Over all response to the three stimuli:
From the three stimuli I learnt of the pressure the government put on innocent people due in the war. By participating in this workshop I have come to realise a lot about the hidden truth of war and the depth of pain involved in it. Also I believe I have gained a better understanding of why war is such a big issue to this day.
I was shocked to see how well all the stimuli fitted together, almost like a jigsaw. I had expected each stimulus to motivate a different response to the other stimuli. However I found that rather than doing this each new stimulus developed the response to the previous stimuli.
I enjoyed learning about the different views of war. This is because I feel that by exploring all the alternative views of a matter help you to gain a better understanding and thus can improve a person’s ability to do something. In this case having a better understanding of war made it easier to act out the emotions of characters involved in the war.
Development phase
‘‘War’’
Task 1
We were firstly asked to discuss out reactions to the character of the recruitment officer. We came to the conclusion that he had tried to gain authority by bullying the easiest target - the father. This was strongly linked to the second stimuli as it was all about the pressure placed on families due in the war.
After discussing stimulus 2 and 3 we were split into groups and asked to develop a relationship between the characters of the family. Each group was given a different title and asked to first plan then act out a small improvisation of the scenario. Our group acted out ‘a fathers proudest moment’. We choose to set it as the son was going off to war and the father being proud of his son for doing the right thing for his country. I was glad we got the title ‘a fathers proudest moment’ because it gave us the chance to develop all characters. Choosing to set it when the son went off for war aloud us to not only show the relationship between the father and the son but the reaction of the rest of the family.
Task 2
After performing our short improvisation to the class we were asked to go home and select an object that would symbolise their characters relationship with the son who had gone to war. After choosing our objects we had to careful think why our character would related to it. Using out objects we were then asked to plan a monolog in which we used the symbol to add more depth and meaning to what we said.
For this task I played the character of the boys mother. I decided I wanted my character to be some-one who was torn between being happy for her son and guilt from the past. Because of this I wanted to choose an object that would be a memory from the past. I choose a war medal which I represented my dead brother who had died from injury after the first world war. Right before he died my brother had given me the medal and said he had died for the sake of my children, and so that they would never have to go to war and endure the suffering he bore witness to. I used the medal to show how although I was proud of my son I hated him for leaving me and how I thought he would never come back.
Task 3: part a
Subsequently the teacher told us to go away and individually find a gesture that would help us develop and get a better feel for our character. We weren’t supposed to tell anyone else in the workshop our gesture. He explained that all people have a certain thing they do in a particular situation i.e. play with their hair when they are agitated. This time I was playing the character of the older sister; my character was to be nervous of telling my family the truth about war. I choose to bite my nails when ever the family asked something I didn’t want to answer.
After each person had picked a gesture we were told to perform the short scene of the son going away, using our gestures to enhance our characters. After the rest of the class were asked to watch our performance and guess what each person’s gesture was.
Task 3: part b
The class where then asked to make 3 short scenes which lead into 3 freeze-frames. Each scene was to show at least one characters gesture and emotion, each characters emotion and gesture had to be shown at some point. My group decided to do once scene for the father and son, another for the mother and daughter and one for the youngest son.
Task 4
The class was split up into two groups and were given a newspaper clipping featuring an article about a Muslim girl and Serb boy Admira and Bosko, a real life Romeo and Juliet. The article was about two people who had fallen in love, but came from rival backgrounds, and were finally aloud to be together. Both the sides agreed to let them pass; but on the Verbena bridge, the only neutral territory between the rival countries, they were shot, Bosko had dies straight away, but Admira had lived long enough to crawl over to her lover and embrace him. The killer was unknown. The two sides continued to fight over their bodies for five days, when finally they were given permission to be buried in Sarajevo. Basically it was showing how the Serb boy and the Muslim girl who had loved each other for nine years were put in a coffin and buried in the Serbian military graveyard south of Sarajevo.
In our groups we were then asked to create 3 short scenes featuring the 3 main points of the story, using the mediums of drama.
