For the start of this week we carried on with our rehearsals. Since our performance is coming up in 2 weeks time, we decided to get right on with it. First off however, we had to recover from having the extra day off from Bank Holiday Monday. We began this by starting with another Hot Seating session, carrying on with the people who didn't get a chance to present their findings for their character for the last session we had. However, I still didn't have the chance to present my character for the production, Tar, so I have to wait until next week to present it. But this gives me more time to prepare for the questions that are going to asked to me whilst I'm answering them as not as myself, but Tar, which sounds like a challenge, but I have had time for myself to actually learn how Tar would of reacted to certain situations in the script by the type of language he used, so if I can direct the same attitude towards the question, I feel that it'll give others the impression that I understand my character with thorough knowledge.
After the rehearsals and a read-through of the novel, we all received our blog points and our teacher began to think about a rhetorical question, which she hadn’t looked upon before: what is the style of the play? For this, we were to explore the main themes, the main languages, and the main structure of ‘Junk’.
The Theme:
Throughout the story of 'Junk', there are a bunch of tragic events that explain and summarize the plot in minor detail as it goes along. For example, the first main theme has a huge impact on the entire plot and the characters, these two themes are Trust and Friendship. The theme 'Trust' is very important in the storyline of 'Junk' as we follow the stories of both of the lead characters: Tar and Gemma. Throughout the script, we can see it from both of their points of view and can observe what their perspective of trust is really like to them.
For my character Tar, trust comes in the sense that he does not know what he is going to do half the time, and he follows others that he considers 'friends' to help achieve his goals. This eventually leads to a huge impact on his actions both physically and verbally throughout the script around other characters, and this explains how his life goes from good to bad to worse. This could be because Tar had a very complicated childhood with him having awful parents who, daily, gave him abuse and were strict to him for no reason.
Throughout the story of 'Junk', there are a bunch of tragic events that explain and summarize the plot in minor detail as it goes along. For example, the first main theme has a huge impact on the entire plot and the characters, these two themes are Trust and Friendship. The theme 'Trust' is very important in the storyline of 'Junk' as we follow the stories of both of the lead characters: Tar and Gemma. Throughout the script, we can see it from both of their points of view and can observe what their perspective of trust is really like to them.
For my character Tar, trust comes in the sense that he does not know what he is going to do half the time, and he follows others that he considers 'friends' to help achieve his goals. This eventually leads to a huge impact on his actions both physically and verbally throughout the script around other characters, and this explains how his life goes from good to bad to worse. This could be because Tar had a very complicated childhood with him having awful parents who, daily, gave him abuse and were strict to him for no reason.
Gemma's perspective of trust is somewhat similar to Tar's, but more in the way that she doesn’t really much care as much about the consequences of her actions. This could be because Gemma had a similar childhood as Tar, in which she had very strict parents, but the only difference is that they cared for her and they both just wanted the best for their only child. But Gemma, being who she is and madly in love with Tar, just pushed away their advice on how to live life in best way possible and followed a very risky, dangerous path with Tar, which was to run away from home and attempt to begin a new life together where they both did whatever they wanted to do without anybody pulling them back. Therefore when it comes to Gemma running away to join the group of squatters after a reunion with Tar, she has an impact that delivers a moral message to both her and the audience where she says the line: “You should always listen to your parents." This message blinds Gemma until near the end of the play when she realizes that her parents were right from the very beginning, and she opens her eyes and realizes also that she went too far.
Tar and Gemma's different perspective of trust also leads to their different perspective of friendship. Tar only has a confident friendship with Gemma, as he only knows her more than anyone else in the setting of Bristol, and he personally thinks that their relationship can go far to the point where they will be together forever and not even his friendship with Richard and Rob can interrupt his everlasting friendship with Gemma.
Whereas Gemma’s perspective of friendship is her relying on her confidence, especially around Lily, as she can feel happy and relaxed whenever Lily is around her. This also calls back to the theme of trust in the play, since Gemma doesn’t really know what she’s getting herself into. She may feel more confident around Lily than any other character, even Tar, but she doesn’t really know her well enough to be able to trust her with her lifelong secrets. Such as her true feelings about Tar, since we learnt from reading the novel of 'Junk', that Gemma doesn’t have the same feeling of romance with Tar as he does of her.
