Single - Site Specific - Blog 7 - 28/04/17

Today we spent the lesson cutting the script for our first scene.We cut out all of the lines of the characters we weren't keeping in such as the Putnam's and Corey and cut any lines that don't make sense because of the absence of those characters. Next lesson, we will do the same to our second scene.

Single - Site Specific - Blog 6 - 27/04/17

Today we read through Scene One of The Crucible and made major decisions on how we'd perform our adaptation of the classic play.

We read through the first scene to remind ourselves of the story and highlighted important questions we asked ourselves afterwards:

• What characters are crucial?
• Are we performing The Crucible or only some scenes? 
• Or maybe only an adaptation?
• Or our own telling of the events during the Salem Witch Trials using scenes from The Crucible.

We wanted to stick to the script as much as possible but we wanted to do more than simply perform the play. For example, just performing the play would waste our opening movement piece as it would be scrapped. Ideally, we want to do something similar to what we did for 1984 which was perform the entire script along with a few movement pieces dotted inbetween scenes. However, The Crucible is a three hour play on its own so we'd need to cut scenes/characters out.

On the topic of characters, there was controversy on whether to cut/keep certain characters due to there being A LOT of characters in comparison to cast. We decided that the Putnam's needed to go as the plot of the play still made sense without the mentioning of their dead children and that already cuts out a chunk. Then there were discussions over Giles Corey; although he is an interesting character to have, he isn't really necessary to the plot either so the majority decision was to cut him. The Nurse's were also cut as they weren't in the story much at all either so below is our final list of characters:

John Proctor

Elizabeth Proctor

Judge Danforth

Reverend Parris

Mary Warren

Abigail Williams

Tituba

Betty

Hale

Cheever (With most of Hathorne's lines too as this still made sense and gave the character more of a role in the play.)

There was also a debate on whether we were going to keep the affair between Proctor and Abigail in our version of The Crucible or if were going to stay closer to the truth and scrap the affair. Although it would've been interesting to see the play without the affair, the majority of us felt that it would require a lot of effective cutting to be sure the script keeps continuity. Plus we felt that it removes a lot from the story and renders the courtroom scene nearly pointless as Proctor wouldn't be able to confession to lechery because it actually never would've happened.

After resolving all plot issues, we decided to begin cutting next lesson!

Single - Site Specific - Blog 5 - 25/04/17

Today we worked on adding the other group to the short movement piece we devised last lesson.

We began by simply filling in the gaps we already had and making slight adjustments:

• We filled in the gaps in the square formation using the other group members. Ollie K stood between me and Lorna, James stood between me and Kat, Ollie M stood between Kat and Hope and Rob stood between Hope and Lorna.
• Now that there were more of us, timing needed to be changed for the crossing sections. Instead of each pair going on every 2 beats, we changed it to 1 beat to make it more frantic and to fit with the music so the rest of the timing could stay the same.
• Now that there are more of us, we thought it'd be better if we recorded our own version of the "Satanic Matra" as this could let us change the tone when we want to and allows us to edit some sections if we'd like to distort a line or two. This is a more realistic idea now that there's eight of us rather than previously having four.

We then went over the end of the piece but felt it didn't work very well due to having too many of us all doing the same thing so we devised something new:

• From grouped in the centre, Ollie K, Ollie M, Rob, James and I go to the back while the girls stay at the front in a line. They perform tap-like ritualistic routine while the rest of us do a lift...
• Rob and James lift up Ollie M by the feet in a pencil lift and Ollie K and I, link arms behind them.
• Ollie falls backwards into our arms and we arrange ourselves to lift him up in a coffin carry.
• We then all drop him except Ollie K who swoops in and carries him in his arms and lays him down behind the girls. We wanted this to represent the "possession" of Betty.

This adaptation to our previous physical movement went very well and ran nicely after a few run throughs. Next lesson, we will read through scene one and decided how we want to perform our version of The Crucible.

Double - Performance Workshop (Sweeney Todd) - Blog 19 - 25/04/17

Below are my notes on our production:

Prologue: 
+ Effective at introducing the story and character to the audience
- We should've added more harmonies
- During the messy section after we disperse, we should be messy, but not unorderly. Ollie, Alice and I looked very out of place so we need something to do such as round by through or some other form of interaction

No Place Like London: 
-boat didn’t look as impressive as it has done in rehearsal
+ our representation of getting off the boat was good and intuitive
? we could've added a flashback to enhance storytelling techniques while rob sings about the barber and his wife
? perhaps we could do this by having a sheet up instead of the curtains and have a silhouette dance/scene to represent the flashback
- set transition needed to be more fluid which could've been done by having more people involved and using round by through

