Second Day of children theatre performances

This was the second day we were performing our plays to the children but this time the whole audience consisted of year one and year two from Broad Water Primary school in two separate performances, one in the morning and one in the afternoon.

The first performance we did today went well but i feel that it was the less better of the two. It started off quite well at the beginning when Lois and Naomi brought the children into the theatre where they began to explain what was going to happen and what they might experience. It then went into them telling the children about Story Land and the disaster that had previously happened to them meaning that story land was in a bit of a messy state. After this a mad wizard (Harry) entered and explained in detail what had happened which was that a big asteroid had crashed into Story Land and that the children had to help them.

Then the story stealer patrolmen (Charlotte and Gemma) came out and brought the children in the space where they explained to the children that they needed help cleaning up the boxes from the middle. Once they did this they found a box which they explained needed three keys to open to the box of magical things. They asked the children to help them find the first one by looking around the space where a key was hidden. Once the children had found the first key they were informed that the second key was in a big box filled with shredded paper and they had to put their hands in the holes around the box to find it. After this had been accomplished the wizard informed then that the whereabouts of the third key can be found on the scroll that he had previously given to one of the children. On the scroll there was a riddle which was a clue as to where to find the last key. It read "To unlock the box of incredible things, look on the back of the story stealers......". This was left empty for the children to guess the last word which was wings. Once they knew this they had to creep up behind the stealer (Fran) and get the key of her back in the style grandmas footsteps. Once the kids had collected the key, Charlotte and Gemma took all the kids out the front where the curtain to the stage behind them closed which was a good transition because as well as leaving the stage and allowing there to be time to pre set the next story up behind them, it still continued the story and kept the interaction with the children going and flowed nicely into the next story. Once all the kids were sat down they then proceeded to have three children come up and put their keys in the box which had the power to turn the story stealer good again. We then beamed lasers onto the curtain as if to show this is what was inside the box. The lasers represent portals to other stories which the children would experience as the play continued. As they continued to tell the kids about the portal they also said that the story stealer had become good again and would share the stories that she stole with the children which led them on the next story.

As Charlotte and Naomi spoke, two new characters Inky and Minky (Lois and Megan) appeared from behind the curtain. They began to tell the children about their land which was based around oranges. They then took the children through the portal which had been previously been opened up in the first story to their land of oranges. They then told the children to help them buy picking up all the oranges which had been scattered around the space which can be used to refuel the creature living in the land. Then as they had an argument over who was the better creature, the character called the Narrator (Raven) explained to the children what else happened such as things like eating healthily. The argument continued between them until the character of Baby Pinky (Jess) to start crying. They then had a competition where they split all the children in to two groups (one for inky one for Minky) and did things like pulling funny faces and best dance moves to decide who was the best  and a new character. Then they both ran out of fuel where Orangina (Naomi) came out and did a mixture of activities including an original piece called the wake up song to wake them up. Once they were awake they took the children out of the space back in front of the curtain where they began to play a game about healthy food groups and categories. This gave us time behind the curtain to pre set up the next story which also works well as a good transition because it is focusing on one thing whilst over things change in the background. We used this time to place our groups props about this stage which consisted of a big spoon, bowl and cereal which we would use later with the children fro them to help us with our story. We also set up a small barrier around the are where the dragon/prince (Valencia) will be sitting on the stage.

However before we opened up the curtains for the children to come into our world we had myself, Maddie and Andrew go out the front of the curtain and tell the kids a story as our character of Juan, Sheila and Steve. We had previously provided the children with small paper bags with puppets of ourselves in them as characters such as a princess, a frog and a prince. We told them to use those puppets with us as we told them the story of the Princess and the Frog. Personally I think that this worked really well as an activity because it kept up interaction between us and the audience and also allowed us to directly address the children when talking about a character such as the frog and telling them to move their puppets. Once we had read the story to the kids, a dragon speaker (Vicky) came out and told the children about their problem and how an evil wizard Gaz (Maddie) had transformed a prince into a dragon. She then led them into the space where a cross fade in the lighting happened creating a blue/green wash to match the theme and atmosphere of the scene. Also in the space there was a spotlight on Valencia dressed as a dragon to keep them questioning as to what might the character mean and have to do with the story. Vicky then continued to tell the children to look for some items hidden around the space and some riddles for them to solve to help them understand what to use the items for. This then led into Victoria and Andrew leading the kids over stepping stones above lava so they could get to the dragon and feed him to help him change back into a prince. Once they had all crossed the lava they gathered around the dragon (Valencia) ready to feed him the cereal so he could change back. To do this however, they needed to sing the dragon feeding song which they needed help from the princess (me) to sing. Once I had taught them the song, we all gathered round the dragon, sung the song and watched him change back into a prince. Once this had happened the prince and the princess got together and requested to watch Shrek with the kids.

