29/1/15 - Lesson Evaluation

a few of the blocking notes i made in my script

22/1/15 - Lesson Evaluation

Lesson Review - 15/1/15

Today we finished tale 5 and continued the work we're doing on tale 6. As tale 5 is quite long, it did take us a while to get through but now I am confident with the blocking and the atmosphere that needs to be created. There is still quite a lot left to do on tale 6. Everyone has lots of ideas, we just need to put them in and polish them.

We all defiantly had a lack of focus when working on tale 6 so it didn't develop as much as it could have. After going over what we had done last lesson, we then carried on up to the line, "guess thats my round then". We decided to split of into partners to become the tired women and sly man. We do need to go over that section because we haven't gone over it many times.

In tale 5 we continued from where we became animals in a zoo. Once everyone exists, the stage becomes a cafe where Ella bumps into the last who is played by Taffy. Taffy walks around the stage with an empty plan whilst everyone narrates. Towards the end, when the women dies, Taffy is carried by 10 people as if she's in a coffin being carried to her grave. I think that fact that Taffy is circling the stage makes it very real. It really digs in the fact that this women is being abused and has lost her children because of that. When Taffy's being carried, there is silence which defiantly has an impact because it doesn't allow anyone to be distracted by someones voice. The focus is soulless on the women. 

Lesson Review - 6/1/15

In tale 1, I need to make sure my lines aren't monotone. Each line needs to have the same amount of energy and continue the story. Through the christmas holidays, I think I successfully learnt my lines and crew for this tale. I also think, especially in tale 6, I need to work on what I'm doing when I'm not talking because to continue my characterisation and to make the setting of the pub look realistic, I need to be doing something whilst another person is speaking. I need to look like I'm an average person having a drink in the pub.

My group were doing tale 6. We began by deciding that everyone who was speaking was the same person, we portrayed this by having a cup.  When speaking, the person will have a cup and then pass it onto the next person speaking. When not speaking, everyone is standing at the bar, drinking, as the scene is set in a pub. When Jake starts to describe the warm tired women, we go into two diagonal lines to form a pyramid, with Jake at the top. We all then become the characteristics that Jake is describing, this carries on till Taffie finishes speaking. We then separate and go back to drinking at the bar. On Alex's line, "but then a scuffle makes me look up", we all look up to the back of the room. At the back there will be a sheet with two people behind it. We all then say the line "shit", and on that line, the lights turn off and lights are put on behind the sheet to show the silhouettes of the two people who are playing the women and the man. Alex continues speaking whilst Jake beatboxes in the background. When Oliver starts speaking, Jake's beatboxes turns into a heartbeat. Gradually everyone joins in by beating on their chests, we get faster and faster until Oliver says the line "like one big creature". At that point we all huddle in the middle to become the monster and shout, "she looks like your fucking mum".

To develop our tale, I think we need to work on out timing so that we all know exactly what to do and what at what point. As we rehearse more, we will become more confident with the blocking and our lines which will make the scene look better.