Devised Evaluation

On Tuesday we performed our devised piece to an audience. I think our piece went really well and hardly any mistakes were made, also a huge amount of audience feedback was that they really enjoyed it, the piece flowed very well, the piece was interesting and engaging. This made us as a group very happy as these were targets we all had in the back our minds whilst creating this piece, we wanted to make sure our piece had a clear message that is very current but not bring it across in a boring manor, this is something we focused on doing as soon as we got out stimuli ‘Humanity in Crisis’ we knew this would be  difficult stimuli therefore we tried to make sure our piece had a more comical theme to it but keeping the same hard hitting message throughout.

Another thing we really didn’t want to happen was our piece almost become like a museum of school eras, we showed a modern day school, Victorian school and two future school scenarios. One thing we had to be really careful of was making sure it wasn’t going to be like a history lesson but actually almost like flash backs. I think we combated this with our scripted scenes, we made sure these were engaging and funny but also the scripted scenes did link into lour scripted scenes as it was a visual representation of what we were talking about.  We decided to make all our flash back or flash forward scenes movement based as we were worried we would have too much dialogue and not show enough skill, creativity or even engage the audience.

If I were to do this piece again I would perhaps have a little longer to work on it, it didn’t help that I was absent for two weeks having an operation. If we did have longer to work on this piece I would have liked to have a different ending, even though our ending was the scene that gave the most amount of comedy and probably entertainment I feel it left our piece in a cliff hanger, our idea was the crisis of behaviour in school classrooms and how we can stop behaviour from getting worse and improve learning but we never resolve this problem. Before I went off for two weeks I put forward the idea of finishing the piece by suggesting we change the curriculum to remove subjects like Citizenship and RE as these aren’t core subjects and replace them with subjects like business studies and other functional subjects that would benefit children’s lives as they grow up, everyone in the group took to this idea well but I think it got a bit lost amongst all the other ideas of having a comical and entertaining finale. Another benefit of having longer to work on this piece would have been everyone would be more familiar with their lines making it a more realistic piece, if we had longer to learn our scripts we may have also been able to improve the quality of the lines and perhaps add more to a few of the scenes as they were all roughly a page and a half long.

I feel as though even though everyone enjoyed watching this piece it was very basic compared to last years devised piece. I think we spent a lot more time and effort on our last years piece. Our story line was a lot more intricate and even things like our lighting plans, plotted lighting and set was a lot more complicated and professional. I was more proud of our last piece as it challenged me as a performer because it took me out of my comedy comfort zone and forced me into serious emotional acting which is something I hadn't really done before. I felt more relaxed performing this years piece and even though it wasn't as intricate or complicated it was still slick and professional because our basic set worked well for our piece and there wouldn't have needed to be anything to add to improve the quality of the piece set or lighting wise.

What I enjoyed most about this piece was being able to build a character and really portray this on stage, even though for some of the videoed performance my back is almost to the camera but I still use my arms and body language as well as my voice to really bring across my characters arrogance and age.  

Overall the piece went really well and I am so pleased with it, we had a few mistakes on the day but we all managed to cover them well which showed we all worked well as a team and we were able to rely on each other without even communicating the problem.

The Future of Schools 2

This is our second version of the future schools scene. We were told after showing people both pieces that our original idea was better and more interesting, this created a problem for our group as the main reason we changed it was I wouldn't be able to do the more heavy physical theatre/ stage combat things after my operation.

What I think we can do now is look at both videos and pick out what we like and try and mix them together creating a much stronger and more interesting piece that has a clear message, but is also safe for me to perform.
I like the first part to this one when the teacher is thrown to the ground, I think this is something we should use when merging them.

The Future of Schools

This is our first version of how we wanted our piece on future schools to look

Inspiration

These photos are what inspired our Victorian/ old style school, what we took from this picture was the desks directly behind each other, if we could we would raise the line behind but we wouldn't have time to do so in our performance, we also have everyone at their own individual table, this is to show that the children are not to speak to each other. One thing I noticed about the picture of all the students is none of them look scared or unhappy and neither does the teacher, I think even though Victorian schools are portrayed to be a place of misery and punishment we could perhaps show a different side to what people are used to seeing and go down the route of all the kids looking happy and willing to learn, this would perhaps create a better contrast to the school setting in the future and show how respect for teachers has deteriorated.

Another thing I find interesting is the different price of sending a child to school depending on what they write on, this could be something we show by having a class system of more wealthy children sitting at the front with paper and books and the worse off children sitting at the back with slate.

Attention to detail will be key on this scene as everyone's hair and uniform will have to be spick and span as this is one of the classroom rules.

PHOTO NOT AVAILABLE

Inspiration

We got our inspiration for our meeting scenes from Future Conditional, a play that was on during September. This was a good play for us to watch for the subject we have chosen to do our devised piece on as a lot of the scenes were based in class rooms or teachers in meeting rooms, what we loved was how well the meeting scenes flowed and felt totally real and this is something we really wanted to bring to our piece, we wanted to make the audience feel as though they are actually watching a real meeting between teachers. To do this we have all created our own character and tried to range their age, the age gaps all become apparent when trying to form a decision as the older ones have stronger harsher views.

These two pictures are a good way of giving us ideas on how to set out the meeting scenes as well, we could perhaps have a table with lots of stuff on like papers, laptops and so on just like one of the photos or we could have food and drinks, having these objectives would bring a more realistic setting to our piece and also perhaps give us something to work with prop wise whilst we are on stage.

PHOTO NOT AVAILABLE

Devising

Today we worked out that last lessons movement piece needed to be worked on, one reason was I am having an operation close to our performance date meaning I wont be able to do a lot of the physical movement side of things in our performance and another reason was the piece was okay but it was random and didn't really make sense or have anything exciting about it. Today we perfected this piece by changing the main movement but having the same idea behind it, last week it was more natural stage combat were as our improved version is more to do with physical theatre were we are manipulating the teacher physically but this is representing the mental manipulation we predict that will happen in the future.

