Evaluation

The importance of this piece didn’t quite hit me until I watched the women waltzing. The loss represented by the army jackets and the delicate music capturing the delicateness of the heart. It was truly beautiful. It made me see how brutal the events of world war one were, the blood bath that it really was. That was the intention of the piece in my opinion, to educate people and show how truly horrific it was and remember the bravery and suffering of everyone effected. This was achieved in a number of ways. The breakdown of sections united at the end captured the separate worlds that interlinked through trenches across europe. The reaction we had from the audience wasn’t expected. We made people think. 

I feel like telling this story from the perspective of young people in the 21st century was part of it being so effective. The moment Tuwaine stepped forward and spoke the words ‘When I think of world war one..’ immediately connected everyone in the room to how we remember it. This mixed in with the recordings of veterans left everyone listening very carefully and there was a peaceful atmosphere. It set a rhythm to the piece which I found was really important. Furthermore this ran through the whole piece the use of sound added so much, especially in Cameron and Jordans duet. The sound of the marching and panting was raw and the changing in rhythm of the marching espcially as it speeded up created tension. There movement was so powerful. The way they only five words ‘I don’t like war anymore.‘ were repeated and bounced between one another as they used each others bodies to move almost like they were in trenches, it was honest but simple, thats what made it so successful. 

In terms of my own performance I feel like I was focused the whole way through, its easy to become caught up in someone else’s work when your onstage and watching. It was tricky times to remember you onstage however I don’t feel like this effected my performance too much. Me and Jack played with the dynamics of our duet in each performance and tried to tell a story because we both felt this was really important. One section I loved watching each time was the Letter reading. I feel like this is where the message of the piece hit the audience and performers the most, the women's voices carried pain and angst, with real peoples words. However the role of women in the whole piece was something that I was disappointed with. In my opinion women were depicted as victims, left hopeless without men. I feel like the work section wasn't representative of the amazing work women did in the war. This is something that could have been improved through using stimulus from female nurses that worked on the front line and in arms factories. really brave women. However  this would be my only criticism of the piece. 

Moving on the set was in my opinion more than suitable. The hanging pictures were slightly sinister but looked so interesting, the lighting was cold and impersonal, furthermore the use of lighting as the soldiers dropped was harsh yet perfect. I feel like the combination of movement, poetry, real stories and visual effects created an honest piece of theatre that communicated the lack of knowledge in our society  of such a prominent part of our history. In the words of Phoebe Wagner  ‘We will never forget, But why on earth should we remember?’ 

Elysian Fields

We have been put into groups according to the context of the duet we created. We are a group comprised of 7 couples. Not all the duets were created from stimuli focusing on lovers leaving but i think that this is what it will now be and the duets will be adapted. 

We began by warming up walking around the space, exploring every area of the foot. Keeping our body still. We then did an exercise which involved the use of paper. 

The Paper Resting exercise:

• In pairs, one person walks around the space. The other watches. The person watching has a few pieces of paper. The person walking is walking slowly using every part of the foot to travel. 
• The person watching begins to take the paper a piece at a time and place on there partner. Finding interesting places to put it. Sometimes the paper simply glided off. The person walking has carry on walking with no regard of the paper. 
• I found it hard to adjust so that the paper would stay in the same place. However when it fell off it wasnt the end of the world and actually from watching others it had quite a pretty floaty effect. 

How will this add to our piece?

I think that this exercise will evolve into something else. The paper could possibly represent the letters to and from lovers during the war. When watching other people perform it has quite a sinister feel. Like a searching almost. 

Duets:

Not everyones duet had the context of lovers behind it. For example Jesse and Alex used the idea of brothers. However this isn’t a problem because once you change the story behind the movement certain dynamics begin to appear. Which then tells a completely different story. A section of there piece I really liked is when jesse walks behind Alex and holds him. The movement I believe was taken from a piece of stimulus that looked partly at shell shock. The way Alex moves is shaky and unsteady as Jesse walks with him in some ways supporting him. When Jack and I looked back t our duet. We decided that we wanted it to flow more because we were looking at idea of moving in a bed trying to get comfortable, almost like not wanting to let go. We took out a move that we used where I move over jacks back and we replaced it with a lift. This made it much more fluid.  

The duets will appear at the end of the piece, like a reconciliation after death. I like this idea because its a thread which connects the groups together. It unites men and women in a real way. 

The Double Bed:

We all really like the idea of the double bed and searching for each other when sleeping. We all asemble in a sleeping position with pour couple. Separate and come back together after searching through everyone else. Having a moment to connect then move away. Its a contact improvisation. We move over each other as a group of 10. I feel like this is something different which will be interesting to the audience because it contrasts to the violent connotations that come with the idea of war. Its sad but its real. It captures the longing and search for comfort.  

