Pavel Semchenko

We also studied the practitioner, Pavel Semchenko, at the very beginning of this project, where we spent our first lesson looking at how an object can influence a whole piece.

We spent a while studying and just looking at one of our stimuli, we chose the picture of the soldiers who had been gassed, and we sat in silence taking in every aspect of it. The colour, the background images, the facial expressions, the intricate details that you might not normally see. We really focused in on the picture and then shared with each other and wrote down our initial thoughts, which we ended up reflecting on, when we started to develop our movements, based on what we'd seen.

This was a really helpful exercise and really emphasised to us, Semchenko's ideas that a whole piece can come out of a single object, if you take the time to study it and focus your complete concentration onto it. We also then allowed the object to become the key part of our performance. For example, in the picture, the men have bandages over their eyes, which gave us the idea to use the scarf, which the majority of our piece revolved around.

Complicite

We looked at Complicite to explore the space. We did an exercise where we had to become a character and get into a lift. One by one in our groups, we had to enter the tiny lift as our characters. Then the lift broke down and we had to decide how our character would react or move in this tiny space.

It was interesting to see how even if you are left with very little space, you are more than capable of still moving a lot and create an interesting piece using just small gestures and mainly your facial expression. This exercise made me very aware of the use of space, but also how important your facial expressions are, as you are still in a performance and you need to convey emotion towards the audience.

We then did an exercise where we had to pretend we were on a busy, packed train and we had to all be as tightly woven together as possible. We then had to move together all in the same direction at the same time. This was a very comedic exercise, but also made me very aware of how we can use our bodies to create interesting shapes and move in an intriguing way.

Magdalena Tuka

We also looked at the practitioner Magdalena Tuka. In this lesson we focused on exploring the space in a more playful manner. We really experimented and explored the room we were in and all of the ways we could move around the space. We did this in a cat-like way crouched down, using our hands and feet to contact the floor, which allowed our flexibility to be heightened and allowed us more freedom to experiment with the room. 

We explored the boundaries of distance and closeness. We got into partners, I was with Nora, and we had to move around the space, never breaking eye contact. It was like a trance-like dance between two people and the connection between you was lost if you broke eye contact. We had to try to keep our balance and experimented with different levels, such as moving on the floor, crawling, walking around the room, including turns and spins - always keeping eye contact, which allowed us to find the ability to play and create an atmosphere in the room, which would be perfect for our piece. 

Our Performance

I think that our performance went well. We rehearsed more and incorporated all of Tim's notes into our performance. We made sure that we were always moving and doing things in a certain way to explore what we could do with the scarf. I thought that our piece went well, although I was happy with our mark, I think it could have been higher, if we'd started devising in classes earlier, so that we could just start making our pieces, so that we could show them to teachers and other students to get lots more feedback and really improve our piece, but we were ready to perform our piece and I think it went well. The movement just could have been a little more developed.

Rehearsals

This is a video of our first rehearsal together where we started to come up with some of our piece that revolved around our stimulus. We chopped and changed the majority of this and added a lot more to our final piece, but it was an effective start, which led us to complete the rest of our piece. We also incorporated a scarf into our final piece, which was my green one, because it was meant to resemble the gas.

Tim's Feedback

We performed our piece to Tim, so see what we could improve on for our actual assessment. He really liked the majority of our piece and thought that the music juxtaposed well with the gas and was really appropriate for our movements.

He gave us some constructive advice, just to make sure that we were always moving and using our prop, the scarf, when possible. This would allow our piece and our movements to flow more, whilst also creating more meaning out of simple movements. This will also leave no sections of our piece looking like we haven't spent as much time on them, or that they look a little under-rehearsed next to some of the sequences we have.

This was really helpful advice and it has definitely benefited our piece. We will work on making sure that our piece is as effective and relevant to our stimulus as possible, whilst using our prop effectively to it's full potential.

Music and Sound

For the music and sound in our piece, Nora suggested that having a happy and cheerful song, might juxtapose what we're doing quite well, but we wanted our piece to be taken seriously, so we decided to have a mixture of songs.

We also wanted the sound of gas to come in at some point, so that it made it obvious to the audience what we're talking about. I went home and downloaded a program I have used before to mix songs together and add sounds over the top, so we have a sad piece of music and the sound of gas playing throughout and at the end, where our piece is quite deep and emotional, we use a cheerful sounding song, "It's a Long Way To Tipperary" by John McCormack.

We chose this to juxtapose the sadness of war, with the proud, happy moments that soldiers felt during some parts of the war.

Gas sounds:

These are the sounds that I cropped and altered to fit together to play over the music and to fade in and out.

Sad Music:

This is the sad music that I found to juxtapose with the more cheerful song at the end. I think the music sounded effective and really added to our piece. It felt a lot better when we ran it with the music and created more meaning, so should connect to the audience more.

Final Rehearsals

Today, we had a rehearsal to finish up our piece and to try to get the final thing polished. We both brought our stimuli with us and we were able to have a productive rehearsal, due to what we brought with us and the knowledge we acquired from this research.

