GP Ideas

[Angela Karanikolas]

Hi Guys,
I was hoping to get some ideas for my Group Performance.
In my group we are uncovering the inner workings of feminism and bringing to light underlying issues that we as women face in society. (At the start we mention that these issues do concern men also, however, as all women we are focusing our age and gender)
We have got issues concerning expectations on ourselves, body image, stereotypes and we are hoping to cover that of racism.

If anyone has any ideas that would be amazing!!


Thank you all.

[brenden]

Hi Guys,
I was hoping to get some ideas for my Group Performance.
In my group we are uncovering the inner workings of feminism and bringing to light underlying issues that we as women face in society. (At the start we mention that these issues do concern men also, however, as all women we are focusing our age and gender)
We have got issues concerning expectations on ourselves, body image, stereotypes and we are hoping to cover that of racism.

If anyone has any ideas that would be amazing!!


Thank you all.

That sounds super cool! Other than that concept of feminism, do you have any like, workable characters/plot points or are you not even at that stage yet?

One thing you could do... a series of one act plays. Not sure how long your performance is but you could do like 4 plays that go for 15-30 minutes each, with all of them focussed on issues facing young women, but with one main focus (body image, racism, so on). That gives an "easy" structure for you to integrate those themes into.

Otherwise, depending on the amount of girls in your performance, you could have each character "embody" some sort of issue, and their lives intersect without meeting each other, and they all come together at the end (maybe at a protest, or a support group, or some other activity depending on how you want to do it).

What do you think? Your concept sounds really cool!

[keltingmeith]

Completely unfamiliar with how HSC drama works, sorry! Most of this based on VCE and how it likes to focus on non-naturalism and poor theatre. Please tell me to sod off if HSC is too different. Also, if you have some sort of design you need to adhere to, would be great if you could include a bit of it!

Something that could be cool would be to have a support group setting. Have you all in some sort of circle (maybe one leader upstage, with three characters sitting downstage staring with the audience [i.e., mimicing the way the audience is positioned], to try and make the audience feel included with this support group?), and each of them can go through some scenario in which they were disadvantaged? (as Brenden suggested) Then, when each character goes to talk about what happened, you could have the whole stage change to that setting, with the start and end of each of these little vignettes/side stories being narrated by the person telling the story?

[sudodds]

Hi Guys,
I was hoping to get some ideas for my Group Performance.
In my group we are uncovering the inner workings of feminism and bringing to light underlying issues that we as women face in society. (At the start we mention that these issues do concern men also, however, as all women we are focusing our age and gender)
We have got issues concerning expectations on ourselves, body image, stereotypes and we are hoping to cover that of racism.

If anyone has any ideas that would be amazing!!


Thank you all.

Cool! We did our GP on feminism as well last year as well Very fun project - really challenging, but oh so rewarding I do have a few tips though!

1. A lot of people choose feminism as a topic. That's not a surprise, it's culturally relevant and thematically rich. However, it does mean that the markers have seen it done a lot, which means you really need to think outside the box. My group for example circumvented the classic "Hens Night" trope (seen in films like brides maids and the Hangover). We also set our play in two time periods - the present and the future - the future commented on the past as if it was an ancient history class, mocking the past for their ignorance, while simultaneously displaying a heavy level of ignorance as well, but in other regards (the irony of our piece).

2. Set it in a style. Will your play be postmodern? Surreal? Absurdist? Verbatim? Brechtian? It is important to set your piece firmly in a style as at the end of the day - this is still a school subject. The markers (who are also drama teachers) love to see the integration of theatre theory, so pack it in as much as you can! Show them that you have done your research. For example, meltingkeiths idea would work really well if you chose the style verbatim theatre !!

