1/11/10 - Rachel.

In this lesson we were set three targets:
-To have in our groups selected a stimulus.
-Cast the characters.
-Structured roughly with a scene by scene process planned.

After discussing the characters again and agreeing on how each character should behave we then cast each character.
Bear - Hayley
Frogs - Autumn & Leah.
Rabbit - Sarah
Owl - Joe
Mouse - April

We then created our step by step plan for the play and wrote it up in basic notes, we then named each scene, the scene by scene structure went as follows:
Scene 1 - "Merry Christmas!" All characters are enjoying Christmas except for the bear. The bear runs into the happy scene and wishes everyone Merry Christmas loudly. All animals are scared of Bear and runs away. Bear is sad and angry that he is alone on Christmas and talks to the audience. He then says that he is going to cancel Christmas and puts up a sign on a tree saying 'Christmas Is Cancelled.'
Scene 2 - "Cancelled?!" All the animals see that Bear has cancelled Christmas and they each have a different reaction, eg Rabbit is sad and cries, owl worries.
Scene 3 - "Off to see Bear" They all go to Bear's house to ask him why he cancelled Christmas but all the animals are too scared. Except for the smallest animal, Little Mouse.
Scene 4 - "Brave Little Mouse" The mouse enters Bears house and the two talk about Christmas. Bear has a monologue wherein he says that he is lonely and isn't scary really. Mouse asks Bear if he wants to spend Christmas with her and her friends but bear grumpily refuses because he says they will all run away from him. Scene 5 - "You don't like Christmas." Mouse leaves and talks to other animals about Bear being lonely. They plan to take Christmas presents and cakes and decorations to Bear, and they offer them to Bear and then say "Oh... You don't like Christmas... Do you?" they leave the things at his door and go back to hang out with each other.
Scene 6 - "Celebrations" The animals are celebrating Christmas without the presents and the cake and Bear opens the door and looks at all the things, he suddenly realises that cancelling Christmas was wrong and takes all the stuff back to the animals.
Scene 7 - "Happy Ending" Bear is sorry, they all enjoy Christmas and sing merry Christmas.

27/10/10 - Rachel

Children's play write up.
We were divided into groups and performed the mock children's play we had rehearsed, we performed the Sophie The Spoilt Fairy to the class and received the feedback suggesting we needed more exaggerated facial expression, we needed to work more on each character and try to include the moral a little bit more clearly.

We then got into groups again and began to plan our proper childrens play, we took the advice presented by the class into consideration. We each presented our stimuli that had not been presented in class and discussed from then. Most of the class had already shared their ideas. My idea was a story called "The King Who Cancelled Christmas" the group said that they liked my idea and decided to form the children's play around that, but changing the characters to animals to make the play more child friendly and slightly less complex as the original story was aimed at older children.

We re-invented the characters at animals and came up with some basics about each character and came up with the following:
Bear - Big, scary, grumpy, lonely.
Mouse - Tiny, brave, timid, squeaky.
Owl - Wise, smart, old, leader mentality.
Frogs - Clumsy, funny, argumentative.
Rabbit - Jumpy, scared, timid, shy.

27/10/10 - Rachel

We worked on our childrens plays in our groups.

I was in the group which had Sophie the Spoilt Fairy in it.

We had decided to do a short story wherein Sophie talks about all the pretty things she wants for Christmas, and how she wants to have all the presents to herself, when the presents are being passed around, she looks at them as if she wants them, her family then tell her that she has to wait for Christmas morning and that it is time for bed, Sophie then pretends to go to bed but hides behind the Christmas tree until everyone is gone. In the night, Ellie the Elf comes in to deliever presents for Santa, as she counts with the children as she puts the presents under the tree, Sophie is taking the presents away for herself. When she gets to the final present, she grabs it before Ellie has let go, so they spot each other. Sophie is suprised that Ellie is not Santa Claus and asks her who she is. Ellie introduces herself and says that Sophie is rude for stealing the presents and that she wont get anything nice unless she behaves and isn't spoilt, but Sophia doesn't listen. She then goes to bed and dreams about the presents she wants. She then wakes up and finds that everyone else has the presents she wants and she only gets a diary, there is a message inside the diary from santa, explaining that it is not how pretty she is, or the amount of clothes she has that matters, but that it's what's inside that counts, how nice she is to others, and she writes in her diary that she has learnt that it is what is inside that counts.

