Practitioner Expose.
- Oct 20, 2018
- 18 min read
Blogs for Practitioner Expose.
Week 1 (wc 24th september)
During the first week of this year, we were paired off (I was paired with Dan) Then we were introduced to panic room, which we would be designing and acting within with games for the audience members to complete in order to get out of our room. Me and dan went off to talk about our idea, I liked the idea of doing a treasure hunt for the audience members. This theme for the panic rooms is horror so me and Dan decided we would look into mad scientists as a theme and work from there. We decided because it would be horror themed that we would look into using 'feel boxes' that the audience members would then look through and find keys to get out. After discussing this idea we delivered back to the class and quickly realised that Natalie and Tiffani's idea was extremely similar, me and Dan quickly tried to figure out a solution but found that finding another game would take us a little longer. Natalie expressed how she wouldn't mind changing her idea to avoid us loosing ours so I tried my best to help come up with solutions and ideas that Natalie could use. The idea of our room came quickly to me and I became quite invested and wanted to look further into mad scientists in which we could become, Dan is a very strong actor and I wanted to play with that. We chose as a pair to look into Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde as our scientists, I instantly felt this would work because this could bring an element of surprise to our performance if the audience members didn't know I was Dr Jekyll until Dan came out as Mr Hyde.
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From here we researched into how to create feel boxes and this is what I found:
Damp, course sponge - Brains
Twisted chenille stems - Spider
Pretzel sticks - Petrified Rat Tails
Dried apricots - Dried-up Tongues
Thread - Spiderwebs
Cooked, cold spaghetti noodles - Worms
Cooked, cold spaghetti noodles - Veins
Peeled grapes - Eyeballs
Dried apple slices - Ears
Blanched, peeled tomato - Heart
Fake fur - dead animal
Tines of a plastic fork - Vampire Teeth
Soft flour tortilla - Skin (can add a little oil)
Feed corn - Teeth
Corn husk silk - Hair
Baby dill pickles with pistachio shells pushed into the tip - Witches Fingers
Overcooked rice with raisins in cooking oil - Rotting Maggots and Bugs
Small peeled potatoes stuck together with chenille stems - Spiders
We decided to choose eight feel boxes, and went with creating ones with Brains, Spiders, spiderwebs, worms, flies, maggots, eyeballs and hearts.
Developing this idea further I have decided to invest in some boxes in the later future to create these boxes and we noticed that a lot of the rooms have keys involved in their games so me and Dan decided rather than Keys, we would hide puzzle pieces then when the audience members find the pieces they will put them together to form a key and once they've done this they will be set free. I have also noticed that because our room will involve food, we will have to be extremely careful of people with allergies, however I don't want to ruin the suspense of what is actually in the box, so before they enter the pieces they will have the chance to disclose any allergies before hand so we can adapt accordingly.
Overall from opening this project I am excited to work with Dan and I think creating a panic room is extremely interesting as this was a career interest of mine. I am excited to buy props and create the feel boxes and from this point I think we have a strong solid idea. Unfortunately I feel the energy of the group isn't completely committed to this project and that is a shame because its a fun unit especially to open with. In future sessions I want to try to encourage others and help clear any confusion so as a group we can run smoother.
This week we also had our first lecture based on Artaud. I have been quite excited to update my knowledge on practitioners because I feel that is an area that I struggle in and lack knowledge.
I learned how Artaud became who he was, what influenced him and his conventions
Conventions of TOC/TOA
"Actors and audience pushed to the extreme - He liked to tire his actors out. And it would make the audience more alert.
Universal language - language everyone understands : screams, grunts, sighs and breaths.
Physicality - takes priority over spoken language. NOT overacting or melodrama.
Concreate language of symbols - Visual sticks in the mind better than the spoken word. Thought provoking.
Actor/audience relationships - key in Artauds theory. He envisioned the audience sitting on swirly chairs so they can engage 360 space.
Attack of senses / an emotional release (catharsis) - designed to remove the outside world so they can focus on the content of the display.