This shows that they have a different perspective of friendship entirely, as Tar doesn’t attempt to make to many friendships because he cares too much for Gemma and he dosent want anyone to take her form him, and Gemma thinks more of the happiness and confidence rather than the trust of other characters.
The Language:
The language used in 'Junk' is obviously very modern, since it is set in 1980's Bristol. But for this production, the language has been written in a way to have an impact on the audience as they watch so they can understand what type of characters they are observing and what situations they can get themselves in. For example, some of the English language the characters use is very 'street', meaning that there is a lot of slang in the words they pronounce, this would present to the audience the idea that the origin of all the characters were rough and they have spent a lot of time living on the streets, away from the modern world. With that said, the purpose of the language is to give the audience the idea of what type of character they are observing and it also helps them understand what they have been through in their lives.
The Structure:
When I look back to reading the script, I realize that the plot of ‘Junk’ has a certain structure to present a journey. The reason is if you look at the whole play, through most of the main characters point of views, it is a story of how they journey through a cruel and harsh version of modern life. For example, the lead characters, Tar and Gemma, has the story evolve around them, and throughout the story, the audience can see both characters point of view via a monologue. But throughout the entire play, if you were to look further into their characteristics, their actions and plans evolve as the play goes on and this results in more versions of the same journey.
So beginning with Tar, his journey starts from being a child abused schoolboy, to being a squatter in Bristol which then leads to him becoming a 'junkie', and after he becomes a 'junkie', his journey becomes a lot worse. But there is also the fact that Tar’s attitude towards people changes as the play goes on. He begins rather quiet and is shy around other people that aren't Gemma, since he doesn't know if he can trust them or not, and then later on after he becomes a 'junkie', he shows a much darker side and grows an infuriating attitude towards people who simply want to try to help him get off 'Junk'. This shows a journey of his attitude and also his feelings towards other characters in the play, as he has high trust at the beginning, and at the end, he has little trust.
Whereas Gemma has an entirely different journey that has a huge impact on her feelings around the people she loves. For example, in the beginning she is cruel towards others she doesn't know personally and can be a brat towards her parents, and at the end of the play, she has suffered too much and begs for her parent’s forgiveness since she realizes that her parents were right from the beginning about what was going to happen between her and Tar. Gemma has a journey which shows her emotions, as well as, similarly to Tar, a journey of how her trust between other characters changes from high trust, to low trust.
For other characters in the play, it is a matter of how their emotions towards other characters changes also from the beginning to the end.
Beginning with Gemma’s parents, when we first meet her parents, the audience is immediately on Gemmas side as we see her parents the way she sees them: Cruel and strict. But as the play goes on, we see that Gemma’s parents were right about everything and she was wrong. But this also leads to Gemma’s parents becoming more worried, concerned and caring parents towards Gemma, and all they want is for their daughter to return home, rather than cruel and strict parents who want their daughter to be disciplined further. This is a different journey in the play for both the parents and the audience’s perspective view of Gemma, and how the audience go from being on Gemma’s side at the beginning, to her parents side at the end.
There is also a different link of the same journey for some of the characters which are in the group of squatters. For example, it is a journey for the character Vonny, as he succeeds in his lifelong ambition of living a normal life away from home. It is also a journey for the character Richard, as he is the one who builds his confidence around people, especially with Tar as he stands up to him when he says he needs to get help off Junk. For the characters Lily and Rob however, it is a more difficult journey, as they begin as an overly confident squatter/junkie duo, and then later on end up becoming the less confident characters with them both wanting to be safer when it comes to getting and taking drugs and their lives in general.
So the main structure of the play is a different link of the same journey amongst all the characters, whether it is their physical or emotional journeys through a rough view of life.
In summary, for what style of the play 'Junk' is? It is a strong play which explores many themes, a specifically strong signature modern language, and a structure that is an endless journey with many links attached.
Finally at the end of the day, we also had another question we had to ask ourselves, concerning the importance of a vocal warm up prior to a session. It is always important to vocally prepare yourself for a rehearsal session because, much like a physical warm up exercise, it is essential for you to go the extra mile. By this I mean you should see how far you can test the limits of your vocals, so in rehearsals, if you were needed to scream, then you would need to know if you were capable of screaming at right tone and pitch, to make yourself fully capable for the main performance.
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