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Charlotte Bennett Individual
What would you advise an incoming year two student about creative ensemble dynamics? 400 words
When working in an ensemble the first piece of advice I would give you is to get to know the people in your group. Putting together a creative performance from scratch takes confidence as well as humility and this becomes much easier when you are comfortable with the people that you are working with. I know this is not always possible and conflicts will happen but ensure your group that they are in a judgement free zone and initially; nothing is off limits. By showing kindness and understanding to your group you are helping them unlock their own imaginations which will benefit your performance greatly. We live in a society run by technology and distractions are bound to happen but to limit these distractions I would advise that phones are not used during rehearsals. Whilst I’m aware that the internet can provide you with many ideas I would strongly suggest that the group uses one laptop between them for doing research during rehearsals instead of everyone getting their phones out every time they need to look something up. This will help keep the group focused and help keep temptation at bay. An article by Laura Tempest Zakrof in the 2019 witches companion called a witches guide to essential etiquette struck me when working in a group. It talks about how important it it’s so value those around you and more notably your word is your worth ‘words contain a lot of power, so they must be used wisely. Be true to your word. If you cannot keep a promise or keep your word, don’t lie. Instead, be direct and considerate. Avoid trying to appease others and making empty commitments when you know you can’t follow through. You’ll forge much better relationships and have a lot less stress that way.’ Honesty will be valued in a group more than you will ever know. If you are shady and not always truthful about your commitment then you risk rehearsals being wasted with speculation about your loyalty and whereabouts and worst of all there will be a breakdown of trust in the group. Be honest, value those around you, show kindness and patience to your group and you will often find that these traits will be reflected back to you. Value people over profit and you will find that the little things look after themselves.
What influences, processes and methodologies did you use to activate and extend your own imagination? 400 words
When accessing your imagination to create a performance the best advice that I could give you is to try to move away from your normal structured work routine and allow yourself the mental space to just be creative. This may seem easy but when your normal day to day life is often structured and ran by timetable, breaking out of these habits can prove challenging. For a long time I struggled to find the confidence to just try out new things because I was scared of looking silly or doing something wrong but when creating your own work from scratch you have to find ways of getting over these anxieties that limit your creative thinking. A line from Sabrina the teenage witch that always stuck in my head was ‘stop thinking about how bad it feels to get it wrong and start thinking about how good it feels to get it right’. Have faith in your mind and body, if a piece of music tells your body to move in a certain way then go with it, if a line from a fellow actor causes emotions to show clearly on your face then try it out. No good will come from over critiquing your work. Of course self reflection and critical thinking can also be a good thing but take it from the Dalai Lama “if you have fear or some pain or suffering, you should examine whether there is anything you can do about it. If you can, there is no need to worry about it; if you can not do anything, then there is also no need to worry”. So if you see a clear opportunity for improvement then go with it and do the best that you can but don’t feel that just because an idea came to you early on that it somehow needs rigorous examination before it can be put into a performance because often by doing this you are actually plucking the authenticity out of the scene and forcing your structured routine habits into your imagination and this will only limit what you can create. Move away from the norm don’t start out a rehearsal with a list of things that you can’t do, the imagination is limitless so in that case why would your performance be any different?
Bibliography
(Book) Llewelyn’s 2019 witches companion – page 40
(Tv series) Sabrina the teenage witch
https://tinybuddha.com/blog/3-questions-help-work-worries-stop-obsessing/
(Play) the judgement of Solomon by William Ford Manley
(Play) spring awakening by Frank Wedekind
(Painting) Dance by Henri Matisse
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Olivia Williams Individual
What would you advise an incoming year two student about creative ensemble dynamics?
Working as a group can be difficult at times, especially when you are creating something basically from scratch. I believe there are three main objectives to stick to that create the best working environment for everyone involved; diversity, communication and freedom of imagination.
To achieve diversity I recommend working with people you haven’t worked with before. It will broaden your connections and friendships within the class and allow you to experience different people's imagination and creativity. If you keep working with the same people you get too comfortable and the imagination and ideas get limited. Just because you may not be in the same friendship group or you’ve never really spoken before doesn’t mean that you are not compatible to work with them, you may work amazingly with someone you may not have expected to, but you don’t know unless you push yourself out of that comfort zone.
Communication is key when working in a group. If you can’t attend a rehearsal, always tell your group as soon as possible as they can then pre-plan around your absence. If you have an idea then inform your group of it, there is no point complaining about the piece being all someone else's idea if you do not share. I recommend creating a facebook or whatsapp group so you can always be in contact with each other. My advice is that if you do not get on with someone in your group then take them aside and talk about it to try and solve any issues you may have, you don’t want any personal issues to get in the way of the creative process which could hinder the group and performance.
