Composing Richard Pankhurst's monologue - Suffragettes

In terms of how to present our suffragette section, i had the idea of doing it from the point of view of Emmeline Pankhurst's loyal husband, Richard Pankhurst, so the audience get a real insight into what the time was like from someone who went through it all - also to keep the theme of women's rights, having a male tell this piece. I put myself in charge of creating Richard's monologue, while the others worked out what would go with it. I composed the monologue to have quite a conversational feel that would tell a story, engaging the audience, but have some life and no bore to it. I found this a very difficult task as it was hard to compose a speech that was factual and informed the audience of detail but for it to be spoken conversational and engaging - rather than just reciting a fact file. To overcome this, there are sections where the character directly addresses the audience to keep them drawn in. Throughout the monologue, I have created spaces where we would add short mini scenes further going into the details, giving the audience a real visual of what occurred.

character profile and writing in role - Micheal Fallon

Michael Fallon

Place of Birth: England

Male: Gender

Nationality: English

Age: 35

Occupation: UK defense secretary

Family: Father walked out on the family when Michael was very young; raised by his mother. Younger sister, Wife and 2 daughters.

Religion: Christianity

Hobbies: Taking his daughters skiing, going to church, going bowling with friends, cooking, plays guitar, going to the pub for a drink once in a while.

Writing in role

What a bloody waste of my time! She's crazy! The woman is crazy! Calls herself a fucking Sergeant Major! I'm giving her a chance. A real change, and she can't be bothered to listen to a word I'm saying. I'm actually trying to do something in favour of her, but yet she thinks I'm somewhat insulting her! Well maybe she's right then - maybe women aren't strong enough .... Because I see no power or leadership in any inch of that woman! I'm giving her the honour and recommendation to be out there on the frontline fighting for this country and she don't want no part of it! Shame on you woman!! I tell you, my two little daughters are stronger women than she'll ever be!

Creating physical theatre and movement - Human Trafficking

Having so far had quite a naturalistic straight drama piece that has relied heavily on dialogue quality and straight acting, we though that piece of stylised movement to music was needed to give strong dynamics to the overall piece. A decision was made that presenting the section of human trafficking through a physical theatre piece would be the best choice as the telling of a story would be delivered in a very unique and stylised way, certain actions, motifs and movements being able to effectively show the vulnerability and powerlessness of women who were forced and trapped into slavery and trafficked across boarders. A member of my group really liked the song 'Radioactive' by Imagine Dragons and instantly, we all agreed. The song portrays a certain aggression and hostility that is in fact overpowering, strongly representing the entrapment and victimisation of these women.
The piece includes lifts (and drops), violence, and sexual references and motifs all shown through stylised movements and actions that contribute, alongside the rhythm and antics of the song, in conveying this control and manipulation that men had over women in this particular crisis.

The actions like the lift and drop are purely to show the control and power that the men have over these women in the way we work as a unit to empower her. The motif used at the end of the video where it looks we are stringing her up like a puppet is to represent how the men would mould their girls into being these 'slaves' to be trafficked. The other female character in the piece is to symbolise a sense of experience in this field and the brainwash effect it has - using a slave to catch a slave.

Women's rights - Suffragette research

In the nineteenth century women had no place in national politics. They couldn't stand as candidates for Parliament and were not even allowed to vote. It was assumed that women did not need the vote because their husbands would take responsibility in political matters. A woman's role was seen to be child-rearing and taking care of the home.
As a result of the industrial revolution many women were in full-time employment, which meant they had opportunities to meet in large organised groups to discuss political and social issues.
Organised campaigns for women's suffrage began to appear in 1866, and from 1888 women could vote in many local council elections. When parliamentary reform was being debated in 1867, John Stuart Mill proposed a change that would enable women to vote on the same terms as men but it was rejected by 194 votes to 73, and after this, the campaign gained momentum.
Nineteenth century feminists talked about "The Cause", which described a movement for women's rights on a general basis therefore it had no particular political focus. But by the close of the century the issue of the vote became the focus of women's struggle for equality.
The movement to gain votes for women had two wings, the suffragists and the suffragettes.
The suffragists had their origins in the mid nineteenth century, while the suffragettes came into play in 1903.
The suffragettes, a name given to them by newspaper The Daily Mail, were born out of the suffragist movement. Emmeline Pankhurst, who had been a member of the Manchester suffragist group, had grown impatient with the middle class, respectable and gradualist tactics of the NUWSS (National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies). In 1903 she decided to break with the NUWSS and set up a separate society, becoming known as the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU).

