Shorter Evaluation

Discuss your exploration and development of TTWCTT taking into consideration key factors and relevant ideas and input you to the process. 

Evaluate the skills and techniques in used in rehearsal and discuss how you responded to direction and feedback to develop work.

Our project this term was to perform a piece of children’s theatre working with the other strands, which was a new experience for me. Our aim was to introduce the children ages 2 – 5 to the story 'The tiger who came to tea.'

Children's theatre involves the use of different types of media such as dance, music, art, theatre and movement to educate or entertain. To engage children, interaction and colour is used. Many people believe that children's theatre comes across as basic and simple but good children's theatre often has a deeper meaning and is for both adults and children to enjoy. It is there to give them a better understanding of life and the world they live in so that they can be taught about issues and learn lessons which may add to the child's knowledge. Children's theatre should be accessible to all, they often have a short attention span but by using your voice in different tones and positions, your body to portray movement and by delivering words clearly to the whole audience whether to the side or front will create a piece of theatre that is exciting and interesting to watch.

To enhance my performance I needed to become a total artist. I worked on my pronunciation by exercising my mouth regularly and I learnt all my lines so when it came to rehearsal I knew exactly what I was supposed to say and do. We chose a jungle atmosphere in order to demonstrate the use of different types of energy and interaction with the children. During this project we had to work as an ensemble which I found difficult at times due to others not learning their lines. This was challenging however it allowed us all to have an input and experiment using our inner child. "To be an actor you have to be a child." - Paul Newman.

During our early rehearsals we were trying to lift Fenton so that he could be seen clearly. We began with a shoulder stand which was unsuccessful due to the stability and structure. Later we began to discuss constructing a pyramid.  After researching pyramids I presented a picture that I thought we would be able to construct. The pyramid we created was very strong and was able to be built and dismantled quickly and safely. I believe the pyramid was very effective by the use of different levels and it gave the children a structure to focus on. It was very important to work as an ensemble because we all had to trust and support each other. Here is a little video showing how working in unison can help:

 At the beginning of the term we began to explore the use of voice and body as one. To practise this skill we followed the slimy frog technique which allows us to explore sounds of words alongside the movement of our body in a safe environment. This exercise was extremely helpful because it taught me how to tell a story through movement and I was able to use this skill when becoming a tiger at the beginning of the performance and during the song. In addition we also had to project our voices to the audience when saying our lines. We improved this by focusing on the person who was speaking so all attention was on them. I also believe my line was effective because I moved my body with the line to make it more interesting and I followed Mr Hughes breathing workshop tips as well as the tips below, so that I could project my voice:

Furthermore our voice was extremely important when singing the song. One of our first steps to the development of the piece was listening to William Blake’s Poem sung by Patti Smith. On hearing the song I found it to be dreary, haunting and difficult to understand. After learning the song we tried to adapt the tune however we found it difficult to remember because we had already learnt the original. Therefore if I was to learn it again I would learn it without the rhythm. The song was useful because it gave a starting point for our piece, however I believe this song was not child friendly. Cicely Berry once said 'If you can feel your breathing, and get pleasure in the sounds of the words, you can build your confidence.' This inspired me to embody the tiger and perform with energy, when I sang the song I showed I understood the lyrics by the expression and amazement in my voice so that if I had to I could perform it as a monologue.

During our process of creating the performance we focused on energy and tension. "Acting is a sport. On stage you must be ready to move like a tennis player on his toes. Your concentration must be keen, your reflexes sharp; your body and mind are in top gear, and the chase is on. Acting is energy. In the theatre people pay to see energy." - Clive Swift. As this quote explains we needed to keep a constant high level of energy so that every scene was a chase scene, otherwise the children would lose interest. We studied Jacques Lecoq’s Stages of tension exercise so that we could become familiar with energy levels. I think this was very useful because it helped us when changing our energy levels in the torch scene and it was also useful for transition periods. When entering the stage we were all at a high energy and came in group by group so that the stage could build and we could create a jungle atmosphere. The end transition still had energy but was calmer so that we could keep the children focused for the other theatre class’ performance by singing the song as a soft lullaby. I found the exercise quite difficult and was advised by my peers to keep a higher energy level by feeling the energy in the room and responding to it. Vsevolod Meyer believed the energy flowed in a cycle from intention, to realization to reaction. I improved by having an intention to search for something completing the action and then discovering something else so that my movement was telling a story to the children. Jason Bennet comments on how 'Audiences receive an energetic "feeding" while attending any kind of performance event' therefore throughout the performance we had to keep feeding them with new movements and new actions so that they can fully visualise our jungle scene. I believe, in this section, I responded to direction well because in the live performance I varied my speed and dynamics.

We took part in a three sided workshop during rehearsals, the focus was on both body and voice. We completed the rapier and dagger exercise, which means having our chest and feet face in a different direction to our head. I found this exercise difficult and unnatural because I was thinking about it too much, to improve I needed to practise this technique so that I could reach the final stage of consciousness - unconscious. Also it was difficult because I often bumped into other people so we needed to practise working in unison, being aware of each other and balancing the space. Pretending to have a rapier and dagger in opposite hands did really help me change the direction of my head and chest because it allowed me to picture the weapons and become more confident with the exercise by thinking about attack and defence. In addition it allowed us to work with our angles on stage and allowed energy to travel to all parts of the audience. Jean Sabatine talks about exploring the space and working with others around you so that you can slot in, filling the space in every direction, similar to the filling the space exercise we did with at the beginning of the topic. In the live performance I managed to use the three sided technique quite well because I tried to direct my facial expressions and lines to all three sides of the stage, I found it a bit easier than when I first learnt the technique but I think I still need to practise.

