Devising - Week 2

Making Dinner Scene

For this week we started making some scenes to fill our 30 minute time. We started off by making a scene at a dinner table between the family. The abusive dad played by Lewis, the scared mother played by Kennedy, their youngest daughter Betty who is played by Phoebe and their eldest daughter Bobbie played by Donna. This scene we had created was quite easy to create as they improvised as me and Joe who plays Billy watched and directed. It was good for me and Joe to watch as we got an audiences perspective and we could input different ideas to enhance this scene. I brought up the idea that the family should be saying grace to start the scene to show their religious views. This was lovely because the first thing they see is a religious family at dinner thanking God for their meal. This sets the scene and foreshadows one of the major themes in our devising piece. While me and Joe were watching we felt that it was good but it needed more of a physical theatre influence. Kennedy then came up with the idea that Betty, Father and Kennedy's character all asked Bobbie why she wasn't eating at the same time. This Berkovian type effect will make it more memorable for the audience and will also make them feel sympathetic for Bobbie. We decided that we could have a dinner scene more than once to show the gradual progress of the family and the repetition in the characters feelings. 

Tableaux

On Wednesday we did 3 different tableaux. A tableau is a group of people representing the scene motionless. Instead of looking at scenes we decided to focus on objectives and feelings of each characters. In the first Tableau Bobbie and Billie are kissing, as Brother Taylor is reaching out to touch Bobbie. This shows how Bobbie and Billie are in love but Brother Taylor also likes Bobbie and wants to make the family happy. In this tableau the relationship between the parents is very prominent. We can see Lewis aggressively pulling Kennedy closer to him to show how he feels she can't be trusted. I think Lewis' positioning is very good as he isn't blocking the character of the mother but he is very close to her.




After the first tableau we did a transition to get to the second tableau. From mine and phoebe's first position we pull Bobbie away from Billie and Lewis and Kennedy pull Billie away on the opposite side. This shows the separation the family want from the couple, yet Donna and Joe's characters are reaching out for each other as they want to be with each other. I like Phoebe's body shape in this tableau, she has managed to portray how her character is subtly clinging on to Bobbie, this is because she wants her older sister to be happy and also it would mean Brother Taylor wouldn't get married.




To go into the third tableau Lewis pushes Joe down to the floor to show
disrespect to their love. Kennedy's transition is quite easier as she changes how she stands and puts her arm on the dad's shoulder. This subtle transition is almost not seen and this is good because it looks like it flows from one Tableau to the next. In our final tableau I felt I did well portraying my character, as shown I am holding hands with Betty while also having my arm around Bobbie, this shows how I am in love with two women. I also think my stature in this is good as I have a good posture as I'm standing tall, this shows my status in the eyes of the father compared to Billie who is down on the floor.




I think this week we progressed a lot, I'm sure we will add these tableaux into our scene to show the thoughts and feelings of each individual character in a more in depth way.