LESSON EIGHT - 15|5|13 - 'Berkoff - Lunch'

At the beginning of this lesson, Ciara discussed how she felt uncomfortable continuing with the script. We came to the arrangement that she would do the beginning part of the script with us but then we would diminish her characteristic and continue the play with 3 members of the cast, and she would be doing a monologue instead.

Although this does cause an issue as we now have to rethink previous idea's we had involving four members, we will be continuing and I will have to show hints of the suppressive emotion at times it is necessary, but I will focus on the confident aspects of my character.

We are now looking at the part where the character are communicating. This is where we have decided to push Ciara out as it shows that once the man has started talking, my main worry is over. This could show that the woman's only fear was if the man felt the same attraction she did, and once that feeling was reciprocated she no longer felt need to be shy or restrict herself, and therefore I could continue talking for myself. By me physically pushing Ciara out of the picture it shows the audience how I am now the superior train of thought and the doubt remains out of sight for now.

While doing the naturalistic talking about how it's a lovely day, Jake and Matt have a choreographed conflict where Matt is trying to be polite and Jake just wants to sit down next to me. I don't make any reaction to this movement as the battle is happening inside the man's head and I want the audience to understand that the woman is only really seeing what the man is saying, rather than the dynamic battle of the thoughts. To show this, I stare forward instead of at him, this removes the possibility of confusion within the audience as they understand I cannot see the physical battle, this element also creates humour as I am unaware of the constant battle the man is going through.

We struggled with thinking of a way to split up the 'overlapping' analysing each other, so are first step was to divide the lines so we knew who was saying what and the queue for their next line, so the order we came up with was..

Jake: Blue eyes
Me: Blue eyes (changed as both Jake and Matt's eyes are blue)
Matt: Nice
Me: Nice
Matt: I like that
Me: Hair dark soft
Jake: Fullness in lips
Matt: Soft
Me: Hands, strong, big
Matt: Legs crossed
Jake: Skirt shirt
Me: Worrying thoughts, eyebrows, nose
Jake: Darker recesses leading to the various succubi and incubi swarming in her panties
Me: Mouth avaricious, devouring
Matt: Those gardens of cotton roses
Me: Like to be - now

Jake: A child wandering through hot gardens
Me: who is he - what does he - how does he
Matt: those smelling summer times
Me: Bird-like - hawk-like predator
Matt & Jake: I love her

My tone when saying 'worrying thoughts' should be different from when I say the lines about attraction. As I'm saying it as if I notice him looking at the show of my legs whilst crossed. This gives the audience I chance to see that I still have traits of the submissive characteristics even though Ciara has left the stage.

Before Matt and Jake say 'I love her' we all move our heads in synchrony to the top of DSL to show a possibility of further chemistry after analysing each other.

We then wanted to move the movement further, and we thought that Jake should take over the speech, but we wanted to remove Matt so he was where Jake was behind the both of us. Having the characteristic that's not at the surface of the person behind and in the middle of the man and the woman, allowed them to easily interject and terminate the conversation or attraction that starts to happen, or if it is Matt (suppressive) that is at the surface Jake can take over and bring the attraction back with ease.

So whilst Matt says 'the sea is calm today', in synchrony we move our arms across the horizon as if we're pointing at the sea, and Jake can then push Matt off the seat and take his place. We then end with our faces only inches from each other, showing the attraction, clarifying Jake taking over the position in order to pursue the woman further.. I then use my next line to break the tension and discuss something else.

The next page we want to continue using synchronised movements in order to add movement that isn't to visually distracting but still adds the physical aspect that fulfils the traits of Berkoff's method. But we are thinking of adding these in during the holiday rehearsal, and moving on with the script and adapting it by cutting large chunks out of it.

LESSON SEVEN - 8|5|13 - 'Berkoff - Juxtaposition in Script'

Within the script we juxtapose between speaking our thoughts, and speaking to one another. This lesson we wanted to establish how we would differentiate between the two.

