Single - Contemporary Theatre Unit (1984) - Blog 20 - 30/06/17

Today, those whom needed to film any parts did what they needed to do whilst the rest of us blocked the Room 101 scenes. During this section I was given the roles of Torturer and Man In Uniform as we hadn't accounted for those characters. I took these roles as I was in the room at the time and my other character's weren't needed again.

We also ran our two physical theatre scenes, the prologue and the transformation into Room 101.

Double - F(l)ight - Blog 7 - 29/06/16

This lesson, we taught Ollie the ending we came up with last lesson, rehearsed all of our separate scenes and tried out our rewind ending idea.

When teaching Ollie our ending, we explained to him the significance of each movement and how these linked with our stimulus which helped him grasp a better understanding of our ending and therefore made him learn it quicker.

When it came to working out the rewind ending idea we needed to run our opening first! Our rewind idea was to have our opening repeated but in reverse order so that it shows that after resolving the issues in the therapy session scene, what happened before (the opening) never truly existed. After running the opening which helped keep it fresh in our minds, we worked out the reverse and performed it.

Finally, Lorna and I ran our scene together. We found a good version of our music (Space Bound by Eminem instrumental) on YouTube and rehearsed but found ourselves getting the opening hand movements wrong. But after further rehearsal and watching back our video of our movement, we got it sorted out.

Next lesson we will do a whole run through of everything and finally perform our F(l)ight piece. 

Single - Contemporary Theatre Unit (1984) - Blog 19 - 28/06/16

Today we ran every scene we have so far up to the second Charrington scene and sorted the issues we had. Below are the issues we had and how we resolved:

• When transforming the book club into the café, some of us were unsure as to whether we had to take our chairs off or not. We discussed and said the chairs don't need to be moved as it makes a lot of noise.
• When Rob enters the back room of Charrington's shop, we walk in at different intervals. We got confused as to when we have to walk in but we resolved this with discussion. Prior to this we discussed why Charrington chose to refer to the diary as a Keepsake Album and came to the conclusion that diaries were banned in 1984 so the word was considered taboo.
• During The Two Minutes Hate, we were unsure as to when we have to mute and what we say when Rob finishes his small speech.

Next lesson, we'll finally film any video's required and go over some of the scenes in Room 101.

Double - Doctor Faustus - Blog 14 - 27/06/16

Today, in Double, we adapted our physical theatre scenes to better fit the needs of our group, devised a scene for the learning of the dark arts with Valdes and Cornelius and ran through most of the first act.

At the beginning of the lesson, we discovered that Rhiannon would not be performing Faustus due to outside circumstances. We are unsure as to whom would take her role as Good Angel but we will discuss this next lesson. As for her roles in our physical theatre sections, we spent this lesson working out how to keep them as similar as possible whilst removing her from the scenes.

For the prologue, where Rob lifted her off to the side and she then interacted with Lorna, we've had James fill in her place. This means Charlie and Ollie's interaction needs to be adapted to not include James but this worked rather well. For the lift involving Rhiannon and Rob (now James and Rob), instead of Rob lifting James, he drags him off as this looks much less feminine as opposed to the previous lift. After running this scene twice, it works just as well as before.

For the sins section, a lot of it doesn't need changing as Sloth, Gluttony and Pride haven't got choreographed separate movements for each person. For the sins involving Rhiannon, we've changed the movement so that it better suits the size of the group. These changes have been very simple and haven't affected our pace too much. Also, there was the issue of having to change the narration of this scene as there was one less person to speak a line but Rhiannon is able to still record this so this is no longer an issue.

We then proceeded onto rehearsing the first act but as we came to different physical theatre sections, we would devise the movement or at least plan something. As we approached the scene where Faustus is taught the dark arts by Valdes and Cornelius we blocked some movement for this section:

• V and C enter with beers and energy drinks, they clink drinks with F then blackout.
• Lights up and the three are focused on the laptop where V is showing F some demonic necromancy related website then b/o
• Lights up and V and C are walk towards the partly drawn pentagrams on the flats and complete them with the star in the centre then b/o
• Lights up and V and C are lighting candles with F and hold them up and b/o
• Lights up and Lorna is under a black sheet on the floor and V and C attempt to show F how to "summon demons." F tries once and only an arm arises but then collapses back down to show his failure, F tries again and more progress is made but the same result occurs. F tries once more with the aid of V and C but the demon arises to it's knees but falls then b/o.

