Brecht

We approached our show with a Brechting techniques throughout such as our change of mood through the shows, the deaths and killing suddenly change to a upbeat dance over the dead bodies. the non realistic touches we added to our show is what made the whole thing a brecht piece of theatre as brecht was against naturalistic theatre where the audience “hang up their brains with their hats in the cloakroom.”

Our biggest brecht inspiration was our bow at the end as in fact we did not bow, No attempt is made to put the stage (and the audience) in a trance. The audience wanted more but we didn't give them what they wanted. Someone from the audience said they thought the bow at the end was about the dead not coming back alive, the soldiers dieing in the war; this bow made the audience think thing through a lot, more than they needed which gave it a stronger ending.  

Characterisation

Pierrot 

• feminine
• sweet
• cute

Nurse

• I copied a woman I work with, she's very touchy and always very close to your face.
• close
• protective 

Pankhurst 

• strong
• powerful
• loud
• gest: point out
• head up
• feet together
• only hips up move

Lanchester lass 

• deep
• points with a cigarette
• tilts head side to side
•  squint eyes

Women on the Home Front in World War One

Beyond domestic service

Did World War One actually improve women's lives in Britain? At the time, many people believed that the war had helped advance women politically and economically. Thus, Mrs Millicent Fawcett, leading feminist, founder of Newnham College Cambridge and president of the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies from 1897 to 1918, said in 1918: 'The war revolutionised the industrial position of women - it found them serfs and left them free.' The war did offer women increased opportunities in the paid labour market. Between 1914 and 1918, an estimated two million women replaced men in employment, resulting in an increase in the proportion of women in total employment from 24 per cent in July 1914 to 37 per cent by November 1918.

Working conditions: unionism and pay

Trade unionism proved to be the second legacy of the war. Female workers had been less unionised than their male counterparts. This was because they tended to do part-time work and to work in smaller firms (which tended to be less unionised). Also, existing unions were often hostile to female workers. World War One forced unions to deal with the issue of women's work. The scale of women's employment could no longer be denied and rising levels of women left unmarried or widowed by the war forced the hands of the established unions.

Post war

Anxiety for their menfolk in war, the pressures of employment, combined with the need to perform housework in straitened circumstances and the inadequacy of social services exacted a heavy toll. It also made the withdrawal of women back into their homes after the war less surprising. This return to full-time domesticity was not, however, wholly voluntary.

Prop Table

 In every production there will always be prop tables organized with tap separating each prop and everything having its own place so things wont go missing. 

I noticed with our prop tables it was a bit of a mess with things in boxes and props on display that we don't use but basically very unorganized and to help us all I started to make a proper layout table.     

I got some tape and started to lay out the table; giving props a place to stay, removing props we don't use and making sure they are on the right side of the stage. 

This was a huge help to us all as now we don't have messy tables and we knew where everything was, only things that went missing was costume parts.   

Prop Making 3

 

Print this onto A3 cream colored paper x2 for the newspaper "Extra, extra, Austria declares war on Serbia!" scene.

Print this on to A4 sized paper x3 for those with letters (Pankhurst)

 

There was a prop I saw from when I worked on One Man Two Guvnors of a fake pint glass painted in the inside with clear water based beer colored paint and cotton wall on the top for bubbles. I'm going to make a prototype as in act one I heard they needed beer in a scene.

Feather filled balloons for the bird shooting scene; someone from above will pop the balloon, the sound of the balloon should sound like a gun fire and the feathers falling will look like they caught a bird. 

Week of Rehearsals 2nd-6th of June

We are working on mainly act 2 still; we looked at the runners scene again but we wanted to change it as it was overly complicated and a little unneeded as it’s the runners job to run around not people on the floor. For now we have settled on the two runners running round the apron with their notes in their hand.

There was also a long discussion about if we should include the well-known song "Danny Boy" in the play, there were worries it might be too cheesy or what is the need to add it in, I believe because Lucy the MD wanted to add it as she likes the song but the reason why we need it wasn’t mentioned so we decided to just have it hummed over one of Haig’s monologues.

We looked at a scene in which soldiers go over the top of their trench to fight. We choreographed were three of us go up including myself die and three others hide behind them for shelter while they shout over the sound of gun fires. Henry came up with a clever idea saying how a sewing machine makes a similar sound to a machine gun, the idea was the have a sewing machine behind the screen having two people controlling it and the soldiers reacting. 

We also came up with a dance for "the bells of hell" with me, Conor, Henry, Sam and felix. The idea was to copy The skeleton dance, its really simple and a little silly but it goes with the song. Ellen did try to help but it made us all a little frustrated as we didnt hear any good constructed criticism but its all done and it links into the next scene as we all finished dean on each other. 

There was also some progress made on the sister Susie scene, as I was trying to get the book ready before three for Jim, I was unable to participate as much  as I could but I was able to watch and saying my lines. I like what Ellen and Lucy are coming up with and I thank them for doing it.  

Week of Rehearsals 26th-30th of May

Today we worked on the Haig's runners scene.  In this small scene, Haig orders runners around which leads into the song "They Were Only Playing Leapfrog".  The idea was the runners would be played as the Commedia dell'Arte Bottom of pecking order. Zanni who is that regrettably eternal unfortunate, the dispossessed immigrant worker.

There is also two conversations between British women and German women who both say the same rumours about their opposing sides. I suggested as there is no longer 4 girls in our class shouldn’t just two play it (me and Lucy) and stylise something. I suggested Lady 2 should go in the little room above the audience and have a washing line connect from the window down the back of the audience. Or I could hang up flags; English flags when English than German flags when speaking German. I believe there have been two flags brought for me to use for this scene instead.

Next day we worked on 2 more scenes. We started looking at the Irish scene and read it through. We decided to split up, with 3 people working on the Irish scene while others worked on the second Haig scene. There was more movement added which was 'build soldiers who march to the front of the stage , shoot each other, and are then dragged back to be 'rebuilt'. I think the idea is better than the outcome; yet we cannot change it now. To me there is something missing, currently its two girls being the soldiers and I know that shouldn’t matter but it would look better if it was too male soldiers. I spoke to some others about this and they’ve agreed so next time we come to it again we will try it two males.

We choreographed Haig's Ball and the next song. Once at Pelhem we were able to work on the way the dance worked and where to freeze when others are talking and find our gests for our posh characters.  After this we worked on the next song, "Hush Here Comes a Wizbang". We had the idea to have some of us underneath the rostra that open the rostra and pop out to sing and close it on the word “bang” which sounded great. And Ellen did a dance.

My favourite part of this song is the soldiers going under the rostra, im glad we are finally using it more creatively.  

Our wizbang first rehearsal:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bii_2_fD7y8&feature=youtu.be 

We worked on Mrs Pankhurst scene which is my main one. The idea is she will have a megaphone and speak out load over the booing audience around her. We brought back the M.C for this scene that will introduce her and rush her away at the end. I wasn’t originally going to play Mrs Pankhurst which I was secretly gutted about but I wouldn’t dare make a fuss.  

During the scene I have to shout loudly with a posh accent which for the first time doing it I didn’t do too great. I need to be heard and the crowd around me need to make sure they go quiet so I can be heard. 

Here is the Oh what a lovely war version of the secene

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6yhWM24uMZQ