Chorus Workshop

In this workshop, we explored  techniques such as shoal of fish and round-by-through. Shoal of fish is where a group travels tightly together, everyone's movements are taken into account and compensated for. The sudden change of directions as a whole group is effective because the movement appears to be slicker and has more of a pace to it. Round-by-through is also group movement, in which you move a person into any position, and then travel either, around them, over them, or under them, where you freeze until it is your turn to be moved again.. 

We applied the techniques above to a short fairy tale performance task. The task was to pick out any fairy tale but change it so it had a gruesome ending, specifically that everyone had to die. My group chose Cinderella. Within our much shorter and gruesome version of the story, each new line was spoken by a new person, there were four people within my group and so each person was assigned around 6 lines each. The round-by-through was good when representing travelling to the ball, or running home from it. Shoal of fish was good for creating the sense of multiple people searching for Cinderella.

Adavantages of the two techniques were that they created rather comical moments when needed, but also provided drama, casting a clear and very strong contrast in dynamics. While watching my peers perform, I spotted another important advantage to the techniques, they manage to keep the attention of the audience because the movement is both unusual and intriguing .

Disadvantages of using shoal of fish in performances is that, it is too easy to lose the tight formation needed to pull of what the movement is. I think it is a technique which needs to be rehearsed very frequently.


Example:Once upon a time, there lived a girl named Cinderella. 
( S.O.F the starting formation of a diamond )
Who lived with her two ugly step sisters.
(S.O.F)
They did not want her to attend the Prince' ball *round-by-through repeat*

Cats Audition

The first round of the audition was an interview. Rachel proceeded to ask a lot of seemingly random/unexpected questions, for example, 'What is the Grace Brandon way to run a show?' and 'What is your biggest weakness?', questions there to test me on my knowledge on show production and  how not to bad talk yourself. I felt confident with interview, I gave off the persona that nothing said to me irked me all, I wanted the 'Interview' to be like a relaxed conversation and hope that I gave of that impression.

For my cats audition we had to sing 2 songs one upbeat song and one slow song. We had to choreograph a dance to a song from Cats. We also have a short interview about the character you want to audition for.
For my upbeat song I chose 'I'm the Greatest Star' from Funny Girl. I chose this song because its like a story to tell and the whole thing can be acted out, its a fun role to portray. I found a version of the song that was a bit shorter, other wise it would of been a bit tedious singing for so long for an audition.
Fast song.

For my slow song I chose 'There are worst things I could do' from Grease. I chose this song as it was very contrasting to my upbeat song. I really enjoy singing the song, so being able to do it for an audition makes you enjoy it more, because I am so familiar with the song I felt comfortable singing it with a backing track because I know the timing so well.
Slow song.


When choreographing my cats dance I always tried to visualize cat movement so I could improvise with a minute of movement and for a get ideas with what I spontaneously came up with, this enabled me to get into character as much and as quick as possible.My stimulus for the dance was Cats and jazz technique. I did my dance to the song 'Jellicle Ball For Jellicle Cats' its a main dance number in cats and it had a very upbeat tempo. Although I have had experience in dance, I watched the original film clips of Cats for inspiration, and took sequences of movement from it and also used phrases taught by Emily during lesson. I've never had any lessons so to ensure I had good technique, I practiced certain movements repetitively in the dance studio, watching my feet and form in the mirror and making sure they were on point. Our task was to create a 2 minute solo. I found getting a phrase down and learnt was easy but I struggled to add on to it for a while because I get stuck in a loop of practicing certain movement, I found I could create phrases but not link them very well, however because I didn't want to repeat lots of the same movement, I did persist, and, managed to come with routine that suited my ability and showed off a certain aspect of my skills. A strength I had in my dance audition was my confidence and stage presences, no matter how small the audience is you must always performance to the level required, such as smiling throughout the piece. A weakness of mine is that I tend to look down at the floor instead of out, and my posture when dancing tends to slack so that would something I would work on.

