Page 28: We were intending on running the whole of what we did last lesson, but we were unable to as Dan wasn't in. However, we did do James' song and did the short section of dialogue on the page before. The dialogue is between Todd and Lovett, as they walk in to the marketplace to find Pirelli. Lovett spots Beadle and panics, but Todd reassures her (very definitely) that it'll be fine. We decided that we would enter from the hall door (stage right) and walk to the centre. Beadle would be positioned on the floor by front row of the audience (stage left) and I would spot him as we get to the centre. At this moment, I would then walk Sweeney up the aisle slightly, so he couldn't be seen by Beadle. As the music starts to the song, we walk up the isle so we are out of the way. However, as the song progresses, we walk down the aisle to investigate the elixir.
Pages 70 - 77: This section involves Lovett finding out Todd has killed Pirelli, her looking after Tobias, and Turpin going to Todd for a shave. Initially, I said my first couple of lines to James in a way that the audience knew that I was anxious of the noises upstairs, but Toby wasn't aware of what was happening, and was quite satisfied sitting there waiting for Pirelli to return. However, I don't think it should be performed like this as my next couple of lines to Todd are completely calm and innocent (talking about my knees and asking when Pirelli will be back). Therefore, I think I should perform my dialogue with James as if I had spent a long time with him in the room, waiting for Todd to come down with Pirelli, so wondering what they are doing. This then also works with my dialogue with Todd. The first way we tried Rob's line of "he won't be back" was by him turning slowly to me (as I'm sitting down) and saying it in a low tone. This worked well as it was quite sinister. However, we tried it again, but this time with him not turning at all, and instead saying his line whilst cleaning his razor whilst looking out to the front. The fact that Rob didn't move at all during this line made it more sinister, and scene tenser. The next lines we workshopped a bit were my lines "Oh well, that's a different matter! What a relief, dear! For a moment I thought you'd lost your marbles". Initially I said this line as if I was completely relieved in his response, and I understand his reasoning. However, Ollie thought I should try it again, but as if I didn't agree with Todd's actions but didn't want to upset him, so instead pretended that I understood his reasoning. I personally preferred my first attempt, as I believe that this wouldn't really phase Mrs Lovett, as she is the one that comes up with the idea of putting people into pies in the end. I therefore think I should perform it how I did the first time. However, on my line "Him, too! Now surely one's enough for today, dear", I spoke with concern and slight fear in my voice, as I think Toby is easy to deal with, isn't that much of a threat, is sweet and can come in useful. On my line to Toby after this scene, I performed it as being overly nice to Toby so he didn't suspect anything and because I felt bad for him, but as simultaneously anxious about what is going to happen. Lewis and Rob worked on their song "pretty women".
Paged 124 - 130: This scene is between Lovett and Toby. This section is mainly made up of the song "nothing's gonna harm you", with the rest of the scene made up of Toby being certain that Todd is responsible for Pirelli's disappearance, Lovett persuading Toby not to say anything about this, and Lovett taking Toby down the bake house and locking him in there. We only ran through the entirety of the scene and song once on our own once, but workshopped just the beginning section of dialogue and the song with the rest of the class. The first time we ran this scene, we paid attention to the stage directions and so set it in the living room, with my knitting a muffler. Therefore, the scene was quite static. We decided that we would try the first section of the scene again and the song in a different location. We decided that it seemed random for Lovett to have been knitting, so we changed the setting to the pie shop, and Lovett would be cleaning up. We changed the dialogue that said about her knitting a muffler for Toby to her saving a pie for him. During the song as he sings to me, I would be moving about, clearing up the shop. My character doesn't really want him to be singing all of this to me as I don't want him to know about Sweeney. I think that Lovett does really care for Toby and is flattered by all Toby says. However, she knows that he knows too much and so lures him into the bake house and locks him then. She really doesn't want to do this, as she now sees him as kind of her own, but knows she must to protect Sweeney. Although we didn't manage to do the rest of our scene, we are happy with how we stages the pie shop section.
Saturday, 4 February 2017
Thursday, 2 February 2017
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.
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.
Directing (4) - Scene Four & Five
As Ollie missed a couple of lessons, due to his auditions, we decided we would do scenes that had him in the most.
SCENE FIVE: We decided to do Scene Five as it is extremely significant in the play - as this is the scene where Robert suspects that his wife is having an affair and Emma admits it. Lewis set the scene so I sat on the bed reading, whilst Ollie sat on a chair with a coffee table next to it. We tried the scene out in a couple of ways. Below is how we approached our two different versions.
