Re-casting

The new cast list:
Faustus: Oliver Kelley
Mephistopheles: Leis Fisher
Valdes: Me
Cornelius: Robert Andrew
Murdock: Lorna Clark
Good Angel: Lorna Clark
Bad Angel: Charlie Sanderson
Scholar: Charlie Sanderson
Lucifer: T.B.C

I'm happy with my new role as Valdes because I feel he will be challenging to play and will widen my acting characterization skills. I feel I will need to play him more in a abstract way I will do this by researching into Grotowski's methods.

Today we included Rhiannon into the movement sequence for the seven deadly sins, this refreshed everyone minds, and enabled us to make a few small twinks to improve it.

I created a small power point showing pictures of wrath which we could possibly project at during the movement.

Wrath

Today we worked on Wrath, the past sins has been simple for an effective feel, so we deiced to mix things up and make Wrath more hectic and have a fast pace beat as this symbolizes aggression.

We left off from me getting and since there is a quick transition in music we decided that Lewis and Lorna will throw me onto the floor  this shows violence which is an act of aggression, this instantly shows the transition in emotion and movement. We then split into separate groups and devised a fast paced movement sequence, I got paired with Lewis and Lorna, our idea was there to be one victim ( me) and the other to picking on the victim. Charlie and Robert made a fight sequence, each group will perform the movement sequence in different sides of the traverse, this changes the expectations, as we have done the same thing as a group in the past sins, it also allows the audience to watch two completely different sequences.

Our groups movement contained jagged movement symbolizing the sharpness of the sin, this movement is also abstract compared to Charlie and Robs so it'll be a good contrast.

We then starting working on the dialogue on the first scene, I found this difficult as I feel that I don't understand my character yet, also I need to remember that we are performing the show in triverse so I need to be moving constantly so the audience will get my facial gestures and movement indicating my emotions at the point in the play

Seven Deadly Sins

This lesson we personified the seven deadly sins using a mix of movement. In the script one person is meant to say the whole monologue but since there are not enough of us to do that we decided that we will split up the lines to each other for each sin except for Oliver and Rhiannon because they will be playing there own characters in that scene. Here's what we decided:




Sloth:
 We are laying on the opposite side of the traverse stage to where Faustus is and are breathing in and out as one. When we say our dialogue we switch positions but we are still sleeping, this represents laziness as we cant be bothered to move properly also sleeping together as a clump adds to the abstract genre you get from the play


Gluttony:
Mephistopheles will come on stage with a bucket of chicken we will all run to her beast like grabbing a leg of chicken, we will protect our chicken and eat it , whilst we say our lines we will still be eating the chicken showing that the only thing which cares to us is the food. I think we should be more animalistic with the movements relating back to survival and that you only think for yourself. We've also


Pride:
We wanted to in-cooperate modern society into this play, we done this in pride by adding modern technology and taking selfies, as nowadays this consumes a lot of people life's. The sequence starts with everyone doing model poses, in a v formation then when we say our line we will walk down the cat walk and pose, I have the last line so Lewis and Lorna will lift me symbolizing that I think I'm better than everyone else.


We will polish the movements when we rehearse it more, I'm going to go through this at home and practice the lift with Lewis and Lorna after school to ensure that I will be safe and the lift will look clean.

First Rehersal

This lesson we got given the cast list
Faustus: Oliver Kelley
Mephstophles: Rhiannon David
Murdock: me
Valdes: Lewis Fisher
Cornelius: Robert Andrew
Good Angel: Lorna Clark
Bad Angel: Charlie Sanderson
Lucifer: Lewis Fisher
Scholar: Charlie Sanderson


The rest of the lesson we read through the script. I like the character I got, as it enables me to vary my emotions as an actor, as I've never played as a compassionate person before, I will llok at different actors and characters to see how they do it.

The Tragical History of the Life and Death of Doctor Faustus

Playwright: Christopher Marlowe


Genre: Tragedy


Era: Renaissance


Setting: 16th Century Europe


Published: 1604 by Valentine Summers for Thomas Law





The tragically history of the life and death of Doctor Faustus (commonly known just as Doctor Faustus) is the most controversial play written during the Elizabethan era- besides Shakespearian plays. The story is believed to be based on a famous German legend: "Faust!” The plays experemts moral expectations, and makes the audience wonder about Doctor Faustus' mental state. Also the play consists of satanic beliefs, for example: hell, necromancy, devils, demons and the personification of the Seven Deadly Sins.





Characters:





Faustus: A lonely individual, who's obsessed with knowledge in religion and necromancy. However he is so obsessed he has offered his soul to the devil in exchange for unlimited knowledge, and complete control over one of the Arch Angles, Mephistopheles.





Wagner (known as Murdock in our adaption): Faustus' servant but used to be his fellow companion. Murdock's is the closest person Faustus has, and Murdock worries about Faustus' sanity and wellbeing, he tries to help him however gives up.





Valdes and Cornelius: Famous necromancies. They teach Faustus about, they foresee great power in Faustus but they worry that will become reckless with his new powers, but don't bother to warn him.

                                                      

Mephistopheles: One of the Search devils, he gets summoned Faustus. He is just a servant to the devil, he may seem bad but he does try to mean good.





Good and Bad angel: They are part of Faustus' imagination. They try to persuade Faustus to do good or bad actions.





Lucifer: The devil.





Scholars: they are scholars amazed by Faustus' power





Synopsis:


Faustus craves for more power so he calls Valdes and Cornelius to teach him necromancy. He learns the power to summon Mephistopheles and makes a deal with the devil which is to give his soul as a gift to Lucifer, so he can have unlimited knowledge and have Mephistopheles as his slave. After almost 24 years Faustus comes back to his hometown and shows off his powers, however his time runs out and he is witnessed being dragged to hell by demons.

Evaluation

What went well:

• The set was cool and worked really well
• Cabaret seating enabled us to move around the audience easily and it helped them to be immersed inside the scene
• There was really funny scene where everyone enjoyed
• We worked very well together giving each other cues
• The stock characters were clear and people understood who was who

How could we improve:

• Everyone could improve the  characterisation as everyone did lose their character a bit I think this is because everyone didn't let go to perform to their best
• There was too many things going on at the same time that the audience didn't know what to look at
• We need to project our voices so everyone could hear us
• I think we should of worried more on the performance than the set on the day of the performance

Plants

This lesson we discussed about props and Plants. We need plants in order to add them into the show this will make the audience think that they are more immersed into the show as well. We picked two plants both having a lot of experience in shows and plays this way we know that they will do well as plants.
We also discussed more scenes that we need to devise they are:

• Extendo Fork
• Oil Cocktail
• Intro of the critic

These are small transition scenes which wont take long to make.

Evaluation

Response to Stimuli-

The stimuli we got given was 'Chasing Pavements' , analysis the lyrics to the song I thought that Chasing Pavements is about chasing dreams, and realization that you cant have everything you want, we got a variety of ideas from this, this included: Eating disorders ( we did a small movement piece were Ollie and I was controlling Cel,and she couldn't do anything about it), Comedy (we tried to create 4 different pieces which connect to each other at the same time however it didn't turn out to be funny), Therapy in Prison (we tried out alternative seating during this piece everyone including the actors, we also incorporated physical theater to make the audience feel like they are at the scenario, we also tried out a soundscape) and Domestic violence ( we did a small movement piece to show how unknown domestic violence can be. We also had many ideas this included: Madaline Mckaan, Ian Brady, Terrorism etc.

Development of our idea-

We experimented with many different techniques before we came up with the idea of the Jamie Bulger idea, our main technique we wanted to use at the start was Multi Media- we wanted to have many projections on at the same time however this would've been to difficult to put on as we performed in the hall so we didn't have access to many projectors.

