Devising Week 4

To really get our minds in gear we began with a physical warm up- star jumps, jogging on the spot. This picks up our energy levels and gets our minds thinking.

Kirsty had organised a rota in which she would get to work with each group for approximately 45 minutes. This was something we really benefited from today as it gave us the first chance to show and get feedback on our ideas. We all began working on Hannah and Nyakeh's scene and as soon as they knew where they were heading with the idea; their physical theatre sequence took off. For that particular sequence the aim is to portray Hannah being 'left' by Nyakeh over Matt. The music Hannah had originally thought would fit perfectly; did fit well. However, as an onlooker and Deborah had the same opinion I don't think music for ALL of our sequences is necessary. A lot of acting scenes that are tense with emotion never have music; they go on the basis of the level of acting and the way they deliver the lines and plan each movement to fit with the atmosphere. By all this I mean that even though the music fits really well ( Rhianna Unfaithful Instrumental https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FjFPJJ20pf4) I think we should aim to create the same atmosphere as the music does but without the music. Silence often creates a much better atmosphere as the audience are all interpreting it differently; but nice soft music would automatically make the audience sense that they are in love, for example. 

    Listening to the music, at 0:07, a quick beat begins. To me, when I first listened to the song, felt like an anti-climax in a story/narrative. The beat builds tension and expectation to the audience and then it falls back into the soft piano notes; excluding the beat. Further through the song, when the lyrics begin, a underlining of drawn out notes plays which in the dance represents pure love from Hannah and then when the beat kicks in again, it is portraying Nyakehs perhaps more 'masculine' love for Matt. But with my previous pitch; I do think doing it without the music will create a more different but just as strong atmosphere and the story would come across a lot clearer without the music influencing the audiences thoughts. 

After focusing on their sequence we moved on to mine and Franks relationship. Kirsty started us off with the idea that the therapist session that it once was, has turned into the time in which they have for being in love. Their weekly meet-up. But the issue with this very meet up is that Frank had let myself down on the meet up/dinner that was booked for the night before; so naturally I play very 'pissed off'. The text for this was purely improvised but at the moment its looking really strong. My aim is to come across with really blunt answers and leaving all up to Frank to rescue himself. We incorporate this in our physical theatre sequence. I really wanted the man in the situation to portray himself as though he really does love me and that he is genuinely putting in the effort to make it up to me. He leans in for a kiss as I push him away which he then does a spin out towards the audience. But with a bit of research into the music I like, I found C2C Happy song. The music follows the dancing man who turns the others into dancers (to portray that dancing makes you happy!) When watching it, I was captured by one specific movement at 0:28 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tvY7Nw1i6Kw) Blink and you'll miss it but it's the movement of knocking the other guy out. It so well rehearsed and slick that is looks extremely effective. I desperately want to try this in mine and Franks sequence but changing the motions of it to look more like an act of rejection rather than knocking Frank flat out. 

Listening to my music whilst doing my business coursework again inspired me, music is such a inspiration! There is a short part in Sia's Chandiler: "123, 123 DRINK"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2vjPBrBU-TM with a heavy beat. This gave me idea: Frank plays the therapist who commits suicide at the end. Frank having depression could lead him to alcohol, which is where I wanted incorporate that specific part of the song. Before Christmas we did a 'keypad' workshop; as an ensemble or individually a number would be called out and as though the keypad was floating above us, we would look at the 'number'. So as an audience member it would almost look like a group of people watching tennis going from the number 1/3. Franks could be. 1,2,3 for each number looking at say 1,5,3 to get a range of frantic head movement, and then on "DRINK" he could use his hands to represent him taking a shot or a sip of a drink.
      This is just something we could mess around with and experimenting.

Wednesday was extremely productive and helpful! We were set in our separate ways to do a warm up activity; we all, in the end, lead it and contributed to what activities to do. We started off with walking and then jogging around the room.  Then star jumps and just jumping on the spot. We did the 'stretch your bubble' activity Karen taught us; which basically gets you using your body in weird and wonderful ways-perfect for devising! Frank taught us a short release activity where you literally shake off your body. We also did a quick tongue twister, and breathing exercise. Doing this warm up was really beneficial because we had been taught how to do them correctly and it was almost like you could remember them and we bounced off each others warm-up activities.
We were given half an hour to work on what we had and perform to the class. Nyakeh wasn't here for the morning so we showed mine and Franks narrative and physical theatre sequence.  Phoebe had pointed out that our dance wasnt portraying Frank wanting me to stay and me wanting to leave him. This really needs to come across because that is the only aim in the sequence. Frank has got to show more desperate and in love, and I need to be more persistent and angry. Our narrative wasnt clear either; which is reasonable because we really haven't got much with this new idea.Even tough we want it to be confusing for the audience and we dont want to feed them the information; we have to take into consideration that if the audience do not understand then they will loose interest! We have to give them a mixture of confusion and being fed the information in order for them to understand and  Also our characters were not coming across which meant the audience had no connection with them. This is something I think we should work on a lot because whenever I go to see a show I often connect with the audience and what them to survive or get out of the abusive relationship etc. If the audience can feel a sense of sadness for Hannahs character; left by her boyfriend for Matt, then we know weve made a connection with the audience and the audience start to feel for our characters. Contradictory to this Kennedy said she got a connection with me because Frank had rejected me for his wife. To me this is an odd connection for Kennedy to have made because its both mine and Franks fault that he is cheating on his wife and that I'm dating a married man...But if we can make the other characters connect with the audience then we know that we can keep the audience attention as they'll be watching the characters progress through the piece.
   When Nyakeh turned up we showed the full piece we had put together showing the relationship of Hannah and Nyakeh, and Matt and Nyakeh. The class loved it! We had such positive feedback which really boosted me personally because I think we are too behind and take to long to decide on something; but they fell in love with Hannah and felt for her because Nyakeh was cheating on her for Matt. The msuci choice went down smoothly too. Both Phoebe and Kennedy said it worked beautifully and the choice in music was absolutly perfect. ( Rhianna Unfaithful instrumental https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FjFPJJ20pf4, Craig David Seduction https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W5KD0PJe4go and finally Rhianna What now https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vdid9kBnPEU. I agree with all the song choices and I do think they work really well with the dances...

Following up on Phoebe how the dance between me and Frank didn't work well so when we got into the large dance rooms me and Frank worked on this. We chose a song, Ella Hendersons cover of Say Something https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RkZJaIMwhQQ. This song isn't set in stone but I think it works really well with what we've got at the moment. Laura gave us a started point by getting Frank to stop me from getting to the other side of the room-to portray me leaving etc. This turned out to be a really good sequence. We included spins, and weight trust exercises. I am so so pleased that we've finally got something that feels really heartfelt as well as the feedback we got from Laura which was how being in love was shown so clearly and that Frank was desperate to keep me.

