Evaluation of Performances

The first performance at Broadwater CofE primary school was very successful. The staging was smaller than we anticipated however we adapted to it well and pulled through. With the children there we found that it was easier to have a lot of energy and make everything bigger and bolder because it drew a reaction, we also felt better whilst performing because they would actually laugh at the majority of our jokes showing that we had done our research well and that our performance did appeal to the target audience.

I felt that a lot of the movement sections in which we went in to the audience worked well as it was quite a large hall, this also meant it was a challenge, as we were used to smaller spaces. Therefore, I think that we did well with this, as the kids seemed to love it, so it showed that our last minute ideas to add in sections, where we went into the audience, was a good decision.

Overall this performance went extremely well, my personal strengths for this performance were my energy and my enthusiasm, my weaknesses would be speaking too fast and balance. To improve these for future purposes practice my dialogue slowly going through where to add pauses and inflection and to improve the other make sure all freeze frame positions are sensible, to be standing in for a while.

Our second performance at college was also very successful, but in a completely different way. Within this performance, a lot more of the comedy was noticed due to our audience being older, therefore they understood the adult humour within our piece.

To add to this, we were used to this staging more, so I think that we felt more confident in our own theatre, because of this I feel that we all felt we could be bigger with our movements to make it more over the top. Also we could include the wheel barrow within it as there was more room, this meant that the gnome scene was more visual and effective, which would appeal to our target audience.

Overall this performance was good, I think that the added use of lighting, smoke effects and music really helped everyone get more into the performance and made the overall performance more fun and interesting, which appeals to our target audience. My personal strengths for this performance was use of space, energy and focus, my weaknesses would be even though my focus was good I could still improve on my corpsing as well as my stamina. To improve these I could practice the particular scenes that get me laughing, so that I get used to the things that make me laugh and improve my stamina by doing more exercises.

I think that it was really effective doing these two performances as they contrasted nicely in different ways. I think that with the children the performance was louder and silly in a comical way, whereas the college performance was still funny and upbeat, but in a more mature tone. To add to this the contrast in performance spaces really made you think as a performer, what I mean by this, is when we on the smaller stage you had to think about how to make your performance big and lively, even in the small space so by making your gestures bigger or your voice louder. Also with the change of space, we had to change how we did the sections in which we went into the audience, as we had different styles of seating, which meant we had to perform more up and out at the college performance, but more down and out with the children.

Overall I think that both performances went really well and that our research had shown that our performance did appeal to our young target audience and did work well as a performance on its own.

Lesson 24 - 10/12/15

10/12/15

Today we did a tech run through.

Things that I can have been improved:

- I need to learn the order more confidently so that my performance becomes more fluent I can improve this by writing the order down from memory and what each section entails for my character.

- I need to learn my narrators lines so that i can execute them with more dynamics and inflection to appeal to our target audience more.

-  I need to add more music in certain scenes to make the performance more fun and upbeat to get this done go over with megan. 

- I need to interact with the audience more to make it appealing for the target audience, to do this practice delivering the lines to friends or family.

- I need to improve my focus within scenes so that I do not corpse or get distracted within a scene to improve this I will make sure that I am prepared and in the zone. 

To improve the overall performance :

To improve overall we need to develop our transitions between scenes for example between the spaceship and the cave scene, to do this we need to keep walking through the order so that everyone knows it as a result the piece would be more fluent and the goings on within the storyline will be clearer which suits our target audience as they are of a younger age, therefore the fluidity and structure will appeal to them because they need to be able to understand to enjoy our performance.

To add to this we need to improve our use of audience interaction like when someone asks them a question, for example the gnome scene, to do this we need to discuss which sections will involve this more dynamically and which just need more to improve the atmosphere making it extra lively. This will appeal to our target audience as they are stereotypically known to enjoy things that are more high energy and upbeat therefore it will keep their attention. This links with the last improvement which is enthusiasm, which is lacking in the piece and needs to be lifted due to it being boring for the children therefore them not being intrigued, to improve this we just need to be well rested and make sure that we pace ourselves within the performance.

Lesson 23 - 8/12/15

Lesson   - 8/12/15

Today we had to come in at 9 am so that we could do production roles form 9-11 so that we could then do a full run through from 11 onward.

Megan and I had already sorted out all the music so we were helping out with props, within this session I finished the pirate flag, made the fishing rod and fish for the gnomes and helped with the sides of the pirates ship. Getting these done will help because we will be able to fit in everything so our performance is much smoother and everyone knows what they are doing.



We then decided to add the new narration sections so that it all made sense otherwise it would confuse our target audience as they are of a younger age, I had written part of my the narration so we just had to slot it in so that the performance ran smoothly. To add to this we created a new opening as the dentist scene did no longer fit within the story line so we decided to change it, we now have Megan narrating and introduce different characters this then gives the performance a more clearer start and makes it have a stronger structure.


In this new scene we included three physical theatre actions these were; a roller coaster, synchronised swimming and the can can. These worked effectively as we could include a range of sound scapes and make the beginning more upbeat and entertaining, with these ideas we decided that on the roller coaster it should go around the audience to create more energy within the scene, this helps the overall performance as it gets the audience really enthusiastic and therefore makes them want to see the rest of the show.


Another thing we decided was that within the jungle scene that when Bu came in she came in as her mum character hovering to show how she can change into the game by using her imagination this enhances our theme and reminds the audience of our storyline as well as adding elements of comedy into it. These elements are also reprised again when we all join in to the bad singing of In the jungle the mighty jungle this also adds song into our performance giving a break from just acting it also gives people who are playing trees more to do within the scene.


Overall the improvements have really helped developed our performance overall and it now appeals more to our target audience by make the piece more lively. My strengths of today were finishing the props and adapting my lines to fit with the narration as well as learning my narration, to improve learn my cues better I can do this by writing down each scene with each cue.

Lesson 22 - 3/12/15

Lesson   - 3/12/15

Aim - reflect on ten minute direction lesson, full run through - compare the two

In this Lesson we did another run through.

From the run through we decided that the story needs narration otherwise it will get to confusing for our audience who are of a younger age so getting the concept is quite important. To add to this we need to add specific goals to each section so that each story has a structure and a moral to it this will benefit not only us the actors but the audiences understanding and the story in general. To add to this we decided that we should start with the end pose and then start from the beginning to make the beginning more official and give the performance a good flow and circular structure.

In the performance we need to improve referring directly to the audience more so they feel more included which will appeal to our young target audience as they like to feel involved and important. We also need to improve the links within the scenes otherwise the story line is corrupted and does not make sense.

I decided that it was a good idea that i wasn't a cave woman anymore so i had more time to get ready for the misunderstood creature section also it gave Megan a better part within this scene, this was an effective choice as it helped develop my Jelliostroth character as I had to think of an entrance/ how it would enter as well as it gave me more time to get into my character.

Within the jungle scene the use of sound scapes worked effectively making the scene more dynamic and interesting it also gave the scene more imagery which appeals to our target audience as they have very big imaginations this also links to the theme of our performance.

We decided to split the performance into 4 sections with four different narrators, I was chosen to narrate from after Gorilla Island to the last pirate section. This was a good idea as it helped add anything in that couldn't be shown through acting or didn't fit this appeals to the target audience because it makes it simple.

Targets:
I need to finish and add music into the scenes to make the performance more fun and upbeat to make it more entertaining for the target audience I need to do this by next lesson. I also need to write my narration sections so that we can change them or develop them if we need to, this also needs to be done by next lesson.

