Devising Week Five

Devising Week Five


Narrative Progress & Evaluation

This week we have made a lot of progress – we finished devising the bulk of our material. I think what we have created this week is good and just needs a bit more polishing and sharpening, especially the transitions.

1.    Reading the book/Butoh – The piece opens with Ciara reading from The Red Tree as we planned but instead of ‘birthing’ as it’s quite out of context here we decided to do a Butoh walk from upstage and come around into the red tree shape. I think this is a good idea but to be really effective we need to properly learn the Butoh technique of walking and maybe do some of his other methods at the same time – some people could be doing flower hands, others could do orchestra head or the fly-on-your-face twitch.

2.    Clock – This time, however, after Ciara springs up and says ‘cuckoo’ we all say ‘good morning’ in canon. I think this is effective, but like most of the piece, really needs to be tightened up and made even quicker and snappier to have the effect we want. I think we also need to practise timing the clockwork walk and the part where we go into slow motion.

3.    Morning – The morning routine naturally fits in here now, as it’s like the clock scene is the alarm clock and then the character is getting ready. I think this is one of our most polished scenes, and I just need to personally work on making my movements more clear/dynamic.

4.    Mime – We adapted the next scene from the part in our second attempted narrative where Ciara gives money to a street mime. Kieran, the mime, stands at the front of a line and we all stand behind him copying his mime movements in canon. Then we all put our hands up like stairs when he begs for money. I think we could make a bit more of this scene as it’s a really nice moment, maybe we could do a bit more miming in the line before Ciara gives him money.

5.    City – On Thursday we watched a run through back and realised the transition between the mime and the office looked really sloppy and uninteresting, so we decided to have Ciara break through the ‘line’ and then we all disburse into a city scene – like everyone going to the office. We decided to do the Jacques Lecoq technique to create a subway station with everyone pushing through in a cluster, and then disburse again before creating a train scene in the same way.

6.    Office – This scene we’ve left mostly unchanged, and I really like it with the music and the four movements sequences. However I thought that mine and Ciara’s chair duet that was originally at the end of the scene didn’t really make sense with our new context and it felt a bit out of place anyway so we have decided to get rid of it. Now I’m not doing this I need to develop my four movements sequence and make it more interesting and maybe the movements a bit bigger and more dynamic.

7.    Mental breakdown – This is one of my favourite scenes, which was greatly inspired by Bertroffenheit. One by one we get up from our chairs and mechanically move to the syllables of panicked words, for instance, ‘wait, wait, wait, wait, wait,’ ‘she can’t take anymore’ ‘what’s going on’. However I think we need to polish it and make it a lot sharper and snappier to be really effective. After this scene we all naturally felt to lean over Ciara in a type of dome and I had the idea to do a sort of ‘breathing’ all together where we rise up and then down a few times and then snap back away on the third one into our next scene.

8.    Birth & V Formation – Although we originally cut this scene, we decided to put it back in and I think this is the best place for it. We only got rid of it because we thought we were going to use it for the beginning but now we aren’t we can use it here, where we originally wanted it.

9.    Blob – This is where we all go into the ‘blob’ and ignore Breanna, which is one of my favourite scenes. I think it works really well and it’s quite funny but we really need to time the pauses between Breanna shouting and us making nonsense noises because at the minute it’s quite messy.

10. Wonderful Things – Even though we don’t have the wonderland/looking for the tree narrative anymore, I still really like this scene and I think it still works really well. It’s around the middle of the piece and it reminds the audience of the red tree, almost hinting at what it means (‘hope’).

11.  Control – For this scene Will and I use most of what we already have for our controlling Butoh influenced scene, except Emily P had the idea that afterwards my line could be ‘you try to control your life’ or something like that which I really liked. I had the idea that if I followed my line with something like ‘but it doesn’t work’ and then left the stage Will could take his mask off for the next scene to flow better. However I still think my part in this scene is a bit weird and not quite right. I think I need to do something different in order to make it more interesting but I’m not sure what yet.

12. Give & give – For this scene we all stood up on our chairs and then repeated in canon the words ‘and give’ and then all stepped down in unison and tiredly fell back into our chairs on until there’s nothing left. Even though it’s quite a short scene I really like it and I think if we polish and speed up the canon part a bit more it will look and sound really effective.

