Risk Assessment.

Production:          13

Date:                      30/6/16

Company:              Revolution Arts – The Howard School

Completed By:      Kyle Starkey (Cast Member)

Hazard	Involved	Likelihood	Severity	Control Measures in Place
Uneven tunnel floors, resulting in trips and falls	12 cast and 18 audience	Even	Mild	Cast well-rehearsed in space            Pathways kept clear of equipment            Hazards clearly marked           Main pathway well lit and audience accompanied by guide at all times.       Warning given to audience prior to performance about wearing suitable footwear       Make sure speed of moving from scene to scene is slow enough for audience members to judge the floor space
Items falling from height	12 cast and 18 audience	Very Unlikely	Medium	No items left/used at height       All items at heights are fixed in properly
Fire	12 cast and 18 audience	Unlikely	Severe	No fire/naked flames utilised in performance       Any fire used would be in an enclosed space with fire extinguishers at hand and the locations of them known to everyone
Strobe lighting Getting lost in tunnels Chair Breaking	12 cast and 18 audience 12 cast and 18 audience 12 cast	Possible Likely Possible	Medium Mild Medium	Warning given on material and at entrance to performance           Strobe restricted to 10 second intervals       Ensure cast knows the way around the tunnels and guide is present in the tunnels at the same time.       Ensure chairs being used are of a decent and safe standard for their purpose of lifting       Practice with the same chairs before hand to identify and problems

Site Specific: Day 10


We finally began to make progress today. Again, we looked at different pictures that we had taken in the tunnels and began to devise from there. We split into groups depending on our characters with the Doctor, Nurse and Psychiatrist in one group.


We thought it would be wise if they set a scene between them explaining the story of an unmarried mother in the mental asylum, as in the 60's unmarried mothers would have been sent there as they deemed them insane.

We decided on coming up with a soundscape into a physical theatre piece based around one of our characters. Originally, I thought it could be good to do a piece around the religious connotations again, but as we had already done something like that we decided to base it around the schizophrenic character, using the soundscape to show the different voices going on inside his head. We wanted to show his struggle between the different personalities in his head, trying to reflect how he battles with the multiple personas that taunt him throughout his life. This is what we came up with.

Site specific: Day 12


Today, we focused on devising some of the scripted scenes. As part of the electric chair scene, we worked on scripting that, paying careful attention to how we would show the doctor and nurse not actually being real. The scripts are below.

After this, we worked on polishing the two movement scenes we had devised. One for the schizophrenic piece and the other for the patients in the hospital ward which we are calling the "Seven Devils" scene. The idea behind the schizo piece, as previously discussed, was to show how the main character is trying to shake off the voices in  his head and his constant battle between them, which we hope is shown below. Personally, I like it. I think it will flow better the more practice we get in and know what we are doing.

The second piece, we wanted to show how the patients are completely crazy. The idea being to spook the audience out by positioning them between us and immersing them in the dance. What we have, I think, is pretty good and I'm sure it will creep and audience out. Especially how we jump into life in the beginning.

Site Specific
Over the last couple of days. we have been merely running through scenes and splitting off into groups in order to finish the scenes we are in. As the scenes I was in had been finished I decided to research a condition for one of our other characters. I think the main idea behind our character here was that he doesn't visibly appear in any way mental or show any major signs of it.

Therefore, I came across the condition of Intermittent Explosive Disorder. This is a mental condition that results in violent outbursts of rage and anger that are disproportionate to the situation at hand. It is also described as not easily characterized and this was a trait that fit the bill perfectly. Of course, I put this idea forward but whether it was used, I don't know, as it wasn't my character ultimately.

In addition, I also began working on the ending to the "Jesus" scene, the majority of this was already done, however, it required a few tweaks in the lexis and a new ending. In which I wrote in lines from the bible where the patient in the scene is trying to expose the fake doctors by reciting lines about lies and deceit, before they break into argument and leave the scene this was done in order to give the audience yet more clues as to the doctors not being real.

Site Specific


We set about finally decided a running order of our scenes and where they would take place in the tunnels today. At first, this was difficult as we weren't really sure on what the best spaces for different scenes were. However, one space we were certain to perform in was the church area, which was home to our original first scene, after the entrance scene. This scene was about the patient who thought he was Jesus and recites the bible endlessly, however, there was one problem with this being our first scene inside the tunnels. This problem being that the church area came quite away into the tunnels, so trying to fill the gap between scenes would be rather difficult, hence we decided to add scenes in before that.


Such a scene was my electrocution scene, which we are yet to devise. One main aspect we focused on was the fact that we didn't really have a particular storyline or reasons as to why particular things happened. For example, why is there a psychiatrist visiting the asylum? We came up with a few ideas.


As we are setting the piece in the 1960's, we know that All Saints hospital, in Chatham, was in existence before being closed in the early 2000's. Hence we devised the idea of the psychiatrist taking a particular interest in mental illnesses and needing to complete his PHD, he is placed to study patients in the fort.


Another idea we thought about was the idea that the characters of the doctor and nurse were not actually a doctor or nurse at all, in fact, they were quite the opposite and perhaps just as mental as the others, merely putting on an act. Throughout the piece, we decided we would add subtle clues from the patients to the audience trying to reveal how the doctor and nurse were dangerous and fake. Below is our first attempt at a running order and the basis of ideas for scenes that we need to develop and bring to life.

Site Specific: Character Development

As part of agreeing on an idea, I wanted to begin to develop my own character that I have chosen to play. As previously decided, I opted for playing the mysterious silent character of the group, however, we didn't really think of a reason as to why he was silent. Was he born that way, or has an event occurred in his life that led to him being unable to speak.

