Double - Children's Theatre (FMF) - Blog 14 - 30/11/15

Today in Double, we decided that we would run the entire performance and stop after every scene to make notes on how to improve it.

When performing, "The Three Farmers," scene, it was obvious that our changes had improved the scene tenfold! This created an energetic introduction to not only the farmers, but the entire production.

Our, "Plan For Shooting/Shooting," scene was as amazing as ever! Our planning was very evil and horrid yet keeping a light hearted and comical approach! Meanwhile, the actual shooting was full of energy and portrayed the farmers' aggression.

After removing the chase from, "We'll Never Let Him Go," it ran so much better! Although we magnified our movement, I still feel we need to be more expressive with our actions to fully portray our characters!

When performing, "Bean's Cider Cellar," scene, the introduction of Badger, Mole and Rabbit has improved. Rat's little scene has been near-perfected, with the exception of people not knowing their lines. We also choreographed a new part when hiding from, "The Woman." This is the outline:

• On, "dashed behind," we all stand behind each other, (The Order: Ollie, Charlie, Rob, Lewis, James)
• On, "breath," we poke our heads out from behind the cider jar (James-Bottom Left/Rob-Top Left/Charlie-Bottom Right/Lewis-Top Right).
• On, "breathe," we poke our heads out but on the opposite sides from where we were before (Eg. Rob would go from Top Left to Top Right).
• On, "heart," we come back to centre hiding behind each other.
• During each of our single lines we pop our heads out of the side which we did on, "breath."
• When James mentions how Mrs Fox said Mr Fox will get them in trouble, Charlie walks out, no longer hiding behind the bottle saying, "Oh yeah I bet she did!" We all poke our heads out, shhh him, then Badger pulls Mr Fox back into line.
• As, "The Woman," takes each bottle of Cider, we all poke our heads out and gasp! On the final jar, as she place her hand on the handle, we all poke out with terrified facial expressions. But when she leaves the bottle, we all cheer in happiness and come out from behind it; the scene then continues as planned.

After this comes the Great Feast and, with the lyrics which James printed out, we performed it exceptionally well! For next time, I need to work on my voice for singing as Rabbit! 

At the end we received a very key note on how to improve our performance! Our introduction of the three farmers was far stronger than that of the fox family! This, most definitely, should not be the case! We decided a way to combat this effect is to swap the order so that the introduction to the fox family is before the introduction to the farmers. This establishes the first bond between character and audience with Mr Fox not the three farmers. 

I feel I've improved a bunch on the notes which were given to me last lesson and this has bettered the entire performance as a whole.

Double - Children's Theatre (FMF) - Blog 13 - 27/11/15

This lesson, we performed a full run through. We decided this to see which scenes we needed to work on and which need to be changed.

When performing the, "Three Farmers," scene, we decided that it wad very short and didn't introduce Boggis, Bunce and Bean in the comical and slapstick fashion that we wanted. When introducing the farmers, we wanted the audience to laugh and have them understand the relationships between them and their characteristics. We then added a small mime sequence at the beginning of the original, "Three Farmers," scene; it went like this:

• Bunce runs in with a chicken drumstick. He checks around for Boggis and starts devouring it.
• Boggis walks in, gasps, rolls up sleeves, walks towards Bunce.
• Boggis taps Bunce on the shoulder, they argue over the chicken, Boggis holds it above Bunce's head.
• Bean walks in looking disgusted at their childishness, he takes the chicken and the three farmers stand ready to start the predetermined scene.

When performing, "We'll Never Let Him Go," halfway through we were very stuck on remembering our lines and stage directions. Also, when trying to work out how to perform our the chase between Bean and Bunce, it was very difficult and we decided it wasn't worth doing. Instead we felt, it would be better and simpler to just skip to the next part of the scene. As we had cut a very active and loud part of the scene, we had to make sure that the remainder of our movement is high in energy and that we fully express our characters emotions and feelings.

After our run through, we received notes from Miss McSherry on how to improve our performance; we received individual notes and group notes. As a whole, our group needs to dedicate a lot of time towards lines and providing a lot more energy! At times we forget how little our audience is so we must always keep our audience in mind when performing. When performing, "The Race," our facial expressions were very good! When we performed the chase during, "We'll Never Let Him Go," it wasn't choreographed very well and this would need work; this doesn't matter now as we have removed it. Finally, our creeping scenes during the raids were very impressive and hilarious.

For my individual notes, I maintained focus throughout the entire run through but I need to vary my voice when talking as Bean; it seemed rather monotone so I would need to very my tone and pitch. Also, my lines seemed very rushed so I'd have to slow them down in order to still fully articulate.

Single - Contemporary Theatre Unit (FSN) - Blog 27 - 27/11/15

Today we continued looking at songs and deducing how to make our lyrics fit with the tune.
With my song I discovered that it would be more effective to speak some parts as opposed to trying to sing the whole piece. This would avoid the effort of having to fit the the lyrics with the tune. After two run throughs of the song like that, it sounded not too bad! With further rehearsal it will sound terrific!

