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The moon stood,
like a drunk,
looking up the street,
wondering.

Is this the street?
is this the town?
what  happened?
and who did i meet?

oh there were happier times,
theres no denying the fact,
but its over,
its done,
thats that.

With the poem, i speak the second stanza and lines 2,4 and 5 in the last stanza. when i say the second stanza, i paused at the end of the first two lines for about 4 seconds so everyone standing behind me can turn left on the first line and then right on the second.
when jordan says, its over, i'll wait for about 6 seconds for the back row of our  group to dissaperte off stage before saying, its done while waiting a further 6 seconds for the rest to move off. then me and jordan turn to eachother after the pause and both say thats that before walking off stage (jordan to the left, I to the right)

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Mums Interview on mental health

1.How did you feel when you woke up this morning?

-Tired and Confused as it was 7 o’clock and was still dark outside.

2.Name some of the things that make you happy

-I can’t really think what makes me happy. I suppose my children and grandchildren, also my parents and boyfriend. The thought that I will have a grandson by next February.

3.Name some of the things that make you sad

-Well to be honest, one thing that has been making me sad for the past couple of months now is because of my dad passing away. I mean I knew it was coming, we all did, even him…but I didn’t know that soon. I do miss him, your nana misses him terribly, but I guess we have to move on and be happy he had a nice life.

4.What is your biggest worry of the day?

-Especially today, the worry was if I was going to get to work on time. I was debating what time it was without looking at my clock. But stupidly I went back to sleep and woke up by 8. I needed to be at work by 9 or I was going to be in trouble. But one thing that worries me every day is that am I living my life how I want it to be lived? Am I just following someone else’s orders? I ask myself these questions every day and it does worry me.

5.Is there a moment that changed the way you perceive Mental Health?

-Well yes, I mean when I got depression, it was a blow on the family but I guess at the end of the day we got through it. Then you were diagnosed with mania Bipolar disorder and I thought it was to do with the families past, but then I soon found out about you being bullied in school and it completely changed the way I looked at it. Mostly anything bad, hurtful or cruel can set it off. But there are ways of healing and treatment, like having close friends and family around helped me and moving schools helped you. We got help without drugs, and that just shows that with the right people, it can be helped and treated.

6.What makes you feel safe?

-Going home really, seeing my family. Don’t get me wrong, Southborough is a nice place but I rather be in the comfort of my home.

7.Do you feel that people understand you?

-Only family because… they’re my family. Maybe close friends could understand how I work but at this moment, none of them do.

8.When you close your eyes, what is the first thing you see?

-Darkness, that’s it. I can’t really see anything other than that.

9.What would you like to change about yourself?

-I would change my hair colour for one. For real, I would actually change my attitude. Like go from who I am today and be stricter and tell people what I want to do and have instead of them telling me. I want to be more open to do whatever I want to do. Not in ‘laidback’ terms but just have more of a right of freedom around my family.

10.Do you think people understand the true meaning of Mental Health?

-Honestly? Only people who have seen or experienced it know what its real understanding is. Yeah some people might think its stress related and others might not think anything of it and link the severity of it to the common cold. But we know what it can do to people, and how it can wreck people’s lives.

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1. How did you feel when you woke up this morning?
2. Name some of the things that make you happy.
3. Name some of the things that make you sad
4. What's your biggest worry?
5. Is there a moment that changed the way you perceive mental health?
6.What makes you happy?
7. Do you feel people understand  you?
8. When you close your eyes, what's the first thing that comes into your head?
9. What would you change about yourself?
10. Do you think people understand the true meaning of mental health?

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Contractual agreement for

Sharing Personal information

As the interviewee you are allowed to agree to any terms we set for you as the interviewer. So that you are treated under the fairest of circumstances, some of these terms include:

• You have the right to withdraw your information at any time of the interview, or rehearsal process.

• You have the absolute right to not answer any of the questions, if you do not feel comfortable, or do not wish to share that information.

• You are 100% aware that your information can be shared with a public audience.

• Your name will anonymous, which means no one will know that the story is yours.

Thank you for your cooperation.

As the interviewer I hereby accept, that I will be respectful and understanding towards the interviewee during the entirety of the interview.

Interviewer’s signature: …………………….

Date ….............

Interviewer’s Phone no: ……………………

As the interviewee I fully understand that all my rights have been explained to me and if I have any other concerns, I can address them whenever I feel necessary to.

Interviewee’s signature: ………………..........

Date…………….

Interviewee’s Phone no: …………………..

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In this piece, our target audience was for teenagers and young adults. We wanted this specific age group to be our target audience because the majority of our interviews were provided by teenagers/ young adults. Also we found out that most of the interviewed had dealt with a certain mental illness in their lives during or earlier on in life. We found out that most of the causes were down to exams, starting work career, college etc. Which we thought we could use for a idea to create a scene. We also have knowledge from statistics in the mental health region, 16-25 year olds are the most common to be diagnosed with a mental disorder.

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Verbatim theatre is a form of documentary theatre in which plays are constructed from accurate words spoken by people interviewed about a particular event or topic.
This would mean that to get our ideas for the scenes about mental health, we would have to interview people we know and even people we do not know. Also we would need to make a consent form so we know that they are allowing us to interview them. Also, to interview them, we would need to include questions to ask them or obviously, we would not get our answers and there for would not get ideas for scenes. We have already decided that we are basing our performance on mental health.

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How did you prepare material for the performance?

After deciding what we would be basing verbatim about, we started to research facts about Mental Health and verbatim theatre.  To do this, the actors in mental health individually went to the LRC and started to research their own topic about the basics of verbatim theatre (who, what, when, where, how) before researching facts about mental health on such websites, for example: WWW.NHS.UK , WWW.Mentalhealth.org.uk .

After gathering our research, we all discussed where we were going to get the information for our scripts from before realising that verbatim is a performance based on a series of anonymous interviews. During one storytelling session, we had split up into groups of two or three before walking round West Kent College with a series of questions to ask people about mental health. Before doing so, we had to create a permission form so we could go ahead with asking the people we wanted to interview. Some of the terms in the form included: That the person interviewed would be anonymous to the audience and the performance. We had 8 different interviews by the end of the session which we would start to use throughout the weeks.

How did you feel that the performance went?

In my opinion, I thought the performance went very well, this is because in my group (Mental Health), we had rehearsed many times which means that we had enough time to learn our lines. When in the performance, I noticed that as the play was going on, it seemed that no one had forgotten there lines due to the fact that on one had stumbled or stammered when it was their time to speak. Mental Health and Gender also had many comments from the audience about how everyone was projecting their voices to the amount where it could be heard from the back of the MAC. Another example to why it went well could be how we all remembered any last minute changes, stage directions and how we all remembered what props we needed to use, where they needed to go and who was going to take them out on stage during a blackout or changing of a scene.

How did the performance cater to the target audience?

Mental health’s target audience for this piece of verbatim was mainly focused around teenagers and young adults. We wanted this age group to be our target audience because when we began to research facts about mental health, statistic revealed that 1 in 10  aged 5 - 18 suffer from a diagnosable mental health disorder. After reading this, we wanted to raise awareness to teens and young adults by using others words to how and what they felt like dealing with a mental illness. Also, another reason why we have this specific target audience is because it also revealed to the target audience how others see mental illness and how others have different opinions and understandings to the topic.

What was the response to the performance?

Mental health had got a lot of good feedback about our performance and techniques we had used.  I know this because after the performance, I found that my father and cousin were part of the audience and watched me throughout the performance of Mental health. The response from them included how I used facial expression techniques in “pillar to post” to show my characters point and how he feels about that point. They also commented how in the poem, they liked how  I used a neutral expression throughout my lines and they enjoyed the ending when I turned to Jordan while we both said the lines “that’s that” while in sync with each other.

What storytelling techniques did you use?

Facial expressions- In  “pillar to post” I feel that I used this technique the most in this scene because  when leaning over the table looking at Mitch, I had to look angry when saying the line “they don’t let people like you become teachers!”. This was to show how my character ‘the doctor’ was feeling which was doubt and also taking authority into account. This is because it relates back to how some people do not believe that people with mental illnesses can be part of society therefore cannot get a job , for example: a teaching job.

Projecting- projecting my voice is a technique I was once not that good at.  However, in the scene known as “poem”, I used this technique quite well, this is because when rehearsing this scene in the storytelling sessions, I used previous improvements from previous performances, and in all, there was a comment of me being too quiet. To improve this for my verbatim poem,  the day of the performance, I got one of the members of my group to sit right at the back of the MAC while me and Jordan went through lines of the poem. We did this to see if we could be heard from the very back of the theatre, that way we would know if we are loud enough.

