Devising our own piece of theatre

1/11/2017

To begin the lesson we looked at ways to devise theatre and different techniques to help us work well as a team.

Today we started to plan our scenes for our own devised piece in our set groups. The name of our play is 'Cupcakes or Knives' as it is based in a orphanage and the girls are selling cupcakes to earn money, however at the end the main character Olivia feels like she has been stabbed in the back.
We wrote out each scene in bullet points to prompt us during rehearsals throughout the week, and as we develop the scenes and go through each part we will begin to script the lines. The reason we chose to act out the scenes before scripting the play is because we felt we could be more free whilst improvising and create more naturalistic characters without setting boundaries or limits. We then listed all the weeks from 1/11/2017 up until the performance on 24/11/2017 and stated each day from Tuesday - Friday and what scene we would rehearse to clearly set out dedicated time to work on each part and to spend equal time on the scenes to not become fixated on minute details. During the final week, we have chosen to work on the whole play to finalise any adjustments and to run through as smooth as possible.

Draft overview plan of our scenes:

8/11/2017

Today we wrote the script for our play. We each took it in turns to lead each scene and to write our thoughts and each wrote our individual lines for our set characters. This was to help feel more in control of the characters dialogue and connecting to the words. To inspire our work, we used an improvisation technique during my scene as Joe before he logs online to talk to Olivia. The rest of my group re-enacted a setting of being Joe's family and the tensions arising during his childhood. This helped to root myself as the character, by understanding his harsh backgrounds which has led him to turn out the way he has. His parents were very strict and controlling and his father never listened or showed him any attention. His parents were also addicted to drugs which built a lot of resentment and anger inside of Joe.

9/11/2017

Today we each hot seated our characters in my group. This helped to deepen and develop the characters personality, history and background information. By doing this exercise, I learnt a lot about my character and the motivations behind his actions in the play. I learnt that Joe is 40 years old, however feels he didn't have a teenage/young adult life as he was controlled by his drug-addicted parents which is the reason he lies about his age online and tells girls he is 20 years old. He doesn't feel that his action are harmful as he is making other girls feel good about themselves and in his spare time he enjoys reading articles and watching wildlife documentaries. He dislikes sports and is a very shy person with a lack of confidence. He also has a lot of held in anger towards the world and feels that he can become aggressive sometimes as he has been grown up around a angry family. I found answering the questions freeing and being able to improvise helped me to creatively answer the questions and let my mind flow. I went into the rehearsals of our scenes with a clearer understanding of my characters personality and history which helped me create a more naturalistic scene.

How does music affect theatre & workshop planning.

2/11/2017

Today we started of the lesson with the question "How does music affect theatre?" To explore this further we each played a different song and reflected on how each song made us feel. We noted that fast paced songs created a higher energy in the room and made us all want to dance and move our bodies. However songs with a fast beat also created a tense atmosphere depending on the song and lyrics. For example, the song 'Paint It Black' by The Rolling Stones created a panic in the room in comparison to 'Shake It Off' by Taylor Swift which left everyone feeling positive and motivated. We also listened to 'Grown Woman' by Beyoncé which has a strong message about being independent and left all the girls in the room feeling empowered. I believe lyrics can be very strong and send a subconscious message to our brains which can affect our mood. If the lyrics are positive and align with your morals, you are more likely to feel upbeat and lifted. In opposition, if the lyrics are negative or provoking you could be left feeling sad and deflated. I also noticed that whilst some people played instrumental music, this left the class feeling more free and light as there were no messages being fed into our minds and you could be more mindful and focus on the sounds.

After this we split up into groups of threes and started to plan a workshop to run to the class. This was to prepare us for our own workshops we will be doing after our performances. We started off by listing different games to engage and break the ice and then chose music to go with our workshop. We had to discuss the length of time on each exercise and ways to get the focus of the class. In my group, we chose a trust exercise. We started off by getting the class into pairs and labelling themselves: 'A' and 'B'. All the 'A's' had to close their eyes whilst the 'B's' guided them around the room. We then moved onto playing IT with their eyes closed. We ended off the workshop by explaining the benefits of trust in acting and how it is important to trust each-other on stage so you can be comfortable and have a connection which creates a naturalistic and believable performance. We kept the first exercise to 1 minute each as we didn't want to cause too much anxiety as closing your eyes can be very challenging. We kept the second exercise of 'IT' to 10 minutes as more focus is needed and was our main exercise for the workshop. To improve our workshop, we learnt that slower music would of been more beneficial to keep a calmer atmosphere and doing more warm ups before closing their eyes would cause less anxiety.

Another group ran a workshop and this was based on character building. A piece of music was played and we had to walk around the space as a character we would associate with the song. The song was a laid back rapping song and I chose to walk slow with a slouch as this felt most appropriate with the lyrics which were talking about 'not caring.'

The next group ran a workshop on movement. We did this by getting into pairs and mirroring each other to ballet music. This helped us to connect to our partners and the music helped to set the tempo and created a calm soft atmosphere.

The final group created a workshop with emotions and warming up. A song was played with a fast tempo and we had to walk around in the space with the emotion the song made us feel. Then a slower song was played and we had to react with the emotion the song made us feel. This was useful to connect to emotions and find comparisons with happier feelings compared to sad feelings.