Week 12: N2C

Reviewing the performance

We performed on the 15th of December to an audience of around 40 people. Before we went on, our director, Lindsay, asked us to get into character and do some quiet line run-throughs with people that we had scenes with. I went through a scene with Jay which involved a lot of movement that we rehearsed in a small space by ourselves. Whilst we were doing this, we discussed how we react to each other and how we could make these actions bigger. We concluded that we needed to angle our bodies towards the audience so that the audience would get the full impact of the movement and also, move slightly more apart so that our actions would hit the other person. After this I went through the final scene which was between me and King. We wanted to get the space in between each of our lines as small as possible so that the audience would be engaged right to the end. 

When directing the last scene, Lindsay said that she wanted Mouse's reactions to King to be completely juxtaposing to her reactions in the quiz scene. My reactions to King in the quiz scene were exaggerated to make it look like I was disgusted when he didn't know the answer to some of the easiest movie quote answers like Star Wars and Titanic. So in the last scene, I had to still keep some of the disbelief in the straight answers that were in response to some detailed questions but also create a friendly atmosphere that made the audience feel welcomed as the relationship between Mouse and King had changed. We needed to show the development of their relationship throughout the play and show that they went from being enemies in the film and then to being the co-directors of the play. We tried to show some of the relationship development through King directing some of his questions towards Mouse. For example, once he's shown the whole group his new film, which is around the middle of the play, he asks Mouse for her opinion on the film which shows King's developing his appreciation of Mouse's knowledge and experience with film.

One of the scenes that I thought went particularly well was the scene where the cast is introduced to the Platinum Class cinema screens. I think that the Godber style was clearly shown throughout this scene as it was labelled at the start and also many different stereotypes were shown when the new class was introduced. For example, Fish was over exited, Mags didn't really care and Spike and Elton looked as though they thought that they'd played a huge part in the creation of Platinum Class when they actually had nothing to do with it and just watched King make it instead. In this scene, I was the only character that didn't seem impressed or appreciated how amazing this was as, at Mouse's old cinema all of the cinema suites were like Platinum Class as so Mouse was impressed because this was what she was used to. 

A scene that I think could have done with some improvements was the montage scene as that was only directed quite late on in the process and some characters, like me, weren't given any specific directions or lines to say which resulted in, firstly me just being frozen in position and I had to tell some of the cast members what action they should do and in conclusion all of the characters final position was them all frozen in the same arm position but in the reverse hierarchy position.

I think that the hierarchical staging was a good way of showing the uprising of Mouse and also how the hierarchy changed from beginning to the end. It clearly showed the audience who was at the top of the food chain and who was at the bottom with the positioning of the characters. For example at the start, I was laid on the floor because I was a Plankton which was at the bottom of the food chain but when we got into the reverse hierarchy position, I was stood in place of King who is a Buff and at the top of the food chain.

Overall I feel that the performance went well from my perspective as an actor as all the Godber aspects were shown clearly and there were hardly any mistakes that were made. The space between lines were quite short and all of the staging movements went as smoothly and the audience were laughing the whole way through the performance, which was one of the main goals we were aiming for.

Week 11: Classwork

Monday

Mondays lesson is only an hour and so we use this lesson to go over the start sequence that we had previously created and make sure that we had remembered the directions that we were given when we had performed it the first time. We also tried to shorten the amount of time that it took us to complete the whole sequence from start to finish because the first section took us 5 minutes but we didn't want to use 5 minutes just to introduce the characters to the audience so we wanted to compress the opening sequence to under 3 minutes.

We did this by closing down the gap between each pair or group of people who walked in to the room and also the queue for the prologue to start talking was for the one who was playing Antigone to sit down so we tried to make that quicker so that the play would flow better and we could keep the audience intrigued. 

Wednesday

Because Wednesdays lesson is two hours, we use this is add new content to Antigone. We started to go through the prologue's speech and pick out the lines that we thought would be key lines for adding elements to the play and we also tried to make the staging as interesting as possible.

When the prologue's speech begins Antigone is sat cross-legged at the front right-hand side of the stage as she has separated herself from the rest of the group. We were asked to think of a sentence that our actor character would react to the news of whoever was sat at the front becoming Antigone. We had to imagine that this play and the actions involved were real, so we hide to truly believe that whoever was given the position of Antigone was going to die and the other characters involved were going to bury her alive, which would lead to her dying by her own hand.

The first time that we did this I was sat as Antigone and I had to think of a sentence that I would say once I was given the role of Anitgone. My sentence was "I wanted this, and I've got it."

In my head, I was hoping that it was me and so when it was given to me I decided that I would step up to the plate and completly immerse myself in the character in Antigone as whilst there were things going on in the background and so I sat staring forwards accepting the role I had been given and deciding how that should be played and projected to the audience.

In the video that is linked, I wasn't the one who was playing Antigone so I changed my sentence to fit my actor character at this point. My sentence became "It should have been me, she doesn't deserve to die." 

I am another actor who plays Antigone so I wanted to put myself in place of her because I didn't want to put anybody else through that pain and suffering that Antigone goes through and I understand what it's like because I have studied the character of Antigone at the same time as her. I feel the need to put myself before the others and so when she is picked I feel that I should object but you can't go against who was pciked so I try and show the pain that I feel through my facial expressions.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4rp9BVAKVFs&feature=share

Week 10: Classwork

Wednesday

We started to work on the fight sequence that happens after Antigone is found bury her brother. We wanted to create an atmosphere that made the audience feel uncomfortable and as though the situation was out of control, but the actors on stage would be in control of the sequence.

We started off with how we would indicate to the other actors on stage that Antigone would be moving to attack them. We decided that step clearly in the direct that we were going to swing in before moving the stick, we were using sticks to practice instead of metal poles as we weren't confident with the sequence yet, because that would give the people, who were in a range of being hit, enough time to move out of the way before the Antigone tried to swing at them.

The people around the edges of the stage were extra guards that come on after the two main guards to taunt Antigone. The guards were the main culprits for the uncomfortable atmosphere as they hadn't realised the this girl was Creon's niece and so made vulgar comments and made it more of a game for them whereas for Antigone, this is her fantasy and it is all planned out in her head but these guards are getting in the way of that which causes her to lash out at them.

Here's the final product that we came up with:

https://youtu.be/O3WJLzZUEWQ

One improvement that I think we could do next time would be that when Antigone had been detained she could struggle more as I think that it would be infuriating for her to be held down and so instead of just laying there I feel that she wouldn't want to admit defeat and be detained by men who have verbally abused her.

