Projection.

  The idea of 'projection' was to get everybody who is not main in a scene to hold up pieces of white card and have projected images onto all of the card that are involved with the scene.
 For example, when we play the 'skating scene', we decided to project a winter wonderland sort of image onto the card. This works really well because it gives the audience more of a feel of what is going on in the scene if it is not clear. I also think that it works really well with the whole performance as it keeps the pace going with continuous scenes, and it gives the whole performance a more interesting view in my opinion.
  The only negative thing I would say however about the projection would be that sometimes in rehearsals the card was slightly noisy when in motion, and the whole chorus would have to be in the exact same place every single time for it to really work. If there are gaps also between the pieces of card again it doesn't work because the projection actually goes right through and doesn't look right. Overall, the idea of projection really looks great and works well if it is performed right.

The themes we thought of for the scenes were:
*Scene 2 (train) - a carriage
*Scene 6 (skating) - a winter wonderland
*Scene 7 ('Simon the goose boy') - geese
*Scene 8 (back to the house, sacking workers) - grandfather clock/fireplace
*Scene 9 (library) - library
*Scene 4/Act 2 (workhouse) - industry workplace
*Scene 5 (journey) - sunset
*Scene 6 (London) - London
*Scene 7 (visiting Aunt Jane) - old poor house
*Scene 8 ('Another train journey') - train carriage

Blocking scene: Six

When blocking scene 6 (the skating scene), we decided to firstly get Bonnie and Sylvia skating on the spot, centre stage (moving legs back and too) whilst the chorus stand huddled in the corner. They would be speaking their lines in a sort of monotone with actions and also all staring at the two girls like hungry wolves. I didn't really like this idea because to me it looked quite boring to watch, I would of preffered a lot more things going on such as possibly the wolves having more actions (swaying/breathing heavily/etc.)
 We then furthered this scene by improving it. As a group we decided to keep the skating motion going with the two girls but getting them to expand more by them turning to different angles in sync. I thought that this worked really well because it gives the audience more to watch and in my opinion it is a lot more interesting. We also got the whole chorus to gradually move around the space but not going too far away from each other, keeping in the pack. This to me brings the wolves more to life than the first idea, it also brings more energy to the performance and makes 'wolves' actually come to life. All of this is a big improvement I think from the first draft of blocking because it is more alive and there is so much more going on instead of it being dull and boring.
 We then continued to block this scene even further with Jill, now deciding on the chorus turning into wolves with the cannon effect but fast, getting them into different levels to eventually jump down softly but still visually aware (like a real wolf.) They would then slowly start to surround the girls evilly and prowling. Also, we decided that it would be a great idea to get the chorus to also hold up pieces of white card, whilst a projector aims directly at them making a background scene. As the 'wolves' speak, they will be holding up their pieces of card but when they start to scat and move, they will drop the card and then the backdrop will project into the background of the scene whilst everything else goes on.
 I enjoyed blocking this scene and was really happy with the final block. I thought that it worked really well and that the scene had progressed quite a lot. It went through a lot of blocking from the start, but in my opinion the end result of this has worked out a lot better.

Similarities and Differences.

When researching the similarities and differences between the book and England in the 1800s, there are quite a lot more differences than similarities. This is because it is a make believe children's story book, it is not meant to be like real life. Here is what I picked out:

Similarities-

*The poor lived in small houses with around 10 other people, however in the book Sylvia lives in an average sized house with only her aunt Jane.

*Young poor children were constantly ill (like Sylvia.)

*There were trains in England at the time and also in the book.

Differences-

*Women had no power but Miss Slighcarp has quite a lot in the book.

*There were no wolves roaming England.

*Women were meant to have no ambition, stay in the house and tend to it. They were very beautiful and graceful (again, Miss Slighcarp was not.)

*Young poor children usually started work very young, yet in the book Sylvia does not.

*There is no war going on in the book but was at the time.

*There is no slavery in the book but a lot at the time went on.

I then looked into what the time was actually like in the 1800's and I found that they did have trains in England. Also, the rich ladies and girls wore puffy sleeved under skirted dresses and the men always looked well dressed in suits. Diseases were also a big thing at the time; many diseases swept the poverty stricken people of England during the 1800s. These epidemics included typhus, scarlet fever, measles, influenza, cholera, smallpox, and diphtheria. 

•The typhus epidemic struck London in 1800. Typhus is a disease with symptoms including fever, rashes, headache caused by infection with a microorganism called Rickettsia prowazekii. 

