Response to play's and other types of drama - In this essay I am going to compare my play with three comparatives.
AQA GCSE Drama: Response to play's and other types of drama In this essay I am going to compare my play with three comparatives. The play I performed was devised from the story of "Ashputtel", originally written by The Brother's Grimm in the 1900's, and re-written by Carol Ann Duffy. The other three texts are, The "Just So stories", originally written by Rudyard Kipling in 1902 and later adapted by Jamilla Gavin, "The Metamorphosis" by Franz Kafka in 1915, also, "The Grimm's fairytales" by The Brother's Grimm, written in the early twentieth century. My performance, based upon the story of "Ashputtel", was set in the 1800's, in possibly Germany or Austria, and was similar to "Cinderella". The original form of the story was narration, but was adapted, and a variety of forms were used. It was physical theatre; using stylistic movements, robotic movements, repetition, simultaneity, chorus, and sound collage were used. The "Just So Stories" are about two children whose parents have left them in the care of their Uncle and maid. It is set in the 1900's, "Uncle Ruddy" acts as a narrator, and he tells the children stories about animals and metamorphosis. It was naturalistic but fictional. It was aimed at children, delivering morals in an enjoyable form. The many forms used were similar to my performance, using repetition, narration, and chorus. The forms were
In this tug of love unit we've developed themes like love, separation and the bond between mother and child. I now understand the problems that arise from these themes and the emotions that people go through.
In this tug of love unit we've developed themes like love, separation and the bond between mother and child. I now understand the problems that arise from these themes and the emotions that people go through. It is an emotional time for them and it'll make me more understanding towards them. By watching the play I've picked up many ways to improve my drama .I now realise that lighting, costumes and sound are more important than I first thought. I learnt so much about acting techniques and effective ways to use them as Blood Brothers uses abstract techniques excellently. The use of mirroring was very powerful especially when they were both shot dead. The mirroring clearly showed that they were twins as they both had the same gestures and movements. It symbolised their unity and the bond between them. Even though they were separated that link couldn't be broken and they were drawn together. This would be effective in my drama to symbolise strong relationships or bonds between characters. A major theme is rich and poor. The twins' lives were mirrored at their births and deaths. Even though money and upbringing drove them apart they are one so it couldn't keep them separated. In Blood Brothers there was excellent use of a narrator. He talks to the audience and has a special relationship with them. His presence was very powerful as sometimes the characters
'Blood Brother' Live Theatre Evaluation
'Blood Brother' Live Theatre Evaluation The Set & Scenery: The play did not have much scenery. The terraced street scene was always at the sides, and was blacked out whenever it was not needed in a certain scene. Other scenes, for instance Mrs. Lyons first house the scenery consisted of a window and the wall around it as a flat, which was lowered from above whilst the blackout. The narrator helped it into position. For Mrs. Lyons second house the hedge and wall was wheeled in from the wings on trucks, often through the arches on the left. All the scene changes, except for one or two, happened with lights up and the narrator mostly would bring on the scenery. The set was kept minimal and I think that was good because it complicates things and makes acting difficult when you have too many props and scenery. The props used were almost items from everyday life, except for the guns. They were quite hard to see from where I was sitting or maybe it was because of the lighting but was probably toy guns or products for theatre use only. Technical Elements: The lighting was very interesting using, mirror balls, spotlights and coloured spotlights. The music all came from the orchestra that was located in the upper floors of the buildings in the terraced street. Many of the songs were amplified around the theatre and some had echo effects' used in them. Costumes: The costume changes
I have been to see the play Blood Brothers in the Phoenix theatre on the 10th November 2011.
Blood Brothers Evaluation I have been to see the play Blood Brothers in the Phoenix theatre on the 10th November 2011. The play was written by Willy Russell, the genre was musical theatre. The play was about two twins separated at birth and re-united the same day they die. The play opens with the death scene, which was also the end scene. The whole play is a flash back, this is effective because it drew the audience in and gave a level of suspense as you wanted to know what happens to the twins, ‘The story of the Johnston Twins’. The narrator then comes on in verse and tells you what has happened. The lighting is dark and red with the use of a gobo projected onto a gauze. This is effective because you could see the twins were dead so the lighting made the mood feel down and sombre. This meant the director expressed the emotions to fit the scene. The music is low and sombre this is effective as it reflects the atmosphere and mood of the scene. The narrator then invites you in to watch the rest of the play through a flashback, the gauze goes up and the scene changes. The next scene is in contrast to the first as it is more upbeat. Mrs Johnston uses song to narrate her life so far this is effective because links it to the life of Marline Monroe as she is a happy person at the begging of her career. Then slowly through the song her life deteriorates when her husband
Blood brothers was written by Willy Russell and performed at Lutterworth College by BTEC students in 2004
Play evaluation Blood brothers Blood brothers was written by Willy Russell and performed at Lutterworth College by BTEC students in 2004. Blood brothers is an emotional play about two brothers that had been split apart by two women, Mrs Lions and Mrs Johnston, they are from two different worlds. Mrs Johnston is a poor woman living on scrimps and scrapes, with seven children and another two on the way; she had no choice but to but to let Mrs Lions adopt one of the baby’s or else she will be bankrupt. As the twins grow older, leading separate lives, they begin to gradually grow back towards each other, until they eventually become friends. However, the touching story of unconditional brotherly love is touching by tragedy. Set in Liverpool in post-war 1960s Britain, it follows the journeys of “Eddie” and “Micky” as they grow up in contrasting worlds, having been separated by their mother who could not afford to keep them both This forces her to give Eddie away to her wealthy boss who is unable to bear her own children. The protagonists of the play are Stephen Palfreman and Simon Willmont. Palfreman is a veteran of the show, having played the role of “Micky” for several years in the UK and beyond (including alongside David Cassidy in the Canadian version of Blood Brothers. The most impressive aspect of Palfreman’s performance is his ability to convincingly
