LESSON TWELVE. 19|12|12. - 'The Pillowman'

We are now returning to 'The Pillowman' and continuing to block through each scene. The two Michal's work in the other room at going through there lines as that is more productive for them rather than watching the scenes they're not in.

We continued with where we left off,

 This part of the play is quick paced, and also reveals the real reason why Tupolski and Ariel are questioning Katurian, because of the similarities of murders between her stories and current child killings. It is also where we see Tupolski directing his authority, because we know what is going to become of Katurian whether she is innocent or not. When Ariel intrudes it is full of disgust, also, by using Katurian's brother as a weak spot, we are able to reach a higher impact of fear from Kelly, meaning that this high intensity unit of the script creates a tense atmosphere for the audience. 

This is an intense scene between Ariel and Katurian. As Katurian is now trying to stand up for herself in order to see her brother, who she thinks has been tortured the same as herself. The lines are said incredibly quick and often overlap at the last words. The comedic value is when I am stood on the outskirts not being able to get a word in. When I snap and direct Kelly to open the box curiosity is thrust upon the audience as they cannot see what is in the box until I pull the toes from out of the box. We're not certain yet on what will be in the box that resemble toes. Here we get a bit of an explanation from Ariel of what is going on and why we are accusing Katurian. It allows the audience to form their own opinion on whether Katurian is innocent and the two police detectives are being violent because they can, or Katurian is partially guilty for the crime and the detectives actions are justified.

Tupolski now creates further conflict with Ariel by making a contradictive statement about making Katurian swallow the toes. Tupolski flaunts her high ranking power as if it's knowledge to wind up Ariel and then manages to make Ariel exit. I think Tupolski might do this as part of a personal plan, to speak to Katurian alone, as Tupolski is constantly confusing her with a temperamental attitude. 'So moody' at the end, instantly relax's the atmosphere as it is a light hearted statement and is said in a joking tone. 

I am returned on my seat as is Kelly. To clear confusion, Tupolski gives a standard formal police report style explanation of the situation. This informs the audience a lot clearer of the intentions of the two detectives. The outburst in the middle is probably the loudest we will hear Tupolski, so far in any way. While I am speaking I must constantly think how Tupolski genuinely thinks Katurian murdered these children and how sick it would make me feel. This has to come through in the tone of my voice.

This is the end of the first act, the second act is where Katurian is reunited with her unharmed brother who has a very big confession about the murders. I say the last line, pretty casually as this is the first time Tupolski shows any sign of wanting violence to be used. This leads the audience to thinking it's not going to get any better for Katurian, as well as it being slightly comedic if I am able to get the correct 'casual' tone in my voice that contrasts the state of Katurian.

LESSON TEN/ELEVEN. 12|12|12. - 'Sexuality'

We wanted to work on a piece about sexuality. In N2C we did some sequences with chairs, and we liked this physical theatre idea of including a chair and how we had to include the chair. We decided to do a series of intertwining monologues to show the family's reactions or opinions to 'gay', as well as the lesbians personal issues, and the love interests view.

Emily : Lesbian
Ciara : Love interest
Matt : Emily's Dad
Poppy (me) : Emily's Mum
Chris : Lesbian's ex
Jake: Ciara's brother

We started off creating a freeze frame that showed how we all intertwined. The chair was part of this frame too. We all slowly moved out of the frame with our pair, and the intertwining monologues began with Chris. Him and Jake then move the frame back and create a freeze frame before their comical piece at the end. Our movement sequence was repeated twice through and we each got a turn to explain our view. Here's the video of the entire performance:

I made my tone desperate but reassuring. I wanted to show how I was the understanding mother, but I was scared of what my husband thinks. When the chair goes onto my back, it's almost symbolises the saying 'I've got your back'. When Matt sit on the chair over Emily, it shows the repression he is forcing onto her. When we lift her, it shows how me and Matt brought her up, I let go because I'm okay with the decision she's made . Although these symbolic moves might not be obvious to the audience it helps us get into character and know why each move is like that. I liked how Matt almost spat his words out in the disgust of thinking his daughter was gay. We managed to show many controversial idea's of lesbians in one performance.

I had no participation in the creation of Chris and Jake's piece at the end but I really enjoyed the comedic aspect of stereotypical and cliqued views that people have of lesbians, such as 'butch' and the porn references at the start. Although it was short it was more light-hearted and was more relatable to a teenage audience because the references are for that age range.

Overall, we created a performance that allowed us to put through views of everyone surrounding a lesbian coming out in a non awkward way, but by using physical theatre, and then adding a light-hearted detached piece to show what other people thing. and then joining them together to show how there are too many views and opinions to 'box' lesbians.

N2C. 30|11|12. 'TIE - Junk - Final Perfomance'

We set it out the square of chairs in the main hall, made sure that the music player was working and knew which track was what. We all had a sheet with the running order and what track was playing when. We left these in the corner in case of emergency and we're luckily only used in between performances :

We made sure we had all the props we needed:
-Table
-Vodka bottle
-Phones
-Umbrella's
-Hoodies

Our audience were year 7's, and the purpose was to inspire them to read. 

We maintained a professional behaviour from when the children came in making sure all their bags were under the chairs so there were no hazards, and then when Matt started the music and we began our performance. We didn't use any lights because if it were to tour as a TIE piece, we wouldn't have access to lights everywhere we go. We also made sure we had very little props to worry about the only one needed to be supplied by a school is the table. This also makes it an accessible performance technical wise. Because we didn't have lighting, we used the music to create the atmosphere. For example, in the beginning we used the track 'The View From The Afternoon - Arctic Monkeys' with a very busy crossover scene, this grabs the attention straight away with a very upbeat song making the audience focus on the performance straight away. Using music in the transitions gave them time to reflect, as young children have short attention spans it's hard for them to take in a lot of information, so each transition allows them to form their own opinion on the situation and take in what had just happened.