Mrs. Pankhurst believed it would take an active organisation, with young working class women, to draw attention to the cause - creating the motto of the suffragettes; deeds not words. From 1912 onwards they became more militant and violent in their methods of campaign, and law-breaking, violence and hunger strikes all became part of this society's campaign tactics.
In 1907 the WSPU split itself into two groups after Emmeline Pankhurst and her daughter Christabel came into conflict with other members of the union's executive body. Those who left formed the Women's Freedom League, while the Pankhursts and their supporters established an even tighter grip on the workings of the WSPU. By 1909, the WSPU had branches all over the country and published a newspaper called Votes for Women which sold 20,000 copies each week. The NUWSS was also flourishing, with a rising membership and an efficient nation-wide organisation.

The theme of women rights - idea

In today's lesson, after a totally different idea about a piece about refugees had been pitched the lesson before, we decided that we didn't want to just forget about everything we've created on the women's rights idea, so we decided to look at women's rights as more of a theme that would spark a wide range of aspects and stories. We found with a particular refugee story we researched that it could tie in very well with women's rights, along with our original idea of a woman wanting to fight on the front line in the army and their being a whole debate of equality. We also found that we could really touch on the subject of suffragettes and the right for women being able to vote, the whole agenda of arranged marriages, along with the horrifying action of human trafficking. The overall piece would use the technique of cross-cutting to present all these different aspects under the theme category of women's rights to an audience where this common theme is the focus. We started to really research into these different acts under the theme of women's rights because although the whole idea is very much favoured throughout the whole group, we want to make sure that it is done right; using the right techniques to effectively deliver these stories of this very important issue that has risen a fair share of historical events and acts in the past.

Creating new scenes - focusing on a different element

In today's lesson we wanted to steer away from creating our opening scene and try out something different - like another section that could potentially be used in our piece, experimenting on a new element. I really liked the idea of really trying explore and express this difference between the profile of Woman and the profile of Wife, and my group and I decided for it to be done in a way thats clever and stylistic. We still wanted to include naturalistic dialogue and that element of straight drama, but really go stylistic in how we do it - using the element of cross-cutting.
The piece consisted of showing the different lifestyles of these to opposing characters, exaggerating completely different worlds so that there is an emphasised collision if they were to ever meet, using every day activities like getting dressed and ready in the morning etc. The difference is shown through the way the wife's priority is to make sure the husband's clothes and that he is able to get ready, whereas the woman's priority is herself - making sure her own jacket is on.

Trying out ideas and staging

In today's lesson we focused on how wanted to stage our piece, whatever the final idea be. We tried and workshopped two different types of staging, traverse and in-the-round, using the piece we had previously created in our last lesson. We were trying out a movement piece that goes on during a monologue that follows after the scene with Michael and Judith within different types of staging. We first tried the round staging and in some cases, it worked well, but a lot of the times it created limits to the piece in which we tried to adapt to the staging, but still did not work. I feel that the round staging should be used for more close and intimate pieces with a smaller cast on stage at the particular time as it is a very effective away in drawing the audience into the performance - allowing them to become emotionally attached.
We then tried the section out in traverse and we instantly found a lot more comfortable in this type of staging. It allows the ability for big, spontaneous pieces to take place with bigger casts and lots of action going on, but similar to in-the-round, allows the staging of small-scale, more intimate pieces. Personally, it straight away allowed me to become more natural with my character as an actor; in the sense that I was able to be freer. I was not worrying about focusing all my performance and delivery in favour of one place, and at the same time was not worried about it being too much for the audience to focus on - which would instantly distance them from the performance and therefore the aim and message. Instead I felt comfortable with my delivery, knowing the opposite angles I was being watched from. Doing it traverse also would allow an audience to the witness the action stage from contrasting spectrums, providing a handful of dissimilar views and opinions.

focusing on dialogue and creating effective dialogue

Choosing just one idea out of our many, my group and I really wanted to explore and investigate creating effective dialogue for a scene that could potentially fit in the piece. At this time, I had just pitched my women's rights idea to the rest of my group so it made sense to choose that idea - having already carried out various workshops for the other ideas. We wanted to really focus on a straight drama aspect through the dialogue which helped with creating the dialogue to more of a professional standard. We realized that with the whole women's right idea being already complex, we needed quality dialogue that not only would navigate effectively a clear story and purpose to our dialogue, but enhance the character relationships and overall delivery both in context and content of the scene.
The content of the scene was an argument between a female major of an all-male squadran force in the British Army, and the UK defense secretary. We found an article online The Guardian that linked very much to our Women's Rights idea. It was a debate between UK defense secretary, Micheal Fallon, and Major Judith Webb, the first women to command an all-male field force squadron in the British army, anout women being allowed to apply for infantry roles to fight on the front-line. Ironically, it is Michael who wants allow this, whereas Judith states that Women are just not physically strong enough. My idea was that this could fit in very nicely with the idea in the sense that at the end of the scene, Michael would win the argument and a woman would be put on the frontline.
In order to get a strong sense of realism to the dialogue, using some quotes from this article from what was actually said between the two characters was a very popular idea - along with our own ideas and twists to determine the flow and layout of the conversation.

