Devising (25) - Performance Evaluation

What went well:

• The lighting looked effective - we had different lighting for each story (I had yellow lighting for mine to create an old-fashioned atmosphere).
• The sound cues were all correct and worked well. 
• Our transitions were smooth as we had pre-set all of our props carefully and agreed who would move what.
• Our timing with our movement pieces were good.
• I changed my shoelace section on the floor to make it clearer.
• Our dialogue was all naturalistic. 
• Our characterisation for our own scenes were good, on the whole. 
• Our volume / projection was better.
• I think our spacing was fairly good on the whole - we used the entire space and had good proxemics throughout.

What could have gone better: 

• We could have had a clearer cut off with dialogue at the end of Lewis' scene as there was quite a long pause afterwards. To solve this we could have decided on a clear ending line. However, this wasn't too much of an issue as we all just froze.
• We had an issue with the tables coming on for Ollie's scene. Firstly the table leg got caught in the table - although the start of this section wasn't delayed at all, this could have been avoided by taping the bottom of the curtains down or tucking them right out of the way. Then, the table got wedged by the other table. This never happened before and nothing could have been done to prevent this, however, I felt we dealt with it as smoothly as we could.
• There was a slight issue with the movement in Ollie's scene at the train station - what was supposed to be regimented and organised movement was a bit messy! To prevent this, we should have gone over it a few times before the performance, as this was the part we had done the least. However, it wasn't too much of an issue as it showed how chaotic everything was due to this supernatural occurrence.

Devising (24) - Performance Evaluation

What went well:

• The books and transitions worked well
• The movement worked well in the majority of Rob's scene
• Rob's narration was effective
• The dialogue in my scene was naturalistic
• The right emotion was portrayed in my scene
• The timing worked well for my scene
• The movement in Lewis' scene was effective
• The conversation in Lewis' scene had all the interruptions we needed
• The narration for the motifs worked well

What could have been better:

• Rob's narration could have been louder
• There was an issue with timing during Rob's scene with the movement
• The letter passing in my scene was a little bit messy
• We didn't have as much as time as desired so Rob couldn't learn the piano part for my scene, but this worked okay in the end, as he brought on the telegram - meaning we didn't have to worry about differentiate Ollie as Harry and the postman.
• Ollie's scene could have done with some lighting for when he falls backwards.
• The bags were the wrong way round for mine and Lewis' scene - Lew should have had the white bag for mine, and Rob should have had the black bag for Lewis'.

What we shall ensure for the performance: 

• All music is on a laptop so there are no interruptions or skipping on to the next track
• All props will be carefully pre-set
• We shall all speak louder

Devising (24) - Ollie's scene

Today we worked on Ollie's scene and making it into a whole scene, rather than four motifs. Due to a lack of time, we wanted to keep as much as we could of our motifs - however, we didn't want to end up trying to link something to a stimulus, rather than come up with something from the stimulus. We wanted to have something that linked to the idea of ghosts, as so far we've linked more to the idea of being haunted and stories. We wanted to include three of our four motifs - we decided to scrap our colour motif, as we thought this was weak and didn't aid our story in any way. We kept the other three, but needed a story for these and an event to happen before them to lead into them.

We thought that Ollie's character could become possessed, and thus go through the 'rigorous tests' (i.e. our motifs). We needed to come up with a public place for this incident to happen in, where we could all be involved. The three places / situations we came up with were a theatre tour, a train station and a shopping centre. We disregarded the shopping centre idea as we felt this was too similar to the shop setting in the first third of Rob's scene - we wanted there to be as little links as possible between our four scenes, as they are supposed to be four separate stories (hence our four books at the front of our stage space). We then decided against the theatre idea as we didn't like the idea of having a guided tour, as this had the potential to be very cheesy. Therefore we went with our train station idea. We took inspiration from seeing "People, Places and Things" last year, in how they played their message at the beginning, and then played it again but distorted. We liked this as it was disorientating and unusual. Therefore, we decided we could have the typical notice "please mind the gap between the train and the platform" played a couple of times and getting more distorted on each.

We workshopped some movements for the beginning of this scene. We all come on at different times very naturalistically, but then after the sound effects, we become more abstract. We eventually settled on the four of us doing similar movements, very regimented and orderly - as if we were all under a spell or trance. The three of us would manage to snap out of it eventually, but Ollie would be possessed and not snap out of it. He falls backwards, and is caught by Lewis, after stumbling a bit. We initially thought that someone could have fallen on the tracks and died, and their ghost possessed Ollie. We then realised that this would be hard to show, so decided that the place is just haunted. We didn't want to focus too much on the logistics of it, and instead just wanted to present the idea of being possessed.