Lesson 20 - 26/11/15

First run video analysis:

At the beginning I think that we need to add a song or something to emphasize the start of the piece so its more official for our target audience. I thought that the dynamics within the first dentist scene were effective and made the first scene come to life more which as a result draws the attention of the audience which is what we want to do. However when we do the sponge-bob song I feel that we should make the ending sharper to show the real contrast of when Grandad is controlling us/our imagination and when he isn't this also adds more dynamics and makes it more professional. When Grandad is choosing what the last pair do I thought that the macarana worked well so when we do it to make sure that it is a upbeat action to keep the piece entertaining it also adds elements of comedy which appeals to our target audience of 5, 6 and 7 year olds. 

Within the football scene I liked how the audience members grouped at one side because it made it resemble a audience type of group more, although when Grandpa falls the group need to freeze quicker so all attention is on Grandad. Next is the space ship scene I think that the physical theater of the ship works well and really shows imagination enhancing our theme, anyhow I think that when we disperse into asteroids that we should do it a bit longer before we stagger off as I think that it happens to fast and may be confusing for our audience.

In the Frozen concert Timmy(Ash) needs to be more obvious when he is announcing/creating the different characters as  I feel it is not clear enough and would then confuse our audience. To add to this we need to clean or change the transition to the realistic cave scene as it is messy and isn't well structured.After this is the misunderstood creature scene within this I just had personal improvements which were to try not to laugh at myself and keep in character throughout also to tone down my creature noises when Megan is talking so that what she is saying is clearer,the rest of this scene i thought ran well.

The next scene was the gorilla Island scene, I felt that this scene went okay however was a bit chaotic as people were confused with cues and who was doing what, to improve this we need to make clear who is turning into gorillas and on what the exact cues are this will make the comedy elements in the scene more effective and obvious. Within the Fairy scene the only things i felt needed improving was to elongate the I do believe in Fairies part as it was quite rushed and I felt that we could make more of it and the audience participation as it appeals to our target audience.

The start of Pirate section was good as the physical theater movements worked effectively really adding imagery to the piece making it more fun for the target audience, the characterization was also quite good within the Pirate scene, however we need a more specific cue to freeze when Timmy leaves the pirate ship as everyone freezes at different times and its quite messy. In the under the sea scene they just needed to sort out spacing as they were quite closed off to the audience and if they cant see out target audience will lose interest or start talking as they are younger and have short attention spans, to add to this they also just need to make it more official that they win the competition and who announces it. The Mermaid scene was good but The mermaids just need come further down stage as their dialogue is key to the story line and is lost when they are that far back, the only other thing for this section was that the octopus needs to calm down when the mermaids are talking otherwise it distracts the attention away from the mermaids.

The beginning of the Gnome scene was effective as it was quite funny which will appeal to the target audience, we just need to sort out what questions we are going to ask Timmy so that we don't take too much time or blank also need to make the props for the gnomes but mime also works for the scene.

Lastly we just need to improve the transition back into the dentist scene as it is messy and confusing and we don't want to lose it right at the end, the poem at the end is good as it ties it all together as well as being fun which appeals to our young target audience and then the final position is effective as it signifies the ending making it clear we are at the end.

Lesson 21 - 1/12/15

In this lesson we were each given a scene to direct ourselves.

Jordy directed the space scene, for this he fixed up our physical theatre space ship section by making people turn into stars and planets, this made our scene more visual which appeals to our target audience. I think that this really improved the scene becuase it made the scene more relevant also it added more factual elements which really benefits our target audience.

Sam directed the rock scene, he changed it so that everyones characters wre announced he did this by getting ashley to say who is who as if he is creating the characters this as a result makes the scene clearer and more understandable which benefits our audience as they are of a younger age. I think that this works well as it adds more devising elements within the scene and make its more manageable for the actors. This change really impacted my character as it give her more of an importnace and reason to be there and not just an extra to fill room, it also gives me more to play off with what ashley says about my character.

Megan directed the misunderstood creature scene, in this she decided that she wanted all on stage to do the dance at the end so i had to teach it to everyone, including everyone within the dance gave the scene more energy giving the performance more dynamics. I liked including everyone in the dance as i feel that it makes the scene more fun for the audience but all in the scene as well.

BuBu directed the jungle scene, for this she also wanted everyone to have more of an involvement so when she mentioned gorillas the trees turned into gorillas for a second, this gives the scene more comedy which works well as our target audience like things and remember things that are funny. I liked this because it made the scene more entertaining. This change also gave my character more to do making my presence more effective and impacting on the scene.

Jess directed the Fairies scene, she decided that the trees could talk aswell to add more mythical elements so that it appeals to our audience more. She also decided to change around the song to we will rock you, she did this becuase firstly it is easier and more well know so therefore the kids will be able to join in, also it made it a lot more simpler this meant that everyone could join in better making it overall more effective. I like the change of song as I knew it better it is also more catchy, therefore the children can participate more.

Ash directed the transition into pirates from fairies, he decided to make it that it is timmys idea to leave the fairies, this worked the best as it shows the direction of the story more also it highlights how it is timmys imagination that is creating all of the story. He also decided that we should make everything bigger to keep the scene more interesting so it doesnt lose the high energy. I think that this was effective as it keeps the scene simple but effectual.

Max directed the Pirate scene, his overall choice was that the scene needed more set to then involve the mermaids more, he chose this as first of all it involved everyone but it also showed the location making it more understandable for the children it also made the scene more creative and fun which appeals to our target audience. I like the adding of set becuase it makes the scenes more sciting and captivating for our target audience, it impacts my character as well as it makes it more obvious of where she is from/who she is.

Olivia directed the mermaid scene, she decided to change around some of the dialogue within the scene becuase some of it didnt link, this makes the storyline more clear. After that she mainly just cleaned  the scene so it was more slick making it more professional.

I directed the Dance off scene, For this I just wanted  make the transition into it clear so that it wasnt confusing for the children. I then decided to clean the spacing so that they were more open towards the audience as they were quite closed making it hard for the audience to see. I also changed the ending slightly as it was rather random, I made so it was obvious they won as they were now a team this gives the scene a moral teaching the audience that working as a team is good. 

The Gnome scene wasnt re directed as it was new so it was how everyone wanted also because it was so short there wasnt much to be changed. I like this scene as its quite simple and mainly comedy so its like a small break within the performance and is refreshing for the audience.

Jordy and Ash then directed the end scene, this consisted of us coming in pairs as our characters and bowing, they decided what order and what characters, this works well as it firstly gives a range of characters throughout and gives the kids reminders of what has occured within the performance. 

Lesson 19 - 24/11/15

Lesson   - 24/11/15


In this lesson we did a full run through and filmed in so that we could then do video analysis in the next lesson.

I felt that doing a full run through was really helpful because it really helped my knowledge of the order which then as a result helps improve the fluidity of the performance. To add to this it really highlighted to us that we needed to improve the transitions between scenes or at least develop them so that all the scenes fit together and make sense because if it is too confusing it wont appeal to our target audience who are of a younger age and if they don't understand they will lose interest which is something we do not want.

Throughout the run through i feel that my characters really developed as I could easily see where they were coming from, how they fit within the scenes and where their particular stories were going.
I think that most of my characters one way or another impact the scenes that they are involved in whether they help with the story line its self or just add more elements/dynamics to a scene, for example the Jelliostroth adds elements of comedy to the piece making it appeal more to our target audience as well add more movement aspects to the performance.

