Devising - Week 4

Constructive Criticism

To start this week off we had Deborah, she wanted to see what we had created. We showed several different 'bits', that we had worked on. First was the wedding scene. The feedback was that the vocals were good but it needed to be louder. This we took into consideration and we decided to put a rating system on how loud we are. 0 being silent and 10 being a shout. we said that we could go from 2 to about 8 to show how this scene was getting more intense as the wedding progressed and that the emotions of each character were getting stronger. 

We then went to the scene where the girls are dancing in unison. This came straight after the wedding but didn't really work as we haven't really met any of the characters yet. The scene which was in unison didn't convey the message we were trying to portray as it looked like the three girls all had the same feeling or were all the same character. 

Our group then showed the boy bit, in this we see a fight style movement between me and Joe and Lewis comes to break it up. Our feedback for this was that she liked the introduction of Lewis, but at times it was quite clunky, and it was overall bringing the scene down. We decided to look at this again and make it slower in an attempt to make it seem less clunky. 

The last bit we showed was a new scene where Father introduces Bobbie to Brother Taylor, in this scene Bobbie tries to escape but Father pushes her towards me and then I do a perverted dance with Bobbie to show the horrible character of Brother Taylor. In this scene while dancing with Donna, Father is watching them in a proud manner. Kennedy who plays the mother comes in and tries to stop it because its not what Bobbie wants. Yet Kennedy's character is stopped by the father and hit. We thought this was good as it showed the abusive relationship. However Deborah suggested we take it out as this abuse has already been shown, and there is space to show something else instead. We took this into consideration. But haven't thought what we might put instead. 

Laura's Lesson

Kirsty was unfortunately ill for this lesson, but we had Laura. In this lesson we noticed that we needed a scene before the confrontation between Billie and Brother Taylor to show how the fight ensued. In this scene they are dancing and then it ends with a kiss. I thought this was great as it set the scene and showed their passionate love while also giving something Brother Taylor to be angry about. It was really useful that in this scene I am supposed to be angry about a certain relationship as I have encountered a similar emotion before in my life. This was good as I could use affective memory a Stanislavsky technique to portray my emotion. I felt my acting was really good in this scene and I felt I portrayed the emotion that my character was feeling in an outstanding manner.

Another positive in this lesson was the rolls I did with Lewis in the confrontation scene. It felt so much more fluid when executed properly. Unfortunately we found it quite difficult but we have practised a lot to make it look good. Even though we have been having a lot of trouble with this move we are eager to keep it in as it shows a strong connection between these two characters and their hatred towards Billie. Before this part there is a bit with Joe and I. We worked on this a lot as we wanted to make sure that we were fluent in the movements and made it look less clunky by making it slower. This worked for a lot of the scene and also gave more moments of tension.

In this lesson I also noticed that Frank was very disciplined in his group, I noticed how he got things done and that he achieved a lot in each lesson. I aspire to be this disciplined in the lessons to come, so our piece can reach its potential.

Organisation

We wrote out a rehearsal plan today so we could keep on track and stay focused. In this lesson we looked at linking scenes together and also work on the ending. For the ending of our devising piece we wanted to have a visual of Billie falling off the bridge, we had the good idea that the other characters would help Billie fall to show how they are letting him down. We were given the idea by Laura that Joe could do a forward roll into our arms, we did this and it looked a lot more smooth than the idea of picking him up. It also got Joe in position for us to let him down. 

I felt this week we made good progress and it was vital that we got feedback on how we could make our scenes better and where we could go with it. 

Frantic Assembly

An Introduction

Frantic Assembly are a contemporary physical theatre group that aims to create theatre that is enthralling, energetic and unique. Started in 1994 this company has become a big name in the theatre industry. 

Physical Style

Frantic Assembly mix naturalism with the physical aspect of dance. For example in Lovesong they have scenes where the couples are talking before going into a dance in the next scene. This theatre group style is very physical and one of their artistic directors once said 'the more physical, the better'. They've been described as 'high octane' before, this can be seen in many of their performances. The play Stockholm is about an abusive relationship and how this couple are either one of two extremes, either they are deeply in love or they hate each other. This is relevant to many relationships however not in such an extreme way. There are some very physical love scenes in Stockholm. This is Frantic's trademark. That there work represents something that the audience can relate to, for example the theme of Love and Abuse. Frantic have described love and say how its 'a leap of faith'. 

Another Frantic piece showing the theme of Love is Lovesong. In this many different mediums and devices are used to convey a greater message about the themes being portrayed. Devices such as a flashback are used to show the elderly couple looking back to their younger relationship. This is shown with a physical piece to show young love. Frantic also described that with each piece they have to find a new 'Physical Vocabulary', and that it needs to suit the cast. For example an elderly actor isn't as physical as a young actor. They also need to find a new vocabulary as they are conveying a different message in each piece. 

