BLACKBOARD PRESENTATION

Unit 5 & 6 Portfolio

Start

Olivia-Tahani Wyatt

12. Bibilography

5. Technical role

11. Logs

10. research that has helped

4. Analysis of song and artist

9. Character research

8. Costume design final pieces

3. Context of play & song

7. Moon board

2. What is devising

6. Research understanding my artistic decisons

1. Introduction

index

We as a group took this word and started to think about what also stems off of stealing. So we looked at stealing from the aspect of stealing friends, thinking about what emotions are Involved and how it makes other characters feel.

The stimulus for this years devising project is stealing. My group and I got given 'Shoplifters Of The World Unite', by The Smiths Band, who had a blended taste of indie rock and post-punk in the 80s. This song represents the band's rebellious and anti-establishment spirit. The lyrics touch on the themes of youth rebellion, social norms, and the desire for freedom .

About My Project

Introduction

• What is devised theatre?

Devised theatre is a collaborative approach to creating a performance. This means instead of starting with a pre-written script, the process begins with a stimulus. As actors we work together to develop the story, characters and staging through improvisation, experimentation and collaborative brainstorming. This form of theatre includes everyone in descion making and contribution towards the final result. Devised theatre allows for an innovative and creative approach to productions that can be tailored to specific themes and social issues. According to The Kennedy Center in Washington D.C 'devising is “The process of collaboratively creating a new work without a pre-existing script where in the collaborators are also the performers."

A stimulus in theatre and performance, refers to an external prompt or inspiration that sparks creativity and drives the development of a piece. It can be nothing from a song, a photograph, a news article, or even a personal experience. The stimulus serves as a starting point for the creative process to begin. Helping to generate ideas, themes and concepts that shape the final production. In a play the stimulus has a significant impact on character development. When presented with a stimulus, it can inspire actors to explore different aspects of their character. It may evoke certain emotions, memories, or experiences that can shape the way they portray their characters onstage. It can help them to understand the motivations and desires and conflicts of their characters more deeply. This means that the stimulus also has an influence on relationships between characters, as it provides insight into how they interact and respond to each other.

• What is a stimulus?

The 1980s was chaotic terroist bombings, miners strikes, mass unemployment and the rise of HIV an AIDS. However Marget Thacter's constructed a lot of changes hoping to promote capitalism in Britian. Marget Thacter believed that choice of clothing mattered not only for self worth but for also impressing big employers. She stated "Fashion is important because it raises the quality of life when people take the trouble to dress well and it also povides employment for many, many people". She also hosted many fashion receptions at Downing Street.

Our song is from the early 1980's it is called 'Shoplifters Of The world Unite' Written by 'The Smiths'. A band formed in Manchseter 1982. The Smiths touched on social and politicaal themes, which relate back to the social conext of the 80s such as their songs "The Queen Is Dead" and "Meat Is Murder". These songs suggest the critisism of the British monarchy and that they advocated for animal rghts. The song we as givien sheds light on the disparities between social classes as well as the challenges faced by working-class individulals in a satricial and provocative way. The song condems consumser culture and the materialistsic values of society, highlighting how the working class often struggle to afford luxury items that others take for granted. It makes aware the frustation and desperation experienced by those who feel excluded from the benefits of a capitalist society. This wasn't the only song that The Band had made to highlight the difficulties people were facing a few more are "Charming Man" and "Panic". Though they did not contribute to socialism, their music resonated with many who were poltically and socially conscious during the early 1980's.