However, to make our motifs and the change between each clear, we added some narration. Lewis narrated the first, Rob the second, and me the third. Lewis and Rob's narration started with the same line. They both stated what test number it was, before explaining what the test entailed and the purpose for it. However, my narration was different due to it being the final motif: "Emergency operation. Due to a near fatal incident in Test 72, patient has been rushed to emergency wing. Surgery began 11:15. Patient deceased 11:17."

Next lesson, we shall run our entire piece with all of our props.

Devising (23) - Full run

In this lesson we ran the whole of our piece and timed it. Below is the outline of what out piece looked like and how each scene went:

• M - Ollie walking, followed by Lewis:   Looked effective. Though can't flash the lights as frequently throughout the piece - as not allowed to have flashing lights for more than ten seconds for health and safety reasons.
• S - Rob's scene:   Rob had great eye contact for the first section. However, Rob needs to keep his feet flat on the floor at the beginning as to not distract the audience, as they are able to see his feet. He also needs to be a little bit louder in places and keep talking to the audience - as to not lose their attention. We remembered all of the movement and it all went smoothly.
• M - Ollie puppetry:   Movement needs going over and polishing.
• S - Lewis' scene:   Dialogue section was a lot better. Need to do the naturalistic section with the music Rob has sorted with the recorded questions on it.
• M - Changing colours:   Need to sort the projection.
• S - Lorna's scene:   Passing letters needs work to make it fluid. Dialogue needs a bit of work (though this was expected as it was improvised) to make sure it fits with our 1940s setting - i.e. we can't say "yep" or modern colloquial language! We need to make it clear that we aren't in the modern day - we shall do this by using an air raid siren at the beginning and by having the radio prop. We also need to practice this scene with all of our props in place - i.e. the photo frames. Also, our scene was a little bit unclear as it is in a different order, so we have decided that we shall put this scene into chronological order so it is definitely clear.
• M - Hospital:   We need to have a longer bed for Ollie.

Our piece ran today at about 17 minutes. We were fairly happy with this time as we didn't run our naturalistic section of Lew's scene. One concern we have with our piece is the motifs - it dawned on us that these might not be clear to the audience. Our first decision was to somehow put these together to form one scene, rather than four motifs, so our piece as a whole flows better. We then thought about these mental health motifs and questioned how they linked to the stimulus. I then thought of old-fashioned treatments and wondered if the idea of ghosts could be implemented somehow. Then Ollie came up with the idea of being a ghost of yourself - something that has changed you so much that you aren't recognisable as you. We liked this idea and agreed to think about it leading up to next lesson to bring some ideas to try out on Thursday.

However, when reflecting on our entire piece, and asking for feedback from the other group who watched our run, it dawned on us that it is not clear when one story ends and another begins - the audience may think it is just another scene. We then discussed how we could do this. We thought about using blackouts, but thought this could still look like just another scene. We then considered having a flip chart at the side with writing on, but thought that we could be more cunning with it. The idea of a flip chart made Ollie think of having a giant story book at the side, which then made me think of having four books (a book each). These four books could be lined up along the front of the stage - before that scene starts, the main person of said scene would pick open the book and leave it on the floor open, and then walk back to the book after the scene to close it (whilst the next person opens their book). This will hopefully make it clear that each person has a different story (as well as this linking directly to our stimulus "ghost stories"). Whilst the main person is opening their book, the other three could set any props needed for the following scene, to make our transitions as smooth as possible.

Devising (22) - My scene

Today we managed to complete my scene. My scene is made up of four mini scenes. We didn't want the piece to be chronological (inspired by Pinter's "Betrayal") and we wanted to combine naturalistic and abstract moments.

1) Harry visits:   This is the one scene out of our entire devised piece that almost contains a literal ghost. In our first scene, that we created last lesson, Lewis is on stage during our naturalistic dialogue, but is unnoticed by me, but noticed by Ollie - this turns on the stereotype of a loved one haunting their partner, in this instance, Harry is being haunted by Lewis. Lewis on stage during this scene, serves two purposes: 1) showing the audience that Harry has stolen the letters to Stella from Charles, before Stella knew of them; and 2) shows Harry as being haunted by Charles because Charles is angry with him, and perhaps Harry feels guilty.