Below is the link to my dance audition:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L9yTUG2jwEA

Below is the link to a video of my group rehearsal practice for my cats audition:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f0kAo95fZ3c

Check list

Grace Brandon

1. Make sure you are doing all work in posts and linking the posts correctly to their Unit (See Ashley or Katie for help if needed)

Costume

1. Upload pictures of each page in your costume portfolio, you should have;
   1. Character and text analysis
   2. Costume research – Period and social status
   3. Costume plot for THREE characters
   4. Written work about how no. 1 has contributed to no. 2
   5. Colours, fabric swatches and measurements
   6. Initial designs - Based on established period and social status
   7. Established designs with written work about practicalities, character portrayal, portrayal of mood/emotion

Dance

1. Reflect on your Into the Woods rap dance
2. Reflect on how you CATS solo is progressing

Drama

1. Look at each show of Electra you have done so far and reflect on your strengths and weaknesses and how you would improve for the next show
2. Make sure you have uploaded and documented any noted through the blocking process of Electra
3. Upload any notes on Assignment 3 for PAB including your PowerPoint slides

I decided to research into the characters of the witch and Rapunzel, very contrasting roles but still closely linked.

WITCH:

1. Rag dress (ragged version - always worn under cloak)
2. Hooded ragged cloak
3. Transformation cape with hood
4. Transformation dress - magical vision of beauty and youth
5. Beautiful Sorceress dress
6. Ornate Sorceress cape

RAPUNZEL:

1. Long, Medieval/Renaissance gown
2. Rigged wig

Evaluation of Electra - Performance at The Old Vic.

http://www.oldvictheatre.com/whats-on/2014/electra/
accessed on 2/11/14, The Old Vic.

We went on a college trip to watch a production of Electra. The seating of the theatre was set up similarly to how they would have been built in ancient Greek times. The theatre was set up  like and old amphitheatre and the way the staging was set up it gave the illusion that the theatre was outside. This was effective as it gave the audience the impression of being in Greek times.

The staging had a sand floor which represented the natural old dry environment  of Olden day Greece. The set also had rocks on which captured an essence from the olden underdeveloped times. The lighting represented natural light and they used 360 degrees lighting so it was bright and  shadows were created and changed similarly as they do through-out a normal day.The theatre was also created in the way it was to be similar to what it would have been like watching it live in Greece in the past, and they wouldn't of had the equipment like lights to create shadows so they wanted to make it as natural as possible. There was also a tree and a water pump as props for the set. The tree helped visually with creating levels on stage.
Electra's costume was worn and ragged looking. She had a 'homeless' look about her and the costume didn't fit her properly, it also looked like that was the outfit she had worn most of her life. This portrayed how ill looked after she was and how she was to proud to give into her mother. She looked very dirty and run down. After some discussion of the ages of the characters I realised that even Electra's mother is still relatively young as she is supposedly bearing children so the actress playing Electra ( Kristin Scott Thomas, 54) in my opinion she was cast because she was a famous actress, so they dismissed the fact that she clearly to old to play the part, even though she portrayed the part well, because of her age the mother had to be cast older and then that made the fact that she was still supposedly bearing children very unbelievable.

In Greek times if the father was murdered it was the sons duty to seek revenge, I got a greater understanding of this through the performance. This explained why Electra put Orestes into hiding, so he could seek revenge for his dead father. In the performance they did not show the murder scene which is what they would have done in ancient Greek times. I would been of been interested and intrigued to how they would have portrayed that. However, it was still effective when the actors came out with bloody hands.

Electra climbed onto her mothers dead body in the final moments of the piece and hugged her, this could mean that even though she hated her mother almost her whole life she has never had a mother figure whom she could hug, so this was a moment she could hug her mother and there be no resistance any more.

Akram Rush - Rehearsal two.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OlYM3AjyUJQ&feature=youtu.be

This is our group during our second rehearsals. We developed our piece with changes in tempo, canon, levels, as we needed to fit in more choreographic devices. I am the dancer in the middle of the trio.

