Pillowman - Lesson 11 - 18/12/2015

This lesson was more of a discussion based lesson and as a group we had discussed about how we were going to have our costumes etc. At first we thought that it would be a good idea to go with a smart/noir kind of costume as personally it felt that the style went with the play.

Me and Dan were to wear smart clothing with braces and maybe a fedora as it’s the noire police kind of costume and maybe have our police badges attached to our pockets.

Tom was to wear casual clothing, maybe a white top with jeans and a leather jacket.

Ashley was to wear some dungarees as it’s something that would have been worn in an older time and also it would be able to show his child like characteristics.

After discussing it, we thought that it would be slightly better to go with a modern look as it could potentially draw the audience in more easily and it would be a more simple way to get any costume where as if we went older with it we would have to invest in maybe a bit more. 

Without You

Without You is a rather sad song that we are doing as it leads up to Angels death. In the song it's mainly based on Roger and Mimi's weird and confusing relationship, however we thought that we should be telling other people's story along side theirs. We start off with Maureen (Lorna) and Joanne (Freya) coming together and then facing apart as it shows that they love each other however they're not really together at that moment in time due to their small break up. We then have Carl and Dom come onto the stage and start putting a duvet on the table and a chair next to the table. Then Finally Collins (Me) and Angel (Dan) come on to the stage, however Collins is slightly carrying Angel as she's really weak and is slowly dying. We then have Roger (Tom) and Mimi (Meg) do some sort of contemporary dance to show their emotions and how there "relationship" is and how much they mean to each other. Mean while everyone is frozen apart from Collins and Angel as this shows that Collins is supporting her in this really bad time. Once the song ends we thought that it would be a goo idea for the lights to focus on Angel to show that she's passing away and to show this, he doesn't move and then Collins places his head down.


We have done this song to show Angels passing as the fact that the song "Contact" was deemed too inappropriate to use.

Pillowman - Lesson 10 - 11/12/2015

In today’s lesson we finished off working on act 2 and started to move onto blocking act 3. This was a bit of a challenge to me as I needed to show quite a sudden change from Ariel. How at the beginning he was rather angry and acting like a dictator and then how towards the end of the act, he talks about how he feels sorry for Katurian and that he understands why Katurian has done what he was done in his past. Also in this act, you start to feel a bit sorry for Ariel due to the fact that you find out that his dad used to sexual molest him and that he killed his dad.  

I'll cover you (reprise)

Although we were good and all, when I was singing “I’ll cover you reprise”, I did have a bit of a struggle as I was riffing which I soon learnt that it was a big no no, especially for my character. Seeing as I’m playing Collins, most of the actors that tend to play him are black as it’s something that just is rather common with his character. This slightly means it doesn’t look as cringy when he sings some of his songs due to the fact that he’s got a deeper and more blues/jazz voice to me. So as a way to resolve this, I came to the conclusion that I  should maybe hold notes intead of going all over the place with them.

I had an idea that when I sing this song, the stage black and then when I start to sing a light from the back will come on forming some sort of shadow and then when I sing the lines "I'll be your shelter", the lights in front of me will rise. By doing this I feel that the lights can show that angel is in a better place but then it shows real life and how everyone's dealing with it.

Group Session 1

In today’s lesson we were told that we had all the backing tracks for the whole musical which was a relief due to the fact that I was beginning to slightly worry that I couldn’t hear my voice over the other singers and also it meant that I could work on my timing for songs such as I’ll cover you reprise and Santa Fe. So from the beginning of the lesson we started from the very beginning of rent and continued all the way through the half way through act 2. We got through a vast amount as we have had some songs cut as they’re unnecessary to the story and could be too long for our audience.  I was rather impressed as to how well that we all managed to do seeing as it was our first sing through without any of the original cast members helping.

Although we were good and all, when I was singing “I’ll cover you reprise”, I did have a bit of a struggle as I was riffing which I soon learnt that it was a big no no, especially for my character. Seeing as I’m playing Collins, most of the actors that tend to play him are black as it’s something that just is rather common with his character. This slightly means it doesn’t look as cringy when he sings some of his songs due to the fact that he’s got a deeper and more blues/jazz voice to me. So as a way to resolve this, I came to the conclusion that I  should maybe hold notes intead of going all over the place with them.

