Evaluation

 Most effective moments

One of the most effective sections of our small group piece was the actors telling facts to the audience at the beginning. At first, the audience appeared confused by what was going on as we were all performing our short sequences portraying someone with mental health. I think that they felt uncomfortable and intimidated by what was happening, however they were also intrigued and interested to see what the show was about. I think that the words and facts were very effective as they added a clear contrast to the rest of the performance and was a simple and effective way to enable the audience to have a greater knowledge and understanding of mental health before we explored the theme in greater detail. This is effective as it shocked the audience, much like Brecht's slap and tickle effect. Moreover, this juxtaposes the character we were just playing in order to a serious undertone to the piece to help the audience realise the importance of mental health in today’s society, a problem which isn’t often mentioned or talked about. These combine with the words to reflect on the harsh mockery and cruelty towards mental health in today’s society. I think it's really effective as the words are all insults and sayings that are heard very often, however people don’t realise the seriousness of these issues, therefore being very effective in showing cause and effect. This enables the audience to reflect on their own behaviour and what they say or how they act around others. This piece juxtaposed the crazy and wild side of the play and conveyed clear and simple facts by breaking the fourth wall and talking to the audience. This relates to Grotowski’s method of creating a strong actor-audience relationship. He thought that if the actor creates a truthful connection with the audience, he would be able to change them. He brought back the fundamentals of what ‘good acting’ is. If an actor’s performance is raw and emotional, it could affect the audience. This came across very well in the facts. This was very effective as it set a clear tone and atmosphere for the rest of the piece. It emphasized how important our piece was and why we were performing it.

Another effective moment was the short movement sequences that the boys and girls did. The piece began with us all putting on several layers of clothes which completely contrasted to the girls, showing a clear divide in how different genders differ when hiding their emotions. There was a clear contrast between the girls’ movement and the boys’ movement. I feel like this was relatable to the audience as this reflects on what they will go through whenever they are at a club, party or any social event. Therefore, they could connect to the actors on stage. The boys were all acting tough and manly as if we were going on a night out and wanted to hide our emotions and insecurities so that no one would suspect how we really feel on the inside. We had to put on a mask to cover up and act overly masculine, strong and intimidating. I think my movement sequence was very effective as it conveyed the issue from a different perspective. I thought these set of moves were very successful as I was bringing together a lot of different ways that men usually use to hide themselves. This made the audience realise that men also have a lot of pressure on them in a social situation and we also have to go through these daily struggles in life. I think that we all put ourselves in an uneasy and vulnerable position which enabled to experience true and believable emotions which we could easily convey to the audience. When we performed the moves all together, and we all increased the pace of the movements and went crazy by doing it; although I could not witness how it looked to an audience member, it felt as if it looked really good and manic. I believe this made the audience feel on edge as it added tension. This effectively showed the chaos going through our heads and the mental torture that we must put ourselves through every day. Our movement was slick and clear to the audience. The timing and co-ordination of the piece was excellent as we all moved together, creating a sense of ensemble which made the piece more powerful as it showed the connection between all men in society and how we are all the same under the skin, regardless of our background or who we pretend to be. This whole sequence clearly reflected on the panic and chaos going through our heads and the pressure that society pushes onto us.

I feel like the part in which the girls comforted and calmed down the boys was very successful. Gradually, the girls would come along and hold us to make us feel protected and safe. They repeat the phrase ‘It’s okay’ in order to comfort us. I believe that this was particularly effective as it implies that there is a solution to the panic within society. This gives a positive message to the audience. This would make the audience feel at ease and happier about the situation. It created a relaxed and positive tone to the rest of the piece. It was very interesting that the girls were calming down and holding the boys rather than the other way round. This defies the social boundaries of normal or usual events and I believe that the audience found this intriguing. Furthermore, the message of ‘It’s okay’ suggests that there is nothing wrong with showing who you really are and showing your emotions. It shows the audience that they must always be themselves and try not to be enslaved by society’s expectations. It conveys a powerful message to emphasize the importance of self-expression and individuality. I believe that this will have stayed in the minds of the audience and was very powerful and moving for them.

