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.