PMD2 Developing Material VDU

During this lesson we were to focus on a concept inspired by the Mask of Red Death script, of which had performance potential .

Both myself and Hannah wanted to further explore the idea of differing emotions/personalities, from this we decided to focus on the idea of "hidden identities".

One main idea to link with the script was the colour of the doors to represent the two identities. Similar to that of the gothic piece of literature "Jekyll and Hyde". I was the white door, from that we found connotations of innocence, purity and remorse. For Hannah we used connotations of the black door being death, danger and anguish. Both colours contrast and that of the personalities/ identities of the character, the two colours are also symbolic, the white reflects the good side and the black represents the evil and misdemeanour.

We used the silent sculpture technique to create the posture and facial expressions for the "angel and devil" still image.

In addition we wanted to show the progression of the severity of the battle between the two identities each wanting to become the driver not the passenger. We begin as one person, we used the clock element of the script to show time passing through soundscape of adding in 6-12 beats. At the last beat a chime would ring signalling the split of identities. 

Then the two identities break free and a standoff emerges. We had Hannah have a heavier stomp again to embody her personality traits (disgust, anger, beastly, misdemeanour). Whilst I tip toed gently to show my innocence and fear trying not to evoke any conflict.

We added in a hip lift as well as spins to shift around the space , there was a lot of clashing and contact to show to conflict, as time when on my identity became weaker and eventually defeated by the evil identity.

Peer evaluation and assessment

After creating our responses we shared them to the group trying to spot elements that clearly show a link to the concept chosen. Feedback was given to each for further development.

Matthew & Iyla( Death Room):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xrtKB6fV1fA&feature=youtu.be

This video showcases Matthew and Iyla's original material which is entering the abbey, it shows the characters dying once entering the doors.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQhq4OgqetU

Here is their developed response after taking on our feedback. This now involved the rest of the company as they wanted to emphasis the idea of death. The message of the piece is to show being dead on the inside but being too engrossed in decadence to notice about their decaying soul.


Meera & Hannah (Hidden Identities):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B09rTkyFZow

Our concept was hidden identity. We wanted to show two different personalities trapped in one body and the battle of control. We combined elements from the Mask of Red death, being the coloured doors (white and black) and used these to devise our juxtaposing characters. Myself being innocent, good and pure, that of an angel. Whilst Hannah was dark, angry and mischievous, that of the devil. We thought this concept was suitable as it was relevant to the theme of gothic literature, also it would be suitable for our audience of 17+ , as it's a milder take on horror and thriller.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8VOhFnCTjPg

After feedback we decided we wanted to remain a duo. We continually ran through the piece whilst our peers gave feedback on what was successful and what required further development. Areas which we developed was firstly the still images of the devil and the angel. The company didn't recognise the characters we aimed to portray so we needed to emphasise our body language. I added in wispy arm movement to symbolise the angels wings, whilst Hannah melted, with a crooked posture and angry facial expressions to better portray the devil.

Courtney, Bella, Charlotte & Megan (Quartet Contagion):

This group decided to take aspects of material previously generated material created in our "death" response which they developed to link with the idea of "contagion" and "plague".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=04cB9y3gsfA

This video shows how the plague spreads around eventually resulting in a pandemic. They had two people embody the plague itself whom catch and spread the disease onto the other two. The message of this piece was "death is eminent". Despite their best efforts they were unable to escape the plague resulting in their death.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=efxKJQvXK3A

After group feedback the group decided to use the whole company for development.
We looked at different ways that we can involve the whole ensemble. After discussion and trial of movement we decided the new additions (Myself, Matthew, Iyla and Hannah) would begin to represent blood cells of the plague containing the virus. We moulded our bodied into a long posture to represent the crescent cell, we huddled and included disjointed movement to symbolise the plague infecting the blood. We then joined the original four to create a body of which the plague had completely infected.

Self reflection and evaluation:

Overall I found aspects in each group to be useful to include in our final performance.

Firstly I think the grotesque elements of Matthew and Iyla's piece was relevant and suitable for our audience and it fits the theme of horror with Artaud's elements of "theatre for cruelty", gothic architecture with the grand abbeys and scenery the message conveyed was useful about being too self indulged and obsessed with vanity leading to an ignorance of the outside world.

From the "Quartet Contagion" group, I found their message useful. For our performance the message we want to covey to the audience is "Death is eminent". From this we can focus on more modern societal issues such as neglect and transparency of the rich shunning the poor, being too self indulged in their rich materialistic property to notice the world deteriorate right in front of them.

I don't think the movement me and Hannah generated was suitable for performance. There were alot of awkward movement and not enough transitions to flow seamlessly. However i suggest the concept of "hidden identities" from our piece can be a successful focal point/ message for our performance as again it can be linked to modern issues and societal pressures. To be accessible for our younger audience (16-19) themes of technology and social media can also be covered to make the piece more relatable to topics such as peer pressure.