Diploma in Perfor

Performing &
Production Arts
Unit 8 Project Proposal

Candidate
Name Hana Ellingham
Candidate
Number
Pathway Performing and Production Arts
Level 3: Acting
Project Title Final Major Project – ‘A Series of Public Apologies’ by John Donnelly

Section 1: Review
Venturing into the course, I was looking to develop my skills in acting surrounded by a group of like-
minded people who also shared my passion for performing, as well as the exciting prospect of working
with a range of dedicated practitioners who would share guidance and help me to grow in various areas
of performing, designing and management, which is ultimately what I got and more. I feel as though
over the past year I have had the opportunity to grow a lot, not only as a performer by also as part of an
ensemble. The thing I was most nervous about before joining this course was creating work amongst
people who I believed had more experience in theatre than I did, as I didn’t study drama at GCSE level;
However throughout the course of this year I have learnt that everyone feels inexperienced or nervous
in some area of creating theatre and everyone’s different levels of experience are what gives us the
ability as an ensemble/company to create beautiful and unique pieces of work which are a cumulation of
ideas, teaching me also that collaboration is key. Confidence was the main focus of improvement I
wanted to work on whilst taking this course, while is still feel as though it could do with more work
throughout the coming year, my confidence has grown hugely, enabling me to freely express my ideas
and opinions, and be myself around others without feeling judgement which are all things I found
immensely difficult to do before this course. I have loved the opportunities I have been given over the
past couple of months, particularly the devising scratch project which I have never done anything like
before, I have also enjoyed exploring a variation of theatre-based careers such as costume design,
lighting, sound, ASM/DSM and gaining insight into these wonderful areas. I feel as though this course
has helped me develop my understanding of collaboration and creativity and has proven to me that I do
want to pursue a career in the acting discipline, more specifically TV and film, as this has always been
an area of interest for me and I love exploring the idea of micro emotions, human behavior and
capturing the untold essences that make people who they are.

Section 2: Project Concept

The concept of my project is to perform and develop an ensemble piece of theatre called ‘A Series of
Public Apologies’, written by John Donnelly; In which we will explore how our attempts to define
ourselves in public are shaped by the fear of saying the wrong thing. Too many of us are controlled and
held back by the judgement from others, this can lead to us making mistakes and finding it difficult to
please everyone around us. ‘A Series of Public Apologies’ by John Donnelly is a satirical play,
heightened in its naturalism, in its seriousness and parody. It is a play presented quite literally as a
series of public apologies, it is a play on words, convention, manners, institutions, order, online and on
point. The most wonderful part about this play is that it has no limit for the cast numbers, no setting, no
set way for it to be performed, which was deliberately done by the writer so that we as performers could
once again make it personal and very real. Even so, we explore the institutional judgement and the
actions of those in power, taken in times of crisis, and we explore the artistry of riot culture. To develop
my own understanding, I plan to research young peoples’ and those in powers’ roles in revolutions/ riots
and current events, such as the Free Palestine movement and Black Lives Matter, but also to educate
myself on, the responses from institutional power holders similar to that in the play so that I have a
deeper comprehension of their actions and choices, so that I create an engaging and accurate
character. I can use these studies to educate or assist my peers within their depictions and work n as an
ensemble to create subtle pieces of movement, dialogue or mannerisms that are naturalistic, just as I
hope for them to educate me with the information they have learned or physical theatre they wish to try
out. It also excites me to have the ability to build these individual characters with guidance from my
director Harry Gould/peers, to then forge connections with my castmates.

Section 3: Evaluation
In order to reflect and evaluate my work each week, I aim to complete a detailed action plan delineating
what I have completed and achieved during that given week but also what I aim to do in the weeks
ahead. This will also allow me to track my work and ensure I am consistent with what I am producing
both in rehearsals and independently, so I stay ahead of the curve. Alongside that, I will create a weekly
video log to record my decision making, changes of ideas, further character developments and how well
I was able to articulate or perform my ideas within the play, steered by the critiques and guidance of my
practitioners or peers so that I include collaboration within the piece but more importantly so that I can
grow as an individual performer. Working with others can be both negative and positive, for example
criticism from others or an idea being shut down can often feel discouraging or very personal however in
order to help others learn, I would want to assist and challenge their ideas just as I would encourage
them to do the same to me, in the end we will all benefit because of it. If my point feels challenged, I
want to have the ability to ask why and how to improve upon it so that each member of the ensemble
feels heard and represented, this keeps good rapport between the cast and means that everyone feels
comfortable within the space. On the other hand, collaboration can be extremely beneficial so that there
are a plethora of uniquely brilliant ideas to explore and help develop our piece which will hopefully give
me insight on which direction to take my character or a scene in.

