6:30 SHOW - evaluation

So the last time we had to do this wonderful performance and I was feeling kinda sad that it was over - but I was determined to make more of my character and to really push my self for the one last time. 

This time we had to start our promenade outside instead of inside and because it was dark it was much more scary although absolutely freezing cold! And this time our jump scare worked! I even scared my own boyfriend who described it as "it was freaky". And I am glad, I assumed that the dark atmosphere would add to the tension of it all. Afterwards I tried to explain what link puppets had to mental health and I discovered during the conversation that it was to do with people controlling you and your emotions. Very insightful!

I saw the end of Sarah's group's work and it was yet again amazing however this one I felt had more energy and was really nice! And watching everyone's promenade pieces again there was more of a creepy element to it and it was pushed much more to the extremes - Michael had now taken off his shirt and was louder, there was a lot of tension.

Edgar and I had also managed to make more of our "banterful" relationship and it was stronger than the first one which I think made the audience smirk a little as I was being the most contrary as I could be. Once we entered the bar I felt the room light up with people and everyone's different characters. There was a lively atmosphere and the audience this time were a lot tougher to get to - they weren't as "insecure" as the teenage girls. There was more of a reaction to what I was saying and I think that was due to the fact I made a clear character choice that really differed from Edgar. 

The copying element of the play was much stronger than the first time and just felt really good! I was so happy about how it went.

The stories told and the movements made were really lovely and I was watching people's reactions and there were a lot of bewildered faces around - parents just struck by the hard core and hard hitting work that we had put on. I had a one to one discussion with an audience member afterwards and they said that our piece was very defined but also free and the least tied down performance. I was happy with that reaction, because I am glad the audience felt what we all felt as a cast. 

And finally the Finale - this worked much better the second time round (minus the fact I said the wrong line from the poem) The tape and the lights were beautiful and the audience really did have a surprise element to the performance. The running was more energised this time and the balloon popping was really effective! There were now enough balloons to go around which meant the "pop!" really meant something. The ending was just beautiful and I think the audience really did see the beauty.

I can honestly say I was so proud of the work we had all collaborated together, it was such a huge journey that we took all together and it is going to be hard to going back to not being mental...since we've been acting crazy all this term...


Clips from the performance:
https://twitter.com/BRITTheatre/status/699671695125299201

4:30 SHOW - evaluation

So at this point we had been rehearsing all day and I think we were ready - I had seen everyone's promenade work which looked really good but there was still a lot of uncertainty about when people were doing it and when they should start performing.

Luckily I had the honour of seeing all three performance workshops and I thought each one was really good! Sarah's performance workshop piece really got into depth about mental health behind teenagers and girls and boys. How we put a face on with make up and lads have their cocky persona to make them selves seem rough and tough. 

The first performance started with my group and the puppet people - now the audience were mostly year 11 students and students from other strands. In our opening performance it was interesting to see how reluctant people were to get involved. And our jump scare didn't work. The whole group were still unsure about what was going on. I think the creepy element was going to come later when it would start to get dark. Watching all the other promenade performances really did create a haunting atmosphere that I did see affect the audience into awkward giggles and a huge avoidance of eye contact. 

Edgar and myself (playing Right and Left) improvised our little bit while taking the audience on a tour round the school corridors and more work was shown by the students - Michael's  shocking loud noises he was making while banging his chain against the door did startle me and the audience even though I knew it was coming - loud sounds and creepiness are two things that I think drew the audience in. 

Our performance - me and Edgar didn't have time to have more banter and to introduce the bar but I think the bar spoke for it's self. The atmosphere was riveting and I loved it so much! I felt that it was one of the best times we had ever done it. 
But I do think with the copying moment at the start could of been made more with and we should of stepped out of our comfort zone a little more - less about laughter and banging and clapping and more about going out of that little bubble that we have made for ourselves over the time. 

When Reece chose the weather "fog" - anxiety - I knew instantly where I wanted to sit! Right next to a bunch of teenage girls, wearing make up. I could not wait until I could just ask that one question that would make all her insecurities and anxieties over flow - this question will make you over think - "why do you wear make up" - This one girl genuinely looked like she was about to cry - I felt really bad however it's about making the audience part of the mind.  I think that the audience we had was great and were going to really fit with our performance and they did.

Everything flowed and because we didn't have any restrictions about line learning or anything like that, I felt much more relaxed and less tense about what the outcome was going to be.

The finale of everyone all together didn't get the reaction that I expected. The audience weren't taking it seriously and there was a few giggles involved but hey ho. I think that the first performance wasn't as good as the second - the second performance had more energy to it and we were fully confident about what we were doing.

I am very happy with the way the 4:30 show went - can't wait for the 6:30 show! 

Clock Work People

Opening the show

Tick Tick Tick - what is the first thing you want to think about when you think of Clock Work Puppets - and this was something that all of us compared to. 

We thought about how it could link to mental health and how a puppet is controlled and that other people can control and restrict us. We wanted to scare and haunt the audience and why not throw in a little jump scare. 

We created some choreography which match with the music. There was also an element of interaction - so the audience would need to press the button in order for us to be activated. Our clear message was "people being controlled" and we wanted to intimidate everyone.

A quote from an audience member "it was freaky" Anthony Dudley 2K16 

Sound and Movement

The class did an exercise which created an intense atmosphere - there was an uneasy feeling in the room and this was simply done by empowering movements. I watched the class (30 people) doing these movements and it truly gave me goose bumps.