3. Don't be too ambitious. It is great to focus on multiple issues, however remember that you only have 10 mins (sorry brenden haha, you could always send in your 4 part episodic play idea to Belvoir ). So make sure that your driving focus is simple and direct - everything you mention and discuss should directly relate to that issue, or you risk devolving the meaning/it getting too confusing. I do love brenden's idea of every girl embodying an issue however (we did something similar - each of our characters was a harmful stereotype or film trope: the bride/princess, the slut, the prude, the jealous ex (that was me haha) and the butch), and if all of their issues could then link to a broader thematic concern then I think that'd be fab! But basically just be fairly specific - "way women are treated" is quite broad. May be better to focus more on "feminine experience in the workforce/school/politics" etc. etc. or focus on a particular issue (like how ares was focused on limiting stereotypes).

Hope this helps! Drama was one of my favourite subjects last year, so always happy to discuss/help out

Susie

[Angela Karanikolas]

Cool! We did our GP on feminism as well last year as well Very fun project - really challenging, but oh so rewarding I do have a few tips though!

1. A lot of people choose feminism as a topic. That's not a surprise, it's culturally relevant and thematically rich. However, it does mean that the markers have seen it done a lot, which means you really need to think outside the box. My group for example circumvented the classic "Hens Night" trope (seen in films like brides maids and the Hangover). We also set our play in two time periods - the present and the future - the future commented on the past as if it was an ancient history class, mocking the past for their ignorance, while simultaneously displaying a heavy level of ignorance as well, but in other regards (the irony of our piece).

2. Set it in a style. Will your play be postmodern? Surreal? Absurdist? Verbatim? Brechtian? It is important to set your piece firmly in a style as at the end of the day - this is still a school subject. The markers (who are also drama teachers) love to see the integration of theatre theory, so pack it in as much as you can! Show them that you have done your research. For example, meltingkeiths idea would work really well if you chose the style verbatim theatre !!

3. Don't be too ambitious. It is great to focus on multiple issues, however remember that you only have 10 mins (sorry brenden haha, you could always send in your 4 part episodic play idea to Belvoir ). So make sure that your driving focus is simple and direct - everything you mention and discuss should directly relate to that issue, or you risk devolving the meaning/it getting too confusing. I do love brenden's idea of every girl embodying an issue however (we did something similar - each of our characters was a harmful stereotype or film trope: the bride/princess, the slut, the prude, the jealous ex (that was me haha) and the butch), and if all of their issues could then link to a broader thematic concern then I think that'd be fab! But basically just be fairly specific - "way women are treated" is quite broad. May be better to focus more on "feminine experience in the workforce/school/politics" etc. etc. or focus on a particular issue (like how ares was focused on limiting stereotypes).

Hope this helps! Drama was one of my favourite subjects last year, so always happy to discuss/help out

Susie

Thank you so much Susie!! This will be super helpful considering we are quite stuck and drained of ideas. Having so many people do it can be quite intimidating but this has really helped out. Thank you again for commenting!!

[Angela Karanikolas]

That sounds super cool! Other than that concept of feminism, do you have any like, workable characters/plot points or are you not even at that stage yet?

One thing you could do... a series of one act plays. Not sure how long your performance is but you could do like 4 plays that go for 15-30 minutes each, with all of them focussed on issues facing young women, but with one main focus (body image, racism, so on). That gives an "easy" structure for you to integrate those themes into.

Otherwise, depending on the amount of girls in your performance, you could have each character "embody" some sort of issue, and their lives intersect without meeting each other, and they all come together at the end (maybe at a protest, or a support group, or some other activity depending on how you want to do it).

What do you think? Your concept sounds really cool!

Thank you so much for your reply. This is super helpful. The idea of having every girl emody a current theme of issue will definitely help us in our construction.

[Angela Karanikolas]

Completely unfamiliar with how HSC drama works, sorry! Most of this based on VCE and how it likes to focus on non-naturalism and poor theatre. Please tell me to sod off if HSC is too different. Also, if you have some sort of design you need to adhere to, would be great if you could include a bit of it!

Something that could be cool would be to have a support group setting. Have you all in some sort of circle (maybe one leader upstage, with three characters sitting downstage staring with the audience [i.e., mimicing the way the audience is positioned], to try and make the audience feel included with this support group?), and each of them can go through some scenario in which they were disadvantaged? (as Brenden suggested) Then, when each character goes to talk about what happened, you could have the whole stage change to that setting, with the start and end of each of these little vignettes/side stories being narrated by the person telling the story?

No thank you so much for your reply. This is really easy to adapt to the HSC and I will pitch this idea to my group. The ideas including audience involvement will really engage the markers so thank you for that.

[sudodds]

Thank you so much Susie!! This will be super helpful considering we are quite stuck and drained of ideas. Having so many people do it can be quite intimidating but this has really helped out. Thank you again for commenting!!

No worries! Glad to have been of some help Keep us updated on how everything goes

[brenden]

however remember that you only have 10 mins

Super awkward - SORRY! In VCE, we get over an hour for our group performance, with IP <10 minutes.

[sudodds]

Super awkward - SORRY! In VCE, we get over an hour for our group performance, with IP <10 minutes.

dammmmnnnnn I don't know whether that's better or worse haha! Our first draft performance was over 20 mins, was such a bitch to cut down (and lost one of my favourite lines  ).

Yeah for HSC GP it's actually 8-12 mins (though you should aim for 10 as you'll invariably go over on the day - saves you the hassle of dealing with a mean marker who cuts you off bang on 12) and for IP 6-8 mins (if you're doing a monologue that is - my film had to be capped at 7  ).

[brenden]

dammmmnnnnn I don't know whether that's better or worse haha! Our first draft performance was over 20 mins, was such a bitch to cut down (and lost one of my favourite lines  ).

Yeah for HSC GP it's actually 8-12 mins (though you should aim for 10 as you'll invariably go over on the day - saves you the hassle of dealing with a mean marker who cuts you off bang on 12) and for IP 6-8 mins (if you're doing a monologue that is - my film had to be capped at 7  ).

Wow, this is definitely very different! VCE GP is like, a play, basically. You put on a full SHOW. Mine was actually a series of one act plays (where I got my idea from haha), it was great fun. You had to keep a folio (like a major work I guess) on your stagecraft - so some poepole were in charge of lighting, some in charge of props, etc. I can't even remember what mine was which probably speaks for how much I gave a shit about my second stagecraft (first being acting).

Also - photo of my makeup for my Frankenstein monologue in the spoiler below.

Spoiler

[sudodds]

Wow, this is definitely very different! VCE GP is like, a play, basically. You put on a full SHOW. Mine was actually a series of one act plays (where I got my idea from haha), it was great fun. You had to keep a folio (like a major work I guess) on your stagecraft - so some poepole were in charge of lighting, some in charge of props, etc. I can't even remember what mine was which probably speaks for how much I gave a shit about my second stagecraft (first being acting).

Also - photo of my makeup for my Frankenstein monologue in the spoiler below.

Spoiler

wowwww that's intense. We did a play in year 11 but we didn't write it.

VCE defs looks a lot more intense re. that make up hahhaha - which is incredible because I can't imagine anything could get more intense than HSC drama!

[brenden]

wowwww that's intense. We did a play in year 11 but we didn't write it.

VCE defs looks a lot more intense re. that make up hahhaha - which is incredible because I can't imagine anything could get more intense than HSC drama!

I think that was just my personality fused with Theatre Studies - not the subject itself. That girl worked at Macca's with me and she did some sort of makeup course. Sussed her out at work one time and I think I only paid her like $50 to hit that shit up? I looked beast. They still didn't give me an A for the monologue (which was fucking awesome btw), so... gfy.

[sudodds]

I think that was just my personality fused with Theatre Studies - not the subject itself. That girl worked at Macca's with me and she did some sort of makeup course. Sussed her out at work one time and I think I only paid her like $50 to hit that shit up? I looked beast. They still didn't give me an A for the monologue (which was fucking awesome btw), so... gfy.

Hahaha and here I am spending over $1000 on my IP  (catering for a stupidly large cast of year 7's cost more than I expected)

[brenden]

Hahaha and here I am spending over $1000 on my IP  (catering for a stupidly large cast of year 7's cost more than I expected)

...........dead set?