Week 21: TIE (Primary School)

Feedback

This week, we had a lot of people missing from our class and so we decided to have a sit down discussion with our teacher so that he could play the devil's advocate and ask us to explain why we are doing everything the way that we are so that we can realise any mistakes that have been made and also so that he knows the reasoning behind what we are doing in order for him to understand where we are up to in the rehearsal process.
We began by talking through the piece step by step and at the beginning of us explaining chapter one, Chipp commented "This is the beginning of using yourselves as examples...what is the logic behind this?" We relayed to him the discussion that we had had when we were devising this ourselves and we explained that this would give the audience something to connect and relate to and it also shows that we went through it and highlights the fact that they can take advice from someone that has been through it already.
We then proceeded to explain that the little worries that had been addressed were acted out in little scenes and when we came to the idea of an older student helping the younger one to find their way around school, we were addressed with the question of "Is that real?" so does this really happen in real life and we replied with yes and plenty of us have been both the older student helping and also the younger one being helped.
We were then given the comment of "the core principal of what you're saying is fine as you're giving examples, but it's about how they're being executed." We had a short discussion about how we need the anecdotes to be more believable and heartfelt so that the audience can really grasp that they are real and we had experienced this ourselves first-hand.
We were asked how we had fixed the issue of too much narrative, which was a comment that we had previously got from other run-throughs. We explained how we had extended the classroom scene so that I interrupted and gave comments on how I was feeling at this point and we also added in some forum theatre aspects like asking the audience who I could ask for help so that they were more interactive with the scene.
After explaining our concept of the freeze frames, Chipp reminded us of the comments that we had been given previously about us not addressing the problems that would be brought up by the students and so we explained how we are now deciding to spend longer with the students when making the freeze frames so that we can address their problems in smaller groups so that they don't feel like they are sharing their fears with the whole year group. Chipp asked us "what are you actually trying to explore in this freeze frame section?" and we told him how we wanted them to express their own little worries and explain to us what they're scared of so that we would be able to help them and tell them what it is really like to be in secondary school. We then explained some of the little worries that we would expect them to say like getting lost or getting your head pushed down the toilet to which Chipp replied "Are they little worries?" and we thought that throughout the piece they're going to be thinking of bigger worries and so these are more just like their own worries that concern just them. We wanted the worries to be smaller things whilst we are workshopping so that we are discussing little things in order for them to find the solutions, with our help, rather than us just outrightly telling them the solutions to their problems. It gives us the chance to discuss with them, in smaller groups, in a creative way, whilst they're doing something active.
We moved onto Chapter 2 which addresses the fears and ideas around friendships as they are a massive issue in secondary school and are the cause of 90% of the problems. We need to enhance the format idea of anecdotes so that the audience can identify with us onstage and really feel like we know what we are talking about and in order for the audience to understand the piece and get something out of it, they need to be fully immersed in the stories and feel like we are talking about a situation they can relate to. A possible extension of Alexis' storyline could be the answer to including some other scenarios to do with friendships as well as it giving us the opportunity to explore Alexis' story in more depth. It would also give the audience the chance to see some of the things that they suspect might happen in secondary school and also some of the things that are definitely going to happen.
Later on, we got the comment of " If you're trying to bring in new characters for each of the different scenarios regarding friendships, doesn't that mean the audience only get a short space of time with each one of the characters?" We decided that we would only use the scenarios in asides so that we weren't following 4 different scenarios at the same time but if a situation occurred we could use dynamic asides to highlight how each person felt at that time with their friendship situation.
Chipp thought that using the personal stories format was good and approachable from an audience perspective but does the heavy narrative base obstruct the way of them connecting with the characters. He asked us "what are you doing to give a lot of information and, get them engaged with the characters quickly so that you can work on the moral issues that we want to focus on?" We responded with our ideas behind extending the scenes so that the audience are engaging with specific characters and the narrative helps stop them from getting confused about who is which character and also the narrative helps them understand the scenes. We could also use the narrative to highlight the key morals and ideas that we want them to take from the scene and this allows us to know that they are getting the key ideas from each scene.
We then began to find different ways of breaking up the narrative so that the piece wasn't so narrative based and we had the idea of the character in the scene could come out of the scene and speak to the narrator. For example, Charlotte could step out of her character as Little Alexis and engage with the audience through dynamic asides as this allows us to begin to establish a clarifying dialogue alongside the narration that helps make what Alexis was feeling at this point more relatable and therefore the audience can understand and use the advice we are giving them to their fullest advantage. In addition to this we were trying to think of alternative possibilities that will help us move away from a heavily narrative base and we thought we could get Big Alexis, so the person who's story it is, to try and talk to her younger self which reflects the idea of adding in dynamic asides but still keeping the narrative in place. We would want to have the older Alexis telling her younger self what to do but we also had the questions of "would the younger self listen" which we thought we could bring into the piece to show that the advice we're giving can actually work. So we would have Alexis the narrator trying to convince the younger version to listen to her advice as she has been through it before and knows what to do but the younger version wouldn't listen as they are in the moment and their emotions have been heightened.
We then moved onto thinking about what does this form enable us to do, and challenge, as facilitators and educators towards the target audience that we wouldn't be able to do if we just had one or the other. We are allowing ourselves to challenge the idea that the things that are happening to them at the time might feel like a big deal but in the future they won't matter. We could use Little Alexis to articulate the thoughts of the audience, therefore allowing them to connect and relate to her more, alongside Big Alexis giving advice, we would have a very interesting paradox between the two. We are creating a dialogue which the audience will emotionally connect to however the dialogue is within the dynamic asides as this allows us to open up opportunities to question the decisions made by little Alexis.
