28/10/20 Final Performance + Post-performance evaluation

After rehearsing a lot after school, we finally managed to finish our performance, to a standard we were very happy with. A massive struggle was getting the lines matched correctly to the movements, and remembering all of this. We had 20+ attempts at recordings, therefore by the end, our energy was significantly low. I am very happy with the outcome, as I feel we didn't portray any of this in our final performance. Here is the performance...

Here is our post-performance evaluation...

26/10/20 Failed recordings and final Sarah Kane performance

 This weekend, we worked on our EAST piece by Steven Berkoff.  It took quite a long time to learn our lines and then add the movements to the lines.  Tristan and I recorded our scene quite a few times, but even when we thought we were happy with it, it still didn't look clean and smooth enough when we looked over it again today.  Silvana, Emma, Tristan and I have all decided that re-filming this is the best option for us to get it done the way we want. Here is our final rehearsal of EAST...

In the afternoon, we re-recorded our 4.48 Psychosis piece by Sarah Kane.  When we performed it in the Barthel Hall, it didn't have the eerie effect we wanted as the lights were all very bright and the audience was very close to the action so they could hear us moving and breathing. Here is that recording...

We decided to film it in the auditorium instead so that we could have the lighting a bit darker and the music louder.  I feel like this performance went so much better than last time and we were all really happy with it, so we finished off by recording our post-performance discussion. Here are both of those...

Performance

Post-performance evaluation

22/09/20 Psychosis rehearsal

 

20/10/20 rehearsing Psychosis by Sarah Kane

19/10/20 4.48 Psychosis rehearsal

 

15/10/20 chair duets for 4.48

 Today, we came up with 4 different chair duets, to eventually combine into a chair quartet. We used inspiration from an old series of chair duets we had put together at the beginning of our BTEC course...

14/10/20 working on 4.48 psychosis

 

12/10/20 working on 4.48 Psychosis blocking

 We started today by clarifying our plans for the day, along with what we have completed so far (and reviewed how much extra rehearsal we have to do). So far, we have:

• 2-minute physical theatre piece for 4.48 Psychosis
• Beginning already planned for this play
• Rehearsed East with Tristan
• Have started blocking our movements for our duologue

Today, we plan to:

• Block the whole of 4.48 Psychosis

We have decided to rehearse for an extra 2 hours after school in order to ensure this is completed for steady progress. In period 1, we recorded a long discussion surrounding 4.48 Psychosis. We have planned out our opening sequence, choosing to have the first 5 lines of the script before the first physical theatre sequence (being an impactful start to the piece, as we will all be facing away from the audience, leaving it enigmatic). We are still in the process of deciding which areas of the script we want to keep/scrap, as there are some divides in opinion within our group. I think we should use larger monologue sections (as I feel it fits Frantic Assembly's style better, giving us more opportunity to portray an actual piece of theatre), whereas other people think it would be more beneficial to use individual lines. We will discuss our decision in later periods today.

We have just completed rehearsals from period 5, 6 and after school rehearsals. We didn't progress as much as we had planned, however, we still feel as though we will have enough time to create a very good play. In this time, we added a scene to our piece. This scene is primarily scripted, but we also do some movement surrounding Emma/the bed. Emma sits at the edge of the bed, while the other characters circle around her. This short scene concludes with us all sitting aligned at the edge of the bed. In the after school rehearsal, we decided to have another physical theatre sequence here. We tried to devise this but struggled, therefore didn't get much done.

08/10/20 Improvising EAST

Today, we split into two groups (as mine and Tristan's duologue is separate to Emma's and Silvana's). We started off by improvising our monologue. We improvised some good movements that we will use in our final production. After this, we looked at some online examples to take inspiration from (as well as an example that I had done with Hugo a month back)...

05/10/20 Second piece choice

Although we decided on 'Noises Off' by Michael Frayn in our last rehearsal, we aren't sure on which practitioner we would pair with it. Along with this, we have read through a good chunk of the script, and there aren't any 10-minute sections that only have 4 characters, meaning we would have to cut between different sections, potentially creating a piece that doesn't make sense. After discussing these elements, we continued to look for more scripts, specifically on a website with 10-minute plays. I wasn't too fond of these plays, as there was always too much going on. We have essentially ended where we started today, with no second script chosen. Next lesson, we have made it our aim to get that second script found.

