The Show

The Show

Kids In Camps

In rehearsals, I found that our ideas were changing from lesson one to the day of the show. At first it was big changes such as where the scene is set or who the characters are. Nearer the show little details changed or were added to help build the depth of the scene.
It was also a challenge to rehearse without an audience because we had to consider how much space they would take up, as well as predict where they will move. We did not know for definite until we were doing the performance, which involved the whole group thinking on their feet.
There is quite a lot of background research needed before we started creating the performance because we did not want to stereotype or offend anyone. It was hard to find enough research which is relevant to allow us to base our performance on fact.
The Space, which is the room our scene was performed in, is very large, and as a group we found it hard to utilize the space well.
Another challenge the whole group has faced from the beginning is the many voices. As directors, Amelia and I found it a challenge, which I believe we rose to, to listen to all the voices in the group and take into consideration all ideas. Some had to be cut because they were not logical in the space we had or the time frame in which we had to make the production.

When shaping the material we were going to use, we had to find topics which we knew we could expand on. It was hard to find first hand stories from what our production is about and our ideas were constantly changing. Some parts were changed because they did not work, or broke the flow of the performance, or we had found a new topic which we wanted to explore.
We had to build a certain amount of information to support our performance and help to build the layers in the devising process. We also wanted to use different techniques such as multi-media, physical/gesture theatre, immersive and sensory, which I believe we achieved.
We originally started with the idea of homeless youth telling the audience stories as they sat at a soup kitchen. This was set in England. However, our idea changed to street kids in India because we did not have meaningful enough ideas. This gave us a lot more to explore and it was more connected with the audience, as immersive theatre should be.
The whole cast realized how real these problems are because of the current news, which did make everyone realize that this is a serious topic and a lot of thought has to go into it.
It took a long while to decide how we would move the audience around the space. We originally thought that we would let the audience wander around themselves but then we realized that audience members can be sheepish and not want to move into the space. Also, we had no clear ending which would make the audience leave, so the group changed it so that the audience are moved around in the washing line, which also stops them from seeing the whole of the space and directs the attention of the audience to the scene which is happening there.

The performance went very well with only a couple of mistakes. The audience had quite a few stragglers, which were dealt with very well by the tour guides and British homeless children. The first performance we did only lasted 5 minutes, so the next 4 we extended the oranges scene and the performance lasted longer. The washing line did begin to fall apart in the last performance so the cast had to adapt to make it last until the end. The last audience went 'aww' when the oranges scene happened because they felt empathy towards the story of the two girls. Later, at the photograph scene, they also felt empathetic towards the girl who was having to experience something which is so far away from their everyday life.
The end of the whole performance went well because everyone sang with a strong force behind them. I was confident when I went and found an audience member. I felt my performance was strong and I am happy with the result of our scene. I have had to listened to many voices, compromise/ be resourceful and edit ideas. Although it has been a long process, I definitely feel a sense of satisfaction and achievement.

During the devising process, I have learnt that you must always keep an open mind to new ideas and not stay fixated on one path. This is important because there is a lot of information to process in the performance and often there is a clearer way of portraying it or your idea does not fit with the developing ideas or logistics of the performance. In simpler terms, the devising process is a journey and you do not know what is around the corner, so you must keep your eyes open as you step into the unknown. 10 minutes is too short a time to cover every thought, idea and fact which we have found, therefor we had to focus on detail and depth and not skip over important information.
The set and props were one of the last things we had in our performance, other than our audience. I think this is because the different parts of the scene demanded different things of the set.
At the beginning we had a clear idea about what our set would be, however, as we put more thought into our performance and performance ideas we thought less about the set.

I think the most important thing for me in this performance has been commitment. As co-directors, Amelia and I have both seen that the most committed people have contributed the most to this performance, both in ideas and the performance. I have been fully committed during this module because otherwise our performance would not have been powerful and affect the audience. At the beginning I was too fixated on certain ideas and I later realized that the performance will not move on if we are not open to a range of thoughts. There have been times during the performance process when I felt like we were not getting anywhere and the performance was not developing, however, if i could go back and tell myself one thing, it would be to keep going.