28th March
Today I went to the school resource centre to research street parties in the forties, but being a fairly obscure subject, I had trouble finding information on them, so I just researched some background information about the political and social happenings around 1945. I chose this year to set my part of our piece in, because, it was the end of the war, and I wanted to show the ecstasy and delight of the people as the war ended, and they learnt that their husbands/sons/brothers would be coming home safely. I also thought a little topical debate of the times wouldn’t go amiss either. I thought it would be really good to have the actors in the scene discussing ‘current events’, as they were then, as our piece has to be historically accurate, and this would be a good way of showing that my section of our piece was. I did have the problem of how to get this across to the audience effectively, and Kayleigh suggested that instead of acting out the scene, I could be an old woman sitting in an old people’s home telling the story of the street party to my granddaughter, this made me think, that instead of having the grandmother tell her granddaughter about the party, she and some other old people could exchange stories about parties at the time, and instead of acting, I could base the scene, wholly on their discussion. I was particularly drawn to this idea, as it would be a different format, something to help hold the audience’s attention, and make our piece generally more interesting. One thing I did find slightly worrying in this lesson, was the number of character details and scene plans we would have to write out, if four of us are in each scene, that’s twenty character details to write. I was also slightly worried about the speed the group were progressing with, but, seeing as there is so much to write up, the whole group promised to have a basic scene plan written each, and to make sure that they were able to give a brief summary of where they wish to take their scene, and what is expected of everyone else in their scene, just to help clarify what the writer requires of other people in her part of the performance. The research I collected from the resource centre can be found over the next few pages of my notebook.
3rd April
Today we all continued with our individual parts, and I made some really interesting decisions about my piece. I decided to adapt Kayleigh’s idea and instead of having the grandmother speaking about her memories of the past herself, I decided to have some other prominent community members of the era also talking about the street party too, and this would also mean that instead of me having to come out of character and speak at the end of the scene about the 1940s, the other actors in my scene would do it for me. This would help add variety to our group’s performance too. I realised that costume would be very important to the characters in my scene, and as I decided which members of the community would be making an appearance in my part of our piece, I decided to write their character details too.
Character Details for Part Three
Grandmother - Played by Kayleigh Scott
The little girl’s Grandmother is a kind and gentle old woman. She really loves her family, especially her granddaughter, who is six. She herself is seventy-two, and was just sixteen years old when the war ended, and the street party took place. The audience is supposed to see how loving and caring she is, and how much she treasures her memories, which are sometimes all she has left. She is often lonely, she is at the age when many of her friends are dead or dying, or have moved away into old people’s homes. This is the last thing she wants, and is determined to stay independent for as long as she can. Kayleigh will use slow gestures and small body movements to show the frailty of the old woman. She goes against the stereotype that all old people are boring, and her granddaughter loves her stories she tells her.
Granddaughter - Played by Theresa Cook
The granddaughter is an affectionate, friendly child, who loves her grandmother very much. She loves all her stories, and especially enjoys listening to them over and over again. The audience can see from her language, speech and body, that she is a sincere child, and really does love her grandma. She reminds the grandmother of what she was like when she was very young, just younger then her she was at the street party. This makes the grandmother very happy.
Vicar - Played by Kelly Davison
The vicar is a fine upstanding member of the community, and he and his wife have organised this street party to help celebrate the end of the second world war. He is supposed to show the audience how caring and understanding, and not at all patronising a vicar can be. He goes against the stereotype of the pushy vicar, forcing his opinions on someone else. The audience can tell by his tone of voice that he is a peaceful man who is not at all violent, and wants to help the community put the war behind them, and look to the future.
Local Baker’s wife - Played by Kate Graham
The baker’s wife is here to represent the other side of the war, the side people aren’t celebrating, she has lost a son in the war, who was called up just one year ago. The next thing she knows, she receives a letter, telling her that her son is missing, and is presumed dead. This character, with her heartfelt monologue, tells the audience about her son, how much she misses him and so on. She reminds the audience that while this scene is about a party, any party during or after the war, has a sinister side to it too, no day of happiness was complete, without some sadness too, usually in remembrance for those loved ones lost in the war. When the audience look at her, they are reminded of the sadness war brings, and how death can affect people, each person coping with grief in a different way.
