undercover work

I spent a lot of time working on the characterisation of Marcus and as I previously stated before I would be concentrating on the show 'Bouncers' on E4. This helped me immensely with the way I pronounced words, the emotion behind the words and the tone of it all.

For example, some words that began with 'TH' would be said at the tip of my tongue in an almost relaxed fashion whereas other words such as 'thank' would be pronounced with the bottom of my lip, making it a 'F' sound. I used this because watching Eastender's a lot I realised that the articulation East end of the River isn't immaculate either so I used this to my advantage.

Another factor that helped me find the truth in bouncers was going around the Clapham area and speaking to bouncers that worked at bars and pubs. One of the bouncers said to me the most important thing for a bouncer is to 'always stand firm. If you look weak people will definitely take the micky, take you for a cunt'. This was interesting because Marcus was the complete opposite, he's the type to let anyone push over him and the type to tell someone sorry for punching him in the face. With this advice I had to balance out that attribute with the subtle one that he had and then use it to greater effect in performances.

rehearsal discussions

character development

Going through the script today, underlining the actions (what I'm doing to another character) made me realise that Marcus is someone that tends to inform people a lot of time. Especially Violet as that's the individual he speaks to the most. I feel that the more he informs the stronger his knowledge gets, reading the book is his hiding place, trying to get away from all the madness in Camden. More update as I keep on doing my character development to make sure Marcus is as accurate as in the play.

character help - Bouncer

Watching 'Bouncers' on e4 has really helped me get the accent just right for Marcus, finding the balance between when he's soft and when he's tough. He hardly shows his tough side so I'm still trying my best to find the moments where he is really jokey and playful to him being serious and trying his hardest to be intellectual.

week 6 - act 2 on its way

Week 6 and I feel like I can still bring much more to my character - I'm firstly thinking of going around school talking in the accent Marcus has to really make it stay in my head and for it to be sustained throughout rehearsals and most importantly the play. On page 110 when things get a bit rowdy with Marcus and Cockburn I feel uncomfortable doing that stance and shouting martial arts kind of movement, it doesn't feel right but I'm more than happy to practice it whilst knowing is watching. Maybe it's just more conscience being aware of everyone in the rehearsal room watching me and I'm overthinking a lot of things.

Right now my only goal is to get this character 100% accurate and that'll be through concentration throughout rehearsals and taking on negative notes so I can make them into positives.. Another goal is for me to go away, go home and work on this character so much that I start to feel that my name is Marcus and I'm the bouncer of a strip club in Camden Town.

week 5 - rehearsals/reflection

This rehearsal was one I look on now with so much better things to achieve rather than so much that I can't.

Within the rehearsal I felt like I couldn't reach full potential and I know it isn't possible at this moment in time but I'm trying my best to find the correct characterisation for my character and I feel like I'll get it as time goes by. Right now I feel like the more notes I get the worse I'm becoming as an actor and I feel like it's getting to me. But I've had a couple of realisation moments and talks with a close friend and now I know that the more notes I get now it's only going to push me harder and make my performance a much more effective one.

rehearsing a couple scenes - week four

Tuesday was a really productive day in terms of getting things done in order to move on to better things. We started off by going straight to Act 2 as some people weren't in and that held us back hugely but as professionals we moved on and still did things as usual. I wasn't needed for the first few scenes that were being run so I found myself watching clips of Phil Mitchell from EastEnders as I'm looking for a strong East London accent to imitate. To do this I'm going to have to go down the area and study how the people sound along with watching many documentaries and how the people live and react to things in that area.

Personally I feel that the more I do the accent the weaker it gets and I'm trying my best to find the right way to make this accent work and I hope that the things I do from this day forward will help me channel an accent so strong people would think I'm from east London.