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.