Devised Unit - Chasing Pavements (24) (Evaluation)

We have now performed our "Chasing Pavements" devised piece and therefore have completed this unit. Overall, we are happy with how our piece developed from the initial stimulus to the finishing product, but we felt our performance could have gone a lot better.

When we first heard of our stimulus, "Chasing Pavements", we began making a mind map of the ideas that came to mind. The ideas we initially came up with were rather broad and could be interpreted in different ways - this was a good thing though as it opened up more different ways in which we could go with our piece. The main vague ideas we decided to experiment with were as follows: time (linked with the idea of "chasing" and running), options / different pathways ("pavements" and different roads to take in life), games ("chasing" and playing tag), violence ("chasing" has connotations of danger), death (all the different routes in life end up in one place), "Burying your brother in the pavement" (a play by Jack Thorne) and relationships (the couple in the music video were lovers). We did have other ideas (such as poverty / suffering, rejection / ageism, and running away from home) but decided that the ones mentioned previously were our favourites as they gave us more inspiration.

When we had established which ideas we thought we could get the most out of, we decided to do some research into them. The main ideas we researched were domestic abuse (from the ideas of relationships and violence), abortion (from the ideas of options / decisions, time, death and youth) and child soldiers (from the ideas of violence [war], "Burying your brother in the pavement" [due to children and death] and games [children and youth]).

• The first idea we developed was the idea that involved abortions. We discussed creating a movement piece to portray a couple making love (this scene would include the ideas of relationships and childlike naivety) and would result in the couple becoming pregnant (thus giving us the opportunity to explore the ideas of options / decisions and death [of the foetus]). I researched abortions at this point, so if we decided to use this idea, we knew more about the topic, thus allowing us to make an accurate piece designed to make the audience think.
• The second idea we experimented with was domestic violence (inspired by the ideas of violence [as "chasing" has connotations of danger]) and relationships). Katya researched domestic violence so we could make our piece very factual. The techniques we experimented with during this scene were soundscapes, narration, physical theatre and slow motion. 
• The third idea we developed into a short scene was war and how it effects everyone (inspired by the ideas of violence, "Burying your brother in the pavement" and games). For this scene we used the following techniques: freeze frames, cross cutting, stop-start motion, physical theatre and abstract theatre.

After exploring a variety of different ideas by creating three different scenes, we sat down and discussed what ideas we liked the most and what techniques we found most effective. The techniques we chose to include were abstract theatre, physical theatre, narration, cross cutting, soundscapes and motifs. The ideas we ended up exploring in our final piece were relationships, decisions (whether to have an abortion or not), violence (abortion) and teenage naivety (thinking that they wouldn't become pregnant).

To ensure we made most of all of our rehearsals we tried not to waste time, so did some individual work outside of lessons and then brought this work into the next lesson. This individual work included research, making of props, staging ideas and character development ideas. In the earlier stages of the rehearsal process, we didn't use a rehearsal schedule and instead got done whatever we felt we needed to do at that time - the reason we didn't apply a rehearsal schedule earlier was because we hadn't fully established what we wanted in out piece, so the schedule would have been changed too many times. However, later on in the rehearsal process we did enforce a rehearsal schedule - this schedule kept us focussed and ensured we achieved everything we needed to with time to do several full runs of the piece and time to polish sections at the end.

Overall, I feel we worked really well as a group. We tried to incorporate everyone's ideas throughout the entire process of putting our piece together - from the initial ideas to the finished product. Moreover, we also split the individual work load equally so we all had work to do at home, rather than just one person doing everything. As well as splitting the work load equally, we tried to split the work so everyone had the opportunity to try everything - for example, we all had a go at doing some script-writing and also some prop-making too. Thankfully, there were no arguments in our group or severe differences in opinion - mainly because we get on well anyway, but also as we all share the same opinion on abortions and the issues we raised and explored in our piece. As we get on so well as a group, there was no awkwardness between us, thus allowing us to get very close to each other in the movement sections especially.

Below is an overview of how our piece went and what we would do differently next time:

• What went well:
  One aspect of our piece that went well was our transitions: they went smoothly, thus making our whole piece cleaner and more seamless. Also, everyone remembered their lines and showed good characterisation (due to strong facial expressions and convincing body language) thus helping the audience understand our piece better. The audience clearly felt uncomfortable during our game show scenes and they didn't know how to react; this suggested that they were effected by our piece and thought the way we presented the controversial topic of abortion was very shocking. This was our aim, as it made the audience really think about the issues we presented. Our use of props seemed to be really effective - a cyclical structure was formed by us bringing the book from the beginning into our final scene, the coat hangers made the audience feel really uncomfortable, and mine and Kat's accessories in the first scene symbolised our mental age and naivety.
• What could have been better:
  Unfortunately we had a few technical difficulties during our piece to do with the sound. Although I had written a cue list for when we needed which tracks, some tracks were played at the wrong times as we hadn't practised our piece with someone else doing the sound for us (as we had always done the music ourselves). To avoid this from happening in a piece in the future, we shall always do a rehearsal with the person who will be doing our sound for us in the actual performance. Also, we shall have all of the tracks in the right order and on one phone in one album (rather than having the tracks on two different phones). Thankfully, the only issue with sound was during the behind the scenes section of the game show - backstage there would be a lot of noise anyway, so this wasn't too much of a problem as it could have been (for example, it would have been worse if our music stopped during one of our movement sections).
• What we would do differently next time:
  Next time, we would ensure we do extra rehearsals with somebody else doing our sound for us. Moreover, if we were to do this piece again, we might put more scripted scenes in rather than a lot of movement sections (although the movement sections were effective and worked well in our piece, the piece did become very movement-based). Furthermore, we could have made a questionnaire for our audience to fill out after our piece so we could get feedback on our entire piece so we would know what to do to improve. In our rehearsal schedule, we could have included peer-assessment; we could have asked another group to watch us perform certain scenes and give us feedback on what they thought of it and what they thought needed altering. 

The Healthy Performer (6) (Practicals)

Interval Training

Interval training is physical training consisting of alternative periods of high-intensity and low-intensity training. These periods are split up by rest/relief periods. Some experts believe that aerobic interval training is beneficial as it allows you to burn more calories in a shorter period of time. Moreover, due to the short breaks and that the difficulty level changes makes the whole style of exercise seem less monotonous. Interval training allows the heart to work at its CV rate, though the periods of rest are long enough for the heart rate to drop down to its fat-burning rate, but not long enough to drop down to resting heart rate (thus meaning that you are getting physically fitter as well as burning a lot of calories).