We feel this scene is great for showing the passage of time and the teachings which Valdes and Cornelius attempt to pass on to Faustus.

When it came to the apparition of Mephistopheles, we planned that as I appear, I'd be on my knees, surrounded by the chorus whom are performing pulsing arm movements to represent such as dark entity. Following Faustus' request for a form more familiar to the eye of man, the chorus would disperse leaving only me.

Next lesson, we will continue our method of running what we have and devise movement when we get to it.

Outside of lesson, I came up with an idea for my costume. As we're playing Faustus as a more of "rocky nerd" as opposed to the classic mature man, I decided to model my character after what Faustus wants to be which aids me in enticing Faustus into selling his soul. The costume I was considering was:

• Black Timberland boots
• Black skinny jeans
• Black longline top
• Black leather bomber jacket
• (Dark) red tie

The red tie is the small symbol of hell resembled in my costume. This is a very Brechtian way to represent my character through costume.

Next lesson, we will probably run through all of act one, work out the issues, resolve them and discuss act two.

Single - Contemporary Theatre Unit (1984) - Blog 18 - 23/06/16

Today we took a look at the end of the play as the scenes leading up to this are very based around just Winston and O'Brien. This featured the section between Winston, Julia and Waitress which transforms into book club where the 1984 enthusiasts cap off the story with a surreal thought.

Double - F(l)ight - Blog 6 - 22/06/16

Today, we finished the ending scene of our our F(l)ight piece. We began with deciding how we'd like to perform this scene and what we'd like to show. We wanted to include chair duets which is another physical theatre technique used widely by Frantic Assembly. We then went on to discuss how we wanted our story to end. Our initial idea was to show where the victims are now and how acts of abuse and discrimination have affected their later life. This was a very popular idea but we struggled to work out how we'd show this with chair duets. We then thought about showing how to mend the issues and the methods in which people use. This meant our chair duets worked really well as we could adapt this idea into a group therapy session kind of scenario. After much deliberation, we decided this was how we'd portray our ending.

We quickly laid an outline of what we'd want to show in this scene. We decided to show how the abuser has seen the error of their ways and tries to apologise to the victim but as the abuse they'd received has affected them so deeply, they aren't too accepting of their apologies. But once the victims see that their abusers really have changed, they react positively and give them a chance.

Below is the movement:

• We enter with chairs and place them in a circle facing inwards and sit. We sit opposite our partners in the circle (e.g. Lorna sits opposite me and James sits opposite Charlie). Rob doesn't bring a chair as he is the counsellor. 
• We perform one movement every beat for eight beats. This movement refers to whether our character is a victim or abuser. Lorna kicks forward aggressively, whilst I cowardly look over my shoulder.
• We then go round in the circle, starting with Charlie, and interact with the person to our left. Our interaction depends on who we are and who we're interacting with. If a victim interacts with an abuser they'll use a more gentle action like a reach for their shoulder while if an abuser interacts with a victim they act very violent such as raising a fist.
• When we get around the circle, we reverse the order and react to the action of the person to our right.
• After this, Rob lifts me up using puppetry, moves my hunched up arms to my sides to represent giving me confidence and moving me along. I then go behind the chair two spaces to my left. This is repeated with James and Rhiannon.
• Rob then stands up each abuser and moves them one seat to the right so they are infront of their own victim. They are then stood up again, one-by-one, and Rob attempts to rehabilitate them by hugging them and offering them his hand; after each abuser is helped they turn their chair and face it the same direction as their victim so they're both facing outside the circle. 
• Whilst he is helping each abuser, the other abusers are performing the same action as the victims whose seat they're in (e.g. Ollie now looks over his shoulder and holds him arm nervously like I did as he's in my chair).
• In cannon, we perform three sequence's of movement's:
• 1. The abuser holds the victim's shoulder but they get shrugged off, the abuser hugs the victim but gets shrugged off, the abuser pulls the victim's shoulder and they turn and face to the left whilst staying seated.
• 2. The abuser touches the victim's leg but gets pushed away, the abuser puts their arm around the victim's shoulders but get pulled off
• 3. The victim gets up and attempts to walk away but when they get too far away, they fall back and get caught by Rob who brings them back to their seat which the abuser had been turned facing them.
• Ollie and Rhiannon start and when they get to sequence 2, Charlie and James start at sequence 1, when Charlie and James get to sequence 2 and Ollie and Rhiannon get to sequence 3, Lorna and I start. 
• To finish, the abusers hold their hands out to their victims, palms facing them. The victims at first are apprehensive but then bring their hands out slowly and touch palms. The chairs are then taken off at the end of the song and Dark Necessities fades in and we perform the opening in reverse.

