Initial Ideas

Arranged marriage Idea:
with our arranged marriage idea we have decided to use naturalism.
 This would make the piece hard hitting but without loosing any of the interesting elements of a performance so we didn't want to use realism. Before this piece I didn't understand the difference between realism and naturalism so I did some research.

Realism

·         characters are believable, everyday types

·         costumes are authentic

·         the realist movement in the theatre and subsequent performance style have greatly influenced 20th century theatre and cinema and its effects are still being felt today

·         triggered by Stanislavski’s system of realistic acting at the turn of the 20th century, America grabbed hold of its own brand of this performance style (American realism) and acting (method acting) in the 1930s, 40s and 50s (The Group Theatre, The Actors Studio)

·         stage settings (locations) and props are often indoors and believable

·         the ‘box set’ is normally used for realistic dramas on stage, consisting of three walls and an invisible ‘fourth wall’ facing the audience

·         settings for realistic plays are often bland (deliberately ordinary), dialogue is not heightened for effect, but that of everyday speech (vernacular)

·         The drama is typically psychologically driven, where the plot is secondary and primary focus is placed on the interior lives of characters, their motives, the reactions of others etc.

·         Realistic plays often see the protagonist (main character) rise up against the odds to assert him/herself against an injustice of some kind (eg. Nora in Ibsen’s A Doll’s House)

·         realistic dramas quickly gained popularity because the everyday person in the audience could identify with the situations and characters on stage

·         Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen (A Doll’s House, Hedda Gabler) is considered the father of modern realism in the theatre

Naturalism

·         in terms of style, naturalism is an extreme or heightened form of realism

·         as a theatrical movement and performance style, naturalism was short-lived

·         Stage time equals real time – eg. three hours in the theatre equals three hours for the characters in the world of the play

·         costumes, sets and props are historically accurate and very detailed, attempting to offer a photographic reproduction of reality (‘slice of life’)

·         as with realism, settings for naturalistic dramas are often bland and ordinary

·         naturalistic dramas normally follow rules set out by the Greek philosopher Aristotle, known as ‘the three unities’ (of time, place and action)

·         the action of the play takes place in a single location over the time frame of a single day

·         jumps in time and/or place between acts or scenes is not allowed

·         playwrights were influenced by naturalist manifestos written by French novelist and playwright Emile Zola in the preface to Therese Raquin (1867 novel, 1873 play) and Swedish playwright August Strindberg in the preface to Miss Julie (1888)

·         naturalism explores the concept of scientific determinism (spawning from Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution) – characters in the play are shaped by their circumstances and controlled by external forces such as hereditary or their social and economic environment

·         often characters in naturalistic plays are considered victims of their own circumstance and this is why they behave in certain ways (they are seen as helpless products of their environment)

·         characters are often working class/lower class (as opposed to the mostly middle class characters of realistic dramas)

·         naturalistic plays regularly explore sordid subject matter previously considered taboo on the stage in any serious manner (eg suicide, poverty, prostitution)

Sources:
Burton, B., Living Drama 4E
Crawford, J., L., Acting in Person and in Style
Dobson, W., and Neelands, J., Theatre Directions
Styan, J., L., Modern Drama in Theory and Practice 1: Realism and Naturalism

Source: http://www.thedramateacher.com/realism-and-naturalism-theatre-conventions/

This shows that realism is the practice of making a piece as real as possible, meaning everything is as it would be in real life, Dialogue is real vernacular and costumes are as real as possible.

Where as naturalism is about enhancing the real style to make it more entertaining but still believable.

Mr Webb said " realism is like watching big brother, whereas naturalism is like watching a good film."

Inital Ideas to our Stimulus- 'Humanity in Crisis'

My initial ideas from the humanity in crisis stimulus was to be entirely controversial but still have a hard hitting effect on the audience allowing them to leave the performance with some things to think about but also having enjoyed themselves.
I had the original idea of concentrating on the crisis of mental health issues and how people with mental health issues were treated in times before the true understanding of how mental illnesses occur and how they can be treated.
I wanted to start out with a all black stage and a sinister soundscape of the typical scary assumptions of a mental health hospital and afterwards move into the darker truth of how the true monsters are the staff not the patients.