Circuit Training
Circuit training is a form of resistance training involving only high-intensity aerobics. One "circuit" is one full completion of all of the activities in the programme. Unlike interval training, there are no rest periods between exercises, and instead you must move from exercise to exercise as quickly as possible. Circuits can either be specific, working in one area (e.g. core, legs or upper body), or they can be broad and work on various parts of the body. The first circuit we did in this lesson consisted on pads and gloves work (for 3 minutes then swap with your partner), squats (3 minutes), step ups (3 minutes), skipping (6 minutes). The second circuit we did focussed on our core: leg raises (1 minute), ball pass sit-ups (2 minutes), ab twists (2 minutes). I personally prefer interval training than circuit training, as we get to have short breaks during interval training (but we still get physical benefits during this break as our heart rate is at its fat-burning level) and therefore it seems less difficult and monotonous. However, due to the lack of breaks in circuit training, I feel like I get more out of the training (although this is not necessarily the case).

Storytelling (25) (The Snow Queen)

EVALUATION

First Story:
++ Positives: 

•  Timing for movement was good and most of the movement was in clean unison.
•  Narration recording sounded good and worked well for the scene, as the backing music set the right sort of atmosphere (tense at appropriate times but calm when it suited the narrative).
• Worked well without the masks as we didn't need to worry about finding a place to take them off, thus making our transition in to the second story smoother.

-- Negatives: 

•  When we went to mime putting on a mask, some of the group reached down and put it on, whilst others of us just put out right hand on our face. This happened due to not discussing this early enough (although I did tell the group that this is what we would do, we never got to rehearse it). However, it didn't look too bad as the people SL reached down, whilst those of us SR didn't so it didn't look as messy as it could have done.

Second Story:
++Positives:

• The lifts were all successful and the dance section went really smoothly.
• The entrance of the Snow Queen silhouette was really effective due to our spacing.
• The silhouette of the sledge was effective due to good spacing.
• Our facial expressions clearly expressed the characters emotions at different points during the narrative (e.g. when Kay left Gerda and also when Kay was being kissed by the Snow Queen)

-- Negatives:

• The sheet could have been wider to hide us behind and to cover the lifts better.
• The music should have been a bit louder as I couldn't hear the introduction clearly and therefore was unsure when I was coming in.
• The silhouettes were quite hazy due to the fact that we had three lights so we ended up having multiple shadows.

Third Story:
++ Positives:

• Placards were really clear which helped the audience understand this scene better.
• We all used strong facial expressions (especially at the beginning when we told Gerda we didn't know where Kay had gone, and on "many sad tears were shed") and moved in unison.

-- Negatives:

• The river stopped moving in different places at different times. 
• Two members of the group unsure on the movement, so were not confident and had to check round for reassurance.

Fourth Story:
++ Positives:

• We stayed in character as best as we could, despite the technical difficulties during this scene.
• We knew where we had to be at certain points in the narration, therefore when a short section of narration was skipped, we could pick it up smoothly from where the narration cut back in. 
• Our facial expressions helped the audience understand the narrative better (e.g. when Gerda was told by the Crow that Kay had been spotted, also when the prince was woken up by Gerda).

-- Negatives:

• We had many technical difficulties throughout this scene due to the audio being in different sections, therefore we had long awkward pauses at times and a whole section was skipped. What we should have done was have all of the audio for this scene on one track.

Fifth Story:
++ Positives:

• We remembered the majority of the movement. Due to us being so close together, we could sense each other moving and so we knew when we needed to move.
• Our movement was really effective in helping the audience understand the narrative as it was simplistic and clear (e.g. when we jolted on the line "at length the carriage stopped").

-- Negatives: 

• The majority of us couldn't remember our lines so Rhiannon read all of our lines. Although this was obviously not planned, this actually worked really well as it was more like storytelling, as opposed to us acting out a story.

Sixth Story:
++ Positives:

• We created an unsettling atmosphere due to us all standing facing different directions in random places in the room. 

-- Negatives:

• We didn't say our allocated words over the top of Charlie's narration like we had planned. We should have rehearsed this scene more and without the scripts especially! As the first line was missed, nobody said their lines - although we obviously wanted to say our lines, we thought this was better than some people saying random lines as it would have made no sense and the meaning would be lost and it would simply look random.
• This scene seemed really static due to the fact that nobody said their lines. If we had said our lines this would have been fine. However, we should have gone with our insticts to begin walking slowly around the room  in random directions (as after discussing this scene afterwards with each other, we were all tempted to do this, but nobody started this off!) to give this story more movement.

Seventh Story:
++ Positives:

• The projection was very atmospheric and fit with the narrative really well.
• Oliver interacted with the audience throughout the scene, which therefore made him more engaging

-- Negatives:

• Oliver stumbled a couple of times on his words; however, this wasn't too much of an issue as it just made him sound more excited.
• The slideshow of pictures that formed the projection unfortunately went over to the laptop background a couple of times when the slideshow had finished. Although this was obviously not intentional and was a massive mistake, this would have been worse if the laptop background was a picture of someone or was a personal background (as opposed to just the Windows logo).

Entire Piece:
++ Positives:

• The majority of the transitions went really smoothly (e.g. the transition from the second story to the third story, where we had to take the sheet down was successful).
• We kept professional and continued with the piece during the technical diffiulties.
• We had a good focus on storytelling tecnhiques during the majority of the piece (e.g. Oliver's interaction with the audience, our varied tone of voice, emphasis of certain words, etc.)

-- Negatives:

• We had many technical difficulties during the piece with the audio (and at the end with the projection). We should have done a full tech run of the piece before we performed it so we could have solved these issues.
• We forgot our lines during Rhiannon and Charlie's scenes (but we did cover this well). We should have done a full run through without scripts earlier on in the rehearsal period to ensure we all knew our lines confidently.
• At times, we diverted away from the main focus of storytelling due to the large amount of movement we have in this piece. Although we did a lot of research into what makes a successful storyteller, we could have researched larger groups that do storytelling as to give us more ideas for what we could all do (rather than just a lot of movement).

= If we had no restrictions: 

• If we had a bigger group and more time to create this piece, we could have made more interesting movement sections (e.g. Robert's section could have more people for the line waiting to see the princess). Having a larger group would also mean we wouldn't need to multi-roll as much and therefore we would have less to learn, resulting in us being more confident and less mistakes being made.
• We could have put some thought into costumes for this piece, however, this would lead us further away from storytelling and more towards a performance of a story. 
• If money wasn't an issue, we could have a better sound system (to ensure all of the tracks were audible at all times) and a technician (to solve any problems and to mix the different tracks into one to avoid the problem of skipping sections).
• If we had more time on this piece we would have done more research into different storytelling techniques for groups (rather than just individual techniques), a thorough tech rehearsal and more rehearsals without scripts.

