Create a presentation in response to the thematic area IRONY.

Sophie Wong 11A

Coursework and controlled test evaluation

Introduction

My task for this controlled test was to create a presentation in response to the thematic area IRONY. Our production was centred on the theme of irony and things are not what they seem. Although this theme ran throughout our presentation, we also used a different form of irony called dramatic irony. This is when the audience know something about the character or the plot but which the characters within the play are oblivious to. We were influenced on this by a theatre production entitled ‘Blithe Spirits’, in which a wife dies and returns as a spirit roaming around her own home as if she was still living. This is very similar to our storyline in which pair of female twins and their friend are on holiday when a schizophrenic murders one of the twins. The outline of the play is the living twin can see her spirit but the friend cannot. The dramatic irony within this is that the audience know she is dead but the characters do not.

I chose to work in a group of five for a second time because I felt that the numbers worked well previously. It allowed us to have various characters and experiment with many different expressive arts techniques. I worked with Alison, Hannah, Rachel and Johanna and because we were all studying dance and drama, these were the focuses of the play. We chose to work in this group because we could display a full and varied mix of characters, forms and techniques. We also knew one another previously and were happy working along side each other knowing we were comfortable and could express our ideas and opinions easily.

Planning

Although no members of my group were studying music we were all keen to include some composition within our presentation. We knew it would not be marked but we hoped it would create a tenser and more effective atmosphere than our voices or dancing alone would. We did this because we all felt we could express our characters emotions, feelings and personality more interestingly by using more than two art forms. Through dance, we could express these things without dialogue but still prevail meaning to the audience, as well as being able to grasp an interest in what we were portraying. Music was a way of adding an atmospheric background for example in the narration or the beginning scene. We were able to compose music, which we danced to thus portraying two art forms at once. Our audiences for this presentation were teenagers or adults, this is because teenagers could relate to the events being portrayed, the argument between friends etc. The scenes may have been slightly scary for young children and inappropriate as it involves murder and schizophrenic, and the storyline may have been too complex for them to grasp.

Discussing ideas and opinions as a group was not particularly hard. Once we had decided on the topic of dramatic irony, murder and ghosts we each expressed ideas around this subject. We also knew we all wanted to use influences from all the previous topics we had studied.

We brainstormed on the topics: Cabaret, A Talk in the Park and Ghost Dances. From Cabaret we were able to extract ideas about contrasting scenes within scenes and tableaux with acting around it. From a Talk in the Park, we wanted to include a theme of fakeness and putting on a front. We were able to portray this with a photograph and its fake smiles. From Ghost Dances, we created one of the plays main themes and this was spirits. We also used the exact routine taught to us in previous terms within our presentation to link it directly back to Ghost Dances and to show the audience that one of our characters was a ghost. After brainstorming, collecting and gathering ideas we were able to extract a clear outline of what our play would be about. This was then thoroughly researched before we began putting scenes together.

Investigation

We carried out research looking for information in books, newspapers, television, the Internet and personal interviews and divided these tasks between us. The resources we thought we would need to produce a high quality presentation was:

A picture of a beach, this was initially to go on the OHP (over head projector) to enlighten the audience as to the characters whereabouts.
Contrasting music to the acting and dancing being portrayed on stage, this has immense impact on the audience.
Song lyrics that could be directly used in our narration for two purposes, 1 – to link our narration directly to a songs meaning and message, and 2 – if the song was familiar to our audience they may then be aware of and understanding of the plot and its message.
A name of a beach, this was needed to help the storyline become more realistic. We also thought that if the audience knew the beach they could picture the happenings on stage in real life and this could be bring a greater impact and effect to them.
Poems to use in the narration that would reveal the background and events before the play.
Schizophrenic behavior needed to be researched because we wanted the character to be played successfully, appropriately and effectively.
An effective way of dancing that showed control and trap.

I researched the picture of a suitable beach and its name. This had to be a popular beach so that the audience would be familiar with it and could easily picture it in their heads. The name of the beach would also be used in News reports within our play and also had to be one our audience would instantly recognize. Some of this research however wasn’t used in the final production because we decided that a photograph of the characters on the OHP was more effective and explained more to the audience. The name of the beach was mentioned on two occasions within the play - during a news report that revealed information to the audience concerning the characters. This research helped ultimately to explain to the audience of the characters whereabouts and surroundings thus making it more understandable, realistic and successful.

