Research notes

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time is a 2003 mystery novel by British writer Mark Haddon. Its title quotes the fictional detective Sherlock Holmes in Arthur Conan Doyle's 1892 short story "Silver Blaze". Haddon and The Curious Incident won the Whitbread Book Awards for Best Novel and Book of the Year, the Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Best First Book, and the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize. The novel is narrated in the first-person perspective by Christopher John Francis Boone, a 15-year-old boy who describes himself as "a mathematician with some behavioural difficulties" living in Swindon, Wiltshire. Although Christopher's condition is not stated, the book's blurb refers to Asperger syndrome, high-functioning autism, or savant syndrome. In July 2009, Haddon wrote on his blog that "Curious Incident is not a book about Asperger’s....if anything it's a novel about difference, about being an outsider, about seeing the world in a surprising and revealing way. The book is not specifically about any specific disorder,”

A stage adaptation, by Simon Stephens and directed by Marianne Elliott, premièred at the National Theatre on 2 August 2012. It starred “Luke Treadaway” as Christopher,” Nicola Walker” as his mother Judy,” Paul Ritter” as his father Ed, “Una Stubbs” as Mrs. Alexander and “Niamh Cusack” as Siobhan. The production was broadcast live to cinemas worldwide on Thursday 6 September 2012 through the National Theatre Live programme. On 19 December 2013, during a performance of The Curious Incident at the Apollo, parts of the ceiling fell down injuring around 80 of the over 700 patrons inside. The show later was transferred to the Apollo Theatre in Shaftesbury Avenue, London, from March 2013.

Asperger

Asperger syndrome (AS), also known as Asperger disorder (AD) or simply Asperger’s is an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) that is characterized by significant difficulties in social interaction and nonverbal communication, alongside restricted and repetitive patterns of behaviour and interests. It differs from other autism spectrum disorders by its relative preservation of linguistic and cognitive development. As a pervasive developmental disorder, Asperger syndrome is distinguished by a pattern of symptoms rather than a single symptom. It is characterized by qualitative impairment in social interaction, by stereotyped and restricted patterns of behaviour, activities and interests, and by no clinically significant delay in cognitive development or general delay in language. Intense preoccupation with a narrow subject, one-sided verbosity, restricted prosody, and physical clumsiness are typical of the condition, but are not required for diagnosis.

High-functioning Autism

High-functioning autism (HFA) is a term applied to people with autism who are deemed to be cognitively "higher functioning" (with an IQ of greater than 70) than other people with autism. Individuals with HFA or Asperger syndrome exhibit deficits in areas of communication, emotion recognition and expression, and social interaction. HFA is not a recognized diagnosis in the DSM-IV-TR or the ICD-10.

Savant syndrome

Savant syndrome is a condition in which a person demonstrates profound and prodigious capacities or abilities far in excess of what would be considered normal. People with savant syndrome may have neurodevelopmental disorders, notably autism spectrum disorders, or brain injuries. The most dramatic examples of savant syndrome occur in individuals who score very low on IQ tests, while demonstrating exceptional skills or brilliance in specific areas, such as rapid calculation, art, memory, or musical ability

Shopkeeper impression on Christopher

He was such a strange boy but they all are in some way, didn’t learn his name, doubt he say, he look confused and lost. He went up to me and said “where is 451c Chapter road, London NW2 5NG”, I made a gesture to my maps I’m selling and asked if he’s buying or not. He said he didn’t know so I told him to hop it as he was scaring off my customers. He completely blanked my request and asked where this place was again thinking because I sell maps I most know where everything is so I looked at him told him he can either buy a map or leave. He then asked “is that the A to Z?” there was something clearly wrong with this boy as was holding it wright in front of his face when he said it? I was fed-up with him so I told him it was a “crocodile” the boy didn’t find it funny so I said “yes it’s the A to Z”, so it bought it and went off chanting “left, right, left, right”. He was definitely one of the wired customers I have ever had.