The structure of the piece was Preamble – HE
HINT – LE
Social – HE
Home – LE
Preamble & hint repeat – BOTH
Gemma – LE
Facilitation – HE – (involves year 7’s)
Phone calls & meeting – LE
Dilema & forum theatre – HE

Because it juxtaposes between high energy and low energy it prepares the child's mind for each section so it's neither to boring, or too much to take in. The constant adaptation in energy especially when we introduce the facilitation allows the kids to become more involved and interested as they are allowed to move around, have fun and ask questions and gain more understanding on the story, this helps achieve our purpose because they're getting into the story and want to know what happens. Making the scenes short and spreading the information out so it was never too much at a time was also part of the structure to maintain the focus of the year 7. The forum theatre at the end, allowed them to feel as if they were taking control of what was happening on stage and then leaving it on the sudden cliff hanger. Really that is the part that supports our purpose because we have brought this book to life and it leaves the children wanting to know Tar's decision, and therefore inspiring them to read the book. 

We managed to run each performance smoothly with no mistakes. Some of the groups were more enthusiastic than others but you just had to continue being enthusiastic, and they would start to participate more. Over all, I think we did a fantastic job with the preparation time we had. The children said they had fun and that it was interesting, and the teachers said they thoroughly enjoyed seeing our interpretation of the book. 

LESSON NINE. & N2C. 28|11|12. Theatre in Education Project

PRACTICE

Because the performance time was only in 2 days time, we needed to finish the rest of the piece. But more importantly - learn techniques of facilitation. Sir had planned for us to do a small 40 -45 minute lesson with a class of year sevens about the Berlin Wall.

We had an hours lesson to plan before the year 7's lesson. Sir went through the lesson as if we were the year 7 class facilitating it and every now and then explaining why. After being told how to do it, and practising obvious question they were going to ask and doing taking turns on facilitation. Chris was going to take the lead in the facilitation as he would be for the Junk TIE project.

As the class came in we sat them in a semi circle around a table with a rock in the middle. Chris asked them to say raise there hand and say the atmosphere that was created by this. There responses were such as 'creepy' 'mysterious' 'quiet'. He then asked them to discuss with the person next to them what it might be from. The rest of the group then went and spoke to a few kids at a time, especially if the looked like they did have any ideas, we could give them some. We had to make sure we praised everyone's idea's even if it wasn't the initial response we wanted. We'd signal to Chris the children we knew had the idea's that would lead onto the next task. Then, we repeated this but with the question 'why do you think the person put it there?'.

Then Chris brought out Jake who was doing the role play activity. He had been told the story by Sir and knew the order of it all, he just had to wait for the right questions to trigger it. He went through the story of how his uncle and his lover were separated by the Berlin in wall, and how he and his friends planned to go over but he got shot when he started climbing, and when you were then able to take part of the wall, he took the part of the brick near where his uncle was shot.

We then established the first part of the story, the soldiers coming with the tanks. And the last part, him being shot. We then told them to discuss with the people next to them what they 3 parts in between were. When we spoke to them, we had to hear what they said, most of them had it right, and it was easy to guide them to certain events if not. We then established it was 'love separation.' then 'planning with friends' then 'climbing/getting caught' in between.

Each member of the group then took around 4 students to create a freeze frame for each part of the story. Most of the time you had to suggest the idea with the question and then half suggest a position and let them choose the rest. We had to remain enthusiastic so they would be too. I fortunately had a very good group of 4 girls and they were all very good, and 2 were very enthusiastic with drama which encouraged the other two. Sir then showed the class morphing and how it effects the movement on the whole and kept them 'keeping in character' even when going into a different frame. I made sure each one knew what they needed to do, and went through the counts with them so they knew when they needed to move. Chris came round checking everyone was okay and had nearly finished. we then made them sit in 2 lines facing the performing space, then group at a time showed the performance and added music and it was a whole performance they could be proud of doing within 20 - 30 minutes. Sir then took over the last 15 minutes of the lesson and we were allowed to leave and have our break.


N2C PROJECT. 
We went over what we had already and decided to add an extra bit to the social - park section.extra: instead of going straight into the freeze frames, we wanted to show more mishap going on, so Emily got Ciara (Gemma) over and suggested the idea of me and her having a drinking competition, everyone but Tar is up for the idea, me and Gemma run to opposite corners and I shouted 'shots!' Tar attempts to stop her by mentioning her mum and she says 'do I really care what she's going to say? she's going to have a go at me anyway?!' which Chris then picks up the rhyme and shouts 'oh she rhyme's! I love you Gemma!' and Tar tells him to shut up. Then goes back to telling Gemma to not drink, Chris and Emily, who are stood on the table count down and then me and Ciara take the shots, Ciara wins as it comes out of my nose, we then run into the freeze frame positions and continue as normal.

This makes this scene more high energy even though there is nothing majorly important being told to the audience here, it prepares them for the low energy but high intensity scene that follows at home.

Gemma:
Tar: and Gemma have a talk, Tar tells her that he's leaving and going to Bristol. Gemma says she'll come too, and Tar has a go at her saying she has no reason too, that her biggest worry is her GCSE's, or what to spend mummy's money on. This leaves Gemma in a state for when she return homes. 