Continuing on from Wednesday, today (Thursday) Me and Frank worked together. We started looking at the ending of the piece. We originally wanted Frank to hang himself; the rope being lowered down from the ceiling Frank taking hold of it, lights down as Frank jumps down from the block.I came up with the idea that the rope will be lowered a good 3feet infront of where Frank is on the block so from the audiences view it will look like a more perspective view. (By this I mean similar to the Eiffel Tower, this is a perspective image because its making the hand the same size as the tower itself.) We wanted the lighting to shine through the loop of the rope and give off a circular shadow on Franks neck and face. This is just an abstract way for the audience to clearly understand what Frank is about to do but again not actually feeding the audience all of the imformation.
      I came up with the suggestion that Frank does not hang himself but instead jumps off the  Tallahatchie Bridge (which is a clear link to the stimulus song) He would be stood up on the block and with his arms outstretched as he falls we (Nyakeh, me, Hannah and Matt) catch him almost like crowd surfing. As he falls into our catch the lights will do a blackout. I really like both ideas and maybe its worth us trying them both out; but in the worry of us taking too long to settle on one or the other I'd prefer to use the jumping off the bridge as this is a clear and obvious link to the song itself. If well rehearsed and timed, Frank will begin to fall and the lights will disappear by the time Frank has reached our arms. This will be the sudden ending of Frank dying that we were aiming for... Us catching him as he falls, theoretically, or helping him jump in other terms: is almost like our problems that we bring to him as the therapist and his own problems (me and his wife) have helped him commit. So us being there to guide him through the falling represents us being the cause/or helping him get to the point of death!

Frank really wanted him entering stage to be really dramatic and drawn out to really show the audience his emotion. I suggested that he enters and walks around the block before standing on it, and he had decided that the rest of us would sit around the edges purely as "eye-witnesses" to the suicide. I mentioned that instead we would all follow Franks movements (mirroring his walk etc). Frank wanted his character portrayed as his thoughts were over powering his movements in this scene so he drops whatever work or books he's holding. Being in a snake like line behind, we all take a step back with our right foot and bend down and swing ourselves back up again- again abstractly to show we were also picking something up. At the next 'corner' of the circle Frank rubs his face and again we follow suit by just putting our hands up near our faces. He then throws the books or whatever it is he is holding; we stretch our arms to the right in slow-motion and bring them back in. So from the audiences view we should all look like one person moving. The second walk around the block we all take our places for when he jumps. This is all we got for the ending, and I dont think we will need to add any text because silence is most often better than words...

After agreeing on all these ideas for the ending we moved on to our dance sequence (me and Frank). The video is of the sequence we created. Laura suggested that for a few movements Frank should try to say something but the next movement comes and it stops him from saying it. "I...Plea" etc. This would verbally show Frank trying to stop me and persuade me to stay. I think our sequence has really porgressed; when Kirsty watched it she said all our aims were coming through and to improve she said we have too many "letting go of hand" movements so this will be something we go over and refine and develop to get it perfect.
As we approached the end of the day; as a group we sat and worked out a few more questions for the end interview scene which go in more depth to the situation. We came up with "Did you know Dr Joe?" "Did he show any signs of depression?" And finally "Do you feel responsible?" These questions open up alot of answers and they also open up the situation more to the audience. My favourite is "Do you feel responsible" because it could be either asking do you feel responsible for him killing himself or do you feel responsible for the mistakes ie Hannah not keeping Nyakeh, or Me dating a married man- this can all be left open for the audience.

We've had quite a few hours on this project and I finally think we are getting somewhere with it. Having a member leave knocked us back but in a way it pushed us further forward; almost unconsciously we all knew we had to prove that we can create such a piece in the circumstances, and I think we will prove this beautifully. I am really pleased with the whole process and I think we've made good progress so far...

Devising Week 3

Today was mainly focussing on halting discussions and getting some practical bits for our piece started. We seperated into three groups (Hannah and Sophie, Nyakeh and Matt, and finally me and Frank) and in these groups; we worked on a short Physical theatre/movement piece.

The piece I was working on with Frank really developed. We had settled on the idea that I shadowed Frank throughout the scene to represent that I was a constant thought of Frank. His entrance was mimicked by myself; in sync with his foot placing. As Matt stood, and spun as he put our his cigarette (foot spin) both me and Frank spun off, again in time with one another and sat. Throughout the scene we incorporated various movements as a pair. 

     To conclude, our piece ends and a new scene will hopefully begin with me stood in neutral, as Sophie enters on the other side of Frank. And I hope to create a very dance-like sequence that really portrays love and romance but lacking from Sophie herself. 

Both being dancers: Hannah and Sophie's piece had really fluid movements and (almost) perfectly in time. However my favourite piece would be Nyakeh and Matt's dance scene. The portrayal of being both in love and gay really came across and I just fell in love with the whole dance. -I have some very talented people in my group, but the art of group work is using this talent and incorporating it all into our work at different stages... I think all three pieces have really developed and fit with our piece and storyline well. 

Our task set for this week is to decide on an environment for our piece to be set in: I have gone for the idea of a councillor. Councillors jobs are to listen and dig into others lives and try to solve the 'puzzle' in which they live in. This is the perfect way to clearly, but not over-feed, the audience to what is happening throughout the piece. 

The piece is to be opened with all six of us in a square (created by chairs) with plenty of spare chairs that surrounds us. I pictured a really abstract interpretation of people in waiting rooms. So, for example, when Hannah leaves to go to her appointment, we really over dramatise us watching her get up and leave. Also, to use the keypad effect but instead of numbers it can be texting (letters) So our heads, in sync, will be moving to the 'letters on the keypad' whilst talking the text out loud in a monotone voice: "I am in the waiting room". Other movements included in this opening scene will be people's thoughts as they're sat in the waiting room... 

The scene changes to Hannah in the councillors office with the councillor there. She begins to open up, naturally, but similarly to films, it is faded out and renewed with a real-life presentation of it. So it's like she begins to tell it and we replace her talking it to us as an ensemble portraying it through movements. As we progress through the piece, we revert back to the councillor scene to clear things up for the audience and we return back to the ensemble representation. 

Following on from our progression on Monday, we continued working on the 'secrecy' theme between all the linked characters. Matt put forward the idea of having our whole piece set in an office, with tables specially layed out: Sophie and Hannah at the back, Me then Frank, Nyakeh then Matt. As a birds eye view of this design, two pyramids are formed which represents the links between each character.( Later on, we scrapped the idea of the tables and to just keep the chairs in the same layout to make the office scene more abstract and less naturalistic.) We experimented with some movements on and off the tables to start with and then worked with a silent 10minute piece of 'working' in the office. Unconsciously, we made this extremely naturalistic with each character working, typing, getting up to the printer etc etc. Deborah took down some notes for this which will prove really helpful because we can now use these when we come to devising some more naturalistic, text-based scenes.

(We also took note on an experimental version of a nightclub scene.) Going back to the office scene however, I believe we can really develop on the 'missed glances' which is something Deborah noted down that she felt worked. The relationships and tension between each relationship is high so the missed glances between characters will hugely help us to portray this. 

As mentioned before, we experimented with a nightclub scene. In which this is the environment in which we all met one another and coincidentally we all meet weekly etc. Immediately we noticed that the noise could be a distraction from what we are trying to portray and teel the audience. I automatically knew I didn't want to do the nightclub scene and this was something we all agreed on early on. On one hand I'm pleased it was suggested and we tried it out and on the other I'm just as pleased that we could come to the decision to 'discard' the idea- one of our group rules. This is all part of being a team and the devising project.

We then relocated to the large dance rooms and set off in our three pairs to create our movement sequences. At first, me and Frank found it difficult to start off as I think we we're too set on the idea that it had to be very dance-like; but after we conquered this herdle we created a short, but nice movement piece with features of guilt, love and a bit of holding back from both sides... I was pleased with how this worked out in the end, and our aim for the end of this week is to have created something with more length.

