Posted on No Comments on Stateless

Stateless

Going to see a variety of different shows before we heavily got into the devising process was such a help tool. They gave us thoughts and ideas to where we could take the piece. Seeing Stateless by Joli Vyann was what I would describe as a physical theatre/dance theatre and it stuck in my mind as I knew we would be creating physical theatre and this piece of work gave me inspiration for some of the choreography particularly for the leaving scene, it helped knowing where I could take the choreography. Especially because of the tone of the piece it was the same and that part of our piece.
“Stateless explores the topical subject of refugees and immigration. Through a mixture of dance, from gentle and expressive to fast paced and expansive, integrated with Circus Skills of Hand to Hand Acrobatics and Cyr Wheel, the four performers take the audience on a physical and emotional journey.”(Stateless,2015)

Joli Vyann (2015) Stateless. [performance] Quayle, O & Patzke, J. (dir.) Lincoln: Drill Hall, 19th feburary.
Joli Vyann (2015) Performances. [Online] Joli Vyann. Available from http://www.joli-vyann.com/dance-and-theatre-company-performances/stateless [Accessed 1st march 2015]

Posted on No Comments on ‘Write with the body’ – Physical Theatre

‘Write with the body’ – Physical Theatre

Physical theatre ‘focuses on the unfolding of a narrative through physicalized events and which relegates verbal narrative – if at all present – to a subordinate position’ (Sánchez-Colberg, 2007, 21). As a company, we wanted to position our work in the realm of physical theatre. Although in recent years the umbrella term ‘physical theatre’ can perhaps be overused, we felt that it best describes the work that we are creating. We do not want to naturalistically portray events. We want to physicalize emotions, narratives and events through stylistic movement. As a company, we chose to devise our own performance, tailoring our specific skillsets to make a performance that is suited to our taste as theatre makers. In our first couple of weeks, we have started investigating different physical theatre companies and how the work they create can inspire us to create our own drama. Frantic Assembly soon became a massive influence in the creation of our play as we searched for ways to express a narrative through highly physical movements, often looking at their company for inspiration.

The aim of our rehearsals this week was to capture the essence and emotion of a couple receiving an in-depth diagnosis of the illness, encephalitis. Naturally, this was a challenge for us as performers as we have never experienced such ordeals. Instead of trying to produce a naturalistic scene in which we would try to re-create a scene of someone being diagnosed, we tried to physicalize the harrowing emotions that arrive when hearing such news. Frantic Assembly’s ‘Chair Duets presents a very physical scene of touches, embraces, flirtations, rejections all played at a quite mesmerising speed’ (Graham and Hoggett, 2009, 139). We experimented with pace, facial expression, body language and sound when creating this scene, influenced by Frantic Assembly’s technique. The overall scene worked really well in rehearsal and it became a poignant moment in the play in which the audience focused on the emotions of a couple hearing life-changing news.

Works Cited:

Graham, S., Hogget, S. (2009) The Frantic Assembly Book of Devising Theatre. London and New York: Routledge.

Sánchez-Colberg, A. (2007) Altered States and Subliminal Spaces: Charting the Road Towards a Physical Theatre. In: John Keefe, Simon Murray (eds.) Physical Theatres: A Critical Reader. London: Routledge, 21-25.

Posted on No Comments on The Concept: Memory loss, Music and Emotion

The Concept: Memory loss, Music and Emotion

We are currently beginning to increasingly refine our concept, specifically focusing on the science and emotion aspect of memories. This could range from past memories, forgotten memories or happy and sad memories, each of them are special to us in different ways. We explored using these memories through physical workshops, and after researching further we were gripped by the concept around the notion of memory loss and Encephalitis. Each patient we looked at suffered with severe amnesia; being torn between states of unconsciousness to consciousness, not knowing what happened only 10 seconds ago. However, the most remarkable thing about these stories is the ability to still remember and play music; ‘the ability to play a musical instrument represents a unique procedural skill that can be remarkably resilient to disruptions in… memory’ (Cavaco et al, 2012, 1089).  In Oliver Sack’s book The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, he talks about a certain case who too suffers from memory loss but remembers music; ‘music has been the centre, now make it the whole, of your life’ (Sacks, 1985, 17). This is what we want to incorporate in our piece, the fact that music is the centre of this character’s life on stage, and this will be shown through Michael playing live piano; representing the reality of these cases. Recorded music and voice overs will be embedded into every scene, sometimes to complement the action on stage and sometimes to become the main focus, such as when Michael slowly starts to regain his musical memory during the performance.

