Paris Hilton has one!!

….Yeah she does!

I would like to dedicate this entry to my beautiful housemates, Siobhan, Miranda, Hannah and Julia. After spending my 19th birthday at home last week, they came up trumps last night by presenting me with a huuuuge chocolate cake, complete with hundreds and thousands, two fantastic cards (one of which was incredible – homemade by miss garrett herself) and the most incredible birthday present ever…a links of london fairy charm, Miss Hilton herself has one! I wanted to say a big thankyou to all of them, they are all very special and wonderful and I love them all to pieces…MWAH! Xxx

: 07 Nov 2005 16:57 |  Comments (1) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

More Ridiculous Ideas???

Follow-up to Ridiculous questions…you decide from Laura's Blog...

Ok so its been a while since my last ridiculous comments entry…heres a few more ideas ive been pondering recently

• So people who live in London are called Londoners and people who live in Germany are called Germans and so on…does that make people who live in Rome Romans???


• How do flies land on ceilings…i can honestly say ive never seen a fly turn around and land on a ceiling, and how do they stay there without falling off?


• Where are all the baby pigeons?...just a thought cos there are so many pigeons but ive never seen a baby one

*

Comments for your amusement (or mine really, i enjoy laughing at myself sometimes…good for the mind, or so they tell me)

Kali: 'What volume is that?' (pointing to the stupidly loud CD player)
Laura: (looking at her friend the vodka bottle, obviously with one thing on her mind replies…) '40%'

Siobhan: 'Laura, can you do that thing with your tongue where it rolls up?'
Laura: 'yeah sure'...sticks tongue out flat…'oh no hold on, thats not right'

Tim: 'brainteaser for you…there were these 4 men in a balloon…'
Laura: 'did this really happen?!'

Laura to Matt: ' wheres the sun bed?'
Matt points at the door
Laura: 'but that says solarium…ohhhhh'

**

I should write these down more often cos im sure there have been plenty more recently, im planning on starting a collection and then publishing them all in a book, aptly named…how come?

PS: I found out today where I get all this craziness from…on the way home from shopping, my mum turns to me and says 'Do you ever get the urge to read road signs backwards sometimes cos I do…and then I have to say them out loud, just to make sure they sound like I think they do in my head…' Hmmm, thing is, i cant get the idea out of my head now…its an addictive strange thing to do

: 30 Mar 2005 17:19 |  Comments (2) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Medea – Session Nine

Session Nine

PERFORMANCE DAY

So the performance day arrived!!

It was hectic to begin with…when I arrived I was informed that the other group had moved a few of our lights and added gels etc in order to perform their presentation before us. This wasnt too much of a problem though…with the help of Kate, Sam, Geth, Hugh and Owen, we managed to sort out the lights and I wrote up a new, revised, lighting plan! Some of the changes were actually really useful, for example, the red gels that the first group had used were perfect for our piece, so we made use of these!

Once the lighting plot was completed, I had to run through the lights and sound with the group so as to allow them to run through and also to teach Owen our lighting and sound…(thanks again Owen, you were a saviour!!) This went to plan and Owen picked up my basic and (so I though) incomprehensible lighting plot really quickly…of course!! Owen also set up the video for us…This presented a few problems, as we had nobody to press play for us, so in the final performance we decided to have the tv displaying static with the sound of Grace's news report over the top. This actually looked really effective in the performance, so it was a beneficial problem in the end!

Once the technical aspects were sorted, it was time for makeup which was great fun! Following on from the tribal red, white and black theme, Annisa provided us with face paints in order for us to create our own tribal effects for the piece. I thought this looked great and combined us all as a group and looked fantastic against the red, white and black set. The black costumes also highlighted this colour theme and allowed us to remain as neutral characters in performance.

2 run throughs later, we were ready to go, with a few minor changes made. I had to step in for Frankie by running on the walkway at the start, as Frankie had to make her entrance later on. I really enjoyed doing this, as you could see the audiences reaction from the catwalk and they looked genuinely shocked and amazed! We also decided to change the lights that would highlight myself and Kalis faces on the catwalk. Hugh and Owen set up some upward facing lights positioned on the ground which lit our faces and the red ribbons which were suspended throughout the performance at the same time and they looked really effective.