Thursday proved as a difficult day as we were approached with the fact that two of our members could be leaving... This immediately threw us off the railing that we'd just got stuck into. Our immediate reaction was that it's going to be really difficult for us to continue with the idea of the characters being linked etc with just the four of us. So we traced back our thoughts and settled with the interview scene that Hannah had previously mentioned. We were then informed that we will have Nyakeh for the rest of this term which means he will remain a member of our group; and I hope this is the same for Sophie. As tricky as this situation was today, it surprisingly helped us huge amounts. The thought of having nothing decent to perform and starting near from scratch set us all in a really good mind set. Today we got more practical work than discussing than we have done before; and the idea is definitely something we all agree on which had a huge effect on the work we did. 

     So our idea has once again changed drastically.
(We hope to have our full group for this performance, but with this new idea we can easily have one or two members less or have the full 6 of us)
We have gone for the interview-type piece. We haven't fully structured our piece yet but we have a brief idea of how it will be: We want all of the characters to be seeing a therapist. This therapist dies, and we are all interviewed as perhaps suspects. We open the piece with the interviews taking place with  a twist. We open the piece with the ending and finish with the beginning. We are all sat in a slight semi-circle at the very front of the stage-like so... We will have a projection of the three questions, the first question being 'How do you feel today?' and in turn we all answer with one movement and a short sentence or word. The second question being 'What was your relationship?' The answers for these gave a bit more away for the audience but we tried hard ask the perfect questions. By that I mean we don't give anything away with what were asking them. And finally the third question 'Did you do it?.' With this question the audience can interpret it anyway they want but we end with Nyakeh's character answering the question with 'What have I done...?' Lights fade and we change straight into the next scene. Nyakeh's answer will make the audience believe that whatever has happened it was he who did it. 

I think this opening scene is brilliant; it's so tense and mysterious and we have put the audience right in on the happenings and they can immediately begin to interpret and imagine what they wish.

Nyakeh's answer leads us straight into the next scene with Hannah seeing the therapist. This is a really short scene and it took them very little time to create to me looks like a really abstract and Physical Theatre sequence, already. Hannah enters and they shake hands, whilst spinning in, then back out again. They take their chairs and spin them. This is similar to how Billy Elliot does it in the stage production: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SuMNv8h4ONU I really want to include more of this in our piece because we can use it to represent a waiting room, being impatient, bored, over-active, too many things on your mind. It takes a lot of practise but earlier this week Deborah mentioned the councillors scene and said that we could make even the waiting room as abstract as we wanted; so using the chair spinning would really change up a predictable and ordinary scene. Whilst watching this scene in Billy Elliot I felt myself being drawn in by this unusual way of using/moving a chair and this is what I really want to capture in one of our scenes.
    Frank being the therapist jots downs some notes in this scene, but he uses an actual notebook and pen. However, for this I want it really over-exaggerated and mimed. Again this is changing something that is ordinary to something that's unusual and abstract. We incorporated a little over-exaggeration today with the outstretched hand, to click the pen. But I think we can take it much further and experiment with it.

As a summary of this 'eventful' week; I feel as though the thought of two members leaving really boosted us. We agreed on an idea fairly early on, we discussed how we want it etc, and then got on a started some practical. And although we only have less than four minutes of a piece I feel like we will now be really determined to bring ourselves back up to speed and in a way, show others that we can do it. So in a strange way, members leaving or the rumours of them leaving has helped us hugely.
The idea we have now, is something I really really like and I can now visualise how it's going to be presented etc. So in general, although we are now at the start, I think we will get something that we are all pleased and confident enough to perform in the four weeks we have remaining. 'Bring it on!'

Devising Week 2

This week started off with some characterisation in short acting sequences. First off we had to walk around the room; again avoiding all eye contact, then we were instructed to walk with a part of body leading us or inhabiting us to walk correctly. Our first body part was our right foot; for this I dragged my foot behind me as I scooted my left foot to form the motion of walking. The second body part was our bottoms, which was a lot harder-majority of us walked backwards to show our bums were leading the direction in which we walked in-whilst others skid along the floor. And finally our last body part was our left arm; and for this I used my arm to  'imaginary' pull my body step-by-step around the room.

We then had to layer-up these so called characters with names and where there destination was i.e The park. 

We were then left with the instruction to create a five minute sequence of our characters day, in detail! Starting from in bed, stopping the alarm, checking your mobile, breakfast, shower etc. Then leaving the house and how they get to work, what their work was and had to include one conversation throughout their day. Then their travels home, eating, TV and back to bed. This proved a really difficult task because not only it being all improvisation, it was the duration and the attention to detail in which I struggled more with. Once again, even though we all had the exact same task, watching everyone else's it became apparent that we had all created completely different characters some whom got up perfectly on time and were organised, some who woke up, swearing that they hadn't heard their alarms and some who sprung out of bed, out the house and skipped into work. It really showed me how imaginative everyone can be and how different they all became.

Our Wednesday sessions began with a quick warm-up, then a mental game followed by a focus game. This sequence of exercises/games got us quickly engaged with all parts of our brain to be able to work actively on the devising piece. The focus counting game; at first was difficult because we were all energetic by the competitive game, but after a short while we had mastered the counting as an ensemble. This leads me onto us getting back into our devising groups, and talking out our group rules and manifesto's.

Our rules:
1. As well as inspiring others, inspire yourself first. -By this we mean, get involved and 'inspired' by our own ideas as a group, perform these in the hope of inspiring others.
2. Accepting and declining ideas as we progress. - Accept and add to ideas but be open to declining ideas that perhaps don't fit.
3. It's not wrong until you've tried it. -Suggest your idea, try it and then form an opinion on whether you incorporate it or not.
4. Everybody's input matters. -Everyone's ideas need to be spoken and heard, a key for teamwork.
Our rules revolve around being a team, and accepting that each member of the group is important to this process.

Our groups manifesto (a type motto, in which we have to live by as we work through the project.)
"We want to bring a collaborative and energetic devising process; with a clear goal and an to have achieved an obstacle filled road. With hope, we enter each session with an open and positive attitude and bring our plans to life."

After completing this we dived straight into discussing how we want our piece. Our ideas have taken a big step since the previous week; thanks to Hannah. Her original suggestion was to change it to a more crime scene, interview, investigation type performance.
Our opening scene: It's set in a classroom, which is to be set out similarly to PunkRock by Simon Stephens, and we have an audio playing as students enter. The audio is of a boring lesson, we are interrupted by the teacher asking a student to take his headphones off. As the student does so, it is revealed that he was listening to Ode to Billy Joe, the volume of the music gets louder as the headphones leave his ears-so the audience can also hear it. The bell rings, end of lesson. Then, either an audio or characters coming on stage, reciting a monologue with movements, a mixture of thoughts are told to the audience. So the end result would be a roar of noise, which similarly represents the way our minds think.

Then we were going to incorporate an ensemble Physical Theatre piece as the song still runs. For this, Nyakeh came up with moves to show that the 'Billy Joe' inside us all was being let out, and then when the sequence has finished, we are shown to be controlling our inner Billy Joe.
To start off doing practical towards the project we decided to go through and interview each character. (We recorded each of these but you cannot add voice memos onto blogger.) We simply hot-seated each character to allow us to create our characters properly. Frank wrote down the questions asked (image to the right.) This was really useful because it introduced us to some plots and character ideas, individually. Recording these meant that we can refer back to them whenever they are needed too.
This idea has really progressed through the week, and I am pleased we've settled on something. Which means we can now really focus and get physically devising.

We were set short task with Kirsty, which involved us creating three tableauxs of our devising piece so far.
For our first tableaux we wanted to create the visual of someone being trapped, we did this by standing in a circle with our arms joint and Matt sat in the middle. The contrast in height, Matt sat on the floor and the others stood, gave us the effect of being trapped in which we had aimed for. We bowed our heads also to portray us looking down on Matt in disgust or hatred...





