The Night Circus Reflective Blog :3

During lessons and outside of lessons, myself and Malachi have been dedicated to achieving and executing a strong lift for the perfomance.

We did have lots of trials and tribulations and also changed the lift many times and attempted different ways of achieving the lift but we finally achieved it in the end. What worked well was that we both trusted eachother enough to work on the lift because it can be very dangerous and we needed to remain confident and focused. We also watched videos on youtube of professional contemporary practitioners to gain inspiration of different lifts we could try. The first lift we tried was simple I had to hold on to Malachis leg as he raised my legs and I was hanging upside down. However we wanted to adapt this lift so that we could challenge ourselves.

 To adapt the lift I had to use my core to lift myself up so that I could sit on Malachi’s shoulder. The problem that rose with this was that I struggled to be consistent with lifting myself. I found it challenging to pull myself up quickly. 

Because of this we decided to revert back to the original lift. Some time after, we had to incorporate Edward into our lift because we discovered he hadn’t had anything to do in this time. They tried to lift me and then put me on their shoulders so that I could do a backflip into standing, but again this became a problem because the lift wasn’t balanced, my weight on Malachi and Edward was not equal. As the performance was drawing near we had to make a decision on which lift has proven to be more successful and use that one the in performance.

As a class we had to all help lift Gerromme so that we could create the illusion of him magically being lifted into the air without being seen and disappear without being seen. The first lift was Gerromme being raised to the guy then dropped onto the arms of four people. I was one of the four that had to catch him. The first problem was that the distribution of weight was uneven. The four people were not positioned correctly in a way that would be safe for everyone and Gerromme, to resolve this we decided to kneel down so that we would all be receiving Gerromme at the same level. The issue we discovered with this was the drop was too forceful and didn’t look neat. 

We then changed the lift again so that Gerromme would appear to be flying, as a unit we all helped raise him, move him from one side to the other, whilst extending our bodies.After this we lowered him into the cluster as if he disappeared. This was the most effective lift as it was the safest and was also more appealing. We implemented physical theatre into this lift by using our bodies to create an abnormality, we extenuated our bodies and rocked whilst Gerrome rocked to help translate to the audience what is actually happening and the reason for our movement.

Avenue Q Reflective Blog :4

This rehearsal was our last rehearsal for singing before our performance, the problem was that an exterior production which involved members from our class were also rehearsing for a upcoming performance. This effected the rest of the class as we could not do a full run through of Avenue Q as people were missing from the lesson. What made it worst was that we had to do this rehearsal in front of first years as a little preview, I felt upset about this because it wasn’t showing our best and as the olders in second years you will automatically want to set an example. With that being said the class pulled through, we did the best we could, filling in for the missing people, but we mostly choreographed some movement with Inez and blocked the staging for the songs so that we knew what we were doing and could tell the rest of the class when we saw them next.

What worked well, is it showed that we could work as a team and support eachother so that we didn’t embarrass ourselves. We had to remember that our audience hasn’t seen this production before and therefore would be none the wiser. Avenue Q is playful and fun, so it helped to relax more and just perform even though we knew what was wrong.

The Night Circus- Written Requirements

What is Physical Theatre?

A form of theatre which emphasizes the use of physical movement, as in dance and mime, for expression. - Google.

Physical theatre can sometimes appear as dance. The performers use the physicality of their bodies to immitate settings and props and characters - displaying a storyline to the audience.

Physical theatre skills consists of lifting, carrying, building shape and physical objects. It is often performed in a abstract style using movement in a stylised and representational way.

Practitioners such as DV8 are well known for using physical theatre to explore complex aspects of human relationships and social cultural issues. Their work is often described as existing crossroads where dance, sound and drama meet.

Some forms physical theatre combines dialogue and physical movement, for example a major company in physical theatre , called Frantic Assembly use this technique. They use a substantial  amount of dialogue for the play but the impact and effect is a result of the movement used.

The Night Circus:

The Night Circus is a fantasy novel written in 2011. The author of the american novelist is called Erin Morgenstern. The story tells us of a mystical circus called “Le Cirque des Rêves” (The Circus Of Dreams). This particular Circus appears without notice and leaves without warning. The Circus has fans who refer to themselves as dreamers - they are intrigued by this circus so much as if they are in a trance. However the story truly unfolds when their is civil rivalry within the circus. Two powerful magicians groom two protégés to go head to head on stage to prove the better performer therefore proving the better teacher. The competition continues, with no sign of finishing, no sign of losing and no sign of a winner being determined. The competition begins to effect other performers and spills into peoples personal lives , provoking anger and revenge. No one can leave the circus.

