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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
No comments:
Post a Comment