Gemma's Home: We see Gemma sit at the table with a bottle of vodka, she takes of the lid and downs some, then continues to clutch the bottle. Her sister (Emily) walks in, and says 'What are you doing Gemma, mum will be through any second?' Gemma sighs and just turns herself around, still clutching the bottle. Gemma's mum (Kelly) then enters talking but then stops half way when she see's Gemma drinking, she sends Emily to the room. The whole atmosphere goes down to uncertainness. There's a small pause where the audience can think what would happen to them in this situation. When Gemma's mum asks her if she's pregnant, Gemma goes on a rampage saying how her mum would love that. Then Kelly tells Ciara that she can either tell her what's happened or she can go to her room, Ciara responds by biting her fist and saying 'my room mummy?! not my room mummy!' and then her mum finally realises it's to do with Tar and states how she's never liked him or his family, this puts Gemma over the edge and and she storms off with the bottle of alcohol telling her mum she's never even given him a chance and she doesn't know anything about him. This gives the audience a reason to dislike Gemma's mum because she doesn't know that Tar is abused by his family, and he's actually a good lad that doesn't drink. It also shows that Gemma stands up for Tar, even though he's leaving and going to Bristol. The audience are now in suspense of what's going to happen.


FACILIATION.
We are going to make each block of chairs turn round and face a character and an N2C member, Chris will direct the year 7's to turn their chairs around so they can them and then hand over the N2C member. I'm with Jake, he will be role playing and I will facilitate. I have to tell them to think of 3 questions each to ask Tar with the person next to them and I'll give them around a minute, that allows me to go round and see who has the questions that will provoke the best responses for the next part of the freeze frame activity. We wanted to manipulate them so that Jake could tell 3 certain things about Tar: 

- When was the first time he got hit? It was his first parents evening in year 7, he knew he'd done well and was waiting at home for them to return. His mum came in and gave him a kiss, but he dad hit him, because he'd been told he needed to improve his grade in maths. - What's the worst thing the dad has ever done? Once, he caught Tar swearing online. One time. So he ran a bath, and poured a little bleach in it, and held Tar's head under it, saying he had a dirty mouth. -Why don't you tell anybody/the police? Tar doesn't want to split the family up, he doesn't want a broken home. He knows his mum loves him and he doesn't want to cause any trouble. 
We then split the group we have in half and Jake takes one, now as an N2C member, and I take the other. We make them pick out these three things buy re-asking the questions. We mould them into prepared freeze frame ideas and then when Chris comes round we are to give a signal if they are a strong group to show or a if they shouldn't. Obviously, we're are not there to discipline, we have to let the teachers take control of that. 
This is the part I am most worried about because it's where the most could go wrong and depends on the children's enthusiasm. So we have to encourage them to get more out of them. 

PHONECALLS
Mother: Tar's mum (me) rings Tar when he's in Bristol, because things at home have got worse. She doesn't want to bother Tar, but it's getting really bad for her. She starts of asking if he's staying out of trouble, he looks around at the hoodies he's with, and says yeh. I start to mutter, as if I'm about to cry, and he asks if everything's okay again. I respond with 'I need to see you' and he refuses, until I tell him that it's got worse, then he says I have to leave, and I say I love him. He tells me to not be stupid, but by this time, Matt has put his hand on my shoulder to scare me, I pretend I'm on the phone to a work colleague, and hang up. He takes the phone of me, dials the last number, Jake answers with 'mum?' and Matt hangs up, and then stage slaps me. The music turns up immediately and Jake walks down to the corner I was just at whilst Ciara replaces his old spot. This intermission of music gives the audience time to reflect on the scene they've just witnessed and see that the mother is not as good as the audience thinks, because she wants to bring her son home so he can be beat up and her beat up less.
Gemma: Tar's phone rings again and Gemma tells him that she's done it, she's left her mother and she's at the bus station. Tar tells her to turn back before it's too late. She says she's at the bus station in Bristol. This makes the audience feel sorry for Gemma because she's come all this way and Tar doesn't want to be with her. He says he'll go and collect her and she thanks him. This leaves the audience uncertain on how their relationship will continue if there is a strain on it and if it will make Tar's living situation in Bristol have any complications.

MEETINGS:
Gemma: There's rain music for the transition, Jake and Ciara switch places and while everyone walks on and off stage with an umbrella to show the weather is poor. When they meet they greet with a hug. They talk about how it probably isn't the best idea and then Gemma says her home life is just as bad, even if she doesn't get hit. She reveals 40 pounds and says to go to his because of the weather. They walk of together.
Mother: They meet in London, and we start off looking around the stage for each other, then we hug. He notices a black eye and holds my face and turns me round. He asks when he did it, and I say tell him yesterday. He says I have to get out of there, I try and convince him to return by saying it'll get better if he comes back because his dad just misses him. He says to leave and I say how am I meant to support myself? Chris intervenes at this point, and separates the two situations, I sit at on end, and Ciara sits diagonally opposite and Jake stands in the middle.

SIMPLIFIED FORUM THEATRE
We want to let the children have a go at directing the plot. So first, we will show them what was going on whilst Tar was in Bristol with Gemma. They were cold, she was moaning about not having enough, and he says she should've stayed at home. He then will direct them to see what's happening at home without Tar there, and they'll see Matt having a go at me, asking who I met in London and becoming more violent with his hands pushing me down into the chair.
He'll then gives the year 7's a chance to talk with each other whilst the N2C members go round and plant the two situations we've already created of 'going home and standing up to the dad' and 'ringing the police for his mum'. When these two situations have been said, we will perform them.
For the standing up to the dad, Jake will walk over, I stand up and hug him. Matt will be more aggressive and they start to argue, when Matt picks up the chair and I scream, that's the signal for Chris to come and break it up. He shows how that won't work and we need to do the police one instead. For this, we show Tar knelt down next to me, and me upset that he's in prison, and that the family's split up. When he says he's saved me I loose it, and tell him to get out.

