To day was really about trying out the scenes we have created during the week at Pelham, where we could really see how much space do we have and what kind of effect does it have. Our focus was especially on scene 12 with the flower arrangements and scene 14 with its extravagant shadowing.
One problem that we noticed right away, after our first try with the flower, was that it took too long for us to come from the stage down on to the flower for the actual arrangements. We also had problems with coming down, it was very disorganized and casual, when we really wanted it to be more stylized. To solve this, we first changed our cue from the start of the poem to Givola's line "Of course he is." to start moving down, even before the characters move from the stage. To explore with the quality of movement, we used Michael Chekov's floating technique to create a more ethereal look to the flowers . I think this also brought a lot more life in to them and brings the focus from us moving the flower to the flower arrangements, since we are not the important part in this scene.
Siou made us play this game where the two flower groups would have two sets of beats of eight to get down from the stage on to the floor. Our task was to do this by starting movement of the flowers together, but actually move of the stage one by one and stop the movement at the same time, after everyone would have taken their first positions. Then we would move in the same manner to our final positions on the floor to cover the actors. Another little tweak that we did was so change how and where we hold the flowers, so that we are more hiding the actors faces, so that they won't take the attention when the actors on the other side are talking.
Some notes that the actors got, was to be very snappy with the poem, each line needs to come after another, to keep up the rhythm of the scene.
For scene 14 we really focused on trying out the different stages of the shadows and how they would look with the Tommy guns. Greta couldn't be in because of personal reasons, so I definitely think we should try this out again as soon as possible to get the scene done. I would also like to properly try out my idea of having me as Ui walking forward on the stage, as if I would actually be in the dream seeing Roma's ghost. We tried it very briefly, but as we had many people doing the shadows and operating the light backstage, we couldn't really get the opinion of everyone's whether or not it worked.
What is my goal for the next lesson? What do I need to do to achieve this? What information do I need?
I want to be memorized for scene 14, since I only have two lines, but more importantly have read through Roma's monologue and thought about how I am going to react on each line.
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.
I saw today as a very productive day. We started off with Siou leading us a warm up and a very helpful exercise to help us inhabit our characters. We have done these exercises before, but I feel like now was a perfect time to do it again. We have now done the research needed for our characters, explored with how they speak and move and today was a good way for us to explore it even more, without scripts. We started by finding the internal rhythm of the character, which is an Yoshi Oida approach, exploring how the character moves, whether it is direct or indirect, fast or slow, and here is a video of when we also added some lines into it:
We also explored what it was like to interact with the other characters this way, which kind of happened automatically for me and Sophie, and we basically started acting out a part of scene 6 between us. Lecoq used this kind of game to just play around with the relationships and perhaps find new levels in them. Watching it back, I feel like Ui could be even slower, since he is high status and he doesn't really to be anywhere soon. In my interpretation, he has this fidgety energy to him, but I want him to walk slower than the other characters. I think this fidgetyness will turn to the lower end in the later scenes as Ui becomes more confident, but I want there to be moments when he gets agitated or angry when he kind of forgets that training he had and for a split second turns into his old self, only to the realize it and fix his posture. We talked a little bit with Siou how, even though we are doing a Brechtian play, it is important for use keep using other practitioners in devising and character development. I feel like I have been using Stanislavsky throughout, thinking about my objectives and the characters super objective in my CHARACTER blog post. What makes the character Brechtian is the Gest and how we use it. I have really grown a liking to Ui's hands being in nervous fists, but as he gains more confidence he opens his hands to create that 'open and trustworthy politician' impression. For Flake my gest is rubbing of the hands together, and he has a more lean back posture, rather than Ui, who is more hunched forward.
