Research now more than ever plays a crucial part in our piece, the amount of knowledge and understanding we have gathered by carefully reading and analysing what we have found on the event has created our piece. Below are some link of work and research we have looked at to help inspire our piece:
http://www.theguardian.com/stage/2009/may/06/monsters-james-bulger-arcola-niklas-radstrom - this allowed us to see the interpretation of the play 'Monsters' from the playwright's point of view.
http://www.crimelibrary.com/notorious_murders/young/bulger/5.html - the novel allowed us to get most of our quotes to make our piece as realistic as possible.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Monsters-Radstrom-Nikla-NEW-Paperback-1-May-2009-/361078121450?pt=Non_Fiction&hash=item5411eee3ea - a link to the play (available to buy)
Series of links used for verbatim and backgrounds for our scene:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-u9pIf04l2U
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xm5w7tdTmvM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p0OLg7OrLKw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=upiTb6ZfJa0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HI0FSkEVWOo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RfWWKot2qUY
News articles:
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/real-life-stories/james-bulger-murder-20-years-1594811
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1254971/James-Bulger-Jon-Venables-Robert-Thompson-kidnapping-timeline.html
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2273769/Jon-Venables-lawyer-recalls-killers-angelic-face-James-Bulgers-brutal-murder.html
Showing posts with label #Immersion. Show all posts
Showing posts with label #Immersion. Show all posts
Thursday, 18 December 2014
Interrigation: PART 2
After learning what we had about the mother's last lesson we knew it was an important character to have, we swapped the attorney for one character who would change their body language to adapt to one of the mums. We then began to script write. We knew from prior results that using verbatim and research would produce the most effective scene so taking lines from both 'Monsters' and the novel we began to re write the scene keeping only the staging. The result shown below was much more heart wrenching and the portrayal of the boys attitudes and behaviour was much more realistic. We also decided to add in a flash back, showing a short scene of Robert persuading Jon to throw a brick at the "baby" as Robert was named the more "manipulative" of the two. After we'd added a sound scape to the scene with a nursery rhyme, and the screaming of James we were happy with the scene.
The sensitive portrayal of the story is the most important factor of our piece. As a group we wish to educate the audience of the horrific event and to tell it with the up most respect we possibly can as we understand that Robert, Jon and James were all children, friends and family to someone.
The sensitive portrayal of the story is the most important factor of our piece. As a group we wish to educate the audience of the horrific event and to tell it with the up most respect we possibly can as we understand that Robert, Jon and James were all children, friends and family to someone.
Interrogation
After realising that we were lucky enough o have a Frantic Assembly workshop in less than 2 weeks we left the Fairy-tale scene and moved onto the next one. This is where the research really played it's part. After looking at our last interrogation scene we realised how much of an importance staging is and we decided to lay it out by using stools. We started with the Detective, Jon and Robert, and an attorney for the both of them. We asked questions such as "How often do you attend school" and when Robert didn't answer to get the attorney to reveal the details to try and engage the audience with the boy's personality. However looking back on this scene we realised it was flat and the reason this was, was because it lacked revealing information to shock the audience much like we had been shocked when looking at verbatim.
Therefore we went away and researched further. This lead to the finding of the novel: which revealed so many detailing's about the murder and the interrogation process that we were able to create a much more realistic scene. Learning that until Jon's mother reassured Jon she would love him no matter what he refused to reveal any information and that in the end it was Jon that admitted the murder "I killed him. What about his mum will you tell her I'm sorry." Throughout the whole novel you understand the importance of the mothers and we decided instead of an attorney this was an important character we needed to work in.
"After more hours of Robert's denials and eventual admissions, his mother Ann tells her son that it will be easier if he just tells the truth. Robert has been sobbing.
Robert Thompson:Jon threw a brick in his face.
Ann Thompson: Why?
Robert Thompson: I don't know.
Detective Roberts: Right, try to think. Right, let's see what we've got, we're getting there, aren't we? We're getting to the truth now.
Robert Thompson: Yeah, well, I'm going to end up getting all the blame 'cause I've got blood on me.
Robert goes on to describe Jon in an out-of-control killing frenzy. He claimed Jon threw more bricks at the baby, and then hit him with a "big metal thing with holes in it." Then Jon hit James with a stick. James was lying there, still, eyes open, across the tracks. Jon had the batteries and threw one of them at James's face. All the time Robert said he was trying to pull Jon away, screaming at him to stop.
