Devising-Week 2

Monday

On Monday, we tried to do our opening scene but we got stuck for ideas. We tried to all different openings but we still couldn't find one that would make sense to the audience and somewhere that we could go with the script. We decided that we would message each other over Facebook to see if we could go anywhere with the scene.

Tuesday

On Tuesday, we decided to scrap this idea because we decided that it is more of an idea for a film than for theatre. I really liked this idea but as soon as we tried to do an opening scene, we struggled on what we could do. We tried coming up with a range ideas like the use of strobe lighting but nobody could come up with any appropriate dialogue leading us too having to change the idea entirely. We also decided that as this is a devising unit, it wouldn't be appropriate to do this idea as it wouldn't be original as we was practically copying the film "Would you rather?".

I really liked this idea and I wanted to carry on with it but it’s not something we should do for devising because the idea is not original. We are just copying the whole concept of the film but changing the characters and the challenges slightly.

We then brainstormed the chasing pavements idea to see what we could come up with.

Thursday

We had this idea that we would do this piece which I think could be called “Jamie’s always watching.”

The whole idea of it is that it’s like big brother with the cameras but Jamie is the leader of the UK and has put up camera’s to make sure that nobody makes any fashion statement and we all look the same. The story follows a rebel group who plans to take down the cameras and eventually overrule Jamie. The twist is that the leader of the rebels is actually Jamie and is actually spying on the rebels to see what their plan is. We don’t find this out until she kills everyone at the end.

We now have this idea that the leader would also have two boyfriends at once which would lead to her having to choose who to kill and who to tell the truth to and maybe running away with. We still haven't worked out what will exactly happen to make her kill the rebel group. Throughout the whole play we would call Jamie a "he" but it would turn out to be a girl.

I really like this idea because it's much more original than the other one we had before and I feel like the storyline would make more sense. Also, I think the audience would be able to understand this one easier as they wouldn't get confused on the situation at the beginning.

Initial thoughts on piece

I think that our idea of a stagey version of "would you rather?" is really good idea because I think that the whole audience would be easily engaged and the whole storyline would easily be easy to follow because the host would be explaining to the contestants what they have to do meaning that the audience would be able to follow what the host says so that could understand the storyline and what is going on.

Challenges

I also like the idea of the challenges because it would mean that the whole piece wouldn't just be dialogue. The challenges could be a moving piece or go into a full dance piece depending on what goes on in the challenge. This would meant that the audience wouldn't get bored. This would be quite good because we have dancers in the group who could choreograph the movement and dance piece.

Plot Twist

I think that the plot twist at the end of the play with the quiet person ending up being the smartest the person and winning the game and then when the host then goes onto kill her, she kills the host instead.

Also, the part where the winner doesn't survive but goes on one to one with the host to see who will host the best game and who will die, I think this will shock the audience and make the audience more intrigued.

Devising-Week 1

This week we have started to devise for our devising unit. We have decided to go for the idea of a game show where the contestants would sit around a table and a host would go round the table making the contestants do a variety of tasks to stay alive.The idea was that they go in there expecting a game where whoever wins will get a cash prize but it turns out that they are actually playing to survive.We got this idea from the film “Would you rather?” which is what actually happens in the film but we would change the challenges and the characters to have certain traits that would be portrayed throughout the story.

The characters are:

• The Host-the person who the players think that organised the game. At the end when we find out that he was the last person to play the game and win, he didn’t get to leave. He only gets to survive for the next game before he would then have to have a battle with the person who won the current game and whoever wins this then gets to be the host for the next game. Nobody ever gets to go back outside into the open world.

Contestants-These are the people who come here who are in desperate need of money and reveal this during the rounds before they are killed off. They start off by chasing money but end up chasing survival. The characters are (we haven’t made up names yet):

1. Dom-The scared one-this is the one who refuses to do anything and doesn't think that the host will actually kill him if he refuses to do anything. He is too scared and gets shot by the host within the first round to set an example for the rest of the contestants.
2. Ashley-The funny one who tries to make a joke about everything that is going on and ends up not taking the game seriously enough which ends up with him being too slow in one of the challenges and gets killed off in round 2.
3. Carl-The quiet one who doesn't say anything unless he has to. The round which he gets killed in (round 3) is one where he is meant to be very vocal but nobody hears him leading to him losing meaning that he gets killed.
4. Toby-The one who falls in love with one of the female contestants and gives his life for her so that she can survive for him. This leads to him getting killed in round 4.
5. Freya-She is the person who starts off really innocent and doesn't want to kill anyone at the beginning in the middle there’s a trigger that makes her want to kill everyone in the game and have no sympathy for anyone. She is full of hate and doesn't control her anger in the last round leading to her getting killed in the final round (round 6). She is the person who becomes the runner-up and is the last contestant to be killed.
6. Meg-the smart one who identifies the weaknesses of everyone and ultimately wins the game. She then goes up against the host and kills him taking his place as a new host who will host the next game.