Proposed Research Sources and Bibliography (Harvard Format)

- A Norrie; S Adelman, 1988, “’Consensual Authoritarianism’ and Criminal Justice in Thatcher’s

Britain”. NCJRS Virtual Library [Online]
Available at: Consensual Authoritarianism and Criminal Justice in Thatchers Britain | Office of
Justice Programs (ojp.gov) [Accessed 29th February 2024]

- Thomas Foster, 29 January 2024, “Police brutality against striking miners and Orgreave cover
ups laid bare” Socialist Worker [Online]
Available at: https://socialistworker.co.uk/reviews-and-culture/police-brutality-against-striking-
miners-and-cover-ups-laid-bare/ [Accessed 11th March 2024]

- Robert R. Sullivan, 16 December 2002 “The Politics of British Policing in the Thatcher/Major
State” Wiley Online Library [Online]
Available at: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/1468-2311.00100 [Accessed 11th
March 2024]

- Scottish Government, 2020,”Policing of the miners’ strike 1984-1985 – impact on communities:

independent review – gov.scot.” www.gov.scot. [Online]
Available at: https://www.gov.scot/publications/independent-review-impact-communities-policing-
miners-strike-1984-85/pages/7/ [Accessed 11th March 2024]
- Rebecca Watson, 1 November 2019, “Children’s Rights in 2019”. UK Parliament Library Briefing
[Online]
Available at: https://researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/LLN-2019-0148/LLN-2019-
0148.pdf [Accessed 4th April 2024]

- World Health Organization, 2021, “Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19)” World Health Organization
[Online]
Available at: https://www.who.int/health-topics/coronavirus#tab=tab_1 [Accessed 4th April 2024]

- Wikipedia Contributors, 2020, “2019-20 Hong Kong protests” Wikipedia [Online]

Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2019%E2%80%932020_Hong_Kong_protests
[Accessed 4th April 2024]

- Wikipedia Contributors, 2024, “2019 in the United Kingdom” Wikipedia [Online]

Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2019_in_the_United_Kingdom#:~:text=Events%20from
%20the%20year%202019,a%20significant%20majority%20of%20seats. [Accessed 4th April
2024]

- Teacherly, 2020, “Top 5 Education Trends in 2019” Medium [Online]

Available at: https://teamteacherly.medium.com/top-5-education-trends-in-2019-89f0ac549f68
[Accessed 4th April 2024]

- TIME, 2019, “North Korea Says Talks Stalled Until U.S Changes Position” TIME [Online]
Available at: https://time.com/5595358/north-korea-nuclear-talks-stall/ [Accessed 4th April 2024]

- Big Top 40, 2019, “Top 10 New Artists To Watch In 2019” BigTop40 [Online]
Available at: https://www.bigtop40.com/features/best-new-music-artists-bands-2019/ [Accessed
4th April 2024]

- Litsa, T., 2018, “Top social media trends for 2019” Search Engine Watch [Online]
Available at: https://www.searchenginewatch.com/2018/12/17/social-media-trends-2019/
[Accessed 4th April 2024]

- Lindsay, J.M., 2019, “Ten Most Significant World Events in 2019” Council on Foreign Relations
[Online]
Available at: https://www.cfr.org/blog/ten-most-significant-world-events-2019 [Accessed 4th April
2024]

- Gold, B., 2019, “The 12 Biggest Food Trends of 2019(How Many Can You Guess?)” Real Simple
[Online]
Available at: https://www.realsimple.com/food-recipes/recipe-collections-favorites/popular-
ingredients/food-trends-2019 [Accessed 4th April 2024]

- Wikipedia Contributors, 2019, “2019-20 Australian bushfire season” Wikipedia [Online]

Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2019 [Accessed 4th April 2024]

- Hannah Huber, 25 September 2019, “The 2019 Fashion Trends You’ll Still Be Wearing in 2020”
Glamour [Online]
Available at: https://www.glamour.com/gallery/best-fashion-trends-2019 [Accessed 4th April 2024]
 - Jessie Yeung, 20 December 2019, “From an extradition bill to a political crisis: A guide to the
Hong Kong protests” CNN [Online]
Available at: https://edition.cnn.com/2019/11/15/asia/hong-kong-protests-explainer-intl-hnk-scli/
index.html [Accessed 4th April 2024]

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 - completed an ensemble script read My script

19th - did different activities to improve focus Notes that I made during lesson
February and energy Teams resources

2 - created tableaux relating to themes of My script

26 th
the play My presentation/handout
February - created tableaux of specific scenes in Notes app
the play Teams resources
- call and response exercises with the Video footage from previous rehearsals
whole ensemble
- balance the space exercise
3 - started to create ideas for different My script
4th March acts in groups (I was in act 1) Contextual/historical research
-tried different ideas like chair moving Poster materials
and following Teams resources
-first casting (I was casted as a Video footage from previous rehearsals
permanent SLT)
4 - started to block act 1,2 and 3 using My script
11th March initial ideas Notes app
- more casting Teams resources
- choreography in groups in movement Video footage from previous rehearsals
to ‘I Predict A Riot by Kaiser Chiefs
- did freeze frames and tried adapting
them by adding smooth transitions in
between them
5 - Continued to block act 3 and onwards My script
18th March - did a full run of what we had done so Notes app
far Laptop
-choreographed the riot scene of act 2 Teams resources
scene 4 in movement class with Linsy Video footage from previous rehearsals
in slow motion, with lifts and
impressive visuals
6 - we had done the work for this session My script
25th March over the previous 2 weeks as our Notes app
director Harry wasn’t able to be in this Teams resources
week Video footage from previous rehearsals
7 My script
Notes app
Teams resources
Video footage from previous rehearsals

8 My script
Notes app
Teams resources
Video footage from previous rehearsals

9 My script
Notes app
Teams resources
Video footage from previous rehearsals