I also observed my cousins who are 18 themselves and their behavior towards one another as they are twins. I did this to gain an idea of how to present myself as a twin on stage. I observed the way they spoke to each other and moved around each other compared with other people. Their gestures ad mannerisms are very similar and Rachel and I tried to portray this within our on-stage relationship, I think this research was very useful and developed both our characters in our on-stage bond. It made it more realistic and we were able to show, behave and act as if we really were twin sisters.

The contrasting music was used as an influence from Cabaret; the music we used was from ‘Coldplay’. Because the piece was in a major key and sounded happy, it contrasted with the images on stage, which were sad, depressing and scary. The contrasting music was used in the beginning whilst the narrator spoke, the narrator’s words were negative and read with a sad, meaningful tone, and thus it contrasted with the music and was very successful. This music was also repeated (ostinato) to give a sense of familiarity and that something negative was happening. When this was played a ...

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The research about Schizophrenia was used greatly within the play. This was done by Alison and Johanna, they played the same character but the split personality of him, Johanna played the innocent, sane side whilst Alison played the Schizophrenic, distorted side. The research was used successfully to bring out the different sides of the character and make this believable to the audience.

The song lyrics and narrative poems we found were not needed in our presentation. We didn’t find suitable passages or lyrics that were appropriate to the plays outline or message. Instead we decided to write our own which could be directly about the characters, plot and surroundings. This worked really well and was greatly effective. The first narration was a poem, written by Alison and I. It described the events that had taken place before the play and explained a lot about what was happening or going to happen. The second narration was written by Alison alone, it was also very effective and again explained a lot to the audience. It was about the ghost and her relationship with her living friend. The friend was oblivious to Rachel’s spirit. It was as if she was ignoring her and Alison (narrator) made it clear within her narration that this wasn’t because the friends were not talking it was because she could not see her. She also described the friendship that would ‘never again exist’.

As I have mentioned previously, the play entitled ‘Blithe Spirits’ had a huge impact on our final production. Its use of dramatic irony helped us to develop ours and create an effective piece of drama. In some programmes/dramas, where a mystery is solved at the end, the clues that have been left for the audience are repeated to emphasize the final storyline; we used this idea in our presentation to repeat the clues we had left for the audience and sum up everything that had happened. This took place in the scene in which my character discovers her twin sister, who she had been talking to and touching that day had actually been murdered the previous evening.

The Ghost Dance was the main influence from the units we had been taught. We felt this was adequate research to put together a meaningful and powerful dance but used the sequence we were taught in class as a base.

Rachel Stevens’ (singer) debut single entitled – ‘Sweet dreams my LA ex’ influenced us with her dancing. She used ribbons that she held the ends of and her dancers held the other ends. The effect of this was that she trapped and was entangled within the ribbons and could not get out. Meanwhile her dancers were able to control her every move. We thought this would accurately represent the status and situation of Rachel and the fact that anybody could be in charge of the remains of her body.

Technical devices:

Drama:

The effects we wanted to achieve with our drama was an atmospheric, tense and moving piece that stayed with the audience long after we finished performing. We wanted to create a powerful story that people could relate to whoever they were. For example, teenagers could relate to the arguments and bonds between the girls, adults could relate to the fear that was portrayed about missing relatives etc.

The devices we used to create this effect were:

Dialogue– the words we used were emotive, powerful and at times scary. For example ‘If only they knew’ from the first narration, ‘we fear this may be the work of a serial killer’ from the very last line of the presentation (news report).

Scripted Scenes – The first scene between me and Hannah (friend) was very scripted. We developed this script many times before actually coming up with a final piece of dialogue.

Narrative – We used narration in 2 direct forms and 2 indirect. The direct ones were spoken from an outsiders view and she knew what was going to happen and what had happened. The indirect were from a news reporter who merely informed the audience of the present happenings. Both of these were spoken with formal tones. The narration was read in a much slower pace so the audience could take in every word and understand it. This was also because it added impact and atmosphere to the play.

Mime – In most of our scenes we used mime. This was because all the characters could not speak at once and so the actions were performed in mime, these also helped to set the scene and give the audience a sense of the characters surroundings. One very successful piece of mime was towards the end of the play in which my character is watching a television News programme that is informing me of sisters death. The TV however is not there and I am looking directly at the audience as if they are the people who are telling me. The news reporter (Johanna) was standing to one side of the stage reading, so the audience’s entire attention was given to me. I think this was very effective and dramatic. It was also used very much whilst the first news report was taking place, Hannah was miming being in a local shop, taking things from shelves and placing them in a basket. She acted around the news reporter who sat direct center stage and Hannah was oblivious to its content.

