Evaluation

The 'Theatre For Children' Project began with a brief introduction into 'Theatre For Children', followed by everyone being put into random groups of five or six. In these groups, we were asked to work together, as part of a company to generate and develop ideas for the project. As part of the development process, we would have to take part in independent and group research. We would then have to use these ideas to devise a final performance, which would tour at various different primary schools. Finally, we would put on an evening performance to show family, friends and other audience members.

We took part in a number of research activities such as 'Aundre's 8th Birthday Party', in which we were expected to get back in-touch with our eight-year-old selves. This was in order to remember what sort of things, we would have enjoyed watching at that age. This helped me to remember how much children like themes, such as Cowboys, Pirates and Princesses. We also looked at numerous text sheets, which explained to us more about Children's Theatre. I read these multiple times, and put them on my blog to remind me of the definition of 'Children's Theatre' and to give me inspiration. We also looked into the origins of fairytales, which made me realise how many different versions of well-known fairytales we could potentially remake. We also went on trips to watch 'Children's Theatre' shows. I took notes from these shows and mentioned some of them to my group. I also watched videos and family programmes about fairytales to give me more ideas that I could suggest to my group. I spent time, at home improvising with the characters that I would portray in our 'Children's Theatre' pieces, to make sure that I had the correct physicality and voice for each character. I found that Commedia Dell' Arte, which I participated in during the half term, helped me with my physicality and it also helped me to realise the range of characters that I could play and that I could also create 'big' characters for 'Children's Theatre', rather than just characters with subtle personality traits.

I was in a group with Tom, Miguel, Lucy, Steph and Emily. Our company was called 'Moonfish Productions'. Our first task was to write down a few rough ideas. From the beginning, I made sure that I was never silent during a group meeting and I literally stated all of my ideas- some were better than others. I was willing to listen to other peoples ideas, but I also gave my opinion on whether I though they would work well or how I though that they could be improved.

Our first idea was 'The Hairy Toe'. It came form an old fairytale that we found on the Internet, after researching 'silly stories for kids' (we were told in a lesson that kids like stories with silly tiles, such as 'Chocolate Underpants'). We all liked the idea of 'The Hairy Toe' and we worked together to devise a few scenes (each of us helped to direct scenes that we weren't in). The problem was that the original story didn't have a good enough structure (beginning, middle and an end), and so we struggled to find a decent plot. We started of with a narrated story of a Giant who lost his toe and went on an adventure with a young girl to find it, only for it to be eaten by her grandmother (an elderly lady eating the toe was part of the original story, as was The Giant who lost it). This version was quite dark and it went down well with the audience (e.g. we got lots of positive feedback). Then we thought about focusing more heavily on The Pirates that, featured in the beginning of our first version, to create a more action-packed story. This version was more comical than the first, but it also went down well with the audience. After it was suggested that we do a bit of a James Bond spoof, we focused on the idea of Spies, as opposed to Pirates. We spent a lot of time developing this version but the next day we changed back to a more fairytale-themed story. We finished devising it by the end of the day, but after having it peer review, we realised that it wasn't working.

After half term, we scrapped the idea of 'The Hairy Toe' and changed it to 'The Something'. In this version 'something' would fall from the sky and a variety of different characters would go on an adventure to find it ('the something' being a different thing for all of them). After hearing about 'the something' on the radio, The Duke and Duchess would journey to; a hairy salon, where they'd meet a Blonde Bimbo; through the woods, where they'd meet a Creepy Person (who wasn't actually that creepy); and to a haunted mansion, where they'd all get taken away by a Ghost. We all went away that weekend, and were each given tasks to write certain scenes. I introduced Mr Dibbles (a teddy bear) into the story as we were told that children like it when inanimate objects come to life (e.g. in Toy Story) and I needed to soften my hooded character (so that they weren't that creepy (as suggested in the script)). We performed it to the class, and were told that we needed a character for the children to empathise with. For this reason, we changed the idea slightly, by making my character an imaginary friend for The Bimbo, who's mean parent, The Duke and Duchess, wouldn't let her find 'the something' with them. Then we changed the idea dramatically by beginning the story with The Duke and Duchess adopting The Bimbo.

