Inspector
The main character i was cast for the performance was the School Inspector. He makes an appearance when the girls are set to work when they arrive at Miss Brisketts School for Girls. At first i had no idea at all how i would even begin to play this character. I knew that my character had a sense of importance and authority and that upon entering a room my posture and my eye contact had to be key.
Throughout my character building process i thought about what the school inspector were like that used to come and visit my old high school and how they went about their job. The school inspector that i had seen always made their presence and authority know upon entering a room. If something that the tutor has done had impressed them they would make that fact known and depending on how much they had been impress would depend on how enthusiastic they were about it. When in lesson and reading the play most of the characters were charactures, they were very over the top with most of their actions and emotion but as the inspector was quiet a normal everyday person i didn't want to make my characture too intense otherwise the audience may have not taken my character very seriously. Some of the words in the lines that i had could have been said in a range of pitches and tones. For example one of my lines was 'Incredible they know all of their cheeses' the sentence could have been said in either an over enthusiastic tone or a sarcastic one.
Wolf
Another character i was cast a was one of the wolves. I was extremely happy to be cast this role i liked the idea of the wolves as they were not natural beings. The presence of the wolves each time they came on stage had to strike fear into the hearts of the audience members so that they would know they were evil character. Just the mention of them should add a sense of fear to the scene that is taking place.
When deciding how to play this character Jill had set us the task of researching what wolves were like, how they moved, how they acted and how they rapport everything they did. I discovered that wolves there very light but quick with their movement and would only make their presence known if was necessary to do so. They would almost always be in a pack of few.
Saturday 24 May 2014
Research in to the Play
Research
The real 1832
William the fourth was the monarch on the throne.
The channel tunnel wasn't open. It didn't start construction until 1873 and then opened in 1994.
The were no wolves in Europe.
Women would not be higher up than men in the social hierarchy. Men would have demeaned women. Women were not allowed to speak unless spoken to and they had to do exactly as they were told.
Young girls were required to know how to play and instrument, sing, do general house work.
Women were not allowed to handle weapons.
In the book (1832)
King James the third was the monarch on the throne.
The channel tunnel was open, people travelled by train to most places.
The were wolves all over Europe due to the channel tunnel being opened. The wolves caused so much bother and destruction as the would get on to the train and kill passengers and the driver.
Miss Slycarp has a higher place in society than Mr Grimshaw. He tends to her every wim and does exactly as he is told.
One persons opinion was that ever young girl should be able to cook, clean, sing and shoot.
Themes
The real 1832
William the fourth was the monarch on the throne.
The channel tunnel wasn't open. It didn't start construction until 1873 and then opened in 1994.
The were no wolves in Europe.
Women would not be higher up than men in the social hierarchy. Men would have demeaned women. Women were not allowed to speak unless spoken to and they had to do exactly as they were told.
Young girls were required to know how to play and instrument, sing, do general house work.
Women were not allowed to handle weapons.
In the book (1832)
King James the third was the monarch on the throne.
The channel tunnel was open, people travelled by train to most places.
The were wolves all over Europe due to the channel tunnel being opened. The wolves caused so much bother and destruction as the would get on to the train and kill passengers and the driver.
Miss Slycarp has a higher place in society than Mr Grimshaw. He tends to her every wim and does exactly as he is told.
One persons opinion was that ever young girl should be able to cook, clean, sing and shoot.
Themes
- Greed- Miss Slycarp and Mr Grimshaw as characters were extremly greedly as when it came to the will of Sir Willoughby, she wants to leave everything in Sir Willoughby possetion and the house to her. Mrs Briskett's character was naturally greedy as quiet a few times in the performance she would either mention or be eating some form of food.
- Deceit- Miss Slycarp manages to devise everyone the play to thinking that she is trust worthy and that she is a nice. By the end of the play everyone realises that she is a sick, twisted, horrible women who could not be trusted.