Next week we will start to devise our first couple of scenes and try to have a bigger back story on our characters.

Double drama (28th December)

This week we added more to our story by creating a movement sequence for our first story of the brother. It starts with the first person getting a job. This then leads to him going on a dance all the way home. We have decided to make the dance comedic so that the Year 7's stay engaged and also they would find it more enjoyable. He then comes home to find out that his wife has left him causing him to go on a rampage. Then the wife's lover comes round to collect her stuff as she is too scared of him to do it himself as he gets angry easily. This causes a fight to happen between the two and a black-out happens just before the husband kills the wife's lover so that the audience don't know as they find out later that it's the reason why he's one of the three Giants. We thought it would be good to put a fight scene in as Year 7's like violence and would keep them engaged for longer.

I think that we could improve by making our story a bit more clearer so that the Year 7's. Would definitely understand what's going on.

Evaluation

We finished our performence this week and it went really well. We covered up all our errors really well and I don't think that anyone noticed that we missed a whole scene out. One big mistake was that the roundabout in Act 2, for the scene with the man in the street, the rest of the cast forgot to create the roundabout. They then noticed their mistake and then carried on accordingly really well so that the audience didn't notice which I think is   quite hard to do but they didn't panic at all meaning the audience didn't notice. I would profer for us in our next production to rehearse with props so that when it comes to it on the day, we know what to do. Out props had to be under our chairs and because we had never practised with them before, mine wasn't properly under my chair. This led to me kicking the train tacks which made lots of noise. The train tracks then hit by bottle over which also made a loud noise.

Other than this, I feel that for the companies first performence and my fiesta performence with everyone, I think it went really well. I feel like that nobody was lazy or slacking throughout the whole process and everybody contributed as much as possible and I feel like that we have really bonded as a group which has left us to perform a good piece of theatre.

I think that as an actor, I have really improved as this is the first time that I have reseached into characters and the quickest time that I've ever had to perform a piece of theatre and i have learnt so much as an actor as I've had more freedom to input ideas and be able to perform things with my own twist more effectively without losing the charecter a original concept.

Single Drama-Week 2

This week we started doing a bit of physical theatre. We decided to start on the opening of the play. The opening is meant to represent what goes on in Christopher's head. We decided to make it that Christopher doesn't want to touch anyone, so every time we walk towards someone, we walked away. This eventually turned to us turning away by putting our hands above us. This would then change into a spin to show that Christopher is getting much more franctic. His also shows that Christopher doesn't want anyone near him. We then go into a sequence where we type out phone numbers. We then get faster and faster to show how much Christopher doesn't like it and how franctic his mind is sometimes. I think that it could be improved by putting music to it so that it doesn't look like we're just radomly doing it.

We then carried on with the rest of the play form where we left off and go on further and block more of the first act so we could get a feel for the play and know more of the storyline. Also in the Mr Alexander neighbour scene, we created a maze to show what is going on in Christopher's head. This helps the audience understand what is going on in Christopher's head.

This week I researched how "Woman on Street" was portrayed in the actual production. She is portrayed as a commuter that stops to answer questions. She then quickly gets annoyed at Christopher's questions and then walk off. I thought about the changes u could make to the charecter and things that I have to keep the same so the original concept of the charecter could stay the same. In the play, she carries an umbrella because it's raining and she's standing there with her back facing to him. I thought that I could be texting and straight away be angry that I had to talk to him because I'm to busy on my phone and don't want to talk to him. 

Next week, I hope to do research on my last charecter so that I know how to act in it and help understand him more.

Double Drama (21st November)

We decided to do a story where the three Giants. It starts out with the three brothers who are known as the Giants and they betray their God so he punishes them. One is greedy, one is angry and one is jealous.

We brainstormed ideas on what we could do and we thought that for this scene, we would just speak with dialogue with background music do that our young audience could understand what is going on.

