Devising (10) - Rob's Scene

We decided we wouldn't do any more work on our Domestic Violence scene, as we were struggling to come up with any more ideas. Although we were getting there and liked the idea of creating a tableaux, we decided against doing any more as we thought we could be more inventive with the scene - however, we couldn't think of what we wanted to do. Therefore we moved on to Rob's scene.

What we want to include:   With Rob's scene we knew that we wanted to include news reports in the form of voice overs, flashbacks (we debated about doing this as projections - but remembered the projection doesn't always show up well in the room we shall be performing in and we may not find a lot of videos), narration, a lift and props. As mentioned in a previous blog, we wanted to include shoe laces in this performance - we want the audience to be confused as to why we had shoe laces but understand by the end. Rob changed his monologue from a suicide note to him not knowing how to write it. By next lesson he will have written narration for the three sections - the necklace incident, the cashpoint incident and the beheading. To write this narration, he could look at them onologue from "Eight" for inspiration.

As Rob will be either be performing his monologue or narrating the events we portray, there will be three of us for the three events. We had to decide whether we were going to portray one of these events each or if we were all going to portray them together. We decided that we would all be in each scene, rather than try to over-complicate by each trying to represent a different event. As there are a three of us, it did remind me of the three wise monkeys - "see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil". I thought that maybe we could implement this into our piece but decided against it as it would over-complicate it.

Opening:    We knew that we wanted to open this scene with voice overs of news reports. We have Rob sitting at his desk in the centre as if he's writing his suicide letter. We also knew that we wanted to involve shoe laces from the beginning - we just didn't know how. We had originally intended to have Rob fiddle with the shoe laces whilst reading his suicide note, but now he shall be trying to write his note, whilst the rest of us shall fiddle with the laces. Ollie thought that we could all sit in the same position, in a line, and fiddle with a shoe lace each. I really liked this idea but I thought we could develop it slightly - I thought we could sit in different places and represent him at different stage during his decision making: I sit on the floor looking at a shoe lace (being slightly tempted, realising what I could do), Lewis sits on the chair fiddling with the lace (as if testing its strength) and Ollie stands looking up whilst holding his lace (as if working out where he could tie it from). After discussing shoe laces and what we could do with them, we came up with two ideas: we could either keep these laces and through one of his desk after each event, or we could tie another one to Rob's one (that was on his desk from the beginning) after each event. We haven't decided which idea we shall choose yet - but I think we should go with the first idea, as we could do something with tying them together during a physical theatre section before Rob's character's suicide.

We created a rough over-view of how we would like this scene to run and we blocked as much of it as we can:

• All walk in to our opening positions (Rob at desk, me on floor, Lew sitting, Ollie standing) as the voice overs of news reports
• Rob reads some of his monologue whilst we all do our movements, as stated above. 
• NECKLACE SCENE - We set this scene in a shop. I am a cashier worker and Ollie is supposed to be Rob's character. We watch Ollie do some shopping, get served and then walk out of the shop. Outside the shop, Ollie is threatened by Lewis to give him his necklace, or Lewis would stab him. Whilst Lew and Ollie are miming this, I continue miming serving people (at Rob's desk) and Rob is standing on the desk narrating the entire event. No one looks at Rob during the entire scene, including when he is walking about on the desk that I am sitting at - this is to show that he is not actually there, almost suggesting that he is dead - almost ghost-like, but without being cheesy. 
• CASHPOINT SCENE - This scene happens stage left. Rob sits on the desk and narrates the entirety of this scene. Lew mimes standing next in line to use the cash point. I am the person who threatens him with my gun, and forces him to draw out his money and give it to me. Meanwhile, Ollie might be tying his lace to Rob's lace (as Ollie was the victim in the previous scene).
• MEATCLEAVER SCENE - We don't know how we are going to present this yet, but Lewis will possibly tie his shoe lace to the other two laces (as he was the victim in the previous scene). Rob will narrate this scene. 
• SUICIDE - We are not sure how we shall do this yet but are hoping to create something similar to when we did a piece about suicide during our "Applying Acting Styles" unit.

By next lesson Rob would have hopefully written his narration parts and Lewis would have decided what music he would like us to use - as he said that he had some ideas for this already. Next lesson we aim to complete this scene.

Workshop (11) - Character Development

This lesson was spent as a character workshop. James spent the lesson working on his songs and giving the rest of us feedback. Ollie and Lewis worked on Page 59 - when Judge Turpin tells Beadle that he intends to marry his ward, Johanna. Rob and I worked on Page 18 and 19 - where Mrs Lovett tells Sweeney about his wife, daughter and razors. We all spent some time just to work on our short scenes, before performing them to each other and doing forum theatre on them.

Lewis & Ollie:   Initially, when they performed this scene, it was okay but very naturalistic. For the second time they performed it, we asked them to be very over-the-top, almost like caricatures. We asked them what they thought their characters were like and who they were. This did change how they performed slightly - there was more energy within the piece, but then we asked them to change where they lead from. Ollie decided he wanted to use a cane, which automatically lowered his stance, and made him lead from the nose and hands. The use of the cane emphasised how Beadle is someone who thinks he is upper class, but he really isn't. It also made his character seem more perverted and creepy, especially how Ollie laid his hands on the cane. Lewis decided he would lead from his chest to show that he is very upper class. He also moved about with his head held high to portray how he thinks he is so much better than everyone else. We also suggested to Lewis that he doesn't really look at people when he speaks to them, as his character is so confident and dismissive that he doesn't feel the need to look at people when he speaks or they speak. When they performed this scene again, it was so much better and really funny.

Rob & I:   Initially when we performed this scene it was a little bit bland as we hadn't established our characters or our character relationship. We did understand the meaning of our lines, and our performance might have been okay for screen, but as it is live theatre, our characters needed to be a lot bigger. As everyone knows I am a big musical theatre fan, they suggested I approached this role as if it were Madame Thénardier from Les Misérables - this helped me get the bitterness and more butch side - as I approached her too nicely to begin with. To improve on our relationship we had to think about how we really feel about each other - Sweeney uses Mrs L to get information and help he needs to get revenge on Turpin, whilst Mrs L is completely obsessed with Sweeney and just wants him. I had to play up to this by basically "fan-girling" over him. We workshopped the way I said the line "so it is you Benjamin Barker". At first I said it as if I knew all along but with an element of awe underneath. I tried it again but as if I was really excited as if I had just found out that it definitely is him - this had more energy behind it, but didn't really make sense, as she knew from the beginning that it was him. I am keeping the third way I said the line - I say it as if I am excited that the information that he has said has confirmed that it is him, but generally just more obsessive (by taking my time when saying his name).

Mrs Lovett:   As well as showing her obsession with Sweeney, I also shall present Mrs Lovett as being unpredictable, a bit mad and quite dangerous. We discussed her craziness - Sweeney has understandable reasons for him wanting revenge, whereas Mrs Lovett is completely crazy, as she is the person that comes up with the idea of putting people in pies. We want the audience to feel quite uncomfortable with her and feel like they never know what she is going to do next. Therefore, I shall really be working on varying and contrasting my dynamics in terms of both dialogue and movement - some lines I shall say quite soft and slowly, but the next line will be quite sudden and fast. I shall play about with this during scene workshopping to establish how I shall do this. At some point in the near future, I shall look up different people who have played Mrs Lovett in the past, and how they played her. I shall see what I like and what I don't like, and use inspiration from across the different women who have played her, to create my own version of Mrs Lovett.

Directing (2) - Scene 1 & Scene 9

Scene One: 

Lewis and I practically workshopped Scene One today. The three of us weren't sure on how we should do this scene initially. Our first question was why are Jerry and Emma meeting? We thought that it was either for closure or because they miss each other and want to get back together again. After reading through the scene, we doubted it was because they wanted to get back together again, as Emma is now "seeing a bit" of Casey. However, at the same time, Emma doesn't seem to really talk about him much and says a few suggestive things and basically admits that she misses him - as she reminisces about how their lives used to be.

Ollie got us to first try this scene as if we were just wanting closure, so the scene was quite tense - I was blunt with my responses and didn't really give that much eye contact. We made the pauses quite long and awkward to achieve the attended atmosphere. We quite liked this approach, but we then thought that it didn't show enough contrast to the end of the scene where Jerry gets angry at Emma for telling her husband about their affair. We therefore thought we could try the scene as if they were quite excited to see each other and clearly missed each other, but had a sort of youthful innocence / awkwardness about them. We also liked this way of performing the scene as it worked with what we were saying, but also formed more of a contrast to the end of the scene.
 
