Week 2 Additions

Problems and Solutions

The group had a problem with scene 2; Past Memory as we all felt it was too naturalistic but we couldn't decide on how to change it and make it look abstract. The first thing we did was sit down and discuss it. This was a mistake as we couldn't test out these ideas and see them developing and the group was getting frustrated as we couldn't agree on what would look better, so I came up with the idea of all of us making one big shape together and see what would come out of that. In the end we came up with the idea to instead of using chairs and a table to portray to the audience a family eating dinner, we used our bodies instead. We all sat on the floor and made a star shape with our legs, with 'Christina' in the middle. We came up with this idea by coming up with one word describing us. We picked United as we all came together as a group and a star seemed like a perfect way to show us all being connected.

Another scene we had a problem with was the 'Train scene' as it was too naturalistic and wasn't going the way I pictured it in my head. I saw the four characters having a conversation with each other but talking to the audience as well to make it look abstract. For example the character of Christina looks at another character smiles and says hello and the other character turns to the audience and says something like "Why is this girl staring at me? It makes me feel uncomfortable, don't you feel the same when somebody looks at you that way?" But the group went another way with this scene and made it more naturalstic. The other group gave us feedback and said although it was entertaining at times and has good potentital it dragged on a bit as you couldn't tell what the point of the scene was. That feedback helped us a lot as we decided to focus this scene more on the aim of our piece about finding 'oneself' and asking the audience questions making it more entertaining to watch.

The Groups Process

I think that everyone was really positive during the rehearsal process. We understandable had moments where there was some disagreements, such as what we would like the audience to get from this scene and if that point gets across. A good example of this is the 'Obstacles' scene half the group wanted the obstacles to be us; using our bodies to make the shapes while the other half wanted objects placed there instead but verbally being the obstacles. So instead of us actually stopping that person with our bodies we stop them with our words. We tried out both of these ideas and luckily came to an agreement that the idea of us being the obstacles looked better and fit the piece more, as it looked more abstract us being the objects.

Everyone added in ideas to the piece and contributed to other peoples thoughts and ideas. Everyone in the group also had a chance to become the leader and take charge of their own idea to see how it played out, with the others chipping in every now and then. I think that the group got on well together and always listened to each other, even if things did get a bit stressful and frustrating at times. But we always handled it professionally, which I see as a strength. A weakness however was that when people became tired or frustrated they would just sit out and not take part, stopping the other members of the group from getting on with the scene.