Frantic Assembly Workshop - 12th July

Awesome.

One word: Awesome.

At the heart of frantic assembly's method is collaboration in a collective creative process (hence assembly) and it's about conjuring energy, experimenting, learning and sharing. This was telling from the start, Maggie emphasised how Frantic Assembly is about the group effort and how they were interested in your best effort, not the best in the room. I love this, my best experiences in acting have always been ensemble casts rather than ones where you feel there's a hierarchy, even if you're at the top, it adds a level of experience unmatched by any other style of drama, a shared energy.

After the warm-up (which killed my abs) though also at the same time part of the warm-up, we had a slalom which we individually run around at first, which seemed benign but through this Maggie emphasised the need for energy and focus using Caitlin and Megan's run as an example as their focus made it enjoyable to watch. Employing this, we then developed it through making eye contact with others in a relay slalom which was hard to get used to at first, but helped increase sharpness, focus and cooperation. It was also surprisingly enjoyable to watch.

After the full warm-up, all our muscles thoroughly used, we began the method of touch movement thing, where a connection between people allows them to know how to move. This was first used in this session in partners, one hand on top of another, guiding the other simply by the pressure of the hands on each other. No gripping with the fingers, all through pressure from the above hand on the lower to determine the direction they move. This was fun to take part in, especially when I closed my eyes, as it felt freeing to concentrate on one area alone without making decisions or inferences about where to move, relying solely on the area of pressure from the partner's hand. It was actually more stressful being the guide with the eyes open than it was being guided with them closed. All about trusting the other person to get it right.

Using this idea of contact again, the next exercise had the sides of our bodies in complete contact and leaning against each other so that when we both raised the central leg, we were completely reliant on the other person for support. Again, this involved a lot of trust, and was pretty hard for me and Megan because she's quite a bit smaller than me, but we eventually got there.

Then began the revelation of the lift. Oh! I was flying! Though Megan was smaller than me, she didn't like being lifted and my is she strong! So I let her lift me - the first time in forever, I've always been one of the biggest, strongest or heaviest, so always been the lifter, now I was the liftee and it was glorious. I think I squealed in delight every time I got lifted. First was one where we stood side by side, she put her arm around my waist, my hand pushed down on her shoulder and she stepped taking the opposite leg of the ground sending me into the air. We developed on this, adding a little spin to do a 180 turn.

Then we did a lift where the person lifting puts her hand around the liftee's waist from the front whilst they put their hands on their back pushing down and they should twist around the lifter's body. We weren't quite so good at this lift, something about the way I was pushing into her back, but we eventually got a couple of good turns in.

Next was a lift where it was up to the person on top to support their weight, going into a plank position on the other's shoulder with the heels of their palms into their waist. The first part was easy, but I struggled when they started to raise the legs into the flat position, partly because I have no ab strength, and because every time I felt like I was being pushed forward by Megan's hands, we got nearly there and reckon I could have gone flat if we had had more time.

Next on the agenda were pressure duets. First, we had to find three points on our partner (now Jenna) where we would gently squeeze, I chose her left wrist, her cheek, and her right ankle. We then devised movement around the body between these points, then put them together, one point at a time each which confused our already devised movement, but allowed us more opportunity to create more interesting transitions between the pressure points. Finally, we added parts where the partner could manipulate the other's body to reach their pressure point, or even use the lifts we'd learnt earlier. I used the shoulder lift to spin Jenna around 180 degrees, then manipulated her body and head to turn her around. I liked our little sequence whilst devising it and found good moments where we connected, moved slower or forced movement around. Watching everyone else's, I was amazed at the range of different sequences, the beauty and the talent displayed by each partner. I would make special mention to the trio, Hannah, Megan and Charlotte who had a beauty and coordination in their sequence which seemed quite professional.

Having learnt duet lifts, we then began to learn group lifts. The first one had a rock on which the liftee lent whilst two people support the shoulder so that the liftee can lean all their weight on them and kick their legs in the air so others can catch and lift them up, arms locked in position above with the liftee in a plank position. I had a go at this, and that was when I truly felt amazing, not quite as awesome as the last lift, but a revelation. It was also another trust exercise, for me at least, not used to being lifted. 

This was followed by one inspired by the Calipso where the liftee has two rocks on whom they lift themselves up whilst a group rush in to take their legs and lift them up. This felt less stable than the other ones, so a little scarier both lifting and as the liftee, requiring more coordination and balance.

