Diploma in Perfor

Performing &
Production Arts
Unit 12 Project Proposal

Candidate Angel Johnson

Name
Candidate
Number
Pathway Performing and Production Arts

Project Title Metamorphoses by Laura Lomas, Sabrina Mahfouz and Sami Ibrahim

Section 1: Review
My second year has been a very fun and fulfilling experience for me. In this second year, I had a very
limited knowledge about film acting and what goes into making a film, but now thanks to our extensive
film work over the year I know much more about that industry. For example, in my independent project I
have learnt how to budget, stick to a production timetable, and even film my own short film. This has
been very eye-opening to me, as now I have a better insight on the film industry and a newfound
respect for filmmaking that I didn’t have before. Another skill I have gained during my second year at
BTA is hand to hand Stage Combat and how to apply that to film. This has been very useful as I am
interested in taking Stage Combat further in terms of my acting career.

Section 2: Project Concept

This year I have been chosen to perform in Metamorphoses. This play is a modern retelling of Ovid’s
Metamorphoses which consists of over a hundred stories. However, in the modern version there are
only 22. To make things even more interesting, in our version we are only using 15 of the available
stories and are incorporating a prominent 80s theme. During our intensive period, I am expecting to
create a full scale, impactful production that grips our audience form start to finish and makes them think
about how they view the world and certain political problems. To achieve this, we will need to have a
high level of concentration and professionalism in the rehearsal room and commitment to every move
our director decides to take. We will also need a notebook and pen to ensure we are writing down all
our notes that Nat gives us so we can improve on our performance in our own personal time as well as
in the rehearsal room to make our show the best it can be.

Section 3: Evaluation
When it comes to the reflective part of this creative journey, I will ensure I take notes constantly of
everything we are doing so when it’s time to do my reflection videos I will have a clear vision of what we
did over the week. I also intend to document my own personal journey as a performer over the intensive
period as it is very important to reflect on how the process affected me as an actor and how I will take
this experience with me into my future career. This will ensure I give a detailed and informative final
reflection as I will be able to look back on my time whilst working on Metamorphoses in a clear and
precise manner as I will have a detailed experience to refer back to.
Proposed Research Sources and Bibliography (Harvard Format)
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Cleopatra (accessed March 2nd 2024)

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PCS Publishing. August 23rd 2023. “It was Acceptable in the Eighties: A look Back at Pop Culture”
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computer-systems#:~:text=Neon%20colours%2C%20bold%20patterns%2C%20and,and%20hairspray
%20impregnated%20the%20air. (accessed March 2nd 2024)

Glenn Rowley. June 22nd 2023. “9 Artists Who Advocate For The LGBTQIA+ Community” Troye Sivan,
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HIV.gov. January 13th 2023. “What are HIV and Aids?” (Online) Available at: https://www.hiv.gov/hiv-
basics/overview/about-hiv-and-aids/what-are-hiv-and-aids (accessed March 3rd 2024)

Rory Herbert. May 17th 2017. “The Homophobic Response to the AIDS Crisis in the 1980s” (Online)
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March 3rd 2024)

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Live_Aid (accessed March 3rd 2024)

N/A. May 19th 2015. “Family through the years – 1980s” (Online) Available at: http://knbp.co.uk/family-
through-the-years-1980s/#:~:text=There%20was%20a%20growing%20proportion,the%20children
%20and%20family%20time. (accessed March 3rd 2024)

BBC News. 30th December 2022. “Brexit: What you need to know about the UK leaving the EU” (Online)
Available at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-32810887 (accessed March 3rd 2024)

Last Updated by Brian Duignan. March 1st 2024. “Roe vs Wade” (Online) Available at:
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Norma-McCorvey (accessed March 3rd 2024)