Least effective moments

We incorporated the bath into our performance. Becky went into the bath while other actors poured water over her and filled up the bath. The bath was a metaphor for her cleaning herself and wiping away her sins. As she is in the bath, she realises that she cannot find herself and that she wants to rid herself from the air which represents the world she is living in. However, this wasn't as clear as it could be to the audience who won’t know about Grotowski and may not think about the bath as deeply as we do, as actors. I think the bath had a lot of potential to be a clear and meaningful symbol, however we could have made this more obvious to the audience by not hiding it or by explaining what we were doing through dialogue. In addition, the actors could have all been facing the bath to show that it was a key point to focus on futon the show. The bath wasn't as effective as I though got it would be during rehearsals because the concept of it was misinterpreted and the audience at have found it confusing or amusing. Perhaps this idea is unrealistic, but I think that if each cast member was in a bath each, it would have created a stronger image to the audience. It would show that we are all cleansing ourselves rather than just one person. This could have made our message clearer to the audience.

The soundscape was visually effective as it showed the chaos inside the character’s head due to her mental illness. The rubbish and old equipment we found was a metaphor for how she feels pathetic and worthless on the inside, like the rubbish we had found on the streets. This would have looked very interesting and intriguing for the audience. I feel like this piece wasn’t anywhere near as effective as I thought it would be. In my opinion, the soundscape was messy and unorganised. In addition, it was very difficult to hear the actor saying a monologue as the microphone didn’t work and they didn’t project their voice enough for the audience to hear them. Although, the soundscape was supposed to sound chaotic in order to represent the chaos inside her head, it didn’t sound very effective. This is because everyone was randomly hitting whatever they found and there was no build up in volume or pace which meant that the character had nothing to build up to, the sound was all on the same level which was quite boring to listen to. I think that this could be improved by having everyone slowly build up in volume and intensity. Everyone could have started by hitting their ‘instrument’ softly and gently and slowly built up to hitting it loudly and aggressively in order to show contrast and variation in the sounds. Furthermore, this would link to the movements as it starts off slowly before becoming manic an uncontrollable. This shows the build-up of horrible thoughts and how the suffering builds up until she can’t take it anymore. Moreover, this would make it easier to hear the actor saying her monologue.

Practitioners 

One practitioner we focused on during the performance was Grotowski. I spoke about how we used his technique of creating a strong relationship between the actor and the audience when discussing the effect of the facts in an earlier paragraph. We also used his idea of the ‘Holy actor’ in the scene with the bath. Grotowski believed that they could achieve this by getting rid of everything that was unnecessary or superfluous. Grotowski believed the perfect actor must sacrifice their body to acting, hence the term ‘holy actor.’ He wants actors to mentally cleanse themselves to wipe away their sin. The bath symbolised this as Becky sacrificed her body to society, this reflected on how Growtowski wanted his actors to sacrifice themselves to acting. I think that the bath is a very effective metaphor. This is clever as it shows her purity and holiness despite society’s darker side and expectations.

We explored Peter Brook’s theory of ‘Holy Theatre’ and Artaud’s theory of ‘Theatre of Cruelty’ in our sequences. Our movement was experimental and ritualistic. The audience joined the performers in an attempt to achieve a personal transformative, emotive and intelligent piece of theatre. This reflects on Peter Brook’s ‘holy theatre.’ Artaud didn’t want much spoken dialogue on stage and wanted to create a new non-verbal language for his actors when performing in a theatre. He thought that a ritualistic movement was a key feature of his productions, this often replacing traditional text or spoken dialogue. Actors often portrayed their emotions and communicated through ‘signs. These were usually formed of facial expressions and movement. Dance and gesture became just as effective as the spoken words. Often, his movement became disturbing or violent which reflects on Artaud’s negative and pessimistic view of society. This strongly came across in our piece as we conveyed our message without using any spoken dialogue. The message we attempted to get across to the audience was successfully done purely through our movement and our facial expressions. Moreover, our movement became chaotic and intense in order to show how we felt about society’s expectations and how we thought that this should change. This relates to how Artaud wanted to demonstrated his pessimistic view on society.

