Monday 30 March 2009

FIRST DESIGNING IDEAS

After listening to the story, the Design team had an immediate meeting to decide how we were going to work to be as time efficient as possible and what part of the story each of us would take on board.

Using a very sexist but enjoyable rule the final decision was that girls are in charge of costumes and boys of props and scenery. Although we are separating our selves for different bits of work, we share and consult for ideas with each other.

A lot of big scale ideas emerged from this meeting: a massive Chinese serpent structure to be the caterpillar, a human magician that grows into a giant puppet when he shrinks the audience, a puzzle to be a round key, with different pieces, coloured sashes for the children, and so on.

Emma and I also divided the characters and the tribes between the two of us. We decided on 4 basic colours, one for each tribe. I work with green and orange, and Emma works with purple and turquoise. It is time to get designing now.

DISNEYLAND


On Saturday the 14th of March, I went to Disneyland as part of my dissertation research. My dissertation is about Drama in the Community so all my research towards it is also relevant to Chiswick House project. Going Disneyland was an experience with a surprising outcome. I had been there before to enjoy it fully, but this time I went to observe it. There is a lot of detail put into any wall, floor stone, or anything that you can imagine, but the world is totally superficial. It is all about the exterior, and every time I tried to open a door, it was locked.


I interviewed some workers, and all of them said they believe that Disneyland helps to change and shape children as the happiness of the day fulfils them. I just wonder how a commercial world of materialism can shape anyone into becoming a good person. I just wonder, what is there to be learnt in this world. How to want your ice-cubes to be a Mickey Mouse face?


I did learn two main things out of this experience: How any creative work can be easily transformed into horrible consumerism, and how to shoplift!

Tuesday 10 March 2009

SOME IDEAS






After visiting Chiswick House last week, I just had some ideas that I would like to share with you.

  • First of all, I think that a good way to start would be by creating a world. The story itself would be written to ensemble this world. So for example, if we have 4 tribes of different people or creatures, we could create the story according to this tribes relationships, way of living, or by introducing characters from the world we know to this fantastic new one.
  • If this idea goes forward, we could have face painting going on in the pre show, where the children would pick one of the 4 tribes. By doing so they would become one of the tribe members in the play, and they would feel they were part of the world.
  • Moving on to the use of the garden space, the beautiful white bridge could be a divider of our world to the magical land. The side of the park that is open now would be the mortal side. From this we could create some myths, for example: if any immortal creature from the magical land crosses the bridge they become mortal...
  • I definitely think that the bridge requires a love scene. The characters at the very top and the audience watching down by the river. Beautiful, no?
  • Also, going back to the tribes, we could have a big selection of actors for each tribe. Even if not all of them have lines they can be doing things in the background that are part of tribe’s every day life. For example, building things, eating, playing, etc. This means that we would probably need to get the second years involved with the acting side of the project.


These are just some ideas... hope you like them.

Friday 6 March 2009

THE UNIVERSTIY WORKSHOPS

Today we started the university workshops in Alexandra Junior School. As we will have the same group of children every Friday, Rosie and I decided to create a continuous workshop for them. Here is a brief plan of the objectives and activities of the 5 workshops:

CREATING A WORLD

First workshop
Create the land, the name for the land, the people, the tribes, and decide who will become part of each tribe.

Second workshop
Get into tribes and decide the details of each tribe, how they eat, drink, their powers, their job in the land, their clothes, and their relationship with the other tribes...

Third workshop
Get into tribes and create the story of the beginning of the tribe, how it became to exist, any myths, and if it turns out to happen any kind of religious beliefs the tribe would have.

Fourth workshop
Get 2 tribes together and create a story including the 2 cultures.

Fifth workshop
All the tribes together create a story for the land.


From today’s workshop we got some amazing material and very positive results from the children. We started by playing games, but then we explained exactly what we were going to do for the 5 workshops and they were very enthusiastic with the idea.
The land is called MOONAKA

The land has: coconut trees, a long river, grass, trees, a forest, stars, dark colours, animals, sand, a lot of cheese, a big house/tower in the middle, palm trees, 3 moons, a fountain, dark sky, some kind of division in the land, statues, people, ships in the river, river creatures, cheese fairies, a cheese house, a massive guest house, a garden with lots of flowers, mummies in the night, ice cream, when it rains it rains sweets and finally it has blue birds.

Who rules the land: as a democratic decision, Mylee Cyrus became the ruler of the land and lives in an RnB Castle.

The Tribes: there were 25 tribes’ ideas, goblins, soldiers, robots, fairies, elves, witches, aliens, genies, emperors, RnB tribe, cheese tribe, Pokémon, servants, magicians, wizards, ghosts, unicorns, vampires, water nymphs, gangsters, Pikachu’s, Romans, candy tribe, pink panthers and penguins.
After a very hard voting process we decided on 4 tribes, them being the Water Nymphs, the Candy Tribe, the Pink Panthers and the RnB Tribe.

The children were divided into groups and collectively decided which tribe to be. So next week, let the fun begin...