After going through individual songs we ran, "I Wish," and also staged it. We had it so when a parent has a solo they step into one of the 3 spotlights we used in the children's part. Thus way there is a focus on this parent as opposed to the whole group! When it comes to Mary's Mum's solo, we all split off and Mary's Mum appears from the centre and performs her scene with Narrator's Dad. When they, "Go inside," we all come back from each side and start singing, "We Wish You A Merry Christmas," again.

Single - Contemporary Theatre Unit (FSN) - Blog 26 - 26/11/15

Today in Single, we started work on songs! We first started matching up our songs with what Christmas carols they were in the tune of. After this we all went off separately or in groups to learn our songs. Lorna and Rob learnt, "Watch How Mummy Does It," Charlie and Ollie worked on, "If There Was a God," and everyone else learnt, "Massive Newt."

I individually learnt, "Don't Grow Up Like Your Dad," which is in the tune to "O Little Town if Bethlehem." I found this song difficult because all of the songs in this play have lyrics which don't match up with their tunes. This is because this is how the children would've sung the songs, so we have to replicate this style of singing. We would have to rush if there were too many lyrics and slow down if there wasn't enough.

I then helped Katya learn her song, "Shiny Silver Caravan," and Cel learn her song, "Lucky Lady."

After our individual work we all got together as a group and learnt, "Massive Newt," with the direction of Hope, James and Rhiannon and, "I Wish." In my own time, I will have to continue to work on, "Don't Grow Up Like Your Dad," as I'm still unsure about on the timings of the lyrics

Double - Storytelling - Blog 11 (Snow Queen) - 25/11/15

Today in Double, we continued devising the first part of The Snow Queen. We first ran through what we had initially from last lesson so we knew where to take off from. What we already had went a little like this:

• Start in a circle, all facing in, right arm across the shoulder of the person on our right. Order in circle went: Lewis, Rhiannon, Ollie, Rob, Charlie, James.
• On, "Now let us begin," we all turn out over our right shoulder, we space around the room all facing different directions.
• On, "Reflected," we turn 180 degrees, on, "Poor," and "Mean," we make small jagged contractions to portray these adjectives and show the power of the mirror.
• On, "Magnified," we make an exaggerated jagged action; this links with the word magnified.

This lesson we had a great deal more devised. This is what we devised:

Formation A

Formation B

• On, "In this mirror," we all walk to the front in a line, the order goes: Lewis, James, Rhiannon, Lorna, Ollie, Charlie, Rob.
• On, "their faces," pick up mask, and on, "distorted," we put the masks on. On, "recognised," we all turn 180 degrees. After this, we all walk to centre stage and stand in formation (formation A).
• On, "magnified," we all reach out; long, slow and dynamically.
• On, "That's glorious fun!" we speak this in communal voice and we walk back into a straight line at he front; the order goes: James, Lewis, Rob, Lorna, Rhiannon, Charlie, Ollie.
• On, "If a good thought," we perform a hand movement with our left hand from right to left in cannon from Charlie to Lewis, on, "then grin," James expresses a grin on his face with his hands (not with his actual face obviously because of the mask).
• After this we arrange ourselves in a 232 formation (formation B). On, "how the world really looked," Rhiannon and James split away, as do Lorna and Rob. On, "They ran about," Ollie and Lewis lift Charlie from underneath the arms forward and backwards while Charlie runs in mid air.
• On, "So then they thought," Lewis, Ollie, Rob and Lorna lift Charlie as Rhiannon and James get down low on their knees on the floor. Lewis and Ollie take Charlie's arms, Rob takes his legs, and Lorna takes his thighs and butt. Rhiannon and James then swap sides and be ready to catch Charlie.
• On, "that it flew out," we drop Charlie but catch him lower; we then lower him down.
• On, "dashed in a hundred million and more pieces," we all (except Charlie of course) scatter across the floor to represent the "million and more pieces."

This is all we have so far but next lesson we will finish this scene off then move onto Scene 2.

Single - Contemporary Theatre Unit (FSN) - Blog 25 - 24/11/15

Today in Single, the plan was to run through Act 2 minus the adult section but once we got there, we decided that it would be worth it to run through the adult scene too as we were there.

After this we tried an exercise which tested how fast we could perform but also whether we could maintain our characterisation. We started from the beginning of Flint Street and worked our way up to the projection of Peter Crouch, performing it in double the speed. This was very effective at making sure we were prepared for our lines as they would come a lot sooner.

Double - Children's Theatre (FMF) - Blog 12 - 23/11/15

Today we went through how we would perform, "The Great Feast," scene. At first, we made a plan for what we wanted to have done with this scene. We wanted to have a lot of physical theatre including lifts, Round-By-Through and paired jump work (leap frogs) then followed by some dialogue and end on a song. We started work on the physical theatre first.