2) Charles leaving:   For this scene, we wanted a completely naturalistic scene (as we have been abstract in some form with everything else so far), to show that Stella's life has been normal to this point. This scene shows the moment that Charles leaves for war. Lewis and I agreed roughly what we wanted to say in this scene and then decided to improvise the rest of it - this is to make our scene as naturalistic as we possibly good.

3) Telegram arrives:   We decided that we would have a split screen for this scene. On one side, Lewis is lying flat on the floor, with his legs together and hands on his belly, to present him as being in a coffin. Meanwhile, I am sitting at my table, drinking when Ollie (with a hat on, so he is not being Harry) walks to centre stage with a yellow piece of paper - a telegram. I take it and sit down at my table and look at it (whilst Ollie has walked off); overcome with emotion, I slam it down and walk to stage left - swapping places with Lewis. Now on the other side of the split, I kneel down (right next to where Lewis was) and pray - this is to present me at his grave side. Meanwhile, Lewis is now ghost-like in my house, and takes off the telegram and photo frame. We decided, whilst doing this scene, that from the start of this scene, there would be a photo frame, with a picture of Stella and Charles in it. When Lewis takes off the telegram, we thought that he could take off this photo frame to show that he is no longer in Stella's life. We didn't want any dialogue in this scene as we wanted to just have the piano playing - we didn't feel dialogue was necessary as it could all be done with our movements. We thought dialogue would take away from the emotion of this scene.

4) Harry and the letters:   At the beginning of this scene, I would stand up a photo frame with a picture of Stella and Harry in to show that they are now married. This scene is set forty years after the war. This scene begins with Harry walking in with the post and joining Stella at the table for breakfast. He is awkward and Stella questions why. Harry leaves briefly to return with the letters from Charles that he had stolen. Yet again, we wanted our dialogue to be very naturalistic, so we decided to improvise it again - this actually worked surprisingly well and we were happy with what we had created. The scene ends with me looking at the letters and slamming the photo frame (containing the picture of Stella and Harry) face down on the table, to show that Harry means nothing to me anymore.

What is left...   We have now created all of our material for our devised piece. We now need to polish everything, work on our transitions and time our piece.

Devising (21) - My scene

Music:   The first decision we made this lesson was to have Rob speak the opening stage direction before playing the piano. We thought that Rob could have just written this stage direction and is now playing music to go with it - as if he is a composer for plays. This fits with our abstract style throughout our entire devised piece. We thought it was quite Brechtian for Rob to do this, before launching in to an abstract scene with naturalistic dialogue. Our devised piece as a whole is quite strange in the fact that our scenes are either completely abstract, or have abstract movements with naturalistic dialogue. We also decided against our idea of me pausing and playing the music by using the radio prop, as if the timing is wrong it would look dodgy and it wouldn't look realistic as we would need sound effects for the buzzing sound they make when you tune them - therefore, we shall just keep it on the table as part of the set, to help the audience understand our time setting of this scene.

Dialogue & Letters:   We are satisfied with our dialogue for this section as we have made it very naturalistic. The relationship between Harry (Ollie's character) and Stella (my character) is made clear through the dialogue. After Stella states that Charles hasn't written, Harry doesn't say anything and instead puts out his arms to let her fall in to them - we thought this was effective as it could suggest that Harry feels guilty but it could also show that he is devious. Meanwhile, Stella is just relieved to have someone there, but seems quite pleased that it is Harry - it is the first and only male attention she has had since her husband has left. We therefore thought that there could be a short section of intimacy, in which, Lewis could take the letters that he's been writing and place them on Ollie's person, as if he's trying to give them to me but Ollie keeps getting in the way. We then thought that we don't really need to have the intimacy section and instead Lewis could be placing the letter on Ollie during the dialogue section. We don't want to spoon-feed the audience what is happening, as it were, and instead let them work it out for themselves. By having Ollie receive the letters from Lewis during the dialogue, there is no need for the split screen, which we like as we didn't feel it was necessary as everything is implied during the dialogue (it also means that we can use a split screen elsewhere in this scene if we choose too. The letter passing is clever here as Lewis moves slowly (almost ghost-like) and tries to give the letters to me but Ollie manages to get them. I act as if I don't see the letters as it then shows that Ollie in fact stole the letters without me knowing even of their existence. For example, one point Lewis goes to pass the letter into my hands, but Ollie has gone to place his hand on my arm to show support, but takes the letter while taking his arm back.