The Healthy Performer (5) (Circulatory & Respiratory & Nervous Systems)

Circulatory System

• The circulatory system functions in the delivery of oxygen, nutrient molecules and hormones. It also functions in the removal of carbon dioxide, ammonia and other metabolic wastes.
• The three components of the circulatory system are the heart, blood vessels and the blood itself.
• The heart beats approximately 100'00 times a day, and the beating sound we hear is the clap of valve leaflets opening and closing.
• The heart is a cardiac muscle as it never gets fatigued, meaning it can continue working without ever getting tired. It is protected by the ribcage. It acts as a pump, pushing blood all around the body. It is separated into two sides (by the septum) as to ensure oxygenated and de-oxygenated blood don't mix. Blood only flows one way due to valves. 
• There are three types of blood vessels: arteries (carries de-oxygenated blood to the lungs), veins (carries oxygenated blood to the heart and the rest of the body) and capillaries (one cell thick - transfer site of oxygen and other nutrients from the bloodstream to other tissues).
• De-oxygenated blood is pumped from the heart to the lungs (via the pulmonary artery), where the blood becomes oxygenated, and then the blood is returned to the heart (via the pulmonary vein).
• The circulatory system is essential for getting blood to different parts of the body; ensuring you have good circulation means you shouldn't become numb in certain areas. Having full feeling means you can feel what you are doing and so can correct and perfect your movements.
• Knowing about this system can help a performer in training as they would be aware of their heartbeat and how to improve their overall fitness (by improving the strength of their heart)

Respiratory System

• The human respiratory system is a series of organs responsible for taking in oxygen and expelling carbon dioxide.
• As we breathe in, air enters our nasal cavity (where the temperature and humidity is regulated by the sinuses). The trachea then filters the air. The diaphragm lowers and the intercostal muscles contract to allow the ribcage to expand, allowing the lung capacity to increase. As we breathe out, the ribcage contracts and the diaphragm forms a dome shape again, causing the lung capacity to decrease, to squeeze more air out of the lungs.
• Carbon dioxide is expelled by breathing, where we break down glucose and oxygen into carbon dioxide and water. Water is lost through sweat and urine.
• A large lung capacity means you would have good breathe control and a strong diaphragm enables you to support your voice effectively. Knowing about this system would make performers conscious of their lungs and diaphragm and their importance - understanding their importance may encourage them to try and use them more effectively.

Nervous System

• "The network of nerve cells and fibres which transmits nerve impulses between parts of the body".
• Stimulus --> receptor --> sensory neurone --> relay neurone --> motor neurone --> effector --> response.
• The nervous system enables you to respond to different events. For example, if you saw in your peripheral vision that another dancer was too close to you and was going to kick you, you could move out of their way.
• Knowing about the nervous system would make performers conscious of their bodies and they could learn about how to look after their bodies.

The Healthy Performer (4) (Skeletal and Muscular systems)

SKELETAL SYSTEM:

• The five major functions of the skeletal system are as follows: support, protection, movement, production of blood cells and storage of ions.
• The skeleton is split into two main sections: axial (skull, ribs, spine) and appendicular (shoulder girdles, arms, legs, pelvic girdle)
• We have 206 bones in our bodies.
• Bone are connected together by ligaments, and muscles are connected to bones by tendons.
• There are four types of bone: long (femur), short (carpals of the wrist), flat (sternum) and irregular (sacrum).
• There are four types of bone cells: osteogenic (bone growth), osteoblasts (build bones), osteoclasts (destroy bones) and osteocytes (holds bones together).
• Joints: bony (bones merge together as you get older), synovial (joints surrounded by liquid), fibrous (fibres join the bones) and cartilaginous (cartilage joins the bones). Hinge joints (e.g. elbows) move in one direction, saddle joints (thumb) can move in two directions, and ball and socket joints can move in all directions (hips and shoulders). 

MUSCULAR SYSTEM:

•  The purposes of the muscular system are movement, and to maintain posture and body position. Voluntary muscles are muscles that we can control to perform tasks like walking, whilst involuntary muscles are for the beating of your heart and for digestion. All muscles work in groups to undergo the tasks that you set them.
• There are five types of muscles: fusiform (thicker in the middle and thinner at the ends - biceps), parallel (thighs), convergent (fan shaped - pectorals), pennate (feather shaped - quadriceps) and circular (orbicularis oris).
• Antagonist and agonist muscles often work in pairs. As one muscle relaxes the other one contracts (e.g. the triceps relax so the biceps can contract, so you can lift your arm).

Commedia dell'arte (16)

Today we ran all of the scenes we have so far and began developing ideas for what we would like to do. We began by developing our opening scene. We begin with Pantalone and Doctor discussing when the critic would be arriving - this is to establish Lewis's and Ollie's characters, as well as the setting and the scenario. We then moved on to them coming in to the kitchen to see the place in a mess. During this scene all characters will be on stage, so the audience are introduced to all of them briefly and get an understanding of hierarchy (as it were) and the relationships between the stock characters.

After this scene we ran the "prawn soup" scene to ensure they still remembered it and that it was still tidy. This run through was actually the funniest they had done it as it was natural and fresh. This scene really showed the relationship between Pantalone and Doctor. We then moved on to the "New Waitress" and "Tasty paper" scenes. These scenes introduced Columbina and Harlequin better, showing Columbina's flirtatious nature and Harlequin's care-free attitude to everything. The next scene to be run was the "cupboard cuddles" scene, between Il Capitano, Doctor and Harlequin at the end. This scene was very comical and fits well with the Commedia dell'arte style due to its comedy.

Afterwards we ran the "syrup" scene, where Zanni attempts to style his hair, but we made some alterations. Instead of having Il Capitano come on and threaten Doctor, some people came up with the idea of having Brighella come on instead (as Il Capitano already has a lot of scenes). Instead of Brighella threatening Doctor, I came on and shouted at them, demanding to know what they were doing and why they were not following their orders. Angrily, I split them up with ease and told them to get to work. The three of them all look at my character in astonishment, shocked as to how I had split them up so easily when they had been struggling for so long.

The final scene we performed was our finale! We performed the scene leading up to Zanni's performance, and then the performance itself. We then discussed what we need to do next; what we have left to do is as follows:

• get all the props
• get costumes
• paint and adapt masks so we are comfortable in them
• devise a scene between Pantalone, Brighella and Zanni
• inform the plants on what they will be doing!

Devised Unit - Chasing Pavements (23) (Full run)

In this lesson we ran our entire piece, polishing anything that needed polishing as we went, to make our piece as smooth as possible. Below is what we have left to do:

• Do a costume run
• Do a complete run with all lighting and the music.
• Sort the hangers for the Game show scene with numbers and signs
• Strengthen the book with card to ensure it doesn't bend 

Before our performance on tuesday Katya will strengthen the book with card to make it more sturdy and stand up by itself.  I have got the "Deal or No Deal" theme tune and just edited it with a fade in and a fade out to make the piece cleaner and sounding more professional. Between now and the performance, I shall make the signs for the hangers and the boys will work out what they are going to wear. In our final rehearsal at the beginning of next lesson, we shall ensure we include all of our props as well as our pieces of music. We shall ask someone in our class to do the music and sound for us, and we shall brief them in what they need to do.

Devised Unit - Chasing Pavements (22) (Top and tail run // Costume)

In this lesson we did a top and tail run of our entire piece so we could focus on our transitions. We wanted to make our transitions as smooth as possible to make our piece seamless. The smoother our transitions, the more engaged our audience will hopefully remain - this is because the piece will be smooth as opposed to being disjointed and it looking like we do not know what we are doing. Katya also worked on our lighting to add more atmosphere to our piece and to make the audience feel more tense.

