Running Scene - The Script I Wrote

Running Scene –

Mario, James, Tenda, Cass, Lucy, Christina, Ruth, Liza, Nemo.

First Round.

Mario:              Are you chasing something or leaving something?

James:              Leaving

Tenda:              Where are you going?

Cass:                Away. I’m going away

Lucy:                Where are you coming from?

Christina:          I’m not sure. I don’t know where I’m going either.

Ruth:                What are you looking for?

Liza:                 Freedom.

Nemo then wakes up from the blocks which interrupts the runners and the questioners. She runs to the frame and the scene then continues.

Second Round

Mario:              What are you tying to leave?

James:              My dreams.

Mario:              Why? Who are in these dreams!?

James:              My parents.

Tenda: What are you going away from?

Cass:                All these lies. I’m trying to get away from these lies.

Tenda: What lies!? Who has lied to you?

Cass:                No one.

Tenda: Well then, what lies?

Cass:                The lies! The lies I’ve told. All these lies.

Lucy:                Are you hoping this journey will lead you to somewhere?

Christina:          Yes. I hope so!

Lucy:                Where?

Christina:          To a purpose. A meaning!

Lucy:                What kind of purpose?

Christina:          Just a reason. A reason to feel needed.

Ruth:                What are you looking for?

Liza:                 Freedom.

Ruth:                From what?

Liza:                 From life. I just want to feel free and gain some independence.

Ruth:                Why?

Liza:                 Because I had asking people for help. I hate relying on people. And worst of all being let down.

Mario:              So if your parents are in these dreams, why are you trying to leave them?

James:              [Silence]

Mario:              WHY!? Don’t you love them?

James:              What? Of course I do. I love them so much. I’m just scared for them

Mario:              What happens in these dreams?

James:              Death! They die!

Tenda:              Who have you lied to? Is it someone important? Someone you love?

Cass:                Yes… 

Tenda:              WHO!?

Cass:                My boyfriend!

Tenda:              Why? What did he do to deserve this?

Cass:                Nothing. He didn’t do anything.

Lucy:                Why aim for that purpose? Why do you want to feel needed?

Christina:          Because I feel worthless. Like I don’t exist! Incompetent!

Lucy:                Does this affect your self-esteem?

Christina:          Yes. It makes me feel like I don’t belong.

Lucy:                Well maybe you don’t belong!

Christina:          What? What do you mean?

Lucy:                Maybe if you believed in yourself a bit more you’d feel important.

Christina:          No! Because whenever I do try and try I fail. I always manage to fail!

Lucy:                Well what if you’re not trying hard enough!?

Christina:          I am! But I just fail. I always try my hardest but just… I just fail.

Ruth:                How often do you strive for independence?

Liza:                 A lot. I just don’t like depending on other people anymore. I want to make my own decisions and think about myself!

Ruth:                So are you trying to say you’re going to start putting your needs above others?

Liza:                 Well… yeah I guess so.

Ruth:                And you think that’s being independent?

Liza:                 Yes I do!

Third Round

Mario:              How do they die?

James:              They have an accident!

Mario:              What kind of accident   ?

James:              Car! A car accident! Fire everywhere! They have a car accident.

Mario:              Why are you thinking like that!?

James:              I don’t know! I don’t know… I just love them so much.

Mario:              Surely if you loved them you wouldn’t have these thoughts.

James:              No. No! NO! I love them! I just think too much! You don’t understand. These thoughts. These dreams! I’d do anything for my parents!

Tenda:              Then why did you lie to him!?

Cass:                I don’t know! I don’t want to talk about it.

Tenda:              Why did you lie to him!?

Cass:                I don’t want to talk about it!

Tenda:              Do you think a liar like you deserves to have him?

Cass:                A liar!? I’m not a liar! I said I didn’t want to talk about it! I love him, okay!?

Tenda:              Obviously not if you’ve lied to him. Does he know you’ve lied to him?

Cass:                I don’t want to talk about it!

Lucy:                Does feeling worthless also prevent you from voicing your opinion?

Christina:          Yes. Because I’m afraid of what people are going to say. Or even think of me.

Lucy:                I think you’re a pessimist.

Christina:          No! I’m not a pessimist! I just want to feel a sense of need! Feel wanted! Appreciated!

Lucy:                Well you’re not trying hard enough! Maybe you’re just being a coward.

Christina:          Like I said I do try! I just feel defeated in the end and give up. I always end up failing and give up!

Ruth:                So you think putting yourself above others is being independent?