We thought that we could put a bit of comedy into our piece by adding a few jokes about not seeing anything as they are blindfolded. We did it so that they entered one by one and we could see how they reacted to the darkness. The God then turns to us, removes our blindfolds and pushes us back. The scene ten ends with a blackout.

Single Drama

This week we have been making sure that all of our audience can see what is going on. In our production, our audience is on three sides meaning that everything that we do has to be performed to three sides at once.

With only a few rehersals left, we decided to go over the weakest scenes of the play aswell. The London train station scene is still the weakest in the play because the voices still don't flow as they are meant to. When one person forgets a line, it means that the whole pace for everybody else slows down. Also, the lifts could be a bit smoother at times aswell. The lift at the end when we were meant to lift Meg doesn't happen sometimes as people still arnt too sure on where that are going.

We have also made sure that the little details are as refined as possible so that they are the best that they can be. We now look like it's nearly finished, we now just need to learn our lines and our cues so that the play keeps flowing and to make sure that the audience understands what's going on. 

Double Drama-14th December

This week we started to create the first scene for our story. We thought that it would be a good idea that we would start it at a party like the original story does. We had an idea that we would be drinking and doing drugs. We then thought that it wouldn't be relavent to our year 7 audience. Also, we thought that it was too modern and we wanted it too look like it was a Greek party rather than s modern party. We then thought that we could create a party setting. We added a narrator so that the audience would know what was going on. We also added a small fight scene that or audience would like because year 7's like violence. We make sure that Jason is smuggled out the back like he in the story. We thought that it would be a good idea that we would have a baby doll as Hason as it would show that a lot of time has past. By using a narrator, it means that we use one of our story telling techniques if the narrator puts enough energy into it.

Single drama (10th, 11th, 13th)

This week, we worked on the opening o Thomas as we all thought that the first part didn't look that good. Although it was a good idea, the company really didn't show what it was like to be in Christopher's mind. We changed it into a basic dance number instead.

We made sure that it didn't become too complicated as Christipher likes to keep things simple. We start by just moving and then then we split into two groups and then pair up together again and then make three shapes. We chose shapes as they were simple and also shapes are to do with maths which Christopher likes. This helps us show what Christopher is like.

We also worked on the London Underground by adding music to improve the atmosphere of the piece. It also shows that Christopher is different as he is doing something different to everybody else. He is the only one who is not doing the same basic movement like everybody else is doing.

I think that the piece could be improved if we added a bit more chorographed movement into it so that we're not just radomly walking round as much. We probably won't do this because we are very limited on time.

Double Drama-7th November

This week in drama we went through the story and the teacher split us into three groups on three. We each had to look at one part of the story each and see how we could perform it. We then had to look at the story that we were given and either perform it to the rest of the group or we would direct them to show them our ideas.

Story 1
How we would tell the story
Our group was the first to teach their story to the rest of the class. We had the first part of the story where Jason's uncle Pelias takes the throne from his father. This then leads to a battle which would be good for our audience as they are young and they are boys which would mean that they like violence as long as we don't make it too gory for them as it may scare them. We then decided to follow the story by Pelias killing the rest of Jason's family and servants so he can take the throne which our audience would also like as it's more violence. We decided that some people would be Jason's brothers and some people would be the servants and that we'd use as many people as possible for this scene. Like in the story, we decided that the mother would then run across the stage dragging a confused and upset Jason with her and would continue to do this why the rest of their family (except for Jason's dad) would be killed so that she can save Jason and he will then return to take his rightful place on the thrown. By making Jason look confused, it would help the Year 7's understand what was going on.

The scene would then change to where an oracle would warn Pelias about the boy with one sandal. We thought that it would be a good idea that the oracle should have a big entrance and maybe even come in with a short song which involves a lot of loud and deep music. We would then have dialogue between Pelias and the oracle which would then lead to her to telling him about the man with one slipper. This would then lead to him getting worried and maybe having a bit of anger which could lead to shouting, depending on who ends up playing the part and Pelias storming out. This scene would have to be quite short thought because the Year 7's may get bored if they just talk for too long.

After that, many years later, Pelias was holding games in honor for his father Poseiden. Jason was on his way to Locus and whilst he was helping and old women across the river,he lost one of his sandals, This old women turns out to be actually Goddess Hera in disguise. She then blessed him  for helping her for she knew what Pelias would do to him. We thought that we could have a podium that Pelias would stand on and make a short speech about the games. We could then do a cross-cut between Jason and Pelias. Pelias would be on one side of the stage still giving his speech but would be less lighting on him and he would be speaking in silence.  Jason would be on the other side of the stage helping the old lady across. Whilst this happens, there would be a short dialogue between the Old lady and Jason about how kind he is. Jason would then after helping the Old Lady across apologize for having to go and start to walk off but then the Old Woman would take off her hood and reveal herself as Hera who would then bless him. We would have to make sure that when Hera reveals herself, it would have to be really obvious to make sure that the Year 7's understand what is going on.

