Theatre in Education (13) - The argument

Today we worked on the argument section from the girls part onwards. We wanted this to be very physical and quite realistic to make a contrast to the boys pathetic argument. To make the most of the fact that Rob is wearing a wig, I shall pull Helena's hair and push her to the floor. We both push each other for a bit, until she turns around. When I say my line "Puppet?" I run at her and jump on her back. We worked a lot on this to ensure this was safe but still looked effective. We worked out how I would throw myself off of Rob without causing risk to the audience - we had to work out where I would land and make sure this is consistent - that I don't land in a different place each time, to ensure that we all know where we are when this happens and that it is a safe difference away from the audience.

After this I get up and go to attack her again, but Lysander stops me as he picks me up when I'm running toward her and spins me round and puts me back down. This emphasises how short I am as the other three lovers take the mickey out of my character for this. As Helena continues speaking, Lysander dotes on her and forgets about the raging Hermia - therefore, I run towards Helena, but Demetrius puts his hand out and stops me from attacking her. Initially we tried a lift where I ran towards her but Ollie picked me up in a fireman carry and turned me round and put me down. This lift was perfectly safe and looked good when I was up, but it looked too pre-empted as we can't get into that easily whilst ensuring it is safe. Therefore we decided that instead we would have him put out his hand, and I would run into  it so my head was on his palm - I would then swing my arms trying to get to Helena. This adds more comedy into the scene and appeals to the sense of humour of our audience, by playing on the fact that I'm so much shorter than Demetrius and Lysander.

Afterwards both boys hold me back so I can't get to Rob. We developed this hold more so that they were almost lifting me off the ground.

Site Specific (20) - Movement pieces

Opening:   We have now altered this to include Chloe and Taylor. We have kept the beginning section which happens in the square, but whilst this happens, Taylor and Chloe kneel at the front and do a hymn hands section (inspired by Frantic Assembly) to present Tituba getting Betty to drink the soup. Originally, after we had done our square section, we went in to a section where Hope (Abigail) would get us to all drop to our knees, however, now that we are using Taylor (Tituba) in this scene, we decided it would make more sense to use her. Therefore, we have got Taylor leading the ensemble, and instead of us dropping to our knees, we all move to our next positions - for the boys that is to the back ready for the lift, whist the girls drop to their knees facing the back. Originally, we had Ollie being lifted, but we then thought that Chloe would be ideal to be lifted as we could show that Betty is getting ill. However, Chloe isn't confident with lifts so we decided that our next best bet would be Taylor. This actually works really well, as it shows Tituba as manipulating the girls and makes the audience think that Tituba is guilty later on, which is ironic as the audience are then being as gullible as the people at the time. Once this lift has happened, Taylor returns to the front of the formation of us girls on the floor. We do a short repetitive sequence on the floor in cannon, starting with Tituba to show that she is leading it. Next Abigail and Betty join in, and then finally Mary and I. We all have hoods up at this point apart from Tituba so it doesn't matter too much about characters - as Elizabeth wouldn't have been there, but we wanted more of us for this sequence. Near the end of this section, Chloe starts doing her moves differently as if she is being taken over by a spirit (when really she is just falling ill). At the end of this piece, Parris walks on shocked and the girls scarper.

Accusations:   Although we have the option to add in Taylor for this movement section, we have decided against it, as it is not necessary.

Realisation:   This section is almost in reverse of the "accusations" movement piece, so we agreed that we weren't going to put Taylor in to this piece either.

Ending:   For our ending, we aren't using any music, instead we are all going to say the Lord's Prayer. We are not going to speak this in unison throughout - we all come in at different times but end up speaking in unison. Rob comes in first because he is the Reverend who is on the Proctor's side. I am the next person to join in as I am his wife and then everyone else starts to join in. We didn't want to do a lot of movement for this piece as we wanted to keep the ending quite simplistic as the final scene is very emotional. Instead we all walk on to random positions and simply stand there and speak the Lord's Prayer.

