We devised scene 11 today, and I came up with the idea to have this style of music as the soundtrack to Roma's death, contrasting the up beat song, with the sound of machine guns firing at the same time.I felt this idea was very Brechtian, as the song will Juxtapose with the content of this scene, as you would usually expect a very dramatic and sad song to accompany a death scene, but I know how Brecht likes to use inappropriate music in his scenes, so I felt this up beat and lively song by Benny Goodman would fit this scene perfectly, and we tried it out and it really worked.
We tried out lots of different ideas with Roma's death in this scene, we tried slow motion when Givola shoots Roma, and this really works and it looks Brechtian and very epic. It also goes with the music,as it contrasts, the music is very up beat and fast, and the dying is very slow and stylised. I am glad that everyone liked my idea to use this song, as it sounds really good with the gun shots, and it is not what the audience will expect at all. It shows how the gangsters, Ui and Givola really do not care about murdering people for petty things, and they see it is a joke or a game.
The music starts when Ui(Liam) enters the stage, and goes to shake Romas hand. They both out stretch their hands and circle each other, Ui watching Roma intensely, and as Roma goes to shake his hand, Givola appears from behind Ui, with his bodyguard(Heta) and shoots Roma, multiple times. We time this with the gun shot sound effects and it looks really good so far, and this was only our first lesson of creating this scene! I have gone into more detail about this scene in my scenes blog.
Coffin idea for scene 14, which is Mr Dullfeets funeral after being murdered by Ui and his gang. We are going to use the 1st years prop for our coffin, as our show is after theirs so they will not need it anymore.
In today's lesson we began devising Scene 12, and we particularly focused on the choreography for the flowers in this scene, which act as a wall for the characters, as the characters in this scene are hidden by the flowers, and then followed by the flowers as well.We wanted to portray how Givola's flower shop may look beautiful and colourful, but it is dark and dangerous, and wants to trap Betty and Mr Dullfeet. I have gone into more detail about this scene in my scenes blog, but in this blog I want to share the idea's we had for the flower shop choreography and the idea's we tried out, and how we all worked together as a team to create the flower arrangements with the bamboo sticks.
All together we came up with the idea of having flowers attached to the bamboo sticks, so it looks like walls of flowers moving around and following the characters. We did not have a way of using the flowers without having them attached to the bamboo sticks, as we would all just be holding bunches of flowers which would not look as stylised or effective as using the bamboo sticks. I also think binding the flowers around the sticks looks much more creative and we all worked together in our extra rehearsals to create the flower arrangements.
We are going to have 8 people using the bamboo sticks, which means we will have to make 4 more flower arrangements, we are going to have a group of 4 people with the bamboo sticks on one side of the stage, who will follow and hide Betty(myself) and Ui(Liam) and then the other group of 4 on the other side of the stage with Dullfeet(Yunusa) and Givola(Sophie)
We have not decided whether to do this on the staging or on the floor, but I think doing this on the floor will be a lot better as the staging we have made is quite restricting for this movement piece as there is a lot of walking and changing direction, so doing this on the floor will allow everyone to be more free and open.
The choreography is very simple, as we did not want to take the effect away from the rhymes the characters say in canon, as this is a clever part of the play and we want the audience to pay attention to what the characters are saying, rather than to focus on the movement of the flowers.
The choreography is simply the 4 people holding the sticks will follow the 2 characters and will trap them after they have said their last rhyming line. For example, Givola and Dullfeet are first to begin the rhyming and they end on "They say the wicked don't like flowers" and when Dulfeet says this line, the flowers will trap the two characters and they will be hidden from the audience, so the flower groups are forming a wall around the 2 characters. And then the same will happen in the next rhyming verse, which is myself and Liam. There are 8 disappearing /appearing stage directions in this scene, so the flower movements will happen 8 times, and will be the same every time. It looks really effective, and with more rehearsals it will look really sharp. We also wanted the movements to be flowing and soft, as we want to portray flowers. At first the movements were looking very robotic and stiff, but this does not portray flowers,although we are using Brechtian techniques, I still feel that the flower movements should be very soft and light, as it is contrasting with the dark meaning of the scene, which is Ui and Givola trying to separate and manipulate Betty and Dullfeet. We mainly focused on this choreography today,rather than the characters in the scene but we did rehearse this scene twice, but we wanted to perfect the choreography first so that when we come to properly rehearse this scene, all the actors will know exactly what is happening and how the blocking is going to work out. I think this scene will look really nice and creative, as the flowers are all different colours and we want to have the lighting a pinky/red colour to represent the flowers and the "soft" feeling of the flower shop, when really Givola's flower shop is dark and represents something much more sinister, it is a cover up for himself so he appears to be making an honest living. Today's rehearsals went really well and we were productive, as soon as we came up with the idea of the flowers and the bamboo sticks, Heta and Sophie went to the shops and bought the flowers, and we started to create them as soon as they were back and we also read through scene 14 whilst they were gone. We are keeping to our rehearsal schedule, and we have nearly finished all the scenes, we need to now run the show every week, and work on the transitions and up our epic acting style even more. These are goals I have set for myself, and goals I hope the class will achieve too.
The movement group devising the flower scene, before we created the flower arrangements
We also tried out the seating arrangements for the audience, as we are including VIP seating
which will be on the floor, we are going to try have 4-6 VIP tables, which can seat up to 5 people
In today's lesson at Pelham we ran through the show from the opening scene until scene 7. I have wanted to do a run through for a couple of weeks now and I feel it is important to keep having runs every week now as it will help us to improve the transitions and the scenes rather than doing each scene separately.
The main points of the show which need improving we learned from this run through is that our transitions need working on and that our scenes need to be much more sharp and up beat. We received feedback at the end of our run through and the main points we need to improve on are:
Transitions need to be quicker and sharper
All the acting needs to be bigger and more "epic"
Characterisation needs to go even further(gests of characters)
We all need to be more confident with the epic style acting, and act out to the audience and try not to look at each other when performing, we need to peform to the audience at all times, even if we are having a conversation in character)
I think the feedback we received was really accurate and helpful, and I agreed with the feedback. I feel everyone character's are really coming along, and we all have individual gests for our characters, but we all just need to play around with these gests more, and portray them to the audience. We all need to get into the habit of ALWAYS using gest,we each 3 different gests, which we can alternate between in scenes, I feel even if our characters are not speaking or being active on the stage, we can still use our gests, just because it is not in the stage directions does not mean we cannot do it, I think it will look so much stronger if the characters who are not speaking or moving, still perform their gests to the audience, this way the audience will recognise that this is a very stylised performance right from the start.
The main concern for me are the transitions. I did push for a run through a couple weeks back but it did not happen, and this is why I really wanted to start doing a run through as soon as possible, as this is the time where we can see exactly how the scenes flow, and begin to devise the transitions. I feel getting into all of the scenes was quite slow, and at times I did not even know which scene was next, because we had never spoken about any transitions, so it was a bit messy. But I am glad we did this run through, and although I am not going to be in lesson next Friday, due to a training week in Yorkshire I have to attend in order to continue into my plans to move to South Africa for the Summer, I really hope we do another run through, and when I get back the transitions will be smoother and more sharp. And I will definitely be asking my classmates for updates on the performance whilst I am away.
In today's rehearsal we also started to discuss the theme of our play, which is 1930's Speakeasy. And I volunteered to research into Speakeasy's, and what they looked like, what the themes were, get an idea of the feeling of being inside and what actually went on behind the closed doors of Speakeasy's.
From research I found out that Speakeasy's, where also called "Blind tiger" or "Blind Pig" where an underground ILLEGAL establishment which sound alcohol and cigarettes during the Prohibition era. The prohibtion in the U.S.A began in the 1920's and ended in 1933. After 1933, Speakeasy's quickly vanished and did not really exist anymore, and nowadays, Speakeasy's are a term for a retro style bar or club, as Speakeasy themes are so popular and sort after.
Lower class establishments were named "blind pig or blind tigers" and sold cheaper alcoholic beverages, and were not as nicely decorated inside. Speakeasy's where generally for middle/upper class and would offer more up market alcohol, popular jazz groups, better furnishings and better food. Most Speakeasy's would use an animal as an attraction, and would charge customers to see the animal perform.
When Speakeasy's first came into the U.S.A, they would offer little or no entertainment and simply a few bottles of raw alcohol, normally gin or whiskey, and would attract a few people at a time. But as they became more popular, they developed massively and speakeasy's became much more glamorous and exciting.
Themes of Speakeasy's where very glamorous after they became more popular, and it was usually very dimly lit, with candles and different coloured lampshades for decoration. It was quite basic, but looked glamorous and vibrant. Men and women would dress up for Speakeasy's and it even created its own fashion style, women would wear sparkly beaded dresses, with sheer material and would wear a lot of jewellery and hair pieces, and the men would wear black and white suits with bowler hats and braces.
