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.

Rehearsals

We started off our lesson, by walking around the room in neutral and pretending we were a flower opening up to the sun, when Jack said "open". We then carried on walking and when Jack said, "close" we had to get as small as we could on the floor and fold up to become tiny. We did this a few times and Jack told us that he wanted us to imagine that when we opened there was a harsh light that we were blinded by, that hurt to look at and when we closed it was us as soldiers taking our last ever breaths and slowly dying on the floor.

It looked really effective when people did it properly and I think it would work really well at the end of our piece.

We have been trying to attempt to do the Japanese precision walking, by getting into groups and Harrison was teaching us how to do the marching and when to turn. It was going ok, but we really need to concentrate and focus if it is going to work.

We also have been looking at different characters in the war, so after being soldiers, we looked at becoming rich people at home. We focused on leading from our nose, chest, stomach and hips.
When we lead from our noses we were cold, rich aristocrats who were very harsh and cruel and have a lot of money.
When we lead from our chest, we were very upper class, posh and snooty.
When we lead from our stomach, we were very fat, very greedy, rich and mean.
When we lead from our hips, we were sexy women, who were persuading and tempting the men at the bar.

We practiced doing all of these different characters, so that we could become them at the end of the piece and develop our movements to become the rich aristocrats at home, after we have all died in the war.

Japanese Precision Walking

Jack told us that the majority of the rest of our piece will be marching and emotional sequences. He told us to research Japanese Precision Walking.

This type of walking is so precise and needs to be done without anyone going in the wrong direction or doing anything wrong. It looks so effective and works so well, when it is done right. It can also create a menacing image, as well as a softer, funnier one. Which is why some armies choose to have it.

I found it really interesting to research and now I will have a really good understanding of what it is supposed to look like and the effect that we are trying to achieve.

More Devising

In our lesson this week, we ran what we did last lesson, with our 5 moves and really cleaned them to make them flow nicely and look good. We then worked out how to bring on and take off our chairs in an appropriate way. So I walk on with Cameron and at first I am scared, hiding behind my chair and to take them off, we were able to make the movement of our hands moving towards each other, into a turn, which made it possible for us to turn and carry each others chairs off. I carry the chair off looking brave and ready to begin my training.

We then got into groups with the people we finished sitting next to, so I was with Sacha and Tuwaine. We had to devise a comedic section of contact improvisation and develop this to become a scene that is set in a bar and shows our last night of freedom.

We started off with me walking into the bar and both of them wanting to be with me, until Jack came over and said we should just stay as men, so we then devised a piece, which Jack helped us with, where T and Sacha are taking shots and I'm trying to get through to the bar by going around them, standing on their knees, going under their legs and jumping. Eventually, I get through and they let me have a shot with them. Sacha then falls to the ground, we help him up and then all of us fall to the ground. 

We wanted to make it quite comedic, as Jack has said that the rest of the performance will be emotional and sad and have a lot of emotion in it.

Term 2 - Performance Rehearsals

At the start of Term 2, we have been put into separate groups which relate to what our performance was based on, so I am in the group for soldiers.

We started the lesson by warming up and then getting into pairs and creating 5 moves each that showed one person working in the conscription office and the other person being a soldier trying to sign up to fight. I was with Cameron and we came up with a handshake, then me looking nervous, as the soldier, and him stroking his chin, sizing me up. Then he puts his hand under my chin and pulls me up and then I follow where he moves his finger with my eyes and then we salute each other.

Jack saw our moves and gave us some feedback to make it more interesting, with different tempos and different strengths to our moves. So, we made the handshake a bigger movement which we follow with our eyes and when our hands touch, we make eye contact. Then we quickly move our hands and face different sides, so that we appeal to the three-sided audience. We then made the chin movement quite slow and changed it, so that I follow where his fist goes. He then pushes me back down and then we salute to each other quickly.

When we performed our moves to the rest of the class, we got some really helpful feedback. Jack has told me that I need to work on my masculinity, so I look more like a soldier. The class told us to just make sure that I know where Cameron's fist is going to move, so that it is clean and precise and we could add different paces and strengths to the actions, apart from that, they really liked it.

We saw everyone else's moves and they were really good, but everyone needed the same note to make it clean, to change the pace and strengths of the movements to make them interesting and captivate the audience.
This is our opening scene to our performance - I think it's strong and will capture the audience's attention, especially when we're all doing our moves at the same time.