Devising Project Blog 2: Initial Response

Today we were given our groups and stimulus for our physical theatre devising assignment. I was put into a group with Jack A, Jack T, Brad, Katrina, Sam, Daniella, Georgia, Elle and Max and was overall very happy with who I was put with although 3 of them weren't there which admittedly was very annoying and worries me on whether or not they will turn up for most rehearsals. However I hope I'm wrong and they take it seriously but besides them not being there I'm happy with the group. Our stimulus was the song "Let Me Off Uptown" by Roy Eldridge and Anita O'day.


First impressions and thoughts:

We were told we would be listening to the song 3 times. The first time we had to lay on the floor and just listen to it to see what kind of ideas came to mind and then we would write them down as soon as the song finished. The second time we were allowed to move around or dance or tap along, anything we felt like doing at the time really and the third time we had to stand up at least and then see what the song made us feel like doing. After the first time I wrote down the following things:

-Bright colours
-Big city/Las Vegas
-Someone being encouraged to find a different side to them
-Energetic/bombastic movement
-Joy in discovery
-1970's/80's America
-Very dance like
-Makes me want to dance or mime
-Discovering confidence
-Proud of who you are and not hiding

The theme I seemed to think of was not repressing ones self to fit the conventions of society or just finding a side to yourself that you didn't know existed. This was mainly inspired by this line of the song, "If it's rhythm that you feel, then it's nothing to conceal". That just made me feel like she was talking about  "Roy" not holding back or that he should be who he wants to be and not care what anyone thinks. The theme also seemed to be supported by the structure of the song itself seeing as the into can be quite subdued and then the climax of the song is more bombastic, energetic and less restrained than the opening. Now this may be a given since it may be the structure of any song to do this as it gets closer to the end but the difference here is the lyrics when Anita asks Roy how he feels and then Roy says "I feel like blowin'" and then she says "Well blow Roy, blow." This seems to suggest that he's either trying to keep him from doing something or hasn't found another side of himself until now and wants to explore it.

The second time we listened to the song I didn't really do much other than sit there and tap along to the music but that's because I felt that if I was the only one to get up I would look silly I just started dancing on my own so I mainly just tapped along or moved to the music but to be honest the second time didn't put much more in my head at all and even the third time barely did anything although it maybe made me believe my initial thoughts on it a little more than I did at first. When we all had to stand up and do whatever we felt I did feel more comfortable and mainly felt like dancing with my girlfriend and didn't care about what people thought and just thought it was fun and I even mimed playing the trumpet during the end. That little experience in my opinion does reinforce my interpretation of the lyrics since we were told not to care about what others though and just do what we felt like after a while some of us did stop caring and just went with our instincts which is what I believe the song may be trying to say or that is at least a subtle theme about it.


Brainstorm and creative ideas:

When my group and I went into a separate room to work in we decided to read each others ideas one at a time and see what the reoccurring themes throughout the work were and one thing people seemed to think of was war or that that was the theme with the most potential in terms of physicality due to that the fighting could be done in a stylised manner and the rest would be done using naturalism in the style of frantic assembly or the that it could have great dramatic potential due to things such as post traumatic stress disorder or flashbacks. It was suggested that mixing the styles would be a nice idea and I completely agree with this especially if we incorporate dreams into the mix then I think it definitely has some potential. I admittedly didn't get to say much today due to that the group seemed to very quickly run with the war idea and that wasn't really what I had in mind and any time I did think of something someone would always talk over me because everyone was admittedly a little too enthusiastic with a lot of interrupting. While that's a good thing and I'm extremely happy that the group has a lot of enthusiasm I am admittedly disappointed that I didn't really get to contribute because I like to and I want to help the group and if I get the chance I think this assignment as a whole could go very well and I'm looking forward to it.


Research:

At the end of the session the groups were asked to research the stimulus and aspects about it such as the singers, background of it, time period and anything that may come in handy with helping us produce a potentially interesting piece. I asked if I should research the time period of the songs release, more specifically racism in 1940's America and the attitudes towards black and white jazz musicians mixing because in the song Anita O'day is talking to Roy Eldridge who is black and she is encouraging him to go up town or to let loose and he wants to. The fact that it's Roy she is talking to seems quite deliberate and seems to be a subtle way of commenting on the racist opinions of the general public at the time. Call it over-analysis but it does seem to make sense to me considering the time period. The reason being that at the time segregation of races was heavily enforced. For example, public transport was available for both white and black people but they had to go on separate buses or any other mode of transport. They claimed that black people were in regard to the American constitution "Equal" but this just turned out to be that they could have a lot of the same things that white people already have, they just couldn't have as much or at the same quality so they were never truly "Equal". This seemed to also conform to public opinion since and since black people at the time were considered inferior it seemed strange and taboo to people that white and black jazz musicians would mix intentionally. This added with the fact that it's a woman and a black man, two types of people heavily discriminated against in this time period it does fit what I think they're trying to get across, that they shouldn't be afraid and should be excepted. Yes if this is true then it is done extremely subtly (If even intentionally done at all) but considering what was going on during the songs release in terms of discrimination against black people and women and the belief that white and blacks shouldn't mix it seems to make a lot of sense to me. It seems to make me think of it even though the song itself may be innocent but just taking things into account it's what comes to mind and I'll tell the group this during our next session to see if we can get any other plot ideas going.




Links:

http://216.168.60.178/causes/default.asp?path=1racism/1racisminthe1940s.asp

http://tuskegeeairmeninthesky.weebly.com/segregation-in-the-1940s.html

http://www.loc.gov/teachers/classroommaterials/connections/jazz/history3.html