The start of this lesson, we were put into groups of 4, and were to come up with 4 ideas:
Firstly, an activity which the children could complete at the beginning of the performance, and then 3 stories which could be told, based around a rocket hitting the master's world.
Our ideas:
The starter was that the children had to find the box that smelled like oranges/the box full of oranges.
I came up with this idea, and was really pleased to be able to combine the task with what we know works well with children's theatre, using the 5 senses; the children would have to look for the box, listen to the instruction, feel the box as they pick it up and smell the oranges- maybe even taste them?
The three stories needed to be something extraordinary, something that would only happen in a monsters' world.
The first idea was that after the rocket hit, a monster had lost his smile in the wreckages. The other cast members, and the children would have to do all that they could to help him get his smile back, through telling jokes, doing a funny dance etc. This was also and idea that i came up with. I liked this because one cannot physically lose facial feature, but the idea of it enables the children to be laughing and to be involved as possible during the task of trying to get the simple back. Of course this story has a happy ending, where the children help the monster regain its smile, and all is well.
The second idea we had was based upon a magical cape. This cape was suddenly attached to a monster, who had never seen it before. However, its magical powers wouldn't be activated until the cape was full of stickers (much like a brownies sash). These stickers would read thinks like 'friendship' 'generosity' 'kindness' etc. Overtime the monster showed an act of kindness, the children would be able to give the cape a sticker, and overtime he was selfish, it would be deducted. Whilst the initial idea wasn't mine, i contributed to thoughts on the stickers representing good qualities, meaning that the children learn a moral lesson, as well as helping the monster.
The third and final ideas was my favourite. The idea arose to me after thinking about how i needed to fill up with petrol; refilling to the monsters is like sleep to humans, we need it to survive and to keep going. So, the rocket had caused problems with one monsters fuel, she wouldn't reload! Despite the monster fuel attendant trying its best (a cute little machine who would normally be able to fix it) the monster still couldn't refill, and was frozen. The idea would continue so that it took everyones help to get the monster moving again, giving a moral story of teamwork being an invaluable skill.
After sharing our ideas as a class, we were then to make a trailer for one idea, as if we were presenting it to an immersive children's theatre company.
We chose the refuelling story.
I played the machine/robot who would go around helping people refuel.
The scene starts with Raven giving a dramatic opening, engaging the audience 'It was just a regular day, but wait, the monsters' fuel is low'. Centre stage was lois and megan; who after greeting one another in a monster-like fashion, started to panic about the fuel being low. The narrater calms the children, telling them that I can fix it. My character wobbles on stage, being a robot of course, I can only take turns in 270 degrees, taking a comically long time for something that is my pure only purpose. We demonstrate a successful 'fuel up' with megan. After using dance/physical theatre movements and sounds, she is successfully moving, and on a full tank. However by the time I reach lis, she won't fuel up. The robot tries and tries and starts to get angry, so has to break the 4th wall and call the narrator in to help, for she can't get it to work. After Megan, Raven and myself all trying to power up lois, we turn to the audience, down on our knees and say 'please help us.'
The vision for the help that the children would give would be that they would all together try the movements that the robot did that worked on megan, and multiple other methods until the happy ending occurred.
My take on the lesson:
I absolutely loved this this lesson. I felt that i contributed great ideas, making the most of what we knew worked well with children's theatre, at the start of the lesson. Most of the creative ideas I had come up with, and I contributed to all of them.
During the rehearsal of the trailer, I felt i took a directors role in placing everyone where they needed oto be blocked, giving creative ideas' in other peoples roles- for example I had suggested to Lois that her character walked with her feet turned out, stepping side to side (to give the monsters affect). Also, I felt i was able to help Raven with her ideas and script for narration, so that there was structure to what she would say, but she wasn't tied down to a specific word count or line. These examples show my ability to work in a group for this lesson was working.
However, I also felt it was important for me to develop my character (the robot) so that I stood out as being different to the other monsters. I achieved this through I very set, still facial expression, a slow, mechanical like walk, and a funky hairstyle. I wanted this character to be liable, almost cute as if its a young robot and I feel i captured that with big eyes, and a happy spring in my movement.
As a group, we worked really well with developing each others ideas and characters. For example Lois was able to choreograph the 'refilling' movement which flowed, and I was able to contribute ideas of how children would enjoy dancing/moving.
To improve, I would liked to have had extra time to develop our characters even more, as I think they were not as fully formed as they could be. For example Lois and Megan had similar characteristics, but as different monsters will be able to find certain traits portrayed by how they walk/talk.
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