The next thing that we moved onto was the list of tips that we made for making friends and we think that the best decision would be to get rid of it and find a different way to enable to audience to engage with the tips more as the audience will try to engage with what we're saying but if we're too energetic and moving around the stage, there will be at least 10 children in the audience who are not paying attention as they are already feeling overwhelmed by the concept of having an assembly on moving up to secondary school.
I think that we need to explore the negative impact it has on an individual when someone says a back-handed mean comment. For example, the moment when you put yourself out there and try to make friends but you get blanked or when you smile at someone but they don't smile back at you. We could incorporate this into Little Alexis and make her feel like she just wants to go home and never leave again just because no one wanted to sit next to her at lunch. We were thinking that we could add this into the nan scene that comes after as we could use the nan as an excuse to stay in the house and not tell her how she is truly feeling. We started to discuss what's more important giving them a list of what to do or preparing them for a reality in which they could encounter and if they do so they will know what to do in that specific situation. We could make a scene in which we include a back-handed comment that is a personal anecdote from someone in the cast, as some of us have experienced that before, and show that person working through the issue and finally overcoming it. We could use a worse-case scenario to show that these situations can still be over-come and we can use this to open their minds to the idea that everybody is feeling the same and will, at some point, feel the same.
Using the connection between Alexis and her nan allows us to accentuate the idea of telling your family how you feel is a good way of letting your feelings out. We could use this relationship and make Alexis feel bad, then bring in the solutions to her problems. We need to make sure that we are making it clear that if these things happen to you, you are not a bad person and you're going to have connections to people at some point. These things can definitely make you feel bad and we know this from personal experience but it's ok to feel this way. It is actually making you a stronger and kinder person.
We then moved onto the bullying chapter. At this point, we had only blocked the first scene and the outcomes that could come from that so we were more discussing the theory and reasoning behind it. We were discussing the reasons behind why we want them to choose "do nothing" as the best option for the bullying as there is no situation created if you don't lower yourself to their level. But we also want to accentuate the fact that asking for help is also a good option and is the first step to asking for help which doesn't create a situation right then and there. We need to make it clear to the audience that there is a difference between asking for help and snitching on someone. We were talking about the idea of see what happens if the situation gets worse and including the reaction of the child who would find the "breaking of the phone" situation very traumatic as would we also be telling them to do nothing? We need to clarify that if it upsets you, it's always best to go and tell someone whether that be a teacher, an older sibling or another family member. Sometimes doing nothing in certain situations can make it worse. I think we need to give them options more than telling them to have a set outcome for specific situations. So we would say that every situation is different and it is up to them in those situations to decide what to do and we're just giving them a few options on what you could do but eventually they will have to make the decision themselves. We thought of our examples as a sort of stepping blocks to helping them figure out what to do so we are giving them a range of examples on what to do which can be used in a range of situations no matter how small. We want to make it clear that if the situation does escalate then telling someone whether that be a teacher, sibling or other family member is needed. We made sure that we are including less stereotypical bullying as there are other forms of bullying that are regularly passed over in school and not recognised as bullying, like the whispering and the sarcastic nature of asking for the pencil. Passive bullying is the issue that we are wanting to show as this is one of the major problems in secondary school and we still see it happening in our every day lives. We need to make sure that we get this particular section right in terms of the delivery and how well the audience can pick up our key messages as this is the single biggest cause of unhappiness in modern secondary schools.
Bullying can start with casual off-hand comments which is what we have included in the small scene and we have escalated that into a more physical representation in order to continue the effects that this could have on someone and I think that it would be good to include the idea that sometimes punching and physically fighting back can be the only way to get rid of bullies but it does also have it's consequences and can get you in trouble. We were trying to identify what we would do if the phone situation actually happened to us and we decided that there would be so much rage and humiliation throughout the situation escalating. We also said that we would probably try and laugh it off at the start as though it was a joke but then the humiliation starts to set in and you start trying to fight back which is how the situation gets escalated even more. I think that we need to adequately explore the emotional aspects of some of the negative side to friendships so that we are showing the audience the reality of what its like and this also gives us other things to talk to them about which may result in them being able to open up to us more and let us help them talk through their fears.
After the bullying chapter, we are still deciding on whether we need to add more chapters in and we thought about adding in an extra chapter about organisation which could include things like forgetting your homework, forgetting your P.E kit or how to organise getting you food technology ingredients before the lesson.
Overall we have found that the anxiety that is centered around bullying and friendships needs to be made clearer and maybe we need to magnify the effects that the anxiety can have. We said that if we tackle the major issues then everything else will seem like less of an issue and therefore hopefully make them feel slightly more excited about going into secondary school than nervous.
There was the issue of gender neutrality as we are an all girl class and so if we are taking things from our own experiences, we don't have anything from a male point of view and so we were thinking of ways that male students would react to things like bullying and we thought that they would laugh it off, as well as females, but then if someone else was being bullied they would just join in on the torment as the spotlight was off them. We need to find a way to add in males worries as well as female which we have a slight hint at in the freeze frame section as we will be working with a mixed group of children so we will be getting the perspective of a boy from that and also with our target audience's age range, their emotional responses to situations will be the same so they will be feeling the same things in relation to a situation but bullying can manifest itself in different ways in regards to the genders. We could use some of our SToRMS experience here and say that it could look like the male isn't effected so that he doesn't get bullied anymore but inside he will be feeling the negative effects of that and when he goes home that could affect him even more. In regards to girls, bullying could also manifest itself into friendship groups as well as they may cling on to a friendship group that they have been friends with all along but that might be toxic for them so they could start to pick up on some traits that we see reflected in bullying.
After the discussion we thought that the best way to use our time would be to act on something we had mentioned in the discussion and so we decided to adapt the scene with Little Alexis talking to her Nan.

