Double Performing Arts Lesson (14th December 2015)

In today double lesson we created our masks for our new topic 'Comedia Dell'arte'. To do this we used Plaster Paris. We used this rather than just buying a plastic mask with string on the back so the masks were specific to each individual person. 

We split into pairs (Charlie and Olly, Lorna and Lewis, James and I). 

We covered our partners face with soaked Plaster Paris only up until the nose so the mouth was not covered. We had to covered our partners nostrils and eye holes with tissue so that the Plaster Paris didn't drip into their eyes or nostrils. We pressed into the eye holes and the nose curves specifically to get the correct shape, and layered it up 3 or 4 times to make sure it stayed strong. After we had completed the masks we had to lay down for about 25/30 mins to allow the plaster to dry, we were then able to peel the masks off and leave them on the side to harden. 

After half term we will continue to decorate our masks to look like our chosen characters picked by Miss McSherry.  

Single Performing Arts Lesson (11th December 2015)

In today's single lesson we decided to have another run through of the entire play (including songs) without scripts. In my opinion this was one of the best run through we have had because the majority of people knew all their lines and their songs pretty well so most of the play ran smoothly.


This rehearsal was also the first time I performed in costume. I had a white costume and a head scarf for Joseph and I made a crown for Herod.

Today's rehearsal was good until we reached the adult scene where people began to loose concentration and a lot of mistakes were made. This was very frustrating for everyone in the class because they knew that they knew their adult lines but people lost concentration everyone messed up.  

Double Performing Arts Lesson (11th December 2015)

In today's double lesson we started our unit on 'Commedia Dell'arte' (Art Comedy)! It began in Italy in the 16th century and the roughest translation for it is, "Comedy of Craft." Famous companies across time who performed Commedia Dell'arte include, Soldati, Ganassa, Gelosi. Magistrates were not receptive of the travelling companies and they were referred to as Vagabondi (Vagabond in today's terms). Conventional plot lines were written on themes of sex, jealousy, love and old age. Masks are essential in Commedia Dell'arte.

We started the lesson with a warm up led by me. I had the class run around the room and then perform either push ups, squats or sit ups as we needed to be ready and warmed up for our new unit. We then led a stretch each and performed a focus exercise.

We started by watching a video (click here to go to the video) introducing us to some of the stock characters in Commedia Dell'arte. We learnt that the characters were ordered in a hierarchy of status and power with the Magnifico at the top and Zanni at the bottom. Looking at these characters helps us understand how Commedia Dell'arte is performed. We also learnt from the video that most actors performed with masks and that the characters with long noses are considered dumb and stupid. We learnt that lot of the time, the characters didn't speak English but they spoke a language called, "Gromalot." 

Gromalot, is a style of language used in satirical theatre. It's a gibberish with macaronic and onomatopoeic elements, used in association with mime and mimicry. The fact that it's gibberish makes the actual language non-understandable unless spoken with emotion. When said bluntly, it means nothing but with emotion the language can be as easily understandable as English.

We spent time performing as four of the characters in Commedia Dell'arte: Magnifico, Zanni, Brighella and Harlequin! We spent time learning about their personality and how each one moves. Below is their characteristics and how they move.

• Magnifico: Looks down on everything and everyone, leader, when one dies another automatically appears, the most powerful, very wise, from Magnifico comes the other masters (Pantalone & The Doctor) leads from the chest, high, takes up as much room on the stage as physically possible, doesn't care for anyone
• Zanni: Peseant, everything is extraordinary to him, curious, enthusiastic, servant to Magnifico, from Zanni comes the other servants (Brighella & Harlequin) lead from the nose, low, arms up at shoulder height, feet out in front as they want to come up
• Brighella: cunning, master of servants and servant of master, uniform, proud, welcoming, womaniser, fall in love easily, selfish, leads from head, arms at shoulder height, elbows out, higher than Zanni but still low, direct movement
• Harlequin: thinks he's gorgeous, confident, amoral, lives in the moment, acrobatic, cheeky, always hungry, playful, leads from crotch, very loose but heavy hands, indirect movement

We walked around as each character and started pairing few of them up! We got into pairs of Magnificos and Zannis and performed a short piece and then got into pairs of Brighellas and Harlequins. This helped us analyse how each character works and how we would put them into action.