We initially thought of having characters enter individually or in small groups of 2 or 3 to make the scene very fast paced and create a great deal of excitement for the audience. This included running, Round-By-Through, and jumps. We then changed it to this:

• Rabbit, Badger, Mole (Me/Ollie/Rob) enter with tables (little stools). Rob centre, Lewis right, Ollie left.
• Mrs Fox and a Fox Cub (Rhiannon/Lorna) enter with trays and place them on the stools (Lorna goes to Lewis, Rhiannon goes to Ollie)
• Ollie/Lewis steps through Rhiannon/Lorna and then spins them around to face the front.
• Ollie gets on all fours and Lewis leapfrogs him, then Lorna and Rhiannon spin round him.
• Mr Fox and a Fox Cub (Charlie/James) enter. Charlie steps on the last stool in the centre and Ollie and I flank the stage to get behind him and lift him from under his arms forwards. Meanwhile James runs to Lorna and Rhiannon (his character's mum and sister.)
• Rob and Lewis go off to side as a pair. Charlie shakes badgers hand.

This then leads onto the dialogue. We hadn't spent much time on this but we imagined everyone cheering and celebrating, Mr Fox proposing  a toast and then a smooth transition into a song (e.g. "And you can't have a feast without a good old sing song!")

For a while we debated which song we'd use for, "The Great Feast." At first we thought, "Food Glorius Food," from the musical Oliver! but we decided that instead we'd use, "You've Got A Friend In Me," by Randy Newman which was in Toy Story. We felt that more children would've seen Toy Story than Oliver! so the chances of them knowing the words and joining in were much higher.

We also included a lot of movement to the song too:

• During the first verse, Mr Foxs sing in an attempt to get Badger in the mood to dance and sing but at first fails. But after laying across him, Badger gets up and gets more energetic.
• During the second verse, The Fox Cubs share a moment to display their strong sibling bond by singing together.
• During the third verse, Rabbit sings, "Some other folks might be a little bit smarter than I am," while pointing to Moles head. Then Mole sings, "Bigger and Stronger too, maybe," and points to Rabbits flexed biceps. Mrs Fox proceeds to Mr Fox whilst singing the rest of the verse and when she sings, "It's me and you," she kisses him on the cheek followed by some jeering and wolf-whistles from the other animals.
• For the last verse,  Mr Fox continues singing whilst walking to the front. On, "And as the years go by," his wife and the cubs join him in a line. On, "Our friendship will never die," the rest of the animals join in the line. On the first, "You've got a friend in me," afterwards, Rabbit, Mole and Badger walk to the back. On the second. The Fox Cubs run to the back. On the third, Mr and Mrs Fox walk to the back. The song shall fade out with waves and goodbyes from the animals.

Triple - Devised Unit (LR) - Blog 21 (Evaluation) - 23/11/15

Today, we finally performed our London Riots piece to be filmed for assessment. Before performing, we quickly walked through our piece to clear up any issues before we filmed it for real. I informed Kyle (our sound technician) on when he had to play each song in the form of lighting cues. We then performed it for real!!! Below is my evaluation of how it went:

Evaluation:

Scene 1 - ill Manors Gorillas:
I feel this scene was performed very well; it was the best runthrough of it we had ever done! When I got pushed down the steps, I feel I made it look very realistic and lifelike due to my facial expressions of pain, my actual fall and Tom's brutal (and unforgiving) shoving! I feel that my movement from the floor to my starting position was very good as I still portrayed the pain that my character would've felt from his punch to the face and push down the stairs by holding my face, limping and throwing dirty looks at Tom, the person who assaulted me. 

When I was leant up against the wall, I feel I portrayed my character's pain very well as I was leant slightly sideways and low, still holding my side and pulling exasperated facial expressions. Whilst "monkeying around," I feel my movement was effective at portraying the animalistic side of a common "Chav," but there are some ways I could've improved this. As running around in a squatted position is very tiring, I became very exhausted whilst during this runthrough. So throughout, my actions had become mildly sloppier and this took away some of the effect from my portrayal of a gorilla. Because of this exhaustion, my freeze frames were very poor as I couldn't hold them for as long as I would've normally done.

Finally, when we come forward as a group to mock our audience, I feel that we assembled very quickly because we all remembered our sound cue, and when we did come forward, we showed a lot of power and intimidated the audience. When exiting to the siren's in the song, we were very smooth. I was very clever in nudging Rhiannon to remind her that we needed to place the table on stage ready for the next scene. I made it look as if my character was warning Rhiannon about the Police coming and that we needed to place the table on the floor (for whatever reason). Overall I was very happy with this scene.

Scene 2 - Tom and Rhiannon's Rioter Interrogation Scene
I feel that Tom and Rhiannon's Interrogation was done very well! They conveyed a great deal of emotion into their speech by changing their tone, tempo, pitch and volume.

