This is our third week of rehearsals so we started to look at what costumes, objects and music we could use and how we could make them abide by the strange making rules. We also talked about montages and how they can be used as an effective strange making device. A montage is a way of showing progress of a certain character and the passing of time. The most famous montage is in the film 'Rocky' when he is training to become a boxer http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ACJ_yn6zXLs. The music provides the montage with the pace and also helps disconnect the audience with their emotions.
Jack gave us all some rules to stick to when devising our piece:
- Have to include music in our piece (singing or audio)
- Must have objects
- Must all have a costume
- We have to find new ways of directly addressing the audience
- Must show the audience that we are actors who are acting
- Must break the fourth wall
- Must include some strange making effects (for example speaking in the third person, voicing stage directions and changing costume on stage)
Jack also asked us to write down, roughly, ten things that might happen in our scene. We came up with these points:
- Entre the space singing the theme tune to Take Me Out
- Maya introducing the show
- I hold up the clap sign
- Maya introduces Danny (Hitler) and we play a song
- Getting to know Hitler and all girls except us three turning off their lights
- Hitler showing off his talent
- Eleanor (girl number one) turning off her light and explaining why
- Hitler questions girls
- Hitler turns off my 'light' and keeps Ellesse's (Anne) on
- Hitler finds out that he chose Anne Frank
We don't have many objects, but the ones we do have we are going to try and make them a key feature. One object we have is the sign I will hold up saying 'Clap Now' and 'Boo Now'. We're thinking of having a microphone for Maya, but instead of using a real one, we were thinking of using a banana, as Brecht believed that the objects should be weird because you are then using the alienation effect, which is very Brechtian. Costume wise, we're keeping it very obvious. Maya will be in all black, Danny will be in a Hitler costume, Ellesse in a period dress and Eleanor and I in normal clothes. I need to bring in a hat of some sort to put on when I become the stage manager holding the sign up. I will be outing this hat on onstage and therefore changing character onstage, thus including the strange making effect and reminding the audience we are actors. Once Eleanor has turned off her light, I then break character and hand the hat and sign over to her, again reminding the audience this is a performance.
We're addressing the audience directly by telling them when to clap and when to boo. To make our piece impactful, we will have them clapping at the shocking parts, for example when Danny says he killed six million Jews, and having them boo and the parts they agree with, such as when Ellesse says Danny should shut down the 'industrial ovens'. We're hoping this will unsettle the audience and therefore make our piece effective and memorable. I think we have broken the fourth wall in our performance as there are no boundaries between us and the audience due to the fact that they almost become part of our piece as they are the 'take me out' audience.
For next week I need to have an established and bold character because at the moment I'm only standing and putting on a hat occasionally. Brecht believed in strong and defined characters, so I will work on creating a typical single, if slightly desperate, female to fit in with the stereotypical perception of women on dating shows.
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