As my characteristics are ones that follow the dominate side, I want to show the clear contrast between mine and Ciara's characteristics, as although we want to show that she is eager too, mine she's the more 'active' character, and hers the submissive. To show this through my thoughts, I will be adjusting the tone dependant on the thought, but the pace will probably be faster as I am excited and eager to talk the man and I want to reflect that in the thoughts by putting forward the honest persistence she has. The tone of this is key, as Ciara is also persistent so retract herself away from the situation, she will also have quite a fast pace, but she will use a more downhearted tone as she thinks she's stupid for thinking about him. He persistence is not aimed at talking to him, but aimed at stopping me. This is where humour can be produced for the suppression and ignorance I have of Ciara's characteristics shows the audience where the story is going to lead.

As I am talking, I will slow my pace down to seem more calm and collected in order to show how I am building a façade for the man. This becomes ironic when later on I say I don't want my name to be printed so men can imagine me, because I'm allowing myself to be imagined by the man to be something I'm not. Such as, interested: 'please do' (when he asks to sit down), and by showing that, I make myself appear available when later, it's discovered I'm married. By adding this flirtatious and eager side to the character it shows how the events following aren't necessarily harassment as she wanted attention from him from physical attraction. Using the calm voice also provides the contrast between the spoken thoughts and dialogue with the male making it easier for the audience to establish what the characters know and the extra information they are being told by a specific character. 

LESSON SIX - 1|5|13 - 'Berkoff - Duality'

Duality is presenting conflicting emotions, characteristics or feelings of one person through the use of multiple people. This is an element that will be included in 'Lunch' to help add physicality to the performance.

First we had to create 3 movements in which we get over each other, so we had created me doing a leap frog jump of Emily, Ciara cartwheeled over Emily, the last is where I fireman lift Emily over Ciara as she is curled on the floor.

We then had to create 3 movements to get under one another, so one move was where Ciara pulls Emily out from in between her legs. The second, Ciara walks towards me and weaves around mine and Emily's hands that are held together creating a 'spiral' effect. Then the final is where Emily sat on my side and as I role one direction she goes over backwards and Ciara steps over me and ends up in between myself and Emily.

Then, we had to combine the two sets of movement in a way that was fluid. Then, we had to add dialogue and create a two sided argument and use facial expression, tone and body language to show conflicting personalities. We decided to focus on 'agoraphobia' which is the fear of going outside. Here is the video of the end product:

I like the fluid style of movement, and I think that in small doses it will provide a aesthetically pleasing performance, as at times the language in 'Lunch' needs to be focused on rather than the movement, so finding times where the movement won't be as much of a distraction will allow the audience to see a less static performance.

Me and Ciara decided to incorporate a battle of emotions through movements at the very start, she wants to leave and I want to stay to see if the man will talk. We create a short running & pulling sequence and used the weaving motion while the boys have lines about not wanting us to go. As this is fairly near the start it gives something interesting to see straight away, and gives them a chance to realise the performance is a constant battle of emotions. It also provides humour in a very visual way which is different to the Stanislavsky style we did for 'The Pillowman' which was through the witty humour and by using humour based through the 'what if' rather than physical attributions that Berkoff provides in 'Lunch'

LESSON FIVE - 24|4|13 - 'Berkoff - Vocal Workshop'

Sir made us stand in a circle and project a humming noise for as long as we could. This was because we were going to focus on ways to develop our vocal's in a way that fits the style of Berkoff's exaggerated and excessive tones that help to define and determine the meaning of his poetical writing style.

We had to produce a humming noise, but alter the pitch and projection to fit a certain emotion. This made us think more about the undertones of what we were actually projecting from our mouths. This is something I will be using whilst choreographing my tone in 'Lunch' so I can pick a correct intonation to help decipher the poetic language. By using a tone that suggests something more than the words themselves, it'll make it easier for the audience to follow. This is different to Stanislavsky, as we are bringing any subtext to surface, and my tone will not be a sarcastic as I had to make in 'The Pillowman' because I am speaking my thoughts which will obviously have a more truthful dialogue.

We were then given the dialogue speech:

"Do you drive? Do you speed

That my Volvo

Slip into the back seat

Do you like the leather on the wheel?

