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. 

Character profile

My characters name is Alice Coles. She is 26 and born on the 7th of February 1989.

Her occupation is a simply office job, filing papers to folders. The hours are inconsistent and she rarely shows up to work as she would much rather spend time at Dr Joes office.

She has been in a long term relationship with her boyfriend for 6 years now and they own a dog together and no children or sign of marriage.

Less than a year ago, Alice began visiting Dr Joe therapist sessions due to an abusive relationship with her boyfriend. The boyfriend would often threaten Alice and physically abuse her. She had a nice selection of friends who persuaded her to go and see someone about her relationship issues and with much persuading she did. Dr Joe really helped her and as Alice began to open up more and see Dr Joe more the affair happened. Dr Joe is married which meant the affair was always kept a secret and was kept in the confines of the office. Alice had brushed off the abusive boyfriend so she is single and really into Billy (Dr Joe). Billy played by Frank, begins to realise where this is going because each time they had their 'session' Alice became more and more obsessive over how her and Dr Joe should make it official, and that she really did love him, and why they couldn't ever meet up outside of his work etc etc. 

Things then began to get overly obsessive. Alice has become more of a character whom fell in love but now that Dr Joe doesn't take much notice of her she feels the need to try even harder. This obsessiveness lead to Alice loosing out on normal social life with her friends so now she still has people to talk to but noone really close to her as a friend; apart from Dr Joe of course!

Alices home life was fairly normal, however her nan had serious OCD and this rubbed off on her mum and then onto her- as OCD is often a genetic problem. But her OCD wasn't obvious until the obsessivness with Dr Joe appeared. Her mum worked in a pre-school and her dad a car salesmen which meant her family had a good wage to live off of. Her house, and nice three bedroom and decently sized. Alice was an only child with no pets to grow up with just her imagination.

She was a very imaginative child who was always happy to be sat alone playing and amusing herself-she wasn't always that sociable but she adored her dad. (More fond of the male side of her family)

     Home and childhood environment can often heavily impact a child which has lead Alice to be very fond of Dr Joe as he reminds her of her dad. She is happy alone but that only lasted through her childhood, being alone can be boring so when she found both her boyfriend and Dr Joe she was quite content. 

Alice is a very obsessed character and everything and anything is about Dr Joe. Everything she does is about him or thinking of him or for him. Her relationship with her previous boyfriend was fairly normal into the abusivness kicked in. She looked for protection and real love with Billy and as soon as that fantasy was taken away she was determined to get it like what she had with her father. 

Both her parents died when Alice was out of the childhood house and living and managing alone so this wasn't a huge lifestyle change for her. 

Alice is a really interesting character and I think the more I make her obsessed the more her childhood and background will become apparent to the audience which I think is key for them to understand why she is like this...

My costume was originally going to be all black like the others (excluding Frank who would be wearing a white shirt and black tie.) But coincidentally I was wearing a white shirt and bow-tie (a casual outfit for me) Deborah insisted that this should be my outfit- copying Franks outfit. So my costume is now the women version of a shirt and tie. I can definitely see the link between the two costumes and it just highlights the obsession my character has even more which is great. 

Devising Week 5

Mondays session was only short so we spent this time working on two short pieces we wanted to include later on in our piece. To bulk out our piece we are including a therapist session for Nyakeh. He will begin opening up about his issues and Matt will appear and lead them into a second Physical Theatre sequence. We discussed how we wanted Matt to appear and Nyakeh came up with the idea that Matt will sit in the audience and when its his time to enter the scene he will stand, and take small, slow steps to reach center stage where Nyakeh will be waiting. We have chosen to do this to bring the story a little closer to the audience physically and not theoretically! We want them to notice this actor has just sat next to them and then when we gets up and walks, he will remain in full actors neutral which will set the audience on edge.
This lead us on to us using masks. The masks will be used by all of us until we reach our therapist sessions. This means it will help us portray that as humans we often don't open up and release our feelings so as soon as we get to the therapist  the masks are taken off and we open up and show the audience who we really are (again physically and theoretically.)
The masks will all be identical but painted black to show that we keep all our emotions to ourselves and they pile up and create a darkness mess of contained emotions and feelings. The masks are a good way to portray a sense of secrecy to what the characters behold and that is something we want from the audience...

Mask use
The mask is worn over the face to hide the identity of a person by using its own features to create another being (commonly known as a character). Masks, over the years, have varied in appereance as in their use and symbolism. "A mask is an object normally worn on the face, typically used for protection, disguise, performance or entertainment." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mask However masks have been known to be worn all over the body and not just over the face. The image on the left is a stone mask dating back to 7000BC and is probably the oldest mask in the world.

