describingthecarcrash

[describingthecarcrash]

The Void devised performance evaluation

The performance as a whole I felt was a stressful day full of built up tension that hadn’t been released for weeks. As I feel I worked hard to direct to my best potential and it felt as if in the tech run all the preparation and rehearsals were wasted on. We were so badly trying to work as a team and it felt like certain members of my group were hearing what they wanted to hear, which caused a lot of stress when it came to polishing it off. I felt like I was going around in circles with asking them to remember to be louder and remember which way you’re supposed to exit the stage. I was pretty annoyed by the time it came to dress run as one member was being unprofessional and critiquing whilst going through scenes causing the whole scene to freeze and reset so they could remember lines and distinguish where they messed up last time.

Tensions continued to run high mostly on my part as I felt like I wasn’t being listened to and felt as if no one was taking it seriously. When I ask to run lines one member decided that going away for 2 hours would be more beneficial to the group than sticking around and helping us to make it the best it could be. Once I’d calmed down and came to the realisation it wasn’t going to be perfect I calmed down and stopped stressing myself out.

When it came to getting on the stage I felt fairly confident as I’d accepted that whatever happens, happens. Thankfully the tech run prepared us for when lighting cues and sound cues would come in. Although we had scripted when we’d like them we hadn’t actually used the strobe lighting and the flashes in the car crash. It came as quite a shock to us when they were actually played, I hadn’t realised just how effective the use of lighting and sound would make it look.

I was impressed with how quickly we put behind the arguments of the day to put on a performance together and as much as it stressed me out I’m glad I got the chance to devise my own short play. It challenged us and

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Konstantin Stanislavski

“Remember: there are no small parts, only small actors.”-

 Who was Stanislavski?

Konstantin Sergeyevich Alexeyev was born on 17th January 1863, in Moscow, Russia.

He was born in a wealthy clan who loved theatre: His maternal grandmother was a French actress and his father built a stage on the family's estate. Stanislavski started acting at the age of 14, joining the family drama circle. Developing his theatrical skills considerably over time, performing with other acting groups while working in his clan's manufacturing business. He then in 1885, he gave himself the stage name of Stanislavski—the name of a fellow actor he'd met. He married teacher Maria Perevoshchikova three years later, and she would join her husband in the serious study and pursuit of acting.

Why is Stanislavski important?

Stanislavski realised that acting could be learnt and created a system, which enabled a person to train as an actor step by step. Stanislavsky System is well known all over the world as Method Acting. Fort the first 30 years Stanislavski’s object was to study the creation of the art of a human on a stage. Stanislavski's system involved having the actor try to actually feel the emotions of the character while in performance, rather than simply posing to represent them.

With the Stanislavski system there are the following steps:

·         Three Core Elements

To begin employing the Stanislavski method, actors generally go over the script very carefully, looking for key identifying factors for example movement, emotions. A performer discovers what a character wants, what their objective is, what prevents the character from getting it, and what means the character will use to achieve this goal. These concepts are frequently referred to as " objective obstacle” and " Actors must also determine the given circumstances of every scene, such as where the scene takes place, what is in the room, and what is going on in the outside world.

·         Beginning with Objectives

To identify the objective clearly, an actor breaks down a scene into “beats” or “bits,” which are short sections that end with each change of objective. In a basic example, if a character pours a drink, then the phone rings so they answer it, then and then finally leaves the house in a hurry, the scene has at least three separate beats. At the minimum, the objective changes from pouring a drink to answering the phone, to getting out of the building. Beats are not determined on action alone, however, and may be based on a change of argument or emotion.

Actors can determine objectives even within individual lines of dialogue, based on a concept called “objective words.” It is the actor’s job to understand and play the character’s objective not only in the entire play or film, each scene, and each beat, but also in each line. Determining what the key motivation is behind each line is a basic practice in the Stanislavski method. The "Magic If order to help actors demonstrate the objective of the character, Stanislavski created a concept called the magic if” This is to help connect the character to the actor, performers must ask themselves “What if this situation happened to me?” Using this activity, actors identify with characters as possible actions of themselves, allowing them to think like the characters, rather than just impersonate them.

