Double - Performance Workshop (Sweeney Todd) - Blog 14 - 10/03/17

Today, we spent the entire lesson singing through all of the songs in the show (up to “By The Sea” as this was all we had time for). This helped us all with going over tricky parts of different songs which we wouldn’t have time to go over when working on the scene.

For my song with Todd, “Pretty Women,” we did extremely well with only one timing error towards the end of the song. From “Blowing out the candle,” to “How they make a man sing,” we found the timing very difficult as it’s different for both characters.  After a couple more tries, we got the hang of it but we will meet at lunchtimes so rehearse this in order to get it right.

Besides Pretty Women, no other songs had any issues; the opening song during our prologue is the only other song I sing in which went very well too. All the other songs went incredibly well too and I’m confident that we’re making great progress leading up to the final weeks of rehearsals.

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.

Double - Performance Workshop (Sweeney Todd) - Blog 12 - 06/03/17

Today we had an extra hour afterschool so that we could runthrough somethings with Taylor and Alice, so we got a lot done!

Firstly, after setting up the stage, we experimented with our idea of being able to go underneath the stage and go up onto the stage through the trapdoor as opposed to the walking back out through the entrance. We placed a ladder underneath the stage below the open trapdoor, placed warning signs around the trapdoor, and tested it. This worked incredibly well and this allowed us to be a lot more experimental with the way we have characters enter and exit. For example, if someone exits from the stage curtain, they can appear again from underneath the stage by climbing down the ladder which wouldn’t be visible by the audience at all!

We also worked out how Todd would cut throats in his chair and have the bodies exit slyly without the audience noticing. We’d have the victim die, the seat would be swivelled round so that the back is facing the audience, Todd would lift the sheet across his clients front and hold it up as if he were examining it. While the victim isn’t visible, he exits behind the curtain and when Todd lowers the sheet, he swivels the chair back round to show and empty seat ready for the next shave. The sheet works extremely well as before, when the victim left the chair they were seen from nearly all angles and although the audience would obviously know this is what was happening, it still looks unprofessional and we want to create a proficient performance.

We also completely blocked out “God That’s Good,” the opening to Act Two and introduces the recent illegitimate upgrade Mrs Lovett has made to her business. We had plenty of issues after our first idea but below is the finished plan.:

• Dan and Ollie K start sitting at the table and chairs in the centre, Rob by Sweeney’s chair, Lorna by Lovett’s counter, Ollie M (a spare cast member who has volunteered to step in for this scene) is sitting on the stage block staircase and James on the table Ollie and Dan are sitting at. We’d all be in a freeze frame besides James who starts addressing the audience with his opening “Ladies and gentlemen speech.” Once he finishes (“just inside of this door!”) we all unfreeze back into the now busy shop environment. James interacts with Dan and Ollie, taking their pies away from them, taking a bite from one and telling them all about Mrs Lovett’s business.
• On “Toby//Coming!//Ale there!” Alice and I enter from the main stage door into Mrs Lovett’s shop and Toby comes to us giving us pies and ale. On “nice to see you, dearie, how have you been keeping…” Alice and I are sitting on the stage block staircase and converse with Ollie and Lovett. During this Taylor, the beggar woman, will enter from the curtain and come towards us. On, “Toby! Throw the old woman out,” beggar woman gets a bit too close for comfort to me and Alice and James throws the old woman out.
• During, “Eat them slow…” Toby and Lovett serenade Dan and Ollie K, while I suggest to Ollie M that he goes to Todd’s parlour for a good shave. On, “Hold it- Bless my eyes,” everyone freezes excluding Lovett, Todd and Ollie M. Ollie M is midway through climbing the steps to Todd’s parlour and Lovett gets happy as this means more meat, which means more pies, which means more customers. Once Ollie M is greeted by Todd and Lovett starts singing again, everyone unfreezes and continues. Taylor makes her way back into the store and hinders Alice and I again and on “Toby” Throw the old woman out!” Toby removes Taylor once more and thus the end of the scene.

Below are the issues we encountered before:

• We originally had Ollie K, meet Todd for a shave and I and Dan in each other’s places: Dan with Alice, me with Ollie. However, we felt, although we’ll be out of costume, Ollie and I would look far too much like Turpin and Beadle and Ollie’s throat being slit with this misinterpretation in the audience’s mind would cause far too much confusion later when Beadle appears whom the audience would then already believe to be dead.
• Before, James entered from behind the audience but we felt that this didn’t work well for movement and having him up high on the table resembles quite well to his original “Ladies and gentlemen,” from Pirelli’s Miracle Elixir.
• We did have Taylor enter from the main stage door too but she wouldn’t be very noticeable by the audience as the stage block staircase is only 5 feet away from the door so her hindering Alice and I would be completely missed. Up on the stage however, she can be seen by all and James throwing her out is loud and easily seen also.

