Moonfish Productions- Plot 2

Today at Moonfish Productions' meeting, we all agreed that yesterday's idea wasn't working because the spy idea had been overdone. So we got to work, drafting a new plot. Here is a printed version of our new plot: 

Although, we worked on devising scenes around this new plot, peer feedback helped us to realise that the idea wasn't working at all and we felt that we were in a much worse position than that which we were in yesterday. 

We worked on looking at new ideas, with and without The Hairy Toe's involvement. This is because, we have recently discovered, what a difficult task we've set for ourselves in basing our story around 'the toe'. We looked at making a children's horror play about monsters (zombies, vampires, werewolves etc.). We also looked at making a Tim Burton style play about a strange village, with strange villagers. I will write on our group Facebook page, if I have any further ideas or research that I think might work well in our project.

Moonfish Productions- The Hairy Toe Plot

I watched these videos as part of my research for Children's Theatre:
AESOPS FABLES: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=heasnJY8HMM
NATIVE AMERICAN STORIES: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s1Mb9tsnYLU&list=PLED363ADEC6DC167C
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UUxayvHzgLY&list=PLED363ADEC6DC167C
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=44ZenHI6HQM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gyaifWkUWr0
INDIAN LEGENDS: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-3PKVTWmTco
ROALD DHAL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bDWOXcrUTd4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9xr7vV40tNg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F5DS2DnsJ04
THE ELEPHANTS CHILD: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=buqw2bvlu2Q

I thought that 'The Enormous Crocodile' was a good example of  just how scary stories for children can be. I also thought that 'The God Ganesha' was a good example of how stories can include multiple events to keep the audience entertained, without getting too complicated. The Native American stories were a good example of how fascinating different cultural influences in stories can be, especially for children (who may no nothing about these cultures, until they listening to the stories). I also liked the idea of 'The Elephant Child', which included talking animals as the main characters, which is sure to be a hit with kids who love animals. 








Today Moonfish Productions wrote on our part of the wall in The Black Box. Here are some images of our work so far:

We wrote a plot summary- including a beginning, a middle and an end. We then got to work, devising some of our scenes. I still need to focus on my physicality and character development, but the scenes are coming together quite nicely. I tried to improve my characterisation, and will continue to do this by practising in front of a mirror and recording myself  while "in character".

Moonfish Productions- The Hairy Toe Development

Today, we were given the task of developing our 'Children's Theatre' pieces and performing a scene from it. We spent a long time thinking of ideas for the storyline and eventually came up with a scene to perform to the class.

We all discussed our thoughts for the storyline and everyone put their ideas forward.  However, we found that they all differed tremendously. We handled the problem in a very productive way- each of us was given a piece of paper to write their version of what they thought the story line should be and then we took it in turns to read out what what was written on our pieces of paper. Eventually we chose to incorporate the best ideas from each of the pieces of paper (as everyone came up with something really creative). So we set out to devise one of the scenes and rehearsed it.

We chose to do a scene in which The Giant and Flo (his young friend), were attempting to break into Lady Petronella's hideout, in order to get The Hairy Toe back. I played Lady Petronella's Guard, who was meant to be a mean, scary and an excellent swordsman. 

The scene became quite comical and the idea of doing a James Bond spoof came up. I was given feedback that my character was too scary, that I could not be on the same level of evilness as Lady Petronella and that, as a minion I needed two sides to my character (possibly even, a sob story). Therefore, I need to work to further develop my character, which I will do by researching Evil Henchman and creating my own character using these ideas:

The Emperor's New Groove- Kronk:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1MNllfr6wVY

Peter Pan- Mr Smee:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DkQt6wRGhbU
 

The Lion King- Hyenas:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yhZ0TKdgJGg

Source Material For 'The Children's Theatre Project'

Today we focused on looking at source material, which would give us ideas for our 'Children's Theatre' project pieces. We read a text about various ideas that we could incorporate into our pieces, including Fairytales, Myths, Quests and Old Wine in New Bottles. I felt that it included some very useful information and so I have taken photographs of the text for my blog. Here is the text:

We had to pick random pieces of paper, which would decide the title, theme, setting, a character and the opening line of the first 3 minutes of our performances (however, they did not necessarily have to relate to our previous ideas or or final project piece):

Title
The Magic Traffic Cone
Theme
Gang warfare
Setting
A boat, in the middle of The Sea
Character
Lady Petronella Janie Roley-Worthington
Opening Line
"I'm sorry, but I can't take your call right now. Please leave a message after the tone. BEEP!"
Something silly
Six toes

We decided to use these random ideas to expand on one of our previous ideas- the tale of 'The Hairy Toe'. As we were allowed to discard some of the pieces of paper, we chose a different title and opening line. Due to our setting being in the middle of The Sea, I suggested  that we make the gang warfare between pirates. Lady Petronella would be the villain of the story, who was to hold The Giant captive, in the hope to sell his toe for gold. I was the Narrator, who I suggested should come in and out of the story.

Script (Used for this performance, but is likely to change for the final performance)

The story begins with a freeze frame. On a pirate ship, in the middle of the sea. 4 pirates stand, ready to fight. At another location, Lady Petronella taunts the captured giant. One of The Pirates steps out of the freeze frame.

Narrator/Pirate: Why hello there, and welcome to the story of 'The Hairy Toe'. A tale of a giant who had 6 toes. One hairy. Our story begins, on a stormy night.

The Narrator/Pirate goes back into their frozen position. The Pirates plot to find the giant and his toe for themselves. They go offstage.

Lady Petronella continues to taunt the giant, reducing him to tears, begging her to let him go. The Pirates return, demanding that Lady Petronella gives them The Hairy Toe. She refuses and spites them all by cutting off his toe. They all freeze. The Narrator/ Pirate steps out of the freeze frame.

The Narrator/ Pirate: And that my friends, is only the beginning.

End of scene


We were given feedback, where we were told that; it was a good starting point;  that they liked the idea of The Narrator coming in and out of the story; that they liked the idea of the evil Lady Petronella; but, that there is room for much improvement, i.e our stage positioning and the characterisation of The Giant. I felt that my physicality needed further developing, which I will work on by practising in front of a mirror.