Scene 3 - Lewis and Ashley's Rioter Interrogation Scene
This time, when Ashley and I performed our interrogation scene, it was the best performance of it we had ever done! There were barely any mistakes such as saying the wrong thing or long blocks of silence. We both transmitted our characters emotions effectively with movement, change in vocal tones, pitch, volume and tempo, and body language. We kept to our predetermined plan on what to talk about which helped us avoid long awkward silences. At the last minute, I decided that I would use my notebook as a prop and this was very useful as I could then reference witness statements without looking a maniac pointing to empty space. All in all, I am exceedingly happy with mine and Ashley's performance in this scene!

Scene 4 - Emotional Turmoil Scene
This scene went very well but had some minor hiccups. To start with, our sound technician started the audio earlier than it belonged so while we did our contemporary opening dance, we had to rush through it to keep the rest of the piece in time. This meant that during this dance Toby, Tom and I were out of time during some of it as we panicked. Luckily we didn't show this panic in our facial expressions and by the final jumping spin, we were all in time which didn't ruin the elegance and gloriousness of the jump.

Everyone's separate scene with Tom went really well and to how we rehearsed it despite Ashley having a broken collarbone and Lorna having a broken toe. However, during my duo part with Tom, he skipped our fist-bump/high five/handshake sequence that we would do after the chest bump and before the lowering down. This was something Tom got wrong in rehearsals at times due to him forgetting it and this was what he had done now. This put me off slightly but I quickly adapted to what he was doing to provide a smoother performance. I felt that this didn't look too obvious but could've been noticeable. Apart from this minor mistake, my duo part with Tom went well.

During Toby's duo part, Ashley and I intercede in Toby and Tom's fight. We run in and hold him back ready for Toby to wind him with a punch and we then kick him until the sirens sound. When Ashley and I were meant to hold back Tom, I was a second late made it out of time, but this wasn't drastically important; it's more of an aesthetically pleasing kind of thing. I feel when I kicked Tom it looked very realistic, despite having minimal experience in stage combat.

Scene 5 - Dan and Tom's Therapist Session Scene
Dan and Tom's Therapist scene was as good as ever! They used a great range of their vocal abilities to portray their characters feelings. They had a lot of preparation beforehand which led to a smooth and solid performance. They had a great deal of movement despite them being seated most of the time. This was, in my opinion, the best part of the entire piece.

Scene 6 - Lorna and Toby's Therapist Session Scene
Lorna and Toby's Therapist scene was very effective at illustrating the motives of a PTSD sufferer. Their scene was very strong with great lack of movement (which created a broken down effect), and low volume. However, I believe they were far too quiet. At times it was very difficult to understand what they were saying. This is the only thing I could flaw them on!

Scene 7 - Ten More Days Still Image Scene
I felt that the Still Image scene was very well done as we got our timings and entrances right nearly every time. Although, when Tom and I had reached the point where we all should form a line, others weren't ready to form so we had to wait for them to catch up. If we were to perform this again, we would make sure we know the sound cue to be in position for. However, Tom and I performed some very effective still images which do a great job at depicting the stories behind them.

Scene 8 - MP Speeches Scene
This scene was one of our best! Our costume change from the scene before was very smooth with Rhiannon being the exception as upon pulling off her hoodie, her blouse came off with it; it was a good job she was wearing a vest top otherwise she would've only been in underwear. To improve for next time, everyone would have to wear a zip hoodie to avoid such scenario. We all had memorised our speeches and no one had forgotten their lines, but I'd stuttered which threw me off. This led to me starting my sentence again which ruined the flow of my speech. Besides this, this scene went fantastic!

Scene 9 - ill Manors Gorilla Scene (Reprise)
This scene was very smooth and it was very effective at portraying the MP's similarities to the rioters. When arguing with each other we were all very loud and kept to the ideals of our parties. For example, when I argued with Dan, he stood up for his fellow cabinet member's (Toby) views, whilst I combated him with Labour views. We were all extremely loud and for those of who got physical, Tom and Toby, it looked realistic. When we turn to the audience on the drop at the beginning of the chorus of, "ill Manors," we all turned at the same time and posed in similar but different poses. These poses showed how a lot of the animalistic chaos that goes on in the lives of MPs is hidden behind their suits and ties and professionalism.

Overall Evaluation
To summarise, I feel this performance was our best run through of it ever with great movement, effective vocal techniques and amazing body language. To improve for next time, I feel these are the three main things we need to do:

• Lorna and Toby needed to be a lot louder during their Therapist Scene.
• Our sound needed to be correct in our Emotional Turmoil Scene. 
• Pace myself during the Gorilla scene.

Single - Contemporary Theatre Unit (FSN) - Blog 24 - 20/11/15

Today we had a rehearsal of Act 1, except we put a large amount of focus into our movement. This would make us think about how a child would move when walking, running, playing and throwing! I based my movements on the research I had done on 7 year-old's prior to this blog.

Double - Children's Theatre (FMF) - Blog 11 - 20/11/15

Today we got a lot of work done! We started off with our focus exercise and ewe then ran through, "The Race," scene so that we were all comfortable with it.