Tableau – this was used a few times during our presentation. Once at the very beginning when the three main characters were having a photograph taken (this then instantly appears on the OHP). We (me, Hannah, Rachel) froze, while the narrators (Johanna, Alison) spoke to the audience. We also used it while Alison and Johanna were performing a dance that revealed their inner character to the audience. Hannah and me were frozen facing the back of the stage so the audience’s attention was entirely focused on the Schizophrenic.

Use of levels – we used a few different levels in drama within our piece. At the beginning all three main characters are sitting center stage on a bench. Then half way through, Rachel is lying on the floor miming to be in bed. At times we sat on chairs that went under table and sometimes we were standing upright.

Characterization – this was used dramatically throughout the presentation and each and every on of us had an entirely different character to portray. I played a lively, generous peacemaker. Rachel played a slightly more intelligent, miserable, argumentative one. Hannah played an intolerant yet caring girl whilst Alison and Johanna split the role of a Schizophrenic and acted out the two different sides of his brain effectively by physically changing spaces with one and other. Whoever was in front would speak whilst the one behind copied the exact postured and gestures the speaking character made. When they switched they said lines in unison whilst moving.

Pause and pace – we used this several times throughout the play to enforce and emphasize the tension and atmosphere between the characters. At the very beginning the three main characters sat on a bench along the sea front. Rachel and Hannah - the girls not talking, were facing opposite directions (back to back) whilst my character the peacemaker and the go-between sat in the middle miming the acts of eating a bag of chips. As the girls sat in silence I looked from one to other, music playing in the background enhanced the pausing within the dialogue and boosted the already immense effect and awkwardness that the audience would have been forced to feel.

Dance:

The effects we wanted to achieve through dance were the actual feelings, status and links between characters, as this cannot always be shown effectively through drama. We wanted to show the dynamics of the characters personalities and the way they felt about each other, which again was not mentioned anywhere within the drama. We also wanted the dance to look interesting and original. We wanted to use a variety of different techniques and forms to bring variation, excitement and meanings to the dance. As a whole what we couldn’t express easily in drama, we wanted to do successfully through dance.

The devices and techniques we used to create this effect were:

Solo – this was used in the first dance; I left the frozen photo tableau and went to mime next to the narrators. We did this to show how I was separated from the group, as I was not involved in the story yet. This helped the audience realize that I was not part of what was happening. I moved my hand and arm around in a circular motion a few inches from the ground; I used a different level from the narrator to show I wasn’t part of who she was either. This symbolized the water along the beach and helped to reveal my surroundings.

Duet – There were two uses of this within our presentation. The first was when Rachel and Hannah first walked past each other and created a tableau the moment their bodies touched. The narrator began as did the music and soon after their dance began. This helped further the story greatly as we used canon to emphasize the difference between them and that one was dead and one was living. They did things at different times to show they were not in synchronization.

There was also a duet between Johanna and Alison. About half way through our presentation. They did not use any music and the only form of noise was their ballet shoes hitting the ground. This dance illuminated the fact that these two people represented the two sides of a person’s brain. They did some things in canon and at different speeds and others in unison to show they were still the same person. This was very effective and furthered the story by extending the audiences knowledge of who the characters really were. We chose to include this because it explained so much about why this man was a murderer and that there was a good side to him, but it wasn’t the dominant side and so it could not always take control.

Trio – We used a trio at the beginning and in the second dance. At the beginning when I start the dance, the other girls join me and we all repeat the circular motion as a motif to show we are all in harmony with each other and that we are all still alive and we all together still. The motif was developed by the size of the circles we were ultimately drawing with the palms of our hands. Some were small and some were bigger yet we still all remained in unison to emphasize the fact we were all still alive. There was also a second trio involving the same three main characters. This came during the duet dance with Hannah and Rachel, I joined in about half way through. Some of the dance moves were in unison but the majority was in canon to show the three different feelings we all felt at that point during the play. Hannah and me did quite a lot of it in unison to show we were still alive whilst Rachel was either further in front or behind in the routine.

Whole group – we only did this once through the entire presentation although this had many different sections. At first Rachel was on the floor and we mimed ropes as if they were tied to our hands and to hers. This is integration with drama, as mime is drama driven. We used the ropes to control her limbs, as if she was puppet. This was to highlight the fact that her body was now in the hands of living human beings, who could simply do what they liked with it as she was no longer living inside of it. This furthered the story by showing she was helpless and not part of who we were anymore. This dance then went further and developed into Ghost Dance, the exact routine that we had been taught the previous term. The formation of this was the four human begins standing in a box, one at each corner with Rachel centered n the middle. We did the routine and then went back to our places for the next drama scene.

