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.