•Another disease that engulfed London in the year 1800 was scarlet fever. Scarlet fever is a disease caused by strep infections. Some symptoms include fever, sore throat, abdominal pain, headaches, muscle aches, and vomiting. Scarlet fever is also noticeable by the blotchy skin irritations and white infection of the tongue, 1803 

•Influenza, a disease caused by a contagious virus that is spread through respiratory functions, struck the people of London, Chester, and British troops in Ireland. Most people underwent body aches, headaches, coughing, and sore throats as a result of being infected with this disease. 1808-1815 
•A severe measles epidemic struck London in 1808. Many young children died because they were unable to fight off the disease due to the high fever, coughing, inflamed eyes, sore throat, and fat blotches that appeared on the skin. 1831-1834

•During 1831-1834 cholera, a highly contractible disease caused by a bacterial infection of the intestine, spread throughout Britain attacking all classes. Cholera is 
transmitted through contaminated food or water. The faeces of those who were infected by the disease entered the water systems, ultimately spreading it to anyone who drank or even bathed in the water. 1857-1859

•Diphtheria was the major epidemic spreading in 1857-1859. Diphtheria is a bacterial infection that affects the respiratory system or the skin. Often time’s people were unable to treat this, which led to a coma and/or death. The effects of disease in the 1800s not only included death but also fear, food shortages, and economic downfall. Many people became scared of the possibilities of contracting one of these many deadly diseases; this ultimately drove some people to panic. Food shortages were also a huge result because if people who normally cared for the crops were ill, how was the supply of food expected to reach its demand. Another result included economic downfall. With people unable to work, the supplies others needed could not be manufactured. Therefore, many were left unemployed because of the lack of work needed at this time.

Notes.

 4.03.2014

Unit 13- Contemporary theatre performance

Unit 19- Principles of acting

Unit 1- Performance workshop

Key rehearsal tasks:

 *Learn lines (more flexible, rehearsals can start properly, etc.)

 *Blocking (organizing performance space)

 *Props and costume (character comes to life)

 *Characterisation (back story, not realism)

 *Tech stuff (creepy, slow music)

 *Research (on your character, what people think about the play, etc.)

6.04.2014

Verfremdungseffekt= creating emotions.

   *epic theatre

   *alienation

e.g. actress character has been raped, audience feel what she feels but then a clown behind her is making fun and you laugh, but you are then conflicted and you question it/ have questions/ are confused = wanted to leave thinking, wanted to make a point.

  *Didactic= intended to teach, particularly in having moral instruction as an ulterior motive.
*Was in the 1940s.

  This could help our play by us incorporating this idea. We could use the moral of changing the audiences feelings so dramatically that they are confused in their own feelings and thoughts. This would leave a dramatic feeling in the audiences minds and they would think about what was going on a lot more. This would help us to easily make our audience more interested in what is going on and make them actually think instead of just view.

13.03.2014

Brecht

Placards= A narration of what is going on (e.g. what the actor is thinking/actually wanting to say.) They are blunt and straight to the point because Brecht preferred it like that, however when playing around with this idea in class we thought overall that it was actually better to subtle.

  In our play, we also have narration of the 'Chorous', it is story telling for the audience of what is going on in the scene without bluntly telling them, we are still making them think and be interested.

  Brecht watched a lot of Greek Theatre, he didn't like the plays but loved the chorus'.

Types of narration:

*1st person- "I did this"

*3rd person- objects that don't usually speak (e.g. the wind whistled)

*In character

*Stepping out of character

  Caricature= a joke of themselves (e.g. Miss Slighcarp, Mr Grimshaw are both great examples of this, their personalities are very over the top and almost not human, like animals.)

 Stereotypes= sexuality, what you wear, chavs, teen mums.

*Based on ignorance, speak from others. Easy to say, automatically thought if you were brought up with it. Quite useful because if showing a character with a stereotype it is easier because everybody in the audience will know what type of person is being portrayed.

Casting.

The casting list has been put up and I found out that I was cast as Bonnie! I was really happy with this character because it's who I wanted to be in the play. Last night I started to learn my lines and I highlighted what I had to say in a yellow highlighter and my characters actions in a green highlighter.