Our second tableaux was to show bullying, tormenting, abusiveness etc. We stuck to our circular structure but disrupted the circle with various limbs sticking out ready to beat Frank-crouched in the middle. Again our heads were bowed for the effect of being more important than Frank. The arms and legs being stuck out of the circle represents a disruption to the almost calm circle; so the contrast from our first tableaux to our second was at large.







And our final tableaux, restraining Hannah/Billy Joe from escaping. The circle structure was still in use; we used the circle to represent an infinitive amount of pressure and strain on Billy Joe himself. And when he tries to escape, just as quickly as he does so, he is restrained. This was my favourite tableaux because it ended the 'life circle' as such, of our tableaux story. At the start, Billy Joe looks almost too relaxed in the circle. Then out of no-where the abuse begins. The randomness of the abuse represents that the abuse is unnecessary. Then Billy Joe tries to escape, but doesn't succeed and the process begins again and again...



Once again, our idea has taken a completely different course. So our Thursday session started off with all the same ideas but with a long discussion we ended up changing it dramatically... At first I was against changing it so dramatically because we were missing a member of our group, Sophie. But the idea really flourished!

Brief summary: We have three main stories, and each of them link very, very closely. We have Hannah and Nyakeh dating. However Nyakeh is gay and is currently seeing Matt-also gay but also Sophie's brother. The siblings live together. Hannah and Sophie are very close friends and often confine in one another with boyfriend issues. Sophie and Frank have been together for years, Frank has always wanted a child. But Sophie doesn't; however Sophie gets pregnant and fakes that the baby died... However, the baby isn't dead, the baby is grown up and goes by the name of Issie. Frank and Sophie's relationship is getting more rocky: Frank has been having an affair with Issie (His daughter! He is completely unaware of the situation.)
Sophie returns home to find Nyakeh and Matt together, naturally she seeks Hannah to explain.

Hannah and Sophie's scene. (Nyakeh playing Sophie.)

Matt and Frank's scene in which I shadow Frank.

As you can see, it's almost like a family tree that are all linked but also very similar storyline to a TV soap. The initial idea is confusing and difficult to explain but I think we can really work with this and make it as physical as we wish; which will help us a lot as it will be telling the story. We finally ditched the discussions and created two very short pieces between Hannah and Sophie (played by Nyakeh.) Another being between Matt and Frank (brother-in-laws) about how Frank can keep his and Sophie's relationship strong. I was part of Matt and Franks scene, by simply just mimicking everything Frank did to represent that everything Matt was telling Frank to do (be more romantic etc) Frank was thinking of me as well as Sophie. With some more work; we will create a very physical piece which will allow me to be able to copy more of Franks movements. But as a starter, we've finally got something and somewhere.
   
 I first did a devised piece at school and as a group we found it impossible to stick to one idea and really get it up on its feet; so I felt quite apprehensive to begin this one. But the outcome of these first two weeks, has really proved to me that devising can be difficult but as soon as you are all set on an idea it can really flourish. I look forward to see what the next few weeks hold but I am really pleased with the idea we have settled on and know that we can create a really good piece. 

Devising Week 1

This week was our first week back after Christmas and we dived straight into our upcoming devising project.

Majority of this week consisted in meeting our new teachers and relaying ground rules etc...
We were first asked the question "What should theatre be?" and my response to this was: letting you forget the real world, and this is my aim for this devising project.

We began our devising process with a stalking activity. We were all instructed to walk around the room, avoiding all eye contact. Secondly we were instructed to either avoid or react to eye contact and so on. We were then told to choose a person in the room and subtly watch them and follow them. After this we were told to get closer and closer to them. The sensation of doing this exercise was really bizarre; because half way through the activity we all knew that someone was watching/following us. As we had to get nearer to our stalker the atmosphere in the room heightened and the noise level dropped completely; as though we were all focussing entirely on our 'prey'. The effect of a shadow was formed, as each time I moved I could tell there were others moving, like my shadow. behind me.
    This whole activity set me in a weird mood. Some people described it immediately to being obsessive and even competitive in ways; but for me it purely felt unnerving on my behalf and odd to be trying to follow Luke without him sensing/knowing.
We were then told to sit down and write about how it made us feel. This was called an automatic writing task because it was nailing down the feelings, emotions etc of this activity before other thoughts take over. They were only meant to brief, and as we read through each others we had to 'get rid of' different lines and all conjunctives until we were left with three words. My three words had a powerful effect on me because they represented the stalking and my feelings in just three, short words- Uncomfortable, Sensation and People.

From these three words, we had to create a short movement sequence with noises. My first word was simple as I just needed to show that I was closing my body off and I frantically looked around to show this also. Sensation: came as a harder words to portray in movement but I linked it to atmosphere so I waved my hands in a semi-circle around hip height and gently whistled; all to show a tense atmosphere approaching. However, my third word was the hardest as to define 'people' in one simple movement would be near impossible. I settled with flashing my hands in different directions to, for those with a creative mind, represent people appearing all around me.
The writing task was really beneficial for me because although it was brief, I could come out of the lesson and have something that will jog my memory for future projects to spark some ideas. It also allowed me to remember the feelings and emotions I felt there and then; which is key for writing about it in the near future.

To start off our next workshop (the Wednesday of this week) we blew up balloons, tied them around our ankles and the aim was to pop everyone else's and keeps your safe. I have only mentioned this because as soon as we had finished; each and everyone of us were a lot more energetic after written work. So I can see us perhaps using this when we are at a stand-still in our devising process; and not only does it get our minds more active, we have fun!
After the fun warm-up we were put in pairs and told to create a short sequence as dance-like or dramatic as we so wish; to have one person always trying to rest their head on the others shoulder, whilst the other 'rejects' this. I was partnered with Jake and ours turned out to be someone perhaps lonely or depressed who just wanted or maybe even needed someone to 'rest their head on.' And the situation didn't help itself as Jake had to reject this.
The second round of this I was partnered with Frankie and for this one had to try and hug the other, and again it would be rejected. Ours ended in me sat on the floor with my arms crossed tightly around Frankie's legs and her patting my head as a sort of acceptance to me.
This exercise really let some of us express their more dance side and others like me who it just got us thinking more imaginative and focussed on making the movements more subtly than they could be in Drama. My main interest in this activity was watching the other groups because we all had the same 'stimulus' as such but the outcomes were all completely different.

Also this week, we heard our stimulus song for our devising project for the first time: Ode To Billy Joe by Bobbie Gentry. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rDHpkYI5_FY (Link for the song on YouTube.) The two images, one of the lyrics and the other my notes. My first impression was that it reminded me of 'Of Mice and Men'. I got this from the western American accent and also from odd lyrics such as "choppin' cotton" and "balin' hay." The lyrics are quite simple so Gentry may have had some influences from the Steinbeck play, linking it with Lennie. A rather simple-in-the-mind, easy going guy who does whatever his carer George does. So perhaps Billy Joe jumped off because someone he knew loved him did too, once? "Third of June" is the date the song is about and Gentry stresses that it was just a normal day; which represents bad news is right around the corner. Although I, and most others, got the impression that the parents of the song weren't affected by this news- mixing the bad with the casual "pass the biscuits please." The parents could also be blaming this news on that 'Billy Joe didn't have a lick of sense' which could be read into them trying to big up their own children, and how they have sense and would never do anything as daft as Billy Joe.



