However, as we managed to create two completely different atmospheres from the same text, we agreed that Emma doesn't really know what she wants - we decided that if we worked from the end of the play to the beginning of the play (i.e. in date order), we might get a better understanding of our characters and how they would really feel.

The staging that we agreed with for both of these scenes is when Jerry goes up to the bar to buy a drink. We decided to make this silence really long and quite awkward. We can make this silence as long as we want. The other part we agreed on was when Lewis would stand up and when he would sit down again during the ending part of this scene. We tried this section a couple of times to get the intended atmosphere. I have to be embarrassed when he gets up, and try to get him to sit back down again, as we are in a busy pub. Therefore, I shall look around more when he gets up and shall try to get gesture him to sit down without trying to have an argument in front of everyone. Therefore, I shall also say my lines through my teeth and quite quietly at the end.

Scene Nine:

We decided to do this scene, and work through the play backwards to help us get a better understanding of our characters, but also of our character relationships too. When we first did this scene, Lewis was already sitting on the bed, I walked in to do my hair and happened to turn round and see him - however, this didn't feel very natural so we decided to change it. We now pretend I have a mirror on a dressing table angled perpendicular to DSL. I look in the mirror to do my hair, and spot Lewis in the reflection. This felt more natural, which is a good thing as Pinter writes in a very naturalistic style by making the dialogue all very conversational and natural.

The other part of the scene that we payed close attention to was the first page of the scene with the stage direction "he holds her". We thought that this was a little too clumsy, so decided that he would go to take her hand. We then decided that it should be my left hand, as he could feel my wedding ring, and this would then spark him off on his speech about being best man at my wedding.

We also developed the monologue section nearer the end of this scene - we worked on how Lewis would be a little bit tipsy, and how I would look uncomfortable and panicky as I know my husband on the other side of the door.

Next Lesson:

It really helped doing the last scene first (doing the play in date order) because it helped us understand our characters better. However, we have agreed that we need to make a timeline of events so we know when what characters know what, as well as what happens when. Therefore, next lesson, we shall make this timeline.

Workshop (10) - First 20 pages

Boat discussion, experiment & decision:   For the song after the Prologue, involving both Anthony and Sweeney, a boat is needed. The two pictures show the two ways we tried for this setting. Both images involve a sail being made with a red sheet, but we shall purchase a white sheet to use for the performance. Although the first boat idea required less people for it to work, we decided against it as we didn't think it looked as effective as the second boat. We came up with the second boat by using the sail idea but also from liking the idea of creating levels through the use of stage blocks. The first boat would have looked slightly better if the sail was facing the side too (but the photo shows us mainly experimenting with the use of the sail), but we couldn't create sides to our boat with just stage blocks, so we needed to use material. The second picture isn't exactly how we are doing our boat either, as the sail shall be a lot higher up. It is also a lot easier to set up the second boat, as the stage blocks are in the same position as the beginning of the show, for Sweeney's coffin. Instead of us all running off at the end of the Prologue, we shall now get the material together and get ready for the boat to be assembled. The boat appears in formation on the very last word of the prologue. We don't want it to be clear we are going to make a boat until it goes up. To show the boys getting out of the boat, I move to the far right stage block and hold the sail facing left, whilst the boys move their positions 90 degrees and lower the front down further. Meanwhile, the steps have been moved (by either Dan, Taylor or Alice) and put to the far left stage block, so Tom and Rob can just step off of the boat. The boat would then dismantle, as it were, and Tom and Rob would then sit on the stage blocks (that were within the boat) for the next scene.

"No Place Like London" - Todd solo:  This song happened whilst sitting on the stage blocks. Rob will sing the whole song sitting down to Tom. Meanwhile, there shall be the flashbacks presented behind them. We discussed having this happen in silhouette, but decided against it as wouldn't work in our performance space. We also discussed using projections but decided against this as we wanted to be more physical in our approach. A possibility would be to have Rob involved in the flashback movement whilst singing, but we thought this might over-complicate things. We decided that as James is of a similar build to Rob, he could wear the same costume and be Sweeney in the flashback movement - he'll just have to face away from the audience at all times during this. We didn't block this flashback today though as we do not have Taylor in our lessons (or Alice) as they are in the year below and their timetable does not fit with ours. Therefore, we skipped this song and shall come back to it at another stage.

The Pie Shop:   The pie shop setting shall be created during a frantic scene whilst Rob is singing his solo part to himself and during the music afterwards too. In this chaotic section, everyone shall be moving about in the scene and moving stage blocks and chairs around Rob to create different paths. The purpose of chaotic movement here is to present the chaotic streets of London, to show Sweeney travelling and to hide a scene change! Meanwhile, the entire time, I have been hiding behind what turns out to my counter / work-top in my shop. As we dismantled the boat after the boys got off it earlier, I ran stage left, putting the sail material over the top of the counter, and leaning the broom (which was the pole to give the sail its support) up against the side of the counter. I then remained hidden behind the counter up until my first line for "Worst Pies in London". There was no point trying to stage this number when I didn't know the song of by heart yet, and I also hadn't developed my character fully yet (which is essential for this song as it is definitely a character song). However, we knew that we wanted me to end sitting on a chair at the same table as Sweeney with my feet up. We ran through the scene after this and then into "Poor Thing". In this lesson, I sang the entire song sitting down whilst watching Sweeney move about the shop. I think this was quite nice as it showed my character as intently watching him to see how he reacts to everything I say. We then ran through the scene afterwards. It was very dry, as it was the first time we had done it - our characterisation was very weak but we shall be working on this next lesson. However, we changed setting in this scene - to get Rob into the room above shop, I literally pull him up the stairs to show him the razors.

Songs & Next Lesson:   So our show isn't ridiculously long, we shall be cutting parts of them, but using the movie versions of the majority of them. Next lesson, we shall workshop our characters more to establish how we are going to play them.

Devising (9) - Mine & Rob's scenes

Overview of our piece so far:

• First motif (Mental Health) - Ollie walking in, followed by Lewis
• Rob's scene (Terrorism) 
• Second motif (Mental Health) - Colours changing
• My scene (Domestic Abuse?) 
• Third motif (Mental Health) - Chair puppetry
• Lew's scene (???) 
• Fourth motif (Mental Health) - Head movements

Ideas and progress for Rob's scene:

• Definitely wanted him to do a monologue (this idea was inspired by "Eight" by Ella Hickson) - we then thought this could be in the form of a suicide note (as Cornelius did commit suicide)
• We discussed having the rest of us perform the event that he witnessed by using physical theatre - but instantly decided against it, as it would not only be difficult to present effectively but would also be quite disrespectful. 
• We have decided that we would like to create a tableaux (of freeze frames) of this event, and perform it whilst Rob is reading out his suicide note.
• I think that Rob could be fiddling with shoe laces at the beginning, and the audience would not know why. However, he would tie them to form a noose by the end of the monologue / suicide note, so the audience then understood it all. The only thing I am unsure about is how to do both ideas at once without the audience not knowing where to look and therefore missing things.

Devising (8) - The boys work...

I was not in this lesson, due to an audition, so I had to leave the boys to the work. In this lesson they decided that they weren't going to do the 9/11 idea. Instead they decided that they wanted to do an event that is less well known. I agreed with this idea as it would be less cliché and less typical. Therefore, they decided to do the beheading of Lee Rigby by the Islamic State supporters, but from the perspective of Danny Cornelius. Danny Cornelius was a witness of this event, but he killed himself three years after the event. As a teenager, he was robbed at knifepoint of his gold chain. As a young adult he was forced to take money out of a cashpoint at gunpoint. Danny was a single man who visited his Nan and Grandad a lot, but committed suicide in their garden by hanging himself with shoe laces.

They also discussed that for my scene we could do a scene about abortions - as this is an experience that would haunt someone.

Workshop (9) - Blood & Prologue

Blood ideas:   To show the throats being split we discussed a few ideas we will try out. We firstly discussed using fake blood. We mentioned having the characters, who have their throats split, wear a blood pack by their collar - Sweeney would apply enough pressure to the pack that it would burst - but we decided against it as the amount of pressure required to burst the blood pack might still hurt the actor. We then discussed that we could put blood on the blade and then draw it across the neck, however, this would just come up with a line across the neck and wouldn't look like blood. Another idea we had was to go more abstract with it - we thought about the character having a red piece of fabric under the collar that would be pulled out when the throat would get slit. Another way we could show this is through the use of light - we could have a flash of red light... These are the ideas we came up with, but we shall come to this when we get there.

