Rehearsal Session Three

This session we began to further expand the narrative of our piece and what we could use to make the performance complete.

Performance Styles:

We firstly decided to perform what we had so far to see where to carry on from, we decided to create a scene between the bar and the police to make it flow better. We began thinking about using arm movement to create a slowed down choreographed fight, this then gave us reason to have the men arrested.

The police scene focuses on the issue of police brutality and breach of trust, we use this by working with the idea of a police officer undressing and violating the people that have been arrested, leaving them scared and vulnerable. To move forward from this scene Joel, Will and Sam had to get back to sitting on the bench without moving from the bench or using their arms, this was funny to begin with and it didn't exactly work however after some time it began to reflect on them being restricted an unable to do a simple task because  of what the police officer (Louise) had done to them.

When they had returned to their seated positions they sat casually as if nothing had happened. Louise then returned as a customer of a barber shop, this idea came from a simple conversation of the cost difference between a barber and a hair salon. This then led to Louise being treated like a man having a haircut and shave with the men around her talking about the price of haircuts between men and women as ‘hairdressers will still charge you considerably more for a cut, just because you’re female. At national salon chain Toni & Guy, for example, men’s hair services are £10 less across the board. At HOB salons, the price gap is even wider. A cut and finish is £50 for female customers, £18 more than the male price’ Carey, T (2015).

The targets for next rehearsal session:

·         To find a suitable ending for the piece

·         Have a dress run with both props and tech.

Tanith Carey (2015) http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2959383/Why-expensive-woman-called-pink-tax-women-pay-men-dry-cleaning-razors.html#ixzz485aNHwzB  (Accessed: 06/05/2016)

The Discussion of Costume

27/04/2016

This rehearsal session we dedicated to the use of costume and make-up.

As a group we are working on the idea of how men and women are treated differently in various scenarios, as collective with three men and one woman using this to our advantage. After a discussion of how our one female actor does not act like stereotypical girl, it became an interesting topic of how if she dressed as a man and the men dressed as women it would create an interesting twist on the performance as we don't believe that 'there is a feeling among some people that only people who belong to a certain group should act the roles of people who are in that group' Cummings, K (2014).

Goh, C (2015)

However we did not want it to be a drag act of any kind, wanting us to look like a man dressed just simply in a dress with a little make up and a woman dressed in trousers and a shirt with less make up and hair tied back. 

The brainstorm on costume began on having then men in matching dresses to show a correlation between the characters however we saw an advantage of using outfits from Louise's wardrobe using a similar theme of floral and flowing dresses to allow movement through out the performance. Under the dresses the men will wear either no shirt or a vest depending on their preference and boxers or shorts again depending on how they feel. 

We decided that the men would begin the piece standing in their preferred outfits before the dresses they would then be dressed like dolls and moved into position to start to the beginning on the piece. 

The targets for next rehearsal session:

•  The continuation of using the bench as a representative timeline
• The addition of using more scenarios that relflect the difference between men and women.

Katherine Cummings (2014) Cross-Dressing in Modern Theatre www.gendercentre.org.au/resources/polare-archive/archived-articles/cross-dressing-in-modern-theatre.htm (Accessed 01/05/2016)

Celeste Goh (2015)  H&M loves coachella collection http://www.juiceonline.com/hm-loves-coachella-collection/ (Accessed 01/05/2016)

Rehearsal Session One

20/04/2016

This session was the first practical devising session we had in our performance space.

As a group the first stage was to sit down and begin thinking about what work and exercises had be done over the previous sessions that created interest this then began the process of working free instead of sitting down and working from a set text or stimuli.

DV8 (2007)

At the beginning of our process Joel lay on the floor in what seemed to be a praying position and then began to move his arms along the floor creating tapping sounds with his fingers with no particular rhythm which was in a similar style to dancer Akram Khan. This use of movement became a key working point for us as it lead to a less conventional way of working together.

The next step was to start looking at the work of Physical Theatre performance companies like DV8, we took influence from their performance to be straight with you directed by Lloyd Newson, after studying the art of Chair Duets weeks before. Noting the foot work being so in sync whilst they were sitting in chairs. Due to the lack of the chairs in the space we opted into using one of the benches which led to a revelation in our staging and audience.

Cruden, D (2015)

The process of experimenting with the idea of using traverse staging which included having the audience sitting either side of the stage but not at the ends, this technique has been used in the likes of Damien Cruden’s site-specific production of The Railway Children at King’s Cross. It was then thought it would give the audience the chance to see different things to one another and also we would be able to keep the movements very linear and mirrored to keep the effect of being ‘trapped’ in the stage.

Another aspect of our piece that

came into our piece is the contrast in gender in the company of three males and one female performer. This then enlightened us to the theme of equality and gender viewings, the initial way of representing this was having Louise Hadley work with the idea of how women are seen unfairly in drinking environments like bars and pubs, this was then contrasted with Louise moulding Joel, Sam and Will into a still image whilst talking about points that reflected the scenario. It then proceeded to the idea of the brutality of Policeman this idea will be further developed into the following rehearsal sessions.

The targets for next rehearsal session:

·         The use and meaning of gender reversal using costume and make-up.

·         The continuation of using the bench as a representative timeline.

·         The addition of using the Police and other forms of environments to represent the piece and its ever building narrative.

DV8 (2007) To be straight with you Available at: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=PvctLx8H8xs (Accessed 24/04/2016)

Damian Cruden (2015) The Railway Children Available at: http://www.theupcoming.co.uk/2015/01/15/the-railway-children-at-kings-cross-theatre-review/ (Accessed 24/04/2016)