For Handbag we thought that proxemics was really important as we need to show the shift in power, I found this very difficult to get a hold off as the script was altered.

We also improvised a lot ion order to get ideas for scenes, we had massive discussions and arguments which helped a lot as there is so much research into it the arguments was based on real situations which gave us ideas for scenes which would make the audience think about this issue.

Collaboration as a group-

Our group went through a few difficulties however this didn't effect the piece I think the arguments helped our group develop this piece, I also liked the versatility of the idea as everyone in the group gave completely different ideas, if I would do it again I would hope there would be less discussions as I feel we could of spent more time on the practical side.

Performance

New identities

We wanted a scene were we can truly see the true emotions of Jon and Rob right before they come out of prison we did this by ha being an final counselling/ interrogation scene where we are basked questions but we answer the questions as if we are the new identity, both Rob and Jon don't comply with all the questions but they answer them all as their own characters. However there are a few freeze frames were we tell the audience what and who we really are. I like this concept as this is the first time we get to see the true emotions of Rob.I want the audience to feel a little bit of sympathy towardsRob in this scene as he was only a kid when he did the crime.

Licking plates

This lesson we decided to create a new opening scene, basically the scene is based in the kitchen and there's havoc everywhere and Doctore and Pantolonie are arguing over who is the better manger. Whilst this happening everyone else is doing something, I'm licking the plates clean but Columbina and Brighella are telling me off and making me to do other stuff, we decided to to do this as it shows Zanni's submissive nature and his role in the heirachy he has to listen to everyone as he is at the bottom.

Creating a movement piece for the mothers monologue

This lesson we spent making a  movement piece in order to emphasise the mothers depression for losing her beloved child.We decided that Ollie and I should stay as Jon and Rob throughout the movement piece, however we are nor physically there we are a figment of her imagination but because she has got so upset she starts to get a little bit disillusion and starts to mix reality with non- real.

Throughout the movement piece we use levels and proxemics to show power and submission, but we've also added childlike movements and features into the movement piece as the offenders were only ten when they killed Jamie. For example Ollie and I do a leap frog but because we are big people and I land on a higher level it looks really intimdting

Monologues

We wanted to show the audience what of what Jon and Rob has become a way we thought of doing this is by making monologues this allows me interpret Rob however I want because there's no one knows what he is or what he does. So I felt I should take more of an arrogant approach with the audience and to rub it in their faces to make the audience dislike me even more

The way Ill have to do this is to make my tone very arrogant and have a really slow pace of speaking.So the audice can understand every word I say.

A different POV

Throughout the whole performance we have seen different Point of Views of Jon and Rob: The polices, when they were younger, them in prison and them out of prison therefore we decided to concentrate on the Public POV however we wanted to do this by a more factual approach. The way we did this was by having short conversation of which have  small link towards the death of Jamie Bulger for example, 'The battery has died on my phone' this relates to the batteries being forced into his anus.And then I would drop a battery on the floor whilst this is happening Jamie's mum can hear all the conversations and she's keep getting reminded of her sons death. The final conversation is about Jon being released from prison which makes Jamie's mum flip then the two guys see if she's okay, after that we thought it would be a good idea to get on our blocks and say facts about the murder case as this will give a bigger impact toward the audience.

We also thought of having a home video of Jamie Bulger in the background to end the performance to give the audience a sudden realisation that this actually happened and we don't know who and where they are! As they have new identities we dont know who they are we might of walked passed them before but we will never now that!

Handbag

We have decided that we will use a scripted piece for our performance the best script we found was a scene from Handbag, this is because two of their characters are based on the notorious duo Jon Venebles and Robert Thompson. The scene we will be using is an argument between the two, where Robert is trying to wind up Jon, the key thing we want to show is the powershift between Jon and Rob. So we get to see Rob's desperation and optimism towards the situation of being in prison. We've done this by switching some of the lines and the use of proxemics and levels. I like this scene as we now get to see the real side of Rob, and the scene gives Rob a motive why he hasn't re-offended like Jon has.

In the middle of the scene during the dialogue we circle each other which is when the audience starts to see that Jon is starting to strip the power away from Rob, the reason we did this is because we wanted to show the audience a different side of Jon Venables the side that led him to re-offend.This will change the audiences opinion on Jon and realise that Jon is nothing but bad and agressive individual.

We will run through this scene to make sure it's polished enough for our performance,

Zanni's entertainment

Today we went through all the scenes we have created. These are:

• The thief
• Syrup scene
• New waitress
• Prawn soup
• Harlequin eats paper

We did this so we know what we have created and what we need to create for a finished performance, currently I think all the scenes are good as they haven't been over rehearsed therefore there is still an improvised tint to the performance which is how Comedia Dell'arte should be.

We also created a list of scenes we need to create. These are:

• Zanni's entertainment ( this is where Zanni fills in for the missing entertainers)
• Il Capitano's and  Doctore's cupboard scene (Il Captano writes a poem to Columbina however Doctore gets it )
• Extended fork ( Harlequin eats the guests food using an extendible fork)
• Cocking oil scene (Brighella swaps the apple juice with cooking oil and Harlequin drinks in)

After this we decided to start creating Zanni's entertainment scene, we started off by Brighella telling Pantolonie and Doctore that their entertainment double booked so they don't have entertainment for that night, however the entertainment is important as they think a critic is in that night. This leads everyone on stage figuring out what they are going to do . Then Doctore offers that he will do it as he is big headed and he has got a lot of talent when actually he hasn't. Then Harlequin starts laughing as he finds the fact that Doctore entertaining is funny. Then Brighella said that he is too busy to it. This leads to Il Capitano saying that he will "volunteer as tribute", then we added another joke saying that this is not hunger games we do this as it mixes modern entertainment with a very old art form showing that Comedia is very versatile. Then Il Capitano corrects himself saying that he will do an Elvis tribute everyone isn't to keen on this idea so then Columbina and Brighella decide to push Zanni into the middle and Zanni is refusing to do it. I will decide what song I will lip sync really badly next lesson

Polishing the stories

This lesson we spent working on the finishing touches of the Snow Queen.

Firstly we worked on Lorna's scene as we haven't rehearsed the scene without scripts or prompts, the movement is really good however there it is a bit messy when Charlie gets lifted up. We will work on this at a later date.

We then worked on my scene this scene was difficult to do as my narration is live therefore I've got to keep an eye on the movement making sure the dialogue and movement are on time. The final thing we need to do with my scene is to work with a silhouette sheet.

We then went to Lewis' scene as Rhiannon has only done the scene a couple of times, we felt that we need to show Rhiannon again so she gets it.Overall this scene went really well, I like how this scene is different to all the others and the inspiration of Brecht gives an extra depth to the story.

We also decided to record Roberts narration because everyone is not sure with their ques and their lines therefore we thought that we should record it so the narration and lines will be right, we will do this next lesson.

New scene

Today's lesson we devised a new scene involving Doctore Pantolonie and Columbina! This scene is an expansion of the older people (Doctore and Pantolonie) being pervy towards Columbina. We picked this idea as it is very humorous and cringes and works with the fast flow of events we want. The scene consisted of:

• Doctore and Pantolonie are sitting at a restaurant waiting to order from their waitress: Columbina
• When Columbina approaches them, Doctore points her out the Pantolonie says "I don't care how much she costs" this relates to Pantolonie's thirst of money suggesting that she is so beautiful he doesn't care having to give her a big wage, this comment also have a crude feeling and foreshadows what is about to come
•  Columbina asks what the old men want to order which then another crude comment is said by Pantolonie, again "I definitely know what I want" this is implying that Pantolonie wants a bit of Columbina, this comment is more cringe than funny as they are both old men and Columbina is very young.
• Doctore then orders "Rump Steak" which at first I didn't understand but then I got told that the "Rump" is steak this insinuates that Pantolonie is referring to Columbina's bottom, again this is very crude.

