Panic. (4th November)

For some reason this semester I keep having massive panics over everything little thing I do. To sort this out I have asked Niki for a meeting to keep myself organised with my work; at the moment I am struggling to manage so this should hopefully help. I also came out the previous meeting feeling that I knew 0.015% about this process that I should do. To rectify this I have decided to really crack down on reading about the devising process.

As I was so stressed that evening I spent all night listening to the 'Book of Devising Theatre' by Frantic Assembly, are planning to fit in as much reading as possible around the devising process. To work around my memory problems I often will listen to my books whilst walking outside as I seem to retain the information better! Little did I know that, not only would this book transform our devising process but also that it would completely inspire my approach and build my enthusiasm for this theatre project. Everything they said just seemed to correlate with my core belief's and I love there mantra in regards to there work ethic. They seemed to get a spark of an idea, then at the end of the day have it up on it's feet.

There was a segment early on in that book that started talking about how the company used music in there performances - dependent on audience also - to rally up the audience, calm them or grab there attention before the piece started. At one in particular, which had older spectators, the company began to run the show themselves before the piece actually started properly. Apparently people "began to yell furiously" (Graham & Hoggett, 2014, pg 18) at the fact they couldn't hear because of the music and to turn it down. Immediately you have the audience gripped; in that way you have won. You have collaborators rather than spectators which is also part of there ethos.

I rang Kane up straight away as I think this is definitely something we can use in our performance! I was extremely excited as I am aware that the beginning of the performance starts as soon as people leave there homes. Every single external factor alters the space in people's mind's on how they take in and process a performance. I think we could utilize the space outside the theatre, to not only help the audience get in the right headspace, but also to draw the audience in. Prepare them to the fact we will be playing with there use of sight and sound. I also thought that the idea of having someone saying something really important; and then playing something over the top (maybe not purposefully) would be really good at gauging a reaction from the audience. It will recreate the feeling one get's when partially deaf and all noises heard within there hearing aid process in the brain at once.

Another part of the book I am going to tell the group about in the next session is a part about the rehearsal process. It speaks about the difference between dancing training and acting training. As a musician I can relate to the dancing training more. For an actor, it discusses how they like to skip straight into the performance and feel uncomfortable and exposed on stage. For the dancer, they prefer the rehearsal process and flourish in that environment building up technique from scratch yet feel vulnerable and exposed on the stage. After people getting all rallied up in rehearsal, not wanting to show Niki anything, saying were all not good enough, if we had so and so in the group; actually it all bottles down to insecurity within the process. There is nothing wrong with building up from scratch in front of someone else, and that is in fact how you are meant to learn! Hopefully, if I make the group aware of this, instead of pointing fingers and blaming; we can have words of positive affirmations and support.

Bibliography 

• Cronshaw, A. (2015). Review: Golem at HOME, Manchester. The Manchester Evening News. [online] Available at: http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/whats-on/theatre-news/review-golem-at-home-manchester-10220839 [Accessed 12 Oct. 2015].
• Digital Theatre, (2013) Unmissable Culture - Frantic Assembly's Lovesong Exclusive Clip. Available from: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e_ZF6R3awyI> [Accessed 2 November 2015].
• DistantMirrors, (2012). Eric Satie - Gymnopédie No.1. [video].
• Festspiele, S. (2015). FestspielFenster: Suzanne Andrade über „Golem". [video] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jz2Gmq0fAis [Accessed 12 Oct. 2015].
• Glendinning, A. 2015. Serial Killer dubbed 'The Pusher' is killing city's gay men by pushing them into canal's, says author. The Mirror [online]. Available from: http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/serial-killer-dubbed-the-pusher-6318233 [Accessed August 28, 2015].
• Graham, S. and Hoggett, S. 2014. The Frantic Assembly Book of Devising Theatre 2nd ed. Oxon: Routledge.
• Hesketh, S. and Pye, D. 2015. EXCLUSIVE: 'Find out who killed our sons!' New canal death sparks fears The Pusher's back. Daily Star [online]. Available from: http://www.dailystar.co.uk/news/latest-news/424390/Manchester-canal-Pusher-killer-students-deaths-tragic-parents-find-murderer [Accessed August 16, 2015]. 
• Johnstone, K. 1979. 'Impro' Improvisation and Theatre. Great Britain: Methuen Drama.
• McAuley, G. 1999. Space in performance. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.
• Malerman, J. 2014. BirdBox. London: HarperVoyager.
• Marshall, L. 2002. The body speaks. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
• National Theatre Discover, (2015) Frantic Assembly Masterclass: Building Blocks for Devising. Available from: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gUqZPfGIX6U> [Accessed 2 November 2015].
• No Author, 2015. 'The Pusher' 60 bodies dragged from Manchester Canal, Serial Killer Rumoured. RT Question More [online]. Available from: https://www.rt.com/uk/222655-serial-killer-manchester-canals/ [Accessed August 15, 2015].
• Rhys, E. (2015). Golem, HOME. [online] The Manchester Review. Available at: http://www.themanchesterreview.co.uk/?p=5099 [Accessed 12 Oct. 2015].
• Robkardani, (2009) Enya - Sail Away (Orinoco Flow). Available from: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=glyErSTQrDI> [Accessed 3 November 2015].
• Rodgers, T. 2015. The Pusher: Channel 4 documentary to investigate Manchester canal 'Serial Killer' claim. Salford News [online]. Available from: http://salfordonline.com/6621-the-pusher-channel-4-documentary-to-investigate-manchester-canal-serial-killer-claim.html [Accessed August 24, 2015].
• TheCornerShopPR, (2011) Steven Hoggett and Scott Graham - Lovesong- Frantic Assembly. Available from: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UF-22alcjAU> [Accessed 2 November 2015].
• Warnervoduk. 2014. The science of sleep. [Online]. [Date Accessed: 13th October, 2015]. Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TibGeB7NHIo
• Wheatstone, R. 2015. 'The Pusher' professor stands by canal serial killer claims and says bereaved families share his fears. Manchester Evening News [online]. Available from: http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/the-pusher-professor-stands-canal-8450695 [Accessed August 15, 2015]. 
• Youtube, (2011). 4 Bar and Rising. [online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hpatthkyCmk [Accessed 2 Nov. 2015].