The performance overall was successful as the children enjoyed it. The strengths included the beginning because I decided to interact with the children, being only at arm’s length, so the children became part of the performance. The ‘A Tiger?’ section was very effective because it allowed a smooth transition into the pyramid. It also was very theatrical because it was similar to a pantomime moment when they are saying 'he's behind you' which the children were able to relate to. I believe it was very appealing to the 'Little People' because it was a catchy rhythm. In the pyramid I was directed to use my facial expressions and not fall into neutral so that the story was still being told, I followed the feedback and I think it really helped my character. Another strength was entering the stage in phases because this allowed the audience to gradually take in the characters and props which really helped bring out my character and gave me the freedom to experiment with my explorer’s movement.

The weaknesses of the performance were mainly due to technical faults. As there was only a non-technical dress rehearsal - the cues were not on time, the butterfly nets were incorrect, the piano did not turn on and the blackout did not occur. If the blackout had occurred the torch section would have been really effective because the beams of light would have been exciting and our scared faces would have looked funny for the children. During the torch section I was directed to put the torch nearer to my face I found it difficult because the light was hurting my eyes however I followed the feedback so that the children were more likely to see my facial expressions. I also received feedback from the other class saying that the song was quite dull however we did improve this by changing the tune.

In conclusion, to improve the performance it would be a good idea to watch or look back on our performance, so in the future I would film the performance. I would also consider watching more shows so that I can gain more ideas for devising a piece. Scott Adams once said "Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep." Although we did make quite a few mistakes which I have learnt from, we also made a really good piece of theatre for children which I am really proud of.

Evaluation

Discuss your exploration and development of TTWCTT taking into consideration key factors and relevant ideas and input you to the process.

Evaluate the skills and techniques in used in rehearsal and discuss how you responded to direction and feedback to develop work

Our performance this term was a piece of children’s theatre, our aim was to introduce the children ages 2 – 5 to the story 'The tiger who came to tea.' Children's theatre involves the use of different types of media such as dance, music, art, theatre and movement to educate or entertain. To engage children, interaction and colour is used to keep the children focused. Many people believe that children's theatre comes across as basic and simple but good children's theatre often has a deeper meaning and is for both adults and children to enjoy. It is there to give them a better understanding of life and the world they live in so that they can be taught about issues and learn lessons which may add to the child's knowledge. This piece of theatre is often thought as being a play put on but it can also be a devised piece or facts which teach and entertain the children. Children's theatre should be accessible to all, children often tend to have a short attention span but by using your voice in different tones and positions, your body to portray movement and by delivering words clearly to the whole audience whether to the side or front will create a piece of theatre that is exciting and interesting to watch. To aid us in performing I needed to become a total artist. The theatre did not have to be basic I just had to be clear, producing clear pronunciation, giving across energy and speaking with accuracy and control. To work on this I exercised my mouth regularly to pronounce words properly, and I learnt all my lines so when it came to rehearsal I knew exactly what I was supposed to say and do. We decided to choose a jungle atmosphere so that we could use different types of energy and interact with the kids. In this topic we all had to work as an ensemble which I found difficult at times because some people had not learnt all their lines but even though it was challenging it allowed us all to have input in our performance and it also allowed us to experiment because we had to use our child inside to create an interesting piece of theatre for such a young audience. "To be an actor you have to be a child." - Paul Newman. Working for a young audience was one of the key factors of the performance and it was completely new for me but I thoroughly enjoyed the experience also working with other strands because I have learnt lots of new skills and techniques I can use in the future. Here is a little video showing how working in unison really can help:

At the beginning of the performance I began on stage in a tiger costume, in the lesson we focused on movement, moving our spines around, this movement portrayed a tiger which I could use in the performance. During the second performance I decided to go up the staircase, this allowed me to be able to interact with the children and set the scene using the movement of the tiger to tell a story. I really think this opening added to the piece because it helped set the scene and it gave the children something to focus on and laugh at so that they were enjoying the performance from the start. Working with voice and body together was another key factor in the performance, the tiger movement was one skill we learnt, I actually really enjoyed this exercise because at the start we didn’t understand what we were doing but when you went with it I could see a tiger start to emerge. We felt that using voice and body was extremely important because the children were so young having movement will help them get a better understand of what is happening and will keep them focused.

In our dress Rehearsal when we entered on stage there was a sudden burst of energy however by the time I was on stage because I had to change out of the tiger costume I felt that the energy had dropped and the audience were losing interest. Being unfamiliar to the space we began to start working towards the back leaving the front of the stage empty therefore we were not balancing the space. In the dress rehearsal it was quite difficult to see who was saying the line when we all repeat our phrases after one another, not knowing who was saying the lines and everyone moving at the same time we thought would probably confuse the children and the stage would be too busy. We improved this for the real performance by making everyone freeze and look at the person who it talking, this allowing the audience to focus on one person and it gave the actor the chance to project their phrase clearly to all sides of the audience without worrying what everyone else was doing. To improve the entrance we needed to vary our dynamics and levels to interest the children and keep them engaged; we also had to balance the space and become confident to perform at the front of the stage. Sustaining energy in performance is extremely important otherwise the performance will be 'lifeless and empty'. In the book 'Free to Act' by Mira Felner She comments how actors must think of their emotions as a 'constant flow of energy on stage'. Vsevolod Meyer believed the energy flowed in a cycle from intention, to realization to reaction. We improved our entrance on the main performance by entering bit by bit on stage and I improved by following this cycle having an intention to search for something completing the action and then discovering something else so that my movement was telling a story to the children. Jason Bennet comments on how 'Audiences receive an energetic "feeding" while attending any kind of performance event' therefore throughout the performance we had to keep feeding them with new movements and new actions so that they can fully visualise our jungle scene. I believe, in this section, I responded to direction well because in the live performance I varied my speed and dynamics. I also decided to move with my line after being directed to because it meant that all attention was on me especially because everyone else froze as I spoke and moved. Originally I said the line quite quietly but in the second performance I increased my volume so that I could be heard. He are some tips I found useful when trying to learn how to project my voice:

