New Experiences #9 - #12
W/C 6th February 2012
New Experience #9: Sustaining An Accent In A Show
My second onstage performance of the year saw a second new experience whilst treading the boards; keeping up an American accent for a whole show. And with a brief Puerto Rican and then German accent thrown in for good measure, or more precisely, in accordance to the script. I was playing American gang member A-Rab in the school’s production of West Side Story, which tells the story of Romeo And Juliet within the setting of fifties’ New York and is arguably the greatest musical of all time.
A-Rab is an “animated little ferret” who is cocky and violent (I based my swagger on Liam Gallagher) and as well as sustaining his New-Yoik twang, I had to imitate a Puerto Rican counterpart, Bernardo, for a sentence and a German psychiatrist for a song. Accents have never been my strong point, but American and Puerto Rican I could just about deal with. When you consider the amount of American films, TV and music we are surrounded by I suppose it’s understandable and the Puerto Rican line was a matter of six words, which I could handle.
Although neither was particularly convincing, for my German section, as part of the lively number Officer Krupke, I flitted between Brummie and Russian during rehearsal to the amusement of the cast. By the time the night came, I was just sounding very angry, which although a feature of many stereotypical Germanic characters, is not the defining part of the accent.
Rating: 3/5 for American, 2/5 for German. That gives it 3/5 altogether because I like my averages rounded up.
New Experience #10: A Welsh Play at The New Sherman
As part of my Welsh A-Level course I have to talk about Welsh theatre, so as a class we went to the recently reopened Sherman Theatre for Sgint, a fully Welsh production about the flaws of society. The setting was ideal, with the new building looking mighty fine, to use an architectural term, and the set looked very promising as we walked in to find our seats. Then it started.
Without going into review mode, the whole thing was a series of rants from underdeveloped characters and was just a load of pretentious nonsense. It would have been bad in English so the fact that it was in a language I can only half understand made it that bit worse. There were English surtitles (think opera, or if you haven’t been, think subtitles on a screen above the stage) but we were right at the back and I’m short sighted.
Rating: 2/5 - I’d like to see a Welsh play again but not this one.
New Experience #11: Folk Dancing
On the evening of Sgint I was invited to a folk dancing party for a friend’s mother’s fiftieth. So, naturally, I went. We danced around Llandaff Rowing Club until everyone had folked themselves silly. By the end I wasn’t half bad and had enjoyed myself so much that the play was but a distant memory. Folk dancing is the way I tell you!
Rating: 5/5, I had a smile on my face the whole time.
New Experience #12: Watching A Silent Movie
Winner of hearts, minds and BAFTAs, silent film The Artist is the most talked about movie of the year, if you excuse the irony. Showing at that king of Cardiff cinemas, Chapter, I went along as a silent film virgin and came out gagging for more, having been transfixed from start to finish. I can see how exciting it must have been for directors and audiences alike to see the progression into talking movies in the late twenties and there’s no question that dialogue does add to a film.
However, as a nineties kid used to noisy movies, the experience of seeing a black and white film with just the background music of an orchestra was equally as exciting and refreshing. The film reminded me how important body language is and how music can instantly change an atmosphere, two things we take for granted as 21st century viewers. I was so absorbed that by the point that there was audible dialogue at the end of the film I’d completely forgotten I was watching a silent movie at all, which perhaps shows the quality of the film. I am keen to go away and watch more silent movies as The Artist is a true cinematic masterpiece which left me speechless. Pun intended.
Rating: 5/5, even though we had to sit in the front row because we were late, which wasn’t helpful for my already stiff neck.
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IMAGE: New by chrisinplymouth