Last lift of all, was one where the liftee leans down with the rock's hand on their back, then they push back into it, and others rush in to lift them up into the air on their back, the pressure of their movement determining where people hold them, tested when Caitlin (when lifted) did a roly-poly. When I was lifted, it felt very free and full of adrenaline.

We then did a quad game, where we were lined up in rows and to music, jump up and down to a beat of eight and on the eighth beat turn 180 degrees to face someone behind. It was surprising when it didn't go perfectly first time, as when someone jumps to face you, you want to jump to face the one behind you also. Furthermore, we reduced the beat to six and jumped back around on six, then four, then two, then one. Then we added things such as an arm lift on two, then a 'whoop' 'yeah' on one and two, getting more and more complicated requiring us to control our bodies from doing impulse movements. 

The final exercise of the night, we split into two groups and combined all the skills we learnt to create a big final sequence with one person at the centre. We had a duet lift at the start, the one with the spin around the body, then Sarah (central girl) walked to another point and on the way, I trip her up put my hand on her back and lift her up with the rest of the group, the walk her a way before putting her down where she is budged by someone and the rest of the group run in to do the Calipso move making her walk in the air then finishing with a squeeze thing. In feedback, we were told that it looked a bit like Sarah was getting bullied, so in the next five minute rehearsal we developed our sequence to make it look more like we were bullying Sarah. 

I loved devising all the sequences and discovered a love for being lifted, and physical theatre. I hope I have the opportunity to get involved with Frantic assembly again some day.

Frantic Assembly

They're a physical theatre company founded in 1994 by Scott Graham, Steven Hoggett, and Vicki Middleton. They were students at Swansea University, none had studied theatre, but were fascinated and willing to learn. Taking inspiration from the likes of the company DV8 they wanted to create something different to anything seen before, and created a style based on movement, music, design and text to create energetic, memorable pieces.

They believe strongly in the idea of collaborative efforts in the creative process, an ensemble production, trying new ideas through trial and error, learning and sharing. They have number of devising techniques, beginning achievable and building upon it to make the creative process easier to handle so that more ideas are formed.

Reviewing the Situation

For the whole term, I think not only did our group produce a quality piece of drama, but we worked really well together and each contributed to the creative process, (though hats off to Hannah for an amazing effort in every respect). I think we were pretty lucky to get the funniest and least harrowing part of the monologue, but we took advantage of this to produce a very humorous and energetic piece. I personally loved choreographing in a Berkoff style, although tiring, it has a hella lot of energy and fun with it (though I don't think I'd want to do a performance longer than fifteen minutes).

Perhaps we could have made our piece more defined and mimetic as within it there was maybe a little too much fluidity of movement. I also think we could have worked more on transitions to make them more eye-catching and synchronised. Although the passing of the voice was very good for the first half, I think we lost the focus achieved there in the second half of the piece. Finally, we could have reacted more to each personality, perhaps creating a certain manner of reaction from the group each time a certain personality took control, nothing big, but an indication.

I think all this would have come with a longer rehearsal period considering we only blocked the full piece two weeks before the performance and did a considerable amount of refinement as it was, and so for the time we were given, our piece was pretty good. I loved devising and performing, and hopefully improved my expression, physical movements and memory for choreography, though that is yet to be tested.

The Performance

The big day!

Of course the duration of the day entailed pre-performance nerves and paranoia sure you'll forget a vital line and freeze still and idiotically on-stage as Chipp pulls what's left of his hair out of his head, or I'll make unfortunate bodily noises at really inopportune moments. An
d the constantly thudding racket in your rib cage, sickly butterflies winging your stomach into a mess of unease all the while stupidly excited for the adrenaline fueled night ahead.

The first thing on the agenda for the final rehearsal was the transition between the two groups' sections (the third left out due to Sarah's terrifying quarantined contagion) where we had music in the background as we marched on stage in a mirror order of personalities and took their place. Then in a smooth canon move we peel off and go to the back where we move the riser lid and riser further back. After just a couple of run-throughs it was pretty smooth, and looked effective.

We had a couple of run-throughs, the first one slow to remember everything before we picked the pace up. We didn't adapt much as we didn't want to panic ourselves before the performance. I think the only things we changed was the direction I jump down from "Yes, Chair" to get into position with Caitlin: instead of facing forwards, facing sideways, as the audience can see what I'm doing much more clearly. And also, after "little explosions of love" the "Whoosh" Charlotte joins in to turn herself around to face the audience. Everything else, we kept the same and ran through, refined and tried desperately to remember cues.