We came up with ideas in today's lesson about having black or red table cloths to cover the tables we will use for the VIP areas, and to have empty alcohol bottles on the tables with a flower inside, to create the vintage look. And we could have coloured curtains draped over the walls, and it would be nice to have candles just for decoration, as we cannot light them due to health and safety. I think we need different materials to hang around the hall and old style lampshades we can find online or in town, and it will look really nice, as the speakeasy style is quite simple, it just needs to have a lot of character and decoration. The 1930's style Lampshades were very detailed and had fringed tassles and beads, we could probably find lampshades like this in vintage shops in town or in a few of the second hand shops in the laines near thePelham campus. I will share my research with the group and see what they think about the themes and ideas. I think the colours should be golds, pinks(like the lampshade below) blacks, reds and possibly yellows.
In today's lesson we were missing four people so we could not begin to block/rehearse scene 8, which is the court room scene which involves ALL of us, as there are 11 characters and 12 of us as a class.
We did however make the most of this lesson, as now we have finished with our Acting for Camera module, we have Monday's as a rehearsal lesson, which I am so happy about as I really want to start running the performance from the beginning, and sharpening and perfecting the scenes. I feel passionate about this performance, as it is our last ever performance together, and I want it to be the best it can be, and I really feel as a group we have created some great performances over the last 18 months, and this is our last chance to perform together. I feel a lot of pressure recently, as my time at college is coming to an end, and I have to decide what I want to do, and I am torn between a few things. So I just really want to focus on this performance and make sure everyone does as best as they can.
We used this time to be productive and read through the scenes, myself and Jenny cast the rest of the class on Friday in this scene as this had not been done, we made selective choices and we informed the class today. After we read through the scene, we had a big discussion about the political meaning of this scene, what the scene is REALLY saying, and how the characters are reacting in this scene.
Ui is not featured in this scene, yet it is a very strong scene, and very much portrays how Ui has an influence over EVERYONE.
The historical meaning of this scene is all based on the Reichstag fire which took place on February the 27th in 1933. The Reichstag building was where the German parliament sat and the fire that destroyed it has been seen as the one of the most defining moments of the Nazi Party.
Hitler probably wanted the Reichstag to be burned down as it jeopardized his future in the Nazi party, as although the Nazi Party had a place in the building and was the biggest single party in the building, it still did not give Hitler a working majority as the other two largest single parties after the Nazi party were left wing, Social Democrat party and the Communist. Hitler was against these parties, and did not want them getting in the way of his reign to power. New elections had been set for March the 5th 1933. Although it has not been confirmed that Hitler had anything to do with the fire, it is all very suspicious and the Communist party were prime suspects for this, and in the end an innocent man who was captured by the Nazi party Marius van der Lubbe, who was a member of the Communist party, and was charged with Arson. He admitted to it, and was sent to prison, but many believe he did not start the fire, and was being blackmailed by the Nazi party. This fire led to the Nazi's polling only 288 votes, Hitler decided to have the Reichstag building destroyed and rebuilt, by himself, legally by the "Enabling Act 1933"
I feel Hitler and the Nazi party were probably responsible for this fire, as it all seemed very calculated, and Hitler used it to his advantage, and took over the whole building, so it seemed to be very planned from my research.
In this court room scene, it is very CORRUPT,just like the Reichstag fire, and all the characters are corrupt and lying,apart from the Defence Counsel,who seems to be genuine and trying to make the situation better. Even the judge is corrupt, and we explored the idea that we should portray the Judge as one of the other characters who have already been seen, so the audience can see clearly that the judge is NOT really a judge, as Heta is playing the judge, and plays Greenwool in the previous scene, I feel it would be a good idea to have Greenwool acting as the judge. Also the Doctor, who only has one line, we want to be very sinister and creepy, in his voice, body language and facial expressions. As he is poisoning Fish(Van Der Lubbe) very obviously with water.
We want this scene to be disturbing to watch, as all the characters are lying and covering up for Ui and the cauliflower trust,even my character, Dockdaisy. Who has been seen to continuously lie throughout the play, and she will do anything for Givola(Goebbels) who is questioned in this scene by the Defence Counsel.
The next step is to rehearse and block this scene with EVERYONE hopefully in tomorrows lesson so we can really get going with this scene, as it is a quite a long and wordy scene, we need it to be very serious, sharp and dramatic. I want this scene to be intense, just like a court room is.
We also spoke about the staging and how we want the layout to look. I suggested how I feel the Judge should be behind the two blocks we use for Ui's speeches, and should be in the centre of the stage. The defence counsel should be on one side of the stage, and the Prosecutor should be on the other. As all the characters are corrupt in this scene, apart from the Defence we are unsure how to balance the stage, as we want the audience to see the characters separated, but we also need the stage to be balanced, as we cannot have all the characters on one side, and the defence on the other, so I feel we need to play around with this and see what works and what doesn't, and I want to do this for our next rehearsal.
Another important factor of this scene which is shown in the script, is the MUSIC. We found "Chopins funeral march" on youtube and listened to it, it is a very sad, slow and quite dark song, and in the scene it is used as "dance music" for the characters, and it is clear that Brecht is showing how the characters are having a laugh with a serious song, and they are disrespecting the fact that Bowl and Sheet have died, and that the warehouse has been set on fire. It is a song meant for funerals, and they are using it as "dance music"
So we decided that we are going to ask Adam, if he can speed up the tempo of this song, so we can portray this in the scene, the lighting will also flicker off and on throughout this scene, as Hook who is a witness, gets badly beaten up during this scene, and this can only be effective with a blackout, as the court room as not supposed to see this happening,but can clearly hear this through the strange music. I feel this scene is going to be technical as it involves the song being played and stopped a few times,and blackouts and lights up three times. I feel when Hook is being beaten up, we could either have a sound effect of someone being punched and thrown around, or we could all together make these noises, I feel maybe if we made the noises it would be more effective, as we can have the music playing at the same time, and we can make it sound more raw and brutal.
We aswell came up with the idea to have a video of a funeral being played on the projectors throughout this scene, but have corrupt images come up as well, like the Nazi swartz sticker appear on the screens, and photographs of Hitler and his Nazi party. To emphasis how they are trying to destroy and take over everything!
I feel today's lesson was really productive, as we made a clear plan of how we want this scene to be, and we all had a long discussion about the political meaning of this scene, and we want to portray CORRUPTION throughout this scene. I feel we need to tell the four people who were absent from this class, and then begin rehearsing this scene and trying out different idea's and seeing what will work and what will need changing.
Today we filmed Heta and Jenny's scene from Life is sweet by Mike Leigh, the scene was between two twin sisters, Natalie and Nicola who are completely opposite.One is a plumber who is going on a trip to America and the other is a jobless, unhappy, sex addicted bulimic.
The scene is very humorous, but is also very dry and sarcastic. Jenny's character is very sarcastic and quite monotone, and Heta's character is very erratic and jittery.
I feel this scene was really good, I was really impressed with how well both girls have found characterisation and how well the conversation flowed between the two. The timing of the come backs were excellent, and Jenny's line about "Yanking" in America was very funny, because she got the timing spot on.
I really enjoyed watching this scene and I particularly loved how Heta used her facial expressions throughout, she used a very scrunched up face, similar to the actress in the film and changed her voice to suit the character.
I cannot really think of anything they could of done to improve the scene, as the relationship between the characters was really strong, it reminded me of a mother daughter conversation, as Jenny was quite laid back and giving straight answers and Heta kept persisting with silly comments and she had quite a childish manner.
Jenny could of possibly played around with her character more, she could of had a different voice or used her facial expressions to portray how she was feeling, but overall I cannot find a fault with this scene.
I was director for this scene and I really liked the experience, I felt I was a calm and patient director, and everyone always had a job to do. I liked helping Heta and Jenny with their scene and giving my opinion on which camera angles we needed to shoot. I think as a director I am quite laid back but I made sure everything got done. I did not want to be a bossy director, as I wanted to develop a good relationship we everyone. All the class helped out with something and the shoot was really nice and smooth, and was mostly just one take shots, as the setting was simple and we did not need to be moving around with the camera as the actors stayed on the sofa throughout the scene, and the scene was quite short as well.
I learned a lot from this shooting and I am glad I had the opportunity to be the director, as sometimes in class I kind of take a step back and sometimes feel too laid back, so it was nice to be more vocal and present in this lesson.
Today we began to rehearse scene 5 and then we rehearsed scene 7 in our extra rehearsal time. Scene 6 has already been blocked and rehearsed so we jumped straight to scene 7.
