Developing Upon Lecturer Feedback and Selecting Another Style:
For the start of this week, we had previously gained some feedback from one of our lecturers. She had stated that maybe we should take this game show idea with a more dark and sinister approach to link even more with the stimulus and it could also make it more dramatically pleasing. We had taken into account what she had said over the weekend and did this exact thing for this session. The game show, still titled 'The Bridge', has now turned into a life or death situation. We had decided to get rid of the couple idea we have been using and tried experimenting with just having 4 contestants who don't know each other. Doing it this way allows us to show more about each character and develop relationships whilst on the show. The first
game has now changed to 'Truth or Dare' in which the hosts threaten the contestants with violence and personal questions to make them scared. We did have some positive feedback alongside on certain parts of our piece from before, such as the chair duets, with suggestions on how we could progress further with them.
Now that we were having to work with a more darker and sinister approach towards our game show idea, we all thought that the Physical Theatre style of Steven Berkoff would be of great use. Berkoff's work in theatre is enthralling, grotesque and very unique as it also has use of mime and melodramatic style movement, mostly clockwork. The clockwork style is so unique to this style of theatre that each movement is very static and has no flow. This style also has the ability to break the fourth wall, which means looking out and talking to the audience. This element will be great for the game show in this grotesque style of theatre because it’ll make the audience feel very uncomfortable as they watch more of it and they are certain to remember it post performance via its both dramatic and performance potential. Another great method by Berkoff is the lack of facial expression when talking to the audience as they don't know what the character is feeling resulting in them to look less human. This is something that we’re not going to be following however since we want to have the audience feeling sympathy for our characters on this adaptation of ‘The Bridge’. His work has been described by critics as “The language is usually filthy”, “At its best, this kind of theatre is so powerful, so visceral, that it forces the audience to react”. This is a great description of Berkoff's style because it’s so unseen and it really pushed the barrier of modern theatre and this is why we want to use this style of theatre for ‘The Bridge’. We still also want to use the Physical Theatre style of ‘Frantic Assembly’ also as they use both music and sound to help build the atmosphere of a performance and since we’re doing a game show, this will help tremendously.
Development On The Intro And The First Game: 'Truth Or Dare':
Originally we had an idea about bringing the contestants out from the audience. This was to make it seem as though we might use an audience member as part of our performance but in reality it's just the rest of the group scattered around the audience. However we have changed the opening slightly to have the contestants to open the piece mainly to save time and create more of a story for the contestants and how they came into 'The Bridge'. Also the contestants will have full head masks on to restrict one of their natural senses to feel even more uncomfortable as they don't know where they are. Having this as the opening scene will make it appear more physical and it gives us a chance for the contestants to properly introduce their character in a more physical approach rather than walking on stage naturally.
We have now reached a stage were we have completed what we can for the first game on 'The Bridge': 'Truth or Dare'. This was a great opportunity to work with as it's the main starting point of the story-line we want to later consider using. The main concept of the first game is to allow each of the characters to show a personal weakness about themselves to the audience. For example, the personal question we had chosen to use is: "Who is your first kiss?". The contestants will all answer this question with a different answer which mostly shows off their personality and this reveals to the audience about their character. When asked the question of who my character: Simon had first kissed, he appears to try and show off his more confident side by saying he's kissed many women and he can't remember his first one. This then leads to one of the hosts of 'The Bridge': Theodore to swing his large arm towards Simon upon Crickets command. This then forces Simon to react with him revealing that he'd never kissed anyone ever. This then leaves him in an unhappy state as he cowers up when brought back to his chair.
Brief Character Profiles:
Simon (Portrayed By Me):
My character for this performance is named Simon. He is a very shy and self centred person. He is 23 years old. The reason Simon signed onto 'The Bridge' is because he wanted to improve his overall confidence when talking to other people mostly and to make him feel more comfortable in public situations. He thought that because game shows are meant to be fun and team working that he'd forget all about his lack of confidence and be more used to doing public things post game show. He couldn't be more wrong to think this.
