This is the scene that the inspector comes to see the girls school in Blastburn. We see mrs brisket showing off infront of the inspector and makes the girls perform their literacy first. Our first idea was for Brisket to poke the girls in the back (they are all in a line) in sequence so that they shout out the letters in pain showing how evil brisket really is, yet the inspector is always oblivious to the cruelty. We then changed this slightly as it was too 'in sequence' and wasn't random enough really. So we then thought it would be a good idea to keep the poking but not for the whole thing, but because in the story Bonnie is the only child that has been brought up well she should lead the sequence as she is the only one who really knows it so while she confidently says it, the other girls follow her lead. I really liked this new idea because it is very realistic, that would actually happen in real life and makes more sense too.
Secondly, when mrs brisket is flirting with the inspector we thought that the girls should chuckle at her because it's weird to see her like that. She is usually a hard faced woman, but now is acting like a girly girl! I loved this idea because little girls would laugh at something like that, it also shows that the girls are really not used to her being nice for once so shock would be in there too.
If I had to make an improvement on this scene however I would say that we could possibly involve more movement in the scene instead of just being in a straight line, so for example when the girls say their letter they could move forward because in reality, no matter how well trained little girls are they wouldn't really stay in a straight line facing forward for the whole time. They would be looking around, chatting and laughing at silly things. Even if one girl tied their shoe laces for a long time or played around with their dress, then it would work really well and remind the audience that they are all little girls!
We also blocked another part of this scene when it is partly the chorus.
"Detention for speaking too loud.
Detention for speaking too quiet.
Detention for working too slow.
They were punished for yawning at supper."
For this, we got Bonnie to read the first line (obviously loudly) and be dragged away by the ear to the centre. The second line is for Sylvia to say quietly and also dragged to the centre. The third is to be read by Emma, and the last for another girl at the school. This would end with Bonnie, Sylvia and Emma in the centre stage ready for the next thing of saying their numeracy. I really liked this idea because it is an easy way of getting the girls ready for the next bit instead of just walking to the middle because that is boring to watch whereas this is more interesting.
You are starting to make comments about how something in a scene is more 'realistic' - we were not necessarily going for realism, here, and non-realistic elements ran through this piece.
ReplyDeleteYou describe this scene, and you begin to evaluate and offer some ideas for how it might have been developed, recognising the potential of the scene.