Individual Piece

I feel like this piece went very well. I kept in character, my voice was loud and clear with a menacing and eerie tone and my physicality and body language reflected the mental health problem of schizophrenia. My sequence was abut schizophrenia and escapism from the harsh reality surrounding my character, therefore I chose to be by the window that appeared to have bars over it. This represented my character’s aspiration and dreams of escaping the harsh reality he is in, however he cannot escape and feels trapped and lonely within society.  This was very experimental rather than naturalistic as my movement was ritualistic and in a routine. I feel like this was effective in some ways because it set an eerie tone to the performance and intimidated or scared some audience members as I intended. My sequence of moves was strong and clear to the audiences, making it very apparent that my character was suffering from hallucinations and having depressive episodes as well. I felt like the lack of space to move around in and the set movements inhibited me from creating a captivating and exciting piece. I felt like my piece didn’t stand out as I didn’t push the mental health problem to an extreme which would have shocked or frightened the audience and had a significant effect on them. Moreover, my piece was all on one level which didn’t allow me to build up my emotions and release them in an intriguing and experimental way. I feel like this piece was effective and interesting for the audience. However, I feel like I didn't have enough time to connect to the audience and help them create a wider set of interpretations of different mental illnesses. I think this could have been improved by getting the audience to stay there for longer and making the actors more spread out. This would have allowed to audience to absorb more of our piece and respect the artistic quality of it. Furthermore, we could have had the poems behind us so that the audience would realise that all of our spoken dialogue was taken from poems written by Sylvia Plath. 

Ending

I feel like the ending was very effective. We all worked together as an ensemble which was very powerful. We all had good posture and were in neutral which must have felt very intense and powerful for the audience. I feel like the least effective part of the ending was the part with the cellotape and torches. We all slowly raised up our hands which looked visually strong as an ensemble, creating a sense of purpose. After this, some actors rand around with cellotape, creating a chain/connection between all the actors. This wasn’t very clear to the audience and I don’t think they understand why we needed to use this or the effect of this. After this, the lights were dimmed and some more actors ran around with torches and shined it on the cellotape. I think it was very aesthetically pleasing when the light shone on the tape and created a sense of serenity and calmness. However, it wasn’t clear how this related t mental health or any of the previous scenes and the dramatic effect was unclear. The strongest part was the balloons. This was a metaphor for facing your fears and overcoming of them. The message behind this was to face your fears and eventually overcome them, therefore making us emotionally stronger and braver. The audience wrote down their fears such as failure of heights etc. onto a note which we would attach to a balloon before popping it. This was effective because it was so personal to the audience and puts them in a vulnerable position which may make them feel uneasy and it is easy to connect to their deeper emotions. Furthermore, it allows us to connect to the audience on a personal and emotional level, therefore creating a strong relationship between the actors and the audience. This was a great way to end the show as it was so powerful and meaningful. I think that this is very effective and was very moving for the audience. In addition, we were all in neutral and were very still which made all of our movement stronger in contrast to if we were fidgeting or talking or looking around the room. The audience were very shocked when the balloons popped at first, however they eventually realised the message that we were trying to convey to them.

Conclusion

In conclusion, I feel like the piece was very effective and we conveyed a very strong message to the audience about the significance of mental health in today’s society and the various different interpretations of madness. I really enjoyed the experimental side of theatre as a lot of theatre can be too naturalistic and boring rather than creating strong images and finding creative ideas to portray a story or message. I have learned a lot this term and my own personal knowledge and previous misconceptions of mental health have changed dramatically. I feel that I have worked hard and that my performance has showed that. Overall, the piece and the term have been very enjoyable and I am looking forward to what next term will bring.

Lesson 6

Posture

We started off by working on how to stand and sit in neutral. We were told that we must always concentrate and stay focused. I took on this advice and stood upright, with a straight back, feet shoulder width apart, chin up, arms by my side, chest out and imagining my head was attached to a piece of string which was holding my head up. I believe that this looks less lazy and much more confident for the audience, this will make them feel engaged with the piece. I think that if everyone does this, this will look very effective and will keep the audience’s attention throughout the performance. I felt like I was more aware of my surroundings and I was more enthusiastic and less distracted. Furthermore, this made the movement more fluent and create a stringer sense of working as an ensemble. We were told to maintain eye contact with the audience to create an engaging and intimate experience for them, this allowed us to connect to the audience on an emotional level. I believe that this will convey a strong, personal and moving message to the audience and will affect them much more than fidgeting or looking bored like we did before. Moreover, this creates a strong relationship between the actor and the audience which is one of Grotowski’s methods. He thought that if the actor creates a truthful connection with the audience, he would be able to change them. Before we worked on improving our physicality and posture, this was one of the main weaknesses of the show because we were lazy and didn’t put much energy into our work, however now our performance had improved greatly.

