Devising Assignment Week 5

Development and Evaluating input towards the Performance

Monday 2^nd, Wednesday 4^th and Thursday 5^th February 2015

What did we want to add?

     In the previous week we set our goals to expand the time scape of the performance in order to reach the set performance time of between 20 to 30 minutes.  Last week we all agreed to expand on particularly the therapy sessions within the performance.  Only then could be reach a longer time scope and we would also be able to expand of the supporting character’s stories, how they relate and how they fit into the plot of the performance.  Beginning this week we instantly created a new structure to the performance, which came to be:

Scene 1: Prologue/the Interrogation (briefly introducing the audience to the ensemble and intriguing them in curiosity as to what will happen in this performance).

Scene 2: The Boyfriend and Girlfriend Struggles (introducing the audience to my character, ‘the therapist’, and the first supporting character with her struggles and confusion with her boyfriend).

Scene 3: The Boyfriend’s Story (for this scene we would show the boyfriends side of the story and how he is struggling with his sexuality and how he has no one to talk to, besides the therapist).

Scene 4: The Monologue (for this we would take the audience out the therapy sessions and introduce them to another character with some struggles of their own, which would later be expanded upon in future scenes).

Scene 5: The Third Member of the Party (the final official therapy session, this scene would show the final member of the love triangle and his struggles with his own problems).

Scene 6: The Argument (in this scene audience members find the return of the female character, from the monologue scene, and how she and the therapist are in an affair relationship and how this brings more worries onto the therapists shoulders).

Scene 7: The Interrogation Wrap Up (this climatic scene returns the audience to the prologues interrogation scene, and shows them the final three questions concerning ‘Doctor Joe’ and his death, this scene is specifically made to mislead the audience into thinking that the supporting characters are somewhat responsible for ‘Doctor Joe’s’ unknown cause of death).

Scene 8: Epilogue/Doctor Joe’s Death (to end the performance audience members behold the therapists stress filled struggles and worries and how he can’t take it anymore and jumps to his death, concluding the performance and answering the question how Doctor Joe died).

     I really liked this new and final draft of the structure because I felt it would succeed in us presenting our characters in more detail and structure them so they were understandable for the upcoming audience.  Plus this gave us an opportunity to add new performance elements to reflect more on the stimulus and take risks. 

What new elements did we add?

     One particular element that we all liked the idea of was adding the usage of masks to the performance. 

     Reflecting on the physical theatre practitioner ‘Jaques Le-Coq’ the usage of masks would allow us the opportunity to rely on the masks to fully embrace a physicalized performance.  This is a method that allows performers to express emotions and characteristics through physical actions and gestures.  As suggested by our team member our usage of masks would allow us to use slightly over-the-top physical actions in miming the supporting character’s flashbacks during their therapy sessions during the performance.  That way we could show the audience their relationships and struggles, in a masked performance style that would show this information to the audience, and it wouldn’t be too obvious for them to analyse but would make them curious and intrigued to find out where the performance could go. 

     Not only that the masks have also have a metaphorical meaning making our chosen theme of ‘secrets’ even more truthful to our own performances.  We planned to have the masks to be painted black, showing no emotions, and they would be a physical representation of the character’s secrets.  Also referencing to the purpose of a therapy session, to reveal your true secrets and get them off your chest.  So the plan was to have each character ware as mask, except for the therapist (Doctor Joe), and as they told their stories, verbally, they would remove the mask as they broke away from their secrets.  This would then lead into a physical movement piece for each scene, choreographed to show the character’s main struggles, in a flashback kind of style, and showing how the character’s in the love triangle relate to each other and why they are in the therapy sessions.  This also brings more of the character’s profile and understanding to the audience’s perspective.

     I think a perfect series of performance examples of professional ‘Jaques Le-Coq’ masked performances, particular the performance found at 6:17 in this video, shows metaphors and multiple layered stories.  But my recommended clips of the video, I think shows, the metaphor or rivalries and shows the characters love and hate for one another, plus with little usage of sound and no voice work I think it give the correct amount of detail that is understandable for the audience.  I felt for our usage of masks this would be the perfect example to refer back to when devising.  Here is the video clips, please view 6:17 for my personal favourite performance:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zy_l4z2TrN0&app=desktop

     At first we all liked the idea of using the masks during the performance, as it gave good purpose, indicated at our performance’s metaphors (relieving yourself of secrets), and would allow us to include more physicality in our performances.  But there was a suggested problem when it came to the fact that for our character’s spoken moments the masks would block vocal projection and hide facial expressions.  Therefore we turned to a group discussion and looked to how we could change the masks, or even add something else, which would still give a physical sense to the metaphor of our performance and didn’t block our own performances.  The many suggestions listed from:

·         All performers wearing matching clothing.

·         All characters wearing tap on their lips (which linked to ‘secrets’ and the ideal of all the character are hiding their secrets from each other).

·         All characters wearing wedding rings (I suggested this element to reflect the supporting characters love triangle, and a little reference to Greek Theatre in the sense that all the characters are linked like a large dysfunctional family, also referencing the stimulus as the story within the lyrics tells ‘Billy Joe’ and his dysfunctional family life).

     But in the end we agreed that we wanted to keep the masks yet break them down to a Georgian festival styled mask.  For example:

 



     That way we can still show strong facial expressions and keep the physical metaphor in front of the audience.   Hopefully in future devising sessions we would be able to put the masks to the test and see if we can still give a decent performance and present the metaphor/message across to our audience.  

What did we do performance wise?

     Setting a plan to focus on our new scenes of the therapy sessions we looked particularly at the characters and how they can be changed to suit the performance and the scenes.  This was our plan:

 



     By focusing on these scenes in particular we would be able to understand the characters objectives for their particular scenes, why they are seeing the therapist and we can expand on this is future session.  Because of time we didn’t manage to get an understanding of certain characters, but our hopes and goals for future sessions is to look to these scenes particularly so we can gain a full in depth understanding of the characters and the purpose of the scene so we can physical the scene and make it come alive for our upcoming audience.

     But what did I personally achieve with my character?  Well having created this new structure I thought I could use it to my advantage to show my character’s struggles and worries that ultimately leads to depression.  I thought that for each therapy session I could take my physical actions and gesture to a slower pace each time a character mentions relationships and love, thereby referring to future scenes exploring his commitment to adultery against his wife and his concerns about that particular subject.  Not only that but I managed to structure each of the scenes to show certain emotions of the character as he progresses to depression and suicide.  This is what I want to show physically during the performance:

  

Scene 1: Emotionless (this scene is to be a flash-forward; my character will already be dead and this scene is to mislead the audience).

Scene 2: Everyday Emotions (for the first therapy session I want to keep my character simple, as if to suggest he doesn’t have anything to hide, even though he does, and just wants to get through the day).

Scene 3: Embracement and Awkwardness (as the supporting character boasts on about love and struggles within a relationship, both character interact physically and verbally, which becomes awkward for my character, and hinting at the future scene concerning his affair).

Scene 4: My character is absent for this scene as the main focus is the supporting character whom has the affair with my character and the monologue talks about her own struggles.

Scene 5: Worry (for this scene I want my character to slowly go into a worried state as has to many secrets of his own and others impacting on his shoulders making thing harder and harder for him to conceal).

Scene 6: More Worry and Anger (in this scene we see my character talk to his adulterer partner and how she wants to end the relationship, and how he has enough worries for now and doesn’t need another he refuses to let their relationship end).

Scene 7: My character is absent again as this is another flash-forward that concerns only the supporting character development in the performances plot.

Scene 8: Full Depression (the concluding scene shows the audience my character committing suicide off “the Tallahatchie Bridge” and I want to show my character breaking down completely then ending his life).

 

     My own goal for future sessions is physicalize these particular scenes for myself to then bring the entire performance to life.  Plus once all characters are prepared to perform we will be able to complete refinement and only rehearse until the main performance.