Development

Here was the vision for the session: 

By the end of the session you will have:

•Explored doubts about authority through drama techniques

•Worked collaboratively to create drama

•Considered the roles of performer, designer and director.

Friday 21 September 

We were asked to devise a play exploring the theme of rebellion. It fed on from the theme of earlier in the week when different people in our group were asked to be director and stage designer, and experimented with the plot of being in a hospital. This time we looked at the idea of police stopping a group and their authority being questioned by people.

Reflection

Upon reflection we have come to realise that it is important to question and even critique a director even when they have sole power. we were still asked to collaborate and work towards a project, however, the risk was  that in a professional setting we could get thrown off scene. 

Evaluation

In retrospect, the play did not work out. The director did not keep to the brief and so it did not get executed properly, it was also very confusing. there was not enough clarity in terms of how the characters can relate to each other.  In future I will look at the need to improve and do more.

Among them: George Roy Hill‘s “The World Of Henry Orient“; the aformentioned “Blackboard Jungle“; Rian Johnson‘s “Brick“; Kristen Stewart vehicle “The Runaways“; Douglas Sirk‘s “Imitation Of Life” (and its 1934 predecessor); Lukas Moodysson‘s “Show Me Love“; Edward Yang‘s “A Brighter Summer Day“; Otto Preminger‘s “Bonjour Tristesse“; John Waters‘ “Hairspray“; Sam Mendes‘ “American Beauty“; musical classics “Grease” and “Footloose“; Francois Ozon‘s “Swimming Pool“; Reese Witherspoon breakthrough “Freeway“; Elia Kazan‘s “Splendor In The Grass;” controversial Leonardo DiCaprio starrer “The Basketball Diaries” and John Singleton‘s “Boyz N The Hood.”

Amit Lahav’s production invites the audience to experience a series of extraordinary images, jaw-dropping choreography and a tantalizing multilingual vocal landscape. The shadows of Lily’s past invite her, along with each audience member, to consider how far they have strayed from who they are and where they come from.

https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2012/may/06/gecko-missing-amit-lahav-review

http://geckotheatre.com/missing/

London

Play

SYNOPSIS: A man sits alone outside a prison. Who is he, and what is he doing there? Is he free, or is he the prisoner?

Directed by Peter Brook and Marie-Hélène Estienne

Cast: Hiran Abeysekera, Hervé Goffings, Omar Silva, Kalieaswari Srinivasan, Donald Sumpter

https://www.culturewhisper.com/r/theatre/marie_helene_estienne_peter_brook_the_prisoner_national_theatre_london/11722

Doing some small research into Peter Brook, I have gathered that He has received a number of awards such as 
- The Praemium Imperiale 
- Laurence Olivier
The latter had me intrigued as there was a statue of Laurence at the Southbank museum, and I weren't aware of who he was . He famously starred in a 1957 British-American film with Marilyn Monroe .

Royal Court, Sloane Square 

Shaftesbury Avenue,  Piccadily Circus

Spotlight, 7 Leicester Place
English National Opera 
- National Theatre , Southbank

 
*Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (Francis Albert Augustus Charles Emmanuel; 26 August 1819 – 14 December 1861) was the husband and consort of Queen Victoria

Marat/Sade, written by Peter Weiss, is ostensibly about post-revolutionary France and the battle between political idealism and personal desire

This Stratford production contains prolonged mimicry of mental disability which, in my view, goes beyond actorly portrayal and becomes mockery. Performers caricature behavioural problems suffered by cerebral palsy victims. What an amusing fellow director Anthony Neilson must think he is.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-2054387/The-RSCs-Marat-Sade-shocking-waste-money.html

Psychopathia Sexualis, a weighty volume which detailed some of the weirdest aberrations

ever conceived by the human mind. Two centuries before, languishing in the Bastille

where he would spend a good part of his adult life, the Marquis de Sade indulged in

fantasies about torturing women. But his writings were like the tantrums of a wicked little

boy who delighted in shocking the proper people around him-that is to say, his crimes

were of the imagination. But Victorian London spawned the monster Jack the Ripper. De

Sade might have daydreamed about flogging prostitutes; Jack the Ripper disemboweled

them.".

