23|10|13 - Open The Door - Interaction

The last part of the devising process was to decide where and how we were going to interact with the audience. We discussed a place where we could each character could talk to the audience. The places we decided were

-Before the Journalist's speech - to set the reasoning of the piece
-The Army Guard - to give his side
- The Child's - Journalist to take control and get the audience to create the scene the child was last in
- Photographer leading the debate on whether they should take the child or leave it 

For my speech we decided that were going to talk about subjects that related to the teenage audience. These had to be current topics, such as Miley Cyrus's VMA performance and Cheryl Cole's arse tattoo. I would be asking them to raise their hands as this tells them from the beginning of the performance that they will need to stay alert in order to be involved.  We then juxtaposed this by presenting a news report that will not be well known to them, in this case, 'president assad's new regime'. This will make less hands raised and create a bigger point as the first two aren't really life changing stories. We will start the speech of by relating back to the Photographer and state how 'the world is always watching' so we can move on to the fact that you chose what you see and what you ignore. 

The Army Guard will be talking to the audience about how he is not a monster and that he has his own reasons and you can't judge the soldier for being scared of the child because of the affects the war had on his little sister. 

The second part of interaction that I participate in is when the child looks up, which is the first sign of movement throughout the piece. The Photographer asks what the child is looking at and I say she is remember. This will then be the most challenging part of interaction as we will be asking the auditions to create their own responses. We had to think of many different variations of what they could respond so we could lead them into a path in which they would be able to come up and create an image. The goal was to find out why she had blood on her hands, so as long as she was trying to stop someone from dying, I would have an idea of where I was going. I would bring the people up by the hand and give the character to them, I'd then ask them how they'd stand if they are that character in order to get them thinking and putting themselves in the characters position. 

The photographers lead the main debate, but it is also controlled by myself as the Journalist as well. We put the decision into the audiences hands because we want them to get to grips with the real life situation of having this problem and what they should do about it. We will split them into two groups, to side with either the Photographer or the Journalist. We will then in these groups create the points so we can have a debate and then decide on the ending so the audience can feel like they have molded the performance and decided the correct ending. 

23|10|13 - Directing - Developing Soundscape

As it was initially Kelly's week to plan something but was unable to attend, I thought I would continue with the idea of the sound scape but use the character relationships to expand on this. I split the cast into three groups and told them what they were to do. 

Emelia and Abbie - (Red & Blue) I created an idea that Abbie would play 'Blue', a friend of Red that was aware of the dangers if you stray from the path. I wanted them to show a friendship, growing up throughout the years. 

James and Med - (Wolf & Huntsman) - I wanted them to developing fighting as I wanted to see how it would look and if it worked well I would perhaps include a fight scene in the final performance. I wanted them to be agile, and I said they could use a wooden stick if necessary. 

Ruby (Granny) Romina, Jess, Megan (Depiction of Women) Sam & Richard (Depiction of Men)- I wanted them to create a travelling scene to Grandmothers house, this would perhaps be used as a transition, I wanted to see Ruby develop her old person persona whilst travelling through, and I wanted the depictions to become creative with movement and how they're reactions and actions support the piece as a whole. 

I let them mainly work independently so they could have fun, this is allowed me to see what they were comfortable doing and what interested them. I made adjustments where they were perhaps not focusing it 
towards an audience. For the performance aspect I made them perform all at the same time whilst doing their piece of the sound scape, as without everyone participating the sound would be too thin. I also think the larger group did well as they then began to think how they could intertwine part of the setting into the sound scape where they would hit the frames together. This is that performance: 

Mr Chipp said if I used three pieces of lighting to highlight the separate pieces of actions, it could actually be performed all at one. This then made me think, do the lighting but make it look less messy by having the actions on a loop so they perform a section of their piece and the next group would do there bit and so forth. However, I could've made it so the centre group did there continuously, but we had the two girls and the two boys do there alternating to show the stereotypical women and men. 

16|10|13 - Directing - Soundscape

For this session I wanted to focus on the mother and her relationship with her child and how she feels about her daughter growing up. As they all seemed really excited at the idea of sound scapes, I decided I would create a workshop that would allow them to develop the sounds. 

