Unit 9- Developing performance and production skills- Dear Evan Hansen

 Task 1:

A)When I first started college, I was really anxious and had never done any acting before. I was super embarrassed to choose GCSE Drama, which was super silly of me. I began teaching myself how to act and I progressively got better. By the time I started college I was still quite anxious because  thought that all my class mates would be amazing and would have been doing acting for ages, and of course they are amazing, but some had just started like me, which really helped with my confidence. We started of with doing 'The Witches'. This was an amazing show to help us break the ice and allow us to all get a lot closer to one another and feel less shy. I was casted as the tress house witch and the second chef. I was really comfortable with doing the tress house witch, as I thought that I could play this role pretty well. The second chef however. That was a totally different story. I was so so soooo scared to play it. Every rehearsal I did for it, I felt like I was going to have a anxiety attack. It was just so out of my comfort zone, and something I had never done before. I was never afraid to play the tree house witch until show day. I felt so sick to my stomach on show day and was so scared to do it on stage. But then the next day it was time for me to play the second chef, I was a little anxious, but gosh it was nothing compared to usual. It was crazy. But Those two characters were probably the best ones I could have started of with. If I hadn't got them, I wouldn't have been able to have the confidence to audition for the main roles. Since I knew that I'm capable of doing something harder I did. The next show was Charley and the Chocolate factory. My favourite show that I have ever done. I REALLY wanted to play the role of Verruca, but everyone was telling me top go for Charlie Bucket, including my teacher. I didn't want Charlie at all because he is the main main character, and I thought that I wouldn't be able to remember all the lines. I went and ended up doing an audition for Verruca and Charlie. The cast list came out and I found out that I got the role of Charlie Bucket. I was quite bummbed that I didn't get Verruca, but I was overall happy that my cast mates and teachers believe in me. Being in from scene 2 all the way to the end and learning all those lines was probably the biggest confidence boost I could have gotten. Not only did it help my acting in many different ways, including improvisation due to the fire alarm haha, but it allowed me to get closer to my class mates which also helped me to act better with them, as I feel less shy around them. I couldn't have asked for a better cast and show. It was an incredible way to help improve my acting career. After Charlie and the chocolate factory we began doing the connections show. I really wasn't a fan of this one. I just felt like it dragged quite a bit. One thing I would say helped was that we all worked really well as an ensemble. It is so important to be able to work as an ensemble, because if something goes wrong we can all communicate on stage without ruining it. I didn't get a main role but overall I do believe that it was a good performance and it helped me to make my own character. Our end of year show was Blood Brothers. I'm pretty sure this was everyone's favourite show but mine. I just felt a little useless, except when I played the police woman in cast 2. Although I didn't get a main role which really knocked my confidence down, I helped back stage doing the set. This was a good way to end the year with learning how to do backstage work. The police woman was a character that I have never played before. It really helped with my comedic timing. And now I'm at the beginning of the second year of college. I  feel like I'm a different person. I'm stilly shy when I have to perform in front of everyone, but now I'm able to give things I wouldn't have been able to do last year. 

B) I have played a light hearted role before, but I have never played a dramatic role, and I would love to play that and bring a character who goes through something, onto the stage. I would also like to do a proper duologue, where something series happens between two characters. I've also never done a song and physical theatre before, but I believe that this year I will be able to add that to my skillset, as me and my classmates are doing the Christmas Carol Muppets this November in the Globe. 

Task 2:

Dear Evan Hansen is a show about a teenage boy called Evan Hansen. He struggles with social anxiety and loneliness. He is an outcast at his high school with only one friend, named Jared, and is often bullied. His therapist gives him an assignment to write letters to himself about things that will happen each day. In one of those letters, which he writes at school, he mentions Zoe Murphy, the girl he has a crush on. However, Zoe's brother and a bully of Evan's, Conner takes the letter from Evan. Shortly afterwards, Conner dies by suicide and is found with Evan's letter, which his parents think Conner wrote. Evan, not wanting to devastate them further, lies and confirms their belief, and pretends that he and Conner were friends. The Murphy's take Evan under their wing and start to think of him like a son. Evan doesn't want to reveal the truth because he feels accepted for once: He becomes closer with Zoe, and the Murphy's are more attentive to him than his own well-meaning mother, who works often. Soon, he even founds "The Conner Project" in his classmate's honour and unwittingly starts a viral movement for inclusion and acceptance. But he has to eventually figure out how to tell the truth about his relationship with Conner, which got blown out of proportion.  Dear Evan Hansen is based of a true story. At an event at New York Comic Con in 2019, Stavey Mindich, who produced the fear Evan Hansen musical, revealed that the story is based on the experience of the show's lyricist Benj Pasek and his high school's reaction to a classmate who died of a drug overdoes 

Character study- Evan

Basic things to know about Evan Hansen:

~He is the main character

~The son of Heidi and mark Hansen

~He has social anxiety which shapes his personality through the whole show 

~He is 17 years old

~Played by Ben Platt

His wants:

~Evan is deprived of love and attention. His super-objective is to find acceptance

~Evan is bullied throughout the whole show, so he has a few conflicts and tensions in some scenes. One of them being the argument with his mother, which I'll talk about more later on. 

~Evan ended up lying about being friends with Conner and deceived them. He didn't have bad intentions and he actually just felt loved finally, but he accidentally carried it on for too long.

Character study-Heidi

Basic things to know about Heidi Hansen:

~Heidi Hansen is Evans mother

~Heidi was divorced by her husband when Evan was 7

~She is in her late 30's/ early 40's

~She is a nurses aid, and is training to be a paralegal 

~Doesn't take the divorce well-Really misses her ex husband Mark

~Played by Rachel Bay Jones

Her wants:

~Heidi works so hard to show her boss that she is a 'Team player'. She is very committed at her job of being a nurse. She also attends school at night. Her super-objective is to be able to have a steady job so that she can keep providing Evan and herself with a good life. She really wants to have a good relationship with Evan but because of her job its not doing her any justice

~During the show Heidi has a few scenes which include conflicts and tensions. The biggest one is with Evan her son. In ACT TWO SCENE SEVEN on page 102-103, is the best argument scene I have ever seen. It really shows their relationship and what an actual argument between a son and mother can look like. It's very realistic which is all thanks to the dialogue