Triple - Special Subject Investigation - Blog 1 (Proposal) - 30/05/16

Today is the day that I make my proposal for our Special Subject investigation. I made a small mindmap in preparation for my proposal. On this mindmap, I included areas which I could base my proposal around such as Practitioners, Playwrights and Theatre Styles.

When deciding, I became very interested in the Practitioners section of my mind map and after consideration of my other ideas, I decided to focus solely on practitioners. I was first going to base my entire unit on Bertolt Brecht alone as I felt very confident with him. He was the first practitioner I had ever covered and I'm very familiar with his techniques and motives. However, I felt that this would restrict what I could write about. Based on this thought, I've decided to include two practitioners in my investigation as I felt that this gives me plenty to write about but not an overload to do as I would have if I involved many practitioners. The second practitioner I decided to go with is Antoine Artaud. This is because we are basing a lot of our work in Single and Double on his conventions and he is one of my favourite practitioners alongside Brecht. Additionally, I am going to see, "People, Places and Things," which is a very Artaudian play. I can use any extra knowledge I gain from this production in my work.

Below is my proposal for my investigation title and my justification:

Double - Dr Faustus - Blog 8 - 27/05/16

Today, we worked on our sins section and Ollie and I continued blocking movement between Faustus and Mephistopheles.

We began by collating together our ideas we researched for the sins scenes we hadn't done yet. This included Lust, Greed and Envy. We were asked to find some music which we felt would go well with these scenes and we eventually chose Rob's Lust song, Ollie's Envy song and my Greed song. Below are the songs we have for every sin:

SLOTH & GLUTTONY - 3:14 Every Night (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lfpxuJbVaBA)
PRIDE - Fashion Show - Fashion Songs 4 London Fashion Week Deep House Electronic Fast Music (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CSWk-IIc9Yc)
WRATH - Emotions Series - Anger Vol. 2 | Position Music | Most Epic Angry Dark Music Mix (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nHRqTSgKJGg)
LUST - Express by Christina Augilera (Instrumental) (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y3oz7ENqFz8)4
GREED - Ode To Greed (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ul0YbD1AIeE)
ENVY - Message Man by Twenty One Pilots (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hczh8zxVDTc)

After this, the others went to the other room to stage some more of the sins scene and record the narration for Lust. They wanted to do this as they knew when performing the scene, they would be worn out, not to mention the block paragraph which Lorna and Rhiannon need to speak; this way, they can focus solely on their movement. Also, having this recorded voiceover of sexual noises and moans displays great use of Theatre of Cruelty. Artaud would use methods such as this to fully entrance his audience into the performance.

Meanwhile, Ollie and I continued going over the scenes between Faustus and Mephistopheles. I feel like I have finally recognised my characters motives for each scene which helped me a lot when performing today. I was confident with my ability to perform my character in a range of different motives such as smug, angry, jealous and compassionate. I feel this gives Mephistopheles a lot of depth as a character and labels him more than just one of Lucifer's minions.

Single - Contemporary Theatre Unit (1984) - Blog 13 - 27/05/16

Today we restaged everything we have so far as a lot of it contrasted with our new idea of having the book club.

Last lesson, we arranged a large chunk of the storyline into different layers but we realised what we already had staged contrasted with our layers system as characters from different layers would interact with each other. This completely ruins the need for layers.

We used the idea of chairs in a semi circle to show which scenes involved the book club.

Next lesson, we will continue to stage more of the script.

Single - Contemporary Theatre Unit (1984) - Blog 12 - 26/05/16

Today we continued to collate ideas on 1984 and decide what is real.

Below is the work we got done:

Double - F(l)ight - Blog 3 - 25/05/16

Today, we began properly staging some movement for our Fight or Flight piece. We started to build up which relationships we want to express and what route we want to take our piece.

We began the lesson watching a video James, Rob and I found which features a lot of combative physical theatre. The video was the music video for Try by P!nk (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yTCDVfMz15M). This video gave us a lot of inspiration for movement and we will probably use similar techniques in our performance. We also watched a few videos of adverts for equality which is a topic which we feel confident about basing our piece about. The way we linked this to the stimulus is thought of fighting against discrimination or running away from an issue staring us in the face (flight). Below are the adverts we watched:

• Respect - TV Commercial 60 Seconds: (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wjBfU-bfGII)
• "The Invisible Discriminator" - Stop. Think. Respect. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MvTyI41PvTk)

We also took note of which songs we thought would work well to create physical theatre movement to. Below are the tracks we found:

• Sound of Silence - Disturbed
• Down With The Sickness - Disturbed
• Try - P!nk
• Faint - Linkin Park
• Numb (Opening) - Linkin Park
• Dark Necessities (Opening) - Red Hot Chilli Peppers

We then started on an opening to our piece whilst keeping the theme of Discrimination in mind. We used the intro to Dark Necessities by RHCP for our introduction. Below is our movement we came up with:

