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~
WWW.
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.
EBI.
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.
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