This is what they did:

Slowly raising your arms up 










Make your Elbows Blades which then stab your abdomen











Let the blood flow

Swoop Down and revert back to the starting position.
Watching people do this felt powerful and captured my attention - A whole group of about 30 people doing this meant that people did it at different times; the energy conversed through everyone. Experimenting with this idea of stabbing and swooping it was interesting to see the correlation with the intensity of stabbing and swooping - the more violent the stabbing the more violent the swooping, the sound that went along with the the swooping would be louder and more breathy. There was a true diversity of power - this task requires everyone to be fully immersed because if not there would be a lack of power in the movements making a fault in the room's energy.

Voice Warm Ups

Everyone stood in a circle and started to hum this tune that I recognised from Wolf of Wall Street - beside there is a clip of what everyone was doing for a voice warm up. 

There was contrast in pitch because there was a mixture of boys and girls in the class - that added to the power and volume of everyone. 

They increased and decreased the volume so you could feel the wave in power through the circle.

When the walking started the pace of the humming increased and people had more of a pause in-between hums. The beat between hums was so powerful and made a certain statement of cutting off sound. 

Sound

Wood - I have to say that it was very busy forest full of birds and it was very windy but a lovely compilation of sounds which created a flowy forest which painted a perfect picture of a rain forest in my mind. The sound was exquisite and I felt 

Fair Ground - This one people didn't listen to each other as much and it was a cluster of noise which didn't sound like a fair ground it sounded more like a shopping centre. I think that everyone needs to listen to each other's sounds so they enhance and improve the sound or just leaving it alone.?

The funeral sound scape made more of a sad depressing atmosphere - the sounds were of a funeral but on a higher scale and more exaggerated but it still did give feeling of a sad atmosphere. 

There was no creaking movements of the boat but the human side and reactions to being stranded were interesting and I could still imagine a vivid image of two people stranded in a boat.

The end of the world - how would you ever understand or even know what the end of the world sounds like? I thought that there was so much screaming, would there be a moment of silence, a sudden of realisation that they are going to die! 
Picture this:
A sobbing mother with a dead child on her lap. The audience don't know why the child is dead and there is no sound coming from the mother what so ever. 
Making a sound scape around this harrowing scene made the scene even more upsetting. Having something physical in the middle of the circle with people making sounds around them made it almost a sound of the inner emotions of the mother. Sam did a harrowing scream which he did sporadically - that unknowing of when that scream was coming made the tension in the room rise. It was unbearable. It curdled my blood to hear such a harrowing scream. 

Working on sound and movement gave us a certain amount of skill that we an use in our performance. We really did experiment with different sounds and movements - by working with soundscapes it enabled the class to become closer and more connected so when we go onto doing our performance later we have that connection and understanding of what feels right and what doesn't. 

Returning to Practitioners

I think that it is important to link the performance we are creating back to the practitioners  Brook, Grotowski and Artaud. 

After discussing in class about where we fit in with practitioners way of working we discovered many different things.

Grotowski explores a lot about being in the moment and not having a traditional play. In our individual peice it is about being in the moment and experience what feels right at that moment in time. We do this with having a completely spontaneous stories and also with the copying game that occurs at the beginning there is some sense of spontaneity which is all about spur of the moment, feeling what is right for that moment in time.  Keeping everything organic and in the moment.

Looking at Artaud - he thinks outside the normality of theatre and life, he is different and has a completely different mind set to a lot of people and considering our performance is exploring Tom Waits and thinking outside the box it can really link to Artaud.

All in all our performance is starting to make a message about each practioner and it is amazing to see this develop!

The Brain

What is it like in your brain?

So you have the Left side which is all fact and figures.
The Right side of the brain where all the creativity is started. 
And there are different chemicals which control your brain which are - Dopamine (Pleasure), Serotonin (Depression) and Noradrenalin (Anxiety). 

As a class we wanted to explore what reactions would a manic depressive have? Using the chemicals and the different sides to your brain.  

Left and Right
The left side of the brain was played by yours truly and the right by Edgar. Developing my character was something that was going to take time to understand - it is pretty difficult to take one side of the brain and make them into a person. 

Characteristics to do with the left side:

• always takes charge over the right
• makes you see the facts
• no imagination
• dull

I thought what kind of a person would that be? A very dull person - no imagination. So I made a choice to make them entirely miserable and uninteresting and to be really argumentative with Right. I wanted to keep my body straight and have regimented movements while still maintaining a rude persona. 

I always imagined my character to contradict everyone and question their judgement - so whenever Right babbles on about metaphors and love etc I will smash him down with a small fact or a rude remark. 

Serotonin, Dopamine and Noradrenalin

Each one of these chemicals triggers and emotion is different parts in your brain - Dopamine (Pleasure), Serotonin (Depression) and Noradrenalin (Anxiety). Each one of the girls had different colours to represent different emotions - so Dopamine was red - Serotonin was blue - Noradrenalin was green. They will pass around the drinks of different chemicals that will make your brain react to certain things. 

Looking at the mind of a manic depressive we can understand that there might be extremes to emotions and your reactions to objects or people. By using the girls and the ensemble we can create the different atmospheres of Depression, Pleasure and Anxiety. 

Finale

You can't have such good work without a tremendous ending and that is what we did! All 70 people as one whole chorus creating the human brain. First we started off by walking around the audience and then slowly picking up the pace - then running all the way around the audience. After we ran everyone stops abruptly. The poem begins and the journey of the tape commences. The tape joins everyone's arms together building the brain around everyone. And the poem continues. Once the poem has finished. The lights go off and there are lights flashing all around the space - lights following a journey of the tape. Showing the different electric pulses that occur in the brain. The lights go back on, and the tape is passed forward until it everyone is on the floor. We go into our formations to pass the balloons with all the anxieties on them. Once everyone has a balloon each anxiety is popped and Bang! We all turn out and leave the room.

This ending is poetic, beautiful and is going to be spectacular!