Evaluation

What do you think of the overall performance? 

I thought our performance went very well and I had a lot of fun performing it. It was nice to have the other strands watch our performance as we don't often get that opportunity and I think they enjoyed it just as much as the younger audience, who also seemed very engaged and excited with what we were presenting. 

Was it suitable for the target audience?

Although I loved the performance we came up with, I felt it was too complex for three year olds to understand. I think during devising, we forgot how young the audience was and for that reason our story may not have been understood by the audience. Because there was a lot of physical theatre to represent characters, I think scenes such as us in rows pretending to lick envelopes, wouldn't have been understood by the children and therefor they would have lost the story. However some aspects, I expect the children got, for example when the superheroes come and sprinkle us with glitter so that we can dream, was quite an easy message to understand and our animated characters helped that. 

What piece of our show worked best and why?

I think the "I want to be" section at the beggining worked well because it was easy for the audience to see what we were becoming and the use of repetition allowed them to grasp the pattern of that section. It also helped to engage them because we kept changing physically and especailly when we were dinasours, they had lots of different creatures to look at. 

Which devising skills were used to make the peice?

To devise the peice we used a lot of improvisation and also responded to the stimulous. After deciding on the message we wanted to communicate, we were then able to improvise scenes and rhyming dialogue to fit the theme. 

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

I played a toy fairy and an office worker. At the beggining it was important for all the toys to be as vibrant and excitable as possible in order to grab the audiences attention from the very beggining. I adopted a fairy like pose at the beggining and then came to life as we all became different toy characters such as a race car driver. However, during the last character, an astronaut, I was the first person to lose the ability to dream. I became much more shy and I had my shoulders hunched down to show I was sad and almost embarrassed about the fact I had forgotten how to dream. 

In the next section, I was a boring office worker. I sticked with the hunched over posture and had a disinterested look on my face to show I wasn't enjoying the work. I really emphasised my bordom, so it contrasted with my costume. As I was still dressed as a fairy, the message it projected to the audience, was that although I am now a boring adult, deep down I'm still a child that likes to play and I've just lost my imagination and forgotten how to dream. 

What have you learnt about devising?

I have learnt that when devising in big groups, it's easier to split up into smaller groups and develop our ideas seperatly so they can be brought together to make one piece without much more work needed to be done on the different sections. I think if we had come up with the piece as a whole class it would have been less structured, and a lot of peoples ideas wouldnt have been ignored or not heard. I also think improvisation is very important when devising because in my group especially, most of the dialogue we came up with was improvised. This meant they were more punchy and witty because they were just off the top of our heads and I think if we had thought about it too much they would have become less fun and too over thought. Especially for childresn theatre I think it's important for the dialogue we use to be light, simple and easy to understand. 

What could have been developed further and why?

I think our individual characters could have been developed and we could have maybe split half the group into toys and office workers because I think it's easier for children to grasp characters and their stereotypical position in the story. In stories, there is usually a villian and a hero and children have gotten used to that and usually understand that, where as in our story we all became different characters and that may have been confusing for them. Especailly since suddenly we'd gone from excitable toys in a costume to boring adults but still in our costumes. 

Lesson 3

What activities have you done today?

Today we combined all our pieces together to create one performance. After everyone showed their piece to the class, we worked out a storyline and slotted each piece into the right place to create the performance. We the main forcus of our performance would be the adults forgetting how to dream, and a group of superheroes giving them the power of imagination to help them dream again. 

What ideas did your group come up with?

Instead of generating ideas, the lesson was focused on getting our whole piece set out and ready for the show. We adapted everyones piece so they would link together and also gave people individual parts so that everyone said something during the play. 

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

Our idea of Rory saying what he was dreaming about and us becoming the characters in his dream was developed further by having various people pop up about what they dreamed about. For example, Connor would stand on a stall like an excitable child and shout "me me me!", so indicate it was his turn to share his dream with the audience. We'd all rush towards him and gather around his stall which helps our audience know where their focus should be. Connor would say "I want to be" and then a ding would go off at the same time as someone would put a cardboard cut out of a cloud above his head. This would show that he is dreaming and also, because this action is repeated with every person who presents their dream, it gives this section a sort of rhythm and helps it flow because there are similarities. After that Connor would say "a race car driver", and we'd all become race car drivers and move all around the stage to create an excitable atmosphere which would contrast with the next section. 

We also decided on costumes. At the beggining everyone is frozen as a toy and we had to dress up as that toy. I am a fairy so I've decided to wear a pink dress and wings. People who don't have so obvious characters, will wear clashing colours and ridiculous assesories so it will be visually entertaining as we will be dress as exciting as our play will hopefully be. It also shows how even when we are boring adults in the last section of the play, deep down we're still children and have the potential to dream as we are sill dressed that way. 

Why did you reject some of the ideas?

Because this lesson was more focused on creating the structure of the piece rather than coming up with ideas, there was less rejection. However, there was one sequence where in partners we had to create a short sequence of movement which Jake, would then stop and tell us "we can't dream". At the beggining we planned to do this as a whole class, however for a young audience it would be hard to understand such a small burst of energy and how it was siginificant in the piece. So instead, we decided to go into the space two groups at a time where Jake would tell us we can't dream and then we'd melt to the floor so the next set of groups could walk in. This idea of repetition is good for a young audience because it gives them time to process what's going on. 

