Visual, Aural & Spatial: Beautiful Burnout



Staging

I have decided to have my staging in proscenium arch because this allows the audience to see the performance from the same point of view. Another reason why I have decided to stage my version of the play like this is because the audience wouldn't be able to see everything on the stage, as if it was staged any other way you would really struggle to see everything on the stage in terms of props and actors. My boxing ring will be staged on wheels. I got this idea from when we went to see Henry the V at the Unicorn Theatre in London, because the setting of France was shown on a wheeled sandbox.

 

Props

I have decided to have four speakers mounted on tripods in each corner of the boxing ring because this will make the Underworld song loud enough so that all of the audience can hear it. I have also decided to use speakers because they are also equipment that are within a boxing arena which are used for things like music, and also the sound coming from the microphone of a ring announcer. Another prop I will use is a projector, which will be mounted on wheels. I have decided to use a projector for the change in settings within the play, e.g. changing from Cameron's house to the gym. The projector will project backgrounds of each of the settings within in the play.

 

Lighting

The lighting in my version of the play will be low key lighting for the more emotional scenes; and then it will be high key lighting for the scene of the boxing match between Ajay and Cameron, and also the scenes which aren't so emotional.  

 

Sound

The sound in my version of the performance will be the Underworld song 'Beautiful Burnout' playing in the background throughout the performance.  

 

 

 

 

Response to Practitioner - Frantic Assembly: Beautiful Burnout

Exercises
The School Of Fish
We did another exercise during the lesson called 'The School of Fish'. This exercise was where we had to stand close together as a group, and what ever way we were facing, the person nearest the front would be the leader, and every time the group changed direction, then person nearest the front in that part of the shape would be the leader. The leader's responsibility was to lead the rest of the group in the direction they were facing using a movement such as a jump for example, and the group would also have to copy what the leader was doing.

'Three Points on the Stage performance using 'The School of Fish' exercise with Alex, Kitty, and Charley.
Link: http://worthingacademyofperformingarts.blogspot.co.uk/#!/2013/12/adrian-as-3-points-video.html
We later used the 'School of Fish' exercise again, but this time we would be in smaller groups, and we would have to make a sequence using different movements related to Boxing. I was in a group with Alex Mockler, Kitty Smith and Charley Bennett. We would have a home position which we would start from, and we would also have three other points on the stage of which we would have to go to during our sequence before reaching our home point again. We decided to lay our group out in a particular way, and it was Alex as the leader, then Kitty and Charley would be standing next to each other behind Alex, and finally I would be at the back because it made sense with what movements each of us were doing and also who was leading the group at a particular time. In our performance, we would have to use one jump, one turn, and one down which means we have to fall on the floor.

Our sequence started with us jumping sideways in the stance of a Boxer, and then we would fall on the floor at our first point and spread out like a starfish; our next movement was to use a skipping rope in mime to get to our next point; when we were at point two, we held our hands up in the stance of a boxer and we would then do a 180 degree jump and turn, and we would then stay in this stance and shuffle forwards to our next point; we would then once again stay in the boxing stance and we would do a slow turn towards our next point which was returning back to our home point, we would then wipe sweat off of our face and in mime, throw a towel over our shoulder and walk to our home point. After this, our drama teacher read out a very short extract of Beautiful Burnout to us.

On the first occasion, we would perform it with just the movements. But on the second occasion, we would have to use three bits of dialogue from the extract our teacher read out to us to use in each movement before we reached each point in the sequence. Our first one was 'your jaw is connected to your legs'; our second one was 'hold your guard', because this movement was when we were in the stance of a Boxer holding their guard; and finally the third one was 'relax', because this movement was us wiping the sweat off of our faces and throwing a towel over our shoulder, and after being defeated we needed to be relaxed. I think dialogue which shows  words of encouragement and advice would work well with this approach because quite a lot of the dialogue we were saying in our piece like "hold your guard" would be something a coach would say when they are training with their boxer. The point in this activity was to look at what sort of movements that boxers tend to show during a match, and also what sort of dialogue would best be suited to this approach.

Live Theatre Review of Henry V

Introduction
On Friday 15th November, we went to watch the play of Henry V at the Unicorn Theatre in Southwark, London. The play was written by Ignace Cornellisson and directed by Ellen McDougall. The story goes back to the time where Henry V of England tries to claim that he is heir to the throne of France after the death of Charles the VI of France in 1328.

I thought that the audience for this play was for kids in key stage 2, so kids aged 7-11.  The reason for this is because the producer included several things that would appeal to kids at this age. One of these things was that they used balloons to represent the soldiers, so when the balloons were popped, that would represent the soldiers being killed. This is much more suitable because kids do not want to see violence and blood representing the death of the soldiers, so this is not only more suitable for kids, it also doesn't scare them with all the bloody references and violence. Another one of these things was that they used colours for both of the respective countries, with France being coloured in blue, and England in red. This made it better for kids because kids absolutely love colours. Another thing that they used to make it suitable for kids was that they used a sandbox on wheels to represent France. This made it suitable for kids, because kids absolutely love sand and they like to play and build sandcastles with it.

I thought that the setting of the play was one very effective aspect of the performance, for example the setting of France was presented on a sandbox on top of a snooker table painted blue on wheels. I thought this was very effective because it is not only different from other settings, but it is also very unique and creatively done by both the producer and director. I think the fact that France was staged on a sandbox and England was just on the stage floor made it more shown to the audience that France was the bigger priority and the more important country in the eyes of Henry V, as he was doing all he could to claim the throne of France after the death of Charles the V. During a part of the play, sandcastles are knocked down and then rebuilt again. The sandcastles being built represented the castles in

I thought the way that the actors in Henry V were all interacting with the audience was very effective, especially the narrator as most of the lines he said were all amusing to the audience. I think the fact the interaction from the actors to the audience was included in the play suited the target audience as well, because a large percentage of the audience were kids in key stage 2. I think the facial expressions the narrator was adding to the amusement of the audience. So the facial expressions and dialogue were combined together to create amusement in the audience. I think the interaction also created an emotional connection between the actors and the audience, in particularly the narrator as he was telling the audience most of what was happening in the story. 

Conclusion
I think overall, these parts of the play were very effectively performed and presented. I thought that the interaction between the actors and the audience was very effective because it developed an emotional connection between the actors and the audience. I also thought that the setting was effective because I think that it showed the audience that France was the more important country in the eyes of Henry V. I also thought that the things that were used to show who the target audience was, like the balloons were very effective in showing who the play was aimed at, because children that age absolutely love balloons.