Prologue Ideas:

1. We could all stand in random places, some in the audience and some on the stage, and sing. There could be solo lines and duet parts, as well as lines of unison. 
2. The Prologue could be his funeral and foreshadow what is to come. We could all walk in as a procession - either walking in from behind the audience to on stage, or from underneath the stage to on stage.
3. We discussed having a lift where Sweeney gets carried on in a coffin.
4. All of us wear black old fashioned outfits as if at the funeral, then we could reveal Sweeney.
5. To save carrying in a coffin and to make it more simplistic, we thought that we could have the coffin on stage to begin - the coffin could be made of three stage blocks in line with each other. Rob could start lying down on this coffin. 
6. We discussed having a red cloth over the top of Robert to hide him on the coffin. We mentioned this cloth being attached by string to the lighting rig - as the cloth is really light, we would then be able to swing the sheet up and off of Sweeney. However, we decided against this as it would be too much for just the opening scene - we also wouldn't know what to do with it afterwards. We then mentioned in being pulled off and taken down the steps, under the stage.

Two main ideas: 

1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ai7hi4ARS1s   -   We liked the idea of having a funeral and foreshadowing the event. We tried having us all walk down the aisle of the audience from behind them to the front. The head movements were to represent the dangerous setting of London. The hand movements symbolise Sweeney's blades. 
2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=npIUcxc5duA   -   We wanted to incorporate the idea of us all entering from different directions to disorientate the audience. We kept the coffin idea as we wanted it to foreshadow what would happen - this is also why we put James at the front, as he was the character that killed Sweeney. We have decided to go with this idea, rather than the first one, as it is more meaningful, looks more interesting and unexpected. It is also a better use of space. We would then have a chaotic part, instead of running off, we could all manoeuvre the stage blocks to form our next setting. The staging for this number is shown in Lewis's diagram (above).
3. In both versions, we cut out the middle of the song as we didn't feel it was necessary and we didn't like it because it was too screechy. We also didn't want our show to be too long, so we skipped to Rob's solo part.

Boat discussion:   
The first song (after the Prologue) is sung by the character Anthony (Tom) and Sweeney (Rob). During this song, they are supposed to be on a boat. Therefore, we had a discussion on how we could create this boat and will all come up with ideas for next lesson. At the moment we are debating between using stage blocks for the boat and a creating a sail, or just use a few people and material.

Directing (1) - Getting our scripts

In this lesson we began our new unit: devising. As there are only three of us in our class (Ollie, Lewis and I) we have been given a three person play called "Betrayal" written by Harold Pinter in 1978. Emma and Robert are married, but Emma is having an affair with Robert's friend and colleague, Jerry. The play presents the affair in reverse: starting from near the end of Emma's marriage in 1977, and ending with her and Jerry beginning their affair in 1968. In this lesson, we read through the entire play. Mr Falconar shall step in and play the minor role of the waiter for us. Below is a brief overview of each scene:

1. 1977 - Spring - A Pub - Emma (38) & Jerry (40)   The two discuss their lives now and what they used to be like. The audience learnes that Emma is having a new affair with a man called Casey.
2. 1977 - Spring - Jerry's House - Jerry (40) & Robert (40)   Jerry feels guilty for seeing Emma that day, so tells him. The two discuss the affair and Jerry finds out that Robert knew about the affair a long time ago. 
3. 1975 - Winter - The Flat - Emma (36) & Jerry (38)   They talk about the flat, and getting rid of it. The end of their affair. 
4. 1974 - Autumn - Emma and Robert's House - Emma (35), Jerry (37) & Robert (37)   The men discuss their children. The three discuss Casey's writing. The men try to arrange a date to play squash and have lunch. Emma asks to join them but Robert tells her she can't. 
5. 1973 - Summer - Hotel in Venice - Emma (34) & Robert (36)   They discuss the book she is reading. Emma confirms to Robert about her affair with Jerry. Robert had guessed this the day before, but was "quite ignorant before this". 
6. 1973 - Summer - The Flat - Emma (34) & Jerry (36)   Jerry asks Emma about her holiday with Robert. They discuss the book she read on holiday.
7. 1973 - Summer - Restaurant - Jerry (36), Robert (36) & Waiter   Jerry asks about Robert's holiday. He realises he's been told a different story by Emma. They discuss books again and their jobs as publishers. 
8. 1971 - Summer - The Flat - Emma (32) & Jerry (34)   Emma prepares their dinner. Emma mentions Judith (Jerry's wife). Emma tells him that she's pregnant with her husband's child. 
9. 1968 - Winter - Emma and Robert's Bedroom - Emma (29), Jerry (31) & Robert (31)      Jerry is drunk. There is a party at the house. Jerry confesses his love to Emma. He tries to kiss her, and Robert walks in as she breaks away. 

Pinter leaves many questions unanswered with this play - the main one being did Robert actually know from the "beginning" / did he see Jerry kiss her? Pinter doesn't use many stage or voice directions, thus giving us more freedom with the play, and leaving it up to interpretation. There is a lot of emphasis on pauses and moments of silence.

Harold Pinter quotes:

• One way of looking at speech is to say it is a constant stratagem to cover nakedness.
• Good writing excites me, and makes life worth living.
• The past is what you remember, imagine you remember, convince yourself you remember, or pretend you remember.
• I mean, don't forget the earth's about five thousand million years old, at least. Who can afford to live in the past?  

What we are planning on doing in a lesson to come is make one massive timeline. This timeline shall not only contain what actually happened but when each character knew what. We all have to agree on when what character knows what, as this would alter how we play our characters. 

Devising (7) - Rob's scene

To begin this lesson we worked on our motifs. We shall have four motifs in total. The purpose of these motifs are to break up our other scenes with something that will potentially confuse the audience. The below is what we came up with:

1. This motif we had come up with and worked on before. It consists of Ollie slowly walking across the room and then Lewis following him with a clipboard. 
2. Ollie will stand in the centre next to someone with a clipboard. The lights would flick to different colours, and Ollie would say what the colour is. 
3. Ollie sits on the chair at the side, as we all do puppetry movements with him as if giving him a brief physical examination to test his strength.
4. Ollie standing in centre with someone else moving his head in different positions. The motif would end with the person walking off, the lights flicker off then on once, Ollie jolt his head on an angle and go to fall back as there is a sudden flash of light then blackout.

After sorting our motifs, we moved on to Rob's scene. Below are the ideas we came up for Rob's scene:

• We could use the monologue from "Eight" spoken by the character Miles. Rob could speak this monologue and we could all create the scene around him using physical theatre. We thought we could involve him in the movement, similar to the DV8 piece of "Can We Talk About This".
• We could have him as a witness from the Boston Bombings or th 7/7 Bombings and do a physical theatre piece on this.
• We could include headlines for any idea we choose. This could be done as a voice over or as projections.
• Rob's character could be a therapist for soldiers and he could be describing how he can't stop thinking about some of their stories and by helping them he has been haunted.
• We discussed doing a 9/11 piece but he survived. We thought that Rob could be on his way to work but was late due to traffic. Or he could have been late due to a certain driver - Rob then could be cursing this driver before the event, but then realised that this driver's actions is the reason that he is alive today.

We then got really interested into our idea of doing something about 9/11. By doing the story prior to the event and doing it in a similar way to how we would have done the "Eight" monologue, we thought we would be avoiding any stereotypes. We then did a little bit of research into this topic:

• 8:46 -- Flight 11 crashed into the North Face of the North Tower between floors 93 and 99 at 466 mph.
• 9:03 -- Flight 175 crashed into the South Face of the South Tower between floors 77 and 85. Parts of the wreckage fall to 6 blocks away.
• 9:58 -- South Tower collapses
• 10:28 -- North Tower collapses

Workshop (8) - Sweeney Todd!