Other members of the group also all came up with ideas and we subsequently decided to create a stylised piece of many different subjects all with a connecting feature and we had many ideas.
WW2, Suffragettes, Women on the front line and ect.

I thought this stylised, mash up of different snippets would achieve the effect on the audience that I really wanted and we could be really creative by changing between realism and complete stylised piece to really break the fourth wall, Brecht style, and then sometimes really tone down and become really realistic and make the audience feel as if what they are watching is real.

Our Initial Ideas - Spider Diagram

This is our initial ideas for our devised piece. We wanted to cover as many different controversial subjects as possible with one overall underlying connection.
As a group we decided we wanted to use the battle women have had to face and still do face throughout the years of discrimination and suppression.
we wanted to use as many of these different ideas and use them to create a gripping performance of many of the issues that have shaken the world but from the eyes of the women who were suppressed during those times.

Devising- When I Was Off

Devising- Quality Dialouge

As part of our devising we wanted to create quality dialogue that's moved away from the stereotypical, robotic style of devised dialogue. We wanted to create speech that captivated an audience rather than reminded them of the fact they were watching a performance.

We did a lot of research into the style of realistic dialogue used in traditional scripted style performances that sound as if they were conversations taken from real life situations captured by the play write.

Tom and Ellie created a script of a conversation between an MP and a Female major in the British army.
This controversial debate about how women should or shouldn't be allowed to fight on the front line. They Incorporated real quotes from the debate between the debating parties, Michael and Judith which allowed them to gain an understanding of how the characters would respond to each other and the type of dialect they would use.

Below is the video of the product;

As you can see from the video we decided to use traverse staging.
I think this is effective because we are also sat inbetween the traverse seating when we are part of the debate but are being quiet. This would make the audience feel included into the debate and they will be come emmersed into out performance captivating their interest for the whole piece.

revolutionarts2016: 'Ya Never Know' Choreography

revolutionarts2016: 'Ya Never Know' Choreography

revolutionarts2016: Finale (Don't Feed the Plants!) rehearsal

revolutionarts2016: Finale (Don't Feed the Plants!) rehearsal

Here is the video of the finale Don't Feed the Plants!
I feel this was very successful as there isn't much dancing involved and is all about the singing and getting the audience 'geared up' after such a heavy hitting performance of horror and humour!

I think all I need to do to improve is to appear more scared when we point to corners of the stage as if something was coming towards me.

revolutionarts2016: Dentist rehearsal - 19/5/15

revolutionarts2016: Dentist rehearsal - 19/5/15

Here is the Video from the dentist song.
There are many things I enjoyed about the dance to this song, its comical style and the way everything is empathised onto the sadistic characteristics of the Dentist Orin.
One thing I need to work on is the dance after the long note 'IIIIIIII' because I realised after watching this video that I was facing inwards with my back to the audience during the step clicks. This can be fixed just by me ensuring I face the right way when we go into this part of the song.

Over all I think this is my strongest dance so far.

Little Shop of Horrors- Day 2

We began the day with re-running Little Shop of Horrors to ensure we all remembered the dance whilst we sang to the backing tacks. This helped us to remember the dance whilst also being able to sing in tune.
Then we began Da'doo and in this everyone has their own individual section, for example mine is with Dan and Ali where we walk to a shop and begin to order many things which we all quickly grab and say we don't have enough money for and run. We then meet up on the the other side of the stage and crack open a coke and celebrate.
One of my favourite parts of this song is when we say "TOTAL ECLIPSE OF THE SUN" and we all look the wrong and then correct ourselves on the beat.
I struggle with the words because I haven't learnt them yet and trying to hold my script and keep up with my section.

Little Shop Of Horrors-Day 1

We began to set the dance for Skid Row but before that we stood in our harmony groups and sang the song through together to first get the singing right. After that Dan McKay started to teach us the dance he had created. He started by instructing us to get into our own characters and behave how we think our character would. We began with a freeze frame and tried to over exaggerate as much as we could to really empathise our distinct characters. As a foreign character trying to find a Taxi 'Cab' I start the dance by trying to call the Cab by using the classic old school American method of using a thumbs up.
This was my idea of making me stick out from the crowd as a foreigner as to be overly trying to fit in with the classic American film style Cab calling and the heavy, Funny accent.