"Acting is a sport. On stage you must be ready to move like a tennis player on his toes. Your concentration must be keen, your reflexes sharp; your body and mind are in top gear, and the chase is on. Acting is energy. In the theatre people pay to see energy." - Clive Swift

This quote really inspired me to use more energy and it made me work a lot harder in the entrance section because through both body and voice combined we were introducing the children to a story and had to keep their attention on us by being active throughout the entrance and the rest of the performance.

 

In our early rehearsals we took part in a three sided workshop, the focus was on both body and voice. We completed the rapier and dagger exercise, which means having our chest and feet face in a different direction to our head. I found this exercise difficult and unnatural because I was thinking about it too much, to improve I needed to practise this technique so that I could reach the final stage of consciousness - unconscious. Also it was difficult because I often bumped into other people so we needed to practise working in unison, being aware of each other and balancing the space. Pretending to have a rapier and dagger in opposite hands did really help me change the direction of my head and chest because it allowed me to picture the weapons and become more confident with the exercise by thinking about attack and defence. This exercise was very important because it allowed us to work with our angles on stage and allowed energy to travel to all parts of the stage. In addition this exercise was very useful in our performance because when speaking and walking round as an explorer we needed to have our body at two different angles in order to keep the audience engaged on all three sides and it helped us become familiar with the space. We needed to adapt both our spacing and our voices to the performance space, which we didn't do very well because we were unable to balance the space. Jean Sabatine talks about exploring the space and working with others around you so that you can slot in filling the space in every direction, similar to the filling the space exercise we did with at the beginning of the topic. To improve the projection of my voice I will undergo the exercise Evangeline Machlin has suggested by repeating lines moving further way from a partner, this will allow me to try out different ways of speaking and will help me relax my mouth when I am further away so that my partner will be able to hear what I am saying. In the live performance I managed to use the three sided technique quite well because I tried to direct my facial expressions and lines to all three sides of the stage, I found it a bit easier than when I first learnt the technique but I think I still need to practise. The working on three sides was extremely important and I think we did great seeing as there were so many technical faults and we are only beginners in this skill, however to improve every performance I do now I am going to think about projecting to all different sides of the stage. 

During the performance I thought the call and response 'A Tiger, I saw one' 'A Tiger? Who saw one?' was very effective because it allowed us to smoothly transition into the pyramid. It also was very theatrical because it was similar to a pantomime moment when they are saying 'he's behind you' which the children were able to relate to. I believe it was very appealing to the 'Little People' because it was a catchy rhythm which the children could join in with. It also comes across as believable because we were not looking at Fenton making the children think we actually couldn’t see him. I think this section was really good because it allowed the children to join in either saying the phrase with us or trying to tell us where Fenton is. When trying to lift Fenton in the first rehearsals we began with the idea of Charlie lifting Fenton but that wasn’t very safe or stable so we tried a human pyramid which also was not successful, however in the next lesson we managed to polish a perfect pyramid. I brought in a photo of a pyramid which we managed to achieve when working together in an ensemble. On stage we were able to build the pyramid quickly and safely with only a little wobble. I thought the pyramid was very effective because we were able to use different levels and having the speech come from different levels drew the audience’s attention to different places on stage. Also by having Fenton at the top and in the middle the audience could now quickly recognise that he was the person that found a tiger. I believe the pyramid was theatrical because it created a big shape on stage and made the performance more interesting than if the lines were just said. The pyramid gave the children a stable structure to focus on which interested and amazed them because when looking into the audience I could see a lot of the children saying ‘Wow’. We also managed to make the pyramid curve into a semi-circle, so that we had adapted to the three sided audience. Also by having Fenton at the top we could tell he was the odd one out, having seen the tiger and he was able to project his lines to all of the audience and that meant that when the lights black out there is a contrast between us all being together and then going off on our separate ways. I responded to direction well because we were told to use our faces in the pyramid to keep the children interested, I think my research really helped us because in the performance we were able to keep a good strong pyramid and it gave us another idea to experiment with. This is the Picture that influenced my version of the pyramid:

