lottieplayingthefield-blog

[lottieplayingthefield-blog]

Our logo for our theatre company/project

[lottieplayingthefield-blog]

Introduction to Professional Practice

I am a second year BA Drama student at the University of Northampton. A module we take is called Professional Practice, in which these past two weeks have seen the theatre company C&T come in and work with us. 

Whilst working with C&T, we have explored a few of their applications which has allowed us to experience their values and ideas which have been implemented into schools around the UK. The main applications that we explored were lip syncing and Stratar. 

Throughout the past week, we have looked at both applications, and created our own lip sync videos in groups, as well as looked at Stratar and worked on our own maps, in which we created our own stories through the application, which was then therefore, on a digital map online. It helped us, as we were instructed to implement these applications within our projects, which tackle a social issue in today’s society. 

They have helped us effectively, as they allowed us to further our experience with the theatre company C&T and help understand their 6 key values that they abide by: “collaboration, creativity, intelligence, learning, originality and quality” (C&T, 2017)”

‘Photo with C&T practitioner Anna’

REFERENCE LIST

C&T. (2017). C&T. [online] Available: http://www.candt.org/. Last accessed 3rd May 2017.

[lottieplayingthefield-blog]

Lip Syncing

Collins Dictionary defines lip syncing as: “to synchronize lip movements with (recorded speaking or singing)” (Collins Dictionary, 2017). The art of lip syncing has becoming widely popular around the world, with TV shows being created such as ‘Lip Sync Battle’.

Whilst learning about lip syncing we were introduced to the different conventions C&T use within their workshops. Paul Sutton states:

 “Lip sync collides drama and popular music, seeking to harness the potential of the two within an online drama facility designed to encode the authentic, ethnographic, lived experiences of young people”. (Sutton, 2009).

What I perceive Sutton to be saying is that; by having the popular music to lip sync to, it allows young people to easily understand the drama, and the message that is being conveyed within the performance, or lip sync.

We were given the task to get into groups and create our own lip sync video to any song we wished. However, it had to link to a social issue and juxtapose the performance being created. The main conventions we had to include was to put it into some form of context and make sure the issue and content juxtapose one another. As Sutton states:

“Juxtaposition is crucial. Re-purposing a song so that its original meaning contrasts with the significance of its dramatic context...gives the lip sync weight and significance as well as glocalizing meaning for young people, giving them ownership of the material”. (Sutton, 2009).

Therefore, our decisions reflect both elements that were crucial within our lip sync videos, and the ideas that Sutton puts forward within his thesis and writings. We decided to create a lip sync to the song ‘History’ by One Direction. The socio-demographic issue we decided to touch upon was Brexit and the UK’s relationship with Europe. We used the idea of The Late Late Show with James Corden’s ‘Carpool Karaoke’ and filmed most of our lip sync in a car whilst driving around. This allowed us to film quite a lot, and not have to worry about site specific filming, and was easier to create, as the camera stayed in one position throughout the lip sync. We used a balloon to create the symbol of the EU. Throughout the video we were seen caring for the balloon and singing to the balloon as we wanted to highlight how Britain still cares for Europe, and want to keep a positive relationship with them, which is also highlighted through the lyrics of the song.

OUR FINAL PRODUCT

REFERENCE LIST

Anderson, M., Carroll, J., Cameron, D.Sutton, P. (2009) Drama education with digital technology. 1st ed. London: Continuum International Pub. Group.

Collins (2017) Lip-sync definition and meaning | Collins English Dictionary. Collinsdictionary.com. [online]. Available from: https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/lip-sync [Accessed May 4, 2017].

[lottieplayingthefield-blog]

Stratar

Another application we looked into was C&T’s application “Stratar”. This introduced us to the idea of maps within a performance, and how they can create narrative and story. Stratar is C&T’s “ground-breaking digital mapping application’ which is implemented within schools around the UK and internationally. (C&T, 2017).  It is an online application in which students can create their own ‘maps’ for whatever they may wish. For example, they could create a map of their school and where they like to hang out on the weekends, whether that may be the cinema or the park.