I felt the performance itself was the best we had done it so far and the comments i received from friends and family in the audience were all positive. I think we could have worked on our group dynamics alot earlier in the project, because once we were all focused and working together we managed to produce a quality piece of exploratory theatre. I really enjoyed this module, as I felt it allowed us real freedom to create and explore ideas which we all had and I was really proud of our final piece.

Well done to everybody involved! Have a great Easter holiday!!
xxx

: 14 Mar 2005 16:06 |  Tags: Aspects Of Practise Medea |  Comments (2) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Medea – Session Seven

Session Seven

In today's session we went for a run through from start to finish, so we could block everyones positions and work out how to move between sections. I also managed to finish the CD so we were able to work with the children sound effects, the door sound effect and the piece of music which Jack and Frankie use for their dance.

We didnt quite manage to get all the way through the performance, but we certainly have a better idea of what we are doing! We also had to learn the courtroom scene, as the chorus contribute to it as supporters of either Jason or Medea and we had to work out where the movements and singing came in for the alternative ending piece. However, I think that by the end of the next session we will have this totally sorted and be able to run through without any problems.

We also played around with the court room scene a little, in terms of staging it and I think we have come up with a really interesting arrangement. We are using two rostras, one on each side of the stage which Medea and Jason (Will and Kate) stand on. The chorus pick them up and transport them to their specific places, setting the scene. There is also a larger rostra at the back of the set, framed by black curtains which the Gods (Helen and Rachel) stand on. Originally we had James and Beck's characters standing centre stage, but we felt this didnt quite work. We decided to try putting them up onto the catwalk, which worked well in terms of representing a court room dock or even a jail cell, as we can work with light to project it through the grill of the catwalk and give a cell effect. Hugh suggested placing Beck up against a mat on the catwalk to try and show the idea that she was on death row or something similar, however this didnt work as well as having them against the bars, so we reverted back to the original idea…the pics below show the courtroom scene

I really like this scene as it provides a more naturalistic approach which I think the audience will appreciate. It also links the dance scene and the alternative ending scene really nicely.

Also in today's session we managed to see Rachel's painting which she has begun work on. It looks fantastic already…cant wait to see the finished product!! We decided to move its position within the set to the far left wall, between two black curtains to frame it, and have the brick wall exposed behind it.

In the next session we will be running the performance, polishing all aspects, and finishing work on the alternative ending scene which is almost totally blocked now! Sam was going to work on collecting some tv clips for us over the weekend to use between the news reports and hopefully Annisa will have been able to transfer it to VHS as I think we need to work with all the technical elements in the next few sessions, to ensure we know exactly what we are doing!! Looking forward to it, we are working much better as a group now..cant wait for friday!

: 06 Mar 2005 15:52 |  Tags: Aspects Of Practise Medea |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Medea – Session Six

Session Six

Today's session was fantastic in terms of progress! For the first hour, myself and Mary-Kate worked out the girls singing part for our alternative ending with the help of a piano in the music centre, whilst Gethin and Sam worked out the boys movement part. The other two groups also worked on their pieces, perfecting them so they could be shown to the group. Grace also filmed the news reports which just have to be put onto VHS now.

When we came back we showed each other our pieces which are looking great and Mary-Kate and I taught the girls the singing parts.

I particularly like Jack and Frankie's dance, its starting to really come together and it looks great visually. I also think that some of the movements they have choreographed really emphasise the idea of oppression. Below are some pics of their dance…

I also really like the belt scene…the dada poem combined with the movements work really well together and once we get hold of the material needed, it'll look even better!

We also managed to work with the red material we decided to use to represent blood. As it falls from the catwalk, it looks really effective and we decided to use it as an archway for the chorus to walk through whilst Kate sings at the beginning…

The set is also starting to look great, the black on white effect works really was a boxes for the chorus to stand in, and in the afternoon of Thursday's session we made use of these by placing people in them whilst each group presented their separate pieces

In the afternoon of Thursday's session, Frankie taught us all the movements she choreographed for the beginning chorus section which results in us all coming together and then moving away to reveal those involved in the belt scene. Its much smoother than we had originally planned and means the transition between sections is a little more professional and choreographed. Rachel also started work on the painting of mother and child which is going to look great.