We end it here on the cliffhanger, where nothing it going right for Tar so that the year 7's can think in their own minds what Tar should do and create their own ending, or go and read the book that we based it on. 

N2C. 21|11|12. - Theatre In Education Project. 'Junk' by Melvin Burgess.

We started work on a Theatre in Education piece that the N2C theatre group were commissioned to do for the English department related to the author 'Melvin Burgess' and the 'Junk'.  We are to perform it to 3 groups of around 50 year 7's throughout an offtimetable day where they will also be meeting the author. 

Cast: 

Invidulator & Tar and
 Gemma's Friend :Chris

Tar's Dad (John) : Matt

Tar : Jake

Tar's Mum : Poppy (Me)

Gemma's sister : Emily

Gemma's Mum : Kelly

Gemma : Ciara

 We also used two of our N2C members to be extra's:

Mia Wilson - Matthew Strawford

 Plot: 
It focus's on the struggle's in Tar's life. He has a girlfriend (Gemma) who comes from a more well-off area and mum does not approve of Tar's family. Tar's dad is abusive towards him and his mother when she gets in the way. When we see that things get too much for Tar he says he's going to Bristol, Gemma, sick of being with her mother, says she's going to come with him, he doesn't want her too. When he leaves, his mother is abused more and Gemma goes to Bristol regardless. We ended our story on a cliffhanger of whether he should return home, or stay in Bristol with Gemma.

Performance planning: 

Because we had a short time to put this together, Sir was blasting through directions of what we had to do and we figured out what we were the aims were as we were going through. 

Our staging was set out with chairs surrounding the staging. this meant that everyones attention was focused on the middle of the stage. There were people at each four corners of the stage ready to run across like this:

Preamble : We then had to do crossover's four times, and we went two corners at a time. We were to be young teenagers, in secondary school, showing busy school children. Each time we had to be showing something different. My group went -being late. -arguing. -bitching. -reading & barging. we then all ran on to do a 'facebook picture' pose, to relate to the audience. This catches the year 7's attention straight away, there's also going to be loud music so they're not concentrating on what we're saying but the image it creates. Hint: Jake was then told to stand centre stage, he walks round, make sure he directs part of his sentence to each block of chairs. 'School, is the best place I've ever been'. This is a statement that not many children would agree with, and because so, the rest of the cast runs screaming 'no!' with a violent stance of being about to punch him. When he reassures us it is, we drop our fists and ask why? he then says 'Because it's not home'. We then walk back to our entrances with no facial expressions. This has planted the first bit of information. What is so bad about home? 

Social:

Gemma: Tar is centre stage, sat on a table with earphones in and there's also music playing. Gemma walks on slides onto the table and bumps into Tar, knocking his earphones out. They then talk about maths and Gemma stands on the table to show her big personality and makes a comedic innuendo about sex but not making it to noticeable we hid it in a maths reference about algebra. She then notices his black eye. She freeze's. Tar (Jake) uses direct address to say how people notice no matter what it is. The scene goes back into motion and he's reassures her it's nothing and says 'let's go to the park'. 

Park: Now we enter a youth scene. There is loud music on, Chris comes on adjusts the table sits on it, he mimes failing at lighting a fag to show youth trying to be bad and getting into stuff they probably shouldn't. Matthew Strawford (N2C member) then comes on and gives Chris a nuggie, an instant friendship is established. Mia and I (not as the mother, as a teenager) come on shouting 'WKD'. Then Chris and Matthew disagree and shout 'Fosters'. Then Kelly and Emily come on from opposite corners and shout 'Smirnoff', this is clearly the superior drink as we all react with oo's and jump onto the table drinking and laughing.

 This shows a group of badly behaving youth's because they're drinking under age and in the park which is considered quite low class and antisocial behaviour. When Tar and Gemma enter the scene, we call out to them, showing that we're friends with them as they greet friendly. I then fall off the table in a drunk manner and the scene freezes. Tar stands up onto the table and explains the park a little, and how we're not doing anyone harm. He then jumps down music starts to play and repeat 3 freeze frames, 3 times before we run off. Everyone's first one was drinking, then whatever we liked, then showing to run off, this made it a smoother transition when we had to run off. 
When the rest of us run off we leave Chris, Jake and Ciara laughing centre stage, Chris is clearly drunk, Ciara is partly sober and Jake has had nothing to drink. When Chris's character tries to peer pressure Tar into having a drink, he admits he can't and he has to leave now anyway, he leaves off stage in a hurry. Leaving Chris to hit on Ciara, after Ciara puts Chris in his place in a comedic way of pulling his finger back, and Chris's over the top drunk reaction, she marches off stage and Chris follows behind wobbly, saying 'she touched my finger!'. This is a light hearted part of the play that shows the friends Tar has but can also how frustrated he feels for hiding it from them all the time later on.

