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.

WWW.

• 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.

EBI.

• 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.

EBI.

• 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

EBI.

• 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.