Week 22 Blog: Character Profile For 'Junk' ( Week 2 For Junk )

'Junk' Character Profile: Tar  

Name Of My Character:

The name of my character in 'Junk' is Tar, this was revealed to me throughout the whole script since Tar is one of the main characters in the production. The name 'Tar' is a nickname given to my character by his girlfriend, Gemma. The real name of my character is David, his surname is not mentioned in the script.

Age Of My Character:

For the majority of the production, Tar is mentioned to be 14 years of age, but nearing the end of the production, Tar grows up to a 17 year old after being released from a Detox Centre in Western Super-Mare for being caught possessing drugs. 

What Is The Hometown Of My Character: 

Tar originally lived with his Mum and Dad in Minely On Sea, but after being dis-treated by his parents, his Dad in-particular, Tar ran away from home and traveled by bus to Bristol. He lives there for the whole of the production after leaving Minely On Sea.

Is My Character In A Relationship:

Tar is in a relationship with his girlfriend called Gemma. Gemma also agrees to run away to Bristol with Tar since they both think they are made for each other, like soul-mates essentially. 

Who Is My Character Best Friends With:

I think that Gemma is Tars best friend since they are in a relationship and they love spending time together. If there is anyone other than Gemma it would be that Rob is Tars best friend since at certain points in the script, Tar would mention that he and Rob are doing things together, and since Tar and Rob are the only two lads in the group with Gemma and Lily, they have both grown to like each other over the time-span of the production. 

What Does My Character Love:

Tar, in a relationship point of view, loves Gemma, they both think they are soul-mates and should be together forever. Tar also later on in the script loves to take drugs, or as he calls it, Junk. He also loves to draw dandelions to help him remind himself of Gemma, his girlfriend.

What Does My Character Hate:

Tar, early on in the production, mentions that he despises his parents; especially his Dad since he was always giving Tar abuse. The abuse given often related to violence leaving Tar with injuries which Gemma uncovers. This is one of the many reasons Tar ran away from home and traveled to Bristol. I can also see that Tar is the kind of person that gets what he wants most of the time, and if anybody does happen to not give him what he wants, then he may grow to hate them. 

What Is My Character's Dreams and Aspirations:  

Tar has always dreamt of running away from his family and the world with Gemma so they can live in happiness with each other. He looks up for people who can help him achieve his lifelong goals and he will respect them to get what he desires. Since reading the novel version of 'Junk', I discovered that, through the text written, Tar, before he ran away from home later on in the text, wanted to become a painter so he could be able to paint/draw a dandelion to signify his relationship with Gemma. Tar mentions in the text that dandelions remind him of Gemma as is the same with Gemma being reminded of Tar with her seeing Ladybirds.

Week 21 Blog ( Week 1 For Junk )

Week 21 Blog, Monday 31st - Wednesday 2nd Of March/April 2014

For the start of this week, our teacher has presented to the whole class what our third and final production is for Btec Level 2 Performing Arts. The name of the production that we are going to perform in early June is called 'Junk'. 'Junk' is the story about Tar and Gemma, two teenagers that run away from their homes in Minely-On-Sea and travel by bus to Bristol, to begin a new life for themselves which later on results in drug taking and prostitution. After achieveing 2 Merits and 2 Distinctions from the 'Shakespeare's House Party' production, I feel confident that I will achieve the same for this final assignment and achieve a high grade for completing Btec Level 2 Performing Arts.

To start off the final production, we had fully read the script of 'Junk' with our teacher having already decided the roles we are to perform in this production. My role for 'Junk' is Tar, which is one of the main characters that runs away from his home town, Minely-On-Sea, and travels to Bristol to escape the child abuse/domestic violance that his parents are causing onto him. But for the first time on this course, I'm going to be included as a 'Dual Cast' member. This means that me and someone else in my group will be performing as Tar for the whole of the performance. Originally, the plan was that we were going to perform on four nights with my 'Dual Cast' partner performing two nights and I would perform the other two. But this idea was later changed the following lesson the next day, and I was only going to perform as Tar for the second act of 'Junk' after the Interval. The way we were going to present the cast change to the audience is by having both me and my dual cast partner come on stage doing the same actions and dialogue, and later on in the scene, my dual cast partner will exit the stage, hopefully making the audience understand that I was now going to be Tar for the rest of the performance. I felt glad to be performing as Tar for the second act since later on, the production gets a lot more serious, and I would like to be part of the action to show how I would respond to it whilst performing as Tar, whom has a complete personality change compared to me.

Since we have limited time to rehearse this final production, our teacher has cut out of the script scenes that aren't really benitficial to the story, which has lowered the timespan of the production. Having already performed 2 productions that lasted at least an hour, having the last one exceed that time would be good to accomplish. But our teacher has also instructed the whole group to not be absent for the rest of the term after easter since because we have limited time, people being absent from college without good reason aren't going to get any rehearsal time and any cherographs that our teacher will come up with. So if people are constantly absent, then we have no choice but to also cut their scenes from the production entirely. We were also instructed by our teacher to learn all of our lines in the easter holidays, which lasts 2 weeks. This should be an easy task for me to achieve since I've had no problem learning a huge amount of lines in the past since I'm always focused and have a good memory for things like line learning.

Our teacher also told the group that she has arranged for our Physical Theatre lessons to be rehearsal sessions for 'Junk' since, again, we have limited time to learn the whole production, and we can't afford to slack off and waste time. Having already completed 2 rehearsal sessions, I feel confident that the whole group will be on their best behaviour for this production, since it is the final performance for Btec Level 2 Performing Arts and being focused in this production inparticular will improve their overall final grade.