Evaluation.

Evaluation of Revolution Arts Take on John Steinbeck's "The Grapes of Wrath"

For our first unit of the course we came together as a company under the title revelation arts and created our own take on John Steinbeck's novel "The Grapes of Wrath". The end result of the piece was brilliant, its been an absolutely enjoyable thing to do and develop my skills at the same time as getting to know the new members of the class. Doing this play and adopting a complete fell for what things were like at the time have allowed me to open my eyes to many aspects of theatre which I have been to cautious to use in my work before: Such as effective lighting a projection, elements such as water, and more adventurous types of movement such as dance over more predictable split stage and slow motion. A few days ago we finished our last performance of it, which has given me time to collect my thoughts on what I think of the piece now its over.

The first thing I have to say about the play is its wide nature of characters, and as someone who played six of them I think I can easily comment on this. Going back 80 years in time and going to the other side of the world was something which was challenging for all of us. As a class I think we did a brilliant at adopting not only the Southern American accent, but terminology to. I know on several occasions after the performance the audience said how brave but successful it was of us to use the accent, there were points which I wondered if everyone could do it, but we got there in the end and pulled it off well. Im glad we used the accents, primarily because it is something which I was scared to do in front of the class at first (I didnt want to look like an idiot) but hopefully now it will be encouraging to use them even more. Another thing we did well as a class was all our devising work. This year we had a few new members to the class, and naturally because I dint know them it was quite awkward to work with them. But like I said because of the variation we had with characters we had, we were able to do a lot of discussion and devising on the topic about what we should put in the play. One example of this was our table family scene, it allowed us to plan out where we would sit and why. Some characters didnt have chairs because of their age a position in the hierarchy. One thing that really went well in our dress rehearsal was this scene, it looked exactly like a functioning family of that time. We had the interaction between me and Dani, which held up the struggles within the family, Ma serving the food and organising everyone, taking on this lead family role. Everything in this scene worked and flowed perfectly. One issue we did have with the start of the play was the length, the start alone was taking us an hour when the whole of the act needed to be that long. The main thing about act one which I had issues with was trust. We had a whole piece where Grampa dies and is carried on by the family. This was difficult, we are ok at getting into a position where I could be lifted in the classroom, but on the first time we tried it in the hall I was apparently nearly dropped (I could feel I was slanted, but I had my eyes closed as I really didnt want to know what was going on). But in the performance this went fine, which Im glad it did. This was one off the many moments that showed the connection between our characters. 

I think everyone has done well. The character of Ma especially, I really how Amanda acted her. She came across as the main dominant female that leads the group. Caring, but stern and organised. This came across most in the family scene where Grampa and Grandma were clashing (I think me and Dani did this very well) and we would expect them to be dominant as the oldest. The only character that I think needed some improvement was Elizabeth. I think it was hard for Dani to make a connection with her, but she needed to be slightly more over the top, the only issue with that would have been she would come across exactly the same as Grandma. The Barn Dance in my opinion went much better then I expected. The clapping worked in time, we remembered most the moves and could hear Ali's commands perfectly, which was my main concern for that scene. I think everyone has done a good job at becoming their character and its something we have all enjoyed doing. 

Sheriffs Deputy.

Thoughts:

Although he had very few lines, my favourite character has to be was the Sheriffs deputy. I liked being him because he is completely different to anyone I have ever acted before. In the past Ive been shy a weak character who cant cope with a situation, a comedic Grandma, (Who I applied a lot of features from to Grampa) A leader of an organisation and a character from Blood Brothers, all of which have the theme that there is someone above them in some way. Whereas the Sheriffs deputy was the highest authority and I really wanted to make this come through by using sarcastic tones and aggression. 

Inspiration:

While we have been working on this piece Ive been following a particular actor very closely. In my personal opinion I think the actor David Morrisey is one that I can get a lot of inspiration from. Here is a small bit of background info about him.

Born	David Mark Morrissey 21 June 1964 (age 49) Kensington, Liverpool, England
Occupation	Actor, director, producer,screenwriter
Years active	1982–present

David Morrisey has been in many theatre productions, including pieces by Shakespeare. In television he has appeared in a Doctor Who Christmas special and was a main cast member of the Walking Dead for two seasons. 

Out of all the characters Morrisey has been I got a lot of inspiration from his character "The Governor".

The Governor is an extremely complicated man with many secrets, identities and bad ways. However amongst all of this he remains a leader. Its these secrets which bring out the sly nature he acts in, he is a character who truly uses the situation he is in to his advantage, and makes life a misery for everyone else. I can apply this to my character because he to work in corruption with the contractor. When I walk round Floyd and say "Hmmm" I took the slow approach this because of the threatening nature which David Morrisey applied to his character, the Governor.

