26|2|14 - Site Specific - 'Find Me' - Stairs

This scene was for myself, as the second stage of Verity's mental decline. To continue the theme of Verity breaking rules, we decided that the idea of her putting up paintings on the wall that gradually become more eerie would be a good way to look into aspects of Verity's life outside of the hospital that may have affected her. 

I decided that I would go through my half of the script and find lines that were actually used in scenes, and instead paint those scenes and say those lines. The images would progressive get worse bringing up bad memories that 'haunt' Verity. the progression of lines were: 

'I wish I bought my party dress, I love dressing up. I just want to look pretty' 
-this relates to how Verity is an ordinary girl and still has these ideal wants in her life while she is stuck in a hospital nightie. 

'Has the enfant got her napkin on her lap? because that is the polite thing to do! oh good bon bon!' 
-this talks of her time in france with her family, she misses the memory of being able to go to places with her family. 

'Regardes regardes everybody, mums drunk! look everyone! mums drunk!' 
-Using the french shows way the france memory might not be so happy. It also helps to develop the memories Verity has of her family and her mother being an alocholic is not a good sign. 

'Dad! I'm here! Did you miss me?! Dad I'm here did you miss me?!' 
- showing that she feels distant and ignored by her father, the relationship is no longer close and she wishes for it to be closer. 

'You go first, you have to catch me but ahha you can't catch me' 
-this idea of a childrens game is given a new meaning when it becomes the thought of them chasing Verity to be put inside the hospital. To her, she feels as if everyone is chasing her away, to her is feels like no one is trying to catch her. 

'I don't want to go'
- we decided this could mean the parents discussing her being put into the hospital, and Verity not wanting to go. We decided this should be said sincerely, to make the audience sympathise with her and not see her as just a stroppy child. 

'The fire! the beautiful fire! they're going to drown me! they're going to kill me! the bastards are going to drown me!' 
-This will have an image of the chair - the final straw before Verity was admitted to the hospital. At this point we will have the doctors dragging Verity off, to use the Site, I will reach my arms through the bars to show them struggling to contain Verity. 

We also thought about Alex being sat as her doctor, accepting Verity doing wrong with sticking paintings to the walls, asking her questions. Showing their desperation to alter Verity's behaviour in comparison to the last scene. 

Here is the scene in it's first 'draft': 

Development:

With Alex there, we found there the question idea worked, this also meant I was able to work a lot more on my expressions and how I feel towards the answers of the questions and the doctor himself. I felt this created a more eerie feel to the scene as I never answer any of his questions, only progressively become more mentally unstable. 

I decided to work on a variety of tones in order to create a more interesting performance as the movement is limited. I also developed this because I didn't want it to be to static, this meant I worked on using the bannister and the wall in a to and fro creating a zig zag movement up the stairs, which without being too distracting is more interesting to watch. 

We also decided that after I am taken away, the audience will be lead the same way I went. We thought that it would be interesting if we did a 'flashback' moment where we see the younger Verity draw a picture and place it on the wall as a sort of reverse foreshadowing to show that these aspects of Verity's behaviour are a regular occurrence. 

This is the video after the second week: 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vM1F7RMJBIs

and a vlog including the whole of my cast discussing these scenes.  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j9HK3EA7UQA

19|2|14 - Site Specific - 'Find Me' - Village

We decided that as a cast we would have three Verity's, this would mean that in each cast: 

Cast One: Kelly and Chris guide 

Emily: Verity One (first admitted, slight behavourial difficulties) 

Poppy: Verity Two (tantrums more common, behaviour uncontrollable) 

Alex: Doctor One (focused on the look of the hospital rather than the patients themselves) 

Matt: Doctor Two (kind towards the patients with a hint of sexual luring) 

Cast Two: Alex and Matt guide

Abbie: Verity Three (lost control, suicidal) 

Chris: Father and Doctor

Kelly: Mother and Doctor

Mia: Nurse

Richard: Doctor

Using the script, we saw a part that we liked where Verity isolated herself by creating her own world around her. In doing this, we wanted her to have toys surrounding her. We decided to use the space outside the music department as it was wide open, it was also at a junction just near the entrance meaning it would be a good place to start the performance. 

We wanted to show Verity as a younger child, and by using the toys it was reflected. When the doctors enter, we see how this attempting of controlling Verity is unsuccessful. We wanted to develop two types of doctors that would show the failure of the hospitals job on the patients. This is why Matt's approach, seeming like the correct approach, of kindness, it later undermined in the second casts when Verity says a doctor raped her. Alex's approach is harsh, and it is clear that this abrupt and harsh nature will only spur Verity on rather than allow her to calm down. We decided to use the space further and unnerve the audience by having her run through them to use the Site further so she can run up the stairs that are situated behind them. This leaves the doctors on the 'set' to dispute their methods. This also gives a chance for us to break the wall, as we decided to have Chris cough (one of the guides) to stop the argument, as if the hospital puts on a front for the visitors. 

Here is a vlog done with Matt and Emily on blocking this scene and the stairs scene.

Vlog Village&Stairs: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VggwVQJ9Kww 

Development: 
We decided that as the audience walk down the first part of the corridor before they turn onto Verity, that all they should see is a lego house that is perfect. This house will be the 'perfect' of ideal house, but it won't have any windows or doors, representing Verity's inability to escape. 

We worked on ideas of Verity's tone, and when she would be angry, and trying to show anger though different tones. A slow and steady tone that happens when Verity is grabbing the doctors arm holds a lot of power as it shows she's holding back more anger. 

