Today started off with performance warm up games, the warm-ups
helped us to feel energised and ready to work in the morning. They were
conducted by Ellie; after the warm up games the whole class gathered into a
circle in which hand outs were given, it labelled how we would be marked for
this unit with a rough rehearsal guide that we should aim to stick to.
Whilst this was happening members of the production team
were busy in at the back of the room doing some cutting. We later found out
that they had been cutting quotes, some famous some obscure; but all with the
say intent showing the positivity taking a risk can have upon someone’s life.
We were asked to get into our groups from the day before
luckily I had managed to ‘bagsey’ another room for my group to work in whilst
the other two groups shared a rehearsal space.
Once we were away from listening ears and prying eyes our
creative juices began to flow and out pour.
We began by reading each person’s quote that they had picked
up and read them aloud to each other, we did this because each person had
picked the their quote for a specific reason on what fear meant to them. And I
thought it would be the best idea for us all to learn that reason and work of a
fear based on that.
I went around asking each person their connoted
understanding of their quote and what it meant to them (an example of some of
the groups response):
- Dannel – Because of his illness
- Danny- Protecting people, speaking up even though it may not be in your best interest
- Me- “Spontaneity wanting to risk it all when it came to work”
- Zoe – “You have to try everything to succeed”
- Jon- Letting your guard down being open to letting it go.
We then decided to discuss personal fears and phobias; we did this because we felt that if the fears are things all human beings can relate to and when a person tries to overcome a fear they are taking a risk.
By 11 am we had already reached the generation and exploration stage of devising. we decided to run with
the risk of standing up for yourself in regards to authority figures, teachers were a authority figure we all had experience with.
We wanted a performance piece which showed the gap in generation in which in the early school system, e.g Victorian times the teacher was the complete figure head and they were able to give out corporal punishment with rulers and canes.
We wanted a performance piece which showed the gap in generation in which in the early school system, e.g Victorian times the teacher was the complete figure head and they were able to give out corporal punishment with rulers and canes.
Whereas modern teachers are in fear of their students because of rules, policies and the general behaviour of some students now a days who show a huge lack of respect and sometimes are violent or threatening towards their teachers.
By the afternoon period of our devising lesson we were up on our feet acting out a scenario in which I was being a teacher from the Victorian times and everyone else was a student. It was completely improvised and go with the flow.
However upon advice from our lecturer Amy we reconsider this tact, because we had not been yet able to research the cultural, political and social aspect of schools in Victorian times as this point.
So we then decided to explore a scenario that focused on classrooms from a modern aspect; an unruly class that clearly had the power.
Doing these 'improvs' made us question our piece, we knew that we wanted to entertain and inform, but I kept asking about the story arch and I didn't feel any dynamics or tension which would keep and audiences interest or give our performance value.
So we decided to discuss our piece and tried to find tensions in the piece and a storyline, however we could find none and decided this was due to a lack of research on the subject.
We broke up for the weekend and began to research Victorian schools, schools in the 40 'sand 70's because we felt that this was the last time that a teacher truly still had dominant power over a class and that there weren't that many legislations in place. And then we drew from our own experiences of the modern school system.
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