Chance Meetings:

Below is a brainstorm on the creation of our duets taking from the stimulus of the words Chance meetings. We had to think a lot about how people would have met in 1914 and i feel like it allowed all of us to build on our journeys as couples because we are pieceing together this story.  It further adds a pre war context which adds another dimension to the piece as it will highlight a change more. 

Presenting our Work to other groups

Below are my notes on the sharing we did. I think we now know what we need to work on after christmas in terms of linking the piece together and making is all connect. The sharing was really nice and beneficial not only to the directors but to us because we now know the impact we can make. 

Changes made post sharing:

• No paper or speaking during elysian fields. (letters cut) 
• Walk to the back after chance meetings. Making way for the singing up section From Jacks group. 
• Spread out when improvising on the floor. ‘Writhing’ use more levels. 

Journey through the piece:

• First meeting
• Melt into each other on floor
• Come apart from hold
• Explore floor for other half
• Find each other and rise together and part
• Woman walk round searching for man – touching men (for them it’s the effects of war)
• Woman get desperate and give up – walk emotionless in elision fields.
• Men walk behind woman saying letter and trying to balance the letters on them
• Men stop and fall to floor then come up again in position of start of duet
• Woman do mundane everyday routines – life becomes too much- fall to floor then get up and rejoin man in duet position
• Duets start
• Stop and watch the final veterans duet come together

This is a breakdown of my journey through the piece it is interjected with the boys sections which represent breaking apart, a united marching and female heartache. I feel like my character goes on a journey and we all just need to begin to play that in the piece. 

Working in the Theatre:

This was quite daunting as we had a tech in the theatre and It was a but all over the place because no one was definite about there choices. I could remember the order from last term. However performing in the theatre meant we had to adapt some movement. For example we need to use way more space we performing the writhing section because it looks strange being in a clump. Moreover people need to think about there entrances and exits. Everyone is onstage for 90% of the performance. I think we have all realised how much work we have to do for this. Everyone seems to talk through everything that happens and its quite frustrating. However it will come together. 

Tech and Dress:

Our costume is anything black white or grey. This looks really nice when everyone is together because its not period costume but it has an almost miserable feeling about it. We had a tech and dress which we had to get through before the show this evening. We have to really concentrate on why we are doing this and make it great because its a something we are honouring in a strange way. A constant reminder of the blood bath that world war one was hangs above us and that stage resembles a gallery alost as pictures of the war hang above us. I think this adds so much because not only does it look effective the pictures remind the audience that this is a real thing.

The dress rehearsal went suprinsingly well and it felt like the first time we performed and everyone was focused and performing. This lifted the whole piece as everyone had this energy which I hope carries through each performance.This has made me feel much better about the performances. 

Rehearsing and Devising

Jack and I didn't join forces until a week before the assessment, this menat we had to work really quickly and efficiently. 

Here is a video of our very first attempt and reocuring motif we will perform between the different sections of our piece. 

On watching this piece back we decided it was really quite messy, however we wanted to keep the movement the same but we know we must rehearse it a lot in order for it to look good. Furthermore we have decided we want to perform this at an incredibly quick pace meaning we are going to have to change some of the moves and adapt them so the motif can be repeated at great pace in order to express the frantic desperation within the relationship. 

Using Stephen Berkoff Exercises: 

Below are my notes from the exercises we learnt in out lesson in relation to Berkoff techniques. This is an exercise that has basically saved me and jack form being literal and boring in our piece as we have taken pedestrian movement such as working on a conveyor belt line and using different sizes of these movements to create something interesting that also serves the meaning of the text.  

Music!

Jack and I have chosen the song 'Recuring' by Bonobo. We chose this song becauase its deliberately sad or evoking but it has a rhythm that is constant. This constant rhythm will be challenged by the changing pace of our movement. 

Motif

Below is a copy of the notes I took from rehearsing with jack as we have had to alter our motif due to a shoulder injury of mine. 

  

Piecing it all together

We had made the piece in different  sections in different ways. This is brain storm of how we decided to link everything together. I think we could improve our piece by working on the transitions and also working harder to find meaning behind each movement and decide on what we are trying to say from this piece. 

Journey

Here is the journey of our piece. we move around and have explored space by splitting it into sections. The wall is where the relationship is explored and downstage left and right is where the male and female each have there own space but they always follow one another into it as a representation of there constant longing to be near one another. 

Stimuli!

This is an image of a postcard which was used during WW1 to send to soldiers at the front. I found this image interesting because it shows intimacy at a time when that would have been highly looked down on in the post victorian era. Furthermore the holding of one another was very sweet and alothough this photograph would have been captured for comercial purposes, I like to think that its a gesture that meant a great deal to those who received it. The tender exchange offers many physical opportunities as its clear the feelings behind the position. My interpretation of this piece of stimuli is that of the longing for one another. The words 'Your face is ever with me in my dreams' carries the idea of the two people being constant in each others minds. 

