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.