Directing (12) - Scenes 8, 9 and 2

Scene 8:   We went over the beginning that we did last lesson and the first two pages and then continued through the rest of it. We worked on our movement - we didn't want it to be too static during this scene, so Lewis is quite fluid and calm with his movements to show how relaxed he is. Contrastingly, I am a little bit rigid with my movements to show that I am uncomfortable, as this is the scene when I tell Jerry that I am pregnant. We also looked at how Lewis would say the line "I'm very happy for you" - we didn't want him to sound disappointed, but we wanted the audience to almost feel sorry for him.

Scene 9:   We had spent a lot of time on this scene previously, so we were already confident on a lot of it, but we worked on the ending today. We decided that I wouldn't sit down at all during this scene as my character feels really awkward. At the end when Lewis is sitting on the bed and I have walked over to him, he shall hold my hand in both of his, and then he would stand up before we hug. We worked on the moment when Ollie walked in so it looked convincing.

Scene 2:   I directed the boys on their character's intentions and the meanings of certain lines. They have done this scene before but we spoke about certain lines and movement. Robert says to Jerry that they "never played squash though" - we discussed what he could mean by this (assuming that there is definitely a meaning to this as otherwise it is a bit random and strange that it is brought up a lot throughout the play). We wondered is it anything to do with the fact that squash is quite a violent sport - the fact that Robert has always been calm with Jerry but has wanted to arrange a game of squash, also ironic that he now speaks of playing squash with Casey. We then thought that it could be something to do with playing games, but couldn't think of how this would link in. We then realised that it could mean because Jerry has been meeting with Emma so often, he doesn't have time to play squash with Robert - this would make sense why Robert says that he can't play squash with Casey. We then looked at how Robert winds up Jerry - we found that the two main points Robert says to get a reaction from Jerry are that he says how he hits Emma and when he speaks about Casey. I said that I didn't want Lewis to get up when he is told about Robert hitting Emma, as I want the audience to feel the tension between them, rather than see it - the audience would want Jerry to hit Robert at this point, but the fact that he doesn't makes the situation more powerful and hard-hitting.

Workshop (21) - By The Sea

The screenshot on the left shows how we workshopped the "swimming" section. This happens at the beginning of the song. For the next section that says "we'll have chums over ev'ry Friday", Lewis and Ollie put the sheet on a table (that would be on the floor for Lovett's shop) and then they and Rob and James would sit down at the table. Whilst I mime bringing over some pies.

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.

Directing (11) - Scenes 5, 6, 7 and 8

Scene 5:   Hotel room. Venice. 1973. Summer. Emma & Robert.

• We did the majority of this scene last lesson, but we finished it today. The first bit that Lewis directed us on today was the following section: "can you remember?" "No." "You can't?" "No." "How odd." Lewis wants Ollie and I to do this section really quickly, to portray Robert as almost interrogating her. This makes Emma feel more uncomfortable and thus prompts her to own up about the affair. 
• We all agreed that we want Robert to be quite eerily calm throughout this, but there are a few moments where we see him struggle - the mention of the flat, that it was five years and the realisation the Ned might not have been his son. If Robert shouted at all during this scene the audience would probably dislike him further. The audience do feel sorry for Emma in this scene, due to the awkward situation and the intimidating Robert, but we want them to then question themselves on their feelings towards the characters, as they remind themselves that Emma has in fact cheated on her husband for five years. 
• Lewis also directed me to have more movement in the scene - we agreed that Robert shouldn't move for the majority of this scene, as he is being quite controlled (though he does move for the bits that hurt / surprise him - the three sections mentioned earlier), but I move near and at the end of the scene. Throughout the scene I have been sitting on the bed, with my knees gradually getting closer to me as I get tenser, but by the time I tell him how long the affair has been going on for, my back is to Robert as I am sitting on the edge of the bed. At the end of the scene when Robert says "are you looking forward to our trip to Torcello?" Lewis directed me to stand up and walk to the side as I am overcome with emotion that I can't sit down for any longer.

Scene 6:   Flat. 1973. Summer. Emma & Jerry.

• Discussed set. Agreed that for the flat there shall be a table and two chairs stage left, a sofa slightly off-centre, and a table stage right. 
• Lewis and I had done this scene before, but Ollie re-directed the part where I say "do you think we'll ever got to Venice together? No. Probably. Not." As I am about to put the table cloth on, Lewis takes the dirty glasses off the table and into the kitchen. It is here that I ask my question, but I don't realise he has gone because my back is to the kitchen door - when I get no response I realise that he has gone and answer it myself before his return.