I tried searching for potential diseases or disorders that are linked to speech loss or the inability to speak, however, the only links I cold find were to brain tumours, Alzheimer's and dementia. Therefore, the idea of the electric chair to force information out of my character leading to trauma seemed like the best option. I think, the best idea I have conjured is to have my character suffering from some form of post traumatic stress disorder, leaving him unable to speak, provoking the use of the electric chair to try to reboot his memory so he can talk again. However, it only worsens the situation. The definition fro PTSD is below.

 Post-traumatic stress disorder, often abbreviated as PTSD, is a complex disorder in which the affected person's memory, emotional responses, intellectual processes, and nervous system have all been disrupted by one or more traumatic experiences. It is sometimes summarized as "a normal reaction to abnormal events." The DSM-IV-TR (the professional's diagnostic manual) classifies PSTD as an anxiety disorder.

PTSD has a unique position as the only psychiatric diagnosis that depends on a factor outside the individual, namely, a traumatic stressor. A patient cannot be given a diagnosis of PTSD unless he or she has been exposed to an event that is considered traumatic. These events include such obvious traumas as rape, military combat, torture, genocide, natural disasters, and transportation or workplace disasters. In addition, it is now recognized that repeated traumas or such traumas of long duration as child abuse , domestic violence, stalking, cult membership, and hostage situations may also produce the symptoms of PTSD in survivors.
   
A person suffering from PTSD experiences flashbacks, nightmares, or daydreams in which the traumatic event is experienced again. The person may also experience abnormally intense startle responses, insomnia, and may have difficulty concentrating. Trauma survivors with PTSD have been effectively treated with group therapy or individual psychological therapy, and other therapies have helped individuals, as well. Some affected individuals have found support groups or peer counseling groups helpful. Treatment may require several years, and in some cases, PTSD may affect a person for the rest of his or her life.

Of course, it doesn't really matter what the back story to my character is, as the piece will feature too many characters to explore it in such a depth. However. the main idea behind my character is him suffering a form of PTSD, leading to the electric chair, forcing him to become a mute and very secretive.

Site Specific: Day 9


Today we discussed ideas we previously thought up as a group and began to think up a storyline of how a physciatrist is shown around the asylum by the abusive doctor.



We printed out some photos of the fort and began devising a scene in two separate groups. Our group went for the picture of the church area in order to create piece for the man who thinks he is the second coming of Jesus. In this scene, he and three of us are praying to the Lords Prayer, begging for sanity. We really wanted to show our desperation in our praying and the insanity of the person who was playing Jesus' second coming. The nurse showed the physciatrist around before the fake Jesus gets angry for him interrupting, showing his unstable mentality.



We then discussed the possibility of the electric chair and how we could incorporate the electric chair in our piece. I thought it would suit my character well, as he is silent, so they may have used it to try and trigger him into speech.


Execution by electrocution, usually performed using an electric chair, is an execution method originating in the United States in which the condemned person is strapped to a specially built wooden chair and electrocuted through electrodes placed on the head and leg.


I searched for what the electric chair may feel like for someone to experience and came across this...


The current surges and is then turned off, at which time the body is seen to relax. The doctors wait a few seconds for the body to cool down and then check to see if the inmate's heart is still beating. If it is, another jolt is applied. This process continues until the prisoner is dead. The prisoner's hands often grip the chair and there may be violent movement of the limbs which can result in dislocation or fractures. The tissues swell. Defecation occurs. Steam or smoke rises and there is a smell of burning. (Hillman, 1992 and Weisberg, 1991) U.S. Supreme Court Justice William Brennan once offered the following description of an execution by electric chair:
...the prisoner's eyeballs sometimes pop out and rest on [his] cheeks. The prisoner often defecates, urinates, and vomits blood and drool. The body turns bright red as its temperature rises, and the prisoner's flesh swells and his skin stretches to the point of breaking. Sometimes the prisoner catches fire....Witnesses hear a loud and sustained sound like bacon frying, and the sickly sweet smell of burning flesh permeates the chamber. (Ecenbarger, 1994)




I know that the use of this chair was to kill, but we can incorporate this into our piece as it was used to help try to cure mental illness by essentially passing a current through the brain to jump start it. Therefore, we can use the same principle of the electric chair, and also have some factual information in the piece to explain to the audience why the electric chair is being used.

Site specific: Day 8



We had our tour of fort Amherst today, and I think it definitely helped start to trigger some ideas and how we could stage particular scenes. In addition we also were able to assess potential areas that were big enough to perform in and those that were not big enough, which was a shame as some of the smaller areas were very nice and atmospherical, such as the small rooms with wooden beds in them.


However as some of the tunnels are so narrow and steep stepped, trying to fit an audience in there would be very hard, if not impossible, so we would have to pick our performance spaces carefully.

Another problem we encountered was the fact that we didn't know our way around the tunnels, therefore we would have to keep the promenade performance fairy basic in terms of where we wanted to go, as we would never have time to learn our way around well enough in order to confidently lead an audience from room to room without embarrassing ourselves and getting lost. So that may be something we have to think about.



We did also find out that the fort is one of six in Medway and one of those six was used as a mental asylum up until 1963. Therefore this revived our idea of the mental hospital we originally thought of. I came up with the idea that those chosen to evacuate were actually brainwashed in the end and not evacuated, but turned crazy by the authorities. It was a very basic idea, but we could come back to it as we continue to develop our current evacuation idea.



Personally, I think the space is great for a performance. It has a sound system which allows us to play music or sounds in there to add to any atmosphere we wanted to create. As well as a power source to help light our way if we feel necessary. It also has plenty of spooky features and corridors that you can see below, that hold a very eerie aura, and provide a very striking and realistic setting for spooking an audience.

Today, we took charge of our own ideas as our teacher wasn't in. This lead to us listing the ideas we already had and thinking of where we could take them. It still remains very hard to think of where we could go but in the end we came up with the jist of a storyline in which we could develop on.

This idea, comes back to our mental asylum idea, however, this time, we included the idea of a physciatrist investigating the asylum and the actions of a corrupt and abusive doctor. We had to think of characters though. Which the picture shows below



Obviously, we still need to think of a few characters of mental patients for us to play, we also included a nurse in our piece, to assist the doctor and show how the doctor has also corrupted this nurse into an abusive and evil person.

Personally, I'm thinking that I'd like to play a silent character, as I think that kind of personality will work well in the tunnels. It would also allow my body language and facial expressions to convey my feelings rather than speech. Which I think would be quite a challenge not being able to say anything, having to rely on my understanding of the characters body and movement to create a very creepy and spooky identity.

Site specific: Day  7

Today, we began to work on the storyline of our idea. It took a long time to decide where we wanted to go with it, we discussed various ideas about the power struggle. Was it a war that caused it, or something political. We didn't decide on what though.

Instead we discussed where we would go with the story. Perhaps the fort is an evacuation point to allow those chosen ones to get out of the county to a mysterious, secret better place. But how would we show this?

We thought up a few stimulus ideas to help get some pieces going. We got split into groups and asked to come up with a piece on that idea. Our groups stimulus was relationships. Obviously it's easy to think of the normal heterosexual relationship between a boy and girl and their love drives each other on. But that would be boring. So we thought up the idea of two brothers and a sister, trying to evacuate the fort. But as the sister is in a wheelchair, she is rejected as she isn't deemed worthy or useful. Yet another person is allowed to evacuate straight away, leaving the brothers with a dilemma of staying with the sister, forcing her on or leaving her behind. Which we didn't get the chance to develop.

I think that now we are beginning to work on our idea, we are moving in the right direction, and I can begin to feel ourselves making progress, as slow as it is. Once we get to see the fort, I think it will trigger a slightly more creative edge to us, allowing more depths ideas to take place. The last thing we want is a cheesy, unimaginative, 15 year old style performance. We need to think carefully, but now we have a direction that we all see together, I think the performance will start to form from here.

Site Specific: Day 6

Today, we finally agreed on an idea. We began by splitting into three groups and tasked with trying to find links between the pieces we discussed in the previous lesson, at regular intervals, we moved around the groups, explaining the ideas we had come up with before reforming our original groups.

We all had came up with very similar ideas revolving around a tour of fort Amherst in a futuristic setting with no power in it. With this in mind, we all came into one big group and began developing the idea into a piece we all agreed with and briefly deciding where the story would go. Like many of us said, we need to be careful we do not turn this piece into something like a film, such as saw or mazerunner, as it would be very easy to go in the direction of a full out horror. Another problem with going all out horror, was that we wouldn't actually have the public liability insurance to interact with the audience in the way we would have wanted to, nor would we be insured for anything that went wrong during the performance, hence it would be too difficult to pull off.

We did come up with the plans of a final idea. I think it still needs a bit of developing as it looks sparse, however, I believe this will come with another lesson of thinking time.

One issue that remains a constant is the arguments between the class and how people become very fixed to their ideas. It brings the mood down and energy down and becomes very hard to come up with ideas without the whole class's attention and this leads to the process becoming very boring and draining. I think the sooner we begin working on the same idea, the hardest bit will be out the way.

Site Specific: Day 5


Today, we finally began to narrow down some of our ideas. I think this was desperately needed as the longer we continue without an idea, the less time we will have to create a piece and the more arguments will arise.


We began by splitting off into separate groups again and told to think of one very indie, quirky idea that we hadn't discussed before, based around an inside picture of Fort Amherst. The group I was in came up with the idea of a murder mystery style performance. We would invite the audience to the performance disguised as a drama awards evening and plan to take it in a new direction with a staged murder and a tour through the tunnels to get out. The ideas are as below.

As we rejoined as a class, we all pitched our ideas back to each other to create this brainstorm of all the ideas we had thought of so far. We then discussed which ideas would work well and what wouldn't. I think the main issue for the piece my group came up with is that some of the class were not keen on how we would merely be playing ourselves instead of a character. In addition, some were concerned that it would be too real for the audience and some of them may freak out or find it too much, although that was the effect we were going for, to make the event a near reality. The thing I am still finding difficult at the moment is how everyone seems to defend their own ideas and tries to run with them as much as they can, forgetting we are functioning as a company, also it became apparent to me today that we see the ideas we come up with as so rigid, and flaws are picked out all the time. The point in coming up with these ideas are not to be rigid, they are open to manipulation and adjustment, maybe even linking some different ideas together. I think once we settle on an idea we can develop it as at the moment it feels like we are trying to come up with such a rigid idea, or a complete idea that we have to stick with. However, we did discuss how some ideas can link into each other, but at the moment I think it is important to remember that we can always change the details of an idea once we have picked it. The base of the idea will be there but it will change as we develop it.


I think once we get to Fort Amherst and are able to see and feel the location an idea will be a little easier to come by. I think the important thing is to go with an open mind and not go with pre conceived ideas in our heads, as this will suppress the creative process considerably.

 

Site specific: day 4

As we only had a 50 minute lesson

today, we we're split into three groups and given different pictures of fort Amherst that where all outside.

As ever is the case with devising. We found it very hard to come up with ideas. However in the picture we were given we did manage to come up with a short piece. In this piece we would find a small child crying in the corner of the wall. Two men on a tour would discover the child and try to help him. However, the only thing the child would say is how he lost his parents and that he came from the blocked up hole in the wall. Eventually voices of the child's parents began to ring out from no where as the child disappears through the hole, leaving the two men completely dumbfounded. We went with this idea mainly because of Fort Amhersts rich ghost history and thought it would be fitting and appropriate to create an eerie ghost story, as it is a subject that can open up a lot of potential story plots. Our picture is below.