Home: Loud music plays and Matt (Tars Dad) comes on with a chair and puts it in the corner he entered at the very beginning of the piece. He stands the table up on it's shortest side to create a door, and then returns to the chair. The music continues to play until Tar comes on, and turns the table over so it's on all fours after unlocking the door. The music fades to silence, and Tar is shocked at his dad wait, he says 'it's nine' letting the audience know this must of been his curfew, and his dad is not happy. We've already established that he doesn't like home life, because 'school is the best place he's ever been'. His dad looks at his own watch then says 'ten past' before Tar has time to apologise, his mum (me) comes on behind his fathers chair and says 'your tea's in the kitchen son, just get it from the oven'. Tar says thanks and begins to walk over, before he fully gets off stage Matt shouts 'stop!' this makes the audience jump and keeps creates an intense atmosphere as it's mostly been happy so far. Matt goes to get the table and bangs it into centre stage so he's facing his wife and his son at the two corners. 

He then says how he wants to eat as a family, but I state how me and him have already eaten in a nervous tone, as if I don't know whether I should say it but I do anyway. He then gives me a glare and tells Tar to get his dinner. The way he shoves off my comment shows how he has the most power in the family. Tar goes of to get his dinner and I push the chair in and wait for him to return, I touch his head briefly to show affection. Matt's voice remains blunt  as he asks is it nice.  He then moves the plate away from Tar, walks back into the corner next to the bottom right corner of the diagram takes a deep breath and says 'you've been drinking. I can smell it.' Before Tar has a chance to fully reply, I walk over to the table and say 'Just let him eat his dinner John!' Matt turns his head towards me and makes a start, Jake stands up and quickly says 'yeh, okay, I had a drink' to protect his mum. Matt grabs the back of Jakes head and pushes it down so it looks like Jake has head has been violently pushed onto the table, but it's just a stage fall, and he cushions his head with arm, which makes a louder noise so it sounds like it's just his head.

We then repeat the preamble but doing only two crossovers this time, before Jake repeats the 'Hint' which now makes complete sense to the audience. He does this in pain, as if he's only just stood up from being hit.

We managed to do this amount of work in the 2 hours N2C time. We went through up to the end of the social section to get the timings right as the whole group especially on the 3 freeze frames that are repeated 3 times, as these require group knowledge of how long we stay in each position. We agreed on 3 counts before switching to the next freeze frame. Because we could find a place for this in out BTEC course we decided to make sure we pay a lot of attention and figure out why we do what where.

 

LESSON EIGHT. 21|11|12. 'The Pillowman' & Stanislavsky Workshop

Sir wanted us to get to grips with our characters, thinking more than what on the script, but their past. He lit the room low and told us that we were our characters from now on. We had to lay on the floor and then went through certain steps. 

First, he told us to image a room, any room we liked, but it was dark. 
- I imaged a small walk in wardrobe/closet type thing, that had a picture at the far end of the family I had. It had a chair with a desk underneath the picture and clothes down either side. I thought this because I imagined a family for Tupolski, and this impacts onto why she feels sickened by Katurian's story. 

Then, we were told in this room there is a place we keep secret things. 
- I immediately thought behind the family picture frame at the back of the room. I thought this, because although Tupolski has a family, she works for the police, and use violence even when that would be classed as police brutality. She hides this from her family, so I thought behind the family would be a good place to hide something. 

Then, we had to think of the object that was hidden here. 
- First I thought of another photo frame, but then thought that would lead to complications. And then I thought of a key. To emphasise how much she hides things. I thought it would go back to her old childhood house, to show she thinks about childhood memories but keeps them locked away because she has to be strong.

Then, we had to imagine we saw something left by someone and then remember that we thought they were coming to visit.

- I imagined a drawing done by my child left on the desk underneath and thought to when she would return to pick it up and put it in her room. I knew my child wouldn't come while I was at work and as I spend a long time there I knew she would come as soon as she could.

Then we were told that when we opened the door, it was not the person we were expecting, but the police, and then we blank out.

This helped me think of Tupolski's life outside of the work and how it might affect personal life and why that would make her what she's like at work and found it helpful in the development of my character.


We then we sat in a circle around a chair that was put in the spotlight. We were told whichever character was in the middle had to stay in their character from the moment that sat down and they couldn't leave until he said we were. And we could ask questions from the previous activity to find out more. I knew in my head that I wanted my character to come of as confident and not afraid to query what anyone asked.

When I went to the chair I knew that a lot of what they were going to ask me I would have to improvise most answers. When they asked why I kept the key to my old house, I said I still had some things there. They asked what were they and why I didn't get them, and I said they were dolls with notes in them I hid them under floorboards and in small places I found when I was bored as a child, and I wanted people to find them, I kept the key because I felt the house still partly belonged to me. Although this would never be mentioned into the Pillowman it shows I have a strange attachment to my childhood, similar Katurian's. I know that I'm an alcoholic like my father, and this could be why I hate Katurian so much. Because I feel guilt for my job taking over my life and then being drunk when I'm home, but that I feel guilt, and I assume Katurian does it on purpose and writes stories about it as if it was nothing bad, giving me a reason to hate Katurian.

This role play hot spot activity really helped me think of my character in a different light, making my character more than just a 2 dimensional character from the script I gave her back story and reasons to treat Katurian the way she does.


Returning to 'The Pillowman' 

After our break, we returned to script. As Emily had to leave for this part of the lesson, it was cast one's turn to block through it. For parts I stood next to Ciara to get the positioning into my head, but I thought it would be better to write down certain stage directions and then when Ciara had to leave I could take over and that way Ciara was more focused and I wasn't getting in the way.