• James is laying in the centre face down and the rest of us are laying around him. After each beat of the music, we, in canon, grasp the air above us, slide away from James and turn so we are kneeled by him.
• Once everyone has rise, we all slide forward in the same position, Ollie and I, keep control of his legs and the others pull him up so he rises like a pencil.
• Ollie and I grab underneath his arms whilst Charlie and Rob kneel down opposite each other so their legs are steps for James to walk on. Mean while, Lorna and Rhiannon stand in front of Rob and Charlie.
• Ollie and I support James so he can step up onto Rob and Charlie's legs. He reaches over Lorna and Rhiannon but they push him back without looking. James then falls back and Ollie and I catch his top half while Charlie and Rob catch his legs.

Below is the video for this scene:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=byrjrxdtqXs

We then got into groups (James, Charlie/Rob, Ollie, Rhiannon/Lorna, Lewis), created a relationship between each other and devised a physical theatre/dance section together.

Lorna and I wanted ours to be a boyfriend and girlfriend relationship where the male is being abused by the female. We chose this because it's usually an unspoken version of domestic abuse and we felt it doesn't get enough coverage. We haven't been set on a song yet but we like the sounds of Because Of You by Kelly Clarkson and Love The Way You Lie Part II by Rhianna due to they're linking lyrics and they're variety in dynamics.

Below is the movement we have so far:

• I start behind Lorna and stroke her face but she shrugs me off. I then hold her waist and she did a head roll into walking away.
• I walk towards her but she raises a hand, I then try again then she crosses her arms at head level and turns towards me.
• She turns away and I attempt to embrace her but she rolls pass me (Round-By-Through - Frantic Assembly) and we end up back to back.
• I lean backwards and she holds me up with her body (Weight Distribution - DV8). She then flicks we off, I turn and she kicks me.

Next lesson, we will work on completing our dance section.

Single - Contemporary Theatre Unit (1984) - Blog 11 - 24/05/16

Today we continued on with the script of 1984 and went on to study what is reality and what is fantasy.

We continued on from where we were last time where O'Brien appears for the first time. For the section where Martin describes a café, we wanted to use our bodies and props to change the environment. We were going to simply move our chairs and sit in a café style seating arrangement but Charlie suggested we use a physical theatre technique which DV8 used in their "Can We Talk About This?" video. In this video, Ann Cryer stands on one leg, crosses it and squats down to make it look like she is seated; her fellow actor holds her body weight with one hand and keeps her balanced. We decided to try it out and it worked perfectly!

For when the lights go out, we all, whilst saying our lines, walk to hide behind the curtains. This meant when the lights come back up, it would only be left with Winston and O'Brien. This creates the illusion of what is real and what isn't.

After this, we gathered and discussed what is real and what isn't. There was discussion on who Julia was, whether she was in alliance with Winston or if she was an agent of Big Brother, and whether she truly betrayed Winston or if O'Brien made it up.

We then drew our attention to the idea of the beginning being a history lesson/book club and Host is some sort of leader and they're looking at the novel of 1984. This links to some of the lines at the beginning such as "I had a feeling while I was reading it," and "This is a text which..." This led onto the discussion of whether they're regular people of 1949 (when the novel was written) reading the novel of 1984 or whether they're people within the novel of 1984 who are reading Winston's novel.

Next lesson, we will continue to work through the script some more.

Double - Dr Faustus - Blog 7 - 23/05/16

Today, we began blocking Act 2 leading up to the sins scene.

Although this section was entirely Faustus and Meph, everyone got involved with constructive criticism and great ideas for staging. What's great about this section for Meph is it shows a diverse range of emotions shown by the character. It shows his jealousy when Faustus throws away his opportunity at heaven, his anger at Faustus when he underestimates the pain and torture of hell, and his playful teasing when Faustus demands answers to questions which Meph is forbidden to give. This allows me to vary my positioning, stance, tone of voice and pace of speech.

Rob suggested that for this section of Act 2, we should have a small stage block for Ollie and I to stand on at appropriate to show power and dominance. For example, when Meph shows Faustus the wonders of the universe, we stand together on the block and overlook the wonders. We also use it when the Good and Evil angel come into play. Faustus' attention is drawn to the angels and Meph steps onto the block, when Faustus turns to speak to Meph, he has already moved and is looking down on Faustus.

After this, Ollie and I went through our lines whist the rest of the group finished devising the Wrath scene.

We were also asked to find some music for the remaining three sins. Rob and I were asked to find music for greed and below is the music I found:

• Ode to Greed (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2AjKyHFF48)
• Corporate Greed (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-8xjzXXwPE)

Double - Dr Faustus - Research (Artaud) - 22/06/16

(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antonin_Artaud)

Antoine Marie Joseph Artaud, better known as Antonine Artaud (4 September 1896 – 4 March 1948), was a French dramatist, poet, essayist, actor, and theatre director, widely recognized as one of the major figures of twentieth-century theatre and the European avant-garde.

