the ladder

Our rehearsals at times in the beginning stages felt somewhat flat, we couldn't always think of material and nothing would seem to flow very well. However when the introduction of prop came to us, we were suddenly more inspired and creativity began to flow. The ladder was used as something to climb on, lean on, stand on, look through and move around the stage and this somehow made the process feel richer, there was something to use, something physical that could be turned into anything we wanted. i think that the introduction of this while we were improvising was incredibly helpful in our devising process because it gave us a stimulus, it was something to work with.

Our final work in progress was somewhat successful for us as a group, as although their was a group member missing, we managed to show about 15 minuets worth of material. It was very rough around the edges as we hadn't thought through scene changes and therefore the material was somewhat messy. However we were successful in delivering very comic material which came across as surreal to the audience.Their was a problem with the last scene however, as this was probably the least surreal scene, set at an 80's style prom where one of our characters loses her wooden leg while being spun around. A couple of audience members felt it slightly offensive as it was going towards poking fun at disability, which is something that the group really didn't want to do. The advice that was given to us was very useful in helping us to see that our piece, if we didn't think it though in any more detail, had the potential to be quite offensive. Therefore our task was to then begin thinking about how we could blur this line that was inbetween an incredibly funny show, or a terribly funny show. We therefore discussed about going for the surreal within the interviews themselves, to show that the entire world we were creating on stage is not based in any kind of reality that an audience member would know. The interviews would therefore be as wacky as the action on stage, whereas before we had wanted the interviews to be very serious and quite real.

Workshops

The group over four weeks were split up and sent to different workshops. As a whole we thought that this was very useful, we could all learn about different techniques of devising, devising through movement, video, text, picture and games. After the workshops we talked about what they involved and some of this information helped aid our ideas, others did not. We found playback incredibly useful as it's something that can be employed when the group begins to flag and run out of ideas, its a good thing to use to bring inspiration back. We also employed some work we did with Glyn in the dramaturgy workshop where we used hotseating to find characters and stories, this medium also helped us decide to go down the documemtory style interviews that will be a big aspect of our piece.

I thought that these workshops also helped us to have some interdependancy, we could go off on our own or as a two and then having some responsibility to sharing with the other members of the group.

I think that most of the groups found this useful as it was said that if all of the groups did the same workshops then you would create work that was one dimensional, by going to the different workshops and learning about the different aspects of devising it meant that we could create a piece of work that was rich, diverse and exiting.

It also helped us to think about the technical aspects of our piece alongside the practicle nature of it which I believe is a good thing. I think that if technical information was given to us towards the end of the module then we wouln't be thinking about it as something that works with the action on stage as opposed to sticking it all in at the last minuete. I feel that it's important that the group establishes a relationship with the technology now, rather than discovering it in the last instance. I believe it will allow and help develop ideas, enhance action and speech and by working with it now we can establish what intentions we have in affecting the audience.

Artistic Policy

We wish to create a theatre that is experiemental yet true to life, a theatre that encompasses all aspects of human emotion and expeirence. Our aim is to make theatre accessible which comes from real life yet still thrives on technology, puppets and music. We wish to facinate by the peverse and ultimately tell stories that excite, shock, provoke, intrigue and involve.

Ultimately when we started thinking about what theatre we wanted to create we came up with a complete mish mash of ideas, all wanting to do different things, things with puppets, sad stuff, funny stuff, music, sick stuff. But one thing we all had in common was the fact we all wanted to tell stories. The back ground we all come from was that of storytelling, all drama I have worked on has involved a story, a narrative, some sort of structure. So we begin with this. What story do we want to tell?