EVALUATION

Being part of the ensemble was strange as I really didn't understand as to why I was part of it. All that aside I feel that the performers did an excellent job considering we didn't understand and the piece was finalized twenty minutes before our audience entered. I think had the bond between actor and director been stronger we would have had a much stronger performance.
I also feel that had the directors not taken on as much as they had we would have had a solid piece much earlier and would have been able to rehears and understand more.

Two days before the show and I am no longer in the Muslim scenes. Nick has decided that it dosn't make any sense for me to be in both so just like that I'm cut.

Isnt this great, so far my daughter kills my sister and now I'm a spider. if im honest I really don't understand whats going on. the group and I are all as confused as one another but when we attempt to ask our directors we are shouted at for not listening. unfortunately they fail to realise the problem isn't out listening skills its their explanatory skills that are lacking.

ironically, aswell as being Natalies mum I am also Naurias sister. we are to pray while she disrespects us as she is rebelling. in theory i do nothing but repeat actions already choreographed and any ideas i put forward about the staging and Naurias actions are being rudely dismissed for the directors own ideas.
unfortunately I am struggling to feel passionate about something I haven't helped create.

The new idea revolves around five major characters.

1. A tramp
2. A teacher
3. A ghetto girl
4. A tv presenter/ news anchor
5. A muslim

their stories project how they refuse to conform to society.

we have decided that Natalie is the ghetto girl, Jo is the tramp, jay is the tv guy, Zee is the teacher and Nauria is the muslim.

I have been given the role of Natalies mum. we are to create a scene that shows she is bad and capable of killing someone. apparently she will be killing Naurias character for a reason we havent been told yet. we have been told she is to ask for money, to be rude and that I am meant to be a mum who tries hard but is hopeless. I found it hard to create something that in theaory Lloyd and Amy have already created for us. all we have to do is put words to it. so far i have had little if any input into the piece and time is running out.

today we continued developing our soldier scene. it was still open to adjustment but we had a solid structure for a scene. HOWEVER at the end of our session we were told that any previous material created is cut to make way for a new idea the directors had come up with, without any input from us.

I'm not at all happy that the work we had put so much effort and attention too has been cut without any consideration to the group and without discussing with us how OUR group devised work is going to go. I generally feel excluded from any major decision making in the piece.

with Siobhan we devised a piece showing our conformity. it started with a game of wink murder then getting into a line and growing up through the ages. we showed how catchy advert jingles persuade us to do things by physically being unable to stop shouting them.

I feel we have a lot of material we ca use in the final piece and am really excited to perform.

in our next session we were asked if we had any ideas that we could put forward. with this i gave my puppet idea and we were sent to create a scene with this as our inspiration. after discussing into more depth the ideas behind my original Dan suggested we create a graphic army scene with people dieing horrifically then switching to kids playing to project a child's imagination. we attempted many scenes and developed great characters. Jo suggested that when breaking into children we should have pots and pans on our heads to show our nievity. the scene wa sto portray that kids are subject to the horrific ordeals occuring but are lead to believe its a game.

we also created a scene of four children playing with one adoment she will be a soldier with another against it. the other two are left to be persuaded with our nievity. the next clip shows the two who had decided as puppets who had conformed and the other two slowly becoming puppets as we minipulated them.

Today Lloyd read us a poem about an innocent girl eating an ice lolly and how people around her subject her to feeling like a slut. we were asked to take the poem and create a scene to portray this.
we chose to show that it is normally men that react to women eating ice lollies but yet they would never react in the same way if it was a child eating it. we questioned what age men found it acceptable to have erotic thoughts of a girl at whilst simply eating an ice lolly. when does a girl become sexy?
when performing this to the class we got great feed back and Amy and Lloyd said they would llike us to develope this idea and create a longer scene to put into the piece.

in rehearsals we discussed things that society does and how it is not considered strange. we looked at the psychological side of everyday life. we discussed how people don't talk during travel and in a way switch off. why is it that we ignor the things around us when were not with the people we know. I suggested that it may be due to our parents and teachers drilling into us as children not to speak to strangers and how this anti social society may be a repercussion of this. however I feel my theory may have been over looked as nothing further was discussed on my issue and it was put aside for 'another session'.

we continued to discuss further scenarios and were split into groups to devise a short piece on a time were society fails. my group struggled as we were unsure on what we were suppost to be doing as people still didn't understand the concept. although we struggled another group did a short scene about how an unattended bag on a train and how long it takes for the passengers to react after noticing. they showed that although every passenger had noticed that the bag was there and that they were clearly worried they waited for another person to react before them.

our directors have proposed the theme of society and how people react to one another in everyday occurrences. I have suggested that we open the theme up to society in general as I have many ideas of how we accept things that seem extremely strange. an example of this is a scene I have imagined. it starts with a group of people on stage appearing to get ready for work. they would brush their teeth, have a wash and put on their suits all in front of the drawn curtain. When they have completed this the curtain will draw revealing a job center. they will the begin to cue up and receive their doll money with the word 'wages' written on the envelopes in bold writing. the curtains will draw again and the actors would perform the same morning ritual in reverse to show their day has ended.

another scene I have in-pictured was three actors playing like children. after a while a projection will appear of a puppet master/ leading member of society e.g. a teacher or an army sergent. with this the children become puppets and are minipulated in how they play. the children turn to teens in school to soldiers killing one another in the puppet format (Thunderbirds). This along with the puppet master portrays how we have no say in how we lead our lives and that society dictates our choices and actions.

Amy and Lloyd appear open to this however I have an incline that they are set in their vision. when discussing this with my class I have become very aware of how many people don't understand the concept. I fear this may lead to problems in the future.

We have now been told that Amy B and Lloyd are going to direct us. I'm quiet excited as I have worked with Lloyd before and feel she can bring many skills and ideas to the group. Although I am happy with the choice I wold have welcomed the oppertunity to read their proposal - and the others- and been able to give my opinion on who wold direct our devised performance.