Lines

We each added in a line to our performance as a way conveying what is really going on our heads and how we truly feel through thought tracking. Normally, I don’t like thought tracking as the thoughts and emotions of the character should be made clear through their acting. I think that this is a very amateur and basic technique as it either shows something that is obvious or spoils the plot for the audience. I prefer theatre to be implicit and subtle rather than explicit and lazy. However, this works well in our performance as it shows the motivation behind our actions and allows us to think about why we, as teenagers, act in a certain way in society and allows us to think about what limits our self-expression and individuality. Therefore, it is very effective in the piece as it allows the audience to reflect on society’s expectations and boundaries that we take for granted in our everyday lives. The boys talk about why we act macho and intimidating. The girls talk about why they act feminine or wear makeup. My line is ‘I act hard to hide my insecurities.’ This means that I want to hide how I feel and show a lack of emotion. I feel like society expects men to act in a particular manner, therefore I try to follow these expectations by behaving in a particular way in order to impress people. This is an excellent exercise as it allows us to think deeply about ourselves and society, this makes our acting and the performance more personal and truthful. This will improve our acting as it is honest and means something to us, rather than fake acting which an audience won’t connect to or believe.  

Bath

We incorporated the bath into our performance. Becky would go into the bath while other actor poured water over her and filled up the bath. I think that Becky will be in her underwear in order to show the character’s vulnerability as she is exposed. This is effective as it relates to the previous scene of taking layers on and off. The bath is a metaphor for her cleaning herself and wiping away her sins. As she is in the bath, she realises that she cannot find herself and that she wants to rid herself from the air which represents the world she is living in.This is clever as it shows her purity and holiness despite society’s darker side and expectations. Moreover, this relates to ‘The Holy Actor.’ Grotowski believed that they could achieve this by getting rid of everything that was unnecessary or superfluous. Grotowski believed the perfect actor must sacrifice their body to acting, hence the term ‘holy actor.’ The bath symbolises this as Becky sacrifices her body to society. I think that the bath is a very effective metaphor. However, this may not be too clear to the audience who won’t know about Grotowski and may not think about the bath as deeply as we do, as actors in the performance. Furthermore, this will be very difficult for Becky as she won’t be able to be hidden from the audience as she is supposed to. This is because she won’t be able to breathe underwater if she is out of sight for the audience.

Comforting

After the boys short sequence of moves to demonstrate masculinity, the movement started to become manic and chaotic, we had lost any sense of timing and control which shows how we could no longer control what we were doing, it was too automatic and it had become very frustrating and it was chaos. This represented what was going through our heads. Gradually, the girls would come along and hold us to make us feel protected and safe. They repeat the phrase ‘It’s okay’ in order to comfort us. This is effective as it implies that there is a solution to the panic within society. We suddenly became calmer, relaxed and ourselves. We weren’t afraid to show our emotional or softer side. We would then gasp for breath and reach out which was an intelligent and effective way to show us trying to escape society and society’s expectations. Furthermore, it links to depression and shows us trying got end our lives by escaping which fits in excellently with the theme of mental health. It was very interesting that the girls were calming down and holding the boys rather than the other way round. This defies the social boundaries of normal or usual events and I find this intriuging. 

Experiments

I was asked to be a scientist in a group of experiments and tests we had given to the audience. There were 11 scientists and the audience were given 3 minutes to complete a task such as a group of riddles or a puzzle. This idea is very effective as it builds up an actor-audience relationship in a piece of immersive theatre in which the audience could interact with the actors. This gave the audience a chance to see something from the perspective of someone with a mental health issue. They can see how difficult or confusing every day activities can be for someone who is suffering with a mental health problem, therefore the audience will have a great knowledge and understanding of the key theme of our performance. This relates to Grotowski’s concept of creating a strong relationship between the actor and the audience to make the performance more captivating and personal for them. I feel like this came across very well in this scene.

Cellotape and torches

At the end of the piece, Charlie told the audience that they were entering the brain as he pulled back the curtain to reveal the rest of the actors standing in neutral, looking at the audience. As soon as the curtain was opened, we all began to walk around the room in a circle, with the audience being in the middle of the circle. We varied on pace as we walked around until we all started jogging, running and then completely stopped. I imagine that this will make the audience feel very intimidated or self-conscious. This will also help them relate to the struggles of mental health. This will be very effective if all the actors say in neutral and permanently keep eye contact with the audience. After this, we all slowly raised up our hands and some actors rand around with cellotape, creating a chain/connection between all the actors. After this, the lights were dimmed and some more actors ran around with torches and shined it on the cellotape. I think it was very aesthetically pleasing when the light shone on the tape and created a sense of serenity and calmness. I didn’t understand the theatrical effect on the audience and I don’t think they will understand it either. I think that it is possibly used in order to create a sense of ensemble and everyone coming together to show strength and defying social boundaries and mental health issues. 

