Friday 27 May 2016

F(l)ight - (3) (Opening sequence // Groups)

To begin this lesson we looked at songs we could use for our piece. We will need to use more than one song to make our piece the required length of 10 minutes. The songs we came up with were as follows:
We decided that we wanted our piece to be on domestic abuse and the publics perception of it. We thought this was a very hard-hitting subject so we thought we could explore it and make the audience think. We thought we could include quotes of statistics and facts, but we decided that this would be a little bit boring and took us away from physical theatre, so we have decided to use small section of quotes instead (e.g. 40%, 1 in 5, etc.). We also watched an Australian commercial (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wjBfU-bfGII) stating that we should stop violence from the start. It shows that if children aren't corrected from a young age and if they witness domestic abuse when they are younger, then they are more likely to offend when they are older. I thought the video was very effective but I didn't like the fact that all the victims in the video were women. I thought this was quite sexist and thought it supported the fact that the public tend to ignore the fact that men can be victims of domestic violence too. Therefore, we want to explore different types of domestic abuse.We also realised that we don't all need to be in the piece at all times - thus meaning we could have sections that focus on different types of couples.

For our introduction, we are using the first 40 seconds of "Dark Necessities" by RHCP. We thought this was quite an intriguing opening and offered quite a good build up in atmosphere. We all begin lying on the floor very close together to represent the countless number of victims of domestic abuse. Whilst lying on the floor, we all say a fragment of a quote, to intrigue the audience. We then reached up one at a time and turned round to kneel on one knee. We did this one at a time, and did this in cannon around the circle. James stayed on the floor, and then we did a lift where we hoisted him up onto his feet. This was to show that some people are forced to get up on their feet and carry on with their lives. After we do this lift, we wanted to do another lift where James is lifted and flipped over to represent how domestic abuse can completely flip your life upside down. However, we didn't do this lift this lesson as the ceiling is too low in the room we were rehearsing in.

Instead we moved on to our pairs and groups. Lewis and I are one pair and we will portray domestic violence with the man being abused. Charlie and James will present domestic violence between brothers. Ollie, Rhiannon and Rob will show domestic violence between husband and wife in front of their child and the effect it has on their child.

Below is what Lewis and I created for our section and our thoughts behind it:
  • Lewis stand behind me, with one hand on my waist and one hand caressing my neck - to establish that we are in a relationship
  • I flick his hand off of my neck with my hand - to show that I am dominant and don't care for him
  • I do a head roll (with my hands on my head) and a kick to the left (with a flexed foot), and then step on to the left leg - this section shows my frustration with my partner and symbolises how I want to kick him into shape into the man I want him to be
  • Lewis reached towards me. I block him by putting my hands up and putting my weight on my left leg (which is bent, inverted and on my instep) at the same time. I do this with a slow dynamic - Lewis reaching towards me shows his desperation to be forgiven. My block shows that he is not forgiven. The fact that my leg is inverted and bent shows my corrupted state of mind.
  • Lewis reaches towards me again. I block him again in the same way, but this time with sharp, jagged and quick dynamics - Lewis is desperate to be forgiven. He won't give up. My character is aggressive and can flip very quickly.
  • I perform a "round" action from Frantic Assembly's technique of "round-by-through. I roll across Lewis' side so we end up back-to-back - My character dismisses Lewis and turns her back on him and her morals.
  • We do a lean, where he leans on me, but I then push him off - The lean shows that he relies on me. It also shows that if my character left him he would fall and crumble. 

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