Final Rehersals!

Today will be the last time we would rehearsal for FMF this term. This lesson went really well, we did a run through, the only thing I found difficult was to maintain the line between too creepy and just right, however I think I did the best I could do!

After this we decided to perform the show to year nines, this wasn't as good as I expected as they wern't the right age group therefore they didn't interact as much as little kids would however they did appreciate the show and we got good feedback.

My notes:
Need to be less creepy as this will scare the kids
Remember to maintain your stance

Evaluation

Today we performed the show at Thamesview RE group. The show went well with only a few mistakes, but our audience enjoyed it! I enjoyed performing to a younger audience but I think the show is designated for year two as they will be more interactive with us and will get the joke ore for example the kids didn't get the "Xfactor"joke as they don't really watch TV a lot unless it's Cebeebies as they are young. I played the roles of : Bunce and Fox cub.

What went well:

• My use of voice was well. It helped me become more like a character.
• I think the race scene went well and my use of facial expressions in slow motion, this made the kids laugh, which means we succeeded our purpose which is to entertain.
• My use of facial expressions was good, this made it clear what emotion I was putting on and how I feel about
• I think my interaction to other characters was good and was very simple this made the audience understand on what is going on

However to improve my grade I need to:

• My characterisation for the fox cub was bad, this was because I didn't move my whole body as a young fox cub, I found it difficult to find the contrast between these two aspects of my character. As I didn't do this properly I was unable to show a clear contrast between my two characters.
• I didn't maintain the stance for Bunce this made the audience confused if I was still Bunce or the Fox cub, I think my stance was too weird and I need to do more of a squatting motion; with my arms out to make my self look more masculine and smaller.
• I need to tone down Bunce as the kids found him more of a scary character when he suppose to be grumpy and he needs to be funny to watch. I can do this by altering my voice and facial expressions, for example instead of pulling a really "murderous" facial expression instead I should be more grumpy
• I need to focus more as this will improve my performnce and I will know what is happening at all times so I wont be late on going on stage and missing my cues, if I focus more I could also improvise in case their is a mistake and we need to cover it up.
• I need to maintain my character when the audience is not focusing on me. This will improve my performance and characterisation skills as I will wonder what my characters would do when they are not talking

What I would do to change the performance:

• I think we should of performed the show to an older audience as the kids were too young to interact with
• I think Bunce and Boggis should of interacted with the audience as they had no chances to interact with the kids
• I think the Fox family should of had a song to introduce themselves as the Farmers introduction was strong
• I think the Farmers should of done the final scene of just waiting as it could create a comic moment for the kids

This was our first ever unit for Double and I think it went really well. This show was funny and made has improved my ability to perform. On top of all of that we have created a strong bond within our group. 

Dress Rehersal

This lesson we  did a full runthrough with props and costumes. This made me realize that I need to have quick costume changes.
Heres a list of the props/costumes we used:
Fox ears and tails (for the four foxes)
Spoon for Bunce
Cardboard cutouts of the cider and chickens
A walkie Talkie for Bean to call Mable
A fake belly for Boggis
Rat nose for the rat to make it obious that Lorna has changed character
Guns for the shooting
Spades for the race
Farmer hats
A dress for Mrs Fox
A suit for Mr Fox
waistecoat and trousers for Badger
Everyone else wore all balck as we have to change characters

 These props and costumes which was included made our show the immersive and more realistic. The props improved our performance how ever it wasnt the best we did I think this was because we didnt have enough energy.

This run through was alright but its clear that I need to improve.
Todays comments:
I need to improve my diction
improve the poke scene
More characterisation for fox cub

We are getting there!

In todays lesson we ran the entire show and stopped at the end of each scne to get comments and discuss what we need to do to improve our performance. Performing the "Three Farmes"scene it was obivous that it has improved a lot, this created a energetic atmosphere which flowed through the whole show.

"We'll never let him go" was a bit of wreck so Robert, Lewis and I, had to alter the scene, we decided that we would remove the chase scene. After this their was a nice flow to the scene which turned out to be better.