Pillowman - Lesson 9 - 04/12/2015

In this week’s lesson we finished blocking Act 1 and started to work and block Act 2. There wasn’t much to block due to it being a very long duologue and not much movement. We had to work on a way in which Tom could bang Ashley’s head against a table without having to realistically doing it. Ashley and Tom rehearsed ways in which they could do it as safely and as effectively as possible and without doing any damage. During this rehearsal someone introduced an idea of having a Russian accent. There was a bit of discussion on it however it was turned down in the end as it was hard to maintain the accent.    

Ideas Board + Seasons of love and Happy New Year

1/12/2015

In today's lesson we had a different type of lesson and we tried to sources that we can use as inspiration and how we can use some of these ideas in our set or our piece. So far I found a picture that I thought would be good for the lighting at the funeral. I liked this as it has a nice light blue colour on them and the lighting on the character's face would give quite an depressive feel and can represent the characters feelings rather well.

Another photo that I found was a picture of some police officers on an underground train which is covered in grafiti showing how discusting and untidy and unapealing places are in 1980's New York. They don't seemed to be threatened and if anything they look more intimidating than modern day police officers. I chose to have this picture in our Ideas board as it shows the true new york city in the 1980's and not a clean and tidy place which is what it's made out to be.

In this photo I decided to find a picture of what the stage looks like for the actual show of rent and all the scafholding and how it is presented. I then found a photo of the same show but just another school/university's set and I chose to have these two as I thought it would be interesting to see how different or how similar our one will be.

2/12/15

In todays lesson we continued to add to our Ideas Map as in yesterdays lesson we hadn't filled much of it. We spent the first lesson finding more things to add to our Ideas Board and I found a photo of a resteraunt that has a lot of people at a table as to me I thought of the song "La Vie Boheme" as we're going to need a big table and attempt to find the right lights to make it looks like we're in a nice place.




Another picture that I found was an abandoned and ruined recording studio. I thought that it would be good to use this as a motivational thing for the people who play as Mark and Roger as the photo could show them that it's what it might have looked like when they moved in and made them realise and appreciate how far they have come.




For our second lesson we then moved on to something more practical and we started to work on the opening of Act 2 which begins with Seasons of Love. I wasn't present for when it was set and then we got to stage it yesterday. We staged it so that there is a combination of people on stage and others in with our audicence. This is so that the audience can feel really involved with what we are doing and also have something to watch. We have also set out what we will be doing whilst on stage. When the music starts, people on stage walk on instantly but rather slowly and when we start to sing we turn and face the audience and the people on the same level as the audience just walk around in a space and sing. When we get near the chours people who are off the stage walk up and then form a line with everyone on the front of the stage. We then have the soloists sing their lines and for the final chours we then do a step and click and then just stay still and sing for the rest of the song. I like the fact that there isn't anything complicated for coreography for this song and that it's staright forward for the movement and I think that an older audience member might like it as it's like a singing group but obviously in a show.

SoundScape Update

In yesterday's lesson we made a real effort and made sure that our scripts were all written out and that we had rehearsed it at least 2 times. Whilst the final script was being wrote, the rest of us were making sure that we recorded the sounds from the sound scape at the beginning. By doing this we hope to upload it to an audio piece of software called "Audacity" and then play the sounds one at a time and then after I'll attempt to speed them up and make them overlap each other so that it gives off a vibe that the audience are in a school environment.  I have used the "voice memo" app that is on my phone and I have the choice of editing them on "Garage Band" or "Audacity" and I've chosen to do the editing with Audacity as it's more reliable and also it means that it'll be an mp3 folder and is more easily accessible than something that's been edited on Garage Band.

Pillowman - Lesson 8 - 27th November 2015

This week Dan had returned from his operation meaning that we could rehearse act one and three like normal. We went over the first act like we had rehearsed before Dan had left but we were blocking the ideas so that we could work on making some comedic and some serious parts. For Ariel, the group and I thought that it would be comedic if I was to just lose my temper with almost anything that Katurian would say and would result in Ariel then throwing a bag/chair/anything around the room whilst mumbling things to himself. 

Types of staging for Education Piece

To finalise the type of staging that we want for the education subject, I've found a picture of how they have staged out the meeting scene from Future Conditional. We want to use this as an ispiration so that we can base our boardroom scene around what we saw.



The staging for furture conditonal is also in a traverse way which means when we get to our boardroom scene we will switch seats and then it means that the audience will see everyones facial expressions and therefore can gain more comedic value.