Local Baker - Played by Dora Mather
The baker is here to show another way of reacting to death, rather than being sad about his son’s death, he is proud that he died fighting for his country, and id determined to celebrate his life, rather than mourn his death. He is there to show the audience a combination of the way he is grieving for his son’s death, and happy the war is over. He is there to give a different perspective on his son’s death.
The Local Shop Worker - Played by Donna Lakeman
Donna’s character is in the scene to show the community spirit and jubilation of the people, when they found out the war was over. She gives the audience another view of the time, showing, how people were happy the war was over, and wanted to do anything they could to help those left homeless after the war, especially those from her local area. She is meant to show the audience, how people wanted to help each other then, not just shut themselves off, as most people do now.
When I had finished the character details, I started to plan my scene, but I couldn’t write a proper rough scene plan for our piece until the other members of my group had also finished their scene plans, so I concentrated on helping the other members of my group with theirs.
4th April
This lesson I decided to concentrate on helping the other members of my group develop their scenes further, in the hopes that I would be able to get my scene plan written over the two weeks holiday we would have after this lesson, but unfortunately, some of the other members
of the group did not yet have their ideas for their scenes sorted out, Kelly was absent before today, and so needed a lot of help catching up, and Donna and Kayleigh were having problems working with each other, and our teacher decided they would work better, if they were split up. This meant that Donna had to leave and join another group, and in place of Donna we received Debbie. Debbie had to be filled in about what Kayleigh was planning to do with their scene, and then Kayleigh and Debbie went off to research 1960 again, to help Debbie to understand what was being planned for her and Kayleigh’s scene. Teresa went to research more in the school library. I explained to Kelly the way the piece was formatted, everyone having their own part or scene to develop individually, and she followed Teresa to the library to research her part, part one, in the 1920s. Dora and I completed our scene plans in the classroom, and we each wrote the character details for Dora’s part of the performance, part two, the 1930s.
Character Details - Part Two
Dave - Played by Kate Graham
Dave is a happy family man. He is amazed that television is coming to his street, and is very excited at the idea of something exciting happening to his neighbourhood. Dave knows Dora, as they are neighbours, and through her husband, who he used to work for. His family could only afford one ticket (tuppence each/2p each) to see the BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation) broadcast their first television show, and so he decided he would go.
Mort - Played by Kelly Davison
Eva is a happy-go-lucky man, who loves talking with his friends, when he finds out television is coming to his road, he decides he has to go and see it. He has no problem saving the money to go, and is looking forward to the enriching experience the television will bring into his life.
Dora - Played by Dora Mather
Dora is just as overjoyed as the rest of her street about the television, and hopes she can make some money out of this party, as it cost a lot to buy the TV. She is happy to be the centre of what she sees as the, regeneration of her road, and the upgrading of the neighbourhood.
We all promised to have completed scene plans, stage plans, props and costume lists, and anything else we would need for the theory side of our work after the end-of-term 2-week holiday, so that we would be able to start our practical work as soon as we came back to school.
24th April
We had all finished our scene plans, but we hadn’t all finished our stage plans, so we all concentrated on getting those finished, then, after we had all photocopied the information for each other, so we all had a copy of each other’s stage and scene plans, we rehearsed for a while, just so we could finally start doing some practical work to get an insight into the length of our performance. This was a good way of refreshing our ideas after the holidays, and helping us to see how our piece was coming together. Unfortunately, Kayleigh and Debbie could not be with us during this lesson due to illness, but, we all promised to give them extra help to catch up to the rest of us when they returned. Until Kayleigh and Debbie returned, we were unable to fully complete our scene and stage plans, so we decided to concentrate on our character details for the rest of the lesson, and to have thought about what props and costumes we would need for next lesson.
Character Details - Part One
Kate, Dora, Debbie, Kelly and Kayleigh - Played by Kate Graham, Dora Mather, Debbie Carter, Kelly Davison and Kayleigh Scott
These characters are all really friendly people, who really like and respect Kelly. They want to make her birthday as fun as they can, and don’t want anything to spoil it for her. They are all housewives, because in those days, people got married when they were much younger and being unmarried when you were a woman, or being a spinster as it was, and still is called, was shameful. They are aged 22-28, and are all upper class women, with a lot of money and spare time on their hands.
Theresa - Played by Theresa Cook
Theresa doesn’t want anything to spoil her day either, she is a genuinely kind person, who enjoys a dance, and really has fun with her friends. She deserves a good party, and, she’s going to get one.