I think the scene was good but needed extra stuff for it to be finished, I like this scene as it can be very versatile. I also think that the characters need to look more at the audience as in Comedia Dell'arte the relationship with the audience and the characters need to be stronger.

We decided that the scene should go through forum theater therefore everybody interpretations and ideas will be in co-operated into the scene here's the changes:

• Columbina will be flirting with the audience before  the scene starts therefore it's clear who Columbina is and instantly the audience is in the scene.
• The old men will be grunting to be more perverted and creepy, as well sounds are commonly used in Comedia Dell'arte, so the audience will always know what the characters are feeling.
• Whilst they are ordering, Columbina puts her breasts over Pantolonie breasts where he is staring and the says "you most supreme breasts" the emphasis on breasts add a comic moment as the audience knows what Pantolonie is trying to do.
• The Columbina says "I'll make sure they are perfect for you" she does this as she is a manipulative character she will flirt her way to get what she wants
• The Doctore says another innuendo  " for dessert may I have your finest Cherry pie, with extra thick cream" this comment is very crude for the audience and will make them either laugh or cringe.

After this we decided to make the scene after this scene in the Kitchen (stage) with Harlequino, Columbina and Il Capitano this is what the scene consists of:

• Columbina enters and gives the order to Il Capitano, and the she shivers when she say "Pantolonie and Doctore" which then the audience gets that she doesn't like the old men and is only being nice to manipulate
• Whilst Columbina and Il Capitano are speaking Harelquino grabs the note without them noticing and eats it, this action again shows Harelquino's personality: always hungry and childlike
• Il Capitanio is trying to big himself up for Columbina as he has a crush on her (everybody has a crush on her)
• When Columbina leaves he notices that the paper is gone , and because he wants to impress Columbina he decides to cook spicy meatballs.
• Then Harlequino enter and tells Il Capitano that they are waiting, then he does it agian to give a comic moment
• He gives the dishes to Harlequino and then they are sent back because they are half eaten because Harlequino eats most of it.

This scene is really good as it brings out Harlequino's silly side.

Mothers Breakdown

We thought that it would be nice if we show the mothers reaction to the audience so they will feel more sympathetic towards Jamie and his mother. We liked the idea of Rhiannon keep asking the same question: what if? This will indicate to the audience that she inst mentally stable but it will also help them think more deep into the concept of her own son dying.

We had another idea for the mothers break down showing it through movement and showing the transition between her ex husband and her new husband we spent a lesson doing this using a puppeteer movement showing the mother getting controlled by the ex husband we did this to show she is doing everyday things still but she doesn't feel happy about it ( about the fact that her little baby bit is now dead and she will never see him again), and because of Jamie's death his mothers and fathers love was broken as they were too busy grieving, we made the start of the movement piece however felt like this will be too confusing for the audience so we didn't show it.

We will continue working on Rhiannon's monologue and create a movement piece around it.

Interrorgation scene

For our Devised piece we thought it would be nice if we would in cooperate some true elements into the performance, so we came up with the idea to use the same dialogue which was used in there interrogations a day after the murder: The response from Jon was very remorseful and he blames Rob a lot however what confuses me is that he is the one which re offended. Controversially Rob is very chilled and doesn't care maybe this is because Rob knew he was going to prison so he just didn't care about the situation, to play Rob like this I will need to use my facial gestures a lot to reflect his feeling. He would just dangle his legs and probably play with his nails, the reason I will play him this way because we want the audience to hate my character.

Fisrt full run through

Today we did a full run of the snow queen the run through went great however all of us had improvements, for my part to get better I need to Cut some of my story and vary my use of tone in order for the audience to stay interested in the narration. I will do this by doing some ore research into story tellers.

I also need to lea\rn my lines for Charlie's and Rob's story's

A new location

This lesson we finished our masks by putting elastic string on the masks this enables the masks to stay on our face, now the masks our finished a new rule was established to improve our characterization skills, the rule is that when we have our mask on we have to be our character, if we want to ask a question we have to turn around take our masks of and turn back so everybody knows we have got a question, this rule is simply here to improve the contrast between us and our stock characters.

After this Lorna lead a warm up, I think we should do this every lesson as this will help us to prepare for the physical attributes towards Comedia dell'arte, as (especially Zanni) the movement can be physically exhausting the warm-ups also help with my flexibility and balance which currently I am finding very hard to do with Zanni. We also did a focus exercise and then Oliver led a  characterization warm up, this warm up made me think of the emotions which go through Zanni, as Zanni is very stupid however at the same time over dramatic so I don't know when I should be over dramatic or really stupid. This exercise also helped us to understand our class mates interpretations of their characters.

Pantolonie: Greedy, very introverted, slow , smart, really independent
Doctore: Friendly, smart yet no nothings, stereotypical old man, even friendly towards Zanni!
Harlequino: Lazy, always hungry, independent, doesn't really care about anything.
Columbina: Flirty, really friendly, kind, gets her own way by being kind
Il Capitano: Big headed, challenges everyone, but scared when they challenge him
Brighella: Grumpy, two faced, bossy, very introvert, thinks he is better than he actually is

This exercise also made it easier for me to establish relationships between other characters
Zanni's reaction to them. How other characters react to Zanni.

Il Capitano: A bit cautious try to say hello to him. He is disgusted by Zanni and doesn't even acknowledge him, he event tries to challenge him but Zanni runs away.
Pantolonie: Runs to him and kisses his feet, as he is the servant of Pantolonie. He is again disgusted however likes the attention so bosses him around more.
Doctore: Greets him with a friendly manor. He greets back however keeps his distance from Zanni
Columbina: He admires Columbina so he is very forward with her. She likes Zanni so flirts with him a little bit however does find him a bit creepy at times.
Brighella: He is very scared of him so he keeps his distance from him. He enjoys the fact that Zanni is scared of him so he tries to scare him more and sometimes forces him to do stuff which he doesn't want to do.
Harlequino: Greets him but Zanni doesn't really like Harequino. He is to busy doing nothing to acknowledge Zanni.

This lesson everybody came up with a few new ideas which will be included for our final performance. Here is what we came up with:

After a lot of discussion our final idea led the performance to be set in a restaurant where  the stage is the kitchen and the audience is actually  dining in the restaurant. This idea is good as it can create a lot of dramatic irony as the audience will know whats going happen and whilst the other characters will be all over the place therefore in the scene they wont know what is happening in the kitchen which will lead them to do something wrong.

As you can see we came up with all the roles, we picked each role carefully to the needs and the personalities of characters, we think the two guests should be Doctore and Pantolonie as they have the strongest relationship in the show  and they are also the older ones so we wouldn't really aspect them to be working. The manager is Brighella as it suits her personality (bossy, wants her own way). The dishwasher should be Zanni as he is the lowest servant therefore they will force him to do anything. Harlequin and Doctore to be waiters as Harlequino is very lazy so he wouldn't do anything which would be funny for the audience if he ends eating their food. Columbina as she is very flirty we thought the two old men could try to flirt with them but it go's wrong. The chef to be Il Capitano as he is a massive show off however is terrible at what he does which lead into a lot of mistakes to be made.

I really like the idea that the entertainer couldn't come in so they force Zanni to be one here is a rough idea I got for this scene:

• Zanni gets pushed onto stage, forced to be the entertainer, so he decided to sing a song
• I the song should be an operatic duet so I decided that the Phamtom of the Opera would be a good one to do: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8fKKiaSLLEY
• When the first verse is finished Harlequino take the role of the Phamtom as he is very foolish and silly, however he forgets that he left the stove on so whilst they are singing a fire is stiring up.
• During the song Zanni and Harlequino are over doing and making it into a big thing.
• At the last verse Brighella finds a lead in so she takes it out which then we find out that Zanni and Harlequino are lip syncing however they still continue so this leads on to the final not which is done really badly
• However Pantolonie and Doctore thought it was beautiful so they start crying and could throw roses at Zanni and Harlequino
• After this the fire alarm starts going off which could lead into the fire scene

The Snow Queen- Story Two

Lewis

Rhiannon

In a large town, where there are so many houses, and so many houses, that there is no roof left for everybody to have a little garden; and where on this account. Most people are obliged to content themselves with flowers in pots; there lived two little children, who had a garden somewhat larger than a flower-pot. They were not brother and sister; but cared for each other as much as if they were. Their parents lived exactly opposite.

