Single - Site Specific - Blog 15 - 26/06/17

Risk assessment:

Tripping over steps/doorways:

This risk is very likely as there are lips on the doorways and some steps are very disproportionate compared to others. Despite tripping over is usually quite a minor risk in terms of severity, we will put tape down across the steps and doorways to make it clear that they are there.

Event of a fire:
The likelihood of a fire breaking out is relatively low as we're not using anything flammable but in the event of a fire, we would follow the church's procedure for fire safety as the results of the fire could end up catastrophic.

Tripping over uneven terrain:
Although there isn't much we can do to stop the audience falling over on uneven ground, we will warn everyone before the performance begins so all are aware of the risk.

Single - Site Specific - Blog 14 - 15/06/17

As we are no longer able to perform at Temple Manor, we have had to adapt our performance to fit to a different location but as we picked such a dynamic original location, our ideas are easily transferable. The location we went for was Saint Margarets Church, Rainham and we felt this worked effectively with the Puritan society that The Crucible is set in. Below are photos of the venue and ideas on where scenes will take place:

Scene 2

Scene 1

Scene 3

Scene 4 (plus the latter two movement pieces)

Opening Movement scene

Single - Site Specific - Blog 13 - 30/05/17

Grid Iron Theatre Company:

"Some of the more challenging and unusual locations we have performed in include a boat-builders’ island in Norway, the land-side and air-side passenger areas of Edinburgh International Airport, the Informatics Building of the University of Edinburgh, a former jute mill in Dundee, the former General Security building in Beirut, a working cancer hospital in Jordan, the old city morgue in Cork, Debenhams department store in Edinburgh, ten metres underwater in Belfast’s Lagan Weir, a haunted underground street in Edinburgh, The London Dungeon, parks, gardens, playgrounds and fields all over Britain and Ireland, our local pub, The Barony Bar, on Edinburgh’s Broughton Street, the EICA (Europe’s largest indoor climbing arena) and a huge oil-rig manufacturing shed in Port of Dundee." (gridiron.org.uk)

Natural Theatre Company:

"Natural Theatre Company has been making people laugh in nearly 80 countries for over 45 years"

"we produce a delightfully absurd interactive walkabout street theatre from over 100 characters and scenarios."

"We also appeared The Bath “Min” Hospital having researched the life of James Lind who undertook the very first medical experiments.  We have worked with a number historic sites in Bath and have animated Prior Park Gardens for The National Trust." (http://naturaltheatre.co.uk/)

Red Earth:
"Red Earth events amplify and resonate with the natural landscape, immersing the audience in its hidden terrain, engaging the public in the creative process."
"Our work looks to the wider world for inspiration while focusing on local detail.
Performances are often inter-cultural exchanges, while our temporary sculpture installations are sensitive to site and built on location from locally sourced materials; a combination which results in atmospheric and immersive experiences challenging our expectations of the landscape." (http://redearth.co.uk/about.html)

Where Grid Iron Theatre Company and Natural Theatre Company have performed in a lot of enclosed private venues such as bars, security buildings and hospitals which would require a lot of planning and permission would be needed from the owners of the property. Whereas Red Earth perform within natural areas like fields, forests, mountains etc which may not require permission but would require a lot of planning in terms of risk assessment etc. I feel that performing in locations like hospitals and airports like the former two groups both have are better as I feel like they're more popular with audiences due to Grid Iron being more universally heard of than Red Earth.

Also, Natural Theatre Company are more accessible due to their work in nearly 80 countries for over 45 years. Interestingly, dreamthinkspeak are the only company who mention their use of film integrated into their performance which we feel is a clever addition to any performance let alone a site specific production.

Single - Site Specific - Blog 12 - 18/05/17

accusation movement
Today we created two pieces of movement to add to our piece between Scene 1 and 2 and between Scene 3 and 4.

For our first movement piece, we wanted to fully portray the girls' newfound power to manipulate the minds of the higher officials due to their lies. This would go from one person being accused to the whole town being "prisoners" of the girls' judgement. We also highlight the affair between Proctor and Abigail at the end before heading into Scene 2. We used a lantern to represent innocence, to show the audience their is no evil deed implied by those accused but the girl's judgement which gets them imprisoned. Below is a video of this movement piece:

In our next movement piece, we wanted to show the opposite effect of the previous movement by starting in our previous end positions and showing Proctor cut off all ties to Abigail. This is followed by Abigail encountering villagers and they want nothing to do with her as they have all eventually caught on to her lie. We reprise our same characters too to make it more familiar with the audience. We end it by physically representing a house and Abigail stealing her uncle, Parris', money and fleeing with Mary Warren who try to persuades her to stay but ends up leaving with her. Below is a video of this movement piece:

Single - Site Specific - Blog 11 - 11/05/17

Today we cut our scene 4 down (the final scene in the play and our version). This involved us cutting out lines of characters whom we don't have in our version, referencing different characters due to the previous characters being cut (E.g. "Reverend Hale has returned to bring Rebecca Nurse to God" is now "Reverend Hale has returned to bring Proctor to God") and cutting down unnecessary dialogue which isn't heavily relevant to the plot (e.g. the conversation about Hale).

Single - Site Specific - Blog 10 - 08/05/17

Today we spent the entire lesson cutting our third scene in our version of The Crucible: Act 2 Scene 2. We chose this scene because it carries on well from our last scene as Proctor tells Mary he will take her to the court to reclaim his wife.

We cut quite a lot out of this scene as the scene was going to run at around half an hour if we didn't cut it. This is a long time for an audience to stand up during a promenade performance. The main things we had to change besides cutting lines was changing Corey's lines to Proctor's as they both shared the same beliefs and changing Mercy's lines to Betty's as Betty would've been there too and Mercy is cut.

Following this we ran scenes 1 and 2.

Single - Site Specific - Blog 9 - 02/05/17

Today we spent the lesson actually getting up and blocking scenes 1 and 2! Although my character, Deputy Governor Danforth wasn't in the scene, I still got involved with the blocking process. We needed to keep our blocking fluid and adaptable as, although we've seen photos of the venue and its rooms, we don't know how big they are or their actual size so we would have to adapt our scenes to the space we have.

Single - Site Specific - Blog 8 - 02/05/17

Today we cut our second scene in our version of The Crucible: Act 1 Scene 2. We chose this scene as it's extremely crucial at highlighting the affair between John and Abigail and the effect it had on him and his wife, Elizabeth. We cut the beginning as we felt it wasn't needed and went from midway through the section between Elizabeth and Proctor onwards. We cut out most of the parts which we deemed irrelevant and repetitive which left us with a much shorter script. This will be very helpful with learning lines and turning a 3 hour play into hopefully an hour (approx.) long version. We also cast the entire play today as well after reading through Act 1: Scene 2 and Act 2: Scene 2 (this will be our third scene in our version as it leads on nicely from the previous scene). Below is our cast including two Year 12's to play minor roles as we haven't got enough cast members in our class:

Abigail - Hope
Mary Warren - Kat
Elizabeth Proctor - Lorna
Tituba - Taylor (Y12)
Betty Parris - Chloe (Y12)
John Proctor - Ollie K
Reverend Hale - Rob
Judge Danforth - Lewis
Ezekiel Cheever - Ollie M
Reverend Parris - James

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.

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.

Single - Site Specific - Blog 2 - 28/03/17 + 30/03/17 + 31/03/17

Today we decided to explore our ideas relating to Temple Manor as we preferred Temple Manor as a class rather than Guildhall due to it's darker nature which would give us the opportunity to perform darker pieces/plays. We decided to go for our initial idea of The Crucible as the building suited the style of play and was built a few centuries before the events of The Crucible so it's a very realistic building choice to go for.

After making this temporary decision, we decided to watch the film of The Crucible to grasp the idea of the plot and get more familiar with the time era as only Kat had studied The Crucible before. We began by watching the first act of a stage version however this version expired, so we watched the movie from that point onwards which wasn't too confusing. Watching the movie/play helped inform the rest of us on the story and the lifestyle of those in the 1600's America.

Next lesson, we will work on researching ways to stage our take on the crucible, including costume, staging, and setting.

Single - Site Specific - Blog 1 - 24/03/17

Today we began Site Specific and brainstormed ideas on where we can perform. We came up with a few ideas which are very local such as Temple Manor, Restoration House and Guildhall. We briefly looked at images of Temple Manor and Kat said it would be a very good place to perform The Crucible due to it's old background and stone brick walls. 

We also thought a library would be a good place to perform as they're not only very accessible but can be cheap or possibly free to hire as they're owned by Medway Council; we thought we could possibly perform a play like Punk Rock

We split off into two groups (Kat, Ollie, Hope, Rob/Ollie, James, Lorna, Me) and looked at the pros and cons of both Guildhall and Temple Manor.

