Tuesday 27th January 2015 - Thursday 29th January 2015

Thanks to Jade, we went to Eastlea's Community School to present our devised show on Tuesday 27th January 2015 at 8:30am.  

We was the only group to have gone to a school and perform. 

Abigail was the intended person to find a school and had done so, only to have had the school cancel on her.  Abigail then called me before going to Norway and told me that I was responsible in finding a school as she had been told by Sharron to inform me to do so.  She would email me the emails she sent to schools and all I had do was copy and paste the emails and send them to schools around Camden so we wouldn't have to travel far.
I was annoyed at someone putting their job on me when I had my own job and things going on in my personal life and had that shoved on my plate.  I felt that she had leeched her job onto me instead of asking me for help which I would've had no problem with.  I thought it would've made more sense to have gone to Jade about helping her find a school as Jade was intent and informed everyone that she wanted the performance to be done at her school and that she was emailing them on her own accord to find out if we could do the performance there.  After explaining to Jade what I had been told and if she was enquiring further about performing at her school, Jade was also annoyed but had no problem with emailing her school once again.
A few days afterwards, Abigail whilst in Norway, whatsapp'd me enquiring if I had found any schools and I should check my inbox.  When I had replied that I hadn't, she said the email for the secondary school has been sent, it's very simple, I can just google secondary schools in Camden and send them the email, then ended it with nevermind. 
I personally thought that it made no sense how she could email and whatsapp me from Norway and not do it herself if she stated how simple it was to do.
The next day I had messaged Abigail after hearing from Jade that we had a confirmed performance at Eastlea Community School.  I explained to her that I explained to Jade about the school incident and I thought she would've told Jade as she was looking for schools but I asked her if she could look into her school and we've got their permission to perform at her school on the 27th January at 8:30am which Abigail said was fine. 
I had, had a feeling that Abigail hadn't been told by Sharron that I had to do it which was confirmed when I asked Sharron about it.  I have no problem with helping anyone and would've rather had Abigail ask me for help rather than lie about it and put all the work on me with no consideration if I had a lot on my plate because she was going to be catching up on work while in Norway. 

On Tuesday we went to Eastlea to perform but there was tension within the group because of an incident that occurred the day before.  We was told to be there for 2pm, and Jade advised Abigail to be professional and set differences aside and get on with the work.  However as we went on the school journey, Jade began to get frustrated because she wanted to get there for1pm so we was prepared in our set up and can rehearse with the theatre space at the school.   

I've learnt to be organised and to plan ahead for the journey, to make sure that everyone has topped up on their oyster card as we had to wait for our fellow actors to make detours before we could finally set off for Eastlea. 

We had gotten there for in time to sign in and see the theatre space and ask for an extra prop to be used as we didn't have it.  We couldn't find Sharron so wasn't able to rehearse with the lights and sounds as planned so while performing there was early cues but we had to press on and just performed.  We used the audiences seating to our advantage by blending in with the audience to come out as our characters as minions which was very effective and scared the kids.  

They enjoyed the performance and our audience was 52 people not including adults so it was very difficult when it came to the workshop.  What we had done before at Westminster Kingsway with our workshop we had changed it entirely.  

Connor suggested that we split the group when the teacher said we had the drama classrooms available upon request but it seemed Jade had taken over and said no.  It was difficult for them to understand what they was supposed to do as some were talking or either was reluctant to do things.  We didn't take this in account because we had it really easy with our previous workshop candidates and we had a much smaller group. 

We couldn't do the name game, nor the ninja game and ended up changing the games so we could move on with the students presenting their interpretation of dreams and their own mini devised pieces.  We ended up doing the fruit salad where H'angela divided the participants by assigning them to fruits, which is normal, oranges, bananas, apple and pears but as there was so much of the students she added extra fruits, mango, strawberry, pineapple and made one person a grape.  Usually the game involves chairs beginning with one participant shouting out the name of one of the fruits, such as 'oranges', and all of the oranges must change places with one another.  There was too many students in the space so in lieu of the chairs, standing up was the way forward.  H'angela would shout out the fruits and the last person who reached the spot in another part of the circle, had to sit out, (replacing the norm of the person who is standing in the middle trying to take one of the participants places as they move, leaving another person in the middle without a chair, thus causing them to sit out) had to sit out .  A call of 'fruit salad' means that everyone has to change seats/places which H'angela had done but wasn't a good idea because that could've caused a serious injury with the amount of students running around each other to build back up the circle. 

