Techniques

Improvised sequence of gestures

In scene 14 we use this skill whilst Charlie and Courtney are saying their lines. We repeat the same 3 actions over and over again whilst kneeling on the floor. You can use any actions but the ones we use are:

1)clasp the hands together
2)Push hands along thigh towards knee
3)placing hands on the floor in front of you.

However instead of doing it altogether in exactly the same way we are allowed to personalise the gesture which show our emotions through how we do them. This is very simple but looks very effective because the movement changes and you can feel your own emotions so you don't have to copy everyone else. This represents James being confused and thinking about different things and have different thoughts. It is so simple but it draws the audience to what they are doing and I know this because they used it in 13 and it made me focus on everyone, not just the people who were speaking.

Frantic Assembly are a theatre group that creates pieces using movement, design, music and text. This is similar to our piece because they use a lot of physical theatre.

http://www.franticassembly.co.uk

Here are two of their trailers for their pieces:

These are two trailers for their pieces the first one like blackout flashes from past to future, it shows the couple when they are young and then way the are old similar to the play blackout because it flashes from the jail cell to his past life. Also at some points they are talking about themselves in the past which is similar t blackout because James remembers himself being bullied.

The second trailer little dogs I chose because they use lots of physical theatre and they also use improvised scenes of gestures for example when the girls fall they all do it differently. The pieces involves dance and movement as well as music which makes it similar to blackout because we dance to punk music and involve a lot of physical theatre.

Transition through emotions

We used this technique at the end of scene 12 when changing into a new scene. We begin by stepping back saying 'Don't Mum' and walking backward as Lauren walks toward us, at this stage we are starting to become upset. We then say 'Mum don't' taken another step back becoming more upset and angry. We then shout


'Don't!' dragging out the 'O' in 'don't'. We use this as an opportunity to become really upset and start crying and becoming angry with ourselves so we can go into the next scene which we speak in unison. This is a good transition because it shows James emotions and it is not sudden so you can see the anger and upset building up it doesn't just suddenly happen.

Transitions

Transitions are extremely important and they need to be seamless otherwise the play is broken and the audience loose focus. The above transition is good, however lots of our transitions need to be neater. Lots of the time people forget what they are supposed to be doing so the transition looks messy because it is being done at different times. One that needs to be better is when we are at the door and then we back away when jack comes to it, we are supposed to be walking backwards but still a few people walk forward ruining the transition. Also we need to work out better transitions between some of the scenes but I am sure we will work that out when we run the play all the way through.

Taking direction

Taking direction is something I think everyone has been doing very well in. I personally believe I am quite good at taking direction because I listen to what the director says and if I don't understand I ask him questions to make it clearer. Some people do forget what the director has said and do it differently however I prevent this by making notes on my script so that it can remind me what I am supposed to be doing, I would recommend other people do this because it really helps as well as looking at the physical script.