The word mask originated from the French word 'masque' which means to cover,hide or guard the face. Masks were used in rituals and or ceremonies in ancient practise across the world. The evolution of masks has hugely changed from creating decorative masks to not be worn to masks we are most familiar with nowadays which are safety masks for machine work and in sports. More stereotypical mask use we are all familiar with now is mask use in theatre. The Greek Theatre and Chorus often used masks especially when this sort of theatre became popular. It began with street artists performing. These street artists often performed pieces that would make-fun of those higher up in the 'society tree'. The masks meant that their identity as street performers was kept private. Masks also often feature in contemporary theatre we know today with their uses varying widely.

Using masks in our piece will show the audience that we all (humans in general) keep our emotions to ourselves and find it hard to open up to anyone. The masks represent us covering up from the world and keeping everything to ourselves but when getting into the therapy sessions we begin to open up and then allow ourselves to rid the masks privacy.
    The masks will be worn until the therapy sessions which will keep our identity hidden until we take them off. This means our speech could become harder to hear for the audience as we will have our mouths slightly covered. This lead us to the idea in which we cut the masks in different ways. For example mine would be cut so the mask just covers my eyes and Hannahs mask would cover one half of her face.
We wanted them all to be the same colour (black) and have Franks mask worn only in the scenes he portrays his depression and saddness a bright white colour; to show that he puts on a front to all his clients.
I think we need to experiment with the masks to really know if we should use them or not as there are ways to show what we are trying to show through physical movements instead of the simple use of masks.


Secondly we worked for a short amount of time on a monologue/physical theatre that I will perform alone because my character is less involved in the 'love triangle' but just closely knit with Frank. Some questions we put into the equation to start my thought process off was "I really like my therapist because I hate my home life, its shit." I came up with the idea that my character is in an abusive relationship at home which began her sessions with a therapist and it escalated from then on.
This is something that we covered really briefly and I will work on building up my characters background story and will also work on the monologue/physical theatre sequence but for now we had dusted over the ideas and used the short session we had to do so.

Thirdly, we put our piece structure down on paper because we have the tendency to veer off the set ideas. So our piece begins with the all cast interviews with the police. We will have a large projection of the questions behind us and we will all be wearing the black masks. It leads straight into Hannahs therapist session and here will be where she reveals her face. After Hannahs physical theatre sequence including Matt and Nyakeh it will go into Nyakehs therapist session which is where Matt appears from the audience. My monologue/sequence fits in here. Matt's therapist session follows. Then mine and Franks argument scene,  and then reaching the end we will return to the all cast interview scene and ending with Franks suicide death scene...

For our Thursday session we only had

50 minutes to work on oir devising pieces. We wrote up some objectives to reach in this 50 minutes:

 

We wanted to focus this 50 minutes in Matt' therapist session. We began to discuss what Matts aim was and what we needed to tell the audience in this scene. We wanted Matt to be attending these sessions because of his sexuality but it became really difficult to choose how we wanted Matts character to be. We tried with a 'chavvy' cocky character and it switches to this bold character being insecure about his sexuality. This really didn't work- I think this is because it felt to much of a cliché'. We tried him as a very gay, gay guy and again this didnt work! In the end, we still hadn't settled on  a character trait for Matt' character so we all set off for the weekend with homework to create a character profile so we could come back Monday knowing more about our characters.

Homosexuality is a big thing in our world today and it always has been. It can also be a hard and touchy subject to use to entertain (in theatre) We wanted Matt to come across normal. Not overly camp because most gay men are not like that! Matt would just be this ordinary guy who happens to be gay but hiding it from his friends and family- because even in the 21st Century people still don't agree to those whom are homosexual. So this meant it was really important that yes we portray Matt as a normal. ordinary guy who is finding it hard to tell others about his sexual orientation. 

       This is why when we got Matt to act slightly camp; it really didn't work! Getting someone to act camp purely just to show the audience that he's gay has massiviley phased out and we also wanted to move away from this and their stereotypes. 

