Makai’s Online Journal

Main idea:

The main idea of this performance is based on the stimulus which is a song of Lucas Graham which is called ” once I was 7 years old”, and the song is about his life. the song goes through a series of different stages in Lucas life which was most important to him. It first starts when his biological father leaves him and that’s tears him apart. Now at seven years old Lucas was a house child and didn’t really like to go out but eventually his mother told Lucas ” you need to go out and makes some friends or you”ll be lonely”. Lucas started to interact with other kids from the area but by 11 the friends he made started to affect Lucas attitude towards life and whatever his friends done he done for example, he was rolling around with drugs and smoking and also started to consume Alcohol into his system regularly as an 11 year old child , from being on the roads til late Lucas went around with an type of attitude were he didn’t care about the world. Even though Lucas was influenced by bad people he always had a thing for music because he was really talented, so he started to write songs and when he was writing music he was focused and nobody could distract him in his element. The time Lucas was 20 he was finally successful and his music hit the charts and started making serious money. This stimulus inspired me to create a performance that explores how someone could go from rags to riches. 

Characters:

Karver Joseph – Lucas as an 11 year old child ( smoking & drinking)/ Also as Lucas Grahm fan in the second scene

Me-Makai Byrne- As ‘Lucas’ (costume design)/(Narrator). I will be playing Lucas as a the 20 year old which is rich and famous. However in the first scene i will be playing as Lucas’s father.

rehearsal techniques – In this particular performance there was no possible way that me and karver could rehearse this because it was an impervised performance.

  Drama Techniques: In order for our performance to be successful is to be able to react in the right way to what me and my partner say, not just speech wise but also in the body language. The performance is an impervised scene so certain reactions used in body language can show the characters emotion even though he doesn’t have to say anything. Me and karver are playing the same character but at different parts of Lucas’s life . I am playing the rich and famous Lucas which leads him to happiness in my performance whats going to happen is, i will be dressed up in expensive clothing and a big fan of mine (karver) spots me and basically what happens is i go on like i’m not Lucas and that makes the fan a bit upset but than i tell him that i am Lucas and he gets very excited, he asked to take a picture of me so we took a selfie. Once he was gone i couldn’t believe how famous i was and it made think that anything is possible from me growing up being kind of lonely to being influenced by my friends to do drugs my father leaving this shows the best friend i had over the years was music but i had to find it first.

Costumes:

Karver’s costume is quite basic a plane beige tracksuit which suit his character and his performance. karver tracksuit was perfect for his role as Lucas when he was 11 years of age because its material could keep Lucas warm as he was out on the roads so late drinking and smoking . The tracksuit is also useful for getting around so it was a comfortable get around the area quickly clothes . secondly i put him in Nike hierarchy trainers which was comfortable for him to wear all day everyday without fail .

Makai costume playing Lucas is a very well placed out outfit. so if u start from the top u can see he is wearing a cab which is not an ordinary brand because not every body has it . Secondly he has a gold tooth in his mouth this symbolizes  that he has a little bit of bling. Thirdly he is wearing a highly fashioned grey jumper that is from Zara, on the jumper there is picture of a massive skull highlighted in black now this jumper got picked out because it brings back memories to Lucas that he used to be a rebel . Lucas character also wears ripped jeans because its up to date with the fashion and ripped jeans are expensive. Last there’s Lucas’s Prada shoes which cost about £255 . All together Lucas outfit as a 20 years old is meant to show the different between his pasted and now especially because the amount of money that he is earning .

Evaluation: Looking back at my performance i can see where i went wrong in the fact that even though it was improvised i could of said more and also in my body language showed more emotion. When i was performing as Lucas’s dad i could of showed more love and affection to him even though he didn’t want me to be in his life anymore because i left him when he was a child . Also i could of explain to him why i left him as a child so he could understand me a little bit more. Secondly when i was performing at Lucas when he was rich i could of been more excited as i had a fan that was really happy to see me or i could of reacted more shocked . what else i wish i could changed was i could of done a longer spoken word whereas i could explain more how i went from rags to riches and how good it actually feels now because i am famous.

 A spoken thought is another way to describe the self-reflection of the character . The main use for spoken thought is to show the true feelings of how the characters actually is. Lucas self reflection is him realizing everything he has gone through as a child growing up towards to being a young man, but also to see how proud he should be of him self. 

i would re-work these moments in order to better communicate the central idea of the piece: A performance that explores how someone could go from rags to riches. This is shown in the performance when you can see the different of clothing between Lucas as an 11 years old child & Lucas as a 20 year old man. in order to strengthen this idea further through the use of costume i would put Karver in a more scruffy type of clothing that may have a couple holes in it, an also make karvers character wear something different  when he changes to be Lucas fan so it makes more sense to the audience. Another moment i would re-work is for when i’m Lucas when he is famous, where i could of tried to get some jewelry so it could make me look more rich and it could of shown that i am getting a lot of money. 