Motif – the motifs we used were the circular movements in unison, this was the only dance move within this dance and was repeated several times to ensure the audience did not fail to notice the fact that the girls were all doing it at the same pace and space.

Use of levels – we use many different levels during our presentation, at one point we were displaying four different ones. This was during the second trio dance, my character is kneeling down, Hannah was kneeling up, and Rachel was standing and Johanna and Alison were sitting. This helped to illustrate the different emotions and barriers between the characters and how different they were.

Integration:

We integrated the arts successfully during the production. At some points for example during the breakfast scene, Hannah and Rachel were miming but slowed the movements right down to be become dance and to highlight the fact that Hannah could not see Rachel but Rachel could see Hannah. We used many of these examples throughout the play and sometimes we did not include music to stress the integration. The breakfast scene is a very good example of this and so is the dance between Alison and Johanna, which was cross between acting and dancing.

Development

During the rehearsals and the process of putting our production together, we made quite a few changes. These were to boost the impact of the storyline and build on our characterization.

The first scene: Narration to recap on events prior to the play, photograph taken (OHP) argument between friends.

When we first started this scene, it was very improvised and the characters simply walked onto the stage. This was very normal and not very dramatic. As our aim for the drama was to be dramatic, effective and atmospheric, we decided to change it so that the characters were already on stage and the dialogue that was originally scripted was cut so that it was paused and very sparse.

We also added a photograph on the OHP, which was originally going to be during the news report. We did this to emphasize the fakeness behind the smiles and to bring out the ‘Talk in the Park’ influence.

The narration was then rewritten; it was made longer and went into more depth about the events before the play. It explained a lot more about the characters status and situation. When this was read during the first few weeks, the narrator’s movement was quite fast as she moved around the characters. We changed this so that her movement was barely discernible. She stood directly opposite the audience and read loudly. This also helped to create a very tense atmosphere.

Then we added a dance to stress the harmony and status between the characters. These also help integrate the forms of arts and add interest for the audience. Initially this scene was very boring with very little dramatic devices being used. By the end of it, we had created a very tense, atmospheric scene.

The second scene: In the holiday home, the audience sees what happened to Rachel down at the beach. The ghost and human walk past each other for the first time.

Our aims for this scene was to confuse the audience and make them wonder what was happening. When we first started this scene, we knew we wanted to include a technique influenced specifically by Cabaret. We wanted to have a frozen scene with another going on around it. We used the living room of their holiday home as a base where the scene started and then that scene froze while the audience saw exactly what happened to Rachel. The schizophrenic walked onto the stage and acted out the scene down at the beach. This was successful from the very first time we tried it, but we changed the amount of eye contact that took place between the schizophrenic (Johanna and Alison) and Rachel. At first we didn’t use a great deal of it, but as we progressed we realized that the more that took place the creepier, uneasy and awkward the atmosphere became. So we developed the way the eye contact happened and when to try and bring the atmosphere to its climax.

Straight after this scene, a dance begins that illuminates the difference between the spirits and the human beings. This was between Rachel and Hannah and then towards the end I joined them. At first this was very basic and only used a few different standard dance techniques. By the forth week, we had developed it so that it gave explanation as to why we used the different techniques. For example, we had repeated the round circular motif to remind the audience of the relationship between the three main characters, previously we had done it all at the same time on the same level. I had changed mine and so had Rachel so the end product was in canon to show the separation between the characters compared to before.

The third scene: whole group dance, breakfast scene and first news report.

Our aim for this scene was develop our form of irony and continue to grasp the audience’s attention by keeping the atmosphere at a climax. We built on the breakfast scene and integrated dance techniques into it by using different speeds and levels, to show a flow of drama and dance. We also added the news report, for dramatic irony.

The breakfast scene was essential to the storytelling element of our piece and by this time, the audience may have started to pick up on what was actually happening.

The news report was simply to show the audience that somebody in the neighborhood had been killed at the beach and it started to put questions into the audience’s heads. This also kept them in suspense and interested in our piece.

