Tuesday 21 January 2020

WHERE LOYALTIES LIE4 Poetry influences and music

FEST PROJECT: units 9 and 33

Today we looked at pairing words with physical theatre sequences. To start with, we ran a short but comprehensive warm-up, consisting of stretching and light cardio to minimize the risk of potential injury.
Throughout the lesson we played the following songs as they are all about loyalty - which is the overall theme of our piece:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ESXgJ9-H-2U
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ISy0Hl0SBfg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gOEHefkds2w&list=RD_QJATCkleXc&index=5
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_QJATCkleXc&list=RD_QJATCkleXc&start_radio=1&t=19
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HbVKmSQqELY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HafWi_moOi8&list=RD--wy8QmLlM8&index=4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YeawPUpTHJA&list=RDuco-2V4ytYQ&index=2
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K3JGxj2rvAs

We were looking to find any dialogue in the music that we could look further into. 
After the warm-up, we looked at three different poems regarding loyalty, read them out loud and discussed them.
POEM 1:
John Shelley waited for me
in front of my period 7
Creative Writing class
and I knew
what he wanted even before he spoke.
"I'll drive you
again today, " I said.
"I can't bear
the bus ride home
after the hospital -
so much noise
confusion."
"No problem."
John Shelley stared
into my eyes
perhaps wanting a solution
to hi agony -
not possible.
"It's not her death,"
he finally said,
"but the slow dying
I can't endure
a hope turned turned to dust
then another glimmer
that soon gone too
feel so weak
my wife tries
to understand...
well
it's my mother
and I'm an only child."
Suddenly I heard a commotion in class
nodded to John
rushed inside
to see
16 year old Carrie Cook
belly bulging with child
holding her hand high
the diamond engagement
ring
sparkling
in the flickering fluorescent light
of motherhood.

The first was about a teacher's loyalty to a colleague who had a terminally ill mother. This was the longest of the three, which meant that we spent a long time dissecting it. There were lots of underlying issues such as teenage pregnancy and marital problems, however we decided to look at the bond between colleagues in more detail as it is simpler to portray than the others.

POEM 2:
Loyalty slips around my silent brother
Guarding me from pain
Desperate to save me

Honor slunk before the drunken man
He yells and screams
Booze wafts off his breath

Regret hobbles inside a broken lamp
The one that just hit my brother
It's light never to shine again

Hope paced around the weak child
As sirens sound outside the door
And men dressed in blue
Break down the door.

By Analissa Range

The second poem we looked at was about a child's brother being beaten with a lamp by their father, and the internal conflict it caused. This is an interesting dynamic, however we didn't look at this one in much detail because after some thinking I realised that it would not fit in with our characters, and also because we decided that theme was too dark for the sort of piece we would like to create.

POEM 3:
Jewels of meekness
Serenade the lonely heart
Her dignity is a shawl of blue light
Close to faith in her pain
Gentle as a sapphire night
Warm with rubies in mystic fire

I will never be on the outside
I will always read your words
I shall send angel flowers

You have touched me my friends
We are alike
Broken yet resolved to do good
Abstract kisses are still sweet
No poet writes to no one
Universals flow in time
If I go first a tear you will cry

Loyalty sometimes is sublime

By Joseph Narusiewiez

The last poem we read was the shortest of them all, and fairly vague. It is about the narrator's dying friend, and had beautiful imagery - for instance sending 'angel bouquets' to her. This poem explored the possibility of loss of loyalty between them, resilience and how they work through issues and separation.

To try and put these poems to movement, we split into two groups - the three girls and the five boys.
The girls decided to go with the last one as it is potentially the most relevant to our piece, even though it is a more serious topic. We did not manage to develop much material as we only had ten minutes to do so, however they discussed the nature of movement they could use and found some examples. For instance, with the whole poem being about
loss and reflection, felt that they could do a trust lean or lift. The lean would be one person leaning with a straight body off the stage with planted feet while the others hold onto an arm each. Alternatively, they could do two flying lifts with one person reaching towards the other, but they would need more people.

While all this was useful, I think we really need to work out the basic plot of the piece tomorrow, as well as developing more physical theatre techniques.

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