Future Conditional

With our devised piece, we were really influenced by the show Future Conditional. It relates rather well to what we are doing and highlight the same kind of problems and issues that we face in our education system. However, there is a major difference from our piece to Future Conditional. Our devised piece, focuses heavily on the time period of our education. How it has changed and developed over the years and how it has got harder and harder to teach students in modern day society. Future Conditional however focuses on what can change in the system and how it affects a specific student who is from an eastern country.


Here is an interview with Rob Brydon and he talks about the play and what it's about (although he then goes on to talk about what he was like in school and it becomes a bit random, however the first few questions are relevant and are helpful) : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iVmWnFdRd4I  

Character Profile - Teacher

This is what I imagine myself character to look like however with a tie and his top button done up. I'd like my character to be rather smart and presentable yet so the audience can see he's a teacher. My character in the boardroom is a rather sarcastic and unfocused teacher when it comes to meetings and discussions etc however he pays attention to what's being said just so he can throw in some really random and snarky comments to do with the subject of what's being spoken about. I'd say that he's probably in his late 20's or early 30's and has a rather big knowledge of the teaching industry. I don't think he likes the pupils at the school that much however when they don't annoy him he likes it. I've decided that I won't change my name for the character as it's something I can imagine myself doing and also it makes it more simple and straight forward when rehearsing. 

What You Own

In today's lesson we recapped what we have done from yesterday's lesson just so that it can stay fresh in our minds. We then got the script for the song that follows, "What You Own". Which is a song based around what Mark and Roger see in their heads which is telling the audience how they feel as well as think. As much as I find this song boring, it is rather important to the story as you see things in two characters perspective. So like yesterday's lesson, we listened to the song a few times over just to listen to what it sounds like and also try and inspire us for any ideas we have. We came up with an idea that half the company would sing a part with Mark and the other half of the company would sing with Roger. Whilst they are singing, everyone is scattered across the entire stage and frozen as it shows that it's all in their heads. This was we are all on stage and we are all able to sing together for the last chorus. I thought that this was a  good idea and it means that everyone is able to be seen and heard, however I think that we should probably have a montage of some sort of love and hate or friendship video clips as it shows that they're falling out yet foreshadows that they are friends in the end but the way we could do it is put an affect on it so it looks like it's a flash back.

Goodbye Love

In today's lesson we were missing the character of Angel due to him having an operation.Due to this it meant that we can't use him in anything for the next few weeks. So due to this we have started to work on Act 2 and we thought that it would be a good idea to start on 'Goodbye Love'. We listened to the track a few times just so that people who haven't heard it before. Once we had listened to it a few times and got the lines for it, we sang it through a few times. Just to try and see if we will need to adjust our voices to a higher or lower tone. Then after this, this is when we started to block things. Mark will have his lines at the beginning and then once he finishes, the song will begin. We wall walk out from the back of stage left and walk in a weird line however we're scattered out. I walk out first as the song is set to take place just after Angel's funeral and I'll need to show how Collin's is feeling but also to show that he doesn't want to be around anyone, really exaggerating how lonely he feels in that current moment. Once I sing my lines, I shall walk back to where we came on as I need to show the audience I'm going back into the church. Whilst I'm inside the church the audience will see that Mark and Rodger having an argument and personally I think that this is rather sad as Mark is realizing that he's probably going to be left on his own and all of his friends will be dead due to the aids. And Rodger is just the same as he always is in the musical which is confused as to why he loves Mimi and pushes her away. Roger then walks off stage leaving Mark, Mimi and Benny all together and they offer to help. The people playing these character are all mid stage at this point so that the audience can really focus on them. Once she has finished singing Collins returns out of the church and being verbally abused by the priest. He calls him a queer which leads to a small argument and leaving Collins with Mark and Benny.

The thing that I liked about staging this is that I can really imagine that the church at the back of the stage which will be good as I can then find it easier to walk in and out of but also it would be really good to set the scene. However, after watching how this secondry school have their staging and how where the church door would be located, I did think that it was a rather interesting way of having it an also have it can make the audience feel. ( 1:56:18 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-Zs06bS-pQ ) One thing that I think that I'll have to do in order to play this part quite well is to look into what it's like to have the person you love taken away from you. I think it's going to be quite hard as I've been fortunate enough to not experience it however in a way I don't think I'll be able to make it as realistic as it could be however I'll have to give it my best. Another thing that I think that we we could potentially have in this scene is maybe having everyone in one section of the stage and if they're not being spoken to or such they should just freeze so then they can still be on the stage but also it can be an interesting technique we can use in the piece.