We next decided to get devising as we still had multiple scenes multiple scenes to devise. We started with, "Boggis' Chicken House Raid." This scene starts after , "Starvation Starts & Mr Fox Has A Plan." We added a great deal of movement in the transition into, "Chicken House Raid." This included ducking (under fences), dodging (bees), sneaking (past watch dogs) and stretching (to reach ledges). During this we would use the song, "Sneaky Snitch." This piece of music is perfect for this scene as it embodies its mystery and sneakiness.

After this, we'd portray a large jump up to the warehouse from below. Following this jump, the foxes look in absolute awe! They look around in complete fascination and gather the chickens. At this time, I would provide live chicken noises, calm when the foxes first arrive and frantic when the foxes start gathering them. I feel the addition of live chicken noises will amuse the audience a lot and provide a much more involved atmosphere. Also, using live sound effects is lot less risky than using recorded audio as the files may corrupt or the hardware may be unreliable. This scene then transitions into, "A Surprise For Mrs Fox."

After, "A Surprise For Mrs Fox," is "Bunce's Duck House." We decided that this scene would be exactly the same as, "Boggis' Chicken House Raid," but it would be sped up. While in the first raid the whole process is longed out to illustrate the foxes actually jumping over fences and bushes, this time the same level of descriptive action isn't need; this also furthers the narrative.

The part we spent the majority of our lesson doing was the final raid: "Bean's Cider Cellar Raid." The basic scene outline that we have so far goes like this:

• Mr Fox (Charlie) and Fox Cub (James) decide that they must raid Bean's cider cellar for drinks to go with their feast.
• In their travels, they meet Rabbit (Me), Mole (Rob), and Badger (Ollie) and all offer to help!
• They continue sneaking to the cider cellar and they all jump up, individually, to the cellar. They all look up at the countless amount of jars in awe.
• They sneak around in formation (pictured right) in order to find the best cider bottle in the entire cellar!
• They get caught by Rat (Lorna). She queries their presence.
• Mr Fox threatens Rat and she runs away.

This is all we have for now.

For, "Boggis' Chicken House Raid," Lorna has painted some chickens which will be very effective props. Also, Ollie has written up all of his narration for the scenes we went through in this lesson.

Triple - Historical Context - Blog 1 (Greek Research) - 19/11/15

Today we started our unit on Historical Context! We started the lesson by deciding who would research which era of theatre; I chose Greek Theatre. Below is my research:

Greek Theatre

Venue:

Almost every Greek city had a theatre; they were called Amphitheatres. The amphitheatres were built on hillsides in the open air and could often hold more than 18,000 spectators. The amphitheatres were open air and built in a semi-circular shape with rows of tiered stone seating around it. The shape of the amphitheatres gave everyone in the audience excellent viewing and also meant they could hear the actors well too. In the centre of the theatre was a circular dancing floor (orchestra), with an altar for sacrifices dedicated to Dionysus. The stage was a raised area within this circle.

Actors:

All the actors were men. They wore large masks that exaggerated facial features and emotions. The mouth hole was large to help amplify the voices. Greek plays were either comedies or tragedies. Comedies tended to be about current and everyday life, whereas tragedies were often about the past. Actors in tragedy roles wore dark colours and boots to elevate them above the other actors. Actors in comedic roles wore bright colours and light thin sole shoes called a sock. The Greeks enjoyed singing and dancing. Plays were part of many religious festivals. The chorus consisted of a group of 12-15 people.The cast of a Greek play in the Dionysia was comprised of amateurs, not professionals (all male).
Ancient Greek actors had to gesture grandly so that the entire audience could see and hear the story.

Some of the costume they wore featured:

• Chiton (robe or tunic)
• Chlaina/himation (overgarment)
• Chlamys (short cloak)
• Cothurnus (short lace-up boots)
• Peplos (cloak)

History

Greek tragedy as we know it was created in Athens around the time of 532 BC; Thespis was the earliest recorded actor. Being a winner of the first theatrical contest held at Athens, he was the exarchon, or leader of the dithyrambs performed in and around Attica, especially at the rural Dionysia. By Thespis' time the dithyramb had evolved far away from its cult roots. Under the influence of heroic epic, Doric choral lyric and the innovations of the poet Arion, it had become a narrative, ballad-like genre. Because of these, Thespis is often called the "Father of Tragedy"

Scenic elements

There were several scenic elements commonly used in Greek theatre:

• A crane that gave the impression of a flying actor

• A wheeled platform often used to bring dead characters into view for the audience

• Pictures hung to create scenery

• More complex pictures built into the second-level scene (3rd level from ground)

• Phallic props were used for satyr plays, symbolizing fertility in honour of Dionysus

Single - Contemporary Theatre Unit (FSN) - Blog 23 - 19/11/15

Today, we experimented with the our roles in Flint Street and switched roles with other people. We did this to see how someone else played our roles and decide if we'd play our characters the same way they did. Below is the temporary cast list of that lesson:

Mary's Mum: Katya
Gabriel's Mum: Cel
Wise Gold's Mum: Rob
Shepherd's Mum: Lorna
Angel's Mum: Hope
Innkeeper's Dad: Ollie K
Herod's Dad: Ollie M
Star's Dad: James
Wise Frankincense's Dad: Charlie
Ass' Dad: Lewis (Me)
Narrator's Dad: Ashley (he had to join in as Rhiannon wasn't in the lesson)

I feel that James played Star very well but there are some things that he did which I wouldn't do myself. He didn't add any accent at all which I feel gives a great deal more character to the any role. When everyone became conspicuous of Uncle Ted, I feel that James wasn't the best at feeling nervous. Although, when he was talking about "quantum association," I feel he put a lot of emphasis and passion into it, just as Uncle Ted would.

