Mrs Tremblay

Today we were designing a stage in order to perform an abstract rendition of our verbatim scripts. (See below for both.) We all picked a starting position on the stage and when a question from our verbatim was asked we could all answer but we had to stop talking if someone else began, even if we hadn’t finished. Also, any time we spoke we had to move, in character. This created a very surreal, dynamic scene and made otherwise ordinary monologues interesting. We were all very keen to develop this concept further in the hopes of including it, or something similar, in our devised piece.

Mrs Tremblay

Our Stage:

Mrs Tremblay

Transcription of Dylan; Verbatim:

What is your biggest regret?

(Quietly, looking down) saying stupid (Looks up nervously).

What would the best day of your life be like?

(Looks up in different directions uncertainly) (Smiles sweetly) (Quietly) my birthday (Smiles and rocks the chair side to side).

Who do you think you’ll be in 10 years?

Uh… (Looking up, left) (Pause) s-staying here (looks forward, small rocking forwards).

No who do you think you’ll be?

(Smile drops) leans forward with chin) uh… (Fidgeting) I just want to stay here forever.

But who? Not where, who.

(Looks left) uh... No-one (Smiles left, looks forward, bigger smile)

Right… What are you afraid of?

(Head stays still, eyes move right) werewolves… (Looks forward as if for confirmation).

What keeps you awake at night?

(Head stays still, eyes move right) (Thinking) (Looking forward) being scared.

That it? Yeah?

(Nodding, smiling uncertainly) yeah.

Mrs Griffifths

In today’s and last lesson we focused on the animalistic qualities of the characters from ‘A Streetcar Named Desire’ and to what percentage this zoomorphism was displayed. This is a technique associated with Anton Chekhov, the Russian dramatist. I believe the exercise helped our characterisation greatly as we were able to assume certain mannerisms and idiosyncrasies improving the realism of our characters.

Residential

Teddy Ferrara (rough notes):

Part 1-

The performance was in thrust staging, with a corridor at the back and a balcony overhead.

The use of thrust staging creates a claustrophobic atmosphere and, in the audience, instigates a feeling of being observers.

The use of a balcony created a literal separation between characters, this was used to demonstrate the unspoken feelings of detachment the characters who went up there were feeling.

The corridor was also used symbolically, the teachers who used it spoke derogatorily about the students who were gay in it, and this suggests it was representative of the internalised thoughts of society. This is even more significant as it is where Teddy’s memorial is

The presence of a balcony is used as a way of showing the audience the internal separation from others the characters who go up there feel, physically. It was also used to create tension as the first time the balcony is used, Teddy Ferrara jumps off, committing suicide. This means that when Gabe goes up on the balcony, clearly distressed, we are in suspense and feel great sympathy and concern for him.

The first time we see him, Gabe is stacking chairs at the sides. (This happens a lot throughout the course of the play.) This illustrates the lack of presence and increases the sense of them being observed and closed in. There are also two boxes of colourful cupcakes that no-one has eaten. This could be symbolic of the fact that the people going are ignoring the nicer, brighter, sweeter aspects of life or maybe that they weren’t participating.

The first time Gabe meets Teddy, he dehumanises him, saying ‘you think I’d have sex with that?’ this shows the hypocrisy of the situation: throughout the play the characters are fighting to be accepted, yet they don’t easily accept others. This is particularly relevant as the depression many (if not all) of the characters feel is caused by oppression such as this.

Teddy was clearly very depressed, but hid those feelings. The only sign he gave to the other characters that he was unhappy was his nervousness. He appeared to be the personification of anxiety, and apparently (outwardly) the antithesis of his online personality.

Gabe’s costume seems to reflect his thoughts and feelings. He is always wearing at least one item of blue, this could represent isolation, sadness or possibly fear (for instance the fear of intimacy that was frequently pointed out but never admitted to).

Ii think the most poignant moment in the play was that the only time Gabe remembered Teddy’s full name until he had died, when Gabe was told the news of ‘some freshman jumping of the 9^th floor balcony. Teddy something…’ he suddenly shouted ‘Teddy Ferrara’. I think this is an incredibly important and significant point/ theme that runs throughout the play: death is the only way to get noticed, to be remembered and make a difference.