Later on, we are told that Billy Joe and a girl who 'looks like' the daughter in the song are throwing something off the Tallahatchie Bridge. This could range from something dangerous or just a secret between them, or even simply just flowers or pennies (to make a wish.)
The virus that killed "papa" was much more significant as this time it emotionally effected the characters in the song, but the girl (the daughter) who we've identified as very fond of this Billy Joe as the lyrics are reverted back to the subject of Billy Joe and how she throws flowers into 'muddy water'. There are a lot of opposites in the song, and by that I mean how Gentry starts off by saying she throws flowers, in memory of Billy Joe but then she turns it round by adding the more negative "into the muddy water." - This is something I really want to try and create in our piece because it stood out as a key part of the song to me.

My first and brief interpretation of the song is: I really liked it. I liked how clear the story was told and how easy the lyrics were to hear and understand. And I also look forward to creating a piece that was influenced by this song and to see what the other groups create also.

My group members consist of Sophie A, Hannah, Frank, Matt and Nyakeh. And I'm really pleased with my group. I can already identify that we are going to a fair few disagreements with two of the boys and between us all as a group, because we are all very creative and are always coming up with new ideas; but this will be a good lesson for me because I have to learn to balance this as does everyone else. Hannah is imaginative and Sophie often has some really good ideas in which we can all ladder-up etc. The same for Frank; so I do think I have a good group and I feel comfortable with them, and I also know that I will be heard and listened too. As a collective, and a bit of practise I think we will become a really good group and be able to agree and extend on ideas and be adult enough to decline ideas at the same time- as that is also important. We shall see...
Our first few ideas as a group would be to focus on characters struggling with their sexuality; similar to the Physical Theatre group DV8 who's common theme in performances is society, and acceptance of peoples sexual orientation (DV8-To Be Straight With You.)

After a bit of research on the song itself, I found a great source http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ode_to_Billie_Joe. As I earlier pointed out the contrasting between casual and death has also been mentioned on this webpage. Gentry, in a past interview, had been asked many times "what was Billy Joe throwing off the bridge with his (now confirmed) girlfriend?" And of course leaving us to our suspense she kept it a secrect but listed a few to which set the people of the 70's imagination wild: a letter, pills, aborted baby, wedding ring. She also leaves us with the knowledge that whatever it was, it was motivation for Billy Joe to jump...The source has really helped me understand Gentry's intentions with the song; which means that I can now understand the lyrics more which leads me onto be able to change it up more and edge away from the real storyline. 

Movements in Physical Theatre

What is Physical Theatre?

Physical theatre is your own interpretation of something or everything. It's creating an image through movements, and using teamwork to do so. It's telling a story using your bodies: visual theatre. Its abstract!

Entertainment for Dionysus.

The origins of Physical Theatre are the telling of stories, actions and imagination. As well as Greek Mythology-400BC, the Romans-55AD, Commedia Del'Arte-16th Century and then finally it being modernized in Japan in the 1800's. Physical Theatre evolved firstly from, as mentioned above, the Greek Mythology. It all began in honouree of their Gods. Specifically Dionysus the God of The grape harvest/winemaking , Dionysus was honoured with a festival under the name of “City Of Dionysia.” In Athens the festival would be celebrated by men performing songs and plays to welcome Dionysus. Athens started the tradition of performing, and back in that era the actors would all play the same person with usually only three actors aloud to perform in each play. Later, more non-speaking roles were welcomed on stage with the other three performers. These became the Greek Chorus. Tragedy, Comedy and Satyr (mixture of Tragedy and Comedy- tragicomedy. Anton Chekhov made Uncle Vanya into a tragicomedy piece) plays were all performed for Dionysus- which started the tradition in theatres nowadays. Tragedy plays originated from ‘dithyrambs’ (A Greek Hymn song and dance in honour of Dionysus) These were song in praise of Dionysus at the Dionysia each year. The dithyrambs were later turned into narratives sung by a chorus. Comedy plays were just as important to Greek Theatre. Comedy plays and their origination is yet to be discovered; but the writer of these traditional plays goes by the name of Aristophanes.  A third main feature to Greek Theatre itself was mime; it was used to tell the audience things that people couldn't say.


Greek Theatre/Chorus
"A chorus is a body of people who speak the same but do not think the same" (Greek Theatre video: http://sdcstream.southdowns.ac.uk/view.aspx?id=7462~4t~V3INjBBD&from=AuthSuccess )

The role of a chorus is to act ("A chorus has to spend a long time reacting to others") and react to things happening in the scene; and they stay on stage throughout the play. Behind the stage, is where the skene is situated and infront of it, is the audience. As we are familiar to today. In the image you can see the sketch of the skene, stage and the audience in a circular shape; this is called theatre in the round. Greek theatre flourished in 550 BC and 220BC; it is commonly know as dark theatre with the constant theme of death. It is known to be "emotionally draining" for the audience as feelings are shared from the chorus to the audience which makes it so emotional for the audience. The reasons for this is because the chorus is the realistic interpretation, for the audience, of human tragedy and the "universal and unfairness of suffering unnecessarily" (From the link above)

My drawing of the Greek Theatre layout.

And it was the choruses role to make sense of what's happening on in the scene, pick up on any emotions and tell it to the audience. 

My drawing of the Keypad workshop.

 As an ensemble of 17, we did a Greek Chorus workshop. Stood in a tight huddle center stage, we were all told to imagine a keypad just at ceiling level. Numbers were shouted out and as a ‘chorus’ we moved our heads to the specific numbers. For example number 1 was far left and 0 was looking down. Some of us were asked to step out and look at the effect from the audiences view; and it looked so in-time and rehearsed despite the fact we had only worked on it for maximum of 10 minutes. It looked extremely effective also. The aim of the Greek Chorus was that they are together and moved as one.

Mike Bartlett incorporated the Greek Chorus into his play '13' a play in which we recently worked on. The play has 13 main characters which is similar to the size group for the Greek Chorus. We tried to incorporate as much as we could of Greek Theatre into our version of '13'. In Act 1 Scene 13, Ruth the Prime Minister is giving a speech to the public. We brought in a selection of actors (9 or 10 of us) to sit in and listen and react to what Ruth had to say. This is similarly linked to what the Greek Chorus did: the Greek Chorus reacted to what was happening on stage almost like an extra way for the audience to understand the stage happenings. Linking this back to '13', the 10 of us on stage reacted to what Ruth was saying. Some were reacting hopeful and supportive of what she has to say, and other whoms who looked down in shame or anger. Us reacting gave the audience the opportunity to connect with the characters and understand more of why we are agreeing or disagreeing. In the past I closely linked the reactions in the scene to those in Parliament. Politicians often react vocally to what the leader is saying, just like we react to Ruth.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TsAa9VmwOaI :This video backs up my suggestions of choral reaction, to what Gordon Brown says and how we incorporated Greek Chorus into '13'.
    Continuing with the reactions we were set a task as a group to react to what Nathan and Jake were reading. The piece of text (unfortunately we were not told the name or given the text to keep) was a piece from a Greek Theatre play involving two male characters disagreeing on what the other says. Jake and Nathan stood on opposite sides of the room and began to read. Our job as the Greek Chorus was to listen and decide whether we were for the one character or for the other. This workshop was quite difficult as we were not familiar with the text but once we had got the hang of it, it really highlighted everyone's thought process. Some stayed with Jake, even though he was the killer and others were drawn between the two and some were staying with Nathan. If we had more time to work on this, it would've been interesting to incorporate the swerve and duck activity into us choosing Nathan or Jake.
The swerve, duck, push and pull activity: For this we walked around the room and when instructed we had to either push, pull, swerve and a duck around the other people in the room. These alone create they're own story basing on the speed the sequence is performed in.

