Evaluation of Performance.

 Although in the performance in front of the students didn't go very well as the lines became mixed up and we repeated bits of it a lot. I feel the actual performance went much better. After we didn't so as well, I felt really anxious that the performance would go bad so we had line runs before the performance which went better then before so I gained a little more confidence however when we were standing ready to go on, I felt anxious again.  

I believe that I improved through rehearsals giving my lines as to begin with they were dead and dull but I think I managed to make them interesting and even interact with my fellow actors. I believe I successfully used Gestus with my politician character as I was standing up straight and stiff, very proud with my chin slightly in the air which contrasted with my member of society character who was more free and relaxed. I also was able to change my voice as a higher member of society would talk very proper with very good English, However I believe I could still work on my voice for the member of society as it was very similar to my own.  

I believe together, our company did very well playing off each other with their lines but if we were to do it again I feel that we could play on this even more- although we did massively improve from our first rehearsal. I think my best line was the one I have in response to Nairacs as we laughed with each other and were very interactive. 

Even though this was a hard script as I felt there wasn't much to do with the lines, I was proved wrong by Demi- who gave every line with enthusiasm and emotion so I feel that next time I need to let go a bit more, relax my anxiety and give the line more freely. 

Overall, I felt the performance went much better than anticipated and I enjoyed learning about Brecht and exploring politics through Theatre. 

A copy of the script for the devised toilet scene.

Michelle Gove's Bathroom. 

R K and S on as sinks. 

R: Imagine.
K: Ok?
S: A bathroom.
RKS: Is it just like yours?

K and S off. 

R: This is the bathroom of Michelle Gove. 

J and E enter on opposite sides. They both wash their hands and fix their hair then sit down. 
K and S enter as toilet and toilet brush. 

E: God that stinks!
S: What did she eat? 
R: It was pasta I think.
E: Having a bad day are you? All that stress and pain is getting to you I can see it in your eyes. It's aging you slowly. As of lately you've turned so bitter. I saw you earlier...

J gets up and E follows her as she observes S who is busking. 

E: You saw that poor boy begging for money, and you god damn well knew you had twenty quid in your pocket. But you were too selfish to fork out. That's the thing about you politicians, you're all selfish. The sooner you realize that the better. 

J walks past S and circles E's chair to return to her own. R sits in in E's chair and E becomes sink. 

R: I saw you this morning at the referendum, you were so eager to sign that policy for raising the grade boundaries. You never used to be like this. 

K comes on. R and J sit up straighter. 

K: Right. We are at the final stage of raising the UK's educational grade boundaries for core subjects for high school students. All those for?

S raises J's hand. 
K: All those against? Thank you politicians the grade boundaries will rise this autumn. 
E and K swap, K becomes sink. R becomes toilet. S sits in E's chair. 
S: She doesn't look too good. 
E: She had a bad day, she can't flush this away!
K: But she does deserve a good day doesn't she? 
R: Yeah, this is meant to be relaxing, you're not really helping...
S: Do you remember me? Didn't think you would. I was 1 of 1000's. It's our lives that you're ruining, our futures! We are the future. 
S K R E sound scape: We are the future.
S K R E surround J on chair shouting. 
J: Stop! It's not my fault ok? 

J gets up and washes her hands. 

E: Listen, I know you've had a hard week. You're a politician and you have to be brave. You have to show the people you are in charge. So, keep your chin up, put a smile on that face, and lets take another day. 

E and J circle E's chair. S R K bombard J as paparazzi.

S: Michelle! How do you feel about putting up the grade boundaries?
R: Michelle! Do you know you're ruining lives?
L: Michelle! Do you have anything to say?
All: Michelle michelle!

J: Leave me alone. I'm a human, just like you. 
J and E exit. 

R S K return to sink format. 

R: Imagine.
S: Ok?
K: A bathroom.
RSK: Just like everyone else's.

Bertolt Brecht

I think its easy to say who Bertolt Brecht was and what his advances were in the world of theatre however I think everyone has their own idea on how facts about Brecht led him to make his ideas on theatre. 

Bertolt Brecht was a German poet, playwright, theatre director, and Marxist. He had very contrasting views on theatre to that of Stanislavsky. Brecht wanted to change the ordinary cliche view on theatre and have the audience captivated.

Being a Marxist suggests the most significant characteristic a human has is creativity. The V effect signals the idea that workers are separated from their work due to capitalism. So in the theatre people aren't in control of their lives so outside the theatre they would want to be.

Brecht was a communist and believed in a left wing society (which I previously explained in an earlier post) and this challenged Aristotle ideas- the Aristotle ideas were based on believing in naturalism and that the audience would have to suspend their belief, which is where the rules of acts and scenes came into theatre. 