Freedom of imagination starts by accepting of everyone's ideas. Their creative process and imagination may be different to yours, but no idea is a bad idea. Always listen to what others have to say and are sharing, and if you don’t agree with or like the idea then never be rude about it. If you do not feel comfortable sharing your ideas with your group then let them know how you feel. Drama is about the freedom of sharing your ideas, being creative and supporting others.
What influences, processes and methodologies did you use to activate and extend your own imagination?
For our piece I struggled to write our script at first. I easily came up with the concept, storyline and character profiles but I struggled to get into the mindset of my character as her views and opinions are pro-life, which is the complete opposite to my views. I decided to watch multiple pro-life documentaries and interviews in which people shared their views and beliefs on abortions, which I used as inspiration to influence my characters dialogue. As I did not agree with anything that my character was preaching, I was worried that I would not be believable and convincing to the audience. At first I was concerned about including some dialogue as I thought I would be too embarrassed and mostly ashamed about what my character was saying. But I reminded myself that the reason I wanted to create this piece was to tackle the stigma surrounding the topic of abortion, and without having the pro-life extreme views I wouldn’t be doing my piece and character justice. After using the documentaries and interviews as inspiration for dialogue, I went back and studied the mannerisms and the way in which people conveyed their views and opinions. This helped me to create depth to my character. I also had to research into psychopaths, as my character was one. I took certain traits such as poor behavioral controls, lack of remorse or guilt, shallow emotional response and lack of empathy, and used those to also influence my characters dialogues and overall characteristics. I also watched interviews with sociopaths and psychopaths to study their characteristics and the way they deal with being in social situations.
The main influence of our piece was the nursery rhyme Rock-a-bye Baby. We took the meaning behind the rhyme and interpreted it in our own way, and also included it in our first run of the piece. Spring Awakening was another influence to our piece.
This role required me to go to a dark and negative place in my mind, pushing me to really explore my imagination, and required me to preach quite disgusting and sometimes disturbing views. It pushed me as a scriptwriter and as an actor, and I have definitely learned not only about myself, but the topic of abortion. I believe that I convinced the audience that these were my opinions and views, and hopefully created a discussion in my class and make it a less stigmatised topic to discuss.
‘Great theatre is about challenging how we think and encouraging us to fantasize about a world we aspire to’ - William Dafoe
Bibliography:
Erin Brownback, 2019. Prejudice Against Down Syndrome [online] Available from: <https://savethestorks.com/2019/04/prejudice-against-down-syndrom>
Independant, 2015. Dry Land playwright says men shocked by graphic abortion scene should learn more about the issue [online] Available from: <https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/theatre-dance/news/dry-land-playwright-says-men-shocked-by-graphic-abortion-scene-should-learn-more-about-the-issue-a6738566.html>
“Former Planned Parenthood director: Why I'm now pro-life”. Youtube, uploaded by Fox News, Jan 27 2017, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wc9VTnJBg1M
Sex Education (2019) Netflix
https://allnurseryrhymes.com/mary-mary-quite-contrary/
Alchin, L. (Feb 2017) Rock a Bye Baby Rhyme. http://www.rhymes.org.uk/rock_a_bye_baby.htm
FRANK WEDEKIND, 2018. SPRING AWAKENING. SMK Books
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The video of which played in the performance
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How can a devising company overcome obstacles to accessing imagination?
In a way this question has more to offer than you think in a company you need to allow yourself the freedom to discuss and create. Something that can be an obstacle is your phone the reason that this could be an obstacle is the obvious reason that you can get distracted either because people are messaging you are that you are looking at videos something that you can do to overcome this is to make sure that phones aren’t on in rehearsal time but if they only to use it fro research or for lines and message people once you are either on brake or finished. Something that is important to have to get into your imagination is to have confidence and humility, the reason you why it's important to have this is so when you get into your own world your not going to be embarrassed since you need to be able to get into your own world with not a worry about what people think. However if you have too much confidence it can also be an obstacle since you could overwhelm people and not allow people to help which means you won’t be able to bounce ideas off from each other to create the world you all desire. Something else that can be an obstacle is having off topic conversations since you are not talking about your world it stops your imagination from thinking about where you want to take the story further. To overcome this you can allow your group to talk about the off topic stuff during brake or even at the beginning of the session to allow time to settle into your group and allow the ideas that you all have bounce off from each other. However you don’t want to be to strict since that can also be an obstacle when it comes to your imagination because you need to have a little bit of fun to allow your creative energy flow. In Saul's book he answers a question “How then can we use our qualities as positive forces in our own lives – and the life of our society? How can we use them so that each builds upon the other in order to reinforce us as humans? Saul’s answer is Balance.” (Saul J,R 2001). Another obstacle that can happen is self censoring where you are very cautious about what you want to show and what you don’t want to show this could also be down to society views. The reason that this could be an obstacle is that you might overthink about what you are showing and worried about what might offend people however this is something that you need to be aware of but not obsessed over it. Since in theatre you need to be somewhat cautious however you don’t have a line to cross meaning you have a free will to do what you want in a safe space but you need to make sure that it’s in somewhat tasteful state.