Electra Audition workshop.

We did a Greek workshop specialising in the play. Electra, is a Greek tragedy by Sophocles. Its date is not known. Electra is set in the city of Argos a few years after the Trojan war, it is based around the character of Electra, and the vengeance that she and her brother Orestes take on their mother Clytemnestra and step-father Aegisthus for the murder of their father, Agamemnon.


For our workshop we entered the room and on the floor were a scattering of masks. 

Mask Rules
1) Putting it on and off in private - provides the mystery element. As soon as the mask is on, you are that character.
2) Treat it like a real face, as you would your own.
3) Face forwards as much as possible.
4) Treat it with respect.
5) Don't touch your mask when it's on.


These masks had multiple facial expressions that portrayed emotions. We were then told to get into nearest groups of two and we were instructed to tell the other person a good quality about the other, putting emphasis on how much we liked that person/quality. This is an exercise which is done a lot in american theatre as warm-ups. We then had to reverse roles, get into a new pair and say something you genuinely like about yourself to your new partner. I found both of these exercises a challenge, I did however find it easier to find positive things to say about someone else rather than myself, but knowing your strengths and weakness' in theatre is something good to know, so you can work on your weaknesses and excel on your strengths.

We all had to walk around the room and we were instructed to scan the room looking at all of the masks and be drawn to one,whatever your reasoning, but not yet approach any of the masks. 
Once you had chosen your mask you then had to, while still walking around the room, make up a character for that mask, there name, how they walked and three personality traits, My mask had a startled/shy expression. I named her Jean, a shy, withdrawn girl, who hates crowds and who is only relaxed and carefree in front of very close friends. We then walked around with the masks on and had to walk in a fashion that that character would walk. I walked slowly as my character is cautious with the outside world, my character finds it hard to trust others so i also crossed my arms and made my body movements scared and shy. 

We then got into pairs with people who were portraying similar emotions to us  and had to perform a section from Electra,we were given the scene between Electra and Orestes. The story of the scene is Electra has just been handed her brother's ashes in an urn, and is grieving for him. Orestes, who unaware to Electra is her brother, he insists that Electra knows him, however she is so distraught that she fails to think straight for a while. The scene ends on her realisation of Orestes is telling the truth, and is her long-lost brother, who she believed to be dead. 
We read the scene as a group first and then did the following: modernised it and translated it into modern day English, mime without and then with masks. 

Modernising the scene was challenging because the language is difficult to get to grip with anyway, obviously a lot of the words aren't used today, but once you have the general gist of the scene finding substitutes for the words is fairly straight forward. Performing it modern English is much easier than Shakespearean, and because we got to perform it overly intense, putting in dramatic pauses for effect it was a very enjoyable activity. In the miming tasks, I found it difficult to stop myself from mouthing the words or murmuring then under my breath. It's also hard to make miming look slick and professional, because as an actor it is odd to perform and not use your main tool which is voice and instead have your body movements over exaggerated. Miming with and without masks was very different. Once under the mask, you are reliant on just your body parts expressing your emotions. Despite my face being hidden, I found myself using my face, still acting behind the mask, which really helped me to stay in character.

I played Electra and moved around the space a lot in every task as I was headstrong to get away from this 'stranger' and just be left to mourn alone. I was very snappy in telling Orestes to leave and also through my actions, for example in the miming with masks, I stomped my foot on the ground and threatened to hit Orestes, to effectively show my anger.

At the end of the lesson, I felt a lot more confident with the mask and had a better understanding of Electra.

This was an improvisation activity which was challenging because when miming we usually rely on each others facial expressions to know where we are through the piece and to make the storyline clearer but when this element is taken away from us it proves difficult so you have to rely less on your facial expressions and more on your body language. 

However, even with the restrictions the masks gave us in mime, I felt it was easier to portray a character as you can hide behind the mask and the identity of you isn't revealed to an audience.