In terms of group dynamics we have started to work together with a lot more focus and a sense of purpose within each session. I think breaking down into smaller groups definitely helped. In the next session we will try a run through from start to finish to make sure we know where each section comes and how we move between sections.

: 06 Mar 2005 15:38 |  Tags: Aspects Of Practise Medea |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

PICTURES…

Hey kids

Just to let you know the pics of today's session are up…look in the gallery called Medea / Theatre stuff
Also I've just finished the CD for the performance and if I do say so myself it sounds awesome!!

See you tomoro
xxx

: 03 Mar 2005 17:35 |  Tags: Aspects Of Practise Medea |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Media – Session Five

Session Five

A short session today, but very productive I think! We FINALLY came up with ideas for the middle and split into smaller groups to work on these ideas, which I think is very beneficial as it speeds up the working process, allows us to generate more concentration and focus and it means that everyones ideas are heard within the smaller groups. I also think that we will come back with a whole range of performance techniques giving our performance more depth as a whole.

After much discussion about using the words we have been given to work on the middle section of the performance, we came up with 4 solid ideas which we are going to use. These are:

• Alternative endings (Myself, Grace, Sam, Mary Kate and Gethin will be looking at these) – we wanted to explore the idea that perhaps if Medea hadnt killed her children, it would provoke different reactions from an audience. By producing a different ending we want the audience to consider their initial views on Medea's actions and ask themselves if they feel differently if the children had been left in the care of the people of Corinth and been killed or even if Jason had killed them, or if they had died in exile. This way, we could show that Medea felt it necessary to take such drastic action


• Dadist poem combined with Charlotte's idea of using material to reflect oppression (Charlotte, Julia, Kali, Annisa and Jack)


• Scales of justice and a court room debate, allowing audience participation and room for a more naturalistic approach?? (Beck, Kate, Rachel, Helen, Will and James)


• Movement or dance (Frankie and Jack are going to be looking at choreographing a pas de deux)

We also discussed the budget and Rachel will hopefully be getting the red material we need, the painting materials and maybe some body tights. Grace, myself and Annisa also need to get round to filming the news report, but we may do this later in the week as our smaller group work incorporates more filming so we could do it all at once, once we have decided exactly what we are doing.

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Our small group worked far more effectively in this session and we came up with some great ideas for our alternative ending section. We decided to look at the idea that the children had been left in Corinth, while Medea fled to Athens and so were in the care of the people of Corinth as we felt Jason would have little regard for them. We felt that due to the high level of resentment felt towards the children after their mother killed the King and Princess they would have been killed and so we decided to present this in another, alternative news report, subverting a familiar concept the audience have already been introduced to.

Again, the news report will be shown on the screen but this time it will appear in darkness, so that the group can form the required positions in the middle of the performance space without taking the focus away from the report. Grace is working on the report at the moment, once it is confirmed I will blog it!

The layout for the group in the space will be something like this ( I apologise for the really awful use of paint…i cannot draw to save my life and its doubly hard with a mouse – im sure u get the basic idea ) The audience would be positioned on the side of the girls, so they view the action taking place with the groups backs turned towards them, so they dont see the children fully

Yep that really is laughable…
Anyway, we played around with the idea of interrupting the news report at suitable moments to incorporate some representative moment on stage. We liked the idea of having the children masked as before and having the boys in the group surrounding them as in the picture, representing the people of Corinth. They would begin standing and the news report could cut to them moving in on the children and making some kind of movement to signal their death without being too over the top. For the duration of this action, we thought the girls could remain kneeling behind the boys with their backs turned to the audience. Following the end of the news report we thought it would be poignant if the girls in the group stood up as the boys knelt down, turned to face the audience and read the following lines from the text in unison:

If I dither around I merely leave them someone else, some enemy to kill

It is only right, that she who gave them life, should take it away

This then finishes with our whole idea that it was perhaps better for Medea to kill her children, as their mother, rather than leaving them to an inevitable death, probably far more brutal, from someone else.

In the next session, we will be presenting our ideas to the whole group and would like to look into choreographing the necessary movement. We will also need to film the report, hopefully myself, Grace and Annisa can complete this and the other report by the end of the week!