During the torches section we all followed the objective - to search - looking for the tiger. We repeated the line 'here kitty kitty *kiss noise* x 4' I think this was theatrical because we were all saying it in unison however in previous rehearsals it wasn’t together and sounded quite scary, we were able to fix this by practising as a group in unison and putting more energy into our voice. I think having the torches would have really appealed to the children because it would have given them different beams of light to follow and involved the audience more - We could shine the torches on the children's faces thinking they were the tiger. However unfortunately in the performance the blackout did not occur but we still went with it trying to get the impression across that a tiger was loose and we were very scared. I used my facial expression and movement as much as possible to get my feeling of being really scared and I used my torch to show my face to all three sides of the audience. I did find the torch section quite difficult because it was hard to know where to point the torch because when it went in your eyes it was difficult to see. In this part and in other parts of the performance I used the two skills we learnt at the beginning of the year – slimy frog and stages of tension. The stages of tension created by Jacques Lecoq really helped me when being scared because this exercise allowed me to use my body in different ways when being scared on stage, the slimy frog exercise also helped me. This exercise was repeating the word 5 times but slowly getting bigger and exploring more with the world. This exercise helped us learn how to use our body to the sound of the word and allowed us to look stupid and explore the sounds of the words in an environment that gave us the freedom to experiment. I found both of these exercises difficult when first learning them particularly the slimy frog because I originally didn't let go enough but now I feel as though it is really helpful in creating movement and is a skill I can use in the future. I found the tension exercise used up a lot of energy so I found it difficult to maintain the energy level I was on but again this skill really helped in the scared torch moment because it allowed me to adapt my voice and body depending on what 'here kitty' I was at. To perform these exercises we needed to know, follow and understand these points:

· It doesn't matter what you look like, experiment and live in the moment.

· Commit to discovery, change your movements to gain energy, don't repeat.

· Don't think or over think you should feel and respond.

· Allow the sound and the body to be one, you should experiment and remember the word doesn't have to sound like a word.

· Give each other the freedom to experiment and be supportive to allow them to do this.

· No critical self-awareness - accept what you are doing.

· Commitment - give energy.

· If your doing level one do level one, if you’re doing level five do level five, give the right state of tension and play with that level.

· Modulate voice - change placement (nose, throat, pitch).

· Improvise - don't rehearse otherwise not in the moment and you are repeating which is boring because it has already happened.

I think this would have worked really well in the performance however the blackout did not occur so it was not great, due to our dress rehearsal being a non-technical theatre rehearsal,which was not useful because in a dress rehearsal everyone should be in full costume, have all props and the sound and lighting should all be working. We found it very difficult to rehearse because we didn't have a lot of our props and our sound cue's. This meant that in the real performance we hadn't actually rehearsed it in full and it led to lots of mistakes, for example the blackout didn't happen, the piano didn't work and the butterfly nets were not what we were expecting leading to some very bad transitions and to difficulty's on stage. Next time before the performance we need to have a full dress rehearsal so that we can be familiar with all the technical points in the performance so that not as many mistakes would occur. The tiger eyes were not very bright but I still think they shocked and interested the children due to our reaction towards them. Also by leaning in and away from the tiger it showed a contrast when we got more frightened and moving the eyes around allowed the children on all sides to feel involved

In the first lesson we listened to a song that talked about a tiger, written by William Blake and also about god which we could see in the line 'Did he who made the lamb make thee?' Patti Smith sang the song in a very haunting way which we thought would be scary for the children. Also the rhythm was very repetitive, the words were quite difficult to understand, it is in a low pitch and it sounds like a dirge, lament or hymn. However we tried adapt the song to make it more interesting and entertaining for the children. To make the song less haunting more than one person decided to sing it, I thought we could have maybe performed it in a round making the song more up lifting and jolly to sing. We also learnt how to sing this song keeping our necks loose and changing the pitch to suit our needs and make it more interesting. The dance performed alongside the song I believed it to be suitable because we were all able to embody the tiger which we shoed through the movement of the butterfly nets and our own movement. The song was performed better in our actual performance because we changed the tune, which I believed really lightened the song, however during the performance the piano did not turn on so most of us could not get the tune. I kept my facial expression as an excited explorer and put as much confidence as I could into the song. Unfortunately, the butterfly nets were not what they were expected to be so the tiger was not created properly and it was difficult to work with however we just had to go with it, next time we need to make sure the butterfly nets are how we would like them to be because it made the end of our performance look quiet messy. Even though the song was improved I still think we should have changed it because it lacked energy and the children probably lost interest after the first verse, but I put in as much energy as I could. In the dress rehearsal our tiger song did not go down well in the performance because we did not feel comfortable and also the tune still hadn't been changed, however we fixed this for the real performance by making it more upbeat and child friendly. Mira Felner talks about being able to show personality through song and this is exactly what we needed to do, we should have not been worried or felt vulnerable when singing we should have just shown our character and energy through the words. Cicely Berry said 'If you can feel your breathing, and get pleasure in the sounds of the words, you can build your confidence.' so I thought leading up to the performance I should not think about the negative points, I just had to bring energy and perform with confidence. When singing the song we should be understanding the lyrics and showing this through our voices, we should be able to perform the song as a spoken monologue. We also ended the tiger in the wrong position which confused everyone so we need to remember when we have set things on stage we should keep them there, this was fixed for our actual performance. Here are some other tiger songs which we could have chosen instead because they are a lot more jolly, catchy  and child friendly:

In the dress rehearsal our exit transition was awful because we didn't understand the functions of the space properly, however I believe I took direction well and I decided to go to the other side of the stage where some of the other theatre class had moved to. This made the transition a lot easier, however the transition period took a long time and energy was dropped so to improve this  we were directed to sing a song in a lullaby way, place the children down and then shush the audience, this helped involve the audience more and it gave the children something to focus on when there was a blank stage. We also decided to creep around the children to show we did not want to wake them up. This worked very well in the real performance as it helped us keep the children quiet and focused.

