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.