Lesson Questions - Week 3

Questions: Are the ideas effective? Are they Theatrical if not how can they be made theatrical? Will they appeal to "little people"? 

Before we started the lesson we were taken into our actual performance space. This was so we could get used to acting in that particular stage configuration. As we are performing on three sides we have had to     adapt our content to be benefited from this. Mr. Rennison took us for an exercise which involved directing our energy to all sides of the audience. We had to direct our head to one side whilst simultaneously showing our chests to the opposite side. The first analogy we was given was as follows; In your left hand you're gripping a dagger for defending attacks, in your right you hold a rapier for attack. You must always keep deflecting attacks whilst delivering blows with your rapier. This made us consciously concentrate on keeping on adjusting my body as I moved around the stage. The second way of explaining I found  more useful. I was told to envisage the two different body parts as torches sending out beams of energy. I could easily imagine the direction of energy and now could see how to move without disrupting the travel of the light rays I was producing. We further complicated this task by adding objectives. This helped us to strengthen our use of spatial awareness and how to balance the space as well as making us play around with physical movements and body placement. I found this hard because there was a lot of things to concentrate on. I will need to practise this all before our performance. I can replicate this exercise using chairs or furniture in my house.

Some of the ideas we developed in lesson today included;

• The Here Kitty Kitty Kitty *kiss *kiss *kiss section 
• Refining the pyramid
• Butterfly Net/ Snake dance 

The Here Kitty section is very effective. From the pyramid into this section, the transitions are tremendous! It helps to create an electric and slightly dangerous atmosphere as we are searching for this tiger. It is very theatrical as we make use of unison sound and movement. We use prop torches and the light will make the action on stage still clearly visible to the children. It will appeal to little people because they find the dark mysterious and slightly frightening. Utilizing this well make our piece even more enjoyable for them. 

An example of an idea that is ineffective is the transition from our singular lines into the "scared tiger mumbling". It just doesn't work. The physical cue isn't big enough so some people miss the change. You can't hear Fenton's line so I it is lost. The ensemble doesn't become quiet enough in time for the next section. We need to either refine this by having a bigger physical cue and unison sound in the tiger or simply cut it. 

We improved upon our initial pyramid by curving it round. This means that now the audience on all sides can see the formation. We made this more theatrical by all looking up when Fenton says his lines to make sure the audiences focus goes towards him. The younger audience will enjoy the aesthetics of the pyramid and will marvel at the size of the this physical device. 

Finally Mr. Rennison taught us a historical dance that evolved moving in a single line like a snake. He developed this by adding in weaving and creating spirals. This was effective because it gave us a stimulus/template  for our tiger butter fly net idea (yet to be fully formed). It was theatrical because it used the entire stage and helped to create cool and exiting images on stage. It wasn't to complex to follow along but interesting enough to hold the attention of a younger audience!