Other groups also did a still image. One of these included Niemoller receiving an award from Hitler while people were being abused below him. This was a good representation of the poem as it showed all the of the points raised above.
Improvisation
After doing this still image we decided to develop it into a play showing discrimination in everyday life. My group choose to do ours in the laundrette. We had a mixture of characters in our laundrette. These included a rough young girl, a wealthy business man, the laundrette owner, an Asian and a posh lady. We used facial expression and voice to represent discrimination in the group. I think this was an effective improvisation because it showed discrimination in everyday life now. This allowed tot audience to link it in with their everyday lives.
Other groups did different still images. James’ group did a fruit market and showed how people reacted to someone before they found something out about them and after. This was probably the most effective still image because it causes the audience to do a lot of thinking and relating. It showed us all how we can be like Niemoller.
Second stimulus: The crucible
My initial thoughts:
John is weak willed and scared to stick up for what is right
Elizabeth is manipulative
John was a Wiseman
John is a coward
After a group discussion we decided the strongest person can be the biggest coward. I think John is a coward for not sticking up even though he is strong in the village, We also said there is a strong woman behind every man.
Parallels between Niemoller and Crucible:
Third stimuli:
We were then given a picture. This was of 3men sitting down, of different ages and racial backgrounds.
My thoughts on this were:
- The people in the picture look alone and rejected
- They could be father son and friend
- The could also be refugees in a truck
- The people do not look comfortable and may have been there for a long time and could be queuing in a long que.
- They look oppressed and may be being forced to do something against their will.
This links to the other stimuli include:
- All show oppression in someway. In Neomoller it is about how other people are oppressed due to not having anyone to stand up for them. In the crucible it is about feeling they cannot stand up in case something bad happens to them.
- Someone from a particular place or background seems to be having something against them.
From all three stimuli I wrote this poem which expresses the thoughts portrayed by a single person who did not stand up:
Poem:
The pain that from not standing up, wasn’t physical
It was a mental stab with an icicle dagger right through my
Naïve heart
Yet I cast back my mind, to the days, which I ignored, but they remain only as
Black and white
Tainted movies which flicker back and forth again in the back of my
Disturbed mind
Which regrets its pasts and makes me punch the floor and cause my
Teeth to grind
As the reminders of all the times I didn’t do what was right, as I just watched and laughed and
Though about your past, yours was
Dark and unforgiving,
Mine seemed full of light and promised me a future of hope and great potential.
I walk my life blindly as my past’s darkness surpasses me- the passer by who ignored you is the
Man that you pity
Now those days are over. The stupidity, which caused me to speak great words of pain to you, was snuffed out as I realised the truth
Now I lie here
Trapped in a cell
Prey to my intoxicated mind
Darkness surpasses me
I drown
The passer who ignored you is the
Man at your bedside
I think this poem has helped my understanding of the workshop because it has allowed to let me explore my thoughts as if I was in the situation.
Development
Teacher in role
Mr. Devine entered a teach in role. This was to give us ideas about developing the workshop further. The teacher in role was about a son getting taken away to a work camp. In this improvisation there were serveral characters. They nearly all belonged to the same family. Their was the mother, father, sister – who was a nurse in the hospital and saw terrible things, brother – who was courageous and little bother who wanted to go away. The teacher’s role was kept quiet until he entered and took them away during dinner. In this role-play lots of ideas were shown and it allowed us to develop all 3 stimuli. The oppressed people in the photograph, the people getting taken away in the poem and curcible.
After this we all decided to create a still image representing what we had just seen.
My group’s still image looked like this:
It was called ‘the mothers nightmare’. We used levels and facial expressions to show she was upset her son was being taken away. This also helped to create tension in the image.
From this image we created a improvisation still keeping to the mother nightmare idea. In this improvisation I played the mother. It started off with me sitting in the corner of the stage crying while talking to myself in the mirror. I used different tones to express the different feelings and thoughts the mother may be experiencing. While I did this the other members of my group formed a still image. After I had finished my monologue I stayed still as they acted out my night mare behind me. In the still image we all created a specific gesture our character would do repeatedly. This would teach us something about the cheacator and express their thoughts and feelings. My gesture looked like this:
I choose this gesture because I thought it resembled the way the mother would have reacted and it may have been something she did repeatedly because of her feelings.
As another direct response to the teacher in role we decided to do an improvisation which used sound to represent tension. In this we had the sister coming home after she found her brother was dead. We showed how different members of the family’s responses using voice. I used silence to represent my shocked. Andrew used shouting to represent his disbelieve.
Following this we decided to end our work with a movement tableau. With no sound we used movement to represents peoples reactions of guilt and disappointment. After they had found out the truth about what had happened. We had a bus stop scene in which I was the girl who didn’t realise what she was doing. I tried to apologise to everyone else and they used facial expressions and movement to show they were disgusted and disappointed with me, not wanting me around. I think this was effective because it made the audicence think about different assecpts of the play. If we had added background music it could have added a 3D effect to the production but I think silence was an effective tool.
Evaluation
I think this has been a successful workshop in which I have learnt a lot not just about drama but about everyday life.
I think the most important thing I have learnt about everyday life is that you should always stand up for what you know is right.
I think he most important thing I have learnt about drama is the little the little thing you do can have these biggest effects. For examples the small gestures done in the mothers nightmare had a big impact on the drama even though they were just a tiny thing.
I also think a lot had been learnt about expression in movement and voice.
I am most proud of the movement tableau as I think this has taught me and lot and been a successful piece. I one realise that you don’t only need to use words to convey feelings and sometimes silence is best.
If I could go back and change anything I would have added to the tension in sound improvisation. I think that it needed more sound and less movement. This would have helped make it more successful because it would have portrayed more feelings and reactions. I would have also made the piece shorter as it took too long.
My first response in the exploration was prejudice but after some work and input from other I realised how closely linked prejudice and discrimination was.