Below are the video's of the audition workshop:

Electra Audition (1)
Electra Audition (2)
Electra Audition (3)

Classical theatre research

In my Greek theatre research blog post I researched into the layout, performance space and props that would of been used (masks) and how they were built. For Greek times what they made with the limited resources they had was very 'hi-tech', and it worked well as an outside performance space. The horse shoe like shape allowed for easy, 180 degree, viewing for the     audience and made the sound travel to every individual. The seating was raises, which is another way that made it easier for audience viewing, and for the Greeks it was as if you were closer to the Gods, the way in which it was built meant it had excellent acoustics, so no matter how far away they were from the stage, every audience member could hear the actors clearly. 

Nowadays audience seating arrangements is spaced similarly to Greek performance spaces. For example most west end theatres are made with similar, 180 degree, raised seating. However, more modern built theatres are designed in a Bertolt Brecht style, the audience face the stage head on. The idea being to intimidate the audience so they don't become comfortable and drop their attention from the stage/story-line, its a more personable approach and it allows for actors to invade the psyche of an audience member. 

In Greek times if an actor messed up, did something the audience didn't like, or was the main antagonist in the play, they audience would show their disapproval by throwing rotten food at them; often tomatoes. The red juice from the tomato when thrown at the character was representative of blood, so for the audience, it was as if they were killing the character to show disrespect.
Luckily nowadays it is not socially acceptable and there are rules in place to prevent people from doing such things. In theatres there are certain rules and boundaries which prevent audience members from behaving in an unsocial unaccepted manor, It would definitely be regarded as rude, unacceptable and most likely result in an arrest or a law suit if you started throwing rotten vegetables at the actors in this day and age. 


In present society, there is an interval for the actors and audience to break and get refreshments, this happens because we can rely in artificial lighting, so it is not imperative so run an entire show start to finish without breaks. This would have not occurred in Greek times as lighting was natural light and by having an interval the performance could end up being finished in the dark with the audience no longer being able to the actors, this highly suggests that they could only perform a limited amount of times a day and that they could not perform in the evenings. 

Introduction to Faustus.

'Doctor Faustus, is a play by Christopher Marlowe. It is based on the German story Faust and is sometimes referred to as 'The Tragical History of the Life and Death of Doctor Faustus'. The play is about a man who sells his soul to the devil for knowledge and power. Doctor Faustus was first published in 1604 which was 11 years after Christopher Marlowe died.'




Wikipedia, Doctor Faustus(play) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doctor_Faustus_(play) [last accessed 13th October 2014]




This research helped to give me a better understanding to the background knowledge that lead up to the writing of the play. It also enabled me to gather information about the play that I had, before, not known about Doctor Faustus which helped me gain a better understanding of the underlying message of the play. The idea of a man selling his soul to the devil peaks my interests as its a topic that majorly involves religion, in which  people have wide spectrum of personal opinions on.


In this lesson we had to chose a scene from Doctor Faustus and transpose it into now-a-day situations and language, we had to refer back to the scripts to guide the situations so they fit and still oriented around the scene we had chosen,  and that it kept within with the style, genre and period in which the play was set. I was put in partnership with John and we decided to chose the topic of drug abuse, we believed that Faustus would be the type of person to struggle with keeping away from the lifestyle with the access he had to it and the devil was essentially to dealer coaxing him into trying to turn him into an addict, attempting to get into 'Faustus's' mind, and therefore sell himself to the condition. I found it quite challenging to pick through the script and find non specific phrases that could have the underlining meaning of drug abuse.

Doctor Faustus Evaluation of Performance

Mime.

Our mime at the beginning looked very effective from an audiences perspective, *as we were in a semi-circle on stage blocks* and i wasn't sure how effect it would come across but watching back the recording it did look rather good. I further believe that the music fitted in well with the theme and  the aspects of hell that was within the play.

Costume.
We all wore black to connotate death, darkness and depression. The darkness of hell of having to be their for eternity reflects the colour of black and thats why it was chosen. 

