Devising: day 9

Today, still focusing on the stimulus of war, we watched a live action play base on the black gang watch. A group a Scottish soldiers sent to Iraq for  the war against terrorism. The idea of this was to see how language is used and to give us a real representation into the reality of war and how dialogue is used. I felt that the piece was the most accurate representation of war in terms of the conversations, which were full of swear words and slang, as you'd expect a group of lads to say.

Afterwards, we undertook a focus exercise to enable us to write a letter home to a loved one, before going over the top in World War One. I found this difficult as I didn't really know what to say. I wanted to make my letter as moving as possible, so by making it blunt and as honest as possible, I thought it would help me achieve this effect.

Devising: day 8

Today, again, was more of a discussion based lesson. However, this time we focused on what kind of piece we wanted to create rather than focusing on ideas. Below we brainstormed what elements we wanted in our piece and what media elements we wanted in the piece. After this we were tasked with coming up with a small piece based around our targets we just created. This was difficult in the beginning as we had no idea what to base it on. We started talking about it and blocked a small movement piece. Now we have to finish it up and pull our ideas together.

Devising: day 7

Today was more of a discussion based lesson. In our groups we were instructed to have a think about narrowing down our topics and looking at what topics or events we could use to inspire or base a piece around. We had a serious think about drugs but thought that the topic was a little childish and difficult to do in a sophisticated and mature way. We did, after some deliberation, narrow our choices down to the Armenian genocide and kinder transport. We split our group in half and gave each other research to do. My research was kindertransport. This follows below.

I found this info from an archive about World War Two

"The first Kindertransport arrived at Harwich, England on December 2, 1938, bringing 196 children from a Berlin Jewish orphanage burned by the Nazis during the night of November 9.  The transports ended with the outbreak of war in September 1939.

One very last transport left on the freighter Bodegraven from Ymuiden on May 14, 1940 – the day Rotterdam was bombed, one day before Holland surrendered – raked by gunfire from German warplanes. The eighty children on deck had been brought by earlier transports to imagined safety in Holland. Altogether, though exact figures are unknown, the Kindertransports saved around 10,000 children, most of them Jewish, from Germany, Austria, Czechoslovakia and Poland. Children of the Kindertransport were dispersed to many parts of the British Isles. About half lived with foster families, the others in hostels, group homes, and farms in England,  Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Those older than fourteen, unless they were fortunate enough to be sponsored by individuals and set to boarding schools or taken into foster care, were frequently absorbed into the country’s labour force after a few weeks of training, mainly in agriculture or domestic service."

In addition, I found a recount of a young girl talking about her journey, away from her parents and how she found herself in London with her foster family and adjusting to life as a result

"Trembling, Eva clung to me her eyes stabbing in my back like daggers. Mother and father turned away as I clung to them. I felt lonely; I was by myself and I had to be strong. The realisation was unbearable. The train jumped and jerked and eventually started chugging forward. I could hear farewells ringing in my ears. “Be a good girl now Milena. Look after Eva.” And they were gone.

Two days later I was awoken by the sound of heavy boots. Germans. Questions raced through my mind.  What did they want? Would they hurt us? Would they dare use there gun? They marched into our  carriage, Eva screamed I held her close. She was scared, I comforted her (inside I felt just as worried as her). We had to watch as they took Eva’s favourite teddy, which mother gave her. Anger flickered inside me surging through my body like a wild fire. I  looked through the window the scenery flew by like a falcon.

London with its tall buildings and chattering people was very daunting. A man with a clipboard came over and showed us to the Radcliffs and at first sight they looked like a normal British family. Mummy Radcliff  gave us a hug but at that time Eva was still tentative. She hid behind me as we headed off into the  distance for our new life hoping that our real parents would come back soon."

In addition, we created a brainstorm based around the ideas of kindertransport.

Devising: day 6

Today, we worked on voice again. This time we were split into pairs to perform a scene in a trench. We were instructed to have two types of characters. One, a young village boy who had never left his town. The other, a hardened professional who had seen many battles an death before. I found this more difficult as I am used to playing more nervy characters. So I had to really think about how I was acting, trying to be more confident and relaxed in my movement. As if i was the alpha male, something i'm not used to pretending to be.

Devising: Day 5

We tried something different today.  Instead of working in our groups for our actual decided piece, we were split into 3 different groups today by our teacher and asked to perform a scene from a play called "He's Talking" about a group of South Africans trying to fight the corruption in the 60's

In the group. We had three actors and two directors. The idea of this scene was to try and get us to focus on our voice again. The scene hardly had any movement in. So it was up to us to act the scene as well as we could to keep it interesting. This was hard as the dialogue was very wordy and the scene taking place in a living room, so any little movement or a change in tone had to be done right to keep the audiences attention. I tried to do it in a South African accent I add to the authenticity of the performance. I feel that my accent was rather good, however, needed to speak more slowly to get the true South African accent across.

