Kim evaluation

Site specific Evaluation: physical aspect

Our physical piece was inspired by the crash of a lift in 1903 which 10 dead crushed under the body of the lift. We began the piece by singing silent night because the crash occurred near Christmas. We were inspired by the works of Labem and his flick technique we incorporated this into our piece when we were replicating the broken bones of the dead as they fell. Using sharp jagged movements we recreated the imagery of bones gradually smashing we did this though a wave of movement starting small the progressively smothering our audience member. As a group we wanted to give the audience an experience and give them the illusion that the lift was falling. We did this through using a Frantic Assembly lift technique were we hovered Immy over our audience member were she appeared to be almost levitating above them as she physicalized the sensation of falling. After we had done this we then became neutral and continued singing with a blank expression to give the perception that we were corpses ghost like

4.

This final rehearsal was very intense.It was all about scrubbing up the rough edges adding effects making perfection.

What changed???

We decided to no longer use music and that instead we are going to sing silent night as that creates a more dowering affect that creeps the audience out and we're singing the song silent night because the event happened during Christmas time.

We've decided that we will only have one person in the lift when we're performing as the experience will then become more intense and personal.

From teacher feedback we've also decided on adding a beginning before the lift scene  and an after event after the lift scene lead by Ursula who will be a maid cleaning the area who hates Christmas however she is giving out party decorations and wine drinks e.t.c.She then leads a person into the lift where they will experience the lift falling then afterwards ursula be there when the lift doors open and she will be taking Polaroid photos then sticking them up with other photos of when other people have come out of the lift as to say they we're part of the event when the lift fell.

What might be added?

We might involve using more contact with the audience member and by doing this it will make them feel uncomfortable.

We still plan for the final performance to have smashed mirrors,blood capsules and another strobe maybe.

We might also use make-up on our faces to give a dead/blood effect. 

3.

Inside the lift we plan to for the piece to involve ALOT of physical theatre and less talking or none at all.

we're planning for the atmosphere to be filled with the music and the sound of the broken light. our performance so far is based on physicality, personality and facial expression.

How will you use physical theatre?
Our original idea was to do contact improvisation however now the audience member is to be central in the lift while we circle around them. We then plan to start with our fingers moving them in disorientating ways then continue into the wrist then up to the elbow then up to the shoulder is when we then involves the other arm  starting from the fingers. This with the strobe lighting causes a great effect on the mind and eyes visually.
It was hard creating physical theatre in such a confined space while trying to be creative but i figured that the the big expressive movements aren't always needed to make a big impact.
What to add?
We may add a strobe, a black curtain to cover the entrance so that it blocks any light, cracked mirrors and blood.

2.

Above is a picture of my group having a discussion about our chosen place.

Our time became very intense as we bounced off each other with unique ideas some of which consisted of using strobe lighting to show the effects of the lighting when the lift broke and fake blood in balloons was a another suggestion as it would have a great effect visually with the strobe lighting and shows that some people got seriously injured.My suggestion was to cut wires to stick of the side of the lifts to represent the effects of the lift dropping and the damage.We played around with the lighting in the lift by making it pitch black using a coat to cover the light which stuck to the side of the lift.

The best part was experimenting with music inside the lift.One song which worked for our piece was Retrograde by James Blake as it has a slow,mysterious and distant melody and vocals.While listening to the music we tried reacting to it through physical theatre showing the slow death of the people who died in the lift based on the story we found.

Who are the audience and what is there function?

Our preliminary idea for the audience is that they are guests at a party in 1902 as the story were basing it on happened at a party in 1902.They will play the party guests and they people who looked down and into the lift once it fell.They will witness the whole event of the lift falling and they people ever so slowly dying.

Installation?

We planned to involve music and maybe even a voice over with simply sounds such as heavy breathing and screaming.

Do they know more about the place then i do?

As a group we are still contemplating on this however right now the audience know as much as we do.

what is our reaction if an audience member screams or cries?

We will place warning signs to show that what's in the lift may be a bit graphic.Plus because the audience are watching rather than being involved they can easily walk away from the piece.

1.

I titled this lesson as 'Getting to know our site(getting to know you) referencing the song 'Getting to know you by Marni Nixon (Deborah Kerr Original Version)from the 'King and I'as like what we were doing today,this song is about introductions and getting to know who your with.

We learnt about what were the lifts capabilities.Unfortunately since the last time we used this lift it has stopped working.At first this caused inconvience as the conventional way of using the lift was to be incorporated in our piece.However this came as an adavantage as we've came up with a more inventive piece.Our piece is now based on a real life historical event which happened in a lift which was broken.

We are using the idea of text based theatre and we're interpreting this piece through physical theatre.I suggest we could also use multimedia to tell the story and fill the atmosphere and space.

Below is a link to the song 'Getting to know you.'Just in case you've never heard of it. 

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=1o1t-PhkFAQ

final rehearsal

In yesterdays session, we were polishing our piece, and making sure that it all worked efficiently. We also worked on our timings, to make sure the piece would be able to run smoothly. We all discussed that we should be more powerful and could really start to push the boundaries with what we were doing. We made sure we kept blank faces for everytime we ran the piece, as this looked and felt rather sinister. 

We had two staff members come and observe our piece in order to give us some feedback. They loved the piece in the lift, and felt that we did it rather successfully, however we didn't have enough context. At this point we decided to do some research over the weekend and to print related things off and to create a museum, gallery to get our story and retelling across.

physical section

We start by surrounding the audience member in a circle. We the start with our wrists and use a staccato transition to move it into different unnatural positions. We then did the same with our elbows, then our full arm including shoulders, then including the second hand. This looked amazing, especially with the strobe lighting.
We then wanted to manipulate the audience onto the floor into an almost semi-supine position. We then picked Imy up and lifted her up and down and rocking her from side to side. TO create an illusion as if she were falling onto the audience in slow motion, This tied in with our stimulus of the lift callapsing. Imy would then let out a huge terrifying high pitch scream, by which time we will have lowered her, back to her original position.