Devising Assignment Week 7 - Part 1

Three Days To Go

Monday 23^rd February 2015

Q: What did we accomplish?

A:

·         Expanded upon the physical theatre elements within the ‘Prologue’ of our performance.

·         Enhanced on characters, in both leading and supporting roles.

·         and Began our first steps towards bringing our new, and official, performance structure to life.

Q: How did we achieve this?

A:

·         In this video footage here, of our rehearsals, we looked to devising the ‘Prologue’ including more physical theatre elements.

 

I felt this was an extremely positive achievement, because we began to physicalize the opening scene and, I felt, succeeded in projecting certain performance elements.  Such as:

-          We showed what the patient characters suffer from.

-          As well as how they respond to the therapist.

-          Plus we felt it could intrigue our audience to a step where they wanted to know ‘what will happen next’.

Q: Did we receive any feedback?  If so, were there any positive and negative points worth taking in?

A:            Positive Points:

1.       Good presentation of the characters.

2.       Good physicality.

3.       Good stage structure.

Negative Points:

1.       At first, it was unclear that the patients were suffering from ‘OCD and Behaviour Issues’.

2.       I, personally, needed to work on my “in character” vocal projection.

3.       The movements on stage needed more practice in order to achieve/present a good flow to the entire performance.

4.       With our newly devised scene, using a ‘split stage’ structure, it became unclear as to what the on stage characters relationships were.

Q: How can we improve for the next rehearsal session and the main performance?

A:            Negative Point 1 –     We decided to give more meaning/usage to my prop, the

Dictaphone, and devised a scripted section for me to introduce each act, and what the patient symptoms of focus would in that particular act, and spoken in a narrative style.  Plus that would give me the opportunity to present vocally, and possibly physically, ‘Doctor Joe’s’ descending into depression.  

                Negative Point 2 –     A point worth taking in, and something I will personally make

achievable for future rehearsals and the main performance.

                Negative Point 3 –     Now knowing our performance style of inspiration (Frantic Assembly

and Steven Berkoff) and roughly how we are going to perform un-devised scenes in future acts, we aim to “rehearse like mad” in order to achieve a fast and realistic flow to the entire performance.  Hopefully then we will succeed in presenting the themes of ‘being trapped’, ‘taking too much pressure’, and ‘wanting to break free’, as well as the human qualities/emotions of ‘secrets’, ‘depression’ and ‘isolation’.  All of which we extracted from ‘Bobbie Gentry’s Ode to Billy Joe’.      

                Negative Point 4 –    When devising/refining scenes for Act One, we wanted to give more

meaning to one scene in particular, this scene was Act One Scene Three, where we would show one of the key character’s obsession with ‘Doctor Joe’.  Now I found that this scene particularly stands out because of our usage of a manikin.  I mentioned in a previous blog, that the purpose of the manikin was to show the character’s obsession and fantasies of my character ‘Doctor Joe’.  So the manikin was to physically represent the character’s fantasy of her and ‘Doctor Joe’ getting married.  We would thereby reflect the Physical Theatre practitioners ‘DV8’ and their performance style policy; “DV8 Physical Theatre's work is about taking risks, aesthetically and physically, about breaking down the barriers between dance and theatre and, above all, communicating ideas and feelings clearly and unpretentiously.” - http://theatreanddance.britishcouncil.org/artists-and-companies/profiles/dv8-physical-theatre/  But we wanted to expand upon this scene in particular and include the ‘split stage’ structure so we could show both ‘Doctor Joe’s’ real love life and his patients fantasy love life, which she wishes to share with ‘Doctor Joe’.  Plus that could have also helped us foreshadow the unrevealing truth that the patient is ‘Doctor Joe’s’ secret love affair.  All of this seemed positive, from our perspective, but when we received the feedback we all agreed it wasn’t giving off the message clear enough for our audience.  Therefore we did not succeed with this newly devised montage, but it was something worth taking into account and we will alter the scene back to its original structure and perhaps use certain elements, which we created in this session, and transfer them for our future scenes.

Q: Did we give any feedback to the other groups?  If so, what was positive or needed improving for their performances?

A:

Group One Feedback – This group devised their performance extremely closely to the stimulus.  Bringing their own interpretation as to why ‘Billy Joe’ jumped off ‘the Tallahatchie Bridge’. 

Positive Points:

1.       Brilliant usage of stage space.

2.       Brilliant character structure (creating their characters in the formation of a ‘dysfunctional family’, strongly referencing the stimulus).

3.       Great presentation of character relationships (in both a verbal and physical presentation style).

4.       Very well-choreographed movement segments (I felt it helped them succeed in reflecting the character’s/performer’s relations and how future events will have a huge impact to the characters and storyline).

5.       and Good reference towards physical theatre practitioners of inspiration (‘Steven Berkoff’ to reflect the dark and gloomy themes they were exploring for their performance).

Points for Improvement:

1.       At some points I did find the character relations a little confusing, but this can be easily rectified through their rehearsals.

2.       and Perhaps stronger vocal projection to really reflect the sound scape style used in ‘Berkovian’ productions.

Group Two Feedback – This group gave another unique interpretation of the themes within ‘Ode to Billy Joe’.  Titling their performance ‘The Bridge’ their main point of reference was ‘the Tallahatchie Bridge’ and its impact on multiple characters through the presentation of a game show.

                Positive Points:

1.       Good presentation of character (I felt their characters reflected the style of ‘Commedia dell’Arte’ in giving each character a distinct physical and vocal structure).

2.       Brilliant usage of all stage space (especially their opening scene of interacting with the audience and give a powerful/intriguing start to their performance).

3.       Excellent engagement with the audience (as we all began to strongly feel for the characters).

Points for Improvement:

1.       Perhaps a little development into characters, to have an extra sense of involvement with the audience, and truly make us care for the characters survival on this deadly game show.

2.       and Make character development more realistic, rather than sudden and “out of character”.

     But all in all I found both performances entertaining and interesting, particularly to how they referenced the stimulus, and how they brought to life their own unique vision of the story within ‘Ode to Billy Joe’.

Q: Do I think we are ready?

A:            I am proud of what we have achieved in today’s session, and it has brought us to a good

start so we can continue devising future acts and scenes and bring our own unique vision of the messages within ‘Ode to Billy Joe’ .  Our goal for tomorrow's session is to develop Act Two and complete devising Act Three.