Freeze-frame 1:‘Escape’
Our first freeze-frame was of soldiers from both sides facing each other on each side of the bridge. For this we had the use of prop, sound and narration as our drama mediums. We used boxes to create different levels to create the image of the bridge but also of authority. The soldiers were placed on platforms but the lovers were at ground level showing they were both people of no authority. The character of the Serb boy was walking along holding hands with the Muslim girl, ecstatic that now they thought nothing could get in the way of their love, “now we can be together for ever” was the Serb boys last words before both lovers fell to their inevitable death.
Freeze-frame 2:‘Death and true love’
For our second freeze-frame we choose to show the Muslim girl embracing the Serb boy just before she died. For this we choose to use thought tracking, narration, freeze frame and lighting. This freeze-frame portrayed how deep and strong Admira and Bosko love was, even death could not part them, we used narration and thought tracking to show this. However this scene also showed the selfishness and cruelty of man, we used a red light to emphasis this.
Freeze-frame 3:‘Eternal peace’
In the third freeze frame we had two platforms pushed together to create a coffin with the Serb boy and the Muslim girl in it. This was meant to convey that they would be together forever in this life and the next because their eternal love for each other was so strong, and finally they could be together in peace, like they had waited for, for so many years. The two families joined for the ceremony, for the funeral both familys put their differences behind them and shared their grief, both mothers wore black shawls to show that they were upset over the death of their children. This may seem a silly thing to include but because of the rivalry between the families both lovers had not expected their mothers to care much. At the end of the funeral the narrator explained to the audience how the ring in Admira’s hand was now the only symbol left of Admira’s and Bosko’s love, then the ring dropped to the floor. This symbolised a new beginning for the lovers. For this scene we used the used of costume, prop, lighting, symbol and monolog.
Through out the three freeze frames we mainly used narration; the reason for this was we wanted to give a neutral view of the story. The characters froze for a few seconds whilst the narrator narrated and then the actors persisted with the story. We choose to decide the use of drama mediums individually for each scene, this was to ensure that each medium worked as well as it could and was used in the right way.
Evaluation phase
‘‘War’’
Evaluation of response to stimulus text one:
I think that by sharing our ideas as a group and then as a class it meant we were able to develop and explore ideas more. It was interesting to see how although all the groups pick up on similar things we all ended up with very different freeze frames.
My group chose what we thought were the 3 key images in the poem and used them as our freeze-frames. We choose to do this because we thought that it expressed best the suffering the poet would have seen and endured.
Our first freeze-frame was based on the first line of the poem, ‘bent double.’ we choose this because we wanted to show how even in the trenches how horrible war was. For this we placed people shooting at the front with a brave look on their face, this was to show how the war was portrayed, but behind them were people bent double and struggling, this was to show how the war really was. Body posture was really important in this freeze-frame as well as facial expression. These were important because we needed to show the different views of war, so the soldiers at the front needed to look happy and keen to do a good job, to reflect this they needed good posture to show their enthusiasm and smiles to show how they think they are doing the right thing. The others however needed to look worried and week, to portray this the soldiers were bent over like they couldn’t stand straight or huddled on the floor to show they had no strength. The spacing was also important as soldiers shown to be huddling implies a sense of insecurity and loneliness. The suffering soldiers were placed behind the enthusiastic ones to show how the poet felt how war was portrayed was a lie.
The second freeze-frames was based on the gas attack as a large proportion on the poem was about this. We wanted to show how everyone was injured. Our main focus in this was hand gesture, soldiers reaching out showed their desperation, other soldiers had their hand on their throats to show their suffering. Posture was also used as we made sure no-one was standing completely straight to show that everyone was suffering.
The final freeze-frame we choose to do showed everyone dead in a heap. We called this ’Dulce de Decorum Est’ because it was not a beautiful and wonderful sight, which we thought was the key part of the poem. We used spacing by crowding all the bodies together so they were almost heaped. We did this to show how the poet did not believe the soldiers died bravely and gracefully for their country, as the ’old lie’ would have us believe.