When being introduced to Stratar, we first did an activity which allowed us to explore our own life maps, before looking at it more digitally. We were asked to bring in an object or photo of something that reminds ourselves of home. I brought in a picture of my cat, Freddie, as he is my pet and therefore is a solid memory of home.

 We were giving strips of masking tape that would be used to create our own map in Maidwell Theatre. 

The first marker that we had to pinpoint was where we would usually be found in University, and write a word to describe that place. I chose Avenue Campus Student Union as my first marker, as I usually go to karaoke on a Thursday night. 

The next pinpoint was where we live in Northampton. 

The third was where we live in the UK, therefore, I moved west of where I had put the university and created a square, and labelled it ‘Northfield, Birmingham’. 

We then had to pinpoint a bad experience we had had in our lifetime and where it was. I marked mine in Ireland when my cousin died and I attended his funeral. 

Then we had to pinpoint a place where we aspire to end up. Therefore, I pinpointed Australia as I want to travel around the world.

After creating our maps, we were introduced to C&T’s application, and went away and created our own pins and lines on our own stratar username. I created my line as ‘Lottie’s Grand Adventure’ which was the timeline of the night that I hurt my leg after being in Balloon Bar in Northampton and had to go to A&E.

Our experience with Stratar influenced us when modelling our projects, as we used the idea of maps as part of our set in our performance.

REFERENCE LIST

C&T. (2017). C&T. [online] Available: http://www.candt.org/. Last accessed 3rd May 2017

[lottieplayingthefield-blog]

Influences and Initial Ideas

Our main task of the two weeks was to work in groups to create a treatment for a performance that would tackle a social issue. Throughout the week, we had to choose a subject, and decide on the content, format and conventions that were to be used within it. We also had to pick our key age demographic in which we wanted to perform our piece to.

My group decided to look at a more taboo topic, that isn’t really touched upon within performances. We looked at different websites and tried to find a topic that wasn’t seen as a ‘cliché’ as we didn’t want to recycle the same topics used. We came across the taboo nature of masturbation and how society judges masturbation. We then developed it, so that there was more of a feminist twist to the concept. We decided to look at the stigma behind female masturbation and sexual intercourse. This meant that we were exploring the judgement behind the number of sexual partners a woman has and if a women masturbates or not. We decided to look at this because we knew from previous experiences that men can easily talk about masturbation, as it isn’t as taboo within their gender, whereas women tend to get judged heavily for whether they masturbate or not. We therefore, wanted to create a performance which attempts to tackle the stigma and to educate our audience on how it’s okay to talk openly about masturbation.

After picking the issue we wanted to tackle, we then looked at the performance and how we could educate the participants subtly, and creating a performance that immerses them, whilst still allowing them to create their own thoughts and take away their own ideas and feelings. We therefore created a metaphor which had a clear link to males, so that it highlights the judgement women face every day. We chose the metaphor of football and the video game FIFA to juxtapose the idea of sex and masturbation. 

We decided to use this metaphor because men’s football is regarded more highly than women’s football, and is seen as more of a ‘man’s’ sport, and the pay gap further emphasises this. BBC Newsround reported that in 2014, the Germany men’s team received £23m for winning the World Cup in Brazil. However, in 2015, when the USA women’s team won the World Cup, they only received £1.3m (CBBC, 2015). Consequently, we believed this topic would be ideal to touch upon and talk about as it is still a very real issue that is evident in today’s society.

The concept we used to symbolise the amount of people our characters had slept with, was the amount of football teams that that character had played for in their ‘career’. This worked effectively as the two concepts paralleled with their outputs. However, masturbation was a little trickier. The idea of masturbation is more of an individual act. Therefore we linked the element of FIFA to masturbation, so that the virtual side of it can link to the idea of watching porn.

REFERENCE LIST

CBBC (2017) Are men and women equal in sport? - CBBC Newsround. Bbc.co.uk. [online]. Available from: http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/33462943 [Accessed May 3, 2017].