potential ideas (in-depth) and research - Women's rights idea

Potential ideas (in-depth) and research - Schizophrenia idea

Going off our idea, that was drawn from our 'Humanity in Crisis' mind map, of a mental asylum and where in the olden days, these institutions became a big issue that would bring up many debates about agendas such as varied definitions of having a mental illness or being classed as 'insane', the treatment of patients (it just making patients worse), whether or not people were being fair and correct with who is sent to these institutions, some specific mental illnesses being a threat to society etc. The idea was for the piece to be centered around this person who suffers from schizophrenia, and each of us in our group would play the different personalities that this person enters, that would each portray the different symptoms that is caused by this terrible illness. Throughout the piece it would not be clear that this is the case, but using techniques such as cross-cutting, effective dialogue and contact improvisation, etc. we will convey to the audience that all these different characters are actually the branching out and the sort of effects of this one person who suffers from schizophrenia.

But before any sort of planning and storyboarding, research had to be done.....



Schizophrenia is a long-term mental health condition that causes a range of different psychological symptoms, including:

• hallucinations – hearing or seeing things that do not exist
• delusions – unusual beliefs not based on reality that often contradict the evidence
• muddled thoughts based on hallucinations or delusions
• changes in behavior.

Doctors often describe schizophrenia as a psychotic illness. This means sometimes a person may not be able to distinguish their own thoughts and ideas from reality.

Positive symptoms of schizophrenia

Hallucinations

A hallucination is when a person experiences a sensation but there is nothing or nobody there to account for it. It can involve any of the senses, but the most common is hearing voices.
Hallucinations are very real to the person experiencing them, even though people around them cannot hear the voices or experience the sensations.
Research using brain-scanning equipment shows changes in the speech area in the brains of people with schizophrenia when they hear voices. These studies show the experience of hearing voices as a real one, as if the brain mistakes thoughts for real voices.
Some people describe the voices they hear as friendly and pleasant, but more often they are rude, critical, abusive or annoying. The voices might describe activities taking place, discuss the hearer's thoughts and behavior, give instructions, or talk directly to the person. Voices may come from different places or one place in particular, such as the television.

Delusions

A delusion is a belief held with complete conviction, even though it is based on a mistaken, strange or unrealistic view. It may affect the way people behave. Delusions can begin suddenly, or may develop over weeks or months.
Some people develop a delusional idea to explain a hallucination they are having. For example, if they have heard voices describing their actions, they may have a delusion that someone is monitoring their actions.
Someone experiencing a paranoid delusion may believe they are being harassed or persecuted. They may believe they are being chased, followed, watched, plotted against or poisoned, often by a family member or friend.
Some people who experience delusions find different meanings in everyday events or occurrences. They may believe people on TV or in newspaper articles are communicating messages to them alone, or that there are hidden messages in the colours of cars passing on the street.

Confused thoughts (thought disorder)

People experiencing psychosis often have trouble keeping track of their thoughts and conversations. Some people find it hard to concentrate and will drift from one idea to another. They may have trouble reading newspaper articles or watching a TV programme.
People sometimes describe their thoughts as "misty" or "hazy" when this is happening to them. Thoughts and speech may become jumbled or confused, making conversation difficult and hard for other people to understand.

Changes in behavior and thoughts

A person's behavior may become more disorganised and unpredictable, and their appearance or dress may seem unusual to others. People with schizophrenia may behave inappropriately or become extremely agitated and shout or swear for no reason.
Some people describe their thoughts as being controlled by someone else, that their thoughts are not their own, or that thoughts have been planted in their mind by someone else.
Another recognised feeling is that thoughts are disappearing, as though someone is removing them from their mind. Some people feel their body is being taken over and someone else is directing their movements and actions.