Interval-

During the interval there was a memorial set up in the corridor (a corridor that often housed negative comments towards people who were classed as ‘different’ by the characters that spoke there). It was a picture of Teddy (without his name), surrounded by seemingly discarded flowers. Within what we can only assume is two or so days, the memorial is gone. This is demonstrative of how whilst those who die make more impact, it is not necessarily a lasting impact.

Part 2-

During the demonstration, Jacque was at first the only voice, and the others only started to join in gradually. This may show the gradual acceptance of others to diversity. Also in this scene, the fourth wall is broken, as Provost stands in the audience during the Headmaster’s speech. This gives the audience the impression they are part of the school’s audience, making the scene more impactful. However, nothing seems to change despite the protest. It implies that despite all this fighting for acceptance, all they ae receiving is tolerance.

I think they used sound and lighting very well and effectively in order to make the performance more engaging; particularly in the ‘toilet’ scene. It created a tense and uncomfortable atmosphere reflective of Gabe’s emotional trauma. This was further emphasized by Gabe’s facial expression. He was looking up, sadly and appeared to be on the verge of tears; it was as if he was giving something up, giving in. 

And Gabe clearly wasn’t the only one suffering from emotional trauma: Drew is also struggling with events that have unwillingly lead to him recalling past issues. He was ignored after sex by Kevin in the past and then by Tim. He seemed lost and it was the most honestly and openly vulnerable we had seen him. 

There is another meeting, which Gabe is late to. This begin the anticipation and concern of the audience over Gabe’s mental health, especially due to the conversation over his depression and isolation after Teddy’s death before his entrance. However, it is clear that Gabe is, at the very least trying to, not blame himself for Teddy’s suicide. He absolves himself of responsibility, saying ‘I talked to him at length’, a fact the audience know not to be true. This may be due to his guilt, but also due to his hatred of self-victimization (something exploited in a way that irritates both Gabe and the audience): he doesn’t want to blame himself and become self-piteous, he won’t be seen as a victim of Teddy’s suicide.

In my opinion, the most influential scene for Gabe and the pinnacle of the audience’s concern for him, is the scene where he is on the balcony. He finally understood and empathised with Teddy, he finally realised the separation he had put between himself and others and failed in his desperate attempts to reach out to someone. It was blatant to the audience that he was seriously considering jumping, and I think the only thing that stopped him was his refusal to become a hypocrite and see himself as a victim.

However, I think the most poignant scene of the play is the last scene. The play concluded on a moment of silence for Teddy Ferrara. This is significant as the play, which is called ‘Teddy Ferrara’ (despite him, arguably, not being the main character), finishes after just a short moment of contemplation, his story doesn’t continue, he is forgotten (much like Kevin) and the vicious cycle begins again. His life becomes nominal.

Photograph 51 (very rough notes):

• Use of grey lighting when in the present and Dr Rosalind Franklin is dead is reflective of the collective mood (guilt, sadness, regret etc.).
• Use of a very resonant sound effect when changing between flashbacks and the present create a nostalgic and reminiscent feeling and effectively separate the atmospheres created by the two time periods.
• Actors are always, in some way ‘present’. They are either on stage, portrayed as ‘round the corner’ or are standing under the arches at the back. This further enforces the idea that they are recalling these events, especially as the only character that does (often) leave the stage is Franklin.
• Light on the floor are used symbolically, possibly to represent life or lack thereof: rather than having a physical model of DNA (the very essence of life) they used the lights; and when Watson and Crick were examining their completed and perfected DNA model, and Franklin was being taken to hospital and diagnosed with ovarian cancer (due to the x-rays used to take her photographs of DNA), Franklin stood in the light (not only was her life was cut short but she could no longer produce life).
• Acting wise, there was a mixture of good and bad. Franklin (Nicole Kidman), Dr James Watson (Will Attenborough), Dr Don Caspar (Patrick Kennedy), and Dr Ray Gosling (Joshua Silver) were very realistic and the audience became completely absorbed when watching them. However, Dr Francis Crick (Edward Bennett), and Dr Maurice Wilkins (Stephen Campbell Moore) were not as good, Crick’s character didn’t seem as in depth as the others; and Wilkins put emphasis on words unexpectedly, making his lines seem disjointed and appearing as if he didn’t know the script very well.
• Use of “what they would of said”s in order to make the audience consider all the possibilities and ‘what if’s and encourage their empathy with the characters. 

