Week Beginning the 28th April

On Tuesday 28^th April, I had a Zoom call with Rob and my class this morning. We read through the script of “Our Day Out”. As some people were not in lesson, we had to read their lines. Reading the script with my class was very helpful because it made me understand how my character Susan who is a teacher would perform a line. For example, when Reilly says, “Sir’s in love, Sir’s in love!” I would turn to look at him with a raging stare and say, “Watch it, Brian!” in a sharp and angry tone of voice. This shows that Susan is of a higher status as she is a teacher, she has had enough of Reilly’s childish acts and cannot take any more of his behaviour. Whilst reading through the play everyone laughed at the scene when I say my line “Well Brian … I’m here” and “I’m all yours … Handsome” to Louis’ character Reilly, who is a cheeky kid and thinks he is the most good-looking boy in the class. His reaction to those lines is scared and confused, this is because he was messing around and did not expect to be approached by an older woman.

Willy Russell

Research:

Our Day Out was a television play written by Willy Russell for the BBC in 1977. He once taught at a school in Liverpool similar to the one in the play. He used his memories and experience of the loud kids and different teachers to show what life was like in a school in the 70s.

As part of my research, after reading the script, I decided to watch “Our Day Out” on YouTube as it can be difficult to understand how the characters feel when reading the script on your own. It helped me recognize the characters in the play because I saw how they felt by their facial expressions and different tones of voice. The loudness of the kids reminded me of when I played in the playground and every school has the character Mr Briggs, a strict, bossy and angry teacher that every student hate. I feel excited about performing in this play because Willy Russell uses the themes comedy, sadness and sympathy in his writing that I can show in my acting.

In my spare time I have been practicing tongue twisters. This helps to warm up my voice and to speak clearly. The tongue twisters I have been practising:

How much wood

would a woodchuck

chuck if a woodchuck

could chuck wood.

Peter piper picked a peck

Of pickled peppers

How many pickled peppers

Did peter piper pick.

Can you

Can a can

As a canner can

Can a can.

Give papa a cup

Of proper coffee

In a copper coffee cup.

Which witch

Switched the

Swiss wristwatchers.

Shut up the Shutters

And sit in the shop.

Six sleek swans

Swam swifty southwards.


Characterisation:

In our performance of “Our Day Out” I will be playing the role of Susan. She is a young teacher who respects Mrs Kay, one of the leading characters in the play, who is an older and more experienced teacher than Susan. Susan understands that the kids are from poor backgrounds and have no hope for the future however Susan still wants them to have a good experience at school. This is seen when they find out Mr Briggs, an antagonistic teacher, who is unkind to the kids is coming on the school trip with them. We can see this on the lines “Make sure we don’t enjoy ourselves”. Susan is very patient but corrects the kids when they are wrong. She also prefers to talk to the kids instead of shouting, when she tells Colin “don’t shout”. Susan reminds me of a teacher from my secondary school who was also kind and supportive. 

Susan has probably experienced disrespectful men chatting her up in the past, which does not interest her, and this is how she deals with Reilly fancying her. After using the line “but I’d suggest that in future you stay in your own league” Susan guides Reilly to Linda Croxley who is in the same league, which shocks him because he thought Linda Croxley fancied the teacher Collin.