After the fruit salad, we decided on to let the kids devise their own plays based on the theme of dreams/mental illness.  Again it was fascinating, amusing and entertaining to see how much they enjoyed making their own mini plays and performing it to us.  We then was able to have a Q&A with the students advising and being a crutch to them about if they was interested in doing drama and further education, explaining what we had to do and how we did our devising piece and how long it took and our personal experiences.  However it was hard to get a word in edgeways with Jade doing most of the talking, H'angela made sure she answered questions, because she felt Jade was being controlling but it ended up again as being Jade and H'angela.  All of us did manage to put in our input at some points but it was mainly Jade and H'angela talking.  

From the whole experience of performing at the school, it was a humbling experience and made me appreciate our work, everyone in our group, and what we had done to perform and get that far.  It was a form of nostalgia also to be in a school again and reminded me of the (few good) times I actually was at school and how we as kids was at that age and it's astonishing seeing the extent of how much you mature mentally in just a few years. I have learnt to believe in what you apply yourself to, especially when you're in a team-based environment, people are going to have different visions and ideas, bringing them together and learning to be dependant on one another is key because we can't do everything on our own even.  Another thing I have learnt is to allow people to have leadership, and if we're being in the environment of a company, we have to stick to our jobs and act accordingly which wasn't always done.  People always took it up on themselves to be in charge.  I personally believe that a good leader is subservient, open to each individual within their team, and accepting constructive criticism and is accepting to peoples ideas when it's brought forward.
As stated I wouldn't say I would never devise again, I enjoyed the journey, but it's not a journey I shall be looking to go on again anytime.

Monday 12th January 2015 - Thursday 15th January 2015

During the weekend, Elliott wrote up the script and emailed it to us so we could learn our lines for this week.
To appease both Jade and Elliott in regards to the debate they had last week of if there was to be a moral behind the show, Elliott added ways to help people suffering with mental illness at the end of the script for when we perform to our targeted audience. 

Our finalised synopsis of each scenes are:

Prologue:
Conor's monologue

Scene 1:
Minions tormenting Jade while she sleeps, as she screams, the minions run off showing a change to reality as her flatmates run in.  The audience can see that Jade has been suffering with these dreams frequently, disturbing and having an effect on not only Jade but everyone around her.  Justyna then invites Jade to the Café to help take her mind off everything going on

Scene 2:
Justyna and Abigail are having a discussion seemingly about coursework, Abigail is concerned about someone helping her with her essay, while Justyna's concern is on Jade being distracted by seeing the minions in the café.  Justyna tries to console Jade, but Jade runs off saying no-one can help her
On her way home, Jade is suffocated by the presence of the minions.

Scene 3:
Jade suddenly finds herself at home after the encounter with the minions, to divert her attention, she tries to watch T.V. but as she switches channels, she sees the minions on the screen, eventually they coax and torment her into joining them.  She breaks the T.V.

Scene 4:
Jade finds herself in a dark forest, the minions lashing out at her, Conor then comes along where they converse about how she got here, metaphorically speaking.  Conor is revealed to be part of her, a figment of her imagination, she is only there because she herself put herself there, only she can come out.
A dance scene played by the minions after Conor leaves plays out.
Jade is faced with Hangela who convinces her she is crazy, that everyone will judge her if she speaks about her problems etc and that the only option to end it all is as simple as just...well ending it all. 

Scene 5:
The scene shows Jade is talking to a counsellor obviously mid-way into the session as the counsellor tells her that's all she has time for and they will reschedule when Conor appears to her telling her she needs to wake up. 

