Blood Brothers Essay Example

Blood Brothers Essay Example Blood Brothers Paper Blood Brothers Paper Why am I there? , and How do we know each other? I personally created my character by going through situations and circumstances that my character could be presented with and what her reactions would be. What would she do if the archaeologist asked for the Tablet, which character would she confide in? I think all of these techniques helped our group to develop our characters because we could get used to the acting with the suspicion of fate and how it affects the story. From his stimulus I learnt that introducing fate into a story increases the audiences need for answers because there are different views on fate and destiny and whether it is true. We staged our piece of drama in a natural approach however we added a comic twist to keep the drama light. To do this Jacobs character was quite goofy and over exaggerated, he showed this by deepening his voice and walking duck footed. We used a sound collage to add variety to our drama and to build suspense. We used sounds such as eerie whines and blowing winds to create a feeling of a haunted mansion that is spooky. We used physical theatre to actually create the tower that the stone tablet was in. We used this to help the audience visualise the scenery and to recognise that the setting is in a tower. We used chairs t create height in the tower and our bodies made the wall, by arching our hands we could show the dome of the arch. This circle shape tower helped us in our acting because we could use the tight space t our advantage. My character and the duchess trap the archaeologist in the tower; the acting was made more believable because Jacob really was in a confined space. Without a real enclosed space Jacob would have to pretend being trapped which could seem unrealistic. All these techniques contributed towards the effectiveness of the drama. Our second task was to create an alternative beginning to the Blood Brothers script. At first I thought it would be very easy because we had something to work with; however I found it quite challenging because it was hard not to use ideas from the show in London. We wanted to keep parts of it the same to keep the feeling of the show; however we wanted to change some bits to improve it. For example, we wanted Mrs Johnston to face forwards than backwards so the audience can see the emotion in her face when the narrator is telling the story about the two brothers. We also had the chorus run on from upstage left during the song because we felt that the beginning of the song was too emotional and it was not right to have he stage filled with chorus actors because it would spoil the scene being created by the song. The narrator sat at the front of the stage just in front of the fourth wall line to give the audience the feeing that the narrator is also watching the show rather than being in it. He sat very casually with one leg drawn up and the other hanging down over the front of the stage. This gives an impersonal feel and indicates the narrator is not a character in the show. Once he crossed the fourth wall line he entered the story and was no longer watching it, he was in it. In the show Willy Russell staged the narrator standing up and Mrs Johnstone facing backwards, I think this was used by Russell to show that the Narrator is telling the story. The fact that Mrs Johnstone is facing backwards could indicate that she is in denial about something or is ashamed to face forwards. We can interpret the cause of this by the characters and props on stage, for example there were two bodies o stage at the beginning of the show. The audience can link the bodies to the grief of Mrs Johnstone. I felt this was a good stimulus because it showed us that by changing the tinyest detail the scene can take on a whole new meaning. It also made me realise how well thought out the show actually is. Set: The third stimulus was an enactment of the Our Sammy monologue; this helped me to remember what it was like to act like a child and their immaturity. This was helpful because I sometimes forget the minor details that make the acting more believable. We tried to emphasize the line But Im not Im nearly eight! by saying the line as a chorus and increasing the tone of our voice. We did this because the poem is centred on the fact that Mickey wants to do the things that Sammy does. We drew importance to the line by stressing the word not and nearly because they both suggest it is unfair and mean for him to be left out because he is only seven. We felt that this stimulus was effective because it showed the relationship between rival siblings and younger ones idolising older brothers and sisters. As a group, three of us played Mickey and Jacob played Sammy, by using three of us to pay Mickey we could alternate lines and say the line But Im not Im nearly eight! in chorus to emphasize it. We used a louder voice and whined while we said the lie to imitate a child whining at their mother because they feel it is unfair. We used physical theatre to portray the line without arms, or legs or even heads, we decided to use physical theatre to vary the acting in the monologue. By physically removing the arms, legs and head of the woman it can show the immaturity of Sammy and his fascination with drawing nudey women. To create the physical theatre we had to think of ways to safely lift up Bee without hurting her or us as well as her being able to lift her legs up. We decided the best way to lift up Bee was to link our arms under hers and behind her back, that way she could be supported fully and have enough room to bend her legs. We wanted to actually remove her legs because we thought that elaborating the monologue is a childlike thing to do. It also helped the audience to join in with the childrens sense of fun and immaturity. We were also able to do this by exaggerating the spitting movements; to really exaggerate this Jacob pretended to prepare to spit but in a large manor. He pulled his arms back and stuck out his chest as he prepared to spit and threw himself forwards with a lunge when he spat at me. This showed the behaviour you would expect of a small child and by doing this the immaturity of Sammy and Mickey really showed through. The last stimulus was to make three tableaux of the Johnstone and Lyons family, we already knew the general behaviour and activities the two families would do and so we just had to elaborate on that existing knowledge. As a group we decided that we wanted the three scenes to show the same activity between the two families, it would enable us to compare the two families. Our first tableau showed family play time, for the Johnstone the children were playing and fighting outside and Mrs Johnstone was scolding one of the children but not in a serious way. Some children are playing shooting games by using their hands to make toy guns and using imaginative shooting poses such as standing on one leg and shooting underneath their second, this captures the essence of youthfulness and imagination. We decided that Mrs Johnstone wasnt really telling them off because she found their silly games quite amusing; to show this we made Mrs Johnstone stand with her arms crossed and leaning in one hip. This stance showed that in a different situation Mrs Johnstone could be very angry with her children however her facial expression changed the interpretation of the scene. She was smirking slightly in mock anger at her children which shows she is a laid back mother. On the other end of the spectrum there is the Lyons family who are very proper and socially correct their family time is reading books together. We chose this activity because it is deemed socially acceptable as a past time, Mrs Lyons is reading to Edward from the sofa and Mr Lyons is reading the newspaper. We wanted to show Mr Lyons as a professional business man, we did this by him sitting in an armchair with his leg crossed over the top of one another to show masculinity. The second tableau depicted a family meal time and like before the two families are extremely different, the Lyons are eating politely with correct cutlery and civil manners. To show this we arranged the chairs in a neat order and directed the actors to sit with their legs still, their arms tucked by their sides and miming holing their cutlery in the correct fashion. All this helps create the impression of upper class society. The Johnstone family are the complete opposite of the Lyons, we used body positions such as throwing food and talking with their mouth full to show bad manners at the dinner table. We mimed throwing food in an exaggerated form to show the silliness of children. This shows the audience they are uncivilised children whose mother has not raised them properly because of her class. Although this may not be necessarily true we felt that this was the social message that Russell was trying to get across.