Salaries, M. (2017) Men & Women Sports Prize Money & Salaries. Whyhowtofix.blogspot.co.uk. [online]. Available from: http://whyhowtofix.blogspot.co.uk/2015/11/men-women-sports-prize-money-salaries.html [Accessed May 3, 2017].

Sport, B. (2017) Swedish women's football team swaps names for inspirational messages on shirts. Bbc.co.uk. [online]. Available from: http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/article/39138348/swedish-womens-football-team-swaps-names-for-inspirational-messages-on-shirts [Accessed May 3, 2017].

[lottieplayingthefield-blog]

Research and Development

At the end of the first and through to the second week, we realised that to create a substantial performance, that had deeper meaning and didn’t just scratch the surface, we had to heavily research into the topic we were exploring. Our first point of call was to create a survey. We aimed the survey mainly at 18-22 year old people, as they were to be our age range in which our project will be performed to. This is due to us believing that our project will be most effective to them, as they will be university students who have just entered a new stage of their life and therefore exploring new ideas.The survey had basic questions regarding our subject, which we posted online onto different platforms of social media so that people could participate in the survey and we had real life answers we could use within our research and analysis. Our Survey was as follows:

From looking at the results of the survey, it was clear to us that there was a prejudice towards women in regards to masturbation and sexual intercourse. There was a clear swing of results, with at least 90% saying one answer, rather than it being more 50/50, which shows that the participants had a strong opinion on the answers, and all had a similar opinion. The general consensus of the survey was that women were being judged more than men in regards to masturbation and sexual partners.

My personal experience also influenced my thoughts and feelings when exploring deeper into the stigma. Growing up, I spent my entire school life being educated at Catholic schools in Birmingham. 

My primary school: Our Lady and St Brigid’s Catholic School

Growing up Catholic distorted my view on sexual intercourse, as well as masturbation and the role women had within that. We were never really taught about sex, and were only told about sex before marriage and what the Bible stated about sex before marriage. An example is “But should write to them to abstain from the things polluted by idols, and from sexual immorality, and from what has been strangled, and from blood.” (Acts 15:20). 

My secondary school: St Thomas Aquinas Catholic School

Being a virgin in my secondary school wasn’t seen as unusual. In fact, you were judged if you had lost your virginity. This therefore backs up the stigma behind women, as I was taught that sex before marriage was seen as something unusual.

(Basement Reel, 2017).

This short film briefly explains some struggles that I went through coming into university, as many people do not understand why women choose to abstain from sex before marriage. Even though this is the complete opposite of what we are exploring, it allowed me to further understand the stigma, as I could look at it from my religious point of view, and how ridiculous some people view women’s sexuality.

One article that I looked at during my research was an article on Bustle titled “Why the Taboo of Female Masturbation is B.S.” (Jones, 2013). This article was really interesting to me, as Jones describes her personal of being questioned about masturbation by not just men, but women. She states whilst reminiscing “I will never forget that shame and the questions that followed: What’s wrong with masturbation? Am I weird for enjoying it? Am I... dirty? The resounding answer until I got to university? Yes.” (Jones,2013). I found this interesting, as I have been through the same experiences. You feel embarrassed to talk about masturbation as a women, because you are seen as ‘dirty’ and ‘slutty’ if you do; especially as a teenager, and going through puberty, as you are still trying to explore your own body and sexuality.

REFERENCE LIST

Anon (1986) The Holy Bible. 1st ed. New York: American Bible Society.

Anon (2017) Abstinence Quotes. Pinterest. [online]. Available from: https://uk.pinterest.com/explore/abstinence-quotes/ [Accessed May 4, 2017].

Basement Reels (2017) Sex Before Marriage - Short Film. YouTube. [online]. Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pIoKZSGbcpQ [Accessed May 4, 2017].

Jones, J. (2017) Why The Taboo of Female Masturbation is B.S. Bustle.com. [online]. Available from: https://www.bustle.com/articles/887-why-the-taboo-of-female-masturbation-is-bs [Accessed May 4, 2017].

[lottieplayingthefield-blog]

Final Performance

The final task we were given was to create and develop a treatment for a performance of our choice, that incorporated the applications we had been taught, as well as technology such as photography and videography. We chose to create a performance as well as a workshop, so that the performance can solely focus of the metaphor of football and the conflict that the judgement could create. Whereas the workshop would be more discussion based, with dramatic conventions to further enhance the thoughts and feelings we wanted to convey. We wanted to keep to the theme of our metaphor throughout the performance and workshop. Therefore, our performance will be 45 minutes long, and our workshop will also be 45 minutes long. The reasoning behind this is because a regular football match lasts 90 minutes, which clearly works with our concept and ideas.

The performance itself is made us of 50% action live on stage in front of an audience, and 50% shown through a series of videos. The videos will follow two professional footballers: Harry Shennan and Heather Knight, whom will both experience very different reactions to them signing to many different clubs (meaning sleeping with many different people).

One idea we explored was specifically to do with our knowledge on Stratar. From the beginning we thoroughly enjoyed our experiences with Stratar so wanted to make sure it was somehow included within our performance. We created two maps which follow Harry and Heather’s football careers (body count) around the UK. The two maps are the shape of England, and we’ve attempted to make them as accurate to place as possible. We also attempted to make the maps look as though they are travelling all over the country, to emphasise them both sleeping with many different partners. 

Harry’s Map

(Lawrence,2017)

Heather’s Map

(Lawrence, 2017)

As you can see through the videos, they have both been to the same amount of teams, but as shown in the performances they are treated very differently to one another.

Although we had a positive attitude towards this idea, when developing our final performance, we realised that the map wasn’t really relevant to what we wanted within it. However, it allowed us to further understand our concept and we could see the growth in our ideas and how they have developed into the final performance.

The videography side of our performance follows Harry and Heather’s journeys. This will be the storyline that runs parallel with the action onstage. We are first introduced to both characters are the start of the performance, with there being a news report on them both being signed to a new football club. We will then have 2 interviews which are press conferences for both characters. However, through the language and tone between Harry’s interview (in which he is being praised for going from club to club) and Heather’s interview (who is being penalised for going from club to club), it is evident that there is some prejudice towards Heather and her actions before signing.

(Lawrence, 2017)

It then proceeds to a video on the two footballers ‘training’. Again, we want to use the language to highlight the prejudice of Heather being judged for coming to a new club.

We then have a second interview in which Harry and Heather are asked to talk about how they got into football (sex). This interview focuses on the concept of FIFA, or masturbation. It looks into how both characters were interested in masturbation before moving onto sex.

(Shennan, 2017)

The last video will be of a breaking news report of Heather going straight on loan to another club, which will interpret into Heather having a one night stand. It will show the backlash of her moving so quickly, and the language will again highlight this, with phrases such as ‘not committing’ and ‘signed away to any club possible’.

The action on stage will focus on 4 university students: Max, Josh, Lydia and Eliza. They will be getting ready for pre drinks and having pre drinks onstage, whilst interacting with the videos being shown throughout. The female characters are seen getting ready on stage whilst lip syncing to the song ‘Sexual’ by Neiked, whilst the male characters are watching the news report talked about previously. The male characters then discuss Heather and Harry, using negative language towards Heather to enhance the stigma. As pre drinks start to occur, a character whom we never meet is mentioned and looked for, but when found, is playing ‘FIFA’ (masturbating), which creates comedy. The videos enhance the tension, as the action quickly escalates to an argument occurring over the boy’s judgement and opinions towards Heather, and not Harry. ending in a high tension situation. This will then lead pleasantly into the workshop. 

REFERENCE LIST

Anon (2017) NEIKED (Ft. Dyo) – Sexual. Genius. [online]. Available from: https://genius.com/Neiked-sexual-lyrics [Accessed May 4, 2017].

Lawrence, T. (2017) interview. YouTube. [online]. Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SLNp_sIETSo [Accessed May 4, 2017].

Lawrence, T. (2017) Harry Map. YouTube. [online]. Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MRMM4bmJeQ0&t=2s [Accessed May 4, 2017].

Lawrence, T. (2017) Heather Map. YouTube. [online]. Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w6CjUa65jcY&t=1s [Accessed May 4, 2017].

Shennan, J. (2017) Interview 2. Vimeo. [online]. Available from: https://vimeo.com/215939692 [Accessed May 4, 2017].

[lottieplayingthefield-blog]

Final Workshop

“Slut shaming is the act of criticizing a woman for her real or presumed sexual activity, or for behaving in ways that someone thinks are associated with her real or presumed sexual activity.”  (Admin, 2016).

The second part of our project is solely workshop based. Over the 45 minutes, we would take the participants on our journey where we shall immerse them. This will allow them to fully experience the project, and help them further understand the stigma we are attempting to tackle. 

The part of the workshop I would be leading is the starting activity which is Spectrum. In the workshop, we will divide the group into male and females, and they will be taken out of the room and lead into two separate rooms. I will then talk to them via Skype call, in which I will ask the participants questions about the stigma behind female masturbation and sexual intercourse. Their answers will be recorded and shown back to them at the end of the workshop, to show the opposite gender their thoughts about the stigma. The reason why I will be on Skype is because we wanted to participants to do this activity with their gender to see just a small segment of a gender and how they react to the questions. Also, we didn’t want them to be influenced by the other gender. They will then be led back into the space to continue with the workshop. We did this activity with the group in the session on Tuesday of the second week, and they had some very interesting answers. 

(Flynn,2017)

(Flynn, 2017)

The next activity is creating still images which will be run by Kaylea. This will be an activity in which they create still images of how each gender would feel if they were judged for masturbating, and how they should feel instead.

The third section is run by Jack, which will be a hot-seating activity. The 4 characters from the previous performance (Josh, Max, Eliza and Lydia) will be the people who will be hot-seated. The participants will be able to ask questions to the characters such as: why were the boys so judgmental towards Heather? How did the girls feel about this?

The final activity will be run by Todd. The 4 students in the performance will be wearing football style shirts with a number on the back. This will represent the amount of people they have slept with. The girl’s shirts will have ‘slut’ written on them, whereas the boys will have ‘player’ written on them. There will be 2 blank shirts on the floor to represent men and women. The participants will be asked to write one word associated with each gender and hopefully they will be positive words that will empower both genders.

REFERENCE LIST

Admin (2017) Slut Shaming! - Trusted Clothes. Trusted Clothes. [online]. Available from: https://www.trustedclothes.com/blog/2016/06/14/slut-shaming/ [Accessed May 4, 2017].

Flynn, L. (2017) spectrum 6?. YouTube. [online]. Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wa5j78PoDmw [Accessed May 4, 2017].

Flynn, L. (2017) spectrum 1?. YouTube. [online]. Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4rxc1L1fi24 [Accessed May 4, 2017].

[lottieplayingthefield-blog]

Final Reflection

Over the past two weeks working with C&T, I have been able to create, adapt, and grow as a practitioner. Before working with C&T, I never thought that technology could play such a huge part within theatre and a performance. However, with Anna and Ines’ help and guidance, I have been able to become more open-minded to technology. C&T’s aim is to “inspire, educate and empower the next generation of global literate citizens” (C&T, 2017) and I truly believe that they have achieved this with myself, as I am now more inspired to create more digital theatre, rather than traditional live action theatre.

Kaylea and I are the ‘Women’s Bridge’ in London.

REFERENCE LIST

Anon (2017) Cite a Website - Cite This For Me. 68.media.tumblr.com. [online]. Available from: https://68.media.tumblr.com/d5b3c2e35fec79a3493cf60859d65086/tumblr_inline_opet4cOJ4q1ukaq30_540.jpg [Accessed May 4, 2017].

C&T. (2017). C&T. [online] Available: http://www.candt.org/. Last accessed 3rd May 2017

Flynn, L. (2017) boomerang. YouTube. [online]. Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fo1ShIssKJk [Accessed May 4, 2017].