- The evil that people do- Mrs Slycarp in the play never does any good at all, first she deceives Sir Willoughby into thinking she is to be trust with her daughter, niece, the house, pretty much everything in his posstion. She ships the girls off to a school which as Bonnie describes 'it was no better than a prison' She sells all of Bonnie's toys, she pays the caption of the boat that Bonnie's Mother and Father are aboard to set sail with a boat that was in such ill condition that there was no doubt in anyone mind that it would sink.
Metaphors
The Wolves of Willoughby Case has many metephors but the main one is the wolves are not really wolves they are actually the evil characters in the play such as Miss Slycarp, Mr Grimshaw, Mrs Briskett ect. Each time an evil act is in place no matter the size the wolves would almost always appear during the time of the act. The presence of the wolves is supposed to add an essence of fear to the piece because the bring a bad omen with them as to the evil characters.
There was also the metaphors for cheese in the play. Cheese represented greed. Miss Slycarp would not allow James to permit the girls with any form of cheese, Mrs Briskett had a cupboard full of cheese and anyone who told her a tale that would get another student into trouble she would give them some cheese, Mr Grimshaw who in the play notes is described as big and heavy man would quiet a few times have a little speech on cheese for example in the letter scene when James is given a letter from Bonnie and asked to deliver it to Dr Moren but before he gets the chance to make for the door, he hears Mr Grimshaw entering and talking about the different types of cheese that he has just ingested only moments before.
School Scene
Today in rehearsal we focused on the school scene.
We tired doing the whole scene in different way for example when my character of the school inspector arrived at the school of Mrs Briskett, I did everything quiet stern and was quiet blunt with my words, when i spoke to Chloe i was quiet sarcastic. When we sat down a thought about it and read more into the script i realized that the school inspector like the idea of Mrs Brisketts school because her deceptive at has fooled him and he thought that she couldn't be doing anything wrong as she had the children wrapped around her little finger and had them tending to her beck and call.
When we ran the scene again, I made my presence know and chowed that my character had alot of authority. When m lines came up i had to deepen my voice, for a girl i have a deep voice anyway to it was suggested to me by one of my fellow actors to deepen my voice further to help pottery my male character further. This idea worked as when i used it i felt more like my character and felt as though i was more believable. I was quiet enthusiastic about my lines to show that i really was impressed with the things that the students and Mrs Briskett were showing me. I decided that it was good idea to break the fourth wall and add some more movement to my character so that i wasn't just standing in one position for my entire scene so i walked around the staging and went put to audience members and inspected them.
When it came to the blocking section i decided to stick with the more enthusiactic version as this was the one that i got told looked the most appealing and entertaining to watch.
The Beginning
In the previous line it was said 'a mother lies in her bed while her husband wipes her brow' We thought about using our bodies to make the piece more appealing to the eye so we made the bed out of 6 members of the group. Ryan lifted Amy across the stage and placed her on the arms on the 6 people. When the line that mentions a girl looking out of a great window was said Jess walked towards the bed and walked through it, the bed would part as she approached each pair. This was a done in silence to create a bit of tension.
Throughout our thought processes this section changed many time, an example of this was a few weeks after this one was created we thought about adding alittle more detail. While Jess was walking though the bed, i was imitating a wolf in the bottom right of the stage. As Jess walked though the bed, I was acting as if Jess was my prey and i was stalking her, eyeing her up. To make this look better for the audience i used different levels.
Neither of these version actually made it to the final performance. We actually went for a move simple option of putting Lauren (Lady Willoughby) on top on the highest stage block in the bottom right of the stage, we had her lying down as if she was in a bed resting and we had Danny (Sir Willoughby) standing by her watching over her. We thought that it would be best to do it this way as it was sweet and simple and it was easy for the audience to understand, I am glad that we picked this option as in my opinion it was the most effective when it hit the stage.
Tuesday 13 May 2014
Evaluation
Evaluation
I believe that during the show there were alot of thing that went really well and there were things that in my opinion need to be improved.
