Brothers Grimm: Hansel and Gretel, Ashputtel 23/6/2014

Friday 23rd May

Today we came to a conclusion of cutting Iron Hans. We were meant to rehearse this yesterday but Luke wasn't in and he is playing the main boy. We moved the rehearsal to today instead but, again, he wasn't in so we just decided to cut this if he wouldn't be committed and learn his lines in the future for this. Everyone agreed to cut this. Iron Hans was one of my favourite of the plays but not everyone can change due to one persons choice, we have to stick as a group and go with a majority vote. It is best to cut this anyway because we know that Luke has never really been committed to the class and probably won't learn his lines for this or take it seriously.


We then went on to rehearse Hansel and Gretel. As I am directing this, I decided that we run over what we had already done and add in Georgia since she wasn't in the lesson last week. We all worked together as a group for this piece because we all have our own ideas for it.
I came up with an idea that, for the start when the Father is talking, that when he is in the woods, Hansel and Gretel are running through the trees and playing since they are children and being introduced by the Father. Someone else came up with having the father walking through the woods when he is talking at the start as he is introducing the piece and he is a woodcutter. I decided that the Stepmother will be watching over the children playing in the woods.

This is a drawing we all contributed to on the board. We have the stage layout including pathways. This is clearly mapped out for everyone within the group and we were all writing down the ideas that we each came up with.

Scene Ideas
- Noises of animals when in forest
-Hansel and Gretel start in forest with father (mother watching over them)
-Trees different levels
-Trees get closer when getting further into the forest
- The actors being the furniture have to come down and be the trees
- Creating one big room for the actors
-When father, step mother, Hansel and Gretel go out to the forest the first time they travel the trees turn. Then the second time they travel they interact with H&G then walk around their fire
-Second tree interaction, H&G get lost - trees surround them more
-Trees coward away from step mother

These are all of the ideas that we each came up with during the first part of the scene when the family leave the house and head into the forest.
Our lesson was successful because we improved on the piece so that we all understood it and came up with ideas until they see the Gingerbread house. An idea was come up with that when they see the house, the trees will all point to it and show Hansel and Gretel their way.

In our next lesson we started to rehearse Ashputtel although I am not really in this play. I recorded the lesson. However the fire alarm did go off in the middle of the lesson and we all had to leave. Soon enough we all went back into the lesson and carried on up until the fire alarm going off again at the end of the lesson. Most people were focused in this lesson and they were coming up with good ideas for the piece to make it successful.

Directors Jodie and Georgia coming up with initial ideas for the opening of the piece

Mother spirit (left) and Ashputtel (right) in the opening of the piece when Ashputtel is called to her mother on her death bed

 One of the step sisters (left), Jodie, and Ashputtel in the back waiting to start rehearsals

 The other step sister, Georgia

Both step sisters will start sitting by the audience as they start their story as beggars

 Father (Nikky) with Mother Spirit (Molly) as she is on her death bed

Father and Mother Spirit

Brothers Grimm: Learning Lines 22/5/2014

Thursday 22nd May

Today, in our first lesson, we were suppose to be rehearsing Iron Hans. But the main actor wasn't in school so we swapped around our rehearsal for Ashputtel to this lesson and Iron Hans will be tomorrow.

I didn't do much within the lesson because I'm not in Ashputtel. Instead I started learning my lines for Hansel and Gretel but did struggle with beginning to learn this and ended up giving up. I drew out the staging area to come up with a pathway of when Hansel and Gretel walk through the woods but got told to stop and just learn my lines instead which I really didn't want to do. I was learning lines with someone else but he didn't have a script so we had to share one but he took hold of it and left me without one. Everyone else in the class was using their scripts to rehearse Ashputtel so I couldn't borrow one either.

Brothers Grimm: New Building Plans 19/5/2014

Monday 19th May

Today we went on a tour of the new building. We went into the new performing arts space which is a big stage area with bleacher seating.

When we came out of the building we started to make plans for our Brothers Grimm performance of Hansel and Gretel. Since this new area has bleacher seating we aren't really able to have the audience wherever we want them such as in the round or transverse.

Since the stage can change levels I decided that I wanted Hansel and Gretel's house to be on stage right but on a lower place than the witches house which would be next to it. This shows that Hansel and Gretel have been hit by the poor society, famine and hunger with their starvation. The witches house will be stage left but on a higher level to than the family. The woods will then be on the floor in front of the audience since there will be a big space between the seating area and the stage.

I then came up with another idea of having the woods on the stairs of the audience. They would come down from the gates by the lighting box on the balcony. However there are many scenes which are performed within the woods so this wouldn't be a good idea to do.

There were other ideas for the atmosphere of the piece for the audience, someone came up with the idea of having the audience just sitting on their own as a one person seat and the woods would be around them. Since sitting on your own within a theatre would be creepy and eerie anyway, having the scots work around you would add to the affect of the piece that we want to achieve.

This is the new staging area at its different levels 

 Here is a view of the stage from the balcony where the lighting box will be. The audience will go up to near the black thing is on the floor or just before there.

This is the balcony area, where the black pipe is is where the lighting box will be. On the far left and far left will be gates for the audience to get don to their seats.

Brothers Grimm: Schedule 16/4/2014

In our first lesson for Brothers Grimm, we went through our performance date which was June 19th. But this had to be changed because there are exams this week and there may be exams in our performance space so we have put the date back to 26th June. This gives us more time for rehearsals since we hadn't started at this point.

We then spoke about our performance space and whether we should go to the primary school to perform or if they would come here. There were only 5 of us within this lesson as everyone else was in an exam. We didn't come to a conclusion on this though so hopefully we can decide this on a later date when everyone is there. 

I then picked out all of the dates which are before the performance and wrote them up on the board. We figured out how many lessons we had left which are about 18 all together because we have two lessons on a Thursday and Friday. 

 I then moved on from writing up the dates and we decided what lessons we would do what plays in. I wrote up each play and then assigned them to each day and lesson.

They go as:

22nd May - Period 1 - IRON HANS
22nd May - Period 5 - LADY AND THE LION

23rd May - Period 1 - HANSEL AND GRETEL
23rd May - Period 3 - ASHPUTTEL

5th June - Period 1 - IRON HANS
5th June - Period 5 - LADY AND THE LION

6th June - Period 1 - HANSEL AND GRETEL
6th June -Period 5 - LADY AND THE LION

Each week repeats like this.

On our Monday lessons on these dates we are going to have the Historical Context lessons but during these lessons we will have one on one with our teacher to sort out all of our paperwork for our units. 

After this Sophie and I explained our idea as directors for Hansel and Gretel. Although these weren't accepted which then caused a 'heated discussion' with our teacher and everything quickly became awkward and silent. 

The next lesson Sophie and I started to direct Hansel and Gretel and talk about the forest scenes to do when everyone else would come back from their exam. We spoke about Snow White and The Huntsman when she walked through the woods and the trees would trip her over. This was the idea we wanted whilst she went through the woods. 

We then spoke about when Hansel and Gretel are left in the woods alone, the trees would move around them and enclose them but when they wake up the trees would suddenly move away. We also came up with when the bread crumbs are eaten, they will walk through the woods but the trees will move and make a maze and block off routes. The trees will be everyone else who aren't main characters in Hansel and Gretel. 

Once everyone else returned from their exam we put our idea into play but Sophie didn't want to direct so I done it on my own with other peoples help who were there when we discussed the idea. 

We went from when Hansel and Gretel left the house and moved into the woods with their parents. The trees would nudge us as we walked past the first time but only slightly. On the second time when we are with our parents the trees would move closer to us when we aren't looking. 

We also created a wall with everyone else in the class where Hansel and Gretel are listening to their step mother and father talk about leaving them in the woods. 

Molly came up with a new staging idea since transverse apparently wouldn't work. This was the staging idea. 

We will have the audience on a diagonal so they aren't facing each other and can see everything that is going on around them. This staging also works for the other plays as well. 

I feel like this was a successful lesson as we were further ahead in this play than any of the others which we hadn't started. 

Although a weakness of this lesson was that we weren't very focused because of the last lesson with an argument. We didn't really want to work and didn't like the idea of changing what we wanted. But we carried on anyway, well, I carried on and directed everyone. Molly did help me as I couldn't explain the forest scenes properly.

Brothers Grimm: Character/Task Brief 15/5/2014

Thursday 15th May

Today we were given our task brief for Brothers Grimm. We read through this and pointed out the tasks we needed to do. 

After this I thought that we just needed to not waste time with this piece since we don't have much time left. I asked if we could just sort out the characters since we never finished this the other day. 

We decided on the characters which now are: 

Hansel and Gretel

Hansel - George 

Gretel - Amy (Me)

Father - Nikky 

Stepmother/Witch - Gabby 

Lady and The Lion 

Lady - Daisy

Lion - Nikky 

Father - George 

Dragon - Jodie

Dragon Princess - Sophie

Wind - Amy (Me)

Sun - Luke 

Moon - Georgia 

Eldest Daughter - Gabby 

Second Daughter - Molly 

Iron Hans 

Iron Hans - George 

Boy - Luke 

Princess - Gabby 

Queen - Sophie 

First King - Jodie 

Second King - Nikky 

Huntsman - Georgia 

Knight - Amy (Me)

Gardener - Daisy 

Cook - Molly 

Ashputtel 

Mother Spirit - Molly 

Ashputtel - Sophie 

Father - Nikky 

Step Mother - Daisy 

Step Sister - Jodie 

Step Sister - Georgia 

Prince - Luke 

Brothers Grimm: Ideas 9/5/2014

Friday 9th May

Today we wrote down all of our ideas from yesterday onto a big piece of paper. I came up with a few more points on my own because everyone was distracted and talking to one another.

