Jason Statham

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VN0sYjtuWGU - link to the video I researched to do a Cockney accent.

The reason that I have picked Jason Statham is a very stereotypical lad type character and that is what I want for my character the innkeepers dad.

the clap game

Today's lesson we played a game whilst doing the adult scene, basically this will help us discover the sub-text. Basically we clapped when we want to vocalise our state of mind. This game really took out the comedy of the script, and I noticed in order to be funny I need to show my sate of mind using my body language and facial expressions. I found this exercise very good as its made me realise what I should be doing on stage.

Odyssey

Today's lesson I paired with Robert and our task was to create a storytelling piece, of a Greek myth miss gave us the legendary tale of Odyssey, this is the boat which was lucky enough to escape the six headed beast Scylla. With Oliver help we have planned a small piece where the hero Odysseus( Me) said a monologue and then Scylla (Rob) swill say his but what our aim is to create sympathy for the beast and then after the two monologues we will merge together and rein-act the fight.

I need to remember that this is a storytelling piece not a devised piece so we cant add loads of techniques into the piece.

I will do some research into the famous Greek tale.

Rudolf Laban

Rudolf Laban is the maker of LMA (Laban's Movement Analysis) this technique would help all actors to move more like their characters, his technique is spilt into four different categories:

1.Body (Sequences Between different body parts / Initiation / Connections with others)2.Effort (Direct to Indirect / Light to Heavy / Sudden to Sustained)3.Shape (Forms / Change / Quality)

4.Space (Kinesphere / Spatial intention) 

This technique has helped me to embody my characters for Fantastic Mr Fox. Last lesson we concentrated on the effort aspect.

For the cub I decided to be direct but sometimes indirect as we are still young, very light as I am a baby fox and very sudden as animals are always on there toes.

For the mole I  am going to be indirect as in the film he is, Light as moles are very small therefore light and sustained as I just imagine a mole to be like that.

The adults!

In today's lesson we started to stage the adult scene for The Flint Street Nativity play. Innkeepers Dad is the mayor of the town however his normal job is working in a pub therefore I think he should be a stereotypical Cockney lad, this would also explain the way the Innkeeper speaks as he is mimicking his dad. Si I'm going to research Jason Statham to kind of mimic his voice as I see him as a stereotypical Cockney lad.

I've been finding the voice very hard to do but it's I have started to develop a simple Cockney voice however to develop it even more I think I'm going to speak Chav/Cockney for a day which should defiantly help my accent.

I also came up with an idea to stage the adults which is very similar to how the kids are going to be staged:basically we will have the same three spot,lights except for the middle one which will be more upstage so it give everyone more room. And where the spotlights are their will be tables one for mice pies one for the wine and the other will just be a social table.

As I am married to Shepards mum I should stay with her through the whole scene to make it obvious that we have a relationship.

Quentin Blake

Quentin Blake is the main illustrator for Roald Dahl books. His art work has inspired me to draw and the paint the scenery for Fantastic Mr Fox, the same way Quentin did. His use of colours are very suttle, he did this by using water based media for example block paint or watered down acrylic paint. His artwork is very messy and simple which appeals to kids more than really detailed paintings.

I want the scenry to be simple as this picture and very messy this will also help the kids to realise that the character are in a book






I'm planning to make miniature cardboard cut-outs to see how they might look and to see if I have to make any changes

Show and tell! The Flint Streen Nativity Play

To help us being kids we did show and tell today as my character I thought I should bring something in which I think would impress Jenny Bennet but in fact it actually scares her so I decided to bring in a dirty sock puppet This went very well as nobody didn't really like my sock puppet.


In today's lesson we staged the slow motion piece and most of act 2. Toady I've been told that I need to focus on putting on a Chatham accent for my character so I will be more like my sister. So my homework will be to learn Chatham accent!

Ideas for set design

My idea for set design is to create a cardboard cut out and on one side will be a neatly drawn bush on one side and then on the other side will be neatly drawn rocks this will be much easier as when we transition to scenes we could just flip the cardboard cut out and then the children will understand what is happening. This idea also relate to us being in a book as it wont a real bush.


The rock should be simple as this and I might put a couple of rocks together.

I think the bush should be very simple as we are in a book. I think I might make it more cartoon by drawing a black outline around it. I think it should be this green.

















First rehersal for Fantastic Mr Fox!

In todays lesson we created the scene layout basically putting chapters together to create a scene, we know that our devised piece is suppose be around 30 minuets long but not too long that the children will lose interest.


After this we split up into two groups to make two separate scene Charlie, Rhiannon, Lorna and I just went through the scene were Mr Fox and his family have to run away as the farmers are digging. This scene we have already created but we made a few alternations to make it more fun for the kids. The others decided to do the farmers scene which was already created by Lewis this scene was really good. Then we started to create a script for a new scene.