One of the scenes that went well was the song. I think the song went well because i was projecting my voice out as fr as it would go so that the whole of the audience could hear me. I held a strong stance even though i was extremely nervous i tried to hide it by standing tall and projecting my voice over the audience.
Another scene that went well was the fight scene between Bonnie, Sylvia and Miss Slycarp. It was very well thought and was well rehearsed so that it looked like a genuine fight between the two girls and Miss Slycarp. Also when Mr Grimshaw and Miss Slycarp dismiss all the servants all of the expressions on all of the servants faces was made to look like gene fear that they were both terrifying all of us and that we all wanted to get out of there are quick as we all could. When we used the stage gun in the rehersals it never went according to plan it never fired when it was supposed to but when it came to the actual performance it fire all four time without any problems so that was a definite positive.
Some of the scene that could require some improvements was the energy is some bits were lacking such as in the cheese alphabet, not many people enjoyed this little section so when it was getting performed nobody really put any effort in to make it sound like Mrs Briskett really was a horrible lady that would crack you across the head if you even stepped out of line for a second. The ending could have had alot more energy when Sir Willoughby comes back to the Manor to find that it has been turned into a school.
Overall i believe that it went very very well and that we did everything to best of our ability. When talking in he course we could have sounded alot creepier to make the audience alittle more scared than we had already made them.
I believe that during the show there were alot of thing that went really well and there were things that in my opinion need to be improved.
One of the scenes that went well was the song. I think the song went well because i was projecting my voice out as fr as it would go so that the whole of the audience could hear me. I held a strong stance even though i was extremely nervous i tried to hide it by standing tall and projecting my voice over the audience.
Another scene that went well was the fight scene between Bonnie, Sylvia and Miss Slycarp. It was very well thought and was well rehearsed so that it looked like a genuine fight between the two girls and Miss Slycarp. Also when Mr Grimshaw and Miss Slycarp dismiss all the servants all of the expressions on all of the servants faces was made to look like gene fear that they were both terrifying all of us and that we all wanted to get out of there are quick as we all could. When we used the stage gun in the rehersals it never went according to plan it never fired when it was supposed to but when it came to the actual performance it fire all four time without any problems so that was a definite positive.
Some of the scene that could require some improvements was the energy is some bits were lacking such as in the cheese alphabet, not many people enjoyed this little section so when it was getting performed nobody really put any effort in to make it sound like Mrs Briskett really was a horrible lady that would crack you across the head if you even stepped out of line for a second. The ending could have had alot more energy when Sir Willoughby comes back to the Manor to find that it has been turned into a school.
Overall i believe that it went very very well and that we did everything to best of our ability. When talking in he course we could have sounded alot creepier to make the audience alittle more scared than we had already made them.
Brecht Workshops
Brecht Blogger
Narration- when someone tells the story
How did Brecht's technique help us with the performance of TWOWC?
It cant be said for fact that Brecht was a direct influence in the writing of the play but there a essences of his technique in there.
Some sections of the play were narrated by the character
Placards- a sign that gives infomation
They can be used for a vairity of different reasons for example:
- subtitles
- date card
- inner thoughts
- a zoom in on a text that is seen in a programme
In the Wolves of Willoughby Case the narration is told mainly by the course but some of the characters do it too (eg- Miss Slycarp, Sylvia, Bonnie)
Narration can come in different way, eg- first person narration, third person narration, in character.
Anything at all can narrate for example a chair can come out, say their line and then they can go back and be chair.
Stereotype/Characture- "a picture, description, or imitation of a person in which certain striking characteristics are exaggerated in order to create a comic or grotesque effect." (Google dictionary)
Stereotypes- a widely held but fixed and oversimplified image or idea of a particular type of person or thing. (Google Search)
Eg- Chavs, homosexuals, Muslims.
Epic Theatre-
It is a theatrical movement used by many practioners.