Blood Brothers - Development Task
Paper 1, Unit 2- Portfolio GCSE Drama 1699 Task 2- Development For our coursework, we created several scenes and performed scripted pieces from the play 'Blood Brothers' by Willy Russell. I shall discuss some of the main scenes we created/performed and what mediums and elements we used to improve them. The first scene I'll discuss is where Mrs Johnstone and Mrs Lyons are arguing over who'll keep the twin. We used various mediums and elements of drama to help us put the scenes from page to stage. I have listed how we implemented elements of drama and what effects they gave below: Content- We produced this scene directly from page to stage, except we added thought tracking to it- two extra character characters that spoke their thoughts. We used the stage directions to produce movement and facial expressions which were the main content of the scene, including the dialog. Actions- We used various different actions both from the script and improvised. These ranged from Mrs Johnstone cleaning at the start, to Mrs Lyons waving her arms in argument. We did this to give the effect of emphasising Mrs Lyons' frustration and madness and to add more visual interest
Analyse the the music used in the play 'Blood Brothers'
In the opening of the play the mixture of narration and spotlight help to focus the audience attention to the words being spoken. The slow and mysterious music gives a sense of importance whilst setting an edgy mood. During the first song the positioning on stage is used well, with Miss Johnston left onstage, alone, implies that she is helpless and alone. The song is interrupted by her kids; this could suggest that her life has been interrupted as well. The song she is singing is also an example of thought tracking, with her children offstage with her being on tells the audience that her kids are the constant background to her personality and that she cannot be herself without her kids interfering. In the next scene the light is much brighter. From this we can infer that she is much happier when working and earning money. She is in a much more positive mood. Which suggest that the priority in her life is to keep food on the table for her kids and provide for them. When Miss Johnston tells Mrs L ions (her new employer) about the twins she is expecting, the lighting becomes much darker to create a negative mood. Miss Lions then tries to persuade Miss Johnston. Whilst doing this, proxemics are used to create a false impression of friendship. She moves much closer to Miss Johnston and holds her by the arm. Therefore making Miss Johnston receive an illusion of trust. During
Blood Brothers - Response Task
GCSE Drama 1699 Paper 1, Unit 2- Portfolio Response Task Throughout our coursework we explored the play 'Blood Brothers' by Willy Russell. In order to do this, we used a selection of various explorative strategies to further develop our understanding and knowledge of the play. Initially, we used the explorative strategy 'Still Image' in order to explore how the characters Eddie, Mickey and Linda develop throughout the play as a reflection of their ages and what events in the play affect them. 'Still Image' is when characters are still, showing emotions and possibly depicting an image from a scene. It's useful in drama as you can focus on a particular section and explore what themes and character aspects are portrayed. We used 'Still Image' whilst creating our own compilation of still images to represent how these three main characters have grown up and changed in three main stages of the play: When they were children, teenagers and adults respectively. To explore this, we created a series of three still images that featured Eddie, Mickey and Linda using different postures, voice, levels and proxemics to explore their ages, character emotions and the relationship between the characters at that point. In the first image, we used the elements of drama aforementioned to
Critical Evaluation Of Blood Brothers.
Critical Evaluation Of Blood Brothers Title of Play: Blood Brothers Author: Willy Russel Directors: Bob Tompson and Bill Kenwright Theatre: Theatre Royal, Brighton I went to see Blood Brothers at the Theatre Royal in Brighton. The play was directed by Bob Tomson and Bill Kenwright and written by Willy Russel. The play is set in Liverpool where a mother of seven children is expecting twins. She has trouble coping with the bills and buying her children the things they want. She begins a new job working as a housekeeper for Mrs. Lyons . As she becomes to know the woman she discovers her desire to have children. She decides to give one of her expected twins away upon the promise of being able to see him every day. After a while, she is sacked from her job and threatens to tell everybody about their secret. She is then told if she tells the other twin, they will both die. As the brothers grow older, they seemingly grow apart. Mickey is a worker who loses his job, becomes involved in crime and turns into a pill-popping addict. Eddie, with the Lyons' ample finances, attends university and becomes a town official. The brothers become increasingly unable to relate to each other and eventually fate catches up with them as the narrator keeps repeating that for such a separation at birth, ultimately a price has to be paid. Superstitions are constant in this musical and show the
A theatrical review of Blood Brothers.
H Gray Blood Brothers A marvellous and a truly magnificent spectacle of blood brothers performed at palace theatre in Manchester. It was beyond doubt any doubt that they took Willy Russell original play and made it shine with all its splendour. The performance was of a very high performance for all ages. The production as well was a touring production which was great because you could never tell with all the backdrops they used. The play is about two twin boys separated at birth by two mothers one has many children already the other is infertile. The boys grow up to be blood brothers and best friends unaware of their uncanny resemblance that they are actually brothers themselves. The play really did stand off the page when I saw it I thought it was a: cracking, amazing and a once in a life time performance, it beats the written version in my view. I think this is because when we were reading through the script we did not include the first class songs which were champion also and the use of the correct accents makes the play seems so better on stage. I don't how the play would look but I figured the play would be set in two halves: Mrs Johnstone's house and the Lyon's house. In addition I strongly thought they were going to use significant lights for the both sides. They did that also which impressed me