Edward- Well, a little late. She was about two. The thing was she didn’t seem to have any- sense of territory?
We marked the moment by using a sound collage of a ticking sound and heavy breathing this was to build up an atmosphere and tension that the interviewer created. Another example of when I used marking a moment in a piece was in lesson 4 when we were looking at Jean’s monologue. In this piece we used still imagery and movements, which was a quick effective motion that showed the power of Jean’s thoughts and emotions. Also in this lesson we created a nightmare scene in-groups of five, which communicated the fears of Jean being answered. We used dramatic tension to build up the emotions and create suspense between the characters and the audience could easily see the friction between each of the characters as well. We ended this piece with a sound collage of ‘ your going to Broadmoor mummy’. Jean then hit Verity. This was a sharp movement that was an effective way of ending the piece, as the audience was not suspecting it.
To develop characters, we used hot seating. This is a technique is used to deepen the understanding of a character by being asked questions. In lesson 5 we hot seated Verity this was effective as we could see how other people informed the audience of her feelings and emotions. Asking simple questions that you felt was appropriate and you felt you needed to know to develop your character more and successfully. We also did this in lesson 4 but looked at another character ‘Jean’, to get a better understanding of her character fired questions at her. This helped our understanding as it gave us a deeper view of Jean’s emotions and struggles that she has to live with and survive with. It also up us develop a piece of text by letting us look closer at the monologue and find the real meanings of the words she said.
We also concentrated on Narrating; in ‘Find me’ there is a narrator.
The role of the narrator is to inform the audience of what is happening in the performance and to remind the audience that this is a true story and what actually happened to Verity. The narrator introduces the play and what happen to Verity and why she is in the position she is in. The narrator talks to the audience in 4th wall and informs the audience of Verity’s future. The narrator performs the same monologue at the end of play. This reminds the audience once again that this is a true story of a young child that went through all this pain and suffering. During lesson 5 in-groups of 6 we created a piece of drama using the monologue. With the idea of gossip we created a piece that used the text as guidelines but had a realistic twist on how people get the facts wrong and make the story more interesting. We used dramatic tension in this piece when characters began to taunt someone about her past. Using the words ‘neetz’ we built up an atmosphere and tension between characters.
Still imagery was also used during the unit; this was used as a device to mark the moment or for another piece to carry on. We created a piece in fours, using a scene from ‘find me’. The setting was the village scene, were verity made a village, named it hers and named her self the protector We open the piece by someone naming each person as a place i.e. church, houses etc. Verity became a sculptor and positioned people to create shapes of the buildings. Using a sound collage of ‘its my village’ we built up the atmosphere and tension between Verity and the buildings. This was effective as it portrayed the image Verity was the maker and protector of the village to the audience.
Development
During this unit we spent a number of lessons on Jean’s monologue page 24 which explains Jean’s emotions and struggles that she endures throughout her life with her daughter Verity. Also how she copes with her troubles and her reactions to Verity and her family.
The monologue is very effective in its self as it has different stages of emotions and really creates an image of a struggling mother who is looking for a way out of her nightmare life. We used a number of different levels with Jean as the main eye focus with Verity sitting underneath her. Either side of Jean was blank characters who performed images/symbols from what Jean was saying e.g. ‘maybe if I became an alcoholic’ the blank characters performed a sharp movement which represented someone downing a drink. We used sharp movements, which was a quick effective motion that showed the power of Jean’s thoughts and emotions. Using a very strong tone when performing Jean and changed pace and changed the volume of the monologue to show unstable emotions and the pressure that Jean felt. We used a pause when the blank characters performed their sharp movements and there was a moment of stillness before Jean started to talk again. This created the feeling of despair and loneliness, as no one was there to help.
The staging we used was very simple but created stages of Jean’s emotions.
Jean sits on the higher platform, as she is the main focus of the piece.
The blank characters that perform symbols of Jean’s emotions stand on a lower level, as they are her feelings for Verity
Verity sits between the emotions below Jean as she is the cause for Jean’s despair and is a key character in this piece. Verity performed movements and vocal skills that portrayed Verity as a character and was noticeable.
We used lighting in the monologue piece to create an atmosphere, with a very simple whitewash. This was to show how Jean was stricken of all walls and presenting her raw emotions to the audience about her life as Verity’s mother. If we had more time on lighting I feel we should have used a red spotlight on the character Verity, and a white wash over everyone else. This would represent the main problem of the family and how Jean feels that she is a danger in many ways: her self, the family, the embarrassment of her behaviour etc.
We brought the piece to climax when the blank characters performed their movements; the atmosphere built up by sound and the sharp-ridged actions. The climax was then brought down by Jean calmly speaking but raising her tone to build the tension up again.
One group used props that was very effective, They presented them selves on a number of levels and passed a wine bottle when they spoke. This made it easy for the audience to see who was Jean at what time. They also used baby food as vomit. Everyone up line one at a time created an image that represented vomiting. The final person was sick using the baby food this was very effective and caught the audience by surprise that made the piece very successful as the audience was still intrigued by the performance.
