To begin with I would like to start by saying it was an all round positive performance even though we didn't have maximum capacity audience members to fully commit to our piece. At the beginning we failed to really reel in the audience as there were 5 out of 20 audience members and therefore the lines we said were basically directed at a specific point of the space and not to the audience directly.
It came to a point in the piece where we were not emotionally engaged and I felt that we just did things because we had to, not because we felt it and although we received a positive grade I feel to next time secure it fully without uncertainty we should always be emotionally active. To make sure this is used to practice, it would be good to do a scene over and over again until we realise and understand the theme of that particular moment to then go off and know why that is happening, and why we reacted the way we did in that moment.
However there were really special moments where there was silence and we came to a movement of toys to symbolise the children's toys almost being them and how they were being controlled by the adults. This didn't break the fourth wall just yet but allowed the audience to have a clearer understanding of the base of this play if they didn't know the true story behind it and from this we were able to tell a story in a much more theatrical way for the audience members
My most memorable moment would have to be the conclusion when the news reporter had to report the missing children after police investigations. This was a nearly impossible task to do as the original actor for that part wasn't there for the performance so I had to fill in and improvise with what I felt would be suitable for a news report and how to address the parents at home (the audience) to keep their children at home. This not only broke the fourth wall between the actors and the audience but it also brought them to an area of discomfort and this was only a positive as it made our performance effective.
Overall it was a positive performance and all actors involved were full of energy even though we didn't have a full capacity of audience members we still were able to feed off each other and produce something well working for. Next time we need to ensure that whatever the performance type or space we do our piece in, we let people know that it's for a specific amount of people and for them to be on time and to know the location.
Monday, 18 March 2013
Monday, 11 February 2013
Devising
My Role in this performance is one I enjoy but in all honesty I would've preferred a much bigger role in some aspects but from here, we get the job done and we move on the newer things.
I'm one of the youngest children in a true story carried out by Ian Brady and Myra Hindley between July 1963 and October 1965 which whom murdered and raped 5 children and also known as the Moors Murders. And for this role I had to have this change of both being a young child and the transition of turning that into someone who would be classified as a rapist and to be honest I didn't feel comfortable at all but if this can send a positive message that raping must stop because it destroys lives then I'll do it. Ideas I have offered is to be really sensitive and know who we target as an audience and who would find it really upsetting or hurtful. With this being tha case we made it less explicit in terms of letting the audience in on a true story and more of an unnatralistic way of performing it.
As said in previous posts we decided as a group we would be exploring a way in which we would be aware of our surroundings, especially because of the parents and children walking by. We found that bringing the audience inside the space instead of inside or at the top would break the fourth wall between us and them without fail and also would make the piece directly towards them not anyone in the outside world.
The image of the space was quite fundamental to the site as well as other things but image was key. We made this decision that the image would be the most clear out of all the other factors of our site and we decided that we would use almost every piece of prop available to us.
The sound of an occasional aeroplane flying past was used to our advantage and we were able to feed off the energy that gave us to push a true story out there with no holds barred.
We introduced the physical side of things when we came to the matter of how the couple met each other and created a short narrative story of their relationship. We included a physical piece with a set of emotions; happy at first meet and anger and jealousy near the end then having him control her and use her to take children away from their parents.
In relation the character choices we made sure each of us had a different trait in a 5/6 year old. For example, I had a toy that would march left and right, another actor had a toy movement that would have their hand moving up and down above their head and so on.
I'm one of the youngest children in a true story carried out by Ian Brady and Myra Hindley between July 1963 and October 1965 which whom murdered and raped 5 children and also known as the Moors Murders. And for this role I had to have this change of both being a young child and the transition of turning that into someone who would be classified as a rapist and to be honest I didn't feel comfortable at all but if this can send a positive message that raping must stop because it destroys lives then I'll do it. Ideas I have offered is to be really sensitive and know who we target as an audience and who would find it really upsetting or hurtful. With this being tha case we made it less explicit in terms of letting the audience in on a true story and more of an unnatralistic way of performing it.
As said in previous posts we decided as a group we would be exploring a way in which we would be aware of our surroundings, especially because of the parents and children walking by. We found that bringing the audience inside the space instead of inside or at the top would break the fourth wall between us and them without fail and also would make the piece directly towards them not anyone in the outside world.
The image of the space was quite fundamental to the site as well as other things but image was key. We made this decision that the image would be the most clear out of all the other factors of our site and we decided that we would use almost every piece of prop available to us.
The sound of an occasional aeroplane flying past was used to our advantage and we were able to feed off the energy that gave us to push a true story out there with no holds barred.
We introduced the physical side of things when we came to the matter of how the couple met each other and created a short narrative story of their relationship. We included a physical piece with a set of emotions; happy at first meet and anger and jealousy near the end then having him control her and use her to take children away from their parents.
In relation the character choices we made sure each of us had a different trait in a 5/6 year old. For example, I had a toy that would march left and right, another actor had a toy movement that would have their hand moving up and down above their head and so on.
Research
Pictures will be posted tomorrow of our site specific site and also pictures will be shown of how it looks while being performed.
During the process of this performance we had to ask many people what their thoughts were of our chosen site and what memories they had of this site. Many responses were positive with a few being critical in terms of placing as there's a primary school nearby so we were told to be aware of what we were saying, the time we would be saying it and how loud. One individual said 'It's an amazing site, the things you can do with it is beyond me. Only problem is children walk by and because your piece is about rape it could be really frightening for them and their parents could complain'. As a really valid comment we acted on it and decided to change the time of the performance, making it early in the afternoon rather than later. The memories that the site brings to students, particularly the ones who were in Year 10 really treasure the site as the wall is covered with hand prints of different colours that they created and to them the site is a really important thing in their school life.
Recently we have found many things in our site that actually link to our performance and we also had the grass on the outside to represent this feeling of a country side as this piece is based in York. With this we would be able to have a real feel of relation to this play and to also give the audience a real feeling of us inviting them to this place. This would definitely break the fourth wall.
The painting of hands on the white wall symbolised the children being lost in this tragic happening and perhaps a subliminal cry for help message. Also the flight of stairs can show the couples rise and how they got the children to do what they wanted and how at the end the had to descend back down to show their fall and arrest.
During the process of this performance we had to ask many people what their thoughts were of our chosen site and what memories they had of this site. Many responses were positive with a few being critical in terms of placing as there's a primary school nearby so we were told to be aware of what we were saying, the time we would be saying it and how loud. One individual said 'It's an amazing site, the things you can do with it is beyond me. Only problem is children walk by and because your piece is about rape it could be really frightening for them and their parents could complain'. As a really valid comment we acted on it and decided to change the time of the performance, making it early in the afternoon rather than later. The memories that the site brings to students, particularly the ones who were in Year 10 really treasure the site as the wall is covered with hand prints of different colours that they created and to them the site is a really important thing in their school life.
Recently we have found many things in our site that actually link to our performance and we also had the grass on the outside to represent this feeling of a country side as this piece is based in York. With this we would be able to have a real feel of relation to this play and to also give the audience a real feeling of us inviting them to this place. This would definitely break the fourth wall.
The painting of hands on the white wall symbolised the children being lost in this tragic happening and perhaps a subliminal cry for help message. Also the flight of stairs can show the couples rise and how they got the children to do what they wanted and how at the end the had to descend back down to show their fall and arrest.
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