Poster problems, flying balls of energy and Enya. (3rd November)

This lesson did get off to a fiery start when I arrived. Basically, I had been in work till about 2:00am. When I arrived home I found that Jack had made a Facebook Page and poster without consulting the rest of the group. This wouldn't have been a massive problem but the description of the page was completely opposite to what we were going for! He had put that 'it was a story on deaf and blindness and how it affected the person and there family members'. As I have also studied product design, from an advertising view, I felt the poster did not represent what we were going for in regards to the piece.

Our piece is not dark and this poster is hinting almost at only blindness.

It is also bad practice to use more than two fonts on a poster. 

I asked him to take it down and that we would have a group discussion the next day about it. Obviously, he was trying to be nice and had put hardwork in but people should not have been making group decisions like that unless everyone had agreed. Focusing on the theme of 'denying' I also had a look at texture based posters that would represent a modern and neutral piece whilst been eye catching. 

I like the neutral aspects of this poster, quite natural, 

eye catching, have to really look to work out what it is. 

Like the fact its using other images you can't 

see properly.

I like the fact it is newspaper; denying the audience of what the paper says?

Blurry Vision

Love how this is amost sensory based.

Not allowing people to see full picture.

Similar to first picture, natural looking, hard to read,

only problem is, is that it looks more like a surreal performance poster.

Overall, I think Kane in particular was shocked at my reaction to the poster as I would not back down on keeping the old one. It is the first time I had actually stood up for myself in the group; I observe and can get over powered by bigger characters. Luckily, Kane and Jack then understood where I was coming from and I said in our spare time, outside of rehearsal, if Jack wanted to make another he could and then I would get my brother (who is very good at media) to take a look at it. 

Although the session did get off to a bit of a bumpy start, we actually managed to really turn it around! Kane, went through some of the idea's they had been discussing ways to manage the circuit. We did this practically and practised a mini obstacle course around the room. We had fun playing with the tempo's, speeds and our different reactions to each other. Unfortunately, after this we lost our rehearsal space as, yet again, the rooms had not been booked out. We ended up in a classroom, along the main teaching corridor again. This actually ended up working in our favour however as we had the loud sound system we could play around with. 

As we had good access to the sound system, and felt we didn't really have much planned for the deafness aspects of our piece, we started to play around with how you can perform a song without sound. The song 'Sail Away' by Enya was then suggested by Kane has it has both very distinct and interesting use of rhythms (robkardani, 2009). It is also very upbeat and is about overcoming problems. Immediately in my head I had thoughts of people running, dancing and creating interesting shapes around the rooms with rhythms. Kane then had the idea that we could visually make it obvious one person couldn't hear; it would be everyone else's job to bring the music alive visually so that the person could join in. Jack and I then continued doing movements around the room and at one point I just spontaneously threw a ball of energy at Kane. This was learned from performance skills in first year. This then spiralled into a build of everyone jumping round the room with each other; our facial expressions were also really interesting, childish and playful. I then started blowing the 'ball of energy' to Kane and he rolled it down his body and kicked it off his foot. Like 4 bar and rising we were trying to really play with sound and control it ourselves. 