Balloons

We finished the piece by getting the audience to write one of their fears such as failure of heights etc. onto a note which we would attach to a balloon before popping it. This is very personal to the audience and puts them in a vulnerable position which may make them feel uneasy. However, this is very effective as it allows us to connect to the audience on a personal and emotional level, therefore creating a strong relationship between the actors and the audience. Bursting the balloons was a metaphor for bursting your fears and getting rid of them. The message behind this was to face your fears and eventually overcome them, therefore making us emotionally stronger and braver. I think that this is very effective as it will be very moving for the audience. 

Peter Brook

Context

Peter Brook is an English theatre and film director, who has been based in France since the early 1970s. He was born on 21st March 1925 in England. He has won multiple awards such as Tony and Emmy Awards, a Laurence Olivier Award, the Praemium Imperiale, and the Prix Italia, all for his work in theatre and film He has been called ‘our greatest living theatre director.’ His main work includes The Deadly theatre, The Holy Theatre, The Rough theatre and The Immediate theatre.I will talk about his most important concepts of 'deadly theatre' and 'holy theatre' and how they juxtapose each other Brook wanted to answer the question of ‘How is theatre still relevant today?’

Deadly theatre

Deadly theatre means ‘bad theatre’ which means that people may take it for granted. This is the most seen form of theatre. Peter Brook describes ‘The Deadly theatre’ as a theatre of dullness. He is showing that this kind of theatre has no deep feelings or emotions for an audience. He believes that this is a commercial form of theatre set up in order to make money. It's the theatre of imitation. There is no connection between audience and theatre production in any way. Deadly theatre may fall into two categories. The first category is ‘Lack of human honesty in the production and lack of straightness in honesty’. He believes that people and society are unfair towards theatre, actors and designers. They stopped saying what they really think and feel.

Holy Theatre

There are two types of Holy Theatre that Brook refers to in his book. The first definition is a performance that is ritualistic or almost religious. The audience joins the performers in an attempt to achieve a personal transformative, emotive and intelligent piece of theatre. The second definition refers to dedicated and committed theatre professionals who give their lives to creating theatre which achieves the same transformative journeys that once existed in religious rituals which no longer occur. He wanted to bring back a liveliness and passion that he thought had been lost. The plays usually focus on contemporary life and personal issues. Furthermore, they usually avoid the traditional or usual venues such as Broadway, the regional and academic theatres.

Exercises

We performed various execicies based around the works of Peter Brook. This whole session was all about working with impulses and using our emotion centres. The first exercise illustrated how you can take away action and still have an interesting performance. Two people had to sit at the front of the class and stare at the wall; except one of them had to clear her mind of all thoughts whilst I had to focus on an intense feeling such as anger. They were discouraged from using facial expression this became very difficult as so much of an emotion id portrayed through sound, body language and facial expressions. The class were asked who was most interesting to watch. Most people said the actor trying to portray the emotion of anger because they were intrigued by their eyes and wanted to understand what was going on behind them. I found the actor portraying anger interesting to watch as I could see more of a character. This exercise showed me how you don't even need actions, gestures, movement or even text to create an emotional performance. All you need is an impulse. This exercise continued further. However, they were given additional instructions. One group were given the instruction to show the emotion using a body part such as their neck or their fingers. The movement ranged from tapping fingers to tensing shoulders. One actor tensed his shoulders a lot in order to demonstrate the emotion of anger. I found this very interesting to watch as his shoulders kept getting tenser which showed the anger building up. Another exercise we did was working with any intense feeling and then vocalising or physicalising it. After this, another group went up and were given another instruction of letting the emotion build so much that a noise came out when reaching the climax of the emotion felt. I think it was easier to portray a negative emotion such as sadness or anger as this can be pushed to a further extreme. One actor showed his anger building up before slamming the floor in rage. This demonstrated the steps of how anger builds up before speech was given. This was effective to watch as it made me understand that I should really build up my emotions internally before showing it externally and, finally, speaking to express the emotion further. This exercise helped to show me how to sustain and extreme emotion and how an impulse can grow into full voice and movement. This relates to a monologue and shows how the emotion must build up and reach certain climactic moments rather than staying on one level as that is less entertaining and less realistic. One of the final exercises we did was to get your partner to do an action using no verbal or physical communication. We could only use facial expression and our eyes. My partner was Kai and we actually achieved this. It was more of a trial and error exercise. I wanted him to jump up and down. I think he was able to read the slight changes in my face. This exercise demonstrated how it if you play close attention you can through unspoken communication achieve many things. However it was unclear how we managed to actually achieve this. Our final exercise involved showing an extreme emotion. In this, Jack put some strange music on (involving silence and sharp introductions to vocals) and he told us to close our eyes and move into an emotion using it. I chose the emotion of fear and imagined I was being hiding and my life depended on not being found. This forced me to show a real and honest emotion through my body language and facial expressions. When Jack began to count down from 10, I could build my fear growing before producing a sound. This exercise was very effective because I started to understand how effective it is feel the emotion with my body before trying to engage it with speech therefore making me feel that I can understand the basics of Brook's beliefs.