- Music & Lyrics By Shaina Taub 

-  Directed by Kwame Kwei-Armah & Oskar Eustis 

Review 

https://www.thestage.co.uk/reviews/2018/twelfth-night-review-young-vic-london/

Maximilien François Marie Isidore de Robespierre was a French lawyer and politician, as well as one of the best known and most influential figures associated with the French Revolution and the Reign of Terror.

They are a company who specialsies in the most physical theatre, however, defining this remains difficult, as the question remains, what separates physical theatre from (ordinary) theatre. 
They explore using their bodies, rather than just voice, and go to great depths to explore and manipulate the space and the stage. 

2.       Name some of the work they have performed (if possible focusing on how they used movement to create the story)

I have yet to see their work but did see this trail from Fatherland (2018) which , despite being merely 50 seconds, highlighted the use of a lift and also scenery being used to create a mood
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZZIgFYzp-ag

3.       What do you think of this genre of theatre? Have you seen anything like it before?

I have not seen physical theatre on stage as such, however, I have seen it performed informally ,in the context of a school. A company came in and showcases their work, and it was refreshing in as much as the story was exaggerated using enlarged movements rather than relying entirely on subtleties. It is a style of theatre that interests me but like musical theatre I would wonder about how I would progress it into other areas and fields. 

4.       What themes emerged in the work you saw performed today? Explain what you thought of the pieces you saw. 

In our piece, we played with someone not wanting to be touched as the part where were to include narrative (dialogue). It was short but to the point as we wanted to attempt to intensify the emotion by minimising the words and exploiting awkward pauses. 

The other piece was , at first, rather ambigious and lacking in focus until they added more intention to what they were doing, and thought about what they wanted us ass an audience both to see, and what to focus on. 

This play is obviously a play on two ideas; the theme of talking nonsense but also the idea of biblical rebellion from the story where the people who tried to build a tower to heaven had their plan foiled, and their tongued divided.

The play talks to multiple themes of discontent in the West, viz, isolation, loneliness, technology, inactivity, the trivialisation of everyday life, and meaninglessness. It is written provocatively, sometimes flowing, often breaking, and exploring multiple depths of these pathologies of the West, and other places.  Other commentators had equally remarked that as technology brings us together in the abstract it does nothing to add much depth and meaning to our lives. Aldous Huxley similarly remarked that by saturating people’s minds with nonsense they lose the ability to effectively relate to each other and build constructively. 

In thinking about how we might be performing this play, I think about a number of global conflicts in which countries were divided along, albeit somewhat arbitrary, racial lines. In many cases conflict ensued however, sometimes people have to communicate across language barriers and relate using other means, as is expounded in the theory of semiotics, which looks at what symbols mean within the context of social interactions. As aimlessness seems a them of the script perhaps we will explore themes of anonymity or even interchange and different characters explore different aspects of scripts. 

We worked on chair duets

To begin the day, there was a circle created to explore and reflect on what transpired on the Friday. There was no ultimate resolve but the important thing was the process whereby we reflected upon what it is we are a company desired, and desire to create and build.

The day began with a physical warm up encouraging even more core work. After this we sat and watched the process of building a chair duet, as demonstrated by Frantic Assembly. We also got to see a school group constructing one to a popular Ed Sheeran song. We then got told to create an expert sequence of movements, in partners. 

Our duet was very static to begin with until we were told that we were repeating movements, and also, at times, unclean. This provoked us to take our piece from a centred, stable position and explore more themes such as movements, contact, and touch. 

Had they broken from the text to enact movements I doubt I would have been as interested and might have felt a major disconnect from the piece

If so, was it effective? 

It was effective as there was such a variety of movement but also there were also breaks in what they were doing which reconvened at selective moments to create a sense of dissonance and then a restoration of harmony,

If not, how did the text and movement work together to produce an interesting and tense scene?

It was impressive because they broke from the set structure (choreography) of the text, and added some pauses, echo, doubles, etc, repeating some phrases or saying them together 

It provoked thought also on what it means to "act" and what it means to "perform", as, if they were not exactly "trained" actors, yet could captivate an audience it related to the idea of being about to connect with audiences at a variety of levels; something which becomes accessible once and if text is abandoned 

In Icon, three-and-a-half-tonnes of clay are molded, heaped and shaped by 18 dancers, drawn from both GöteborgsOperans Danskompani and Cherkaoui’s own company, Eastman.