This also lead to Epic Theatre. Theatre should not be linear whilst breaking the 4th wall reminding the actors and audience of who they are. This was achieved by the use of: harsh lighting, no make up, cheap music, costume changes on stage and no climax.

This would in turn, distance the audience from their emotions, completed contrasting to naturalistic theatre. By using projections and signs he showed them what was happening on stage, also using songs to divide up action and let the audience see the actors warm up, blurring the boundaries between life and theatre. Brecht hated the idea of the 4th wall and was against anything that promoted capitalist ideas. He was completely against the idea of the audience sharing emotions with the actors, or the actors sharing emotions with the audience. 

Brecht wanted to leave the audience filled with questions and theories, such as 'Do we turn more right wing in hard times?' Brecht was able to alter humans using the essence of montage as it doesn't require a journey, more like:
Statement/Argument/Statement. 

'Hungry man, reach for the book: it is a weapon.' Bertolt Brecht. 

Monday 18th November 2013

This lesson was given to us for preparation of our protests, due to happen the following week. 

As I have previously said our protest was on animal testing- a subject we all felt passionate about. 

The plan: 

As our protest would have to last we decided to split it into three segments of fifteen minutes and repeat this 3 times. 

• We would start by saying three shocking facts our statistics whilst standing on chairs to get the audiences attention. 
• We would then entwine with the audience repeating our facts with straight faces almost as if we were manikins. 
• After we started our beautician performance. Kate and myself acted as society, blind beauticians who didn't see the problem with testing on animals. We would rub make up products on each others face and arms while commenting on how 'okay' this is, because its been tested. At this time Abdhi would also be a beautician but she would act as a person very aware of the consequences to the harm the make up would cause the animals. She would read out shocking statistics as Kate and I pretended not to here.
• To get the audience more involved we thought of having a quiz including questions such as
  'How many animals are killed a year from animal testing?'
  'How much money is spent on testing animals each year?'
  To gain a response we would have sweets as a reward for people joining in while making them aware of the facts/statistics. 
• We would then stand back on our chairs like in the beginning and start a sound scape with the same fact from the beginning getting louder and louder until we are heard over the mumble of talking. Ending with us sinking onto our chairs like manikins. 
• This would ideally last for fifteen minutes and then be repeated another two times. 

During our protest we would have shocking pictures (such as the ones above) around where we were performing and maybe even have some stuck to our bodies so people can actually see the effects of animal testing on animals. 

Tuesday 12th November 2013. Lesson 4.

AMANDA.
Today we were given our lines for the abstract play 'Amanda' by Theatre Uncut. 

Throughout the 4 hours we worked on 2 performances working on politicians to help us understand the play better, as Amanda in the play is a politician, performing the completely human and natural act of taking a bath. Therefore we used this to create 3 short scenes showing the politician as a politician, a human and a victim. 
In our first performance my group decided to focus on the educational side of politics. In particular the act of making the exams harder for the younger generation.

•  POLITICIAN. In the first scene it is a television broadcast of the news where they scene is handed over to a correspondent who interviews the politician on his views on making the exams harder. He is completely for it and gives reasons such of the youth of today don't care unlike in his time, and they just spend their time drinking and having fun so the harder exams will force them to pay more attention and care more. 
• HUMAN. In the second scene it is a flashback to the time when the politician himself was doing his exams and it focus' on his friend studying hard but then he comes in and distracts him with alcohol and music, the scene then progresses to a large number of friends all drinking and having a good time and completely disregarding the fact there exams are in 2 weeks because they were easy enough not to revise for.
• VICTIM. The last scene shows the politician at home with his wife and children but his children are struggling with their exam preparation because their father had just made the exams harder. It shows his children upset with him and angry and blaming him for the way the exams turned out. In the end the father is upset and ashamed of the pain and upset he inflicted on his children. 

In the second performance our group had to make a performance similar to 'Amanda' in the fact that the politician has to be doing something very human and natural (like in 'Amanda' her taking a bath) but add narration of different voices to get an input of what he's thinking and what worries had followed him home. 

• We chose to put our politician on the toilet. We chose this because its something so simple that everyone does everyday. Although i though it would be comical we managed to portray it with a very serious tone.
• The politician walks into the bathroom and has a reflection mirroring him, the side of himself that puts him down. The other voices are part of the bathroom, the reflection being the mirror, the sink being his failing son, the flusher being a voice of all children taking exams, the toilet paper being a man who can't get a job because he failed and the plunger being someone who had to retake all her exams again and again. 
• We chose to focus on the same political problem as before because we all felt passionate about it as we were all effected when the grade boundaries were put up.
• We had a sound-scape pf abuse coming from the narrators as the politician George was going to the toilet. As if the narration was his thoughts they ended up making him sick from all the terrible things he had done.
• We added in lines such as 'you can't flush this mess away' and 'you can't wash away your problems' for irony and to make it clear of where we are.
• Overall I think it was a successful performance as it portrayed the inner thoughts of a politician like in 'Amanda'. 

