Introducing Our New Module With Community Focus
9/01/2012
Today we met five members of the Community Focus organisation; Keithon, Lillian, Juliette, Beth and Andy. Prior to this meeting; Micheal talked with us about ideas for the February performance. Because we had only just taken down the set from our performance in November, it was agreed among everyone to keep our staging minimalistic. I suggested setting a story in an office environment. But we all jumped forward with the two ideas that Micheal and Nick came up with twogether; the upcoming 2012 Olympics and a murder mystery. Developing what we could do with the latter idea, we settled with a light-murder (as in death by the smallest & most impossible cause such as being splattered by a cream pie), making the play a pantomine comedy based on a mature theme. When we had got down to establishing a final decision about the kind of play we could do, Juliette objected to the murder angle of the detecive story, so we began to search for other crimes to solve like theft. The games we had picked out for the day was freeze tabloid, based on the scenario of Help Desk, which we as an FdA group did on the first day of our tutorial week. We also did 'Grandmother's Footsteps', a game in which only one, or even two, out of the whole group faced a wall while everyone else snuck up towards them quietly. It's only when the person turns to face them do they instantly have to keep still before they are seen, otherwise that individual has to start at the back again. This isn't the first time I've done something with a specically focused group with special needs, as I spent a day on a trip to the countryside as one of my SummerUni projects four years ago. Plus I had attended a special needs primary school. Therefore, I'm already accustomed and aware that such members of the community are as human as everyone else, as Keithon and Juliette had such a strong sense of humour while Beth could hold lengthy, insightful conversation. But today has really put me back into a pattern of communicating more closely with people with other conditions and I honestly look forward to working with them on this new module.10/01/2012As we were waiting for the arrival of Community Focus, Nick split us into two groups to give two different pitches on the crime caper story we agreed on. The focus was on the theft of the Queen's Crown Jewels. The distinction between the two groups in our presentations were this; the conspiracy being reported to the police who therefore try to warn the Queen as suspects are being questioned. The other story took place after the theft at the Queen's birthday, and show a series of interrogations in the police station. We put in as much humour in the piece as possible; the DC I was playing, taking after Clueso from Pink Panther where he's not so clever, mistakingly thinks of Queen Latifah rather than the Queen of England. In Jane's specification on who the Queen is, we broke into the national anthem. But I go too far and Jane has to cut me off. Lina and Karimah Walker took on the roles of cat burglers, but we put a twist on the term so that they are both former burglars, but Lina's character literally thinks she is a cat, thus behaves like one with the exception of answering "Because I'm a cat, you idiot!" to why she wouldn't speak when spoken to. Wealso thought it would be funny to have Sophia and Mel the servants each have one posh name and a posh slang while with the Queen & a more ghetto sounding given name and slang when conversing with each other and other characters, albeit the Queen gives them new names because she struggles to pronounce their real names. We rehearsed them until Community Focus came to see our work. Keithon and Lillian joined the former group where I (DC Makearrests) was with Jane (the chief inspector), Lina(Trixy the Cat- former burglar), Karimah Walker(Bojer-her former accomplice), Regan (the Queen) and Mel & Sophia (the Queen's servants & the real thieves) as the other members joined Charlie, Dwayne, Elisha, Venice, Simone, Karimah Farrell and Eva. Their additions allowed expansion in the cast. Keithon took on the role of another chief inspector alongside Jane's character and Lillian replaced Regan as the Queen (since she perfectly resembled her) and Regan became her loyal servant. Adding to the comedy element was including of some the real Queen's dogs on the invitation list to the ball, which we didn't show due to time spent on the scenes we did have. We therefore had to patch things up with simply revealing two of the servants as the real conspiring thieves as a cliffhanger as to whether Bojer and Trixy will be unfairly charged.At the end of the day, after watching both performances, Nick picked out characters from each of them that will be preserved for the final February play and even suggested changes to some parts; Jane & Keithon as the chief inspectors, my character will originate from Jamaica (because I was wearing a Jamaica t-shirt on this day), Trixy and Bojer, Lillian as the Queen, the unfaithful servants, the other group; Charlie & Andy as the security guards, Beth as the getaway driver (adapting to her confinement to a wheelchair), Dwayne and Elisha as more thieves and Karimah Farrell, Lekhani & Juliette as the interrogating investigators. Venice and Simone's roles as interrogators in a separate room were also changed so that they too were suspects.
