23rd January – today we spent half the lesson creating our own sock puppets to perform to everyone else in the class. After this process we got into our groups given to us a week ago and came up with an idea of the topic our piece was going to be about and started devising and short sock puppets show to perform in front of the rest of the class. For our performance we decided to choose the hero topic and devised a short comedic play.
29th January – due to an illness I wasn’t able to attend this session however I do know that in the lesson we had to dress up as super hero’s and act as children in a children’s birthday party. In this we had to be children for the lesson and not break character at all. We re-enacted a children’s birthday party so we had to bring in a present for the birthday child (who was Vishnu chosen by our teacher) and any food or drink children would’ve been allowed to bring.
30th January – in this lesson we spent the first hour speaking about the problems we may face when performing in front of children. In this case we had problems such as, they’re bluntly honest, they have a short attention span, they may be hard to control and may get bored very easily. After speaking about these problems we then went on to move into our groups and given the option to create a new script or use the ones already provided for us. My group decided to create a new script so that we can implement enough characters and make the story line make sense. We sat together as a group and all agreed that we would keep the storyline as a hero vs villain story. We gave each other characters and created a draft script. After creating the draft script we put it on it’s feet and started to devise the scene we drafted with our teacher giving us a time limit. We all came back together as a class after the time limit was done and performed out piece. After performing our piece we was given feedback by everyone including the teacher. The feedback we received was don’t make it about a two hero’s fighting over a princess, make it something that’s not in the category of romance. After reviving that feedback we were told to go back into our group and tweak a few parts in the script such as the princess which we changed to a president and the hero’s competing over who would be knighted. Once we re made the script and re made the scene we came back together as a class and re performed our piece with changes.
5th February – due to me being away for a day with NYFA I was unable to attend this lesson however I do know that the script was developed and somethings were changed such as cutting out the narrator and changing the hero’s from being incompetent to being slightly clumsy but not exaggeratively. Because I wasn’t here for the lesson I wasn’t involved in the making of the new scene however was provided with a video so I can get an understanding of what happened and how things were changed and also the new character given to me so we can further work on the rest of the play during the next few lessons.
6th February – Today after receiving the feedback my group was given on the previous day, I sat down with my group and decided to construct another script. We decided to spend the first part of the lesson planning the first scene as a script then put it on its feet. After watching the video back we cleaned some parts so that they make more sense and still carries the meaning behind the performance. During this process of writing the opening scene of the script we implemented some parts we liked into the script because we felt it would have a really good affect and still carries some of the comedic purposes. For example we decided to make the hero’s not completely incompetent but still a funny/whacky double act. Also we decided to keep the idea of having a “henchman” for the main villain (bad guy rabs) to keep that comedic affect and to show there’s still good in evil because of how clumsy the henchman is.
12th February – in today’s session we carried on rehearsing our performances and started to manufacture the rest of the play. After working on the opening scene three or four times, my group came together and figured out what the middle and ending part will be. This involved us writing a script together and asking for our mentors advice on what would look best. When doing so, my group explored what would be suitable and appropriate to show the children. For example, even though we had conflict in our performance we couldn’t show physical violence so instead we chose to do something more playful I.e. tickling. Also, as a group we decided to change the performance name from “Quest for the president” to “let’s be hero’s” because we felt that it had more meaning to the play as there’s a plot twist in the ending.
13th February – on this day, the drama class went on a trip to the unicorn theatre to watch a children’s theatre play to get a taster of what our play should look like and the atmosphere around it. Unfortunately, due to personal reason I was unable to attend this trip.
19th and 20th February – half term holiday, no lessons were taken
26th February – rehearsals continued with my group, after coming back from the half term holiday, we had to recap on were we left off. During this lesson we looked back at old rehearsal footage and saw what could be amended or changed. Bearing in mind the content of what we are allowed to put into our piece and how we can keep the children entertained throughout the whole performance. With this in mind, we decided to develop our characters by finding ways to make them stand out more. For example the body language of our character and the way they would produce their lines. I.e. exaggerative, calmly, angrily, etc. No further changes we decided to be made within the piece because our group were satisfied with what we had and decided we didn’t need any add ons or changes. Also with the script, we were satisfied with the script however we were still relying on it to help us with our lines. So we set a target to be off the script by next weeks lesson.
5th March – in this lesson, with our piece finished and all that is left is to perform it, our group decided to look in the costume room and finalise our costume we were going to where. In our mind we had to give our characters bright colours and also represent who our characters are. While finding suitable costumes, we weren’t able to find the brightest of colours but found costume we individually felt would suit our characters. After finding our costumes, we then did a run through of our performance and filmed it. This rehearsal footage below is our final product and is what will be shown on performance day. We decided to do this rehearsal in parts of our costume so we can get a feel of how they are and if we can perform in them. As we are aware that the performance date has been change so that we are not going on tour to primary schools, we are only showing our pieces to the year 2 drama and any other performing arts students who would wish to watch.
12th March – performance day. We performed our “working progress” children theatre pieces to the year 2 drama students and any other performing arts students who wanted to watch.
Jordans children’s theatre 