Merry Christmas

Hello all, hope you are having a wonderful christmas break and i'd like to wish you a very happy new year. Looking forward to getting our show together.
Remember first day back thursday 5th January.
I hope your unit 2 work is going well.
Also remember short reports for unit 3 not due in now till after our show. Base them on how a practitioner of your choice has influenced the rehearsal process and show. Your experience in workshops and rehearsals in using that practitioner needs to be informed by relevant reading.

Enjoy the break and happy new year!

Blocking- as of 2/12/11

Entrance- pair motifs from Sarah’s sessions; press-up, slap etc.
Unit 1- Vaginas. Are we having trolley? Those who are not in this scene get ready for unit 2, with chairs for the pairs.
Unit 2- Alex and Grace find a way to move out of the vaginas on the queue line ‘Pooosh!’ from previous scene. Grace pushes Alex to the front of stage.
Unit 3- George, Nicole, Shaun, Yiannis and Bronya stand in a line representing the opposite of the game that Pig and Runt represent in this scene. Hania and Samantha run around them, and on the word ‘kingdom’ from Pig, queue making the throne.
Unit 4- Hania acts as the bus stop. Paige performs speech downstage and it moves into the fight scene; Alastair, Yiannis, Alex, Steve?
Unit 5- CUT.
Unit 6- ‘Just me’, we all enter slow motion dancing until ‘leave the soul’, which queues dancing normally. George, Nicole and Alex position ourselves for unit 7 at the end of the scene.
Unit 7- Shaun pushes George over on the line ‘height of fashion’ from Lucy, we all freeze. Unfreeze then freeze again on Lucy’s line, ‘he needs Runt’s style help’, which is where Alex is used. Unfreeze again, then freeze again on the line from Lucy: ‘I’m your mummy!’. When Lucy drops Nicole, we all unfreeze. Also within this scene, there is the book reading and the ‘mums and dads’ motif.
Unit 8- George moves into the scene from upstage out from behind Shaun, who is exiting from Unit 7. Nicole and Lucy are stood on chairs and Steve is downstage left. Fight occurs, then Nicole and George exit stage left.
Unit 9- Yiannis and Gwen monologue. Chip shop? Has Vanessa developed it? Samantha and Hania enter as babies, Shaun and Alex enter as toddlers (does this need to be changed to a Pig and a Runt?) and Bronya and George enter as teenagers. They all exit on ‘I dunno’. What are the queue lines for each pair entering?
Unit 10- Chair motifs on ‘Up, up, up, up, up!’, where the Pigs copy Sherie. Then the taxi is made at the end of the scene, with the sound effect from Lucy.
Unit 11- Sam and Catia. They sit in the taxi whilst the taxi moves in synchronisation. Alastair plays Pig’s mother stage right, he moon walks.
Unit 12- Stacey and Yiannis centre stage. Sound scapes?
Unit 13- same as above.
Unit 14- Hania and Samantha, Baywatch scene. Running across alternate sides of the stage as David Hasselhoff and Pamela Anderson? Needs work to involve more of the cast.
Unit 15- Shaun’s sex monologue. Sex positions? Chips?
Unit 16- Entertainment! Musical number! Waltzing and tap dancing etc.. Transition into unit 17 at the end. Sherie and Sophie are downstage.
Unit 17- Steve and Bronya, Provo pub. Various roles, perhaps needs final clarification as to whose doing what?
Unit 18- Gwen and Bronya. Catia fighting with Bronya? Bronya being lifted and restrained by Nate, Steve, Shaun and George? Also the option of the shoulder lifts choreographed by Ryan?
Unit 19- Wall? Link armed quartet stage right? George moves out from behind the wall and argues with Nicole? Contrast to seeing the palace (stage left). How do they exit?
Unit 20- Bouncers. All enter and assume different routines for entering the palace disco and then dance positions once inside. Sam and Catia stage right and stage left respectively.
Unit 21- Upper class version of unit 7, dancing. Paige clicks her fingers to freeze and unfreeze the cast. Yiannis is the ‘hunky dude’ at the moment, should it be Alaistair? Fight between Nate and Yiannis/Alastair needs choreographing, as does the exit on queue line ‘Go, go, go, go, go!’. Are we including the dance moves from Ryan?
Unit 22- Sinead’s monologue. Simply Sinead centre stage.
Exit- we need to choreograph an exit. See Vanessa in January.

ideas for disco pigs

• is the script clear?
• models of places and puppets
• who is the guitarist?
• 1 couple visible throughout? one journey?
• birthday cake
• 1 of the couples filming it all
• 'i love you baby' build big moment
• in disco 'she wants us for real now' big moment with all couples
• one moment where all pigs and runts come together for a moment.
• PALACE!