Astounded, the detectives asked, "Why did Jon do all this?" Robert didn't know. "I only pinched," he said. When investigators tell Robert they think he hit James too, he replied, "Well, that's what you think"
The link to the novel can be found below:
http://www.crimelibrary.com/notorious_murders/young/bulger/1.html
Therefore we went away and researched further. This lead to the finding of the novel: which revealed so many detailing's about the murder and the interrogation process that we were able to create a much more realistic scene. Learning that until Jon's mother reassured Jon she would love him no matter what he refused to reveal any information and that in the end it was Jon that admitted the murder "I killed him. What about his mum will you tell her I'm sorry." Throughout the whole novel you understand the importance of the mothers and we decided instead of an attorney this was an important character we needed to work in.
"After more hours of Robert's denials and eventual admissions, his mother Ann tells her son that it will be easier if he just tells the truth. Robert has been sobbing.
Robert Thompson:Jon threw a brick in his face.
Ann Thompson: Why?
Robert Thompson: I don't know.
Detective Roberts: Right, try to think. Right, let's see what we've got, we're getting there, aren't we? We're getting to the truth now.
Robert Thompson: Yeah, well, I'm going to end up getting all the blame 'cause I've got blood on me.
Robert goes on to describe Jon in an out-of-control killing frenzy. He claimed Jon threw more bricks at the baby, and then hit him with a "big metal thing with holes in it." Then Jon hit James with a stick. James was lying there, still, eyes open, across the tracks. Jon had the batteries and threw one of them at James's face. All the time Robert said he was trying to pull Jon away, screaming at him to stop.
Astounded, the detectives asked, "Why did Jon do all this?" Robert didn't know. "I only pinched," he said. When investigators tell Robert they think he hit James too, he replied, "Well, that's what you think"
The link to the novel can be found below:
http://www.crimelibrary.com/notorious_murders/young/bulger/1.html
The Idea
After looking at 'Monsters' last lesson it was clear to the group that the play had sparked the most interest out of the workshops we had looked at. We decided to research for the event for verbatim, news articles, interviews, book articles and anything else we could find to broaden our knowledge on an event that happened before any of us were born. The information we turned up was shocking but also engrossing and interesting in the same way.
As a group we decided it would be interesting to look at the idea of starting our piece with a Fairy-tale scene that would confuse and sugar coat the event. We wanted to retell the event using Knight's and Witches, to make the 10 year old boys seem as if they were saving "a far away village" and then at the end of the scene drop upon them the fact they had just watched a retelling of the brutal murder of 2 year old James Bugler.
We started by playing the roles of narrators writing a script that without too much context would be suitable and funny for an audience of 6 year olds, but due to the deeper underlying narrative would have a much more shocking event on the audience. (The finished narration can be seen to the side.)
We decided we wanted the scene to be told with elements of physical theatre to make the violence stand out more and therefore make the Knights seem more 'noble' and 'brave. However when it came to actioning this we had many problems as our knowledge of physical theatre wasn't very extensive.
As a group we decided it would be interesting to look at the idea of starting our piece with a Fairy-tale scene that would confuse and sugar coat the event. We wanted to retell the event using Knight's and Witches, to make the 10 year old boys seem as if they were saving "a far away village" and then at the end of the scene drop upon them the fact they had just watched a retelling of the brutal murder of 2 year old James Bugler. We started by playing the roles of narrators writing a script that without too much context would be suitable and funny for an audience of 6 year olds, but due to the deeper underlying narrative would have a much more shocking event on the audience. (The finished narration can be seen to the side.)
We decided we wanted the scene to be told with elements of physical theatre to make the violence stand out more and therefore make the Knights seem more 'noble' and 'brave. However when it came to actioning this we had many problems as our knowledge of physical theatre wasn't very extensive.
Workshop 4: 'Monsters'
Workshop 4: Workshop 4 was ran by Abbie and saw us looking at the start of the play 'Monsters' written by Niklas Rådström, a Swedish lady. The play follows the horrific event in 1993when Jon Venables and Robert Thompson, both 10, abducted two-year-old James Bulger from a Merseyside shopping centre, took him on a circuitous walk to a railway cutting and murdered him.
The play is performed by four adult actors who take multiple roles - as children, as parents, as investigators and as a chorus. With its emotive name and subject matter, Monsters might seem to be simply fuelling the tabloid hysteria that surrounds cases such as Bulger's death.