I am now really looking forward to creating this play and putting it on for an audience. I love the different aspects to it such as the physicality of the wolves, the many different types of characters, and more! I hope to learn my lines fast and my technique so far is to 'look, cover, read'. I am also trying it out with different people to read lines with me so that I know when to say what and when. This really helps me because I will then know my lines a lot faster. I want to start on my physicality,facial expression and tone for my character and that is why I want to learn my lines so fast so that I can perform at my best for this. I have 130 lines to read, have 36 character actions to achieve and I am in  simply every scene so I have a lot to learn! However I am seeing this all as an challenge that I will be able to achieve very soon!

  I have also been practicing my proper English pronunciation and watching YouTube videos to help me. So far I have learnt that if you imagine a rectangle being in your mouth from the roof to the tounge, it helps you pronounce better because that is the shape your mouth should be in to speak in this way. Also standing or sitting up straight and forward helps to because you can then hit the 't's and 'd's when speaking because your tongue is in neutral and is not at the back of your throat like it would be if you were slouched.

About the book.

Our next unit of performing arts is creating a play based on the novel (converted to play) 'The Wolves of Willoughby Chase'. When reading the script, I knew straight away which character I would like to be, Bonnie. I really liked this character because her written personality sounded slightly like my real personality! "Bonnie is adventurous and confident, with a fiery temper." When reading this first line out to my mum she said to audition for this part straight away! It continues, "She is somewhat spoiled" (again, my mum thought that I should audition for this!) "...but a bright and good-natured girl, strongly built and full of energy." My favourite scene of 'Bonnie's' was defiantly when Miss Slighcarp wears her mothers dress and we see Bonnie first show her fiery side in the whole play!
  "Miss Slighcarp: You will attend to your own breakfasts from now on. There is much to do this morning, where did-
  Bonnie: What are you wearing?
  Miss Slighcarp: Are you speaking to me?
  Bonnie: Why are you wearing my mothers dress?"
From the start of the book, we have only really seen Bonnie as a sweet, good-natured little girl. We can tell that she is well looked after and has positive surroundings until Miss Slighcarp comes into her life and takes over. Miss Slighcarp has sort of turned Bonnie more nasty in my opinion as we do not see this side of her until she is provoked by the governess herself.

  I am excited to start this play, the final outcome should be very dark and gloomy, but with a fairy tale twist.

  On Tuesday we worked on our physicality movements with Justine creating a wolf like routine. In our big group, we all were in parallel lines and made big heavy like movements backwards and forwards (like a real wolf crawling and looking for its pray). The next move was to do a 'dart-look' towards the right of the stage, and then to our audience. This was very effective in my opinion because that is what a wolf would do and it makes it more daring and scary to watch. We then swooped round to the left, fell to the floor on one leg (this all being a very fast movement,) and throwing our arms backwards and lifting up our bodies to create a table like form. This to me represents the wolves freakiness and how they appeared to others in the book (being very gruesome and un-humanly.) To finish we simply crawled backwards in our table like form, still staring at the audience. When deciding how to make the introduction we wanted to put this is but alter it to make it our own for the show. We decided we would keep everything from the movements except when we usually would drop to the floor on one foot after 'swooping', we changed this to a quicker movement of just getting straight up and scattering away. I liked this idea better because it makes the whole routine faster (just like a wolfs speed), and it also to me says that you don't have enough time against the wolves. They are so fast moving if you are spotted they will get you straight away. This brings panic and will put the audience in the mindset of if the wolves were actually real.

  On Thursday with Jill we put together the intro of the play working in three small groups: the boys doing the 'Chorous', for their idea they all stood in a tight huddle and read their verse at the exact same time, creating small but important movements all at the same time and keeping a gloomy feel. Then it was me/Megan/Sian/Chloe building a structure out of stands and planks and being wolves, crawling all over them in strange and creepy ways, and finally Beth, Jess, Amy and Zoe creating a line from the chorus of-
                                          "Meanwhile, far away in London
                                          Another girl, a frail and timid mouse,
                                          Who hides behind her shadow,
                                          Boards a train for the perilous journey
                                          Across this famished frozen land."
  When the girls created this section they decided to show all of this from behind a show like a shadow show in which they would nominate one person to be the girl and the others would be stood like statues then the girl would hide behind each one individually. She would then come to a train conductor who would slowly wind their fingers and arms towards her then quickly grab her in and throw her onto the train. I thought that this was a great combination of ideas because it wasn't just doing what the line told them to do, it was thinking outside the box and working with their imagination and I really liked the whole idea.