Site Specific (15) - Scene 4 & Movement

To begin this lesson we read through scene four, to ensure we were all happy with it, as some people weren't in last lesson. We were all happy with this scene and agreed that we have all the scenes we need - also each scene is of a good length and contains enough quality dialogue to portray our version of the story. All that is left to do with the scenes are to learn the lines and block them precisely. For our performance as a whole, as well as our scene work, we need to explore our venue (as this may alter our blocking as it depends where our audience would be positioned), work with costumes and props and add in some movement pieces. The ideas we had for movement sections were the opening, the accusations, Abigail's stabbing and the ending. We have an opening, so we decided to work on a piece to show the accusations (as this was something that we found interesting, as a class - how out of hand the accusations became, and how ridiculous they were).

Accusations movement piece:   After some debating, we agreed on a piece of music we found - a quite eerie violin piece that builds. For the opening, Abigail walks on with a rope, casually fiddling with it - tying it into a noose by the end of the entire movement piece. We wanted to create the accusation piece around her, but without her noticing, as if to show that she is the reason behind everything spiralling out of control but she doesn't care. Everyone, apart from Hope (Abigail), Kat (Mary) and Chloe (Betty), represented normal towns folk (and not their actual characters) - however, at the very end, Ollie K is Proctor. We initially discussed lighting and what we could do with it - we thought about using electronic candles, and being symbolic about who has them turned on, but we soon realised that this could easily go wrong, and it also might not be effective at all as we shall be doing this performance during the day when it is still light outside. We liked the idea of using an oil-lamp though, just for representational purposes (and to help aid the time setting), so decided to incorporate this into our piece. We wanted almost everyone to accuse someone in this piece to show how ridiculous and extreme the situation got - therefore we created a chain-like accusation process. We all made our own characters (apart from Ollie K, Hope, Kat and Chloe) to present different people in the town - I was a mother carrying her child, James was a priest, Rob was a carpenter, etc. Ollie M held the lamp first, and was the first accused (as he was hostile towards Lewis) - to show the accusation, everyone stopped moving a looked at him. He then goes towards Abigail and kneels down with his hands together. Lewis, the accuser, then picks up the lamp and is the next accused. The purpose of the lamp is to help focus the audience on whose story to follow next. To make the accusations clear, we have to be moving quite fast and in different directions to make it more obvious when everyone stops to look at the person being accused. Once everyone is on their knees around Abigail (apart from Kat and Chloe who stand on the outside of the circle) and just Ollie K is left, he walks up to Abigail and stands close behind her - to represent the affair. To improve this movement piece, we need to work on our timing for when we all stop. This movement piece takes place between scene one and two, as this is when the accusations really began to increase, and it also shows that Proctor visits Abigail - something that the Proctors discuss in the following scene. As this piece goes smoothly in to the next scene, we have decided not to include Abigail's stabbing in the movement piece.