Post War Notes

What is post war?

Post war is a period that occurs after a war. It’s more popular as pieces of drama tend to place them either between World War 1 and 2 (Interwar Period).

“Occurring or existing after a war (especially the Second World War).”

http://www.google.co.uk/?nord=1&gws_rd=cr&ei=reReVv60JIHGaqnigZAC#nord=1&q=define+post+war

ENSA (entertainment national service association)

Was formed by Basil Dean and Leslie Henson in 1939. The purpose of having this entertainment company was ensure that soldiers that were fighting the war had a good use of entertainment.

The first overseas show took place in Douia, France, 15^th November 2015. And the final show was in July 1946.

Problems with post war theatre

After a short period of time after the war theatre really struggled to maintain it’s position. This was because more and more actors were moving into the TV and Film industry which meant that there were less and less actors going into theatre.

Another issue that was faced in the post war era, is that many theatres were involved with “Subsidised theatre”. Subsidised Theatre is when there is no profit coming through to the company and is runs by funds given to them by Patrons. (Head patron is British government).

- https://actorsandperformers.com/actors/advice/75/professional-life/the-theatre-industry

Plays/Musicals from Post War

•       In America, post war theatre was becoming a rather big trend after world war 2. This is when playwrights from Arthur Miller (a view from a bridge) and Tennessee Williams (Cat on a hot tin roof).

•       Some the plays were so big that they broke their own previous records. These plays were:

•       West Side Story (1950’s)

•       A chorus line (1975)

Practitioners

•       Jean Littlewood – Founder of Theatre workshop

•       Bertolt Brecht– dramaturgy and theatrical production  

•       Brian Way (Theatre in Education) 

Post War Actors

•       Richard Todd – Casted in For Them That Trespass (1949).

•       Norman Wisdom

•       Sir Alec Guinness (Obi – Wan – Kenobi)

•       Lenny Bruce

•       Marcel Marceau

Staging in post war

•       Proscenium Art/Ends On (most common)

•       Thrust/Arena (semi circle like)

Techniques

•       “Brecht’s term ‘Verfremdungseffect’ is often translated as ‘alienation’, It’s aim is to make the characters decisions and choices explicit and to stop the audience having any delusion that they are witnessing a ‘real’ scene.”

•       “Epic Theatre assumes the purpose of a play is not about the imitation of reality but to present ideas. The audience should always be aware it is watching a play and should remain sufficiently emotionally detached.”

•       “Epic theatre strived to avoid any sense of suspense. Brecht didn’t want his audience to be trying to guess what was going to happen in a scene, he wanted them to struggle with why things that happened in a scene happened. In his productions many scenes were introduced with a projected title or a brief song which would give a clear description of what was going to happen in the scene.”

All information found at: http://www.birmingham-rep.co.uk/participate/resource-packs/rep-insight-a-life-of-galileo/brechts-theatre-techniques/

How post war changed theatre

•       Post war drama has really had a massive affect on drama in modern day theatre all thanks to Brecht.

•       We have plays or musicals that allow actors to be playing as children when really they’re fully grown men or another technique is that an actor will have an object and when placed or given to another actor, they become the person associated with the object.

•       Post War isn’t as popular as it once was. However, it is still a rather well known type of theatre as it is rather rare to come across post war subjects

Mask Making

As part of Greek theatre, it was a tradition that performers would use masks when acting. To stick with this style we all designed are masks which took a while and then we got a plain mask and then started to cut them into the shape that we wanted to have them and then put paper mashe on it so that it can form a hard layer and then we could paint over them. My design started off as some sort of helmet but once i had cut it I released that not all my face was covered so I then ended up building up a lot of layers which eventually came half way across my face. This too quite a while to make and took us a week or two to finish.

Handbag - Costume

In today's lesson, we have been discussing what we are going to wear in the play as it's something that we haven't really spoken about as a group but it's also something that we need to decide and we thought that it would be easier to talk about it now rather than later. When researching it, some found out that in some prisons or young offenders institutions have a colour co-ordination dress code so that people can identify what crimes people have committed.