Adapting the Nan scene - adding in dynamic asides

We decided to focus on extending this scene and having the conversation between Little Alexis and her Nan after her return from school and we added in a small section of conversation between Little Alexis and Big Alexis to communicate to the audience what Little Alexis is feeling at this point which is like she can't tell anyone. Ultimately we have Little Alexis ignoring the advice and holding all of her emotions back. We then inserted a small scene between Little Alexis and her friend about school and her friend has made lots of new friends and is bragging about how many she has made. Little Alexis would then do an aside explaining that her friend is making her more worried about making friends as she hasn't been able to talk to anyone even though its only the first day of school. We would then abstractly show all of the thoughts that are building up in her head using the rest of the cast crossing behind her and saying all of her thoughts. This method allows us to relay to the audience how much pressure she is putting on herself and we can use the proxemics to reflect that and have the cast moving closer towards her as the thoughts build up. We would then get Big Alexis to reflect on her past actions and reiterate that the best thing to do would be to tell someone probably her Nan since they are quite close to each other.

We thought about the idea of talking to someone like your Nan in terms of having someone there and then we started thinking about it in terms of how much she could actually help with the situation and we thought that talking to some one like your Nan could be quite hard because she could be quite sympathetic and be a good listening ear but she wouldn't really be able to give you any advice. And we said that it would still help as it would relieve you of the stress and it's good to give your perspective to some one that might not understand the situation so clearly. So we added in a few lines to reiterate this idea:

Nan couldn't exactly give the best advice in that situation

But sometimes its better to talk to someone anyway

Its more effort to keep it all in

That will just stress you out even more

Talking to anyone whether that's a family member, sibling or teacher can help put things into perspective

If you don't want to or can't talk to someone, here are some things to remember

And then we proceed to include some ideas around friendships that hopefully will avoid situations like these from ocuring.