 The day after that, we all felt that that idea of the adoption was inappropriate (the way that we portrayed adoption, wasn't very positive (as she got chosen by parents who didn't want her). Therefore we felt that we needed to think of a completely fresh and original idea. The idea of setting our story in a circus was suggested, then the idea of superheroes was suggested once again. Then the idea of circus characters, who find magic jelly beans that fall from the sky that turns them into superheroes was suggested. At that point we felt very lost and went to Ella for advice. Then she suggested that we stick with the idea of 'something' falling from the sky, but that we could make different characters participate in a race to find it.

We began working on the new version of 'The Something'. This version was more about the characters preparing for a race than going on an adventure. We showed our first scene to the class and we were given feedback that we could be more active while watching TV. We took this feedback into consideration. Later I was set a target to not playing a fierce character for 'Children's Theatre' and to have a larger role in the play. Therefore, after setting myself a few character improvisation tasks at home, I found a very wild and jolly character, who happened to have an Australian accent. In our next few meetings, Moonfish Productions came up with an entire storyline for 'The Something'. We showed a peer what we had, and they said that it was funny and enjoyable, but that it needed a lot less screaming. Most of us were confident with this version, but then we had to show it an audience of our peers. It was our first rehearsal with props and a lot went wrong mainly due to the introduction of the props. There was a certain scene in which I put lipstick on in slow motion to 'Call On Me', which unintentionally appeared inappropriate for children. It was a last minute idea and was completely improvised (originally we would put sweat bands on in slow motion, but we had no sweat bands and we thought that bending down in slow motion looked inappropriate). What was suppose to look like I was pulling a funny face, ended up looking like I was pulling an appropriate face. In the future, if I ever have to do 'Children's Theatre' again, I will know to stay away from dressing up in slow motion.

After we had performed to our peers we were given feedback that our piece was; very confusing, at times inappropriate, that we needed someone for the children to empathise with and we were told that it seemed like their were three different story lines going on in our play. It was also a lot less fast- paced than the day before, when rehearsals went well and so didn't have as big an impact. We took all of this into consideration and thought about adapting the story line, to improve on the things that we were given feedback on. Later, we were told that two of our group members had decided to leave the group to work in their own company. Things became very difficult for the remaining four members of our company, but we pulled together to think of ideas. We went back to the idea of adapting our most recent version of 'The Something'. This time The Scientist would be a boy with a wild imagination for the children to empathise with and we would all be cousins, who meet up after many years, to go on the race for 'The Something'. However, we struggled with no longer having double acts and over-adapting the idea. So we got to work, thinking of new ideas.

Our final idea was to devise an adaption of an original fairytale. We researched a few well-known and not so well-known fairytales, until we all agreed on 'Hansel and Gretal'. This time, we took a completely new approach to devising, in which we showed Ella what all that we had more frequently, so that the problems were addressed straight away. This was something that we should have considered from the start, as we could have avoided a lot of mistakes. I will know to do this in the future. Our first version had a dark feeling to it, which was highlighted by slightly creepy music in the background of the first scene. It began with Hansel and Gretal's evil Stepmother, forcing them to go on a trip into The Woods. The Farther was lazy and The Stepmother would turn out to be The Witch in the end. We were told that we had a strong beginning, but that we could include a twist in the tale. The next day we twisted the story by making The Mother and Father, the enthusiastic, nice and embarrassing parents of their moaning teenagers, Hansel and Gretal. The parents would take their kids camping in The Woods, and Hansel and Gretal would find a magic spell book, which they would use to turn their Mother into a Witch. We showed this version to our peers but we were told that we twisted the tale too much, that it had no setup, that it included too many fairytale references and that it should be the parents who cast spells on their children too teach their little brats a lesson.

That day we went to 'The Hat Factory' to watch a show, which inspired me to suggest the idea of movement to move a story along and to express the emotions of our characters. I suggested that we begin the story with the kids fighting, for a greater impact than our last opening scene. This story would develop into a series of family rows, that would demonstrate how parents cope when they are at the end of their tether with their children.