"Orange Was High Profile Or Something Like That
Yellow Was Pill Mod
Brown Mentally Ill/ MEDICAL
In Prison The Girl Above Is Right Orange Is Reception
Blue Is Regular" - http://www.prisontalk.com/forums/archive/index.php/t-228875.html

Lorna's piece

In today's lesson we were able to start Lorna's piece and I think it was a good rehearsal because we were able to get it all rehearsed and filmed in one lesson. Lorna's piece was based on Shakespeare and myself and Dan were to improvise as it was to add comedy value to the piece. Tom and Lewis were then performing performing the actual Shakespeare piece and the style of it was so that me and dan were watching the performance on a tv and we would have to pause it at points to talk about it and what we thought the characters were trying to say or what the characters were trying to get tell each other.

Potential for development (Rent Evaluation)

Potential for Devolvement

Style

For our performance, we performed the musical in a rather classical way. By classical I mean that we performed Rent in a way that we stuck the basics with it. We sung the all the songs that we had chosen to perform and also we were keeping all the dramatic parts on the stage. If I could develop the style of Rent and change anything, I would strongly look into re writing the script slightly to make it less musical and straighter drama based. I think that this would be rather interesting as I feel that the audience could feel more involved with the play and also some scenes may be more emotional for the audience. E.g.: Angel’s funeral. Even though I think that it would be better with a bit of straight drama I think that there could be some background music that could be used so that it really helps build an atmosphere.

Location

As far as the location would be concerned, I think performing in a bigger theatre where there was more space to add props, set, sound and maybe allow more people to be involved with our workshop. However the only issue with doing this is that we would then have to form a budget and make sure that we don't over spend on any equipment etc. Also with having the budget is that we would then have to hire radio mics, MAC lights and maybe have to hold an audition for a bigger cast as I think that the stage will look really empty with the current amount of our cast.

Due to the fact that we would have to consider all of the above, we would then have to maybe consider having a budget as I don’t think that we could be able to just walk into a theatre and be able to perform the show straight away.

Video/Projection

As far as videos and projection would be concerned, I would say that I would like someone to go and video certain things or people in the cast as it’s something that I fund rather inspiring when watching the performance in the Broadway version and at the start of the unit, however when we started to really get into the rehearsals I think that we all forgot about the whole idea and it git left out for the performance. I also think that it would be interesting to have projection during the performance as I think that we could use the projection too show a location or what time of day or night.

Target Audience

I would like to think that the target audience would be different to our actual audience on the night of the show. When discussing what people in our audience thought about the show, I think that some people were unclear about the story. So because of this I think that it would be a wise idea to have an audience that actually know the musical and that would understand what happened even after we have cut everything out of it.

Sound

For the sound of the show, the speaker that we had was rather loud and I feel that with a pre-recorded soundtrack It was rather plain and we could have fallen out of time rather quickly. However If we done this show again, I would like to have a live band as it would be easier and it means that they can follow us instead of s following the song which means that it is less stress related.

Kinsey - Subtext Analysing

In today's lesson, we all decided that we were going to have a lesson analyzing our subtext to our characters dialogue as our teacher wasn't in and we have already made some notes on our scripts as to how we shall say/set things. By doing this it meant that it was rather independent.

At the beginning of page 32 Kinsey says:

"Let's talk about motivation"

And when really thinking about it, I think that Kinsey wants to ask George about what actually made him come up with the idea in the first place and how they actually ended up where they were. Also I get a strong impression that George is kind of getting the hint however doesn't really pay much attention straight away. His reply is "What?", and to me that is him trying not to talk about the past and try to avoid the subject as it's something that had been building up for quite a long time. 