Saul, J.R. (2001) On Equilibrium. London: Penguin.
Cambridge International Chapter 4 (online)- https://www.cambridgeinternational.org/Images/426483-chapter-4-innovation-and-creativity.pdf
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Charlotte prices individual
What would you advise an incoming year two student about creative ensemble dynamics? 400 words
I feel as though creative ensemble dynamics begin with the simple dynamics of the ensemble itself. I would recommend to start with considering what is best for the group, look at the group's strengths and weaknesses and work with those, “In the early stages of devising, it is important for a company to explore and experiment with a range of stimuli, to understand how the group operates in different situations. Group practical work and ‘getting to know each other exercises are vital to that exploration” (Oddey 1996 p.25) therefore you are enabled to work as an ensemble knowing how the people in your group work to the best of their abilities in result of this you may have a large list of skills from your peers. when working and creating a performance ensure you try to use as many of those skills that you can to create a strong performance.
When beginning to create a piece of work especially a performance don't feel as though you have to begin at the start. To create a good work dynamic you also need a comfortable place for people to share imaginative ideas without feeling embarrassed to share ensure your group they won’t be made to feel like their idea is irrelevant or not good enough. Take everybody's idea into consideration to an extent even if it may not be used for the final piece. “The devising process challenges every group member to confront the work, engage with it individually at different levels, as well as developing a sense of group cooperation, affiliation and unity at the same time” (Oddey 1996 p.24) I feel as though this quote is relevent when devising a piece in order to work as a group and fully engage at everybodys full capabilitys. Overall i feel as though the main advise i would give to a year two student about creative ensamble dynamics is to enjoy themselves and take full advantage of all their skills they can offer, also to ensure that the whole group is involved in the process of developing the performance to ensure everybodys ideas are heard and considered. Another thing to consider is to not feel as though you have to follow the norms of a performance (end on staging, naturalism etc..) unless informed to in your brief, never be afraid to explore different styles of theatre with the use of research and imagination to create a piece of work.
What influences, processes and methodologies did you use to activate and extend your own imagination?
When devising a piece we used a large variety of stimuli from art, music, plays and tv. One of the things that influenced us was when we began by looking at different nursery rhymes we researched into the history of a few different songs and how each rhyme is aimed towards children although they all have almost sinister history, we researched “Mary, Mary quite contrary”, “Rockabye baby” and “Peter, Peter pumkin eater”. When looking in to the history of these we found that “Mary, Mary quite contrary” was “first known as “Mistress Mary, Quite contrary” was recorded in the “Pretty Song Book” a collection of nursery rhymes published by Tommy Thumb, dating back to about 1744. The origins of “Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary” are uncertain. The character of Mary has been most often related to Bloody Mary or Mary Tudor, first daughter of Henry VIII who later became England’ Queen Mary I” (2019 rhysery rhymes) following her nickname of “bloody mary” it is widely assumed that “Mary Mary quite contrary” reflects the acts of Queen mary and her sanction to the killing of many protestants. With further research we realised that the majority of nursery rhymes are based around death, with “Rockabye baby” based around babies being tied in trees and pertentally resulting in falling to their death, “Peter, Peter pumpkin eater” based around an adulterous wife who was murdered by her husband and kept inside a pumpkin and as previously stated “mary, mary quite contrary” based around the notorious “Bloody Mary”. We felt as though these classics could contribute to our decision of basing our peice around abortion which to some is also considered, murder due to the death of the child. Moving on from nursery rhymes we also looked at “Spring Awakening” by Frank Wedekind “Spring Awakening is a classic but still startling play, addressing adolescent sexuality at a time when sexual oppression and ignorance made puberty a confusing and terrifying mystery. Notorious for its supposed pornographic content, the play addresses homosexuality, abuse, abortion, rape, suicide and sadism” (Drama online 2019) because of this we looked into the character of Wendia and her nonconsenting abortion due to her doctors choice to prescribe pills with abortive powers for her anemia. From reading this we decided to include a male influence for all of the characters who had an abortion inorder to connect with this classic resulting in mentioning boyfriends and a Doctor.
