Catch A Clap

In lesson we played a new game called catch the clap. This consisted of everyone walking around the room at a steady pace and keeping that pace throughout. You then find someone in the room and make eye contact with them; in this game eye contact is very important when passing and catching the clap because if you want to keep a steady beat you need to be prepared to pass the clap on and not hesitate which would result in loosing the beat. Once you've found someone in the room that has seen you as well, you stretch your arms towards them and clap. Then they catch the clap. They can choose to act like they have physically caught the clap (they may step back and cushion the clap as they receive it) or if they need to be concentrating on the task they can just clap when they receive it. The person you send it to claps when they receive it and then sends it to someone else in the room always keeping the steady beat of the clap; don't slow down and don't speed up.

This game is about collective responsibility which is a reoccurring theme in the games we have been playing this term. This means that everyone must be aware of their surroundings and must be prepared to catch and send the clap. Also when keeping a steady rhythm this helps us when preparing for our play. When performing we don't want to change pace to much because this could result in us losing atmosphere. We want to increase the drama at a steady pace to keep the audience entertained.

Milling, Fish Exercise and Waking Up For The First Time

Milling
A man named Jacque Lecoq invented a scale of different energy levels ranging from 1 to 7, 1 being little movement in every part of the body and 7 being fast movement in all parts of the body. When playing this game you have a collective responsibility to fill the space. You need to use your peripheral vision to help you do this. You can't walk in circles, which is something we should apply to any activity we do that involves moving. This means you should go through the centre of the room and to the far corners. Plus don't just walk forwards, walk backwards and sideways. Allow spacial relationships to happen. Be aware of one person in the room and take in where and how they move. Move with them, allowing them space, yet always being aware. We didn't use all 7 energy levels, we shortened it to 5:
1- very slow yet not slow motion
2- depressed movement however don't look depressed
3- normal pace
4- frantic movement
5- organised chaos

Fish Exercise
When playing this you stand in a group and within this group there is a leader. The leader will move and the rest of the group will follow. However, when standing as a group you will have rows of people and depending on the position of the leader and yourself, you won't always be able to see the leader and therefore won't be able to see the movements that you are meant to copy. This means you need to rely on the rest of the people in the group to show you what you need to do. You do this by using your peripheral vision. When you turn and change position you can also change the leader. This means either the leader is re- allocated or a person takes on the role of leader.

Waking Up For The First Time
For this game you need to imagine that you have never seen the light of day before, that you are seeing your surroundings for the first time. This means that you won't know where you are, who you're with or what to do with yourself. This means that you need to be shocked but very controlled at the same time; you wouldn't necessarily know how to move. You need to look, feel and experiment.

Script Analysis (Clay and Lara)

http://blackoutscript.blogspot.co.uk/
Clay and Lara have made a blog that records what we do throughout class and how we have decided to perform the play. They have recorded what we have decided to do for the first 5 lines.

This Is Engand

We watched This Is England in class. I really enjoyed the film because it taught me about the Skinhead culture and opened my eyes to aspects I previously didn't understand. For example I thought all aspects of Skinhead culture were negative however I discovered that there are gangs of Skinheads that aren't bad, in fact they are quite friendly.

1. What is your view of how masculinity is defined in the film?
I feel that in the film the Skinhead culture is a masculine based one. The head of the gangs are men, however both leaders have a different attitude towards society; one very racist and one not. I think that masculinity could be represented through what they wear; jeans, boots and shirts. This is quite a masculine look. The women wear dresses and skirts, yet they still have aspects of the men's outfit like the boots and the jackets. The haircut is also an important aspect. The men have theirs shaved or close to. The women also have short hair giving that more masculine look.
I think masculinity is depicted as hard and streetwise through the characters. Shaun meets the gang on the streets and they make him feel protected and special, his family, which is a theme for many gangs. This is the streetwise aspect. They roam around and go into abandoned housing and smash everything up and perhaps people may describe their behavior as stupid and reckless. The aspect of hard and toughness is introduced when we meet Combo. He brings the extreme versions of Skinheads. He stands by his values and is prepared to kill for them and ultimately be killed.

