Week 4

Site specific – week 4

This week we looked and worked in our groups for our performance. We started in the classroom and talked through and recapped ideas from last week. We didn’t get as far as we wanted last week so we thought a new approach to the project would help our ideas. We went back to our space, where we thought we could do our piece and find that we came up with ideas that were sticking so we keep coming up with ideas; unfortunately none of them were strong. 

Our ideas were based around the concept of empowering women and the feeling of what women were told to do and what they couldn’t do. My idea for using power to women song was a good base for it to develop into a song that is sung by women from that time. We came up with ideas to use physical theatre for example we are going into the classroom in regimented fashion so it shows how strict they were with young ladies in the past. 

Doing some research, I have found a book review and a book, which can help with the research for our ideas. They are about what it was like for girls to go to school, so in the 1940s there were more girls going to school as before, although society in general didn’t think girls should be following in boys’ footsteps when they went off to school, when they were deemed old enough to be sent away to school; although, if the girls were sent away from school, they would be mostly from a small number of the wealthiest section of middle classes’ families, they would go to a school in the south of England,as they were extremely expensive, modish schools, as they thought it would provide a better education for the girls, but it was common in the upper region of middle class families that they wouldn’t send their daughters to school. These girls were from a wealthy family provided a more select and sheltered environment for the girls to learn in by getting in resident or visiting governesses,and if the family could afford the extra lessons like dancing, singing, and painting they would be able to have them. If the family felt it was acceptable for their daughters to become more intellectually accomplished, they would be allowed to sit in their brother’s lesson with visiting masters. 

Here are the links to the where I found the information:

https://books.google.co.uk/books?hl=en&lr=&id=idgbsHRSpF8C&oi=fnd&pg=PP2&dq=1940s+girls+schooling+england&ots=FtBMEVfpCS&sig=fRr3MMx9wioHc1tgoj4pBy5oFuM#v=onepage&q&f=true    

http://www.history.ac.uk/reviews/review/689

The location we chose is a collation of small spaces we found at an intersection of corridors. We will use two corridors that lead off the main corridors, we will use the main corridors as our audience seating. We chose this space because it could be used in various ways; for example, using the corridors as different scenes: we will move in the four sections and turn in a circle with the audience in the middle. We also find we can use the wall and the enclosed space to help with the idea that the girls had limited jobs they could do. 

I hope finding this information will help fuel some ideas that we could use to develop our piece. I also feel that a site specific performance should be about the space they are performing in, but I feel that it has to be about something deeper than what is obvious. 

Here are my ideas of what needs to be included in a risk assessment – picture to the right.

Week 4

Presentation group (task 1) - Eleanor, Mel, Pakize, Joe, Jenny (me)

This week we looked at our presentation of three site specific companies, we wanted to focus on looking at a wide range of companies, so we chose to pick an international one, European and UK based. So we also gave roles to what everyone would be doing for the presentation. I will be looking at what they have done, where they have done a piece, and what was the purpose of their presentation.

Companies

1. Grid Iron - I think that the company we should use is Grid Iron because they are leading innovators in the site specific presentations; this company is based in Edinburgh and it specializes in writing site-specific plays or pieces. This company is focusing on more writing site specific pieces, rather than actually performing them, even though they do perform them sometimes.

I found it really hard to find a Theatre Company related solely to site specific, loads of companies I have found do other theatre pieces in theatre, while doing a little bit on the side of site specific. Something that can be quite hard to find is one international company, one European company and one UK based site specific company. I am also having trouble finding groups that are based on the theatre around the location instead of creating the piece of theatre before they pick their location.

Site specific performance (task 2) - Eleanor, Pakize, Sarah, Chris, Jenny (me)

During this task we are focusing on the school building and coming up with a location and idea for our group to do. We found that it was quite hard because all the ideas we had didn't work in the spaces we found. In the end, we found that the space we came up with would support a handful of ideas, some of them were about the girls’ school and how they were very regimented and didn't get to talk about boys or their own opinions. Teachers were strict and non-sympathetic and they didn’t care about their students’ feelings. I also came up with the idea that we can use all the people from the building’s history; they could walk around that space and interact with the BRIT School students now, so that it would create a sense of history character; for example, the characters from history would go about their business in that area, mixed with the BRIT School kids. We still haven’t found an appropriate place to use, but I feel that we will all come up with ideas over the week and we will have a solid solution for the next lesson.

I came up with an idea that would be a good development on our concept, based on the girls only school: during the First World War the girls had to take over the jobs that the men were doing on the farms, as well as in factories, hospitals, schools. I feel this part of the war’s history is really significant for the status of women, which changed dramatically in that period and led to more rights for women, especially in the employment field.. My idea is to use a song that emphasizes women's power and to create a choreography piece which will highlight how the women started to gain their rights.  We will do this piece of dance to the song "Sisters are doing it for themselves" by Annie Lennox & Aretha Franklin.

I have find that in our group we have lots of ideas which can be used and some that can be developed but nothing that solid starting point. I feel like we all need to come up some solid ideas that we can work from. I also feel that my group isn't very good at concentrating thought out the lesson. My strengths are that bi can keep focus but im weakness is that i cant get the group back on track.

Week 3 - Site Specific

 

Presentation group (task 1) - Eleanor, Mel, Pakize, Joe, Jenny (me)

 

This week we looked at our presentation of three site specific companies, we wanted to focus on looking at a wide range of companies, so we chose to pick an international one, European and UK based. So we also gave roles to what everyone would be doing for the presentation. I will be looking at what they have done, where they have done a piece, and what was the purpose of their presentation.

Companies

1. Grid Iron -  I think that the company we should use is Grid Iron because they are leading innovators in the site specific presentations; this company is based in Edinburgh and it specializes in writing site-specific plays or pieces. This company is focusing on more writing site specific pieces, rather than actually performing them, even though they do perform them sometimes.

 

I found it really hard to find a Theatre Company related solely to site specific, loads of companies I have found do other theatre pieces in theatre, while doing a little bit on the side of site specific. Something that can be quite hard to find is one international company, one European company and one UK based site specific company. I am also having trouble finding groups that are based on the theatre around the location instead of creating the piece of theatre before they pick their location.

 

Site specific performance (task 2) - Eleanor, Pakize, Sarah, Chris, Jenny (me)

 

During this task we are focusing on the school building and coming up with a location and idea for our group to do. We found that it was quite hard because all the ideas we had didn't work in the spaces we found. In the end, we found that the space we came up with would support a handful of ideas, some of them were about the girls’ school and how they were very regimented and didn't get to talk about boys or their own opinions. Teachers were strict and non-sympathetic and they didn’t care about their students’ feelings. I also came up with the idea that we can use all the people from the building’s history; they could walk around that space and interact with the BRIT School students now, so that it would create a sense of history character; for example, the characters from history would go about their business in that area, mixed with the BRIT School kids. We still haven’t found an appropriate place to use, but I feel that we will all come up with ideas over the week and we will have a solid solution for the next lesson.

 

I came up with an idea that would be a good development on our concept, based on the girls only school: during the First World War the girls had to take over the jobs that the men were doing on the farms, as well as in factories, hospitals, schools. I feel this part of the war’s history is really significant for the status of women, which changed dramatically in that period and led to more rights for women, especially in the employment field.. My idea is to use a song that emphasizes women's power and to create a choreography piece which will highlight how the women started to gain their rights.  We will do this piece of dance to the song "Sisters are doing it for themselves" by Annie Lennox & Aretha Franklin.