Mrs Griffifths

Rehearsal methods:

Stanislavski-

Stanislavski’s method of acting is very realistic. He believed you should become you’re character as opposed to representing them (like Brecht suggested). And, in order to do this, he created a variety of techniques to use in rehearsal.

One of those techniques was ‘emotion memory’. This was where an actor would assess what emotion their character was feeling, then recall a memory where they were feeling the same. The actor could then recall that event and it would aid them in realistically portraying the character’s emotions.

Stanislavski also believed that all speech had a rhythm and tempo and that focusing on the pace and how you say things would further improve the realism of your performance. Another factor he considered important in maintaining realism was to never break the fourth wall. This was so the audience would feel as if they’re watching a story unfold, and not be part of the story.

He thought that characterisation was incredibly important. He devised a rehearsal method whereby actors took part in hot seating with ‘magic if’ questions. These were questions querying thigs such as ‘what if it were you in this situation?’, ‘what if the circumstances were different?’ and, ‘what if this factor was changed?’ etc.

Stanislavski also focused greatly on eradicating unnecessary movement. He believed all movement should have a motive- that no-one gestures of changes where there standing without it relation to their objective and/ or super objective. Their objective is the character’s intention for hat their saying, what they want (similar to actioning text); whereas their super-objective is what they want above all else and is usually discovered through analysis of the script and deciphering it’s subtext (the character may not even know what this is themselves).

Katie Mitchell-

Mitchell is also a practitioner who mainly focuses on realism, with long and arduous rehearsals perfecting this, following the methods of Stanislavski. Mitchell’s rehearsal methods also appear to draw priority to characterisation due to her often making references to neurology and psychiatry. She ensures all actors have a complete, in depth, understanding of the script and their character and uses improvisation (particularly of unscripted past events of the characters) to further develop this understanding. Mitchell is slightly less strictly realistic than Stanislavski in that she has experimented with the use of media, such as video projections.

Mrs Tremblay

Our performance:

The 4 selected audience members start outside. Once the remaining audience members (who were only there to watch not participate), were lead in and told to spread out (avoiding a path that ran down the middle). Sophie and Zoe then went outside to the 4 audience members dressed normally. They take Charlie who is wearing a bloodied top and is holding on to the front of the pole. They were unresponsive whilst they blindfolded, ‘blessed’ and asked to hold on to a pole. , they are pushed/ dragged into the centre of the drama studio, which is lit red. They are then left there with Charlie. During this we are creating a ritualistic soundscape. It is composed of the repetitive thud of me kicking, Rose hitting the wall, the both of us talking as if we were next (crying, begging to be let alone etc.), and Zoe and Sophie humming and stamping the Equus sound. We all go silent once they reach the middle and Abigail starts singing the ‘horsey, horsey don’t you stop’ nursery rhyme. As she does, Tom stamps his way over to her and ‘kills’ her. To create this in our sound scape, Tom threw down a stool and I screamed. We then continued to be silent as Abigail dragged a box, creating the sound of the body being moved. To scrapped a (butter) knife against the back of a char, creating the sound of it being sharpened. We then resumed our soundscape, Rose moving around the room this time and me more hysterical. This time I was cut of mid-word as we again repeated the sequence of Abigail dragging the box and Tom sharpening the knife. I then started humming the nursery rhyme and Rose, Zoe, Sophie and me began brushing past the audience members. However, the next time someone ‘died’, Charlie tugged on the pole as if he was struggling, then let go, letting the first audience member know they were now at the front and had been left alone. We then all started to create the Equus sound and selected an audience member. One after the other we pulled them off the pole and pushed them forwards, so they were facing Charlie, who was now lying still in a pool of blood. We stood uncomfortably close behind them, the others continuing the Equus sound and me humming the nursery rhyme. Once the song was finished we all shrieked, pulling down their blindfolds. We then all resumed the Equus sound, getting louder and louder, pushing our audience member closer and closer to Tom and Charlie. Once we could push them no further, we made the Equus sound as loud as we could, then went silent and spread to the sides of the room, leaving them standing in front of Tom and Charlie.