Next lesson, we will work out the reverse opening and show Ollie our counselling session scene.

Single - Contemporary Theatre Unit (1984) - Blog 17 - 21/06/16

Today, we ran through most of what we had completed so far and resolved any issues we had with the movement.

We had nothing to discuss or change about what we had besides the first scene between Charrington and Winston. We gave Charlie some notes on his characterisation which improved his portrayal of Charrington a lot. We also added a small piece of movement into the section where Winston goes into the storage room and passes out. Below is our movement:

• Rob walks towards the centre of the empty book club and then walks towards SR, James and I walk towards him slowly whilst singing, "Oranges and Lemons." He walks away and walks into Charlie and Kat doing the same but singing the song out of time, Hope and Lorna, and Ollie M do the same. The overlapping of the Rhyme will show the distortion of that current reality.
• Rob turns and passes out and we have a blackout just before I catch him as we feel it would look good if the audience don't see him hit the floor.
• I lower Rob down and James replaces his seat back into book club.

This scene was the only thing we changed and next lesson we will run the rest and work on the Room 101 section.

Double - Dr Faustus - Blog 13 - 20/06/16

Today we finally started getting on our feet and devising the prologue.

Below is our movement we came up with (The song we're using is, "Sencit Music - Devil Amongst Us - Epic Action Rock Dark Suspense Powerful"):

• We start off in a line behind Faustus in a chair. Charlie uses puppetry to force Faustus to create potions and study books. This represents Mephistopheles as Faustus' inner demon.
• Two bars after the beat intensifies, we in the line reach out and pull our hands back in twice to represent the lost souls in hell trying to escape.
• Rob and I drag off Lorna and Rhiannon off to the flats where they would draw half a pentagram on one side, swap sides, finish the pentagram and then walk back to the chair. James, Charlie and Ollie have a short movement section at the same time and they end back at the chair surrounding Faustus who is seated. Rob also goes back to the chair too.
• Everyone mimes stabbing Ollie in slow motion as I walk from the end of the traverse holding up the scroll of the contract. As we get closer and closer, Ollie contracts inwards in fear and then bursts out and we then walk away speedily into the audience. This leaves Faustus in a blackout for two seconds until the lights come back on and he starts his opening monologue.
• The rest of us are behind the audience ready to prepare our costumes behind the flats.

We had some discussion about how we'd perform the hand section in line. There was mentioning of not having any hand actions at all but there was also the point of having hand actions throughout the entire section. We decided to go with only the two hand actions as we wanted to represent the lost souls in hell but still have the audience's focus on Faustus' actions.

We next came to the difficult task of how we'd present the chorus lines after our prologue. There were two very different ideas we had:

• Perform the prologue how we planned then, after we've exited, we'd walk into the audience still in blackout and read a line each. This approach is very Artaudian as it shows no separation between the audience and the actors and the audience's senses are assaulted by sound and light (or lack of); hence the term "Theatre of Cruelty."
• Speak lines of the chorus during the prologue. This is a much more Naturalistic way of speaking the chorus lines as the audience are focusing on the performance and attach to the characters. This is the sort of thing Stanislavski would do.

We discussed our plans further and further and we ended with the decision of eliminating the chorus opening all together. We decided this as, although there were plenty of possibilities for movement, having extra lines movement on top of what we already had to learn was unnecessary, especially as our prologue summed up the chorus.

