Evaluation of final performance

Rehearsals

The following links are of mine and Gavin's process to getting to our final piece 

Rehearsal 1 : first motif
This motif I found was developed from a piece of theatre I saw at the young Vic called "the secret agent" orrigionally the moves were ment to signify someone hiding while someone forcefully opens the hands. We developed this by exploring are faces without leaving our eyes creating this as our starting point to then be developed further in our piece. 
Rehearsal 2 : first lifts
To find the lift in the footage we both decided to play with the idea of breath with me reprosenting gas and Gavin representing man (solider) this proved to be successful as the more Gavin held his breath the greater force and the struggle became releasing the lift on a full out breath when I let go.  
Rehearsal 3 : developing lifts
Further looking into the exercise we repeated it finding a new lift we then develop and combined it into the previous move creating a flowing sequence that represents in a non liner way the ideas of breathlessness and physical strain on the body from another being (gas). 
Rehearsal 4 : developing motif
During this rehursal we decided to use our motif again but develop it so the audience recognise and follow the piece, adding a forceful slap to the floor is there to reprosent the ideas of someone beating the floor also along side the ideas of sounds around a solider during the chemical attack, this reminder makes the movements stick in the audiences head putting across the meaning of our piece clearly. 
Rehearsal 5: struggle
This section is all about the battle with the unknown we felt it would be good here to be totally literal with what we were doing as the piece was to abstract to follow a journey this also ended up being our climatic moment as for an audience it's difficult to watch which is what me and Gavin wanted to reprosent a slow and long losing battle to death. 
Rehearsal 6 : ending

Our ending we felt should be powerful and blunt because that's what death is but at the same time wanted to remind of the motif so what we did was to get me to repete the motif on Gavin's face and for him the to move backwards and use sign language "I will kill you" to show the audience the vicious circle of war and point it to the audience so they feel like they have caused this this to the point end means it sticks. 

Inspiration towards a starting stimulus

From looking at my lecture notes I think an aspect that really stood out was the testing and use of chemical warfare which soon led to change the rules of conflict in today's modern society.

This picture for me showing the effects of mustard gas was and is . particularly this image post strong ideas towards life and the cost of living and attitudes towards a soldiers life. 

The story also that went along side it was the solider in the picture had just come back home safe from fighting in Africa when he was recalled into France and two weeks later died in hospital from the effects of mustard gas. Using this as a stimulus can help me create a piece with a strong journey and also an essence of truth making the messege clear about warfare and it's development. 

Symptoms of mustard gas: 

Skin: redness and itching of the skin may occur 2 to 48 hours after exposure and may eventually change to yellow blistering of the skin.

Eyes: irritation, pain, swelling, and tearing may occur within 3 to 12 hours of a mild to moderate exposure. A severe exposure may cause signs and symptoms within 1 to 2 hours and may include the symptoms of a mild or moderate exposure plus light sensitivity, severe pain, or blindness lasting up to 10 days.

Respiratory tract: runny nose, sneezing, hoarseness, bloody nose, sinus pain, shortness of breath, and cough within 12 to 24 hours of a mild exposure and within 2 to 4 hours of a severe exposure.

Digestive tract: abdominal pain, diarrhea, fever, nausea, and vomiting.

Bone marrow:  decreased formation of blood cells (aplastic anemia) or decreased red or white blood cells and platelets (pancytopenia) leading to weakness, bleeding and infections.

Showing these signs and symptoms does not necessarily mean that a person has been exposed to sulfur mustard.

What the long-term health effects may be:

• Exposure to sulfur mustard liquid is more likely to produce second- and third- degree burns and later scarring than is exposure to sulfur mustard vapor. Extensive skin burning can be fatal.
• Extensive breathing in of the vapors can cause chronic respiratory disease, repeated respiratory infections, or death.
• Extensive eye exposure can cause permanent blindness.
• Exposure to sulfur mustard may increase a person’s risk for lung and respiratory cancer.

Responding To Music

Today we did an exercise where we listened and responded to different types of music and creating chracters from that, I found that the majority of my chracters went in an opposite direction to what classically would fit for example a muse song was played and instead I felt like the chracters mind was at more work so the chracter that was created was a lethargic man with a lower status however as the task contiued we started to interact with other people this ment the ideas of status were much clearer to see but what was surprising was how everyone else responded as there was always a variety from high to low following up on the 1-10 exercise it showed that status has a massive imput on your final piece how does your chracter live within the space. 

Although this exercise was interesting I feel when I come to devise I will probably look at using silence or minimum music and dioulouge as I feel for me it puts to much emphasis on technical imput and loose the act of tension between chracters even though the chracters are boldly presented. 

World War 1 Lecture Notes

1 to 10 small to big

this exersize consisted of playing and creating a series of movements and making them grow or decrease in size.
for example we started by creating a repeatable movement of eating a meal mine was a burger and chips we then did this naturalisticly this was 5 the mid point.
we then adapted this on a bigger scale as if the food was ginormas this was 10, feeling the difference between 10 and 5 showed me the individual motions of eating my chosen meal.
we then started from 5 again and went down the scale to 1 until our food was minute showing us the detail of each movement used in the process of eating this meal and making the most of each movement.

in terms of applying this when i come to devise my physical theatre piece i can use this to develop movements through travelling at a 10 or to create a contrast with minute movements at a 1 which could be used to represent a thinking process or 10 to be used to replicate fast passed or slow staggered movement.

we then further adapted this exercise with reactions to another character facing someone else both using opposite ends of the movement scale we then added an action or line of noticing another character entering the room i found when acting at a stage 10 i found myself struggling to say high making the situation grotesque although when applying that to a smaller size i found myself being selfish and angry towards the character facing me.