Lauren (Portrayed By Frankie Howard):
Now that we were having to work with a more darker and sinister approach towards our game show idea, we all thought that the Physical Theatre style of Steven Berkoff would be of great use. Berkoff's work in theatre is enthralling, grotesque and very unique as it also has use of mime and melodramatic style movement, mostly clockwork. The clockwork style is so unique to this style of theatre that each movement is very static and has no flow. This style also has the ability to break the fourth wall, which means looking out and talking to the audience. This element will be great for the game show in this grotesque style of theatre because it’ll make the audience feel very uncomfortable as they watch more of it and they are certain to remember it post performance via its both dramatic and performance potential. Another great method by Berkoff is the lack of facial expression when talking to the audience as they don't know what the character is feeling resulting in them to look less human. This is something that we’re not going to be following however since we want to have the audience feeling sympathy for our characters on this adaptation of ‘The Bridge’. His work has been described by critics as “The language is usually filthy”, “At its best, this kind of theatre is so powerful, so visceral, that it forces the audience to react”. This is a great description of Berkoff's style because it’s so unseen and it really pushed the barrier of modern theatre and this is why we want to use this style of theatre for ‘The Bridge’. We still also want to use the Physical Theatre style of ‘Frantic Assembly’ also as they use both music and sound to help build the atmosphere of a performance and since we’re doing a game show, this will help tremendously.
Development On The Intro And The First Game: 'Truth Or Dare':
Originally we had an idea about bringing the contestants out from the audience. This was to make it seem as though we might use an audience member as part of our performance but in reality it's just the rest of the group scattered around the audience. However we have changed the opening slightly to have the contestants to open the piece mainly to save time and create more of a story for the contestants and how they came into 'The Bridge'. Also the contestants will have full head masks on to restrict one of their natural senses to feel even more uncomfortable as they don't know where they are. Having this as the opening scene will make it appear more physical and it gives us a chance for the contestants to properly introduce their character in a more physical approach rather than walking on stage naturally.
We have now reached a stage were we have completed what we can for the first game on 'The Bridge': 'Truth or Dare'. This was a great opportunity to work with as it's the main starting point of the story-line we want to later consider using. The main concept of the first game is to allow each of the characters to show a personal weakness about themselves to the audience. For example, the personal question we had chosen to use is: "Who is your first kiss?". The contestants will all answer this question with a different answer which mostly shows off their personality and this reveals to the audience about their character. When asked the question of who my character: Simon had first kissed, he appears to try and show off his more confident side by saying he's kissed many women and he can't remember his first one. This then leads to one of the hosts of 'The Bridge': Theodore to swing his large arm towards Simon upon Crickets command. This then forces Simon to react with him revealing that he'd never kissed anyone ever. This then leaves him in an unhappy state as he cowers up when brought back to his chair.
Brief Character Profiles:
Simon (Portrayed By Me):
My character for this performance is named Simon. He is a very shy and self centred person. He is 23 years old. The reason Simon signed onto 'The Bridge' is because he wanted to improve his overall confidence when talking to other people mostly and to make him feel more comfortable in public situations. He thought that because game shows are meant to be fun and team working that he'd forget all about his lack of confidence and be more used to doing public things post game show. He couldn't be more wrong to think this.
Lauren (Portrayed By Frankie Howard):
Frankie's character, Lauren, is very hyper and enthusiastic. Lauren is also around the same age as Simon. She loves playing games, the main reason as to why she had signed up for 'The Bridge'.
Charles (Portrayed By Milo Welch):
Milo's character, Charles, is a 19 year old rich snob that thinks he deserves to win 'The Bridge' without having to even do anything. He acts big about himself and annoys the two hosts constantly because of this.
Violet (Portrayed By Sophie Nickerson):
Sophie's character, Violet, is 11 years old. One of the hosts, Cricket, thinks that Violet is too young for his liking to be competing on 'The Bridge' but, instead of getting rid of her, the two hosts act more gentle on her compared to the rest of the characters. She evidently has a very child-like nature not really thinking about what she says and has her cute moments alongside.