Single - Contemporary Theatre Unit (1984) - Blog 16 - 17/06/16

This lesson, we devised a physical theatre scene for the chorus during the capture of Winston which leads to his placement in Room 101. The song we performed this to was, "Dig" by Mudvayne.

Below is the outline of our completed scene:

• When the music starts, on the 3rd opening beat, we put our hoods up and be prepared to stand up.
• On the 4th beat we stand and perform one of three movements:
• We breakdown to our knees and pound the floor.
• We lean back and stretch our arms up.
• We stay standing and arms cross across our chests, uncross them but keep them close to our chest and finally drop them to our sides. We repeat this three times.
• After we perform one movement, which takes four beats, we move to a new position on stage which again takes four beats. We repeat this twice.
• Following our fourth beat, we in turn throw our chairs from book club at either Ollie K or Hope and they stack them together. This represents the destruction of the only definite reality which the audience has now associated itself with.
• Next, we have Charlie place the final chair in the centre and he stands on it. We then have Ollie K, Lorna, James and I catch and lift him as he falls backwards off of it. We carry him towards the back curtain and he "disappears" offstage. We aim to get rid of everyone on stage to just leave Winston and O'Brien. Whilst that happens, the stacks of chairs get removed besides the one left in the centre.
• Ollie M puts a bag over Rhiannon's head and the pair exit offstage. Meanwhile, Kat and Hope perform a series of hand actions and then exit in fear as they realise many have already left.
• While Ollie K and Lorna perform a lift in order to take Lorna offstage, James falls and I drag him offstage.
• Ollie K leans against the chair left in the centre and bends over having his back in a table top. I then run from the left side of the stage and perform an across the back roll and exit quickly.

Next lesson, we will run through everything we have done so far.

Double - Dr Faustus - Blog 12 - 17/06/16

Today, we focused all of our efforts on trying to stage a prologue for our Dr Faustus production. The way we wanted our prologue to be was feature a great deal of foreshadowing. We started the lesson with a brief focus exercise based on us creating the prologue.

We split off into two groups (Charlie, James, Rob/Ollie, Rhiannon, Lorna and Me) and came up with ideas on our movement and sound for our prologue. Below are the ideas my group came up with:

We then began blocking our own prologue ideas in our groups. We would then present these pieces and then take elements of each.

Below is the movement we came up with:

• We sit at one end of the traverse in a 2x2 facing away from the rest of the stage. We, in cannon, each face our nearest side audience and say a line. (Ollie would speak Latin as he is Faustus. Lorna would list off the sins to foreshadow Faustus' obsession. Rhiannon says, "But at what cost?" as it's a repeated theme throughout. Finally, I would say, "Cut deeper Faustus," as I'm Mephistopheles and it foreshadows Faustus' desperation for power.)
• We continue chanting in a ritualistic way (just like Artaud would've done this) whilst Ollie and I stand, we face each other then help up Lorna and Rhiannon. We step back whilst they then walk to the wall and draw the circle of a pentagram together.
• The pair walk away and kneel down waiting, whilst Ollie and I finish drawing the pentagram on the wall. We then walk around Lorna and Rhiannon and Ollie kneels down. I walk in front of him to which I finish with, "Cut deeper Faustus."

We each performed our pieces and got feedback. The other group felt that our piece was very good but the beginning wasn't anywhere near as good as the rest. We agreed that when we merge the prologues next lesson, we will include the beginning of the other group's scene but we would include the end of the of our scene.