For example, I demonstrated this through my attempts to bribe the other character Liz to come out and have fun. By doing this I spoke to her and engaged in typical girly behaviour like being really close and playfully calling each other names, then finally getting an answer out of her to say “Yes she will come out and have fun.” In doing this it allowed our scenes to flow and get us from A-B without it feeling unnatural. In our physical theatre piece, I also found that using objectives allowed us to tell the story without the need to use words. For example, we started by establishing what we were doing i.e. once the music kicked in I first entered the car and did normal things like put on a seatbelt, put the “car” into gear”, roll down the window, pull out a packet of cigarettes and pretend to smoke then repeat it twice over so it established the idea that we were building up to a crash.

·         Obstacles and Methods Within a Scene

Obstacles are things preventing a character from achieving his or her objective. In the scene before for example, if the character trips while trying to run, it would present an “obstacle” to the objective of getting out of the house. Obstacles are dealt with in one of three methods: the character gives up the objective because of it, finds a way to go around it, or plunges along no matter what. The method a character chooses in dealing with obstacles gives great insight into that character; the basis for much of the Stanislavski method lies in defining how and why a character chooses a particular response.

We explored this through Liz constantly making excuses as to why she didn’t want to go out and why she wasn’t feeling up to going out and having a laugh. My character always had to find ways round convincing her to do something. My character had to know the right way to coax Liz to come out and the best ways to persuade her.

·         The Internal Monologue

Understanding the objectives and methods for character allows a performer to create an internal monologue for that character. People usually have a semi-consistent flow of thoughts going on in their minds, and the Stanislavski method helps to create a similar internal monologue for a character. This technique helps each step feel as if it comes spontaneously, rather than simply because the script says it happens. Actors can also use this monologue to help them to prevent a scene from becoming tedious or dull even after many performances. Due of its emphasis on realism, the Stanislavski method is often used in modern plays, film, and television.

This was a huge benefit to my group, as a lot of ours was based on evoking emotion. For example, in the bar scene when Leah and Will were trying to find grounds on which their marriage could perhaps work. Using adlibbed lines meant that they could freely speak about the issue at hand i.e. the alcohol addiction, I feel as if it felt more natural and a better way to handle mature issues then just throwing a load of facts in there.  

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Rehearsal Evaluation

The stimuli was given to us as a class and we read through but we were informed it was just a stimuli and we didn’t necessarily have to use the script in that way. A couple of us has seen some of the ways the year before choose to perform there's and knew we wanted to use elements of movement to help influence our piece. The way they used movement inspired us to use the dark theme running through the play. When we first sat together and looked over the script we all noticed a certain theme running throughout. We discussed the idea of which dark theme would be effective and what would evoke some emotional environment from the audience, when we decided on drinking driving we as a group decided that it fits very nicely and we could use movement effectively to present this idea.

In the rehearsal period we had several discussions about what we wanted to do to show our work. We had heated conversations about the diversity in movement. We didn’t want to make it too complex to the point our group would struggle with some of us struggling with maybe keeping rhythm, timings, steps. We just chose a simple motif consisting of 8 normal steps you’d do in which to get into a car.

Set:

Our staging was very minimal due to keeping true to Stanislavski's style, keep it realistic. This time we use a proscenium style stage, this meant that the audience were sat a few feet in front of us. Keeping it very minimalist meant it did not distract from the powerful story line. It also meant that between scene changes we only needed a short blue out to change around blocks. The way each block moved in a flashback scene showed use of reoccurring scenic motif ,it showed that something important was going to happen which can be seen as Marking the Moment. As we wanted to show explorative strategies we thought this an effective way that young people will themselves find the important scenes and receive the research we’ve found out, by going into flashbacks and marking the moment. As there are 3 of us in the piece, it was useful having a little set as in between set changes it would of been complex to change set if it were heavy or complicated, keeping it basic benefited us. 

Lighting:

We wanted to keep a basic dark theme running throughout, however we decided to keep a couple scenes light and make them appear to be an easier time.

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Character Analysis

Teenage girl

My first character in our devised performance was a teenage girl. I chose to represent my character as a middle class family, she is still in school so wears smart tailored clothing and has her hair up quite often. My characters given circumstances  were to just go out and live lift for the moment. The teenage girls relationship is mainly with her best friend as they spend a lot of time together, we didn't mention much about family members although it is intended that she does family. The teenage girl whom we called Rachel enjoys going out and spending time with her friends, a having as much fun as possible. In comparison to her smart friend who enjoys studying. She dislikes sitting around and doing nothing and her friends being miserable.  For this character is particular I chose Whitney from Eastenders as my inspiration. She's care free, has the kind of attitude I wanted to present Rachel as having. This is reinforced in the fast forward or what if scenes, with Rachel begging Liz to hurry up and finish studying to come out and have a laugh. I decided on this as it makes her a more likable character, and makes people laugh. She's very over the top without being too unrealistic, we wanted to keep the Brecht and Stanislavski in equal balance.

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Bertolt Brecht and his techniques

Who was Brecht?

Eugen Berthold Friedrich Brecht was born on the 10th of February 1898, in Augsburg, Bavaria, German Empire.  After serving as a medical orderly in the First World War and appalled by the effects of the war, he went first to Munich and then to Berlin in pursuit of a career in the theatre. His most famous work is Mother Courage and Her Children. Although it’s set in the 1600s, the play is relevant to contemporary society and is often regarded as one of the finest anti-war plays. Fear and Misery of the Third Reich is Brecht’s most overtly anti-fascist play. This work analyses the insidious way the Nazis came to power.

Why is Brecht important?

He made and shaped theatre in a way that had a huge impact upon its development. Naturalistic or dramatic theatre the audience care about the lives of the characters onstage. They forget their own lives for a while and escape into the lives of others. When an audience cries for a character or feels emotion through the events happening to them it’s called catharsis. Brecht was against cathartic theatre.  He believed that while the audience believed in the action onstage and became emotionally involved they lost the ability to think and to judge. He wanted his audiences to remain objective and distant from emotional involvement, to do this he used a range of theatrical devices or techniques so that the audience were reminded throughout that they were watching theatre; a presentation of life, not real life itself. His kind of theatre was called Epic theatre. He called the act of distancing the audience from emotional involvement theverfremdungseffekt.

My group decided to use a lot of Brechtian staging techniques for example multi-roiling, minimal set/props/costume and lighting. We used a lot of multi-roiling in our devised performance. As my group only had 3 members we would of found it difficult to continue the story with 3 characters, therefore using multi-roiling benefited us. We used 2 main protagonists then added 2 girls to allow the story to make sense, these two girls were killed of in the car crash. Allowing us to add more characters for example a nurse was added to add some more depth. Leah and I used this quite a lot to our advantage, we decided to keep Will as our main character as it looked more effective this way.

We used very minimal set again because we only had 3 members in our cast we would of struggled to move set around. As Leah has her difficulties we thought it unfair to make her move not necessarily heavy boxes but for her it would of been difficult. We thought as we decided to do ours as a T.I.E performance we thought as a company we wouldn't be able to travel we a lot of set etc. However this benefited us when we needed transitions. The black blocks were very useful to us as they were easily movable and didn't need too many of us to move them. The blocks became a car, a hospital bed, a girls room and a pub; we liked the black colour of them as they were neutral and as we were only doing flashbacks we didn't want any strong set to overpower the feel of the scene.

 We used a couple of props to distinguish which characters we were for example Will had a plastic cup to reference alcoholism; this was a symbolic prop as the theme of the performance was drink driving. Leah had a handbag which we thought was a stereotypical material product of a female to use, I used a cardboard sick bowl to use as a driving wheel in the car crash scene and for its actual intended purpose in the hospital scene with a clipboard to use as if I were checking bloods etc. We then used a veil to represent the marriage but we used a bright colour to represent happiness.

The costume was kept very minimal we used black as a neutral colour to just make us seem like a true part of an T.I.E company. As I have already written we used to props to distinguish certain characters.

Theverfremdungseffekt was used as drink driving is a major issue and very prominent to audience members and the teenage age group. Getting the emotional involvement of the audience met it hit home harder how quick drinking whilst under the influence can actually kill someone.

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Research and Initial Ideas

Research into The 100

We were given "The 100" as our stimulus and we're given the task to research about the play. The play revolves around the afterlife of 4 characters, we find themselves end up in a mysterious place called "The Void" whom are informed by a character called The Guide. In the Void they must pick one memory from their lives in which to spend an eternity with.  The rest of the play follows our the characters remembering those memories. It debuted in 2002 at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, where it won a Fringe First Award for "innovation in the theatre and outstanding new production". With writers Neil Monaghan, Diene Petterle, Christopher Heimann, since then its played in many different theatres around the world Soho Theatre in London being one of them. The Daily Telegraph said "Memories best forgotten", Toronto Star said "Play mindful of Sartre as dead as dead gets" and Stage Door said "less than perfect" 3 top publishing newspapers quoted they were great performances.

Initial Ideas

As a group we starting with a mind map and decided to pick a tone of the play did we want it to be light with a happy theme or go dark and make it a heavy subject. When we couldn't agree we decided that we should first pick a practitioner that would help us when it comes to picking an idea, we all decided Brecht and Stanislavsky were our go to practitioners. We decided we wanted to educate in a way that was light and enjoyable, so these two practitioners are perfect to be able to do this. We then came up with story ideas, we thought something that is prominent in the news locally or nationally to help us when it came to research, immigration, kidnappings, murder, suicide, abuse sexual/child/domestic were all ideas high on our list. Then drink driving came into our heads as being a big killer and something that people take likely. We discussed ideas we could incorporate into it such as physical theatre and bring in explorative strategies just to reinforce we are teaching but in a way it doesn't feel like we are nagging them.

We as a team felt that drinking and driving as a teenage population is heavily influenced on us as a thing to not do, we felt that teenagers do drink and a lot of them drive therefore meaning it can happen and it does happen sometimes with not so good circumstances. We then discussed how then main protagonist ended up in The Void, we decided he died in hospital and he only has one memory of what actually happened in his life, after drinking and getting intoxicated he crashes into two girls which results in him killing them, and him with amnesia. So the only memory he can choose is the one of him driving into their car.

Driving under the influence research

USA vs UK

http://www.anellixavier.com/dui-foundation/research/

The United States has one of the most lenient drinking and driving policies in the world. Some studies are beginning to analyse the long-term effects of their various state and federal policies versus other countries’ zero-tolerance policies.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/01/140116084842.htm

Even "minimally buzzed" drivers are more often to blame for fatal car crashes than the sober drivers they collide with, reports a University of California, San Diego study of accidents in the United States.

https://www.drinkaware.co.uk/alcohol-facts/alcohol-and-the-law/drink-driving-and-the-legal-alcohol-limit/

In England and Wales, the alcohol limit for drivers is 80 milligrammes of alcohol per 100 millilitres of blood, 35 microgrammes per 100 millilitres of breath or 107 milligrammes per 100 millilitres of urine. In most other European countries, the limit is less, usually 50 milligrammes per 100 millilitres of blood.

Anyone caught over the legal alcohol limit when driving will be banned from driving for at least 12 months, and fined up to £5,000. You can also be given between three to 11 penalty driving points. And you could be sent to prison for up to six months. Imprisonment, the period of disqualification, size of fine and penalty points depend on the seriousness of the offence8. If you’re caught drink driving more than once in a 10 year period, you’ll be banned for at least three years.

Alcohol Research

http://www.cyh.com/HealthTopics/HealthTopicDetailsKids.aspx?p=335&np=289&id=1507

How alcohol can affect your life:

Alcohol is essentially a drug and can become addictive (it has an effect on your body and is not a food).There are different kinds of alcohol, for example the kind that people drink is called ethyl alcohol. This is made by fermenting different things with yeast and water.

What affects does alcohol have on a person?

