Evaluation

Playing Ralph 
I wanted to play the part of Ralph as i knew it was a big step up from Hanschen in the last show that we did, i felt that i was up to the challenge and would be able to take on the role effectively, that's why i decided to audition for this part. I was happy when i found out i had received the part but found it a little hard to play, i was not able to look online for inspiration as when i looked there seemed to be no other performances on the internet. When i played Hanschen however i was able to look on YouTube at Broadway and West end performances to get an idea as to how the part was previously played.
Scene Analyses
Ski Slopes- This was the opening scene for Ten tiny fingers and involved only me and Eva. In this scene Lucinda found out that Ralph cheated on her with a young Japanese women whilst away on holiday. Of course Lucinda is very angry with Ralph but he cannot understand this and feels he really has done nothing wrong. I found this scene difficult to begin with and seemed to have a problem remembering the order of the lines. I found it difficult to act whilst trying to carry the props as they were awkward and heavy, there was not many places to lean them without it looking strange. I felt that in the end this scene went well overall, however next time id probably slow my lines down even further and put more effort into a costume, as i was wearing suit trousers on a ski slope. I left it to the last minute to find my costume and unfortunately i could not find half of what i needed in time, during the rehearsal i had no skiing equipment and had to quickly go and pick some up before the show began.
Buying a baby-This was the second scene that Ralph was in, the other people in this scene were Eva and Carl, i found this scene enjoyable as it was not too difficult to play, also for some reason with this scene i seemed to be able to remember my lines easier than during any other scene. Because at a lot of  times Ralph was not speaking in this scene i had to think about my facial expressions at all time, not just my speaking. I found the hug with Eva awkward, every angle we tried looked too forceful or fake. However after trial and error we found a way of making it look quite good. This hug was important as it showed the relationship between these two characters.
The church- This was the scene where the baby is inserted into Lucinda. This scene was very heavy and without the comedy coming through it would be a very boring and difficult scene to watch for the audience. When we first began to rehearse i personally felt that everyone, including myself was not able to show this humor and the scene was very boring and slow. The judge needed to display more campness and everyone needed to react just a little bit more. During this scene there is a lot of sitting and standing around whilst only Millie spoke. This standing around made it difficult not to break character as when your doing nothing its hard not to just relax. In the end i felt that this scene went a lot better that in rehearsals, After being prompted by miss Will was able to bring the judge's camp personality out a lot better, this made the scene look and flow better. There is not too much i would do differently if i was to re-look at this scene due to the fact that my character didn't actually say or do much.
Visiting Lucinda in Hospital- This is the scene that Ralph has found out that his baby is carrying a defect and goes to confront Lucinda about it in hospital. I found that this scene was not difficult as it was not too long. However during rehearsals i left it so late to learn my lines i spent all my time learning the first half of the script and so come this scene i literally had the day before the performance to learn my lines. This was difficult and i don't plan on doing it again. This scene had one particular line which i could not get right, i kept getting the order of this single line wrong, and then due to panic i would go blank and forget the rest of the lines for the scene. Because Ralph had a lot of anger in this scene i had to show this by moving about in the hospital and throwing my weight around, not paying attention to the fact that Lucinda was pregnant. All in all i felt that this scene went well.
Visiting Pete- This is the scene where Ralph goes to visit Pete in the section 5 area to discuss purchasing his baby. I found that in this scene i had to think of certain physical things to do that showed the audience that Ralph did not want to be in a section 5 area. For example, i would wipe my hands on a clothe after touching things in Pete's house. I would also use my foot to go through his things, showing i have little respect for his things. Me and Jake kept skipping a  big chunk of the dialogue in this scene. I think that during the actual performances we skipped this same chunk all three nights by accident, and so if i was to re-look at this scene again that would be something i would look at. Despite this i feel that this scene did not go too bad, the acting was off in places.
Golf Course- This scene i found the most difficult out of all of them, not because of the actual acting, its the fact that in  one scene i had to quickly change out of a suit and into a polo t shirt and golfing costume, not only was this difficult but i barely knew the lines, i was more following the story and fitting the lines around that. At one point during this scene, Lewis forgot his queue line and we were left with an elongated pause, due to this i quickly had to think of a line to say that would fit without making it obvious to the audience. Despite my cast mates admitting to me that they barely knew this scene well i felt that it on the whole did not go bad.
Final Hospital Scene- This is the final scene, there is not too much going on in this scene, although a lot of people are in this scene. This scene is broken into two half's, before baby Peter is presented and after. Before hand its just me and Dot and Lucinda, my first line is 'your holding my wife's hand' however on the third night when i walked onto the stage, Lucinda and Dot were not holding hands and so i had to adapt what i say in order to stop it from looking weird and incorrect. There is also a black out halfway through this scene and after the blackout is where i come back into the scene with baby peter, i was not entirely sure as to when this blackout ended and so i was relying on Jake to bring me back into the scene at the correct time.
What Id do to improve next time
If we was to re look at a similar production i would make sure that i put more effort into my costume, as when playing golf in the scene and on the mountain i still had suit trousers on and this did not look very well on stage.I also would learn my lines a lot earlier on to give me time to perfect them and make sure i had them well learnt, this would make it easier for me on stage and i would be able to put more effort into my acting as i would not be worrying or thinking about lines.

