Dance: Unit 50 - Last rehearsal

In todays lesson we had our last run of our dance show piece 'Faultline'. From this we came up with targets for ourselves personally and collectively as a group.

Personal objectives:

• Personally I need to work on my energy levels. And make sure that fast jerky moments are emphasised more and are clearer to see, to create contrast with the slower parts.
• Another thing I need to personally work on is my characterisation to make sure my fierce, violent character comes across. Creating a far more enjoyable performance as well as a more dynamic performance in terms of physicality and expression.

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• Personally, I think that the entire run went well as we were all knowledgeable of what part came next and weren't confused running to our next position.
• We had good dynamics in terms of sharp movements to contrast with the smoother ones. For example, when we raise and move our arm in a circles way towards the ceiling and then to our left then suddenly snapping back to our lower right.

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• As a group we need to work on facial expressions to create our characters. As we are portraying gangs and fights we need have more angry and feuding facial expressions to portray this as we dance.
• A good idea would probably practice in the space as the dance studio is slightly bigger than the theatre so we need to do this in order to make sure we don't bump into anyone when creating our formations or hitting people when carrying out our dance motifs.
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Friday 25th November - FINAL PERFORMANCE - DAY 4 -

Today was our final performance with a class of year 2 children from Downs brook school. I felt that this performance was one of the most high energised and enthusiastic performances by both cast and children. 

I also felt that this was the smoothest run we had ever done of our performances as we had corrected/changed anything that wasn't working particularly well before and made it work better. I particularly felt that the children were more interactive with my character as well as they were asking me questions about the boxes and pointing out when they found various keys throughout the entire performance not just in our section.

I also felt in this performance I added a little more dialogue than I had previously done before. This helped add context and more depth to our activities and stories.

~FEEBACK~

• Today the children were particularly fond of 'The Story Stealer' (Fran) and he became the favourite character of the majority of the class. This was because he interacted with them and kept a strong characterisation all the way through.
• The children also said that they enjoyed finding the golden keys and how they had to do different things in order to find them.
• They said they also enjoyed finding the oranges about the space and putting them in the tube.

If we were to do the performance again...

• I would try to add more dialogue into our piece. As I said very little compared to my partner Charlotte who took the majority of the speech. This was because we hadn't solidly structured what we were going to say and therefore improvised at the time. I feel as though my improvisation isn't as strong as charlottes. I also felt that because Charlotte was very fluent in what she was saying that if I interrupted it would seem less professional and could possibly create an awkward silence. Therefore, in future performances where there are moments of improv I need to be more confident and just say what I want. As with improvisation you can only be accepting of what someone says so initially nothing negative can come out of it.
• I would also try and have a more elaborate and exciting characterisation as I still felt particularly normal and therefore felt that my character wasn't as interesting and deep as it could have been.

ANALYSIS OF CHILDRENS REACTIONS

• I found that the older children preferred 'The Story Stealer' story and 'Daniel the dragon'. I think this is because there was slightly more context to it. And slightly harder things to do. Possibly more complex characters in terms of realism. I also think they found it more enjoyable because they could understand more of what was going on. For example, in the 'Daniel the dragon' story they understood that Gaz turned Daniel into the dragon because he wanted the princess. Where as the year 1 were a little confused and didn't really know what to do at some points.
• For example, both of the year 1 classes preferred the 'Citrus Story' I think this is because the characters were very humble and friendly wearing fluffy costumes. Meaning children would warm to them and find them safe and comforting compared to those in 'The Story Stealer' story - wearing normal-ish clothes and having a villain and wizard. 'Daniel the Dragon' story having people wearing robes and a dragon.

Wednesday 23rd Childrens Theatre - PERFORMANCES THREE AND FOUR - DAY 3 -

Today we did two more performances for the children of Broad water school. These were year 1 children compared to the year 2 children the day before. I felt during these performances the children were calmer and listened better to what we said rather than rushing around the entire set rummaging through boxes.

Today we tested out our new idea/element to our story which was taking out the 'Mystery Box' and instead having multiple different coloured keys around the space and one golden key that the children would have to find. As acting on previous feedback the children said they enjoyed looking/searching around the space for things. This worked better to our advantage as it meant the children were more controlled and didn't create such as mess as they did previously with the 'Mystery Box'. Also by changing to the coloured keys it helped keep pace where as when we had the mystery box pace slowed down and then meant there was a lot of silence and pauses. Meaning the children started to get bored and fiddle with the wrapping paper taking parts off.

Another change we incorporated into our piece was more narration over the video clip of 'The Story stealers backstory'. Originally this was just done by the wizard -Harry. However, Harry said he found it difficult to narrate over the clips when they were longer than was comfortable. Therefore, we had Fran - The Story Stealer' come out from behind the curtain and narrate with Harry. Creating more dialogue and interactions between characters. By having all the characters onstage at one time it was very exciting for the children as they got to see the dynamic of having different kinds of characters and how we all interacted with one another. A few comments here and there were "Its the story stealer!" "The wizard and the Story Stealer are in the same room!" "What will the story stealer do to the boxes?"

A final thing we changed was instead of having one of the golden keys hanging from the suspended circle. We had it completely attached in the centre of the circle with blue tac. This is because in our previous performances the children were finding it before we had even begun our story meaning they were instantly distracted and not paying as much attention to us as they should have been. By having is stuck in the centre it meant we had to instruct the children to do different things in these performances. For example, instead of just looking around we got the children to lay down on the floor and look up towards the ceiling. This created a moment of calm but also made it interesting as the children had to do different things physically instead of just standing the entire time.

Overall, these two performances were more controlled than the previous ones.

Tuesday 22nd November - FIRST TWO CHILDREN'S PERFORMANCES - DAY2

Both performances today went really well as the children got really involved and participated eagerly with our stories. I felt as though our entire class were also more energised and excited to perform and therefore produced and more engaging performance as a whole.

From the two performance our story (the story stealer) ran differently both times. This was due to the children being spontaneous and unpredictable meaning we had to improvise/think on the spot when they found something earlier than we had anticipated or answered a question before we had even considered it. We felt that this challenged us to think on the spot and initially created a more exciting immersive piece of theatre. This was also good as it meant that we had the children's full attention as they were giving us imaginative/creative ideas in order to solve our problems that we had not necessarily thought of before.

