Blog Entry 7

Before my group gets killed for the Movement part of the piece..

Characters & character styles:

1. Melvyn (Father):
· EFFORT: DAB – PUNCH: change WEIGHT from LIGHT to STRONG
· PATH: STRAIGHT
· EXTENSION: BIG/FAR

2. Stephanie (Sibling):
EFFORT: FLOAT – WRING: change WEIGHT from LIGHT to STRONG
PATH: CURVED
EXTENSION: NEAR/SMALL AND BIG/FAR

3. Hamid (Friend #1):
EFFORT: GLIDE – FLOAT: change SPACE from DIRECT to INDIRECT
PATH: ANGULAR
EXTENSION: SMALL/NEAR

4. Chen Xing (Friend #2):
EFFORT: FLOAT – GLIDE: change SPACE from INDIRECT to DIRECT
PATH: CURVED
EXTENSION: BIG/FAR

5. Rui Shan (Child):
EFFORT: FLOAT – GLIDE: change SPACE from INDIRECT to DIRECT
PATH: CURVED
EXTENSION: BIG/FAR

Everyone becomes WRING at the end

Finally, some work done on trying to apply Laban to our movements.
We tried to apply mostly the effort level into all scenes for each character in the last rehearsal. In order for each member to have more space to show their character more, I had to made them experience transitions of effort level (Time, Direction and Weight), so that theres equal distribution.
Also, I realised I've emphasized more on weight in the movements throughout the piece and weight and direction of the actors is normally what I've used to show the change in mood of the play.

Among the 8 categories in Effort (Float, Slash, Glide, Wring, Dab, Thrust, Flick, Press), Float is used by most of the children in the piece (meaning child sibling and friend 1, not friend 2 because he's a nerd). Contrast between friend 1 and 2 is the direction. Both are light because they're children but because 1 is more playful than 2, 1's direction is more flexible and 2's direction is more direct.

Transition of Sibling from Float to Wring after father's verbal abuse because weight increases and father keeps pushing her down to the ground. Then when with child, change in power is shown when Sibling transits from Wring to Thrust, whereby level is used alongside, and the direction changes from flexible to direct i.e. sibling crawling quickly towards child.

Image of an adult compared to a child - the space/direction on stage. Father's direction is more direct compared to child and sibling, hence uses Dab. Mood is still happy, so therefore has light weight. And when he starts to get confused over what kind of father he should be, he alternates between Dab and Punch/Thrust, whereby weight changes from light to heavy.

Child alternates between float and glide. Weight is always light but direction changes to direct from indirect in response to the abuse the receives.

In the end, where everyone walks out of their frames (frames representing their individual identity), it's like leaving their identity and understanding how all of us are controlling one another. The weight and mood is heavy and sustained throughout.

p/s:
J3s came to watch our showcase and their comments were:
1. good physicality! :D but no emotional journey, movements looks memorized
2. Music can be overpowering sometimes
3. Nice human web
4. Synchro movements more (timing prob - due to lack of practise)
5. Faces sometimes cannot catch the lights (cannot see expression)
6. Lights Red VS Blue (good idea to show the contrast between sibling and child)

Blog Entry 6

After the showcase for humanities week, our group were given feedback on how to further improve the piece.
1. The change in the father is too abrupt. Must have gradual build up to violence, rather than just turning violent immediately.
2. The movements are fine, just that alot of timing and synchronization needs to be done to polish up the piece.
3. We are not using multimedia as our second skill because multimedia is not used for every scene and is not significant enough.
4. Our props were not well prepared!
5. Not evenly spreaded out among characters (I have majority parts, hamid and chenxing very little!)

We made a few changes according to those feedback, hence..
1. Scene one is extended by about a minute more to show the gradual change in the father. There is a moment for the father to make a choice of what kind of father he wants to be.
2. Our second skill is now lights and sounds because much effort has been put into these aspects and it plays a large part in this performance (the mood, time etc.)
3. Costumes have been bought and we're left with the daisies (to show innocence of the child and silbling)
4. Scene 2 and 3 is combined to show how child is forced to choose friend 2 instead of 1, more interaction and involvement between characters (Hamid and chen xing can have their moments)

Am working on the last scene on tuesday (the most impt scene of the piece)!!!

Blog Entry 5

I've tried using weight transfers and floor patterns to make the changes in the scenes. I realised that the balance, flow, effort all helps to make the movements have a purpose.

In scene 4, in order to show the verbal abuse, I've decided to use violence in an indirect manner whereby the father tortures the doll that belongs to the sibling, and when he does that, the sibling will in turn get tortured as well. This shows the connection between people as well and how we affect one another. Also I suggested that we could take a video of father/melvyn mouthing some words, scolding sibling/steph to show the verbal abuse (e.g. you are not my daughter..). As Father indirectly abuses sibling and the video plays at the same time, I think the audience will get a clearer sense of what it means. Maybe just by repeating one line in increasing intensity will help to build the climax and also the audience can focus on the movements while this sound+video repeats itself, adding on to amplify the movements.

I've yet to take a video of the scenes...

Showcase is on wednesday! will try to finish up scene 5 by then.