Themes behind Blondie

After reading the short play we will be doing (it's called "Blondie") some of the themes hidden in the script surfaced. One that I found was the most prominent is looks in the world of politics.

Most people would say that how a politician may look is very insignificant in politics but I beg to differ. I don't think that anybody can say, hand on heart, that they've never once looked at a politician and have been slightly put off by their bad looks or subconsciously favoured the one who is better looking. Policies are obviously the most important thing when it comes to electing a new politician and party, but it is also important for the politician to have trimmed, healthy-looking hair, wear make-up (for election campaigns), suits that suit them (pardon the pun), etc. If you're a politician and you want to run for Prime Minister yet you don't take care of you're appearance, you make me laugh.

The reason I mentioned this in the first place is because B (the woman) is a newly elected prime minister with bleached blonde hair and she is deemed to be an attractive woman and from the clues I've collected in the text, she's very attractive and that's where most of her votes came from. She's an example of the point I've been trying to establish.

Here is an article I found also exploring looks in politics: http://www.slate.com/articles/double_x/doublex/2012/01/mitt_romney_vs_newt_gingrich_how_much_do_looks_matter_in_presidential_politics_.html

Lesson Numero Uno

For our first theatre workshop lesson, we did exercises that introduced us to Brecht's most important rule of theatre: the actor portrays the character instead of becoming the character.

Nursery Rhyme: For this exercise, we chose a partner, labelled ourselves as 'A' or 'B' and stood and either end of the room. I was A and Laura was B. All the B's stood at one side and were told to think of a nursery rhyme then all at once, they recited (quite loudly) the nursery rhyme. All of us A's didn't understand a word our partners had said because all of them were talking and the room was all echoey and we told them this. So the second time around, they had to do gestures, spoke more clearly and enunciated their words more, I understood better. 

Mimicking: We were in pairs once again for this exercise. The way this worked is we gave ourselves the 'A' or 'B' letter and B would listen to A telling an interesting anecdote on something that recently happened to them and B would have to observe the way that A spoke and their body language as they spoke, their habits (fidgeting, shifting weight, etc) and the way that they spoke. Afterwards, we went around to each pair and watched B imitating how their A was talking and their body language but they had to choose one feature to exaggerate as well. For me, this exercise didn't push me or make me feel odd because my partner and I are quite alike in the way that we speak so the only change was voice, and her voice was slightly broader than mine. I think that in general it sounded easy to do, but for me it was hard because  playing a character is one thing, but trying to imitate someone isn't half as easy because you aren't inventing this person as you would a character, the person already exists. 

I can't talk for everyone though as some people were really good at imitating their partner. They took to adopting the same body language, habits, voice and speech patterns quite well. For example: Paris was imitating Crystal and they are two very different people. Paris is male and when he speaks, he doesn't do many gestures and Crystal is female and when she gets really into a story, she goes all out on her gestures and when Paris exaggerated everything, we were all in pieces because it was so funny but so true. I think it worked better for them because they're both different so there