When I think of The Night Circus, I invision couple driving down a long, dark ,deserted road and their car breaks down on the road side. Alongside the road is a deep forest, filled with endless trees. The couple think they’ve noticed a flickering light within this forest and think it’s help. So they venture into the darkness, until they stumble across a balloon - just floating in mid- air, with no owner, but silence. The girl goes to grab the ribbon attached to the balloon and without warning the circus appears in front of them in full effect. However they are the only ones at the circus, their are no other people trying to go to the circus, the gates open. The couple nervously head towards the gates, they were scared but they were so deep into the forest there was no way of finding their car, they prayed this would be the aid they needed. They took a step inside and the gates violently closed behind them. The circus disappears.


How does the movement help to tell the story?

Just like Frantic Assembly, we used dialogue combined with movement. Although the narration told the story, we showed the story. We didn’t allow the audience to think for them selves, we wanted them to engage into this mystical tale. The music helped create an atmosphere in the room, it sets a tone of mood because of it’s eerie effect it tell the audience something daunting is going to happen. The lighting helps with the speed of things. This circus is dark and mysterious, full of hidden secrets, the lightening captures key parts of our movement therefore bringing the darkness to light. It keeps the audience interested as they don’t want to miss anything. It sets a schedule for us as performers to know where we need to be when we need to be in order for the performance to be effective for example : “then comes the light” the light is cued and we immediately raise our heads to look, this is effective because it makes it more believable. We narrated the piece ourselves, we had to use our best scary story telling voice, for me, I tried to keep my voice quiet but clear, because I felt that it implemented the impression that I was telling a secret or a warning of a terrible tale. It also helps the audience to stay concentrated and understand the movement, otherwise it would just be a elaborate piece, with lifts and running and abstract movement they wouldn’t understand.

Avenue Q Reflective Blog : 3

In this lesson, the girls and the boys were split into two and were given the task to independently learn a solo song, one for the boys and one for the girls. The girls were given “ Fine, Fine Line” a song from Avenue Q sang by Kate Monster and the boys were given “Schadenfreude” sang by Gary Coleman and Nicky.

In my opinion a problem I faced was trying to learn the lyrics around noise. A technique for myself is sitting in silence, reading it through line by line and repeating eachline then adding the next to it, so that way its memorised. However a group of girls were learning the same song, using their own techniques and across the room the boys were rehearsing aswell. It through me off a little bit and I began to worry I wouldn’t have learnt the song well enough on time to perform in front of Tom.
How I resolved my problem was by asking to leave the room so I could focus properly.

When it came to performing the song, I was a bit nervous and I think that got the better of me. My feedback was that I started off strong and was getting the words right, but my vocal projection let me down and towards the end of the song I was too quiet. For me, I think that I was probably so focused on getting the words right that I became uncertain of what line was next which led to me being quiet. However I was in the top 3 to be the soloist, which I am proud of. It just shows me next time I have to just go for it and push myself, I have to implement vocal projection and clarity.

The Night Circus Annotations

I thought there'd be no space to annotate on the paper, so I will try to annotate following the pictures above.

Paragraph 1:  A group of the class run on to stage and use the physicality of their bodies to form a tent like shape, indicating the arrival of the circus to the audience, acting as the narrations says.

Paragraph 2: The shape unfolds and encases three people within it, using their bodies to form a wall around them. The people who appear trapped, use their arms and legs to try to push through the wall .The wall represents the trees.

" Black and white.." the rest of the performers enter the stage and create a fence by linking arms. There are three lines, therefore creating three levels.

"colourless world" as an ensemble we lift our heads up staring directly at the audience, as if something has been awoken. 

Paragraph 3: Here a series of actions and movement happen. For example Edward pulls my hair back. This is all fast. I move away from the group and run towards Malachi, he lives me to his neck and turns around enabling me to back flip into standing. The connection here is that we are the distraction. "painted or powdered or treated with some other circus trick."

Paragraph 4: we do movement as an ensemble following word after word. 

Paragraph 5: We turn to stage right in cannon. A clock is created front stage and those that were backstage act as the ticking of the clock and walk around the now formed clock, then exit the stage.

Paragraph 6: Everyone runs back on to stage and stands still, back turned away from the audience. A spotlight falls on Edward as he fidgets. The rest of the group follow the narration creating a series of movement in unison. 

Paragraph 7: Ticket booth is created. "Closed and barred" A gate a formed to represent the circus being closed. 