We chorgraghed a new bit of movement for Beans cider celler:
On "dashed behind" we would all run into a line (Ollie, Charlie,Robert, Lewis and I).
On "breath" we would poke ur heads out (Robert and I poked our heads to the left, I go low and Robert goes high. Charlie and Lewis poke their heads to the left Charlie went low and Lewis went high)- this was very funny for the kids.
On "breath" we changed sides
On "heart" we went back into the line
When everyone have their lines they go to the original  side they poke their heads out.
When I say my line Charlie gets annoyed and walks out of the line then everyone calls him back into the line
Everytime the woman grabs a cider jar we reapeat the action, showing our facial expressions to the audience this should be funny to watch

Next secne is the great feast where we sing "you got a friend in me" I printed out the lyrics for this song, and it went quite well.

At the end of the lesson we got given key notes which will help our performance grade. My list is:
Learn lines
Tone down Bunce as I can be scary sometimes
Be more enegetic
More characterisation for te Fox cubs

For next lesson I will focus more on the Fox cub.

I think this lesson went well, the only thing we need to now is to perfect the our performance and to add more energy as the kids will cheer us on if we give out an energetic vibe!  

First ever run through!

As we are performing Fantastic Mr Fox in a couple of weeks we decided that we should  run the whole thing, but first we need to update Rhiannon on what we have done. We showed and we decided that we need to polish the dance. Lorna and I figured out what we are going to do, we do a little dance where we run around each other and then do we do a couple of turns then Charlie interrupts us and he sings" there isn't anything I wouldn't do for you" and then Charlie Lorna and I link arms together as a stereotypical family, and Charlie cant resist to do "dad dancing" which Lorna and I got embarrassed about and we run back into our line.


We changed the start now we were supposed to be doing our own thing but now we  are in designated lines and we step sided to side where Badger and Fox is in the middle, the step to step will be continuous until everyone forms the line. The other thing we changed is the end where instead we will be in a Family photo positions and wave goodbye to the kids.


We decided that the farmers should have a little song at the start of the show, the song:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bjvffx-h2KM, basically it starts with me running away with a chicken leg then I smile at the audience and I look at the chicken then I look back to see if anyone is behind me then I start eating the chicken, when Boggis comes up out of back and looks at me walks up to me points me the back and takes the chicken away from as I'm too small I take a run and I try to take the chicken when Bean comes up annoyed and takes the chicken away from us, then we get into our formation and do a couple of bops where Robert and Lewis Bop and then I bop. This is really funny with the music and it'll defiantly entertain the audience.


After this we went through the show to see what scenes need work on. I found this very difficult as I was in a lot of scenes and it was hard to catch up and keep changing character. After the run through miss gave us targets, she said that I need to keep my head up or the kids will just see the back of my head, more characterisation for the fox cup or I wont be able to show my skills and I need to improve my diction for Bunce or the kids wont be able to understand me. As a group she said we need to up our energy and don't use our scripts for next rehearsal.


Next week we need to make one more scene which will be the scene before we sing You've got a friend in me.

The Great Feast!

Today's lesson we decided to go through the last scene, out initial thoughts was that we it's going to be a busy scene with a lot of stuff happening. So we thought the best thing we could do was to use physical theater and a bit of Frantic assemblies exercises we wanted to do this because the kids will find it cool and intriguing as well I feel that our group is strong with physical theater therefore we can showcase our skills even further as a group.

Lewis and Ollie was trying to figure out the choreography whilst I was trying to decide what song we will need to use as I thought we actually cant do anything until we have the beat of the music. My first idea was "Food Glorious Food" from the Musical Oliver! I thought this as its a well known and liked song and it makes sense as we are celebrating because Mr Fox has brought back loads of food for everyone. Then our other idea was to have "You've got a friend in me" by Randy Newman we thought of this as its a low paced song and it gives our audience a morale that you should keep your friends! The song kind of goes with the show as at the end everyone is together and celebrating which relates to friends and family and the song is based on friends.