Character Details - Part Four
Theresa -Played by Theresa Cook
Theresa is younger than all her friends, and often misses out on important social events because her overprotective parents refuse to let someone her age go out to parties and things. All her friends put pressure on her to go out with them, but Theresa resists because she doesn’t want to lie to her parents about where she is going.
Kelly, Dora and Kayleigh - Played by Kelly Davison, Dora Mather and Kayleigh Scott
These girls are all sixteen, and hate Theresa being younger than them, as it prevents her from having fun with them, and going to local dances, however, they understand that she doesn’t want to lie to her parents, and respect her decisions, they are good friends.
Debbie - Played by Debbie Carter
Debbie is not a very nice person, she doesn’t care how much trouble Theresa will get into if she gets caught, she just wants everything her own way all the time. Debbie doesn’t like Theresa very much, or any of her friends for that matter, she thinks she is better than all of them, and is only hanging about with them until someone better comes along.
Having completed all our character details, we were ready to end the lesson, but we promised that for our homework, we would not only write up today’s lesson, but we would also have a props and costumes list for our part of the play. We were still missing Kayleigh and Debbie’s part of our performance, but we all promised to give them extra help next lesson, and help them catch up with the practising of our scenes they’d missed through absence.
1st May
Today, we had all brought in a props and costumes list for our part of the piece, sadly, due to absence, we were missing a list for the last part, Debbie and Kayleigh’s part. Apart from that, we had all brought in a list of important things we would need for our parts, and as this is a historical piece, and costume would be very important in our piece, we decided to photocopy each person’s list six times, for everyone in the group, take the copies home, and write them all up then, so we could use today’s lesson time for some much needed practical work, using the whole group, for the first time, even if we were still missing the last part of our performance. We decided to work on making the scenes we had work, and concentrate on the missing part later.
We encountered no major problems as we worked, and when our work was evaluated, there were only a couple of points we should be worried about
- Speak louder
- Use body language to express feelings of characters
- Use accents more to suit characters
- Pad out the scenes with a bit more dialogue, to make the scenes longer
We tried to use accents more, along with the body language too, and we felt it greatly improved the piece. Also we tried to project our voices more, and tried to pad out the scenes with a lot more dialogue between the characters. These improvements definitely enhanced our performance, and being assessed was a great way, to find our weaknesses and work on them. At the end of the lesson, we all agreed to write up the group’s props and costumes list, so that we would be ready to choose a representative, and send them to the costume department next week, to find clothes, for our performance.
Props and Costumes List
Part One, the 1920's
1920's style dresses - These were important as they really helped the audience to see how
(Charleston style) people looked in those days, and also, because at a party, people expect
you to be dressed up, and not dancing the charleston in your uniform.
Also the clothes are very important, as we have to show that these women are upper class, and the clothes will help to show this.
Tape of Charleston - The music is very important too, as you have to expect music at a party
music you don’t expect people to dance to nothing, also, the music helps to set the party scene off, and to help the audience to see that the scene has been changed.
Part Two, the 1930's
Scruffy clothes - The clothes in this scene are important, as they help to show the difference between the characters in this scene. Dave, has the scruffiest clothes, as he is the poorest. He is closely followed by Mort, who has slightly less scruffy clothes, as he is not as poor as Dave.
Nice clothes - The nice clothes are to be worn by Dora, who is considerably better off than both Dave, and Mort. She has to be, to be able to afford a TV in those days.
Tv. - We need a TV to watch in Dora’s, a cardboard box with buttons drawn on the front will, do,
Chairs - We need somewhere to sit when we all watch the TV.
Part Three, the 1940's
Cardigan and grey wig - These clothes are important for the grandmother to wear, to help to show her age. Most grandmothers are stereotyped as having grey hair, and wearing cardigans, so it will be easy for the audience to see she is the little girl’s grandmother from her clothing.
Nightdress - The little girl will wear this, so the audience can see she is going to bed.
Apron, shirt and tie - So the audience can understand that the baker is a man. The apron helps to show the audience his profession.
Apron - A polka-dotted apron for the baker’s wife to wear, again, this helps to show what she does for a living.
Dog collar/ bible - This is for the vicar, as he has to have something symbolic to show his profession too.
Tabard/ or close alternative - Once again, this is to help show what her job is, before she begins to speak. This is important for this part of the play, as the characters do not have names, just job titles to show their position in the community.