The Scene:

1)Here I am acting the corrupt Sheriff, I walk slowly round him in threatening manor to abuse my authority and then report back to CJ. I take sides with Cj here, making bad alliances being very negative, an example of one of the many issues the Joads run into on the way. The Sheriff make fake accusations about Floyd a persists to call him hayseed, a term to insult people of his area. I enjoyed this interaction loads, it was great to be a dominant character who was almost a little brat really. I feel that I attempted to show my character as one who was a real power hungry man well. 

2)We then go on to slow motion, the Joads finally have a successful victory against someone, again my character was abusing his status. Tom brings him right to the floor in slow motion, Casy kicks me and then things resume. At first I didn't like this at all! Ive never really done slow motion is such an interactional way using stage combat. However now Ive tried it I think its getting better! If we had more time I would have liked to work on adjusting a few more parts of this scene, just to show of my characters evil side a little more.

Writing in Role:

"What people dont understand that this here is my part the country, some of us are leaders and others, well they just aint so lucky. Things are what they are and it aint my job to change 'em. Myself? Why, Im as fairer man as you can get"

I wrote this monologue for the soul purpose of its length, short but sweet. It involves the controversial attitude he has for someone who we would expect to be there for others. I could imagine that this would probably happen between the characters of the Sherifs deputy and the contractor.

Variety of comments.

Dance

I now believe that dance is a very important feature of our performance, its something weve never tried before so at first there was a bit of caution and tension towards the idea. But since then Ive realised the special element it brings to the play: VARIETY. I think its important to have a performance that isnt completely speech and movement based, (Even things like slow motion can be boring and cliche to an audience as they are used so much in school plays) the dance was really unexpected to the audience, which I can imagine would be an interesting surprise to the audience. Its also extremely significant story wise, throughout the journey its been non-stop let downs. As soon as they set out Grampa dies, then Grandma, Noah leaves. This barn dance signifies a possibility of success finally for them, and displaying this success through a dance must have really been nice to see, rather than here it through words. I believe a variation of different features throughout a performance makes them so much better.

Props and Set

The Truck

A major prop we used in our performance was the Truck! Personally I was really worried about what it would turn out to be like, in some of our earlier rehearsals they consisted of people just wondering around the truck. However when we got into the hall things really began to come together, BEHOLD THE TRUCK:

The truck is very significant to the whole performance, it goes on this journey of doom with them. Its size is perfect (Although at the start it really is like Human Tetris trying to get everyone in). But again, that does show what it was like for the family, we could have easily made it bigger out of convenience for us, but that just wouldnt of helped get to know the Joads! 

Projection 

One thing that stands out in all of the performances we have put together is Miss Cordell's amazing use of projection :) Because of the constant journey the Joads go on we really needed to symbolise the setting change, its important we did this because we felt the audience really needed to realise how desperate and committed the family are. So, whenever the Joads moved to a new place we had a different image to show this.

Below: Is a Bill-board displaying government propaganda to move people to California. The inspiring phrase "There's no way like the American way" is a reflection of how good things had been during Americans roaring twenties, a period of wealth and isolationism, followed by the greatest depression in the country after Black Thursday (The Wall Street Crash, October 24th 1929), which I believe was because of to much public confidence in the stock exchange run by a corrupt banking system.

Below: Was used at the start to show the family together, working and simply getting on with life. It acted as an insight to the audience for what things used to be like. In this we all had separate roles to carry out as if we worked on a farm. Me and Phil did some sort of soil turning thing as if we had pick axes or rakes, preparing it for crops. We then near the end of the song that was playing looked up to the right hand corner of the hall as if to be gazing at the sun (Symbolising light, hope, brightness and good - just like their current state). 

Below: Is mine and Jays Gas Station! This is an example of one of the many locations the family visit on the journey. At these places they are warned that California is not what they think it will be. Characters like the man going back and contractor who really make life difficult for them are prime examples. Although my favourite is Dani Gillespies crazy women, Elizabeth. For the whole journey there is this sub-storyline of how Roseofsharon  is pregnant (Which is very significant as babies are these holy special things which people adore and love), but Danis interesting character destroys this felling and whines about shes bringing that life into a terrible world!

Below: These are a few examples of the dust bowl and its affects, something which made living even more difficult for the family. Although in the play the Joads move towards California, President Roosevelt did do a lot to help these families. He won the presidential election in 1932 by a landslide victory against Republican Herbert Hoover (This is where Hoovervilles get there name from, an insult to the former president). Roosevelt promised Americans a 'New Deal", this scheme created a variety of methods to help families like the Joads, such the AAA agricultural adjustment act, TVA Tennessee Valley Authority - which span across the tri-state area and built the Hoover Dam, and many more. 