This is a photo I took at the Imperial War Museum. There were hundreds of medals in a collection and each soldiers stories was next to them. the exploration of real soldiers has really interested me. Furthermore the description of this particular soldiers ordeal carries many physical opportunities.  

My darling and loving wife Emily

It is Valentines Day and my thoughts are with you as always, I wish that I could be with you on this special day of love instead of being here in this hell hole which Belgium has become.

I miss you little George and Harry so very much and I pray for the day that this war comes to an end, please pass my love on to the children and kiss them for me.

We arrived at the front line just over a week ago and the smell was so bad that many of the men were sick, to describe the smell would be an impossible task but some of the causes will give you an idea of just how bad it is.

Raw sewage from the open cess pit, body odour from men who haven’t had a decent wash for weeks, dead bodies rotting in shallow graves and laying out in the open in no man’s land, the smell of exploded bombs and the odour of Mustard gas which lingers for a few days after the attack, stagnant mud, cigarette smoke and cooking smells all add to the unpleasantness of the trenches.

They say that we will get used to the smell over time but it feels like it will never leave us at the moment.

The smell attracts rats they are everywhere you look and they seem to be unafraid to show themselves, there is so much waste here that the rats are thriving and some of them are as big as felix our cat.

I shaved my head yesterday because my hair was crawling with lice most of the men have been scratching and itching almost since the day we got here.

The rain is a constant companion flooding the trenches and turning the floor into mud it is so bad that some of the men are getting sores on their feet and can hardly walk with the pain.

Sleep is so hard to come by with the constant booming and banging of the shells from both sides, my bed is a bunk which has been placed in a dug out section of the trench, a mud roof a mud floor and the constant threat of a stray shell keep me awake at night.

I am scared my darling Emily, my life is under constant threat, bullets randomly fired at us, shells exploding every minute of the day, men are dying all around me if not from a stray bullet or shell they are falling with fever and disease.

Four of the boys in my squad have died already they went through basic training with me and i considered them good friends, my best friend John shot himself in the foot just to get out of here and away from the trenches, he will be treated in a field hospital and sent home.

We are going over the top tonight climbing out of the trench and attacking the enemy trenches

A and B squad went last night and most of them were killed or wounded before they even got 10 yards out of the trench, it is barbaric and a futile waste of human life but the powers that be seem to think that it is the way forward and keep sending those poor men and boys to their deaths.

I will close now and pray that this is not the last letter that I will ever send to you my darling, I long to be back at home with you and the children.

I love you with all of my heart

Happy Valentines Day my love

your ever loving Husband

George xxxxx

The letter was written on 14th February 1915

This is a letter I found when I decided to link the idea of letters to loved ones and the exploration of real life experiences. This letter is one of a few uncensored letters from the war and it reveals the horrific conditions and the writers fear is captured in his words. This is the piece of stimulus Jack and I have decided to work with. it may not offer any visual opportunities however it carries a relationship between two people, it has first hand descriptions of the events and conditions and movement can be developed from this. Furthermore the honesty in the writers words reveals a man petrified. This is something often discussed now days but was never acknowledge as being justified. 

War Records and the use of this stimuli?

We have been looking at ways in which we would like to explore this stimuli. Both Jack and I have com to the conclusion that we want to Identity George Roberts as a human and man That loved his wife Emily deeply, We don't want to have a narrative but we want to look the words and explore the thought changes within the letter, moving from one emotion to the other and exploring this physically through the use of Pace and Force. 

We also want to look at the military aspect in relation to the circumstances,  I researched G Roberts in the Common Wealth War Graves Commissions database and found a soldier who was killed in 1916. This isnt direct link to the letter but what interested me is the service number:

"19676"

I hope we incorporate this into our piece as it is representative of each mans worth to the government at that time. Simply a five digit number. 

Videos as Stimulus

Jack and I looked closely at many videos from WW1 and took elements of each of them. We weren't necessarily inspired by these but it offered us ideas for movement that we could apply the Stephen Burkoff technique to and explore the movement. 

This documentry was really helpful as it not only offered physical opportunities but also revelaed to context behind the moevement from first hand accounts and factual evidence.  The movement for the female led section will be taken from this. So far the movements have been take from the bomb factory as the conveyor belt movements can be used exploring many different dynamics. 

Jack and I used the struggling movement and the rolling of the cannon at gun fire as a section of movement, this was quite tricky at first as we wanted the movement to be representative of trench warfare but also we didn't want it to be literal.