I have written about this scene and the progress we have made in my SCENES blog, which contains every scene so far. We had a lot of discussions about Hitler, and how he addressed the public. We watched a few videos of Hitler giving his famous speeches to the Nazi parties and members of the public, and we watched in detail how he uses his arms, hands and facial expressions in his speeches and we want to portray this through Arturo Ui, the speech Max gave today as Ui was very much inspired by these videos of Hitler. If you watch the video of Max and then the one of Hitler speakign about the jews, you can see how Max has incorporated the way Hitler uses gests as part of his speeches, it is very captivating yet dark and disturbing.
I also had an idea today for one of our scenes. I feel it would be effective and powerful to show a video of the Nazi Party marching all together in one of the scenes, probably one of the scenes were Ui is coming into power and is becoming more popular and idolised. These videos are so powerful o watch and they show the Nazi party unifying and just how powerful and passionate they were about Hitler. I thought it was look creative and effective in a scene to have this play in the background(without the music) I feel it is key to incorporate all different types of historical meanings in the scenes, whether it be videos, pictures, signs, gests ect.
In todays Brighton live lesson, our 2nd year class went into a seperate room and had a production meeting about our scenes, and how we wanted to find out the real historical meanings of the scenes, so we can portray this to the audience by using signs and the projector. We want the audience to understand how each scene is relevant to the real life history of Hitlers reign. So we researched together about certain events that happened in the 1930's, which link with the scenes in UI.
For example, Scene 7 connects to the Reich stag fire, which Hitler was responsible for, and we are going to write these simple facts on different signs and use the power point on the projector, so at the end or beginning of each scene we will show this to the audience, and give them enough time to read it, so they can see the links between the play and the history, as this is a political piece of theatre, we want te audience to understand the facts.
Today we were at Pelham creating the stage and trying out different ideas. Our original decision for the staging did not work as we set it out very long, and it just looked like steps and did not look like a stage at all. This idea sounded good on paper, but when we made the stage together we saw that it will not work. We wanted to use the steps idea to incorporate levels, and it actually did work nicely with Scene 1, but with the other scenes it just does not work as it is not wide enough, and it is closed off from the audience as it did not look or feel like a stage, it just looked like steps. The idea we had today was a T shape, so from a birds eye view the legs of the T are where the traditional stage is, and then a long platform moving out to the audience... This idea works so much better and we all sat in the audience to check if the staging looked good and none of the actors were blocking each other and the staging definitely works, so this is the idea we are going to keep. We began to block Scene 4 today which is set at Dogsborough country home, a very grand and wealthy house, the scene involves Dogsborough, Young DB, Roma, Ui, Gaffles & Goodwill. I have gone into detail about this scene and our progress today in my other blog called "scenes" We spent most of the lesson setting up the stage and running the opening dance a lot of times, seeing how it works on our T shaped stage, and we decided to have half of the dancers on the T shape stage and the other half on the main stage. We decided this purely because the having everyone on the T stage was TOO loud and really restricted. As it is not that wide, and to fit 12 dancers on it is risky and it felt restricted to move freely and dance properly. So half of us are on the main stage, including myself. The dance is still the same as we originally choreographed it, but we have changed little things and made it much more sharp and as we kept running it today I feel it is looking much more neater and all of us are in time with each other.
We have changed the section of the dance where we take little steps out towards the audience, and then to the right and left. We have made these changes in order to make the dance look more swing style and to make it easier for everyone to keep in time because before all of us were at different tempos when rehearsing the little steps. So we have simply changed the steps to a slower tempo, moving forward 2 steps, then bringing our arms up high to the right, then to the left, then LOW to the right and low to the left. This video to the left I found on youtube whilst I was researching 1930's dance moves, and the dancers use a lot of similar moves we do in our dance, particularly the Charleston and the way they use their arms and hands throughout. I also found a piece of music by Benny Goodman, called Sing Sing Sing. And I do not think we use this in our performance but I really like it and I think we should include this somewhere in the show! I really like the tempo and how lively the song is, I can definitely see it maybe being played at the end of the show, so it will end on a lively note...or in the background in one of the scenes? I have posted this song on our group page on Facebook and already 2 people from our class have agreed on using this song, so I am happy I found this song! So today's lesson I feel was productive as we finalised our staging arrangements and have made the opening dance work on the stage, and all the scenes will work nicely on this stage. We have a point at the end of the stage where we will have UI stand in most scenes when he has a speech, as we want him to reflect Hitler when he would give speeches, and having UI at the front of our T stage, will look really effective and will portray his power and importance in this play. We tried this out today with Yunis playing Ui in scene 4 when he gives his speech to Dogsborough about needing his help and he becomes very distressed and emotional, and it works so well with the staging, as the audience will see Ui standing tall at the front of the stage, and Dogsborough standing lower on the sides of the staging, looking up at UI looking very frightened and uncomfortable, as I feel this is the scene where Ui's insanity is slowly unravelling. We also tested our the shadow screen we are going to be using in some of the scenes, to portray the characters, mainly Ui. I was really impressed with how good it looks! We set up the flood light behind the stage and the projector, and Heta and Sophie stood behind the projector and made various Gests and movements, and they would get bigger and smaller, it looks really cool, especially when one person looks really big and the other looks really small. This will definitely work when portraying Ui, as it will show his status and how he believes he is bigger than everyone else. I recorded some videos from today's rehearsal of the projector.... I really like this idea and it will work really well in the scenes, I feel using the shadow screen in scene 1b will be a good idea, as this is the first scene Ui is seen, and it is Mine and Jades scene when we are talking about business, and then we spot Ui glaring at us, lurking in the distance with Roma and a bodyguard. So using the shadow screen for this will be a great introduction for Ui and his gangsters, and will emphasis Ui's dark character, and the audience will know that he means business, rather than Ui just walking on stage and lurking in the background, we should see him blown up on the projector, using his gests, and myself and jade can look up at his shadow in curiosity.
In todays lesson we began devising SCENE 3. This I have written about on a different blog called "Scenes" I feel this scene will be very strong and witty after more rehearsals. I liked this scene and I volunteered to play Dockdaisy, who is a drunk, and is sleeping with Givola. We filmed this scene and it is in my other blog, which I have created mainly for scenes, so I can keep updating it as we go through the scenes and complete all the scenes for the show! We also today discussed a symbol we want to portray and Sav drew this on the board. We wanted to incorporate The Cauliflower Trust with the dollar sign $, I think this symbol is a cool idea, and reflects two main factors of this play. Sophie has said she is going to paint this on a canvas and we can use it as a repeating sign throughout the play, and we may take a picture of it and have it on the projector. I like the idea of having sign-age in our play, but I feel we need to mix it up and not just have hand held signs, I like the idea of using the projector for signs as well, as we can use different sound effects, different transitions and it will keep the audience entertained, and it will not become repetitive,as that is never good when watching a performance, to see the same idea over and over again. We were asking ourselves and each other what is the political opinion of the characters in this scene? We came to the decision together that Arturo Ui's main opinion in this scene is to become noticed again, he feels he is losing the interest of the public and he is slowly fading into the background again. And he expresses how "murder" always gets him well noticed in the papers and media, so I feel in this scene he is definitely considering another murder to gain more exposure and power. He wants his reputation and thrives from this, if he does not make an impact in society, he feels he is nothing. At this point, he is not very well known, but is slowly becoming powerful, but in this scene you see his power decreasing, as Ragg is rude and sly to Ui throughout, and does not seem very scared of him. But towards the end of the scene, you see Ui becoming more and more irritated by Ragg and makes him leave, and I want the audience to really feel and see Ui's deep rooted anger in this scene, and Yunis needs to make Ui much more intimidating and over whelming, as Ragg backs away from Ui, becoming frightened and leaves the scene, and this needs to be portrayed. I have watched Oh what a lovely war on the youtube playlist, I have picked the scene I feel uses Brechtian styles. I feel the play on the whole is very Brechtian and the acting is all very Epic. It is not naturalistic at all and the lighting is always very bright. It has a commedia theme to it, especially the opening, it is very grand and big and over the top, which is completely Brechtian, and it is very funny. but I feel some scenes stand out to me the most and these scenes are...
The scene that begins at 17 minutes 50 seconds. It is very Brechtian as the actors are very comical and they are kind of mocking the Germans, using the accents and the diction. The acting is very epic and over the top, and is not naturalistic at all. So this scene is very Brechtian and it works so well, it is witty and quite ridiculous. The characters all have their own gests which are VERY stylised, these gests are used throughout the performance, but in this scene I noticed them particularly. Everything is very sharp and upbeat, and the actors really succeeded in portraying Brecht techniques. Brecht calls this "The quotable gesture" which are stylised moves to sum up the character. It is also very clear to the audience that the characters the actors are playing are NOT real, as they are opposite from Naturalistic characters, and could not possibly be a real life person, this keeps the audience awake and does not allow their minds to wander and to start to believe that the characters are real. The actors do this very well using their gests,facial expressions, voices and interaction with each other.