Lighting and Technical.
To make it clear that the scene was changing and to portray the play as performed in segments and not in full we had complete black outs where in which a scene would appear to only of been half way performed, a black out would occur and when the lights lifted again there would be another couple on stage ready to perform their piece. 
The dimmed red light represents the devils presence as he has be characterised in the bible as a 'red beast'. 

Staging.
**
Throughout the play we all stood on blocks in two, this looked very daunting in the shadows from an audiences perspective, each block represented each deadly sin, so in total there were 7 blocks. 

Overview of acting.
In overviewing the play, a performance that stood out to me was Josh and Ellie's, playing the same role, but portraying the piece to show that that character had a split personality. They did not look at each other during the entirety of the piece which helped give the audience a better understanding of what they were witnessing, they both used variation in tone, especially in Josh's case, he used such intriguing pauses that even as a performer on stage it was very hard not to look away from him, he has a very fascinating way of acting.
I liked that Katrina and Beth thought through their use of props and I thought it was effective that they used Josh and John props for a chair and table, this was clever and simplistic and did not draw the attention away from the acting. Furthermore, in using people as props, it took away all the hassle of moving on and off heavy or inconvenient set  for only one scene out of seven.

I did deliver my lines I remembered very clearly, and strong with clarity but the piece was truly saved by my partner John, I could not have even tried if it weren't for John trying to pull it back and get it back on track. I could have thought through my movements more so I could of related movement to lines. 

Greek Theatre Research.

Harvard Reference: Page Name: Justice. Web Address:
 http://resources.mhs.vic.edu.au/creating/justice/pages/greektheatre.htm
Last accessed:13/10/14 

Greek theatres were built in the open air and were usually very large; the Theatre of Dionysus at Athens, had more than 17,000 seats. The theatres were usually built in hollowed-out hillsides, and in spite of its size it had excellent acoustics, this made it easier for performers to be heard across the whole audience, because the sound travelled so well around the theatre.

The theatron was the area which the audience sat. It was shaped similarly to a horseshoe and had rows of stone seating rising upward and backward in levels. In the first row there were stone thrones for the principal citizens and the priest of Dionysus.

HarvardReference: PageName:Justice                                                               WebAddress: http://resources.mhs.vic.edu.au/creating/justice/pages/greektheatre.htm          
Last accessed: 13/10/14

Harvard Reference: Page name: Rock and Bus.
Web Address:http://greektheatre.rockandbus.com/
Last Accessed:13/10/14

"The city-state of Athens became a significant cultural, political, and military power during this period. It was institutionalised as part of a festival called the Dionysia, which honoured the god Dionysus. Tragedy (late 6th century BC), comedy (486 BC), and the satyr play were the three dramatic genres to emerge there. Athens exported the festival to its numerous colonies and allies in order to promote a common cultural identity."

Harvard Reference: Page Name: Ancient Greek Theatre. Web Address: http://www.crystalinks.com/greektheater.html
Last Accessed: 13/10/14

 MASKS

People in Athens would use masks as part of celebrations and ceremonial rituals in the worship of Dionysus. Most of this evidence comes from very a few vase paintings of the 5th century BC. The masks were made of organic materials as they were not considered to be something that needed to be long lasting, the reason behind this idea was at the end of each performance the people would devote the masks to the altar of Dionysus. Nevertheless, masks are known to have been used since the time of Aeschylus and considered to be one of the iconic conventions of classical Greek theatre.

HarvardReference: PageName:Wikipedia. Website: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theatre_of_ancient_Greece#Masks 
Last Accessed: 13/10/14

In a large open-air theatre, like the Theatre of Dionysus in Athens, the masks were able to create a feeling of dread throughout the audience creating large scale panic, especially since they had over exaggerated facial features and expressions.The masks enabled an actor to switch between multiple roles, this prevented the audience from identifying the actor and linking them to specific characters. The changes they made to the masks help the audience to distinguish the sex, the age, and social status of the character, furthermore it reveals a change in a particular character’s appearance. There were a limited amount of masks allowing only 2-3 actors on stage at a time, and masks permitted quick transitions from one character to another. There were only male actors, but masks allowed them to play female characters.