Sylvia Plath

Depression

We are using text from a play called ‘The bell jar’ by Sylvia Plath. I decided to research the author to learn about her background and her relationship with mental health.
Sylvia Plath was born on 27th October 1932. She was an American poet, novelist, and short-story writer. She unfortunately suffered from depression and committed suicide in 1963. This is interesting as her text may reflect on her own personal life. It is interesting to her about her interpretation of mental health from the viewpoint of someone who suffered greatly from depression herself. Before her death, Plath tried several times to take her own life. On August 24, 1953 Plath overdosed on pills in the cellar of her mother's home. In June, 1962 Plath drove her car off the side of the road, into a river. When questioned about the incident by police she admitted to trying to take her own life. Doctors knew about her depression and had given her antidepressants before her death, she was admitted to a hospital but refused to go, and therefore she had a stay-in nurse arranged for her. She was found dead from carbon monoxide poisoning with her head in the oven, having sealed the rooms between her and her sleeping children with wet towels and cloths. This sounds like a horrific way to die and I can’t imagine the traumatic pain she was going through. This makes me think about how serious and severe mental health problems are. I will remember the importance of this in my performance.

The Bell Jar

During her career, she only wrote one book- this was ‘The Bell-Jar.’ I researched the book in order to find out the plot and summary of the play. The story is about Esther Greenwood- a college student from Massachusetts, travels to New York to work on a magazine for a month as a guest editor. Esther knows she should be having the time of her life, but she feels depressed and dead inside. During the play, she is nearly raped which traumatises her. Esther has a huge ambition to write poetry. She finds the feelings of unreality she experienced in New York taking over her life. She is unable to read, write, or sleep, and she stops bathing. Her mother takes her to a psychiatrist who prescribes electric shock therapy for Esther. Esther becomes more unstable than ever after this terrifying treatment, and decides to kill herself. Esther awakens to find herself in the mental hospital. She has survived her suicide attempt with no permanent physical injuries. Esther will leave the mental hospital in time to start winter semester at college. She believes that she has regained a tenuous grasp on sanity, but knows that the bell jar of her madness could descend again at any time. The Bell Jar is an autobiographical novel closely relates to the events of the author’s life. This book clearly relates to the life of Sylvia Plath. Both Plath and Esther loved poetry and felt overwhelmed in society. They both had big dreams and aspirations, yet they were unable to fulfil this due to suffering from depression. Moreover, they both had unsuccessful suicide attempts which would have made them frustrated and confused, however it would also allow them to contemplate their own lives. The Bell Jar recounts, in slightly fictionalized form, the events of the summer and autumn after Plath’s junior year. Just like the protagonist of The Bell Jar, Plath was invited to serve as guest editor for a woman’s magazine in New York. After returning to Wellesley for the remainder of the summer, she had a nervous breakdown and attempted suicide. Sylvia Plath killed herself a month after writing the book. This demonstrated how the book was a cry for help and was a way to express her true emotions and feelings. Moreover, this was written to express the seriousness and importance of depression and how it affects people’s lives. Esther and Sylvia Plath both had breakdowns which symbolises the pressure on the youth of society and their behaviour and appearance. Their stress is a symbol for how teenagers feel today. I feel likes researching the book and author has given me a greater knowledge and understanding o depression as well s giving me a more detailed understanding of the context of the monologues within the play.