Devising: Research

As part of our task, we have to research various ideas before we pick a stimulus. After brainstorming a whole host of topics, we split off and researched our own idea. My idea was slavery in America.

Slavery in the United States

Whilst researching, I came across an excellent website called the Civil War Trust, which gave a great overview of Slavery in America and what it lead to.

"When the North American continent was first colonized by Europeans, the land was vast, the work was harsh, and there was a severe shortage of labour. Men and women were needed to work the land. Early in the seventeenth century, a Dutch ship loaded with African slaves introduced a solution—and a new problem—to the New World. Slaves were most economical on large farms where labour-intensive cash crops, such as tobacco, could be grown.

By the end of the American Revolution, slavery had proven unprofitable in the North and was dying out. Even in the South the institution was becoming less useful to farmers as tobacco prices fluctuated and began to drop. 

In reality, treatment of slaves ranged from mild and paternalistic to cruel and sadistic. Husbands, wives, and children were frequently sold away from one another and punishment by whipping was not unusual. The United States Supreme Court in the 1857 Dred Scott Decision ruled that slaves were subhuman property with no rights of citizenship. They had no legal means of protesting the way they were treated. Southerners feared open rebellion but this was rare. However, slaves would pretend illness, organize slowdowns, sabotage farm machinery, and sometimes commit arson or murder. Running away, usually for short periods of time, was common."

Treatment of Slaves

I found this extract very helpful, especially as it allowed me an insight into what would happen to the slaves, what kind of jobs they would do and how sex effected their punishments.

"The experience of slavery for men, women, and children was equally horrible. The amount of labor on the plantation farms was the same for both genders. The differences between the genders were the jobs appointed to them. Men were usually appointed jobs that included certain skill like carpentry and blacksmith. Women were usually working in the fields or as house servants.

 Enslaved men and women were beaten mercilessly, separated from loved ones arbitrarily, and, regardless of sex, treated as property in the eyes of the law." When both genders worked in the fields, men were assigned to do the more physical tasks of plowing the fields and the women had the less physical job of hoeing the crops.

When men and women were auctioned, they were both treated like animals. During Olmstead's travels, he observed slaves being auctioned: “The clear black skin, back and front, was viewed all over for sores from disease; and there was no part of his body left unexamined. The man was told to open and shut his hands, asked if he could pick cotton, and every tooth in his head was scrupulously looked at. The investigation being at an end, he was ordered to dress himself; and having done so, was requested to walk to the block."

Life In Slavery

Whilst researching slavery as a topic for our devised piece i thought that it would be a good idea to get first person stories as this would help us get a feel for potential characters.

Sarah Ashley, 93, was born in Mississippi

.

“I used to have to pick cotton and sometimes I pick 300 pound and tote it a mile to the cotton house. Some pick 300 to 800 pound cotton and have to tote the bag the whole mile to the gin. If they didn’t do they work they get whip till they have blister on them. Then if they didn’t do it, the man on a horse goes gown the rows and whip with a paddle make with holes in it and bust the blisters. I never get whip, because I always get my 300 pound. Us have to go early to do that, when the horn goes early, before daylight. Us have to take the victuals in the bucket to the field.
Us never got enough to eat, so us keeps stealing stuff. Us has to. They give us the pack of meal to last the week and two, three pound back on in chunk. Us never have flour or sugar, just cornmeal and the meat and potatoes. The [slaves] have the big box under the fireplace, where they keep all the pick and chicken what they steal, down in salt.”

Fountain Hughes, Age 101 

"You wasn't no more than a dog to some of them in them days. You wasn't treated as good as they treat dogs now. But still I didn't like to talk about it. Because it makes, makes people feel bad you know. Uh, I, I could say a whole lot I don't like to say. And I won't say a whole lot more."

George Johnson, Age Unknown

"I got my name from President Jeff Davis. He was president of the Southern Confederacy. He owned my grandfather and my father. Brought them from Richmond, Virginia." 

I found the accounts of people who had actually experienced the slave trade rather harrowing, seeing as this treatment happened relatively recently, but at the same time, is a great way of sourcing information and getting an idea for how a potential piece may be set.

Devising: day 4

Today, we worked on our contact improvisation pieces again. This meant us getting into out groups and finishing off the pieces we had already started. We ran through what we had already created. Polishing bits as we went before devising one final piece that showed our contact improvisation. Our video is below.

revolutionarts2016: Contact Improv Group 1

Our next task, was to move away from the physical side of theatre and create a piece using only voice itself. After going back to the drawing board. We decided to base our piece around Hillsborough disaster as we thought it gave us a good basis for a vocal performance. In addition, we also decided that it would be better if performed in the dark, so we could scatter everyone around the room showing the range of people effected and making the audience feel as if we were closing in on them.

Next, we had to decide what people were saying. We had six people in the group so had to think of six lines that would fit with our subject.  We thought that saying each line in cannon would work well before building it up to everyone shouting their lines in desperation. At the same time we stamped our feet to represent the stampede before we fell silent on a scream.  The next part involved us researching facts about the disaster and in a monotone voice, tell our fact.

I think it worked nicely for a soundscape and is a nice idea for what we could potentially use, in terms of using our voice to create a scene.

Devising: day 3

We began with being given a stimulus at first. This was a poem written by Wilfred Owen about World War One.

The Next War

Out there, we've walked quite friendly up to Death,-
Sat down and eaten with him, cool and bland,-
Pardoned his spilling mess-tins in our hand.
We've sniffed the green thick odour of his breath,-
Our eyes wept, but our courage didn't writhe.
He's spat at us with bullets and he's coughed
Shrapnel. We chorussed when he sang aloft,
We whistled while he shaved us with his scythe.

Oh, Death was never enemy of ours!
We laughed at him, we leagued with him, old chum.
No soldier's paid to kick against His powers.
We laughed, -knowing that better men would come,
And greater wars: when each proud fighter brags
He wars on Death, for lives; not men, for flags.

At first. I didn't really understand it. However after discussing it with our teacher we began to build up an idea of what the poem meant and began to build up our own interpretations and imagination.

We were placed into groups and tasked with coming up with a small piece of our choice based around the poem.  At first, I thought it would be quite artistic to have some sort of lift, showing how a soldier could be thrown around so easily by a bomb. Highlighting the fragility of life, before going into a flashback of the last conversation he had with his wife/girlfriend/family etc. However, this developed into a conversation with three soldiers about to go over the top. One being a war veteran, later back and matter of fact. The other two of us young men, with no training and no understanding of why they were fighting for.

As we are specifically looking at voice, it was important for us to really emphasise our tone to show our characters emotional state, I think we did so. I tried to make my speech very quick in short bursts. Empathising my nerves. I tried to show his desperation through the choked speech and nearing tears.  I think we did this well as a group, however it would have been beneficial to develop further, which was a suggestion from our teacher, after we had shown the piece.

Devising: Day 2

Today, our lesson was based more on contact improvisation and exploring how we could create a piece based on this style.

Firstly, we watched a clip of performers showing contact improvisation at a high level, giving us ideas on the style. We then split into pairs having to devise a small piece of contact. I found this hard to think spontaneously, and to not think about things too much. However, the more you relax and let the piece flow, the greater chance of creating a piece there was, which was what I found anyway ! The main part I really enjoyed about this clip was how they explained what they were doing in terms of sharing balance and how effortless they made it look, although I didn't really get what they were performing, or if they were performing anything in particular. However, the concepts present aided me in my thinking of contact improvisation.

We showed our pieces and were told to go back and add a movement of weight balance and a lift.

Afterwards, we grouped up and began to think of how our group could create a small scene based on our stimulus. At first we found it hard to come up with ideas but decided slavery would be the best option as it gave us a broader scope. I think at first, we tried to overcomplicate things by doing lifts, however, we took the start back to a freeze frame and found creating the piece much more easily.

Below we brainstormed an idea of what we would want to include in the piece and the connotations of the topic of slavery.

Devising: day 1

 Today, we began our new unit on devising. At first, we were split into groups randomly. We were then given out stimulus for our pieces which was the title "humanity in crisis" and explored the issues surrounding Syria and the refugee crisis. Before looking back to conflict between Bosnia an further back to ww2, exploring how people, particularly the children were affected. In addition, we explored how Saigon was affected and learnt that parents often decided to get their children out of the country to the US by the US army. To be honest, I didn't like the stimulus at first, I thought it was such a broad topic but quite dull and mainstream at the same time. I just found all the topics we could think if very depressing and nothing particularly jumped out at first and I struggled to feel any excitement towards the stimulus.

We then went onto brainstorming ideas around our stimulus, thinking what we could relate it too and created this mind map below.

Our next task was to create a small piece in twenty minutes on any chosen idea from our stimulus. We decided to pick the refugee idea. As it appeared the easiest title to create ideas quickly on. We began by trying to create freeze frames showing how normal lives are turned upside down by conflict. However it seemed a bit dull, so we put music to it. Which was a slow acoustic guitar piece. That worked very nicely. We changed the beginning to people greeting each other and falling in cannon, showing how friendships can be destroyed. Out next movement was standing in a line being executed. Symbolising those caught in the conflict and trying to fight back. Our final part saw us cluster into each other and bob up and down as if escaping the country on a crowded boat. Then, one by one, we parted from the centre and turned out to the sides leaving Ashley in the middle. He ran to each person on the edge who all turned their backs on this refugee, before the last person gave him a hug, symbolising the fact that he was being taken in as an asylum seeker.

I think the stimulus gives us a whole load of directions to go in, and allows us to explore very deep and serious issues. I think it will be difficult though, however, I think we have enough talent in the group to come up with and exchange ideas with a mix of strengths within.These pictures below helped us begin to generate ideas.