We also completed The Epiphany too! Before we weren’t sure of what we’d be able to do but as we had Taylor and Alice, we had a much better idea of what we could do. Below is what we have blocked:

• Rob jumps down from the stage on “Finished!” and the entire chorus enters the stage and walk from end to end in varying speeds as if we were on the streets of London; Taylor and Tom from underneath the stage, Alice and I from stage right, and Ollie and James from stage left.
• While walking, we all completely blank Todd out as we’re only visions in his head. Todd sings at us violently, threating us with his razors. On, “I will have vengeance,” we all stop and Todd looks up to the skies and sings in woe.
• On, “Who sir? You sir?” Todd comes up to our frozen bodies and threatens us; we ignore him completely. On, “Not one man…” we all exit in our pairs, James and Ollie stage right, Alice and I stage left, and Taylor and Tom under the stage. Whilst we do this sings to the skies again. On “And I will get him back…” Todd sings threateningly, swiping his knife outwards. On, “And my Lucy lies in ashes,” he falls to the floor and keens one last time.
• To end and transfer into A Little Priest, Lovett is stands at the top of the steps with Dan’s body and says her line.

We only had one real issue with this scene and that was whether we can have Dan in this scene. We originally wanted to have Dan as a chorus member but we realised this wouldn’t work for two reasons. Firstly, there isn’t any way he can be in this song and then be back up on the stage to be a dead body for A Little Priest. Secondly, he would need to be in costume for A Little Priest but in blacks for The Epiphany. So even if he could make it up to stage in time, he would need to quickly throw on his cape which isn’t enough time at all.

Finally, we went through the prologue with Alice and Taylor here to show them what they do and then ran it with them which went very well.

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”.

Double - Performance Workshop (Sweeney Todd) - Blog 11 - 03/03/17 ADD VIDEO

Today we blocked everything for the quirky number, “By The Sea”. With this song we wanted to create an illusion, much like in The Epiphany, to show that this clearly isn’t reality. We experimented with ways we could show this but we wanted to do something different compared to cast members walking in and out of the scene which would simply be copying The Epiphany. We thought about using a sheet like the boat in the opening prologue but we felt that it wouldn’t work unless we had plenty of things to do with it. So we used one we already have and experimented with it to see what we could create with just one sheet. From this we came up with:

A swing:

A hammock:

Wedding canopy:

And water (obviously the sheet would have to be blue): 

Below is the outline of how the scene will go:

Lorna and Rob start upstairs in the barber shop and the song starts and Mrs Lovett is all over Todd. On, “Where I’d really like to go,” Ollie and I enter from the side and hold open a blue sheet facing the audience and James is walking behind it but only his upper body is visible and he is pretending to swim. Mrs Lovett and Todd also start walking down into what was once their pie shop.

On “By the sea, Mr Todd, that’s the life I covet”, Ollie and I lay the sheet on the floor and wave it around like it’s a river and James is splashing about it in childlike. Lorna then proceeds to join him and on Rob’s line, “Anything you say,” he steps into the river begrudgingly and has a small splash.

On, “Think how snug it’ll be…” the family step off of the sheet and Ollie and I lift it up and lay it on the stage block behind us which was a table in the pie shop before. By the line, “we’ll have chums over every Friday,” the family and Ollie and I are gathered around the table, which has the sheet as a homely tablecloth.

For the next verse, Ollie and I lift up the sheet and hold it over our shoulders as a swing again and Lorna pushes an unenthusiastic Rob as she sings about seagulls. On, “But a seaside wedding,” Rob hops down and Ollie and I hold the sheet above them as a wedding canopy and they stand as they are ready to be wed.

Below is a video of the final scene:

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! 

Double - Performance Workshop (Sweeney Todd) - Blog 10 - 01/03/17 ADD VIDEO

Today, while Lorna, Rob and Dan continued on with A Little Priest, Ollie, Tom and I worked on Johanna.

In this song, Anthony ganders at the Johanna which angers Judge Turpin and he orders Beadle to “dispose of him”. We staged this so that Alice (Johanna) is standing on the right on the stage, locked away in her bedroom and Tom (Anthony is standing on the floor, just in front of her singing up to her. We realised that his back is facing the audience in this part which removes all the emotion so we have him looking upwards facing the audience as it’s still clear that he’s singing to her.

Ollie and I enter from under the stage as if we were just randomly walking and we stumble upon Anthony without him noticing and we walk closer inspecting him. On “I’ll steal you Johanna,” I look at Beadle and look back at Anthony which is a clear order to attack him. When Tom finishes singing, I cough to which he turns into a strike from Beadle’s cane. Fallen to the floor, Anthony is forced to face me by Beadle. After telling him to leave and never come back, I walk back to my home and talk with Johanna closely followed by Beadle after he threatens Anthony once more. We all exit excluding Anthony who sings his last verse and exits.

Below is a video of this scene and finally a finished “A Little Priest.” The only thing that needs to be done with A Little Priest is to rehearse the waltz midway through as this could do with improvement.