What is Performance....

Performance to me means to be able to entertain a crowd of people or even just one person. If I can make them think, feel, or wonder about a piece or character then I know I have at least made someone challenge themselves as an audience to believe, see, or understand a performance and all of its dynamics. It means to be moments away from standing on stage and feeling petrified but getting a rush of adrenaline and using it to boost your show as much as possible, to live the character for a moment and where they are in the story. That to me is what performance is.

Sorry this is late! But at least I’ve done it J yay

Well Done...

...To everyone who completed the task on 'What is Performance'. There has been some very interesting and insightful responses from you. Thankyou. There is no 'right or wrong' answer to the question, which is why at times there can be such diversity and even a contradiction in responses.

For those of you who haven't... you know who you are (cue sinister music)... Feel free to add your thoughts, and dont be afraid of your own opinion.

In the new year i hope to spend some time with you all considering notions of performance, so this isn't an isolated or pointless task, but an opportunity for me to gain an insight on the various perspectives you all take when asked about performance.

It is also well worth a look at the Marina Abramovich link Vanessa posted. Some of her work will really get you thinking about what performance is, and if any of you wish to discuss her further let me know.

I would like to leave you all with a  couple of quotes relating to performance for you to consider.

               ""Characterisation", "representation", "imitation", "transportation" and "transformation".
               All of these words say that performers can't really say who they are. Unique among animals,
               humans carry and express multiple and ambivalent identities simultaneously"
               Richard Schechner in Between Theatre & Anthropology.

             
               "A performance 'event' or 'action' is just a segment of a much larger 'process' not made
               available to the audience, and not necessarily made explicit in the event."
               Guillermo Gomez-Pena, ethno-techno; writings on performance, activism and pedagogy.

          
               "Performance presupposes the spectator"
                Yi-Fu Tuan, Space and Context, in Performance Analysis, Counsell and Wolf.

See you all tomorrow for the Disco Pigs movie.

Film showing

Those of you wanting to watch the film of Disco Pigs tomorrow. You will need a pc laptop to connect to projector in the bar. Alternatively, you could watch the dvd in studio 8 via the computer.
If you do come in to work i would strongly recommend that you also do a line run where you really support and challenge each other to improve clarity, diction and story-telling rhythm. Consider how clear and engaging the storyline might be if we could only hear you. Try maybe recording to check that vocally you are delivering best standard of performance.
Very good to catch up with you all today and very very excited about working on the play on Thursday. Please be punctual and be there.
Will share my notes from today's run with you but mainly lots of interesting images and dynamics. There is a lot there so clearly you have worked hard. in my view what we need to develop is one strong image/ journey to highlight the relationship and how it changes. Possibly some image that is on stage throughout to remind the audience that this is one couple, one story. That one image might be something like one of the pairs interacting on stage throughout, one Pig slowly building a palace, Alex running, ..... What was also not clear in this rough speed run was the unhealthy element and interdependency and danger that i see in their relationship.
Have a good day tomorrow and thanks for being welcoming and fun to work with today.

what is performance

interesting take on what is performance

http://www.moma.org/explore/inside_out/2010/04/13/marina-abramovic-what-is-performance

PERFORMANCE

Performance to me is anything which involves an audience. You can perform through presentations, shows, artwork gallery or film. Even though film is not live performance it still has an engaged audience watching it. The size of the audience can differ and this does not deny the fact that something can still be a performance just because the audience is smaller. I also believe a performance is something that is or was created such as a collage or photographs or a re-creation of something that has already happened. A collage of photographs can be classed as a performance because it has an audience by someone viewing it.