Devising

So far this week we have been working on what direction to take our piece next, we already have a few small scenes which we feel are good and link well with our piece but we are worried we will be making our piece boring by having it heavily dialogue based, today we worked on a scene representing what future schools will be like if education and discipline stays the same, the scene is a movement piece where we manipulate the teacher and eventually get out of control to show how little power the teachers have and how he has no control over the class, eventually fights break out and when he restrains someone he then gets turned into the bad guy because he touched a pupil, this shows that the students blow everything out of proportion and make things worse.

Victorian Schools

In the first half of the 1800s, classes were massive. Sometimes there were more than 100 pupils in every class.

The Victorian classroom was often referred to as the schoolroom.

Victorian pupils sat at iron-framed desks. These were usually bolted to the floor in rows facing the front of the classroom, the walls of a Victorian school were often completely bare, the floor of the schoolrooms were tiered so the children sitting at the back of the room were higher up than those sitting at the front this meant that all of the children had a good view of the teacher and the blackboard, but it also meant that the teacher had a good view of them.

The windows in a Victorian classroom were high up to stop pupils looking out of the window and the rooms were lit by gaslights which as a result, the schoolrooms were gloomy and often stuffy.

Sometimes different classrooms were only divided from the others by curtains. This meant that it was very easy to hear noise coming from other lessons. Although lots of schools were built during the Victorian era, not a great deal of money was spent on taking care of the buildings. Victorian schools were often quite shabby and in need of repair.

 

The Teachers

In Victorian schools there were more female teachers than male ones with women occupying the majority of teaching roles. These women were often very strict and scary. The majority of female teachers were unmarried ladies and they were to be called ‘Miss’ at all times. The reason teaching consisted of mostly ladies was due to the pay scale. The salaries were poor and men could be earning more money elsewhere so this was left to the women. The rationale behind it been mostly unmarried women was that once married the women was expected to take care of the family.
The large majority of teachers did not have a college education. The role of teaching was something they picked up while on the job and every new lesson would be a challenge for them too.
The teaching was also passed on to some of the brightest children in some schools known as ‘Monitors’ where they would be taught by the Headmaster and would then pass this onto small groups of children as another way of educating. The Victorian teaching system was much different to the one we have today.

Punishment

Discipline was huge in the Victorian times and this was no different in schools. It wasn’t uncommon for children to be beat by canes made from birch wood. Boys were typically caned on their backsides whereas Girls would take the punishment on their legs or hands.

The reasons ranged from truancy right through to laziness in the classroom. The punishments were usually harsh and painful for children aged jus between 5-10.

Children who were slower than the rest within lessons were made to wear the shameful dunce hats and sit in the corner for over an hour. This was not only humiliating for the child but also not helping them get up to speed with the rest of the class. At the time there was no concept of children with learning difficulties and the uneducated classroom teachers would assume it was purely down to the laziness or lack of effort.

Amazingly children were reprimanded for using their left hand to write! This was seen as a punishable offence and they were made write with their right hand!

Education

Last week we started writing the script for our teachers meeting scene, we spent two lessons on this even though its not a long scene because we wanted to get the dialogue to a high standard before we moved on, the lesson after we finished writing the script we worked with a teacher and got some feedback whether it was accurate to an actual meeting, unfortunately we weren't as accurate as we hoped we would be so we made some rewrites and hopefully that scene is perfected.
Today we worked on the scene that comes after our soundscape which is our Victorian school, we have this starting with me walking around and everyone in silent, telling kids to sit up straight or write with their right hand, then we have a movement section were I start it and everyone copies me, this goes on for a little while and represents that everyone was taught the same thing at the same pace in Victorian schools. Then one of the students drops their book, this results in them getting the cane, this shows the audience how harsh the punishment was even for minor things like dropping books or speaking out of turn.

Education

Today we moved on from our sound scape and tried to focus on a more dialogue based scene. This scene was inspired by the play future conditional where they have a sort of staff room scene with teachers discussing the future of education. We had the idea that we could do something similar and discuss how teachers are becoming increasingly fearful of their pupils and what needs to be put into place to solve this. We have all come up with some complex characters which shows how difficult it is so make a decision as not everyone agrees. My character is the No man and doesn't agree with anything and his views are quite extreme, other characters include the one that agrees with everyone and doesn't get taken any notice of and also the one who is always late and doesn't want to be there.

Education Idea

Yesterday we created another sound scape which we felt was more improved and more mature. Everyone has their line and we say them in order and then gradually we start saying them faster and louder and in top of each other, we had the idea of sorting our uniforms out and making them smart and more old school. I as the teacher than smash a cane on the floor and say books out, this well represent the old school education system and we will develop the scene from there.

Education

Today we brainstormed an idea we have based around the education system. We wanted to show what it is like currently, with children being fairly disruptive and disrespectful and then we wanted to show how it used to be and then what it might be in the future if nothing changes and then we had the idea of showing what could happen if teachers were given more power and perhaps this power gets abused and goes wrong.

We came up with what we thought would be a good opening, we had the idea of showing the modern day classroom with a sort of scene/ soundscape of the noises you usually hear in a classroom. Overall I think our idea is good but our execution today wasn't very good, we got side tracked and became a bit childish with it, I think next lesson we need to revisit this idea and have it more clean and mature.

Contact Improvisation

This is my group performing our piece that was inspired by contact improvisation and movement, we took one of our ideas from our brainstorm which was slavery, we then built from this idea to create this piece representing slaves being brought into a country they don't know and being miss treated and abused.

revolutionarts2016: Contact Improv Group 1

Research

The Kinder transport was an organized rescue effort that took place during the nine months prior to the outbreak of the Second World War. The United Kingdom took in nearly 10,000 predominantly Jewish children from Germany, Austria, Czechoslovakia, Poland, and the Free City of Danzig. The children were placed in British foster homes, hostels, schools and farms. Often they were the only members of their families who survived the Holocaust.

World Jewish Relief was established in 1933 to support in whatever way possible the needs of Jews both in Germany and Austria. Records for many of the children who arrived in the UK through the kinder transports are maintained by World Jewish Relief.