Lesson 5

Sequence

We had to choose a final and definite location for our opening sequence as the audience walked by. It was very hard to choose a place that everyone would see and that would fit into my piece as well as being aesthetically pleasing. My sequence was abut schizophrenia an escapism, therefore I chose to be by the window that appeared to have bars over it. This represents my character’s aspiration and dream of escaping the harsh reality he is in, however he cannot escape and feels trapped and lonely within society. My space was on the steps which meant I was in people’s way and they would have to notice me. Moreover, I started the piece by lying upside down on the steps which effective as it appeared unique, original and interesting for the audience. There were few complications with this idea, such as getting in the audience's way and getting stepped on which is risky, however I think that this artistic value or the piece is worth the risk. I can improve my piece by getting louder and louder in my speech in order to show the build-up on thoughts and horror going through my head.

Facts and Reading Word

We were told to convey to the audience what the stereotype of someone with mental health problems looks like, these movements were over the top and exaggerated. I was given a tambourine to incorporate into this scene. I decided to sit on the floor, holding my ankles, shaking the tambourine, laughing and saying ‘shhhh’ to the tambourine. I kept repeating this throughout the piece. In my opinion, everyone’s movement looked unnatural or not truthful, I think this goes against what we had previously learned about the subtly and the attempts to hide how we truly feel. Many people with a mental health problem will look completely normal. Therefore, this exaggerated movement wasn’t effective and took us back a step. However, this is clever because it is a clear juxtaposition to our own naturalistic and believable interpretations of mental health in our earlier sequences. This gives the audiences different perspectives of mental health, hence allowing them to think deeply about what mental health looks like for them and how common it is in today's society. After finding out many facts about mental health, we were told to say one of them in an order, once it was your turn to speak, you would stop whatever you were doing, turn to face the audience and say your fact. My fact was Schizophrenia effects 1 in every 100 people. I thinking this is shocking as it is so common, yet it is still usually unheard of. This is effective as I shocks the audience, much like the slap and tickle effect. Moreover, this juxtaposes the character we were just playing and adds a serious undertone to the piece to help the audience realise the importance of mental health in today’s society, a problem which isn’t often mentioned or talked about. As we will then go back to our actions, it will hopefully remind the audience that the character we are playing is a real one and they may be affected by these statistics as well. We were also given a word to say in an order in a similar way to how we say the fact. All of these words were taken from the Bethlem museum and were words that were genuinely used to describe those who were mentally ill. This is interesting as there is more meaning behind what you’re saying and it can come across as being more hurtful as people had to suffer this mocking and bullying very often. I think this is very harsh and cruel, which changes my perspective on the word as I say it in the piece. The word I was given was ‘fruitcake.’ These words reflect in the harsh mockery and cruelty towards mental health in today’s society. I think it's really effective as the words are all insults and sayings that are heard very often, however people don’t realise the seriousness of these issues, therefore being very effective in showing cause and effect.

Lesson 4

Finding Wastage

We began the lesson by going around Selhurst and searching for things that have been throw out in order to make noises with in a soundscape in class. Firstly, I went to collect the bath which would be used in our piece before going around afterwards to find more stuff. As a class, we found a loads of things lying on the streets including a drum, a fridge, a tyre, an ironing board and a pram. This was interesting and I wondered how we could incorporate these into our performance. I think this will allow the piece to be aesthetically pleasing and captivating for an audience as the idea is original and strange. I enjoyed this activity because it taught me about the amount of stuff that gets wasted on a daily basis, as well as learning about what rubbish makes the most unique or most interesting noises.

Putting On/ Taking Off Layers

We were all told to bring in a few different layers and the girls were also asked to bring make up to wipe off.  The boys put on more layers in order to appear larger and more intimidating. This hides our insecurities of feeling small or unimportant. We put on the layer while maintaining a hard/ aggressive facial expression to emphasize manliness. This showed how men were preparing to go for a night out or a party. This was quite effective as it shows how we hide how we really feel and shows that we, as men, try to cover up our emotions and keep them hidden on the inside as it is considered weak or not masculine to express emotions such as fear or sadness. However, the message we were trying to convey wasn’t as clear as the girls’ message. I believe that the message needs to be made cleared in order to have a more significant impact on the audience. We could do this through spoken dialogue or making noises or having a small gesture to represent hiding our emotions before putting on our layers. The girls wore red lipstick and mascara to smear across their faces. They took off layers of clothing which contrasted to our piece. They looked upset and rejected as they had just come back from a party or a nightclub and felt ignored and lonely. The girls used their hands to rub their lipstick off their faces. I thought that taking off the layers while looking blankly straight ahead was very effective. This was because it really conveyed a powerful message about revealing our true emotions underneath. By taking off layers of clothing, the girls were exposing their bodies in order to show their vulnerability within society, this vulnerability can easily be abused as girls can be very sensitive. I believe this is an effective metaphor. As the gesture get out of control, we begin to question where the line between our everyday lives and our own control of our movement is. This is a metaphor for the line between sanity and being insane. The audience will question this and wonder when it is that we take things too far in society and are no longer able to control ourselves.

