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. 

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. 

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. 

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.  

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.

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.

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.

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. 

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.  

 

 

 

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: …………………..

-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.