Resources: 

http://resources.mhs.vic.edu.au/creating/justice/pages/greektheatre.htm

Into the Woods Character Analysis.

In today's lesson we were introduced to the script Into the Woods to create an understanding of the characters and how their costumes should be designed regarding to their personality.

STEPMOTHER, FLORINDA, LUCINDA

'Black of heart'

'Beautiful of face'

Costumes that reflect their social status, they are middle class they wouldnt be exceptionally poor nor rich. 

BAKERS WIFE

The bakers wife wants a child, so she has very motherly in-stinks over Little Red and is very caring, sweet and down to earth.

BAKER

The baker wears a scarf and hunting gear. He is a loving character who seems down to earth and geniune.

JACKS MOTHER

Not beautiful
Worries about money problems and the state of her house and her. 
Poor.
Jacks mothers clothes need to reflect her age and social status. So drab drags that might not fit her probably and the unfitting costume will reflect that she cant afford new clothes. I believe the clothes shall be very worn and her hair and makeup should be untidy and dirty. 

JACK

Jack should wear plain clothes that have the appearance being very worn, as of course being as poor as they are they would not be able to afford cleaning them very often or replacing ruined clothing so they will appear distressed and worn just like his mothers clothes. It was suggested for Jack to have at least one item of clothing that is bright and colourful to reflect his age of being a young child. 
Jack has a strong friendship with his cow whom his mother makes him sell as they need the money and the cow hasnt provided milk for them for a week. They cannot afford to keep it.

WITCH

Evil, lonely and demanding.
Should be dressed in flamboyant clothing, trying to seem like shes young and beautiful, because of how lonely and bitter she has become.

RED RIDING HOOD

I believe red riding hood should stick to the traditional red riding hood costume, so she is identifiable to the audience before shes even opened her mouth or been introduced, she should not have loads of heavy layers but a light costume she can skip in as the stage directions state her 'skipping', so the costume should be agile.

CINDERELLA

Cinderella's mother is dead and her mum although in the show is a figment of her imagination which shows how desperate and lonely she is.
Cinderella will wear her traditional costumes, she will start in her drags that she wears in Cinderella but she will transform into her iconic ball gown.

WOLF 

Sly, maniplulative, authoritive, confident.

RAPUNZEL

Rapunzel is shy but as she grows older she stands up more to the witch that locked her in the tower. For her costume I think she should have long blonde hair made artificially. I think she should wear a beautiful dress in royal colours like purple, as even though she is only the sister of the Baker, the witch treats her like a princess, so royal clothing should be very fitting. Purple is also the contrasting colour of blonde so will fit in with the colour spectrum.

Mini costume Project.

What should you consider in the design process?
Appropriateness of costume design for childrens theatre. The design should recognisable bright and represent an immediate understanding of a (for example) viking hat for children to relate to.
The personality of the character- reflect in the colour, size, shape, creativeness of the costume etc.. what social status does your character have?
Actors measurementsThe physical movements of the character amd therefore the impact on the costume.
Suitable materials/fabric for the type of style of costume.
What period is your story set?

Over the next 2 weeks understand the basic process of text/story interprestation, design.

Creating a back story for your character:
Things to consider:

• Ethnicity.
• Social status.
• Age.
• Gender.
• What they contribute to the story.
• Hero or Villan of story.
• Where they are from.

Actor's head measurements: Josh's head; 22.6 inches /57.4cm.


We have just been given our character for the next two weeks, and our character is AN ANGRY VIKING.
We have made the chef's age 40. We have also named the character Carlos, we used this name as we wanted alliteration 'Carlos the Chef' this helps children to remember his name, and makes it catchy for children's theatre.
We wanted to set this in now a day as we believed this would help the children relate, as its easier to tell a story which is slightly unrealistic and in a made up world.
His social status at the beginning of the story starts off being upper class, when his restaurant decends and ends up closing as does his status. His social status then changes to lower class but is brought up to middle class the same as all the villagers.