Devising Week 6

Today's session began very positively with a brief discussion of what bits we could show the class. Each group performed what they had so far to the class and it was the audiences job to write 2 stars and a wish for each group. This was extremely helpful for us because we needed to hear, from the audiences perspective what worked and what didn't- and also things to include to improve our piece. The common feedback was to incorporate more physical theatre into it-which is a fair comment seeing as we showed them a bit without physicalised movements to ensure they get to see as much of our piece as possible. Another reappearing comment was to express emotions more: such as when Hannah says that she is angry in the beginning interview scene, she needs to really show this to the audience. She needs to fully embody being in that mood which will instantly give away her emotion before she answers the question.
        Watching EastEnders Live gave me some inspiration for Hannah: Ian Beale had just found out who killed his daughter which it was revealed to be Jane Beale (his wife) but later revealed the truth as it to be Bobby the 11 year old son of Jane. Being live the acting skills really, really shone. And Ian's reaction to the death of his daughter was caused by his 'half son' was intense and exteremely realistic. Our situation between Hannah, Nyakeh and Matt is a lot less serious and dramatic but it would still 'break Hannah's heart' making her loose confidence in Nyakeh and other men in her life in the future. As a lot of our feedback was for Hannah to respond better to the situation I suggest that she should act more distraught and sad rather than angry. Her response would open up her characters story more for the audience and then when they do find out the real reason,

After all the groups performed we sat and looked through our feedback and listed those that we needed to work on the most (the most common feedback.) Kirsty came over to extend on her feedback she'd given us and she suggested that we change our idea slightly. She suggested that we should all play a range of different characters. So for the opening interview scene each time the spotlight flashes onto us we are one character. The second time round we play another character etc. She also suggested that we have three different therapist sections the first one being OCD the second being all about relationships and the last would be secrets. For relationships we would keep majority of what we've already devised and just create two other sections. I can totally understand why Kirsty implemented this idea because our idea we were working on wasnt going anywhere nor could we take it further. So this new idea would mean we could open our piece up more. However at the same time I can see why we shouldn't be changing our idea so close to the performance due to creating, devising, developing and refining all in two weeks...
Our devising process slowed down after one of our members got upset about the but we tried to get back on our feet and really tried setting in stone this new idea. My idea was to begin the opening interview and get Frank to ask the questions, with his back to the audience. We moved straight into Deborah's lesson and continued this but it immediately became dry. Being, maybe, one of the quieter ones in the group-meaning that sometimes my ideas are easily brushed off- the ideas I was suggesting to get the group running again were simply brushed off with "no its got to fit" or "no that doesn't work". Deborah brought us some more ideas and we got up on our feet and tried these ideas out. I got all of us to pick an OCD like manner. Mine was rubbing my hands as though I was trying to make them clean. I would also rub them on my clothes, I did this repeatedly to show the 'obsessiveness' of the disorder. Deborah suggested to make it a really Berkohvian style so I began to make it much more robotic-like. This (to the left, is the only image I could find to demonstrate the hand movements I used in our piece.) In the image his hands are place in an odd way. I tried to use this aspect to Berkoff style in our piece by: when rubbing my hands at odd angles and using really sharp, short movements. Each movement of my hand I pause for a second and then move my hands again to incorporate more of the Berkhovian style.

Metamorphasis

Hannahs OCD trait was un-zipping and zipping up her coat jacket, as though it wasnt right the first time she did it. Matt's was how paranoid he was being followed by 'imaginary' people. Nyakehs was everything should be clean, and when he cleans that bit of floor he will have to do again to make it perfect. Mine was being utterly obsessed with Dr Joe.
I wanted to start the piece with Frank talking into his dictaphone, almost like a reporter or narrator of his own life. As this is happening we are all stood around him doing our Berkhovian OCD traits.

OCD is Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and it can affect anyone. Traits often include

• Fear of deliberately harming others or yourself. Only a fear and thought that you might attack someone. 
• Fear of harming yourself or others but accident such as forgetting to turn off the oven or iron for fear you may set the hour alight.
• Fear of contamination or disease which leads to obsessive cleaning of hands or just cleaning
• A intense need for symmetry and orderliness wherever you are but mainly in your home environment. Such as all tin cans must all be facing the same way in your cupboard. http://www.nhs.uk/Conditions/Obsessive-compulsive-disorder/Pages/Symptoms.aspx

OCD can be a serious disorder and is fairly common. OCD is yet to be researched into why people have it or get it but it is to be said that environmental, genetic, cognitive, or microbiological factors all trigger the disorder. This is a disorder known to a lot of people and usually people can keep it to a minimum but at the same time the disorder hugely affects people. We know that we have to approach this subject correctly as people are fully aware of it and understand what it entails. If over done or not done well enough it could be seen as comedic which is something we need to step away from. All of the disorders we have chosen are fairly common and I think with practise we can master what its like to have an OCD issue. 