Bibliography
Devising theatre: A practical and theoretical handbook
Allison oddesy
1996
Biddes ltd, Guildford and kings lynn
https://allnurseryrhymes.com/mary-mary-quite-contrary/
Nursery rhymes
2019
https://www.dramaonlinelibrary.com/plays/spring-awakening-iid-116090
Drama online
Bloomsbury publishing plc
2019
Spring awakening
Frank wedekind
Translated by Edward bond
A&.c black 2012
The Dance, 1910 by Henri Matisse
Sex Education- Netflix tv show 2019
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Nesta's Individual
what would you advise an incoming year two students about creative ensemble dynamics?
For all the upcoming year two students this is something that you need to keep in mind when you are working in a creative ensemble dynamic, obviously you have most probably worked in groups before this so you might have some idea of what you need to do. To make sure that you have everything done to your best ability always have a plan of what you would like to achieve in each group meeting or practice so you know what you need to do and not get too distracted, with this make sure that when you are in the first stages of organizing and devising you let everyone have a say on what is done in the group work and what your final piece is this will help in having a good group work and good morality in the group. When you have people who have different personalities it can be challenging but also good since you can challenge each other. Not only that but when you have different personalities in your group it can as make the creative process more interesting, since you don’t work in the same way as each other and you see things differently. On the topic of who you are working with it’s also good to mention that even, if you have the same personality or the same way you work it can be good but there are some disadvantages to this. On of them is that you could get very easily distracted by talking about something that is off topic and can be challenging where you don’t want to say something to hurt them. This is true but not all the time since some people think it’s best to work with people who are like minded in the way they work. When you are working in a creative dynamic it’s important to know what you all want your rolls to be in the performance, weather you would rather a smaller part but be more in charge with choreography or the script or anything but make sure that everyone has a chance to decide what they want. It is important that you make sure that your group has a clear idea of what you want to do, for your performance and you want people who are watching to get out of it weather you want them to be shocked or just think more about every day.
What influences, process and methodologies did you use to activate and extend your own imagination?
Talking about what we want for the audience to take from our performance we had a clear idea which helped us when it came to thinking about our process, influence and our methodologie. What we wanted for the audience took from our performance is to be more aware of abortion and talk about it more. For this performance we wanted it to have truth and for it to be believable, to do this our methodology for this was to be realistic yet very exaggerated. To do this we did some research to do with the physiological effects of having an abortion and what how would they affect our characters. “Women who have experienced multiple abortions, and those who experienced ambivalence in deciding on abortion, have been shown to be more likely to suffer long-term adverse psychological outcomes.”( Edna M. Astbury-Ward, 2008). Not only did we do this but we looked to find tv shows, films or plays that touch on the topic to see how they have done it so we could take some inspiration from them. When it come to our process we already knew we wanted to do about abortion since its a topic that isn’t talked about much in today’s society yet it still happens, from this we looked at nursery rhymes that had something to do with death and from there take ideas and make it into something else. When it came to our revised performance we had some influence from a painting by Henri Matisse called “the Dance” which depicts a ritualistic dancing we wanted to add this into our piece since it fitted with in the concept that we wanted for a dream sequence since we wanted it to feel a like a ritual dance where we sacrifice a baby. Not only with this dream sequence we had influence from the painting we also took some inspiration from the story called the judgment of Solomon. But instead of one of us not wanting to hurt the baby we want to so we fought to keep the baby but we rip the “baby” and cradle a piece then throw it away. Since this was a topic that isn’t talked about much we couldn’t really find much online to help us apart from little snippets however this allowed us to be more creative.
Bibliography
Emotional and psychological impact of abortion: a critique by Edna M. Astbury-Ward (01/01/2008 online)
https://glyndwr.collections.crest.ac.uk/118/1/fulltext.pdf
Long-Term Physical and Psychological Health Consequences of Induced Abortion: A Review of the Evidence by John M. Thorp Jr., Katherine E. Hartmann & Elizabeth Shadiga (01/07/2005 online)
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/20508549.2005.11877742
Teen vogue online - Netflix's Sex Education Portrays Abortion Accurately by Brittney McNamara (15/01/2019 online)
https://www.teenvogue.com/story/netflixs-sex-education-portrays-abortion-accurately
Telling stories about abortion: abortion-related plots in American film and television, 1916–2013 by Gretchen Sisson and Katrina Kimport (09/01/2014 online)
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0010782414000067#
Speaking of Abortion: Television and Authority in the Lives of Women by Andrea L. Press, Elizabeth R. Cole in University of Chicago Press, published 15 Jan 2001
Personal experiences of abortion by national abortion campaign (Great Brittan) published unknown year 199-
Sex Education- Netflix tv show 2019
The Dance, 1910 by Henri Matisse
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these were some of our original ideas for the performance, Going from our first decision to create a piece about abortion.
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