~ACTIONS WE TOOK RELATING TO OUR FEEDBACK AND OUR FIRST PERFORMANCE~

• From the first performance our group decided that we had to give better instructions to the children as they were very frantic and had high energy levels. This was good however, it then meant it was a little difficult to calm them down to do a lighter, slower activity. For example, we had to give clear instructions to be very quiet and slow around The Story Stealer and to not run up to him and attack him. This was to ensure safety to our actors and the children.
• We then also decided that we should give them the scroll with clues on towards the middle of our piece instead of right at the beginning. This is because, in our first performance the children were very clever and figuring out how to solve our problem quicker than we wanted them to. It also meant that they were slightly distracted by the idea of the scroll and clues rather than listening to what we were saying. Therefore, by giving it to them later it meant more focus was on us and they were listening more attentively to what we were saying.
• One of our keys were hidden in a box filled with shredded paper and cardboard. During our first performance this was a little bit of an issue as the children couldn't find the key. Therefore we had to improvise. Luckily we had a spare key which we hid around the space, just in case which we could use as a backup. From this little issue we hid the key closer to the top of the box meaning it would be found quicker and easier. They also all tried to reach inside the box and put their hands inside. This created a little bit of chaos on stage. From this we decided that we would get all of the children to sit down in an specific area and choose 2-3 volunteer's to look through the box at a time in order to make sure that it was calm and controlled.

After both performances we got feedback from the children about what they liked about it. Here's what they liked about everyone's:

• The dragon
• Turning the Story Stealer good
• Singing the songs
• Doing the wake up dance
• The finale Dance
• Turning the dragon into the prince
• Searching/Looking for objects (the keys and oranges and breakfast things)

By receiving feedback it meant that we knew what was working with the children and what could be changed/incorporated in order to make it better.

~MORE FEEBACK~

• Our group instead of having the mystery box (filled with paper and cardboard with the hidden key) we should have more keys hidden around the space in different colours. As the children said they enjoyed looking for them. We also decided this as the children found it too difficult finding the keys and we don't ant them to feel disappointed if they can't find one.
• When the film of The Story Stealers backstory is being shown, we decided that there needs to be more dialogue as at the moment there are awkward pauses and silences which need to be filled. We decided that myself and charlotte would adlib/improvise some dialogue during this bit to make it a little more interesting and to safe the awkward moments.

Monday 21st November - MONDAY TECH REHEARSAL RUN - DAY 1

Today we spent the day sorting out sound and lighting as well as smoothing out all the transitions between stories and finishing the set ready for the performances.

The day started with our initial idea of having stage blocks in the corners of the space with boxes on them as well as having a few stray boxes here and there. From initial feelings and how it looked we felt it needed more colour and more life added to it. As at this moment in time it seemed very bare and plain. Which is not good for children's theatre as they would get very bored and not be interested in the space whatsoever and would probably wonder off/have negative vibes towards the performance as a whole.
From this we decided that we needed more boxes and for them to be more exciting possibly patterned. As we didn't have a lot of time to paint them a few of our class members got some wrapping paper of different colours and designs in order to wrap the boxes instead. This would also make some of the boxes smooth and glossy creating a different texture which the children may find interesting to touch. Once this had been completed we still felt as though the space was a little bare. Therefore, we started experimenting and hung fairy lights, coloured circles and lanterns from the lighting rig. This would be engaging and exciting for children as it meant there were things above them the entire performance which would feel surreal and multi-dimensional. Taking them out of reality and transporting them to another world (which was our goal). We also had coloured spots on the floor meaning that it didn't look normal and mundane it also had a special element to it transforming it into 'Story Box Land. There were also feather bowers, lanterns and ivy around the sides and on the set. I felt this really creating the atmosphere of another world and added another splash of colour to our stage space. I felt as though by adding all these little elements to our piece it would immerse the children and gain their attention far better than if we just had a few stage blocks and some boxes. As this is more colourful, there are multiple things on stage as well as having stage and normal lights (fairy lights and lanterns).

After we had finished sorting out our staging we did runs of each performance individually in order to sort out cue lines and figure out what part of the staging we would use for certain parts and what exits/entrances we were going to use. I felt that this also helped us visually structure our performance as we now had everything we would have in the actual performances and therefore we would solidly know how much space we would have.

We then did a full tech/dress run from beginning to end. This was to sort out our transitions between each story and make it as smooth and natural as possible. The transitions would be aided by the laser machine which opened up portals to different stories. Whilst this would be happening two or three characters would come outside the space and the curtains to the stage space would be closed. This was to aid the lasers so you could see but to all let the next group pre-set their scene/performance ready for the children to come back into the area and into a new/another story.

~After our full run~ FEEDBACK

• We needed to have even more energy when performing to ensure that the children would be fully engaged and immersed. Otherwise, they might wonder and end up hurting themselves or damaging set without meaning to.
• We need to talk slower and clearer in order for the children to understand what we are saying and instructing them to do. As if we talk to quick they may get confused and refuse to take part any further/might miss a clear instruction and get a little upset if they feel they have done something wrong or have missed out on something.
• When performing in our peers performances we need to ensure that we cover each other in order to progress narratives and keep pace. As well as to help engage the children and keep them involved with each story to make sure they enjoy every aspect.

~After our evening performance to the adults and some children~ FEEDBACK

• Be more precise when giving directorial advice to people. i.e. telling them exactly where to go and what they should do. This is to ensure that they know exactly what they are doing and not wondering aimlessly waiting or getting upset if they don't do something correctly.
• Have specific areas we want people to go in rather than a general direction otherwise they may take up a lot of the stage space which we may need to use.

Overall, I believe doing our first performance to adults and a few children let us get our bearings of our performance and how it would run. Ready for the children the next day. By doing this performance it also made me feel more confident in myself of what I was doing and what I was going to say during our piece. I also feel as though this helped hype our class up and energise us ready for the proper children's performances to come.

Dance - lesson 8 - Finishing our dance and One vision (WWRY) dance

In todays dance piece we went over the dance to refresh our minds to make sure everyone knew what they were doing and were confident with everything we have done currently. After the gang motif we then created little 4 phrase movements for a solo motif using movements that have already been used in ur piece previously.

 I chose to create a floor based piece in order to create levels compared to other people in our piece and to show the harsh, vulnerability of some characters in gangs and how they may be at their lowest but still have to fight for themselves/people they care about. For my dance phrase I did a arm swing forward bringing me to the floor from a standing position. I then did a roll to the left. I then did a windmill movements with just my arms, connecting with the floor, to the roll back to the right on my front, holding my legs in the air to end in a seated position looking down. I wanted to create the emotion of sad as not everyone enjoys fighting and the reluctant-ness of this - the lower movement phrase compared with people who did their phrase completely standing. Also by my solo being floor based it creates a contrast with other dancers.

We then revisited our fight motif phrases that we created a few weeks ago. Me and my partner Lois watched a video we took to refresh our memories as we remembered this wasn't one of our strongest pieces of work at the time. We managed to perform our little dance phrase as well as creating a few new moves in order to progress it further. This is because we are supposed to be the last pair standing and therefore have to have a longer duet. Therefore, we added the movements: Lois pushing me down using her arm, her kicking over me, me then pushing her down to lift her up, then for her to spin round push me down and kick me - killing me. The extended part we added


WWRY -

Childrens theatre - Thursday 10th November - Admin bits

In todays lesson we took care of a lot of the admin business to do with our performance to make sure we are organised and ready for the children and to perform. For example, we took character photos to send to the schools for the children to get a little taste of what they will be coming to see and start getting excited.

