What did you think about the overall performance? 

I really liked our overall piece. I feel it worked well with our stimulus, and it was fun to perform and hopefully fun to watch.

Was it suitable for the target audience? 

I think it was suitable for our target audience, because visually it was nice to look at, there wasn’t many words therefore it wasn’t too complicated to understand, and we often used physical theatre to communicate with the audience.  Also because our costumes were bright and colourful hopefully that really grabbed the children’s attention and made them want to watch our piece.

Which piece of our show worked the best and why?

The part where the ‘toys’ say “I wanted to be…A robot / A racing car driver / A fairy....”, worked the best because we used  simple language which the children can understand, along with music and images (the cloud). I think this worked because it looked really interesting from a young person’s point of view. I think that the fact that the timing of the triangle and cloud were in time worked really well as I feel it created a sort of magic feeling for the little children.  Also, the movement that we performed after the lines were said were clear and appealing for young children. It also gave us time to interact with the audience.

Which devising skills were used to make the piece?

Devising skills that were used to make this piece were, rhythm, physical theatre, music and audience interaction. I think this skill was well suited to ‘an awesome book’ because throughout the book it used rhyming. It is also a good way to communicate with small children.  

What character(s) did you play and how had these been developed? 

I played a doll and an office worker who couldn’t dream. For the doll, in the beginning of the unit, I developed my character by thinking about typical clear toys the children play with and pick the one most suited to me. I gave myself personality traits, which helped me pick a voice and body language. I also feel that picking a costume helped as it was really bright and colourful, which helped me develop my character into a bubbly, high, energetic character. For my office worker character, I imagined myself to be an overweight character, in a dirty office suit, I got this inspiration from stereo-typical characters from TV. This helped me develop my walk, facial expressions, and actions.

What have you learnt about devising? 

I have  learnt that it is easier and more effective to go away and devise pieces in small groups because then you get a variety of different ideas, and the creativity level doesn’t drop, because there is not just one person giving the ideas.

What could have been developed further and why? 

I feel like more practice of call and response with the audience because during hey world, no one spoke in the audience. I feel this was because we probably came across as intimidating from the children’s point of view.  Therefore,  I feel like this needs  development because it didn’t work when we tried it out, so, I think we need to work on communicating with children through theatre to make them  feel more confident and less intimidated.  

Log questions:

What activities did we do today?

For the whole lesson we worked as a whole class to combine each groups work together, to create a 10minute ensemble piece for little people’s day.

What ideas did you/your group come up with? 

In today’s lesson we didn’t so much as come up with new ideas, but we developed existing ones, what I mean by this is;

Ø  Have Rory as one of the boys on the bed, that are dreaming

Ø  Intertwine lines from his piece with mine and Connor’s group

Ø  Use the triangle and cloud when a ‘toy’ thinks of dream

Ø  Add in Rosebe’s group after the ‘toy’ section

Ø  End with the song, hey world

Ø  Dance around while singing, hey world

Why have you chosen some of these ideas to develop further? You need to EXPLAIN WHY?

We decided to develop certain ideas because it makes the section long, but still keeps it interesting and captivating for young children. For example, we decided to add in Rosebe’s groups half way through the piece, because it contrasts the first section and it portrays boring adults as opposed to energetic characters. Therefore hopefully the children will not lose interest.   

Why did you reject some of the ideas? You need to EXPLAIN WHY?

 We didn’t reject too many ideas this week due to the fact that there was less production of new ideas. However, we did decide that in hey world to try and dance on the spot or like a small circle, otherwise the space got really inbalanced and made the scene look messy. Also, instead of us all running in from the corner, at the end of Rosebe’s piece, to come in small groups, because a burst of movement and sudden noise may be a bit too over powering at such a young age.

What acting skills/performance skills are you using? EXPLAIN WHY these are suitable for the piece and the target audience. 

Some of the acting skills that I am using are characterisation and audience interaction.  Characterisation is an important skill for our piece and children theatre, because throughout most of the piece I do not say much, so I have to make sure I stay in my character physically and use expression, otherwise the children will lose interest and it will take the magic out of the performance.  Audience interaction is suitable because, in children’s theatre it is important to try and keep the audience interested.  This means perform to them, more than you would in normal theatre. We also use songs in our piece and our aim is to get the children to join in.

18.06.2015

Log questions:

What activities did we do today?

In today’s lesson we went in to our group from last lesson, and recapped on what we did last week. We then had to think of how we could incorporate everyone in to our scene. After we were paired with another group, we had to blend our scenes together, and perform it to the class, at the end of the lesson.

What ideas did you/your group come up with? 

Have 2 people asleep instead of one

To add in a section when some ‘toys’ say what their dream is

To have the toys wake Mateo up half way through the scene

Change the order of some of the scenes

Why have you chosen some of these ideas to develop further? You need to EXPLAIN WHY?