The show ended by all of the cast dancing the song 'I'm a believer' performed by SmashMouth from Shrek on the stage and then getting the children to dance with us too.

After the performance we all worked together to take down the whole set in the space of two hours (this is also known as a strike).

This is a video of our second to last performance.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VoCcjGzTs9c&feature=youtu.be

 

 

Rachel's Feedback

1st story

• Lois and Naomi needed to be more specific when talking about the disaster that had previously happened and go into more detail. 
• When the children were looking for the keys around the stage, it would be more interesting and perhaps challenging for them if we added more keys around consisting of different sizes, styles and colours.
• There needed to be less shredded paper in the mystery box because it was hard for the children to find the keys in the box.
• More exciting, less obvious places to hide the keys such as attached to one of the moons hanging from the sealing.
• Harry, as the wizard, needs to talk more during the video about the story stealer and how she came about.
• Integrating the game grandmas footsteps into the performance when trying to get the key of the story stealers wings worked really well and was a good use of immersive and interactive theatre.

2nd story

• The characters needed to explain and go into further detail about the land of 'Story World' and what else it involves such as other creatures that live there and different themes and styles such as a land of oranges.
• Change the activity of story time because it adds an unnecessary length and goes off topic. 
• Raven needed to be in the play more rather than just the narrator, could potentially add more into the scene by telling the children more information about story land and the rivalry between Inky and Minky.
• When the competition between Inky and Minky comes up and involves the children, try and add more activities and rounds for them rather than pulling faces. Add things like best dance moves and loudest shouts.

3rd story

• Me and Maddie telling the story of the princess and the Frog as Juan and Sheila went really well. It added comedy and was also a key point of interaction with the audience.
• Andrew should come to the front of the stage with me rather than being behind the curtain to add banter and make his character more involved.
• Andy and Valenica's characters need to be involved within the story more rather than the single parts they are in.
• Change the idea of leaping over lava to get across but every time a the children step on the spots in the stage, it builds up energy for the dragon to change back into a prince.
• Build a box barrier around Valencia when she is the dragon to stop children from getting too close due to the smoke machines and giving her enough room to change.

Performance 1

My Evaluation of the show

Children's comments

The comments we got from the children after this performance were probably the most useful because it was the first show and therefore we could apply to all the performances in the future. One of the comments we received from the children was that through out the performance they really enjoyed looking for things around the stage which they needed for the play to continue. An example of this is in the first story where we asked the children to look for keys to open the box of magical things. The keys were scattered around the space in areas such as boxes and on top of blocks. This was very effective feedback because it was not a specific thing but an activity which we could then weave into more parts in the story. An example of us applying this to another part was in our story section where after learning that they like looking for and finding things, adding it in by hiding our props e.g. spoon, bowl and cereal for the children to find.


Another thing that the children enjoyed was the use of puppets which our group incorporated into our piece when telling the story of The Princess and the Frog. We felt that this scene was not interactive enough and could have made the kids bored so we decided to add the use of puppets which consisted of the characters within the story e.g. a frog, prince and princess. We then gave them to the kids and told them to use them during the story as we read it so they could act it out along with us using the puppets. From the feedback we got about this, it think that it worked well and could have been something which we could have potentially applied more into the show but we seemed to get a good enough response from just the one use so we decided to keep it in just the one scene.