Greek Theatre has heavily influenced Physical Theatre nowadays. The Greeks introduced us to the Greek Choruses which the likes of Berkoff use in a much more contemporary way. Berkoff uses the Greek Chorus as his ensemble. They tell the story through over-exaggerated movements and grotesque noises.
The Greeks introduced us to distinct comedy and tragedy pieces which is something Frantic Assembly (modern day Physical Theatre group) went by to create both 'Stockholm' and 'Lovesong'. All of our acting and performance knowledge came from the Greeks, they created the art of acting and entertaining people. Their physical aspects of the plays created then have moved and evolved for people like Volcano, DV8, Berkoff and Frantic Assembly to interpret these and create their own new style of Physical Theatre.
(Did you know: In 449BC, Athens, they awarded Greek Theatre performers awards for the best tragedy acting. Just like our BAFTA or Oscar awards we have now.)

Commedia Del'Arte
Commedia Del'Arte was born in Italy in the early 16th century and spread very quickly throughout Europe- creating a influence on the likes of Shakespeare, contemporary Musical Theatre, sit-coms and improvisation comedy. Commedia Del'Arte can be translated to "The comedy of professional actors." Commedia started out on the streets by those trying to sell items to the locals. Like we are all familiar with nowadays, street sellers use a very sing-songy tone when they are shouting out their vegetables and prices. The street sellers began competing with one another to create the best entertainment to attract more customers to their stools in the hope they sell more and get more money. This type of entertainment often included joking about those higher up in the society; this was seen as highly comedic. They would try out different methods of entertainment to bring more people towards their stalls. This type of commedia usually involved lots of jokes on the people who were higher up for example the towns leader or politicians nowadays.  These sellers were often forwarding on fake products but this didn't faze them as they had entertainment to bring in plenty of customers.
 Commedia was completely devised and created by the actors themselves and consisted mainly of improvisation- the actors relied on specific reactions to certain characters to help keep the shows consistent. This specific art form is based on the interaction of traditional stock characters in improvised scenarios of the comical style. These short performances were often shown on the streets and market places of the early Italian renaissance but again this can be traced back to Ancient Greek and the Roman times. Commedia Dell'Arte was formed by 'professional' performers.To be seen as a Commedia player you have recognition from authorities; you could then be called 'arte'. Their main aim was to entertain those of the streets of Italy. Commedia began as a street art act-performing publicly in masks on temporary platforms with simple costumes. These masks represented an identity protector for the actors as they often took the mickey out of those from the hierarchy; so the masks meant they weren't recognised. The masks were often designed with exaggerated but delicate expressions and the mouth was always shown. Each character in Commedia had a different mask to show the audience the pecking order for each character. The pecking order was a way to show each characters statuses, Magnifico being the top and a Zanni being bottom.
To be classed as a 'arte' was a big achievement: it meant you were officially an Commedia player. Most performers stayed playing their characters for 40 years or so which really gave them the opportunity to hone their skills. The majority of performers came trained as gymnasts and dancers as these were also features in Commedia especially in a Lazzi.
A Lazzi is a break from the scene to entertain the audience. Tomatoes or other objects were often threw onto the stage when the audience became bored, and the actors would go into an already rehearsed sequence which usually consisted in making the characters at the top of the hierarchy tree (Magnifico/ the lovers) look silly on stage to entertain the audience. Slipping on a banana skin and swatting a fly were some favourites which have now become stereotyped as a comedic action.
Commedia's plays have been re-written over the years and these versions have been written down in the form of scripts; as these didn't exist in the centuries in which commedia began. Commedia never just stayed in Italy it travelled around the world with tours which resulted in Commedia itself becoming extremely popular all round. France was a popular place for the Italian actors to come and tour in but this didn't last too long as they were caught making fun of those high up in France which didn't settle well with the locals: contrasting to those in Italy. Being caught making fun made the Italians banned from doing such things in France which leads us on to Commedia becoming a very Physical Theatre based industry with elements of mime such as the Lazzi's. The dance and gymnasts feature in this new element of Commedia dell'arte; the dance principles of Commedia were known to be like "quicksilver" and "the swift-footed God of Mercury."

Harlequin.

In our Commedia Dell'Arte workshop we got the opportunity to try and physically bring to life each character. We were briefed on each character and then had to embody them. Each character had to have specific body movements for the audience to be able to identify them on stage. For example the Harlequin character: His back is hunched over with his head slightly raised. His arms are always out stretched in a 'M' shape with his hands bent in towards the body. He walks with ballet excecution usually on his tip-toes. Taking a step on the ball of your foot and roll it onto your tip-toes; do this with your foot facing outwards each step you take. Harlequin is energetic and he needs to look light on his feet.

The Commedia characters hierarchy.

Pantalone another of my favourite characters: He stands taller than Harlequin but with a more 'old mans' stoop. The feet are kept together, toe apart and knees well bent. His walk is made with small steps- his legs can only work so fast.

It was actually a lot harder to become one of these characters than I had originally expected. You have to completely and fully embody them to become them to perform them. This was the precise reason why the actors stayed playing these characters for years because as long as it took them to become them they had mastered it and continued until they couldn't play the characters much longer. Playing a character for that long could easily become repetitive and old and that's why Commedia players were seen as incredibly talented.



Our follow up from this Commedia workshop was experimenting with Commedia masks. We all got to try various masks on and walked around the room interacting with others. We were then instructed to continue walking around the room, and in silence react or interact with the other masked characters- relying mostly on the masks facial expression. Recent pop music was then played https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7PCkvCPvDXk (Meghan Trainor All About That Bass) We had to either dance or simply respond to the music depending on our masks facial expression. So the mask far left in the image would probably begin to dance like crazy, enjoying his time and maybe even get the more grumpy looking masks (far right) to start dancing. The middle mask in the image may just sway to the music as though they are enjoying themselves but don't like the music. This was a really interesting activity because it was making us become and think like our characters. Reacting to this specific song was good because it enabled those with happy or excited masks to really portray this to an upbeat pop song.
The song was then changed to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Tr0otuiQuU a more classical approach to music. (I couldn't remember exactly the music we did it to so I've linked Moonlight Sinatra by Beethoven as an alternative.) For this bit of music, we really had to focus and think on what our characters would be doing to this type of music. I had a happy faced mask so I began to slow dance with another happy face. This meant we were meeting the pace of the music and the style but still showing that we were enjoying the song and the dance. Others, with angry masks, stood and sulked in the corner. And those with sad masks sobbed whilst swaying. I think, it would've been really useful if group by group we could sit out and watch what was happening on stage as the music changed. The atmosphere changed completely and again this would have been interesting from the audiences perspective.

Commedia Dell'Arte influence to both Physical Theatre and contemporary theatre we know today again was at a large. To begin with they introduced women to the stage! Commedia was comedic and quickly evolved into Pantomime we are so familiar with now. The characters of Commedia were extremely physical and Berkoff used this idea of creating very unnaturalistic characters in his pieces now. Masks were a main feature of Commedia and although Jaques LeCoq was a huge influence on mask use today, masks are still popular in Physical Theatre now. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JpE49xpypws This is a link to show you how theyve incorporated the old fashioned masks into a upbeat and contemporary piece.