I spent a while looking at Kinsey's lines as at first he just seems a bit sarcastic and really snobby. However, when he starts talking to George, I realized that he isn't exactly talking to George about their current topic. He's talking about what happened before they went into the young person institution.

Kinsey says: "No George, that was all your idea. I did it because you told me to."

To me this really relates to Jon Venables and Robert Thompson. I genuinely think this as when watching some of the interviews that they have had, both the boys would blame each other. It was always "It was Robbie, he told me to do it", or "Jon told me to do it". The one thing that did seem rather interesting though is that Jon Venables would always deny what happened unless he could try and blame Robert Thompson.

I then got to the line

Kinsey: "Be a good boy, put on a play, they'll look at you in a new light and let you out"

To me this line makes me think that my character could be Robert Thompson. It came to mind that Kinsey could be based on him as he was the one out of the two who was rather clear with everything, he knew what he was doing and he would always eventually tell the truth and just get on with things. He was the more realistic one out of the two. Another reason why I think that my character could be Robert is because he doesn't seem to be trying to get in the public's good books, he isn't bothering to try get out and he's come to terms and realized that he isn't going to go anywhere. Whereas George thinks that if he does this play people will maybe think differently of him and let him out. 

This line also suggests to me that George and Jon are also the same person as when Jon was interviewed at the police station once he had been found, he would be in tears and wouldn't say that much, he's always look as if he was the weak one and that he was the one that was pressured into things. However that wasn't case, he was the one who came up with the idea and he was the one who was more like a dictator between the two of them. Also in the same scene, Kinsey (Robbie) addresses George (Jon) as "The Director". Hinting to me that George was the one behind it all.

Reading the line where Kinsey says:

"I never thought they would send us to the same place. Do you ever wonder why they did that? Perhaps it was therapy".

It makes me really wonder if Kinsey is really that insane or even slightly mad or disturbed. The fact that he has somehow been able to get to the same institution really makes you think about his mental state. Personally I think that Kinsey is completely normal, just like any other normal boy, however because of what he was involved with when he was younger, it's really scarred him and he really regrets ever being part of something that horrifying and he holds George responsible. However he does talk about "the old times" and how they used to steal cigarettes and to me I think he's talking about all the times he can remember that he's been persuaded into situations that he didn't really want to be apart of.  

Research into famous Killers

 Robert Thompson & Jon Venables
 
Today our group wished to take a more interesting approach to our rehearsal due to the fact that we wanted to go and research famous people who could be related to our play. I've looked at Jamie Bulger's death on Wikipedia and personally I find it really hard to read as my nephews are near a similar age to him when he died. The boys were only 10,11 or 12 when they committed one of the most horrific murders in history. Not only was it horrific because of how horrendous the murder was, but it was also because of how young they were and how they then both responded to it.

Here is a link to a BBC documentary based on the entire case of the boys involvement to Jamie's death and what happened to them once they had been arrested:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s2X1dSbbFyk

Steven Avery

With the Character of Irene, I've recently been watching a documentary series called "Making a murderer". Which is based on a man named Steven Avery and he's famous for being wrongfully arrested and spent 18 years in prison. He's now back in prison as he's been accused once again for the murder of Teresa Halbach (a photographer who was scheduled to meet Avery and went missing the same day.) To me this relates to the point that I made in another post as thee fact that I think Alan is upset/angry due to the fact that he might have been framed and been put in there for the wrong reason.

Here is the First Episode of the documentary in which the entire plot is explained about Avery's past and how he was accused of the committing a crime he hadn't done:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=34M2zdLc-2U

Mary Bell

There is only one character that I can really relate Mary Bell to in 'A Handbag' which is Rose. Rose is a character that used to babysit before she came to the institution. We don't know what she has done exactly, however we are left assuming that she has murdered children that she was babysitting. A link between Mary Bell and Rose is that they are both young female children killers. The only difference between them is that Rose acts very quickly to anyone who mentions anything that she used while committing her crime. However Mary Bell suffocated two young children. The first one being Martin Brown ( a four year old boy). She then killed Brian Howe (a three year old boy). 