Storyline

One day there is this Italian Chef, he's miserable and this reflects in his meals. As the village people turn against him as he is rude to his customers (he believes he is better than everyone else) he turns into a sad chef. One day the critic comes to to the restaurant and realises where his buisness is going wrong, he sits the chef down and tells him to shut the restaurant down and says open it when you find your inner self. The chef searches for his inner self across far lands and realises that his misery came from the dishes he made and that he was rude to the villagers, he decided that he needed to be re-inspired with cooking, so he helps all the villagers with cooking their meals for free, they then find him happy and eccentric and they help him get his restaurant back, he now lives a happy life in the small village of Townsville asternd him and his customers are happy.


The main moral of the story is help others and they will return the favour. But there are also small moral stories such as, treat everyone equal you are not higher or lower as anyone so treat them the same. Furthermore; be yourself.


Costume Ideas

As we are looking at childs theatre we have to make sure that the approiate costume fits the style of the play. Childs theatre stereotypically has bright colourful costumes which is easy for children to understand who is what character and what they play. As we are representing a chef, we have decided to go for the typical chef hat, so children can recognise the iconography of chefs usually portrayed in childrens shows, theatre and programmes. We have decided not to use bright colours even thoguh it will attract childrens eyes, it may be hard for them to understand what sort of hat it is if it isnt in the traditional white.

We needed to make sure that the hat would be suitable for movement and not fall off. This is always a task when hats and wigs are used in performances. A way around this can be fasten the hat using hair grips to the actors hair however the hat is made so that it will fit comfortable on their head.

In a ideal world i wanted to wrap to make it all out of white material. However, as we were on a budget a way around this was to make the base of the hat out of white card, this still does work affectively and makes the hat stay up right. The card is wrapped in white material. We then tried a few ideas and ways to get the hat to stay upright and to make it big and poofy. The first way we tried was by blowing up a balloon and fastening it to the card. However in the middle of me fastening it to the card it popped and i feared that this could happen on stage especially under hot lights, this could be a serious safety hazard. Furthermore, as its a costume for childrens theatre the last thing you want is to scare the audience which a balloon popping. So i then thought about scrunched up newspaper, but comprimised with one big sheet of plastic then scrunched into the correct shape for a chef hat. We will then wrap the plastic in white material so it has the affect of a chef hat.


On the left is a photo of our layout and of our hat, if we were sewing the hat then i would have drawn out all the templates for each different part of the hat. The diagram shows what materials were used and where on the hat.

Artistic Policy's.

National Theatre Artistic Policy -

The National Theatre is central to the creative life of the country. In its three theatres on the South Bank in London, it presents an eclectic mix of new plays and classics, with seven or eight productions in repertory at any one time. It re-energises the great traditions of the British stage and expands the horizons of audiences and artists alike. It aspires to reflect in its repertoire the diversity of UK culture, and through touring, the National shares its work with audiences in the UK and around the world.

DV8 Artistic Policy -

DV8 Physical Theatre's work is about taking risks, aesthetically and physically, about breaking down the barriers between dance and theatre and, above all, communicating ideas and feelings clearly and unpretentiously. It is determined to be radical yet accessible, and to take its work to as wide an audience as possible.

DV8 is motivated by artistic inspiration and creative need: these, rather than financial, organisational and touring demands dictate the creation of new works.

Great emphasis is placed on the process by which new work is created. The company has fought successfully for funding to cover lengthy research and development periods in order to maintain rigorous artistic integrity and quality in each new project. The focus of the creative approach is on reinvesting dance with meaning, particularly where this has been lost through formalised techniques.

DV8's work inherently questions the traditional aesthetics and forms which pervade both modern and classical dance, and attempts to push beyond the values they reflect to enable discussion of wider and more complex issues.