Katurian gets to confident in the way she's speaking, so when Tupolski stands up and does a flat hand gesture it shows her attempt at gaining more power, and making it clear she's intelligent as she does understand the story. Using the reassuring tone allows Katurian to be confused because Katurian doesn't know if Tupolski does get it or not. When Tupolski says the line stood behind Katurian, I must emphasise 'who' because that gives the hint later on when we mention the child murders we suspect Katurian doing all of the actions of the stories. Although Katurian does not understand this implication, it will make sense to the audience once all the pieces fit together.

I say this into Katurian's ear, and lean in, to make sure it sinks in that what I do is planned, I know how this investigation is going to work and she simply needs to cooperate. When I pull the gun out it creates an intense atmosphere and lets Kelly react to it and splutter her words more making it a more intense. But because I smile when I have the gun in my hand and stare at her, it creates an element of comedy because there's no immense part of conflict before I go to the gun. When I put the gun away and instead return with a box it brings curiosity to the stage and therefore the audience now have something else to discover. The loud scream that comes from off stage gives Tupolski a perfectly good reason to not answer Katurian's question, and can simply put the box on the table.

The sarcastic reaction when I'm 'listening' creates comedy, because I make a gesture that I can't hear the screaming, even though it is obvious. The next line is also comedic even though it's sadistic and uses taboo language. The way Tupolski asks Katurian the question at the end when Tupolski doesn't know something puts Katurian in an awkward place. I emphasise the 'I' to show the comedy of Tupolski's word play. She never said Ariel wouldn't hurt Michael. When Katurian finds the extra part where there is no clever word play at hand, Tupolski simply lays down the truth whilst cleaning her work, showing her work is more important than honesty. This makes it clear to the audience that Tupolski can't be trusted, and raises questions within the audience to if Tupolski is lying or keeping anything else held back. 

This whole sequence is 'play acting'. It creates black comedy because we're winding Katurian up and the audience have to find it funny because we're being so light hearted about something that in truth is quite sadistic. At first, I avoid answering by picking on Katurian's mistakes in her speech because of her power standings. When I answer, I'm more vague and talk more about Ariel than her brother. I also say it quite casually as if it's not a bad thing to do which winds Katurian up and could make the audience feel sorry for her, or laugh at how I'm putting it across to her. When Katurian goes for Ariel, Ariel swings around and creates a little bit of an action piece, this is done while I'm still casually speaking about Ariel's choice of torturing methods and their faults leaving Katurian a wreck. The audience may not feel sorry for Katurian any more  because they may have made up their own minds on whether they think Katurian is guilty of something. Whether it being her sick stories or another crime.

When I emphasise 'definitely' is creates humour because we've already been brutal to Katurian and the audience have witnessed it. This shows the last bit of humour before I abruptly change my tone to asking the next question introducing an extra feature to the plot, and showing what we really want to know from Katurian.

This is where we ended the lesson before the introduction of the next story. We then went over the blocking of everything with our cast teams to make sure we knew what we were doing.

LESSON SEVEN. 31|10|12. - 'The Pillowman'

We have now moved onto the next part of the script, so for the first half an hour, we just went over the last few pages we did which allowed us to get back into the role's and lead us nicely into where we left off. Ciara was unable to attend this lesson, which meant I had to focus on picking up everything for Tupolski, as well as making detailed notes to pass onto her. Jake and Emily went through the positioning together so that Jake wasn't just watching and he could get more involved. It helped for them to improve each others skills because they were able to look at each others techniques and incorporate them into there own performances.

This is the first time we here one of Katurian's sick stories. I use a more direct address approach to this part so the impact on the audience it greater, because we're telling it to the audience. This is when Katurian feels the most confident, because it's about her work, which is her life, she is obviously still nervous, but feels as if she needs to explain her story with restrained enthusiasm. When I look to Katurian to imitate the voice of the applemen, it shows the story teller aspect of Katurian's character, and creates a bigger impact later on when we find out that the stories were re-enacted. I repeat the sentence in a harsher tone to emphasise how sick the thought is. Then saying the next bit more monotone and quicker, so it follows a 'badumdedum' pattern. This gives a contrast to what I'm saying making the audience feel uncomfortable because of the violent ended has no emotion in it. When Katurian pauses, we decided that Tupolski and Ariel should stare and Katurian, because we know these stories were repeated to real children. This gives hints to the audience that there are more to these stories than them just being disgusting. Ariel's anger bubbles out and lets out a little information even though it does not make sense to then audience yet, it provides a link later on in the script. 

When Katurian asks 'Should I have?' it provides a moment for Tupolski clever word play personality come into hand. Tupolski's been silently waiting for a moment to come where he can twist Katurian's words. So when I come in repeating his question, I wanted to make it jumpy, I walk back to the seat whilst saying the line, not very angry, or loud. It's more of a friendly tone emphasising the certain accusations he drew from Katurian's question. He uses this to let Ariel have a chance of violence, and Tupolski can remain to seem like the less violent cop. When Katurian stands up, Tupolski shoves him back down onto the chair and remains unharmed. This is very fast paced which makes it more interesting for the audience to watch because there is more action. I push Katurian back down to show how we don't want him going anyway but it allowed Tupolski to show a more aggressive side. Ariel then leaves and it's now just me and Kelly left on stage.Sir then sent the rest of the group to look at scene 2 and see how that could be done while we worked on the Tupolski and Katurian scenes. 