What is performance?

I'm going to open up slightly here. To me performance is a nerve racking experience. However, once it is all finished with, you get this sense of achievement and adrenaline. On stage, I feel this rush and when the audience react, you know that they are sharing this experience with you. So yeah, it is a mixture of different elements, which come together beautifully and you can look back and say "I did this, and I'm glad I did it instead of being scared and refuse to go on stage!"

What is performance?

Entertainment for an audience!

The whole purpose of a performance is to gain attention from others, reaching out to their emotions whether to make them laugh or cry. They must remain interested in some way throughout the whole piece to be successful. A performance can be absolutely anything, anywhere and at any length of time to entertain. It can be with or without people, music, dialogue, props or effects. A performance is a deliberate setting but can also be experimental and using improvisation.

What is performance?

I believe performance to be anything that engages with an audience. One could associate the word 'performance' with a theatrical or musical element and this seems to be the most appropriate connection for me. The way in which a performance engages with an audience can vary; from a positive response to a negative, via a passive or forced upon performance. The size of the audience can range from one person to thousands and each and every member of that audience may or may not be affected by that performance. One also associates the word 'performance' immediately with actors and theatre elemnts such as stage designers etc., but does a performance have to necessarily comprise of these factors? Does it have to take place in a theatre? Can it not be a football match or a children's tantrum? For me, these are rhetorical questions because if any event connects with someone, that to me can be labelled as a performance. The quality and effectivness of this engagement though, gives a sense as to the quality and success of any performance, and this to me is what makes this

This week

Hello all, i really look forward to catching up with you all again and seeing how the show has been developing. Please check on Blackboard for tutorial schedule tomorrow for unit 2. Can we please all meet at 2pm for a catch up and hopefully a run of the show. See noticeboard outside office for room.
There are no formal sessions this Wednesday due to the Strike, although the college facilities will be open to you to use and work in, should you wish.  See you all tomorrow and well done for your contributions to the blog it really helps update all relevant participants.

Performance - An Alex's Perspective

In response to the 'What is performance?' task we were set on Thursday.

To me, performance is something that engages an audience in a multitude of ways; be it to entertain and transport them from their own lives to another world, to educate and teach them something new about an aspect of their lives they did not consider before or to make the audience question their own lives and any or all preconceptions that had had prior to the performance.

Transitions Breakdown

Today I went all obsessive compulsive and covered a whiteboard with stuff about each and every unit! We thought it would help just to see exactly which of us is in which unit and who was therefore available for our final concepts and for each transition :) I think they're all on there and hopefully in chronological order?!?! So yeah, have a look :)

23/11/11 - Unit 16 idea's

• Musical 
• Artaud - point: Using different practitioners (Does it work with the integrity of the show?)
• Context - Fantasy, show or Dream.
• Entertainment as a back line, Characters at front of stage. Looking in to dream world of Pig and Runt.
• Skills: Dance, Hula-hop, Stilts, Silks and Magic.
• Gauze- Dream land behind gauze - real life in front. Blank, Silhouette or hazy.
• Romantic dancing (waltz)
• Reality Vs fantasy
• Class want to avoid making it to much like a musical ( Music can be used to enhance a performance if used in the right way)

Silks

Movement sequence-part 2

Movement sequence-part 1

Monday 28th November

Please come in this Monday for 10am to work with Dan. Let me know if any of you cannot make it in advance please and post on the blog so that your scene partners know too.

Performances

Dear all,

I'm now officially on the blog, so expect to hear a lot more from me...
But for now, i'm going to pop my blogging cherry by introducing you all to something that may not have been brought to your attention.

On the right hand side of this blog, there are several links to theatre companies, one of which is Frantic Assembly. http://www.franticassembly.co.uk/productions/lovesong/
If you haven't already follow the above link to see there latest offering, Lovesong, which is showing this week in chichester.

Ultimately it seems to be an exploration of relationships between man and woman, between lovers and the ups and downs they experience. It has potential to be very beneficial in relation to disco pigs, especially when addressing the relationship between pig & runt.

