LO1: Context of Devising
The history of devising can be traced back to Italy in the 16th century when the devising form 'Commedia dell’arte' brought acrobats and street entertainers in, and became more popular amongst audiences. Some more devising companies include 'Theatre De Complicité' and the 7 Levels of Tension which was a method I used in my performance as the Hare. To bring the drunk character to life I used the '7 Levels of Tension method' to bring out the inspiration I had behind my character, for example, the parts where I was stumbling around or struggling to stay still on the spot were a 6 or 7 on the tension scale, the highest I reached was a 9 and that was during my interrogation scene when I got up to go up to the lighting box I nearly tripped over my chair a few times during rehearsals but not during the final performance although I think the audience would have laughed if I did do it. The lowest on the scale I was, was a 3 and that was at the beginning when we were all walking around as the audience was entering, I was walking around the room with a little almost clumsy stride in my step but for the beginning of the show, I didn't want to overdo it.
Frantic Assembly was another very useful devising technique and that was shown in the Chair duets we did back in October last year. The way that is influenced by showing emotion through movement helped me with showing the emotion of my character during the performance. Even though I was very chatty and giggly at times throughout the show deep down the emotion I portrayed for the character that she was once rich and now not I believe I showed emotion well.
Theatre De Complicité was yet another useful method to help me with my performance, during a rehearsal we did an exercise that was linked to this company where we walked around the room as our characters but based on stock characters such as Pantelone as an example for the character of the Weasel he was led by his nose whereas I was led more so by my knees then adding the little stumble in my step and It was then that I got to analyse my character and how to give them the impression I was playing "the drunk".
The week after we established our characters we did the Stanislavski method known as hot seating. I struggled with this because at that time I didn't know that much about my character, and being put on the spot being asked questions about a character you don't yet know everything about is very hard. I think we did this devising technique too soon in the performance process, we aimed to do it again nearer to the time of the performance but never got to it. By the last few weeks of rehearsal, I knew a lot more about my character than I did at the start so If we did the hot seating method again I would have found it easier because I had more knowledge of my character, her background/back story and why her the Lion don't get along.
During rehearsals, we also did vocal and physical warmups to prepare ourselves. I led the physical warm-ups whether it was a dance-based warm up then concluding with a stretch or a game such as the 1,2,3 game to get everyone warm and energised. Vocal warmups consisted of tongue twisters such as red lorry, yellow lorry and they were led by either of our directors.