Scene 6: 
Back in the flat, Abigail and Justyna stumble in on Jade asleep on the floor, next to the broken T.V set.  Enquiring about the T.V. and what's really going on with Jade, Hangela appears and tells Jade false thoughts on what her friends will think of her if she tries to talk.  Jade seems to be at the end of her tither, going crazy as she states she can't take this much longer, and that 'they' are a part of her.  With nothing much else they can do, Justyna and Abigail leave Jade alone, thus ultimately sealing her fate and making her decision known to the audience that Jade has made her choice in suffering.  The play ends with Jade holding the knife up and a blackout occurs signalling the end of the play.

Epilogue:
Each actor takes turn in stating facts and mental illness and how people can help and benefit others suffering or knowing someone if they are suffering themselves. 

After reading the script, I noted that scene 4 is to make the audience think - to relate this scene, Jade found a text that she would like to read out the children before we start the show or even afterwards. 

"A psychologist walked around a room while teaching stress management to an audience.  As she raised a glass of water, everyone expected they'd be asked the "half empty or half full" question.  Instead, with a smile on her face, she inquired: "How heavy is this glass of water?".  Answers called out ranged from 8 oz. to 20 oz.  She replied, "The absolute weight doesn't matter.  It depends on how long I hold it.  If I hold it for a minute, it's not a problem.  If I hold it for an hour, I'll have an ache in my arm.  If I hold it for a day, my arm will feel numb and paralyzed.  In each case, the weight of the glass doesn't change, but the longer I hold it, the heavier it becomes."  She continued, "The stresses and worries in life are like that glass of water.  Think about them for a while and nothing happens.  Think about them a bit longer and they begin to hurt.  And if you think about them all day long, you will feel paralyzed – incapable of doing anything." It’s important to remember to let go of your stresses.  As early in the evening as you can, put all your burdens down.  Don't carry them through the evening and into the night. Remember to put the glass down!"

On further individual research I came across a statement:

(Haruki Murakami said "Pain is inevitable.  Suffering is optional".)
When I came across this statement, to me it meant it starts with you.  If you want help it starts with you.  It's easier to find comfort in your suffering and suffer in silence but you can find release in your suffering by leaning on someone, we have to be dependent on others at times, although we might feel lonely, we are never alone.  The choice to be alone is solely down to ourselves.  We cannot force ourselves to get help; to open up ourselves.  That choice is also made by ourselves.  The audience can see that Jade did try to seek help, only in her dreams however, but the audience is left to their own completion of the play if Jade actually kills herself or doesn't.
Jade finding the text I feel will benefit a lot to adding a more educational aspect to the show and to also make the audience go away and think more.
It oozes Brechtian! (Thanks Rob)  

In more ways than one, Elliott has been able to show a moral to the show without being old-fashioned and stating "the moral of the story is...".

This week we began working on the progression of our devising projects by setting up our plays with the theatre.  This was beneficial as we are behaving as a professional company, as companies have to make sure that each performance that they showcase at venues, they know how to operate the lights/sounds or to work alongside the technicians of the theatre if they don't know the technical side.
As H'angela in charge of the lights/sounds/costumes, she had to present her written script with light and sound cues to the technicians at the theatre at Westminster Kingsway. 

Once that was sorted we was able to rehearse our play with the added benefit of lights, sounds and costumes, adding more affect to the play.  Personally I feel that without the effects of the lights and sounds and costumes, the play would be very amateurish. 

During rehearsals within the theatre, our group did have a lot of venting and complaining about people coming in at set times, the lights and cues, actors taking long to set up the stage in between scenes.  There was even an argument about the script and wanting to cut parts out. 

On Elliott's behalf, he did make it clear to email him back if there were spelling errors, lines that doesn't make sense and nothing is going to get changed (I assume with regards to the scenes) as we're going to have to soldier it on and it is late to change anything anyways.  He also explained that he scripted the play to be dramatic not comedic because he personally felt that 'our class has a horrible problem with making any piece we've ever done funny in some way and its annoying.' At the end of the play Elliott stated that there wasn't to be a fight at the end because he couldn't work it in and the physical violence would've been 'shit'.