It immediately struck as a group as something we wanted to look further into, the retake of such a shocking event struck so many ideas in our head and we began to brainstorm idea's of we could remodel such a fantastic play and make it our own. We looked at the scene following the denial of 36 bystanders and began to action using "lanes" something we had looked at before in drama. It was interesting to see how such an abstract play revealed so much information and we set a homework to go away and research more thoroughly on the event.
"I thought long and hard," says Rådström. "I thought for five or six years. There is no new information in the play; everything is on public record. If the media can give it miles of column inches, why shouldn't theatre deal with it? But I was cautious: if you deal with such a thing, then you must do it responsibly - although I'm not sure the British courts or the tabloids dealt with it in a responsible way." He is referring to the fact that Venables and Thompson were tried in an adult court. "With every word I wrote, I tried to imagine how it might be if the parents of James Bulger, or the parents of Jon Venables and Robert Thompson, were in the audience. Theatre is unique in the way that it brings artists and audiences together in a room and enables them to have a conversation."
The play is performed by four adult actors who take multiple roles - as children, as parents, as investigators and as a chorus. With its emotive name and subject matter, Monsters might seem to be simply fuelling the tabloid hysteria that surrounds cases such as Bulger's death.
It immediately struck as a group as something we wanted to look further into, the retake of such a shocking event struck so many ideas in our head and we began to brainstorm idea's of we could remodel such a fantastic play and make it our own. We looked at the scene following the denial of 36 bystanders and began to action using "lanes" something we had looked at before in drama. It was interesting to see how such an abstract play revealed so much information and we set a homework to go away and research more thoroughly on the event.
"I thought long and hard," says Rådström. "I thought for five or six years. There is no new information in the play; everything is on public record. If the media can give it miles of column inches, why shouldn't theatre deal with it? But I was cautious: if you deal with such a thing, then you must do it responsibly - although I'm not sure the British courts or the tabloids dealt with it in a responsible way." He is referring to the fact that Venables and Thompson were tried in an adult court. "With every word I wrote, I tried to imagine how it might be if the parents of James Bulger, or the parents of Jon Venables and Robert Thompson, were in the audience. Theatre is unique in the way that it brings artists and audiences together in a room and enables them to have a conversation."
Workshop 3: Interrogations
Workshop 3: Running workshop 4 myself I decided to look at Detective's interrogations for the conflict or wrong and right and our punishment system. We quickly created characters:
- Lucy Campbell, a girl aged 17, on her way home from her sister's after a visit whilst at university, mysteriously goes missing,
- Her sister Sarah Campbell, 23 years old never had a very good relationship with her sister and has just given birth to her first child Ava,
- Sarah's husband Daryn who often helps Lucy with her university dissertations and gives her lift from university to home.
Thursday, 9 October 2014
How has research effected our project so far?
Research has played a big part in inspiring us as a group, not only have the workshops we've created involved research to play a part as a stimulus, but our best work has involved a basis of research, for example the trial scene we created would of been unrealistic if we didn't have a knowledge about the understanding of how it worked. Furthermore research also helped us find a name and our main idea that we wanted to give the audience. We researched mental disorders, race discrimination and homosexuality acceptance through different periods to try and inspire us to create a scene through the eyes of one of the people and how they would of been treated in the 1900's compared to 2014 although this scene didn't particularly grab us the research again helped us move on to a different stronger idea that without research wouldn't of happened.
It has been proven that our best work is born when we look further into detail about the subject we are creating, weather we watch past students work, look at TV or news articles, or find videos and interviews online, they all work as stimulus' that inspire us to create pieces that are more realistic for our audience and would therefore help "force our audience to care about the content" something very important to us as a devising group.
It has been proven that our best work is born when we look further into detail about the subject we are creating, weather we watch past students work, look at TV or news articles, or find videos and interviews online, they all work as stimulus' that inspire us to create pieces that are more realistic for our audience and would therefore help "force our audience to care about the content" something very important to us as a devising group.
Workshop 2: Verbatim and family life
Workshop 2: Ran by Katie, started with us watching a interview about a daughter not being allowed to see a boy because her father was strict and rather protective, we were asked to pick out 3 movements from the video (verbatim) and mimic them till we felt they were perfected, we then again split into groups of two and asked questions about the father and tried to involve the movements from the interview to create a realistic portrayal of the character we had watched.