Devising (20) - Mine & Rob's scene

Today we spent the first section of this lesson working on my scene. We kept the movement we came up with last lesson as a starting point for this lesson. We thought about who Ollie is - we knew that Lewis was my husband that dies, and Ollie is the new lover, but we weren't sure about the whole telegram thing. We then came up with the idea that he could have been an old friend who I have history with and later end up marrying. We questioned whether these letters would have been stolen or just not delivered. We thought that Ollie could have stolen the letters and only given her the one about his death. We shall come back to the letters later on to decide for definite what we want to do about them. However, we did decide that we would like our piece to be non-linear. We also wanted a straight drama scene.

We thought that we could set up a living room with a table and a couple of chairs. We looked what we had in the cupboard and happened to have a war-time radio prop! We put this on the table and thought that I could pretend to put it on and Rob starts playing the piano for our physical theatre sections, but I turn it off before a straight acting scene. We began trying to write a script. We said that for this scene, I could be alone drinking, when I get a knock at the door - this would be Ollie visiting. I could tell him that Lewis hasn't written (but Ollie knows he has as he has stolen the letter) - meanwhile we could have a split stage where Lewis is in the corner with a spot on him writing letters. Also to show that our piece is set in the war-time, we thought we could start with an air-raid siren. We also didn't want our piece to be linear, so we shall create a variety of short scenes.

Forum Theatre:   We then met with the other group to do some forum theatre. As we haven't created much of my scene, we decided that we would show them the opening of Rob's scene. The first question they raised was who was Rob talking to - the audience or himself? He tried it both ways, but it actually worked really well with him saying it all using strong eye contact with the audience. He said the first line quite conversational but did the whole thing staring at the audience. Another point raised was that people were unsure at the start of the shop scene who was playing Rob. Therefore, at the beginning of this scene, Ollie picks up Rob's book from the table and carries it under his arm as a folder. Lewis shall also do this in the cashpoint scene.  

Devising (19) - My scene

In this lesson, we worked on my scene. The beginning of our lesson was very discussion based. We were firstly concerned that using a section of a script for a scene may be taking the easy way out, as it were - also when looking for sections of script (as we agreed that we could be clever with it, like how we were originally planning to do Rob's scene with the monologue from "Eight"), we found only section of the "Kindertransport" script. Moreover, we felt that by doing this script, we were heading further away from our stimulus of "ghost stories" and more towards "humanity in crisis" - although we looked at how you can be haunted by things for the other scenes, we felt that we could do something that linked even closer to the idea of ghosts (rather than stories) for our last scene.

Instead of doing a piece inspired by "Kindertransport", we took the idea of war and losing family members. Although we were worried about being cliché by using the idea of ghosts, we felt that this scene would be the ideal opportunity for this. We decided that my character would be an old lady who lived through the war but she lost her husband to it. At first we thought that she could be haunted by things she hadn't done in her past - but realised that this would be drifting away from our stimulus again. An earlier thought was that she could be married to someone she doesn't particularly want to be with, because society wouldn't let her marry the man she wanted to because he was above her - however, we decided against this as it was going away from our stimulus again.

We decided that my character would be an elderly lady who lost her first husband to the war, re-married, but is haunted by him and his love - she is unhappy and thinks about him so much, that he is practically with her all the time (bit like a child and an imaginary friend). We wanted to use music for this piece, but also wanted a lot of it set in the 40's. Therefore, we didn't want to use music from a phone, so instead Rob shall play piano for us for this scene - we thought that this would be in fitting with our time period and could also work as my character being haunted by what she hears. We thought that this would be acceptable for Rob to play piano during this scene, as he had a lot of dialogue for his scene and also has a lot to do in Lewis' scene and two of the motifs too.

As a group, we really struggle with creating strong dialogue. Therefore, we decided that we would work on the physical aspect of this scene to create our story, and then add dialogue to it later. We thought about having dates read out at random points and narration, but realised that Rob's scene was all narration, so we would just work on creating quality dialogue later.