Today we began our actual project of "Sweeney Todd". As there are only five of us in our double class, we shall be using four other people - two from the year below, and Mr Falconar and Mr McKay (both ex-students). We spent this lesson learning a couple of songs and singing them as solos or duets. As my teacher already knew what I was capable of... and that I'm the only girl in the class... I didn't need to do an audition, so instead helped others with them learning their songs. Below is the cast list:

• Anthony Hope   =   Tom Falconar
• Sweeney Todd   =   Robert Andrew
• Beggar Woman   =   Taylor Medford-Major
• Mrs Lovett   =   Lorna Clark
• Judge Turpin   =   Lewis Fisher
• The Beadle   =   Ollie Kelly
• Johanna   =   Alice Abbott
• Tobias Ragg   =   James Borg-Clancy
• Pirelli   =   Dan McKay
• Jonas Fog   =   Dan McKay

A synopsis of "Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street" can be found through the following link - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0408236/synopsis. The music and lyrics are by Stephen Sondheim and the musical has won multiple awards, including Tony Award for Best Musical in 1979. We received our scripts today too, but we won't be doing the entire show (as it will take far too long and is not all necessary), therefore next lesson we shall discuss how we shall cut it.

Musical Theatre (40) - Pictures

Musical Theatre (39) - Evaluation

What went well:

• The lighting was very effective. We all also managed to remain in the correct places, for the majority of the time, to allow us all ot be lit.
• We all have a good relationship off of the stgae, and these translated to when we were on stage. We all worked well together and our character relationships were believable.
• The majority of us could be heard throughout the majority of the show.
• We all stayed in character throughout the entire play.
• The dancing in "Tango: Maureen" was probably one of the best times we have done it! We really worked on our character relationship and our intentions. We both also worked hard on our breathing and general use of breath, so we still had enough breath to sing at the end of the number, having done all of the dancing. 
• Although I ended up using the wrong phones during "We're Okay", I styled it out, and made it look like Joanne was getting confused on what she is talking about, rather than myself! There is a fairly long musical interlude in the middle of the song, but I filled this by pretending my father had said something amusing, and I was laughing at him. I thought this worked quite well with my character as she doesn't want to disappoint her parents. 
• Alice and I really got in to "Take Me or Leave Me". Despite having technical difficulties with the track going quiet in places, so we struggled to hear it, we remained in character throughout and really bounced off of each other. I think we used the space quite well, when going through the audience - we didn't leave our backs to one area for too long.
• I think our overall energy levels, as a cast, were really strong. 
• The audience all really enjoyed it, and we received some lovely feedback.
• We raised a lot of money for our desired charity - Royal Marsden.

What could have gone better:

• We had some technical issues with sound during this performance. Where we were playing our backing tracks through Lewis's phone, his notifications went off a few times during the performance! He had put his phone on "do not disturb" but it still managed to go off. We couldn't put in on airplane mode because this would have turned off the Bluetooth and disconnect it from the speaker. What we could have done was turn the internet off on his phone to avoid any Facebook messages coming through.
• At some points, it was difficult to hear some people, so they should have been positioned nearer the microphones.
• Where some of the cast had never done a musical before, you could tell that they were nervous. At times, they were more focussed on getting the song to sound perfect rather than remaining I character and acting the song.

What we would have done next time: 

• If we were to do the show again / what we have learned from doing this show is that we should play our music through a laptop.
• To ensure EVERYONE can be heard at ALL times, we could have done more work on positioning, to ensure that we were all near a microphone whenever we were singing. Ideally we would have all had a headset mic each, but we didn't have the budget for this!

Musical Theatre (38) - Six periods of final preparations!

Period 1 & 2:   

Mr McKay and I spent a long time having to tidy up the stage. The stage is currently being used to build the car for our school show of "Grease" - therefore there was a lot of wood, screws, tools, dust and the actual car, so we had a lot of work to do! We had to ensure that the wings were completely clear of all potential tripping hazards and sharp objects (to avoid any injuries). We also swept the entire stage and wings so that we didn't get dust on our costumes and so it didn't affect our breathing.

We also moved the wings around to ensure that the audience couldn't see too far into the wings. We had to move the angle of which the wings were positioned, but also had to un-do the top of the wings and had to re-tie it across the bar slightly. We tied it to another bar that crossed over the same bar - this meant that the wing would not turn or move at all during the performance as it is tied in place. Mr McKay also had to re-adjust some of the lighting to ensure that all areas of the stage were lit where we needed it to be.

Another job we did during the first two periods, was clear all of the chairs that were in the hall. We then moved the piano to the back of the hall, facing the back, to ensure that it wasn't a tripping hazard for the audience but also when some of us go into the audience during the show. We then set up all of the chairs and tables ready for the performance. We had to be really mindful with how we set up our cabaret seating as Alice and I move about the audience during "Take Me or Leave Me". We also set up all of the stage blocks ready for our dress run.


Period 3 & 4:

Cameron and Joe set up all of the microphones, and then we ran Act One in costumes. We worked out what parts of the show were too quiet, so we knew where we could change the spacing, so we were closer to the microphones. We also worked on our transitions and ensured that we had all the props that we needed.


Period 5 & 6: 

We ran the whole of Act Two in costumes. Yet again, we had to ensure that we had all of our props and everything. We also worked on the transitions from this Act - we had to agree whether we were going to leave the table on for "Seasons of Love" or not, as we had not yet decided this. In the end, we agreed that we would keep it on to save time. We also went over how we were going to bow. We spent the rest of these two periods doing hair and makeup. We spent a long time doing Owen's makeup and getting his wig to sit on nicely.

Devising (6) - Change of plan!

To begin this lesson, we discussed our ideas for scenes for dialogue. We thought that the parents talking to the child would be too cheesy, so we scrapped it. We had previously discussed how we were going to make our classroom dialogue less cheesy, but we were unsure on how to make a parent-teacher conversation less cheesy. We then thought of the play "Future Conditional" and how they made conversations interesting. For example, Rob Brydon's character, Crane, is a teacher and he has a conversation with a parent about their child's behaviour. This conversation is done through a phone call, where Brydon leaves the perfect length gaps between his speech parts allowing the audience to imagine exactly what the parent says on the phone. This made us realise that we don't need to use everyone at all times - we could present a conversation with just one person on stage. We discussed that although our initial ideas in general were quite basic, that using inventive and creative techniques could make a higher standard piece. However, having said this, we have now scrapped our initial idea. We have admitted that we are now coming to a stand-still with our idea and have no inspiration to continue with this idea. We re-visited old notes and found our point that our piece doesn't have to be a story - it could be more concept theatre and be more of a showcase of scenes...

We have now decided that we are going to do a showcase of scenes inspired from the stimulus, with our motifs created last lesson in between each scene. Our scenes would all be different, but our motif would present the end of a scene - it would also make the audience think and perhaps confuse them slightly too. Our ideas for different scenes are as follows:

• School common room - guilt for treating someone in a certain way? - regrets?
• Mental asylum (Motif)
• Dead relative - why did they die? - something we did or didn't do?
• Abortions - a decision that haunts you forever
• In a nightclub - drugs / alcohol
• PTSD - soldiers? - accident? - witness?
• War 

The idea of PTSD and being a witness made me think of a monologue from "Eight" that Charlie did in our "realism and naturalism" topic. The monologue that Charlie did is from the play "Eight" by Ella Hickson and is spoken by the character Miles. The monologue is about an American man named Miles who, in London, gives a man ten pence to buy a Mars Bar. It is then revealed that this man was a terrorist who detonated a bomb on a bus during the 7/7 bombings. Everyone died on the bus except for Miles. Miles feels guilty for the event that he didn't die, but everyone else did. His pregnant wife and three year old daughter in America, after him not returning after he was due, were lead to believe that he had died. Meanwhile, he started a new life in Britain. We thought this monologue was very moving - how someone can leave their practically perfect life behind (including their loved ones, allowing to believe they were dead) to start a new elsewhere due to a horrifying event.

We decided that we would like to use parts of this monologue for one of our scenes. This also fits with Artaud's technique of emphasis on spoken text. We are planning on combining Artaud's techniques of emphasis on spoken text and love of lots of movement in the one scene. We are going to make a physical theatre scene based on this monologue. As Lew and I are not in next lesson, due to an exam, Rob and Ollie shall spend next lesson beginning to create this scene. We want to have either Lew or Rob as the main person in this scene (as Ollie is the main focus in the motifs).

Workshop (7) - Running down the wrong path...

