I came into class really late so I missed some of it but I managed to get some things done and get a good understanding of what we were doing. 

I think mixing in Artaud's 'Theatre of Cruelty' with a comedy piece from a Shakespearian play while improvising our script is going to be really interesting to work with and I'm quite excited about how it'll play out. There's a lot to think about here since Artaud's theatre is somewhat similar to Brecht's 'Epic Theatre'. Since Artaud wanted his performance to be a place not to escape reality but for the audience to feel like their 'nightmares were coming to life', exaggeration and physical theatre will become a big key to our performance. On top of that, Artaud wanted his audience to feel 'trapped' which is why instead of using the audience seats like usual, we'll need to come up with a way in order for them to sit in a circle to 'trap' them and create a more creepy and uneasy experience. 

My role is 'Puck' and I have to basically react to what the other characters are doing in the scene after I had given them the 'love potion' and messed everything up. As well as creating a comedic scene, the overly dramatic and exaggerated will play a big part so we decided that we'd start the play in a funny way and then slowly fade into a scary and eerie atmosphere. We still have a lot to work on but it's a start.

As Puck, I decided that my character was going to be a bit psychotic. Since Puck was the reason why all the other characters were arguing with each other, I decided that they were going to have fun with the chaos that they had created and show their 'true colours' to how they actually feel about the whole situation. By doing that, at the beginning of the scene when Lysander kills Hermia, the lights go out and creepy music appears. 

To create the element of surprise, I dropped a book down from the balcony, where the audience didn't expect, and laugh maniacally at them. At this point, I run downstairs and join Demetrius and Helena surrounding the audience who are sat on the floor and tied up. When surrounding them, I use my whole body to create exaggerated and abnormal physical skills, by bending low, sometimes moving quickly or slowly and touching the audience in uncomfortable ways. I also whisper, hiss and giggle at them until I drag Hermia's 'body' away and stand on the podium to do my monologue.

 I wanted the audience to see just how crazy and terrifying Puck was, so to do that, I would smile at them menacingly, talk loudly or quietly and used pauses to create a sense of tension. I would laugh hysterically in a high voice, stare at them directly, I moved forward's and backwards to create weird movements. 

As I exited off into the wings and the scene ended with Hermia screaming, creepy music, ['Run Rabbit'], was played and all of us began circling the audience and singing. At this time, we would suddenly lunge at them or touch them, and we all exited the stage with me laughing weirdly again.

EBI: I feel like I could have done my monologue a bit better and exaggerated my physical skills more to create a somewhat intense 'monstrous' creature. Since Artaud used lots of physical theatre, I think I should have added or exaggerated it more to really terrify the audience.

Also, I was really bummed out when the music didn't play during my monologue. I was meant to have some creepy piano playing in the background but something happened to the audio so it didn't work. But I managed to pull through and it worked out in the end :)