Blend With Naturalism

In many of Frantic's pieces they blend their physical side with Naturalism this is good because they can entice a new audience through naturalism, as well as having many physical aspects which attracts a different audience. Their story of Lovesong also works with naturalism as there is an older couple who are likely to be less physical and so they can have more dialogue and be more naturalistic than the young couple, this shows a nice balance between both naturalism and physical theatre.

Frantic Assembly's high octane work means that it gains a lot of popularity. This Theatre Group are different in their own unique way. 

Jacques Lecoq

Introduction

Jacques Lecoq was a French actor, mime and acting instructor. His most notable work is in the field of Physical Theatre, movement and mime. He taught most of his work at the school he founded in Paris, L'École Internationale de Théâtre Jacques Lecoq. 

Impact on Physical Theatre

Lecoq taught Physical Education for several years. He later went on to act. He worked with a company called Comediens de Grenoble. He also worked a lot on Commedia, this introduced him to Mime, masks and the physicality of performance which he would later use as his own. He also worked with Dario Fo a famous actor, playwright and clown. He opened his school in 1956 in Paris, where till his death he worked and perfected his trade.

Lecoq had quite a specific teaching style. He aimed to teach actors that encouraged them to investigate ways of the arts that suited them best. He wanted to nurture the creativity of the performer instead of giving them a specific set of skills. This was good otherwise we would only have one type of performer and not a variety. Lecoq never told students what was right he just encouraged them to try new avenues of creative expression. His training however did involve a lot of masks. He often used a natural faced mask so the emphasis was put on the physical expression of the performer. After he felt his students had mastered the physical mannerisms he would make the mask smaller while also encouraging them to keep the physical behaviour. This was a great technique used by Lecoq, as it allowed the actor to focus on one thing at a time, making it easier to get both the facial and physical expression to the best it can be. 

This great practitioner also set up a part of the school that looked at stage design, Sceneography and architecture this was great as it gave the performers a chance to collaborate with stage designers and also get a feel for that part of the business. 

People he Influenced

Because Lecoq encouraged that students followed their own path instead of being given a set of skills he managed to teach and influence a variety of different people in the industry ranging from comedians to directors to choreographers. Here are some of the people he influenced:

Steven Berkoff. Actor, Theatre Director and Writer. 

Geoffrey Rush. Actor.

Ariane Mnouchkine. Theatre Director and founder of  Théâtre du Soleil.

Philipe Gaulier. Actor and a Pedagogue. 

Rene Bazinet. Actor.

and many more great names. 

Lecoq influenced many different performers in the arts industry, through his mime and physical work and through his teaching. 

Steven Berkoff

An Introduction

Steven Berkoff is a practitioner who is best know for theatre directing and acting. He has acted in such things like the James Bond movie 'Octopussy', he also starred as Lt. Col Podovsky in Rambo: First Blood Part II. He also is an author and playwright. Steven Berkoff is best known because of his impact on Physical Theatre.

His Theatre Work

Berkoff's work in theatre is enthralling, grotesque and very unique. A big influence on Berkoff was the great mime artist and practitioner Jacques Lecoq, this was great for Berkoff because he go the best training, much of Berkoffs work is derieved from Lecoq, for example the mime and melodramatic style movement. Even Berkoff's first theatre work was exceptionally unique and Lecoq like. His first piece was an adaptation on 'Franz Kafka's: The Metapmorphosis', he starred in this and brought the grotesque clockwork style into the piece. Many different techniques were used by Berkoff in this adaptation, for example the clockwork style nature that each movement is very static and has no flow. We also got to see the cast break the 4th wall which means looking out to the audience this element is great because it makes the audience feel uncomfortable and so they will remember it and it portrays the eerie life of Gregor Samsa. Another great method by Berkoff is the lack of facial expression when talking to the audience as the audience don't know what the character is feeling making them less human. His work has been described by a critic as 'The language is usually filthy', 'At its best, this kind of theatre is so powerful, so visceral, that it forces the audience to react'. This is a great description of Berkoff's style is because its was so unseen and pushed the barrier of modern theatre.