To begin this lesson, we mind mapped our ideas for the song "She Cries". Below is what we came up with:

• James sings it all, but I possibly harmonise for some parts
• Physical theatre showing me at various auditions
• Others all at the auditions and be quite bad, but I would be good but still fail - to add a bit of a comedy element to the piece
• Rob could be the choreographer at the front of the session
• Possibly return to the warm up / stretching line from the "Opening Sequence"

We then utilised the majority of these ideas and created a section of this number. We returned to the taxi that we created in the "Opening Sequence" - however, James and I were passengers in the back. Rob became the headlight that I was, and I became the "taxi" placard holder! After we've done the taxi, we break out and put our bags down - i.e, we pick up our stalls, and turn them upside down, and carry them collapsed. When we go to go in our bags, we put the stalls down upside down, open them and then mime looking through them and getting the things we need out of them. We then put our bags down to the side and got into the line from the "Opening Sequence", and began doing our stretches. Meanwhile, James is singing at the sides. I run over to him on the line "she cries" as if I am panicking because I don't think I'm good enough. We hug. We then all go into the audition line and learn the choreography. I then get cut and cry again over on James's shoulder...

We then realised that we were really heading down the wrong path with this song as we looked back at the words and realised that what we were doing didn't really fit. We then stopped trying to make anymore as we realised that we would have to alter everything we've done as it really didn't work. We therefore decided to sit down and write down the lyrics that we thought were really important and needed to be used in some way or emphasised - below are the lines we agreed we would have done more with if we had more lessons on our mock:

• "Flames are not what get you burned. It's the cold and the ice"
• "Never look in a woman's eyes" 
• "She cries and you want to hold her. She lies and you want to run away"
• "For all she can take. You've got more there to steal"
• "Always thought I was much strong for hating and still I keep waiting"
• "So I'm stuck in this world of her magic mystique"

We decided that we would mind map another song to see what we could come up with in the remainder of our last lesson. The song we did was "Stars and the Moon":

• I could sing it all, but move through different boys...
• James would be the first guy I sing to / interact with, as he is the character who my character was with but wasn't happy because he didn't have enough money. I then spot Ollie and move over to him.
• I then sing to / interact with Ollie. He offers me everything he has, but then I spot Lewis, who has a lot of money.
• I then sing to / interact with Lewis. We show us to getting married and me with a lot of money, but I am not happy with him. I then see James with someone else looking happy with someone else.
• We could do something clever with costumes. We thought that we could have me in lots of layers of costume. I could wear an ugly looking coat, with a nicer cardigan underneath, and a pretty dress underneath it all. Each time I get with a new guy, I take off a layer.
• We thought on the final line, I could run over to James and hold his hands, but he smiles and then walks away.

We quite liked the ideas we came up with for this number, but today was the last day of our mock workshop progress, so next lesson we shall move on to "Sweeney Todd".

Musical Theatre (37) - Costumes & Lighting

In today's lesson, we all got into costume to ensure we were happy with what we were wearing and to get used to them. Everyone's costumes looked really good - however, Owen didn't have a wig today, but he shall wear it on our final rehearsals on Friday to ensure he is comfortable with it and to get used to it. I was originally wearing my heels (so I am not too short to dance with Cameron, and so I am closer to Alice's height), black trousers, white shirt, long coat and a tie [as shown in the photos]. However, my costume has now changed:

• Due to staples in the stage block I sit on during "Life Support" until "Will I?", I now have a hole in my trousers, so have had to get rid of them. Unfortunately this was the only pair of trousers I own. Therefore, I shall now be wearing black leggings instead - although this wasn't what I had originally planned, I am really happy with this as they are more comfortable to move about it, they don't fall down and still look smart. 
• I have now scrapped the tie as when it moves (due to "Tango: Maureen" mainly) it looks ridiculous and scruffy (as my shirt doesn't button to the top). Although I had planned to wear a tie, I prefer my costume without it as it guarantees that it can't move and then look scruffy, and the neck line of my shirt makes me look smart and a lot older. 
• Due to the fact that I can't tuck my shirt in (as I am wearing leggings not trousers now), I shall be wearing a thick black belt to bring the shirt in - this will prevent it from looking too floaty. It will also hopefully make me look more sophisticated and smart as the belt will add shape, rather than just wearing a shirt with leggings. This works well for me, as the shirt kept coming un-tucked whilst I was dancing, so having it out but with a belt will prevent this but still make me look smart. 

Also in this lesson, we ran through a lot of Act One to set the lighting cues. Some numbers we had to keep going through to ensure that Mr McKay had got all the lighting cues he desired. A lot of us learned how to do the lighting and designed it, but Mr McKay actually set the lighting list up for us - as we were all needed on stage to see where the stage needed to be lit. Some numbers we have a lot of lighting cues for (these numbers we had to run a few times, thus we didn't finish the whole run through), whereas others we don't have that many cues for - some even have the same lighting throughout. We didn't manage to get through all of the lighting cues, so those who had frees after this lesson continued to help Mr McKay with the lighting cues we needed.

Devising (5) - Further discussions

To begin this lesson we clarified the following:

• That no one knows why he is so brainy - the audience can decide for themselves - we shall let the audience think
• Object or person? - it is the person that is unusual and not the technology, as otherwise they could just destroy the phone and software
• The classroom scene shall not continue naturalistic dialogue, as this would become very cheesy and cliché. Instead we shall have a voice over of the teacher and use a soundscape for this scene
• We shall have a non-linear structure - made up of multiple flashbacks and flash-forwards! We shall also have a motif running throughout.  

We had previously discussed that we would like our piece to be in the style of Artaud so we came up with some techniques that we would like to include to achieve this style: non-linear structure, soundscapes / loud noises, use of contrasting lights, lots of movement and emphasis on spoken text. As Artaud liked to use a lot of movement we had planned to do a lot of physical theatre - however, he also liked spoken text, so we began to discuss where and how we could incorporate dialogue:

• Parent-teacher meeting
• Parents at home talking to child
• SEN teacher conversations
• In a common room

Our idea of a common room scene formed into a whole new conversation, where we discussed what we could do for this. We thought we could make it a physical theatre scene inspired by "Frantic Assembly". We thought we could use ideas from our version of a scene from "Curious Incident" for the Applying Acting Styles unit - this involved lots of movement around the centre character and involving them, but Ollie would walk through it all as if he doesn't really notice / care about his surroundings.

As we didn't want to waste time trying to think of a song to use there and then, we moved on to our motif and developed different versions of it. We had our original motif of Ollie walking from SL to SR, with Lewis then coming in and following him with a clipboard. Our second motif would be Ollie and Lewis walking from SR to SL, whilst Rob walked in from SL towards them both. Our third motif would be Ollie walking in from SL and me walking in from USR and ending with me putting my hand on his shoulder. We wanted our motifs to be quite unusual and leave the audience unsure on what is happening - we want to make them think.

Although we went off topic today and ended up moving back to our motif idea, we did manage to create our motifs and come up with some basic ideas to what we could do next.

Musical Theatre (36) - Random numbers

Today we spent the lesson going over numbers that we thought needed the most work:

• "Without You":   This number went really well today. Taylor and Henri got all of their lyrics right and sang it really well. The only feedback we received for this number is that Taylor has to use her face more and we all have to really commit to our characters.
• "I'll Cover You (reprise)":   Lew sang this really well today. However, he needs to look up more during the number so the audience doesn't disconnect from him. The harmonies were really strong for this number.
• "Goodbye Love":   We now all start on stage for this number as there is no need for a scene change. Instead we all move as if about to leave but we don't as they all start singing.
• "Seasons of Love":   This number went really well. We all sang at a good confident level. Our harmonies were all strong and the number sounded fine. Although the scene before this number is quite depressing, I still believe that we should make this number more upbeat and fun, as it is the finale. To ensure that audience realises that "Goodbye Love" is the ending of our version, I think we could ask our teacher to say something along the lines of "I hope you have enjoyed the Revolution Arts production of "Rent"; to sing us out is the whole cast singing "Seasons of Love". Then would could perform the number as an uplifting inspiring piece to brighten the mood, after a depressing ending.
• "Tango: Maureen":   Apart from a few wrong lyrics in places, this number sounded quite good today. Unfortunately, the same can't be said for the dance at times, as there were a few mistakes. Due to our height difference (as I didn't wear my heels today) we struggled with the parts where we go under each other's arms, and the part where I dip him before dropping him. However, these mistakes haven't happened before, and were purely due to me not wearing the heels (due to a burn on my ankle); and the lyric issues were just a slip of the tongue - so therefore, we are not really worried about this number.
• "I'll Cover You":   This number was greatly improved today. They ran it a couple twice, once for us to watch and make suggestions, and the second time to implement the suggestions. These suggestions included the point that when there is a large distance between them, they need to show even more with their body language that they love each other. However, the second time was really impressive. They were really committed and professional as they did kiss at the end of the song.
• "La Vie Boheme":   This number is definitely improving all the time now. The only real notes from this piece is that we need to ensure we use the space more to avoid us ending up in a semi-circle, and to watch our timing in places. Apart from these notes, this number is looking a lot better - our energy levels have improved.
• "Santa Fe":   This number is consistent every rehearsal now, so I am confident with this piece. The vocals sound fine and the spacing works well.