We also tried to work on 4.48 Psychosis today, however, we also hit a bit of a wall, as we weren't sure whether to continue working on our physical theatre or to start on the script. I think we feel a lot more comfortable working on physical theatre, despite finding it more challenging. This meant that we were hesitant to move on from what we produced last week, as we were confident it was good work.

UPDATE: we have chosen our second piece (EAST by Steven Berkoff). Here is a synopsis of this play...

East by Steven Berkoff is a comic play about London’s East End. Five characters relay tales about their shady lives in a rough district, covering the bases of romance, family and friendship. The murkiness of the action is offset by the elevated Shakespearean idiom that the characters speak in. The younger generation, Mike (James Craze), Les (Jack Condon) and Sylv (Boadicea Ricketts), form an uncomfortable ménage à trois where the darling Sylv is caught between two raging bulls. Mum (Debra Penny) and Dad (Russell Barnett), who are part of the older generation, watch over the younglings, often reminiscing about the good old days.

The coming-of-age theme is explored in a punch-drunk world. Mike and Les are two Cockney lads who are full of masculine energy and vigour. They have a disagreement over the affections of Sylv and hold razors at each other’s throats (and testicles). These snarling blokes are products of an upbringing where questions of honour are resolved in blood. The moments of violent tension are catalysed into a conflict by a braying crowd, who hurl profanities into the mix as the pair squares off. However, the eventual fight does not embitter them, but instead cements their friendship, after Mike and Les hobble to Charing Cross Hospital to bond as they recuperate.

Scene shifts are marked by vaudeville skits. These lighter comic exchanges are great ways to navigate the changes in time and location. We move away from the makeshift fighting arena behind a cinema to a breakfast table in two-up two-down. Mum is an easy-going domesticated woman, languorously contemplating the Radio Times crossword, and Dad is a furious misanthrope: it seems that sloth and wrath loom over Mike, Les and Sylv in the form of these parents. This tedium is what awaits the trio in the future should they fail to escape their surroundings.

Sylv is the most sensitive to the fear of smashed dreams. She can fancy her suitors at one point, with their raw virile charm, but also deplore herself being boxed into this role of ‘Queen of Sluts’ when she has to prettify herself and lay herself down (pun intended) for these men. On the other hand, if the role is reversed, a man who sleeps about is known an alpha-male player; there is less stigma attached. But Berkoff does not cast Sylv as plainly a man-hating feminist: her heartfelt oscillations between infatuation and disgust decry the sorry state of affairs that women have to suffer at the hands of belligerent apes, whom they are unfortunately attracted to.

East has performed in The King’s Head Theatre forty years ago: its return to this space has a kind of pleasing circularity to it. The venue is cosy, so the ornate language is a great way to account for the relative simplicity of the set design. These Renaissance inflexions to ordinary speech, grandiose metaphors of foggy breath being dragon smoke, help paint such vivid scenes that go into this panorama of the East End. The vernacular does not only serve the purpose of a hilarious dichotomy between low and high, for such courtly speech could not come from more unsuspecting mouths, but also makes a display of Berkoff’s writing prowess, so much so that the hard and grotesque textures of the back alleys and side streets can be felt and smelled in the performance.

28/09/20 matching Psychosis to music and finding our second script

 decided on copycat by billie eilish

decided on noises off by Michael frayn

In today's rehearsal, we decided to continue working on 4.48 Psychosis, and worked on our physical theatre a bit more. We felt it was important to match it with some music, and we chose 'COPYCAT' by Billie Eilish. We chose this song as it has quite an impactful bass, therefore it will match well with the Frantic Assembly style of physical theatre (with each movement being quite quick and joint). It also has a good variation of pace, therefore we can speed up and slow down our physical theatre. We rehearsed this and ended with this...

After rehearsing this, we finished by choosing our second script, which will be 'Noises Off' by Michael Frayn. Here is an online synopsis...

Noises Off is a play in three acts, showing what is happening on stage and behind the scenes while a chaotic theatre company is performing "Nothing On."

Act one shows the group during the dress rehearsal late at night. However, with only a few hours before the premiere, things run anything but smoothly. Dotty, for example, keeps forgetting where to take and leave her props, while other actors forget their lines and struggle with a faulty set. For example, doors that should open won't open, while doors that should close won't close. Therefore, Lloyd, the director, starts to lose his temper and resorts to sarcasm. As if the disorder were not enough already, Selsdon, an older actor with a drinking problem, keeps getting lost. Slowly but surely, the actors' relationships deteriorate and leave the audience wondering if they will get their performances right during the actual show.

