Week 3 w/c 6th October

WEEK 3

It seems as though we have had a really positive week this week. We have finally got the piece up on it's feet, which is really exciting. 

Contrasting couples
With this scene, we want to reflect 2 couples that are very much contrasting, in that one is very much in love, whilst the other is on the brink of a break up. We want this scene to be very fast paced jumping from one couple to the next, with us as actors changing character as we run across the stage. We have experimented with both couples, mostly with improvisation.

Couple 1 - Breaking up - Tony and Jessica.
Tony is trying desperately to justify the fact that he has slept with another woman because he was 'drunk', which to him seems an acceptable excuse. 

Couple 2 - Madly in love - Barbara and Fred.
A couple who have not been dating for longer than 2 weeks, and are very much head over heels 'in love' and already see each other as soul mates. 

We found it really hard to establish the 2 differences between the two couples. We found that to make them seem more contrasting we would perhaps need to experiment with melodrama with one of the couples which we found would be better suited to the 'Madly in love' couple. 

We felt as though it came across too literal and predictable having both couples portrayed in a naturalistic fashion. So by having the 'Madly in love' couple portrayed in a melodramatic, there will be a bigger contrast. In terms of vocals and physicality in regards to portraying melodramatic characters, there will need to be a focus on exaggerated body language, such as a gentleman making a large gesture to pull out a chair, followed by a big greeting of kissing a lady on the cheek. In regards to vocals, it will need to remain heightened, loud and exaggerated to give this sense of none naturalism. In regards to accents I see this couple reflecting an RP British Accent, whereas the breaking up couple will reflect a northern accent. 

Opening monologue to the piece. 
Sally, the cafe owner, will open the piece with an introduction into her thoughts and reflection onto people. 

"People are brilliant aren’t they? I mean yeah, they start wars and are purveyors of disasters and shit but in general they are brilliant. The basic humanity of mankind is a touching spectacle. We all have hidden strength inside. The kind of strength that allows a mother to lift a car off her infant child while a towering inferno engulfs a six car pileup on the…what’s that big long motorway… the M1… No the M6 that’s it. Okay bit of a strong example granted. Or, or an old man to suddenly springing from his chair after walking with a Zimmer frame for years just to dance one last time. Ok that was morbid. What’s wrong with you Sally? Or… ooooh this is a good ‘un or a man diving into a river to rescue a puppy. We all like Puppies. If you don’t like puppies get out right now. I’m not even joking. Leave. Seriously Sal what’s wrong with you? Stay if you want just know I’ll hold it against you.
                                                                                (pause)
 Point is I am a great believer in people and I get some great characters in here believe me. Like there was this one time when we had a busy afternoon in the café (enter Debbie and Hannah) (Debbie drops the table or something she is holding) (Sally looks round) Oh don’t mind her. Y’all right Debbie love? Yeah yeah she’s fine. Anyway as I was saying there was this one day when we had a busy one and I saw the best contrast between couples I have ever seen in my life."

With this monologue, I almost see it as stream of consciousness that Sally is revealing to the audience, almost as though she is continuing her cafe duties as she wanders around the cafe revealing her thoughts on people. Also I would argue that this breaks down the fourth wall of Sally speaking to the audience in asking rhetorical and legitimate questions. This week we have experimented with placing tables all around the room in order for Cat to get a feeling as Sally where audience will be seated around the performance space and how she can move around the space and have some sort of purpose when delivering Sally's monologue and inviting the audience to feel included and on the same level. 


Supervisor announcement 
For this project we will be assigned a supervisor who will guide us throughout this project, we have been assigned Jo Scott, who is new to the University this year, but has already been assigned as my personal tutor, luckily for me. I am excited to work with Jo as I feel as though it will be a beneficial experience to work with someone new and I feel as though from what I already know, Jo will have a great deal of valuable advice and guidance for us.