This blog I have made is purely for ALL the scenes, our progression on blocking and rehearsing and analysing the scenes, including the historical meanings and political opinions.
This is the opening dance which will be played on the projector whilst the audience members are arriving, it is a great way to open the show and really sets the cabaret speakeasy vibe, as the audience will seem to be in a speak easy watching a 1930's dance with 1930's music. It was a great idea by the dancers in the video!
SCENE 1a : Set inside a financial district with five business men. We have 5 blocks set out all over the stage, with the actors on top of the blocks, changing into 3 gests in time with a piece of 1930's swing music we found on YouTube. It is very stylised and sharp, and each Character has 3 gests to portray their characters. The actors in this scene are Jade, Liam, Sav, Jenny and Chloe.
Clark, flake, Caruther, butcher and mulberry.
Scene 1b featuring Sheet(Myself) and Flake(Heta)this scene follows straight from 1a, . This scene shows two businessmen meeting outside the financial district the last scene was just set in. My character, Sheet has been running around all the banks trying to get the cauliflower trust a bank loan and has has no luck. This scene contrasts with 1a as 1a involves a lot of movement from all the characters, they constantly move around the stage and change positions l, whereas in this scene I felt stillness was key, it makes the scene more intense, as it is quite a significant scene as this is where Ui first appears and makes himself known. Me and jade stand opposite each other, with the cloak in the middle of us in a line, representing a bench or a wall. We keep our distance from each other and speak out to the audience, instead of facing each other when we talk.
Scene 1 is representing how Germany was affected by the world crisis. The cauliflower trust is representing the Prussian Junkers. This is a strong opening scene and we need to make this very sharp and snappy, we need to emphasis the importance of this scene and how Germany was affected with poverty during this time. This scene has changed now, as Heta is playing Flake as Jade has left the course. This scene is quite simple, is shows my character Sheet, running up to Flake, out of breath and carrying a brief case with white sheets of paper falling out of it. I feel Sheet is very un organised and is not really a gangster like the rest of them, he is a bit all over the place but still has a witty tongue. The blocking of this scene is fairly straight forward, Sheet and Flake just circle each other on the staging, and then Yunusa, Greta and Harry walk past up on the main stage, or behind the shadow, we need to try these both out and see which works. This scene is the first glimpse at Ui as a gangster, so the aim of this scene is for the audience to start to realise who Ui is and what he is about. My character, Sheets ends the scene by saying "And fast, its contagious" which is in reply to Flake talking about Ui and how he has got to be stopped. So this scene shows that Sheet and Flake do not like Ui, and a couple scenes later, Sheet is announced dead! So this shows just how corrupt Ui is, and anyone who he sees and does not like the look of, they get killed.
Scene 2: this scene is set in the back room of Dogsboroughs(Paul Von Hindenburg) tavern(pub) he and his son are together and joined by butcher and flake(who represent the Prussian junkers)
I was absent for this scene as I am ill, but I have caught up on this scene from the class and have watched the scene on YouTube.
It features Harry as Dogsborough, Heta as young Dogsborough and Jade and Chloe as flake and butcher. In this scene Flake and Butcher are trying to persuade Dogsborough to get in on their cauliflower business deal, and at first Dogsborough is hesitant, but in the end he gives in. At the beginning of this scene, Dogsborough and YD are behind the shadow, so it appears that they are in the back room and are washing the cups. Flake and Butcher are on the stage and we created gests for them to perform to the audience to show that they want money and are up to something dodgy. This scene is looking good but it just needs more energy, especially from Heta and Chloe as they are leading this scene as Butcher and Flake, and they need to be even more cheeky and comical. I have not really seen this scene much but from I have seen it has gotten better every time but it just needs more energy!
Scene 3: this scene we have devised today, it is set in a bookies office, and there is a bar at the back, so it is like a dodgy bookies office with a lot of drinking and smoking going on. This scene features myself as Dockdaisy, who is sleeping with Guiseppe Givola, she is quite a rough woman and drinks a lot and is not classy at all. Max, who is playing Ragg, a man who does not like Ui at all and is rude to him, Yunis as Ui, Greta as Roma(Ernesto rohm) Sav as Giri and Liam as Bowl, who is sheets accountant from the cauliflower trust.
This scene is looking good so far and is quite upbeat. My Character is very drunk, sitting on the bar, swaying and swigging alcohol, probably beer. She is sitting at the bar with Ragg, and UI and Roma are at the front of the stage having a conversation about how Ui feels people have forgotten him and he wants to be noticed again, I think he has murder on his mind, and obviously money. Ragg is a news paper reporter from "the star" UI does not like Ragg from the word go and tells him to "go to hell" Roma acts as a peace maker and urges them to stop fighting and is trying to get information out of Ragg. But Ragg is smart and cunning.
The tension between Ragg and Ui in this scene is very clear, and I feel UNis needs to be much more serious and evil in this scene, and Max needs to be a little bit more cautious of Ui, as at the moment Max is playing Ragg as very sly and arrogant, but he needs to tone this down a little and make sure the audience are aware that he is quite nervous around Ui, as he can sense Ui is a serious and disturbed man.
The political significance of this scene is that in real life the nazi party(Ui, Roma, Giri, givola, butcher ect) are threatened with bankruptcy and Hitler is trying to be appointed as chancellor but Paul Von hinder burg will not allow this and this is when Hitler began to dislike him. This scene is looking good so far, we just need to make sure every move has a purpose and not to block each other, as I am sitting on the bar the whole time during this scene, the other actors need to make sure they do not block me, even though I only have 2 lines, I am still acting throughout with my physicality and facial expressions, so it is important that I am seen as well as the other main actors.
Scene 4: Dogsborough's home, Dogsborough, Young DB, Roma, Ui, Gaffles and Goodwill.
We blocked this scene today at Pelham using our new staging plan. This scene begins with Dogsborough and his son in their grand home, in the living room, discussing business and how the happenings in Cicero is affecting Dogsborough. They are talking and the servant who is played by Jenny comes into the lounge and says there is a "Mr Ui" at the door who wants to speak with him. Dogsborough is instantly startled and nervous by this and demands to have him " Thrown out" but as he says this Ui(Yunusa) and Roma(Greta) appear. They walk on from the right hand side stage door, down the steps and onto the floor, staring out into the audience in a very intimidating way, they use their character gests to portray themselves to the audience, and then they walk up the stairs of the thrust, and Ui walks straight up the stairs and into the centre of the thrust, whilst Roma stands slightly behind him, making himself known and making everyone feel very uncomfortable. This scene is powerful, and we see Ui lose himself and become very emotional and almost child like, he throws a tantrum in one of his speeches and repeats the words " ME, ME, ME!!" he is becoming so distressed in this scene, as he is trying to cover himself up and get Dogsborough on his side, but DB is having none of this and threatens to call the police on him. In the stage directions it says " Ui is crying" after he says yet again another monologue, pleading with DB, and then threatening him too. Ui is clearly unstable within his mind and wants everyone on his side, but will not listen to what anyone else has to say, this to me is a sign of insanity, as its either his way or the high way. Yunusa delivered a good performance, especially in one of his ending monologues in this scene, which he is becoming very angry and upset and is threatening DB and claiming DB has "no friends" and the only person who can save him is "Arturo Ui, ME, ME, ME!!" Yunasa was shouting and talking out to the audience, and started jumping on the spot,like a child having a tantrum and was pointing towards his chest saying ME ME ME! I think this looked really strong and passionate, and i feel this scene is coming along really well, it just needs to be sharper and QUICKER! I feel in this play, the come backs and the speech of ALL the characters are very fast, the whole play has a fast pace so I feel we ALL need to be much quicker to hit back, especially Ui as he is the main character. Yunusa needs to be quicker with his queues and act out to the audience more, Harry was absent from this lesson so Max filled in as Dogsborough, but we have told Harry about this scene, and we plan to have a FULL run through, from the prologue/dance right until scene 7, on friday the 15th of may. This was mainly my idea, as I feel if we do not get used to running it, we will not know the transitions, and the play will not be fast paced. If we start to run the play say 1-2 times a week, or even more, then we will all learn our lines quicker, we will get familiar with how the play develops and it is just essential that we do this, and we need to keep all the scenes fresh! I feel if I keep running something over and over I learn it so much more quicker, rather than just rehearsing one scene a day, I feel it is more productive for us as a group to run the play thoroughly every week.
SCENE 5 Set at city hall, Butcher, Flake, Gaffles, Goodwill, Clark, Mulberry, Caruther, O casey, UI and his bodyguard
We rehearsed this scene today in our lesson and I really like this scene, I feel it is one of the strongest scenes, along with Scene 6,which we also rehearsed and devised today in our extra rehearsal time.
Scene 5 has the whole cast involved, and we have had to cut characters, we have cut Roma, as he only has 2 lines in the whole scene,and Greta wanted to play O'casey, so we made the decision to cut Roma, and this works well and you cannot tell he has been cut, we also have cut out the reporters, as they are not very significant in this scene and we just do not have enough actors to play all these different roles in the same scene,but we had the idea to have newspaper headlines on the projector to represent the reporters lines, so the information is still clear to the audience, but just not in character form. This scene is the revelation of Sheets death, and how everyone begins to question if Ui did murder Sheet, which of course he did. It shows O'casey, who we have chosen to be portrayed as a WOMAN, and not a man. We want to mix it up, and not just have a male heavy cast,and we all decided to cast O'casey as a woman, as the characteristics of the character are quite feminine in a way as O'casey persists and persists with Ui throughout, accusing him and being very deviant and sly. she is trying to get the truth out of him, but he does not break. Also as this is Brechtian, O'casey can be portrayed as a woman, as the play is not naturalistic at all, and in reality in the 1930's a woman would never speak to a man the way O'casey does, having said that my character, Betty, talks back to Ui quite a lot and becomes angry with him after the murder of her husband, so Brecht is portraying woman as strong in this play, although there are only 2 female parts, Dockdaisy and Betty, and now in addition, O'casey.
Ui is interrogated by O'casey in this scene, and he is quick to point the finger at Sheet, which is a cowardly thing to do, as Sheet is dead and is easy to pin all the blame on. Suprisngly, Ui is not rude to O'casey at all in this scene, and remains pretty calm when being verbally fired at by O'casey, which again, makes me see O'casey as a woman, as Ui is usually snappy and threatening to any male character in the play, but not really to female characters.
Ui is alongside his bodyguard throughout this scene, which is played by Max. Max has interpreted the body guard as a "bull dog" he is big, quite stupid looking, and is very loyal to Ui, and shadows his every move in this scene, as he clearly feels Ui needs protection as it could get quite nasty in this scene. Everytime Ui lies in this scene to try and justify his actions to the other characters, and tries to falsely defend himself, Ui nudges the body guard 3 times after he lies, in order to get him to back him up. For example, Ui says "Really? Sheet is dead? I was in Cicero last night so I did not hear about it....Roma was with me!" which is a LIE, because he murdered Sheet, and all the cauliflower trust know this, and so do O'casey and clark. After he says this, the other character snigger with sarcasm, as if to say "Yeah right!" and Ui desperately needs people to believe him, so he nudges the bodyguard, and the bodyguard replies " YEAH" he backs up everything Ui says, probably because he is scared that if he does not Ui will have him killed, and he is a stupid man anyway. Yunusa who is playing Ui in this scene, nudges the bodyguard 3 times,using the rule of 3, and these nudges need to be quicker and have the timing just right, as the reactions were quite slow in todays rehearsal and I feel we all need to BE OFF THE PAGE so we can act to our full abilities and be much more physical, as I find it so restricting having a book in our hands the whole time.
In this scene, O casey's witness, who saw Ui have Sheet murdered, is also suprisingly murdered in this scene too by a machine gun fire! I am playing bowl, and I enter from the back of the stage using the shadow projector, so only my shadow is seen by the audience, and I am standing inside a door frame, we are going to use a mirror frame which was used in Loukassa, to portray the door, and I will mime knocking on the door, as I am O'caseys witness who is just arriving at the venue to give evidence against Ui, this will all be shown on the shadow screen, and suddenly we have a burst of machine gun fire sound effects and I fall dramatically and quite slowly to the floor, so the audience will see I have been shot dead. It is so much more creative doing it this way, rather than simply having me on the stage, and it is very Brechtian too as it keeps the audience guessing and is something new and fresh for them to see, it is also very stylised the way I fall down slowly,and the way most of the characters react to the shooting, which is mayhem on stage as they will be running around frantically, and then Heta, who is playing Goodwill, will drag my dead body onto the stage and horrify everyone, except for UI who is not phased by Bowl's dead body at all, DB is the most shocked by this and orders to be taken home by Gaffles after seeing the horrific site of a corpse. I think we should make this really disturbing, I don't want it to be comical, I want it to disturb the audience and look really gruesome, I could cover myself in fake blood and make my body completely rigid, and keep my eyes open, which always looks more disturbing than having eyes closed when acting as a corpse.
This scene is strong,but I feel the reactions need to be much more sharper and it needs to be more intense, the intensity should be building up to Bowls' death and then have the aftermath when I am dragged in, with the characters going wild and DB looking as if he is going to pass out. I want to run this scene again tomorrow, as I really like it and I feel with more rehearsing and character research, it will be very strong.
SCENE 6: Set at a hotel, feauturing UI(Heta), Givola(Sophie), Bodyguards(Liam), and Actor(Max).
I was not present for this rehearsal, but I have been told that it has been devised and rehearsed and it features Heta as Ui, Sophie as Givola, Max as the actor and I am not sure who are playing the body guards. This scene is about how Ui wants to be trained by an actor on how to walk, talk, stand and sit, in order to present himself as a powerful and "friendly" man. He feels he needs professional training in order to gain more exposure and authority. He wants to be noticed for himself, and not noticed for having big bodyguards around him at all times, he wants to present himself as approachable to the public and wants to be free to stand by himself with confidence. But as Ui is a bully, he cannot do this, this is why he needs to be trained by an actor.
I have not watched this scene yet and there has not been a video uploaded of this yet so I cannot really write about it,but when I see the video and see it live I will be able too.
Since further rehearsing this scene I have noticed that it is a very funny scene, and it is a shame I cannot find a video of this because it is one of my favourite scenes! It is light hearted, witty and sharp, and it is refreshing to see some humour in this play as it is so dark and sinister throughout, so this scene changes the dynamics of the play which I like very much. I love the way Ui copies the actor in this scene, and it is so over the top as Ui looks ridiculous trying to walk in a Shakespearian way, and he does not even know who Shakespeare is, which emphasises on how un educated he is, which is a weakness for him. This is the scene where the audience get to see how Ui is vulnerable in some ways, and wants to be trained in acting so he can gain more followers and become a better public speaker, so it portrays Ui as a weaker man in this scene, although he still remains quite assertive, you see him following someone else around, as opposed to him being the one followed around.
The main political opinion of this scene, in my own opinion is the RISE of Hitler, this is showing how he WANTS to be in control and is taking his position very seriously, he has hired an actor to train him. This shows that he wants to be taken seriously, and is willing to learn new things and become more of a performer. It also shows that Hitler/UI was vulnerable, and I believe he was self conscious, and wanted people to like him and to follow him. He craved the feeling of being needed and being in control of thousands of people and this scene is showing the progress Hitler made to become how powerful he was.
SCENE 7:, Set in the cauliflower trust office, featuring UI, Roma, Givola, Giri, DB, Clark, Dockdaisy and Body guards
We ran this scene today for the first time and it involves most of our class. The scene begins with a very powerful speech from Ui,who is played by Max, it is a very long monologue, and UI is ranting about the city hall council and how no one is making a difference and rants about all the crimes being committed, even though, he is suspect to most of them! He is trying to brain wash everyone, and this scene is definitely inspired by one of Hitlers famous speeches when masses of people stand and watch, agreeing with everything he says. We had Max stand right at the front behind the blocks, similar to a court room set up, with the staging he will be at the front of the thrust, and we all watched together Hitler's speeches on youtube, to study his body language and how he uses his hands a lot in his speeches,and Max did this in his monologue, and it was really powerful and interesting to watch and listen to. Ui is very wound up in this scene, and wants everyone to follow him and do as he says, he is sick of the city hall council and certain individuals and wants them all to be put in line.
and follow him.
This scene is really strong as it is showing Ui's slow rise to power, and how everything is falling into place for him, and it shows just how dangerous he is, and how many lives he is ruining and taking. In this scene I am playing Dockdaisy, I am currently an under study for Jade. Dockdaisy in this scene, is disguised as the wife of Bowl, the man I played in the previous scene who was shot dead by one of Ui's gangsters. Dockdaisy is Givola's bit on the side, he is already married with SIX children, and is a womaniser, and Dockdaisy will do anything he wants her to do. And Givola uses Dockdaisy's charm to his advantage, and wants her to portray herself as Bowl's distraught wife, and praise Ui, by lying to everyone in the office about how Ui has been there for her and did not murder her husband. The monologue I give as Dockdaisy, is a complete pack of lies and she slips up on her daughters age, she says she has a 6 year old daughter, and then 5 seconds later says " my 5 year old daughter" this context by Brecht is deliberate, as he wants the audience to recognise Dockdaisy is a fraud. The characterisation I chose for Dockdaisy, is a drunk, sloppy, ditzy, young woman and this is how I continue to play her in this scene. I want the audience to realise who she is, and remember her from the scene when she is propped up on the bar, drunk out of her mind.