Social Context

The Smiths were a British band that came around in the 1980s. They were known for their unique blend of indie rock and alternative rock. The Smiths were comprised of 4 individuals Steven Patrck Morriessey, was lead vocalist and lyricist of the band. He was well known for his distincive voice and poetic lyrics, he became an icon once later leaving the band. His introspective and often controversial lyrics exlpored themes of love, alienation, and social commentary. Andy Rouke: He was he bassist of The Smiths. He had a melodic apparch which provided a solid foundation for the band's indie punk rock music. His contributions added depth and richness to the band's sound. Johnny Marr: His full name being John Martin Maher, was the guitarist and co-songwriter of The Smiths. Marr's sound played a crucial role in defining the bands sound. Mike Joyce: Mike joyce was the drummer of The Smiths. His energtic and bold drumming style provided the rhythmic backbone for the band's music. May 1982 Johnny Marr and his friend Steve Pomfret went to the home of Morriessey asking him if he wnated to form a band. Morriessey and John had met at a Patti Smith gig, Manchester's Apollo theatre on 31st Agust 1978, when Marr was 14 and Moririessey was 19. They both loved poetry and literature, they thought they was very simlilar they even had the same favrouite bands. Monochrome set, was a band they both admired. John says how without them The Smiths wouldn't have existed implying that they had a big influence on the band coming up and making music. October 1982 they had their first public appearence as a supporting act. Late 1982 Morriessey had picked their name to be The Smiths because it was ordanairy, he also decided to be publicly be known by his surename, Morriessey. He despised the name Steven. In 1983 the band signed to the independent record label Rough Trade Records, they released their first album The Smiths in 1984. Several The Smiths albums reached the top 20 of the UK Singles Charts, as well as all their studio albums reaching top 5 of UK Album Charts. The band began recording with producer Troy Tate recording 14 songs in the summer of 1983, however Troy wasn't happy with the recordings so hemade the band re-record all 14 songs with a new producer named John Porter. Halloween 1983 the band released their second single "This Charming Man", it did much better in the charts than the first single. This made the media want to interview the band especially Morriessey as they were obsessed with his sexuality because he did not fit into your conventinal straight category and gender norms. By the end of 1983 The Smiths had toured all over england. Rough Trade released their debut album The Smiths on Febuary 20th 1984, it was a comericall success, made it's way to number 2 on the UK's albums charts people somtimes consider it one of the best debut albums of all time. During 1984 The band toured Europe even some parts of North America, "Heaven knows I'm miserable now" was released May 21st 1984, it reached top 10 in the UK charts this was their highest charting song of all time it was the first song they produced with producer Steven Street.

Historical Context

Unemployment was a big thing in the 80s it had reached record-breaking numbers, the highest it's ever seen since The Great Depression due to the recession. It caused a lot of chaos such as riots, mass hysteria, rebellion against manufacturing plant shutdowns and protests. This was mainly to do with the fact that the government put monetarist polices to tackle inflation. Conservative Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher also cut benefits of state workers in half, although she was the least popular Prime Minister she stayed in power for 18 years. In the early 80s the unemployment rate was gong through the roof with it exceeding 3million in 1984, reaching almost 12%. It did not come down until the economic boom during the mid 1980s, plumiting below 2million in 1989 and reached 1.6million by the end of the year. The coral board annouced in early 1984 that 20 uneconomic pits would be closed leaving 20,000 miners out of work. This was the governments second attempt to close these pits after 1981. The miners at the endagered Cortonwood colliery in Yorkshire walked out on 5th March 1984 in protest of the plans, within that week more than half of the miners were on strike. When they returned to work the pit closure still continued. Inflation was 25% more in the 1970s so a key point was to bring it down. However the budgetary measures meant that growth suffered in Mrs Thatcher's first term, with deep recession in the early 80s. Intrest rates the base rate was set by the government rather than the bank of England, meaning the government could use it as a tool in their economic polices. In Novemebr 1979 the rate rose by 17% in hopes to tackle inflation. It harmed manufacturing industry and exports, but did have the desired outcome eventually. Regardless the base rate was pushed up again towards the end of her last term in office to curb inflation, which was stoked by rising house prices.

Historical conext

Council houses, for Mrs Thatcher home-ownership was a right, which she thought should be extened for council house tenants. One of the first acts as Prime Minister was to launch a Right to Buy policy it came into force in 1980. It allowed local authorites tenants to purchase their council house at a discount up to 70%. Over 1million people started the program and its still up and running today. As people were starting to buy their own houses this meant that house prices were on the rise, climbing 32% in the year to March 1989.Falklands war by late 1981 her approval rating decreased by 25%. Early 1982 economy began to recover her popularity rose April 1982 due to her decisive response to the Argentine invasion of the Falklands Islands. She immediatley dispatched a naval task force and the Islands were retaken on June 14th 1982 when the Argentine forces surrended. During her third term in office she faced down IRA hunger strikes in Northern Ireland through her approach it infuriated even moderate nationalist opinions and critics claimed it drove many young catholics towards the path of violence. Despite the fact she attempted to ease sectarian tensions, offering Dublin a role peace efforts were not met. In October 1984, an IRA bomb exploded in the Conservative conference hotel in Brighton. Five people died and many others were seriously injurjed, including cabinet minister and Norman Tebbit. Her and Ronald Reagen shared many economic views, she also made a unlikely alliance with the reforming soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev. "We can do business together" she famously said. How can I forget Lady Diana and Prince Charles wedding taking place Wednesday, July 29th 1981 at St. Pauls Cathedral in London the wedding had over 750million viewers on global TV. The wedding was very traditional service, with the dean, Alan Webster and the archbishop of Canterbury, Robert Runcie, conducting the marriage. The UK marked the day as a national holiday, the couple later seperated in 1992 and divorced in 1996.