The other groups both set their pieces in a slightly more distopic, futuristic setting. One thing that I really liked about what one group done was how they interacted and involved the audience again. They lined us up outside the room and brought us in. Before immersing us in the scene and telling us that we were soldiers. The part I liked was how some of the people in their group were in the line with us and began asking questions and answering back, which had us all completely fooled as we didn't know they were part of it. Adding a sense of realism to the piece. I really liked idea of including actors in the audience as it helps bring the piece to life and will hopefully lead to it being more effective by drawing the audiences attention and making them feel a much stronger sense of fear,  confusion or disbelief.

The third group also went down the futuristic line. Creating a very confusing piece about trying to find someone who has the key to the countries energy crisis. I liked the idea of how real the cause of the storyline was, as it is quite an apparent issue and could well be a problem in the future. However, I'm not sure how we could incorporate such a story based on out Fort Amherst location. I think there are many ideas and aspects from all groups that we can take and help to create our final idea that we are all happy with.

The hardest thing is trying to create something that is mildly relevant to the location and being able to do a lot with it. Plus the size of our class of 13 doesn't help with trying to create that many characters. I think once we set an idea we want to follow it will be far easier to come up with characters and story lines, one because we will have more time and secondly because everyone will be working on the same piece so, in a way, we will have more ideas between us in order to create the piece.

Site Specific: Research

As part of choosing our location, we decided it would probably make sense to research the area, in order to see if we could gain any more ideas from the history of the Fort. On Wikipedia, I found some information on the history of Fort Amherst. 

What I did find out is that the Fort was originally built in the 1660's in order to defend Chatham's naval dockyard from an attack launched by the Dutch.

• In 1779, during the construction, workmen found an existing foundation of a Roman building. Several finds, including pieces of Roman brick and tile, were made. Roman coins were also found.

• During the Napoleonic (1803–15) the Chatham defences were enlarged and considerably strengthened. Further batteries were added (such as the Cornwallis Battery) and the ditches lined with bricks

• Also in 1802–11, prisoners, mostly convicts from St Marys Island, were set to work on extending the tunnels and creating vast underground stores and shelters, new magazines, barracks, gun batteries and guardrooms. More than 50 smooth-bore cannons were also mounted. The last building works were completed in about 1820. A maze of tunnels, used to move ammunition around the fort, were dug into the chalk cliffs.

• A second gun battery, 'Townsend Redoubt', was built at the northeastern corner of the dockyard at the same time as Fort Amherst. Both forts were inside the 1756 brick-lined earthwork bastions known as the "Cumberland Lines", which surrounded the whole east side of the dockyard down to St Mary's Island. These have now been built over.

• In 1820, because of improvements in artillery equipment and greater firing ranges, the defences were declared obsolete. The entire fortified area was then used as a training-ground during the Victorian era, with practice sieges becoming so popular that they attracted thousands of visitors to Chatham. VIPs were seated on the Casemated Barracks that once stood in the Lower Lines and also on Prince William’s Barracks within Fort Amherst itself.

• In 1959, the site was scheduled as an ancient monument.

I particularly liked the fact that the prisoners were made to dig tunnels in the 1800's, as this was an idea we had discussed in lesson, and opens up various opportunities based around the lives of prisoners, hauntings and events that took place in that era.

In addition, Fort Amherst was also heavily used during WW2, due to its location near to London and the network of underground tunnels, proving valuable to England's defence. However, as a group we all agreed that trying to devise a piece around WW2 would be far too cliché and difficult to do without being stereotypically GCSE and somewhat cringy.

I think one of the main problems we face as a group is the size of our group and the strong opinions the members hold. This made it very difficult to finalise any ideas, let alone come up with any. People talk over each other and start to argue about very minor details. I think we need to step back and accept what has already been decided, but work together and not get stuck on any potential ideas that we have come up with.

Site Specific: Day three

Today we decided on our location of where we would want to perform our piece. We narrowed it down to 4 main choices which were...

• Fort Amherst
• Chatham Dockyard
• Upnor Castle (but would cost £800 to hire out)
• Upchurch Orchard

We then had a vote on where we would like to perform, with Fort Amherst receiving 8 of the 13 available votes. So, it was decided that our performance would take place at Fort Amherst.

With this in mind, we split into groups to devise a piece based on a picture of Fort Amherst.


This was the first picture of Fort Amherst that we had seen outside, so it opened up a few more opportunities as to what we wanted to do. As we were in the same group that brainstormed the idea of the mental asylum, we continued on with this idea. Of course, we need a storyline, however, without the whole company together, it is hard to try and devise one. This is why we opted against trying to create a very dialogue heavy scene, as it takes far too long to come up with quality dialogue, plus we would run the risk of it not even being used in the final piece. This is why we cam up with a relatively short piece based on the mental patients free time. This linked to the picture of being outside, as the scene would take place when the patients get their small amount of time in the sun and fresh air.

Now all we would have to decide is what our patients would be doing to make them unstable. We looked at a few conditions and I came across one called autophagia.  I found this definition on disorder.net and found it interesting how the condition could also be harmful to others, opening up the opportunity for cannibalism and a back story. 

"Autophagia is the act of a person eating their own body part(s). It’s not categorized as a mental disorder, nor a symptom of a mental disorder, as dictated in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM). However, Autophagia could be classified under the DSM’s “Impulse-Control Disorders Not Elsewhere Classified.” ICD involves failure to restrain from any kind of impulse, drive, or temptation to carry out an act that’s harmful to oneself or other people."

