The 100 Years Photos

Follow this link and you will be able to see all of the photos taken from the 100 Years show:

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/ad6s6qejvg5ozth/2xv5R67j2p/100%20years/100%20years#/

Our Final Two Shows

On Thursday, we did our final two physical theatre shows of, "100 Years", they both had bigger audience's than the first night, which was great. The 4.30 show went really well, the audience all seemed to really enjoy it and I took on board all of the notes that I have been given.

I made sure Cameron and I used the space and extended our movements in the Recruitment scene. I was also very aware of timings and made sure I took my time in everything. I used the space in the trance-like scene and walked right to the edge of the stage where there was a gap and I also made sure to use the space in the Fat Cats scene, even though, for some of it, that meant standing on my own, but I could play with my money and develop my character further.

It went really well and I was really excited to perform it again later in the evening.

The 7pm performance went really well too, it was the last time we were all going to be together and perform, so I was determined to make it the best performance I could. It all went really well and I kept up my character, the back stories behind all of my characters, my emotions and I stayed focused and ready back stage.

There was a technical fault where the music didn't come on for the last scene, but I spoke to my parents and friends who came to see it and they said, they didn't notice, because the silence was really effective.

In the section where we have to look at the women, as they go through the boxes, and we stand at the back watching, there was a minor setback when Gus collapsed next to me on stage. At first I thought it was part of the physical theatre piece and he was improvising, but I looked at him and could tell he was over-heating. I picked him up of the floor and he told me he was fine, but I told him to go and get a glass of water, so he quickly went off stage, where Sean in TTA looked after him. It was a little scary, as I wasn't sure what to do, but again, my parents said that they thought it was part of the piece, so I guess it looked effective.

Apart from this minor setback, we were able to continue and go on with the rest of the piece and make it effective and moving for the audience. Who all seemed to love it.

I have really enjoyed being a part of 100 Years and it has been so nice to work as a year group again after not seeing people for ages. It was our final performance in the New Theatre as a group and I feel like we all did it to the best of our ability. I feel like I have worked really hard this term, both in rehearsals and in shows and that I have had a positive and appropriate attitude throughout this process and I have worked hard to make sure I performed to the best of my ability, whilst having respect and staying aware of the subject that we're performing about.

First Show Notes

The show on Thursday night was really good. I think we all put physical theatre to the back of our minds, while all of our individual plays were going on, but I think it went a lot better than we all expected. We had quite a small audience, but we expected that because none of us were going to be in the audience. It would have been nice to have a few more people there, because the whole show went so well.

Nothing went wrong and it was really great to see and hear people's reactions to it afterwards. They all seemed to really like it and the teachers came out teary eyed. They said that most people in the audience were crying and that it was so good and moving. It was so nice to hear positive feedback for all of the hard work we put into making this piece and I can't wait to perform the others.

These are the notes that Simon gave to improve even more:

- Slow the exits from the first moment. After Tuwaine talks, listen to the recording, don't just run off stage.
- There were some lovely moments, expand them- make these moments last longer.
- Explore more details of the piece.
- Fat cats, make sure they're noises and not words and have no more than 3 people in a meeting, or it looks crowded, use the space.
- We need to just work the ending a little more.

These notes will really help to make our final two shows, as good as they can possibly be.

Thursday: Run 1: Notes

These were Simon's notes for our first run through of the show in the New Theatre on Thursday:

- Good, moving, thought-provoking.
- It's going really quickly, feeling a bit rushed, slow down - you have a lot of time.
- Everything needs to go slower to allow people to watch it all.
- When you're all on stage at once, it becomes cluttered - use the whole stage space - go right to the edges.

- Opening: our talking should be low level noise, focus on the house lights going out. Tuwaine judges when to come forwards. It took too long, as soon as he steps forward we need to be silent and attuned to what is happening on stage.
- As he moves the silence drifts down the rostra, like a ripple effect. Do not shush anyone. Wait for the silence, all attention on T.
- Make sure you fill the space, there were big gaps with no-one in them and a lot of us clumped together upstage.
- When we speak at the beginning - deliver those lines, speak loudly and clearly and let yourself be heard, "When I think about the First World War, I think of..."
- Listen to the recording like you've never heard it before. Take a longer time to leave the space. Actively listen to the recording.

- The Recruitment: Space your chairs out and use the whole space. Stay until the change in the music happens. Wait until it stops - until you leave. At that point Cameron and I were the only two left on stage, when we should have all still been there.
- Enjoy the moment, don't panic and rush off stage. You know what comes next and you can take as long as you like to get there. Slow everything down. Remember to keep telling the story as you leave.

- Bar Call: look left, look right, then move - take your time. You know the distance you need to travel, so move to the appropriate speed to get there.
- Keep your back or profile to the audience, do not turn around and look at the audience.