Blogger 4

1.      This week in class we looked over our opening for curious and as a group we decided to redo the opening. We first struggled to come up with a new idea for the opening but we then spilt into 3 groups who each managed to come up with a new opening for the show. Group 1 came up with a choreographed a danced that was exactly in time with each other and consistent with the beat of the song we had been given. This was to show Christopher’s head and how everything is perfect and thought out. Group 2 showed a creative approach with their idea of having us circle around Christopher, then go in towards him and the spread out in to a circle at first then go back in and come out as a triangle. This was repeated with different shapes which were to show Christopher’s love of maths. Group 3 came up with an idea of two separate groups on opposite ends to Christopher, who is in the middle. Each group would rotate around Christopher in the shape of a square keeping at opposite ends to Christopher, at the ends the 2 groups merge around Christopher and become one giant clump. Every idea was good but in the end we were able to make a new piece by combining the 3. It starts with us in a group that then starts the choreographed movement which leads us to split and go to the opposite ends and walk around the edge of the stage area which leads us back into the centre and shuffle into a big group. This group then spreads out into a circle, we then swap places with another person and make a triangle, we repeat this and make a square. We then go into the centre where Christopher screams and we all fall to the ground and start our number sequences.

2.      Linking back to how we remade the opening I found that separate collaboration in groups can make a production go further and create a great piece of drama work. I found this very useful as normally in one big group there’s a lot of debate and arguing about ideas that only comes out with answer which means other good ideas are ignored. By separating we were able to come up with more ideas and present them which also helped people understand your idea. Then by talking about all the ideas there can be a compromise in the piece amongst everyone as a bit of everything can go into it. This has helped me as an actor as i already knew that there should be team work and everyone has good ideas but I have now learned that everything we work on separately can now become a bigger and better idea.

3.      I did a look into the national theatres performance of curious incident and found this trailer for the show www.youtube.com/watch?v=O704ld5WQnk. I watch several of the scenes for curious incident like the Swindon train station scene www.youtube.com/watch?v=iPqpIcCE9t0. I liked looking at this as it showed me differences in how we have performed are pieces and how they have done there’s with a bigger cast as well as their skill set. Looking at this piece I see how as a company they made some of the lines comedic to entertain the audiences, unlike us as we’ve gone for a more serious approach to the story.

4.      This week are strengths were worked better as a team as we were able to get through more of the show this week and in a quicker time as the week before we got through act one in about 1 hour and 20 minutes but this week, it only took us a hour which also shows that we have memorised what we are doing. We also showed strength in working on select pieces as we redid a couple of our movement pieces and collaborated well on improving or remaking the scenes. Are weaknesses this week is knowledge of are lines as act 1 can still be shorter if we stop stopping and having to think of our line.

5.      For developing the production further I would of liked to be able to do costume changes as it would help create and visualise our characters, another thing is that it’s annoying that we have to sit with audiences as this can limit us in having props as we have to sit with them which does mean there is amount of props we can have on us. I think we could have developed our production as a whole if we had these factor involved we could do more as we could create a better atmosphere and serounding for the scnes. 

Mr Gascoyne Character Profile

Name: Mr Gascoyne (Michael Gascoyne)

Age: 42 (born on the February 22^nd)

Job: Principal of Christopher’s school

Hobbies:

·         Reads a book before he goes to bed, prefers fiction but still like to read non-fiction.

·         Plays golf with his old school friends every Saturday morning 9 till 12.

·         Cooks for his family when he gets home, very creative when it comes to cooking.

Family: Married to Shannon Gascoyne and have 2 children, a boy called Mike who is 14 and a girl called Janice who is 10. Shannon is currently 39 and an ex-teacher at Christopher’s school (she worked there before he started); this is how she and Mr Gascoyne met. They married when she were 25, (3 months before Mike was born). Four years later she was pregnant again and gave birth to Janice at which point she quit her job to be a house wife. When Mr Gascoyne reached the age of 34 he promoted to the principle of the school. Mike is currently in year 10 at studying drama as a GCSE (which is what give Mr Gascoyne the idea to turn Christopher’s book in to a play) and Janice is in year 6 preparing to move up to secondary school.

Personality: Very laid back about his work and life, not the type of person to get stressed about things in his life. He is a family man who cares deeply for his children and wife. He’s a realistic man that doesn’t aim to high or low which is why he was against Christopher doing his A-levels early as to him he can’t see Christopher passing the test.