Liza:                 Well… no. Looking after yourself before others is what I want to do! I want the best for myself!

Ruth:                That still sounds egotistical.

Liza:                 Well my main priority is myself! I want to be able to provide for myself and have the best life possible! Is that so bad!?

Fourth Round

                        During this round the questioners will throw statements at the runners to provoke them. This will cause the runners to feel irritated and infuriated. This will be shown through their facial expression and the speed they’re running in as they will be running faster and with more conviction.

Mario:              I don’t think you love your parents, James.

James:              I do!

Mario:              No you don’t! You don’t love them. Otherwise you wouldn’t have these thoughts in your head and in your nightmares! The truth is the way you’re thinking doesn’t reflect on your “love” for you parents!

                        [James starts running faster. Facial expression would show pain and angst]

Tenda:              Do you trust yourself!?

Cass:                I don’t know! I said I don’t want to talk about it!

Tenda:              Answer me!

Cass:                NO! I don’t trust myself.

Tenda:              I don’t either. And I don’t think he should trust you too! Because you’re a liar. Your boyfriend deserves better than you. If you loved him you wouldn’t d this to him.

                        [Cass joins James and starts running faster with painful facial expression]

Lucy:                You keep saying you feel like you’re not being heard. Why do you push yourself to be heard and fight for it!

Christina:          Because I said I always fail to do so!

Lucy:                No. I don’t think that’s the reason. I believe you’re just weak. And you just settle with being unnoticed and worthless because you’re scared. Scared of what people will think of you!

                        [Christina starts pushing herself by running faster]

Ruth:                You know what. I don’t think the freedom you want is independence.

Liza:                 Yes it is. What are you trying to say!?

Ruth:                I think this “Independence” act is just your way to cover up the fact that you’re self-centred. You don’t want to be independent. You want a better life, correct? Well I bet you’d snatch that bit of happiness of someone elses life to bring some success into yours!

                        [Liza beings to sprint on the spot with the others. Everyone carries on running for a few more seconds until they collapse, breathless on the floor.]

Rehearsal process

During the past two months we've pretty much been working on our devised piece about everyone's identity. We have all worked together to come up with a couple of scenes and in this post I will be explaining the scenes and the purpose of them.

First Scene - Frame
Before the frame scene was created I wasn't attending Uni as often as I should have which resulted in me being a little bit more behind than everyone else. When I first watched the scene being performed I instantly liked the concept and the idea of it all.
The frame is divided up into 12 segments with 12 people behind them. Everyone in the frame has a word that best suits them and describes their identity. For example, Mario = Afraid, Lea = Animated, and Makeda = Detached. Some of the people in the frame then get asked questions from everyone else in the frame to get more of an in-depth understanding about themselves. However, they'd get asked questions relating to their word and the other persons word to find out if they have some of the other persons trait or identity. For example, if Kate (Unsettled) asks Mario a question it would be along the lines of "Do you think you're afraid because you are unsettled?".
The people are are being questioned are Rosie (Bitch), Mario (Afraid), and Chris (Semi-detached). While the three of them are being questioned the other people behind the frame would have to react to their answers but should also stay in character throughout the whole scene. For instance Lea who is animated should maintain her animated persona. Another important point that we considered in this scene is the pace of it. We have to make sure the questions and answers are not too fast or slow but just at a reasonable speed otherwise the scene could either feel rushed or drag on.

Running Scene
This scene consists of a selective number of people to run at the front and some people to stand at the back questioning them about anything and everything really. But the main goal is to try and aggravate them as the running and answering questions at the same time would be testing their patience as it is. After testing the scene out a couple of times the runners and questioners were picked. The questioners would ask the runners questions that have relevance to their identity.


The runners and questioners were:

• Runner: James (Thinker), Questioner:  Mario
• Runner: Cass (Emotional), Questioner: Tenda
• Runner: Christina (Useless), Questioner: Lucy
• Runner: Liza (Selfish), Questioner: Ruth

All the questioners would ask questions to the runners. The runners would then gradually have a hard time answering them as the questions get more personal which significantly affects their tolerance as they would get tired and out of breath with the running. 

James the over thinker would talk about how he thinks too much and dreams about his parents being involved in a car crash. Cass talks about these lies she has told someone important to her. Initially Christina talks about her faith and religion but we decided to keep the idea of identity therefore Christina now talks more about how useless and worthless she feels sometimes. And Liza talks about how she is striving for independence. The scene ends with the runners reaching to a breaking point and collapsing on the floor and transition to the next scene then follows.

I wrote a script to this scene which will be on another post.

