We began this lesson by setting up the hall ready for our extra-long rehearsal. We decided to set the hall how it shall be when we perform so we get a feel of what it would be like, and also to see if we wanted to change anything. Originally, we were going to have Faustus' desk, chair and armchair all on the stage to give us more room in the traverse; however, the feel of intimacy was lost and Faustus' office felt very distant and disconnected. We then thought of putting Faustus' desk and chairs on the floor, but we thought that we needed restrict Faustus' room a little bit (so the audience could tell where his office ended). We also missed the levels that we had created by having Faustus' office up higher, so we decided that we would put Faustus' office on a small section of steel decking - by doing this we solved the issues of intimacy, levels and practicality. However, we kept the stairs to the actual stage as Charlie, Ollie and I use the curtains as entrances/exits at various points during the play.
Moreover, we have put flats on either side of the steel decking at the other end of the traverse. This is because we sometimes enter from the back of the flats (i.e. when I am Helen of Troy near the end of Act Two) and we wanted to make these entrances/exits tidier and more discreet. We can also do any costume changes behind these flats. When not on stage we will probably stand behind the flats as we are then not visible to the audience, but can still hear our cues. In addition, we are not using flats at the sides anymore as we do not have enough flats. Although, we did want the flats here, I think the play works better without them there, as it would have looked strange with us all walking between the flats at the back and the flats at the side to get to where we needed to be. As we don't have flats at the side, we will have to adapt the prologue where James and I go to draw a pentagram on the flats. However, I have just had a thought... I will suggest this to the class tomorrow... but I thought that instead of drawing the pentagrams, they could be pre-drawn and covered with two pieces of black paper - James and I would take one of the pieces off the board (to reveal half of the pentagram) instead of drawing half the pentagram, and then swap and do the other piece of paper on the other flat.
Blocking achieved this lesson & adaptions:
- 12 -- Originally Lewis was going to click his fingers to cue a chorus member to roll on with the scroll on his line "Here is the scroll on which thou pledged your soul to Lucifer". However, we decided that he shall have the scroll in his back pocket, as to not break the audiences' focus and to avoid the piece looking messy (as the chorus member would have to walk to the entrance and then roll in).
- 13 -- Originally, I entered from the other end of the traverse and walked towards Faustus' office, but now I enter from behind the curtains and walk down the steps. This uses our levels more and makes me seem more mysterious and magical as I "appear" rather than enter. I shall enter through the curtains, walk down the stairs to Faustus, have the section in his office, and then walk back up the stairs and behind the curtains with him. He shall remain behind the curtains for a while, but will then reappear adjusting his clothing to imply what Faustus and his "wife" had just done.
- 13 -- We are utilising our space by all entering from different places to begin our heaven section. I shall appear from behind the curtains as I had just ended there.
- 16 -- Today was the first time we ran our sin section with the track that Lewis made. We loved what he had done to the track but thought that some of our voices lacked emotion and volume at times - therefore we shall re-record our narration tomorrow so Lewis can re-do the track for us. Our timing was also a little bit dodgy so we ran this section a couple of times to improve it. We had to slightly alter some of the movement to make it fit. There is a long pause with in my Lust section at the end, as the narration is longer than I thought. Therefore I shall add more to it tomorrow.
- 17 -- We created another physical theatre section, but this one shows "Pontius Pilate, Hitler and Osama bin Ladan, all three figures changed the way the world viewed others". Our first section is our "Hitler" section. Faustus whispers in James' ear as he stand on the central block. Charlie, Rob and I entered from different directions, looking distraught, and ended on our knees around the front block. James mimes giving Hitler's speech - as he does this, we get off our knees and stand tall giving the Hitler salute. James sharply moves his arm across and we all fall to the floor. From these positions, we begin the bin Ladan sequence. Charlie is made to stand up by Ollie by him using puppetry mime. This is to portray Faustus' power and manipulation and lack of morals. Charlie then gets Rob and I to stand, hold guns, walk towards James, pick him up and drag him to his knees in front of Charlie. I then pull James' hair back and Rob mimes slitting his throat. This is to symbolise the beheadings. Charlie then walks off to the back and we begin our Pontius Pilate section. This section has Charlie representing Pontius Pilate and Rob representing Jesus. This section involves a lot of James and I reaching towards Rob as he stands on the central block, whilst Charlie paces up and down the steel decking on the further side of the traverse. We end this section by doing a lift with Rob (in the crucifix position) and carrying him off.
- 20 -- We worked out where we would enter for the "Hospital" physical theatre section. We went over this section a couple of times to make it more fluid and seamless. We decided that we needed a black out right after this section, to allow us to move the stage blocks ready for the next scene.
- 21 -- Originally James, Rob and Charlie sat down ready for when Scholar enters, but we decided this looked a little bit faux. To make it more natural, they all stood up and lingered in the middle for a little bit. Contrastingly, I enter, ask my question and sit down as I finish asking - this shows my character as being a little bit hostile and authoritative - my character is angered by Faustus and by the others attitudes.
- 22 -- Instead of having a "dance of the devils with Faustus at the centre", we decided to have a black out, in which they would all change positions. This would suggest that time has passed.
- 23 -- Instead of being lifted by the "demons", I shall simply walk on to the steel decking, entering from the very back. The reason we are not doing the lift is because the rest of the cast is all on stage at this point and also we didn't want to over-complicate anything. I walk on, almost ghost-like, and stand still gazing out in front of me, into the distance. I look dazed as I then move my hand outwards as if greeting people. I stay on the steel decking until Scholar's line "but she fades, she leaves us Faustus". At this point, I walk backwards (to representing fading away) and then turn (to show how times have changed) to leave off the way I came on.
- 25 -- I enter as I did before as Helen of Troy, but this time I walk off the steel decking and towards Faustus in the centre. I follow his lead as we have a romantic section in close proximity. We have not planned what we shall do in this section as the section is more raw and natural if we just go for it in the moment - as this is what Faustus would be doing at this point. To leave, I walk backwards and then turn and leave as before.
- 26 -- We have decided to cut from "My offence is too great" up until "What did I gain?". The reason for this is that we do not see much need for this section. We didn't like how Ollie would have been using direct address to speak to the audience, as he hasn't done this in the play and so seemed a little bit strange. It also interrupted the flow of Faustus' feelings.
- 27 -- We haven't physically blocked this yet, but we have worked out what it is we would like to do. We didn't like the stage direction of the chorus "violently tearing, as pieces of flesh and blood litter the stage" as it seems a bit too extreme and over the top. Therefore we thought that we could have a freeze frame of the chorus coming towards Faustus near the steps to the stage. We would then have a blackout, and then everyone would have left, and the stairs would have red paint dripped down them, to look like blood. I would then walk in as Murdock and look panicked. I would then call out Faustus' name repeatedly, calling and hoping for a response: "John? ... John?... JOHN?!........ John". I shall really use breath in this section to show my fear and my realisation of what had just happened.
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