Coating themselves and each other, they perform in the ritualistic creation, destruction and ultimate replacement of their graven idol to the sound of traditional songs from the Amami Islands, French ballads and medieval compositions

Think about- making choreography using a clearly defined limitations.

Think about- responding to stage directions, good and bad.

 

2.      Think about- making choreography and then testing it. Workshop the story. 

Think about- Music and audience manipulation. 

Think about- movement and storytelling.

 

3.      Think about- building blocks, these are important to devising. 

Think about- articulating the unsaid, when physicality can suggest a repressed subtext. Think about- text versus movement (and what comes first?).

 

4.      Think about- what inspires the movement? 

Think about- is movement of the best way to tell this story? 

Think about- movement and time passing.

 

5.      Think about- making theatre from nontheatrical inspiration. 

Think about- the relation between your work and your audience: thematically, formally, specially and economically. 

Think about- watching from behind, above, the side, hello.

 

 

Although this website explores some themes and ideas relating to the Bible, and it useful on the basis, it is not specific to Babel

This similar sight highlights the ideas about the Tower of Babel

Another site offers some reflections made by commentators 

 

- It claims that Eden was in Mesopotamia where the Tower of Babel was probably built. 
- It claims that whilst the Canaan’s settled elsewhere their homeland was Mesopotamia 

On the website is more information explaining that 
- God destroyed the tower as 
- it symbolised arrogance and hubris on the part of ]
- the people who were in rebellion against the concept and theme of submission to God. 

 

Must be from someone recognisable as a critic; they must be professional

 

The Stage is a renowned paper exploring multiple themes of entertainment 

Reviewing the piece, Sarah Wilkinson (Jan 22, 2010) wrote 

Against the backdrop of Gareth Fry’s arresting music design, Patrick Neate’s text veers between epic poem and angry, frustrated rap. In one particularly clever sequence, the ensemble take it in turns to dissect the infiltration of advertising and branding into our vocabulary, pitching brilliant parodies of political and religious rhetoric.

 

Luke Jennings would also explored its staging at the Salisbury theatre in Manchester 

Neate's poem is a drive-by attack on contemporary British mores. His targets include honour killings, Toilet Duck, the War on Terror, low-riding trousers, Facebook, L'Oréal's concept of human worth, and adultfriendfinder.com.

Another review might be found here 

From these links I have learnt that the piece can be effectively interpreted using Cabaret, or more specifically, dance, as these staging’s exploited physical movement, spoken word.  They also highlight that the play explores multiple themes such as the Spectacle of Society, as underlined by the Situationists of the 1960s and early 70s attempting to critique the impact of distance and disconnect on society .

Stan Wonât Dance did this performance but I could not locate their website 

SPASM was another company who performed it  doing so at the Lyric Hammersmith , with much said about them 

It has been suggested that after reading a play, and studying it, it is useful to read reviews of the play. It is advised that we go and watch the play but if this isnt possible, we should check what companies, reviewed, staged the play, and then to research their companies and see if any highlights remain.

Channel Four made a production on this piece

 

Watching it for a second time we now ask oursleves if there is anything we can Beg, Borrow or Steal to put into our work and even to consider and reflect upon when staging the play 

The Old Testament 

 

The New Testament 

11 Now the whole world had one language and a common speech. ² As people moved eastward,^[a] they found a plain in Shinar^[b] and settled there.

³ They said to each other, “Come, let’s make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” They used brick instead of stone, and tar for mortar. ⁴ Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves; otherwise we will be scattered over the face of the whole earth.”

⁵ But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower the people were building. ⁶ The Lord said, “If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. ⁷ Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other.”

⁸ So the Lord scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city. ⁹ That is why it was called Babel^[c]—because there the Lord confused the language of the whole world. From there the Lord scattered them over the face of the whole earth.

 

About the Scriptures

 

An excellent online resource exploring the meaning, history and background of the scriptures is found here 

https://www.biblestudytools.com/genesis/

http://www.readbibleonline.net/?page_id=77

 

Moses is the author/compiler of the first five books, known as the Pentateuch (“five-volumed book”)

 

Chuck Palahniuk

Children television is about marketing now; they watch so they  can buy the merchandise and watch the franchise
in shops the food is on the bottom shelf (sweets)
McDonalds pairs happy meal with other major products, and there are product placements (collectors)
then at primary school we debate who has what toys 

facebook was he new opporutnity for you to get marketing ; they are using cookies (privacy) to study who you are 

Consumerism has gotten into language as people 
"Google"
"Hoover"
"Shazam"
everything is being branded ...

