Performance Evaluation 

Today we performed our piece to our peers and teachers. Before we performed, we had about and hour to rehearse and tidy our site. After going over what we added on last week, we decided to all walk towards the bonfire, then sharply turn away when we do our direct walking. We chose to add this in purely because we thought it would draw attention to the bonfire and hopefully focus our audience's sight on that. We also placed some cardboard down around the bonfire so it was safer and cleaner when Lizzie, Daisy, Rebecca and I have to lie down around it.

We also changed into our costumes:

My expectations for our piece were high, as I felt like we had done enough rehearsals for it to run smoothly and I felt like we had responded to the site as truthfully as we could. My only concern was that of the audience's understanding of our piece. As we were performing behind a thick layer of glass, it is hard to hear or see their reactions to the piece, so I wasn't sure if they were engaged or bored. Having said this, I think that the audience reacted well to our piece, as after a few people said to me that the message got across.

Thankfully, it didn't rain when we performed and even though it had earlier, our ground was dry. Fortunately, none of the risks on our risk assessment form happened. I think the reason for this was because we had done a lot of rehearsals and ensured everything would be safe for the audience. One small accident which I hadn't expected was getting mud in our eyes. This only happened to me and I think I covered it up well. It was when Danny put me on the cardboard after the fire man lift, that the wind blew a bit of dirt in my eye. Although this wasn't a major risk, it could have compromised my vision and caused me to fall over or fall into someone else. Thankfully I managed to get it out in time, but the point was that we hadn't thought about the wind blowing small things into our eyes. I'm not sure if we could have prevented it without wearing safety goggles, but it was such a minor risk that we didn't think about it.

While I was performing, I felt as if I really lived in the moment. I did actually feel as if I was trapped and there was a fire slowly killing me. Not being able to see or hear the audience defiantly helped me get into ''the zone'' and focus on my fellow actors and the piece. I think I personal performed well, as I believed I was in a burning building and ensured I was always there if I was needed. The connection between us all was strong and we responded well to each other. We made sure that everyone in our group felt comfortable and supported during our piece by maintaining eye contact and sharing each others energy.

Overall I am very pleased with how our performance went. I think that our message of not always being able to plan for life's hazards really came across and resulted in our piece having a longer lasting impression upon our audience. Here is a video of our final performance entitled 'Fire':
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=739210162770025&set=vb.100000431433583&type=2&theater

Week Five

Today we all came with ideas concerning the centre of focus for our piece. We started of with having the fire exit sign be our focus of attention, but it was too far away and not big enough for the audience to see. So, after experimenting a bit, we decided to build a small un-lit bonfire in the centre of our location. I believe that it will be a good centre point for us all to focus on and could be the cause of the fire which essentially traps us. When I go into the middle of the space and shout 'fire', I now stand on top of the bonfire, so it will hopefully give the illusion and impression of me burning. We decided to build the bonfire now, as our performance is next week and we wanted to practice with it. We used the surrounding gardens and picked up and dead leaves or fallen twigs to build our bonfire, making sure it was all located on our site. Here is an image of what it looks like:

 I then went to where the audience would be standing to see if it looked good or not. After seeing it from the stairs, I could already see our piece having a new breathe of life, as it really gave the site a centre point and almost a purpose. I think it is a good solution to our problem of not having a focus point, as somehow having an abandoned, deaden fire releases a sense of isolation which our piece needs.

We then did a full run through of our performance (which we filmed), noting what felt right, what worked and of course, what didn't. After watching it back, we all agreed that it needed something more impactful and noticeable at the beginning. we felt the breakfast sequence was too realistic and messy, it didn't tie in well with the rest of our piece and was significant enough to the site and what it offered us. After improvising with different recognisable morning routines, we felt that doing a simple movement in unison would look effective and the audience would be able to know we have started. Now, we start the piece by stretching and picking up a cup of water. In unison, we take a sip then pour out the contents into the floor. We then throw the cup into the bonfire, like we are trying to put the metaphorical fire out, and then go into our direct walking. I think this will give our performance pace and authority, which essentially will lead into the over riding theme of how we all try to control our lives, but in the end our plans will cease and get abandoned. This links into the feelings we all got from the site when we first entered it.  

