Unit 33 - Original Performance - Deacon Cutt

Spent both lessons rehearsing  In the morning we began by showing me the musical piece had been worked in the week prior in my absence Then worked on adding me in on the drums - came up with using the brushes to create a more jazzy and calm feeling to the music  Afterwards we worked on an action plan as to what we would do in the afternoon  When the afternoon came around we all split up and began working on separate parts of the piece, I in particular worked on creating a flow of physical theatre movements and ideas that could be used when I am performing my monologue from the week prior 

 Today was my second rehearsal with my group as I was away yesterday at an interview for a university.  Began the lesson with an update from the group regarding our characters, the basis of the story and what had been worked on the previous day.  After establishing my character as that of a high ranking member of the British army being tasked with the decision of sending multiple battalions into a battle, we then split off to create material regarding our characters. I worked on a monologue that would establish the decision that my character would be making and his inner monologue regarding it.  after doing this, I then partook in further research surrounding my character by looking into the ranks of the British army within World War 2 and who would have been in charge of making such orders. I landed on making my character a Field Marshall as they were often in charge of making orders and were not necessarily on the front lines. 

Given stimulus: 'Life shrinks or expands in proportion to ones'  My initial response to the stimulus involved the idea of taking all the opportunities that are presented and that life will be full of regret and bitterness if none of these opportunities are ever taken.  My first idea involved an old man sitting in regret with a Nihilistic and bitter view of life due to not taking the opportunities given to him with him then re-living the part of his past where he was given the opportunity that he didn't take.  As a collective we landed on the theme of 'Courage'  We then came up with the idea of setting the piece within World War 2  We then decided to incorporate the idea of basing the piece around an important decision which would have an outcome that would affect many different people.  From there we began creating a moment of physicality as a bench mark surrounding the person with the decision to make. 

  The stimulus this week revolved around the 7 Deadly Sins. I proposed the idea of using elements of the 13th century classic called Dante's Inferno by Dante Aligheri. In particular we began by exploring the premise of the 9 circles of hell and how certain sins were deemed worse than others by the catholic church of the period. We then decided to assign ourselves one of the seven deadly sins, with two of us doubling up due to there being five of us in a group. We then used the order of the 9 circles of hell to decide on how we structure the piece and also found that the idea of presenting the sins as a church congregation coming to confess was interesting and a way that could be engaging for the audience. Each person would come to the front of the group and confess to their sin while the other members would use their physicality to enact it behind them. We would then drag the member back to symbolise their damnation to hell for their sin.

  What music should convey  Time period  Setting  Time of day  Theme or symbols  Influence pace  Character motifs  Narration  Vamps - Sondheim-y  Simple accompaniments