We then begun discussing costume. Ollie and Robert are still not entirely sure on what they are going to wear, but Katya and I have now decided. As we are supposed to be the same person, Katya and I shall wear black leggings, a black top, matching chokers and our hair exactly the same. We shall wear black leggings as we can move freely in them for our movement sections. We decided to wear black tops so our character is dressed in dark colours, which would form a contrast to the connotations of the noun "princess". The choker is to ensure the audience realise that we are supposed to be dressed the same, as opposed to just wearing all blacks. We are having our hair down to enable us to use our hair in the piece, but we shall have the top part of our hair up so it doesn't get in our faces as to ensure our facial expressions are visible at all times.

Katya then came up with a really dark but really clever idea for the Game show scene... instead of using boxes we shall use coat hangers. We shall have a costume rack set stage right throughout the entire piece. We will a number of coat hangers on this rack facing the same way. The coat hangers will all be numbered and we shall have "abort" or "no abort" on the back of them.

Next lesson we shall do an entire run through, as opposed to just a top and tail run.

Devised Unit - Chasing Pavements (21) (Track editting)

For our opening scene we were using the version of "Crazy in Love" from "50 Shades of Grey". However, we wanted to begin the piece with the original version of "Crazy in Love" to create the party atmosphere. Therefore we decided that we needed to mix the two tracks.

My first step in the editing process was to get the two songs and put them on to audacity. I then cut the original track of "Crazy in Love", and kept only the parted we needed. I then moved the "50 Shades of Grey" version to where we wanted it to come in. I decided to overlap the two tracks so the second track started where we wanted it to, but also so it gradually came in. I then faded the first track out and the second track in so the merge was smoother.

I then decided that we needed an explosive change to make the transition clear. I therefore downloaded an explosion sound effect and added it to the audacity project. I moved the effect to the desired place and then tested the track. However, the sound effect didn't sound very realistic and was a little bit too clean, as we wanted the piece to sound a bit messy to symbolise the amount of alcohol consumed. To do this, I added the "wah wah" effect to the explosion sound.

After this, I decided to alter the tempo of the first song nearing the explosion. This was because the transition between the two songs was a bit sharp still, and we wanted the tracks to blend better. Also, by altering the tempo, the vocals and the track became distorted which represents the sheer amount of alcohol they consumed.

Commedia dell'arte (15)

We began today's lesson by discussing what we had done for homework. Lewis explained to the class what he thinks the staging should be like and showed us his detailed drawing. We all liked his ideas as the entrances and exits were clear, and every setting (such as the cupboard, the cooker and the table for the managers) was clear and logically placed. I then explained to the class my costume ideas which they agreed with would work well. However, we have decided that instead of skinny jeans, Charlie's character should wear drop-crotched bottoms as it would allow him to move more freely and shows his characters lazy side.

As we do not have the props still for the piece, we thought it would be a bit pointless to work on mine and Charlie's scene as it relies on the props. Therefore, we decided to move on to Zanni's entertainment scene. For this, we had to pick a song that James felt comfortable miming (i.e. a song that he knows the words too). Originally we spoke about doing Whitney Houston's "I will always love you" as we thought this would be very comical - however, James doesn't know the lyrics to this song, so we then began thinking about what really well known songs are there that James knows and would open up opportunities for more comedy. We eventually decided on Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody". We thought this would be ideal as it mentions a "poor boy" that "nobody loves" (i.e. Zanni) and nearer the end speaks about having to go (which would work really well if we put this scene at the end - which we are now). We decided we wanted to involve everyone in this scene and make it as funny and as cheesy as possible! Therefore we decided that Lewis, Oliver and I would be sorting James out on stage and getting him ready to perform and then suddenly the light would come on - at this point the four of us would look out and we would have frozen in the beginning position from the music video of "Bohemian Rhapsody". We then choreographed the rest of the scene; the choreography involves fake candles, blow-up guitars and using our plants in the audience.

Next lesson, we shall film this scene so we can watch it back and see if there is anything we can alter to make it more comical.

The Healthy Performer (3) (Flexibility/Ballet class)

In this lesson I was asked to take a flexibility/ballet class (as I am the only one in the class who does ballet). Initially the boys laughed at the thought of ballet, but they soon realised how demanding ballet is and what it requires of your body.

I began this lesson with a thorough warm up to increase our heart rates so blood was pumped around our bodies quicker and to reduce the risk of pulling a muscle. The main part of my warm up was joint mobility (e.g. shoulder rolls and instep stretches) as ballet and flexibility exercises rely on having lose joints.

In the flexibility part of my lesson I began with our legs. We did a variety of different stretches for our legs (such as lunges, touching toes and splits), arms and backs (such as back bends and table tops). As well as doing a variety of different stretches, I taught the class some exercises to tone and strengthen our arms without using weights (doing different exercises with arms fully extended and not putting them down or bending our arms).

After the flexibility lesson I moved on to a ballet lesson. I began this with pliés to improve alignment and promote good posture. To do a correct plié, your knees should be over your toes rather than your knees going inwards. Your bottom should also be tucked underneath you and your back should be straight. After pliés, we moved on to pirouettes. At this point, the boys realised how challenging ballet is. I taught them how to prepare a classical pirouette (begin in first position, then arms and feet in third and plié, extend and point to second with arms in second and then pull up and place leg in a 90 degree retiré) and then what you need to do the full pirouette (spotting with the head, arms to whip from third to first position, knee to push you round, and a strong relevé). By doing pirouettes, they learned how important posture is. We then moved on to leaps and corner work (i.e. kicks). The corner work required flexibility (to get their legs up higher), alignment (to ensure the kicks were in the right place), posture (to ensure they kept their backs up) and core strength (to ensure they were in control).

I then did a cool down to decrease our heart rates back down, and to reduce the possible build-up of lactic acid. This lesson was beneficial to me as I would like to become more flexible to improve my dancing which will open up more opportunities in choreography as well as being able to perform more demanding movements with ease. This class has hopefully helped Toby as he is looking in to doing physical theatre later on at university, so this lesson hopefully helped him realise how he can push his body further. I hope the others have taken something from this lesson and it has just basically opened their eyes to what their bodies can achieve if they keep working towards it.

Storytelling (24) (The Snow Queen)

In this lesson we ran our whole piece in its entirety. However, we were unfortunately in the hall and not our normal room of C6 (where we will actually be doing our performance) so we couldn't practice doing the silhouettes. We tried to do as much of the piece as we could without our scripts, though we still needed our scripts for the fifth and sixth scenes ("little Robber Maiden" and Charlie's scene). What we have left to do is practice the whole piece without stopping in between (so we can perfect our transitions), rehearse using all of the props and get off of our scripts as soon as we can! Moreover, we also watched Oliver perform his scene today. He decided to sit in a chair and purely narrate his scene. He wants to have projection on the walls of ice (to represent him in the ice palace), however, we didn't get to see what this would look like today as we were in a different room than normal. Next lesson we will hopefully run the whole piece from start to finish without stopping and between and using all of the props as well (as we will be back in C6).