Jason then goes into the Kingdom and somebody announces that he is the man wearing one sandal and Pelias says that he can have his throne if he does one quest. Jason then happily accepts. We thought that Jason could then go over to the other scene that is happening on the other side of the stage. Somebody in the crowd who is watching Pelias' speech would then turn round and notice him with only one sandal and shouts it out to everyone. Jason then confronts Pelias and there's a short argument and Pelias demands him to go on a quest to get the Golden Fleece and Jason would happily accept and would leave right away to start to get his Kingdom back. We chose that somebody should just shout it out because then they Year 7's could tell what has just happened and won't be confused by anything.

Positives
I think that it's good that we kept to the original story line to make sure that our story will definitely make sense to everybody and we won't confuse anyone. I think it's also good that we made sure that everybody understood on what was going on so nobody was lost on what we were doing when telling the story. I like the idea of the cross-cutting aswell as it isn't too confusing for the Year 7's and it effectively shows how Jason gets to the Kingdom and it shows how one scene then goes into another.

Improvements
I think that we could improve our piece of work by adding more sound effects in to make sure that the audience definitely understands what's going on. An example of this could be the river so that the audience can definitely tell that it's a river that they are crossing. This would make it more suitable for the Year 7's as sometimes they need more information when being told about what's going on and being able to follow a story all the way through without it being lost. I think that we should also put a lift in when Hera blesses him. Jason would start to run off and then Hera would then stop Jason by using her powers. We would then lift him up and make him float gently back to Hera where she would cast a blessing on him and then he would be put down and would continue to run like nothing had actually happened. This would make it more suitable for Year 7's as they find it easier to follow a story visually rather than just speech.

How we taught it
We first told everyone in the class what goes on in the scene and what our plan was on how we would tell it.. We then told everybody who they will be as an example so we could betray it easier. We decided to put people as who we thought would be the best suited for the roles for now. Once we knew that everybody knew what they was doing, we set them up in their starting places and we ran through the scene and we said what was going on and told people what they would do and say through rough dialogues. Once they had asked any questions (if there was any), we would then move onto the next scene. If we thought anybody looked confused, we would ask them if they understood. I think that we could of gone into more detail when telling them what's going on but we had to rush through quite a lot of it because we only had ten minutes to tell them what our plan was before we had to move onto the next group.

Story 2

How they told the story

They first got us all in a formation so it looked like that we were all on a boat rowing it. The idea was so it looked like one of the big Viking ships and that everyone was Jason and his Argonauts. Then we would arrive and the leader of the island which Jason and his Argonauts go up to would come out with some manly and dark music but turn out to be really camp.

Positives

They have included comedy with the leader being really camp which would be good for our audience because all our audience may not enjoy Greek mythology and including comedy would stop them from getting bored. They have also included violence that is good for our target audience as year 7's like violence and our audience is also boys who normally like violence.

Improvements

Not a lot was done and the short time that we had could of been used more productively. They spent too long looking for a formation at the beginning that we might not even use.

Single Drama (3rd/4th November)

Overview of the week
This week we blocked through Act 1 on Monday and Act 2 on Tuesday. It made us help us see what the play was actually like when it was all together. It helped us with how each of the scenes ran into each other. It also was nice to know how much of my lines that I know off by heart and the ones that I still need to work on. The play is now really starting to come together but it would be easier when everybody knows their lines as then the play would run much smoother. Also, the movemet would be easier to see without people with scripts in their hand.

Lines

I know most of my lines. I know the lines for my character if Number 40 off by heart. I roughly know the lines for Man on Street and Drunk One but there's a few lines that I miss out sometimes or get the wrong way round. This week I'm going to go over my lines and make sure that I know them off by heart.

Characterization
We did characterization where we thought about how how character would walk. This helped me differentiate between my characters to make sure the audience could tell that I'm a different character as in our production, we all stay on stage meaning there's on basic change of costumes instead of a full change making it harder for the audience to tell if you're meant to be the same character or not. My characters are all completely different meaning that all thir personalities have to different to make sure that the audience understands this.

