Diploma in

Performing &
Production Arts
Unit 12 Project Proposal

Candidate
Name Lydia Loveday
Candidate 544857
Number
Pathway Performing Arts

Project Title Final Major Project - Metamorphoses

Section 1: Review
Throughout my time on the course I have been fortunate enough to work with incredibly
passionate, well educated, and experienced people in their fields; including Alice Barclay, Katy
Carmicheal, Mathew David, any many more. I have also loved my peers as I have never before
been surrounded by such encouraging and reliable people. Over the last two years my
confidence in performing and in myself has grown so much due the space to experiment with
different genres and techniques to find what works best for me. I have always wanted to work in
screen, so unit 9 and unit 11 were great as both allowed me to get in front of a camera and learn
through experience and through theory sessions. Working on Shakespeare with Alice was one of
the most eye opening terms of the whole two years for me as I had never even considered doing
anything classical, until Alice and a couple of my peers, shared their passion and made me
understand that Shakespeare is about how he describes a feeling rather than a boring story to
write an essay on in school. I loved the opportunity to arrange a cabaret night and got very
involved in all parts of bring it together as I have always thrived when organising events. I now
feel very equipped to be able to find work that suits me, whether that be roles, monologues, or
schools. I also could never have dreamed I would watch as much theatre as I have over these
last couple years. I am incredibly grateful for this as going to the theatre was never something I
could afford and BTA has allowed me to watch such a variety of shows, ranging from horror to
comedy to ballet, I now understand how important it is to be sure of what you enjoyed and what
you didn’t and why. In the future I would love to work on kids television as childcare and acting
have always been my two favorite things, but BTA has also shown me that acting on stage is
worth it because it is so different to Television. I no longer think that theatre is just a worse
version of TV, in fact I completely rebuke this now as I see how ridiculous it is to compare the
two. I hate watching horror on TV but in a theatre? I love it because it is so much more
immersive and creative. In future I would still love to go on to kids TV, comedy, and presenting
as those have always been my passion, but I think acting in gritty dramas is something people
have highlighted my talent at so trying to get a part in those could be a new step forward. I will
continue my education by auditioning for drama schools and doing lots of background work and
see where it all takes me.

Section 2: Project Concept

Metamorphoses is a compilation of 20 Greek myths, of which we are doing 14. We chose these 14 as
they suit the companies different actors and their styles, and work with the 1980’s urban nightlife vision
our director Nat has. Our take on the play is to show the dark side of nightlife which is a theme the
myths can all fit in to with consistent abuse, rape, and murder, and in my own opinion there are a lot of
stories such as Cephalus and Procris, Orpheus, and Procne and Philomela, that could have huge
addition and mental health aspects to them. A lot of research has been done into the gender identities of
these characters and how they appear at first glance in the rehearsal space, but in my research I have
dived a lot deeper than this 2D model, and I think as the process has gone on, more people have
started researching beyond this, into the psychology of these people as these dark themes have a lot of
meaning to me and others and we don’t want them to get washed away by trying to make the play have
a narrative I don’t believe works such as the idea that only women should be the ones getting abused by
men and not any other way around, which is not what the Greek myths tell us, and I don’t think any
good can come from changing around stories that have been praised for thousands of years to fit an
untrue narrative, as I touch upon in my research presentation. I hope this type of research brings some
new ideas and thoughts into the rehearsal space as I don’t want anyone in the space feeling their voice
and stories aren’t told correctly, and as we have 14 stories to tell we have plenty of room to portray a
whole world of men, women, and anyone who identifies outside this binary, as real humans, all flawed. I
think this is the aim of our Metamorphoses, to show every human has problems and how the world
keeps going around repeating itself, starting with the birth of the universe, and ending with the death of
it. I think we will produce a very gory and emotional show and will need a lot of time to get it right so we
don’t let the people who have lived these stories down. We have four 9-5 weeks and one week of 9-10.
Over this time we will need to get our new scripts, allocate and learn lines. The learning of lines must be
done independently as there is no time for coming into a space to rehearse a scene and not knowing
what you’re supposed to do/say. I think our show is going to be huge, involving lots of levels and a
working stage, having things open, move, and raise up. We will need time to learn how to use all of
these things properly, so will need our last week on the stage, going over how to safety use them and
make it look good. We will need the auditorium to rehearse in a lot due to spacing, but when this is not
available Tempa and Ropa rooms are good, big spaces to work on ensemble scenes, and scene that
don’t involve and tech. These spaces will be good for the first four weeks of intensives as long as we
can be in the auditorium at some point, preferably two days at least, in the week to make sure the
people with the big tech scenes get their share of rehearsal time. We could also split up the company so
ensemble rehearse in Ropa while the tech scenes are rehearsed in the auditorium to get the most out of
our time. We must take a lot of notes to reflect on at home from our directors, peers, and tutors, as in
the rehearsal space we need to be present so can’t be sat reading old notes the whole time to catch up
with everybody else. This independent study time for me will be each evening before, or if that’s not
available, after, I go to dinner. I move around a lot so during this intensives period I have already
arranged what houses I will be staying at to ensure I am able to get all work outside of rehearsals
complete. I will always have my note book and phone on me so shouldn’t have a problem with doing
work.

Section 3: Evaluation
I will evaluate my work by filming weekly reflection videos and uploading them to my website to reflect
upon what we have achieved in rehearsal that week, what I need to do at home, and why we are doing
these things. I always take notes in lesson so reflecting on these will help with the videos and keep
reminding me of what we are doing as I can sometimes get unfocused and distracted. I will also be
checking the criteria for all my work to make sure it fits and doesn’t have any tangents. A lot of my close
friends are in this shows company and so being distracted by them and having my grade go down is
something I am really worried about so I will be writing down every time I think this is happened so I can
talk about it in my videos and explain why it happened and what I will do to prevent it happening again.