The dance in this scene was a mix of drama and dance. At the beginning, Rachel is in bed and the thoughts of the day are traveling around her head. We showed this by the actual characters that have the lines she’s thinking about walking around her. Then suddenly the talking becomes shouting and all the voices start to overlap each other until they all scream their lines and the dance begins. We were initially going to use ribbons for this dance. One end tied to a part of Rachel’s body and the other held in another characters hand, but this became inconvenient and hard to choreograph. This influence came from a modern singer named Rachel Stevens and her routine for her first single ‘Sweet dreams my LA ex’; in this she uses ribbons in the exact same way that we had intended. However, by the end production we found the ribbons hard to adjust to and that mime was much more effective when we tried to control Rachel’s body. This dance revealed the relationships between the characters and by the end of it, many levels had been used including, the floor, tables and benches.

The fourth scene: Girls bedroom, front door.

Although we knew we wanted to use contrasting scenes where the ghost wasn’t present on stage but human interaction with it still took place, we weren’t exactly sure of how to include or go about it. We decided at this point in our piece that because the audience may have sussed what was happening, it was a good time to show that somebody really was dead and so this person was a spirit. We did this by using my character to talk directly to the audience but as if I was talking to my sister about a bracelet she had left at the beach but had been returned by the schizophrenic. This did two things for the audience in terms of summing up the storyline. Firstly it showed that she was dead and that was why the previous scenes had taken place in a strange manner and secondly, the fact that this man had her bracelet could have suggested that he was the murderer. It also gave the schizophrenic a chance to show both sides of his personality again and reveal more of him to the audience.

The fifth scene: final scene, final news report – conclusion and cliff hanger to our presentation.

We developed this final scene a lot between its first few rehearsals and its final presentation. It began with my finding out and screaming and shouting at the television. However we found this wasn’t dramatic and did not build up an atmosphere. Instead we went on to expand the entire scene. We used pauses during the final news report to show my reactions and Rachel’s disappearance from the scene now that I knew she was actually dead. To create a very gripping scene with a lot of action we decided to take quotes from the entire piece that gave a ‘clue’ to the murder case and have the character that said it originally repeat it at a corner of the stage. By adding ‘clues’, the audiences could follow and sum up themselves, which means involvement of the audience, and my reaction was quieter with a simple throw a bracelet and tableaux. This also meant we shortened its length so it was even more gripping and tense.

The cliff hanger at the end was the round up of the news report with this message: “We urge residents to be vigilant as police fear this may be the work of a serial killer” and then the schizophrenic grabbing Hannah’s arm as she walked onto the stage. This meant it was tense from beginning to end and finished in a very atmospheric way.

Presentation

Although we felt under a lot of pressure because of the limited amount of time to create this piece I believe it was a success. We did need more time to rehearse and some of the scenes could have been improved to develop the effect of the piece. Nerves also got to one of the members of the group and it did not go completely smoothly once one person had started to go wrong. One of our group members also forgot her lines and had to improvise. However we ignored this and carried on.

I think our presentation was suitable and appropriate for our target audience as it included adult themes that younger people may have found difficult to grasp.

Our performance showed an improved use of integration that worked well and was continuous from one art form to the next. Integration in our last project was definitely not used in this way and I think the members of my previous group who were in this one as well really tried hard to push ourselves to create new ways of bringing both art forms together successfully. The dance with Alison and Johanna showed the split personalities more successfully than I think drama could have done on its own. We carried on this theme, when they two personalities swapped places and one became more dominant in the drama, I think this idea was one of the most creative of the piece. The dance between Hannah, Rachel and myself communicated the situation of being so close yet so far apart. Breaking up the drama with the dance is also more visually stimulating; it also developed the story and gave the audience a message, which I think would be very hard to accomplish in drama.

Conclusion

The performance itself had a number of strengths. The main one being the use of integration of dance and drama; we all felt this was done very successfully. This improved the communication of the story and helped the audience to understand the characters emotions, relationships, status and personalities. The research was helpful and well planned and the development improved many of the scenes. The performance went well, although it had been better during rehearsals, where there had been more of a tense and creepy atmosphere.

If we had more time to rehearse we could have improved a lot of the scenes. Parts of narration could have been learnt off by heart and the general timing made perfect. As for the dances, more rehearsal time could have lead to exact unison and more spatial awareness, as we weren’t familiar with the stage. This was because we had practiced the dances in a different place. I also think although the dance between Alison and Johanna was excellent, it should have been in a different place because it interrupted the tension in the scene and the overall aim of it.

Overall I think we managed to create a genuinely frightening mood, integrate drama and dance very well and leave the audience with a sense of fear, anticipation and on the whole with a lingering thought of what happened next.