Curl Up And Dye

 Recently we started a new unit South African Plays; we read a play called Curl Up and Dye By Susan Pam Grant which also explores Workshop theatre.  The play was set after the apartheid had occurred in South Africa, where black, white and colored people started to live together, as the setting of this play Curl Up and Dye was set in Johannesburg in Joubert Park, where originally it was a white area and started to become a grey area, the main reason being is that people from Soweto had to drive all the way to Joburg to work for the white people in order to make money and provide for their families, however all their money was being spent on transport, so they moved closer to their workplaces. The focal theme in this place is racism/discrimination since it is set in a grey area and in a salon where there is a lot of tension between the races, how they interact and their status. Susan Grant and her colleagues would collaborate and try to brainstorm ideas on social issues that they could portray and put on script and they would also use props. When Asceal and I were performing our formative, she was playing the character of Rolene and I was Mrs. Dubois and Max was our director. Max really took this play seriously and he did not allow us to waste a minute, we had to practice until it satisfied Max, he was really good at coming up with ideas that may be suit the plays intentions, the stage directions and blocking.  Rolen who Asceal is playing is a very sassy and tacky girl and who is also the owner of the Salon, she lives with an abusive husband which is why she always takes out her frustrations in the salon and especially at Miriam who is her assistant because she is black she is always discriminated against by Rolene and Mrs. Dubois who are white people. We started the first scene of the play where Rolene and Mrs. Dubois met outside the Salon and couldn’t get in since Miriam is not there yet. Rolene starts complaining to Mrs.Dubois about how horrible the black people are, Mrs Dubois who is in her mid 50’s couldn’t care less, she just wants to get into the salon and get her hair done, and she acts very higher class and demanding when really she is poor, she is selfish and whenever someone is actually trying to vent to her, she either walks away or pays her attention to someone else. Eventually Rolene finds the keys and enters the Salon, Mrs. Dubois critics the salon and how filthy it is and how Miriam must come clean, Rolene is angered to see her salon being such a pigsty, she complains about how she doesn’t want to be the sweeping girl. Eventually Mrs. Dubois just leaves to give in her lucky numbers her Six Picks. Rolene get’s constant phone calls from Denzil, and every time the phone rings Rolene gets excited thinking it’s a customer, when it’s just her abusive husband. The area is very poor, and so the salon does not get very many customers, the only customer might be Mrs.Dubois just because she likes to hear Gossip. After we performed our formative the class said that our blocking and atmosphere was really good, the mood of the scene, however our characterizations needed some improvement, Rolene who is Asceal could have been more dirty, tacky and girly but not too the point where she is a teenager, for example look in the mirror fiddle with her hair a lot, and chew gum and my character Mrs.Dubois to act more her age, my tone of voice and her gestures. We took their advice into consideration and rehearsed again. For the summative, we made improvements and it was a lot better than the first time we performed. My character though Mrs. Dubois still did not seem her age and as an old auntie. I don’t know I seem to find it difficult to play older characters; playing younger characters are much more easier and comfortable. For me though in my mind it seemed as though my gestures and tone of voice was better however that didn’t seem to portray to the class. Maybe I should have asked my mother for advice on how to be an old tannie, I mean I have aunties, I just don’t see them very  often, so I lack some of my south african culture as in how to act as a stereo typical grandma or auntie. Also whilst we were reading the play it was funny to hear other english speakers speak in Afrikaans, at times I couldn't stop laughing and also with the way the pronounce the swear words, it was hilarious.

I am also doing the makeup for Arsenic and Old Lace, the first time I did makeup, things were really hectic and I didn’t know what character to do but then I saw Travis who is an Einstein and I started to click, I knew his face had to be full of scars and he had to look ugly. It was a challenge though, finding his foundation was easy but making his face ugly was pretty hard since he is very attractive haha. Morcom helped me draw a line through his eye and make a line across his nose as if it were broken, and then I asked Amal whether she has gummy scar things we can maybe stick on his face to make it seem as if he has plastic surgery, which we found, however it was really hard to stick on his face.. in the end though the results were great, he looked very ugly, scars, a bit of blood, brown patches and brown lips, now I know what to do for him next time.