This little clip gives us an insight into what its like to be OCD, the video gets quite irritating which can only be what those with OCD feel like a lot of the time. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QBkveiaKfBk 

This is another brilliant clip, it broke down the means of OCD to easier terms which means we, as actors, can embody these thoughts and the sensation of constant nagging into our characters to master being OCD. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L6fMiK_ahdk

This research has given me a full insight into what its really like to have OCD. I would class myself as a very tidy and organised person and some people have said that I, myself, have OCD. But I can now identify how intense it is to have OCD and the unbearable thought of having to move the picture frame, for example. I can now understand that although I am very tidy and like things clear of mess I am no where near OCD behaviour. 

We came to a big stand-still when all the ideas we had all mentioned and experimented didn't work. This frustrated time led to one of our members going home and another getting upset-which neither helped our matter. I understand that changing our idea at the last minute is probably too stressful, mentally I think when one of us suggests an idea we hear it and think no its got to be really good because we have two weeks. We are too set in stone that someone needs to suggest an idea and it needs to be brilliant and we all start working on it and-voila. But our method needs to change to someone suggests and idea, we try it and stick with it. We then ladder it up and bounce off new ideas and add to it. Steal from things we've experienced or seen etc and use all this to gather large knowledge and release it into our piece...

So today wasn't as successful as we had hoped but another knock down only means we can come back fighting on Wednesday and see how we go from there. We need to, as a group, be a lot less respondent to ideas and be more open minded about what is suggested...

Wednesday was a lot more productive: Nyakeh wasn't in today to devise with us however we still made a good start. We created a brief structure for our piece starting with Matts line idea. We would stand in a diagonal line as Frank slowly walks past us. One by one we all start talking to 'Dr Joe' and then fade out as he continues walking. Almost like he is tuning each and everyone of us out of his thoughts representing that he has more important thoughts i.e. depression.
     Depression, again, is a hard subject to master on stage. We want short scenes with Frank alone for him to portray his depression with alcohol. This is a simple touch and clear for the audience. I also think if we try and do more with Franks depression we could be at chance of over doing it which isn't necessary on this occasion and subject.
Deborah suggested to have us all fade out as he walks past each of us which gives Frank the more professional look: brushing off patients outside of the work environment. As many teachers would do to students etc. I then got Frank to react to each of us, but looking back on it now I don't think it works because it makes it too repetitive so this is something I feel we will need to change or adapt or even get him to do something more physical to show what's going on in his head.
From Mondays session we had briefly created a triangular shaped physical piece so today's session was an extension on that idea. The three of us (Matt, Hannah and myself) thought of 5 short sentences that our characters would say, this was my idea because as we say our sentence we walk to the next point in the triangle. My five were;

• I've brought you some flowers today
• I was thinking of changing the frame colour
• Your hair looks nice today, do you like mine?
• I've brought you a packed lunch x3

On the last sentence we all say it once and then at the same time repeat it three times, getting louder and quicker. This brings the effect of chaos and hecticness onto stage-representing Franks mind.Walking on each sentence created a very messy looking scene so we decided to walk after we had all said our sentence. So in total we move four times instead of more. This still creates the right chaos we were aiming for but this way means we can plan how many steps we take precisely before we speak.
This effect will almost be like the nagging of the picture frame in the clip above. But switched around so that we become Franks OCD issue. We begin to irritate Frank because of his depression which leads to him being so depressed it leads to suicide. 

Today was mainly dedicated to mine and Hannahs 'interview' scene. I really didn't want to fall back onto the almost stereotypical chair, office-like layout so I got the scene up on its feet instead. Frank stood in the middle of me and Hannah-the scene turns out to be more of a fight between myself and Hannah to have Franks attention. This theory is to show the audience Franks feelings-he has a very hectic mind and the fighting between the two of portrays that he cant focus on one. All this pressure and chaos he lives through day-to-day causes depression and suicide.
Our main feedback from Monday was to have much more Physical Theatre included into our piece and this is what we did in this scene. We created a short movement piece including Frank and the dialogue we already had from earlier today. This is something I think we need to adapt because even though we have steps backwards and out to the side etc. I think it could be taken a lot further and have more physicalisation added to it. This is also the case with a short scene of Franks; we want to briefly portray Frank being an alcoholic and depressed and I think we should show this purely through movement- including some obvious gestures to show that he is drinking and kicking a chair to show his anger. This will allow us to be more creative physically and how we portray this is completely up to us instead of following simply guidelines on clearly showing the audience his depression. I had in mind something similar to the pub scene in Enter Achilles by Dv8: 

In this scene you see the men moving around and with a pint of beer. I had an idea similar: Frank does a similar movement sequence with the alcohol he's discretely drinking. This incorporates the physical aspect we need and also the representation of Franks drinking problem.