I struggled with the dance a little as dancing is not my strong point and I had to repeat the sections many times to get it right.

Devising Evaluation

Evaluation

I think the main thing that went well in our piece of drama was the movement. This is because we used the fact Meg and Dom are dancers to our advantage and we were able to use them to create synchronized as well as cannon pieces of movement and dance. This was a success because it shows how we were able to utilize people’s strength and in this case it was the skilfulness of our dancers. The movement piece was also a strength because it created an interesting sequence that allowed the audience to learn a lot about characters and it also allowed the audience to see the progression of the story.

Another strength of the performance was the way we all were able to work together successfully and were able to discuss and create ideas together. Our teamwork helped us brainstorm and plan all our ideas before we started to elaborate and create pieces of drama. This was a strength because this meant we had written down all our ideas and didn't have to focus on ideas as soon as we thought of them. This allowed us to take ideas from previous brainstorms where we knew they didn’t work and use them in new places because we didn't forget them. Another way our team work helped us was it allowed us all to talk freely within the group and no personal issues prevented people pushing ideas forward as we all felt comfortable and there was no arguments.

Another strength was the way we experimented with ideas. We tied lots of ideas in lots of scenes and experimented with how things played out during the performance. This was a strength because it allowed us to think about how the audience would view the performance and whether particular techniques and events would work together well or not. This allowed us to evolve and begin to think more creatively as a group and helped us work together closely as we began to use each other’s ideas and use them to adapt an elaborate on our own ideas.  

One weakness was our date scenes lacked the story and emotion they needed to be as effective as we wanted them to be. Feedback from other people was that they didn't feel as if they knew enough about the characters and their relationships to feel sympathy or understand fully the emotions shared between the two characters. To change this into a strength we should have added more to the scenes that allowed the audience to see the progression, such as discussions about their feelings, the change in behavior when these characters are together alone and ect. This would have maybe added the extra information and explanation the audience needed to feel emotions towards the characters and understand them more. I also feel as if the relationships had been more realistic and didn't seem so fabricated they would have made more sense and portrayed the emotions we wanted to, better.

Another weakness was because of how comfortable we were around each other, we got distracted a lot and this led to a mass of our time being wasted on pointless and off topic conversations. This affected us because it meant we lost a lot of time we could have used on planning or rehearsing to talking off topic. To make turn this into a strength we should have created a rehearsal schedule that would have given us clear and concise information on what we had to do and give us the structure we needed to break off any off topic conversations and begin to focus more on what we needed to get done. This rehearsal schedule also would have helped us track and create things for people to do when they weren't in a scene most people were working on and let us be more conservative of our time and not waste any time or resources.

Another weakness was we didn't use the performance space as much as we should have. We spent a lot of time in another rehearsal space rather than where we were really going to perform the piece. This meant we didn't feel fully comfortable in the space and didn't use the facilities in there as much as we could have. We also didn't use the space to plan entrances and exits so when it came to the performance scene transitions weren't as smooth as they should have been. To turn this into a weakness we should have planned a rota for the performance space so it was planned who used what rehearsal space and when so both groups had equal or similar times in the room and could plan the use of the space more successfully.

In conclusion I feel as if the performance was a success however it could have been smoother and much more successful if as a group we had improved on the weaknesses that we highlighted and maybe tried to create strengths for each weakness before we performed the piece.

Acting Styles- Physical Theatre notes

Physical Theatre

At its simplest, physical theatre is anything that puts empathsis  on movement and using the body to tell the story.

Often abstract in style leading to performers to use very little or no dialogue at all.

DV8

Dv8 are among the main practitioners of physical theatre and focus on the dramatical potential of movement. Dv8 are well know for exploring complicated aspects of relationships and social issues, things that can appear 'cheesy' in dialogue.

Frantic Assembly

Frantic assembly are a contrast to Dv8 as they use lots of dialogue to create an obvious play and structure rather than a just a dance.

Stylised Movement

Stylised movement can take a normal standard play for example Macbeth and make it cater to a new audience for people who may not like the extended dialogue of a Shakespeare

Physical theatre can also be used in the way people like Steven Berkoff use like creating the setting with bodies like furniture and ect!

Combining Art Forms

Physical theatre has a focus' on movement as well as creating interesting dialogue. Physical theatre almost breaks the fourth wall like Brecht as it is never majorly realistic and shows the audience that they are in a performance and not real life like Brecht's style.