On 15 November 1938 a delegation of British Jewish and Quaker leaders appealed in person to the Prime Minister of the UK, Neville Chamberlain. Among other measures, they requested that the British government permit the temporary admission of unaccompanied Jewish children, without their parents.


The British Cabinet debated the issue the next day and subsequently prepared a Bill to present to Parliament. That Bill stated that the Government would waive certain immigration requirements to allow the entry of unaccompanied children ranging from infants up to the age of 17. No limit upon the permitted number of refugees was ever publicly announced. Initially the Jewish refugee agencies considered 5,000 as a realistic target goal. However, after the British Colonial Office turned down the Jewish agencies' separate request to allow the admission of 10,000 children to British-controlled Palestine, the Jewish agencies then increased their planned target number to 15,000 unaccompanied children to enter Great Britain in this way.


On the eve of a major House of Commons debate on refugees on 21 November 1938, Home Secretary Sir Samuel Hoare met a large delegation representing various Jewish, Quaker and other non-Jewish groups working on behalf of refugees. The groups were allied under a non-denominational organization called the Movement for the Care of Children from Germany. The Home Secretary agreed that, to speed up the immigration process, travel documents would be issued on the basis of group lists rather than individual applications. The agencies promised to find homes for all the children. They also promised to fund the operation and to ensure that none of the refugees would become a financial burden on the public. Every child would have a guarantee of £50 sterling to finance his or her eventual re-emigration, as it was expected the children would stay in the country only temporarily.

Script Work

Even though we are working on our devised unit today we were given a scripted scene to perform, this is to help with our dialogue when we come to creating our devised pieces as dialogue is normally the weaker part of devised for our class. Next lesson we will be adding onto this and also be doing script writing which I think will link to the scripted piece we got or have to be linked to our stimulus of Humanity in Crisis. Overall the piece we got wasn't too bad but I felt the script was kinda boring and didn't have much going on

Contact Improvisation/ Voice

Last lesson we started learning a little bit more on contact improvisation, we were put into pairs and had to chose our own stimulus, me and Freya chose to go with children that are friends and then grow up to have some sort of problem or argument. each group did their own piece but it wasn't really contact improvisation as we didn't just create the piece on the spot as we were performing it to the audience, we all got a few minutes to choreograph a little bit before hand. This is because none of us are confident with contact improvisation and if we had to do it properly I think we would all struggle.


We then were given the task of devising a piece based around physical theatre/ contact improvisation from our brainstorm of ideas. Our group chose to do a piece on slavery, we started by having us on a boat and stepping foot onto a new country and then we shower hw badly they were treated for no reason. Today we then completed this piece with the more contact improvisation inspired section which finished the piece off. 


The voice section of the lesson was after we performed our physical theatre/ contact improvisation style pieces we were asked to pick another topic on our brainstorms and create a piece revolved around only our voices. We chose to create a sound scape on the Hillsborough disaster. We did this by repeating the same phrase, either screams or cries of help to police telling the crowd to stop pushing forward. We then went into a bit were we each read of a fact about the disaster, and that represented the news reports that came after the disaster.    

Responding to Stimuli

To begin with I wasn't sure on the stimulus and now I think I hate it even more. I feel its very restrictive on what you can create and I almost feel that we cant create anything fun or comical and fear anything we do create is boring and dark.

One of my initial ideas was to do drug and alcohol issues in youth, my group weren't keen on this idea as they felt it was quite GCSE standard and has been done a lot and there wasn't a lot of originality about the idea. I do agree with my group in the fact that if its not done well it can become quite juvenile and similar to other pieces that have been done, but i wanted to create quite an abstract piece which showed drugs and the effect it had on the users and their family. I had the idea of showing someone take drugs and then having a split stage of someone being messed up and showing what happens when they're on drugs but the other side of the stage will show what is going on in the drug users head and this side will be colourful and bold with lots of movement where as the first side will be dark and depressing. Even this idea its self isn't original it is slightly less GCSE then just showing people take drugs and then shouting at each other on stage.

I also feel drugs are something a lot of youth are taking and doing and its an issue that is often overlooked by teachers and parents and this is something we would have been able to show in our piece.

Year 13

Today we found out our first unit in year 13 is devising. This is the second time we will be doing devising and we were split into groups by picking names out of a hat, some of us are with people that we worked with the last time but the groups have changed a little bit which is good because we all get to work with different people.

Our stimulus is 'Humanity in Crisis' we then did a big brain storm of everything that we could think of everything we think of that is based around crisis.
On our brain storm we came up with loads of ideas, these are a few I thought were the best

• Dictatorship
• War
• Refugees
• Natural Disaster
• Homophobia- Prejudice
• Terrorism
• Government
• Slavery
• Financial Disaster
• Drugs/ Alcohol 

After todays lesson I think I will struggle with this stimulus as nothing has come to me yet idea wise which worries me a little bit, but I know the quality of the story isn't as important as making sure we have good techniques within our piece and we have a good understanding of the stimulus and good research to back up our ideas and help gather more inspiration.

Little Shop of Horrors

Monday and Tuesday is when we performed, opening night was a bit shaky as some of the backing tracks didn't work but luckily we had someone playing piano for us so we didn't have to sing unaccompanied. Overall I'd say the show was a big success and I am really proud of how hard everyone worked throughout the rehearsal process, especially picking up the dances quickly and just getting on with it even though most people have never danced before. All three shows we did went really well, there were no mistakes I could point out and the audience feedback was all extremely positive and complimentary of everyone.

Before the performances my song 'Feed Me/ Git it' went really bad during our dress rehearsal and probably most of the rehearsals, luckily when it came to the actual performances I managed to not make any mistakes and sung the whole song through confidently.

Little Shop of Horrors

Today was our second to last proper rehearsal, we all cracked on and finished with set, I carried on painting on all the finishing touches on Audrey 2. I think the plant looks really good now and hopefully will surprise the audience. The rest of the set looks really good two and hopefully by Thursday all the lights will be up and ready to go for our dress rehearsal. I think the show is pretty much ready now and we all can't wait to perform this as we have all worked so hard on it.  

