Devising Week 7

The performance week!

Again today we were a member down but worked on all scenes that could on the day be easily performed with just the four of us excluding Nyakeh.

This morning we began from the beginning of our piece and worked on incorporating more physicalised elements into each section: starting with the opening 'diagonal' scene which involves all four/five of us. Originally we had created a simple piece in which Frank walks past us all in the line and reacts subtly to each client/patient but my suggestion was to change up the way in which he reacted or change the way we approach Dr Joe- I didn't want it to be repetitive nor uninteresting so we created a more physical outlook. As Frank reaches Matt, Matt grabs him and holds him tight to his chest to show Matt's nervousness around strangers and his behaviour issue. As Frank reaches me I wave him over with the picture frame in hand and do the same as he moves on to Hannah. When Frank has completed the line Hannah says "Good bye Dr Joe" and raises her hand. It was then her idea to cannon this and all over enthusiastically wave good bye to Dr Joe, and then in cannon effect lower our hands. We got Frank to watch this from the audiences perspective and his feedback was really positive and that the wave looked child like which captured my character perfectly! 

Franks 'drinking out the flask' movement diagram. 

I then suggested instead of finishing the scene here we continued it with another physical theatre element to it- I suggested that Frank could bounce off us almost like a teacup ride at a funfair. The motion of the ride is that the teacup continues in the same direction but spins whilst doing so. I wanted Frank to spin off each of the three of us as though he is juggling his thoughts and problems with all of our problems that he has to deal with- this will imply that he has a lot more on his mind due to his depression. Now this scene has become more physical it makes it more interesting to watch, we tried this scene with all the new physical movements and dialogue and it seemed to work really well together. Frank, again, sat in the audience seating to see from their perspective the scene and he said that the stage balancing of each of our positioning was really effective. His only comment was for me to be more like a CBB presenter: over enthusiastic about everything and over dramatasise the wave I do. As Frank reaches me I do a large wave with the picture frame in my hand to embody the CBB presenter type characteristics.

Returning to the diagonal line physical piece: me and Frank created a spin tug of war then when we get nearer Matt we use the tug of war styled movement over the picture frame. For Matt's physicalised piece he pushes Frank off of him (in case he has a 'wire' that's recording him...) The fall to the ground was originally more like an action movie roll which I thought gave off the wrong impression so I suggested that as Frank rolls up his back into a standing position he is drinking out of the hip flask he owns. So he goes from crouched down and then as he reaches standing position he is already drinking out of his flask and then he bends his back backwards to take a more dramatic approach to drinking out of a flask. This now looks really intriguing as the audience are immediately told this guy has a drinking issue but they want to see where it will take the piece and what it will effect etc. The slower Frank does this means that the audience can really read into the motions and the tentativeness of the section. 

We went straight into the triangle interview scene and added in a repetition of our last words 5 times which now helps to build the noise level and atmosphere and as said before when it reaches its loudest point Frank stops us with the quiet noise of the dictaphone and although the noise level drops the atmosphere is still really really tense and we barely give the audience time to take it in as Frank begins his piece. And this is exactly how we have all conjured up Dr Joe's thought process and brain at this time- he has too much to think about and too much to concentrate on. The repetition of the last words was my suggestion purely because- we repeat our last sentence 3 times and this just didn't seem to build the atmosphere I was so hoping we would so adding in more repetition allows us to do so and also allows the audience feel it. 

       This repetition of words etc has really been influenced from the Berkohivan style that we have aimed for in this entire devising project. We wanted a mixture of Frantic Assembly and Dv8 (Two almost-dance-like Physical Theatre companies) and Berkoff. This repetition is something Berkoff uses a lot in his pieces and he uses noise volume to again create the perfect atmosphere. Us repeating the last word is unusual in the naturalistic theatre world and Berkoff does exactly this- to move as far from being naturalistic as possible. 