Another of the groups decided to base their freeze-frames around the poster. I found this very effective especially in the last freeze-frame as the truth of war was literally hidden behind the poster.
Freeze-frame three:‘the old lie’
I found the most effective thing about this freeze-frame was the use of levels. They showed the authority of the poster over everything else by placing Lord Kitchener higher than all of the other characters. It was also really effective how although people where dying and suffering behind the poster the people in front of it were still looking up to it. I found this to be a really successful way of expressing the poets view of war.
Evaluation of response to stimulus text two:
The video was the first stimulus that really highlighted the extremity of the pressure the government put on people involved in the war. It portrayed how the government had used pier pressure to control people and take away their voices. It also showed how the government made it extremely difficult for anyone with an opposing view to war. They made sure anyone who publicly spoke out against them or refused to join the war was publicly humiliated by the white feather campaign.
Evaluation of response to stimulus text three:
I think it was a good idea to have randomly picked unprepared students to participate in this exercise. I think that this was important because it is necessary to see the natural reactions of people to a character such as the recruitment officer. The fact that the mother character stood up to the recruitment officer was also a key moment because it showed the recruitments officer’s true colors, and how much of his authority was fake – much like most of the public eyes view of war. This stimulus re-establishes the major issue of bullying that went on due in the war.
Evaluation of the development phase:
Task One
When we were asked to acted out a fathers proudest moment we were able to plan the reaction of the characters. As we knew the younger son was jealous we decided to separate him from the rest of the family. He sat with his back to his family and played with toy soldiers. The separation was important as it showed the child’s adolescence because of his lack of understanding, also by sitting crossed legged it showed that the boy was very young as it is a it is not normally a tendency of an older person. The daughter stood with her family but with her head down and didn’t say anything, the daughter was stood next to the family to show her concern for her brother but by starring down and not talking it showed really her character was troubled and that she was trying to hide it from her family. The mother stood comforting her daughter which showed she was upset to, but she looked straight at her son with her back straight and her head high to show she was proud and happy for him as well. The son was looking up to his dad why they were talking which showed that it made the son happy that his dad was proud of him. The father stood up straight with his head up and his fist held clenched on his heart these were all symbols of the fathers proudness. Our improvisation was based mainly on our use of the body and although words added to the effect I think it would have work jus as well as a freeze-frame.
Another group did ‘a mothers nightmare’ they built up atmosphere by having all the characters harass her in her sleep. It was found it really good as it gave me a headache and I think that was the whole concept, the words were the most important thing in this peace as they were all things that added to the mothers guilt. Everything that was said seems to have been taken out of context by the mother and have been changed to be used against her, by her conscience. Although I did think this performance was cleverly thought out I think it could have been improved if the voices had started off in almost a whisper and gradually got louder and louder and faster and faster. I think this would have worked better because it would have symbolised how the mother’s guilt was building up.
Task Two
I found it important to plan the monolog so that I could see if my object would work. However I didn’t think I should learn one off by heart because it would have more and meaning if it was partly improvised in the sense that this object started off a chain of thought. Also I thought it would help myself as a performer because if I had learnt it off by heart and forgotten a bit I would be stuck, but I found that just by getting an idea of what I was going to say it aloud me to make up the bits I’d forgotten or just move on to the next piece.
During my piece I though I used the object well as I directly related what I was saying to the object. However I found that my performance would have been better if I had tried harder to involve the audience. To do this I could have simply showed the audience the medal I used for my object, by doing this I would have drawn the audience in and it would have given the audience a better sense of involvement.
After performing I carefully observed other members of the group. By watching other people perform it made me realise how important panning was, you could clearly see who had carefully thought out and planned their monolog and who appear to have grabbed the first object they found. This was not because of the acting but because of the flow and content of the performance.
