Devising (13) - Lewis's Scene

During the day on Friday we had a physical theatre workshop with Annie Sutton, exploring Berkoff's and Lecoq's methods. We particularly liked the use of ensemble movement where we all walked in the same direction. We thought it was really effective when we moved forwards as an ensemble, having been moving in random directions as individuals. This was really effective with a large ensemble, so we weren't sure if it would work with just three of us, but we tried it out and it looked surprisingly good. We used this idea to show the relentlessness of the paparazzi and how intimidating we could be. However, as this was really abstract, we decided to do some naturalistic movements as the paparazzi first, as to set the scene. After we've all run round frantically to try and capture the best picture, we then go into our more abstract ensemble movement.

Whilst we are swapping between individual directions and ensemble movement, Lewis stays in one spot to suggest that he is surrounded by paparazzi and cannot escape. The three of us then form a straight line behind Lewis, who mimes eating breakfast. At various points, whilst he is trying to eat breakfast, I shall pull one of his shoulders back at a time to force him to stop eating and turn slightly - as I do this, Rob or Ollie (depending on what shoulder I pull) shall mime taking a photo of Lewis. On the last time this happens, I pull his head back and then push him forward to the floor. The purpose of this breakfast scene is to show that the paparazzi and media are very controlling and leave you unable to do daily activities (such as eating or going to the shops) without being stalked - it shows they are intrusive and powerful. 

We discussed having Lewis watching TV whilst eating breakfast. After we have taken pictures of him, we thought about somehow forming a TV and we would have one of us be a reporter, speaking about Lewis (either coming out of rehab or being spotted doing something). This would be an ideal and hopefully non-cheesy way of introducing more dialogue into this scene. We haven't decided yet how we shall do this but we shall try things out next lesson. As we were on the topic of dialogue we discussed how we could use dialogue but not be cheesy with it. The best idea we came up with regarding dialogue and sticking to our stimulus, was to use a split-screen - we would have a conversation about rumours and media presentation (i.e. what a group of people heard about Lewis's character and what they think of him because of this) and Lewis on the other side. We want what Lewis is doing on one side to be completely different to what the people are saying about Lewis (e.g. the people saying how he has just given up and is really lazy, whilst Lewis is doing a lot of writing on the other side and really concentrating on something). We shall all be thinking of ideas and discuss and try out what we come up with next lesson.