Don't limit yourself to one group of friends
Don't expect to make your best friend in the first week
Try joining clubs

Week 20: TIE (Primary School)

Creating more chapters

The first thing that we began to discuss when we moved onto this TIE was based around the build a friend section where we try and make "Alexis" a good friend by asking the audience what they think makes a good friend. What we began to question was it is true that every person you smile at is going to be your friend? Is trying to teach someone how to make friends really needed and/or suitable for a survival guide? We found that maybe we should get rid of the build a friend as it would be quite hard to try and portray the suggestions from the audience and so we adapted this section into top tips from us abbot making yourself more approachable to other students. We came up with these top tips:

1. Don't take it personally if people walk off, it's not a comment on you.
2. Talk to people in class, like people on your table.
3. Have things to lend like chewing gum, pens etc as that will give you a good starting point for conversation
4. Join things like school council
5. Go to social places in the school like the library, the basketball courts and the computer rooms
6. Join a club

This would then allow us to ask the audience what kind of clubs they would like to join in secondary school and we could then use that as a segway into Alexis' interests. To round off the top tips section we have Caitlin saying "If you put yourself in enough situations where you're meeting new people the chances are you'll have common interests and make friends. Don't worry if this doesn't happen straight away, I didn't make friends until February." Showing that these tips can be put in place but warning them not to expect to make best friends with someone on their first day as you have to get used to the people around you. We then added in Alexis saying that she went to art club and then moving on to the small scene that we have previously devised where Alexis starts to try and make friends using the tips we have provided.

We then moved onto the Bullying chapter and blocked as much as we could which lead us to thinking about the outcomes of a bullying situation and what options we had. We decided to set up a scene in a classroom which involved the bullying of Connie and we added in some of the small things that all add up to bullying like whispering, stopping the conversation when she walks in and having peers encouraging the bullying. We used this scene to show the small things that we see on a day-to-day basis that we sometimes neglect to call bullying and we wanted to show the audience that we also see this and, in turn, this gave us a segway into how to deal with the bullying.  Here is the scene which we devised:
https://youtu.be/xwXyR-WV_lA (unfortunately background noise covers some of the interaction at the start but it still gives you the kind of scene we're looking at)

We then moved onto another scene that would follow on from the first scene and we could use it to get the audience to actively interact with the piece so that we could see how they would react to the situation. We made the scene at lunchtime which would follow the previous lesson and we tried to make it as realistic as possible and so we made it about Connie's phone with comments like "that's a really old phone" and "I had that phone like two years ago." We would then give the audience three options of what to do in the style of a sliding scale so that it was easiest for them to see the options and pick theirs more clearly. Our options were to fight them, ignore them or tell a teacher. The option that we wanted them to choose was do nothing and ignore them because in this situation nothing came out of it and the situation actually moved into them including Connie in conversation.

Ignore them - https://youtu.be/ZwgCIejFl9w
Fight them - https://youtu.be/rz9vFBQD9lw
Tell a teacher - https://youtu.be/EF9kDgFRWw4

We made sure that we had a scene for each of the outcomes so that no matter which one they picked we would be able to play it out and then ask them what they thought the conclusion was in terms of Connie's feelings and also has the bullying actually stopped.

Week 20: TIE (Storms)

Run-through, and adding some Godber

Whilst we were doing a run-through, we decided that we had just passed over the idea of the gym as a societal pressure on boys and so we decided to add more of a Goberesque section in so that we could highlight the judgement that is placed on boys by others to be in shape. So following the Godber style that we have previously studied, we added in a synchronised sound and then separate stereotypical movements that reflect people working out in the gym. We used the snappy quick movements of the Godber style to make the transitions around the movement flow easily and we made sure that the piece was still able to flow and the story was still present throughout. We made sure that the movement was an appropriate length so that we weren't taking the focus away from the point of the piece and we also added in the movement to reflect the comment that we may need more banter and humour in the piece to keep the audience involved and interested. We also made sure that there was a rhythm to the movement to make each small section have a short focus.

