We created a television report of their walk across no man’s land, and their assassination. We fist did a scene in which only the news reporter spoke. We then repeated the same scene, but added a soundtrack. I felt that the second scene with the soundtrack was much more effective. Because it was an un-naturalistic piece of work, we explored different drama techniques, not having to worry if they fitted in with the context, which is an advantage to doing a un-naturalistic play.
The fist play began by Bosko and Admira bidding farewell to their parents, in the improved version, Bosko says to Admira’s father:
“I would die before I let anything happen to her.”
Which is Ironic, because that is exactly what happens later on in the scene. This creates a stimulating drama piece. In the version with the soundtrack, there is less talk from the news reporter, which creates an unreal atmosphere. During their walk across no mans land. Admira recalls a conversation she had had with one of her friends. As Admira is walking, she speaks her part of the conversation, and is answered by an actor off stage, which creates an effective atmosphere, as if the audience can hear her thoughts. As they are walking, actors shouted things in their direction, most of it abuse and some support. This gave the effect of a whole crowd, even though there were only two actors taking part. This part of the soundtrack emphasizes the situation. In the improved version the news reporter ended it:
“A Serbian boy and a Muslim girl, what love could be more perfect? What love could be more wrong?”
This was an extremely effective line, and bought the scene to a perfect end, as they lay dead on the floor. Leaving the audience with something to think about.
The first task we did in the part of the exam concentrating on the holocaust was a frozen image, depicting the views of a family affected by the holocaust. As a group, we decided that our family would not be Aryan German, but to have roots from Romania. So they had to get away somehow. we wanted to show conflicting views – showing different sides to the story. We portrayed this by using the key element of proximity. the father, who did not want to go into hiding or leave the country, sat behind the rest of the family, arms crossed showing detachment. The uncle, who wanted to go into hiding, was crouched down on the floor, pulling open a trap door leading to a hiding place. The mother wanted to leave the country, and she was standing up straight with her finger pointing in the opposite direction, towards the door and tugging at her daughters arm with a stern look on her face. Three characters had definite opinions, but the daughter was confused and was being torn apart by her family. This was portrayed by her hand over her mouth in awe of the situation, and a look of foreboding in her eyes.
We then had to turn this frozen image into either a starting or ending point to a short improvised scene. We decided to end with our frozen image to create a finalized effect. We started the scene with the completion of Hitler’s speech – which initiated the immediate reactions of all the characters. The rehearsal went very well, all of the actors defined definite character, and views. This made our rehearsal easy and straightforward. I felt that we created a realistic atmosphere with good characterization – believable characters. We purposely ended the play with our frozen image, because it did not end with a definite conclusion. It left it open ended, to stimulate some thought from the audience.
Development Phase
We then got into pairs and improvised a short scene, as either the mother and son, or the father and daughter from the WW1 family. My pair and I worked as the mother and the younger son. I was the mother, and I was trying to explain to the son, how war was not fun and games, but a serious issue. It being a very serious matter because she has not yet heard from her eldest son who went off to war. The son is young and naive and does not understand the significance of the mater. All he thinks is that war is fun. I felt that our performance went very well, we used our rehearsal time well, and because there were only two of us, there were no communication problems. We shared ideas and came up with a very structured scene. Even though we had very little time to create a scene, we still managed to perform confidently and at ease, using the skill of spontaneous improvisation, and working off of each others ideas.
Another pair did the scene with the father and the daughter. I did not feel that this pair worked as well as they could’ve. Their scene had a good idea, and started off well, but then slowly got worse, as they lacked the skill of spontaneous improvisation. There were long pauses, and whispers between the pair. Which took away the element of drama in that scene. It would’ve been improved by using the rehearsal time efficiently and defining set characters, which they also failed to do. This was proven by the way that the characters changed their views and opinions through the play. The father was very strong at the start of the scene, but by the end he was very weak and apologetic, which had no justification.
Another task that we were given was to create an improvisation at the moment the telegram (see Fig R.1) was given to the family.