Below are some images of Temple Manor followed by pros and cons:

Pros:

• disabled Access
• plenty of space
• outside and inside opportunities
• out of the way from busy roads so quiet
• eerie household
• historical
• modernisation available

Cons:

• lack of lighting
• limits us to dark plays
• the performance would have to be promenade 

Below is photo of the room in Guildhall along with pros and cons:

Pros:

• Big space
• Historical
• Lots of room for set
• different rooms

Cons:

• artefacts could distract the audience
• specific for time period and genre 
• only indoors
• restricted 

Single - Devised Unit (Ghost Stories) - Blog 16 - 24/03/17

Today we performed our piece to be assessed and we below is my evaluation of our performance.

Rob’s scene:

• Rob spoke with good volume when opening and narrating the scene however, I feel that he needed more diction in his speech as some words were lost for me and I was standing beside him.
• Ollie and I, again, used different leg movements when walking around the shop. While I lifted my feet up normally, Ollie dragged his foot along the ground to meet the other as he walked. Although this showed a clear difference between our characters, it looked a bit odd from the audience’s point of view in a previous runthrough so we should’ve specified which we would do!
• Ollie and I were supposed to meet at the centre at a certain point in the music as this may affect the timing of the whole piece. However, when Rob and Ollie were masking each other’s movement just before this – to make it explicitly clear that they are the same person, just in different places in time – they took too long and if we waited for Ollie to make it to where he needed to be for us to clash, it would have been out of time with the music. Still, to counter this I stepped backwards naturally so that we clashed earlier, thus resolving what could’ve been a big issue.
• The transfer of Rob’s character’s trademark notepad – another key symbolism of the character – went well this time with Ollie successfully taking it when left on the till counter by Rob and then with me taking it from the back after Ollie runs off after his necklace gets stolen and leaves it on the unused chair.
• The entire cash machine section went very well as always, the only problem we thought of was my facial expressions during the robbery. According to Ollie, I didn’t look like a man who was being held at gunpoint.
• The final torture section was very good and was extremely tense. This controversial section did well to captivate the audience.

Lorna’s scene:

• I believe the order of scenes may have been confusing as a few audience members asked questions about the plot afterwards. To make this clearer, we should’ve gone in chronological order.
• We successfully performed this scene naturistically which allowed the audience to connect effectively to the scenario.

Lewis’ scene:

• Our movement went very well and represented the emotions of my character very effectually.
• The dialogue sounded more natural than it has before but could’ve done with being more naturalistic. Also, there was no clear end to the dialogue as I had finished my movement but the others continued talking but there was some sort of awkward pause. We should’ve rehearsed this more to prevent.
• Ollie’s scene:
• Our movement at the beginning went very well and it was clear what was happening.
• Mine and Rob’s speech logs throughout the scenes could be improved as Rob spoke quite casual while I spoke very professionally. Also, I said the word progress twice in the same sentence and said it differently both times.

Ollie's scene:

• Our movement at the beginning went very well and it was clear what was happening.
• Mine and Rob’s speech logs throughout the scenes could be improved as Rob spoke quite casual while I spoke very professionally. Also, I said the word progress twice in the same sentence and said it differently both times.

General:

• Most set changes were good as everything was put in the right place however they could’ve been faster.

Single - Devised Unit (Ghost Stories) - Blog 15 - 10/03/17

Today we finished Lorna’s scene by creating three more sections. We wanted this scene to be in a different order as this fragmented timeline works well with our stimulus. Below are the four sections in order.

• Harry stealing letters
• Charles leaving for war
• Receiving the death telegram
• Revealing the letters

For the second scene, we have me walking in with my case leaving for war and I’m saying my last goodbye to my wife. The third scene has Lorna receiving a telegram notifying her of my death. During this, I am lying on the floor as the dead body, then when Lorna leaves the telegram and walks towards where my grave is, I stand and walk over to the house side of the split-screen. I then place down the photo frame of us both. The final scene takes place 40 years later and Harry (Ollie) enters with the mail. He confesses to Stella that there’s more letters, goes off and comes on with the letters he hid. After he apologises and exits, Stella is devastated and slams down a photo frame of her and Harry.

We feel that this is a very effective ending to the scene and I believe that the audience will be able to understand the flashback.

Next lesson, we will will perform our piece to be filmed and assessed.

Single - Devised Unit (Ghost Stories) - Blog 14 - 09/03/17

Today we wrote the dialogue for our first section of Lorna’s scene and blocked the movement to go with it. We first came up with the script which took us a while as we wanted to make the dialogue as natural as possible. In this section, we have Harry (Ollie) visiting Stella (Lorna) and offering comfort.