Based on dreams and nightmares - Joseph kafa (author)
Conforms around the ID ego and superego.
Myths and rituals."(Nathan's Lecture 2018)
I really enjoyed talking about Sigmund Freud, I feel more connected to Artaud after realising his work was heavily inspired by psychology.
I personally like the conventions of playing with the audiences senses, we grouped off briefly to create an Artaud piece, me and my group had our audience members scattered around the room with blindfolds on, we went around and played with different sounds; Crying, Screaming, stomping and growling, this proved to be an effective form of playing with the audiences senses and we had many reactions. the Thursday homework task was to watch a video and come in on the Friday with a piece of automatism surrealist art.
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From this picture I saw conformity. On our Friday session in the drama studio I worked with Lucy and Tyra, we decided we liked my picture and set to work on creating an Artaud inspired piece (see Instagram for pictures). I personally had a creative mental block this day I'm not sure why, so this session was quite hard for me. I don't consider myself an Artaud styled performer, I enjoy the concept and watching it but creatively I find it hard to devise with his conventions.
I think this video really showcases Artaud's conventions and I found it really interesting see other views of his conventions. The only problem I found with this video is that it was hard to concentrate because it was in a different language.
Week 2 (wc 1st October)
Unfortunately this week I was sick and had to stay home, however I did manage to bring myself up to speed with my own research and self study, I read over the lecture at home. We were set a task to watch a video of Metamorphosis
Total Theatre conventions I noticed within this video were;
- Narration
- Mime and Gestures
- Shadow Play
- Externalisation
- Unison and Chorus Delivery
- Basic set / Frames
- Perspective of the Story
- Breaking the 4th wall
I also chose two Shakespeare Scripts to work from when I return
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Week 3 (wc 8th October)
In today's session we had our 3rd Lecture I found learning about Brecht very interesting, the style of theatre he creates is different to everyone else I have studied. I like that his Theatre style incorporates the actors being shown as actors. I find this very interesting but watching a Brecht performance is very off putting for me. After learning about Brecht we set aside to create pieces based on his conventions
Narration (3rd person narration: step out of character to narrate and come back to your character.)
The alienation (V effect) means distancing.
Audience are made aware at all times that they are watching a play
Narrator is sometimes outside the plays context
Use of song and dance on of the first to interpret this. Juxtaposition.
Spass and gestus spass translates to fun. Educate through comedy, even though its dark. Dark humour then question audiences response. Spass is used to break apart a play so people don't get attached to characters. Its used to deliver serious topics. Moments that are too tense or dramatic. Gestus is bigger than gesture. The deeper understanding of a gesture depending on the context of the scene.
Use of technology (projections)
Use of signs and placards
Use of freeze frames/tableaux
Content using history of politics and social status
Montage: bits and pieces all over the place (scenes) like Eastenders.
Theoretical/Transparently
Direct adress (Questioning 4th wall) question the audience with rhetorical questions.
Characters : Muli-rolling. Split role. Rarely or never named roles (Doctor, Mother, Milkman).
Me, Tyra, Lee-Ann and Natalie worked to create a scene in Epic Theatre Style, we decided to go with the idea that Tyra was a rapist and I was the victim. We tried to incorporate Spass, this was done by a song and dance between me and Tyra just as she tackled me to the ground. Other than this technique we really struggled to incorporate others. We managed to by adding in moments of narration, we played with pace and making the audience aware that is was a play by jumping in and out of character.
The next day we started devising a short piece called I will survive. The day before I had found working with Brecht's techniques difficult I came in with some serious newspaper articles and thought of songs that would be good to use as spass. My understanding of Brecht's technique when I explain him to other people is that his type of theatre would mock serious topics to raise awareness about them. This in mind I chose to bring in a 9/11 Newspaper and I chose to use the song Explosions by Ellie Goulding. We grouped together to bring our pieces together. I worked with Lucy Lee-ann and Ryan, we decided amongst ourselves that our idea would be about terrorism because we had similar topics. I found that I was able to comprehend his techniques better. We decided that we would chose a theme of a game show and put all our pieces together as a way in which our audience can chose how to play a game. This helped us with inspiration. After spending the afternoon session on this, we performed back to the class and ours ran for over half an hour. I think if we are going to incorporate this into out show we will have to cut it down drastically and we don't have all the conventions involved yet.