H'angela brought up that she found what he emailed with the script very offensive and due to lack of comprehension or I feel she scanned the email quickly, she thought that Elliott was being insulting. 

As a writer, Elliott felt insulted himself when Jade said she wanted to cut certain parts out but he was lenient about it being too late and refusing to cut any part out. 

Being able to set up our devised plays in the theatre was an opportunity to see the rehearsals of the other devised pieces of the other groups while the rehearsed with sound and lights and costumes. 

The 'Peer Pressure' group was about a girl wanting to be accepted by her fellow peers joins a world of prostitution and fraud by involving herself with a 'sugar daddy' that gladly buys her things as long as he gets coitus in return despite her friends warnings about it.  I like the fact that there was simple suggestions that this was occurring within the play, and was used as an objective for the antagonist to fit in and gain luxuries.  I applauded the group that no acts were shown of it but they do need to be more clear that this is what the character was basically doing to fit in and not just focus that it was about fraud.  I feel that even themselves in a way was uncomfortable in addressing that it was in fact prostitution that the character was doing probably due to taking in account and being aware of our targeted audiences age group.  They need to be more assertive in their belief of their play and not be afraid to state what it is about because these things happen in real life.  The group stated that they wanted the play to be from the perspective of the antagonist going through it, allowing the audience to become aware of the pressure and make their own judgements and reflections of that character that has made the decisions to fit in allowing the audience to go away and make decisions on their own.  If they want that reaction from the audience then they had to be aware that there audience is smart enough to come to those conclusions so should have no worries in addressing to their audience that it involves prostitution because the audience will see that.  Another reason why they may not have registered it as prostitution because it is commonly known as being exchanged with money rather than material gain.  

The 'Freddy Story' was really interesting to watch and this group had taken from what we had did with the Donmar with Naomi.  While it was really effective with the use of techniques of showing Freddy's past with the use of freeze frame in the current scenes and smoke and dark lights to show upstage that a scene within a scene was happening, when it came to their performance and adding more to their scenes, it took the focus out of Freddy's story and seemed to be a little about Freddy's boyfriend in the beginning scene.  

When the other groups watched ours, they really enjoyed it however it was annoying for someone to comment on ours that we should've known our lines when we had just received our scripts over the weekend.  Our group was the only group to have done a script and stick to it, while the other groups did it from improvisation and sticking to the lines.  From observation, I noted that when we did it with the script, there was no confusion, no missing lines, no-one ad-libbing or trying to take someones moment, the scene ran from beginning to end smoothly.  The groups that had done it without the script, especially the Peer Pressure, there was people talking over one another and there was usually an extension to a scene the next time Freddy's Story went up to rehearse.  I like that our group worked from the ground up and I feel we could appreciate it more because it stemmed from our own ideas and not from something we had already done and then trying to make it our own. 

The feedback for our group from the others was that it was really good but Jade shouldn't stay on stage in between scenes because it makes it look amateurish which I relayed to the group and the audience are questioning why she still is there.  People also noted that they could see H'angela and Jade in the sense of it was their ideas that was used and that they had come up with the play rather than from Connors suggestion which I, myself had noted. 

Certain actors within our groups wouldn't go to Connor who was the director and would take it upon themselves to say how things should go etc.  When I had a suggestion I felt would greatly benefit us e.g. The beginning scene where the minions are to antagonise Jade while sleeping, I thought it would be more effective to move around on stage and not touch her and if possible one minion could stand over her and puppet her as Jade had wanted to after the heartbeat and when she screams, the minions then run off.  I presented this idea to Connor which then he would allow me to present to the group and we could try it out.  I had presented this idea to Connor last week which was relayed to the group but no-one had taken notice to it whatsoever and Jade then complained about it before we went to perform.  It was infuriating for me as this idea amongst others I felt weren't listened to.  I voiced this to Connor and Sharney who agreed with me because Connor felt he wasn't the director anymore; Jade was.  I decided on a professional opinion to keep the ideas to myself and when the others would argue I'd keep silent because I had no qualms with anything.  I felt more peaceful and wasn't aggravated as much because I felt I wasn't wasting my breath.  I also decided that if I did have an idea, I would present it to the people that were only involved as it was less fuss and easier to explain so they understood clearly without others interrupting. 