Commedia

Commedia dell'arte began in Italy in 16th century and is very physical as the characters usually use masks so that facial expressions are hidden from the audience. This requires movement to express emotions and actions.

Techniques:

Mime

Gesture

Status

Proximity

Stance

Harshness and tenderness

Movement

Not moving

Dance work

Motif's

Contact improvisation

Contact improvisation is usually between two people where there is a point of contact and a reaction, example

Our Brecht inspired piece

 We used many different styles and aspects of Brecht to create our piece from the complete unnaturalistic approach to the light hearted comedy spin we added.
We used Placards to name items and people because simplicity was one of Brechts favourite rules to have, he believed that simplicity sometimes added more to a production rather than over the top ornate sets and props.

 We wrote down a list of props and who would need/source/create them.

The dance at the beginning of the piece added to the light hearted comedy style of the piece creating from the 'get go' a light sense of amusement allowing the meaning of the piece to be transferred to the audience without having to be such a heavy emotional piece.

Another thing I think that went well was the way Tom had four characters and a placard with them on so when he changed he could point at the character he was playing to inform the audience. This was effective because it combined two of Brechts techniques, Multi-rolling and the use of placards and labels.

Acting Styles- Brecht Notes

Brecht:

 Born in 1898 in Germany. he was a medic in the war (world war one)
 He left in 1933 as the Nazis had taken over-
He had no citizenship and only took residence in the USA in 1941, however he was a communist and the USA looked down upon this this in 1947 he moved to Berlin and formed the Berliner ensemble.

Epic theatre: uses lots of techniques to remind the audience that the piece is a representation of life not really life.

Verfremdungseffekt is also known as the alienation effect but Brecht didn't want to alienate the audience just distance them to defect any serious emotional connections with characters!

Techniques:

Narration

Coming out of character

Speaking stage directions

Directly addressing the audience

Using placards

Multi-rolling

Song and dance

Montages

Gestus

Tableau.

Writing in Character- Spencer about Ruby

I can't believe that Ruby and I are dating. I just never thought she had that sort of emotion, she has such a tough exterior but last night she confided in me more than she has to even Sam and Sam is her best friend. Its tough living in the rebellion and having a relationship because there is never any privacy and if we aren't out trying to destroy the regime of Jaime we're planned our next move. We don't even get any time alone to just relax and confide in each other because we all stay in the same room for safety and if we wake anyone up Sam would go crazy. I wish things were normal again, maybe me and ruby could settle down.

Mission scene

Dance Piece: This is a dance created by Meg that we used in our mission scene.
We decided to create our mission scene as a dance because this would create a visual experience for the audience and would also provide a difference from the two date scenes and the large amount of dialogue in some of the previous scenes.

Ruby and Spencer

I felt as if the date scene between Ruby and Spencer should have elaborated more on their feelings and maybe shown a deeper connection. I felt as if the scene made the love out to be more of a temporary spark a they both are having a hard time in the rebellion. I think we should have maybe spoken more previous feeling and shown how the characters were hiding an romantic connection behind their tough exteriors.

We could have done this by having them have a deep discussion and slowly both reveal how they feel and end the scene with them deciding they want to have a relationship because I feel as though (despite Ruby's and Spencer's actions) the relationship wasn't clear enough and maybe wasn't explained enough.   

Back Story of Spencer- response in character.

I was young and stupid. I joined the army at a very young age and quickly ranked high. When I was in the army my parents died in a car crash leaving my brother and I alone. I had to choose the Army or my brother but I didn't know how to live outside my military environment so I chose the army. My brother went into care and I couldn't see him. The next thing I knew the government had fallen I was let go from the army and Jaime had scouted all foster homes looking for children full of resent and recruiting them. I heard about my brothers death on the news reports that were played all over the city. He had found something he shouldn't have and decided he didn't want to fight for Jaime any more. Of course they didn't say this, they said he tried to kill Jaime but we all knew he couldn't have even gotten close. Jamie has too many bodyguards and he lives at the top of the most heavily guarded building in all of the country. From that day I swore to find what my brother had and get my revenge. "eye for an eye" they say.