Our next section which needed work was to add Matt into the OCD questioning scene which ends with us all fighting over having Franks attention. Originally both Matt and Nyakeh were going to have two separate interview scenes but this made us slide into a more boring scene with little physical pieces, So including him into this scene not only allowed us to give Matt an OCD interview session but it also added to the hecticness of the piece with each of us overlapping each other and fighting over Frank- which adds to Frank's depression. This section was quite simple as we had the layout and the structure of the questioning already set out all we had to do was ensure that we asked relevant questions to Matt about his obsession. I am really pleased with this piece purely because it took us the short amount of time that it did which meant we can pull off good work under the pressure of having one less member: a member who has become quite dominant.  

The mannequin scene: the whole idea of the mannequin representing Frank and I getting married is really really strong and I can see how well it works and how well it fits etc however I find it incredibly difficult to act to this non-reacting, human-shaped object. I really do like the scene but I have to force myself to pull out all the stops to follow through. And by that I mean I get to some points in the scene that perhaps I don't put all my effort into making look really realistic and perhaps forget to take the movements with the shirt sleeve slowly to represent being in love- and this is just me being honest with myself and something I know I will need to work on before Thursdays performance otherwise the message will be wrong for the audience and it could so easily become comedic. My personal homework/research I set myself is to re-watch the Enter Achilles Dv8 scene and pay close attention to how the man moves the blow-up doll and the pace in which he does so and also how he looks at it etc. This scene is our influence for the mannequin so this means I can take all notes I make from this and use it into my scene. 

Another suggestion of Hannah's was for her to be Dr Joe's wife so it becomes a split scene between me and the mannequin & Hannah and Frank. All the movements were in sync with both sides of the stage for example when the mannequin/Frank puts his hand on our left shoulder at the same time so from the audiences view we all move at the same time because we are playing just three different characters. This worked really well- and it also made me feel less awkward acting with the mannequin because the audiences full attention wasn't just on me. But at the same time this is a negative because the mannequin is a strong 'figure' in our piece and my characters obsession is taken to the next level which needs to be seen by the audience so at the moment I am torn between keeping it as just me on stage or to have Frank and Hannah. However I'm thinking it shouldn't include Hannah at all because from the audiences view it makes Hannah look like she is playing my character-which makes the entire scene unclear. 

Photo taken during our rehearsal performance

In the middle of all this devising work we performed our pieces to the class including Deborah and Kirsty and got some really good feedback. We only showed, again, the short pieces we'd worked on without Nyakeh but this was still really difficult to perform and get feedback on such a small piece without an important member of our group. So this performance, for me, was really daunting. 

I gave feedback to the other groups:  To the left is the feedback I gave to the 'Family group' which consisted of Lewis, Pheobe, Luke, Joe, Donna and Kennedy. Their piece is really strong and powerful. It is a very clear mixture of Berkoff and Dv8 and the choreography is fantastic. Part of me thought whilst watching it that my group still has a lot to work on to even get close to their level of brilliance and another part of me was that we have got to push ourselves and beat them because a bit of competition could really help and give us the motivation we need. The feedback I gave them was all construction criticism and only things that they should improve on: because at this stage I think that telling them the points that I thought were good isn't going to help them improve.


The second group is the 'Game Show group' which consists of Sophie, Frankie, Nathan, Brandon, Jake and Milo. Their piece, again, is very Berkohvian and they have taken a very dark route. Their piece is at a really strong level but there were some points that the improvised talking was involved that I felt were not necessary such as swearing and Brandon's hosting speeches. Their piece has really really improved because only three/four weeks ago their piece was unclear and had really breached away from the stimulus and physical theatre was at the bare minimum. But they have really taken on board the changes and feedback they got and have now, a very interesting piece. I gave them comments that involved them only improving on their piece, like group one.

The feedback we got was minimum despite asking for only comments to improve our piece because we are at the stage that we have a very short and messy performance with one less member than expected. 

