new.. and i hope final crit com.. to be edited by Rachel....

Directorial Vision/Concept

The play serves to portray to the target audience of Singaporeans and others living in 1^st world and developed countries just how fortunate they are to live in this century, in a first world country where cultural and social rules are not imposed on them.

Lulama would be portrayed as a pessimistic and weather-beaten woman who refuses to give up despite the hardships. The two characters can be both loved and sympathized with or disliked by the audience.

Performance Theory/History of Tradition

It is a naturalistic piece set in the 60’s in Africa, Transkei. It is similar to contemporary realism as it is narrative and has a storyline format which is seen in many of the plays today.

Created behavior-

Using Stanislaski’s method to create a Dramatic ‘I’ that would behave as human as a real ‘I’, the Method of Physical Action is used. We researched on the environment – customs, tradition, climate – and the cultural situation and believed it. As Lulama, I needed to believe that *HER ENVIRONMENT eg in Durban* had led her to *CHARACTERISTIC*

Imagination-

To create an ampler character, we asked ourselves questions like “Is there visible influence from the environment?” We also imagined the possible answers and added more features to personalities. Lulama would have to imagine her past experiences of singing in a group, working in Durban, etc.

Emotion Memory-

By recalling past experiences, we managed to produce the feelings and emotions needed naturally. For Lulama, I related Lulama’s physicality to her intensive training in sports. Also, we observed the people around us. I observed mothers and other care givers on how they react and treat their children. We also had visuals like pictures of their dress sense so we could choreograph our movement accordingly.

Evaluation of creative process

We had initial problems with the set. At first, we had decided to mime the actions. However, we concluded that it was difficult to master the technique perfectly and we looked awkward. Thus, to help us and to also help the audience, we decided to use real grass.
At the beginning, I saw Lulama as a kind and motherly character. But after reading deeper, I realized that the character was actually unconsciously selfish to a certain extent, this changed the way I played the character out to the audience.

The characters in the script are supposed to be Africans, if we wanted to stay true to the script and the story, we would face the problem of the African accent. However, because I have an occasional hint of an Indian accent and Rachel has a chinese accent, the mix would have sounded funny. Also, if the accent was used, the audience might not be able to make out what is being said, thus defeating the purpose of the play presenting a message to the people. In addition, the accent may have caused people to laugh, and turn the play into a comical piece instead of a serious naturalistic story. Thus, we decided not to use an accent.