I also looked to see how my character would look on-stage. I found one picture to represent each character that I play to show what I think that they look like. This helps me think to see how I play the character as now I have thought how they have looked.

I feel like that as each rehearsal has gone on, the show has improved more. It now helps that less people are using their script a r held us move around more. I think that everybody forgot about how they walked in the next rehearsal though so I think that we all should definitely consider and remember that to make sure that the audience is clear on the character that they are playing.

I think that we still need to work on the whole lift scene when Christopher is in London Station. I don't think that the voices are quick enough at the moment and there's too many gaps at the moment. I also think that all the lifts need to be a lot smoother and that they should run into each other much more easily. This would then make the effect that Christopher is confused and that the audience is experiencing what he is experiencing.

Backstory of Jason

Athamas the Minyan, a founder of Halos in Thessaly but also king of the city of Orchomenus in Boeotia (a region of southeasternGreece), took as his first wife the cloud goddess Nephele. They had two children, the boy Phrixus (whose name means "curly"—as in ram's fleece) and the girl Helle. Later Athamas became enamored of and married Ino, the daughter of Cadmus. When Nephele left in anger, drought came upon the land.

Ino was jealous of her stepchildren and plotted their deaths: in some versions, she persuaded Athamas that sacrificing Phrixus was the only way to end the drought. Nephele, or her spirit, appeared to the children with a winged ram whose fleece was of gold. The ram had been sired by Poseidon in his primitive ram-form upon Theophane, a nymph and the granddaughter of Helios, the sun-god. According to Hyginus, Poseidon carried Theophane to an island where he made her into an ewe, so that he could procreate with her among the flocks. There Theophane's other suitors could not distinguish the ram-god and his consort.

Nepheles' children escaped on the winged ram over the sea, but Helle fell off and drowned in the strait now named after her, the Hellespont. The ram spoke to Phrixus, encouraging him, and took the boy safely to Colchis (modern-day Georgia), on the easternmost shore of the Euxine (Black) Sea.

There Phrixus sacrificed the winged ram to Poseidon, essentially returning him to the god. The ram became the constellation Aries.

Phrixus settled in the house of Aeetes, son of Helios the sun god. He hung the Golden Fleece reserved from the sacrifice of the ram on an oak in a grove sacred to Ares, the god of war and one of the Twelve Olympians. The golden fleece was defended by bulls with hoofs of brass and breath of fire. It was also guarded by a never sleeping dragon with teeth which could become human soldiers when planted in the ground. The dragon was at the foot of the tree on which the fleece was placed.

Because if this research, I felt like that I had a much more understanding of the story and know more about where the fleece came from. It would also help the class as they know more if the story and know where it originated from. Also, it says why each character does what they decide to do making it easier to understand of each of the characters and knowing what choices of an actor to choose. 

Double Drama (Friday)

Today we discussed the pros and cons of each story and decided which story would be the best one to choose. We used a conch to make sure that everybody got a day and nobody would talk over anybody or cut in. We then did a vote and we chose Jason and thhe Golden Fleece because it had the most story in it and was the easiest to work with as it had a lot of roles that people could have.

What I think my characters look like

Man in Street

Number 40

Drunk 1

Single Drama

This week, the company worked on the busy train station scene in act 2 when Christopher gets to \London. We worked to show that when Christopher gets to London, he can't cope with the noise and how busy it is. The gradual build-up of noise which then leads to everyone walking around in a hurry and Christopher panicking. This causes him to slowly curl up in a ball and not know what to do with himself. I like how it shows how busy London really is and he doesn't know how to deal with it as he's never got this far before. It shows that people with autism struggle to make simple brain journeys on heir own.

I think that overall, our performance it starting to take shape as we have blocked the whole  play now and we've been given our first set of lines that we have to remember. I think that we could maybe work on the scene changeovers as they are meant to be quick but I feel like ours are quite slow when they change scene because we are still getting use to the play. It has helped me develop my skills as an actor because it has shown me that by writing off-script scenes, we can learn about what our characters are like, even if it's just a small role like Number 40.

I also researched how drunk one was played in the production and I thought that I could probably almost play it however I wanted to really. I thought that the charecter is quite open to whatever interpretation you like as long as it's along the lines of being a football fan as they are going to see a match and football is the most popular sport in England.