Afterwards, we were told that we had to make a decision- we could either split off into other groups or continue working as a company, risking not going on tour. After a lot of consideration, we eventually came to the decision, that we would have to split up. I immediately went off to ask 'Deep Blue Tales', if I could help them out and got straight to work painting rocks, painting their sign, making more rocks and helping out with cutting materials for them. I messed up with the materials, as I did not trust my own instincts, but continued working non-stop to do whatever I felt that I could do to help them. Later, another member of 'Moonfish Productions' also joined the group and and I was told that there wasn't enough room on the tour bus for me and that they didn't need my help on tour. Therefore I did not go on tour.

I did join them for their Friday Evening Performance, in helping with setting up and clearing after them. I asked them where each of the props and parts of the set went, so that I wouldn't get it wrong and tried to help as much as I could. I would have helped more if I'd known more about the positions of everything, but if I am in this position again, I will be sure to draw a diagram. To summarise my work as part of The Production Team, I would say that I tried my best and worked as hard as I could to help, but I lacked confidence in this area, I'm not the most artistic person (when art goes beyond drawing) and so, I lost opportunities.

My first character was a Narrator/ Pirate. The character was intentionally slightly scary and somewhat arrogant. After performing as this character, I felt that I needed to work on my physicality and so I practised in front of a mirror, which helped me to correct my physicality. My idea of The Narrator coming in and out of the story, had quite and impact on the opening scene. My next character was an evil Henchman, who was still pirate-like and had an Irish accent. For this character I spent a lot of my free time working on an Irish accent that I felt was appropriate for the character. After I was told that my character needed further development and needed to be less scary, I worked on a new, more arrogant Spy Henchman Character (who smirked a lot, so that they weren't as scary and who had my normal voice). When we changed our idea back to a fairytale, my character became a more easily frightened Henchman. I felt that this character needed much further development, and so, I worked on making them much more of 'a scaredy cat' in my free time.

Then I had to play a creepy person (who wasn't so creepy) for The Haunted House version of 'The Something'. When I wrote the script, I got the impression that my character would where a hood, but I also needed them to have a softer side, so I brought 'Mr Dibbles' (the teddy bear), so that I could suggest that he becomes a talking inanimate object (I would also be the voice of Mr. Dibbles, who had an Australian accent). After we performed this to our peers we were told that we needed a 'Charlie character' and so my character became a lot softer, with greater morals and a good friend. After that, when we went onto the race version of 'The Something', where I went back to playing the bad hoodie, but (as it was suggested in a lesson that children like to hear different accents) I had an Australian accent. Then, I was told that I needed to play less fierce characters and that I should try to have a bigger role. I also remembered that we'd learnt that children liked 'big' characters. Therefore I spent a lot of time improvising with various characters, until I came up with 'Cindy' (a high energy, loud and girly Australian). Finally, when we changed our idea to 'Hansel and Gretal', I played Gretal, a teenager who couldn't stop talking and was very embarrassed by her parents. This was one of the most challenging characters, as I found it difficult to get back into the mode of naturalistic acting. Then I though back to the technique that I used as the Narrator and in other performances and managed to remember and use the technique just before the group split up.

My major strength is my work ethic. I spent time outside of college developing my characters, and researching and thinking of ideas to bring forward to my group. As a group, we had a good work ethic and spent hours after college developing our pieces and researching ideas. We all got along very well, and although we had disagreements, none of us found ourselves in heated arguments. We handled our disagreements in a professional manner, by listening to everyone's ideas and picking the best on a basis of majority votes. I contributed fully in every meeting and helped to direct scenes that I wasn't part of, as did everyone else. I was able to highlight things that weren't working and explain how they could be improved. I was punctual, reliable and attended every meeting (other than those that went on during Commedia Dell' Arte). I gave my the best performance that I could every time that we had to perform in front of our peers. I also worked nonstop, as part of The Production Team for 'Deep Blue Tales', to help them as much as could.

One of my major problems during this project was my initial interpretation of 'Children's Theatre'. After I had read one of the articles, that stated that actors should perform at the same standards and quality as they would to an adult audience, I confused this with acting naturalistic and only creating characters with subtle personalities (as opposed to big, loud, high energy characters). This resulted in most of my characters being fierce, evil and scary. This also made most of my characters fade into the background, subconsciously giving myself smaller roles. I now realise that for Adult Theatre, you can play 'big'/over-the-top characters without playing it too childish and so it would have been better to explore more of these types of characters. Then when I had to go back into naturalistic acting, I had completely forgotten my technique. I will work on this by practising more naturalistic monologues and improvisation tasks at home.