In this rehearsal i felt that my strengths were use of energy and focus, I showed these through keeping my enthusiasm up in a scene as well as keeping in character. My weaknesses for this lesson were knowing the order of the piece as it then affected how prepared I was for each scene whether it was words or props to improve this I need to write down the order how they link and what I need for each scene and go over it.

I think that the piece is progressing quite well and is really coming together, I think that once everyone is confident with the order and the final story line it will be stronger, I think that the piece will really develop once we include all our props and costumes as everyone will start to really get into character and the performance will become more upbeat and animated which appeals to our young target audience. Doing the full run through was really beneficial for production roles as it helped everyone be able to finalize everything within their role for example with a stable story line / structure to the piece, Megan and I were able to block the music to the performance and work out what sounds or music we still needed for the performance.

Lesson 18 - 19/11/15

Lesson 18 - 19/11/15

In this lesson we aimed to finish and clean the space, forest scenes and create the ending scene.

We split up into two groups, the fairy group and people who werent in that scene to create the ending.

I was in the ending group. We came up with the idea that we should be garden knomes living next to the door to get back to the dentist that stop Timmy from getting back as they think he would make a good knome and want to interview him. 

I came up with the idea that we should be quite funny knomes that stay still when timmy is looking at us but move when he isnt and shuffle around this adds a comedy element to the scene which is appealing for the target audience as younger children enjoy things that are funny as well as remember them more. 

We then decided that Grandad should be in on the joke as he is friends with the knomes as he used to be one, within this bit we decided to get ash to ask the audience if they believed him that the knomes were alive as well as asking some to be knomes by giving them either a knome hat or a beard this part was my idea. This makes our piece more fun and makes the audience feel more involved within the story, and with our particular target audience, audience incorporation works as it keeps the children involved and interested.

We then went through the fairy scene with the rest and decided to add a small version of a sing off between the fairies and Timmy with the trees, we chose to do this becuase it added more musical elements to the scene as well as making it more upbeat and happy which helps keep the fairy vibe up as they are known to be happy creatures. The two songs decided were Shake it off by Taylor Swift and Happy by Pharell Williams, this song occurs due to an argument between sides so this is effective as it represnts a non-violent fight which appeals to our target audience. I then volunteered to choreographing the shake it off section. 

Personal Performance timeline:

Childrens Theatre Stimuli

For children's theatre we have looked at many stimuluses to gather ideas from. We started off by looking at the national curriculum in key stage 2 so that we could see what they are learning as a result we can infuse the information within our performance, so it is not only fun but beneficial for the children. From looking at the national curriculum we chose to focus on Space and The Stone Age, as a group we created a mind map for the two themes with ideas for characters, story lines and destinations here is what we came up with:
                                                         

After this we then started looking at other children theatre practitioners to see what they have done successfully and appeals to the target audience. A main one we looked at was the show The marvellous Imaginary Menagerie by Les Enfants Terribles, here is the trailer:

From this production we saw that they used features like colour, costume and song to make the performance more upbeat and engaging for the children which is a key point for our production. The song creates a break from just speaking and sometimes can help with the story line if it is getting too complicated. Also the crazy costumes and colours really help the children ignite their imaginations and get into it more, making them use their minds.



Another stimuli we had was Fairytales and Mythical themes in general. We focussed a lot on Pirates, Mermaids, Fairies and gnomes. For Pirates we stuck with the stereotypical Pirate themes like treasure, scrubbing the deck and their dialogue like the word aye, we incorporated this into the movements and our characterisation. The fairies were based on the more pantomime like fairies who are quite ditsy, airy and very typical girly. The same with the mermaids however with a lot of the mermaid mythical history mermaids are known for being good and bad so we thought it be a good idea to portray this within the performance. Lastly the gnomes are very humour based as they are quite odd and small we thought it be good to add them in as we had had quite a few girly based characters so we thought we would make it more equal.

My scene improvements.

The scene I am in charge of is the Under the scene Dance off.

I like the story of this scene and the characters.To improve it i would sort out their spacing and ending.

Firstly i would make the two sides seaweed/houses go on diagonals instead of been comletely side on as the audience cant see it properly and we miss some of the dialogue within the scene. I would also spread them out a tad as they are quite squashed in the middle of the stage instead of using the entire space.

I would then sort out the ending becuase they dont show clearly how they win the competition, so we need to add a judge to announce it or something that makes it obvious they won instead of them just going yeah we won as soon as they get to the "competition". 

Maybe to add more to the scene we could make the children put hands up and say its a tie, then do a tie breaker in which they both dance at the same time to give a bigger finale before Sam finally deciding the winner. 

Overall I would just clean the scene up to make it more polished and add more dynamics to it becuase it has quite a good structure.

Dance 17/11/15

Dance 17/11/15

We started by making a timeline of the dance for ourselves linking each movement or section with either the emotion we are conveying or what the section represented.

I liked doing this because it really helped us focus particular sections on specific emotions really developing our characters, its also effective because it helps give us an overall feel for our piece so we understand the concept. My character makes an impact on this piece as I represent the victims of gangs/riots, throughout the dance my character interacts differently with other people depending on how they are treating me for example at one point i feel that some of the gang accept me so my character becomes more confident before being knocked down again when attacked.

We then rehearsed our piece incorporating these emotions making the piece more energetic and dynamic.

I then went through the piece and decided on costume ideas and why they would work my ideas were:

Hoodies- I think that hoodies would be a big part as first they are a steretypical symbol for gangs but it also complements the choreography as we do quite agressive movements grabbing the hoodie, then as a result really helps with our characterisation.

Trainers- This also adds to characterisation and it is very commercial and alot of the movements are down into the ground as well as there is a lot of contact work.

Trackies/ Baggy trousers- This links with the hoodies as the baggy look adds to the gang stereotype and adds more to our characters.

Plain top - This is effective as its simple and doesnt distract from the choreography and also symbolises unity which is one of our themes within the overall gang theme.

I also did some lighting ideas, I think that in the contact scene we should use red lighting as the red connotes anger, aggression and blood.

Targets:

 I need to improve my use of dynamics by improving my control. To do this I need to do core exercises at least three times a week for example sit ups or crunches, i am aiming to achieve this by the week of the performance. 

Lesson 17- 17/11/15

Lesson 17 - 17/11/15

We started off this lesson by doing a schedule plan, this was so that we could work out what needed to be done and how we were going to fit it all in. This works well becuase then everyone knows what is going on as well as whether they need to bring anything for that specific lesson.

We then did production roles, Megan and I are Sound, however we had already chosen all the music and created a playlist, we can't carry on until we have a tech run. As a result we joined props for the day, this was a good idea as it helps get more done helping our piece progress more. We took a progress vlog at the beginning of the lesson to show what our aims were for the session and then took another one at the end to show some of what we achieved here are the videos:

Lesson 16 - 12/11/15

Lesson 16- 12/11/10

In todays lesson we needed to work on the second half of our performance this meant that we needed to work on the mermaid and pirate scenes. So we split up into the two groups and went over what material we already had for the sections we then put them together. As a pirate we had done a lot of physical theatre stuff and had asmall structure of where our scene had to go. We started off our scene by just doing some typical pirate physical theatre moves like mopping the deck, drinking rum, climbing the rigging and steering the ship, we then had to fast forward to the part in which we had to confess our love to the mermaids whilst they were distracting us, for this we cam up with the idea of creating a chant which then turned into making a song, the original chant we chose was we love you mermaids we do, we love you mermaids we do, we love you mermaids we do. oh mermaids we love you. We chanted this a few times with stereotypical pirate accents this was to make it more obvious to our target audience to what we were and more relatable for them. We then sta down as a group to come up with more lyrics we came up with 

We love Mermaids and thier shimmery scales,

We love hearing about mermaid tales,

We wish with our rum that mermaids were true,

and thats why mermaids we love you.