Theatre in Education (12) - Opening Scene & The Argument

Opening Scene:   We ran this section today without scripts for as much as we could. We worked a bit more on proxemics today to make the relationships more clear for our audience. However, we also focused on our intentions and voice. We wanted to make the lovers realistic. We also thought that Lysander and Hermia could be very clingy and represent the typical young clingy couple, so that Helena is majorly "third-wheeling" - something that our specific audience will find comical and perhaps relatable for some. Meanwhile, we are making Demetrius quite geeky, very similar to the "Horrid Henry" character, Perfect Peter. This therefore makes Demetrius more similar to Helena, and Lysander and Hermia are similar, thus making the two pairs seem perfect for each other, and making it more obvious when things go wrong and who should be with who.

The tree...   James did some research on the scenes where Puck and Oberon watch the lovers, as they hide in the woods. James was inspired by this video of a company at the Globe Theatre, and thought that we could perhaps do something similar. This was really comical and something we could easily include. We tried to work out some lifts between James and Lewis, but Lewis didn't feel very confident lifting James on his own - he could manage having James on his back, but he wasn't high up enough to make the 'tree' idea work, so we have decided against having a lift between the two. We also wanted our version to be original, so instead the boys stand in between the two curtains at the back and watch forward and back in silence... this is then very comical when Lewis does a slow look at James and says "what hast thou done?". However, we have been original with pages 65 - 68, when Puck imitates Demetrius and Lysander's voices to each other to get them to end up in the same place. James moves places during this scene to get the lovers to move, but he only moves when they are not looking, and stands still for the rest of the time mimicking a tree. To show Puck impersonating the other lovers voice, we are making the most of the fact that only one of them are on stage during these scenes - the characters voice he is impersonating shall say their line off stage whilst James mimes saying the line (this will make it clear who he is supposed to be impersonating whilst adding to the comedy element).

The Argument:   We staged the first half of the argument. We worked a lot on proxemics and movement to ensure that this scene had movement throughout and didn't end up static at all. Our main struggle was to not end up in a line, but we worked on how close we were to what characters to reflect their current relationship and feelings at that time. We also worked out how the boys would fight - we didn't get to work on the girl's fight section, but we knew that we wanted the boys fight to be pathetic in comparison to the girls for added comedy! As Demetrius is big-headed but cowardly, we got him to mime hitting Lysander where it hurts to spark the fight on the line "quick, come!". If we were performing this play to a younger audience we wouldn't have included so much violence, but as it is an all-male audience and they are going into their GCSE's, we didn't think that we were over-stepping the mark and is still suitable for them. The fight then consists of them holding each other in a sort of head lock and struggling. We didn't want this fight to be realistic, as this would make it too violent, and we didn't want it to look impressive because we wanted to make this fight look weak and pathetic compared to the fighting girls. 

Theatre in Education (11) - Research

Our performance is going to be in front of Year 9's, which are Key Stage 3's. We chose to perform a Shakespeare play to them as Shakespeare is part of the KS3 Drama and English specification. Last year they studied Macbeth in drama and Richard III in English. Some of us agreed that we didn't enjoy Shakespeare in English when we did it, but this is because Shakespeare was meant to be performed not read. Therefore, we chose to do a comedy Shakespeare play to try and destroy  negative pre-conceptions of Shakespeare before they know what it is like. We wanted to make Shakespeare accessible to the students and help improve their understanding.

Below are some Theatre in Education and Shakespeare companies that I researched:

• Big Brum -- http://www.bigbrum.org.uk/index.html -- It is a registered company founded in 1982 and based in the West Midlands. Earlier this year they toured their version of Shakespeare's play "Macbeth" and are now currently touring "Rumpelstiltskin - The Straw Baby". Their production of "Macbeth" was an adapted performance and was followed by a workshop which got the children to "analyse, collaborate, make decisions, justify and evaluate". It was designed for students in years 5, 6, 7 and upwards. "Rumpelstiltskin" was designed for years 2, 3 and 4. Their performance is followed by a workshop which children learn to empathise with different characters.
• Rubbish Shakespeare -- http://www.rubbishshakespearecompany.com/about-us -- The company's ethos is "Shakespeare for all". They perform their own adapted versions which combine the original text with "modern contemporary language" to make their play more engaging and relatable. Although I really like this idea, I don't think we need to do this as our intended audience is a bit older and they are studying Shakespeare for English (as well as drama) so the language is very important. However, their idea of making the piece relatable inspired me and inspired us with the idea of making the fairies very common. Below is a quote from their website that explains about their version of the same play we are doing and how it became famous.
  

  "The company have collaborated with the Royal Shakespeare Company and the Canal & River Trust to deliver the critically received 'Stratford 2 Stratford' project. This saw the company take thirty students from Stratford in London to Stratford Upon Avon on canal boats, and over the course of ten days create a production of A Midsummer Night's Dream. The project received national attention, celebrity endorsers and the pupils not only had the opportunity to perform at the RSC with the company, but also to participate in and learn new life experiences that will benefit them throughout their lives."

  They believe that Shakespeare needs to be performed or viewed performed to be understood properly - for a younger audience, I definitely agree with this! They do performances to schools and then follow their performances with workshops. 
• Guildford Shakespeare Company -- https://www.guildford-shakespeare-company.co.uk/vision.html -- Their aim is to make Shakespeare accessible and understandable for people who wouldn't normally see it or come across it. They are a site-specific company whose honorary patron is Brian Blessed. They make their theatre very immersive, performing in close proximity to the audience - this is something that I liked about the company and thought we could experiment with at times - however, as our audience is a bit younger, we have to remember the health and safety factors and that we don't want to overwhelm our audience either - we want them to feel safe and comfortable and simply enjoy the experience whilst learning from it. They run a variety of different workshops and tailor these workshops to suit the needs of the school - the play, the theme, the age group, etc. How adaptable this company is got me thinking more about the specific needs of our audience and who our audience really are. As stated at the beginning of this blog, our audience are Key Stage 3 students who will be studying Shakespeare for both drama and English. Moreover, they are all boys so what they find amusing may be different to what a mixed audience would find funny - they may be less sympathetic to the female characters and prefer certain male characters depending on how they interact with other characters.

Theatre in Education (10) - Production meeting

We spent this lesson having a production meeting to discuss what we shall do in terms of costume, characters and style. As we have almost staged the whole of our performance, we didn't want to make any changes in terms of time or place setting - we have aimed to make our piece quite timeless (so not putting in anything that brings it into modern day) and we kept the traditional location of a forest. Although we could have been creative and changed the setting, we thought it best to keep the original location, as our purpose is to educate, and we don't want the Year 9's going into their English exam and writing how the piece is set in a school, for example!

Below are the ideas we came up with for costume:

• Traditional Full Costume:   Fits the entertaining purpose (will be funny to see the boys in tights!) /// Characters are clear /// Ideal for a larger cast as they wouldn't need to multi-roll, but not practical for our cast as don't have time to do a full change
• Timeless:   Not too modern to make the piece look modern day, but not traditional clothing /// No fashion trends to make it era specific
• Modern dress:   Would be relatable for the younger audience /// Playing off stereotypes would make it understandable /// Might require changing the setting of our piece, which we don't want to do as would lose the educational element
• Own clothes:   In the Elizabethan times, they would have worn for the performance what they turned up in. We don't want to do this as we would lose the fantasy element and the atmosphere. The characters wouldn't be as clear either.
• Moschino (Velcro cardboard clothes):   Used in the Milan Fashion Week // Good for younger children /// Entertaining but not overwhelming /// Stripped-back approach to Shakespeare makes it seem more simple /// Not practical for our very physical piece
• All blacks with representational items:   Ideal for the amount of multi-rolling we do /// Easy to move in /// Characters are still clearly presented /// Ideal for our smaller cast
• Shirts & trousers with representational items:   More aesthetic than all blacks /// Suitable for multi-rolling /// Could work for different groups of people (i.e. if we set one section in a school, or for gangsters... etc) 

We have decided that we are going to go for all blacks with representational items as it is easy for us to manoeuvre in, it isn't complicated, quick changes are easier and the audience still get a clear idea on characters. For representational props, we have decided to group certain characters. The high society characters (Hippolyta, Theseus and Egeus) shall wear waistcoats or a shawl, to show they are upper class - waistcoats are also timeless as they have been around since the Restoration Era. The lovers are going to be quite modern, but to reflect their rebellious attitude in not doing what their parents want, we are making them rebels - so they shall wear leather jackets or flannel shirts (they are modern and relatable to the audience, but not too common. These characters are most like ourselves).

We were planning on making the fairies gangsters, but we don't have much time to develop these accents, nor do we think it is suitable for our piece - it would be too weird to have a gangster Titania falling in love with Bottom. To make this love more comical though, we thought that we could have the fairies as extremely common, exaggerating the Medway accent! This would make the piece entertaining but still practical for us.

For the mechanicals, we are still undecided, but I think we should just wear all blacks (apart from I shall wear a hat as Starveling as I swap between Starveling and Snout whilst on stage) as the body language clearly shows that they are different people and the use of music as a motif for them. However, to show Bottom as an ass, we discussed using a full-mask, a hat with ears or a half-mask. We decided against the full- mask as it would hide his facial expressions. We decided to go with the half-mask as Ollie made a half-mask for when we learned about Commedia dell'arte, and this worked really well. We shall just add some ears to the mask he used. This way, his look has been totally transformed but we can still see his facial expressions and his voice is unaltered. For the Wall, I shall wear a sandwich board as this is the quickest way for me to transform into Wall and is comical in the fact that I could put my arms down but I don't. It also enable me to bring an arm forward to form the chink still.

Theatre in Education (9) - Scripts, Monologues & Accents

Scripts:   Over half term, I have been trying my best to learn all of my lines! I have been reading the script repeatedly, gaining a better understanding on what is going on. Although the descriptive details the characters use, I felt Titania's section to Bottom was too much - I have decided to cut this down as to reduce the risk of our younger audience getting detached, as this was a fairly large section of dialogue. It is better to lose some descriptive detail in order to maintain their concentration, rather than doing the full script and them getting bored or lost.

Monologues:   As we were missing Rob today, we broke off into pairs and worked on our monologues. I went with Ollie, whilst Lewis and James went together. I did my Hermia monologue - where she wakes up after a bad nightmare to see that Lysander has disappeared. My first step was to add in pauses and work out my intentions - in such a short monologue, she goes through a few different emotions.

Help me Lysander! Help me! Do thy best
To pluck this crawling serpent from my breast!
Ay me, for pity! What a dream was here!
Lysander, look how I do quake with fear.
Methought a serpent eat my heart away
And you sat smiling at his cruel pray.
Lysander! What, removed? Lysander! Lord!
What, out of hearing? Gone? No sound, no word?
Alack, where are you speak, an if you hear;
Speak of all loves! I swoon almost with fear.
No? Then I well perceive you all not nigh
either death or you I'll find immediately.

The first two lines are her waking up, still in fear and in her nightmare. The next four lines are her describing her nightmare and a bit emotional and shaken, but clearly relieved. The last section is her panicking about where Lysander is, and then a new panic as she fears for her own safety.

Accents:   Whilst Ollie and I were working on our monologues, Lewis and James worked on some Puck and Oberon scenes. They tried this out in a variety of different ways but decided that they needed to make these characters clearly different from everyone else, but similar to each other (to show that they are from another world - they are the fairies). They realised the best way to do this was through use of accent. To make the characters different from the others, and to make them a bit comical too, we have got the fairies to speak with a New York / gangster accent! This also shows the children that Shakespeare isn't all heightened and over-the-top melodramatic British speaking, but it can be whatever you make of it - we have made our piece original. Whilst the fairies speak with New York accents (to show they are completely distant), the lovers shall speak like us (to make them relatable), the higher status character (like Egeus, Hippolyta and Theseus) shall speak with exaggerated RP (to show their high position in society) and the mechanicals speak with a variety of different British accents (to make them comical).

Site Specific (19) - All scenes

We have now fully set all of our scenes, focusing on our proxemics and our own character's intentions. We have not been able to make definite decisions on entrances and exits due to the fact that we have not physically been to our venue yet. We are hoping to do a scene per room, but if there are not enough rooms, we could return to a room we have used previously - but this room will look different as whoever was not in the last scene can go to the next room we want and move the furniture so it looks different.

All we have left to do is to learn our lines, work out our ending and re-work the opening scene to include Taylor and Chloe. Our opening scene can be altered so that the audience get a slight insight to what is to come - they roughly know that the girls are up to mischief.