What were the strongest aspects of the performance?

The strongest aspect of the Mental Health performance was the scene One in four. This scene was powerful because through Alice, she began to talk to the audience about how “one in four are diagnosed with a mental illness” before Alice and Mitch begin to use a section of a full interview. There was no adaption to their duologue and both addressed the audience by speaking word for word of that section of interview that was describing how a mental illness has effected them. Everyone thought this was a moving  and educational piece as it gave everyone an insight to how this person was feeling about their mental illness and their views about how others perceived mental health.

What were the greatest challenges?

From my point of view, the greatest challenges in this performance was using the interviews to build scenes. When Mental Health finished interviewing people, we had to read over all of the interviews and highlight lines we could use for creating a scene. This took over a week of the Mental Health's rehearsal time and we all found it difficult. This is because we were looking for specific lines that could make a scene. For example: the line “we all started from coding” created the scene watch, this took 2 sessions to create this scene and still we had not finished changing the plot of the scene as of the new ideas for the scene watch.

What improvements would you make? How?

Improvements I would make to this piece of theatre would be transitions. Example of this would be during the scene change of change about myself and pillar to post. The blackout between the scenes was too short and did not give us enough time to move the two blocks and table to its place on the stage without us being seen by the audience. To improve this, I would change the time of the blackout to at least 10 seconds, that way we would have enough time to set the stage and get into positions without being seen.

How do you think that you could apply the skills you have learned during this process to your ongoing theatre practice?

The skills I have learned throughout verbatim are: researching any relateable information.  In my next performance, whatever topic we are basing our performance on, I will be researching any basics to the performance. For example: if my next performance is about anything from politics to equality, I will be finding out things like problems and benefits of the topic in today’s society.  Also, I will be including articles and government laws into my research because i would include facts on how world leaders feel about the topic and what they have done to change the issues for it, or against it. And I would include articles as I would include writers opinions and what the public think of the issue. I would include this as this could be valuable to create scenes if we are devising a performance.

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So tomorrow on the 25th, all of Level 3 will be performing their scenes for verbatim. Today, everyone began to stress and become unfocused on rehersing. With the watch scene finally planned and rehearsed, all we needed to do now was run through all of our verbatim scenes and pray that we didn't need to change anything else.
After rehersals, everything was standard and nothing really needed to be changed. There were a couple of props that had been changed around and also we were planning our technical element to our scenes.
Example: with the scene watch, we decided that we should have a ticking sound in the background to relate back to our scene. Also it seemed fitting.
My strengths for this session were that I could rehearse without being told lines or where I needed to stand on stage.
My weaknesses were that I didn't record any of the technical ideas for our scenes.
Target would be to record anything valuable in sessions that will help us with our rehersals.

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the reason i haven't wrote that many padlets on my verbatim sessions is because at first i was quite confused on what I was doing in these sessions as I was in two groups that were doing different topics in verbatim theatre.
So I will be writing an entire summary on veribatim for term 1.
We started verbatim in November . The first session we did on verbatim was just learning about the basics, for example: who created verbatim theatre, what the definition of the theatre is etc.
So then we were arranged in to two groups that halved the class. Half was doing the topic of mental health (the group i was in)
and the other was doing the topic of gender.
The topics we were using verbatim theatre in, were related to social issues that are happening in todays reality.
Then we began to interview people for our scenes. we went round and started to interview friends. we got good answers that we can use in our scripts however before we did this we had to create a documentation that gave us permission to interview people. We included on the form that the person we interviewed will be annonymous so the audience don't know who gave us the information..
After we had collected our interviews, we began to piece together scenes by using lines from our interviews. By the start of december, Mental health (my group) had 6 scenes already completed with a further 2-3 still being developed. the scenes we had were:
1.Change about myself?
2.Roll call
3.One in FOUR
4. What do i see?
5. How did you feel this morning?
6. Poem
These scenes were planned and eveloped within 3 weeks because M.H discussed it in college and outside of college, we even stayed after college at some days just to get some more rehersal time as we were originally going to perform our piece on the week before we broke up for christmas holidays but it was soon moved to the January 25th.
My strengths through term 1 verbatim were that I could work with a group, I could contribute ideas for scenes due to my mental illness in the past, also i contributed questions for the interviews and my own interviews from my family.
My Weaknesses would be not taking the work seriously at first and slacking off. Also not recording some of the things said about the verbatim basics.
Targets for next term would be contribute more and record more events in verbatim.