A change we made for today was that we moved our four microphones (that were on stands on stage blocks on the floor) to the stage (so they are closer to head height to pick up more sound). Although you could hear us all slightly better, the microphones on stage make the piece look messy and especially looks strange for "Tango: Maureen" when I am 'setting up a microphone' and singing in to it. Therefore, we shall have to put them back where they were but bring all of the numbers slightly further forward. We shall spend part of our last two rehearsals re-spacing a couple of numbers to ensure that whoever is singing is near a microphone. We shall also do a full run with costumes, props and set, and do a tech and lighting run.

Workshop (6) - "King of the World" & Structure

In today's lesson we had a bit of a break through. Initially we thought we were going to be performing the seven songs in different styles, and they were all connected through our characters we had created. However, after today's lesson, we appear to have made our own musical / play!

Losing the job:   We began our lesson by going over what we had come up with for "King of the World" so far. We then discussed having an additional scene after James has sat in the chair. We thought this scene could involve us all sitting in a line, with Lewis at the very end and James in the centre. Lewis's belongings would get passed down the line and put in a box by Lew's feet - bit like a conveyer belt. We could have items like a framed certificate, or newspaper cuttings being passed down. This is to show Lewis being kicked out of his job. Before this physical theatre section though, we would like to have a bit of dialogue in the piece to show the characters feelings at this point.

In Jail:   We work-shopped a scene which would show Lewis's character in jail. We had previously discussed him losing his job for having spent money that was the companies and not his, but we then discussed the idea of tax avoidance and thought that he could actually be arrested. We put three chairs in a triangle facing outwards - this formed the cell. Rob would multi-roll and become a police officer and walk Lewis in to the centre of the chairs. As Rob went to lock the door, Ollie, James and I all turned sideways on our chairs and put one arm up to reach the chair in front of us. Lewis then spoke the bridge of the song (that starts "why are we punished") as a monologue. Ollie, James and I all look up at Lewis during this to present him as going mad as he feels the walls are talking to and listening to him. We thought we could then go into a court room scene with me as a judge, sitting on Ollie's shoulders, and James and Rob as lawyers.

Characters:   This picture shows what we came up with for our characters. We knew that we definitely needed Ollie and Lewis to be within the same company for this piece to work. We thought that they should be of similar positions in the company. We then discussed that maybe Ollie and Lewis could be aware that a promotion is about to happen so Ollie and Lewis are in competition with each other. Jealousy takes over so Ollie wants to get as much dirt on Lewis as possible. Ollie, with Rob's help, could then discover Lewis's spending history. This would then result in Lewis's arrest. It would then reveal that Lewis's old college friend James helped him with the tax avoidance - resulting in James getting arrested too. James agreed to the scheme with Lewis as he needed money to feel / be good enough for his love interest (an inspiring actress / performer who is using him for his money and support to help prosper her own career).  Having come up with these back stories for our characters, we thought that we could have a court scene and then have flashbacks during this scene to explain the characters back stories.

Structure:   We originally were planning on doing the songs in order, but have now decided on creating a non-linear structure. We decided on this because we thought it would be nice to have a few flashbacks during the court room scene to show everyone's stories. We also discussed having a split screen to show Lewis spending his money on suits and James on the other side buying flowers for his lover - however, we decided against this idea as we are trying to keep it as separate songs for separate characters. Below is the structure that we came up with (however, we haven't decided what way round we would like to have the three flashbacks - we shall wait until a later lesson when we have created them to decide this):

• "Opening Sequence" - The first number which shows everyone's characters
• Dialogue to show the finance department people - this will have Lewis, Ollie and Rob in it. Lewis will leave and Rob and Ollie will then mention something about Lewis being suspicious and that they shall look into it.
• A section to show an email conversation between Lewis and James and what they have done. (Not sure what style this shall be)
• "King of the world" - From the beginning of the song up until Lewis's possessions being passed down the line and put in a box.
• Court scene - this shall be a dialogue scene that is returned to between each flash back.
  
  • "River won't flow" - duet of Ollie and Rob explaining their jealousy of Lewis. [For this number we also discussed creating two cars - re-creating what was the taxi in the "opening sequence" and then an old car. Lewis's posh car would be presented in the same way as the taxi, apart from the lights would fold up (to look like flip up lights on an old-fashioned car). Meanwhile, Ollie's car shall be made the same as the taxi, but he would get in and try to turn the lights on but they wouldn't come on - he would then mime hitting the steering wheel, and they would flicker on].
  • "She cries" - James's solo to explain his reasoning for agreeing to pull of the scheme. 
  • "Stars and the moon" - shows my characters thoughts and feelings. How she wants / needs money. 
• "Hear my Song" - Conclusion of our story and how each character wants their story to be told

Business (26) - Task H - Funding

Workshop (5) - "King of the World"

Swapping characters:   Lewis really liked the song "King of the World" and has agreed to sing it for us during the performance to enable us to do a more Musical Theatre styled number. As we wanted this number to be about the business man (as this made the most sense) we initially thought that Lew could sing the song, but it could be about Ollie - however, we then weren't sure on how this would work. We were worried that Lewis would then almost become the narrator, as it were, and therefore wouldn't be involved in all the movement. Therefore, we resolved this issue by Ollie and Lewis swapping characters - Ollie is now the taxi driver and Lewis is the business man (this means at some point we will have to spend a couple of minutes swapping Ollie and Lewis's  places in the "Opening Sequence" so Lewis now does the "round-by-through" section with everyone, and Ollie sits in the taxi).

Opening discussion:   We liked the idea of throwing chairs, so knew we definitely wanted to include this in the piece, but wasn't sure the duet sections were very relevant. We all agreed that the opening of this number should set the scene - we then discussed what the "scene" was. As this song (we decided) is about the business man, we agreed that the "scene" was an office, and thought that we were all office workers. Lewis then thought that this could still work for our characters - the lover (James) could be an office worker, and my character could be working in an office whilst doing auditions and waiting for her big break. Although this is a clever link, we won't be presenting this link intentionally in our piece, as the focus needs to be on Lewis's character. Lewis suggested that we could include my original idea from how I had initially envisioned the "opening sequence" of getting ready in the mirror. From Lewis's mention of getting ready to work, we thought we could all have specific movements as if we were in an office. We would all then repeat these movements until Lewis started singing.

So far:   Below is what we created this lesson and why:

• During intro, Lew sits on office chair facing back. The rest of us throw chairs and place them in a straight line either side of Lewis.   -   The purpose of this is to create a busy and crazy office setting. It also presents the idea of everyone doing work except for Lewis's character, thus foreboding what will happen to him. 
• All do individual movements (my movement is miming typing and then stretching out my knee) which get repeated until Lewis begins singing.   -   (Inspired by the physical theatre group "DV8") To make it clear that we are in an office. To make the scene quite abstract but very "musical theatrery"! 
• On "once upon a time" we all look in at Lew.   -   Focusses the attention on him, which is what his character wants.
• On "I had tides to control" we all lean outwards.   -   Irony that we're moving away from him.
• On "I had worlds to win" we move back in towards him.  -   He has won our attention back.
• On "Stars to ignite" we fact the front again.   -   As if ready for our work opportunities to ignite.
• We then all do a neck roll and go back to our original movements.   -   The neck roll shows us stretching as if preparing for the hard work to continue.
• During the next verse, Ollie and James take their chairs off, whilst Lewis sings to Rob and I. When Lew looks at Rob or I, we look really interested but as soon as he looks away, we roll our eyes and continue with our work.   -   Ollie and James leaving suggests Lewis has lost support. Rob and I present his co-workers being two-faced and getting fed up of him. 
• On "there were people at my side" Rob and I stand up and look really fed up. Ollie and James take our chairs off.   -   Shows that Lew's character is losing support as he is being too arrogant.
• On the first "Let me out of here" Rob and I put our inside hand on his shoulder to hold him in place. The next time we all hold him down, the third time we all try to pin him down but he breaks free.   -   This presents us giving him a warning not to get to big for his boots and us trying our best to persuade him to stay grounded. However, him breaking out shows that he is choosing to ignore our warnings.
• For the next section, Rob and James mime measuring Lewis up for a new suit. Ollie then shows him a jacket but Lewis doesn't like it, I then show him my own (which he likes) and I put it on him.   -   This scene presents him spending a lot of money to make himself look better than other people. We debated on making this scene really abstract with people doing ordinary things but in unusual ways (e.g. offering him a new watch but by doing a turn and then presenting out of the inside of their jacket whilst bowing)(similar to our hospital scene in our version of "Dr Faustus") - however, we realised we wouldn't have much time for this, so we kept it quite naturalistic. This worked out better as we can ensure that the audience will understand what it going on in this section.
• Lewis runs over to his chair (which has been placed USL by this point) and attempts to slide across the stage to DSR, but is taken off the chair by Ollie and Rob. The chair continue to glide over to DSR, after Lewis is taken off of it. It is caught by James who then sits on it. I mime serving James a tray and then give him a massage.   -   The office chair represents the job that everyone wants. The fact the James catches the chair and then sits in it shows that he landed the job, and I act as his secretary and PA. 

