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.