Song

The song will then be sung by Shakira, Rosie, Dom, Kate, Chris, Tenda, and Christina. While they sing the song we all suggested we get into a line and walk around the stage in unison. Kind of like a snake?

The song is about the journey we're all going through to find ourselves.

Shakalaka's Prediction and Boom

In this scene Shakira recites a poem to the audience she wrote herself. The poem is about her prediction and mentions the identity of the people in the frame. While all that happens Boom (her sidekick) is by her side playing around with a bell. Every so often Boom would press the bell by accident interrupting Shakalaka. The purpose of this is to add comic relief to the scene. 

However, Nick suggested that Boom is removed from this scene and comic relief here isn't really needed but maybe Boom should be added in other scenes such as the frame just to add some humour to it, teasing everyone's identity. We have yet to try that suggestion out yet as we only got the feedback recently.

Ritual Scene

The ritual scene has most of the class in different positions and on different levels. Some are laying on the floor, sat down, knelt down, stood up etc. Music is playing in the background and all of us are in our own world and imagination. We all then reach out to something trying and struggling to find our identities. I personally like the fact that this whole scene isn't choreographed or synchronised. I believe it brings out more of a rawness and authentic feel about it as if we're deciding our "ritual" or "journey".
After a while Mario, Chris, and Christina have a bit of a meltdown. Mario starts screaming, Chris starts laughing hysterically, and Christina also screams.

Forest Scene
This scene is similar to the frame. Six people are behind a green camouflage next with fake leaves attached to it. We all then pop up holding signs with the word that describes our identity. The initial people that were in this scene were:

• Mekeda: Detached
• James: Thinker
• Kate: Unsettled
• Lucy: Paranoid
• Chris: Semi-detached
• Mario: Afraid

However, I felt that 'detached' and 'semi-detached' didn't really fit in with this part of the scene as they were too similar. I suggested 'animated' and 'uncomfortable' to be put in instead. However, Rosie felt that 'sarcastic' could work so we tried it out and improvised it all and since then the line up changed to;

• Ruth: Uncomfortable
• James: Thinker
• Kate: Unsettled
• Lucy: Paranoid
• Me: Sarcastic
• Mario: Afraid

The beginning of the scene starts off with each of us popping up from behind the net one by one describing ourselves to the audience. Although we're holding up signs that has our identity on it we tell the audience the exact opposite. For example, Lucy pops up and tells the audience that she doesn't care about what anyone thinks for her even though her sign says 'paranoid'.

After each of us explains ourselves to the audience we all interact with each other. Me being the sarcastic one makes snide remarks mocking everybody whilst Lucy questions everyone, looking around. Everyone pretty much plays up to their roles. The scene ends with a spotlight going off each of us and turning our backs to the audience one by one. When we showed this scene to Nick recently he felt that it should take place in the frame as it has a similar concept to it. He also thought Dom should be added to mock everyone again like in the beginning.

Labelling Scene

This is the most recent scene we've come up with. The notion of this scene is to create the perfect male and female. This scene is also one of the few that adds humour. Lucy and Chris are the models that the doctors write on. The doctors that work on Lucy was James and Mario and at first Kate and Rosie were the ones working on Chris but that has changed to Me and Sabrina. 

Dom managed to write a script for this scene. Each doctor has their own persona's and characters in this scene. James and I are the "clever" doctors while Sabrina and Mario are a bit more dopey and dim-witted. This plays in with the comical side to the scene. The doctors discuss what kind of person they want to be such as intelligent, materialistic, funny, sexual, tight etc etc. If we agree on a trait then we'd write it down on their bodies. 

When we recently showed this scene off to Nick he said it might be better to write down on their bodies first then discuss and analyse the model we've all decided on.

These are all the scene's we've all come up with at the moment. Our play is approximately 25-30 minutes and are hoping to start on creating and devising more scenes to be added to our devised piece in the upcoming weeks.

Script writing with Michael

So, last week Michael decided to have our lesson in the park. We were asked to do some script writing (YAY) and experiment with different kinds of format. For example, having only two characters saying on word each, or only having ten lines of dialogue. Here are my ones:

Two characters. Three words.
Person 1: Think of anything.
Person 2: I have nothing.
Person 1: Why don't you?
Person 2: I am stupid.
Person 1: Yeah, I gathered.

Three characters. One word.
A: Fire
B: Extinguishers
C: Foam
A: Party
B: Music
C: La la la?

Ten Lines
A: He's left me.
B: What?
A: He's gone. Left me. Vanished.
C: Why!? I'm so sorry
A: I don't know what I've done to deserve this. I've been so good. I've cared for him...
C: Oh honey, I'm sure Rob will come back
A: Wait, what? Not Rob, Dhillon.
B: Isn't he your dog?
A: Yeah?
B: Oh.

Monologue
Writing a monologue? Seriously, I really cannot be bothered right now. We're in a park. I just want to find the jungle jim and the swings! Is that too much to ask for!? My hand is hurting doing all this writing. I've literally been writing for two hours, now! Okay, maybe not. Twenty minute's maybe but that's not even the point. The point is I like swings. And I just got pen on my chino's. This is just fantastic. Damn pen. Well, at least I've written this poor attempt of a monologue..... Now where's the swings?

Jerzy Grotowski (1933-1999)

In this lecture we learnt about Jerzy Grotowski who was a Polish theatre director, actor trainer and a theorist. His first work began in 1957 to 1969 with play such as:

• Forefather's Eve 1961
• Akropolis 1962
• Dr. Faustus 1963
• The Constant Prince 1965
• Apocalypsis cum figuris 1969

His work was mainly about actor/ audience relationship. Although he regards Stanislavski as the 'Theatrical Grandfather' his theories and work was not similar to his)

The training to actors was also very important to Grotowski. 

• Voice/ sound projection: Vocal resonators.
• Physical/ Physique exercises/ Barbra influences: Tumbling, forward rolls, tiger leaps, summersaults.
• Body/ physical memory: Stimulates actor to become conscious of what they're doing. E.g. Performance, life. Natural movement. 
• The Plastique's (Plastic Training): Isolations and articulations of joints.

All training to to effect the idea of 'VIA NEGATIVIA' (Latin 'By the Negative')

Researched ritual traditions of other cultures. Transcultures.

Western - Mime, ballet, classical

Other - Haitian, ritual, Yanvalou.

Sir Ken Robinson

In this lesson Michael decided to show us a video of Sir Kenneth Robinson. Sir Ken Robinson is an author, speaker, advisor on Education, Creativity and Innovation. The video shows him speaking to an audience about how schools are actually killing creativity.

Watching the video was very inspirational and I believe everyone who's interested in entertainment and the arts, or wants to pursue a career in that entertainment NEEDS to watch this beauty of a video. He managed to add humour and wit in the lecture yet managed to maintain the seriousness of the topic in his speech which made it very enjoyable to watch.

Jazz Pumps and Warm Up's. Hello Year Two!

Day one. Second year. Hasn't time flown by!

We all started off the day doing a two hour physical and vocal warm up with Nick and Michael which turned out to be incredibly tiring, yet very, very fun! Coming back to uni with a pot belly and excess weight that has been gained over the summer, I must say it was pretty refreshing to get back into the usual Uni routine and starting off with those warm up's and work outs was just what I needed.

As well as doing several activities to get our bodies warmed up, we were all split into pairs (year one with a year two). Our task was to massage each other to release any tension in the body. It was a very calm and relaxing way to get to know one another and gain a sense of trust with the other person.
The vocal warm up was also very beneficial. Although, I'm not very confident with my singing voice it allows me to widen and experiment with my vocal projection as I'm naturally a very shy and quiet person.


After the warm up we had the whole day with Nick. We were all asked to think of a number of personal stuff to write on a piece of paper anonymously. Such as:

• One positive and one negative thing about ourselves
• Something we've thought about frequently in the mornings when we wake up

This task was incredibly interesting as the whole class were somewhat able to delve into people's thoughts. The fact it was all anonymous was also intriguing as it cause a sense of mysteriousness with the person and how their mind thinks and functions.
I can't really remember what I wrote for the first part of the activity but for the second part about the first thought when waking up in the morning I wrote down :
"What the heck am I going to be doing in ten years time"


Afterwards, Nick chose one of our answers and in groups, we had to create a piece that was based on the persons answer to what they thought about in the mornings.

Theatre and Society

In this lesson Pam carried on explaining the history of theatre and the society.

We briefly learnt about 'Commedia D'lartte' which when translated means 'Comedy of the art'. It first started off in Italy in the mid 16th century and characters were often masked. Performances were also improvised and were based on sketches and scenarios.

Afterwards, we were given information about Joan Littlewood's impact in the 1950's and how she helped the Theatre Royal in Stratford, east London gain fame by performing plays such as Bertolt Brech's 'Mother Courage and Her Children' which she starred in and also directed in 1955.

We were then taught about the 1960's and George Devine's 'English Stage Company' taking over 'The Royal Court Theatre'.

Contextualising Contemporary Theatre Module

This module is going to be taught by Pam. We first started off th module by learning the history of theatre, going all the way back to Greek Theatre and the Egyptian's influence.

Pam then went through different period and era's of time to explained how and what theatre was like back in those times. Some of the things she mentioned were:

• Egyptian influence
• Greek theatre - added dialogue
• Dark Ages/ Medevil tims - nobody knew what happened
• Bayeux Tapestry - France, Britain, Angelo Saxon
• Renaissance - return to classical values 
• Elizabethan Times - glory days of theatre
• Cromwell - banned theatre
• Antagonist and Protagonist - made clearer in 19th century melodrama

We then got on with the module itself and learn a lot of keywords such as status quo (the norm, accepted model e.g. wife stays at home, convention of society, precieved normality) and agitprop (agitation and propaganda).

We were also taught  about Joan Littlewood, Lord Chamberlain and feminist theatre. 

Community Focus Project - Early Days

Our next module was the Community Focus Project. This project was to help us as student's and a group prepare and create a piece for a target community (Community Focus Clients). It would also help us experience the reality of creating and performing material that has been commissioned by a particular target group within the community and the module would also enable us to develop our understanding of analysing and evaluating the process and performance, of an 'Arts in the Community' project.

So after learning about the module and what we had to achieve and what we were going to be experiencing, we met our clients. Andy, Bev, Keeven, and Philip. We then did warm up activities and name games to help get to know eachother more as a group.

We then proceeded to come up with idea's as a group. Keeven soon mentioned that the Community Focus group wanted to base the play on Valentines Day as our performance was on the 14th of February. Various idea's were established however we all liked the idea of various couple's being in a restaurant and allowing the audience to get an insight of their relationships with the arguments, or problems but ensure that it consisted on a lot of comedy and humour.

Brecht Workshop back in...... December! Eek.

Right, so after our naturalism performances, out next performance was a Brecht workshop that included various poems he's written about himself and his experiences. We also opened the workshop with a song called the 'Alabama Song' which was first published in Brecht's 'Hauspostille'. It was then made into music by Kurt Weill in 1927 and was then covered by The Doors in 1967. 

The poems used in our performance were:

• 'Sonnet to Emmigration'
• 'On Thinking About Hell'
• 'The Ballad of Marie Saunders - The Jew's Whore'.

In order to create a strong piece we learnt a lot a lot about the technique's we would be using such as Alienation, Breaking Though The Fourth Fall, and Gestus. We also learnt a bit about clowning and learnt how to use the Action/ Reaction technique to add humour to a performance. 

Another technique taught to use was learning how to work together as an ensemble piece (e.g. Wedding- Bride, groom, priest, bridesmaid's, bestman, parents etc etc). This enabled us to learn how to manipulate the audience into our performance, and it gave us an idea on how to add humour to common event such as a wedding day. 

The Performance 

I felt the performance went very well. We had to perform in front of other student in the ArtsDepot which I thought I'd be very nervous about but I wasn't as tense as I thought I would be. As a performer I'm more comfortable to natural pieces but I soon found myself having a lot of fun with Brecht's work. 

The performance opened with a group of us singing and  acting out the 'Alabama Song' which I found really fun. Whilst singing and acting the song we had to break through the fourth wall and look at the audience. I found this surprisingly enjoyable as it was clear that the audience felt slightly intimidated and manipulated.

The second piece was 'Sonnet of Emigration' which I was not a part of along with some people but had to sit on the side benches but still had to react to what was going on on stage.

The third piece was 'On Thinking About Hell'. This performance was very grotesque and dark and it included a lot of action' reaction, and synchronisation with the group. At the beginning me and Kate had to lead the others by picking up the fruit from the tree. However, Kate wasn't in therefore I had to do the beginning on my own which I thought I'd find daunting but once I got into the performance I soon got used to looking at the audience through action/ reaction. 

The last piece was 'Ballad of Mary Saunders - The Jew's Whore'. As a group we stood as a semi-circle and had Shakira in the middle rapping the lyrics to the audience. We had to recite the chorus with Shakira, but had to say it to the audience. The last chorus we say varies to the other as we would approach the audience in a dominant manner and say the chorus to them in close proximity. We would then end our piece by walking out of the room in neutral.

Overall I thinking the workshop went well and was happy with the audiences reactions. 

Eeeeek!

Right so I haven't done my blogger in a while but I'm write a number of posts explaining what we've been up to from December to now :)