Week 9: N2C

N2C

In this weeks N2C we tried to get as much of the play done as possible because it needs to be finished for next week. We started one of the major scenes which is the quiz scene. This scene is a major one as it shows the downfall of one of the main characters and the rise of other. The key to making this scene memorable to the audience is the high energy and the speed that one line is said after the other. The scene is funny at the start but it gradually moves into a more serious to show the downfall of King. 

We also did full run throughs of everything that we had done so that we could apply the speed of the lines to the start which we know everything about.

This is the quiz scene that we started:

https://youtu.be/koic3n7qIFc

Week 9: Classwork

Monday

We used Mondays lesson to explore the scene between Antigone and Haemon, her fiance. We explored the ways that the moment of orientation could be shown. The start of the scene between the two is meant to be awkward as she tried to dress up as her sister, who she sees as the vision of beauty, to make Haemon have sex with her so that she could use that as a goodbye and also as a way of them being married without having to go through the legal process. Also she thinks that it is one of the last times that she will see him as she knows that she is going to go and bury her brother and knows that, if it goes the way she wants, she will get arrested and killed for her punishment. 

We looked at the best way to stage the scene and also how the two should react to each other. We tried many different ways and the one that we found that had a bigger effect on the audience and it also made the atmosphere that more awkward.

Wednesday

In Wednesdays lesson, all the Antigone's and Creon's split from the rest of the group to go through a specific scene between them both. The scene that we went through was towards the end of the play and it involved Creon trying to get Antigone to understand the consequences of her actions and also what her motives were behind her actions.

We decided to section the lines and title so that when we are learning them it is easier to see what way we should be saying them and also as we look at the progression of the titles, we can see the progression of the scene.

As we titled the scene we discussed what both Creon and Antigone would be thinking, so that we would be able to see the contrast between the two and compare them in the way that they are saying their lines. 

After going through the whole scene we found that we needed to change some of the lines as the play is translated from French so in English it didn't make sense. We discussed the fact that Creon might be old and tired but he is very good at his job and we could see that through his approach to Antigone. We found that Creon has many different approaches to Antigone and with each one he hits a wall with her where she won't tell him what has gone on and so he tries a different tactic to try and get her to tell him her motives. At one point he thinks that he has got an advantage on her but then he hits the blank wall and has to change his tactics once again. We see this done very subtly at times which reflects his intelligence and also Antigone is so wrapped up in wanting this scenario to be how she planned it that she doesn't notice the shift in Creon's tone. 

Week 8: Classwork

Monday

During Mondays lesson we explored the scene between Antigone and Ismene who are the sisters in the play. We explored the scene and talked in a pair about how we thought the relationship was like between the two. In my pair we said that at the start of the conversation we thought that the two of them were very close and then as the scene progresses we see that the two of them have opposite ambitions for their lives. 

We tried to show this contrast between the start and end through the proxemics of the piece as at the start they were both on the same level and were sat very close each other almost leaning on each other for support but by the end they were both stood up and at opposite sides of the stage to show that the conversation had separated them.

Wednesday

We used Wednesday's lesson to create a piece of movement that was linked to Antigone that told the whole story but only included 10 lines from specific scenes. In my group, we wanted to make the first and last scene the same but change the character that was in the middle. For example in the first image we wanted to put Antigone in the middle because she was the main character and also when you first read Antigone you think that she is the tragic hero but when you read the play in depth you realize that actually Creon is the tragic hero and that is why our last scene was the same but it had Creon on the chair instead of Antigone.

We wanted to use the chair as a symbol of a barrier between all of the characters as there was always something that held Antigone back from other characters. We tried to make sure that in the majority of the scenes between two main characters the chair was in between them as both a physical and mental barrier.

The lines that we used were to symbolize the relationships between characters and we specifically wanted Antigone not to say a line till the very end to show that it was her fault that all of this happened. The line that we made her say reflected this because she said "You are alone now, Creon" which shows that he is alone at the end and everyone around him has left him because of the stubborn decisions that Antigone makes.

https://youtu.be/-GHCxH78JVw

If we were to do the sequence again, I think that we should have slowed the movement down so that the audience would have a better understanding of what was going on and also if we included sticks/poles to visually show the restrain of Antigone and many the restrain that Creon has to put on himself to try and show Antigone that he has enough power to go against his own laws.

Week 8: N2C

N2C

This week the main aspect that me and Lindsay focused on was the delivery of the lines and also reacting to other peoples lines. Most of my lines are said in response to other persons and we were discussing how Mouse would react to different people on the societal scale.

There is a scene between Jay, Mouse and Elton where Mouse is a bystander on a conversation between Jay and Elton. Me and Lindsay were talking about how she would be reacting to herself but so that the audience can fully see her face.

We said that her reactions should be exaggerated as that is part of the Godber style and so even at the smallest of thing that happened in the conversation she reacted so big that it made it look bigger than it was. 

I came in one lunchtime in the week to discuss with Lindsay how we thought that Mouse would be on stage. We discussed how nervous she would be around new people but she would be proud that she knows more about film than some of the people already working in the Multiplex. I think that even though she has this pride she wouldn't be so outspoken with it but when questioned it would show in the way that she responds.

The Weekend: Day 2

Day 2

After the previous night, we had worked out that all of the characters were in pairs. In my pair there was me and the wife of the man that I had murdered. We worked out that I was the only one in the pair that knew that we were a pair. We discussed our two stories and found that my partner thought that there was no reasoning behind what I did but we came to the conclusion that she was just to oblivious and didn't even know that her husband was abusing their child.

We had to make a moment of orientation, which is part of Stanislavski's methods, between our two characters and we chose a court scene. It was set years after the incident and my character had been found out and was being put on trial for murder.

We found that this scene was very hard to explore because in a court there is specific language that has to be attained during a trial and there wouldn't be any subtext allowed in this scene because everyone is under oath and so has to tell the complete truth.

We swapped the setting to a police station in which the Wife had entered in a hysteric manner in search of the polic officer that had worked on her husband's case, which was my character. The wife was hysterical knowing that her husband was dead and was trying to get someone to notice her and help her. Again, like when we were in the cells, my character had another wave of anger knowing that someone could have such a close connection with a monster that had abused his child. So when the wife tried to ask for someone's help and try and have a connection with anyone. My character instantly rejected this idea and, physically and mentally, distance herself from the wife.

https://youtu.be/L9WkCQ__nq0

Improvements that I think could be added was that when I got pushed that was technically assaulting a police officer and so I think that I could have put her in a hold that would have made her instantly calm down and I would then be in control of the situation. If I had her in a hold on the table both the sound and the physical image would have juxtaposed the high energy from the first scene and then we could have gone in a threatening tone from my character.

Next we moved onto working on the opening of Antigone that we had made earlier on in the week. We wanted to add some of the movements that we had created over the weekend to the fight sequence so that it became more dynamic, sharper and cleaner. We added some of the hand and shoulder partner work that we had done and also making it look more like an actual fight.

