Group meeting scene

Today we started to script our first scene in our devised piece which is our introduction to our teachers and the topic of the meeting. For the scene we wanted to give our characters a steriptypical teacher role:

Meg: Leading the meeting, reposible, non bias
Dan: Strict teacher, scary, in favour of bring more extream corpral punishment
Kyle: New teacher, nervous, stay quiet about his views
Carl: Constanly interupted, slightly timid teacher, against the corpral punishment
Toby: Sarcastic, having a laugh, not bothered by the meeting
Ashley: Late teacher, not bothered by the meeting, doesn't care about outcome

We sat and talked about what we wanted to happen in the meeting like the serious issue and the recorring jokes between us. Meg starts the scene as we made her head of the meeting where she brings up the issue of how to deal with the children using effective punishements. We continued to have this issued talked about between us all with an odd teacher throwing in a joke or two to the conversation until someone mssions the cane. This causes a second debate to spark up between everyone about whether the cane should of been band as a corpral punishment. I then enter, which is ment to be use as a comical entrance as the debate was grown but i stop it dead in its tracks but interuppting the meeting. We then have one of us as a teacher que us into our victorian piece we made last lesson.
We tried the script out to see what we all thought about and after a run thorugh we had a few points to change. We changed some of the wording and phrases in our script because some of our dialogue either didn't make sense or didn't sound like something a teacher would say. Another change we made was the entrance of my character as we decided not introduce him until later so we could build a more comedical entrance for my character.

Victorian piece

Today in lesson we talked about what we wanted from our piece as well as how we plan on putting all of our alternative schools we want to create. we want to create a Modern school (sound scape), Victorian school (Contemporary) and 2 future pieces that show a version of the future where children run wild as well as a future that has had corporal punishment become extreme. To link all of these piece so that our devised doesn't seem like a school timeline, we are going to create a meeting between 6 teachers talking about the respect that students give to teachers. These meetings will set up the piece that follows and will keep talking about the issue of respect and how it should be resolved.

We started creating our Victorian flash back piece that has Dan M as our teacher and the rest of us as students. Me, Kyle, Meg, Toby and Carl are sat in a square shape with Kyle in the centre. Dan starts our piece walk around us slowly and slapping our chair with an order like "sit up" or "use your right hand". Dan will eventually sit down at the front of the class which is when we wanted to start music but one of us had the idea of using a metronome as our music. So when Dan sits down a ticking of the metronome starts as the rest of us pretend to write. Dan starts a repeated pattern using a book that matches the beats of the metronome that goes:

Smack edge of book (1 tick)
Slam book down (1 tick)
Open book (1 tick)
Write (2 tick)
Close book (1 tick)

Repeat

After Dan completes this movement Meg and Carl join in followed by Kyle. Me and Toby join in after Kyle. This is on repeat until Kyle drop his pen causing the metronome to stop and us all to stare at him. Dan slowly moves towards him then moves him to his desk which starts our next sound effect of a cane smacking someone. In time with the recording Dan canes Kyle until our lights fade out ending the piece.

Soundscape class room

Today we started to work on ideas for our education ideas and decided we wanted to start our show in a modern class room then transition too a victorian school. We thought about creating a physical theatre piece but decided we didnt want to start our piece with a physical theatre piece and we also said the same about a scene at the start. We talked and like the idea of a soundscape in class room so we talked about what sounds and phrases we hear during a class room:

Chewing (Gum)
Nail filing
Scratching
Ring tone
Heavy breathing
Tapping

These are the 6 sounds we agreeded that we would hear in a class so decided for our piece that we wanted to record these sounds and have them played in the background of our piece. For the transition between times we wanted to use repeative dialogue that would build until the person who was playing the teacher changed to Victorian teacher. We agreed that Dan M would be our teacher as we all believed he would portray a very stricked teacher for the transition. This is the repetitive dialogue we came up with:

Dan M: Has everyone got their scripts todays
Ashley: Yes I do sir
Meg: Nah sir, Ashley left his at home with his balls
Kyle: Leave Ashley alone
Carl: Oi bender, crawl out his arse
Toby: Shut up Meg you skank

This dialogue would build while the recording was in being played in the background until Dan M slammed down on the desk with his ruler which would show our transition of times as the students who were just misbehaving would become well mannered students.

Group research

This is research we have done as a group that i have collected from my groups blogs:

megrobinsondivising.blogspot.co.uk

KINDERTRANSPORT, 1938–1940

Kindertransport (Children's Transport) was the informal name of a series of rescue efforts which brought thousands of refugee Jewish children to Great Britain from Nazi Germany between 1938 and 1940.

Background

Nazi authorities staged a violent pogrom upon Jews in Germany on November 9–10, 1938, known asKristallnacht (Night of Broken Glass). After the pogrom, the British government eased immigration restrictions for certain categories of Jewish refugees. British authorities agreed to allow an unspecified number of children under the age of 17 to enter Great Britain from Germany and German-annexed territories (that is, Austria and the Czech lands). They were spurred by British public opinion and the persistent efforts of refugee aid committees. Notable among the refugee aid committees were the British Committee for the Jews of Germany and the Movement for the Care of Children from Germany.

The Transports

The first Kindertransport arrived in Harwich, Great Britain, on December 2, 1938. It brought some 200 children from a Jewish orphanage in Berlin which had been destroyed in the Kristallnachtpogrom. Most transports left by train from Berlin, Vienna, Prague, and other major cities in central Europe. Children from smaller towns and villages traveled from their homes to these collection points in order to join the transports.

Jewish organizations inside the Greater German Reich planned the transports. These organizations were the Reich Representation of Jews in Germany, headquartered in Berlin; after early 1939, its successor organization the Reich Association of Jews in Germany; and the Jewish Community Organization (Kultusgemeinde) in Vienna. They generally favored children whose emigration was urgent because their parents were in concentration camps or were no longer able to support them. They also gave priority to homeless children and orphans.

Children chosen for a Kindertransport convoy traveled by train to ports in Belgium and the Netherlands, from where they sailed to Harwich. At least one of the early transports left from the port of Hamburg in Germany. Some children from Czechoslovakia were flown by plane directly to Britain. The last transport from Germany left on September 1, 1939, just as World War II began. The last transport from the Netherlands left for Britain on May 14, 1940, the same day that the Dutch army surrendered to German forces.

After the War

Many children from the children's transport program became citizens of Great Britain, or emigrated to Israel, the United States, Canada, and Australia. Most of them would never again see their parents, who were murdered during the Holocaust.

DMsinglePA.blogspot.co.uk

The Kinder transport was an organized rescue effort that took place during the nine months prior to the outbreak of the Second World War. The United Kingdom took in nearly 10,000 predominantly Jewish children from Germany, Austria, Czechoslovakia, Poland, and the Free City of Danzig. The children were placed in British foster homes, hostels, schools and farms. Often they were the only members of their families who survived the Holocaust.

World Jewish Relief was established in 1933 to support in whatever way possible the needs of Jews both in Germany and Austria. Records for many of the children who arrived in the UK through the kinder transports are maintained by World Jewish Relief.

On 15 November 1938 a delegation of British Jewish and Quaker leaders appealed in person to the Prime Minister of the UK, Neville Chamberlain. Among other measures, they requested that the British government permit the temporary admission of unaccompanied Jewish children, without their parents.

The British Cabinet debated the issue the next day and subsequently prepared a Bill to present to Parliament. That Bill stated that the Government would waive certain immigration requirements to allow the entry of unaccompanied children ranging from infants up to the age of 17. No limit upon the permitted number of refugees was ever publicly announced. Initially the Jewish refugee agencies considered 5,000 as a realistic target goal. However, after the British Colonial Office turned down the Jewish agencies' separate request to allow the admission of 10,000 children to British-controlled Palestine, the Jewish agencies then increased their planned target number to 15,000 unaccompanied children to enter Great Britain in this way.

On the eve of a major House of Commons debate on refugees on 21 November 1938, Home Secretary Sir Samuel Hoare met a large delegation representing various Jewish, Quaker and other non-Jewish groups working on behalf of refugees. The groups were allied under a non-denominational organization called the Movement for the Care of Children from Germany. The Home Secretary agreed that, to speed up the immigration process, travel documents would be issued on the basis of group lists rather than individual applications. The agencies promised to find homes for all the children. They also promised to fund the operation and to ensure that none of the refugees would become a financial burden on the public. Every child would have a guarantee of £50 sterling to finance his or her eventual re-emigration, as it was expected the children would stay in the country only temporarily.

Victorian Schools 

In the first half of the 1800s, classes were massive. Sometimes there were more than 100 pupils in every class.

The Victorian classroom was often referred to as the schoolroom.

Victorian pupils sat at iron-framed desks. These were usually bolted to the floor in rows facing the front of the classroom, the walls of a Victorian school were often completely bare, the floor of the schoolrooms were tiered so the children sitting at the back of the room were higher up than those sitting at the front this meant that all of the children had a good view of the teacher and the blackboard, but it also meant that the teacher had a good view of them.

The windows in a Victorian classroom were high up to stop pupils looking out of the window and the rooms were lit by gaslights which as a result, the schoolrooms were gloomy and often stuffy.

Sometimes different classrooms were only divided from the others by curtains. This meant that it was very easy to hear noise coming from other lessons. Although lots of schools were built during the Victorian era, not a great deal of money was spent on taking care of the buildings. Victorian schools were often quite shabby and in need of repair.

The Teachers

In Victorian schools there were more female teachers than male ones with women occupying the majority of teaching roles. These women were often very strict and scary. The majority of female teachers were unmarried ladies and they were to be called ‘Miss’ at all times. The reason teaching consisted of mostly ladies was due to the pay scale. The salaries were poor and men could be earning more money elsewhere so this was left to the women. The rationale behind it been mostly unmarried women was that once married the women was expected to take care of the family.
The large majority of teachers did not have a college education. The role of teaching was something they picked up while on the job and every new lesson would be a challenge for them too.
The teaching was also passed on to some of the brightest children in some schools known as ‘Monitors’ where they would be taught by the Headmaster and would then pass this onto small groups of children as another way of educating. The Victorian teaching system was much different to the one we have today.

Punishment

Discipline was huge in the Victorian times and this was no different in schools. It wasn’t uncommon for children to be beat by canes made from birch wood. Boys were typically caned on their backsides whereas Girls would take the punishment on their legs or hands.

The reasons ranged from truancy right through to laziness in the classroom. The punishments were usually harsh and painful for children aged jus between 5-10.

Children who were slower than the rest within lessons were made to wear the shameful dunce hats and sit in the corner for over an hour. This was not only humiliating for the child but also not helping them get up to speed with the rest of the class. At the time there was no concept of children with learning difficulties and the uneducated classroom teachers would assume it was purely down to the laziness or lack of effort.

Amazingly children were reprimanded for using their left hand to write! This was seen as a punishable offence and they were made write with their right hand!

In the first half of the 1800s, classes were massive. Sometimes there were more than 100 pupils in every class.

The Victorian classroom was often referred to as the schoolroom.

Victorian pupils sat at iron-framed desks. These were usually bolted to the floor in rows facing the front of the classroom, the walls of a Victorian school were often completely bare, the floor of the schoolrooms were tiered so the children sitting at the back of the room were higher up than those sitting at the front this meant that all of the children had a good view of the teacher and the blackboard, but it also meant that the teacher had a good view of them.

The windows in a Victorian classroom were high up to stop pupils looking out of the window and the rooms were lit by gaslights which as a result, the schoolrooms were gloomy and often stuffy.

Sometimes different classrooms were only divided from the others by curtains. This meant that it was very easy to hear noise coming from other lessons. Although lots of schools were built during the Victorian era, not a great deal of money was spent on taking care of the buildings. Victorian schools were often quite shabby and in need of repair.

The Teachers

In Victorian schools there were more female teachers than male ones with women occupying the majority of teaching roles. These women were often very strict and scary. The majority of female teachers were unmarried ladies and they were to be called ‘Miss’ at all times. The reason teaching consisted of mostly ladies was due to the pay scale. The salaries were poor and men could be earning more money elsewhere so this was left to the women. The rationale behind it been mostly unmarried women was that once married the women was expected to take care of the family.
The large majority of teachers did not have a college education. The role of teaching was something they picked up while on the job and every new lesson would be a challenge for them too.
The teaching was also passed on to some of the brightest children in some schools known as ‘Monitors’ where they would be taught by the Headmaster and would then pass this onto small groups of children as another way of educating. The Victorian teaching system was much different to the one we have today.

Punishment

Discipline was huge in the Victorian times and this was no different in schools. It wasn’t uncommon for children to be beat by canes made from birch wood. Boys were typically caned on their backsides whereas Girls would take the punishment on their legs or hands.

The reasons ranged from truancy right through to laziness in the classroom. The punishments were usually harsh and painful for children aged jus between 5-10.

Children who were slower than the rest within lessons were made to wear the shameful dunce hats and sit in the corner for over an hour. This was not only humiliating for the child but also not helping them get up to speed with the rest of the class. At the time there was no concept of children with learning difficulties and the uneducated classroom teachers would assume it was purely down to the laziness or lack of effort.

Devised piece plan

Today as a group we sat and had another talk about the ideas we wanted to use for our devised piece. We talked about the currant ideas we had for piece which was the ideas of Armenian genoscide or the Kindertransport, we disscussed and decided that we no longer liked either of these ideas that much anymore but we had become very interested in the idea of drugs after our last piece we created. We like this new idea alot and talked how there was alot of potenal in movement piece as well as naturalistic scenes but we then thought that we have done alot of drug inspired piece's in the past from our year 10 and 11 years. This made us start to think the idea could be a little imature for us to perform and we wanted a piece that could be a little more hard hitting. We still liked the drug piece we created and wanted to use it so we tried brainstroming ideas that could link the piece we created into it. I suggested the idea of troubled youth in school as this way we could do multiple stories involing drugs, alcohol, bullying and education. We all like the idea but weren't to sure of it at that moment, someone suggested just the idea of education which was inspired by a play we had recently seen called "Future Conditional". We liked this idea and said we could do a piece around how education has change over the decades to what it is now and what it could become in a few years. We all agreed to furter develop this idea as we all really like the potentail of the idea.

Drugs theatre

Today we were instructed to crate a new piecec of theatre around whatever we wanted to create within humaity in crisis that was different to our currant idea we had for our whole piece. We talked and decided that we wanted to do a physical theatre piece on the ideas of drug abuse. We agreed that I would be the drug user and Meg would be my dealer, the piece starts with us all in the club having Dan M, Carl, Kyle and Toby repeating the same dance moves in the club while Meg approach me and offer me the drug. I hold the drug in my hand while the others travel around me trying to make me take the drug and are pulling the pill towards my mouth. After i take the pill they all circle me and start to push me around slowly growing more franticly as they push faster around the circle till i fall forward. Meg and Toby then pull me up from the ground, Carl hides behind me as Meg and Toby pull on our arm giving it the illution that they have pulled me into two people, me and Carl. Carl is a reprentation of me in the real world suffering while i am my real mind trying to reach for Carl to help him. everyone else forms a wall around Carl seperating me from him as i try to break through the wall. In the wall they throw me back then sit in a circle of 6 six chairs with Carl, Meg comes over and leads me into the centre of the circle. I stand in the centre of the circle as if it is a cage containing me while te others sit on the outside performing a hand routine:

Clap, Scratch, Click
Breath x2, Scream, Clap x2
Puff x2, Breath through teeth,
Stamp, Slap thigh

This is repeted 3 times until I brake out of the centre and Carl collapse down as i try to wake him up. Meg pulls me away as Dan M and Toby as paremedic's who try to save Carl/ the representation of my body but fail as Carl dies. They all back away from Carl, turn towards me and stair at me in disguss to show that my stupid actions have killed myself.

Armenian Genocide, Crisis Time Line or Kindertransport

Today in our group we talked about what humanity in crisis idea we wanted to go with for our overall devised piece plan. We talked about all our ideas we have done or have mentioned and removed all ideas we didnt agree apon pursuing. we removed our ideas of 9 11, hillsbourgh, slavary and trafficing because we all agreed we didn't like these ideas and felt limted in what we could perform. We came up with 3 ideas we liked and wanted to perform as our devised piece. The first idea was a piece based and styalised around the Armenian Genocide as some of us had research this event and said how it was a horrific incident that isnt as well know as events such as 9 11 and Hillsbourgh. The next idea was a Crisis Time Line this was an idea that we could create several different stylised pieces of drama based around different crisises in history and jump between them through out the piece. The last idea is inspired by Kindertransport which would have us playing children on the train heading to safty and then following each child on their journey after getting off the train, traveling with their foster family, dealing with their new lifes.
We disscused these ideas and narrowed our options down to two ideas. We decided that we didn't want to use the Crisis Time Line idea but couldn't decide between the Armeian genocide idea or the Kinder transport so we split in half to research the 2 ideas so that we coud make an informed dission next lesson.