Single Performing Arts Lesson (10th December 2015)

In today's lesson we decided we would work on our songs  we realised our performance was so much better than our songs and we know they are important for the comedy side of the performance so it was vital we knew all of our songs. 

We started with, "O Come All Ye Faithful" as we are very confident with it! We all knew our lyrics. We decided to focus more on our movement as children. I swayed side to side and looked around as these are typical actions that a 7 year-old would do.

Lorna and I then performed our duet of 'Once in royal David city'. After deciding to cut the song short as not all the lyrics work with the music we performed it pretty well as we knew how the song wen't and didn't need a backing track. 

To finish off our lesson we rehearsed 'Silent Night'. This was the worst run through so far today as we couldn't find a decent enough backing track and not everyone knew the melody of the song.  

Double Performing Arts Lesson (9th December 2015)

In today's 'Snow Queen' lesson we moved onto Lewis's story (Story 3). Lewis decided he wanted his piece to be based on his favourite practitioner 'Brecht'. Some of the techniques he uses which we included in our performances were Narration, Placards, Tableaux and Breaking the Fourth Wall.

https://youtu.be/tjnSETChnQU

The link above is a video of our performance.

After we completed our performance of 'Story 2' we moved onto James's story and he decided he wanted to use silhouettes for his story. I gave the idea we watch some silhouette videos as I didn't do GCSE drama and wanted to know how it worked, so we watched the silhouette group from Britain's got talent 'Attraction' to give us an idea of how we can work on James's piece. 

    

Single Performing Arts Lesson (8th December 2015)

In today's lesson we decided to do a full performance run through. In my opinion this was the best run through we've done so far as the majority of people remembered their lines. 

The only mess up we were unable to recover from was in Act 1 when Lorna approaches Ryan (me) and attempts to stroke his hair. This went wrong because Lorna knew her cue word was "Bradley" however Lewis said this too early (halfway through Hope and Cery's conversation meaning the play made no sense because some parts were repeated in order to get back on track. However after a quick discussion and a few changes we were able to iron out our mistakes and carry on with the production. For next rehearsal, we all agreed to make sure that we know our cue lines which cue other people and our cue lines for ourselves.   

Single Performing Arts Lesson (4th December 2015)

In today's single lesson we decided to perform Flint Street again but a little bit different. We performed all of Act 2 (without the songs), however when we were the children we performed as if we were the adults and vice versa. 

I felt this was useful as this helped establish the relationships between parent and child a lot better and gave us a new challenge. However, this was very confusing for the majority of our class and maybe a normal rehearsal would have been more appropriate because we wont be using this excersice in our actual performance but it was interesting to see how everyone else adapts to the exercise and how there interpretation of their adults differs to that of their children characters. .

Single Performing Arts Lesson (3rd December 2015)

In today's lesson we began with a performance worksheet.
For this worksheet we had to brainstorm ideas for we believe we could improve our rehearsals of 'Flint Street Nativity'. We also discussed what exercises we believed benefited us as actors and how much research we have done into the 'Flint Street Nativity'.

For the first question-

- Discussing one activity or exercise, explain how this has developed your own skills and understanding as an actor.

I chose the Subtext exercise we performed during the adult section. This helped us explore character relationships by analysing the language used within the script. This gave us a great deal more understanding of the subtext of the script.

For the second question-

- What research have you done into the play itself?

I mentioned watching the film of 'Flint Street Nativity'. 

I also discussed the reviews I read from Tim Firth and other theatrical critics on the play and how it could be improved.

For the last question- 

What are your recommendations for developing the production further?

As a group we all discussed ideas together for this answer and came up with a list of 5 things we believed would help. Our list included swapping kids with adults, a student questionnaire, film rehearsals for analysis, swapping roles with each other and to perform a full uninterrupted run through.

Single Performing Arts Lessons (28th November 2015)

28th November
In today's lesson we set a target to run the entire performance through with no scripts. However we were only able to work up to 'The introduction of Herod'.
After the scene Ashley and Miss Cordell gave us all notes on how to improve our performances. As a group we need to pick up the energy in our voices because when we're on the stage people at the back wont be able to hear us. We also need to look up at Mrs Horrocks to make it more believable and to make it easier for people to understand what we're doing.
For my individual feedback I was told to stay in character even if I'm not speaking because I seam to loose character when I focus more on whats going on than my own character.

Double Performing Arts Lesson (7th November 2015) 'DAY OF THE PRODUCTION!'

