Drama devising 4

We've looked at a few versions of the 'Three little pigs' story, the politically correct one and a Roald Dahl one.

We also created a mind map of ideas for what we will be doing. 

For what we're making our group would like themes like;

• Fantasy
• Assassins
• Thieves
• Fighting/violence
• Western style
• Medieval/old days

On Tuesday we explored ritual, replicating a birthday party where we lit a cake with candles while singing, and the cutting of the cake. 

We also went on the stage dressed with masks and hats and pretended to be an assassin's guild. It was to show ritual as we were greeting each other with secret handshakes. The masks were just a novelty. 

We also have been playing around with a long piece of transparent black fabric. The teacher tells us to do something dramatic with it. Aka what it could represent, what you could do with it/how you could use it on the stage.

Drama devision record 3

The haunted bookshop part. I can't seem to move the video for it.















At the start of the first lesson of this week, we were to find 100 words. Here are my 152 which is from a book called Smith: The story of a pickpocket by Leon Garfield.

He was called "Smith" and was twelve years old. 
Which in itself was a marvel: for it seemed as if the 
smallpox, the consumption, brainfever, jailfever, and even 
the hangman's rope had given him a wide berth for fear of 
catching something. Or else they weren't quick enough. 
For Smith had a turn of speed that was remarkable, and 
a neatness in nipping down an alley or vanishing in a 
court that had to be seen to be believed. Not that it was 
often seen: for Smith was rather a sooty spirit of the 
violent and ramshackle Town, and inhabited the tumble- 
down mazes about fat St. Paul's like the strong smells and 
jaundiced air itself. A rat was like a snail beside Smith, 
and the most his thousand or more victims ever got of him 
was the powerful whiff of his passing and a cold draft in 
their dexterously emptied pockets.
These words are good for a chorus, narration or set the scene. 



We are looking at words as they can be used well for different reasons. 

- Numbers and bodies

- Chorus

- Narration

- To set a scene or a role

- To go with a theme



There are different texts that are good for this.

Oral texts such as 

- Poetry

- Telephone

- Conversation

- Speeches

- Jokes



Visual texts such as 

- Labels

- Signs

- Slide shows



Written texts such as 

- Facts

- Stories



Another text in which I will think of ways to present:

This is the first part of the first chapter of The Haunted Bookshop by Christopher Morley


If you are ever in Brooklyn, that borough of superb sunsets and magnificent vistas of husband-propelled baby-carriages, it is to be hoped you may chance upon a quiet by-street where there is a very remarkable bookshop.

This bookshop, which does business under the unusual name "Parnassus at Home," is housed in one of the comfortable old brown-stone dwellings which have been the joy of several generations of plumbers and cockroaches. The owner of the business has been at pains to remodel the house to make it a more suitable shrine for his trade, which deals entirely in second-hand volumes. There is no second-hand bookshop in the world more worthy of respect.

It was about six o'clock of a cold November evening, with gusts of rain splattering upon the pavement, when a young man proceeded uncertainly along Gissing Street. Then he pushed on for a few minutes, at last reaching the address he sought. Over the entrance his eye was caught by the sign:

PARNASSUS AT HOME
R. AND H. MIFFLIN
BOOKLOVERS WELCOME!
THIS SHOP IS HAUNTED
I could present this in a way to set a scene, after all, that is it's purpose. I removed a line or two from this text.

Drama Devision Record 2

This week we have done various activities to do with the book The Island by Arman Gura.

We used this story and it's characters to create little short bits of our own. For example, Jordon, Keiran and myself created a news report from the scene where the wall has been built. Or, we were the Fisherman's family (Jordon being the fisherman, Keiran a child and myself another child), these were individual little bits of dialogue in the style of Stanislavski. He focuses most on the indivudual. We also looked at Brecht who focuses on the role, for example "The Fisherman" "The Mother" "The Child" while with Stanislavski it's more like "The Fisherman, Ragnar who has 2 sons" or "The Fisherman's son, Gurnard who is afraid of the Stranger."

We found this character role thing fun.

Yes, I was the Fisherman's son, Gurnard, 9 years old, who was afraid of the Stranger because the last time there was a Stranger on the island, my mother was killed by a sea monster, or so my father said. I don't want my father to be killed by a sea monster either.
So by doing this, it adds individuality to the character, rather than it being "The Child" and that he is afraid of the Stranger. This time he has story to him which removes him from Brecht and moves him more towards Stanislavski.

We also used some masks while doing our news report. I chucked it on because it was like I was one of the island people. I do not have access to any pictures of our group during this activity.

Drama devision record 1

We are learning different conventions for our devising.
This week we have done a little bit of physical theatre that had strange music in the background that was more Artaud inspired. He was a theorist on the theatre of cruelty.

There is the convention of painting - perhaps showing a painting or someone painting, roman art - sculptures etc...conventions are ways of doing things. You would use different conventions depending on the theme of your play/musical.

We also watched videos of other student's performances to see the techniques that they used. These things were to inspire us for when we must create our play or musical.

Some techniques we observed were;

• Freeze frame - we also practiced this one
• Good start/finish 
• Spoken thoughts aloud
• Thoughts in the head

We spoke of the viewpoints of Anne Bogart too.

There are the nine viewpoints (copied from the document from the website)

Viewpoints of Space - Spatial Relationships, that is the distance between things on stage, people's bodies, objects or pieces of architecture.

- Architecture, that is the physical environment and the awareness of the effects of this area.

- Floor Pattern, that is the pattern on the floor that the actor makes while moving around.

Viewpoints of the Body

- Shape, that is the shape that the body makes in a space. Can be stationary or moving.

- Gesture, moving parts or a part of the body.

Viewpoints of Time - Kinaesthetic response, that is a random response to something that happens outside of you.

- Repetition, that is copying something on the stage. Does not need to be an exact copy.

- Duration, that is how long a movement or sequence of movements continue.

- Tempo, that is the rate or speed of movement.

We also used random music tracks and were told to make up a story with it.

 In this bit there was some rather intense music and so we were fighting and running about the place.