Thursday 24th Septemeber

This is our group performing our contact improvisation piece. I think the theme of slavery was a very good choice and I think that it was the right idea to choose and that it worked well with the contact improvisation.


http://revolutionarts2016.blogspot.co.uk/2015/09/contact-improv-group-1.html

Writing in role (Donnie from "Wasted Talent")

Dear Diary,
Today, he did it. You know who. I don't need to say his name. I got the call from his music producer. He was found by him in the studio in the morning. He thinks it's his fault for letting him stay there late at night when he normally goes straight home. I can't believe that he could think that. He performed it himself. I want just to hear him play again. He was an amazing guitar player and an even better friend. I miss him dearly and 'll never get to see him again. I just want to see his face one last time so I can say goodbye to him. Why didn't I get a chance to?

Changing my contemporary monologue

I decided that I would change my contemporary monologue because I felt like that the character of Christopher would be too hard to do as an audition piece and would require a lot of research that I wouldn't be able to do in enough time like they can if they are playing the character on the stage in a production.

I have changed my monologue to a play called "Wasted talent" by Josef Arnone.

This is my new monologue:
"He stopped believing, that’s it, that’s why he failed…he quit. So much talent, so much potential but he stopped believing in himself…he lost his way cause he couldn’t figure out what to do next with his career and I guess all the stress added up and finally broke him…his music was great…I would listen to it all the time…it would get me into a pumped up emotional state and his lyrics never got old…no one gave him a chance but I think that in today’s world that doesn’t matter; he didn’t give himself the chance to take control of his career the way I knew he could have. Maybe it was fear from doubting himself and it crippled his ambition. He did it for so long with no financial gain, no recognition for his genius and he couldn’t do it no more…he gave up and that’s why he hung himself in his studio; he couldn’t do it anymore.I will miss him very much, he was a dear friend and a talented artist and the world has been robbed of his contribution to humanity. It hurts. It’s sad. It didn’t have to happen this way."

Thursday 17th September

Today we were split into groups and started focusing on a scene from a script so that we can look how scripts work and put together a short piece with a script. This was mainly to see how we could write a script and then even put movement to it later. This is because our dialogue is normally much weaker than our movement pieces when it comes to devising. I enjoyed the piece and I think that the play as a whole would actually be very good as it sounds really interesting. I think that with this, it would be a good devising piece and would made the audience think. I think that we neeed to take time on each scene tht uses dialosgue so o0ur piece can be better.

Tuesday 15th September

Today we finished off our first contact improvisisation piece off and performed it with the class. We struggled so we talked to the teacher and everyone agreedto do whatever we want and see what works. This turned out to actually look really effective and more like contact improvisation. We then had to try again as a certain member in our group was too embaressed to do this so we convinced her to try and this time she did it. We then decided that we would then all turn to the back so it worked better. I feel liked the last part was the best part as it seemed much more improvised.

We then went worked on a piece for voice. We decided that we would be in a mental hospital with multiple people with different disabilities. I thought this went well but I thought that it was rushed as we only had limited time to complete it and could of been much better.

Thursday 10th September

Today we finished our performence piece about World War 2 about the soldier with post-traumatic stress order. We then watched a video of dance that had elements of contact improvisation.We then moved on to performing a piece about slavery using this contact inprovisation. The struggle for our group was trying not to make too much of a dance. Because this was our first time doing this, the class decided that we couldn't actually improvise it as we could easily go wrong and everyone could go in different directions. We got a good way through the song (although contact improvisation ois normally done in silence) and I felt that we got quite far in terms of story telling. I'm not sure where we could use this in our piece and i'm not sure weather it will look relevant or wierd in a piece if we just star doing this in the middle. We will have a bit more time next lesson and then we will finish the story (not neccesarily the song) and perform it to the class. I think this could work well in our piece if it's about human trafficking to help enforce the idea and I think for next lesson we need to make sure we finish this.

Tuesday 8th September

Monday 8^th September (single)

Today, we got put into groups for our devising unit. We had to brainstorm ideas for what our group could do. Our stimulus is “humanity in crisis” so we came up with a spider diagram to see what ideas our group can come up with.

