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