'Ode To Billy Joe' By Bobbie Gentry - Week 7 (Performance Week) Entry 11: The Structure, Lighting/Sound Cues, Stage Plan

The Structure Of 'The Bridge':

My group has finally reached a stage where we have now got a complete structure for our devised physical theatre piece which we are going to be showing off to a professional audience later on in the week.

The Structure goes like this:

Introduction/Prologue (When audience sit down)

We use a projection on-stage which contains the 4 contestants' application video for the newly advertised game show 'The Bridge'. This is then ended by a creepy, sinister laugh in the background as the screen is now saying "Welcome to 'The Bridge'.

After the video has finished, the 4 contestants will walk on stage and do the 'Four Corners' physical piece whilst they are mimicking reading a letter. After the 6 moves, they all look up in unison and do a large smile to then start reading the letter which says "You have been accepted onto 'The Bridge'! Please meet at Tallahatchie Avenue, London... We then all repeat the word "today" in canon starting with Milo, me, Frankie then Sophie.

This is then followed by us clapping our hands in the same order in order to fold the letter and put it in our pockets. The order of movement reverts itself by starting with Violet (Sophie) who is now walking towards her chair on-stage, followed by Lauren (Frankie), Simon (Me) then Charles (Milo).

We then execute the 'Four Stages of Kidnapping' physical piece starting in the same order as previous. Once the final person has been reached, the piece should be in unison. When the final person has done 3 of these, everyone should now stop doing the physical piece to then sit down and start screaming.

They then proceed, whilst in blackout, to put the large sack on their heads and also hand-tie themselves to their chairs.

Act 1, Scene 1/Game 1: 'Truth or Dare'

We have our theme tune for 'The Bridge' playing throughout the theatre for around 15-20 seconds, this is then followed by loud bangs at both sides of the audiences' seats. After the theme tune stops, Cricket (Brandon), the main presenter, will jump up next to the audience to try to scare them whilst saying "Hello! And welcome to 'The Bridge'! He then introduces Theodore (Jake), his 'servant'. Cricket (Brandon) explains what 'The Bridge' is about to the audience before introducing the 4 contestants whom have been waiting patiently on-stage. The first introduction starts with Simon (me) followed by Lauren (Frankie), Charles (Milo) and then finally Violet (Sophie).

The first game 'Truth or Dare' is then introduced to the audience. Cricket explains the rules of the game and then calls Simon (me) up to the front of the stage in front of the audience. Simon (me) shows a little hesitation and gets pushed by Theodore (Jake) to enter the physical theatre piece where I fall into Crickets (Brandon) arms to then be pushed back to do the same with Theodore (Jake) and then be thrown back in the air towards Cricket (Brandon).

Cricket (Brandon) then asks Simon (Me) to pick either Truth or Dare, this decision goes for the other contestants also. This enters a little piece where Cricket (Brandon) and Theodore (Jake) repeat the words "Dare" in my ear whilst the other 3 contestants in-between each verse say "Truth". Simon (Me) reaches his decision so this then leads to a mini physical piece where he pushes both Cricket (Brandon) and Theodore (Jake) aside to then follows up by announcing "Truth".

The 'Truth' question that all the contestants must now answer is "Who was your first kiss?". This then enters into another mini physical scene where Simon (Me) is reacting in multiple ways since he's not given enough time to think. After 5 seconds, Cricket (Brandon) then commands Theodore (Jake) to hit Simon (Me) for not complying to the rules of the game, entering the next mini physical piece. This is then followed by Simon (Me) announcing "I've never kissed anyone!" and then he blocks his mouth with his two hands not believing that he just said that. Simon (Me) then gets forcefully pushed back towards his chair. This then leaves Simon (Me) to look more upset than he did previously as he is now doing physical things such as rubbing his face and hugging his legs.

Lauren (Frankie) is the next contestant to go upstage to answer the same question. This enters a physical piece where Cricket (Brandon) does an underarm twirl with Lauren (Frankie) to then push her towards Theodore (Jake) and bend over his arms so she is on her side facing the audience. Nothing more physical happens but Lauren (Frankie) is then brought to depression also since Cricket (Brandon) had brought up the subject of Lauren (Frankie) having a past romantic relationship with her uncle which had turned sour. She is then lead back to her chair by Theodore (Jake) to do similar physical actions as Simon (Me).

