Next scene

During this lesson, we decided to 'block' out the next scene. Although the first scene was not fully polished, we were running out of time and decided to have a simple basis for the next section. To do this, we took the script and finished editing it. Then we decided to do a run through of the lines, focusing on character and intention. Then we took this and started playing with how it will look in our set (we have four rostras). 
To show a hierarchy, we decided that Eliza and Mr Doolittle would be standing on the floor, but Mrs Pearce and Higgins would start standing on  the rostra. This shows a clear divide in status and class, as the upper class are physically higher up. After a few lines, Mrs Pearce steps down from her high position, and starts conversing on the same level as the others. This shows that although she truly 'belongs' with the upper class, she has the ability to relate and empathize with the lower class. In terms of character, this may symbolism that she is kinder than she first appears. She most likely grew up in a lower class, so relates to Eliza and Doolittle. Moreover, she seems to feel protective of Eliza already. This is shown in her dialogue, and how she interacts with Eliza. 

Script Pt 2

Throughout this lesson, we took the section we had chosen and further edited it. To make the section flow better, and make more sense, we cut many lines and edited the majority of lines that were left over. Moreover, we cut out the role of Pickering in the second scene, and merged his character with Higgins. This was done to improve logistics, as there was too many characters on stage. Although we are multi-roling, we believe it would be too Brechtian to have constant multi-roling. This would perhaps make our performance a little confusing, and our intentions would be unclear. 

Furthermore, we edited small lines and words that will most likely go unnoticed. For example, rather than saying 'she' Doolittle will say 'it', and will refer to Eliza as his 'creation'. This further creates the sense that Eliza is a robot, and that she is treated like an object. 

Next scene

After rehearsing our opening scene, we decided that we needed to put some of the edited script into our performance. To do this, we decided that our next scene would be the bathtub scene, where Mrs Pearce forces Eliza to take a bath. We decided to choreograph this section next. 
However, we felt that it would be confusing if Eliza was suddenly at Higgins's residence. To rectify this, we decided to add a small transitioning scene that depicts Eliza being bought by Mrs Pearce. She will look Eliza up and down, and will murmur something like- "Yes, I believe this is what he wanted." Finally, after observing me and Beth (we are other robots for sale), she decides upon Eliza and wheels her offstage. 

Moreover, throughout this transition, we decided to focus on how he were going to portray Mrs Pearce. Firstly, we collectively decided that Sophie would be good for the part of Mrs Pearce. However, we were unsure how she was going to change the character for our interpretation. We played with a few different techniques and representations of Mrs Pearce- confident and 'proper' with her movements, but her accent will be a strong cockney accent, or an extremely exaggerated interpretation of a cockney person- she will be hunched over and almost shriveled, and her face will be contorted. 

Overall, we havn't yet decided on how to play Mrs Pearce, but we will continue to play with her character in this scene.

Transition

At the beginning of this lesson, we took our opening section and polished it. We finished off the malfunction section and finished the first scene. Then, we decided to create the transition between this opening and the second scene. We have looked into using sound-scapes in our interpretation, and decided that we could look into using a small section of sound-scaping for our transitions.

To do this, we decided to imitate the small humming noise that a computer makes when it is on standby. This is a rather dissociating noise and we feel this is an effective transition. We have not yet polished the noise, but we have decided that we will create harmonies whilst humming- Beth will be the lowest, Sophie will take the middle note and I will hum the highest note. We will introduce this noise whilst Milly is being lifter and we will hum in short bursts of four seconds with small gaps in between. 

We may use this as a motif, and have this noise in all of our transitions. 

Introduction scene

During the lesson, we took our previous introduction scene and built upon it. We started standing on four blocks, and in canon, we stepped off the blocks and performed a small sequence in the middle, facing forward. This shows the robots and how they can act as if they feel, but they actually have no emotion. 
After this small introduction, the robots begin to malfunction, and we randomly fall to the floor and finish contorted and broken. To show that Eliza can actually feel, Milly gets up and, still in a jerky manner, she tries to help us. She becomes more fluid, and 'alive'. This section ends with us raising Milly up in a 'calippo' lift to symbolise her reaching for humanity. 

