4|9|13 - 'Chernobyl'

Two tower blocks were set out in front of us and as the group of 6 we were told to create 3 freeze frames.

1. Off the ground

2. All on the floor - with physical contact

3. On each level. 

After create these three basic steps, we were told to put them together as smooth as we could, this meant adjusting which side we would face, but we kept the initial position, the outcome was this: 

After doing this we were split into 2 groups: Matt, Emily and Alex. Me, Kelly and Chris. 

We were then told to remake that movement in the group of 3. 

After doing this we were shown a visual stimulus of an abandoned Chernobyl fairground, we then had to recreate that setting with ourselves, Matt stood in the middle recreating the hanging drape in the center, this added levels and a certain depth to the beginning. We then moved into the groups. 

We then developed the three freeze frames to fit the story of the Chernobyl incident. To do this we assigned characters, I played the daughter and Chris and Kelly were the mother and father. We had an idea about them dragging me backwards to show the audience that the parents were going against the speech that we fitted. Adding the plastic bag gave a physical representation of the nuclear disaster and the effect. As the parents continue to have speech and they hold the bag behind my face it shows the guilt and responsibility they hold after sending the girl out to the fairground alone. 

This turned out as this: 

The overall effect meant we followed two stories. It was a unique performance because the original movement was not made to specifically fit the story, we adapted the basic movements in order to tell the story, in mine this was where Kelly dragged me back rather than pulling myself back. This is because it could resemble a foreshadowing action of what the mother wish she would've done and the guilt she would've felt. All the actions were very violent in juxtaposition to the words we put with it. This made it more unsettling to watch as well as leaving a lot of unanswered questions. This shows the success of this way of devising. When devising it can be hard to get a unique and interesting way to start a piece, starting away from the piece idea and focus on the movement then add dialogue gives a depth to the piece as there's more to watch as we focus on different meanings at different times. 

After watching each others performances,  Mr Chipp then set both groups to do a realistic scene following a character or couple of characters from the other groups performance.

Alex, Emily and Chris were following the story that myself, Kelly and Chris decided. They approached it from the aspect that I'd gone and not returned from the fair. They were awaiting news but there is now tension from the guilt and self blame on deciding to send her alone. This is when someone calls round to announce they've found the corpse. 

I liked the way they connected with the characters we had left for them, and the naturalistic scene gives the audience a chance to connect with the atmosphere that's left. When the police/doctor comes round to say, you can (or should be able to) feel the atmosphere drop when the news of the found corpse is delivered  This is because so far the information has been shown aggressively and the audience can relate to the confusion. 

Kelly had to leave rehearsal so me and Chris decided to do a doctor meeting where Chris was playing the brother Alex. As the doctor I was giving Chris the bad news of his results. Here is the piece: 

Creating this scene needed research onto the long term effects after the nuclear destruction took place. Finding out that Leukemia was very common afterwards we decided that would be the news. We make the audience feel uncomfortable when Chris questions the doctor because it's such a serious issue and instead of being upset, the character of Alex ends up getting angry and frustrated. The doctor, who if was working at this time would've been giving this news out very consistently throughout the day, we wanted to make it seem as if she was caring, but yet she still had other people to talk too about their results. 

Creating a realistic scene after the more vague movement was a lot easier, because it can allow you to answer some of the questions from the first 'scene' and we also get a better connection with the characters. It also allows a variation in the performance style which can create a better and more engaging performance. 

4|9|13 - 'The Plague'

To develop the groups devising skills, we will be looking at various ways of creating a performance using different techniques and styles. The first way we looked at is 'The Plague' situation created by the famous practitioner 'Artaud'.

We started off the lesson in the office space, we were given a slip of paper with a quote and we then had to enter the space with a character that we decided would have said the quote.

My slip of paper read 'I won't let you fall as low as I have before.' This made me think that my character attempted to be optimistic towards other people, but had the gift of empathy, therefore when other people came into the room, I was able to react to their troubles by trying to offer support. Matt was the first one to enter, and he often started to fall to the ground, this meant that I would attempt to support him up. A lot of my group we very distant when I attempted to walk over to them, this meant that I would become more persistent to help them as I did not want them to feel alone.

Doing this activity made me think more spontaneously about reactions, as there was no story line and only character interactions, it gave me a chance to challenge different ways my character would respond. I attempted various ways such as becoming angry that they would not respond to my help, I just walked away, looked around until I found someone else who needed help. I knew that it was my job to keep everyone up.

The next part of the activity was to create an image using the set of frames Mr Chipp had left for us that also fit to the quotation. We had to create this image whilst in our characters, to do this I went over to the others offering my hand as a guide to show them it was safe. I decided to place myself in the center underneath the frame pushing up, by doing this I was 'not letting them fall.' 