Today was the day of our production of 'Fantastic Mr Fox'.
We began today sorting out props making sure we have everything we need. Unfortunately we only had 1 farmers hat. Lewis and James were arguing over who got the hat because they both wanted it. I suggested Bean should have the hat because James and I both had individual factors that showed us as the farmers (Boggis has a fat belly and Bunce squats to shows he's short, however Bean has nothing). Therefore Lewis claimed the fat cap as his farmer factor.


After we decided where each prop would be on the stage and set up for run through performance. Miss McSherry invited her Year 9 class to come in and watch our production in the hopes they might find small improvement we missed.
During this run through we did realise another problem as after 'We'll never let him go' (The last Farmer scene) we left to the right of the stage in single file like we have every other scene. However in the next sequence of scenes I would be introduced as Mole rather than Boggis and I come on stage left however I would be stage right. I pointed this out to Lewis and he changed the script in 'We'll never let him go' rather than us all walking off the same way he sent me off stage right therefore I could be on the right side of the stage to be introduced as 'Mole'.

Double Performing Arts Lesson (6th November 2015)

During this lesson we created an entire production outline and a props list (instigated by Lewis).


Scene Order:

Scene 1 - Fox Family Introduction

Characters: Mr Fox, Mrs Fox, Fox Cub (James), Fox Cub (Lorna)

- Narrator introduces the Fox Family

- Mr Fox introduces himself and his family

- Narrator mentions the farmers, Fox Family exits

Scene 2 - The Three Farmers Introduction

Characters: Boggis, Bunce, Bean - Songs: Combine Harvester

- Bunce runs in with a chicken drumstick, checking beforehand, he eats it

- Boggis enters puffed out, he sees Bunce and takes the drumstick, he holds it above him

- Bean enters seeing them argue, he takes the chicken from Boggis and they get in a line

- The farmers bop in time with the music

- Narrator describes each farmer, each farmer steps forwards and mimes during their description

Scene 3 - The Plan For Shooting

Characters: Boggis, Bunce, Bean

- Boggis and Bunce argue over their farms

- Bunce hits Boggis and Boggis cries, Bean enters to stop the argument

- Bean asks for suggestions on how to get rid of the fox

- The Farmers leave ready for the shooting

Scene 4 - The Shooting

Characters: Mr Fox, Boggis, Bunce, Bean

- The Farmers run behind the audience with their guns, Mr Fox comes out

- Boggis steps in Fox poo

- Mr Fox smells, "fried chicken," then runs to the side, Farmers get into position for shooting

- FIRE! The Farmers open fire on Mr Fox, everyone freezes while Mr Fox is in mid-run, Bean shoots his tail off

- After Mr Fox exits, Boggis and Bunce run for the tail, Bean snatches it off of them

- The Farmers form a plan to dig Mr Fox out

Scene 5 - Terrible Shovels, Terrible Tractors and The Race

Characters: Mr Fox, Mrs Fox, Fox Cub (James), Fox Cub (Lorna), Boggis, Bunce, Bean - Songs: Chariots Of Fire

- Mrs Fox is fixing Mr Fox's tail, The Fox Cubs are playing and hear noises

- Mr Fox realises its The Farmers and gets the Cubs to pack some stuff, they exit and James changes to Bunce

- Fox Cub (Lorna) returns and Mr Fox starts digging with the kids help

- The noise gets louder and Mrs Fox and Fox Cub (Lorna) join in, The Farmers get ready up on the steps

- As the music starts we start the race in slow motion, The Fox Family escape

Scene 6 - "We'll Never Let Him Go"

Characters: Boggis, Bunce, Bean

- Boggis and Bunce complain that they'll never catch Mr Fox, Bean tries to think of a plan to catch him

- After multiple interruptions, Bean decides that they'll stay there until Mr Fox comes out

- After much complaint, The Farmers shake on it and they get Bean's wife to deliver some supplies

Scene 7 - Starvation Kicks In & The Plan

Characters: Mr Fox, Mrs Fox, Fox Cub (Lorna)

