Collaborative Devised Project Check In

The previous draft of our project mainly suffered from its length; not only did it go over the fifteen minute limit, but some of the individual scenes took too long to get to the point.
The first big change we decided to make to remedy this was to eliminate the customer character. They were intended to show how the attitude of Helen’s character, focused on working for the future and not valuing relationships with other people, ended up backfiring in a way that hurt her business, the thing she put all her time and effort into. However, because this character was only in two scenes, their subplot ended up just distracting from the main plot. As such, we decided to cut the character. The first scene will still be set in the shop, to establish Helen’s character’s dedication to her work, but we will instead use this scene to show Helen’s character meeting her roommate for the first time. On top of saving time, this change should make it clearer to the audience what Helen and her roommate saw in each other that led them to start their relationship.
The other major change we have made is combining scenes two and three, the two scenes in the apartment between Helen and her roommate. Since Scene 1 now establishes their dynamic and what they like about each other, showing how the rifts form in their relationship should only take one scene.
Beyond this, the other scenes can remain mostly the same, though we will be tightening the dialogue so that they don’t drag as much. We are confident that these changes will greatly improve our project.

Devised Project 2nd Draft Reflection

In preparing for the second draft of our project, we started by going over the script for the first draft to refine the plot. Previously we had only written down the general idea we had behind scene, but in our script analysis, we broke down each scene into the emotional beats & turning points. Though we never wrote down the dialogue line for line, clarifying the beats helped us keep on task when practicing the scenes, though, as the twenty minute draft we filmed today showed, we still have work to do in that apartment. We also need to work on not repeating the same points over and over, instead using each scene to give a slightly different perspective, so that our characters don’t become one note (in particular, I noticed as we were filming that Helen seemed to default to the word “money” when she ran out of points to make); as well as elevating our emotions over the progression of scenes.
Going back to what we have done, another significant improvement we made to this draft was the addition of lighting. I think once we have decided on the definitive starting and ending lines for each scene so that the lighting cues can be more clear, the setup we currently have will be sufficient; they keep the focus on the right sections of the stage, and the red lights that came on as Helen and I were arguing with each other, I felt, heightened the mood. We would like to add some more sound elements for the final draft: specifically, a breaking sound effect for when Helen drops the cup in scene 4 (assuming we keep that scene, which I’ll get back to later), a ringtone for when Helen’s roommate gets called in scene 2, maybe a bell sound like the kind when enetering a small store, and crowd nosies for when Helen is walking around the city in scene 7 (which we could maybe also use in scene 5, when we’re supposed to be in the mall).
Our main concern with our final draft is cutting it down from twenty minutes to 13-15. While, as I already mentioned, tightening up the dialogue should help with that, I could see us cutting a full scene or two altogether to make it short enough. While we initially decided to include the scenes of Helen at her job to display her drive for working, the customer character isn’t as well-woven into the main plot as I’d like to be, and spending the extra time to make that happen would only lengthen the work. So we may end up cutting the shop scenes to keep the focus on Helen and her roommate, though we still need to emphasize how important work is to her.

Devised Project Proposal (with Helen)

Here’s the link to the Google Doc

Reflection on Devising Workshop

I really enjoyed the devising workshop today! The texts we read through were both very interesting but in different ways. My interpretation of the mouse and cat fable unintentionally drew from my memories of playing Javert, which was cool to realize. Like the mouse, Javert is so sure of his worldview that he can’t fathom there being any exceptions to the rule. The cat only tells the mouse there was another way right before eating it. When Jean Valjean gets Javert to question his own morals, he can’t love with the implications, and so ends his own life to escape “the world of Jean Valjean”. This isn’t really related to the workshop, just a fun thing I though of but didn’t want to have to explain if I brought it up in the moment.
 Some of the movement excersizes were familiar to me from last year, but I preferred doing it with a bigger group of people and seeing what everyone else came up with. It trains you to act on your first instinct and then make it work from there, which I imagine will be useful for our devised project.
I think my favorite part of the workshop was coming up with the impossible stage directions. With mine, I wanted to capture what it feels like to not be fully engaged with the world around you, to be stuck in a mindset where everything seems inconsequential and your own being feels empty. The way I wrote it, it ended up almost like a short story or poem, and I really liked it. Going on to stage it, while incorporating other aspects of the workshop, was lots of fun. It was good to work with a slightly larger group than normal, since when we do our project, we’ll have six people throwing around ideas.
Overall, I felt like I got a lot out of this experience. I feel prepared to collaborate with my classmates and turn our ideas into a cohesive piece.

“Thinking Like a Director” Takeaways (p. 69 -94)

• A resonant approach conveys, whether overtly or subtly, why the play is being produced at that time (p. 70); it must take into account the play’s central conflict and have a point of view about its world (p. 72)
• Every production of a play is different because it is directed by a different person (p. 71)
• Production history can often be a guide to those elements of a play that are most malleable... pinpointing them is a way of reminding yourself of where you need to make dynamic choices (p. 74)
• Changing the setting tends to be more difficult in more realistic plays (p. 76)
• Recognizing conventions doesn’t require a director to follow all of them (p. 79)
• No one design can encompass all the ideas and environmental possibilities that a play suggests... overdesigning usually occurs when director and designer don’t trust the play (p. 84)
• Without the juxtaposition of some dissimilar elements, designs can become status and overbearing, confusing the story and encumbering the play with a single time (p. 85)
• Directing is often about sweating the details (p. 88), and the director continues to learn about a play as the production proceeds (p. 90)
• Light creates focus, movement, mood, and variety (p. 93)

Director’s Notebook Draft

Director’s Notebook for “She Kills Monsters” on Google Docs

"Thinking Like A Director" Takeaways (pages 11-66)

Takeaways:

• Theater has no choice but to be contemporary (p. 14)
• The director as artist owes obligation to their aesthetic and to the essence of the play (p. 15)
• Directing requires a reservoir of energy and a sense of urgency and commitment (p. 16)
• Director’s are scavengers (p. 29)
• Begin the interpretive process by breaking the script down into units of action (the characters’ desire and how they physically pursued them) (p. 32)
• A beat marks a change in the actions of all prominent players in the scene (p. 38)
• Articulating actions and obstacles is a matter of both intellect and empathy (p. 43)
• The director should know how a character’s actions add up to create one major desire, the super-objective (p. 46)
• Identify the central conflict before themes, since the latter can be vague and applied to countless plays (p. 47)
• Differentiate between the subject of the play (what it’s about, themtatically) and the central action/event (p. 50)
• Name scenes to better remember what happens in them (p. 55)
• List the play’s potential challenges (p. 64)

Questions:

• Explicit versus subtle (p. 56)