Diploma in Perfor

Performing &
Production Arts
Unit 12 Project Proposal

Candidate Campbell James Maddox

Project Title Metamorphosis

Section 1: Review

Studying at BTA gave me the opportunity to try out different styles of acting. I have grown confident in
aspects of acting I wasn’t at the start of the year particularly acting for screen. My research and analysis
skills have improved by learning about the plays I chose my monologues from. I chose them because I
was already invested in the world fostering an active desire to learn about it. During the independent film
project, I felt pride watching as my vision came to life. I realized that it isn't all about the actor. I am
going to make a conscious effort to understand the process behind making films and be more
supportive of the other roles in the industry. I want to continue down the acting pathway because I know
there is still room for me to grow as a performer taking all I have learned from previous units.

Section 2: Project Concept

The aim of our FMP is to use the concepts found in Metamorphosis to make the audience aware of the
horrible atrocities that occur every day. To support this, I have made context posters that display themes
we are looking into for our show (e.g. sexual harassment). In this project I want to look at humanizing
the Greek characters in the stories and using them further as metaphors for modern suffering (e.g. Io
suffering in silence). I believe that it is our duty as theatre makers to reflect the world we live in and
confront audiences with the truth even if it is uncomfortable. In our piece we are going to be multi rolling
which means we have to look at using movement and voice to make sure our characters are distinct in
order to humanize them better. The characters must be relatable, and the audience must empathize
with their struggles, or they are not going to want to fight for them in the real world. We will have group
discussions to critique ideas and see what we can take on board to the show moving forward. The show
is an ensemble piece, so collaboration is key to its success.

Section 3: Evaluation

I will reflect on my work in the week by making reflection videos based on the notes and feedback I took
during sessions. This will allow me to document how group ideas and my own changed over time. This
will have a positive impact on my work as there will be a clear timeline of events allowing me to keep my
notes and thoughts organized for when I look back for the final reflection. There will be an action plan
that I will add to each week where I will think about what to prepare for the next session and which
theory tasks to complete. This could have a negative impact on my morale if I am unable to prepare for
the next session how I wanted to in the action plan. This will all culminate in a final reflection where I will
go into the entire process in detail.

Proposed Research Sources and Bibliography (Harvard Format)

Presentation

Dave Jenk DJ ‘reimagining classics: Reviving theatre for modern audiences’ The Dial News
(Online) September 23rd, 2023, accessed 9th March 2024 Reimagining Classics: Reviving Theatre
for Modern Audiences – DIAL NEWS

Arifa Akbar AA ‘Othello Review – Clint Dyer makes this tragedy feel utterly new’ The Guardian
(Online) December 1st, 2022, accessed March 10th, 2024 Othello review – Clint Dyer makes this
tragedy feel utterly new | National Theatre | The Guardian

Houman Barakat HB ‘Review: Andrew Scott plays every part in Vanya. Why?’ The New York
Times (Online) September 22nd, 2023, accessed 10th March 2024 Review: Andrew Scott Plays
Every Part in ‘Vanya.’ Why? - The New York Times (nytimes.com)

Dorota Sajewska and Dorota Sosnowska DS and DS ‘body as a medium. Between theory and
technology of theatre’ the theatre times (Online) 26th August 2018 accessed 9th March 2024 Body
As Medium. Between Theory And Technology Of Theatre - The Theatre Times

Andrzej Lukowski AL ‘Vanya’ Time Out (online) 22nd September 2023 accessed 10th March 2024
Vanya, Duke of York’s theatre review: Andrew Scott is astonishing in this solo Chekhov
(timeout.com)

Aleks Sierz AS ‘Phaedra, National Theatre review – stunning acting in a stunning show’ The art
desk (online) 13th February 2023 accessed 10th March 2024 Phaedra, National Theatre review -
stunning acting in stunning show (theartsdesk.com)

Nick Curtis NC ‘Phaedra at the National Theatre review: Janet Mcteer leads a fine cast in Simon
Stones’ must see show’ the evening standard (online) 10th February 2023 accessed 10th March
2024 Phaedra at the National Theatre review: Janet McTeer leads a fine cast in this must-see show |
Evening Standard

Arifa Akbar AA ‘the crucible review – stylish restaging is all beauty no bite’ The Guardian
(Online) Thursday September 29th, 2022, accessed March 10th, 2024 The Crucible review – stylish
restaging is all beauty and no bite | Stage | The Guardian

Theo Bosanquet TB ‘the crucible at the national theatre review’ what's on stage (online) 29 th
September 2023 accessed 10th March 2024 ”The Crucible” at the National Theatre – review
(whatsonstage.com)

Holly Williams HW ‘the crucible, the crucible theatre Sheffield’ The Stage (print) 7 th March 2024
accessed 15th March 2024

