First meeting with supervisor - Jo Scott

Today we met with our supervisor Jo Scott for the first time, which I personally found to be a very positive experience. We spoke in great detail about what we wanted to achieve in terms of this piece, and I think she seemed quite impressed and intrigued. We expressed that we really wanted to focus on this aspect of immersive theatre and draw on Brechtian techniques, such as breaking down the fourth wall, multi rolling and exploring this idea that in epic theatre actors play character believably but still with this element of the audience being clear that the actors have not 'become' the characters. We want to create this aspect that we are actors playing characters not actors becoming a character or another person, we want the audience to be constantly wondering who we may play next. Additionally i think if we have this, audience members will feel and aspect of relatability to these characters, if we play them in a heightened manner. However, we want there to be a part of the audience that feels as though they cannot feel empathy towards the characters we play with onstage, as our piece will be so fast paced they will not have the time, and we will not give them that time during the play, they will leave the theatre and ponder on it later. 

Additionally we highlighted to Jo that we want this play to come across as 'a play within a play', in that we are putting on a play about the cafe as well as there being an inner narrative of actors being controlled and instructed into the different roles within the cafe and the audience being fully informed of this. 

Jo made a few suggestions, that we need to explore this idea of immersive theatre and how we set to achieve this in our final performance. So I suggested that we could perhaps experiment with exploring a few scenes in the university cafeteria and see how people react to us in a very public setting. 

Additionally because we highlighted we are wanting to create some puppets for the old couple scene and Jo highlighted that we really need to consider how we want to achieve this, as it is something that is very stylised and needs to be worked on well or it will not have a good effect on the audience and we risk it looking stupid. Furthermore Jo has instigated that our piece seems quite like the Carryl Churchill play, Love and Information, so it is apparent that we will need to do some research there. 

Week 4 w/c 13th October

WEEK 4 

In our piece there is a strong focus on characterisation, due to the fact that we multi role throughout. So, because I have a strong interest personally of exploring characterisation, so Beth L had me lead a rehearsal where we explored some of the characters in our piece. I find that when exploring a character, it is important to take your time and try out as much as possible no matter how wrong it may feel. 

So to begin the session, I had myself, Beth L and Cat (Beth D did not turn up to the session) all walk around the space as if we were all playing Sally, I had them try to stop in the space as Sally, look out the window as Sally and pretend items around the room were parts of her cafe, such as using the curtain around the room as a door or dusting it to insinuate it was an ornament. I decided to step out and just guide Beth L and Cat, I also decided to play music alongside this exercise to see whether it would inspire them to explore a different way to move or how to experiment with pace. 

 Beginning the session by walking around the room, in a neutral position then introducing the idea of walking like Sally. 

 Cat stopping at the whiteboard as Sally, pretending to perhaps update the cafe menu, and Beth L watching as Sally. I stopped them from speaking, so that there was a focus on their physicality and non verbal communication. 

 I introduced the idea of different music to provoke certain emotions such as :- 

• Happy 
• Sad
• Anger 
• Lust/Seductive
• Mental/Emotional unstable
• Dominating

 In these 4 images, Beth L has stopped playing Sally and Cat has focused her energy as Sally to reflect anger towards Beth, by speaking Sally's monologue with as much anger instilled in her vocals and her body language. I was also playing a piece of rock music in the background to encourage her to delve into Sally's anger. I found that if I told Cat why she was angry that helped, as she could relate to why maybe Sally was angry and use her own anger to reflect this as Sally. 

 Additionally we experimented with the emotion of Lust and seduction, again we had some lustful music playing in the background. I asked Cat to try and seduce Beth whilst she was sat on a chair, whilst speaking Sally's monologue. Cat struggled with this a little, as I think she felt a little embarrassed and self conscious to begin with, but she managed to warm up to it eventually after I swapped her and Beth round so they both had a go at being seductive. I think that this was a useful exercise, as whilst speaking and moving, there seemed to some sort of correlation in between the two. In that when leering towards Beth, Cat changed her vocals to be more wistful and almost whispering in her ear. I think this was useful for Cat to explore as Sally, as I think it will make her think about how she moves across the stage and how she perhaps delivers certain lines to the audience to receive a certain reaction. 

 

 

 I then instructed Cat to think about her status in the piece as Sally, and to think about controlling how Beth moves across the space, with just her eyes and no head or body gestures. Again I played some music that gave Cat the confidence to command the room, and I told her to try and get Beth to move around the room for her and move objects for Cat. Additionally, I put myself into the mix and had Cat sit on a chair and command both myself and Beth to bring her up to standing from sitting in the chair with just her eyes and her arm gestures. As someone who is being guided to do something, you find yourself being more aware of what Cat may or may not be asking us to do. I think this is a good exercise in terms of exploring trust within a company, as well as having the trust to explore improvisation during a performance. Because in this piece Beth D and I are the 'actors' and there is this aspect of Sally controlling us, I think it is important to perhaps consider this exercise, so it is disappointing that Beth D did not turn up today to experience this.

 The space in which we rehearsed today. 

We then went on to explore Mildred and Barry as a couple, unfortunately because Beth D did not turn up we had to ask Beth L to fill in as Barry for me, so I could explore the script and the character of Mildred. I see Mildred to be this very heightened character, who is very bossy and cares very much about what people think about her and most importantly her family. In some ways I would say that Mildred reminds me of a Yorkshire version of Hyacinth Bucket from 'Keeping up appearances. 

 

We improvised with the idea that Mildred had some of her grandchildren round for tea (Beth L and Cat) and they were causing some havoc for Mildred, such as moving furniture, shouting and demanding biscuits. This then gave me some purpose to explore how Mildred would react and act on what Mildred's impulses may be, such as bossing them around and telling them off, and moving around the stage to make sure everything was in its correct place. I see Mildred as a perfectionist, constantly cleaning her home, bossing Barry about to run errands for her. Additionally I think that Mildred is an overly organised person, making sure that she knows exactly what she wants to buy her family for Christmas, I would compare Mildred to Hyacinth Bucket (Played by Patricia Routledge) because they both control their husbands, and both of their husbands very much have a "Yes dear" mentality, for what may seem an easy life. Additionally similarly to Hyacinth, I think Mildred is very much focused on 'Keeping up appearances', in that she wants her neighbours, peers and family, to think that she is an outstanding citizen at everything in which she does, whether it be cooking christmas dinner or buying the best secret Santa gift. Furthermore, I believe that there is nothing more that Mildred would enjoy than gossiping about her neighbors and turning up her noses to some of their decisions etc.

Room Bookings for next week 

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.