My acting

I believe I have improved loads since we started the project! My acting skills especially! For example, I used to find it difficult to really take on a role and look deep into a piece of inspiration, but for this it was quite simple and enjoyable. I used to be afraid to try things such as accents but in the Grapes of Wrath I really did experiment with a few tones on Grampa, and then apply a stripped down simple South American accent to characters such as the attendant. A few things which I tried to do for all my characters was make them slightly unique, Ive got a section about Grampa and the Sheriff on here already. But for others like the attendant it was beneficial to build up a personality to them, such as are they from an educated back ground, are they stupid? It was good to show a slightly stupid attendant here to contrast the clearly clever, snobbish owner Jay was being. I showed a lot of thing through movement but mostly posture of my characters.

Photos!

This photo was taken at the very end of the performance.  In it, the family are moving on one final time.  By this stage, we were soaked to show that we are in the midst of a major storm which is flooding their home. Where are most of the times the Joads have been moved on in the story, they haven't really been emotionally attached to the place, this time Ma says the box cars have been the nicest home she's had, which gives this scene even greater meaning.  I think the fact that we were really drenched by the final moments of the play helped me to really become my character and brought us together as a cast.  The emotion on our faces really shows the focus we had right to the end of the performance.  I think we should have held this final moment a little bit longer to really allow the audience time to reflect on the Joad's situation and what they might move onto next, however, I liked the fact that we walked out through the audience which hopefully created a stronger exit for the final time in the play rather than just leaving the stage area as we had done for every other the scene.

 Jay did a good job at making the emotion clear that although the family are sad the baby is dead, they need to move on. This short 30 second moment he had was one of the only breaks there were in the play that gave people time to think and realise whats actually going on, especially as having a baby is supposed to be a nice special time. I think Amanda's line "We had no baby we was wrong" to Winfield is a prime example of this moving on.

 It was good to see the unity of the Joads emerging right until the end, the journey they are on still continues, but the triangle formation we made symbolises the strength between them.

 From the Audience perspective the water was really good and made everything look much more dramatic, like the family really wanted to defend what they had. It was also good to try something the we have never used before in drama, a more "interactive performance".

Creating character

In one of our lessons we worked on getting to know our characters a little more. Grampa, is what I would say is out of touch. Having been through a lot in his life, and now in old age having all this disruption would be very unsettle. In this clip, I have tried to make him moody, aggressive and give of a very uncertain stance to his relationship with grandma.

Link to task video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jddPE9yOxv4

I found this a useful task because it enabled me to develop my character, get to know him, and see what input dani had onto how we will act the couple.

Inspiration:

One thing which I have enjoyed about Grampa over every other person Ive ever been is how deep Ive been able to go into his character without getting carried away (Cut short by his death). I took a lot of inspiration from this guy:

Meet Herschel, a fictional character from a TV programme, which is also set in the souther states in a situation where he is forced from his farm. Because of the attachments both of these characters had with the land I tried to imagine what that actor would do in Grampas situation. I came to the conclusion that Grampa needed to try and make it clearer he wanted to be an authority figure and show off a little (With his heller joke) but clearly cant be because of his age and just mental out of touchness. 

I attempted to make Grampa becom more like Herschel by partly basing this piece of writing in role on his situation, (Merging Grampa and Herschel together). I will try and take a better picture later, I didnt have good light at the time.

Im very happy with how Grampa has develpoed as a character, its clear he thinks more of himself than he really should, which comes across in a funny way. I also believe I got his relationship with Grandma perfect - me and Dani made it clear there was once something there by the amount of interaction we had, but its at the stage where they've had enough of each other!

Here is a link to the Monologue:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J_1wHvngLvA

I believe this is a nice monologue to have created it because it talks of the power I would expect him to have as the head of the family, but his age and clear mental state of being lost in the performance its self show how unrealistic this would be for him.

Its also a coincidence my character at the start of year 10 was Grandma, and this year its Grandpa??

Research - 7th October

RESEARCH INTO THE TOPIC 7TH OCTOBER

USING RESEARCH TO BUILD UP CONTEXT

"The play is set just after the event known as the "Dust Bowl" in America.  For almost 10 years, the Southern states of the US were covered in major dust storms which wiped out the crops and destroyed homes. History says "The simplest acts of life - breathing, eating a meal, taking a walk - were no longer simple.  Children wore dust masks to and from schools, women hung wet sheets over the windows in a futile attempt to stop the dirt, farmers watched helplessly as their crops blew away." Steinbeck wrote his novel The Grapes of Wrath in 1939 towards the end of the natural disaster."