With regards to memory loss, Encephalitis and the emotional concept of music, the brain continues to change and develop rapidly from infancy. From birth, a baby is born with the same strands of music and language in their brain. However, as they experience life and learn new things, these strands start to form different pathways in the brain. There is a ‘conscious memory of events….and an unconscious memory for procedures’ (Sacks, 2009, 220), and it is the unconscious memory that most sufferers of Encephalitis use to remember their love for music. We aim throughout our performance to make this clear to the audience, the fact that this man is constantly slipping through a state of memory lapse and temporary awakening of the brain.

-Naomi.

 

 

Works Cited

Cavaco, S. Feinstein, J.S. Van Twillert, H. and Tranel, D. (2012) Musical memory in a patient with severe anterograde amnesia. Journal of Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology. 34 (10) 1089- 1100.

Sacks, O. (1985) The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat. London: Gerald Duckworth and Co. Ltd.

Sacks, O. (2008) Musicophilia. London: Picador.

Posted on No Comments on Finding Our Target Audience…

Finding Our Target Audience…

Whilst completing our marketing strategy, it became apparent that our main target audience was the students based at the School of Fine and Performing Arts. The table below shows that the work that Fill In The Blank are planning on creating will appeal to multiple audiences but mainly the students at of LSFPA.

Audience Table Two

The key features of this target audience are…

18-25 years old.

Students.

Interested in the arts.

Limited budget.

Strong online presence.

Based in Lincoln City Centre.

Part of the University of Lincoln.

Visit the UoL campus regularly.

These are all characteristic that we can use to our advantage to aid us when looking at how we will reach this audience.

Other audiences that it would be worth us investing time whilst marketing in are friends and family, local groups and societies and 13+ years of age. If we focus on the students and also reach out to these other audiences, then we will hopefully succeed in generating an audience for our show.

 

Posted on No Comments on Helpful talks and Broke

Helpful talks and Broke

When starting up a company you are usually influenced by a number of different ones, and one we felt like we wanted to see as a company was The Paperbirds. We knew they held experiences and great reviews from the past and with only being a two week old company at the time of the meeting we thought getting tips from them would help us. They gave us brilliant useful knowledge they received themselves when they started out which we will keep with us “If you’re theatre isn’t good, the show itself then there is not theatre company.” (Paperbirds, 2015)
We arranged as a group to see their performance of Broke, with our director Michael previously seeing it at the Edinburgh fringe festival in 2014. We emailed them in advance asking if we could meet with them pre show asking for advice, which they were more than happy to do. They gave us some helpful advice that we used within our journey of creating a successful theatre company and a successful show.
The performance of broke was such an incredibly stunning and extremely truthful for the harsh reality of life for some people on the bread line in this country. It had several elements that made the show a different experience for me like the use of live music, the simple bits of physical theatre and the use of sock puppets. The set was incredibly simple yet they use of it was clever and brilliant. The underlying story throughout it all was moving and it made me go away and think about the current state of the country and how some people are actually in this state. I would definitely see this again.
“The Paper Birds return with a new verbatim show that shares the real life stories from the front line of poverty and debt in the UK. ‘Broke’ is a heartfelt and urgent look at the debt of a Nation from displaced families and gambling addictions to beans on toast and blind leaps of faith onto the property ladder.”(Paperbirds, 2015)

Paperbirds (2015) Broke. [Performance] Jemma Mcdonnell (Dir.) Lincoln: Drill Hall, 12 February.
Paperbirds (2015)Productions page- Broke.[Online] Leeds: Paperbirds. Available From http://www.thepaperbirds.com/ [Accessed 20th February 2015]