Also, Lorna laid out the set design keeping in mind our movement we already have planned. Below is her set design:

Single - Contemporary Theatre Unit (1984) - Character Profile & Writing In Role - 16/06/16

Character Profile
Name: Syme
Age: 42
Height: 6ft
Likes: Newspeak, Big Brother, Work
Dislikes: Oldspeak, Synonyms, Antonyms, Goldstein, Rebellion
Occupation: Executive Head of Unpersoning Department
Writing In Role
Today was another day of the norm. I wake up at 6. I go downstairs. I eat breakfast. I go upstairs. I brush my teeth. I get showered. I get dressed. I catch the 331 bus. I get to work by 8:30. I work until my lunch break at 1. At my lunch break I saw Winston and Martin. I felt Winston needed some reminding on the term Newspeak. I new innovation. A good innovation. Notice how I didn't say some sort of synonym like great or wonderful. That's the beauty of Newspeak; less words means less chance of a rebellion. This innovation is amazing. The whole turmoil caused by an outburst could destroy Big Brother. Why would anyone want that? Order turned into chaos. The worst thing imaginable. Parsons decided to join us. As usual, he went on about how good his kid is. "Oh she caught these people holding hands in the woods." Oh how good!!! I hope he's proud! I mean I would've been happy when hearing the story the first time but he's told us 17 lunchtimes in a row.

Double - F(l)ight - Blog 5 - 15/06/16 *****ADD VIDEO*****

Today, Lorna and I finished our partner scene and selected music and as a group collated ideas for our final scene.

We started the lesson by deciding how Lorna and I would perform our beginning section. We wanted a short sequence before our duet which detailed how we got in the position later on. As Lorna abuses me, we wanted to go very Brecht and give the audience an important message. We wanted to start by having Lorna look like the victim and the audience would assume this but as the scene goes on, the audience realise it's quite the opposite and it exposes how the public assume that domestic violence is always aimed at women.

We decided to start with a short hymn hands section and move into very slow movements; our opening is described below:

• I start center stage and Lorna walks in slowly. She sits down by my side and holds out her hand, her palm facing me.
• I reach out and our hands connect palm to palm. She pushes towards me slowly and slightly but I push her back sharper and she winces.
• I stroke her hand and place it back down then go to stroke her ear, leading down to her hair, I let go and am left looking at my hand for a few seconds.
• I get up and help her up, holding each other forearm-to-forearm. I look at her for a few seconds and she lets go and walks downstage center.
• This then flows into the scene we already have.

The song selected is, like the other two groups, a song by Eminem, "Space Bound." We felt that the overall mood of the song matched the theme of our piece and the song flows rather well and adds to the atmosphere of our duet.

Another thing we added to our piece is at the beginning, as Lorna walks in, she says, "I'm sorry," to me but at the end I say the same thing as she walks away. This adds to the whole effect of society assuming only women are abused and the surprise at the end is even more effective.

We ended the lesson with the idea of an AA style therapy session including the victims, abusers and the innocent (Rob). This would involve chair duets as used by Frantic Assembly which I learnt from my research on them.

Below is the video of our piece:

Single - Contemporary Theatre Unit (1984) - Blog 15 - 14/06/16

This lesson, I was quickly brought up to speed on what I missed. Last lesson the class went on from where we left off (pg 29 to the beginning of pg 33). The movement between those pages is very naturalistic so I haven't missed anything too complex which involves me.

We continued on from pg 33 which is the first mention of The Two Minutes Hate. We decided that during the countdown, we'd get up slowly and randomly and stand in formation ([Left to Right] Row 1: Ollie K, Rob, Rhiannon; Row 2: Ollie M, Lorna, Kat, Charlie; Row 3: James, Hope, Me.)

When each character speaks during The Two Minutes Hate, they will have their voice recorded as a voiceover and they will be projected onto the ceiling. While Goldstein is speaking, we all shout out the slogan of Big Brother, "War is Peace, Freedom is Slavery, Ignorance is Strength." However when Goldstein says, "We must fight for our freedom," we become muted but we still mime as if we were still shouting.

When the Telescreen announces the end of The Two Minute Hate, we all exit, besides Winston and Julia.

When we return to the stage as Syme, Parsons and Martin, I bring mine and Rob's chairs over, Kat brings her's and Rhiannon's chairs and James brings his own. When talking to Winston as Syme, I looked deeper into the character and thought about how he would've spoken.

He obviously seems to be a firm believer in the values of Big Brother so I feel he would talk about it very passionately. He would take his time with his words and drone his beliefs into the skull of whom he's talking to. I to add to the boring drone, I will speak rather monotone.

