Progress

Since  the start of the second semester our group has mad a lot of progress on out short play now called “ A peculiar state of love”  We have changed a lot of the characters and the play now really represent our thought about how love can be very complicated and in some cases peculiar. Marcus in now just a regular guy trying to do his job and support for his wife. Sara is now a more relatable character who just envies the relationship that marcus has with his wife. We changed her husband Steve to a more likeable character, we did this by making him an alcoholic who does not support his wife and spends most of his time at the local bar. It really feels like a whole new play, but at the same time it feels like a upgraded improvement of our first draft. WE.ARE.MAKING.MOVES.

Fall play review

The fall play was in my opinion to long, it had way to many long and useless conversations.

That could have been cut out. The long and "boring" conversations made me feel like time was

passing by extremely slowly. There were some good parts where the jokes made me giggle, but the

long boring conversations that led up the finale where Algi and Jack are confronted by there two

loves did not do the play any good. For example the scene where Jack and Algi are arguing at the

coffee table should have been 2 minuets instead of what felt like 20.

On the other hand I did like the back and forwardness with Algi and Earnest in the beginning of the

play. It set a sertatint tone to the play right from the get-go. We see what type of character Algi is and

how he uses blackmail to push Earnest to talk about personal matters. This opening scene makes Algi

a pretty unlikeable character and he never makes up for it. It is also one of the reasons it does not

feel real when he gets Cissaly at the end. Speaking about the end, it in general felt very forced.

The character just blindly go back to being in love and all is forgiven.  Other than that the play

was very good. The actors did a solid job bringing out specific emotions for specific scenes.

I would rate this play a solid 7/10

Workshop experience

The workshop reminded me a lot of my improv theatre classes back in Sweden. The way it was

structured was just like a normal theatre session, exercises and improv. The improv part is what I was

most comfortable with.  What was different was when we sat down to talk about the various text they

brought with them. Analyzing the texts and then implementing them into an small scene gave me an

even better understanding for creating a play. Other than that I really liked the session with Ben &

Steve and would gladly do it again.

Top five takeaways pages 69-94

1. Time and place, How important timing is and where to place sertatint scenes.

2. The importance of the first meeting

3. constructing a ground plan

4. theatre space

5. Transplanting a play to another world

Top 10 take aways: Thinking like a director

1. A director must be above all Passionate

2. passion is what energizes the directors search for the animus or inner life of a play.

3. Every event has a purpose or function.

4. Interpretation is now recognized as central to the directors work.

5. Every scene between actors could be called an event

6.  It is easy to "miss the forest for the trees" don't get to caught up with the characters. This can make the play shortchanged

7. Architecture is very important for all types of theatre.

8.  A director must be a master of narrative

9. The use of language can change the feel of a play. (change the whole mood)

10. Every change of action produces a new segment, called a beat.

What I am confused about

1. types of research

What I want to learn more about

1. Analyzing language

Directors vision: The sandbox

Director's vision: The sandbox

The play is set in Sweden (no specific year period) We are introduced to a kindergarten with kids running wild and having fun. Everything seems ok until one of the children discovers a dead body buried in the sandbox. Panic erupts, children screaming and crying. The body is one of the workers at the kindergarten. My vision for this scene is to have the lights turn to a most uncomfortable red. The stage will become completely silent, the audience must be able to hear a pin drop. This silence will go on for about 5 seconds. Then there will be hard and loud drums (as in a orchestra) We see all the children around start to panic and the adult staff will try to contain them. But the child who discovers the body will stand completely still in shock. The scene will then go dark.

In the next scene we see detective Ulfbjorn  standing outside the kindergarten just a few feet away from the sandbox which is now a crime scene. He stands with his notebook taking down notes. The light in this scene is not particular sad. It is warm and in the back round we hear the birds sing (this to indicate that it is the next morning) The other detective (detective Rosling) walks up to him and starts a conversation asking him what happened. Detective Ulfbjorn does not respond, he just squats down and looks at the sandbox closer. For this scene i want the audience to really start to think about what happened. Not just the fact that someone died, but also why. Detective Ulfbjorn says “Lets go inside”  The two of them begin walking towards the building. They get to the door and stop, The whole building then starts to rotate. The lights begin to fade and turn dark, at the same time music that sounds interesting starts playing. (like when the main characters in a movie walk into a haunted house/building) The stage is rearranged at the same time as the building rotates. The inside of the kindergarten looks old and i want it to give the audience a sertain chill down their spine as if something is wrong with the whole building.

Stage model