When Katurian blows up after how casual I am about her brother being there it gives the audience a chance to sympathise with Katurian's character as she has no idea why she's there and she's already been beaten up and threatened many times. I just stare at Katurian in slight amusement because I achieved in winding her up. I then jokily say my line to create humour. We had issues on how the 'ooh's' should be pronounced. We've decided to just go with whatever feels right at the time for now, such as doing the noise through my teeth, as well as a sarcastic type. 'Calm the fuck down.' Is said a lot harsher and broader to assert the authority I have over Katurian and it's also quite patronising creating an intense atmosphere for the audience to react too. This is because of the contrast between the light humour at the beginning of my line and then the abrupt change in tone. 

We found this line tricky to say so we looked at the certain parts to emphasise so that the audience could understand I'm saying I wasn't trying to suggest anything, even though I was. Emphasising the last 'you' makes it accuse Katurian more putting her in an awkward position. We had to cut out the second part of my line and Katurian's response because removed the previous part where it's mentioned. So it goes straight into the 'Blah blah blah' which makes my character seem dismissive to anything Katurian says he believes because we still think Katurian has murdered these children. 

 Here is where we can see Tupolski winding up Katurian more. Katurian has clearly told Tupolski that there is no solution and when Tupolski asks what the solution is, this frustrates Katurian but Tupolski finds it amusing. Tupolski can use his power to suggest otherwise and Katurian has to conform to agreeing with Tupolski. This is where the audience can either feel sorry for Katurian, or find it humorous that Tupolski is winding Katurian up for his own pleasure.

We got only managed to block out slightly the rest of the chunk until Katurian reads the 'The Tale of The Town on the River'. There are more points of comedy leading up to this story that are sadistic. Tupolski uses his power to manipulate Katurian into doing what he wants and uses word clever word play to assert this comedy to the audience, even though Katurian is petrified of everything Tupolski says.


At the end of the lesson Emily Jake Matt and Chris came back through with an idea of how to do the second scene, where the story of 'The Writer and The Writers Brother' is told. They decided it's hard to be seen from every angle if you're were actually laid on a bed, so they thought, using a standing piece made to look like the bed on one side could show his bed, and then him standing up in it so you could still see his facial expressions and reactions to the noises of torture that would be happening on the other side of the board. this makes it easier to show what happened in a more creative way that allows the audience to see both sides. 

LESSON SIX. 24|10|12. - Starting 'The Pillowman'

We have now started working on our first production, ‘The Pillowman’ by Martin McDonagh. As soon as we arrived in the room we were sat down and he handed out the roles. As this performances only has 4 main characters and our group is made of 7 people we decided to have to casts. With the main character to be played by the same person, and the smaller parts will be played by the people who are either not on stage or from the other cast. The cast is as followed: 

Character:        Cast One:       Cast Two:
Katurian           Kelly                Kelly
Tupolski           Poppy              Ciara
Ariel                 Emily                Jake
Michal              Matt                 Chris

We were all happy with the parts we were given and think sir has made the right choices. We then set to work with the script. We first read through the script section we were going to do that lesson as our characters, doing half with cast one, the second with cast two. We then started to block out our performance we worked on the first little section in half an hour, and then we had half an hour to rehearse this on our own and even go a little further on. As Kelly cannot rehearse with both casts at the same time, and Michal is not yet on stage, Matt and Chris took it in turns to help which ever cast that was without a Katurian. We went over parts we thought were good. We did not get any pictures of the first progression. So I took some pictures of the script pages with the stage directions on so I can talk about them instead. 

At the start Ariel (Emily/Jake) walks from centre stage to DSR and pulls down a switch that will make the music stop. They then reach into the crisp packet and chew on the crisp. Katurian makes a flinch towards that direction as she cannot see because she has the hood over her head. Ariel then walks to UPL and takes another bite, when Katurian flicks her head in the direction this time, Ariel almost realises they’re not meant to be there and attempts to walk silently to the chair and sit down on it. then takes another bite of a crisp. This creates comedy straight away. Because this play is black comedy, we want to tell the audience almost straight away that it’s okay for them to laugh so to do this we have to create more humour than uneasiness, for now anyway. 

This is where it starts to become a little more dark because it’s the first time we hear about what’s in Katurian’s stories. When Ariel moves the chair round to the other side of Katurian he is agitated and disgusted. Because we know what the story was and how it relates to the child murders so we try and show that. This is where Ariel really starts to build up anger and Tupolski almost brushes this off because he is used to Ariel’s behaviour. 

For a task, we had to talk to our ‘other’ about our character and go through tone’s we should use. I also wanted to do a little bit more research on the main characters so I had a bit more background. 

Katurian: A guy who writes incredibly gruesome stories involving children, who are often abused. His cruel imagination has evolved from his parents abusing his brother in the room next door to his bedroom to make him a better writer. When he found out about this, he killed both his parents and looked after his brain damaged brother. He is then arrested and unaware of what they’re accusing him of, and is almost innocent. 

Tupolski: The lead detective and the ‘good cop’ in the interrogation, or… so we think. Intelligent, quirky, sardonic, funny despite the police brutality. Cold and uncaring, he sees himself as detached from the people he aims to save, shocking his younger partner Ariel. We may be changing this to a female character but the qualities will stay the same.

Ariel: A brutal and vicious detective who is has a strong hatred to any commits a crime against children because of the abuse he received as a child. The bad cop, or… so we think. More open with anger, fierce and eager to torture anyone on the wrong side of the law. 

Michal: Katurians brain damaged brother who was tortured by his parents to make Katurian a better writer. He is also taken to jail for questioning with his brother because they share there living space together. Michal is simple with a childlike soul and wouldn’t hurt a fly… maybe. 

LESSON FIVE. 17|10|12. - 'To Be or Not To Be'

We were given a task to learn and perform the famous ‘To Be or Not To Be’ speech. This was a lot harder than the whole group thought it would be. We were firstly given a week,  to learn this, but we were then given an extension of another two weeks because of a teacher training day. 

The way I went around learning the speech was to split it into smaller sections. I highlighted them into different colours. I learn went through from beginning to end learning each section. Once I’d learnt a section, I’d go from the beginning and would repeat the whole speech. This meant that I was a lot more confident on the first part rather than the whole thing. I then continued to watch video’s and listen to different version of actors doing the speech to make sure I had pronunciations of words right as well as giving me an idea of a tone I could use. I found that I focused a lot more on the remembering side of the speech rather than the performance and should probably have taken more time to rehearse the speech properly whilst performing this. As it could've helped me remember the speech as well. 

Poppy

This is my own performance of the speech. I think because most of my acting and performance of the speech was either only a thought which I then tried on the spot or complete improvisation, mixed with nerves, it took away the amount of lines I could remember and how well I could perform them. I started to forget some of the lines which meant the performance started to lack. I am happy that I attempted to put quite a lot more tone in my sentences and create a better start for the performance, even if it did deteriorate  I am most certainly not proud of this performance and agree with the constructive critism in the review. 

Kelly

Kelly did an edited version of the speech which means she moulded the speech so she was more comfortable with it. She cut out lines or sections that she found more difficult or weren't as important meaning she could focus more on the performance as the lines came more naturally to her. I think she did a good job with this although I think it’s not clear if some lines she simply forgot or were meant to be cut out. I really think she managed to keep a good clarity of voice maintained throughout. I thought the first line did not have the right tone for the piece, but she picked up a good tone as she went along. It is hard to make the first line your own or original because it has been performed so many times before. I think Kelly managed to pull of a really good performance and I'm very proud of her. 

Matt

I really liked the first half of Matt's speech. I like how he started it laying on his back. I thought he really nailed the facial expressions as well. I think he could've spent longer on the floor as he stood up quite quickly and then just paced around which was very distracting from the performance. Once he forgot lines it was clear his performance was going to slide down a bit. Which was a shame because he did really well with the pronunciation of the first half. He managed to get certain tones for different sentences which meant he was conveying the message of the speech well. He started to break up sentences and the general flow of the performance stopped. It think if he had continued the way the first half had gone and not had as many nerves about the speech the would've been very well done. 

Chris

I think Chris had a very confident start and he had a clear voice but at some points you weren't sure if he fully understood the meaning behind the words. This was more when he started breaking up the sentence structure and taking longer pauses between each. I really like how he decided to sit down in the middle of it, which added levels but I'm not sure whether he put it there to cover up thinking about the next line or whether to show a change in mood. I think Chris did well to remember the amount of lines he did but could've maybe put more thought into the performance side of it, just like I should've, because it might of helped his fluidity and understanding of the lines. 

 Emily

I liked Emily's starting position and how she tilted her head to either side on the 'to be or not to be' line. I think she probably should've stayed on the floor a little longer, she looked a lot more comfortable there. There were moments when she was about to get up but decided not to which showed she was probably improvising the movement. Emily was one of two people in the group to get through the entire speech give or take a few missing lines. But I think because of this, Emily's began to lose performance qualities as it got to further on in the speech and you could tell she was mainly focusing on what line was next and just trying to get through the speech. I think if she worked more on performing the speech it could gain her confidence with monologue's (as I know they aren't her favourite) because she would be able to perform a very difficult speech as well as know all the lines to it. 

LESSON FIVE. 17|10|12. - 'Freeze Frames' (unfinished)

We were to create a variety of freeze frames for a photographer that came in. Our first stimulus was:

Romeo and Juliet: 
Our first freeze was to show a fight scene so Jake and Chris was to show the violence between two sides. Because this was a freeze frame they needed to show a lot more emotion in there face as there was no movement, so it could only be showed through body language and facial expression. Ciara and Emily were to show how it was an almost unwanted battle, by being the people trying to stop and pull them apart. I was a dead person to show that murder had already taken place and that is was a serious fight that had already affected people. 

I really liked the lighting we used for this as well, as it meant that it showed each side in a different colour which created an idea of good or bad. You can also see Emily’s face in this image a lot more. I really like how it shows more than just ‘stop fighting please’ but also suggests that’s she’s trying to make Chris question his actions like ‘is it worth it?’ I think Jakes look shows the clear determination he has to kill Chris where as Chris’s shows how he is more defending that attacking. 

Our second freeze frame was showing a more important figure entering - Matt - and with him a guard - Kelly. We did this to show the reaction of the two fighters when they came in. 

Our third freeze frame was a remake of our ‘burden’ image but to fit the situation of Romeo’s love for Juliet and the difficulties of being from different families. We looked in different directions. Ciara looked up to show hope, I looked down to show the frustration of holding back the emotion. 

Then we looked at Slavery:

We used a tower structure to show how slavery had trapped us all. Me and Chris we more partly out but had the end of chains around are wrists. This was a way to show how even though we were partly out, we were still being attached to the slavery as if it was really hard to escape from. Jake and Ciara we sat on the top of this to give it levels and create a better overall image. Kelly and Matt we sat nearer the floor, you could only see Matt’s face through the gap Kelly left for him, which gave the image a denser feel. We were at first told to look down to show the sadness and depression of the image. This was good and created a interesting image. However, when we were told to look up at a certain point, it showed how we were still holding on, as if there was hope. This created a bigger impact from the image because then me and Chris could pull more on the chains and it then looked more as if we were trying to escape the slavery trap.