Artaud believed that theatre should be a force for the liberation of the human subconscious and revelation of man to himself. He called for "communion between actor and audience in a magic exorcism; gestures, sounds, unusual scenery, and lighting combine to form a language, superior to words, that can be used to subvert thought and logic and to shock the spectator into seeing the baseness of his world."

(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theatre_of_Cruelty)

The Theatre of Cruelty is a form of theatre developed by avant-garde playwright, actor, essayist, and theorist, Antonin Artaud, in The Theatre and its Double. Originally a member of the surrealist movement, Artaud eventually began to develop his own theatrical theories. The Theatre of Cruelty can be seen as break with traditional Western theatre, and a means by which artists assault the senses of the audience, and allow them to feel the unexpressed emotions of the subconscious. While Artaud was only able to produce one play in his lifetime that reflected the tenets of the Theatre of Cruelty, the works of many theatre artists reflect his theories. These artists include Jean Genet, Jerzy Grotowski, and Peter Brook.

From looking at this research I feel we can use a lot of "Theatre of Cruelty" techniques in our Dr Faustus play such as gestures, sounds and unusual lighting. I will continue to refer to this throughout my future blog posts

Double - Dr Faustus - Blog 6 - 20/05/16

Today we decided to start from the beginning of the entire play and work through giving relevant notes when necessary.

We began with Ollie's opening monologue which he performed extremely well. To me, this opening monologue really connects his character to the audience and opens the play very nicely. The only issue I found with it was that he sometimes spoke very quickly which slurred his speech slightly. This wouldn't be too big of a deal in other areas of the play but the opening monologue is the first glimpse the audience has at Faustus and details his craving for knowledge and power. Besides this, Ollie's monologue was great with appropriate pauses, pace and tone.

When it came to Faustus and Murdock, Lorna and Ollie bounced off each other so well. They both clearly knew the intentions and motives of their characters and this was clear through their body language, tone of voice and interaction.

The scene between Valdes, Cornelius and Faustus was still quite static and boring just like last time and I feel this was because James and Rob weren't in the mindset of their characters. Where Valdes is quite compassionate and worries about how Faustus uses his new found power, James made the character seem very nonchalant. We gave notes on changing their tone of voice, their posture and positioning when standing and their interactions with each other and the conference phone they're using.

Next, we went on to the introduction of Mephistopheles and we planned to have a short physical theatre sequence to represent the pre-androgynous version of Meph. We also discussed having a sheet up on a wall for Ollie to draw a pentagram. This would be what summons the almighty Mephistopheles.

After being summoned, I will appear sitting on the desk rather nonchalantly. This displays the normality of this scenario to Meph and how used to dealing with mere mortals craving power. I have changed my direction entirely now to better suit my characters motives. Before I was playing the role too simplistic and sinister. This lacked depth and made my character seem like a minor pawn of Lucifer's minions. I have now given my character a comedic value and developed a narcissistic attitude.

We started discussing an idea for our introductory chorus part but nothing has been set in stone. Next lesson, we will start blocking our introduction properly.

Single - Contemporary Theatre Unit (1984) - Blog 11 - 20/05/16

Today, we started our work on the script of 1984. 

We started by quickly showing Charlie and Hope the prologue and catching them up with what they missed from last lesson. We then started performing the opening of the script.

Whilst Lorna reads her opening section, we all walk in unison to form a semi circle around the staging. This portrays the omniscient government of 1984; always watching the public and having total knowledge of their goings on.

When Father (James), Mother (Lorna), Child (Ollie M) and Man (Me) get involved, we added some round-by-through as famously used by Frantic Assembly. This shows the interconnection of the community of 1984.

We have chairs aligned on the sides of the staging ready for us to sit on when there are scenes between only a few characters to represent how the government are overwatching the public constantly.

Next lesson, we will continue going through the script and blocking more.

Single - Contemporary Theatre Unit (1984) - Blog 10 - 19/05/16

Today we continued and completed blocking our prologue for 1984!