For our performance, I felt it was really good, and was glad to have finished it and everything was worth the hassle because the audience enjoyed it.  It was an enjoyable experience to also work with the audience and do our workshop with them and they said we had made it fun and it was really interesting to see their perception of dreams and how they constructed their own short devised pieces. 

As the education officer I told the others that I had no problem with each actor leading a part of the workshop if they wanted to.  However I was generally upset because on inspection I noted that our audience didn't know who we were and I felt once again my idea had been shut down when I pointed it out.  We had done a warm-up of Fee-Fi-Foe led by Jade as she knows it very well, then Ninja which was led by Elliott.  When I said that we should do a name game, they just began with saying it plainly in a circle but I interrupted and said let's make it fun to then have Jade say we only have a certain amount of time. The name game would only take 2 mins tops so I carried on however with my name game, stating that you had to step forward, do a movement and say your name and come back into the circle so the next person could go on.  I felt really upset afterwards and voiced this to Sharney who also felt that my ideas were shut down everytime I presented them. 

My own feedback in regards to this whole experience has been enjoyable but I felt I didn't enjoy it as much as I should've and I wouldn't say I wouldn't do devising ever again, but I won't be quick to do it again any time soon.  

After the performance and workshop had been done, Abigail, who is the Administrator in charge of finding schools for us to showcase our devised shows to, had found a school that we'd present our piece to a hundred students next week and requested that we keep learning our lines while she was in Norway to which we agreed to. 

Tuesday 6th January 2015 - Thursday 8th January 2015

On the first week back, Sharron briefed us on our school tour and devising shows.  We discussed and focused on our consideration of our target audience always keeping in mind that while devising we have to make sure that everything is age appropriate. 

We felt that the shows, although short, should be understanding and effective in getting the point across and having a general impact for the audience to think about.  

The use of language allowed seemed to come up and while some people agreed that it'd be ok to have strong language, I personally don't feel that strong language doesn't need to be used to get one's point across and if a word is unavailable to use one can always get a dictionary out to find a suitable word.  

I'd rather have a script that doesn't have foul language, I feel sometimes it's unnecessary, especially when it's overused.  I personally feel that you can have a good play without the swearing, or to emphasise that a character is serious/angry.  I suggested that the plays should be kept PG, which is essential for the peer pressure group as they have themes revolving around a sexual nature i.e. prostitution.  

As we are working from the ground up, and the project allows us to have a working environment and conditions of a professional company, we had to show our individualism by thinking of a name/slogan and allocating roles to people within the group.  

This is what we came up with:

Company Name: Arts Wonders
Slogan: Where your dreams crush your pleasured desires. 

Play: E'fil 

Synopsis:
Brought to a seemingly normal world, we are allowed to view the life of one girl whose life isn't as it seems.  Brought to a world of mystical wonders and delusion, this mysticals world aim is to torment her with the aid of minions set out to destroy their targets mind.  Torn between reality and dreams, she begins to see the two worlds collide and as she is brought to her knees, she is given the ultimatum to either seek help or the temptation to end it all. 

As part of the course curriculum at Westminster Kingsway, we were put into groups, creating a working environment of a professional company.  We were to devise, script, rehearse and perform a short theatrical piece, given a free choice on the subject and theme, to perform to 15-16 year olds. I was assigned to being an educational officer.  With the time frame of 20 mins, I had to build a workshop after the performance to involve and encourage the students, especially those that have taken an interest in acting.  The workshop was able to allow the students to approach us comfortably and more personally while still demonstrating a professional attitude, and allowing them to reflect their opinions on mental illness/dreams.
The workshop consisted of basic activities to vocally and physically warm up, an introductary game to know each others name, a concentration game and then give a performance on the basis of what they interpreted from our performance to see if we had delivered our objectives.  

