Lesson 2 Tuesday - 8th November 2016

During today’s session, we got straight into our political protest groups and began devising something that we could use for our protest performance. I started off by trying to mind map a few ideas that we could feed off of because apart from the idea of using powder paint we had no other ideas. My mind map includes using physical theatre and symbolism to create an affect on people. I also thought that it would be quite a good idea to perhaps show people life throughout war but then also the after affects of war (e.g people die during wars, post traumatic stress disorder, suicide, homelessness, ordinary life etc.) however it soon became apparent that this would take away from the main issue of ‘chemical warfare’. We also decided that powder paint probably wouldn’t be the best idea because it would run out too quickly and whiles it might intrigue passersby to come and investigate the scene, it might also look like we were just having a load of fun rather than actually trying to portray a message. Then when we tried to devise something, it was a complete failure due to us not coming together as a team. There was a person that wasn’t giving up ideas but was shutting everyone else’s ideas down, no one was really listening to one another and so everyone got fed up very quickly. This also meant that great ideas were never put into action.

Eventually we managed to just get on with something which we decided to improvise –just to see if something worked and it did. We all started on the floor sleeping and singing the national anthem. This then turned into horrific coughing. I then screamed in agony as though I’d been exposed to a bomb of some kind to an extent that I couldn’t move. The rest of the group then began to hold me down as I began to have a fit. Fits were a symptom to being exposed to chemical warfare, there were also many other effects which we displayed. This was done by one group member saying the effect aloud and then placing their hand on the area of my body that it would’ve affected. I responded to what they were saying, for example when my lungs were shutting down I took in long gasps of oxygen, and when my eye were meant to roll to the back of my head they did exactly that. Eventually, I died, everyone else began to cough again and then the scene repeated. We will obviously add to the section and possibly use it as a skeleton and change everything else completely.

Half of the groups then performed their protests whilst the other groups watched and vice versa. Our showing actually went well considering the circumstances and we were able to perform successfully and give our audience some brutal knowledge to take away. Our piece did lack props and things such as paint which would have been smothered on my body during the piece to represent the injury being caused to my body –this would have made things more obvious.

I really enjoyed Frankie’s characterisation of a homeless person. She really got in touch with what kind of a person she would be and managed to make her audience feel the weight of her character and also leave with it. This meant that she really stuck out as a person that I can still think about now and feel sympathetic towards. I also liked Gloria’s group’s interaction with their audience because it meant that we could leave her group with knowledge that could help us personally in everyday life. The knowledge was about our basic human rights and is something that everyone should know but not many people do (including myself up until now).

My group’s feedback was that our piece was strong and effective however our message wasn’t clear enough and people were unsure of what our political issue was. We understood and appreciated this constructive criticism because we ourselves agreed with it due to the fact that we didn’t have the posters and signs around us, we also didn’t have the paint ect. And chemical warfare isn’t exactly an obvious or everyday subject matter. Next week we aim to work together more efficiently and produce some material that will make up the whole protest.