Improv with Lewis for Flint Street Nativity

The other lesson we got given the task to create an improvised piece, of a scenario which ins't in the script with Lewis. As I am the bully I thought we should do a piece where I intimidate him and force him to do something. This gave me the idea to make the scene where I take Lewis' tooth for Jenny Bennett. I shared the video of the devised piece. It went really well as the others laughed.

Revolution Arts 2017: Improv off-text (James and Lewis)

Revolution Arts 2017: Improv off-text (James and Lewis)

Roald Dahl's Fantastic Mr Fox

Synopsis:

"The three farmers"-Introduction on the three farmers a little song has been put in there which we could make the kids sing:

"Boggis and Bunce and Bean

One short, one fat, one lean

Theses horrible crooks

So different in looks 

were nonetheless equally mean"

 Maybe we could sing this every time the farmers come on and boo them and then the farmers can react and say "shut up!". In this chapter it explains what  the farmers are like and what they eat:

Boggis: a chicken farmer. He is fat.eats three boiled chickens smothered with dumplings everyday for breakfast lunch and dinner.

Bunce: duck and goose farmer. "pot bellied dwarf". He eats doughnuts and goose liver. Got a bad temper.

Bean: turkey and apple farmer. Never ate food. Drank a lot of cider. Thin as a pencil. The smartest one. He is lean.

"Mr Fox"- Introduction to the Fox's. the chapter describes how their normal life is and that they live in a hole under a big tree. Mr Fox would say " well, my darling, what shall it be this time?A plump chicken from Boggis? A duck or a goose from Bunce? Or a nice turkey from Bean?" And then Mrs Fox would tell him what he wanted. Every night Mr Fox will steal from one of the tree farmers to feed his 4 children- We are only using two- and his wife. Maybe Mrs Fox could ask the children what to eat for dinner and just say the one was said the most.At the end of the chapter it tells you how angry the three farmers are.

"The shooting"- This is the chapter where Mr Fox's tail gets shot off as the farmers are fed up of having their stock stolen from Mr Fox. In this scene Fox like movements are vital as the book describes them and it'll teach the kids how Fox's move.

" The terrible shovels"- In this chapter the  Farmers don't want to wait for the fox to come up so they just start digging. We have already came up with a script for. this scene. This scene interacts with the kids as the narrator insists to dig. In the book Mr Fox doesn't get his tail back but at the start of our devised scene it is sown back on By Mrs Fox.

" The terrible tractors"-In this chapter the foxes are escaping as they can dig faster than the farmers are digging so the farmers decide to get their tractors and try to dig up the fox's. In this the speaker talks about who Bean never cleans so I think he should look quite dirty for the show. And like in the boom he should pull stuff out of his ear which will make the kids laugh. At the end of the chapter it focus back at the Fox's and shows how scared they are.

"The Race" - In this chapter it just describes the frustration of the farmers as they cant catch Mr Fox and his family but then they realize that they will be starving soon and Mr Fox will need to go up as they will need food soon. At the end of the chapter villagers laugh at them so maybe we could add this too our show.

 "We'll never let them go" In this chapter the farmers are frustrated and give up digging, Boggis cries out "never never never" maybe this can turn into an argument between the kids shouting " should should should". At the end Bean suggests to send Bunce down the whole but he's too fat too go down the hole so maybe we can add this as it'll make the kids laugh.

"The foxes begin to starve"- The chapter finally go back to the Foxes and show that they are starving. The farmers puts a steaming chicken near the hole so the other foxes will be tempted to get it but they never do. In this chapter it shows a lost of and maybe we could use the children to restore this hope to escape the farmers.

" Mr Fox has a plan"- In this chapter it reveals that Mr Fox has a plan but we don't see the plan until the next chapter. We could do this to the kids to create suspense and curiosity.

"Boggis' chicken house number one" In the second chapter the narrator describes why Mr Fox cant get into the first Chicken house. But in this chapter they do then we realise Mr Fox's plan was to go here and steal the chickens. The kids are overwhelmed and they just want to eat the chickens but Mr Fox stops them and picks three of the biggest chickens to bring home so Mrs Fox can  pluck and cook the chickens and then they will be eaten. Mr Fox sends one of his cubs to do the job. And Mr Fox plans to get some more food.

"Badger"This chapter introduces Badger into the story. All of the other animals had to run away as the farmers are ruining their homeland. So Mr Fox decides to put on a feast instead to say sorry to the other animals.