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With the performance only next week, the only thing on our groups mind was to keep rehersing our scenes until we were satisfyed with them. One thing that is getting on our minds now is how we haven't stablized the scene 'Watch' scene yet and how nearly every week we are changing one idea for Watch to another. With a week to go, we need to decide as a group what is the best idea we can use for the 'watch' scene.
My strengths for this lesson were I had produce ideas on how to decide for a plot for the 'watch' and also how I was constant in rehersals today.
My weaknesses are not completing the task of having a copy of my lines on me at all times. this applied to everyone in the group.

My target for next lesson is to write down my lines and keep them with me all the time during verbatim rehersals.

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So for todays lesson, there was an unusual twist. a lesson where we didn't rehearse! wow! but we had to go and write up our scripts which was fair enough.
Gonna just move on to Strengths, Weaknesses and target as not much happened this lesson :)
Strengths were I was able to help out with writing the script by telling them what my lines for the poem are.
Weaknesses were that i couldn't remember Jordan's lines and the problem was she wasn't in. but we found the poem so its was sorted.
target would be to learn all of the poem.

12th Jan
gotta keep going with this, might be rehearsals all the damn time but I just got to keep on top of it and not scream. i mean, the scenes are close to perfection, yes we have a couple of dents along the mental health play but it doesn't take 2 whole lessons and  another change to 'watch' to sort it out! However, we did another effective rehearsal and another full run through of Mental Health and I remembered my lines for poem and watch.
my strengths for this lesson would include remembering my lines, listening to others and being effective when rehearsing.
my weaknesses were not having enough enthusiasm in this lesson.
Target would be keep going and make sure my lines are remembered and that i remember staging directions. Also to slow my pace, and project more.

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The performance!!!!! 25th of January 2017

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The performance!!!!! 25th of January 2017

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Well, it's the 25th of January and this is the day our performance for verbatim is set! I'm writing this in the half hour before we perform so best be quick. In the final rehersals today, we were allowed to rehearse in the drama studio so we would have more space and less noise for when it came to practising each of our 9 scenes. Everyone in the mental health group was accounted for so we began to go through our scenes. We did this for 30 minutes before we were told we could have a 45 minute break. I stayed behind and kept learning my lines, stage directions and pace. Then after the 45 minutes were up, we started to sort out lighting and sound...and where things like blocks and tables needed to be. There is actually nothing to improve on today, except in future rehersals rehearsals for other plays, we should keep our cool and not argue over damn white washes and spotlighting!

Performance finished! Woo Hoo! right now for strengths, weaknesses and targets.
Strengths are projecting my voice across the Mac for everyone to hear, i knew when to change positions from either a line or a technical element that i remembered goes off when i am suppose to change my place on stage or say my next line. also, i have confidence that i can get through this performance without being nervous or scared.
Weaknesses would include, extending pauses either because i forgot a line or that i was not paying attention.
Target for next performance is to not forget my lines!

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Though the Christmas holidays, I have been learning the lines that I need to speak during our verbatim performance. Since I returned to College, the mental health group have decided to make some more changes to our performance by adding new scenes and even a song. The reasons behind this is because we need more length and depth to our performance however, one big factor is that some people didn't have alot to say so we added 2 new scenes and adapted one so more of the actors in our group will have an opportunity to be included more into the performance. Something we could improve on is basically how many times we do the scene known as 'watch' which is basically describing how the human mind is like a watch. We have devised this scene and changed it over 8 times now. We could review the changes and come up with the most suitable plot out of the ideas for the scene.
My strengths included reading over my lines, watching video evidence of rehersals, going over routine pace and group advise on lines and including all of the following things into my lines and scenes.
My weaknesses  included not having the right amount of material to continue properly for example: i wrote down notes of improvement throughout the christmas holiday and forgot to share with the group what i want to add into my scenes for improvement.
My target would be not to forget my notes for next lesson!

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In story telling today, we continued with our verbatim scenes. I was finally given a speaking part. One line and a duologue reading a poem with Jordan. I am trying to make progress but everyone doesn't consider me as someone who can act. If only they knew i performed an entire monologue in my cousins performance of peter pan last weekend. That went brilliantly according to some as i I had to step in instantly because the person who was suppose to be doing the monologue and acting the character was Ill so i decided to step up. Apparently I was excellent so that must be a positive right?
So why can't I use the same technique in my scenes? As i have finally been given something to say and now i'm doubting myself.
Strengths are none for today
Weaknesses are not believing i can do this.
Target is show your group you can act!