Pillowman - Lesson 6 & 7 - 13/11/2015 & 20/11/2015

For these past few weeks Dan has been off of school due to an operation on his nose which means that we can’t really continue with any rehearsals that include Ariel and Tupolski.

On the 13^th November, I spent most of my time thinking about what the Pillowman might look like. I have come up with two different ideas. The first one was a ‘cute’ or friendly looking Pillowman. I also kept on thinking of the character from the Disney Pixar film ‘Big Hero 6’.

My other idea was that the Pillowman is a sinister looking man who wears a pillowcase over his head and wears it like a mask. The lips would be stitched together and make a chilling smile and his buttoned eyes would be loose to show that he’s been through a lot and maybe has a rough time trying to get a child to end their life. Also the pillow would be slightly torn which again could show that he has had a bit of a struggle.

On the 20^th November our group has decided to move on to act 2 which includes Ashley and Tom talking about the story of ‘The Pillowman’ and ‘The Little Green Pig’ stories. Whilst the two of them have been acting, I took on the role of directing parts of the scene. When I wasn’t working with them, I would be designing a model of the Pillowman in my own interpretation. 

Santa Fe

Today we moved away from I'll cover you and Today for you and went onto the song Santa Fe. This is where Collins tells everyone about his dream of leaving his teaching career and going to work in a restraunt located in Santa Fe. The thing I like about this song is that you can speak some of the lyrics and sing the rest however I like to sing as much of it as I can as it's quite a blues kinda song with the bass and the low singing. We sung through it a couple of times to get a feel of it and also to know where we come in etc. I felt like the song was rather easy to learn and lick up. For staging it it's mainly just Collins and Angel for the first few half or so and I feel like I need to be more involved with Angel so I'm setting myself the target of adding in a bit more movement. When we get the second verse people start to come in and dance behind us as it's a part in which everyone sings to. And then once they all go off I feel like I should end up near Angel as the song then ends and then after we exchange some dialogue and sing I'll cover you.

I'll cover you + Today for you

In today's lesson, it was the last week that we had Dan who is playing Angel. So before he left for his surgery, we tried to get as much done that involves our two characters ( Angel and Collins). So the 3 main songs that we tried to get done was " I'll cover you ", " Today for you " and " Santa Fe ". We started on I'll cover you. I had been listening to this song a lot in the recent weeks so I already knew the words for it however one struggle that I had is that I don't feel as if my voice is as strong as the original Collins (Jesse L Martin), so I have to try and change my voice to a lower tone to allow myself to not damage my vocal chords. For the song we try to look as Couple like as possible, by achieving this we watched the film version and Broadway version. We looked at what kind of movement that they both had and how they make it look like they're a couple. When we looked they both hold hands and spin in a circle and they also do a little dance where Collins has his arm around Angels back and has his hand on his hips. And then we give some sort of jesters to each other when we say "You'll be my king and I'll be you castle". "No you'll be my queen and I'll be your mote." and then we pretend to put crowns on each other and then get closer top each other and then run around in a circle around the stage and meet each other at the front of the stage again and sing the final lines and passionately embrace.

When we were first thinking of the ideas that we could use in this, we found it rather difficult as we didn't know what we wanted to do with it, weather we wanted to use the film and Broadway as inspiration or if we wanted to make something up from scratch. So after we spoke to each other about it, we decided that we would do both. We chose that we would use some parts from the film and Broadway and then whatever we didn't have in it, we made up.

Once we sorted out what we were doing for I'll cover you, we moved straight onto 'Today for you' which is where Collins introduces Angel to his friends (Mark and Roger). At the beginning of song it has this strange circus/Caribbean type of music so myself and Ashley thought it would be funny to form a little 2 man conger line as we go on the stage and sing. And then we have our arms on each other's shoulders and sway from side to side as we sing 'oh holy night, he struck gold at MIT'. This is so that the audience can see they're really good friends and they like to mess about with each other. And then when Angel comes in Mark and Roger are amazed at what they see and are slightly frozen whilst Collins is going to be in his own little world and doing a drum beat kind of thing with a coke glass and a stick. For the drum part in the song, I thought it would be good for Dan to do a weird tap dance as he cant drum well and also he is a dance and it would look rather impressive to the audience however he is in heels and he finds it a massive struggle to dance in them. 