I kinda fail at doing a pirate accent as well as jess, so we came up with me being the big bulky pirate that has a growly voice and Jess being the very childish pirate once had created the song we added it with the chant so the order was chant, song, chant, chant and on the last chant we did a can can to make it more humourous for our audience. This decision made the song longer and have more of an official ending so the children can tell when the song is going to finish. We then performed it to the other group, once we had shown them they gave us peer analysis and after break we went back and used the evaluative comments to improve our scene, one of the comments was to add more dialogue so it should be how we find timmy on our ship and to come up with our names i came up with my name as elizabeth as such a feminine name contrasts with the big, bulky exterior of my character making her more interesting , the other pirate names were Captain Jim, Clive, Jack and jackjimmyjames.  I think that all our characters really impact our scene as prates are normally known are in a crew so each member makes the crew and i dont think the scene would have the smae atmosphere without the different personalities.  We then added all of it together to create out scene so we had the movement physical theatre the dialogue section on finding timmy and introducing our characters before the song. 

strengths-  working as a team to create the song.

weaknesses-  Doing a pirate accent and being negative agaisnt myslef.

target: My first target is to practice my pirate accent i could do this by talking as much as possible in the accent as well as write out how to sound the words in the accent do this over the next two weeks. To add to this I need to go over scenes by writing out each scene and what my character dooes within this do this at least three times by next lesson,  I also need to sort costumes, I can achieve this by writing a list of what I need and checking when I get home and lastly be more positive.

Lesson 15 - 10/11/15 and Dance 10/11/15

Lesson 15- 10/11/15 and Dance 10/11/15

We started this lesson by going through the first dentist scene and really cleaning it so we knew exactly what was going to happen and what to say. We felt as a group that whislt the car scene was going on the people in the background in the dentist scene made the energy really low as we are silent and still so we decided that we should move a little making noises like tapping feat to creat small sound scapes within the scene, mine were gently banging my chair and sighing. This overall added more energy to the scene, made it more pleasing to the eyes and ears and was very effective. Once we had decided these we then ran through a few times till everyone had it down and could really develop there characters in that part; we then carried on doing the part where the Grandpa tells all the people what to do usually he makes it up everytime but we decided that we wanted ones that were going to be the same everytime so we wouldnt freeze on stage, the Grandpa says that we are able to talk through ur minds becuase we are siblings, Max and I as that is the pair we were sitting in came up with the idea that we start singing the spongebob squareoants tune together as we were bored of waiting, using the spongebob tune is effective as it is a kids programme therefore appealing to our target audience and  making them be able to relate to it more and our characters as well as establish who they are. We then have the transition to get into a imaginary memory scene in which the dentist area turns into a football field, Megan, Max and I are supporters in the sides i campe up wth the idea to make up chants with the footballers names and doing a mexcian wave through our stand, this gave our stand members a better vbe and more to go off of then just wooing and clapping. Subsequently we then go into the space ship scene in which we use physical theatre to create the rocket before becoming the starts/astoids before they crash on cave man island.

After this we kept rehearsing it to get it right, before continuing onto the next scene which is the cave man scene which we had redone last lesson, we had to icnorporate the rest of the group into the scene as a result we had to change it around as certain people couldn't be their parts anymore so instead of Jimmy Hendrocks we are at a frozen concert and meet Anna and Hans this definitely  appeals to the target audience as Frozen is one of the most popular kids films as well as very well known music. Once we had finsihed that we ran over the misunderstood creature a scenes a few times to make sure evryone knew how they werve involved in the scene.

Dance- 

In this dance session we went through our routine a few times going over certain sections so everyone had the right leg or was looking the right direction. Once we had done that we then went over the new sections more closely as some had forgotten their duets we had choreographed last lesson, Max and I felt ours was a bit complicated so we slightly changed ares as it made us travel to far. After that we started on the ending, we had finshed laying on the floor in the last section to represent that we had all lost our fights Bubu then comes on and walks around this kind of symbolises to see if there are any survivors/ collecting up her gang everyone slowly gets up and into a clump execpt from me once they are all in the clump i start crawling to the centre back into the position i started in the beginning tp shwo a full circle and to show how things never end, i look down before they all jump foward at me simulatneously i fall forward and the we have a black out to represent that the gang have killed me. The full circle shows violence never ends well as well as how a gang works as one, the use of levels at he end adds more dynamics to the ending of the dance aswell.

targets: practise new changes and ending.

Lesson 14 - 5/11/15

Lesson 14- 5/11/15

In this lesson we started by discussing what needed working on and we decided that we needed to work on the fairy scene and the cave man scene as they hadnt been done in a while and needed polishing/developing. I am in the cave man scene. We felt as a group that the cave man scene was a bit short and low energy so decided to add another part to it at the begining as the "Rock" concert, creating a pun as the section is based on the Stone Age, we then discussed how we could do it and came upw with the fact that they crash and land in the middle of a rock concert, we decided on a concert as it will involve music and maybe a dance number this would bring up the energy of the scene and make it more appealing for our target audience. 

We also had to incorporate one of our main characters Timmy. We decided that our rock star was going to be called Jimmy Hendrocks another pun as its like Jimmy Hendricks but instead its rocks. Jimmy and Timmy obviously we then created that there was some kind of mix up, this adds a bit of a comedy element to the scene. Timmy still being the imaginer throughout our performance he decided who all our characters are as the scene goes on i end up beign a cave woman fan girl for jimmy hendrocks with sam. Whilst all this comotion is going on Sam realises that none of this is factually correct and is like wait a minute it is then that we goback  to the original cave scene which is more factually correct this will be appealing for the teachers who will then bring their students to see our piece. 

Once we had finished devising the scene we could then go over it better this was helpful as it made it easier for me to develop my characters as i could see where they fit into the scenes clearer. In the cave woman scene i made a few changes for character being that she could undertsand both cave man language and modern day english this then easier for the children to understand what is going on making it more entertaining as a result, also then my characters interacts with both sides of the story making it more interesting and more fun to characterise. A major chage was that Max and I shortened our fire chant so that it didnt take that long becuase we didnt have to fill up as much time as we did before. 

Combining these two scenes reall adds to the whole piece in general as it adds more material but it also adds more information as well as helps all the sotry come together make the whole imagination journey story line clearer o our young target audience.

strengths for this lesson was helping come up with new ideas, weaknesses trying to merge the scenes to create one scene. 

Self target : find out more facts for our performance theme for example, how long have cave people been around for? What did they eat? what did they draw in caves and why? find these by next lesson. 

Dance 3/11/15

13/11/15

In this dance lesson we were going through what we had so far within our final piece, we had to change it due to fact of people who werent there or no longer in certain sections. We went through some sections and cleaned them up or changed them slightly, for example in the unison section with the original motif we did final placings so that we used the stage more efficiently we then decided after the spin and were all facing down stage right to take cues from Sam as everyone could see him then as a result everyone would be on time with eachother making our our performance more fluid. After this section the boys do their trio whilst some of us girls are sitting in a diagonal line on the other side of the stage watching them, i came up with the idea to sit in a certain way to add more characterisation and projection this also enhances the themes of the piece more.