When I played Ass' Dad, as opposed to Charlie's addition of an Irish accent, I gave him an Australian accent. I feel this was added an equal amount of variety to the character as an Irish accent but an Australian accent would something an audience may find more comical, especially matched with Ass' Dad's unique personality.

Double - Storytelling - Blog 10 (Snow Queen) - 18/11/15

Today, we moved onto a new section of our Story Telling Unit! We had to devise a brand new piece based on any story we wanted, original or conventional.

We started by listing techniques and methods of storytelling. These were our ideas:

• Storyteller - tone/pitch/volume/pace of voice - recorded narration - contrasting speeds
• Sound effects - soundscape
• Dialogue - monologues - choral speaking
• Props
• Movement - dance - physical theatre
• Multimedia - projection - music
• Placards
• Thought tracking

I felt that a an original story would be good but this would require a great deal of brainstorming, so we decided to go with a pre-made conventional story.

When it came to deciding what story we would choose, we had to bare one thing in mind: our audience. We spoke about what age audience we would perform to and what stories would be suitable for them. We were first going to perform to a slightly younger audience but we felt that it would be best to perform to an audience of people of our age as it would be easier to think what they'd want to see. We thought of many different ideas such as Harry Potter (very recent series of books tailored for people of our age), Winnie the Pooh (Less recent and less tailored to our age range but would bring back memories) and Frozen (a very recent children's film which is popular with our age range too, due to catchy songs and elements of humour). After much discussion, we ended on the decision of Frozen but with a twist! We went for the story from which the film Frozen was initially inspired by, "The Snow Queen."

The outlook we wanted this piece was to portray something very dark and twisted and fully expressing the bad. We started by reading part 1 of 7 of The Snow Queen and we decided to think about who would narrate each parts as narration is a key part of story telling. We thought it would be logical to have one person narrate each scene as we had the right amount of people! We started our first scene vaguely with Lorna narrating. Our rule was that whoever was narrating would devise their scene. This was Lorna's time to shine!

All we got done so far was assign our starting positions (the all loosely positioned, spread out and facing different directions), and decided some movement. We make two small jagged movements, hunching over on the word, "*****", and shooting up with one large jagged movement on the word, "Magnified."

For homework, we will all devise each of the parts assigned to us e.g. I have to devise scene 3.

Single - Contemporary Theatre Unit (FSN) - Blog 22 - 17/11/15

Some of our group's pictures

Today, we created our paintings which would be hung up as part of our set. These paintings are reffered to oftenly in the script so these were essential to the performance.

My painting

I painted a rocket flying through space with Uncle Ted as the driver. My character sees his Uncle Ted as an idol and includes him in as many aspects of his life as possible; the creation of these pictures is no exception. I labelled the rocket with, "Uncle Ted," as Marcus is very proud of his uncle so he wants everyone to know about him and that he's in the rocket. The painting included a lot of stars which were all painted like, "proper stars." There were also appearance's of planets too featuring Earth, Mars and Pluto.

Triple - Devised Unit (LR) - Blog 20 - 16/11/15

Today in Triple, we performed a full walkthrough of the entire piece with lighting, sound and props. We were given constructive feedback from Mr Webb at the end for us to build upon for later rehearsals. It's always useful to receive constructive feedback as it helps an actor identify small or big things that limit their performance and how they can further increase their effectiveness to entertain and inform the audience.

Double - Children's Theatre (FMF) - Blog 10 - 16/11/15

Today in double we produced a checklist on things that we wanted to get done. This checklist included:
- Sorting out the race scene 
- Sorting out the shooting scene 
- Devising the Great Feast 

The outline for The Race: 
- the Farmers prepare for the race, the Foxes get into sprint start position, narrator describes what's happening 
- the narrator announces the start, the Farmers run on the spot in slow motion, the Foxes run away from the Farmers in slow motion, towards the audience 
- the Farmers drown in sorrow and anger as the foxes escape into the audience - the next scene (We'll never let him go) starts 

We decided to have the Foxes and Farmers together in this scene to fully immerse the audience in a world where the outcome of "The Race" is very important, this was a perfect opportunity to add levels into the performance to accentuate the difference in status between the Farmers and the Foxes. The stretching and preparing for the race also highlights the seriousness of the race but also adds comic effect with Boggis not being able to touch his toes and Bunce struggling to get on the table (Digger). The slow motion not only shows a range of movement styles but also adds comic effect. 