However, we got quite a long way with this scene today. We didn't want it to be completely linear, so we began with me walking forwards (as an elderly lady) with Lew and Ollie already standing at the front. As soon, as I get there, they then turned around and left to opposite sides of the stage. Originally we did a section where I would bend down and place a lily on the floor, as if at my husband's grave and Lewis would put his hand on my shoulder and I would shut my eyes and go to reach his hand with mine, but by the time I get there, he would have moved - I thought we could then have him touch me on the shoulder before leaving to go to war later on in the piece. We liked this idea, but shall include it later. We thought that we should establish the relationship first. So as I arrived and the boys left, I then did a slow turn, but on this turn, I completely altered my physicality to show that I was a lot younger. As I got to facing stage right, I would see Lewis and run up and hug him. This would show him returning from training, but he would then tell me that he was having to leave for war - it was no longer training. I would hold both of his hands and then move towards him, but he would walk past behind me - as if he had moved through me, almost ghost-like. He would then do a slow-mo section to show fighting and would stand with Ollie. Ollie and Lewis would do a turn and swap places - Ollie would then deliver me a telegram.

This was where we got up to this lesson. We might not necessarily do all of that in that order, or we may add bits in between, but we are really happy with the strong start we made on this scene today.

Devising (18) - Motifs & Research

We devoted the vast majority of this lesson to our motifs, and the remainder to a discussion about my scene.

1. Our first motif we had already devised - this was Ollie walking from one side of the room to the other, followed by Lewis who joins in a little bit later than Ollie's entrance. 
2. We had a rough idea on what we wanted for our second motif - we knew we wanted to do some sort of puppetry. We changed our chair from our first version, to me on my hands and knees to form a seat as this made our motif more abstract, as the puppetry isn't very naturalistic. Our puppetry section contains Rob controlling Ollie's arms, checking his reflects and his pulse. Every movement that Ollie does is because of Rob controlling him. However, before our blackout at the end of this motif, we wanted something that Ollie could do by himself - after some experimenting, we just wanted Ollie to clench his hand into a fist - this is because it is small enough that it isn't too cliché and over-the-top, but it is enough for the audience to notice.
3. Our third motif is practically the same as the one we had previously created - however we have developed it slightly. Instead of Ollie just listing simple colours to me, he shall get brighter as it continues - i.e. he will start with colours such as "blue" and "yellow", and will eventually lead to "burgundy" and "magnolia". At the end of this motif, there will be a flash of bright light and Ollie will look directly at me.
4. We have completely changed the final motif. Initially, we were planning on Ollie doing a variety of head movements. We took inspiration from our physical theatre hospital scene in "Dr Faustus" - we aren't doing our version to music though and aren't making it seem such a chaos. Instead, Ollie lies on a table, and we all have three movements that we shall repeat (I mime putting a mask on his face, giving him an injection, and taking his temperature). After this, Rob mimes using a defibrillator - on each touch Ollie lifts his chest up. This happens four times, but then Ollie doesn't move on the next few. Therefore, Rob, Lewis and I walk away, but as we walk off Ollie starts doing the same chest movements again. On his last one, his head falls to the side to face the audience.

Having decided against the abortion and the domestic violence ideas, the only other idea we had before this lesson was body image expectations... however, we were unsure on this idea as we thought it might be too similar to the idea of media. We therefore came up with three new ideas: religion, adultery and World War Two - the ideas seem random and completely different, but we wanted something quite unexpected but something that haunts you. We also want this scene to contain quite a lot of dialogue as our other scenes are heavily movement based. We therefore thought that we could do a section of a play from one of these topics. We were all interested in the war, so we ended up coming across the play "Kindertransport".

"Kindertransport":

• "Kindertransport" is a play by Diane Samuels.
• Kindertransport was "an organised rescue effort that took place during the nine months prior to the outbreak of the Second World War" - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kindertransport.
• Play's setting: November 1938.
• British government set us a programme to allow Jewish children safe entry to the UK. They were separated from their families, and moved to a different culture in Britain, and were spared the death camps.
• In the play, daughter of Helga and Ernest, Eva Schlesinger, is transported to Manchester and moves in with single mum Lil (until her parents have got enough money to move to England too).
• Lil and Eva fall out because Eva skips English classes to go round to posh houses to try and get her parents a job. Lil and Eva eventually make up, and Eva starts to lose her Jewish roots as she eats ham.
• When Eva is in her late teens, Helga arrives and is told by Eva that she is now adopted by Lil, English and called Evelyn. Helga is "offended and upset" she won't go to New York with her family, and tells her her dad is dead. They argue, and Helga leaves - followed by an "imaginary vicious, angry argument between Helga and Evelyn in which Evelyn gets out all of her hatred for Helga, and she proclaims that Helga IS the Ratcatcher."
• Meanwhile, in the present, "Evelyn's daughter Faith is uncovering her Mum's secret past and they have an argument, which eventually comes to rest. All of this takes place in the attic of Lil's house, which supposedly represents Evelyn's psyche."

We shall have a look at this script and see if we can do anything with it for my scene.

Devising (17) - Rob and Lewis scenes

In today's lesson we tidied Rob's and Lewis' scenes and then performed them to the rest of the class, whilst filming them. We only did these two scenes today, and didn't move on to my scene or the motifs, but it was a good use of time. It was the first time we had done both of the scenes with the newly cut music.

Rob's Scene:

• Track was perfect - timing was perfect and the feeling was right for them. Changes between each piece were smooth, with the fades.
• Dialogue was good and all fit well - needs to be louder though.
• Lewis was worried that we did our last part with Rob on the table in silence - but this actually worked quite well and is in the style of contemporary theatre, so we shall keep it like this. 
• We just need to do this piece with the shoe laces, then we are complete.

Lewis' Scene: 

• All got the movements and the walking correct
• Transitions were fairly smooth from one section to another
• Script needs editing to include more interruptions, fillers and back channelling to sound more natural
• New script will need learning
• Track with the questions and noise on needs to be made so we can do our naturalistic part at the beginning.

Devising (16) - Rob and Lewis scenes

In today's lesson we ran the two scenes we have so far. We thought that this would be a good use of time, as we haven't done some of the scenes for a long time. We didn't do our transitions, as we are planning on doing a lesson focussing on just these in the near future.

We began with Rob's scene, as this was the first scene we did. We had to do this scene a few times today to ensure we all remembered it, and to polish our work. Unfortunately, Lewis hasn't had the chance to sort the music for our piece as a whole yet, but he shall do this for next lesson.

We then put all of Lewis's scene, so far, together. We changed how we mimed holding a camera. We thought that miming taking pictures looked naturalistically looked a bit cliché - it looked especially weird as we were doing abstract movements with it. Therefore, we decided that we would position our hands as shown in image - this was more abstract. We edited the section of our piece inspired by our workshop, where we stood in one place but followed Lewis with our cameras - we now use our new way of presenting a camera, but we all change the angle on which we hold our cameras very slowly, to look a little bit creepy and more intimidating - changing the angle represented us zooming in and out. We also worked a lot on our walking as an ensemble section - we altered this slightly so we aren't just walking forwards. Counts one and two are steps backwards, three to seven are walks forwards, and we change direction on count eight. This made the scene look a bit more frantic and disorientating. We then tried the dialogue section - the script is a lot better, but we still need to overlap more to make it see more natural and realistic. Lewis's movements whilst this was happening was really believable.

Devising (15) - Completing the dialogue

In this lesson we almost completed our script for Lewis's scene. We still need to add in a few more interruptions to make it more natural. Lewis has decided what he shall do during this section of dialogue. He shall walk in with his suitcase, put it on the floor and slowly unpack it - folding his clothes up neatly from out of the bag.

Our piece so far:

• First motif (Mental Health) - Ollie walking in, followed by Lewis -- COMPLETE
• Rob's scene (Danny Cornelius) -- COMPLETE
• Second motif (Mental Health) - Colours changing -- COMPLETE
• My scene (Body images?) -- NOT STARTED
• Third motif (Mental Health) - Chair puppetry -- NEEDS WORK
• Lew's scene (Media) -- ALMOST COMPLETE
• Fourth motif (Mental health) - Head Movements -- NEEDS WORK

My scene:   So far with my scene we have been through a couple of ideas. We firstly tried doing a piece about abortion, but soon decided against it as it was too similar to our mock devised piece "Chasing Pavements", that three quarters of our group were in. We then explored our idea of domestic violence to see where it would take us - we liked the techniques that we tried out, but were losing inspiration. As I am the only girl in the group, we wanted to do something with this, whilst playing off the idea of being haunted. Therefore, I thought of things that trouble me personally (and other girls around my age) - one of the things that came to mind was appearance - more specifically physique. As a self-conscious girl anyway, going in to an industry where your figure is important and you are watched and judged by other people seems ridiculous! I am struggling with body confidence and dread it when I have to wear tight-fitting and revealing costumes. Moreover, thanks to the media and how body image is presented through it, many girls my age have the same worries and stress about their weight and size and general appearance. I thought that we could create a scene that presents this idea - I am aware that it is very similar to the media idea of Lewis's scene, but thought that we might be able to adapt this for my scene. 

Devising (14) - Dialogue

In this lesson we purely worked on dialogue. We discussed the idea we had previously about people having a conversation in a cafe, however, we decided against this as we felt it was drawing the idea away from the media. Although we would be presenting how the media influences other people's opinions, we felt that we could have dialogue that focussed more on the media. This brought us back to our idea of someone being on the TV that Lewis is watching. However, we then thought that this could be a bit cliché and typical. We then thought of news presenters at the beginning and end of the programme, when they are shuffling papers and talking to each other - we asked ourselves what they are talking about at this point. This question intrigued us. We then thought that we could be TV presenters having a meeting about who we were going to have in on our show. This would happen as a split screen; on the other side of the split, Lewis would be doing some movement to show that he is trying to get his life together and is working hard.

Decisions:

• To show that it is a breakfast meeting we decided that we would have someone turn up late. 
• To make the conversation more natural we would include fillers, tag questions and interruptions. In our first draf of the conversation, we didn't have any interruptions, so it didn't sound very natural.
• Use colloquial terms and more simplistic dialogue to make it seem more natural than a presentation.

We were really struggling writing the script, so we didn't write much this lesson, but we have a couple of ideas on where we want to go with it. We decided that Rob's character would be worried for Lewis' character and is basically saying what the audience are thinking, whilst Ollie and I would be symbolising what the media is really like, in how harsh it is.

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.

Devising (12) - Developing ideas

Completing Rob's Scene:   We spent the last two lessons completing Rob's scene and trying to come up with ideas. We ran all of Rob's scene with the narration and worked out how we were going to show him committing suicide. We didn't want him to stand on a table and almost act it out, as we felt this might be disrespectful but also look a bit basic. Therefore we decided to use the laces that we had been tying together throughout the entire scene. Rob shall now sit on the edge of the table and we shall use puppetry to get him to hold the laces and lay backwards over the top of the table. The fact that Lewis, Ollie and I each played the central role (of victim) in a different scene was then symbolic for our ending - the use of puppetry (with us three dictating Rob's actions) is symbolic as it represents how our past can dictate our future.

Domestic Violence Scene Discussion:   We were still struggling on this scene so we decided to leave it until later. We have got a couple of ideas in mind from previous lessons but are really not inspired from it at the moment. We did, however, come up with ideas for Lewis's scene so we decided to complete move on from this scene for now and see what happens when we return to it.

Lewis's Scene Discussion:   We initially thought that we wanted Lewis's scene to be either about losing a loved one or the influence of drugs. We weren't very inspired by the death idea (and thought it would be too typical) so we decided on the idea of drugs. To ensure we weren't steering away from our stimulus, we decided that we wanted to show more of the after-effects and how things can haunt you. This idea then lead to discussing rehabs and celebrities that have been through them. We discussed many celebrities that have been through rehab, including Russell Brand, Amy Winehouse and Macaulay Culkin. We did a bit of research into Macaulay Culkin to get an idea of what he has to deal with - we soon realised that paparazzi are everywhere and are relentless. We discussed how the paparazzi jump to conclusions, follow people's every movement and how they often bend the truth slightly or exaggerate to sell more papers. We then discussed how the paparazzi stalk people and basically haunt them - so not only are people haunted by their past but also by their present. The questions asked by reporters and paparazzi can also haunt them - especially if someone has been very sheltered in rehab and protected by the outside world; whatever the paparazzi says about current affairs will probably be the first the person has heard of it. We thought about this, and used our research into Macaulay Culkin to help come up with questions that the paparazzi would ask. We thought that we could make a sound scape of these questions, to which Lewis would walk out from behind the curtains and we would all move about him in a frantic manner. We could also use flashes of light now and again (but not a strobe as this is too patterned and organised) to represent cameras flashing whilst we move frantically during the sound scape. We recorded us saying the following questions overlapping:

• What will you do now?
• Is it true your parents won't talk to you?
• How has your use of pills impacted your career?
• How will you recover from this financially?
• How do you feel about the studio cancelling your contract?
• Did you know your girlfriend is seeing someone else?
• Do you regret that Instagram picture?
• When will you return to twitter?
• Why was your rehab extended? 