Then it was the long process of everyone getting costume and makeup on before we did a dress run-through. 

Here are some pictures of our development through the hour:

With all the makeup done, and costumes on, we did a run-through with the lights, and someone taking photos. The run-through all went well, no-one forgot lines or cues etc. here are the photos (some):

And so... following this came the dreaded and awaited hour: the performance.

Watching the other group smash theirs with a sledgehammer (it went very well) nerves jangled and we boogied our way up to the front. Sadly, the placing of the riser went wrong and it was slightly wonky for the rest of the performance. To be honest, I can't really remember what happened, it's all a bit of a blur, all I can really remember was starting and what felt like two minutes later reaching the end. From what I can remember, it went really well. We hit our cues, for lines and movement, no-one went wrong and we put all our energy into it. Basically, I thought it was a fantastic performance. Well done gang!

Monday 3rd July

Today was time to experiment with the make-up. Or more precisely, my make-up (which I did not apply, thank god).

We began with a white mask-like base to create the mime-effect. I thought the white mask was spooky enough, it looked I had no real features, just blank… and ghost-like… I think it reminded me of my own mortality…

On this white mask we just decided to apply a hella lot of black paint, beginning with the lips which were coated in a nice thick layer of black (black face paint does not taste nice it turns out, just for anyone who was curious) which made me feel well threatening and mysterious. Then around the eyes, lots of black eye liner stuff, and for the finishing touch, underneath the eye a line of black paint then watery black paint running down to look like mascara tears. As many class mates commented, I looked like a member of kiss.

After an awkward minute of being aware of Chipp doing his judgemental stare, my restraint burst and I asked what his problem was, and he pointed out that rather than enhancing facial expressions which Berkoff make-up should do, mine ironically masked my expressions. Therefore, my group developed the makeup into big quizzical eyebrows, extending the lips into a creepy permanent black smile and deciding to next time, paint subtler tears. I for one loved the new make-up, especially the stark contrast between the black tears and the creepy smile, really reflecting the mental state of my character (a mentally unstable psycho). Furthermore, the make-up really enhanced my facial expressions, so mission complete!

Following the make-up escapade, we decided to do a run-through. This was sick! Smooth and energetic with a hint of spicy sexual innuendo (or more explicit than a hint). Excited for the performance on Wednesday, I think our group have created and will achieve a well-deserved rousing performance.

My only problem came at the end when I struggled for ten minutes trying to get the black smudges off my face before I returned back to the real world.

Sunday 2nd July

Nerds that we are, our group decided to meet outside of school to 1. pick up a costume from the high class retailers, Primark, and 2. rehearse in our newly purchased costumes. Not even yet met up and disaster struck… I couldn't meet them in town!

So a simple solution was drawn up where they would just buy mine and I'd pay them back. Sorted.

After some very nice flapjack and a visit from Hannah's mum exclaiming about a baby ladybird she had discovered in the garden, we got to work in Hannah's sitting room (surrounded by her embarrassing family photos he…he…heeee). Must admit, not wholly comfortable with the costume, for one, it's probably the most feminine thing I've worn all year, and it is a little revealing for my tastes, displays my gorgeous tan lines and just doesn't sit well with me. However, the combined effect of all four of us wearing the exact same outfit in my opinion made it all the more effective especially in portraying the idea of a single entity with multiple personality traits.

The only problems found with the costume was that the flimsy cheap socks began to tear as we moved around in them, and due to the smooth material, at the point where I lift Caitlin and she wraps her legs around my waist and leans back acting as the 'penis' to Charlotte's bellybutton, she began to slip a little. We quickly adapted to this situation I think by just being a bit more firm in our hold, a little less vigorous with the thrusting. Other than that (and general uneasiness) the costumes were fine and fit the bill.

With the costumes successful and all fitting adequately, we began our rehearsal. We began to slowly run through it, looking at places to iron-out faults pointed out at the last Wednesday rehearsal, such as rising with more purpose and in-sync, working on my "STOP! That really shocked him." and most importantly, diction.  The main problem with this rehearsal was the lack of head space especially with Hannah's chandelier-like light, and the small replacement for the riser, plus feeling a little self-conscious with Hannah's mum nearby and the nature of our play so speaking the lines with a little less volume or passion.

