3rd Feb - Storytelling & Makeup

 MONDAY:

·      Popular Theatre

·      Mc Donald’s – easy, cheap, fast – widely available

Homework:

Using semiotics, explain and analyse the construction of meaning in a specific example of theatre/dance practice.

Intro: (250-300 words)

-       Focus – semiotics

-       Event (show)

-       Pick three specific thing from the show to focus on

-       Theory – who? (quotes)

In this essay I shall be talking about the uses of semiotics within the hit musical “The Jersey Boys”, which I saw on the 2^nd January 2014 and will be looking more in depth into the way semiotics are used throughout the play. I will be looking at why certain music has been used, the use of signs and costumes while looking at how Brecht’s style has been used to tell this story.

(Body of the essay including 3 P.E.E – 400-500 words)

(Conclusion – round up – 200-300 words)

Use quotes from practitioners)

TUESDAY:

-       Keep working on stretching during and throughout the workout and during half-term.

-       Try and do the splits up the wall every time I come back from the gym (that’s when my muscles are strechy and warmed up)

WEDNESDAY:

We started the day off by practicing and experimenting with the ideas we have collected as a group through out the process so far to see which ones work better for our story. We then split into groups to do different things and our group had to write a song about how Jordan didn’t get the part of Wigglaf – with the backing track of Halleujah. Towards the end of the day had more of an idea of how the show was going to look like, I would be in a tent with Charlotte and Cody telling  story about a fireman finding three burnt children in a house fire (which Cody found off the internet). We thought that Cody could be in the tent telling the story and Charlotte and I would be acting it out, outside the tent using sound effects (scratching on the tents), lights (toruches and other means of storytelling.

THURSDAY:

We started the day off showing Sarah some of the ideas we had for the show that we went through on Wednesday and then improvised what the show would look like using three different Kings & Queens and other characters which would be passed around the group. Jakko and I were the second King & Queens and I had to be a ‘pimple’ on Jakko’s shoulder (my head of his shoulder, which I had done before with Victor a couple of weeks ago which I think worked really well as it was such a different and unexpected way of showing characters of such a high status – I hope to incorpirte this into the show). In the improvised show we had to join the army one by one by Dan using a voodoo doll to control us. We then showed the idea of the Mead Hall celebrations with dance/movement (physical theatre) and drinking songs, which then brought us to telling the stories in the different tents.

CONCLUSION:

-       Getting a better idea of what is happening

-       Love the idea of combining different elements

-       Just the right amount of comedy with dark elements/scenes

-       I would like to experiment with more physical theatre to make the scenes more interesting and maybe could involve the audience?

-       It’s being to look more and more like Artaud Influenced which I love as I have never really performed in this style before so it is very exciting to see it being developed

-       7 deadly sins – makeup – Greed, Lust, Gluttony, Pride, Sloth, Wrath, Envy (could be showing/telling underlying stories) - Beowulf could be shown by everyone in a different way/different personalities/emotions so the audience can make up their own mind on who Beowulf is