We then had a small discussion about adding in the option of a helpline option in the who could John talk to section and which could trigger replies from John of "It's not that bad, I'm just pissed off" and "I don't even know how to get the numbers," which would allow us to introduce the perception of helplines as something that only people with mental illnesses can use and then when we move onto the group discussion later in the piece, we would address this. We wanted to tell the audience that some of the helplines, like the samaritans, are just there for someone to talk to and they can't form an opinion on what you're telling them because they don't know anything else about your life except what you tell them. We were also thinking of adding it to the list on the powerpoint in order for that discussion and the idea of helplines being introduced earlier in the piece.

Moving on through the piece, we decided that we need a more defined end so that the audience know that the focus has now shifted onto them and what they have learnt from the piece and so we decided to include these lines:

John's life isn't going to get better straight away
But if his friends are there to listen to him
It will make it easier.
John still has a lot of things going on in his life
For example, he'll still get told off when he goes home drunk.
Everybody's got stress in their life and everyone is going to feel like John at some point.
I'm stressed about the way people look at me
I'm stressed about not sleeping
I'm stressed about the future
The point we're making is that having a penis can sometimes get in the way of talking about these things.
What we're going to do now is talk about some issues that have been raised in piece and go over some of the ways you can be a better listener.

Adding in these personal anecdotes allows the audience to relate to the small stresses as real things that are happening in people's lives rather than just a story being told on stage. And the segway makes the piece that they have just seen make more sense and also opens up some discussion starting points for when we go into the audience. 

Week 19: TIE (Primary School)

Review and Feedback

This week, we decided to get what we have done so far reviewed by our teacher just so that we would know that we are going along the right lines and the format of what we want to do is the correct and most beneficial way for the audience to gain the most out of our message. Once we had done the run-through, we all sat down and discussed the feedback that we had been given:

• Good format - Having everything broken down in chapters allows the audience to focus in on one topic and understand what is going on in that topic before responding to it. The chapters also allow the audience to put themselves in different situations and figure out what their feelings are towards that certain situation without having the pressure of everything else.
• Fast paced start - The pace at the start with the dance sequence and the fake fight allows us to engage with the audience and get them to connect with the piece as we are beginning the piece with a lighter start so hopefully they will feel less pressured and not like another assembly they have to sit in.
• Personal Anecdotes - The idea of using personal anecdotes is a good way for us to acknowledge that we have been in the exact same situation and we know that they are scared but we've also been through secondary school and we know what that is like as well. Telling personal stories shows the audience that we can relate to them and they can then use the advice that we are giving them as we know that it works, considering we are in secondary school.

• Execution - Because we are using stories that have personally come from us, we need to deliver the stories in a way that makes it seem more real and show that we know that it's hard at the time but they can get through it. We need to sell it as more real so that the audience believe that its real and we aren't just telling them stories that are fiction.
• Banter - We need to add more banter between us on stage because there isn't enough of a light-hearted tone that the audience will connect with. Areas like when we are picking people to play characters in our stories could be a good time to add in more banter as some people could fight over who was going to play who. Also in a later scene, when Alexis goes to Art club, we could add in more banter there when she is left by herself as she hasn't made an effort to make friends and we can use that humour to express different feelings.
• Crossover- The crossover just after the bell rings that we use to show how busy the corridors could get is quite lateral as we only have people coming in from the sides so we could bring some people in from the diagonal and even through the audience to create the idea of people can come from everywhere not just the sides.
• "Little Worries" - We need a bit more of a scene during the first lesson so that the audience can grasp what the situation actually is and at the moment, due to the fast paced start, we are going through the scenes at a pace where the audience never really have a chance to understand what is going on and then put themselves in that. Currently, the scene is very narrative driven which means that we are missing out on some acting that they could engage with.
• Freeze frames - The idea is good but we need to address their problems more and help them solve them so that the chapter has a conclusion. We thought that we could get each small group to pick 3 worries to cover in the freeze frames and then talk through those worries in the little groups addressing each person that is worried about that particular thing and acknowledging that each person could have the same worries - finding common worries to help them not feel isolated.
• Build a friend - It is hard to show characteristics of a person in a way that will be obvious to the audience that she has taken on their suggestion and having her embody those is problematic and hard to show in a useful way. We thought about giving Alexis a whiteboard to hold and we would get suggestions from the audience as to what a good friend should be like and write them on the whiteboard so that it is more of a visual reminder for them. Also we said that people in the cast could give some examples to guide the audience along.
• Forum Theatre - We need to add in more islands during it so that we have positions to jump to throughout the suggestions from the audience. We need to add in a common interest between the two friends and ask the audience what they think it should be and what the next step in the conversation should be.