Monday 11th November 2013. Lesson 3.

POLITICAL PROTEST.

OUR MISSION: 
 To give a theatrical political protest on something we feel strongly about.

WHAT WE CHOSE. 
 Animal testing. 

WHY?
Because all 3 of us hate the fact that poor innocent animals are poked and pricked and smeared with foreign slime all in the name of 'beauty'. It sickens me that defenseless animals who let me say have feelings too, are being abused in this way. 
No human would like it if they were born to be tested on so some animal could have the latest eye shadow or mascara. Humans wouldn't like it if they were poked in the eye just to see if there was some kind of reaction. And if there was, too late, you're dead. Its sick. 

THE FACTS. 

1. Over 100 million animals are burned, crippled, poisoned and abused in U.S. labs every year.
2. Up to 90 percent of animals used in U.S. labs aren’t counted in the official statistics of animals tested.
3. Several cosmetic tests commonly performed on mice, rats, rabbits, and guinea pigs include:

• skin and eye irritation tests where chemicals are rubbed on shaved skin or dripped into the eyes without any pain relief.
• repeated force-feeding studies that last weeks or months, to look for signs of general illness or specific health hazards.
• widely condemned “lethal dose” tests, where animals are forced to swallow large amounts of a test chemical to determine what dose causes death. Others tests involve killing pregnant animals and testing their fetuses.

      4.  Others tests involve killing pregnant animals and testing their fetuses.

      

Although in 2012 the EU posted a ban on selling animal tested products.  The ban applies to all new cosmetics and their ingredients sold in the EU, regardless of where in the world testing on animals was carried out.

HOWEVER, animals are still being used to test make up and drugs. 

MY JOB:
- to find animal tested products.

- to find well known brands that test on animals 

- find the laws on animal testing in the UK and the USA.

Tuesday 5th November 2013. Lesson 2. Hours 3 and 4.

Lesson 3 and 4.

In lesson 3 and 4 we first discussed the deal of left wing right wing.
Here is a diagram which could come in helpful to understanding left wing, right wing. 

To explain further:
Left wing: are usually progressive in nature, they look to the future, aim to support those who cannot support themselves, are idealist and believe in equality. People who are left wing believe in taxation to redistribute opportunity and wealth - things like a national health service, and job seeker’s allowance are fundamentally left wing ideas. They believe in equality over the freedom to fail.
Right wing: value tradition, they are about equity, survival of the fittest, and they believe in economic freedom. They typically believe that business should not be regulated, and that we should all look after ourselves. Right wing people tend believe they should not have to pay for someone else’s education or health service. They believe in freedom to succeed over equality.

We then read the play 'Amanda' written by Kieran Hurley as part of Theatre Uncut. My initial thoughts on the play were although it was very unlike the naturalistic Stanislavsky work we did last term there was still an underlying element of truth in the play. The thoughts voiced in her head are similar to what many stress over. 

Moving on from this we talked about ways to perform this, we talked about the ideas of theatre practitioner Bertolt Brecht and we moved on to exercises in which we could explore his ideas. 

We discussed whilst Stanislavsky would have us thinking about the what when who and why, Brecht would have us embody the character without thinking of this. Just physically becoming them. Therefore we walked around the space and learnt how to physically become certain characters. 
In this first picture we created an old man, to do this we bent our knees bent forward 

 and put our head up- this physically made us an old person without having to think of the deeper questions surrounding the character. 

 In this picture the boys became soldiers. By doing this they had to think of the small physical traits, for example, soldiers are proud to serve their country and this would come through by them tilting their heads slightly upwards which immediately shows their proudness. Also soldiers are very proper and this is portrayed by them standing straight. 

Finally in this pictured we portrayed alcoholics, with our hips thrust forward, a beer in our hands and our head on our chest. This made our characters so clear we didn't even need to stumble or slur our words to show we were drunk.





The importance of this was to work on our physicality as this was of most importance. After this we made a set of freeze frames portraying characters using only our physical bodies to portray what happened. 
The girls were at a ladies lunch- this was portrayed by a group of ladies with high heads (to show class) and open gestures (to show happiness), the next freeze was of a woman getting news her husband died at war, each woman slightly caved in physically to show shock and unhappiness and in the final freeze, the woman who's husband died was very low to show her depression and the rest of the woman were slightly turned away.

This was all to learn about Gestus- which carries the sense of a combination of physical gesture and "gist" or attitude. It is a means by which "an attitude or single aspect of an attitude" is revealed.