- Whilst Mrs Fox comforts Fox Cub, Mr Fox must come up with a plan

- With help from the audience, Mr Fox exits with his family and plan in his mind

Scene 8 - Boggis' Chicken House Raid

Characters: Mr Fox, Fox Cub (James), Fox Cub (Lorna) - Songs: Sneaky Snitch

- Mr Fox and his cubs sneak, dig, crawl and duck to Boggis' Chicken House

- After grabbing as much as they could, they took the chicken back to Mrs Fox

Scene 9 - A Surprise For Mrs Fox

Characters: Mrs Fox, Fox Cub (Lorna), Mr Fox, Fox Cub (James)

- Fox Cub (Lorna) wakes up her mum to show her the chicken her and her father got together

- Mr Fox enters with Fox Cub (James) and a lot more chicken, Mrs Fox panics for their safety

- She orders Mr Fox to get rid of the chicken but ends up keeping the lot

- Mr Fox thinks its not enough and hatches another plan

Scene 10 - Bunce's Duck And Goose Raid House Raid

Characters: Mr Fox, Fox Cub (Lorna), Fox Cub (James) - Songs: Sneaky Snitch

- Mr Fox and his cubs sneak, dig, crawl and duck to Bunce's Duck and Goose House

- After grabbing as much as they could, they took the meat back home

Scene 11 - Bean's Cider Cellar Raid

Characters: Mr Fox, Fox Cub (James), Rabbit, Mole, Badger, Rat - Songs: Hidden Agenda - Arcadia - Scheming Weasel

- Mr Fox decided he needed cider for a great feast, he and Fox Cub (James) pay Bean's Cider Cellar a visit

- Along the way, they met Rabbit, Mole and Badger (narrator)

- They popped up into Bean's Cider Cellar and were amazed by the sight

- In their awe, they bumped into Rat who tried to scare them off but failed miserably

- As the animals round up some cider, Bean's wife appears and they all hide behind a large cider bottle

- When she finally disappears, the animals are relieved, Rabbit and Mole leave before she comes back

- Rat calls for Bean as Mr Fox and his friends flee

Scene 12 - The Great Feast

Characters: Mr Fox, Mrs Fox, Fox Cub (James), Fox Cub (Lorna), Rabbit, Mole, Badger - Songs: You've Got A Friend In Me (Instrumental)

- Badger tells the audience what became of The Three Farmers and announces the beginning of The Great Feast

- Mr Fox and his friends run in and sing, "You've Got A Friend In Me"

- We end the song in a tableau and say goodbye to the audience

Prop List

• Fox ears and tails (four of each)
• Inflatable Belly
• Farmer's Hat
• Beanie
• Spoon
• Plastic Spade
• Shovel
• Gun
• Pistol
• Spectacles
• Wire Frame Glasses
• Chickens and Cider Bottle Cardboard Cut-Outs
• Rat Nose
• Mobile Phone (Used as a Walkie-Talkie)

Costume List:

• Charlie (Mr. Fox)
• Blue Suit Trousers
• Blue Suit Jacket
• White Shirt
• Black Bow Tie
• Black Shoes
• Fox ears and tail
• Rhiannon (Mrs. Fox)
• Dress
• Leggings under dress
• Vest top under dress
• Fox ears and tail
• James (Fox Cub)
• Black Joggers
• Black Top
• Fox ears and tail
• Lorna (Fox Cub)
• Black leggings
• Black Top
• Fox ears and tail
• Rob (Boggis)
• Black Joggers
• Black Top
• Inflatable Belly
• Farmer's Hat
• James (Bunce)
• Black Joggers
• Black Top
• Farmer's Hat
• Lewis (Bean)
• Black Joggers
• Black Top
• Farmer's Hat
• Necklace for Fox Tail Necktie
• Fox Tail Necktie (After, "The Shooting.")
• Ollie (Badger)
• Black Trousers
• Grey Waistcoat
• White Shirt
• Wire Frame Glasses
• Lewis (Rabbit)
• Black Joggers
• Black Top
• Bunny ears
• Rob (Mole)
• Back Joggers
• Black Top
• Inflatable Belly (Worn on his back)
• Spectacles

Double Performing Arts Lesson (30th November 2015)

In todays double lesson we decided to do another run through but rather than get notes at the end of the play. We would stop after every scene and get improvement notes for each individual scene.


After performing 'The introduction to the Farmers' we realised the changes we made not only improved us as actors and the scene it also improved the entire play by bringing it to life right from the start. We continued to 'The plan for the shooting' and 'The shooting'. Again this scene was great. We had a good blend of evil (as we were planning to kill Mr Fox) and comedy (like Bunce's slapstick poke). Also after changing the 'We'll never let him go' scene we realised it was so much better. It ran so much better without 'the chase', and it was easier to understand.