We then ran theough the piece again before carrying it on, we then went through our two gang sections and put them in it we changed ours around in it and took out the punching moves replacing them with different arm and leg movements before continuing with our next moves, after this we then spread out and started doing partner work to present a fight after doing a lift, i was with Max. max and I had to come up with a small sequence that looked like we were fighting but we had to be linked in someway the whole time i came up with the idea that we could use things like punches and slaps to ingite turns or drops to create levels as well as dynamics this section was good becuase it allowed us to use physical skills as well as performance skills such as projection and co-ordination.

My strengths for this lesson was Choreograph my duet, with Max as well as rembering all the material. My weaknesses were my stamina and strength, to improves these i need to do exercises to tone and strengthen my muscles this could then help with my control.

Lesson 13- 3/11/15

Lesson 13 - 3/11/15

We started this lesson by warming up, we then gathered around the board and discussed what we were doing for todays lesson. This lesson was focusing on devising and adding more material to our childrens theatre performance. We then split up into three groups and were ech given a situation in which had to take place in oujr scenes, i was with Max and Megan. Our situation was that we found a misunderstood creature wither from space or under the sea, this was so that it linked with our themes but specifically with the space, the key stage two national curriculum. As a group we decided that it should be from space as that was more efficient for the piece as it slipped in easier than if t was an underwater scene.

I came up with the idea that we each think of an animal and combine them to come up with our strange creature i came up with an Ostrich and then the other two came up with a jelly fish and a sloth so overall i came up with the name of the Jelliostroth, a creature that was one of the last of its kind that lived on space, had the head of a jelly fish, legs of an ostrich and arms of a sloth, to make it understood we decided that becuase it had been apart from others for so long it had its own language so no would undertstand it. This would appeal to our target audience as children like weird and crazy things especially if they are funny. I was then nominated to be the creature as i was the smallest of the group, we also decided that we should structure the scene like it was a documentary of the going extinct Jelliostroth. The scene has to be around 5 minutes this was so that it wouldnt drag as with our target audience you have to make it energetic and dynamic so they dont lose interest, becuase of this we decided that the creature gets a bit of time at the beginning by itselfs before they creep up on the creature and start talking about it beofre they go to capture the creature in a net ti get a closer look at it however the cretaure notuces them to soon and scares them they then try again but this time the creature grabs the net and chases them back before catching them this is effective for our audience as it adds a bit of comedy to the scene so it doesnt get boring, within our scenes we had to incorporate skills in which had been scene in another childrens theatre group called imagine menagerie. One of these features was the use of silence we included this in our piece when they the creature and the people meet to show the shock as well as put a hint of comedy in the scene. 

At the end of the scene they  have become friends and we had to involve a dance routine of some sort within our scene so we decided as a group that it would fit best at the end so then everyone could be in it and it would give our scene a climax. The creature leads the dance and the others follow just after using canon as well as a bit of action reaction. The dance is effective becuase its a bit of fun and creates an upbeat and happy atmosphere within the audience. My character really impacts this piece as the creature adds comedy elements to the scene but also helps tell the story, my character starts off not liking the new people but then once they come to an understanding it forgives them for what they tried to do. 

I think that within this lesson my strengths were my focus and my characterisation, my weaknesses would be my projection as i need to involve myself with more lines and be more open for lines and to be more confident.

Next time i think we could add more dialogue into the scene to give it a more detailed storyline to malke it more interesting and so it could then go further.

Assignment brief questions - 3- What are the key features of a theatre production that make it more suitable for younger audiences?

Assignment brief questions - 3-

 What are the key features of a theatre production that make it more suitable for younger audiences?

I looked at many different children theatre companies the majority say that they want to encourage imagination, broaden learning as well as entertain. Polka Theatre think the way to do this is by being ' resonant, engaging and fun,exciting & entertaining' therefore as a result getting the kids ' to provoke ideas, thoughts, questions about yourself and the world'. Unicorn Theatre think the way to do it is to inspire young people 'empowering them to explore the world- on their own terms- through theatre'. All these elements make it suitable for a younger audience as they are at the point where they are very impressionable and becoming their own so not only do the companys entertain the younger viewers which is a key feature for them as they usually have short attention spans but they also are informing the kids with life morals as well as facts.

Assignment Brief questions- 2- How can we link our production to the national curriculum effectively?

Assignment brief questions

How can we link our production to the national curriculum effectively?

Our performance links quite effectively with the national curriculum in various ways. In key stage 2 they study both the Stone Age and Space. Within Science they study Animals inlcuding Humans in this they have to know that humans 'the right types and amount of nutrition' from the national curriculum, this links with our piece as within in our Stone Age section we show that the cave people require the fire as it supplies things such as food and warmth which as a result gives life. Also within science they look at Rocks by doing the Stone Age we show how rocks were used for back then and how old they are the national curriculum says that they should be 'exploring how and why they might have changed over time' therefore we help provide this information by showing them the life circle of rocks from an early start. Furthermore in science they study light, for this one thing the national curriculum says is that the children need to 'recognise that they need light in order to see things' this is also shown through our fire scene as fire was the only source of light they had within the evenings or dark places closed of from the sun.

Within history, for the national curriculums purpose of the study they said it 'should inspire pupils curiosity to know more about the past' i feel that we do this by showing how exciting the past can be through our perfomance, by making it more appealing to them through song and comedy as it is more memorable. To add to this also within the purpose of the study they have to 'understand historical concepts such as continuity and change' this is shown through the exchange between the cave people and modern people who introduce flint to the cave people shwoing that change can be a good thing, flint obviously being a large part of the Stone Age.

All quotes are from https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/425601/PRIMARY_national_curriculum.pdf 

Lesson 11 - 20/10/15

Lesson 11 - 20/10/15

We started this lesson by doing warm ups to wake us up, once we finished we then split into two groups to go over two different scenes to improve/develop them. My group consisted of Jess, Max, Megan and myself, we were going through Max and I's cave scene and incorporating Megan and Jess through physical theatre, Max and I came up with the idea that they should be the fire and as our chant progresses and we add the star dust their movemnt gets more vigourous to represent the fire building. This is effective as it makes the scene more exciting and makes the children use their imagination more as well as add more thetare skills within this particular scene. We then discussed how we were going to intergrate the facts within our scene to make it infotainment, so i said that we should write them on a chalk board acting as cave paintings then as a result it would all appeal to our target audience as they in our target age category they are doing the Stone Age at school in their curriculum so they will benefit from the facts. 

Once we did this we had to slot the scene back into the whole piece working with our new material and added in the other guys who were doing the other scene, we decided as a group that it would be effective if we got them to act as the cave surrounding us so it is more realistic. After this we through around some more ideas as a group in which we could imbibe more Stone Age material using the whole group so we came up with Woolly Mammoths, to represent this we split into two Max and I had to ride a mammoth each so the others became the mammoth through the use of physical theatre, we then came up with that we should be on someones back to emphasize the the size of a mammoth, this was not a final decision so we just kept playing around with different ideas until break.

After break we went back through the first scene the dentist scene to make it more precise and have more energy. With the new introduction of Jordy's character Timmy's Grandpa whose aim is to make Timmy believe in imagination, so we came up with the idea that the dentist room is quite dull until Grandpa clicks his fingers in which we then in our pairs in the waiting rooms did chair duets. I was with Max, Max and I came up with 9 movements but in sets of threes to give it a rhythm, my first three movements that i came up with were me snatching Max's magazine, looking at it and then licking it, my second set were me standing up, stepping to the other chair and then stropping in the other chair as Max had taken the magazine back, I chose these movements as they fit in with my characters demographic profile of a stroppy nine year old girl. 