We chose to develop some of the ideas as they added energy to the scene, and make it more versatile. For example, we decided to add in a section where some toys said their dreams, because it would change the scene up a little bit, to make sure the children do not get bored. Hopefully that section will also make them think about what their dreams are, which I think is the purpose of the book.

Why did you reject some of the ideas? You need to EXPLAIN WHY?

We decided to reject some ideas as we feel it might confuse the children watching the play. Therefore we decided to not have the toys to wake Mateo up half way through because there will be loads of things going on at once, and we will be making it more complicated than it needs to be.

What acting skills/performance skills are you using? EXPLAIN WHY these are suitable for the piece and the target audience. 

One acting skill I was using was facial expressions. This is suitable for our target audience because it is important to be over the top in every way, because it keeps them interested, it will also help portray my character’s emotions. Another acting skill I used was spatial awareness; this is a suitable skill for our piece because it is all physical theatre. It involves a lot of running around therefore I have to be careful I don’t run into anyone. Finally I used staying in role, this is important in our scene as I only say one line, so it is important I stay physically active in the scene. It is also suitable for our target audience, because we needed to keep the piece magical for them and if I come out of role, the scene will not feel real, and the children won’t be excited and will lose focus of the scene.

11/06/13

Lesson 1

Devising skills

What devising skills did we discuss today?
We said that some devising skills, are creativity, knowing you target audience, being open minded to new ideas, and finally to not be afraid to put your ideas forward. We said these skills were important as they will make your piece really interesting and captivating for the audience members.

Which of these skills are you most confident in using?

I think I am most confident in ‘being open to other ideas’ because I like to see all the different ways we could interpret our stimulus, because I want our scene/play to be the best it can possibly be.

Children's Theatre 

Why is theatre for children so valuable?
I think theatre is important to children as it stimulates their imagination, and promotes creative thinking. It can also inspire children to get involved in the arts.

Please go on the following websites and do some research on what both companies do. http://www.polkatheatre.com/     https://www.unicorntheatre.com/

• Who are they?

They are both theatre companies.

• Who do they make work for?

They specialise in making theatre and workshops for babies, young children, and pre-teens.

• What's on at the moment?

Polka:  The Bockety world of Henry Bucket, Circles in the sand, Puss in boots, Dot squiggle and rest, STATIK, Gorilla.

Unicorn: One little word, The big wild Rumpus,

• How might these companies help us with the work we are devising?

These companies will help us when devising as we will be able to take inspiration from their work, and find out what makes children enjoy theatre shows. Also different ways to tell stories to make the children stay interested.

Log questions:

What activities did we do today?

In todays lesson, we started off discussing about the book ‘An Awesome Book’, as a class, and why we really liked the book. We then spread out in the class, to find our own space, and thought about the first bit of theatre we saw. We did this, as we could remember why we enjoyed that piece of theatre, and then later on hopefully apply in to our own work. Then we had to think about how we imagine our adaption of ‘An Awesome Book’ would look like and share it with the class. In the next half of the lesson we got in groups of 5, and created a short scene based off of, the ten pages of ‘An Awesome Book’ we were given.

What ideas did you/your group come up with? 

In our group some of the ideas we came up with, was to have one person asleep, and for his dream to come to life, and all his toys would be in the dream with him. We also thought to have all the other characters in his dream transport him in to different worlds. Another idea we had, was to use some music in some parts of the scene. Also, that in the scene, him and his toys would keep going in to different worlds.

Why have you chosen some of these ideas to develop further?

We decided that we would start this scene off with Tim falling asleep, because we thought it would make it easy to understand that he was dreaming especially for small children, also because we could then end the scene we it started as we felt it would make it flow nicely. We decided to develop the idea of his toys, coming to life in this dream. We thought this would work, because the idea of all you toys coming to life is very exciting for little children, as movies like ‘Toy Story’ is very popular. So we chose to keep that idea that him and his toys would keep going in to different worlds. We kept this because we felt it would keep the children’s attention as there was always something new and exciting happening on stage, and it would encourage them to use their imagination.

Why did you reject some of the ideas?

We rejected some of the ideas, because we did not really have enough time to properly choreograph complicated physical theatre, which is why we didn’t have the toys transport Tim in to a new world. Also we didn’t want it to be too complicated, that the children didn’t understand the story. Finally we decided that the music was vital, and it would probably go wrong, because it would need to  be used for a really short time, in one of the different ‘Worlds’ Tim and his toys went to in his dream.

What acting skills/performance skills are you using? EXPLAIN WHY these are suitable for the piece and the target audience. 

Some of the acting skills I was using were characterisation, physical theatre, and projection. This was also suitable of the target audience, because the characters would have made it clear to the children what was going on in the scene. Hopefully it also made the scene more exciting to watch, so the children would not have lost interest. Physical theatre was suitable because children enjoy physical theatre as it’s a form of communicating with them if they don’t understand loads of words yet. Finally projecting is very important because I have very  little words to say, they need to be clear and loud as there might be a lot of noise in theatre as hopefully the children will be very excited.