I believe during this term I was able to explore and become my character using the objective to search and also by using props and listening to sirs’ feedback. I responded well by using the props to influence the decisions of my character, I also considered the song was a dirge so having it changed in tune was a good decision. The feedback I got was to keep the torch on my face and also keep my energy up, I did find it difficult in the entrance scene to keep up the energy because it was very busy and hard to be at a constant high level but the tension exercise really helped in this area. I also learnt how to work on three sides and even though I got a bit of help and direction on this I took it on board and I now believe although I am a beginner I am getting better at the rapier and dagger exercise. I was also directed to move with my words which I found quite easy because the slimy frog exercise really helped my movement and voice being as one. Sir asked us to research human pyramids, and I did which helped us create a good pyramid in my performance so I got good feedback from the rest of the class. To improve the performance it would be a good idea to watch or look back on our performance so that we can see the areas which need to be improved and we should use all the skills we have learnt. In the future I would film the performance so I could look back and be able to direct myself in areas I felt weak in. I responded to feedback well because it allowed me to improve my skills and have input into the process of making this piece. Overall I have really enjoyed helping devise and create this piece of theatre because I have learnt a lot about children’s theatre and skills I can use in future performances. The performance was very strong until the song but that's due to lack of confidence and practise which we can develop for our future performances.

Scott Adams once said "Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep." Although we did make quite a few mistakes which I have learnt from, we also made a really good piece of theatre for children which I am really proud of.

Evaluating Dress Rehearsal

Our rehearsal yesterday was a non-technical theatre this was not useful because in a dress rehearsal everyone should be in full costume, have all props and the sound and lighting should all be working. We found it very difficult to rehearse because we didn't have a lot of our props and our sound cue's. This meant that in the real performance we hadn't actually rehearsed it in full and it led to lots of mistakes, for example the blackout didn't happen, the piano didn't work and the butterfly nets were not what we were expecting leading to some very bad transitions and to difficulty's on stage. Next time before the performance we need to have a full dress rehearsal so that we can be familiar with all the technical points in the performance so that not as many mistakes would occur.

When we entered on stage there was a sudden burst of energy however by the time I was on stage because I had to change out of the tiger costume I felt that the energy had dropped and the audience were losing interest. Being unfamiliar to the space we began to start working towards the back leaving the front of the stage empty therefore we were not balancing the space. In the dress rehearsal it was quite difficult to see who was saying the line when we all repeat our phrases after one another, no knowing who was saying the lines and everyone moving at the same time would probably confuse the children and the stage would be too busy. We have already improved this by making everyone freeze and look at the person who it talking, this allows the audience to focus on one person on the stage and gives the actor the chance to project their phrase clearly to all sides of the audience without worrying what everyone else was doing. To improve the entrance we need to vary our dynamics and levels to interest the children and keep them engaged we should also balance the space and become confident to perform at the front of the stage. Sustaining energy in performance is extremely important otherwise the performance will be 'lifeless and empty'. In the book 'Free to Act' by Mira Felner She comments how actors must think of their emotions as a 'constant flow of energy on stage'. Vsevolod Meyer believed the energy flowed in a cycle from intention, to realization to reaction. To improve our entrance we need to follow this cycle having an intention and following through our action and then picking another intention so that our intention cannot be lost. Jason Bennet comments on how 'Audiences receive an energetic "feeding" while attending any kind of performance event' therefore throughout the performance we have to keep feeding them with new movements and new actions so that they can fully visualise our jungle scene.

Due to practising in our small theatre room we found it difficult to adapt our performance to this bigger space. I found it very difficult to try and interact with all three sides of the audience however during the performance I thought about the rapier and dagger exercise which helped me remember to keep my body to two sides of the audience. During the performance I think we were all really thinking about trying to keep our body to three sides of the audience therefore we were working really hard to try and get the results however to improve this we need to practise so that we no longer have to think about what way our body is facing and we can perform unconsciously. We needed to adapt both our spacing and our voices to the performance space, which we didn't do very well because we were unable to balance the space. Jean Sabatine talks about exploring the space and working with others around you so that you can slot in filling the space in every direction, similar to the filling the space exercise we did with at the beginning of the topic. To improve my projection of my voice I will undergo the exercise Evangeline Machlin has suggested by repeating lines moving further way from a partner, this will allow me to try out different ways of speaking and will help me relax my mouth when I am further away so that my partner will be able to hear what I am saying.

In the pyramid section I felt as though we had so much adrenaline in the dress rehearsal it made the pyramid become sloppy and wobbly. We need to be able to work better in unison to be able to achieve and safe and stable pyramid. In previous rehearsals we were able to achieve a strong pyramid however to improve this for our real performance I think we need to work better together, we can do this by doing group exercises and working with each other more often so that we can all work together as one. In the pyramid we also need to be able to keep our characters and perform which we can do by using our facial expressions and the pyramid should be further back on the stage. We can see in this video below even though it is a cartoon it still shows when working together the outcome is better:

Our tiger song did not go down well in the performance because we did not feel comfortable and also the tune still hadn't been changed, however we have already fixed the tine by making it more upbeat and child friendly. Mira Felner talks about being able to show personality through song and this is exactly what we need to do, we should not be worried or feel vulnerable when singing we should just show our character and energy through the words. Cicely Berry said 'If you can feel your breathing, and get pleasure in the sounds of the words, you can build your confidence.' so we should not be focusing on the negative points to the song we should just bring energy and perform it to the best of our ability with confidence. We also ended to tiger in the wrong position which confused everyone so we need to remember when we have set things on stage we should keep them there.