Performance 2

My Evaluation of the show

Children's comments

The feedback which we received from this performance was good because it was diverse and involved different things rather than just focusing on one specific area of the play. An example of this is something that the children enjoyed was the use of having bags to hold with things in which they would use through out the play in various scenes and scenarios. An example of this that the children enjoyed was using the different things that came in the bag to help out in the play. After the second story, the children would take part in an activity identifying food groups and placing the food items which came in their bags into the correct areas. Another time this was used was in our section where we used puppets and they all had a puppet in their bags which they would use when the character name came up in the in the story which we were reading to them at the specific time.
Something else which they enjoyed about the play was the points where they would sing and dance. This was incorporated at multiple points during the play. For example during the second story, they were split into two groups, one half with Minky and the other with Inky, and they had to do a competition to see who was the better creature. One of the things they had to do was have a "Dance Off" which it was obvious that they enjoyed because of the enthusiasm and the movement which they portrayed across to us. This came across in every performance which is good because it shows that they like to be active and move about which was a key element when we were originally devising the plays.

Performance 3

My Evaluation of the show

Children's comments
This performance in particular didn't leave a lot to go through after because there was not a lot of feedback from the children however we did receive feedback on specific parts such as entrances and exits and lines of dialogue. An example of this is when the wizard (Harry) ran off stage at various points shouting words like "Eagle!" and "I Must Leave Now!". This, although simple was quite effective I think because it added comedy that the children can understand and enjoy. Short bursts and moments like this helped when keeping the play flow smoother, keeping the children entertained and moments of spontanuety which are recieved well.

Something else that they enjoyed in this performance was was activity during the second story when we all had to work together to wake up
trying to wake up inky

Performance 4

My Evaluation of the show

Children's comments

when the story stealer turned good

people act like monsters

performance 5

My Evaluation of the show

Children's comments

the keys (finding them)

the laser show

My personal goals

It was important to me that I got the children to understand that it is important to keep promises with people and not to break them. I believed that I accomplished this through my use of characteristics in the scene where I as Juan read them a story with my wife Sheila (Maddie). The outcome if this was that I felt more comfortable when performing with and to the children because it showed that they listen to things that they find interesting and it also keeps them entertained meaning they are easier to perform to and they get more involved with the story.

Another thing I wanted the children to know/understand was the value of working together as a group or a team to achieve things. This was weaved throughout the whole piece. An example of this is getting the children to find the spoon, bowl and cereal in our piece, finding the keys and collecting oranges.

Performances to children

Performance 1

Rehearsal
We started off the day by getting all of the equipment ready for a tech run in the morning. This meant we had to run through with the tech people the queues for things such as sounds and smoke effects. Also changes in lights and what type of lights we wanted such as washes or spotlights. This whole process consisted of about six hours and when we weren't in the tech room we were practising and running over lines. Also in this time we created some new features for our performance such as new characteristics. An example of this is me adding in the fact that my character who reads the story at the beginning of our segment was now a Mexican called 'Juan' because he is the one. After this finished we had a full run of the performance form the beginning to the end where afterwards we sat down with Rachel and went through what went well in the performance and what we could do to improve before the first actual show. Some examples of this is things like less generic instructions to the children when telling them to go to places in the room and find things. This also links into being aware of any potential danger hazards for the children such as lights, equipment and walking into objects in the dark. Some examples of stuff that we as the crew had to focus on were things like pre-setting our individual stories things at the start of each segment rather than at the beginning of the entire play. This also meant marking things out such as points to stand and place stuff.

After we had finished this we had about 20 minutes to have a break before our first performance started so in this time we ran some things just to be fully confident on them such as being more familiar  with the story that me and Maddie read at the beginning of our segment.

The Performance
Because it was the first performance it was open up to family and friends of the people involved in the production. Unfortunately, not many people showed up to this performance however there was enough people to interact with and give a full performance to which was in my opinion a good thing because it firstly gave us a good idea of how the kids will react to the show in a less intense way. This prepared us for the future performances because we knew how to deal with the kids and keep them under control.
The performance went well in my opinion, the whole cast got involved even in the parts they weren't in which upped the energy and this reflected on the performance because the audience saw that we were having fun and then became more relaxed into it and enjoyed themselves more.
I personally think i did well in this performance because it stayed in character the whole time and was enthusiastic.

Kats Lesson 2 - Dance

The first half of this lesson we carried on our 'fault line' piece running over the first half and up to the point where we were at last lesson and then at this point we were told to devise a new section consisting of eight beast where we would each devise 8 dance moves or positions we had already been taught in class to go in time simultaneously with one another. Once we had devised  these moves if worked as a 8 beat transition into the next couples part. This consisted of creating a simluated fight scene through snace with our partners until there was only one person left in the class.


I think that the devised fight part i created with Harry went very well because it was in time and worked well. Also due to both our heights and statue it was more possible to us a wider range of moves and echniques such as lifts and roles which we did apply at the end of the segment. If i had to improve something however it would be the length ofthe part. I feel that it could be longer and involve more space but this isalso something that we can work on in the coming lessons.


I feel that i contributed in this class when devising the solo parts and the couples fight scene because i helped think of ideas and went along with what the group was saying. I also contributed by helping out my class mates if they were stuck on specfic parts.
LINK:

Childrens theatre lesson 1

This was my first lesson working on the children's theatre piece. The lesson consisted of performing the previously devised pieces to the other groups in the class which we would eventually perform to classes of pre-school children. The lesson started by including myself into a groups performance by learning the story and creating a part for myself. The part which I devised was the role of the 'Dragon Whisperer' which consisted of playing guitar as the story was told and contributing to the story line by reading out parts on the story and reacting with the audience.


At this time we also chose costumes which we felt fitted the story and were also aimed at the audience. We chose light brown dressing gowns and big colourful wigs to suit children theatre because they are big, bright and capture the children's attention.




During the stages of rehearsing we did make some changes due to more actors joining the group. For example we added in my character and took away a role because one of the actors was not present and we needed to rehearse and perform. This meant changing the story slightly from having a min antagonist to there just being an overall problem that the children need to solve. This links into our ideas of interacting with the children to keep them fully entertained at all times. We will achieve this by asking the children riddles and questions to help us out.

LINK: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lqjNHZn7b1Q&feature=youtu.be







Second lesson in Children's Theatre


This lesson we all went off in little groups and completed the tasks we had been previously set at the end of last lesson. Me and Valencia had the task of finding a children's story to tell in our piece and link it to our story somehow. We originally chose 'The Thief and His Master' by the brothers Grimm but we cam to the conclusion that it was too long and couldn't link to our performance so we changed it to 'The Princes and the Frog' also by The Brothers Grimm. This linked well into our original story because it follows the same idea of a human and a creature that meet and change each other.


I also started to compose some music with Andy in the class for songs for the characters that the children will help us sing. Two songs are parody's of songs that's already exist, 500 Miles by The Proclaimers and Lose Yourself by Eminem, which we will change to lyrics to match our story. We chose these tow because they are recognisable songs from most ages and for their comedic effect. The third song we wrote was an original for everyone to join in for as a sort of final piece. We decided to do it this way s it would leave it on a high and keep the children entertained until the end.
Link:

Kats lesson 1

This was my first lesson for Musical Theatre which consisted of dance and movement. The first half of the lesson consisted of devising and running a dance. The piece in itself is inspired around the idea of aboriginal gangs in conflict with one another which is reflected in the movement. An example of this is during one part we used a slitting the throat motion towards the other gang as a sine of aggression and violence. Another example is when we all crowded around a single member and continued by throwing clenched fists towards them in a punchy motion. All of these various types of movement combined, created a sense of aggression, anger and violence towards one another.


As a student I felt that I contributed towards the dance by devising a small segment with another student in solo part in the middle of the dance. One way which devised piece in my opinion  could have been improved by making the movements more varied and not as reparative.


Link:


The second half of the lesson consisted of us learning more choreography the college performance of The Rock Classic performed by Queen that is WE WILL ROCK YOU!!! The song which we were performing to was One Vision by Queen. I contributed to this lesson by becoming part of the ensemble and bringing a fresh mind set with plenty of energy and enthusiasm. Some of the challenges which I came across during the rehearsals was things like time keeping and initial choreography. However as the lesson progressed I became more comfortable within the movements and began to enjoy myself more which was reflected in my performance.


Link: