Meeting with Niki & Gym Rehearsal (30th October)

Due to the fact Jack had Alana all day and Sarah was moving house, our meeting on the Thursday unfortunately got cancelled. I decided to spend the time delving further into "The Body Speaks" by Lorna Marshall.  I managed to find a great section on what is known as 'Mirror Neuron's' which is the name of the process behind the audience actually feeling what the performers manifest in themselves on stage; "the watchers echoes the breathing and muscular tension that consumes the performers body"(Marshall, 2008). The whole book has been a fascinating read but I feel that, as our main dramatic intention is for the audience to 'feel' what it is like to be deaf or blind, that this is something we should really focus on when it comes to performing. Just been stood on stage manifesting an emotion can evoke a feeling from an audience. I feel everything we do in this performance, we must feel with out entire bodies and being.

The next rehearsal when we arrived, everyone was very frantic and stressed if I am honest. We had a meeting with Niki and none of us felt like we had made substantial progress; this set us up for a bad rehearsal. We struggled to find a room again as the the person in our group in charge of booking our room again did not do it. The room we got was full of tables and chairs from a seminar so the first thing I got everyone to do is to move the tables and chairs to the side of the room so that we had some proper space to rehearse. We then put on 'Call on me' a few times and did a very high energy warm to get us set up for the session.

After this, we got stuck straight into working on the part of the performance in which we would perform with the auditorium pitch blackness; this let's the audience experience fully, what it is like to watch a performance with only sight and audio description. As Jack can't sit still, we noticed that at one point he was rocking forwards and backwards on his chair and to be honest, it sounded slightly suggestive. Kane then had the brainwave that instead of having the piece quite comedic and imaginative, we could have the movement sound sexual when actually it is people innocently working out at the gym. I laid on the floor doing sit up's, the breathy sound was natural as I find them physically exerting. Kane was doing star jumps slapping his hands on his legs on the way down, Jack did what he was doing previously as with your eyes closed it mimicked a treadmill and Sarah was pretending to lift weights. At one point Sarah pretended to drop her weight on her foot and 'scream'. We thought it would get across the points of missing out, being humiliated but in a comic and lighthearted way so that it is not to heavy that people don't pay attention.

I was highly embarrassed this week though as we did not go and see Niki at our allotted slot. As a piano player, I know the importance of practicing in front of teacher and that the developmental process happens better when you are observed. I really tried to stand my ground but was overpowered by two people in the group. Next time, I will just go myself instead of cancelling it. Seems very unprofessional and rude. It is something I will never allow again in group work.

Bibliography 

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