Contemporary Theatre (17) (Page 11 to 18)

In today's lesson we began staging the actual play. We ran through the prologue again to fit Charlie and Hope into it, as they were not in last lesson. Below is what we have done so far to the play:

• I say my monologue sitting on a chair upstage centre - I am positioned here as this is where I finish in the monologue. I have decided to sit on a chair to give a more relaxed approach and atmosphere. Having had a chaotic and confusing prologue, we wanted my character to reassurance the audience that I will now explain everything that is going on.
• When I finish my monologue, everyone else enters from where they left and forms a semicircle behind me (apart from Winston who is positioned DSR at a desk). When I finish my monologue, I stand and join the semicircle - the semicircle represents unity. The fact that Winston is not in the formation shows that he does not have the same beliefs and thoughts as everyone else.
• Kat moves over to Rob on her line "for the unborn", whilst Charlie, Lewis and James move up a place to close the gap - this symbolises that when people "disappear" they are forgotten and replaced. 
• On the line "a thought develops into action and ..." we decided we wanted a chain reaction / cannon of a movement to show development. To show continuity, we decided we should include ribbon (as we are using ribbon to represent thought now in the prologue, not sheets). We will have a long ribbon hidden in James' sleeve (as he is on the end), and he shall pass one end to Lewis, who threads this end through his hand and passes it on to the next person. Eventually, this white ribbon ends up reaching from James to Hope, being suspended by everyone's left hand. Kat then takes the end of the ribbon and takes a black bit of ribbon from behind Rob's head and shows the audience - the fact that the ribbon from Rob is black, whilst everyone else shares the same white ribbon symbolises that Rob is having rebellious thoughts.
• The ribbon is then dropped. James moves on his line towards Ollie. Ollie runs to downstage centre and sits down (as if watching TV). Lewis moves on his line to Ollie and then to Kat (who has the next line). I enter, walking towards Ollie, but am stopped by Lewis as his line interrupts mine. We have a hymn hands section (inspired by Frantic Assembly) to show the "impossibility of truly knowing" what happens next.
• Kat separates Lewis and I and corrects our posture. She then pushes us back together - Lewis and I are also representing the "two contradictory things". When we are pushed together it is suggested that we come as a pair and so you have to "accept both of [them]".
• James, Lewis and I end up standing next to each other. James puts his hand on my shoulder when he starts his line, and I put my hand on Lewis's shoulder when I start speaking. When we then have individual lines again (as the last section was us speaking over each other) we move back to our places in the semicircle. 
• James works his way round to the other end of the semicircle by shaking hands and then swapping places with the person next to him until he gets to the other end - the handshakes shows support and unity within the Party.
• Everyone faces me on my line. I walk forwards whilst speaking. Everyone leaves to their nearest side and sits down on the pre-set chairs, facing in to the stage space. I walk over to Rob and say my line "you are Winston" directly to him. I then walk back to my chair and take it off to the side.
• Rob gets up and walks to the back and faces the back wall. On the back wall will be a projection of Rob looking at himself - this is to represent the "mirror" the character of Martin talks to him about.
• On the next section, whenever anyone has a line, they stand on their chair. Ollie runs back to down stage centre and sits on the floor as if he was watching TV. I go over and crouch by him as we converse. On my last line in this section, I turn the TV off and take Ollie back to his chair and we both sit down.