Below is a synopsis from the website, the first person to correctly reference it in Harvard Format gets a lovely Thorntons chocolate bar from me!

Lovesong intertwines a couple in their 20s with the same man and woman a lifetime later. Their past and present selves collide in this haunting and beautiful tale of togetherness. All relationships have their ups and downs; the optimism of youth becomes the wisdom of experience.

Myself and Dan (the ginger one) will be off to see it Saturday night if anyone wishes to come along, but be quick tickets are running out.

Ryan.

21/11/11 Dan's lesson

First of all I would like to say that Dan's vocal warm up improved everyone's voices so much, that even I was loud and clear! Once that was done and we moved onto mine and Bronya's monologue I was prepared for the day! The techniques that Dan threw out for Bronya and I were interesting, I'm not normally an angry person so when we were looking for attention, it really riled me up and the scene changed immediately which was good and helpful. When Bronya physically pushed so I could change my voice for the other character, this really helped me find my inner "chav". I didn't really see Shaun's new and improved scene, but from what I heard it changed dramatically.
Then when we moved onto my scene with Yiannis, straightaway there changes which improved the scene and gave more intention and meaning. We then developed this idea of the "evolution of Pig and Runt" derived from "evolution of man". We had different stages of their lives picked straight from my monologue. I found it difficult to say my lines and give them an intention, probably because I don't really know my lines! Dan then suggested this idea of solely working on my monologue and the owrds within it, much like the semiotics lecture! Dan gave me the challenge of getting people to listen, then he would change it as I was reading through. This was to make think of what was being said and how I should say it. I would really recommend this to anyone! First of all start by reading your lines as if everyone was ignoring you, then whisper your lines. Thirdly, try reading them as if you were telling a ghost story, then finally in a monotonous tone.
So yeah, a very productive day indeed (sorry I babbled!!)

Working with Dan

Today, a few of us came in to work on some scenes with the help of Dan. (tall one, not lil Dan with the 'tash).
I found it so helpful, to not only work on my scene but watch others and see the techniques he used, such as what he did with Alex, I think Hania and I might have a go at to find more gestures that can be used with mood changes in our scene. And the way he worked with Shaun and his monologue, was brilliant. He made me connect to something personal, and work off script for a bit, which made him use the words that were more desciptive and had more feeling in them.
The scene Hania and I worked on with dan, which was unit 3, there is a video on our facebook page, so you guys can see what we've done, which I'm sure will develop over the next weej or so, using more people etc. Today's workshop lesson really benefitted those who came, so hopefully when we do the same next week, more people will be able to come, and we can work on their scenes, as I think it's great to throw the ideas about, and even if it gets slightly changed it helps you get to know not only the scene, but your characters better, and create a back story for them.
Samantha

Well Done!

It's great to see how some of you are really using and contributing to the blog as an active resource - well done!

Tomorrow ( Tuesday 22nd) is lovely unit 2 - we have a surprise challenge for you all first thing, then a lecture on semiotics, then a seminar on study skills. This is the last lecture week, then we have one more week for tutorials guiding you around specific essay questions, which we'll explain in more detail later.

Wednesday - you have the lovely Megan for your morning workshop and then Sarah in the afternoon.

The second years are prepping their unit 7 collaborative projects so we might get to see them on Thursday....

See you tomorrow!

Lisa

dans lesson

I know I wasnt able to be there the whole time today but the work I was able to be involved in with Dan I think this is one of the best we have worked. We were able to explore each of our scenes through different exercises such as Stanislavski- memory. I think for mine and Samantha's first scene this really helped as we were able to play a childlike game of tag. This then meant we had to work on our voices whilst maintaining our stamina of running around. For me this was helpful not just for the scene but for my targets made with Lisa a few weeks back. We now need to develop this game into a more age appropriate whilst keeping this playful friendship between them.

Text action

Hello all - just a little update from today's session with Dan about a technique that I worked on with him that he recommended everyone use for their scenes.

