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I would like to say a big thank you to every member of the 8 Madonna’s! Including our technician Ryan and our tutor whom without his guidance we would have been truly lost!

I have thoroughly enjoyed this process and I am so proud to end my degree on such a high!!!

Niall x 

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My contribution:

Aside from collaborating in the devising of the piece I had a couple of extra roles within the process...

In the past three years I have gained a fair amount of experience working with makeup and SFX from some projects outside of my degree. Because of this I was tasked with creating the lacerations on Josie back. The above image is from the preview showing and took about an hour to achieve. I improved on these for the final show and managed to create more realistic looks which took an hour and a half to achieve. I also did all the wounds and the blood on the rest of the performers in the show.

Another responsibility of mine was to record rehearsals and upload them onto a youtube channel. The link which you can find here https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCGNBGUzLRry7JlTW0hB31pg?view_as=subscriber

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Rehearsal after Tuesday preview

After our preview, the whole group was very aware of some changes we had to make. To the structure, running order and some of the images in the piece. However, we were generally quite happy with how we did.

Unfortunately, due to work commitments I was unable to attend this rehearsal and I feel it is very unprofessional for me to discuss a rehearsal of which I was not present. I would like to direct you to Casey’s blog https://caseystheatre.tumblr.com/ as he addresses this rehearsal in great detail.

However, by the day of the final performance I was all caught up with the show and able to perform at the same standard as everyone else 

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Final showing before the week of the show

This was the final showing to our tutor before performing the show for the first time on the following Tuesday. The notes he gave us are as follows.

- Too much smoke

- The lighting on the feet creates a nice image

- The lights still need some work

- We should try and introduce some objects into the space such as umbrellas

- The laughter should occur more often and should become a motif in the performance

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Sex and Violence (When Quentin met Madonna)

This is the final name for our show!!! We wanted to avoid any extravagant terminology and focus on what the show is about. Because of this, the name of our show is straightforward and immediately offers insight to what the piece may be about

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Extra details

In the show, myself, Casey and Harry recorded, scripted and improvised a conversation which discusses Madonna’s song ‘Like a prayer’ and how it may be representative of blowjobs...This is done for a couple reasons. To relate the piece to sex as well as violence in regards to Madonna as a sex symbol. And also a reference back to Tarantino who includes conversations that have very little to do with the goings on around it. 

This section also offers the male performers on stage the opportunity to have a voice in the space as there is no dialogue in the rest of the show. This can arguably become a statement of gender politics as it is the male performers who have a voice whereas the female performers do not. 

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Rehearsal 08.05.18

During this rehearsal we showed our lecturer the progress we had made since the previous showing. Because of this we ran the piece without using any of the mess and purely to show him the technical side we had developed and the workings of a coherent piece.

Some of the notes we received included:

- The natural laughter is a lot nicer than when it is forced

- Use the lighting more effectively to highlight certain moments.

During this rehearsal we also looked at the little goings-on in the space between the performers on stage and their relationships when the main focus is not on them.

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Full showing: 04.05.18

After this showing the group was in incredibly high spirits as we all felt that we were finally creating a show that we could all be proud of. Our tutors notes are as follows:

- Do not hide the images

- Use even more blood

- The chairs used should either be exactly the same or all completely different

- Work more on the fluidity of the piece

- Incorporate side lights

- There was a lack of progression in the dance (doesnt like it)

- Aftermaths

- Bring the bananas back 

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Rehearsal 30.04.18

In this rehearsal we decided to properly run our new running order with all our new material and incorporate all the mess we had previously discussed to see how they all ran together.

This included milk as a reference to breast milk or male semen, tomato puree and fake blood and also icing sugar to represent cocaine.

After deciding our new running order we added all of this mess together to see how the piece flows. This order now exists as:

- Josies laughing

- Vogue

- Blowjob scene

- Son of a preacher man

- Josies back

- Eithne and Harry slap

-laughing section

- Backdrop video

Now we need to decide on the transitions of these images as a way to make the piece flow more fluidly.

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Rehearsal 26.04.18

After a meeting with our tutor previously on in the day, our group was in the highest spirits we had been in in a long time. He had given us new direction and new ways to go about making our piece. Such as going into the rehearsal focusing not only on sex and violence but to look at them in relation to Madonna and Tarantino. He told us to consider that all the events we rehearse have already happened and what we show is the aftermath.

In the following rehearsal, the group collaborated on a new structure for the piece by using post-it notes qith every scene and activity we had rehearsed. We did this in order to find any links or connections with scenes.

For once we feel like we are starting to develop a really good and active piece.

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Rehearsal 23.04.18

After our lecturers notes form the last session we decided to take a whole new approach with the piece which I decided to lead.

Casey proposed to to put out 7 chairs in the space. One for each performer. 

I decided that in the space we work through individual images and attempt to incorporate the ideas of laughter. After a few hours we began to feel a lot more comfortable have a better idea of how the piece should be going

The ideas of chairs and laughter is something which should start to flow as themes through the rest of our piece.

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45 Minute Showing

This was possibly the most difficult time myself and the group faced as we were told by our tutor (very fairly) that we had lost our way as a group, that we did not communicate with each other and that we did not know what we were trying to achieve with the piece. This was very hard hitting but I believe it needed to be done as a way to get our group on track. 

For our next rehearsal we have decided to figure out what we all want from the the piece and to pick out multiple images we can explore.

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Rehearsal 19.04.18

Due to some conflicts within the group, our tutor advised that we sit down as group, change the order of our piece and create a new running order as a way to find more coherent moments within the piece.

This running order goes as follows

- Josie Screams

- Myself and Harry torture scene

- Pulp Fiction dance

- Shannah gets strangled

- Harry drags me across the floor

- Son of a Preacher Man

- Josie gets whipped

- Shannah hysterical scream

- Casey drags me

- Blowjob scene

- Eithne and Casey

We have made two new scenes which appear in this order which include hysterical screaming and/or laughter. One is Josie’s hysterical laughter at the beginning of the piece and then again with Shannah...This is to highlight a point that Tarantino makes in an interview in which he says that ‘Violence is funny’

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Rehearsal 16.4.18

As this was our first official rehearsal back after easter. We decided to show the rest of the group the material we had made in the previous rehearsal during easter.

We showed them the new ending we had created and showed the others how we need to further develop this final lip-sync in order to make it a significant moment in the piece.

To do this we spent the rehearsal choreographing a dance routine for ‘Like a Prayer’ which including improvising, spotlights and using the relationships between pairs which were previously explored through the piece.

By the end of the rehearsal we had all decided that this piece was not only going to be a focus on Tarantino but we also wanted Madonna to feature just as heavily.

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13.04.18

Just before our easter break finished, a few members of the group decided to have an extra rehearsal in which we re-looked over the work we had made and try to find tune it all as well as develop the piece further.

We decided again to make the focus of our piece these images we create and so we decided to transition them slower, as well as focus on them for longer.

After looking at this we decided to look at the ending of our piece and how wrap it up. We realised that we had purely been focusing on Tarantino and that we had forgotten our earlier focuses on Madonna. Because of this we tried to incorporate her back into the piece.

Casey had the idea to look back at material from the beginning of the rehearsal and so decided that we should look at Shannah’s lip-sync to ‘Like a Prayer’ from our very first rehearsal. We decided to look at this as a way of the female performer regaining her power and using Madonna (as a female/sex icon) as a way to do this.

Using this song references back to an earlier section in the piece where myself and Harry discuss Madonna’s song and how it is about blowjobs and it makes the idea of sex just as prominent as our idea of violence in the piece and thus, adds another layer.

Personally, I dont like this idea of lip-syncing at the end of our piece as the piece, throughout is very dark and has a sinister tone, and the inclusion of the lip-sync I feel takes away too much from the rest of the piece. However, if explored further correctly I feel as though it could help us devise a lot more interesitng material

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During the easter break I decided to look at Tarantino’s views of his movies in terms of the violence he creates.

Whilst looking at this, and after listening to notes form my lecturer, I watched this interview between Tarantino and Krishnan Guru-Murphy in which Tarantino argues with Murphy about the violence in his films. He becomes very defensive and explains why he shouldn’t have to explain himself as it is just a movie