Ideas for music: Prodigy medley…

: 28 Feb 2005 17:23 |  Tags: Aspects Of Practise Medea |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Medea – Session Four

Session Four

Thursday's session in the studio started with the group looking at the opening sequence of our performance. We decided to begin with the killing of the children, centered around the walkway as it gave a haunting, eerie effect and may be disorientating for an audience. After a few experimental rehearsals where we discarded a few people from the walkway (especially after Will discovered the wall was actually falling apart), we ended up with Frankie and Kali on the walkway, representing the children.

The structure of this first element runs as follows:

• We begin in darkness (although apparently my accidental bringing up of the lights every now and again gave an odd effect which worked quite nicely so we could look into that!) and the audience enter – this could happen before the darkness to avoid confusion!


• Gethin and Sam's song is either going to be performed as the audience enter or later on in the performance, but for now it remains at the start!


• Kali and Frankie are up on the walkway, wearing masks and they begin to walk slowly as sound effects of children playing and laughing play. Their speed gradually increases and their steps become louder to represent the idea of a chase and the laughter turns into more frantic sounds and finally we hear screams. There is then a short moment of blackout, then we reveal the bodies of Kali and Frankie in spotlight, lying over the edges of the walkway. To further reitterate the idea that they have been killed, they will then release pieces of red, silky material which (hopefully) will unravel til they reach the floor and then they will be dropped. James had the idea of using petals as well, but this may not be a practical option, althought it would visually look very interesting.


• At this point, Kate will begin her song which is reminiscent of Gregorian chant / mourning songs. I would like to have Kate singing from the furthest corner of the walkway to give a strange, detached effect, however we may place Kate centre stage surrounded by the remainder of the group, as a chorus type effect, with a birdie light to highlight her.


• In terms of the remainder of the group, we have discussed the idea that some of us could enter through the audience in the dark, however im not sure if this achieves anything other than being a little scary, although it may work!

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The next section is focused on the group primarily, taking influence from Annisa's Greek ritual work. We will begin this section however, with a news report inspired by Baz Luhrman's Romeo and Juliet. Like the film, myself, Grace, Frankie, Julia and Will took lines from the text and used them to construct a modern day news report, which I will be filming this week with Grace and Annisa. The report reads:

Everythings gone wrong

And the atmosphere all full of bitterness

A bad day for Jason, and he deserves it

But for Creon's daughter, she suffered because she married Jason

Jason has let Medea down

Her and the children too

She's pestering the Gods to bear witness

To the way Jason shows his gratitude

It's affected her, she's given herself up to grief

All her labor for her children - in vain

All the long toil of birth - gone to waste

All the love she lavished - thrown away

What anger she must have felt, to make her kill

This report will be shown on the screen in the far left corner of the studio and after Kate's song, the chorus (the group) will turn to watch the report. Following the last line above, we will be moving into the next section which incorporates the views that we obtained from the public about the killing of the children in the first session. These quotes have been assigned to 8 people in the group and as they say them, they turn to face the audience. Those without lines then turn following the last line and they begin to move as the lines repeat. The movement is taken from Annisa's ritual work and is very aggressive, reflecting the highly emotive subject matter. Those with lines repeat their quotes and begin to overlap, as the others pick up on words for example, 'selfish' and 'sick' and whisper them, giving an underlying, mysterious effect. We then assigned the words that we came up with last week (see Medea – Session Three) to smaller groups and in these groups we start to chant those words. My word is 'revenge'. As this builds to a climax, we consider having members of the group leaving to take up positions around the performance space, ideally having one person in each 'column' which we have constructed around the set using black curtains against the white backdrop. These columns are reminiscent of Greek architecture and look visually very interesting. They are also going to be used to frame the painting we decided to use in the last session and could be used to frame people as well. Charlotte even had the idea of using body tights and having people inside them, pulling different poses to show oppression.

We then rehearsed this beginning sequence until everyone had a basic idea of what was required and we toyed around with some other ideas. Jack had the idea of using shoaling, a technique which sees the group coming together and moving as one body, however this was quite hard to maintain without it looking messy and unorganised so we may not incorporate that idea. James also had the idea of using paint dripping from the walkway to represent blood but again this could be impractical. We also decided to hang the picture on the back wall, framed by the curtains from the start of the performance, instead of lifting it up throughout, as this could waste time and look messy.