Extra Stimuli

We as a group spent some time looking for extra stimuli to use and we found a few examples we used in the beginning of the process. Here are the links to what we found and some explanations:

Insidious Violin Music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SOZROoCG6_4

 At first we wanted to create a horror performance with the idea of chasing dreams (similar to the Adele song) but having to play a horrific game held by a psychotic host. This music was our inspiration as it was scary and adds tension to any situation

Enter Shikari- Constellations: http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/entershikari/constellations.html

This song is about chasing dreams much like chasing pavements by Adele and was a good inspiration because it talks about how time is short and the only way dreams are to walk away from the ways of life that prevent us from getting to our dreams and relying on nobody but ourselves to get to our dreams. This was a good idea I felt as a completely different style of piece as maybe a feel good drama rather than a horror.

We also researched two other songs by Adele for inspiration:

Rolling in the deep:http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/adele/rollinginthedeep.html
Someone like you: http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/adele/someonelikeyou.html

Both of these songs are about previous lovers who she has resent but also a deep regret for the loss of their love. This too could have been as very interesting area to focus on as a piece of drama.

Research

I was researching into inspiration for our piece and I remembered a book that someone suggested I read a long time ago. This book was 1984 by George Orwell. I decided to research this as a stimuli for the group and I found some common themes.

Censorship

A major theme of Nineteen Eighty-Four is censorship, especially in the Ministry of Truth, where photographs are doctored and public archives rewritten to rid them of "unpersons" (i.e., persons who have been arrested, whom the Party has decided to erase from history). On the telescreens figures for all types of production are grossly exaggerated (or simply invented) to indicate an ever-growing economy, when the reality is the opposite. One small example of the endless censorship is when Winston is charged with the task of eliminating reference to an un-person in a newspaper article. He proceeds to write an article about Comrade Ogilvy, a fictional party member, who displayed great heroism by leaping into the sea from a helicopter so that the dispatches he was carrying would not fall into enemy hands.

Surveillance
The inhabitants of Oceania, particularly the Outer Party members, have no real privacy. Many of them live in apartments equipped with two-way telescreens, so that they may be watched or listened to at any time. Similar telescreens are found at workstations and in public places, along with hidden microphones. Written correspondence is routinely opened and read by the government before it is delivered. The Thought Police employ undercover agents, who pose as normal citizens and report any person with subversive tendencies. Children are encouraged to report suspicious persons to the government, and some even denounce their parents. Surveillance controls the citizenry and the smallest sign of rebellion, even something so small as a facial expression, can result in immediate arrest and imprisonment. Thus, citizens (and particularly party members) are compelled to obedience.
source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nineteen_Eighty-Four#Themes

These themes are both common in are performance so I decided to use these as my main inspiration in suggestions. Such as the idea of complete censorship of the war that is described in the first news report. The war is described as being ended and all civilians saved by 'Jamie' when the truth behind the story is that 'Jaime' started the war to gain control.
The other theme of surveillance we used as well; 'Jaime' had set up cameras everywhere and this is the main method of surveillance but the other method is that Jaime is the leader of the rebel group disguised as Sam. This is the next level of surveillance because she is the leader of the only group of people who are trying to regain the old way of life.

Ruby and Spencer

Me and Meg spoke about the dating scene between our two characters Ruby and Spencer and about how it needed to contrast the characters themselves. Both the characters are characters that have a high exterior and an aggressive personality. We decided that people like this don't usually get among so I suggested that to show how our characters can work. So when the characters are alone they can contrast their usual tough exterior by completely changing and becoming soft and completely loving.

Scene layout

This is the plan of our scene order.
We decided to plan this because we hadn't quite established where the scenes were going to go.
We decided to discuss it as a group and decide on an order and what scenes are needed to fill I'm plot gaps!

revolutionarts2016: Work in progress - 13th January

here is the movement piece where Ashley's character is training to join the rebellion that we have created and the second video is when the men of the rebellion beat Ashley's character up as he is suspected to be the leader of the new dystopian world.



We chose to have scene like this to give a hint that Jaime is not who the audience think and want to try to keep the audience on their feet.



revolutionarts2016: Work in progress - 13th January

revolutionarts2016: Chasing Pavements - Group 1 First work in progress...

revolutionarts2016: Chasing Pavements - Group 1 First work in progress...