UNIT 9: Christmas Devised Play;
First, we all Split into groups to make ideas. In unit 10, it states
that we need to create a devised performance which is based or highlights
the theme of Christmas .My tutor divided the class of 26 into groups in order
for us to work as a team and utilise our creativity skills to suggest
ideas for this performance. Whilst contributing in my group , I started
off by asking everyone "What’s the first few thoughts that come to mind
whilst thinking about Christmas?". A variety of things were named however
the main were;
-Santa
-Snow
-Presents
-Elves
-Children
-Christmas tree
-Festive Food for example turkey etc( food which has occasion with
Christmas).
All these things have some sort of reflection of Christmas. Majority of
these things are illustrated in plays and books when they are based around
Christmas however me and my groups aim was to utilise these ideas but
illustrate it in a different way. There are so many Christmas films / Plays. How
could we make ours different? What plot / characters / setting engages the
audience in order for them to feel like they haven’t watched something similar
already .Last year , when it came to devised pieces, although i would think
outside of the box, have unusual ideas which enhanced my creativity skills, i
found it quite difficult to express these ideas to my group. My confidence has
improved this year and due to me working in such a large group of 26 people,
the focus isn't always directly on you. Whilst emerging this task, i was
confident in my individual ideas as well as making sure i equally listened to
my peers and their ideas of their own to. Beforehand, i wouldn't interact when
talking about ideas as an ensemble but i managed to push my nerves aside and
get on with it!
We got a sheet of paper which we expressed our ideas on .Majority of
these modern Christmas plays have the usual plot. There’s a family. Something
bad happens and they all reunite around Christmas with Santa being illustrated
as the hero. Therefore we insured that our ideas wouldn’t fit into the “Typical
Christmas play category".
Here are a few things we discussed:
- Discussed whether we wanted
our version of the devised play to be modern or a more traditional play .
After taking our audience (due to the fact that we would be
performing this play in front of students/ young people) into
consideration I suggested that the play should be modern as it gives our
audience a feeling of relating to the play due to majority of the audience
being young aged . However other members of the group suggested we utilise
a more traditional therefore we came to the conclusion to combine the two.
- Christmas is known and
celebrated globally .It would be very unusual if somebody wasn’t aware
about Christmas, So that’s where our idea started. Two of my peers started
discussing the film “Divergent “which is a film based upon 5 children
which are on missions to save the world.
We then created our own Christmas devised piece based around a similar
plot as the film. Utilising certain elements from the film and then putting
these ideas into our version of a Christmas play.
For example in the film, there are 5 factions ;Air, Water , Fire, Wind and Earth. Each faction is independent as people will be divided into these sections based upon their human virtues. In this film, the government over rules everything and is portrayed as very controlling and abuses his power to the rest of society. He does this by injecting serums into everybody in order for them to obey his orders however, due to each divergent being independent and in control of their own well-being they are seen as threats to society.
I suggested maybe converting the 5 factions into 5 children which are on
a mission to do with something linked to Christmas. I liked the idea of the
children not obeying the governments control in society, however in order to
keep this perspective , we had to ensure that we stuck to the theme . One of my
peers in my group suggested that the government could be replaced as Santa. That
was terrific. Instead of Santa being the person who saves Christmas, We changed
his intentions completely in our plot and created him as the villain in
our play.
Due to there being 5 kids in our play, we decided to cast in some
parents as well as it’s also a realistic idea and fits in well. We still wanted
to highlight the theme of family within Christmas as that’s very important. In
addition to this, due to there being 26 students in my class, it’s important
for everybody to have a part to play therefore the more roles included the
better . So with this idea alone we already have 5 children, 5 parents or more,
and a Santa Claus. Due to the factions having something which the rest of
the society doesn’t have in the film, we wanted the children to have some type
of secretive mission or obligations within our plot as they need a purpose. As
a group, We then came up with the idea that society doesn’t know about
Christmas as it’s forbidden in the time frame the plot is set in .Santa Claus
has kept Christmas a secret and therefore the 5 children wish to expose this to
the rest of the world. After a numerous amount of ideas (which we
expressed on the sheets of paper), we highlighted the best ideas we came up
with and illustrated this to the rest of the class.