The outline for The Shooting: 
- Farmers hide in audience, drums kick in, Mr Fox comes out. 
- Drums stop, Boggis steps in Fox poo, drums recommence. 
- Drums stop, Mr Fox smells something, he runs to Downstage Right, Farmers move to Stage left 
- Farmers get into position, open fire, Mr Fox escapes after multiple acrobatics minus his tail. 
- Boggis and Bunce run for the tail. Bean confiscates it, they conclude to dig the Foxes out. 

We made this scene comical yet serious as although there are silly, childish gags, there are still intimidating rolls, leaps and lunges performed by the Farmers.

For the Great Feast, my initial thoughts were having all of the animals not involved in the cider cellar raid in the underground refuge with a massive feast prepared; this feast was only missing the drinks which would be brought later. There would be the fox cub pining for their father, a very hungry Rabbit and an impatient Mole both wanting to start the feast and Mrs Fox restricting them access until her husband returns. Mr Fox would then enter with cider for all and everyone would be happy!

Upon discussion with Ollie, we decided on a new idea:
- In the scene before (Cider Cellar Raid), there would be Mr Fox, a Fox Cub, Badger, Mole and Rabbit.
- When "The Woman" enters (which we would do abstractly), Mole and Rabbit (Rob/Me) would flee away cowardly.
- The Great Feast would then start with Mole and Rabbit running into the refuge, out of breath, where Mrs Fox had prepared a feast and she queries us on why we abandoned the others.
- Halfway through Mole and Rabbit getting an earful, everyone returns with the cider and they merrily enjoy the feast.

When we told the rest of the group our idea, there was a lot of discussion and ideas but our final outline is now very different to both our previous ideas:
- The scene starts with everyone flying around the stage with dishes and trays, weaving in and out of each other (Round-by-through technique which we learnt in our Frantic Assembly workshop). 
- Once all the trays and plates are placed on our grand table (or the floor depending on what each site has to offer), Mr Fox would propose a toast mocking the Farmers!
- We would then break out into a song (not decided yet) and finish the production on a high!

I feel we got a lot done this lesson and the utilisation of a checklist improved our outlook on what to do a great deal more! For next lesson I will have updated the scripts and provided everyone with new ones. I believe that next lesson we should try devising Boggis' Chicken House Raid and, perhaps Bunce's Duck House Raid as they are both similiar.

Double - Children's Theatre (FMF) - Blog 9 - 13/11/15

Today, we spent the time catching up with what we had already done so we performed everything that we had. This consisted of forum theatre to perfect our performance.

When performing the shooting scene, whilst we were waiting for Charlie to finish discussing a Mr Fox related issue, Rob was tapping on the windowsill which created a very intense and dramatic drumming pattern. James and I spotted this and thought this would be very effective to add into the scene. The children would find this comical because as the situation gets more intense and Mr Fox smells something, the drums then stop and he shouts, "Fried Chicken!!!" 

As we progressed further into what we had already done, the rest of the group began to get confused on the order of the scenes despite us going over it the rehearsals prior. Some people said that, "The Terrible Shovels," "The Terrible Tractors," and "The Race" scenes are all in the same scene (which was correct), but others thought they were separated by a Farmer Scene. I relieved the confusion by spontaneously devising a way to connect the three. 

My Plan: 
- The Foxes go to sleep at the end of the Terrible Shovels part on Stage Right. 
- The farmers enter stage left bearing shovels looking exhausted 
- They think "upgrades" would be a better idea (The Terrible Tractors) 
- The Foxes awaken to these loud noises and start to dig away from them (The Race) -The Farmers exit and the fixes take refuge as The Farmers have stopped... for now! 

 During the race we can include the idea that Lorna mentioned on her blog about performing The Race in slow motion with "Chariots of Fire" playing in the background

Single - Contemporary Theatre Unit (FSN) - Blog 21 - 13/11/15

Today in Single we ran through the adult scene and tried to perfect the breakdown of Sarah Bennett part. As I only have a few lines in this scene I sat out after my lines with Ashley, the assistant director, and discussed improvements. After two run throughs of this scene, we decided that instead of constantly stopping and starting the breakdown part, everyone should sit down and, line by line, write down what they are doing. This led to a much more successful scene. 

I also changed how I enter the adult scene. Whilst before I entered from Upstage Right, I realised that it looks weird as it looks like I've appeared out of thin air. So now I enter from Downstage Right so it's obvious that I enter the classroom (stage).

Double - Storytelling - Blog 9 (Greek Mythology) - 11/11/15

Today in Double we finished editing our stop-motion video. After editing this I wrote a script for my presentation within the piece and timed it with the speed of the video. While I present the stop-motion video which would be projected in the background of the piece, Charlie and Lorna perform still images for every scene in the background. I spent some time helping them by assigning which points they should change to the next still image and how they can smoothly transition between them.