The rest of the lesson we choreographed the scene, it consists of this:

• At the start Mr Fox sings to Badger and lays in his arms
• At the second verse Lorna I sing to each other and we will choreograph a dance showing our strong bond as siblings
• During the third verse Rabbit and Mole sings a line then Mr Fox sings the rest as Mrs Fox kisses him
• For the last verse we come together as a big group of friends and then Rabbit, Badger and Mole depart from the line and then The kids depart and then Mrs Fox and Then Mr Fox and we are going to end in a tabloo.

The raid scenes!

In this lesson we got a lot done, I was assigned I decided that we should do the raid scenes as we haven't really started on these scenes. As this show is meant for children we would like the kids to still be entertained we can do this by making them laugh therefore we decided that the scene should be funny.

The raid scenes are all  the same except the characters in them Charlie and I are in all of the raid scenes. Lorna is in the first and second raid but then she leaves and Rabbit Mole and Badger are in the third raid. The third raid is the funniest as the Mole cant see so everyone has to put mole back on track.

The scene consists of everyone who is on who will do a mini sequence pretending to dodge obsticals and then we go center stage and we jump, the jump makes it look like we are on the surface now,and then we collect the supplies and do the same sequence but in reverse as we have to exit the tunnel, we found sneak music which works really well on the scene. Whilst the scene is happening Ollie will be narrating.

I think this scene will be very entertaining yet very simple, hopefully the simplicity of the scene will make the audience laugh and enjoy the scenes.



Whilst everybody was choreographing the raid scene, Lorna was creating Cardboard cutouts of cooked chicken legs. They look good!

After the raid scenes we had enough time to start the scene where rat is introduced, we got into a really cheesy formation looking around and then we are interrupted by Lorna who is Rat, we only got this far, Ollie said he will create a script for next lesson.

Planning

In this lesson we decided to plan out what we will do for the next few lesson, we decided that we needed to concentrated on scenes which included movement with it, i the end we came up with the out line for three scene which are either incomplete or we haven't started devising for it yet: The race,  and Great feast.

The race-
For this scene we decided to have a stereotypical race, the farmers are elevated on a table or chairs, and the farmers are at a normal level, the narrator will narrate the race I decided as my character is small I thought to add comedy by having trouble to get onto the platform, when the race starts everyone is in slow motion with over exaggerated facial expressions this will create a comic atmosphere for our young audience. Eventually the farmers win and leave the farmers and Boggis starts crying again and then I say "are you crying again" this leads us into we never let him go.

The Great feast-
With the great feast we decided to have one big movement piece to hype the audience and to show our skills in movement as a group. We decided that its going to start off with everyone besides me and Charlie as we are together in the scene before therefore it will make sense that we are travelling to the home so everyone can celebrate together, I think we should have a sing song as it'll end with the kids being happy.

As I don't have my role as mole we decided to give it to Robert as its a better role to play than being a weasel. Rabbit Mole and Badger will be introduced later on in the play right before the Cider Celler Raid.

I feel this lesson was really important as its utilised on ewjhat we want to do in the next few lesson.

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The shooting

This lesson we created and polished the shooting scene. The scene consists of Boggis, Bunce and Bean sneaking through the audience, then Mr Fox comes onto stage and said that he smells "F... f Fried Chicken" this was bait set up by the Farmers so they can shoot him, this will also be funny for the children as its Fried chicken, not just chicken.

Whilst this was happening Rob was tapping on the windowsill which created a very intense atmosphere, so Lewis and I decided to add this in, we will do this by recording it and then playing it during our performance. The drumming will suit the shooting scene as we want to create more tense atmosphere rather that it all being funny.

We also came up with a funny joke when the farmers are in the audience, Boggis steps in Fox poo and moans about it, whilst Bean shhh him and I copy him but I do it for an extended length of time until Bean tells me to stop, this will make the children laugh.