13. Stage Scene & Clapping – For this scene Kieran, Emily and Becky are on stage and have forgotten what they are supposed to do, based on the scene in the book with the girl on stage. Once we’ve practised the clap a bit more with the count I think it’ll be easier for us to stop on time and it will look a lot more effective. I had the idea Kieran could then say the line from the picture in the book this scene is based on – ‘sometimes you just don’t know what you are supposed to do.’

14. Beast & Therapy – Emily P had the idea that while the beast is coming to life two people – me and Becky – sit in chairs near the front of the stage and in a quite Naturalistic contrast to the rest of the piece talk in a therapy-like conversation. Every time I ask Becky to talk and she says no, the beast comes closer, until eventually she says okay stands up and faces ‘her demon’. I think this is a good idea but we maybe need to develop mine and Becky’s part a bit more because at the minute it’s a bit flat and doesn’t feel quite right.

15. Therapy Chairs – I had the idea that we could all push each other out of the way to swap around in the two chairs so that at some point we’re all in the therapy chair and all in the therapist’s chair. We adapted this idea so that everyone stands in a line after the beast and comes up with a different physical theatre way to swap chairs and then after we leave the therapist’s chair we go to our original positions of the red tree. On Thursday we developed the beginning to the sequence a little, developing more of a dance-like section with Will and Becky, but I think we need to adapt what everyone else is doing in this because with everyone following under the cloth it looks really messy and sloppy.

16. Reading the book – For our ending, Ciara will end up the last one in the chair, finishing reading the book from where we all left off, paralleling the beginning. We will all be forming the red tree around her with our red orbs. Then the lights will slowly fade out. I really like this ending because I like how it parallels the beginning and shows that hope has always been there from the start even if you (and the audience) didn’t realise.

Title

This week we have been thinking about names for the piece. Will had the idea that we could call the piece, ‘kuka sina olet’ which is what is written on the girl in the picture of her on the stage. We looked it up and it means ‘who are you?’ in Latin which is relevant.

However I feel like because our piece is quite ambiguous and incoherent, our title needs to at least hint at our story/intention, and kuka sina olet is something that nobody is going to understand

Everyone took this suggestion on board and we agreed to call the piece The Wonderful Things which was one of our original choices. I really like this because it hints at how feelings and bad things are still wonderful and bring you back to hope (the red tree). It also will provide quite a good contrast if the audience are expecting to see something bright and ‘wonderful’.

Poster & Programme

We also started thinking about the poster. Ciara had the idea to have a red tree and with eyes all around it in the darkness, which I really liked. This made me think we could have just a single red leaf, like the one in every page of the book, against a black background, maybe with the same eyes in the dark. However, we thought that might look a bit too much like a Canadian flag. As a solution we decided to have a red tree with a single leaf falling off. I think this will look really effective and interesting.

We needed a little tagline/piece of writing as well as the title on the poster, and I thought we could use the first line of the book – sometimes the day begins with nothing to look forward to. I think this works well and we can also use it on the programme.

Costume

I have also been thinking about costumes this week. Originally we had planned to all have different costumes suited to our characters, but now we are no longer doing the Wonderland plot or the affair plot, I think it will be more effective to be dressed all similarly, or at least have a running theme.

I was thinking we could all wear different styled clothes (to suit our ‘individual within the group’) but with a colour theme so we all match – maybe all in black with something red or all wearing red.


I also think we should al have a red leaf on us somehow. I like the idea of doing this in makeup or face paint around one eye or maybe on our hands. 

Devising Week Four

Devising Week Four

Office Scene

On Monday we worked on making Ciara's character different to her character in Pomona, who she seemed a bit too similar to. We came up with the idea that she could be a bit older, maybe a stressed businesswoman, maybe with children. I really like this idea because it's a more interesting protagonist for us and also will provide some funny moments - when Wonderful Things are being weird and Ciara just wants to get to her meeting.

To show a bit of backstory several of us had the idea to have a scene set at the office where Ciara works. I liked this idea because it showed who all us 'weird' characters are in the 'normal' world - Wonderful Things as annoying noisy colleagues and Terrible Fates as an unfair boss.

