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.