When everyone had finished creating their chair duets, we went onto the next Grandpa idea which was that he got choose someone and they would say what they were thinking, in Max and I's case I spoke about Peppa Pig and the latest episode that my character had watched, this once again linked with my characters demographic profile will also appeal to our target audience, I think with my characters profile impacts our piece as it makes us able to add elements such as Peppa pig that really appeals to our audience.

After this we went back through all our scenes and then added more to the space scene as only three were involved in this scene so we had to think of ways to incorporate everyone we eventually came up with that everyone should become the space ship with physical theatre so the audience could envision it better also will be more effective then a prop, Sam then says that we have hit a astroid belt at this we all (people as rocket) disperse and start spinnning and running around them as stars and astroids this worked effectively as it really got the space vibe across the scene and made this particular scene more dynamic.

I think that in this lesson my strengths were coming up with movements for my characters within the scenes we rehearsed as well as adding factual elements and more making it more efficient and appealing for our target audience. My weaknesses were trying not to corpse within one of my scenes and to keep focused, however i feel that towards the end my focus did improve.

self targets- improve my focus by practicing different techniques.

self homework- do research on my characters demograpahic profiles so i have more material to base my movements/words in scenes on.

Lesson 12- 22/10/15

Lesson 12 22/10/15

We took time to research Children's Theatre, the aims of it and peoples opinions. For example I looked at diverse opinions, as well as Specific Children Theatre companie's Artistic policies and peoples reviews of these, I found at least three of each thing so I had enough research to back up my answers  to the questions in which we didnt know yet. I also researched the children's national curriculum for our target audience to also give me more sources, i found that a lot of the children's theatre companies advertise T.I.E, Theatre in education making it easier to argue for children's theatre if that was relevant to a question. 

Once we had researched we found out our three questions:

 - Name and discuss the most successful theatre companies currently producing work for younger audiences in the uk?

- How can we link our production to the national curriculum effectively?

- What are the key features of a theatre production that make it more suitable for younger audiences?

We had to then use our research to answer the first question i wrote about the theatre companies such as Polka theatre and Unicorn Theatre. I spoke how they were successful due to their wide demographic audience as well as their aims to educate as well as entertain their audience, using infotainment not only helps the kids but attracts teachers as well.

Self target: for the next questions work faster and write more, do this by focusing more.

Theatre companies:

http://www.actorsofdionysus.com/about-us/artistic-policy/

http://www.polkatheatre.com/editorial/artistic-policy

http://www.theatrehullabaloo.org.uk/about-theatre-hullabaloo/

http://www.theatrehullabaloo.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Teaching-Drama-February-2015.pdf

Lesson 10- 13/10/15

Lesson 10- 13/10/15

all- Understand/begin production roles 

most- Achieve considerable progress with production roles

some- Feedback confidently and assign tasks to others.

  Today we focused on our production roles, and started doing all the elements that will add to our piece and make it a performance. I am doing the music with Megan. We started by going through and writing down each section that we thought needed music and what kind of atmosphere we wanted to create within that particular moment. The sections that we came up with were:

Dentist waiting room- for this we wanted a busy but casual feel however, we needed it to be like a usual waiting room so we need to make it like a radio.

Space/rocket journey- we wanted a fast song that made you feel like you were going on an adventure.

Caveman- we wanted a tribal drum based song giving that era feel.

forest/fairies- For this we wanted a mythical light twinkly kind of tune that gave the feel of magic.

Pirates- We wanted stereotypical pirate music for this to make it very obvious for the target audience.

Mermaids- This we wanted to be similar to the fairies sequence but with a more tropical under water feel to it.

We looked through itunes and youtube for each section typing in key words that we thought could come out with the closest outcome, for example for the rocket journey we typed in things like flying and space. We made sure that the majority of them were quite upbeat and modern so they were more entertaining for the target audience so they wouldnt loose interest or in some cases feel tired. We also looked up popular kids songs/tunes that could link or did link with the themes making it more correct, and if there were ones with factual content we then were doing infotainment.

Our final decisions for our music choices were:

 Dentist waiting room- We chose two pop songs to act as radio music, radios usually have a variety of music so we chose Rachel Plattens Fight Song and Whitney Houstons I Wanna Dance With Somebody.

Space/Rocket journey- we ended up choosing Flying from Peter Pan (2003) movie, this one was good as not only is it from a kids film making it more approproate for our target audience but at this moment of the movie they are flying through space therefore linking with the theme of the section.

Caveman island- We decided on MIni-sloths sing-a-long from Ice Age 2, this wasa god choice as it was recognisable for the kids so therefore they can link the scene with the time era of the film, it is also very fun keeping it fun for the target audience. 

Forest/Fairies- We ended up choosing Fairy Dance also from the Peter Pan (2003) movie, this is fit perfectly for the atmosphere we wanted to create within this scene and really helps the actors connect with their characters.

Pirates- For pirates we have decided to use Skull and Crossbones from Pirates of the Caribbean, as it was very stereotypical pirate music making it relatable for the target audience, and helps lift the atmosphere of the scene.

Mermaids- We chose Mermaid Lagoon a track we found from youtube, this one was very lively and magical really enhancing the underwater mood of the section. 

http://worthingpateam.blogspot.co.uk/2015/10/production-roles-info-childrens-theatre.html  this is our final list of our song options and links to listen to them. 

Dance sheets- 15/09/15

Lesson 9 - 8/10/15

Lesson 9 - 8/10/15

all- participate in run through, agree on synopsis and volunteer for production role

most- contribute ideas towards improvements, describe production role.

Some- Gain strong understanding of production/role and requirements for next stages of rehearsal.

First thing we did was had to create our own suggested synopsis for our childresn theatre piece. Mine was : 

- Dentist

- Dreamland

- Space

- Stoneage

- Back to reality

- Sleep

- Mermaids/Pirates

- Dentist

- Leaving

We then discussed all of our suggested synopsis' and came up with a final synopsis.

Final Synopsis:

- Dentist arrives/ Timmy collected from school

- Dentist treatment room

- Timmy into space to see galaktic football

-  Lands on Caveman Island (star dust exchange)

- Return journey crash in forest(timmy believes, fairies shrink them)

- Pirates steal Timmy/dust and take him on a mermaid mission ( pirates dont know he has dust)

- Timmy helps mermaids and returns to mum

Then once we had done this we discussed our production roles, by discussing i mean chossing what one we wanted to do. The final production roles were:

Props- Max and Rosa

Costume- Olivia and Elliott

Sound- Talia, Megan and Ash

Lighting- Sam

School Liason- Bubu, Jess and Ash

For sound i need to go through our performance with Megan and Ash and block ideas for music in each scene making sure they add the right atmosphere or help highlight the location in which that particular scene takes place, we then need to learn all the cues and run it theough with everyone else.

We then got up and did a excersize where we were given a scenario and then one by one had to do a freeze frame for someone involved in the scenario this helped us develop our add and accept rule as people would have to base there involvement within the scene with what other people were doing. Once everyone was in their places Rachel would say go and the scene would come to life and we had to go with whatever happened. We then were put into pairs and had to do a mirroring excersize i wasnt very good at this as i kept getting confused between copying sam and mirroring him. After this we then ran through our childrens theatre piece but now fitting it to our synopsis, so we started with the Dentist arriving/ Timmy being picked up section, we ran through it once and then went back and refined so we knew when to put the cross cutting in between the two parts and how everyone else slotted in to the scene. Within this scene we have four sections, The dentists room, waiting room, reception and the car. We then decided in the different parts of the scene who would be verbal and who would be non-verbal. Here was the final decisions.

