In the short story of Mrs tall and Mr short we did many different still images to portray the image and message of the scene, we used many different levels and a lot of space to help do this. Still images are very useful because still images can be used to express an emotion, thought and devise Drama and can enhance a piece of drama and improve the strength of the emotions. The first still image we did in Mrs Tall and Mr Short was where we got the Tailors wife to stand on a table which gave us the levels showing that she was high in command, I am a extra who is crouched on the floor squished, Mr tall is holding a placard and Mrs tall standing right next to Mr tall but squished and there is another extra looking into the crowd to give depth and a sense of space.
Overall this shows the real fear and power of Tailors wife and the power and size of the crowd. This image is meant to show embarrassment and the tailors wife position on the chair is meant to show her authority and she is above every one and Mr Short and Mr Tall look weak and embarrassed The second still image we did was where we had the child minder is giving the child back to Mrs Tall. The Tailors wife is behind a lamppost trying to spy on what she thinks is a suspicious event. This image used some physical theatre, which we found very effective and it helped capture the true meaning of the scene. This shows how Tailors wife is trying to sneak around up to no good, but then all she sees is an innocent child minder giving back Mrs Tall’s baby. Thought Tracking The Taylor’s Wife follows Mrs Tall out of the Mansions as well as through the endless suburbs of China to what she hopes she will find Mrs Tall selling government secrets to foreign powers, which is pretty far fetched from what she was really doing.
While stalking Mrs Tall the Taylor’s Wife is pondering on many different things. To find out these things we were put into pairs, where one would move as the Taylor’s Wife would without making a sound or showing any expression, the other in the pair would walk behind in the footsteps of the emotionless character while saying and expressing the thoughts of the Taylor’s wife as she followed Mrs Tall into the dark. After a few attempts we would be able to develop the Taylor’s Wife’s movement and reactions to the dialogue. In this exercise I said the Taylor’s Wife’s thoughts out loud so me and my partner could develop our understanding of the character and improve the dialogue and expressions.
For our homework we had to show that we had developed the character as well as the scene by drawing a flow diagram to show all of the thoughts of the Taylor’s Wife and how we had expressed these to improve the piece . Masks – Caucasian Singers The “ Singers” scene in “ Caucasian Chalk Circle” consists of a narrator explaining the actions of ‘ Grusha’ and how she leaves the son of the Governor and tries to hide it by putting a rag over it but in the end comes back to claim it even though it puts her in immense danger of the fire she decides to risk it to save the child’s life. In our adaptation of the scene we did a group scene whereby we gathered in a group into the rear of the stage and quickly but silently crept down stage and formed a tight semi-circle around the baby where it was lying and Grusha would return to take the baby. After a series of lines spoken by different members of the chorus a solo verse would be spoken upon the ending the chorus would disperse so that Grusha could tend to the baby. The group would form a horseshoe around Grusha and the baby and slowly approach them while one after the other we spoke lines to show a whole effect and power of different voices. While we did this we were all invisible to Grusha and we were representing one powerful voice when there were 12 of us to create this powerful sound and image.
But at the 5th last line we moved into a diagonal line leading off the stage so that Grusha could carry the baby off and we would watch her go although she did not know we were there. In this scene I was one of the group chorus and spoke 3 solo lines during the piece. This was a very useful exercise and got us to work as a team to create a powerful image and unite to create one voice, which was very powerful. In all the pieces we did and all exercises we had to use many different voices and tones, which we would have to experiment with to find which voice suited best to the piece and whether it was appropriate to the image and feeling we were trying to portray.
This was especially important in our soliloquies that we did and we had to make sure we gave the right emotions at the right time. We could all listen to one another and give feedback to help improve the piece. We used a lot of movement in exercises we did and we used a lot especially in Mrs Tall and Mr Short where we had to make the tailors wife seem very powerful and commanding and that she ran the area, we did this by walking heavily and not moving out of people’s way to show her power. Whereas we had to make Mrs Tall and Mr Short seem very weak and have a low self esteem, we did this by making them walk quite slowly and unconvincingly and so they would move out of the way of people, and were both very timid and shy this helped us show the power and weakness of the characters and helped us improve the piece. The rhythm/pace/tempo of a play makes a huge difference to the play and can really emphasize the emotions like panic or sadness. In the Caucasian Chalk Circle we used the tempo a lot when the fire broke out and this allowed us to really emphasize the panic and the pace really picked up of the people moving around and this showed the fear as the fire got closer and closer, but apart from this the tempo was reasonably average and this allowed us to really show the power of the scene.
In ‘ The Tall Woman and her Short Husband’ pace/tempo/rhythm changed a lot especially in the struggle meeting as the people got more and more aggressive as they were throwing abuse at Mr short and Mrs Tall, when this happened the pace/rhythm/tempo really picked up and this showed the aggression and power of the meeting and emphasized the scene massively. Also when the tailors wife follows Mrs Tall in the night the tempo rises as she sneaks behind her trying to find out what terrible things she is up to. This shows how the tailors wife is trying to sneak around and when she sees that she is only picking up her child the tempo slows right down to show the innocence of it and that the tailors wife who was up to no good has been proven wrong and that Mrs Tall is innocent.
