12th February Work and Questions

Q - What are the strengths of the piece? What things need to be developed further?
There are many strengths of our piece in terms of individual pieces and a bit ensemble work. The biggest strength I saw was the pieces with the most energy and emotion filled within it. You can't have a good piece if there's a lack of energy and personally I felt some groups need to up their game if they are to show a story and let the audience in on this crazy and scary experience. Another thing that can be upped is the interaction with the audience. There needs to be much more commitment in the way we address them and for us to almost be like 'I know you're my friend but this is how my character would treat you.'

Q -What is your favourite moment and why?

My favourite moment of our piece has to be the beginning when we all walk into this club and strike a pose, something of which we would feel we would do if we were at a club. Then after this moving off of everyone, one by one, saying a line describing the acitivities of a nerve and what it does in the nervous system. This creates a sense of nerdiness in our piece as well as some real dirty and creepy scenes which only spaces out the piece genre as a whole which I feel is really good. The main reason I enjoy this moment is because I'm left in the middle of the stage alone and I'm able to deliver my line with this almost indentical Bane voice which I believe is really interesting in terms of using different techniques to change my voice.

Q - What moment do you find most challenging and why?

I find the moment of being this classy business man and a man who has a hidden story of being a child molester mainly because I would make one so much more clear than the other and I need to learn how to balance it out for the performance come Tuesday. I believe that when this is done many positive things can appear and this can only be better for my peers and the audience as they try to match my emotion on stage and for the later to realise my story and my hidden story.

Q- How does our piece affect the audience?
Doing the piece to two teachers from the school we received positive feedback and obviously things that we can work on. The piece begins with already us breaking the fourth wall, having the audience line up outside and for them to be allowed in seperately, something like a real nightclub. Then the involvement again of the audience with the clown going around the table asking someone to come up on stage to pop a balloon. From one of the audiences reaction I realised that they were quite scared and nervous and that's what we wanted. For their nervous system to kick in and for them to react in certain ways to what was happening around them. I feel that at the end the audience will leave feeling relieved almost like they were in that nightclub full of madness and what not and this is because from what we showed them and from what they shared as an experience of being in this piece.

Q - What would Artaud like about our piece and why?
Artaud would like so much about our piece, not only because it was revolved around his poem but because it included many things he talked plays and the things that he was hated for. For him to come and watch a performance where strippers we getting almost preyed on and talked about in a really strange and  highly sexual way in front of many adults acted out by 16-18 year olds would make him smile from cheek to cheek. For him, nearly all of his performances were banned and booed off for, now when we perform something similar but less explicit it's not hailed but almost accepted as something unusual to watch but acceptable in the audience's eyes.

Q- What have you learnt about yourself as a deviser?

I have learnt that ideas can come from no where and whatever you have in your mind say it because you never know if it may come off as something good or even better. Moreover, the fact that you can do anything you want as it's an experimental term and you need to make sure the choices you make are precise as I realised doing this would not only make it clear for you and your fellow actors but for the audience too. Lastly, learning that you can turn anything into something and something to anything. That was the main thing I learnt.

Q - What have the challenges been of an experimental devising process?

The main challenege for me was creating your own scene and to come up with the story line for it, especially keeping the explicitness to a certain level as we could've went so much deeper into thought. There were many other challenges as well as that, learning each movement at the end of the piece along with what to do while other scenes were going on as we are on stage and on sight throughout the piece. Overall all the challenges that I've faced so far will definitetly help me for the future in devising and also many tasks ahead which I will have to tackle by myself. The positive being that I will come out much more independent and much more offererable to give directions, feedback and so on.

Q - If you were to grade yourself now for the process, what would you give yourself and why? (Refer back to the marking criteria in a past post)

Right now I would grade myself a high 5 low 6 mmainly because my focus in rehearsal hasn't been as good as it can be. With regards to the teacher talking I've been fine receiving feedback but with me in my group, I do give things to try out but my concentration goes elswhere at times and I need to sort that out if I want a good strong role in each performance. This will definitely rise up as I've been increasing my energy levels in each run and also giving much more critical feedback with things to work on. This can only bring the best out of myself and the other actors and my main point is commitment within the movement or objective you are trying to achieve. When this is done you're bound to get a positive grade, a grade you can be happy with.