"On the fourteenth day of April in 1935 
There struck the worst of dust storms that ever filled the sky... 
From Oklahoma City to the Arizona Line 
Dakota and Nebraska to the lazy Rio Grande 
It fell across our city like a curtain of black rolled down, 
We thought it was our judgment, we thought it was our doom..." 
~ Woody Guthrie (from his song, "The Great Dust Storm") 

"Merciless winds tore up the soil that once gave the Southern Great Plains life and hurled it in roaring black clouds across the nation. Hopelessly indebted farmers fed tumbleweed to their cattle, and, in the case of one Oklahoma town, to their children. By the 1930s, years of injudicious cultivation had devastated 100 million acres of Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, Colorado, and New Mexico." 
~ Timothy Egan 

Here is anouther groups interpretation of the play:

http://vimeo.com/60478981

The Grapes of Wrath is set just after the Roaring Twenties in America, because of the huge change in economic power in the country, there was a huge impact on everyone. Especially made even worse by the dust bowl!

The New Deal

The American Depression years

After the Wall Street Crash in 1929, America plunged into a severe economic crisis. The 1930s would come to be referred to as the Great Depression.

Industries and businesses faced low demand for their products (Companies made new consumer goods like fridges and radios, Henry Fords Model T is an example of this) as people tried to save what little money they had. Banks collapsed as loan repayments went unpaid and unemployment reached unprecedented levels. All over America people were living in poverty.

The laissez-faire politics of the Republican Party (Means leave alone politics in French. Basically the government do as little as possible) that had helped create the economic boom of the 1920s no longer seemed relevant. In 1932, the American people elected the Democrat, Franklin D. Roosevelt, because he promised to tackle America's many problems.

A New Deal for America

"I pledge you, I pledge myself, to a new deal for the American people"

This statement by Roosevelt during the election campaign of 1932 caught the attention of the American public. The "New Deal" has become the accepted name for the policies followed by the Roosevelt administrations during the 1930s.

What was Roosevelt trying to achieve?

Roosevelt had three basic aims which directed his actions:

• Help the victims of the Depression. Millions of ordinary Americans faced unemployment, hunger, and poverty. Roosevelt was determined to help them.
• Encourage economic recovery. The Depression was a disaster for America. Roosevelt knew that he had to take action to encourage recovery, to get the nation back to work.
• Reform the economic system. The whole economic system would have to be altered so that there would never again be a Depression as bad as the 1930s.

To achieve these objectives, Roosevelt decided that direct action and intervention by the federal government would be necessary. The days of laissez-faire, of the government doing as little as possible, were over.

The 'Alphabet' agencies, FERA, AAA, NRA, PWA, CCC, TVA

Roosevelt closed the banks in America for 100 days, in this time he set up a group called the brains trust to inspect every bank in the country to make sure they were working to the law. These Alphabet Agencies were certainly the best known aspects of the New Deal. In effect, they were new government departments set up to implement Roosevelt's policies. For example:

• Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA). This helped the poor in a number of basic ways, such as giving clothing grants and setting up soup kitchens for the poor.
• Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA). This tried to help farmers by controlling farm production and stabilising prices. It was an attempt to end the over-production and falling agricultural prices that had crippled American farmers.
• National Recovery Administration (NRA). This tried to help industry and factory workers by increasing wages and improving hours and conditions.
• Public Works Administration (PWA). This created jobs by paying unemployed people to build schools, bridges and dams. This was replaced by the Works Progress Administration in 1935.
• Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC). Similar to the PWA, this department provided jobs to large numbers of young men in conservation schemes in the countryside.
• Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA). This scheme brought hydro-electric power to seven states in the Tennessee Valley, one of the worst affected areas of the country. Dams and power-plants were built, creating many jobs.

In addition to this, Roosevelt's administration carried out major reforms to the American Stock Exchange and the banking system. There were two key elements in Roosevelt's plans to repair the economic damage caused by the Wall Street Crash. These were, ending the practices of cheap credit from banks and irresponsible share trading on the Stock Exchange.

Todays Lesson - 4th October

LESSON EVALUATION TUESDAY 1ST OCTOBER

PERFORMING OPENING SCENE

PART 1:
In todays lesson we worked on the development of our opening scene. So far its looking good.The movement is perfect at the start, me and Phil in line with each other stopping and supporting each other, Amy and Jake walking around checking we all feel good creating a family vibe, everything works well. The way we all pause to look at the sun and then slowly approach Casy really shows the breakdown in attitudes well to. However, we really need to work on singing. The original song has very strong female backing which works extremely well so we should consider the significance of that. If we dont I think that the movement factor of the opening will be lost and the singing will completely ruin and good initial impressions given.


In the opening I have decided to take on Grampa, I fell its important to show the contrast to how he was then and how he is now. In the opening he is active, working and enjoying what he has with pride, whereas in the performance itself he is weak, not the leader or head as the family he should be, and falls for the ultimate sign of weakness - death.

A link to the opening is here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tagfkt6Lm5o