2. Discuss the theme of loss-of-innocence/ coming-of-age in the film.
Shaun is 12 years old and when he meets the gang you can immediately see that the gang are considerably older than him. This shows that Shaun may be introduced to adult themes when he should be doing what a 'normal' 12 year old should be doing. However I think the gang take him on as a younger brother and so they understand the age gap yet still appreciate him as part of the gang. I think when he gets his hair shaved off and he changes his clothes you start to see that he is growing up. However again the viewer is comforted by the fact that his mother confronts the gang and they seem genuinely apologetic. The next stage is when you see Shaun outside with Smell. This is strange because of the age gap and not normal for a young boy. I think the loss-of-innocence happens when you joins Combo's gang. The real turning point is when he re-visits the old corner shop he was banned from as a boy. He verbally assaulted him and then when Combo walks in he threatens him with a knife as they raid the shop. This is obviously horrific behavior from anyone, but especially a 12 year old.

Places and Atmosphere

My Pages

p10:

Hospital- alone, emotional, exposed 

"You had nobody to turn to, cos your grandda was in the hospital."

Bedroom- TV, books on serial killers- safe haven, strange, dark, fascinating 

"So you'd just sit in your room and watch horror movies."

"It fascinated you."

Jail Cell- lonely,bare

Secure unit- bare

p20:

Park, pub, bar- group of people, dark, deserted- scary, unfamiliar, frantic, violent

"You were looking at them like you were picking a victim."

Home/ Living Room- violent, crazy, scary

"And you feel your hands around somebody's throat."

Other Pages

p5- Jail Cell- small room, bright lights, white walls, metal door- exposed, scared, tense, trapped

p6- Home- shabby, tense, grim, unhappy memories

p7- Grandad's house- safe, happy memories, safe haven

p8- House- lonely, exposed, used

p9- School- threatening, harsh reality

p11- Bedroom at night- mirror

Street- scary, emotional

p12- Bedroom- alone, wants comfort (gets this from educating himself about Nazis and Fascism.)

p13- School- intense, confrontational, confusing, shocking

p14- School- thrilling, enjoyable yet painful, energetic

Bedroom- Nazi posters, maddening, crazy

p15- Bedroom- violence is norm, crowded

p16- completed, confident, museum of his 'journeys/ achievements'

p17- superior, turns into awkward sadness, hardened exterior

Room- 'inner head', isolated, alone

p18- Jail- saddening, remorseful, bewildered, anxious, confused

Town square- abandoned and dark- drinking drugs and drinking

p19- Town- somewhere unknown, back alley, tense, scary, vulnerable, lost, intimidating 

p21- Courtroom- tense build up, exposed, naked truth 

p22- Courtroom- scared, worried, childlike innocence 

Outside jail- awkward, emotional, let down

p23- alone, complete change 

Hand Raise Fall

How to play
You walk around the class calmly, using your peripheral vision to be aware of everyone around you without moving your head too much. First of all one person is in control. This person can say me and raise their hand and then they fall back. Everyone else has to go over to them and catch them when they fall. The second layer means that anyone can say me. However if two people say me at once then no one goes. The third layer means that instead of falling backwards the person that says me can fall 360 degrees. This means the people catching have to be aware of what direction they're falling. The fourth layer means that you say you which means you are nominating someone else to fall. Finally the fifth layer means that when people fall, instead of catching them immediately, you let them fall a little further and then catch them.

This game is all about trust. If you don't trust the class then you will find it difficult to fall. I nominated myself to fall and I wasn't scared. I think it's because I trust everyone in my class to catch me and therefore I had no hesitation to fall. Trust is very important when you are performing a play because you need to trust that your peers will learn their lines, come to rehearsal, always give 100% and perform on the night. If you don't you will find it difficult to perform to the best of your ability.