We added the rule that we had to follow one end of the opposite persons stick and react to it. So in my pair, my partner's stick comes really close to my face and so with me looking at the end of her stick caused me to move my head out of the way, both to stop me getting hit and also to keep looking at the point on the stick.

I think that adding this rule and the new moves made a huge improvement to the whole choral movement as it looked like a fighting sequence; very frantic and a lot of people moving in different directions, and then a sudden pause when we circled each other. I think that this pause gives the audience time to take in what is going on. The juxtaposition between the frantic movements and the paused has an effect on the audience in which that they get the feeling of it being a fight and also shocking because they aren't expecting us to break out in frantic action. The movement is so frantic that the audience don't know where to look but the break in movement gives them a chance to take everything in before the movement starts again. The movement is choreographed so that it looks effective but not too frantic that the audience stop watching because it;s too busy.

The Weekend: Role Play

Role Play in the Haunted Cells

To begin the role play, we received our characters. My character was called Neena and I found out that she was a police officer who got away with brutally beating a man to death. Her motive was that she found out that he had been beating his child up and his wife was so oblivious of it and so she took matters into her own hands and did what she thought was right. 

My starting position was laid on the floor with "blood" on my head and a chair was overturned on the floor next to me. I had blood on my head because I had tried to escape and the masked mad, who was the person that had put us in the cells, had tried to keep me back but I had fought which had led to him hitting me across the head with a chair hence why I was laid on the floor "unconscious."

I was laid on the floor on my own for about 30 minutes before another person entered the room. As I was on my own, I thought about how my character would react to specific other people. I thought about how she would react to children, as she thought that she had saved one and so might see herself as a hero for all other children and so would try and protect them at all costs.

I also tried to think about how she would react to men. She would see them as predators and be very distrustful of them. This reflected how I reacted to the masked man as every time that he walked into a room I made sure that I was on my feet and ready for if anything happened. Especially in the last room that we were all in, I made sure that every time he walked in, I was at the center of the room and in his eye-line at all times. If he ever walked towards anyone I made sure that I also took a step in their direction to make sure that he knew that I was there as a barrier between me and whoever he was walking towards.

I found that I connected with a girl who had been left in a house full of men by her friend. I felt that there was no one to protect her and so saw it as my duty to protect her from anyone whether that was someone she didn't know or the friend that actually left her. When we both realized that we were in the same room as the friend that had left her I found that there was a wave of anger that had washed over me and I felt the need that I had to stand between the two of them at all times to be there as a physical barrier.

By the end of the evening, after we had all been put into a room together, we had to start making decisions on who was going to leave the room and who was going to stay. I made sure that I wasn't the one who was making the decisions because I felt that I was just there to protect people not to decide who was going to be allowed to leave. 

At some points in the room, the masked man was very forceful on some people, for example he forced a Muslim girl to drink wine which was against her religion. I had a fight with myself inside my head because I wanted so badly to take the bottle off of him and get him to leave her alone but on the other hand he had hit me for trying to rebel against him before and so if I tried again there was that feeling that I didn't know what he would do and what extent he would go to, to punish me.

After we had been in character for 5-6 hours, we had to write a paragraph about our character and all of the feelings that we had being that character.

"I beat him, like he beats his own child, his flesh and blood. A small innocent child that has done no wrong in this world. And she just stood there. And watched. I did what I did to protect the child, to save her from him and from his un-nerving nature. What I did was for the child, I was the hero in the fairytale, my own fairytale. I didn't stop. My arm just kept going, taking my anger out on his face, his arm, his chest. He didn't deserve to live. And then I saw her. The mother that didn't lift a finger for her own child. She told me she was looking for a cop. The bitch that murdered her husband. I knew she meant me. I didn't say anything I wanted to see her suffer and pay for what she did. Or what she didn't do. I was going to tell her, honestly. Tell her how I brutally mauled her husband because he's a disgusting prick. I was going to tell her how I was laughing and smiling as I did it because he finally realized the consequences of his actions. I was going to tell her how I enjoyed leaving him there to rot. But I never got the chance and she will never know how I felt. She will be alone with her thoughts, and I will be alone with mine."

I surprised me how in character I actually was because I didn't know that I felt that way about the wife. I also didn't realize how much anger I was holding in the whole night and trying to to take it out on anyone. 

The Weekend: Day 1

Day 1

We went to The Old Nick Theatre in Gainsborough to explore the different aspects of Antigone and loosely work with the themes of the play.

Here's a compilation of some of the pictures from the weekend.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p3XPv8PBPEQ

Warm-up

One of the warm-up exercises that we explored was everyone stood linked arms and shoulder to shoulder and there was one person in the middle of the circle. The person in the middle's motivation was to escaped the human cage that they were in. We found that the key to getting out was to target the weaker areas of the circle. We thought that this was a physical representation of Antigone's motives and she targeted the weaker areas of the societal system, such as the love that Creon feels for his niece, and work her way out of the example that was set for her as a royal. 

Exercises

We participated in an exercise that was where we had to choose three different places around the performing space that were as far away from each other as possible and label them; Fear, Happiness and Anger. Each place made us react in a certain way and you were always being drawn to happiness and trying to recoil against fear and anger but you had to continue the circuit of going between the three and so this exemplified your reactions and moods even more because you were trying to resist but couldn't. This links to Antigone because she feels as though she was going to life but not having any effect which juxtaposes with what we were going through on our own.

We were then paired up and show each other our routes and showing them how each place made us feel and you were there to support the other person in their journey and respect how they were feeling; We started to increase the desperation of us wanting to take each other to our different places which caused us to start trying to drag each other and it almost became a fight between the two to take the other to their happy place. This reflected the relationship between Creon and Antigone because Creon tries to control Antigone's actions so that she is a clear representation of what a Royal should act like.

We had to lay on the floor and think about how that partner was going to turn into a type of safety net and was the only person that you could trust in this world and you wanted to hold onto them and keep them close for as long as possible. We had to find our partner and get as close to them as possible and hold onto them as hard as you could because they were the only person and thing that you could truly rely on and trust and you definatly didn't want to share them with anyone else. This was like Creon as he didn't want anybody else taking Antigone away from him and his son, even if it was her dead brother, and so he fought to keep her under his control.

We were told that there was something in the room that could separate you and your partner and that it would stop at nothing to break you apart which caused us to become even closer with our partners because they were our safety net and they were the only ones in the room that we could put our hold trust into. So when Chipp tried to pull my partner off me, both me and my partner hung onto each other so tightly that he ended up pulling both of us across the floor and couldn't break us apart. Personally, I think this was another physical interpretation of Creon trying to hang onto Antigone and try and keep her sane and in the real world instead of her fantasy world where she wanted to perform the ritual that would bury her brother and send him onto the afterlife.

