Week Three

W3:

Timeline of Promenade Performance

This week, we have been focusing on the timeline of our performance and we have been finalising our ideas. Above is a picture of the timeline of events that will last over the time scale of 10 minutes.

In our piece, the audience are tourists who have been dragged onto our Indian street by beggars, urged to come here because of the many 'stalls' and delicacies we 'have' on the street. In reality, the street is really just a place where loads of pickpockets and street children live and this Naturalistic idea we are going for really shows how the environment that the street children live in shapes them as people. 

Scene A: Entrance

Once the audience have entered through Door 5, they will see a stall where Aaron will be standing, selling oranges (a key symbol throughout our piece) We will also have written stories, artwork, poetry, missing posters etc on the wall too, which are spectacles for the audience to choose to look at as they are invited into our Indian world. On the floor, they may be walking over a cluttered mess of plastic bags or empty water bottles and a hustle of us actors might push through them muttering 'Excuse me'. They will walk into this Space hearing the sound of Indian bhangra music and the vehicle traffic sounds. All of these things are used to help transform the audience's reality from living in the UK to walking through busy Indian streets. This is part of the immersive theatrical experience.

Scene B: Washing Line

We are going to be creating a washing line using string and old clothes. With 4 of us holding the washing line, we are going to attempt to capture the audience from their positions in the washing line.  This is likewise how on a real Indian street, many street children might crowd a group of tourists and  talk to them in an attempt to earn money or even just compassion/attention. This is where audience interaction will occur and actors will talk to the audience like strangers, adding to the immersive theatre experience because it includes them in the action. It also gets them to use their senses such as touching because they're feeling the clothes on the washing line which helps create this Indian world.  I personally think this is where we can incorporate the stylistic element of Physical Theatre because the actors who are holding the washing line could do a synchronised, emphasised movement which expresses the heartbreak and tragedy of being homeless. Physical Theatre is a really interesting stylistic element because it can express so much feeling with just movement and no words and it shows the relationships between characters with just body language. It's a really powerful element.

Scene C: Orange Community

The washing line will lead the audience to a representation of an Indian community. A group of us will be sat in a circle sharing out oranges. Oranges are a key symbol in our piece because they represent superiority. It might seem so simple to people living in the Western world however to our street children, having an orange is a real treasure. This interpretation of oranges and what they mean to street children in our piece will be explored more in different elements throughout the piece and we hope that the audience can build their own interpretation on the oranges. Gaining attention of the audience, different street children might react in different ways.  Some may hide, some may whisper to other children, some may protect their oranges, some may talk to them, some of the street children might even attempt to sell their oranges to the audience because they see them as an opportunity for money.  This is an example of Brechtian: breaking the fourth wall between the audience and the actors. However,  it might also be effective to keep the fourth wall between the audience and the action closed to show the innocence and purity of the street children as they enjoy and savour the oranges. 

Scene D: Gesture Theatre

Inspired by a clip Mr Rennison showed us, (On Stage, BBC iPlayer), we hope that at this point in the piece we will have our own version of Gesture Theatre, a medium used in the clip. This was used to present the ups and downs of someone's life. I really enjoyed this clip and found it so fascinating and touching. It uses emphasised, almost dancy movements and speech to create a flowing story, where actions all link together.  Our version will have a series of short, emphasised gesture pieces that will be portrayed by different members of the group. They will be showing the daily activities of being a streetchild. This might include begging, busking, stealing oranges etc. During this, we can be begging to the audience, grabbing them, dancing around them etc. This helps get them more involved.

Scene E: Amelia's Story

Amelia's character is more isolated and doesn't belong to a community or group. Her story will be explored by using a box. Other characters will open up a cardboard box which will unveil stories and writing that depict her life and what has led her to this situation. Amelia will then become the subject of a brutal child trafficking kidnapping scene, led by Esme. Again, this shows factors of Naturalism. It's realistic that there will be street children isolated,

Scene F: Streetchildren

As the audience roam further towards the other end of The Space, the idea that the street is more urban and vulnerable will be displayed. The sound of traffic noises will be louder, the lighting will be darker and a group of street children will be trying to sleep, under dirty sheets, in plastic bags and behind stage blocks etc. 

Scene G:

This is the last thing the audience will see before they exit the room. In lower economically developed countries such as China or India, many babies, especially girls, get killed or abandoned all the time. A representation of a mother leaving her baby girl on the street with other homeless children is a last thinking point for the audience as they leave because it shows the harsh reality of the world. We have developed another Gesture Theatre piece to show this. It shows Ruby, a young homeless girl in the street child community and Charlie, a wealthy, well off person that falls in love with her and takes her out of her situation. They will be standing on the shelves to give them some level and authority while the rest of the street children will be looking up, observing the situation, encouraging the audience to do so as well. At the end, Ruby and Charlie will make the decision to give their baby girl away.