We watched Fear and misery of the third reich by AS drama, this was interesting to watch as I found it hard to concentrate on a narrative because of Brecht's techniques. I can see how spass works, but as an audience member I find it distracting which is the point of spass because it distracts from a serious event taking place.
Week 4 (wc 15th October)
in this session we had our final meeting about panic room. My idea is still the same and I have discussed with dan that I will be the one getting the food for the room and that I would get it on the week of my show because it is food and might go off if bought to soon. We discussed the layout of the rooms. I feel me and Dan were very accepting to the environment in which we would be performing in because we have focused a lot of our scare factor into our acting rather than the decor and the sound effects. Everyone has started buying props so we worked out a rough ticket price so we could build a budget. to do this we all worked out what we had spent so far and divided it so we had a ticket cost, this turned out to be £6 each entry. We also worked out that only a certain amount of people can go through each room each time, this is because of health and safety reasons.
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Littlewood lecture
This Thursday we had our forth and final lecture based on Littlewood. I really like this practitioner, Similar to Brecht, Littlewood incorporates humour to distract form serious topics in the form of characters. Littlewood worked more with social factors rather than political unlike Brecht. some of her conventions are
Music Hall: in the Victoria era , singalongs, comedy dances.
Extreme juxtaposition
Themes of class
Social rather than political focus of events
Must be contemporary and socially relatable to the audience viewing.
Figures of authority are most comical. the higher the power/class the more comedy factors.
Working class targeted audience.
She created her theatre for the working class which gave them a platform to view social problems.
Since learning about theses practitioners, I have noticed they al had a reason to create their type of theatre. I find it interesting to see the process of each one and their back stories.
In this session I have been very inspired to create a piece based on Littlewood conventions. I do think that Lee-ann should play a character of Juxtaposition, because I have seen her acting in similar roles before. I don't really think I'm a comedy based actor. We decided a massive social issue between us as a group (Me, Ryan, Natalie and Lee-ann) We chose the collapsing of the NHS which I think we can be really creative with. We started the scene off by deciding who characters should be, we chose Natalie to be a patient, me to be a relative, Ryan to be a doctor and Lee-ann to be a journalist. We chose to have Ryan and Lee-ann to be comical as they were in higher authority. We worked with improve to create the scene and to find moments in which were funny and strong. We noticed straight way that Ryan character could be bigger than we initially thought. We planned to have him not a comical as Lee-ann but it worked better when he was. We blocked out the entire piece in a few hours and it has become one of my favourite pieces so far. To develop it I think we need to work on making our characters bigger to be more effective and to chose more moments of dialogue as que's for moments within the scene. We will be using fake blood and a lot of tech to back this piece up so I am very excited.
Our Panic room is next week and there has been tension in the air, our rooms have changed slightly and people are panicking about not seeing the space to set up everything. We managed to get in on Friday to have a look around. I think its unfortunate when the group atmosphere becomes the way it is because it holds us back. I am very happy with mine and Dan's space, it will work exactly how we want it to. we blocked some basic lighting with some questions and I managed to get all my props out ready. I will be buying the food to create the feel boxes on Monday
Created a running order.