Off-Script as Number 40

Today, we went off-script and we had to improvise and I had to improvise as Number 40 and I had to interact with the other neighbours. Our group decided to talk about when Christopher was going around the neighbours houses asking about if they knew anything about who killed Wellington. I decided that Number 40 would be a person who would be worried for Christopher and angry at him at the same time. I think that Number 40 would be angry at him for poking his head in his buisness. We though that I should start the conversation by talking to Mr Alexander about how he was poking his head around my buisness. Since We know that Mr Alexander is Christopher's friend, he sticks up for him and I would be constructive about what to do and feel worried for him. I then decided that my character wouldn't like Mrs Sheers because of what happened between her and Ed and would think she would hate Christopher because of what happened between her and Ed. We then ended the scene with Mrs Sheers storming off and everyone else needing to get back to their daily routine. I felt that it helped me understand that Number 40 is on Christopher's side but he thinks that Christopher needs to stop poking his head into other people's buisness.

Research on autism

Autism is a life-changing disorder characterized by a profound withdrawal from contact with people, repetitive behavior, and fear of change in the environment. The emotional disorder affects the brain's ability to receive and process information. People who have autism find it difficult to act in a way that other people think is "normal". They find it difficult to talk to other people, to look at other people and often do not like being touched by other people. A person who has autism seems to be turned inwards. They may talk only to themselves, rock themselves backwards and forwards, and laugh at their own thoughts. They do not like any type of change and may find it very difficult to learn a new behavior like using a toilet or going to school.

What Man on the Street thinks of Christopher.

What was that kid doing?! He doesn't know what to do? Where is his parents? He's wants to go to London and he doesn't know what to do to get there. How is he going to cope in London if he can't cope in Swindon?! He was just standing there outside the station and asked "Where's the station?" Is he blind?! He's not going to last five minutes in London. Maybe he's run away from his parents or something. Well if he gets lost, that's his fault for running away. Why did he ask me? Out of everyone at the station, he asked me? But why? I should of told him to go away before I spoke to him because I knew that he was going to be a handful. He's not my problem anymore though, thank God for that. Maybe if his parents took control of him, he wouldn't be asking stupid questions. Because of him, I was late to work and now my boss is nagging me. What a prick.

Number 40's thoughts of Christopher

I think that Christopher is an okay kid. He's too young to be going around mine and other peoples buisness though. I heard that he has autism but I think that he needs to talk to his dad about what happened between him and Mrs Sheers or somebody will tell him and he's not going to like it if someone else tells him. If he doesn't watch his back, somebody is going to get hurt and we all saw what happened to Ed when Judy ran away. We all know how much of a gossip Mr Alexander is, that's why I personally stay away from him so I know he can't spread anything round about me. Like I said Christopher needs to stay out of other people's buisness or somebody is going to tell him why his parents are no longer together and to a person with autism, it could be heart breaking to see the consequences.

Ways to tell a story

Read a book-You can read a book to the audience so that they an listen and understand the story. This is effective as it would be easy to follow as they can imagine things in their head. Also if they don't understand, they can ask questions.

Through song-You can sing to the audience which could tell them what's going on or they can sing through the character telling the audience their thoughts and feelings.

Movement-You can move around so the audience could tell where the character or the scene is taking place. This could also show what the character feels.

Through dance-This is more advanced than movement. You could dance in the show to show the emotion of the character. An example of this could be that if a person was dancing ballet, it could show that they're upset.

Monologue-You can say about what the character feels about the current situation or what they are going to do. You could also use this for a character who would narrate the story.

Narration-This is where one performer would speak directly to the audience to tell a story, give information, or comment on the action of characters.

Image Thaeatre-This is where still images are used to explore the abstract concepts for relationships or emotions as well as realistic situations.

Cross-cutting-This technique was originally used in film. This is where two scenes are intercut to establish continuity. This can be done to show two or more scenes at a time.

Mythical Stories

Medusa

Many years ago there was a beautiful women called Medusa. She lived in a place called Athens in Greece. She was a very kind and she obeyed her Greek gods and goddesses. Even though there was pretty girls there, Medusa was one of them.

Every single day Medusa always boasted about her self. She says to other people she is the most prettiest out of everyone in the whole wide world.

On Sunday, Medusa told the miller that her skin is more beautiful then fresh white snow. On Monday, she babbled the cobbler that her hair is brighter than the sun. On Tuesday, she commented the blacksmith's son that her eyes are greener than Aegean sea. On Wednesday, she boasted to the public that her lips are redder than the reddest rose in the world.

When Medusa wasn't busy she would boast about her self while looking in a mirror. She thought she was the prettiest woman in the whole wide world. She admired her self.