We were given 1 minute of preparation time, so effectively it was a spontaneous improvisation, as we did not have enough time to discuss the scene. I felt that this was one of the weakest tasks that we did. The mother came from the door, holding the telegram and looking very worried, she hadn’t yet opend it, but expected the worst. The actress who played the mother gave no chance for anyone else to speak in the scene, she sobbed loudly, and no one had a chance to interfere. Our play was cut short, and thankfully so, it was not successful. And none of the other characters portrayed their views on the telegram, due to a lack of communication. But I believe that this brief could’ve been a very good play, but with better team work and a longer rehearsal time.
I wrote two diary entries, one by Admira and one by Bosko. There were written the night before they left their families to go across no man’s land. Here is a sample of Admira’s diary entry:
It’s finally here, the day I have been waiting for, all my life. Me and my love will escape. Finally I will be able to live with, and love my lover safely…
I am so happy that I will be allowed to live with Bosko in peace, but I’m afraid that this wont be the case. I mean, why would they allow me, a Muslim girl, to live in Serbia. If they can accept such a thing, then why is there a war going on?...
Why is Allah letting this happen? why are there never ending obstacles on our path to freedom? In times of help I seek Allah, but where is he?...
I would die for Bosko, but if all these problems are posing us, could it mean that this love isn’t as strong as I thought it was?...
I’ve had many nightmares about no mans land…but what if they aren’t just dreams, is there a hidden message?
Admira starts off optimistic, but then her mood slowly becomes more pessimistic as the diary entry goes on. She then starts to think whether the situation is too good to be true, she wonders why there is a war going on if they would truly let them live in peace over there. She thinks deeper, not just about the problems that are on the surface.
She mentions god several times in her diary entry, this shows that she is a religious girl. But her faith in god is wearing away. We can tell that she is having second thoughts about the whole situation, but tries to put this aside for Bosko. She talks about nightmares, and how she thinks that there is a hidden message, again referring to her religious background – Allah might be telling her that this is not such a good idea through her dreams.
I will talk about the ending of her diary entry later. Here is a excerpt from a diary entry that I imagined Bosko could’ve written the night before:
Tonight, tonight is the night I decide what to take with me, to start my life anew with my love…I am positive that this is the right choice.
Why must love be such a hardship these days, what are we doing that is so wrong?...
I put on a brave face, whenever she comes to me with her worries - I try to be the strong one,. To protect her. But everything she says does make sense, she has a point, our happiness is not guaranteed. She seems to be losing faith in her god, and I really don’t want to be the reason behind that…I would die before I let harm find her.
Again, he starts off optimistic like Admira, but then starts to think about the problems that they might face. He mentions the obstacles (hardships) like Admira, this shows that they are thinking in the same way, therefore a perfect couple. Again, he is having second thoughts about leaving for Serbia, and he mentions that he doesn’t want to be the reason that Admira is losing faith in her god, proving that Admira’s religion is known. He mentions how he would die before he let harm get to her, and this is pure irony, as this is what happens later on in the story. I mentioned how Admira and Bosko thought in the same way, and how they appeared as one in the way they reason and contemplate issues, and so the ending of both their diary entries were the same:
I want to be strong for Admira/Bosko. That’s what S/he needs, s/he needs support. It’s really selfish of me to think about my problems, I should be thinking of Admira/ Bosko. Im sure everything will be ok, as long as we are together.
Its very effective ending both their diary entries in the same way. It’s strange that they ended it in exactly the same way, even though they were not together, but it proves that they are the perfect match.
I feel that this task depend my understanding of these characters, and helped me understand why they did the things that they did. And helped me with the tasks that we did subsequently.
Forum is of Roman origin and it is a form of public theatre. Its about giving as many people as possible a chance to change character views. Forum theatre develops ones understanding of a play or scene. One can add ones own ideas and conventions into a scene to enhance the authenticity of the characters. Also, forum theatre is an excellent form of communication. Watching and listening to other peoples ideas can develop ones understanding even further. We used forum theatre with the characters of Admira and Bosko.
