Drama - Studying 'women of courage'.

We then started work on Edith Cavell starting with pair work of Edith hearing the news of the attack on Brussels, her home town. This helped me to understand what Edith and her mother would have been feeling. It helped me see what was expected of her and how hard it was for her to leave her mother behind if she went to be a nurse. The second task was forum theatre with the whole class, changing between the characters of Edith and her mother discussing whether Edith should go home to help or not. This helped me further to understand the emotions running through both of them in this time and also showed me lots of reasons for and against Edith going home. The third task was in pairs of Edith being visited by the Princess. This showed me the Princess's passion to help the allied soldiers and the confidence she had to go to a stranger's house and ask Edith to risk her life to help. It also showed me Edith's bravery to agree to help the princess even though she was a Red Cross nurse and wasn't allowed to take sides. She was brave enough to not follow the traditional roles of society, but her brain and her heart. For task four, we did a thought tunnel through the whole class, everyone being villagers from the town where Edith lived. This helped show me how in those days everyone would have different opinions on what Edith was doing, changed constantly by gossip. It showed me how no one knew what was happening and the power of gossip. Next, we did a thought tap and tableau of Edith's arrest. The thought tap made us understand more about how the character would have felt in that situation. It really made me think about how I would have felt if I was that person. The tableau made me think of who would be in the hospital at a time like this and where they would be positioned, whether they would jump to save a person they love or hide themselves. The last task we did in pairs was of Edith's meeting with a chaplain before she was killed. This helped me understand how she was feeling before she was killed, how she was unafraid and knew she had helped saved peoples lives.

The last woman we did was Halina Birenbaum. The first three tasks of; Halina and her family hiding in an underground bunker, soldiers breaking down the doors, and the families on their journey to the camp, were spontaneous improvisations. They helped me to feel what Halina and her family would have felt as I had no time to think of what to act, but only to react as I would if I was in that situation. They helped me understand the fear that would be running through Halina and her family and to see what they would be thinking and doing at that time. The fourth task of Halek being beaten helped me to understand first, how fierce and aggressive the German soldiers were by beating Halek for no reason. Second, how tough the camp was to everyone; how they had to be machines e.g. sleep badly, eat very little and work hard. Thirdly, how emotional it was staying in the camps; not being able to do anything but what the capo's say, without being hit or killed. The fifth, sixth and seventh tasks were about their experience with the gas chamber. They were all spontaneous improvisations with the whole class taking part. This helped show me how scared everyone would be in that situation, how the atmosphere would be a mixture of fear and grief, of no one knowing what was going to happen, but everyone suspecting something bad. It showed me what terrifying experiences that Halina had to go through. The last task was in large groups, when Halina saved Hala's life during the selection. It was a narration with a flash back. It showed me how brave Halina was to stick up to the aggressive capo guards, arguing to stay with Hala, against the people who chose whether she lived or died. It showed me the strong passion she had for Hala as a sister and the courage that brought.

Evaluation

From the workshops we did, I learnt that courage can come in many different ways. All three women had courage and all three were in different situations, had different backgrounds, and were of different ages, but all had a passion for something which they stood up for. Joan of Arc became commander of the army, and in her time it was unusual for a woman to have a job over a man, let alone fight. Edith helped allied soldiers escape from Brussels, which was against the people ruling her country, eventually getting her shot. Halina, a child, saved her sister in law by sticking up to the capo during a selection. All of the women broke from the traditional roles of society to show courage. I think I managed to show the period the women came from by thinking about the type of language to use, for example, by not using shortened words; children instead of kids. I used more formal gestures, like the women would have had, rather than the more casual gestures of nowadays. Personally, I thought I was most successful in the improvisations we could practise before hand as I had time to think of how to act and put my ideas forward, so I had more control than if it was spontaneous. The most effective piece of drama I think was Natalie Chambers' group for the first task of Joan, her dream. Although there could have been improvements, the idea was very clever and exactly like a dream is. Everywhere Joan went, someone was standing in front of her, telling her what she had to do, like she couldn't get away from them. It had quite an eerie and scary effect on the audience. Most of the things I contributed towards the tasks affected the atmosphere of the scene; for example, in the first task I came up with the idea of saying the last word of the previous person's line, making it sound unnatural and muddled like a dream, also the idea of standing at different heights. For the first task for Edith Cavell, we came up with an extra role of the radio, as there were three of us instead of in a pair and I helped to decide on what she should say and in what tone a radio presenter would speak in those times. I helped create an anxious atmosphere by pacing around in a worried manner. For the last task we did for Halina Birenbaum, I helped set the characters out so that everyone could be seen from the audience, as people had to stand at different angles making this harder to do. I also helped the people in my group to work out what they would say and when, so that it made sense to the narration.