Single Performing Arts Lesson (28th January 2016)

In this lesson we started by going through our scenes we had previously planned. We discussed techniques that we wanted to add and techniques we had already included. 

We realised we had used movement a lot more than any of the other techniques we had previously suggested. Therefore we decided to create a breakdown diagram of our scenes so far to see what techniques we could add to the scenes we have already. 

So far our piece includes movement, dialogue and soundscapes; however, we don't want our piece to be too movement based so we have decided to create a more scripted scenes to explore characters in more depth to enable us to explore and include different ideas and techniques into our performance.

Kat and Olly came up with an idea to include more dialogue into our performance. They created an idea for an abortion game show. We began by discussing different game show ideas to fit the theme of our piece. We decided on three ideas. They were The Weakest Link, Who wants to be a millionaire and Deal or No Deal. We began by discussing 'Who wants to be a Millionaire' but realised there weren't enough characters in the game to involve everyone. Therefore we began looking into The Weakest Link, we used it as a template and brainstormed ideas for the outcome of the game. Therefore the winner of the game would choose if the baby would be aborted or not. However we realised that we wouldn't have enough people to make the game effective.

The last game we had was Deal or No Deal, we began by discussing what characters we would need in the game and decided we would need a Banker, a Host and 2 contestants. 

Miss Cordell suggested we research other plays or films that include a similar theme of a horrific way to show people off to the public, therefore Ollie suggested we had a look at a piece he had performed before called 'Ten Tiny Fingers, Nine Tiny Toes'. The scene Ollie was thinking of was about two pregnant women (Dot and Lucinda) who were both being forced to have an abortion (Dot because she is from the bottom class and Lucinda because her baby was missing a toe). The nurse in this scene is called Orderly. Orderly has no morals nor any understanding of how the women must be feeling. 

Orderly is completely heartless and doesn't see anything wrong with abortions at all. Orderly moans at the women for crying, stating that they were making an awful noise. Conveniently, Ollie performed this role when we did this scene so already knows how to characterise this type of role, so Ollie would work very well as "the  Banker". 

In addition to making the audience feel uncomfortable about the topic being discussed we want to "glam up" the topic in a completely inappropriate way (without offending anyone though). We got inspiration for this idea from the film "Hunger Games", in which each contestant is introduced in an over-the-top way despite knowing that only one of them shall survive. We want the audience to be shocked at how such a topic is presented.