Thursday 26th - Week 4

Thursday 26th November 2015

At the beginning of the lesson we spent an hour and a half speaking about the whole performance. This gave the whole class a chance to speak about and understand the picture of the whole performance. We also had to work out the minute to minute timings:

1-2= Mia, Rio and Esme lead the audience in and Aaron is at the food stall 

*At the moment we still do not have a method of entering the room whilst staying in character which needs working on next time. Esme will need to tag along at the back and not be noticable. 

3-4= Zafra steals the oranges and takes them back as well as the washing line being dropped

*Needs polishing as every time some part of it goes wrong however it is a good method of transporting the audience. 

5-6= Gesture theatre dance piece leads into the box opening and child being trafficked (Esme and Amelia trafficking and Poppy, Lili and Ruby for the gesture piece)

*Trafficking scene needs to be longer and should involve the building of tension using a soundscape

7-9= Charlie and Ruby dance on top of boxes to show a girl being taken off the streets and see that other life whilst the commuinity of homeless children lie below (Zafra, Poppy, Aaron, Lili, Ruby at first, Aaron)

10= exit

I spoke for my group to the whole class about the structure of the whole piece and the role of the audience, which we had decided will be tourists. The whole piece will begin by the sound of an airport and and an announcement saying "thank you for flying with Emeritz airline", which will be pre recorded.

This photo shows the running order of the whole performance and the format of the rooms (on the bottom right of the board) 

The above photo helped me to see the performance as a whole.

During the lesson we received the structure of the performance. The audience we receive are coming from the 'Syria' scene, it was my idea to use an airline which goes to eastern countries. Also, the audience will receive a booklet/ map of India by an air steward so they know where they are without it being specifically stated.
After the whole class had discussed ideas, we began to set up our scene, collecting cardboard from the recycling bin and working out how we can create the set.We later worked on the last part with the gesture theatre. It worked really well and we made a lot of progress because everyone had an input of ideas and also listened to and interpreted others ideas.

Amelia and I realized that the only thing which has been consistent in our performance is having the trafficker character. In our soup kitchen idea we still had the trafficker, now we have traveled half way around the world and everything has changed and adapted to the task and the cast.

In some of my reaserch i found this video. I had not realised that so many children were made homeless each day. https://youtu.be/SZvokDa9AkU

I have contributed many ideas during the devising process. Some of these have been what airlines to use linking our scene to the whole performance, having the oranges scene which is including naturalism theatre in our piece. Amelia and I thought of the idea of having Mixed media on a wall with photos and images and stories relating to the scene we are doing. I came up with the idea of having rag dolls. I had the idea of having a 'community' of street children. This was inspired by some research that I did, where it said how dangerous it was for homeless youths to be alone on the street because they are subject to sex and human traffickers and other dangerous people and how if they stay together, it is easier for them to survive. From this came the idea for who the trafficker takes. We already had the character of the trafficker from one of our original ideas, however, now the child she targets is the only child who is alone in the scene. When we decided that the audience's part in the scene is as tourists, I had the idea that we hand them a small map of India, therefor we do not have to state where they are and it uses different techniques. We later developed this idea so that the audience would be given a map of India on one side and a 'boarding pass' on the other. During the lesson we thought that we could have the sound of a baby crying in a box. I suggested that the sound could be coming from a phone because we could not work out how to make have the crying sound playing during the performance. As well as having to cut ideas from the scene because they are not working, the majority of my ideas have been small details and ideas which complete and tighten the scene of the Indian homeless children.

During this rehearsal we lost 2 of our scene characters, who are now going to be acting as British homeless children who take the audience from scene to scene during the performance. This did throw the group a little, however, we quickly adjusted and began on our work. During the lesson we finalized a props list as well:

Monday 23rd - Week 4

Monday 23rd November 2015

Our target for today's lesson was to run through our whole scene and work on the weaker parts. It took a while at the beginning to work out how we will have the washing line. Instead of moving the audience inside it, we have it covering around the door but still with the stall on the side of the audience. This stops the audience from moving straight into the room and from seeing the whole set straight away, focusing their attentions on the stall and the images covering the wall. I will go in and steal some oranges and other characters will begin to speak to the audience, whilst that is happening the washing line will begin to move in, then back out. Then the curtain is dropped and the audience are moved along by the begging children. They see the children eating the oranges and that starts the first gesture piece. We were originally going to have everyone doing a piece of gesture theatre to show a busy/ chaotic day however we found that it would be disorientating for the audience and the focus may be lost so it was cut to just Ruby, Lili and Poppy doing a synchronized piece.

