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.