1. receptionists-Verbal

2. Car- Verbal, Receptionists- non-verbal

3. waiting area-verbal, Dentist- non-verbal

4. Car-Verbal

5. Reception- Verbal, timmy@reception- Verbal, waiting area- non-verbal

6. Waiting area- non-verbal

7. waiting area- non-verbal, receptionists- non-verbal, dentist- verbal

Dance- 6/10/15

Dance - 6/10/15

In dance we went over all the routines/movements we had done in the past lessons, just so that they are always in our minds also it helps us keep the theme and atmsophere of our routines in our minds.

We then sat down and had to create a mindmap on Gangs, by this i mean what we thought of when we thought of gangs so particular words like guns and money. Here is my mind map:

We then had to pick six of our words and come up with a small sequence involving movements that represented the six words that you chose. My words were Money, Guns, Knives, Status, Unity and Identity. We had to make sure that our sequwnce was fluent enough that you couldnt tell when one movement ended to when one began. Once we had finished we performed them infront of everyone.

We then got put into pairs i was with Jess, we showed eachother our movements we then had to create another sequence combining our movements/words that we had chosen originally. This worked well as our different movements went well together once we finished it we kept practising it and adding more character to certain parts so it was more effective also adding different dynamics to make it more diverse for example we start walking forward really slowly then jump sharply into the next movement.

We then performed them to the rest of the group.

The group was then split into two and we had to create a small routine to go in a 'fight scene' against the other group but not actually hurting one another. We started off throwing around ideas that we had, and how we wanted our 'gang' to be represented so we focused on the word unity and how we are all one. We started coming on one by one doing the same thing to show this. This worked well as we really got our characters and theme showing through it, improving our focus as a group so we could then create the intimidating atmosphere that we wanted. Once we did that we performed them facing the other group whilst they were performing to really get across the rivalry theme, we then added music to it making everyone on edge within the pieces making the atmosphere perfect for the wanted scenario.

targets: improve my strength so I can complete contact sections more easily i will do this by focusing on strengthening when excersizing. Also improve my flexibility, to do this i will stretch more times every week.

Lesson8- 6/10/15

lesson 8- 6/10/15

We started off by splitting into two groups, mermaids and Pirates. I am in pirates. We then had to come up with four movements on our own that fit with the stereotype of our characters. For mine I did one where I was holding my pirate hat, one where i was stabbing someone with my sword, steering the ship and looking out at sea. We then got into twos/threes within our groups and showed our different movemnets to one another, once we did that we had to combine them all to create a little sequence and then presented to the rest of our groups. Doing all of these excersizes worked well as it really helps us improve our movement vocab. It was easier for the pirates to create movement as pirates have a lot of stock movement. 

After we created the movement we started on creating characters, this was fun and also easier due to the stereotype of pirates. I made my character the captain and called myself Captain Swan, my characters issue was that she has a fear of sharks. We then had to plan out the ship in our mentally so as group we went round and just said where things were so we could picture the ship in our minds. We then chose a place on the ship in which we wanted to start we then chose four of the movements that we had come up with in a group and had to do them in character, then we had to change the pace of some of the movements or repeat a movement. Changing the pace and using repetition worked well as it really adds dynamics into the performance making it more interesting to watch, we then added music to tie it all together this was good aswell as it really added an atmosphere to the performance and helped everyones focus to get into the theme of the piece. Once the intro section was over we had to start the dialogue but still stay in character with our movement and body languageso we had a juxtaposition of our movement and the dialogue, this helped as it keeps up the characters and theme within the scene.

After this as a group we then had to come up with one issue/problem for the group as a whole. We did this to add structure so we had a beginning, middle and end. The problem the prates encountered was that we hadnt found land in days and so e were running low on supplies but then we encounter mermaids and they can help us but not everyone is pleased about meeting the mermaids. Our ending we repeated the movement section to show how we were going back to routine and how pirates always have to be working because a pirate ship isnt going to sail itself. We then performed it to the other group.

After our break we then started on doing little movement pieces in twos. We had to sit in chairs next to eachother, then one by one we had to do three movements for example crossing your legs, folding your arms and looking to the left. Between us we had to have twelve movements overall in the style of Frantic Assembly. Frantic Assembly are a theatre group who create exciting, strenuous and mind blowing theatre pieces using movement,music,design and text. Using three movements made it easy to keep up a good pace, Sam and i got to twelve quite quickly as we found that putting a narrative to it made it easier to come up with the movements so we did another twelve movements but this time they were more physical like standing up or pushing one another. This was effective as it made the piece more entertaining and gave more atmosphere to the piece. We then performed our duos to the rest of the group, some people had found it hard to come up with the movements so Rachel said to add a story to it to make it easier which is what sam and I had done that we found had made it easier for us. We then had to come up with another twelve but based on our group themes so ours was pirates. This was fun as it made our movements more exciting also we could create them quicker as we could use the stereotypical movements of a pirate to our set. Once everyone had created them we made them link all together by using music making it a mini performance. I liked the chair routines as they were an interesting technique and different to just a dance number or a scene, i think we could incorporate the duo style within the dentist scene as at one point everyone is in a chair so could make it effective to show what is going on within this crazy scene but in a simpler and more unique way.

Lesson 7- 01/10/15

Lesson 7 - 01/10/15

Character work

We started this lesson doing a facebook profile for our character from last lesson. Here is mine:

This worked well because not only did it remind us of our characters but it got us o think about them in more detail and gave us more information to go off of when becoming our characters. Once we had done this we had to start making movement choices for our characters using the infomation we have just created  to do this we walked around the room in partners in a particular situation, we would then change the situation to change how our persona would change how they are walking in this specific situation, this was good because it really got us into character and helped make our characters more visual and visually interesting appealing to our target audience. 

Subsequently we then started making vocal choices to finally finish our image of our character. To do this we were in pairs again and just had a normal conversation but as our characters we had to decide whether we were going to talk high pitched, low pitched, fast, slow, lisp or maybe an accent. For my character i went with low and slow as they arent very intelectual also i made her voice quite rough as it fit with the stereotype of cave people. Once we had done all this and gathered as much as we could about our characters we then had to tell it to someone; we did this because they then have to be our voices for our characters as we mimed them in a normal situation so in this case we were having dinner at a restaurant. This worked well because it showed if you had enough detail about your characters that the other person would be able to do the voice in which you had invisioned and if they didnt then you knew you hadnt either explained right or didnt have enough information about your character. To add to this the mime activity allowed us to develop our skills on the accept and add rule also it helps you develop your insight to other characters.

After this we connected both scenes from last lesson by putting them in a same context so in this case visiting the dentist. What i mean by this is that we took all our characters and put them into the scenario visiting the dentist however to mke it more appealing for our target audience we had two worlds one being the real world and one a dream land so our original characters were in the dream land so for the real world we had to make our characters fit a somewhat normal persona. i played a child in the real world as in the dream world i couldnt really talk, an idea that i dfid is that in my particualr scene in dream land i do lost of gestural movements so i used them in the real world scene as if i was playing to link both my characters and show how the perspective the two worlds are from may have got this view of my character. 

Once we had done this we then gathered back around the whiteboard to discuss other ideas/themes that could link with the other two worlds we have and still appeal to our audience. I came up with the idea Under the sea we then had to think of problems that coukd occur within these places i came up with Pirates kidnapping a mermaid, Shark attacking the pirates and pirates finding their treasure. Ways that could link this with the real world was that the breathing gas that they would have to use to go under the water could represent the laughing gas that the dentist gives you.