In the dress rehearsal our exit transition was awful because we didn't understand the functions of the space properly, however I believe I took direction well and I decided to go to the other side of the stage where some of the other theatre class had moved to. This made the transition a lot easier, however the transition period took up a lot of time and energy was dropped so to improve we were directed to sing a song in a lullaby way, place the children down and then shush the audience, this helped involve the audience more and it will give the children something to focus on when there is a blank stage. We also decided to creep around the children to show we did not want to wake them up.

Overall the dress rehearsal went okay even though we did make quite a few mistakes but Scott Adams once said "Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep."

Lesson 4

Do you think the material you have created today will be suitable for ‘little People’? Why is it/is it not suitable?

Today we created the torch material and the tiger dance material. I think that the torch material is suitable for the children because the suspense of not knowing where the tiger is will keep them engaged and focused. Also I think that our scared faces will entertain them and the big bright tiger eyes will shock them and also interest them. I think the ‘here kitty, kitty, kitty’ is suitable because the children can probably relate to it if they have a cat however to make this section as effective as possible we need to make sure we are in time so that we sound like one voice and the words sound clearer. Also by leaning in and away from the tiger it shows a contrast when we get more frightened and moving the eyes around will allow the children on all sides to feel involved.

The next second part we worked on was the dance and song. The dance I believe is suitable because we all now have embodied the tiger which we show through our movement of the body and also using the butterfly nets. I believe this section would be suitable, however the song still lacks energy. We really need to improve this otherwise the children will become bored and loose interest.  I think that we should either shorten the song or change it altogether. I think we could make facial expressions and keep up the energy if the song was shorter or we should just change the song to a more light hearted kid’s song that will keep the energy high and will be easier for the children to understand. At the moment the song goes on for a long time and is boring because not enough facial expression is put into it and also the words are difficult to understand.

Here are some examples of other kid’s tiger songs which are more energised and show us what we need to do to improve our song:

At the end of the lesson we came up with some ideas for the play ending I really liked the group’s torch idea with the ‘the tiger can’t eat me!’ I think this will be suitable for the children because it will add some humour to the piece. I then think we should all go and try and find another creature but to make it humorous I think we should get in a line and follow each other in a line, then the person at the front can stop, everyone will bump into each other and say ‘what is it?’ where the person will reply ‘oops sorry it was just an ant’? Then continue until they find another animal. I also think we could do some of our group work for example when we were lifting kitty up to look in a tree. Near the end I think we should be returning home with all our amazing discovery’s which will then follow onto Eleanor’s idea of it all being a dream when taking the children on stage. I think all these ideas will be suitable for the children because we are still exploring in our setting and by getting rid of the tiger it is no longer on stage however I do believe we could catch the tiger so that’s why it ends up escaping from the zoo in the story. Also the dream idea was really good because it will suggest to the children the story is a fantasy but it all starts normally with a child having a dream and it all goes back to normal.

Lesson Three

Three Side Workshop

At the beginning of today's lesson we went down to the new theatre where we will be performing for 'Little peoples day '. Here we took part in a three sided workshop, the focus was on both body and voice. We completed the rapier and dagger exercise, which means having our chest and feet face in a different direction to our head. I found this exercise difficult and unnatural because I was thinking about it to much, to improve I need to practise this technique so that I can reach the final stage of conciousness - unconscious. Also it was difficult because I often bumped into other people so we need to practise working in unison, being aware of each other and balancing the space. Pretending to have a rapier and dagger in opposite hands did really help me change the direction of my head and chest because it allowed me to picture the weapons and become more confident with the exercise by thinking about attack and defence. This exercise was very important because it allowed us to work with our angles on stage and allows energy to travel to all parts of the stage. In addition this exercise will be very useful for our performance because we now know when walking around the space we need to have our body at two different angles in order to keep the audience engaged on all three sides and now are familiar with the space we are working in. Furthermore when walking around I need to remember to change my position so that the three sides get a different part of the body in their direction. The next step is to be able to use this technique whilst being in character so I will continue to practise in order that I will not have to think about what I am doing.

Within the workshop we also concentrated on voice, breath and projection. At the beginning of these exercises I found it difficult to let lots of air into my lungs so I need to improve work on my breathing technique. Also when I bent down I found it difficult breathing as the air into my lungs was restricted however when repeating this exercise several times using my body to move in line with my breathing it became easier and I was able to breathe in and out for longer. We also focused on using different types of speech, and using breath in our speech to allow our energy and project our voices to all parts of the audience on all three sides. We changed a whisper into a stage whisper by using more breath to make the sound produced louder which we could use in our performance. We also practised using normal voice and also nasal with breath because it helps a lot with making the sound louder and pronounced better. We discovered that by speaking through our nose we would be able to gain attention which would be helpful in our performance and would project energy to all sides of the space. Also within the lesson we discovered that when facing the back and also when not using a stage whisper the sound waves would not be absorbed by the audience which would loose energy. We also learnt by doing the breathing it allowed us to relax and gain focus which will be a good exercise to do before the performance.

Are the ideas effective? Are they theatrical, if not, can they be made theatrical? Will they appeal to 'little people'? Why/why not?

At the beginning of the lesson we managed to polish a perfect pyramid. I brought in a photo of a pyramid which we managed to achieve when working together in an ensemble. We can now build and dismantle the pyramid in a slick, quick and safe way. I think the pyramid is very effective because we are able to use different levels and having the speech come from different levels draws the audience to different places on stage. Also by having Fenton at the top and in the middle the audience can now quickly recognise that he is the person that found a tiger. I believe the pyramid is theatrical because it creates a big shape on stage and makes the performance more interesting that if the lines were just said. The pyramid will give the children a stable structure to focus on which will interest them. We also managed to make the pyramid curve into a semi-circle, this will allow all three sides of the stage to see part of the pyramid. I think that the pyramid will appeal to the children because it will draw there attention it may look exciting for them because it is a lot bigger than them and I also think it is the thing that they will remember most about the piece. Also by having Fenton at the top we can tell he is the odd one out, having seen the tiger and he will be able to project his lines to all of the audience and this means that when the lights black out there is a contrast between us all being together and then going of on our separate ways.