Main idea:

The main idea of my performance is to get the message across to audience that my character knows that he is going to die. In doing so I’m going to write a death letter to my mother so she knows that, even though I’m young I will die happy regardless if I’m ready to die yet or not .

Dear Ms Hopkins,

         I came across one of your articles in my English lesson. Funny that, because in your piece you talk a lot about England. But you seem to enjoy disrespecting other people who are not fully English. I am black Caribbean and you need to understand that my ancestors have already gone through adversity in history to assert our rights to live on equal terms with everybody else. Additionally, without all of us “cockroaches”, as you call us, England – especially London – wouldn’t be the multicultural hub it is right now. Regardless if you get paid for it or not, I am quite frankly astonished that you think it’s all right to write stuff like that on your blog. When we had the Second World War, who helped build London back up and make it a better place for yourself and the next generation ?  Secondly,  we all know if it was a “coloured” person writing the same prejudiced views and you were just an ordinary citizen reading them, for example in the newspaper, you would think that it was very disrespectful and you would take action over it. Thirdly, immigrants contribute far more to the economy than they take away in benefits:  there are more people claiming unemployment benefit in Hodgehill and Ladywood (two Birmingham constituencies) than Polish people getting the dole in the whole of the United Kingdom. You need to understand that London is a multi – racial culturally diverse place and that is the key reason for its success.

         Growing up in London and going to school here, you learn not to look at any one differently- it doesn’t matter what skin colour or race you are. As we know you have a family: now how would you feel if London was for example Africa and Africa was London and you wanted to go there to get a good job so your kids could get a good education? You need to look at things from another perspective and understand the backgrounds of other people’s ethnicity, and why they would want to come to the UK.

        “NO, I don’t care. Show me pictures of coffins, show me bodies floating in water, play violins and show me skinny people looking sad. I still don’t care.” What this quote illustrates is that you have no respect for the human race other than yourself or (white) British people .“Watching them try to clamber on to British lorries and steal their way into the UK, do I feel pity? Only for the British drivers, who get hit with a fine every time one of this plague of feral humans ends up in their truck.” This is sickening to read because there are people dying and you show no emotion, and all they are trying to do is come to the UK and make a better life for themselves. When you refer to immigrants as swarms, feral and cockroaches, you are not just cold hearted, you are being racist.

         Your article reads as though you have done no research whatsoever into the very real contribution that migrants have given to Britain not just now but through the history of the British Empire. The Economist found that ‘in 1995 and 2011 the migrants made a positive contribution of more than £4 billion ($6.4 billion) to Britain, compared with an overall negative contribution of £591 billion for native Britons,’ and from 2001-11 Eastern European immigrants gave back  £5 billion.  The NHS would be on its knees without overseas doctors;  but at the same time you should know that research has found no meaningful impact on unemployment in the UK as a result of immigration.  The UK had fewer applications for asylum in 2015 than six other EU countries.  And finally there are 610,00 empty homes in the UK that we could open up to refugees from war torn countries.You need to look at the reality of immigration in the UK. It is as though you live in a bubble completely cut off from the outside world. I recommend you to go round and see the type of state these migrants live in and then compare it to your own.  

     Yours sincerely,

                            Makai Byrne

In the beginning, there is nothing: then as the game begins thousands and thousands of fans are screaming and shouting, their aggressive chants arguing from one side to the other like waves of crashing sound, growls and insults rattling across the stands to build up confidence for their team and drain away confidence for the opposite team. At every chance scored or missed the fans are forever going crazy.

As all teams do, they put on a show for the fans with their fancy footwork and amazing long range and short passes which make the crowd start chanting – a cheeky noise which normally builds in a wave which ends in laughter that makes it look like a mockery to the opposite team. They start singing players’ names to keep them playing well, but sometimes the fans put their own team down by reacting badly especially when their team misses an important opportunity. However, all crowds are different – they might take it as a good thing where their team’s being positive by being on the front foot and creating chances, or they will react badly by hurling stuff on the pitch as their team keep missing chances and the crowd doesn’t think they can dig out a goal.