I asked Abbie to stand in the centre and create a simple sound that people could develop and add too. I then said that whenever they were ready they could enter the space, they had to walk in a circle around Abbie in the centre, and with their sound they had to move in a different way, whether they crawled or jumped, they decided. The people around the edge of the circle could either join a circle with the same sound and movement, or they could create another circle with a different noise and movement in the opposite direction. The sound had to add to the current sound in a way that it would develop the noise positively. They were allowed to filter in and out when they wanted and this allowed the overall sound to change gradually and their were moments where the sound was very thick and sounded very nice. 

After doing this for a while, I stopped them, I then replaced Abbie with Emelia, who is playing Red. I wanted to create a tone that was darker, so I told them to bare that in mind when entering the circle. Giving them a focus allowed them to elaborate more on sounds and feelings they get. Because the circle was so adaptable, if they didn't think the noise was on the right track, they had the power to change it and develop it with their own input. 

After this, I placed Mia, who is playing the mother, in the center of the space, and told the rest of the group that I wanted them to act it more. Instead of just sounds, people could talk, shout things at the mother. Whilst still in a circle they could also have physical contact with the people on outer layers of the circle and this could effect the noise they decide to make. There was a moment where I really liked the sound. I told everyone to remember what sound they were doing and that I was going to tell them to stop, and then start again doing the exact same noise. This helped them remember their sound so they could replicate it when necessary. 

The improvising aspect of this workshop was refreshing and it was great to see everyone be creative in the way they move and how they sounded. We made them vary the tones in their voices as well as the pitch, texture and tone of the overall sound. 

As they had their sound memorised, I made Mia sit in a chair, and they rest had to fit the familiar freeze frame around her. We then replicated the sound scape around her, building it up having people join in canon. I then wanted to demonstrate how we could alter the overall sound slightly, so I wanted them to transition into a new position create a new sound. I wanted Mia to show the character of the mother, so I made her hold a sheet to represent a baby. The sound scape tone juxtaposed with the mothers distressed tone, which symbolised the over reaction of the mothers inability to accept her daughter growing and the passive attitude she has towards this. This is the video clip of what we performed to the rest of the group: 

16|10|13 - Open The Door - Speeches

We were told to create or finish the speech for the character we had played the most. As I have always played the Journalist I had to finish the speech that we started before. I used the story that we decided from before so the final product was this: 

Since checks file July 2010 the regime has systematically and brutally repressed, silenced any and all opposition. The rebel…corrects self… Anti-government forces have used this brutality as a justification for their own ferocity and despite the furrowing of international brows the UN seems to be implicitly in agreement by the inactions and silence: the ends justify the means.

Or do they... *click* Me and my colleague went out with caution *pause* knowledge that the rebel forces are no longer holding back with their brutal methods. This meant we saw a number of killi *pause* tragic deaths.  These people... civilians, are trapped in a constant warzone. *pause*

Families, such as one witnessed yesterday, torn apart *pause* a horrific event. A man shovelling of rubble, after an attack by local rebels, found a child, his own child. The way his face dropped was heart wrenching as he collected the torn*pause* mutilated body. The face must’ve only been recognisable to him for the explosion had discarded her right side of face and face upper torso. Still bleeding he walked... stumbled on. He sang a song, and although inaudible to myself, he continued to sing, through the pain and tears, looking forward.

We followed this man as he reached the house of a woman, unsure of what to do her quick response led her to clear her table and attempt to resuscitate the child. The father stood back, shaking.. trembling. The likely hood that both these civilians knew the ultimate outcome of death was certain. She gave tried everything but in the end, they were unsuccessful.

This was just one of many gruesome and heart breaking stories witnessed by myself and my photographer. A scene we will never forget, but it surely won’t be the last we see. Anarchy reining supreme, cutting a bloody path through the civilians, holding back at no cost. And we are simply watching it happen. 

Mr Chipp let us rehearse for 15 minutes which allowed us to think of certain tones for different sections. We then performed them to each other which allowed us to give constructive criticism. This allowed us to develop our speeches, I was told to add more emotion when talking about the child, I also got told to create more corrections and that a tone should add to the reporter character by being more formal. He also wanted us to add the interactive aspect of our speeches that would get the audience to engage as we would talk directly to them. 