Below is our dialogue:

We thought that instead of Harry coming along as another lover out of the blue, we wanted him to be the cause of Stella’s willingness to remarry. We have adapted the story so that now, Harry is intercepting the letters from Charles which leads to Stella thinking that Charles hasn’t bothered to write. Stella then ends up marrying Harry. We wanted to show in this section that Harry is intercepting the letters. We originally thought of having Ollie and Lorna run their dialogue and I enter as the ghost of Charles (as the real Charles is obviously at war) and place letters in Ollie’s pockets to show him intercepting them. However, when trying this out, we felt that not only was it difficult to do, but that it wasn’t clear that Ollie was intercepting the letters. Instead, I now go to hand Lorna the letters but Ollie takes them out my hand before they get to her. I attempt to ‘deliver’ four letters and then leave the last one on the table which Ollie takes.

Next lesson, we will work out the rest of the scene.

Single - Devised Unit (Ghost Stories) - Blog 13 - 03/03/17

Today we discussed our ideas for our final scene for our piece. Originally, our idea related to the media and how they represent body image for young women, however we felt that it was extremely similar to the scene based on the paparazzi as they both relate to the media haunting our main character.

We then came up with the idea of a woman (Lorna) being haunted by the guilt of remarrying and sees visions of her passed husband. We thought this suit very well to our stimulus as Lorna’s not only haunted by her guilt but she’s also seeing ghostly visions of her husband which really stays close to “Ghost Stories”.

• We started off by trying to devise movement but we thought that although we’re good with movement pieces, we can’t do a movement piece for every single scene as it doesn’t make our piece very diverse. We spent some deciding how we were to layout our story and below is a basic outline of the scene:
• Stella (Lorna) and Charles (Lewis) are happily married but Charles is conscripted to join the army. Charles reassures his wife and proceeds to leave for war. Throughout his absence, Stella waits and waits for a letter he’d promised he’d send.
• When she discovers her husband is dead, her childhood boyfriend and pal, Harry (Ollie) comes to help her get through her rough time. She eventually falls in love with this man but throughout the course of their relationship, she starts to see visions of her previous husband. Her guilt overwhelms her and we see her breakdown.

We said that next lesson, we will work on dialogue for our scene as we wanted this scene to be heavily dialogue based. We also wanted Rob to play the piano for this piece as we felt this would make the scene more effective if the underscore was played live. The song Rob’s playing is, “Comptine d’Un utre Été-Die fabelhafte Welt der Amélie Piano”.

Single - Devised Unit (Ghost Stories) - Blog 12 - 02/03/17 ADD VIDEO

Today, we worked on Ollie’s motif scene’s as they haven’t been run in a while and we need to make at least one of them longer. We felt that the first one, where Ollie walks around the stage slowly, can’t be changed much as it is very simplistic. For the second one, the puppetry hand movements, we changed the movements slightly to make it more interesting and longer.

We changed it so that the doctor lifts up Ollie’s hand once and let’s go to let it fall, repeats this once more and then lifts up the hand and mimics tying a knot so the hand stays there. The doctor turns it over so it’s facing palm up and clenches their own fist twice which Ollie repeats. The doctor checks Ollie’s pulse on his wrist and then writes a note on their smartwatch. Whilst doing so, Ollie clenches his fist again, uncommanded. The doctor slowly looks at the fist.

For the third one, where Ollie names the colours he sees, we kept it the same as it didn’t really need changing. However, with the final scene, the one where we move Ollie’s head and kill him, we thought it looked a bit naff so we decided to try something different. We wanted something to fail so we’d have to “operate” on Ollie. The scene starts with Ollie on a table unconscious but with his eyes wide open. Rob, Lorna and I each have 3 movements we perform on Ollie in sequence with each which appear to be medical as we attempt to bring him back. For me, I continually lift up his legs and rotate his ankles. After our 3 move sequence, Rob mimes using a defibrillator to bring Ollie back to life but this fails. He shocks him 7 times, but only 3 Ollie reacts to, while the others, he lies there dead facing the audience with his eyes open still. All of us doctors exit and we leave a 10-15 second gap and Ollie will react a couple of times to the shocks despite them happening about 30 seconds ago. We the have the generator sound gets louder and as it gets louder the sound of the light fuzzing cuts out and we have a sound effect of a lightbulb smashing which is in sync with a blackout, thus the end of our entire piece. I think going through the motifs has made our piece so much more mature and is a lot more entertaining. Next lesson, we will work on our third and final scene!