Once we were tightly bonded with our partner, we started to think about how we'd put all of our energy into this person and keeping them close but what if there was a seed of doubt that this person wasn't who they said they were and would we want to stay with them if they were a false. We allowed that seed of doubt to evolve and it eventually caused us to separate and go isolate ourselves to a point where no one but ourselves could hurt us.

We then had to condense the whole of the past exercises in a 20 second montage that showed all of the parts that we found interesting and were significant to the storyline of Antigone. Using proxemics was the best way for me to show my favourite parts as we used the whole of the space and so i moved from one side to the other to show to amount of moving that we did. Also the use of levels to show how extreme the emotions were, so when my emotions made me feel insecure or isolated I made sure that I was close to the ground, either laying down or knelt.

We then had to become a pair and fit each others movement in with each other and show that there was a connection between the two. Me and my partner decided to show this through eye contact rather than contact because we thought that it would show the separation between the two of us better. We then had to loop the movements so that there was a full sequence of the two movements interlocked.

https://youtu.be/d_xLCuJIzgl

Next we played around with the idea of a banquet and having a master who was being fed by two servants. The master had to act a certain way about the food they were being given and the servants had to give it to them in a certain way. For example, when i was a servant I had to give it to my master with a look of lust and she had disgust so the two reactions juxtaposed very well and also was
very funny trying to get people to eat disgusting food!

After refueling ourselves with food, we moved onto a shoulder and hand exercise. This entailed us to, in pairs, have either our hand or our shoulders touching and allow one of us to guide the other. It was hard at first because we weren't allowed to talk so we had to just respond to the pressure that was on our shoulders. We had to come up with a sequence that involved both hands touching and shoulders touching with turns and height involved. Our sequence had kneels and turns involved and also a clear indication that there was a power struggle.

We thought that this directly linked to the power struggle that is between Creon and Antigone as there is always a switching of who is in charge and control of the situation. We made this clear at certain points of our movement. For example, my partner became Creon and pushed me down to a kneeling position but then I stood up and pushed her down as Antigone because we decided that Creon was the hero of the story because he was always trying to do the right thing for Antigone and she just kept defying him.

On our own we had to come up with a word which represented the reason why she would defy Creon as she did. I decided that my word was going to be Spite because I thought that she would carry on ignoring the fact that Creon was trying to help her due to her wanting to get a reaction out of him and to show that his own family could break his trust and go against his own words.

We then had to write that word in the air constantly and once we were put into pairs and one person had to stop the other from writing their word. It was like a fight between Creon and Antigone, as Creon would want Antigone to stop her writing so that she would stop rebelling against him.

We were then put into groups and had to find a word that linked all of our words together and come up with a sequence of movements but all of the moves had to be what we had made throughout the day in the different exercises.

https://youtu.be/-zxP9iel2wM

Week 7: N2C

N2C

This week we worked on a scene between Mouse and Jay. This scene is after Mouse has been slightly scared by two of the other characters that are King's henchmen. Jay has been here long enough to know that there is a hierarchy that needs to be followed and so she is there to tell Mouse how the Multiplex is run.

During the scene, we worked with the idea of proxemics to show status. Whenever Jay would say a line she would push Mouse down to a cross-legged sitting position. We thought that this should show that Jay understands that Mouse is at the bottom of the food chain. The fact that Mouse keeps getting back up and has to get pushed down again reflects her not understanding the societal system and her trying to mess it up.

Me and Lindsay discussed where reactions are best seen by the audience. We said that I can't face the side when I am reacting to Jay because the audience won't get the full effect of the relationship between my character and Jay. We also discussed that my reactions need to be over-exaggerated because that is one of the factors of Godber's style, making all actions big so that they can have a bigger effect on the audience.

We also worked as the whole cast on unison movements and getting them sharp so that they are more effective and add humour to the play which is another aspect of Godber's style.

Week 7: Classwork

Monday

We used all of mondays lesson exploring the scene between Creon and Antigone. It is after Antigone had been found trying to bury her brother and she has been brought to Creon because anyone that was found associating with Porphyron was to be put to death. In the scene, Creon is trying to convince Antigone to let him, hide the fact that it was his own niece who had committed the crime.

https://youtu.be/L_kHsJiZrZU

Me and my partner decided to work on the juxtaposition of the delivery of the lines between Antigone and Creon. We said that Antigone would be quite blunt as we thought that she wanted people to know that it was her that did it because if no one knows it was her then her actions would have no impact. Also we wanted Creon to become increasingly frustrated with Antigone because at the beginning he was trying to show her compassion and she completely ignored this factor and so by the end Creon was grasping at anything that would make Antigone see that he was trying to do the right thing by hiding the crime.

Wednesday

We used Wednesday's lesson to work on the first scene which is between Antigone and the Nurse which is after the first time she tries to bury her brother and she isn't caught. We discussed the nurse being really down to earth and being very scolding, especially about her dirty feet, but in a mothering way. We said that the Nurse would be very mothering as there is no mention of a mother for Antigone so we thought that the Nurse was as close to a mother for Antigone and her actions towards Antigone would reflect this. Even though there was this connection between the two of them, we said that some of the lines should be delivered like Antigone was in her own world as she had just started the massive task that she had set for herself and she had successfully began it without getting caught. 

We also thought that there should be a juxtaposition between the seriousness of Antigone and the humorous tone of the Nurse as we thought that she could bring some funny aspects to the scene with her reactions . There is a line that Antigone says that is "So I took my shoes off and melted into the landscape" which the Nurse replies with "You're going to have to wash those feet before you get back into bed." The delivery of this line is key because Antigone is suddenly in her own world and the audience are very confused by this answer and so are trying to decipher what she is trying to say so if the Nurses reaction is big and quite realistic, such as a gasp and/or a point with a bit of mumbling about how she spends all her time cleaning up after Antigone, then the audience are brought back to reality and out of Antigone's dream world.

The proxemics of this scene could affected the way the audience reacts to both the Nurse and Antigone. For example, we thought that at the back right hand side there would be an armchair which the Nurse would be asleep in before Antigone enters. And there would be a bowl of watermelon at the front and center.