First attempt:
SCENE FOUR: We decided to do Scene Four straight after doing Scene Five, as this is the next scene in date order that the three characters are together. Although there are two scenes between these two events, we decided to skip them for today as Robert and Emma aren't in them together - also lies are told in both scenes to Jerry (Emma says she didn't go to Torcello as the speedboats weren't working, whilst Robert tells Jerry that he went by speedboat but he didn't mention the argument). Below is how we went about this scene:
SCENE FIVE: We decided to do Scene Five as it is extremely significant in the play - as this is the scene where Robert suspects that his wife is having an affair and Emma admits it. Lewis set the scene so I sat on the bed reading, whilst Ollie sat on a chair with a coffee table next to it. We tried the scene out in a couple of ways. Below is how we approached our two different versions.
First attempt:
- Tense and angry...
- We made the first section of the script, up until the silence before "By the way, I went into American Express..." really relaxed and chilled to create a large contrast to when the affair is revealed and spoken about.
- During the silence mentioned in the part above, we got Robert to debate how he was going to begin his story to Emma. He says it in such a way that Emma isn't suspicious (and is quite happily reading whilst listening to him), but the audience suspects that he knows something.
- Emma would get noticeably tense at the first mention of the letter.
- Breaks the silence after Emma saying there wasn't any news by asking is she was looking forward to Torcello. Ollie did this in quite a bitter way - as if Robert was reminding her of how perfect her life was with him, so why would she want to swap it and get with Jerry.
- Ollie played him as quite sarcastic on the line "You're trembling. Are you cold?" as if he knows that she is panicking.
- Ollie would get progressively louder and slightly angrier throughout. However, he would be almost proud of himself and smiling on the line "Ah yes. I thought it might be something like that..." - as if he was proud he had got it right, but also trying to make Emma feel more uncomfortable.
- He would get really angry towards the end of the scene, and then be very bitter on the final line of the scene to make Emma feel terrible.
- Robert eerily calm...
- Robert very nonchalant with the line "By the way, I went into American Express". Similar to the first attempt, but in a way that Emma doesn't suspect anything from it. Very nonchalant throughout the scene really.
- Robert almost quite caring on the line "You're trembling. Are you cold?" as if to say that he has noticed she is uneasy and is questioning why - although her physical movement has practically confirmed his suspicions.
- When Robert repeats "five years", he whispered it as if he couldn't quite believe it was this long so had to repeat it. The fact that Robert had been speaking at a fairly normal volume throughout, but then whispered this line, makes the audience feel a bit sorry for Robert, but simultaneously quite frightened for Emma (has Robert had been so calm, so this sudden change comes as a bit of a shock).
- He got slightly angry (though with an element of panic) on the lines "Ned is one year old. Did you hear what I said?". However, after being told that Ned is his child, he becomes more nonchalant again. This unsettles Emma and the audience slightly at how he is being so calm again.
- On the final line he is extremely calm and speaks as if nothing has happened, whilst Emma is almost in tears and very on-edge. This juxtaposition creates a high degree of tension.
SCENE FOUR: We decided to do Scene Four straight after doing Scene Five, as this is the next scene in date order that the three characters are together. Although there are two scenes between these two events, we decided to skip them for today as Robert and Emma aren't in them together - also lies are told in both scenes to Jerry (Emma says she didn't go to Torcello as the speedboats weren't working, whilst Robert tells Jerry that he went by speedboat but he didn't mention the argument). Below is how we went about this scene:
- Basic set for now (might change but this is what we did today): two chairs to form a sofa, one slightly away as a separate chair. Jerry on chair, Robert further end of the sofa. As I enter, Robert moves to the other end of the sofa so he is closer to Jerry, forcing me to sit on the further end of the sofa. This shows Robert as putting Emma in her place.
- Play on the constant use of adjacency pairs. Jerry starts the adjacency pairs, but then Robert takes over and it switches. There is a constant shift, kind of like them fighting for dominance - they both want to be in control. However, Robert breaks the adjacency pairs the most and uses face threatening acts, such as "I am prepared to do so" and "I was asking you a question", showing him as the more assertive and authoritative out of the pair.
- Emma anxious as Robert is watching her every move and everything she says. She repeats "I've told you actually". She uses this face threatening act twice, making things awkward and distance between her and Jerry - although she does this reluctantly. The scene prior to this shows Jerry and Emma a year later in the flat, where they have agreed that they will sell the flat and call off the affair. I believe Emma doesn't really want to do this but sees she has no choice - I also think that she regrets this, so goes with Casey on the rebound and meets up with Jerry two years later.