After performing it, we were then evalutated, we found that we needed to work the moral of the story into it slightly better, because the only way she knew that it's what's inside that counts was because Santa told her, she didn't learn it properly, and although the staging was good, we need to work on where people are when they are 'offstage' as the school we are performing in may not have somewhere we can use as backstage.

We then offered our stimuli that we had brought in, to the group we had the following:

• Sarah - How the Grinch stole Christmas - He's not evil he has just never been shown how to love/share

Great character who just needs to be taught about Christmas spirit

Nobody understands him

Flashbacks to when he was at school

Narration

Taran- Mr Men - Great characters to use in terms of learning something (Eg, Mr Messy learns to be tidy)

• Leanne - Pinocchio

Goes on a journey when he becomes a real boy

Learns not to lie

Characters: fairy - jiminy cricket - jippeto - cat - Pinocchio - Stromboli

Challenge: Nose growing, making the moral clear

• Abbi E - Barney live

Character took the bag
Took the bag so they would all follow him
Realises he had to give the bag back to make them his friends

Use Santa's bag instead of the barney bag
Use Christmas music
Animals children's friends
Jack frost as bad guy.

25/10/10 - Rachel.

Rachel's Lesson. Period 1.

We took notes for the Responding and Developing of the Childrens play:

Responding (Stimulus)

Target audience

Suitability

Imagination

Creativity

Needs of audience

Developing (Shaping Process)

Insight

Imagination

Liaison and constraints

Needs of audience

We then wrote questions for the woman from the primary school, to ask about the children and the performance area, the questions were the following:

April: What are the age ranges of our audience and will that be the case for all performances - So that we know our target audience age.

Leah: What do they already know about Christmas - So we know what we dont need to talk about and what we do.

Chloe: what TV programs do they watch - So that we know what they like to watch and what characters they like.

Abbi E: what Christmas songs do they know - We want to use songs they can sing along to.

Taran: How far can they count to and what colours do they know - So we know how much they know so that we dont try to teach them something they already know and they dont feel patronised.

Rachel: what do they find entertaining - So that we know what to include in the performances

Abbi F: Can they have sweets - So that we know if we can give them sweets as part of the performance

Grace: Subjects we need to steer away from - things that may offend or upset the children

Hayley: How long should it last to fully engage them - So that it doesnt drag on and we dont lose the audience's interest

Joe: Anything that might upsetting/scary (In the past what has proven to be ineffective) - So that we know what we should and shouldnt do to prevent the children being scared

Sarah: Any children who would get up and join in (Do you advise audience interaction) - So that we know if we can write in audience interaction or if they wouldn't like that.

Lauren: Where will we be performing (Here or there) - So that we know what to do, in terms of props, (can they be moved, ect.)

Autumn: Is there is a time that we could come and see the performance spaces - So we know what we have to work with (Is there a back stage curtain, ect.)

James: Any young people with disabilities that may affect their involvement - So we know if we should have audience involvement that they may not be able to do.

Leanne: How many will be in our audience including adults - So that we know how much room there will be and how big a crowd we will have

Becky: Are we ok filming and taking pictures - The children may want photos taken with their favourite character but some children or parents may feel uncomfortable with this.

Then we divided into three groups and were asked to work on small performances about specific things.

Group 1:

Character: Jack

Moral: Learn to share

Convention: Narration

Characteristic: Audience interaction

Group 2:

Character: Sophie the Spoilt Fairy

Moral: What's on the inside

Convention: Vocal collage

Characteristic: Exaggerated body language

Group 3:

Character: Elvis the naughty elf

Moral: True meaning of xmas

Convention: Freeze frame/thought track

Characteristic: Counting