We were also able to improve the 'Bean's Cider Cellar' scene. The introduction to Mole, Rabbit and Rat is almost complete. The scene runs smoothly. We were also able to devise a new part of the scene including the women.


This part included-

•  On, "dashed behind," we all stand behind each other, (The Order: Ollie, Charlie, Me, Lewis, James)
• On, "breath," we poke our heads out from behind the cider jar (James-Bottom Left/Me-Top Left/Charlie-Bottom Right/Lewis-Top Right).
• On, "breathe," we poke our heads out but on the opposite sides from where we were before (EG. I would go from Top Left to Top Right).
• On, "heart," we come back to centre hiding behind each other.
• During each of our single lines we pop our heads out of the side which we did on, "breath."
• When James mentions how Mrs Fox said Mr Fox will get them in trouble, Charlie walks out, no longer hiding behind the bottle saying, "Oh yeah I bet she did!" We all poke our heads out, shhh him, then Badger pulls Mr Fox back into line.
• As, "The Woman," takes each bottle of Cider, we all poke our heads out and gasp! On the final jar, as she place her hand on the handle, we all poke out with terrified facial expressions. But when she leaves the bottle, we all show relief and come out from behind it.

We were able to include this part into the scene without affecting the rest of the scene, therefore we were able to continue the scene from where we left off.

Double Performing Arts Lesson (27th November 2015)

In todays lesson we agreed to have a run through. We decided this to see which scenes we needed to work on and which need to be changed.


We began with 'The Three Farmers Scene'. However we decided that it wasn't only too short it didn't introduce Boggis, Bunce and Bean in a comical way like we wanted. So we devised a more slapstick introduction for the farmers.
It began with-

• Bunce running on stage with a chicken drumstick, looking around for Boggis (as if he was trying to escape him. Possibly because he stole his chicken.)
• Boggis come waddling on out of breath (gasps/ falls to his knees to catch his breath.)
• Boggis looks up at Bunce and marches towards him (Bunce still hasn't realised he is there)
• Boggis taps Bunce on the shoulder (notifying him that he is there).
• They fight over the chicken. Boggis snatches it off him and holds it above his head.
• Bean walks on and snatches the chicken from Boggis's hand.

This then leads into their opening scene 'The introduction to the Farmers'. Where Olly (Narrator) introduces us to the kids.


After we completed this we continued through the run through, until we reached the 'We'll never let him go scene'. As we ran through this scene we quickly realised we struggled to remember all of our lines as we'd only run through it with James 2 or 3 times. We also realised that the race between Bunce and Bean either needed to be cut out or needed to be reworked. We decided that it wasn't a significant part of the story and it wasn't worth reworking, so we decided to cut that part of the scene out and shorten it. This helped because it meant we didn't have to worry about learning those lines and we could focus on the more important scenes in the story.


After we completed our run through we received notes from Miss McSherry on how to improve our performances individually and as a whole group. Therefore as a group we needed to dedicate more time towards learning lines and providing a lot more energy!
She advised us to always keep our audience in mind, during the play we began to lose our over the top energy that was necessary for Children's Theatre.
When performing, "The Race," our facial expressions were very good! When we performed the chase during, "We'll Never Let Him Go," it wasn't choreographed very well and this would need work; this doesn't matter now as we have removed it.
Finally, our creeping scenes during the raids were very impressive and hilarious.
 

Evaluation (For Fantastic Mr Fox)

Today we attended 'Thames View Primary and Infant School' to perform our BTEC Children's Theatre production of 'Fantastic Mr Fox'. The strongest part of my performance, in my opinion came when I became Mole. I was clearly able to show contrast in voice and posture between my 2 characters and was able to keep up my characteristics and stance throughout my performance even when I wasn't directly involved. My voice was clear and completely opposite to Boggis making it easy for the young children to notice the difference.



If I could make any improvements on my performance it would be my characterisation of Bunce. after looking back over my performance I appeared to lose my characteristics and my posture when I wasn't involved in a conversation. In order to improve my performance I could have engaged as the character of Boggis at all time whilst on the stage even when the focus was not directly on me..
However I believe my voice made up for a lot of my performance as Boggis. I was able to keep up the volume and voice the whole way though and was able to change it slightly to show emotion (E-G- when I was scared or when I was crying).