After finishing devising and rehearsing, we finally performed the piece! When performing I feel our stop-motion video was very effective at telling the story and our still images were eye catching and included Round-By-Through but weren't distracting the audience from the main part of the performance; the video. The performance would've been better if I had timed my speech better with the stop motion video and made sure I knew what to say properly beforehand; despite having the script in my hands, I misread it and mixed up two names. Although this may have confused our audience, I kept focused and stuck to the names I used instead of back tracking; this wouldn't have displayed professionalism.

Single - Contemporary Theatre Unit (FSN) - Character Profiles - 11/11/15

Biography

Name: Marcus Pou

Age: Turned 7 last week

Date of Birth: 12/09/08

Family: Mum (Kate Pou), "Dad" (Jacques Pou)

Likes: Stars, Space, Jupiter (His favourite planet), Pizza, Playtime, Uncle Ted, Cats

Dislikes: Bradley, Birds, People who don't like Science, Carrots, People who bully him for being ginger

Thoughts on other characters

Jenny (Mary): Really bossy, fancies Ryan

Bradley (Innkeeper): Very scary, tall, quite bossy

Ashley (Gabriel): Pretty but scary

Zoie (Shepherd): Annoying, mean, but she's good because she's mean to Bradley

Poppy (Angel): Short, nice, always looks sad
Jess (Wise Gold): Smelly, mean, wrong, doesn't know who eats the carrots

Adrian (Wise Frankincense): Can't talk properly, really quiet

Ryan (Herod/Joseph): Really weird, talks to himself a lot

Jimmy (Ass): Very loud, wets himself, I think he's in the special unit

Tim (Narrator): Doesn't know his words in the nativity, everyone likes him

Analysis of language in the script:
- Obsessive: "My Uncle Ted works for NASA"
- Interested: "They've got a Jesus. What are you?"
- Factual: "And this right... this is Sirius"
- Scared of Bradley: "Bradley-y? Bradley-y? Are you-? Argh!"
- Considerate: "For the nativity. So he dun't get knocked"
- Obedient: "Miss Horrocks said"
- Easily panicked: "(In meltdown) Are y'comin...? Are we goin'...?"
- Flustered speech: "What it is, right, it looks like a stick an' what that is, right, that's when things, yeah, that might eat them"
- Excited: "My Uncle Ted's coming tomorrow"
- Argumentative: "Isn't. Isn't. Isn't."
- Bossy: "S'not allowed in there. Store cupboard's Mrs Horrocks' special place"
- Scared of an audience: "ah, I would go in, but we have to be back now"
- Respectful of the rules: "you said 'bugger off.' Mizz Horrocks's gone mad."
- Wants to stay in high status: "Yeah I er-think I'll let you borrow it."
- Serious (When it comes to stars): "(Suddenly deadly serious) He knows all about stars."

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Biography

Name: Ted Nichols

Age: 27

Date of Birth: 27/06/88

Occupation: Cleaner for NASA

Likes: Stars, Big Bang Theory, Science, Spaghetti and meatballs, Astronauts, Nebula

Dislikes: Marcus' "Dad", Bleach, Detergent, Mops, The security guards near the astronauts locker room.

Backstory

• Ted attended Hope University whilst he was 20 (2008).
• He went to a party where he met Kate Glym and they got on really well which led to a drunken one night stand; Ted had gotten Kate pregnant and neither of them knew.
• Ted failed his degree in Physics which depresses him and prevents him from taking his next step towards becoming an astronaut; his childhood dream.
• Following this, his fear of failure made him not want to retake his degree, he pursued a new career with NASA: Cleaning.
• He moved to America to become a cleaner at NASA HQ.
• He found Kate in his mutual friends on Facebook and got back in touch with her; they later (2012) arranged to meet again whilst Ted meets family back in England.
• When they meet she reveals Marcus, whom she is certain she conceived with her old boyfriend, now husband, who also went to HU, Jacques Pou; this was shortly after Ted and Kate's one night stand.
• Ted noticed the similarities between himself and Marcus and was convinced it was his child but didn't vocalise this. He spent a lot of time with Marcus those few days and told him a lot of facts about science.
• After leaving for home in America, he sends gifts to Marcus such as his infamous "Wallchart" featuring Sirius. The good connection between Marcus and Ted leads Kate to refer to him as Uncle Ted.
• Marcus' image of Ted has always been, "Uncle Ted who works for NASA." He may assume he's an astronaut but he doesn't know the dark reality of Ted's career as a janitor.

Analysis of language used in the script

- Enthusiastic: "Wasn't that brilliant?"

- Fearful: "Is he here?"

- Intelligent: "His mother and I went to Hope University together!"

- Nervous: "Ted. "Uncle". Well he calls me Uncle."

- Evasive: "Anyway..."

- Proud: " He's very bright."

- Bad with words: (Mary's Mum) "Before she got-" (Uncle Ted) "-pregant..."