His name was Kay, hers was Gerda. In summer with one jump they could get to each other; but in winter they were obliged first to go down the long stairs, and then up the longs stairs again. Outdoors there was quite a snow storm.

A few snow-flakes were falling, and one, the largest of all remained lying on the edge of a flower-pot.

The flake of snow grew larger and larger; and at last it was like a young lady, dressed in the finest white gauze, made of a million little flakes like stars. She was so beautiful and delicate but she was of ice of dazzling sparkling ice; yet she lived; her eyes fixedly like to stars; but there was neither quiet response nor response in them. She nodded towards the window, and beckoned with her hand. The little boy was frightened.

Then spring came; the sun shone, green leaves appeared, the swallows built their nests.

Kay looked at the picture book full of beasts and of birds “Oh! I feel such a sharp pain in my heart; and now something has got into my eye!”

It was one of those pieces of glass from the magic mirror that had got into his eye; and poor Kay had another piece right in his heart. It will soon become like ice. It did not hurt any longer, but there it was.

When he looked at the picture books again he asked “what horrid beasts have you there?” And if his grandmother told those stories, he always interrupted her; besides, if he could manage it. He would get behind her, put on her spectacles, and imitate her way of speaking; he copied all her ways, and then everybody laughed at him. But it was the glass he had got in his eye; the glass that was sticking in his heart, which made him tease even little Gerda, whose whole soul was devoted to him.

A large sledge passed by; it was painted quite white, and there was someone in it wrapped up in a rough white mantle of fur, with a rough white fur cap on his head. The sledge drove round the square twice, and Kay ran after the sledge as quickly as he could, off he ran with it. On they went quicker and quicker into the next street; and the person who drove turned to Kay, and nodded to him in a friendly manner, just as they as if they knew each other. Every time he was going to jump on the sledge, the person nodded to him, and then Kay sat quiet; and so on they went till they came outside the gates of the town. Then the snow began fall so thickly that the little boy could not see an arms lengths before him, but still on they went; when suddenly he let go the string he held in his hand in order to get loose from the sledge, but it was of no use, still the little vehicle rushed on with quickness of the wind. He then cried out as loud as he could, but no one heard him; the snow drifted and the sledge flew on, and sometimes it gave a jerk as though they were driving over hedges and ditches. He was quite frightened, and he tried to repeat the Lord’s Prayer.

The large sledge stopped, and the person who drove rose-up. It was a lady; her cloak and cap were of snow. She was tall and of slender figure, and of a dazzling whiteness. It was the Snow Queen.

 “Are you still cold?” asked she; and then she kissed his forehead. Ah! It was colder than ice; it penetrated to his very heart, which was already almost a frozen lump; it seemed to him as if he were about to die – but a moment later he did not notice the cold that was around him.

The Snow Queen kissed Kay once more, and then he forgot little Gerda, grandmother, and all whom he had left at his home.

“Now you will have no more kisses” said she,” or else I should kiss you to death!”

She was very beautiful; and no longer appeared of ice as before, when she sat outside the window and he looked upwards in the large huge empty space above him, and on she flew with him; flew high over, the black clouds, while the storm moaned and whistled as though it were singing some old tune. On they flew over woods and lakes, overseas, and many lands; and beneath them the chilling storm rushed fast, the wolves howled, the snow crackled; above them flew large screaming crows, but higher up appeared the moon, quite large and bright; and it was on it that Kay gazed during the long long winters night; while by day he slept at the feet of the Snow Queen.

Polishing the scene

Today we polished the scene which we was working on last lesson. We started off by doing a simple warm-up so we are physically ready for our characters movements. We firstly ran through the whole scene unfortunately it was messy, I think this was because we haven't performed it for a while, therefore we decided to go through the scene and make adjustments using forum theater. As I was too attached to the audience I didn't notice when Columbina turned therefore they suggested to make a subtle noise to give me time to stop struggling and try to impress her. I also got told I should act more innocent so instead of actually trying to impress Columbina look innocent and give a looking saying "am I doing it right" as this will give an awe affect from the audience to Zanni . The also suggested to use a prop to make it more clear that I put glue in my hair. After that the first half of the scene was really good however I think we still need to practice in order to get the scene to be funnier and more entertaining.

After the working on mine and Rhiannon's bit we decided to work on the second where The Doctor comes (Oliver Kelly). This scene was however it was hard to maintain the illusion that Columbina's hand is stuck on Zanni's head we did this by Zanni holding Columbina's hand. We also thought that everyone getting stuck to each other happend too fast therefore we slowed the process down we did this by after Doctore getting stuck on Columbina, Zanni goes to Columbina in slow motion to say "thank you" whilst the other two are trying to stop which then makes all of them stuck to eachother. Then we improved Il Capitano's entrance by having him on a fake noise I think its will be funny as it suits Il Capitano and also suits the style of Commedia dell'arte. We also devised the end of the scene where Harlequin comes in and scares Il Capitano this results into Il Capitano jumping into Doctore's arms and all of them fall over we all ask for help but Harlquin ignores them as he is a very silly characters and walks off

Know this scene is coming together next lesson we would like to devise a new scene.

New ideas!

This lesson we decided that we would need to change the idea as it is 'choreographed' to much, in Commedia dell'arte most of the of the content is improvised which is incorporated with one small idea, as our original idea of a murder mystery has been planed too much I think that the scene has lost it's charisma. So in today's lesson we got put into groups I was paired with Lorna, Rhiannon and Charlie we decided that we should do a scene with just Columbina and Zanni as they have a special relationship, this is because Zanni reminds Columbina of her lover (who is not in the show that we are producing), so she likes to help him, but as we know that Columbina is very flirty and Zanni is very innocent we should do a lazzi revolving around the idea that Zanni is in love with Columbina and as Columbina is a very flirty character she will torment him. As Charlie and Lorna wasn't acting we decided to a bit of forum theater this is where the audience are aloud to freeze the scene and add suggestions to improve it.

Our first ideas was:
That Zanni would chase Columbina as he likes her but Columbina finds him creepy, this idea was very difficult to adapt as Zanni and Columbina's characteristics didn't suit the idea. Instead we decided that it would be better if we would in-cooperate an idea where Zanni is trying to impress Columbina but actually ends up in a sticky situation.

