Devising: Day 25

Today, we set about finishing the scene we had began creating based around the idea of guards being in lesson with the pupils and the teacher having to video the lesson in to them. We showed the piece we have devised to our teacher in the lesson. He pointed out that we needed to choreograph the piece more, even though it wasn't a dance. We made a few changes to the original piece, one main difference being that we got those playing the students to walk in and separate off onto the sides before turning and walking into their chairs. The idea behind this being that the students move very military like, very regimented and ordered as the guards are controlling them through fear.

Although we kept the base of what we had originally created, his advice polished our piece, and added a little more sophistication to it. For example, we initially thought that the guards would be dressed in riot gear, however, he suggested if it would be easier and far  ore versatile to use just a metre rule. This enabled quicker movement, yet still showing control and allowing us to choreograph slightly more elaborate pieces without the hindrance of heavy costume. Another example of where the ruler was a better option was where I lifted one of our members legs up to see if she could actually reach the back of someone's chair or if they were lying or not. Originally I would have got a tape measure out, however, this would take time, and the ruler allowed me to carry out the action in one, swift movement.

Another talking point was whether I hit someone round the back of the head with the ruler as a punishment or stuck with what we had originally had, me slamming the persons head onto the desk, that way we could make it look more dramatic than a tame slap of a ruler.

I think the main thing I had to ficus on, personally, was my character. Those in my group said themselves that they could not take me seriously when trying to be intimidating. Instead, I decided to be rather expressionless, staring at the pupils. After all, my character would merely be doing a duty, he feels no emotion towards the students at all. I felt as if this worked slightly better than trying to be in their faces and aggressive.

Whilst looking at this piece, I often asked myself, "How far is too far with discipline?" I mean, we had tazers in the piece at first which seemed ridiculous, however, this video I stumbled across gave me an insight into how some punishments are dealt with, and suddenly it seemed as though our scene wasn't as severe as we first thought!