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.

Devising

The start of a new term and the start of a new project. The project is normally done in two groups- splitting the group in half- however we have been informed that this term we are devising a piece as a whole class. We have been advised to allocate a director amongst us who will control the devising and help piece together our production. We have been told that anyone who wishes to be considered for this role must write a proposal on how they would go about directing the group and what methods they would use. I have considered writing a proposal myself as I enjoyed directing last year for tens however I feel I may struggle with involving everyone's creative input. I feel I may take complete control and end up doing a piece of my own and using my fellow class mates as merely actors. As a result of this I have decided that I would like to perform in the piece and possibly take the role of costume and props also.

We have also been studying different practitioners styles of directing and works to possibly help inspire our own directing styles and our devising. We have looked at Gratowski and his method of plastiques. We were shown some simple plastiques and learned that it is a complete discipline; controlling every part of your body at every moment, never allowing any of your limbs or body to fall but to be placed. We also watched video footage of professionals performing plastiques and witnessed how physically challenging it really is.

From this I have taken away a greater stage and performance discipline that will hopefully help me become a greater performer.

Critical Theory

At the start of this new term we have begun critical theory. This involves us learning about different practitioners and how they project their work. With the information we learn we have been instructed to write a 3000 word essay on either one or two of the practitioners covered.
The practitioners we are studying are:

Forced entertainment
Peter Brook
Jerzy Gratowski
Pina Bausch
Guillermo Gomez Pena

These are all different practitioners using different forms and methods of theater.