Thursday, 19 January 2012
Later, we went to groups of three or four discussing central themes of the 90s, sharing our research findings and again when paired with another group. We also got a chance to go online on our phones for things we didn't find out. If anybody had facts in their notes which we also had no knowledge of, we just simply wrote those things down. For me, this was a reminder of some simple historic events and developments which were dormant in my memory. This was a simple case of not making the task complicated for myself. Some of the things discussed included;Nelson Mandela is released from prison 11 February 1990 The internet expands in 1990 The Gulf War (1990-1991)Escalation of knife crime - racist murder of Stephen Lawrence in 1993The National Lottery was launched in 1994 Downsizing of mobile phonesPuffa jackets came into fashion24-hour shopping is made availableSignificant happenings in the Iraq-Iran War.Death & Funeral of Mother Teresa in September 1997Britain wins Eurovision in 1997Princess Diana's death in 1997John Glen's final visit to the moon in 1998 The DVD player debuts in 1999 IN RELATION TO THEATRE;In-Yer-Face theatre
Due to a change of schedule to the Year 2's original drama piece demonstration, for which us Year 1s will have needed to assist in setting up stage, there was no session on Monday. This didn't affect me anyway because of my DSA Assesment meeting. On Tuesday, Nick brought in a Beethoven CD to prepre a waltz routine to. Present in time to sequence the dance was myself, Reagan, Charlie, Mel, Eva, Lekhani, Karimah Walker and Simone as partners respectively. We all experimented with and quickly eventually agreed on synchronizing five different steps, only two of them being repeatative. Dwayne and Jane came in as we arranged the dance according to the width space of the wooden studio, as the ladies (Reagan, Mel, Lekhani and Karimah) on one side and the Gentlemen (the reast of us) took their first positions as well as moved in single files. As observers for that time, they were able to give feedback on the progress we made and give further suggestions for improvement. After showing the waltz to Nick, he suggested that the dance must end with Beth coming from the stage left side all around, the stage followed by each couple she passes by, back to the centre stage where she may introduce the Queen of England. This was to use the wheelchair to her advantage for this scene as a kind of plot device to make way for Lillian's presense in her role as the Queen. As more of our group was coming in along with our partners from Community Focus, we had to split the waltz into two rows of couples, including the Queen. Myself and Mel taught the routine to everyone paired up who were late so they could keep up with us. Jane and Keethen devised a way of breaking the routine down into smaller steps, enabling Keethen who could only move with great effort at his own steadier pace to do the turns halfway and turn back without losing sync with the rest of the group. After the Queen is introduced, we moved into the previous opening we briefly played with last week, where a blackout will happen shocking all the guests and the lights return to reveal the Queens Crown Jewel as missing. All unchanged roles as police officers, security guards and detectives from last week came forward to announce that nobody will be allowed to leave until they have been questioned. Juliette took some control from this point and insisted on bringing forward the interrogation scenes next. As it was very long day of rehearsal, we only had time to run the interrogation of Andy and Charlie's security guard characters.Between the rehearsals with Community Focus, Fda Year 1 was working concurrently on the textual analysis of British Theatre history, with a particular focus on women & feminist theatre. Now the lecture discussions were personally beneficial for taking down notes to reflect on later, but this wasn't a huge necessity because Nick gave handout notes based on the points already raised along with photocopies from selected books. One of the handouts written by Leslie Hill, emphasized the limitations that theatre as an art form buts on the creativity itself, as calling the work a play can steer from the possibility incorporating more dance, for example, and that the term 'performance' appears in both a planned structured context and in the form of an outside political demonstration. I also think that actresses in particular were being described as slowing breaking out of the stereotypical, formalized manner societies of the pre-18th-early 19th Century, including women, would be used to seeing them; either as a sex object or a pretty face who was seen under male shadows, but not heard. Interestingly enough, the four playwrights we were tasked to look at further; Ann Jellicoe, Pam Gems, Yvonne Brewster and Carl Churchill, who have had some significant impact, great or small, in feminism where the theatre is concerned, each crossed over into the other ventures this module is exploring. This includes community theatre, for which Ann Jellico had set up what is now called the Claque Theatre in 1978. Brewster and Gems respectivaly tackles themes on the issue of race relations and sexual identity. So the work that has been set , I believe won't be as far apart as I first thought thanks to open-minded interests of the individual writers, directors and companies.Between 23rd-24th January (Monday and Tuesday), a lot of changes were made to the little piece that we had for our caper performance; it was clear that we had too much police forces and security between twenty one performers. So the outline was made simple; Jane & Keethan were chief inspectors representing Scotland Yard, Lekhani & Juliette were intarrogators and Charlie, Andy & Dwayne played the security guards. Grant's role as Prince William was changed again so that he portrayed the dumb criminal, joining me, Karimah Farrell (respectively as the hyper murder obsessed & the brawny burglars who slaps them, which with Grant's character where shuffled around for experimentation), Eva (the brainy one who gave ideas) & Simone (the horrible leader to whom the brawny burglar acts as second-in-command but fears her). Trixy the Cat Burglar was removed from the story, two sequences of servants cleaning the throne room, portrayed by everyone, were added, sandwiching the security guards' inspection of the room between them and we attempted to sing the British National Anthem. Now this was a stumbling block because most of us just generally didn't know the song (much to Nick's annoyance) or, in my case, couldn't remember all the lyrics.