Mr Chipp then introduced the idea that our characters had an infection. The infection would start off as a small rash, as we itch it would bleed. Our internal organs would start to collapse and we then we start to die. We had five minutes to make this transition whilst in our characters. I decided that my character would still continue to look out for others and probably try to forget that I had even contracted the plague, this meant I underplayed my symptoms, instead of itching the rash, I would hold my arm harshly to show the rejection of the idea that I have the plague. We then had to die in the same positions we had created for ourselves in the frame.

We then had to redo the exercise backwards, by doing this it allowed you to analyse the transition differently, I noticed that the bleeding part of the exercise was hard to show, and I realized it would show more on the face. This also gave it challenge, as you had to tone down the fear and pain rather than build up and it was interesting to reverse the typical process. 

We then advanced the exercise to being one person with the plague but we were unaware of who this person was. We had to figure it out. I noticed that Chris was scratching his hand but yet still trying to approach people. He then walked towards Matt who was in the corner and then grabbed his hands and put them around his neck so that Matt would kill him. This is because we were told that it was common knowledge that the disease would not be able to spread from a dead body with the infection, the result of this activity meant that people were pushed together to form relationships complex or simple. After Chris was killed I went to the body as I felt he shouldn't have been alone. We then all knew that Matt had this infection, so we were all weary. I then made it my cause to look after everyone. Emily then suspected that I was a carrier, she then ran at me, and because I was unaware of her thoughts it was unexpected and as a character and personally I was confused and scared as to why she was running up to me. In the moment my reaction was completely linked to Stanislavsky based 'what if?' as I had to truly think how i would move in that situation. 

I can see how this sort of exercise can bring out idea's and space for creativity. It's interesting as everyone has their own back story just from a piece of paper. Not only did it create a unique atmosphere but everyone was reaching out of their comfort zones as we were only certain of ourselves. This was then used to help us create a 30 second speech that followed the story. Being able to produce this much drama within an hour helped us realize that even though we had a vague stimulus, we created our own story lines with the relationships and character developments that could be the basis of a unique drama piece. Although, there are limitations of using this method for devising such as not being accessible to all situations. 

YEAR 13 - Group - 4|9|13

The year 13 group has some slight changes after last year,

Myself, Kelly, Emily, Chris and Matt. We also have a new member Alex! With the new group we will be doing another 3 unit's as well as doing more individual projects!

Poppy Wilcox (Myself): 

Chris Doyle:

                                       

Emily Giles: 

Matt Goodband: 

Kelly Van Den Berg:

Alex Mellor: 

Theatre In Education - 26|06|13 - 'The Survival Guide'

After being commissioned by the school to create a interactive drama about the transitional fears of going from primary school to secondary school, we started immediate research on the typical fears that would occur, where we found: being lost, homework, teachers, bullied, friendships - were the main issues that were feared.

We created the idea of 'The Survival Guide' to give us a chance to clearly address the students about the problems and then provide the solutions. We would be able to include facilitation by asking the children to help come up with ideas for solutions, which would allow them to think about it for themselves becoming more independent as they will when they go to secondary school. 


Scene One - Year 6
After doing the 'Junk' piece of TIE we knew we wanted to start the piece with a high energy scene. At first we just wanted we entered and met our pair and talked to each other in order to reflect the positive relationships that have formed in the year 6 groups. Kelly then entered as the teacher and Emily introduced everyone as the class, using the direct address to talk to the audience directly creating an instant personal relationship with them as they are being told Emily's feelings which may mimic their own. We then show the relationship between the teacher and the children as she then asks 'so who's excited about secondary school?!' we can then make the children establish whether they are as well, before telling them how Emily is feeling and attempting to unhinge any fears that they do have.

After feedback, Sir told us that the first scene could have more energy. We decided to add in music, which was the 'Recess' theme tune. We would then also talk to the audience and ask them about their summer plans, making the audience feel comfortable talking to the cast and allowing the cast to notice the more confident students. We also will raise the volume of a vocals and we will all try and use a wider variety of vocal tones so the performances energy is higher creating a more entertaining performance to keep the audience engaged.

Scene Two - Home
We wanted to create a scene to show a typical home, we removed a father figure due to cast numbers, lack of necessity, and make it more accessible to children who only have one parent. We used both a brother and a sister and created scenarios of their first days and the issue of big kids. We used the problem to create humour by making the actions comedic and over the top allowing the children to laugh at the problem rather than be scared about it. We then decided this would be a good place to add facilitation about who they should tell about fears.

After feedback, we decided to make the violence more comedic that happens between Jake and Ciara. They added silly sound effects to also say that using violence is a silly idea.

Facilitation One - 'Who to tell?' 
We wanted to get the children talking and discussing ideas with us as soon as possible, as we finished the last scene on Emily's line 'but what if that does happen to me?' - we then ask the audience. The most likely answers we came up with were to 1. tell a teacher, 2. tell parents, 3. tell a friend. We decided that telling a friend would not create much benefit if that did happen as no power lies with someone the same age. We had pre-planned the other two as short scenes so we could then show the outcome. We wanted them to know that they should tell both parent and teacher, but to tell the teacher as soon as possible and should treat teachers as school parents that will be able to help and resolve the problem quicker.

After feedback, it was made aware that we should then ask the audience to discuss the pro's and con's of telling both parent and teacher in order to reiterate they can tell both, but the quickest way would be to tell the teacher.

We also wanted to show the children that it was not only if something happened at lunchtime that they could talk to a teacher, but any issue they had within school could be discussed with a teacher. We devised a more interactive piece of facilitation where we would discuss with sections the most common topics we discussed with teachers in year 7, which were: loosing personal items, forgetting p.e kit and homework. We will be able to talk about each individual subject matter, but will then ask for a volunteer child that feels confident to go and interact with our real life teacher, about the pre-chosen subject. We will give them the scenario and by letting them talk to a real life teacher we can show the ease of it, and a realistic reaction that will be more believable than a member of the cast switching to pretend to be a teacher after being friendly with the audience. 

Scene Three - First day of school

We start the scene with Jake and Ciara (the siblings) leaving Emily by herself to be lost. This is a fear that is very likely to happen, so we wanted to show them that even if they're lost they won't be alone. We each stand at a corner and pretend to be angry doors sending her away from the wrong classroom. We then surround her and do a lift whilst muttering directions of where they should be. After then leaving her to drop to the floor we represent how she is feeling neglected and alone. Before showing Kelly walk and help her, directing her to her room. We decided to show this, because we wanted to ease the fears that no one will help, because likely hood is there will always be someone around to help and we wanted to show them this.

Scene Four - Lesson 

We all start spaced out so at least one or two sides of the audience can see some cast members, Emily is now sat centre stage on a chair as if she is in a lesson. We then do a cross over whilst saying lines about how we don't know where Emily is, and then move on to show how her friends think she'll have someone. Which, when researched, was a common fear - that they would be alone and not obtain or keep friends within lessons. Emily is excluded from an input as she is in fact in a lesson by herself. We then show the discussion of the friends talking amongst each other, to show that it's not them being harsh to Emily, just that they have a relatable common ground for conversation. Here she does another bit of direct address about being alone in lesson and how she's looking forward to lunch time.

After feedback, we need to make sure that we keep the pace of the crossing over as quick and slick as possible to make it fluid, so the audience won't be distracted by a messy scene and can focus on the language. We also need to consider that if we're walking from front to back and our faces are facing away from the audience that we need to talk clear and loud to be heard, and try and turn to face one side of the audience in order to keep engaging with the audience.

Scene Five - Lunchtime 
We decided to do crossover's again that were more fast paced and this time we'd show Emily attempting to join in conversation but we are all moving to quick for her to initiate a conversation as we are trying to find our way. This puts the audience in a place to empathise Emily as she is the only character on stage for this entire section. The conversation shows that her peers are not trying to exclude her but are moving too quickly to engage fully.

After feedback, Sir said this scene could be developed, and bring in a more realistic scene. We decided to bring on a row of chairs, and we would show other interactions. This will show them that it's not just one person that has an issue during the transition, so me and Chris start having an awkward conversation to show how it will be awkward at first to talk to new people, but will get better once a topic of conversation is found. Person after person will sit down until Emily walks on and then we can proceed to facilitation.

Facilitation Two - Lunchtime 
The first thing we will do, is ask the audience how they think Emily will be feeling. This will allow them to see how many other people can relate to this feeling. We will then either ask the child to mould the person, or ask how the person would look and mould for the child how Emily would look if she was a certain emotion. This could also give them an idea that if they see someone like this, they could possible help and encourage a conversation with a lonely person to be there for other people as they would want to be there for them.

Next we name the pairs on the seats into 3 groups. We will then ask which group they think Emily should go to first. We will keep trying until the conversation continues. This shows the audience that there will be someone to talk too, and if it doesn't happen instantly, they shouldn't feel defeated and should continue to interact until you find people you are comfortable with.