Furthermore, we listened to the rest of our peers ideas .When peers are
often demonstrating their work, it can cause a lack of focus. Sometimes i feel
i can get distracted by my peers therefore on this occasion, i removed myself
from getting in that situation. I have started to become a lot more considerate
due to certain things which were holding me back last year. When interacting in
group activities and sharing your ideas to the rest of the ensemble, it can be
quite nerve racking. I want to show the same respect my peers show me and allow
them to feel comfortable when doing so. Therefore, the smallest things like
moving away from people which may distract me, turning my mobile phone and any
other devices off during rehearsals and, simply allowing my work to be my main
focus has really helped my tactics as an actor overall My target is to carry
these precautions and this positive attitude to all rehearses in order to achieve
the best i possibly can.
Everybody’s ideas were equally good however we couldn’t do each
idea individually as its one whole production therefore all ideas needed to be combined.
Everybody went over the most outstanding ideas they had which appeared to be
the most appealing to everybody and then everyone started to discuss on what’s
we could combine everything . Majority of my peers liked my group’s ideas. Everyone
utilised my idea as the main plot and then added there ideas around it. This
created one idea as a whole .Whilst clashing all ideas together, a lot more
characters were created such as;
- Elves
- 5 Children& their pet
Dog
- Parents
- Police officers
- Acolytes( Santa's villain
workers)
- Charles Dickens
- Henchman
- Soldiers
As an ensemble, we decided to combine both modern and traditional
aspects of Christmas. By exploring both aspects, highlighting key factors we
thought would be an advantage in our devised play, researching these different
events / aspects which took place into more depth in order to assure a level of
accuracy in reflection of our play as well as combining it into the modern
events which take place currently.
This idea is a huge advantage in our play. By utilising modern and
traditional aspects / events increases that level of attention from the audience.
It engages them even more because it’s something they are familiar with which
boosts there level of interest. It opens the minds more which then expands
there focus. The audience then start to gather these ideas which we embedded
into our play but then want to work our why we utilised these events and find
the correlation between these events /aspects and our devised piece. How does
this all bleed in as one?
I found it hard to combine modern and traditional .After some research
as well as discussing it to the rest of my peers , I thought the best technique
to illustrate both modern and traditional elements, is to utilise flash backs
.Our play won’t be performed in chronological order , but the characters will
travel back in time . At the start of the play we will illustrate how it all started,
as the play progresses with the flashbacks and going back in time, the
plot starts to unravel to the audience so that they get a clearer understanding.
This method I feel personally engages the audience a lot more than usual as
they are intrigued to know why the play began the way it did.
Self Targets :
Learn to accept constructive feedback by mentors and staff . All feedback is constructive and is to help me as an individual on my skills . Utilise the feedback in a constructive way instead of viewing it as a negative .
Feel more confident in being recorded whilst performing . I often would avoid being recorded in front of a camera however , in order to defeat this I must start recording more pieces of my work to get use to the habit .
Express my ideas and creative skills efficiently but effectively. As an individual I have acknowledged that my creativity skills are good however I want others to also see this and in order to do so I must express my work clearly for others to understand and for my ideas to emerge into my / our work .
Improving my speech and pronunciation on certain ways . Sometimes when briefly reading over a script , reading it is fine . However sometimes I pronounce words the wrong way for example the word “ Athens “. This then may lead the audience as well as actors to misunderstand what I’m saying . Fully participating in vocal warm ups and tongue twisters is a key goal of mine to improve my speech .
Organisation . Improve on structuring my tasks and work in order to achieve the grade I want to succeed . Both Performance and Written work are equally important. These collectively make my final grade . By organising my time sufficiently, it allows me to spend an equal amount on both my physical and written work ensuring that I’m doing the best to my ability .
