This lesson was mainly discussion based to stop and look at what we have so far and what we plan to do next. We were worried that our piece was ending up too movement based so we broke our scenes down in to categories to see exactly what we have. So far our piece is shaping up to be fairly equal in terms of involvement of movement, dialogue and soundscapes; however, we don't want our piece to be too movement based so we have decided that we shall create more scripted scenes to explore characters in more depth to enable us to explore the issues of abortion and teenage naivety in greater detail.
As a way to include dialogue, Kat came up with the idea of having a game show to decide whether her character was going to have an abortion or not. Firstly, we came up with the idea of changing "The Weakest Link" to fit the theme of abortions, however although we thought the host would be effective and debates could arise, we decided against it as there are too many people involved and it wouldn't be focused on our main character. Our next idea was doing our own version of "Who wants to be a millionaire". We thought this idea could work quite well as it would be focused on our main character, and we could phone a friend (the female character's best friend) but thought we would be over complicating it when it came to the "50:50" and ask the audience. Also, we wouldn't know what questions to ask. Finally, we came up with the idea of doing our own version of "Deal or no Deal" - or "Keep or no Keep" as we like to call it. We liked this idea as it would be focused on the main character and we could incorporate the majority of the aspects from the show. The "banker" could be called the "terminator" as he will ultimately terminate the pregnancy. I would be the host, whilst Robert and Kat would be contestants. Furthermore, this idea enables Kat and I to be the same character still - with Kat being the pregnant girl whilst I am the other side of her mind.
We want our game show scene to make the audience feel a little bit uncomfortable. Ollie and I then remembered a scene we did together at the beginning of the course from a futuristic play called "Ten Tiny Fingers - Nine Tiny Toes" by Sue Townsend. The scene we performed was about two pregnant women (Dot and Lucinda) who were both being forced to have an abortion (Dot because she is from the bottom class and Lucinda because her baby was missing a toe). The nurse in this scene is called Orderly. Orderly has no morals nor any understanding of how the women must be feeling. Orderly is completely heartless and doesn't see anything wrong with abortions at all. Orderly moans at the women for crying, stating the they were making an awful noise. Conveniently, Ollie performed this role when we did this scene so already knows how to characterise this type of role, so Ollie would work very well as "the terminator".
Today I began directing my Elizabethan scene. Although I brought two ideas with me to class I decided against them both and instead came up with a third idea. Although I needed to include Dan, Lewis and Toby (as they have also not done this unit before), I realised I could include Tom (although he has done this unit before) and thought I might as well as he is very keen on Shakespeare. Also, by including Tom, it meant that I had more actors to use and enabled me to try a new idea. I then thought of using a split screen technique, having one side using traditional Shakespeare techniques (including the language and grand gestures) and having a modernised version on the other side. I began by casting my piece: I wanted Toby and Dan on the modernised side (as they are not overly keen on the Shakespearean language) and Lewis and Tom on the traditional side (as they are both comfortable with the Shakespearean language and conventions). Furthermore, I wanted Toby to play the girl (as Dan has a beard and is taller, so therefore they would have been cast like this in Elizabethan times, as women were not allowed to act main roles) and Lewis to play the girl on the other side (as Tom has a deeper voice).
Before I decided what I wanted to do with the modern side of the split screen, I got Tom and Lewis up on their feet to read through their scene. They ran it a couple of times, adding more movement each time and remembering more of their lines off by heart each time too. Whilst watching them perform I came up with an idea of the actual audience watching Toby and Dan watching Lewis and Tom. I was inspired by the TV reality programme "Gogglebox", where families and couples are filmed watching television. I then got Dan and Toby up and positioned them sitting stage right next to each other facing Tom and Lewis (who are performing centre stage facing the actual audience). Tom and Lewis will be performing their scene but will keep being "paused" by Dan, who gets frustrated with Toby for constantly interrupting and asking questions as he does not understand what is going on. Next lesson, I would like Toby and Dan to continue developing (and scripting if needs be) their dialogue that interrupts Tom and Lewis. Whilst they develop this, I would like Tom and Lewis to continue going through their scene and I shall do an exercise where I shall press "pause" on their scene and "play" at random times so they are able to stop their piece whenever Dan and Toby chooses and they can pick it up from the same place (without being confused, despite the distraction of the other two).
This lesson we continued with making our masks. We already had the base of the mask (the plaster of Paris mould of our faces), so our next step was to draw on the mask where our eyes are and how big we would like them, and then cut the eye holes out. After this, I copied my design on to the mask in pen; by doing this I would be able to ensure that my features were exactly where I wanted them to be. To make the features we get pieces of paper and roll them into the intended shape and then stick them to the mask with wood glue. To ensure that our features stand out, we will have to layer the features up (so probably have about three layers for the eyebrows and about two layers for wrinkles). Next lesson, I need to continue adding the first layers to all of my features and then add layers to them. Once I have done this, I will add another layer of plaster of Paris to the mask to hold the features in place, give the mask extra strength and to give the mask one smooth surface. Once the plaster of Paris has set, I will be able to paint my mask.
01/02/16
Today we continued making our masks for Commedia dell'arte. I added more layers for my eyebrows and added another layer of plaster of Paris to give the whole mask a smooth surface. I have decided to paint on the wrinkles next lesson as I think they should stand out more with paint but would also ensure that the eyebrows stood out the most. So far my mask looks like the picture on the left. Next lesson I shall paint the base coat of my mask (the pink on one side and the green on the other side) and once this has dried I shall add depth to the mask and define my features.
05/02/16In this lesson I finally completed my mask for my character Brighella! I am actually really happy with the final result. To begin the painting process, I drew the line down the middle of the mask to separate the two colours, the outline of the eyebrows and the wrinkles. I wanted to paint one half green to show my character's jealous and cunning side. I wanted to paint the other half pink to show the womanising side of my character. I also wanted two contrasting colours to show that my character is two-faced and will manipulate people to get his own way. Once I had painted the base colour of pink and green, I added a couple of layers of the same colour to ensure that the plaster of Paris was not visible underneath. Afterwards, I used red to paint on the eyebrows, wrinkles and nose on the pink side of my mask. I also smudged a bit of red paint to emphasise the cheek bones for my character as I think it makes Brighella look more restless and cunning - he looks as if he doesn't get much sleep as he is always plotting, as he is a cunning character. When I finished the pink side of the mask, I added to the green of my mask. I painted on the wrinkles, nose and eyebrows and then smudged a darker green in below the eyes to emphasise the cheek bone on this side. I then found myself naturally adding "eyeliner" to my mask. I emphasised the eyes by adding decorative dots underneath the line and adding a descending curl to the line (though not visible in the picture above) - these decorative features make this character seem more appealing and seem more attractive to others, forming a massive contrast to his ugly personality.
Since thinking I had completed my mask, I looked at my mask from a distance, only to realise I hadn't finished my mask! The wrinkles weren't very visible from a distance so I decided to use red acrylic paint for the pink side of the mask to make the features stand out even more. For the green side of the mask, I used a darker green than I had used before, to ensure that the features were visible from the back. I also added a darker brown underneath the eyebrows to make them stand out even further.
Today we began the lesson by discussing the research we did on narrators. We discussed what narrators we listened to and why we like them; through doing this we established what makes a good story teller. To be a good story teller you need to:
- articulate well so you are clear and easy to understand
- vary your tone to make what you are saying more engaging
- vary you speed so the narration is not too slow or too quick
- use pauses when appropriate to create certain effects on the listener
After establishing what makes a good storyteller, we looked at the "Reduced Shakespeare Company". This company tells the entire works of Shakespeare in an easy to understand and more engaging way. As a group we agreed that we liked the way the narrator sat on the stage with a literal book but had other actors to help him tell the story. The narrator gave the important information and contributes the "crucial dialogue", whilst the other actors add movement to the piece and make it more interesting to watch.
We then read through Ollie's scene and he told us what he wanted to do with it. Ollie's narration is going to be live and not recorded now as he was inspired by the video above and decided he would also like to sit and read the scene out of a book. His scene is the final scene of the story so he thought it would be nice to end the piece by him closing the book, as if he had just read the entire story to the audience. As this scene is set in the ice palace, Ollie has decided that he wants three walls (all but behind the audience) to have an image of an ice wall projected on them. He wants to have music underneath his narration and have us do a dance section. We discussed songs to have played underneath and decided that we should have an instrumental, so the audience wouldn't get distract and listen to the lyrics instead of the narration. I came up with "Skinny Love" by Birdy as this would work well with a contemporary dance (... also as I already have a dance to this song!).
Originally, I was planning to do the play "A Comedy of Errors". I was intending on keeping the Shakespearean language but ditching the grand gestures to make the piece more conversational and naturalistic. However, although I did like the play and thought it was very clever, it was very complicated and difficult to understand, so I therefore couldn't change the setting until I fully understood the scene. Therefore I have decided to change the play. Obviously Shakespeare has written many plays so choosing the right play for us is quite a challenge; therefore I have decided to choose a play that I already know a little bit about.
I read the summary for "A Midsummer's Nights Dream" and decided that I wanted to do this play as I thought it was very clever and I know the play fairly well so actually understand what it is about! I then skim read through the entire play to find a suitable scene. I have chosen a duologue scene between Demetrius and Helena (where Helena is still deeply in love with Demetrius and will not leave him alone, whilst Demetrius wants nothing to do with her). I chose this scene as I actually understood it(!) but also because I thought Dan and Toby would be hilarious in this scene. Dan and Toby are also in a production of "Rent" at the moment playing a gay couple - with Toby as the more masculine gay (Collins) and Dan as a transsexual (Angel) - and work really well together.
However, I have decided to switch it round a little bit so Toby will be playing the feminine character whilst Dan plays the man. Although this scene would work well, I needed to include three people (Dan, Toby and Lewis) as there are four of us who haven't done this unit before - but I don't need to include myself as I will be directing (and women at this time would not act, they would have boys to play women). As I need to include to Lewis as well I thought of creating a third character who would stick up for both of them at random times - I would be able to do this by changing some lines from first person to third person (for example, instead of Demetrius saying "Do I entice you? do I speak you fair? Or, rather, do I not in plainest truth..." the third character could say "Does he entice you? does he speak you fair? Or, rather, does he not in plainest truth..."). I thought this could be quite funny as Lewis would stick up for one character, then the other character look at him as if to say what is he doing and then he'd go back to their side and keep switching and eventually just give up. To make this scene appeal to a modern audience, I have decided to get rid of the typical exaggerated gestures from this era and make the scene more natural and conversational.
I then thought of having the scene set as if it was a Skype call conversation. I would have two of the characters actually say their lines on a group Skype call and record the screen and then project this video on to the back wall. In front of the projection would be the third character sitting at a desk, facing the audience, with a laptop in front of them, saying their lines as if they were actually live in this Skype call. For this idea, I would use the idea of changing certain lines to third person for Lewis's character to jump between different sides.
Another idea I came up with was having Helena too upset to speak to Demetrius that she says quietly (but loud enough for the audience to hear) what she wants to say to Lewis's character to then say to Demetrius. However, instead of repeating exactly what Helena says, Lewis's character would translate and summarise in modern English. Then Demetrius would just reply directly (in Shakespearean language).
In this lesson we ran the dance phrase and the scripted scene. We also tried to make a clean transition between the two. We had to recap the scene a couple of times to get the timing right and to nail our characterisation. The dance section had to be performed a couple of times to get the timing right on this too. However, once we were happy with the dance and the scene, we performed them both together again. We then decided to create something new. One of the techniques that we thought worked effectively that we could include was a soundscape. We then thought of when a soundscape would be appropriate in our piece and decided that in a hospital or an abortion clinic would work. We then thought of what sounds you would hear at these places and came up with a heart monitor sound, a clock ticking, footsteps, a heartbeat, and a baby crying. We then made these noises and quickly realised that we were going to need a sound effect of a baby crying as none of us could make this noise sound convincing! We then decided to put some movement to it to make it look more interesting. This was just a little bit of an experiment. We decided to stand in a straight line and move in a square shape, swapping positions with the person next to us.
We soon realised that our piece is very movement based at the moment and actually need to do some straight acting! Therefore we stopped making a soundscape for the time being, and quickly went over the dance into the scene and filmed it (the video was not at all professional as it was just for us to see what it was looking like - hence why Ollie ran across the room to turn the music off). After watching the video, we then realised that we forgot to stage it how we did before (with both pairs in different corners). However, we have decided to change the staging now anyway. We shall make sure that Ollie and I do our first dance break behind Rob and Kat to ensure that they are visible (as they are on a low level, whilst Ollie and I are standing). We will therefore have to alter mine and Ollie's duet a little bit as there will then be no need for us to run round to the back (as we will already be there!). Moreover, we decided that we want more of a duet between Rob and Kat because they go from being in love in the dance scene straight to the scene where they are having difficulties.
Rob and Kat shall work out this section next lesson, whilst Ollie and I shall sort out our duet section. Then we shall move on to a completely different scene (with dialogue as our piece is to movement based at the moment).
We began this lesson with a physical warm up and a focus exercise to ensure we were ready (both mentally and physically) to get on with the lesson. We ran the first scene but none of us were happy with it. The reason for this was that it was lacking in energy and was very flat - no one was in character so I suggested we did a couple of character exercises. The first exercise we did was sit in pairs and tell each other about our stock characters (their characteristics, their relationships with other characters and how they move).
The second exercise we did explored Lazzi (comedic movement sections). James and I went as a pair and created a scene where Brighella bosses Zanni around but Zanni falls asleep. Our scene was as follows:
Zanni asleep centre stage (as James found through his research that Zanni has a tendency to fall asleep whenever, wherever and often standing up).