For this we incorporated the physical theatre devices of Berkoff and Frantic Assembly. I had the idea to use Berkoff's 'Four Movements' device to set the scene in the office - everyone doing four Naturalistic movements found in an office and repeating them until it becomes odd to watch. We also had the idea to do chair duets as well, which I think worked really well, especially with Emily and Liv doing one as Wonderful Things.

Narrative Progress & Decision Making

On Monday we ran through everything we had done so far and watched it back on video. This was a really interesting moment because it made me realise that despite us having the narrative in our heads, it really isn’t coming across clearly and a lot of the scenes look a bit random and disjointed.

To work on this we tried changing the opening, hot seating and had a lot of discussions until we finally began to make progress towards the end of the day.

We all agreed that having Ciara as a stressed working mother in an office and the office physical theatre scene worked really well, so we decided to build up from there and maybe try making the piece a little more naturalistic – at least just in the beginning – to make the narrative more clear.

That morning we had watched a contemporary dance physical theatre performance where a man who suffered a traumatic experience worked through his grief in a metaphorical way with strange characters, the play being almost set in his mind, which we were inspired by with our plot.

We decided that Ciara could be just an ordinary person living their life but going through hard times, and at some point she falls asleep/unconscious and then everything that happens is Ciara’s subconscious trying to work through and make sense of her issues by turning them into an elaborate fantasy, and exaggerating the people she knows into caricatures of themselves. For instance:

• I thought that Wonderful Things could be Ciara’s children in the ‘real’ world and Liv suggested they could have learning difficulties which is an idea I really liked.
• Ciara said Will could be her husband who she was having problems with – hence why she sees him as a ‘beast’ in her dream.
• My character could still be her boss, but having an affair with Will’s character and asking him more aggressive and distant from Ciara. This is why she sees me in her dream world as an evil queen who ‘turned Will into a monster’
• Emily B and Breanna as Sense and Reason (the voices in Ciara’s head trying to analyse her life and make sense of everything) could be either social workers, colleagues from the office, or life coaches.
• Spes, Becky’s character, could be my assistant at the office who Ciara finds annoying/doesn’t get on with, hence why she interprets her as an evil minion.
• Kieran’s character I think could be Ciara’s friend or maybe a new worker/intern at the office who needs her help a lot and idolises her, therefore why she interprets him as a hapless man with a box stuck on his head.

We collectively came up with a new narrative and scene order, which is all subject to change still:

1. Spinning Chair – I think we should keep the opening of the chair on an empty stage to the music we found before Will comes out and spins it, because it looks so visually powerful. It also could now be symbolic of how Will’s character is ‘spinning’ Ciara’s life.
2. Morning Routine – I think this is the next logical scene to tell a story. Ciara waking up and going about her life. I also feel like it’s one of our strongest moments so we should keep it.
3. The Affair – Ciara suggested we could have a scene with me and Will to show what’s going on with us before we really know who I am. From this I had the idea that Wonderful Things could see us and Will would tell them not to tell mummy, which works later o for when Wonderful Things go on about ‘’can’t tell’ in the dream world. However, this scene could go in a different place.
4. Home Life Introduction – Ciara had the idea we could have a new scene here to show her home life with her husband Will (maybe introduce their issues) and her children the twins. Also I think we could show her having a tough/relatable time to help the audience connect with her as a protagonist. Here we could also have Breanna and Emily as social workers show up which is why Ciara is late to work.
5. Office – Ciara turns up late at the office and it’s revealed I’m her boss.
6. Birth – This is the first scene in Ciara’s subconscious. We could show Ciara sleeping on a table and then as we are all ‘born’ in a Butoh style it’s like her dream coming to life around her for the first time.
7. Wonderful Things – Now fully in her dream Ciara meets her exaggerated dream versions of her children. I think this scene doesn’t have to be changed much to fit the new narrative, maybe we could just alter the words and Ciara’s response a little.
8. Can’t Tell – This next scene with Wonderful Things talking through the frame over Ciara’s head before dragging her off also still works. Especially now they’re talking about not being allowed to tell about the secret they know.
9. Mask – The next scene is the one where I put a mask on Will and manipulate him into a beast. Again, this works really well with the new narrative and the way Ciara interprets it.
10. Spes – The scene after this is the one where I order Spes to find the intruder talking about The Red Tree. I think this might have to be adapted a little to make sense – maybe in the real world I send Spes to check up on Ciara at the office and that’s what she’s interpreting here.
11. Kieran’s Box – The next scene is the one where Kieran’s dream counterpart is introduced, stumbling around with a box on his head until Ciara helps him and he latches onto her as a protector and saviour figure. I think this definitely still works, especially if we play up the dependency and similarities in the real world.