Negative symptoms of schizophrenia

The negative symptoms of schizophrenia can often appear several years before somebody experiences their first acute schizophrenic episode. These initial negative symptoms are often referred to as the prodromal period of schizophrenia.
Symptoms during the prodromal period usually appear gradually and slowly get worse. They include becoming more socially withdrawn and experiencing an increasing lack of care about your appearance and personal hygiene.
It can be difficult to tell whether the symptoms are part of the development of schizophrenia or caused by something else. Negative symptoms experienced by people living with schizophrenia include:

• losing interest and motivation in life and activities, including relationships and sex 
• lack of concentration, not wanting to leave the house, and changes in sleeping patterns 
• being less likely to initiate conversations and feeling uncomfortable with people, or feeling there is nothing to say

The negative symptoms of schizophrenia can often lead to relationship problems with friends and family because they can sometimes be mistaken for deliberate laziness or rudeness.


Source of research:

http://www.nhs.uk/Conditions/Schizophrenia/Pages/Introduction.aspx

After going through my research, I have highlighted words and phrases that stick out most to me.

Script work - exploring effective dialogue

One of the hardest elements of devising there is, and probably one of the main elements that can really decide the effect of the piece and effect the piece in general as a whole, is dialogue. Dialogue is one of the cure elements of a play, film or musical as it becomes our understanding of the story and of characters and character relationships - and we become very reliant on it. So for any piece of drama, especially those where straight drama and acting is the centre and the storyline is powerful, its absolutely vital that the dialogue is effective.
To explore this in more detail, the class was split into different groups and we were asked to explore and create the final scene from a play called He's Talking by Nicholas Wright. The reason this was a very good play to explore if we focusing on creating effective dialogue is because a lot of the lines are very wordy and complex and but, when focused on, effectively tell the story.

Contact improvisation

In preparation of our devises, during the process of exploring different ideas sparked from stimuli, we investigated into an element of physical theatre, contact improvisation, to help, expand our knowledge and abilities, and potentially use in our pieces.

Contact Improvisation is a dance form originally, in which the point of contact with another provides the starting point for a movement exploration. It is most frequently performed as a duet, but can be by more people. There can be music or it can happen in silence. It is about sharing weight, rolling, suspending, falling, passive and active, energy and awareness, to share and advance a story, and emphasise certain emotions.
Originated by American choreographer Steve Paxton in 1972, contact improvisation is based on the communication between two or more moving bodies that are in physical contact and their combined relationship to the physical laws that govern their motion - gravity, momentum, inertia.

Creating and exploring contact improvisation in pairs at first, investigating the flow and ideas of it, led to, in our groups, creating a piece of physical theatre - centered around contact improvisation - using another one of our ideas. My group and I liked the idea of using our slavery idea to really experiment into the struggle and pain and revolution, through the art of improvisational form of contact movement.
What we found difficult when in rehearsals was the staging of our piece. Where contact improvisation is meant to be improvised on the spot with no hesitation or thought, it was hard to sort of get across through the group the general idea and the blocking. On bits and gaps where we struggled to find something to do or show, throughout the group we individually performed a static contact improvisation (where no contact is made, but the feeling of others is there) that led into some normal contact improvisation - all at the words "just do whatever comes".
During rehearsals, the one thing that I did find interesting, and almost quite ironic, was the fact that simply rehearsing contact improvisation before performing sort of illuminates the whole illusion and idea of the art - it no longer being improvisational for the performers, and the spontaneity is lost.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lMFxle6VnFE
















This is a clip from the bed scene in a performance called 'Ignition' by theatre company Frantic Assembly, that practices and explores a lot of physical theatre and contact improvisation. The main thing I like about it, is the chaotic spontaneity and expression of stylistic aggression. The story that it tells throughout comes across has beautiful and moving but the way it is presented contradicts this - by the edge and dangerous flair it has to it. When creating idea and pieces, I would like to play on this paradoxically presentation of stories, messages and world crisis.

Potential ideas (in-depth) and research - a piece about an ex- World War 2 soildier who now suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder

Research

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is an anxiety disorder caused by very stressful, frightening or distressing events.
Someone with PTSD often relives the traumatic event through nightmares and flashbacks, and may experience feelings of isolation, irritability and guilt.
They may also have problems sleeping, such as insomnia, and find concentrating difficult.
These symptoms are often severe and persistent enough to have a significant impact on the person’s day-to-day life.
In most cases, the symptoms develop during the first month after a traumatic event. However, in a minority of cases, there may be a delay of months or even years before symptoms start to appear.
Some people with PTSD experience long periods when their symptoms are less noticeable, followed by periods where they get worse. Other people have constant, severe symptoms.