We then decided to see if we could bring this to life without the music on. We all learnt a little sequence each and mine was the spiralling rhythm within the piece. At this moment, we realised performing a piece without sound will take a lot of rehearsal practice; energy wise it is hard to capture the emotions of a song when its just in your head. It is also very important we stay 100% committed to the performance as it will be awkward to watch and people may laugh at out of discomfort; it will only work if we don't feel uncomfortable by it. Without the music, it was harder to keep the energy going we had previously but this is something we can work on. Visually to an audience though, I think it would be an interesting thing to both watch and experience. 

After this, we managed to have a quick catch up with Niki, who reiterated again on the corridor that we really need to get things up on there feet. I totally agree with this as we are waiting precious time 'discussing' good idea's that may not work practically. It hinders our time of maybe exploring and finding other avenue's to go down! She also said for us to have a look more into devising process's and how other companies come up with there work. I though this was a great idea and something I am going to look into. I felt a bit silly that, although looking at physical theatre books and work, I had not actually looked into the actual devising process as much. 

Bibliography 

• Cronshaw, A. (2015). Review: Golem at HOME, Manchester. The Manchester Evening News. [online] Available at: http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/whats-on/theatre-news/review-golem-at-home-manchester-10220839 [Accessed 12 Oct. 2015].
• Digital Theatre, (2013) Unmissable Culture - Frantic Assembly's Lovesong Exclusive Clip. Available from: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e_ZF6R3awyI> [Accessed 2 November 2015].
• DistantMirrors, (2012). Eric Satie - Gymnopédie No.1. [video].
• Festspiele, S. (2015). FestspielFenster: Suzanne Andrade über „Golem". [video] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jz2Gmq0fAis [Accessed 12 Oct. 2015].
• Glendinning, A. 2015. Serial Killer dubbed 'The Pusher' is killing city's gay men by pushing them into canal's, says author. The Mirror [online]. Available from: http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/serial-killer-dubbed-the-pusher-6318233 [Accessed August 28, 2015].
• Hesketh, S. and Pye, D. 2015. EXCLUSIVE: 'Find out who killed our sons!' New canal death sparks fears The Pusher's back. Daily Star [online]. Available from: http://www.dailystar.co.uk/news/latest-news/424390/Manchester-canal-Pusher-killer-students-deaths-tragic-parents-find-murderer [Accessed August 16, 2015]. 
• Johnstone, K. 1979. 'Impro' Improvisation and Theatre. Great Britain: Methuen Drama.
• McAuley, G. 1999. Space in performance. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.
• Malerman, J. 2014. BirdBox. London: HarperVoyager.
• Marshall, L. 2002. The body speaks. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
• National Theatre Discover, (2015) Frantic Assembly Masterclass: Building Blocks for Devising. Available from: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gUqZPfGIX6U> [Accessed 2 November 2015].
• No Author, 2015. 'The Pusher' 60 bodies dragged from Manchester Canal, Serial Killer Rumoured. RT Question More [online]. Available from: https://www.rt.com/uk/222655-serial-killer-manchester-canals/ [Accessed August 15, 2015].
• Rhys, E. (2015). Golem, HOME. [online] The Manchester Review. Available at: http://www.themanchesterreview.co.uk/?p=5099 [Accessed 12 Oct. 2015].
• Robkardani, (2009) Enya - Sail Away (Orinoco Flow). Available from: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=glyErSTQrDI> [Accessed 3 November 2015].
• Rodgers, T. 2015. The Pusher: Channel 4 documentary to investigate Manchester canal 'Serial Killer' claim. Salford News [online]. Available from: http://salfordonline.com/6621-the-pusher-channel-4-documentary-to-investigate-manchester-canal-serial-killer-claim.html [Accessed August 24, 2015].
• TheCornerShopPR, (2011) Steven Hoggett and Scott Graham - Lovesong- Frantic Assembly. Available from: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UF-22alcjAU> [Accessed 2 November 2015].
• Warnervoduk. 2014. The science of sleep. [Online]. [Date Accessed: 13th October, 2015]. Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TibGeB7NHIo
• Wheatstone, R. 2015. 'The Pusher' professor stands by canal serial killer claims and says bereaved families share his fears. Manchester Evening News [online]. Available from: http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/the-pusher-professor-stands-canal-8450695 [Accessed August 15, 2015]. 
• Youtube, (2011). 4 Bar and Rising. [online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hpatthkyCmk [Accessed 2 Nov. 2015].