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within this week, we looked at ideas and the overview of the whole piece. not having a script, we had to explore the ideas as a generalised form. that being; the animals within the piece and exploring the movement of them animals. We explored how the animals would move but in a human way, so how they would/could represent people in real life. their mannerisms, physicality and characteristics were all looked at in the sessions. we also looked into naturalistic meeting. we were put in pairs and made up a scenario involving two characters who would just bump into each other. Kelsey and I were chosen to do it in a naturalistic way, as the other pairs were given a different style to explore; slap-stick, mime, etc.

How do the ideas explored/developed/shaped in this lesson meet the needs of your target audience?

Within this week of our prep we looked into what we needed for this production and what ideas we could initially be exploring in the later weeks. We looked into movement and how we could explore and experiment with different styles of movement which represented each character/animal in the text. We also did some meeting exercises, one consisting of different styles i.e; Greek Tragedy, Slap Stick, Mime and Social Realism. The other consisting of the meeting between the characters; Toad and Badger, Ratty and Mole. We were not yet cast as our characters so it was good to experiment and understand each character we got to play through these lessons. We soon discovered that we could only really represent these characters in a non-naturalistic way as this seemed to be the most interesting and fun to play.

How are the ideas explored/developed this lesson appropriate to the Key Features of Children’s Theatre?

The ideas we chose to look at relate heavily to children's theatre as we wanted to explore some sections of the script in a physical way, making sure to be light and bouncy and also act more childish with the text. We didn't want to take these sections so serious as this was also a small bit of exploration for us, so to see how the characters behave and have our own interpretation was very important in this stage. With this, we focused on our physicality and characterisations of the animals in the text, being more exaggerated and trying to be consistent with our larger movements as well as experimenting with our voice. We made sure to have our voice fit the character we were playing, we had to have the same energy level as our physicality otherwise it wouldn't have worked for our interpretations.

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30/04/18
During our Exploration week we looked into movements of animals and how this could affect our character's style of movement and overall attitude of them. This helped with experimenting the characters in general as well as exploring little traits they may have that make them distinct to everyone else.

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Meeting of Toad and Ratty/ Development of this scene. 

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Meeting of Toad and Ratty/ Development of this scene. 

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30/04/18
This was when we were not yet cats as our characters, so we were all exploring how we could interpret the roles we were given as well as the physicality of the animals in general again. We were given a section of text in pairs and then were given time to devise our own scene based upon the text, I was given the role of Ratty and had this chance to explore the physicality and movement of this energetic yet cautious character.

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01/05/18
This was a meeting exercise that consisted of different styles. This gave us a chance to see and deduct things that would work for children's theatre, we soon realised we couldn't have a low energy scene at all as this would have lost the interest of the audience. So from this we began to chose our scenes later in the process a bit more wisely as well as how we interpreted them and our character choices.

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Ratty and mole meeting/ different versions

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Ratty and mole meeting/ different versions

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01/05/18
After the meeting exercises we were given sections of the text again to explore them and see what would and wouldn't work for the interaction of these two characters.

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15/05/18
We thought of staging ideas for this scene and how we could play it out, using the same set. we also explor movement and style within this scene.

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this was the 1st run of our battle scene

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this was the 1st run of our battle scene

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16/05/18
we improvised some movements and travelling sections within the scene and tried them while going along in the scene.

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16/05/18

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Throughout the process, we read through many versions of the play, and i watched this incarnation of the story. this broadened my ideas and influenced my performance of Badger

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The cast list for this production.

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These were the log entries for the whole of my process. Logged from the Prep week to the end of the Production week.

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https://www.biography.com/people/kenneth-grahame-21152481

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we had made our own script from bits and pieces of other scripts and key moments from each one. we thought about how much they impacted the scenes and how they linked with each other.
These were the main sources for our script we made.