For the second act, the stage is turned around, so the audience is able to see what happens behind the scenes during a midweek matinee a month after the premiere. With plenty of slammed doors and hostilities, it is clear that the actors' relationships have become dysfunctional, which also affects the production, as cues are missed, lines are forgotten, and actors are unwilling to turn up.

The third act takes place during the closing night performance of "Nothing On." The play and the characters are barely holding together, as personal feuds escalate and none of the actors seems to care for the production any longer. In the end, the disaster is sealed by the curtain burying the actors on stage.

"Nothing On," the play within the play, is an English bedroom farce. Roger Tramplemain, an estate agent who is in charge of renting the Brent's house, has a rendezvous with Vicky, pretending that the house is his own. However, it turns out that the housekeeper, Mrs. Clackett, is still around because she wants to spend a quiet afternoon watching TV and eating sardines. Later, the house owners Philip and Flavia Brent come back unexpectedly to make out as well. They have to keep their presence secret because they are trying to avoid the revenue department--and miss running into the other couple several times. In the end, a Sheik who is interested in the property arrives, as well as an elderly burglar, who turns out to be Vicky's father.

21/09/20 Finding our second piece + first rehearsal

 On Monday (today), we have 3 lessons split into p1, p5 & p6. In period 1, we immediately decided wanted to perform 'Psychosis' by Sarah Kane, as we had performed it the previous week and we created some quality while doing it. Last week, we performed it in the style of the theatre practitioner, 'Artaud', however the other group decided to perform it in that style, therefore we are looking at taking influence from Frantic Assembly. We also researched different texts and tried to link a practitioner to this text, however we found this task quite challenging as none of the scripts we had fitted our goal. One script we spent a while reading and watching was 'Accidental Death of an Anarchist' by Dario Fo. Although we found his slapstick style of comedy funny, we felt is would be difficult to execute, therefore we decided not to look any closer into this. We are still in the process of finding our second script.

In our final two periods of the day, we rehearsed Psychosis, we did a script read and we cut chunks of the script that we didn't want/need (and that prolonged it over the 20 minute mark). As this performance will be delivered to year 11's and year 12's, we felt it was necessary to cut the most graphic scenes. After this task, we set up a rehearsal schedule, choosing to rehearse after school on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and then frequent lunchtime slots. This gives us enough time to feel comfortable in preparing a dress rehearsal for the week before the performance.

17/09/20 Introduction to 4.48 Psychosis

Today we worked on a very unique script, called 4.48 by Sarah Kane. I was not familiar with this script to begin with, however, after reading it briefly, I recognised a certain monologue within it that had been performed by Emma as a GCSE piece. It is an extremely abstract piece of theatre however we felt it was very engaging. It is definitely a script we will look at using for our final performance for this unit. We used Artaud for this piece, as his style fits well with the dark tone.

14/09/20 Group Work Practitioners

 Here are the scripts we looked at in todays lesson:

• DNA
• IT'S NOT ME IT'S YOU
• EAST

Here are the scripts we looked at in todays lesson:

• Amelie - Peter Brook
• Louis - Craig
• Silvana - Brecht
• Seth - Fo
• Hugo - Stanislavski
• Emma - Pinter
• James - Antoine Artaud
• Tristan - Jerzy Grotowski

All different practitioners gave me an intake into the different aspects and elements of directing and performing theatre, looking at a contrast of comedy and darker theatre styles. Our task was to split into 2 groups and decide on 1 script to look closer at, and then link practitioners to it, to then produce a short piece of theatre to perform in the afternoon. My group chose to mix Artaud, Brecht and Fo with the 'DNA' script. After audience feedback, we learnt it was a successful performance, making the audience uncomfortable. I enjoyed this style of theatre as it allows an actors and directors ideas spiral, meaning no performance will ever be the same. If I was to do it again, I would take inspiration from the other performance, alternating where to position the audience. This was effective in their performance because it made us feel intrigued yet uncomfortable (while lying on stage).

14/09/20 Edward Gordon Craig

 Craig

• Theatre practitioner
• English actor
• born 1872, Stevenage
• died 1966, France
• Craig's idea of using neutral, mobile, non-representational screens as a staging device is probably his most famous scenographic concept
• Known for his intricate set designs
• In 1975 The Gordon Craig theatre was built in his hometown of Stevenage
• As a designer, the sets he built and designed were made to be extremely symbolic and he was the first person with the idea of moveable screen / scenery (hinged flats which could be used inside and out).
• Edward Gordon Craig believed that a director was “the true artist of the theatre” instead of the actor

14/09/20 Berkoff

Berkoff

Who was he?