We spent a while on the section which had caused a momentary pause on Wednesday. It was after my line of "Oh it was awful! So was the hundredth time come to that." followed by Hannah's "Find out?" Questioned to the other person in the conversation. This was awkward because as a group we kept forgetting to lean forward in acknowledgement of the imaginary person in the conversation, so we tried to work out a way for either all of us to remember a simple movement after "hundredth time come to that" or to just have Hannah acknowledging and questioning seeing as it's her line following. In the end we decided to have Hannah going "hmm?" and us just putting on confused expressions as she says this (this was after a number of trial and errors including us all in-sync tilting our heads and going "hmmm?" which resulted in an impromptu canon performance).

After ironing out a few moments where we can move or get up in sync, we did another full run without stopping which went very smoothly and was a positive start to the week of the performance. I think we'll kill the performance and bury the body…

Had to stop after the last run else I'd miss my train.

Make-up and Costume

We had many conversations concerning make up and costume.

One of the ideas was to have the same make-up but with different costumes for each personality, me perhaps with ripped clothes, or a leather jacket, Hannah with a conservative motherly outfit, Charlotte with an apron and a scarf tied around the neck (50s housewife-esque) and Caitlin obviously in red, fishnet tights etc. but we thought people might just see this as four different people.

The next idea was to have the same make-up and similar costumes, so say a white shirt and black trousers, I could have mine ripped and muddy, Caitlin buttoned down and tied at the bottom to show some skin, Charlotte tucked in with the top button undone, maybe with an apron or scarf, and Hannah tucked in and buttoned all the way to the top. But we weren't sure we like this and wanted to look at having nightwear on as she's meant to be in pajamas or nightie.

So we decided on having the same pajamas, going to Primark and buying a top then wearing black leggings underneath. And to show the different personalities, we went for different make-up and hairstyles, me with black lipstick and eyeliner, Caitlin rouged cheeks and big red lipstick, Charlotte pretty, prim make-up and Hannah mostly natural. The hairstyles would reflect this also.

We looked at images of Berkoff make-up and found that most had white mask-like face paint, with exaggerated expressions.




So on Monday, we experimented with makeup (on me) using the guy on the right above as quite a heavy influence for the final result.

First attempt at face, but wasn't expressive enough.

Last face, using the guy above as inspiration to extend the ends of the lips and enlarge the eyebrows, but we may make the tears smaller for the performance.

The first part just showing how we created the tears.

Wednesday 21st June

With the script fully blocked, and pretty well rehearsed if I may say so, all of the night was taken up with rehearsing what we had, and refining sections. I arrived late after an enchanting Biology trip looking at grass, so we didn't have as long as we may have hoped, but we were back in the performance space! Finally!

We did a slow run through to remember all the points and changes etc. and this felt pretty good, none of forgetting much and what we did forget was due to the slower pace making our brains work slower. So we did another run through which was fast paced and this filled us with confidence, the only one messing up really me, on the last page as I always seem to forget my cues for this specific section (this was a theme which carried one during the night, until the performance where I nailed them cues).

We decided that some parts of our choreography had the potential to be more dynamic and synchronised, and so make it more Berkoffian. One of these moments we tweaked was at the beginning when we all say "Yes, Chair" together and mime sitting down, originally I jumped down, Caitlin got up and we did "Yes, Chair" in a line together, but this had awkward movement getting to it, we changed this to me staying high, and Caitlin staying on the floor making it look way more effective as there were more levels and we were in a kind of diamond formation (sadly, in the performance I ruined this image by losing my balance). This also lent itself to the next bit when previously me and Caitlin had gone up onto the riser and done our little pose, now I came down and she stood up and in one smooth move, me met each other in the perfect position to do the same move, and although not as high, in a more central and obvious placing, bringing more attention to it. What a decision with many fruits to harvest (weird analogy) as this meant there was a fantastic transition into the next position as Hannah just turned Caitlin's shoulders and pushed her down, making it snappier and therefore, more life Berkoff! Whoop, we were on a roll!

Following this, we edited my part where I say "At ease" for the second time so that I fell back on the riser as if were going to sleep (sort of) then Hannah for her line "Then I can relax and got to sleep" can put her legs over mine and "go to sleep" (a line I mentioned earlier in my logs caused a bit of problem)which again, meant the next bit was more effective when I stand up to say my line, doing a passing the voice as I knock Hannah aside.

Again, I mentioned earlier in my logs that I thought Caitlin should adapt the bit where she acts as my 'penis' so that she can be lower down, we did this through her holding onto my forearms rather than her neck, and I think this immediately makes the image more effective and easier for the audience to understand.

A moment where the transition could have been more synchronised was getting up after "Then I grew up. No I never had another sexual experience" when Charlotte says "Well, I didn't get much out of that belly-button experience" Charlotte, Caitlin and myself are all on the floor, so as Charlotte gets up, we could all do it but in a way which is obviously the same movement rather than haphazardly rising. We lent forward, slammed hands on the floor, up into downward dog, then rise. It took a while to get in time with each other, and even in the small performance at the end, me and Caitlin were a bit behind, and I managed to lose my balance and look like an idiot.

In the section after Caitlin's emphatic fight to get on the riser, instead of pulling her forward, we changed it to pulling her backwards, as this meant the when she stood back up, it was less awkward and her line was neither stunted nor spoken to the back as she picks Hannah her up, keeping the pace high.

The bit with the "blue eye" moment was extended as because there was a break in character from Caitlin, and so a break from the script in a way, we had to have a way of getting back into it, so we had me and Hannah coughing then doing the woosh again then Charlotte copying but with two eyes a bit after us. This added humour and allowed us to get back into character without it feeling awkward.

We also added another synchronised moment with Berkoff sound effects after "Ding-dong" where we open a door with a creak, a shocked intake of breath etc. It's a nice break from our normal move and acts as a set up for the next part. Charlotte also adopted an Italian accent acting as the mother at the front whilst Caitlin flops at the back (though the accent turns a bit Indian towards the end, but I love it).

We made more of the "Then we're alone. He kisses..." with more elaborate choreography, rather than Charlotte and Hannah just coming up to hug Caitlin, Hannah hugs from behind, then Caitlin spins in her arms, then falls into Charlotte for kiss till I shout stop. Then after I shout this, they push me down and I burst out of them for my "I love you" till I'm pulled down again to forma window.

We performed it at the end of the night, and watching it back there were a couple of points which we need to work on. The main thing, which I think I am particularly prone to, is when we're not in the main action, shifting around a lot, fidgeting etc. so we need to have a focus and stay as still as possible. Furthermore, I kept preempting movements, which meant they lost their effect. And something which was picked up on by the audience was my diction, losing the words as I try and shout the loudly or something. I've always struggled with diction since I was a child, some sort of speech problem, and it wasn't until year Nine I really got any help with it from my drama teacher of the time, and I still fall foul of mumbling, speaking too fast or just not pronouncing consonants and being lazy with the mouth. I am conscious of the problem and try to work hard to overcome it.

Video of our performance:

Monday 12th and Wednesday 14th June

On Monday, we carried on blocking from where we left off, on the "he started shivering" line, originally, we had been moving in a shivery way, but slowly, so in a Berkoff manner to increase pace and humour, we decided to exaggerate this movement into completely over-the-top shivering. Furthermore, as Caitlin says "Stammering the Italian" we began shouting random Italian words (Mario, Pizza, Pasta, Chica, Bella!) and to immediately stop and return to neutral face as Hannah slams her hands down on the riser.

This section was followed by the more melancholy admittance that the woman didn't know much about emotions, adding a quick stark contrast in mood. This meant that the original splitting of the line with the me, the psycho, saying it all didn't really work. We decided to split the lines between the four of us and create a simple movement which wouldn't interfere with the mood. This definitely worked a lot better, and was probably more striking to the audience in relation to realising the suffering the woman went through "day after day".

This also helped for a contrast to emphasise the new experience of emotion she has with the boy, as as soon as we say these lines we immediately fall back into "I began to feel these little explosions of love" here we made contained "Pew" noises, which I really love as I feel it reflects the tingling you get at the beginning of a strong feeling before it swells with the "Woosh" that me and Caitlin do in-sync, then contained again by Hannah. A visceral demonstration of feeling, you might say.

We hit a wall with blocking for "I quite the Italian lessons" so decided to leave movement for this line, just act a bit annoyed or summit. Then for "I'd go down to do the shopping" originally we blocked Hannah to have her hands out as if holding plastic bags, with the other two coming up underneath as the 'bags' to deliver their lines. At first we kinda liked it, but then realised it wasn't really clear what they were doing, so changed it to just a little stealing of each others' lines, followed by a synchronised movement for "pale and sad, and wearing a white mac."


On Wednesday, we reviewed this last section of blocking, then carried on developing. This saw the devising of "Woosh" everyone's favourite bit. Originally, this was normal, say the lines with a bit of choreography, but we decided to act on the development of Charlotte being very ditzy and a bit of an embarrassment to the whole group with her getting confused at the antiques of her own person. It also allowed us to break the flow of Berkoff, and come slightly out of character adding a lot of humour.

Then again we split the lines for "go away" to emphasise the characteristics, me shouting it very loud and angrily, Hannah pleading in a motherly tone, and Charlotte being really pleased with herself that she's joining in. We again used the last "go away" as an opportunity to bully Charlotte and display our embarrassment, through directing it at her rather than the boy, but her being completely oblivious.

This next section saw a lot of us adding synchronised movements with splits of the script to add Berkoff-esque sound effects such as the "Fwip-shhh" for the movement after "Huge Letters" as we each do a 'T' in the air. Also, in-sync swigging of booze and disgusted 'ach' at the bitterness. And finally "Ding-dong" as we meet the boy's mother.

We weren't really certain what to do with this section with the Italian mother rambling on and on about her son, but in the end had Caitlin falling dramatically into our hands on three sides of the riser, for the "he won't eat, he won't sleep..." which led to the section with the boy in his room. We used the lines to have canon bursts into tears from different personalities, then a tender moment at the front with the line "he hugs me, I hug him, he kisses me, I kiss him" then "STOP" from me, the one who can't be arsed with the whole thing and makes fun of the others, and this is again used later with the repeated "I love you" as I burst into Opratic song at the end in mockery of the others. I personally love this bit, going wild with Opera.

We then created the image of a window with me a Caitlin opposite in a diamond shape, sticking our heads together in the middle, each spouting our lines as other people in the flat. When we first tried this, I had the last line, and accidentally for some reason I know not, said it in a peculiar accent, which the others loved and so decided to adopt it themselves. What a spectacle!

We created another synchronised movement (been doing a lot of those lately) for the line "If you don't go to bed with me I kill myself" where we each put a knife to our throats then slice and 'pwagh' as blood spurts out in an array of gory glory! Originally, I (who doth speak the line) held two peoples' hands to my own throat, but this excluded one and was a bit awkward to get into, so we quickly adapted it to my orginal description. However, it was pointed that I should do an Italian accent as I am imitating an Italian boy, and due to my awful accents, it turned sounding pretty racist, but we went with it, and it definitely added texture.

We finally used the riser, for something other than standing on, or lying on, or sitting on, with my last line (almost) which is "bang, bang, bang, like a pile driver" (infer from that what you want) me underneath and the others banging it down with each bang as I say, "bang" and do a suggestive move underneath. I think this effective, though pretty awkward for me to perform, though thank God we changed the direction of my move from on my back, to on my front.

The last line is one we say together after someone says "Love is gentle, love is sweet" and we all say "So Sweet" but for our last line we decided to again emphasise the different characteristics by saying it in our different attitudes: I say it sarcastically with a glare out to the audience, Caitlin sexually, Charlotte excitedly, and Hannah sweetly. I think it is an effective, though maybe sudden as it's a little short, but a nice send-off from our section of the script.

We finished blocking the whole section! So proud!

Below is a small performance, not the whole bit we blocked, but a cheeky teaser:

Wednesday 7th June

Wednesday saw a surprising amount of productivity in our group, partially because of awesome brainwaves, and partially because we were devising a section with lots of physical opportunity.

The first part of the lesson we looked at the part of the script which was looking at the memory of her marriage and getting excited about sex, disappointed with sex, then finding out about erogenous zones. When psycho (me) complains about her 'first night' we tried to create a simplistic, abstract physical move to demonstrate the movement (which I'm sure needed explaining) beginning with something with me talking at the back on the riser, then Hannah and Caitlin lifting Charlotte to perform the movements.

Here is our first attempt:

This was a little awkward and not clearly emphasised enough to be effective in what we wanted to portray, so we decided to create a less complicated movement which could be done in synchronisation in line, with me behind doing the same movement which I think makes it look more effective, especially as a piece of Berkoff. The looped movement in-sync both looked good and fit with the lines really well, all ending with a sigh of disappointment after the second run movement at the exact moment I finish my lines. 

Then next part we took advantage of the lines and Caitlin's 'sexy' character to over-exaggerate the movement, which we did through bringing Caitlin as the main focus, her going onto my shoulders. This also helped to create a sense of an alliance between the two extreme emotions: psycho and sexy, which helps with the kind-off exaggerated movement to elevate the sense of emotion/character. It took a while to get the lift right, beginning with Caitlin getting on the riser behind me, with me kneeling on the ground, then me squatting and her getting up and finally we decided to stay with me sitting on the front of the riser, Caitlin stepping behind, onto my shoulders, then me standing up. I think Caitlin being that high really helps with her emotion, adding a new dynamic to the movement allowing her to manipulate bodies, and adding humour. To make sure the section didn't lose its effectiveness and to save me from dying, we cut a few lines to shorten the section and add a bit more of a flow to keep it snappy and interesting. 

Getting out of the shoulder lift also proved difficult, as there appeared no way of getting Caitlin down safely without it being a bit clumsy, furthermore, Caitlin had a line straight after which needed to be snappy and effective. Thankfully, our saviour Mr Chipp swooped in a suggested a drop where I just bend over from the waist, without being conscious of Caitlin on my shoulders, and her feet should just touch the ground and go off. I was terrified of killing Caitlin and snapping my back the first time we tried this, but it was magical! It worked first time! It also turned out to be perfect for the next line which talked about the 'rump' and my 'rump' happened to be in the air right in the centre of stage straight after the lift and Caitlin could use it as a table or whatever she wants to do with it. 

This is our performance up to the "rump" part:

A major point from Mr Chipp during the rehearsal was the direction of our faces and lines. He noticed when I was doing my "No Loin. No Rump. No fillet. No Nothing!" (in following video) I directed my lines down with my concentration on the movement. He also noticed in our performance that we often direct our lines either to each other or directly in front-middle where the person we're speaking to is located, the neighbour. Looking at everyone in the audience, or just staring at a single random person, could add humour or make the more uncomfortable especially during the 'sexy' moments, such as the moment with Caitlin's legs spread for the 'loin' where I stroke my hands up her legs. During this first performance of that, I was pretty embarrassed, as were the others and I lost my composure a bit during the performance. 

An exciting part of the devising was a part with Caitlin where she gets excited about the young Italian, we decided to really draw out some movement before her line to create humour for a 'punch line' as the other personalities try to prevent the 'sexy' one taking control out of embarrassment. Thus ensued a load of choreography beginning with me as the 'psycho' violently grabbing Caitlin around the waist, her screaming a kicking, to the opposite corner, eventually she gets free and gets up to the riser to deliver her line. The choreography was hard to get right, but after a bit of rehearsal it got pretty smooth.

Generally the rehearsal was productive, and the end result was effective, though it still needs more pace and refinement, parts still pretty messy and unsynchronised etc. but with more rehearsal it should be awesome. 

The last part of our performance:

Monday 5th June

After a week off school (yay) we needed a little refresher, so Monday was mainly spent refreshing our memory and refining points which we had already defined. With my disgusting memory for choreography, it took a while for me to get into the flow of the movement and sequence and it was clunky to begin with, then began to pick up as we went over it. It was still a bit messy by the end, but this was partially due to the fact that most of the group had scripts (except me, just to point out ;) ) and I was clunky because I'm clumsy and struggle with choreography - as pointed out earlier in the blog.

At the end of the rehearsal, as is customary, we performed a small section of our devised script to the rest of the class. This went relatively well considering the lack of rehearsal and the use of scripts, but there were a few points of issue as well as a couple of moments pointed out in feedback from the audience (the 9-strong audience, I know, massive turn-out).

One of the points addressed the clarity and precision of our movement, picking up on the fact that it wasn't quite perfectly together. One of these moments where we needed most to improve precision was between me and Caitlin in a section devised in the 'passing of the voice' lesson where Caitlin passes a thread as where last time this had been slick and magical, this time it was sloppy and imprecise, mainly my fault I'm afraid, I was preempting it and this made my brain do a caffufly thing, and I missed the timing completely.