Kenneth Grahame
The Wind in the Willows (Adapted for the stage by Mike Kenny)

The Wind in the Willows (Adapted for the stage by Alan Bennet)

The Wind in the Willows Script adaptation by John Morley

The Wind in the Willows Script adaptation by Mike Kenny

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while looking at the text we had to devise our scenes, and as it is is for children's theatre we decided it would be better to add a lot more physical theatre. This not only increased the interest of scenes but this also made us think more about our own character's physicality as well, thinking mainly about how they would move in that situation. This added more comedic standing points for example: "The Battle" as I was an older character, I would do some movements over blocks or I would carry someone but then have to catch my breath and calm down fro a minute.
DV8 were a good influence as they have very specific ideas and we have studied them before, so this style in particular was easy to understand

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DV8 Physical Theatre | To Be Straight With You: Christian Protestor

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During this week we had to make a script using a combination of each text from different time periods. This was mainly due to copyrighting issues, but also because we found as we went on reading each text, they all had their own points that seemed more interesting than another interpretation. So this was a good way of understanding the story more and by seeing what would work for our interpretation, also this gave us time to work on what we would want to develop and also what to not carry o with due to it not working for the piece.
This was the week where I experimented with my voice focusing on different ways I could speak, using accents and tones that would be useful to convey the character of Badger. I also looked more into my physicality thinking about traits I could adopt and to make my representation of Badger unique.

How do the ideas explored/developed/shaped in this lesson meet the needs of your target audience?

We explored the ways we could use our physicality more within this week of generation as we were creating ideas for character interpretations as well as the script itself. Within this period we read through options of some of the scenes we would need to add in as they were important and needed. Each time we would read through, we would change who was who and see how the scene would work in that way. We also had discussions about what scenes would work best in what way, thinking about what we could be adding to the scenes to create a much more inviting atmosphere for our target audience. We couldn't have these scenes in particular (The Battle) be too serious even if it is consisting of a "serious" topic. We wanted to have our battle scene silly and jokey as our audience's age is easily influenced byt what they see, so this was a point where we decided we didn't want to actually be fighting and throwing punched or kicks. This is when we thought about using more physical theatre, sticking to lifts, jumps and being more funny with the sequences we wanted to create.

How are the ideas explored/developed this lesson appropriate to the Key Features of Children’s Theatre?

The style we chose to look at for these scenes in particular were made sure to be explored in a lighter and more bouncy way. This is so it could entertain the audience as well as represent what the scene was about. The key feature we chose to focus on was our physicality, this was because we didn't have many lines through the battle scene and had to rely on our physical language, and as all of us were on stage for this scene we couldn't get lost in each others space. But this also led to us not wanting to do too many things as it would have been distracting for the audience and left them confused about the scene, so from this we decided on a movement sequence that consisted of around 3-4 movements with a partner in the battle scene.

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We had 2-3 weeks of exploration, developing ideas we had and adding new ideas in each rehearsal. this was both a finalisation stage and an experimentation stage in our process as this time allowed us to settle on ideas for scenes but also gave us room to expand and create new pieces as we understood the story and text much more clearly. We had a final script by the beginning of the exploration weeks so we could fully focus on our characters intentions and interpretations as well as the scenes in general. This also gave us time to think about our roles for set, props, costume, music and choreography. Thinking about what would work and if we had the correct time frame for this, we got into more of the technical aspect as well as acting as to get a better feel and idea of what we actually wanted for this piece.

How do the ideas explored/developed/shaped in this lesson meet the needs of your target audience?

The ideas we looked into had a heavy involvement of physical theatre, we chose to devise these sections ourselves. This was so we could channel the performance more toward the audience, and as the audience were ages 5-11, this meant we could be as exaggerated as we could be. This makes it more interesting for the audience and draws the whole performance toward a child-like approach. These 2-3 weeks of exploration we had were ideal to help us understand the script as well as our characters, we developed and experimented with many ideas that revolved around our interpretation. Thinking about the way we move and speak, also we looked into direct address toward the audience. We thought this would be fun and would have the audience feel a lot more involved within the piece. For scenes like when Badger is lecturing Toad, we decided that I (Badger) would point out to the children when he says; "you're giving US animals a bad name.." making them feel apart of the production. We also explored this by having the Judge run around the audience when he thinks Toad has escaped the Court Room. This added and element of fun and play for these parts of the text and kept it more interesting.

How are the ideas explored/developed this lesson appropriate to the Key Features of Children’s Theatre?

The ideas we looked into through these weeks heavily consisted of our exploration with our physical representations of our characters. Thinking more into how we could convey a good or an evil character with our body language, having the good characters be more open and inviting with their gestures and expressions. While the evil characters would be more sharp and direct with their gestures and movement throughout the play.
This would highlight the two opposites to the audience clearly and have them understand the text and story much more. Another thing that helped with this was the lighting and sound in the production, changing colour to match the area we were trying to convey as well as the sound adding an atmosphere and slight intensity to the scenes.

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This was the last week of finalisation, we learnt our script, and we would only do strict rehearsals and run throughs of the piece. This was in the space we would be using and with the correct lighting and sound cues, as well as with all the props and costume we had. These were the 2 days we had before the performance and the very last time we could develop minor things within scenes and this was also the last chance we had to look at our characters and develop the smaller details within them.

How do the ideas explored/developed/shaped in this lesson meet the needs of your target audience?

As this was our last week to sort any changes we wanted make in the piece, we prioritised the characterisation of some characters and the transitions throughout the play. This meant focusing on our physicality depleting while walking off stage, we didn't want this to drop as it would've ruined the mood and illusion of these characters on stage. So we kept in mind the fact that the characters would still have a purpose while going off stage, keeping the energy high and intention clear. This would also give more of an enticed feeling to the whole piece as it is clearly not real but gives that feeling to the target audience as if those characters were real to them. We also looked at how we could further our own characterisations, making them either more likeable by the audience or less likeable, giving the correct feeling for each of the characters and scenes.

How are the ideas explored/developed this lesson appropriate to the Key Features of Children’s Theatre?

We made sure to keep thinking about the target audience the whole way through the process but it was specially important to think about now as this would give us the energy and commitment we knew we needed, being the last week until the performance. This was when we made sure to make any last adjustments to our characters and sharpen our interpretations as best as we could. Making sure our projection and articulation was clear for them to understand as well as our movements being clear and our moods throughout being very expressed to help them understand the story better. Also, during the last two days we had during production week, we made sure to run through the piece as many times as possible to make sure we flowed in the transitions and that our interactions with each other on stage was to the best standard possible.

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1st half

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Kelsey: 08/05/18

During the first exploration week we were experimenting with our characters, kelsey noted that my interpretation of Badger was very relaxed through many of the scenes, he didn’t seem as happy throughout and should be more up beat with his attitude. Seems very grumpy, work on making him likeable and add some upward inflections to his speech and physicality when he travels around the space. This would change his intentions and create a much more happier character within the scenes and play in general. As this was very early on in the process, this gave me room to experiment and explore different styles in which I could use my vocals to help boost the character’s nicer qualities. It helped me think more in depth about the intention of Badger and made me understand the importance of having more of lighter end and process during his scenes, even if it is a serious section of the play.

I made sure to add upward inflections where they fitted best so they didn’t seem out of context and I looked into my physicality, making sure to be more agile and almost hop around the space but still keep the posture as to indicate the age of Badger.

Connie:15/05/18

Throughout this process you seem to be quite angry a majority of the time. Maybe try and be more bouncy with your movement, this may add a more jolly and grandfatherly feel to Badger. Also with this you can try and add a softness to your voice that may extend his good nature within the play. Don’t look down all the way through scenes, point your voice outward towards the audience and across the space, you seem very muffled and cannot be understood at times. This feedback was given to me during the early exploration process. This gave me shorter time to experiment and develop upon my character, but I managed to focus on my movement and explore the physicality of my character more. Looking into my movement in particular, being sure to keep back fairly straight which would indicate to me that I would be looking out into the audience, sharing my gestures and interactions with them. This then led me onto having a much more happier representation of Badger.

Kerri: 07/05/18

Use of gestures can be extended, your body language is very minimal and small. Open up your gestures and interact with the audience more when doing so, this will increase the likeability of Badger and accentuate his gentleness. This can also be a good way of not having him seem so angry and fed up in some scenes, this will cause him to seem more shocked and disappointed instead of angry and upset all the time. This was highlighted to me during the second week of exploration, this caused me to look into how my movement was affecting my interpretation of Badger. I didn’t use gestures at all during the first week of the exploration, as I was looking more into how I could use my voice and because I still had my script in hand. This hindered my physicality a large amount. But when I had received this feedback from kerri it made me focus on how I could use my physicality a lot more to help my characterisation of Badger. Thinking more in depth about the traits I could adopt throughout scenes such as giving a certain look or gesture, I started with a nod of the head. This to me was a subtle but clear indication of what Badger is like as it wasn’t too extravagant and but it wasn’t too small. Also, I think it helped signify how he felt about people around him, almost like a signal of respect to his peers.

Bethany: 18/05/18

Vocal range could be explored more, adding upward inflections and being more soft with the pronunciation of certain words. This came across as you being angry or threatening, so be sure to be more agile with the use of your vocals. This will help your character come across as more wise and experienced as he wouldn’t get angry very easily as he always has a plan and knows what to do in situations due to his age and quick wits. This was given to me during the middle of our exploration week, I was not focusing a lot of how I was added emphasis on to certain words as I was trying to sustain the accent I had chose. But after this was brought to my attention I was looking into more of how i was emphasising certain words.This also led me onto thinking about how i could use pace to influence and set a clear mood for the scenes. I experimented with pace to generate a much better flow for scenes and it also helped me set up my own timings for words i could say in a specific way, adding an upward inflection or dragging out a word to signify a mood change of my character.

Delaney: 09/05/18

The use of your movement around the space can be increased, due to you being a fairly large character, it’s better to spread yourself out open up all the space around you. This is also a problem for understanding what Badger is like, because you seemed to have limited yourself with gestures and bigger movements due to playing an older character. But you can still experiment and explore the your use of motion throughout. During the last week of our rehearsals this was stressed to me a fair amount, as I noticed myself that i wasn’t moving around as much as I could. This was the point where I was looking more into how i was moving as an animal rather than a human character, this helped me look into my posture and pace of movement throughout the space. I explored this with different ways of travel, taking bigger steps and taking smaller steps until I found the correct pacing and spacing of this character. Being an older Badger, i saw it being fit for him to have much larger and more controlled strides in contrast to his younger peers who would run in little steps almost not being in control at times. This emphasised the grown nature and experience Badger has over them as well as his self-control in situations.

Carly: 11/05/18

I feel your interpretation of this character has been accurate throughout, being experienced and almost like an old soldier who had years of experience under his belt, but taking this into account he seems too serious at times. Lighten up the tone of your voice and don’t be so harsh when putting points across in certain scenes, with this I think the use of your body language could help to make this character less scary in a way. The portrayal you have explored seems scary as if everyone in the play is fearful of him, when really they all know of him and love him for being a generous and gentle Badger. This was during the first week of exploration, when I had thought of the character in a more serious light. After this feedback was given to me I thought about how I could add upward inflections to my speech throughout the play. This was not just for certain scenes this was a generalised through the whole process. This was when I looked into more of how i could use my speech to carry along a certain scene instead of relying heavily on gestures and movement, I wanted there to be some sort of authority but also a warmness and liking with the use of my voice.

Ross: 04/06/18

Physicality could be explored more, you seem too weared in some scenes but fine and energetic in others. This needs to be more consistent and clearer to the audience. I think the use of your voice is good, the yorkshire accent adds a grandfatherly feel to your character but try and explore the upward inflections and range in the pace of your voice. You say some words too fast and others seem to drag on, so just be careful and think about your pacing a bit more to match the character fully. As I was looking at Badger as an older character I had to also look into how he was experienced and not make him static and weak as he is not. But during the first couple of generation and exploration weeks we had gone through scenes where I found myself moving slower and paced down making scenes drag on. This feedback was given to me during the beginning of the exploration week, and worked on throughout the rest of the exploration and production week. I had to understand how I could pace myself in a steady way to not stumble over words but to also not drag out a scene, i made sure to pace certain words up and add gestures to help keep interest into the scenes. And with this I also would occasionally move around the space, this was to help the text carry along the scene and not feel too long.

Chantelle: 04/06/18

I feel like one major downplay to this character is that you look down a lot and there are not many gestures so it can be confusing in knowing  what is going on in the scenes. You should try and look at us when speaking and share the speech with us, also don’t rush through your sentences too much, this rushes the scenes along and doesn’t seem to gather the correct feel for this character and the scenes with him in. Something that is good is the use of your accent, it helps with setting Badger up as being an older animal, you should try and experiment with the raspiness and pitch to extend this more. This was given to me during the production week, while we were doing a run through of our final piece. I made sure to open myself up and share with the audience more than I usually would have. Directing some comments to them, making them feel more apart of the production.

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The first production meeting we had was in the very beginning of the process where we sat and talked with the technicians about what we wanted and if it was possible to have certain props and ideas carried along.
27/04/18:
https://drive.google.com/open?id=
1Bi1B-LIebn2aFn56IJChDZEjqsYb8CG6&authuser=1
Another production meeting we had was nearing the end of our generation week, thinking about scenes we had ideas for and how we could possibly bring them to stage.
04/05/18:
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1lCwoStCPbbIxncRqZIioeE1dGuaaHPZa&authuser=1

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- Props
We chose to mime some of the smaller props and have bigger props, in hand. This was so it could appeal to the target audience and so it would be easier for us on stage to carry the props on and off. We decided on less props too as we didn't want to try to handle too much while transitioning each scene. This also gave us the chance to use our physicality and experiment with our movement to convey the props we were miming correctly. This also added a comedic side to our characters as we could look as silly as possible while miming and it would still fit in and interest the audience. Another positive to doing this was so we could open up our physicality toward the audience. With the props that we did use, we still wanted to open up our body language and be confident with what we were doing with them.

- Lighting
The lighting we chose to work with was very bold and distinct for the different areas of the play. i.e; scenes where the ferrets and weasels were, was a rich red as to show to the audience that they were evil characters. This would work a lot with our target audience (ages 5-11) as they would understand this colour association clearly. But this also helped to convey the moods of the characters as well as where they were, for example in the riverbank scenes the lighting was fairly neutral to show what the personlaities who lived there were like. They are calm and collective, so the lighting helped compliment this about them, but as they alowly got our of their comfort zones they learnt how to adapt and overcome situations. The lighting was a very important part of this production as it needed to bright to interest our target audience as well as help convey the atmosphere clearly.

- Text
This is an original script devised up from many different variations of the play, we chose to do this as we didn't want this to be too long as this would have the children be less interested making them fidget and lose focus. This was also so we could look into what was more fun to generate ideas from as well as being more unique with our interpretation of this text. We also chose to look at many versions to understand our characters intentions throughout and how they influence our interpretations. This was also so we could aim the story more toward our target audience, thinking about how we could entertain them more. Making jokes or saying the lines in a silly way to relate to them and interest them throughout the piece, we also thought about cutting some lines within the script as they felt too dragged out and would bore the children.

- Costume
We chose to have bold colours that would represent our characters to the children clearly throughout piece. This consisted of a bright yellow jumper with grey suit trousers for my interpretation, this was to help convey the age of my character more, being well dressed and neat in his old age. Yet with the bright yellow, it showed a more fun and bouncy side to my interpretation. And these colours also conveyed the area each character would be from and ultimately if they were a good or bad character. This also made it more enjoyable to watch for the age range we’re performing to, not using nay dull colours that may have lost their attention and making sure that each character was memorable. Also, this made it easier for then to understand what kind of character and animal we were trying to portray, with some characters like “Toad”, not only the name gave it away but the green shorts and shirt. We wanted this to all cater to the target audience and make sure they stay interested in all the aspects of the performance.

- Character
We chose characters that would be best suited to each actor. This was both our own input with the input of our tutors, the roles we were each handed complimented our acting style that we have shown within the lessons and also gave us our own individual challenges we had to face during the process. Mine consisted of my physical language as well as what voice would best convey the character of Badger and be assertive yet calming and welcoming. Also, these characters who were within the text were very important in showing different views of everything. One being very exciting while another is more cautious and wary about many things. Another would caring as someone else would be very innocent and vulnerable. So this caused our interpretations to be very different to one another, helping the interest of the whole piece carry along the entirety of the play. Making it more entertaining for our target audience.

- Themes
Many themes were shown throughout this piece and as this is a children's theatre piece, it is very important to carry these messages along clearly. One major theme was having fun and not taking things too seriously, as this play is a comedic piece there are still some serious aspects within it. But, with this they are shown in a light-hearted and joking way. This lead on to another theme in the play that was; friendship. There are many relationships shown throughout the piece consisting of lovers, leaders and followers, but one that is always vacant is friendship. The friendship between old and new friends are shown heavily within the piece and to me highlights how friendship can overcome any obstacle and it is something that should be cherished. This was the main theme we wanted to put across to the kids and show that this is important in life and that it is a lot more fun when you're surrounded by people who love you as much as you love them.

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These trailers were shown to us within the week before our prep week. This was so we could understand what we would be producing, or aiming to produce by the end of our process and to also understand the style of theatre we would be performing. This was a good insight as it is the first time we have performed children's theatre and it was a help to see what we could be exploring within our own process. The characters from these snippets are exaggerated and very memorable with the use of their physicality and voice throughout.

Expedition Peter Pan
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4cJ9-nV_1j4

James and the Giant peach highlights
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8mLPimW4nOA

The Wind in the Willows production Trailer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-SY7NSJgw_U

Alice in Winterland Production Trailer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-2pn0ldtJ0A

Roald Dahl's the Witches Trailer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZGtCjOR7sc