As a group, our greatest weakness was not being able to stick to one idea. We had many ideas, but we couldn't find a decent plot for any of them. Therefore, we changed our idea too many times and sometimes I agreed with the idea of changing the story (e.g. after the adoption idea) and at other times I felt that we should stick with what we had (e.g. The Haunted House idea). I fought for some ideas, such as The Haunted House idea, as we already had a script and I felt that it was the most practical option, but sometimes, when it was a majority vote, I felt myself being swayed to the option of changing ideas completely. In the future, I will know to stick to one idea, and even if it seems like it wont work out, I will work to further develop it. I also should have spoken up more in meetings with the whole class and when discussing our ideas with Ella, as it might have helped us more with gaining an 'outside view'. For this reason, I will try much harder to be more vocal in larger group situations. I also need to work on my confidence, when it comes to my art work and I need to work on my artistic skills, so that if I am ever needed as a production person, I can be better help.

In conclusion, I thoroughly enjoyed working as part of 'Moonfish Productions'. It was good to spend more time interacting with people, that I hadn't interacted with so much before 'Children's Theatre'. It helped to improve my confidence and I also learnt from their ideas. I liked the idea of 'Children's Theatre' and I did my best for the project and for my group. We went through many versions of different plays and I went through many different characters, but we kept trying to make the best 'Children's Theatre' piece possible. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to go on tour, but I gained experience of the production side of theatre. I still have many weaknesses, but I will work hard to improve these, to make my next performance better.

Musical Theatre Workshop

Yesterday I got straight to work finishing making the rocks for 'Deep Blue Tales'. Here are some images of the almost finished and finished product:

Afterwards I participated in a musical theatre workshop. It was also an audition for Letchworth's West-end-style musical 'The Night Before Christmas'. We were asked to sing, dance and act through movement. 

We had to learn two dances. The first took me a while to pick up. However, after a few times of running through it, I learnt the dance quicker than usual. This time, it was my timing that was completely off. I would have benefited from 'counting' in my head. I also could have put a lot more energy into it, in order to make my performance more aesthetically pleasing. Afterwards, we learnt a dance that included elements of The Tango. I felt that I could have put a lot more energy into this dance also. I was even slower at picking up this routine and my timing was even worse. I could have put a lot more into my characterisation for both of the dances. During previous workshops such as Commedia Dell' Arte and in drama clubs I have always poured myself into becoming certain characters and I've made an effort to stand out. During this workshop I didn't commit to any character enough for them to come across. This was partly due to the fact that I was focusing on the choreography. In future workshops, I need to come up with and commit to more over-the-top characters, as I have managed to do in the past.

We learnt a new song from the show all together and then we were asked to sing half of the first verse as a solo. We had to sing in front of the piano individually and we had to sound as 'ugly' (not necessarily singing well and singing with a twang ('nya' sound)) and as London (cockney) as possible. I sang with a cockney accent. The first time I was nervous and I was worried about not being able to remember or read the words well, so I made a lot of mistakes. However, the second time I was asked to look up (instead of burying my head in the lyrics sheet). This time I managed to make only one mistake and it was the most confidently I have sang at college as of yet (possibly because I sang with an accent). We were also taught about the 'C Curve' (the shape that the neck makes when the head faces down), which, if not straightened, can cause singers to loose around 3 notes form their vocal range.

The Workshop Leader spoke about workshop audition etiquette. He mentioned that you shouldn't fold your arms, you shouldn't talk or run through choreography at the sides, and you should always give your full attention to the person who is holding the auditions (by looking at them when they are speaking).

The End Of Moonfish Productions

Today Moonfish Productions got straight to work on adapting our version of 'Hansel and Gretel', in order to improve on the things that we were given feedback for. I suggested that we could add physical theatre and music to our piece or that we could each come out of the story, at one point and tell a certain part of it from each of our points of view.

Then we were given an ultimatum- we could have either have stayed together and risked not getting graded for this unit, or we could have each joined other groups and worked on the production side of things. After a group meeting, we made the hard decision to join other groups. Not wanting anyone to not have a group to join- we all allocated each other to certain groups, so that no group would have too many production people.