Paragraph 9:Everyone runs onto the stage to form a cluster.

Paragraph 10: We look up at the sky as a unison, this is so we are on time with the lighting.

Paragraph 11: We form the tent again, Lanya and Ryanne walk between us. The cirus is now open.

Avenue Q: The Origin of Puppetry Part 2

Masked Theatre: A mask hides part or all of the face. ... Commedia dell'arte, a traditional Italian form of physical comedy, uses masks and often they appear in Elizabethan and Restoration comedies, where a character might use one as disguise. In Greek theatre the actors all wore exaggerated masks to communicate character.

In my opinion puppets prove to me most effective and appealing to children, properly between the age of 6 months - 7 yrs old because that are at that age where there minds can be entertained by puppets and even when they are old enough to understand puppets and how they work they still grasp the playful imaginative side to things. In comparison to adults where our brains switch off if it has no relevance to things that appear in our lives.Puppetry is viewed as an ideal vehicle for presenting moral messages about childhood concepts such as bullying. Puppets are also used in play therapy as a safe way for traumatized children to explore their fears.

Types Of Puppets:

A human arm puppet or two-man puppet is the larger puppet controlled by two puppeteers (one for the head and mouth, another for the arms.

 A marotte is a simple puppet featuring only a head or body that is placed on a stick, with some examples featuring one moving arm or a mouth that can open.

Body puppets, also known as carnival puppets, are very large puppets that are used for street spectacles or large-scale theater, such as the live production of “The Lion King.”

Two unusual types of puppetry use bunraku puppets and shadow puppets. Based in Japan, bunraku puppetry is performed with a nearly life-sized wooden puppet that is illuminated with focused light. The puppeteers dress in dark colors but can be indistinctly seen by the audience, lending a shadowy presence to the production. In shadow puppetry, the puppeteer is not seen. Instead, a silhouetted figure is illuminated with a light source, producing shadows that are viewed by the audience.

Avenue Q : The Origin of Puppetry Research.

The History Of Puppetry :

Puppetry is a form of theatre that involves the manipulation of puppets, often resembling a human figure or mythical figure that is controlled by a human - puppeteer. The puppeteer uses movements of their hands, arms, or control devices such as rods or strings to move the body, head, limbs and in some cases the mouth and eyes of the puppet.

Puppetry is artistically expressed through the form of story telling , during the production of the performance the puppeteer may or may not be visible to the audience. When the puppeteer is seen the audience find the performance more comical and feel more included in the performance, because it is already revealed that the puppets are fake and a story is being told, therefore the puppets are just accessories to the story, they work as a translator.

Cultural variations of puppetry developed independently worldwide, in places such as Japan, some particular puppets became international icons in the age of television for example Jim Henson's Muppets.

Punch and Judy is a traditional well-known British puppet show, featuring Mr. Punch and his wife Judy.  The performance consists of a sequence of short scenes, each depicting an interaction between two characters, most typically Mr. Punch and one other character who usually falls victim to Punch's slap stick. These small shows can still be seen at some funfairs. The Punch and Judy show has roots in the 16th-century Italian commedia dell'arte. The figure of Punch is derived from the Neapolitan stock character of Pulcinella. He is a manifestation of the Lord of Misrule and Trickster figures of deep-rooted mythologies. Punch's wife was originally called "Joan.

Puppetry as an art form is believed to have its roots in ancient cultures, more than 3000 years old. It is sometimes claimed that puppets were used in the theatre arts even before the advent of human actors. The earliest puppets probably originated in Egypt, where ivory and clay articulated puppets have been discovered in tombs. Puppets are mentioned in writing as early as 422 B.C.E. In ancient Greece, Aristotle and Plato both made reference to puppetry. -

https://www.theaterseatstore.com/history-of-puppetry

The Vietnamese created the unique tradition of water puppetry, in which wooden puppets appear to walk in waist-high water; this was originally developed hundreds of years ago as a response to the flooding of rice fields.

Contemporary Puppetry:

In the 20th century, puppets began to be used in an experimental way in Europe and the United States, whereby the target audience was aimed solely at adults. In productions spurred by this movement, a performance might combine actors and puppets or use actors as if they were puppets. Some productions also combined puppetry with mask theatre, juxtaposing masked performers, puppets, and other objects inside a minimalist visual world onstage. Today, an event described as puppet theatre may not include rod puppets, marionettes, or hand puppets, depending on the intended message and the audience.

In medieval Italy, marionmmmm