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Week 5 (wc 22nd October)
This week we performed our infamous murderers panic room. Overall I think mine and Dan's room ran very smooth I am extremely happy with the progress we have both made and I have enjoyed this unit a lot. Making the food boxes took a little longer than expecting because we had to peel so many grapes and tomatoes. Ryan helped us people the tomato's because I can't stand them and I managed to create the boxes out of cardboard boxes lined with bin bags so anything wet wouldn't seep through. I purchased baby oil so I can make everything feel more disgusting. Our idea changed slightly, because our room is at the end and the physical door will be locked we should have the physical key in our room as part of the game. So rather than creating a key puzzle, I have created an arrow puzzle that the audience members will have to piece together. Once they have done this the arrow will point to the incubator with the key inside. We had the whiteboard in our room so we decided to utilise this by writing science equations which Dan did for us. Whilst Dan did this I created labels for the boxes. A problem I did face was cardboard boxes, initially we wanted to do 8 but I quickly realised how hard they were to source when you are currently moving house. Thankfully Tyra had some at home that she let me pick up. This gave me 6 boxes, but shortly after I also noticed that I would have to combine some of the boxes so their was more in them which gave us four. Which I think was a blessing in disguise as when we ran it, people found it difficult to find the puzzle pieces. Lucy helped me by cooking the rice and spaghetti at home which I was very grateful for.
Show day, the cast members haven't had the chance to run though our rooms yet which has put a sour taste in the air. People are panicking now and its causing problems. During the first set of run throughs, me and Dan sat patiently waiting. I noticed that as a group we can be quite selfish with time out of nerves. this process took a really long time, The run throughs came to a stand still and me and Dan still hadn't had ours looked at. People are asking to go through their rooms again, so I had to mention that it should pick up where it left off from or me and Dan wouldn't get the chance. Personally I feel the energy on show day was appalling. our first run though went smooth and me and Dan are excited to perform. We cut our 10 mins of time down to allow Ryan and Lee-anns room to run a little longer as an amendment.
During the show me and Dan had everything under control, The sounds and tech were perfect and Dan's acting skills are amazing. I couldn't have done the room without him. We were supposed to run the panic room 8 times spaced out over the day, however, during one of the shows the other rooms had over run which resulted in mine and Dan's being cut for that group. Unfortunately, this was just bad luck but I can't help but feel like mine and Dan's room was neglected for this unit because of poor planning and execution of external forces. The shows we did do, I cannot be more proud of, and we had a very good reaction from all audience members. I found that there wasn't anyone who had any specific allergies to the food inside which was a relief. I think the other rooms were very strong, they were all different to mine and dans because a lot of them had more decor and props than we did, I didn't mind this, the position of mine and Dans room wouldn't allow for extensive decor so we relied a lot heavier on our acting skills, for this I am happy for and thats why I think our room ran smoother because we didn't have the chance to stress about decor or lighting and sound because majority of the scare factor was from us.
Doing this unit again, I would be mindful of the fact that the speakers behind a wall makes it hard to hear the sound. I would have more of a voice for sticking up for mine and Dan's room and I would try to keep the piece between all co-members.
The evening runs of our show ran smoother than the afternoon, and I was sad to see the project over, even though I performed it all on a broken toe! (See more pictures on Instagram)
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Week 6 (wc 5th November)
Week six is getting closer to the performance date and I felt down that I wasn't in an Artaud piece, I didn't feel any connection to the one I created with Lucy and Tyra and I didn't want to create one as a solo because I was already planning a separate solo. I spoke to Natalie and Ryan and they said they could incorporate me into their Artaud piece. They hadn't choreographed it yet so it was a perfect opportunity. I sat down with Natalie and Ryan to discuss their idea but unfortunately Natalie wasn't feeling very well and had to leave the session. They told me it was about homelessness and authoritarianism, so we decided we should create the piece around how homelessness is dealt with in different Capitalist states though different times. We decided we would use North Korea, as the current Capital state for authoritarianism, Nazi Germany as the past and America as the future. We researched into ways cities are anti-homelessness we found that the architecture for benches are used so the homeless can't sleep on them and in some states of America it is illegal to be homeless and you can actually be arrested for it. We decided I would be the homeless character and Natalie and Ryan would be the authority characters, because its an Artaud piece we won't be using spoken word. For this reason we decided we would incorporate a sound scape.
I have decided I want to do a solo, I would really like to add in a frantic assembly piece, I am very happy that I can because I consider myself a strong physical theatre performer.
I have decided to work around the stimulus of the deterioration a Cancer patient experiences throughout treatment and how it can make them feel alone.