I asked to help the Children's Theatre Company, 'Deep Blue Tales'. They asked me to repaint rocks that they already had for them and to create new rocks. Therefore, I painted the rocks and then discovered that another member of Moonfish Productions was working on the production side of Deep Blue Tales' show. I asked if they needed any help and helped them with cutting materials. I decided to listen to the instructions of someone more artistic than myself, which ended up being the opposite of what needed to be done. Then I listened to their instructions again, and completely messed up. Next time, I will be more independent when it comes to art and trust my own instincts, as if I had, I would have ended up doing the right thing.

Immediately afterwards, I worked on making more rocks. I then moved onto helping to paint the 'Fish + Chips' sign. Later, I made some more rocks for the group. I worked hard on the jobs that needed doing for this group and worked all day without stopping, as I was determined to help them out. However, at the end of the day, I was told their was not enough room on the tour buses for me and that my help wasn't needed on the tour. Therefore I will not be going on tour, but I will try to help them out during The Evening Performance.

Here are the rocks I began making:

Here is an image of the 'Fish + Chips' sign:

Hansel And Gretal

Today Moonfish Productions thought about adding a twist to 'Hansel and Gretel'. We thought that instead of making The Parents horrible and The Children nice, we could make The Parents sweet, embarrassing and enthusiastic about going on a camping trip to the forest. We thought that Hansel and Gretel could be constantly embarrassed by and annoyed at their parents, until they go on a camping trip and find a spell book. They could then, cast spells on their mother and father. One of these spells, would turn them into a Witch and a Warlock. The Witch and Warlock would teach their children a lesson by summoning a gingerbread house and luring their greedy children into it, where they would play frightful tricks on them. In trying to escape, Hansel and Gretal would accidentally turn their parents into dolls (the audience would hear the mum and dad talking from backstage, giving the illusion that they have become dolls).

We had to perform what we had to our peers. I felt that, once again, I was flat at times. I was also very clumsy today and kept bumping into things. I need to make sure that I get a good night sleep before performing, as it effects my performance negatively. We were given feedback that the beginning didn't capture the audiences attention and that the story was too far away from the original story of Hansel and Gretal. We also had too many fairytale references, which could give false hopes of appearances from them. It was suggested that the kids could be really bratty and that their parents could be at the end of their tether. To teach the kids a lesson, the parents would play tricks on them and cast spells on them while on a camping trip.

While observing other groups, I realised that they all had something original and exciting about their play that made them stand out e.g. physical theatre, well-known fairytale characters mixed into one story, live music etc. Our group have nothing to help us to stand out.


Also we saw a show at The Hat Factory. It was called Our Big Land:
http://www.lutonculture.com/hat-factory/whats-on/2014/03/13/our-big-land/881/?from=%252Fhat-factory%252Fwhats-on%252F%2523search
It was interesting to observe the culture of Romany Travellers. I knew hardly anything about their culture before I saw the show and it opened my eyes to the use of contrasting different cultures when devising performances. I enjoyed their use of physical theatre, live singing and music to move the story along. I will suggest the idea of this to 'Moonfish Productions' for the opening of our piece, as well as other scenes.

Moonfish Productions- The Split

Today we showed our children's theatre performances to The Second Years and The Level 2s. During our performance of 'The Something', a lot of things went wrong. Although the first scene went okay, the other scenes were not performed the way that we had rehearsed them yesterday. This was partly due to the fact that we had made some last minute changes and it was our first run with props (which caused multiple problems). We introduced new props (makeup) to Scene 4 just before the performance, as we hadn't yet got our hands on sweat band (which we would have put on in slow motion instead of the make-up). As a result, the scene ended up looking too inappropriate for children's theatre, especially with the song that was chosen for background. I tried not to look sexual by trying to pull a funny face, which ended up making it look even worse.

I felt that although my character had a lot of energy, she was too shouty and screamy, and her accent was likely to he too hard to understand at times. We were given feedback from our tutor and peers, where we were told that the plot was very confusing. They also felt that we were telling 3 different stories.