By the end of the lesson we had an updated list of props to bring and had an outline of the whole structure. We know that our next focus is the individual scenes. Last week we went from having the parts but no transitions and now we have the opposite situation, however, everyone has contributed their ideas for making the scenes. As co-director I felt quite tested at the beginning of the lesson. Due to some people not giving it their all, there was some friction between some of the cast. However, after it had been worked out, I found that the group followed instruction more and were working very constructively. Overall we made quite a lot of progress in this lesson. Also having a clear structure helps the whole group clearly see the whole picture.

Sections:

Entering with the audience: Rio, Max and Esme
Food Stall: Aaron tends the stall, Zafra and Natasha steal oranges and play catch
Washing line: Charlie, Poppy and Lili hold up the washing line whilst Natasha and Zafra play catch and then drop it down to let the audience pass through (it was at first blocking their way and their view).
Oranges: Zafra, Ruby and Poppy eat the oranges and share them around. Lili, Poppy and Ruby steal the oranges and begin their day in the life.
Day in the life: Ruby, Poppy and Lili create gesture theatre to show a day in the life that ends with them opening up the box and scurrying away to the community.
Box: Amelia sat inside with stories and drawings on the flaps
Trafficked: Esme walks up and whispers promises in Amelia's ear. She is lead away but begins to struggle. Some dialogue to be added (perhaps begging the audience to help her).
Community: Zafra, Rio, Poppy, Ruby, Max, Lili, (Aaron?), Natasha are trying to get to sleep under the arches of a bridge (a sideways shelf). Mia and Charlie begin to create their scene through gesture.
Couple: Meet, fall in love and have a baby, child taken from them or abandoned and couple leave the room.
Abandoned child: Left in the arms of a stranger who cares for it (homeless child caring for another now homeless child). 

Thursday 19th - Week 3

Thursday 19th November 2015

In today's lesson we focused on the beginning and end of our scene. We started with an activity which taught us to use gesture theatre. We were in groups of 3 and were given 3 places, which were at home, at work and at a restaurant. For each of these scenes we needed  to create 3 movements each. With this we created a small piece of gesture theatre, exaggerating all the movements. When we performed it infront of the class, the music gradually became faster, speeding up our performance. This activity helped us to explore more types of theatre which we can use in our performance. The activity was inspired by the work of gecko theatre who use gesture/ physical theatre to create a moving performance.In their work, the scene forms around the actor, still keeping the scene clear and easy for the audience to interpret because of its flowing dance-like movements and transitions. Gecko theatre's performances have very smooth transitions which we are hoping to incorporate in our scene.

During the lesson we spoke about how we will use the space and what props still needed to be organised. We also discussed as a group different techniques of theatre will be used. We began by working on the dilemma of who the audience will be, keeping relevant to the scene they are stepping in. We had the idea of a police officer escorting them out of the room, however, that did not solve the problem of how we will move the audience through the space.

 After a while, we re-created the map, still similar to the previous one, however, we included more gesture theatre and audience interaction. From this new map out ideas of how we move the audience through the space began to grow. We would start with people holding up a washing line near the door where the audience walk in. this means that we limit them from seeing the whole room and stopping them from wondering off. We then close it around them, having actors go in and speak to them. Whilst this is happening, we transport the audience, still inside the washing line, to the next scene, where we see me and others eating oranges. During that piece of eating the oranges, Ruby will be trying to get the audience to give her money whilst she is juggling, followed by Ruby, Poppy and Lili doing a piece of gesture theatre about a day in the life of a street child, creating a transition, which leads the audience's focouse onto the next scene. Their piece will end in them opening a box, inside we will have one of our actors surrounded by images and words about her life as a street child. While the audience are looking at the box and information, the three girls will go to the end scene, which involves the homeless children sleeping under a bridge, where on top another piece of gesture theatre is happening, in which two more privileged people will be telling their story. It will show the couple meeting, falling in love all of which is symbolizes the ease of their lives compared to the homeless children, which the audience has just seen the difficulty in which they live. At the end of the gesture theatre piece, they will have a child which they will abandon because she is a girl. In India many young girls are abandoned because society does not allow them to earn as much as men, costing the family more than it will benefit them. The way we will show the baby to be a girl is by having her wrapped in a pink blanket.
The child in the box is also approached by a traffiker, who will first seem as if she is offering the child safety, but then goes on to blindfold her and drag her away to be sold. This will not be very load, however there will be a struggle. Due to the new ideas and changes of the scene, we could begin to rehearse parts of our scene.

