Single - Devised Piece (CP) - Blog 10 - 26/01/16

Today we devised a brand new scene for our devised piece. This scene was to represent Hunter calling his relationship off with Clive. We decided before that we wanted to make this scene very physical as a large proportion of our scenes so far are very dialogue based. We decided to take a route which we wasn't obvious at first: Hymn Hands! Below is the outline for our scene:

• Clive and Hunter enter, Clive enter happy, Hunter enters sad. They each pick up the a chair from an end of the table and place it in front in the form of their respected emotions (E.g Clive would delicately place the chair while Hunter would chuck it about aggressively)
• The pair sit on their seats slightly apart. Clive moves his seat closer to Hunter but Hunter shuffles back away
• Clive places left hand on Hunter's right leg, Hunter moves it back to its original position
• Clive puts his left arm around Hunter's shoulders, Hunter moves it back to its original position
• Clive lifts his left hand with his right on to Hunter's right leg, Hunter moves it back to its original position
• Clive attempts to place his left arm around Hunter's shoulder again but Hunter stands before he gets there
• Clive stands and goes to hug Hunter but he rolls under Clive's arm (using Round-By-Through) and stands in front of the chairs
• Clive grabs Hunter's left hand and spins into his arms. Hunter pushes him out and sits back down, facing forward
• Clive sits facing forwards too, but with his head turned to Hunter. Hunter looks at Clive and shakes his head while Clive nods back desperately
• Clive places his right hand on Hunter's left shoulder, Hunter shifts his body away from him. Clive leans in for a kiss but Hunter covers his mouth with his hand
• Clive latches onto Hunter hugging but Hunter gets up and leaves
• Clive lunges towards him, trying to reach out, but its too late as he is already gone. Shanice enters during the lunge as she shares the feelings that Clive has
• They step back out of their lunge and hold their chests with crossed forearms. They then fall to the ground and pound the floor three times which represents their anger and frustration
• After the third pound, they roll left and act as if their arms are chained to the ground. They then break out of their chains and sit up to their left. They look around lost as they have nowhere to go
• They stand and stomp in anger, then mime pulling a rope from the right and Hunter appears. He walks past like a ghost, unaware of their presence and they reach out for him but can't get there
• Shanice flies off with him but Clive looks around as if he were lost then sits back in his seat and performs his monologue

Below is a video of the performance:

We decided on using the instrumental to the song, "Elastic Heart," by Sia as our backing music. We chose this song as the title pretty much summarises the past 8 years of Clive's life as his feelings and emotions have been toyed with, in his eyes, and he's always felt like a victim.

Ways to improve my performance:

• My movement with Hope needs to be in time with hers.
• My facial expressions need to be constant for each mood.
• My gestures such as nodding need to be more exaggerative in order to get them on camera.
• My tone of voice needs to be appropriate to my characters emotions at the time during my monologue (e.g. Sad when sad, angry when angry).
• Take time with my speech and speak louder.
• Articulate my speech as it becomes slurred.