Also in todays lesson our group decided we would focus on creating the backstory of the story stealer. Potentially reconstructing the scene in order to make it easier to understand/more interesting to watch. Charlotte came up with the idea of creating a video flashback. Adding another multi-medial element into our performance engaging the children as well as making it far easier to transfer information to the children as they would be concentrating on the video and eagerly watching/listening to what was going on. We decided that the video would be silent and have a sepia effect put over the footage. This is to show the children that this is a 'flashback' meaning it is old and has already happened. This also meant that we didn't have to worry about locations of filming too much, and sound levels to make sure we got rid of background noise etc. We decided that Harry would narrate the video live as it played. This would mean that he could be extra dramatic and immersive when telling the story, possibly more than he would have been if he had to pre-record it. It would also make the story more realistic as he is physically telling the story. As the story is being told and the video is being projected the lights could dim down or completely go out meaning the only light is from the video gaining the attention of the children and hopefully meaning they wont get distracted by anything else.

~Video narrative~

• Shows Story Stealer as a child, happy, innocent and vulnerable.
• Shows mother of story stealer reading a good story
• Fade to black with text over the screen reading 'one fateful day'
• Shows mother reading a scary story to the Story Stealer, shows the story stealer scared, distressed.
• Shows clips of innocent story stealer, changing into the evil character by ripping out bunches, putting on glasses and destroying books.
• Shows story stealer in various locations stealing story boxes.

As I am a creative media student we thought it would be best for me to film and edit as I have experience and would be able to create it quickly and effectively.

Childrens Theatre - Tuesday 8th - Analysis of performances

In todays lesson we did a full run of everyone's performances to see how smoothly they all went and to get rough estimates of time.

The first group that performed were 'Daniel the Dragon' group which consisted on Vicki, Andrew, Nathan, Lottie, Valencia and Maddie.

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• They have completely finished devising their piece and therefore there is a clear structure/narrative for the group to perform which as an audience member makes it easier to follow. Also by them finishing devising it means they can focus on polishing their piece and possibly thinking about adding some multi-sensorial/multi-medial elements in order to make it engaging for children.
• Another thing that went well was their use of props. This is good as it means there is a physical, visual object for the children to interact with meaning it immerses them in the story and helps make the stories/the world more believable. Its also makes them more intrigued into what is going. This is good as it means it will gain their attention and hopefully keep them focused on the activities rather than getting distracted.
• Another thing that went well was their use of the space. They use the entire studio for their performance meaning the children wont be restricted to one area. This is good as we don't want the children to feel confined as otherwise they may get restless and start walking/moving around when they're not supposed to.

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• I believe in order for this group to progress a little more they need to work on characterisation of their monsters. As at the moment they still seem quite human like and therefore, could take away the imagination we want the children to have and they may be brought back to reality. Which is something no one wants.
• I believe 'Gaz' needs to be included more as he is one of the main characters of the story. He is briefly mentioned but we don't really know much about him. I feel that they could include an activity related around him or have a dance/musical phrase which is linked to 'Gaz' in order for the children to identify who is he.
• Another thing to make it better is to have high energy levels. As the higher the actors/characters energy the more energised and engaged the children will be. I.e. If you believe there is an amazing dragon that they are about to meet and you are really excited, practically bouncing around. The children will be the same and therefore the performance will be more enjoyable for them as well as the actors themselves.

Next was the citrus group consisting of - Megan, Lois, Jess, Naomi and Raven.

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• I think they need to have constant energy and enthusiasm as soon as they meet the children. As at the beginning they were standing in neutral until everyone was in and then it was as if they snapped into character. I think that if they are in constant character even before the children enter it will just make it that bit more believable and will excite the children as when they first meet the monsters they will see a completely different aura of dynamics.
• I think when 'inky' can't fuel up properly I feel their needs to be more panic and distress of the monsters as they seem to act fairly okay about it. In order for the children to be immersed/engaged I feel as though there needs to be a more dramatic change in atmosphere/emotion in the performance. This can be done with lighting/sound as well as physical/vocal/facial expressions.
• Another thing which could or could not be added would be possibly introducing the song earlier in the piece. This is to make it easier for the children to remember as its introduced really quickly and then the children have to perform it with actions really quick. If they cant do it or don't remember I don't think they will be as inclined to participate. Therefore if they are told about it earlier they may get more excited when they have to do it as they can link it to the start when there was loads of mystery etc.

Then it was finally our group, consisting of - Myself, Charlotte, Harry and Fran

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• Again like all the other groups I believe that we need to perform with more energy and enthusiasm in order for the children to get excited and be more inclined to participate in our story. In order for it to be effective and successful we need to be energised, physically, mentally, emotionally and make sure our gestures are big and our vocals are loud and filled with enthusiasm. This is good for children's theatre as they tend to be more interested in visual/aural things that are different from the norm and encourage them to be creative and themselves.
• Other thing we need to sort out are our cue lines for specific characters to enter the stage/for specific events to occur. For example, Harry, explains a lot of the plot line and often has the answers to our questions and problems. Therefore, me and Charlotte need to decide on final lines that will trigger progressions in narrative/tell the other characters to come on stage. This is also necessary for Fran, as she is the villain of our story and therefore needs to be seen by the children at various moments in order for the children to believe our story and want to help/participate in our activities. So therefore, we need cue lines for her to show herself and come on stage for the children to see.
• A final thing we need to improve on is the backstory of the Story Stealer as from feedback from people they said it was a little confusing and wasn't as clear as it could have been. Therefore, we need to devise a new piece/phrase around the backstory of the Story Stealer and why they are bad and steal the stories of Storyland.

Childrens Theatre - Finalising devising and thinking about music/sound effects.

In todays lesson we finished devising our scenes and thought about other multi-medial techniques that we could use in order to make it more engaging and interesting for children.

We sat down and decided that we needed a clearer structure of how we would find the keys. As when we practically performed it we kept pausing and glazing over it to get it done but didn't look at it properly.

We decided on the following to find the keys:

• Frantically searching, seeing a visual projection of the key and then seeing it hung in the air
• Having multiple plates of shaving foam and having the real key plus de-coy keys hid in their.
• Having the last key on the 'Story Stealers' back, where we then have to play a game of grandmothers footsteps in order to get it.

We then use all the keys to open a box which contains a laser light show, which turns the story stealer good.

