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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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