Little Shop of Horrors

Today we tired to do a full run through but we only got a few scenes into act two, the whole run I think went fairly well but I wasn't happy with the dances, I felt they were all messy and looked bad as people haven't been practicing. 

Little Shop of Horrors Research

During production, director Oz shot a 23-minute ending based on the off-Broadway musical's ending. However, after receiving negative reviews from test audiences, the ending had to be rewritten and re-shot for the theatrical release with a "happier ending". This being because in a film after the ending they actors don't come out for a bow so the audience cant see the characters they made an emotional connection with so they may feel loss watching the original ending.

In the original ending, after Audrey is attacked by Audrey II, Seymour rescues Audrey, who is seriously injured. Confessing to Audrey he fed Mushnik and Orin to Audrey II, Audrey requests Seymour feed her to the plant and earn the success he deserves before she dies in his arms. Seymour does so, but soon attempts to commit suicide only to be stopped by Patrick Martin. Martin offers to reproduce and sell Audrey II as he had grown a smaller Audrey II from one of the clippings that he harvested as the smaller Audrey II smiles at him. He also warns Seymour that his consent isn't necessary as plants are considered public domain. Realizing Audrey II's plans for global domination, Seymour climbs down the roof with the resolution to destroy the plant. Returning to the shop, Seymour confronts and tries to kill Audrey II, who tears down the shop, plucks Seymour out of the rubble and eats him alive. Audrey II then spits out Seymour's glasses and laughs.

The three chorus girls appear in front of a large American flag and tell how although Audrey II buds became a worldwide consumer craze, the buds grew into an army of monstrous plants who begin to take over the Earth. Giant Audrey II plants are shown destroying cities, toppling buildings, as well as eating people. The final shot shows the U.S. Army as it attempts to fight the buds as they ascend the Statue of Liberty. An Audrey II then breaks the fourth wall to eat the audience as the camera zooms into its mouth.

Little Shop of Horrors

Today we ran Act 2 again, this went better than the last time we ran it however people (including myself) are still using scripts, we only really have one week of rehearsals left and then we perform, we all need to make sure we learn our lines and the songs before the end of next week so we are all super confident with the whole show. 

After we ran Act 2 we worked on some harmonies for our first group number that has everyone singing in, this went really well and by the end of the rehearsal Skid Row sounded really good and we were all really confident with singing it, we then quickly moved on to another song. Hopefully at some point we will be able to sing through all the songs and get all the harmonies sorted and make the show sound amazing.

Little Shop of Horrors

Today we ran Act 2, this didn't go as well as it could have gone, it was a little flat and slow in places, I reckon this is because we haven't been in the routine of doing it every lesson, I'm sure at the end of the week or next lesson we will all be back to normal and performing strong again.

Little Shop of Horrors

Today we ran Act 1, this went fairly well, all it is now is a case of everyone getting lots of energy and learning their lines off by heart. I think when we perform we will all get the energy which will bring the performance alive.

After we ran Act 1 we all went into the hall to work in our specific groups again, due to there being a lot of set most of team tech helped team set paint all the set to get it done in time, I stayed on team tech putting up lights and wiring them all up and making sure they were all working, I have one light left to put up and then we just need to put some other lights up and the whole thing is ready for the lighting to be plotted.

Little Shop of Horrors

Today we had the pleasure of having a pianist work with us on all the songs, we were able to work out timings and get to know the music better for how it will be played when we perform, obviously some songs didn't work like feed me as it needs other instruments like guitars to sound rig but most of the other songs were good and sounded really good. As well as singing we worked on Audrey 2, it's slowly starting to look really good, we have added lips to the edge to give it more dimension and I think really makes it looks good JD we have now started adding green paper to get the base colour so when we paint over you can see newspaper shining through. 

Little Shop of Horrors

Today we didn't run the show at all, everyone got cracking and started to work on either Audrey 2 (The plant), set or cleaning the stage to make sure it was all ready for when we perform. Slowly but surely its all coming together but I am worried that some of the set takes up a lot of room and we have lost some stage space, hopefully we will all be able to adapt to this and just carry on as normal.

Little Shop of Horrors

Today we ran through act 2, it went well, again the main issues were just with the backing tracks, we worked on one number a few times to make sure everyone knew what they were singing and knew what the movement was, it still needs work but overall it is looking better. We have been working on the plant for a few weeks now, I spend my free periods doing paper mache, so far we have covered most of the frame but the structure is still really weak and cant really old its own weight.

Little Shop of Horrors

Today we had a few people missing so we decided to run through all the musical numbers we have so far, I think we only got through act one but we did all the dances a few times each and then worked on the singing for all of these numbers, today went really well, everything just needs a final polishing and then we will almost be ready. Some of the singing still needs a lot of work but that will be easier when we have the band instead of backing tracks that cut out some dialogue or dance breaks.

Soon we will be able to start thinking about costumes, set and props

Little Shop of Horrors

Today we ran through Act 2 this run went really well, there were a few problems with backing tracks again today but we will be performing to a live band so hopefully we will be able to sort out all our problems before we perform for real.
Our notes were that act 2 had a lot more energy and volume than act one, we then revisited a few of the dances from Act 1 and tired to put as much energy and volume into the singing, dancing and acting as much as possible.

We also finally set 'Now/ It's just the gas' I did this on the spot and it was quite a difficult one to get inspiration for but the overall dance isn't complicated at all, the music is quite creepy and fair ground like so I had the idea of a jackinabox kinda thing were people were bobbing and bouncing around on the spot, we are all sitting down with newspapers or magazines and then we start doing movements with them very basic which then leads into the bouncing bit. This was quite fun to do as I could be as weird as I wanted to be with it and hopefully it will look good from an audiences perspective. 