Script

Although we had many great ideas, we hadn't actually looked at the section of the play that we wish to reinterpret. Because of this, we found it difficult to choreograph any other scene, as we were largely unsure how the story was going to progress. We decided that we were still going to keep the themes and ideas that we had previously (dystopian future with a huge class system that has robots), however, we needed to change and edit how the plot would progress. To do this we decided to find a section to edit.

After searching, we decided to include a section from the end of Act two. This section revolves around Eliza in Higgin's house. She has arrived and demands for them to teach her how to speak English. They accept and his servant, Mrs Pearce, washes Eliza. However, whilst this happens, we see her father selling Eliza behind her back, and finally, Eliza returns and everyone is appalled at how stunning she looks.

To change this, we decided to stick with the robot theme, and made Eliza a robot. She comes to the pair, and they are trying to hide the fact that Eliza is actually a robot. To do this, they must clean her up and teach her to act like a human. When her 'father' appears, we will edit the lines so that it is evident he is her creator and not her father. He is still selling her whilst Mrs Pearce is trying to bathe her.

This scene in particular is going to be effective, as we are going to try and use steam and special effects for the bathing scene. This short section gives us lots of room to create a physical theatre performance around.

New interpretation

We have decided that our previous idea is rather unattainable:

Our original idea was not based around one single extract. It was based around the entie book, rather than just a single section. We primarily thought that this was fine, but after research, we discovered that we needed to base the reinterpretation over just one section. We looked at extracts, but thought that our original idea was far too complex, and wide-spread. 
However, we decided to keep the basis of our idea, and have decided on these themes:

• Changing class.
• Manipulation.
• Maybe some gender equality.

Also, we have decided to keep the idea that the lowest class is robots, but they are more sophisticated rather than just machines. Because of this, Eliza is still a robot, but is having to face manipulation in a different way- they are going to try and 'fix' her. She will begin in sync with the rest of her class, but she will malfunction, and she will be discarded from her 'friends'. This will perhaps have a deeper meaning, such as mental illness or physical disability. We will physicalise this, and we can create a section of physical theatre that presents the divide between Eliza and her class. 

Finally, in this lesson we began devising a small opening scene in which we introduce Eliza and the themes of our performance. 

Opening scene

Throughout our first lesson, we decided to create a powerful opening scene. 
Primarily, we decided to use theatre of the round, as we felt that we could make effective use of the extra space that this stage type gives us. We have loads of ideas about how we can use this space in a unique, interesting ways. For example, we could drape a 'square' of white sheets around the stage, so the audience begins facing the sheet. Then, we will turn on four bright lights, that face each side of the square. We will then perform an 'evolution of man' scene, facing the audience. This will only be visible through shadows, and will create a visually stunning physical interpretation of the evolution of man. 

However, this idea has its problems, and would be rather hard to pull off. These problems include- it would be practically difficult, as we would struggle to hang up such a large sheet. Also, it would be hard to create an interesting interpretation with only four of us, as this restricts us to one person at each sheet (as we need to ensure that each 'section' of audience can see the performance). 


Because of this, we are still undecided whether we will be able to use this technique, so instead, we have thought of an intriguing opening. We decided that we want to open with a portrayal of the upper classed humans, and we decided to show four deep 'human' emotions (fear, lust, anger, sadness). We thought this will be effective, as it immediately portrays the issues of human emotions, and shows the deep set emotions that the humans feel. In order to do this, we decided to create a dance-like opening that physically portrayed such emotion. 