Believing in myself . Nothing will ever be complete unless I believe in myself. Telling myself that I can make the impossible possible is a great start . When you tell someone you want to be a actor their instant reply is “ that industry is so hard to be successful In”. These opinions push people in to thinking they can’t make it .I have started to believe in myself in order to detach myself from that mindset and push harder . Prove them wrong .
Our play is called" A Questmas
Story " and is set in 1842.
Plot:
Christmas has been banned due to a evil person within
the government having a
bad experience regarding Christmas. He is
often referred as “The evil one" and his aim was to
band Christmas due to the power and authority he has over the world. (Which
he was slightly successful). He orders Police officers to invade
families in order to check if they are celebrating Christmas, if so they
get arrested as it’s forbidden and is classed as a crime. 1/5
kids experience their parents being arrested and decide to contact
the 4 remaining children informing them that their parents have been taken. After
being informed by their fellow friend, each child comes
to the realisation that their parents have
been kidnapped to ad therefore go on a mission to
get their parents back and also save Christmas. The plays format
follows the journey of the children trying to save Christmas. They revisit certain
events which have correlation to Christmas such as
- Charles Dickens book “A Christmas Carol"
- German vs England in World War 1
Each event unravels different characters and clues. Whilst the children are trying to save Christmas and find their parents, the “Evil one" hires acolytes to track these children down and stop them from being successful. In addition to this, police officers are also tracking these children down in order to have a understanding on what’s happening .Towards the end of the play , the children find their parents , save Christmas and the " evil one " gets locked away. By including certain events draws the audience in as well as allowing them to follow the journey of the characters to find out the outcome.
Setting;
At the beginning of the Play, it is set in modern Britain. We ensured
the audience was aware of this by using modern language and referring to
things in this day and age such as technology i.e.
Mobile phones
Wi-Fi and other gadgets. As the play progresses, The children go back in
time. The first place they go back in time to was the Victorian Era which was
portrayed through a Victorian market. After researching things which may be
sold at a Victorian market, we utilised this in our play. Basic
vocabulary such as “shillings" instead of "pounds" were also
utilised to portray this. The props and food we used had correlation to the
Victorian Era also. Costumes were old fashioned clothing;
-Waistcoats
-Dresses
-Suits
The children then enter World War 1
Light:
Majority of the time lights were set at a standard level in order for
the acting to be visible on stage for the audience .Black outs were utilised
often when there was a transition from one scene to another .whilst
the black out on stage took place , music was played in the background . The
aim of this was to try and sustain the audiences focus on stage. Props
and costumes were being exchanged on and off stage in order for actors to
be prepared for the next scene.
When my character first introduced itself on stage the light was at a
dim blue. This was a good way to use the lighting as the dim blue lights
emphasised on my role even more being a police officer. In addition to this,
some of my lines were revolved around light. For example in act 1 scene,
my partner “ Marley “ starts choking on his food as he struggles to tell me “
there’s a flashing light Doris “. By working with the tech team the que for the
light to come on in order for my characters partner to see it as well as the
audience had to be extremely accurate. This is due to my character Doris
acknowledging the light afterwards. It’s the little things that bring the play
to life.
In addition, there was a chase scene. The lights were
extremely dim as the music started just to build up the suspense. The scene
starred off with nothing but music to capture the audience’s attention in
wanting to watch more.
Music and Sound :
Majority of the music used in our play were sound effects which were
repetitive throughout the play .Music tracks were used to build suspense in
certain scenes. For example “shark music”. Festive music which illustrates
Christmas was played at the beginning and end of the play in order to emphasise
on the Christmas spirit.