I enjoy playing Dockdaisy as she is a silly drunken girl, she is a light hearted character, which completely contrasts with Betty,who is a very grounded and serious woman. Tomorrow I want us to run this scene again, and make a few changes to it. As we spoke about in feedback, we need to make it more sharp. Max' speech is really good, but we need more of a reaction from the characters in the scene, they need to be brainwashed and praise his every word, just like Hitlers follows do in his videos, they are all seen cheering and applauding and "Heiling" to him, like he is some kind of God. And I really want to emphasis this in this scene. We also made the decision to have Hitler's original speeches being played muted on the projector at the same time Max is giving his speech. It will make the scene more historical and clear to the audience that we are conveying Hitler. I said that I think it would be effective to have the same Hitler video being played EVERY TIME Ui makes a speech, whether it be Heta, Yunsa or Max, I feel having the video played every time Ui makes a powerful speech, will keep a pattern flowing in the play, and will create an ambiance for the audience, as even just watching Hitler's movements and facial expressions in these videos is powerful and alarming, let alone listening to him!
I am now officially playing Dockdaisy, and I really enjoy her character. I feel she is fun and very flirtatious, I hope the audience will find her fun and sassy, as I do. This scene has came along way, and is looking very strong. The video below is the most recent run through we have done, and it just shows how well this scene has developed when comparing the two videos. The political opinion of this scene is the corruption of Ui and his gangsters. The whole scene is such a performance from Ui, when really he is manipulating and tricking everyone. My character Dockdaisy, is clearly acting and lying to everyone at the cauliflower trust office, and I am really starting to play with this. I want the audience to blatantly see that my character is lying, and has rehearsed her speech over and over. Dockdaisy is very flirty and smiley in this scene, I think she likes the attention she gets from everyone, including Givola and Ui. She is always slightly tipsy, as seen in Scene 3, she is very drunk, but in this scene I did not think it looked right to play her overly drunk, but I feel always keeping her merry and sassy works. This scene shows how all the bodyguards are corrupt as well and they bully the vegetable dealers into saying that they did not see Giri and his gangsters carrying cans of gasoline in order to start the warehouse fire(REICHSTAG FIRE)
This scene is showing the audience how corrupt they all are, and just how determined Ui is to get everyone on his side.
There is an element of comedy in this scene, which I like as it keeps the play up beat and refreshing for the audience. Heta is playing one of the body guards, and we have characterised all the body guards in the same way. They are all very stupid, simple and strong men, they do anything Ui, Givola, Giri and Roma say and they have a very funny dumb voice, and this is played very well by Max,Heta, Yunusa, Liam and Jenny in all the scenes. It adds comedy to the scenes they are in, and they all have the same simple blank facial expression and stand in the same way, with their arms out and always very close to Ui, as they are protecting him.
In this scene, the body guard played by Heta is asked to sing a song in memory of Bowl, and as she steps up to the block to sing, she has a very deep bodyguard voice, and then starts to sing in a high pitched voice, and it is very funny to watch and will make the audience laugh, which is what they need from time to time in this play as it is very dark and serious. We have had a lot of fun creating the body guard characters and I really enjoy watching their characters develop as they are so funny to watch.
SCENE 8: The warehouse fire trial(Reichstag fire) featuring Judge(Heta) Prosecutor(Robin)Defence counsel(Max) Giri(Sav) Givola(Sophie) Dockdaisy(Myself)Hook(Chloe) Doctor(Harry) Fish(Greta)Bodyguard(Yunusa)
This scene involves our whole class and is a very important scene as it is representing the consequences of the Reichstag fire. This scene is SO corrupt as all the characters are lying and manipulating each other, the only character who is not lying, is the defence counsel, who is clearly trying to find out the truth.
This scene has become stronger and stronger every time we have done it and now we have Robin helping us out it has made a difference as we did not have enough people to be in this scene and he has taken the part of the Prosecutor, but in this video I am standing in for Robin as he had to leave at a certain time. This scene is quite technically complicated as it has 7 parts, part A-G. And each part needs a blackout, music being played, which is chopins funeral march, but being edited to be played in a quicker tempo, and each scene has a sign which says "ROUND 1,2, ECT" It is a dark humorous way we want to portray the scene, and Heta who is playing the judge holds these signs up. So when we do the tech runs I feel this scene will be one of the most challenging, as it requires a lot of lighting changes and music queues. The characters in this scene are very strong and I am really enjoying being in this scene, we just need to up the pandemonium in this scene and make it even more lively and intense, but so far I think it is a good strong scene. The characters are all stylised and we have all worked hard on our characterisation.
The judge(Heta) is VERY sinsiter, and Heta plays him as an older man, who is corrupt and is in on Ui's plan, and is probably not a real judge at all. She has very sinister facial expressions for this character and the way he laughs, I really like the character choice Heta has made for the judge. The defence counsel who is played by Max, is the ONLY genuine character in this scene, he is not in on Ui's plan and is definitely a real defence counsel. He fights for fish and he believes in the law, he has a friendly and honest essence to him, and I feel the audience will warm to him as it is very obvious he is being truthful and wants to do his job properly. The prosecutor is very sarcastic and hard, just like a typical prosecutor you would see in films and TV shows, he does not care about the defendant Fish, and he is very corrupt. Robin plays him very well, he is cool and collected, but panics at the end of the scene when Fish begins to come around from the drugs.
Giri, Givola and Hook are corrupt as always, and Giri becomes VERY angry towards the end of the scene, and I was saying to Sav that she needs to be more angry and build up throughout the scene, when she shouts "SHUT UP" at the defence counsel and the judge, it needs to be a roar of anger, because at the moment it is not quite as powerful as it needs to be, as Giri is always the cool guy throughout the play, but this should really show his dark side coming through. But with more rehearsal this will develop nicely.
My character Dockdaisy is different in this scene, as she does not appear as ditzy and flirtatious as usual, she is very monotone and robotic, as she has again been told exactly what to say, and is still acting as Bowl's wife. I feel playing Dockdaisy differently in this scene will be interesting for the audience to watch, and in my eyes, it is showing how Dockdaisy may be becoming fed up of just being told what to do all the time by Givola and Ui, and that she has become so robotic as all she does is lie. I felt playing her in her drunken flirty way in this scene just did not look or feel right to me, as it is a serious and dark scene, I feel she should appear cold and dead inside, to portray the effect Ui and the gangsters are having on her, as she is only a young woman and to be getting mixed up in all this dark business cannot be good for her mind, so I want to portray this in this scene. After today's rehearsal and watching the video's back, I have decided that when Dockdaisy comes to the stand, I want to make her look confused and over whelmed by the press gallery and everyone in the court room staring up at her, and I want her to look as though she has forgotten what to say because she is under pressure. I feel this will work really well, and will show the audience how she does not really want to be doing this.
SCENE 9: This is a split scene, with 2 scenes happening at the same time, in canon. Featuring a Blood splattered woman(Chloe) and Dogsborough writing a letter in his home(Harry)
This scene is split on the stage, so we have Dogsborough on one side sitting in his chair writing a letter and thinking out loud, Harry has pre recorded this letter, so it looks like the audience can hear into his mind. Harry's voice for Dogsborough has really came along, he now sounds like an elderly man who is on his death bed, and it sounds really effective.
Contrasting to Dogsborough's peaceful and comfortable scene, Chloe's scene with the blood splattered woman, he has been badly injured from a car shooting incident, is screaming and crying on the other side of the stage, crying out to the audience and warning them about Ui. This scene is showing how Ui has affected everyone, he is inside Dogsborough's thoughts and he has ruined a woman's life, by killing her husband, who I think is supposed to be Caruther, as Roma is said to have "shot up" caruthers truck in the next scene.
Harry and Chloe have combined the scenes together, by one character saying a couple of lines, then stopping then the other character says their lines, so it keeps alternating between the two scenes, instead of just having one scene then another. The characters will continue their scenes but just will not talk. So when Dogsborough is talking, the woman will still be crawling on the stage, but will not say anything, in order for the audience to focus on the scenes equally.
This is the only split scene in the whole play, so this scene is important and significant and needs to be sharp. Its more Chloe's responsibility to keep the energy of this scene up, as Harry's is pre recorded, and her performance is live, so she needs to keep the energy flowing and the transitions from Harrys speech into her scene really continuous.
