We then performed our forum theatre to the rest of the class and asked them to get involved with the theatre. At first it was very difficult because the audience didn’t want to participate, but once one person performed it made the atmosphere more relaxed and more people wanted to join in. I think in our performance we need to create a relaxed environment, this will help people to join in and not feel silly or be embarrassed.
Tuesday, 8 February 2011
Tuesday 18th January
Today we looked at the use of Forum theatre and how we could use it in our Theatre in Education performance. Forum theatre is when the actors/actress’s involve the audience in the theatre by asking them what they would do in the situation. We split off in to our groups and discussed when we could use forum theatre. We decided to use it when the two children find out that the mother was anorexic, we all agreed this would be the best place to put it as people may have a different opinion and would look at the issue in a different matter.
Tuesday 11th January
Today we were working on different theatre techniques to put in our theatre in education performance. First we looked at a “sound scape,” this is when sound is created using the human body. We sat in a circle and Miss Woffinden told us to copy her, she started by rubbing her hands together, the sound got louder as more and more people joined in. Once the sound reached the begging, Miss Woffinden then started to slap her knees again the sound got louder as people joined in. The sound continued to get louder as the pattern when around the circle again. Once the sound reached Miss Woffinden she started to reverse the pattern. I think this was very effective; it reminded me of rain beating down on the trees in a forest. We repeated the pattern again but this time, we added different sound. People started making different animal noises (noises like monkeys, jaguars and parrots.)
Then we started working on conscience alley. This is when a person’s thoughts/feelings are spoken to them by someone else. For example anorexia could be portrayed by an anorexic girl, walking down stage whilst her family and friends tell her the dangers of being anorexic. Or they could be on her side, telling her why she should stay anorexic. I think this is a very powerful technique to use in our Theatre in Education and I think we should plan to use it in our performance.
Monday, 7 February 2011
The Skeleton in my Closet, Eating Disorder Stories.
My graduation dress made a surprise appearance from the back of my closet last spring. The kids dug it out in an effort to supply vintage clothing for a fashion show the local high school was hosting.
The fabric was brittle with the accumulated filth of thirty years; the yellow chiffon muted under a layer of dust. The green velvet ribbon around the empire waste had faded to a melancholy gray, the elongated bow dropping like the ears of a well loved stuffed toy.
My daughters covered their mouths in mock horror as the dress slid off the coat hanger and slumped to the floor -- their guffaws echoed in my head as I reached for the gown. I heard the faint rattle of bones as the skeleton I had zipped into the folds of yellow chiffon was suddenly released. The secret I had hidden behind the wedding dress, bridesmaids gowns, out dated Christmas outfits, the 'large' clothes, the winter coats, and the maternity dress I couldn't bare to part with, lay blatantly at my feet.
"What's wrong Mom?" my eldest daughter asked as I felt the color drain from my face. I held my breath, and vainly searched for words.
My youngest daughter gingerly gathered the dusty folds of fabric in her arms, cradling them like an antique doll. "Can I try it on?" she asked.
I looked into the healthy faces of my two teenage daughters, at their cheeks faintly bronzed by sunshine...at their arms, muscled and firm.. their bodies, strong and feminine, and cursed the guilty secret that was not out-of-the-bag.
"You can 'try' it on," I said tentatively, "but I don't think you'll be able to do it up -- I was very thin in high school."
I stand five foot nine, in my stocking feet. The dress is a smidge smaller than a size six. Aside from a fading snapshot, safely tucked in a smaller than a size six. Aside from a fading snapshot, safely tucked in a photo album at my father's house, there is no evidence of what I did to myself in my grade twelve year -- except, of course, for the dress itself.
The dress reappeared in my doorway - draped over the slim frame of my fifteen year old daughter. She's much shorter than I was as a teenager, more fit, more athletic...prettier. Billows of material mounded around her feet -- but the back of the dress gaped open, the zipper strained. It was impossible to close.
We all walk with demons, of this I am fairly certain, but sitting face to face with one I had never acknowledged was as unnerving as anything I have ever experienced.
I have never admitted to anyone that I was bulimic...hell, the word hadn't even been invented when I discovered what I believed to be the ultimate weight control program.
My daughters eyed me dubiously, waiting for an explanation.
"I had an eating disorder in high school, " I finally whispered surprising myself with the frankness in my voice. "My mother had to have the dress specially made for me when I graduated."
My mother.........My mother had been frantic as she watched her healthy teenaged daughter melt away. She marched me into Doctor's offices....pounded desks with her fist, and demanded that they get to the bottom of whatever it was that was causing me to lose so much weight. They never did. I feigned innocence. My monthly cycles stopped. I exercised like a fiend, ate like a horse and quietly disappeared into the bathroom immediately following every meal. Then we couldn't find a dress to fit the skeleton I had become. I hated myself.
