Both of the stimuli were excellent starting steps as they got us thinking a lot about lots of different aspects of war. The first stimulus made us think about the aim of the performance. What movements will be used, why and how they will portray certain aspects of the text. The second stimulus made us concentrate on the emotion behind the text. Here we thought about movement to portray feeling and the different emotions a mother and her son would experience in a war related situation. We then got the selection of facts extracted from hot seating with the first stimuli and used it for narration. We put this together with the still images created with the second stimuli to broaden our ideas. This helped me compare the two and brainstorm ideas of how to combine the two together. I learnt how poppies are perceived and what they mean to us today in contrast to what they meant to us many years ago. I did not know a lot about war but the hot seating helped me discover ideas I never had considered before. Together both stimuli gave us initial ideas and material so in turn we can create a performance that will not only about the educational aspect of war but also the emotional element. I now had a substantial amount of material which could be employed to create a performance.
Development:
Plot: A narrator will read out a letter whilst the son is on one side of the stage sitting on the floor writing this letter. The mother is on the other side of the stage reading the letter sitting on a chair. The letter will discuss different emotions the son is going through and will explain what he is expected to do in the army. He then tells us that his best friend passed away and explains how difficult it was for him to have to watch it happen. We then go into a flash back and perform the death of the best friend. We then go back to the son writing a letter where he says goodbye to his mother as he has to go. We then shoe the son being murdered by the enemy and his body dumped in the forest.
The mother is sitting on a chair and the son on the floor to portray the terrible
conditions at war and to define the authority the mother has. The different
levels portray the status of both characters. There is silence and the only
thing heard is the narration of letter. The silence emphasises the meaning
and emotion within the text.
Here I decided to use text instead of movement to convey the son’s emotions.
The son begins to express his loneliness and want for normality. He tells his
mother to look at the moon in the sky and explains that they are looking at the
same object but are many miles away from each other. He then says,’ as long
as you can see the moon in the sky I will never stop loving you’. The son uses
the natural surroundings which is unseen by the audience to portray his love for
his mother. This combination between facts and emotions conveys that love
can only be portrayed in what you cannot feel or taste but in what you can see.
Here the son starts to cry whilst sitting on the floor. The mother too begins to
cry and moves off the chair dropping herself to the floor. Now there is no
difference within the status as they are both on the floor. This portrays the
fact that the son’s love and hurt is equal to the mother’s pain and hurt. This
equality demonstrates the emotion of the mother and son through movement.
Here the son tells his mum that his best friend was killed. A freeze frame is
used and we go straight into a flashback and act out the friends death. Here
we only used movement and no text. Employing the medium mime was an
effective way of portraying the death and the music in the background
portrayed the emotions that were experienced within the scene. The whole
scene is in slow motion to emphasis every movement made.
The music turns down and the son and mother take the positions they were in
earlier. The mother is in a freeze frame. The son says goodbye as he has to go,
he stands up and gets shot and drops to the ground. At the same time the music
gradually gets louder. Two men come on stage and pick him up and throw him
at the front of the stage to portray the frontline and to relate the death to war.
The body is left there on one side of the stage and the mother on the other side
bursts out crying. The music dies out and the mother freezes as the music stops.
The only set used was the chair to give the stage an empty lonely feel. In turn this reflected the son’s emptiness and loneliness at war. Not a lot of props were used as the piece was based on elements of war portrayed through the movement and text of the piece.
Evaluation: I think that we worked well as a group in both performances. I portrayed the emotion and objective of my character to substantial level. I employed different elements and strategies that helped me convey certain aspects of my character. The other members in my group worked very well too and showed a detailed understanding of the text. A certain part of the performance included mime in it. Here eye contact was a very crucial as it created suspense and tension, which was not achieved well by the entire group. The responses to the stimuli were achieved to a high standard. We extracted ideas and developed them in great depth. There was contrast and variation within both pieces, within the context, the mediums and strategies used and the characters and portrayal of their emotions. On our first stimuli we worked well as a group although one group member was absent so we had to make some changes to the ideas to make sure the piece made sense. We carried out the mediums and strategies well with both stimuli. The practice went better than the performance in both pieces due to pressure and nerves. In the first piece we could have used many more mediums and strategies which would have improved the piece. It would enable us to relate to the piece with more detail understanding the story behind the text. Starting the first performance off with a television programme about poppies growing, and then finishing the piece with poppies dying worked really well. It related well to the stimulus showing great depth and understanding. The music used in the second piece worked very well and the mime emphasised the silence, concentrating on the movement. Although, more feeling and expression could have been used in the voice and in the movement. Both performances could have been improved with spoken language. We could have used an accent to make the piece more realistic and to add detail to our characters. We could have also worn a costume that reflected our characters emotion. This would help the audience understand the character and text with greater detail. The costume could have included the cultural and historical feature into the performance. As well as this helping the audience relate to the performance and character, it also gave the person playing the role a greater understanding of the character. This in turn makes the character easier to play. Lighting would have been a great assets to the performance as it would have emphasised the pain and sorrow and we could have made use of black outs and the fading away of lighting. However, the first performance was performed in the dram room, where we do not have access to the lighting facilities. Although the second piece was performed in the drama studio the room was set up for an A level exam and we were not able to alter the lighting due to this reason. If we could have used the lighting we would have used Baroq’s idea on using one white light on the main character. This would create a lot of effect on the main character who should be understood in the most detail. Historical, social or cultural features were not considered which meant that the portrayal of the piece within the setting and actors was not achieved to a high degree. In both pieces many aspects are outstanding and are a great credit to the piece however, there are many places where there is room for improvement. Many changes and extra rehearsal would improve both pieces. Taking into account the time we had it would be fair to say that we did remarkably well.
Seema Sidhu 11H