Most of our group were upset that the idea didn't work. We spent some time considering new ideas/ trying to improve the idea we had. A few hours later we found out that two members of group decided to leave because they felt that our idea wasn't working. It was quite shocking for all of the remaining members, as we never had arguments and got along well, but the 4 of us pulled together in order to figure out what we would do next.

We attempted to develop the idea that we already had, without the double-acts, but we couldn't see it working. We thought about turning to the idea of a well-known fairytale with a twist. After looking at various options, (e.g. I suggested snow white or sleeping beauty), we all decided on Hansel and Gretal. I feel that my naturalistic-acting is under-practised, as I sometimes feel as though it sounds like I'm reading straight from the script. This could be due to the fact that I stress myself out about the delivery of each line and believe that it will sound flat- and then it does. I am a lot more comfortable with naturalistic acting during one-off improvisation tasks. Once I have performed the lines again and again, I struggle to stay as natural as I did the first time. I will try to solve this issues by reading more monologues- specialising in the naturalistic-style of acting. I will also practise more naturalistic improvisation.

Although i do contribute fully in every group meeting, I still need to work on finding the confidence to contribute in larger groups and when discussing ideas with our tutor. Whenever I'm in my 'Children's Theatre' group, I never hold back. I always have multiple ideas in my head and I make sure that I pitch them all to my group. A lot of my ideas have been used in the past (e.g. The Narrator in 'The Hairy Toe' (version one) coming in and out of the story and various other big and small ideas). If I think an idea works or isn't working, I mention it to the group and explain why. I have even wrote down some of our notes for my group. I feel that we all contribute equally in every group meeting. When it comes to putting my opinions forward within a large group or when discussing our groups ideas with our tutor, I become to worried about not being able to voice exactly what it is that I wish to say . I often find that when speaking (not in character), I often get my words jumbled and even I  become confused as to what it is that I've just said Although I struggle with this problem in group meetings, I somehow feel that it doesn't matter so much if  I speak incoherently. In other situations I hold back from what I want to say. This is a confidence issue and I can work to overcome this by adopting the same approach to such situations, as I have in Moonfish Productions' meetings. I also need to think of 'speaking' in the same way that I think of writing words on a page (as I seem to be better at explaining myself in this way). I must understand the importance of voicing my opinions in class, as it is good practise for the future. Holding back, will only make me regret not saying things.

'The Something'- Running Order

Today Moonfish Productions focused on completing our play. We worked through all of the scenes and then put them all together. We ran the whole show again and again and found that it lasts about 15 minutes. Here is an image of our current running order.

We felt that scene 4 was too short and so we added additional dialogue. It now involves a lot of melodramatic crying, which I must remember to bring a lot of energy to every time.

Here are images of the script for scene 4 (version 2):

We asked for some peer feedback, in which we were told that there was too much screaming and shouting in our piece. Our first few rehearsals went well. I have been improvising with my character at home, anytime that I have free. When we recorded our performance today, I felt that I was flat at times and so, I must maintain my characters high energy level and enthusiasm throughout every run of the show. On the other hand, in watching the video, I felt that my physicality has improved, due to the fact that i remembered to maintain the tonic body. I must also be careful that my facial expressions aren't unintentionally scary, which I will do by virtually always smiling and keeping my eyebrows raised.

 

 

Cindy- A Nice Character

Since the beginning of 'The Children's Theatre Project' I have played a Narrator/ Pirate, an Evil Henchman, a Cockney Hoodie/ The Voice Of Mr Dibbles and an Australian Hoodie. All of these characters have been evil or scary and so my target for this project is to play a nicer/ happier character, which I should portray by adjusting my facial expressions and voice. I was also told to make myself a larger role within my group's production. I have attempted to do this by giving my character more lines and making her 'a bigger character' (as we were told that children like 'big' characters).

I found a character that fits in with Moonfish Productions' show nicely. I have kept the Australian accent, as I was told that children like to hear different types of voices. It also allows me to play around with this character's voice in a way that creates humour. Cindy's voice is more high-pitched than Jordan's (Australian Hoodie) and she smiles a lot. She's quite cheeky, energetic, loud and excitable, but not very clever and she's very girly. She nearly always has her hands up to her shoulders, with the tip of her thumbs touching the tip of her middle fingers, with her pinkie sticking out (to show how girly she is).