I looked into some of the frantic techniques I could possibly involve as a solo. This is going to challenge me because Frantic is hard to adapt into a solo because its typically done in pairs or ensemble. I chose to look into the mirror effect in frantic assembly which is a paired technique where you mirror each others movements but instead of using another person, I will actually use a physical mirror. I want to repeat a routine within the piece so I have a idea to work with a morning routine as a cancer patient that deteriorates. I feel a strong connection with this piece because my step dad is currently experiencing cancer and I feel I can use this piece as a platform to raise awareness of how lonely it can make them feel.
Also this week we had the chance to block our scripted scenes 'Oh what a lovely war' and 'Mother Courage' I love Mother courage I feel I can perform this role very strong and it gives me the opportunity to sing within the show. I like the lay out of the staging and with some development on characterisation we can build a very strong piece
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I really struggled with Oh what a lovely war the French accent really threw me off and I found it hard to keep the accent especially whilst other people were talking in their accents. I am going to work on this at home by watching videos. I hope this can help with my accent within the piece. I initially found the blocking strange but as time went on with the script I can see that with the appropriate characterisation to the script the blocking will fall into place.
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Week 7 (wc 12th November)
Following last weeks problem with the French accent we have changed the French accent to a welsh one, this helps me massively because I can do a welsh accent very well and this way I can hold it better with other people talking in different accents.
I've started working on choreographing my piece on Cancer, I'm going to present the stages through movement so to do this effectively I will be starting off with larger and more stronger movements and as the piece moves forward I will slowly have more introverted movements to show the deterioration. I still have to choreograph a lot more for this piece but I am happy with its progress. Nathan thinks the name for my piece could be stronger and I agree so we have changed this to 'Terminal isolation.'
This week we decided what we would wear for our performances. each piece will be between character blacks and practical blacks. I wear practical blacks for all pieces apart from Oh what a lovely war.
I felt like I will survive and our NHS piece had been neglected. We decided for I will survive that we would incorporate a frantic assembly piece and a contemporary dance piece to break up the comedy.
In between working on acts we had the chance to go down and tech our pieces. The first one I managed to tech was my Terminal Isolation, although I haven't finished the choreography yet I know exactly how I want it to look so blocking the lights were not a problem. I finally chose my song for the piece 'Say something' by Christina Aguilera I have to go through the songs and figure out where to place the moments that I will deteriorate.
From going over our NHS piece we developed our concept further by making it more about journalists who don't care about their stories as long as it makes money. This changed the dynamics of our piece and even though we hadn't performed it for a while I feel like it is strong. We took out the song we were going to use and we have a solid piece which we managed to tech together. We wanted to experiment with sound and lighting and this has worked out to be beneficial and effective.
Finally we managed to tech the lighting for Lest we forget (Artaud piece with Ryan and Natalie). Which was easier because most of this would be in blackout. After this we had a look at how they would physically assault me within the piece (See Instagram)
Alicia has just joined the course we have incorporated her within our Artaud piece which I think has made it stronger because we are basing it of three authoritarian countries and there is now three authoritarian figures to represent that.
Week 8 (wc 19th November)
We have managed to get everything teched now I managed to tech I will survive which was the last one left for me to tech and I have made some adjustments to Terminal Isolation, initially I was going to come off stage to come back on to start my routine again, but I feel like I won't have enough time to do that four times so I have decided to stay on stage for it. I wanted to involve hair extensions to show my hair falling out but I don't think I will have time to do that. My routine has been fully choreographed for my frantic piece, I am very excited to put it on stage. I have issued a warning in my introduction incase it is hard for some audience members to view. (See Instagram for intros)
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We have decided to cut down our I will survive, to just the movement sequences, this is because the piece itself ran for over 20 mins.
W also incorporated Alicia as the welsh character as a split role with me, so we've split all the lines.
Unfortunately we had problems with running our show as a whole before the show because there was a lot of unsaved work on the technical side but we worked though this, I am very excited to put this show on, I feel I have worked with a lot of my strengths this unit, I think I could have afforded to push myself a little further but I am overly happy with my progress.
Performance date - 29th November
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