In today's lesson, me and my group and Ashley (Ashley came with us to provide help if we needed it) worked in the hall so that each group had more space and a quieter environment to work in, oddly the space in which we worked in, inspired what we produced today. We were initially indecisive on what idea we wanted to cover, but as we were all sat in a circle in the middle of the hall when discussing, I noticed that the way in which we were sat was similar to that of a rehabilitation group. This then sparked ideas from everyone.
Oliver and James then suggested that we could actually be in a rehabilitation group / counselling session in prison, all telling our stories of how we got there. We all liked this idea, and started working on it. James played the leader / counsellor of the session and I suggested that in order to immerse the audience in the scene more, he could greet and lead everybody into the session as if they are offenders themselves, with me, Cel and Oliver already sat waiting for the session to begin.
Ollie decided to share first, telling us of how drugs got the better of him, leading to him ending up in prison after one night in which he had a bad trip and got caught. We decided that when telling our stories, we should stand and move to the centre of the circle so that all of the focus is on the person who is sharing, to show how intimidating and difficult it can be to do so. Oliver had figured out his story and gone through it but then Cel suggested that the rest of us should try and add physical theatre into the scenes whilst the person sharing is still telling their story, which was a good idea as I personally want to try and start to use as many techniques as possible at any given time (without taking away from the main focus of any given scene, and more so to add / emphasize to the initial message of it). So, we circled around Oliver building a soundscape of Cel saying "Ollie, you alright mate? Do you need me to call 999?”, James saying "What’s up? Are you okay?" and I saying "Bloody-hell Ollie, what did you take?" building in volume and aggression out voices until Ollie said "took it", we all then wrapped our arm around Oliver to show that the drugs have now 'took' him.
Or though I suggested that we should all have committed similar crimes, as usually in group counselling classes, it will be for people with a specific issue such as substance misuse or a certain type of illness, the others thought that we should all have different stories, Therefore, I then gave 'my' story of how I ended up in prison. I ran away from an abusive home and ended up living on the streets, until one day I tried to steal a car but got caught before being able to do. I played my character to be only about 19 years old, so I played her to be a little more timid and nervous than the others. We decided to keep the movement simple in this scene (as my story was a little shorter than the others),having Ollie and James walk towards me, taking one arm each and dragging me back to my chair (and back to the reality of the session rather than my flashback of the crime) whilst Cel pushes forwards at me, without actually touching me as that would be cast as assault.)
Cel gave the final story of how she ended up in prison, by murdering her boyfriend after she hallucinated that he had cheated on her, although it was a figment of her paranoid and obsessive imagination. James played her boyfriend, who goes to a party and meets me, the girl that Cel imagines him to be cheating on her with, again, the movement was basic, so that it didn't take away from the story. Me and James mimed downing drinks, until we left and then got into a intimate position to which I then leave just before Cel then pulls James up and stabs the air as James slowly falls to the floor, taking each stab, until dead. This is were our piece ended. I'm pleased with the work we produced today, especially when considering we were struggling so much when figuring out what we first wanted to do. Our piece is below.
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