Here is a rough copy of my lines and cue lines for the play as of yet: 

Finding A Plot

Today we all decided that yesterdays plots weren't strong enough story lines and so we scrapped both ideas. We struggled with finding a plot throughout the day. We came up with the idea of our story being based on Circus Performers, who find something that has fallen from the sky. Later we thought about the idea of Superheroes, who's powers are taken away from them when something falls from the sky. These Superheroes would have to battle The Evil Lady Petronella, who has stolen their powers for herself, in order to retrieve their powers. Then we thought about a group of Circus Performers, who find 5 jelly beans that have fallen from the sky. These jelly beans would give them superpowers, which they would use to defy their evil Ringmaster.

After having a talk with Ella, we found that the idea of the characters we came up with yesterday, going on a rat race to find 'the something' that has fallen from the sky, could be something we could work with. This time the Duke and Duchess would be scientists, who would want 'the something' because it is a cure for hairy toes. The Bimbo and The Hoodie, would be sisters, who want 'the something', as it might help them to find there long lost sister, 'Susie-Anne'. A new character, The Evil Lady Teapots, would want 'the something' for selfish reasons. The Presenter would follow our characters around, interviewing them and reporting on their every move, which would become quite an annoyance for them.

'The Something'

We changed the title of our production from 'The Hairy Toe' to 'The Something' because we found that the original title was no longer relevant to our new plot. In our new plot, our characters were; a Duke and Duchess, a Presenter, a Ghost, a Blonde Bimbo and a Hoodie. 

Here are our notes:

Here is our plot 'The Something':

The story begins with the characters breaking into the haunted mansion. The Presenter interrupts them and the story rewinds to The Duke and Duchess in their house 4 hours earlier. The Duke and Duchess discuss dinner, turn on the radio and hear about 'the something' that has fallen from the sky. They decide to go on a quest to find it, where meet a Bimbo at a hair salon and a Creepy Hoodie in the forest. All of the characters head to the haunted mansion (where 'the something' supposedly is) and we return to the scene in which the characters break into the mansion. In the mansion they split up to find 'the something'. They each encounter a ghost and then they all bump into each other again. They are startled by a noise, all run away and split off again. This time The Ghost catches them all one by one and in a shocking twist, this was The Presenter's plan all along.

My character was the Creepy Hoodie. We decided that my character tries to be tough and scary, but really they are a big softy. For this reason, I introduced Mr. Dibbles into the story- an Australian teddy bear, who had a mind of his own and in ventriloquist-style, I would also be the voice of Mr. Dibbles.

We each wrote part of the script as homework. I was asked to write the scene in which the Duke, Duchess and Bimbo meet my character in the forest:

I was also asked to write about what happens to my character the first time that they split off in the haunted mansion:

We had to show our opening scene to the class. We were given feedback that our characters were good, but that our storyline was lacking as we were making it too complicated and confusing. We also needed at least one of our characters to be someone that the children could relate to. I felt that I needed to make my physicality stronger, which I could have done by better applying 'the tonic body'. I could improve on my reactions to the other characters. I also need to develop better characterisation, which I can improve on by improvising with my character.

Later we tried to adapt our story in an attempt to improve on the points raised in our feedback session. Our new plot involved the same characters, but the story line changed dramatically:
It begins with a 15-year-old Bimbo being adopted by a Duke and Duchess. They treat her horribly (live a slave), and when they hear the news about 'The Something' falling from the sky, they go off to find it without her, in a hope that it will give them enormous wealth. The Bimbo goes off crying and meets her new friend (Yasmin), who always carries a teddy bear around with her, named 'Mr Dibbles'. Yasmin and Stacey (The Bimbo) become great friends and set off to find 'the something' themselves. Yasmin acts like Stacey's conscience and reminds her to be a good person. By the end of the story, The Duke and Duchess learn to love Stacey. Stacey thanks Yasmin for all her help, but soon finds that she is the only person who can see Yasmin. Yasmin tells Stacey that Stacey wont need her anymore and disappears, leaving Stacey with Mr. Dibbles. When The Duke and Duchess leave Stacey alone, she hugs Mr. Dibbles and says, "Bye Yasmin."