Sound effects and music

• We decided to have a magical, twinkly effect to symbolise when the wizard enters the stage/scene.
• Have the 'dun, dun dunnnnnnnn' sound effect to symbolise the 'Story Stealer'.
• I had the idea of having space-like music at the beginning to create a wondrous, mysterious tone that would excite the children as they wouldn't know what's happening.

Childrens Theatre - Tuesday November 1st - Production lesson

In todays lesson we sorted out everyone's costumes for our children's theatre. We had previously made notes of what colours we wanted to wear and possible pieces of clothing people could wear to represent certain characters and/or feelings/emotions. For example, we would all be one particular colour and then we would have different coloured spots. I.E. red with green spots, blue with yellow spots etc. However, upon further analysis we decided to completely change our idea in order to distinguish between certain characters easier. For example, me and Charlotte are two, civilian monsters who are part of 'The Story Stealer patrol'. Therefore it would make sense if we wore the same thing.

We looked through the costume cupboard and tried to find as many brightly coloured pieces of clothing as possible. From the bundle we made we picked out two pink camo print onesies, with yellow polo shirts. We then were given green and black striped tights which we cut up and made into sleeves. We decided that these costumes looked more interesting than our original ideas and looked more furnished and professional rather than throwing together a simple plain coloured top with spots. We felt this would seem more realistic in terms of us 'having a job' in our piece and therefore both of us wearing a 'uniform'.

We decided that Harry - The Wise Wizard - would need a beard and a hat to distinguish him as 'The Wizard'. Whilst looking through the costume cupboard we found many types of beards and many different hats. We tested out different combinations and colours to see what worked and what didn't. For example, the first thing we tried was a long, grey wig which in some sense looked incredible. However, we felt that it made Harry look more homeless than wizardly so we got rid of it. We then tried different hats ranging from Witch - Gnome. We settled on the stereotypical witch/wizard hat. We felt this was important as it would be something the children would recognise as a magical being and therefore would be easier to believe/understand.

For the Story Stealer we wanted this to contrast with all the other characters in order to create a strong presence. Therefore, we thought that 'The Story Stealer' would wear mainly dark clothing with the possibilities of colour here and there. The main elements of 'The Story Stealer' would be a long, black cloak and a black top hat/hat. This would create a slight uneasy atmosphere when this character enters the scene and would engage the children as their is a different kind of energy on stage/present.

Once we had worked on costumes we then started to work on our boxes and props that we need in order for our scene to be successful. Therefore, Charlotte started working on the keys and painted them in a sparkly gold paint. These are a crucial part to our performance as they are one of the few tasks the children have to accomplish whilst taking part in our performance. i.e. Find three keys in order to open the box to make the Story Stealer good again.

Childrens Theatre - 20th October 2016 - Analysis of progressed scenes

In todays lesson we continued to work on our scenes for Children's theatre. Our group decided to focus on characterisation and progression of narrative. For example, we analysed each others physicality and gave helpful advice in order to improve our performance. For example, people in my group gave me the constructive criticism of being more energised and using larger hand gestures in order to be more visually engaging for the audience. This meant that I exaggerated movements I hadn't before in order to act upon the suggestion. This is good for children's theatre as it would intrigue them as to what I was doing and would gain their attention instantly.

We also decided that 'The Story Stealer' and 'The Wise Wizard' would have different vocal performances compared to me and Charlotte who wouldn't change our pitch much. This is to show contrast between characters and to show that me and charlotte are the general, civilians of the planet and 'The Wise Wizard/The Story Stealer' are unique characters that are far from ordinary. This is good for children's theatre as it helps them to differentiate between characters and form more of a connection/understanding towards each character because they can pick out certain features that they like/remember.

As a group we also finalised the narrative of 'The Story Stealer'. We decided that the star hits 'Storyland' because 'The Story Stealer' wants to destroy all of the stories because they were read a bad one as a child that scared them. Therefore, they want to take away all the stories so no one reads a bad story again and 'The Story Stealer' has the good stories for themselves. We decided that 'The Wise Wizard' is the one with all the answers and knows prophecies about Storyland that no one else knows hence why he knows things like the star hitting Storyland.

We also established where we would take the children when they were here. i.e. We would start our story in the box office or just outside the theatre space, in order to raise excitement and set the scene of storyland. We would then take them into the space once the star had 'hit' and instantly introduce them to 'The Story Stealer'. The rest of the performance would be in this space until the very end when we have a laser/light show just outside the black box space. The movement of different areas in our piece is good for Children's theatre as different locations will mean they wont get bored and hopefully they will be engaged as they wont be in one space for too long.

~We then performed our story~

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In our performance our use of humour was good as it made it more interesting to watch/be a part of and had a very positive atmosphere. Humour was mainly contributed by our team member Harry who plays 'The Wise Wizard'. As most of Harrys lines are improvised to a degree it creates a sense of spontaneity and makes it far more exciting as you never know what kind of version of the story you will get.
Another thing that went well for our performance was that our energy levels had increased and  therefore meant that people themselves were more engaged and willing to participate in our story. For example, we created more of a contrast between our worried/panicked expressions which meant that, that created higher energy levels between us and our participants.

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Between the moments when me and charlotte are together we need to create more of a dialogue/relationship between our characters. As at the moment Charlotte is dominant in terms of dialogue and I add little phrases here and there. Therefore, I need to be more expressive and input more dialogue in order to help assist Charlotte with the storytelling.
We also need to focus again on characterisation in practice. As in rehearsal and theory we incorporate this but when it comes to the actual performance we just act like our normal selves in a realistic way which is not our intention. We need to experiment with levels and ways of movement in order to achieve this. For example, we could try a run where one of us is crouched down, one of us could skip everywhere etc. Try different ways of movement so that we get used to not performing in a realistic way.
Finally, another aspect which is an ongoing thing we need to work on is our ending. We have around 50-75% complete but we need to devise an ending. Once we have done this we can start polishing and perfecting movements/phrases.

Other peoples performances

Vicki, Andrew, Maddy, Lottie

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I think their use of activities were good as it meant we were constantly doing something and were physically engaged the entire time. For example, one of the first things we had to do was stand by  coloured piece of paper which decided our 'teams'. I thought this was good as it meant that the groupings were completely random and all depended on what the person chose.
I also liked their use of riddles as it was something different but kept your concentration. This is good for children's theatre as you want the children to be engaged 100% otherwise you run the risk of children wondering/misbehaving.

EBI.
In order to improve their performance they could experiment with different vocal techniques/become more energised when speaking in order to engage the audience. For example, each monster could have a slightly different voice in order to differentiate. This also link to characterisation, they could experiment with movement more.
Another thing they could improve on would be to expand 'Daniel the dragon'. For example, give him hands/claws so he can interact more/possibly give him a voice in order to make 'Daniel' come alive. This would make it more engaging and interesting for the children and make them believe in Daniel a little more.