Tango: Maureen

In today's lesson we started on Tango: Maureen. We start off with Ashley and Freya ( Mark and Joanne) singing together about Maureen. We thought it would be funny if we show off Mark's clumsy side and make him dance like a bit of an idiot, however when they start to do there tango dance, we make him look more smarter. Mid way through the dance the rest of the cast come on stage with their partners and perform a small tango. We then do a simple step routine around the stage and then walk off.

I found this rather hard as I'm not used to any type of dancing, especially with a style such as the tango. I had to do it a few times to try and get used to it as I find it rather complicated. So I need to rehears on it more to make sure it looks perfect or so that it looks like I know what I'm doing. Another thing that I find difficult with this is that Dan (Angel) is taller than me so I have to look up a lot and I think that it looks a bit strange with the height difference.

Rent - Rent

For the main song Rent, Tom and myself decided that we would make a start on coreographing the first part of the song. When we listened to it we thought that it had a bit of a messy kind of feel to it, like the kinda music you could play over somone being stressed etc. When Ashely starts to sing, he will step forward and act whist singing as it singles him out from everyone else and he's the main focus as it's Roger and himself (and maybe Collins) who are in this mess. Once Ashley has sung his lines, Tom will then come forward and be level with Ashley so then they are both the main focus, he's also acting whilst singing. Whilst this is going on, we have people running around the stage tring to bring on props and scenery (ladders, bins, small flood lights etc). Then when we reach the chourus, everyone will freeze and face forward except for Mark and Roger. They slowly stand on the table and then look at each other, slowly getting louder with the "how we gonna pay" and then when they say "last years rent" they'll face forward.

The song Rent starts at 3:10 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DK_WPczZJjU#t=191

Rent - Tune Up #1, Voice Mail 1 and Tune Up #2

For this opening scene we start of with Mark (Ashley) and Roger (Tom) on stage, Roger is with his guitar and the back wall is covered in posters as they live in what was once used as a music studio. We see Mark with his camera and he's filming everything, he films Roger tuning his guitar and then when he the answering machine goes off he zooms in. We have a guitar which Tom can use and all he has to do is make it look like he's playing it for this introducton and we'll also need to get a camera for Ashley so he can pretend to film things. What we might have to do is film things before and then edit them before the performence so then when we get to the part where Mark show's his film, we have all the parts done and make it look like he's put it together in his free time.

For Voice Mail 1, Meg is going to be playing Mark's mother as she has a very soft voice when she sings and she can also go rather high and she also sounds a bit like the actress in the actual song. When performing this part, she will be standing on the opposite side of the stage to Mark and Roger and looking stright ahead as this will actually show that she's not actually in the same place as them but also so they can get an idea as to how Marks Mum acts and shows a bit of her personality.

In Tune Up #2, it slightly repeats it's self and once the answering machine part has finished (we don't hear it this time), we see Tom aka Collins (Myself) standing on the main floor (we decided that we wanted to have some sort of levels to show who's inside the main building that the pieces are set in and who's on the street or elsewhere.) And then once Collins is 'detained', I shall be sitting on the steps that are right infront of the stage as it shows he's in some sort of shelter on the street and he's beein injured. After Collins has been introduced, Benny (Carl) then calls them to inform them that he's going collect his Rent (which he said they wouldn't need to worry about). Benny is going to be located on the far left on the main floor so that it shows that there is more than 2 locations being used.

This Song then leads into the song Rent.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DK_WPczZJjU#t=191 - This is a video of how it looks so far, Tune Up #2 ends at 3:10.

Modern School - Technique 2

This is our other version on the whole movement based idea. We thought it would be good to show the students minipulating the teacher in a different way. We showed both pieces to both of our teachers and they both prefered the differnet ones, so then we decided that we would keep them both but find ways to maybe have a transition so that we can have both pieces and also show both ways of the teachers being manipulated. I had an idea of that this should be the first one as when I pretend to knee Carl in the face he takes a seat. This would be good to have a blackout and then have a small soundscape of him teaching our class and then when the lights come back on we start the puppetry piece. I like puppetry idea more as it really focuses on our movement and manipulation of teachers. One thing that I need to be cearful within this part is that I'm using stage combat and need to ensure that I'm fully focused. As you can see from this video, I wasn't and because of that it went wrong, Carl wasn't in a lot of pain and as seen, I had realised the error and adressed it straight away.