I think that a lot of the ‘unreal’ scenes will need to be adapted now to be more about Ciara’s real life issues rather an finding the red tree, because that doesn’t really make sense anymore

Intent & Target Audience

I think these new ideas greatly change our intent and our target audience.

Having more adult themes such as affairs and supporting disabled children, and also having a much older protagonist will attract an older audience. Now I would say our target audience is people in their twenties and above as opposed to secondary schools. People in their twenties will connect more with the storyline and characters, but are also young enough to still appreciate the weirdness and fantastical aspects of Ciara's dream world interpretation of her life. However, I think people even older than this will still enjoy the piece.

Also our intent has changed. It was previously about showing the importance of hope, but now I think we have moved away from that. On Monday we discussed our new intention, and I think it is now to show that in hard times it's important to go back to your roots and ground yourself.

Set Ideas

For the set Will had the idea there could be a pile of soil for when Spes is digging up The Red Tree, and this made me think we could have soil all over the stage. We were inspired by Bertroffenheit, a production in which a man retreats to a 'room' which represents his mind, and I thought that Ciara's version of the 'room' could be a garden, maybe somewhere she knew growing up. This would represent her getting grounded, going back to her roots, especially when the red tree grows at the end.

Physical Theatre

On Tuesday we worked on scene 5, where Wonderful Things see the affair. Since the last scene leaves Ciara working at the office we thought we could keep her onstage the whole time working at the office, and I thought maybe she could carry on doing four movements to show her working. Then we had the idea to have Emily and Breanna and Sense and Reason, the voices in her head, talking at her and sowing the seed of Will’s betrayal in her head.

At first I suggested me and Will could show the affair through a chair duet, but then we realised there are lots of chair duets in the office scene already. Will and I considered doing Hymns Hands, but then Ciara suggested we could do the ‘under, under, over, over’ device we worked on a few weeks ago and I thought this was a really good idea.

Me and Will improvised a sequence with this device and I think it looked quite effective, especially as we will eventually polish it and make it flow more smoothly. At an intense point of the sequence Wonderful Things enter and start circling us asking Will questions he deflects.

I think this was one of the strongest scenes we devised today because it has a very heavy and moody atmosphere.

Evaluation & New Ideas

On Thursday we watched back our work from Monday and Wednesday on the new narrative and I think we all agreed that it didn’t work.

I thought scenes felt very unnatural and clunky and the narrative didn’t really flow, and a lot of the later ‘wonderland’ scenes didn’t really make sense in the context. The improvised dialogue was also quite flat and I think we run the risk of being quite cheesy too. Everyone agreed it wasn’t right.

We all agreed we should go back to our first few ideas – a more basic narrative which explores the pictures from the book and the feelings it presents. This will be more aimed at a younger audience and our target can go back to being validating feelings and demonstrating the power of hope.

I think we can use the material we already have but just rework it, maybe using dialogue to highlight the emotions and feelings we’re showing, for instance ‘do you ever feel...’ or ‘I feel...’

Devising Intentions & Influences

Devising Intentions & Influence

Statement of Intent

We intend represent the universally recognisable issues we all face within our own emotions and push the boundaries of an emotional society to present the message that hope is worth fighting for, and can carry you through hard times.

Our intent is to show through an entertaining and fantastical world the message that you should never give up hope, even when you feel lost.

Target Audience

Our target audience reflects the audience of the book which is universally accessible. However our piece is less child friendly as we have created a more disturbing tone and some scenes such as the birth one - inspired by Butoh - would not be suitable for children. Therefore our target audience is teenagers and adults.

The story of finding hope would be accessible to all different types of people, and the strange characters and world would appeal to both teenagers and adults.

Title

Today we also discussed the possibilities for different titles.

