Performing in rehersals

On Thursday the 4th of December we performed our piece to Camp America and the homeless guides along with Mr Hughes. This performance didn't go to plan and we got constructive critisism such as as "the guards were shouting too much", "it was very messy" and the structure of the piece was not understood. So we decided to cut many of the messy scenes and unknown parts such as the national anthem, this was a good idea however due to the anthem being in Korean and the translation being hard to sing along to the track none of us could learn it well and perform it to the standard we would have liked due to this that scene was cut. Also we changed the digging scene to a morning scene to create a change in atmosphere and found 'the island baby' lullaby to play during this scene. Over all the constructive critisism we recieved helped us to make our piece better and was very helpful. I think that using the other group as an audience was a great idea as not only did it show is where to improve but it let us know what it will be like on the day with the audience.

Ideas from the classroom evaluation

From this piece i have learnt:

• That research is the building blocks of theatre.
• Finding a connection to the humanity of your character is important to make a sympathetic piece.
• Allowing change to occur and not being stuck to an idea as even though it could be a good idea but in context it could not be as good as it seams. 
• Not stereotyping the characters and giving them all a background to make their characters 3 dimentional. 
• Dedication and teamwork are the most important things to create a good divising piece. 
• A piece is reliant on props and you need to rehearse with the props in your space to understand the performance more and prepare. 

We shaped and developed our performance by researching stories to base our play on and improvising lots of different scenes to discover what fit the best and had the most impact on the audience, we changed our overview a lot due to this because we wanted to create as good a performance as possible. 

I found that some ideas which made other groups performances good were: 

• The tents in the Syrian refugee camp as this was different and made their piece memorable. 
• The stickers and marshmellows in the Camp America group, this tied in with their group theme of their issues being a main focus and giving everyone a sticker to label them too was a creative idea. Giving marshmellows set the scene and made it more emmersive. 
• The homeless guides showing the audience around were good encouragement to the audience and moved the scenes on when it was close to the end and has deep characters which was very interesting. 
• The flow between scenes which most groups had made it easy to watch and smooth running. 
• The washing line in the Indian homeless children camp made it flow well and created the emmersive feel which also led the audience from place to place. 

Some difficulties my group faced was finding the information we needed as many websites are censored or not as graphic so they don't tell you the full story of whats happening in North Korea so the majority of our information came from the book 'the aquariums of Pyongyang', also we found it hard to find images of the prisoners to costume us due to the censors on the internet. We had a lot of difficulty in getting 6 shovels as not many people in our group had shovels and this idea came very late plus due to travelling circumstances it was difficult to bring them into school via train or bus.

performance evaluation

 Our devised piece worked by showing a day in the life of a North Korean prisoner, we were able to include the audience in this way and make our piece emmersive using emmersive theatre techniques such as finding an emotional connection with them and speaking to them as if they were with us.
 My speech from 'the aquariums of pyongyang' was a moving moment for the audience as they saw the vulnerability of my character and the fear that that could be the end of their life, this moment was both robotic and inhuman aswell as being humane and beautiful.
 We used shovels to create a sad atmosphere after Laila died in the sweat box, this worked well as the dragging sound of the shovels against the carpet along with the 'island baby lullaby' we had playing made the room feel quiet and low in contrast to the scene before it where there was lots of shouting and a tense atmosphere.
 Also we made the play even lower in atmosphere when we all went to sleep to show the day ending and Katie and Shenneil read their speech as this moment was very humane and stripped down to the basics of Katie standing and feeling the emotion of the person.

Ideas I generated

Some ideas i generated were 

Giving the audience a number, this idea would show the audience they are a prisoner and also would give them a sense of their individuality being taken away, during the performance they would be refereed to as that number.

Putting tape over our mouth's to finish the play, this idea would show our freedom of speech being taken away.

Reading of the national anthem, i researched that in North Korean schools they have to learn patriotic songs and speeches and presented this idea to the group.

Instrumental music in the background, i felt that to create the atmosphere of a north Korean labour camp there should be some intense instrumental music which sound mechanical and unnatural, the group nine inch nails has perfect songs for this environment.

Propaganda posters around the room, after feedback telling us our location wasn't shown enough we felt that we could have propaganda posters in the corridor before the audience arrives.

Kim Jon Un speeches hanging from the bars, this idea wouldn't be seen by everyone in the audience but would show what the rest of north Korea is presented with and how they are supposed to live outside outside the camp.

The final room plan is an open space with a sweat box in the centre and a podium off to the side, the audience will be directed to the area of the room where each scene is by the members of our group who are cast as guards and there will be lots of order and direction as there is in North Korea.

Timeline

scene 1- self criticism assembly and North Korea facts, this scene will be 3 minutes long. 

scene 2- sweat box and morning scene, this scene will be 3 minutes long 

scene 3- sleeping scene and speech, this scene will be 2 minutes long 

Map of stage

The performance will be set out as shown in the map above. The sweat box is in the centre, we will have the class room scene at the top of the room by the projector and the self hatred scene in the bottom corner on a podium (this is not in the map). The other scenes will occur on the floor and will move around.

Performance overview

Our group performance will start with a scene about schools in North Korean Forced Labor camps. The first scene will be a Self Criticism Assembly, Self Criticism Assembly's are a norm in North Korea where the children get nominated to stand on a podium and talk of all the wrong they have done and how they can improve themselves. During this scene the audience will be sat with us and included in the class room, the guards will command them and at the end of the scene we will start to criticise the audience eg, "i saw you drink your daughters water when you knew she was dying of dehydration". The scene will quickly evolve to us reporting back our homework of learning facts about North Korea, One child will get a fact wrong and be sent to the sweat box.
 The next scene is the sweat box scene where one prisoner is inside a box and we are all standing up with the audience making a sound scape to represent the mind frame of the prisoner whilst in the sweat box. One by one we stop saying our word and start to hit our chest to represent her heart which slowly dies out and the now dead prisoner gets dragged to the middle of the room.
 Scene 3 will be a morning/ digging scene where the other prisoners are burying the dead child, we will have island baby lullaby playing and Saffron will read some lines from the 1984 speech to create a morning atmosphere in the room. This then leads to us placing our shovels against the wall and laying on the floor going to sleep, here Katie and Shenneil will read part of another speech we have found. Once the speech finishes they lay down and the guards will wake us all up and usher the audience out of the room at the start of a new day. The entire piece represents a day in the life of a prisoner.