Brighella walks in and attempts to wake him up: clicking at him once at first, then clicking twice, then clicking repeatedly, and finally resorting to kicking him over.
Zanni is frightened at seeing the frustrated Brighella, who then gives him a list of jobs to do.
Zanni repeats Brighella's instructions (unintentionally mimicking and therefore frustrating her) and then is sent a way to get to work.
Zanni soon falls asleep again and Brighella realises as she hears him snoring.
Brighella enters and looks at Zanni, leans on him, looks at her watch and then pushes him over again.
Zanni is apologetic.
We then all performed our scenes to each other and gave each other feedback on what we thought was clever and what we thought they could do to improve. My feedback personally was to face and interact with the audience more and to not rush. We then performed our scenes again with our feedback in mind. To improve myself, I looked at the audience and made bigger gestures to show I was getting annoyed. I also exaggerated all of my existing movements. We then all sat down and told each other three things we wanted to do to improve ourselves in Commedia dell'arte; my three ambitions are to remember I'll be wearing a mask (so put more energy into movements instead of facial expression), to face the audience more and to work on my stance. I have recently been struggling with my stance as Brighella as I don't bend my knees enough and tend to stand to tall.
After this exercise, we ran the first scene again and it was much better. We are now happier with this scene as it had a lot more energy and we were in character throughout. We have decided that we shall keep this scene how it is and shall now break off into small groups to develop the mini scenes that frame every character for the murder of Harlequin. As soon as we have completed our masks, we shall run this scene with our masks as working with masks is a lot different to performing without them. When performing with masks, we have to use our bodies so much more as the audience cannot see our facial expressions.
We began this lesson with a focus exercise (to engage ourselves and to ensure we were all concentrating) and a physical warm up (to avoid injuries and aches when performing our character's movements). After we had completed our warm ups we performed the scenes that we created at the end of last lesson. I thought James and Rhiannon's scene was very clever as it was very comical and definitely showed the relationship between the two characters. Their scene basically consisted of the two of them blowing kisses at each other but it was very comical as they found different ways of doing this including miming a bow and arrow, a basketball, a football and a bowling ball. They used Gromalot noises to signal when they sent and when they received the kiss. Lewis and Ollie's scene was also extremely clever as they were discussing how they were going to kill Harlequin. They didn't use Gromalot and instead used actual words to ensure that the audience understood what was happening. They maintained their characters stance and voice throughout and also portrayed their characteristics throughout (such as Pantalone's obsession with money). However, we did suggest that Ollie could have rambled more, as we learned from our research that the Doctor will constantly go off on a tangent about really random things.
After we had watched each other's scene we decided to devise our first scene. We knew what we wanted this scene to consist of so decided to improvise it, stop and adjust when we thought we needed to and then carried on. Our opening scene is as follows:
- Harlequin centre stage - dead. Zanni SL is asleep.
- Brighella walks in and finds Harlequin. Thinks he's asleep then realises he's dead.
- Brighella calls Doctor on. Doctor does diagnosis.
- Pantalone walks on and blames Brighella.
- Brighella blames Il Capitano, who enters then blames Columbina.
- Columbina enters and blames Zanni.
- Zanni enters and prods Harlequin. Brig is angry. Zanni blames Columbina.
- Everyone points at different people. The pointing swaps.
- Il Capitano is certain that it is Doctor and Pantalone.
The picture on the left shows the positioning of the characters and who they are blaming. The second set of blames are the reverse of the first set, apart from for Zanni who is trying to point at everyone (as he doesn't really know what is going on so is copying everyone else).
After establishing this scene we decided what we wanted to do with the piece. We had already decided that we wanted every character to have a scene to explain to the audience why they wanted to kill Harlequin, but I came up with the idea of each having a scene where they are about to kill Harlequin and stopping just before Harlequin looks like he is about to die. We could then go back to these scenes and repeat the section just before he is about to die and then continue them to show that he in fact didn't die in these scenarios (apart from the scene where he does actually die). Ollie then came up with the idea of getting all of these scenes to link and to be happening at the same time, so Harlequin is just walking through these scenes from one section to another narrowly getting away with his life. Next lesson, we shall run our opening scene again and all devise our scenes explaining why we want to kill Harlequin.
Today we completed our script for the confessions scene. We have the two duologues overlapping; whilst one pair is speaking, the other pair is in mime. Kat's character sees abortion as a solution to an unwanted pregnancy, whilst Rob's character is completely against abortions and finds the whole matter entirely serious (and rightly so). Once we had written this script, we did a read through; however, as we were focussing on our lines we were not in character. We then read through the script again but this time in character. Unfortunately, at this time, we felt the scene was a little bit flat so we separated the dialogue again (to form two conversations - one between Ollie and Kat, and the other between Robert and I) and read through it. However, we did actually prefer the integrated version as we thought this was an interesting style of writing (which we got inspiration for from the play "Flint Street Nativity" as the playwright jumps between conversations between different characters). We then decided to do a little exercise to give us a better understanding of our characters and to enable us to make character choices. This exercise consisted of us switching characters and reading the scene again as different characters. This enabled us to watch other members of our group perform our roles - any choices that they made whilst reading as our characters that we liked we could use for when we are these characters. We all took it in turns and eventually had the chance to play every character in this script. We then spoke about creating a soundscape here but we didn't get this far as we were focusing on character building and development.
This lesson was spent developing Robert's scene (scene four). He decided to have a fairly naturalistic approach by acting the scene out. Initially I was quite worried about this as I thought it was steering away from the idea of telling a story and heading towards devising. However, all the narration has been kept and is being told by Robert (who is also playing the role of the Crow). He has given me the part of Gerda, Rhiannon as the princess, Charlie as the prince and the others as chorus roles. Lewis also has the role of the "lamp"; we decided to have an actor play this role instead of using a prop to ensure that all transitions were smooth (so we didn't need to leave and pick up a prop and come back) and also to make this scene more abstract. We staged the piece so I would almost follow Robert round the whole time and the others would play the characters we run in to on the way or become the scenery (for example, at one point the rest of the group form "rose-coloured satin" hanging, "embroidered with artificial flowers". Moreover, whenever our characters have dialogue we shall speak it whilst Robert then says a reporting clause. This therefore ensures that we keep to the idea of telling a story as opposed to performing the scene.