Modern day Physical Theatre, such as Frantic Assembly has breached

away from the typical Greek Theatre. But in many ways it’s been incorporated. For example Stockholm and Lovesong-two pieces performed and devised by Frantic Assembly, both have tragedy themes embedded. They are also telling a story through movements however with a little more text involved. Lovesong is representing one couple but only performed by four actors similar to how Greek Theatre began.  After seeing Othello by Frantic Assembly I fell in love with Physical Theatre but mainly the talent that goes into it rather than my personal likeness to performing it. Choosing to do a tradition Shakespeare piece was a brave move for Frantic but it meant that they really opened up a different audience range for theatre. Researching thoroughly before seeing the performance meant that I could properly understand the time and effort put into to making these Physical Theatre pieces which made me really admire to Physical Theatre itself.

Berkoff
Steven Berkoff is a theatre practitioner, he is also a director, actor and play write. Berkoff became popular in the 70's and he is compared to a "modern day Shakespeare." Berkoff is well known for the "demand he has on his actors" and this is apparent in Metamorphosis; the timings of every movement is perfectly in sync with all the actors on stage, which is something extremely hard to master, a great quote to fit this is that "they're like clockwork themselves." Each movement is so accurately timed.
Berkoff had the very lucky opportunity to work with Jaques Lecoq and a lot of his work includes Brecht and Lecoq elements. He set out with an ambition to create contemporary theatre, "he challenges how we see the world" Berkoff abandoned set and used Physical Theatre to make each of his plays more interesting. Like Lecoq, Berkoff had an interest in the "science of the body" which inspired Berkoff to get into the Physical Theatre industry of acting.

His new style was born thanks to Kafka for example Metamorphasis- showing an oversized insect. A quote from a Berkoff introductory video was that "Kafka and Berkoff were made to work together" as they both represented the "theatre of the absurd." Berkoff brought the Greek Theatre chorus back in fashion; which really flourished his popularity in the 21st century. Berkoffs style includes statci stances, mechanically movements, grotesque aspects, breaking the fourth wall and clarity. As well as re-introducing the Greek Theatre Berkoff also introduced us all to ' a new world, where anything could happen' This is a great definition of Berkovian because in all of his plays, they all represent the unknown of our world. Berkoff includes lots of rude language as well as slang, comedic aspects and also large movements to back up what the actor is saying.
To help us understand Berkoff and his style more we began watching Metamorphasis. And my immediate response is that all the movements are sharp and robotic like. Every movements aim is to breach away from being naturlistic so even down to small movements when the family are eating- the knives and forks are brought forcefully to the mouth. Again in Metamorphasis the set was down to a minimum and the Greek Chorus aspect shone through in the first few seconds.
To widen our understanding and knowledge of Berkoff we tried it practically. We were given a piece of text as our stimulus 'Clockwork Orange'. Oblivious to the storyline or the message the play is trying to portray me, Hannah, Nyakeh, Matt, Brandon and Milo began devising. We wanted to make it as grotesque and robotic as we could to really live the Berkovian style.  Me, Nyakeh and Hannah went mad on the Droog characters (other gang memebers) We wanted them to come across strange and a bit creepy but at the same time comedic for the audience. We portrayed them similarly to the three hyenas in Lion King: a bit useless and tag-alongs to the leader (played by Matt), we made all our movements large and extremely energetic and everything we did was considered rather stupid or comedic. For example when the line "what's it gonna' be then, aye?" we ran round stage repeating "aye, aye, aye,aye?" and pretending to be the annoying seagulls from Finding Nemo-this was scene as comedic because we were making ourselves look stupid on stage.
This task was really good fun and interesting because we knew how we wanted the drooges immediately and as we went through we kept adding stupid things for us three to do. Even though we didn't get to devise for the whole piece of text what we did have was really effective and the exact opposite to what the real message this play is portraying.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3KZwDW75c- As I mentioned earlier, when given the piece of text we were simply told to read it and work on a Berkovian style performance. We were completely oblivious to the true story line and we didnt even look into it. This meant that when we came to perform it; it was something so unique and different to the original version. This link is to a really good, short video summary of what actually happens in the story.

A second workshop we dedicated to Berkoff was experimenting with our voices. A lot of what Berkoff has created involves only the performers creating the noises. I couldn't find the short clip we were shown of Berkoffs adaptation of The Trial but in one scene the performers on stage are representing an alarm clock so an ensemble of high pitched screams are heard. So this workshop was about mastering different ways to use our voices-just as Berkoff does. We had to give a sound to one part of our bodies. We went around the circle and each of us moved a part of our bodies and made a noise. For example flicking your nose could be a "boing" sound. It turned out to be quite competitive as the less noises we could pick we had to create some more unique ones. We then had to create a conversation only using the letters of the vowels. By this I mean instead of simply saying "a,e,i,o,u" we could change it up to form a question such as " e,i,o,u,a?". It was all about experimenting with our imagination and our voices and it was really beneficial because it jumped us over the hurdle of these noises being embarrassing  when performed on stage.
We also focussed closely on the movements of Berkoff. In small groups of 4 we were given the stimulus of Santas Grotto and we had to create this scene using our bodies, movements and noises. Me, Sophie, Hannah and Luke created the 'naughty or nice list'. Both me and Hannah had bent knees in a sort of squat position to show us sitting down. Sophie and Luke were stood by our sides. In time with one another, Me and Hannah picked up an imaginary piece of paper from between us, stamped it whilst saying "naughty. nice." then turning our whole bodies towards (Me turning to Luke, and Hannah to Sophie.) They then made a noise of either ripping the naughty letters or kissing the nice letters. This was repeated, in different levels of volume and emotions. So we did it shouting in anger, and then whispering. We also did it really quickly and then really drawn out and slowly.

Berkoff was influenced heavily from the Greeks and Kafka. Berkoff has created a really unusual type of theatre and has made it completely his own. As we go through the years theatre is progressing into a much wider society than we've ever experience before-which being an actor is brilliant. And I think the works of Berkoff will impact theatre when I'm in my 60's. Theatre will be a lot more unusual and impossible to define, it will all be different and more and more people will become more interested in it because of its variety. Berkoff will be influential to the next couple of generations.


Frantic Assembly
Frantic Assembly are a contemporary Physical Theatre company which began in 1994 by two drama society members from Swansea. They were both, at the time, interested in the acting side of the industry but until they met in a performance of Educating Rita "it became apparent to us that we weren't particularly interested in what was going on on stage, but having a much better side mucking around at the side of the stage." They would often play around with different movements including the whole body and sequences similar. Scott Graham and Steve Hogget were highly influenced by a Physical Theatre group that visited their drama group. The Physical Theatre company were called Volcano and Graham stated that it was a 'life changing experience' and that 'Volcano introduced us to the wonderful world of Physical Theatre.' Frantic have again created their style of theatre undefinable in the hope that their audience will purely enjoy what they have to offer each time round.
My honest insights of Frantic Assembly when they were originally shown to me was that I could see the effect and talent that went into what they did but none of it particularly interested me. But, I went to see their version of Othello, and I surprised myself because I really really enjoyed it. The way they'd mixed up such a well known Shakespeare play and created something so widely different meant that they brought in and widened peoples likeness to what they do- and I think that is something really hard to master.