"Then I can relax and go to sleep" had a move where we all lift Hannah into 'lying-down' position, this was in hindsight probably a little too complicated, long and physically demanding for the length of line it was we had to do it, and this told in the performance where it was clunky, slow and ineffective, slowing the pace right down. Next time, I feel we either need to really work on getting the lift slick and smooth, or cut it and have her doing a simpler move such as lying back on the riser.

A point pointed out by the audience was that we made too much of the chicken pox line, which was short but had some elaborate movement (I thought personally thought we should have all just done a quick chicken movement but the rest of my group laughed that off the table) so either we need to cut the movement and keep the line, simplify the movement, or cut the line and movement completely, I like the latter idea as the line is unneeded and awkward as it is.

Although I love the move where Caitlin acts as my penis, (because I finally feel like a patriarch with power!) as I think it's dynamic and humorous I think it's missing a definition which would come if she let go of my neck with her hands, so we need to work out a safe way of doing the move so she's lower down, as it looks a little too high and perhaps not understandably a penis.

I think we generally need to work on the definition and synchronisation of movement which whould come when we lose scripts, and with more rehearsal.

Down below is the video of our end of lesson performance:

Another Woman Alone 22.05.2017

A Monday morning rehearsal... tiredness...

A point pointed by the pointer-outer Monsieur Chipp, was that to effectively create the image of a single person, and meanwhile improve the aesthetics of the images, we should create connections between the speakers to indicate who was speaking, and the fact that we work as one and are not simply conversing in a group of women like a mother's meeting ( is that the saying?) having an old chinwag.

Un bon point!

D'aceur we began working on this point pointed out by the pointer-outer for the next hour before we performed our work. Therefore, we worked on the scenes already created and not only must it have looked more effective to the onlooker/ audience, but it felt like it ran faster, smoother and more effectively as a group and identity.

Examples of our work is at the beginning beginning with our backs turned and as each character speaks their letters of "O.R.G.A.S.M." we connect by pushing the previous speaker down/away etc. then as we progressed through our choreography, all we added were little touches from the characters, or in-sync looks at the speaker from other characters, or pushes out-of-the-way-to-take-centre-stage!

I think that the end result was effective and managed to have a smooth-running performance which helped the audience understand who was speaking and the connection between each identity of this one person.

The video below shows our performance at the end of the lesson. It's confusing because we're missing one of our people, Charlotte, so that's why look at an invisible person and push them out of the way. I love the bit where I catch the thread, but I need to work on the canon 'frozen' moment.

The video of our wonderful performance

Beginning Woman Alone 17.05.17

Having split the whole script, we began to work on choreographing the monologue.

We decided that the set would just be a single roster in the centre, upon which we  all gather and begin at the start, trying to indicate the idea that we are all four parts of one conscience. We also tried to do this through beginning in the same pose although with different posture and facial expressions (and of course we added a few neat levels in there). The first line in the section we decided to perform was "Orgasm. O.R.G.A.S.M" So we split the spelling of the word into each of our characters saying one or two of the letters, again emphasising the fact that we belonged to the same brain and to introduce each of our characteristics through our stance and the manner in which we speak the letter.

The physical choreography was at first hard to come up with, our brains not feeling quite up to the challenge of thinking of moves to match the words, but once they had whirred into action, warming up the nerves and the few brain cells each of us own, we eventually got into a swing and began to create the basic outline of some kind of Berkoff thing. Therefore, in the first couple of hours we managed to create something resembling a piece of drama over the first page of dialogue.

We had a little interlude between the rehearsing to watch the upper BTECs perform their theatre in education piece which was very impressive and quite touching at times. Must admit that none of us were to sad to have a little break from Berkoff, all exhausted from the physical toll it takes.

At the end of the night we had to perform our pieces to peoples and I'm pleased to say that I was pretty proud of what we'd achieved. I felt the movements were effective though a couple of moments were a little awkward and perhaps need tweaking or neatening up, or just cutting all together. All in all it was adequately fast paced and physical for a first rehearsal and performance.

I think that we need to improve the definition of our movements, making them more precise and clear cut. Looking at the film footage (much to my displeasure) I noticed that I often lose a stable stature instead moving too much when I'm not doing the choreography making it seem as though I lose my character when not acting my lines.

My favourite parts were the "Look, this is how I do it" and the canon frozen moment, this is because they seemed very in-sync and as though we were all part of the same body, whilst looking effective.

All in all, a good first performance I do believe.