Rehearsal

 

 

Today as a collective we separated the lines through just separating the class into A's and B's and then D's and C's. As a D in the second latter group we gave 2 others a C part to split between themselves, almost as split personalities of the same person. Then we gave a few lines to everyone around a circle as to share the parts equally.

 

We then started to perform the piece working out all the kinks and twists that may occur and found that as a body of people saying lines that only on character is meant to say made it difficult because of the queues and continuing the energy of the person before you whilst also giving it your own flavour. Also because we had to climb onto a box it made the exchange between the next person difficult and so everyone had to be alert at all times in order to be ready and prepared to jump in and say their line whilst also being actively present in the background. However the jumpy queues added to the concept of this adaptation of the script as we found some people false starting and crouched down which allowed levels and a sense of diversity as a collective. The strengths of this gave us more opportunities to be more active in the scene without taking too much way from the other side which were acting slovenly and bored. Moreover another possible hardship we faced as a company was the fact that giving a lot of energy but acting exhaustingly bored was hard to display and so the other group had to try hard to be present and unaware at the same time, whilst also exaggerating this persona.

 

Also as a group we wanted to develop the stories further from what was said about them in the play and so decided to devise short scenes based on some of the news stories. My group was selected to create a piece of theatre based round the refugees at Christmas island. We sectioned our group into mothers, children and immigration officers and then devised a silent scene showing the mothers leaving the children, (including a No, but idea) killing themselves and the soldiers then allowing them to pass through. On receiving feedback as a group we decided to make it clear what story we were presenting, we then discussed the use of labels to differentiate between us. We also wanted to incorporate song into the piece and used silent night as it is reminiscent of family and giving, two themes relevant to the story, and so the soldiers hummed the tune. We placed this scene under a corridor allowing there to be a transition.
 

In the afternoon we developed short scenes that highlighted four of the stories referred to in The Most Horrific:

·         Force feeding in Guantanamo

·         Yarlswood detention centre

·         Refugees on Christmas Island

·         Treatment of gay Ugandans   

Another group developed the Force feeding in Guantanamo and I found that creatively it was incredibly and I enjoyed the sense of censorship and the sounds of the beeping recalled an idea of life machines and the horrible hardship they face being force fed. However as a group to enhance the idea they should just thoroughly time the mouthing to the beeping sound and I found the clear facts introducing the scene made it increasingly more clean.

 

As a group we discussed gestus and possible moment that we could incorporate into it. As a class we conversed about the characters within this scenario and that this media masterminds may be quite snobbish and selfish, and how we could create obvious and externalised moments of this. An idea offered up was that people discussed on the phone in mid conversation or that someone may serve the media bosses coffee, creating an idea of gestus as the status was clearly displayed and made a comment on the present society, and the idea that people will do anything to be heard, even if it isn't regarding their own job specification.

 

In the next rehearsal I think it would be nice to incorporate more of Brechts techniques such as labelling said places or locations possible plaques making it clear on who is what and distancing the characters from the actors and making it glaringly clear to the audience. Also possibly including Spass into this piece of theatre as Brecht realised that whilst laughing we could also be thing in the mean time and so we would be having fun whilst deeply considering the concepts behind it.

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