For Boggis I stood tall proving I was taller than Bunce trying to out do him. I had one hand on my belly and one on my back, giving the impression that I struggle with my weight. However for my Mole impression I got slightly lower and hunched my back a bit and squinted my eyes to give the impression I was blind. I decided to stick my front teeth out to give myself some animal characteristics. (As our audience were small Infant or Primary school students therefore I tried to make the most comparison between my characters as possible including posture, voice and facial expressions). For my boggis voice I attempted to use my throat more making my voice more rough and lower to give the impression of farmer like characteristics. However for mole I went slightly higher pitch and slightly more nasaly to increase the idea of a contrast.

Single Performing Arts Blogs (26th November 2015 and 27th November 2015)

26th November

We dedicated today's single lesson on songs. Firstly we all sat down as a group and worked out what groups we were working in (depending on who sings with who), then we worked out what Christmas carol we were singing too. After this we all split off in our groups to practice our songs. (Lorna and I went off to learn our song in time with 'once in Royal David city'.
After this we spent the rest of the lesson as a group learning the song during the act where Peter Crouch is crawling across the back wall.



27th November

We used this lesson to continue learning our songs as it appears everyone had trouble with fitting their lyrics to the designated Christmas carol. Like in Mine and Lorna's song, we had a trouble fitting the Lines about 'The Ryder Cup and the 'Australian Open' with the tune of Once in Royal David City. Once we rehearsed the individual songs again we all got together as a group and went through 'I wish' we also began to stage it. We used the 3 spotlights from the children scenes and decided that when a parent has a line in the song they would step into one of the 3 spotlights depending on where they were standing on the stage.  When it comes to Mary's Mum's solo, we all split off and Mary's Mum appears from the centre and performs her scene with Narrator's Dad. When they go inside we all come back from each side and start singing, 'We Wish You A Merry Christmas'.

Double Performing Arts Lesson (23rd November)

In today's lesson we decided to work mainly on the 'Great Feast' which was the ending scene. We discussed what sort of theatrical techniques we wanted to include. We agreed it needed to be the most exciting scene in the entire play so we decided to included more physical theatre such as round by throughs and lifts.

While James, Lorna, Rhiannon and Charlie were discussing their fox scenes with Miss McSherry. Lewis Olly and I started devising the scene. Olly and Lewis began by standing wither side of the stage with a chair each and I at the back in the middle of the stage. Lewis and Olly started walked across the stage going past each other with a round by through placing their chairs down on either side of the stage and I came on and placed my chair centre stage. This was the beginning of our 'Great Feast scene'.
Once we were satisfied with our start we introduced the other to our opening which they liked however we still had include the others into the scene as well as dialogue. We began working on the dialogue. We agreed for simplicity we'd have the majority of the dialogue narration (from Olly).

We suggested ideas on how we would finish the play and we all agreed that a song would be the best idea so we could end on a high for the little kids. That left us with the task of which song would be use? As it was a feast Miss McSherry suggested 'food glorious food' from Oliver, and i suggested 'You've got a friend' from Toy Story.
The majority of the class preferred my idea because although 'food glorious food' was more fitting for a feast we agreed children this age are more likely to have seen Toy Story than Oliver so they would be more likely to know the song and join in with us.

    We also included a lot of movement to the song too:

• During the first verse, Mr Fox's sing in an attempt to get Badger in the mood to dance and sing but at first fails. But after laying across him, Badger gets up and gets more energetic.
• During the second verse, The Fox Cubs share a moment to display their strong sibling bond by singing together.
• During the third verse, Rabbit sings, "Some other folks might be a little bit smarter than I am," while pointing to Moles head. Then Mole sings, "Bigger and Stronger too, maybe," and points to Rabbits flexed biceps. Mrs Fox proceeds to Mr Fox whilst singing the rest of the verse and when she sings, "It's me and you," she kisses him on the cheek followed by some jeering and wolf-whistles from the other animals.
• For the last verse,  Mr Fox continues singing whilst walking to the front. On, "And as the years go by," his wife and the cubs join him in a line. On, "Our friendship will never die," the rest of the animals join in the line. On the first, "You've got a friend in me," afterwards, Rabbit, Mole and Badger walk to the back. On the second. The Fox Cubs run to the back. On the third, Mr and Mrs Fox walk to the back. The song shall fade out with waves and goodbyes from the animals.