Dance - 29/09/15

Dance- 29/09/15

We started by watching a contact section from faultline and discussed the dynamics used within the section and how they complimented the theme and choreography. We then did our our push, pull and lean excersize/warm up this works well as not only does it warm us up but it reminds of the themes of our current stimuli faultline. We then did another warm up excersize in pairs which warms us up even more. Once we were warm we tried out some of the new lifts in our threes from last lesson. These were all about using one another to support ourselves when jumping. After we got the hang of them on our threes we got to create our own little routines based on all the motifs and lifts we had done over the last few lessons so inlcuding all the gestural movements to link with the themes of faultline. In ours we had a ABA structure so we started as a team we then went against eachother before grouping together again to give our motif a more variety of dynamics and more of a drama element. 

When we finished them we then performed them to the rest of the groups, i think that our use of space and dynamics went well to improve need to develop the transitions between each move. Once we performed we had peer evaluation so the others told us what they think went well and what they thought we could improve we took this on board we then went back into our groups and applied the improvements to our routine. Kat then gave me  solo task for this i had to take the original motif from the first lesson and develop it through fragmentation, fragmentation is when you have the same movemnts but you just mix up the order that they are in, so i started the routine from the end. We then started a group routine for this Kat asked me to perform my original motif at the begining but i had to add a bit to the end so i ended where i started. Whilst im doing this the others are behind me doing some of the movements but using different developments to change them around eventually we end up in a V formation. 

Target: my target this week is to practise everything we have done and write down my solo task that i did also keep stretching to improve my flexibility.

My group performance - http://youtu.be/ShkWjHC1Ajs

Lesson 6- 29/09/15

Lesson 6- 29/09/15

LO's: ALL- contribute to argument for specific approach for narrative- decisions made

MOST- Develop clear ideas for characterisation(with longenity)

SOME- Overall vision or ideas that have performance potentials.

We started off splitting into two groups and creating target idea sheets, in this we had four sections which were props, characters, plot/narrative and locations; in each character there were 3 parts the first part we hd to write as many ideas that we wanted that fit the category they could be ideas that we have already done or new ones. We then had to slowly cut the down to a final amount in each section.

Here is our final sheet:

This worked well because everybody got involved so the final storyline had everyones contrubutions therefore everyone was happy with the final result. Once we had created the overall storyline we had to plan how we were going to present it to our own version of Dragons den judges. For this we each took a category and came up with what we had to say and how our own category contributed to our story.i had characters, i explained who are characters how they were connected i then said what each problems they would have how they would overcome them and what this would teach the audience. Our overall presentation didnt go as planned as some of the group hadnt prepared their section enough and made stuff up which we hadnt discussed so our story/idea didnt make sense to do better next time we will need to make sure everyone knows what they are going to say and discuss more.

After both groups have presented our two ideas we then had to have a debate in which section by section each representation of that category had to explain why theirs was more ideal for the target audience. My category happened to be first i was up against Bubu. Whilst we were debating if any others of our team wanted to help and say something they were allowed to add in. By the end the other team had got quite heated and aggressive so our team backed down just to let the other team have it as they were really trying. The debate worked to get us to discuss how everything benefitted our target audience as we were thinking of how each idea was a better way so in the end way we could see the overall best outcomes therefore we got alot more results then what we wpuld have got from just writing it down.

From this we then went back into our groups and adjusted our ideas rom what we gathered from the debate. We then created three different scenes for our scenarios these were , the moment of tension/issue, introduction scene, solving the problem. Doing this helped us refine our final idea as we could make it more realistic but still imaginative and make sure that it works. What i mean by this is when we first started we were all in the same section but when trying things out it didnt work so Max and i became different characters with our own scenario so therefore the story could plan out alot smoother how we planned. I think that our storyline and the way we used cross cutting between the two scenarios worked really well because it ensured that the story made sense but still kept it interesting also didnt make it to complicated for our target audience. To improve we could come up with a bigger way of having to sort out the issues as we resolved it quite quickly so would have to add more in.

Lesson 5- 24/09/15

Lesson 5- 24/09/15

 aims: - record scenes/songs

- listen to rhymes

- make firm decisions for next steps

We started off by going back into our space and Stone Age groups and rehearsing our pieces a few more times making sure to include our song within the piece we then performed them to the rest of the group and recorded them. It was really good to watch the other groups as it was great to see what they had come up with and how it was different to ours.

After this we then gathered back around in our chairs and we each read our rhymes that we made about our short stories we had made with our crab apple characters. It was amazing to see how creative some people were and learning about peoples talents within the literal side of things. As a group we then started discussing the postive and negatives of each section we have covered.

Rhyming dialogue:

positives: they are fun and memorable which is suitable for the target audience.

negatives: Harder to write and remember.

Crabapple Village structure:

 positives: It provides scaffolding for other stories, it is relatable for a mixed audience and is fun and imaginative.

negatives: It is quite normal and simple, also could be restrictive.

Stone Age stories+facts/Space stories+facts:

positives: It becomes infotainment so not just enteratining the children but educating aswell. A lot to go on as can reserach topics.

negatives: hard to make real facts fun at the same time and still keep them correct. 

Songs:

positives: they are contrasting and make the performances more uplifting.

negatives: tough to compose as got to make sure there not just good but factually corect depending on the theme, also hard for people to agree on words.

http://youtu.be/kEUoj3KCod4   - video of our Stone Age performance

Dance lesson - 22/09/15

Dance lesson - 22/09/15

Gesture

First of all we did a small starting activity in threes in which we had to pair up the either physical skills and performance skills with the right meanings.

Once we had done that we started off recapping the original routine from Faultine. We then watched a contact section within faultline, once we did this we split off into groups of three to try out the first one which was a balance, i was with Bubu and Rosa, for this balance we stood in a line with Bubu in the middle then Bubu would then face me and give me her wrist whilst rosa would be holding her ankle, Bubu would then extend her leg so that rosa and i are balancing her out. Once everyone had got the hang of doing the balance we then watched another contact lift on the video before trying it out. For this one Bubu would do a small run up twards rosa and i before we would lift her,in this lift Bubu had her legs in a stag postion but with the back leg extended i had to hold around her waist and her extended leg and rosa supported her bent leg; whilst doing this Bubu pushed up on our shoulders to give her more height and so that her back as straight and she wasnt looking at the ground. After we had done the lift we then had to conquer turning Bubu whilst in the lift after a few goes we finally got the hang of it and turned perfectly in sync and position, from this lift we then learnt a small transiton in which as we put Bu down rosa continues to the ground Bubu then shows her authority and  pushes rosa to the ground before kicking over my head as i bend down before doing a slicing motion with her hand this all links with the themes like pack mentality as it shows status and authority within the gangs. 

Subsequently we then gathered as a class again and discussed different gestures like peace and particular handshakes coming up with as many as we knew. Following that we then split off into small groups and had to come up with our own gestures thst fit with the faultline themes. In my group there was five of us so we started off discussing our ideas before then using them to create our own. Overall our group did three different gestrures within our gesture motif two as a two and a three then the last one all together. We then performed out gestures motif to the other group and then did peer feedback.

www: working as a group to make sure that the moves were correct also working together to share ideas and create new gestures.

EBI: My personal ebi is that my strength is improved so i can perform the lifts with more ease and control, i could do this by doing regular excersizes to tone and strengthen my muscles.