It feels like dead skin wrapped around metal"

Working with Mr Chipp, we devised a quick piece where we returned sentences. I elongated the 'Vol' in 'Volvo' to show how I was proud of my car in which I was allowing him to look at. I also said 'slip' with a fast pace to mimic the meaning of the word. Sir then responded with an uninterested tone, as my car is clearly not to his taste, so everything I say is said with the intent of showing how proud I am of my car which is why I insist on asking him the question. I raised the pitch halfway through the word 'wheel' to mimic the shape and emphasise how interesting I find the car. This is similar to the previous exercise in the way I can incorporate it into 'Lunch' but here I was able to develop the technique through practice of a different piece of text.

I've linked this style into the line where I say 'soon, quickly' as I drag out the 'soon's' to emphasise eagerness and then for 'quickly' I increase the pace to mimic the speed in which I want some communication to happen with the man. This shows the audience that there is a side of the woman that is desperate to become in contact with this man providing the audience to see the fighting conscience behind the woman which provokes humour and a chance to relate to similar feelings they may have had by showing a visual representation of the the battling thoughts. 

LESSON FOUR - 17|4|13 - 'Lunch - Page One'

As we are self directing the play, I wanted to make sure that the movements created were constantly bringing the true meaning of the subtext forward. This is because the language that Berkoff uses is very poetic, and although is very interesting - we want the audience to understand the feelings of the characters, if not by vocal, by actions.

We started to play around with the idea that if Ciara (suppressive emotion) starts behind the confident being, it shows that the knowledge of this man observing the woman brings out the shyness, so we started by allowing Ciara to lunge out behind me showing this. As we do not make contact with the boys until the second page, we decided it would be best to create the movements as two separate duality pieces. Therefore the boys choreographed movement that suited them, and me and Ciara did the same. This allowed us to focus on our emotions and reactions rather than bouncing of the boys actions.

For most of the first page we stay sat on the bench, this shows how we feel the man should be the one to initiate the conversation. This is supported by when Ciara pushes my face after I say 'turn around' as she's telling me to be patient. This makes it clear to the audience that the feeling between both man and woman of wanting to talk is mutual and produces slight humour as the shy sides of each character restricts progression of interaction.

On 'poor beast' Ciara slaps the top of my head. This can show how I am beating myself up in the head about what he actually is. This also presents very clearly to the audience within the first page that me and Ciara are very conflicting emotions of the same person.

On 'he wants to' - I walk my fingers along Ciara's leg to show want the sexualised thoughts the woman is having. Ciara then cuts of this thought by lifting my hand and putting it over my mouth and saying 'talk', creating humour as the cut of is clearly the battle of the characteristics and their thoughts of what the man should be thinking. It also sets a tone for the play because there are a lot of sexual innuendo's from both male and female character, hinting at the sexual thoughts from the beginning makes the final result later on in the play not seem to unrealistic to the audience if their thoughts were fairly sexual from the beginning.

The stage direction said 'woman moves as if to leave', so me and Ciara wanted to create a bit of movement that showed duality and battling emotions. We stand up irritated on 'dumbstruck' and start walking on 'dead'. I run in front of Ciara as if to stop her, I then pull her in, as if I am trying to push her back into myself, but instead she weaves around me, but I still have control on her arm and therefore try to pull her back but she is also pulling. By this time the boys utterance should have finished in time for Ciara to say 'too late too late' and then as the more dominate characteristic, I pull Ciara back as we walk underneath are arms and finish where we started. This is definitely more visually interesting to watch as we do not get up from the bench until this point, it shows how active both thoughts of both woman and man are upon their first meeting. By ending up in the same position before walking away, it shows how it was only the shy thought taking over wanting to leave the situation but that the dominate characteristic won and managed to stay standing before moving on in the script.

For the rest of the lesson, we went over the movement separately until they were very slick, before joining them together and making sure it all fitted. We thought that it was a good start as the movement from me and Ciara prevented the performance from becoming static, and wasn't making the performance look messy which was our only fear.

We will continue to work on the script once we have completed some more workshops that will help provide idea's and give motivation and inspiration for what we can do in our performance and keep it at the strong standard we started it at.

LESSON THREE - '27|3|13' - 'Berkoff - Lunch'

As we want to do two more performances by the end of the year, we knew that this one would be approaching fast. Sir decided that if he gave us the script now we'd be able to incorporate anything we learn in small workshops into our performance.