Gestures

The piece began with us all putting on several layers of clothes which completely contrasted to the girls, showing a clear divide in how different genders differ when hiding their emotions. We were all acting tough and manly. All the boys stood in a space around the room and we were told to create gestures as if we were going on a night out and wanted to hide our emotions and insecurities so that no one would suspect anything. We had to put on a mask to cover up and act overly manly, strong and intimidating. I created very stereotypical moves of a man preparing for a big night out. My first move was brushing/ doing my hair in the mirror in order to appear good looking and attractive on the outside. I think all men want to look good in order to impress people and feel good about themselves. Usually, people think it is just girls who like to make themselves look as attractive as possible, however many men are also insecure about their appearance. Therefore, I think my move was very effective as it conveyed issue from a different perspective. My second movement was flexing my muscles in order to appear strong and manly. Many men do this in order to show off what they are proud of. This is a way to distract yourself from what you are not proud of or feel insecure about. This was effective as it shows a temporary method of distracting yourself from your true emotions. My third movement was drinking alcohol, this is usually considered the sociable and cool thing to do at a party. Furthermore, it represents how alcohol is a major influence in ‘drinking away your problems’ to stop you thinking about them and pretending that they’re not there. Many people drink to forget so I decided this would be an effective was to show how we hide true feelings. I was unsure of what to do as a fourth movement so I decided to go for a basic option of looking cool/ posing. I will probably change this movement as the impact and meaning behind it isn’t as clear as my other moves. I then repeated all these movements in a short sequence. I thought these set of moves were very successful as bringing together a lot of different ways that men usually use to hide themselves.
All the boys then started performing the same movement. This movement included walking forwards looking intimidating, smoking weed, going down on one knee to appear comedic and funny, the final movement was flexing muscles. When we repeated them all together, it took a while to get in sync with one another however once the music started getting quicker and louder, we all increased the pace of the movements and went crazy by doing it; although I could not witness how it looked to an audience member, it felt as if it looked really good and manic. We watched the girls movement which was a similar layout to out movement. They then got into a space and did a similar thing to us with the gestures. All the moves were different but then all copy one person's moves. I really enjoyed watching the girls copy Nicole's moves, at different times, as it showed how girls hide in different, individual ways to one another however there comes a point when they all result in doing the same kind of thing to show that they're all the same. After the gestures, the girls all collapsed, as if it had got too much for us, This was effective as it showed how it all became manic and chaotic until they could no longer handle it. 

Soundscape

We used everything we had found previously on the streets to use as our instruments, we began to use them in our piece to create a soundscape. This was visually effective as it showed the chaos of the city and the thoughts inside the character’s head due to her mental illness. Also, the rubbish and old equipment we found was a metaphor for how she feels inside as she feels pathetic and worthless, like the rubbish we had just collected. However, although the noises were manic and unorganised, it didn’t sound very effective. This is because everyone was randomly hitting whatever they found and there was no build up in volume or pace which meant that the character had nothing to build up to, the sound was all on the same level which was quite boring to listen to. 

The Sleepers- Sylvia Plath

No map traces the street
Where those two sleepers are.
We have lost track of it.
They lie as if under water
In a blue, unchanging light,
The French window ajar

Curtained with yellow lace.
Through the narrow crack
Odors of wet earth rise.
The snail leaves a silver track;
Dark thickets hedge the house.
We take a backward look.

Among petals pale as death
And leaves steadfast in shape
They sleep on, mouth to mouth.
A white mist is going up.
The small green nostrils breathe,
And they turn in their sleep.

Ousted from that warm bed
We are a dream they dream.
Their eyelids keep up the shade.
No harm can come to them.
We cast our skins and slide
Into another time.

I will use this poem in my performance and say the highlighted lines in my movement. This related to the mental health issue I have chosen as it talks about a dream world inside their heads. I interpreted the poem as the character believing in a perfect dream world which juxtaposed his harsh reality. The voices in his head are guiding him to a perfect world which he cannot get to. I will physically reach out to the world but never get to it. This makes my character angry as he feels like he is being mistreated and mocked.