When Mau says 'I have a plan' we all enter from different doors as islanders and say 'No'. We stand in two circles boys and girls and perform a dance relating to the four elements, girls are fire then water and the boys are air and earth. The circles cross over and we spit in the middle to show a ritual is taking place. The steady chanting of beer creates a tribal atmosphere. We then all perform our offerings into the middle in groups using levels, movement and voice in order to create a beautiful picture of all the islanders coming together in order to save a child. In this section we use shoulder lifts and echoes and whispers, in order for this to work well we need to fully go for it and work well as an ensemble. I think this did go well in the rehearsal cause no one cared what they looked like and went full out however I do need to rehearse getting onto Lara's shoulders cause it needs to be slick and look easy.After the ceremony we go back into a circle and when Mau says 'come' we turn into trees. Becoming a tree we have to create weird body positions and link with others around us in order to make space for Mau and Daphne to travel through. The cue for us to turn into piglets is 'look', here we have to snort and fight for our place by the mother. This occurs in the top corner by the stage.
Finally on Mau's line 'that's it, come on' the piglets disappear and in that same corner in a huddle we enter as tired and hungry islanders, we look around the island and then exit through the doors underneath the balcony slowly.
In order for this scene to look successful we need to have good transitions and work together as an ensemble so that our movement and voice are strong. Other tips given in the lesson were to keep up the energy and open the voice if trying to show you are higher status. To improve we need to rehearse this scene so that everyone knows what they are doing and so that transitions work effectively.
Scene 15
Everyone enters as death, walking around Daphne keeping her always in our sight. Whenever Locaha speaks we freeze in order to show that he is our master and we are controlled by him. We then split into four groups when Mau says 'Run Daphne'. We then become dream fish, we cross the centre and then move around. In order for this to be effective we have to use our whole body to create a ripple effect to make it seem magical.
When Daphne says 'I cant', we turn into islanders, I have chosen three actions, lighting the fire, chopping and stirring a pot. This is all in mime so the actions have to be really clear so that the audience will understand what we are doing. We then notice a telescope in the middle of the stage, between the rows of audience. We start dancing with happiness to create a contrast between our happy atmosphere and the voice of Locaha. We laugh and dance to ourselves not realising what is happening between Locaha and Daphne. Then when Mau says 'it's coming' we notice a huge wave coming from the balcony, we scream in terror and run to the sides of the room.Finally we create the funeral scene, I am a mourner. We walk in a group, two people are carried representing the dead mother and baby. As we begin to sing we walk to the edges of the room while the coffins are lowered to the ground. Daphne then has her speaking bit when she places the baby into the mothers arms.
To improve this scene we need to all learn the words to the song, again like scene 10 there are lots of changes in setting therefore we need our transitions to be smooth in order for the scene to be effective. Also because this is a magical scene everything needs to be clear and easy to understand because it might be difficult for the audience to grasp what is happening.
Scene 16
After scene 15 we stay in our circle around Mau, Daphne and the other principal characters. When Marisgala says 'dream fish' we do a quick arm action to represent the fish connecting it back to the previous scene. After this we begin to hum and echo 'what does it mean' as the circle splits and moves round to the entrance of the cave (the door under the balcony). Here we are trying to draw them into this magical cave to show there is more to come in Act Two.Through all of these scenes the main techniques we are using are ensemble, lifts and changing the voice which I have spoken about in my previous post: http://nationhollygarcia.blogspot.co.uk/2015/02/scene-7-and-11.html