The Dance with the butterfly is effective because it involves different types of media and I believe using the butterfly net to turn into a tiger will appeal to the children. The butterfly net resembles a Chinese Dragon which the children might recognise and be able to relate to. I think that the snail dance and waving of the butterfly poles will be theatrical especially when moving to the beat of the music however I do believe it could become repetitive and the children could find it boring. To prevent this we could change the tempo in which we walk and the size of which the figure of eight is in order to vary the performance. We could also bring the tiger close to the children and let them clap along to the beat so that they feel more involved.

At the moment I don't think the song is very effective because it sounds quite dreary like a dirge therefore it will not appeal to the children. Having the dance and movement will make the song more theatrical because it will give the children something to focus on, but I think we have also got to put a lot more energy into the song and we need to all know the words. The tiger will allow the children to imagine a real tiger and create their own image of the tiger in their head so the song needs to add to this excitement. This could be done by increasing the tempo of the song, singing it higher to make it light and happy and I also think we could give the children percussive instruments or get them to clap along so they feel more involved with the performance. This song definitely needs to be improved in order for it to be suitable for the performance, like the jungle sounds at the beginning really add to the atmosphere whereas this song at the moment keeps the piece at a low energy which we need to change.

I also don't think the 'A Tiger!' part, when we are all supposed to be getting quieter after Fenton has announced he has seen a tiger, is effective because you can feel the energy drop in the room which is not suitable for the audience as they need the performance to be constantly at a high level of energy. I think we could make this section more theatrical and better by either starting loud and then getting quieter but facing the audience using exaggerated facial expressions so they know they are scared. Or by having individuals say the line one after another, by doing it this, no energy will be lost because each person will say the line in a different way according to their character which will vary the short phrase and make it more interesting. By having individuals saying it, more of their character will be brought out and the person who is last will be the quietest and probably the most frightened. We could even have groups of people saying it in unison to one another to make it more powerful at the beginning which will get the audience's attention.

I do think the call and response 'A Tiger, I saw one' 'A Tiger? Who saw one?' is very effective because it allows us to smoothly transition into the pyramid. It also is very theatrical because it is similar to a pantomime moment when they are saying 'he's behind you' which the children will be able to relate to. I think this will be very appealing to the 'Little People' because it is a catchy rhythm which the children could join in with. It also comes across as believable because we are not looking at Fenton making the children think we actually cannot see him. I think this section is really good because it will allow the children to join in either saying the phrase with us or trying to tell us where Fenton is.

Finally at the end of the lesson we began to work on the torches and cat eye
section. During the torches section we all follow the objective - to search - looking for the tiger. We repeat the line 'here kitty kitty kitty *kiss noise* x 4' I think this it theatrical because we are all saying it in unison however at the moment it does sound quite scary so we need to practise saying it together in time with a more energetic input. I think having the torches will really appeal to the children because it will give them different beams of light to follow and involve the audience more. We could shine the torches on the children's faces thinking they were the tiger. I think the blackout and tiger eyes will really excite the children because they will imagine a tiger on the loose and will think the explorers are silly because they cannot find it. We need to remember not to point the torches towards the eyes and also we will need to practise so we know where the eyes will be when they move around. I think this is a very effective idea because it compliments the song, it will be fun, engaging and it will be a good build up for the story that will begin after our 10 minute slot.

Lesson Two Questions

What tasks did you do in the lesson today towards creating TTWCTT?

In today's lesson we did a few tasks we sang and listened to a song, we used our body and voices to become explores and experiment different ways of gaining height.

We listened to the song the tiger sung by Patti Smith who is an artist, musician and song writer who focuses on political themes. The song was originally a poem written by William Blake who wrote the poem London and was inspired by the world and also the death of his brother. William Blake wrote the poem in his brothers notebook and Patti Smith was inspired by William Blake as an artist so decided to sing his poem as a song.

The song we listened to talked about a tiger and also about god which we could see in the line 'Did he who made the lamb make thee?' Patti smith sang the song in a very haunting way which may be scary for the children. Also the rhythm was very repetitive, the word were quite difficult to understand, it is in a low pitch and it sounds like a dirge, lament or hymn. However we can now adapt the song to make it more interesting and entertaining for the children. To make the song less haunting more than one person should sing it, we could perform it in a round making the song more up lifting and jolly to sing. We could adapt some of the words so that the children could relate to the song and join in if they want to. The song also needs some more energy, a catchy rhythm, maybe a faster pace a song that you want to listen to with instruments, change in pitch and less annoying and dreary. We can adapt this song to make the children not loose interest and so that we can make it fit with what is going on stage, for example if we sing the song when we have made the tiger out of butterfly nets it might be slowly drifting around so the song is sung at a slower tempo or maybe we are hiding from it so we sing it in a whisper. This will make the song fun and exciting for the audience to watch. We also learnt how to sing this song keeping our necks loose and changing the pitch to suit our needs.

