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