Worst Pies In London: 
+ very good movement and was sung brilliantly
- could’ve included more cast members to make our piece more original 
? for example having customers come in and try, and hate, her pies; the opposite to what "God That's Good" would've been if we kept it in

Poor Thing: 
? add another flashback to tell the story more clearly

My Friends: 
? Todd could've interacted with Ollie, James and I as we were representing the knives
- the movement was out of time so we should've worked on this section more
? we could've built on this physical theatre section and made it more complex

Greenfinch And Linnet Bird: 
- we should've used the longer version of this song to fully accentuate character and make the audience familiar with her.
? perhaps we should've added a prop into this number as it would give Alice something to interact with

Johanna: 
- the song was lacking in volume at different points
? perhaps explore more original ideas; the way we performed this song/scene is very typical and identical to the script so we should've shaken it up a bit.

Pirelli’s Miracle Elixir: 
+ James’ audience interaction was superb
- I feel that relevant signage would be very helpful to show the audience that we are Pirelli's caravan
? actors like Ollie M and I, could've been planted in the audience to create ambience and be interacted with by James
? with bigger cast we wouldn’t need to rely on audience interaction and could have a chorus crowd
- our props weren't all the same (the bottles were all different shapes, sizes and materials) so having all the same would keep continuity.

The Contest: 
+ pirelli’s entrance was grand and provided a great deal of comic relief to a very dark musical!
- although it was great as it was, Pirelli's song would've been better with a backing track or live musician
? Pirelli and Toby could've interacted with each other more as they only really interact at the beginning and end of Pirelli's scene.

Wait: 
- with more time behind us we could’ve done something more with the entire song whether that be a movement scene, silhouettes or character interaction
+ Pirelli's death was very effective and sets up the story well with his first kill
? round by through between James and Lorna could've been used to 

Ladies And Their Sensitivities: 
- with more time for rehearsals, we could’ve worked on singing the song
+ however the way it was performed was still very effective and original 
- very static: with a bigger stage or more time for set changes we would’ve used more space to walk.

Pretty Women: 
? bigger budget idea: move the entire stage into the parlour
- there wasn't much tension built up during the song according to audience members

The Epiphany: 
? perhaps ensemble movement could've been more complex
? with a larger cast, this would work much better
? having costumes, if this was a full scale production, would’ve represented the townspeople better.

A Little Priest: 
? a larger cast could have had more townspeople involved (such as the royal marine and politician)
? perhaps an ensemble dance or movement piece would've worked really well for this song, to show the potential success of the pie shop 

Johanna (Reprise): 
+ the noises were effective...
- but should’ve been in time
? during the beggar woman sections, we should've been more organised and, for example, do our beats twice as fast

Anthony and Beadle:
+ very short scene which keeps the audience up to date with Anthony
? perhaps could've used spare actors like James or Ollie M to chase after Anthony as he flees.

By The Sea:
- this scene was very irrelevant without the dialogue prior to the scene which we cut in rehearsal. This is something we only realised
- our swing didn’t work at the end verse

Not While I'm Around : 
+ sang very well 
- well-staged, however not very original
- Mrs Lovett didn't show much maternity so being more motherly would make the scene better

Beadle's Death: 
? more physical contact between the pair
+ staging was great
- make Beadle's death more obvious with brighter/coloured lighting

Searching for Toby and Anthony & Johanna: 
? Lovett and Todd could’ve explored the aisle more by walking through the audience and looking for Toby, eventually going under the stage
+ the short bit between Anthony and Johanna was good and caught the audience up with the pair

Beggar Woman's Death: 
+ although it was ironic that the most important death of all wasn't very dramatic...
- it could’ve and should’ve been so much more
? we could've stuck with our original idea of using red cloth to have blood pouring out of her throat

Pretty Women Reprise: 
+ showed the panic in Judge as he comes close to losing Johanna but recovers her
- Judge's death should've been a lot bigger but this was difficult due to lack of space
? with a bigger budget, we could've had a moving parlour or purely have a bigger performance space

Finale: 
+ very emotive
- bigger dance section was needed for such a significant part of the story
+ the way we did Mrs Lovett's death was very different to the typical burning in the oven and I felt this original approach served us well
+ Todd’s death was extremely effective as he hands the razor to Toby, signifying he has nothing left in this world and that he shall pay for the sins he committed


General: 
In general, I feel our performance was extremely impressive for a workshop performance. If we were to turn this into a proper full scale production, I would make the following major changes:

• We would have full costumes to further represent our characters and make the performance more atmospheric.
• With a dynamically bigger budget, we could've had an extravagant set like a proper barber chair, pie shop furniture and backdrops etc to represent different places. With a big enough budget, we'd want to perform in a bigger space like a theatre.
• Ideally, we'd like to use headset mics to carry our voices further into the audience and be heard over the backing tracks.
• We'd also prefer live musician(s) to enhance the atmosphere of the live performance.