30/01/2012-02/02/2012
30th January: As there was still an issue with who the criminals were, Reagan standing in for Simone as the Leader, rearranged the group so we had; SOPHIA as Polly Pickapocket - an exellent thief, who actually lifts the crown off the Queen's head ELISHA as Honey Trap - a beautiful women who uses her beauty to ensnare men to do whatever she wants. She flirts with Dwayne the head of security as a distraction. RHIANNA as Miss Sparkles - an electronics expert who blows the fuse of the whole palace allowing Polly to take the crown jewels unseen MYSELF as Bill Kill - Britain's most notorious assassin who hired to only to assault and knock out the security guards, much to Bill’s annoyance BEV as Bev the Bullet – the getaway driver who transports the criminals to and from the palace. Lina also became Margaret, the Queen’s sister. 31st January; For most of the group on Tuesday, the progress built up the previous day had dropped to the extent that rehearsing the full run through wasn't without constantly pausing at certain parts and having to tweak bits each time someone had to do a stand in for another student who came in late or was completely abscent. Today we finally applied the final scene in which Grant's character Dave navigates the police and security officers to the criminal's lair. We spent 10-20 minutes sharing ideas of how to a good ending that wasn't boring, made sense and was sensational; not a simple vague display of catching the bad guys and the curtains draw, we needed a small structure to follow so we knew what we were doing and space was left for improvisation. Among the ideas given were all the burglars being handcuffed by Jane & Keithan, then Jane & Keithan taking rope or string to wrap them all up together to make the arrest easier, Lekhani asking who the actual thief was and they all respond by pointing at each other shouting out; "You took out the lights!", "You seduced the security guard!" and so on. We were also keen on playing with the coppers are fixated with idea of their names being in the newspapers for returning the Queen's crown jewels that they forget to pick them up and Beth the driver comes along and takes them without being noticed. The end result eventually came to the scene starting with all the criminals assembled in the lair with the crown jewel, arguing over who should get the largest split of the spoils because of their part in the theft; Polly Pickapockett because she lifted it off the Queen's head which was the whole point of the crime, Honeytrap because she seduced the security guard (to which Polly humourously remarks that he was gay) to get into the electrics room, Bill Kill because he beat up the security guards so he couldn't stop them after, Miss Sparkles because she blew out the fuse so they couldn't be seen and Bev the Bullet because as the getaway driver she helped them get away from the palace. The Leader, Reagan, interrupts them and declares the whole plot as her idea. In this instant, all the coppers have lined up behind her and the other criminals, noticing them all immediately insist that Reagan has the crown jewels and abandon her. She turns around and proceeds an attempt to avoid arrests. This sequence was made going towards the end of the day where all police officers; Jane, Keithan, Lekhani and Juliette & the security guards; Dwayne, Andy and Charlie run in an organised single file behind Reagan on and offstage, until every cast member joins the rally two characters at a time when we run onstage again. The chase music was provided by Nick, who updated the rewritable sountrack as we were all working in the studio. I generally feel like we've got work done on Tuesday surely, but I've particularly noticed that we probably wait too long for the multitude in our group to start at least discussing how we could add to in and tweak the project we're working on as it actually took Nick assigning somebody to lead the group in our session today to actually do something. Others may not agree, but it seems to be a factor in certain stumbling blocks we get in rehearsals occasionaly. The great thing about this community play was that the focus isn't on a strict scripted show but one that simply opens the door for what society marginizes as the less abled in this scenerio to blossom as performers adapting to their ability. There was a little glitch in communication when the noise and swearing got too much for Juliette who had to walk out to keep calm for two minutes but in conclusion, the realization of a complete story in which we as Foundation Year 1 students now need to prepare to have to improvise even on the live show for anything was worth the little setbacks. 3rd January Thursday was a much smoother ride, as we ran through the show tightening up any lose ends; the beginning scene with the ballroom dance was cut down so only the waltzing was repeated. We also added some dialouge and choreographed a single failed exit. Dana was also given a new minor role as the party organiser, anxiously trying to make good on her first assignment. She is so nervous that she goes offstage the first time needing to use the toilet It is her who now calls in the cleaners, who she is responsible for, for both sequences. The table was turned sideways so Lekhani & Juliette's DC characters sat on each side while each pair of suspects in question were in the middle directly facing the audience. The table now remains onstage for the rest of the play, appearing as the meeting place for the criminals in their lair. Instead of coming on and offstage right away to accuse each pair of suspects (except Dave who confesses the whole plot) of having a brother involved with gangs, Juliette simply moved behind them to initiate these claims. Karimah Farrell may have had to change roles again due to her abscence for most of the week, but easily reprised her last position as Regean's bodyguard, the only difference this time being that she never speaks. As Dave, Grant laid on the closing piece of humour in the play, skipping offstage behind Bev as they go to Mexico with the crown jewels, as if the two were a couple running into the sunset.
06/02/2012
All day on Monday, we were dedicated the whole day to running through our 45 minute play so that, even though we had to be open to any unexpected changes on the night, we could be as responsive to our cues as possible. We used a high chair for Lillian to sit on get up from easily. Lina sowed red fabric over it to resemble the Queen’s throne. Each of the criminal characters received a black wolly hat with the skull & bones symbol, with the exception of the Leader, Ms Sparkles & Honey Trap as Rhianna& Elisha respectively felt that the latter two characters should be signified this way as females. We didn’t have enough so Karimah& Bev couldn’t wear a hat either, but this didn’t matter.
I think the only thing that went wrong was the technical glitches so that Karimah Walker’s multi-media video as the news reporter surprisingly couldn’t be included in the final show.