On and on Medusa went about her beauty to anyone and everyone who stopped long enough to hear her. Until one day Medusa and her friends went to the Parthenon. It was Medusa's first time going to the Parthenon. The Parthenon was the biggest temple in Greece. In the Parthenon was the goddess of wisdom and beauty and that was Athena. There was statues of most of the gods and goddesses in the Greek culture. All the people who went there obeyed Athena, all except Medusa.

Medusa saw all the statues and she whispered "Who ever did this statue did do a good job but it would look better if I was the statues." Every picture she saw she said that the person did a good job but she would look better in the picture and she is so delicate.

When Medusa reached the altar she sighed happily and said, "My this is a beautiful temple. It is a shame it is wasted on Athena for I am much prettier than she is, perhaps one day people will build an even grander temple to my beauty."

Then Medusa's friend grew pale. The priestesses heard what Medusa said and they gasped. The roomer went really quickly through the whole temple and everyone started to leave. Everyone knew Athena will get angry if anyone compared her to someone else.

Before long the temple was empty of everyone except Medusa, who was so busy gazing proudly at her reflection in the large bronze doors that she hadn't noticed the fast departure of everyone else. While Medusa was gazing the figure changes. The figure changed into goddess Athena.

"Vain and foolish girl," Athena shouted angrily, "You think your a prettier girl than me. While other people are working, playing or learning you just boast about your self. Medusa there is more to life than beauty alone you see."

Medusa tried to point out that her beauty was an inspiration to those around her and that she made their lives better by simply looking so lovely, but Athena silenced her with an angry wave.

"Nonsense," screamed Athena "One day beauty will fade away. But I will make it fade away now and all your loveliness will be gone forever."

When Athena uttered those words Medusa turned into a terrible monster. Her hair thickened into hissing snakes and body turned into a snake.

"Are you happy for what I have done? Now anyone who looks in your eyes will now turn into stone and no one will be able to save them," snapped Athena,"Even you, Medusa, should you seek your reflection, will turn to rock the moment you see your face."

Athena then sent Medusa with her hair of snakes to live with the blind monsters, the gorgon sisters, at the end of the earth, so that no innocent people would be turned to stone at the sight of her by accident.

Jason and the Golden Fleece

Jason was a prince, who lived near Colchis, Greece. When Jasons father died, it was his turn to take on the throne. But, his uncle, Pelias stole it from him.  

The only way to get his throne back was by stealing the golden fleece from an island on Colchis, which was across the Black sea. So, Jason and his companions built a 50-oared boat, called Argo, and set off to Colchis. They became known as the Argonauts.

When they set off, the argonauts were attaked by a flock of birds, that dropped sharp bronze feathers on them. When they finally arrived in Cholchis, Jason was tested by ploughing a feild using firebreathing bulls, and sowing it with serpents teeth. The teeth turned into warriors, and Jason managed to trick them into fighting each other. When Jason went to get the fleece, he realised that it was guarded by a snake, so his lover, the sorcress Medea, distracted it.

As they fled home, they where attaked by the Sirens, bird-women that draw men to their deaths by singing. One of the argonauts, Orpheus, played his lyre and drowned out their voices. When they arrived home, Medea tricked Pelias to his death, by killing a sheep and replacing it with a lamb. Pelias agreed that Medeas men could kill him, thinking that he would wake up, and live young again. Unfortunatly, he died, and Jason reclaimed his throne.

God of War

For thousands of years wars troubled the world. What is a better way to handle war; being cruel and brutal or to be wise and thoughtful? Ares the brutal god of war kills without thinking in wars. On the other hand Athena the goddess of wisdom and war fought battles by being smart. Both Ares and Athena were powerful deities in Greek mythology. Although they have similarities they have many differences as well. Ares and Athena were both similar because they both fought many battles and were both smart and they were different because many gods despised ares and Athena was liked, also Athena was wise in battle and ares was brutal and cruel.

Throughout the Ancient Greek era many wars were fought. Ares and Athena both fought hard in the battles. Ares fought the great battle of Troy from the Greek epic Homer. “The Trojans drove the strength of their hands straight on, as violent Ares defending the Trojans mantled in dark night the battle passed everywhere. Ares was an asset in the battle of Troy he killed many enemies to win the war. Athena fought many battles as well. “As Athena attacked the giant Hercules shot the giant with a poisonous arrows”. Athena fought in a gruesome battles with giants with Hercules at her side. Both of these powerful deities fought gruesome wars throughout the ancient greek era.