To me watching the games it always feels like the game is played at a fast tempo where there’s a lot of fast physical players with unbelievable talent zooming from one end to the other with the ball. The amount of challenges that goes on is crazy; there’s some really good challenges and some really bad challenges, but once you start to look into the game it’s like it goes in slow motion and you see everything in pure detail – the foul language, every drip and drop of sweat and rain you can only see when the floodlights are on. Most people in the world will probably say, “Oh it’s football, it’s just a game” . No it’s not just a game! It’s everything to the players – it’s their career. Every time they go out onto the pitch they have got to go through the abusive language (racism) and they are also at risk that their careers can end from one single challenge – just go and witness the amount of fitness you need to last the whole 90 minutes. The game’s intensely emotional; the the ups and down of emotions you have in one hour and a half is completely abnormal, and I leave the match feeling like I was on a never ending roller coaster.

From the player’s perspective:

 As I come out of the tunnel, it feels like a long journey to success. I can hear the crowd roar; they can’t see us, but we can hear them. There’s a trickling feeling on your skin while you have butterflies in your stomach, and the prickling of sweat starting to appear on your fingertips as the rate of your heart increases. It brings me happiness as I’m coming out the tunnel because the crowd starts singing my name recording and taking pictures of me; they probably think we don’t notice, but we do. If we didn’t have to go onto the pitch so quickly I know I would make a fans day by giving them a free shirt or signing an autograph, because without the fans football will never be the way it is today.

 The game starts, the whistle blows. The ball is streaking across the slick smooth grass. And every pass that’s made, you can see the little sprays of water as the ball cuts through the grass. You make space, calling for the ball to give your team mate an option before he gets tackled – but he wastes the opportunity.The crowd gets frustrated. I get frustrated. Our manager jumps out of his seat and starts swearing in a different language . My team mate gets injured; now he has to come off, all because he didn’t pass the ball. Now I have to go into a position I didn’t want to play in. My eyes roll; then I spit on the ground. The opposite team player sees I’m annoyed so he mutters a sly comment underneath his breath thinking no one could hear, so next time he get the ball there’s a high possibility a nasty challenge will be put upon him. The crowd goes wild – they love it. The opposite team hates it; I get booked then get subbed off. I take off my top and walk into the changing room consumed with regret, flashbacks of everything that happened in the game repeating in my head, thinking why did I do this? I’m panicking a little bit, thinking about the consequences and what the manager’s going to say. I might not get picked at all for the squad – I probably won’t make the bench. Anger starts to kick in . I throw my boots at the wall. See, football’s not just a game – it’s our heart and passion. Now my face is in my hands thinking about the worst that could come out of it.

Your sincerely,

Makai Byrne

Dear Ms Birbalsingh,

        I am writing to you because I disagree with one of your articles about the London riots and Mark Duggan -‘These Riots Were About Race’  published in 2011.

      Firstly, I disagree with the way you start your article “What colour is Mark Duggan?” Don’t get me wrong, everyone has the right to their own opinion, but you portray Mark Duggan’s death as though it’s just another black man getting shot. My question to you is: if it was a man with a white skin, would you have a different point of view? Because as a black kid living in London I definitely have another perspective to you. Living here, you learn to treat everyone as equal. Obviously in life people may be more successful than each other, but on the other hand my experience has also been that when it comes to skin colour it seems that treating everyone as equals goes out the window and black lives and white lives are looked on different terms.

       Perhaps it’s just too easy for you to blame the black community for the riots. However, what you’re not realizing is that when this shooting happened everybody had just had enough. Don’t underestimate the impact of poverty on the black community in today’s London. There are 32 boroughs here, and Tottenham has one of the highest levels of child poverty of all of them. And yet you wonder why youths are on the roads. Over a quarter of people living in London are living in poverty, compared with 20% in the rest of the country; 18% are paid less than the London living wage. For every one white person there are two black people living in poverty. And yet the most recent Home Office study (2006) revealed that “levels of offending and drugs use were lower for young people of non white ethnic identities”.

      I am a young black man living in south London and I go to school in the centre of the metropolis (Waterloo). I live in an area called Penge and from Penge to Waterloo it’s quite a distance. I travel a lot and get around because I have a lot of friends that live in different parts of London . However, because of our skin colour (Black), the fact is that we are seven more times likely to get stopped and searched by the police than any other ethnic group and 17.5 more times likely to get stopped than a white person .  When you write: ‘Either Duggan was shooting at the police or the driver of the minicab was’ you simplify a highly charged, highly complicated situation. Every day, black youths living in London have to re-negotiate their relationship with the police, and I know from being in London with my white friends that the situation is completely different if you are not black.