Scene 7:   Restaurant. 1973. Summer. Robert, Jerry & Waiter.

• We have done this scene a lot so there was no real direction needed for this lesson, as we had covered all the main points before - such as the intention with the lines.

Scene 8:   Flat. 1971. Summer. Jerry & Emma.

• We didn't complete this scene today as we were focusing on the beginning, and making that seem natural. Ollie has directed Lewis to enter with a briefcase and newspaper, saying "hullo" as he throws his newspaper on the sofa and puts his bag down.

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.

Workshop (20) - A Little Priest & Johanna

Johanna:   Whilst Dan, Rob and I were working on "A Little Priest", Tom, Ollie and Lewis worked on "Johanna". They worked on their staging and attempted it in a couple of ways before coming up with their final way, the version they filmed. They worked on their characterisation to make Beadle come across as really creepy and to make the audience feel sorry for Anthony.

A Little Priest:   

• Dance section:   We experimented on what we could do in a dance break. We tried doing a Waltz, but Rob isn't exactly a dancer! We then tried to do more of a slow dance, but this didn't really work well with the song, as it was too romantic, when they are supposed to be having a laugh and being excited. We therefore tried holding hands and doing a little swing from side to side while singing to each other - we thought that this worked better than the slow dance as it fit with the piece, looked good and conveyed the right sort of feeling. However, we do have a couple of dance breaks - we didn't want each dance break to be the same, so we decided that on one of them we would Waltz, as when it is done right it would work really well for this song - this means we have a lot of practice to do!
• The Ending:   Originally, we had the ending where we would do the kicks with Dan and then we would drop him and walk forwards and sing out. However, we wanted to do something that would should how sadistic our character are - we tried having us sing to each other and then out to the audience, ending with us putting a foot each on the dead Dan - however, we thought we could be more cynical. We finally decided on us dropping him, me walking over to the counter and picking up a butcher's knife - I would then hold it in the air over Dan and Todd and I would smile at each other. We would then end on a black out here.

Directing (10) - Scenes 3, 4 and 5

Scene Three:   Flat. 1975. Winter. Emma & Jerry. End of their affair.

• Ollie wants the audience to feel sympathy for Jerry, so Lewis was directed to say his "in the summer, wasn't it?" more innocently, and if he is worried that I will snap back at him (which I do).
• Following the idea above, Ollie directed Lewis to go to put his hand on my shoulder on the line "I know it seems-" as if he is trying to calm me down and be caring, but I lean away from him when I cut him off and put him in his place. The tension is then clearly visible. 
• On my long line beginning "you see, in the past...", I was directed to turn to face Lewis and take his hand whilst speaking to him. This shows a change in my character's feelings to take the audience on more of a journey, and to present that she doesn't really know what she wants - she is perhaps reluctant to end the affair.
• "It was never intended to be the same kind of home. Was it?" - I had previously said this line in a bit of a bitter way, as if I was going to say that it was a flat "for fucking". However, Ollie re-directed me to say it as if this was the first I knew of him not wanting it to have been a sort of home - I therefore said this line quite upset, which worked well for my line that then followed. However on my second sentence, I altered my tone to show that I am thinking and 'realised' what his intention for the flat was.

Scene Four:   E & R's house. 1974. Autumn. All three. Tense scene in living room.

• We had done this scene quite a few times together so we all knew the intentions and objectives for each character, however, we changed the staging slightly. Instead of me being forced to sit next to Robert on the sofa, I now perch on the arm of the sofa furthest away from him. This shows how uncomfortable Emma is in this scenario, but is also symbolic of her danger.
• We discussed how horrible Robert is to Emma in this scene, especially after their conversation in the next scene - where he says to Emma "you should have lunch with us one day and chat about it," whilst in this scene, he says hoe "you don't actually want a woman within a mile of the place, any of the places really".

Scene Five:   Hotel room. Venice. 1973. Summer. Emma & Robert. Affair discovered by Robert.

• We added a little bit more movement into this scene. This is the same as the last scene, in the fact that we have both done this scene before and are aware of our intentions, objectives and subtext, but we could add more movement in. Lewis directed Ollie to get up at one point and read over my shoulder, as this instantly makes people feel uncomfortable. 
• We didn't finish this scene today, but shall continue with it next lesson.