Then we moved on to scene 12. I will be focusing more on the flower formation, the movement and how we made them rather the actual dialogue of the scene, since it wasn't what we were focusing on today because wanting to work on the rhythm of the movement and choreography of it. I am standing in for Yunuse, who is actually playing Dullfeet in this scene, but wasn't in today. This is what I wrote in my HISTORY post about Dolfuss: "Dollfuss was the Chancellor and later the dictator of Austria, before being assassinated in a failed coup done by the Nazi agents in 1934. When Hitler became the Chancellor of Germany, Dollfuss became alarmingly worried about the rise of Nazi party in Austria and because of the rising influence of Soviet Union in Europe, Dollfuss banned communism in May 1933 and then the Austrian Nazi party. Under the banner of Christian Social party he then declared to be the dictator of Austria, largely modeled after fascism in Italy. " This scene represents Dollfuss being worried about the rise of the Austrian Nazi party, after Hitler being selected as chancellor of Germany. He didn't want Austria to become part of Germany, as long as the Nazi party was in control, and so he took extreme measures to keep away from Nazi party becoming prominent in Austria, banning them and appointing himself as the dictator and turning into 'austrofascism', working with Mussolini himself to keep Austria independent.
This is scene is in Givola's flower shop, and we really wanted to show with this how even though Givola's flower shop might look beautiful and welcoming, it is really dangerous. This is really a metaphor how Hitler's and Ui's power worked, they made an image where they seemed like good people with good intentions, but in reality they used violence to get that power. Our political view of this scene is exactly that, and how Ui and Givola are trying to sweeten Dollfuss up by speaking to his wife, whose mind easier to manipulate.We had this idea of having the flowers kind of trapping the different pairs as they disappear and appear. Here are the videos we took from today:
There was a bit of misunderstanding from all of our parts, but in the end we agreed on how we are going to do the flower arrangements. There is 9 disappearances and appearances all together and we decided to use Max's idea of the moving flower corridors in the last two, so that then the two pairs will come together in the middle and for the first two, we will have the characters be going into the flower arrangements. We still need to try out going into the flower arrangements, will both of the groups and pairs at the same time, so that we will know the timing, and if Mrs Dullfeet and Ui will be at the arrangements too soon, since they are not starting the poem. For the others, we will alternate between simple movements, for example just going down on our knees to reveal the pairs upper bodies or moving away from the to reveal them from the middle of the flower. This way, there will be some movement, but it won't be too complicated nor take the attention away from the poem and the dialogue. Us holding the flower arrangements will reveal the pair as the other pair is finishing their last rhyming line and the other side will then close off.
We all agreed to make the flowers bushes by attaching fake flowers to bamboo sticks, since these are easily manipulated and light to carry. They can be easily hidden underneath the stage before and after the scene. We did also discussed having wooden boards with flower pots on them, but bamboo sticks were literary there for us to use and after trying out putting on the flowers on them, it worked better to have the sticks, which we can use in any way we want, rather than worried to keep the pots parallel. This way it also looks like walls of flowers that are moving around and hiding the characters. During extra rehearsals today, me and Sophie went to buy flowers and then we all worked together to create the flower walls. We only finished four, so the walls for one side of the stage, but we need to buy more flowers to finish off the rest of the sticks. We will 8 people doing the walls, so 4 on each side of the stage that form squares where the characters can hide inside when they are not speaking during the poem. We did discuss whether to have it on the floor or the stage a little bit, which I can remember us leaning more towards being on the floor, but what we really should do is try it out at Pelham, to see how the audience would see them if they were on the floor. I do think on the floor would be better, since it would give us flower people more room to move around, when we open up to reveal the characters. With more rehearsing I think this can look very sharp and effective in the actual show. When we first started doing the flower movements, they were very sharp and robotic, but we are actually trying to make them more floating aesthetic ´, like flower have in a light breeze. This will also contrast with the movements of the characters, who in epic theatre style would be more extreme and powerful.
Did I achieve my last goal? What could I or the group improve on?
Since we didn't have a lot of people today, we focused on scene 12 and the production side of the show. Max and Harry were doing the music as we were working towards the flower arrangements. I did discuss with Max about my accent and he offered to help me sometimes, since I am struggling with keeping the accent going with certain phrases and words.