We thought that the entrance of Antigone would have an impact on the audience as well so we had Antigone entering and placing her shoes down next to the sleeping nurse and then slowly walking round her whilst heading for the watermelon. We thought that if Antigone looked at the Nurse whilst walking round her whilst having a warming smile and though she was thanking her through the use of facial expression which would relax the audience slightly so that when the outburst of the Nurse when she wakes up and notices Antigone would be shocking and also funny.

https://youtu.be/qaQin_dFfDE

Week 6:Classwork

Monday

We started Monday's lesson with learning how to push a stick horizontally to one other. If you push sticks to each other instead of throwing them like javelins, if you are all stood in a circle and throwing them there is less chance that they are going to hit each other. Pushing sticks would be useful to use in a chorus action in Antigone because it could symbolize the build up of the fight of the brothers. As you increase the speed at which the sticks are being passed then the tension of the fight builds up.

We then moved on to an exercise where there was a leading stick in the air and we had to follow it with our sticks. We were taken around the room and experimented with what we could do with a group just following one member. This group travelling exercise could also be used in a chorus part as Creon could be the leading stick and the people that are following him are his servants who are trying to please him as he is a very dominant character.

We moved on to a experiment in two groups facing each other as though we were in battle. There was a leader in each group. As one group made an offensive move, the other would make a defensive move with the sticks and it formed a kind of fighting sequence between the two groups. This reflected the two brothers fighting and the opposing sides. The offensive and defensive actions were to reflect the juxtaposing sides as after the fight Creon declared that one of the brothers was right and one was wrong. The offensive group could be the brother that is declared as wrong and so if they were attacking the other group, the defensive group would be seen as doing the right thing.

We moved into pairs and come up with a small sequence of 3 moves that showed the two opposing sides. In my pair, we decided to use levels as one of the elements to our sequence that would show the most chaos and the business of a fight. If she attacked me low and then went down to her level and she would proceed to attack higher up. It allowed our sequence to flow nicely so that we could loop it easily.

Chipp asked us to follow one pairs movement and add sounds like grunts and hisses so that the atmosphere felt like we were in a fight with all the injuries that would be occurring and the atmosphere grew more tense and the louder the sounds got and the faster the movements became. We stood opposite each other and different ends of the room. With every movement that your side did you took a step and made a sound so that it visually looked like a fight. We moved through each other as the groups overlapped and I think that if we were to do the movement again we could increase the difficulty of the movements that we were doing which in turn would increase the tension of the room. Also as we crossed each other we could slow the tempo down. For example, when we were apart the movements would be fast and accurate but we started to cross each other the movements would slow down and become more chaotic and complex.

Wednesday

We started off by experimenting with everyone being in their own box and labeling the corners, floor and ceiling with numbers so that when we were asked to touch a number we could reach a touch the corner with our hands. I think that this box experiment reflected Antigone because she is stuck in a life which is controlled by Creon and she has to live by his every rule. We then had to reach the numbers of our birthday and make it easy to loop. After this, we added a rule that we had to only use our hands and knees to reach the points and be able to loop this as well.

We were put into pairs and had to perform our movements facing each other but not acknowledging one other. There was a rule then added that one person had to move and then the other so our moves were in response to each other and we had to make eye contact as much as possible. One person was given a small stick and the other was given a long stick and we had to make the sequence into a fighting sequence. Still making eye contact we had to then react to one other. So when my partner looked as though she was going to hit me, I reacted by leaning backwards and carried on with the movement.

https://youtu.be/MdjLqZvlO2Q

We then put all of the different paired movements into a small space and see the effect that it would have. We then proceeded to put the movement in context and we started to walk in as though we were warming up for this movement which reflects the idea of metatheatre because we looked like actors getting ready for this performance. Building on this idea, we had to walk into the room as actors with coats and shoes and talk as though we were all relaxed and then we moved into our pairs and began the movement. I think that this juxtaposed the relaxed atmosphere of the entrance and then going straight into the seriousness of the fighting movement. 

We were put into smaller groups that all had some connection between them which affect how we responded to certain people and added a little tension in the air between people that have had arguments.

Adding in a accident between the actors was the next step that we chose to develop. The audience had just seen this really quick movement that has been done with precision and then comes an accident in which one of the actors are injured and it puts the audience on edge as they think that we are trained professionals and then one of us ends up injured.

Week 5: N2C

N2C

This week, me and Lindsay discussed how Mouse, my character, reacts to the other characters up and down the hierarchical system. We said that she treats everybody the same but she gets along with people who are nearer to her own level such as Fish and Mags.

She understands that there is a hierarchical system and she knows where her place is but me and Lindsay were both saying that she doesn't care about her place or where anybody else is. She treats everyone with respect but finds it easier to interact with people who are also plankton like her.

When she talks to King instead of raising to his level, she brings him down especially in the quiz scene when they are battling it out to see who has the better knowledge of films. King is the one who cracks under the pressure which the audience see as confusing as King is the one who controls everyone and the one who produces all of these films and he is the one who can't handle the expectations that have been placed on him. Mouse is the one who controls the situation and remains calm all the way through without cracking under the pressure.

We also talked about how she responds to the idea of being hit, which, to all the other Plankton, is the worst idea that there could be but to Mouse, when Elton and Spike are delaying the punch she actually asked them to hurry up and hit her. I think Mouse is very strong in her opinions and she strongly opposes the idea of the different levels and she believes that everyone should be treated the same which reflects the way she speaks to people.  

Week 5: Classwork

Wednesday

Wednesday was our only lesson this week and we started off with a warm-up as we were told that we were doing physical theatre. We warm-up our shoulders, backs and legs before we started walking around the space. As we increased the pace up to a fast sprint, we had to be aware of the empty spaces that were around the space but we had to be constantly assessing where people were so that we didn't bump into them. I found this slightly challenging as I had to both assess where the gaps were but also the others in the space and seeing where they were also going.

The first exercise that we started with was to make ourselves as small as possible on the floor so I went into a fetus position and made my whole body, including my hands and feet, as small as possible and then we had to extend all of our limbs to a point that they couldn't reach any further. This meant that this wide open position juxtaposed with the small tiny position that we had done previously. We were asked to loop the two movements and try and extend it to a standing position. To adapt my movement I decided to be small close to the floor and then when I extended out, I stood up and was in my extended position stood up. Also we had to add an element of movement to the loop and so when we were stretched out I decided to step my foot out and then when i went small again I joined my feet so that I was moving around the stage step by step as I was getting smaller and bigger.

We then experimented with some ensemble pieces with the whole class so we were in a circle and we followed Chipp's movement. We were simply just stepping in and out of the circle whilst staying in time with each other and replicating Chipp's movement. We began to harden the movement so that we made a sound on the floor and began to quicken our breathing so that the stamping and harsh breaths created a tense atmosphere and then we began to soften the movement so that you couldn't hear the footsteps or the breathing so it became silent. If this was choreographed into a performance I think that it would be very effective towards the audience as the atmosphere was contrasting all the time and switching between calm and then tense.