Below is the rest of our movement:

• After placing Rhiannon from the second lift, we get into two parallel lines facing the front (LEFT: Charlie, Lewis, James, Ollie M, Rhiannon; RIGHT: Lorna, Ollie K, Rob, Hope, Kat)
• We look to the left then look to the right in four pulses, then we kneel down, tie our shoe laces, look up then slide backwards from kneeling. This section highlights the unity of the people of 1984 due to the lack of individuality.
• Next, Lorna and Charlie lift up the sheet, which was behind Rhiannon's head, and Kat runs into it in attempt to escape from the "utopia." Everyone else then runs into the sheet from all angles, hands first. Everyone then forms a single file line facing the audience and Charlie and Lorna join the end (ORDER: Kat, Ollie M, Rhiannon, Rob, Lewis, Hope, James, Ollie K, Charlie, Lorna)
• We each throw an arm our desperately in different directions to each other but then pull it back in with our other arm. This represents the desperation for freedom in 1984.
• We then bring our arms out, side-by-side, one-by-one as we the leaders get higher and higher then back down again.
• We them separate one by one into two parallel lines and we then turn to the back where Lorna is sitting on a seat (LEFT: Kat, Rhiannon, Lewis, James, Charlie; RIGHT: Ollie M, Rob, Hope, Ollie K)
• We snake around Lorna's chair in both lines then walk offstage.

Next lesson, we will begin working through the script.

Double - F(l)ight - Blog 2 - 18/05/16

In today's lesson, we conducted research on different physical theatre techniques from different theatre companies including the likes of DV8 and Frantic Assembly.

Me: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fr4J2ppLZZw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GzqVld5PD7k

Lorna: https:///www.youtube.com/watch?v=QjKCN6g-dx4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q4mXhW7TXQ8 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UBgiNgAdB3Q

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J6Vy8fb_LZQ 

Rob: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lnAPHHYbi-M

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0cuQ0797sfw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qLFFQ-hd9a8

Charlie: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0cuQ0797sfw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KhlShytmHLo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lgdw2J5IcVg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qcXTk1iGpeY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jTSG_vLOuo4 

Rhiannon: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4YC1jlzVzf0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XxhjVRiozK8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7dMB-iWrYp4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qTr1JbINkZk 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hI9t86hDNC0

Ollie: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=dck+tv+domestic+violence

Miss Cordell: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-rSJT4FuRww

Single - Contemporary Theatre Unit (1984) - Blog 9 - 17/05/16

This lesson, we began with vocal exercises and then went on to create our prologue for 1984!

We started with vocal exercises which would help us regulate our breath by breathing through our diaphragm, project our voices without straining our throats, improving our diction and articulation with tongue twisters

For our prologue, we wanted to keep a lot of stuff we had in our prologue for After Troy but making it relevant to 1984. Below is our movement we have so far:

• Rhiannon, Kat, Rob, Ollie K, Ollie M and Lewis are seated in the center looking up at propaganda projected onto the ceiling. This last for the entire soft start to Avenged Sevenfold's, "Nightmare."
• During the first explosive bar, Lorna, James, Charlie and Hope step in with a stomp from each corner (Lorna - Back Right, Charlie - Back Left, James - Front Left, Hope - Front Right.)
• During the second, us in the center huddle in to each other in fear of what will happen.
• For the third, Hope and James come toward Kat and Rhiannon and pull out a small sheet of material from behind them which represent their thoughts, Rhiannon's colour would represent bad thoughts whilst Kat's would represent good thoughts.
• The rest of us on the floor, including Kat, stand and back away in disgust of Rhiannon's bad thoughts. The "enforcers" back grab her but she runs to the back.
• Rhiannon attempts to run and jump over the enforcers but she grabs Charlie's shoulders and Lorna and I lift her legs up. We push her up, then she runs to the back again. She runs back in, Charlie lifts her shoulders above her head, Lorna grabs her core, James and Hope grab her legs and the rest of us are there for support.

This is all we have so far but we are hoping to complete this next lesson.

Double - Dr Faustus - Blog 5 - 16/05/16

Today we discussed how we would make our production of Dr Faustus different from any other production and got to work acting out more scenes.

We started off by reading through the script from the beginning and making notes on different parts and what we can do with them to make them different; this led on to us discussing the future of the play and whether we should stick to the storyline or adapt it.

Below are a few of our ideas linking to individual scenes and the whole play itself:

• For our scene between Faustus, Valdes and Cornelius, we were toying with the idea of having them call each other and them be at opposite ends of the traverse. We said we can use this throughout which best help show the transition of time after Faustus being missing for 24 years. We could have them calling Faustus on a conference phone at the beginning but at the end they can call him via Skype on a tablet/laptop.
• For the scenes involving the Good and Evil Angel's, Charlie thought it would be a great idea to have them throwing messages at Faustus from afar and they read the messages that they're throwing. However, Lorna thought it would be more clever for each of the angels to use miming puppetry in order to control Faustus. This allows them to control him physically as well as mentally. I then went on to suggest that as the two angels play the different sides of Faustus' conscience, they should be conjoined in some way, whether that be by interlocked hands, or locked arms whilst back-to-back.
• We then discussed changing how Faustus disappears and the sort of stuff he gets involved with. We mentioned that we could swap his obsession with necromancy with an obsession for drugs. This meant we could change his disappearance into a coma and he feels as if he's disappeared from everyone but only mentally not physically.
• With the coma idea in mind, we thought that if Faustus were to fall into his coma just as he summons Mephistopheles, he would come out of it as Valdes says, "Faustus? Is that you? You have been gone so long." Having the pair by his side at a hospital can really wow our audience with our change of direction. However, as Mephistopheles still appears later, it would show how Faustus' dreams in his coma have messed with his mental state and he can't distinguish reality from his fantasy. We agreed to take this another step forward and try to show the audience that Faustus' descent into hell isn't through being damned by Lucifer but by him losing the capacity to control his own thoughts and after spiralling into a madness of Mephistopheles and demons and infernos does he finally end it all and commit himself to hell.
• We also thought it would be cool to have a motif involving an hourglass which Meph will carry with him throughout his 24 years of serving Faustus. This symbolises Faustus' time continually running out.