What is my goal for the next lesson? What do I need to do to achieve this? What information do I need?
I want to continue to work on the transitions and coming up with ideas. I think this Friday at Pelham that is what we should focus on and working out blocking of some scenes. We can run them with lines during extra rehearsals, but to know if the transitions and blocking work we need the staging.
I came up with a transition from scene 12 into 13 that would incorporate the change of Arturo Ui as well. We talked about having a blackout with the voice of the pastor starting in the darkness, but U thought perhaps the voice could start while Liam as Ui is still on the stage. As everyone else leaves, turning from the flowers into a funeral march to get the coffin from behind the audience, I would stay and me and Liam can switch parts on the stage. Then Liam could leave the stage and I can stay as Arturo Ui to wait for the funeral march, as if I would have been watching from a far. This would incorporate the Brechtian ideology of seeing the actors change on stage, to keep the audience from getting into the illusion, but also prevent us from using another black out. Even though black outs cab be very useful and effective, used too much the show can seem choppy.
We could have a similar change between scene 5 and 6 where everyone else leaves and only me and Yunysa are left with opera music to change, as if we were changing from a suit into something more relaxed. We still need to think about how the other members would leave the stage in a stylized matter.
Today we were at Pelham to run some of our existing scenes so that we get to try them out on the stage, but also to get some feedback from Siou on our scenes. We were also introduced to Robin, who will be taking over couple of the roles, since we lost one of our actors. He will be taking the roles of Goodwill, Prosecutor and be part of some of the ensemble parts. Here are some of the notes Siou gave us after the run, but also things that I noticed while watching the scenes:
Prologue
we need a song for when we come on the stage. We have earlier discussed, that the drum bit in our actual song we use for the prologue could be on a loop and then continue to fit our dance. The changes Sophie helped us all to make earlier worked a lot better, now we just need to keep running to get them right and so that everyone is doing them at the same time.
When the characters are introduced they need to have clear Gest when they enter and exit. This should be noted throughout the play, so that every time a scene starts the audience will know what characters are in the scene. We also need to be sharing with the audience more
When Ui's are revealed they can be standing further back to be separated from the rest pf the ensemble. The chorus also needs to be more spread out .
Ui's introduction isn't working with the awkward waving, but we need to define exactly what we are doing. Max suggested doing Gests in a echoe way where we do the Gests ina wave. I want it to show what Ui is the beginning or the progression of his character, starting out timid and then gaining power and the Gests to forward.
Scene 3
We need to use more imagination show the bookie's office. We could do this by adding some moments when the characters can be listening to a radio telling about the winning horses. Ragg and Dockdaisy could be doing this while they are on the side drinking before Ui comes to talk to them.
We need to stick to our style of DARK and SINISTER. There are moments that are funny in this play, which we should embrace, but it is still trying to make a point about the rise of dictators and this needs to have the space to come trough.
Siou gave us a good note to think of the Gests as tableaux; having one gest on one line and then change in to another Gests. We can play around with the change either being fast and sharp or slow and smooth to create different moods. States of tension is something we should also take in consideration, since characters, especially Ui, change their tensions quickly.
Keep acting and listening out! The style is acting out to the audience and we need to remember this!
Scene 4
More energy! Ui needs have so much more impact. The last time we did this scene Yunusa was basically begging on the floor and crying as Ui, which worked so well, but this time the drama was sort of forgotten about.
Use the states of tension!
Scene 5
We need to re-stage this scene. Personally, this was my first time doing this scene and I have also been changed character in the meanwhile, so I was out of place most of the time, or rather on the same place. With this scene we tried to show the two sides, by having all the Cauliflower trust people huddled around Dogsborough, and even though it might have worked for a bit, we need to get more movement in the scene and use the space better. We definitely need to look at this scene again more in detail
move the body of Bowl in the middle of the stage
More chaos when we hear Bowl has been murdered. HIGH TENSION!