Dave Fargnoli DF ‘Uncle Vanya, Orange Tree Theatre, London’ The Stage (print) 7 th March 2024
accessed March 15th, 2024

Context Posters

Alexis Belis AB ‘the ancient Olympics and other athletic games’ the Met (online) July 23 rd, 2021,
accessed April 8th, 2024 The Ancient Olympics and Other Athletic Games | The Metropolitan
Museum of Art (metmuseum.org)

Daisy Dunn DD ‘Did the Trojan war happen?’ The BBC (online) 9 th January 2020 accessed April
8th, 2024 Did the Trojan War actually happen? - BBC Culture

Shaun Thornton ST ‘who was the first actor in ancient Greece’ history disclosure (online) June
28th, 2023, accessed April 8th, 2024 Who Was the First Actor in Ancient Greece? - HistoryDisclosure

National Geographic Society NGS ‘Greek philosophers’ National Geographic (online) October
19th, 2023, accessed April 8th, 2024Greek Philosophers (nationalgeographic.org)

Dr Maria Lagogianni ML ‘Athenian democracy’ Athenian democracy (online) 2020 accessed april
8th 2024Athenian Democracy (athenian-democracy.gr)

Fritz Graf FG ‘Festivals in ancient Greece and Rome’ oxford research encyclopedias (online) 9 th
May 2016 accessed April 8th, 2022Festivals in Ancient Greece and Rome | Oxford Research
Encyclopedia of Religion
Albinikio Hasci AH ‘the gates in the wall stand open wide. What happened the day the Berlin wall
fell? TIME (online) November 7th, 2019, accessed April 8th, 2024What Happened the Day the Berlin
Wall Fell | TIME

Lisa Gisneros LG ‘40 years of AIDs: a timeline of the epidemic’ University of California San
Francisco (online) June 4th, 2021, accessed April 8th, 202440 Years of AIDS: A Timeline of the
Epidemic | UC San Francisco (ucsf.edu)

Mickey Yarber MY ‘the beginnings of MTV’ Geekster (online) NA accessed April 7 th, 2024 The
Beginnings of MTV : The Retro Network

Jhonathon Rotenburg JR ‘personal computing 1983 innovating and bursting in every direction’
computer history museum (online) May 3rd, 2016, accessed April 7th, 2024Personal Computing
1983: Innovation Bursting in Every Direction - CHM (computerhistory.org)

National Army Museum NAM ‘the British army and the Falkland war’ national Army Museum NA
(online) accessed April 7th, 2024 The British Army and the Falklands War | National Army Museum
(nam.ac.uk)

Geneveive Fox GF ‘the royal wedding: the TV event of the 1980s’ The telegraph (online) 13 th May
2010 accessed April 7th, 2024 The Royal Wedding: the TV event of the 1980s (telegraph.co.uk)

Isebella Merae IM ‘when will the cost-of-living crisis end and will prices in the Uk ever go down?
The Big Issue (online) 20th March 2024 accessed April 6th, 2024 Will prices ever go down in the
UK? - The Big Issue

Elena Nicolaou and Courtney E Smith EN and CES ‘a # me too timeline to show how far we have
come’ refinary29 (online) October 5th, 2019, accessed April 6th, 2024Me Too Movement 2-Year
Timeline Most Important Moments (refinery29.com)

Matthew Weaver MW ‘Katheryn Bigelow makes history as the first woman to win best director
Oscar’ The guardian (online) 8th March 2010 accessed April 6th, 2024 Kathryn Bigelow makes
history as first woman to win best director Oscar | Oscars | The Guardian

Team Verywell health TVH ‘how the has pandemic changed us?’ verywell health (online) January
20th, 2022, accessed April 6th, 2024 COVID in Review: How Has the Pandemic Changed Us?
(verywellhealth.com)
Dan Blystone DB ‘Instagram: what is it, its history and how the popular app works’ Investopidia
January 12th, 2024 (updated) (online) accessed April 6th, 2024 Instagram: What It Is, Its History,
and How the Popular App Works (investopedia.com)
Essay
Josefa Torralba, Lluis Oviedo and Manuel Canleras JT, LO and MC ‘Religious coping in adolesants:
new evidence and relevance’ Humanities and social sciences communications (online) May 17 th,
2021, accessed 24th March 2024 Religious coping in adolescents: new evidence and relevance |
Humanities and Social Sciences Communications (nature.com)

Jack Twyman JT ‘The changing role of Christianity in British society’ Cherwell (online) June 3 rd, 2022,
accessed 24th March 2024 The changing role of Christianity in British society - Cherwell