We then started running different scenes involving Faustus, Murdock, Valdes, and Cornelius.

Single - Contemporary Theatre Unit (1984) - Blog 9 - 13/05/16 (ADD IMAGE!!!)

This lesson we completed our specialised skills audit which focused on Voice!

We began discussing what each heading meant and how we would link it to the questions our audit was asking us. The headings were Breath Control, Projection, Diction/Articulation, Effective use of pace and pauses, and Quality of tone. Below is my skills audit after our lesson:

Next lesson, we will start work on our prologue which we didn't get round to in this lesson.

Double - Dr Faustus - Blog 4 - 13/05/16

Today we made very major cast changes due to outside circumstances. Below is our new cast list:

Dr Faustus - Ollie

Mephistopheles - Lewis

Murdock - Lorna

Good Angel - Rhiannon

Evil Angel - Charlie

Cornelius - Rob

Valdes - James

Helen - Rhiannon

Scholar - Charlie

Lucifer - Voiceover

I am incredibly pleased with my new role and I'm glad I've been given a challenge to portray such a major role.

As for the role of Lucifer, we decided that we could have Lucifer's speech as voiceover of one our voices morphed and twisted to sound more sinister while we have a short physical theatre section to represent the physical being of Lucifer. I feel this would be much more effective at portraying Lucifer as more than a mortal being.

Following our cast changed, Ollie and I went off to work on the appearance of Mephistopheles whilst everyone else worked on more for the sins scene. Ollie and I wanted recognised that as we were main characters, we'd have less opportunities for physical theatre than chorus members would so we decided to include a lot of movement into our introduction of Mephistopheles. We felt the best way to add movement was to use Round-By-Through, created by Frantic assembly. As I learnt by my research, Round-By-Through is a string of movements which link the actors together which can represent emotions and intentions.

We started off by using simple movements such as Hymn Hands, also widely used by FA, then went on to use weight distribution and more rapid movements. This represents Meph's change in attitude after mention of Heaven and Hell. Below is a video of the scene which we completed:

Double - Dr Faustus - Frantic Assembly and DV8 Research

Frantic Assembly
(http://www.franticassembly.co.uk/what-is-frantic/)

"Frantic Assembly creates thrilling, energetic and unforgettable theatre. The company attracts new and young audiences with work that reflects contemporary culture. Vivid and dynamic, Frantic Assembly's unique physical style combines movement, design, music and text."

"Frantic Assembly is led by Artistic Director Scott Graham. Scott formed the company with Steven Hoggett and Vicki Middleton in 1994 and continues to collaborate with many of today's most inspiring artists. Having toured extensively throughout the UK, Frantic Assembly has built an enviable reputation as one of the most exciting companies in the country. The company has also performed, created and collaborated in 30 different countries across the world."


"In addition to its productions Frantic Assembly operates an extensive Learn & Train programme introducing 9,000 participants a year to the company's process of creating theatre, in a wide variety of settings. Frantic Assembly also delivers Ignition, an innovative vocational training project for young men, particularly targeting those with little previous experience of the arts."

(http://www.franticassembly.co.uk/media/media/downloads/Stockholm_Resource_Pack.pdf)

"We used a technique we call 'Round - By - Through.' Here the performers are given the task of making a short string of material that is inspired by the title words of the exercise. They can move round, by or through their partner. They might take turns to do a couple of moves
and set these. They should have around 12 moves."

"Once they had this and could repeat it smoothly we then set them various new tasks to adapt these moves. They were to squeeze the space out of the moves so that there was much more contact between them."

"We also looked at techniques that will allow you to lift your partner safely in a way that does not rely on strength. We went through exercises that helped identify when a lift was possible and how to safely integrate such moments into the string of material already set."

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gUqZPfGIX6U)

DV8

(http://theatreanddance.britishcouncil.org/artists-and-companies/profiles/dv8-physical-theatre/)

"DV8 Physical Theatre's work is about taking risks, aesthetically and physically, about breaking down the barriers between dance and theatre and, above all, communicating ideas and feelings clearly and unpretentiously."