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Available at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-65956103# (accessed March 3rd 2024)
David Mouriquand. 24th January 2024. “Doomsday Clock as close to midnight as ever – what does it all
mean?” (Online) Available at: https://www.euronews.com/culture/2024/01/24/doomsday-clock-as-close-
to-midnight-as-ever-what-does-it-all-mean#:~:text=The%20group%20devised%20the
%20Doomsday,with%20midnight%20representing%20complete%20annihilation. (accessed March 3rd
2024)

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Lucy Leeson. 5th October 2023. “Rishi Sunak: A man is a man and a woman is a woman – that’s just
common sense” (Online) Available at: https://www.independent.co.uk/tv/news/rishi-sunak-man-is-a-
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Project Action Plan and Timetable

Week Date Week Activity / What you are intending to do - Resources / What you will need to do it -
Beginning including independent study including access to workshops

1
4th March Monday - Script
2024 - Pencil Case
On Monday, we had our first FMP session - Notebook
with our director, Nat Simone. We started
the day by having a whole class warm up
which included dancing around the space
and singing a warm up song at different
levels. After this, we started a readthrough
of our scripts and discussed our thoughts on
the scenes and different ideas on how they
could be portrayed.

Tuesday

On Tuesday, we had a session with our

 vocal director Ellian. In this session, we read
certain scenes of a script with a song that
we thought would fit the scene underneath.
After this, we then performed the same
scene with a song that we thought
absolutely didn’t fit the scene to see what
kind of work it would create.

2 Monday
11th March - Script
2024 On Monday, we started off the session by - Pencil Case
warming up and then getting into groups of - Notebook
five and creating a short, devised piece to
show off our skills to Nat our director. After
this, we got out our scripts and with Nat’s
help began some character work on the
character in the scene. We did this by
adopting their physicality’s, so we walked
like them, changed our voices so we
sounded like them if we saw fit and then
eventually showed that back to the group
one by one. We did this for most of the
session and ended with a lip-sync dance off
to finish the day.

Tuesday

On Tuesday we had a session with Ellian

our Vocal Director and picked a scene and
found a song that corresponded to that
character. After doing this, we changed the
lyrics to the song to match the story and
prepared it so it was ready to perform next
week.
3 Monday
18th March - Script
2024 On Monday, we met our Movement Director - Pencil Case
Cat. In our full day session with her, we - Notebook
started off with a very intense warm up
before starting to explore certain scenes
within the play. These included the scenes
Actaeon, mainly focusing on Diana and the
nymphs, where we trialed, them being in a
funky alternative girl band and Phoebus and
Phaeton where we experimented with the
usage of lifts. Later on in the day, we spent
time embodying the physicalities of dogs as
there seems to be a lot of transformation
into animals in the play. Finally, we finished
with Nat taking over and getting certain
people to read certain scenes so Nat could
get a good idea of who she wants to cast as
what.

Wednesday

On Wednesday, we spent the session with

Elian mainly showing back our pieces from
 last week. However, for the last half an hour
we did exactly what we were doing last
week but specifically with the character of
Orpheus and had three songs to choose
from.
4 Monday - Script
25th March - Pencil Case
2024 On Monday, we had our final FMP session Notebook
with Nat before the start of our intensive
rehearsals after Easter. This session was
mainly focused around our vocal director
Ellian and we started off by showing back
our Orpheus songs from last week. After
this, we split off into small groups and
created little “palace of the sun” jingle for the
Phaeton and Phoebus scene. In the
afternoon, we split into off into two groups
based on our vocal ranges and Ellian
guided the higher singing group into
creating a harmonised song based off the
scene Orpheus and the Cicionian women.
Whilst this was happening, the lower
registered voices worked on the scene
Philemon and Baucis and the godlike voices
in that. Eventually, we showed these back to
each other and we got told our casting!

Wednesday

On Wednesday, our session was focused

around discovering what our characters
sounded like and what kind of things made
them unique. To finish the session, we gave
Ellian ideas of what of our work we
specifically wanted incorporated into “the
palace of the sun” jingle and the Orpheus
song so they could work on it over the
Easter break.