Charles (Milo) is up next. Cricket (Brandon) and Charles (Milo) perform their physical piece by pushing each other from side to side as though they were having a fight. Charles (Milo) is then pushed back towards Theodore (Jake) to be paced in a headlock. Cricket (Brandon) then asks the same question to Charles (Milo) to which he replies "It was a man!". He then gets lead back to his chair.

Finally, Violet (Sophie) has her turn to play 'Truth or Dare'. Cricket (Brandon) holds her hand and brings her up-stage to then enter a mini physical piece where Cricket (Brandon) gives her a twirl whilst looking at her dress after she had "Do you like my dress?". The question is once again repeated and Violet (Sophie) replies with "My dog" which excites both Theodore (Jake) and her tremendously. This is followed up by Cricket (Brandon) becoming increasing mad and shouting "THE DOG'S DEAD!". This, evidently, upsets Violet in a way as she is returned to her chair. Cricket (Brandon) then announces that there will be a short advert break and he exits stage left whilst Theodore (Jake) exits stage rights. The scene/game ends with Violet (Sophie) saying "Is my dog really dead?". Lauren (Frankie) and Charles (Milo) then exit the stage to transition to the next scene.

Act 1, Scene 2 (Advert Break): Monologue From Violet (Sophie) And Simon (Me)

During the Advert Break, both Violet (Sophie) and Simon (Me) perform their monologues to the audience. Both characters have their small moments of physical theatre applied within the words that they announce detailing their current emotions, presenting of gestures and facial expressions. This being added contributes towards our own character development which will hopefully result in us getting a higher grade in certain criteria for this assignment.

Act 2, Scene 1/Game 2: 'Obstacle Course'

Cricket (Brandon) enters the stage along with Theodore (Jake) to welcome back the audience and that we'll now be moving onto round 2: the Obstacle Course. Cricket (Brandon) calls out the four contestants who are all holding 1 bamboo stick, except for Simon (Me). Cricket (Brandon) explains the rules for the Obstacle Course before Simon (Me) would try to make his way through the dangerous structure the other contestants had constructed. Theodore (Jake) had also joined in with the contestants to create the obstacles for each contestant. When Simon (Me) starts the game, the main intro theme once again plays.

Whilst Simon (Me) is going through the obstacle created, the contestants are saying "Mis-s" and "Make them fall!". What this means is we're trying to speak out what Cricket (Brandon) and Theodore (Jake) want to happen with the bamboo sticks; they want to have someone lose the game. Each time a contestant manages to reach the end of the obstacle, they would then perform a mini physical piece where they just forcefully push the other contestant away to signify it's thier turn. Charles (Milo) is the last contestant to try and make his way through the obstacle course, but one thing to take note of is that the music has stopped playing. Whilst making his way through, Charles (Milo) becomes trapped by the bamboo sticks with no chance of escape. This is then followed by Cricket (Brandon) coming over towards the trapped contestant to then make the bamboo sticks finally fall. The stage lights turn red, and Charles (Milo) is dragged off stage, by his feet, due to Theodore's order from Cricket (Brandon). When this happens, the other three contestants run away from the stage.

Act 2, Scene 2 (Advert Break 2): Monologue From Lauren (Frankie) And Charles (Milo)

After being dragged off stage, we can hear Charles (Milo) getting beaten by 4 loud stamps. During this transition sequence, Lauren (Frankie) is performing a physical piece before reciting her monologue to the audience. After Lauren (Frankie) has finished her monologue, she would then have her sack on her head once again, along with her hands getting tied. Charles (Milo) appears on-stage at this moment dragging himself across the floor towards his area on the stage where he had sat in the 'Truth or Dare' game, same as Lauren (Frankie). Whilst Charles (Milo) is reciting his monologue, both Simon (Me) and Violet (Sophie) are being directed from backstage by Cricket (Brandon) and Theodore (Jake) to their designated spots with their sacks and hand-ties already on.

Act 3, Scene 1/Game 3: 'The Escape!