How does the Wolves create Verfremdungseffekt?
Epic Theatre-
It is a theatrical movement used by many practioners.
How does the Wolves create Verfremdungseffekt?
- Projection
- Changing costume on stage
- unaturalistic looking set
- Narration/Chorus
- Physical Theatre
- Song
- Caricatures
- Stereotypes
We did some small improve sections, using placards. The first bit had to be comical and funny but then you had to hit the audience with a theatrical slap in the face
In our section it was a couple talking about their first time at going to have sex, when they where talking the boy was saying 'we can take our time we don't have to rush, its okay if you are not ready' but on his placard it was saying 'why doesn't she hurry just the frigid bitch', the girl was saying 'no i want to i really do, we can do it this Saturday' but her placard was saying 'i don't want to i am far to scared'
We did another section where it was between a doctor and her patient, the patient had come with some suspicious injuries which the doctor seem to be taking notice of but on his placard we discover that he dint seem to be even on this planet as he was more bothered about what he was going to have for his dinner than what was actually happening to one of his patients. The story was that the pacient had been abused at home by her husband and there was no way that she could bring herself to tell the doctors what was actually going on at home so she was making up lies and stories but tryin her best at the same time to get the doctor to she that she actually was lying. She would say things like have broken ribs because i fell down the stair when in actual fact her husband had threw her down the stairs, she had broken her wrist from trying to break her fall when actually it was trying to defend herself against him. The final placard that we show is from the patient saying 'why cant you see that i am lying? Why wont you just see the truth behind the lie?'
I found doing this exercise very interesting as you are able to shock the audience more with the things that you don't more than the thing that you do.
In our section it was a couple talking about their first time at going to have sex, when they where talking the boy was saying 'we can take our time we don't have to rush, its okay if you are not ready' but on his placard it was saying 'why doesn't she hurry just the frigid bitch', the girl was saying 'no i want to i really do, we can do it this Saturday' but her placard was saying 'i don't want to i am far to scared'
We did another section where it was between a doctor and her patient, the patient had come with some suspicious injuries which the doctor seem to be taking notice of but on his placard we discover that he dint seem to be even on this planet as he was more bothered about what he was going to have for his dinner than what was actually happening to one of his patients. The story was that the pacient had been abused at home by her husband and there was no way that she could bring herself to tell the doctors what was actually going on at home so she was making up lies and stories but tryin her best at the same time to get the doctor to she that she actually was lying. She would say things like have broken ribs because i fell down the stair when in actual fact her husband had threw her down the stairs, she had broken her wrist from trying to break her fall when actually it was trying to defend herself against him. The final placard that we show is from the patient saying 'why cant you see that i am lying? Why wont you just see the truth behind the lie?'
I found doing this exercise very interesting as you are able to shock the audience more with the things that you don't more than the thing that you do.
How did Brecht's technique help us with the performance of TWOWC?
It cant be said for fact that Brecht was a direct influence in the writing of the play but there a essences of his technique in there.
Some sections of the play were narrated by the character
Rehearsal Notes
This week during rehersals we have finished blocking the whole play so now we can just make every scene perfect and get it up to scratch.
The ending- i came up with the idea of Amy speaking all of the ending until we get 'all is still and silent'. Me, zoe, Ryan and Lauren walk on to the stage when Amy say ' once upon a time' we all start to emerge from the background and then we all say to the audience "and all is still and silent" By doing this we trying to bring back the wolf theme to the play so that it ends solidly as we will be staring out the audience members and then it will go to a black out.
The ending- i came up with the idea of Amy speaking all of the ending until we get 'all is still and silent'. Me, zoe, Ryan and Lauren walk on to the stage when Amy say ' once upon a time' we all start to emerge from the background and then we all say to the audience "and all is still and silent" By doing this we trying to bring back the wolf theme to the play so that it ends solidly as we will be staring out the audience members and then it will go to a black out.
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