Modern School - Technique

For this movement based scene we worked on ways we can show our audience the way that modern schools are run and how they are actually might be seen by some members of staff. In this piece, we have chosen to base it on movement and as you can see, we are focusing on a puppetry based piece. This way we can show that the teachers in modern day have no control over any students in the class and how that they are over powered and minipulated in most sitations. We did like having the puppetry idea as it can easily demonstraight the power perspective and also the whole manipulation part.

Pillowman - lesson 5 - 06/11/2015

In today’s lesson we focused on the dialogue and how we will set the first Act. We’ve already sorted out what we do when the play first starts. We want to show how dark and horrible the ‘police’ are so that we are confusing audience on who’s actually the bad person in the play. Katurian who writes these stories about murdered children or children being tortured in horrific ways, Michael who acts out a few of the stories, or Ariel and Tupolski who breach someone’s human rights and murder a possibly innocent person. For my character, I feel that it’s important to show how unhinged he is and also how he takes his approach to intimidate people, for example: When he walks in with a “Bloody clothing around his hand” however it’s just fake blood. However, when you compare this to Tupolski’s character, he’s very manipulative and uses his wording to an advantage. To really show these characteristics, Dan will take a ‘relaxed’ approach to his character as it shows that he can always be thinking and that he’s also a lot more in control. By his doing this, it then means that I can go all out with Ariel and find ways to really show his anger. I feel that a way I can show anger is by pacing around the room, screaming at either of the characters in the middle of a conversation or even start throwing things around the room. 

Rent - Beginning Rehearsal

When we started the rent reheaslals, we spent a lesson on actually choosing what we wanted to base our workshop unit on. Where as a lot of people in the class are into musical theatre, the class wanted to work on a musical that we could easily workshop in terms of style and the ways we can stage things. Someone suggested Rent and rather quickly people started to agree and were really up for it. There were some people in the class (including myself) had no idea about Rent and the story or even the characters. After this the people who knew the musical told us about it, telling us about the characters and a basic outline of the story. Once it was decided that we would do this workshop unit on Rent, we were given the first few pages of the script (just the song lyrics including the monologue at the beginning of the musical) and we were split into groups to see how people found certain characters (weather they found the vocal range achievable, weather they felt that they could achieve it, weather they wanted to go for that part etc). For my character in this "tester" session, I liked to play the character of Roger as he has a rather louder voice and it would be something that would have been challenging. However I did like the character of Collins as he has a similar voice range to me and I could adapt to his singing.

Pillowman - Lesson 4 - 23/10/15

23^rd October 2015

In today’s lesson we have gone back to the first scene so that we can try and stage some of it. So far we have come up with some music that we want to include for our opening. The first song that is ‘Pure Imagination’ sung by Gene Wilder. This song was chosen to be played whilst the audience are being seated. This song is supposed to relate to the fact that Katurian and Michael have a Pure Imagination when writing their stories, and also more towards Michael as he is child-like and probably has a bit of an imagination in his head.  The second song that we have is called “Sing Sing Sing” by Benny Goodman which we will use for comedic purposes and also as Arial and Tupolski’s entrance music. When we reach the performing area, my character will nudge a desk and the music will cut out.   

Victorian School research

As we are showing how schools have changed and developed over time, we are performing a small movement scene that is repeated and cannoned throughout. I've done some research into what victorian schools were like as it may help with our uderstanding on what the schools were like.

"There were maps and perhaps pictures on the wall. There would be a globe for geography lessons, and an abacus to help with sums. Children sat in rows and the teacher sat at a desk facing the class. At the start of the Victorian age, most teachers were men, but later many women trained as teachers.
Children wrote on slates with chalk. They wiped the slate clean, by spitting on it and rubbing with their coat sleeve or their finger! Slates could be used over and over. For writing on paper, children used a pen with a metal nib, dipped into an ink well."

"Discipline in schools was often strict. Children were beaten for even minor wrongdoings, with a cane, on the hand or bottom. A teacher could also punish a child by making them stand in the corner wearing a 'dunce's cap'. Another, very boring, punishment was writing 'lines'. This meant writing out the same sentence (such as 'Schooldays are the happiest days of my life' 100 times or more."

Information found from : http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/primaryhistory/victorian_britain/victorian_schools/

here is a photo of a class in the victorian days.