Here is the link to Mary Bell's Wikipedia entry: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Bell#Killings

The importance of being earnest

Was First Performed on 14th February 1895at St James's theatre, London.


Plot


The play is based around two friends, Algernon and Jack and how they both take on the same identity as a man called Earnest. Jack falls in love with Algernon's cousin Gwendolen. Lady Bracknell (Gwendolen's mother) is being distracted by Algy (Algernon) whilst Jack proposes to Gwendolen (Gwen), however he proposes to her whilst he is under the identity of Earnest. Lady Bracknell then finds out and starts to interview Jack (or as she knows him as Earnest) but then denies the marriage as she finds out that Earnest was discovered in a handbag at Victoria Train Station. Knowing they they can't get married, Gwen still tells Earnest about her love for him.


Cecily (a student) then meets Algy who is also pretending to be Earnest. They then also fall in love and exchange address's. Gwen and Cecily both meet and tell each other babout how they have met a man called Earnest which then causes some questions that need to be answered ...

A handbag - lesson three

In today's lesson we all sat down and showed our teacher what we have come up with. We the spoke about what we think so far of our characters and what we think that they had done.

Allan

We came to the conclusion that Allan was abused when he was younger. Physically and sexually. We then looked at some subtext in some of his dialogue and it seemed as if his step dad caught him red handed and maybe killing an animal (which is an early sign of a serial killer). We think this as he says "He caught me red handed and then beat me". I think this conclusion as it would be a bit far fetched to beat someone up for playing a video game. I also think that he was sexually abused when he went to London as he talks about middle class men and a cloak room and later on in the play he assumes that all middle class men are gay and therefore pedophiles. I don't think that it's him being spiteful (even though it is) but I think that it's his own conclusion as it's something that he's gone through.

Rose

For Rose's character, everyone always mentions that she's drugged up and constantly imply about young children, Piano Wire and a hammer. Rose always acts rather sharply when any of thee words are mentioned and always says "Not my ...". When I think about what Rose could have potentially done, I think that she was baby sitting and then strangled a child with piano wire and then beat another child with a hammer. And they drug her up with medication because she is rather intelligent and therefore find herself in bigger trouble.

Specs and Irene

Specs and Irene are hard to comment on as they have both been in there for a very long time and yet we aren't really told much about their past. (Other than the fact that Irene has killed her family, however I feel as if that he might have been framed for it or she really regrets it and wishes that she had never committed the crime). I can imagine that Irene could potentially be in there being falsely accused which is why she is so observant and has such a bad attitude towards everyone in there, however it would be rather strange as he's been in there for 11 years. Specs is a mystery to try an figure out what he has done in the past. We are not told anything about his past other than he has been there the longest yet no one knows. One thing that I would question about specs is his stutter. He speaks perfectly when he is reading however when there is nothing for him to read he has a really bad stutter and it seems rather suspicious at times.

George and Kinsey

George and Kinsey are some of the worst characters in there from what we have gathered from our discussion. We all believe that these two characters are representing Robert Thomas and Jon Venables. The two children that abducted, tortured and murdered a two year old named Jamie Bulger. Robert and Jon lead the two year old to railway tracks and began to torture him. They threw blue paint at him, threw bricks and stones at him and then fractured his skull in ten places by smashing it with an iron bar. They then shoved batteries into his mouth (accused of the anus but they denied it) and then dragged his body on to the tracks in and covered him in rubble, hoping he wouldn't be found. His body was found two days later and in half.

We are believed to think that George and Kinsey are based on these two as they both got there together. They used to steal from shops (Robert and Jon stole the paint, batteries etc) and then used to run in front of a car to try and get an insurance claim. (Robert and Jon were considering throwing Jamie Bulger off a bridge and into oncoming traffic). They also seem to have a lot of past between the two characters that no one other than them know about.