Here's what we came up with:

• Columbina is hanging up her washing and Zanni walks in and watches her 
• Columbina notices Zanni is there and does a little wiggle to get Zanni, Zanni is clearly attracted
• Zanni grabs a bottle of glue which he thinks is gel, the 'gel' is not coming out so he claps on the bottle which leads to loads of glue dropping down on his hair, he starts styling his hair but one of his hands get stuck and he struggles to get it off
• Columbina looks back but as Zanni wants to impress Columbina he put his other hand on his head and kisses his biceps, this ends up with Zanni's other hand stuck in his hair, he then gets on the floor rolling all over the place 
• Columbina looks back which leads to Zanni doing sit-ups this leads to a short time where Zanni is struggling to get his had out of his hair and every time she looks back he continues doing sit-ups
• Columbina finds the bottle of glue and put the pieces together
• She then goes to Zanni and Zanni lays on the floor in a very seductive away 
• When Columbina confronts him he gets upset 
• Then Columbina pulls his hands off his head, Zanni screams really high to create a comic affect
• She then pats his head and now her hand is stuck on his head 
• Then Doctore comes in and he tries to help but as he always rambles on about weird stuff, Columbina has to stop him, this leads to Doctore pulling Columbina's hand off Zanni's head but Doctore get his hand stuck on Columbina's back 
• As Zanni is happy that he is out of the sticky situation he grabs Columbina's leg and says thanks whilst Doctore an Columbina are saying 'No!' now Zanni's hands are stuck on Columbina's leg
• Which ends up looking very inappropriate as Doctore's and is stuck on Columbina's back

We called the other group to show them what we have got and to see how they would improve it, Everyone seemed to enjoy it as they understood each characters characteristics, however they said that I need to work on my Zanni movement, since we had more time we decided that we should add Il Capitano into the scene, Here's what they added:

• Il Capitano enters and demands to Doctore to let go Columbina
• Doctore tells Ill Capitano to wait for a bit, then they all realize what this might look like so they look to the audience slowly and then to Il Capitano
• Il Capitano gets his sword out and everyone else fight together to try to beat Il Capitano

Other people had good ideas like to wear a bald cap for after the incident as it will give a comic affect, and for Zanni to fall asleep during fight. Next lesson we will develop this idea more.

Completing my story

Today we completed the second story of the Snow Queen. Kay jumps the sleigh in the silhouette, then to show he is off the silhouette he just goes on stage. This so he meets the Snow Queen Rhiannon) where she kisses him on the forehead so Kay forgets about his family. Kay falls on floor whilst the Snow Queen watches with pleasure.

Then they both exit whilst Charlie is lifted up in the silhouette to give an flying effect, this is he end of the story and we move onto Lewis'. We decided to use Charlie to lift as he is smaller and lighter therefore easier and as we are behind the sheet no one will know.

The mask are now finished!

For the last few lessons we have been creating our masks and here is the outcome:
 The reason I have got a long nose is to show that my character is stupid, as in Commedia dell'arte the characters with the longer noses were known to be the more stupid ones. I chose to add the wrinkles on thehead to show exhasution I may be one of the youngest stock characters however I'm the one who work the hardest out of the others, obiously because Zanni's have to obey their master and in fact have to obey everyone above him in the heirachy (which is everyone). You cant see this but I have also moulded bags under his eyes just to make sure that everyone knows how tired he is, I also purposefully made the mask far from perfect as no mask in Commedia dell'arte was erfect is also symbolises how Zanni is (childish, greedy, pushover). I like the colour of my mask as it is very bland again relating to Zanni as a person.also the colour stands out from all of the other characters which makes it easy to recognise the character.

Music which will suit physical thatre piece

Cerys said that she wanted to created a dance/ movement piece  for her role as Jamie's mum this post is some research of music which I think will go well

I like the gardual build in this music as it can show the mental brakedown of Jamie's mum, we could add lifts when the build up is full, I also think Frantic inspired movement would absoulutly suit the music.

1st song, this is a very aggresive which could work if we say that Jamie's mum has a massive breakdown which could result in agression and violence.

2nd song: 2:23 this song is very sympathetic so we could do a nice slow movement piece of Jamie's mum reminising her son.

This is obiously chasing pavements this song could realtre to the tilte as well it is very slow so we could a very slow piece I think eachtime the chourus is one is when Jamie's mum is remebering her son and then when it goes to the verses she realises that he is no longer there, this could be really if we use Frantic inspired movements and maybe a lift

Communal speaking

This lesson we decided to work on Charlie's scene, as we have had  a lot of movement we decided to  concentrate the use of voice, also Charlie approached his stage differently to make the audience more immersed into the story.

Charlie chose certain people to say certain words together or alone, this will make the audience concentrate just on the story not on the movement, we also decided that we should add a bit of emotion into the word, so the audience are clear what emotion we want to convey to them.

For the performance with we will be designated to a certain audience so the audience will have no distractions. Next lesson we will work on Rhiannon's scene.

Ideas for the Jamie Bulger piece

Ive got an idea where we could have 3/4 separate ideas 'What if' stories, we could use projection we would have a few chances to add physical theatre/ dance for example if the section was 'What if Jamie Bulger didn't die' we could do a movement piece where we see Jamie Bulger rehabilitating from the attack. I thought we could possible have a homodigetic narrator in it ( a narrator who is an active participant in the story) and he could be Jamie Bulger, I think this idea is open for many different ways to interpret it however we wont get the sudden realisation from the audience which we want and also it might just be too boring for the audience.

Robert Thompson- Research

Robert Thompson is the malicious killer of Jamie Bulger. Here is some research :

Classification: Homicide

Characteristics: Juvenile (10) - Abduction - Torture

Number of victims: 1

Date of murder: February 12, 1993.0

Date of arrest: 6 days after

Date of birth: August 23, 1982

Victim profile: James Patrick Bulger, 2

Method of murder: Beating with bricks, stones, and a piece of metal

Location: Liverpool, Merseyside, England, United Kingdom

Status: Sentenced to custody until the age of 18. Released on lifelong licence in June 2001

James Patrick Bulger (16 March 1990 – 12 February 1993) was a two-year-old boy from Kirkby, Merseyside, England, who was abducted, tortured and murdered by two 10-year-old boys, Robert Thompson (born 23 August 1982) and Jon Venables (born 13 August 1982).

Bulger disappeared on 12 February 1993 from the New Strand Shopping Centre, Bootle, while accompanying his mother. His mutilated body was found on a railway line in nearby Walton on 14 February. Thompson and Venables were charged on 20 February 1993 with the abduction and murder.

Thompson and Venables were found guilty of the murder of Bulger on 24 November 1993, making them the youngest convicted murderers in modern English history. They were sentenced to custody until they reached adulthood, initially until the age of 18, and were released on lifelong licence in June 2001. The case has prompted widespread debate on the issue of how to handle young offenders when they are sentenced or released from custody.

CCTV evidence from the New Strand Shopping Centre in Bootle taken on 12 February 1993 showed Thompson and Venables casually observing children, apparently selecting a target. The boys were playing truant from school, which they did regularly. Throughout the day, Thompson and Venables were seen stealing various items including sweets, a troll doll, some batteries and a can of blue paint, some of which were found at the murder scene. It was later revealed by one of the boys that they were planning to find a child to abduct, lead him to the busy road alongside the mall, and push him into the path of oncoming traffic.

That same afternoon, James Bulger (often called "Jamie" by the press, although never by his family), from nearby Kirkby, went with his mother Denise to the New Strand Shopping Centre. While inside a butcher's shop at around 3:40pm, Denise realised that her son had disappeared. He had been left at the door of the shop while she placed an order, and was spotted by Thompson and Venables. They approached him and spoke to him, before taking him by the hand and leading him out of the precinct. This moment was captured on a CCTV camera recording timestamped at 15:42.

The boys took Bulger on a 2.5-mile (4.0 km) walk across Liverpool, leading him to the Leeds and Liverpool Canal where he was dropped on his head and suffered injuries to his face. The boys joked about pushing Bulger into the canal. During the walk across Liverpool, the boys were seen by 38 people. Bulger had a bump on his forehead and was crying, but most bystanders did nothing to intervene, assuming that he was a younger brother. Two people challenged the older boys, but they claimed that Bulger was a younger brother or that he was lost and they were taking him to the local police station. At one point, the boys took Bulger into a pet shop, from which they were ejected. Eventually the boys led Bulger to a railway line near the disused Walton & Anfield railway station, close to Walton Lane police station and Anfield Cemetery, where they attacked him.