Nazism in world war 2

Brief Explanation of Nazism.

 










The Nazi Party was a political group that ruled Germany between 1933 and 1945. “Nazi” is a short form of the official name. In English the official name is the National Socialist German Workers' Party. Under Hitler's leadership, the Nazis started world war 2. They also carried out the Holocaust—the murder of about 6 million Jewish people. Nazi Germany was a 'totalitarian' state, meaning that the Nazi government recognized no ends to their authority, would restrict public and private life whenever possible, and would create personality cults whenever possible through propaganda and completely biased media. Nazi Germany was made up of a lot of young German men who felt angry and had been brainwashed into believing that Jews were the cause of Germany problems and struggles.

This is the symbol of the Nazi party, at the bottom of the eagle there is the swastika symbol. The Swastika is an ancient solar symbol that has been used by many cultures going back at least 3000 years. It has been found used by the Celts in northern Europe and by the Greeks as early has 1000 BCE. In India the symbol has been used since Vedic times. It is most commonly seen as an ancient Aryan symbol. Nazi Germany did not invent the symbol, but only borrowed it in order to show the "Aryan" roots of their new German state.
The Holocaust
The Holocaust began in 1933 when Adolf Hitler came to power in Germany. It ended in 1945 when Allied powers defeated the Nazis. At the beginning the Jews were given a new set of rules, for example they were not allowed to marry German citizens and were forced to live in ghetto's where they would slowly wait for there turn to be taken to an concentration camp where they would be exterminated. In the larger ghetto's up to 1,000 Jews a day would be taken by train to a concentration camp. Jews would be forced to wear a yellow star in order to identify themselves, making it easier for the German soldiers to recognize them. 1 million people were killed during the Holocaust (1.1 million children). 6 million of those victims were Jewish. Other groups targeted by the Nazis were Jehovah’s Witnesses, homosexuals, disabled people, and Gypsies. After World war 2 ended it was said that two thirds of the Jewish population had been executed by Nazi's. The main concentration camp in Nazi Germany was Auschwitz which at some points was exterminating up to 6,000 Jewish people a day.

Jewish Men in the Auschwitz waiting to be executed.

How Nazism and the Holocaust relates to 'Ten tiny fingers, Nine tiny toes'
Just like in the holocaust where the Jews were forced to live in poor conditions, the same can be seen in ten tiny fingers with the section fives. We know that in ten tiny fingers, class 5's are not allowed to breed at all, this means that eventually class 5's will die out all together as they will not be reproducing. Although in the holocaust they were physically killed rather than left to die out this is still similar in the way of, in the long run they shall die out due to not being considered worthy of living by those in power.

Writing in Role ( Piece 2)

Well this is just brilliant isn't it, i knew i should have waited for a boy, why did i let Lucinda rush me into choosing a girl, what about when i die and i need the business to keep moving forward, how could i pass it down to a girl, they don't have what it takes to run a business and what about when she marry? what about the straws then, there will no longer be a darling in control. A defect ay, well i certainly did not pay for this, i shall be straight round to Allan's office tomorrow and shall be making an official complaint. I want a full refund, in fact i want more than a refund. I was compensation, at least 25% off a replacement baby should do nicely. A boy, ten tiny fingers, ten tiny toes. I shall have to keep this quiet to my friends, what would they think of me if they found out my baby was deformed. What if they think it was me? what if they think my thin sperm was to blame. Oh no this cant happen, i must get round to the hospital right away and have the little cow rid of.

Writing in role ( PIECE 1)

Whilst i was at home today, Lucinda was busy pressing my suit for a very important meeting with a big time client tomorrow, I received a letter for the government, informing me of a new class system they said was to soon be introduced. It did not explain how it works much or even how many classes there were, all it told me was me and Lucinda were in class 3. I'm not an genius or anything but i am guessing class 3 is the top class, hence why i am there, it must be class 3 at the top and 1 and the bottom. It has to be, acceding order for acceding people. I personally think its a brilliant idea, keep those that aren't worthy of speaking too away from me. Hope it does not effect the business though, now we are mixing with the 1's i hope this means i can still do business with them however, some of my best customers are at the bottom of society. A man of note like myself must be relocated to the countryside or something, scenic country views every morning, the site of baby lams everyday, i wouldn't be surprised if we are issued a VIP golf course. Those poor people in the lower classes must all be moving into the city, where its noisy and congested. Oh this is perfect, hopefully Lucinda can move with me,  with me being the main income an all, if she cant it would be very unfortunate but sacrifices would have to be made.  Who thought id make it this far today, top class citizen, CEO of a top manufacturing company, thank god my straw split all those years ago and i noticed the falling standard of drinking utensils.

Genetic Engineering

Genetic Engineering or genetic modification is the modification of living organisms, such as plants and animals. Its done through changing there genome using biotechnology.
Genetic Engineering was founded in the 1800's where the first bacteria was modified. Genetic Engineering however has been around for a lot longer, we are able to genetically engineer crops without specialist equipment but simply through selection. For example crops were made smaller, making it easier for them to withstand wind. In 1973 however it was found that actual cells could be manipulated in organisms to physically change and select there characteristics. This was first found through bacteria. A year later in 1974 lad mice were genetically modified. Since then genetically modified food has been around us nearly everyday. In 2003 the first genetically modified pet was available to buy, the glofish.

technically scientists could genetically modify a fetus, and manually choose characteristics, for example we could choose what sex our babies were, or choose there eye colors. However this is not allowed due to ethnically reasons. When ten tiny fingers was wrote however Sue Townsend believed that in the future this would change and people would be able to choose the sex of there baby freely. This is why in scene 3, Ralph and Lucinda are able to physically select there baby from Alan.

Ralph Darling Character Profile

 
 Name: Ralph Darling
Age: 35
Place of birth : Brighton
Date of birth: 6th August 1978.
Parents name: Peter Darling and Katie Darling.
Siblings: Ralph Darling is the only child in his family.

Ralph darling is the only child of peter darling and Katie darling, at a young age he joined the army, where he served for many years and managed to work his way up the ranks. His dad peter died when Ralph was 22 and left Ralph a small amount of money. Ralph took this money and invested it into drinking straws. After earning a small fortune from this he was able to leave the army, to keep his weapon skills fresh he regular visited the indoor shooting range, where on a December he met his wife Lucinda.

Date of Engagement : 3rd July 1989
Date of Marriage : 5th September 1991

After marrying his wife Lucinda, they have tried for a child ever since, however due to problems Ralph is unable to have children and so they have been forced to adopt a child rather than conceive for themselves.

Apartheid

A history of Apartheid 
Apartheid was started in south Africa in  1948, after the English and dutch began to settle in the country during the seventeenth century. Apartheid laws began to take other every aspect of life, for example there were jobs for 'whites only' and marriage between a black person and a white person was prohibited. In the 1950's the population was separated into three groups a) whites ( British) b) black (African) c) Colored ( mixed decent). A persons group was then decided by a certain set of traits they may have, these traits are such things as appearance, social acceptance  and descent.  For example someone was not 'obviously white' if they had parents that were black or colored.  White people were given larger proportions of lands despite the numbers being a lot lower than blacks, as you can see from the table below.



Apartheid did not have an end date but rather most of it's segregation legislation was dismantled between 1990 and 1992. The first fully democratic election was held in 1994; however Apartheid was already no longer practiced at that time.

How Apartheid is similar to ten tiny fingers.
Just like with Apartheid in ten tiny fingers there was segregation between people, however instead of being based on skin color  and ethnicity it was based entirely of a persons social status and wealth. Just like within Apartheid it was also unfair for those at the bottom, the living conditions were bad, for example in Apartheid blacks had 1 doctor to 44,000 people. Like Apartheid the income for people at the bottom was poor, in fact  in ten tiny fingers, those in class 5 had no income as they were unable to work at all. When a person had been categorized there was no way for him to change this in apartheid as it was based on appearance, this is similar to those in class 5, as they were unable to work, therefore being stuck there forever.