Proposed Research Sources and Bibliography (Harvard Format)

Metamorphoses – 2022 – Sami Ibrahim, Laura Lomas, Sabrina Mahfouz – Script

Study.com – 2024 – Homework.study.com - https://homework.study.com/explanation/why-weren-

t-women-allowed-to-perform-in-greek-theatre.html#:~:text=Even%20in%20public%2C%20women
%20were,men%20and%20women%20on%20stage.

The Harvard Gazette – July 17th 2003 - Ken Gewertz -

https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2003/07/when-men-were-men-and-women-too/
#:~:text=But%20when%20these%20rites%20evolved,portray%20them%20neutralized%20the
%20danger.

Playbill - August 15th 2015 - Ben Rimalower - https://playbill.com/article/from-ancient-greece-to-

angry-inch-take-a-look-at-the-history-of-drag-in-theatre-com-357650#:~:text=In%20Greek
%20society%2C%20women%20were,culture%20of%20the%20time%2C%20however.

BBC Bitesize – 2024 – BBC -

https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/z347v4j/revision/4#:~:text=Banquo%20is%20another
%20general%20in,to%20get%20what%20he%20wants.

The Real Chrisparkle – 11th September 2023 – Chris Parkle -

https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/z347v4j/revision/4#:~:text=Banquo%20is%20another
%20general%20in,to%20get%20what%20he%20wants.

Magnum Photos – 2019 – Magnum Photos -

https://www.magnumphotos.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/cortex/par85047.jpg

IWM – May 2020 – Imperial War Museum - https://www.iwm.org.uk/corporate/policies/copyright

PennMuseum – 2023 – Penn Museum -

https://www.penn.museum/sites/olympics/olympicorigins.shtml#:~:text=The%20ancient
%20Olympic%20Games%20began,at%20Olympia%20is%20shown%20here

Wikipedia – 15th March 2024 – Anonymous -

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Sarah_Everard

National Geographic – 2024 – National Geographic -

https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/democracy-ancient-greece/

Spotify – 2024 – John Lennon - https://open.spotify.com/artist/4x1nvY2FN8jxqAFA0DA02H

Designmuseum – 2024 – Designmuseum - https://designmuseum.org/discover-design/all-design-

objects/sony-walkman#:~:text=WHAT'S%20THE%20STORY%3F&text=The%20Walkman%20was
%20first%20created,to%20be%20a%20huge%20hit

Content Time – 2009 – Content.Time -

https://content.time.com/time/daily/2009/0906/360_walkman_0630.jpg

Storyboard That – 2024 – Storyboard That -

https://www.storyboardthat.com/storyboards/liane/ancient-greece-social-structure2

National Magazine Company – 2024 – Country Living -

https://www.countryliving.com/uk/news/a39102607/longest-reigning-monarchs/
Far Out Magazine – 2023 – Far Out - https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/why-funeral-for-john-lennon-
not-held/#:~:text=Many%20have%20assumed%20that%20Lennon's,all%2C%20always
%20distrustful%20of%20fame

USAtoday – 2023 – USAToday Entertainment -

https://eu.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/music/2023/12/08/who-killed-john-lennon/
71817101007/#:~:text=Mark%20David%20Chapman%20shot%20and,and%20YMCA%20employee
%20from%20Hawaii

The Conversation – September 13th 2021 – Phil Zuckerman -

https://theconversation.com/imagine-at-50-why-john-lennons-ode-to-humanism-still-resonates-
165127#:~:text=While%20most%20pop%20songs%20are,something%20to%20be%20overcome
%2C%20transcended

The Times Of India – December 19th 2010 - Swaminathan S. Anklesaria Aiyar -

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/blogs/Swaminomics/lennon-a-marxist-or-capitalist/

Historyonthenet – July 2014 – historyonthenet -

https://www.historyonthenet.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/anicent-olympics-games.jpg

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 This week we will meet with our Pen, Notebook

4th March director and have our first read
through of the script as a company

2 This week we will reflect on our read Pen, Laptop, Notebook, Script
11th March through of the script and should
workshop some extracts from it

3 This week we have our movement Moveable clothes, Notebook, Pen,

th
18 March director Kat in the space with us so Script
we will look at ensemble movement
and how we could become animals
for the transformation scenes
4 This week we have our voice director Script, Pen, Notebook
25th March Ellian in with us so we can create
songs and work on different ranges to
create harmony but also dissonance

5 (Easter Get homework done Script, Pen, laptop, notebook

Break
Happened)

6 (Easter Get homework done

Break Script, pen, laptop, notebook
Happened)

7 15th April Script, pen, notebook

I will miss Monday due to a funeral.
The rest of the week I will be briefed
on the set and costume design and
we can discuss as a company how
that will work. We will then start doing
basic blocking for scenes and see
how people play their characters
8 22nd April Script, pen, notebook,
This week we will begin focusing on
specific scenes and why we discuss
what we think could be added to them
as a company, the try these ideas out

9 This week we should all have learned Script, pen, notebook

29th April our lines and begin to properly stage
the scenes and work on ensemble

10 6th May Have all scenes blocked and do a run Script, Pen, Notebook
through of the show. Discuss
criticisms and work on notes. Have
full show ready to run by Friday.
11 13th May Tech week. Have all health and safety Notebook, script, pen, costume
discussed. Try on costumes to allow
time to get them fixed if they don’t
work. Do full run of show with all
Tech.
12 20th May Show week! Do a dress run to small Costume, Makeup, script, notebook,
peer audience, polish off anything pen
they critique, then we are ready for
the real show