Double - Performance Workshop - Blog 2 - 06/01/17

Today we started work on our first scene and collected all of our ideas. Two of us who had big and complete ideas was me and Lorna. With the first scene, Lorna wanted to go very musical theatre with it and have us all sing the song as the characters within the musical and we'd perform some sort of movement linked to the characters throughout. Although we all thought this would be a good idea but with the cast we have where only 1 person (Lorna) is 100% confident with singing. Lorna also thought that we should perform the last song in a similar fashion to have some sort of cyclical structure to the piece but I thought that as effective as it may be, the audience might be unprepared for a loud dance-y musical number at the beginning of the show. 

I felt that my idea for the opening is a lot simpler and allows the audience to focus more on what's being said within the song. After taking all of these points into account, we decided as a group that we should go with my idea. However, I did like the idea of having movement within the spoken word section so we may adapt it to fit in Lorna’s idea too.

We spent the rest of the lesson allocating lines and making sure they each fit the rhythm of the song. The song I chose for this piece is the instrumental from “Dancing On My Own” by Calum Scott. I thought this would be an effective song to use as it’s easily recognisable and it’s gentle and not too distracting from the lyrics.

For some bits, we speak different lines at different times, but at other times we speak in unison or speak the same line in cannon. This is to give the feeling of unity and how we’re all in the same unfortunate situation. I found it quite difficult at first to create the characters for this song but after reading the rapid section, I came up with a perfect selection of characters based on the lines:

• Lorna – Actress trying for an audition (I based this on the, “You get the part of your life” line.)
• James – A young lover (I based this on the, “You find a love you’re sure you believe in” line and “You hold the ring in your hand” line.)
• Rob – A newspaper boy dreaming of a better life (I based this on the, “You have a house in the hills,” line and “You’ve got a pool in the back” line.)
• Ollie – A businessman who doesn’t like the hustle and bustle of the city (I based this on the, “You have a job in the coast”
• All of these roles are based on these lines because these are the dreams of each of these characters hence why they each say their own “dream” line.
• For my character, a taxi driver, I say the following lines ("But then the earthquake hits, and the bank closes in, then you realise you didn't know anything.") As he sort of culminates these different characters reaction as these are the regular people he'd come across.

When I thought of this idea in between today and last lesson, I worked out the timings as well so I spent the remainder of the lesson teaching the timings to everyone. By the end of today we were able to read through all of the song with the right timing.

Next lesson, we will add movement into the piece and potentially finish it.