Little Shop of Horrors

Today we ran through Act 1 of the show, it went okay but there was just issues in singing and energy, the singing isn't too bad but it just needs more confidence and volume. The dances were okay from what I feel but they do need cleaning still. The backing tracks we used today were so fast I felt it was almost what made the run a bit rusty and messy, we aren't used to dancing or singing with the backing tracks and what makes it more difficult is when the backing tracks are super fast, I hope we aren't using these backing tracks for our actual performance because I feel the faster the music was the more crap each dance and song went, the speed makes the show lose some of the good comedy value or you just cant hear the music which I feel is really good and sets a good atmosphere for the show. Hopefully we will be able to sort out the speed of the music otherwise I feel the show will be a flop.

Overall everyone pretty much knew what they were doing, we all need to learn our lines and learn the songs solidly now so we can all focus on the acting side of it and really make this a good performance.

Little Shop of Horrors

Today we ran through every musical number we have that involves all the chorus, all the dances were good, some of them still need more cleaning but mainly we all need to focus on singing now, the singing isn't bad but we just forget to sing when dancing, so this is the next thing for all of us to work on. As well as working on the dances today, me and Kyle sang through Feed Me/ Git it. I feel it went quite well, we just need to have that set and then I think the whole show is pretty much done and we can start working on the smaller details like cleaning or working on props and set.

Little Shop of Horrors

Today Me, Meg and Kyle went off with our director to work on a few scenes around Sominex/ Suppertime reprise, this went fairly well, we then went back with the rest of the cast to run through act two, I think act two went well, it still needs some cleaning but overall its done and most people know what they are doing. Today when running some of the dances in act two we were all surprised at how fast some of the backing tracks were, this threw some of us off but I'm sure with some practice we will all get used to the speed and nail it. One thing I am struggling with is knowing what to do when I'm on stage as the plant, I'm not sure where I should stand or if people can see me or I'm just a visual representation of the voice for the plant, I think the audience may get confused with both the plant puppet moving and me but I think overall I need to be big character wise as the plant is big and I need to reflect this not only voice but body movement wise.

I think what I need to work on next is Feed me with Kyle, it still needs to be set and include the three girls.

Little Shop of Horrors

Today we ran through all the dances we have done so far, I think it went really well, no one had forgotten anything particularly major, by the end all the dances looked good and almost clean which was good. Today I worked with Harry and Kyle to do Mushnik & Sons, I had already choreographed the dance break and then did the rest of the song with them on the spot as it wasn't that hard to do, overall I am quite pleased with how this number turned out, it still needs a lot of cleaning but the basics were there and I think the audience will really like this dance.

Ya Never Know

revolutionarts2016: 'Ya Never Know' Choreography



This is the dance for Ya never know, I wasnt here for this dance becasue I was in an exam, I did choreograph the dance though and I am pleased with how it turned out.

Little Shop of Horrors

Today we continued with 'Ya Never Know' I had my work cut out for me today as everyone seemed uninterested in learning the dance or just talked to each other, however we got through the whole dance and at the end of the lesson it didn't look too bad so I was pleased with how it came together, but it still needs loads more work and cleaning.

My main concern is I am making my dances too hard, I have tried to keep them all to a similar standard and from feedback I've heard people seem to enjoy the challenge but I don't want to push them too hard to the point where they just don't try. But so far everyone has worked hard and it looks good. 

Little Shop of Horrors

Today we worked on the number 'Ya Never Know' this was quite a difficult song to choreograph too as its not a clear dance number or acting number, I tried to combine both these elements to come up with something entertaining. I spent just under two days on this dance as I struggled so much with what I wanted from it, still after finishing choreographing it I am not 100% happy with it but I may like it once its been taught to everyone and see how it looks. The advantage of this is if I do want to change something there are lots of people around me that can pitch in ideas. 

These are my choreography notes for this dance

 

Little Shop of Horrors

Today we worked on figuring out our characters characteristics, I have two characters, the plant and then just a random man on the street with everyone else, we all worked out what our characters were for when we stand around, I came up with a man on his break, he works in the shop he's standing outside but because he has no customers he's constantly on his break.
After we sang through 'WSKID/ Ya never know' its my homework over half term to choreogrpah something for you never know, doesn't have to be too dancey but I think I will make it a little more dancey then Skid Row and Da-doo
then we kept going through the dialogue until we got to 'Closed for Renovation'

Don't Feed the Plants (Finale)

This is the finale, there a few things I need to add in but this is pretty much finished.

Dentist

This is the Dentist song, as you can see it's quite rough around the edges, the idea for the cannon part when they turn around is they have a picture of a mouldy tooth, and then when they look at their hand and point it to the sky, its a toothbrush.

Little Shop Of Horrors

Today we ran through the two numbers we did yesterday, we then filmed them. After this we started working on  'the meek shall inherit' this is quite a long song, but it was a fun one to do, the chorus is repeated throughout so it gives the ensemble something to do, I choreographed something very basic for us to do on the chorus and at the end when the chorus repeats but is slowed down.

Little Shop of Horrors

Today we ran through the finale song, we then roughly set the bows and where things are happening, I am yet to choreograph a small section for the end. After this we made a start on the dentist song, we roughly and quickly came up with basic choreography, I worked with the three girls and our teacher worked with the rest of the chorus, we still need to put a lot of work into that number but we set the whole thing and now its just going back in and making sure everything looks good and clean and funny.

Little Shop of Horrors

Today we ran through Act 2. We got through the whole act, leaving out the songs we haven't set yet, we did listen to one song which everyone is in, we then continued right through to the finale. After we had ran the whole act we decided to sing the finale, we sang this through a few times to get the feel of it and then we staged it, there isn't anything difficult or technical to this, its just people walking on and standing in their spot and singing, we also had the idea of everyone having a small plant pot with a small plant growing, these are supposed to be the snippets off Audrey 2. We also had the idea of everyone having blood on them of some sort, this represents that everyone is dead and that the plant has taken over.

I don't think this is a particularly long musical so its making it easy to get through, reading through it we all seem to be enjoying it and no one had complained yet which is good because it shows its a really good musical and if we are all enjoying it then I'm sure the audience will enjoy it too.
 

