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.