Brechtian Devised Piece - Refugees (5) (Child soldiers // Closing scene // Performance)

28/09/15

In this lesson, Rhiannon was absent so we didn't run any of her scene, nor could we polish any lifts. Instead, we fully developed mine and Robert's child soldier scene. We kept the beginning part of our scene similar, but we then added dialogue from the squadron leaders (Oliver and Lewis). When they entered, they shouted commands which Robert and I had to respond to instantly. The only difference we made to the beginning of this scene was that Robert and I gradually made our childish movements more mature and more like actual soldiers. Also in this lesson we developed Charlie's confession scene. He performed his monologue to the rest of our group and took part in Forum Theatre. We gave him improvements (mainly add extra pauses and try different emotions during the monologue).


02/10/15

In today's lesson, we ran our piece from start to finish in C5, where we shall be performing next lesson. Our main aim was to work out our transitions from scene to scene, as to make our piece seamless. Everything else was pretty much sorted, we just polished our lifts and any ensemble movement. Moreover, we altered and added to our final scenes. After Charlie does his monologue and gets shot, he lays down centre stage, with the rest of us sitting in our positions from our "actual introduction scene". James thanks the audience for watching the show and describes how "we'll be here next week" and the week after that and the week after that and so on. Between each "next week" he says, we each say a fact about human trafficking. James ends the piece by saying that this is "the show that never ends".


05/10/15

This was our final lesson on our Refugee devised piece. We performed it this lesson to the Year 13 students and two drama teachers, and we filmed it too. Our performance was on the whole quite successful. One moment which could have been improved was the beginning of Rhiannon's scene. Whilst Rhiannon performs her monologue, the rest of us are supposed to used Frantic Assembly techniques to create a busy London atmosphere around her. However, this was delayed as we didn't begin at the same time. As no one started the movement, we all lost a bit of confidence and were unsure when to start it (also, this scene was one of the least rehearsed and there were debates earlier in the devising process whether to include it or not, thus confusing some of us). However, our lifts were very tidy and we received very positive feedback for them. Also, we were complemented on our use of facts at the end. To improve next time, we need to work on transitions sooner in the devising process, rather than leaving them to the last minute.

The Flint Street Nativity - Play, by Tim Firth (2) (Cast list // DVD)

29/09/15                                     Today the cast list was revealed:
-  Mary = Lorna                  -  Ass = Charlie      
-  Wise Gold = Hope          -  Gabriel = Rhiannon  
-  Narrator = Ollie M            - Shepherd = Kat
-  Star = Lewis                   -  Wise Frank = Oliver K
-  Herod = Robert               -  Innkeeper = James        
-  Angel = Cel

Firstly, we watched a part of the DVD of the play to get a better understanding of our parts. We then read through the entire script as a group. Any questions we then had about the piece were answered. As a lot of editing had to be done to the script (due to our cast having an extra boy and being one girl short, and also as we do not have an Indian girl in our cast), we quickly ran out of time this lesson to get any further.


01/10/15 & 02/10/15

On the first day of the month, we finished off watching the DVD, however, it seemed to be very different from our scripts (as there were additional characters, and the characters had different names). We also finished off reading the rest of the script and highlighting. On the second, we staged the first scene in its entirety and worked on the first song.

London Riots Devised Piece (4)

Over the past few lessons, we have worked out a complete scene order of everything we would like to include in our piece. At the moment, our scene list is this following:

• Physical theatre scene (Ill manors)
• Rioter interviews
• NEW SCENE (what the rioters did)
• Police interviews
• NEW SCENE (emotional turmoil piece with animation)
• NEW SCENE (consequences scene)
• MP Speeches
• Ill manors reprise

We decided that we wanted to repeat the "Ill Manors" scene again at the end so we had a cyclical structure to our piece, this would imply that these events could easily happen again and the whole process/cycle would repeat. We wanted an "emotional turmoil" scene to show what the rioters are really thinking and going through, having just presented what they did. Also, in one of our previous lessons recently, we researched the story of the riots from witnesses and rioters points of view. We learned that the rioters who broke into shops stole what would "keep the party going" (i.e. alcohol) as opposed to things they need and would benefit them. The riots were described as a "massive free-for-all" with "everybody jumping on the band wagon". We thought we could include this in the "emotional turmoil" scene. We thought it would then be appropriate to have a "consequences" scene to show the outcome of the rioters actions. We also wanted MP speeches to show the thoughts and feelings of the government. 

New adapted MP speech monologue

Original MP speech monologue

Last lesson (28/09/15), we performed our MP speech monologues (above left) to the rest of the class. We were then given feedback on what went well and what needed improving. My positive feedback was that my speech was cleverly written, as it was made up of quotes from different politicians to make it as accurate as possible. Also, I had good posture, however I need to look up more (though I did this initially, until I lost my place in my script, so didn't look up as often as the piece continued). The main thing I have been asked to do is research previous conservative women and to re-write my script with conservative views (as opposed to somewhere in between conservative and labour).

I have now (01/10/15) done research into female members of parliament. I then narrowed this list down into conservative women who were "in office" at the time of the London Riots. After researching this, I looked to see if any of these women happened to make a speech about the London Riots; I found out that Theresa May (a British Conservative Party politician who has been the Home Secretary since 2010) did make a speech on the matter on the 11th August 2011.I have now rewritten my speech (above right) as if it spoken by a conservative woman. I've ensured it is as realistic as possible by including some quotes from Theresa May's speech. I also looked at pictures of Theresa May on google images to see how she holds herself/what her posture is like. This was so I could try and replicate it to make my speech look more realistic and sincere. I decided to clasp my hands together with my elbows out to the side resting on my hips as this gives the impression that my character is apologetic yet certain in that something needs to be done.