Stage combat was what we moved on to next. We first learnt the basic punches, slaps and blocks. I learnt that when you punch someone (in stage combat) you have to slap your shoulder so that it makes the sound like your punching someone. Also the reaction is what makes it believable so the more you react to the punch or slap the more the audience will believe that you have actually been hit.

We created a piece of movement that showed a choreographed routine of punches, slaps and blocks in different speeds. The faster you went the more out of control it became and made it look more like a frenzy just like the fight between Antigone's brothers was. They fought to the death and as Creon says there was nothing left of either of the brothers and we wanted to bring that across in our movement.

https://youtu.be/U7NDdARYJPw

This quick frenzied movement reflected a German choreographer called Pina Bausch, who has created many different lyrical and modern dances that reflected a story and or included the contrasting atmosphere by speeding up the movements and the breathing of the actors involved.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WZd2SkydIXA

Week 4:Classwork

Monday

After exploring the basics of Antigone last week, we were given 25 minutes to create a piece of movement that showed the whole story and also include some of the main events.

To start, our group decided to figure out which events we wanted to shown in the movement. We picked events that we thought changed the atmosphere of the play and also changed the way that we looked at certain characters because of their actions at that time.

We decided to include:

• The actors preparing for the play
• Antigone being introduced
• The war/fight that was going on between Eteocles and Polyneices (Antigone's brothers)
• Their death
• The introduction of Creon
• The contrast of Creon's response to the two brother's death
• Antigone's actions towards Polyneices (who's body is left unburied)
•  Antigone's death

Video of our outcome

https://youtu.be/YJ3cFYXjar0

We wanted to show the difference between the actors preparing and them in character so we decided that when the brothers were introduced Caitlin would "these are her....my brothers" to symbolize that she is still getting into character and hasn't fully immersed herself into becoming Antigone. This reflects the elements of Metatheatre which is where the actors address the audience either directly or through monologues or soliloquies. 

We tried to use to as many different levels as possible and also the transitions between the levels, helped juxtapose the status of certain characters. For example; Holly, who was playing Creon, raised her status when she got into character to show that she had a completely different status to when she was an actor preparing.

The use of the sticks, also symbolized that most of the characters in the play used each other to raise their own status whereas Antigone was the one being used which made her status downgrade even more.

Wednesday

Googles definition of tragedy

"tragedy

ˈtradʒɪdi/

noun

1. 1.

   an event causing great suffering, destruction, and distress, such as a serious accident, crime, or natural catastrophe.
2. 2.

   a play dealing with tragic events and having an unhappy ending, especially one concerning the downfall of the main character."

My definition of tragedy

Normally involving a tragic hero, an event that causes them to drastically change their perspective, feelings or approach to a place, view or person that has an event on those around them and changes their lives forever. In most tragedies, there is death involved, either to the tragic hero or some close to them.

Antigone is a tragic play because it has a main event that affects the tragic hero, which is Antigone, and has serious consequences for her and the society that she leaves behind.

To begin the lesson we were asked to think about what a Machine of Tragedy might be and how it would link with Antigone. We discussed that it would be triggered by the death of Eteocles and Polyneices because that is the event that causes Antigone to ignore the expectations that are set for her. It would involve everyone that surrounded Antigone and wouldn't be able to stop on its warpath once it had begun and everyone would be engulfed by it.

The first exercise that we did was to think of a profession and an action that would go with it. I chose to do a teacher and so I imitated marking someone's work and then turning the page and looping it. This began quite small but then we made it bigger, so big that it just became a movement that couldn't be linked back to the profession. The actions became bigger and more fluid to express the size and also i started involving more of my body. For example, when I was turning the page it became my arm sweeping for right to left in an arc over my head.

We were then asked to stand in a circle and watch multiple people's movement at separate time and with each one learn it and then make it our own by making the movement bigger and unrecognizable.

Next we got into partners and had to do our separate movements but moving closer and closer to one another and carry on moving close to each other so that we were as close as possible whilst still being able to do our movements. We weren't allowed to talk about what we were going before hand or during the movement we just had to read each other and fit our movements around each other. I think me and my partner were quite comfortable with what we were doing and the fact that both of our movement's had things to the side meant that we could both lean the same way or different ways which began to create a story without us having to discuss it. Adding eye contact to the movement added to the story that was beginning to form because at some points we looked at each other at the same time and reacted but at other times we looked at each other without meeting eyes which created an atmosphere around us.

We were put into groups of  four to add all of our movements together. We first looked at the position of everybody's movement to see what staging we could use and how we could integrate levels into the piece. Kieran's movement was quite forceful so we decided that it should be seen by the audience so he laid down and did his axe movement towards the front to emphasis it. We were asked to make the movement like a series that this characters had to participate in and they were obliged to carry on. We had to make one of the characters want to leave this system and one character want them to stay because if they left their greatest fear would be inflicted upon them.

We were given a knife to involve into the movement and were asked that if we were to get cut by the knife we should react to it. We thought that because I was the character that wanted to leave, everybody was going to cut me so that it would symbolize their reaction to me leaving.

End Product

https://youtu.be/5Hgp5gSL3-Y

I think that our movement linked with Antigone because Antigone's life was like a looping system that she couldn't get out of but then she was the one that wanted to break that and escape from it. Creon was the one that wanted her to remain in the system because when he found her trying to bury her brother he gave her a chance to explain herself whereas he said that he would kill anyone on site if he found them.

Week 3: N2C

N2C

This week in N2C, my director, Lindsay, gave us our scripts and parts. I found out that my character is called Mouse and she starts off at the bottom of the societal system but then works her way to near the top by the end. 

Also we were told that we would be working in the style of  John Godber, which I have previously worked in and enjoyed very much. Godber works with over-exaggerated stereotypes to produce a funny play but one that also has a serious element behind it. Along with the stereotypes, some of Godber's themes are; titling the scenes, unison movement, quick transitions and fast pace. 

My first impressions of my character is that she speaks her mind and doesn't care what people think. Also compared to the other characters, she seems to not mind where she is on the system and she treats everyone equally. 

We went through the first page of the script which was all about Dillion, who is kind of the narrator of the play, introduces the three different stages of the societal system. " There's Plankton... that's like the lowest of the low. Don't know shit. Then there's Dudes, they're, you know, cool. But they don't know movies. And the top of the food chain, there's the Buffs." 

Knowing that Godber uses unison movements to show a stereotype, we decided to try and think of synchronized movements that could represent each stage of the food chain. We decided that we wanted to use the proxemics of the space to our advantage and correspond the level of the food chain with the height of the character.

My character, as a plankton, feel the floor completely face down, quite close to the audience. I think that we used the proxemics well as we filled the whole of the stage and we also used dynamics to represent the different stages.

Here's a video of what we came up with.