Workshop

The first workshop we did on Berkoff was a piece from Agamemnon which Berkoff was in. This piece is grotesque and was very stylised which is Berkoff's forte. We were given a script as our stimulus and got into groups. I was with Sophie Adams, Brandon, Jake and Joe. I was happy to have Joe in my group as he had done work that was very grotesque before called Butoh, this type of theatre is Japanese and is very riveting to watch. We started off by devising our own piece using the script we found it difficult to start as it was such a difficult script to understand. Our group wanted to capture the clockwork, grotesque behaviour, sound scape and breaking the 4th wall in our piece. I felt that we eventually started to make progress through an idea by Sophie. The reason we weren't getting anywhere was because we were rejecting early ideas. I said that we should be in a circle around Brandon and that Brandon should be the speaker of the text. I thought Brandon would be best suited to this role as I feel he could be very emotionless and scary in front of the audience. We created a diamond around Brandon and on each line we would do something together in unison, and we tried to make it as static as possible to show this Berkovian style.

We did a second workshop on Berkoff, in this we did a Christmas clockwork piece. As it was around the right time of year we thought we would set our theme as Christmas. For this we got in a circle and did things that represented the presents being made in Santa's grotto. I was with Issie, Hannah, and Sophie A. For this exercise we focused on sound scaping. This effect is the process of making sound effects to match what you are doing, for example if I threw a ball I will make the sound of the ball going through the air. For this though, we thought that we would do a naughty and nice list. Hannah and Issie would stamp a sheet saying if they were naughty or nice, Hannah for naughty and Issie for Nice. After this happened Issie would pass Nice to me and Hannah would pass naughty to Sophie. When I got the sheet I fully opened my arms and gave the sheet a big kiss then to put it in the pile. For the kiss I used a sound effect to show one of Berkoff's many techniques. I also made my movement very static.

I enjoyed Berkoff's work as I found it fun and quite easy to do. As I find it fun to be over the top as it gives me energy. 

Commedia dell'arte

Introduction

Commedia dell'arte was a part of theatre in Europe around the 16th and 17th century. It translates as 'comedy of the professional artist or actors.' When I first heard about this and it's translation I was excited to learn about this type of Theatre as I've heard so many people saying its a great style of physical theatre, and how unique and fun it is. 

Stock Characters

In Commedia there are different stock characters. A stock character is a character that appears in every Commedia dell'arte play. For example Homer Simpson appears in every Simpsons episode. Some stock characters are relatable to the audience as they know someone who is like the character. These characters have rules and are in a hierarchy of status.

Harlequin

Some Stock Characters:

Harlequin - This is one of the main characters in Commedia, the character of Harlequin can be linked to Joey from friends as he is very handsome but isn't clever, Harlequin is also amorous, this sometimes gets him into trouble as he doesn't think. The costume of Harlequin is tight fitted and has diamonds and colour.

Columbina - There aren't many female characters, however she is often featured. She's beautiful and extremely graceful. However she is cunning and will use her body to get her way. She would most likely be seen in a dress that's worn to show her status as a servant. Her stance is a slight tilt from the hips to try and show off her best features.

Pantaloon - He is a mean old man and is often portrayed as rich. In some extracts of Commedia he has been seen as Columbina's father. Usually he has aches and pains and he is short sighted. His mask makes him seem mean and also ridiculous. He wears very tight fitted clothes and yellow slippers with a black cloak. His stance when talking to someone is bent forward but when receiving information lent back. He is the top of the pecking order. He has money and his orders are usually obeyed.

Masks

In Commedia one feature is Masks. this feature was used for most characters to give the audience a better view of the characters status and feelings. For example Pantaloon's mask has very bushy eyebrows this shows his age and gives a subtle feeling of how wise he is. Without actors being able to show their facial expression because of their masks they have to make sure their body actions tell the story of their character. This is one of the many reasons of why Commedia was so popular because it was so melodramatic, that it made the audiences laugh. This was one of the many reasons why Commedia was so popular in the 16th and 17th century.

Workshop

From spending a whole day looking at Commedia I felt I was familiar with this form of theatre. We first started the day off with learning about the history of Commedia and when it was most popular, we also watched some videos of students trying different scenarios and also a teacher explaining the hierarchy in Commedia dell'arte. After this we did a practical and were asked to portray different Commedia characters, we were also given scenarios and to each pick different characters and play with status, for example a Zanni may be cleaning a Pantaloon's yellow slippers to show hist status, this I found really helpful because I gained a better understanding of the hierarchy. Our class also did an exercise where two captains were trying to get past each other. This was really funny to do because of the reactions of the cowardly captain. It was lovely portraying this juxtaposed character, from the cowardly side to the arrogant side. 

Influence

Commedia has had a big influence on many different contemporary shows and films. For example the hit comedy show Friends, the character of Joey is very much Harlequin. Another influence is in Kafka's Metamorphosis Lodgers.  David Schwimmer who also appeared in friends was educated in Commedia and added it to different slapstick scenes. Commedia also had an influence of 'The Pied Piper of Hamelin' who is dressed exactly like Harlequin.  

Devising - Week 3

New Ideas

As we told our idea we started to notice as well as Deborah that our work as we would like it would not fit the time limit that is required. We had many scenes that we wanted to use but unfortunately it would of taken a long time. Our work was also quite linear meaning that it was a story, however we needed it to be less linear to achieve the physical theatre style. On Monday we found it difficult to devise as Donna was away and so was Lewis. 

We looked at a scene where Brother Taylor meets Billie Joe, in this physical theatre scene. We discussed how this is the first time they meet and they both dislike each other as brother Taylor is getting married to Bobbie and she is in love with Billie. In this scene we first have a stare off this shows the tension between these two characters and is almost like what boxers do to publicise a match.  After this I run really fast at Billie as if I'm attacking him, Billie leap frogs over me to show he's dodging an attack, it also shows how he dodged people finding about his and Bobbies relationship. Next Billie runs at me and I catch him, this shows how whatever Billie tries to do Brother Taylor is one step in front. This catch we learned from Kirsty and is very much in the style of the physical theatre practitioner 'DV8'. after the catch I throw him down and push him back as if to show I want him away from me, however I pull him back to show the tension at this point he punches me in the ribs and this is when Lewis' character intervenes. His character is the father and his intentions is that his daughter Bobbie will marry Brother Taylor and will stop the relationship with Billie. Unfortunately at this point we couldn't add Lewis' part as he wasn't with us.

After choreographing this we went to Deborah's lesson.

Deborah's Lesson

In Deborah's lesson we were prompted to try something new as the idea we had planned was too linear, we were thankful that this was brought to our attention early in the devising process. She told us how it would of been easy for the audience to guess what was going to happen because of the obvious storyline. We were also told how some of our story and lines were cliché. For example their is a dance where I am with Phoebe and I say 'for the time we have left let's spend it together'. Unfortunately this line is quite cliché and almost sounds unreal however this is not what our intentions were. Our group were guided that it would be better to set it in a wedding environment where things can happen and go wrong and it can be less linear, in this fashion we would also be able to use the audience as Wedding guests. I had the idea that we could have three relationships and base our piece around the theme of 'Abuse.' I said that we could set it in a Restaurant and Kennedy raised the idea that we could show three different types of how abusive the couple were. For example subtle abuse, so things like a kick under the table or a subtle look. Then a more noticeable by the audience abuse where you can see physical hitting and mental abuse like name calling. The third couple was to be neutral this would give the audience a nice scale to see how abusive some can be. 

We thought the restaurant idea was good but we felt we had more options with the wedding and also link it to the arranged marriage. As this was one of our ideas Deborah was willing to help us build on our idea and play a game sort of exercise that we may use in our piece, much like the work of 'DV8'. This improvised games helped to produce ideas. The game had rules that each member had to follow, the rules we used were that one person had to be standing at any one time, another rule was that someone had to be moving to a different seat. This simple exercise created moments of unison and tension between different people in this game. This gave us different ideas of how we can develop on this and maybe use it in our piece. Other rules could be that you have to make eye contact with only one person, or you have to balance the plate meaning that you do the opposite to another person in this scenario. This could be implemented into our piece as we could explain to the audience the rules and they join in.

On Thursday we started to devise some more and look at new scenes and a way in which we could add Lewis into the scene with me and Joe. Me and Joe had already devising a physical scene and we've now added Lewis in, for this scene Brother Taylor and Billie Joe have had a tense battle and Father comes to break it up. After this the father who is on Brother Taylor's side shakes his hand, we then do two roll overs back to back, to show the connection and companionship between these two characters. This sequence is also good because it allows 'Father' to be face to face with Billie creating tension. Billie and the father then have a set of moves that resembles a fight this is good because it shows what lengths Billie will go to because he is truly in love. At one point in this sequence Billie is thrown into centre stage, where me and Lewis' surround him, at this point Billie runs away. This scene is good because its easy for the audience to make out who the antagonists are. 

In our group also the girls did a dance to show abuse with movements that resembled a dagger going into their heart. The boys later joined in on this and did movements in this scene such as pushing the girls hands down to show abuse. We thought this was good as it showed the major theme in our play. However from feedback from other members in the class it was difficult to understand what was going on and it would of been better with just the girls. This constructive criticism was duly noted and we will look into changing it next week. 

Conclusion

Overall this week I felt we bonded over doing simple tasks and exercises like the wedding game suggested by Deborah. I think there is still a lot of work to be done but we're on track. 

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.