- We started off by improvising our scenes, this was good as it made us think on the spot about where the play was heading. Improvisations give you the opportunity to see what stays in i.e. good and what goes out i.e. bad. Without improvising we would have never come up with the ideas that were used in the final performance.
- Also the fact of bonding and gelling together as a group in rehearsals helped us in the final performance because it gave us the opportunity to see which character suits which person and the possibility of seeing each of our acting abilities. Another factor is that it helped us work out each others space on the stage i.e. where we would be standing without blocking someone for example from visual contact with the audience. Without this the final performance would have been of a poor standard.
- Once in the lesson we went straight into our roles. This helped us understand our character and it was as if you became him and built a relationship with him. On the whole improved the final performance because it made us more confident of the character and the task in hand.
- Once we had written a script of the play, it became much easier for us because it meant we didn’t have to improvise anymore and lose any previous ideas that we thought were good as it was all on paper. By having a script, it makes the final performance run like clockwork because everything is laid out and you stick to the ‘plan’ as it were.
- Another factor was using a lot of hand movements in our rehearsals and practising body positions because these are important in the play as it shows good communication. We practised not moving around too much when talking so that you have a good communication with either audience or fellow cast member. This improved our final performance.
Explain how research material was gathered and used in the process.
- Fortunately during the process of our play, we were studying the tragedy of King Lear in English Literature. This helped us with the idea of the feudal system and Shakespeare (our stimuli).
- Another factor that helped us was our previous knowledge of texts on Richard II by William Shakespeare; again this was studied at great depths in English Literature and is full of hierarchy and the feudal system. We used the levels from looking at this book.
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The internet helped us as a group a lot by using the simple search engine . From this search we built up a lot of research on feudal system and how you can portray it in the theatre. Also when we looked up Macbeth there were over 600,000 pages available to view. Therefore we did have a solid background and picked out bits that we thought would work on stage.
- Also I was fortunate enough to have been performing in the school production of Macbeth during this drama process. I picked up a lot of material from here that was used in the process for example the tableau scene; in Macbeth there was also the tableau scene which laid out events of the play. Also I took a speech from Macbeth to give the performance more effect and keeping it in line with our stimulus.
Evaluate the ways in which ideas were communicated to the audience.
- Communicating to the audience is very important, without this the play has no meaning and structure and it just makes the audience bored, which causes them to stop listening and watching the play.
- The idea of the Chat Room scene was very effective; this was an idea from one of the members of the group. We decided to project it onto a projector screen whilst there was a blackout. Music was played over the top of this scene so that it didn’t become boring for the audience to just sit and read what was on the screen. It was supposed to be eye candy to the audience; we think it worked because feedback after the performance was positive about the Chat Room scene.
- The tableau scene was an important idea. It was taken from the School production of Macbeth but rearranged so that it fitted our play. It was to portray different events in the play, we moved into different positions every five seconds, red lights from all around the stage were lit up and a freeze frame position was taken until the lights went down again. We had done about five or six portraits. This scene was really meant to set up the play and to keep the audience alert of what was to come.
- The idea of the levels was a group thought. We each had done our monologues from our own levels so that we communicated to the audience in our personal way; this was to really heighten understanding and feeling from the audience. The levels were clearly visible when the audience walked in the theatre- this was to keep the audience alert so they would follow the production and understand what the levels are used for. It was successful.
Explore the social/cultural and/or historical conditions on the work.
Shakespeare was fully involved in the London theatre world. He wrote an average of two plays a year for his company. Shakespeare was one of the few Elizabethan writers who concentrated almost solely on the theatre as a career. By the late 1590's Shakespeare had not only become an established writer, but he had also become prosperous. In 1599, Shakespeare and six other associates became owners of the Globe, a new outdoor theatre. This became the home of Shakespeare's acting company - The King's Men. Before his death on April 23 1616, William Shakespeare had written Thirty-seven plays. He is generally considered the greatest playwright the world has ever known and has always been the world's most popular author.
Milwaukee postal worker kills co-worker, self
Two other employees wounded
December 19, 1997
Web posted at: 1:18 p.m. EST (1818 GMT)
(CNN) -- A postal employee who had been turned down for a transfer to a day shift and filed a grievance against his boss opened fire in Milwaukee's main post office early Friday, killing a co-worker and wounding two others before killing himself.
Anthony Deculit, 37, opened fire in a 24-hour mail sorting room where busy employees were handling holiday mail, postal inspector said. The other man killed was Russell "Dan" Smith, 42.
Postal officials said Deculit had been on the job for about three hours before the shootings began. One witness told CNN affiliate WTMJ-TV that she counted 12 shots.
A witness, Michael Witkowski, said there had been friction between Smith and Deculit, and they did not speak to each other at work.
- As you can see these themes are of great use in our play. The killing of co-workers can happen as you can see on the previous page. This was taken from CNN.com; therefore there is truth in what we performed on stage.
- Above states how the feudal system was in medieval times, we as a group re-designed it in a more modern way.
Indicate how the influences and ideas of other playwrights and/or directors and performers have been used.
- Firstly Shakespeare has influenced our play. We added the quote from Macbeth as it was one of our stimuli. I consider him to be the greatest playwright in history and therefore have a definite mention. Also the point about tragedy and how it is connected to Shakespeare was used in the play.
- The school production of Macbeth was directed by Sarah Swiddenbank. She used the tableau in her Macbeth and us as a group found it a very suitable way of communicating to the audience and therefore designed our own. Also in her version of Macbeth, she too used levels with a red carpet going down the middle of the stage to represent the way to the ‘top’ as it were therefore representing a type of feudal system.
- My good friend Stu Stealey who was the designer of the school production of Macbeth used the red lights in that production when the tableau scene was introduced to the audience and therefore we decided to use it too as red is the best colour when using this technique.
- Another mention of Sarah Swiddenbank and how wonderfully she uses music to interpret meaning to the audience in her version of Macbeth. This helped us immensely on choosing the correct music for certain scenes.