Naomi, Megan, Jess, Lois, Raven

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I felt this group were incredibly strong in terms of characterisation as each monster had a completely different personality/physicality which meant we would connect with one more than the others/we were engaged and excited to meet the other monsters in the piece.
I also liked their use of being sensory. For example, theirs is oranges. They had physical oranges in their piece which we collect and then they are used to help re-fuel the monsters. This then links to the finale where at the end the children are handed cartons of orange juice which stimulates the visual and taste tense. By using different forms of orange it makes it engaging for the audience and creates a positive/spontaneous tone as not many performance use food as props/part of their performance.
I liked their use of the dance and song to restore the fuel/energy of one of the monsters. Its fully engaging as you have to sing words and do a dance at the same time, leaving little space to lose concentration and gain boredom.

EBI.
Possibly explain 'The Queen' storyline a little more as she is mentioned but personally I didn't get the link or it was glossed over. Possibly make it clearer what 'The Queen' represents, who the Queen is and where The Queen comes into place.
At one point in their piece there is a dance with a movement phrase, to improve this as it is a fairly difficult dance. They could teach it at an earlier point in the performance so that it gives the children a chance to remember/get excited about as they know it will be used for something later.

Variety - Change of plans...again!

In todays lesson I decided that I wanted to challenge myself musically as I felt that 'Imagine' by John Lennon was a very simple, safe song to perform. Therefore, I changed my song to 'Meet me on the battlefield' by Svrcina. I felt that this song had more emotion behind the lyrics and I felt as though I could put forward more emotion than I could in 'Imagine'.

My interpretation of the meaning behind this song is that no matter how hard things get people will still stand by your side when you need them the most. I also believe that this song suggests rebellion or a change of some sorts. As the lyrics "Everything could stay the same or we could change it all" suggests that the power of the people can make a difference compared to the power of a single person. I thought this related to 'Black History Month' as it can link to the unity people had when they were being discriminated against and how they stuck together through the tough times and eventually came out of it okay. In order to portray this meaning I will emphasise certain words when I sing, for example I will emphasise "we" a lot to show the power of people and strength in numbers. I will also emphasise words such as "battlefield" "shots" "forget" as they are emotive words that trigger a particular feeling/emotion. I want to strip back this song to a bare minimum to show the emotion and rawness the song has. i.e. I will sing and play piano. Having single vocals and one instrument will give it an acoustic vibe and I think will make it a far more emotional performance than if it was a backing track.

EBI
In order to make my performance better I could experiment with different octaves on the piano in order to make some parts more hard hitting and others softer. This would create contrast and make it far more interesting to listen to.
I could also experiment with using my chest and head voice in order to add dynamics to make some buts sound more vulnerable and other parts more powerful.

Due to the song change I will probably change my lighting to singularly blue in order to emphasise the sad emotion and coldness of discrimination.

Childrens theatre - Continuing monster story scene and sorting production roles

Today we carried on with our monster scenes. Our group decided that we had too many things going on at once so we therefore decided we would focus on the story of 'The Story Stealer' and how they became 'The Story Stealer' and why they steal the stories from StoryLand. We came up with the story that 'The Story Stealer' steals the stories because as a child they were read a scary story and were traumatised. Therefore they want to take the stories so they can read themselves nice stories at night and to make sure no one else reads a bad story. But, in doing so they prevent the other beings from reading stories. We then thought this could link the keys, as the keys unlock a box of lazers that change 'The Story Stealer' from bad to good.

On costumes and design we decided that we would all wear a specific colour throughout the entire piece so we would differentiate between each other. For example, I will be red with green spots/green with red spots. This would be good for children's theatre as it will be bright, vibrant, colourful and help them understand who is who in our stories.

We then did a quick block run of the whole thing so that we knew what was going on and what was happening when. We also decided that 'The Wise Wizard' and 'The Story Stealer' should be solid characters. i.e The people playing them should only play those characters in order to build strong characterisation and relationships with other characters as well as to confuse the children. We also worked a little more on our monster characterisation as we felt this was a weak point for us. For example, me and Charlotte move in a wobbly, jellyfish like way. This is to show that we are monsters not humans.

We also decided that when creating the sensory jelly box, instead of using jelly we would use shaving cream as its much cheaper and less people are at risk of getting a reaction if someone is allergic. We also thought it would be easier to clean up and the children would get sticky from playing with it. Meaning that we could move on/progress onto different stories easier and quicker as it will take less time to put away/set up than if we used jelly. i.e. making the jelly, waiting for It to set, cleaning the jelly, cleaning the space with products to make sure its not sticky after for health and safety reasons.

Production roles:

My role is: Lighting and Special Effects and part of the Props team.

As Lighting and special effects I will be the main point of contact when sorting out colours or lights, position of lights, smoke machines, media, projections, lasers etc. I will also converse with groups in order to find out what kind of lights and effects they want when they tell their stories. As part of the props team I will assist in collecting items to make props, checking we have all the props we need and conversing with groups in order to find out things they may need/want that we can make.

Dance lesson 5 - Group gang motif

At the start of todays lesson we created a group 'gang' motif influenced by 'Faultline' that represented the themes of anger and rivalry.

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We used a formation of a triangle in order to make it look more interesting. By also standing in a triangle formation it allowed up to open up and expand the space we were moving in as the piece progressed. This meant that we could be more adventurous and daring with our movements. For example, we when turn towards the centre after doing the first low sway it allows us to easily transition between facing different directions without making it look disjointed or broken.
We showed character and aggression by using similar movements to one another to represent the 'gang' but made them unique to our own individual character. For example, I made sure my fingers were outstretched and pointed at the end to show the anger and twisted nature my character felt against the other 'gang'. This meant that my character would look more fierce compared to some others. I also made sure my movements were solid and didn't waver in order to show the strength my character felt when with their 'gang'.

EBI.
I feel as though we could be a little more adventurous with our movements. For example, possibly breaking formation for some of us to come downstage and do something and for some of us to stay upstage and do something. Then come back into formation for certain phrases. This could be done in order to emphasise a certain motif to show power/aggression/rebellion etc.
In order to improve our 'gang motif' we could make our movements sharper and jerkier in order to show violence. We could also then use it to show contrast between the smoother parts in our motif to emphasise a certain feeling/emotion.
Personally, I feel as though I need to contribute more to group ideas when I have them instead of stepping back and leaving it up to the more experienced choreographers. This would be good as it then helps progress my experience and knowledge of choreography and will make me feel more confident when devising motifs individually or as a group.

• We then started to devise a lift with a few other elements around the edge. Its still in early stages though. 

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The transition from ground into the lift was very smooth and looked practised. The hold was strong and could represent the power and strength there is in a 'gang' and why some people would die for it.
Our jerky movements around the edge of the lift were good and contrasting compared to the lift and could represent that even when things try to tear a group apart the bond and ties between them are too strong.