"DV8 is motivated by artistic inspiration and creative need. These, rather than financial, organisational and touring demands, dictate the creation of new works. The company has fought successfully for funding to cover lengthy research and development periods in order to maintain rigorous artistic integrity and quality in each new project. The focus of the creative approach is on reinvesting dance with meaning, particularly where this has been lost through formalised techniques."

"DV8's work inherently questions the traditional aesthetics and forms which pervade both modern and classical dance, and attempts to push beyond the values they reflect to enable discussion of wider and more complex issues. DV8 (Dance and Video 8)'s strong commitment to film and video continues. This reflects its ongoing interest in how two primarily visual media can enhance one another and reach a crossover audience from within both forms."

"The company's reputation relies on pushing its own boundaries and on the constant re-examination of the roles and relationships of men and women in our society. Its policy insists on the importance of challenging our preconceptions of what dance can, and should, address."

Single - Contemporary Theatre Unit (1984) - Blog 8 - 12/05/16

Today in Single, we were given scenes to perform from our play 1984. We were all put in pairs, (Hope, Charlie/Lorna, Rob/Kat, Ollie M/Rhiannon, Ollie K/James, Lewis) and were given scenes to perform. While all the other pairs were given a scene between Winston and Julia, James and I were given a scene between O'Brien and Winston in Room 101.

For the character of O'Brien, I imagined him to be very much like Khashoggi from WWRY and a lot like the way he was played in our school musical last year. Khashoggi was played to be very sinister and cruel yet still being sarcastic, lighthearted and maintaining a sense of humour. When playing O'Brien, I included chuckling at Winston's remarks and pain and phrased some of my lines in a sarcastic manner. This reprises the humourous sarcasm and sinister ways of Khashoggi.

After performing these scenes, we were regrouped (Lorna/Ollie M, Charlie/Hope/Kat, Rhiannon/Ollie K, Rob/James, Lewis) and we were given a new scene. James and I were given a scene between Winston and Charrington where Charrington is offering Winston a place to stay. With Charrington being an older gentleman, I bent my knees and slouched my back more in order to give off the appearance of old age. I also tried to vary my tone of voice but this didn't go too well as I can't do an old person voice.

Next lesson, we will get round to doing our skills audit then possibly move towards blocking a prologue.

Double - F(l)ight - Blog 1 - 11/05/16

Today we began our first lesson on our new physical theatre unit!

We began with our stimulus and drew key themes and ideas. The stimulus we were given was F(l)ight. The themes we were drew from it are labelled below in our mind map:

Next lesson, we will research different physical theatre techniques from different theatre companies such as DV8 and Frantic Assembly.

Single - Contemporary Theatre Unit (1984) - Blog 7 - 10/05/16

Today was our first time reading our script of 1984 and understanding the full plot. I was very confused by the plot as it is much like, "Inception" where there is a series of stories within stories and alternate realities. This made it very difficult to track the story. I feel that this play would very challenging, especially with the constant change of setting; a way to overcome this is issue is by remaining very abstract with how the settings are represented. I feel we have great opportunities for using voiceover, especially with the voice of the telescreens.

Double - Dr Faustus - Blog 3 - 09/05/16

Today, we continued on from our work last lesson based around the seven deadly sins and also moved onto performing some of the script.

We basically left off from where we started at the end of Pride's section where James is being lifted by Lorna and I. At the beginning, we have James thrown down and he lands (safely) on his knees bent over. Lorna and I are knelt down either side of him. The violent throw down conveys the frustrated actions of Wrath and shows its jealousy of those above it. For this section, we were thinking of having Rob walk through the throw down and say the first line of wrath but we felt that wrath should be more violent and angry so we thought we should have a dance-like fight section. We decided to keep James, Lorna and I working together while Rob and Charlie work on something which would be happening behind us. Below is what my group have so far:

• We drop James down on the first explosive chord of the song. Lorna and I also fall to our knees either side of him.
• Leading into the next chord, Lorna and I roll to the side away from James and sit looking sinister.
• After the next chord, we act like we're being pulled up by ropes arm by arm (this shows how people are drawn in by Wrath and are triggered rather than it be so naturally occurring).
• On the next chord we should be pulled up by our inside arm and we tilt our heads towards James under our arms. During all of this James is looking around scared.
• Leading into the next chord, I roll out of my crouch and push James. James falls backwards and Lorna rolls towards him and throws him back up to standing.

This is all we got so far until we were asked to present what we had. For Charlie and Rob's section, they perform a fight scene using contact improvisation and stage combat. When watching, their scene was full of action and was the perfect length for the lead up to the speaking.