I feel like the synchronicity worked very well and fit the Godber style perfectly. Also the levels corresponded with the level that the characters were on so the Plankton were the lowest, Dudes in the middle and Buffs at the top. One way that I would improve it would be that the actions that each stage did was made bigger so that it reflected the Godber style even more.

Week 3: Classwork

Monday

In Monday's class we started off with an exercise that caused us to be attracted to one person, avoid another and regonise that their was someone following us. This allowed us to be aware of everybody in the room and also zone in on 3 people specifically.

We were then told that this was one of Stanislavski's concepts known as motives. An actor needs to search for the character's inner motives to justify their actions and find the characters seek to achieve in the end.

We were asked to create a situation where 3 people with these motives were in a room together and we had to react how we thought we should. My character was the one who acknowledged that their was someone following them so as i was at the front of the stage and Jenna's character came up to me, I responded as frightened but civil. I think that during out piece we could have used speech to accentuate the awkward atmosphere that there was so that even the audience felt awkward watching it.

Once the whole group had formed a circle, we then had to come up with a piece of fluid movement that explored what the person to your left was wearing. The moves were first realistic and you could definatly see what was being shown but as the individual movements became one fluid piece then the meaning of it became unclear. This meant that to anyone watching the movement, they were open to interpretate it in their own way.

When each person had their own movement we explored the different ways you could use the movement to show emotion. For example, we experimented with the size of the movements so some parts could be small and others bigger to accentuate that emotion.

Adding this movement into the scene we had already come up with was the hardest part for me. Due to the fact that every action that you had done previously had to be replaced with a part of your movement and it was hard for me to think of ways that we could do this. One of the moves that i had to replace with a part of my movement was placing a cup of tea on the table. The part of my movement that I decided would be best for this was when I ran my hand down my leg. Originally this was to show the leggings that my person had been wearing but now, using it in a minimal way, allowed me to look uncomfortable whilst placing the cup of tea down which showed the connection between my character and Hannah's.

This links to Frantic Assembly which is a global theatre company that uses movement to portray stories and emotion. The major thing with Frantic Assembly is that they use movement that you wouldn't normally associate with that emotion which allows to audience to interpretate it in their own way just like we did with our movement. I enjoy Frantic Assembly's work as its completely abstract and open to what you want to think. The amazing thing is that if you were sat in an audience, the person next to you could have a completely different interpretation to you.

Wednesday

During Wednesday's lesson, we explored another one of Stanislavski's concepts known as emotional memory. This causes the actor to feel a overwhelming emotion and then when it comes to their character needing to feel that same emotion they can remember exactly how they felt. 

We started by completely relaxing and focusing souly on our breathing. This allowed us to be completely isolated and think about only ourselves at this point. We were then asked to think of a memory that we associated with a strong emotion and my memory was recently, which meant that I could remember everything that was said and done around that memory, and it was really upsetting for me so my whole body was consumed with sadness which caused me to start crying. Being asked to replay the memory over and over again with us trying to remember it in as much detail as possible made me fully focus on myself.

I think that the lighting and music that was being used also added to my emotions. The lighting that was used was quite dark and if there was any colour that was used it was blues which added to the relaxation but also to my feelings. The fact that I couldn't really see anybody else in the room made me try and concentrate on how everyone else was feeling to try and connect with them and make them feel like they weren't alone. The music that was being played was quite slow and quiet but then in certain points it build up which corresponded with my emotions as my emotions were up and down constantly.

We were asked to "write" down what we were feeling and what we would say to the people in the situation. At this point I was aware of the people around me and i could feel the emotions of everybody else in the space which caused my emotions to be heightened even more. 

Next we were told that when Chipp tapped our feet or shoulder we would walk into the spotlight that there was in the middle of the floor and stand until someone came up to us. No matter what the other person did or said we would have to react as we could. Once I was in the spotlight, Kieran came up to me and stood directly in front of me and stared at me for a while which made me feel like he was penalizing me because I was crying. He then reached for my letter and so I gave it to him. He read it and tore it in half which made me fall apart inside and I was screaming at myself to do something about it but I think that I was too shocked and upset by his small action that all I could do was go back to my space and sit down.

Our next objective was too find people without opening our eyes and stay as low to the ground as possible. I found Sarah first as we both reached out for each other and I then felt that Sarah was already holding on to some people so I took comfort in the fact that I wasn't on my own anymore.

Once we had all calmed down we were introduced to a sweet box in a spotlight. We discussed the play Antigone, the script that we are going to be exploring, and how it linked to the box. We were told that Antigone's brothers are fighting against each other throughout the play and eventually they battle and both die. One brother is given a proper burial and is given a good send off to the afterlife whereas the other is left to rot in the mud. Antigone can't stand to leave her brother like this and so sets out to give him a real funeral. She is caught half way through and is told she will be punished by Creon, the king.

We were asked to form a circle around the box and try and get into the character of Antigone and really understand what she would have been feeling if she was told that both her brothers ashes were placed inside this box. 

I thought about how she would have been going through all the conversations that she would have had with both of them and remembering their childhood memories when they were all innocent and didn't have anything against each other.

Chipp then walked out of the room to prepare to re-enter as Creon. We were asked to react as Antigone would in this situation.

He entered with an axe which initially scared me as he had changed his whole body language and he has a aura around him that caused me (as Antigone) to fear him and become afraid of what he could do with the axe. He then begin to chop the box with the axe and many people began to react to this but I felt that Antigone, even though she is quite a strong character, has to have a breaking point and I though with her wanting her brothers to move on to the afterlife she would have snapped and completely broke down, which is what I proceeded to do.

The picture above was the aftermath of the lesson.

Week 2

Monday

During our lesson, we were given the script of the play Antigone, originally written by Sophocles but we read the adaptation by the French dramatist, Jean Anouilh.

We were given the script and separated into groups to read through the first page of the script and talk to each other about our opinions of the opening page and how the characters are introduced.

The characters that are highlighted are the ones that we wanted to focus on and tried to make the actors look like they were preparing to become these characters by doing actions like adjusting their body language to show where their character was on the social hierarchy. For example, Creon who was being played by Alexis at the back corner was adjusting to where she needed to stand and also when Creon was mentioned she immediately snapped into her character and changed her facial expression so that the audience clearly saw that she had changed into Creon.

My group discussed the fact that it was like a group of actors were on stage and one person was introducing them all and explaining which character/s that they would play. We initially thought that this would confuse the audience as they would already expect the actors to have a character before they even entered the stage but having the narrator telling them who each actor is going to play sends their minds into a questioning state. 