We were given the script 'Lunch' written by Steven Berkoff himself. Altogether it is about 20 minutes long, but we only need to do at least 12 - 15 minutes of it. The plot is of a chance meeting of a man and woman at a beach, and the thoughts behind the physical attraction, that leads them to talk and engage in more promiscuous thoughts and actions on a beach. This play is very contrasting to 'The Pillowman' as it is definitely more light-hearted and the comedy is meant to be surface rather than an uncomfortable humour that was present for the black comedy we did for Stanislavsky.

Another reason we were receiving in this script is there is a clear sense of duality in the lines. We decided the submissive and dominate duality would be good to play on, as that allows the movement to reflect the feelings of either shy or confident character. Having two people play one person means not only can there be physical interaction between the person's thoughts but the man and woman and gives a chance for dominate and submissive to clash in an entertaining way to produce humour and interest into the thoughts of everyday civilians as they meet by chance.

The Cast: 

Woman: 

     Poppy (Me)    

                                                       

 Ciara Woodcock

Man:

                                         Matt Goodband   

                                           Jake Bower

                 
                                                   


As Jake was missing during this lesson, myself Matt and Ciara decided to go through the script and split the Man and Woman's lines up into the categories of submissive and confident. For this we looking at chances where the submissive character could be pushed away for comedic effect, and the submissive to take over with their confident and over sexualised view of the other person.

It was decided that Me and Matt would play the submissive parts and Jake and Ciara the confident parts. This is based on what takes our personal appeal and seemed to fit better.

The scene starts of with the woman sat on a bench looking over at the sea, and the man entering from backstage, me and Ciara would do synchronised movements that resemble the emotion we are portraying. This allows the audience to engage with the characteristics of the emotions immediately whilst the man battles with his own idea's of the woman's physical appearance. Matt attempted to define between the two personalities without Jake by changing his posture and his vocal intonation, and made the pitch lower to resemble a smooth sexualised tone.

Next week, when Jake returns we will be able to develop the first page more adding in more of Berkoff's methods of physical movement. 

LESSON TWO - 20|3|13 - 'Berkoff Research'

Steven Berkoff:

Born in London (1937), he studied drama and mime in London and Paris entering a series of repertory companies before forming himself: ‘The London Theatre Group’ in 1968. His plays have had many adaptations meaning they’ve been performed in a variety of countries, in many languages. He starred, directed and toured many adaptations such as: Agamemnon after Aeschlylus, Poe’s The Fall of the House of Usher, Shakespeare’s Coriolanus, playing title roles such as Richard II, Hamlet and Macbeth. Some of his own plays include ‘East, West, The Secret Love Life of Ophelia and Decadence. Berkoff was well known for playing evil characters, which he said ‘all the best actors took on the roles of the villains’

Berkoff used a challenging style of physical theatre more commonly known as ‘total theatre’. He is well known for being one of the ‘major minor contemporary dramatists in Britain.’ Berkoff focused on theatre of self-performance, which intersects between the public and the artist.

Berkoff’s plays often have very metaphorical linguistic twists that enable the actor to consider every height or depth imaginable to create meaningful language. He takes language and creates a roller coaster which the actor can take the audience on for a more unique performance. This could be by continuously juxtaposing between fact and fiction, euphemism and dysphemism, but Berkoff also juxtaposes the opposing worldviews the characters in the play might obtain. The character can often have a fabricated nature particulary in the way of perceiving reality which is suddenly made manifest to the audience which recognise the way the language is being put across contrast with either true meanings or what they know.

The effect most of Berkoff’s plays have is that continual uncertainty of significance. He is able to question the audiences belief with his language and perception the characters have as a vehicles of accurate communication and somewhat universal truth.

There is not only a very detailed language style - but the physical side is very exaggerated. It is a stylized mime, exaggerating the facial expressions. It allows the actor to externalise internal emotions while using third person address, rising up ideas of subconscious thoughts or subtext. Rhythm is used through the voice and body to create a emphasise every moment with thought, this allows a more abstract performance of the voice and ensemble where there is physicalisation of objects because this pushed the boundaries of his performances. 

Some of Berkoff’s main influences are Laurence Olivier, Edmund Kean, Bertolt Brecht, Antonin Artaud and Jean Louis-Barrault.