This game is also about being aware of your surroundings. This is why you use your peripheral vision to look around instead of always turning your head. When you are on stage you need to know where you need to be at a certain time and you also need to be aware of the other actors on stage because when acting you are responding to those around you.

Kaos

How to play
You stand in a circle. For the game to be effective you need quite a few people because this creates a challenge when you are memorizing the names and people. The first person says someone else's name in the circle, then that person says someone else's name and so on until all people in the circle have been said. This is the first layer. The second layer is different. This time you throw a ball around the circle, creating a new pattern, once again until everyone's name has been said. Lastly you add the third layer which consists of adding layer one and two together. You throw the ball to the same person but you say the first pattern over the top. This means that they won't have any relation to each other making the third pattern the hardest. We will also be adding a fourth layer which I predict will include a movement.

Skills needed
I  think the purpose of this game is to gain control and a positive mind-set. When someone dropped the ball I felt agitated and disappointed because I felt that they had stopped the flow of the game. However they had just dropped the ball. That's it. However I felt that this was a negative thing. This game helped me think differently and accept what had happened. I will need this when performing because everyone will have to work together and most importantly support each other. This means if someone makes a mistake we can't get annoyed we need to accept it and carry on because mistakes are part of life and acting.

Fourth Layer
In today's lesson, 2 weeks after we were first introduced to the game, we learnt how to perform the third layer. This, as I predicted, was a movement. We created another pattern by walking over to someone, tapping them on the shoulder and taking their place in the circle. That person then walks to someone else and so on until everyone has moved across the circle. Then we moved, threw the ball and over the top of both we said the names. It was almost organised chaos. Everyone knew what they had to do and we were all trying to focus on everything we had to remember. However the reality is that it got a little chaotic and people were dropping the ball a lot more and people lost the people they were looking for; though we had to remember that dropping the ball is not a negative.

Relating it to the play
It is all about the philosophy of collective responsibility. We all had to be aware of each other so we would know when to speak, catch the ball or move. If one person wasn't paying attention then it went wrong. It is the same with a play. If one person gives up and doesn't put effort in then the rest of the play is affected. It is also about not seeing failure as a negative. When someone dropped the ball I sometimes felt that that person had let the team down, but it is just dropping a ball and it won't affect anyone. When you are performing a play you won't always be perfect and you need to be supportive of your peers if they make a mistake. All the different layers represent a different aspect of performing a play:
Layer 1 (names)- lines in a play
Layer 2 (ball)- props and action
Layer 3 (movement)- spacial awareness
We also had an improvised fourth layer. When we said peoples names we started to put expression into our voices. This is good practice for playing an objective and reacting to what others on the stage do.

The best way to perform this game is to always keep calm. If you panic you lose control of what you are doing and you add to the chaos of the game. You should use your peripheral vision to keep track of the person throwing to you, the person you're throwing to and the person you tap.

Blackout Play

 This link told me a little about the play. It told me that it was a true story. This could be useful because it is sometimes easier to research factual events rather than fictional ones. It also had a video advertising the play. From this I can see how the real cast have done the play and maybe pick up some tips.
http://www.daveyandersontheatre.com/blackout.html

Source 3
Blog reference	http://performingblackoutblog.blogspot.co.uk/
Author	unknown
Title	Blackout
Web Address	http://www.daveyandersontheatre.com/blackout.html
Date Found	November

 

Performing In Class

Today in class we carried on a piece that we'd started devising in class last week. We took lines from the play  and we used these lines to devise a piece of Theatre. The piece could be linked to the play or it could be completely different. We were allowed to repeat them but not change them. My lines were:
Battering you
He's a psycho 
Yes you have, I've seen you
Who's first then
Oh my God
A metal door
Imagine
Screaming