Facilitation Three - 'The Survival Guide'
 We now want to get the children up doing their own pieces of drama from everything that we have taught them throughout the performance of Emily's story. We agreed that freeze frames were the best way to do this as they would be quick to present. It is also easy to organise with the kids. We would first talk to the group about fears they have, and then pick the one closest to our pre-chosen choice. Mine and Matt's = telling teacher, Ciara and Emily = joining clubs/making friends, Kelly and Jake = organisation/personal items. From these we will create three freeze frames of before (the problem) - during (the solution) - after (happy end product). We will then show the groups to each other. This will reinforce everything that we have shown throughout the performance and by getting them to perform them in a fun and entertaining way, it relieves the fear as the focus on the solving of the problem. 

We had to discuss a variety of issues from our research, bullying came out on top. As a result of this, and knowing the issue, we didn't think we could do a small section on bullying, as the issue is so large it would probably require an entire performance. 

Scene Six - End Emily's Story
We will end the story by having Chris ask Emily how school is three weeks on. This way we can see what she did in order to make more friends and we are rounding off Emily's story in a positive way to show that if it's tough at first it will get better.

FINAL PERFORMANCE: 

'Lunch' 5|6|13. - 'Final Performance'

We did our performance for one night in the studio room. I think it went fairly well, and there were only a few mistakes, but they remained unnoticed to the audiences eye.

To relate it to Berkoff, we used a minimal setting to make sure there was no distraction from the main action on the stage, it also showed the characters lack of awareness for the people around the characters. We also applied this within our costumes, using monochrome colours. The black and white of Jake and Matt's shirts being reversed to show which has pure purity and the dark soul. Mine dress, black with white dots, shows the little spread of purity I have, whereas  Ciara's white top reflects her innocence.

Throughout the performance my personal tone changes within sentences. This makes the audience questions society's behaviour of how indecisive we are over problems that we should not question, in this case, cheating on the husband. We used this juxtaposition to fit into Berkoff's idea's of shocking and making the audience question instead of spoon feeding the audience into a feel good performance.

In some of Berkoff's pieces, (such as Metamorphosis) we see he uses elements of mime. We used this in scenes to replicate the images we had in our head in order to show that both characters were feeling similar things whilst I am sat with Jake. However, when I am with Matt, one usually leads the actions in order to show how the personalities clash.

Berkoff often liked to create pieces revolving around taboo subjects, but liked to keep his main themes distant. In 'Lunch' we see the theme of the beach and the sea running throughout, which is a contrast to the theme of lust of the two strangers on their chance meeting, typical of Berkoff to use a play to show social issues in society. When cutting the script, we tried to keep as much of the imagery of the beach and water within the lines, as this offered a contrasting theme to the social issue he offers, making the audience question how healthy the characters choices are to then later question their own social choices.

Breaking the fourth wall is another identifiable technique of Berkoff, in our last rehearsal, we notices many places where instead of talking to each other, we could stare into the audience. We did this when talking about selling Mary's name, by doing this we were involving the audience by making them question Mary's thoughts about being objectified by the men and letting the audience form their own opinion. By offering the woman's thoughts of being 'dissected' and 'examined' we are putting them in that position to make them feel uncomfortable and the idea of the objectification of Mary. 

HOLIDAY REHEARSAL. 30|5|13. 'Berkoff - Lunch'

During this holiday rehearsal, we knew it was less than a week away until the final performance. So we came in and worked on the piece directly. We had already blocked half of it and now we wanted to complete it, and make some of it smoother.

Here is an over-vlog of a run through we did halfway through the day. We know it wasn't to a quality standard, but it was a run through where we wanted to not stop a re-do anything and instead continue if we got it wrong. This could then help us for the last half of the day so we know where to focus are attention.

LESSON NINE - 22|5|13 - 'Berkoff - Lunch'

Today's lesson focused on adapting the script, so I thought you easy way to tell you about the thought process behind this would be though this vlog. 

After doing an out of lesson rehearsal to keep up with our schedule, we managed to complete a few more pages. The section we worked on was finding out about Thomas's job.

When I say 'you're not on holiday, what do you do?' I am bringing forward the fact I've taken into account his appearance, which is clearly office wear. Jake creeps out from Matt, and slides to either side whilst saying his lines, walking his fingers down my arm for one of them, and brushing up my leg on the other, and then whispering 'birthday present' to him, I am in a freezefram, to show that this is the thought before Matt's immediate reactions. Matt's reaction is to spurt out 'selling mostly'. This shows how he doesn't like his 'sleazy' side and is trying to cover up Jake's attempt of sexualising the job.

Throughout the section, the action for 'space' is a physical representation, where we make define a square in 2 movements and repeat them in synchrony. Matt jumps up onto the bench and I move forward as if I am imagining the amount of space.