We have now reached the final challenge contained on 'The Bridge': The Escape! Once again, Cricket (Brandon) explains the rules of the game before it goews underway. Once we have started, the lights go red once more and we show a countdown timer going down from 45 seconds on the projecter screen. The whole escape sequence is a physical piece for all of the contestants as they are moving in a clockwork fashion trying to get lose from their sacks and hand-ties. The only contestant to not escape, sadly, was Lauren (Frankie). She had now lost the game, and it's time for her to be 'thrown off the bridge'.

Epilogue

Before Lauren (Frankie) is to be thrown off of 'The Bridge', Simon (Me), Violet (Sophie) and Charles (Milo) come back on-stage and start walking towards her in a melodramtic clockwork kind of walk. The audience should notice that the three contestant aren't entirely acting like themselves anymore, they're not as human as they once were. This is because we have included a plot twist: everybody dies at the end of 'The Bridge', the contestants being there are just a figment of Lauren's (Frankie) imagination as she transends into the afterlife due to jumping off a bridge. Once the three contestants reach Lauren (Frankie) in the middle of the stage, they announce to the audience that it was now "Game Over!"

We follow this up with a physical piece where every character forms a staircase for Lauren (Frankie) to ascend so she can jump off the bridge. Once reacing what would be the side wall of the bridge, every other character would hold her, swinging her back and forth to then finally throw her off the bridge. Once she has reached the floor, which evidently kills her, all the other characters will collapse as they are just husks that Cricket (Brandon) had experiemented on to do this one last thing for him since their prize was to be able to throw the losing contestant off of the bridge. The lighting goes on and off after the collapse to then be followed by a "Thank you for watching 'The Bridge'!" messege to appear on the projection screen to which all actors transision into the bowing and audience applauding.

Getting The Lighting/Sound Cues Sorted:

For the final week on this assignment, before our matinee began, we had gone through a tech-rehearsal to plan the lighting and sound cues that we had compiled over half term. Here is a detailed list of what we've conjured up for 'The Bridge':

Action on stage	Lighting state	Action on stage	Cue sound
		Start of show	Start Video "Welcome to the bridge"
End of projection video	General wash bright
Four characters sit on chairs	Black out
		Characters Scream after Black out	Circus for 25 seconds start fading song at 20 seconds
Brandon shouts "Hello"	Side lights up on Brandon and Jake side of audience left and right
Brandon says "The Game Show"	Side lights off General wash up
Brandon says "Truth Or Dare"	Spot 1 up, Spots 2-5 up very dim
Sophie says "Is my dog really dead?"	Spot 1,3,4,5 down Spot 2 lights up
Sophie says "This is just the beginning"	Spot 2 down Spot 5 up
Nathan says "The bridge is not what I thought it would be"	Spot 5 down, General wash dim
Jake says "Live in 3,7,2"	General wash up full
		Brandon says "begin"	Fade in circus, start to fade circus when Milo says "I will give it a go"
Brandon will use a stick and tap on all the other sticks	General Red wash up
Brandon says "Oh no you failed"	General Wash Red fades Spot 4 lights up
Frankie says "Please"	Spot 4 fades Spot 3 lights up
Milo says " I don't care"	Spot 3 fades General bright wash on dim
Jake says "Live in 3,2,1"	General wash bright up full
Brandon says "Begin"	General wash Red up		Start countdown video on projector
Brandon says "You Lose"	General wash Red dims
Milo and Sophie say "Game Over"	General wash red down, General wash blue up
Everyone will say "Off the bridge"	After 5th chant "Off the bridge" Black out
		After Blackout	Thank you video

We had also created a 'Stage Plan' which shows where we are going to use certain lights and also which lights that we're going to be using in the theatre for our performance.

What Have I Been Refining This Week?

Throughout the final week of this devising assignment, I've mainly been working on the refinement of my character development. These are things such as including more emotions, gestures, experessions and giving the audience a real sense of who my character is outside of 'The Bridge' in reality. I tried to show all of these things in the monologue that I perform at the end of the 'Truth or Dare' game because, since my character, Simon, is considered to be shy, he is all by himself in this scene which makes him become who he really is when he's alone which is a person who seems to entertain himself by doing simple real life things. I'd showed my ideas for the monologue to one of my lecturers and she really liked how I had included much more Physical Theatre into the scene. I felt that this was needed since before I was just sitting on the chair not really doing much movement. Doing this also makes the audience connect more with my character and it increases the overall dramatic and performance potential.

Doing this refinement on my own charatcer development really reminded me of the character of Romeo, portrayed by actor Leonardo Di'Caprio, in the 1996 Baz Luhrmann adaptation of 'Romeo and Juliet', created by the famous playwright William Shakespeare. Sometime around the beginning of the film, we can see Romeo's character appearing to be shy as he doesn't talk to anybody and just mopes all day. As the movie goes on, he gets progressively more in tune with several emotions such as happiness, sadness, anger, hate and anxiety. This is some inspiration that I've taken to help improve the development of my character, Simon, whilst performing on 'The Bridge', especially when I'm performing my monologue after the 'Truth or Dare' game in Act 1, Scene 1.

Final Bits Of Feedback:

Before we could show our devised piece to our main professional audience members, we needed to have feedback sessions in order to make our performances top standard.

Here was the final piece of feedback we had recieved for our devised piece before the evening performance:

Group Feedback:

The only real problems we have left which needed to get sorted was to work on the overall pace of the show, especially in the 'Truth or Dare' section of the performance as well as trying to get our timing right with the more physical pieces that we had devised previously.

Individual Feedback:

I needed to work more on the overall pace of my monologue. I did have some great bits of physical theatre within it, but my lecturers felt that this all needed to be placed together instead of doing one thing and then after a few seconds doing something else.

The overall improvement for the gestures and facial expressions used were very good, but they had asked me to try and include a little bit more.

When expressing all of my characters emotions to the audience about the concept of 'The Bridge' overall really made my lecturers like the piece even more.

Conclusion: Did I Think Our Main Performances Were Good?

If I'm going to be completely honest, I thought that our devised piece was the best out of all three groups in this assignment. I don't say this just because it was my group/performance, but because 'The Bridge' itself is so dynamic as it's constantly changing through progression for the entire performance. There was never one slip up and or pause in dialogue. Each member of our group were positive in attitude and vigorous in order to pull off the most physically effective performance. I felt that we really pushed the boundries of physical theatre in our performances because of these reasons and the fact that we had taken creative risks.

The monologues were also a nice touch to include in the performance as they're all so vivid. Each of them appear so lifelike and rich in dramatic value. I found mine to be more impressive as it's more picturesque in a way of me creating a picture, being Simons house, for when he's telling his story on how he had initially found 'The Bridge' in the first place.

How we had mixed the styles of both Steven Berkoff and Frantic Assembly made the piece that much more effective. Having more fluid, naturalistic movements to go alongside the melodramatic clockwork-esque movements really made the dark and sinister side of our performance appear more realistic and thrilling. It's definitely an interesting and striking image to witness.

Going back to why I thought our group had the best performance is due to the fact that we had the biggest applause out of the three. Before the main performances, I had created a blurb for 'The Bridge' which is to let the audience know, in basic sense, what our performance consists of. The only thing I hadn't mentioned in this blurb was the dark and sinister side of the performance as I wanted the audience to not expect it, making the performance even more exciting and dramatic overall.

This is the blurb I had drafted before giving it to my lecturer:

"Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to the first official showing of the new game show called 'The Bridge'. In this game show, our contestants must go through a series of three different games which will challenge them both mentally and physically. We hope you enjoy the performance!"

This was later refined by our lecturer to read:

"Ladies and Gentlemen! Welcome to the first offical broadcast of this new game show.... 'The Bridge'! In this game show, four contestants must compete in a series of three different rounds, which will challenge them both mentally and physically. We hope you are able to sit comfortably..."

If I was a critic giving our show a rating out of 5 stars, I'd give 'The Bridge' 5/5 stars. I give this rating because of everything I've mentioned above. The whole atmosphere of the show was also brilliant, this comes from mainly the sounds we had used but the lighting does make the performance appear more developed and refined to give the piece more meaning.