EBI.
We need to work on more movements that link for both parts of this lift phrase. For example, at some point we could have the people on the outside stand up and move towards the person being lifted and possibly do a throw in the air (the person is thrown) whilst everyone else collpases to the floor. This could be done to represent how if one person infiltrates the group or betrays them how things can fall apart.


For the second hour we then worked on 'We Will Rock You' sequence.

Variety - A change of plans - New Ideas!

Due to unforeseen circumstances our group had to change what we were doing and part ways on separate projects. This meant starting the process of devising a variety act all over again. We were all happy with this decision and thought it would actually work out better for all of us individually rather than as a group.

I started by devising process by researching 'Black History Month' and the themes which were either celebrated, enlightened or presented through this campaign.

These were the themes that I found:

• Discrimination
• Racism
• Segregation
• Multicultural
• Celebration
• Integration
• Influential black people: Obama, Oprah
• Equality
• Love

We also did a mind-map in class and discussed what we thought 'Black History Month' stood for and how we could devise a variety act which linked with this.

I decided in this lesson that I would do an acoustic, musical performance which would consist of singing and guitar or piano playing. I hadn't decided which I would use as I hadn't completely decided on a song. I had a few in mind but I needed to do some more research on the meaning behind the songs before I chose which one I was doing for definite.

I researched songs that stood for equality and a change in society. I found two songs which stuck out for me as songs which represented peace, equality and change. These were:

• Imagine - John Lennon
• Wonderful World - Louis Armstrong

I chose to research 'Imagine' first as I had stronger pull towards this song and instantly decided this would be the one I was going to perform that linked the 'Black History Month'. The song was written by John Lennon and his main aim of his song was to "encourage the listener to imagine a world at peace without the barriers of borders or the divisions of religion and nationality, and to consider the possibility that the focus of humanity should be living a life unattached to material possessions" - From this statement alone I decided that this would fit well with the theme and was something I felt strongly about and also want to raise awareness for.  - quote from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imagine_%28John_Lennon_song%29

Here is  little clip of me trying out 'Imagine' on guitar and seeing whether I liked the style I was singing in and whether the guitar accompaniment I used fitted well.

Variety - further thoughts on acappella act

In our second lesson we all came back together and decided that doing a mashup of 2000 songs may be a little difficult as the ones we had chosen were very different from each other and would be slightly difficult to put together.

We then brainstormed ideas of what we could do as an a Capella group. We did some more research on a Capella singers and what kind of things they tended to sing. We found out that a lot of a Capella groups started with some sort of Disney mashup. As it was a simple structure and many people know the tune and lyrics of Disney songs. Therefore we thought it would be a viable choice considering we have limited time to devise a performance.

We watched many videos of many different groups doing Disney mashups and decided which songs we wanted to include in our performance.

We decided upon a running order of songs and began to structure. For example, writing down what each of us could do. I.e. whether we were soprano or alto singers and whether we felt strongest singing harmonies or main melodies etc.

We decided that we would re-create the first Disney medley shown and add our own twists for example we would create our own version of the percussive lines in order to make it different and cater for the fact there are only three of us and its live singing. I suggested we make our own medley from scratch in order to make it unique for our group but eventually we all decided that, we didn't have enough time to create to the standard of these other ones so we would simply cover the Disney medley above.

We worked out harmonies and starting points on the piano by matching pitches so that our harmonies would work nicely together and were musically correct.

I thought for lighting we could have different colours for different songs. In order to create the atmosphere of that Disney movie/song to make it feel more realistic and make it far more enjoyable to perform. For example, when we sing 'Circle of Life' have green lights to represent the jungle.

Childrens Theatre - Thursday 13th October 2016

In todays lesson we started off by answering questions relating to our overall project of Children's theatre. We did this in order to visually write down what we know/want so then we can develop this/improve it to make it better for our final piece. The three questions we answered related to: How the children can interact with our scene, how we can make the space work in interesting ways and how we could use the boxes in our performance.

How can the children interact/engage with our scene?

• A major factor of our children's performance is that it breaks the fourth wall. This in itself is a giant interaction with the children and they will be engaged from the very start. This is good as it means they are less likely to get distracted or bored during the performance and are more likely to have a far more enjoyable time. We also had the idea of asking them questions such as 'what should we do now, should we do this or that? etc Meaning they have a direct impact on the direction of the performance. This would be good as it means they will be more intrigued to see where their ideas and decisions will take them.

- An example of this would be with our character 'The Story Stealer' in which the children have to stay still have chant a song in order to make 'The Story Stealer' go away. Children are engaged as they have to sing a song they learn on the spot and sing it louder and faster in order to make the character go away.

• An idea our group had which is a strong element to our story/performance is 'The Jelly Box'. This is going to be a box filled with jelly that the children have to put their hands in to in order to find the keys. This is a good idea as it is multi-sensorial which means that multiple senses will be triggered at the same time creating a surreal feel. For example, touch will be feeling the squidgy-ness of the jelly. Smell, will be from the jelly itself, sight as there will be a projection of 'jelly' or a 'jelly character'. Sound as we will be saying jelly or find a musical piece which contains the word jelly. I think this will be used in our final piece as it is such a key element already and will be a good technique to use for children's theatre due to it being multi-sensorial. We also thought about creating multiple boxes that had different textures on in order to engage the touch/feel sense.

How could you make the space work in interesting, unexpected ways?

• A way in which I thought we could make the space interesting would be to hang things from the lighting rig. For example, we could hang some smaller boxes of different shapes and colours/textures. We could also hang a key from the ceiling as one of the challenges in our piece is to find three keys. This would link well with that. This would be good for children's theatre as having things in the air as well as on the ground will visually engage and challenge them to look beyond the norm and to think 'outside the box' when trying to solve problems in our piece.
• Another way in which we thought we could use the space in different ways were to use 'The black box studio' for just the planet itself and then use the outside area where the seating rig usually is for the beginning before the main problem has occurred and at the end for the laser light show. By using the 'black box studio' for just the planet means that they will feel completely immersed in the environment we are trying to create. Meaning we will create a world for the children to experience which will be cut off from 'reality'. This will make it easier for them to get lost and enjoy the piece by forgetting about the real world for a little while.
• We also had the idea of sticking spots or stars on the floor and when we shout a specific word they have to stand on the spot really quick. This is an idea we came up with in order to calm the children down if they were getting a little too excited or to re-gain focus. Another way we could incorporate this idea is when 'The Story Stealer' is about they have to stand on a spot/star in order to not be seen. This would be good for childrens theatre as it would make our story/performance even more believable due to them having to perform an action in order to carry forth the narrative.

What shapes, set could be made from the boxes that would work with a variety of stories?

• An idea that I thought could be used was levels. For example, we could create stage blocks and cover them in boxes meaning that they would be secure but still look surreal as they would appear to be boxes. This then could be used in order for characters to sit or for objects to be placed on, or a place where the children can sit when they are watching or waiting for instructions. This would be good for children's theatre as it creates another reality in which the performance is set meaning they can get lost in the atmosphere of boxes. Also with this idea we could colour/paint the boxes different colours in order to show different areas for different stories. This would be good as it visually shows the structure of performance. I.e once we've finished the story in the red zone we would travel to the green zone and hear their story etc.

• Our group also had the idea of creating music, light and TV boxes in order to help tell stories, progress narrative or make it more interesting for children. For example, the TV box could be used to show a message from a distressed monster about something they need the children's help with. This would engage them visually and aurally in a different way to how they have been previously interacting with the performance. I.E. They have been watching us live performing and now they are watching a pre-recording. We also felt that this would enhance excitement as they would be wondering what's going to happen next. This would work for a variety of stories as it could help tell them in different ways and break up the live action performance a little bit.

How can we make the performance multi-sensory?

As I have previously mentioned we will make it multi-sensory by using a range of different techniques. For example, we have the textured boxes which will be covered in different materials. I.e. Tin foil, fluff, glitter etc. We will then have specific boxes which will have a specific theme/colour/activity, For example, one covered in lights, one containing a radio/TV and one containing a substance such as Jelly. These will be effective ideas for childrens theatre as it will engage their senses and possibly challenge them to become fully immersed with the perfromnce and excite their imagination. We also had the idea of having a perfume/spray spelling box in order to engage the smell sense. Possibly linking this to jelly so that their will be a sensory overload at one point during our piece. This will be effective as it will fully engage them and hopefully immerse them meaning that they will be fully involved and hopefully be more willing to participate.

We then picked three words that we thought showed how we were communicating meaning.

• Amusing - We have elements of humour throughout out piece and exaggerated characteristions that would be humuorous to children. For example, the wise wizard uses big arm movements and walks in a weird way. This works as the children will find it enjoyable meaning they will pay more attention.
• Engaging - We are using multi-sensorial techniques as well as using elaborate stage design/set. For example, hanging things from the lighting rig, possibly creating levels and having music, texture boxes and projection/video imagery.
• Challenging - We are creating little puzzels that the children have to solve during our performance. For example, how to find the keys. There will be little things they have to do before they can obtain the keys. I.e. One is suspended in the air but how do they get it? etc. We also have the challenge of creating quite intense emotional atmospheres for example, panic when the star hits, then fear when the story stealer arrives.

We then wrote out a synopsis for our first activity/story:

Here is a video of our first initial devised ideas for Children's theatre.

EBI.

Personally I feel as though I need to work on my monster characterisation as you can clearly see from the video I'm moving and acting very much like a human which is not the aim of this project. In order to do this I need to change my vocal pitch and move in different ways. For example, having a funny walk or weird arm movements. Something that makes me visually different from my normal everyday self which could add to my monster character.

As a group we need to create more contrast between the different emotions. For example, the panic when finding the key wasn't really as panicked as it could have been and therefore meant we lost enthusiasm and pace. In order to change this we need to exaggerate movements and change our voices in a dramatic way in order to create contrast. We can do this by speaking in a low pitch and low volume to start with and using very little gestures then when the panic sets in we start speaking in a louder volume, higher pitch and flail our arms and legs in different directions whilst running.

I feel as though we still need to work on structure a little better as at the moment the children are just following us without a clear path to follow or to investigate.

What I liked about other peoples.

Vickis group

I like the fact that they used live instruments during their piece. i.e. The Guitar. As it engaged us aurally as well as visually and set a mysterious almost mystical tone for the performance. It also faults and strengths of characters in their piece. For example, their villain was weakened by the sound of music and was chased away. Where as it was a strength for another character who was playing the soothing music in the lair of Daniel the dragon. This is a good technique for children's theatre as it engages them instantly and sets a positive, happy tone for which they will be in for a while.

Megans Group

I like their use of audience interaction where we were instantly told to grab oranges off the floor to give to another character which acted as a source of fuel for the monsters. This set a very positive, exciting atmosphere that made you intrigued into what was going to happen next. Their characterisation was also a very strong aspect of their performance. As from their physicality you could see that they weren't humans they were monsters and their use of vocal pitch and volume also added to this.

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Childrens theatre - Tuesday 11th October 2016 - creating trailers for our monster stories

In todays lesson we got back into the groups we made for the 'creating a monster' session and had a new task to complete. We had to think of three different stories/activities that would happen during our children's theatre performance. Which would star with a shooting star crashing into the planet filled with stories.

In a group we decided that our three stories would be

• An old wise wizard who predicts the shooting star hitting the planet.
• Then the children have to find three keys which are hidden around the studio in order to open a treasure chest that has the solution of how to fix everything after the shooting star has hit.
• Then we have the villain who is 'The Story Stealer' who mixes up all the different stories and turns the planet into chaos.  

We then had to create a trailer showing a little glimpse into what would happen.

The old wizard is almost like a fortune teller but no one takes him seriously as they believe he's just a crazy, old man. He warns everyone that a star will hit the planet. Me and Fran come on as the civilians and we say not to worry about what the wizard said hes just crazy. Then the star hits. We run back on stage and scream in chaos as the star hit and we don't know what to do. The old wizard comes back and mentions three keys that will unlock a chest with the solution to our problems. We then search for the keys. One is in a random box around the studio. Another is in a box filled with Jelly and whilst this is happening everyone has to wiggle like jelly until the key has been found. Before we can find the last key 'The Story Stealer' arrives on the scene with a clap of thunder. We all have to stay still so that 'The Story Stealer' cannot find us. Then suddenly I sneeze which means 'The Story Stealer' can see us all. We all then have to chant the song in order to get rid of 'The Story Stealer' 'Story Stealer go away, Story Stealer not today' etc etc. The Story Stealer than goes away and we continue to search for the other key. We keep looking and then Harry turns around and its on his back.

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We had a narrator (charlotte) who was telling the story clearly and simply in order to make it easier to understand. For example, with each change into a new section of the scene Charlotte would add emphasis on words such as 'then' 'suddenly' 'next' etc. This was to show that the story/trailer was progressing and that a new idea was being introduced.

Another thing that went well was that we used big gestures/facial expressions and exaggerated words. This was to create humour which is an essential factor in children's theatre as it makes it more interesting to watch and more enjoyable to be a part of. For example, we emphasised 'keys' to show that this was an important piece of information that needs to be remembered.

Another thing that went well was our idea of using sensory things such as jelly to touch and a picture on the projector to see (picture of jelly) this is to make it multi-sensorial in order to engage the children and immerse them into the performance.

EBI.

I believe we could have worked on transitions between the next new idea that was being introduced better. As a moments we had actors on stage that needed to be offstage in order to either come on or to change characters to progress the narrative. For example, Harry did a lot of multi-rolling which meant he was onstage the majority of the time and therefore meant that when he was the wizard he tended to wear a difference piece of clothing to symbolise the change. I believe we could develop this by having staging in order for him to hide behind to do a quick change. Therefore he is out of public view meaning he is technically not in the scene so that he can appear as a different character.

We could have all experimented with vocal approaches. For example, some of us could of had accents of we could of spoken in different pitches. This would make it far more interesting to listen to and would make it more unique and aurally engaging to listen to. This therefore, would make it good for children's theatre as it would make it less on the realism lines and slightly on the surreal depending on how we used our voices.

Personally, I feel as though I needed to work on my characterisation more in this lesson. As I didn't stick to my monster character that I created in the last monster lesson. I seemed to create a new one. Therefore I need to establish a character, and decide on my vocal and physical approach in order to portray a convincing and interesting monster. For example, I could walk in a weird way moving my legs higher when I take steps and moving my arms all the time like I had previously done.

Variety - first initial ideas

In todays lesson we were introduced to the idea of Variety and what it meant. For example, Variety means different/not the same. Therefore in our variety show, there will be multiple acts of different forms. For example, singers, dancers, actors etc.

My initial thoughts were to do a solo performance of singing with a guitar. After consideration I then decided I wanted to challenge myself and try something different. Something like a comedy act. I discussed this with my friend Megan and we both decided we also wanted to do something fun and entertaining, such as comedy. We thought about this but thought it was hard to come up with funny original material in such a short space of time.

We then conversed with our other friend Vicki and decided we should all work together and do something as a group. We unanimously decided we would sing as it was something we all felt
comfortable with and felt as though we could perform well.

I suggested we do something along the lines of a Capella as its very unique and engaging for audience members to listen to and watch. For example, watching people create an entire vocal performance which includes a percussive element/line is intriguing as we wouldn't associate the voice with this/we wouldn't think the voice would be capable of doing this. We decided from this that instead of doing one song we would do a mashup of some songs from the 2000's. As we all felt a strong connection with this era and the music that was created. We listened to multiple playlists of YouTube and found songs that we all knew well and that we thought would sound nice in a mashup together. Therefore, after this we decided we would go away and see whether we could either find more songs to add or start on constructing a way in which we could fit them all together.

Dance lesson 4 - 'We Will Rock You' and experimenting with formations

In todays lesson we spent the first hour learning a dance routine to a song featured in the musical 'We Will Rock You' which we will be taking part in later in the academic year.

In the second hour of our lesson we started devising a new dance phrase inspired by 'Faultline'. It included many motifs we have used before as well as adding on a few more moves in order to develop the dance piece.

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I believe our structure of having two groups. i.e. The group of four that walk down at the start and then the group that are in the corner. Is effective as it creates a different layer to the piece and makes it visually interesting to watch as there are two different things going on at once. By also having two groups it could symbolise the theme of 'gangs' from the piece Faultline. For example, they could be in some sort of rivalry as barely any movements are the same in the two groups accept the main dance motif which could symbolise that they are similar but have different views.
Another thing that went well was that we were all in time with each other and the music creating fluid  movement. Making it seem well rehearsed. As well as being in time it makes us look and feel connected with the piece itself.
Another thing I think went well was our formation when group 1 and group 2 merged together ready for the main dance motif. This was structurally engaging as we walked on diagonals and didn't bump into each other making it seem smooth and professional.

EBI.
I think to improve what's already been done we could establish emotions more. For example, anger/betrayal etc. This would therefore help us to decided how we should perform the motif. For example, sharp movements or smooth movements etc. This would also then be able to link with 'Faultline' and the themes in the piece. Personally, I feel as though I need to work on my rolls in the piece and making them smoother in practice. For example, I get halfway through the role and then stop. In order to prevent this I need to gain momentum as I go down and think about how to position my legs and arms when rolling.
As a whole I think to develop it we could have the two groups meeting in some sort of stand off and work our fight motif we did a few weeks ago into it. This would then also represent the 'gang' and 'violence' themes throughout.

Childrens Theatre - Drama - 6th October 2016 - creating a monster

In todays lesson we created monsters that were faced with a crisis that was threatening their tribe. I created a monster called 'Flenose' who had constantly moving arms like Mr Tickle from Mr Men. Their voice was also slightly higher than my own in order to make it aurally engaging. They were part of the tribe 'Flankazan'.

In our scene

We all started off, off stage, We then walked on, oblivious to anyone else and the stage as we 'couldn't see anything' due to it being dark. We also walked on in our monster style until we met in the middle. We jumped back scared and shrieked. As it was dark and we couldn't see anything. We thought this would be a good opportunity to add a comedic element which would be effective for children's theatre. This is because watching people 'exaggerate' a emotion or get scared over something they wouldn't makes them laugh. We then were discussing why we couldn't see we mentioned that it was midday so why was it dark. We then mentioned how we could use the light of the stars and pointed up towards the stars as a group. We then mentioned how we used to get light from the sun. We then turned around and pointed to where the sun was meant to be. We paused a little moment longer then mentioned the 'balloon' that was covering the sun. We then all looked at eachother and screamed, running around until we inevitably bumped into each other again. We then again gathered in a little huddle to decide what to do. After discussion we decided that we need to pop the balloon somehow so we all split off into pairs so collect supplies.

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I believe each of our characterisations were unique and strong. As we all had a different factor that mad us different. For example, Harry was a crab like monster. Charlotte had claw like hand/arm movements. Fran had an accent and a dance like walk. I had constantly wiggly arms. I believe this technique would be good for children's theatre as it create variety in a performance and children will like/relate to a character more than others. So having that variety gives them the chance to like a certain character more than the others. For example, they may like the way they move or the way they speak. 
Another thing that went well was we had a clear narrative that would be easy for children to understand. For example, we can't see because its dark. A balloon is covering the sun and we need to figure out a way to get rid of it. A simple storyline that is easy to follow is essential for children's theatre otherwise children may get confused and lose interest. Therefore, our storyline of an issue, identify a solution and work to fix it is a good structure for Children's theatre.

EBI.

I think to make it better we should have blocked the whole scene physically as we spoke about the idea but we didn't stage it. We spent a while working on the opening to our piece and how we should characterise ourselves. This meant that with the limited time we had we only managed to block half of it which meant the second half of our performance was slightly improvised and rushed. We also hadn't properly thought through how we were going to end it. In the future we could develop this into a better resolution rather than just popping the balloon. We could develop it to have a far more interesting outcome. For example, instead of popping it we could find a way in which the balloon would be useful somewhere else on our island. Creating a moral that perhaps we don't have to always destroy/get rid of things we don't like/want. We can work with them for a better purpose.