Research: I have decided to listen to a few celebrities who I enjoy listening too to work out why I enjoy listening to them. I will try to work out what makes their voices so engaging to me and I shall try to incorporate this into my narration (to make my scene more engaging to the audience to try and hold their attention throughout the piece). Below are the celebrities I listened to and what I liked about their voices:
STEPHEN FRY -- (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKgf14im33I) -- good use of pauses to create intrigue / constantly varies in pitch / puts on different voices for different characters / uses his breath to create natural pauses / pronounces all consonants to be clear -- very soothing
TOM BAKER -- (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r35GVB_2xmk) -- emphasises certain syllables and consonants to focus the listener on important details / varies his tone to be more engaging / well-spoken so is clear / doesn't over-pronounce vowels so not annoying or overly posh
JUDY DENCH -- (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5lFe_MPduhw) -- constantly varies tone and tempo / very well-articulated / quite husky yet clear / understanding approach yet sense of security about it
As our previous lessons have been movement based, we decided to start working with dialogue. We decided to think of a scene which we wanted strong dialogue for - I then thought of a conversation (duologue) between the pregnant girl and her best friend. We wanted this scene to be quite hard hitting so we want to have gritty dialogue. We thought that Kat and I could be the same person throughout the piece and Ollie and Rob being the same person throughout the piece. However, the relationships couples would be Kat & Robert and Ollie & I; whilst the best friend pairs would be Kat & Ollie and Robert & I. We tried out having Kat telling Ollie what she wished telling him would be like, whilst Robert and I mimed what she was saying. However we felt that this was a little bit cliche so we decided to change it. We then thought about cross-cutting and the views and opinions of both Kat/my character and Rob/Ollie's character.
Ollie and Kat improvised their conversation, whilst Rob and I made notes on what we thought should/could be altered. Although they were trying to think of how they would act towards a friend telling them they were pregnant, it became quite false as they were thinking too far into it. Therefore, Rob and I told them to actually pretend Kat was pregnant. As Ollie and Kat are actually close friends anyway, the whole scene became more believable as they were talking to each other as they would normally. We also decided to put in a little bit of comedy (with Ollie asking where she had her "cheeky little shag", and if it was in his bed or not) before Kat revealed that she was pregnant and was going to have an abortion. By having a little bit of comedy before revealing her news, makes the news more shocking and unexpected.
Kat's character finds the situation not too serious, as she sees abortion as a solution to the pregnancy being unwanted. However, Rob's character is deeply in love with Kat's character and believes he deserves a say in the matter as he is against abortion and wants to keep the baby. Currently, we are in the process of writing a script (as this would ensure our dialogue is suitable and well crafted) which would jump between the two conversations.
Today we split into two groups to come up with ideas for our Commedia piece. My group developed the ideas we had the previous lesson with our murder mystery theme by creating a list of scenes we wished to include our piece. We are not sure on the order yet but we know what we wanted for our first and final scene. We wanted to begin our piece with Brighella finding the body and everyone coming in standing round the corpse, pointing and blaming each other (in Gromalot). As everybody wanted to kill Harlequin but didn't, Zanni's "punishment" is therefore not a punishment and is in fact a reward in the form of a promotion! A rough order for the piece is as follows:
- Brighella finding the body
- Flashback to Captain's movements at the time of Harlequin's death
- Flashback to Pantalone & The Doctors movements when Harlequin was killed
- Flashback to Columbina's movements when Harlequin died
- Flashback to Brighella finding Harlequin's body
- Flashback to the Lovers whereabouts at the time of Harlequin's death
- Flashback to Zanni murdering Harlequin
- Zanni's promotion
Whilst we were creating a scene order, the other group came up with a different idea - a court scene. They thought of a "Cluedo" theme, figuring out the suspect, weapon of choice and room. Instead of killing of Harlequin, they decided we would kill Magnifico as nobody is playing this role in our piece and he is a stock character. This also enables all characters to act throughout the piece. They decided to have Pantalone as the Judge as he is the most authoritative and is the character with the highest status. They put the Doctor as the jury as he is also very high up so would be a decision-maker. They put the suspects as Zanni and Brighella: Zanni as he was actually the murderer and Brighella as she has a strong motif. We put Harlequin as a witness as we thought this was a good opportunity for more comedy as Harlequin wouldn't take the situation seriously and would mess around. Il Capitano and Columbina were put as lawyers as we need two characters to be lawyers and we also thought that these two would be very comedic. This is because Columbina would put forward a good case as she is cunning, whilst Il Capitano would try to be clever but actually just looks like a fool. Columbina would be defending Zanni and attacking Brighella, whilst Il Capitano would be defending Brighella and spreading rumours attacking Zanni.
We decided to try and get this Court Room scene up on its feet to see what we actually thought of it. Therefore we lined ourselves up in a suitable order: Lewis in the middle (as he is being Pantalone, the Judge), Ollie next to him (as he is The Doctor / the jury), Robert and I on one side of them both (as I am the suspect and he is my lawyer), Rhiannon and James on the other side of Lewis (as James is the other suspect and Rhiannon is his lawyer), and Charlie sitting with the audience (As he is then called up as a witness). We decided to improvise parts of different characters speaking (in Gromalot) to experiment as see if we thought the piece had potential. However, although certain sections were very comedic (especially James as Zanni) we felt the piece was just far too static and actually quite boring. We couldn't see how we could make the piece more upbeat and entertaining. We walked round as our characters again to get back in to characters to see if this would help us with our improvising, but unfortunately it didn't and we thought the piece was a bit flat. Although we did like the idea of a court case, we preferred our original idea so will go back to it. However, it is good to experiment and try out other ideas to see where they lead.
To end this lesson, we split off into small groups and devised small scenes each. We made the groups logical so we had characters together that would be together - the groups were Ollie (Doctor) & Lewis (Pantalone), James (1st Actor) & Rhiannon (1st Actress), and Robert (Il Capitano), Charlie (Harlequin) and I (Brighella). My groups scene was showing a way to kill Harlequin by accident. We also wanted to show our character relationships and characteristics. Our scene began with Harlequin centre stage moaning (using Gromalot and his body language) about how hungry he is; he then searches for and finds food. Brighella enters and tells Harlequin the jobs he needs to do, only to realise that (yet again) he is eating food he has found in the kitchen. Angered, she has a moan at him, when Il Capitano enters. Il Capitano demands that Brighella needs to do as he says, which obviously angers her a lot as Il Capitano is not a master and just thinks he is. Knowing how much of a coward he is, Brighella threatens Il Capitano and challenges him to a duel (which he accepts reluctantly and is very nervous). Brighella and Harlequin circle each other and Brighella lunges to stab Il Capitano, but he leaps out of the way only to reveal Harlequin behind him (innocently still eating) who is in the wrong place at the wrong time and ends up being stabbed by Brighella. We shall perform our scenes next lesson.
Today Lewis gave us our second script for his Greek era play. Originally he gave us part of the play "The Frogs" by Aristophanes, but he had edited the script to turn it into a rap battle. However, the class (including me) didn't understand the meaning of the lines and were unsure on this play. Therefore, Lewis changed the play to an extract from "Cyclops" by Euripides. Lewis hasn't told us much about this scene apart from he wants to change it into a physical theatre piece. He will remove almost all of the dialogue (apart from any chorus sections) and change it into gestures, mime and general physical theatre. He gave out the roles and told us to all create a mask for our characters. As well as being in the chorus, Lewis has also given me the role of a soldier (indicated in green in the script).
Above is the mask I designed. As my character is a soldier, I instantly thought of a helmet therefore I covered the forehead and cheeks with metal. I made the mouth hole large and square: large to fit the Greek style (as they had large mouth holes for projection), and square to fit regimented and orderly military theme. I added "dents" to the helmet to show that my character is a serving soldier and will fight hard in battle.
20/01/16: Today we began blocking a little bit of the piece. Lewis has now decided that he wants the whole piece to be physical theatre, and the only spoken section will be little rhyming stanzas by the chorus (as if they are narrating the action).We shall have music underneath the whole scene (apart from when the chorus speaks); the song we are using is "Heartbreak" (Chase & Status remix) by Nneka. We devised some of the movement piece for the introduction of the soldiers. Whenever the soldiers stand still, our feet are shoulder-width apart (to create a strong looking and sturdy base), our left elbow out with our hand in from of our chests (to represent a shield) and our other hand in a fist to the side of our body (to represent holding a spear). Our movement section aimed to portray who our characters were and to present the unity amongst them (hence why our movements were in unison). Although the movements were in unison, we performed them facing different direction - this is to symbolise the togetherness but also how they look out for one another, are protective and brave. Next lesson we shall add to this scene.
21/01/16: In this lesson we completed the movement for the scene. All we have left to do now is teach Tom the scene (as he was absent this lesson), learn the stanzas off by heart so we don't need to use scripts and to make our masks. We began this lesson by doing a physical warm up to ensure that we wouldn't pull any muscles and to increase our heart rate. We then ran through what we did last lesson, movement wise. Lewis then taught us what he had devised; the photograph on the left is of the notes from his journal for the scene. I thought Lew's movements were very clever as they not only portrayed our characters and relationships but it conveyed the narrative effectively. Although the piece worked well, there were a couple of bars once we walked on where we simply stood still. I then created a short little movement section to fill the gap. Once we walked on to our places, I made us all move places in a clockwise direction to show that we are a uniformed group who support each other. When we return to our original places, I set a lung outwards to different directions to portray the soldiers looking for trouble, covering all directions. We then repeated this lunge to show that the soldiers are cautious and have each others backs covered. Afterwards, we march on the spot turning 90 degrees anticlockwise every two marches. As this is in unison, it suggests that the soldiers are uniformed and are a professional squadron. Next lesson we shall be making our masks, but we also need to teach Tom what he missed, perfect our contact improvisation duets and fill a couple more "lamppost" moments (and learn the stanzas!).
To begin this lesson we looked back at our paperwork from the previous lesson, which established relationships between characters and our idea of killing Harlequin in a mystery theme. We knew that we wanted Zanni to kill Harlequin, as the audience wouldn't suspect this character, but we didn't know how he would kill him. We knew we wanted him to do it by accident, but we had to think of a logical and believable way of him doing this. We thought of places they would both be; as they are both servants we decided they could be in the kitchen. Next, we worked out what items there are in the kitchen that could kill him: knives, microwaves, ovens, cleaning products, out-of-date food and toasters. We decided against microwaves and toasters as we haven't decided on what era we would like our piece to be set, and these items would limit us to modern day only. We then rejected the idea of knives and cleaning products as they are too typical. We were then stuck between out-of-date food and an oven. We finally decided to go for an oven (inspired by "Hansel and Gretel") as we thought Zanni could accidentally push Harlequin in the oven as Zanni runs past. Harlequin could have been so near the oven as he was trying to get some food and so was trying to work out how the oven works (as he is a character who is always hungry and is also very stupid). Also, if we chose to go for a modern day period then we could have a modern oven, but if we wanted a Victorian era then we could have an open fire oven. Afterwards we discussed structure and language.
On the left is my design for my mask. I copied this outline and shape of the mask from an image I found whilst doing research, as I felt this shape portrayed Brighella's characteristics quite well. I feel that one raised eyebrow shows intrigue and suggests that the character is inquisitive; this is true for Brighella as he always looks into a situation to see what is in it for him. Also, the raised eyebrow could show his cunning side, and that he is always plotting. The wrinkles in the forehead could suggest stress from where he has a tough job being the "master of servants and the servant of masters" and trying to get Harlequin to do his job! I decided to use a different colour for either half of the mask to show that Brighella is two-faced (as he uses other people and situations to benefit him). I decided to use green for once side to symbolise jealousy and evil. I have used pink for the other side to show that he is a womaniser and also to have a false sense of honesty. I symbolise pink with youth and honesty, and the fact that Brighella has neither of these characteristics shows that you should not trust him and he is manipulative.
Having discussed what techniques we would like to include and what ideas we would like to explore, we had a practical lesson developing what we had devised/choreographed in the second lesson of this unit. I brought up the idea that I had went we first created this movement section: of Ollie and I continuing the dance, whilst Kat and Rob stopped and discussed the result of her pregnancy test. Therefore whilst Ollie and I choreographed more of the dance section, Kat and Rob began to script this section; however, they were struggling to do so without making it cheesy or typical. I then suggested that they could either speak in third person or state what the other person said to them using reporting clauses. However, they were still struggling with this section so they decided to create a floor-based movement section instead. To ensure this floor section was visible, Ollie and I found a way we could both travel around them and to the back. Once Ollie and I got behind them, we froze for a couple of bars as to not distract the audience from them. We then joined in with the action again with fluid but explosive dynamics to represent the thoughts and feelings flowing but being very strong. We ended this section by going separate ways to foreshadow the end of their discussion. (At the end of the video Ollie got a bit confused on the choreography as he had just learned it and it was our first run)
We decided to have a break from dancing so we sat down and had a discussion on our views of abortion. To begin this discussion, I explained what I had learned from doing my research. When doing the actual research itself I found some horrible images that I felt I couldn't put on the blog as they are too graphic and disturbing. To sum up our discussion we are all against abortions (in almost all cases). The only times which we would be more accepting if a woman chose to have an abortion would be if it put her or the baby's life in danger or if the pregnancy was the result of rape.
In this lesson we continued developing our short scene based on the idea of "Burying your brother in the pavement". We began by briefing Robert on what he missed in the previous lesson. We then continued developing the rest of the piece. The ideas we incorporated into this piece were childhood innocence/naivety and war. We included the techniques of freeze frames, naturalistic acting, abstract drama and stop-start motion (with clicking). We wanted to make our transitions between acting as children and our war freeze frames (or abstract war scenes) as smooth as possible, therefore we decided to make them link:
Children playing a game of tag/it ---> Freeze frame of soldiers in battle
Children eating packed lunch, talking about a papercut ---> Freeze frame of injured soldier
Children playing eye spy and spotting a plane ---> Abstract representation of a fighter jet
Children playing tag/it ---> Abstract drama of chaos of bomb exploding
As well as having a member of our group click to stop and start the piece, we decided to add a school bell sound to begin and end our piece. This bell would signify the beginning and end of the children's lunch time and would also give our piece a cyclical structure.