During the devising process we needed to keep in mind that the scene needed to be reset almost immediately because the audience come in straight after, and the scene is repeated 5 times. Although the scene has changed, it is still take place in the course of the day, the audience are arriving as tourists in India, early in the morning and the piece finishes at night with the homeless children going to sleep. We cut the use of a video because of the more structured movement of the audience.


Props:
cardboard boxes, oranges, litter/ rubbish, materials to make the rag dolls and to be on Aarons stall, larger box, we will make use of the white corners which are already in The Space, as well as using shelves from the rooms upstairs for the end section. We would like to have an orange cellophane over the lights to stop it from being such a harsh light. A doll to be the child at the end, portable speakers as well as the over head sound of traffic. Advertisements for big companies like Coka-cola which are found internationally and images drawn by children and first hand accounts.
I bought in string and sheets which will be used for the washing line which helped us begin the rehearsal. We have moves a little away from immersive theatre and we are now using different types of theatre such as physical and gesture theatre, which allows us to use more of the space and have a variation in our performance, immersive theatre when in contact with the audience and allowing them to read the things on the walls. These choices have been made by the whole group so that it highlights a day in the life of a homeless child. It also gets the point of the performance across.
The title of the whole performance is 'Kids In Camps', this is why we show children together in a community, making a camp at night to sleep in.

Monday 16th - Week 3

Monday 16th November 2015

In this lesson, we began by working on our blogs. Then we went to the classroom and did a warm up to help the group who are devising the scene 'North Korea'. In a circle one person started a movement and everyone had to copy. Once the person who is next to them sees that everyone is copying the movement, they change it and so on. This helps to create the controlled physicality of a soldier/guard which is necessary for their scene.

In our group we spoke about our performance. We started by going through the scene, which takes place in the space of a day on a street in India. The piece does not tell a story because we feel as though that would not be as immersive as 'stepping' into a street, with the smells and sounds. There will still be true stories written on the wall, with a simple rag-dolls to represent that child, however, we want to have as little story telling speech as possible.

We then asked for everyone to contribute ideas and thoughts to the group. Mainly, everyone thought the use of soundscape and immersive smells and sounds went with our idea for the devising piece. To make sure the audience move through the 'street', we have made the decision to have my character run and steel something from Aarons stall and run away. This gives him reason to say move along or 'get lost' to the audience through his annoyance, so they will move along and see the rest of the performance. The piece will contain the techniques of a soundscape (for the sounds of traffic), a video which will be behind the cardboard (pre-filmed) which the audience will have ti look through a gap to see. The video will contain a more disturbing side of what happens to children living on the streets. It is most likely to be a video of someone's face in the dark saying ' is he gone yet', allowing the audience to use their imaginations. The scene will also contain a freeze-frame when the girl is being taken by the human trafficker and also physical theatre. We are hoping to use silhouettes behind the 'walls' which are sheets, showing the girl being taken. This will have the sound of a heartbeat behind it and the 'community' of street kids will breath deeply in time to heart beat (so their movement is visible). This will be effective because it builds tension in the room as well as concluding our scene.

Thursday 12th - Week 2

Thursday 12th November 2015

We spent the first hour sharing our scene's initial ideas with the whole cast of the performance, receiving feedback and thoughts to consider. By seeing the ideas of other groups we felt that our scene was unspecific and did not have a flow to it, causing the monologues to seem meaningless and not giving the effect of immersive theatre.

 It was very helpful to see how the whole performance is going to look and also gave me inspiration on how to change ours. As a cast we decided, when presenting our piece that we would no longer base it in a soup kitchen in Britain but instead in India. This gave us more room to explore immersive ideas and characters such as traffickers, where as before the trafficker seemed out of place. After brainstorming our new ideas we felt as a group more positive about where we were leading our scene because we felt that street kids in India was more fitting to the targets for devising and would not be character based.

