4. How did the work of established and recognised theatre practitioners, and/or the work of live theatre, influence the way in which your devised response developed?

12/11/12
On the 7th of November we went to see the play 'One Man two Guvnors' for some inspiration fpr new characters. As the play was a Farce, the genre linked directly to our idea of creating a comical peice of theatre, meaning we were able to look for techniques used within the script to enhance the humour in our own. For example, stereotypical characters such as a 'Blonde Bimbo' were exaggerated through the constant use of the catchphrase 'I dont understand' in an over the top ditsy accent, something which the audience became fammilair with. Furthermore, 'everyday' characters within society were presesnt in the play, an 'old man' named Alfie using elaborate elderly body language to emphasise his age, e.g. shaking hands and unsteady on his feet. This highlighted to us the importance of the characters' physicallities to convey aspects of their lives that will be humourous for the audience. As a result, Raye made the decsion to build on her character of Jeffery to really portray the elderly man stereotype through her physicality, exaggerating features that come with age such as his bad back and shaking knees when Karen begins to flirt with him.
We discovered that the key to constant humour is to keep the senarios fast paced to keep the audience captured in the ridiculous events unfloding in nfront of them as the play was very rapid, with one thing happening after another, creating a 'joke after joke' affect. Therefore, we have made the deciion to build up to the unraveling of the secret within the situation through a series of inuendos that will 'keep the audience laughing' throughout, making sure the breakthrough of the secret at the end is as comical as possible.

13/01/13
Influential Practioners 
Brecht: As our piece meant that we would have to constantly take of new roles at a face pace, it was important that we knew how to get into character as quickly as possible. We found the Brechtian technique of 'stepping into character' using his method of 'Gestus' useful as a result. Through stepping into role from neutral we were able to really focus on the varying physicalities of the characters to show the dramatic change of personality. For example, Raye plays Jeffery, an elderly man. This meant that she would have to adopt a stiff, slower way of moving in contrast to her vibrant character of an aggressive Traffic Warden. Her crooked back and slightly confused stutter, combined with her stuggle as she is awkwardly bent across the desk immediately communicates her old age to the audience. I found this helpful when becoming my character of Terry, the builder, as I had to adopt a more manly stance to show that I was playing a young man, pushing out my chest slightly and becoming more heavy footed. The technique helped me to feel the transformation from my own body language into that of my character, meaning I could then exaggerate the character as much as possible in keeping with the over the top, farcical performance style.
What did we take from Year 12?
Year 12 taught us some valuable techniques that we found we could use to help us devise our piece this year. Stanislavsky's 'Emotional Memory' technique could be surprisingly useful at times, despite our piece not taking on the from of a dramatic play based around an emotionally driven play. We found that the technique allowed us to look at a specific emotion, for example, the anger Margo feels when she discovers the affair, and think of a time we too, felt that same emotion and all the other thoughts and feelings that came with it. However instead of channelling the raw 'natural' emotions into the performance, we looked at how we could portray the feelings in such an over the top manner that they became unrealistic, subsequently creating humour for the audience as the character's 'emotional reactions' appear overly dramatic in a sense that you cannot connect emotionally with them.
Max Stafford Clarke 
The transitive verb technique was something that we found very useful when creating the script for a new scene as a group. When writing the script for the 'P.E scene' with best friends Stacey and Tracey it was important that we knew what the desired effect each line was going to have for the other character to show a 'back and forth' nature to their relationship, that contained both a caring and at times conflicting atmosphere. Using transitive verbs such as 'educates' when Stacey is informing Tracey of the reasons behind their plan to steal the equipment remind us that Stacey is somewhat more 'clued up' that Tracey, who later 'illuminates' that she loves the Spice Girls, forgetting all about their hidden motive. Furthermore, Stafford Clarke's method of 'Actioning' a script was useful when deciding on key moments of humorous action in the scene. For example, the first unit of action is the girls entering the class, the second being interrupted unexpectedly by a teacher, being forced to join in with the class. This is the main opportunity to create comedy for the audience as the dance the teacher creates causes the girls to become flustered as they try there best to cope with the P.E equipment hidden under their clothes. At one point, the tennis balls Tracey has under her jumper fall our all over the room, Stacey going into a blind panic and sprawling herself across the floor in a desperate attempt to hide them. The scene is extremely physically challenging, yet the challenge is clearly presents becomes funny to the audience.
'Rule of Three'
As well as researching comedy entrances we looked at the 'Rule of Three' concept that often features in comedies. Sometimes known as the 'Comic Triple', the concept suggests that the audience consumes information better in threes, each time becoming funnier, leading to an unexpected ending. For example, in the Dinner Date scene between Shirley and Jackie the waiter makes three trips to the table, the third ending in disaster as 'Trev's' true identity is revealed.