- When Emma innocently asks if she can watch them play squash, there is an awkward silence, then Robert questions "what?". After her then rephrasing her question, Robert has a large section of dialogue, making up excuses why they wouldn't want her there - really its because he doesn't trust her and doesn't want her anywhere near Jerry. When questioned, Jerry doesn't really want to get involved so states "I haven't played squash for years". Lewis experimented a little bit with how he would say this line, but decided we all decided he should say it as if he really doesn't know what to say. If we applied what we learned from our elements lesson (http://lornaclarkra.blogspot.co.uk/2016/11/auditions-25-elements-look-back-in-anger.html), I would say that Robert is fire / earth, Emma is water and Jerry is water.
- When Emma shows interest in Jerry's trip to New York by asking questions, she then asks if he deserves the trip, as she can sense that Robert is getting annoyed at her for taking so much of an interest. This meant that Ollie could break in with "Judith going?" a bit more aggressively. We agreed that he should really articulate the "th" of Judith, as if he is almost speaking through his teeth.
- We decided not to go with what the stage direction said at the end of this scene. The stage direction says the following: "Robert and Jerry leave. She remains still. Robert returns. He kisses her. She responds. She breaks away, puts her head on his shoulder, cried quietly. He holds her." As Pinter doesn't use stage directions often, we were apprehensive about going against this, as it must be significant. We like it in the fact that it shows Robert's complete control and power over her, but we thought that it was a bit too romantic and sweet. Instead Robert shall return, look at her in silence, shake his head as if he is disappointed at her and leave. I shall remain looking after him, nod my head as if I understand his disappointment, then walk off crying.
Wednesday, 1 February 2017
Workshop (12) - Pirelli, Page 29 to 45
Scene: In today's lesson we workshopped and staged pages 29 to 45. Across these pages, Tobias (James) advertises Pirelli's "miracle elixir", to which Mrs Lovett and Sweeney say is fake. Pirelli overhears and demands to know who said this. Pirelli and Sweeney bet on who shave a face smoother and quicker. They have the competition, which Beadle Bamford judges and Sweeney wins. In this scene Pirelli realises who Sweeney is (due to his razors) but doesn't reveal who he is to anyone (as he realises he can use him later).
Entrances: We had a long discussion on where everyone should enter. We discarded the idea of James entering from the side door to the hall and performing on the floor, because we felt it didn't grab people's attention enough - we want this song to be very catchy as its purpose is to advertise and persuade people to buy the elixir. For this reason, we wanted this number to be quite different, so we tried having James enter from under the stage. This would have been good because it was different, but we didn't think it was as eye-catching and attention-grabbing as the second idea we tried out. We tried and decided on having James come out on stage, coming out through the curtains. However, as we have the front of the stage open, James can't enter from the middle as he may fall down the stairs leading under the stage, so therefore he come out slightly to the left (when looking at the stage). The fact that a scene has just happened on the floor prior to this song, it works that James enters from the stage, as it is on a different level and therefore changes the audience's focus point. Rob and I shall be entering this song from the back of the audience, in the aisle, as this is where we walked to after our scene. For Dan's song, he shall enter also from the curtains (as Dan is who James works for), but instead of simply walking through the curtains, he shall burst through them, letting the curtain fly away from him. This worked really well when Dan tried it, as Pirelli is supposed to be very eccentric and over-the-top, so this entrance works well.
Using the audience: James' number is about advertising and trying to sell "Pirelli's Miracle Elixir". We tried the number with James just singing it from the top of the stage, then walking down and singing it to the audience, while walking along the floor. Although he did it really well, we thought we could do more with this number. As we felt the first way would only really include the first row of the audience, we tried it again but with him using the whole audience - he would use the aisle and go up to various members of the audience with a couple of bottles of "elixir" (i.e. apple squash in our version, as it is supposed to look like "piss"). As Todd and Lovett are supposed to receive a bottle that is passed round, we needed to think about who we could give the bottle to, so we would end up with it. We considered having Lewis in the scene (but obviously not in costume as the Judge) and he could be sitting in the audience, be given the bottle by James and then pass it on to us. However, this idea wouldn't work as Lewis is in the scene before as the Judge. We then thought that we could involve more of the Year 12's in our piece. Although we are already using two of them (for the beggar woman and Johanna) we thought we could borrow more of them to help play other minor roles and parts of our production. We have decided that they can sit at the back of the audience (as they can then leave at the back of the audience easily if they are going to be used for minor parts too) and have the elixir passed to one of them, and they can then pass it along the line to Rob and I (who will be standing in the isle. We shall get the Year 12's to shout out things as well - for example, when Sweeney asks "who's for a free shave?" they can shout out. We shall use two of them for the competition to be (supposedly) shaved on stage.