In addition to this, we all thought it would be a good idea to utilise
our own voices somewhere in this devised production as it’s a representation of
all our work. At the beginning of the play it starts quite serious, with the
lights being dime, actors frozen and already in their characters. We then
thought of using some catchy Christmas related slogans top give the audience an
idea on what the play is going to be based around. It was difficult finding a
way to include this into our piece however, after some time we eventually came
up with an idea of using our voices to say these slogans. My individual slogan
was “A December to remember". Short, catchy and relates to what our pay is
based on.
I went into the recording studio along with my peers; we stood in front
of a mic and started blurting out our individual slogans all in one at the same
time. My tutor then asked if i can constantly repeat my slogan “A December to
remember " in the mic which i did. we heard all our sounds, put them all
together and even decided which slogans to fade into music and when will each
slogan be used in the play as we have to make sure the slogan fits in at the
right time. Learning how to fade my voice into the music was very useful as i
was developing my production skills. Sometimes everyone sounded silly due to
just blurting out a slogan onto the mic, but, we all kept it professional as
the reason behind it was extremely useful to our play . We all remained focus
at all times to make sure the sound we want was achieved. This highlights good
team work and professionalism.
Props :
A variety of props were used in our play
Soldiers had Guns made out of wood
coated in black paint // plastic fake guns
-Market scene had fake food and Veg to
create that reality effect.
- Santa’s Elves has presents. We bought in any empty boxes and
wrapped them with wrapping pair in order for it to look like
presents
- -torches were used on the chase scene by the police officers
- A map was used by the 5 children whilst they continue their journey
by trying to find their parents and “save “Christmas.
Costumes:
The market scenes were set in
Victorian Era therefore as an ensemble, we looked for old fashioned clothes to
fit that time period.
Soldiers were dressed in black in order
to emphasis on the seriousness of their role, Acolytes were dressed the
same
Santa and the elves had typical
outfits. Santa being in a typical Santa clause costume; a fake white
beard, elves wearing matching costumes to.
5 kids dressed in school uniform to
emphasise that they are the 5 kids to the audience.
Charles Dickens was dressed in a suit.
Parents - casual clothing
My Character: Police Officer
I wore a blue shirt with black fitted
trousers and black shoes. My costume was very formal due to my role in the play
being a police officer. I wore black flat shoes in order for my health and
safety also due to the fact that there was a lot of running up and down on
stage. In one of my performances, I wore a black helmet just to convey my role
a bit more.
I worked on my posture due to police officers having quite a straight
and formal posture. I ensured that every time I entered the stage my head
was held up high , my shoulders back ,and my posture straight .It just made my
character look realistic to the audience.
Character Analysis:
Acting like somebody else means that your taking on a role, .in order to
this , you must interpret your character in a way you can perform this. I did this
in a variety of ways such as observing the way my characters dialogue is
as well as focusing on small things such as stage directions which illustrates
how my character moved. This reflects how you're charterer is a lot.
I came to the conclusion that Without taking these things into consideration,
this will stop you from creating your character to look realistic which can affect
your performance dramatically. Your audience should be able to observe what
type of character you are playing by just looking at you on stage. Although
this was quite obvious due to my costume of a police officer, i ensured my
acting portrayed my character also.
This can be portrayed
in a variety of things such as;
My characters movement and body
language
The way my character moves is essential as it expresses the characters
emotions. You must consider a lot of factors when developing a character you’re
going to play such as the way you walk, talk and even stand. For example, due
to my character having authority, my body language had a upright posture.
In addition, I focused on the way i should deliver speech to
convey you character. My tone was often formal I ensured my voice projected to
the audience in order for them to hear what is being said. This requires
clarity within the voice as well as strength for it to
fill the theatre( vocal warm ups had a huge part to play in this)There
are a lot of elements when it to the human voice such as :
The pitch of my voice:
The pitch of the voice is whether your voice is high or low. These
things are linked to gender, a male s voice pitch being low and a women voice
pitch being high.
Volume;
The volume is crucial as you need to be heard by the audience however
don't shout at them as you will portray the wrong intention.
