My Unit 12 Proposal

By Jeremy Lawal - Champion

The play I’ve chosen and Why

I have chosen to practice and perform the play ‘Misty’ by Arinzé

Kene. I have chosen to do this play because since it is a one man show,
I mainly have to rely on my skills and awareness to detail to make my
performance a success. So after an intensive two week of sorting
through different play choices, including ‘Torn’ by Nathaniel Martello
- White, I came to conclusion that it would do me a lot better if I
worked by myself. I chose to not work with others because I have
found that I rely on others to prompt me and my energy while
performing. Another reason is that the other people in the group with
which I work well had already found themselves doing other
productions.
My Role(s) in this Play
Since this is a one man show I would be taking a majority of roles in this performance. My main role(s) in this production are:

● Arinze
● Virus

But I will also have quite a lot roles recorded and played out or said by someone backstage through a microphone, these
roles would be:

● Jade
● Mother
● Raymond
● Donna
● Producer
● voicemail

I also think I would have people on stage to help me with small parts, such as:

● Dimples
● Girl
● Assistant stage manager
An example of my character
analysis
Character name: Arinzé Kene (Main character)
Hair colour: Black
Eye colour: Dark brown
Age: 24
Height : 6’1”
Clothing: Black shirt, Jeans
Personal/Associated item: pen
Educational background: Public schooling
Likes: writing
Dislikes: racism
Family (spoken): Older sister
Ethnic background: Nigerian
Occupation: Play write
Residence: Hackney, East London
Personality/traits: Goofy, easy to irritate, hard working
Personal goal(s): To be accepted as a credible playwright

● Achievable: Yes
What are my intentions?
(production wise)
For my rendition of Misty, I intend to immersify the audience as much as I possibly can. To do
this I have thought of a plan to use my Stage as a means of telling Arinzé’s/The Virus’ story. I
have chosen to use:

● Projections

For example, projections of a night bus in motion to simulate that the audience is also on this
night bus with the virus at the time he tells his story.

● Lights

I intend to use the lights to simulate settings and/or time of day because I want the stage to
be as bare as possible. This is because I want the audience to use their imagination to truly
understand what the characters are going through. For example, using the side lights, in the
wings, during the night scenes so that the stage isn’t flooded with light
What are my intentions?
(production wise) (CONT’D)
● Props

I intend to use some props literally to show what another character is saying (so there is no
dead space) and also using props to show an idea, such as using a balloon to simulate a
thought (page 23 - conversation with Producer)

● Pre-recording

As I have said before, I also intend to pre-record the lines of some of the lines of smaller
characters, including the voicemail.
Skills I have used and will be
using
During the course of this course, I have picked up a multitude of skills that I may take into my performance of
this play. I believe that in the duration of me being a part of this course, I have learnt/built up these skills:

● Self-presentation
● Script analysis
● Emotional memory
● organisational skills
● spacial awareness
● self-discipline
● analytical, critical and research skills
● the ability to cope with criticism and learn from it
● adaptation skills

I think that the skill that I’ll mainly be using is my skill to adapt to certain situations, This is because I would not
have anyone with me to help save a scene if it starts to go south. I intend to work through any obstacle i come
across, that being either Technical or performance wise. To do this I will be working with the tech team a lot over
the coming months, I will also be self teaching myself a multitude of skills, especially editing and filming skills.
My Areas of Research

The areas I will be researching to build up a persona for each

of my characters are:

● Black people and culture

● Changing environment and the psychological implements
● Cultural appropriation
● Youth culture
● Other one man shows (Airplane man) and their cast
● The metaphors of the play (e.g. blood cells vs virus)
Black people & culture

I chose to research this area because it relates to a big theme of the play:
‘Blood cells vs Viruses’ (blacks vs whites). This area of research will also help
me get a deeper look into the lives of my two main characters (other than my
own experiences, being a black Nigerian myself). It also relates to the
background of my character(s). I know this because, through research I have
already done, I have found that Arinze black (african) himself. So through
gathered intel, from the script, I have found that this area of research includes:

● African culture
● Black influence in history
● Black stereotypes
● Black people in the industry
Changing environment and the
psychological implements
I chose to research this area because it helps me to understand the character of
the Virus (Lucas) more and why he hates ‘Blood cells’ so much. It will also help
me to get a handle on his psychological state now that he thinks that the ‘Blood
cells’ are taking over his city. This area of research includes:

● History of Hackney
● Black youth in Hackney
● Black businesses (out of business)
● Rent/house prices
Cultural appropriation

Cultural appropriation is the unacknowledged or inappropriate adoption of the

customs, practices, ideas, etc. of one people or society by members of another
and typically more dominant people or society. This area of research
complements the theme white people enjoying the sad lives of black people on
stage. I found this out from both the preface and scene two of the play (the
voicemail). This area of research includes:

● Black face
● Reviews of Misty (from white people)
● Theatre audiences (percentage of ethnic goers vs white goers)
Youth culture

I have come to the conclusion that researching youth culture is imperative to

help me to create the character of ‘The Virus’ and also help me to understand
the role ‘Jade’ plays in his life. This area of research also helps me to learn how
these characters would interact with others in the world (in accordance with
their upbringing and other factors). This includes me researching into:

● Upbringing: the psychological implements

● Black youth culture (the differences between whit and black youth
culture
Other one man shows

This area of research will help my preparation for performing

on my own (since I haven’t had the experience). I will also be
researching the effect the show left on the audience. This
research will include:

● Looking at other shows (obviously)

● Looking at interviews of the actors
● Finding out how actors prepare for these shows
The metaphors of the play

Last but not least, I intend to research into the connotations

and denotations of the metaphors in this play, This being:

● Virus vs Blood cells

● Balloons
● Orange dust
● The fact that people are named by features (e.g. Dimples)
Aims for the production

● Immersive - As I previously stated, I intend to make my show as

immersive as possible for the audience. I’ll be looking into potentially
involving the audience within the performance, setting up scenes with
them as characters. This I feel will allow the audience members to fully
comprehend the life of the characters I want them to understand my
characters and be empathetic of these same characters. I also want to
take the audience on a journey into the lives of these very character. The
style in which I perform, the production/tech side of my performance and
my skills in character creation are all factors that will influence how
successful I am in achieving this goal.
Aims for the production

● Convincing - I also aim to make to characters and storyline

convincing to the audience. This is because if the
characters/stories aren’t convincing the audience would not
catch on to the story of the characters and therefore would not
be able to empathise with certain characters. This will
jeopardise the successfulness of my two other aims. To help me
succeed in this aim I will be putting my skills of script analysis
and character creation to the test. I may also put my skills of
method acting into play to help me get a better understanding of
how my character would interact with different types of people.
Aims for the production

● Leaves the audience with a message - I also intend, as

the original writer did, to leave people with the a small
sight into how people on the other side of the spectrum
feel about how the area changes around them. I also
want to show people the good vs the bad attributes of
black people, this means to achieve this aim I would have
to make sure my story telling skills are brushed up on to
help the audience gather what I am going to portray.
How it will help in the future

I believe that if I am successful in producing this performance, then it can really affect my future as a
performer in a very positive way. Here are the main ways that I feel the production would help me:

● Show reel
● Acting CV
● Skills relating to a one man show
● Getting used to directing my own performance

I have come to find, as I said before, that I tend to rely on other people's energies on stage to help
boost my morale to put on a good show. But for this show I would only be able rely on my skills and
abilities , and the skills and abilities I will be gaining throughout my journey in bringing this
production out of my mind and on to the stage.