London Riots - MP Speeches Starter

In today’s lesson we were able to do a whole run through including our MP speeches. Personally I think that it went well and the transitions go really well with our pieces. I think that the MP speech scene will add a bit of comedy to the entire piece as my character’s speech is rather like Boris Johnson and gets interrupted which the audience could find funny. One thing that made me go a bit comedic with the speech is that when we had a workshop sort of lesson on the speeches that we had prepared, my character always seemed to come across serious with the main person in charge (Mr Speaker) however comes up with rather strange and random ideas or suggestions.

One thing that I think I need to improve on is the slight bit of ballet that we use at the beginning of our movement piece. In order to be able to improve this bit, I think that I need to just keep going over it and then hopefully once I get used to the movement it will look better. But I also think I need to be more confident with it and just really go for it.

La Vie Boheme part 2

To start off the lesson, we had recapped what we had done in the previous lesson (the freeze frames and the sitting down dance). And then we tried adding in the next section which we all thought that would be a good idea was that we add in a drum beat like pattern which would go from one end of the table to the other which was rather hard as we have to do the beats rather fast and make sure that it's all in time. Then we added in the movement where we all stand up and point at Ashley. We chose this as we didn't want to spend the whole intro sitting down and felt that there should have been more movement and us getting more entertaining for the audience. When it got to the second lesson we spend a while singing through the song, really trying to get a feel for it and then trying to get used to the lyrics and when peoples ques are. We then got to the section in which it really speeds up and most of the words rhyme. The Lyrics are :

"Bisexuals, trisexuals, homo sapiens,
Carcinogens, hallucinogens, men,
Pee-wee Herman
German wine, turpentine, Gertrude Stein
Antoniotti, Bertolucci, Kurosawa
Carmina Burana

(ALL)
To apathy, to entropy, to empathy, ecstasy
Vaclav Havel - The Sex Pistols, 8BC
To no shame - never playing the Fame Game"

And we had to go line by line as it was a bit of a tongue twister. Also, as i had never heard the song before I was a bit baffled by the song and thought that it was really quick however, the more I listen to it, the more I feel like I can really achieve singing it at a fast pace. 

London Riots - The Riots in their own words part 2 notes

• Like a bubble – no one bothered you if you were driving about in your car.
• Rioters seem excited, not actually related to the death of Mark Dougen story.
• Escalates really – bus on fire
• Adrenaline + Buzz
• Little kids being involved – got no reason to.
• People rioting iver other reasons (Jobs, government etc)
• Lidl – Alcohol was stolen but no fruit, veg or other types of food. Just expensive things.
• Stupidity and anger to make a statement – don’t like the corrupt system.
• People stopping to see fire in furniture store – realism (people knew how serious the riots were getting)
• Up bring – Future Careers (how people were brought up and raised at home and how it will affect them in the future)
• Easy for Media to jump to conclusions.

La Vie Boheme Introduction

20/10/15

In today's lesson we were introduced to the song 'La Vie Boheme'. We listened to the first few minutes of the song to start with as it's such a long song. And then from there, we decided on how we were going to set the song. As it's based in the "Live Cafe" we thought there should be a really long table that can seat us all. From there we spoke about what kind of movement that we wanted to do. So someone then suggested that we try freeze frames as our characters to the beat. So we tried it and then we found out that we had too many frames so we have cut it down to 5 frames and then on the fifth frame we go into the part. The class then started to discuss about what they had seen in the Broadway version and it was all choreographed to a dance that is all sat down on a chair. So being inspired by this, we decided to do our own version of this sitting down dance but we have kept some of the movements (eg: the point).

London Riots - Beginning Update

For my character when walking down the steps, I really thought that it would be a good idea to act as a clumsy, idiotic chav as the audience can laugh at it but also feel slightly intimidated. Then when we turn into the monkeys, my monkeys characteristics is very much selfish and greedy, hence why he takes certain objects (Chair). Then for the freeze frames my chavy rioters picks up the chair and freezes in positions to make it look like he’s either looting a shop or throwing things at the police/audience.

I feel as if my character for this is someone who was raised up in a rough area and didn’t have the best childhood. I also think that he was easily persuaded by people around him who are a similar age to him. Also I think that because of these two elements, I think that his views and opinions on certain things such as government and looting may be rather extreme compared to other peoples.

Pillowman - Lesson 3 - 16/10/15

16^th October 2015

In Today’s lesson we read through the final act. We thought that it would be a good idea to read the book through as a whole was rather important so that we had an understanding of our characters and also so that we could see what actually happens in the end of the play but also so that we can see if there are any changes to our characters compared to the start. I feel as if I like my character even more now due to the fact that he’s not really the same person he was in the first act. We see two sides to him. We see the angry and dark side of Ariel at the beginning of the third act and then when he returns in the last bit he’s caring and talks gently to a deaf girl. However you also learn about a bit of his past and how he was sexually abused by his father which in some ways explains his views and beliefs.

London Riots - Transitions and Police Theropy Update

For today’s lesson we polished of scenes and during or after some scenes we discussed about who will be moving the props/objects around after each scene (Transitions into the next scene).

It was then decided that Ashley & Lewis and Tom & Rhiannon will be performing their rioter’s scenes. Leaving myself & Lorna and Tom & Dan to perform our Police therapy sessions. It was decided this because some people suited some a certain role and could really bring out the right emotions and body language so that when we looked at the rioters interrogation scenes, Ashley would put his feet on the table as if he was rebelling even more against the police one he had been captured and Rhiannon had the right kind of language as in she would use slang that we hear today but said it in a proper London accent and could actually be rather intimidating just to hear. And then Tom had this really interesting idea and he would lay down at the end of the previous scene and then people would move the props around him and then once Dan sat down in a chair that had been moved next to Tom and then they would being the therapy session.

In order to prepare for the scene, Lorna and I had discussed about what kind of things that would be spoken about in these kind of sessions. So we decided that we would both go and do some research. Lorna looked at what types of questions would be asked at a therapy session and I watched a documentary based on police officers who were working in London the nights of the riots and what kind of things they encountered and thought about how that what they experienced may affect them in modern day.

Starting on education

The First thing we wanted to start off with was something rather simple and rather easy to come up with. So the first thing we started on was a coming up with a soundscape. Originally the sound scape was going to be a register being called out and then you hear how stuents usually act during it (trying to talk over each other and playing on their phones). My character was being annoying and going through every ringtone on his phone rather fast and doing this on a repeat and we also had different types of characters in the soundscape. We had really enthusiastic students and we also had a rather chavy student, we had a student that everyone picked on, a student that was always on their phone (played by myself) and a student that was always telling on everyone.

Personally I did like the idea, however it just seemed a bit to staged and unrealistic or even childish so we ended up changing it so that we were sitting down and I changed my character so that my character would be arguing with the chavy character (played by meg) and I would say "shut up meg you skank". Everyone in this soundscape would being saying their lines in a cannonn and then would start to repeat it and get faster each time. Then Dan, who's playing the teacher in the soundscape, slams a meter ruler onto the table which will then be used as a signal to change our scene into a victorian styled school theme and he will then say "books out".

Here is a video of the soundscape we created.

 

Scripted Start

The group that were working on the script had got the first scene completed and therfore we spent the lesson working on staging it. We had one period to work on it and then for the other period we would show our teacher what we have and he would give us some advice as to how we can improve our scene. The scene is set out like a staff/senior staff or head of education meeting and they discuss how the education system if failing and how they can make sure it improve and they discuss their ideas to one another.

The scene was really inspired by the play "Future Conditonal" which we went and watched as a class a few weeks ago. The play is also based on the education system and how it affects students but also parents and the teachers. It was rather clever as the character that Rob Brydon played was giving really long monologues however the way he done it, it was as if he was having a conversation with pupils. But the scene that inspired the scrpited piece that the group came up with was inspired by a meeting which was heavily based in the play. The way it was set our was in a circle and the people always changed seats everytime they returned to the meeting, so that the audience could see their facial expressions.

My character is suppose to be a sarcastic teacher so in order to achieve this, I will need to show that he's not really listening to the key facts of the meeting and that he'll just chuck in random snarky coments which the audience will hopefully find amusing.

Pillowman - Lesson 2 - 09/10/15

9^th October 2016

This week we focused on the second act and gave it a read through. We see Michael for the first time (Katurian’s brother). We also discover more gruesome stories that Katurian had written. Plus Michael confesses to killing little children in the style of his brother’s stories. We also see that he’s got some sort of brain damage and is a bit mentally ill. One problem that I have with this scene is that we only have to two characters in the scene, even though it might seem good, it could also be a little boring. So a way that I thought could make it interesting was to have Ariel and Tupolski showing the story as it is being read out by Michael or Katurian.