18.05.2015

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.