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.

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.