After performing this piece we sat down as a group and discussed what we have done in the previous lessons and our current thoughts and feelings. We decided to write down what techniques we included in each of the three different ideas we explored:
TEENAGE NAIVETY / SEXUAL RELATIONSHIPS: Movement / dance based
DOMESTIC VIOLENCE: Facts; sound scape; narration; movement / dance based
The techniques we liked the most and wish to include in our final piece are freeze frames, abstract theatre, sound scapes, dance and motifs. We did like the stop-start motion but we feel it would be more effective if we changed the click to a clap or a different louder sound so that it was obvious what we were doing. We then discussed what themes we would like to use for our piece; these themes were teenage naivety (with sexual relationships), alcohol abuse, abortions and domestic violence. We liked our third piece the most so we shall use the techniques from it but we decided against acting as children as we have all done a contemporary play where we had to be children and Robert and I have performed Fantastic Mr Fox for children as well as being child soldiers in our Brechtian Refugee piece for double. Therefore, instead of exploring childhood innocence, we shall explore the naivety and ignorance of teenagers.
In this lesson we finished (apart from a tiny section at the end) the second scene of The Snow Queen. We began the lesson by doing a thorough warm up to ensure we were ready for the more dance-based sections and the lifts in particular. Whilst the others were finding and sorting the music ready for this scene, Lewis and I walked through scene three with Rhiannon (as she was absent in the lesson that we established this scene). Last lesson finished with us being unsure on how to perform a lift to give the effect of the Snow Queen flying. Therefore we began work on this once we were warmed up. Originally we were going to be lifting Rhiannon and experimented a couple of different lifts with her, however she wasn't overly confident and then we realised that if we do this lift behind the sheet (so as a silhouette) it wouldn't matter who we lifted - therefore, we are now lifting Charlie as he is more confident and more experienced with lifts. By lifting Charlie it not only ensures that all members of the cast feel happier, but it also reduces the risk of accidents and injuries (as he is more experienced with lifts). The lift involves Charlie, Robert, Ollie and I; Charlie runs up and puts his hands on Ollie's shoulders and lifts his legs off the ground, whilst Robert catches and raises his legs whilst I then support the whole torso and tops of legs by lifting his hips.
After sorting the lift, we continued with the rest of the scene (which mainly consisted of Rhiannon and Lewis). Once we quickly sorted what James wanted to do with the rest of the scene, we ran the whole scene from start to finish with the music and narration. We also decided to film this run so we could see how it was looking so far. Due to the camera needing to be plugged in we also had to change the direction we faced (which sounds simple but proved to be quite difficult when we are used to having mirrors in front of us). After this run we decided that we definitely need to adapt the ending, as Rhiannon and Lewis were left staring at each other awkwardly not knowing what to do next. There are also a few areas which could be more tidy. Furthermore, we need to rehearse with the sheet and the actual silhouettes. Next lesson, we shall sort this issue out, re-cap each scene individually and then run the first three scenes chronologically (and hopefully film them too).
All the lessons up until today have been spent individually researching an era of theatre and preparing a presentation. My chosen era was Elizabethan theatre so I researched this (and put all of the information I found on a blog post and on a power point) and presented what I had learned to the class. We all presented our work and made notes on each presentation (on my previous Historical Context blogs).
Since then, we have picked a play from our era and chosen a short scene from it with between four and six characters. We will then direct (and star in it as well if we want) this scene using techniques from that era, but making it appeal to a modern audience. As my era is Elizabethan I typically chose a Shakespearean play. I asked the boys if they would prefer to do a comedy or a tragedy; as I expected they wanted to do a comedy so I chose the play "A comedy of errors" (as it had "comedy" in the title and I liked the idea of "errors" and something going wrong). I read the synopsis of the play and picked a scene that would enable me to use all actors and they would have fairly equal parts and a scene that showed a serious "error". When deciding who would play each role, I kept in mind how women didn't perform main roles so men played women as well as men. I have casted Toby and Ashley as the female roles Adriana and Luciana (as I thought they would be very comical in these roles), Dan as Dromio of Ephesus, Lewis as Dromio of Syracuse and Tom as Antipholus of Syracuse. I am currently deciding how I will make this scene appeal to a modern audience.
Page 1 of 3 - original script
Toby has gone first in directing. His chosen era was Post-war and he picked the play "A view from the bridge". To make it appeal to a modern audience he changed the setting to a council flat in London, and instead of being illegal immigrants the "criminals" were drug dealers. Toby wanted to make us all speak like "chavs" so we decided to change some of our lines to make this easier. The final script consisted of a lot of swear words but it was really realistic as it conveys our character's true emotions. As the script became rather messy due to all of the corrections, I decided that I would re-type the script and also annotate it with useful staging notes. Regarding costumes, Toby told us that he wanted us to wear "chavy" clothing, therefore I wore trainers, white frilly socks, rolled up leggings, a crop top, a choker and a hooded jacket. We ran through the scenes a few times before eventually filming it. The piece had a couple of Brechtian techniques: multi-rolling (Ashley performed the role Second officer and Rudolpho) and breaking the fourth wall (Dan spoke to the audience when he was blaming Tom's character for everything).
The first section of this lesson was a research lesson. I decided to research the play "Burying your brother in the pavement". It is about grief and looking at someone that little bit more closely. Below is an overview from the website https://www.nickhernbooks.co.uk/Book/1626/Burying-Your-Brother-in-the-Pavement.html :
Tom’s brother Luke is dead. This has upset a lot of
people but it hasn’t upset Tom. Or, rather, it has upset him, but in
ways he can’t explain and other people can't understand. You see, Tom
and Luke were never friends. In fact, Tom didn't really like Luke at
all.
So it’s an odd decision - to try and bury Luke in the pavement
of the Tunstall Estate where he was killed. But to Tom, it sort of makes
sense, in a stupid-weird kind of way. As he sleeps out on the pavement,
he comes across planning officials, tramps, undertakers, police
officers, sisters, mothers, estate agents, ghosts, pavement elephants,
sky dragons and a strange lad called Tight who wants to sell him a
Travelcard.
Moreover, I read the authors notes on the play. Below are some quotes and points from the author, Jack Thorne:
(Speaking about grief) "I think that sort of distance, between what we want to feel, what we feel other people want us to feel, and what we actually do feel is really interesting"
He played a game with his friend when he was little, but his friend fell and hit his head against some bricks and needed six butterfly stiches.