Last week we all agreed that our key colour would be red and this week we decided how we could incorporate that colour into our piece. As we hadn't thought about costumes yet, our group thought that we could all wear something red, to show how the fire is always with us and how mundane and similar our daily routines can be. I think and hope that if all of us wear one item of red, it will look slick and noticeable, but also highlight the fact that there isn't a main character in our piece, we are all equal and of the same importance.

Finally, we completed our final risk assessment for our performance next week. As we had to change sites, we hadn't done a rick assessment for our site yet, so before we filled out the neat copy, Daisy, Rebecca and I roughly noted down some risks we could already see forming:

1. It could rain and cause the ground to be slippery (as there are leaves on the floor), so consequently one of us could fall and hurt ourselves
2. The audience could fall down the stairs
3. Ashley could fall off the railings
4. When Lizzie and I are in the fire man lift, Danny or Ashley could fall/trip, causing us both to fall and hurt ourselves
5. One of us could trip over the bonfire as there are loose twigs
6. An actual fire alarm could go off and there could be an over crowding risk when everyone is trying to leave through the fire door
7. Passers by could trip on the audience's bags, causing them to fall and hurt themselves

We are dealing with these issues by ensuring the audience leave their bags at the bottom of the stairs and reminding them to hold onto the railing provided. As for the lifts, we will practice them regularly as to ensure maximum safety. There isn't much we can do about the rain, but if it is wet on performance day we shall take extra precautions when walking around.

After handing the form in, we did one final rehearsal to make sure the new movements were in our heads. For next week we need to remember our red item of clothing and some cups for the breakfast scenes.

Week Four 

This week our group continued to do organic improvisation, bouncing off the idea's we had from last week. I told our group about the personal accounts I had collected over the week and we started to incorporate the common themes of isolation and alienation into our piece. We are still unsure about how to include this point of focus for isolationism in our piece, but we are all going to come with fresh idea's for it next week

Today we roughly finished our piece, ending it with buckets of water being thrown at the audience and Danny, Lizzie and Rebecca all melting to the ground as if they are the flames we have just put out. I found rehearsals today a bit of a struggle, as not everyone in our group was initially focused so it made devising hard. We have found trying to make everything we do  relevant to our site and because of this our group have struggled with keeping the piece interesting. I don't think our piece has a strong narrative yet, so after a short discussion, we started to plot a story for our characters. We start off by having breakfast and walking to work, then the fire happens and we get trapped, eventually dying.
Here is a rough running order of the movements and scene's in our piece:

1. Having breakfast-drinking and eating
2. Direct walking, as if we are walking to work (this represents the daily routine of people's lives)
3. All line up in single file against the far wall
4. Slow motion running into the centre of the space, then fast running away from the fire, while looking up at it
5. Ashley shouts 'fire' and he falls off the railings
6. We all run to the railings and shout 'help'
7. Run to the windows by the audience and start mirroring each other (I mirror Rebecca. This symbolises how fire becomes you and takes you over)
8. We then throw the ''fire'' off
9. I stand in the middle as the others circle me, imitating the fire as I scream 'fire'
10. We then all go to separate spaces and pretend as if we are trapped in our own box, suffocating from the smoke of the fire
11. We then do the trust exercise, one person puts up their hand, coughing and chocking and the others catch us
12. Fire man lift into the centre of the space
13. Daisy, Rebecca, Lizzie and I all fall in the middle of the space
14. Ashley and Danny then investigate our deaths
15. Walk towards the audience
16. Throw water at the windows as if we are putting out the fire
17. Turn and run too the railings, finial plea for help8uy