In our scene, we wold have someone playing the doctor leading the audience around, introducing them to the patients. One by one, we were introduced, interacting with each other and making our traits obvious, whilst breaking the forth wall with the audience and getting in amongst them.

The next part involved the doctor ringing the bell, and all the patients running into a circle, as if we knew what the bell signified, play time. This shows how, like dogs we were controlled by the sound of the bell. We got the audience to gather in a circle with us, getting up close and personal, before switching who played the doctor in an attempt to confuse the audience before leading them out.

I really like the idea of a mental asylum and I think that\t the location provides a brilliant atmosphere for something like that. My main concern would be how different we could make it. It would be hard to stage dialogue in a very interactive piece. Also, changing the doctors after every scene may become a little predictable as would the way we lead visitors around the patients. I think it needs a very careful thought process, but we have to remember that we are yet to finalise any ideas on what we want to perform.

Site specific: day two

Today's lesson began with us splitting into two groups and being given an individual picture of a location we had put down on our brainstorm. We had a picture of a slip roof in Chatham dockyard. Originally built in Tudor times the slip roof was used to  construct ships. I think the beauty of the area is that the fact that it is empty,  gives us a huge scope for ideas. In addition, the large space means there is plenty of room for audience and performance space. Furthermore, it's location is  very central to Medway and easy to get to for us , making the location practical. The only problem would be controlling the light. As the roofs would be hard to close, we wouldn't be able to achieve a blackout if we wanted to, nor will lights be very effective. So while it has positives about it, in terms of a performance space for a creepy and eerie piece, I don't think it has the atmosphere or suitability to allow us to do so.



At first. Ideas were very hard to come by. Mainly because the space was so empty that we couldn't really think of anything that we could do. We toyed with ideas of smugglers looting ship parts or builders on a building site being trapped by the collapsing roof, however they had no real storyline or meaning to them. It took us a long time to create anything. In the end we settled for a post apocalyptic setting, yet nobody knows why the world has become the way it is. The slip roof setting made out as if our characters were waiting for a boat to get out of the country.

In the beginning we had numerous people mime ways of getting into the building before bumping into one lone survivor, who had been on his own for a week. Everyone had came in search of the boat which had never came.

The other group came up with a quirky interactive piece based around mental patients, where they introduced us to the room and immersed us in the performance which I thought was quite cool. I think both our pieces had some aspects that we could certainly use in our final piece. I think the group I was in began to think more about a potential storyline hence our piece was slower. However, I really liked the fact the other group included the audience in the piece, which added to the atmosphere and built on the ideas we has created last lesson. So I think we can definitely implement the ideas of the two groups together somehow.

Site specific: day one

Today, we began working on our final unit, site specific performance. The first thing we done in smaller groups was to brainstorm all the places that we thought would be a good place to perform a piece in, before sharing our ideas to the group. We were limited to our local area in terms of where we were allowed to think of. As getting the cast and audience to a place, say 2 hours away would be expensive and inconvenient.

The next part was to choose one place where we would like to perform and start to think of some ideas of what we could perform. Some of us in the group liked the idea of tap n tin, a nightclub, for it's multiple room, which would be very good for a promenade style performance. However, as a nightclub it would be very expensive to hire for a night and we would be limited in what we would be able to do in terms of set. I think the whole group liked the idea of Fort Amherst in Chatham, not only for it's atmospheric and creepy tunnels, but the fact that it gives us the option to perform inside and outside so light isn't a restriction. It is also a much larger space than tap n tin, so promenade works just as well, if not more so as the interior lends part of the atmosphere.

Of course. Our location influences the content of the piece. Therefore we began to think of what kind of pieces we could create. As finding a scripted piece to fit 13 people into would be near impossible. We came up with the idea that fort Amherst is being used as a mental department where, somehow. The insane are being drawn to something within the fort and calling it their home. We thought using a camcorder film would also add to the eeriness of the piece, before bringing the video to life in an interactive performance that involves the audience, breaking the forth wall. Of course these ideas are all very young. However, unlike other times spent devising, they seem to be flowing much more freely than ever. I think we need to carry on looking at potential ideas to make sure we have though of a range of ideas and not gone for the first one we thought of.

Scripted: Day fourteen

Today was the last chance we'd get to have a run through before the Easter break, therefore, we thought it best to try and run as much as we could again without the use of our scripts. The previous lesson we had tried to do the same, however used our scripts more than we'd have liked in order to get a realistic grasp of how long the performance would be. This time, we knew how long the performance would be so we went for it without the scripts, and it went rather well, I think a real encourager was the fact that although some lines were forgotten or said a little differently, we knew the scene well enough to interpret what was said and carry on. In some ways making up the rest of a sentence makes the play a little more authentic and up to date in terms of the dialogue. For example, instead of Bennett calling Nicholas a swot. He called him a twat accidentally, however, this made the piece seem a little more up to date and southern to the originally Northern setting of the play. I still think there is work to be done in terms of learning lines, however it is obvious that we know the performance well enough and how we have set our scenes out that it is beginning to get a little boring, which I believe, in this case, isn't necessarily a bad thing as I think it shows that we have worked hard on pulling this play together and now know it well enough to want to get it performed. I don't think there is much more practice we need to do other than keep on running the play and making sure our lines are learnt, the task ahead is simple, the hard work of creating characters and directing scenes is over, we just need to show this work in our performance.

Writing in role: Chadwick Meade

After William goes on a killing spree

I can't believe it. What just happened, was it real. Are they dead, is this some weird dream I'm trapped in.  Like what happened is in a parallel universe.