• Spes

This is the Latin word for hope. As hope is the central theme of our piece we decided to see what it was in other languages, however, we all agreed Spes doesn't sound very impactful. However we saw that the literal translation of this back to English is 'positively waiting' which we thought could make an interesting title. Also I thought we could use the word later on in the piece, maybe in a comedic way.

• Positively Waiting

This is the literal translation of 'spes' ('hope') back to English from Latin. I think this is a really nice way of describing hope, and also ties in with another possible title we came up with which is 'and wait and wait and wait and wait and wait'. However I'm not sure it's quite right as it might sound a bit cheesy, and also the audience might not ‘get’ it.

• The Wonderful Things

I really like this possibility for a title. Wonderful Things are two characters in our piece and also a phrase in the book so it relates to our piece well and to the original stimulus. It is also symbolic of how even the darker moments along the journey to hope are 'wonderful' as they get you there in the end. Also people will turn up expecting to see something ‘wonderful’ which might give added shock factor to some of the darker moments.

• Res Mirabilis

This is Latin for 'wonderful things'. However I think this sounds very similar to Les Miserables and therefore might not be original enough. Also it is quite hard to pronounce for the audience and for us.

Influences

• Butoh

Butoh was a physical theatre practitioner who is famous for his use of breath work and body isolation. His work is often very dark and unnerving, which works well for the mood of our piece.

We have used a few of his devices so far in our work. The first is a type of walk which involves breath work, staring straight ahead, not lifting your feet or moving your hips which we use after we are ‘born’, another scene which was loosely inspired by Butoh. We also use his focus on the back and back isolation with Will’s transformation into the ‘beast’.

• Alice in Wonderland

Our piece has also been influenced by the story, atmosphere and aesthetic of Alice in Wonderland particularly Tim Burton’s film version which is quite dark and unnerving at times.

When I first read the book The Red Tree some of the landscapes reminded me of Wonderland and also the fact that the narrative is very loose and simply follows a girl through a strange land. I think a few other people also had this thought which is why the story has been on our minds while we’ve worked on the piece.

Although we discussed basing the story even more closely on Alice in Wonderland I think the most it has influenced us has been with characters. Emily and Liv’s Wonderful Things are similar to Tweedledum and Tweedledee, my character Terrible Fates is a bit like the Queen of Hearts and Will’s character (by the end of the piece) is like a Jabberwocky. However the characters are all original enough not to be just copies and I think this influence works well with our piece.

• Commedia Dell’Arte

Although we haven’t taken as much from Commedia as we originally thought we would – we discussed basing characters on dark commedia stock characters – commedia has inspired Becky’s character Spes who is based on the stock character Zanni. However we have twisted Zanni into a darker character – still funny and comical but the evil servant of Terrible Fates.

Devising Week Three

Devising Week Three

Creative Ideas

On Wednesday we looked at staging the first scene of the proper narrative with Wonderful Things meeting Ciara. I had the idea that the rest of us could poke our heads through the theatre curtains offstage like we’re spying on their conversation. Will took this further by suggesting when Ciara asks where the Red Tree is we could hold out glowing red lights, and do a Butoh style walk out and around the three on stage.

I had the idea that just to further the ‘story’ more, The Red Tree could be a mythical symbol of hope that everyone in the land is forbidden from talking about. Therefore Ciara finding it would bring back hope and end the reign of Terrible Fates. This also led me to the idea that maybe the ‘beast’ she fights at the end to et to the tree is sent by Terrible Fates to try and stop her reaching it.

This led to the idea that when hope comes, our weird characters ‘die’ because we represent internal turmoil, and Liv had the idea that by the end Wonderful Things willingly sacrifice themselves for the return of hope which I think is a really lovely idea.

With this in mind we tried the walk again but this time when I clapped Will and Becky turned their lights out.

In the next scene we worked on I thought we could clue the audience in on this by having Wonderful Things argue and panic through an empty frame to each other that Ciara is talking about the forbidden Red Tree. Wonderful Things then decide to accompany Ciara on her journey and drag her off which is a really nice moment.

After this Will, Becky and I are still left on stage. We agreed there should be a short scene with the three of us to show that we’re the ‘darker’ characters who don’t want the Red Tree to return. Will had the idea to use a mask on the back of his head and use Butoh inspired back isolation in a effective and unnerving sequence which I think looked really powerful.