Mr Chipp then decided that this would be a good time to give out parts as the structure of the entire play had been set and we were now going through adding the interaction and we'd need to focus on this in our characters which would let us develop our characters personally. 

The Cast:

The Journalist: (both casts)

Myself - 

Photographer :
Matt Goodband - 

& Emily Giles - 

Army Guard:

Chris Doyle - 

& Alex Mellor - 

Sir did used my speech as a base and then improvised interaction so I could get an idea for the tone in which I should talk to the audience. This was really helpful to see how he wanted it to be done as I got an idea of the language that would be best to use. 

I now had time to look into my character as it was set. We researched Maria Colvin, an american journalist who died in the conflict in Syria. Aspects I wanted to make me character were 

-controlling. I wanted my character to be the person that takes the decisions and makes the final choices. 

-caring. I wanted her to look beyond just her job. She connects with stories and people on a more emotional level, but I don't want to make her to over emotional. 

-mature. I wanted her to have a sense of knowledge that appears throughout. 

I'm now going to add these aspects when performing to create a stronger performance with a more believable character. 

9|10|13 - Directing - Opening

I started the session by doing some team activities that would create trust in each other. The had to walk around the space, and whenever anyone liked they could shout 'I'm falling!' and the rest of the group would have to run over catch them and lay them on the ground. This activity was fun and it allowed them to bond with the others members of the group letting them trust each other. It took a while for them all to feel comfortable to start falling as soon as they said it, but once they managed it they had a lot of fun.

Because this went well, me and Kelly wanted to see how they would cope with a challenge. We wanted to try the alternative 'I'm flying!' where the person would be picked up and held as high as possible in a flat position. We understood more if people didn't want to this option, so we made it optional, Ruby was very enthusiastic and allowed us to demonstrate the position, which we made sure was clear to everyone what needed to be supported and the correct way to place her down. 

After this we allowed them to walk around the space, and any one was allowed to shout either option, and the rest of the group would have to carry out which one was mentioned. This allowed them to become focused for the session as they had to listen out to one another and then to carry out the process of falling or flying safely. 

We then decided to work on the freeze frames that we had created at the very end of the last session. We did some more discussion on how we felt about the script, Me and Kelly wanted to know what they thought of the script in order to give them the most enjoyable time in the creative process. We told them some of our idea's for soundscapes and shadow theatre and they were all enthusiastic, which gave us a confident go ahead to trial them out. 

The first freeze-frame we made sure everyone knew why they were stood where they were and why they were stood there, I made them say out in character the answers to both of these. It allowed them to explore their characters and let me and Kelly know where people needed expansion on the purpose of their character. We then created a movement piece where people could only move if they were pushed or pulled in a creative way to another position on the other side of the stage in order to create the freeze frame of the final position. This was just a simple way to get the cast focused on their character and character relationships and exploring creative ways of using each other to motivate there movements. 

9|10|13 - Open The Door - The Child

As the child is now the issue, we were told the purpose of this scene was to debate leaving the child or taking the child with us. Having this as the stimulus for the scene we created a large brainstorm where we debated why we should leave or keep the child and the argument that would be specific to that. This was helpful to create a more structured argument scene as we would be able to hit the correct points instead of going off track. This felt like an important part of the devising process so we could be as concise and just elaborate on the points we felt put it across the best. 

I worked with Chris for this section, I played the Journalist and he played the Photographer. We created a piece which followed the argument structure making sure the Journalist's best interest was the child and the Photographers was the story. Here's what we managed to create: 

After running the piece, we were told we had the correct tone, especially when I try and avoid the discussion of her dangerous side by asking for water and blankets. It was decided that I would also not leave the child when talking to Chris, which I agree with as we want to show her connection. He also reminded us of the pictures he told us to research of children caught in the warfare. This made it easier to use stanislavski's 'what if' and imagine this child to resemble one of these pictures in order to get a correct response. As a female I would also attempt to help this child as part of a motherly instinct. 

This scene is important as it's sets up the debate that the whole piece is trying to put across: if a child covered in blood turned up at your doorstep, would you let it in? 

2|10|13 - Directing

Working with the members of N2C, Mr Chipp commissioned us to set work on directing some performances which we would then showcase to a public audience. Myself and Kelly decided to pair up as we have a knowledge that our desire of a performance to look is very similar.

It was then agreed that the stimulus of our pieces were to be the Grimm's Tales, we had the book with the collection of the Grimms Brothers stories and dramatisations. When looking through these I felt the one I had the most idea's for was 'Little Red Cap'. This is from my previous knowledge of finding out the discovery of the darker version of Little Red Cap, and the underlying sexual meanings of how woman should not stray from the path, the depiction of the aggressive male, and the cloak being a symbolism of womanhood. It was from this that I began to do my work researching before the first session with the group that Mr Chipp choose for me. 

I began looking at other dramatisations of Little Red Cap for inspiration and came across a few. 

'Big Bad Wolves'( http://vimeo.com/769224 ) is a comedy deciphering the underlying messages of the the story and highlighting the flaws that were adapted in to making it less realistic and more accessible as a fairy tale with a moral for young children. I wanted to take these aspects and use them in my performances to make it more shocking for the audience.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WH_llv6IWKM after watching this video that included no speaking, I thought that the silhouette effect gave a very eerie effect and this inspired me to use an aspect of shadow theatre at some point in my piece, perhaps in sections where I want to remove a cliché expectation of the familiar story.    

I also looked at the musical 'Into The Woods' by Stephan Sondheim, and was really inspired by his use of music to reflect the emotions of the characters and bring out some of the subtext. It is this rhythm that I wanted to adapt into my own performance to give it fluidity and engage the audience by having phrases that become more memorable from the rhyming and rhythmic aspect. 

After doing this research I decided to create a workshop for the first session, this is a vlog reflecting on the workshop and how it went:

2|10|13 - Open The Door - The Guard

This day we were adding the first piece of debate is the scene in which a Government Army guard is here to escort the Photographer and Journalist from the area. We wanted this scene to be fast pace with high energy serious scene. This will pick up the pace of the overall performance as the last scene is the Journalist reading the story, which is very low energy. By placing a high impact scene we will be able to hold the attention of our target audience of secondary school. 

We needed to return the Photographer back into the room so continued the humor &had a small scene in which they attempt to return the used tissue back to the Journalist. They go on to discuss the story and here's where the first bit of conflict takes place.

I worked with Matt to create a scene where he asked for which story I was going to use which would cause tension as he doesn't have the correct photo's for the story in which the Journalist wanted to use. By doing this we can see a work disagreement that is caused by the emotional connection the Journalist has made about the story needing to present the whole truth. This disagreement is disrupted by a large bang from outside which represents the war zone outside.

 This is when the Army Guard appears by knocking on the door. To open the door we opened it cautiously. When he entered he told us to pack out things to go, we made him connect to the outside war zone by opening the window and being ready to shoot.We created more violence in the scene by making the Army Guard grab the Photographer which gives a higher impact and more hectic feel to the scene.

The debate between the Journalist and the Photographer here was that the Photographer wanted to stay and record this story and aims to persuade the Journalist to stay. They come together as a team to tell the Army Guard a new plan to meet them in two days instead. This is where the Journalist takes charge, and because the Photographer has to persuade the Journalist is shows who holds the most power between the two. 

While the Army Guard is present, the next piece of conflict is presented when there is a knock on the door. At first we decided that we should act as if it was a rebel which would create a bigger juxtaposition when the door opens to reveal a child. 

We decided that with the previous scene in which P & J over the photo matching the story that the Journalist has developed a connection with these war surroundings. This is why the Journalist removes the aim of the Army Guard's gun to provide a kinder hand to check the child is unarmed. 

This scene presents one side of the harsh world that is going on outside the Journalists room, by doing this we bring a contrast of the safe world that the audience has been allowed to see, and stepped it up with the intimidating soldier figure. We also got to see more of the Photographer and Journalists character when presented with conflict.

We used the same process of creating two different approaches and blending the best parts, such as the comedy at the knock of the Army Guard in order to make a short relief between two serious scenes.