Our Day Out †Theatre Essay

Our Day Out – Theatre Essay Free Online Research Papers Our Day Out Theatre Essay The play â€Å"Our Day Out† is about a school class from Liverpool that go on a school trip to Wales. They go to a few places along the way like the zoo an old castle and the beach. One of the teachers, Miss Kay, wants all the people on the trip to have fun – this leads to a lot of disturbance, like the children stealing animals from the zoo and the old castle being overrun with chaos. While on the other hand Mr Briggs is a very strict teacher who wants the trip to be solely educational. Another main character is Carol, who is one of the students on the trip. She plays a big part in the cliff scene. This scene is significant, as it is the turning point in the two teacher’s personalities. You can see how Miss Kay and Mr Briggs react when under pressure and after the cliff scene Mr Briggs changes his attitude from the grouchy man to the good-hearted and amusing teacher that was all along inside of him. If I was to set the scene I would set it on a frosty and windy day, this would make the impression that something wicked is a about to take place. To make dramatic tension and a scary feeling I want the theatre to be huge and with loads of height. I want the cliff, which is shown in the diagrams, to be hanged from a wall about 15 feet up from the ground so that the height of the cliff will scare anyone standing on it or even the audience. So that none of the actor’s backs are shown to the audience I want the audience to be seated either side of the cliff in increasing rows so that everyone can see. I want the whole of the inside of the theatre to be painted in sky blue and I want painted seagulls dotted around. Because of the height of the cliff and the safety of the actors I want mats all over the floor painted in sea colours. In the corners of the theatre there will be speakers, which will project the sound of waves and seagulls so that the audience feel more like they are n ear the beach instead of inside a theatre. The audience will feel like they are part of the scene as instead of the side of the cliff been pinned to one wall and the audience been on the other side, it will be sticking out into the audience and the audience will be either side. To make the more of the dramatic tension I would need both actors to shout most of their lines, like when Carol says â€Å"Don’t lie you! I know you hate me. I’ve seen you goin’ home in your car, passin’ us on the streets. And the way y’ look at us. You hate all the kids.† , but more so with Mr Briggs as he is the strict teacher while for Carol I’ll need to have tears in her eyes in the middle of the scene, this would make the audience feel sorry for her. At one moment Mr Briggs is very annoyed by Carol, he says â€Å"Now just you listen to me – I’ve had just enough today, just about enough and I’m not putting up with a pile of silliness from the like of you†¦Ã¢â‚¬  This shows that Mr Briggs’s patience has run out. I would like the actor that plays Mr Briggs to play a typical strict teacher, loud, clear, stern, angry look and standing upright and tall to make himself big. At this point Carol steps clo ser to the edge of the cliff, the audience will start to feel scared. On the quote Willy Russell uses short sentences to the actor speak quickly, this is also effective in building up tension. Right towards the end the atmosphere changes, the quote â€Å"Nothing. I promise you†. At this time he is trying to comfort Carol as she as been through a lot. The quote shows a change in Mr Briggs personality, he now seems like a trustworthy man. You can see carol’s feelings towards Mr Briggs, as in the quote â€Å"Don’t lie you! I know you hate me. I’ve seen you goin’ home in your car, passin’ us on the streets. And the way y’ look at us. You hate all the kids.† This moment shows that Carol knows that Mr Briggs doesn’t like kids and that Mr Briggs doesn’t have a good attitude towards them. I want to highlight the fact that that Carol doesn’t like Mr Briggs and neither does he like her. When the actor says these line s I want her to have an angry look and speak very clearly with her lines. On the quote Willy Russell uses short sentences to the actor speak quickly, this is also effective in building up tension. To show Mr Briggs feelings I’ve used the quote â€Å"Carol. Carol, please come away from there. Please†¦Ã¢â‚¬  At this point Carol smiles and the audience will be relieved that she didn’t jump. This moment shows that although Mr Briggs is a strict teacher who has a bad attitude to kids, he still cares for them and that is also what I want to highlight. This moment would also show his real personality. I want the actor when speaking these lines to hold out his hand to show trust and to also have a soft, gentle voice, which will calm Carol. To show Carol’s personality I have used the quote â€Å"Why can’t I just stay out here, eh? Why can’t I live in one of them nice white houses an’ do the garden an’ that?† This shows that she h as an accent. It would also show that she like gardening which would also show her personality as a patient, calm girl but on the other hand the scene shows that she can’t wait to grow up and doesn’t seem calm either. As the school is from Liverpool it’s not surprising that Carol has an accent. I want Carol’s actress to play with a northern accent. Towards the end Carol says â€Å"Sir, Sir, y’ know if you’d been my old feller, I woulda been all right all right, wouldn’t I? At this point Carol moves to the very edge of the cliff. The sentence makes you think that it is her end because she talks about what she could have been if something was different and as this is the kind of thing you say towards the end of your life. The audience will be very scared at this point as they think she is going to jump. When you see that hunters are about to kill Bambi’s mother in the film Bambi you start to feel scared. When they kill her and you start to sob, you start to wonder- why is there a sudden death in such an innocent film? In some respects the play has the same effect of when Carol is about to jump off the cliff, you think that why should anyone die and especially in such an innocent play. When she doesn’t jump you feel relieved that a young and innocent girl that only wanted to have a nice house and do the garden up nicely, didn’t throw her life away. To achieve the same scare that you got in Bambi, I would make sure that the actress playing Carol moves very slowly towards the ends of the cliff and when she walks to the cliff I want the actress to walk backwards to the edge. Research Papers on Our Day Out - Theatre EssayHonest Iagos Truth through DeceptionWhere Wild and West MeetStandardized TestingThe Masque of the Red Death Room meaningsAnalysis Of A Cosmetics AdvertisementTrailblazing by Eric AndersonComparison: Letter from Birmingham and CritoRelationship between Media Coverage and Social andPersonal Experience with Teen PregnancyThe Hockey Game

Interview Storytelling How to Tell a Story During Your Interview

Interview Storytelling How to Tell a Story During Your Interview â€Å"I remember the daffodils were beautiful that summer. I was young then, just starting out, full of optimism and joie de vivre†¦What? My management skills? Don’t worry, I’m getting to that part eventually.† One of the best things about the in-person (or phone) job interview is that it gives you a chance to take your sterile-looking, rigidly bulleted resume and create a more rounded narrative of yourself and your career. But it’s an area that takes a bit of skill and finesse. You don’t want to end up way out in Tangentville, but you also don’t want to seem like you can’t back up the information on your resume.Find Your NarrativeBefore the interview, it’s important to limber up by coming up with the narrative you want to express during the interview. Is it that you’re a tough leader who always wants to improve? Are you a problem solver who thrives on challenges? Once you work out what you want to achieve with your interview (and what works well with the job description), you can shape your stories and anecdotes to bolster that narrative.Storytelling isn’t just a way to package yourself, it’s also a way to pull in the interviewer and make them care more about the person and resume sitting in front of them. [via DynamicYield]What to Talk AboutAt The Muse, they recommend having six types of stories in your pocket for any interview:Solving ProblemsProblem solving is a very highly regarded skill for hiring managers. They need to know that you’ll step in and be able to handle things on your own.Talk about: You resolved a conflict between two coworkers, or between you and someone else. You came up with a solution to a crisis at the last minute. You identified an area of cost savings that helped save a budget crisis.DON’T talk about: The time you brokered a peace deal between your two fighting frat brothers, or between your mom and Aunt Susan at Thanksgiving. Unless you ma naged a peace deal in the Middle East in your spare time, stick to work-related stories.Overcoming ChallengesEveryone loves the underdog, right? And sure, it’s good to have examples of when things went well, but many interviewers want to know about how you do when things aren’t going so well. In this story, it’s important to identify the challenge, but more important to show how you conquered it successfully.Talk about: You had a difficult relationship with your boss, but came to an understanding. You found a new and more efficient process for doing something that used to take hours. You had a crazy deadline for a project- and met itDON’T talk about: How you started waking up on time after you got in trouble for constantly coming in late.Bouncing Back from MistakesYou’re not perfect. Spoiler alert†¦the interviewer knows that. The trick here is turning mistakes to your advantage. It’s important to be selective here; you want to pick some thing that wasn’t too egregious, and also something that shows real professional growth. Be sure to focus on the outcome (how you’ve pivoted and this mistake made you stronger) over the mistake itself.For this one, you not only have to be a storyteller, but also a spinmaster. It’s important to show that you’re a better and stronger employee for the experience, which of course wouldn’t be repeated in your new job.Talk about: A mistake you made early in your career that made you better at your job. A knowledge gap that you worked hard to address.DON’T talk about: The time you almost got fired for negligence. A major mistake you made for which you never got caught. The time you hit reply-all to make a snarky comment about someone on the email chain, even though you meant to forward it to your friend Jake only. Or the confidential company information that somehow got made public via your Twitter account.Making Good DecisionsThis is not the time for an elaborate story that ends with your colleagues carrying you out of the conference room on their shoulders, chanting your name. Look for stories that show how you took charge of a situation, or managed others to a successful outcome.Talk about: The team you led to a successful year of sales. The event you organized (and went well). The project you spearheaded.DON’T talk about: Successful initiatives where you weren’t actually the person in charge. It’s a dangerous game, taking credit for things. You never know who knows whom, and what can be factchecked as soon as you leave the interview.Working Well with OthersYou don’t have to be the shining leader here, it’s more about how you interact. This one is pretty flexible- any kind of project you’ve done in conjunction with other people will do. Colleagues, clients, volunteers, all are potential teamwork stories.Talk about: The event you organized in conjunction with others. The high-profil e project that involved several different departments.DON’T talk about: Times you didn’t get along with others, or had conflicts.Being, You Know, a Real PersonSometimes you get a bit of a wildcard, an interviewer saying, â€Å"So tell me about yourself.† Rather than launch into a chronological timeline of your education and experience, pick a story or two that expresses your priorities and values. It doesn’t have to be strictly related to work, but if you can use it to shore up one of the big skills (leadership, problem solving, commitment, etc.), all the better.Talk about: You’re training for a marathon. You speak three languages and are working on a fourth. On weekends, you volunteer at a farm for rescued mongooses.DON’T talk about: Inappropriate personal stories. Health issues. Political activities.How to Frame Your StoriesGood interview stories do two things:1. They tell the interviewer something about you that goes beyond your resume bu llet points.2. They engage the interviewer.It’s the same as any story you tell, whether you’re hanging out at a cafà © with friends or in a job interview: you want to tell it in the best, most entertaining way. This does not mean you need to adopt a Catskills comedian persona (â€Å"take my boss†¦please!†), but it’s worth the effort to put a little sparkle on your stories, even if they’re just meant to flesh out the bullet points on your resume.Make the listener care about what you’re saying.Try to tie things back to the job at hand. If you’re talking about leadership skills, talk about how your past leadership makes you a great fit for this job managing three employees. Show the value of these stories to the company that might hire you.Stick to the important points.These stories should be short (maybe only a few sentences). You want to make sure you zero in on the most important details: who, what, when, where, and how it appli es to this new job.Be upbeat.People respond to tone, and if you try to keep the story light and professional, it helps maintain that tone for the overall interview.Make sure there’s a clear ending.You don’t want to trail off, or wrap up with a weak, â€Å"So†¦yeah.† End on a strong note about your goals or what you hope to achieve in this new job.Keep it as short as possible.Here, the sweet spot is somewhere between one-or-two word answers and a ten-minute monologue. Try out some standard answers to interview questions as part of your pre-interview prep. Time yourself†¦if you feel like you’ve been talking for a while without coming up for air, you probably have. If you find that your story is going more than a minute or two, start thinking of spots where you can cut it down.What Not to DoWhen thinking about the stories you want to tell in an interview, the things not to do are just as important as the story itself.Don’t use a timeline.Thi s happened, and then this happened, and then this other thing happened.† I’m already asleep, can you repeat that last event? Instead, try a pattern of â€Å"this happened, and this was the result. What I learned from this was†¦Ã¢â‚¬ Don’t use jargon.Try to keep terms as universal as possible. If you’re talking to someone whom you know is familiar with them, or they’re culturally appropriate to your industry, it’s okay to use specific words, but don’t take for granted that everyone will know what a GMU report is if they haven’t mentioned it before.Don’t make stuff up.The truth is always the best in a job interview scenario. Even if it would make for a better story if you accepted the Nobel Peace Prize at the end, it’s not worth the embarrassment of getting caught in a fib.Don’t leave the professional zone.Even if you’re asked to talk about hobbies or personal interests, don’t use that as an excuse to list all of your pet topics. Pick one or two that you can talk about, and for goodness’s sake, make sure they’re work appropriate. (Any story where your friend had to bail you out- not great.)Moral of the StoryAt the end of the interview, you want to feel like you’ve achieved a good balance between the you-on-paper (your resume) and your presentation. Using stories and anecdotes to show (not tell) how those bullet points and skill actually shape your career is a great skill to have, and just takes a little practice.