A couple of people’s monologs really stood out for me:
One person in the character of the younger son bought in toy soldiers to play with; I thought this to be a very good object as it was directly symbolic. The performance was extremely successful as the boy used the soldiers to show his mixed emotions and lack of understanding. The actor also successfully drew the audience in by almost including them in the boys game that he was playing with the toy soldiers. The young boy expressed his mixed emotions for his brother by first placing him at the front of the line, which showed that really he was proud of his brother, but then his jealousy took over and he knocked all the soldiers down. I found this very impressive as I think it worked on many levels, for me it caught the credulity and innocents of childhood as well as successfully completing the task asked.
Another, which stood out to me, was a monolog in the character of the sister. She choose to use skipping rope that her and her elder brother had played with every summer years ago. The reason this monolog worked so well was because of the way the rope was used. While telling a short story she got the rope and started to tie it around her wrist, she then went on to explain that the last time her and her brother had played with this rope he had tied her up and pretended she was a prisoner of war. This brought to the surface how her brother was the one imprisoned at war, but it was no longer a game. She aloud the audience to be drawn in by her story telling and then persisted to express an immense sense of emotion to them. You could tell that this was a very well prepared monolog and that the task had been understood.
Another person did a really good monolog but didn’t successfully link it to the object. From this I saw how much depth and meaning a simple thing can add to a performance and how it helps enhance a character.
Task three: part a
I found that finding a gesture and making it work for a particular character was hard to get into. In spite of this once I had got used to the idea of the gesture doing it helped me get into my character quickly. I think my character was quite easy to pick a gesture for because it is common for people to try and distract themselves when they are nervous e.g. playing with their hair or biting their nails. I think it may have been harder for other characters to think of a gesture for their character in such a short space of time.
Most people gestures were easy to guess as they did it in the right situation or at the right time. This proved that the exercise had worked.
Task three: part b
When doing task 3 we decided to split the 3 scenes up into groups of characters because we thought it would be easier to create a situation in which the character could show their gesture. We put the son and the father together because we thought it would be the best opportunity to show the fathers pride and the reaction. The mother and daughter were placed together because we wanted to show the daughters worry and the mothers guilt and by doing a scene with them together a tense atmosphere could easily be created, emphasising both characters emotions. Finally we choose to put the youngest son on his own because we thought it would be more affected for him to use mime. We choose to stick to using the toy soldiers that younger son had used for monolog, but as we couldn’t use an actual prop the actor had to mime playing with them. We were worried it might not work in this situation but after performing we found that it did work really well because it showed how the youngest son didn’t understand the impotence of what was going on and his adolescence, and this was directly linked to his emotion and gesture.
Task four: freeze-frame one
I think the use of level worked reasonably well in the first freeze-frame as it created a literal and symbolic meaning. I also think that we made the right decision choosing not to use light in this scene as it was unnecessary and would have just over complicated the scene. From this I learnt that it is much better to use a few mediums of drama well than it is to use as many as possible badly.
Task four: freeze-frame two
In the second scene I think that the choice of thought tracking was a mistake. It seemed to confuse the audience, and the person stepping out of character to do the thought tracking was unable to get into character quick enough to capture the strong emotions of Admira. I think it would have been better to if the character of Admira had have performed a small monolog instead.
However I thought the use of the red light was very successful as it introduced another level of meaning to the scene and thus allowed the characters to develop more.
Task four: freeze-frame three
We choose to close the final scene with a white light shinning on the two lovers as they lay in their grave. We did this because white symbolizes innocents, purity and peace.
I also think that the symbol of the ring worked exceptionally well, as it portrayed to the audience the strength of Admira’s and Bosko’s love, but it also symbolised hope, future and happiness.
Finally I thought that the monolog of Admira’s father was important because it demonstrated how some things are more important than others, especially war and hate, no matter how deep they run. It also highlights how stubbornness is sometimes better left, and that it is more important in the long run to put things behind us before they get out of hand. I though this to be a really important message especially on the topic of war.
Overview:
After receiving the topic of war and the poem I decided to research relevant information. The first thing I found was that the saying ‘Dulce et Decorum Est Pro patria mori’ was a saying that originated form the Roman poet Horace. It was an old Latin saying meaning it is a beautiful and wonderful thing to die for your country.