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-37875695

The student often finds more meaningful forms of escapism — ideological escapism. Students are for justice, Che Guevara t-shirts, and affirmative action. And the socialist organizations are waiting to recruit. The student’s “rent-a-crowd militance for the latest good cause is an aspect of his real impotence.”[141] The student serves the cause and the cause serves to justify the student’s subservience. The student activist consciously aligns their thinking with what they perceive to be that of an oppressed group (which they may or may not be a member of). Now they can speak for that group and articulate the desires of that group, usually phrased as demands made of the authorities. Every person, every group, must be represented. Representation is at the heart of the logic of modern politics, and its so-called enemies uphold this logic better than anyone. Such thinking is institutionalized among the academic Left, who are proud of their broad curriculum which includes all sorts of women’s studies, queer studies, African-American studies, etc. As long as students learn to demand “justice” for everyone, the possibility of revolutionary change can be ignored. Through appeals for justice or equal rights within the system, the academic Left perpetuates the system and its moralistic logic. And since academia is virtually defined by the dissociation of thought and action, no revolutionary theory could possibly thrive in this context; conversely, it is here that revolutionary ideology is at home, an object of passive consideration. 

Is he a terrorist or a freedom fighter ? Nelson Mandela or the early Puritans? Poland, no recourse or reason ,if a man hits a woman in poland.  Abortion is legal, even if you are raped, but going against that, you are a terrorist.

At the beginning of every session we are completing an intense predatory workout entitled

 

 Squats

Box Jumps 

Mountain Climbs 

Press Ups 

Sit Ups

Lunges

Planks

Windmill 

 

Each week we complete these and then progress to a higher number in order to build up our overall body strength and core control, which is going to come into play later in the play as we develop our strength; and create sets using our own bodies 

 

 

1^st week 

(7 January)

Few people were here on the first day so they went over the script and completed pallet work

Tuesday 8 January, we went through Pacing in the shared session; the idea of dynamics and sounds etc; how intensity can be found in our performances

Friday 11 we went through the script breaking it up and unpacking some of the key themes that are contained within; we were also urged to consider how we might actually embody the play itself 

 

2^nd Week

Mon 14 we finally began building the set and thinking about how it might be worked into the performance; we also have to consider how it will work alongside the other age groups 

Tue 15 we explored different movements after being given a sheet breaking down different actions or gesture and being asked to devise something … material to accompany them 

Fri 18; we broke down the script and began to highlight exactly what section were to perform; 

 

3^rd Week

Mon 21; on Monday we went through the seating arrangement for it; we started to begin the play and it was decided that we would begin by utilising both hymn hands and Round By Through in our opening sequence, with the tower itself being a chair 

Tue 22 we watched requiem for a dream, and then began to explore the idea of addiction as it was explored throughout; we showed our technologic performances; 

Fri 25 this was a key day as we built upon our weekly 300 and gave the script a few speeds through (speed reads) and also asked key questions about how we would stage everything ; we also went through Antigone and began to think through how motivations and objectives influence the piece 

 

28/01/19 

Mon; in this session we looked at key cities in the world and then developed a monument that would coincide with them; 

Tue 

Fri

It’s 1896 in what is modern day Zimbabwe and Jekesai, a young woman fleeing forced marriage finds herself working for devout Catholic priest, Chilford. He relishes the opportunity to mould his new convert but Jekesai’s salvation has a price.

Cast includes Letitia Wright (Black Panther), Paapa Essiedu (RSC Hamlet) and Ivanno Jeremiah (Humans) directed by Ola Ince.

An example of going beyond language 
IN his text on the shadow and duality in theatre he attempted to deeply impress his notion that much language is lost in words

Directed by Blanche McIntyre and adapted by John Donnelly.

From Pulitzer Prize winner Stephen Adly Guirgis, comes this critically-acclaimed dark comedy about the American justice system and the contradictory nature of faith. 

Inside the lockdown wing of Rikers Island prison, a frightened young man accused of murdering a cult leader is confronted with a charismatic born-again serial killer and a sadistic guard.  Will one man’s redemption lead to another’s damnation?

This was a difficult piece as it relied upon the works of Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath, providing little exposition . If you were not familiar with their work it was difficult to follow.