Twenty years later, when my mother was diagnosed with cancer. I fought with the demon again. She died never knowing my secret or the fact that her grief stricken, painfully think daughter was starving herself again.
The room was suddenly static with disbelief -- my youngest daughter let the dress fall from her shoulders. It landed with a silent puff at her feet.
"Why did you keep the dress?" my eldest daughter asked.
I scooped the musty fabric from the floor. "As a reminder I suppose," I said, rocking it. She sat down beside me. "Why didn't you ever tell me?" The maternal tone in her voice laced with concern.
"It's not something I'm very proud of, " I whispered. "Or something that ever goes away."
I had confessed.
The appearance of the grad dress forced me to admit that bulimia has walked with me for thirty years. That I have wrestled with its powerful grasp through every major event in my life. That even now, when the world around me spins out of control, I look inward to the thing I CAN control and fight the urge to take its hand again.
As I eyed the soft fabric in my lap I realized that eating disorders never disappear, they simply shuffle themselves to the backs of closets and lurk. Whether mine was waiting for control or acceptance, I'm not sure. But now that the skeleton is out of my closet, I hope I can learn to accept the teenager who wore that dress, and perhaps forgive her the dark secret she's been hiding.
The fabric was brittle with the accumulated filth of thirty years; the yellow chiffon muted under a layer of dust. The green velvet ribbon around the empire waste had faded to a melancholy gray, the elongated bow dropping like the ears of a well loved stuffed toy.
My daughters covered their mouths in mock horror as the dress slid off the coat hanger and slumped to the floor -- their guffaws echoed in my head as I reached for the gown. I heard the faint rattle of bones as the skeleton I had zipped into the folds of yellow chiffon was suddenly released. The secret I had hidden behind the wedding dress, bridesmaids gowns, out dated Christmas outfits, the 'large' clothes, the winter coats, and the maternity dress I couldn't bare to part with, lay blatantly at my feet.
"What's wrong Mom?" my eldest daughter asked as I felt the color drain from my face. I held my breath, and vainly searched for words.
My youngest daughter gingerly gathered the dusty folds of fabric in her arms, cradling them like an antique doll. "Can I try it on?" she asked.
I looked into the healthy faces of my two teenage daughters, at their cheeks faintly bronzed by sunshine...at their arms, muscled and firm.. their bodies, strong and feminine, and cursed the guilty secret that was not out-of-the-bag.
"You can 'try' it on," I said tentatively, "but I don't think you'll be able to do it up -- I was very thin in high school."
I stand five foot nine, in my stocking feet. The dress is a smidge smaller than a size six. Aside from a fading snapshot, safely tucked in a smaller than a size six. Aside from a fading snapshot, safely tucked in a photo album at my father's house, there is no evidence of what I did to myself in my grade twelve year -- except, of course, for the dress itself.
The dress reappeared in my doorway - draped over the slim frame of my fifteen year old daughter. She's much shorter than I was as a teenager, more fit, more athletic...prettier. Billows of material mounded around her feet -- but the back of the dress gaped open, the zipper strained. It was impossible to close.
We all walk with demons, of this I am fairly certain, but sitting face to face with one I had never acknowledged was as unnerving as anything I have ever experienced.
I have never admitted to anyone that I was bulimic...hell, the word hadn't even been invented when I discovered what I believed to be the ultimate weight control program.
My daughters eyed me dubiously, waiting for an explanation.
"I had an eating disorder in high school, " I finally whispered surprising myself with the frankness in my voice. "My mother had to have the dress specially made for me when I graduated."
My mother.........My mother had been frantic as she watched her healthy teenaged daughter melt away. She marched me into Doctor's offices....pounded desks with her fist, and demanded that they get to the bottom of whatever it was that was causing me to lose so much weight. They never did. I feigned innocence. My monthly cycles stopped. I exercised like a fiend, ate like a horse and quietly disappeared into the bathroom immediately following every meal. Then we couldn't find a dress to fit the skeleton I had become. I hated myself.
Twenty years later, when my mother was diagnosed with cancer. I fought with the demon again. She died never knowing my secret or the fact that her grief stricken, painfully think daughter was starving herself again.
The room was suddenly static with disbelief -- my youngest daughter let the dress fall from her shoulders. It landed with a silent puff at her feet.
"Why did you keep the dress?" my eldest daughter asked.
