Director's Challenge - Part 7 - DNA Character Evaluation

Director's Challenge - Part 6 - DNA Stanislavski application to each scene

Director's Challenge - Part 5 - DNA Stanislavski Method

Director's Challenge - Part 4 - DNA Author's Intentions

Director's Challenge - Part 3 - DNA Themes

Director's Challenge - Part 2 - DNA Scene Breakdown

Director's Challenge - Part 1 - DNA as our piece

FOMO - Director's Challenge Prep

Blue Remembered Hills - Director's Challenge Prep

It Snows - Part 5

Below is the video of our final performance: 

Below is a video analysing the above final performance:

Violence and Son - Director's Challenge Prep

The following photos detail Monday's lesson and my thoughts on the play script we looked at: 

DNA - Director's Challenge Prep

The following images detail information from Thursday's lesson and some of my thoughts about directing after the lesson:

Shakespeare in a Day - Director's Challenge Preparation

A few months ago, the school musical was cancelled. On the 3rd December, we had planned a full day rehearsal for the musical. With this day now empty, it was decided that we would do something else on this day and thus the concept of Shakespeare in a Day with a 30-minute performance at night was born. In this, we were to reference and perform all of Shakespeare's plays within a 30 minute time period. Although this is not a part of the BTEC course, it is an important piece of experience for Directors Challenge next year as the upper BTECs (now my class) were to direct some of the plays with a group of about 5. We were to perform the piece in a meta-theatre was and thus have to get the lower school kids used to this concept; direct address is generally tricky for kids to understand so this would be my main issue when trying to direct.

In last Monday and Thursday's lesson, we talked about the general directing process and what directors would do in a larger out of school context. It was here that I learnt that directors do a lot more than what I had previously thought they did. They lead the whole process, especially concerning what the actors do on stage and how they speak as well as assigning characters, producing a rehearsal schedule, sorting out tech, costume and set at production meetings with fellow backstage crew who must be influenced by the director's decisions for the piece to work. Directors rely on the script and the author's intentions as well as their own experiences and using a unique style that very professional directors use.

It is with this context that we were to create a 2-minute piece of a Shakespeare play. I was given Romeo and Juliet and as a lot of people know this play, decided that I would do a mock-up of Family Fortunes whilst still following the plot of the play. In order for the day to run smoothly, I had to write my own script for the kids to use because they often find it hard to come up with words on their own. The script was also for my own benefit so I could tell the kids what to say quickly and without having to think of words on the spot, perhaps confusing my actors even more.

Before the day, I made a plan of what I wanted to accomplish in the hour that I had to teach the piece to them. I would start off with a 5-minute warm-up and getting to know their names so that communication would be easier. The following 55 minutes would be spent learning and perfecting the piece. Generally, I would say that this process went okay but there are some aspects of my directing technique that I would want to change. Firstly, is to communicate what I want the actors to do much better. There was one actor who couldn't grasp something. I thought that by me telling him to remain still during one part would be fine and he would understand that he would need to move when I had directed him to when he goes offstage. This didn't happen and he remained awkwardly on stage when he should have exited. Other than that, I think that my already stable relationship with the actors I had helped me to direct them as we already had a level of respect for one another and thus could move on much quicker.

It Snows - The Writer and Her Aims

Writer Background

Bryony Lavery, from Yorkshire, is a writer of various plays including It Snows. She began her career as an actress before moving onto writing. After the suicide of her ex-husband and deaths of her parents, Lavery (despite her age of over 50) came out as a lesbian and has dedicated much of her career to write better parts for women.

Why were they writing

Much of Lavery's work has feminist undertones and she has even written plays with almost entirely female casts such as More Light which only has one male speaking role. In this regard, she would seem rather similar to Churchill and her feminist tones, however, much of Lavery's early work seems to stem from showing the audience a good time. Lavery has written five plays for the National Theatre Connection series of which It Snows was published in, in 2016.

The aim

In the notes at the beginning of the play, Lavery has commented that she intended the play to be performed in the style of Frantic Assembly and indeed she wrote it for the company as well as for Connections hence why we decided on making a Frantic Assembly style around the piece. It should be noted that Lavery wanted It Snows to be an enjoyable experience for an audience and therefore included no political message or feminist undertones. This is one of the reasons why we chose this piece - it comes into direct conflict with Churchill's political agenda in Heart's Desire. Other reasons why we decided to look at this piece is because we loved the Frantic Assembly style and it was a play we hadn't encountered before and wanted to challenge ourselves.

The extract in context

Certainly, I feel that we have stuck to Lavery's aim. We have not made any political comments in the piece and have performed it in the style of Frantic Assembly. It must be noted, however, that Lavery didn't want any changes to the script and in one place we have done this - the split stage sequence between the party and the bus stop scene. Ideally, we would have liked to keep this juxtaposition in the piece, however, as we had a small group this would be impossible to get the feel that Lavery had described in the stage directions - that the party should feel more and more cramped.