A lot of Frantic was incorporated into our working towards '13'. Our first workshop that we had borrowed from Frantics method of devising: relays. In small groups we simply had to race the other groups by running to the other side of the room, jumping, touching the wall and then touching the floor and then running back. This naturally sparked our competitive side. We then had to make this relay motion into a small Physical Theatre sketch. My group made it into a war zone. We had the three boys are the opposite end of the room in a crouched position. One-by-one each boy, in slow motion, stood. Whilst the three girls created a gun out of bodies and limbs. We made gun noises as we repelled our bodies backwards and then forwards to represent a shooting of the gun. Still in slow motion the boys fell to the ground after being shot. This was a very short exercise and piece but it got us thinking how we could use such exercises and create them into what could be a really interesting and compelling piece.
Another interesting activity we experimented with was "balancing the plate". All 18 of us stood in a circle with a water bottle as our center point. Two or three people start to create a smaller circle which is the rim of our plate. We then had to balance out the plate; whilst adding more weight to different points on the plate. This exercise got us to use teamwork between those on the plate. We had to concentrate on where the other people were stood to ensure that the plate wasn't unbalanced. We used this concept for a scene in '13' when we had five us on stage at the same time-we wanted to create a moving and interesting scene for the audience and we didn't want it to be static so the "balancing the plate" fitted perfectly.

Again another of Frantics devising methods was an 'Obstacle and Objective' activity. This is something we've later used for our devising project: Ode To Billy Joe between me and Frank. We had two people on stage. One of their aims was to get off stage and the others was to try and keep them from leaving the stage. As mentioned above we have gone on to use this for our devising project we are currently working. We have created it to become more flowing than what we had previously created but this was the aim because we've have created a more Physical Theatre style sequence.   The video is of me and Frank doing our objective and obstacle piece for our Billy Joe devising project. My objective is to leave Frank and his is to make me stay.

Doing these Frantic activites really opened us up to how we can do simple activites and create some really good pieces that we all ended up using in different parts of '13' and in our devising project.


Frantic Assembly, again, will be a huge influence to more dance students that purely enjoy performing. Dancers will bring Physical Theatre a bigger reputation as it grows over the years. Contemporary Physical Theatre is on the up and in years to come, like Berkhovian. it will really flourish. I think people need to discover Physical Theatre because its the art of combining both amazing talents of the actors and dancers.

Theatre company research

PunchDrunk:

PunchDrunk is a British Theatre Company formed in 2000. The company was founded by a gentlemen called Felix Barrett. Punchdrunk is known best for its style of immersive theatre; the theatre of allowing the audience to choose what to watch and where to go.

In the past, PunchDrunk have performed interesting pieces for example The Borough which allows the audience to have their own individual theatrical experience and The Duchess of Malfi which is performed entirely from 21 singers and dancers, and a 69 piece symphony orchestra to tell the story. The Firebird Ball was another of their creations which was performed in a dis-used factory, using only a cast of 14 and a live band and also a recreation of Midsummers Night Dream in which the company used a Private house and garden as their stage, allowing the audience to roam the house whilst watching the ‘casual’ living of the actors. And also a play which came under the more horror/ scary style which gave the audience a chance to find out as much as they could about the inhabitants or as little as possible…

PunchDrunk’s executive producer comes under the name of Griselda Yorke, and  the companies members include: Steph Allen the creative assistant, Katy Balfour the associate artist, Felix Barret the founder also the artistic director, Sarah Davies the head of development, Maxine Doyle the associate director and choreographer, Beatrice Minns the design associate and  Jennie Hoy the general manager.( This is only a selection of members and their jobs inside PunchDrunk as the list is huge)

Barrett (Felix, the founder of PunchDrunk in the year 2000) graduated at the University of Exeter with a degree of Honorary Fellow in drama. He started out with the idea of allowing people to forget the outside world and allow them to enter a completely different one.  Other members mentioned above all took part in past experiences or occupations similarly to the ones they do for the company.

Shows that are coming up for PunchDrunk include Sleep No More which is currently being shown in New York. Sleep No More is based on the famous Shakespeare play Macbeth. They took over two abandoned warehouses and created their stage to perform, audiences, again, are free to roam and explore more into the performance. 

PunchDrunk was mentioned to me in a previous lecture, we were only told that they often used large, unused buildings as there stage and automatically this enticed me to the fact that they’ve moved away from the ordinary stage performance but they have brought their audience into the performances as well.

Gecko Theatre company:

Gecko Theatre company was formed in the year 2000 by Amit Lahav and Allel Nedjari who later became the co-directors of the company. Eight years on (2008) Allel Nedjari moved on but Amit Lahav continued his work on the company. They both set out to create a “launch pad for our audience’s imagination” they really wanted to create something unique. The company focuses on mime, movement clowning and dance to the style of improvised exploration.

Gecko’s work was highly influenced by the likes of Steven Berkoff and David Glass (Both Berkoff and Glass studied under Lecoq). Gecko uses these styles of drama and with input of their own personal experiences, relationships, and emotional responses to the world they created their own creative development route for success in projects. Gecko are sometimes known as a “physical dance company.”

Performance wise: Gecko have done The Overcoat which is a mime story of how a gentlemen is trying to get the attention of a lady, and the only way he can do this is if he gets a new coat. The movements and dance in this piece are all energetic, big and bold. Another of their performances Missing, is all about looking into ‘the depths of the human psyche.’ And thirdly another of Gecko’s popular projects Institute, a play that invites the audience into ‘four gripping journeys’ which ‘collide in an extraordinary world.’ And for this project, Gecko said that they looked into the meaning of caring for someone- speaking to colleagues, relatives, elderly and mixed the opinions up to create Institute.

Amit Lahav is the artistic director of the company as well as the founder; he also features in the shows that they present, as an actor. He was born in Israel and trained in Physical Theatre; he then went on to look into dance and other Physical Theatre pioneers such as the likes of Berkoff. The other members of the group purely consist of other actors, however Amit does the majority of the work to keep the company running alone.

As far as my research can take me, Gecko haven’t released any teasers into what project they are embarking on for this year etc. We can only assume it will be something more unique than ever…

Gecko was a company I found purely by looking through various theatre companies. Mime is something that I enjoy watching but never tried out myself; so this was a way in which I could learn more about it and how the company uses it in performances.

The Graeae Theatre company:

(The correct pronunciation being grey-eye)

 

The Graeae company was founded in 1980 by Nabil Shaban and Richard Tomlinson- and they set out with the ambition of bring disabled and mentally disabled persons to the stage. They wanted to dispel the delusion of someone being less able, the stereotypes and to prove all this wrong by bringing them into the theatre industry.

Graeae have toured nationally and internationally with their performances for example; The Iron Man, which was a huge success throughout British summer festivals last year. The well- known story has been recreated into an even more mythical synopsis with aliens included. Another of their projects was Reasons To Be Cheerful; a part gig part play which was performed at the Olympic Ceremony alongside Stephen Hawking’s speech. Many of their plays include sign language and audio description; and the plays are generally based around what the members of the group would like to go see themselves.

The artistic director for the company is Jenny Sealey. She joined Graeae in 1997, with the ambition to find a new ‘theatrical voice.’ Since joining Graeae, Sealey was awarded an MBE in the Queen’s Honours and she also directed the cast for the Olympic Ceremony; which in itself is a great experience/ opportunity.

An upcoming performance from Graeae is Blood Wedding to come out in spring of this year. Blood Wedding is about the ‘myths’ or taboos of anyone loving anyone. A story of a young couple who stick together through what we can assume some difficult times and “the consequences are explosive” …

This is a company that has my full interest into because they set out with what could be a difficult ambition to bring disabled people to the stage, and not only did they do that but they’ve become really successful i.e. Olympic Ceremony. Starting up a group like this would be something that I would consider in my future in the acting industry because I can understand how rewarding it would be just to see the actors being more independent and just enjoying themselves in an industry I, myself, is interested in.