We figured out what we are going to both say for the part where we speak simultaneously, and figured out how it will effectively juxtapose what the other person is saying. The idea is that I am getting stronger and stronger as I speak, until eventually the horrors of war that I am talking about overcome the happy and persuasive words of  the radio broadcasts and posters, trying to recruit people to join the army. So eventually, I am shouting at her. I am saying:

The heavy coloured vapour poured relentlessly into the trenches, filled them, and passed on. For a few seconds nothing happened. The sweet smelling stuff merely tickled their nostrils, they failed to realise the danger. Then, with inconceivable rapidity, the gas worked and blind panic spread.

Hundreds, after a dreadful fight for air, became unconscious and died where they lay –with the frothing bubbles gurgling in their throats and with twisted limbs, one by one, they drowned.

Which are just a few lines that I have taken and put together from the diaries that I found, which highlights what it is like to be gassed. It is really effective to highlight the horror of gas.

We then changed and altered "Dulce Et Decorum Est" by Wilfred Owen, so we have just the lines that are important and vital for describing what it is like to be gassed. We decided to allocate certain lines to each other, so after Nora has read the telegram, we speak the lines. I march behind her, so it is as if I am a soldier marching to war and she is describing what it must be like. We then say the last line together and salute to show that we are soldiers and to show our respect to the soldiers who gave their lives for our country.

Devising

We had another rehearsal today and decided to cut some of what we have come up with so far. We have decided to take out some parts and change them.

We were able to use a scarf today and develop further into some ideas on how we could make our piece even better. We've now decided to include a section about Nora searching for her sight, whilst I am trying to get the gas off me. We also use a scarf to represent the gas and use it to blind Nora and choke me.

We have included a section with a telegram and a woman who's husband has been reported as missing and we have taken real accounts of soldiers and new stimuli, such as the poem and motivational posters, as well as news reports and broadcasts convincing people to go to war.

As Nora talks about convincing people to sign up for the army and what a great thing it is that we're doing for our country, I am talking about what it's like to be gassed, by quoting the diary entries mentioned earlier. By saying these two things at the same time, it really highlights the juxtaposition between the two speeches and how people at home were "blinded" by the reality of war.

Dulce Et Decorum Est - Wilfred Owen

Dulce Et Decorum Est

Bent double, like old beggars under sacks, 
Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge, 
Till on the haunting flares(2) we turned our backs 
And towards our distant rest(3) began to trudge. 
Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots 
But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind; 
Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots(4)  
Of tired, outstripped(5) Five-Nines(6) that dropped behind.
Gas!(7) Gas! Quick, boys! – An ecstasy of fumbling, 
Fitting the clumsy helmets(8) just in time; 
But someone still was yelling out and stumbling, 
And flound'ring like a man in fire or lime(9) . . . 
Dim, through the misty panes(10) and thick green light, 
As under a green sea, I saw him drowning. 
In all my dreams, before my helpless sight, 
He plunges at me, guttering,(11) choking, drowning. 
If in some smothering dreams you too could pace 
Behind the wagon that we flung him in, 
And watch the white eyes writhing in his face, 
His hanging face, like a devil's sick of sin; 
If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood 
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs, 
Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud(12)  
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues, 
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest(13)  
To children ardent(14) for some desperate glory, 
The old Lie; Dulce et Decorum est 
Pro patria mori.(15)

Wilfred Owen
8 October 1917 - March, 1918

This poem also powerfully describes to us what it was like to be gassed and how you felt. It is a very powerful stimulus to use to allow us to develop lots of ideas and really focus on the feelings of the soldiers.

Further Research

I did some research to do with being gassed and what happened to the soldier's who experienced it first hand. I found two interesting accounts- written as diaries - on this website:
http://www.firstworldwar.com/diaries/index.htm

The first describes the first gas attack in 1915:

"Officers, and Staff officers too, stood gazing at the scene, awestruck and dumbfounded; for in the northerly breeze there came a pungent nauseating smell that tickled the throat and made our eyes smart. Men were frothing at the mouth, eyes started from their sockets, and they fell writhing at the officer's feet."

Written by Anthony R. Hossack joined the Queen Victoria Rifles at the beginning of the War and served with them on the Western Front from early 1915 till after the Battle of Arras, where, in July 1917, he was wounded, returning to France at the end of February 1918, when he was attached to the M.G. Battalion of the 9th (Scottish) Division, and, after coming through the retreat from St. Quentin, was taken prisoner in the battle for Mt. Kemmel.

The second describes the German Gas Attack at Ypres:

"Like some liquid the heavy-coloured vapour poured relentlessly into the trenches, filled them, and passed on.

For a few seconds nothing happened; the sweet-smelling stuff merely tickled their nostrils; they failed to realise the danger.  Then, with inconceivable rapidity, the gas worked, and blind panic spread.

Hundreds, after a dreadful fight for air, became unconscious and died where they lay - a death of hideous torture, with the frothing bubbles gurgling in their throats and the foul liquid welling up in their lungs.  With blackened faces and twisted limbs one by one they drowned - only that which drowned them came from inside and not from out."

Others, staggering, falling, lurching on, and of their ignorance keeping pace with the gas, went back.

Source: Source Records of the Great War, Vol. III, ed. Charles F. Horne, National Alumni 1923

These sources really helped me when devising and coming up with ideas on what else to include in our piece and what it was really like for the soldiers who had to experience it.