My individual performance:
I feel my portrayal of Judge Turpin was very effective at creating an image of the tormented soul on stage. However, I didn't change the way I played him throughout due to my thought process behind the development of the character. I wanted the character to have his own aura about him when onstage and perhaps make the audience detached from him due to the lack of variation in my emotion. I then went on to later reveal to the audience how soft the Judge can be after learning Johanna is safe and wanting to spend the rest of his life with her, granting her forgiveness. Although this is clearly an irrational way to think - stealing Todd's own daughter from him for self gratification - it has implications about the characters possible mental health issues. These implications are also relevant in the scene where Turpin strips naked and whips himself whilst thinking of his innoncent ward; we were unable to keep this scene in however as we deemed it extremely unneccessary to perform in a school. Support with mental health issues was non-existent in the time of Sweeney Todd so that would've been one fo the very few coping mechanisms Judge Turpin would utilise. Overall, I feel my portrayal of Judge Turpin was very good at portraying not only his clearly evil and sadistic intentions but showed the weaknesses in what he thought was good.

Single - Site Specific - Blog 4 - 21/04/17

Today we got into two groups (Ollie K, Rob, James, Ollie M/Kat, Hope, Lorna, me) and created either an idea for a scene/production or an entire movement piece based on the stimulus of The Crucible. We did this based on our preferred venue of choice.

In my group, we wanted to further explore the opening scene in the movie (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dUGvUhlj-cc) but to show it in a more orderly ritualistic fashion. We wanted to almost trick the audience into believing that this myth of witchcraft was the truth as the girls in the play do so to the villagers. This would then make the realisation even more ridiculous for the audience when it comes to the later scenes.

We originally were thinking of doing this indoors as we wanted to be independent from the film and not go with the classic "cauldron in the woods" scenario, however we felt that it would be better to make better use of the rooms for more crucial indoor scenes rather than doing the ritual indoors just for the sake of it. Also, we were unsure of the height of the ceilings so we weren't able to plan lifts if we wanted.

Based on the following photo, we would perform the movement on the patch of grass to the left near the balcony and stairs. We previously thought to have our ritual take place with everyone on the grass and have one person walk to the grass from atop the balcony but this would mean that there would be 7 people on the grass with the whole class which isn't a good number to work with so we decided to keep everyone on the grass to have a solid number of 8.

Below is the movement we devised (we did this to a beat of four from "Satanic Matra" - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jsEw9lBiDBg):

• To start, we're in a square formation with each of us facing outwards at each corner (pictured below)
  

1. We reach out for four beats desperately, then pull back in for another four.
2. During the next 4 beats, the pairs opposite swap positions - starting with Lorna and Kat. When there was only four of us, Kat and Lorna swapped places taking up two beats, then followed by Hope and I who took up two beats.
3. We repeat step 1.
4. For four beats, we meet in the middle, staring blankly at the person in front of them, then for four beats, we swap with the person at the corner to our right. For example, I would've swapped with Kat, Kat with Hope, Hope with Lorna and Lorna with me.
5. We repeat step 1.
6. We repeat step 2.
7. We repeat step 1.
8. We walk to the centre taking up four beats. Then Hope performs a chant in Yoruba, a native language of Africa which she is fluent in which sounds fitting to the chants you'd expect from witchcraft rituals.
9. One by one, Kat, Lorna and I fall to our knees.

We presented our idea to the other group and they felt like it was brilliant idea which would work well in the planned space. Also, it's an easily adaptable idea where we can add the extra four people from the other group. This is what we will work towards next lesson!

Single - Site Specific - Blog 3 - 18/04/17

Today, we looked for pictures related to The Crucible whether they be off productions of the show or images relating to it. We did this so we could grasp an idea on how we want to perform our version of the classic. Below are the photos I thought were interesting why I thought so:

PlayMakers Repertory Company's production of The Crucible was actually performed in-the-round. This is an interesting way to perform any play as depending on where an audience member is sitting, they will identify and relate to whichever character is closer to them.

The Broadway Revival of The Crucible of 2016 was very different to previous productions as they set it in a modern day era judging by the school uniform style and classroom setting.

The Civic Ballet performed a series of dances based on The Crucible and this lift was used to represent the possession of Betty Parris.

A painting showing silhouettes of girls dancing by a fire, very similar to the forbidden activities which take place at the beginning of The Crucible.