We created a forum theatre piece on the discussion Admira and Bosko would’ve had when deciding whether to leave or not. And then introducing the parents into the scene, and informing them of the decision. I volunteered and I played the character of Admira.
The scene opened as Bosko suggested the idea, Admira was reluctant at first, and this was shown by staring at Bosko, without saying a word, as if deep in thought. Bosko kept insisting, and Admira gave in to him. I felt that this forum theater piece went very well considering the total lack of preparation, there were many relevant suggestions from the audience, and when they were taken on board, the scene significantly improved. For example, the scene wasn’t going anywhere, Bosko was insisting that they leave – and Admira wasn’t reacting, she wanted to stay. One of the suggestions was that Bosko should try the guilt trip on Admira, because we had established that Admira was devoted and truly in love with Bosko, this worked. It showed how she didn’t want to do anything that upset him.
The parents were then introduced into the forum, and we experienced the problem of blocking. But a suggestion changed that. Up until the point of the suggestion Admira’s mother was the only parent who was speaking, expressing her rejection for the situation, this blocked any advances to come to an agreement. Then Admira turned to her father (suggestion) and said ‘Daddy?’, so we learn here that Admira is her daddy’s girl, and he will do anything for her, and this is how we advanced to the stage of approval from Admira’s parents.
But there was different story with Bosko’s mother, the actress blocked all advances to an agreement and because she created such a strong and defiant character, it was impossible to change her mind and make her agree. No suggestions from the audience were realistic, so it was an inconclusive end. The main problem that was experienced, was blocking form the actors in the forum. In addition, it would have improved if they were more easy going and took on board the suggestions that were made.
Evaluative Phase
We were given the task of creating a frozen image – a memorial of the dead from all wars, from the perspective of the WW1 family and Admira and Bosko’s families.
My group’s memorial picture involved, one person lying on the floor dead, and people grieving over the dead body. With two people consoling the grieving characters. Originally we had one person saluting in the background, but we decided to change that because it seemed out of place, and inconsiderate to the mourners. But now I feel that that was a mistake, the saluting person would have shown another side to the story, and would have made it look like a memorial to brave soldiers, rather than a group of mourners.
It sums up one side of the war. The pain and the suffering that the families of the soldiers go through. So effectively it summed up what both families felt and experienced. But that was it, it did not show any other side to the story. During WW1 there were many posters to encourage young men to join the army:
Fig E.1
And this would’ve been represented had we included the person saluting, but we chose to remove that from our final image, which as I expressed before was a mistake. And it applied to the war with Admira and Bosko, because their families were grieving over their death. But overall I believe that our memorial was realistic, and it was very emotional, even though it put across one emotion, it had a strong impact on the audience.
We had to give captions to the frozen memorial images of other groups, but we were not given a caption for ourselves.
Another group’s frozen memorial image was a particularly good one, as it portrayed many sides of the story, and expressed emotions in a very visual and powerful way.
There were several dead people on the floor, sad onlookers (mourners), a saluting person. And one of the actors standing on a chair looking over them all, a non-naturalistic character, I thought this was a very thought-provoking and powerful element to the memorial. It is unclear who that character was, could’ve been peace, god or the angel of death. But it was a very interesting image. It showed many sides of the story and different viewpoints and emotions. The dead people showed the victims of the war, the loss and the depression that war brings. The mourners showed the suffering that the families of the victims go through, despair, agony and melancholy. The saluting person portrays the positive side to the story, that the victims have died for their country, the patriotism that everyone desires. And the most effective and expressive constituent, the god like figure. The inscription given to this image was:
‘May you rest in peace’
I believe that this was the best image as it was very creative and successfully manages to portray all sides of the story.