Is it weird for me to not feel anything. I don't feel scared or upset or happy. Just satisfied. I mean, Bennett being dead hardly effects me. In fact if anything it's a positive he isn't around to constantly annoy me anymore. Cissy, was just irrelevant. As nice as she was. She was suppressed and crippled by Bennett, no longer her own person. Nicholas... Again although the event could be perceived as rather sad, I really can't see how it will effect my day to day routine. I hardly associated with them anyway, the absence of the three and William will mean nothing to me. As for Tristan. I don't know when I'll see him again, if I ever see him again. As far as I'm concerned , I got away. No one knows I was there, I can just carry on as before. Get my grades, get out of here. Do what I need to do.

The thing is, when i saw the gun in Williams hand. I didn't fear death, after all it would only speed up what would inevitably happen. If he had chosen to shoot me there and then, it would have gotten rid of so much worry. The inconvenience of school life, it would relieve a little pressure on the world. I suppose my death would also be pretty irrelevant. After all I'm a tiny spec just like everyone
else. I doubt anyone would notice.

So I'll be in school tomorrow. Looking at the people who claim to be close to the victims. Pretending to be upset for attention and popularity. Don't expect any sympathy from me, nor any recollection of events. We are mere particles in the universe. Losing three will not change a thing, it may even better it. Who knows, maybe I can get on with my A levels in peace now...

Scripted: Day thirteen

For the first half of this lesson, we were busy learning some lines independently, although I think running the scenes helps me learn the lines more thoroughly. The second part, we ran all we could without the use of scripts. gain, this was a success seeing as we had to ask our teacher to fill in for an absent member of the group. However, this time we done it was probably the best time we had done off script,. I'd say people knew about 85% of the lines and the piece looked like it was coming together, of course, we desperately need a run through now to judge where we are at, although I think the only problem now is lines. Every scene we have set, thought about in detail and spent time staging. I think what we need is to throw all the scenes together and see what happens, in fact I think we'd be pleasantly surprised with what we have done in such a short space of time. Of course, some scenes will be a little rusty and need tweaking, but the staging is there, the proxemics are there, we know how to create tension, the interactions between characters. The run through will tell us where we need to be.

Scripted: Day twelve

Today was a very simple lesson, run as much of the play as we could without our script. We had one person on hand to prompt us if need be, but today was about getting used to letting go of the safety net and discovering how little or how much we knew. All in all, I think it went pretty well, even if I'm only speaking for myself, I knew when to come on and off for the first scene, we knew how our staging was set out, our use of proxemics was there to see, as was the atmosphere we wanted to create.

Writing in role: Chadwick Meade


One day, my time spent doing a levels will be over, and I know I'll look back on it thinking how irrelevant they are. All I need to do is get into the university of my choice, study maths, go and get a job engineering somewhere, work out how to stop the world destroying itself. I don't need to be friends with anyone here, after all I'm only here another few months, not that anyone here is particularly nice. I don't get how they can all be so laid back, with their parents paying their fees, I would kill to have the money they have, to be able to have had the level of education since infant years. I'm here because of my hard work and grades, this scholarship was gifted to me and I have to make sure I use it in the best way I can and if that means staying away from the vile students here, so be it, all they do is hinder me, abuse me, insult me. I don't need that, I can assure you that there are far larger, more pressing issues to worry about in this world than whether people like you or not. The general direction of how our planet is going is what concerns me most, how our own species will destroy itself, and how much of a waste of intelligence and resources our extinction will be. I sometimes wonder if other species on different planets can see what we are doing to the Earth, how we struggle to live in harmony. I wonder if they look at us in disgust, and shame, thinking how stupid and ungrateful we are. This is how I see the others at this school, how they could get the grades and live happy lives... but they wont, and its too late now.

Cissy on Chadwick:





Chadwick... Well, I actually think Chadwick is, you know, kinda cute. Not in your typical way, but there's just something about him, something endearing. Even when Bennett is being a dick to him, which is most of the time, he seems so, unaffected by it. He seems strong in the mind, maybe not physically, although I imagine he could beat Bennett in a fight, Bennetts hardly a man. Its just the way chadders carries himself, quietly confident, like a little puppy, someone you'd want to take care of. I bet he's actually a really nice boy, just we never really see it as there's so much conflict between him and Bennett all the time that he doesn't really associate with us too much. I suppose I'm guilty of siding with Bennett against him too many times, but how could I not be seen to back |Bennett up, I feel a more powerful with Bennett with me and I'd hate to think hat he'd do if I went against him. But whenever I've had the chance to engage in some kind of conversation, he's seemed interested in talking, insightful, I imagine he could be someone who actually cares. Sure, he looks like a bit of an idiot sometimes with his impeccably smart uniform, but I suppose he is interesting. How he uses lemon juice in his hair to make it go blonder, his American name, his intelligence. There's so much mystery about him and it kind of intrigues me, I want to find out more. The other day he said something so nice. It was the day Bennett was being an arsehole when I got a B in my mocks. He told Chadwick that I was stupid  but he replied that I had always seemed rather intelligent. That was sweet, I appreciated it, I never get anything nice from Bennett unless he's in front of my parents to make himself look good. Chadwick seems like a genuinely nice guy, I could do with a nice guy.

Scripted: Day Eleven




At first, we began working on self analysis of various skills and honestly scored ourselves on our various skills, highlighting our strengths and weaknesses, allowing us to set targets and how we would improve our skills in the short term. Whilst also completing our character profiles.

Scripted: Writing from another characters perspective.