After the performance, we were given feedback from both the watching and participating audience. They were able to identify it was some kind of ritual, and even if they weren’t blindfolded, accepted the sound effects as the sounds of people being sacrificed. They also found the sudden changes in volume very effective. Those who were blindfolded found the experience very surreal and scary. The constructive criticism we received was to plan a way for watching audience members to be more involved and able to see better.

Mrs Tremblay

Revised performance concept:

The audience start outside.

Sophie and Meghan go outside, their hands and arms are covered in blood. They take Charlie who is tied up. They are all unresponsive. Sophie does a ‘blessing’ whilst Meghan ties them up. They are then blindfolded.

All breathing heavily, they are pushed into the centre of the drama studio, which is lit red. They are then left there with Charlie. Abigail starts singing the ‘horsey, horsey don’t you stop’ nursery rhyme. As she does, Tom stamps his way over to her and ‘kills’ her. Meghan screams, and Tom throws down a stool. Tom continues sounding as if he is killing Abigail as she hits the floor.

The Equus sound begins quietly, and slowly builds. We take of their blindfolds

The recordings then start playing and they see Charlie/ Zoe lying in blood. Rose is behind the audience and starts crying/ wailing/ something to draw their attention to the other side of the room. Charlie/ Zoe then stands and is seen standing when the audience turn back around. The Equus sound and recordings reach their crescendo and we all shout “Account for me”, says staring Equus, “first account for me!”’

Mrs Tremblay and Mrs Griffifths

Actioning the text-

We were applying our knowledge of actioning text to both Equus and A Street Car Named Desire.  In Equus we have been actioning a set of 3 lines from the monologues we learnt, mine being Dysart’s monologue from the start of act 2. And in streetcar, we chose a different unit than last lesson and tried to convey the unit with three different actions. I was again working with Rose, and we played Stella (me), and Blanche (Rose). We found it very easy to decide on actions for Stella but struggled with Blanche.

Mrs Griffifths

In today’s lesson, we performed our actioned unit from ’A Streetcar Named Desire’, and received feedback from the group. Rose and my actions were the following-

Rose (Stanley): I interrogate you

Me (Blanche): I avoid you

The first time we performed it we couldn’t express the actions clearly enough for the audience to infer what they were. After telling them our actions, we then worked to improve the performance. We tried many variations, not only just of tone and movement (etc.), but also of character. We found the most helpful variation to be Stanley assuming the role of a patient, and Blanche of a nurse (albeit a nervous one). We were then able to successfully convey our actions when applying them to the scripted relationship between Stanley and Blanche.

Mrs Tremblay

Our Artode performance concept for Dysart’s dream:

The audience start of blindfolded. (There are possibly sound effects)

We start at the back of the room and move forward creating the following:

The Equus sound (humming and stamping)

Whispering

Singing (creepy nursery rhymes)

Screaming

Brushing past them

Creepy laughing

Possibly some character improvisations

Saying lines from the script- one per character~

(Suggestions for lines)

Dysart- ‘I can hear the creature’s voice’

Alan- ‘and Equus the Mighty rose against all! His enemies scatter, his enemies fall!’

Dora- ‘But if you knew God, Doctor, you would know about the Devil’

Frank- ‘Religion’s at the bottom of all this!’

Hesther- ‘He’s in pain, Martin’

Nurse- ‘Doctor! ... Doctor!’

Jill- ‘Stop it!’

Meanwhile Dysart is monologuing. When the sacrifice is over we stand behind the audience and tell them to take off their blindfolds.

There is blood on the floor and we are all covered in blood etc. Dysart is blindfolded and as he completes the monologue we act how we did to the audience to Dysart.