With this we could simply just do the tension exercise with the scene, without the lines, Have us set up on the stage and then have someone yell "Bowl has been murdered!" or "There's a bomb in the room!" and see how people naturally react to this and then take on some reaction and actions we like and use it to create the high tension in the scene.
Scene 6
Maybe instead of having a physical mirror or mirror frame, we could use the shadow as the mirror?
Have the bodyguards get the chair for Ui from the audience.
Scene 7
Should the vegetable dealers be on the stage scattered, rather than in the audience? If they are in the audience they cannot really be seen by the audience, especially since they do react and talk back to Ui.
We shouldn't be really saying the bodyguard is a baritone, since I am not a baritone at all
During the song, people could come around and even start singing with it, since it supposed to create a sense of home and working together.
Transitions are way too messy
Transitions in this run through didn't go well at all, and I think it is simply because we haven't discussed them. So far, we have been focused on doing the scenes, that most of the time we forget about the transition into the next scene, or simply put a black out to it. I feel that during some class, we need to go through all of the transitions, see where the scene ends and where the next one starts and decide what we are going to to do during it. I know some have talked about doing more run troughs, but I don't think there is necessarily point to run all of them back to back if we actually do not know what we are doing. We should discuss them first, try the transitions and then do a run through with all of the scenes.
We tried out what the VIP tables would look like. We will probably fit 6 tables which each can seat 3-5 people
Did I achieve my last goal? What could I or the group improve on?
For this lesson I didn't make any specific goal, I have the general ones going on such us working on my Gest and lines. I feel like I am getting comfortable with my lines, especially in scene 6, but I still need to get off book and soon!
What did I learn during this lesson? How can I use it?
I feel that we noticed all that we haven't been really focusing on the details of the scenes, but also working trough them a little too fast. I feel like we work on one scene for only day, even though it would be good for us to look at some of the scenes a day or two later we have created them, to see what doesn't work. Also, if people are missing we need to do the scene with them in it, because today there a couple of scene that people simply didn't know what they were supposed to be doing, because everyone else had moved on too quickly. It is important for us ask what the group did when we were away, but something words do not translate the same to everyone, which then creates confusion.
What is my goal for the next lesson? What do I need to do to achieve this? What information do I need?
In next lesson I think, rather than starting on a new scene, we should perhaps work on some these scenes that need the most work, for example scene 5 that desperately needs blocking. Also us Ui really need discuss the prologue and what we are going to do in it. I will come up with some ideas to share to the class on Tuesday. I also want to look at the scene changes and maybe come up with ideas for that as well.
During today's extra rehearsal we started to devise scene 11. The scene is very much about betrayal, since in this scene Ui comes and murders Roma and his men. It connects to the real happenings of the death of Ernest Röhm, right hand man of Hitler, during thee Night of The Long Knives, when Hitler ordered many political murders. Hitler had seen that the independence of SA, the military Röhm was the leader of, was becoming on the way of his newly gained political power. The killings strengthened Hitler relationship with the German army, which Röhm was going to melt in with the SA.
These kind of political killings still happen these days, for example the former deputy prime minister Boris Nemtsov was killed earlier this year. He was an opposed to Putin and on the conflict in eastern Ukraine. He was planning a march against it and actually said to the press that he was afraid of being killed because of his opposition to the war. The motive for this killing is unknown, but Putin's side has rejected that he had any involvement in it. But there has been other political murderd happen to the critics of Vladimir Putin, for example the assassination of Anna Politkovskaya in 2006. She was someone who had criticized Putin in several occasion, and as a known activist and journalist, she was probably seen as a threat to Putin and his reputation. Also, Alexander Litvinenko who was a former officer of the Russian Federal Security Service, was poisoned with radioactive polonium about three weeks after Politkovskayas death after blaming Putin for her death.
