Group Performance

[maria1999]

Hi guys
I was wondering if anyone had any ideas on how to make a group performance more interesting!

[lilyrosee]

Hi guys
I was wondering if anyone had any ideas on how to make a group performance more interesting!

You could try using a soundtrack for some scenes and have minimal dialogue. What is your ensemble topic??

[sudodds]

Hi Maria!

There are a bunch of things

The key thing here is to know your marker.

Your marker is a) a drama teacher. You can play to this greatly throughout your work. One of the best ways is setting your piece in a style. Absurdism, magical realism, post-modernism, verbatim etc, etc. Not only does this make it soooooo much easier to devise, because a lot of the conventions are already set out, but it also is a way for you to impress the marker with your in-depth knowledge of the theatre, philosophy and theory of history. Another way to capitalise on this are theatre references. As drama teachers - the markers are theatre nerds. A sly reference to waiting for Godot here (one of the Onstage performances in 2014/15 used to constantly say "oh my godot!" - my drama teacher's laugh was deafening!), or to Hamlet there - the markers will appreciate. It plays to their interests and sense of humour.

b) probably not young, and definitely not a teenager. Now, that doesn't mean you can't discuss issues that affect teenagers - however make sure that they are still universally relatable. Try not to do the "teen angst" or "intellectual teens vs. backwards adults" tropes, as you risk alienating your audience. In that way as well, references to teen pop culture - particularly internet culture, like memes, YouTubers, etc. - will probably go over their head, so be careful.

Lilyrosee's suggest of a soundtrack is great! However, do be careful that you don't have too many audio/visual/lighting cues. Though they are great, and can create a more exciting/engaging performance, at the end of the day a) too many can be overpowering, b) the markers are only marking your performance/story, not your technical proficiency and c) technology can fail (unfortunately ). So definitely take her suggestion on board, but just be a bit careful when it comes to the use of technology

Hope this helps!

Susie

[maria1999]

Hi Maria!

There are a bunch of things

The key thing here is to know your marker.

Your marker is a) a drama teacher. You can play to this greatly throughout your work. One of the best ways is setting your piece in a style. Absurdism, magical realism, post-modernism, verbatim etc, etc. Not only does this make it soooooo much easier to devise, because a lot of the conventions are already set out, but it also is a way for you to impress the marker with your in-depth knowledge of the theatre, philosophy and theory of history. Another way to capitalise on this are theatre references. As drama teachers - the markers are theatre nerds. A sly reference to waiting for Godot here (one of the Onstage performances in 2014/15 used to constantly say "oh my godot!" - my drama teacher's laugh was deafening!), or to Hamlet there - the markers will appreciate. It plays to their interests and sense of humour.

b) probably not young, and definitely not a teenager. Now, that doesn't mean you can't discuss issues that affect teenagers - however make sure that they are still universally relatable. Try not to do the "teen angst" or "intellectual teens vs. backwards adults" tropes, as you risk alienating your audience. In that way as well, references to teen pop culture - particularly internet culture, like memes, YouTubers, etc. - will probably go over their head, so be careful.

Lilyrosee's suggest of a soundtrack is great! However, do be careful that you don't have too many audio/visual/lighting cues. Though they are great, and can create a more exciting/engaging performance, at the end of the day a) too many can be overpowering, b) the markers are only marking your performance/story, not your technical proficiency and c) technology can fail (unfortunately ). So definitely take her suggestion on board, but just be a bit careful when it comes to the use of technology

Hope this helps!

Susie

Thank you so much! That sounds great!

[maria1999]

You could try using a soundtrack for some scenes and have minimal dialogue. What is your ensemble topic??

We'll definitely take that on board, thank you for the suggestion!

It's about teenage rite's of passage and such, we're kind of thinking about going off the infinity stimulus from the starting points that were given, but we're still open to suggestions.

Mod Edit: Post merge

[sudodds]

It's about teenage rite's of passage and such, we're kind of thinking about going off the infinity stimulus from the starting points that were given, but we're still open to suggestions.

If you're thinking about using the infinity stimulus - I'd definitely have a look at absurdism as a potential "style" for your piece! A lot of the conventions and thematic concerns of absurdism link very well with the concept of infinity - eg. the cyclical nature of life. In terms of being "interesting", absurdism is about as interesting as it gets (borderline too interesting - it's fkn weird! But cool weird [if done well  ])