 Ideas:   We would like to break this song up with sections of dialogue. As we included a section where Lewis was spending money on new suits, we thought we could have a scene here where he gets in trouble for his excessive funding as maybe it was company money or something. We shall discuss ideas for scenes next lesson.

Devising (4) - Another scene?

The past two lessons have been mainly discussion based, but we have really progressed. We began the first of these lessons by discussing whether we wanted our classroom scene to be physical theatre or be a scripted scene. We are concerned that if we make it scripted it would be really cheesy, therefore (if we do go for making this particular setting a scripted scene) we would have our teacher a voice over, rather than physically there - as we want to make our whole piece abstract. We have agreed that the more abstract we make our piece, the less cliché it is likely to be.

We later moved on to asking the following questions. As a group, we have now worked out how we develop our ideas most - we have a discussion based approach that spawns from one question. Below are the questions posed in one discussion:

• Why is he so brainy?
• Why is the snapchat thing / social media thing happening?
• Could it be to do with his actual phone - rather than him himself?
• Is the software on his phone affecting his brain?
• Is he actually normal and the phone is to blame?
• Where did he get the phone from? Given it? Stolen it? Found it?

These questions developed to us thinking of a potential scene. We thought we could have a physical theatre scene showing Ollie being "influenced" and affected by the phone. The rest of us could represent / embody software. If we included this scene - we would have three potential scenes: 1) Ollie walking in and being followed by Lewis, 2) the classroom scene where we all move in then out, 3) physical theatre scene about the software.

A Motif:   We have discussed our first scene. We would like to use this as our motif. Ollie would do the same thing each time, but other people could come from different directions and do different things to or by Ollie. Ollie wouldn't necessarily start walking from off stage each time - he could start his walk from centre stage, for example. This would fit with our ideal of a non-linear structure. 

In the second lesson, we discussed our earlier idea of it being the phone that affects him. We debated whether a potential interrogation scene (After one of the motif parts) would then make sense, as it would have just been a case of getting rid of the phone. However, I still like the idea of it being the phone that affects him, but maybe not as over-the-top as we initially discussed - if we had him becoming obsessed with it and spending so much time being exposed to it that it affects him in some way, we could potentially have a moral of our story. Another thing that we shall think about before next lesson is what affect do we want our piece to have on our audience. We want an abstract style, but do we want to leave them confused (by us not answering all questions) or thinking (about the moral) or just generally entertained (by giving them a entertaining performance)?

Musical Theatre (35) - Random songs & Mics

Just prior to this lesson, Cameron set up four cbs microphones at the front of the stage on stands. We will not be using headset microphones (due to costs and our target to improve projection), but we are using these microphones to help amplify the sound we produce. We still have to project and can't be any quieter than what we have been - the mics are there just to help us. After running the first couple of numbers, we realised how we could improve our sound further - we then put a small stage block under each microphone stand to make the mics higher, and therefore closer to our head heights (rather than just reaching our knees) thus hopefully picking up more of our vocals. We have now also moved all of our solo numbers or duets down on to more of the apron, so the sound isn't lost in the wings - plus it means we are closer to the microphones. I appreciate that we want the music to be fairly loud to create the right atmosphere, but I believe it is more important for the vocals to be heard. We are all projecting as much as we can, and although the microphones have improved the volume issue, I still feel like we need to decrease the volume of the backing tracks slightly to ensure that cast members aren't straining to try and be heard (and potentially damaging their voices if the right technique isn't used and if they push too hard). Below are the numbers we ran today and what happened:

• "Seasons of Love":   Our positioning in this number was strong, as we made sure we utilised the space and were equal distances away from each other. However, our straight line was originally further back, but we have now moved it forwards so we are all closer to the microphones. This dramatically improved our sound.
• "Light My Candle":   Taylor and Henri have moved this number further forward as well now, meaning their sound now travels further. I really respect these two as they have worked so hard at this number and are projecting as much as they can. It is difficult to get the right balance between being loud enough that you are heard at the very back, but intimate enough for the song to work and make sense.
• "I'll Cover You":   This number sounded really good today as they both have been working on it outside of lessons. At times it is a little bit difficult to hear them both, but I personally thought the music was too loud anyway and could afford to come down slightly. However, I think that the volume issue can be solved by them turning out towards the audience slightly at roughly 45 degrees (rather than facing each other) - this would mean that their sound would travel outwards rather than travelling at each other and being lost.
• "One Song Glory":   Today was one of the best times Henri had ever sung this song. He projected as much as he could to be heard over the music, but yet again, I feel that the music was too loud for this song anyway. I think it would be better if the music was slightly quieter allowing the vocals to be heard clearly, rather than having loud music but quiet vocals. I respect Henri as he is projecting as much as he possibly can.
• "Rent":   The staging for this number went really well on the whole, but we think that the dance break needs to be cut (as it seems really out of place for a naturalistic and passionate number to have a random short dance in the middle). Instead, they could rip the posters off of the wall and throw them into their make-shift fire (i.e. the bin), as if they are trying to keep the fire ablaze and keep warm. We will discuss this next lesson. The other change for this number is that we shall all be on stage singing. Warren and Tyler will continue doing the blocking they have done before, whilst those of us who have been singing in the wings previously, shall now sing at the sides of the stage and just act what we sing. Also, we shall all sing the last line as otherwise it is an anti-climax - where we have all be singing together building an atmosphere, then it would just drop to two people singing and it would be quieter.
• "Take Me or Leave Me":   Alice and I now really enjoy doing this number, as we can use the space. We go down and move about through the audience. As we are both closer to the audience and are loud singers anyway (as we have both been trained, but more obviously because it is a song which requires a loud belt) it doesn't matter where we go in the space, thus meaning we can do what we think suits the number.
• "Without You":   We have now changed the blocking again for Taylor and Henri. We are now keeping them both on opposite sides as this works better with the microphones. The rest of this number was fine though. We all remembered when we had to enter and exit, plus we all acted throughout.
• "I'll Cover You (reprise)":   This was by far the best time Lewis had ever sung this number. He really got in to his character and his vocals were really strong. We all got the harmonies right and acted throughout.

Musical Theatre (34) - Costume run

In this lesson, we all got in to our costumes and ran as much as the show as we could. We didn't get to complete the entire show, due to us getting in to costumes and setting up the stage (and having to leave enough time to pack down afterwards). Below is what happened and what I thought of the dress run:

What went well:

• We all remembered our movement and spacing throughout
• The majority of the costumes looked really effective
• We remembered most of the transitions
• The singing sounded good on the whole
• We put more energy into the numbers than we had done before

What could have gone better: 

• There shouldn't have been any talking in the wings, but there was - mainly due to not knowing what came next.
• There was some crashing in the wings (though this wasn't our fault as the wings were full of rubbish and wood from where set is currently being built on stage for another show).
• The transitions took quite a long time, as we ere unsure on what number came next, and also I think some people forgot who was supposed to move what set.

