Single - Devised Unit (Ghost Stories) - Blog 2 - 10/01/17

Today Rob shared with us his idea he had outside of lesson. This idea used elements of both mine and the groups ideas of a social media and a misunderstood kid. The addition is whenever he opens up social media, something "strange" happens (e.g. things falling over, someone is hurt etc.) These events would build up to a climactic ending like having a character die.

The idea we finalised was to have a teen who's considered to be mentally unstable but isn't, he's just very intelligent and introverted. This misunderstanding leads to him being left alone and given extra support from school. His ultra intelligent brain waves lead to him disrupting technology such as lights and mobile phones. Eventually, he gets taken to a psychiatric hospital where he's treated for his "illness." This focuses majorly on the idea of mental health we all found interesting last lesson.

We wanted our play to start with the end scene as it forebodes to the audience the characters downfall. Below is a scene we devised for our opening to show this:

We discussed our next scene where we wanted to show how effective Ollie's powers are in real life and how much of an outcast he is in school. This sparked the idea for the school scene. In this scene, we have the chairs in a triangular formation with Rob at the front on the right being a teachers pet, Lorna and I in the middle to the side throwing paper at each other not really caring about the lesson and at the back, Ollie between Lorna and I.

We wanted to have a voiceover similar to Mrs Horrocks from our Flint Street Nativity to show the authority of the teacher. We wanted to show the paranormal side of the Ollie immediately to get the audience thinking. We were going to have a text tone sound effect and Ollie would get his phone out and look. As soon as the screen lights up, the lights dim down and Rob, Lorna and I lean towards Ollie to grab him and his phone and when we're close, we have a blackout and when the lights come back up, we're all back in our original positions.

Next lesson, we will discuss our ideas further to develop more scenes.

Double - Performance Workshop - Blog 3 - 09/01/17

Today we started blocking movement for the first song. For now we weren't going to speak our lines just so we wouldn't have to hold our scripts during movement; instead I said the timings as I knew them pretty well.

For the first verse and chorus we wanted to remain still and just speak our lines with varied hand gestures and facial expressions depending on what we're saying. My vision was to have us do this throughout the entire song but together we thought this would become too boring so after this first section, we would add movement. Our positions for this beginning are James and Ollie at the front with Lorna, Rob and I two steps behind them in a line; all facing the front.

For the next verse we wanted to focus on Lorna's character of an actor at an audition as she has the first line in this verse. We started off with this idea:

• First two lines: James and Ollie step back into our line and we all face to one side to represent a line at an audition. All of us would be getting ready by strecthing etc. while Lorna looks to the front looking nervous.
• For the next two lines: Lorna would move to the centre with Ollie and I at her side just behind her. James goes just in front of Lorna to the side and Rob goes up in front of Lorna. She looks at Rob hopefully but shakes his head whilst saying his line.
• He pushes her shoulder back and she falls backwards where Ollie and I catch her and lift her up as James and Rob lift up her legs.
• Rob and James let go of her legs as Ollie and I catch her in a swing carry. We then swing her a couple of times and throw her down.

We changed this idea for the following as we feel this looks more impressive:

• For the first two lines we do the same thing.
• For the next two, Ollie and I do the same thing while Rob and James go to their original positions but instead shake hands as James gets the acting job rather than Lorna. Lorna looks at Rob yearningly and does a pirouette to try to impress him but the pair walk off behind Lorna.
• Ollie and I then lift Lorna by her legs in a pencil lift and then let her fall backwards where James and Rob catch her.
• Ollie and I then put her legs down and throw her forward onto the floor.

We though this represented the meaning of the song better as Lorna's hopes were so high yet they fell so sharply.

For the next chorus, we wanted to focus on Ollie's character, a businessman who is intimidated by the hustle and bustle of the busy city. For this I wanted to use Round-By-Through as it is a very "frantic" physical theatre technique by Frantic Assembly. I thought it would be very effective at portraying the busyness of a modern day city. Below is how we arranged the scene:

• As we throw Lorna down she rolls into the position of a homeless woman and looks cold and depressed. The rest of us disperse and interact with each other using RBT.
• I spin Rob around, shift Ollie's weight by lifting him with my shoulder and then turn around James.
• After this Rob, James and I go back to our original staggered formation positions. 
• Ollie walk around Lorna who pulls at his ankles and holds her hands out longingly. The pair then return to their original positions.

For the next section ("You have a house in the hills...") we stand still in our original positions and speak the entire section.

For the slow piano solo, we cover Rob's section. We changed Rob's character into a teacher as we thought there was a lot more we could do with this rather than just a newspaper boy. For his scene we came up with the following movement:

• Lorna goes into a table top, while Ollie gets on his hands and knees behind her representing a desk and chair.
• Rob then sits on his "chair" and James and I continuously bring in paper for Rob to mark. This shows how Rob's life is getting busier and busier.

This is as far as we got with this song today but by next lesson we should have this song completed and ready to record.

Triple - Musical Theatre Unit (RENT) - Blog 28 - 09/01/17

Today we ran through all of act two and below are the following notes we received to improve (the following are the improvements which regard me):

• La Vie Boheme: During this song we really do need to bump up the energy. It's one of the happiest songs in the musical and we're not doing it justice with our current energy levels. Also everytime Alice and I have performed our short section ("Emotion, Devotion...") we end up crashing into Owen and Taylor as we walk past them. From now on we'll walk around the outside of them from around the table.
• I'll Cover You (Reprise): During this song, my diction needs to improve so the audience can fully understand everything I'm saying. Also, when singing, I need to look up from Angel's coffin at some point. The song at the moment feels very detached from the audience which shouldn't be the case at all; I should be relaying my feelings to the audience.
• Goodbye Love: When it comes to the transition from I'll Cover You (Reprise) we are now going to leave the table onstage.

Next lesson, we will perform a full runthrough of the entire show.

Single - Devised Unit (Ghost Stories) - Blog 1 - 05/01/17 & 06/01/17

Triple - Musical Theatre Unit (RENT) - Blog 27 - 06/01/17

Today in Rent, we worked a considerable amount on the transitions and working out things like set and props we haven't yet thought about. These included things like when should a table be taken off, who is taking it off and where it should go after being taken off. In our selection of props under the stage, I found a basket, scrap wood and an empty bottle which I could use in "Today 4 U" where I bring in food etc for Marka and Roger. The only things I'd need for that song is an empty box of cigarettes (Malboro), a packet of ground coffee (Bustelo), a box of cereal (a box of captain crunch would taste so good!) and a bunch of bananas (banana by the bunch). All of these will be easy to find and this would mean I can show off all items Collins mentions in "Today 4 U".

I have only one duty in terms of transitions and that's to take off the armchair we have in place during "You'll See Boys". Besides this, all I have to do is make sure I know when I have to exit and enter and do so.

As well as this, I have a few extra responsibilities:

• prepare lots of rock band posters for Mark and Rogers apartment.
• prepare and print the tickets and posters for the performance.

Below are the designs I have made for the tickets and posters for the performance:

The posters I will print out will be of not only the popular rock bands of the era of Rent (80's - 90's music) but I will include timeless rock bands such as Queen. Below are the artists I'll be using:

• Nirvana
• Queen
• Led Zepplin
• The Rolling Stones
• Guns n' Roses
• AC/DC
• Bon Jovi
• Metallica
• Pink Floyd
• The Beatles
• Green Day
• Red Hot Chili Peppers
• Creedence Clearwater Revival

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.

Double - Performance Workshop - Blog 1 - 04/01/17

Today we started work on our Performance Workshop Unit where we would take inspiration from another art form and explore the creative opportunities we have available to produce an original production. The stimulus we're using is a selection of songs from the musical, Songs For A New World. The songs include:

• A New World
• The River Won't Flow
• The Stars and Moon
• She Cries
• The World Was Dancing
• King of the World
• Hear My Song

We began this lesson listening to each of the songs and thought about what each one made us think about. After this, we planned out how we were going to tackle the task of creating a performance. We decided that ready for next lesson, we'd come in with a plan on how we'd perform the very first song: whether we'd sing it with movement based around it, whether we'd act it out, whatever came to our minds.

Below are the notes I'd made on this song:

My idea for this scene would be to have us all speak each line in turn whilst standing in formation. I got this idea from the Children in Need 2011 single "Teardrop" by The Collective (here). The song isn't really sung during the verses and are more spoken poetry with music in the background. I feel this style of song is very effective at getting the audience to listen to the lyrics and connect to the story being told. From my analysis, I grew to realise that this song has a lot of meaning to be uncovered just by listening to the lyrics and performing the song in this style would ensure the audience would listen more.

With a style like this, our storytelling techniques need to be strong otherwise the audience will lose interest rapidly. An inspirational storyteller of the same sort of genre is Richard Williams, an American spoken word artist. Better known by his stage name, Prince Ea, Richard creates motivational videos where he speaks about topics like politics, the school system and humanity over subtle instrumental music. His videos have racked up millions of views so it suggests he's doing something right. His variation of tone and speed keep the audience captivated but his clever wordplay is what hooks them.

Next lesson, I will relay this spoken word idea to the rest of the group.