Production Meeting 17.3.14

AGENDA

-Rehearsals
-Text
-Presentation
-Cast List/Characters

Rehearsals
Tuesday lesson - Work on Presentation
Wednesday lesson - Look at Text and decide which bit we could possibly use
Wednesday afternoon - Carry on working on Presentation
Thursday lesson - Carry on looking at text
Friday lesson - Explore Characters and Casting

Text
If not got, need to buy and then look at text, take something from it and create an exercise.

Presentation
Carry on with individual things and bring everything in on Wednesday.

Characters

Benedick - Franz
Beatrice - Helena
Claudio - Claudia
Hero - Sister
Don Pedro - Pedra
Don Jon - Sonderkommando
Margaret - Margo

Rehearsal 14.3.14

In this rehearsal we looked at the Augusto Boal book for exercises that we could use that might be relevant to our piece.

The first exercise that we found was a shoe game where we had to pass shoes round the circle, tapping them on the floor, to a rhythm or song. We choose to use a nursery rhyme and then used the Rose Red song. When reflecting on this exercise we thought that it could be good to include in the piece as it symbolizes the women's jobs in the camp to sort through clothes and shoes.

James then thought of another exercise that we could try which focused on control and teamwork. One of us had to hide a bottle top in our hands and not reveal who it is. James then had to control us and tell us what to do as a way to torture us into giving up who has the bottle top. We timed how long it took us to give up who had the bottle top and it took us roughly 7 minutes. I thought that this was a good exercise because we were able to have a little insight into how exhausted the camp mates would be and how strict everything is in a camp.

We then decided to play Honey, I love you - we did this as a test on concentration levels and having the ability to keep a straight face. These are two things that the camp-mates would have had to everyday.

We then sat as a group and with Rose's help wrote our mission statement:

Our Shakespeare re-imagination of Much Ado About Nothing is set in the historical context of Auschwitz Concentration Camp. This is an innovative new take on the plot-line of Beatrice and Benedick, entwined with a real life story from within the camp. A major aim of the production is to inform and explore the nature of humanity, with our audience in a participative role. The style of this piece is dark and naturalistic with undertones of tragedy; a dark adaptation of the original play.

Rehearsal 13.3.14

After accidentally and rather annoyingly deleting my notes from this lesson this is roughly what we did in this rehearsal....

To begin with we carried on with the 'line' work we were exploring and decided to add our Rose Red song into the marching. Talking as a group we felt that it worked really well together as it was emotion-provoking. We then discussed how we could maybe get in a line when James (as the Guard) instructs us to after we have hugged the audience. We thought that this could possibly be a good way to begin the piece as its unexpected and attention-grabbing. 

Here is a video of this exercise:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5yBb337Ek38
We then tried an exercise that Mandi had remembered doing at Sussex Actors Studio where someone drops to the floor and one of the 'saviours' has to lie next to them and roll them over them to get them back up. I think that this exercise was helpful because it showed the relationships between potential characters if we were doing the Auschwitz idea. 

Here is a video of this exercise:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pfDltEd8pWQ
We then sat down as a group and pretty much unanimously decided that we wanted to do the Auschwitz idea. We then started to talk about what sort of things could be included in it, some more context about James' true life story and mentions of scenes from the text that could be included. 

Rehearsal 12.3.14

In this rehearsal we started to look at workshopping our ideas for two of our ideas; these were the Witchcraft one and the Concentration Camp one.

We started off with an exercise that elsa came up for the witchcraft idea. inspired by an activity done at Sussex Actors Studio, we had to get into pairs and guide each other around the space, though one of us had our eyes shut. This was a trust exercise and we wanted to know how it felt to be controlled unable to do anything yourself. 

Here is a video of our first try at the exercise:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IpYOWf3FhWk

After doing this exercise a couple of times, we grouped back together to talk about how we felt during the exercise. This was:

• physically scared
• not in control
• oppressed
• felt physically small
• disorientated
• dizzy

Elle then suggested that we try the exercise molding the people before moving them. this made the activity more visually interesting as well as feeling more oppressed. 

Here is a video of the extended exercise:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_aaY6Sh7amY

After finishing this exercise we decided that if we were to somehow use this idea to create our final piece we can explore:

• speed
• intensity
• sounds
• german words
• music - possibly Rise of the Valkryies by Wagner

We then went on to try another control idea: We all had to get in a line and put our hands on each others shoulders and then follow the istructional movements of the one behind. We all had our eyes shut and had to walk and turn with each other. Furthermore, we used James to instruct us in German to march as we sung the Rose Red song from the beginnings of rehearsals. i thought this worked really well and it could be a good idea to put in the piece - whether we choose the Auschwitz or the Witchcraft idea. 