Double Performing Arts Lesson (20th November 2015)

In Today's lesson we began with our focus exercise. Once we completed our exercise we all discussed what we each believed we needed to work on in this lesson. We all agreed that we needed a run through of 'The Race' scene so that we were all comfortable with the transactions between scenes.
After this we moved on 'Boggis's chicken farm' This scene starts after 'Starvation Ends'. We decided to work on the transaction between the two scenes so we thought about movement of a fox and how we could link that in so we created a movement based transaction where Mr Fox and the two cubs ducked under roots, dashed behind hedges weaved in and our of trees. During this Lewis discovered the perfect song choice to accompany this transaction called 'Sneaky Snitch' (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-SjOkb3kVgI)

We then added a sudden jump from the fox's (as if they were jumping through a hole or over a fence into the farm),  following this movement Charlie Lorna and James look around in delight at all the delicious chickens. Lorna then begins to complain that she 'can't carry anymore chickens' and they jump back through the hole and reverse the entire movement from the start as if they were going back the exact same way. This then transcends into them being back in their hole moving into 'A surprise for Mr Fox' and 'Bunce's Duck House'. We decided to keep it simple for the little children (always thinking about target audience) we would keep this scene exactly the same as the previous scene. However we decided to speed it up so the kids wouldn't get bored.

However we spent the majority of the lesson working on 'Bean's Cider Cellar'. This scene needed a lot more work because this scene was the introduction of Mole (Me), Rabbit (Lewis), Badger (Olly) and Rat (Lorna). We created dialogue for Mr Fox and Rats confrontation. Unfortunately once we ran that a few times we ran out of time and weren't able to complete the scene. However we set ourselves the task of completing it for next lesson. 

 For, "Boggis' Chicken Farm," Lorna has painted some chickens which will be very effective props. Also, Ollie has written up all of his narration for the scenes we went through in this lesson.

Single Performing Arts Lessons (20th November 2015 and 24th November 2015)

20th November 

In today's lesson we re-rehearsed Act 1 again. However during this rehearsal we focused mainly on our movement. This was good because it got us thinking about how a child would behave. After watching the film of 'Flint Street Nativity' and reading about Tim Firth's reasoning behind 'The Flint Street Nativity' and even after watching the film 'Nativity' I had a pretty good idea on the way my character would act.

24th November 

In this lesson we re-rehearsed Act 2. Once we went through that we decided we try a new exercise.  which tested how fast we could perform but also whether we could maintain our characterisation. We started from the beginning of Flint Street and stopped at the projection of Peter Crouch, performing it in double the speed. In my opinion this was effective at making sure we were prepared for our lines as they would come a lot sooner.

Single Performing Arts Lesson (19th November 2015)

In today's lesson we were given the activity of role swapping. Miss Cordell decided we would swap our rolls as adults. This was a good idea because it gave us the chance to see how other actors would play our characters if they were given then, giving us the opportunity to take their advice and use it in our performances making our overall performances better and improving our acting abilities.

 Mary's Mum: Katya
Gabriel's Mum: Cerys
Wise Gold's Mum: Me
Shepherd's Mum: Lorna
Angel's Mum: Hope
Innkeeper's Dad: Ollie K
Herod's Dad: Ollie M
Star's Dad: James
Wise Frankincense's Dad: Charlie
Ass' Dad: Lewis
Narrator's Dad: Ashley (took Rhiannon's place)

I believe Olly M played Herod's Dad completely different to myself, he had a much different idea on the type of person Herod's Dad was. For example- During his PHILL!! and ANDY!! Olly over exaggerated his leave giving me the impression that he believe Herod's Dad was a very attention hungry person and he wanted everyone else to notice him. However I portray him as a more personal character who wouldn't want them to know he was leaving his son's after nativity part to talk to his mates because he maybe feels quite guilty for not spending time with his son and he wouldn't want the other parents to get the impression he doesn't care for his son. 

On the other hand when I played Wise Golds Mum, as appose to Hope's 'drunk mum' who likes to emphasise the fact that she gets drunk and goes to bingo because she thinks it makes her cool. I took an aspect of that however I feel i made her character more subtle about the fact shes drunk because like Herod's Dad she doesn't want to get judgement from the other parents.      

Double Performing Arts Lesson (18th November 2015)

In today's lesson we moved on from our Greek Mythology unit to our new unit which is story telling. As a group we could chose any story we wanted original or conventional and we have to devise a piece from the story.
To start this off we decided to write down as a group all the methods and techniques of story telling.
These included-

1. Tone/pitch/volume/pace of voice from the story teller
2. Sound fx
3. Dialogue/monologue/choral speaking
4. Props
5. Movement/dance/physical theatre 
6. Placards

Lewis gave an idea of creating a completely original story and devising that however I believed it would take a lot longer than if we just used a story that already existed, therefore I began to think of ideas. I gave a few suggestions such as Pinocchio and Frozen.

Miss Cordell said we shouldn't do Frozen but we could do the original story of Frozen which was called 'The Snow Queen'. 

We also discussed Dr Seuss as an option. However we realised our main point for our story idea was our audience, we agreed that we should aim for our own age group as we would know the sort of things they like, therefore we believed Dr Seuss might be a bit young for our target audience however the story of 'The Snow Queen' was quite a mysteriously dark story and we began to investigate the story closer. We began reading through the story and decided we wanted to explore it more so we chose it as our story telling piece. Therefore we printed off copies for each person and started throwing out ideas for how we can start the piece. 

We started thinking about how we would portray the story so we agreed to narrate the story. As there were 7 parts to the story we thought it would be logical for each of us to narrate a part. We decided that we needed the strongest 2 narrators to start and end the story therefore Lorna was chosen to speak first and Olly was chosen to speak 7th. After this we agreed that we would each devise our own scene.

 For the last 15/20 minutes of the lesson we began on Lorna's scene. All we got done so far was assign our starting positions (the all loosely positioned, spread out and facing different directions), and decided some movement. We make two small jagged movements, hunching over on the words poor and mean and shooting up with one large jagged movement on the word, "Magnified."
For homework, we will all devise each of the parts assigned to us e.g. I have to devise scene 4.

  

                     
                       

Double Performing Arts Lesson (16th November 2015)

In today's lesson for the first part we all sat down and created a checklist of the things we needed to get done in this lesson.

THIS LIST INCLUDED

1. Creating 'The Race' scene

2. Finishing off 'The Shooting' scene

3. Devising 'The Great Feast' 

Our plan for 'The Race' began with the narrator (Olly) reading the corresponding part in the book. "As the farmers mounted their tractors' (Lewis James and I) we climbed onto the table and pretended to dig. The Fox's (Charlie, Rhiannon and Lorna) Stood in a line and pretended to run away from us making it look like they were trying to get over the finish line as Mr Fox (Charlie) celebrates. 

For 'The Shooting' scene' We began with the farmers in the audience as if they were hiding from Mr Fox. As He begins to sniff around as if he smells us, the drums (spoken about in last blog) begins and stops when he shouts 'FRIED CHICKEN!!' We sneak around the back, with me (Boggis) stepping in fox poo and James almost giving our position away. Then we crouch down (under the orders of Bean) and attempt to kill Mr Fox. At this moment in the show Charlies begins his matrix rolls to dodge the bullets until Bean shoots his tail off and James and I both run for the tail and fight over it. 

Finally we devised our 'Great Feast scene'

For this scene I discussed the idea with Lewis to have Rabbit (Lewis) and Mole (Me) who left the cider cellar raid early beginner this scene with Mrs Fox and Baby Fox (Lorna). Also having Badger ( Olly/Narrator) involved in the story. We had the idea for Rabbit, Mole and Badger to come in holding chairs spinning them round making the scene more interesting. However we got stuck on a way of re-introducing Mr Fox into the scene so we scrapped that idea. 

After long discussions with Olly, the three of us decided to discuss the scene with the whole class and after lengthy discussions we based our idea for the scene off our original idea, we decided to have everyone start the scene holding food and plates and trays and stuff like that weaving in and out of each other. This technique is called a 'round by through'. I learnt this in a frantic assembly workshop. Therefore we didn't need to re-introduce anyone into the scene if they're all in it so we've already solved the problem we had at the start and decided that once all the plates were down Mr Fox would propose a toast mocking the farmers.

Miss McSherry then gave us the idea to end the production on a song because she gave the great point that kids would like a song. Therefore once the toast has been made we all break out into song and dance to keep the kids occupied and finish the production on an exciting note for the kids.