Presentation: Mr Gascoyne is always a well-dressed man, for work he wears a blue shirt with a grey suit jacket and trousers. He wears shiny black shoes (polished every day after work), a pair of reading classes in his suit pocket when not on his face and a black tie with blue stripes. He always stands tall in a neutral position with hands at his side and looking straight ahead. He walks with a slight bounce and his arms move parallel to his legs. He speaks very slow carefully pronouncing each word correctly.

blogger 3

1.       This week we worked on act 2 of curious incident in going over everything from are memory to see what we can still do. Going over this showed that there were some problems with us, we remembered most of what to do but not when to do. We took some time in going over each physical piece to see how much we could still do. There are several pieces we went over; the main piece we worked on was the London train station piece. We worked on how we want to cue each lift in the scene so it is not chaotic during the scene, we also decided that we would go slow motion while a lift was occurring so the audience can focus on the lifts. We agreed that are cue lines would be “the mad bishop” for lift one and two which is where Christopher jumps into 2 peoples arms and they then throw him into another 2 peoples arms that then put him down. Lift 3 is cued by “way out”, lift 4is cued by “Millie’s cookies”. The last lift is cued by “burger king” which is where Christopher does a flip in the arms of 2 of our cast members, this is followed by 6 more lines which are used to slow down the pace after the last lift so we can go back into the next scene.

2.       This week I did a look into what kind of exercises I can do to help me develop my acting skills, I found a activity called alphabet conversation which I have practice with my brother, I feel it has helped improve my creativity in a performance. This activity involves a conversation where each sentence begins with the next letter of the alphabet. This may seem difficult at first, but improves with practice. Here is an example of the exercise between 2 people.

A: Anyone seen my cat?

B: Black one, with funny eyes?

C: Can't say I remember.

D: Don't tell me you've forgotten what it looks like?

E: Every cat looks the same to me.

F: Fortunately, I found one yesterday

G: Gee, that's great

3.       This week I have started a character profile for my main 2 characters in curious incident which are Mr Gascoyne and shopkeeper. For each one I created a whole family for each one like Mr Gascoyne I gave him a wife who was a teacher at the school and 2 children, a boy and girl. I have done this so I can add more depth to my characters while performing as they will have a backstory to use in my performances like for the shopkeeper I gave him a backstory of regularly being robbed by teens in London which shows why he is untrusting of Christopher when trying to buy a A-Z of London.

4.       This week in class we worked on our entire performances, we showed good memory of the work we have done towards the shows and we also demonstrated good communication skills as a team in are stage work as well as working on are lifts as we need trust to work on them well. What didn’t go well was when we put everything together as we started to slow down in are performance as we each started to make little mistakes in remembering are lines or what we should be doing in are physical pieces.

5.       To improve are production as a whole I would like to look over are lifts in are London scene and make even bigger, more impressive lifts. Sadly as a school group we are limited in the amount of lifts we can do like I previously mentioned there’s a lift where 2 people can lifts Christopher above their head with one hand there’s also another lift I would of liked to do where you can lift a person in to the air and have then walk through the air with one person on each foot making them walk. If we had more time I would of like to be able to of done this lift as its very impressive to watch.

Blogger 1

1.      This week we work on make a realistic London scene, to do this we split in two and each group came up with their own idea on how to make London.

My group came up with a London high-street idea in which we would have merchants selling items to the cast and out to the audience. Christopher would wonder round the scene going from shop to shop bumping into strangers. We had this part when a strange man approached him and everyone went quiet to hear him offer drugs to Christopher. This idea ends with Christopher arriving at the shopkeeper who sells him an A-Z of London.

The other group came up with an idea of a sound scape to do for all the noise you here in London; there were noises of birds, construction work and people shouting. This turned into a mad dash around Christopher where he is knocked about. In the end we merged the two ideas and came up with are London scene that opens with a soundscape and has points were it quiets down for interactions with Christopher.

2.      This week are teacher came up with an exercise that would help us with are creativity and performances. In this exercise he would shout out wired things which we would then have to act like, one example is we were told to be purple. I found this all hard to start with as I spent too much time thinking about how to do this, later I found out that’s this was about improving are instincts and not to think about what we are doing but to just do it as instinct. I believe that after I learnt this I was able to grow on my instinct in acting and make them better.