Songs & Dialogue: We have decided to use the movie versions of both of these songs in this scene. The reasons for this are to ensure our production isn't too long, as these songs involve a lot of chorus (and we don't have time to teach the Year 12's parts) and because the additional parts of the songs aren't really necessary to the story. We didn't feel the need to include any parts about tooth-pulling as this is not essential to the plot at all. We also cut out a lot of the chorus parts, but we did need to keep in one as it mentions the location of Todd's establishment, to which the Beadle then repeats later on. We couldn't do this dialogue in the lesson as we didn't have any Year 12's or Ollie, so we focussed on the songs and the section of dialogue between Todd, Lovett and Pirelli. We paid attention to intentions and objectives of the characters, as this determines how certain lines are spoken. The main example of this is when Pirelli says "instruments like zees once seen cannot soon be forgotten" - Dan says this line in a low tone and almost through his teeth, implying that he knows who Sweeney is, even if Sweeney doesn't recognise him. By getting Dan to say his line like this contrasts to how he says his next line as it is to the audience directly. This makes Dan's character more unpredictable, the scene tenser, and foreshadows what is to come later on (i.e. Pirelli and Sweeney's fight, resulting in Pirelli's death). We also workshopped how Dan performed the line "by God". Initially he sang it whilst doing a signing of the cross traditionally, but then we tried it again with him doing it across his "customer" with his razor in hand. The second way was more comical so we kept this.
Exits: Rob, Ollie and I shall exit together out of the hall door on the floor after we have finished our dialogue section on the floor. However, prior to this, we workshopped how and where Dan and James would exit. We first tried them going back through the curtains, with Dan pushing James through the curtain. We thought this would be appropriate as Pirelli is angry with Tobias, but also as this is where they entered. However, we found the second way more comical. Dan and James walked down the steps from the stage on to the floor. Dan pushes and kicks James to get him to move faster down the steps below the stage, but in between each violent act, Dan blows kisses at the audience.
Entrances: We had a long discussion on where everyone should enter. We discarded the idea of James entering from the side door to the hall and performing on the floor, because we felt it didn't grab people's attention enough - we want this song to be very catchy as its purpose is to advertise and persuade people to buy the elixir. For this reason, we wanted this number to be quite different, so we tried having James enter from under the stage. This would have been good because it was different, but we didn't think it was as eye-catching and attention-grabbing as the second idea we tried out. We tried and decided on having James come out on stage, coming out through the curtains. However, as we have the front of the stage open, James can't enter from the middle as he may fall down the stairs leading under the stage, so therefore he come out slightly to the left (when looking at the stage). The fact that a scene has just happened on the floor prior to this song, it works that James enters from the stage, as it is on a different level and therefore changes the audience's focus point. Rob and I shall be entering this song from the back of the audience, in the aisle, as this is where we walked to after our scene. For Dan's song, he shall enter also from the curtains (as Dan is who James works for), but instead of simply walking through the curtains, he shall burst through them, letting the curtain fly away from him. This worked really well when Dan tried it, as Pirelli is supposed to be very eccentric and over-the-top, so this entrance works well. 