For the rest of the lesson we helped work on scenes between Julia and Winston as that was all that followed the last scene, excluding a short scene between Winston and Charrington.

Double - Dr Faustus - Blog 11 - 13/06/16

Today we focused solely on dialogue sections as some people weren't in class due to outside circumstances. We began with Ollie and I running through signing the contract and then went on to helping Rob with his lines as Cornelius. I stepped in as Valdes for the lesson as James was not here so that Rob still had someone to bounce off and as I knew a lot of James' movement, I offered to help.

To finish, Rob and I watched all of Lorna and Ollie's scenes and offered constructive feedback on voice, movement and characterisation.

Double - Dr Faustus - Blog 10 - 10/06/16

Today in Double, the rest of the class went on to continue with the sins scene whilst Ollie and I went through our scenes again.

When performing the scene when Faustus abuses his power to create chaos, I recognised a new side to Mephistopheles which showcased his compassion and jealousy.

When Ollie and I got to the section where Faustus falls back into consciousness, we thought of having a blackout and him wake up on a bed in the centre; the bed would be the stage blocks we already have around the stage. We would then have everyone dressed as doctors and perform movements such as fluffing his pillow or injecting his arm with a needle. We would do this in an unorthodox way such as rolling underneath his arm to fluff his pillow. This is good use of Round-By-Through which was created by Frantic Assembly.

An idea we had was to have everyone dressed as Doctors including Mephistopheles and then eventually when it comes to Meph's line, he approaches in a doctor's mask, shrouding his identity from Faustus, but then removes his mask to shock Faustus as he thinks that Mephistopheles was only a concept of his unconscious mind.

Next lesson, we'll complete this section.

Double - F(l)ight - Blog 4 - 08/06/16

Today we continued to stage more movement for our scenes in our groups and changed some elements of our ensemble opening.

Lorna and I began by running through what we completed last lesson and tried to think of some new movement. We originally were going to have some sort of kick after she rolls me off of her back but we couldn't think of a way to do this where it looks authentic. Eventually, this is what we came up with for our scene:

• I lean on Lorna's back and we perform a back bend but then she stands up straight and rolls me off of her back.
• We slide one step to the right then turn 180.
• We circle around and face each other and I run towards her, break down to my knees and beg for her to take me back. She kicks me down and I fall, heartbroken.
• Lorna then offers to help me up and I look up at her helpless and relieved. I latch onto her hand and she pulls me up halfway then drops me. She spits at my feet before walking off.

We were also considering having a short hymn hands sequence at the beginning of our scene to display how we got in the situation which we're in.

The song we're planning on doing our movement to is "How To Save A Life" by The Fray however, the other two groups are both using tracks by Eminem ("Stan" and "Love The Way You Lie,") so we may change our music to another Eminem song such as the instrumental for "Mockingbird," or something else soft.

Below is the video for this scene:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v8Ekvx4b0E8

For the opening scene, we decided to swap James and Rob around as in Ollie, Rhiannon and Rob's scene, Rob doesn't become abused or abuse anyone else; he is the innocent bystander. As Lorna, Ollie and Charlie abuse their partner and Rhiannon, James and I get abused, we decided to swap Rob with James to display the two sides of abuse. Having Rob in the centre suggests he needs to choose between each side.

We finished devising this scene aswell keeping in mind the "choice" Rob needs to make. Below is our movement:

• As Ollie, James, Charlie and I catch Rob from falling (NOTE: Rob and James have swapped movement for the beginning of the scene) we all pass Rob over to Ollie so he can place him on the floor (This represents Ollie as the father figure to Rob as he is his father in their group's scene. Rob lies still in the foetal position.
• Rhiannon holds Rob's hand and then stands up and forms a line with me and James. Lorna does the same and stands in a line with Ollie and Charlie. The victims of abuse stand with their hands in cuffs to represent how chained and restricted they are.
• Rob begins to stand and we all do a sharp movement. We do this three times and take a step back each time. The abusers get more and morelated restricted and the victims get stronger and rebellious. This results in the tables being turned and the power has been shifted.