3.      This week I have done some research in to how I should perform the role of Mr Gascoyne. I looked in to my grammar and pronunciation I would use as a head teacher; I believe I would be well spoken to set an example to students. I looked into posture as I believe I would be stood tall without a slouch. I also looked at how I should respond to certain question like when Ed requests that Christopher should do his A-levels early.

4.      This week’s work on performance went well as we came up with a lot of good scenes and ideas for the London scene and also got a lot done in scripting scenes but I feel we could have done more as we keep getting distracted by each other. So I believe if we can start next week with more concentration we could get a lot more work developed in the show so we have more time to perfect other pieces of work nearer the show date.

5.      To develop the production further I feel we need to go back and work on some of the movement pieces as in my opinion there a bit messy, like the scene where Christopher is looking for his book we created the house using us but how we get to each position is a bit messy as we collide with each other while transitioning between still images.

blogger 2

1. This week we worked on improving pages 1-49 of our scripts by working and developing are performance on each scene. My first scene is Ed and Mr Gascoyne talking about Christopher doing his A-levels early, Ed keeps asking for reasons that Christopher can't do his A-level, Mr Gascoyne keeps coming up with reasons like "he can't treat Christopher differently to other students" or "I don't think we have the facilities to support this". We improved the scene by going other the scene without scripts so we can focus on are technique and physicality of each of our character we use. when we did scene with this in mind I have Mr Gascoyne sitting in his chair laid back not really listening to Eds request because to him it stupid for a special needs child to do his A-level earlier then he has to as to him there's no chance of it ending good. throughout the scene Ed show persistent over the matter which leads Mr Gascoyne to have to raise himself up and say it would be better to talk about this on there own as Christopher was present in the room, Ed says he doesn't care about that so Mr Gascoyne rises to his level and says about how Christopher would have to be by himself which is a problem for a boy like Christopher while doing the A-level. for next time I do that scene I'm going to work on my pronunciation by making my sentences slower and focused on the pronunciation of words. i also want to look into my stance into making it more of a powerful stand.

2. This week we did a exercise that would help our physicality of our characters in the performance. We walked around first as ourselves so we could tell what are distinctive traits were for when we walk and then decided how are characters would walk. We alternated between are normal walk and are characters walk so we could get use to are character change. We then worked on are transition from an neutral sitting to standing as are character and going straight into the scene. I think this was very useful to me as I was struggling with the change between me to my characters and this has defiantly helped me with this skill.

3. This week I researched into what I want my 2 main characters to look like and walk like. Decided for Mr Gascoyne I wanted him to an older, well presented man. For the Shopkeeper I imagined that he would look like a shady and shaggy man who talks with a cockney accent.

Mr Gascoyne:


Shopkeeper:

4. This week we did well in running act 1 of curious incident as we managed to get a good flow in the performance as we all new are lines except a couple of odd lines from some which was to be expected but other than that we showed good co-operation and team work in the practice of act 1.

5. To develop the production further I believe it would be better if we could learn more dynamic lifts to use in the performance like there’s this lift in the west end performance where Christopher is lifted by 2 people only using 1 arm up above their heads which I would love to be able to do as well as over acrobatics and lifts to make the lifting scenes have a “wow” factor.

Mr Gascoyne Monlouge

Christopher, he's a strange lad! He Requested to do his A-levels a year early. when he first approached me and asked, I said No, didn't even consider him doing. Later his farther, Ed, came in a made the same request as his son. Once again I said no but he was more persistent then Christopher and kept asking, it became a bit annoying as no matter what I said he didn't seem to understand the problem with Christopher doing his A-levels early. Christopher may struggle with a lot of the questions as they are very advanced for his learning skills and also a boy with his... problems, I don't think would be able to cope being separated into a room with a stranger. Eventually I gave in and said he could do his A-level early and thank god I did, the boy past, got an A* which made our school look incredible to the public as we never done an A-level in this school before and the first person who does get the highest grade possible.

videos of work

Improve scene Mr Gascoyne and Reverend Peters:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Op06IOyftO8

Christopher in London:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=wDTrI8FPRkA