- Marching: It's too fast, slow it down or it goes way too quickly.
- Harrison shouts the orders too, or it's too quiet.
- We'll have a whistle for the real performance.
- Hold your gun left to right and drop it for the women's section.

- Boxes Section: Leave slowly, come up very slowly and watch the box.
- When you take the box do it slowly, place the box back and go off stage.

- Fat Cats: No words - snorts/laughs/giggles/noises, but no spoken words.
- Animalise it - snorts, belches, burps- make it horrendous/grotesque/animal like- the line between human and animal is blurred.

-Line at the end: Shuffle yourself, move and line yourselves up into a line and make sure who is in your next line.
-Go when the people next to you go, it goes down a line at a time.

These notes were really helpful and they're really going to allow me to improve my performance for our first show.

Wednesday's Notes

On Wednesday, we ran the show fully and then Simon gave us notes on how we could improve it and what could be done better:

-We need to have more of a filter on at the beginning for the recruitment scene. Develop a back story and put some emotion behind your actions and what you're doing.
- When Layla reads the poem the girls need to not rush their movements, keep focused and be slow. Don't start moving forward until Layla says the word, "return" in the poem.
- Soldiers in the bar - look left and right then move to your place, when you do the look, put a story behind it. You're desperate, the women have gone, so you look at your friends and run to the bar. Use it as some sort of emotional story telling.You're merry, but you want to get to the bar. Put your whole body behind it and make your movements bigger. Let James speak - there's a beat - and then you go.
When you get into the line, it's stereotypical beer drinking. Put your elbow up and out and your hands up. You need to prove to the audience that you're drinking. Hold your pint glass and visualise it, don't let it change size.
When you're in the line, it's heightened movement and slow motion. We can have some levels of low talking/noise/laughter/drunk conversations, but don't pull away from the action at the front of the stage.
- Marching - think about the quality of your movement. Use some precision and discipline to do the moves. Stay in straight lines, make it more accurate. Lock your arms out and make it less camp. Make your movements more precise.
-Rise up with your boxes - you're rebuilt as a human being. You're being pieced back together. You're looking at your sweetheart and trying to reconnect and you can't. You're trying to establish a connection, but you just have to watch.
- No spoken lines in fat cat scene, nonsense sound and not words. Leading from various body parts, use what you know about commedia dell'arte. Use high pitched, flirty noises. You're characters in the extreme. Greet each other and replace words with sound.
Jordan is a ghost, when you see him, he's a reminder of all of the bad things you have done - making profit out of the war etc.
Go to a jacket, pick it up in front of you. Look from the jacket to Jordan and realise what you have done. Leave with the jacket and act like it hurts, you've had an awful realisation of what you've done. Remain as you're character, find your back story and make the audience think.

These notes were really helpful and I have taken them on board and will try to improve my performance from them.

Devising The Ending

On Tuesday we had a rehearsal where we refined things, ran them, did a rough ending, which we changed a few times and generally just cleaned bits up.

We changed the ending a couple of times because we were seeing what would work better and how we could visually create more of an impact on the audience. Our first ending was that Tom, Liyah and Dee would read out the poem and we would sit dotted around in our couples, watching Molly and James do their physical theatre piece.

This was an average ending, but it didn't really feel like a definite ending, so, on Wednesday, Simon devised us to do something that felt a lot more powerful. We then came up with the ending where we file on in lines and line by line we drop to the floor. This was really powerful, but took a long time to figure out. We put our heads down as we lowered ourselves to the ground in a kneeling position, to make it look like we were grave stones. The women then come and look around us, as if trying to find the grave of their loved one. They then lower themselves next to us and kneel next to our graves, mourning. This looked very powerful and happens while Molly and James keep doing their physical theatre piece and at the very end poppies fall on them from above.

This was a very beautiful ending and although it took a very, very long time to be able to kneel line by line, once we managed to get the timings correct, it looked very powerful and moving. Perfect for the ending of our piece.

Rehearsals in the Theatre

On Friday, we started rehearsals in the New Theatre. I was a little nervous, because I had missed the last run through due to a University Interview and I couldn't remember much of what we had done before Christmas. However, it seemed that everyone was in the same boat and was struggling to remember.

We went through each section really slowly and ran bits that we could remember, it all came back to me really quickly, there were a few new movements, but they are really simple and I was able to pick them up very quickly.

I think we were all a bit worried about how this Physical Theatre Show is going to come together, because no one could remember much and a lot of our focus has been on our separate Common Ground plays, however, I think, despite some talking and messing around, rehearsing it in the space was really productive and with a few more rehearsals and if we keep running it, it should be in good shape for Thursday's show.

We still need to develop some sections, some transitions and an ending for our show, but I think at the moment, it is looking like a rough outline of something good and if we focus and work hard, it will look really good by the end of the week. I think Friday was definitely needed, especially for the soldiers, to really go through and remember what we had done and now we can work on cleaning it and making sure that it is ready to be performed.