Devised Unit - Chasing Pavements (20) (Scene order // Evaluating progress)

In today's lesson we created a scene order and then ran all of our scenes, but pausing after each scene to make notes on what needs improving. Our scene order is as follows: "Party" -->  "Game show" (3) --> "Chasing Pavements" --> "Conversation with best friend" --> "Chasing Pavements reverse" --> "Sound scape". We thought it would be interesting to start with the Party scene as the audience would think the rest of the piece would be fun and crazy (as it starts with Ollie and I pretending we were at a party), thus making the events to come more shocking and hard-hitting. Starting with this scene would also confuse the audience as to what style we would use to portray our narrative/ideas (as we are using dance and story-telling and acting as children in one scene). We chose to do our "Game show" scene after the party scene as this is the scene that would make the audience feel really uncomfortable, and having this scene after our "Party" would form a massive contrast in atmosphere and techniques used (as the party is movement based and story-telling, whilst the game show is scripted dialogue). Having then done three dialogue scenes in one, we thought it best to have our movement scene of "Chasing Pavements". As we created this scene at the same time as our "conversation" scene, we had already worked out a smooth transition from "Chasing Pavements" to "conversations", so we decided to put the "conversations" scene straight after "Chasing Pavements". We knew we wanted to close our piece with our "sound scape" scene as we thought of an effective ending for it, so we put our "Chasing Pavements reverse" section as our penultimate scene. Also it is quite effective having the "Chasing Pavements", then the conversation about it, and then the reverse of it.

Below are our scenes and what we have left to do for each of them now. This lesson the improvements we made were the ending scene final position, the blocking of the Game Show and the staging for the conversation scene...

• Party / Story book: --- Mix the music track --- K&R learn lines --- Strengthen the book with card
• Game show: --- Make boxes --- All learn lines --- Get the theme tune and voice overs sorted
• Chasing Pavements: Complete
• Conversations: --- Learn lines
• Chasing pavements reverse: Complete
• Sound scape: Complete

 For the sound scape, we decided to alter our final position. Originally we finished with Katya and I hugging, and Robert and Ollie off stage. However, we decided it would be nice to finish with all of us on stage and we thought we could make our ending deeper. Therefore, we decided that Katya and I could turn opposite sides and lay down in the foetal position - this would bring people's attention back to the foetus that the situation is actually about (as they probably would have forgotten about the life inside of the girl and were focussing more on the couple). Moreover, we decided that whilst Kat and I lie as still as we can, Rob and Ollie would stand behind us looking at the book. This would create a sort of cyclical structure as we began with the book and ended with the book.

Devised Unit - Chasing Pavements (19) (Party scene // Book)

In this lesson we completed our party scene (apart from having the final track made) and made some decisions on a scene order. Ollie and I spent some time polishing our dance phrase, whilst Kat and Rob went through the script together. After this, Kat and Rob read their script whilst Ollie and I did our dance so we could see what part needed lengthening, and if any of our dance needed adapting. Kat and Rob had a lot of script left over when Ollie and I finished, so we knew that we needed to add more to our dance anyway. Ollie and I also paid close attention to what Kat and Rob were saying and what point in our dance, so we could see if we could change steps around to ensure that our movements fitted exactly with what they were saying.

Afterwards, Kat began designing and making "the storybook", whilst Rob typed up the script so he had a copy, and Ollie and I discussed what we should do with our movement section. Kat has made a book cover for our "storybook"; she called the book "The Princess and the Party" to ensure it sounded like a child's book. This will be the book that Kat and Rob read from during the Party scene. The idea of this is to show that they are the same characters, but are acting their mental ages (suggesting their characters were silly, naive and immature at the party). Ollie and I came up with the idea of performing our chasing pavements motif for the rest of this scene (as not only does it fit perfectly with the gap we had but it makes sense!). We thought that by performing this motif during this scene to the "50 Shades of Grey" version of "Crazy in Love" shows that they had sex at the party and also shows the reality of this - the "Chasing Pavements" song suggests confusion but has connotations of them supporting each other, whilst "Crazy in Love" suggests confusion and greed.

After polishing the dance section, and altering parts to ensure that it consistently linked with the story and told a story itself (rather than just being a random dance), we discussed scene order briefly. Although this wasn't on our agenda for this lesson, we couldn't help ourselves as we had all come up with practically the same idea - begin with the party scene, with the book centre stage with a single spot light on it. We then came up with the idea of ending the piece with the sound scape (as then it would begin and end with a movement piece) as Katya and I would end hugging and could then pick up the book and end looking at it together. This could then suggest that our character is looking back at the events that happened, as if it were a biography on her life.

Storytelling (23) (The Snow Queen)

We began this lesson with a quick physical warm up, as we were going to be working on James's scene which is very dance-based. We then got the sheet and put it up ready to try out the silhouettes for the first time. However, we had to do a little bit of experimenting to decide where it was best to position the sheet. We put the light at the very back of the room and attached one end of the sheet to the ceiling by lifting some of the ceiling panels and putting a little bit of the sheet underneath it. The sheet was perfect as you could see the shadows perfectly, however, we had positioned it in slightly the wrong place. We had to bring the sheet forward to leave more space behind the sheet for us to move properly (to form the silhouettes) and to ensure the shadows were the size we wanted them. We then ran this scene in its entirety, which actually went rather smoothly. The silhouettes were effective and what we wanted them to look like. However, we did change one section of the scene - instead of Rhiannon coming in front of the screen as the Snow Queen's first appearance, we decided she would be in silhouette to make her more mysterious. This also avoided the issue of having to lift the bottom of the sheet for her to enter.

Our next issue was how we were going to get the sheet on and off. We worked out that we could easily just pull the sheet down after the scene, but the problem was putting it up. We instantly realised that the sheet was going to have to be up and ready during the first scene - unfortunately, the first scene takes up a lot of space, and so we had to work out what we could do with the sheet. We spoke about having the bottom of the sheet elevated so we had more space, but the problem was how this would be done, as every time we thought we found a way, the weight of the sheet made the middle bow down. I then suggested that we attached a hook in the middle of the two corners at the bottom of the sheet. We could attach this centre hook with string to the pipe on the wall. One corner of the sheet could be attached to another pipe on the wall with string, whilst the other corner could be attached with string to the window handle. Therefore, by lifting the sheet like described, the sheet would be almost parallel to the ceiling and thus we would be able to work below the sheet and would have more space. To get the sheet ready for the second scene, we would just cut the strings.