Although we completely turned around our scene, everyone contributed many ideas, which we then realised we needed to cut down. We created a map of the room which was now going to be a street in India, where different events will occur. The decision was made to not make the scene a structured story but instead create a scene where the audience are stepping into reality.

The group began to all think of specific ideas once we had an thought of how the room would be set. This included having true stories hand written on the walls with rag-dolls representing the children, along with graffiti, posters and children's drawings.

The street itself will be crafted by cardboard boxes, representing the temporary homes of the children. It will create an M/ zig-zag shape to allow the audience to move through the 'street', discovering new parts as they go. We intend to have the sounds of cars, especially near the 'community' of homeless children so the audience wonder how they get to sleep.




Performance proposal:

Our performance is set in a street in India, showing how homeless children live. The idea is that the audience are stepping into real life, where we will use the set, smells and sounds to create the immersive theatre piece. The scene does not have a set structure. The operformers will not tell stories, but we will have stories written on the wall. These will be first hand accounts from children who live on the streets in India. The sounds will be of traffic, to show the background noise that the children live with. The actors will be showing how these children live. The one girl who is alone will be taken away by the trafficer, who will bw seen as the audience are leaving, trying to tell her. Everything needs to be simple but obvious, so we can build layers of details. This will be effective because it will show the reality of how homeless children live.


equipment:

cardboard boxes
rage/ material
Rice/ relevant foods
juggling equipment
incense
tea bags
portable speakers
p[lastic cups and bottles
traffic sounds for soundscape
bin bags
posters and graffiti to mark the walls
sheets/towels

costume:
oversized t-shirts
shorts

Monday 9th - Week 2

Monday 9th November 2015

This lesson was spent in the computer room, where Amelia and I, as the directors, began to work out the casting. We also organised and extra rehersal to help us begin to stage the performance. As a group we discussed ideas for the performance.

Character reaserch:
My character is a volunteer at the soup kitchin. The idea of her character in the story is to give facts and statistics about homeless youth. Mine and Poppy's characters are both volunteers who bring a more positive side to the performance.
In a campaign video, it starts off with negative stories, thoughts and statistics, however, usually ends on a poitive note. This is how we are thinking of basing this performance. We must be aware not to make the volunteers a stereotype.
personality trait layers:
Physicality
Voice
Energy
Status
Objective
Super objective


The play is designed to make the audience think about the deeper meaning. When they next watch Comic Relief or Children in Need, we want the audience to think about what is actually happening to these people who are suffering, put on camera at their worst and no dignity left.

One of the first lines will be "cut, the boom mike is not working". Whilst the directors and volunteers backs are turned, a human trafficker comes in and takes someone away.

Thursday 5th - Week 1

Thursday 5th November 2015

In this class we were given a new title for our scene because Madrassas are a place of education, not a camp. Our new title is 'Homeless children'. This opened up new ideas to help us explore immersive theatre.
In our group, I was a live blogger, collecting and editing information for a research blog. As a whole class we did general research into homeless children. Children live on the streets for many different reasons and our whole performance will hopefully show a range of situations. We had textual researchers who found information about homeless children from the library, Online researchers who found link to useful websites and information. We then began to brainstorm thoughts, ideas and words which will help us to create the performance. We then began to devise the piece using our initial ideas.

We worked with different ideas such as Christmas carolers as volunteers handing out blanket to the homeless, however, this idea was scrapped and we decided to set the scene in a soup kitchen, allowing us to bring some positives to the piece. We then found the idea of filming a campaign video to help those in need and raise awareness. When the camera roll is 'cut', we would have monologues, based off true stories from homeless youth. this is meant to make the audience think next time they watch a campaign video about what is happening behind  the scenes
We found that many true stories of youths showed that they were grateful to soup kitchens.

Monday 2nd - Week 1

Year 10 Theatre Term 2 Devising

Monday 2nd November 2015

The title of this devising unit is 'Kids In Camps'. In the computer room, we were split into groups and given the theme/title of our scene. My group was given the title 'Madrassas', however, Madrassas are not camps and do not fit with the title.