William: After outburst at Bennett



He's just a vicious bastard. I've never seen him nice to anyone at all. You know, it makes me wonder what people like Chadwick and Tristan have done to deserve such horrible treatment. Never, have I had a problem with either of them, Chadwick is a nice, but shy boy, but easy to get along with, he's likeable enough. Tristan doesn't do much wrong either. He's so unbelievably stuck up, walks and talks like he owns the place, constantly insulting, looking to pick an argument or slap someone down. But, you see, the funny thing is, all he has are nasty words. He never picks on Nicholas. And I'll tell you why, Nicholas is big, he goes to the gym, Bennett probably knows Nicholas won't take any shit and will have no hesitation in reacting to him, so he's all pally with him. Chadwick and Tristan, not so much. But I felt like I had to stand up to him today, you know, call him out. I said I would fight him and easily beat him, and he looked scared, tried to laugh it off in front of everyone. But if I could I would smash his head in, make him bleed, make him cry, bring him down a couple of levels to make him realise he is just a pathetic, unimportant, vile bastard that nobody actually likes. You could ask anyone if they'd like to see that happen and they say yes. Even Cissy would deep down, she would never admit it but come on! She's only with Bennett for the status, he's absolutely horrible to her. To the point I feel sorry. She's not like Lilly. Lilly is lovely and strong. She wouldn't take that shit from Bennett, that's why I'm moving to New York with her, get away from here and start fresh, you know. Maybe get some kids and a Lamborghini haha. Never see Bennett again, or my family, or this stupid school. Everyone in the area looks as if they could rip out your insides at any minute. You know, I wonder if the noises in my head are true sometimes... The banging... The voices... I'm gonna stay at Chadwicks tonight. We can make cheese on toast in the night. Like a sleepover ! You know, like children again. How exciting!

SDV 1392

Scripted: Day Eleven




Today, we focused heavily on subtext. The idea of this was to explore how our characters really think towards each other and how they react inside their minds to what is said or happens. This is generally different to what is actually said. For example, as Chadwick, I would probably say a lot of sarcastic insults towards Bennett, but always avoid the inconvenience of commotion and conflict.

Scripted: Day 10

Today, we continued discussing the personalities of the various characters and exploring their relationships with the others in the play. These can be seen below.

After that, we went onto performing the very first scene. This time, aware of how we used proxemics and how we had set out the distances between everyone. At first we have William and Lilly sitting face to face over a long table whilst he asks her questions. This was designed to show the awkwardness that Lilly feels as William slowly moves closer to her from around the table. By the time he gets there, Bennett and Cissy walk in and sit together in the corner of the room, indicating a slight divide between them and William, as Lilly becomes more uncomfortable she moves from William to sit with Bennett and Cissy leaving William on his own, to further reinforce how William is the weird, outcast member of the group. Eventually, Nicholas walks in and sits on the table by himself but still engages in conversation, showing that he is in the group and well respected, but keeps himself to himself. All the while William seems to crave attention. As soon as Cissy asks him a question he moves over to the group, almost invading their space. As Tristan walks in we decided to place him with the main group too, seeing as he is a slightly weaker character who would hang around in big groups to seemingly fit in. As my character, Chadwick walks in, everyone is sat, apart from William. Chadwick remains on his feet and doesn't sit down, instead he looks for some books on the shelves and doesn't make an attempt to talk to anyone. This creates a little distance from the outset between Chadwick and the rest of the group, although I move closer to Lilly when introduced, only in order to appear friendly, as he has no reason not to get on with Lilly. As Bennett begins to wind Chadwick up, he walks closer to him, but very slowly, building this tension between the two and showing that he has a threatening demeanour about him. I believe the use of proxemics will be very important in how we show the other characters feelings towards each other, which is why the posters we created will be important, especially as there is little subtext for us to go by. I think from now on, we need to keep running through the play, but focusing more in the proximity between the characters to ensure that we have set the scenes out in the best way we can and not leave any grey areas.

Scripted: Character research on William


I think that it is important to understand William as much as possible, seeing as he is the main character in the play and as Chadwick, I interact with him a considerable amount, therefore, my understanding of his character will affect the way I behave towards him.


As a group, and through reading into our characters, we have come to terms with the fact that William may have a form of Aspergers as he is very awkward in social situations and unhinged. In a way, he is like the darker brother of Christopher from the Curious Incident. I think we believe that William develops schizophrenia throughout the piece.


The condition may develop slowly. The first signs of schizophrenia, such as becoming socially withdrawn and unresponsive or experiencing changes in sleeping patterns, can be hard to identify. This is because the first symptoms often develop during adolescence and changes can be mistaken for an adolescent "phase".


People often have episodes of schizophrenia, during which their symptoms are particularly severe, followed by periods where they experience few or no positive symptoms. This is known as acute schizophrenia.


Strange Behaviour

Adolescents with schizophrenia may engage in bizarre behaviour or speech. For instance, they may walk backwards or move repetitively. Bizarre, repetitive behaviour is more characteristic of adolescent schizophrenia when compared with adult schizophrenia, as noted by a review of research by Dr. Chris Hollis in the May 2000 issue of "Advances in Psychiatric Treatment."

Throughout the play, these characteristics are displayed by William, he is repetitive, doesn't understand personal space , engages in bizarre speech and so on. I think as  Chadwick, I would recognise the symptoms and know the potential characteristics of the affliction, so I think I would be a lot more cautious when engaging with William, and weary, bearing in mind his condition constantly.

Scripted: Day Nine

Today we focused on our characters relationships with the other characters in the performance. We done this by brainstorming one character and branching off what they know and feel towards other characters.

We got three characters done today as seen below, we spent about half an hour on each character going into real depth about why they are the way they are and dissecting the script to understand these people.