After creating a more in depth character we decided to bring it further to life and use forum theatre to create 3 different scenes, intervening when we thought necessary to improve or experiment with a new idea, we first did the awkward "meet the parents for the first time" we played the boyfriend as different characters, respectful and hardworking, a college drop out, and a nervous shy character. We then moved on to the car scene on the way home from meeting the boyfriend the first time, the interrogation of who, where what etc. we again experimented with the characters, the mother being controlling, the father being care free, the teenager being stubborn or naïve after experimenting we had 2 scenes that fitted well together with a sense of comedy and family conflict either between mother and father or daughter and father. This was interesting to do as we saw that conflict didn't need to be dark or sad and that conflict could be expressed in a comical fashion that could add some relief to our piece.
After creating a more in depth character we decided to bring it further to life and use forum theatre to create 3 different scenes, intervening when we thought necessary to improve or experiment with a new idea, we first did the awkward "meet the parents for the first time" we played the boyfriend as different characters, respectful and hardworking, a college drop out, and a nervous shy character. We then moved on to the car scene on the way home from meeting the boyfriend the first time, the interrogation of who, where what etc. we again experimented with the characters, the mother being controlling, the father being care free, the teenager being stubborn or naïve after experimenting we had 2 scenes that fitted well together with a sense of comedy and family conflict either between mother and father or daughter and father. This was interesting to do as we saw that conflict didn't need to be dark or sad and that conflict could be expressed in a comical fashion that could add some relief to our piece.
Workshop 1: Newspapers and the media
Workshop 1: Ran by Rory, he started with a warm up getting us to start in a small circle and saying controversial topics to try and get opinions differentiating within the group, for example, abortion on the NHS, the adoption of critically ill children and the bombing of ISIS, this helped us get our brains thinking about how their was a differentiation between 4 people let alone countries and how topics have to be handled sensitivity as it can untimely result in wars etc. He then gave us two different news articles, one from Social Worker and one from The Times, we analysed the content and how the two news websites worded and presented things differently, it was interesting to see the biased opinions pushed upon the audience in the social worker compared to the reporter, fact and figure style of The Times. After spending 15 minutes talking about the language, the proposed views and our opinions on them we moved on to split into two groups one taking Social Worker and the other taking the news report from The Times.
Me and Abbie had Social Worker, we did slight research and worked out that Social Worker are always filmed talking on the streets, "socially immersed" in what ever event is going on and are very biased in their opinions. We went through the extract and picked the best points e.g "going to war will kill innocent civilians, accidents happen" and we then tried to report in the style of two Social Worker reporters to show their style and way of work compared to the very strict, "behind a desk" factual portray of The Times.
Me and Abbie had Social Worker, we did slight research and worked out that Social Worker are always filmed talking on the streets, "socially immersed" in what ever event is going on and are very biased in their opinions. We went through the extract and picked the best points e.g "going to war will kill innocent civilians, accidents happen" and we then tried to report in the style of two Social Worker reporters to show their style and way of work compared to the very strict, "behind a desk" factual portray of The Times.
"Immersion"
Simple to say, devising in a group of opinionated females, and Rory, with a difference in nearly every situation isn't the easiest thing to achieve. After using several stimuli, we settled on a favourite "The Trail" by a theatre company using immersive theatre, the idea of involving the audience to any level immediately fascinated us all, and became the first thing we agreed on. We played around with improvisation trying to create characters from the idea of missing girl "Lucy Campbell" stemming from the idea of morally objective crimes, something for our audience to feel in conflict about, who was or wasn't guilty? But, again due to a difference of opinions everything we created was put to the "back of the draw" due to a difference of opinions. However keeping the idea of immersive theatre was something the whole group were passionate about and hence the group name "Immersion" was born.
"Immersion - deep mental involvement in something. Our aim is to smash the complacency out of the audience. We wish to force our audience to care about the content of our performance. We hope that they remain alert to our message long after the performance has finished."
Which as a group is exactly what we want our audience to feel, we went back to the idea of the trials and after doing research on the conditions of trials, what judges say, and the process of how defenders, witness and the accused are treated we had a wide understanding on the topic, we tried t create a scene but nothing amazing was born and again we put it to the "back of the draw" and focused on Frantic Assembly's attitude to working, "always forward never back" and continued with experimentation. After much debating about a wide range of topics we decided that until half term we are going to each create a workshop, either relevant to our previous ideas or maybe just a current event that interested us to try and create scenes and ideas that we can later stitch together. Whether this will work or not is yet to be determined but Immersion are going to give it a go.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)