Re-experiencing

Re-experiencing is the most typical symptom of PTSD. This is when a person involuntarily and vividly re-lives the traumatic event in the form of:

• flashbacks
• nightmares
• repetitive and distressing images or sensations
• physical sensations – such as pain, sweating, nausea or trembling

Some people have constant negative thoughts about their experience, repeatedly asking themselves questions that prevent them from coming to terms with the event.
For example, they may wonder why the event happened to them and if they could have done anything to stop it, which can lead to feelings of guilt or shame.

Avoidance and emotional numbing

Trying to avoid being reminded of the traumatic event is another key symptom of PTSD. This usually means avoiding certain people or places that remind you of the trauma, or avoiding talking to anyone about your experience.
Many people with PTSD try to push memories of the event out of their mind, often by distracting themselves with work or hobbies.
Some people attempt to deal with their feelings by trying not to feel anything at all. This is known as emotional numbing. This can lead to the person becoming isolated and withdrawn (some going into depression), and they may also give up pursuing activities they used to enjoy.

Hyperarousal (feeling 'on edge')

Someone with PTSD may be very anxious and find it difficult to relax, and may be constantly aware of threats and easily startled. This state of mind is known as hyperarousal.
Hyperarousal often leads to:

• irritability
• angry outbursts
• sleeping problems (insomnia)
• difficulty concentrating

Other problems

Many people with PTSD also have a number of other problems, including:

• other mental health problems – such as depression, anxiety or phobias
• self-harming or destructive behaviour – such as drug misuse or alcohol misuse
• other physical symptoms – such as headaches, dizziness, chest pains and stomach aches

PTSD sometimes leads to work-related problems and the breakdown of relationships.



Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) can develop after a very stressful, frightening or distressing event, or after a prolonged traumatic experience.


Types of events that can lead to PTSD include:

• serious road accidents
• violent personal assaults, such as sexual assault, mugging or robbery
• prolonged sexual abuse, violence or severe neglect
• witnessing violent deaths
• military combat
• being held hostage
• terrorist attacks
• natural disasters, such as severe floods, earthquakes or tsunamis
• a diagnosis of a life-threatening condition
• an unexpected severe injury or death of a close family member or friend

Source: http://www.nhs.uk/Conditions/Post-traumatic-stress-disorder/Pages/Introduction.aspx

'Humanity in Crisis' - exploring our devsing title

After being given our stimulus title for our second time doing the devising unit, 'Humanity in Crisis', and being split into our separate groups, we were given these images as more stimuli to spark ideas on how we create a piece based on this title. The images show both historic and contemporary issues that have happened around the world. Based on the images alone, I get the feeling of fear, desperation of hope and chaos.

From these emotions I gathered, along with our title, my group and I created a general mind-map of initial and basic ideas that we could potentially progress on and workshop.

These were just general ideas of themes we could create a piece around - not really going into depth of either of them yet, to ensure that we don't have final decision at such an early stage as this would defeat the whole object of performance workshop which requires endless brainstorming, workshopping potential ideas; scrapping ones that don't work as well, and keeping ones we like.

A lot of us amongst my group, including myself, really liked going as far back as World War 2 but to go very different with it. We liked the idea of going along the root of the post-effects of after war - putting a ex-soldier, now a very aged grandfather of a family, who suffers from Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome having witnessed the most traumatic and horrifying images and things when at war.

After creating initial ideas on a mind map and lots of discussion within my group, we were then to explore just one of our ideas and create a small sketch/piece thinking about our stimuli and ideas. We chose to use our WW2 idea and create a piece which explains our general theme and idea, where this grandfather, who obviously has some sort of leg injury, enters his living room surrounded by family of his (e.g. children, grandchildren etc) to then hear a knock at the door. This then triggers a panic in the grandfather's head - the sound of a door knock sounding horribly similar to him (perhaps gunfire, or the attacking of an enemy) - causing him to take to a stand using his walking stick as some sort of weapon. After turning around to his family, he falls into a delusion and finds himself stuck in the middle of freeze frame of traumatic memories from when he was on the field. Of course this is all in his head but this is the point of view the audience see. He walks through the still image panicking, hyperventilating really showing this disease having control of him. I played the grandfather and the rest of my group played the family who create this freeze frame, and when working on this, they all wanted me to be saying things, shouting, making a lot of panic through noise - which I did do in the end - whereas I, myself, thought that the silence would be a good way of showing his weakness to what's in his head. He would walk through the image and be stopped at the end by a daughter, telling him that it was just someone at the door.
I think this short piece worked really well in terms of meeting our stimulus in a very unique style.