Pace:
The pace is the speed which you deliver your dialogue. This conveys a
lot as if a character was in a rush to somewhere the speed of them delivering
their dialogue would be very hasty and fast.
Constructive feedback :
Majority of the time , my tutor would give us feedback at the end of each rehearsed . This gives him time to observe rehearsals and see what needs improving . Feedback is often given as an ensemble and can sometimes be quite embarrassing. This is due to the fact that it’s often expressed quite vague and raw . But as time has progressed, I have learnt that as a young actor I need to accept that . Nobody in the industry will be sugar coating your flaws. The reason why directors / producers and mentors are there is to guide you . Highlight what’s right and what’s wrong in your craft . The feedback they give is coming from good intentions and is beneficial in the long run .
Performance Evaluation:
Overall, I felt like our performance went well. Everyone was serious and
had mind-sets as a professional actor throughout the four performance well.
Even though our second performance didn't have that much of an audience,
everyone treated just as equally as the rest of the performances by performing
to the best of their ability. Majority of the time we was rehearsing in the
Drama studio which is very small in comparison to our performance space which
was held in the heater in my
college. We all managed to adjust to the space quickly. Because our
performance was so big we all made sure we spoke out to the audience. I had a
short speech which I had to perform to the audience as part of my Character
therefore, I made sure that me as an individual spoke out to the audience.
Speaking loudly and clearly so that the audience understand what I was saying
and could hear me clearly.
Eye contact was also crucial as it makes member of the audience feel
like I was directly talking to them. Our vocals was also important. The
examination camera which was recording us was right at the back of the theatre
therefore everyone made sure that they spoke loud and clearly in order for the
examiners to hear us on stage as well as every member of the audience. Before
each performance we all participated in a vocal warm up. This helped us with
articulation and prepared us for our performance afterwards.
In terms of space , because everyone was so used to working in a small
space , I felt like everyone's was still gathered together on stage. I
personally felt like as an ensemble we all could of used the stage space more,
especially down stage . Everyone was more gathered upstage as that was where
all the props were placed. People entered the stage from either side therefore
it looked like an ensemble piece. Cues were very good. Everyone was aware when
to enter the stage and when to exist . The stage during our performance was
never left empty. Cues were sharp and quick in order to keep the audience
engaged into our performance.
Transitions from scene to scene worked out and were good but could've
been quicker. That's something I felt we needed to spend some more time on as a
group. While actors were changing props from one scene to the next upstage,
scenes were continuing downstage therefore, we all ensured that we were very
discrete when moving these props in order to not distract the audience from
what their supposed to be looking at and not being noisy with the props so that
the actors acting were still being heard.
Behind the stage, we had a list of the scenes in chronological order to
help to allow us actors to keep on track on what scenes were on as well as this
list being helpful as you may be off stage for ages therefore, the list allowed
us to keep track on where we are currently if you was off stage and when you
need to be on stage.
When Planning on how were going to perform this play as an ensemble, as
you can see above there was a variety of ideas that we chose in order to
portray our own devised piece. Some of these ideas never came to life
due to us not having certain facilities in college to bring some of these
ideas to life. One of our aims was to ensure that transitions were sharp
in order to sustain the audience’s attention. By using all different
resources, people are going to have to put these resources away which
needs time therefore we wouldn't have been able to achieve pour
aim of having sharp transitions. We all decided to choose the ideas which
didn't affect anything we wanted to achieve and effect the presentation of our
performance. Ideas like the projection ideas never happened as it was too
complicated and our tech group didn't have the facilities to bring this idea to
life.
Due to my character being a police officer, research resources were used
in order for me to play my character to the best of its ability. My character
was the stern and serious one so i made sure whilst being in character my
facial expressions were very stern and my presence came across as very serious.