Working on this scene helped develop all our characters I think. It established that Will was a man Terrible Fates made into a monster to fight for her – this is symbolised by me stepping forward and putting the mask over Will’s face while he struggles against it. It also made us realise Becky’s character is like a dark version of the Commedia Del Arte character Zanni, who we decided to call Spes (Latin for hope which goes with our story but is a funny word that suits the character.)

We had the idea that after Will becomes the monster the three of us could walk forward to the audience laughing and then Wonderful Things could secretively sneak Ciara across the stage behind us. I think this could be a really comical and funny moment in our weird and dark play which we need, especially if they mime being quiet over the top.

After this scene we thought we needed another scene with dialogue that told the story more clearly, and I had the idea that I could call on Spes and order her to track down the newcomer in the land that wanted to bring back the Red Tree and maybe reveal that I don’t want it found/that it’s a danger to me. I think if we add to the story that Spes follows Ciara and Wonderful Things but doesn’t do a good job of being secretive, it could be really funny.

Me and Becky improvised this scene after a run through with me being snappy and condescending and her being totally oblivious and it was quite funny and also told the ‘story’. I think once we polish it a little most of what we improvised will work.

Staging

I have started thinking about how we can stage our devised performance in the college theatre. Many of the scenes would work well in the round or in traverse, although because we haven’t had that in mind since the beginning this could be a problem with viewing some of the scenes.

I think that we could possibly bring the audience closer to the stage as we did in Bronte, maybe up to the white line of the stage so we can really get up to them and unnerve them when we come into the audience and we can come up to them. This also makes it feel more intimate.

Character

I have also decided to try out playing my character Terrible Fates more fake happy and condescending because I think this is more unnerving and ‘weird’ than just being dark and angry all the time which is a bit cliché. Also Terrible Fates represents the darkness/negativity that rules Ciara’s emotions and depression can often seem normal/healthy so playing it like that will symbolise this.

Devising Week Two

Devising Week Two

Prop Work

On Monday we found a long piece of translucent black cloth and we played around with using it in different ways.

At first we thought we could use it for the fish somehow in the fish picture and experimented with lifting/carrying people in it and all going under it at once but nothing felt right and I think we were definitely over complicating it.

However when we went back to it later we were just playing around with it when we stumbled across some things that actually looked really effective. For example, while two people held it taut, me and Ciara ran into it and reached out on either side, and then used the rebound to pull and lean back and it looked very interesting, especially when Kieran joined in and we all did it in tandem. After we did it for a few minutes the force of the material and the momentum became very strong and wild.

Another really strong moment that I loved with the use of the cloth was when Emily and Liv had will trapped tightly under it and he animalistically came to life and tried to escape it – it looked very powerful and dynamic as a whole and the image of Will’s face covered by the cloth was very strange and interesting.

Teamwork and Decision Making

This week we decided to move more wholly into the world of the weird and wonderful, and a more unstructured format. I think this is definitely for the best.

Our plan before this week was to each represent something which society has a stigma about, take a picture from the book that represents that and represent it. However, I think this had the potential to be quite cheesy and cliché, as well as running the risk of glamorizing or glossing over details of personal issues.

We discussed cutting some of the topics so we could focus more in depth on the ones we kept, but in the end decided to cut all of them and instead work from creating surreal worlds, characters and representations of the pictures from the book. I think this is not only more original and complex, but also more practical – as a group we tend to work best when we’re acting on impulse rather than planning out and overthinking things.

I think this decision has definitely got some effects on certain things we’ve already done, in particular the scene where we all walk on stage saying a normal naturalistic line until it becomes heightened and then saying it in a sad meaningful way to convey our individual topic. I personally think we need to cut this scene altogether, even though it is a really good and funny scene, simply because it doesn’t work anymore.

Creative Ideas

As a group we discussed what we should do next after coming to this decision and we agreed to work on the opening of the piece because the first scene – where we all move as a crowd making nonsense noises until Breanna yells at us – didn’t really feel like a first opening.

I thought we could use some kind of physical theatre with a piece of music, maybe inspired by the ‘dance of morning/dance of spring’ workshop we did. We tried this but I thought it looked quite messy and didn’t quite work.