Our second piece of forum theatre was on the holocaust. We took a couple, one whom was an German (Aryan) and one who was not. At first the characters did not have definite view points, the German was the female and she was very upset at the thought she might have to leave her love. And the non-German was the male. And he was also upset, but took a different approach. He tried to ask her to let him come in hiding at her house. She did not want this to happen, and he got angry at her response. This showed the audience that the non-German did not think about this rationally, he’s only thinking about saving himself, not about the fact that if she is found harboring a criminal, she will get into a lot of trouble. She tries to tell him this, but he just wont listen, and tells her that she would is she loved him, the guilt trip, as was used in the Admira and Bosko forum theatre. He started to get angry, and the female was upset. The actors showed good improvisation skills, because the characterization was clear. There were defined views and opinions. And the audience could see that. But they did a great deal of blocking, which is the same as with the other piece of forum theatre that we did. Their argument was going nowhere, they both held up their side and didn’t let go. Neither character gave in to the other one, so there was another inconclusive end. It had many similarities to the forum theatre with Admira and Bosko, these included the problem of blocking and the inconclusive end.
Both the forum theatre pieces depend my understanding of the consequences of war. The break up of loved ones and family is always a consequence as I witnessed with Admira and Bosko who had to leave their families behind, and Bosko who left his mother without her blessing.
And the breakup of the love between the German and non-German lovers. The forum theatre proved to me that the overall consequences are the same with slight variations.
I felt that the Admira and Bosko forum theatre went better than the holocaust one, but I believe this was because we had more information about Admira and Bosko’s attitudes and beliefs, whereas in the holocaust one, they were new characters we had never met before.
Our last task was a devised piece on the holocaust. We were given the stimulus, ‘This train revised’, a song by the Indigo Girls. We decided that we wanted to use the song as a soundtrack, and to make our play a non-naturalistic one. We used our rehearsal time well, and we started off by brainstorming ideas, and things we thought would be really good in the play. We decided to do it in mime. Because the play was non-naturalistic it was hard to go wrong, we chose to do several mini scenes, which portrayed the horrors of the holocaust.
It started off with a scene in a shop, a customer was dragged off by the Nazi police to a concentration camp, then the second scene involved the characters in two rows, swaying as if on a train, then two of these characters changed into Nazi policemen (non-naturalistic) and dragged the rest off the train. We then split into two groups, one crouched down while the other performed a short torture scene. Then they crouched down, and the other group performed a short slave labor scene. We all then gathered in the middle and were gassed in a chamber. And then the finale, the characters formed an orderly line, and got out pieces of paper, reading:
- Dancer
- Teacher
- Healer
- Runner
- Thinker
Which was taken from the stimulus. And were shot dead, even though there was no apparent assassin on stage. Then the last character whom was not shot walked through the dead bodies expressionless.
There were many connections to the stimulus, we used the song as the whole soundtrack, so it made a very apparent connection. We took many lines from the song and turned them into ideas:
“This train is bound for glory.”
We created the effect of a train off to the concentration camps. Glory, hidden meaning, glory on the long-term bringing light to their ethnic minorities in the future.
Another idea was triggered by:
“Doctor Doctor
Are you unkind.”
This gave us the idea of the human testing – the torture. Another idea, which was the best one we had:
“Here is a dancer
here is a teacher
here is a runner…”
“here is potential gone for good.”
This gave us the idea of killing the people, the potential. The mime was a good idea because it emphasized the soundtrack, and made it more effective…and non-naturalistic. We chose to do a non-naturalistic play because it meant that the actions and body language could be exaggerated to get the point across. We could also show many different scenes involving many characters even though there were only six actors in total. A mime is much more effective in portraying a dream like performance.
We could’ve developed our play further by having more time to practise, which would allow us to run through the play and see what additions need to be made. We didn’t get a chance to run through our play, despite that I thought that it went very well.
I believed that we had created a genuinely good pierce of drama work, and my thoughts were confirmed when we received very positive feedback from the audience and teacher.
Another group used a very interesting drama technique in their play. A person was telling a story to a group of people and as she was retelling the story the people got up and started acting it out, a visual memory. It was extremely effective and original. It created an unreal atmosphere and was a powerful piece of drama. It was done in a flowing manner so the audience was not confused, and managed to comprehend that this was a visual memory…a very hard thing to do, but they successfully managed it.
In conclusion I believe this has been a very successful exam, I have benefited a lot from it, for my drama lessons in the future as well as my life.