Obviously, Lewis shall not be playing Macaulay Culkin, as it were, and instead shall just be playing a character who has gone through rehab. We are not focussing on the rehab section, and instead are purely focussing on the idea of overcoming such a hard time and how that in itself haunts you, but then the added pressure of media interrogation haunts you too.

Devising (11) - Being more abstract

To begin today's lesson, we ran what we had created last lesson. We liked the beginning of our piece, but felt that the shop section and the cash point section were a bit boring and also not long enough. We felt like we were being a bit to naturalistic with it, so decided that we needed to be more abstract. 

Necklace Section:   We decided that we would adapt our shop section so it was slightly longer but more interesting to watch. We wanted to make our movements very regimented and almost robotic to make it more abstract. Therefore, I repeated the movements of miming picking up an item on my right, scanning it centre and placing it on my left. Once I had repeated these movements a few times, I mimed tearing a receipt from the machine and giving it to the customer who would then be on my left. Whilst I did this, the customer (first Lewis and then Ollie) would mime taking an item out of a basket and passing it to me. All of our movements would be very clean and identical every time we repeated them - this was to make it as abstract as we could. Our transition from our opening positions to this scene is a fluid turn and walk to the back (for Ollie and Lewis, but I walk to the chair and sit behind the table). To begin this scene, Lewis and Ollie walked forwards in a straight line. They performed some regimented movements in unison to show them taking items off of the shelf. Lewis shall then walk over to me and be the first customer, whilst Ollie continues the shelf movements. Lewis will then walk to the side, as if he has left the shop, whilst Ollie becomes the next customer before bumping into Lewis outside.

Cashpoint Section:   For this section, we kept exactly what we already had, but we made it extremely abstract. We made this section similar to our shop one by making our movements very regimented, but we weren't as rigid at all times. We turned the table up on its side, so the top of the table was facing the audience - this formed our cashpoint. Ollie hid behind the table and put his hand over the top, as if he was giving Lewis money, after Lewis tapped the table. Originally, I stood to the side and watched him - I then mimed placing a gun to his head and taking his money then leaving. However, there were two things we didn't like about this scene - the fact that our backs were completely to the audience so they wouldn't be able to see much; the fact that my part was quite naturalistic. To solve our first problem, we turned our piece 90 degrees. We didn't think it would work that the audience could see Ollie, but we tried it this way and it actually worked quite well. Lewis' movements were repeated and organised, but less rigid that the shop section, as he added in a fluid arm movement to collect money from the cashpoint. Rather than me standing and watching Lewis, we changed it so I start facing the back, do a half turn to face the front, then do a head to the left (to look at Lew) then to the front, then a knee roll to turn me to face Lewis. I then did three walks towards him, but on my fourth step I turned so we were back to back. This made our piece really abstract, as I didn't just walk in naturalistically, and we did the robbery with our backs together. I put the gun up to his head by doing a half circle with my lower arm. Lewis then passed his money to me over our shoulders.

The Beheading Section:   For our beheading scene, we turned the table (that was on its side) upside down. We wanted this scene to be completely different to our first two sections, as Danny Cornelius was a witness to this event, unlike the other two where he was the victim. Therefore, we didn't have a section of movements that we kept repeating - we created a physical theatre scene of movements that all flowed into each other. We initially thought that we could use lighting to show the beheading - but as we needed this scene to be longer (for Rob to do a good amount of meaningful narration over it and because it was the event that tipped Danny over the edge) we created a piece made up of different methods of torture, rather than just the beheading. We used the upturned table as if I were trapped. We use a bit of puppetry to show the murderers manipulation and control. We decided against using lighting at this stage, as we wanted the suicide to be the main section of this entire scene, and also we didn't want to take away from the lighting we use in our motif. Instead of the lighting, Lewis and Ollie will have some red face paint on their hands (inspired by pictures of killers whose hands were covered in blood) that they will smear across my neck. Therefore we shall make this entire the scene the last scene in our piece, and only Rob and Ollie shall be in the final motif. So we could use more space and wasn't restricted by the table, at one point I break out of the table. We involved some floor work and moments of slightly more abstract stage combat. We vary our levels to show the victims struggle with survival, but end on the floor to show the inevitable death. 


Next Lesson:   Hopefully by next lesson, Rob should have finished writing all of his narration (but if not we shall help him). We shall film this scene in its entirety and hopefully continue with our domestic violence scene.

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.

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.

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