Then Will started twirling a chair around on one leg and with the music Ciara found still playing I noticed it actually looked really effective. Since an earlier idea we liked was opening with a spotlight on an empty chair in an empty stage I thought we could combine the two and have just the chair and the music for a few minutes before Will entered the space and started twirling it. Then we decided to have Wonderful Things enter, and then the rest of us in a choreographed eerie walk that would lead us into the group scene with Breanna.

We also worked on a different version of the scene with Ciara waking up where we all crowded around her and copied in a really exaggerated and unnatural way her miming her morning routine which looked very effective and I think can lead on to us maybe copying her walking like that.

Narrative

Another goal I think we could work on is having even a very basic running narrative through the whole performance just to link it all together because at the minute all the scenes seem a bit random and unconnected.

I think we could follow a basic story of Ciara’s ‘normal’ character being pulled into the strange world and searching for The Red Tree, which could symbolises her hope/home. To give other people more of a spotlight and explore all our strange, dark characters more, she could encounter us along her journey.

For example, I had the idea that after the birth scene we all clear the space for Wonderful Things to try and give her – very unhelpful – directions to the tree. As she goes searching she could meet us all, then eventually end up having to fight Will the monster to get to the Red Tree – this could symbolise fighting and actively taking a hand in hope/recovery/positivity.

I think this is a good idea because we could leave it all quite ambiguous and undeveloped to mirror the basic story of the original stimulus (the girl going through a weird land before finding the tree), or we could develop it further into more of a running narrative and introduce some more scripted dialogue sections between Ciara and the characters on her journey, and develop the idea of the Red Tree more.

Butoh Influence & Birth Scene
 
Also this week we watched a video of a Butoh workshop where one of the exercises was to be ‘born’ as an animal. This gave us the idea to try out getting ‘born’ into our characters and taking the more narrative part of the piece from there.

For this, we all laid in balls or weird positions on the floor dotted around the stage and over a piece of matching music would first start to twitch, then wake up, break out of our ‘eggs’ and then slowly stand up, all with very unnatural looking and strange movements. I think this could be really visually effective especially if we work on putting more feeling and power into it.

During this Ciara walks around without really seeing us – blindfolded by the same cloth that becomes the monster later – and Wonderful Things wake up first and guide her.

Naturally as we all stood up we felt to go into a V shape around Ciara at the front. I had the idea that Wonderful Things could rip her blindfold off and then the rest of us could run and clear the space so the narrative could really begin with Ciara asking them for directions to the Red Tree.

I also thought we could all occasionally poke our heads through the theatre curtains during this scene to try and see what it happening and then quickly hide behind the curtain again if Ciara almost sees us. Emily also had the idea that Wonderful Things could turn and shhh us sometimes too which I really like.

Characters

After I watched some of the scenes we already had and some of the scene ideas we were trying out this week, I realised that some of the most effective parts are because of the characters. Although they’re not like set Naturalistic ‘characters’, they are specific weird and wacky roles with specific traits (including physical traits - like Commedia characters) and work really well.

For example, one really strong moment this week was when Will was almost caged under the black cloth and he came to life slowly, writhing and growling, almost animalistic. This sort of strange beast monster character was really dynamic and fascinating to watch. Also I really love Emily and Liv as the unnerving over-the-top twins Wonderful Things.

Ciara and I were discussing her role as she is the closest thing we have to a protagonist – the character the audience will relate to like the ‘Alice’ of our wonderland. We discussed how she could be almost faceless and sometimes even Naturalistic compared to the weird characters, and Ciara had the idea that she could dress very casually to contrast with our costumes, and also that she could be called something so the audience know to relate to her – something like ‘You’ or ‘Human’.

We thought about me playing a Queen of Hearts type character who Ciara would meet on her journey which could work as a concept. I thought we could also name the character after a phrase in the book – I think ‘Terrible Fates’ works best because then it’s like Terrible Fates is ruling in this dark landscape. This would also work for the fighting the monster part we have for later in the story because Ciara and I end up caught in the same rope being flung around which would work if our characters were at odds with each other.

I think that once everybody has a set character like this the piece will become much more dynamic and interesting. However the characters we have created formed naturally through scene work and physical exploration, and I think the rest will come in the same way.