Research:
German vs England war :
World War 1 is classed as the most terrible war of all time .Within the four years (1914-1918) over 25 million people were killed or injured on both the British and German side combined. During the first eight months of World War One, German attacked France which had then been repelled outside Paris by French and British troops in early September 1914. The subsequent battle of the anise occurred where the British tried to defeat the Germans by trying to push through the German line but was unsuccessful. This then caused huge tension between the two and the fighting quickly increased. Neither side was willing to stand ground nor did both start to invest and plan on defeating their allies.
In the Germans perspective, they
believed that they were defending their fatherland. In 1916 they weren’t only
defending their country, but also French civilians against a virtual British assault.
(British wrecked peaceful French villages which the Germans then defended) .
Due to the Germans wanting to protect their country to the best degree they could,
the German troops formed a wall, which was there to try and protect the fatherland.
Although the Germans did anything within their power to protect their
country
In contrast , The British
utilised different tactics in defending their country by unleashing a series of
violent offensives and ferocious assaults .It is estimated upon a variety of
research I have taken place , that Over 1500 young Germans died due
to the British actions .The outcome of this overall was extravagant. The
British Army was destroyed by the Germans .The British army image were seen as
cowards to the rest of the world and had a very bad image depicted on them. News
and articles didn’t help the fact that they lost. In particular , the image of
the Somme “ The frightful lies of life in a sea of mud , plucky soldiers sent
to a youthful death by bone -headed generals safely ensconced miles behind the
front “ summed up how the world felt regarding the British army .
On the other hand, The Germans
held their heads high. They vocalised how much they protected their country
from the miseries and disasters of war.
How We correlated this into our devised play :
Despite all the events which took place within this
horrific war the fact that Germany and England managed to create peace
between both countries was a significant factor in World War One. This occurred
around Christmas. In the week commencing of Christmas, the German, French and
British soldiers crossed trenches to exchange season greetings and talk. In
some areas , men from both sides ventured into no man’s land on Christmas Eve
and Christmas Day to also exchange food and souvenirs. We illustrated this
within our play by casting soldiers to convey both German and British soldiers.
This is a valid scene within our play therefore we decided to convey this in
slow motion in silence with dramatic music being played in the background. The
scene starts off with dialogue but continues with silence.
In this scene we illustrate to the audience how the
British and German war managed to become civilised through the use of props
such as; football, chocolate and drinks. By the two armies exchanging valuables
which reflect some type of importance from their countries, it highlights peace
and love (the motto we decided to give for our play). This links to there being
several peace initiatives in the lead up to Christmas in 1914(the time period
our play was set).
Although our perception of both armies being
civilised was portrayed in a different concept, it’s the message that counts
.On the 7th of December 1914, Pope Benedict begged for an official truce
between the warring governments. He asked that they guns may fall silent. This
attempt was officially rebuffed. Many officers disapproved but headquarters on
both sides took strong steps to ensure that it could never happen again.
The first sign of civilisation between the two
armies occurred on Christmas Eve. Therefore we placed this particular scene as
one of the lasts in our play, as the ending was Christmas Day. At 8:30 pm, an
officer of the Royal Irish rigours reported to headquarters stating that
Germans have illuminated their trenches, signing songs and wishing everyone a
merry Christmas’s. Further along the line, the two sides sang to each other
with carols. One in particular which stood out to everyone is the German “silent
night “. At the beginning of these particular scene members of the cast on the
stage hums to the silent night theme tune which entices the audience to join in.
This is a reflection on the reality which occurred .scouts met casually in “no man’s
land “which was a waste between the trenches .
Victorian Christmas:
I decided to look more into the
Victorian culture of Christmas as well as their everyday life due to our play
being set in the Victorian era for a while towards the end of the play.