We also decided to use the idea of public quotes toward the end of the performance too, but this time we will look at using positive quotes, to try and sway the audience into seeing that the killing was logical for Medea and that it was a necessary thing for her to do. We have also written an end to the news report which concludes nicely:

God in heaven has dominion over so many events

He can frustrate what seems inevitable

And bring to pass the thing that you least expect

Also discussed was the idea of splitting into smaller groups to work out the middle section, which I think will work well and help the group dynamic and enable more concentrated focus. It will also enable us to work quicker and bring more ideas into the performance. I also like Annisa's ideas of using face paints / masks as part of our costume as they are useful in displaying character and hark back to original performance conditions.

I also think we need to look at the more technical aspects of our performance, including the lighting, set design, the filming of the report and so on as we need to remember the smaller details as well as the main performance to ensure it all runs smoothly…which I'm sure it will! I have faith! xxx

: 28 Feb 2005 16:54 |  Tags: Aspects Of Practise Medea |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Sound effects

Found this website.
There are some great, free sound effects, including children playing in a playground, and general playground and laughter sound effects…and theyre all FREE!!! We wont need to steal any children after all.

PS: In case the link doesnt work, the general website is:
link

: 22 Feb 2005 20:26 |  Tags: Aspects Of Practise Medea |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Medea – Session Three

Session Three

In today's session we appear to have made a little more progress in terms of the structure of our presentation.

So far, the ideas we have include:

Starting with the killing of the children, as mentioned in previous write ups, but this time we added more detail

• Starting with darkness


• Sounds of children laughing


• People running on the walkway, giving a haunting effect and also supporting the idea of child's play / playground situation


• Using a piece of art as a central focus, perhaps something like the Matisse picture showing the mother and child and gradually painting the child out to represent the disappearance of the children

• Using drapes to form boxes at the back of the stage…we came up with a basic set design which Jack reproduced on the computer, so it would look something like this

Thanks to Jack for creating the set design on his computer!!

• Doing a group ritual, performed to the audience, incorporating some of the movement and chanting that we practised with Annisa in the last session and using an imaginary focus as the object we are sacrificing or even the painting itself. That way we dont bring too much of a realistic element to the killing which limits the possibility of it becoming too far fetched.

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We also decided that we would finish with the killing, performed in the exact same way as was performed at the start, but by this time the artists in the group will have successfully painted out the child in our painting and therefore we will show that the children have now effectively disappeared altogether

For the middle section of our presentation we thought about a number of ideas including…

• Song – Gethin and Sam are working on a song focused around the idea of hopelessness which could either be recorded or performed live


• Mime – perhaps a choreographed piece of abstract mime / movement which expresses one of the words we have chosen to focus on (the words being…wronged, honour, oppressed, revenge and deserted)


• The use of one of Jack's dada poems which focus on one of the above chosen words

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I am also keen to introduce some kind of media to the presentation – perhaps images of contemporary situations, including infanticide, incidents like Beslan, children exploited in divorce cases and so on. These could be projected onto a screen, which could be set up with the use of our £175 budget! Or they could appear on the television screens which are in the studio already. Beck also had the idea of making a collage of news articles and headlines on part of the set or surrounding the painting, that would appear very normal and uninteresting until really studied or focused on by the audience. This way they are not overpowering but have a underlying importance throughout the presentation and we could draw attention to them toward the close of the performance. I also like the idea of using microphone text which could stem from our interviews conducted in the first session. I was thinking that we could use the negative text such as 'this is sick' and 'I could never do something like that' after or during the first killing and then we could mirror this but slightly subvert it by performing more positive text before the final killing, using lines such as 'I could bring myself to do that'.

I think in the following sessions we need to maintain our focus, gather together all of our ideas for the middle section and start work on those parts in smaller groups – each coming up with a different theatrical form to present them i.e. mime, reading, live performance, media etc

In Thursday's session we will be looking at the start and the finish by focusing on the group ritual as we will have access to the studio and we will all be together so it will be an ideal opportunity to do so.

: 22 Feb 2005 20:11 |  Tags: Aspects Of Practise Medea |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem