Unit 12: Task 6 - 'One Flew Over...' Evaluations

Candidate Declaration - I confirm that the attached portfolio is all my own work and does not include any work completed by anyone other than myself

Task 6.1 - Write a detailed evaluation on your personal journey throughout this project demonstrate your ability to communicate and collaborate with their peers and professional staff to bring a professional level project to life

I truly believe my skills as a performer have improved slowly over time during each production I’ve been apart of. Since starting my journey in September 2022, being apart of the ‘Ghost Light Tours’ working with Stockton Globe to becoming Nurse Ratched in my final end of year show ‘One Flew Over The Cuckoos Nest’. I have been very fortunate in the productions I’ve been apart of that they pushed my skills as a performer in different ways. For example, whilst Wendy Darling and Dorothy Gale are the same type of character, both innocent, kind hearted young girls, Dorothy gave me the confidence to go for bigger roles and understand what it’s like to learn lots of lines alongside detailed monologues, and on the other hand, Wendy gave me the chance to sing on stage, both as part of an ensemble song and a solo on my own. Thinking back to my first day, those two aims would have been in mind to achieve at some point but I know I wouldn’t have ever thought I’d complete it and bring it to fruition. This highlights why I’ve made sure every character I’ve went for during my two years on this course, have been to push me further and build my skills and most importantly confidence as a performer. 

Throughout this project I've been on an eventful journey, with becoming Nurse Ratched and understanding all of her flaws whilst also trying to collaborate and communicate well with everyone involved in our shows. Personally, there were a few people that couldn't communicate and listen to us clearly, which at times put a bump in the road whilst the rest of us were trying to crack on and be productive. I believe the very few people that let us down in that way, soon enough understood how we all felt and as a team we slowly got into a flow of things and managed to work professionally to make both of our shows the best they could be. The entire group of people that I worked closely with in scenes, like Adam Levick who played my Billy Bibbitt, and George Smedley who played Chief Bromden, were a delight to run scenes with, and whenever I watch them perform, it always inspires me to look at a character differently or even portray a certain emotion in a new way. Since it was my final time performing with everyone (hopefully not...) I made sure to put my all into every rehearsal session like I normally do, and take everyone's ideas and suggestions onboard, as I know in September I'm about to venture into a whole new setting, with new people who have a different way of giving advice and notes, and most importantly new way of performing. I worked quite closely with Callum Gordon who plays R.P McMurphy, since the majority of my scenes are shared with him, unless it's the therapy scenes where it's a full ensemble scene - which were my favourite to rehearse and eventually perform - and it felt like a nice full circle to end my final show performing side by side with him, as we began our APTA journey as Dorothy Gale and The Wizard, to then brother and sister Zafer and Stefi in our Connection's show 'Old Times', to now the evil Nurse Ratched and heroic yet misunderstood McMurphy. He is incredibly professional to work with and understands the characters he plays to such a high level that when I perform with him, I fully believe that I'm not acting with Callum anymore, and instead a whole other character. To achieve that as an actor is immense, and it's credit to him and his craft. I will miss not being able to perform with him as closely, and I really hope that our acting paths cross again one day. Everyone involved in my cast wanted the show to be at a perfect standard, and I think due to it being our final end of year show, it pushed us to deliver a high level performance for all of our family and friends to watch. In addition, I think we all wanted to do ourselves and all of our tutors like Kelly proud, since we all had put our ideas into the show, and we all deserved to end our time at Stockton Riverside on a memorable high. 

My character of Nurse Ratched is complex and she is much more than what meets the eye. I've loved getting to know her and delve deep into her brain and her thoughts and what makes her the person that she is. I've done lots of research into her and her story - which is compiled on my blog on a post named 'Unit 12: Task 2.1 - Research of 'One Flew Over...' - and I used the knowledge I knew into creating her into the well-known character we all know as well as make her into my own at the same time. I gave her subtle actions which only belonged to her and made the relationships she has with certain characters stronger than others. For example, her and Billy are close, but not in a good way, whereas I don't really have an established relationship with Harding despite him being a main character. I discuss more my choices and thoughts on the character in my evaluation below which focus on my final performance performing as Nurse Ratched. 

To begin our 'One Flew Over..' process, as a cast we worked together to research our characters and their own motives, like what vendetta do they have against certain characters, or perhaps why do they act a certain way in different situations. It gave us all a clear indication of our relationships as a full ensemble, and it allowed us to look at scenes and give our own direction on how our characters would handle themselves in it. Beginning our process off on a professional foot was ideal, and it allowed us to carry that professionalism with us right to the performance days. We also researched the time period that 'One Flew Over..' was set in, and for Nurse Ratched, how likely would her character have even existed. Upon researching, men stood at the forefront of everything, so to have the play feature a strong controlling woman at its forefront was unique and entirely new at the time. It almost was like swapping the table round, and the men were the 'weaker' race in this story in comparison to the women. However, in present time we understand that men and women are capable of doing the exact same thing, and the statement arguing against that during the 1960's was something we all needed to remember whilst rehearsing as it's so unlike time now. We all collaborated professionally together and our rehearsals were always productive, with us having a clear objective each session, like for example which scene we wanted to focus on and by the end of it, we would have a scene we all felt really confident on and we would revisit it at the end of the week along with lots of other scenes we worked closely on.  

As a cast, we would always listen intently to what advice Kelly, Tom or Abigail had and channel it into making our characters more developed and though-out, so taking their view and opinion is always a step in the right direction to professionalism. I made sure to use their opinions as from an audience members view, they will spot something that just needs a little tweak, and hearing their advice will make my performance that little bit more enhanced. We all listened to each other, and I made sure to share with my peers any ideas I had concerning a certain scene and they felt comfortable sharing their own with me. All the amazing actors I worked with made this experience just the best, and it was a fantastic chance to look deep into a wicked character. 

Task 6.2 - Write a detailed evaluation on your final performance and the journey you have been on to meet the requirements of the projects that you have taken part in. Comment on both your work and also the work of the ensemble and production team.

I was fortunate enough to play the role of Nurse Ratched in my final performance. Upon the surface she is an evil, strict woman who takes charge in the ward, and hates patients that step out of line in her presence. For me, I set clear objectives, one of which was to make the audience feel a negative way about me, and second of which was to make the actors alongside me on stage feel intimidated by me in a way that would enhance their acting in any moments that would require them to feel scared by me. Nurse Ratched's motivation is seeing how her patients react to her complex power, and any moment in the script where I had a power control, like during the first voting scene, I made sure to show a sense of triumph like I had won. I think I met my objectives very well, due to audience comments and through my acting I remember feeling really confident when performing. It was hard at first to connect to Nurse Ratched since I had no connections and similarities with her that I would channel into my performance, so instead I looked to the movie version of Nurse Ratched and delved deep into Louise Fletcher's portrayal of her. I feel like I was more able to connect to Louise Fletcher as she went through the same experience of portraying Nurse Ratched as I did. I've researched the character to a high level and used facts I collected about her in addition to the time period, when acting as her to take my performance to a more detailed place, which I can imagine Louise Fletcher might have done in preparation of her Academy Award winning portrayal of Nurse Ratched. 

I believe my vocal performance was clear and my pacing matched the mood of the conversation. For example, during my scene with Doctor Spivey and McMurphy regarding the carnival idea, I kept my pace to a normal and calm speed, but when I was proved wrong and begun speaking to Billy, I quickened my pace to highlight a need for power and to make him slip up facts in his speech. Whenever I did speed up my lines, I never spoke over anyone unless wrote in the script or it felt correct to do so, and I always made sure that I was understood in my words and that I pronounced every word clearly, since I believe Nurse Ratched would never stumble over words in a way to make herself appear 'perfect'. Nurse Ratched stays in her little box a lot of the time in the script and overlooks the patients to see if they are either staying in line, cleaning as part of their duties and overall, not obeying her leadership and power. When she's not in her box, she's always stood up whilst the patients are sat down in their chairs, further highlighting her dominance and charge in all situations in the hospital. The one and only time they match her stance and don't appear lower than her in their chairs, is when they all collectively are messing around and stepping out of line, which is important in the story to highlight that the patients are growing out of her motherlike attitude, and by looking down on her makes her appear smaller than them physically and metaphorically. It was clear in my opinion to see the different relationships Nurse Ratched has with all the characters on stage. With Nurse Flinn, I imagine there's a slight bit of jealousy in terms of her youth and age, and perhaps a bit of pitying in terms of how shy and nervous she is around the male patients and aides on the ward. I made sure to show this relationship in the very first meeting we have in the show, when she startles me by turning up to work late, by squinting my eyes, sighing and giving her a tight-lipped smile. In comparison to a character like Billy Bibbitt, who is a shy, nervous patient that falls for Nurse Ratcheds manipulation. There's a specific moment at the beginning where we first see them together, and unlike the way she is around all the other patients, she links her arm with Billys and takes him away from the patients to discuss his newly added scar. This highlights how she enjoys his submission to her ways, and that she has his wrapped around her finger, so anytime I have a conversation with Billy, I share a more motherly relationship with him in comparison to my relationship with patient Dale Harding for example. When Billy betrays my trust at the end of the play, it all makes sense to why I react like a mother because I've been that figure to him and only him throughout the play. It's important to me that all these relationships with every character on stage is developed and complex, so that the audience watch a multi-layered performance where the relations have more than meets the eye. 

My favourite scene is the final scene I'm in which is Billy's death. I love acting alongside Adam and Callum who play McMurphy and Billy, so to have such intense dialogue with them both in one big scene was such a dream. Nurse Ratched goes through intense emotions throughout the scene, beginning annoyed and ready to punish everyone to upset and ashamed finishing on wicked and sinister which leads to her being strangled and on the floor. Showing the cycle of emotions she goes through was so interesting to me, and I felt like each time I did it, they got stronger, and I was able to pinpoint moments where they were at their all time high. I feel like I pushed her manipulation a lot through the way I spoke, whether that was how I started and finished a sentence or used my body language and facial expressions when addressing someone. Personally, I could have maybe pushed for a deeper connection with the Chief, as I mention him to others quite a bit, but I didn't always look at him in group therapy scenes or acknowledge his presence with a slight nod or eye glance. Me and George - who played Chief Bromden - have a really good professional relationship, so the problem didn't lie with us getting along, it was more on my behalf and the way I could have showed a more on stage relationship, instead of let him be a subject point. I have a lengthy monologue all about the patients being punished, guilt tripping them into thinking they did something terribly bad, whilst also talking about Chief Bromden as if he wasn't in the room beside me. I loved performing that monologue as it allowed me to take my characterisation to a whole new place and showcase Nurse Ratched's manipulation further.