11/4/16:
Tableau work:
We were tasked with making tableau (Freeze frames) sequences based on the relationships between some of the characters. The characters in question were Robert, Grace, Freya, Sarah and Jasmine. I was Grace in my groups. We started off with a family photo where it all seems normal, then to a version of that photo where Robert seems to be pulling grace back and jasmine is laid over me but also being supported by another sister to show that Robert has more of an attachment to Grace rather than his daughters and how the sisters are the ones are the ones who jasmine will have to fall back on. The frames after were about her death and how the family copes after wards such as the distance between the girls and Robert and even Grace's ghost saddened by what's happened.
We then had to get into pairs and then choose five moments of our scene and then show how the character acts and how they are feeling. Me and Chloe did the scene where both Colin and Jasmine get high. The five reality frames were of me opening the door to see Jasmine and I seem slightly taken aback by it, her making herself comfortable and me looking uncomfortable, then her with her legs across me and me looking confused, then her offering me a cigarette and me being reluctant and finally us high with Jasmine being mellow and me being wide eyed. Those were the literal frames but the frames to show how we act internally have differences such as when she comes in I'm more annoyed by her presence in my house. Also I may be more angry during the moments she's comfortable and intrusive and during the high scene I'm more happy about the fact I've done this and am almost child-like happy.
This exercise (Especially the latter one) was great and even quite fun. It's helping to look further into Colin and get a feel of what he is really like. It's helping me discover the essence of the character and the "Attitude" of him. Colin seems very reserved and from the events that happen mainly the scene where he's watching the girls partying on the Internet. A quick may to sum him up is to say that he's a man who wants to live his life to the fullest but just needs a push to get it going. Showing this feeling in the tableau actually helped me to understand him more and want to bring this desire out more. It's helping me showing his feelings and motivations so I might use this as an exercise for all scenes that I'm in whenever I can and even confirmed it for me that Colin is not romantically interested in Jasmine at all since any scene with her he's generally annoyed but admires her free spirit and to a degree her arrogance since she seems quite free and in no way reserved.
Categorising characters:
We also went through the characters today an putting them into categories such as protagonist, antagonist, norm, foil, confidante and the Raisonneur.
Protagonist: Central character that drives the action forward. They can have flaws and be of high status. An ensemble can be a protagonist or focal point of the narrative.The class came to the decision that Freya is the primary protagonist of the play. I actually agree with this since Freya is the one with the most significance to the plot due to the fact she is the sister going through the most turmoil, she is the most developed of the three sisters, seems to have the most stage time, she has the most relevance to the actual earthquake of the play and she has one of the most important decisions. Whether or not to listen to Robert about aborting the baby or whether or not to go to the bridge and jump off. She's the one with seemingly the most conflict and is the one who firmly believes that the titular event will happen.
Antagonist: Is a a character that is the opposite to the protagonist. More specifically they are part of or even caused the conflict and turmoil the protagonist is going through in the story. They can be justified in their actions and have understandable motivations and it's generally believed that having that quality can make them more engaging and more threatening. When discussing this in class most people agreed that Robert is the most likely antagonist and I do agree with it. He is the reason that the arguments towards aborting the baby are in Freya's mind and causing her all the mental distress or at least a strong factor in it. He's also the reason that the expansions and environment pollution over the past 20 years have happened and is the reason why people like tom protest and is responsible for getting us so close to the point of no return.
Foil: Is a character who due to there different traits make those of the protagonist more clear or understandable. A foil can be an enemy or a friend. For example a character who is confident/brave their foil could be cowardly or shy. Usually it is the protagonist a foil is compared to but sometimes characters can be foils to each other so in that regard I think Colin and Jasmine a foils to each other due to the fact that one is so shy and the other is so open it can really make the others trait stick out. But over all I'd say that there are two main foils and they would be Jasmine and Sarah who are foils to Freya. All three sisters are very different and Sarah and Jasmine do have different reactions to the potential earthquake or possible future. The fact that they either just don't care or only deal with it in a somewhat more logical and passive manner helps Freya's more caring yet worrying and unstable view and her questionable mental health seem more significant.
The Norm: Is a character who has no weird or eccentric traits about them. They are just normal and are the element to help the stranger or weirder and eccentric characters stand out. My character Colin is definitely a norm. Besides being a little awkward and debatably pathetic he has noting that stand out too much and doesn't really fit into any of the other archetypes. Although I must say that Colin is not the most normal in the play that would go to Steve. Steve seems the most grounded and normal in terms of his actions, motivations and general attitude. He just wants his wife and baby to be safe and happy and not to have all these horrible things happening around her where as Colin is a little more self centered and wants to improve his life rather than Sarah's.
Confidante: Is a character who the protagonist with speak truthfully to, someone who they trust with this information and a way to convey the truth to the audience. There is no doubt that the person she speaks truthfully to is Peter and since he is a figment of her imagination. He is the character she talks to the most throughout the play. She openly seems to do anything such as drink while she's heavily pregnant right in front of him but also tells him about the earthquake and even asks what his experiences in one was like as if she is trying to mentally prepare herself for the one she is insistent will happen. She also discusses her concerns about the pregnancy with the doctor Tim so you could also how he is also one as well as Peter.
Raisonneur: Is a character who acts as a mouth piece for the play write and a tool for communicating the themes and intentions of the production. This mean they often express the themes verbally. The prime examples in my opinion are Tom and Robert. Both of these characters try to get across that we have ruined the planet or at least are nearly at the point of no return. Tom even remarks in his scene with Sarah and Carter that they only have five years or so and it'll be too late and as of now they have done nothing. It's as if tom is projecting Mike Bartletts dislike of society's laziness and lack of motivation to look after the earth just to indulge in harmful things such as transport to make it more convenient for themselves.
12/4/16:
Today in the class we discussed the themes, ideas and things we things we think of when discussing "Earthquakes in London".
Themes:
Commonly mentioned themes were that of pollution, over population and anti consumerism due to it being commonly mentioned by characters like Robert although the latter theme is more suggested through set design rather than explicitly stated. The themes that came to my mind were that of regret and inevitability. I mentioned before that most of the characters seem to regret something such as Robert having children and possibly taking the bribe, Sarah for how she treats Colin or how she has changed, Freya regrets her pregnancy and bringing her child into the world that she thinks will happen. I thought of inevitability since Freya and Robert are insistent that the earthquake happen no matter what and other characters seem to disagree with the idea that humans are powerless against natures will. Steve especially is someone who states this in a scene with Mrs. Andrews "We build tunnels, we fly, we go to the moon, of course we can beat nature."
Theme task ideas:
We were put into groups and asked to quickly make a small piece (Whether it be a tableau or actual scene) based off of the themes or senses listed from the class. My group chose both "Coffee" and "Black and white television". The idea I suggested was for us to all be quite monotone, bored and empty and then when we drink the coffee that the group wanted to use we would become more colourful, energetic and happy. The idea seemed like a coffee advert and that's exactly what I imagined, as if the ad was saying drinking this coffee will Becky suggested that it should be in a cafe and that we should all be in a queue. It went from side to the other and we got excited. Becky then had the idea of us becoming angry afterwards. We put it in and overall the minute long piece we did seemed quite funny and was well received. I'm not sure if were actually supposed to represent the themes in a style similar to the play or something along these lines but I'm happy with the little piece we did.
Structure discussion:
We had to discuss what kind of plot or narrative structure the play has. Over all I'd say the play follows a non liner time line. If you exclude the prologues of each act then the time line of the play is very linear even including the scene where it jumps to 2525 since that technically is still taking place in the present because it's in Freya imagination. However since they are there and while watching the play you don't know that it's due to the act change it would seem to have a somewhat non linear time line since it cuts back to the past for each act and even begins the play with a scene set forty years or so before the main events of the play. We were asked if we thought the play had a causal narrative and I had no idea what this meant and it was surprisingly hard to find it but from what I could find it seems to be that it's a narrative that focuses on events that cause or lead up to an event with focus on the lead up rather than the event although that still may be included.
14/4/16:
Today we discussed more about the themes present in the play and any ideas regarding the set for it.
Ideas:
The main idea that I had was actually thought of after the session. Karen had said that the set may not be completely full like it says in the script since we may not have the time and space to do it and also the fact that it may unintentionally look very lazy and that since there would most likely be less set we could give environmental clues towards the theme of anti consumerism and even foreshadowing for the earthquake in the play. My idea is for the earthquake. It's something that I think could be quite subtle but somewhat in your face at the same time. My character Colin has a scene where he's looking on the Internet and his search is most likely going to be displayed on the projector so we could have some articles that he scrolls past that predict the earthquake so it could be subliminal to an extent.
Strengths and weaknesses:
Strengths: A strength of today was that we all giving some very good and creative ideas and we overall were considering them with the Brecht/epic theatre style in mind. My idea was to help subtly suggest something through a projection which is a Brechtian devise I believe.
Weaknesses: A weakness of today is that overall we didn't get too much done and haven't progressed to blocking it yet (Which I'm excited about) so I hope that happens soon but what we did today was productive so I have no real fault with today since we were creative and got a fair few idea down.
Research:
Today I decided to do a little more research into the style of Brecht. I looked up elements of the style and key features or what it generally includes. A page I found gave me a detailed list of features and history notes. Brecht hated naturalism in theatre and anything to do with immersing the audience in a way that gets them emotionally invested. He apparently compared dramatic theatre to drugs saying that the effects of them are similar in how they "Pacify" the audience which means any message or effect the play is trying to convey will most likely be dealt with in a passive manner and not thought about. He claimed that audiences "Hung up their brain with their hats" whenever they watch dramatic theatre.
He wanted to use his plays to convey his Marxist beliefs (Marxism being a belief about economic and social structures being as fair as possible and not so that in tips in some people's favours and also not letting economy states change ideologies and give people ideas about society that shouldn't be there with how things actually work, so Marxists are completely against a capitalist structure) and express them and since then others have done so including earthquakes in London to an extent. The style includes the alienation effect or the distancing effect depending on the translation that means the intended result of the style is to make the audience know they are in a theatre watching a play and watching a message being conveyed so it means it may be less subtle and completely destroys the forth wall. Brecht never wanted anyone to feel sorry or to relate to the characters in an emotional way.
The term "Epic theatre" was most likely made up by someone Brecht worked with called Erwin Piscator although it is still debated whether or not the term has been used before. Brecht plays use non linear time lines and scenes were often on their own and not connected to the rest of it, so much so that he even referred to the scenes as "Episodes". The scenes would generally not have/need any relation to each other. He liked to have a focus on presenting society not just characters with individually defined personalities so this means that a character in his play would represent a member of society. An example would be Yvette from "Mother courage and her children" being called "The plays whore" and other roles in general such as I read that a farmer in a brecht play would just be a farmer to represent their role in society or a general view of them. If I had to say what Colin represents right now, I'd say he represents the unemployed, the people who aspire to have more in life and need it to survive both in a literal and metaphorical sense. I feel that if Colin did not split up with Sarah at the end, his mental health wouldn't have stayed the same as some people stuck in bad relationships often go bitter or enter depression.
This weeks research links:
http://www.thedramateacher.com/epic-theatre-conventions/
https://prezi.com/jkgkdekw1xsz/causal-narratives/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4gQ_ti1r4gU
http://www.bbc.co.uk/education/guides/zwmvd2p/revision/2
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