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.