At the end of our rehearsal we spoke to Rose who recommended that we watch: 7734 by Jasmine Vardiman and that we use the book: Games for actors and non-actors by Augusto Boal.

Production Meeting 10.3.14

To start with Jonathon gave us an article on how to make an effective contribution when devising theatre. I think this is very helpful because I've never devised a piece of theatre at this level before. He also advised us that researching how to devise theatre would help - I shall do some of this tomorrow.

He also gave us a list of eResources that we have access to, to help us on our piece. These are:

• Music Week
• Bitannica Online
• UK Newsstand
• Digital Theatre Plus

We then spent some time with Jo getting our grades back for our work on Budgets and she also went over what has to be included in our pitch - which we will be doing in two weeks time.

In this Production Meeting with Rose, we had to decided when we were going to tech our show. We also had to decide which day/days we would like to rehearse in the Easter holidays - we have decided to rehearse one day in the first week and one day in the second week. This is because James and Becs can only do different weeks, therefore we are working two days and we will have to work around their absences. 

We also as a company had to decide which times we were going to rehearse outside of lessons.

The aim of this week of rehearsal is to workshop two ideas and decide on one of the other. Our two ideas we have chosen to carry forward are Idea 1 (Concentration Camp) and Idea 2 (Witch hunts). This is because we feel these ideas have more depth to them. Rose has suggested that we regroup on Friday to reflect on our aims of the week and think about how to move on before the next Production Meeting on the following Monday.

Before next rehearsal, I need to have come up with an activity/idea about the witch hunt idea ready for work-shopping. 

Ann Oakley - Feminist Sociologist

Ann Oakley (born 1944) is a distinguished British sociologist, feminist, and writer. She is Professor and Founder-Director of the Social Science Research Unit at the Institute of Education, University of London and in 2005 partially retired from full-time academic work to concentrate on her writing and especially new novels. Oakley is the only daughter of Professor Richard Titmuss and wrote a biography of her parents as well as editing some of his works for recent re-publication. Her mother Kathleen, née Miller, was a social worker.

She was educated at Somerville College, Oxford University taking her BA in 1965, having married fellow future academic Robin Oakley the previous year. In the next few years Oakley wrote scripts for children's television and wrote numerous short stories and had two novels rejected by publishers. Returning to formal education at Bedford College, University of London, she gained a PhD in 1969; the qualification was a study of women's attitudes to housework, from which several of her early books were ultimately derived. Much of her sociological research focused on medical sociology and women's health. She has also made important contributions to debates about sociological research methods.

Ann Oakley has written numerous academic works, many focusing on the lives and roles of women in society as well as several best-selling novels, of which the best-known is probably The Men's Room, which was adapted by Laura Lamson for BBC television in 1991, and which starred Harriet Walter and Bill Nighy. She has also written an early partial autobiography. She divides her life between living in London and in a rural house where she does most of her fiction writing. She is a mother and grandmother.

The above is an extract from Ann Oakley's Wikipedia page - some background information on who she is and what she has studied.

I have had a look through my Sociology Notes and Booklets and have found some information on how women were viewed/treated in the past that might be helpful when exploring Idea 3. These are:

Ann Oakley argued that the housewife role was created by men, and is not women's natural role - it is socially constructed. Oakley said that in pre-industrial times, women worked in family businesses (cottage industries). During industrialization (from about 1750 onwards), factories were being set up, and women worked in factories, mills and even in mines. A lot of mine workers were women and children, as this suited them as they were small.

However, laws gradually came in that restricted the work of women and children. Various factory and mine acts limited women's and children's employment, and banned them from more dangerous jobs. Children gradually became seen as vulnerable rather than as little workers - the concept of childhood as a separate stage of life emerged. This meant that children were now dependent on their parents as they couldn't work. It became the accepted belief that children needed care and supervision which fell to women. Having to supervise and care for children meant that women's working opportunities became restricted. 

From 1841 up to the beginning of the First World War, a combination of pressure from male workers and from philanthropic reformers (people who wanted to change things for others own good) meant that government introduced many laws that restricted women's employment. Women were seen by many male factory workers as a threat to their employment - they were seen as rivals. By banning women's employment in certain jobs, men could keep the work for themselves and restrict their wives to the home (giving men the power as they earned the money). In 1841, committees of male factory workers called for the gradual withdrawal of all female labour from the factories. In 1842 the Mines Act banned the employment of women as miners. From the mid-1800s to the 1960s, marriage bars were in place in many jobs - these marriage bars meant that women had to leave their jobs when they got married.

The above is a few paragraphs from a booklet on feminism in sociology. I think this could help with my research because it talks about how women have been forced into the way they were, not just what they have been forced into.

Women's Right Video

This is a link to a Women's Right's Documentary i have found on YouTube: although this is mostly about Women in America, this has the views that i would like to explore in the piece (idea 3).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l5k8I4u_jCI