Allocated Roles -
Director: Conor
Assistant Director: Jade
Stage Manager: Justyna
Writer: Elliott
Costume/Set/Light/Sound Designer: Hangela
Publicist: Sharney
Education Officer: Keylehr
Administrator: Abigail

As I am the education officer and had previously looked at workshop games to help with our group but was told that our workshop had to correlate with our themes that we based our devised piece on.  It was quite hard to find such workshop itinerary to work with, so I felt that as it is quite a dark theme, there should be a contrast in the workshop so that our audience isn't so oppressed by such a theme as they will be given the opportunity to talk about how they feel about dreams/mental illness.  I did some research on workshop games and I found a website that had useful workshop games and had step by step on how to carry them out.  I will be looking through it more closely to find ones I think will be useful for the workshop and relaying it back to the group. 

Link to Workshop:
https://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&ei=sXO-VPHHL8vmaPy9glg&url=http://www.icaso.org/vaccines_toolkit/subpages/files/English/energiser_guide_eng.pdf&ved=0CB8QFjAB&usg=AFQjCNFWKowuSqAcNsx909VoHMp6ZQhcQw&sig2=D9BtM5mI81Rm1phnNTPdTA

As we now have our allocated roles, it is more easier to continue with progressing with our company/devised show further.  We are able to bring our characters to life more, we had initially agreed on E'fil's character to wear white to contrast her personality but the final agreement on costumes would be black excluding Jade.  I feel that in terms of costume, the black emphasises the denotation of evil, accentuating the themes of mental illness and dreams.  The costumes of black is simple yet holds a strong statement allowing us the added benefit to move comfortably especially being a minion as I have to move around on the floor and having a mask brings out the creepiness to the costume.  Hangela thought it would be good for the masks to be black but too much would've taken away the attention and the audience may not have been able to see.  Instead we got brown masks which was better because to the audience it would've looked like a floating, sullen face.  With the help of costumes and the sound already sorted, I feel that we are one step ahead as Hangela has been hell bent on perfecting the sound, making sure we're all ok with it and the timing.  

Although we are progressing, there are slight delays also.  Elliott joined our group and was told he was the writer but Elliott and I personally felt that the ideas Jade presented to the group was too complex for our targeted audience.  Jade thought that the audience would understand what was going on but I had to remind her that she may have been mature and philosophical in her thinking but not all children of that age are like that. 
One of Jade's ideas that the character losing her mind could see animals and wanted a forest scene and that we could ask the art department to make trees to add on the set design. 
I was worried that the ideas although good, was too much in the sense of our time frame we had to get this all done in, making more work for us, and that taking something as complex of a subject as big as mental illness/dreams could be drawn to a subject of confusion instead leaving the audience perplexed which we don't want.  She wanted it as abstract as possible, but I told her to be careful to not overdue the abstract because it's easy for the abstract for that to be initial focus, and the play to just become linear, taking away the wow factor from it and it would become dull.

There was much debate between Elliott and Jade's preference of if there was to be a moral behind the show.  I personally agreed with Elliott, I thought that there was too much focus on the play becoming abstract rather than how it would end and what the audience would get from it and genuinely enjoy it.  As Elliott is the writer, he will be writing alongside us as we rehearse the scenes, making sure each scenes flow well, and the dialogue fits.  

To help progress my group, I will be working on my lines as soon as I get them.  I will be trying to not be so anxious and quick to worry that the audience won't like the show because after feedback from the rest of our class, it was surprising to find that they enjoyed what we had to far and that it was interesting.  From the constructive feedback I will also make sure that I am invested in my character as a minion and that despite me having a mask, I will be in character from head to toe because it is easy for our characters to become comical which our practise audience (the rest of our class) did, and we was laughing at each other on stage so I will be becoming more serious in my role as a minion.  It's only beginning but I will try to keep positive as I know that there will be some personality clashes and disagreements in the coming days of us putting on the show in the Theatre as there has already been some minor disagreements here and there already.  Elliott said that he will be writing the script over the weekend so we should receive it hopefully before Monday.