He was a "very sensitive" child and his friend pretended to be okay even when he wasn't to try and look after him
The second (and smaller) part of the lesson, we began developing a small piece. As Ollie and I love physical theatre and Katya loves non-naturalistic drama (and Robert was absent this lesson) we decided to incorporate these two things. As we couldn't find enough details and the actual synopsis of "Burying your brother in the pavement" we decided to use the author's inspiration for the play (the incident in the playground with his friend). Therefore we began by pretending to be children playing the running game "IT" or "tag". As we wanted a non-naturalistic feel, I thought we could move about in a realistic way and then pause in a non-naturalistic freeze frame and then continue realisticly and repeat. However, I was unsure on how to make some bits non-naturalistic. Ollie then came up with the idea of cutting between children and war. We ran about playing as children and then froze facing each other as if in battle (Ollie and Kat aiming guns at me, whilst I mimed throwing a grenade at them). We then cut back to us as children eating our lunch and then froze with me on the floor being a soldier killed in battle whilst Ollie and Kat try to see if I'm alive.
This was all we had time for this lesson, but next lesson we shall catch Rob up on what he missed, and develop and polish our piece.
Today we presented what we had learned about our characters to the rest of the class. After learning about all of the characters individually we worked out the relationships between every character:
1ST ACTOR loves 1ST ACTRESS
1ST ACTRESS loves 1ST ACTOR and fancies BRIGHELLA
HARLEQUIN is brother and servant to BRIGHELLA
DOCTOR and PANTALONE are neighbours
DOCTOR / PANTALONE are fathers of 1ST ACTOR / 1ST ACTRESS
ZANNI is servant to BRIGHELLA who is servant to DOCTOR and PANTALONE
COLUMBINA is servant to DOCTOR and PANTALONE and is above BRIG & HARL
After establishing these relationships, we began thinking of ideas for possible plots. As we were all quite surprised that Brighella was willing to kill people we had the idea of murder. James then thought of taking on a murder mystery approach. We then sat down and discussed who would kill who! As Harlequin is a very annoying character we decided that we could kill him off as he would give people motives to kill him. Brighella would be suspected to kill him (as Brighella is willing to kill people who aggravate him) so we decided that he should not be the murderer. We also thought that the Doctor could possibly kill him with medicines he had created but again we thought this would be suspected. Therefore we decided that we shall have Zanni be the murderer. This is because Zanni is one of the least suspected characters to kill. We would try to make the audience feel sorry for and also like Zanni throughout the piece and therefore make the audience suspect him the least.
Although we really like our first idea, as we can see the potential and have some ideas on what we want to do with it, we decided to try a different idea from our mind map to see what we could do with that and if we preferred it once we brought the idea to life. The idea we decided to focus on was domestic violence - although we were thinking of incorporating this in to our piece anyway, we thought to explore this topic on its own. We decided to separate it from alcohol abuse and other topics to allow us to focus purely on domestic violence - what it is, who it happens to, the outcomes, etc.
Kat also takes psychology as a subject so she was already very knowledgable on the topic. She shared with us a revision poster she had done on domestic violence. It explains the definition, the causes, the effects and statistics. We decided we would create a small piece to explore what we had learned and use of a variety of different techniques we wished to include. Below is what we created:
The techniques that we explored during this piece were as follow:
- a soundscape (to create a sense of confusion and tension)
- narration (to educate the audience on the facts and statistics)
- physical theatre (to support the narration and to entertain)
- slow motion (to make the hair pulling section more intense (and less risky))
We liked the idea of using a soundscape; we thought this was quite effective to begin with becuase it intrigues the audience as they have no idea what is happening and it builds tension. We thought narration was good to include as it educates the audience but we did feel that the our piece ended up a little bit like an advert as it was all facts and statistics! Ollie and I love doing physical theatre and in rehearsals it was very effective. However, when we performed it in this video, our duet was improvised towards the end as we got confused with what direction we were facing as we hadn't rehearsed with the audience in mind.
Charles Stuart was restored to the throne in 1660; theatres were reopened after an 18 year ban.
Restoration theatre became a way to celebrate the end of Puritan rule, with its strict moral codes. To celebrate the opening of the theatres Restoration plays were lavish, often immoral by Puritan standards, and pokes fun at both royalists and roundheads. Comedies were popular!
Restoration Comedy:
Quick witted and comedic situations
George Farquhar's "The Recruiting Officer" (1706) was the most performed play
Comedic plays relied on situational humour: disguises, mistaken identity and misunderstandings
The audience is aware of the trickery; whereas other characters are left in the dark, only to have all revealed in the end
They were not a mirror of society but rather exaggerated
The typical audience was upper class
Boys played the role of women
Women played the role of men as a form of situational comedy
Characterised by witty dialogue and sophisticated sexual behaviour
Costumes:
Expressed the suppressed feelings of freedom
Stiffness and elegance returned
Men shaved their heads and wore curly wigs
Women wore ringlets with tendrils - rich women weaved pearls in
Low necklines on dresses & men wore cravats rather than collars
Today we continued developing ideas for our devised piece. We discussed what techniques we wanted to include in our piece and what we could involve. We decided that we wanted the party to be held by Ollie's character and in this scene we shall have music and all dance, but then we shall dance in slow motion and the music will become distorted and slow down (which I will sort when we decided what track we shall use), which will show the alcohol taking over and really effecting us. We also decided that we want to include multiple flashbacks, a motif and split screens. I also thought we could try out this idea of clicking to pause the action (then the person who clicked can speak directly to the audience) and then clicking again to continue the action.
Kat thought that her and I could represent the same person, and could use split screening to present different outcomes to different choices. She also suggested that when the "real" pregnant girl is speaking the piece should be realistic, whilst when the "imaginary" pregnant girl is there the piece could be non-naturalistic.
We decided to create a short movement phrase to portray the love making section. Although we may not all do this phrase at the same time we thought we might as well all learn it as we could repeat this later. Kat created the section standing up whilst I choreographed the floor section. I didn't realise how far away my body was from Ollie on the push up until I saw the video, therefore next time I shall lower my bum a bit so my body is in a straighter line and so is closer to Ollie.
Since making this video I have come up with an idea which I will bring to the group next lesson. I thought of having this phrase be used as a motif, but never repeating the whole thing exactly the same. I have thought of more movements to add on to the dance, which I thought just Ollie and I could continue doing (as we are both dancers) whilst Rob and Kat stop and leave. The dance would eventually finish and we would leave whilst Kat comes in and sits on the floor with a positive pregnancy test in hand then Rob walks in and sees - he is livid with her. She could have told him that she took the pill but it didn't work due to her throwing up after consuming too much alcohol. At this point Ollie and I could come back in and have another dance but this time presenting domestic violence, whilst Kat and Rob could either have an argument or could watch the dance and narrate their character's feeling over the top.
This lesson we continued working on the second scene. Firstly we ran the dance section with me, Lewis, Charlie and Oliver. We timed this with the music and narration. However, we found that we needed to finish this dance section earlier as the narration has already cued the Snow Queen. Therefore, so we didn't have to cut any of our dance, I decided to alter the section after we sit cross-legged on the floor facing each other; I decided to make this section in unison instead of in cannon because this shortens the overall time of the dance and thus allows the Snow Queen to enter in time.