At the trial it was established that at this location, one of the boys threw blue Humbrol modelling paint into Bulger's left eye. They kicked him and hit him with bricks, stones and a 22-pound (10.0 kg) iron bar, described in court as a railway fishplate. They placed batteries in his mouth. Bulger suffered ten skull fractures as a result of the iron bar striking his head. Alan Williams, the case's pathologist, speculated that Bulger suffered so many injuries that none could be isolated as the fatal blow.

Police suspected that there was a sexual element to the crime, since Bulger's shoes, stockings, trousers and underpants had been removed. The pathologist's report read out in court stated that Bulger's foreskin had been manipulated. When questioned about this aspect of the attack by detectives and the child psychiatrist Eileen Vizard, Thompson and Venables were reluctant to give details.

Before they left him, the boys laid Bulger across the railway tracks and weighted his head down with rubble, in the hope that a train would hit him and make his death appear to be an accident. After Bulger's killers left the scene, his body was cut in half by a train. Bulger's severed body was discovered two days later, on 14 February. A forensic pathologist testified that he had died before he was struck by the train.

The crime created great anger in Liverpool. The family of one boy who was detained for questioning, but subsequently released, had to flee the city. The breakthrough came when a woman, on seeing slightly enhanced images of the two boys on national television, recognised Venables, whom she knew had played truant with Thompson that day. She contacted police and the boys were arrested. The fact that the boys were so young came as a shock to investigating officers, headed by Detective Superintendent Albert Kirby, of Merseyside Police. Early press reports and police statements had referred to Bulger being seen with "two youths" (suggesting that the killers were teenagers), the ages of the boys being difficult to ascertain from the images captured by CCTV.

Forensic tests also confirmed that both boys had the same blue paint on their clothing as found on Bulger's body. Both had blood on their shoes; blood on Thompson's shoe was matched to Bulger through DNA tests. The boys were charged with Bulger's murder on 20 February 1993, and appeared at South Sefton Youth Court on 22 February 1993, when they were remanded in custody to await trial.

The Manchester Evening News named the secure institutions in which the pair were housed, in possible breach of the injunction against publicity which had been renewed early in 2001. In December that year, the paper was fined £30,000 for contempt of court and ordered to pay costs of £120,000.

The Guardian revealed that both boys had passed A-levels during their sentences. The paper also told how the Bulger family’s lawyers had consulted psychiatric experts in order to present the parole panel with a report which suggested that Thompson is an undiagnosed psychopath, citing his lack of remorse during his trial and arrest. The report was ultimately dismissed. However, his lack of remorse at the time, in stark contrast to Venables, led to considerable scrutiny from the parole panel.

Upon release, both Thompson and Venables had lost all trace of their Liverpool accents. In a psychiatric report prepared in 2000 prior to Venables' release, he was described as posing a "trivial" risk to the public and unlikely to reoffend. The chances of his successful rehabilitation were described as "very high".

No significant publication or vigilante action against Thompson or Venables has occurred. Despite this, Bulger's mother, Denise, told how in 2004 she received a tip-off from an anonymous source that helped her locate Thompson. Upon seeing him, she was "paralysed with hatred" and was unable to confront him.

In April 2007, documents released under the Freedom of Information Act confirmed that the Home Office had spent £13,000 on an injunction to prevent a foreign magazine from revealing the new identities of Thompson and Venables.

On 14 March 2008, an appeal to set up a Red Balloon Learner Centre in Merseyside in memory of James Bulger was launched by Denise Fergus, his mother, and Esther Rantzen. A memorial garden in Bulger's memory was created in Sacred Heart Primary School in Kirkby. He would have been expected to attend this school had he not been murdered.

Bulger's parents Ralph and Denise divorced in 1995, and Denise married Stuart Fergus in 1998.

In March 2010, a call was made to raise the age of criminal responsibility in England from 10 to 12. Children's commissioner Maggie Atkinson said that the killers of James Bulger should have undergone "programmes" to help turn their lives around, rather than being prosecuted. The Ministry of Justice rejected the call, saying that children over the age of 10 knew the difference "between bad behaviour and serious wrongdoing".

In April 2010, a 19-year-old man from the Isle of Man was given a three-month suspended prison sentence for claiming in a Facebook message that one of his former work colleagues was Robert Thompson. In passing sentence, Deputy High Bailiff Alastair Montgomery said that the teenager had "put that person at significant risk of serious harm" and in a "perilous position" by making the allegation.

Source:http://murderpedia.org/male.T/t/thompson-robert.htm

Jamie Bulger inspired piece

As we discovered that comedy wont work we decided that we should change our plot so we decided that we need to sit down and see what we can do, there was a lot of arguments but eventually we cam up with a brilliant idea; the idea is based on the horrific murder of Jamie Bulger (I'll do some research in a different post) We have a vague idea for the opening scene of the piece:

• Ollie and I would run on as the two children who murdered Jamie (the audience wont know this as we want a sudden realisation)
• Ollie and I would be watch a projection of a chucky doll advert, a brick advert and a Duracell advert ( we chose to do this to as to give a suttle hint to the audience of what will come - Jamie was killed with bricks and batteries, and people think the chucky inspired them to do it)
• At the end of the projection we want a sound of a train on tracks coming (as Jamie got dumped on train tracks and got his body ripped in half by it)
• Whilst the projection is happening Ollie and I will be like best Friends and laughing, this will make the audience think that we are innocent.

Ollie decide that I will be Robert Thompson( the one which they suspect that there is something wrong with him psychologically) and Ollie will be Jon Venbles ( the one who got caught with pornographic images of children after his release) 

For next lesson I will conduct some research into Robert Thompson.

Morgan Freeman's narration

I decided to pick Morgan Freeman as an inspirational narrator. I think the reason he is so popular  is because of his unusual tone, this allows the audience to concentrate on this odd tone which immerses them into the narrative.

In order to improve my narration technique I need to approach a different route with my tone of voice, this will intrigue the audience and hopefully they will enjoy

Brainstorming

Today we brainstormed ideas for our new devise piece. We came up with three main topics which we were all interested in this was:

• glamorization in the media- this piece would consist of how crimes are glamourized , for example Madeleine McCann was all over the media only because her parents could afford it, so this piece could lead into what we don't know this will be an interesting piece if we could explore crimes which we haven't heard of however there is a limit to what we can do and I haven't really got a clear image of what we can do.
• What if?- this would be another piece exploring on what if a crime didn't happen I thought this would be practically good with Madeleine McCann as it has revolutionized the  way security now day, this idea has limitless of what if's however will it confuse the audience? 
• Crime- this would be exploring the crime caused by people know as 'phsyco's' this would be interesting to explore different mental illness' , however we worried that this might be to cliché.

We also came up with a few techniques/ideas we ant to include into our piece:

• Projection/ multimedia
• soundscapes
• chair duets
• Brecht
• Burkoff

Ian Brady- research

Birth name: Ian Duncan Stewart

A.K.A.: "The Moors Murderer"

Classification: Serial killer
Characteristics: Rape
Number of victims: 5
Date of murder: July 1963 - October 1965
Date of arrest: October 7, 1965
Date of birth: January 2, 1938
Victim profile: Pauline Reade, 16 / John Kilbride, 12 / Keith Bennett, 12 / Lesley Ann Downey, 10 / Edward Evans, 17
Method of murder: Cutting the throat / Strangulation with a piece of string
Location: Greater Manchester, England, United Kingdom
Status: Sentenced to three terms of life imprisonment on May 6, 1966


Moors Killings

Brady was responsible for the murders of five children during the 1960s. In August 1987 he claimed to police that he had carried out another five killings and even said where he had buried the bodies, but the police were never able to prove whether these claims were true.

The five murders that Brady admitted carrying out were committed with Hindley as his accomplice. These were the infamous Moors Murders, which are still some of the most reviled crimes in Britain decades after they happened. As a result, Brady and Hindley became two of the most hated individuals in British criminal history.