Scripted: Day Eight


As discussed, we continued working on our ending scene. Individually, I think we were all really focused on our own reactions, which made things a lot easier in terms of setting the scene. The scene was a lot harder than we initially thought as the body language of the characters in the scene was so hard to get right. Although William holds the gun in the scene, he is in control of the situation but is completely out of control in the fact that he is holding a gun towards his classmates. I think, we all had some contribution in the main parts of the scene, such as when William finally shoots Bennett. As the script lacks stage directions, we had to read into subtext very carefully. All we had was "William shoots Bennett twice" and although we tried out a few ideas of how to kill his character off such as where to position him, either having him die down the side of a wall or right in the very center of the stage. We are yet to decide on the use of blood capsules but thought it would look rather effective of we did. Another question asked was where would Bennett be shot? In the head, in the stomach, knee, shin. We didn't know where to shoot him, but we decided a stomach shot would add a slow pace to it, before finishing him with a head shot to confirm his death and add to the shock factor of the audience. The next stage was how to kill Cissy, which we decided would just be a simple and quick shot to the head, with the idea that the blood from her head would spray over Tristan behind her. However, throughout the whole scene I was more focused on my own sequence of movements. I decided to slowly edge towards the stairs and creep up them before running back down when I see Bennett shot, which is when I begin to cry. I slowly make way after William confronts me briefly before disappearing off stage. Although William has the majority of the lines, I think it is vital to how we respond to these lines and give an accurate re telling of the story, I think from now, we need to work on getting this scene to a T, so we all know what we are doing properly and can move onto polishing other scenes.

Scripted: Day Seven



We worked on the last scene today, the scene that involves William coming into school and pulling out a gun on his fellow students.



I think the hardest thing about the scene was getting our reactions spot on. As Chadwick, I tried to imagine how someone of his, normally reserved and composed character, would respond to seeing a classmate point a gun at his peers and himself. I thought that he would freeze on the spot, but be wary of any potential escape route in the area.



Throughout the scene, I get the impression that Chadwick isn't really on Williams mind. He is much more focused on Bennett, his main prize. So although Chadwick would be wary and out of the action somewhat, he would be a little more relaxed and perhaps enjoying seeing those who had bullied him being put in such a horrific situation.  However, his body would always be facing William, never looking him in the eye but focused on his movement and slowly edging away. I think we need to work on actually finishing the scene and getting a fixed set of movement in place as no one really knew what to do and we spent a lot of time trying to stage the scene correctly and making sure our movements were appropriate and built up such a strong tension, as this is the climax of the performance and needs to be powerful. I think in the coming lessons, we need to work on this scene to make sure everyone has the appropriate reactions, movements and tone in their dialogue.

Scripted: Day Six



We took a closer look into what we wanted our set to be like today, seeing as it was the first time in the hall for us we could finally picture it. We think that by performing on the floor we can use the stage as a second floor of the library, making the set a little more quirky as we can move form first floor to second floor. The only problem would be that we would have to make sire we don't use the stage too much and end up performing further away from the audience, plus it would defeat the point of performing on the floor in the first place. It would also give us another exit to use. We also thought about getting a real bookcase to add to the feel of the library instead of fake book wallpaper.


We performed the wasp scene again, setting where we would stand and focusing on how dramatic we wanted the scene to be, this took a few attempts, however, I think that we now have the right balance in the scene, from the exaggerative nature of the students in the beginning when the wasp is present, to how the mood drops so suddenly when Chadwick announces Lloyd had a heart attack before descending into his dystopian speech. I think the main point in this scene is to look into the subtext of the scene, what is our character actually thinking? how will I deliver my lines in the most effective way. I thought about this throughout the scene and was actually annoyed when the others (although acting) seemed to ignore me, so I believe thinking about my characters mind-set will be beneficial, especially in his large chunk of speech, where I need to focus on coming across as dark and weird as possible.


Below is a plan of what we want the set to look like as drawn by another group member, however, I think this is all what we imagined the set to look like, after all, it was how we set it out in our run through.

Scripted: Day five


Instead of starting from the beginning of the play, we performed scene 4 (the wasp scene) to our teacher. Throughout the scene, we continually tweaked parts, such as our tone and how we staged the scene. One example being the confrontational scene where William squares up to Bennett for picking on Chadwick. We made the mistake of staging this part behind the table on stage, where it really needed to be in front of the table to add to the drama and tension of the scene.

In addition, performing this scene allowed myself to get a greater focus on my character. In this scene he goes on a bit of a rant to the rest of his class, although it is probably aimed more towards Bennett that the others. It reads...



" Human beings are pathetic. Everything human beings do finishes up bad in the end. Everything good human beings ever make is built on something monstrous. Nothing lasts, we certainly won't. We could have made something really extraordinary, and we won't. We've been around one hundred thousand years. We'll have died out before the next two hundred. You know what we've got to look forward to? You know what will define the next two hundred years. Religions will become brutalised, crime rates will become hysterical, everybody will become addicted to internet sex, suicide will become fashionable, there'll be famine, there'll be floods, there'll e fires in the major cities of the western world. Our education systems will become battered, our health services unsustainable, our police force unmanageable, our governments corrupt. There'll be open brutality in the streets; there'll be nuclear war. So if you think I'm worried by you calling me names, Bennett, you little, little boy, you are fucking kidding yourself."



Here, we finally see an extremely dark side to Chadwick. One that is perhaps surprising to take. From our of no where he becomes this unhinged, lunatic predicting the demise of the human race and what the next two hundred years holds. He talks about complete chaos and destruction, perhaps looking at the bigger picture. I believe that he is disgusted at how petty Bennett is and cannot help but finally explode. However, his reaction is not violent. I think the message he is trying to get across to Bennett is that he is a tiny irrelevant speck on the face of the earth, and that Chadwick has a million more worries, much larger than the pathetic Bennett to think about. The darkness within him really shines through, perhaps revealing that Chadwick is always thinking ahead, or his very pessimistic in personality, he isn't particularly interesting to be around.