Although Ares spends his time fighting wars he does not lack in cleverness as well as Athena. Ares showed he was immensely smart and clever in many of his myths. “ In the spartan war Ares was having a feud with Kratos, a powerful spartan leader. Ares lead Kratos to attack a village and without knowing Kratos killed his family who were in the village." Ares was cunning and clever and made Kratos and his army attack a village and kill his love ones. Athena is very smart also, and she often uses trickery. “ Achilles wanted to rule over Troy. Athena told deceived Achilles to kill Hector, a famous person in Troy. The gods did not like Hector so Athena wanted to deal with it.”Athena and Ares used cunning and cleverness in almost all of their myths.

Ares and Athena are not alike because Ares is despised by all of the gods and Athena is loved. Ares shows that the other gods are not a fan of him in his childhood. “This savage and sanguinary character of Ares makes him hated by the other gods”. Most of the god did not like Ares because he was cruel and brutal.

On the other hand we have Athena. Athena is loved by all of the gods in Mount Olympus. “ Athena was much enjoyed by the other gods because she helped all of the greek deities in their troubles”. Athena was loved by all the gods as she helped them when they were in need. Ares is despised by everyone including his parents and Athena is loved by the gods and the humans.

Ares and Athena are not alike at all. Ares is brutal and cruel and Athena is wise and thoughtful. Ares shows his cruel nature in mount Olympus. “In great Mount Olympus Ares’s throne is adorned with human skin”. As you can see Ares is cruel to humans and gods. Athena is wise and thoughtful to everyone including humans. “ Athena taught humans to tame horses” (Greek mythology.com) Athena was kind to humans and gave them the ability to tame horses. That ability would help them in daily life. Ares is brutal and cruel to everybody not all deities are all bad because Athena is nice to everybody.

As you can see Ares and Athena are both powerful deities even though they share some similarities, they are very different as well. Athena and Ares are similar because they both waged war with others and they are both smart, they are not alike because Ares is hated by many and Athena is loved by all also Ares is cruel and Athena is wise.

Single Drama-Week 1

We have started to explore "The Curious Incident of the Dog n the Nighttime". I will be playing the roles of "Number 40" who is a neighbor of Christopher's, "Man on Street" who meets Christopher when going to London and "Drunk One" who is a drunk person going to a football match who Christopher meets on  the train to London. The roles of "Number 40" and "Man on Street" is normally played by a woman but due to the lack of girls in our drama class, we had to change some of the female roles to male roles. We read through the first part of the script together and started to block the first couple of scenes together. We got to the part where Christopher finds out about his mother. At the end of the lesson, we then got the time to go into small groups to practice our parts and suggest how to stage them. I went through the Number 40 sequence with another neighbor and we went through his sequence to see how we could stage them. We thought that for mine that we could be that I have just opened my door to Christopher.

Next lesson, we went over the previous scene's learnt and then went into small groups so that we could stage our own scenes and suggest them to the class to see how we could perform them. I was in a group of three and we did the scene where Rhodri and Ed are talking and Christopher walks in. We dd it so that Ed and Rhodri was watching TV. As there is three sides to the audience, we thought that they should sit near the back on two blocks so it looks like they are sitting on the sofa. We thought that they should also look like that they are watching TV. The problem we have with this is that the stage could look empty as we made sure that everybody could see. We could move it forward and maybe make it that people may not see much of the scene.

By staging the scene, it helped me think about that you always have to think about the audience at all times. They may have to miss some scenes but we have to make sure that they see most scene and if they do miss a scene, we have to make sure that they are not bored during this and it can't be a majour scene. We also have to make sure that if they do miss a small scene, they still know what is going on so that they don't get too confused later on.

I decided to research what "Number 40" was like in London. As she was a female in the actual production, it means that I can change aspects of the character as they portrayed her a typical female. When Christopher comes to meet her, she is holding a cleaning bottle and looks like she is cleaning the house when the football match is on. This is portraying her as a stereotypical woman as most woman clean the house. I decided to change it so that it's a man who is just come from the house. I treat it like he see's Christopher around but never speaks to him. I also thought that I should come across helpful even though I can't actually help him at all.

Next week, I hope that I could do this with the rest of my characters so that I understand what they are meant to be like and see what aspects that I have to keep the same as it's part of the character and what I can change so I can put my own spin on the character without losing the purpose of the character and why they are in the story.