After watching our scenes, we decided to take a short break from the sins as we've been working on them for a while and we refreshed ourselves by just performing the first section of the play. This started from the beginning where Faustus monologues about wanting more and more power and continues up to where he signs the contract binding his soul to the devil. When performing the role of Valdes, I know that there are plenty things I need to improve on. I need to work on my tone of voice and emit the character from my tone, pitch, pace and volume. Also, when walking I tended to not face my audience very often. This is where I am not very used to performing with traverse staging and so it was rather difficult for me to keep a balance between each side of the audience. Also, where our stage is rather large and there aren't many actors on during that scene (only Ollie, Rob and I), we keep gathering in one area of the stage, mostly by where the desk would be, which leaves a massive empty space where the rest of the stage is.

Next time, we will work on this scene and perhaps go back to our seven deadly sins movement piece.

Single - Contemporary Theatre Unit (1984) - Blog 6 - 06/05/16

This lesson we decided to redirect and use 1984 as our contemporary text.

We wanted to produce another Prologue like we did with After Troy in order to give the audience a short glimpse into what the play is about. We did this by splitting off into two groups (James, Rhiannon, Kat, Ollie M, Rob/Ollie K, Charlie, Hope, Lorna, Lewis) and creating our own Prologues. We'd then perform them to each other and then work on combining the positives of each.

In my group, we discussed the themes brought across in 1984 and a main theme mentioned was the lack of freedom of the public and how controlling the new government were. We took note of how the governing body aren't shown to be physically controlling the public in 1984 and Charlie very much linked this to the current group of vigilante hackers, "Anonymous." This group have a great deal of power to do what they choose and they have shown this a frequent amount of times. We wanted to uses anonymous' image as the government in our piece and we were going to do so with a voiceover of one of their online speech videos. 

Below are our movements:

• The chairs are set out in a grid of 4x2, We are each sat on one with our legs on the chair across from it. Our heads are placed back to replicate sleeping.
• Once the speech begins, we sit up, one by one.
• We pull our opposite chairs towards us and use them as a sink and we brush our teeth.
• The people in the two center chairs, Lorna and Charlie, jump over their chairs in an attempt to escape from "Big Brother."
• Hope raises her hand and summons the people on the end chairs, Ollie K and I, and we walk to restrain the rebellious pair.
• The pair face each other and fall backwards into our arms, Charlie into mine, Lorna into Ollie's.
• Ollie drags Lorna behind the chairs and "cures" her while I hold Charlie facing the audience. Hope walks behind Charlie.
• Lorna and Ollie walk back on. Ollie stands to Charlie's left, I stand to his right, Lorna stands in front of him. He turns in an attempt to run, Ollie and I grab his arms and push him up from his chest, Lorna grabs his legs and rests them on her shoulders.
• Hope places one of the masks she's wearing (she's wearing two) on Charlie. This represents Charlie's transformation into another clone. Ollie, Lorna and I push Charlie up higher and Hope walks underneath him and fiddles with his stomach; this replicates a mechanic making changes to a car in order to "fix" it.
• Charlie gets lowered down and faces the audience to reveal his transformation to the audience as they can't see the mask until then. We all form a line to show our unity.

Next lesson, we will start looking at the script and get a better understanding of the plot of the play.

Double - Dr Faustus - Blog 2 - 06/05/16

Today, in our first hands on lesson with Dr Faustus, we took a look at the scene where Lucifer displays to Faustus the seven deadly sins.

In the original script, the seven deadly sins are each played by one person and they each have a section of speech. Sadly, we are restricted with our small cast size so we're incapable of doing this. Instead we decided to make use of all of our actors for every sin and have us split the lines equally. For every sin, we have the same person start and finish while everyone else has a line between. For example, I start with the first line of Sloth, then Charlie has a line, James has a line, Rob has a line, Lorna has a line, then I finish it off.

The only sin this doesn't apply to is Lust. We felt that with Faustus being a straight male, having male actors speak in the seductive tone of Lust wouldn't be as effective so we're having Lorna speak all of Lust. To compensate for her huge increase in lines, she doesn't speak during Greed.

Below is what we have devised for the scene so far: (Initials are used instead of names)

Sloth

• Piece starts with (INSERT SONG NAME HERE) and RA, JBC, CS, LC & LF lay in a heap of bodies opposite end of the traverse from OK. RD wonders the stage.
• Those on the floor inhale and exhale once very slowly and loudly. LF speaks (all speech is very slow and lazy; slurred words and sloppy gestures embody the movements of a sloth and personify the sin 'Sloth' perfectly.)
• CS crawls forward slightly slowly towards Faustus but gives up (shows the indolence of those who live in Sloth and their lack of shame in failure); all else on the floor crawl towards him. (The crawling shows the need for comfort; being slow applies the laziness of those consumed by Sloth). CS speaks.
• JBC crawls forward slightly slowly towards Faustus but gives up; all else on the floor crawl towards him. JBC speaks.
• RA crawls forward slightly slowly towards Faustus but gives up; all else on the floor crawl towards him. RA speaks.
• LC crawls forward slightly slowly towards Faustus but gives up; all else on the floor crawl towards him. LC speaks.
• LF crawls forward slightly slowly towards Faustus but gives up; all else on the floor crawl towards him. LF speaks.