After working on James's scene, we moved on to Robert's scene as we felt this scene was a little bit static. We choreographed the movement between Gerda and the crow a little bit so we knew where we should be during the scene, to make the scene more entertaining to watch and to give it a little more life. We went over all of the movements to ensure everyone knew what they were doing. We decided to cut Lewis's role of the lamp as (although he was doing a brilliant job and did exactly as Rob asked) he got in the way at times (due to him walking on his knees) and caused a bit of a barrier between the crow and Gerda. Having tidied the movements and setting some movement for Robert and I, we are all a lot happier with this scene and shall move on to a different scene next lesson.

The Healthy Performer (2) (Healthy eating)

Today's lesson was spent discussing what makes a healthy diet, but more specifically a healthy diet for performers. Performers use up a lot of energy and have very long days, so need to eat foods that are going to fuel them for their long and busy days. Men should consume approximately 2500 calories a day, whilst women need about 2000 calories a day.

What to do:

• Eat food containing slow-release carbohydrates (anything wholemeal), as they release energy over a longer period of time compared to normal carbohydrates (white bread, white rice, white pasta).
• Stay hydrated! Drink plenty of water throughout the day to make up for the water you lose through sweat and to keep your organs hydrated and working properly. 
• Consume a lot of protein (found in meats, especially chicken)! Protein helps your body repair cells and make new ones.
• Graze! As performers, we should eat small portions but more often to spread the release of carbohydrates and nutrients. This would also ensure we wouldn't be performing on a full stomach (which could lead to indigestion and feeling heavy) but still have enough energy to get through the performance.

What to avoid:

• Saturated fats. Your body takes longer to break this type of fat down.
• Too much salt. We need to have some salt in our diets (to control our fluid balance), but not too much as this can increase your blood pressure, which increases your risk of heart disease. 
• Sugar. We obviously need a bit of sugar to have a balanced diet but not too much. Sugars are found in sweets and chocolate, but also found in fruits. However, sugar is converted into energy, but too much sugar could result in high blood pressure and high cholesterol levels.  

Minerals:
--- Calcium -- needed for healthy bones and teeth - milk / yoghurt / soybeans
--- Chloride -- needed to produce stomach acid - lettuce / celery / tomatoes
--- Iron -- needed to form red blood cells - nuts / spinach / dark chocolate
--- Magnesium -- needed to make protein - dried fruits / seeds / fish
--- Potassium -- needed for muscle contraction - mushrooms / potatoes / bananas
--- Sodium -- needed for balancing bodily fluids - tables salt / cheese / cereals

Vitamins:
--- Vitamin A -- helps form and maintain healthy skin and teeth - dried apricots / liver / fish
--- Vitamin B1 -- helps convert food (carbohydrates) into fuel (glucose) - beans / peas
--- Vitamin B2 -- helps with vision - mushrooms / cereals / fish
--- Vitamin B6 -- controls levels of amino homocysteine acid in the blood - eggs / poultry
--- Vitamin B12 -- part of enzyme needed for making new cells - poultry / seafood

--- Vitamin C -- aids in iron absorption and good for immune system - fruits / vegetables

The Healthy Performer (1) (Introduction)

This lesson was our first lesson of our new unit: The Healthy Performer. We spent this lesson in the school's weights gym, and learnt about all of the different equipment there - how to use it and what parts of the body it works. We used the gym equipment to mainly work our arms and also our chests as well. We also did exercises on the floor with medicine balls to strengthen our cores and our arms as well. Our squat exercises with the bar would strengthen our legs and our backs. Below is the first draft of my programme to get fitter and improve what I want to:






The weights would work out different muscles depending on what exercises I chose to do. However, though I may be aiming to improve my arms, for example, whilst doing weights, I would also be working my chest and partially my legs too. The running programme would improve my stamina and my lung capacity. The flexibility programme would obviously improve the elasticity of my muscles and overtime increase my endurance too. Ballet improves your core, flexibility, balance, stamina, alignment and posture. Boxercise would help burn fat and increase our heart rates, and therefore our overall fitness levels.

Commedia dell'arte (14)

We began this lesson with our normal physical warm up and then looked at what scenes we have so far and what scenes we have discussed but not devised.

Completed:

• Prawn soup (IC, D, P -- Creating the starter)
• Syrup scene (Z, C, D, IC -- Getting Zanni ready. People get stuck together)
• New Waitress (C, D, P -- Columbina introduced to Pantalone. She takes their orders)
• Tasty Paper (C, IC, H -- C gives orders to IC. H eats the orders!)
• A thief in the midst (P, D -- P steals money)

 To do:

• Zanni's entertainment (All -- Zanni fills in for missing guest performer)
• Extendo fork (H, B -- Harlequin trying to steal food)
• Cooking Oil Cocktail (H, B -- B swaps the apple juice H is drinking to cooking oil)
• Cupboard Cuddles (IC, D, H -- Misunderstanding with the poem)

After working out where we were with our piece, we decided begin developing Zanni's entertainment scene. This scene began with my character telling Doctor and Pantalone that the guest performer we had booked was unable to attend this evening. When telling these characters, I tried to keep my voice sounding as calm as I could (as my character would aim to please Pantalone and Doctor as they have a higher status that her) though obviously with an element of anxiety/anger in my voice. The three of us then enter the kitchen and discuss what we should do. Doctor announces to the rest of the kitchen that he should perform, which leads to a silence, which is then broken by Harlequin laughing. He steps forward and states that he should perform a belly dance; this idea is soon rejected and Il Capitano jumps forwards and volunteers himself as tribute. We put a pun in here, stating that "this is not the Hunger Games", thus adding more comedy to the piece and making an old art form appeal to a modern audience. Brighella then pushes Zanni forwards and he is swiftly taken off to get ready for his performance. We then decided to leave this scene at this point, as it would lead on to getting Zanni ready and then him performing (which he could practice at home and then perform in a later lesson as to save time).

We then developed the "Cupboard Cuddles" scene and extended the "Tasty Paper" scene to enable the "Cupboard Cuddles" scene to take place. At the end of "Tasty Paper", IC asks H help on how to woe C. H suggests he writes C a poem, and H writes it for him. H promises IC that he shall deliver the letter to C... but actually delivers it to D for a laugh! H made D believe the letter is from C. D and C end up in the dark cupboard together and (having been very close) when one says "oh Columbina" the other realises there is a problem. The lights go on and they are shocked and discussed what has just happened. Harlequin is outside and asks how their date is going.