Little Shop of Horrors

Today we ran though everything, picking up where we left off last rehearsal, we managed to get through the whole of act 1, we missed out a few of the musical numbers we have not set yet but we did get through all the dialogue in between these numbers, so far I think this show is coming together well and will soon become a very good show, once everyone knows their lines and what we need to do I'm sure the show will be amazing.  

Little Shop of Horrors

Today, we ran through all the numbers we have set so far, from start to finish including all the dialogue in between each of the musical numbers, so far I think the show is really coming together and is already looking good.
We set the song 'Closed for renovation' I didn't prepare anything for this as I wanted to set myself the challenge of choreographing and thinking on the spot, this song isn't too long and doesn't really have a lot of dance content to it so I went for the more acting side so everyone can get into a character and hopefully make the audience laugh.

One thing I want to do in the future is maybe change some of the spacing in the dance 'little shop' a few people have caught my eye to be doing particularly well with the choreography and seem to be doing better then people that are in a line or two forward then them, the spacing itself wont change but I may swap a few people around.

Little Shop of Horrors

Today we rehearsed all the numbers we have set, this is Little Shop of Horrors, Skid Row and Da-doo. We then ran from the opening (little shop) right through to the end of Da-doo including all the dialogue in-between these numbers. I think over all this all went really well, the dances were good, they just need to be cleaned but the singing for Skid Row was quite bad so its clear we all need to run through the singing again.
After this I worked with most of the cast to clean Little Shop as people struggled with this number as its very dancey and quite fast, by the end of the rehearsal there was already a good improvement.   

We also found out today that we will always be on stage, every scene that goes on will have everyone on stage. We were told this was quite a Greek Chorus thing to do, it also allows us to all have more stage time.

Little Shop of Horrors

Today I taught the dance 'little shop of horrors' I made this number quite dancey, hopefully this will be a challenge for those that haven't danced before but also not too easy for those who do already dance, I tried to choreograph it so the audience would have fun watching it as it opens the show and it needs some wow factor to it.

I taught the whole dance, I probably taught it a bit too fast for some people but I'd rather it all be set and then go back and clean it properly when I have more time, I also didn't want to make the rehearsal boring by not moving on and staying on the same section. I had to simplify the start of the dance break for the back two lines in the spacing as hardly any of them could do it and were not only struggling with speed but also the choreography itself as some of them have never danced before.

I still need to work with the three girls to set some choreography, there are a few sections where I have asked them to do a more basic version of what the ensemble is doing so they are still able to sing but other then that I need to give them something interesting to do otherwise it might ruin the high energy effect if they just step click the whole time.

These are my choreography notes for this number

Do-doo

Today we ran through Skid Row a few times to make sure no one had forgotten but also to make sure its drilled into everyone's brains so it is perfect by the time we perform the whole show.
We then were set the task of setting Do-doo, I didn't have anything planned for this number choreography wise so luckily I didn't have to work with the whole cast, I only worked with the three girls and the rest of the cast did their own thing.
My inspiration for the three girls throughout the show is very back up singer movement, mostly step digs and bopping to the music, for this number I decided to let them move around a little bit more and also give them quite comical choreography.

When we put the three girls with the rest of the cast it fit together perfectly and we didn't have to change anything which was a relief. We then decided to put Skid Row on the stage and see if it all fit, again I was relived as I didn't need to make any changes and everyone adapted to the stage perfectly.

So far we have only set two numbers but I am happy with how it is coming together and it gives me hope that the rest of the show is going to be really fun to work on. Although I am worried Skid Row is a bit basic and there are a few places where there is waiting around the go into the next section.

Skid Row

Yesterday we sang through the song Skid Row as a whole class, this took the whole lesson as its a fairly long song and there are a few sections where it requires harmonies, this also took some time to work out as our class haven't really done singing like this before. I think we began to sound really good very early on and the song soon became to come together when everyone got the grasp on what to do. 
Today we then set the staging for this scene, I am the choreographer so I spent all evening Monday planning the staging for this. I didn't want to make this number too dance orientated as not everyone has had the dance training I have had but I also didn't want to make it very rigid and boring to I tried to create as much patterning and possible that only really involved walking around but hopefully looks effective. When teaching everyone today there was one or two things I did differently that were in my notes, I took one or two things out, changed how I was ending it but also added a few things in to add more to this number so again it wasn't just rigid and boring.

These are my choreography notes, I colour coded them so I would be able to clearly see the main patterning of people on stage, the ensemble were black, the three singing girls were pink and the two main principles (Seymour and Audrey) were blue, this also helped when drawing out small diagrams to be able to see who goes where.

Shakespeare Evaluation

Our task for this acting style was to perform a scene from Mid-Summers Nights Dream, the scene we were given didn't have enough characters for everyone to be in it so three of the group members decided to step back and take a role on the production side of the scene, I was one of these three people, I was assistant director and lighting designer, me and the director worked together discussing how we wanted people to play their roles to make the main character Bottom to stand out, everyone cooperated with me and the director apart from one person who near enough refused the direction he was given and decided he would play the character his own way as he didn't like the way he was told to play it, I feel this made mine and the directors job pointless and we might has well not of been there if people just decide not to take direction.
Overall I think my group worked well together apart from the one person, I enjoyed the scene from Mid-Summers Nights Dream as I am familiar with this play and I enjoyed it when I was in it. I normally don't like Shakespeare but I was quite lucky we got given this play and I was also able to take a different role in creating a performance, I enjoyed working with other people and giving them direction and allowing myself to be quite creative and modern with a Shakespeare piece.

Shakespeare

The Elizabethan and Jacobean period

In 1576 James Burbage, father of  actor, Richard Burbage, purchased a lease and permission to build The Theatre in London. The Lord Chamberlains men, a theatre company led by Richard. Performed Shakespeare plays and were the company in residence from 1594 to 1596.

Writers began by presenting their ideas for a plot. The actors and managers then decided whether they liked it or not and  offer a down payment for it's completion.
Writers created their characters with certain actors in mind. Each player or actor received their own role. A long sheet of parchment with lines written on. This meant that they would not see who else was going to be on stage until they actually rehearsed the scene.
Rehearsals were used to sort out the details not specified in the script. Entrances costumes and songs were all filled in by the actors

1593 London theatres had to close due to outbreak of bubonic plague.
1596-1597 the city of London authorities banned public performances of plays within the city limits
1597. Dispute over the lease of the theatre. The Puritan owner. Giles Allen. Disapproved of the theatre and the acting troupe. Burbage opened negotiations to renew lease of the theatre
Shakespeare's company of actors moved to the Curtain Theatre after failed negotiations to re new lease for the theatre.
1598. Timber from The Theatre taken to use for the building of a new venue. Called the Globe Theatre
1599. The globe theatre is opened on bankside. Southwark. London.
1603. Bubonic plague re-emerged  and killed over 33000 people.
1608 the theatre closed.
1613 June 29. Fire at the globe theatre during a performance of Henry VIII.
1614. Globe theatre is rebuilt on it's original foundations. This time the roof of the globe is tiled. Not thatched.

Two years before Shakespeare's death.

Not all theatres were outside. Until 1609 the indoor theatres were used by boy companies. These grew out of choir schools that performed privately. They usually played just once a week rather than almost every day. As the adult companies. The audience was thought to be more educated and richer than an outdoor one. Indoor plays had more music more sparkly pros sucks as pearls and more speeches than action. Indoor theatres grew into existing theatres. They were open to a public and charged an entry fee. First permanent indoor theatre St. Paul's opened in 1575 which held 500 people and was lit by candles but also tickets were more expensive.

Queen Elizabeth died in 1603. King James took throne. Jacobean era ran until 1625.
Jacobean theatre was dark and disturbing. Grotesquely violent and often shockingly obscene. Sexuality was very prevalent in Jacobean performances. Along with a heightened sense of violence and general immoralities. As the economy declined. So did the delicacy of the theatre performances moved from outdoor to indoor because of the changeable weather.

Jacobean drama.

Revenge plays
Obscene and violent

Tragicomedies were more grotesque with dark humour and very sexual in nature.
1642. The English civil war role out between the parliamentarians puritans and the royalists. Parliaments suppress plays that didn't for their religion. And the globe was pulled down. Houses were built in place
1648 the puritans orders all playhouses to be pulled down. All actors were arrested and anyone caught attending was fiend. It took 12 years before theatres re opened
1649. The civil war finally leads to the terrible execution of King Charles 1 by parliament
1653 Oliver Cromwell becomes lord protector of England

Theatre stops it will take 7 years before the restoration begins.

Vaudeville Evaluation

Vaudeville Evaluation

After taking notes about the history of Vaudeville we were split into groups and given scripts that are Vaudeville style, my script involved a Posh Gentleman, an old Scottish man and a young Scottish Woman, the script wasn't funny in my opinion quite boring, it was probably only funny as my group tried to make it as funny as possible but it could have just been a normal script from any play and had nothing to do with Vaudeville. Other peoples scripts were also not funny in the slightest really, it was all the people trying to make the material they were given interesting.  

I found Vaudeville to be boring and not entertaining, I found the scripted piece we received to be mildly funny but only one or two funny jokes but other then that it was rather boring. I didn't find the clip we were shown to be funny either, it was dated and boring and only one or two things in it that entertained me, overall I find vaudeville to be difficult as it seems go be entertainment orientated but I don't find it entertaining at all its also hard work to perform the pieces.

Vaudeville

Vaudeville     1881-1920
Before vaudeville
Before the American civil war theatre in America was dominated by burlesque and acts that featured many risqué things. Theatre was not only a place to be entertained it was a place for men to have a drink. Mainly aimed at an all male audience after the civil war

In 1881 a man named Tony Pastor decided that theatre shouldn't be just for men and that these shows featuring a wide variety of different performances in one evening and missing a completely separate audience so he conducted an experiment and put on a cabaret and called it a vaudeville which featured a performance of Shakespeare, acrobatics, singing, dancing and comedy all in the same evening. However he removed all the risque and inappropriate content and aimed not just at the rich but the middle class too. He also banned drinking in the theatre

 

What did he find out?
He found out that they could make a huge amount of money if they kept putting on performances like this and as years went on in more and more amusements became available to choose from. A handful of circuses regularly toured the country, dime museums appealed to the curious, amusement parks, river boats, and town halls often featured cleaner presentations of variety entertainment while saloons musical halls and burlesque houses catered to those with a taste of risqué

 

What was the purpose
The purpose is to not get chocked up or emotionally attached with the performance but it is simply to be entertained over 1880 to the early 1920's they realised the easiest way to this was to make people laugh. Which is why an increasing number of vaudevilles featured comedy sketches. Which were extremely slap stick.

 

The demise of vaudeville
As the years went on vaudeville became more and more popular appealing to many different audiences and featured for the first time Irish performers or black performers
However technology also became vaudevilles competition as silent movies had started to come at the cinema and the cinema was a much cheaper option for the public as the theatre isn't the cheapest place for entertainment
So consequently vaudevilles in theatre became less common as they could not support themselves as much as they once could.

 

So what now?
As we have progressed vaudeville has been reborn into shows like Britain's got talent and the royal variety show
However we also have kept the comedy sketches that were brought to life by vaudeville. Like Morecambe and wise, Laurel and Hardy
This is called the new vaudeville
39 steps is a spoof of vaudeville performances

 

What makes it new vaudeville
Over the top physicality
Comedy sketch type of performance
No character relationship with the audience
Often recognising your audience or acknowledging they're there
Voices are useful

Physical Theatre

Over the past few days we have been working on a physical theatre piece, our piece was based around religion and how they are formed but also how they are changed and destroyed by society that don't agree or accept them, this can also represent a lot of other things not just religion. We decided to go for a more movement based piece. We started by showing how the religion is formed, then how society begins to break it down. During the middle of our piece we had something slightly more abstract in the fact that it showed someone pulling themselves up but that resulted in someone else getting pushed down.