Finally, at the end of the performance when the Equus sound has reached a crescendo, we all shout ‘“Account for me” says staring Equus, “first account for me!”‘

Mrs Griffifths

How is Gender and Sexuality Covered in Scene One of ‘A Street Car Named Desire’?

Williams explores a diverse range of perspectives on gender and sexuality in the play. He tackles many topics that, at the time the play was written, were considered very controversial. However, in scene one specifically, the main theme appears to be gender roles.

Aspects that were covered/ raised during scene one-

~Williams uses stage directions to imply stereotypically characterised genders. For instance, Blanche and Stella were described as ‘delicate’, ‘dainty’ and ‘gentle’; whereas Stanley was depicted as ‘animal’-like. (And whilst Williams applies zoomorphism to most significant characters in ‘Streetcar’, the ‘hound’ Stanley is later referred to as greatly contrasts Blanche’s ‘moth’-like qualities.

~Williams also utilises colours and their representations to illustrate Blanche’s tarnished purity. He does this by introducing her as 'dressed in a white suit with a fluffy bodice’, a ‘necklace and ear-rings of pearl, white gloves’ and a ’hat'. This dramatic quantity of white appears symbolic of purity and innocence yet as we see Blanche’s character develop and understand her more, we know she is none of these things. Williams demonstrates/ foreshadows this by having Blanche stain her ‘pretty white lace collar’.

~Williams also compares the roles of genders in society and what are expected of them by having the supposedly feminine ‘self-control’ of Stella juxtapose the masculine, platitudinous ‘animal joy’ and ‘weak indulgences’ of Stanley.

Mrs Giffifths

In this lesson, we elaborated upon our knowledge and depth of understanding of scene one (of ‘A Streetcar Named Desire’). We did this by re-reading and discussing some of the characterisation orientated factors. In order to do this we applied our apprehension of the practitioner Max Stafford-Clarke’s method of units and actioning text. I am currently working with Rose in order to perform a very short unit of duologue between Blanche and Stanley (with me playing Blanche, and Rose playing Stanley). Whilst only short, the nature of the relationship between Blanche and Stanley and the oxymoronic characterisations of the two, pose many challenges. For instance, a challenge Rose will/have face/d in playing Stanley will be to be sufficiently masculine and intimidating, and balance that with Stanley’s blatant need to elicit information out of Blanche. Challenges I will/have face/d are to portray the symbiotic relationship between Blanche’s need for formalities and desperation to maintain her façade. I have also struggled with depicting any collapse in her pretence. Despite this, I have found that actioning the text has greatly helped my characterisation, not only in deciding how to perform a role/unit, but also in exploring the variant ways of performing a role/unit.

Mrs Tremblay

28/9/15-

Today we discussed the practitioner Max Stafford-Clarke, who set up the ‘out of joint’ theatre company. He spoke about auctioning text. This means taking each individual line of you script and deciding your character’s intention for it. However, the intention must be laid out in the following format:

I *transitional verb* you (e.g. I command you, I inspire you etc.)

Whilst I found this a very difficult process, as you not only have to decide on a (or a few) word (/s), you also have to ensure they fit the required layout; I also found it a very useful process as it allowed me to consider my character’s (Dysart) motivations and intentions and also explore different ways of performing the same line. This should aid my character analysis and performance.

Mrs Tremblay

Objective Analysis of Dysart, Equus-

Act 1 Scene 1, 2 and 19; Act 2 scene 22 (my monologue scene)-

In Act 1, Scenes 1 and 2 there are 2 ‘versions’ of Dysart, as the play is Dysart talking in hindsight about his experience, so he has 2 different objectives. The Dysart of the past’s objective (1) appears to be figuring out Alan, whilst the Dysart speaking in retrospect’s objective (2) may be to reflect on how his time with Alan has affected him, or possibly to confess his feelings of doubt and being trapped. Then in Scene 19, he is talking to Alan, his objective seems to be figuring out Alan’s obsession over horses and the religious connection. However, his monologue reveals that his objective may be to normalise Alan, yet he doesn’t appear to agree with what he does, so it might be to refrain from taking away Alan’s individuality. In Act 2, Scene 22, Dysart is questioning his place in the world, so finding his place might be considered to be his objective, but it could also be understanding Equus and the applications Alan’s religion may have on his life.

Mrs Griffiths

28/9/15-

Today we performed a short ‘montage’ based on a key word we had taken from each scene from scenes 1 to 6.

The words we used were:u

‘Mothy’ (we created a moth)

‘Merciless’ (Rose and Charlie fought, with Charlie winning easily)

‘Precision’ (Zoë and me did a chair duet)

‘Respect’ (as it was, in context, lack of respect, Zoë and me mimed shouting and having an argument with each other)

‘Indifferent’, (during Zoë and my argument, Rose and Charlie remained looking indifferent to the situation) and

‘Depression’ (we all sat in a row, in height order, and froze in 4 “stages” of depression, getting increasingly more curled up)

I think it went quite well, particularly the chair duet as I thought Zoë and me stayed synchronised and kept our movements quite regimented, enforcing the idea of ‘precision’ and the scene based on ‘depression’, as I liked the proxemics used. However, I think with more time (and based on the constructive criticism given) it would improve it to add sound, possibly a sound scape.

Mrs Tremblay

14/9/15-19/9/15

We discussed the contextual aspects of Equus (mental health, religion, politics and lifestyle). I then wrote about mental health:

Peter Shaffer’s Equus and its relevancy to mental health:

The play Equus is based around Alan Strang’s act of blinding six horses with a metal spike. This prompts people to question, not only his motives, but also whether or not it is an act of evil, or that of a mental health disorder. This was and is quite a controversial topic as many people find it difficult to picture someone considered mentally well committing a malicious act, and so prefer to think of them as mentally ill so their act can, in some form, be explained. However, this isn’t always the case.  A widely recognised explanation of what constitutes a mental illness is that of the National Institute of Mental Health:

‘A health condition that changes a person’s thinking, feelings, or behaviour (or all three) and that causes the person distress and difficulty in functioning.’

Whether or not Alan Strang is mentally ill is further explored via the role of the psychiatrist Martin Dysart. However, it is difficult to argue that Alan is not in some way mentally ill due to his motives being tied to his belief that horses are God. It is because of this that many have argued Alan has schizophrenia or bipolar, as he is blatantly suffering from delusions.

Peter Shaffer himself, however, didn’t believe psychiatry was a worthwhile practice, and stated:

‘I’ve often wondered, because of my frequent sojourns in America, how much good psychiatry and all the rest of it was doing those of my acquaintances who were in treatment. I know a couple who appear to have benefited from it, but most, whatever they may think, haven’t changed at all. I began to wonder some time ago whether it might not be a false religion with a lot of worshippers.’

We then talked about Alan’s religious extremism and the rituals that stem from this. We were able to relate his religion to mutated forms of stories he was told as a child, and also related the play in general (particularly the relationship between Alan and his parents) to the Greek myth about Oedipus. We made further connections to Greek mythology with the comparative names of Dysart and Dionysus (the Greek God of wine and parties). Another name we found contextual references with, was that of Dora- who relates to the psychoanalyst Freud (see notes).

Mrs Griffiths

11/9/15-18/9/15

During our reading of ‘A Street Car Named Desire’, we discussed the elements of zoomorphism and how they suit the characters’ personalities (there was mention of Blanche as a moth, Stanley as a hound, and Micky as a bear). We also discussed the contextual elements of the play, as, it being set in the 1940s, certain aspects would have had a different effect on the audience. We also discussed the last two, probably most influential, scenes (see notes).

Mrs Griffiths and Mrs Tremblay

9/9/15

Today Rose and me performed a duologue from ‘Pronoun’ by Evan Placey. We were then given constructive criticism and feedback after our performance. Points we were complimented on were our use of voice and intonation and how they were used effectively to convey emotion and our characters’ objectives. A points we were told to improve upon was to adopt more masculine mannerisms as we appeared too feminine to the audience.