Gluttony

• Music continues on from Sloth
• RD walks towards the bodies with a bucket of KFC. All on the floor look up in realisation and rush towards the bucket grabbing more than one piece of chicken each (the sudden rush demonstrates how animalistic those who are claimed by Gluttony are)
• The group disperse, aiming to protect their precious food (this portrays Gluttony's selfishness) one of us may be searching and clawing at the bucket left by RD (shows Gluttony's ultimate craving for more and more!)
• Each of us are at different levels to try to keep the chicken away from each other (more selfishness) RA is up high, LC is slouched, CS is bent down, JBC is crouched down, LF is on knees keeping low to the ground.
• CS moves to the center to speak (all speech will again be slurred but faster because the faster we finish our sentence, the quicker we can take another bite; we would speak with our mouths full to portray Gluttony's obnoxiousness)
• JBC moves to the center to speak.
• RA moves to the center to speak.
• LC moves to the center to speak.
• LF moves to the center to speak.
• CS moves to the center to speak.

Pride

• Music changes to (INSERT SONG NAME HERE); during the first 8 beats we move our chicken to the side and form a spaced out (too proud of themselves to care about being near others) group at the opposite end of the traverse to Faustus whilst facing him.
• After the first 8 beats, we all strike poses of self-pride and narcissism such as flexing biceps and styling hair or for Lorna checking out her own butt and miming putting lipstick on (these signature egotistical poses throw in the audience's face what Pride is all about)
• JBC steps forward to speak and walks, around 10 paces, towards Faustus as if he is walking down a catwalk, gesturing to audience as he does this and then to Faustus. He then walks back when the next person starts speaking (the whole theme of a catwalk shows off Pride's self-centered attitude and displays this to the audience clearly; all speak very loud, naturally paced and with an arrogant tone)
• RA steps forward to speak and walks, around 10 paces, towards Faustus as if he is walking down a catwalk, gesturing to audience as he does this and then to Faustus. He then walks back when the next person starts speaking
• LC steps forward to speak and walks, around 10 paces, towards Faustus as if she is walking down a catwalk, gesturing to audience as she does this and then to Faustus. She then walks back when the next person starts speaking
• LF steps forward to speak and walks, around 10 paces, towards Faustus as if he is walking down a catwalk, gesturing to audience as he does this and then to Faustus. He then walks back when the next person starts speaking
• CS steps forward to speak and walks, around 10 paces, towards Faustus as if he is walking down a catwalk, gesturing to audience as he does this and then to Faustus. He then walks back when the next person starts speaking
• JBC steps forward to speak and walks, around 10 paces, towards Faustus as if he is walking down a catwalk, gesturing to audience as he does this and then to Faustus.
• LC and LF lift JBC together, one leg each (this puts JBC higher than everyone else and the center of attention which is what Pride aspires to be; being lifted like this allows him to have hands free to pose with, this gets all eyes on Pride)

This was all we have so far but our intentions for our next sin, Wrath, was for James to be safely thrown down from the lift and Rob to come crashing through as the first speaker for Wrath. We also all agreed that Wrath should be much more physical and perhaps feature a movement section before any speaking.

With what we have so far, I feel it is very effective at embodying each sin as they all display their key characteristics. I feel for the next few sins we need to be a lot more physical as in Sloth we barely move at all.

Next lesson, we will continue with the seven deadly sins piece 

Single - Contemporary Theatre Unit (1984) - Blog 5 - 05/05/16

Today we discussed our future with After Troy and whether we were to continue with it as a piece. We worked on different scenes from After Troy in groups (Rhiannon, Lorna, Kat, Hope/Ollie K, Ollie M, Charlie, Rob, Lewis) while our tutor searched for an alternative text to perform.

The scene my group was given was a piece between Mester (Ollie K), Kratos (Rob), Talthybius (Me) and Agamemnon (Charlie). Ollie M helped by taking a directing role in the creation of our scene. We wanted to show our characters lost in the caves and used key facial expressions and gestures to detail this. When performing to our audience, this looked very effective and helped add depth to our environment. I also kept in mind my relationships with the other characters and whether they were masters (Agamemnon), peers, (Kratos) or threats (Mester).

After performing each group's piece, we gathered and heard an alternative for our contemporary play. The play 1984 was our option which was a prediction of the future in the eyes of those in the 40's about what life would be like in the year of 1984. Total eradication of individual thought and creativity is a huge theme in this alternate-future play. With the prospects of what we could do with it in mind and the opportunities for physical theatre and technical enhancements, we thought it was best to redirect our focus onto 1984. Luckily this doesn't make our research useless for After Troy as some of it (ruined underground stations/dark forests) can be reused for 1984.