So after getting this feedback, we decided to work on the first lesson scene so that we could extend it and we decided to add in some more banter at the start of it so we got the teacher to joke about how many students there are, as there are only 3, to add to the overall atmosphere. 

https://youtu.be/vS6N_JZPqvo

I think that the new version is much better than the original version as we have extended it so that we could add another aside in so that the audience knew what I was feeling at certain points in the scene.

Week 18: TIE (Storms)

Reviewing Changes

Last week, we made some changes to the piece and there was a person missing so we had to use this weeks lesson to go over all of the changes and see if they worked like we wanted them to with everybody here.

We mainly focused on the response that we would have to the audience once they had given us some feedback because we wanted to be more positive especially when they are talking by nodding and possibly making more agreeing sounds so they they feel like their opinion is being both heard and understood. We also agreed that we need more positive reinforcement after the answer has been said and more praise needs to be given about their answer as well as repeating it so that the rest of the audience can also hear it. I feel like we also need to re-say the response in an accepting way to show that the answer that was given was correct and it was also appreciated. Having this positive reinforcement allows both the person who said it and the rest of the audience to open up more because they are being complimented on the work that they have submitted towards the piece. We did a blocky run-through of the piece before concentrating on the section that have audience interactions in them and we all added in more compliments and positive feedback to the audience.

Week 18: TIE (Primary School)

Finishing Chapter 1

In the first 2 hours of working on the piece, we decided to completely finish Chapter 1 and use the rest of our time to plan chapters 2 and 3 so that we could go straight into devising them next week with some starting points to use.

We decided that after my short paragraph about the "Little Fears" that I had we decided to show my first day in school so that they could see the resolutions that came out of it. We then clearly assign people parts for example I say "Caitlin can you be me and Charlotte and Connie, can you be my friends," so that each person is clearly labelled so that the audience can understand who is who in the scenes. We start of with the friends having a small discussion about what lesson they've got next and then we have the rest of the cast coming in from the sides showing the hustle and bustle of the corridors in school and we have "me" being separated from the rest of the friendship group, and therefore getting lost. I then narrate from the sides that I did get lost but it was okay because I found some other people that were lost as well and an older student helped me find where we need to be and "they aren't as scary as you think." We decided to involve all of the small fears that were addressed at the start and so I then say "and the teacher was really chill about us being late as well" showing that you won't get a detention for being late in the first few weeks. We then moved onto the first lesson which allowed us to explore the ideas about no equipment and the work being too hard. We decided that we could facilitate the options that I had about the work being too hard. For example, we thought they might say ask the person next to you, ask the teacher or try and work it out. So we decided that the majority of the group would say ask the teacher and so we made "me" ask the teacher for help so that the situation was resolved in a way that would be easy for them to put into a real life situation.

I then move onto saying "There are lots of things that people might be worried about; these are only a few examples. Now its your guys turn to think about what you're worried about. We're going to split you into some smaller groups and create some freeze frames." We decided that this would be a good time to start getting the group physically involved in the piece and so we decided to ask them to create a simple freeze frame as this is one of the easiest forms of drama yet it can be effective as they can clearly see what is happening. Because they won't know what a freeze frame is we got a person out of the cast to shout out "what's a freeze frame" and I would reply with "Here is an example." and the cats would jump into a freeze frame of a wedding. I would then continue to say "It's like when you pause the tv; there's no movement and no sound, you just use your face and your body. Can someone tell me what this is showing?" We would get answers from the audience to show them how easily they can be understood. We would follow this up with "so now you know what a freeze frame is, lets see if you can make some of your own." And the cast would then separate and take a few students to create their own. We would then show these to the rest of the audience and get them to guess what fear they were trying to show.

