Our second key moment was Mrs. Kay defending herself and answering back during a disagreement with Mr. Briggs. We decided this was a key moment because it let us show a completely different side to Mrs. Kay. We used thought-tracking so we could show the audience Mrs. Kay’s real anger. However the actor playing Mrs. Briggs found it difficult to adapt to the change in character. To help her and the drama out, we used the explorative strategy forum theatre so we could try and get the perfect change in Mrs. Kay. We produced some good ideas from forum theatre which developed our drama.
Our third and final key moment was Mr. Briggs destroying the film at the end of the day out. Everyone in our group agreed on this key moment because it was a big twist in the storyline. Mr. Briggs had an aside in our drama. We wanted only the audience to see that Mr. Briggs hadn’t really changed and that he was back to his normal self in no time.
We had marked all three key moments in different ways. We did this so we could show the audience the most important parts. The different techniques used also made it easier for us to pin point the key moments because it developed our drama.
Our first key moment was marked by a still image, which showed the audience how displeased Briggs really was. Creating still images forced us to understand the play and the characters better so we could place them in a significant way in relation to each other. It also helped the character regain some of the status he had lost earlier on. Briggs had a nasty look on his face and he was glaring towards the direction of the Headmistress. He now looked like he had some status because the Headmistress was off stage and Briggs had his hands on his waist and his shoulders were tensed. This showed his new status and his anger. Mr. Briggs was also looking over his glasses which showed he wasn’t happy. We found the glasses were a useful prop.
Our second key moment was marked by narration because it helped us describe our characters and their relationships better. We had to know the characters in order to develop our play and narration helped us understand the full structure. Narration also helped us fill the gaps in our drama. It helped the drama steer away from becoming too complicated. At this point, Mr. Briggs kept on losing more and more status with Mrs. Kay answering back to him. Mr. Briggs was taller than Mrs. Kay so it gave him more status because he was at a higher level. However, Mrs. Kay started defending herself; she broadened her shoulders and held her head high to appear bigger which gained her status. Mr. Briggs responded by seeming to shrink so there was an apparent change in status.
Our final key moment was marked by an aside by Mr. Briggs. The final key moment shows Mr. Briggs destroying the film after the day out. We showed him destroying the film as an aside so that the audience knew something that the characters didn’t: Dramatic Irony. There was no dialogue during the aside which made it much more effective. The aside also suggested that Mr. Briggs didn’t change at all and that it was all an act. It developed the audience’s dislike of Briggs even more. Mr. Briggs however, regained his status once again as he was the only character left on stage and he was centre stage so all eyes were on him.
Overall I think our key moments were accurate and the explorative strategies we used helped us develop our characters and our drama.