Before devising the scene, we discussed some idea we had for the scene. Since they are in a garage and there is part where the steel shutters close, I suggested that perhaps we could use the curtain as the shutters closing, just having a sound effect to create the illusion of the steel shutter. I also thought that it would then be a great reveal for Ui to be revealed from behind the curtains, as the shutters are opened again. We also talked about how to have Roma's gunmen have be shot, since in the play they are said to have taken to the wall to be shot. We thought that it would be good to use the screen and have them go behind the screen, but the shooter actually be in front of it, so that we can see the shooting, but not the actual death. This would be a creative and stylized way to show that they have indeed died, but not take too much attention away from Roma who is still struggling to stay alive on the stage. As the gunmen are shot, it was also suggested that we could have bullet shots come on the screen. This seems like a very good idea, but we do need to try it out at Pelham some day, since the shadows might not be seen that well will the video we looked at to be projected.
Greta suggested to use Mozart song 'Lacrimosa' for the first shot of Roma and then to keep playing for the rest of the scene. It worked really well with the scene and the mood, it was sad and dramatic, which I realized was a bit of a problem. In any other show it would have been the perfect choice for the scene, but since Brecht wanted the audience to know they were in a show rather get emotionally attached with the characters, he used music that completely didn't fit the scenes mood. As I said this to the group, Sophia put on Benny Goodman's 'Sing Sing Sing' and everyone's face lit up. This was the perfect song for our purposes and it would look great with the slow motion we planned with the shooting of Roma. The music would then stay on the background playing for the rest of the scene, quiet, but still so that the audience can hear it. I think we will have to put the first shots in with the music, since we want the music to start right after the first gunshot, and have a couple of more shots in slow motion with the music. The sound effect for the rest of the shots should not be edited in with the music, since it'll easier with those to have Adam cue it with the dialogue.
We didn't remember to take video of this scene, but I will put up one the next time we go over the scene. For this scene, we should get the music and sound effects done soon, since this one has quite many cues that need to be perfectly timed to make the deaths work. I think we should also all work on the slow motion, since even though most of the action is by Sophie's and Greta's character during this bit, everyone needs to react to the gunshots and the death in slow motion, keeping in with the style we choose. The movements should be over done to make them clear, but still stay serious enough that it doesn't become humourous.
For the slow motion gunshots, I was thinking about using this to add to the music, just do it 3-4 times and take out the click sound before the gunshot. This way I can create the slow motion tommy gun by being able to manipulate how long is the interval between each gun shot. For the real-time gunshots we can use the lower sound effect.
Today we devised scene 8. Some of the group had already started the discussion on this scene on Monday and here is some of the discussion I then caught up with during the next lesson:
Political view: Everyone is corrupt. The judge and prosecutor have been paid off by the gangsters and the witnesses are most definitely all lying. The only ones who are innocent are the Defense council and Fish, but even Fish has been drugged, so that e won't say anything.
To show this we can use Gests of the characters, but also the scene makes multiple jokes in it, which indicate what side is everyone on
Music is the Chopin Funeral March, but as the scene goes forward the music will get faster and faster to become this disoriented dance music. This will show how in the scene the lies are getting thicker and thicker and the tension of the scene should follow the rise as well.
Sophie had an idea of having a video of an actual funeral on the background, but have be hacked so that it turn into a 'UI' sign
We talked about this, and I feel we need to try it out, but it might also confuse the audience. They might think it is an actual funeral or confuse about why it is there. I do think having the UI-sign is a good idea though, to show that it is Ui and his men indeed who have rigged this trial.
I suggested during the devising that we could show a scale on the screen that throughout the scene keeps getting heavier on Ui's side, representing the corruption of the court and how it is more on Ui's side.
We would have the stage divided into two as well, the other side being the side of people telling the truth, and then those who are working for Ui to win the trial and get Fish sentenced. At the part where Hook is testifying we can have him actually change sides, since it is pointed that he is beaten up in between two parts of the scene, where he also changes his statement.
We wanted a way to show the audience the different parts of the trial, also showing that some time has passed. It was suggested that we could use boxing match type 'Round'-signs as indications of each sections. This would also loosely connect to our showgirl styled prologue, since in boxing matches they pretty much use showgirls to prance around the ring to show off the signs.
As the judge, I would be showing the different signs, since the judge usually decides when the trial goes on break. This can also bring a more humorous side to the scene, since showgirls are usually unnaturally happy and my judge character needs to be very serious. Sophie promised to make these signs in a very simple way, with black paint on white paper, which will work perfectly. I will be ahead of creating the scale, since it was my idea.
I have a few ideas about how to do the scale, but I will really have to try them out to see which one works the best. My first idea is to simply cut the shape of it from cardboard and then have someone move it between each section of the stage behind the canvas. This might not work very well with the shadow and we would also need someone backstage to do it for us. Another idea is to animate it, but honestly, I have no idea how to do it. Also it would have to be perfectly timed to have it match up with our acting, which means this might be a too unpredictable method to use. As theatrical actors, even tho timing is important, there always has to be room for mistakes and the animation won't leave too much for our possible mess-ups. I could also simply make different pictures, which each have the scale slowly tipping to one side, but depending on if we can black the project in between each picture, it might look very tacky and too much like stop-motion animation, where we would rather have it smooth.
In this scene, we really need to be more exaggerated than we were in the rehearsals. This is scene is a farce( "In theatre, a farce is a comedy that aims at entertaining the audience through situations that are highly exaggerated, extravagant, and thus improbable. Farces are often highly incomprehensible plot-wise (due to the many plot twists and random events that occur), but viewers are encouraged not to try to follow the plot in order to avoid becoming confused and overwhelmed.")of a normal court, so our Gests need to extremely clear, but also we need to show the corruption of the characters even more over the top than we would usually.For example, the look between the Judge and Prosecutor needs to be big and clear, and I feel that the Judge could even wink when looking at the prosecutor, to make it clear that they are up to something, or rather simply playing with the innocent Defense Council who doesn't know what is going on. Other ways we can show the characters are corrupt and have even planned the whole trial is by for example having Givola answer the question too quickly, but also have Dockdaisy say her confession as if she would have just memorized it.
As the judge, I first thought that perhaps he could have been threatened into doing this, with showing some resistance towards Giri when he is yelling, and even being scared, but then I was wisely reminded that this is Epic Theatre and we need to have very two dimensional characters, especially in this kind of a scene. This was very true and I want to aim more to have a very serious and stereotypical judge instead. He could even feel bored, as he does know what is going to happen at the end, but is there just to make it seem like there was some fare play for the defendant.
When we first read through this scene I pitched the idea of doing the A and B part of this scene together, in a way intertwined with each other. Not only could it look very good, but also it works as a comment on Dogsborough writing his will. He talks about how he knew about all the bad things Ui and his men have done and how he knows they weren't good men, but in the end, he didn't do anything to stop them.
We will have Dogsborough sitting in his chair on the right platform of the thrust, writing his letter, We have discussed earlier that this monologue of Dogsborough will be pre-recorded, so that it is like he is thinking the letter as he is writing it.
We cast Chloe as the Woman in scene 9, since she didn't have that many parts yet. Honestly, I wanted to be the woman at first, but I have already been cast to multiple other roles, so I thought it would be better to have someone else play the woman, just to have variety, but also because I already have too many lines to learn! I feel Chloe will also be able to bring something new to this part, something I probably would have not thought of.
Since the woman is crawling out of a bullet ridden car, we thought it could be cool to have Chloe come from below the stage to represent the car, but also to surprise the audience. We have to try this out at Pelham to see how well different sides of the audience can see Chloe once she comes out, but she will have to get up from the floor quite quickly. There is also a problem with the transition after scene 7, since we would need a black out to hide her there. Of course, if we want to go all Brechtian style, we would just show Chloe go under the stage, but I want to discuss this with everyone else in more detail, once we get to try it out properly.