Part Four, the 1950's
50's clothes - Big skirts, or pedal pushers are what girls wore in the 1950's, and so, to help show an accurate representation of the time period we have chosen to depict.
Suit - The bouncer must wear a suit as all bouncers have to look smart when they are working.
Elvis tape - It is important that we have something to play while the girls are supposed to be at an Elvis concert, as it would not look good to have the girls screaming Elvis at thin air.
8th May
This week, before we got started on rehearsing our piece, our group chose me as the costume representative, and I went to the costume department to find the pieces of costume we needed.
I brought back everything we needed for our piece, and the missing props we needed, like an Elvis tape, and some 20's music was brought in by the other members of our group. We still did not have Kayleigh and Debbie’s part, the party in 1960, so, at this point, we decided it was too late to really learn a new scene properly, and it wouldn’t be rehearsed to the level the other scenes were, consequently, it would be the weak part of our performance, and so we decided it would be the best thing for everyone if we dropped that part. This meant that our piece was shortened, and that we would have to pad the other scenes out even more to elongate it. However, it did mean we were able to write our scene and stage plans up at home, and so we all promised to have them written up for next week. We decided to use this lesson to rehearse more, and make sure that, after dropping the 1960 scene, we had the other four scenes close to perfection, to make up for the loss of 3-4 minutes of performance we thought we would have.
Halfway through the lesson, we were assessed, and the positive criticism we received helped us to improve our performance. These are the only points our teacher thought we should work on;
- Voices need to be louder
- Body language should be used more
We immediately sat in a group, and talked about how we could improve on these points, and collectively, we decided that we needed to be much more outgoing, and more confident, not just regarding voice projection but also in the way we moved when we were in character. We all agreed that some members of our group were not using movement as a medium to show their characters to the audience. They were relying on dialogue alone to communicate to the audience. We all decided that this wasn’t enough, and decided to not only speak louder, but to move more expressively too. It was now the end of the lesson, and each of the people in our group promised to write up the completed stage and scene plan for next week, so we could focus on rehearsing, before our performance.
Scene Plan
Part One - Scene One
Characters in scene - Theresa
Dora
Kelly
Kate
Techniques used - None
In this scene Theresa and Kelly walk across the stage, and talk. They are just telling each other how excited they are about Theresa’s birthday party on Saturday night when they bump into Kate and Dora, who are also out shopping, and they start to chat. We thought it was very important to show that the women were upper class, and so we used quite ‘cut glass’ accents to show the women’s social class. Theresa invites Kate and Dora to her party, and the ladies part, leaving via opposite sides of the stage.
Kate, Dora, Kelly and Theresa walk off stage via opposite sides of the stage.
Scene Two
Characters in scene - Kate
Dora
Kayleigh
Debbie
Techniques used - None
Kate and Dora walk on stage.
In this scene Dora and Kate walk across the stage and knock on a door at the opposite side of the stage. The door is opened by Kayleigh, who calls for her mother when Kate invites her to Theresa’s party. The ladies accept the invitation, and walk back behind the screens.
Kate and Dora walk off stage.
Scene Three
Characters in scene - Kate
Dora
Kayleigh
Debbie
Kelly
Theresa
Techniques used - None
Theresa and Kelly walk on stage, carrying wine glasses.
Off stage, the music for the party scene is turned on.
At the start of this scene, we see Theresa and Kelly bustling about inside Theresa’s house, and talking about how exciting they find the prospect of having a party, right there in Theresa’s house. The 20's music is playing in the background, and Theresa is just pouring out the wine as Kate and Dora knock on the door. They enter, and Theresa receives her birthday gifts from each of them. Kate comments on how good the music is, and how everyone seems to be having a great time, and just as they receive a glass of wine each, Kayleigh and Debbie knock on the front door, and enter the room. They stand and talk for a few seconds about how exciting the party is, and comment on the number of people who turned up. Then, Kayleigh asks if Debbie fancies a dance, and Debbie replies that she’d love one. The music is turned up in the background, and everyone dances to the charleston for a while. Then the line of women breaks up, and start dancing in twos across the stage. After all three pairs of dancers have taken it in turns to cross the stage three times each, the music is turned down, so that we can fully hear the speech between characters. At this point the dance breaks up, and Kayleigh politely asks Debbie if they can leave, as they are getting rather tired. Debbie apologises to Theresa, and tells her they are leaving, as all the dancing has rather tired them both out. Theresa is very understanding, and Debbie and Kayleigh leave, closely followed by Dora. Then Kate is the next to leave, who thoroughly congratulates Theresa on the party, and leaves, just before Kelly leaves too. It was necessary for people to leave at this point in the scene so everyone could get ready for their performance in parts three or four. We thought the dancing was a great way to introduce more movement into the piece, and not just rely on dialogue to get the point across, also, we felt it made the scene stronger, by giving the audience something other than dialogue to focus on. Also, what made our piece stronger, was the way we changed the format of the piece, to give the audience a change, and help hold their attention on the piece. Just as Kelly leaves, Theresa looks around her at the mess her party guests have left and sighs, she makes a comment about leaving it all for the maid in the morning, which again emphasises what social class she comes from, and then she leaves the room. As she leaves, she takes the A3 piece of paper from the screen at the back of the stage, which reads ‘the 1920's’. We thought it was necessary to have the paper at the back, so that if our audience was left in any doubt as to the time periods our piece was set in, the paper would reassure them. At the end of each part, the last person to leave the stage, takes the paper with them and the first person to walk onto the stage at the start of a new part, also takes the paper with them and sticks it to the screen behind the actors.
Theresa carries off the 20's sign.
Part Two - Scene One
Characters in scene - Dave
Mort
Techniques used - Freeze frame
Dave carries on the 30's sign, and sticks it to the screen at the back of the stage.
Dave walks across the stage, just as Mort is walking across from the other side. Dave and Mort start to talk, and Dave asks if he is going to Dora’s television screening, to see the first ever broadcast of the BBC. Mort answers yes, and they talk for a while about how their families are, and how work is going. We thought it was especially important to have this talk between these two characters to show how people lived in those days, and to help make our piece historically accurate. Then the characters part, vowing to see each other at Dora’s party later on.
Both characters walk off opposite sides of the stage.
Scene Two
Dora walks on stage, places the television at the front of the stage, and brings on three chairs, which she places at the back of the stage. She then sits down in one of the chairs, and the scene begins.
Dave knocks on the door, and Dora walks to the door to let him in. Dave enters, greets Dora, and sits down on the middle chair. Dave asks how Dora’s husband is, and she tells him all about how the family business is doing, again, this is to help make our performance historically information on the characters in the scene, to give a deeper insight into accurate, and to give a bit of background information to show why they think and act the way they do. Then Mort knocks on the door, and Dora gets up to let him in. Mort sits down next to Dave, and Dora asks if they would like a cup of tea, and when she goes to get it, Mort and Dave comment on how they struggled to scrape together the tuppence to pay for the ticket, and how they should get more than one cup of tea for their money. We thought this would be a good thing to reinforce the scene with, and by talking about how short of money people were then, we were also making sure our piece was historically accurate. This also helped us to show people the scene was set in the 1930's, and to make it more believable. While Dora is in the kitchen, Dave asks Mort what time the programme starts, Mort looks at his watch, and tells Dave it should be starting any time now. Dave walks forward toward the televison cautiously, and almost jumps out of his skin when he turns it on, and the screen jumps into life. This part was written, to show how people can be wary of new technology, and when Dave sits down, he calls Dora’s name. Dora comes back into the living room, distributes the tea, and sits down on the other side of Dave. The characters all sit down, and stare at the screen. They freeze for five seconds, to show the passage of time from the start of the programme to the finish, and then all start to stretch and yawn. Dave and Mort talk about how exciting it was, and how they ‘ll definitely be here again next week. Then Dave comments, on how proud Dora’s husband must be and they leave.
Dora carries the three chairs off stage, and takes the TV and the 1930's sign with her.
Part Three - Scene One
Characters in scene - Grandma
Little girl
Baker
Baker’s wife
Vicar
Local shop worker
Techniques used - Thought track
Theresa walks onto the stage, and brings the 1940's sign to stick on the wall. She also brings three chairs to use as a bed, and one to use as the grandmother’s seat. The grandmother walks on stage, and the scene begins.
The little girl, lies down in bed, and her grandmother sits on the bed beside her. The girl asks her grandmother to read her a story, and her grandmother, realises she has left the storybook downstairs, and offers to tell her a story from when she was a young girl. The girl accepts, and her grandmother starts to tell her about the street party she had to celebrate the end of the war. She tells her who was there, what sort of games they played, and what sort of food they ate. This was intended to replace the original idea we had, to have a section at the end of each part, and use TIE ( theatre in education) techniques to tell the audience about the decade depicted in that part. We decided that this was an excellent way to change the format of each of our parts, and help to keep our play interesting throughout. In part two, the idle chitchat between Dave and Mort replaced this, and in part three, the thought tracks of the characters, provide a refreshing change for the audience. Just as she has finished talking about the food they ate, the baker’s wife appears from behind the screens, and walks to the front of the stage. In a thought track, this character from the past directly addresses the audience, and tells them her view of the day. She tells the audience how, although it was a great day for the community to come together to celebrate the end of the war, the day had a bitter twist for her, as her son died in the war. She expresses her sadness at this, and goes on to tell the audience how she doesn’t really understand her husband anymore, as he does not seem sad about the tragic loss of her son’s life. She tells the audience how alone she felt that day, and how her husband did not seem really bothered about it, then walks off stage. We felt that these thought tracks were a brilliant way to give the audience an idea of what the characters were feeling, and what they thought was so important about the street party that day. Just as the baker’s wife walks off stage, the baker walks round from the other side of the screen, and stands in front of the audience. He tells them why he thought the day was such a success, and goes on to express his concern at the way his wife has become withdrawn and depressed since the death of their son. He explains the reason why he is not upset about his son, by telling the audience, how he died well, fighting for his country. He expresses his extreme pride in his son, and tells the audience he doesn’t see why his wife can’t understand his feelings. We thought that these two thought tracks in particular, (the baker and his wife), were a really good way to make the scene less shallow, and really address some of the problems the war caused, not just to see the good things it did for our country. Then the baker exits the stage, and is replaced by the local vicar, who tells the audience why the day was so important. His feels that the day was not so much about celebrating the end of war, but more about pulling the community closer together, to make the best of what they still have, rather than dwelling on the past. He leaves the stage too, and is replaced by the local shop worker, who tells us how she didn’t really want to help out that day, but was pleased she did in the end, as it gave her a chance to feel like a well-valued member of the community, and really brought her closer to her neighbours. When the shop worker leaves the stage, the grandmother says goodnight to her granddaughter, and walks off stage.
The little girl gets up, and removes the chairs from the scene. Then she takes the 1940's sign down from the screens, and leaves the stage.
Part Four - Scene One
Characters in scene - Debbie
Kayleigh
Dora
Theresa
Kelly
Bouncer
Techniques used - None
In this, the final part of our performance the girls are all talking about the Elvis dance they want to go to at their local hall. They are all terribly excited, as things like that don’t happen every day where they live. There is just one problem, Theresa is only fifteen, and you have to be sixteen to get into the dance. The girls decide to sneak her in, and they sneak her in. The girls walk to the door of the club, and off stage, the Elvis tape is turned on. Theresa stands in the middle of the crowd of girls, and as the other girls pay their money, Theresa sneaks into the dance hall. We thought the girls talking about Elvis in this scene was a good way to replace the TIE techniques in this scene, because talking about the history of Elvis would help to make our piece historically accurate, and sticking to the theme of parties, we thought it would be a good idea to have a party just for people of our age in our piece, as all our other parties have mostly been for older people. As the girls sneak into the club, they walk behind the screen, and the bouncer follows the girls into the club.
Scene Two
Characters in scene - Debbie
Dora
Kelly
Kayleigh
Theresa
Bouncer
Techniques used - None
The girls have walked around the screens and walked into the club. The bouncer is standing over the other side of the stage, keeping a suspicious eye on the proceedings, as Debbie loses control, and tries hysterically to climb onto the stage to grab Elvis. This attracts the bouncer’s attention, and as he pulls Debbie from the stage, he notices an underage Theresa drinking beer from a bottle in the middle of the crowd of girls. He grabs the girls, takes the drink away from them, and kicks them out into the foyer of the dance hall. In the foyer, he questions Theresa about her age, and when he find out she is only fifteen, he kicks her friends out and takes her to the office to call her parents. The girls do not want to leave Theresa, but are scared that the bouncer will tell their parents that they have been drinking underage, and so reluctantly wait for her outside. Inside, the bouncer sits Theresa down, and asks her why she is drinking at her age. Theresa tells him that she felt pressured by her friends, and he explains the dangers of underage drinking, and why she should never, ever do it, no matter who is trying to pressure her into it. Theresa asks if he is going to ring her parents, but he takes pity on her, and lets her go with a strict warning. Theresa heartily thanks him, and runs outside to her friends. The bouncer walks behind the screens, and leaves the girls outside to talk. They all say how stupid Theresa is for getting caught, and how she nearly got them all into trouble. However, they forgive Theresa, and they all set off walking home, talking about how exciting it was to see Elvis performing live like that until they walk off stage.
This is the end of our performance.
Stage Plan
Part One - Scene One
In this scene, the girls walk across the stage, and bump into each other. Then they both exit via opposite sides of the stage.
Scene Two
In this scene, Kate and Dora walk across the stage, and knock on Kayleigh and Debbie’s door. After they have invited the girls to the party, they walk back across the stage, and walk behind the screens. Then the scene change for the next scene takes place.
Scene Three
In this scene, the whole front of the stage is used as a dance floor, and the ladies in the scene dance all round the front portion of the stage, until the scene ends, and it is time for them to leave via the screens at the back of the stage.
Part Two - Scene One
In this scene, Dave and Mort walk across the stage, and bump into each other. They chat for a while, and then leave the stage via opposite sides of the stage.
Scene Two
In this scene, Dave and Mort enter and leave via the door in the top left corner of the stage. The television is right in front of the audience, we felt this made the best and most imaginative use of the space we had.
Part Three - Scene One
In this scene, the grandmother and her grandmother stay in one position at the top of the stage, while all the characters from the past walk in a semicircle from behind one screen, out to talk to the audience, and back again to behind the other screen. We felt this was a really good way to use the space, and that the thought tracks would be more effective, if the character was standing directly in front of the audience whilst speaking to them.
Part Four - Scene One
In this scene, the girls are talking about Elvis at one side of the stage, and they then walk over to the bouncer, and pay to get into the club. It is here that Theresa sneaks in. The bouncer then follows them in the door. We felt this was the best way to use the space available to us.
Scene Two
In this scene, Debbie tries to climb onto the stage to mob Elvis, and when the bouncer spots Theresa drinking, he kicks her friends out onto the street, via the door at the top right of the stage, and takes Theresa into his office at the bottom left corner of the stage to talk to her about the dangers of alcohol. He then escorts her from the premises, via the same door at the top right-hand side of the stage, and Theresa runs to her friends, who walk out onto the street as the bouncer leaves the hall and enters the foyer to kick Theresa out. The girls talk for a while at the bottom right of the stage, and then leave the stage via the door at the right-hand bottom side of the stage. We felt this made excellent use of all the available space.
15th May
This week there was a disaster, as soon as the whole class was present, we noticed that Debbie and Theresa were absent. Luckily Theresa came in late, and so we were able to rehearse without Debbie, but we were not able to perform, so we worked on making sure that we all knew our parts for next week, and that our movements matched the character we were trying to portray. Also, we decided that our accents much be much more pronounced, and so we decided to practice our speech for the remainder of the hour, until it was time to watch the other groups perform. Only two groups were able to perform, due to two absences in the boy’s group, so we watched those groups, and evaluated their performances.
Group One
This group performed a piece inspired by the film version of Titanic. The characters were lifted directly from the film, and so were exceptionally well thought out, and the body language was excellent. They used costume very well, and it really enhanced their piece. The use of set was amazing. They actually designed a whole scenery set, using black paper and white and blue chalk to create a starry night effect. The drew the bow of the boat on this paper, and used this as the backdrop for their scenes. The play was obviously well rehearsed, with all the performers behaving in a professional manner at all times. They used comedy well, to really get the audience to laugh, and they projected their voices well at all times. I felt there could have been improvements made, for instance, instead of lifting their storyline totally from the movie, they could have shown what happened to real people on the boat, which would have made their piece more historically accurate. Also, as well as having the humorous side of their performance, they could have had a part in which we get a deeper insight into how the characters were feeling at a certain point in time. Thought tracks, or monologues would have been a good technique to use to do this. They used costume to illustrate their characters to the audience, and to show the setting of the piece, because they used old fashioned clothing, all the audience immediately knew that this performance was set in the past. Costume is an effective way of communicating and idea to the audience.
Group Two
This group chose to recreate a school scene from the 1800's and compare it to one today. This piece was historically accurate and educational, as it showed us what school life was like in the 1800's, and how different it is to today’s school environment. The characters were all well thought out, and the use of voice projection and body language really helped to convince the audience that the characters were real. The group concentrated really well on performing, and sustained their roles well, throughout the piece. I think they developed an imaginative and original response to the task set, and created totally credible roles for themselves.
Group Three
This group were going to perform a piece set in gangland USA in the 1920's. However due to several absences in the group, they agreed to perform it next lesson with our group, who also had problems with absences.
It was now the end of the lesson, and there was nothing our group could do, except promise not to forget any props or costumes next week. So Kayleigh volunteered to phone Debbie and make sure she was going to be in next week, in case we had to rewrite our piece, due to her extended absence.
22nd May
This week was the week we were due to perform our piece to the other people in our class. I was slightly nervous, because I realised if Debbie was still absent we would have to rewrite our piece in 15 minutes and perform it unrehearsed. Luckily Kayleigh had managed to ring Debbie, and Debbie was able to come in for the performance. We had remembered all necessary props and costumes for our performance, and our performance went well. Nobody forgot their lines, everyone knew where they had to be and at what time, and nobody corpsed or said anything our of context. After our performance we evaluated our work with our class, and the following points were made;
- Everybody sustained their characters well throughout the piece
- The characters were very convincing
- The play was very well rehearsed, as everyone knew their entrances and exits
- We made good use of resources, the costumes were well used, and helped to re-enforce the characters, although it was pointed out that we could have used more props to go with our use of costumes too, e.g more tea cups from the 1930s era, or some posters on the walls from the period of time that scene was set in
- The idea was original, the way we had shown different times in different parts of the performance was excellent
- Use of the sign with the appropriate decade written on was useful, as it helped to show the time period we were currently in
- The music helped to re-enforce the scene, and make it stronger than just with dialogue alone, the class felt that although already very strong, the other scenes would have been made even stronger with the use of music on them too, we could have used music from the particular time period that scene was set in, or we could have used some sort of audio recording of the BBC’s first broadcast, to show the audience exactly what the local people were so excited about
- The whole group was well organised, scene changes were swift and professional, and costume changes back stage were also well thought out and planned. We made sure that each actor left the previous scene early enough to get changed to play their next character
- Scenery should have been used more for each part, the parts of our performance would have been re-enforced further with the help of some scenery in the background. This would have also helped to depict the time period, and make our piece more historically accurate, for example, if we had used more 1930s furniture, or wallpaper in the background, the scene would’ve been more realistic.
I was very happy with the evaluation, and it gave us some points to think about improving for our next piece. I was asked to evaluate my performance myself before I was given my marks, and these are the marks I gave myself;
First Objective
8/10 - I felt I demonstrated a good understanding of the skills and ideas involved, I thought my
voice was loud and clear, especially during my thought track in the third part of the performance.
Second Objective
8/10 - I felt I demonstrated a clear understanding of the task set, demonstrated imagination, perception and sensitivity, and showed a clear understanding of the task set.
Third Objective
16/20 - I felt I created and sustained a number of credible roles showing awareness, sensitivity and understanding. I also felt I used my voice and body language effectively, and appropriately for the character I was playing at the time. I thought I communicated ideas and feelings successfully.
Total Mark
32/40 or an A
When I had evaluated my performance myself, my teacher told me what marks I had obtained for each objective;
First Objective
9/10 - She felt I had shown a high level of achievement in terms of personal response and understanding of the skills and techniques needed to realise ideas, and she too thought my voice was loud and clear throughout the performance.
Second Objective
9/10 - She felt I fully recognised the potential of the stimulus, and demonstrated a high level of imagination, perception and sensitivity as well as having a full understanding of the task set.
Third Objective
18/20 - She felt I created and sustained totally credible roles that demonstrated a high degree of accuracy and insight, performed convincingly using voice and movement with expertise, and communicated ideas and feelings in a way which excited and delighted. She particularly pointed out that when I was in character I was totally in role, and committed to that role. She also said that when I was playing the baker’s wife in the third part of the performance, and I was speaking directly to the audience in my thought track, she really felt sorry for me when I told her about my son, and the troubles me and my husband were having.
Total Mark
36/40 - or an A
I was very pleased with the mark I received, and I got some interesting feedback both from my classmates, and my teacher, which, I think will enable me to improve my performance in our next performance.