Costume design:

• Doctor: slightly cropped trousers (smart but old), waistcoat (smart), off-white shirt (dirty), wide tie (emphasise bold characteristics and size), loafers (old).
• Pantalone: long trousers (smart but slightly un-kept), dark shirt, blazer (tries to make an effort / easier to hide in his greed), grotesque bow tie (odd and unusual character)
• Harlequin: dark jeans (bends the rules to fit in), shiny shoes (bold and in-your-face), t-shirt with picture of a tie on (cheeky by not wearing proper uniform), apron (ordered to wear it)
• Brighella: very smart suit (to show authority)
• Il Capitano: chef uniform complete with hat (very over-the-top and wants to be best prepared)
• Columbina: blouse and apron (as part of uniform, looking smart), heels and tight skirt (shows how flirtatious she is / heels give her height and a bit more authority)
• Zanni: school trousers and shirt (to show his innocence), tie very scruffy (unorganised), generally covered in stains and dirt (accident-prone)

Commedia dell'arte (13)

We began this lesson with our normal physical warm up to increase our heart rate and warm up our muscles. We then did a character exercise lead by Charlie. We were told to lie down with our eyes shut and imagine we were on a lino in a swimming pool. We were then told that we had a brick on our ankle and were beginning to drown. We had to imagine how our character would react. I think my character would be annoyed at the brick but would easily find a way to get out. We were then told to walk round the room and the people we walk past are the people who saved us. As my character, I had a fairly guilty but cautious facial expression and nodded my head at them. We were then told that the character who saved us, was also the person who tied the brick to our ankles. This time, when I greeted each character I went up to them square on and looked extremely angrily at them.

We then discussed what scenes we would like to create. We split into pairs and small groups to begin devising the discussed scenes. Charlie and I went together as our characters have a very comical relationship between them. All of our ideas were prop-orientated and required us to have the audience to use. However, we discussed our ideas and what we could include, these ideas are as follows:

• H using an expandable fork to try and pinch food from a plate, B uses an expandable fork to try and stop him. B so focused on the forks that she doesn't realise H pinching food off another plate. 
• H using an extra-long straw to attempt to drink a drink on a different table. B swaps the drink to some cooking oil. 
• H uses a child's "dinosaur grabber" toy to attempt to pinch food of plates. B has a fake hand on a stick which she slaps the dinosaur with.
• B using a fishing rod to pick up a (magnetic) fish from a customer's plate. B uses the fake hand to slap H.

We then decided to group back together as we will all be on stage at the same time so we need to work together. We watched Oliver, Lewis and Rhiannon's scene and all took part in forum theatre. In their scene Doctor introduces Pantalone to his new waitress (Columbina), who takes their orders. This scene consists of many innuendos and shows the stock characters characteristics.

The next scene we developed was between Il Capitano, Columbina and Harlequin. Il Capitano is trying to impress Columbina. She comes in with the order written down, which she gives to Il Capitano who doesn't look at the note, and instead holds it in his other hand out to the side whilst admiring and complimenting Columbina. In this time, unknown to Il Capitano, Harlequin has pinched the paper and has eaten it. Il Capitano turns round to and quickly realises what has happened. Harlequin looks at Il Capitano and pauses, and then dances off.

In this lesson, we progressed in our characterisation, as we got a lot of practice moving as our characters and interacting with others. We also managed to come up with a lot of ideas on what we would like to happen in this piece. Next lesson, we shall continue devising and developing the ideas we have.

Devised Unit - Chasing Pavements (18) (Party Scene)

Robert wasn't in this lesson so we decided to make our party scene. We had already decided that Robert and Katya were going to do the narration for this scene in a comical style (as Ollie and I have already had a scene of [dark] comedy dialogue, whilst Katya and Robert haven't had a comical scene yet), whilst Ollie and I do the movement side. Therefore Ollie and I began choreographing this scene, whilst Katya began scriptwriting. Katya decided that she wanted the narration to be told as if it were children reading a story, as this would symbolise the naivety of the teenagers, and present their "silly" behaviour. To create a massive contrast between the children's fairy tale and the party, I created a more sexual and dark movement phrase. We decided to use the song "Crazy in Love" by Beyoncé as it is very upbeat and a tune that we can party to, and we can then use the version of "Crazy in Love" from the "50 Shades of Grey" film as it is a slower and more sexual version of the song. We thought that I could mix the two tracks, starting with the Beyoncé version and then cutting to the "50 Shades of Grey" version. This change in tempo would symbolise our characters becoming more drunk and disorientated. Ollie will teach me "how to freestyle" as if we were at a party for the Beyoncé version of the piece (as I don't really know what to do in this section!), whilst in this lesson, I create a movement section to the slow version. My movements were very flirtatious and sexual whilst I choreographed Ollie's movements to be a little bit aggressive and powerful. The majority of the time, Ollie and I perform the same movements (to show that we are equally as intoxicated as each other), but my character has more provocative movements to show that she lead him on and encouraged him. Next lesson, we shall show Robert what we did and fit in him to this scene.

Storytelling (22) (The Snow Queen)

After doing a physical warm up to ensure we were ready to run through this piece with a limited risk of injury we began work on the first scene. We performed my scene with my recorded narration and without scripts. Bearing in mind this was our first run through of this scene without any scripts, we did rather well as we remembered all of the movement. However, there are a couple of areas that need to be polished - mainly the section after putting Charlie down having done the lift on "rise up to the sky". All we have left to do for this scene is to tidy the ending and little details (such as which shoulder we turn over, etc.) and perform the scene with our masks. As we have a fairly large gap at the end between pulsing our hands towards Charlie and forming our circle at the end, I thought we could walk to our line at the front again to take our masks off and place them down, before forming our circle at the end of the scene. I shall suggest this next lesson when we do this scene again.

After my scene, we moved on to James's scene. This is the scene we have worked on the most but we still had some issues with it today. Unfortunately, as James's narration is not recorded and is live, the timing isn't consistent, therefore we really have to listen to him. However, we cannot change the timing of our dance section (as we perform to the music) so James needs to keep an eye on how we are doing and alter his speed if needs be. The only other thing we have left to do for this scene is to rehearse with the sheet for our silhouettes. We shall film this scene when we rehearse with the sheet to see what the silhouettes look like and see if we need to alter our placements and spacing to improve the silhouettes themselves.

We then moved on to Lewis's scene. We went over this scene a couple of times as Rhiannon wasn't in the lesson that Lewis directed this scene. After doing this scene a couple of times, we all felt more confident with the movement, and felt fine without using our scripts. Lewis's narration was clear as he had good diction and he paced it well. All we have left to do for this scene is to make the placards and run the scene with them. This could take a while to tidy as they could be problematic (for example, we may not know where to put our placards when we no longer need them and where to pick them up from).

Robert's narration is going to be recorded now (as his scene is very long and he cannot use his script as this would restrict his movement too much). Instead of everyone who has lines saying their lines over the top of the recording (which could be problematic as I have quite a few and could easily get the timing wrong), we began recording all of us reading the narration and lines together on the same recording. However, we didn't manage to finish this as we were interrupted by children being noisy outside during their PE lesson. Therefore, we shall continue recording the narration after school on Monday, when it is quieter.