Common
food in Victorian times :
-Meat
-Fish
-Poultry
-Fresh
/canned vegetables
-Hearty
soup
-Stews
Christmas
meals :
-Roast
mutton
-Pork
-Turkey
-Boiled
beef
-Stewed
Rabbit
Deserts :
-Plum
Pudding with mince pies
-Cakes
-Cheese
-Fresh
fruits
Drinks :
-Lemonade
-Root
beer
-Hot
tea
-Woke
By
researching popular foods in the Victorian era , allowed us to create our
market scene look more realistic . In markets the sellers are often shouting
what they’re selling in prefer to entice customers. By educating myself to know
what Victorian’s ate, allowed me and my group to create realistic and factual
dialogue for our devised piece
Refrigerators
were not available in the Victorian era therefore Victorians often have to
follow food preservation techniques;
-Salting
-Picking
-Drying
-Smoking
-Tin-canning
Correlation
to our play :
Trading
began to become popular during the Victorian era . This was due to
transportation developing .Therefore we researched some continents that Britain
was trading within the Victorian era in order to demonstrate this knowledge to
the audience whilst participating in the market scene.
Story
written in the Victorian era (1837), by Charles Dickens named a Christmas
carols . This story highlights
Family
Mistletoe
and holly
Going to
church
Charity
and food.
Victorians
values these values and acted upon them. This increased the tradition
Germans
use to have decorated trees indoors according to the “German fashion “
Albert ,
queen Victoria’s husband , had one for the first time in 1840 and in 1848 and
illustration of their family around a tree to demonstrate the German tradition
, making it become British culture .In 1848, “ illustrated London news “
published this . Reflected Prince Albert's childhood in Germany. It became a
Victorian Christmas tradition to set up large Christmas trees and decorate it
with lighted candles, sweets, ribbons and paper chains .
Christmas
cards
In 1843, an
artist named Henry Cole designed a card for Christmas which
illustrated a groupie of people around a dinner gable and a Christmas message. They
began to be sold at just one shilling each. The sentiment eventually caught in
and many children were encouraged to make their own Christmas cards. By the end
of the century, the cards were extremely popular. 11.5 million Cards were
sold
Christmas crackers :
In 1848,
a British confectioner Tom smith invented courage’s way to sell sweets. He was
inspired on a trip to Paris where he saw something similar, a simple package
filled with sweets that snapped apart. He then had the idea of replacing those
sweets with a small gift that appears when snapping apart. This was then known
as a Christmas cracker which was another invention in the Victorian times.
Gift :
Traditionally,
gifts were given / received at New Year’s however, this tradition was moved to
Christmas as it was more important to the Victorians. Initially, gifts were modest;
-Fruit
-Nuts
-Sweets
Although
their gifts are different, they still hung these gifts onto the Christmas tree.
As gift giving became more festive, gifts became bigger and shop bought
therefore gifts were placed underneath the Christmas tree.
Fun
Facts
Christmas
stockings were originated from Belgium / France.
Santa
Claus came from Holland
Transformation
happened quickly and came from all sectors of society.
Pantomime
Although
the character is a police officer and in society police officers are
taken very seriously, juxtaposition was utilised through my
character by actually creating humour to the play .I played
Doris which was the responsible officer, and my police partner
Marley's personality was quite dopey, dumb and stupid. Therefore, by two
complete opposites working side by side together, allowed humour from the
audience.
Based
upon research, pantomime usually takes place around the festive season of
Christmas. This was useful as our devised piece is based around Christmas. This
has been reflected through children plays such as;
-Peter
Pan
-Aladdin
-Cinderella
Audience
participation is extremely important whilst utilising pantomime therefore i
ensured that my dialogue was clear and loud enough for the audience to
interact. In our plays case, Marley often didn't notice that certain objects he
was looking for was "Behind him" , therefore, it was my characters
call to indicate this to the audience.
Example
of audience participation;
Wicked Queen in the pantomime version of Snow White. “I am the
fairest of them all”
Audience – “Oh no you’re not!”
Queen – “Oh yes I am!”
Audience – “Oh no you’re not!”
Slapstick is also used in the chasing
scene where my character Doris and Marley, finally come in contact with the 5
kids . As they try to arrest the kids but it then leads to a chase scene.
Slapstick is popular in the British pantomime industry.
Devised Theatre;
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