12/11/18
For our college's production of The Jungle, I have been tasked to play the role of a human trafficker, who will "greet" the audience and lead them into the theatre where the play will commence. Now, this is an especially challenging role so below is the preparation I have taken to ensure the role is played well and true.
To research human trafficking, I listened to a Ted Talk called "I was human trafficked for 10 years" and when listening to this talk, not only did I learn more about human trafficking and the logistics, but the tragedy human traffickers inflict on others and how they are to be perceived. I also watched a documentary called "The worst refugee camp in the world", this was more of research regarding how refugee camps functioned, and how it genuinely was for its inhabitants. I can use these two pieces of film to assist me in the role of my character as they both provide realistic facts regarding the concept of refugee camps and human trafficking for The Jungle, and assist me in my characterisation.
For example, when considering the role of human traffickers, I had to consider stereotypes associated with the role, which I learned are that human traffickers are cruel and care solely about profit, and are loathed by the majority of society. I then thought as to why this was, and agreed that a human trafficker as a person was one to be despised, but as with any role, you must find a way to understand why they are doing the actions they are doing, and attempt to understand them so the role you portray is genuine to the actual traffickers. Therefore, in lesson, Yolanda and I discussed how we could make the role of a human trafficker be more deep and complex, and even attempt to "humanise" the traffickers. We considered how it would be from the trafficker's perspective, which was difficult regarding how there was barely any material we could use online, however we did a characterisation activity where we created backstories, names and ages for our specific characters. The effect of this exercise was it allowed me to connect with the role, and giving myself an identity and story would allow me to play an actual person and not just the role of "trafficker" on stage.
The role I gave myself was as followed:
Name: James True
Age: 31
Story: Fell in love with a refugee woman from Pakistan named Zehra who he married for a year and even had a child with her, until she bolted and took all of his money and memories without even telling him, taking the child too. Since then, his confusion and anger as to why Zehra would leave him unannounced and the loss of his daughter Aaliyah has accumulated to a prejudice against all refugees and joined the trafficking society to exact his cruelty on all refugees, whilst also secretly looking for Zehra and Aaliyah and ask why they left.
There is a reason to each of these specifics, for example the name James I gave myself as it is a name commonly associated with British culture, and as I wanted to play a British trafficker, the name worked. I decided to make myself 31 as it is an age that could warrant such a tragic event that happened to him, and at this age it would still be logical to assume he was not over it and hadn't yet found peace with Zehra. The backstory I gave myself I will use as a bedrock for all the emotions I will show, such as pain and rage, and in my opinion, knowing where this pain came from for my character makes the emotion I give more genuine and allows me to consider the levels as to which his anger and prejudice will seep out in the play.
For future rehearsals, I will practise playing the role with this newfound evidence and story and use voice, movement and characterisation to make the character of James as convincing and real as possible, and the challenge I have set myself is to make James human and complex, despite being employed in a truly detestable profession.
To research human trafficking, I listened to a Ted Talk called "I was human trafficked for 10 years" and when listening to this talk, not only did I learn more about human trafficking and the logistics, but the tragedy human traffickers inflict on others and how they are to be perceived. I also watched a documentary called "The worst refugee camp in the world", this was more of research regarding how refugee camps functioned, and how it genuinely was for its inhabitants. I can use these two pieces of film to assist me in the role of my character as they both provide realistic facts regarding the concept of refugee camps and human trafficking for The Jungle, and assist me in my characterisation.
For example, when considering the role of human traffickers, I had to consider stereotypes associated with the role, which I learned are that human traffickers are cruel and care solely about profit, and are loathed by the majority of society. I then thought as to why this was, and agreed that a human trafficker as a person was one to be despised, but as with any role, you must find a way to understand why they are doing the actions they are doing, and attempt to understand them so the role you portray is genuine to the actual traffickers. Therefore, in lesson, Yolanda and I discussed how we could make the role of a human trafficker be more deep and complex, and even attempt to "humanise" the traffickers. We considered how it would be from the trafficker's perspective, which was difficult regarding how there was barely any material we could use online, however we did a characterisation activity where we created backstories, names and ages for our specific characters. The effect of this exercise was it allowed me to connect with the role, and giving myself an identity and story would allow me to play an actual person and not just the role of "trafficker" on stage.
The role I gave myself was as followed:
Name: James True
Age: 31
Story: Fell in love with a refugee woman from Pakistan named Zehra who he married for a year and even had a child with her, until she bolted and took all of his money and memories without even telling him, taking the child too. Since then, his confusion and anger as to why Zehra would leave him unannounced and the loss of his daughter Aaliyah has accumulated to a prejudice against all refugees and joined the trafficking society to exact his cruelty on all refugees, whilst also secretly looking for Zehra and Aaliyah and ask why they left.
There is a reason to each of these specifics, for example the name James I gave myself as it is a name commonly associated with British culture, and as I wanted to play a British trafficker, the name worked. I decided to make myself 31 as it is an age that could warrant such a tragic event that happened to him, and at this age it would still be logical to assume he was not over it and hadn't yet found peace with Zehra. The backstory I gave myself I will use as a bedrock for all the emotions I will show, such as pain and rage, and in my opinion, knowing where this pain came from for my character makes the emotion I give more genuine and allows me to consider the levels as to which his anger and prejudice will seep out in the play.
For future rehearsals, I will practise playing the role with this newfound evidence and story and use voice, movement and characterisation to make the character of James as convincing and real as possible, and the challenge I have set myself is to make James human and complex, despite being employed in a truly detestable profession.
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