Using the audience: James' number is about advertising and trying to sell "Pirelli's Miracle Elixir". We tried the number with James just singing it from the top of the stage, then walking down and singing it to the audience, while walking along the floor. Although he did it really well, we thought we could do more with this number. As we felt the first way would only really include the first row of the audience, we tried it again but with him using the whole audience - he would use the aisle and go up to various members of the audience with a couple of bottles of "elixir" (i.e. apple squash in our version, as it is supposed to look like "piss"). As Todd and Lovett are supposed to receive a bottle that is passed round, we needed to think about who we could give the bottle to, so we would end up with it. We considered having Lewis in the scene (but obviously not in costume as the Judge) and he could be sitting in the audience, be given the bottle by James and then pass it on to us. However, this idea wouldn't work as Lewis is in the scene before as the Judge. We then thought that we could involve more of the Year 12's in our piece. Although we are already using two of them (for the beggar woman and Johanna) we thought we could borrow more of them to help play other minor roles and parts of our production. We have decided that they can sit at the back of the audience (as they can then leave at the back of the audience easily if they are going to be used for minor parts too) and have the elixir passed to one of them, and they can then pass it along the line to Rob and I (who will be standing in the isle. We shall get the Year 12's to shout out things as well - for example, when Sweeney asks "who's for a free shave?" they can shout out. We shall use two of them for the competition to be (supposedly) shaved on stage. Songs & Dialogue: We have decided to use the movie versions of both of these songs in this scene. The reasons for this are to ensure our production isn't too long, as these songs involve a lot of chorus (and we don't have time to teach the Year 12's parts) and because the additional parts of the songs aren't really necessary to the story. We didn't feel the need to include any parts about tooth-pulling as this is not essential to the plot at all. We also cut out a lot of the chorus parts, but we did need to keep in one as it mentions the location of Todd's establishment, to which the Beadle then repeats later on. We couldn't do this dialogue in the lesson as we didn't have any Year 12's or Ollie, so we focussed on the songs and the section of dialogue between Todd, Lovett and Pirelli. We paid attention to intentions and objectives of the characters, as this determines how certain lines are spoken. The main example of this is when Pirelli says "instruments like zees once seen cannot soon be forgotten" - Dan says this line in a low tone and almost through his teeth, implying that he knows who Sweeney is, even if Sweeney doesn't recognise him. By getting Dan to say his line like this contrasts to how he says his next line as it is to the audience directly. This makes Dan's character more unpredictable, the scene tenser, and foreshadows what is to come later on (i.e. Pirelli and Sweeney's fight, resulting in Pirelli's death). We also workshopped how Dan performed the line "by God". Initially he sang it whilst doing a signing of the cross traditionally, but then we tried it again with him doing it across his "customer" with his razor in hand. The second way was more comical so we kept this.
Exits: Rob, Ollie and I shall exit together out of the hall door on the floor after we have finished our dialogue section on the floor. However, prior to this, we workshopped how and where Dan and James would exit. We first tried them going back through the curtains, with Dan pushing James through the curtain. We thought this would be appropriate as Pirelli is angry with Tobias, but also as this is where they entered. However, we found the second way more comical. Dan and James walked down the steps from the stage on to the floor. Dan pushes and kicks James to get him to move faster down the steps below the stage, but in between each violent act, Dan blows kisses at the audience.
Directing (3) - Timeline
We made the timeline in date order with all the dates involved to ensure we understood their lives, but we then re-arranged the pages so they are in order of the actual show. We shall refer back to this timeline during our entire directing and creating process to help us understand when what character knows what.Tuesday, 31 January 2017
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:
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.
Monday, 30 January 2017
Workshop (11) - Character Development
This lesson was spent as a character workshop. James spent the lesson working on his songs and giving the rest of us feedback. Ollie and Lewis worked on Page 59 - when Judge Turpin tells Beadle that he intends to marry his ward, Johanna. Rob and I worked on Page 18 and 19 - where Mrs Lovett tells Sweeney about his wife, daughter and razors. We all spent some time just to work on our short scenes, before performing them to each other and doing forum theatre on them.
Lewis & Ollie: Initially, when they performed this scene, it was okay but very naturalistic. For the second time they performed it, we asked them to be very over-the-top, almost like caricatures. We asked them what they thought their characters were like and who they were. This did change how they performed slightly - there was more energy within the piece, but then we asked them to change where they lead from. Ollie decided he wanted to use a cane, which automatically lowered his stance, and made him lead from the nose and hands. The use of the cane emphasised how Beadle is someone who thinks he is upper class, but he really isn't. It also made his character seem more perverted and creepy, especially how Ollie laid his hands on the cane. Lewis decided he would lead from his chest to show that he is very upper class. He also moved about with his head held high to portray how he thinks he is so much better than everyone else. We also suggested to Lewis that he doesn't really look at people when he speaks to them, as his character is so confident and dismissive that he doesn't feel the need to look at people when he speaks or they speak. When they performed this scene again, it was so much better and really funny.