I scooped the musty fabric from the floor. "As a reminder I suppose," I said, rocking it. She sat down beside me. "Why didn't you ever tell me?" The maternal tone in her voice laced with concern.
"It's not something I'm very proud of, " I whispered. "Or something that ever goes away."
I had confessed.
The appearance of the grad dress forced me to admit that bulimia has walked with me for thirty years. That I have wrestled with its powerful grasp through every major event in my life. That even now, when the world around me spins out of control, I look inward to the thing I CAN control and fight the urge to take its hand again.
As I eyed the soft fabric in my lap I realized that eating disorders never disappear, they simply shuffle themselves to the backs of closets and lurk. Whether mine was waiting for control or acceptance, I'm not sure. But now that the skeleton is out of my closet, I hope I can learn to accept the teenager who wore that dress, and perhaps forgive her the dark secret she's been hiding.
Sunday, 6 February 2011
Tuesday 14th December
Today we had to hand in our homework; I choose to do my project about body image. I think this was an easy topic to do because it covers a lot of different subjects. Subjects like, anorexia, teenage surgery and bulimia. Once I had listened to everybody else’s presentations about their topic’s I think that mine was a sort of heading, to group different topics together.
In my project I looked at the song stupid girls by pink, I think this song is very influential for teenage girls as it deplores the lack of good role models for girls while encouraging them to cultivate independence and individuality. I chose to look at this song because it is a serious matter made in to a fun/joking way. I learned a lot from doing my project and I think this helped me to understand both sides of the argument and to have a deeper understanding of the problems teenagers face. However as everyone in the class did different topics it was hard to be put in to groups, I am in a group with Bethany Kaye, Imogen Hay and Courtney Hackney. We are doing about Anorexia. This is the closest topic to my project and I am happy with my group. I feel that I already have an understanding about this subject but I think I will still have to look deeper in, to find out any interesting facts.
We all sat in our groups and discussed what we could do in our performance and how we could do it. Imogen had found a story on the internet which she had brought in to school as part of her project. The story is about a mother of two children that was anorexic as a child. She had hidden it from her children, until the day they found her graduation dress in the back of her wardrobe and the memories start flooding back. We all agreed this would be an excellent story to base our theatre in education on so as homework we each agreed on researching the story, getting our own copy and finding any more facts/figures about Anorexia.
Tuesday 7th December
Today we were told we were going to start a new topic. This topic was Theatre in Education. I didn’t know very much about this so the whole class did some research in to it and found that Theatre in Education is when a company travel around, performing pieces of theatre, informing people about issues or problems around them.
I researched further into a company called “Big Wheel” whose main target audience is primary school children. They like to get children involved by inventing a number of lively workshops and retelling stories for a younger audience. Big wheel is made up of a core team of four actors/actresses and are based on Exmouth Market in Clerkenwell. Here is a web address to the big wheel website. I really enjoyed looking around and reading lots of interesting information about their style of work.
Big Wheel started in 1984 by a group of students from Oxford University doing fairly serious fringe theatre. They then moved into performing workshops for schools, developing into what we know today. They regularly tour the Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Austria and parts of Germany, and have been doing this since the mid eighties.
Before the lesson ended Miss Woffinden set our homework, to research a topic of our choice that would make a good/interesting piece of Theatre in Education for teenagers. I didn’t really know where to start with this so I did some research on Google and found a useful website with a list of 10 different issues for teenagers,
· Smoking
· Drinking
· Drugs
· Body image
· Pregnancy
· Abuse
· Suicide
· Depression
· School work
· Weight
So I got to work on my chosen subject Body Image.
Tuesday, 1 February 2011
Time line of theatre in education lessons.
December 7th
Researched theatre in education
Created a fact file
December 14th
Research social and political issues.
Which issues and why?
What you learnt?
What you choose to include in the presentation and why?
January 4th
What you thought of the other people’s research
Got in to groups- what did you think of them?
Describe the presentation and what we learnt about each other’s topics.
Do you need to be passionate or interested in a theme or topic to create a piece of theatre about it?
January 11th
Drama skills and conventions audit
What did you know and what didn’t you know?
How did this make you feel
What did you research for homework
Sound scape – modelled by the teacher
Conscience alley
What it a,
How did we use it?
What worked well and even better if?
January 14th
Splendid productions, three actors playing all the parts
The trail by Berkoff
The production used a variety of brechtain in techniques
January 18th
Devising using forum theatre
What is it?
How do we use it?
What worked well and even better if?
Are there some subjects that shouldn’t be dramatised?
What are our responsibility as a deviser/ play writer.
Does drama/ theatre have the power to change opinions/ attitudes/ the way we see the world/ the choices we make?
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