Single - Contemporary Theatre Unit (1984) - Blog 14 - 07/06/16

Today in Single, we ran through everything we already had in order to make sure everyone was up to speed with what we already had! We also staged the scene between Charrington and Winston as Charlie was here this time.

When we came up to my section where Syme is first introduced, I had the challenge of working out how to say my rather large monologue. When I first performing I felt that Syme was rather observed with the concept of Newspeak so I assumed he would speak very fast. However, I came to realise this was more due to my personal intentions of wanting to get the monologue over and done with. I decided to slow it down more and elongate my vowels. This monologue is supposed to bore Winston and my fellow co-workers but still inform the audience on Newspeak; so speaking slowly will do well to fulfil both.

Triple - Special Subject Investigation - Blog 5 (Script Direction) - 07/06/16

To further develop my understanding of my research, I put the conventions of Epic Theatre and Theatre of Cruelty into practise by devising a scene from a play. Doing this allows me to think about the way in which I use different techniques like props, costume and interaction with the audience. The play I used is Doctor Faustus by Christopher Marlowe. I chose this play as I'm similar with the plot as I'm currently performing this play as part of my Developing Physical Theatre unit in Double. The scene I chose is the apparition of Lucifer. I chose this scene as I felt there were plenty of possibilities to use conventions from each practitioner. Below are both scripts for Artaud and Brecht:

Triple - Special Subject Investigation - Blog 4 (Brecht Research) - 06/06/16

Double - Dr Faustus - Blog 9 - 06/06/16

Today in Double, we all continued on working on sections of Dr Faustus which are relevant to us. Whilst James, Rhiannon, Charlie, Rob and Lorna focused on finishing the Lust section of the Seven Deadly Sins physical piece. Ollie and I continued learning lines with each other with different techniques.

We started off by just reading the script to each other in our characters just focusing on our voice. I've decided to go quite common with my Mephistopheles but not too common whereas most others would go for a more demonic approach. I feel that Mephistopheles is more than just one of Lucifer's millions of minions of Hell and I intend on representing my feelings with this change in voice.

After running through the script once, we started again but this time, we added movement. We've already got movement for the introduction of Mephistopheles but for the rest of the play we improvised our movement whilst keeping in mind our characters' motives at the time. For example when enticing Faustus into signing the contract, I walk quite slowly and indirectly; Mephistopheles knows he has Faustus in the palm of his hand so he wouldn't be fussed about making intense movements. However, after showing Faustus the wonders of the universe, Mephistopheles feels disappointed and angry at Faustus. My reaction to this is faster and more direct movements and a slightly more stressed tone of voice.

For next lesson, we've been asked to explain how we portray our character in a certain scene and link similarities of our choices to a practitioners style of doing things. In my first scene, Mephistopheles has been summoned by Faustus; Mephistopheles knows exactly how to entice Faustus into selling his soul but showcases how little effort he needs to use. Ollie and I used a key physical theatre technique called Round-By-Through. This technique was created by Frantic Assembly and we've used it a lot of times in other productions so we're both very familiar with it. We decided to use Round-By-Through as it is a very effective method of detailing a characters emotions and motives and highlights certain plot details; it also portrays key characteristics.

Another practitioner we kept in mind was Rudolf Laban. Laban was all about showing how movement can tell a lot about a character and their body language can be varied in order to show how they feel and show what sort of character they are. He had 4 main factors to which he based a lot of characters movement on which were:

• Space - Direct/Indirect
• Weight - Strong/Light
• Time - Sudden/Sustained
• Flow - Bound/free

Below is how I ranked Mephistopheles in his opening scene:

SPACE - Slightly indirect (He has so much power he doesn't have to direct himself too much)

WEIGHT - Strong (To represent his power and frighten Faustus)

TIME - Sustained (He can take his time with his actions as he has no pressure and no potential threats)

FLOW - Free (He can do what he want as and when he wants)

Triple - Special Subject Investigation - Blog 3 (Artaud Research) - 02/06/16

Triple - Special Subject Investigation - Blog 2 (Research Plan) - 01/06/16

Today, I created my research plan for my investigation into the diversity of modern theatre. 

Below, I have highlighted the areas I would like to research:









Below, I have planned when I plan on researching them: