27.5. Finishing scene 12 + Scene 14 + Production

Today's Targets:

• Finish scene 12 flower choreography
• Scene 14
• Website

   We finished the flower section in scene 12 from yesterday. We stuck with most of our original idea, with the squares hiding the two pairs, but we changed the end from the two tunnels connecting in the middle into us creating a arch over the thrust that the characters can walk under. This was because we wanted to keep the movement very simple, so that there would be more focus for the characters. Watching back on the videos, and we also got some feedback from Andy, the characters need to be bigger and the acting more stylized, so that the flowers do not over power the characters. Now we just need to try this out at Pelham, since the space might bring up problems such as shortness of space, longer walking distances for the characters or levels simply not translating as well. 

Scene 14 was also something we started devising today. It isn't one of the longest scenes, not some of the most plot revolving scenes, but it is a scene that builds up Ui's character by showing his fears and a side of him that is feeling regret for killing one of his oldest friends and comrades, Roma. 

   When I did research on Hitler and Röhm, I found how close their relationship was. Röhm was the only one who could call Hitler by his first name and unlike the other people working for Hitler, Röhm wasn't afraid to challenge and provoke him. This is something no one else would have dared to do. Roma is the same in this play, and I feel that this nightmare scene is Ui's conscious telling him how Roma would react to this all, if he was still alive. We all as a class agreed that this wasn't Roma coming to haunt Ui, but rather Ui's own mind playing tricks on him. He is feeling regret for killing and betraying his friend, but as it is unconscious, Ui doesn't act upon these feelings and better himself, but rather fight against them. Our political view is exactly this, Ui is denying that anything he did was wrong. 

   Brecht has used a lot Shakespearean influences in this play, for example in scene 6 where we have Ui literally read Marc Anthony's speech from  Julius Caesar. Scene 14 connects to Shakespeare's play Macbeth and especially act 3 scene 4 where Banquo's ghost appears to Macbeth by sitting on Macbeth's chair. The court, that Macbeth is having a feast for, cannot see nor hear Banquo, which makes Macbeth seem insane in front of them. As Lady Macbeth tries to defend her husbands actions, she mock Macbeth manhood and honor. These happenings convince Macbeth that his power is about to be overthrown, which only means he becomes more ambitious to maintain his position. Banquo was also Macbeth's friend, who he then murdered and Banquos presence at the feast was a reminder of that. 

  For a long time now Max has wan't to try out doing a very extravagant shadow section for our play, but so far we hadn't found any place that it would have fit, until today. Since it such a simple and short scene, with not many characters to focus on, we really had the freedom to play around with it and really get our creative juices flowing. 

Since Ui had to be asleep in this scene, we thought about multiple different ideas of how we could do this. Simply having him lay down on the floor was one ideas, as was creating a 'upright bed'. We then thought of having Ui sleep in his arm chair, since creating a bed upright could bring on a very humourous taste to this scene, which wasn't exactly what we wanted at this point, since we are trying to get the point of Ui's regret across. I talked more deeply about Hitler's sleeping problems in THIS post, but since I am trying to get some of that tiredness into my character, it could be that Ui was so tired that he fell asleep in his chair while listening to music or reading. We also discussed what should Ui do during Roma's long speech. We want the focus to be on the shadowing, so it was said that perhaps Ui should only be sleeping throughout the scene and bolt up during his last line. But I really liked the idea of an insomniac, who hasn't slept properly in days and so this all is a blend of real awake life and a nightmare to him, having Ui perhaps hallucinate this shadow of Roma. I suggested if Ui could get up from his chair to walk towards Roma, in this case the audience, since it is more in the style of Epic Theatre if I face the audience, and become more and more afraid of Roma's monstrous form, returning to his arm chair to safety and scream for help. People seemed to like this idea, but it will be smart to try it out at Pelham with the shadow, to see whether or not it is too overpowering. 

  During BLP I also finished our website. Originally we weren't able to do it, since none of us knew how to code or create a website, but today we found out about this website creating template called wix.com, and so me and Sophie took it on to create it. HERE is the link to the site. We wanted to keep it quite simple and professional, keeping with the style of the poster and with the same dark color scheme, with pops of yellow in the titles. The website really gives us a more professional look, since it includes the introduction to us actors, but also has all of the information, Facebook and twitter feeds, ticket reservation and also a map to help people find us. It would have been beneficial for us to have done this before printing the poster, since that way we could have had the web address on the poster to promote our show, but now we will just have to promote the website else where on our social media.