We were able to develop the use of violence and the language between the doctors and Alex had returned for this lesson, in this the clarity of their being a 'head' doctor, and that doctor we decide to portray as the more unfriendly one, we are more understanding of how Verity may not be contained easily if it is not handled by the right person. 

We also decided that having the entire floor covered with toys would be a lot more interesting, especially linking to the line 'you've nearly filled the whole floor'. This shows that there is limitations in Verity's life that she enjoys breaking, is ignorant to the rules or needs of those around her and this can either make the audience dislike her, or take pity as she shouldn't have been taken to such extremes as being placed in a mental facility. 

Here is the Village scene after the two weeks of working on it: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gUu9lyt3Wro&feature=youtube_gdata_player

12|2|14 - Site Specific - 'Find Me' - Introduction

Today we decided that we would be using the script 'Find Me' as a stimulus for our site specific piece. We were all excited and positive about this as we felt out of all the workshops we did, the Find Me task was the most successful and engaging piece. We were split into two casts, myself working with Alex, Matt and Emily and the second cast consisting of Abbie, Kelly, Chris, Mia and Richard. Sir gave my cast the first half of the scrip and the second half the last half. As our separate casts we read our parts of the script then as we were using our school location as our site, went to find places we thought could work to give the feeling of a mental institution. 

The story within 'Find Me' follows the story of the girl Verity Taylor who was admitted to Broadmoor hospital after reoccurring acts or tantrums that became uncontrollable. To fit this into the play, we decided that the first half (my half) would create the background stories that progressive lead up to the second cast, which show reasons and answers to Verity's behaviour and the consequential effects that has on the ending of Verity's life. 

Character Workshop:

Group: Verity's cause for being institutionalised was breaking and setting fire to a chair. The first activity we did was to create 4 freeze frames, for my group it was the idea of what happened before she was placed in the institution. We started by having Verity ignored at the dining table, then moving into her brother and father dragging her on the floor, this then moved into the mother showing desperation into wanting her to be helped, or to become 'normal' and the fourth was the mother being pushed out and verity's head being pushed into a bath. 

We then joined with the other group who worked on what happened to Verity in her time in the institution which consisted of her being raped by a doctor. We were asked to merge the two images, by this we brought in the idea of 'duality' through this we had two Verity's - Abbie and Emily. We made it so that everyone else was a doctor, and through this we could adapt the mother to being a doctor that actually wanted to help and support, but there were restrictions to this. We liked this idea of physical theatre were Verity had no control over the constant analytical pressure she was under and how this might of effected her suicidal ending. 

Individual: Mr Chipp asked us all to lay down and think of a time when you lost control, he then asked us a series of questions that made us develop why we lost control and if we right in that. He then put a chair in the centre of the space, he told us to one at a time come and sit in the chair, from this, he would then ask us a series of questions. The questions had a strong connection to Verity's home life, and in the way they would have dealt with the issue of the broken chair. There was an apprehensive nature to sit on the chair within the group perhaps because we were unaware of how the activity would play out. Sirs tone of questioning changed with each person, focusing on a different aspect, and it was through this that were able to see a variety of ways that doctors or family may have handled the situation. As we all had the emotions within us, when Mr Chipp was asking Matt the questions we all became emotional and they made us feel the guilt and the unknowing nature of the lack of control. From this we felt the three main points were medication, entrapment and blame.  

The idea of medication felt like a way of placing help that should maybe have come from family members with verbal support was being subsidised for drugs that only temporarily become the solution and can be done forcefully. The idea of locking the patients with mental health in an institution raised the point that being removed from society hindered them from making progression to achieving a 'normal' lifestyle, and through this their mental health might actually deteriorate due to the confined space and lack of emotion connections that would be able to make within the hospital. 

Through this we saw entrapment, this idea of being imprisoned physically, mentally and emotionally. By linking to our emotions we felt that loosing control was breaking free from this feeling of being trapped, linking to why Verity might have broke the chair. It is through this we saw the possibility of negative affects the restraining nature of the hospital might have on her as being trapped may only cause her to feel more enclosed resulting in more moments where she feels she must loose control and consequently cause damage. This is because she feels mental imprisonment and her inability to get better whilst in the hospital. Using the hospital itself is a physical place where she cannot escape, and we wanted to reflect this nature in our piece, which felt right when the architecture of our school was actually similar to those of prisons.  

Blame is also a running theme, the parents act as if Verity is the only one to blame which is why they remove responibility completely by putting her into Broadmoor. Verity often finds any opportunity to place the blame onto other people but what we find interesting if there was an aspect of her that knew she was partly to blame. 

Site Exploration:

While walking around the school we identified various amounts of places that we thought were interest, we knew we wanted to use a staircase but we didn't know which would be best, after moving around the school we realised that staircase 2 would be best as it is the most enclosed and dark staircase from where it is situated, as it is near to the entrance of the school building meaning it wouldn't be a far walk for the audience. We liked the space outside of the music department as it had a 'crossroad' feel, applying to the start of Verity's time and the number of directions in which her mental health could've gone. We decided to then use the main staircase in order to transition with the next cast as it allowed the next cast to get there as well as being an accessible point to go to the next place within school. It became apparent that we now had places that we had a clear connection with, it was now the characters within the story that needed development. For this we did workshop. 

4|2|14 - Directing - Final Performance

We brought the cast in for a couple of full run throughs, even though one of our members Sam could not attend them. We went through make sure everyone's lines were slick and ready for the final performance. 

Here is a link to the final performance: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TcqdRL4lahg 

And here is a Over-vlog of the final performance: