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.

Character description

My character for the Kids in Camps project is a North Korean school girl and is based on a true story. In North Korea the children are forced to stand on a podium and criticise themselves for all the wrong they have done that week, my character is a child doing this. I will be reading out a passage from the book 'the aquariums of Pyongyang' so I can be accurate of how the children would present the speech. Also in my scene will be Wildat and Gina being children in a self criticism assembly.

This is a North Korean propaganda poster showing children fighting the Americans.