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Verbatim theatre is a form of documentary theatre which is based on the spoken words of real people. In its strictest form, verbatim theatre-makers use real people’s words exclusively, and take this testimony from recorded interviews. However, the form is more malleable than this, and writers have frequently combined interview material with invented scenes, or used reported and remembered speech rather than recorded testimony.
So in our verbatim piece about mental health, it is conclusive that we need to carry out our interviews in strict form. Also we have decided to keep the people who we interview under the name of interview #1 as it said on our consent forms that we would keep the person anonymous and unknown.
In the storytelling lesson, we began to piece together our 2nd verbatim scene. It includes building mannequins where one was mentally ill. It reveals how one in four can be diagnosed with a mental illness. Today's lesson went really well because we managed to complete most of the scene within an our. Also we remembered our position on stage and how each individual dynamic would perform.
A challenge was coming to a decision about the scene but it was soon compromised and we all agreed.

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In these lessons, we began to start a piece about mental health. The piece included:
•A concent form
•A list of questions for an interview
•Answers based on personal interviews.

From the interviews we were assigned to ask close friends and family, we used these answers and started to include it in our acting.
The main target for this performance is to raise awareness to mental health, including things like:
•How it can start
•Hormonal balance
•Backstories from anonymous people
•Help from others.

This play needs to show how answers from an interview can be changed into a scipted piece of work and even monologues.
I believe I have more of an advantage for my group as of my mental condition of Bipolar which was diagnosed back in 2014. With first hand knowledge of my mental illness, I can give my group answers on their written interviewing questions for this piece of theatrical work.

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The Verbatim theatre lesson told us how these pieces of theatre can be made from a simple interview.
This means that the script/monologue when spoken sounds more realistic. Verbatim is realistic as the script has come from a real life interview.
Examples of verbatim come from Anne deavere Smith who's work is a good example to this type of theatre. The playwright interviews people who are connected to the topic that is the play's focus and then uses their testimony to construct the play. In this way, the playwright seeks to present a degree of objectivity akin to that represented by news reporting. Such plays are focused on politics, disasters, sporting and other social events.
strengths for this lesson are that i understood what verbatim was and that i understood techniques on how to carry out verbatim.
weaknesses would be not looking at examples of verbatim theatre and how the audience involved thinks about it.
target for next lesson would be to carry out more research on verbatim theatre with satistics and where is usually performed and what it is usually performed about.

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Today, we began to go over our scenes...again! i dont mind rehearsing all the time because it will get me the mark i need and will contribute to me passing this course. its just one thing we could improve on is when it comes to rehearsal sessions, we don't stick with one or two scenes that seem a little out of place and have the potiential to be better, the right thing to do is to use one lesson where we rule out all the problems with every scene then we do a full run through where we add ideas while we perform that way we have something else to work on by the next lesson. I find this more practical because it doesn't waste any time in a lesson.
My strengths in this lesson was that i could work efficiently through the watch scene and the poem scene and begin to pace and pause between and in lines.
My weaknesses in this lesson were that I was I was easily distracted by the rest of my group when they were not taking the work seriously.
My target for next lesson would be to learn my lines in private and rehearse on my own so i know more of a timing to my scenes. also i can look back on video recordings of our group doing a full rehersal.

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Verbatim group of 3: Celebrities interview.

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Verbatim group of 3: Celebrities interview.

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For this lesson, we were given the task of coming up about a subject to ask people. This particular subject needed questions aswell and so we decided to ask people about their 'idols and famous celebrities'. Then we began to create questions about people's idols. We made sure that we made them as open as possible before going round the college for about 20 minutes asking a total of 5 people, the result we got was 4 open answers that we could then put into our scripts for our next task.

continuing with the piece, me and my group have finished our introduction to our interview piece. The introduction was created by ben and myself describes what the piece is about and how the icon image has changed over the past century. it also includes how the 'normals' have changed like how this generation has become obsessed with how we look without recognizing the real personality that is under our looks.

This task was quite easy for me because me and my group got clear answers and found that everyone who we asked had different celebrities and idols they like. This reminded me of the range group different people have to this sort of subject which helps us write and talk more about the subject because of the different types that were given by different people.