What techniques are you using? Why is it suited to your audience?

We are using a variety of techniques, including physical theatre, choral speaking and interaction with the audience. Audience interaction is common in childrens theatre because they often lose interest so by getting them involved, it re-engages them and will keep them concentrated for the next section. Choral speaking enphasises the message we are trying to put across because of the volume and having everyone involved.

Lesson 2

What activities did we do today?

At the beginning of the lesson we had a workshop from Frantic Assembly which helped us develop our skills in physical theatre and also helped us work effectively as a class as we spent most of the time working with each other rather than being in separate groups. We spent the rest of the lesson focusing on our pieces and making it clear which section we were presenting, we also had to decide how we would involve the whole class in our piece as we came up with them in smaller groups.

What ideas did your group come up with?

Last lesson my group pretty much finished our piece, but this lesson we added in music as Benji brought in the guitar and we decided what kind of music would fit with our piece best to enhance it. We also decided that our idea, and Susanna's groups idea were very similar so we merged them together and we had both come up with the idea of a child saying what they dreamed of, and us becoming the characters in their dream.

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

Our piece mainly focused on exploring different things little children dreamed about. So we added and rejected ideas on what characters we could do. We developed this idea by deciding on the atmosphere and also working on our spacing, although adding in the whole class helped because it was much easier to fill the space. The feel of our piece is very energetic and everything is very fast pace, so the changes between characters are swift and no one stops moving so that it contrast nicely with the next section.

What ideas did you reject?

At the beginning we planned to all be lined up behind Rory, who was the little boy speaking, and we'd all come out in canon as these different characters. However this idea is incredibly difficult to carry out with 25 students, so instead we had everyone scattered around as toys in a frozen position. We also adapted our lines so it fitted in with the next section. I say "Houston we have a problem, I've forgotten how to dream", which then brings the mood down as we become adults.

What performance skills are you using? Why are they suitable for your audience?

The main skills we use are music and physical theatre. We thought this would suit our audience because it's easier to understand compared to us speaking throughout the whole piece. Music and physical theatre work well together because it provides a rhythm for the movements and is another way of communicating the message of our piece without speaking.

An awesome book

I really loved how imaginative the book was and how creative the illustrations were. I think the simplicity of the book and how it only had a few words on each page made it more effective because you were getting a lot of information from the images rather than the text which adds to the creativity of it.

It's a good book for little peoples day because I think this book is a chance to surround children in a completely fantasy world and get their imagination going because nowadays thats less utilised as technology develops and we need to think less for ourselves.

Lesson 1

Devising skills:

The devising skills discussed in the lesson were improvisation, trial and error, discussion and responding to the stimulus. I am most confident discussing ideas for a piece rather than just improvising straight away. I find it easier to create more of a structure for the piece rather than go straight into it, although this can lead to too much time talking and failing to actually get the ideas on their feet. 

Children's theatre:

Childrens theatre is valuble because it can teach them things they dont learn at school such a morals. It also allows the children to express themselves creatively when getting involved in a play. It is much easier to teach and engage children as they are so eager and the lessons they learn through theatre and as a young child will stay with them throughout their lives.

Polka theatre:

The polka theatre is a theatre dedicated to children, where the put on plays for babies to teenagers, allowing them to experience theatre for free. They are a charity theatre, that allow children to read books, play in the playground, aswell as watch plays. At the moment they have a play called Puss in Boots on, which is based on the popular fairytale. Because this theatre only performs to children, they know exactly how to entertain them and keep them interested in the play. This will help us because we can use some of their ideas and incorporate it into our theatre piece to make it more exciting for the children. 

Unicorn Theatre:

At the moment they are showing a variety of children's plays including one called The Polar Bears Gone Wild about two polar bears who go on an adventure of a lifetime. At the unicorn they show plays for people of all ages, which will help us create a piece that is entertaining for the children but also has a message for our peers watching.

Log Questions:

In todays lesson we watched a reading of an awesome book and were given the section we'd be focusing on. We were then put into small groups and had to pick out the different characters, atmospheres and places in the book. Once we did that, we had to create a small piece in responce to it and any dialogue used had to rhyme. 

My group decided to focus on the section where it says some people have forgotten how to dream. We came up with ideas to become different characters that children could dream about. For example, Benji became a spy and started car wheeling around the stage. We also wanted to involve the audience, so we had a song from a popular childrens song and had eric, as the pirate, to sing a line and have the audience sing back to him and copy the actions. We thought this was a good idea because children get bored and distracted easily so by interacting them we're keeping them engaged. 

Some ideas we rejected because they made the piece too complicated. One of them was to have rory as the son and eric as the dad to come in half way through because he's forgotten how to dream. When trying out this idea, we felt it limited the development of the other characters, such as benji as a spy and me as a fairy; and these characters were much more fun for children. Its important to try out and reject ideas because from this idea we decided to keep rory as a little boy who would narate the piece and the rest of us would be different made up characters surrounding him. 

For our piece we are using rhyming and music in order to engage the children. Rhyming the dialogue makes it easier for the children to concentrate because it's more like a song and easy to listen to. Also, our use of a song, which comes from a popular children's show, means the children will feel involved and will be able to interact with us which will stop them from getting bored. We also physicalised a lot of the words being said. So when a character is announced, like an astronaut, we will all become astronauts to make it more visually interesting because obviously not all the children will be able to understand what we're saying.