A small amount can make the person feel relaxed.  With a larger amount, people cannot maintain their behaviour (they may do embarrassing things or be violent), and their movements are more clumsy (uncoordinated, un-controlled). It can affect the body too, alcohol goes from the mouth to the stomach and small intestine. It passes through the walls of the stomach and small intestine into the bloodstream. The blood takes the alcohol to the brain where it slows down the messages in the brain (alcohol is a depressant drug). The blood also takes the alcohol to the liver, which starts to take out the alcohol from the blood.

https://www.gov.uk/alcohol-young-people-law

The law in the UK is that you must be 18 to drink alcohol, it is illegal to buy, or purchase for an under 18, to try and buy alcohol under that age and to drink or try to drink in an licensed pub/restaurant. However, if you’re 16 or 17 and accompanied by an adult, you can drink (but not buy) beer, wine or cider with a meal. Many places will take the initiative of THINK 25 or Challenge 25.

In October 2011, the Licensing (Scotland) Act 2005 was amended to introduce a new mandatory condition for all premises licences and occasional licences. Meaning that there must be an age verification policy in relation to the sale of alcohol on the premises. The law set an minimum age of 25 years for the policy so, where it appears to the person selling the alcohol that the customer may be under the age of 25 years, they are required to ask them for identification to prove that they are over the age of 18 and can by law purchase alcohol. As a result of this change in the law, customers in any premises in Scotland and in the UK licensed for the sale of alcohol, including pubs, clubs, restaurants, supermarkets and convenience stores may be asked to produce identification where they appear under the age of twenty five.

However in the US the law on drinking alcohol is different, in the USA every state has the right to make its own laws in regard to the sale of beer, wine and liquor. If you travel a lot it can be hard to keep up with all the insane rules. However the legal drinking age in all 50 states is 21.

Young adults do still find ways around drinking underage, many of the social media ads about alcohol show people having a good time, surrounded by friends, and giving the message that drinking alcohol is something that is always fun. Many young people will see parents, adults and older young people drinking alcohol as a social thing. It's not surprising that some kids think that drinking alcohol is the cool thing to do and makes them seem more grown up.

There are good reasons as to why the drinking age is like this, a young person's body cannot cope with the effects of alcohol and this may lead to him/her behaving in an unsafe way. Too much alcohol is a dangerous poison for children. Alcohol can affect the way the brain develops and grows.

When we researched about alcohol, we discovered alcohol is a massive killer, whether it being binge drinking, DUI (driving under influence). Drinking doesn't just kill you, it also affects your family too. We found that divorce rates from alcohol abuse were extremely high.

https://www.addiction.com/3003/will-alcohol-abuse-lead-divorce/

Picture taken from: https://thegreatphenomenondivorce.wordpress.com/

This picture shows the highest divorce rate around the world due to alcohol. US and UK being ranked in at #1 and #2. "Alcoholism is also known as a family disease." Alcoholics may have young, teenage, or grown-up children; they have wives or husbands; they have brothers or sisters; they have parents or other relatives. An alcoholic can totally disrupt family life and cause harmful effects that can last a lifetime. Alcohol causes many difficulties for example it makes a huge dent in finances, it can cause temper issues, health problems like liver failure.

We used many of these issues in our piece for example our main protagonist ends up losing his family down to his drinking habits after losing his job. We also found in research that alcohol is a killer of many driving incidents.

Photo taken from: http://www.sapeople.com/2016/08/17/south-africa-tops-global-drunk-driving-list/

Luckily we discovered that the UK was only 16% of the population that had drink driving incidents. We chose this as its a very prominent issue in this day and age and using Brecht to educate people without being too heavy on them. We also used Stanislavski as we could make it as realistic as possible but still keep reinforcing Brecht.

Research on amnesia

sciencedaily.com/terms/amnesia.htm

This is a condition in which the memory is disturbed. The causes of amnesia are functional and organic. Organic causes include damage to the brain, through trauma or disease or use of certain sedatives (drugs). Functional causes are psychological factors, such as defence mechanisms.