SCENE 10: This is set at the Mammoth hotel, in Ui's suite, it is the first scene where my character, Betty Dullfeet is introduced, and makes quite an impression on Ui. It features Ui(Heta) Givola(Sophie) Giri(Sav) Betty (Myself) Roma(Greta)Clark(Jenny)
This scene is very long, and we have put a lot of time into rehearsing this scene, it is the introduction of my character Betty, and how Ui does not take a liking to her.
It is mainly between Roma and Ui, and shows how Roma does not like Giri or Givola, and Ui is kind of stuck in the middle, because he is close to Roma, but is also close to Givola,not so much Giri.
This scene shows the bond between Roma and Ui, but it also suggests that Ui has second thoughts about Roma, after he has seen Clark and Betty, as they talk about Roma and suggest that he is no good and is causing Ui bad publicity, and after Ui hears that one of his "men" has shot up Caruthers truck, he knows it was Roma, and I feel he changes his mind about Roma and this is why he murders him in the garage where they have planned to meet.
This scene is very long, so Greta and Max need to make sure the energy is maintained and the characters do not do too much "sitting around" as at points in this scene, they are just both sitting on the blocks talking, and it needs to be mixed up, as we do not want the audience becoming bored of this scene. Although their characters are very good and well rehearsed, the blocking I personally feel needs to be slightly changed.
There are elements of comedy in this scene as Roma insults Givolas " gimp" leg and tells him to "go hobble on your gimp leg which you probably stole you clown!!" and we thought it would be funny for Givola to skip off the stage holding his leg to the audience, mocking Roma and Giri to walk off smirking. Even though Roma has both of the character up against the wall at gun point, Givola and Giri are not really scared of Roma, and he definitely appears to be older than both the men, and is probably jealous of both of them because they are growing closer to Ui.
This scene shows Ui in a different way, as he sits down with Roma and talks to him and calls him " my oldest friend" so we want to portray to the audience that Ui does see Roma as his best friend and he trusts him, but this is short lived as Ui learns that Romas actions are becoming destructive and are giving him bad publicity. This scene is roughly about 17-20 minutes long, so it is a very long scene, and it needs too have energy throughout and we need to focus on this in the rehearsals. This scene does not contain sound effects or any lighting changes, so it mainly focuses on the characters and the acting. Contrasting with the next scene which has a lot of sound, lighting and music.
SCENE 11: Set in a garage, late at night. This is the scene where Roma is murdered by Givola and Ui. It features Roma(Greta) Ui(Liam) Givola(Sophie) Inna(Jenny) Short man(Chloe) A gunman(Yunusa)
This scene is I feel one of the strongest scenes so far, we have put a lot of work and effort into this scene, and it is very important as it shows the murder of Roma, how Ui and his men have betrayed him, and it shows to the audience just how ruthless they all are, and they fire their tommy guns a lot in this scene, except for Ui, who does not use guns and leaves the scene after he gives Givola his orders to kill them all. I came up with the idea to use Benny Goodman "Sing sing sing" for Roma's death as it contrasts with the scene, as it is an upbeat and lively song, and you would usually expect sad and moving music for someone's death, but as Brecht liked to mix things up with music I thought why not use this song? And it really works, then I suggested we incorporate the gun sound effects that the group found with the song at the same time, and this really works so I am happy that my idea was liked by the whole group and that is works. It makes the scene more effective, we just need to get the gun shot queues right,which I am sure Adam can do a lot better than me! As my queues in this video were quite slow unfortunately. We also decided to use thunder and rain sound effects at the beginning of this scene, to set the mood and to suggest to the audience that something bad is going to happen in this scene, and rain usually suggests it is night time as well. Rain I feel gives an eerie atmosphere when watching a live show, particularly with thunder, and I found a good sound effect which works nicely with this scene today. This scene, similar to scene 8, is very technical and has different sounds and lighting effects, but with tech rehearsals this scene will be really strong and effective. The general vibe of this scene is very dark and the political view of this scene is the betrayal of Ernst Rohm(Roma) and just how back stabbing and cruel Hitler was. From research I have made about Rohm's death, it shows that Hitler tricked Rohm and asked him to gather his men and meet him for a conference, he then personally arrested Rohm and took him and his men to Stadleheim prison on the 30th of June, research shows that Hitler was hesitant in authorising Rohm's execution, and gave him the option of suicide. This is not shown in Arturo Ui, as it just portrays Ui having Roma murdered in cold blood, but there is more to the story I found from research. Hitlers men gave Rohm a gun and said he could shoot himself, Rohm did not and after 10 minutes of Hitlers men hearing nothing, they came into his cell and shot him in the chest. Hitler wanted Rohm gone, and he had him ERASED from the propaganda film in which Rohm appeared in 1933, and all copies were destroyed.
This scene shows just how extreme Hitler was and how he was ruthless, Rohm was his friend and right hand man for a long time, but Hitler clearly had no problem with having him removed, in order to gain himself more power.
We added in an extra part of this scene today which is significant and humorous. After Givola leaves the scene and Roma is left lying dead on the floor, Giri comes in,whilst the music is still playing, and glances down at Roma and takes his hat. Giri puts the hat on his head, and walks towards the audience and winks and then exits the stage. I think this is a really good way to end the scene, as ending with Roma's dead body is very morbid, and quite cliche, and because Giri always takes the hats of people he murders, we thought it would be a good idea to have Giri sneak onto the stage and steal the hat, even though he did not murder Roma himself, he would probably like to take credit for it, and he has an obsession with hats. I think Giri is quite a poser, he is described by Roma as wearing "silk shirts" so I think Giri likes the finer things in life and he is a very cheeky character which Sav plays really well.
I am really happy with this scene, everyone knows their lines, the music works really well and the characterisation is very strong. Givola character really unravels in this scene, and we see just how evil he really is as he cold heartedly shoots his tommy gun multiple times at Roma and the body guard.
SCENE 12: This scene is set in Givola's flower shop and features a movement piece by actors who are not playing characters in this scene. It features Betty(myself) Ui(Liam) Dullfeet(Yunusa) Givola(Sophie) and Giri(Sav)
In this video for scene 12, I was absent due to being away for my Africa trip in June, but I have caught up with the progress we made for this scene. The other video I have included, was our FIRST rehearsal of this scene, this was before we had the flower ideas, and we just wanted to run it and block it naturally and just improvise to see what worked and what did not. This scene has taken a lot of work with the blocking and the flower arrangements, but now the scene is looking really good, and the movements are smooth, we rehearsed this scene today but did not get a video as everyone is in this scene! It was my first time rehearsing this scene with Yunis, who is playing Mr Dullfeet, my characters husband. I like this scene, and I really like the rhyming part, as it is clever and unique. It is very Brechtian as it is un expected, the audience will not be expecting to hear poetry in this play at all, and I like that this play is full of surprises, and it is not what you would expect at all. This was my first proper run through of this scene, so I had notes before the scene began about the blocking and stage positions so I was ready for the scene. In the beginning of the scene, after Betty and Dullfeet have entered, Ui arrives and we all shake hands, and Givola begins to kiss Betty's hand, which Dullfeet does not like the look of at all, and we decided to have Dullfeet pull back Betty into his arms, protecting her and showing Givola that he cannot do that to his wife, but Dullfeet is very cautious of Ui and Givola, and I feel he is scared of them, but acts tougher in front of his wife, and she comforts him in this scene, as Betty is quite strong and gutsy. I feel the next part of this scene needs to be blocked by me and Sophie, as Ui and Dullfeet have a long conversation between just them, and I found myself just standing next to Yunis not really knowing what to do, and I feel I should not just stand still I should find some movement, so I decided to wander around the flower shop, looking at all the different flowers, which are being held up by the rest of the class at the back of the stage, the form a line, all holding the flower arrangements, so it looks like a wall of flowers. I thought it would be fun to have Givola following Betty around the shop, and every time Betty turns, Givola will look the other way or walk away. It is portraying how Givola is a womaniser, and has eyes for Betty. And how he is trying to sneak around the shop following her without Dullfeet noticing, which I think he should notice at some points. This is why it needs to be blocked, because I feel Dullfeet should keep looking over at Betty and noticing that Givola is creeping around her. But because he is talking to Ui, he is kind of trapped in the conversation and cannot break away. Its all a game to Givola, and at first Betty does not realise, but after he keeps following her around and presenting her with flowers, I think she realises that he is trying it on with her. Which Betty finds disgusting, and I feel she is un nerved by Givola and feels uncomfortable. I think Sophie and I should do this the whole time Ui and Dullfeet are talking, and just before I say "Mr Ui my husbands human too" I should return back to Dullfeets side and link his arm. So for the next rehearsal I want to try block this with Sophie and get the timing right, and also let Yunis know of my idea too, so that he knows to be aware of what is going on around him when he is talking with Ui. This video below is one I found of this scene, using the flower arrangements, but I am absent from this rehearsal, but this shows the basic structure of the flower movements. The flowers act as a wall for the characters, they hide and reveal the four characters. This video was mainly for the flower arrangements and not for the acting, it just shows the movement ideas we had.