We then went onto using instruments to bring the first scene of Hansel and Gretel to life. I feel like as a group we struggled with this because we didn't want to use these instruments within our piece. I personally feel like recorded sounds would work better for Hansel and Gretel instead of the instruments we had. We had tap shoes but even then I feel like these wouldn't work well with the piece.
We used two blocks for the wall and done the first few lines of the piece before we got stopped.
As a group we didn't focus very well because there was a lot of noise coming from the other group with instruments and we just didn't want to use instruments because they wouldn't work.

Brothers Grimm: Atmosphere 8/4/2014

Thursday 8th May

We carried on reading Lady and The Lion in the morning, again, everyone would talk during certain parts or start to argue which is a key point which always happens.

Today we chose our characters for each play we will be doing. Although everyone started an argument over this and the plays we all wanted to do.
I chose to play Gretel in Hansel and Gretel because I wanted a main part in one of our plays since I feel like I haven't had one before. I didn't really like any of the other characters within the Brothers Grimm plays so I chose to play Gretel.
We then split off into groups and we picked out certain points of creating the Hansel and Gretel piece. We had to follow some questions/points of the creations.

- How do you want to affect the audience? How do you want them to feel?
  - Audience feel as if they are on edge when they are in the woods with Hansel and Gretel
  - Like they are in the play

- Atmosphere
  - Cold
  - Smoke - Dry Ice
  - Trees/twigs within the audience so they feel like they are in the woods
  - Dress the seats in black, makes the room darker
  - Dark lighting, minimal
  - Red and Blue lights to make purple, this is a dark colour which would make the room feel more like a tale where purple is used a lot

- Voice
  - Pitch - low tone
  - Volume - quiet, but loud at the same time
  - Rhythm - slow

- Sound
  - Wind
  - Whispering
  - Scuttle of animals
  - Owl
  - Leaves rustling
  - Owls/Foxes/Wolf howling

Brothers Grimm: Importance of Fairytales 2/5/2014

Friday 2nd May

Today we were talking about the physiological importance of fairytales.

We went through what some of our chosen tales are about, we came up with:

Iron Hans - Make the right of passage

Hansel and Gretel - Abandonment of children

Ashputtel - Father remarries and ignores his daughter

There isn't much of a variety with Ashputtel compared to the other stories. Each of these stories are all very similar and don't have much of a difference besides the meanings of the stories.


Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, 1843

Guardians of the FairyTale: 

The Brothers Grimm 

By Thomas O'Neill 

Once upon a time there lived, in Germany, two brothers who loved a good story - one with magic and danger, royalty and rogues. As boys they played and studied together, tight as a knot, savouring their childhood in a small town. But their father died unexpectedly and the family grew poor. One brother became sickly; the other, serious beyond his years. At school they met a wise man who led them to a treasure - a library of old books with tales more seductive than any they had ever heard. Inspired, the brothers began collecting their own stories, folk-tales told to them mostly by women, young and old. Soon the brothers brought forth their own treasure - a book of fairy tales that would enchant millions in faraway places for generations to come. 


Fairytales teach children how to handle their problems. From watching and listening to characters within a story, they help us connect to our own lives and show us how to overcome dreams and anxieties and also what we would do in their shoes. Fairytales will help children how to navigate their lives as they grow up. We are shown that our problems can be overcome even in the darkest of our days. Real life situations are put into scenarios and the characters we watch are overcoming them, this gives us hope that we can overcome what we are struggling with in life.

Rapunzel within Tangled is afraid to leave her tower because of her mother. She has a dream that she is trying to achieve but she keeps having to stop because of her fears. The audience is shown that even if you have a dream that you are afraid to achieve, you can achieve it when you try. Rapunzel is afraid to leave her tower where she has been for 18 years, her mother ties her to it and protects her from the outside life just for Rapunzel to go out into the big world, flee the nest and go out on her own. This is all she wanted to do. And this is like a normal teenager who is just wanting to leave and go against their parents rules but we are being stopped by parents. Disney gives children and adults the hope that we can achieve anything and this is why fairytales are important. Disney princesses and the other characters give us hope that we can do anything even when we get put down and think that we can't do this.
When Rapunzel 'sees the light', she reflects upon her life within the tower when she goes back, after seeing the light as if it is from a light from Christ, she realises her fate and her real life, who she really is.
Even the title of "Tangled" presents the problems we come across, that our lives will get in a mess of knots and we will get tangled up in them. The story then uncovers and 'untangles' the title and shows us how to sort out our problems.

Beauty and The Beast shows that we can love anyone, no matter what they look like, the love is always there and we are motivated to love someone, no matter who they are. Belle isn't aware that the Beast is a prince, but she falls in love with him anyway, not because of his heritage or that he is a beast. We are taught to accept the ugliness inside of us, even if this is acne or if we don't like how we look. The beast teaches us to accept this and the flaw we have is ok because he is accepted and loved, just because of how he looks. If you relax and accept your flaw then you can learn to ignore it, such as the beast does, he ignores his flaw and forgets about it which is why the rose nearly dies, he doesn't notice that his time is wasting away because he is happy that someone has actually fallen in love with him, despite his beastly-ness. Its one thing to be beautiful on the inside but its another to be beautiful on the outside.