• "The first scenes physical elements were lovely"
• "Frank don't have your back to the audience in the interviewing scene"
• "All characterisation for all the characters were lovely"
• "The beginning was fab- but make the movements more precise"
• "Humming was nice"
• "Characterisation was 'divine'"
• "Split scene really worked and the use of the mannequin was amazing"

The feedback above was from our peers/friends. The feedback was all very positive but as a group we were in desperate need of things that we should improve on. 

Whilst performing we got a lot of laughs during the mannequin scene... This put me off whilst performing and hugely knocked my confidence. I find this scene really difficult and the reaction we got blew it for me. I now understand that they were only laughing because they know me and not my character and I can see why now but as friends I would expect them to be mature and understand that this is a character and not Issie and not laugh even if they do find it comedic? For me this really did put a downer on the piece that we had even though we did have good feedback. 

On the bright side both Kirsty and Deborah gave us some really good feedback and plenty of things to improve on which is exactly what we wanted/needed. Joined together their feedback was: 

• To start our entire piece with a more serious tone to avoid making the mannequin scene come across remotely comedic
• Issie- sharper movements with the picture frame in the triangle scene
• The skip-hoping, stepping on the cracks, scene was unclear
• Frank- to project when facing the back
• More physicalisation and spacing
• Frank and Hannah being in the mannequin scene was unclear

^^ This feedback was incredibly resourceful as once Kirsty and Deborah had taken us through the feedback they were giving us we had a good long afternoon session to work purely on all the feedback we had been given from everyone. This afternoon session was really useful and talking from looking back onto today's work we managed to target all the feedback and change it to fit the relevant comments.

Tuesday we were back to a full group today with Nyakeh turning up!!
So our first job was to incorporate him into all the short scenes that we would be involved in. This began with the diagonal scene that opens the piece. We also made all our movements more precise in this scene- following the feedback we got yesterday.
Me and Hannah breifly worked on our 'stepping on the cracks' scene to make this clearer. We did this by taking two steps, pausing, looking left then right and then stepping another two steps to reach Frank. The pauses meant that the audience had time to see and understand what we are doing and it also made it look more like we were taking in the pavement and choosing carefully where we could tread without stepping on the cracks. Matt and Nyakeh worked on a short sequence that portrayed the OCD of germs.
We then worked the interview scene with Nyakeh involved: and again as we had more characters to 'fight over' Frank the atmosphere picked up a level.
We decided to rid both Frank and Hannah being a part of the mannequin scene: with in mind Deborah offering to help me devise a short sequence with the mannequin tomorrow. I think scrapping the two of them is for the better of this scene because as I previously mentioned the mannequin is a strong point in our piece and it being just me and the mannequin on stage will really bring this home to the audience.
We created an ending to our OCD section with us all knocking off stage to enter stage (like knocking to enter an office) Frank being already on stage is torn between which 'door' to go to first and again this represents his mind being manic and overloaded. We all enter, in neutral, and walk towards Frank almost like ganging up on him. A fair few weeks ago we created some freeze frames (mentioned in earlier blog posts), so we have rectified these and used them to end each act/section. And to me this is a really strong way to end each section. I am also pleased we managed to use the freeze frames because they do look really effective and give off the right message.
We rectified all the dance pieces that Hannah, Matt and Nyakeh had created back when we were working on the love triangle pieces. We refined all the existing work and thankfully we didn't have to add anything to the relationships section! Whilst they were doing this me and Frank worked on a short scene which revealed mine and Franks relationship. Frank suggested that I just circle him sat on the chair and this is how the scene starts and ends- this purely mixes up just sat on chairs and there was no real reasoning behind this. This scene, as suggested by Kirsty and Deborah, should be more tense and confrontational to put a spin on my character and this relationship with Dr Joe. As this scene ends and Frank goes to leave the others all enter and we again gang up on Frank to form the second freeze frame. I loved doing this scene as it starts to open my character a bit more than just me playing a overly obsessed person. And this was another scene that we both created and developed in a short amount of time which gave us more time to focus on the larger scenes that included more physical aspects.