All of the movements here have been inspired by the site's old purpose. Although I feel like this performance has potential, I think we need a centre focus. The audience wont be able to hear anything, so there isn't much dialogue apart from when we shout out help or fire. We will have a backing track which will hopefully harmonise and contrast well with our piece. Daisy suggested Fire Starter by Prodigy http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zTYRGi-Q7U4. At first we loved this song for our piece, but when we played it over the top and watched it back, we discovered that it didn't really fit with our movements or the message we were trying to convey. We decided we needed a slow song, one that would highlight the delicate undertones of our piece. In the end we chose Let Her Go by Passenger :

After listening to this song and then playing it over our piece, I think it makes up for our lack of dialogue as it has similar messages to our piece. I think our narrative now is more vivid, as our piece has a story one in which I think our audience will be able to relate to.

We started to think about some prominent colours which could run throughout our piece. As we got a strong sense of fire from the site, we thought that the warm colours yellow, orange and red would suffice as inspiration to our piece and could possibly be included in our performance. These colours are normally associated with fire, so if we include at least one of them then I think our audience will understand fully that we are both being affected by the fire but also the flames themselves.

These three colours can also be connected with lazy sunsets, which one would normally think of as happy things. So, we are also going to use that alternate meaning of the three colours to inspire the more humane sections in our piece. For example, when we do the trust lifts, we have to rely on others and their kindness.

For me, the colour red stands out the most and I would love this to be the main colour in our site specific performance. I also noticed that there is a small smudge of red paint on one of the fire exit signs, so having the colour red in our piece links it to our site, therefore making the choice of colour relevant as well as symbolic.

First Hand Personal Accounts:
Lucy Shaffi: 'I remember coming here (to the site) in year ten and feelings completely overwhelmed and lost somehow, like I wasn't in London anymore. I know that sounds weird but because it was so, like, boxed in I felt really isolated and trapped somehow. Yeah, I don't really like that site, it scares me. [laughs].'

Ruby Holder:'I don't really know that fire exit space well because its by the side of the school I never really go on, so I guess if I went there it would feel quite strange and abnormal.'

Khai Shaw: 'I remember in year ten being quite nervous to go down to that area by the side of the school because we just never went there often. The one time I went there I felt quite rebellious even though it was allowed. I think I felt that because there's not much that side of the school and it can be quite dark and lonely down there. I dunno, it's just not a place I would go to if I had the choice.'

From these accounts I got the feelings that this site is very mysterious and can make some people feel nervous. Somehow I would like to incorporate this into our piece.

Week Three 

After last week, I felt as if our performance needed some stimulus, so I researched poems about fire and found a poem by Nick Flynn called 'Fire' http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/181214 . I got inspired by how the poet mentions all the different effects fire has and the after math of it. I thought our group could also touch on what happens after an incident such as a fire.

As our piece's main inspiration was the abandoned fire exit sign:

I thought it would be wise just to do a small bit of research about why we have fire exit signs and possibly we could use the reasons in our performance. Fire exit signs were brought in after the Victoria Hall disaster in Sunderland England, 1883. More than 180 children died due to a door being bolted at the bottom of the stairwell. Afterwards, the British Government began legal moves to enforce minimum standards for building safety. This then slowly led to the legal requirements that venues must have a minimum number of outward opening emergency exits as well as locks which could be opened from the inside. The site we are in is a door which is locked but can be opened in case of a fire. I thought maybe we could use to history of the fire exit sign somehow in our performance, possibly mentioning how sometimes doors which are supposed to be opened aren't, and therefore you can get trapped.

Our group started to work on this and we came up with a movement which shows us ''trapped'' in a box, clutching at our throats as the fire approaches us. Another element we added in today was including the patterns of the ground and the windows in our performance. In the image below you can see the very structured patterns of the ground. At first, we were repeating certain movements, but we decided that these certain gestures didn't tie in well with our performance and weren't specific enough to our site and its qualities.

Through doing this, however, we started to come up with individual characters. I decided that mine is a business women who doesn't believe in luck. All of our characters are basic, as we wanted our performance to be a microcosm of society and for the audience to focus more on the message rather than the characters and the dialogue. Leading on from this point, today we finalised where our audience would be. As we want as many people as we can to see our performance, our group has decided to place our spectators on the stairs situated behind the windows.

We feel that because there is a barrier blocking the audience from being able to touch us, this would add to the element of no one being able to help you if you are trapped in a fire. It will also isolate us more. When we tested out the viewing point, I noticed that there was a humming sound on the stairwell, which contributed to the eerie atmosphere our performance will have.



Week Two 

Today we continued to devise our performance. Before we could carry on our devising process, we took into consideration the history of our site overall. As our location is on The BRIT School grounds, and part of the older building, we all looked into the history of our school.

The History:
Mark Featherstone-Witty had been inspired by Alan Parker's 1980's film, Fame, to create a performing arts secondary school specialising in the creative arts. He started to raise money through the School for Performing Arts Trust (SPA), and has consequently refined a novel  integrated curriculum.

Featherstone-Witty approached Richard Branson, founder of the Virgin Group, to be the Project Champion. He agreed but would only carry on if other record companies 'chipped in'. Luckily, the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) were concerned with home taping and realised they had no political influence to bring the necessary pressure to bear. The Conservative Government needed to give impetus to their flagging City Technology College Scheme.

For over twenty years, The BRIT School for Performing Arts and Technology has been the beneficiary of the British Record industry, who has given more than £7 million to the school. Annual contributions form the Brit Awards have also been given to the school via the record industry's charity, the BRIT Trust.  

This research helped influence our piece, as the school has been supported from trusts, we decided demonstrate how people rely on the support of others during fires and everyday life. We started to work on how we could display this, and I came up with the idea of performing a few trust falls, to show how humans rely on other humans. We worked this idea into our piece, weaving it into a few sections of our piece.

While devising, we noticed that the glass resembled a large mirror, as we could see our reflection in it. We decided to use the reflection of the windows in our piece, mirroring each other resembling how fire itself follows you about. Our group decided to include this short mirroring in our piece as it is another aspect which connects our piece to that specific site, as no other area in the school has the same window placing. Here is an image of what the windows look like. You can see clearly in this picture how well this glass reflects what is opposite it.

The meaning behind our performance is that no matter how much you plan and rehearse fire drills, you can never be prepared for what life throws at you. When a real fire happens, I would say there is a very low chance that everyone will file out in a single line to the car park. It  is the same in life, you can't plan what will happen to you. We also want to show how everyone's lives is almost like a constant drill; you have breakfast, go to work or school, have lunch, go home and then go to bed.

The site offered these themes and morals to us, as our location looked as if it once used to be used regularly, but over the years has been left, possibly because it wasn't convenient enough. Our group want to include this idea in our piece.

Week One 

Originally,our site specific performance was going to be in the disabled loo by student services, but due to complications we were unable to perform it there. Our first site looked like this:           

and from this we got a feeling of entrapment and all the things that people do behind closed doors. Our group started to work with the very structural build of the loo and how it made us feel. We gathered up the emotions of isolation, mistakes, routine and darkness. After finding out we had to change our site, we searched for a location that had the same themes. We found that the fire exit by the side of the school contained these emotions and more. We explored our site and found that it was very square and ordered; the concrete floor was set in rectangular patterns, the windows were in blocks of four and the railings above were symmetrical to each other. 

The primary function of this site is a space for students and staff to cue up if there is a fire. It is also a safe exit route to the communal fire exit location. I noticed that the fire exit signs and door had been neglected and almost forgotten about. We used this fact in our movement for our piece. We started to walk in direct lines, responding to the straight beams above us and the lines of the patterned ground. Our group decided to base our piece around fire and the feeling of being boxed in, as the site gave me the feeling of being enclosed in a large, metal box.