Planning Chapters 2 and 3

We then moved onto planning the next two chapters and we decided to call Chapter 2: friendship. This is due to there being so many different outcomes regarding friendships when moving to secondary school and we also have a range of different outcomes regarding people in the cast as well. For example, Alexis moved schools knowing no one and so she was with completely new people, Hannah came with the group of friends that she'd had since reception but then drifted away from them and made new friends, Caitlin didn't start making any friends until February and then Charlotte came and stayed with her group of friends from primary school and also made some new ones. using all of these stories gives us a wide range of options to explore. We decided that we should explore each of the stories through Alexis' as we can have all of the options coming into play throughout her story like she could join Charlotte's group of friends as a conclusion. The conclusion that we want to come to is that everyone can make friends no matter their friendship situation. We wanted to show that it is okay to talk to your family about your problems in school whether that's regarding friendships or anything to do with school and so we thought about having a scene between Alexis and her nan after school and her telling her nan how she feels. We would then build Alexis into what a good friend looks like with suggestions from the audience of what they think makes a good friend for example things like being helpful, confident, smile etc. We would then ask the audience to suggest places that we could let this "new" Alexis meet some new people and then we would put them in that situation and show the audience some of the ways that to approach someone and befriend them.

We would then move onto chapter 3 which we are going to call Bullying as we know that it happens in every secondary school and primary school and we want to tell the audience that it's okay to have that fear and it's okay to be worried about bullying as we know that it happens and we just want to tell them how to deal with it. We would start of with Harriet addressing the fact that we know it happens and we only want to give them some tips on how to avoid it or what to do if they see anyone being bullied. We could then use an anecdote in order to explain the situation and to have a deeper look into the situation and how it was caused. We want to avoid it being like an anti-bullying assembly as we know that all primary schools have many of those across the year and we want it to be different from that. We thought we could use a sliding scale with the different responses that we could have to bully and tie in the aspects of flight or fright as well as doing nothing.

Marketing Plan

Forming our Marketing Plan and research

There are currently two of us working on the marketing plan for the TIE piece for SToRMS so, we decided that we would think about all the different ways of marketing by ourselves and find out which ones we think would be the most effective way of advertising our piece. We would then come together and discuss what we want to do and divide the jobs between us and make sure that every area is covered and we are using as many techniques as possible in order to get our piece to be advertised.

We decided on a plan together and the steps that we would take to advertise the piece:

1. Phone Calls - We were thinking that we could call either the head of year 10 and 11 in the secondary schools as they are the people who our marketing campaign would be targeted at due to them being a pathway to our target audience for the actual piece. Having a phone call would allow us to give them the basic information about the piece and what it aims we want the piece to have, plus we could get an immediate response about whether they are interested and then we could get a follow up route to send them more information.
2. Emails - We would then follow up the phone calls with an email that explains the piece in more depth and we would include links to the N2C Theatre website which has more information on it and we would also send them a small version of the poster that we would put up so that they know what to expect.
3. Social Media - N2C Theatre has a variety of different social media platforms, including twitter, facebook and instagram, which can be used throughout the rehearsal process in order for the piece to reach as many people as possible. Both of us have access to these platforms through our teachers who run them and we can both pass on photos and captions that we think advertise the piece the most and in the best light.
4. Trailer - We thought that we could make a short trailer video that could be played at the start of the piece to introduce the rehearsal process of the piece and it could include cast interviews/ the cast saying how influential it has been on their lives as well.
5. Flyers - SToRMS have already given us a flyer that they want us to hand out but we thought that we could combine what is on that flyer with information about N2C and also maybe create a joint logo between N2C and SToRMS.
6. Program - We were thinking about creating a small program that the audience can read whilst they are sitting down in their seats which gives an outview of what SToRMS is and what N2C is and also what the piece is generally based on including some information from the SToRMS website about communication between males.
7. Posters - We had the idea of creating a couple of posters that we would take down to the secondary school with us and have on the walls behind us whilst we are performing containing short and snappy sections of advice that correlates with the piece and we could also include some of the "Wise Talkers" information from SToRMS which they will be given later in the piece.

I am going to be in control of creating the posters in different eye-catching forms as well as being a part of controlling the social media as a pair. As we already have some schools that have contacted us about the piece, our teacher is going to focus on the email aspect as he has been emailing and calling them from the start and we don't want to interrupt that process and so we are only stepping in after those steps have been made.

I decided to do some research on aspects of a good poster and what makes a poster eye catching and interesting. I found a website (https://designshack.net/articles/inspiration/10-tips-for-perfect-poster-design/ ) that has bullet points about the good points of a poster and I am going to create a draft poster using their points and see what the outcome is. The main aspects that I found helpful were:
- Making the poster easy to read from a distance
- Using one big visual
- Use plenty of space
- Consider size and location