Theodore (Portrayed By Jake Colley):
Jake's character, Theodore, is the Co-Presenter of 'The Bridge' and acts as a servant towards Cricket, whom is the main presenter. Theodore is very tall and has a hunchback, he resembles the Stock character of 'The Zanni' from Commedia Dell'Arte. He appears to have some sort of disorder, possibly brain damage because of his more child-like actions even though he's meant to be much older. He has a romantic interest towards Frankie's character, Lauren.
Cricket (Portrayed By Brandon Timson):
Brandon's character, Cricket, is the main presenter of 'The Bridge'. He acts very grotesquely towards every character and beats his partner, Theodore, for doing things wrong. He has very familiar characteristics towards the 'Pantaloon' Stock Character from Commedia Dell'Arte because of this. He has a large scar on his face of unknown origin. Cricket could be in his late 40's-early 50's.
Development/Refinement On The Three Games And Characters:
Before the 'Truth or Dare' game begins, we are going to play a theme tune for 'The Bridge'. here is the intro song we have chosen to use: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dsA-qIUVhRo
Sophie had brought up some of the extra ideas we had from last session. She had wanted to experiment having a way to introduce the contestants in a physical approach. The performance starts with four chairs. The four chairs have all four contestants with full head masks and they are tied up with rope. The theme tune starts and the four contestants try to burst their bubble by doing the 'Stretching The Personal Bubble' exercise. This approach to the darker side of 'The Bridge' is a good way to show how it is very sinister and continues to do so here-after.
After finishing the 'Truth or Dare' game, we then moved onto the Obstacle Course. We originally had four people to make an obstacle using their body and one of the contestants had to go through the obstacle to reach a prize on the other side. To save time, we thought that
instead of all four contestants go through the same obstacle at one time, we instead thought that we
would make one obstacle for each contestant and then transition between each contestant.
This was until I had thought back to a workshop session we all had earlier on in the year where we had used bamboo sticks to create an obstacle to go through. We all thought that this was an even better idea to go along with, so what we did was that we had refined the obstacle course portion of our performance to use bamboo sticks instead of our bodies to create the obstacles. We still used our bodies to create to make it a little more difficult to go through but it's mainly the bamboo sticks. Bamboo sticks are there to make even more interesting shapes resulting in a harder course for the contestant to go through and beat. As you can see in the photo below, the sticks make the image more interesting as it is an imaginative approach to go through rather than using people. Also there is more space for people to be more creative because you can create many more levels and more teamwork is required.
This was until I had thought back to a workshop session we all had earlier on in the year where we had used bamboo sticks to create an obstacle to go through. We all thought that this was an even better idea to go along with, so what we did was that we had refined the obstacle course portion of our performance to use bamboo sticks instead of our bodies to create the obstacles. We still used our bodies to create to make it a little more difficult to go through but it's mainly the bamboo sticks. Bamboo sticks are there to make even more interesting shapes resulting in a harder course for the contestant to go through and beat. As you can see in the photo below, the sticks make the image more interesting as it is an imaginative approach to go through rather than using people. Also there is more space for people to be more creative because you can create many more levels and more teamwork is required.
The third game is very exciting, especially as it ends the whole performance. The aim of the final game is to get out of a rope whilst blindfolded on top of an actual bridge. The
third game brings so much suspense and tension since the audience won't know who lives and who dies. The setting
leads right back to the title of the game: 'The Bridge' and also fits into the stimulus about how Billy Joe jumped off the Talahatchie Bridge. We are going to be adding a projector for
footage. The video will include the contestants being driven to the setting of a bridge so it'll shock the audience and it'll make them think if someone is going to die. Death
is an obvious scare for everyone so this is something that we're going to really try hard to make in terms of dramatic effectiveness.
Now that we have the games mostly sorted, it was time to work on our characters since we want to add in some monologues to have audience interaction and relation. This also goes along with the Physical Theatre style of Steven Berkoff as he always breaks the fourth wall in his productions. We had resulted to use Hot Seating in order to do this. Hot seating is a great
technique to use for getting to know your character because it allows you to think
about what your character would say and how they would show themselves physically. Some members of group, such as Milo, struggled with this task as he wasn't focusing enough and it didn't look believable. Me and Sophie were trying to help each member of the group to remain focused and come out of this session having a believable monologue from each character.
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