The narrator also foreshadowing that Antigone is going to die creates an intriguing and mysterious atmosphere that the audience is drawn to, so they can find out how this innocent girl is killed and why. The narrator introduces Antigone and Creon in the section that we selected, we chose to introduce two characters to the audience so that they could see the difference between the actor and when that actor got into character.

We were then asked to create a piece of movement showing a group of actor getting ready for this play and the introduction of Antigone and Creon.

Before we started creating the sequence, we decided to read a little further on, to see when the other characters were introduced and to also find out a little bit more about the other characters so that the actors that were preparing to be them could stand or sit in a particular way that looked as though they were getting prepared. 

We were then asked to add a extra part to the movement; a sort of ritual movement that would make the audience feel more uncomfortable and intrigue them into the play.

https://youtu.be/MGNVe60wnmY

 As you can see, in our movement we decided that the actors who are playing characters such as Creon and Haemon, who are father and son, should walk in together and foreshadow that they have a connection and also Haemon and Antigone, who are fiances, should also show their connection through the preparation of the actors.

We wanted to use the proxemics to our advantage so that the audience would have lots of different places to look and wouldn't have to focus on one actor until they were introduced. We positioned Shanice, who was playing Antigone, towards the front and center of the stage so that people would get the impression that she was the main character but then as other actors started entering the audience's attention would be diverted elsewhere.

In our ritual sequence at the end, we want the narrator to look like she was in charge of the whole situation, with her deciding who's character should be introduced first and commanding how the characters would act. We thought that if the narrator clicked it would show that she has control over the situation and hopefully it would look mysterious to the audience and look as though all of the actors were under a spell.

If I were to suggest an improvement for our sequence, I would make sure that the breathing was all at the same time and also we could have used the breathing a lot more and accentuated it so that it gave a more creepy atmosphere which would add to the confusion of the audience. Also we could have used a lot more levels, for example in the ritual sequence when me and Shanice turned we could have gone onto our knees so that the audience could have seen Alexis and Charlotte at the back.

Week 1

Week 1

Wednesday

During the lesson on Wednesday we firstly worked in pairs in a short exercise which involved the two people standing back to back and having to turn around so that their foreheads touched without breaking contact. We were then asked to, still keeping contact, move into a kneeling position and then back up again, lastly returning to the back to back position. Me and my partner decided that the easiest way to keep contact throughout the piece was our foreheads and so we were leaning against each other throughout the movement.  I think that this exercise really enabled us to get comfortable with the other person and was a good way to introduce the movement.

We then had to evolve the exercises in a short fluid movement that could be repeated easily. Me and my partner thought that we would start at the kneeling position and then slowly stand up together with our foreheads touching. We would then move to the left with our shoulders remaining contact and lastly finished back to back. To complete the movement we would turn back to the right and touch foreheads and move slowly back down to the kneeling position.

We then got given the story of two people meeting on a bench one day and falling in love which we had to overlay and portray their emotions through the movement we had already created. We decided that in the kneeling position we should look as though we were shaking hands without looking in each others eyes which could represent the nervousness and anticipation that the two would feel when they first noticed each other. Adding to this, we thought that to show the connection building between the two, as we slowly stood up we would stare at each other with curiosity and interest. As we turned we would keep eye contact until we couldn't see each other anymore to show the longing that the two had for each other as they had to depart each day. As we came to the back to back position, we  joined our hands at both sides to show the connection that was always there in their relationship.

In the original movement, we turned back the way we came but we decided to change it so that the two would make a complete circle showing that time had passed and their connection was stronger than before. As we would turn, we would return eye contact as soon as possible and as we slowly returned to the kneeling position the eye contact would still be obtained but this time we would be holding both hands to complete the movement and complete the relationship.

After watching a couple of pairs perform we assessed the good factors, some of which included the additional connections such as a hand on a head or hands on shoulders that added the more intense feeling of the relationship, we were lead into the drama studio in which there was a set, prepared for us which consisted of two risers stacked on top of each other and a sheet thrown over the top with a wedding dress and a knife placed on top. Around the edge there was a rope placed in a circle which we weren't allowed to cross.

The lighting that was used created a dark and mysterious atmosphere as there was a single spot light centered on the scene in the middle. This meant that the set-up was the focal point and we were all focused on that. Adding to the lighting, there was a piece of music that was being played quietly as we were allowed to walk around the scene and observe as much as we wished to. The music added a spooky atmosphere and made us even more interested in the story that was behind the scene.

Once we had seen all that we wanted we were asked to sit around the center piece and think about the story behind it. We were told that it was based upon a play called "Blood Wedding" and were asked to think about where we thought the play was set and what we thought the plot was.

I had the idea that maybe it was about a sister and brother that had met each other without knowing that they were related and fell in love and so planned to get married. I thought that maybe the government had found out and killed the brother before the wedding and the sister had killed herself as she knew that she couldn't live without him.

We were put into groups and asked to come up with a piece of movement that represented our interpretation of the image. My group of 4 decided to make the husband die and so we wanted to make it in a dynamic way so we had the couple in the middle with the two left around the edge being the influential government and we had one government official turn the wife away whilst the other imitated them stabbing the husband in the neck and then slowly lowering him to the floor. As the wife was turned back around the government official lifted up the head of the dead husband to show her the consequences of the decisions that she had made. 

We were then taken into the performance space and discussed the characters involved in the play and also the basic plot. We got given a section of the script which involved a conversation between a mother and her son, the bridegroom. We discussed the apprehension that the son would have as he tried to ask his mum for a knife and knowing the history that his mother had with knives.

After exploring this section in depth, we got given another section that was featured later in the play which involved the speech of the Moon character about her searching for blood and death in the forest in which two of the characters were being hunted in. We were divided into groups of 5/6 to choose the 3 outstanding points of the entire plot that stood out for us the most and create a movement which flowed together and showed the 3 stages. Also we got given the task of saying lines from the moons speech that we thought added context or more information to the scene.

My role in the 1st stage was as an onlooker in the wedding, standing towards the back left hand side of the stage so that the main focal point was the two main characters that we positioned further towards the front so that they would have a stronger connection to the audience. There was the two main characters looking like they have just got married but there was another character stood behind the wife looking as though he is whispering in her ear. In the 2nd stage of the movement, I was in a completely different position as I was on the floor reaching towards the escaping characters as one of the village people that had chased them into the woods. 

During the transition between the 2nd stage and the 3rd, a red light slowly began to turn on towards the back right hand side at this point me and Melody began to be attracted to the light and began slowly walking towards it. We then became the moon in the red light and towards the front of the stage the two men had begun their fighting sequence.

I thought that the death of the two men could have been more intertwined as they died a quite different times and speeds. As a correction, I thought that they could have fallen together as though they had stopped fighting and has resorted to leaning on each other for support even though they were fighting seconds ago.