      You state that one of Duggan’s friends ‘makes it sound as if the police are killing black people every other weekend and finally someone decided to take a stand’. But the facts are not so far away from this. Institutional racism has been identified as a huge and still unsolved problem in the London police force dating back to the murder of Stephen Lawrence in 1993. You claim that black youths are more likely to commit crimes, but you completely overlook the problem of institutional racism. which means that in London black people are constantly under the the spotlight. Stereotyping them in this way creates a vicious cycle of racism which you yourself contribute to. After the murder of Stephen Lawrence in 1993, it took five years for the public inquiry to expose the extent of institutional racism within the police force. In 2012, Jack Straw said setting up this inquiry was “The single most important decision I made as Home Secretary”. In May 2004, BBC News described The Lawrence case as “one of the most important moments in the modern history of criminal justice in Britain”. Finally, as recently as June 2015 Sir Bernard Hogan -Howe said in an interview for the BBC, ” If other people think we are institutionally racist, then we are. It’s no good me saying we’re not and saying you must believe me. That would be a nonsense, if they believe that.”

      Ms Birbalsingh, you point to Mark Duggan’s colour, and are quick to blame black youth for the riots that have happened in the wake of the shooting, but you haven’t looked back into the history of black oppression since the beginning of the British Empire or maybe even more importantly researched the facts of what has been ongoing with institutional racism in London over the last couple of decades.  The situation with black people in London is much more complex than you portray, and your article makes many assumptions. In fact remarks like ‘black youths once again have set London alight’ are potentially inflammatory and therefore I am surprised that you feel comfortable writing them. Not only is your article offensive, but in my opinion you would be naive of you if you thought people wouldn’t be upset by it or want to argue back . I hope next time you write on this subject or a similar one you will think about how what you write will affect the black community and not just your accepting audience.

     Yours sincerely,

Makai Byrne

in this play there is two times zones ,the Trojan war (a Greek myth) and the current Israeli war between Israel and Palestine over Gaza .  the Trojan lived in the city of troy , which is modern day turkey . the trojan war began when Paris , prince of troy , ran away with Helen , wife of king Menelaus+ of Sparta . the Greeks sent a fleet ship with a large army to get her back .The walls around Troy were very high and very strong. According to the legend of the Trojan Horse, for ten long years the Greeks had been trying to get over the wall around the city of Troy. But the Greeks could not get over the wall. And the Trojans could not drive the Greeks away. Year after year they fought. And year after year neither side won.  

The Greeks thought it was a brilliant idea. They had their best artists build the horse and it was magnificent. When it was ready, the Greeks brought the wooden horse close to the gates of Troy and pretended to sail away.

Then, the entire Greek army would pretend to leave, as if they had finally admitted defeat. But the horse would be hollow. Thirty men would be hiding inside. That’s what they did.

As the Greek warriors sailed away, the people of Troy rushed outside, cheering. They found the horse. Fortunately, they did not try to burn the horse. They dragged the horse inside the city gates to keep it on display, which is just what the Greek general thought they would do – gloat.

Understanding of the character :  The understanding of Achilles relates to me a lot but i tried to put change his looks more into a modern character but the only thing that stayed the same was the words. The reason why i changed Achilles look was to make it more modern and up to date so its more in the 21st century. in this performance unfortunately Achilles is in love with a woman but due to his heroic achievements he won her with his spear, however he became attached her but in doing so Agamemnon so that as Achilles weak which he took advantage and took her away from him. 

Improvisation: When preparing for this performance i would firstly start improvising certain speech techniques that may help me because it may make me show more expression in the face. Secondly i would practice with the script to adjust my position on the stage so when i am speaking i’m not just looking at my partner or the wall i’m looking at the audience so they can feel my presents more . 

Character, Context and Plot: In this play , I am playing the character of Achilles . Achilles is a Greek warrior in the Trojan war , Probably the greatest warrior there is and the strongest . The reason why I like Achilles character is because i can relate to him in some way but in the modern time as you can tell from my clothing. The reason i can relate to Achilles is because he is a proud soul which will protect the people he loves no matter what the situation. Also Achilles is a young man who is very fit and strong which i can also relate for my self.

Audience and Defining Performance Performance Space: When i was performing on the stage the audience was used as a fourth  wall where they were present at the performance but because i was so in role with my character when i was performing i made it look like they wasn’t visual in my eyes during the performance.

Structure: The structure of the performance so what happen is i was performing as Achilles and it was a scene with Agamemnon and the scene was about how Achilles was in love with a woman that Agamemnon has taken from him, so what basically happens is Achilles tells Agamemnon that he loves the women and explains that her flesh is his and only his . 

Genre, Performance Style and Convention: The genre of the performance is naturalistic in the way we used the audience as the fourth wall, also the play its self is set back in the 19th century and the clothing that is warn shows that the performance is modern .