After learning the song we did a becoming explores exercise. We were told to have the objective to search/look.  At first we were all creeping around really slowly but we soon realised to make the piece more interesting we had to vary our tempo and our rhythm so that we were able to work as a group and move around the space creating and exciting and fun atmosphere. By staying low and really looking at things this will engage the children making them wonder what you are looking at and making them want to join in. We all then were told to say a short something about what we had found. We made an order so we could quickly repeat one after the other. Having a gap in between someone's line would break the energy in the room so we had to breathe in near the end of the person before us sentence so that we could quickly say ours. Some people were not giving enough excitement so they improved this by staying at a high level for the whole of the sentence so the energy didn't drop. Having us all spaced around was a great idea because the sentences were fast pace moving allowing the children to quickly look from person to person and so that they could grab their attention.

Finally at the end of today's lesson we were trying to lift up Fenton to make him stand out compared to the rest of us. We all came together in a big group and had three sections, low, medium and high. We moved from these sections making sure there was an equal number in each and then Fenton had to climb on top of Charlie shoulders. This idea was very successful because it was difficult for Fenton to get on Charlie's shoulders and Charlie found it difficult to support him. It didn't seem very safe and wasn't very stable so we decided to experiment with a different idea. Our next idea was to try and create a human pyramid. We managed to get up to three layers however it still wasn't very stable. For next we we are going to try and find a safe a quick way to create this human pyramid without jumping on really quickly and hurting people in the process.

Research on Human Pyramid = http://hollygarciatiger.blogspot.co.uk/2014/06/human-pyramid.html

How do you think it contributes/will contribute towards making TTWCTT?

Having this song now gives us a stimulus that we can explore with and experiment with in different ways. This song is very appropriate to our topic because it talks about a tigers appearance, yes we may need to make it less complicated to help the children understand but having a song means that we have something to work with. As I said we can now use this to hep the children learn facts about the tiger but in a more interesting way, we could adapt the song so that it could be telling facts but due to it being in a song format the children wont realise they are learning they will just be drawn to the energy we give from the song. using this song we can create lots of movement and sounds maybe using our voices or instruments to accompany it. Also listening to this song taught us how to sing, it showed us that we needed to change it to a higher pitch for some of us because we found it difficult to sing, we also experimented with how singing was just extending vowel sounds and it only sounding good if we kept a soft neck and if we wanted to sing high, think low and visa versa. From learning how to sing this song we now know if we sing together it makes it more powerful which we might use in our performance.

This exercise was extremely useful because it helped us create who our characters were going to be and also this is going to be the opening of the show. Creating these characters and actions of searching a collecting allowed us to think about the props we will need for the performance in order to make it believable. For example I am collecting small insects, fruits and anything I can find so I now know I will need a bag and maybe a clipboard in order to record my findings. I did not mention this above but we also got into threes and created different activities we could all do together, this is important because we have now come up as things such as looking at tracks which we can all do as a class and we also have little scenes that can be going on in the jungle together as a team. We now know that our performance has to have a varied rhythm and be at a fast pace because through this activity we all felt the energy drop when people were not putting in enough effort so we know we need to be at a high energy consistently because if we felt the energy go the children definitely will and then they will loose focus.

This has contributed to the making of TTWCTT because we know we need to lift Fenton in our performance so by having the freedom to experiment with different lifts is useful because it will allow us to find the best possible way of lifting him. Also doing this lift made us work as a team in TTWCTT we are all going to be working together including other strands so this exercise has helped us work together which we will be doing in the dress rehearsal and on little peoples day. It has also shown us that if some things don't work straight away we can find another way to do it and it may look even better so in our whole performance we should make sure we perform to the best of our ability and if we don't like it we still have time to change it.

Human Pyramid

Helpful tips and information for building a Human pyramid = 

(http://inside.doitinadress.com/blog/5-tips-to-building-a-human-pyramid-in-a-dress#.U52b8PldVFw)

1. Always have your strongest and toughest at the bottom of the pyramid. Like anything, the base of the pyramid is the most important.

2. Have your arms shoulder width apart to make sure your weight is evenly distributed, the Egyptians didn’t have lopsided pyramids so neither should you!

3. Push up through your shoulders to make the ‘Angry Cat’ position, to make sure the upper levels have a flat surface to kneel on and to take pressure off your spine. 

4. For those climbing on, aim to have your knees in the upper to middle part of the back of who you’re climbing on to, so your weight is supported by your shins not your knees. 

Help people up onto the higher levels!!!

(http://www.ehow.com/list_5986246_different-kinds-human-pyramids.html)

Classic

We've all seen the classic human pyramid. This pyramid is formed by groups of people getting down on their hands and knees and stacking on top of each other with the lightest person at the top and the strongest at the bottom. This pyramid is great for events where a pyramid was not planned or practised, because they are not as high and do not require as much balance as other pyramids.

Straight Legs

This classic three-person pyramid is popular at games because it enables the cheerleader to be placed higher off the ground, allowing more fans to see her. This pyramid requires four people--three to form the pyramid and a spotter in back of the pyramid. The most important principle to remember for this type of pyramid is straight legs and locked knees.

Pyramids with Stunts

For a well-trained and more daring pyramid, consider forming a moving pyramid shape. Some examples could include forming two three-person pyramids and transferring cheerleaders in the air or a larger five-person pyramid with the top members doing handstands. These types of pyramids should not be attempted without extensive practice in a safe setting.

http://recordsetter.com/world-record/human-pyramid-assembled-15-seconds/10118

Maybe next lesson we could try a pyramid like picture one and two where they are standing slightly because it might be easier and quicker because it is more supportive.