Rob & I: Initially when we performed this scene it was a little bit bland as we hadn't established our characters or our character relationship. We did understand the meaning of our lines, and our performance might have been okay for screen, but as it is live theatre, our characters needed to be a lot bigger. As everyone knows I am a big musical theatre fan, they suggested I approached this role as if it were Madame Thénardier from Les Misérables - this helped me get the bitterness and more butch side - as I approached her too nicely to begin with. To improve on our relationship we had to think about how we really feel about each other - Sweeney uses Mrs L to get information and help he needs to get revenge on Turpin, whilst Mrs L is completely obsessed with Sweeney and just wants him. I had to play up to this by basically "fan-girling" over him. We workshopped the way I said the line "so it is you Benjamin Barker". At first I said it as if I knew all along but with an element of awe underneath. I tried it again but as if I was really excited as if I had just found out that it definitely is him - this had more energy behind it, but didn't really make sense, as she knew from the beginning that it was him. I am keeping the third way I said the line - I say it as if I am excited that the information that he has said has confirmed that it is him, but generally just more obsessive (by taking my time when saying his name).
Mrs Lovett: As well as showing her obsession with Sweeney, I also shall present Mrs Lovett as being unpredictable, a bit mad and quite dangerous. We discussed her craziness - Sweeney has understandable reasons for him wanting revenge, whereas Mrs Lovett is completely crazy, as she is the person that comes up with the idea of putting people in pies. We want the audience to feel quite uncomfortable with her and feel like they never know what she is going to do next. Therefore, I shall really be working on varying and contrasting my dynamics in terms of both dialogue and movement - some lines I shall say quite soft and slowly, but the next line will be quite sudden and fast. I shall play about with this during scene workshopping to establish how I shall do this. At some point in the near future, I shall look up different people who have played Mrs Lovett in the past, and how they played her. I shall see what I like and what I don't like, and use inspiration from across the different women who have played her, to create my own version of Mrs Lovett.
Lewis & Ollie: Initially, when they performed this scene, it was okay but very naturalistic. For the second time they performed it, we asked them to be very over-the-top, almost like caricatures. We asked them what they thought their characters were like and who they were. This did change how they performed slightly - there was more energy within the piece, but then we asked them to change where they lead from. Ollie decided he wanted to use a cane, which automatically lowered his stance, and made him lead from the nose and hands. The use of the cane emphasised how Beadle is someone who thinks he is upper class, but he really isn't. It also made his character seem more perverted and creepy, especially how Ollie laid his hands on the cane. Lewis decided he would lead from his chest to show that he is very upper class. He also moved about with his head held high to portray how he thinks he is so much better than everyone else. We also suggested to Lewis that he doesn't really look at people when he speaks to them, as his character is so confident and dismissive that he doesn't feel the need to look at people when he speaks or they speak. When they performed this scene again, it was so much better and really funny.
Rob & I: Initially when we performed this scene it was a little bit bland as we hadn't established our characters or our character relationship. We did understand the meaning of our lines, and our performance might have been okay for screen, but as it is live theatre, our characters needed to be a lot bigger. As everyone knows I am a big musical theatre fan, they suggested I approached this role as if it were Madame Thénardier from Les Misérables - this helped me get the bitterness and more butch side - as I approached her too nicely to begin with. To improve on our relationship we had to think about how we really feel about each other - Sweeney uses Mrs L to get information and help he needs to get revenge on Turpin, whilst Mrs L is completely obsessed with Sweeney and just wants him. I had to play up to this by basically "fan-girling" over him. We workshopped the way I said the line "so it is you Benjamin Barker". At first I said it as if I knew all along but with an element of awe underneath. I tried it again but as if I was really excited as if I had just found out that it definitely is him - this had more energy behind it, but didn't really make sense, as she knew from the beginning that it was him. I am keeping the third way I said the line - I say it as if I am excited that the information that he has said has confirmed that it is him, but generally just more obsessive (by taking my time when saying his name).
Mrs Lovett: As well as showing her obsession with Sweeney, I also shall present Mrs Lovett as being unpredictable, a bit mad and quite dangerous. We discussed her craziness - Sweeney has understandable reasons for him wanting revenge, whereas Mrs Lovett is completely crazy, as she is the person that comes up with the idea of putting people in pies. We want the audience to feel quite uncomfortable with her and feel like they never know what she is going to do next. Therefore, I shall really be working on varying and contrasting my dynamics in terms of both dialogue and movement - some lines I shall say quite soft and slowly, but the next line will be quite sudden and fast. I shall play about with this during scene workshopping to establish how I shall do this. At some point in the near future, I shall look up different people who have played Mrs Lovett in the past, and how they played her. I shall see what I like and what I don't like, and use inspiration from across the different women who have played her, to create my own version of Mrs Lovett.
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