Commedia dell'arte (12)

This lesson was mainly discussion based but we had moments of practical work. However, due to illness, I didn't join in with the practical work and instead observed and made notes. Below are my notes from the first section of the lesson:

• POSSIBLE SCENES TO INCLUDE: Opening scene - something breaks. Bring everyone on /// Finding and killing a rat /// Brighella inspecting the kitchen /// Zanni's entertainment /// Pantalone and Doctor being critical
• FUNDAMENTAL CONVENTIONS TO INCLUDE: Puns /// Strong relationship between audience and characters /// clear relationships between the stock characters /// strong characterisation /// strong mask work
• STAGING: cabaret style seating for audience /// plants in the audience /// the floor around the audience to be the restaurant /// the stage to be the kitchen /// the doors on the apron leading to the stage to be the entrance to the kitchen /// sink stage right /// counter centre stage
• CHARACTERS: Pantalone and Doctor could be guests as originally planned or both be managers instead, giving everyone contrasting orders /// Il Capitano could be a chef as originally planned or could be on security being overly confident and then a wimp when it comes to any trouble // Columbina could be on the door flirting with all the guests

Costume Ideas:
-- Pantalone = Smart, old-fashioned suit - shows his age and status
-- Doctor = Smart suit, fat tie - shows status and greed
-- Brighella = Very smart. Uniform. Elegant. - shows pride and is very proud of their uniform
-- Harlequin = Fairly smart. Apron. Towel. - Got on what he has been told to wear but has made no special effort. Apron and towel show his job. Towel should be anywhere apart from where it is supposed to be (on the arm)
-- Columbina = Smart but tight fitting outfit. Apron. Towel. - Smart as she has made an effort but slightly revealing to show her character's flirtatious nature.
-- Il Capitano = Chef overalls and hat. - shows job
-- Zanni = Tries to look smart but is scruffy - makes an effort but not good enough

The scene that we have worked on the previous two lessons about Zanni and the glue is obviously not very relevant to the setting and ideas we have come up with. However, we have decided that this scene is possible to adapt for this piece. Rather than Zanni sorting his hair to impress Columbina, Columbina could tell Zanni that "tonight is a very important night" so he needs to get himself looking smart. She could then help him get ready and could then get stuck. The Doctor could then be inspecting the kitchen and gets involved in the scene. Instead of Il Capitano entering and fighting the Doctor, he could walk in to get some coriander and then back out slowly unsure of what to do. We shall work on the adaptations for this scene next lesson if we get time.

However, a scene we did create in this lesson involved Pantalone, the Doctor and Il Capitano. In this scene, Pantalone and Doctor are arguing over what dish should make the specials, with Doctor arguing for soup and Pantalone arguing for prawn cocktail. Il Capitano is in the middle of this argument pouring soup into a saucepan and throwing prawns about, until he raises his ladle suddenly into the air and comes up with the idea of "prawn soup". He explains how this dish is so spectacular and has been in his family for generations (fitting with his characters big0headed attitude). After some consideration Pantalone and Doctor decided this is a great idea and take credit for this idea. Doctor and Pantalone leave whilst Doctor rambles on about pointless facts about prawns, leaving Il Capitano on stage unsure on what has just happened.

Next lessons we shall form groups and create scenes between characters that work well together. Therefore, Charlie and I will go together to present the relationship between Harlequin (H) and Brighella (B). Charlie and I came up with a few scene ideas this lesson to choose from:

1. B bossing H around to clean up. H is purposely awkward and stresses B out.
2. B catching H eating and drinking customers food and drinks without them knowing. 
3. H never doing what B asks. H always dancing and messing around and the most inconvenient times.

We decided that we liked the second idea the best, so we decided to expand on this a little bit more. We thought that Harlequin could have an expandable fork which he uses to reach over the guests heads to steal food off of the plate in front of them. Brighella gets an expandable fork too to have a fork fight with Harlequin above the guests heads as quietly and as smoothly as possible as to not disturb the guests and without them noticing. However, Brighella is so concentrated on stopping Harlequin from picking food up of the specific plate that he doesn't realise that Harlequin has pinched food from a customer's plate behind him with the other hand and is currently eating at the same time.

Storytelling (21) (The Snow Queen)

All we had left to do for my scene was to practice with the masks and for me to record my narration. Therefore, I thought I should do my recording before our lesson tomorrow. I knew that I wanted to have music underneath my narration as this scene is very movement orientated, so having music would help us keep in time. I obviously was going to choose an instrumental version of a song as having lyrics would distract from the narration. I therefore began to think of what sort of music I would like underneath my narration. I wanted to have fairly soft music that would then build when it came to the lift section. However, I had to be very conscious of my introduction, as the introduction is not only the introduction of my scene but is the introduction to the entire piece. I wanted to choose a song with a piano introduction as this is a soft and calming way to beginning but also feels a little bit lonely and isolated (as it is only one instrument) which foreshadows Gerda and Kay's separation. I instantly thought of "Seven Years" by Lukas Graham as the introduction is very soothing and the song builds slightly. I made sure the version I found was an instrumental version and then I read my narration over the top of the track. To my surprise, the song built in the exact place my narration built in tension and the song also faded when my narration ended. I had to listen to the beginning of the song a couple of times to work out when I would read the introduction and begin my scene. I did a test recording to check that the levels (how loud I was compared to how loud the song was) were correct before I read the whole piece.

The video in this post if my final recording of my narration. I am rather pleased with my recording as I ensured that I pronounced each word clearly to make sure that the audience would be able to understand everything I said and therefore would understand my scene. I varied my tone throughout the narration to sound more entertaining and to put emotion into my piece.

Historical Context (13) (Restoration)

Today we did our Restoration era. Dan chose the comedy play "The Man of Mode, or, Sir Fopling Flutter" by George Etherge. He told us who he wanted to play each role and then we did a read through. Below are the roles, who played them and reasons for this:

• Harriet = Toby (a convention of restoration theatre is for men to play women. Toby is the shortest out of the boys)
• Young Bellair = Lorna (another convention is for women to play men. Harriet and Young Bellair are due to be married, so having both of these characters being shorter shows that they are younger than the other characters)
• Dorimant = Tom (taller so shows he is wise - he has a slightly higher status. Very serious)
• Lady Woodvil = Lewis (this character is Harriet's mother. Having Lewis as this role fits the convention of men playing women. Lewis can alter his voice to sound very exaggerated and over the top)
• Busy = Ashley (this character is Lady Woodvil's butler. Ashley suited the role)

Dan wanted us all to act quite melodramatic (to fit the Restoration theatre conventions) but when our characters don't understand something so the other character rephrases their sentence Dan wanted us to drop the melodramatic approach and be very natural (for example, Toby's line "She'll think I'm being a bitch, you won't even get blamed"). My character, Young Bellair, seemed to be fairly fed up with their life at the moment - judging from this scene alone, as I do not know the play and wasn't able to research it as we filmed the scene in this lesson - as they do not seem to want to marry the partner their father has intended for him (or at least this is how I interpreted it).If we were to do this scene again and if we had more time, we could have learned our lines so we didn't have scripts in our hands which restrict our movement. We could also have included costumes to show the era of the piece better. By having the traditional costumes would also form a large contrast to when our characters are more naturalistic at times (for example when  Toby explains what he means to my character, and also my walk off at the end).