot, however I really tried to express his psychopathic nature by showing his stress of getting caught and his meticulous planning. I think the vocal performance of Mr Harvey was my main distinguishing factor from not only the other Mr Harvey's but in the actual show as well. Changing his accent to Canadian was my biggest creative decision and I though it it added so much more depth to his character and nice for the audience to here some change. My projection could of been better I believe but far as diction goes I am very happy with my performance there. Physical movement for me was very important to my character, he doesn't want to stick out he was to look as normal as possible, just an ordinary man in an ordinary village and think he plays into that. A hand in one pocket jingling his house keys, adjusting his tie, fixing up and painting his doll houses, even savouring a mint sweet on his own with a cup of tea. All very average physical movements for him but makes it so the more convincing. 

This show was very much an ensemble piece, there isn't really any one time were the stage is empty, we are all constantly doing something so team work was a must. When I wasn't playing Mr Harvey I was also a police officer working together with detective Fenerman and other cops. The most time I have on stage are scenes were I'm being interrogated, so listening is a massive part of making the scenes sound convincing as possible. A good example of how I used props to enhances the show was with my home, I had a grandfather clock, a tea set, doll houses, a tool box, a wingback chair and even a lamp which I could turn on and off, I think I utilised this to the fullest extent. I was very particular with costume and I did have a change half way through when Mr Harvey runs away, It was mostly to make him look older but worked very well for continuity. I'm very proud with what I did with Mr Harvey, its a big ask to play such a vial character but that's were the fun came from, being able to take on such a big role. I though long and hard about how and what I could do with his character and how I could live up to Stanley Tucci's performance of Mr Harvey in the film. I have completed my goal of playing as many villains as possible this year and this was the ultimate villain to play on stage. Apart from this, there is still some areas I could improve on such as my projection I mention early. Playing the secret is the biggest part of his character and I don't think I lent into it as much as I should of. Maybe I could of picked up on some more details as well.

"I thought you did exceptionally well at making your character believable. You were very natural and you really focused on the details even when you were not in scene but in the background working on your doll houses." - Lola Smith