We then got told to create a short piece for our research. We started to look at our World War 2 soldier idea in more depth and created a short performance based on it. We thought instead of making it about somebody being in the war, we thought it would be better if we made it after the war when somebody suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder. We decided to do this so we wasn’t going for the stereotype of what everybody does for war with it being a battle with fake guns. We all agreed that this looks a bit rubbish and very amateur. We had it with everyone being this soldier’s family and when somebody knocks on the door, it looks like they’re back in the war where all his friends died. He then looks around with everything being frozen. He knows it’s fake but he’s still angry. When he turned around again, he realises that he’s just thinking about this in his head from his post traumatic stress and he’s still in his room with his family.

I don't like the idea of any soldiers or anything that uses guns because of what happened with the last devising piece where the gun didn't go off and made it awkward. I like the idea of something to do with human rights as it fits our stimulus.

Idea Brainstorm

Character Profiles

Curious Incident
Name: Christopher Boone
Age: 15
Gender: Male
Special needs: Yes-Autism
Location: London
Notes:
Christopher lives in London and has just found out that his neighbors dog has just been killed. After he gets accused of killing the dog, Christopher decides that he will find out who actually killed him. Christopher generally listens to what he is told takes everything literally and struggles with things like metaphors because he is autistic. He doesn't listen to people when he is passionate about something that he wants to do and feels like it is right to him even if it means it may not be completely right and fits in for everyone else. He has a close relationship with his dad even though this trust is broken in then play but it is resolved by the end of the play. He also finds out that his mun is alive and creates a close relationship with her even though their previous relationship wasn't very good. He doesn't really have any friends apart from his teacher Siobhan and his neighbor Mrs Alexandra which he says isn't a friend.


Shakespeare-As you like it
Name: Jaques
Age: Young man (20-30)
Gender: Male
Location: England 1600
Notes:
A faithful lord who accompanies Duke Senior into exile in the Forest of Ardenne. Jaques is an example of a stock figure in Elizabethan comedy, the man possessed of a hopelessly melancholy disposition. Much like a referee in a football game, he stands on the sidelines, watching and judging the actions of the other characters without ever fully participating. Given his inability to participate in life, it is fitting that Jaques alone refuses to follow Duke Senior and the other courtiers back to court, and instead resolves to assume a solitary and contemplative life in a monastery.

Curious Incident monologue speech

Father planted a vegetable patch in the garden (.) I helped and Sandy watched. We planted carrots, peas and spinach and I’m going to pick them when they’re ready (.) He also bought me a book called further maths for A-level, he told Mrs Gascoyne I’m going to take it and she said ok (.) I’m going to pass it and get an A* and then in two years I’ll take A-level physics and I’ll pass it and get an A* in that (.) And they I’ll go to University (1.0) I’ll take Sandy and my books and my computer (.) I’ll get a flat with a garden (2.0) and a toilet (.) And then I’ll get a first class honour’s degree (.) And then I’ll be a Scientist (3.0) I can do these things (1.0) because I went to London on my own (.) I found out the mystery of who killed Wellington and I found my mother (1.0) I was brave (.) And I wrote a book (.) Does that mean I can do anything? (.) Does that mean I can do anything Siobhan? (2.0)Does that mean I can do anything?

Curious Incident monologue

This is the monologue that I will be using for my modern piece for Mountview:

Father planted a vegetable patch in the garden. I helped and Sandy watched. We planted carrots, peas and spinach and I’m going to pick them when they’re ready. He also bought me a book called further maths for A-level, he told Mrs Gascoyne I’m going to take it and she said ok. I’m going to pass it and get an A*. And then in two years, I’ll take A-level physics and I’ll pass it and get an A* in that. And they I’ll go to University. I’ll take Sandy and my books and my computer. I’ll get a flat with a garden and a toilet. And then I’ll get a first class honour’s degree. And then I’ll be a Scientist. I can do these things. Because I went to London on my own. I found out the mystery of who killed Wellington and I found my mother. I was brave. And I wrote a book. Does that mean I can do anything? Does that mean I can do anything Siobhan? Does that mean I can do anything?