We then created a scene which would be section 3, secrets. I have to admit the dialogue and content of this scene isn't as strong as the others but the physical theatre aspect over run it. Matt created a wide and spread-out chair layout (we are all sat in the furthest corners of the stage with just Frank in the center) We then improvised with some questions and then as soon as Matt (the last to answer) says his final answer the three of them (or two) drag their chairs to join Frank center stage. They all then stand in neutral.
I then slowly and drawn out, drag my chair and slam it down next to Frank. This scene is quite tense and fully shows the audience my characters real feelings- the deep and meaningful ones. Me and Frank improvised a short dialogue piece and then brought in the physical theatre sequence we created a few weeks ago. Back then the meaning of it was that Frank didn't want me to leave, so we did a full role-reversal so it meant that I didn't want Frank to go.
     Nyakeh suggested just as Frank was about to exit I run after him and start to shout at him, slowly (as though my words were pushing Frank towards the bridge- made from chairs that were pulled together earlier on in the scene.) Frank reverses onto the chairs and I stand behind him. We, as a collaborative, begin to chant "JUMP, JUMP" I push Frank off of the chairs (off of the bridge)
The end... I am so so pleased with this ending scene because the tension has risen slowly throughout the piece and finally my character explodes as does Franks-his in a different way-suicide. This will, hopefully, leave the audience stunned because the ending isn't something that you expect from a therapist- someone who spends all their time helping and thinking of others.

Today was one of the best days of devising purely because we managed to get so much done- and by this I mean we created pieces that we are all proud of and they fit with the sections and our characters and we know we are definitely going to use them so they have been developed and refined all in one day. And we also had a full group which hasn't happened for a long time now and even though he had to leave early and the news was broken to us that he can't attend the evening performance this Thursday we still knuckled down and got a lot of good work done.

The skills I have developed during this devising project is firstly working as a team- a irrelevant one but something I have definitely gained a lot of experience in now seeing as we have had plenty of changes to our idea and group in itself.
My devising and imaginative skills in general have definitely developed. In my very first blog post I mention how I previously did a devising piece at school and as a group we really struggled with settling on an idea and bringing it to life so I was apprehensive about this project but as time went on I found myself suggesting different both physical and content ideas that have been used. Some were little and subtle things such as stamping our feet to enter the interview scene and other larger ideas such as the content of mine and Franks scene in which I circle him- and compared to the devising project I took part in at school I feel that these skills of mine have greatly developed in the physical theatre sessions we have been taking part in since January.

As an individual I have been influenced by a range of different practitioners throughout this project however the main ones are Berkoff, Frantic Assembly and Dv8. Berkoff has given me the ideas for a more sound scape effect to some group scenes which involve more dialogue than physical. The repetition of words and sentences have all been things that I have suggested to bring Berkoff into our piece more. Berkhovian is definitely a favourite style of mine and even though we could fully include this style because our piece wasn't made for the grotesqueness that he uses: I/we have incorporated influences of his style. Frantic and Dv8 are the Physical Theatre 'practitioners' that our piece mainly revolves around. The scenes that involve a more dance based sequence such as mine and Franks sequence nearing the end of our performance has been influence by Frantic Assembly's devising method- they used this concept of stopping one person leaving the room and this is exactly how we created our piece. Dv8 gave us the sharper dance like movements that Nyakeh and Matt have created but also the stepping on the cracks scene both me and Hannah worked on together. Dv8 also gave me the mannequin idea and movements.

Creating my character was heavily influenced from the researching OCD and watching the videos linked to this disorder. They gave me an insight into what goes through someone with OCD's mind and how "i must wash my hands" keeps repeating in their minds. The Enter Achilles clip heavily influenced me with the mannequin purely because they have a very similar scene with a blow-up doll.