What we have left to do:

• I think it would be really helpful if we put up a running order in each wing, just to ensure that everyone knows what we have next. 
• I think we should also do a full top-and-tail run just to work on transitions and get them concreted into our muscle memory. Although we have done work on transitions, we have never do a full top-and-tail run, we only discussed the last few numbers.
• We need to do a full dress and tech run (although this was a dress run, we didn't complete the show, and we haven't set up and used microphones at the front of the stage).
• We need to ensure we have all set and props (e.g. posters advertising Roger's show, a telephone on the wall, etc.).

Workshop (4) - "Opening Sequence" & "King of the World"

OS - Taxi scene:   We began this lesson by completing our first number. We firstly discussed what we were going to do to show Lewis's character. We wanted to create a taxi for Lewis to sit in, but we wanted to be quite abstract with it. As our whole song so far has been very physical and abstract, we didn't want to be naturalistic with four chairs - therefore, we first tried it with Ollie and I forming the two front seats (by going on all fours). Rob could have been a third seat in the back for James to sit on. We thought that James could be the passenger as we could go straight into his scene at the end, as we hadn't done his scene by this point. However, by three of us being seats, it looked a little bit cheesy and a little bit like a waiting room - therefore we decided to experiment more. We then considered having Ollie and I hold torches whilst being the seats. The torches would represent the headlights of the taxi. We tried this idea out, but realised it wasn't working as Ollie and I couldn't get the torches to the right heights due to how we had to be positioned to be the seats - therefore, we shall not be the seats now. Instead we shall use collapsible stools (as these aren't as chunky as chairs, and James and Lewis will be seated a bit lower, and the stools aren't visible when sat on) for James and Lewis to sit on. Ollie and I shall crouch down slightly to the outside of James and Lewis and just in front of Lewis, and holding the torches at the appropriate height. Rob shall stand centre back holding a placard saying "Taxi" to make it completely clear to the audience what we have created. We have places James to the left of Lew and back to show that he is the passenger. This scene happens during the second time we say the fast section ("You have a house in the hills, you have a job on the coast...") - this represents all the voices going around Lewis's head from all the people he has had in his taxi and all the conversations they have had with him.

OS - Lover scene:   As James is seated in Lewis's taxi, James's scene could afford to be a lot shorter. For James's scene, he gets out of the taxi and the taxi then all dismantles - we all come out of our taxi positions in a smooth transition. James sits down stage centre writing a letter to his lover, whilst the other four of us form two pairs, and look pleased to see each other and hug. We were originally thinking of doing a short duet section each, but we didn't have time for this to take place as we wanted to spend a little bit more time of the song ensuring that our transition out of the taxi positions was smooth - therefore, we all just hug instead for this scene. We are not too worried about this though, as it still gets the message we wanted across.

KOTW - Opening:
Rob had an idea on what he wanted to do for the opening of "King of the World". We had all agreed that we wanted this scene to be about the business man due to the lyrics. Rob wanted Ollie to run and walk over a chair whilst the other four of us threw chairs to each other and put them in a line, facing alternate directions. The purpose of throwing chairs would be to present a chaotic office environment. The chairs would suggest an office setting, but the constant movement creates the chaotic atmosphere. We spent the remainder of this lesson practising throwing and catching chairs and working out what order we should do this in and how to make it as safe as possible. To decrease the risk of injury, people throwing and catching and chairs will stand further upstage, whilst those positioning chairs in the line will be further downstage. We then worked out a little duet section for James and I, and Rob and Lewis. We do some puppetry work and supporting movements. We shall develop this properly next lesson.

Business (25) - Task G - Budget Spreadsheet

The picture shows our total expenses, potential income and potential profit.

• If we didn't sell all of the tickets and instead sold 90% ...
  
  • 90% of £3840 = £3456
  • £3456 + tuck shop £2196 = £5652
  • £5652 - expenses £5557.16 = £94.84
  • ... would still give us a profit of £94.84
• If we didn't sell all of the tuck shop and instead sold 90% ...
  
  • 90% of £2196 = £1976.40
  • £1976.4 + tickets £3840 = £5816.40
  • £5816.40 - expenses £5557.16 = £259.40
  • ... would still give us a profit of £259.24

Musical Theatre (33) - Additional rehearsal

Today we stayed behind after school for an hour to work on some numbers that we really felt needed improving before next lesson.

• Goodbye Love:   We ran this number several times today as we were really struggling with the timing. We found the track really unusual as it wasn't clear when certain parts came in. Timing wise, the first section of the song (that has everyone in) was fine, but the section between Mark, Roger and Mimi was not working. We soon realised that the track actually needs to be paused at one point before Mimi comes in. They then all worked out when they need to come in and how long they have to sing / say their parts. After the vocals and the timing was all sorted, we worked on the staging and the acting side of this number. We had to remember that this song is an argument, and we remembered our key note of acting and re-acting. We altered the blocking to make the scene work a bit better - I know stand between Alice and Will, to literally split them up, but also to show that my character doesn't want to create a scene and is purely trying to shut Maureen up and stop her fuelling the argument. When Maureen shouts back at Joanne she flips - Mimi understands how Joanne feels as she sings ("he was the same way"), therefore it works better now that Taylor and I are standing next to each other at this part of the song. We then polished the ending part of this song as well, simply re-capping the movement we had created in a previous lesson.
• Happy New Year:   We did this number once just to improve on the acting side of it.
• La Vie Boheme:   This was done with a purpose to improve the energy side of it. Alice and I now know what we are doing on the two occasions where we are "caught out", as it were, by Warren. As well as improving our energy, we also ensured that we didn't end up in a line, but also that we were acting throughout and utilised the character relationships we had built up during Act One (e.g. Joanne and Mark understand each other).
• I'll Cover You:   Lewis and Owen act this song really well and the staging looks good, but the harmonies sometimes clash - so therefore they sang this through a couple of times to try to resolve this issue. They shall also be going through this song soon with Mr Falconar (as he can help them with their harmonies).
• You'll See Boys:   I think this number is in a really good place now and doesn't need any additional work. They all act this number well and it sounds fine.
• Today 4 U:   This number is also looking and sounding really strong.

Next lesson we shall be getting into costume, and seeing how much we can get through of the show.

Devising (3) - An Idea!

Outside of our lessons, Rob came up with an idea and then told it to the rest of our group at the beginning of this lesson. His idea combines Lewis's idea of a school child / student and our group idea of social media. Rob said about having a child in class, being bored so he checks his phone. However, every time he opens any social media, something paranormal happens - only little things though, like something appears to be in a different place, or something falls off a shelf. Things would then progress and he would go crazy - perhaps seeing things, i.e. having visions. We created a rule in our group that we could not say "no" to something, unless we had another idea or suggestion - therefore (as none of us had any ideas and were willing to experiment) we decided to go along with this idea and began discussing what we could do for an opening.

The ideas that the other three of us got from Rob's short story were the following: Ollie mentioned imaginary friends, leading Lewis on to the idea of inner-demons. This then made Ollie and I think of mental health issues again. From this discussion we formed a short flow chart:

• He's not mental, just ultra-intelligent
• Main guy is misunderstood
• He's innocent. Brain waves are too strong.
• Brain waves cause lights to flicker and computers to go wrong.
• Everyone thinks he's mental

As we had discussed the idea of mental health, we then thought that our opening could consist of Ollie walking really slowly from one side of the room to the other. He would be followed by Lewis (the psychiatrist) and the lights would be flickering for the entire time, with a buzzing noise underneath it all. We thought it would be nice to keep the opening unexplained and quite unusual, as this would confuse the audience and hopefully intrigue them. We would not be over-whelming them with a frantic scene, but keeping it eerily quiet and slow to create a level of tension (as the stimulus "ghost stories" has connotations of tension).

We wanted to have a school classroom setting at some point in our piece, so began work on a scene that would involve this - we have decided to work on random ideas and try to put them together, rather than creating an entire story. We wanted to have an unusual structure anyway, so we thought that it would be okay to devise in this way. We set places for a school classroom to form stereotypes (but also to break them as well) - as "ghost stories" are often quite typical and predictable. We put Rob DSR to present him as a teacher's pet, Lew and I centre adjacent to each other but with a gap in the middle (to show random school children) and Ollie centre back. We put Ollie in this position to make it look like he is a trouble maker, doesn't want to learn and is a bit of an outsider. This goes against what the audience expects - as later on Ollie turns out to be extremely intelligent. The only idea so far we came up with for this scene was Ollie getting out his phone, and as he does this, the three of us suddenly lean in towards him (as if strongly magnetised) and then lean out when he puts his phone back down.