Finally I think we are really progressing on this new idea: reality hit home that if we don't like an idea we discard it or add to it to make it to the standard we like it. We know we haven't got the time to waste sessions discussing seeing as we have less than two weeks til' show day. The feedback and changes that happened on Monday have really helped as we are now fully set on where we our taking our piece which is the main thing.

We all met early to get some extra rehearsal time and it was extremely beneficial. We showed Nyakeh everything we had incorporated him into the 'triangle sequence'. As an audience perspective, we noted that we should make it a lot more Berkhovian by turning, walking and turning back to the front. When we reached the overlapping of lines the atmosphere we created was brilliant. Even though we had no audience members the room felt quite tense and as soon as it went silent Frank began talking. Going from really loud to really quiet helped us create the perfect atmosphere and I hope we can do the same to our real audience.
Me and Hannah continued working on our physical theatre piece which fits alongside Franks dictaphone dialogue. Frank stands center stage and similar to the actual question asking scene me and Hannah enter on 'our' side of the stage. Coincidentally Hannah and I were singing a pop song when I suggested we should hum or sing as we are doing the physical pieces. In some ways this will show that mentally we are not stable.  Hannah now hums 'You are my sunshine' to her jacket-the jacket her OCD behaviour revolves around. I hum the same song to link me and Hannah in some ways and I perform my box-step dance with Frank in the picture frame. Immediately the audience will understand my characters mentality and understand the obsession for Dr Joe is intense.
We rehearsed this with the dialogue and both Matt and Nyakeh thought it looked really effective. We took a short break and admittedly we were messing around with our characters and I was pretending to walk down the aisle to where I had placed the photo of Frank. I then said "why don't we have a mannequin and I dance with it and marry it?" So that's how that idea came about-so we fetched a mannequin and put a white t-shirt on it and will hopefully put a bow tie on it too to represent
So independently I created a rough piece of a scene in which takes place between me and the mannequin. I wanted to include me humming or singing the 'wedding tune' to physically show the audience the scenario. Frank places the mannequin at the front of the stage allowing me to walk up the 'aisle' and reach the front of the stage also. Kirsty recommend "lalala-ing" the tune to make it almost more like a little girls fantasy wedding dream type. She also said that I should reel off some wedding vows and then go into a conversation with the mannequin. Like a phone call conversation-the audience only get my side but they can still clearly understand what's going on. I found this scene really difficult to do mainly because it felt so abnormal to be talking to nothing. To become this quite crazy, obsessed character is really difficult but my aim is to fully embody her and be that obsessive person because if not there is the danger that my character will be more cringey.

The mannequin inspiration comes from the beginning of Enter Achilles by Dv8,the opening scene takes place between a blow-up balloon women and an actor. It is 'bed, make-out' scene with the blow up women. This represents that the actor is lonely and wants someone to love, or even that he likes someone but knows he can never have her. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5PFR2OXf9iQ
He moves the doll so she looks extremely realistic. The slow movements look really love-felt and then the faster movements again look very real. He never leaves eye-contact with the doll to show he is in love with her. He strokes her arm and messes up her hair all with slow movements.
     This clip has taught me a lot: I know that I need to keep eye contact with the mannequin to 1. show me that he is so very real to me and 2. to show that I am in love. Physical contact was used throughout the Enter Achilles scene so this is something I need to incorporate into our piece. In this clip he doesn't talk to the doll but in our scene we do- and I think this still works because like I mentioned before its like a phone call conversation which shows the audience my feelings and emotions towards Dr Joe.


^^ The mannequin is my height and light enough for me to move it etc. To represent a wedding scene we will put a white t-shirt and either a bow tie or a tie. The blue t-shirt can be used if we do use the manikin in other scenes. The mannequin is a strong point in our piece because the representation of it is so clear for the audience and it also gives them an insight into my character.

This is unfortunately all we got done today but it is a huge step up from the dilemmas that took place on Monday. I am pleased with how the piece is coming together more now and the new things we've included are massively improving the piece-which is a good sign! We know where we are taking our piece now so all we have to do now is put it all together, devise the rest of it and take the Tuesday and Wednesday of show week for development and refinement process which includes showing our piece to our class and lecturers etc.

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.