We could only use these lines which was an interesting scenario to have as it meant I had to use my body as well as my words if I wanted to put expression into the performance. My story was about a house that no one went in as they feared a psycho lived there (imagine.) Two of the characters ventured into the house (who's first then.) The door was metal and they found the man banging his head against the door (a metal door.) Then the man starts scratching the metal door making a horrible sound (oh my God, he's a psycho.) He then jumps on one of the girls and starts beating her to death (battering you.) The other friend after witnessing this runs out screaming (screaming.) We repeated phrases like 'Oh my God' and 'He's a psycho' to emphasize the fact that the man was crazy and potentially dangerous. We also repeated the phrase 'imagine' before every other phrase. We did this because the scene was very graphic and contained a lot of detail and for this to be effective the audience had to imagine a real scene and not just what they saw in front of them.

We used a mix of end on and immersive for our performance. We used this because when we used the word 'imagine' it was effective for the person to be in the audience almost encouraging them to imagine the scene unfolding before them. We used end on because most of the performance was side on and it wouldn't have been affective in any other shape because we wouldn't have as much space to work and we wouldn't have been able to show the audience in as much detail.

I thought the exercise was effective and useful because the performance we devised links closely to the play Blackout. In the play all lines are very short and contain very little words creating tension and an edgy feeling. This was similar to our performance because we had a limited amount of words meaning that we couldn't go into too much detail. This made us use our bodies more than our words which is something we will do in the play.

Reasearch About Young Offenders In Glasgow

This link showed me how young offenders are brought back into society. This could explain the character in the future:
http://www.accesstoindustry.co.uk/young-offenders-glasgow

Source2
Blog reference	http://performingblackoutblog.blogspot.co.uk/
Author	Access To Industry
Title	Creating opportunities to help people move on from prison
Web Address	http://www.accesstoindustry.co.uk/passport
Date Found	November

Theatrical Configeration

In a round- in a circle
Promenade- move location
Traverse- catwalk layout
Immersive- part of the audience
End On- flat stage
Thrust- part of the stage in the audience
3 side- audience on 3 sides

My preferred layout:
Mix of end on and immersive. You perform the physical theatre on the stage and those people read the dialogue and then you have some actors in the audience who read the thoughts and memories. The audience actors eventually end up on the stage. Everyone finishes on the stage.

First Impression Of The Text

The style of the text is stream of consciousness which is a style I liked. It built atmosphere and tension throughout the play which makes the action within the play more exciting and engaging. The storyline is very interesting and it covers many social, cultural and political ideas which is always good as it gives you a lot to think about and more importantly a lot to work with. As the play is written line by line it will be interesting to see how I interpret it compared to a paragraph of lines, which you get in a normal play. Depending on how I interpret it, I will perform in a different way to how I normally do. I am glad that this piece focuses a lot on physical theatre and I am looking forward to devising some to fit into the play. It is quite a personal play which means it will involve the actors and audience more directly. The character is sharing his memories and thoughts and therefore I feel I need to perform well so the character is best represented. The word imagine is used a lot which is affective because when you say imagine, that is exactly what we do; we imagine.

Other Ideas:
The style makes you feel privileged as the reader, as you are let inside the mind of the character and you share his darkest thoughts and memories.
Anyone can perform the play- this makes it our play.
All words are important- no throw away lines.

First Wise Words

"We are like a flock of birds, all moving and changing direction in synchronisation."

Fascism

Fascism is a kind of government. In fascism, the country is considered more important that any other. A country under fascism is run by leader known as a dictator. This person has control over the government, the people and all decisions made.

Fascism appeared because people didn't like other governments. Democracy was considered weak, capitalism materialistic and unfair and communism, though fair, did not pay attention to the needs of the country. Fascism was meant to be the answer. It was one united nation without class and governmental struggles.

Source 1
Blog reference	http://performingblackoutblog.blogspot.co.uk/
Author	Merriam Webster
Title	Fascism
Web Address	http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/fascism
Date Found	November