DV8 (Dance and Video 8)'s strong commitment to film and video continues. This reflects its ongoing interest in how two primarily visual media can enhance one another and reach a crossover audience from within both forms.

The company's reputation relies on pushing its own boundaries and on the constant re-examination of the roles and relationships of men and women in our society. Its policy insists on the importance of challenging our preconceptions of what dance can, and should, address.

Greenwich Theatre Artistic Policy-

Some companies use Greenwich Theatre as a home, using the office, rehearsal space, performance space; some companies use us as an artistic sounding board and an outside eye in rehearsal; some use us as an industry mentor, taking guidance on everything from prop-buying to touring strategy. All are enhanced by their relationship with Greenwich Theatre.

That ethos runs throughout their work, whether it means casting exceptional graduate performers in their Christmas shows, creating showcase moments for young companies as part of the Greenwich Children’s Theatre Festival, running an annual Emerging Artists festival or ensuring that the seasonal programme on stage features a number of high profile performances by emerging companies.

Children's Theatre -

Theatre for young audiences is a huge part of their work at Greenwich Theatre. In 2008 with support from Royal Greenwich and the Docklands Light Railway they launched the Greenwich Children’s Theatre Festival with 10 performances across 2 venues. In 2012 the festival included 60 performances across 8 venues.

With ten companies currently working with the theatre as associate, supported or developing companies, no less than four are working to create new theatre for young audiences. Their Inspiring Spaces programme focuses on creating accessible family theatre in non-theatrical space.

Greenwich Theatre on Tour-

Greenwich Theatre is one of London finest off-West End theatres, but the company is far more than the building. Their beliefs in pursuing excellence in theatre and supporting emerging work transcends the bricks and mortar of our building, so whether they are offering mentoring support to a new company, creating a new piece of theatre on a boat or curating a borough-wide festival, their ethos is the same. This has now developed further with the launch of Greenwich Theatre On Tour, a programme of work which has seen them work with emerging companies to co-produce theatre at a range of national and international venues, with performances in London, Brighton, Edinburgh, Dublin, Madrid and New York in the last two years.

Ultimately, theatre holds something for everyone, and Greenwich Theatre is promotes equality of opportunity across all aspects of its operation. This applies to audiences, performers, practitioners, young participants and staff alike. In education, they strive to use theatre to tackle the barriers which prevent young people from accessing education, employment or training. For theatre makers they strive to offer developmental opportunities unavailable elsewhere. In programming, they offer a broad, diverse selection of productions to satisfy a wide audience. For staff greenwich theatre encourages training and personal development, both inside and outside of the industry. 

  

Akram Khan RUSH Review

Akram Khan RUSH Review

Khan won the Jerwood Foundation Award for choreography last year and its easy to see why. Rush is stylised around the idea of skydiving/ free falling this is the motif for the dance. Akram Khan combines a form of Classical Indian dance (named khatak) with contemporary dance creating his own hybrid dance. 

To show the idea of free falling, Khan incorporated the physical movements of sky diving into the dance movement, using a parachute-shaped arm line, reaching across to the left side of the body to pull the chord. This is shown only once in the piece at the start so it shows that Akram has thought through every move to capture the true free falling effect. Khan wanted to explore each sense that is used when free falling; look, touch, smell, feel and taste. The music used in Rush was composed by Andy Cowton.

Dressed in black, the three stand facing the audience in a triangle formation as the music begins like a soft distant airplane engine. In Khatak, the main movement is focused above the waist, from the chest, arms and hands - and here the dancers perform the gestures and motifs either in sequence or together, calling out rhythm changes in the traditional way. The music in the piece was fitting for the dance in every way and this shows how closely the pair worked to together in order to create the best dance and musical  colaboration. Khan was interested in the contrast of stillness and speed, he portrayed this by using different tempos within the entire dance. He also researched thouroughly the spacing as when free falling your body movement is very restricted because of the forces hitting your body from different angles  so you also can experience feelings of claustrophobia and slow restricted movement.