Rebecca Catto RC ‘What can we say about today’s British religious young person? Findings from the
AHRC/ ESRC Religion and society program.’ Taylor and Francis (online) 10 th September 2013 accessed
24th March 2024 Full article: What can we say about today's British religious young person?
Findings from the AHRC/ESRC Religion and Society Programme (tandfonline.com)

Office for National Statistics (ONS) ‘Religion, England and Wales: Census 2021’ The Office for
National Statistics (online) 29th November 2022 accessed March 25th 2024 Religion, England and
Wales - Office for National Statistics (ons.gov.uk)
Character Analysis

Greek Mythology.com GM ‘Pentheus’ Greek Mythology.com (online) updated 1997-2024 accessed May
18th, 2024 Pentheus (greekmythology.com)

Avi Kapach AK ‘Theban King Pentheus’ Mythopedia (online) 21 st July 2023 accessed May 18th, 2024
Pentheus – Mythopedia

Meet the Myths MM ‘The myth of Baucis and Philemon: a testament to hospitality’ Meet the Myth
(online) N/A accessed May 18th, 2024 Baucis And Philemon': A Hospitality Tale | Meet The Myths (meet-the-
myths.com)

Anca Irina Dumitru AID ‘Philemon and Baucis’ Greek gods and goddesses (online) N/A accessed May
19th, 2024Philemon and Baucis (greek-gods-and-goddesses.com)
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 our director was unavailable, I have found and read through the
19th so we had Steph come in instead. We Metamorphosis Text on Drama Online.
February analyzed and devised short scenes from I will also complete my reflection video
the Greek tragedy Madea. Despite not on week one and start on making the
doing any work on the play I still think research presentation.
that analyzing a Greek myth and devising
from it will be beneficial going forward as
that is what lots of our play is based on.
in order to make our play a success we
will have to reinterpret lots of Greek
myths and devise from them. We will
also have to put our own interpretations
of these myths to clearly show the
themes of our play and who we feel was
right or wrong or simply in the middle.
There is a lot of grey area in Greek
mythology.
2 4th March This week we had a first read through of I will have a think about what scenes I
the play and Nat introduced us to her would like to be in as well as which
concept ideas for the show. After reading characters I would like to play as well as
through each scene, we had a group ones it would be appropriate for me to
discussion on the themes presented play. I will also update my website as i
what we thought about them, the upload work to it.
characters and dialogue as well as what
staging choices we could make e.g. use
of lighting, sound and set. I found that a
common theme of the play was the
overall lack of empathy that the Gods
had for the humans in the Myths. I feel
that this was a key theme the writers
wanted to show in the play and i am
looking forward to exploring this in our
devised work as there can be lots of
Parrells to be drawn from the play and
real-life people in charge abusing their
power with no consideration for who
they hurt at the bottom.
3 This week we started to look at casting I'll complete my reflection videos so I
11th March the show by looking at different people can further absorb what I learnt. I am
within each role and their interpretation also going to try to write my creative
of the text. We had a lip-sync battle to response now I have some free time.
break free of some of the stereotypes
surrounding Greek myths a key theme of
our play. We looked at where characters
talked from and how that impacted
things like status and body language.
This will help me to make my characters
distinctive when I take on the challenge
of multi-rolling.
4 We started to look at movement with our Debs suggested looking at the context
18th March movement director Kat looking at the key posters as the next big piece of theory
themes of our play and exploring them work to complete so I will start to look at
 through movement. We also learned what possible topics I could research.
some dog like choreography to be used
in some ensemble movement. We then
looked at how to implement these
movements into some scenes like
Acteon.
5 This week we used our voices to create I will ask Kris about how to improve my
25th March jingles to be implemented in the palace theory work over easter break.
of the sun scenes. We got to read in for
characters in the Philemon and Baucis
scene. We shared our Orpheus songs
and talked about how to use them in our
piece.
6 On Monday I created two-character bios,
15th April one for Pentheus and one for Philemon. We Looking at line memorization and
made posters about why metamorphosis is
an important play to put on for modern
completing my character analysis
audiences. Nat also asked us the question so I have less on my plate for next
of what our gender means to us. On week.
Tuesday we made boards of quotes that
inspired us and also ran an improvisation
game where we looked at scenes 1-6. On
Wednesday I made a metamorphosis-based
zip zap boing game. On Thursday I worked
on Philemon and Baucis with Nat, and we
marked the sections where there was a
change of pace in the scene. On Friday we
did the same with Pentheus and Nat talked
me through her concept and vision for the
scene.
7 22nd April I need to get my reflection videos done and
On Monday we looked at character hot update my action plan. I will also complete
seating where we would each come in my essay.
dressed as our characters and be
interviewed by each other. On Tuesday and
Wednesday, I was not called in, so I spent