Working through each scene, break up every piece of dialogue into an action, an intention, of what its purpose is - similar to the sub-text, but more focussed on its intention towards whomever the speech is directed towards. For example; one of my lines 'We war beautiful, amay back den' - the action is to ingratiate Pig with Runt, to recall back to the past with rose-tinted glasses and gain Runt's focus back onto Pig. Another line 'Look at the lovely little ting' - the action is to tease Runt and continue doing so until her patience snaps.

I hope that I've explained sufficiently and not gabbled for too long on it. If you're still not sure what it all means, talk to me or anyone who was in today.

The Provo pub

Hey Guys,
I think I worked out what the Provo pub is. In mine and Steve's scene, Runt makes references to Sinn Fein so I wondered if Provo represents the Provisional IRA and I remember the IRA ceasefire was in 1994 but was called off in 1996 which is when this play was staged. ? ? ? :)

Thursday 17th November

I'd like to say how much I enjoyed today's structure in the way we rehearsed our scenes in our pairs. From someone that was fortunate enough to have a chance to rehearse mine and Nicole's scene 8, I thought the method of scene construction was easy to work with. Dan was also a big help to me personally because he gave me a brilliant technique for applying and remebering the style that made our scene effective. I can now work to adopt this strategy without having six people pin me down in order to gain the sense of belief in what Pig says about Runt :)

I'd recommend this style of rehearsal, whereby the pair initiate thier ideas and collaborate thier scene and get feedback from a director, because it is quite quick and efficient and certainly helped me today to create a decent scene with Nicole. With a director in the form of a tutor, I think that we, as actors, can really make good quality scenes with our ideas. I feel the directors presence helps us all to maintain focus in a professional capacity and not take any stressful moments personally because we are a really good set of friends and no amount of stress within rehearsals can change our friendship dynamic as a group as far as I'm concerned :)

With positivity and good professional team work, in which everyone is at least willing to try a concept before dismissing and expressing any doubts in a positive, constructive way, we will definately achieve the level of focus that is expected of us I think. However, whilst maintaining this sense of commitment, I personally believe it is essential to maintain a fun and friendly atmosphere. I am 100% certain that with all our talent and passion, we can make a performance that is outsatnding and makes us all feel proud of ourselves as actors and as friends!

Sorry that that last bit was soppy, but, for once, I don't care! Roll on Disco Pigs, woohoo! Let's make the best performance we've ever made :)

Wednesday November 16th

Hello all!

Please see the announcement from Sarah on Blackboard regarding tomorrow - in to start work at 10, but with detailed instructions on what you need to prepare for the afternoon.

thanks!

lisa x

Ropes and silks lesson.

It was so much fun and would like to do it again

Sarah's lesson

Todays' lesson with Sarah was really interesting to watch. The first section that was slightly less physical was very intriguing, you could see that partners had limited ideas and used each other for ideas.
The second section was better I felt. You could see the developments of each group building. Some groups learnt faster than others, but towards the end you could see every group not struggling.

playing with boxes

Disco Pigs - improvisation

Paige and George - they had less communication which I thought was really good because there was morrow focus on there body language.

Steve and Bronya - Steve was really good to show he likes Runt but Runt showed she was only interested in food

ideas so far

• birthing tunnelsx2 each with the personality of the person
• silks to go on, silks to pull babies out
• stand up cots made of boxes?
• fight scene 1; song, martial arts, falling

Fights

in our play, there are four fights. How do we stage them? What do they mean? What do we want the audience to hear? What do we want them to see? What do we want them to imagine? understand? fear? feel? think? How important to the play are they?

Palace boxes

Idea: build a palace made of cardboard boxes. During the play. It's so big you can slash a door in, get in it and go clubbing. But the palace they always wanted is not enough for her. she leaves. Possible? crazy? doable? Please start bringing in any boxes so we can start trying!

Artaud

tell us then.

Summary timeline of 'Disco Pigs' plot :)

Visual, short summary of 'Disco Pigs' plot. A PowerPoint version will follow on this blog, as will a paper handout in the form of pictures. For now, these pictures are for the individual's benefit.

Silks!

Hope you all enjoyed time on the silks and corde lisse. Looking forward to seeing pictures and videos and thinking whether we use them in our piece. Updates on scene work today too please! You need to use this blog to reflect on your practice and reading. More. More!