Next lesson we will concentrate on movement for the race scene.

Revolution Arts - Fisher: Script Archive - Scene 5 "We'll Never Let Him Go"

Revolution Arts - Fisher: Script Archive - Scene 5 "We'll Never Let Him Go": LF and JBC walk enter looking angry JBC : Even with our diggers and machines we're too slow! That fox will get away if we don't...

Revolution Arts - Fisher: Script Archive - Scene 1 "The Three Farmers"

Revolution Arts - Fisher: Script Archive - Scene 1 "The Three Farmers": OK:   Down in the valley there were three farms. The owners of these farms had done well. They were rich men, They were also nasty men  all ...

First scene of being Bunce!

Today's lesson we concentrated on scene three, this scene concentrated on the farmers. The scene start of with Boggis and Bunce moaning about the Fox which turns into an argument,This turns into a slapstick comedy punch which turned into a little poke and then Bunce gets scared so he runs away from Boggis. Then Bean interrupts Bunce get so scared that he jumps into Boggis' arms this will make the children laugh. After this Bunce  complains about Boggis' and Bunce's ideas so he ask the audience in the end Bunce has an idea and leaves whilst Boggis and Bunce does an evil laugh which will make the audience laugh and the Bean comes back on to the stage and gets Boggis and Bunce.

I liked this scene its very funny for the kids but I need to concentrate on  my stance as Bunce is the smallest so I'm going to have a hunchback to I look naturally smaller than the other farmers.

I'm the new Bunce!

The other lesson Lorna dropped the role of Bunce and suggested that I should take the role because we decided that we don't want mole in the show which only gave me one minor role.I'm glad I've got this role as I can show my skills as an actor a lot more, before I could really only rely on movement because he doesn't really speak a lot. With Bunce I can concentrate on my stance, pace of voice, pronunciation, movement, volume, facial expressions, body language and voice.

The rest of the lesson we mainly concentrated on planning and specifying on what scenes we need to do and who is in what scene this way we can work on two scene in one lesson as we can split up into a group.

Starving Slowly

The other day we decided to go through a new scene with the Foxes we decided to do the scene where Fantastic Mr Fox has been digging for a long time but has to stop as he and his family are tired and hungry because they been digging for a long time because the Farmers are trying to kill him.

The scene will start of with Mr Fox getting tired and then the kids moan saying that they are hungry and tired, after this Mrs Fox and Fantastic Mr Fox have a argument as Mr Fox is angry with Mrs Fox as she isn't helping and Mrs Fox is mad at Mr Fox for putting her and her children into the mess. The problem we had with this was that the argument was a bit inappropriate for  kids and are target audience is Year 1/2 kids so we cant scare or upset them.,In the middle of the argument the kids start to cry as their parents are arguing and they don't like it. Mr Fox and Mrs Fox stops arguing as they know that they shouldn't argue because the Farmers are looking for them, and the arguing upsets the children, so at the end they both make up and then Mr Fox pretends he has a Epiphany but doesn't so this gives him another chance to interact withe the audience this is important as it will keep the audiences attention as they want to be a part of our show.

The Framers and the Narrator worked on the opening scene, this is very simple but effective, basically Badger reads out the first chapter and introduces the farmers, The Badger also teaches the song to the children which will let them brake the fourth wall and sing a silly song whenever the Framers enter, this also makes the children laugh which helps us with our purpose of the performance which is to entertain the audience.

Rudolf Laban

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

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

4.Space (Kinesphere / Spatial intention) 

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

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

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

Quentin Blake

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

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






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

Show and tell! The Flint Streen Nativity Play

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


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

Ideas for set design

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


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

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

















First rehersal for Fantastic Mr Fox!

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


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

Roald Dahl's Fantastic Mr Fox

Synopsis:

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

"Boggis and Bunce and Bean

One short, one fat, one lean

Theses horrible crooks

So different in looks 

were nonetheless equally mean"

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Character list:

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