• Born in 1937 in London (currently 83)
• Actor, Playwright and Theatre director
• Partner: Clara Fisher
• His family is Jewish, with roots in Romania and Russia
• Berkoff attended Rain's Foundation Grammar school (1948–50),Hackney Downs School, the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Arts (1958), and L'Ecole Internationale de Theatre Jacques Lecoq (1965)

Awards and Honours

• Kvetch (best comedy) - Evening Standard Theatre Award (1991)
• Total Theatre Lifetime Achievement Award (1997)
• Shakespeare's Villains (best entertainment) - nominated for Society of London's Theatre's Laurence Olivier
• East (best ensemble work at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival) - 1999
• Shakespeare's Villains (best solo performance) - LA weekly Theatre Award (2000)
• Messiah (Scotsman Fringe First Award) - Edinburgh Fringe Festival (2000)
• Secret Love Life of Ophelia - Bank of Scotland Herald Angel (2001)

Theatre

What sets Berkoff apart from theatre is his focus on non-naturalism, his attention on movement rather than voice. As an actor, director and playwright and general non-conformist, Berkoff wanted to shake naturalistic theatre and encourage experiment using the idea of Total Theatre. He believed that the only purpose of a script is to help minimalise and physicalise the story; stripping it down to the bare components. Steven Berkoff said that his career owes much to his training as a physical theatre practitioner, but perhaps equally, to his working class origins, which, he maintains, give him a different perspective to those around him in a predominantly middle class profession. The aim of Total Theatre is to create extreme moods to give the audience an overwhelming experience and to shock, amuse, scare, or amaze them. Total Theatre maintains that every aspect of theatre must have purpose: every movement, that is choreographed; to each line, that is learned perfectly; to each lighting effect, that is used to convey a mood or message; to each sound effect, that enhances the audience’s experience; to each prop that has a use.

Practitioners - Mrs Williams

STANISLAVSKI

• Emotion memory - reliving experience (made actors go mad as it was too traumatic)
• Units & objectives - super-objectives (whole play), through-line (smaller objectives)
• Actioning - if there is a line of text that's not coming across as real, add an action to make it real

STRASBERG

• Changed emotion memory to sense memory - thinking about senses rather than actual experience so actors don't go mad

BRECHT

• 1896-1956
• Grew up in Nazi Germany
• Called out propaganda & got exiled
• Berliner Ensemble
• Three Penny Opera
• Caucasian Chalk Circle
• Good Woman
• Didactic theatre - teaching, to change society
• Epic theatre - alienation, V-effect - turn off audience's emotions but turn on their brain
• "What there is shall go to those that are good for it"
• Characters talk in 3rd person & use direct audience address

PUNCHDRUNK

• Theatre group in Britain
• Started in 2000
• Founded by Felix Barrett
• Promenade theatre - walking
• Site specific - the place is the stimulus - graveyard, school, forest

ARTAUD

• Theatre of cruelty
• 1896-1948
• Known work - The Theatre and It's Double
• Went to Paris in 20s & met the Surrealists
• Acted in a couple of films
• Surrealists rejected him
• 1926-1928 - co-ran Theatre Alfred Jarry - producing work by August Strindberg
• 'The Cenci' - incest heavy
• 1938 - The Theatre and It's Double - surrealism, symbolism
• Psychological and human stagnation - restore theatre to its original destiny - fused together dance, song, pantomime in a perspective of hallucination & fear
• Theatre of cruelty - "in which violent physical images crush & hypnotise the sensibility of the spectator seized by the theatre as a whirlwind of higher forces"

BOAL

• Brazilian
• Forum theatre, invisible theatre & image theatre
• Forum - bringing people from audience to fix scene & make it better
• Invisible - scene with actions protagonist would like to try in real life, potential real life situations
• Image - short scenes, 1-2 minutes, strong imagery

BERKOFF

• 1937 East London, Jewish
• Extreme physicality is used to make sense of the poetic language
• Uses iambic pentameter & rhyming couplets etc.
• Flowing poetic but horrible scenes
• Uses experiences

FRANTIC ASSEMBLY

• Founded 1994
• Work reflects contemporary culture
• Non-naturalistic
• Combines movement, design, music & text
• Frantic method - direction through movement & physical awareness can be implemented in moments of stillness - physical theatre