"Bunce's Giant store house"In this chapter Mr Fox takes Badger and his cubs to steal from Bunce as they need more food for the feast. We could ask the children were to go. They grab loads of Turkeys and geese and then the children wheels them off to Mrs Fox were she is preparing the feast.

" Badger has doubts"- This chapter Badger explains that he thinks it wrong that they are stealing from the farmers so they can eat but then Mr Fox encourages and reassures Badger and then they continue on. We could get the children to help us convince Badger that this is a good thing.

" Bean's secret cider cellar"- In this scene they try to get to Beans Cider cellar but is stooped by a rat they argue but then Mr Fox scares the rat and lets them in.In this scene the rat can be booed a lot as she is a bad character.

"The woman"- Before the Foxes and Badger could escape a masculine woman walks in  and she is having a conversation off-stage with Beans wife. I think the woman should be a male role as it's more funny for the kids. Everyone almost gets caught but they don't.

" The great feast" everyone is together with a massive meal around them and they cheer for Mr Fox. They decide they should live underground and live off  the farmers stock.

" Still waiting" The three farmers thinking they are smart are still waiting whilst the animals are having a massive feast on there stock.

Character list:

Fantastic Mr Fox: Charlie Sanderson
Mrs Fox: Rhiannon David
Cubs: James Borg-Clancy and Lorna Clark
Boggis: Robert Andrew
Bunce: Lorna Clark
Bean: Lewis Fisher
Narrator: Oliver Kelly
Badger: Oliver Kelly
Rabbit: Lewis Fisher
Rat: Lorna Clark
Mole: James Borg-Clancy
The Woman:??
Weasel:??

Improvisation monologues as our characters from Flint street nativity play

The other day we got given the task of writing a one minute monologue of what our characters would think in the characters head. I found this task very difficult at first as I couldn't think of what to say but then I thought I just to make a evil master plan of getting Jenny Bennett attention.

Why cant that Big Gay Girl leave me alone? I need to concentrate on getting Jenny Bennett attention! Oh! I know! I could pull our his wobbly tooth. She will get money for it and then she will hug me and maybe she will hold my hand. And then she can marry me but we wont kiss cos that disgusting!

Zoe said I need to keep my hair flat, like that stupid pretender: Ryan He's a goon, I watch him play "Question of Sport from my lair the home corner,but Jenny Bennett like him. I could lock him in Mrs Horrocks' special cupboard . So he can Bugger off and Jenny Bennett will be mine.

Ideas for our childrens theatre piece

In this lesson we had to decide what our stimuli is for our first unit: Children theatre. Personally I thought doing Peter Pan as a panto was a really good idea but it would be quite a long story and we only suppose to do a 30 minute show. My second option was the Grinch as it is a Christmas tale so it would relate to the time we are performing which will be around December!

The final option which everyone agreed on was Fantastic Mr Fox. Next lesson we will start making ideas!

Fantastic Mr Fox

The story revolves around an anthropomorphic, tricky, clever fox named Mr Fox who lives underground beside a tree with his wife and four children. In order to feed his family, he makes nightly visits to farms owned by three wicked, cruel and dim-witted farmers named Boggis, Bunce and Bean and snatches the livestock available on each man's farm. Tired of being outsmarted by Mr Fox, the evil farmers devise a plan to ambush him as he leaves his hole, but they succeed only in shooting off his tail.

The farmers then dig up the Foxes' burrow using spades and then excavators. The Foxes manage to escape by burrowing further beneath the earth to safety. The trio of farmers are ridiculed for their persistence, so they decide to surround Mr Fox's hole and wait until he is hungry enough to come out. Cornered by their enemies, Mr Fox and his family, and all the other underground creatures, begin to starve.

Suddenly, Mr Fox devises a plot to acquire food. He and his children tunnel through the ground and wind up burrowing to one of Boggis' henhouses. Mr Fox kills several chickens and sends his eldest son to carry the food back home to Mrs Fox. On the way to their next destination, Mr Fox runs into his friend Badger and asks him to accompany him on his mission. Aided by Badger, the animals tunnel to Bunce's farm for ducks, geese, hams, bacon and vegetables, and then to Bean's cider cellar. Here, they are nearly caught by the Beans' servant Mabel, but have a narrow escape. They carry their loot back home, where Mrs Fox has prepared a great celebratory banquet for the starving underground animals and their families. At the table, Mr Fox invites everyone to live in a secret underground neighbourhood with him and his family, where he will hunt for them daily and none of them will any longer need to worry about the farmers. Everyone joyfully cheers for this idea, while Boggis, Bunce, and Bean are left waiting for the fox to emerge from his hole. The author concludes "And so far as I know, they are still waiting."

Source:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fantastic_Mr_Fox