In order to do this, we decided to use a tribal scene, and we decided to do some research on tribal dances and Hakka routines (as we felt theses effectively shows anger, and deep-set human emotion).We did some research, and looked at these videos: 

We looked at this tribal dance, and similar dances. Overall, we liked the effect that this dance had. It was very powerful, as there were many people doing similar movements on stage. However, we felt that it was a little chaotic, as the movements were not 'choreographed' as such. We liked the chaotic feel in this instance, however, this is not really how we want our opening to look like, as we want there to be a rhythm, and repeated moves in chorus, that everyone does. Because of this, we took some inspiration from this video, but we decided against using it to create out dance.

Next, we decided to do some research on the Hakka. This is because this traditional dance style focuses directly on the 'main human emotion'- anger. It is used at the start of football games, to intimidate and scare the opposing team. It is normal for each team to go 'full-out', and each team will add sound effects, and facial expressions that will incredibly intimidate their opponents. After watching several videos of this dance, we decided that we would take inspiration for our opening. In the beginning, we wish to portray four human emotions, and we felt that the Hakka could be used to show anger, and predatory rage. We took many elements of the Hakka videos we watched, and used them to develop our opening scene. 

Finally, we decided that we were going to use this piece of music during our opening. This is because, it has many changes in mood throughout the piece, so we can use it to portray the different emotions of the richer society. Moreover, it has almost exactly the same beat as we imagined, and is a very beautiful piece, that can represent anger, fear, lust and sadness. 

Reintepretation

After careful deliberation, our group decided that we were going to reinterpret the script of 'Pygmalion'. 

We made this decision as we preferred the themes in this, compared to Doll's house. These themes include- Social class, Gender, Transformation, etc. We felt like we could create an interesting, unique reinterpretation of these themes. 

During our first reinterpretation lesson, we decided to 'brainstorm' our ideas about the plot of our performance. We started by agreeing that we should make Eliza's transformation the basis of our ideas. 
Moreover, we had previously used the idea of a dystopian future, and we really liked how this impacted our performance, as it added a more unique outlook on Eliza's life. In this dystopian future, there was an extreme class system that hugely benefited the upper class, but destroyed the lower class. Moreover, to keep with the futuristic theme, we decided that there would be a 'faction' of manual workers, who were actually synthetic humans. These workers would be the lowest of the low, and would be treated abysmally. This is partly due to the fact that they are 'lower beings', and that the upper class people believe that they are not conscious. 

This was not the case for Eliza, who was one of these synthetics. Although she is not fully 'conscious' to start with, she has the ability of such emotions, and Higgins (who is very upper classed in our interpretation), takes it upon himself to make Eliza 'human'. 

We will base our performance on the transformation of Eliza from a low worker, to somebody fully capable to show and feel human emotions. 

Our performance will touch upon what makes us human, and how class systems only work for the upper classed. 

Finally, we decided to use physical theatre as our practitioner. We believe that we can effectively portray these theme through physical theatre, and it will make our performance visually intriguing. These are the techniques that we want to include:

• Lifts
• Shadow work
• Choral speaking
• Dance work
• Moments of immobility
• Puppetry

Physical Theatre and Dollshouse

Primarily, at the beginning of this lesson, we were told to write down some bullets points on a piece of paper. We were told to write anything we know or felt about sexism and gender inequality. This was to be used later in the exercise. We used these videos in the lesson, in order to create a short reinterpretation of Doll's house in a physical way. The video on the left focused on creating a small scene by taking several techniques, and adding them all together. This focused specifically on using a beat to create a physical piece. We recreated this by placing the men at the back of the room, with each on their own desk. The women sat at the front, squished onto one desk. This represented the difference in the treatment of the genders- it showed that the men had the luxuries of their own space and equipment. Moreover, the men would face the women as if they were controlling them, and the women would hunch over on their shared desk.  

We then continued and focused on lifts. We used the video on the right. This taught us how easy it is to create a dynamic lift with the whole class. We did this multiple times and attempted to make the lift more dynamic, by moving the person in the air. Finally, we used several different lifts to create meaning- we used the 'callipo' lift to show Nora's longing for escape, and how controlled she was. The class holding her represented the masses, specifically Helmer, who believed that she should stay, and be controlled.