the time learning lines and completing
theory work. On Thursday we looked at the
movement for Philemon and Baucis
focusing on physicality and adding a bit of
improve. On Friday we also looked at
Pentheus and Baccus working on the
improvised bit at the beginning as well as
the pacing of the sections.
8 29th April Complete all theory work and learn all
On Monday we learned the palace of the my lines to make sure I'm absolutely
sun jingle becoming familiar with our pitches focused on rehearsals. Practice my tree
and notes of the song. On Tuesday we had movement in the mirror.
a talk about how men are represented in
metamorphosis. We will now work on a new
writing piece to be featured in the Achilles
scene. On Wednesday we rehearsed
Philemon and Baucis looking at the
emotional aspects of the scene. We also
went over the movement and how that
would affect the pace of the dialogue. On
Thursday we worked on the palace of the
sun jingle adding all the parts together to
 complete the song. We also watched the
first year's shows. On Friday we looked at
adding movement to go alongside our
palace of the sun jingle. We also looked at
the transformation into trees present in
Philemon and Baucis.
9 Monday was a bank holiday, so we were off. Next week I need to make sure I am off
6th May I was not called on Tuesday, so I watched book and have completed as much of the
stand up to benefit my Pentheus scene. We remaining theory work as possible. Watch
rehearsed the men's writing scene on the tree video we made with Kat to cement
Wednesday which has now been the transformation in my mind.
incorporated into the Achilles scene.
Rehearsed Philemon and Baucis looking at
visualizing things like the wine refilling and
the flooding of the village. We also looked at
the journey up the mountain movement
wise. On Thursday we looked at the tree
transformation at the end of Philemon and
Baucis. We recorded a video once Nat and
Kat were happy, so we had a strong point of
reference. On Friday I got to record the
voice introduction for Diana and the nymphs
in the Acteon scene as they are a rock
band. This marked my first voiceover line
ever.
10 13th May On Monday we did our first stagger through Next week I will need to have all my notes
of the entire show. This revealed things in organized so that I can complete all the
the show that we had yet to think about like reflection videos for both tech and the
how in Philemon and Baucis it would be shows accurately.
good to look out into the audience to make a
connection as we are storytellers. In
Pentheus Nat offered to change the scene
up by making Pentheus a clown. On
Tuesday we cemented the final positions of
the tree transformations of Philemon and
Baucis on the top level making them seem
bigger and more ancient. Nat gave me lots
of items to work with to find the clown
aspect of Pentheus and Baccus and we
decided to go with the balloon. On
Wednesday Nat helped me find some more
interesting ways to explore my monologue
for Pentheus. I decided to lean into the
clowning aspect more heavily by multirolling
in the scene. Nat tasked me with looking at
all the different characters present in the
monologue, for example, Pentheus, Tiresias
and Baccus. Then I needed to find different
voices and physicality's for them. On
Thursday we did another full run through of
the play. I was told to find more variety in
the characters. I’m still trying to separate the
storyteller Philemon from the clown
Pentheus which I need to do before adding
more characters to multirole with. On Friday
we ran the show twice. On the first run I was
told to come in stronger over the top of the
Bacci song for the start of Philemon and
 Baucis as well as to play with switching
between talking to the audience and each
other. I was told to build more with the
Pentheus monologue. In the second run I
was told to energize Pentheus more and be
clearer with defining the separate characters
in the monologue and keep that nervous
energy.
11 20th May On Monday we ran through the whole show, Complete all outstanding theory work and
and I Practiced Pentheus with a balloon for clear up my website for the final check.
the first time. On Tuesday we teched
Philemon and Baucis where I was told to
come in strong over the Bacci music. I also
worked on my West country accent, so it
didn't end up slipping this week. On
Wednesday we teched Pentheus and I got
to work more with the balloon nailing down
some movements I could bring into the
scene. I was advised to go even bigger with
the balloon to really get the sense I was
being eaten. On Thursday I was told to use
more vocal strain for the old men to really
sell the affect. The lights in tech needed
more of a twist for the tree transformation so
I had to express and anchor myself. I was
also told to feed the balloon up while
entering for Pentheus and use smaller hand
movements for added comedy. We had our
first dress rehearsal in front of little shop
cast. We then had our first show in the
evening. On Friday we received notes for
Thursdays show. We were told to come in
sooner for Philemon and Baucis and give
sharper looks to the gods while they were
speaking. I was told not to get bogged down
by the string of Pentheus’ balloon letting the
text do the work only touching the balloon at
the end to pop it. On Friday we performed
an evening show receiving notes from Nat
before going on. I was told to be vocally
braver for Philemon and Baucis and go
campier for the palace of the sun jingle. On
Saturday we performed a matinee show and
an evening show.