Evaluation
I think that the rehearsal process in creating our show was a long but fun journey we went through as a class there was a few ups and downs but in the end it worked out very well in the end, according to the reaction we received from both audiences and the excitement we felt afterwards.
In the beginning of term the first thing we started with was looking at the book 'Goodnight Stories for Rebel Girls' and why it was written, also how it could impact and audience. Because we thought it was all about women empowerment, determination and everyone being equal, we really wanted to highlight those in the performances we were devising. However we knew that we couldn't choose all 100 of the women even though they were all inspiring in their own way, so we decided to find and choose the women who all have some kind of connection with each other whether that was their age, career choice or environment. In the end we decided to look at Women and the Sea because we thought that could add more meaning and lessons to the performance, we could include saving the ocean therefore all the choices we make have a meaning and lesson included within them.
I believe in the beginning we were confused on how to make these stories come to life without exactly copying them and making them fun and enjoyable to watch by young people.
When we started the devising process we started off with a lot of interaction with the audience, there wasn't really a story it was more of a person giving information about themselves and interaction with the young people. However we got responses from our teachers which allowed us to improve on our devising, we were told that we should think about the children and just giving them a bunch of information won't be exciting it would go in one in ear and out the other, not captivating them.
Another idea we had was during Mary Anning's market scene in the beginning we thought we should just go around shaking people's hands, hugging, doing some sort of physical movement to lead the person your saying high to, to another person. But one of the people in my group gave us the realization that it would get quite repetitive and boring especially to a audience of younger people as they have a really short attention span. But this allowed us to develop the scene into a more exciting and energetic version, it was slightly naturalistic but we had rhymes in there and opportunities for some of us to interact with the children, for example my character of the dog Tray had the option to go up to the children and and smell them and say hi. Therefore allowing the young people to feel more connected to the play due to the forth wall being broken.
I believe that the difference between show one and show two was a big difference and it did effect the way we acted and the amount of excitement we had when we finished the performance. In show one the children were very happy and interacted more with us, i really liked this because it made us fee like we succeeded in what we were trying to do. Also when we asked what they thought the play was about they knew straight away they listed all the themes without any clues from us. This allowed us to believe that we did accomplish in teaching the children something so i'm glad that they understood us and the message came through without us actually saying it. In addition to that when doing the workshop they were excited about all the activities and took part in every single one and had lots of fun while also taking it seriously and listening to us.
On the other hand show two the young people weren't as energetic or excited when we performing, for example when we made jokes or tried to be funny they didn't really laugh however, i think that really pushed us to be more energetic and louder, it gave us the determination to push through the performance with much more energy and excitement because if they see we are are energetic and excited it might inspire them. In addition to that during the workshop and questions they didn't volunteer to share their answers with us but to overcome this we gave examples of our experiences and thoughts this kind of gave them the confidence to reveal what they wanted to say. However by the end of the workshop the young people opened up a lot more and got involved with everything, this made us feel like we successfully lead the workshop everyone including the cast members had a lot of fun.
At the end of the workshops and performances both of the audiences came out looking very happy and full of energy while also learning things like to be determined and not let discrimination get in the way of your passion.
I feel like my view on children's theatre has completely changed after performing, devising and researching about them. In the beginning i thought that children's theatre was basically all pantomimes and very straight to the point. However by doing this project i realised that is actually a lot more to it, most children's theatre has some kind of meaning and moral so the young people can take something away from it as well as watching a good enjoyable show. In addition to that i didn't realise how much energy and dedication you have to put in, because its children you need to keep their attention and excitement on you and if you look like you are having fun and have an extreme amount of energy they will probably respond with the same amount you are putting in. Furthermore i though that with children's theatre you have to blatantly say what yo mean as they don't really read into things it has to be said up front. But what i learnt after the performance was that, that's not the case at all they may be young but they are still smart, they knew what we were trying say without the need of us telling them, which was very surprising for me.
When we were devising we thought that they were going to be year 2's and 3's however they were year 5's i think that this made us very nervous because we thought that the reactions would be completely different as they were older than we thought. But i wish i knew that it wasn't the case the young people were still entertained and found somethings funny, however one thing i thought did't work very well was when we had 'Boris' the octopus behind Natasha who was playing Sylvia Earl we thought that the audience would respond saying there's something behind her. But they didn't do that but Will said it instead which we thought was a bit funny but it didn't put us or anything in fact in think it made us work a lot harder in getting a reaction.
I believe that Children's Theatre is very important due to many different reasons, one of the main reasons is because it teaches and allows young children to think creatively through the use of their imagination which is good because than they start to think outside the box which could potentially help them in their future careers. In addition to that i believe that it opens children up to explore and see different backgrounds and ethnicity's and respect their views. Also most children's theatre pieces has some kind of moral and lesson which benefits children and their view on life, each-other and issues we face in today's society such as, gender stereotypes.
During this project i had to do a lot of research to fully understand the women we were portraying and the lessons we were teaching the young children. The first thing i researched was about the book 'Goodnight Stories for Rebel Girls' in the beginning i found it quite hard to find any sort of information but i managed to find some in the end. I think the most beneficial thing i found was the interview with the authors because it allowed me to understand what they were trying to portray and why they wrote it in the first place, also understanding what they wanted to portray helped me finalise what i wanted to come across in the performance and lessons i wanted to teach.
One of the things i really wanted to come across is why feminism is still relevant today, so i did quite a bit of research on the different opportunities we get and issues we face in today's society based on gender. This allowed me to understand clearly what we need to change and successfully interpret that to the children within in our performance, i wanted to base it on life today because i feel like they are taught the history of feminism and the suffragettes but never about the relevance of it today, and how women still face discrimination for things men can do so freely.
I believe that the devising took a lot longer than we actually thought because in the beginning we were a bit confused with the whole process and what we were actually doing with the whole play, but after we understood the context it was much easier to create scenes and play around with the different women and their stories. When we first started the devising we were using a lot of physicality and using our bodies to make sounds for example, the surfing/sea movement, on the carpet, that was the first devising piece we had but it wasn't included in the performances this is because we looked at out target audience which were young people and came to the conclusion that they would probably get bored watching the same movement over and over again. That is what we found hard i think, devising scenes that were enjoyable and exciting yet knowledgeable enough to kids that they can take away something from it. However i think to improve in the future because we now know what children's Theatre is and the qualities it has, we could devise something much better with a lot more information but presented in a fun way.
In conclusion i do believe that the performance went really well throughout both the plays, we sustained a good amount of energy even though we were tired, especially in the workshop because we didn't practice it or anything but it worked out well in the end as all the children got involved and had lots of fun joining in with the activities. All the responses i got from the children were positive in the workshops they tried really hard to be imaginative and creative in their movements. Furthermore after the performances when we asked the young people what they thought the play was about they got the answers straight away and they even came up with ideas we didn't even think about. In addition to that i though my version of the dog Tray was successful because I took inspiration from the play we watched Beginners, the dog in that play was a human with dog qualities which i really wanted to try out and i think it actually worked, because the audience understood what i was portraying which is always a good thing.