SCENE 13:This is the funeral of Ignatius Dullfeet, who has been murdered by Ui and his gangsters. It features Betty(myself) Ui(Heta) Givola(Sophie) Giri(Sav) Mulberry(Liam) A "voice" opens this scene, which I am going to be recording as a voice over, it is supposed to be the voice of a pastor, but we felt it would make sense for me to say this, as I am playing his wife and would be clearer to the audience and have more of a personal effect in the scene. I have now recorded the voice over for the opening speech for the funeral and we have rehearsed this scene quite a few times. I am off script for my lines, but I had my script with me in this scene just in case, I feel I know my lines, but my queues are still quite shaky, so I wanted to have my script with me just to check my queue lines, but I am learning these now and will be completely without script hopefully within the next 1-2 rehearsal days. This scene really shows how distraught Betty is, and how she stands up to Ui,and does not seem so threatened by him. Even though in the end, she does succumb to him, which disappoints me, as I wanted Betty to remain a strong independent character throughout, but it just goes to show how Ui got into everyone's heads, and Betty would clearly rather be alive than dead, seeing as this is what happened to her husband. After receiving notes from this scene, I know what to do to make my performance better, I need to not look to the ground when I am crying/upset, even though this is a natural thing to do, I need to act out to the audience AT ALL TIMES,so I will definitely do this, and cry out to the audience and let them see just how traumatised she is. I have gone more into detail about this on my blog from today(10.06.15) about my feedback and how I want to portray Betty in this scene.
I feel Ui is very sinister in this scene, and he appears to be going insane, he rambles about his child hood and does not really make much sense, this scene is like a build up for the next scene,which shows Ui in his bedroom, having visions and nightmares of dead Roma and becomes very distraught and disturbed. These last scenes are showing how Ui is becoming more and more corrupt and dark, and Heta definitely portrays this in this scene. Ui has no remorse for the murder of Dullfeet, and stands above his coffin, speaking coldly about him and talking badly to Betty. He tries to manipulate Betty in this scene, but she is having none of it and is too angry and upset to even really listen to what he is saying. I like that Betty stands up to Ui and loses her temper with him, as this is not shown in any other scene in the play, this is the first scene where you see another character fighting back at Ui and how he reacts to it. I want to make Betty even stronger in this scene, as she is absolutely distraught at the sudden death of her husband and despises Ui, I really want to Betty to lay into Ui and I think the best way for me to portray this through my acting is to use techniques I like to use when performing, which is to put myself into the characters shoes, how would I feel if it were me? I know I would be fuming and distressed so I want to really go for it on the show nights and portray Betty as a strong female, as the characters are mainly men, I feel I have a responsibility that none of the other cast has, as I am playing the only two female parts, so I feel its my duty to make them both rich characters, with depth to them. I also have been applying "Given circumstances" to my characters, despite the fact that this play is not Stanislavski, I still feel I can use these acting techniques I have learned in order to create deeper characters.
SCENE 14: Set in Ui's bedroom at the Mammoth hotel, this is a short scene and only features Ui, who is asleep and is having a nightmare about Roma, a bodyguard and the voice of Roma. This scene is so eery, as Ui is imagining Roma's voice in his head and is having visions of Roma in his hotel suite. This was the first run through we have done of Act 2, and was the first time I had seen this scene! I felt very un nerved watching it, I thought the music made such an atmosphere in this scene and Heta's facial expressions. The scene is simple, but so effective and adds the dark sinister style to the play. The music I have included in a video below: The music is by Alexey Voytenko and it is a violin solo. It goes so well with the scene and creates the ambiance, and it will definitely make the audience feel uncomfortable, which is what we love doing sometimes! This scene only involves Heta, Chloe, Max and Greta, but I think Greta will record a voice over or will be in the shadow back stage, so her voice can be heard live, but she will only appear in shadow. This scene does not really need any more work, as it is simple staging, but the context is very important and atmospheric. We also want to have red blood dripping from the projector, so the montage team will have to find a video of this. But today I looked on youtube and found this video which could work, but we would have to cut out the beginning text which says "This is blood" and the credits at the end, as this is a trailer for the crime drama "Dexter" I just liked the visual's of the blood and thought this could be a good idea to have on the projector in this scene.
SCENE 15: Set in the financial district, it is an assembly of the vegetable dealers, who are all very angry and upset. Featuring: THE WHOLE CAST This is the last proper scene of the show, and shows how Ui has gained more followers and is influencing all of the Cicero dealers and the Chicago dealers. This scene begins with the vegetables dealers arguing about Ui and what action they should take, they are all clearly scared of Ui and do not want to lose their lives, but they also know that Ui is not a good person and they are wary about joining him. We have divided the stage, one half are the Ciceronian's and the other half are the Chicagoan's. They are all arguing with each other and having a stand off. I am on the Ciceronian's side. I am not in my character of Betty dullfet, but as soon as Givola enters the stage, myself and Jenny leave the Ciceronians and instantly change into Betty and Clark and move up to the stage, I have not done this scene at Pelham yet, but I am assuming the two gangs will be on the floor, and then Givola, Ui and Giri will enter on the thrust, and maybe Jenny and I walk up the stairs to join them. As I stand next to Clark and Givola in this scene. The scene is like a big vote, as Ui gives a speech and Givola and Giri blackmail everyone into putting their hands up for Ui. All of us do, and when we do, we put our hand up in the gest we have used throughout, which is like a "Heil Hitler" pose, which we decided to use in our performance, even though it might receive mixed reviews, we wanted to add this in as the play is a satire of Hitler, and in some ways it is humorous to use this pose, and in others way it is sinister, and that is what we want. This scene, like most of them, include a murder! Robin is playing a vegetable dealer and when it comes to voting time, he asks "Can we just leave?" as Ui and his men have manipulated them all into thinking they have a "free vote" and can chose whether or not to vote, and yes this is true, but if they do not vote for UI, they will be shot. Givola and Giri lead the dealer off the stage, and as he walks away into the audience,Givola shoots him in the back and he falls down dead. And I think it will be really effective to have Robin fall right into the audience and just lay dead on the floor by the audience members tables! It will startle them, but it will create a strong atmosphere for this last scene. We have not tried this yet at Pelham but we definitely should asap. At the end of this scene after we have all raised our hands for Ui, we all go down to the floor on our knees and the four Ui;s are centre stage in a clump together, we each say the names of different cities Ui will take over and when we say them we stand up and raise our hands, as if we are representing the cities. My two cities are "Philadelphia and Boston" This scene contains unison and canon speech from the Ui's and he has a very long speech in this scene, so the four Ui's have split the speech into four so they each have something to say in the ending scene. I feel this is a very strong way to end the show as it shows the Ui's united and strong, and all the cities standing up "requiring protection" from Ui. It will portray to the audience how powerful Ui has become, and how he gaining more and more followers. My character in this scene, disappoints me quite frankly, as Betty has been a strong character throughout, and in this scene she is seen siding with Ui and giving into him. After everything he has done to her, she has as well been manipulated and probably threatened by him. Betty is not her usual strong witty self in this scene, she is weaker and more feeble than usual. I do not like ending the show with my character like this, but I cannot see Betty really believing in what she is saying about Ui, she is only saying it because she has been threatened by him, so I want to show this to the audience that she does not believe in what she is saying, and I want her to look fed up and distressed. EPILOGUE: ALL CAST:This is the final scene of the play, and we have decided to have Sophie perform the speech, as she opens the show, so it makes sense for her to close the show as well, in her MC style character. Although her character dynamics will be different from the opening scene to this scene. As in the opening she is very loud and welcoming, and her performance is very up beat and show girl style. In the epilogue we want her character to be more wise and reflective, we want her to educate the audience about the importance of the play and the meaning of the speech she is delivering. We do not want it to be a show girl style, as it is like the after math of Hitler(Ui) and everything should be calmer and more reflective and peaceful. Although the play ends with Ui becoming more powerful and not him dying, the epilogue portrays clearly to the audience that Hitler(Ui) was not a success in the and and his reign to power was short lived. Sophie will be the only character visible on stage, but I had the idea to use the shadow screen with the rest of us behind it, to create the image of silhouettes all standing and watching, like the people remaining after a war that has ended, to show that society did remain and became united once again.