Overall I think this unit has been interesting and fun but at the same time I do not feel we learnt a lot about physical theatre, we learnt about the history and what it actually is but we never focused on any physical theatre practitioner and what their techniques were, we never worked shopped any techniques we were just told to create a physical theatre piece which I don't feel is right as physical theatre is an umbrella term for something more specific. If I was to redo this style I would like more time to learn about other physical theatre aspects.    

Physical Theatre

Physical theatre is theatre that puts emphasis on movement rather than dialogue. In other words, anything that puts the human body at the centre of the storytelling, therefore, it is often very abstract and unique in style, using movement in a stylised and representational way.
DV8
DV8 are a famous drama company that specialise in physical theatre. They use Physical Theatre as a full art form and focus on looking at the dramatic potential that can be unlocked from movement. They describe their work as combining the crossroads, where dance and drama meet. They use Physical Theatre to explore complex aspects of human life, issues and relationships.In their production of "Can we Talk About This?" the performers used Physical Theatre to express extremely complicated and delicate social and political issues surrounding Islam.

Frantic Assembly 

Another company that combine dialogue with movement is Frantic Assembly, they worked with the National Theatre for the production of the Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time. The companies production of "Lovesong" demonstrates a different way of performing Physical Theatre. They use more dialogue, but most of the impact comes from movement, to show relationships and changes over a couple of years.

Stylised Movement: Normally, in Shakespearian plays, actions are described. For example, the battle scene before the beginning of Macbeth was described, however in his production of Macbeth, Kenneth Branagh was hailed for the physicality of the piece. Movement can make a play much more exciting.

Physical Theatre can also be used in the way of the director. Steven Berkoff used it in "The Trial" to provide scene, whether it is furniture for a room or a busy street, he always used people, allowing for great impact. The stage for his production was a cast, simple frames and a rope, in order to allow the actors to create the staging and show off their versatility and talents.

Combining Art Forms: Physical Theatre has a focus on movement, but at the same time can be separate from the spoken word, or combined with it. It can be devised or contain elements of improvisation beyond the script. These elements may include music, dance or media.

Commedia: Commedia dell'arte is recognised as the starting point for Physical Theatre. It began in Italy in the 16th century and was a popular form of street theatre in which actors carried out improvised scenes with stock characters. The main focus on this type of theatre was that the actors wore masks, so facial expressions couldn't be seen, so emotions must have been obvious through their body language.

Contact Improvisation: Was developed from improvisation and is usually performed by two people. When there is contact between the two people, there is a response, for example if someone was to go up and push another actor the actor would respond in one of three ways. Absorb the impulse, to resist or to respond with the motion.

Techniques
-Proximity
-Gesture
-Harshness and Tenderness
-Stance
-Mask work
-Contact Improvisation
-Mime
-Status
-Dance work
-Not moving
-Movement
-Motif

Brecht Evaluation

Last Monday we were introduced to Brecht, we were given a script and had to perform the scene today, overall my impression of Brecht isn't good, I don't like many of his techniques, but I would use some of them, for example I would use song and dance, Multi-rolling, narration and breaking the fourth wall, I think these are all good techniques to use and can also look very clever. The main thing I don't like about Brecht is the fact he doesn't want his audience to have an emotional connection with his characters, I completely disagree with this because I think if someone is emotionally connected to a character its because they can relate to them and this makes a performance almost a bit more personal. 
The script we got given was very dull and didn't really make any sense which was quite frustrating having to try and figure out what is going on when we were trying to perform it, a lot of the lines didn't really make sense either, but I think it wasn't originally written in English so it could just be the translation that is incorrect.
Overall I actually really hated Brecht, I would not like to do anything Brecht in the future as I found this to be dull and uninteresting and also I don't agree with his techniques so I didn't enjoy it at all.             

Brecht

This week we have been learning about Brecht

Bertolt Brecht was born 1898 in Germany. In his early 30's he worked as a medic in WWI but he was appalled by war, he decided to move to Berlin to work in theatre. However, when the Nazis came into power, he fled the country because he was a communist, resulting in his citizenship being removed. He decided to live in the USA where he gained citizenship in 1941. He was a strong communist and was not afraid of expressing his views, hence, was a target of the House of Un-American Activities, who were very much anti communist. He moved back to Germany In 1947. He then founded the Berliner Ensemble. He was vastly influenced, having lived through two world wars he was very political and expressed his strong views through the medium of theatre. 

Epic Theatre 
-He wanted to make the audience distant from emotional involvement. 
-Brecht was against cathartic theatre 
One famous quote of his " Hang up their brains with their hats in the cloakroom." emphasised his desire to engage the audience. 

VerfremdungseffectThis term is also known as the alienation effect, however, Brecht only wanted his audience to feel distanced, he wanted them to be engaged and excited but not emotionally involved and this always involved breaking the forth wall. 

Brecht's Techniques 
-Narration
-Coming out of role
-Speaking stage directions
-Directly addressing the audience
-Using placards
-Multi-rolling
-Minimal props, costume and set
-Symbolic props or lighting 
-Song and Dance
-Montage 
-Spass (Fun)
-Gestus (Gestures)
-Narrative which jumps around in time 
-Freeze frames



On Monday we were split into groups and were given a script, one of Brecht's pieces of work. We began by listing the large number of characters in the script. There were more characters than actors, so this meant we would have to use of Brecht's techniques, multi rolling. I was given the role of the mother in law as the characters are Russian and I was asked to try and do a strong old Russian accent, unfortunately I could not do this. We then started to label props in the style Brecht did. For example, we labelled a piece of paper with Child, or guitar, to show that we were trying to think and adopt Brechts own techniques into our interpretation but also keep minimal props which is also another technique.

The script we were given doesn't really make much sense and is extremely boring, after some digging we discovered this script was meant to be boring which made me think why, if Brecht wanted his audience to be engaged in his theatre but still not attached why would he write something boring, I do not believe this piece of theatre would engage an audience in anyway, also another technique of Brecht is spass, which means fun, this piece of theatre is not fun in the slightest.