On July 12, 1963, the couple claimed their first victim. 16-year-old Pauline Reade was enticed into Hindley's minivan while Brady followed behind on his motorcycle. They drove up to Saddleworth Moor where Hindley asked Pauline to help her look for a lost glove. They were busy "searching the moors" when Brady pounced upon Pauline and raped her. He then smashed her skull in with a shovel and slashed her throat so violently that she was almost decapitated. Brady then buried Pauline's body on the moor, where it remained for over 20 years.

On November 23, Hindley lured 12-year-old John Kilbride into her car from a market place in Ashton-under-Lyne, and drove him to Saddleworth Moor. Brady was waiting there and ordered Hindley to wait for him in a nearby village in their hired Ford Anglia. While Hindley waited in her car, Brady attempted to stab the boy with a knife, but the weapon was too blunt. Brady lost his temper and strangled him to death with a string before burying his body in a shallow grave.

On June 16, 1964 their third victim was another 12-year-old boy, Keith Bennett, whom they enticed from a street in Chorlton and drove to Saddleworth Moor. Hindley stood and watched from the top of an embankment while Brady sexually assaulted Keith in a ravine before strangling him to death with a piece of string and burying his body. It has never been found.

The fourth victim, 10-year-old Lesley Ann Downey, was lured from a fairground in Ancoats. Brady took nine obscene photographs of her, showing her naked, bound and gagged (which were later found in a suitcase in a left luggage locker). Hindley recorded the scene of the child's rape and torture by Brady on audio tape. The tape clearly records the voices of Brady, Hindley and the child, who is heard to scream and protest and asks to be allowed to go home and plead for her life. It is believed she was killed by Brady. The following morning, Brady and Hindley drove Lesley's body to Saddleworth Moor where it was buried in a shallow grave.

On October 6, 1965, the couple claimed their fifth and final victim, 17-year-old Edward Evans. They enticed him from Manchester Central Railway Station to their house in Hattersley, where Hindley's 18-year-old brother-in-law David Smith was visiting. Brady then crept up on Edward in the kitchen and smashed his head in with an axe. He ordered Smith to help him carry the corpse to an upstairs bedroom and tie it up ready for disposal, but Smith then ran home and contacted the police. Smith explained later that, while apparently giving assistance to cleaning up, his sole concern was to escape the house alive.

Sentencing

The death penalty was abolished just one month after Brady and Hindley were arrested. By the time they went on trial the following April, the punishment for murder was life imprisonment. This meant that a murderer was liable to be detained for the whole of his or her natural life, but could be released on life licence when no longer judged to be a risk.

On 6 May 1966, Brady was found guilty on three counts of murder and sentenced to three terms of life imprisonment. Hindley was found guilty of murdering Lesley Ann Downey and Edward Evans and given two life sentences; she also received a concurrent seven-year sentence for harbouring Brady in connection with the murder of John Kilbride.

The key evidence against the couple included the tape recordings of Downey's made while they photographed her naked; the name of John Kilbride in a notebook; and a photograph of Hindley standing on top of the shallow grave where Kilbride was buried. Brady immediately admitted the murder of Edward Evans, but adamantly insisted that Hindley had no part in it. Brady finally confessed to the murders of Pauline Reade and Keith Bennett in November 1986.

Imprisonment

Brady spent 19 years in a mainstream prison (at one point befriending serial poisoner and fellow Nazi aficionado Graham Frederick Young) before he was declared mentally disordered in 1985 and sent to a mental hospital.

The trial judge spoke of his doubt that Brady could ever reform, describing him as "wicked beyond belief" - and effectively giving him little hope of eventual release. Successive Home Secretaries have agreed with that decision, while Lord Lane (the former Lord Chief Justice), set a 40-year-minimum term in 1982. In 1990 he was told by Home Secretary David Waddington that both he and Hindley should never be freed.

His successor Michael Howard agreed with this judgement in 1994 and told Brady so. Although home secretaries can no longer decide the minimum length of a life sentence, and a European Court of Justice case currently in the process could soon see lifelong imprisonment outlawed, but Brady always insisted that he never wants to be released. He has had to be force-fed since going on hunger strike in September 1999, after the High Court refused him the right to starve himself to death.

In early 2006, various newspapers reported that Brady was hospitalised and doesn't have much longer to live. He is, however, still alive at present, and currently being held at Ashworth Hospital in Liverpool. In the extremely unlikely event of Brady ever being released, he would almost certainly be immediately arrested, tried and convicted for the murders of Pauline Reade and Keith Bennett, two murders which he was never charged with.

In 2001 Brady published a book called The Gates of Janus, which was published by the underground American publishing firm Feral House. The book, Brady's analysis of serial murder and specific serial killers, sparked outrage when announced in Britain.

Despite his incarceration, Brady (and his murders) still provide headlines for the UK tabloid press. Fellow prisoner Linda Calvey recently told the The Daily Mirror that, before her death in November 2002, Hindley confessed their killing of a young female hitch-hiker.

It has been reported that Brady devised a secret code to stop the police from finding out where the body of Keith Bennett is buried, and that he is furious that a drama documentary based on the murder was shown on ITV1 in May 2006. He has bragged to various newspapers that he has stopped four previous films from being made.

In early 2006, it was reported that a woman tried to smuggle 50 paracetamol tablets to Brady at the prison hospital. The amount would have been sufficient for a successful suicide attempt. Hospital employees foiled the attempt using X-ray screening, which revealed the pills in two sweets tubes inside a hollowed out crime novel.

Winnie Johnson, the mother of Brady's one undiscovered victim, received a letter from Brady at the end of 2005 claiming that he could take police to within 20 yards of her son's body, but the authorities would not allow it.

It has been reported that Brady has written his autobiography and has given his solicitor instructions that it may only be published after Brady's death.

Improving our characters using Lazzi

This lesson we got given the task to make a short lazzi as this will help our characterisation of the stock characters. I got paired up with Lorna who is Brighella, as Brighella's nature is very bossy we decided to make a lazzi of her bossing me around:

• Starts of with Zanni centre stage sleeping, Brighella walks in and tries to wake up Zanni he gets annoyed and goes on a massive clicking frenzy
• He then then kicked me as it was a way to get her own back which wakes up Zanni
• Zanni is frightend and tries to run away from him however the heirachy requires him to listen to Brighella
• Brighella tells him to do a set of tasks which Zanni is pretending to listen
• when Brighella wants him to do those tasks Zanni gets confused and copies him, which makes Brighella angry and in result pushes him
• Zanni falls asleep again when Brighella leaves, he comes back and pushes him over again

Our piece was funny however individually I need to make sure that the audience can see my mask and I need to maintain my stance as it reminds the audience of who I am and my place in the hierarchy.

At the end of the lesson we decided to go through the opening scene again which was better as we understood our characters more, next lesson we will create our masks.

Not so funny

This lesson I brought my stuff to do the Ollies scene, I perfromed it to the class and I felt really uncomfortable because of this no one actually found it funny, so we decided that we need to scrap this idea as the class didnt like it. Now we are questioning if we should keep won doing comedy, overall our group decided that we should try something else, we looked at mental illness for example we looked at OCPD:

Obsessive–compulsive personality disorder (OCPD), also calledanankastic personality disorder,^[1] is a personality disorder characterized by a general pattern of concern with orderliness, perfectionism, excessive attention to details, mental and interpersonal control, and a need for control over one's environment, at the expense of flexibility, openness, and efficiency.Workaholism and miserliness are also seen often in those with this personality disorder. Rituals are performed to the point of excluding leisure activities and friendships. Persons affected with this disorder may find it hard to relax, always feeling that time is running out for their activities and that more effort is needed to achieve their goals. They may plan their activities down to the minute—a manifestation of the compulsive tendency to keep control over their environment and to dislike unpredictable things as things they cannot control.^[2]

OCPD occurs in about 2–8% of the general population and 8–9% of psychiatric outpatients.^[3] The disorder most often occurs in men.^[4]

This is a distinct disorder from obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD), which is an anxiety, rather than a personality disorder, and the relation between the two is contentious. Some, but not all, studies have found high comorbidity rates between the two disorders, and both may share outside similarities – rigid and ritual-like behaviors, for example. Hoarding, orderliness, and a need for symmetry and organization are often seen in people with either disorder. However, attitudes toward these behaviors differ between people affected with either of the disorders: for people with OCD, these behaviors are unwanted and seen as unhealthy, being the product of anxiety-inducing and involuntary thoughts, while for people with OCPD they are experienced as rational and desirable, being the result of, for example, a strong adherence to routines, a natural inclination towards cautiousness, or a desire to achieve perfection.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obsessive%E2%80%93compulsive_personality_disorder

This would be intersting to experiment with as no one really knows what it is and its so rare that not many people suffer with it.

Next lesson we wioll decided what we want to do

Creating the opening scene

To start of this lesson we performed our improvised scenes which we came up with last lesson

Ollie' and Lewis' scene was really good however I think they should work more on movement to portray more of a slapstick comedy effect. The feedback for our scene was very good however everyone said that I need a higher pitch to make the first actor more feminine, I will practice this at home. Lorna's Rob's and Charlie's scene was really funny I think it was funny as there was a massive contrast of personalties. Our feedback is that during the sword fight they should be more vocal so the audience can tell the emotions of the characters just from their voice,

We then decided to make the opening of the perfromance:

• It starts with Harlequin on floor dead and Zanni just sleeping on stage left
• Brighella enters and notices the dead body and calls for help
• Doctor enters checks for a pulse and announces Harlequins death
• Brighella gets upset as Harlequin is his brother
• Pantolonie comes in and notices that Harlequin is dead and blames Brighella
• Il Captano gets blamed by Brighella which leads on to a story about Columbina so she gets blamed
• Columbina gets flirty with everyone and they fall for her and then she blames Zanni
• Zanni wakes up and notices the dead body which he tries to eat but Brighella stops him
• Pantolonie asks Zanni and he blames Columbina
• This leads onto a pointong frenzy shown by the diagram below
• The second pointing makes Zanni confused which leads him to point Harlequin

Next we want to go back to all of the flashbacks and the alibi's of each character. I like this opening scene as there is a lot of opportunities to add comedy for example we could make Doctor ramble on more which could result into Brighella getting annoyed.

The next we need to figure out is who Harlequine going to die, I liked the idea on how everyone wants to kill him and n each flashback he almost dies except for the final one where he could die I also like the idea that he could die from choking on his own food, this would add a comic affect as everyone has spent all the time and effort that actually in fact he died because he was too greedy.

Starting our new idea

This lesson we decided toi concentrate on Ollie scene, this is not final as he wants to get a script from out numberd therfore this idea is not final. We decided to devise a normal house hold where Rhiannon is a rebilous teenager and its my first day at sebior school, Cel is the mum and Ollie is the dad.

The scene stated off with calling Rhiannon but being a steriotypical teenager she has changed her mind and they have had an argument about that, whilst this is happening Cel is trying to get me up from bed, then they send me to the shower where the audience will see but there will be  a towel so it looks like im naked when im not, the they wanted me to be vert femine and sing songs like: I feel like a woman' and 'Anaconda' whilst dancing in the shower this will be funny as itll be unexpected ontop of this it is very normal for this to happen, after that Olllie questions my gender then we leave to go to school. I think if we have more time this will be funny however it's going to be very hard to excuite it as we need to get the timing right.

Ollie is making a script for next lesson

Phil Kaye

Phil Kaye is a famous poet and story writer I found a video online of one of his stories :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EILQTDBqhPA&feature=youtu.be&list=PL3A3qMmk8p4LqIOQ04AjK60zM1X4XMx4t

• I like the use of emphasis when he repeats his words.
• The use of tone and volume makes you immersed into the story
• I also like how he relates himself with the story it adds an extra layer to it

In  order to improve my story I need to think where and when can I add emphasis and i need to make my voice very animated in order for people to stay interested I also got to use pauses for efects and give a ranges of volume for suspense and tension.

Devising Roberts scene

This lesson we decided to start on Roberts scene in the Snow queen, Robert decided to approach his scene very simplistically, basically we are acting out what is happening whilst narration is over the top. I'm glad that this scene is different as recently the scene have been very similar and our main task is to experiment with different styles. I also like how the actors are the props in the scene. In the scene I also play as guards and the court ladies.

For next lesson I will research about story tellers.

Exploring ideas

This lesson we concentrated on how we can improve our idea and turn it into a performance, we separated into two different groups Group 1: Rob, Rhiannon and I , Group 2: Lorna, Charlie, Lewis and Ollie. As we are in two different this allows different ideas to be heard which can affect the final outcome.

In our group Rhiannon came up with a Brilliant idea: to have a court case to see who would kill Harlequin we expanded the ideas:

• Doctor and Pantalonie could be the judges
• Zanni will the the defendant and his lawyer would be Columbina
• Brighella will be the prosecutor and his lawyer would be Il Capitano
• Harlequin would be the one who gets murdered

This plot gives us many chances to use flashbacks, to show alibi's however it could be too confusing to the audience and they wont understand what is happening. Another problem is that we wouldn't be able to co-operate Harlequin into the story.

We decided to see the other groups ideas their idea consisted of:

• Harlequin is dead on-stage and Brighella finds him she panics
• This leads her to question everyone
• Each character has a flashback on what they was doing earlier that day
• At the end Zanni confess' and gets a promotion

I really like this idea as everyone has been included equally however I think that it's a bit too cliché so if we would do this idea we would have to improve it.

We discussed that Rhiannon's idea was good and we should try it out with a few changes as we needed to add Harlequin into the plot, we decided that the one who should get killed should be Magnifico this is because we don't have to see him in the performance and we haven't casted a Magnifco therefore  no one is left out. This resulted Harlequin being a witness.

So we started t to improvise a scene with the court case idea however it was too slow paced this would result into the audience lacking an interest into the show. Therefore we decided to go to the other group idea, we all splitted off into someone who we would hang out with as a character and started to devise a scene.

I was paired with Rhiannon where we made a Lovers scene, this included us exchanging kisses using a fake bow and arrow, I think the lovers will be hard as we cant touch each other. Next lesson we will perform this to the rest of the class.

Mask reseach

   
I like this mask as it shows how tired Zanni is from the folds in his skin. I also like the simplicity of it at symbolizes the simplicity of Zanni, however I would like to give him a thinner nose and maybe a bit longer, I would also make his eyes neutral instead of sad showing how confused he can get all the time, I think Zanni is not a depressed character so he shouldn't always look sad.






I prefer this mask as the eyes are big this shows how greedy Zanni could be. I also like the length of the nose as it shows that the Zanni is stupid and I want my Zanni to be incredibly stupid. However i think he should have a darker colour like the first picture, and I think there should be more folds around and under the eyes to show that he is exhausted.




I like the glamorization of this mask however I don't think it'll suit my Zanni as he is very simple and the different colurs and fabrics adds too much depth into the mask however I like the depth of the eyes and the folds around the left eye as it shows exhaustion.








This is an example of something I defiantly don't want I think this mask is too simple and shows no characterization except for the nose which I think is too wide that it looks weird. I aslo dont like the colour of the mask I think its too dark.








I now know what I want for my mask I want the shape of the second mask, I also like the nose of that one as the longer the nose the more stupid he is. I like the dirt colour of the first mask as it shows that he works hard and he is peasant-like. And I like the eyes on the second mask however could be a bit smaller and have folds on it like the right side of the third mask.