Historical context

Musically, the 1980s was a decade cultrually important it saw the rise of new wave, new romantic and goth scenes. Towards the end of the 80s many bands mostly from the North of England started to dominate the music scene. England in the 1980s was vibrant hub of music quoted it was innotive and fashion central. People would listen to bands such as The Smiths or Duran Duran bands such as these were said to have defined the generation, or perhaps infulence others in exploring their creativity. England was diverse and vibrant, the British punk music scene was seen as resonating through the streets. Especially in Manchester or Brighton you would hear punk music/ new wave everywhere you stepped. Bands such as The Who were rock legends, infulencing the rebellious spirit that punk had encapsulated. Some say the punk movement wasn't just about music; it was an overarching cultural phenomenon that involved fashion, attitudes and an ethos of do-it yourself. 1980s was also the goldern era for English football. Comedy clubs were becoming more and more popular especially in Bristol this meant there was a rise of alternative comedy. This new style of comedy challenged traditional generalisation and societal norms. This era of comedy altered the industry and became a cultual emblem that would infulence many more comdeians over the years. New broadcasting channels emerged, the very first steps of the internet started to come around on how you send and recieve infomation. The expansion of BBC2 which provided people with alternative programming to mainstream channels. It quickly became a platform that offered a range of documentries, light entertainment and imported shows.The channel conveyed rising diveristy in television content, accommodating to various tatses and interests surpassing the offerings of traditional networks, this meant that there was an expansion on educational and cultrual content. The 1984 Winter Olympics was held in, Sarajevo, Yugoslavia, British ice dancing duo Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean won gold and became worldwilde names. Some cultrual icons from the 80s were; Madonna she was labed the Queen Of Pop her incendiary lyrics and performaces mesmerised the youth and personified the vitality of the decade.

Cultrual context

Shoplifters Of The World Unite gives an insight on youth rebellion the title itself connects to the communist slogan "wokers of the world, unite!" The band adapted this to youth rebellion, highlighting their frustration and defiance towards societal norms. The band uses Shoplifting as a metaphor, symbolising a direct rebellion agaist consumer-driven society. Representing the desire to break free limitations imposed by capitalism and conformity. Morriessey lead vocalist, uses this to encourage indivduals to unite and resist the oppressive system. The lyrics give inisght on how the band critises the media and it's infulence on society, second verse mentions seeing plans for a future war on channel 4, highlighting the deceptive nature of mass media and its ability to distract the public from important issues.

Analaysis of song

A costume desinger is the person incharge of everybodys outfits, they desgin the clothing, the elemets it takes to build ones outfit tailored to them. Costume desingers have a lot of roles and responsibilites, it's important for us as costume desingers to understand to dynamic of the script, we have to analyse and make annotations based off of the story. After reading the script and making notes we then go on to talk with the rest of the production team having to resaerch fashion trends in the desired era for my group it was the 1980s. While researching in this time costume desingers tend to make mood boards or interpretations they would hope to put together for the final finish. When putting costumes together the costume desinger needs to make sure its appropriate to the age, social status and personally connects to each character effectively.You need to have have artistic ability you need to be able to freehandly draw withiout the aid of computres, a passion for design a deep knowledge and understanding of different materials, fashion history and culture, before the desinger picks any costumes they go through a great deal of research. Attention to detail plays a big factor in being a costume desinger.

• What is a costume designer?
• roles and responsibiblites.
• What skilla do you need?

Technical Role

When we finally decided that our play would be set in the 1980s, I started to think about costume, hair and items that a character might be significant to each character. When researching costume ideas I used printerest a lot to come up with my inital starter ideas. Which started with 1980s hair, how they dressed also the class divide and how that changed interactions with one another. At first it was a bit hard because i've never actually dressed as if I were from that time period, I did a lot of research starting to uncover what fashion trends there were and who people were looking up to for fashion tips. People looked to celebrites such as Madonnda and micheal Jackson, sadly I will not be talking about them as our play is set in the early year 1983. In 1983 the colours that I was seeing on clothing were dull colours such as brown, orange in other words blocky colours, there was a lot of denim and velvet involved as well, ugly jumpers/cardigans that are lose knit, leggings, denim jackets, leather jackets, oversized jackets, flat shoes, trainers white or black and high waisted jeans with a belt. At first I wanted Kimberly to wear white highwaisted jeans with a pink polo shirt, asgloria vanderblit and calvin klein were big infuleces at the time. Espically due to her wealthiness and status on the social lader. It meant that she was able to afford these expensive clothes. I thought that it wold be nice for Jessica and Amanda to wear dresses to showcase their friendship even more as when people tend to match it shows their relationship is strong. While Amanda's outfit was a bit more simple Jessica's had a little bit more bling and more accessories to show she is wealither than Amanda. For the boys I thought it would be cool for them to wear something that represents their personalitites. At first I wanted to wear neutral colours such as beige brown but then I thought about it and chose to pick bright colours that would reflect back on them as a person. I also watched a lot of youtube videos and asked my mum for some help as she was alive in the 80s.

Understanding my artistic vision

Moonboard

Costumes final peices

My character Amanda lives with her parents, she has a bestfriend named Jessica. Her and Jessica met eachother when they was 3 years old due to their parents being longtime friends. Before it was only Amanda and Jessica, Amanda had a twin sister, the three of them were like peas in a pod. One day when the family went on vacation, Amanda and Amaya were 8 years old, they were playing by the pool and suddenly Amaya tragically slipped and fell into the pool. She couldn't swim so she started to drown. The lifeguard jumped in instantly but was unable to save her in time her lungs were filled with water. This broke Amanda, she spent the rest of her childhood blaming herself for what had happened she also thought that her parents blamed her as well because she was there with Amaya when it happened. My character is confident but does tend to doubt herself a lot due to family issues, her mother who is her biggest supporter is battling a fight with breast cancer. Her mum was diagnosed shortly after Amaya's funeral which made the family start to grieve more and feel more pain. Jessica and Amanda have always been there for eachother until Jessica moved to a private school and started to hang around wealthy rich kids. Amanda felt like she was loosing touch with her best friend due to the class difference which wasn't a problem before so it confused her why it's a problem now. Amandas father was hit by Thatchers cut to the uneconomic pits leaving them with no working parent, as her father was a working as a minor, her mother stopped working shortly after she was diagnosed. This caused a lot of mayehm in Amandas home life as her mother needed medication and her father had to find another job, he ended up working 2 jobs and barely being seen at home after being out of enployment for 2months and 10 days, he was alwyas home for dinner. Amanda was devestated as much as her and her father did not have the best relationship she did miss him being home and spending time with her mother and her.

Character research

Character Questionaire

1. Character name: Amanda Love
2. My favourite thing is: To eat
3. My favourite thing to do is: Play netball
4. I'd read any book by: Alice Walker
5. A place I wouldn't want to go back to: Vacation where my sister died
6. A place I'd like to go: Gambia
7. An Inspiration: Dovid Bowie
8. Best friend: Jessica
9. Worst enemy: Kimberly
10. Home is: With my sister
11. My least favourite thing is: Dancing
12. Something I would rather forget: The fact that my mothers sick
13. Something I will never forget: My sisters death
14. Something I've learnt: not everybody is your friend
15. My favourite thing about my city is: the sky
16. What should they play at my funeral: Enjoy the silence by Depeche Mode
17. A question I cant answer:
18. Most prized possession: my matching necklace that me and my twin have
19. Where I'll be in 10 years time: being a chef with a husband and kids
20. I'd like to meet: Madonna and david bowie

Bits of research that helped along the way

logs

https://www.songmeaningsandfacts.com/shoplifters-of-the-world-unite-a-daring-analysis-of-rebellion-and-identity/

https://academic.oup.com/hwj/article/91/1/182/6307077

https://britishculturearchive.co.uk/the-peoples-archive-1980s/

https://aboutthe80s.com/england-in-the-80s/

https://historyandpolicy.org/policy-papers/papers/the-right-to-buy-history-and-prospect#The%20Right%20to%20Buy%201980-1997

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-10364876

https://www.blue17.co.uk/vintage-blog/1980s-fashion-clothing-styles/

https://vintagedancer.com/1980s/80s-fashion-what-women-wore-in-the-1980s/

https://www.masterclass.com/articles/what-is-a-costume-designer-skills-responsibilities-and-how-to-become-a-film-costume-designer

https://populartimelines.com/timeline/The-Smiths

bibliography

Thanks!

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In today’s lesson with Shan my group and I started to think about how we can expand on our movement piece as it needed to be a little bit longer to help tell the ending of the story. As our group is an odd number of 5 we was trying to think how can we incorporate everyone in the piece at once so someone isn’t just standing there doing nothing. I came but with the idea to use the set design while were dancing first when sitting at the table and then I thought that we could make the dance a bit abstract trying somethings new and out of our comfort zone. My initial idea was to use the table cloth and that Lucy an I would would hold either end throw it up. Gracie, Kavy and Kamaari would run underneath about 2/3 times then Lucy and I would start to wrap them inside of it to show the drift between everyone, how bullies don’t gain anything also showing that although their rich they don’t hold much power over Jessica (Lucy) she was just lost in lust because she wanted to impress them. We would then go to unwrap them and then make a circle out of the cloth step inside the circle take a minute to look at each other then eventually hug.

In todays after noon lesson my group and I started to pick up where we left off in Despina’s lesson on Friday. I thought It would be nice to include the table in the movement piece possibly some more of the set on stage as well. In the song we have picked Depeche Mode - Enjoy The Silence There is 4 pings at the start so we look at someone different each time, after that we do 4 different poses not the same pose at the same time. Then there's a slight change in the beat and I start banging on the table to show my frustration, Lucy follows, Gracie, Kamarri then Kavy. We do that for about 2 counts of 8 then the girls run round to the back of the boys. I go to stand at the end of the table so I end up in the middle of everybody. Gracie And Lucy and behind the boys. They swing their right hand first in front of the boys and the left repeats. During this time the boys heads go in sync with the girls hands causing a mirroring effect among them. The next move is the girls elevating the boys arms up almost as it is magnetic.

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Let the communication flow!

With Genially templates, you can include visual resources to wow your audience. You can also highlight a particular sentence or piece of information so that it sticks in your audience’s minds, or even embed external content to surprise them: Whatever you like!Do you need more reasons to create dynamic content? No problem! 90% of the information we assimilate is received through sight and, what’s more, we retain 42% more information when the content moves.

• Generate experiences with your content.
• It’s got the Wow effect. Very Wow.
• Make sure your audience remembers the message.

In Todays morning lesson with Blanka, Natalie came to our class and started to ask us about the set. As Gracie was not in Lucy and I drew an image of what we had all talked about as a group. This consisted of: A split stage where scene 1 and 2 happen, with a sofa, a bean bag, a coffee table, cups and bottles on the table. On the right hand side of the stage where scene 3 and 4 happen. This scene is set in Jessica's dad’s Café: We have a bar, a table and chairs. After we told Natalie about our ideas, I started to have a look in the costume cupboard to see what everyone can wear. At first I had picked out a blue and white checkered shirt for William to wear with Dark blue rolled jeans. Eventually I saw a shirt that was better and looked a bit vintage, sandy brown, cars and it had a year on it all over. For Jessica I found a brown checkered dress with small orange lines that has a frail going down the leg. For me I picked a simple beige coloured dress with just a pattern of black roses all over it. For Jonathan I decided that he had the option of two and he picked the Black and purple shirt with a pattern of lines that makes it look like boxes. I still have a few accessories to pick out for each characters personal item as well as shoes for myself, Jackets for the girls or a cardigan and a jacket for William. I did however pick up some bowers for our party scene to show how much fun we would be happening. I also need to think of what kind of Hairstyles the girls and hopefully boys can do I have a few but I'm not sure yet.