My Part… Each member of the group had certain things to contribute to allow the project to work. On my behalf I arranged the scenes in their order to let the rhythm of the play flow in a correct way. I thought that the opening scene should be strong & symbolic.
This is why I decided to put the scene with the bible & the bloody body at the beginning. This is a very symbolic scene, it symbolizes the way that people turn to religion for salvation. But it also has a contradiction to it, as there is a bloody body laying on top of the bible, this represents the reality of the world & what it has become. People turn to religion for salvation, yet they fight for religion & kill for religion & die for salvation. As we talked about the play that we wanted to produce, I found it best to draw sketches of what i had in mind to do.
I drew sketches of each scene, with notes all around the drawings to let me & the rest of the group understand what i had in mind. After doing brief sketches, i decided to plan out the stage settings. I divided pages into half, on each half graphing a simple blueprint of the stage & the props. A lot of thought went into this section of planning, as I had to figure out what lighting would have the best effects. After mapping out where the actors would be standing & the position of the props being used, i indicated where i wanted the lighting & at what intensity i wanted them. I wrote notes for each section to show how the lights would be used.
The lighting is a critical effect as this creates the atmosphere being produced in the play, it allows the dream feeling to come to life. As we where going to use the lights in such an important way, we wanted to go that step further. One of the team members had a great idea to use sound effects while he did his mini mono log. Building from this idea i wanted to really create an atmosphere for the audience. As we where going to have such an important opening scene, i wanted the mood to be perfect. I choses music to be played in the background that was very gothic & ancient.
To blend in with the music i wanted the correct lines to be said, so i did some research to find words & phrases in the ancient language of Latin. I created movements to go with the music mixed in with phrases of Latin. But the opening scene is not the only scene that consists of sound effects. I looked for specific sound effects to be played in the scene ” Johnny’s Death.” I taped a small segment of a war movie that had the specific sounds i was looking for.
Another part of the play that has sound is when the drunk father comes in. As the daughter is being abused a soft harmony plays in the background, a song that speaks of a shining star to help lead the way. We believed that this would have a strong impact on the audience, a soft sweet harmony playing as though that is what the little girl craves for. Furthermore, her father, the reality of her world, is hitting her. The words used in the play are curtail, I wanted the mood of sad & lost to really reach the audience.
I thought it best to use specific sentences, to be bold, to tell it how it really is. In the script more movement is used than speech. When writing the script, i found it difficult to blend movement with the very meaningful words. I wanted smooth & fragile body movements, this would create that dream world. At the same time i wanted to make it into a nightmare, so i blended some strong movements with smooth movements. Using the language of Latin & with fantasy movements, the play began to build into what we were aiming for.
One of the most difficult parts in the script for me was to write the appropriate lines for the last scene. Like the opening scene the last one is just as important. I needed to be sure that when the play ended that the audience would be left with the exact feeling i was going for. I researched the development of a baby inside the womb, after doing so i began the process of writing out the lines for the closing scene. Having a mother talk about being pregnant was something that had already been used. Instead i reversed the situation, i had a baby talk about being in the womb of it’s mother whom which ends up killing the unborn child.
This ending was sure to provide me with the statement i wanted to reach out to the viewers, that the world is cruel, that the reality of today is that mothers do kill their own children & that life isn’t a dream. With so much to do & such little time to do it, i called a meeting during the holidays at my house. Thankfully all members came & i provided them with the insight to the script i had written. After taking notes, we all decided to see how the play would look like in action.
We used the garage & began to do each scene in a very draftee manner. We explained to each other what was to be done & how, as well as organising some last minute details needed for the performance. The props for the play had to get done, i said i would do the bible & sofa cover, as well as the hoods & masks needed to create that certain effect. But time was running out & i had to get a move on it.
During my part i did a lot of research, on the dialog language & especially in the development of a child’s growth inside the womb. A lot of effort has gone behind this project to make sure that the overall aim is accomplished.