Today was our first lesson together and we got to know each other.
First of all, we moved round in a circle, sharing information with each other. Information that we shared with each other included our future plans, what we like to wear, our favourite musical/film/TV programme and about our siblings. We did this as it gave us the opportunity to get to know each other.
We then went off in pairs to discuss our earliest childhood memories. After discussing, we then thought about how we could use the 6 senses to tell these stories. The 6 senses we used were sight, taste, hearing, smell, touch and feeling/moods. Incorporating the 6 senses into drama is effective as it enables us to understand our senses more in depth and it's especially effective when used in storytelling. I was paired with Lindsay, and we shared our earliest memories. Our memories included being sick at first school, being shouted at after 'staring at the boy who played Joseph in the nativity play and then getting shouted at' and also getting into an argument at school. We thought we'd think outside the box so we spoke about the metaphorical 'bitter taste' involved with getting into an argument. However, we also spoke about the feeling of embarassment after being shouted at infront of an audience. We also picked up on the fact that senses were exxagerated as a child as your still young and small things feel like a huge thing.
We then got into different pairs and analysed each other's movement and speech. We picked up on certain habits which we do without realising- for example, I was told that I have a variable tone and I also talk with my hands to express myself. My partner, Emily, spoke very smoothly and her tone didn't vary very much. She also had good posture and was well spoken. Analysing each other's traits was important as it made us realise that voice and movement are very important when it comes to creating a character.
We then sat round in a circle as a whole group and discussed the main features and of children's theatre and their purpose. For example, Children's Theatre includes exaggeration, direct address and 'fairytale story lines and characters' to keep the young audience interested. Exaggeration is important in Children's Theatre as the audience is young and the need to make things more obvious and easier to pick up on is far greater than in 'normal' theatre. We also discussed that direct address is equally important to get the kids involved in the performance. The more involved they are, the more interested and excited they will be! We also decided that the Storyline of the piece is also extremely important- kids love fairytale characters and plots as they're still at that age of playing gams with each other and dreaming about being fairytale characters like a Princess with magic powers. Children are also very impressionable.
Finally, we also learnt the 'Drama Formula': Voice + Movement= Characterisation. So, after analysing each others movement and voice and discussing the results, we developed our own characters. We decided to use speech and movement to ensure that our characters were believable and well acted. We then used these characters in groups of 3 and 4 to create a 'mini' children's theatre story. My group chose to base our fairytale in a land called 'Castle World' and we had 3 contrasting characters- a little boy, a witch and a castle manager! We decided to focus on voice and we went about this by experimented with different voices. We decided that the castle manager should be well spoken and talk loud and squeakily to make her come across pompous and annoying. We did this as we felt that this would be a great way to portray her. We decided that the little boy should have a 'young' voice to show that he is young. Of course, we decided that the Witch should have a typical Witch's voice- creaky and creepy. We decided to make the witch talk slow as this added to her creepiness. Making a Witch speak like a stereotypical Witch allows the audience to recognise her. This also links in with our theme of Children's Theatre/Storytelling as the children will find it easier to identify the character as a Witch. Our fairytale was based around problems with litter and showed that littering is wrong!
Overall, todays work on voice definitely helped me. It made me realise that voice is just as important as movement and I used a lot of methods of voice that I could use in future performances.
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