The next thing we did was develop the Snow Queen's entrance. At this point, Oliver and Charlie are behind the sheet, Lewis and I are in front of the sheet, whilst Robert and Rhiannon are off stage / not in the light. Oliver and Charlie lift the curtain to allow Rhiannon to walk forwards from behind the sheet to in front of the screen. Oliver and Charlie then let the sheet down and walk to the sides; all the while, Lewis and I have done a short floor sequence to fit the narration. To finish our sequence Lewis and I roll off to the sides and Rhiannon also exits.
The next section involves Kay looking at a picture book (Lewis sits on the floor) which is "full of beasts". For this line Oliver, Charlie, Robert and I create a silhouette of a mammoth. To do this, Charlie and Robert stand next to each other, representing the legs of the mammoth. They have their outer arm out to the side with elbows down and hands up to represent the tusks of the mammoth. The trunk is represented by Charlie swinging his other arm to the side and then Robert continuing the swing by swinging his arm to the other side. We needed them to swing their arm to the side as to create an outline. As this is a silhouette, we had to focus on the outline of the shape as opposed to the actual look. To get the head and height of the mammoth, Oliver stands just behind Robert and Charlie with me on his back (to give extra height).
After this the narration describes Kay getting glass in his eye and seeing everything as ugly. He kicks over roses after talking to Gerda and he pushes her aside. Lewis and I are in front of the sheet whilst everyone else is behind. Everyone forms random ugly shapes to portray how Kay sees the flowers. As he "kicks" them over everyone falls to the floor. Lewis then pushes me and we both run off the stage. Next, the picture book is mentioned again, so we form the mammoth silhouette again but this time it is deformed, so Charlie stands stage left in his same posture, Robert stands stage right in his same position, and Oliver and I remain exactly where we were.
The next part is Kay mimicking people - for this Lewis manipulates Robert by Robert acting like a puppet on strings with Lewis controlling his strings. Robert is then dismissed and exits and then a similar section happens with Lewis and I. However, our duet is a little more aggressive and violent. Our duet ends with me falling to the floor and doing a backwards roll to exit.
Later there is a boy on a sledge so a small lift was created with Robert being lifted to portray this. At this point we ran out of time so didn't manage to get any further this lesson. However, next lesson we aim to complete this scene and do a full run through so far on the first three scenes (and put Rhiannon in to the third scene as she was absent for this lesson).
Theatres were called Ampitheatres and were open air, built on hillsides.
Semi-circular shaped with rows of tiered stone seating (everyone could see and good acoustics)
Orchestra = circular dance floor with an alter for sacrifices dedicated to Dionysus
The stage was a raised area within this circle
Scenic elements:
- A crane: gave the impression of a flying actor
- A wheeled platform: used to bring dead characters into view
- Pictures: create scenery
- Phallic props: symbolising fertility in honour of Dionysus
Other:
Actors were all male and chorus was 12 -15 people
Tragedies (started in 532BC) were current and everyday
Comedies (started in 486BC) were about the past
Singing and dancing - plays part of religious festivals
Thespis was earliest recorded actor and was known as the Father of Tragedy
Costumes:
- Chiton (robe/tunic)
- Chlaina / himation (over-garment)
- Chlamys (short cloak)
- Cothurnus (short lace-up boots)
- Tragedies: dark colours and boots to elevate
- Comedies: bright colours and light thin sole shoes (socks)
- Masks exaggerated facial features and emotions with large mouth hole to amplify voices
Today we found out our groups and our stimulus for this devised unit. The groups are as follows:
- Charlie, Lewis, Hope - Cel, Rhiannon, Oliver, James - Lorna, Robert, Ollie, Katya
I am really happy with my group as we have an equal number of males and females. Also, we work well together as we all have different strengths; Ollie and I are quite strong at physical theatre, whilst Katya is great at coming up with ideas and Robert is good at research.
Our stimulus is the Adele song and music video "Chasing Pavements" (shown above). We have been told to create a "new and innovative" piece of theatre lasting around 30 minutes. Our first step was making a mind map of themes we could link to the stimulus and any ideas that came to mind. The ideas we came up with are as follows:
We then dismissed the ideas we thought had the least potential for the four of us and picked out our favourite ideas. Our favourites were alcohol abuse, relationships, abortion and domestic violence. We then realised that we can combine all of these into one piece. We decided that there could be a party scene to establish relationships and to include alcohol abuse. We also thought that there could be domestic violence over the decision whether to have an abortion or not over an unexpected and unwanted pregnancy. I thought that the three sections (the party, the domestic, the abortion clinic) could be shown in any order and could be repeated to show different perspectives. We decided who would play what part in the piece though: I would be the girl who got pregnant, Robert would be my boyfriend, Katya would be my character's best friend and Ollie would be the host to the party.
Although we may not be using this idea for our piece I have decided to do some research on abortion. Under UK law, abortions can only be carried out during the first 24 weeks of pregnancy as long as certain requirements are met. Abortions must only take place in a hospital or licenced clinic and two doctors have to agree that the abortion will be better for the woman in physical in mental terms than continuing with the pregnancy. Alternatively, you can contact a private abortion clinic without being referred by a doctor. However, you will still need the agreement of two doctors. Moreover, abortions are not risk free. The risks associated with abortions areas follows:1) haemorrhage (excessive bleeding) – occurs in about one in every 1,000 abortions 2) damage to the cervix (the entrance of the womb) – occurs in no more than 10 in every 1,000 abortions3) damage to the womb–
occurs in up to four in every 1,000 abortions during surgical abortion,
and less than one in 1,000 medical abortions that are carried out at
12-24 weeks.
Before the abortion:
"When you go for your first appointment, you should be given the
opportunity to talk about your situation. You'll be informed about the
different methods of abortion, and which method is suitable for your
stage of pregnancy. You will also be advised about any related risks and
complications. The doctor or nurse will take your medical history to make sure the type of abortion you are offered is suitable for you. You'll have a blood test to find out your blood group to see if you're anaemic. You should also be tested for sexually transmitted infections (STIs), and may be given antibiotics to stop an infection developing after the abortion.
Before having an abortion, you may also need to have:
- an ultrasound scan (if there is any doubt about how many weeks pregnant you are)
- a vaginal (internal) examination
- a cervical screening test for infections (if appropriate)
If you have never had a vaginal examination before, the healthcare
professional examining you will be aware you are anxious and will be as
careful as possible. You should let them know if you are anxious and
have not been examined internally before. You may also be given information and advice about which method of contraception to use after the abortion. Finally, before having the abortion, you will be given a consent form to sign." - http://www.nhs.uk/Conditions/Abortion/Pages/How-is-it-performed.aspx?url=Pages%2fWhat-is-involved.aspx
